The Book of Mark Chapter number 1. I’ll just give quick overview of the Book of Mark, at a hurry, because there is so much great information in these 45 verses of Chapter 1. But the Book of Mark is one of the four Gospels that emphasizes more heavenly the works of Jesus, more than what he preached. If you’ve ever read letter Bible, where all the words of Jesus Christ there and read, you’ve probably noticed that Mark has a lot less red letters than the rest of the Gospels. Because the emphasis of Book of Mark is Jesus and his works and his service. There are a lot of stories, a lot of action in the Book of Mark. Also, the words that you’ll see coming up over and over again in the Book of Mark are “immediately,” “straightway,” “forthwith.” These are all very intense words, talking about things happening very fast, and shows Jesus just working really hard, really busy. He’s travelling a lot. He’s preaching. He’s doing miracles. And so, it shows Jesus Christ as a servant. Because the Bible says that the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life for ransom for many. And the Bible says that he took upon himself the form of a servant. That’s why at the beginning of the Book of Mark, there is no genealogy. Because of the fact that he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant.
Now, in the Book of Matthew, Jesus portrayed as the king of the Jews. So that’s why at the beginning of the Book of Matthew, you have that genealogy through the kingly line. Then in Mark, he’s a servant. He’s of no reputation, no genealogy. Then when you get to the Book of Luke, you have the genealogy of his human side, on Mary’s side. And that shows the humanity of Christ, because Luke portrays Jesus Christ as the Son of Man. And the Book of John portrays Jesus Christ as God in the flesh or the Son of God. It really emphasizes his deity, which is why instead of a genealogy at the beginning of the Book of John, you just have in the beginning “was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and so forth.
So, in the Book of Mark, right away, in verse 1. The Bible reads, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Now, like I’ve just finished explaining to you, different Gospels emphasize different aspects of who Christ is. Matthew has to do more with him as king. Mark, as servant. You don’t want to go too far with those distinctions, because here in the first verse of Mark. He’s called the Son of God. Well, John portrays him as the Son of God. Now, here’s one thing interesting. That phrase “the Son of God,” this is removed from some Bible verses. For example, the New World translation, which is the Bible of the Jehovah’s False Witnesses, in Mark 1:1, it says, “The Beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ.” That’s it. So, there’s no Son of God there. And in fact, even though books like the NIV will still say “Son of God” in verse 1, they have a note at the bottom saying “some manuscripts don’t have the Son of God.” And in reality, the manuscripts that don’t have the “Son of God” are the manuscripts that the NIV is based on. Because the NIV is based upon mainly the Westcott and Hort Greek manuscripts, based on new manuscripts that are of the same family, or new Greek New Testaments that are based on the same thing. But they leave in the “Son of God” but they put something in the bottom here to make you doubt it. Now you’d say “Pastor Anderson, why in the world does it matter if it says the “Son of God” there?” And people like Dr. James White who, attacking James [unclear], they’ll make fun of stuff like this and say “Well, who cares if Mark 1:1 says “The Son of God?” There are plenty of other verses in the Bible that say the “the Son of God,” and if there was some kind of a conspiracy to remove the “Son of God,” wouldn’t they remove it everywhere?” Why would they just take it out of Mark 1:1.
But here’s a thing about that. First of all, if they remove it everywhere, that would have been too obvious, and the devil’s more subtle about the changes that he makes. Number 2, all of these changes in this modern false Bible perversions are all strategic. They’re there for a reason. There’s a reason why the Son of God would be removed from Mark 1:1. Because if you go to these institutions of higher learning like Harvard University, and if you go to their Theology Department, you know what they’ll tell you? They’ll tell you all that the Book of Mark is the earliest Gospel ever written. And they’ll tell you, that it was only later that the story was embellished that Jesus was the Son of God, and that early Gospels like the Book of Mark, they don’t really make those kinds of claims about Jesus that he’s the Son of God. So, you can see why it would be strategic to remove “The Son of God” from Mark - to cast doubt on the other books that would follow as being embellished of the Gospel. So it’s not an accident when modern versions removed the “Son of God” from Mark 1:1, or put some kind of a doubt in your mind about that.
And thirdly this, who are we to decide what’s important and what’s not important? And you just sit there and say “Oh, who cares if they remove the “Son of God” in somewhere else.” Who are we to decide whether are these to say “The Son of God” here or not, and what’s important and what’s not. Everything’s important. What weren’t important, God wouldn’t put in the Bible. And every single word of God is perfect and pure, and it’s there for a reason. And these new modern corruptions of the Bible that are removing “the Son of God” or putting notes, make you doubt the “the Son of God,” they do have an agenda to destroy people’s faith in the Word. But not only that, it’s pretty easy to tell that some people will say “well, how do you know which one is right? How do you know the King James is even right?”
Look at the next two verses. It says in Mark 1 verse 2, “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.” Now it says there that it’s written in the prophets, plural. And in verse 2, he quotes the Book of Malachi. Flip over, if you would. Keep your finger there in Mark, and flip over to Malachi. And in verse 2, he quotes Malachi, then in verse 3, he quotes Isaiah. So, the King James, he says he’s going to quote the prophets and then he quotes Malachi, and then he quotes Isaiah. In the NIV here, the non-inspired version. It says, it is written in Isaiah the prophet: I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way before you.” So it quotes Malachi. That right there shows you which one is right. The King James accurately says prophets, he quotes two prophets. The NIV says he would quote Isaiah, he quotes Malachi. That’s a mistake. People will try to say that it’s just how they quoted stuff back then. OK, do you have another example of that in the entire Bible? No. Because every other quote in the entire Bible comes from the correct source. Some people will point out Matthew 27 when it says he was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, and it’s something that’s written in Zechariah. But here’s the thing, it was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet. It doesn’t say that it was written in Jeremiah. When the Bible says that it’s written in Isaiah, better be written in Isaiah. And if it says it’s written in the Prophets, better be written in the Prophets, if the Bible is the Word of God, which we know it is.
