From One Come the Many

and be seated. Good morning, everyone. All right, that was You're still still a little sleeping. Okay, that's good. Uh January's gone, so I'm just going to say happy new year. February 1st.

Okay. Uh January was uh I kind of joked last night. Um I mean that was just a year in itself. Um and so but February has come, which which means we have six more months of winter um before uh before we get to warm up. I was actually this week I was driving and my youngest son asked uh he goes when when do we get to wear shorts again? Um and I said I said well um we probably got about 50 days or so maybe until until we can wear shorts again.

And he was kind of quiet for a moment. He goes that that's kind of a lot. I said yes it it is that is a lot. That's we we'll get there eventually. Um but you want to know something else that's a lot? Our vision for the next five years.

All right. That's my transition uh into the message. And so our vision for the next 5 years is a lot because again, we don't want it to be a man-sized goal. Uh we don't want it to be a man-chieved goal. Uh we want it to be a God-sized goal, a God-sized achievement. Um that only at the end of the day, only God can work in us and work through us.

Um and so you want to know um kind of where we are in that. And so if you can go to that first slide, what our vision is for the next 5 years, vision 31 more is really a threein-one statement. All right? So it's kind of a a trinitarian statement if you will. Um but 31 more is by the year 2030. We want to see 31 that's where the three and the one connect with one another.

We want to see 31 people sent out from our church uh to go on missions, church planting from a one more culture. And what I want to talk to you today about is what this idea is in regards to a one more culture. How do we actually get to being able to send out 31 people over the next five years? And one of the ways that we've helped you kind of see that as we've walked through this vision series over the last few weeks um is that faithful obedience from our people to Jesus' mission is what ultimately accomplishes it. And so it's not just going to be this kind of pie in the sky ethereal vision and then in five years, hey, let's hope and see what happened. Let's see if it worked out for us.

But no, there's a combination of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. There's a combination of if we don't open our Bibles, we don't grow in our relationship with Jesus. If we don't pray and communicate with God, if we don't do the disciplines, then we actually won't get anything out of it. All right? So that's kind of the inputs and the outputs. if you don't do the inputs, you won't get any of the outputs.

And so, we've been talking a little bit about what those inputs look like. And one of the ways that we kind of uh helped organize that for a for our church, what we call the growth flywheel or the Acts 2 flywheel. And so, if you can show that up here. Now, the Acts 2 flywheel, which pulls from Acts 2:es 41-47, uh this isn't exactly the way that we do everything. All right? the the way that it's in the scriptures is it's more uh um descriptive than prescriptive.

And so it's just describing what the early church was engaging in. And then therefore in our context, we then apply it out and and and play it out to see how God wants us to utilize these different truths and these different practices of scripture, these different disciplines in regards to how we advance the gospel in our day and age. But we at least deduce from Acts 2 that it's important for us to gather. So we gather under the word of God. We gather under the apostles teaching. We gather under what it is that God has instructed of us in order transform us.

That is most important. And so if anytime ever I get up and don't preach the word of God, you have the freedom to get up and walk out. Because if we're not devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching, if we're not devoting ourselves to the word of God, then then I'm actually not helping you out in any way, any way whatsoever outside of that. It's just TED talks. It's just motivational speeches. It's just it's just pregame speeches that might help you get through Monday, but it's not going to do anything for your soul.

And so, we need to make sure that we're always gathering under the word of God. And there's, you know, different avenues in which we do that. But at the same time, we don't need to isolate. It doesn't need to be just you and your personal relationship with Jesus. It also works itself out. Disciplehip is done in community.

It's done in community. And so, we need to also make sure that we're grouping together. Sometimes that looks like grouping together in our homes throughout the weeks, but that also could be a men's group on a Thursday morning. It could be a Bible study that you have with several people. You just need to make sure that as you are being devoted to the apostles teaching and to the word of God that you're also engaging it in community in community. And then from there it's going to require something of you because as you see that Jesus came not to be served but to serve.

We as Christians are little Christs. And so we are to do what Jesus has done. We are to participate the way that Jesus participated. We are to engage the way that Jesus engaged. And so he came to serve. And so we serve.

