Okay, we're going to be, we'll
be in Mark 1, Mark chapter 1, verse 1. Our text is actually verses 4 through
8, but we'll read the first 8 verses, Mark 1 through 8. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, 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. And
there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem,
and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing
their sins. And John was clothed with camel's
hair, and with the girdle of a skin about his loins, and he
did eat locusts and wild honey, and preached, saying, Dare cometh
one mightier than I after me, the latched of whose shoes I
am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized
you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
And Matthew 3.11 adds, with fire." So, we'll see as we look at this
passage this morning that the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ
is offensive to the flesh. There's nothing appealing for
the flesh, right? Not the manner in which it comes,
not the timing it comes to us, like nothing's ever convenient
or according as the flesh would have it when the gospel comes. And it offends because the gospel,
God, our Savior, He doesn't need anything from this flesh. There's
nothing that we contribute to it. There's nothing that we do.
So the flesh gets offended and the more religious we are, the
more we think we have to offer, we get more offended and more
upset that there's nothing seen in us or necessary from us. Think
about it when, if you're an expert in your field and people are
asking a question or soliciting information, if they pass you
by, knowing that you have all this information, you get offended
just in your own flesh. Well, in the gospel, the Lord
doesn't need anything from us. He's not looking to us for anything.
And it's usually the more religious you are that that offends and
that gets you upset because you want to be able to have some
control over whether or not you're one of the Lord's people. When
you see yourself as nothing and have nothing to contribute, you're
not offended at all. You're happy that no one's looking
to you for anything because you've got nothing to give. So it works
out really well. But the reality is that Christ
will give his spirit to his child and his spirit is going to burn
up all those works of the flesh. Everything that's natural to
us he's going to deal with it in his time as it pleases him
all under the sound of the gospel. Because the truth is we're, by
nature, we're heathen idolaters. We have all kinds of opinions
and thoughts about God and who he is, how he saves, who he should
save, and how we should go about doing it. And we're all idolaters
that Christ has to save us from that idolatry. He has to burn
up those works of the flesh and make us truly righteous in himself. He is our righteousness. He's
the one who makes us righteous and we need to be brought to
see that if we're his that we are righteous in him because
he's fulfilled it all. He makes us joyful in that. He
makes us to rejoice in what he's done. Our title is The Gospel
Contrary to the Flesh. We'll just have two divisions
this morning. First, the offense to the flesh
And then the destruction of the flesh. Now, as I was studying
this, I see that there's a lot of ways that you could look at
this passage and preach the gospel from this passage, but I think
it's good for us to consider it in this light, especially
being a young congregation, a newly formed congregation as we are
here. So we'll see how in the first
point, that there's nothing appealing to the flesh even in the means
in which the gospel comes to us in regards to the place, the
message, and even the messenger, the man who's preaching the gospel.
So first, we'll look at the place. We read in Mark 1.4, John didn't
baptize in the wilderness. Now, John didn't appear in the
temple in Star Talk, and he didn't even appear in one of the synagogues,
and he didn't appear on a meaningful mountain that was considered
a holy place or anything like that, John came in the wilderness
preaching the gospel. It says in Mark 1 3, the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. And while he was there preaching
in the wilderness, people began to hear him. And the commentators
that I looked at, they noted that it wasn't like he was in
some desert place where no one was around, but He was in what
they called the wilderness, but it was in the midst of cities
and towns, so there would be people going about doing their
errands, and as they're going they would hear this man crying
out, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And they would take notice of
him and look at him and think, that's kind of odd, that's a
bit strange, and likely they would go to wherever they were
going and tell whoever they did business with. There's this guy
in the middle on my way over here who was saying this thing
or back to their families and tell their friends and families
that there's this man and I think maybe he's a prophet and we should
go hear him. Now, it had been 350 years of
silence before since the Lord had spoken to Israel by the mouth
of a prophet. It had been a long time before
a prophet had come and spoken to them. That was Malachi, was
the last prophet that the Lord spoke to, 350 years before John. And so, after that long silence,
there comes this voice, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
his paths straight. So, the place, though, where
John was, was nothing to boast in. It was just a wilderness,
outside place, not a place where you would expect to hear the
truth of God being preached. This point has caught my eye
because I was thinking about how the Lord has formed us in
the place that we're meeting in here, right? Don't be surprised
if there's many that come and visit us and maybe sit for a
meeting or two or a few and then never come again because There's
nothing here that appeals to the flesh about it. So unless
the spirit causes them to hear his voice, they're not going
to sit and stay and listen to hear what the Lord has to say.
