If you'll turn back with me now
to Mark chapter one. My desire, if the Holy Spirit
will enable me, is to preach to you this morning
as if it were the first time that you ever heard the gospel. And if he will enable me as though
it were my last time to ever preach the gospel. That's how
we ought to hear it every time. There's a first time and there's
a last time. And if he'd be pleased to do
so, there may be many times in between. In Mark chapter one, the apostle
begins his testimony with these words, the beginning of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now some would argue that the
gospel had its beginning in the New Testament. I know there's
denominations who believe that way. kind of thing, that the
beginning of the gospel was in the New Testament when Christ
appeared on this earth and performed the work that the Father sent
Him to do. And they say that is the beginning
of the gospel. But that's not true. The gospel
is God's gospel. Isn't that what He says in Romans
chapter 1 verse 1? It's His gospel. And the gospel is as old as God. It's as old as God. He calls
it in Revelation 14, six, the everlasting gospel. The gospel of God and all its
promises were said to be given in eternity past, including the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of them, every last one of
them, you can read every one of them. Listen to this, Ephesians
1 through 8, speaks of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, having blessed us with the totality
of all heavenly blessings in His Son, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. When did he bless
us? Farther back than your mind can
comprehend. Paul told Timothy that God has
saved us. He saved us. Well, when did that
salvation begin? Well, he said it wasn't according
to our works. It was according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. And even the means of our calling
was fixed in God's eternal purpose, having chosen us unto salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth,
2 Thessalonians 2.13. And if you take time to go through
the scriptures, you'll find that everything concerning the gospel
of Jesus Christ had its beginning in eternity. That redemption
that he purchased on Calvary's tree, Paul calls it in Hebrews
chapter 9, eternal redemption. Now the Apostle Mark is not talking
here about the origin of the gospel, but the beginning of
his gospel. His gospel, his testimony. Now the title of this book we
have opened here before us this morning is The Gospel According
to Mark. And you'll find out that it says
the same thing about Matthew and Luke and John. So where does a man or when does
a man begin when he's chosen to bear witness of the gospel
of God? Where does he start? Where would
you start? Huh? Matthew begins with the
natural generation of Christ as the promised seed of Abraham.
And he traces his lineage from Abraham all the way down to the
birth of Christ. And Luke goes all the way back
to Adam to show us the promised seed of the woman. The woman
seed. He goes all the way back to Adam,
calls Adam the son of God. traces his lineage all the way
down to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then John, he goes beyond
both of those two. John goes back into eternity. And he said, in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And he comes down to tell us
about this chosen seed of God from all eternity, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. And this one who is the eternal
word was made flesh and dwelt among us. All right, look at
verse two of Mark's gospel. As it's written in the prophets,
behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
the way before thee. Now there's several things I
want you to see here in this verse. First of all, that this
messenger was foretold in the prophets. mark not making up
a new gospel he's not he's not giving us a new gospel he's going
back to the old testament showing us the foundation of this gospel
which was established way back then this messenger was foretold and
the profits dot profit john the baptist was prophesied by isaiah
and malachi and many others. His coming was not a new revelation,
it was a new manifestation. And so it is with every true
messenger of God. Preaching is not a new profession. It's not a New Testament profession. You can say, well, we didn't
have preachers before Christ appeared on this earth and after
He died He appointed preachers. Oh, I beg your pardon. He'd been
preaching this gospel as long as man had been on the earth.
He preached this gospel himself to Adam in the cool of the day
and gave him a picture of what he was about to do and showed
him his redemption. The gospel of types and figures
was preached in Israel in the wilderness, Paul said. Hebrews
4 verse 2, the gospel was preached unto them as well as unto us.