So we give. We give of our time. We give of our talent. We give of our treasures. We serve the mission and purposes of God. And that's where it comes to the idea of we give.

And so each of these are really just at the end of the day characteristics of a good disciple. A good disciple gathers under the word of God and submits to whatever it calls of them. A good disciple groups together and make sure that there's a community of people that we call the church and that they are growing and holding each other accountable to what God has called us from his word. And then at the same time we see that it also doesn't end or terminate with us but it goes beyond us. And so we need to give of ourselves in order to make sure that it advances. Which leads to the last one is that it's always going to produce a going church, not a a a church that is essentially ending.

If you are not going or having a mindset of of of taking the gospel out, then at the end of the day, what you are actually prescribing to is just slow suicide. You're just ending as a church. And that's not what we want. The only way that we're ever going to get to sending out 31 people is if we as a church take the mindset and and understand that what he commanded of the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit, baptizing and then teaching them to observe all that he's commanded. And then also what he's prescribed in Acts 18 that they are to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. We got to take that seriously and say that it doesn't end with us, but it comes to us and then through us, continues to multiply out in order for other people to come to know who Jesus is, where hope truly can be found.

And so, if we're not going, then we are essentially ending. But in order to go, we need to grow. We need to grow so that we can continue sending. And what I want you to see today, I want I want to wrap it all up in a bow for us. I want you to see how a one more culture leads to the 31 being sent out to hopefully accomplish our lifetime goal as a church, which is to reach an unreached people group. Like before I retire from the district church, if the Lord calls me to preach here for another 30 years, by the time I retire, I would love to say honestly two things.

There's two real goals that I have. One is for the church that is the district church is that I've had the privilege to preach the whole council of the word of God, which means every book of the Bible. I would love at the end of my retirement to look back and say preached every single book of the Bible to the district church. That would be amazing. In our first 10 years, we're we're behind, but we're off to a good start. All right, we're behind because we take the word of God seriously and we spend two and a half years in the book of Luke.

We spend two and a half years in the book of Acts. We're about to jump in first Peter. We'll see how long it takes us to work through that. But we're not going to crunch things just to check them off the box. We want to get from the word of God what God wants us to get from the word of God. And so that's one goal.

And the second goal is to again take seriously Acts 18 that the gospel goes to the ends of the earth. And I would love to say that the district church over the next 30 years has done such a good job in making disciples and sending them out that we can call an unreached people group reached reached. But that's never going to happen if we don't start right here, right now with each one of us individually. and collectively as a church. And what I want to show you today is that this goal of getting to the ends of the earth, this goal of from one come the many has been the biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation. It's been the biblical narrative.

So, what I'm going to do today is actually preach Genesis through Revelation so that I can check off that first box, right? Um, Genesis to Revelation. And so buckle up. We're we're going to fly through this. But in Genesis 1, you think I'm joking. In Genesis 1, God first created man and woman, male and female, to bear his image, to reflect his glory, to submit to his sovereignty, to enjoy him fully and have as many babies as they can and teach them to do the same.

You can literally just pull in the the creative narrative as this. Submit to God. Enjoy him forever. People always ask, why did God create us? It's for that purpose to enjoy him forever. That's how good and charitable he was in a God.

He It's not It's not I mean, if there's anyone who's allowed to be prideful, it's God. But it's not prideful in the sense of him just saying, "I'm going to create to enjoy me." It's loving and generous for him to create us, say, "I want them to enjoy me. And then as he creates us to enjoy him forever, he also gives us a command. Exercise dominion over all of the earth and be fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and multiply.

Now what we see by Genesis 3 is we see that Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, the first husband and wife, mom and dad, they did not listen to God's good and loving commands. We get two chapters and then we get chaos. They were lied to by Satan and his cunning deception and they ceased worshiping God and they began worshiping creation instead. This is Romans 1 as Paul kind of writes out his systematic theology of what the Bible ultimately preaching to us. Romans 1 is just him saying God created us, called us to submit to him, called us to enjoy him, called us to worship him, and we essentially said thank you. We'll take it from here.

And God calls this sin which is punishable and it's damnable to an eternity of torment and torture in hell. Essentially, it's a punishment befitting the crime. You got to know this to understand what we're talking about in this whole vision. If bending your knee to God leads to life and reward, then ringing your fist at God leads to death and punishment. That's the only two categories we have when we are bending our knee to God and we are submitting to God and we are enjoying him forever. We're doing what he created us to do.

