Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes, There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes,
There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes, Together His love comes home,
Together His love comes home, Together His love comes home,
There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes, Together His love comes home,
There'll be no more sorrow when Jesus comes, There'll be no more sorrow when Jesus comes,
But a glorious sorrow when Jesus comes, Together His love comes home,
Together His love comes home, Together His love comes home,
There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes, Together His love comes home,
There'll be no more weeping when Jesus comes, There'll be no more weeping when Jesus comes,
But a blessing creeping when Jesus comes, Together His love comes home,
Together His love comes home, Together His love comes home,
There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes, Together His love comes home,
There'll be songs of grieving when Jesus comes, There'll be songs of grieving when Jesus comes,
And a joyful meeting when Jesus comes, Together His love comes home,
Together His love comes home, Together His love comes home,
There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes, Together His love comes home.
As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
Which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.
John did baptize in the wilderness, And preached the baptism of repentance
For the remission of sins. And there went out unto him
All the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem, And were all baptized of him in the river
Of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel's hair,
And with a girdle of skin about his loins, And he did eat locusts and wild honey,
And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me,
The latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy To stoop down and unloose.
I indeed have baptized you with water, But he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
And it came to pass in those days That Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee,
And was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water,
He saw the heavens opened, And the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.
And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son,
In whom I am well pleased. And immediately the Spirit drieth him
Into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days,
Tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts, And the angels ministered unto him.
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 as he walked by the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, his brother,
Casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.
And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, And I will make you to become fishers of men.
And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
And when he had gone a little farther thence, He saw James the son of Zebedee,
And John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.
And straightway he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the ship
With the hired servants, and went after him.
And they went into Capernaum, and straightway on the Sabbath day,
He entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine,
For he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit,
And he cried out, saying, Let us alone. What are we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice,
He came out of him. And they were all amazed,
In so much that they questioned among themselves, saying,
What thing is this? What new doctrine is this?
For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirit, and they do obey him.
And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue,
They entered into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.
And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up,
And immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
And it even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased,
And them that were possessed with devils.
And all the city was gathered together at the door,
And he healed many that were sick of diverse diseases,
And cast out many devils, and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
And in the morning, rising up a great while before day,
He went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.
And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.
And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns,
That I may preach there also, for therefore came I forth.
And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.
And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him,
And saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him,
And saith unto him, I will, be thou clean.
And soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
And he straightly charged him, and forthwith sent him away,
And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man, but go thy way,
Show thyself to the priest, and offer forth thy cleansing,
Those things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.
But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter,
Insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city,
But was without in desert places. And they came to him from every quarter.
Dear Lord, thank you for giving us the opportunity to come to church today.
I pray, Father, that you please fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit,
And open our eyes and ears to hear the word of God as it's taught,
And to understand and receive wisdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. In Mark chapter 1 here, verse number 1, the Bible reads,
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And the first thing I want to point out about this first sentence here,
The beginning of the gospel, is that a lot of times when we use the word gospel,
We limit its meaning to just being the plan of salvation,
Or just the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
But if you actually study the Bible, the whole story of Jesus Christ's life, ministry,
And his plan to redeem us, including his death, burial, and resurrection,
And everything that follows is all referred to as the gospel.
And this is why these four books of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Are known as the four gospels. You know, the gospel according to Matthew,
The gospel according to Mark.
And it says here in verse number 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
Because it's the beginning of this book that's going to tell us basically the whole story.
And so that's what's referred to there by the gospel.
And it says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
Which shall prepare thy way before thee, The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.
And then of course it identifies who that voice crying in the wilderness is.
It's John in verse 4 there. John the Baptist.
Now, let me point out the fact that there's a big reason in this church why we use the King James Bible only.
I mean, it says it right on the window, it says it in the yellow pages ad, it's on our website.
You know, we talk a lot about being King James only, and most churches these days are not King James only.
Today, if you go to the Christian bookstore, they're going to try to get you on the NIV or the ESV,
Or one of these other modern versions of the Bible.
Why is it so important that we stick with the old King James Bible?
You know, why are we using a Bible translation that's over 400 years old?
It's not just a matter of preference, it's not just that we think it sounds cool using a more archaic language.
You know, these new versions are very different, and they make dramatic changes to the Bible that affect doctrine.
But when you look at just this first part of Mark, here's what I want to point out, okay?
Is that it says in verse 2, as it is written in the prophets, and then it quotes two different prophets.
And then it quotes Malachi in verse 2, and then it quotes Isaiah in verse 3.
Well, if you're reading the NIV or the ESV, it says in verse 2, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, and then it quotes Malachi.
Which is incorrect, because obviously Malachi and Isaiah are two different prophets that preached at two different times,
And they have two different messages in there. It's just totally wrong, okay?
But here's what's funny, too. Even verse 1 is corrupt in the Westcott and Hort Greek text from which the modern versions come.
Now, I don't want to go too deep on this right now, but let me just give you the basics of this,
because there's a really important point that I want to get across here about this, okay?
The modern versions, their corruption comes from the Alexandrian text of Scripture, the Egyptian text of Scripture,
and the two most notable manuscripts in that tradition are called Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.
And again, I'm not going to go too deep on this, so don't tune out or anything, but Sinaiticus and Vaticanus are the two bad guys, okay?
These are two corrupt Greek manuscripts that have done more to corrupt these modern versions than anything else.
So we've got the traditional text that's been passed down and received by everyone.
That's what we have in the King James, the traditional text.
In the 1800s, you start having all these German scholars and people second-guessing the word of God and saying,
it's been corrupted, we've got to find something more accurate.
And you have them digging up these old manuscripts, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and making changes.
But here's what's funny.
Sinaiticus and Vaticanus leave out the phrase the Son of God there.
They just say the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then that's it.
It just stops there, whereas we have the Son of God in our King James Bible.
