We will be looking this morning
at verses 14 and 15, Mark chapter 1. The Lord Jesus Christ went from
Galilee to Judea and was baptized by John in the River Jordan.
He then was led into the wilderness area to be tempted of the devil,
who we know found nothing in him. Now, he returns to Galilee,
where he had spent his childhood and adolescent years. And Luke's
gospel tells us that he returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee. God the Holy Spirit came upon
him in the form of a dove at his baptism and remained upon
him. And upon his return into Nazareth,
into the synagogue, he read the prophecy from Isaiah, the Spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel. Now our text, verses 14 and 15. Now after that John was put in
prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now I have three truths I want
to bring out to us this morning from these verses. First, Jesus
Christ was the preacher. Our text says Jesus came into
Galilee preaching. Many people over the years have
referred to Charles Spurgeon as the prince of preachers, but
that cannot be true. The Lord Jesus Christ, as we
read in Colossians chapter one and verse 18, speaking of the
Savior, is the head of the body, that is, his mystical body. He
is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, he might
have the preeminence. In all things, the Lord Jesus
Christ has the preeminence. And when it comes to preaching,
he, and he alone, is the prince of preachers. When we think about
him preaching, we recognize that this is fulfilling his office
as a prophet. As one mediator between God and
man, he fulfills three offices. He is a prophet, he is a priest,
and he is a king. In the Old Testament, men were
all anointed with oil typical of God the Holy Spirit to these
offices. David was anointed to be king. Aaron was anointed to be the
first high priest. And Elisha was anointed to be
the prophet in Elijah's stead. So God the Holy Spirit came upon
the Lord Jesus Christ at his baptism and remained upon him. came upon him in the form of
a dove and remained upon him. And so we read now of him, he
came preaching, fulfilling his office as a prophet, exercising,
I should say, his office as a prophet by preaching. Now I want to mention
five things about the Lord Jesus Christ and his preaching to us
today. First of all, He preached with
such wisdom and eloquence, the Lord Jesus Christ. He preached
with such wisdom. He is the wisdom of God. He preached
with such wisdom and eloquence that when the religious leaders
sent the temple police to arrest him and bring him rather to them,
they came back without the Savior, though he was teaching in the
temple, And their words were these, never man spake like this
man. Never man spake like this man. The first thing about his preaching
was he spoke with such eloquence and such wisdom. Never ever did
any man before or since speak like the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, he preached with such
authority. Now, the Jews of this day in
which the Lord lived, they had been accustomed to hearing Sadducees
and Pharisees teach the Word of God. But the way they taught
was always to refer to some previous rabbi, Rabbi Jonathan or Rabbi
Eli, Rabbi so-and-so said this or that or the other. That's
the way they taught. The Lord Jesus Christ, he taught
with authority. He came saying, you have heard
it hath been said unto thee, but I say unto thee. In other words, he spoke with
authority because he is the eternal son of God who was made manifest
in the flesh. He spoke as a prophet should
speak. A prophet doesn't come apologizing
for what he is going to say, not if he is God's prophet, not
if he's God's man. No, he's going to stand and declare
what God has put into his heart or put into his mouth to say.
He's going to speak with authority. I've noticed over the years there
are many men who can teach and they can fill in for a pastor,
for a preacher. But it seems to me the one thing
that is missing in so many people, so many men who are called upon,
and thank God they serve a good purpose, but the authority is
missing in the message. God's man, like our Savior and
Lord, should preach with authority, because we're preaching His Word,
the Word of God. That's the greatest authority
that there is. It's not the authority of certain
scientists who say this, and they've proved this, that, or
the other, oh no. No, it is thus saith the Lord. It's true because God said it,
whether anyone believes it or not. You've heard over the years,
people say God said it and I believe it and that settles it. No, whether
you believe it or not, it's settled if God said it. God's word is
settled forever, the scripture says, in heaven. So he spoke
with great wisdom and eloquence and he spoke also with great
authority because he was, after all, the son of God. But the
third thing about his preaching was he preached with such grace,
such grace. After all, the scriptures tell
us in the book of Psalms that grace was poured into his lips. He spoke with such grace. I think about the time when that
woman came in where he was eating at the house of Simon the Pharisee
and she came and she was notorious as a sinner, a great sinner in
that city. And yet she came to the Lord
Jesus Christ and bathed his feet. and her tears, and wiped them
with the hairs of her head. And the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
with such grace, Thy sins be forgiven thee. Or that man that
was brought to him on a pallet by four men, a paralyzed man,
and let down before him, and the Lord Jesus Christ said, Thy
sins be forgiven thee. And the people wondered who were
there in that setting. They wondered how he must be
a blasphemer because no one can forgive sins but God only. We know he was not a blasphemer
because he is God and he did speak with such grace, thy sins
be forgiven thee. And knowing their thoughts, you
know there were two miracles there that day, maybe more than
that. One miracle was when He said,
Thy sins be forgiven thee. That's a miracle. That's a miracle
of grace, my friends, when God forgives a sinner. When God forgives
you, if you've been forgiven, that was a miracle. People say,
well, I'd like to see some miracles. If you're forgiven, if your sins
are forgiven, that's a miracle. the Lord reading their minds,
knowing what they were thinking. That was another miracle there.