But here’s what’s cool about this verse from Malachi. This is really a great proof that Jesus Christ is God. It proves the deity of Christ right here. And to sit there and say… “The author of the book of Mark, he doesn’t really portray Jesus as God, or the Son of God. That’ll come later with the Book of John,” as the scholars in the universities will tell you. But look what it says in Malachi Chapter 3… Because just by Mark writing that in verse 2, he’s actually proclaiming the deity of Christ in the second verse. In verse 1, he proclaims him as the Son of God. In verse 2, he’s proclaiming him as God. Because look what it says in Malachi 2:17. “Ye have wearied the LORD…” Notice the all capital LORD there, Jehovah… “Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or…” Look at this last phrase, very important… “Where is the God of judgment?” So the people are asking, where is the God of judgment?
Look at Verse 1 of Chapter 3, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me…” And who’s speaking? The Lord. God. He says “I’ll send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple.” So they’re saying, “Where is the God of judgment?” And he says “OK, the lord whom you all seek is going to suddenly come to his temple. And who is that? Jesus. Jesus is the one who comes into the temple, start flipping the tables over, chase them out with the whip, and he’s there to purify. He’s there to cleanse the temple. Look what it says. “the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”
That’s a great proof of the deity of Christ. Because whose is the way being prepared before? Jesus. And whose is the way being prepared for Malachi? The Lord. The God whom they seek. Jesus Christ truly was God with us as his name Emanuel means. But it says in verse 2, “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…” So who is the one that’s preparing the way for Jesus? John the Baptist. And he is preparing the way for the Lord. He’s preparing the way for God to come. And it says, “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”
In order to understand this verse… let’s keep our finger here and go to Acts Chapter 19 Verse 4, just a few pages to the right in your Bible, you’ll find the Book of Acts. Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Acts Chapter 19 verse 4, because let me read that verse again. It says, “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Let’s see what the Bible means when it said “he preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Look at Acts 19:4. It says. “Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance…” Does that sound familiar? Mark 1 said that he’s preaching the baptism of repentance. Here, it says, “John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance…” Watch this, “saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” So when he’s preaching repentance, what was he preaching that people needed to do? Believe. Because you see, he doesn’t give the exact preaching in Mark Chapter 1 Verse 4. But when we pair it with Acts 19:4, he tells us what John said when he did that preaching. He preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. What was he preaching? What was he saying? He was saying that they need them to believe on him that would come after, which is Jesus Christ. Now this matches perfectly with Mark Chapter 1 Verse 15. Jump down to verse 15. And it says, “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
So this shows us what the repentance is that’s taking place. It has to do with believing in the Gospel. A lot of people mistakenly, when they see the word “repent,” they just automatically add a few words to it “of your sins.” So we see the word “repent,” they just add “of your sins.” And you’d say “Show me verses in the Bible that tell me that you have to repent of your sins to be saved.” Those show you about repentance, but not repentance of your sins. And people will just define the word “repent” as “to turn from sin.” But here’s the problem with that definition. God repents in the Bible more than anyone else. If you look up every time the word “repent” is used in the Bible, the person, who repents the most is actually God. And so to say that “repenting” means “to turn from your sins,” that doesn’t apply all the times that God repented.
If you would, flip over to Acts Chapter 3 Verse 19. Here’s one of the verses that people would point to when they want to say “See, here’s the verse that says you have to repent in order to be saved.” But they’ll just add “repent of your sins” to that. And I’m going to talk about what “repent” means in the moment here. But look at Acts Chapter 3. And it says in verse 19, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
So, right there in verse 19 of Acts 3, it’s saying that they need to repent that their sins might be blotted out. But it doesn’t say “repent of your sins.” So let’s get the context to see what they need to repent of. And what does “repent” mean? “Repent” simply means “to turn” or “to change.” It could mean all manner of changes. A lot of times, it means just to change your mind. One great example of this is when the Children of Israel leave Egypt and God doesn’t want to take them the way of the Philistines. This is in Exodus 13:17. You don’t have to turn there. But it says, “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.”
So let me ask you this. The Children of Israel leaving Egypt – was that a good thing or a bad thing? Good! Right! The Children of Israel are leaving Egypt. They’re going into the Promised Land. They’re obeying the Lord. And God says “I’m afraid that if they go through the land of the Philistines, they’re going to repent and go back to Egypt.” So, in that case was repentance a good thing or a bad thing? Repentance would have been bad, because they were doing right. They’re on their way to the Promised Land. And if they repented, that means they’re going back to Egypt, which is bad. So that again just proves that “repent” doesn’t mean “turn from sin” or “turn from an evil way.” In that case, “repent” was turning from something good that they were doing.
When we see God repents, he’s not turning from sins. He has no sins. When we see God repenting, he changes his course of action. He was going to do one thing, but then he repents and does something different. That’s a change in mind. Change in action. And it could be any kind of a turning or change. The word “repent” can be kind of a broad word. Because you have to get the context of what you’re repenting of. If a person believes in a false religion, they are not saved. They need to turn from that and turn unto the Lord Jesus Christ, their Saviour. He need to turn from Buddhism to Christianity. They need to turn from Hinduism to Christianity. Turn from Islam to Christianity. Turn from whatever, the false belief to the true belief of Jesus Christ. Let’s say, you have somebody who is a pathological liar. They should turn from that, right? So that would be repenting of lying. See if you could repent of a false religion. You could repent of lying. You could decide to go to grocery store, and then repent, meaning that you’ve changed your mind. You’re not going there anymore. Now, we don’t use that word today in our modern vernacular but you could. You could say “well, I was just going to a grocery store, but I repented.” People would be like “what in the world?” But that is what the word means. You can repent of sins. You can repent of false doctrines. You can repent of travel plans, to the Promised Land and head back for Egypt. You can repent of all manner of things. So to just sit there and just arbitrarily apply “You have to repent of your sins to be saved.” Whenever you see a verse about repentance, it’s not accurate.