Now, if you open the Jehovah's Witness Bible, it leaves out the Son of God here,
because it's based 100% on Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, based on the Westcott and Hord manuscript.
But what's funny is that the NIV and the ESV will include the Son of God here,
but then a whole bunch of other places, they're just constantly following Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.
So here's my thing.
Make up your mind.
You know, if Sinaiticus and Vaticanus are so great, if Westcott and Hord is so great, why don't you go with it all the time?
But I'll tell you this right now.
The people who are promoting these modern versions, and the people that are working on these modern versions,
none of them believes that the Son of God should be there in verse 1.
And by the way, they all believe that the last 12 verses of the Book of Mark should be left off.
It's what James White and those type people believe.
They want to ditch 12 verses from the end of Mark.
They want to ditch the story of the woman taken in adultery.
They want to ditch all kind of stuff.
But isn't it funny how the NIV and the ESV, they still print those stories in the Bible.
And I'll tell you why.
It's because they don't want to freak you out too much by changing too many things at once.
And so they're a work in progress, slowly getting worse, and making more and more changes.
You see, in the early days of the Jehovah's Witness Bible, it still contained the ending of Mark.
But just in 2013, they ditched the ending of Mark, and now it just ends at verse 8.
That's where the modern Bibles are going, my friend.
There will come a day, mark my words, there will come a day when the ESV and the NIV just stop at Mark 16-8,
and they stop right there.
Just a few years ago, in 2011, the NIV was revised to become gender neutral,
and to take out too many references to he and him and his.
And I'm telling you, these Bibles keep on changing.
How far are you going to go down that road?
You know, even if you say, well, I don't think the NIV is that bad.
Okay, what's it going to be like 10 years from now?
What's it going to be like 20 years from now?
They keep changing it, they keep updating it, and you can't even get the old one.
Okay, the King James Bible has stood the test of time for over 400 years.
We have an accurate Bible in English.
It is the preserved, inspired Word of God in our English language, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
And so I just wanted to take a moment to warn you about these modern versions.
Just in Mark chapter 1 alone, we could point out a whole bunch of examples.
Like I said, the text that they're constantly using removes the Son of God from verse 1.
They left it in because they're schizophrenic.
They go back and forth between following the Textus Receptus and the Westcott and Hort
because they don't want to jerk the steering wheel too much and freak you out too much,
so they're slowly making more and more changes with each edition to get it on that corrupt text.
But even in verse 41, jump down to verse 41 of Mark chapter 1.
It says,
And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him, and said unto him, I will be thou clean.
This is a man with leprosy, comes to Jesus and says,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
If you want to, you can make me clean.
And he says, I will be thou clean.
And he's moved with what?
Compassion.
That makes sense.
Read the NIV and the ESV.
Here's what it says, that he was moved with indignation.
Indignation means anger.
So a man comes up in faith asking to be healed.
Why would Jesus give, I will be thou clean.
Fine, be clean.
Fine, I guess I'll heal you.
It's nonsense.
It's ridiculous.
So just in this one chapter alone, they're quoting Malachi saying it's Isaiah.
Jesus is angrily healing people.
I guess I'll do it.
Get out of here.
Get away from me, son.
You bother me.
It makes no sense.
This is one chapter.
And then taking away this important note in verse 1, chapter 1, that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God.
The one thing that you have to believe to be saved.
You've got to believe on the Son in order to be saved.
Anyway, that's not what I'm preaching about here, but I wanted to just do a little commercial
break there for the King James Bible so that you'll understand that that's not just a preference
that we have.
There's a reason why we only use the King James Bible, and there are some dark forces
behind these new versions, and they're corrupt, and they're not of God, and so we are King
James only.
So he says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as is written
in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way
before thee.
Verse 3, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Crying, of course, there means yelling or shouting.
Not weeping, but actually shouting.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight.
And then it explains who that is in verse 4.
John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins.
Now, when we talk about repentance, what does that mean, repentance?
Because he says he preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Well, a lot of people make the mistake, every time they see the word repentance, they attach
to it, repent of your sins.
They attach of your sins to that.
But in reality, repentance can mean all manner of things in the Bible.
Repentance is simply changing your mind or changing your direction or changing your intention.
It depends on the context, what's being changed.
Like if I said I was going to go to the grocery store, but then I repented, you know, I didn't
repent of something sinful, I just changed my mind.
I was going to go there, now I'm not going to go there anymore.
Okay?
And so repentance is simply a turning and it can be a turning from anything or to anything.
That's why you always have to read the context to figure out what is being turned.
Now, the reason why it's so important is because a lot of people think that in order to be
saved, you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
I mean, everybody's probably heard that at some point in their life.
Hey, in order to be saved, you have to repent of your sins.
And I'm here to tell you that's a false doctrine.
Because if you had to repent of your sins to be saved, then that would be a works-based
salvation because repenting of your sins is hard work.
Repenting of your sins takes a lifetime and you still don't fully achieve that.
I mean, we should all be constantly repenting of our sins.
But that's work.
I mean, every day we work at trying to live the Christian life and trying to follow the
commandments of God and getting wrong things out of our life.
And the Bible's clear that salvation is by faith, not of works.
The Bible says that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
So we're saved by faith in Christ, by believing in Christ, not by turning over a new leap,
not by some kind of a 12-step program where we quit all of our sins.
It's just by faith in Jesus, okay?
Because who here could say, Pastor, I've quit all of my sins.
I've repented of all my sins.
I'm totally sin-free now.
You know, I've been sin-free for three months.
That's baloney.
Nobody is sin-free.
The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin.
Even just thinking a dumb thought is a sin.
We all sin every day.
None of us is without sin.
None of us is repentant of all our sins.
So then it's like, what does that mean?
Well, you just kind of have to be willing to turn from sin in general.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
You've got to look to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, as your Savior.
Put your faith and trust in His death, burial, and resurrection.
Salvation is by believing in Jesus.
It's not by works of righteousness, which we have done or do or continue to do.
