If you will, turn with me to
the book of Mark, Mark chapter 1, and we'll be looking at verses
10 through 15. Last week we talked about John's
message, about that mighty one that he foretold who would follow
after him. and talked about his worthiness. He said, I'm not worthy to stoop
down and unloose his shoe latch. And we talked about his appointment
by God and his necessity in coming. The biggest reason for his necessity
was that God said he would come. That's the necessity behind everything,
of God's purpose Purposes. He said, if I purpose a thing,
shall I not do it? He's God. How do I know if this
is a work of God? Because it comes to pass. That's
how I knew God sent me here as your pastor. It comes to pass.
You might doubt it on the front side, but you can't doubt it
on the back side. This is God's providence has
done this. And that's the way it is with
John. But before we leave this subject, I wanna mention something
I might have forgotten to tell you about, John. We live in a
day of generalities. If you talk to your unsaved relatives
or you talk to your friends and they go to these churches around,
Armenian churches, they're gonna talk in generalities. When they
talk about salvation, they talk in generalities. They don't say,
well, you know, we have the truth, but they're preaching lies over
here. No, they'll give everybody an
accreditation. So we live in a day of generalities,
not particulars, and we live in a world who says facts and
doctrine are not important. Let's don't stress that. All
you're going to do is cause a bunch of divisions, and it's not that
important. That's what they say. I heard
an old deacon in our church one time, he was giving an altar
call, and we had an old mourner's bench up front, and he said,
now this is just a piece of wood, there's no efficacy whatsoever
in this mourner's bench, it's just a place where men meet God. I'm gonna tell you something,
if you find a place where men meet God, it's got more efficacy
than you know what to do with. But he was right, there wasn't
none in that bench. None whatsoever. We live in a
world that says facts and doctrine are not important. The word of
God is not important. It doesn't matter what the word
of God says, it's what I feel. What seems right, what's acceptable. Let's look at what's been acceptable
over the years. That's what my unsaved relatives
tell me. Well, my soul, Solomon said,
there's a way that seemeth right unto man. The end there is death.
I don't want to know what seems to be right and acceptable by
this world. They say we're all just spokes
in a wheel, all separate from one another, but all leading
to the same end. All traveling on separate roads,
but all going to the same destination. Well, I'm gonna tell you something.
There's only two roads spoken of in the Word of God. One of
them is a broad road. That's how our Lord described
it, a broad road. And many there be that's on this,
a wide gate, he said, at the end of this road. But it leads
to destruction. And then there's a narrow way.
You may have walked single file on it, I don't know, but he described
it as a narrow way, but it leads to life everlasting. There's
just two roads, just two roads. The scriptures tell us to believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God.
We're not to just because a man stands behind a pulpit and opens
his Bible and declares some thing don't mean we're to take what
he has to say. We're to prove those things in
the Word of God and hold fast that which is good. It tells
us believe not every spirit. The scripture tells us to beware
of dogs, to beware of the concision, to beware lest any man spoil
us through philosophy and vain deceit. after the tradition of
men and the fundamental principles of the world and not after Christ.
Beware of them, beware, beware. He just keeps telling us that. And John was specifically sent
of God to make the way of Christ known, to make it understood,
to declare it plainly, to make his way straight. Great. That's why he was sent. Well, that's totally contrary
to what this world tells us that true religion's all about. They're saying the facts aren't
important. The way's not important. It's how you feel. It's how it
makes you feel. One fella told me, he said, well,
I just think if a guy goes to church on Sunday, ought to leave
there feeling better than he did when he come in. Not necessarily. It might be the biggest blessing
God ever put on you to let you leave with your tail tucked between
your legs. to let you leave this place mourning over your sins.
To wake you up to reality. Not about you feeling good. It's
about what is good. And John was specifically sent
of God to make the way of Christ known, to make it understood,
and to declare it plainly. And this he did without any social
mingling with the Pharisees, or the Sadducees, or their schools,
or their hierarchy, or their committees. He didn't have a
diploma from them. He didn't preach in their synagogues.
He didn't even go into the Holy City. He was out on the banks
of the Jordan River. And all Judea and Jerusalem and
all the surrounding areas went out to hear him preach. Scripture said he laid the axe
to the root. Some of you cut trees for a living,
you know what that is. You lay the axe to the root,
that tree ain't going to grow back. It ain't going to grow
back. And he let that tree fall where
it would. And so the Lord Himself came to John, this man who was
unequaled in declaring the plain truth of God, the plain gospel
of Christ. He took those Old Testament prophets
and made men to understand what they were talking about. Made
them to understand that these were types and symbols. These
prophecies were not talking about a time, it was talking about
a person. He made that clear to men and
women. And the Lord himself came to
John and submitted himself to John and to his baptism. What a thing to do. What a thing
to do. This is the creator of the universe.