Let’s look at the context here in Acts 3. Let’s see if we can figure out what they’re turning from. It says in Acts Chapter 3.. Let’s go back up.. to verse number 14. It says, “But ye…” This is Peter speaking to the Jews… it says, “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses…” So this where they chose Barabbas instead of Jesus, and they killed Jesus, it says. “And killed the Prince of life.” It says in verse 16, “And his name…,” Jesus’ name, “through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.”
What did they need to repent of? What did they do? They rejected Jesus. They crucified Jesus. And he says, “I know you did that through ignorance.” So repent and he’ll give you another chance to receive Jesus. Pretty simple, right? But is it saying here that, that girlfriend you’re living with, you need to get out of that relationship before you can be saved. Is that what he says? Is he saying “You drink.. you should stop drinking. You need to repent from drinking, at least be willing to turn from drinking and fornication, and all.” Is that anywhere in this context? But yet, people would use this verse as a proof that if you’re not willing to give up sins, you can’t be saved. And that makes it in the work = salvation.
Look at Matthew Chapter 21. Matthew 21:32. Because salvation is not based on our deeds or the works of the law. And people will say “Well, you know it’s not works to turn from your sins.” Well, actually, it is. Have you ever tried turning from sins? It takes effort. It takes work. It takes action on our part. Think about a guy like Zacchaeus. He was a crooked tax collector, but he was a tax collector. But anyway, he’s a crook and for him, repentance, turning away from that involved him saying “I will give back money that I’ve ripped off from people.” So that showed repentance, that he’s sorry, that he wasn’t going to continue being the crook that he had been, that he’s returning the money. So, there you go. That’s works. So if you think that you have to do that to be saved, you’re saying salvation by works. But the Bible says, by my grace, you’ll be saved through faith, and then none of yourselves, that is the gift that God, not of works, as [unclear]. If I have a gift for you, and I said, “I’m going to give you this Bible as a gift, but you have to start following all these rules through your life, and then I’ll give it to you. Or at least, “OK, you don’t have to turn, but just be willing to turn.” So you have to make a commitment to me right now, that you’re willing to change your life completely and start living by my rules and I will give you this Bible. That wouldn’t really be a gift, because that would be more like a deal or transaction or agreement that we’re making. That would be more like some kind of a deal, I mean, a gift, there’s no strings attached. It’s paid for by the giver, and he’s giving that to you for free.
Look at this great verse on repentance in Matthew 21:32. It 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 this verse explains really clearly what repentance means with regard to salvation. It explains very clearly what Jesus meant in Mark Chapter 1 Verse 15, when he said “repent and believe the Gospel.” He said “Look, there’s one group of people, the Pharisees, that did not believe in Jesus. There’s another group, the publicans and sinners that did believe in Jesus and he’s saying, “you guys, when you saw that, you should have repented and believe in Jesus,” meaning you should have seen that and it should have caused you to change your mind, so that you would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we see the word “repent” in the Bible, we always have to get the context to see what it’s being turned from. Acts 17:30 is another really commonly quoted verse about repentance. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but God commandeth all men every where to repent.” Right before that, he just finished talking about how they were making statues of gods made of gold and silver, and they’re all supposing that those are real gods. The true living God cannot be formed into a statue. And you’re ignorant about that. And you need to repent of that ignorance of believing in these idols, just like the Bible talks about in 2 Timothy 2, “repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” When you believe a lie, you repent of that and believe the truth. So, when it comes to salvation, there’s only one thing you have to do to be saved – believe on Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That’s it. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. So what role does repentance play in salvation then? The only role that repentance would play is if there were something that was stopping you from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to turn from that and start believing in Jesus, instead. An example of that would be, that if you thought that you have to go to church and perform sacraments in order to be saved, then only your faith is not in Jesus. In fact, it’s impossible for you to put all your faith in Jesus as long as you still have some of you faith in those rituals that you’re performing. So, in order to be saved, you have to turn away from those rituals only so you could put all your faith in Jesus. But still, faith is the only prerequisite. But is it possible for me to believe in Jesus with all my heart if I still believe in Buddha? He said, “if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” So if I believe in Buddha, I can’t believe in Jesus with all my heart. That means that I have to turn from Buddha or repent of Buddhism, repent of Catholicism, repent of Hinduism, repent of Islam, because there’s no room for both. There is no room for being saved by Jesus and being a Muslim, and being a Buddhist, and being a Catholic. Because you can’t do both. Because Jesus says, “with all you faith and trust and him”. But can you believe in Jesus and still commit sin? Yeah, everybody does it who’s saved. So to sit there and say “well, you have to turn from your sins before you could believe in Jesus. That’s not accurate. When you get saved, hopefully you’re going to turn from some sins in your life. And hopefully, as you’re saved for a longer time, you’ll turn from more and more sins as time goes on. Because you just don’t get saved in just overnight. You have to live in a perfect Godly Christian life. It’s a process of growth. The Bible says “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” We don’t give birth to a baby in 2014 and then say “OK, now that we’ve cut the cord, you’re on your own, buddy.” I mean you’ve been born. You’re on your own. You’re no longer relying on moms, through blood through the umbilical cord feeding you and giving you nutrition through the placenta. You’re on your own now. No, he’s still going to need to be diapered and fed, and as he grows, he’s going to slowly take on more responsibility for himself. He’ll get smarter, more mature. It’s the same thing with people when they get saved. When they first get saved, they might be continuing in a lot of their sins that they’ve been doing. And some of those things, they might not even know that they’re wrong yet. And they have to learn over time, and learn and they grow. And you’d say “well, that there’s just a willingness to change.” You have to be willing to change. But here’s a thing, you’re just [unclear] to the Bible now. Because there’s no place that says “be willing to change and thou shalt be saved.” And it might sound good, and you’d say, “you’ve got to desire to change.” But it doesn’t say “desire to change, and thou shalt be saved.” It says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. “Well, if so many really get saved, they’re going to desire to do what’s right.”