It's salvation by grace through faith.
So what is the context here of the repentance?
Well, if you jump down to verse number 15, because we have to let the context define it.
We've got to let the Bible define the Bible.
Look at verse 15 and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe the gospel.
So I want you to pay attention to that phrase.
Repent and believe the gospel.
Now, these are not two different things.
He's not saying two different things.
You know, well, you've got to stop sinning and then you also have to believe in Jesus.
No, no, no.
The repenting has to do with believing in the gospel.
He's saying repent, meaning change your mind, change what you believe, change what you used to trust in, and now believe the Bible.
Let me prove it to you.
Go to Matthew chapter 22.
Matthew chapter 22.
Again, we're looking at the context.
We want to let the Bible tell us what it means.
You know, if we come to the word repentance and we want to know what it means in this situation, if John's preaching the baptism of repentance, what does that mean?
What is he preaching?
Well, let's look at the context.
First of all, we saw in the immediate context repent and believe the gospel.
But look at Matthew 22, where Jesus is looking back at this event.
I'm sorry, Matthew 21.
Sorry, Matthew 21, verse 32.
He's looking back on this and he says, For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not.
But the publicans and the harlots believed him, and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him.
So if we look at this verse here, Matthew 21, 32, it's obvious that in this context, repenting is going from not believing to believing.
You know, at first, you didn't believe in him, the publicans and the harlots did believe in him, and you repented not afterward that you might believe him.
It's like, oh, wait a minute.
I changed my mind.
I didn't believe in him, but I'm going to start believing in him.
That's what repentance is here in this context.
And notice, there's no mention of the publicans and the harlots having to stop sinning in order to receive Christ as Savior.
Now, look if you would at Acts chapter 19.
And again, if we had to stop sinning, then no one would be saved because no one has ever stopped sinning.
No one is perfect.
No one is without sin.
Even the greatest men of God in the Bible struggled with sin.
The Apostle Paul, the Apostle John, all the great prophets of the Old Testament, every human being is sinful.
Look at Acts chapter 19 and verse 4.
Again, we're looking at the context to define repentance.
In Acts 19, 4, it says, then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance.
Does that sound familiar, baptism of repentance?
It's exactly what we saw in Mark 1.
So what was he saying when he preached that?
Well, it tells us right here.
John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus.
So what was John preaching?
He's preaching that they should believe on him, that should come after.
The repentance was that they needed to change what they believed, change what they're trusting in.
In regard to salvation, that's the repentance that's required.
If somebody's a Buddhist, they're going to have to repent of being a Buddhist so they can turn to Christ.
You can't be both Buddhist and Christian.
If they're a Hindu, they're going to have to repent of Hinduism because you can't be both Hindu and Christian.
If they believe that they're going to go to heaven because they go to church and live a good life and do good works,
they're going to have to repent from dead works in order to believe on Jesus Christ
because they have to turn from what they were trusting, whether it were Buddha or, you know, the Hindu gods,
or whether it is their own works, righteousness, or whatever idolatry, they have to turn from that to Christ.
You can't just add Jesus to a false religion.
It's got to be all Jesus.
So here's the thing.
Repentance, again, is a very broad word.
So do I have to repent to be saved?
It depends on what you mean by that.
Because, yes, I do have to repent of being Catholic or being Buddhist or being Hindu or being Muslim or being Mormon.
Yeah, I'm going to have to repent of that in order to trust Christ as my Savior.
But do I have to repent of lying, stealing, fornication, drinking, whatever the sin you want to name, pride, gluttony, blasphemy, foolishness, whatever?
No, because we don't have to turn from our sins to be saved because if we did, that would be a works righteousness where we clean ourselves up.
Now I'm worthy to be saved.
Folks, you're never going to be worthy to be saved.
I'm not worthy.
You're not worthy.
It's by grace that we're saved.
Now go to Jonah, chapter number three.
In the Old Testament, the Book of Jonah, chapter number three, just to really drive in this point that repenting of your sins is works
and that the repentance involved in salvation is believing on Jesus.
It's turning from false religion, turning from idols to serve the living God, turning from dead works and having faith in God.
It's about believing in Christ.
It's not about turning over a new leaf in your lifestyle, cleaning up your lifestyle.
OK, now some people will say, you know, well, I don't want to get into that, but look at Jonah, chapter three, verse 10.
It says, and God saw their works and God saw their works.
What did he say?
Works, comma.
And he's going to tell us what those works are.
He saw their works that they turned from their evil way.
So you see that turning from your evil way is works.
If I said, look, I used to live this really sinful life and I gave up all that sinful life.
Guess what I just did?
Works.
That's not grace.
That's not faith.
That's me working to clean up my life.
And so he says God saw their works that they turn from their evil way.
And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not.
And this again proves that repent isn't always talking about repenting of your sins because God doesn't have any sin.
And yet we see here God repenting of the evil he said he would do unto them.
What's the evil he said he would do?
He said he would destroy their whole city.
He said he was going to wipe out Nineveh.
But when they got things right in the city, then he repented of the evil that he had said that he would do and he did it not.
Again, it's just a change of course, change of action, change of direction, change of mind.
It's a turning.
And the context tells us what the turning is.
Here the turning was from God was going to destroy the city.
Now he's not going to destroy it anymore.
OK.
But we see clearly in this verse that when you turn from your evil way, when you turn from your sins, that's works.
And we're not saved by works.
So if somebody says, well in order to be saved, you have to believe in Christ and repent of your sins, here's what they're saying.
Faith plus works.
Faith and works.
But my friend, the Bible says it's faith not of works.
If it's grace, then is it no more works?
Otherwise grace is no more grace.
Now if you would go back to Mark chapter one.
Mark chapter number one.
So we see the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's written in the prophets that there would be this forerunner that would go before Christ and prepare the way before him.
And the guy that came to prepare the way before Jesus is John the Baptist, right?
