You're listening to Key Life Fellowship's pulpit ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. If you would like more
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pastors, please visit us at keylifefellow-ship.com.
Said to the first service, and I'll say it again now, I believe
even an Episcopalian can preach after that song.
It was finished upon the cross. That is the hope that we have.
That is the reason that we are here today, finished work of
Calvary through the death, the burial, the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ and we rejoice in that.
You have your Bibles. If you would go ahead and turn
to Mark's Gospel. We're going to be looking at the
1st chapter in the Gospel of Mark today.
We're going to look at a few verses here.
I'm going to take the time to exposit the truths that we see
in them. Last week, if you were here, you
learned something very important in regard to the gospel.
As we've been going through a series entitled There is one
gospel. We learned last week about an
element that many people leave out of the gospel.
That is the bad news. That makes the good news so
good. And we learned that the bad news
was delivered at Mount Sinai by God himself to Moses, who then
distributed to God's people that law was given to Moses.
We know that as the 10 commandments and and the
Decalogue and those 10 commandments would would serve
as a a synopsis of all of the 613 additional commandments that
he would receive from the Lord. And we learned that a person is
not set free by the law, but a person is actually condemned by
the law. Because as we read through the
10 commandments, what we learned very quickly is this, that there
are none of us who do right all of the time.
There's none righteous, no, not one.
We walked through those commands and we found out very quickly
last week that we don't meet God's holy standard.
And there are none of you in this room who could, in and of
yourself, by your own power, ever meet God's perfect
standard. You are shamefully guilty of
sin. We talked about it in detail
last week. I don't intend to go back and
preach that message again, though we might need to hear it.
But hopefully you remember. But you get the gist of it
today, where the 10 commandments weren't designed to bring us
live, but to show us that we deserve death.
And in fact, when we look at them, we realize that we are
alienated from God and from His Holiness, and we deserve God's
wrath and His judgment upon us. We learn by the law that we are
all, as declared by the law, sinners, depraved, that we are
idolatrous, slanderous, murderous, adulterous, envious,
lying, thieving sinners. And the law clearly displays
that for us. That's why we refer to it as the
bad news. Because it's bad news, though
the law itself is good and is holy, but because it came from
God, the actual diagnosis to man is bad.
It condemns us, and rightfully so, because we're worthy of that
condemnation. And we began there with the bad
news so that we could begin to talk this week about the good
news because, oh, how good the good news is.
When we know how bad the bad news is, we know that in his
gospel. In fact, as we've already
discussed, that is what the very word means, Good news, good
tidings, good message, you and Galion of God, the gospel.
Because of the gospel, we have received good news from God, and
God has revealed that good news unto man, and he revealed that
good news unto man through the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ upon this earth. And it's only through the good
news and believing and trusting and the good news that causes us
to repent of our sin and to cling to Christ.
It is only through the good news of the gospel that we will ever
be free from the penalty of the bad news, which is the Law.
AW Pink said it like this. He said the gospel is not good
advice, but good news. It does not speak of what man is
to do, but tells what Christ has done.
We sing about, just a moment ago, the Gospel.
This message is a revelation from God to man of the good news
that the Lord of Jesus Christ will save us from the guilt and
the penalty and the agony and the eternal wrath that sin
brings upon our lives. So this message is not self
help. This message is not human
psychology. This message is not some formula
for a better life, for five steps to live your best life
now. This message is the good news,
as we're going to see in Mark's gospel.
Of God, the good news of God, I told you last week when we
looked at the law, the bad news is.
That there will be no sin that goes unpunished.
And the good news of God says this for all who believe and
trust in Jesus Christ. He bore the punishment of their
sin in stead of them. So let us look at the gospel
being revealed today. In Mark's Gospel.
The truth is this that God sent his only Son, perfect, sinless,
flawless to die on a cross in the place of wicked and evil
transgressing law, breaking sinners to atone for them to
make them right with their creator.
And Jesus reveals that good news in Mark's gospel right here as
his earthly ministry begins in Mark chapter one, verse 9.
It says this At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee
and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being
torn open in the Spirit, descending on him like a dove,
and a voice came from heaven. You are my son, whom I love with
you. I am well.
Pleased at once, the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he
was in the desert 40 days being tempted by Satan.
He was with the wild animals and the angels attended him.
And after John was put into prison, Speaking of John the
Baptist, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of
God. The time has come, he said.
In case you were ever wondering how Jesus preached the good
news, the time has come. He said the Kingdom of God is
near. In fact, the King is standing
before you. He said repent and believe the
good news. Let's pray together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you today excited and
anticipating the good news that was revealed in Christ.
For some of us it may be the first time that we have heard
this life changing, soul saving good news.
To others, this may be thousands of times that we have heard this
wonderful message. When I pray that those who have
heard it many times would rejoice again.
That those who have not heard it until this day.
That you would use the proclamation of the gospel to
stir them to life, to regenerate them, showing them their need
for Savior, showing them the filthiness of their sin, showing
them that apart from Jesus Christ, they will receive the
judgment and wrath that they deserve.
The Lord, I ask today that you would shower.
Them with your mercy in Christ, rescuing them and freeing them
from the penalty of sin. God, we pray that your will be
done. We ask that your Spirit
enlighten us and teach us the truth.
Today we pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.
As we look at this small section of Scripture, I'm going to go
ahead and tell you this. There is a lot here.
If you came for a snack today, this is the wrong place.
