I have two verses to read, verse
fourteen and fifteen. 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 is the title of the message,
Repent Ye and Believe the Gospel. Our Lord picks up where John
left off. John came preaching the baptism
of repentance. He pointed out Christ as the
Lamb of God. He has now been put in prison.
He will soon have his head cut off. John's going to lose his
head over the gospel, but not his life. Not his life. He was faithful, a faithful servant
of God all the way to the end. Now, our Lord picks up where
John leaves off. And he comes preaching the gospel
of the kingdom. When I read this verse 14, that
John was put in prison, I thought this. This thought
came to my mind. I'm so thankful that the gospel,
the continuation of the gospel does not depend on me. It does
not depend on us. The scripture says, His truth
endureth to all generations. Whether I live or die, that's
not going to stop the gospel. It is in His hands. It's in our
Lord's hands. The success of it is in His hands. John, as I said, will soon be
beheaded. The apostles come along, they
all die, and the gospel moves right on. Two thousand years
later, here we sit, and we have the gospel. And I tell you, if
the world stands another thousand years, when you and I are gone,
the gospel will still be here, as long as there's one sheep. The gospel will be here. It will
be here. It depends on him, not me. Now,
why was John put in prison? Before we get to the title of
the message, I want to deal with this. Why was John put in prison? This is the forerunner. This
is the Lord's faithful servant. He was put in prison for one
reason. One reason and one reason only. For preaching the gospel. For
telling the truth. For telling the truth. Look over
in Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3. Look in verse, let me see where
it's at. Oh, I'm in Luke 2. Luke chapter
3, verse 16. John answers, saying unto them
all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than
I cometh. That's Christ. The lachet of
whose shoes I'm not worthy. to and loose. He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand.
And he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat
into his garner, but the chaff will he burn with fire unquenchable."
And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto
the people. But Herod the Tetrarch being
reproved by John, this is the king. This is Herod. Does John
know any better? Doesn't he know better? Does
he not know who he's talking to? For Herodias isn't here,
but Herod, the teacher, being reproved by him, that is, by
John for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the
evils which Herod had done. Don't you know you can't build
a ministry if you get into people's personal lives? What's he doing? to inherit to his face of all
the evils that he has done, and that it was wrong for him to
take his brother Philip's wife. Of course, you know that ends
up getting him beheaded. Telling men the truth, telling men and women the truth
will never be popular in this world. It will never be popular
to stand and tell men and women who and what they are by nature.
That's never popular. And Satan himself will never
stop trying to defeat the gospel. Natural men will never fall in
love with the gospel. Now, don't think you're going
to take this message to a group of rebels and they're just going
to fall in love with it. Not unless God does something. It takes the power of God to
give a new heart, to create a new nature. It takes the power of
God to enable a person whose mind is at enmity with God to
fall in love with God, to fall in love with the gospel, to fall
in love with Christ, to bow to him. It takes the power of God. Men do not and will never, ever
naturally love the message of grace. Not at all. You see, the gospel reveals the
truth. It reveals the truth about who God is. And that truth is totally opposite
of the way we think God is, naturally now, really. Naturally, we think
opposite of the way God really is. God said over in the Psalms,
you thought I was altogether like yourself. You think I'm
like you. Men and women naturally created
God in a way that they see themselves. But the gospel reveals the truth
about God. The gospel reveals the truth
of who Jesus Christ really is. He is God manifested in the flesh. He's not an ordinary man. He
is the God-man. I am an ordinary man. He is the God-man. He is God
in the flesh. He is a man who knew no sin.