John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of Jesus Christ.
And what did he preach in the baptism of repentance?
He preached that they should believe on him who should come after.
That is, on Christ Jesus.
The Bible says in verse number five,
And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
Because here's the thing, if you don't know that you're a sinner, you would never even think that you even need to be saved.
I mean, why would I need to be saved if I don't know that I'm a sinner and that I'm doomed?
The whole point of being saved is to be saved from something.
We're saved from our sins.
We're saved from the penalty of our sin, which is hell.
And so the first thing, whenever I'm showing somebody how to be saved, the first thing I do is I show them that we're all sinners.
Because they have to understand that they're a sinner in order to see the need for a savior.
But what I don't do is say, okay, now are you ready to reform yourself of all those sins now?
Are you ready to fix all these problems in your life?
Because that's not the good news.
That's not the gospel.
The gospel is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
But obviously, recognizing and confessing the fact that you're a sinner is going to be necessary for you to see the need for a savior.
You know, if someone says they don't have any sins, well then, okay, well I guess you don't need Jesus then.
I guess you don't need a savior. Good luck on your own on judgment day because you're so good.
It's not going to work.
So it says in verse 6,
And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of skin about his loins, and did eat locusts and wild honey,
and preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in Jordan.
And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him,
and there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
You know, one of the things I love about the Gospel of Mark is that it packs in so much great teaching and so many events just into just a few verses.
I mean, here we are in verse number 11, and we've already covered just huge amounts of the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
And let me point out a few that we just saw here.
First of all, we see that when Jesus was baptized, look at verse 10,
and straightway coming up out of the water.
Now let me ask you this, in order to come up out of the water, where do you have to be?
You've got to be down in the water.
In order to come up out of the water, you have to be down in the water.
That's why it says in Matthew, and Jesus when he was baptized, uh, good night, I'm mixing it with Mark now.
And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water, it says in Matthew.
And also in Acts chapter 8, when Philip baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch, it talks about how they went down both of them into the water, and he baptized them.
So baptism is not by sprinkling, it's not by pouring, it's not a little drop of water on your head, or a little bit, it's actually being dunked fully underwater.
That's why when Jesus was baptized, he comes up out of the water, and that's when the Holy Ghost descends upon him and lights upon him.
Now, also in Colossians, you don't have to turn there, the Bible says that we are buried with him in baptism.
It says in Romans chapter 6 also, buried with him in baptism.
Now, when was the last time you went to a burial and they just sprinkled dirt on the corpse and walked away?
Or just poured a little dirt on the corpse's head?
No, the burial is a complete immersion in dirt, right? You're completely buried.
And the whole point of baptism is that it pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Romans chapter 6 ties it in with the resurrection, and talks about how, you know, even as Christ was raised up from the dead, we also should walk in newness of life.
And so it's a picture of burying the old man, and putting on the new man, and it's a picture of what happened in your soul when you got saved.
You know, when you got saved, your spirit is quickened, and then you're just physically going through the motions of that, showing an outward sign of the fact that you're saved.
Now, baptism doesn't make you saved. You could not be baptized and still be saved.
You could get baptized as many times as you want, and be unsaved, because of the fact that it's your faith that saves you.
And I like to liken baptism to a wedding ring. You know, I wear a wedding ring to picture the fact that I'm married, but if I take off the ring, I'm still married.
And if I took off the ring and put it on someone else's hand, they don't just suddenly become married to my wife, because they're wearing this ring.
Now, do you think that this ring is to show myself that I'm married, or to show other people I'm married?
Yeah, I don't just go through life and look down at my hand every once in a while and see this and go, oh, whoops, I got to get home to my wife.
You know, I totally forgot that I'm married. It's for other people to see that I'm married.
I already know I'm married, with or without this ring. I don't need a reminder of that.
Okay, it's the same thing with baptism. You know, we know we're saved because we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Getting baptized is an outward profession of faith, a testimony unto others.
And so, it's like the ring. You could put on a ring, it doesn't make you married.
You can take off the ring, it doesn't make you unmarried. Just like baptism doesn't make you saved, not being baptized doesn't make you unsaved.
It's just a picture of the fact that you're saved.
You know, there are many married men who never wear a wedding ring.
You know, it seems like when I was a child, a lot of men didn't wear a wedding ring.
It seems like now most of them do, but you know, that's a tradition that changes over time.
And so, it has nothing to do with your marital status. It's just a symbol or a picture.
Now, when do you think is the most appropriate time for a man to put on his wedding ring?
When's probably the time that would make the most sense? Probably right after he gets married, right?
You know, at the wedding, you're pronounced man and wife, you've signed the document or whatever, and it's like, okay, now you put on the ring.
Okay, that makes the most sense. Now, here's the thing.
When my wife and I got married, we didn't get our rings until a couple of weeks later.
Okay, well that's sort of like if someone gets saved and they don't get baptized for a few weeks or months or years.
As long as there's a space. But probably the best time to get baptized is when?
You know, you get saved, you get baptized, right? Boom. Do it right away.
And that's what the Bible shows as the example.
But I'm not going to put on the ring because I'm getting married in three months.
You know, I understand there's an engagement ring, but don't mess with my illustration.
I'm talking about from the dude's perspective.
You're not going to put this on a week before you're married, you put it on after.
So don't get baptized before you get saved.
And by the way, baptizing a baby makes no sense because that baby doesn't believe anything.
That baby doesn't know anything. That baby can't make that decision.
You can't just force that on someone else and, you know, every person decides what they believe on their own.
You know, I can't make my kids believe in Christ. I can preach to them and teach them the gospel,
but they have to make the decision to receive Christ as Savior.
And so I'm not just going to dunk them underwater as a baby. It makes no sense.
It's something that we do as a choice.
And then you're depriving kids of even making that step on their own by dunking them in advance.
But of course, most religions that baptize babies, they don't dunk them anyway.