That's what he said. And then you can find it again
in Romans 4 verse 25 where he said it's the gospel of God. The gospel is not a new revelation,
but as John was, he was a new manifestation of the gospel. And secondly, he was sent of
God. How's a man gonna tell you about God if God doesn't send
him? How shall he preach except he be sent? He has to be sent
of God. And then thirdly, the sin of
God, it says, before your face. This messenger which the Old
Testament prophets prophesied and the one that John Mark is
talking about here as he begins his gospel of Jesus Christ, he's
talking about John the Baptist, was sin of God before your face. What's that mean? That means
in your face. That's what that means. in your
face. Directing their remarks to you
personally. John the Baptist looked at those
Pharisees, everybody, and all of Judea and Jerusalem came out
to be baptized of John and were baptized by him in the River
of Jordan. I read that to you back in our
reading a little earlier. But the Pharisees came with us.
but they had no change inside of them. They had no work of
the Holy Spirit inside of them. They had no fruits of repentance.
They just came because all the people had gone out there and
they didn't want to get separated from the people. They were jealous
over the multitudes that were gathered out there with John
and so they went out and they were willing to submit themselves
to his baptism. But here they came, still wearing
their broad robes and broad phylacteries and all of those things that
designated them as Pharisees and of the priesthood and these
various offices that they held. And here they come down the path.
And John said, whoa, wait a minute. Wait a minute. He said, you vipers. That's in your face, ain't it?
Huh? You vipers. He said, you go back
and bring fruits, meat for repentance. Then we'll talk about baptism.
That's in your face. John was plain. He didn't have
fancy words of man's wisdom. The man dressed in camel's hair
and ate grasshoppers and wild honey. That was his diet. He said, would you go out and
see a man clothed in soft raiment? You went out to hear the greatest
man ever born a woman. You think he's going to back
up from what he has to say? No, he's in your face. He's going
to take his finger and he's going to put it right in your face.
And he said, you're guilty. And if you don't believe me,
you go read the witness what he said to that king who was
about to behead him. And I can give you many more
examples. Bishop Latimer. Oh my soul. Gave him one more
chance to preach. And he did. He preached the same
message that they told him not to preach for the third time.
And the king executed him. Oh, my soul. You know, it's one
thing to read a book. It's another thing to have a
man look you in the eyes and tell you what the book's saying. We got a fellow here this morning
working for law enforcement. He'll tell you in a heartbeat,
there's a difference train looking at that sign that says stop.
That's the law. Stop. There's a difference between
looking at that sign and making up your mind whether you're going
to run it or not, or having that man with his finger in your face
in the window. That sign said stop. Huh? There's a difference. And there's
a difference in reading the Bible at your house and having a man
stand up before you in your face and saying, this is what this
book is saying. Believe it. or go to hell. Huh? Isn't that what it says? He that believeth not shall be
damned. That's exactly what it says. He said, I'm going to send
my messenger. Now, if he's not sent of God,
he's not going to do that. He's going to stand up here.
He wants you to come. He wants your income. He wants
you to feel good about yourself. He'll build you a swimming pool.
He'll build you a basketball team. He'll give you anything
you want to keep you coming and keep you giving and be behind
him. But not God's messenger. God's
messenger will say, nope, go on back and bring back fruits,
meat for repentance. I ain't baptizing you till I
see some evidence of your salvation. Huh? That's in your face kind
of preaching, isn't it? That's exactly what God's messenger
is. He's in your face. And one day
you'll stand before God and you'll recall that moment that God's
preacher was in your face and you didn't hear him. You'll recall
it. If the book says something you
don't agree with, you'll write it off to the old language. That's
what a man told me one time about Christ being made sin. He said,
oh, that's that old English. No, that's that old man. That's
what that is. That old man in you resisting. They'll write it off to the old
language. It was written in another time,
or maybe you'll write it off to your own lack of knowledge.
Not many will, but some might write it off with their own lack
of knowledge. But when a man tells you in simple
language what this book's saying, and to whom he's saying it, it
has a much stronger effect on you than it does if you just
read the book. And that's what he said. I'm
going to send my messenger to him. He's my messenger. I'm going
to give him my gospel, and he's going to come to you, and he's
going to get in your face, and he's going to tell you the truth.
