Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 21 and your gospel hymn spiral
hymn book number 21, The Covenant, Ordered and Sure. Let's all stand
together. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast, God my Father chose His own in the person
of His Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
and retrieve me from the fall. Christ, in love so willingly,
Stood as my great surety, For my price He offered blood To
appease the wrath of God. ? God the spirit heavenly dove
? ? Promised to come down in love ? ? Bringing life and peace
and grace ? ? To the chosen purchased race ? ? He seeks the lost, heals
the lame ? ? And he brings us to the lamb ? By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure, will endure. It is sealed by
God's own word, by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant
God, I am yours by tithes of blood. Ties of grace and ties
of love hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Covenant, ordered, and all things
insure. Aren't you thankful? The hope
of our salvation. It's not based on our covenant
promises, it's based on His covenant promise. What hope? We're going
to be looking at the book of Mark this morning. Begin a study
in the book of Mark, I should say, if you'd like to turn with
me there in your Bibles. Scott and Christine McMinn have
come to visit us from San Jose. been listening to us for many
years and been here on a couple of occasions before. We're so
thankful that they're here. Hopefully, if you don't know
them, please make an effort to get to know them. They're sitting
all the way back in the back corner, as far away as they can
get. Alright, let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, We're thankful for the hope of
knowing that our salvation is because of a covenant promise
that you made in the triune Godhead before time ever began. We're
thankful that you were pleased according to your own will and
purpose to choose a particular people to place them in that
covenant of grace We're thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, entered into that
covenant with you and agreed to be their surety, their redemption. We're thankful for your Holy
Spirit and how dependent upon Him we are now to speak to our
hearts and to reveal to us the glory of thy Son. Lord, the natural
man cannot receive the things of the Spirit, where they are
spiritually discerned. We ask that you would send your
spirit in power. They would you enable us to speak
with simplicity and clarity and conviction, and we pray that
you would enable us to hear. Not the voice of a man, but to
hear Lord, the voice of God. To know that you have spoken
to our hearts by your word. To find our comfort, our hope
and all our salvation. in thy dear son. For it's in
his name we ask it. Amen. Mark chapter 1. This past Wednesday
night we began a study in the book of Psalms and we looked
at Psalm 1 and Lord willing we'll be doing that on Wednesday nights
for some time. As you know we like to go verse-by-verse
through books of the Bible. That forces us to look at the
whole counsel of God and to not pick and choose things that we
would otherwise. And so during the Bible study
hour, as the Lord leads, we'll go verse-by-verse through the
book of Mark. And it's the shortest of the four gospel accounts. And it's a glorious picture of
the successful work of the Lord Jesus Christ in saving sinners. And so that's our hope. I've studied, I mean I've titled
this first study, The Beginning of the Gospel. the beginning
of the gospel. You see that in verse 1, the
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Where does the gospel
begin? And I'm going to answer that
question right now and then hopefully after a few more minutes we'll
see more clearly. The gospel of God's free grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ begins with the forgiveness of sin.
It begins with the forgiveness of sin. Now the natural man thinks
that the forgiveness of sin is the end of the gospel. that if we do certain things
that it will result in the forgiveness of sin. And the forgiveness of
sin is the final object or the final end of the gospel based
on whatever contribution that man has to make in order to make
what God did work. But the truth is that the forgiveness
of sin is the beginning of the gospel, not the end of it. Christ
is referred, is called the lamb that was slain before the foundation
of the world. Why did God slay the Lord Jesus
Christ in that covenant of grace that we just sang about? Why
did God call him the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world? Because in that covenant of grace, God had taken all of
his elect and placed them in Christ and reckoned that which
would be done by Christ in time to already been credited for
the forgiveness of their sin in eternity. So there's the beginning
of the gospel. The beginning of the gospel is
the forgiveness of sin. Now Mark is going to begin by telling us what the message
that John the Baptist, John the Baptist is referred to in Malachi
chapter 3 and is referred to prophetically in Isaiah chapter
40 as the one who would come before the Lord Jesus Christ
and prepare the way for his coming. He's the last of the Old Testament
prophets. And Mark begins with John the
Baptist and notice in verse 4, John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. Now,
the natural man will read that verse and they will make this
conclusion. In order for the forgiveness
of sin to be realized, I've got to repent. sin in that regard is not the
the beginning uh... forgiveness of sin is not the
beginning of salvation but it's the end of it and uh... i hope the lord give us some
clarity on this subject because it's it's the difference between
night and day it's it's uh... uh... it's it's truth or lie
it's salvation or not uh... Well, let me begin by telling
you a little bit about Mark. I think this will be an encouragement
as we study this book. Also referred to as John Mark.