And John said, I need to be baptized to you, and you come to me. He said, suffer it to be so for
now. So it become to fulfill all righteousness. And so John did, and beginning
in verse 10, it says, straightway, coming up out of the water, he
saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending
upon him. Now I don't know about you, but
I can't, I've seen all kinds. I've seen Catholic baptism, I've
seen Lutheran baptism, I've seen Reformed baptism. And I've heard
all the arguments and read all the arguments about sprinkling
and so on, but I don't see how anybody could interpret baptism
as sprinkling and coming straight up out of the water. Now to me,
that tells you what baptism is. I don't have to go any further
than that. And then you take what baptism has to do with.
You know, it's a declaration of the gospel of substitution.
We were buried with him in the likeness of his death and risen
with him to walk in newness of life. Straightway coming up out of
the water, he saw the heavens open and a spirit like a dove
descending upon him. Now, I don't know if this was
something revealed to him in a vision, Or did he actually
see the bodily, in a bodily form, a real dove descending upon him
as the scripture said it would? Or did he see some apparition
that looked like, I don't know. I don't know, we don't say. But
he saw the spirit of God descending from heaven upon him. That's
talking about Christ. But most importantly, he saw
it. And what he was seeing was verified
that it verified him as the Christ of God, this heavenly dove. And there came a voice, verse
11, from heaven. Now, if God speaks, where does he
speak from? He speaks from heaven though.
Now he may speak through his preacher, but if he's speaking,
he's speaking from heaven. He may speak through his word,
but if he speaks through this word, he's speaking from heaven
because that's where he's at. That's where he's at. That's
the place of his dignity. That's the place of his throne,
of his authority, of his power. He reigns. And our Lord went up and was
seated at the right hand of God in heavenly places. And here's
what this voice said from heaven. It says, thou art my son. Now
he's talking to Jesus of Nazareth. There was nothing about this
man, if you read Isaiah, there's nothing about this man in his
appearance that a man could see and say, well, that's the son
of God. There was nothing in his appearance. They didn't recognize him because
there was nothing of God about his appearance. He was a man.
And he was born a Jew. He had the features of a Jew.
If they all wore long hair, he wore long hair. Whatever this
was. And they looked at him. But here
the father, the father says, now who's going to contest that?
who's going to contest what god said and he said this is my beloved
son and i'm well pleased it's my son i'll tell you john bore
witness of it but which was which had the greater authority god
said this is my son is my son this man that john baptized This
man of whom John pointed at and said, Behold the Lamb of God,
this is my son. Thou art my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. So John heard the voice of the
father as he bore witness of his son and his good pleasure
at the baptism and beginning of his gospel ministry. God was
pleased with him. He pleased with him. And everything
God purposed to do for chosen sinners is contingent upon this
person and what he came to do, his work. The Son of God coming
into the flesh and fulfilling the redemptive will of God. In
the book of Hebrews chapter 10, he said, in the volume of the
book, it's written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. And this is he. This is the Christ,
this is the Son of the Living God, the God-Being Mediator,
and this was the child born that Isaiah talked about, and the
Son given, whose name is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. In the book of John, our Lord
said, John, bear witness of Me, and the Father Himself which
hath sent Me, bear witness of me. But if you don't believe them,
you believe me for the very work's sake. Because it's through my
works that God confirmed to everyone who I am. This is the Christ
and God's pleased with him. Isn't that the foundation of
our hope? I know he's not pleased with me. There's none good, no
not one. They're unrighteous. No fear
of God before my eyes. I receive God's witness of what
I am. And he's not pleased with me
in me, but he's pleased with me in Christ.
This is his son in whom he's well pleased. God pleased with him and pleased
with all that are in him. And as God, he's always been
pleased with him. the son being equal to the father.
But on this particular occasion, it was as our savior and redeemer,
God our savior who's being addressed here by the father. And he's
telling you I'm pleased with him. He was pleased with his being
made of a woman and made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. God was pleased to do that. He
was pleased with his godly humility to which he was had subjected
himself, he who thought it not robbery to be equal of God, made
himself of no reputation. God was pleased with that. He
was pleased with his submission to John for his baptism and to
his willful subjection to our infirmities. And then he says
this, verse 12, immediately, now he comes straight way up
out of the water, the father bear witness of him, now watch
this, immediately, The Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. He began the work which he came
to do. And the first of that work is
to be tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. He
must face our archenemy Satan face to face. He must be tempted
by him and he must resist him. And so he did. Our federal head
and representative, he had to be tempted and tried by Satan
himself. I'm going to tell you something.
