Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter one, continue our study
in Mark. Gospel of Mark this morning. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer, seek the Lord's blessing. Our great God, our holy, sovereign
and merciful Heavenly Father, Lord, how thankful we are that
by your mercy and grace, you've enabled us one more time to be
able to meet together, open your word, to read it, study it, to
have Christ preach to us. Father, I pray that you bless
us this morning, that you bless us with your spirit, that you
would enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Father,
we beg of you that you deliver us from just going through the
motions of religion. but Father, enable us to worship.
Enable us to hear word from thee. Father, I pray you'd be our teacher
this morning, that you would speak to the hearts of your people,
that you would be the one to teach us. Father, if you'll speak,
there'll be life, there'll be faith, there'll be salvation.
Speak to us through your word, we pray. And what we pray for
ourselves, Father, we especially pray for our children's classes,
that you would bless our teachers in this hour, Father, that you'd
bless our children with a hearing ear, that you'd use this time
to plant the seeds of faith in their heart. How thankful we
are for these young ones that you've given to us. They're such
a blessing to us. Father, I pray you'd watch over
them, that you'd protect them, that you'd be with them, that
you'd make us faithful to always teach them who and what they
are, point them to Christ the Savior. Father, I'm so thankful
for a place, a family of believers that you've given to us. Father,
what a great privilege that you've given to us to be able to meet
together and worship. What a great privilege that you've
given to us to preach your gospel, to preach your son to our generation. Father, I pray you'd make it
effectual. Father, we dare not sin against thee in forgetting
to pray for your people that are in times of great difficulty. Father, I pray you'd be with
them. pray you comfort their hearts, pray that you'd heal,
that you would show them the way, that you'd deliver as soon
as it could be thy will. You cause us to pray for one
another, care for one another, show our love and care for one
another, be a help to one another as we continue through this journey
here below. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name which is above every name, that precious
name of Christ our Savior. Amen. All right, I've titled
our lesson this morning, The Authority of the Gospel. In Mark
1, last week, we looked at the Lord calling his very first disciples. In verse 21, and after they followed
the Lord, they went into Capernaum, and straightway on the Sabbath
day, he entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished
at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority
and not as the scribes. Now we know that the Lord Jesus
came to destroy the Jews' religion, didn't he? But he still went
to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Now he did that, first of
all, to fulfill the law that he was under. He came, he had
to fulfill the law for his people. He was under that law, so he
went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. But he also went
there because in that synagogue, that was the place where people
gathered who at least had some interest in God. They had some
interest in worship, and the Lord went there, because that
is where the battle for souls was being fought. Now the Lord
shows up there. I mean, can you just imagine
the scene on that Saturday morning? Humanly speaking, I'm amazed
that the rabbi, the leader, whoever it was that was in charge of
that place, would even allow the Lord to speak, aren't you?
I mean, he had to know already. Doctrinally, we do not agree.
If this man teaches, he's gonna say things I don't say. I'm just
amazed that he let the Lord speak, but he did anyway. And that tells
us something about the authority of the Lord Jesus. The Lord controlled
the heart of whoever that leader was and made him willing for
the Lord to speak on that particular Sabbath day. And he did that
because our Savior's in control. Everywhere he went during his
earthly ministry and everywhere he is now, which is everywhere,
right? He's in control. He's the one
that's in control and he's gonna make that very obvious on this
day. And he taught the people. And when he got done, the scripture
says the people who heard him teach were astonished at his
doctrine. They were astonished because
they heard something unlike anything they've ever heard before. Now,
what the Lord actually said, what his outline was, what the
things that he said is not recorded for us, but I got a pretty good
idea of what he taught because he always taught the same thing.
Just like the Lord's Sermon on the Mount says the very same
thing, the people were astonished at his doctrine. He spoke as
one that had authority. Now, if you look over at Luke,
the book of Luke, chapter four, you know, the doctrine of Christ
is the teaching It's the teaching that Christ is all in salvation. And the Savior's doctrine, his
teachings, was God's electing love. That's the first, that's
the subject of his very first public message in Luke 24, verse
21. And he began to say unto them,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. He read to them
out of the prophet Isaiah, and all bearing witness, and wondered
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, that they were
astonished. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he
said unto them, you are surely saying to me this proverb, physician,
heal thyself. Whatsoever we've heard done in
Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias. When the heaven was shut up three
years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the
land, but unto none of them was Elias sinned, save unto Sarepta
a city in Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow, a Gentile widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed,
saving Nahum and the Syrian. A Gentile was healed, and none
of the Jews that had leprosy were healed. And all they in
the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with
wrath. and rose up and thrust him out of the city, led him
under the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they
might cast him down headlong. But he's in control, Whitney.
