You'll turn back with me now
to Mark chapter one. The lot of a preacher. That's what John the Baptist
was. That's what our Lord came doing. And that's what I'm attempting
to do here this morning. The lot of a preacher. is mostly
that of a teacher. He called in the scriptures a
pastor-teacher. That verse there in Ephesians
chapter 4 says pastors and teachers, but in the original it doesn't
read that way, it says pastor-teachers. And do you know that in the great
commissions given by the men who wrote the Gospels. One says,
go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel. And then in
Matthew, he says, go ye into all nations and teach them. Teach them. So the lot of a preacher
is mostly that of a teacher. And he says he gave this office
of pastor-teachers for the maturing of the saints and for the work
of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ. And the
reason he did this is that we might not be as children, immature
little children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, brought by the slight of men and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. And let me tell you this. By
overwhelming majority, this world, religious and irreligious, according
to the Scriptures, walk in the vanity of their minds. in the vanity of their minds.
They have vain hopes. They have vain beliefs. They have a vain understanding.
Ephesians 4, 18, after he said that in verse 17, he says in
verse 18 that they walk having their understanding darkened. being alienated from the life
of God, that is the knowledge of God's character, the knowledge
of who God is, being alienated from the life of God through
the ignorance that's in them because of the blindness of their
heart. They have no clue what God is
doing or why. They don't know, what's God doing
today? Huh? If I were to go through
here and ask you as individuals this morning, what's God doing?
Could you tell me? They have no clue what God is
doing or why He's doing it. They have no idea who Christ
is or why He came or what He did when He did come. or where
he is this moment, or the significance of that, where he's at. They
walk in the vanity of their mind. They walk being puffed up and
deceived by anti-Christ religion. And so my hope this morning is
no different than it is any other morning when I come into the
pulpit. I come here hoping that God will use what I've prepared
to open blind eyes and deaf ears and to give you an understanding.
John said, we know that the whole world lieth in wickedness. We're
of God, the whole world lieth in wickedness. How do you know
that, John? Because the Son of God has come and given us an
understanding that we might know Him that's true. That's my goal
this morning. I want you to know Him. I want
you to know Him and the power of His resurrection. I want you
to know that. I come here this morning to teach
and to preach the only message that can help poor sinners like
you and I. I'm telling you, I listen to
them. I read their literature sometimes. They're not saying anything that
would help me. Not anything. So what I hope to show you today,
here's what I want you to understand. Only a handful by comparison
will ever know. Just a handful. You know after
our Lord said this, John was taken out of the way and he came
preaching the gospel. He called Matthew called his apostles just a handful,
just a handful. Only a remnant will gather to
hear and rejoice and even they wouldn't do it except that the
Father has drawn them. What are you telling us all that
for? Because our gathering here today
is very special. Don't ever forget that. Don't
ever forget that. Do not treat this time as common
and ordinary. Why, I'm just going to church
like I always do. Oh, don't get that attitude.
Don't get that attitude. Don't treat this time common
and ordinary, because I promise you the Lord don't, and His angels
don't either. His angels stand quiet when the
children of God gather to worship, to hear. So listen to what I'm saying
this morning. Take some notes if it helps you.
And then go home and search the scriptures and see if these things
that I'm telling you are not so. See if this is not the context
in which they're giving. See if this is not according
to the word of God. If it's not according to the
word of God, throw it out. Throw it out. But if it is, embrace
it. And ask God to give you some
understanding of it. There are three things that I
want to point out this morning here in these first 15 verses
of Mark's Gospel. I want to, if the Lord will permit,
to show you the significance of John the Baptist. We hear
a lot about John the Baptist. Who he is. Why is he in all the
Gospels? Who is this John the Baptist?