They just sprinkle them and that's not even baptism anyway because baptism has to do with being dunked underwater.
As we clearly see here, Jesus, when he was baptized, he straightway coming up out of the water.
He saw the heavens open, verse 10, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.
And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
So here we have the Trinity in view.
We have Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost ascending on him and a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
So obviously that's God the Father speaking to the Son and you have the Holy Spirit there, all three present.
That's the Trinity right there.
So the Bible says in verse 12, And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
And he was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him.
Now, when we think of the wilderness, we might think of like a really dense forest or a jungle.
But typically when the Bible refers to the wilderness, it's usually talking about the desert.
And it's used synonymously in the Bible with desert because, you know, the events of the Word of God didn't take place in South America, okay, or something.
You know, if you look at the geography over there in Israel, the wilderness is the desert.
That's the part that's the most wild or the most untamed or the part where you would struggle to survive.
It's not a dense forest or a jungle or anything like that.
And so it's used synonymously in the Bible with the word desert.
So Jesus is driven out into the desert. He's driven out of the wilderness.
And for forty days he's tempted of Satan and he's with the wild beasts.
You know, what's that talk? You know, just lizards, snakes.
It's just talking about how he's living out there in a difficult environment for forty days.
And the angels ministered unto him, meaning that they helped him out, they served him.
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.
And again, we talked about how that's basically one command there.
Hey, it'd be like if my wife said, I'm not going to the store.
And I told her, look, I want you to pick me up such and such the food item you're going.
And she's just like, I'm not going to the store. I don't want to go to the store.
And I say, hey, I want those jalapeno poppers, repent ye and go to the store.
So if I told her, repent and go, is that two different separate commands or is it, hey,
you better get yourself turned around and go to the store like I told you to, right?
Do you see what I'm saying? That would be repent and go.
Well, this is repent and believe because they are right now in an unsaved condition.
They don't understand the gospel. They don't believe the gospel.
And so he's telling them to repent and believe the gospel.
Now, notice that Jesus Christ, he gets baptized, OK?
Which again has nothing to do with salvation, because if it did, why would Jesus have to get baptized?
Jesus doesn't need to get saved. Jesus is the savior.
Jesus doesn't need to wash away any sins. He doesn't have any sins.
Baptism is just a picture. It's symbolic.
He was just symbolizing the fact that he's going to die and be buried and rise again.
He's symbolizing that for others. And it was just a pattern for us to follow.
But after he's baptized, he then is tempted of the devil.
And so he goes through a very difficult time.
He goes through a hard time. He's out in the wilderness.
He's being tempted by Satan.
And of course, Matthew and Luke have a little more detail on this,
where the devil's coming to him and trying to tempt him with food because he's hungry
and trying to tempt his ego and trying to get his pride involved and so forth.
But we see that he's going through a struggle and a difficult time and temptation and testing.
And here's what you need to understand.
You know, when you get baptized, you may go through something similar after being baptized as well.
And I don't just mean when you get baptized, but really any time you take a step forward in the Christian life,
you can expect there to be some kind of an obstacle or a hurdle or some kind of a difficulty.
And if you study the Bible, you'll notice that great victories are often followed by great defeats.
Now, in this case, there's no defeat because Jesus is always winning all the time, of course.
But we see there's a challenge involved.
And many times we as human beings aren't up to the challenge.
But the point is that we should expect sometimes if we make some big step in our Christian life
for there to be a little bit of a pushback and not just expect it to be easy all the time.
So you get saved, you get baptized, you're excited.
It's like, all right, buddy, now you're going to the wilderness.
Now you're going to boot camp.
Now you're going to be tempted.
Now you're going to have problems.
You're going to suffer.
And sometimes people aren't ready for that.
You know, maybe you just started going to church.
You know what?
It's the New Year.
It's a New Year's resolution.
In 2021, I'm going to church.
Now my life's going to be easy.
Now everything's going to be great.
God's on my side.
Hey, just expect that if you start going to church in 2021, expect problems.
Say, well, why would I even go to church?
Well, because life is not about just having it easy.
Is Jesus on easy street here?
No, he's 40 days out in the wilderness being tempted of Satan.
He's out living with the wild beasts for 40 days.
And so life is not about taking the path of least resistance and doing the easy thing.
It's about doing the right thing.
And in the end, you're going to be blessed for doing the right thing.
But when you do the right thing, opposition comes.
When you do the right thing, there's an attack that comes.
When you do the right thing, trials and tribulations come and you've got to push through.
Jesus Christ pushes through this time of temptation, and when he comes out the other side, he's
preaching with power.
He's preaching the gospel.
He's doing great works.
He has great crowds of people listening to him, but he had to pay his dues first.
He didn't just go to some cushioned, climate-controlled Bible college, get a degree, and now all of
a sudden he's ready to preach to the great crowds.
No, he had to go through the crucible.
You know, he had to go through some hard times and some testing and some trials out in the
wilderness, and so will you if you're going to be used by God.
You're going to have to go through some opposition.
You know, sometimes you can get saved, get baptized, or take other steps like going to
church or getting out soul-winning for the first time, or maybe you decided, hey, 2021,
I'm going to read my Bible cover to cover.
Well, you know what?
Expect something to suck up your time and get in the way of that, and you have to decide,
no, I'm going to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and no matter how
busy I get, I can read four chapters in the Bible every day no matter how busy I am, right?
I mean, how long does that really take?
15, 20 minutes.
I'm not a super-fast reader.
I'm not a speed reader.
I do a lot of reading, but I just read at a normal speed.
I've never been into speed reading, never been good at it.
It's not my thing.
I read at a normal speed.
It takes me like 15 or 20 minutes to get through four chapters.
That's the average.
You know, you listen to Alexander Scorby read it.
It's like 15 minutes to get through your daily Bible reading, so I'll give you 20.
Fine, take 25, but you know what?
Here's the thing.
25 minutes we can carve out in our day, I guarantee it.