He's the one who went, he's not a pastor and he's not an apostle. He's an evangelist. And we find
him referred to several times in the scriptures, particularly
in the Book of Acts. Barnabas was John Mark's uncle. And John Mark went on a missionary
journey with his first missionary journey with the Apostle Paul
and Barnabas. And they ran into opposition,
life threatening opposition. And John Mark tucked his tail
and went back to Jerusalem. And Paul lost all confidence in him.
And the scripture says that there was no small dissension between
Barnabas and Paul over John Mark. Barnabas wanted to give John
Mark another chance. Paul said, I'm done with him.
Well, fortunately, fortunately, Our Lord's forgiveness is much
deeper than the Apostle Paul's. And as it turned out, in the
end of Paul's life, when he's imprisoned in Rome, he asked
for John Mark. He said, send me Mark, he's profitable
to me. So though they had a falling
out because of Mark's cowardness, They were later restored and
John Mark was used powerfully of the Lord. Now in Acts chapter
12, if you remember Herod arrested James and had him put to death
and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he went ahead and arrested
Peter. intending to do the same thing
to Peter that he had done to James and put him in prison.
And in Acts chapter 12 is the story of the Lord sending an
angel to unlock the prison and unloose the chains and Peter
walks out. He walks out of prison free.
The night before, Herod was going to put him to death the next
day. And the scripture says that Peter went to Mary's house who
was the mother of John surnamed Mark. So that's where Peter went. And
that's the story. You remember the maid came out
through the courtyard into the front gate and she saw that it
was Peter and she went back and she told him, Peter's at the
front gate. And they said, oh no, you're mad. And Peter's in
prison. He can't be at the front gate. One of the conclusions that we
draw from that is that Mary, the whole church was gathered
together in Mary's house, which had a courtyard and a front gate,
obviously a large home. That's the house that John Mark
grew up in. So he was a young man who was privileged in life
and had servants and maids. And now the Lord is, is called
him to be an evangelist and he goes on the mission field with
Barnabas, he goes with Timothy, goes to Ephesus with Timothy
and he is now in Rome with Peter and Peter is the one actually
telling John Mark what to write because Mark wasn't an apostle,
he wasn't there when these events took place. So he's writing these
things down as Peter tells them. So We look at the life of Mark
and we have great encouragement in knowing that the Lord can
take a person who by nature is fearful and use him greatly and
restore him after a fall. He's being used of the Lord to
write the testimony that Peter gives him. And we're reminded
that though Mark wasn't there, Peter was. And Peter would say, we did not
bring you fables. We didn't bring you man-made
stories. We handled the Word of God. These things are true and faithful. And then Peter, in that same
passage, remember Peter said, I was on the Mount of Transfiguration. I saw the veil of his humanity
removed. I saw the radiance of his deity
shine forth like the noonday sun and we were cast to the ground. And Peter's using that example
to declare the testimony of Christ in terms of his glorious deity. And I had somebody say to me
recently, he said, wouldn't it have been great to have been
there, to have been at the Mount of Transfiguration or to hear
the Lord and to see the Lord. And I said, I was. Peter's next
word is, but. We have a more sure word of testimony. For the word of God came not
by private interpretation, but the holy men of God wrote as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So here's the encouragement for
us, that though we weren't there 2,000 years ago to physically
experience the transformation of Christ, to walk with him and
talk with him, we have his word. And if he's pleased to speak
to our hearts, it'll be more real now. The Spirit of God makes
application of these words to our hearts. And we can say, we
walked with him, he talked with us, and he's revealed himself
to us. And whatever I'm sure of in this
life, I'm most sure, of the testimony that God has given us in His
Word. So, here's Mark's testimony. He begins with the beginning.