So we know, I mean, we do know the Lord has shown us and we
understand that the place where we meet in and of itself, it's
not important. It doesn't matter whether we're
sitting in a big room like this or in a place that people would
commonly think of as a church. But our interest really should
be just to hear the gospel without distractions. So we do take steps,
you know, to have the children, you know, in the back so that
there's not those distractions, you know, we'll fix that battery
at some point, you know, so that we're not hearing these things
that are distracting us and causing us to have our mind taken off
of Christ, but the carnal man is going to look at the outward
things. He's going to look around and he's going to see and think,
how can the truth of God be preached here? And the Lord always does
that, doesn't he? He constantly turns the works
of the flesh in what we think is the way the Lord's going to
operate and just turns it on its head and shows that he can
save his people any way that he pleases. And so I would just
say this, that we not be discouraged when people come and go, because
the Lord knows how to save His people. He knows how to bring
His people here, and He knows how to cause them to hear, and
He knows how to sit them down and close their mouths and just
listen to what the Lord has to say. We can trust that He knows
how to save His people. And whatever it is that we endure,
because that can be painful, and that can be discouraging
as you go, But remember our Lord, as Paul said to the Corinthians,
ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through
his poverty might be rich. So it's important to have a good
building of utility, a building that has the room and the space
that we need and things like that. And when it's right, when
it pleases the Lord, He'll stir up our hearts, we'll have a desire
for that, and the Lord will bless us with that building. And it'll
no doubt take some sacrifice and our labors and the various
skills that the Lord's given to us here. He'll use them to
build that building and get it to be decent and something that
we can meet Him. But we need to just trust the
Lord. In the meantime, let us be thankful
and content that God has given us a place to me to hear the
gospel without distraction. And when that day comes, let
me just say from Philippians 2, it's a good thing to remember,
Philippians 2, 3, let nothing be done through strife or vain
glory. Because the carnal man is going
to rise up and say, you know, I think it should be like this.
I want a big beautiful building, or I want to do this, or I'll
give you money. I'll give you money for the pews
if I can pick them out, or I'll give you money for the paint
if I can pick the color. By God's grace, we don't need that. We're
going to be united. The Lord will give us peace and
a unity to see that come together. So the Lord is able to do it. In the meantime, though, let
us remember now and even in that day that the Lord gathers his
people into his temple, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing
more beautiful or innate or honorable than to come before the Lord
in His Son, Jesus Christ. That's lovely and that's beautiful
in spite of all that we see around us. Now second, we consider the
message that John was preaching. In John 1-4, John did baptize
in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins. Let me just say two things on
that. First on the baptism of repentance and then the remission
of sins. It is true that John was looking
for a profession of their repentance, right? They came to John to hear
what he was saying, but they had been a long time without
hearing from the Lord, and they were trusting in their works,
their vain, dead religion. And John is saying, all the things
that you've been hoping and all the things that you've been looking
to have not saved you. They're not any good. They're
all worthless. Now, because it had been so long
since they had a prophet there, their teachers were the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, the chief priests, the scribes, the lawyers, the
elders there. And they were teaching them that
the law is what saved them. They were looking to the law. and thinking that the law, by
their keeping the law, that they were righteous before God and
that God was pleased with them for their works. And they never
looked to the end of the law, which is Christ. They never considered
that we're saved by Christ. Never in any point in time did
God save his people by the law. We've always, every child of
God, from the history, from the foundation of the earth, from
Adam and Eve, they were all saved looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't save his people one
way in the Old Testament and another way under the New Covenant. It's all been under the covenant
of Christ's blood. And they weren't pointing to
the people to Christ. They were pointing the people
to their works, to their flesh, to doing the law the best that
they could do. They probably didn't even say the best they
could do, they say that now, but they couldn't even do the best
they could do. They had to look at the Pharisees and do what
they did, because the Pharisees were so sure that they were doing
it right. So as long as you do what I'm doing, then everything
will be alright for you. But Paul said to the Romans 8-7,
and it's appropriate here, The carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can it be, or neither indeed can be subject to the law of
God. So Paul's saying to them, not only can we not keep the
law of Moses, we won't submit and keep the law of Moses the
way it's to be kept, which is imperfection, but we won't even
submit to what the law says to us, which is, you're guilty. I'm guilty. We're all guilty
before the law. You want to try to come to God