Eternal life and eternal reward. Greatest thing ever. And if in any way possible we ring our fist at that and say not good enough. We prefer something else. Then it's the opposite. You don't get life and reward.

You get death and punishment. You got to understand that because if you don't ever fully grasp that you will never have a heart bent towards seeing those who are lost and wanting to get good news to them as fast as possible. If you just create some type of narrative in your mind that hell's not as bad as as the Bible says it is and heaven's not as good as the Bible says it is, you will never shift and change anything about your life. will coast through our lives thinking it's okay for people to believe what they want to believe and think what they want to think and do what they want to do and it's also okay for me to not take it as seriously. We need to make sure that we understand what's at stake when we bend our knees to the Lord and when we ring our fists at him as well. And Adam and Eve, they chose to ring their fists at him.

They rebelled. They disobeyed God. They essentially said again, "Thank you for your service. We'll take it from here." And from Logos, they ushered in chaos. Their sin accomplished this.

Now, big question, and I think this is a very important question because this question motivated me very early on. Big question. Did that catch God offguard? There are a lot of people who think it did. Did that catch God offguard? Because the answer to this question to this day is still one of my greatest moments in my Christian walk with Christ.

Coming to know him, coming closer to him, conforming to him. The answer to this question when I was 15 years old made me weep with joy. Did our sin catch God offguard? The simple answer is no. No. Look at this.

This is so important for your joy, but it's also important for your confidence in the God we bend our knee to. Even though sin was an act of rebellion against God, God still reveals to us that his plan for humanity has not been thwarted. That's important to know. His plan for humanity has not been thwarted. And that he has always had a solution for sin. He's always had a solution for sin.

Now, what was the solution in Genesis 3:15? This is what he says. I will put enmity between you, he's referencing Satan there, and the woman between your offspring, referencing Satan, referencing his influence, his sin, his demonic activity, anything and everything that he is using to uh distort the truth of God and then deceive people away from the truth of God. all of that. I'm putting in between between your offspring and her offspring referencing humanity. But then he takes it from plural to singular.

He Jesus shall bruise your head, death blow to Satan, and you shall bruise his heel. Temporary death to Jesus, to Christ. The culminating and penultimate event of the Bible is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. What I mean by that is when Adam and Eve rebelled through sin, God in the moment revealed the solution. He revealed the solution. And listen, that's still not the part that blew my mind.

That is what brought me ultimately to salvation is that he showed me how he dealt with my sin at the cross. That brings me to salvation. What blew my mind was that God was not reactionary. He didn't create Adam and Eve and in that moment go, "Whoops." Didn't see that coming. But instead, he had a plan.

What blows my mind is that Genesis 3 is called the proto evangelon. It's the first gospel. And it was not a reaction to sin, but it was a predetermined and premeditated plan for our sin and rebellion. This is going to or should, if the Holy Spirit right now is working in your heart, this should build your confidence in the God that you bend your knee to. I want you to see this. Follow me here.

We're still setting this up. Y'all love the Bible, so we're going to roll with it. Ephesians 1 3-6. I need you to see this. I need you to understand this. I need you to have confidence in the God who created us and has always had a plan.

Because when you then take the gospel out, you can be able to take the gospel out with confidence, greater confidence than when you walked in here today. Here's what he says in Ephesians 1 3-6. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Now that is just the most pregnant verse in the scriptures. That is just literally cherry on top for you to just ponder and think about as often as you want to ponder and think about that. From that he says in verse four, even as he chose us in him.

Look at this. Before the foundation of the world. Did that say as he chose us in him after man rebelled against God? No. It was not reactionary that we should be holy and blameless before him. Why should he determine beforehand for us to be holy and blameless if he wasn't already aware that sin was going to be a problem in love.

He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. according to our purpose and will. No, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Now, I know these are some verses that have been some absolute debaters for a long time. Hang with me for just a moment. All right.