He knew what they were thinking. And so he said unto them, which
is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee. Now you can't
see when a person's sins are forgiven them. How does a person
look when their sins are forgiven them? Have you ever thought about
that? Do they look happy? Do they look sad? How do they
look? You can't tell, you can't see
that. But that you might know, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, that you might know that I, the Son
of Man, have power on earth to forgive sins. He said unto that
man, take up your bed and walk. And what did he do? Well, you
know what he did. He did what the Lord told him to do. He walked. He took up his bed and walked.
The Lord Jesus Christ He preached with such wisdom and eloquence.
He preached with such authority. He preached with such grace,
and it was sovereign grace too. There is no other kind of grace.
If it's God's grace, it's sovereign grace because God is sovereign. But I think about that day when
he read that scripture, when he returned to Nazareth and Galilee. took up the word of God and read
that verse of scripture, the spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
You remember how he illustrated that, giving the two examples
of a widow woman? He said there were many widow
women in Israel in the days of Elijah, but Elijah wasn't sent
to one of them. He was sent to the widow of Zarephath,
a Gentile widow. And there were many lepers. Then
he said, there were many lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha,
but none of them were cleansed. But Naaman was a Gentile. And what the Lord was pointing
out is that God's grace is free. absolutely free. It cannot be
grace if it's not free. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. But not
only is it free, but it is sovereign. He has mercy upon whom he will
have mercy. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God which showeth mercy. Fourth thing about his preaching
now listen he preached so as to seal up vision and prophecy
I Want you to look back with me to the book of Daniel chapter
9 Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24
and here in this place the time of the Messiah's appearing was
revealed to Daniel in the Old Testament. The time of his appearing
was revealed. But the point I want to make
is there's six things here that Messiah would do when he came. And one of these six things is
he would seal up vision and prophecy. Let's read it, verse 24, Daniel
chapter 9, verse 24. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people, that is the Jews, Daniel's people, and upon
thy holy city, that is Jerusalem. Now notice, to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the most holy. Now the only thing we're looking
at of those six things this time is to seal up the vision and
prophecy. The Lord Jesus Christ came preaching. He preached the words which were
given unto him. He said, the words that I speak
unto thee are not mine, but the father's. He spoke the words
which were given unto him, the words which he had received,
and he did so fully. He did so completely. Now, now listen, when you seal
something up, We have freezer bags, don't we? We use at the
house, my wife does. And you seal them, you close
them up, you shut them up. And that's the thing we're looking
at here by the coming and the prophecy, the preaching of the
Lord Jesus Christ, all vision and prophecy has been sealed
up. It's been shut up. Now, no prophecy
today, since the Lord's coming, no prophecy, no preaching that
is not consistent with this written word of God is to be heard, is
to be accepted. Aren't you amazed that we, maybe
we shouldn't be, but we live in such a religious world and
such a religious time that people will run after and follow after
these so-called visions and dreams and experiences that people claim
they've had. And yet they turn away from the
word of God. And yet the vision and prophecy
has been sealed up, my friends, and John, the apostle, He wrote,
beloved. Beloved. That's the people of
God, right? Loved of God. Beloved. So I know
why people listen to these things that we see all around us, you know,
that people say, well, you know, I died and I went to hell, or
I died and I went to heaven, come back. And people want to
hear that stuff. Why? It's just the itching ears,
isn't it? That's why Paul preached the
word, Timothy, because in the last days people are going to
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And the reason
the teachers, the preachers have itching ears is because they
want to satisfy people who have itching ears, always itching
to hear something new. Something relevant, as they say,
and turn away from the word of God. Beloved, John said, believe
not every spirit, that is, every preacher. Don't believe every
preacher, but try the spirits, the preachers, whether they are
of God. Because, John said, many false
prophets are gone out into the world. Well, how are we to try? How are we to try a man who comes
claiming to be a preacher, a prophet from God? To the word, always
to the word. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, listen, it is because