He says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, Matthew begins with Abraham. Matthew is writing to a Jewish
audience and he begins with the covenant that God made with Abraham
and shows us the fulfillment of that covenant through the
lineage of God's chosen people. Luke, when he writes, addresses
his letter to Theophilus, a Roman governor, and he begins with
Herod. and with Elizabeth and the pregnancy
that she had of John and the testimony of John. John, when
he begins his gospel, begins at the beginning, doesn't he?
In the beginning was the word. And so John goes all the way
back before time into eternity. And he says, this gospel began
with the Lord Jesus Christ. and he is the word and it's as
we said last Sunday I think it was that Christ did not come
to fix the world the world was created to glorify Christ everything is for his glory everything
you listen to listen to men talk about the the tragedy that took
place last week in Las Vegas. And what do they say? They're all saying the same thing.
God's all-powerful, God's all-loving, God gave man free will, and so
that explains everything. And really what they're saying
is that God's not all-powerful. omnipotence is trumped by man's
free will. And man is sitting on the throne. My amazement, and my heart goes
out to those folks, but my amazement is not that
something like that would happen. My amazement is that it doesn't
happen every day. I just stand amazed. Each of us probably know people
that are capable of doing something like that. How many people are
there in the world that are capable of committing such a horrendous
act? How accessible are the weapons
necessary in order to commit such an act? How many opportunities
are available for such? Why doesn't it happen all the
time? And the scripture says, the wrath
of man shall praise me, and the remainder I shall restrain. The only reason that it doesn't
happen more often is because of God's restraining grace, holding
back man from doing what he would do. The one time when God removed
all restraints from man, what did he do? What did he do? He took God in his hands and
put him to death. So, it's the restraining grace
of God that keeps things like this from happening all the time.
Our God's on his throne. Whatever he allows, whatever
he allows will be to his glory. We're not going to deny his omnipotence
in order to say, well, man's got a free will and so, you know,
he's just doing what God allows him or God, you know, what. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets. As it is written in the prophets. When our Lord met with the disciples
In Luke chapter 24, the scripture says, and beginning with Moses
and the prophets and the Psalms, he expounded unto them those
things concerning himself. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. All scripture is profitable to
us. For doctrine, that's the truth
about who God is and how it is he saves sinners. for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man
of God may be thoroughly furnished. We've got God's word. These prophets
spoke of Christ. They pointed to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Psalms, as we saw Wednesday
night, point to the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 1, blessed is the man,
the man. who walks not in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits
in the seat of the scornful. That man's the Lord Jesus Christ. And all the blessings of God
are in him, in Christ. If we're going to be blessed
of God, we're going to have to be found in him. And so he's now giving
us what the beginning of the gospel is. And Mark begins with
John the Baptist and his message. Look what he says, as it is written
in the prophets verse 2, behold I send my messenger before thy
face which shall prepare thy way before thee. So here's John's
testimony in Malachi chapter 3, I'm gonna send my prophet
before you, he's going to herald my coming. As soon as John declared
who Christ was and baptized him, the Lord went into the wilderness
for 40 days. When he came out, John was in
prison. And it wasn't but just a short time after that that
John was put to death. So John's work was done. What
was his work? Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. When did he take our sins away?
When did he take our sins away? Verse three, the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. Now that's where you and I live.