We came to feast on the word of God and that is what we intend
to do and we're going to look at it until we are done.
So we begin here in the first few verses, 9 through 13 as we
look at the good news and, and, and man, don't we need good news
after hearing the bad news last week?
Because when we read the law of God, we quickly realize that we
are in trouble. We are destined to perish.
And apart from a work of God, we are in trouble.
And it is in the gospel. That's why it says the gospel of
God, the good news of God. It is a work of God.
It's not something that you do or something that I do so that
we can be saved from the wrath that we deserve.
It is something that he has done and I want us to see the
entirety of that in the beauty of it as the scriptures unfold
for us today. Verse 9 we go back to the
baptism of Jesus the. Christ.
And it says this, At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in
Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven
being torn open, the Spirit descending on him like a dog,
and a voice came from heaven. You are my Son whom I love with
you I am well pleased. God could have never said that
about me. He could have looked at my life
and said with you, I am indignant and full of wrath
towards your wickedness, toward your sin, toward your hatred
toward me. But the Christ, he says, this is
my Son whom I love, and he says with you I am well pleased.
It says that once the spirits sent him out into the desert and
he was in the desert 40 days being tempted by Satan and he
was with the wild animals and angels attended him.
I know there are lots of things going on when you read Mark's
gospel. You'll know this about Mark.
He is going to tell it and it is going to be quick and to the
point. He's going on to the next thing.
He uses that term immediately quite often here.
He's saying this. These things happen just like
this. Let's look at them together.
What is going on here in reference to the good news?
It is revealing things to us. First, it reveals to us God's
provided Savior. It is God who has provided this
Savior. Write this down.
He is a sent Savior. Verses 9 through 13 we see how
obvious that is that Jesus was sent by the Father to this earth
to redeem those the Father desired to redeem.
The Lord Jesus was provided by the Father to do His sovereign
will and bringing sinners unto a holy God.
Don't miss that. Don't miss that going on in this
text. Jesus was sent from the Father.
Look how he speaks here. He says you are my son.
He wants everybody to know that my stamp of approval is on the
Christ. This is the Christ.
When He says you are my son, He is saying we are of the same
essence. He is saying, in fact, this is
Emmanuel, God with us, the one that the prophets spoke of here,
He. Is my son whom I love.
Oh, the love that the Father has for the Son being displayed
here. He says with you, I am well
pleased. I want you to see that the
Christ, the Son, the second person of the Triune Godhead,
came. Because he was sent by the
Father. It's important that we
understand that because in that we see the beauty of the gospel.
Because the gospel is not just trusting in the fact that
someone died on a cross. It is knowing who that someone
really is. It is knowing the person of
Jesus Christ. And you see it here so plainly.
I know we read through it often, so quickly that we say, oh,
let's go, Jesus got baptized like me.
No, you got baptized like him, and it's because of Him that the
Father can now look at you and He can actually love you with
the love that the Father has for the Son.
And he can actually say I am well pleased with you, not
because of you, but I am well pleased with you because you are
in Christ and you are covered by His righteousness.
So we see that he's sent by the Father.
He is a sent Savior. John Calvin said this.
He said, for the first thing we ought to observe is that what
Christ did and suffered was by the appointment of the Father.
Please understand this, Jesus was sent to this world from the
Father. He was sent from the Father to
save sinners. John 17 verse 3 says now this is
eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus
Christ whom you sent. It is the Son there coming,
being sent by the Father to redeem sinners.
John 317 says for God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world. He didn't have to.
Why? The law had already taken care
of that. We saw the bad news, right?
The bad news is that the law condemns all of us.
He didn't send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but
to save the world through him. So the Father sent the Son to
save sinners. That's good news, isn't it?
Because we discovered last week what we're.
All sinners, you say? Well, Kirk, I didn't discover
that last week. I've been knowing that my whole
life, and rightfully so. You have, and you've proved it.
But aren't you thankful for the good news that says God sent his
only Son with the purpose of saving sinners, just like you
and just like me? And not only did Jesus come sent
by the Father to save sinners, he also came to reveal and to
teach the Father's plan of salvation.
That's why it's important that we get the Gospel right, because
we saw a moment ago when we read through the entirety.
Of the text, This is the good news of God, this is His story,
this is His truth, so we have to believe it according to how He
has revealed it. And Jesus was sent to this world
to reveal and to teach the Father's plan according to the
Father. John 7 verse 16 says Jesus
answered, My teaching is not my own.
It comes from the one who. Sent me.
So when Jesus comes teaching the good news of the Gospel, he's
actually teaching the plan of the Father that was preordained
before the foundations of the earth to rescue people for his
name's sake and for his glory. Here Jesus is here in Mark
chapter 1 on the scene that sent Savior who came from the Father
to save sinners and to reveal and to teach the Father's plan
of salvation accurately, precise.
That's why it's important that we get the gospel accurately and
precise. God has not hidden these truths
from us. We have just altered them to fit
our culture. Jesus comes revealing God's
provided Savior. He's here.
He's doing what God desires that he does with God's approval.
This is my Son that I love and whom I am well pleased.
So he is here from the Father, but he's here for the Father to
accomplish. The Father's will.
You can go ahead and take your Bible now.
