This morning, we'll be looking
at the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, Mark, chapter one, if you
want to follow along. And in this chapter, we'll be
looking at the beginning of the Lord Jesus Christ's public preaching
ministry and the calling out of his disciples, his apostles,
and these were his first public words, his first message, and
this is the way in which he called the men that he chose. And this is still the message
that our Lord preaches to his people today and still the way
in which he calls out his disciples. Mark chapter 1, I read verse
14. 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. John was imprisoned for preaching
the gospel. John was a preacher. He was the
last of the Old Testament prophets. And now Jesus came and he was
a preacher. John came preaching and Jesus
came preaching. God has not left himself without
a witness in every generation. When Moses died, the Lord raised
up Joshua. After Samuel, there was David.
After Elijah, there was Elisha. So that every generation has
heard the truth, the truth, the truth of God. And all men are
accountable to it. John was a preacher and the Lord
Jesus Christ himself was a preacher. Now, in our day, preaching and
preachers is disdained by modern man. Preachers and their preaching
are as fools and in their foolishness today. And I must concur concerning
most of these fellows. and ladies. But God's word says
now, how shall they preach except they be sent? And how shall they
believe on him whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? That's in Romans 10, verses 14
and 15. God actually sends some men as
preachers into this world. They are messengers, they are
declarers, they are proclaimers of the gospel, and they are sent
by God. God's true sent prophets, apostles,
pastors, teachers, and preachers are called by God, taught of
God, equipped by God, and sent by God. Now, there are no more
prophets, and there are no more apostles, but there are pastors
and teachers and preachers. And they are sent by God, that
is, they are chosen and called and equipped by God, and the
doors are open for them to preach by God. And they do one thing. They are not socializers, organizers,
patronizers, or baptizers, but they are preachers. Paul said,
God sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now, what
the world calls foolishness today, that is preaching, and the preaching
of the gospel, which you will hear in a moment, this preaching
of the gospel is the calling, saving, regenerating power of
God Almighty. Nothing added to that and nothing
less than that, the preaching of the gospel. All right, John
came preaching and his message was the same as our Lord, the
same as Elijah, the same as Isaiah, the same as Jeremiah, repent
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now look at our text
again, verses 14 and 15 of Mark 1 says, 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. All right, first of all, who
is this Jesus? Who is this preacher named Jesus? Well, as the Lord himself said
of John once, he said, what did you go out to see? Prophets? He said, I say unto you, more
than a prophet. Or that is, did you just go to
hear the preacher? Well, he's more than a preacher.
He's God's voice. He's God's sent messenger. What about this Jesus? What do
you think of this one called Jesus? Who is he? A preacher? A prophet? A healer? A miracle
worker? A humanitarian? A son? This Jesus, I say unto you, more
than just Jesus. In Malachi 3 verse 1, which speaks
of both John and the Lord himself, it says, the messenger shall
come before the Lord himself. That's John, the messenger. And
the Lord himself shall suddenly come to his temple. The Lord
God. As Isaiah said in Isaiah 9, verse
6, the mighty God, not just the Son of God, but God himself,
the Creator. As John the Apostle said, the
Word was made flesh, the Word which is God. The mighty God,
the everlasting Father, Isaiah said. The everlasting Father. That Son is none other than the
Father himself. Not Mary's son named Jesus, but
Mary's Heavenly Father. The Prince of Peace, Isaiah called
Him. The Lord of Heaven and Earth.
The Creator, the Sovereign Ruler, the Controller, the Despot, the
Monarch, the King of the Universe. That is who this is preaching.