You know, let's say you work eight hours.
I work 12 hours.
Okay, you work 12 hours.
Work 12 hours, sleep eight hours, spend a couple of hours with your family, spend an
hour preening and primping and grooming yourself, and you still have an hour left.
And so, you know, you can always carve out that 15, 20 minutes.
I don't care how busy you are.
You can get it done if you make it a priority, because isn't it interesting when other things
are a priority in our life, we make time for them.
We find a way to get them done.
We carve out that time, do or die.
Well, that's how it's got to be with the things of God.
Hey, you decided to read your Bible, expect things to get in the way.
You started to start praying, expect things to get in the way.
You decided to start going soul winning, expect opposition, expect problems.
And, you know, sometimes you could have family criticizing you because you joined the church
or started going soul winning or because, you know, you keep talking about the Bible
now or you posted too much about Facebook on the Bible or whatever, you know.
And these things could cause opposition, push through, push through the trials and tribulations
and you'll come out on the other side with power to serve God.
And that's what we see Jesus signifying here by getting baptized, going into the wilderness,
and then coming out the other side stronger and more prepared for his mission.
You know, Jesus isn't just doing this for his health.
He's doing it for two reasons.
Number one, because he's going through all the trials and tribulations that we would
go through because he's going through the whole human experience.
And number two, he's showing us an example so that we wouldn't know what to expect in
the Christian life.
When we take a step of obedience, we should expect there to be some hardships, some trials,
and that's what's going on here.
So he comes out the other side and he comes into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God and saying, verse 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe the gospel.
Verse 16, now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting
a net into the sea for they were fishers.
And Jesus said to them, come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men.
And straightway, straightway means immediately, no delay.
Straightway, they forsook their nets and followed him.
They didn't put in their two weeks notice.
It was just, we're done.
They just dropped it and walked off.
No turning back.
And it says in verse 17, or verse 18, and straightway they forsook their nets and followed
him.
And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John,
his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.
And straightway he called them and they left their father, Zebedee, in the ship with the
hired servants and went after him.
So they gave up the family business.
They gave up their trade.
They gave up their occupation.
They gave up their employment.
They walked off the job because this is a one-time opportunity.
This is Jesus Christ, the son of God.
When he says to you, come after me and I'll make you fisher of men, you just go.
Other people hesitated.
If we read the book of Matthew, there are others who said, oh, you know, well, Lord,
suffer me first to go and bury my father.
You know, oh, they have all these excuses.
And he says, he, that putting his hand to the plow, look it back, is not fit for the
kingdom of God.
He says, look, follow me and let the dead bury their dead.
We're going.
It's now.
And they had to be ready to just drop everything and follow him.
It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to be one of the 12 disciples.
We would have all loved to be one of the 12 disciples.
Right?
And so this is a special opportunity.
They had to drop everything and take it.
But of course we have the opportunity today to serve Christ.
Now, we don't have the same urgency of Jesus physically here walking around and he's only
got three and a half years and he doesn't have time to wait for everybody with all their
delays.
You know, we obviously have our whole life to live, right?
We've got, you know, maybe 70 years on this earth or 80 years or, you know, we could all
die tomorrow.
You don't know.
But the point is we have our life and in that life we also have the opportunity to follow
Christ.
We also have the opportunity to be a fisher of men.
And what I want to point out here is the dichotomy of what it means to get saved versus what
it means to follow Christ as his disciple.
These are not the same thing.
Getting saved is easy.
It's very easy to get saved.
That's why we see multitudes of people getting saved.
I mean, the Bible talks about multitudes of people being baptized by John the Baptist.
But then it turns around and says that Jesus and the disciples made and baptized more disciples
than John.
So we have John baptizing this incredible number of people in Mark chapter 1.
But then in the future, the disciples of Christ end up baptizing way more people than
John did.
And then they're coming to John saying, you know, everybody's following Jesus.
More people are getting baptized.
They're trying to get John to be envious.
But of course, John said, I must decrease.
He must increase.
I'm not the Christ.
You know, I'm just sent before him.
I'm just a friend of the bridegroom.
He's the groom.
He's the man of the hour.
And so we see that Jesus Christ and his disciples baptized multitudes of people.
And look, they're baptizing people because the people got saved, because the people believed.
Tons of people believe.
Thousands and thousands and thousands of people believe on Jesus throughout those three and
a half years.
The Bible's clear on that.
But yet, isn't it interesting that when the early church meets in Acts chapter 1, there
are only 120 people there.
So how do you go from having thousands of people saved, thousands of people baptized,
and then you get to Acts chapter 1 and the number of names together was about 120?
What happened?
It's because there's a huge difference in believing in Jesus and getting saved and actually
following Christ and being a disciple.
Look, anybody who believes on Jesus is saved.
But there are a lot of people who believe on Jesus, but they're not really interested
in doing much for Christ.
And think about it.
Even Baptist churches that are right on salvation, that are right on doctrine, and they preach
the Bible faithfully, but think about the ones that have zero soul winning.
They don't knock any doors and preach the gospel of the lost.
They have just almost no outreach, zero soul winning.
I mean, is that church following Christ?
Because here's the thing, they're not being a fisher of men.
Jesus said, if you follow me, I'll make you a fisher of men.
And we see many churches filled with people that are saved.
They're going to heaven.
They enjoy worshiping God and reading the word of God, but you don't see them out there
actually following Christ in the matter of being a fisher of men, right?
So therefore, that goes to show you there are a lot of saved people who aren't doing
the work.
And even in a church like ours, there are going to be people who don't do any work.
They don't go out and reach anybody with the gospel.
They don't preach the gospel.
They don't do soul winning.
But they're still saved.
They're still going to heaven.
They still believe in Christ because here's the deal.
Getting saved is free.
Being a disciple, being a follower of Christ, being someone who follows Christ wherever
he goes and being a serious Christian costs you everything.