What we are seeing here, without me even revealing the cards on where I would land on that debate, God lovingly and purposefully determined beforehand, that's all predestined means, determined beforehand to save us in Christ and to be adopted as his sons and daughters according to his will for his glory. So just looking at that, talk about unconditional love. Even before you were born, before you took your first cry, before you said your first no to your parents, before you ever expressed any ounce of love or hate towards anyone, the scripture is telling you right now, God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. and that in love and according to the purpose of his will, God determined beforehand to adopt you as his sons and daughters, not according to your praise, but according to his praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us with in the beloved, again referring to that Jesus that he talked about in Genesis 3:15.

So, was God caught off guard? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. He's not learning what's going on with this world. Rather, before we sin, God already had a plan to make us holy and blameless. God already had a plan in place for how to solve the rebellion of his creation before he created them.

Which just to me, how incredible is that? How incredible is that? It was really hard for me just trying to even think of any type of illustration or analogy to come up with and there's nothing that comes close. I mean, I was thinking, what if I'm just like baking cookies from scratch and I know the end result is going to be these wonderful, glorious cookies, but I guarantee about halfway through the process, I'm going to look at the mess. But then it's like, "No, no, no. I'm the one that created the mess, so that's not going to work."

But there's still a mess and I'm probably regretting the fact that I create like started the process in the beginning, but I know I'm going to clean it up at some point. Like even that falls short, but it's just trying to help you understand to a degree that God knew beforehand what he's going to accomplish even though there's going to be a mess, even though sin is going to be a reality. And again, before you get caught up on the semantics and nuances of choosing and predestination and whether it's reformed, Calvinistic, or free will, Armenian, I want to make something clear. Same team, different positions. Same team, different positions. Here's what I mean by that.

Using a football analogy, coach calls the play, quarterback throws the ball, receiver catches it in the end zone, the team scores the touchdown. Yet, there is debate over who should individually get the credit for the score. Who gets the credit for the score if it weren't for the coach's play call? Yeah, but what the quarterback had to be the one who dodged the defender and then threw the ball. Yeah, but then it's the receiver in his hands. And now it's his responsibility to receive the pass.

And for 500 years, actually more like 1900 years, dating back to the early church fathers, we have been debating the outworkings of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. So this is nothing new under the sun. If right now you're struggling with trying to figure out the semantics and nuances of this language and just to give you a little 30 second crash course on those two things if you're never heard of them reformed position. God chose specific individuals from all nations in Christ before creation and their faith results from that election. That's a reformed position. an Armenian position.

God chose the community of believers before creation and individuals from all nations may join in that election by freely believing. I think that's charitable to both views as to what they would say is their position. And there have been many divisions and many denominations have been formed based on those two statements. And here's what I would say as we move forward. Still not even putting my cards on the table. Praise God for the touchdown.

Praise God for the touchdown. Both positions do agree that there's a coach, that there's a quarterback, that there's a receiver, and that each play a role in scoring the touchdown. In other words, there's a God who is the author of salvation. There's a church that's heralding the salvation of the news or the news. There's the chosen from the world that receive the salvation. Both positions agree on this.

Election is in Christ. It happened before creation. Its goal is holiness and adoption. It flows from God's love. It should produce humility and worship, not pride. It brings about salvation by faith.

And it is to be declared and preached to the ends of the earth. These are things we can agree on. They're not arguing over different gospels in the sense of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. So they're not arguing about that, but over how the same gospel works behind the scenes, God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. So if that's where you want to argue, I would just say don't argue about it. Grab coffee, get around a bonfire, whatever it looks like, have the most loving and friendly debate you can ever possibly have, and then agree on the fact that the gospel is to be declared and preached to the ends of the earth.

is to be declared and preached to the ends of the earth. Agree that from one receiving the gospel, many more also get the chance to receive the gospel. That it doesn't just end with you. From the one offspring, which is Jesus, God would then create more offspring, a people from all tribes, tongues, and nations. And here's where I want to make here's where I want to take you today. All of the Bible is preaching one message that from one come the many, which is actually the title for the message today.