But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way and came
down to Capernaum. Now I know what the Lord taught
there in Nazareth, and I just bet you when he went down to
Capernaum, he taught the same thing that he taught back in
Nazareth. Don't you reckon? His teaching is salvation is
by God's grace. not our works, it's by sovereign,
electing, saving grace, not man's works. God will be gracious to
whom he will be gracious. Salvation is a choice. It's God's
choice, not our choice. And the sinfulness of these people
and their sinful heritage cannot stop God's sovereign, electing
grace. He will be gracious to whom he
will be gracious. And the people who heard the
Lord preach that, they were amazed at this teaching. They said,
this makes sense. Salvation by grace, by God's
grace alone, without our works. That makes sense. It's the only
thing that makes sense. People heard the Lord, now they've
been, you just imagine someone's been under that Jewish law their
whole life, and they heard the Lord come preaching grace. And
they said, That's it. I always knew I didn't keep the
law well enough. I was just afraid to say so,
because everybody else said they did. So, you know, it's like
the emperor's new clothes. I said I did too, even though
I knew I didn't. This makes sense. This gives
me hope. God's grace, that gives me hope.
You know, when the Lord took the scripture and told them,
this is what the scripture means. The people said, I see. I see. No one's ever told me that before,
but I see it now, because the Lord's the one that showed me. These folks were used to listening
to the scribes and Pharisees, weren't they? I'll tell you what
they taught. They taught a bunch of trivial,
unedifying junk. All they taught was man's works.
How to live, what to do, you gotta do this, you gotta do this,
you can't do that, you can't do that. And then the Lord comes. And he teaches the gospel of
grace. And everything he said was meaningful. Everything he
said was edifying to the soul because everything he taught
was himself. He's the subject of the gospel.
He taught his work, not yours. He taught his sacrifice, not
yours. He taught his grace. He taught his saving power. You
don't keep yourself. He keeps you. He saves you and
he keeps you by his power. His message was all Christ. And that satisfied the need of
guilty sinners. All the Pharisees had to teach
was the law. They never taught anything about grace. All they
taught was law. They taught man's self-righteousness.
And they taught that because that's all they knew. They didn't
know anything else, did they? And that teaching of man's self-righteousness,
that man can do something good enough, that God will bless him
and accept him, that's a lie. and every honest person knows
it's a lie. We all know I can't do well enough
to satisfy a holy God. Our conscience tells us that.
And if your conscience doesn't tell you that, you know why?
It's been seared with a hot iron. God's just turned you over and
given you what you want. Otherwise, our conscience tells
us, I don't do good enough. I can't do good enough. And then
the Lord came preaching truth, that salvation is by grace. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Christ took those scriptures
of the law and he explained them. He explained how they pointed
sinners to trust in him. That's what he did. The Lord
taught salvation by grace. It's all in him, it's not in
our works. And that's the only way a real
sinner can be saved. The only way a real sinner can
be saved is if somebody else saves them. If somebody else
redeems a guilty sinner, that's grace. That's the only way a
real sinner can be saved. And the people were amazed to
hear that. They were amazed, they're astonished.
And I'm sure they were thrilled to hear that too, don't you reckon? Now it might be kind of hard
for most of us, because most of us has heard the gospel many,
many, many, many times, Try to imagine these folks. This is
the first time that most, if not all of them had heard anything
about God's grace. First time. The first time they
heard anything about a message of salvation in Christ. It's
all in Him. It's all up to Him. It's up to
His doing, not yours. And they were astonished. That
word astonished, it means shocked. They were shocked out of believing
what they used to believe and now they believe Christ. That
word astonished also means terrified. They heard the Lord teach and
they were terrified to trust in themselves anymore. Now they
trusted in Christ alone and they were happy to do it. They were
thrilled. You know, you and I have had
the great, great, great, great blessing, privilege to hear the
gospel preached over and over and over again, week after week
after week. year after year after year. And
one of my great fears is that we ever become gospel hardened.