before the law, then hear what the law says to you, and hear
what it says to me. Guilty. Guilty. And it isn't
until the Spirit gives us life that we'll submit to what the
law is saying and bow before the law and say, yes, Lord. I'm
guilty. I can't keep the law. Nothing
I do is acceptable with you because I'm a sinner and I've broken
your law and I'm not righteous or worthy. So that's to submit
to what the law is saying. That's to be submissive to the
law is to hear what it's saying, that I'm guilty and I can't come
to God by that law. I must come by the way you've
provided for my salvation, which is in the Lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. I must be washed by his blood. So They're all coming out to
hear John, right? The Jerusalem and Judea, they're
all coming out there, and the Pharisees are going out there
as well, and they hear what John is saying. In Luke 3, he records
a little more of what John was saying in verse 7. Then said
John to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him,
O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath
to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits
worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you, that God
is able of these stones to raise up children of Abraham. And now
also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Every tree,
therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire. The Pharisees heard that message,
and they looked, around, they looked at the place, they heard
what John was saying, they looked at the other people that were
hearing John and they thought, that's not for me, I don't need
to hear that message, that has nothing to say to me. They determined
that they were righteous. But if I begin to tell you brethren
how to be righteous by the law, I'm just like a venomous snake
here out in the woods or in your yard like a copperhead or you
know, a rattlesnake or something like that, that I'm just sinking
my teeth in you and putting poison into you because that will surely
kill us. I can't turn you to the law because
that brings death and we need to be delivered from that. Our
righteousness is going to come by the Lord Jesus Christ. But
the Pharisees heard that and they said, I'm righteous. I don't
need to hear that. I don't need to be baptized by
this man. I don't need to do what this man is saying. So they
trusted in their own works. But we do read that the people,
not the Pharisees, but the people heard John and they asked him
saying, what shall we do then? So they heard what John was saying
and they realized or they came to some degree understand that
their works were a stench in God's nostrils. So the thing
is, is that we are to hear and to know and understand that we
are to have no confidence in our flesh. Right? Paul said in
Romans 8, 8, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And the reason why it's because
our flesh is flimsy. It's weak. It's like grass. It's like grass that gets burned
up. And so, as it says in Isaiah
40 verse 6, the voice said, Cry, and John the Baptist replied,
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withereth, The flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. And that word, brethren, comes
through the preaching of the gospel, whereby we see that it's
not by our works. It's not by our doing. And the
Lord withers, the spirit attending that word withers the flesh.
It dries up all that moisture that was in the flesh. It shows
us that there's nothing good in me. God doesn't need anything
from me. And God isn't looking for anything
from me. except for perfect righteousness, which comes by the Son, Jesus
Christ alone. So that the flesh just dries
up and it's withered by the Spirit, as the Spirit blows upon it,
taking that Gospel word and laying it to our hearts, enabling us
to hear what He's saying by faith, to believe what He has said in
His Word concerning us and concerning the Son. As Peter said, being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. All right, and then this phrase,
for the remission of sins. Now we know that baptism doesn't
save us. Baptism doesn't wash away our
sins. So a good translation for this
would be unto the remission of sins. And what John is telling
them is be turned from your vain, dead religion. Your works are
not saving you. Your works have not prepared
you for the Lord. Your works have done nothing
for you before Almighty God, who is holy and righteous, but
be turned from these things and wait expectantly for the salvation
of the Lord, His Son, Jesus Christ. He's sending the Christ. The
Christ is coming. Look to Him. Christ is the one
that saves you. Christ is the one who will put
away your sins. So John isn't telling, there's
not some interim means of salvation that God is using here, looking
at John the Baptist to save his people. He was sent simply to
prepare the hearts of the people for the coming of Christ. To
see that all their works have been dead and vain and done nothing
for them and to wait expectantly for the coming of Christ. to wait for the Anointed One
of God, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, which taketh
away the sin of the world," as John said in 129. All right,
so now third, the offense to the flesh that we see is the
man, the man preaching the gospel. Mark 1.6, John was clothed with
camel's hair and with the girdle of his skin about his loins,
and he did eat locusts and wild honey. And, you know, if I'm
being honest, If I saw some man out there in the parking lot,
a hairy man, you know, with rough camel skin garment on there,
it wasn't even softened or nothing flush about it. It could have
been, but it wasn't. It was just a rough camel's garment
and he's wearing a leather loincloth around, you know, his loins there
and he's eating weird food, you know, locusts and wild honey.