And what I love is that there was actually a debate one time between RC Sproul and John MacArthur, which if you know anything about them, that does reveal my cards as to which side of the coin I land on. But RC Sproul once jokingly picked on John MacArthur, saying, "I wonder about John MacArthur preaching 5,000 sermons. He hasn't learned the trick." RC Sproul says, "I have about five sermons that I preach a thousand times." From Genesis to Revelation, God has always had a plan. And that plan has always been one message, one mission to bring people from death to life, to go from one to many, to fill the earth with his glory from one people to all people.

We call this mission of God the promise of God, or in other ways, the covenant of God. And I want to thread it through the scriptures so that you can see that this isn't just something that ended 2,000 years ago, but is continuing on to where if today you say, "I am a believer. I have bent my knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ that I believe in his life, death, and resurrection." That means the covenant promise of God in Genesis 3:15 has come to you. and doesn't end there. That's the big thing.

Doesn't end there. And so the first point we already talked about a little bit. Genesis 3:15 is the proto evangelon. It's the first gospel from one broken moment. God promises to humanity, one savior, one seed, one redeemer. God's plan is not reactionary.

It's redemptive. It's missional. It's tactical. And from there where I want to take you is the second one is Noah. This isn't just a preservation of people. This is a preservation of his promise to people.

You got to see this. In Noah after Adam and Eve, mankind continues to rebel against God. Again, we have a real hard time learning a lesson. That's just reality. Adam and Eve, mankind, continued to rebel against God. Genesis 6:5 tells us, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Uh, not a good verse for us, right? Doesn't shed a lot of hope for us. And then in verse 7, this is this is uh the Lord making the batch of cookies. So the Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, for I am sorry that I have made them. Now, God in this moment, this is a hard one honestly for theologians to to work out its um its interpretation. Not because it's not true, but it's because it pulls God into human language in saying how can God regret something.

It's not saying that God regretted what he created in the sense that he made a mistake. It's saying that he is deeply grieved and sorry for what sin has spread and accomplished in mankind. And so he is coming to fix and clean up the mess that he is grieved by. He hates the mess and he hates that he has to clean it up, but he's going to clean it up. And so what about the promise? If he's going to blot out everyone with this massive flood, what?

Wait a minute. You No, no, no. God, you said in Genesis 3:15 that through the offspring, you're going to bring one who will ultimately put sin and evil and and and death to death. So, so if you blot it all out, what are we going to do? Well, he doesn't blot it all out. He preserves it through one And then after the flood comes and Noah and his family are preserved through it, he gives them the same command that he gave Adam and Eve.

Be fruitful and multiply. That's Genesis 9:1. God preserves one family so that the earth can be filled again with image bearsers. Judgment does not cancel the mission that God already has given to us, the promise that he has given, but grace continues it. It was a grace. God didn't look over and just say like, "Hey, Noah, you're pretty awesome."

It was the grace of God that found favor in Noah in order for Noah to then be a servant to continue and preserve humanity so that the promise continues on. From one family, God intends to repopulate the world with people who know him. This brings us to Abraham as we come to Genesis 12. Abraham is one man to become a nation for all nations. One man to become a nation for all nations. Genesis 12 2 through3 he says, "I will make of you a great nation and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

I want to just draw this out one more time. God wasn't walking through and saying, "Man, is there anybody good enough? Is there anybody serving me? Is there anybody loving me? Is there anybody who's just awesome?" No.

Abram is not a god-fearing man. He's coming from a pagan society. He's coming from a pagan re region. So God reaches out and remember Ephesians chose us before the foundation of the world. God chose Adam and Eve. God chose Noah.

God chose Abram. You got to see that God never changes his plan. Nor does he ever change his his way in which he brings about his promise from the beginning to the end. And so he reaches out and he chooses Abram later makes him Abraham. And what we know from Abraham is that Abraham becomes I mean this is a old man who's married to Sarah who is barren during old age there. He was 75 years when God first called him and then promises to him that he is going to have offspring that I mean are countless.

Genesis 15 is when he actually takes him outside and he says look up at the stars. if you can count the stars, so will be your offspring. He's like, well, it's in numerous. I can't count all of them. He's like, exactly. That's what I'm talking about.

But then Abram's like, uh, I don't have any children. And Sarah is is barren. She cannot produce children. And God's, you know, just continues running his play of I can create nothing or something from nothing. I can change. I can do whatever I want to do.