We live in a dry and thirsty land. We live in a desert. We
live in a spiritual wilderness. And unless the Lord opens up
an oasis of water, we'll die in that wilderness. We'll be
just like the children of Israel, Neal, in the desert. The Lord has to provide, doesn't
he? Has to provide water from a rock,
He has to provide manna from heaven. Lord, we live in a wilderness. What was John crying? John was
pointing to Christ. And when his disciples came to
him later and said, you know, a lot of your disciples had followed
after Christ and they've left you. What did John say? I must decrease and he must increase. My whole purpose for existence
is to point men to Christ. to declare that he is the one
who takes away the sins of the world. The voice of one cried
in the wilderness, verse three, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Now, Most folks would read that
and they would say that if you want your sins forgiven, you've
got to repent of your sins. The forgiveness of sin is the
result of you repenting. In fact, what this passage means
is John came preaching the baptism of repentance What is repentance? It's a changed
mind for the remission of sins. In other words, you've got to
have your mind changed about how it is that God remits your
sins. That's the message here. This little preposition for,
if I said to you, Jesse James is wanted for robbery, you could
come to two conclusions. You could say, well, he's wanted
so that we can use him to commit a robbery, or he's wanted for
the robbery that he's already committed. And that would be
the proper understanding, wouldn't it? And that's exactly what this
word for means. The remission of sins, the forgiveness
of sins is the cause of repentance. The baptism of repentance comes
for the remission of sins. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Luke chapter three. Here it is again. Luke says the
same thing in verse three. And he came into all the country
about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins. The remission of sins, the putting
away of sins. How does God put away our sin? If we have any thought that the
putting away our sin is conditioned on something we do, then we have
made the forgiveness of sin the end of the gospel, not the beginning
of it. What the Lord is saying here
is change your mind about how it is that God remits your sin. How does He remit sin? Is his
remission of sin conditioned by something that we do? By a
decision that we make? By a work that we perform? By
a commitment that we make? You know, I hear people talk
about repentance as if it's something, well, I'm going to turn from
my sin and never turn back from it. Turn to me to Luke chapter 24. I would ask you a question. How
are you dealing with that? If that's repentance, you know,
the sins of our hearts are so constant, aren't they? Luke chapter 24, look with me
at verse Well, we'll begin reading verse
44. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto
you while I was with you, and all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. So the Lord's saying,
why are you surprised that this happened? This was all prophesied.
This was all purposed of God. This is what the existence of
the world is all about. And he said unto them, thus it
is written and thus it bemoved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day and that repentance and remissions
of sin should be preached in his name. Repent. of any thought that God
is looking to you in any way for the remission of your sins. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. There is a
way that seems right unto man and in the end that way leads
to death. Man thinks that if I repent then God will be obligated
to forgive me of my sin. We saw that in Isaiah chapter
55, didn't we? Turn back with me to Isaiah chapter
55. Verse 1. Oh, everyone that thirsteth. Are you thirsty to have your
sins forgiven? Are you thirsty to be made right
with God? Have you found yourself living
in a dry and thirsty land where there's no answers for your sin
problem? Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and ye that have no money. Bye. How can we buy something
with no money? Because it's already paid for.
It's already paid for. You can't pay for it again. The
Lord Jesus Christ has already paid the debt for sin. His blood
is the covering for our sin. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass by your sin. Not when I see your commitment.
You have no money. Without price, don't barter with God. without
money, Lord I don't have anything. Buy and eat, yea buy milk and
wine without money and without price. So if we make repentance,
if John's preaching this message, you repent of your sin and God
will be obligated to forgive you of your sins based on your
repentance. That is just the opposite of
what John was preaching. That's just the opposite of what
he's preaching. You see, the gospel doesn't end
with the forgiveness of sin. It begins with it. It begins
with it. Sin's already been forgiven.
God's never seen his elect outside of Christ. He forgave them in
the covenant of grace when the Lord Jesus Christ entered into
a covenant promise with the Father to be their surety. He forgave
them when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross, shed
his precious blood as a complete covering for sin, and said, it
is finished. The forgiveness of sin is the
beginning of the gospel, not the end of it. There's no conditions
to be met in order to have forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness of sin has already
been accomplished. John, Mark begins with, this
is the beginning of the gospel, the ministry of John preaching
the baptism of repentance. Now baptism means to be immersed. That's the only proper understanding
of baptism. To sprinkle someone and call
it baptism is a total denial of what it means. To be immersed
in baptism is to be buried with Christ. Every part of me died
with Christ. Every part of me is washed of
my sins, raised to walk a new life in Christ Jesus. Baptism
is a picture of immersion union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
confessing that when he died, I died. Is baptism a condition
for salvation? Is it? Well, if it was, the thief
on the cross wasn't saved. He was never baptized. Is baptism
something that a believer does when he's saved? Yeah. Yeah,
gladly. gladly publicly confesses his
belief on the Lord Jesus Christ. But that belief on the Lord Jesus
Christ also is not the cause of our salvation. And without
faith it is impossible to please God for they that come to him
must believe that he is and that he is a reward of them that diligently
seek after him. That faith is a gift of God.