And I tell you, when you hear it, you'll love him. You'll love
him. You'll come back. You'll say,
I want to hear that again. When our Lord came and began
to preach, he was a preacher. I know he's the Savior, and he's
the Redeemer, but he was a preacher. God anointed him with a spirit
without measure, and he preached. And when he did, they said, boy,
this ain't like them other preachers. He preaches with power. He preaches
with authority. He commands the devils, and they
listen to him. All right, fourthly. This messenger's
mission. He said, he'll come to prepare
thy way before thee. Now what I'm saying to you this
morning, I'm using John the Baptist as an example. He was the forerunner
of Christ. But every messenger of God is
called to do the exact same thing. The exact same thing. to declare
to you and for you the way fallen sinners can come to God. That's
why he sent. You go, he said, and prepare
their way before. You set the way before them.
You tell them the way. You give them plain instruction.
You're not to stand up there like a college professor and
dictate terms and things to them that they don't understand. You
just stand up there in plain language and tell them that men
are saved by the grace of God. Sovereign grace. It's His prerogative. He can save whom He will. He
can pass by whom He will. That's what He told Moses. Moses
said, show me your glory. He said, okay, here's my glory.
I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I'll be merciful
to whom I will be merciful and whom I will I'll harden. That's
my glory. Now go tell them that. Don't
tell them in a way, men want to disguise this thing so as
not to offend men. Paul was scared to death he wouldn't
offend them. This gospel's offensive, I expect
it to offend natural man. But oh, I tell you, if he ever
breaks your heart and brings you to Christ, you'll see what
I'm talking about and he'll become the sweetest thing you ever chewed
in your mouth. When a man tells you in simple
language what this book is saying and to whom it's saying it, it
has a different effect on you than just reading it. Now you
go prepare the way before to declare to you and for you the
way fallen sinners can come to God to tell you in great plainness
of speech how God saves sinners. How does God save sinners? Well,
it begins in election. God chose to save a people for
His glory. And He chose them through a mediator. He chose them through His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that they might be holy and without
blame before Him in love. So He chose them in His Son.
in his son, made him secure in his son, appointed his son as
the mediator, redeemer, substitute, high priest, all the things,
all the offices involved in saving poor sinners. He chose them. He chose Then by name, he knows
exactly who they are. He didn't just choose the way
of salvation. He says in 2 Thessalonians 2.13,
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of spirit and belief of the truth. Men are chosen by the sovereign
grace of God. by the sovereign grace. Well,
how does a man know he's elect? If he's elect, God's going to
send him a messenger. And the messenger is going to
tell him the truth. He's going to prepare the way
before him. He's going to tell you how God
saves sinners, and you're going to believe. And it's your faith
and your coming to Christ that manifests your election. How
simple is this? The Lord said in John 6, I think
it's 37 or 38, He said, all which the Father hath given me shall
come to me. That's how you're going to know
your election. You come to Christ. You come to Christ. We say, I
might not be able to come because I'm not elect. Well, you'll never
know your election until you come. That's how it is. God's sovereign, all the means
He sovereignly chose and put in place. These men are sent to declare
to you and for you the way fallen sinners can come to God and to
tell you in great plainness of speech how God saves sinners.
John was the forerunner of Christ and so it is with every messenger
of God that he sends. He's to speak as a forerunner
of Christ and prepare the way. Prepare the way. Set the way
before him. How can my sins be put away?
They have to be charged to another. I don't have the ability. If
I sat in hell and suffered for all eternity, and that's what
men will do, they can never pay the debt of sin. Only the Son
of God could satisfy infinite justice. And He did satisfy it
by His death on the cross. Now that just sucks. And in so
doing, it says He put away our sins. They're gone. Actually,
when we go back and read about it, we find out in 2 Corinthians
5 that they were never even charged to us. And so David even talked
about it in the psalm, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not charge sin. That's a blessed man. But his
sins had to be accounted for, so what'd he do with them? Charged
them to Christ. Charged them to the substitute.
Now the substitute didn't make an effort to redeem, he redeemed.
