Well, we're thankful today for
that word Brother Thomas brought to us. And surely, as we come to remember the Lord's
death, till he comes again, it is needful for us to be reminded
that it's more, it's easier for a
man to claim to be a follower of Christ than it is to actually
be one. And even though being a follower
of Christ requires no effort on the part of the one who is
the follower, nonetheless there is a manifestation of the Spirit
of God in those whom the Lord calls. And if a man says that
he loves the Lord, but he does not love his brother, then the
truth's not in him. It's as simple as that. You can't claim to be something
that you're not. And there is no, there's no religion
with which the Lord is pleased. Men are pleased with religion.
And I expect that there are houses filled today with people who
come together to honor their mothers. That's a
good thing. Nothing wrong with honoring your
mother. It's a good thing. The Lord Jesus
Christ gave us that example. He honored his mother even in
the hour of his death. The gathering together of the
saints has but one object of our honor, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Him alone we desire to have a place of honor in our midst. We're going to look in the Gospel
of Mark 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 paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then 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 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 we're gonna look at those
few verses, hopefully the Lord gives us something to, as we look there. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. We look at the beginning, in the
beginning, who is the beginning? Christ is the beginning and the
end. But in the beginning, this is
the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, as we think
on the work of the Lord in the earth, the gospel of Jesus Christ
has always been at the center of it. But the gospel of Jesus
Christ has been hidden until the Lord Jesus Christ himself
came on the scene. And those, as we read in the
book of Hebrews, these all died in faith, and they confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth, not having
received the promises. Now what does that mean? Did
they not receive anything from the Lord? No, they received much
from the Lord. But you see, the promise is in
Jesus Christ. And until Jesus Christ came into
the earth, born of a woman and walked among men, was baptized
by John in the River Jordan, and the Lord manifested His stamp
of approval upon him as that one who would take away the sin
of the world, the gospel had not come into the world. Now,
all men in all ages who have been those who have faith in
Christ, or in the Lord, by the grace of God, the gift of faith
is the same in all ages. David had the gift of faith.
Abraham had the gift of faith. Where did they get that faith?
All from the same source, even as the faith of Jesus Christ,
which we have in the present time. But they saw through a
glass very darkly They could not see it. Isaiah, I often refer
to the book of Isaiah as the gospel according to Isaiah. Now
it is the declaration of the gospel, but you see, Isaiah wrote
this book with the understanding, as we read in the book of Peter,
1 Peter, that they knew that they wrote these things not for
themselves, but unto us were these things given. They couldn't
see these things. They couldn't understand them.
I mean, Isaiah wrote, behold, a virgin shall conceive. He wrote
those words, but he didn't understand exactly how that would be. He
didn't comprehend it. But you see, even now, as we
read in the, as the Lord Jesus said, there is not arisen a greater
prophet among men than John the Baptist. But I say unto you,
he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the
Baptist. Now what did he mean by that?
Well he meant that John the Baptist, and we're going to talk about
John in a moment, John the Baptist was not a New Testament prophet.
We read about him in the New Testament, but John the Baptist
was an Old Testament prophet because he died without the full
revelation of that which Jesus Christ would do. Now he saw who
Christ was, even as we shall read that he is that one who
is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, whom the Lord
sent. But remember he is the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
in the darkness. He was that one who could not
see what he could see. Remember what the message that
he desired from the Lord when he was in prison and he sent
his disciples? He said, well, you know, this
ain't not working out exactly like I thought. Are you really
the one that has to come? See, he didn't see. He didn't
know. Now, if the Lord had been pleased
to allow John to see the unfolding of these things, he too would
have rejoiced in that, but he could only see what he could
see. And so we need to realize the great privilege that we have
to live in an age which the scripture speaks of as the day of salvation. This is the day of salvation.
You see, Jesus Christ has come and has clearly revealed what
it is that he came to do and has completely accomplished that
which he came to do. And we, brethren, are privileged
to see that. and by the eye of faith to rejoice
in it, according to the mercy of God as he has called his people,
as he does call his people out of darkness and into the light.