Faith is not the cause of our salvation, it's the result of
it. It's the result of it. Forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness
of sin is the cause of our salvation. It's the cause of it. The Lord Jesus Christ has already
put away all the sins of all of God's people once and for
all by the sacrifice of Himself. I'm forgiven? Justified? Already glorified
in Christ? All that he did foreknow he did
also predestinate, and all that he predestinated he called, and
all that he called he justified, and all that he justified he
glorified. I'm already, I'm already in glory. It's already done. This is, forgiveness
of sin is not the end of, the beginning of the gospel is the
forgiveness of sin. God's not looking for you and
me to make any contribution to our salvation in order for him
to forgive us. He's looking to the sacrifice
that the Lord Jesus Christ made in the covenant of grace and
on Calvary's cross. And he says, forgiven, forgiven. Did the Lord Jesus Christ not
pray on Calvary's cross, Father, forgive them for they know not
what they do? Who was he praying for? Everyone
he was dying for. Did the Father say, well, I'll
forgive them when they do their part? No. He heard that prayer. He answered that prayer. Here's
what I'm saying to you, brethren. Here's what I'm saying to you,
those who are strangers to God's grace. Everything necessary for
the forgiveness of sin has already been accomplished. That's the good news. That's the beginning of the gospel. Change your mind. and have your
mind completely baptized, immersed in the truth that remission of
sins is already done. And get rid of any thinking that
requires you to do something to make what he did work for
you. It's already finished. Now I know what the unbeliever
says to that. You can't tell folks that. It
will lead them to sinful living. Well, it might lead some to sinful
living, but you know what will lead the child of God? It will
lead them straight to Christ. It will lead them straight to
the Lord Jesus Christ. They will find themselves at
His feet listening to every word that He says. rejoicing in him,
delighting in his grace and in his mercy. John preached the baptism of
repentance because sin has already been remitted. It's already been put away. You
can't add to what the Lord Jesus Christ did and you can't take
away from it. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? Pardon, forgiveness, deliverance, remission of sins. Go back with me to Mark chapter
1. You see, the remedy for lawless
living is not the law. The remedy for lawless living
is not the law. The remedy for lawless living
is Christ. The love of Christ constraineth
us. The strength of sin is the law. Are there things that we ought
not to do? Of course. Of course. If we find ourselves
rejoicing in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we'll have the mind of Christ, we'll have the desires that He
puts in our hearts. No, the remedy of sin is grace. It's grace. It's love. It's the law of the spirit. It's the law of grace. It's the
law of Christ. That's our remedy. The beginning of the gospel is
the forgiveness of sin. I want to close with one last
passage. Look at verse 5. And there went
out unto him and all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem,
and were all baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing
their sins. Now, you can look this up. You know what the word homo means,
H-O-M-O, it means the same. And you know what the word logos
means, it means word. The word the Lord Jesus Christ
is referred to as the living logos, the word of God. The word
here for confess is the word homologia. That's the word. Now in short,
it means, was John having people make a list of their sins that
they were guilty of in order to confess their sins? No. To
confess your sin, you don't have the time or the ability to make
such a list. They're too numerous and there's
things you don't even know about. What is homologous? It's to speak the same thing
that God says about your sin. That's all it is. It's to agree
with God. It's to take sides with God against
yourself. It's to say, yes Lord, yes Lord,
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I'm a sinner. I don't have anything but sin.
That's what it means to confess your sins. It means to agree
with God that everything about you is sinful. and that you are
in need of a Savior to put those sins away. And then to believe that what
the Lord Jesus Christ did already put the sins of His people away
once and for all. All right, let's take a break. I'm sorry we've gone over a little
bit. th th