And that's what the Gospel of the Kingdom is. You break down the word Kingdom,
it is the King's Dominion. The gospel, the story, the glad
tidings, the good news, the story of the kingdom is the dominion
of the king. The king is here. Our Lord says
the time is fulfilled. The king is here. Yes, the one
with all dominion, with all authority in heaven and earth. The one
who chooses whom he will, who has mercy on whom he will. Yes,
he's a king. the one who saves whom he will,
the one who kills and makes alive, as Hannah says, raises up and
casts down, the one who gives eternal life to whom he will,
the one who worketh all things after the counsel of his will,
and whom none can stay his hand or question his will. Yes, the
king is here, the dominion, the sovereign reign and rule and
control of the king. The King is here walking his
earth. Mark 1 verse 15. Our Lord said
the time is fulfilled. In the fullness of time, Paul
wrote, God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. The kingdom is
at hand. The King is here. His everlasting
spiritual kingdom he is completing. He is calling out his subjects
even now as then. And his message to his subjects
is this, repent and believe the gospel. Now, this is not a request,
but a command. This is a command to all men
and women. The scripture says, God commandeth
men everywhere to repent. Kings don't ask anyone to do
anything. Kings don't make requests of
beggars, but beggars make requests of kings. Kings don't ask. Kings don't make requests. Neither
do the ambassadors of these kings whom he sends. They don't ask
anyone anything. They go out saying, thus saith
the Lord. And so the king came, as did
his forerunner, John, saying, repent, a command, believe, turn,
bow, believe the royal claims of King Jesus. Now, this word
repent, this repentance is much more than what men make it out
to be. This repentance is a heartfelt
condemnation of one's self, a turning from self to God. It's a heartfelt
condemnation of oneself in saying, by the grace of God, I am wrong. Everything about me is wrong. Repentance is this. It's threefold. And no one has truly repented
unless they've repented of these three things. As one old writer
said, repentance is this. Repentance of sin. Sin, singular. That is, what we are. David said in Psalm 51, my sin
is ever before me. What he means is, I am. What I am is ever before me. My sin. Paul said, or David said,
my loins are filled with this loathsome disease. Paul said
in Romans 7, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. O wretched man
that I am. So one repents or is profoundly
sorry over himself, condemns himself, what he is. And we never
lose that. We never quit doing that. It's
not that we were sinners and now we're saints and we don't
sin. No, no. John said, if any man
say he hath not sinned, he makes God a liar. And no one has repented
unless they've repented over their sins, what we do. And these sins are so much more
than these petty preachers are saying. These sins and this sin
in us is not smoking cigarettes and drinking beer and wearing
the wrong clothing. My soul, God doesn't send men
to hell for smoking cigarettes, people. God sends men and women
to hell for being ungrateful. for breathing his air without
being thankful, for eating his food, drinking his water, for
not giving him a thought, for being ungrateful, unthankful,
not acknowledging their Creator, not bowing to the claims of his
Son. And thirdly, and most importantly,
repentance is over self-righteousness. One has not repented unless they
have repented of their self-righteousness. There are many who think they
have repented over their sins, they've quit this and that bad
habit, which they call sins, who are yet in their self-righteousness,
who will stand before God someday and plead what they have done
for Jesus, what they have given up for Him, how they have not
done this and not done that, like the Pharisee in the temple
with the publican, the Pharisee in the temple who boasted of
his tithing, his fasting, and how he wasn't a sinner like that
old publican over there. And God sent that man to hell
with his shoes on and all of his self-righteous, filthy rags. He didn't do this and didn't
do that. God hates self-righteousness. We repent over our self-righteousness. And we claim that Jesus Christ
is our only righteousness. That's why Christ came, to establish
a righteousness. That is his name, Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord our righteousness. That is why he came, to establish
a righteousness for his people. And we repent over our own self-righteous,
filthy religious works that we think commend us to God. And
we trust, that is, we believe the gospel. We believe that Christ
only is our righteousness. Now, this repentance and this
faith that the Lord is saying here is not of the will of man,
but this is the sovereign gift of the sovereign King, the sovereign
operation on the heart by the Spirit of God, Romans 2.29, Ephesians
1.19. And he does this sovereign work
through preaching, through what I am doing right now, through
what true preachers do, the preaching of this gospel of the sovereign
King. This is the call of the gospel.
Look at verses 16 and 17 of Mark 1. As he walked by the Sea of
Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into
the sea. They were fishers. And Jesus
said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become
fishers of men. And straightway they fought,
forsook their nets, and followed him. And when he had gone a little
further, he saw James and John. And he said in verse 20, "...straightway
he called them, and they left their father." And so on. This is the king walking about
calling his chosen one. He says, come, and they come.
He doesn't say, please come, if you will. He doesn't ask them
to be his personal, that he might be their personal Savior if they
accept him. No, no. He says, come, and they
come. Did they come? They most certainly did. It says,
"...straightway they came." Oh yes, he said in John 6, 37, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Straightway, immediately,
when he calls them by the gospel. God came calling his sons. God
came to this earth calling his elect. The king came calling
his subject. The Savior came looking for his
lost sheep. He found each one of them, one
sitting at a well, one up a tree, one by the seaside, one by the
wayside begging. He calls them and they come.
How about you? That's our God, that's our King,
and our message is of Him. And our method is preaching Him,
just declaring the King. Not asking, but proclaiming.
And the King Himself decides who comes. He calls them, and
they come. Has He called you? I pray that
it might be so. Until next Sunday. Amen. There's
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