So on the one hand, we have salvation getting to heaven, which is absolutely free.
And then on the other hand, we have doing great things for God, which costs you literally
everything.
Now it's not to say that God's going to take everything from you because God really blesses
us and allows us to have a lot of nice things and he allows us to do a lot of cool things
and be surrounded by a lot of great people.
But here's the thing.
You have to be willing to pay everything, not to be saved.
But see, there are people out there saying, you got to be willing to do everything to
be saved.
It's like, whoa, buddy.
What are there, five people on earth saved, 50 people on earth saved, actually it's zero
because nobody is that dedicated and has just turned from all their sins and been perfect.
No way.
But here's the thing, when it comes to doing great things for God, you do have to be willing
to put it all out there, you know, and lay all on the altar.
But my friend, that's a minority.
That's a small subgroup within the saved.
Thankfully God didn't make it that hard to get to heaven because if so, it'd be a real
lonely place up in heaven.
Because think about how many people in this world are really super dedicated, sold out,
soul winning Christians.
You know, it's a pretty small percentage of those who are saved.
I'll tell you this much, every time I go out soul winning and I'm out knocking doors every
week, I always run into someone who's already saved every single time.
Virtually every single time I run into somebody who's saved, sometimes in an hour of soul
winning, I'll run into three or four people that are already saved.
So there are a lot of saved people out there.
Now if we were in some other part of the world, it might not be that way because there are
some dark places spiritually.
But here in the United States of America, when you go soul winning in the United States
of America, you're constantly running into people that are saved.
But how many of those people are out evangelizing?
You know, 0.0001%.
You know, it's a very small percentage of them that are actually out evangelizing.
And it's just like in the Bible, thousands and thousands of people getting saved, thousands
and thousands of people getting baptized.
But when the persecution's coming and things are looking rough, it's 120 people.
Right?
That's what they're left with.
120 people.
That's why it always cracks me up when people criticize young churches and small churches.
You know, they'll look at a church and say, you know, well why does this, you know, if
you guys got hundreds of people saved, how come that church only had, you know, 75 people
in it?
Because that's the average size independent Baptist church is 75 people.
Well, if they got hundreds of people saved, how come they only have 75 in attendance?
Well, I don't know.
Why did John the Baptist and Jesus and 11 apostles work their tails off for years and
years and you only have 120?
I guess they're expecting modern day independent Baptist pastors to be like John the Baptist
and Jesus and the 11 disciples all rolled into one.
And even that's not good enough because they would criticize that and say, well, 120 is
not enough.
I mean, look, our church runs 300 people plus on Sunday morning and it's like, well, well,
but yeah, but you got more people saved now.
Where are they all?
I don't know.
They don't come because they're lazy or they're just busy or they're at the lake or whatever.
They're just doing something else.
Or they go to some liberal watered down church that tells them what they want to hear.
You know, look, if you, if somebody doesn't want to live for God at all, if someone's
not interested in learning new things, they're not interested in doing work for God, they're
not interested in making any changes in their life or becoming a better Christian, why would
they go to a church like this?
Faithful Wored Baptist Church is going to challenge you on Sunday morning, challenge
you on Sunday night, challenge you on Wednesday night, challenging you, teaching you, motivating
you and trying to get you to do more or learn more or be more or make some kind of a change.
Here's the thing, a lot of people aren't interested in that.
They say, you know what?
I want to stay just the way I am and I don't want somebody telling me I should be out witnessing
to the loss.
I want somebody telling me that it's already been foreordained and they, well, whoever's
saved is saved, whoever's unsaved is unsaved, it's all foreordained.
I don't want somebody bugging me to go out and warn people and, and, and pull people
out of the fire.
I don't want somebody telling me to clean up my life.
I like my sin level where it's at.
Folks, I'm telling you, if, if you don't want to learn anything, if you don't want to grow,
if you don't want to be anything different or more, why would you go to a church like
this?
You wouldn't.
You'd go to a church that preaches good God, good devil and cold hell and you could just
kind of relax and sing a few songs, get a little feel good pat on the back, uh, sermonette,
fifteen minute sermonette and that's where a lot of God's people are.
Folks, I got news for you.
These non-denominational churches, many of them are filled with saved Christians.
How do you know?
Because I've knocked their doors and they have a clear testimony of salvation.
They clearly believe the gospel, but they're going to a fun center because they're more
interested in fun than in something serious.
This is big boy church.
You know, they'd rather be like in an eternal Sunday school.
They want to be in a Sunday school class for 40 year olds, right?
Forty year old junior church, 50 year old junior church.
They're 75 years old and in junior church.
This isn't junior church.
We even have our toddlers in big boy church around here, but over there they have the
big boys in toddler church.
That's what these fun center churches are and so the point is that there's a big difference
between just being saved and actually wanting to be a serious Christian and this church
is a place where serious Christians gravitate toward a church like this.
You don't have to be a serious Christian to come here.
You can be here and do nothing.
You can come here, be nothing, do nothing, change nothing and it's good to see you, brother.
But here's the thing about that though, you might not like it here because you might not
like to keep being reminded of the nothing that you're doing.
People who are nothings don't like to be told, do something, do something, do something.
It's like, no.
But you're welcome.
But the point is that to get saved takes zero commitment as far as, you know, making changes
in your life or money or time or energy or whatever.
But here's the thing, but being a disciple of Christ, you got to be willing to put it
all out there.
It's got to be greatly used by God.
You got to be ready to enter the wilderness.
You got to be ready to go through the trials and tribulations.
You got to be ready to pay the price and you got to be ready to forsake something.
I mean, the disciples, they're not just going to be able to, well, is it all right if I
just keep my fishing job part time, Jesus?
I mean, just in case this whole disciple gig doesn't work out, I better put my two weeks
notice because if I ever need to go back to that job, I got to put in my two weeks notice.
Jesus saying, no, you better get all the way in, burn the bridge, burn the ships in it
to win it.