He didn't make an effort to save, he saved. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. Now just think about what I'm
saying. And it says He was delivered for our offenses and when God
raised Him from the dead, He was raised for our justification
to tell us that our sins are gone, justly paid for, just as
satisfied, made righteous in Christ. Huh? That's how God saves
sinners. You can't pay for your sins,
and even if you could, you wouldn't, because you have a nature sin. You know, part of the time he
tells us about sinners, he said they cannot come. Huh? They cannot come. Part of
the time he says they will not come. It's the same thing. It's
the same thing. This is the messenger's duty.
And later on, when the Lord began to preach, He sent 70 preachers
out, two by two, into every city and place, where there He Himself
would come. Just as He did John, sending
Him into the world to prepare the hearts of the people for
Him who is coming. And then after He'd come, and
after He'd begin His ministry, He sent 70 out, and then sent
70 more out after them. But He sent them into places
where there He Himself would come. Where's he going to come? Whether
two or three are met together in his name. He said, there will
I be in their midst. So what's he going to do? He's
going to send a preacher out there. He's going to send a messenger
out there. And he's going to declare this way to them. My friend, you and I live in
a perverse and wicked world, a world filled with darkness
and satanic religion, a world where, for the most part, idolatry
is the accepted way of worship. Paul said, after the way which
you call heresy, that's how I worship God. The Jews in the day of John the
Baptist had long since forgotten the way of faith and substitution.
Their religion was a religion of works and legalism and self-righteousness,
ceremonialism. They believed in a covenant,
hereditary salvation. If they could trace their roots
back to Abraham, they were chosen of God. They believed that God's covenant
with Abraham was theirs by right of their blood relationship.
They believed that God's love and favor came as a reward for
their obedience and their sacrifices. They believed that men and women
could make themselves acceptable to God by their obedience to
the law. And has this not always been
the way of it in false religion? It always has. Always has. The Jews practice a self-righteous
works religion, a national religion. and a priestly temple worship
and chiefly made up of ceremonies which they kept. Holy days. Feast days. Things like Christmas
and Easter and all of this type of thing, except back then it
was a feast given under the law, or a holy day given under the
law, Sabbath day. And these things were types and
symbols and pictures to illustrate the work of God in salvation,
which Christ, when he came, fulfilled perfectly. I don't have any need
to look at a lamb getting its throat cut. Christ died on the
cross. He's the Lamb. John the Baptist
said, Behold the Lamb. He's the Lamb. I look to Him. I don't need to bring a lamb
up here and slit its throat every Sunday to show you and typify
to you what it takes to save sinners. I just point to Christ
and Him crucified. And then think about this, all
the Gentiles were left to themselves to worship whatever images and
beasts that their imaginations could conjure up. And I'm going to tell you something,
all these things are still prevalent today. They'll worship anything,
and I do mean anything. Tell me that Catholicism is not
a carryover from the Jews' priesthood and temple worship mixed with
some New Testament facts. That's all that it is. Tell me
that these holiness churches today are not practicing the
same kind of legalism that the Jews practiced. Tell me that
the fundamentalists are not practicing ceremonialism and dead letter
teaching just like the Jews did. Tell me that this world as a
whole have not been given over to themselves to idolatry and
pagan worship. My soul, I was on my way up to
Detroit, Michigan to hold a meeting and we rounded a corner and here
in the middle of this big lake in front of a temple was a bust
of Jesus Christ up out of the water. That thing stood, I guess,
40 or 50 feet tall. It was humongous. And there it
was out in the water as if it were just being raised from baptism
in the water and had its hands pointed up to heaven and looking
up to heaven. Lightning hit that thing shortly
after I got home and burned it to a crisp. You see, anything that was in
those olden days, it's still today. It's still the same thing,
just imaginations of men, pagan worship. Preachers today have
the same purpose and mission as John and the Seventy. It's to go forth into this wicked,
idolatrous world and make the way of salvation clear and prepare
men and women to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and to wait for
His presence to come and bless it. Now that's what we do. That's
what we do here. What is a preacher? Well, he
tells us here in this first chapter of Mark, he's a voice crying
in the wilderness. He's just a voice. John didn't
even want to mention his name. He just said, I'm a friend of
the bridegroom. John the apostle wouldn't mention
his name. He always just said that disciple
that leaned his head on the Lord's breast. He didn't want to mention
his name. Preacher's the voice of one crying
in the wilderness. He's not an entertainer, he's
not a counselor, and he's not a social worker, and he's not
a priest. I don't need to hear a man confess
his sins. He's just a voice. He's a voice. But he's a voice of truth. Our
Lord, as a preacher, said to his followers, he said, if you
continue in my word, then are you my disciples. Indeed, and
you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
That's what preachers are. They're just a voice, but they're
a voice telling you the truth. men are not saved by lies, they're
saved by truth and men are not damned because they will not
receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. So
what's a preacher? He's a voice and he's a voice
of truth and he's a voice sent from God. John was foretold by the prophets,
the seventy were sanctioned by the the Lord Jesus Christ, and
how shall any man preach except he be sent of God? And now, I'm
gonna tell you what our Lord said about the 70 sent out. They
wasn't anything. They just, they had walked with
him and talked with him, and he'd talk to them personally.