there is no light in them. That's the reason. If they speak
not according to this word. Now, if we are to try the spirits,
try preachers by the written word of God, that alone tells
us that we don't need any new prophecies, any new visions or
revelations. We have everything that God intended
for us as we go through this world, right here in our hands. There's a fifth, a last thing
about him preaching. He preached righteousness. I
want you to look with me in Psalm chapter 40. Psalm chapter 40. So we think about these five
things that the Lord accomplished in his preaching. And Psalm chapter
40, beginning in verse six. And we know this Psalm is all
about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about him. These words
that we are going to read, we find them in Hebrews chapter
10, but beginning in verse 6, sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come into this world to offer animal sacrifices. He was not
a priest according to the order of Aaron. Those sacrifices, they
were ordained of God, they served their purpose, and that was to
point to the Savior and His one sacrifice. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. This has, I
believe, reference to the fact that a Hebrew servant, rather
than to go free when he was allowed to go free by the law of God,
would have his ear bored through. and he would be a servant forever. The Lord Jesus Christ said, the
Son of Man came not to be served, not to be ministered to, but
to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Mine ear hast
thou dug, burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, I come, thank God He came. Amen? Thank God He came. The Father so loved the world
that He gave, He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins, and He came. Lord, I come. In the volume of
the book it is written of me. I delight to do Thy will, O my
God. Yea, Thy law is within my heart. I, now notice, I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation. That is, in the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, among the people of God. He said, I have
preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have
not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. When we read here that He preached
righteousness. I like to think about the fact
that he preached to you and he preached to me through men that
he has called. And he has preached to us that
we must have a righteousness that God will accept. He told
the religious people of his day, except your righteousness shall
exceed that of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, you shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. Well, there was a saying
among them, if only two men were allowed to go to heaven, one
would be a Pharisee and one would be a Sadducee. And the Lord comes
along and he says, if you don't have a righteousness exceeding
their righteousness, you're not going to enter in. This is what
he preached. We must have a, you, I, we must
have a righteousness that God will accept if we are to enter into His presence. And He preached that He came
to fulfill all righteousness. That is, I came not to destroy
the law, but to fulfill the law. To make the law honorable, the
scripture says, by His obedience, His perfect obedience. bringing
in that everlasting righteousness that Daniel was told about. And this righteousness he preached
is unto all and upon all them that believe. Well, that's the first thing
that I wanted to say from this text, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the preacher. Now, the second thing, the gospel
was his message. Notice back in our text. And
I'll be much more brief on these next two points, but notice our
text is 14 and 15 of Mark chapter 1. Now, after that John was put
in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the preacher. Well, what was his message? He
came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Now, we should
all recognize that there is only one gospel, although in the scriptures
it is called by several different names. It's the same gospel that
the Lord Jesus Christ preached to Adam and Eve in the garden,
as he appeared there, no doubt, in the form, the angel of the
covenant. The seed of the woman shall bruise
the head of the serpent. The same gospel, the same gospel
he preached to Abraham that night. In thy seed shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. There's only one gospel, but
it's called by different names. It's called the gospel of the
grace of God, the gospel of salvation, the gospel of peace, the glorious
gospel, and here, In our text, it is called the gospel of the
kingdom of God. Now listen, if you look at the
parallel passage, and it's the exact passage in Matthew's gospel,
there it is the kingdom of heaven. Preaching the kingdom of heaven,
here it is the kingdom of God. Now I know men have tried to
say there's a difference. There is no difference. There's
one gospel, my friends. Matthew is the only one, the
only gospel that speaks of the gospel as a gospel of the kingdom
of heaven. And I like to think about the
gospel as a gospel of the kingdom of heaven. First of all, it came
from heaven. It came from heaven, this gospel.