There's no turning back.
That's the kind of commitment that we see here in Mark Chapter one.
Now look, I don't know about you.
I want to just not be one of the five thousand that I mean, it'd be cool to be one of the
five thousand.
Remember when Jesus fed the five thousand?
Wouldn't you have loved to be there?
Be one of the five thousand.
Eat the loaves.
Eat the fishes.
That's amazing preaching of the Sermon on the Mount or whatever the preaching that kind
of preaching.
Hey, that's great.
But, you know, I would rather instead of just being one of the five thousand, I'd rather
be one of the hundred twenty.
But you know what?
Rather than just being one of the hundred twenty, I'd like to be one of the twelve and
not only just one of the twelve, I'd like to be one of the three Peter, James and John,
the inner circle.
But, you know, even better than that, I'd like to be the disciple whom Jesus loved,
who leaned on his breast at the Last Supper.
Right?
Hey, we should be trying and striving to be as close to Jesus Christ as we can, to be
as great of a servant of God as we can, as great of a servant as Christ.
Don't mix that with salvation, though, because salvation is a free gift paid for by the blood
of Jesus.
You believe on Christ and you're saved.
That's what we see.
OK.
Just repent and believe the gospel.
That's it.
Get saved.
OK.
You want to be a follower of Christ, a disciple of Christ.
You know, people take the verse where he says, if any man will come after me, let him deny
self and take up the cross daily and follow me and say that that's salvation.
No, because salvation isn't daily.
Salvation is one time born again, not born again and again and again and again and again
and again and again.
It's just born again.
You get saved one time.
You have eternal life.
It's a free gift.
You eat that bread of life and you never hunger again.
You drink the water of life, you never thirst again.
Denying self, taking up the cross daily and following Christ has to do with this level
of commitment of an Andrew, of a Peter, of a James, of a John that dropped the net, kissed
their job goodbye, and they're ready to follow Christ with everything they've got.
Look, I'm not telling you to quit your job because, again, this is a special situation.
Jesus is on this earth for three and a half years.
When he says jump, you say how high on the way up or he might just walk away, you know,
because there's other fish in the sea and he needed guys that were dedicated to work
hard and follow him because he had a lot of work to do in just three and a half years.
He needed the help.
He sent them to all the towns and villages to gather people and get people ready so that
he could preach to all the house of Israel in one shot in three and a half years of ministry.
I'm not saying quit your job.
I'm not saying, you know, sell everything and walk the earth as a mendicant or something.
That's not what I'm saying.
But what I'm saying is you're willing to make sacrifices for serving God.
And if there's a sacrifice that has to be made, you're ready to make it.
If it means giving up something, if it means giving up your job, you would give up your
job.
If it means giving up, and sometimes it could.
Maybe you have an immoral job that you do need to give up.
You know, I remember the first person that ever got baptized at Faith Forward Baptist
Church was a blackjack dealer at the Indian Reservation Casino.
You know, I mean, is that a job that Christ wants you to give up?
Yeah.
And she told me, she dealt blackjack at the Indian casino, and here's what she said.
She said, you know what?
I know that I shouldn't be doing this because she said, I've worked here long enough to
see people's lives destroyed.
And she said, I watch people when they first come in, and they're so cool, and they're
having so much fun, and then I see them months later, it always ends the same.
They go down a downward spiral, and it always ends with them accusing me of cheating and
being dragged out of here by security with nothing.
Having mortgaged their house in debt up to their eyeballs, maxed out the credit cards,
being dragged out of this casino kicking and screaming.
And I remember when they first came in, happy and well-heeled, and everything was great.
And she said, I know that I should give up that job, but she said, it's just so much
money.
It's just hundreds and hundreds of dollars a night tax-free, because she's on the Indian
Reservation.
Hundreds of dollars a night tax-free, it's just too hard to say no to that.
Now let me tell you something.
When we get to heaven, she's going to be there.
She was saved, she believed on Christ.
When we get to heaven, she will be there, but guess what, she's not following Christ
right now.
She's not in church.
She has an immoral job, right?
The point is, there's a big difference between getting saved, hey, it's pretty easy to accept
a free gift.
But you know, the rest of the Christian life isn't free.
The gift is free, but being a disciple of Christ is going to cost you something.
You know, she wasn't willing to give that up, and there were other things in her life.
And you know what, we all have things in our life too that we need to give up, and things
that hold us back from serving Christ.
And if we want to be used maximum for Jesus Christ, we've got to be willing to cut some
things loose in our life that are not helping us serve God.
And so yes, salvation is free, but the Christian life can cost you everything.
If you really want to get all the way in and do something great for God, you've got to
be like Andrew and Peter and be willing to forsake the net, to drop the net and serve
Christ.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, and for all the great things
just packed into this beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the book of Mark, Lord.
And Lord, thank you that he is the son of God.
And Lord, thank you for the fact that we've been blessed in the English language with
the King James Bible.
We don't have to be a member of the Bible of the month club that's constantly changing,
Lord.
Thank you for giving us the Bible in our native language where it's the same every year and
we can understand it and believe it and not have to worry about it being tampered with
or changed.
It stood the test of time, Lord.
What a blessing.
And Lord, help us to take that sword of the Spirit and preach the gospel and win as many
people to Christ as we can, Lord.
And help us to be ready to make sacrifices so that we can be a better servant of yours,
a better soul winner, a better preacher, Lord.
Help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and it's
in his name we pray, amen.
The Bible says that as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
I'm not righteous.
You're not righteous.
And if it were our goodness that would get us into heaven, none of us would be going.
The Bible even says in Revelation 21, it says, but the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable
and murderers and sorcerers and foremongers and idolaters and listen to this, all liars
shall have their part in the lake that's burning and firing themselves until the second
death.
I've lied before.
Everybody's lied before.
So we've all sinned and we've done stuff worse than lying, let's face it.
We all deserve help.