They wasn't anybody. They weren't men of big reputation
in the community, and he sent them out into these cities where
he was gonna go, and they went out there, and here's what our
Lord said. He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth
you despiseth me. He's sent of God. And I'm going
to tell you something else. He is perhaps the only voice
that you'll ever hear. Might be. You go preach, said
our Lord, to his disciples. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. He said,
for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God, yet pleased God through the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. And I know that the gospel is
revealed, unveiled to the hearts of chosen sinners by the Holy
Ghost, but the revelation He unveils is proclaimed through
the gospel. All right, what was the message
of this voice? Prepare you the way of the Lord.
Make his path straight. Make the gospel of Jesus Christ
plain. Make his person clear. Who is
this man? He's very God of very God. He's
the eternal Word made flesh and dwelt among us. Our Lord said,
if you don't believe me, believe me for the very words, the works
sake, which I do. He God come into the flesh. God
our Savior. God and man in one glorious person. And my friend, there's only one
way to God. Our Lord said, I am the way.
I'm trying to set these things before you as clear as I have
words to make them clear. He's the way. There is no other
way. The way of religion will excite
you for a while. It'll puff you up for a while.
It might even inspire you for a while. But it won't bring you
to God. There's only one way that you
can get to God, and that's through the Lord Jesus Christ. Period. None other name given among men
whereby we must be saved. Make this gospel plain, he said.
Make this person clear. And I'll tell you this, the way
of the Lord is representation. He's the head of the body of
the church. He's my representative. When he came into this world,
he came in union with his elect. When he become a man and took
to himself the flesh and blood and nature of a man, he was man
in every wit a man. He hungered, he thirsted, he
did all those things that men do. He was a man. He came in union with his elect
and was manifested in that body. And as the head of his church
and representative of his church, their federal head, he obeyed
that law from birth to death on my behalf. Oh, you take one look at that
law and you say, I don't think I can do that. I know you can't.
I know you can't. But he can, and he did, and he's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone to believe in. Does
that make sense? Representation, that's how man's
saved. I'm trying to make it as clear
as I know how to make it. You can't come to God without
a righteousness, and you can't have a righteousness apart from
Christ. You have to have it. You have
to have it. In union with his people, he
obeyed the law, perfectly providing for his people a perfect righteousness. He exalted that law and made
it honorable. That means he's fully satisfied
its demands and its requirements. It means he's fulfilled all of
its types and symbols, all of its sacrifices and offerings,
all of its priestly duties, all of its holy days. Secondly, Jesus Christ is our
Redeemer and our redemption. We're justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins. What's that talking about? That's
talking about His coming and His doing and His dying and His
present state in glory, His present reign in glory. Thirdly, the Lord Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead to declare God's justification of all His
elect. Now here's what John preached.
He said, I'm John. No, that's not what he said.