If you have a bookmark or a pencil, just go ahead and put it
in the Gospel of John. You're going to need it this
morning. But because it is John who does
such a great job and defining for us the the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that he came to accomplish the
Father's will. This is not something that was
created by any man. Man didn't look at the law and
say Oh no, we need a savior. God gave man the law to show
them that they needed a savior. And now here we have God
providing and sending that Savior to do and to accomplish
the Father's will. John chapter 5 verse 30.
Jesus declares this by myself. I can do nothing.
I judge only as I hear my judgement is just, for I seek
not to please myself but. Him who sent me?
What is Jesus saying? In eternity past, the Father and
the Son have always been in 100% agreeance.
Now I'm here to do His work precisely to accomplish the
Father's will. John Chapter 7 verse 28 says
this. Then Jesus, still teaching in
the temple courts, cried out, Yes, you know me and you know
where I'm from. I'm not here on my own
authority, but he who sent me is true.
You do not know Him, but I know Him because I am from Him and He
sent me. Jesus making it very clear who
he is. He's the one sent to accomplish
the Father's will as our Savior. John chapter 8, verse 42.
Jesus said to them, if God or your Father, you would love me
for I've come here from God. I've not come on my own.
God sent me. He said, well, Kirk, is it that
poor important that we understand that Jesus came from
the Father? It is crucial.
It is crucial to knowing the true gospel.
It is crucial to understanding orthodox Christianity.
If you miss this, you miss the gospel.
If you don't get this right, you don't have an adequate Savior.
If you don't get this right, there is no forgiveness.
If you don't get this right, the sacrifice of Jesus was for
nothing, however, but Scripture gets it right.
John 6, verse 38. Jesus does thrive come down from
heaven to do my will, or not to do my will, Excuse me, but to do
the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who
sent me, that I shall. Lose none of all those he has
given me, but raise them up at the last day.
The Lord Jesus Christ on this earth, God Incarnate, the very
second person of the triune and eternal Godhead.
Here he is saying that I have come to do the will of the
Father. And what is the will of the
Father? It is to rescue all that the
Father has given unto him. You know, that tells me very
quickly there will be no vacant seats in heaven that the good
news of the gospel will accomplish exactly what Jesus
Christ declared it to accomplish.
Through the message of this good news.
Jesus Christ will rescue all that the Father has given unto
him, no more, no less. I know that bothers some people,
but you just go ahead and go back to John chapter 6 and you
read the words of Jesus one more time there in 38 and 39.
He's a sent Savior. Who came to accomplish the
Father's will? And what is the Father's will?
You know what the Father's will is in Christ.
We saw last week that we are all under the condemnation of sin.
We are all deserving of His wrath, and Jesus Christ did not
come to this. Earth to rescue everyone from
the wrath of God. You know how I know this?
Everyone would be rescued. He came to rescue.
Those that the father has willed to rescue.
He said, well, that doesn't seem very gracious.
It doesn't. I told you last week that we all
deserve wrath and judgement in hell.
The fact that he would save one is amazing.
The fact that he would save one is grace beyond anything that
mankind has ever deserved. But he saved the many, the all
who's the Father has deemed for him to save.
He came as a sent Savior, provided Savior.
From the Father before the Father to accomplish God's
eternal will and redemption. I want you to understand that
because I don't want you, any of you thinking this, that God was
sitting up in the heaven. This is how some people talk and
it's foolishness that God was sitting up in the heaven and he
saw that man fell into iniquity and said, Oh no, what am I going
to do? Oh, if I just had enough wisdom
to know what to do. No, before God ever sovereignly
allowed man to fall into iniquity, you know this, he had
already made a plan to redeem them.
And when Jesus came to this earth, he revealed that plan
sent from God sent Savior. Not only was this was he a sent
Savior as we see here, he says this is my son.
Don't just read over that as if. It's not important.
This is His Son, second person of the Triune Godhead.
Make no mistake who he is standing before you.
Who I'm well pleased not only is this the one who was sent as a
Savior from the Father for the Father to save sinners, to
reveal and to teach the Father's plan of salvation and to
accomplish the Father's will and saving sinners.
This text also shows us who he is by the fact that he is a
sinless savior. So he is a sin savior and he is
a sinless savior. How do I know this?
The Father said I'm well pleased with you and the Father who is
holy could never say that he is well pleased with anything that
is blemished by sin. And in fact, as we read.
Through this text you're going to see that Jesus is fully
perfect. He says you are my son, whom I
love with you. I am well pleased.
What does that say for a guy like me, A law breaker,
transgressor, A Sinner? He's not pleased with me.
And he doesn't love me with the love that he has for His Son.
In fact, I am his enemy according to the Word of God.
Apart from Jesus Christ, He's the only one who brings
reconciliation to the Father. He is not well pleased with me.
I am not His Son, and I'm deserving of His wrath.
But he says the opposite about the Lord Jesus Christ.
You are my Son whom I love with you.
I am well pleased declaring that he is truly the sinless Messiah,
the sinless Savior, fully perfect in all of his ways.
First Peter chapter 2 verse 22 says is he committed no sin and
no deceit was found in his mouth.
Jesus pure and perfect. Why is this important?
Well, there's many reasons why it is important, but let's look
back at the law. The law required perfect
sacrifice of atonement and there never had been one.
Please understand that all of the lambs, all of the calves,
without spot or without blemish. That means there were without
spot and without blemish. According to a depraved human
mind. They were all affected by sin.
They were all equally not able to take away sin.
Hebrews tells us that, doesn't it?
Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to read 10 verses to
buckle your seat belt. It says this.