That the gospel doesn't break our hearts anymore. It doesn't
astonish us anymore because we've heard it so often that it doesn't
thrill our hearts and our souls anymore. My great fear is we
become gospel hardened And we can't honestly sing, I stand
amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder, I'm
astonished, I wonder how he could love me, a sinner condemned to
unclean. Salvation in Christ without our works, by faith alone,
that's the most amazing message ever told. These folks were astonished. That's my prayer for us, too,
this morning. We'd be astonished. You know, the people who heard
our Lord teach, they were amazed at what he taught, but they are
also amazed how he taught them. They said, this man, he doesn't
teach like the scribes teach. He preaches with power. The scribes,
they just talk about dry, dead law. And there's no saving power
in that. There's no power to comfort my
soul. There's no power to edify my soul. They just talk about
this dry, dead law, what I'm supposed to do. But there's no
power to tell me how to do it. I can't do it. The only power
there is in the law is the power to condemn. There's no good news
there, is there? There's nothing soul thrilling
there. But the people who heard the Lord teach, they knew he
taught with authority. Now authority in preaching, it's
not a charismatic personality that just captivates people.
If that's the case, I'm in serious trouble, you are too, I don't
have that. Authority is not a big, booming,
deep bass voice, you know, that gets everybody's attention. Authority
is not screaming and yelling. You know, there's a time for
that, to emphasize a point in preaching. I always never do
it because it's just not my personality. That's not authority. I have
a dear pastor friend who, when he was in false religion, says
he was making out his notes, he would know he had a weak point.
He'd write out beside it, weak point, yell. That was gonna be
his authority, you know. That's not authority. What's
our authority in preaching? What's our authority in believing? It's the word of God. Our preaching
comes straight from this book. I told Chris this morning, I
heard on the news today, it's National Bible Day. So I determined
I'm gonna preach from the Bible today. Wow, just, I mean, that's all
I got to say about it. This book is our authority. It's
the only place we get in. Where do you get, where does
a sinner, a guilty sinner, get the authority to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ? Where does a guilty sinner get
the authority to come before the throne of God Almighty, before
His throne of grace and beg for mercy? Where do you get that
authority? The word of God. It's the word. You know, a good
message is not a bunch of Calvinistic doctrines and Calvinistic statements
strung together. True as they may be, true preaching
is taking a passage out of God's word and saying, here's what
this means. Here's Christ in this passage.
Here's how this passage points you to trust Christ. True preaching
is making that obvious. And you know, that's what our
Lord did. The authority of his, now this is the Lord of Lord.
And the authority of his message was the word of God. Let me show
you a couple examples. Look back at Matthew chapter
five. Our Lord would quote, the Old Testament scripture, and
then give you the true meaning of it by saying, I say, I say
unto you, Matthew 17, or Matthew 5, verse 17. Think not that I'm come to destroy
the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law
to all be fulfilled. The law is in effect. I didn't
come to destroy it. I came to fulfill it. Now sinners
who can't keep the law, that thrills them. Christ came to
do what I can't do. He came to obey the law for me.
But then look what the Lord says, verse 20. For I say unto you,
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. The Lord says these scribes and
Pharisees keep telling you, you've got to obey the law, you've got
to obey the law, you've got to follow all these ceremonies,
but I say unto you, the only righteousness there is is me,
is mine. Then look what the Lord said
in verse 21. You have heard that it was said
by the end of old time, thou shall not kill, and whosoever
shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment, but I say unto
you, But whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother Rakeh, thou fool, shall be in danger of the council.
But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell
fire. You know, the Lord said the scribes
teach you that sin is what you do outwardly. Sin is an outward
thing. But I say unto you, sin is a
spiritual thing. The law is a spiritual thing.
Sin is what you are. You do what you do because you
are sin. Sin is in the heart. And if you
just desire any sin, you're guilty of it already. The Lord says,
that's why I came to fulfill the law for my people. So they'd
have a righteousness because they can't do it. Look down verse
28. I'm sorry, look at, I'm sorry,
Matthew 21, verse 28. Matthew 21, here's another example.
