We're looking again today in
the Gospel of Mark. I want to read, I'm gonna read
the first 20 verses. 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. and make his path
straight. Of course, that's speaking of
John the Baptist. 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 a camel's
hair and with a girdle of skin about his loins, and he did eat
locusts and wild honey, and preached saying, there cometh one mightier
than I after me, the latchet 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 it came
to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee
and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out
of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the spirit like a
dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from heaven
saying, thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And
immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And
he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted of Satan, and
was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered unto him. 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. Now as he walked by the sea of
Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into
the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus saith unto them, Come
ye after me, and I will make you fishers, make you to become
fishers of men. And straightway they forsook
their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little
farther thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his
brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. And
straightway he called them and they left their father Zebedee
in the ship with the hired servants and went after him." Now last
week we looked at a few of these verses. And of course, speaking
of John, the baptizer, baptizing in the River of Jordan, not beside
the River of Jordan or with water from the River of Jordan, but
it says that he baptized him in the River of Jordan. Now that
might seem like a small thing to a lot of people, but it's
not a small thing because it describes what New Testament
baptism is. It is a baptism in water. It is a baptism underwater. as that is the significance of
baptism in the life of the children of God, is to demonstrate that
they are buried with Christ in the baptism, even as Christ was
baptized. I can think of no better reason
that the children of God should desire to be baptized as believers
than the illustration and of the Lord Jesus Christ who said
that he was our example and we should follow in his steps. So
let not anybody come along and say such a thing is not significant.
Now let no man at the same time come along and say that men are
going to gain an entrance into eternal glory by any means through
going through the waters of baptism because that doesn't change a
man in any way. It's simply a matter that the
Lord has set forth for us to follow in His steps and to demonstrate
that we are indeed believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so it is. But the Lord came and He came
with a different baptism than John did. John came with the
baptism of repentance in the baptism and his message was repent
and be baptized. Now in a measure Our message
is no different, except that we desire that the baptism that
we receive not simply be a baptism in water, but that it be that
baptism which comes only from the Lord Himself, which is a
baptism with fire. As John said, He would baptize
you with the Holy Ghost. And it came to pass in those
days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of
John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out
of the water. Now does that mean he got up
and walked out of the river? Or does it mean when he came
up out of the water, having been immersed, that the Spirit of
God came upon him. Now, I believe it's pretty plain,
actually, if you don't have a preconceived or an idea that you have brought
to the Scriptures to say this is the way that it ought to be.
It's pretty simple. You know, when you look at the
Scripture and you look at what baptism is in the Scripture,
it's not really a thing that is difficult to understand. It may be difficult to receive,
but it's not difficult to understand. And so it is. And coming up out
of the water, the spirit like a dove descending upon him, and
there came a voice from heaven saying, thou art my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. And we've hoped to emphasize
every time that we would have the opportunity to stand before
the Lord's people that God who at sundry times in divers manner
spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son. And so the ministry of the
gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not about Jesus
Christ, but it is of Christ. That is, it comes from Him, and
it is of Him. And so it is that we recognize
that, and the Lord bore testimony to it. Specifically, as He said,
this is my beloved Son. Hear ye Him. And so we're not
desirous of listening to anybody else today, but Him and Him alone. Immediately the Spirit driveth
him into the wilderness. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ came
not to be a man who enjoyed the finery of the world. We are a
blessed people. We live in this land, which is
a land of plenty, which at one and the same time is a great
blessing and also a great curse because what happens is when
men are blessed with plenty they become satisfied with it and
then they become used to it and they become to think that they
deserve it you know that that's kind of the way it goes you can
take the poorest man that ever lived and uh... you can put riches
within his hand, in a short period of time, he'll be thinking that
he did something to deserve all of that. And that's the way that
men are. And so it is that the Lord would
set forth by example, that he was not of the world. Now he
says we're not of the world but we are in a measure in the world
though we're not of the world in the sense that our desire
and our heart is not in the things of the world but at the same
time we can't escape what we are by nature. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world without sin and thus he had no affection
for the world. You and I, on the other hand,
we have an affection for the world that we must fight against
every day. See, the Lord Jesus Christ, He
didn't war in Himself against a love for the world because
He didn't have a love for the world. That's why we're exhorted
to love not the world, because we are prone to love the world. We like this world. We like the
things of the world, do we not? I mean, we like air conditioning. Nothing wrong with that. I'm
glad there's air conditioning. We like a lot of the comforts
and things that are in this world, but the problem with these things
is we can often become enamored with them and not recognize that
they are simply the world. It's simply things that pass
away and don't really have any bearing whatsoever on our lives
with Him. And it shouldn't affect us. We
think, well, if we didn't have this, we wouldn't be able to
serve the Lord. No. Think about those people in Ukraine
that have had their whole lives upended and all their earthly
possessions, in many cases, destroyed. Now some would say, oh, what
a terrible thing. Well, that is a terrible thing in the sense
in which we look at it from a human standpoint. But think about it. I mean, when a man is stripped
of all things, then he doesn't have any place else to go but
to the Lord. Is that not a blessing? I mean,
is that not a great thing? Now, of course, men have thought,
well, what I'll do is go out here and live like a hermit somewhere,
and I'll just divest myself of all my earthly goods, and I'll
be closer to God. No, it doesn't work like that.