i want to show you something about the significance of john
the baptist and secondly i want to and this more so than anything
the appearance of jesus christ and then thirdly what jesus christ
came preaching to me so let's begin here who is john the baptist
do you know that He was so commonly called John the Baptist that
some of them used that term Baptist as his last name. They just called
him John Baptist. John Baptist. That's what he
did. That was his ministry. Well, why is he such a prominent
figure in all four Gospels? You know, sometimes in these
Gospels you'll find events recorded that's not recorded in the other
Gospels. Here in Mark, he just, he shoots straight to John the
Baptist. He doesn't tell you anything about the lineage of
Christ like Luke does, and he doesn't go all the way back to
Adam, and so on. And there's a lot of events,
a lot of miracles, a lot of things that these different authors
penned under the inspiration of the Spirit that others just
left out. And here in Mark, he just goes whoom. I mean, this
is the beginning of the Gospel. He goes straight to John the
Baptist. All four gospel narratives begin
with an account of John the Baptist. Now after 400 years of silence,
what do you mean silence? I mean God had no prophet to
represent him or preach his gospel to men for
400 years. And you know most men didn't
know it. Most of them didn't miss it. Didn't make a bit of difference
in their worship. Boy, they just kept right on.
They just kept right on doing what they were doing. They didn't
need God's messenger. He wasn't important to them. God just withdrew his messengers
for 400 years. So you can imagine what kind
of mess religion was in when our Lord came to this world. After 400 years of silence, that
is without a prophet of God, a strange man appeared and rose
into prominence among the people. He wasn't at all like the religious
men of his generation. He didn't come up through their
ranks. He didn't go to their seminaries. He didn't belong
to their cliques. He didn't dress like they dressed.
He didn't wear robes with long, broad phylacteries. He didn't
do that. He was unlike these great religious
men of his generation. He didn't attend their seminaries.
He didn't seek their approval. He didn't ask them if he could
preach. He didn't ask them for permission.
He didn't ask them to sign a bill where he could hang it up and
say, well, the Jews said it was OK for me to come out and preach
there. He didn't have anybody's approval but God. He didn't dress like they dressed.
He wore a girdle of animal skins. He looked like a caveman. A girdle of animal skins about
his loins and his clothes were made of camel's hair. His diet, he didn't eat like
other men. He ate locusts. Somebody said,
well that's the flowering locust tree and they take the flowers
and it's kind of sweet and they make He ate locusts. The bug,
locusts. And do you know that the locust
is one of the few insects approved under Jewish law to be eaten?
Yeah. He ate locusts and sweetened
them up with wild honey. John the Baptist. Looked like
a caveman. And never in the history of God's
prophets did any messenger of God command believers to be baptized. Unprecedented. Nobody. Elijah
didn't. Isaiah didn't. Nobody did. Malachi didn't. Daniel didn't.
Nobody. Nobody before him, not one single
prophet commanded believers to be baptized until John. But John did. John did. And John the Apostle
made this statement about John the Baptist. He said, there was
a man sent from God. That ought to be enough credentials
right there. God sent him. It didn't matter
who was against him. The Apostle Paul said, if God
be for us, who can be against us? John the Baptist was a man
sent from God. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. God chose him. God ordained him. God covered him in his mother's
womb with the Holy Spirit. God prophesied of his coming.
God foretold through his prophets of this man, John the Baptist. But the most significant thing
about John is that he was chosen to be the forerunner of Christ. The promised Messiah would not
appear until his forerunner came and prepared the way, made men
and women conscious of his promised appearance and the significance
of it, who it was that was coming and
why. And these are the things which
are mysteries to religious men, things which they don't know,
they don't have answers to. Men preach moral reform. They see man not as fallen and
totally depraved, but he's in bad shape. He's in bad
shape. He just needs some help. He needs
some help. He needs somebody to come and
give him the right medicine and doctor him up a little bit and
he'll be fine. He'll be fine. They preach moral
reform. You need to change your way.
You need to turn over a new leaf. You need to quit drinking and
start going to church. You need to do this, you need
to do that. And they preach ceremonialism,
the keeping of days and weeks and years. Ceremonialism, the
priesthood. We can't have a religious society
and not have a priesthood. You have to have a priesthood.