I wouldn't listen to him, not in the flesh. I would think that
man is just a loon. There's nothing that man has
to say that I need to hear, but John was sent in the spirit and
in the power of Elijah when the king of Samaria had fallen down
through the lattice, it was Ahaziah, and he sent his messengers out,
all the way out to the Philistines where the temple of Baal was,
to go and inquire whether or not he would be healed and get
off his bed. And as the messengers are going
out, Elijah meets them, sent to the Lord, and he stops them
and says, is it because there's not a God in Israel that you're
going all the way there to inquire of Baal, whether or not you're
going to be healed, you can just turn right around and tell your
Lord that he's not going to get up off that bed. He's going to
die. And so they came back and of course was wondering why they
were back so soon. And he asked them and they told
him what Elijah said. And he said, can you describe
him? And they said, he was a hairy man with a girdle of leather
about his loins. And he said, it's Elijah the
Tishbite. And Elijah did come there. And
he said that. So John was very much sent in
the spirit and in the power of Elijah. And so he was an odd
man and he did stand out. And it just makes me think, you
know, how I'm just, you know, just a man and all of the Lord's
preachers are just men and, you know, quirky and nothing to boast
in or think much of, you know, and we're, judged harshly. I've spoken to a lot of pastors
and they get judged pretty harshly by people. Men are looking for
any excuse to justify why they don't believe their message.
Very rarely are they ever going to come out and say, because
I hate Christ or I don't love Christ. Very few men are ever
going to say that. They're always going to find
some reason to justify why they're leaving the gospel. So they're
going to find an issue with the church, they're going to find
an issue with the brethren, they're going to find an issue with something
that I say or something that I wear or something that I've
done, anything whereby they can justify their hatred of Christ. But the beauty of our coming
is that the Lord will take those worthless, meaningless things
of this world and he'll bring his people in spite of that.
I mean, we shouldn't be gathered here because the man is charismatic
or charming or anything like that. The Lord is going to bring
his people by the gospel, by hearing the hearing of the gospel,
the hearing of faith by his spirit coming into your hearts. giving
you a hearing ear and causing you to hear that message and
to say, that's exactly what I need. I need Christ. I don't need these
works that I've been looking to my whole life. I need the
Lord Jesus Christ. So he's going to do that work. And so oftentimes he will take
those foolish things to show us that it's not by the things
of this world and it's not by what we think, but it's going
to be by his powers that we know of surety. It's by the Lord. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. 1 Corinthians 1, and we'll pick up in verse 26. 1 Corinthians 1, 26. For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, that God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which
are despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth
in glory in the Lord And not only that, but go over to 1 Corinthians
4. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 9, where
we see Paul say, I think that God has set forth us the apostles
last, as if we're appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle
unto the world and to angels and to men. We're fools, for
Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye
are strong. Ye are honorable, but we are
despised. even unto this present hour we
both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have
no certain dwelling place and labor, working with our own hands,
being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it. And
then look at this verse 13, being defamed, we entreat, we are made
as the filth of the world and are the offscouring of all things
unto this day. And we think, I can't imagine
that. The esteem we have for the apostles who laid down their
lives, and we have this word by them writing epistles and
taking the time to write the gospel, and what we see that
they endured and went through, and we think, how could they
be treated like that? But he's writing to a church,
a church of the living God, the Corinthians, and they despised
him. They treated him as filth. how
the Lord makes it so that in spite of what you think of the
man, in spite of what you think of the message and the place,
that the Lord doesn't need any of that. He's not dependent on
anything that we can do in the flesh. It's by His power, by
His Spirit that He saves and delivers His people. it should come as no surprise
that these things are easily despised by the flesh, because
the flesh is easily offended by these things. So easily it is. But having said
all that, Israel was moved to hear what John was saying, and
they went ahead, and they were baptized by John, and they seemed
to delight in what they were hearing, at least for a time. We see how the flesh can endure
and put up with some pretty weird or awful things, if you will.