Hold on a second. The spirit will, but their flesh will not desire what’s right. Their flesh is never going to desire what’s right, because the carnal mind is against God. It cannot be brought under subjection of the laws of God. The flesh is always the flesh. And my simple flesh will always be simple. Your simple flesh will always be simple. Until we die or until the resurrection takes place, we’re going to sin, not because of the spirit, but because of the flesh. So you’re right. If you first get saved, the spirit will desire to do what’s right. The new man. The new creature. But the flesh is still there. And so if we walk in the flesh, we’re going to desire all the wrong things. And when we walk in the spirit, we’re going to desire the right things. There are people who are saved, who have not turned from sins in their life. But they’re still saved because they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, their Saviour.
And let’s not add to the Gospel, and a lot of people are to make the Gospel the emotional thing about feelings, and they say people have to feel an intense sorrow for their sin in order to get saved. But some people are more emotional than others. Sometimes, when people get saved, they are crying, and they are sorry for their sins. Other times, when people get saved, they are just really joyful and happy. It is the Good News after all. But some people want to see crying every time. I want to see you cry. I want to see you sad. And if you’re not sad, if you’re not crying, if you’re not in grief, in pain, in agony, I don’t know if you’re really getting saved. But honestly, it’s good news, some people might just be happy about it. Different people have different reactions. If you’ve ever given by somebody the Gospel, and they start crying, right. But how many people don’t cry? The majority. I didn’t cry when I got saved. I guess I’m not saved. But that’s according to some people, it had to be an emotional thing. I remember when I got saved, and the emotion that I had when I got saved was happiness. I was just glad that I was going to heaven. I thought it was great. I was just praising the Lord. Is that OK? Or do I have to get depressed about it? I was a 6-year old boy when I got saved. I wasn’t just smiling my breast saying “Oh, miserable poor simple speaking wicked wretched that I am. What am I to do to be saved?” Everybody is different and let’s not confuse the Gospel. Let’s just keep it, Like the Bible has it simple, that it’s just by faith, not works, that it’s all through Jesus. It’s a free gift. You just believe in Jesus. And people that get saved, sometimes, they will continue to drink. Sometimes they will be living in fornication, meaning together, and they’re not married. These are wicked sins, but there are things that need to be repented of over the course of their Christian life, but whether they do or not, they’re still saved if they believe in Jesus. Otherwise, you have to start picking and choosing which sins have to be repented of. And that’s what it come down to usually, it says it’s an arbitrary list of, like say, fornication, drinking, smoking, cursing. Those are the typical… a couple of those aren’t mentioned in the Bible, but don’t let that bother you. But anyway, just a couple of big sins that are listed that people have to turn from. But then, at the same time, all kinds of other sins that people don’t turn from it, they’re still considered safe. You have a 350-pound preacher11 preaching about “The moment I got saved, I never craved another cigarette again. Bless God!” It’s like “Did you ever crave a [unclear] again when you got saved?” “God just took away the desire for cigarettes. God took away the desire for it!” Well it didn’t take away the desire for McDonald’s apparently. And the Bible talks about gluttony. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. I don’t think he needs that much room. He’s a spirit.
So, what I’m saying is that it’s ridiculous for you to just single out certain sins because guess what, certain sins that some people struggle with, others don’t. Some people for them, drinking is a big struggle. Others, no. Some people, gluttony is a struggle. Others, not. Some people, pornography is a struggle. Others, not. Some people have a struggle with smoking. Other people don’t care about smoking. Some people struggle with lying, struggle with gossip, struggle with covetousness, struggle with all manner of things, and it’s going to be different for different people. So, it’s easy for somebody to get up on a high horse because they gave up certain sins, and they just get on somebody who has a different sin. And it’s easy to go after people who don’t have a sin, that can be seen from the outside, like an obvious sin – fornication, drinking, smoking. Those are just really easy to see but what about all the other sins that aren’t so easy to see. We’re all guilty folks. Every single one of us has sin in our life. I’m not perfect. I’ve not repented of all my sins. You’ve not repented of all your sins. I’m not going to get up here and be all pompous and arrogant and prideful. “When I got saved, God took away my desire for X, Y and Z, and if you still desire that stuff, then you better check your salvation.”
You know what though? We all are still sinners. And it’s arrogant, prideful, pompous [unclear], attack other people’s sins and you’ve got your own sins. And it’s wicked. We need to just get up and give Jesus all the glory and say “You know why I’m saved? Because of Jesus.” And you know what, I still have the flesh. I still have a desire to sin when I’m in the flesh, and that’s why I need to walk in the spirits to not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And it’s a daily struggle. We have to die daily. Take up the cross and follow Jesus daily. And the reason I spend so much time on that point, it’s because it’s heaven and hell that we’re talking about. And people get confused when you start saying repent of your sins to be saved, it brings all kinds of confusion. And a lot of people are mixed up on that. They start trusting works. And then, a lot of people, they don’t even get the Gospel because it gets so convoluted. They can’t figure out. Is it faith? Is it works? It makes them doubt of their salvation. I don’t know if I’ve really repented enough. How much is enough? Because nobody can really do it fully. That’s why it’s such a ridiculous measure of salvation. Whereas believing is simple. You’d say, “how much do I have to believe?” or I just believe enough to say it with your mouth. To confess with your mouth. The faith of a grain of a mustard seed is enough.
