Go back to Mark 1. Mark 1. Our text is two verses
of what Brother Bob read. 14 and 15. Let's read those two verses. Now, after that John was put
in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. That was the message that the
Lord God of heaven preached. It really struck me. I was planning
on preaching from him drawing his disciples. But I started
realizing that's the message that God Almighty preached. And
why bypass that? The message God preached. He
preached it to men and women, the God of heaven. He said, repent
and believe the gospel. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Now up until John was put in prison. That was John's message
too. I want to show you that in Matthew
3. Go over to Matthew chapter 3. Matthew 3 verse 1 says, In those
days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, And
saying, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Same message. John's message was the same message
as our Lord's. And when our Lord finished his
work, he was here 33 and a half years, and he finished his work,
and then he ascended on high, back to glory. He told his disciples,
this is the message you are to preach. This is the message. Go over to Luke 24. and look at verse 44. Luke 24 verse 44 says, And he
said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you
while I was yet with you, that 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. Now I pray God would open my
understanding. Men and women have this precious
word. May the Lord give us the ability
to understand it, understand what it's saying. Only God can
do that. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them,
thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and
to rise from the dead, the third day. and that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations
beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. This is our message today. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. That's our message. This is not
an invitation. We're not going to give an invitation
at the end of this. There is not one invitation in God's Word. We do not ask sinners if they
would like to repent and believe the gospel. We do not beg on
God's behalf. We don't do it, do we? We just
don't do it. God has given His command. Is He God or is He not God? And
He's given His command and He said repent and believe the gospel. Now why should we sinners obey
the commandment of God Almighty? Why should we do that? I want
to show you why in Acts 17. Turn with me over to Acts 17. Acts 17, look at verse 30, it
says, and the times of this ignorance God winked at. This is talking
about man not knowing who God is. Paul saw an altar to the
unknown God. He said, I'm going to tell you
about that God, the unknown God. And he's talking about man not
knowing who God is. Man thinks God is like this,
but he's not. In verse 30, the times of this
ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent because, here's why, he hath appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained. A day of judgment has been appointed.
Now if I was a doctor, if I was a doctor and I routinely drew
some blood on you and I sent that blood off and had it tested
and the results came back and I realized you have a germ, just
a little bitty tiny germ. And that little germ is going
to kill you within 24 hours. One little germ. Would you want
me to tell you about it? If I was a doctor and I found
a germ, and it was going to kill you in 24 hours, would you want
me to tell you about the problem and tell you about the remedy?
Or would you rather me say, you're doing great. You're just doing
great. Nothing to worry about. Nope. Look good to me. Nothing to fear. No reason to be afraid. Would
you, I'm serious, would you prefer that I lie to you? I'm about
to tell me and I'm about to tell you the truth. Here's the truth. Something has been found in our
blood. I'm not making this up. There is something in there called
sin. It's there. You may not know that it's there.
You didn't know you had that little germ. You may not feel
like it's there. It may not be affecting your
daily life one bit. Maybe not. But it's there. I'm telling you, it's there.
And we are about to go meet God. We are on the verge in minutes,
in seconds, in hours, in days. We are on the verge of going
to meet God and this verse of scripture says He is going to
judge us in our sin. And it does not matter what the
sin is. And it does not matter the degree
of the sin. Not at all. I don't care if it's
a great big huge poisonous rattlesnake or if it's a little tiny baby
poisonous rattlesnake. Either way, it's a poisonous
rattlesnake. And it does not matter if men
believe in their own hearts. I have committed great big sins
against God. Sins I'm ashamed of. or it doesn't
matter if a man believes in his heart. I've only committed just
some little bitty tiny sins against God. Yeah, they gave me too much
change back at Kroger one time and I didn't give it back to
them, but you know, it does not matter. It's all sin. I don't
care if you're covered in it or if there's one little spot.
It's all sin. And God has said in this book,
He must punish sin. We just can't turn a blind eye
to that. He cannot clear the guilty. And this word says, and we know
it so, just look at your own self. The word says, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Does anybody actually
believe in their own heart, I'm as good as God? No. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. God's message is this. The time
is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye
and believe the gospel. Now let me see if I can explain
the urgency of this condition. Let me see if I can get across
to us the urgency of this condition. There are 1.78 deaths per second in the world. 1.78 deaths per second in the
world. That means there are 107 deaths
per second, per minute, I'm sorry, per minute in the world. 107 per minute. We begin our
Bible study on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock. And we usually
finish around 1145 by the time we walk out. Hour and 45 minutes. We have a Bible study. We take
a little break. We sing some songs. We read scripture. We
preach a message. All right? In the hour and 45
minutes that we worship God, 11,235 souls go meet God just in the hour and 45 minutes while
we worship God on Sunday morning. And then we leave, and we go
eat lunch, and we go home and rest for a while, and we come
back at six o'clock. In that space of time, the time
we leave and go rest, just waiting to come back and worship God,
40,125 more people go meet God in addition All right? Today alone, in the
24 hours that we call Sunday, the day that we worship God,
today only, 154,080 people will go meet God. The kingdom of heaven
is at hand. I mean, we're not promised tomorrow.