You have to have washings. And on and on it goes. They preach
the law and self-righteousness that a person can make themselves
acceptable to God by keeping the law. That salvation is partly of God
and partly of man. God begins the work and man finishes
it, or the other way around. But it never entered into the
mind of any man that God has promised a coming
Redeemer and that his mission is to save his people from their
sins. To do for them what they cannot
do for themselves. Religion preaches a can type
of salvation. You can. If you will, you can. The Bible don't talk about that.
The Bible says the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. You can't sell them to him. You
can't talk him into it. He's not going to have it. He's
not going to have it. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know them because they're spiritually understood. Both Isaiah and Malachi foretell
of his coming, that is John the Baptist. But since Malachi is
the last book of the Old Testament, I'm gonna quote him, and because
Mark uses that quotation here in the first part of this chapter.
In Malachi chapter three, verse one. He said, behold, I will
send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And
the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple,
even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in. Behold,
he shall come, saith the Lord. And then again in Malachi chapter
4 and verse 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great
and dreadful day. of the Lord. Have you ever, in
all your days of religion, ever heard a religious man? I'm talking about Armenian religion,
false religion. Have you ever heard one of them
ever describe the coming of Christ? And we're getting ready to come
into the season now. And I want you to listen and
see if any of you ever hear them describe the coming of Christ
as the great and dreadful day. Not going to hear it. Not going
to hear it. But that's what Malachi said. And then in Matthew 11, verse
13, our Lord says, For all the apostles and the law prophesied. You know, I had to stop and look
at that two or three times. I know the prophets prophesied,
but he said the law prophesied. All of the prophets and the law
prophesied until John. Until John. And if you will receive
it, this was Elijah who was for to come. That is, John the Baptist
came with the spirit and attitude and character of Elijah. John the Baptist, his prophecy
and his appearance is a vital link between the Old Testament and
the New, and a vital link between the promised Messiah of the Old
Testament and his appearance in the New. Christ is not going
to appear until his forerunner comes. So you see the significance
of John the Baptist. All right, let's go back to our
text here in Mark 1 and look at verse 14. After John, that is, you know,
he was put in prison. After John came Jesus. John fulfilled his coming, he
fulfilled God's purpose in having him. He came and prepared the
hearts and minds of the people so that they understood what
this coming Messiah was all about. The Jews thought the coming Messiah
was going to be another David. They thought he was going to
come and take them out from under Roman rule and organize an army
and return them to their former state of glory, raise them up.
They're going to be the greatest nation in the world, going to
be the Jews. And then like David, he was going to ascend and sit
on the throne, and he was going to govern the people and teach
the people. And he's going to usher them right back into favor
with God. When John the Baptist come, he
didn't teach that. He taught why Christ is coming. Why this man, who he is, he's
the son of God. Why is he coming? To save his
people from their sins. He's coming to accomplish the
redemption which God purposed before the world was. Who is
this man, Jesus of Nazareth? Well, my friend, that's the question
of questions there. Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth? John said, it is He who's coming
after me, is preferred before me. Whose shoes latcheth, I'm not
worthy to unloose. The Lord came to John and He
said, I want to be baptized. And John
said, baptized? By me? I have need to be baptized
of you. I'm not worthy to bend down and
unloose your shoe latches. He said, suffer it to be so for
now. For so it becometh us to fulfill
all the prophecy, all the word of God, all the law. Who is this man Jesus of Nazareth? Well John said, This is the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world, not sins of the
world, but the sin of the world, the condemnation of it, the judgment
of it. And so He does with every believing
sinner. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. And John said this about Jesus
Christ. He said, I bear record that this
is the Son of God. John 1.34. This is the Son of
God. This man Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of the carpenter, this is the Son of God. Russell, this
is God. This man that I'm about to baptize
is the Son of God. This one that I'm calling the
Lamb of God is the Son of God. You believe God's messenger?
Some of them did. The Son of God coming into this
world in union with human flesh as a representative, as a savior. Now, let me tell you something.