Let’s go back to the Book of Mark. We’ve got to speed up the process here a little bit. But anyway, it says in verse 5, “And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, 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 a 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.”
I need to point out to you something that is always consistent in the Bible. When people are being baptized in the Bible, they are being dunked underwater or immersed underwater. Did you know that there are many so-called Christian denominations that baptize people by sprinkling water on them or by pouring water on their head? Who has ever seen a baptism like that before? What even about baptism? Because the word “baptize” means “to immerse” or “to dunk underwater.” And right here, we see clearly in verse 10, “And straightway coming up out of the water..” Look when Jesus was baptized, He came up out of the water. It says in Acts 8 that they went down, both of them into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and He baptized him. The Bible says we’re buried with him by baptism. This isn’t a burial. A little sprinkle of water on your forehead, that’s not a burial. The Bible says we’re buried with him by baptism into his death. “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” And so baptism is by immersion. Any religion that is sprinkling or pouring.. That should be a huge red flag because that’s nowhere found in the Bible. That just comes from the traditions of Roman Catholicism. And so, that should show you that these Protestants are a little too similar to their mama, that they came out of – the Roman Catholic church. But it says in verse number 12, “and immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness…” speaking of Jesus, “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.”
This is another one of those great verses that shows that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are the exact same thing. Some people will try to say that there’s a difference between the two. But in the Book of Matthew, He says “repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Here he says “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
So they both say “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand,” “repent, kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” And so, it’s both one and the same. They are many other verses that I could use to prove that those are the same. Somebody said, “But God is not Heaven, and Heaven is not God.” The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Heaven are both the same kingdom. God is the king, Heaven is the kingdom. That’ll be like if we’re living in Israel when David was the king over it, and we said “the kingdom of David.” What kingdom are we talking about? The kingdom of Israel, right? “No, no it’s two are separate kingdoms. There’s the kingdom of David, and then there’s the kingdom of Israel – two separate kingdoms. Because David is not Israel, and Israel is not David.” That doesn’t make any sense, does it? Or, we could name any earthly king. Is there an earthly king sitting upon a throne today that someone can name? There are kings in this world. It’s all queens now. Queen of England, Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands. Is there any king left? I think the king of Norway is named, I think it’s Haakon. The kingdom of Haakon, if I said his kingdom, what kingdom am I talking about? The kingdom of Norway. “Nope, two kingdoms! – separate kingdoms.” But that’s a kind of bizarre doctrine. People jump through hoops like that, just to make sure that they can still believe that the Jews are still God’s chosen people. Because they said that the kingdom of God is taken from them. “But the kingdom of God was saved from it, but they still have the kingdom of Heaven.” Trying to hang on to that little slice of the kingdom. Nope. It’s all gone. Poop! It’s gone.
But anyway, let’s keep reading. Its says in 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 unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” It’s pretty much the same statement as what’s on the wall behind my head, where it says, He saith to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. You know what I like about that verse? He doesn’t say “if you follow me, you might end up being a fisher of men.” He says “if you follow me, I will make you fishers of men.” You know what that tells me? If you’re following Jesus, you’ll be a fisher of men. And if you’re not a fisher of men, you’re not following Jesus. And what does it mean to be a fisher of men? It means to get people saved. To go out and preach the Gospel wherever it gets you, to get people saved, to go soul-winning, to win people to the Lord, going out and reaching people to Gospel. And that is the sign of a follower of Jesus, when you see them, being a fisher of men. It says, “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.” Here, we see people just dropping everything to follow Jesus. That’s the same type of commitment that he expects from us today. He expects us to make sacrifices for him. There are things that we might have to give up in order to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t have everything in life. You can’t have both. Sometimes, people want to hang to certain things, and they are not willing to give up those things but if Jesus demands our service, sometimes we have to drop something, and then we have to follow him. You might have certain plans for a career, or certain dreams and goals, and you might have to put those aside in order to do the work of the Lord, and give that top priority in your life.
For example, in some men, if they should take the step of deciding that they want to go out and start a church, go out and pastor a church someday. And that they would actually make that commitment. And it is a commitment to do that. It’s a big responsibility, because I don’t think that you should just go out and start a church, and just do it for a year or two and then just become tired of this. And I’m just going to quit. I’m just going to stop. I think that when you start something, then you should finish it. And if you’re going to take on that kind of responsibility, of starting a church, you are to see it through and not be a quitter, and stay with it to the bitter end, and not just be one who just [unclear]. You’ve got to be in it for the long haul. And so when you take that step, for example, starting a church or pastoring a church, it might involve you moving to another city, maybe moving away from friends, family, giving up certain comforts or giving up a certain job or whatever the case may be, but you have to decide that serving God is going to take priority. If there’s a city or a place that needs a good church, and you’re equip to do the job, if that’s what God wants you to do, you just do it. Some of you might have to make sacrifice and give things up. You might have to give up sinful friends in your life, that are a bad influence on you. They’re slowing you down as you serve God. And you’d say, “We’ve been friends forever.” But they’re not saved. But they’re drunkards. But they’re adulterers, whatever. You might need to cut lose some friends and you’d say, “I just don’t know if I could give up the social life.” But honestly, they are going to be sacrificed just to serve God. You can’t just expect to just serve God and have your cake and eat it too, and have everything the world has to offer, and everything that God has to offer, and make no sacrifice. No, you have to give things up. They can’t be a fisherman and a fisher of man. They had to cast aside their nets. Jesus wasn’t looking for a part-time disciple. He needed them to follow him everywhere he went. He’s going from city to city. They didn’t know that they didn’t have any place to stay. They relied on people to take care of them. They relied on hospitality of people to take them into their homes and give them beds to sleep in. They didn’t even know where they were going to stay that night. They had to go in faith. They sacrificed comfort. They went on foot. You don’t see the disciples hopping on horses and riding to the next town. You see them travelling on foot, in sandals, not carrying any money with them, and just relying on other people and just relying on the Lord to put people on their path that would feed them and take care of them, and so forth.