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not
the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never be
by the same sacrifice as repeated endlessly year after
year. Make perfect those who draw near
to worship. If it could, would they not have
stopped being offered? He says sacrifices of animals
don't get it done. They're they're just shadows
that point to the ultimate sacrifice, which is Christ the
Savior for the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all
and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
Isn't that what the law is to remind?
Us of our sin. Because it is impossible for the
blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Therefore when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifice
and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me
perfect, fully perfect, acceptable unto God,
unblemished, He said with. Burnt offerings and sin
offerings. You were not pleased, but here
he's saying you're my son and whom I am well pleased, he says.
I wasn't pleased with the sacrifices of old because they
didn't take away your sin, they didn't restore your relationship
to me. They were just pointing to the
one who would. He said, therefore Christ came
into the world. He said, sacrifice and offering
you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me with burnt
offerings and sin offerings. You were not pleased.
And then I said, here am I. It is written about me in the
scroll. I have come to do your will.
O God, Why did He come to do the will of God the Father?
First He said, sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and
sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased
with them, though the law required them to be made, He
says in nine. Then he said, Here am I, I've
come to do your will. He sets aside the first to
establish the second. Ten says, And by that will we
have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus
Christ. Once for all.
And why was this sacrifice acceptable?
Because he was fully perfect, a sinless Savior who is fully
perfect. The Law required a perfect
sacrifice. Those are the law never
delivered a perfect sacrifice. But we know Christ came as one
being born under the Law, perfect in all of His ways,
providing that perfect sacrifice once for all.
Who would trust in Him? We see He's fully perfect,
please, and pleasing to the Father.
He pleased Him in all of His ways.
He says. I'm well pleased with Him
declaring that he is fully perfect, but not only declaring
that he is fully perfect. This is fully proven.
We, we, we think that this is just by accident that these
theories of events happen. What happens next in this?
Text. It says that once the spirits
saim out into the desert, he was in the desert 40 days being
tempted by Satan and he was with the wild animals and angels
attended him. That's Mark's account of this.
Mark again giving that brief Cliff note account.
But when we go to Matthew's account, we see something
interesting. He gives the detail of the
temptation of Christ there in Matthew chapter 4 and verses one
through 11. You don't have to turn there
now. Turn there when you have an
opportunity to read the detailed account.
But he gives the account of Jesus temptation and Hebrews
chapter 4 verse 15 tells us something.
It does this for we do not have a high priest who is unable to
empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been
tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin.
What does that saying? Does that mean that Christ
actually faced every single temptation that man has ever
faced? No, there are temptations now
that you faced that weren't even around when Christ walked this
earth, when He was tempted in all ways.
If you go back to Matthew's account, he was tempted in every
way that a man could possibly be tempted throughout time.
If we go back to that account in Matthew chapter 4, you see this.
He was tempted by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life. And every time that you have
ever fallen to sin, you fell to sin, because you fell to the
temptation of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life. Those temptations always lead
you into sin. Jesus, being tempted by Satan
himself, did not fall into sin. You say?
Kirk, what does this have to do with the good news of the Gospel
being revealed in Christ? It shows and it proves that He
really is and was a perfect man on this earth.
Fully God, truly God, fully man, truly man.
He was perfect, therefore He was able to be the Savior.
And He is the Savior that God provided, fully perfect, fully
proven His sinless life confirmed it.
It's not by happenstance that these events happened the way
that they are. The Father says this is my Son,
whom I love, who I am well. Pleased showing us that the
Father recognizes the full perfection of the Son, and then
the Son being led by the third Person of the Holy, the third
Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is LED into the desert
where he is tempted by Satan To do what?
To prove that I am who the Father says that I am.
He didn't just say that that I'm pleasing to him.
I'm going to prove to you that I'm going to please Him.
When I am faced with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, I'm going to resist sin under the power of
the Spirit. Showing who he really is.
You say, well, Kirk, I thought the gospel was just.
I accept, believe and confess. Stop letting people lie to you
and not tell you the whole truth.
We must establish who the Savior really is.
He is a Savior provided by God the Father himself.
It's not just some guy who decided to die.
And perhaps it would be counted as worthy to rescue you.
It's truly God Incarnate, fully perfect, fully proven, coming to
this earth to reveal the good news that God has provided A
savior, and that Savior is Jesus the Christ.
So the good news of God in the gospel reveals God's provided
Savior. Secondly, the good news of God
reveals God's promised salvation.
Verses. 14 And the first part of 15 make this very clear.
He says after John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee
proclaiming the good news of God.
And it says verse 15 the time has come.
He said the Kingdom of God. Is near.
So Jesus came preaching the good news of God, the good news that
the prophets had declared would come.
In fact, the very message that Christ preached.
In that message God revealed that Christ is the one who would
bring salvation to man from God. That's what Jesus is preaching
here. He's not preaching a man made
gospel. He's not preaching an American
church easy believism gospel. He's not again, preaching some
kind of psychological gospel. He is preaching the good news of
God and in preaching the good news of God.
Do you know what Jesus actually does?
He unveils his identity. He shows people who he truly is.
Luke chapter 4 from our scripture reading today, verse
17, He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
Jesus, not even a formal rabbi, and they're handing him scrolls
in synagogue as if this wasn't God ordained and appointed.
Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written.
The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he's anointed me to
proclaim good news to the poor, the gospel.
He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners in recovery of
sight for the blind, and set the oppressed free to proclaim the
year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll and
he gave it back to the attendant.