He's the substitute. He's the sacrifice. He's the
high priest. He's the prophet. He's the king. That's who he is. And don't put him on the same
level these other created, what we call, they're not deities,
but you know what I'm saying, idols. Don't put him on that
level. And you don't. I know you don't. The gospel reveals who God is,
the gospel reveals who Jesus Christ is, and the gospel reveals
exactly who and what I am. Don't go to some therapist to
find out who you are. Go to the Word of God. Don't go on some retreat to find
yourself. People go on a retreat to find
themselves. Go to the Word of God. If you
really want to find yourself, if you're really interested in
finding yourself, go to the Word of God and ask God to reveal
to you who and what you are. The Gospel reveals everything. Now listen, the Gospel reveals
everything I need to know about God. Everything. The gospel reveals
everything I need to know about myself. And the gospel reveals
everything I need to know about Jesus Christ, how God saves sinners
through the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't need to go anywhere else
to find that out. And then secondly, John's in
prison because his ministry It's fulfilled. It's fulfilled. I thought this one hit me. There's
a time, there will be a time when my ministry here will be
fulfilled. Whenever it is. There's a time,
there's an end to it. That's the reason I read the
Ecclesiastes, there's a time. You know, sometimes we get so
familiar with Scripture, we just kind of push it aside, don't
we? Just kind of let it go. You ought
to put that on your refrigerator. There's a time, and every time
something happens to you, think it's time for it. Whatever trial
comes your way, it's time for it. Whatever, whatever, whether
you get a good job or you lose a job, it's time for it. Just like our Lord said, the
time is fulfilled. And it was John, his ministry
was fulfilled. We have a time to serve. This
church here in this community has a time to serve right now. The scripture says that David,
I believe it was David, served his generation. And then what
happened? He died. He died. We have a time right now to serve
our generation. But in a little while, it'll
be said of us, he died. She died. And happy is the man, happy is
the woman who knows their time. Who knows their time. How many athletes have you seen
hang on too long? They just hang on and hang on
until they embarrass themselves. They don't know their time. Their
time is up. It's over. Quit. I was telling someone the other
day, we were talking, I said, it's not, I said, it's not a
bad thing to retire. It's time. It's time. Happy, blessed is that person
who knows his time. He says in verse 15, now, the
time is fulfilled. Everything that is done is done
on a timetable. It is. It's done on a timetable.
It is according to time. And it must be fulfilled, whatever
it is, whatever it is going on right now, is in the purpose
of God. It's happening according to the
purpose of God. And when that is fulfilled, then
the next thing will happen. It'll be time for the next thing
to take place. It was time here for the Messiah, for the appearing
of Christ. He says in verse 15, and saying,
the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. It's
time for the Messiah, the kingdom of grace, the kingdom of righteousness. It's time for it to be revealed,
and it's right now. Our Lord said, and it's right
now. It says over in Galatians chapter four, look over there,
Galatians chapter four. It says in Galatians chapter
four, in verse four, but when the fullness of the
time was come, when everything had happened, that God had purposed
to happen, to bring this to pass. It was time for the Messiah to
come. God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. When did Christ come? In the
fullness of time, when God purposed it, when it was time. That's
when he came. In the fullness of time. It was
time. It was time for the old to be
replaced with the new. It was time for the old covenant
to be wrapped up, folded up, and put away. And time for the
new to be revealed. You can see that in Hebrews 8,
13. It was time for the real to replace the types. For all
those years, they had types, they had these pictures of shadows. But now it's time for them to
be put away. And they had a real hard time
putting that away. They didn't want to put it away.
But it was only for a time. It's all of us for a time. The real has come. Now put away
the sacrifices. Put away the ceremonies. Put
away that old priesthood. Put away all those things. Because
the real is here. Put away the pictures the person
has shown up that the picture's of. It was time for all these things
to be put away. And the message that our Lord
preached, he says, here's the gospel of the kingdom in verse 14. And when that message is preached, he said, repent. When you hear
it, when it is preached, repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel.
This is the message for all time. All time. Repent and believe
the gospel. Listen, those two always go together.
They always go together. Repentance is always consistent
with faith. There is no such thing as repentance
without faith and no such thing as having faith without repentance.
It can't happen. It cannot happen. Repent and
believe the gospel. Now, listen, not do. That's what
they were used to. Do this, do that, don't do this,
don't do that. No, he says, here's the message. Repent and believe the gospel.