If all man needs is inspiration, I hear that all the time. That's
all they need. They just need, just give me
some inspiration. That's all I need. Give me some
inspiration. If inspiration is all you need, the Son of God
did not have to be made a man and live under the law and die
on the cross. The Holy Spirit could inspire
you. Christ didn't have to come down from heaven just to inspire
men. If all man needs to reconcile
himself to God is to keep the law as best he can, then the
Son of God didn't have to become a servant, did he? And be made in the likeness of
human flesh. and serve that law until he died. Pharisees were already doing
that and teaching that. If all we needed was for God
to forgive us of our sins, the Son of God would not have to
be made of a woman and made under the law and die on the cross. The incarnation of the Son of
God as the covenant head of his people, as a representative and
substitute of his elect, is absolutely necessary. to the salvation of
your soul. If he didn't pay for your sins,
then you still owe the bill. But if he paid the bill, you
don't owe anything. Huh? He said, I am the way. I don't know the way. His own disciple
told him that. We don't know the way. We don't
know where you're going. And we don't know the way. He
said, I am the way. Well, I don't know if I know
the truth. He is the truth. Isn't that what he said? I am the truth. I'm the way. I'm the truth. Well, I don't
know if I have eternal life. Do you have Christ? He's the
life. That way of saying it, I am the
light. And you don't need the incarnate
son of God to be religious. Build your priesthood. Catholics
did. Build your priesthood. Build
your temple. Get you a catechism. Get together.
Get all the members together. Sit down. Get all the old books
out. Get all the old rules out. Sit
down. Draw you up a catechism. It's what we believe. Get you some holy days. You all see it. hire some preachers and dress
them up in a religious costume and hire some entertainers and
you're good to go. You don't need God to become
a man to be religious. Anybody can get religion. You don't need anything to be
religious except blind to. That's all you need. But to be
saved from sin, the Son of God has to come and do for you what
you can't do for yourself. He has to keep the law perfectly,
unbroken, continuously from the cradle to the grave. He has to
keep that law. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do. Paul
said, you that desire to be under the law, do you hear what the
law says? Do you hear the law? And then the God-man must go
to the cross and suffer the penalty for our sins until the fire of
God's wrath have burned itself out. Why? Why? Why do these things have to be? Because justice and judgment
is the habitation of God's throne. That's why. And he's not going
to compromise his justice. He's not going to compromise
his judgment. He's not going to compromise
his righteousness or his holiness to save anybody, not even his
son. So here's where we are. John's
in prison. In the providence of God, he's
fulfilled his purpose. God's taken him out of the way
now. He'll soon be beheaded. He'll soon be gone. And after John came Jesus. All right, what did this man
Jesus do? The strangest thing. Strangest
thing. He came preaching the gospel.
Isn't that what this is? Isn't that strange? He came preaching
the gospel. He did not rally an army to overthrow
Rome. He could have. They tried to
take him by force and make him a king, and he walked through
the midst and hid himself. He didn't rally an army to overthrow
Rome. He did not inspire his followers
to protest against the unhuman treatment of the Jews. He did not organize a plan to
infiltrate the politics of Rome with Christian leaders. What did he do? The last thing
anybody would expect, he preached the gospel. Huh? He preached the gospel. He came
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Well, what did this gospel
say? Three things. First of all, he says this. He
came preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and he said the
time is fulfilled. What time? Huh? What on earth is he talking
about? The time is fulfilled. In the
fullness, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law. When did he do it? When the fullness
of the time was come. What is this time? It's the time
before the coming of the Son of Man, the promised Redeemer.
And let me tell you this, there was a long period of time in
the Old Testament from creation to the coming of Christ. Some
writers say 4,000 years, some say more. But at least 4,000
years. 4,000 years? What took God so
long? Huh? God created the world in seven
days. Why did he wait 4,000 years before
his son came into this world? What was going on during this
time? Why did the living God wait so many thousand years before
he sent his Redeemer? And there's all kinds of reasons.