He sat down and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were
fastened on him, and he began by saying to them.
Today, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
What was Jesus saying and preaching?
That I am the promised salvation.
I am the one that the Father has sent.
I am preaching to you the good news from God that yes, you are
weighted down by the burden of the law.
You are hindered by the fact that you cannot please God.
You are facing the wrath and the indignation of God and I have
come to be a Savior bringing salvation to those who will
believe and trust in me. It confirms that he is the
Messiah, the long-awaited Messiah.
For hundreds of years they have been waiting for him.
And he walks into the synagogue. He takes the scroll and he says,
I am here preaching. What?
The good news of God? Isn't that good news?
You know, it was good news for them.
They lived under the burden of the law now for quite some time,
knowing that they can never get it right.
And Jesus comes in and he says I'm the one, I'm the one who
they spoke of. I'm the one who Isaiah spoke of.
He took the scroll and he turned there to Isaiah 61 and he
proclaimed the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
I am here. He came as God's promised
salvation. That's the message that he
declared there in Luke chapter 4, unveiling his identity.
But not only that, Jesus also came, unveiling the Father's
intentions. That's the message that he
preached what the Father intended to do, how this all
comes together, how this this mystery is is clarified.
Matthew chapter one verse 21 says this.
She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name.
Jesus, Yahweh, Jehovah saves you're to give him this name
because he will save his people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through
the prophet. The virgin will conceive and
give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which
means God with us there in Matthew chapter 1, verses 21
through 23, we see the unveiling of the Father's intentions.
I'm going to send a man, the God man born of a virgin, so he does
not inherit the sin nature of a man, the sin nature of Adam.
I'm going to buy my spirit, implant this virgin woman with
the seed of God, and He is going to be birthed into this world
and He is coming as a Savior, bringing salvation to His
people, unveiling the Father's intention for the whole entire
reason that Christ came to this earth.
Include that in the gospel. That's good news. 2nd
Corinthians 5. As we learned last week in verse
21, He came to this earth, and the intentions of the Father
were these intentions to have the wrath that belonged to us
exercised upon His only begotten Son, and have the righteousness
that belonged to Him imputed to those who deserve His wrath.
That is the gospel. That is the intention of the
Father sending the promised salvation through the Son,
unveiling the Father's intentions.
Romans chapter 8. It tells us this, what the Law
was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh.
God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the
flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the Law
might be fully met in US who do not live according to the flesh,
but according to spirits. What is He saying there?
He's saying this, that the law brought condemnation into our
lives. It's so that we're guilty.
And we are guilty as charged, and that there is no hope apart
from the righteousness of Jesus Christ who comes, who condemns
sin and us through the condemnation that he bore on the
cross in our place. And he gives us his
righteousness so that the standard of God might be met in
us. And we can stand before God now
as sons and daughters, no longer alienated, no longer cut off,
but accepted and loved and adopted as part of the family.
So he unveiled the Father's intention to bring salvation to
those who would believe. And this promised salvation as
preached by Jesus was also as prophesied beforehand.
We know that the Old Testament is full of scriptures that
confirm that Jesus Christ is the one that the prophets spoke of.
In fact, there are so many prophecies that Christ
fulfilled, most scholars can't even agree on how many there
are. There are hundreds.
We see that Paul says this in Romans chapter 1, confirming
that the gospel was preached beforehand.
This salvation that God desired to bring unto sinners was God's
plan revealed here. Christ is fulfilling that
promise. Paul says this in Romans one
verse one Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an
apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.
The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. Jesus comes here on this scene
fulfilling that He says an interesting term here.
The time has come, the time has come.
Underline that in your Bible. This is not Chronos time.
Chronos time is seconds and minutes on a clock.
It is hours in the day. It is days in the week and weeks
in the month. We know chronos.
That's not what he's talking about.
This Greek word here is Kairos time, meaning that Jesus came as
prophesied at the exact point in God's prophetic timetable that
he had already laid out. Here Jesus is on the scene, the
one who was prophesied beforehand to bring salvation
from God, and he's saying, I'm here, the time has come, the
Kingdom of God is near. How near?
Right in their face. He's standing in their midst,
the King of kings and Lord of Lords.
Did you know this? Everywhere the King of kings and
Lord of Lords goes, he carries his Kingdom with him.
Here he is the King in their presence.
He says I've arrived bringing God's promise of salvation, the
promises that were made through the prophets of old.
I don't have time to go through all of them, but let's look at
some of them. We saw in Isaiah 61 verses one
through three that Jesus read that he came as a savior, as the
Messiah to preach the good news of God, offer hope to people
when he says the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because
the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the.
Poor. He's not talking about people
who don't have money in their bank account.
He's talking about the poor in the bankrupt in spirit, those
who have been ravished by sin. I'm so thankful that the Lord of
Jesus Christ fulfilled that. He's the one who came offering
salvation to those who have been ravished by sin.
They're poor in spirit, broken. Then he extends it in Isaiah's.
Prophecy and 49 verse 6 even to the Gentiles, and that's helpful
for those of us who aren't Jewish by descent here today,
isn't it? He said.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that my salvation.
May reach to the ends of the earth.
Jesus came as the prophesied light to the Gentiles, offering
salvation to them. If you know your Bible, you know
that He came first for the Jew and then for the Gentile.
