The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the son of God. Notice that did not say the origin
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was in the mind of God from
eternity for eternity. But it said the beginning. The beginning in time. It's the
time when the Lord Jesus began his earthly ministry. 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 you the way of the Lord.
Make his path straight. 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 camel's
hair and with a girdle of a 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 have indeed 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 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. That's
reading down through verse 11, Mark chapter one. I mentioned
last week, I think that it's good to reference and to study
together all four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
All the four give a beautiful, complete record. All four are
divinely inspired and part of Holy Scripture, but each with
a specific emphasis. Matthew is known as the gospel
of the king. In Matthew 1, there is a lineage,
an ancestry of Jesus Christ recorded, starting with Abraham, the father
of the faithful, down through the generations, all the way
to the birth of Christ. So it's the King coming down. This Gospel of Mark gives no
ancestry or record of Christ's birth. It starts here in verse
one, just saying the beginning of the gospel. In his adulthood,
approximately 30 years old, the beginning of his ministry. Mark's
gospel is known as the gospel of the servant. Nobody cares
about an ancestry. Nobody cares where a slave came
from, who his parents are, or anything about him. Just a servant. In the gospel of Luke, the emphasis
is the son of man. In Luke chapter three, there's
a list of ancestry, but the order is reversed from Matthew. It
begins with the birth of Christ and goes back through the generations,
back to Adam and back to God. So it's all telling the same
story. In Matthew, it's the King coming
down. In Mark, he's the servant while
he's here. Uh, and in Luke, he's traced
back through the generations, going back to the glory from
whence he came. And the gospel of John is unique
in this. It goes deeper, emphasizing not
his coming or his servanthood here or his ascending back. But
the emphasis of John's gospel is the eternality of the Lord
Jesus, the son of God. John begins, you know, by simply
saying in the beginning was the word and the word was with God
and the word was God. So there's that emphasis of each
of the four gospels. So Mark here begins with the
Lord Jesus. at or about age 30 in this world,
his earthly ministry will go some three and a half years before
he's crucified. In verse two, Mark mentions the
prophecy of Malachi 3.1, written about 400 years before
this time. Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Then in
verse three, he refers to Isaiah 40 in verse three, written 700
years before this time, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
prepare you the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. This voice crying in the wilderness
is John the Baptist. And we read here that he's baptizing
in the Jordan river. And you remember in John's record,
John chapter one, verse 29, John was baptizing and he looks up
and he sees Jesus coming. And he said, behold, which means
look, listen up, behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world. Now, the next time somebody.
wants to pick at you about our doctrine, what we believe, that
Christ died and paid for the sins of his people, his elect
people whom he knew from eternity. Next time somebody wants to argue
about that, you quote this verse, John 1, 29. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. And then ask this question. What
world is he talking about? It didn't say he wants to take
away or would like to take away, but actually does it. Take it
away. Now, if that world is Adam's
race, then everybody's sins is taken away and no one can perish. But the truth is Christ came
to die for a specific people, his people. given him by the
Father from eternity. And he'd taken away the sins
of that world. That's why he said, that's why
he never said, I lay down my life for Adam's race. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. The ones that is coming, he'll
place on the right hand, he calls sheep. And he said, come you
blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. How did he know who to prepare
it for? If salvation is your business. No, no, no. He knew. He knew who he prepared it for
and who he came and died for and took our sins away. So we
could go on this line of thought for a while. But yes, Jesus is
the Savior of the world in the sense that He's the only Savior
the world has. He's the Savior of the world,
not in the sense that all the world will be saved, but in the
sense that not all will perish. Same was true with Noah and the
ark. Noah was the Savior of the world. Not in that none of the race
perished in the flood. Most of them did. but he's the
savior of the world in the sense that not all perished. Matter of fact, if you go back
and read that in the book of Genesis chapter seven, eight
souls were saved. And, uh, Genesis seven, one,
those eight were all that was invited and all eight came in. Now back
to Mark one, where we're headed here. I'm interested in a little
statement in verse seven. John the Baptist preached saying,
there cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose
shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. You might have
wondered exactly what is meant by this, why he said this. Well,
all four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all make
mention of John's statement here concerning Jesus, that I'm not
worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes. It's more than just a frivolous
and meaningless cliche. It has to do with a person's
personal rights and character and position. I'm reading now
from Deuteronomy chapter 25. I'm not asking you to turn, but
I am asking you to listen. Deuteronomy 25. And this is part
of the civil law in Old Testament Israel that God gave the people
to live by. Israel as a nation was very clannish
at that time. There were 12 tribes. They had
no king. It was pretty much every man
for himself. But there were civil laws given.