So we are a privileged people, not anything that we did to cause
it. See, sometimes when we might
say that we are a privileged people, we are a peculiar people,
we are an elect people. Often men say, oh, you think
you're really something. No, we don't think ourselves
to be anything. I mean, we could have been born
in heathen darkness and never seen any light. But by the mercy
and grace of Almighty God, he has put us in the place that
he did. And what a privilege we have
to live in a day and an age when the gospel of the glory of the
blessed God is revealed most clearly. You see, there's nothing
left to be revealed. A lot of men read the book of
the Revelation and they say, oh boy, all these things are
still to be revealed. No, all these things have been
revealed. And they've been revealed in
Christ. Now I might not figure everything out about it or tell
you in detail what each one of these things are. But I can tell you this, that
the spirit of Jesus, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And when this is a book, it says
right there in the very beginning of what it is, says this is the
book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what the book
of the Revelation is about. It's not about horses' tails
and beasts and things rising up out of the sea and all of
that stuff. I mean, if you want to sell a bunch of books, you
can write a bunch of stuff, you know, and speculate on what you
think all these things mean, but I'll tell you, whatever one
of them points to, and it points to the glory of God revealed
in Jesus Christ, which is set forth in this what Mark speaks
about, the beginning of the gospel. See, there is a beginning of
the gospel. And that beginning of that gospel is when Jesus
Christ came on the scene as we see here. As it is written in
the prophets, behold I send my messenger before thy face which
shall prepare thy way before me. Now I think it is over Malachi
chapter three. Malachi chapter three. And verse one says this. Now
this was 400 years before the Lord Jesus Christ came. And this
is the last book of the Old Testament. And there was a period of what
we might call darkness. I mean, there was no light from
heaven. There was no, as in the days
of, was it Eli? In the days of Samuel and Eli,
it says there was no light from heaven. no revelation given from
the Lord. It was kind of a dark time. Well
there was a dark time between the prophecy of Malachi and the
beginning of the Gospel. But Malachi did indeed prophesy
this. He said, Behold, this is the
Lord speaking of course, Behold I will send my messenger and
he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek
shall suddenly come to his temple. Now see, nobody was expecting
this, were they? I mean, when those shepherds
were on that hillside, tending their sheep, and the scripture
says, and suddenly, there was with the multitude a heavenly
host, Now, did they expect that? No, they had no idea. When they
went out to the field and were carrying on their activity, they
had no concept. The thought never entered their
mind. Well, that's the manner in which
the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and came on the scene
to begin His public ministry. Now, I've often thought it would
have been a glorious thing to have a narrative to see those things
in the beginnings of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as he
developed from a young man or from a child right on up to a
young man. We just have little bits and
pieces of those things. And had the Lord wanted us to
know those things, he would surely have revealed them to us. You
know, John says that if all the books in the world couldn't contain
the things that the Lord Jesus Christ did. Now, I don't know
how long John knew the Lord Jesus Christ, but he knew him longer
than, I mean, he was, I'm speaking about John the Baptist and, of
course, John also, because they were all related. in a fashion
and familial relationships. And so they were aware of each
other. But you see, when the Lord Jesus
Christ began his ministry, the beginning of the gospel, it was
a sudden thing. It was unlike anything else that
had ever transpired. And he came suddenly. I will
send my messenger. He shall suddenly come to his
temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight
in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts, but 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 a fuller's soap. 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 is this not
what John went on to say? As he says here, you know, I
baptize you with water, but he's going to baptize you with the
Holy Ghost because the power of God is set forth in Jesus
Christ and the work that the Lord Jesus Christ came to perform,
he came not only to perform in the behalf of his people, but
he came to perform in his people. as he sent his spirit to us to
dwell with us. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord and make his path
straight or make the ground level. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Now John preached a message,
the baptism of repentance. Repentance is a good thing. True
repentance is the gift of God. Now, men often tell other men,
well, what you need to do is repent and believe. And surely
we would declare that to men, would we not? But how do you
instruct a man to repent? What do you need to do to repent?