We've been given grace through Christ just as they This is the
prophesied Messiah that Genesis 315 speaks of, one of the first,
if not the first prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says this to Satan. He says, and I will put enmity
between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers,
and he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.
First prophecy of Christ being the head crusher who will crush
the head of the enemy. There in Genesis 315, though,
the enemy strikes his heel, the head.
Crusher is here, standing before them, just as prophesied.
He is that Savior who rescues us from sin, who rescues us from
Satan, and who literally crushes his head, defeating him,
defeating him. Through his death, his burial
and his resurrection. So we see the proclaimed message
mission of Christ. He would bring salvation, but we
also see the predicted method of it, not just the mission and the
message. We see the method of Christ
bringing salvation. Isaiah 53 verse 4.
Isaiah says, surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering.
I'm sure he did. Nails in his hands, nails and
his ankle bones. Crown of thorns smashed into his
head, Cat of nine tails ripping flesh from his back.
The shame and the agony of hanging naked on the cross.
I know that's not the image you have.
You have an loincloth from the Easter program.
They hang there in shame. They hang there in
embarrassment, it says. Yet we considered him punished
by God, stricken by him and afflicted.
He was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His
wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray. Each of us has turned to our own
way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
What do we see Here we see Christ.
The prophet Isaiah declaring that the Christ would come in
the method to bring salvation to mankind would be this.
At the suffering servant. Suffer in agony in the place of
sinners. That's exactly what Christ.
Did Matthew chapter. 8 verse 17 it says this was fulfilled.
What was spoken through the prophet Isaiah.
He took up our infirmities and he bore our diseases.
First Peter chapter 2, verse 24, He himself referencing Christ,
bore our sins. And his body on the cross so
that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.
And then he quotes Isaiah perfectly.
By his wounds you have been healed.
What is the method that Jesus revealed?
It's the method that the prophets spoke of, that he would
die as a substitutionary, atoning sacrifice for sinners,
that he would take upon himself the punishment for their sin,
that he would allow them to go free and credit their account
with his righteousness, healing them of their spiritual sickness
and of their sin for all eternity.
So the good news of God is revealed here.
It's God's promise of salvation. Jesus says I'm here and I'm.
Proclaiming the good news of God.
That it's time salvation has come.
Unto you. Is that not what he said to
Zacchaeus? Salvation's come to your house
today. And who is that salvation?
It is pride. So the good news of the Gospel.
Reveals God's promised salvation are you thankful for that this
morning that everything that Jesus preached and.
Everything that the prophets. Proclaimed point to the fact
that he is God's promised salvation.
Thirdly and lastly, we see this looking at verse 15 in the last
part in a very simple and concise statement that I don't
want you to miss and I don't want you to miss this.
Because this is the one that is. Being erased the most in our
culture, he has shown us and revealed it to us here in Mark
chapter 1. God's provided Savior.
God's promised salvation. All.
In Christ. Now Christ is going to give to
us some very important information and you don't want
to miss for any reason. At all he's.
Going to give you some very. Important information in.
Fact. Your eternity hangs upon you
receiving this information. That is God's path.
To be saved, many people can intellectually grasp.
That Jesus is the provided Savior.
That he is the promise of salvation.
Fulfilled. And many times we stop here and
we don't. Walk down the path to be saved
the. Path that Jesus.
Clearly lays out. Can we all agree this is still
Jesus talking? He's still laying these things
out. Watch what he says.
Repent and believe the good news.
Repent and believe the gospel unlike.
So many so-called gospel messages in our day that leave
repentance out. Or change what faith really is.
The true message. Of the gospel does something.
Interesting, doesn't it? It puts repentance and faith
together, inseparable opposite sides of the same coin.
Jesus in preaching the. Good news says repent.
And believe this is God's path to be saved.
This is God's path to be saved. Not according to Kirk.
Not according to the elders of this church.
Not according. To any staff member who's here,
not according to your reach Group leader, according to your
D group leader, according to anyone in your men's Bible study
class. This is the gospel as revealed
by Jesus Christ himself. He says repent and believe the
good news. This is the path to be saved.
You will not be saved just knowing that Jesus was the
promised Savior. You will not be saved just
knowing that He is the one who fulfilled the promises of the
Old Testament concerning salvation.
It is truly repenting and believing by faith the gospel
that He proclaimed who He is, what He accomplished, the good
news. Let's look at this repentance
that we see here because it's so often confusing and and and our
liberal society repentance repentance is produced by faith
if there. Is true saving faith in a?
Person's life it will always include.
True and continual repentance because repentance is produced
by a God wrought faith. God wrought faith, producing God
wrought repentance. We have to understand this.
We have. To get this right, Acts Chapter
11, verse 19 gives us some clarity here.
So now those who had been scattered by the persecution
that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as
Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch, spreading the message of only
among Jews. Some of them, however, men from
Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to
the Greeks, telling them the good news.
That's the gospel about the Lord Jesus.
That is the person in the work of Jesus Christ the Lord's hand
was with. Them and a great number of
people watch believed. And turned to the Lord.
They believed and. Turned to the Lord because it's
impossible for you to truly believe and not turn in
repentance unto the Lord, trusting by faith in Christ and
who He really is. That means turning from your
unbelief. Repentance begins with faith and
faith. Turns you from your unbelief.
It is a God wrought thing. He opens your eyes that you see
the truth that Jesus is as we saw before, the provided Savior
and the promised salvation that God has made through his
prophets. Now what he's going to do is
he's going to make an exchange that is going to change your
life forever. He is going.