So this was a big step for them. They dropped everything and followed him. And they asked Jesus, and said, “We’ve forsaken all and followed you.” Peter would ask later, “What are we going to get from doing that? What shall we have therefore? What would get from dropping everything?” And he said that in the resurrection, which we would call The Millennium, The Millennium of Christ, he said that the twelve disciples would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So all the resurrected saints in the Millennium, all those resurrected Old Testament twelve tribes in [unclear] Israel, they’re going to be ruled over by the twelve disciples. So they’re going to have glory for a thousand years and then glory for all eternity. They are immortalized in the pages of the Bible. But you know what? They didn’t have comfort like you? They had to give up some things. They had to suffer adversity and hardship. They had to be persecuted. You can’t have everything. You’ve got to choose whom you will serve. You can’t serve God and man. And so, we see that they forsook everything to follow Jesus to become a soul-winner, to become a fisher of men. It says, “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 have 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, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.”
And in fact, this situation, where he cast out the demon, is something that you’re going to see over and over again in the Book of Mark, more than any of the four Gospels. The Gospel of Mark deals with people that are possessed with devils, literally almost every chapter. Every time I read the Book of Mark, it always stands out to me. Every time in Mark, it just seems like every chapter, people are possessed, people are possessed, people are possessed. And we’ll talk about more about it in later chapters, where there are some better examples. We’re going into more detail. We’re going more into people being possessed, the devils. But don’t be fooled in the thinking that this does not still exist today. Why would it not exist today? If there were all these devils around back then, I guarantee that there are still devils around now. They didn’t go anywhere. And I believe that there are millions of them. Because if you look at how many angels there are in heaven, he said that there are ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands and thousands. If you do the Math on that, it’s 102 million, at least. The third part of the angels went after Satan. So depending how you look at it, there could be either 34 million that went after Satan, or probably more, at least 51 million, if that’s the remaining 2/3 that are being described there up in heaven, giving glory to God. So there are millions of them. And a lot of people today, they would say, “They are crazy. They are insane.” But some of them are actually possessed. And you see people, and they say, “multiple personality disorder.” But then you think about the man who is possessed with demons and he said, “My name is Legion for we are many.” There are multiple devils inside of him and that’s where some of these multi-personality could be coming from – schizophrenia, and all these stuff. Of course, the world is not going to recognize the spiritual side. They just want to just drug everybody, electric shock therapy and [unclear], whatever. But they won’t acknowledge the fact that there is a spiritual aspect to this. I believe that I’ve been in contact in my life with people that are possessed with devils. Because I’ve been talking to people, and they were completely reasonable, normal, nice people, and then all of a sudden, they snapped and they started saying really weird things. I could do a whole sermon on these stories. One story that I like to tell is the one about, where, my dad gave the Gospel to a child down the street. They’ve been taking a lot of children to church and I guess, somebody on the street got mad about the kids in the neighborhood going into the Baptist Church, just somebody who was a hater of the things of God, or whatever. And he started yelling at my dad about the giving the Gospel or bringing him to church or whatever, and he yelled at him and he said, “I hear you Andy Anderson! I hear you Andy Anderson!” My dad never went by Andy Anderson. That was his dad’s name. So my dad’s dad was Andy Anderson, and he was a big time soul-winner and won a lot of people to Christ and everything. And this guy is calling his son, “I hear you Andy Anderson.” So my dad thought that was a little weird. Why does he call me Andy Anderson? And then, years later, he was talking with somebody about a Bible doctrine. This person was trying to say that hell was not eternal, and he was trying to show them from the Bible that hell was eternal. This was an extended family member, and that person said to him, “I hear you Andy Anderson! I hear you Andy Anderson!” It was just such a weird coincidence. Why would these two people both said the same thing. It’s weird. It’s like, “Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, and Andy Anderson I know. I guess my grandpa was a pretty good soul-winner, I guess, that the devils knew him. Because he did a lot of soul-winning. Even after he died, I went to talk to his former pastor Dr. Roland Rasmussen and he said “he was such a soul-winner. He did a lot of soul-winning.”
I’ve talked to somebody that was Catholic and this guy was a real nice friendly guy. We’re having a really good conversation. Let me go through the whole Gospel with him. Everything was good and then toward the end, he just snapped. And a minute ago, he was talking about how he’s going to heaven because the Virgin Mary, and because of God. He still believes in the Virgin Mary. He wasn’t really willing to let go of Catholicism. There wasn’t really anything sad to him to make him this mad. He just jumped up and started screaming and his eyes just became red and bloodshot with anger, and he stood up and he screamed, and he said, “I can see the future! I can see the future for me…” and he started naming people in the family, “for me and so and so. And it’s hell!!! It’s hell!!!!!” And he ran out of the room. A minute ago, he was telling he was going to heaven. He loves the Virgin Mary. He loves Jesus. And then he was screaming out that he could see the future for him and the other persons named in the family, was the only other family member that wasn’t saved. It was him and some other family, and they were Catholic. The rest of the family had been saved. This was just several years ago. And he screaming out, he could see the future and he said, “I’m [unclear] of America, and I can see the future. And it’s hell! For me and so and so. It’s hell!” That’s pretty weird. That’s a true story. I wasn’t the only person there to witness it. It’s very odd.