How do you begin to repent? See, until such time as God is
pleased to awaken a man to see what he is by nature, he cannot
repent. He'll have no desire to repent.
He doesn't think he needs to repent. I mean, the Pharisees didn't
need any repentance, did they? I mean, they were fine religious
men. They were upstanding. They didn't need any. The Lord
said he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
You know, there's some that don't need any repentance. What does
that mean? I mean, don't all men in the
earth, aren't all men in the earth sinners? Well, all men
have committed sin, but by the strictest definition, all men
in the earth are not sinners. Because you see, a sinner, as
Joseph Hart said, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost
has made him so. Because you see, apart from the
work of God in the heart of a man, he'll never know himself to be
a sinner. He'll rebel at the thought that he's a sinner. He'll
compare himself to others and he'll say, well, I'm not as bad
as old so-and-so. But you see, when a man knows
himself to be a sinner, he doesn't have any place of comparison.
He's not concerned about that. He's like David when he was before
the Lord. See, David wasn't looking and
saying, well, Lord, there's a bunch of other people did exactly what
I've done. No, he said, Father, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this wicked thing in
thy sight. And so it is, that that is the
gift of repentance. And John came preaching the baptism
of repentance, because that's all he knew. So we don't come preaching the baptism
of repentance. Now we desire to see men repent,
but that's not the message that we've been sent with. It's not
the baptism of repentance. That is not the baptism of turning
away from sin, but the message we preach is the message of turning
to Christ. See, it's one thing to turn from
sin, and a lot of preaching is designed to get men to turn from
sin. Quit doing this and quit doing
that. Do this and do that. This is how you're gonna please
God. This is how you're gonna get the blessings of God. You
gotta do this. Well see, we're not trying to
get men to do something. What we desire is to, by the
grace of God, implore men to look to Christ. Because you see,
that is the message we've been sent with. That's the beginning
of the gospel. That is the gospel. That's the
sum of the gospel. The gospel never changes. It's
a simple thing. But yet the most profound thing
in all the earth. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance. Now one place says that he was,
he went where there was much water. And of course, you know,
just to think just in a, I mean, we don't really have a real problem
with this, I don't think, but baptism, the word baptize actually
is an alliteration. It's not a translation. Because
unfortunately, some of the translators didn't necessarily like the concept
that we believe, and it seems to me pretty clear in the scripture
of what baptism is. It means to overwhelm with water. It means to immerse. It means
to cover up. And so it would make no sense
for baptism, for John to be in a river, pouring water over somebody's
head, or sprinkling water on them. Now, men have come up with
all kinds of things, and why, I can't really comprehend it.
I don't know what the, well, I do know what it is, because
they hold on to the idea, you know, of baptizing babies, but
the scripture speaks about believer's baptism, you see. See, when a
man believeth, then he's baptized. You don't baptize somebody that's
not a believer. I know plenty of people are dunked
in the water who are not believers, but they've never been baptized.
Because faith is a part of baptism, and faith is the gift of God.
But when the Lord is moved upon a man's heart, and he reads in
the scripture, What did the Ethiopian eunuch
say to Philip? Philip preached to him Christ.
And they came along, he said, well, here's water. Now, I'm
sure he had some drinking water with him, did he not? I mean,
couldn't Philip just have taken some water and just sprinkled
a few drops on him and he'd have been baptized? No. He said, here's water. What doth
hinder me to be baptized? And he said, if thou believest
with all thine heart thou mayest. And he said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Oh, what a glorious thing. And
Philip immediately took him into the water and baptized him. Now
what did he do? He put him in the water. He covered
him up with the water. I mean, that's what baptism is.
Now you can talk about a lot of things, but if you're gonna
talk about, a lot of times when in some of my writing and stuff,
I don't say John the Baptist. I say John the Immerser. Because that's what the word
really means. That's what John was known for.