To birth in you true. Saving faith, not human
intellectual knowledge, not historical facts.
We can gather those things. With our mind.
But our spirit prior to Christ can gather nothing.
Why you were dead in your sins and in your transgressions you
can't do because you are dead. But what you can't do, God does.
He turns you from your unbelief and turns you to faith in Jesus.
Christ Acts 319 it says repent then and turn to God so that
your sins may be wiped out. What is he doing?
He is making a transition in your life.
He is turning you. That is repentance.
Repentance begins from turning from our unbelief and turning to
faith in Christ, trusting that He is who He says that He is.
John 316 You all know it, For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall
not perish, but have eternal life.
He goes on and he says, for God did not.
Send his son into. The world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through him.
We saw that a moment ago, but 18 Whoever believes in him is not
condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned.
Already. Why?
He's a violator, he's a transgressor, he's a Sinner.
He's a law breaker because they have not.
Believed in the name of God's one and.
Only son. So what must transpire on the
path to be saved is a person must turn from their unbelief
and by God-given faith turn to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
John chapter one verse 12 says yet to all who received him, to
those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
children of God. This is talking about God
wrought faith. You turning from your sin, you
turning from your. Unbelief and you turning to the
Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in Christ and who he is and his
finished work on the cross, trusting in God's word by.
Faith, John. Chapter 5, verse 24, it says
very truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him
who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but it's
crossed, crossed over from death to life.
What is Jesus telling us here? If you believe his word and what
he said, and what is his word, the gospel, He believes this.
He says you. Have eternal life and.
Won't be judged. Not that you don't deserve
judgment. Because the law says you.
Do, but he's going to give you mercy.
You've crossed over from death to.
Life. But what does that?
Say about the other guy, the one who met remains in his.
Unbelief and does not. Turn.
He has not crossed over from death to life, and he will be
judged eternally. And so we see first when we talk
about repentance and repentance produced by faith, there will be
a turning from our unbelief, but there will also be a turning
from unrighteousness turning. From unrighteousness.
John Owens says evangelical repentance is not merely a legal
sorrow for sin, but a gospel sorrow flowing from faith in
Christ and love to God. When God shows you the.
Extent of. His love in Christ because it
Didn't John say this? Correct me if I'm wrong.
I love because he first loved me when he reveals to you.
The extent of his love. Doesn't it move you away from
unrighteousness and move you towards righteousness?
Oh, and you really see that? And he would adopt you into his
family. John says, what kind of love is
this? That that God is lavished on us,
that we should be called the sons of God?
Why? Because John knew this.
He's deserving of God's wrath. He's deserving of God's
judgement. But God instead gives him mercy
in Christ Jesus, turning him from his unbelief.
Christ. Turning him from his sin to
righteousness. There will be a turning from
both. That's what repentance is.
Luke chapter 13, verse 3. The Lord preached this message.
I tell you the tell you the truth, that no one, unless you
repent, you too will all perish if you don't repent.
There'll be no exception. We must repent.
We must repent of our unbelief, and we must repent of our sin,
turning to Christ, leaving our works of the flesh.
Leaving our sin. How about this leaving our?
Works of self righteousness. Where we trust in trying to get
to God by living out the 10 commandments.
You won't get there from here. You fell miserably.
All it does is heap more. Sin upon you it's.
Not until you turn to the cross. Until you turn to the cross.
That the burden of sin and. The weight of sin is lifted.
That's why Jesus said, Come unto me, all you who are weary and
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
What is he talking about? Those who are weary and heavy
laden waited by the law. He says turn to me, come to me.
Repent of your unbelief, repent of your sin, turn to me, and
when you do, I will take the weight of your sin off of you.
That's the burden that they were carrying the.
Burden of the law. That no matter how hard I tried,
the bad news was right there in my face, showing me that I am
imperfect and that I am wretched.
God in his. Goodness and His kindness to us
in Christ He brings us to a place of repentance that is
produced by faith that He has wrought and given unto us,
causing us to. Repent of our unbelief and.
To repent of our wickedness so as we look at.
God's path to be saved, he says. Repent.
And believe the good news. We see repentance produced by
faith, but we also see faith proven by repentance.
Repentance is proof. That you truly have.
Faith. I know there are many people
who. Will tell you all sorts.
Of untruths about that Jesus put the two together.
Repent and believe. It's 1 transaction.
It's a transaction. That you're incapable.
Of doing that, he will. Do in and through you.
But faith will be proven by repentance.
Repentance always, as I said. Accompanies.
Saving Faith Acts 2021 says I have declared to both Jews and
Greeks that they must must underline that word must they
must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord
Jesus. How can you separate the 2?
But yeah, we live in a society, in a church culture that we
don't talk about repentance at all.
Again, we go to the ABC's of the gospel, which is no gospel at
all. Why there is no R?
The R is to repent. And to believe.
And you say, well. I I can't repent on my own.
And you're exactly right, you won't repent on your own.
But when God does a work in you that only He can do,
establishing in you true faith, true belief in Christ, you will
repent. You will turn from the things of
this world and see them for what they are.
They are worthless and they are wicked and you will turn to
Christ and you will never look back.
How do I know this? Jesus himself said no man is fit
for the Kingdom of God, who takes the power in his and looks
backward. You've taken his vow.
You've repented of your own. Life.