Because you see, the Lord has to work in a man's heart. He
can't, you can't put yourself in a situation that will cause
you to have to trust the Lord. Can't happen. But the Lord can
bring you there, according to the good pleasure of His will.
But in, to demonstrate the, the complete, separation between the Holy Savior
and the world, we see Him being driven into the wilderness, that
is apart from men. And this is a picture of Him
coming into the world itself. I mean, this is a wilderness.
I mean, you know, to a man that has no sin and hates sin, to
come into a place where he's surrounded by sin and sinners,
Think of the scripture actually says he was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. I mean he looked around on every
side and there was nothing that he could find any place of comfort
in in this world. Those whom he loved and those
who he walked with and took into his bosom as his closest of friends,
even they. as brother Al said, they couldn't
stand with him. They wouldn't stand with him.
He had no real friends when it came right down to it, did he?
Because they all departed and left. They didn't stand with
him. Man, we better get out of here
and save ourselves while the time's good. Now that was according
to the appointed way of God, because he would be a man, by
his own arm he brought salvation, not through the aid of men, not
in any way. But we see him and we see him
there in the wilderness and he was there in the wilderness 40
days tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts and the
angels ministered to him. Now, we have more in the other
gospels in Luke and Matthew, more particular accounts of the
temptation of the Lord. Now, when we think about that
temptation, There is a difference between
the temptation that came to the Lord and the temptation that
comes to us. See, we're inclined towards those
things that we're tempted with. I mean, we're already kind of
leaning over the edge and the temptation comes along. Well,
the Lord Jesus Christ was not tempted in that way. He was not
inclined towards these things that Satan set forth, but being
a man, and being a man with the weakness of human flesh. You see, human flesh is a weak
vessel. Even the vessel that the Lord
Jesus Christ had was a weak vessel. He hungered. He thirsted. He was weary. He slept. I mean
all of those things he demonstrated his humanity before men. And so weakness in itself is
not a sinful thing. It's just a fact of being what
we are. It's just like children. You
know, children, they can only stand so much. I mean, you know,
they have limitations as far as they
can go. And so it is with us. We're the
same way. We have limitations. Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ was tempted in all points. That is, He was
tried in all points like as we are. He underwent the same rigors
of the flesh that you and I do. He was not in any wise kept back
from these things and I believe probably even in greater measure
because of His stature and because of the desire of Satan to destroy
Him. And so we see the temptations
of Christ as he was in the wilderness 40 days, tempted of Satan. And
I found this, the only place that this is mentioned is in
the Gospel of Mark and was with the wild beasts. I mean, you
never really think about that, but here he was out in this wilderness
area, And there were wild beasts there that were ravenous beasts. And the Lord put him there in
the midst of this. This is not a picture of his ministry among
the Pharisees. Being with the wild beasts, that
probably was a more comforting thing than being around the Pharisees,
I imagine. So he was tempted. And then it says, and the angels
ministered to him. Now again, this indicates to
us the weakness of Christ. We see the angels ministering
to Christ again when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. And the scripture says, I believe
it's in the Gospel of Luke. It says, and an angel did minister
to him, helped him in the midst of his weakness. And I thought
also that it was interesting that in the last, I believe this
is recorded in Matthew, in the last temptation that Satan brought
to him, he brought up the fact, he said, well, the Lord said
that he would give his angels charge over thee, that thou shouldest
dash thy foot against the stone, lest thou shouldest dash thy
foot against the stone. And the Lord said, thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God. And then it says immediately
after Satan, he gave up. He said, well, Satan went away.