And here's one of those, Deuteronomy 25, beginning in verse 5. If
brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no child,
the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go
in unto her and take her to him to wife and perform the duty
of a husband's brother unto her. And it shall be that the firstborn
which she buried shall succeed in the name of his brother which
is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. And if the
man like not to take her, take his brother's wife, then let
his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders. That was the courthouse. That's
where business transactions took place at the gate of the city.
Go up to the gate of the elders and say, my husband's brother
refuses to raise up unto his brother a name Israel. He will
not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of his
city shall call him and speak unto him. And if he stand to
it and say, I like not to take her. Then shall his brother's
wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his
shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer
and say, so shall it be done unto that man that will not build
up his brother's house. And his name shall be called
in Israel the house of him that hath his shoe loosed. It was a matter of dignity. It
was a very shameful thing for a man to be willing to forfeit
his respectability rather than to marry his brother's widow. He will not do what the law,
God-given law, says for him to do. And he allows her to take
his shoe off in the presence of the elders an open testimony
that he will not be the man he's supposed to be and then spit
in his face. Now John the Baptist uses this
and says of Jesus, he will be all that the Father sent him
to be. And he will do all that the Father sent him to do. He'll
never forfeit his dignity. He'll never be a slacker. I'll
never be able to unloose his shoe or charge him with being
anything less than perfect. Now this is so because there'll
never be a fault in him. He'll never sin. He'll never
come short of the glory of God. I want quickly to refer to five
scriptures that involve this principle, this principle of
forfeiting or taking off the shoe. And we'll not turn to all
these. I'm just going to run through
them right here quickly. First in Exodus chapter three,
you know that story. Moses has killed a man in Egypt
and he's 40 years old and he's had to flee for his life. And
he is now living among the Midianites on the backside of the desert
near Mount Horeb keeping his father-in-law's sheep. He's been
there for 40 years. He's now 80 years old. And one
day he sees a bush on fire. And he's puzzled. The bush don't
burn up. It just keeps burning. And the
scripture says that Moses turned aside to see. And the Lord spoke
to him from the bush, from out of the bush, and told him, Moses,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet. Things are about to change
here. For the place whereon thou standest
is holy ground. Moses is charged by the Lord. He's commanded to take off his
shoes. to forfeit the measure of dignity
and independence and being his own macho man that he thinks
he is. The big issue here is Moses'
independence. He had been here by himself for
a long, long time, doing as he pleased. No one to interfere
in his life. But God interfered. Oh, boy. Aren't you glad God interfered?
Aren't you glad God interfered in your life? I've had it with
this sissified religion. Well, God's a gentleman. He won't
force anything. Hey, hey. He'll knock gently
on the door. No, he'll kick the door down
if he gets ready to change your life. If you're one of his chosen,
one of his elect, He will straighten you out. He will do what needs
to be done to conform you eventually to the image of His Son. So the
Lord told him, take your shoes off. It's no longer your life
to do as you please. Your independence is gone and
the Lord commissions him to go back to Egypt and confront Pharaoh
and say, let my people go. He's not independent now. He's,
he's God's servant. And so the token was the command
was take your shoes off. Our Lord came into this world,
not independent, but in his own words, to do the
will of Him that sent me. And while no man could loose
his shoe through any fault found in him, he himself, Philippians
2.7, he himself made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Next scripture, the book of Ruth,
chapter 4. Many of you know this story.
Boaz, who was a godly and wealthy Israelite man, He falls in love
with Ruth the Boabitis, who had come back from Moab with Naomi. And Boaz tells her he can't marry
her due to a certain obstacle. There is a near kinsman who has
a right before Boaz. So Boaz calls this kinsman again
in front of the elders at the gate. and kind of holds a hearing,
I guess you'd say. And he puts the man on the spot. And he says, you're obligated
to marry her. And if you won't, I will. And the man said, I can't do
it. I won't do it. You go ahead. The man drew off
his shoe. That's in Ruth 4. He was saying,
I'm willing to forfeit the opportunity, shun the responsibility, obligation. I won't do it. So he drew off
his shoe. Christ came saying, I'm willing,
I'm able, and I will. And what John the Baptist is
saying here in Mark one, and of course, also in Matthew, Luke
and John. He's saying that the Lord Jesus
is here for business. He'll never forfeit. And John said, I'll never take
off his shoe. Claiming he's anything less than
perfect. Next in the book of Joshua chapter
five, the Israelites have crossed the Jordan. They're facing the
first enemy in Canaan. And it's the city of Jericho.