It's every man's lot to be tempted and tried of Satan. Every man's
lot. There's no man who says, I'm
a believer, who's not going to be tempted by Satan. And I'm
going to tell you something else. He knows your weakness. He knows
exactly how to tempt you. Mostly, how does He tempt us?
Well, mostly by organized anti-Christ religion. Mostly by the influence of worldly
reason, traditional principles, unsaved loved ones. They don't
mean to put pressure on you, but they do. They don't mean
to draw you away from Christ. If you just ask them, what are
you trying to draw me away from Christ? They say, oh no, no,
I'm not trying to do that. But that's exactly what Satan's
using them to do. The difference between our being
tempted and his being tempted is that he must resist the devil
in order for us to have a righteousness before God. We resist Him resting in our
Lord's resistance of Him. We resist Him abiding in our
Savior. We're no match for Him. I'll
tell you that right now. We're no match for Satan. His resistance was perfect and
unbroken, and ours is in His perfection and victory over Him.
The Son of God was in those 40 days tempted more than any man. And yet he did not give in or
compromise his character or compromise his station. Not one out. And then watch this, verse 13.
I love these first three words. He was there. Boy, you need to think on that
a little bit. Next time you're there, You think on this, he
was there. He was there. How comforting
it is to know that he was there. One in my place, one representing
me and there on my account. He was there and he was there
in the wilderness. Is there anybody here today that
still believes that this world is some kind of Shangri-La? That
it's some kind of land flowing with milk and honey. Is that
how we look at it? Well, it's not. It's a wilderness.
It's a wilderness. I'm talking about spiritually.
I ain't talking about physically. Physically, it's got everything
in the world you could ever dream to want. But not spiritually. Spiritually,
it's a wilderness. Folks talk about this world as
though it was heaven on earth, and I've heard them use that
very phrase. But my friend, this world is a wilderness. It's a
land of perpetual darkness and emptiness and sin, and God calls
it this present evil world. Well, what makes it so terrible?
Satan, for one. He took a third of the heavenly
host with him when he left. He's a powerful enemy. He was
cast out into the earth and he confronted the wisest, most holy
and righteous woman that's ever been and caused her to sin against
God in just a short time. And then by his influence over
her, caused her to tempt the man. which eventually caused the fall
of the world. What else did he do? Well, he
established false religion throughout the world. He did it in the first
two men who come to worship God. He deceived one and not the other
and established false religion in the world and that man left And everybody where he left,
everybody in that city named after his own children, all worshiped
false gods. Satan established false religion
in spite of God's plain instruction. He caused the destruction of
the world. He caused the fall of Israel.
He caused all man to despise the Christ of God. What did Pilate say? I find no
fault in this just man. Didn't keep him from crucifying
him, oh, did he? Oh, who put that in his heart?
Satan. What in the world would cause
Judas to leave his station as a disciple of Christ and become
the betrayer of Christ? Satan. Isn't that what it says? Satan entered into him. He caused all men to despise
the Christ of God, and today has the whole world wondering
after Him, whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of
life. That's what it says in the book of Revelation. He was
there in the wilderness, there alone, one-on-one with Satan
for 40 days. He was tempted of Satan. And
He was with the wild beasts, the lions, the wolves, the wild
dogs, snakes, scorpions, and whatever else. roams in the wilderness. And then after he was tempted,
after fulfilling the prophecy and God's righteous demands for
our obedience, the angels of God came and ministered to him.
They came and ministered to him. Verse 14. Now after that, after
that, John was put in prison. Jesus
came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Now I have to admit I don't fully
understand completely why the Lord calls his most favored servant
to suffer so at the end of his days. But I'm satisfied with
God's providence and satisfied that it was the right thing to
do. And I also believe that it was
necessary and for his good. But I do know this about it.
Those who are not willing to compromise their message, their
faith, and their godly character are going to suffer at the hands
of this world. And you're going to suffer more
and more and more as time goes on. You can't take a stand for
the truth and stand up and preach the truth and testify the truth
and not suffer persecution. It's an impossibility. But here's what I want you to
see. As John was taken out of the way, Jesus came preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God. And it may be because of
John's reputation and his honored place in the kingdom of God that
made it necessary for God to take him out of the way. Now
you think about this, everybody in that land was going out to
hear John. When they gonna hear the Lord
when John taken out of the way? He says in John chapter three
verse 30, this is John the Baptist, Says, he must increase, but I
must decrease. You know, there's a place in
a wedding for the friend of the bridegroom. There's a place in
that wedding for him, but there comes a time when he steps back
and all you see is the groom and the bride. And that's what
was going on with John. Maybe because of John's reputation
and honored place in the kingdom of God, made it necessary, I
don't know. But he did say this, he said,
hearing the bridegroom's voice, he said, my joy is fulfilled. My joy is fulfilled. Now let's
look at the message that Jesus of Nazareth came preaching. Mark chapter one, verse 15. He came preaching and saying,
the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now let's just kind of break
this verse down a little bit and deal with each one of these
statements or these sections and look at them one at a time.