He said, there comes one after me. I'm just the forerunner. I'm just the herald. I'm just
the guy out here telling you the way, preparing the way so
that when he comes, you'll know the way. You'll know the way. You'll recognize him. You'll
recognize his works. You'll recognize his glory. I'm
here to set these, but there comes one after me, mightier
than me, and I'm not even worthy to bend down and unloose his
shoe latchet. The Lord said, John, I come to
be baptized. John said, not by me. I'm not
gonna baptize you. I indeed be baptized of thee. He said, suffer it to be so for
now. where it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. And here's this man who saw himself
a wiggling maggot bend over and unloose the shoe latchet of his
savior and lay him down in the water. I can't imagine. I can't imagine. How are God's elect made known?
by their repentance. Repentance is known by turning. Turning from what? Turning from
our old religion. Turning from our old ways. Turning
from our old habits. And turning from our old natures. Repentance. Secondly, there's
an obedience established. Talking about how do I recognize
God's elect. There's an obedience established.
Men who are truly called of God are arrested by the Spirit and
turned to God. They're arrested by the Spirit. I remember watching one of my
little kids marching toward a fire ant hill when we first moved
to Louisiana. We didn't know what fire ants
were. And a little baby crawled right on top of the hill. I had
to spray him down with water hose. He was bit all over. And
we discovered what they were. And then the little girl, she
wasn't very old. And here she goes. She's hobbling
over there toward that. And I got hold of her by her
head and turned her around and brought her back over. God turns
men. He arrests them. And he gets
you by your head. And he turns you. He turns you
from what's going to be sure destruction. He turns you. There's an obedience established.
They're rescued by the Spirit and turned to God. And this turning
is visibly recognized by humble obedience. Where does it begin? It begins in baptism. In baptism,
they obey the Lord's command to be baptized. Paul told the
Thessalonians, he said, I know your election of God, you've
become followers of us and the Lord. Nobody else is going to
follow us. Our message is strange to this
world. But God's people will. They recognize it and they follow
you. This obedience manifests itself
in a public confession of Christ by way of believers baptism and
secondly it manifests itself in going to hear God's ambassador. They went out unto John all the
land of Judea and them of Jerusalem and they were all baptized of
him in the river and they kept coming. They kept coming. I'm fearful that some would say
they've heard me. Not heard me at all. And some
of them are like the Pharisees are, willing to submit to the
baptism, but not willing to turn from this world. Not willing
to turn from their old nature. And to all such, John said, you
generation of vipers, who warned you to flee the wrath to come?
You haven't heard what I'm preaching. You totally ignored what I'm
preaching. Salvation is a new creation. It's a new man, a heavenly
man, an obedient man. He's no longer the slave of sin,
but he's a bond slave of Christ. He craves obedience. He craves
direction. He craves a new life and a new
rule. Repentance is an inward knowledge
and persuasion of what we are by nature, choice, and practice.
and who Christ is and how he saves sinners. And those who
truly worship God have no confidence in the flesh. Then let me say
this, and I'll quit. John preached one who must come,
one mightier than himself, one who's able to accomplish
that which we need. One who is able to save to the
uttermost them who come unto God by Him. He's able. If there's
a phrase to describe us, it's inability. If there's a phrase
to describe Him, He's able. He's able. This baptism is spoken
of. He's going to baptize, it says
here, John the Baptist said, I'll baptize you in water. I
have and will. But there comes one after me,
he's gonna baptize with the Holy Ghost. And with fire. He's gonna purge
his gold and he's gonna bury you, he's gonna submerge you
in the revelation of God. And this baptism spoken of over
in Colossians 2, and called being risen with him through the faith
of the operation of God. That is God the Holy Spirit showing
to us and in us what this baptism means and pictures and confesses. Baptism in and of itself doesn't
say anything. But by faith it's the confession
of the believer and it's a public show of his allegiance to Christ. Every man's sin of God, every
messenger's sin of God preaches Christ and the necessity of His
coming and dying and being raised from the dead and especially
of the gift of the Holy Ghost which is sent to all His elect.
Prepare you the way of the Lord. Get it fixed in your minds and
hearts and make His paths straight. And having done that, It now
says of John the Baptist, he said to them, prepare you the
way of the Lord. I prepared it for you. And I
spoke it to you. And I made his path straight.
Now you prepare it. You get it fixed. You get it
arranged in your heart. And may God the Holy Spirit enable
every one of us to do that.