You're repented of your unbelief, you've repented of
your sin. You've turned to Christ.
It proves. That your faith is really.
Authentic, but we live in a. Country where so many people.
Claim to have faith-based on just simply a profession that
comes out of their mouth. You forget the rest.
You forget that if Jesus really is.
Lord, because if you confess with.
Your mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in your.
Heart God raised him from the dead.
You will be saved if Jesus really is Lord to you, he'll do
what he says. That's why Jesus was on this
earth and he the conversation with people a lot like.
Those people in our. Society.
He confronted them. He said this.
Startling statement I want you to.
Hear it? He looked him in the eyes, and
he asked him. Why do you?
Call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say.
You know what Jesus was saying. Your profession is.
Hollow. Your profession is not real.
You're counting on something that I have not done to save
you. Because true God wrought faith
will be proven by repentance. And you know the early.
Church would have nothing to. Do.
With any. Form of Christianity that
didn't. Include repentance.
Why? Mark chapter one, verse 15,
Jesus preached. The message of the gospel.
And he says repent and believe the good news.
Well, I just want to believe. I don't know if I want to
repent. Then you won't be saved.
Did you hear that? Unless you repent.
You will likewise perish. You won't be saved.
Or you can intellectually grasp the historical facts about Jesus
and miss the right relationship. With God comes only through real
faith that is marked by real repentance.
Repentance not only accompanies. Saving faith.
Please know this dear Christian repentance affirms saving faith.
Jesus and Matthew 7 verse 21 confidently said, not everyone
who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of heaven.
All I wish the American church would preach that at a funeral.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter.
The Kingdom of Heaven. Not everyone who grasp who I am
will. Enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
But only the one who does the will of my father.
Who? Is in heaven.
What is he saying there? Is he saying that we're to go
back to the law and try to live now the 10 commandments, the
will of the father? No, that's not what he's saying.
He wouldn't say that. In fact, he came to set us.
Free from that and he set us free from that so that we could
now in Him live obedient lives that bring God glory.
And how does that happen? True repentance, we.
Begin to hate everything in our life.
That is in opposition to the. Commands of God and we.
Hate it so much that we crucify our own flesh so that we can
live for Christ and bring Him glory.
That's what a true believer does.
Their faith will be proven by their repentance.
Acts 2620. This first to.
Those in Damascus into those in Jerusalem.
And all Judea, and then to the Gentiles I preach that they
should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance
by their deeds, not demonstrate their repentance by their.
Simple profession, their intellectual.
Acknowledgement of Christ. Now you know how someone how you
know someone's profession is real.
Their profession will be accompanied by obedience.
And that obedience only comes through repentance.
James said it very clearly when he said faith without works is
dead. Not true faith at all and I'm so
saddened. That the American church has.
Bought into this gospel, which is no gospel at all.
It's not good news. More bad news.
It doesn't include true repentance.
True. Faith, that is, God wrought, God
ordained, God empowered, faith repentance.
So see the good news of the Gospel reveals to.
Us thirdly, God's path to be saved let me make this ever so
clear to. All of you before we.
Dismiss you may have intellectually.
Grasped Jesus. You may have heard the
historical story of his life for your entire childhood, even into
adulthood. You may open your Bible and you
may acknowledge in your mind the factual information.
That surrounds. Jesus Christ still not be on the
path that leads to salvation. That path is marked by
repentance and true belief, true faith.
So the good news of the gospel. Reveals this path.
And He has revealed this path unto you today through this
message. So that those under the sound of
my voice. Would be cut to heart.
That they would truly repent their unbelief.
And repent of their sin and trust in.
Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ. Alone to save them from the
penalty, the power and one day the presence of sin.
So to the believer who knows that they are in.
Christ this. Morning, I say this.
Rejoice in the good news that you have heard.
Again, rejoice in it. Thank God that He has done this
work. Of.
Grace in you that He has shown you mercy through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's quickened your dead soul to
believe and trust in Him. Rejoice from the top of your
lungs to the unbeliever. I want to remind you that there
is bad news for the unbeliever. The bad news, as we saw last
week, is revealed in. God's law that we cannot please
him in and of ourselves we are incapable we are sinners, we are
in need of the. Good news that Christ.
Brought to this earth that we saw there in mark chapter 1
today my prayer for. You is that God would be
merciful. To you today, and that He would
allow you to repent, to believe on the Lord.
Jesus Christ today. Before it is everlastingly too
late for you, turn to him. Cry out to him in.
Desperation and be saved from the penalty of sin and the wrath
of God that will come upon all the unbelieving and the
unrighteous. Let's pray together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you now thanking you for
your word. Lord, we know this that your
word is going to accomplish everything that you have set it
out to accomplish today. God, I pray that if there be 1
here today in need of mercy. That you would give them mercy,
That. You would open their eyes to see
the truth that you would quicken their dead soul to believe the
truth that they see that they would.
Repent under your power and your.
Strength they would with the faith that you've given to them
as a gift of your grace. Believe and trust in Christ and
be saved today and I pray for the believer here who knows
Christ he's not where they need to be in life.
I pray that they would use this as a time of confession and
repentance, that your Spirit kindly and gently move them back
to a. Place of obedience in their.
Life as they confess their sin knowing that you're faithful and
just forgive their sin and to cleanse them from all
unrighteousness. Most importantly, so do we pray
that you receive all the glory for everything that has been
done here today. We pray these things in Christ.
Amen. You've.
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