Not do, but repent and believe. Take everything you thought about
God naturally. Take everything you thought about
God naturally and turn from it. Turn from it. A natural mind
is at enmity with God. Now, if I'm at enmity, if my
natural mind is at enmity with God, can I have right thoughts
of God? If I did, it wouldn't be at enmity,
would it? It wouldn't be at enmity. There's just no way. The natural
man has no true knowledge of God. No true knowledge. His mind is darkness. As I said
earlier, the Lord said, you thought I was just like you. How pitiful
of a God is that, if he's just like me? You thought I was just
like you. We base what we think of God
by nature now as we see ourselves. And that's the way we base our
knowledge of God. Naturally. But he says, repent
of that, turn from that. And you say, you're talking this
message is for lost people. It's for a bunch of, it's a congregation
of lost people. No, I tell you what, repent and believe the
gospel is for me every day. Is it? It's for me every day. I am to repent and believe the
gospel as soon as I wake up in the morning. I can go throughout
the day. I repent and believe the gospel
all day long. All day long. Repentance is not
something you did years ago and it's over with. No, it's something
you do continually. If you're born of God, you do
it continually. And if you're born of God's faith, believing
God is something you do continually. Continually. So to repent is to change one's
mind. It's to turn from, it's to turn
to. It's to go in the opposite direction. He says to repent and do what? Believe the gospel when you hear it. Now listen,
I want to make this point. This is not an invitation. You and I and no one out in this
world is invited to believe the gospel when they hear it. You're
commanded to do it. You and I are commanded to believe
the gospel. The king of glory does not invite
rebels to believe him. It does not invite him to believe. You know, Nebuchadnezzar, he's
just a natural king. Did he invite everyone to bow
when they heard all that music? Did he invite them to? No, he
said, you do it or die. That's just a natural king. But the King of Glory commands
everyone to believe the gospel, to repent and believe the gospel.
He commands it. He commands it. When God put Adam in the garden
of Eden and He told him that he may freely eat of all the
trees except for one, did He invite him to do that or did
He command him? If you go over to Genesis chapter
2, go over there. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 16,
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God
commanded Adam. saying, you may eat of all these
trees. Now Adam, I invite you to eat
of these trees, but leave this one alone. Forget it. That's
not an invitation. That's a command. If it comes
from God, it's a command. It's a command. When Noah built an ark, if you
read that story, God commanded Noah to build an ark. Abraham, I invite you to leave
your father's house. Go over and read it. I command you to do it. I command
you. My mother and my father, they
did not command me to do anything or invite me to do anything.
I invite you to mow grass. If it would have been an invitation. I command you, when I get home
this evening, I want that grass mowed. See, I think this is where
parenting is really, and I don't want to get into this, but I
think that's where a lot of it is failing. We're inviting our
kids to do things. We invite our kids to clean the
room. Don't invite them. You say, well, they won't love
me. What's that got to do with it? What's that got to do with it? They'll
respect you. They can love you later. And
really, they will. They'll truly love you later.
But they need to respect you. But anyway, that's off the subject. God commands. When God descended
on Mount Sinai, Did he give ten invitations? What do we call
them? We call them the Ten Commandments,
don't we? We don't call them the Ten Invitations.
And he said, do this and live, don't do it, and you're going
to die. You're going to die. Christ did
not invite sinners to be healed. He did not invite demons to leave. He did not invite the blind to
see or the dead to be raised. He commanded every one of them.
I command you, come out of him. He commanded sight. Scripture
says he commanded life forevermore. If you have life, if I have life,
if we have the divine life of God, spiritual life, God commanded
it. Live! That's what he says. Isn't
that what he says to that kid laying in that field, that baby
laying in that field? He didn't invite that baby to live. He
said live. And that child lived. This generation has taken the
command to believe and turned it into an invitation so it won't
appear so offensive. And it lessens, now listen, it
lessens the responsibility. I thought about this as I was
writing this. If we are invited to come and we don't, can I be held responsible? That
was an invitation. It was an invitation. But if the king commands my presence,
if the king commands me to come and I don't, trouble. I fall under his judgment. I
fall under his wrath. Look over in Acts 17. In Acts 17 verse 30, And the
times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent. To repent. He commands all men
everywhere to repent. Now, turn over to 1 John. 1 John
chapter 3. In 1 John chapter 3. Let me see if I got it right. Oh,
here we go. Look in verse 23. John 3, 23.