I'm going to give you two. First of all, because the all-wise
God purposed to do it that way. That's the first reason. This
is the way God purposed to do it. Not how man would do it,
not how we'd do it. This is how God does it. He worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. And will we,
worms of the dust, we going to bring our God into question? We're going to say God was unfair
and all that time, waiting all that time? We're going to bring
God into question or are we just going to accept his word and
believe God? But secondly, and in the context
of Mark's gospel, the foundation for his appearance was being
laid in the Old Testament. Did you know that's what the
Old Testament was? It's the foundation for the coming of Christ. It
lays the foundation, the basis of the coming of Christ. Paul
said other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid.
It's already laid. This stone that you Jews rejected,
he said, God made at the head of the corner. He's the cornerstone. Three types of stones used in
a building. The cornerstone, The keystone
of an arch, you got an arch and right up here in the middle you
got a keystone. And the capstone or headstone. That's what Zachariah
talked about when the temple was completely done. The headstone
was up there. And it said, grace, grace unto
it. That's Christ. The cornerstone
is the first stone laid in the foundation and that upon which
all the rest of the building is attached. The cornerstone. The Bible begins its testimony
of Christ way back yonder in Genesis 3.15. It says He's going
to be the woman's seed. Women don't have seeds. He's going to be the seed of
the woman. He's going to be virgin born. He's next seen in the slaying
of that innocent lamb to cover the nakedness of our first parents.
He's seen again at their son's altar, Abel's altar, a lamb. Then he's seen in Noah's ark.
He's the ark. Christ is the ark. Everything
in him is going to be preserved from the wrath of God. And then
he's the bow in the sky after the flood. the covenant promises of God. And thousands of things from
then until now, the blood on the doorpost in Egypt, the unleavened
bread, the tree back yonder in the wilderness, they came upon
that water and you drank it and it was bitter and they threw
a tree in it and it sweetened the water, that's Christ. The unleavened bread, the tree
cast into the bitter waters, the rock that followed Israel
in the wilderness and that rock was Christ. the tabernacle, the
showbread, the golden censer, the altar of the labor, the holy
of holies, the ark of the testament, the high priest. These, Paul
said, were figures for the time then present. They're patterns
of things in the heavens and shadows of good things to come.
The foundation's being laid. The foundation's being laid.
The Old Testament lays the foundation and basis of the person and work
of Jesus Christ. You know, they want to make the
sacrifice of Christ a universal sacrifice. That seems fair in
the mind of men because they believe themselves worthy to
be saved. That's why they do that. And
so they twist and distort the scriptures and they twist them
around and they try to make them look like This atonement was
universal. This atonement was for all men.
Go back where the foundation's being laid. Whose sins were being atoned
for in that time? Whose names were written on the
heart of the high priest and on his shoulders to bear them
up before God? The children of Israel, period. And that's what you find all
the way through there. All the way through there. Old Testament lays the foundation
and basis of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He's going to
come as a high priest. He's going to make atonement
for Israel. And after that atonement is made
and God accepts it, He's going to come forth from the tomb and
bless the people. Paul said, I delivered unto you
first that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. Now let me tell you something.
Paul didn't have a New Testament. He was the New Testament. He didn't have a New Testament.