Joshua is the leader. Moses is gone. Joshua is calling
the shots, he thinks. And he looks up one day, this
is Joshua 5.13, and behold, there stood a man with his sword drawn in his hand.
And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us?
are for our adversaries. And he said, Nay, but as the
captain of the host, which means army, of the Lord am I now come. I'm not here to take sides. I'm
here to take over. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship And said unto him, What saith my
Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot. You're resigning as president
of this outfit today. For the place whereon thou standest
is holy. And Joshua did so. His authority
was forfeited to the Lord. The Lord stood with sword drawn. And as you know the story, Israel
never drew a single sword in that battle. The Lord did it. He did what Joshua was not able
to do. Joshua took off his shoe. John
the Baptist said, I'm not able to do what Christ has come to
do. I'm not able to unloose his shoe.
Oh, no. Second Samuel 15, verse 30. In Second Samuel 15, King David
has been the victim of his son Absalom's revolt. Absalom has
deceitfully and sneakily won the hearts of the men of Israel,
most of them. And David has to leave the throne
and flee for his life. And he takes the few who are
loyal to him, exits the city on the east side, down through
the Kidron Valley, across the Brook Kidron, and ascends the
Mount of Olives. Same path our Lord took a thousand
years later. But David did this in defeat
and in shame and sorrow. The Bible says in 2 Samuel
15 30 that David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet and wept
as he went and had his head covered and he went barefoot. He's the king. Don't you think
he had the finest shoes to be had? Sure he did. Sure he did. But he's forfeiting
something, not to Absalom, but to the Lord. His shoes are off. And he told the priest that brought
the ark of the covenant. He said, Oh, take it back. It belongs in Jerusalem. If the
Lord be pleased, I'll be back. And if not, I won't. But the
ark stays here. Alright, one more in the New
Testament. The familiar story of Luke 15. You all know it. A certain man had two sons. The younger leaves home. He winds
up with nothing. He comes back home. Not to rejoin
the family. But to be to ask to be just a
hired servant, a slave. Now slaves didn't wear shoes.
Sons did. But when the father saw him,
the Bible says that he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. He's going to ask to be a servant.
He's not going to get very far. The father's got plenty of servants.
He's concerned with his sons. And then he said to his servants,
bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand. And what else? and put shoes
on his feet. This is no slave. This is my
son. Bring hither the fatted calf.
Kill it. Let us eat and make merry. It's
party time. For this my son was dead and
is alive again." This son coming back home is
the younger. It's really Christ representing
all his elect. He went to the hog pen and brought
us back. This is my son. That's where
he finds all his people, is in the hog pen. If you're not hog pen material,
you're not grace material. That's where he finds us. This,
my son was dead and is alive again. That's Christ. I am he that liveth
and was dead and behold, I'm alive forevermore. So Christ,
our Lord, in his deliberate condescension and humiliation among men was
stripped of his sandals and they drove nails in his hands
and his feet, his bare feet. It was not something men did
to him against his will. It was his will. That's why he
came. He took his shoes off, forfeited
all he had to identify with our nothingness, our sin and shame. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us. In the revelation, his feet are
like fine brass. He can walk through the fire.
He's done it with me many times. But at the cross, he walked through
the fire of God's judgment. He who became nothing for us, now God hath highly exalted him
and given him a name which is among every name, that at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess. That he is Lord to the glory
of God, the father. This is who he is. John the Baptist
knew. No wonder he said here in Mark
seven, one Mark one, seven, there cometh one mightier than I boy,
John the Baptist was mighty. I'm telling you he was, but he
said there cometh one mightier than I after me. the latchet of whose shoes I
am not worthy to unloose." What a statement. What a meaningful
statement. And that's the message today.
Thank you for your attention. Let's stand together.