I went to this ecumenical gathering one time. This was when I was a teenager. And we stood outside of this place to tell people not to go to this place, because it was like this Jesus Christ Jubilee 2000, and it was this ecumenical thing of Catholics and Christians and all the denominations come together. And I stood outside this thing to try to turn people away from going in there. I wouldn’t try to waste my time doing that now, but you know, when you’re a teenager, I was trying to do something and I tried to get people to Gospel. But I stood out there with a few of my friends and they were telling me not to go to this, this ecumenical thing and we were showing them from the Bible what’s wrong with Catholicism and why they need to be saved from it. And there were people coming up to us and they were arguing with us. And there were people who were actually volunteers for the event. And they had this T-shirt, and on this, it said, “Jesus Christ Jubilee” real big on the front. And on the back, it says “Ask us.” And I said, “what are we supposed to ask you?” And I said, “I’ve got a question for you. How do I get to heaven?” Because it says to ask you. So we’re talking about these people, and we’re trying to give them the Gospel and everything. And literally, within moments, somebody’s people that we’re talking to, he’s wearing a shirt that says “Jesus Christ” and he started just screaming and cursing at us and blaspheming the name of Jesus to us. Basically, like saying like “_______ Jesus,” stuff just like and you’re like “Whoa! Why are you blaspheming Jesus?” And you’re wearing a shirt that says “Jesus Christ Jubilee” and you’re cursing Jesus to me. And this guy pointed to my Bible saying “You believe that?” because I showed him a verse from the Bible and he was like “You believe that?!” And I was like “It’s the Bible.” I believe that that guy was demon-possessed. Because he was this real nice, one of those like “Hey, God bless. Jesus Christ Jubilee.” And the next thing you know, he’s screaming curses about Jesus. It was very strange. So anyway, [unclear] all night with these weird things outside. I’m going to tell one now.
Was this you, John? Were you the one that was with me when that weird voice came out of the house? Was that you? Oh man. This is a good one. My son John was with me. We were out soul-winning and we knocked on this guy’s door. And the guy comes the door. He’s real nice to us, friendly, polite and we asked him if we could give him the Gospel. And he said, “Fine, but honestly, I’ve got to go to work. I’m late for work. I just called the cab, and the cab is going to come to pick me up and will take me to work, otherwise, I’d listen. I just don’t have time, because I’m heading for work.” So I said OK, let him with one verse. The guy just seemed real, nice and sincere, and I know he was telling the truth about the cab, because literally 5 minutes after we left, the cab pulled up and the guy got in and went to work. So everything seemed [unclear], friendly, wasn’t negative at all. But the guy, when we got there, he was blasting some kind of death metals style music or whatever, and the guy looked a little rough around the edges, but the guy was nice enough to us when we were at the door. So we start leaving, and John and I just hear from the inside of the house this weird, just like whatever you would expect them was demonic voice to sound like, weird this voice. [unclear - demonic voice]. John, is that true story? If John wasn’t here to be my witness, you wouldn’t even believe me. But it’s true and we looked each other like “what in the world ?” The guy was totally normal, and then he was like [unclear – demonic voice]. Whoa, what in the world? And then we were like, a couple of minutes later, the guy goes out and gets in the cab. You don’t really know for sure, but a couple of this for sure – some demonic was going on. And then again, like I’ve said we can spend all night on that. I don’t want to spend all night on that. I get to save some stories for later in the Book of Mark, because we’re going through the whole book. Oh demonic stories. But anyway, the one thing that I just want to emphasize tonight is that stuff like that is out there. That’s why you shouldn’t mess with We G Boards. You shouldn’t mess with musicians that are flashing symbols to Satan, wearing Satan t-shirts. When these musicians have names like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest.. when they just have these blasphemous names of the band or the album or the song titles, that should be red flag to you right away. But anyway, let’s keep reading.
It says in verse 29, “And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.” And it says the house of Simon and Andrew. That shows that these guys probably didn’t have a lot of money, if they don’t have their own house. It’s like Simon and Andrew, maybe they’re living in a duplex or whatever. They just have a small house that they share between both of them. But these weren’t really wealthy guys. All the men that Jesus picked were pretty much working class guys. He himself shows to be born in the home of a carpenter. And his disciples were men that were fishermen. You have a tax collector in there. But you basically have men that were all seen by the world as being blue-collar type of guys or just not really necessary really prestigious jobs, if they worked with collar. Just showing that God is not really impressed by people’s wealth or financial status. But the interesting thing about this though is that, it says in verse 30, “But Simon's wife's mother…” so that would be his mother-in-law, his wife’s mother. It says, “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.” This right there shows that Simon Peter was married. He’s already married in Mark Chapter 1. And the Roman Catholic church would teach that Peter was not married, because they teach that Peter was the first pope. And they’ll give you a list of popes. One time, I was out soul-winning and somebody was like “Here you go. Here’s a list of every pope. Case closed.” And I was like OK. Here’s this page after page of all these popes. That proves everything right there. Because that said, you see the first one in the list? Peter. There you go.
But Peter was not the first pope. There are no popes. Look, in the New Testament, you don’t have cardinals. Show me cardinals in the New Testament. I’ll show you in Arizona’s [unclear]. You show me archbishops, cardinals, the popes… Show me monks and nuns and Catholic priests. You don’t see any of that stuff in the Bible, in the New Testament. So, this idea that Simon Peter was the first pope makes no sense because they say that the pope can’t be married. They don’t like that any bishops be married, even though the Bible says that bishop must be the husband of one wife. They teach the opposite. The bishop must not be the husband of wife. So they teach the exact opposite of the Bible. But here, we see clearly that Simon Peter had a wife. In fact, all of the disciples… I don’t know if they all had a wife at this time. But eventually, all of them had a wife according to the Apostle Paul. He talks about that fact that they all had wives, which is pretty normal since 99% of men in this world end up getting married. There’s a lid for every pot as they say. But it says in verse 32, “And at 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 divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.”