The Scriptures that he's talking about here is Old Testament Scriptures. And that he was buried and rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures. And every
promise, type, and prophecy of the Old Testament was fulfilled
by Christ. Here's what the preacher said
in the book of Acts. He said to him, give all the
prophets witness to Christ, laying that foundation. And John Gill
said this, nothing was more clearly prefigured and foretold and nothing
more punctually and fully answered than the doing and the dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There it is. The time is fulfilled. It's fulfilled. Everything God
has purposed to say, he's already said. Foundation's been laid,
all right? Secondly, Mark 1 15. Here's the
second thing this gospel preaches. The kingdom of God is at hand. I didn't bother to search this
out in any dictionary or anything, but the phrase at hand seems
to me to be within reach. Don't you imagine that's why
that was at hand when they're talking about at hand? Kingdom
of God is at hand. Within reach, within an arm's
length, right in front of you. The Kingdom of God, the King
of the Kingdom of God was preaching to them. The Kingdom is at hand. It's being brought now. It's
come into your presence. It's come into your vision. It's
no longer written or scribed in these Old Testament scrolls,
but now it's in the embodiment of a man and he's standing before
you. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Not way out yonder in some distant promise, but standing right before
you. Not just on the pages of the
old scrolls, but in a person who was speaking to them. Well,
what is this kingdom? What is this kingdom of God,
he prayed? All that God has purposed to
save. That's his kingdom. That's his kingdom. Our Lord
said, I come not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me, and this is the will of him that sent me, that of
all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. I'm gonna raise
it up again, the last time. He says in Ephesians 1, I think
it's verses 10 and 11, that there's going to be a gathering. All
things are going to be gathered together in Christ. Everything
we've given to Him is going to be gathered. And He's going to
give an account for it in glory. All which God has purposed to
save, to establish and rule over in love and care. That's His
kingdom. And my friend, salvation's in a person. It's in a person. Without the king, where would
be the kingdom? Everything God has for sinners
is vested in Christ. Ephesians 1.12 tells us that
it was God who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted
after you heard the word of truth. What was vested in Christ? Everything. Everything. Do you think about
that for just a minute? Well, I'll tell you. God has
some things. He has things that we can't even
imagine. But He didn't have anything that
wasn't vested in His Son. Everything. Men speak of it very little,
but Christ's creation was vested in Him. He created this world.
He's going to fold it up. God's name was vested in Him,
God's purpose, God's will, God's glory, God's oath, God's demands,
God's judgment, God's people, and God's rule. Everything has
been vested in Christ. All the promises of God, Paul
said, are yea and amen in Christ. All of them. Now the kingdom of God is at
hand. It's here. It's now. It's in the visible,
in the touchable, within reach. Now listen to this scripture
closely. He said, He came down to do the
will of the Father. I just quoted that to you. Of
all which the Father hath given me, I should lose nothing, but
raise it up again at the last day. Now watch this. And this
is the will of Him that sent me, that of all which He hath
given me, I should lose nothing. I'm going to raise it up again
at the last day. And he said, this is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone who seeth the Son and believeth
on Him might have everlasting life. All in Him. All in Him. Kingdom of God is
at hand. Now here's the last thing. What
does this great King command us to do? Repent and believe. That's what he tells us to do.
Turn yourself from this day of lies and deceit and confusion
and darkness. Turn away from traditional religion
and all of its heresies. Turn away from all your preconceived
notions and concepts of God and see yourself being saved of God
in this person, Jesus Christ. Repent. You say, I don't know
how. I don't know how. Well, see yourself as God describes
you and as your heart gives evidence that it is. Repent. Peter said this. He said, save yourselves from
this untoward generation. Turn. Repent. Well, what is repent? I believe
it's an awakening of the heart to sin. It's to see sin for what
it is. It's exceedingly sinful to see
yourself, your inability, your fall, your cursedness before
God. You're not going to turn until
you understand what you are. There's no help out there because
out there is just a multitude the same thing you are. It's an awakening of the heart
to what sin is, the nature of it, the curse of it, the wickedness
of it, the reign of it. Discovering what you are before
God. And then he tells us to believe.
Believe what? The gospel. Well, what is the
gospel? The gospel is a person. Who is this man? Why did he come? What did he do? Where is he now?
It's all about the person. repent, and believe. That Christ is all, in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in
him. That Christ accomplished all that God sent him to do.