It came from God. The gospel is not some message
that men have gotten together and worked out and devised. No. The gospel came from heaven. It came from God. It is the wisdom
and the power of God. And the gospel is that which
prepares men for heaven. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel, the scripture says. It's the power of God unto salvation
unto everyone that believeth. The gospel of the kingdom of
heaven, it came from heaven. It's the only gospel, the only
message that prepares men and women for heaven. And it is the
only message that will take men and women to heaven, to heaven. Bring men to heaven. That is,
it saves sinners from their sins. Aren't you so thankful the Lord
said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whosoever believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Whosoever believeth not shall
be damned. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. He came preaching, he was a preacher,
exercising his prophetical office, yes, and his message was the
gospel, the gospel of the kingdom of God. Now third, the application. Every message should have an
application, shouldn't it? Notice what he said. Repent,
verse 15. The time is fulfilled and the
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ, we know
from the word of God, he preached, he exercised his ministry of
preaching to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Remember
when he sent his disciples out at first, he said, don't go in
the way of the Gentiles. No, no, preach, go to the lost
house, the sheep of the lost house of Israel. He was a minister
of the circumcision, that is of the Jews. That's what we read
in Romans. But after his death and resurrection,
he commanded his disciples to go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature among all nations to make disciples. And as Paul was able to tell
the elders of the church at Ephesus, a Gentile city, what he had preached
there, he said, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
both Jews and Gentiles, repentance toward God and faith toward the
Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, he commanded, repent. Now, when you hear that command,
when a man or woman hears that command, repent. That tells us
immediately something's wrong. Something's wrong. If nothing's
wrong, I don't need to repent. When he preached repentance,
that immediately tells men and women something is wrong. Something
is wrong both with my character and my conduct. It's not just
the conduct. The character is what causes
the conduct. And many people, when they think
of repentance, they quit this, they quit that, they stop this,
they stop the other, and call that repentance. But the problem
is the heart. The character, what causes a
man or woman to do this, that, and the other. I want you to
look at an example our Lord gave back in Matthew 21. When I hear the message of repent
coming from the Savior's lips, that tells me everything's not
right with me. Not by nature. I no longer, as
a man in this world, I no longer am as Adam was when he was first
created. He was created holy, upright,
righteous. He didn't need to repent. He
didn't need, repentance was not in his vocabulary, didn't need
to be until he disobeyed God. Until he sinned against God. The very command to repent, the
Lord is telling me there's something wrong. There's something wrong. Now the word itself means change
of mind. That's what the word repent literally
means, change of mind. But notice this example the Lord
gave of repentance here in Matthew 21 in verse 28. He said, but what thank you.
A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first and said,
son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will
not. Isn't that what Adam said? God
said, don't eat. of that one tree. Adam said,
I will eat of it, and did. I will not. But afterward, notice,
afterward he repented and went. And he came to the second and
said, likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir, and went
not. Whither them twain did the will
of his father? They say unto him, the first,
Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you that the publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. Now, this
example our Lord gave of the man with his two sons, one said,
I'm not going. I will not. But afterward, afterward,
he repented. He changed his mind. Now, if
that's all he had done, he said, you know, I should have gone.
I really should have gone. But if he didn't go, that's not
repentance. No, his repentance was not only
changing his mind, but going to work. And if repentance is
real, it's going to be more than just changing your mind about
something. It's going to bring conviction
in the conscience. It's going to bring sorrow to
the heart. And yes, it's going to bring
about a turning. This man said, I'm not going.
I won't go. But then he repented and went.
He turned. Repent. We're in this world. We were born in this world. We
were born sinners. We're going along and the gospel
comes to us and says, repent, turn, change your mind. Your mind has to be changed about
yourself. about God, about heaven, about
hell. Change your mind. Repent. Sit
down and think about it. It's not the response at the
end of a sermon when the preacher gives a sad story about someone's
little dog who got run over and brings tears to everyone's eyes
and people come down to the front and make a decision for Jesus.
It's more than that. It's a turning, a turning, a
repenting, a change of mind. And believe the gospel. Believe, our Lord said. It's not just believe, believe.
Charles Spurgeon, I mentioned him a little while ago, he said
in his day, there's a lot of preachers out there just saying,
believe, believe. Believe, everywhere you go, they're
telling people to believe, to believe. But they never tell
people who they are to believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's what the apostles did.
They told people who Christ is. He's the son of God. What he
came to do. to honor God's law, to pay the
sin debt of his people. He came as the surety of God's
chosen people, and he finished that work which the Father gave
him to do. Now believe, believe on him,
believe in him, trust in him. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless this message to all of us here today. Scripture says,
Abraham believed God and it was counted, imputed unto him for
righteousness. That's the way righteousness
comes, my friends. It comes by imputation. That
is the righteousness of Christ. His perfect righteousness is
imputed, charged to your account. And because of that righteousness,
God declares you to be just. Doesn't just pardon you. That
pardon is wonderful. Justification is even better,
isn't it? Just as if we had never sinned. Amen. Oh, happy day. Let's sing that hymn, number
207. Oh, happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. Let's stand
as we sing.