And this is His commandment. Okay, it doesn't say, and this
is his invitation. We're going to give an invitation
here from verse 23. No, we're not. We're given a
commandment from verse 23, that we should believe on the name
of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us
commandment. He commands us to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what is it to believe the
gospel? What is it to believe? If he commands me to do it, what
is it to believe? Well, first of all, it is to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to bow to him. It's to receive
him. It's to come to him. He says,
come unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you
rest. To come to him is the same thing as believing on him. It's
to receive him as he's revealed in the word of God, as he's revealed
in the scriptures. It's to bow to him as the prophet,
that prophet that Moses said should come. He's it. He's it. He's the one. It's to bow to
him as the priest. I'm not going to go to some earthly
priest. Jesus Christ is our priest. He's our high priest before God. It's to bow to Him as the King. He's the King of glory. He's
the King of kings and Lord of lords. And it's to receive Him
as such. It's to bow to Him and receive
Him as the substitute. I don't need anything else or
anyone else but Jesus Christ. his blood and his righteousness.
It's to believe what the Scripture reveals about God. Scripture says he's holy. Scripture
says he's just. Scripture says he's sovereign. It teaches us that he is sovereign,
that he saves whom he will and he passes by whom he will. Is
that the God you and I believe? Who does as He will, with whom
He will, when He will. God has, listen, there is no
excuse for being ignorant as to who God is because He's revealed
Himself here in the Scriptures. In His Word, in the Gospel. He's all wise, He's good, He's
loved, He delights to show mercy, He's a covenant head, and when
we hear the Gospel preached And He's revealed in the gospel.
We believe it. We bow to it. And it is to believe what is
revealed about us. About us. The Scripture, listen, the Scripture
does not paint a portrait of us that's just
glowing. It paints us as we are. It paints us as we are, in God's
sight. And you know what? That's exactly
the way everything is, in God's sight. None righteous, none good. He says, no, not one. Because I know somebody's going
to say, now there's got to be one. Out of all the billions
that have lived on this earth, you're telling me, you are telling
me Out of all the, there's like 7 billion right now. So you take
7,000 or 6,000 years and that's billions and billions of people.
And you're going to tell me that not one is good. No, I'm not going to tell you
that. God's going to tell you that. I didn't write the Bible. He did. He had it written. He moved men to write the scriptures. And there's no error in the Word
of God at all. And he said there's none good. Would he lie? Would he have missed
one? You think he might have missed
one? No, he said there's none good,
no, not one. And I tell you what, when a child of God Here's that. They say, Amen. You're right. God's right. God's right. God be true. And every man what? A liar. See how offensive the
gospel is? Why don't you think Herod got
mad and put John in prison? You're telling me all this that
I've done? You're telling me that I'm wicked?
You're telling me I'm the king? I can do what I want. No, you
can't. Only God can do His will. You and I only really can do
what God allows us to do. He was so offended when John,
and here's, you know, when you look at this, you just think,
well, John, you faithful servant. You stood before the king. And
you told Him the truth. You told Him the truth. God's not going to save anybody
by a lie. You stand here and lie on God. God's not going to
use that. If God's going to save us, we're going to have to hear
the truth. We're going to have to believe
the truth. We're going to bow to it. And
we're going to receive it. Or you're not going to be saved. Now the Lord, the King of Kings
says, repent and believe the gospel. If anyone hears this
morning, or this makes it to the radio, leaves in unbelief,
you leave a rebel. You leave a rebel. And the wrath
of God, it says in John 3, 36, abides on you. It says in 2 Corinthians 2, now
is the accepted time. This is the only time we've got.
I don't have the next minute. I've got this one, and it's by
the second. Now's the accepted time. Now's
the day of salvation. With the command, listen, With
the command, and this is good news. This is good news. I'm glad it's a command. I'm
glad it is, because did not nobody be saved. No one would come. Because with the command also
comes the power to do it. But also with the command comes
the right to do it. The right to do it. What right,
what right do you have to be at the king's wedding? You know what right I have? He
commanded me to be there. What right do I have to come
to Christ? What right do I have? Here's
the right I have. He commanded me to do it. What
right do I have to believe? He commanded me to believe. I
want you to get this. I do not have the right not to
believe God. I do not have the right not to
believe the gospel. If I had the right not to do
it, I wouldn't be judged for it, would I? We do not have the right not
to come. We do not have the right not
to believe. But thank God we have the right
to come and believe. And he says, he commands, do
it. Right now. Right now. Repent and believe
the gospel. I'm glad I don't have to go out
here and do something. I'm glad I didn't say go do this, go do
that. I'm glad that's not the way God
saves sinners. Repent and believe the gospel.