He was this crazy guy out of the wilderness that was knocking
people under the water. And that's what it is. And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
do? He came, the scripture says, and it came to pass in those
days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of
John in Jordan. Now, if there's no other reason that a man who's a follower of
Christ ought to desire to be baptized, this is the greatest
one, is it not? The Lord Jesus Christ himself
was baptized and he said we ought to follow in his steps. And did
he not command his disciples to baptize men in his name? Yes he did. Now does the act of baptism change
a man? Not at all. A man goes into the
water as a sinner and he comes out as one. But the act of baptism
is an act of obedience unto the Lord by those who desire to be
the followers of Christ. May we follow Him in all things.
And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of
Jerusalem were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing
their sins. Now were they sincere? I don't
know. A lot of times people are sincere in confessing their sins,
are they not? Very few drunkards that have
not awoken the morning after they've committed mayhem and
trouble and all sort of things while under the influence of
alcohol, and they have wept bitter tears at the sorrow that they
caused other people. Were they sincere? Sure they
were. But that didn't stop them from the next two or three days
later back doing the same thing again. So you see, confessing
sins is not the thing. Repentance is the thing because
repentance is a turning around, going another way. When a man
repents, he goes another way. He doesn't keep on the same way
and just he's sorry for what it is. I mean, all of us are
sorry when we do something. uh... that uh... hurt somebody
else or whatever later on we get where I wish I hadn't done
that. We say things and all that. So they confessed their sins.
That's a good thing. John was clothed with camel's
hair and a girdle of skin about his loins. He did eat locusts
and wild honey. And he preached saying, There
cometh one mightier than I after me. the latchet of whose shoes
I'm not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I have indeed baptized
you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
Now dear brethren, that is the baptism that we desire. Now I would counsel all of God's
people to walk and follow the Lord Jesus Christ through the
waters of baptism. If you believe in Christ, you
ought to be baptized. I mean, the Lord said to do so.
If you don't, then don't bother with it. But if you are a believer
in Christ, you should be baptized in water. But more importantly,
and the thing that we desire, more than going through the waters
of baptism is to be baptized in the Holy Ghost. Now some people
consider this to be some kind of an ecstatic experience that
takes place and it could be that. I'm not saying that that cannot
occur, but scripture does describe that in some places. So that
surely is But you see, to be baptized with the Holy Ghost
is for the Spirit of God to come upon a man to cause him to do
as Brother Thomas told us this morning, to keep the commandments
of God. Now, keeping the commandments
of God doesn't mean that we do as the rich young ruler who said,
I have kept them. But you see, to keep the commandments
is to have, first of all, the great recognition that we cannot
keep the commandments. See, to keep the commandments
of God is first of all to say I can't keep them. Because a
man can't keep the commandments if he thinks he keeps the commandments.
You know, as long as a man thinks he's going along good, And he's
got them pasted on a sign out in his front yard. And he's saying,
man, look, every time I ride by there, that's me, that's my
house. I keep the commandments. Then
he's far from keeping the commandments. See, keeping the commandments
is holding the word of God close to our bosom. Thy word if I hid
in my heart, then I might not sin against thee. You see, that's
keeping the commandments. That's holding on to them. And
the thing that causes the children of God the greatest grief is
the fact that they fail to keep those commandments in the jot
and tittle. But their rejoicing is that they
have one who has kept every one of those commandments. Without
fail. and he's the one whom we see
here going into the waters of baptism. Who'd he go into the
waters of baptism for? John was preaching the baptism
of the remission of sins, of repentance unto remission of
sins. Who did the Lord Jesus Christ,
what, he had no sin. Why was he baptized? He was baptized
for us. You see, he went through the
waters of John's baptism of repentance in our behalf. He didn't need to repent of anything,
did he? But so that it might fulfill
the righteousness of God. And the Lord put his stamp of
approval upon him there. and straightway coming up out
of the waters he saw the heavens open 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 dear brethren
that is the gospel this is the gospel of the glory of the blessed
God that the eternal God of the heavens has come down and dwelt