What's to keep us from being one of the 154 today? That is
the absolute truth, if I've ever told it. It's the absolute truth. Now, here is the gospel. That's the truth. Here's the
gospel. And this is what God said, declare to sinners. I don't
care if they think it's great sin or little sin. You go out
and tell them There is a fountain filled with blood. You might have 24 hours, okay? There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from God's own veins, Emmanuel's veins. And every sinner
that God plunges beneath that flood will lose all his guilty
stains. All right, now you've got a problem,
but there is a remedy. One remedy. The time is fulfilled. I want you to read this with
me. I want you to open your hymnal to 222, where we just were. 222,
and look at verse 2. Rejoiced to see now this man
had less than 24 hours Okay, here's the problem There's something
in your blood You got less than 24 hours But verse 2 says the
dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day You know
what? He saw right next to him was Jesus Christ crucified And
there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Now look at the next page. It
says, Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my
behalf appears. Before the throne, my surety
stands. My name is written on His hands. I can just see my God and my
Savior standing before His Father with His hands like this. My
name is written on His hands. Verse 2 says, He ever lives above
for me to intercede. His all-redeeming love, His precious
blood to plead. His blood atoned for all our
race and sprinkles now the throne of grace. And sprinkles now the
throne of grace. Verse three says, five bleeding
wounds he bears. Received on Calvary, they pour
effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry, nor let that ransom sinner die. nor let that paid for sinner
die. The father hears him pray. His
dear anointed one, he cannot turn away the presence of his
son. His spirit answers to the blood
and tells me I am born of God. It tells me I was born in the
blood of God almighty. My God is reconciled. His pardoning
voice I hear. He owns me for his child. I can no longer fear. With confidence
I now draw nigh, and Father, Abba, Father, cry, and Father,
Abba, Father, cry. One more verse, turn the page. 224 verse one says, I know not
why God's wondrous grace to me he hath made known. nor why unworthy
Christ in love redeemed me for his own, but I know whom I have
believed." Repent and believe the gospel. The gospel is a person. The gospel is a person. It's
not a what and it's not a thing, it's a person. Here's our message. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom
of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Believe Him. What does that word
repent mean? It means stop believing what
you believe and start believing Jesus Christ. That's what it
means. Well, you know, I believe you
have to choose God. Well, Jesus Christ said, you
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Okay. Well, I believe that he helps
those who help themselves. I believe he helps the good ones,
the better ones. Well, he said, I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Romans five says
Christ died for the ungodly. Okay. Well, I believe you have
to work your way to heaven. I believe that there are certain
things you have to do and certain things you have to not do. Ephesians
2, 8 and 9 say, for by grace are you saved through faith,
that not of yourself, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest
any man should boast. You mean that my good works do
nothing for me? They don't mean anything? Isaiah
64 says, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Okay. I believe that you believe
that you believe everything in me is worthless to God. Yes.
You believe that Christ died for the ungodly, not the goody
two shoes. Yes. I do. You believe God chose you and
you didn't choose God. Yes. That's what I believe. It has to be that way. If God
didn't choose me, I would have never chosen him. Never. Well, I thought salvation was
a joint effort. I thought I had to take the first
step so he would take the second step. Hebrews 1.3 says, when
he by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. Okay. That's what it says. Go with me to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 verse 12 says that
at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ
Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. When our Lord gave himself, when
he shed his blood in order to purge the sin of every sinner
that God put in him, he cried, it is finished. That's what he
said. It is finished. You know what
that means? It means the sin that he came
to pay for is gone. That's what it means. It's gone. And it means rather
than being judged of God by that man whom he ordained, it means
we were judged of God in that man whom he ordained. And now
here's the gospel the Lord preached. Here's the gospel he commanded
us to preach. Go back to Mark 1. Verse 14 says, now after that
John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the
gospel, preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and saying,
the time is fulfilled. The Old Testament, it had one
message. You know what it is? Man, I'm so glad we do. I'm so glad we do. Here's what
it is. Somebody's coming to put away
sin. That's the whole message of the
Old Testament. And he's saying right here, he's telling all
of them right here in Mark 1, the time is fulfilled. Here I am. After 4,000 years of promises,
the kingdom of God is at hand. Here I am. Now this New Testament
says the promised one came. That's what the whole New Testament
says. The promised one came and he accomplished every single
thing he promised. And now he ascended back to his
father to make intercession for us and he's there to prepare
a place for us. and he's coming back to get us.
And it doesn't matter if he comes back in 4,000 more years or if
we are one of the 154,000 that go meet him today. It doesn't
matter. If the blood of Christ has been
shed on us, we are going to hear him say, The time is fulfilled. All that time for you is done. It's done. It's over. The trials
are over. The sorrow is over. The heartache
is over. The turmoil is over. The tears
are over. The fear is over. Every bit of
it. And the kingdom of God is at
hand. Welcome to the kingdom of God. Lord, cause us to repent. Cause me to quit believing what
this flesh believes. And cause me to believe what
Christ has said. Cause me to forget and renounce
every lie that's been told to me through religion and preachers
and church and all that stuff. All those lies. Cause me to forget
all that. And cause me to just trust Christ.
Calls me to look to his blood alone. Calls all of us, Lord,
to believe the gospel. That's what I pray. Pray we walk
out of this place believing the gospel. All right, let's stand
together.