First of all, it says Jehovah's servant came into Galilee preaching
the gospel. He didn't go into Jerusalem.
That would come at another time. But at this particular time,
he went into Galilee. Why did he go into Galilee? Because
it was written of him that that's where he'd go. And that's what
he did. In Hebrews chapter 2 and verse
3, the Apostle Paul said, how shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation, which at the first began to be Preach
by who? By the Lord. And then by those
who heard Him. God also bearing them witness
with signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to
His own will. If there's any one thing more
than any other to convince me of the necessity of gospel preaching,
it's the Lord Himself came preaching the gospel. The Lord himself
did. And then secondly, he came preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God. Well, what's that? The kingdom of God is like no
other kingdom. It's like no other kingdom. It's
a spiritual kingdom. It's not of this world. Our Lord
said the Pilate He said, if my kingdom was of this world, I'd
call my servants and they'd fight. They'd fight. We'd have this
kingdom. That's what he was telling them. I'd have this kingdom if
this were it. But this is not it. My kingdom's not of this world.
The king in this kingdom is extraordinary. He is the eternal king. He's
the blessed and only potentate. You know, it doesn't say that
down the road somewhere, and this is how religion portrays
this, that He's going to become the Blessed and Only Potentate,
Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The Scripture said He is the
Blessed and He's going to let you know it. When the time comes,
He's going to show you who is the Blessed and Only Potentate,
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Nebuchadnezzar said He
lives forever. Boy, he wasn't talking that way
before, was he? But when God opened his heart
and mind to see the truth, he said he lives forever, and his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom's from generation
to generation. Jesus Christ preached the gospel
of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of his elect, over which he alone
rules, and the citizens love to have it so. Don't you rejoice
that he reigns? There is a so-called temporal
kingdom, one preached and promoted by deceived men, and their principles
are not principles of love and grace. Their principles are principles
of works and pride and self-will and labor for reward. The kingdom Christ preached was
a glorious kingdom, a blessed kingdom, an eternal kingdom.
The kingdom he came preaching had the authority of God on the
throne. He ruled. He reigned. And I'm
going to tell you something. If grace is not reigning in your
heart, you don't have the grace of God. Grace reigns. He's not
a figurehead on the throne. He's seated on the throne. and
his authority rules in his kingdom. And as he came preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, and there is just one gospel, one which
can be tolerated in this kingdom, one Lord, one faith, and one
baptism, he says in verse 15, the time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now the kingdom of God draws
nigh to men by way of gospel preaching. That's just so. That's just so. Whether our Lord
himself is preaching this gospel or whether I'm preaching it or
whether John was preaching it, the kingdom of God draws nigh
unto men through the preaching of the gospel and through the
presence and power of the Holy Ghost. When it is preached, men
and women are commanded to repent and believe. They're not asked
to do so, pretty please. They're commanded to do it. Now,
I'm going to tell you something. I was in the military, and when
you were given a commandment, you did it, didn't you? You might
not have done it right up front, but you soon learned when you're
given a commandment, you obey the commandment. They were to turn from themselves
to the true and living God and turn from their traditions and
imaginations to the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent ye and believe
the gospel. Believe the gospel that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of true Israel. that He came into the flesh to
do what sinners could not do for themselves. That's why He
came. They wrought out for them a perfect
righteousness and then died under the wrath of God, perfectly satisfying
divine justice on their behalf. It was the gospel of substitution
and representation and covenant suretyship. And it's the gospel
of God's sovereign grace in Christ. He came preaching the gospel
of the kingdom. The kingdom of God just has one
gospel. You either preach it or you don't.
You either believe it or you don't. There's no gray area. And the gospel is the declaration
of God our Savior. It's the announcement of the
sovereign grace of God to save sinners for the glory of His
name. It's the preaching of the fulfillment
and accomplished redemption of Christ, whereby he is revealed
as just and justifier. And this gospel, as it's preached
in harmony with the word of God, we're commanded to believe. To believe. The Lord himself, now you hear
this. If you don't hear me, you hear
this. The Lord himself commanded to believe. What, believe what? Believe his gospel, his gospel. May the Lord enable us to do
that very thing.