Just the fact that even we're sitting here doesn't necessarily
mean that we're believers, just because we're sitting in a cruddy
place with you know, in the means that we're having to endure here,
but that's no thing. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let's look at our second point here, the destruction of
the flesh. In Mark 1 verse 7, John preached saying, There cometh
one mightier than I after me, the lachet of whose shoes I am
not worthy to stoop down and unloose. Now as I mentioned earlier,
we desperately need Christ to attend His Word. We need Him
here, right? The Lord Jesus Christ must be
here, and like John the Baptist bore witness to Christ, so we
the preacher are to bear witness of Christ who is the light and
the life of men, right? Because you can have the best
meeting place in the world. You could have the best speaker,
a polished speaker. You have a very polished message
that sounds great, but if the Lord isn't in it, then it's a
work of dumb. It's not to the benefit of anybody. Without Christ, attending his
word, you and me, we have nothing. And there's nothing profitable
for us to be here. The best thing that will be is
this dead letter Pharisees, just another group of religionists
meeting in the name of God. But Christ said, where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst
of them. So life and godliness don't come
from the outward means of religion that traditional, natural man
thinks of. But the outward man trusts in
those things. He looks to those things, but
the Lord is not going to be mocked. He's not going to allow us to
have confidence or trust in those things. Again, we want our services
to be respectable. We want to show that we actually
care and are committed to the work, so it's important. showing
up in shorts to go play frisbee out in the parking lot afterwards,
but we want to be respectable and not be a hindrance in any
way to the Word going forth, but we don't have any confidence
in those outward things. We have no confidence in those
things. Our confidence is in our Lord who provided His Son
to put away our sin. And so I think what Christ says
in John 5 is relevant, and turn to John chapter 5. John 5, and we'll pick up in
verse 31 since we're talking here about the coming of John
the Baptist and those outward things that carnal man looks
at and trusts in. In John 5.31, he said, If I bear
witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another
that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which
he witnesseth of me is true. Verse 33 there, He sent unto
John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I received not
testimony from man, but these things I say, that ye might be
saved. He was a burning and a shining
light, He were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. Many in Jerusalem and in Judea
went out and heard what John was saying, and they were baptized
in the baptism that John had ministered. In Mark 1.5 it says,
There went out unto John all the land of Judea and they of
Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan,
confessing their sins. So almost all of Judea gladly
heard what John was sent to say. They were listening to what he
was saying. They were willing for a season to rejoice in his
life. But as that last prophet that
was sent to the Lord would say in Malachi 3, verses 2 and 3,
but who may abide the day of his coming, the coming of Christ,
right? Carnal man can endure with religion
and do a lot of things in religion and a lot of outward things.
even things that aren't necessarily appealing to the flesh, who may
abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire,
and like fuller so, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier
of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them
as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness. And this is what John the Baptist
himself said, he said, I can only baptize, I baptize you with
water, and that's all that I can do. But there comes one after
me who's mightier than I am. I'm not even worthy to stoop
down and loose the latchet of his shoe. This one's gonna come,
and when he comes, he'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
with fire. The Lord's gonna do a work in
his people in relief. that no religion can work in
the heart of his people. All we can do is touch the outside,
but the Lord is the one who must attend that word and do that
work in our hearts. Otherwise, we'll be nothing more
than good little Pharisees. Evil little Pharisees is what
we would be. So Christ must come and baptize
us with his Holy Spirit, giving us life and burning up the works
of the flesh, right? Because by nature, they were
willing for a season to rejoice in his light and to fulfill all
those outward things. And Matthew 22, 12 says it well. You think about religion and
what man can do and how far he can get himself in religion and
doing those outward things. But we see in that one parable
where the king comes in and says, friend, how painless thou in
hither, seeing thou hast no wedding garment on. And that man was
speechless. all his life he trusted his ability
to make do and to get through in religious matters, but he
didn't have the Holy Spirit. He didn't have the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't trusting in Christ,
he was trusting in what he had done and thought he could just
enter right on in there into the gates of heaven, but he had
no wedding garment. So we must have that righteousness
which Christ alone gives to his people. If we think nothing less. then Christ being all our righteousness,
that he is the holy son of God, the one who God sent to put away
the sin of his people. If we don't see that and we're
trusting in anything else besides Christ, even if you trust in
Christ plus something, that's not the righteousness which God
requires. That's not the wedding garment. The wedding garment
is Christ alone, his righteousness. We must have the Lord Jesus Christ. At best, we are without Him as
just blind, deaf, dumb religionists. And we'll have no hope, and we'll
get there, stand before God in that day, and hear, I never knew
you. I never knew you. But some would
say, but Christ is just a man. Isn't He just a prophet? Isn't
He just a good man? Isn't He there sent to be an
example for us to follow? But Hebrews 2, 9 is the confession
that the child of God has, that we see Jesus. who was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. For it became him for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, and by him giving us his Holy
Spirit, we're not ashamed to call him Lord and say, Lord,
I need everything from you. I'm not looking to my works.