And so it takes 25 years. And by the time that she's 99, he's 100, they give birth to Isaac. Isaac meaning laughter because it made her laugh because again, she was a barren woman. But then Isaac has a son, Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons. Those 12 sons become the 12 tribes of Israel.

Jacob's name gets changed to Israel. This becomes the nation of Israel. And so from one man comes a nation. A nation. And what we need to know is that the same promise, the same covenant that was given to Adam and Eve, that was given to Noah, is now also continued on and given to Abraham. That from the offspring, from the nation will come one who blesses all nations.

God hasn't changed anything. He didn't get to Noah and say, "Let's do something different." He didn't get to Abram and said, "That didn't work out with Noah. let's do something different. It's just continuing. So much so that Paul later in his understanding of scriptures as he studied them says this in Galatians 3 7-9.

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture. Foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, he preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Again, it had nothing to do with Abraham. It had everything to do in believing God. Believing God that was counted to him as righteousness.

So the same gospel promise to him is the same gospel promise to us. And believing in it by faith is what makes us sons and daughters of the king most high. From the very beginning, God's plan was not just Israel, not just one tribe, but a church from every people group on earth. This is multiplication with a missionary heart. And that brings us to Moses. And so as as as the nation of Israel continues to to multiply and grow, we know that they eventually go to Egypt.

They're enslaved there for 400 years. Um and and then Moses leads them out of Egypt. Again, we know the story across the Red Sea. Again, all of this overlaps the story of Jesus. I mean, you can just walk through that and overlap those to see the fulfillment there. But Moses brings the people out.

And as he brings the people out, the people are designed by God for a very specific purpose and reason. And we see this in Exodus 19:6. He says, "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." So he brings them out of bondage to make them a holy people. Now think about what God what he told or what Paul told us in Ephesians. He determined beforehand that we should be what?

Holy and blameless. God's just showing us how he is literally discipling us by giving us even examples of whole nations that he is drawing out and bringing out from bondage, taking us out of our sin and our bondage to it and then making us holy. But then he also tells them in Isaiah 49:6,"I will make you again the nation as a light for the nations that my salvation again the promise in the covenant may reach to the end of the earth." So, the Israel people were designed by God to be rescued and redeemed out of bondage, to be made holy, and also not for it to just be about them, but for them to be a light to all the other nations. They're just a prerequisite for the design of what the church is supposed to be. from one nation.

God intends global knowledge of his name for salvation. But they don't do a good job as we are accustomed to. You can see God remains faithful as we slowly get faithless over and over and over again. So then they want a king. They bring in David. David is one king to establish an everlasting kingdom.

God promises David, "Your throne shall be established forever." Now, if I'm David, I'm thinking, "Sweet. I get to live forever." Not what he's talking about. We got to remember that old covenant, Old Testament are shadows of the substance that is Christ. So God pointing his light on Jesus is going to reflect from it shadows in all of the Old Testament that everything points to him.

That's why on the road to Emmas, Jesus pulls up to the disciples. I say pulls up like he's in a car. He comes up to the disciples and as they're walking, he literally asks them like, "Hey, what are you what are y'all doing?" And they're sad. They're trying to figure out what's going on. They're talking about the crucifixion, all these things.

And Jesus in that moment opens up the scriptures and it says beginning from Moses to the prophets, he literally just explains to them how everything is testifying and pointing to him. Shadows and substance. David is a shadow of the greater substance. David is not going to be the king who reigns forever. But the throne of David, which is the continuing of the promise in the covenant that is going to usher in an eternal king, will be forever. It's another moment for us to be able to see that God is good on his word.

God is good on his promise. God's going to make sure that it comes to pass. Psalm 72 says of this coming king, "May people be blessed in him." And not just people, all nations call him blessed. One king will rule a kingdom that includes people from all nations. The promise keeps going.

We get to Jesus in the New Testament. The promise becomes a person. The promise becomes a person. The seed of the woman becomes the savior. Again, this is Jesus fulfilling every covenant promise that he's already given to this moment. Seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15, son of Abraham.

We see that in Matthew 1 as it gives him the the genealogy. We had a debate on whether it's genealogy or genealogy. I'm going to go with genealogy because that's what I know. Uh, son of David. Luke 1:32. He's the true Israel.