Matthew 21. Verse 28. But what think ye? A certain man had two sons, and
he came to the first and said, son, go to work today in my vineyard. And he answered and said, I will
not. But afterward, he repented and went. And he came to the
second and said, likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir,
and went not. Now, whether them twain did the
will of his father, they say unto him, the first Jesus saith
unto them, verily, I say unto you that the publicans and harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in
the way of righteousness and you believed him not, but the
publicans and harlots believed him. And ye, when you'd seen
it, repented not afterward, that you might believe in. Now, the
Lord told those self-righteous religious leaders, salvation
is by grace. It's through God-given faith.
It's not your work. It's not your outward morality.
And the worst outward sinners you can think of, to them, the
worst outward sinners that they knew were publicans and harlots,
thieves and prostitutes. Our Lord says they're going to
enter into the kingdom of heaven because they trust Christ, not themselves.
The Lord's graciously given them faith in Christ and they trust
him, and their sins, though there are many, are forgiven. But you,
the outwardly moral person, who insist on trusting in your outward
morality, will not be forgiven, because you refuse to quit trusting
in your morality and trust Christ alone. Now listen. Every last one of us should be
outwardly moral people, moral, upstanding citizens. We absolutely
should be. But don't you dare trust it.
Salvation is trusting Christ alone. Saving faith is not an
outwardly reformed life. Saving faith is in the heart. It's God-given faith in the heart.
It's trusting Christ from the heart. And the only sin, there's
one sin, that will damn a sinner, just one. It's unbelief. Unbelief, refusing to trust Christ. Every other sin, I don't care
how vile, how heinous we think it is, it'll be forgiven. As
long as that sinner trusts Christ, it'll be forgiven. And the people
who heard that message, can you imagine how astonished, how thrilled
publicans and harlots were to hear that message? Oh, they were
thrilled. They were astonished and thrilled.
The Lord preached that the power of sin, the power of the law
to condemn is broken by the obedience of Christ, by the sacrifice of
Christ. The law has no more power to
hold you and condemn you because that power has been broken by
the sacrifice of Christ. It's been broken by God's grace
in Christ Jesus. That was the Lord's message.
And people who heard him said, oh, he speaks with power. with
authority. Then the Lord gave a demonstration
of that power. Look at verse 23, back in our
text, Mark 1. And there was in their synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, let
us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him. saying,
hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit
had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And
they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves,
saying, what thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For
with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and
they do obey him. Now this man who was demon possessed,
I mean just demon possessed, He's not in control of himself,
the demon is controlling him. He's possessed of a demon, and
he was a wicked man. He had done many unclean things. And this man with the unclean
spirit, who'd done all these unclean things, who's possessed
of a demon, controlled of a demon, was comfortable going to the
synagogue. Have you ever wondered about
that? This demon was the one in control, and this demon was
comfortable taking this man to the synagogue. And you know why? Because the message being preached
at that synagogue is the message of Satan. It's a message of works. Not grace, not faith, not Christ,
works. And the demon was comfortable
there, wasn't he? But when Christ came in the building, nobody
else knew who he was, but that demon knew who he was, didn't
he? That demon knew who he was and he got real uncomfortable
once Christ came in the building. And he cried, get away from me.
Leave me alone. This is the son, he knows this
is the holy one of Israel. This is the redeemer. This is
the savior. And instead of saying, have mercy
on me, he said, get away from me. I don't want to hear from
you. Have you come to destroy me? You know, there's no thought
of mercy from the Lord, was there? The only thought was condemnation. He thought the only possible
reason that the Lord has showed up here is to condemn me. Friends, that's the result of
works religion. Works religion always leaves
people in fear. We always think the Lord's gonna
get me. He's going to condemn me. He's
going to get me. This means the Lord's going to
get me. This means he's condemning me. You know, whatever it is
that happens. There's no thought to beg for mercy, is there? No,
we just got to ramp up our works. We got to start doing better,
but there's no thought to beg for mercy. This man's only thought
was, Lord, get away from me. I don't want to hear from you.