I'm not trusting what I'm doing. Lord, you give everything, and
we call him Lord, and we're not ashamed of it. We're not ashamed
to admit to one another and to anyone in this world that I need
the Lord Jesus Christ. I need his righteousness. There
is nothing good in me. they'll hear and they'll find
a way to argue and say, yeah, but there's still something we
have to do. We still have to look to the law to sanctify ourselves. And we'll just say, no, that's,
that's not so. Christ sanctifies his people.
He justified us. He sanctified us. We're looking
to him for everything. All my salvation is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. All right. And it's not as though,
turn back to John five, it's not as though, God himself did
not bear witness that Jesus is the Christ that he sent. John 5.36 says, But I have greater
witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath
given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness
of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself which
hath sent me hath borne witness of me. He hath neither heard
his voice at any time, nor seen his shape, and he hath not his
word abiding in you, for whom he hath sent Him ye believe not."
That's how we're going to know that we believe the Lord. That's
how we know that we have a spirit, because we trust Christ, the
Word of God. We trust Him and believe Him,
that He has put away my sins. That's my only hope. If He doesn't
put away my sins, I have no hope but in what Christ has done. outward religion, man and his
religion can do these things, and Christ says in John 539,
search the scriptures. And that's what they were able
to do. That's what outward religion, that's what man and religion
can do outwardly, search the scriptures. And it says, for
in them ye think ye have eternal life, but take heed, they are
they which testify of me. They point to the Lord Jesus
Christ and what he has done for his people. And ye will not come
to me that ye might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I
am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him you will receive." Right? Because
carnal man can receive the things of carnal man. He can receive
that which is tangible. If you tell a man what to do,
he'll gladly hear it. The man dead in his sins because
it's tangible. But if you tell him Christ, you
need Christ. He won't hear it because it doesn't
make any sense to him. There's nothing tangible about
that. He's looking for some work to
do. How can you believe which receive honor one of another
and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? So, brethren,
let us remember that when we are gathered here, that the Lord
Jesus Christ is here. Though this place doesn't look
it, though we be just a rough group of people seemingly put
together, for who knows what reason, and I'm just a young
preacher, new, and not very gifted in my speech, and it's not smooth
and polished the way it could be, I suppose, but we come here
believing and knowing that the Lord has gathered his people
here, that he's meeting with us. And when you come here, pray
to the Lord in the morning that he give us a heart that he meet
with us here, that we hear his voice, that we see the Lord Jesus
Christ and are made to rejoice in what he's done. Come begging
God that he would meet with us, that we don't meet here in vain,
because if we come and the Lord's not here, we might as well just
pack up and go home. We don't want to play religious
games, but beg the Lord that he would pour out his spirit
upon us that He would baptize us with His Spirit and baptize
us with fire, that the works of our flesh be burned up, that
we not look to and trust those things, because the Lord will
purge out that vain, dead religion that's in all of our hearts and
all of our flesh, that's just been there always, and it never
seems to go away, because His flesh is always with us, and
the flesh isn't being reformed. The flesh is dead. This is dead. So, let me just say this, Malachi
3, 4. Malachi said, looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ, waiting for him, expectantly waiting for
him, he says, then, like when we come to the Lord, not in our
own works, but in the works of Christ and what Christ has done,
then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto
the Lord, as in the days of old and as in the former years. Amen. I pray that the Lord will
bless that to our hearts.