We see that in Matthew 2:15. Everything's pointing shadows and substance. And the hard truth first is that God's promise back in Genesis 3:15. Before life can be given to those who have rebelled, death must first be paid on their behalf. The promise cannot be received without the death being paid. Remember what our punishment is that's damnable.

We ring our fist at God. We don't get to just swipe it under the rug. We don't get to do that. It has to be paid. And the difference between eternity is when we get to that moment on judgment day is whether or not we stand before God and we say either Jesus paid it or I'm here to pay it. That's it.

Either Jesus paid it or I'm here to pay it. And what we've seen throughout all of the scripture so far is that Jesus is electing and choosing to make it possible for us to be able to receive him paying our penalty on our behalf. I love there's a there's a threeminute clip of a sermon by Aleister Beg. I wish I had it to show it to you guys because it's amazing. Um, but essentially he's talking about Jesus on the cross and he's talking about the thieves that are next to him and one of the thieves that are next to him. You know, it begins on with them hurling insults and whatnot.

And then one of the thief basically looks at Jesus and says like, "Will you remember me in glory?" And Jesus looks over to him and says, "Um, on this day you will be with me in paradise." Can you just imagine? Can you just imagine in that moment when that thief dies and then is ushered into heaven and as the sermon goes on, Aleister Beg is asking these questions. He's like, "Can you just play the scene out for a moment?" Now, he says it in like an Irish accent, which is again makes him sound so much smarter than me.

Um, but in that moment as he's preaching, he's asking these questions. When that thief gets up there, he says, you know, he maybe he's Peter at the ply gates. Uh, what allows you in? What's your understanding of uh justification by faith alone? I've never heard those terms before in my life. What's your understanding of atonement?

No idea what that means either. what's your understanding of the covenant and promises of God? And what you're essentially getting at is the the guy at the gate says, "Then on what merit do I allow you into heaven?" And the famous line is he says, "I I I don't know on what merit, but all I do know is that the man on the middle cross said, "I'm allowed in." It's all based on Jesus. And in that moment of him on that cross taking our death and our punishment for sin, in that moment choosing to apply it to all of those whom before the foundation of the world, he has granted access.

He's granted access. John 12:24 says, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it'll bear much fruit." The promise of God, the covenant of God would not bear fruit. It would not bless all nations if that covenant and that promise did not come in the person of Jesus. and be buried into the earth and die in order for it to sprout three days later, resurrect, come back to life, and then accomplish for us what we need.

By grace, you are saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone. That's it. Every other world religion, every other world religion is going to tell you what you need to do and what you need to think and what you need to say and how much money you need to give and all of the good deeds that you need to accomplish. And then just hope that at the end of your life, they outweigh your bad deeds and all the wrong things that you've accomplished. And you're guessing through life, hoping that in you it was enough to get there. What a terrible place to live.

What a terrible posture and position where you have absolutely no hope and you're just guessing and gambling your life away. But Jesus says, "Go and tell them, go and make disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." That's a pregnant statement. Immerse them in the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Don't immerse them in sociology.

Don't immerse them in um uh uh uh society. Don't immerse them in media. Don't immerse them in world ideologies. Don't immerse them in anything other than whatever God is. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Immerse them in that.

And then illustrate it. When they bend their knee to him, illustrate it as the first command. Repent from your life and then baptized that I am communing with God. That he has actually taken my punishment and I am now dead to my sins and I am raised to walk in a new life with him. Because as he resurrected, he also is resurrecting me. And then go and teach everyone to observe all that Jesus has commanded.

Not to observe all that your government has commanded or your news outlet has commanded, what Jesus has commanded. And that's why he creates the church, which is number seven. It's the herald to the nations. Be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. What God said to Adam, be fruitful and multiply. What God said to Abraham, I will bless all nations through you.

What Jesus says to the church is to go and make disciples everywhere. It's pulling it all in together. It's the same mission, new covenant power, global scale. Coming back to my original wonder, my original all. God determined all of this before he created any of it and has already told us how it ends. So he tells us essentially three different realities.

He says, "Before there was anything, here was my plan. Then I created the plan and ushered it in. And you're all living in it right now. And guess what? I'm also going to show you how it ends. As he comes to Revelation, he tells us that the promise, the covenant is guaranteed.