He didn't have anything left to tempt the Lord with, it says.
And then the angels ministered to him. I thought that was interesting
that as he said, as Satan quoted that scripture, then the Lord
fulfilled it and showed that it is indeed true. The Lord did
give his angels charge over him. And he was ministered to by the
angels. And this demonstrates the humanity
of Christ. Because he'd been 40 days without
anything to eat. I can't go 40 hours without something
to eat. Think about going 40. I've set
out sometimes to fast. I'm gonna fast. And I don't last
very long. Because, but you know, the reason
that, the Lord didn't set out to fast for 40 days. He didn't
put it on his calendar and say, well, I'm gonna fast from this
date to this date. No, he went there and he struggled
and was engaged so much in this warfare as a man with this, with
Satan that he didn't even think about eating. I mean, it was,
he wasn't able to eat. And so it is, but afterwards
he was hungered and the angels ministered to him. Now, I don't
know if they prepared for him a meal like he prepared for his
disciples on the seashore. I'm not sure exactly what it
was, but the scripture does indicate that the angels, those heavenly
messengers from the Lord, And we don't have a lot of information
in the scripture about angels. Some people get all wound up
about that. I mean, there are angels. I believe
the scripture indicates that very plainly. And they did indeed
come and minister to the Lord because they were appointed to
do it. And so it is that the Lord does send angels to minister
even to his people at the present time. Now, after 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. The Lord came with this message
and He said the time is fulfilled. Now what time is He speaking
about? He's talking about that time
which was appointed from before the foundation of the world when
He would come into the world as the Savior of sinners. Now,
there's never been a time in the world since the beginning
when Jesus Christ has not been the Savior of sinners. Before
the foundation of the world, He determined to save His people. And He came into the world, He
created the world to manifest the glory of His grace in that
redemption. And so from the very beginning
To the very end, all of the unfolding of history is about Christ and
about the redemptive work of Christ. It pleased the Lord to
hide these things in the types and shadows of the Old Testament
until such time as it pleased Him to bring forth Christ from
the womb of His mother. Now who could have made this
up? Who could have imagined it? And
yet there was a time that was ordained of God. Now, time is
an amazing thing, is it not? I mean, the Lord isn't bound
in any way by time. I mean, time doesn't have any... He's the creator of time. See,
the Lord inhabiteth eternity. Now, that's beyond our real competition,
I mean, our real comprehension, but He He inhabits eternity. He is eternal. He alone hath
immortality. In fact, this is the thing, this
is what makes the Lord holy inside of men, because He is in a realm
in which it's impossible for us to enter into it. Now, the
Lord Jesus Christ, He is life. He has eternal life. He is eternal
life. And so, He possesses eternal
life. He couldn't die, but yet He did,
because He chose to die. See, you can't choose to die
or not to die. You know, a lot of times men
think, well, they're going to commit suicide. And they think
that they can pull out a gun and they can shoot themselves
in the head and they can end their life. But there's plenty
of accounts of people that have done that and the gun misfired.
Or they put a rope around their neck and were going to hang themselves
and the rope broke. Now, there are times when those
attempts are successful, but the reason that a suicide attempt
is successful is because it's ordained of God that it be so. You know, that might cause trouble
for some people in their mind, but I'm telling you, life is
in the hands of the Lord. He gives it and He takes it away
according to the good pleasure of His will at the time that
suits Him, not that suits you. And so don't think you can end
your life if it's not that ordained time when the Lord would have
your life to end, because it cannot be done so. It cannot
be so. I don't know how I got off on
that. How did I get off on that? But anyway, because we're talking
about the time is fulfilled. The time is fulfilled because
when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, He came into
the world as the revelation of the mystery of God. Paul speaks
about it. I mean, he says, you know, that
this was a mystery which was hid from the foundation of the
world. What is that mystery? It's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. See, that is the fulfillment
of the mystery, and Christ came to fulfill that, which John was
the harbinger of. He came, but you see, John was
in prison. And shortly, you see, there was
hardly any overlap between the coming, the ministry of John
the Baptist and the coming of Christ as a minister of the gospel. there was not very little overlap,
because when Christ came on the scene shortly after that, Herod
threw John in prison. Now was that by chance? No, it
was according to the purpose of God, because the time came. There was no need, you see, for
somebody to come as the herald of one, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. There's no more need for a message
like that. when that which is perfect is
come. And so when Christ came into the world and began to his
ministry, he said the time is fulfilled. This is the day of
salvation. We're not waiting. This is the
last time. See, this is the time for which
the world was created. There's not another age to come.