I don't want to hear a message of grace from you. Can you think of a person who's
less likely to receive mercy and grace from the Lord than
the person screaming, get away from me, I don't want you. We wouldn't be surprised at all
for the Lord to say, all right, I'll let you have your way. He
did that to the Pharisees, didn't he? The Pharisees wanted their
works and he said, all right, I'll let you have your way. You're
gonna be condemned for it. The Pharisee said, let's move
the crowd to shout away with him and crucify him and we'll
be done with him. And Lord said, all right, I'll
let you have your way. And he was crucified and utterly destroyed
their nation and their religion. But to this man, demon possessed,
the Lord did not let him have his way. In a demonstration of
his authority, the authority of the gospel, the authority
that he has In absolute power, he cast that demon out. The demon
wasn't real thrilled about it. I know he rent the man, probably
threw him down on the ground, but he came out because he didn't
have a choice. The Lord commanded him to. That's
his authority. Now that's the authority of the
gospel of Christ to set the captive free. I have good news for sinners
who are burdened down with the law who just think they can't
go another step and just who feel so frustrated and so helpless. The law cannot hold you under
its power. The power of the law is to condemn
you if you break it. The law cannot hold you under
that power. Not if Christ obeyed the law
for you, King. The law can't require anything else of you
if Christ kept the law for you. It can't require one more thing
of you. You're done with the law. The law can't require that
you be condemned because Christ was already condemned for you.
He already put your sin away. He paid the price with his own
blood, his life's blood. He paid the price. He died so
you don't have to. That's grace, isn't it? That's
grace. You know, if the son therefore
should make you free, you're free indeed. You're free from
the law. Free from it. You're free from
the power of sin. The power of sin is the power
that keeps you from trusting Christ, that keeps you from seeing
Christ, that keeps you trusting in your own sinful works. The
Son, He made an end of sin. It can't stop you from seeing
Christ and believing Christ in Him. Not if the Son makes you
free. You're free from worry. You're free from condemnation.
You're free from hell. You're free! You're free. And
then the Lord gives us an illustration of that, that power, verse 29. And forthwith, when they were
come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon
and Andrew with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay
sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. And he came
and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately
the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. And it even, when
the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased,
and then that were possessed with devils. Well, they heard
him casting out this other demon. You reckon every other people
possessed with a demon came to him? You know they did. They
brought all these people to him, and all the city was gathered
together at the door, and he healed many. How many? I don't know, many. They were
sick of diverse, different diseases, and cast out many devils, and
suffered not the devils to speak. because they knew him. Peter's mother-in-law, they got
to her house and she was sick with a fever and the Lord healed
her instantly. Instantly. And I feel safe to
say he did that for every other disease that they brought to
him that day. He healed them instantly. Now, you know, normally
if you've got a fever and the fever finally breaks, right?
Your temperature goes back down to normal. You start sweating
and the fever breaks. All right, fever's gone. I take
my temperature, I'm 98.6 again. But you're wiped out for a few
days, aren't you? Not Peter's mother-in-law. She was healed
instantly. That fever left her and she instantly
got up and ministered to the healed. Instantly, completely
whole. Now that's a picture of the saving
power of Christ. It's a picture of the power of
grace in the soul. Salvation in Christ is instantaneous. The very moment that you believe
on Christ, you are completely, wholly, and utterly saved from
your sin. You will never be more saved
than when you were the very first moment the Holy Spirit gave you
faith in Christ. You'll never be more saved than you were at
that moment. Righteousness in Christ is instantaneous. Holiness in Christ is instantaneous. The moment you believe on Christ,
you're completely holy, you're completely righteous, and you'll
never be more holy. You'll never be more righteous,
not even in heaven. Now, the believer will grow in
grace, will grow in knowledge of Christ, but we're not gonna
grow in holiness. We'll grow in grace, but we're not gonna
grow in righteousness. And here's the reason why. The
saving work of Christ is complete. It's complete. There's nothing
left for you to do. Because Christ did it all. You
don't need to make yourself more holy. He already made his people
holy. He already made his people righteous. You can't make yourself more
righteous. Sinners are completely saved. They're completely righteous.
They're completely holy. They're completely forgiven.
completely free in Christ, all because of what Christ has done
for them. Now the people who first heard
our Savior preach that doctrine, they were astonished. They were
thrilled. I hope we are too. All right,
the Lord bless you.