It's guaranteed. I mean, could you just think about it? He's talking to the disciples. John is one of the disciples. Not John in the back back there. He is a disciple 2,000 years later.

But the beloved John, the one that reclined against Jesus, hears the same commandment. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name, son, and the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. He also hears the same thing. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. This John, when he's in old age and exiled to Patmos, because they tried bullying him alive, and it didn't work, and it freaked him out. And so then they sent him to this place.

While he's there, he's visited, which we walked through this a little bit in in our Revelation study that we did earlier in 2025. But John is sitting there and this angel of the Lord appears to him and then reveals to him all that Jesus is accomplishing in this covenant that is continuing. And John hears this in Revelation 7 9-10 as he records it. After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number. Makes me think of Abraham walking outside and looking at the stars. from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb."

If I'm John in that moment, it's like if you want to rewind a couple of weeks to the IU National Championship game, it would be like as they're sitting in that locker room figuring out how they're going to win the game, Angel of the Lord appears and says, "Hey, guess what? Here's the final score. Now go play the game." They're going to walk in with a little less worry. and they're going to walk in heads held high, ready to play a game that's already rigged in their favor. I say it all the time, God rigged history.

He rigged history. He's good on his promise. And what that should do for us is build confidence that when we take the gospel out, it's already guaranteed it's going to win some people for him. Now, we know our Bible is not going to be all. We don't know who he's chosen before the foundation of the world. We don't know who that is.

You can debate the outworkings of whether or not, you know, God sovereignly uploads faith to them. They believe in him. Praise God. Or they've got faith dormant in them and then God, you know, preaches the gospel to them and their faith plants it inside him and then in Christ they get saved. Look at the end of they praise God. Praise God.

When the gospel is proclaimed and preached and declared, people get saved. They get saved. And from one from one promise, one purpose, one commission, from one family, to one nation, to one savior, to one church, we get a countless multitude bending their knee in the end to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The whole thing is just continuing and it's now your turn. It's your turn. John, I got that slide.

Uh the one that looks like it's yellow. I just want to show you where you are in history. Now, I actually didn't dive into all of the specifics of this stuff. So, if it's wrong, you can't see it anyways. But what I do know is it begins with creation and all the way at the end, new heavens, new earth, consummation. You get the promise, you get Israel, you get birth of Christ, you get crucifixion of Christ, resurrection, you get Pentecost, you get all that.

What I love about this is it says, oh, this this slide's from 2019. I just saw that. So, we're seven years past where it says you are. Okay, you are here. I just need you to visualize that. That what God began in Genesis 3:15 technically what he began before that.

It's still going. It just is with you right now. It's with you. The promise is with you. The covenant is with you. It dwells in you now.

From one come the many. And that's why again we want a one more culture because we understand that it doesn't end and it doesn't terminate with us. And so we don't live for ourselves. We live for the sake of others coming to know Jesus Christ. We leverage ourselves for the sake of others coming to know Jesus Christ. That's why I love Paul using that similar language.

for me to live as Christ and to die is gain. What he's ultimately saying is, I'd rather just die and go be with Jesus. Honestly, who wouldn't? I mean, after the the year we just had in January, who wouldn't just want to just go be with Jesus? But what Paul actually then says is, "But if for your sake, if it's better for me to stay and continue spreading the news about Jesus, than for me to live is Christ." And it's for your gain.

Now, it does bring him a lot of joy when he sees lost people who get saved. And again, I want you to also experience that same joy that fills up that cup that overflows it. It Paul uses the language like my joy is complete when I'm seeing lost people get saved, come to know Jesus. We got to have that one more culture. And so what I want to close with is what's one thing God is revealing to you today? What's one thing God's revealing to you today?

What's what's one step of obedience to take in your walk with Jesus that plays out an understanding in your heart, your mind that the covenant doesn't end with me, it continues. And what I mean by that is when you receive salvation through Jesus Christ, that you don't just say, "Sweet. I got my ticket to heaven and now I'm just going to live life however I want to live. No, no, no. How does the commission continue through you? What's one step of obedience to take in your walk with Jesus?

And as we come to communion,