At this point, he doesn’t want to fully reveal exactly who he is. And it says in verse 35, “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 as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.”
That’s a beautiful story, isn’t it? Here’s a man. He has leprosy. It’s a horrible disease. He walks up to Jesus, falls on his knees and [unclear] for Jesus and said “If you want to, you can make me clean.” If you want to, if you’re willing, you can make me clean. You can heal me. So, he’s giving Jesus the glory saying “You can heal me.” He’s being humble, and begging for help. And Jesus… what is his reaction? Compassion. Sympathy is another word for compassion. He feels for him. He loves him. And he says, “I will,” which means I want to, and he reaches out his hand and touches him and he’s clean.
Listen to what the NIV does of this. We’re getting on the NIV tonight. We’re getting on the Catholics tonight. Listen to what the NIV does to this verse. And you’d say, “What’s the big deal? Why King James only?” NIV is filled with garbage. This is the 2011 NIV – new and improved. Because the 1984 NIV is what I’ve been preaching against through all these years. But now follow the new one, and they don’t even sell the old NIV anymore. The one that people used for 30 years, gone. No more 1984 NIV. It’s all on the 2011, because they want churches to replace all their Bibles and make money that way, and refresh the copyright and everything. Listen to the 2011 NIV here. “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” You know what indignant means? Angry. So in the NIV, this guy gets on his knees, “Lord, if you’re willing, you can make me clean.” “I’m willing. Be clean!” Why would Jesus just get mad of this guy for no reason. It’s stupid. It doesn’t make any sense. And other people try to defend this. “Well, maybe he was mad.” About what? And there’s odd stuff to this story. “Maybe there was another stuff going on.” No. Let’s re-read what actually the story says. It’s pretty easy to tell what’s right. But this corrupt, messed up manuscripts that take out the Son of God in verse 1, that say you’re quoting Isaiah when you’re really quoting Malachi, that say Jesus gets mad at the poor leper that is on his knees begging him for mercy. This new Bible is based on this type of manuscripts. But all the scholars agree. They’re unbelievers. They’re wolves in sheep’s clothing. They’re children of Satan that crept in unawares to pervert the Word of God, and to take away our [unclear] of the King James Bible. But isn’t that amazing? Jesus getting mad? One last thing and then we’re out of here.
It says in verse 43, “And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away; And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest..” Watch this, “and offer for 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.” I just want to point out in verse 44 that he tells the man that he’s cured of leprosy to go offer the gift that Moses commanded. That is an animal sacrifice that’s being asked to offer. Because this is before Jesus died on the cross, and they’re still doing the animal sacrifices. When we were interviewing these Jewish rabbis for our new movie “Marching to Zion,” I talked to this Jewish rabbi, and he tried to say that “They were already phasing out the animal sacrifices long before the time of Christ. They were just down to just, he said it used to be that everyone would bring in an individual sacrifice for their personal needs. But by the time, when they got back to the Babylonian captivity. They would just offer just a morning and evening sacrifice for the whole nation and they didn’t do the individualized sacrifice.” You know that’s a lie. Another one of the lies that the Jews would say, because they had to make excuses for why they don’t do animal sacrifices anymore. So they act like “Well, it was already being phased out.” They don’t want it to be pointed out that when they stopped doing animal sacrifices was the same generation that Jesus came. Because the real reason why the sacrifice ended is because Jesus is the Lamb of God slain for the foundation of the world. That’s why God destroyed their temple. That’s why God came out of that land. He didn’t want them doing any more animal sacrifices because Jesus is the lamb. But they claimed that they’re still living in the Old Testament, which they call the only testament. And listen, if they were, where are the sacrifices? And so now they lie and say that it was already phased out hundreds of years before Christ. That’s a lie because when we read the four Gospel, we see all kinds of people like Mary, after she gives birth to Jesus, she brings a few doves down to be sacrificed. This guy’s been told to make a sacrifice. The Apostle Paul on the Book of Acts, with the Nazirite vow and all of them. He joins himself on the people that are offering animal sacrifices. So again, it’s a fraud.
All that it has to say tonight, Mark is a great book. It’s a great book for new believers because it’s just really action-packed, a lot of stories, a lot of action. And so whenever I win somebody to the Lord, that’s a young person, a lot of times, I’ll tell them to start reading the Book of Mark. If somebody’s a little older, I’ll tell him to start with the Book of John. But it’s a great scripture. It’s showing all the works that Jesus did, how busy he was. He really worked hard while he was on the [unclear]. Did you notice how early it says, he got up really early and he’s working hard, and straightway he goes here. He gets up early that the disciples say “everybody’s looking for you.” And he’d say, “Let’s go to another town, another city, another village…” Just constantly serving and we ought to be like Jesus. If we follow him, we’ll be fishers of men. He worked hard. He served and cared about others. We should be the same way. And one thing that we learn from the Book of Mark is how to be a servant, and how to work hard for God, and how to stay busy serving the Lord. That’s about it and let’s say a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the Gospel of Mark, Lord. And thank you for the things that we can see from it tonight, really destroying a lot of false doctrines using your Word tonight. Thank you for the truth and also Lord, help us to live by that example of Jesus, of just being a hardworker, staying busy, serving You, loving other people, having compassion on people, caring about other people. Lord, help us to be like You. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