That when he cried, it is finished, it was finished. The gospel,
though it's made up of doctrine, is a person. And all of the gospel
together is called the doctrine of Christ. Not doctrines, the
doctrine of Christ. And faith believes on and in
the Christ of God. They don't believe in another
Jesus. Paul said, if somebody else comes after me preaching
another Jesus, let him be accursed of God. Everything God promised is in
Him. Everything God accepted is in
Him. Everything God is preserving
is in Him. And everything that will survive
the judgment of God is in Him. Now, where does that leave you? Where does that leave me? Huh? He preached this to them
people. And He commanded them to repent
and believe. Where does that leave you and
I? Well, there's an old English term we don't hear today, inculcate. You ever read it? Ever heard
it? You know what it means? What it means is to impress your
hearer with a forceful, with a forceful urging. That's what
it means. The greatest gift of God, the
greatest manifestation of His love and His mercy and His grace
is in the giving of His Son to redeem His people from their
sin. By the same token, now hear me,
the greatest crime, the greatest evidence of man's hatred of God
is to reject, cast aside, and refuse to embrace the Son of
God, our Savior. That's the greatest crime. He
told those Pharisees, they were looking down their nose at these
common men, these publicans and sinners. They were looking down
their nose at him. He said, let me tell you something.
It's going to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah. You know
what they're all about. It's going to be more tolerable
for them in the day of judgment than for you. Why? Because the Son of God preached
to you and you cast him aside. I'm telling you, the greatest
crime you can commit is not adultery, it's not murder, it's not stealing,
it's not lying. The greatest crime you can commit
is to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and treat it as though
it were nothing. Paul said, he who despised the
law of Moses died without mercy, without mercy, under two or three
witnesses. They marched him outside the
camp and they picked up his big rock, just as big as a man could
hold and still throw, and bashed their brains in. They died without mercy under
two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy
thing, and hath done despite under the Spirit of grace." Now, what are you going to do? Huh? What are we going to do? We've heard the gospel. We've
been told plainly about Christ. This gospel has been brought
nigh unto us. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Paul said our gospel is in your mouth. It's on your tongue. You're
already talking about it. You're already thinking about
it. It's on your heart. Now what are we going to do?
We've heard it. We've been told it's nice, it's in our mouth
and in our heart. I'll be preaching, preaching.
I'm not ready. If you were, there'd be no need
for Christ to come at all. Christ died for sinners. He said,
I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The
well don't need a physician, the sick need a physician. You're
not being ready is the greatest evidence to me of Christ working
in your heart. The fact that you're not ready.
And you're never gonna be ready. Preacher, I'm not sure. I'm not
sure if I've repented enough. There are no degrees of repentance.
He just said repent. Now I'm going to tell you something.
Natural man can't repent one degree. He can't repent at all. So if you have repentance, you
have the repentance of which he's talking about. Why do you wait? I'm trying to ask you questions
that I believe you're asking yourself. Why do you wait? You think circumstances are going
to change? You think man is going to get any better or God is going
to be any more tolerable? Christ's sacrifice is going to
be any more effectual? Why are you waiting on? You think it's all nature is
going to get any better? Oh, but you say, Preacher, I
believe. I do. I believe. I believe what you're
saying. I see it in the Word of God.
I see myself the sinner. I see Christ the Savior the sinner.
I see Him sitting at the right hand of God. I see Him sitting
on the throne making intercession for us. Then don't you think
you ought to confess Him in baptism like He commanded? What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Our Lord said, that man who shall
confess me before men, I'll confess him before my Father in Heaven.
But that man who won't confess me, and that's the only confession
I know anything about, that man who won't confess me, He said,
I won't confess him. A preacher, you sound like some
Arminian preacher trying to get folks down the aisle. I'm not
trying to close between you and Christ. And I'm certainly not
trying to get you to come down an aisle. What I'm trying to
do is to tell you that this ain't no game. This ain't no game. This is about
your soul. It ain't about how much bread
is going to be on the table. It's about your soul. And I'm trying to tell you this.
You either believe or you don't. Now that's how it is. That's
how it is. He said, he that's not with me
is against me. He's against me. There's no vacuum
out here somewhere where you go off here in this little vacuum
and you're not getting any worse. And you just sit there and you
kind of tumble around in limbo for a little. He that's not with
me is against me. He that gathereth not with me,
he's scattering abroad. He's scattering abroad. Oh, may
the Holy Spirit enable you to repent and believe.