There's not another unfolding of some mystery that is gonna
sweep men off their feet. They're gonna say, oh, wow. No,
Christ is the revelation of God. And so it is, brethren, that
as he came, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God's at hand.
Repent ye and believe the gospel. See, God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. Now a lot of people think they
can repent. They are commanded to repent. But see, when the
Lord brings a man into the place of being convicted for his sin,
he desires then that the Lord would give him repentance. He
wants to repent, but he don't feel himself able to repent sufficiently. But you see, the Lord says, repent,
turn. And so it is that the gospel
is a very simplistic has a very simplistic message, does it not?
Believe. Believe. Believe that Jesus Christ
is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Believe
that you cannot save yourself. Believe that He alone is the
Savior of sinners. See, that is that which the Lord
has come, commanding men to repent and believe the gospel. What
is the gospel? The gospel is the message of
Christ. It's about Christ. It's Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ crucified. Christ risen from the dead. Christ
reigning as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Christ coming
back to receive his own unto himself. That's the gospel. And
the scripture admonishes the people of God to believe it. repent, turn from that which
you are going, the road you're going down by nature. See, every
man is going down a road that he needs to turn from. Now some
people, they're just happy on that road, don't bother me, let
me go on the way. And they go on their way. And
that way leads to destruction. The Lord says, repent, turn around,
go the other way. Oh, then he might give us grace
today to be a people that believe him, that repent, that turn. Now, as he walked by the Sea
of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting
a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said
unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become
fishers of men. Now, that's interesting. He said, I will make you to become
fishers of men. He didn't say, I'm choosing you
because you're fishers. He said, I'm gonna make you something
that you're not. And the scripture says that the
Lord sends men into the world to declare the gospel. And a man can't do it. See, you
can go to school and become sent by God. Nothing
wrong with school, do as much school as you can, but you can't
learn to preach the gospel. Only the Lord can send a man
and equip a man and give a man the gospel, the everlasting gospel. Because you see, that is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. To the
Jew first and also to the Gentile. Oh, what a glorious message it
is, brethren. A message that transcends all
other messages. A message that goes around the
world and no man can stop it. Think of the amount of blood
that's been shed over the years trying to stop the preaching
of the gospel. Think of the years that men have
spent in prisons because men would try to lock them up so
they couldn't preach the gospel, and yet they preached the gospel.
You know, it's said of John Bunyan that he was locked up And he
would stand at his cell window and preach out the window. And people would come in here
and finally they turned him loose because he said, well, we can't
keep him from preaching. They couldn't keep it, they couldn't
do it. And Brother Prem Pradhan, shared a message, shared with
us when he was a young man, and the Lord had convicted him and
convinced him of the gospel, and he began to preach the gospel
in his native land. And he began, the Lord began
converting people. Well, in the kingdom of Nepal,
it was not illegal to be a Christian, but it was illegal to seek to
convert somebody else to Christianity. And so he ran afoul of the law
because he did preach the message. And so while he was in prison,
he became convicted. He said, Lord, you've sent me
to preach the gospel, and yet here I am locked up in prison.
How's this gonna be? Well, in Nepal, I believe, I
don't remember the exact number, but it seemed like it was seven
or eight different dialects of language that were spoken in
Nepal. And while he was in prison, he became acquainted with men
from all of these different dialects. And the Lord gave him grace to
share the gospel with them. And they believed. And then when
they got out of prison, guess what? They went forth preaching
the gospel. And the Lord showed him that,
you know, he's able to declare His Word to all men, even though
he wasn't able in his own self to do it. Yet the Lord used him
to equip men to go forth and do these things. And the Lord,
His ways are mysterious, beyond our comprehension. And I'm sure
of this, that it doesn't make any difference how dark times
may become, yet the Lord will always have a witness in the
earth. He raises up men to declare the truth of God, and it cannot
be stopped. When the enemy shall come in
like a flood, the Lord shall raise up a standard against him.
What a glorious God we serve, a triumphant King, a glorious
Savior who saves His people. He calls them from every walk
of life and every country, every kindred and tongue. and is triumphant. What a glorious
Savior He is. Oh, that the Lord might send
forth men to declare it, and He might raise up men to believe
it, as He will. Thank the Lord for His mercy
and kindness.