with men. And the one in whom he has revealed
himself is Jesus Christ, who is God. Philip, if I've been so long
time with you and you've not known me, he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. The only revelation that any
man can ever have of God, any vision that a man can ever have
of God will be Jesus Christ. Only one. There's no other name
given among men under heaven, given among men whereby we must
be saved than Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. He's the Lord. He's the one who's approved of
God. Oh, what a glorious one He is! Thou art my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. And immediately the Spirit driveth
Him into the wilderness. Now the Lord Jesus Christ came
to be the Savior of sinners. He came with a specific purpose
in mind and He has accomplished that specific purpose. Now we
see here the Lord putting His stamp of approval, the Father
speaking from heaven, giving His stamp of approval upon the
Son, saying, this is my beloved Son, and then immediately driving
Him into the wilderness. This is the gospel. Because you
see, that beloved Son, that One who was approved of the Father,
He was driven into the wilderness of sin for our sake. Yet he had
no sin of his own. Whose sin did he bear? When he
was tempted, whose temptation was it? He couldn't be tempted
with sin, could he? I mean, could the perfect and
righteous Son of God be tempted with sin? No, He could not be
inclined towards it. But He was tempted in all points,
like as we are, for our sake. He who was without sin became
sin for us. Not by succumbing to sin, but
by overcoming sin. But He went into the wilderness
where He was tempted. He was driven from the presence
of the Lord. I think it's interesting that
John came from the wilderness, preaching the baptism of repentance,
and then the Lord Jesus Christ went into the wilderness. Isn't
that an amazing thing? Oh, that the Lord might give
us a mind and heart today, to behold him whom the Lord has
declared, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Are you well pleased with him
today? Oh, as we come today to remember the Lord's death till
he comes again. This is a supper that's given
for the people of God. It's given for those who believe. Just like baptism is given for
those who believe, so too is this supper given for those that
believe. Now, eating this bread and drinking this cup will not
enhance a man's standing with God in any way. But it is a privilege that's
given to the sons of God to partake of these things that we might
be reminded of Christ, what he did for us. Even as the waters
of baptism are set forth for us that we might remember that
our sin is buried in the blood of Christ. Even as Christ was
baptized for our sake. And so it is that Christ, this
is not his body, but it is his body because he said as he gave
it to his disciples, this is my body. That is, it is that
which represents my body. It's set forth before you as
my body, that you might remember it and remember my death until
I come. So this is a temporary supper to which all of the sons of God
are not simply invited to come, but commanded to come. Paul said, let a man examine
himself. And then he didn't say, amazingly,
a lot of people get this wrong, but he didn't say, after the
examination, don't take it. He said, let a man examine himself.
And so let him eat of that bread. In other words, the examination
is for the purpose of bringing us to the place to take the bread. Don't take this without examination.
Examination of what? To see if you're a sinner? Well,
you already know that if the Spirit of God is in you, you
know you're not examining yourself that, but examine yourself that
you have discernment of this. The body of Christ, is it precious
to you? The blood of Christ, is it precious
to you? And so let him eat of that bread.
Because you see, as no child of God can say no, the blood
of Christ is not precious to me, can he? I mean, you know,
in a fleeting way, he might act as though it isn't, but in his
mind and heart, he's like Peter, who denied the Lord But yet he went out and wept. And he couldn't even so much
as look the Lord in the face when the Lord asked him, Peter,
do you love me? Yes, Peter loved him. That's
what made him be ashamed of himself. And you see, that's why when
we come to this, we don't come here thinking ourselves to have
overcome sin, but we come here because we are ashamed of ourselves.
But being ashamed of ourselves, we come here believing that the
Lord Jesus Christ has taken away our sin, as far as East is from
the West, and he remembers it no more, and we rejoice in our
shame. Is it not shameful? Is it not
sad that our Lord suffered in our behalf? But oh, the scripture says that
he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And
if the Lord Jesus Christ is satisfied with that which he did in our
behalf, ought not we to rejoice in that which he did? And so
we come to remember his death, surely with sadness as we think
that he died for us, but rejoicing that he did indeed die for us.
Oh, what a glorious sacrifice and a blessed payment for sin.