A Summary of the Galilean Ministry, Part 2

Introduction and Prayer for Understanding

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, October 9th, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, the Gospel according to Mark, Chapter 1, and follow as I read just two verses, verses 14 and 15. Now, after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God and saying,

0:50 The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe in the Gospel. Let us again seek the face of God in prayer.

1:11 Our Father, we do thank you that in the... In the language of the psalmist, we have been able to celebrate the glory of your creation.

1:21 And we do see in every star, we do behold in the shining of the sun, your power, your wisdom, your kindness to the children of men. But how we thank you for this volume that we hold in our hands, this book by which alone we can read, The Laws of the Lord Jesus Christ. and the love of your heart to sinners, your grace and kindness to hell-deserving rebels, this book by which alone we can know the way of life, and having discovered it, know how to please you in loving gratitude for the gift of that life.

2:05 And we come to you in humble dependence upon your Holy Spirit, that he who originally gave this word may even now, give us understanding. We have read earlier of those who were a blessed people because they were given the ability to see and to perceive, and those who were cursed with blindness and dullness because of the hardness of their hearts. O Lord, remove that curse from some this morning, whose seeing do not see and hearing do not and cannot hear. O Lord, give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see, give us a mind to perceive,

2:51 give us wills to turn from sin to yourself. O speak to us with clarity and with power, as together we cry to you for the help of your Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Centrality of Preaching in Christ's Ministry

3:15 Now I am sure that many, if not all of us sitting in this place this morning, are aware of the fact that we are in a place of sin, are aware of the fact that multitudes all over the world today, men, women, young people, boys and girls, are gathered in a variety of meeting places representing all kinds of architecture from mud huts to ornate cathedrals, and as those people are gathered in these various meeting places, dressed in a variety of ways, all the way to the top of the church, all the way perhaps from the most primitive covering

3:56 to fancy middle class suits and dresses, speaking a vast variety of languages, one thing among many these people will have in common. In the midst of their gathering, one of their number will rise up, open up a book, read, and then begin to speak in an authoritative, moving, moving, and persuasive way to the gathered group in an exercise that the Bible describes as preaching. Now, how in the world do we account for this fact?

4:41 Well, there are many parts to an accurate answer, but no little part of any accurate answer lies in the precedent given to us by the founder and head of the church, Jesus Christ himself. Preaching holds such a central place in the church of Christ because it held so central a place in the ministry of Christ himself. In our studies in the Gospel of Mark, we have completed the section bounded by verses 1 through 13, in which we have what we might call the introduction of the mighty service

5:27 of the servant of Jehovah or the inauguration of the mighty servant king. And when we turn to verses 14 and 15, the first verses in which Mark gives us a description of the actual ministry of the Lord Jesus, it is a description which concentrates upon this great activity in our Lord's life, namely, preaching. In our study of this passage, last week we had occasion to note the time frame of this phase of our Lord's ministry. Verse 14 tells us that Mark is describing a period in our Lord's ministry

6:11 subsequent to the imprisonment of John the Baptist. Now, the ministry prior to that is set forth in John's Gospel, chapters 1 to 4, and just spilling over into chapter 5, it was the ministry of a more hidden nature, but Mark takes us, as it were, to the very threshold of our Lord's height of popularity at a time that is approximately a year to a year and a half after his formal public presentation to men in the baptism in Jordan. And then in the second place, we noted the geographical sphere

6:56 of this phase of our Lord's ministry, the text says, Jesus came into Galilee. He came into that northern part of Palestine, if we roughly divide it into three segments, the southernmost part being Judea, the middle part Samaria, and then Galilee, up by the Sea of Galilee. And it is here that our Lord is found preaching the Gospel, of God. And then in the third place, we noted the major activity in this phase of our Lord's ministry, that activity is described as preaching.

7:38 He came into Galilee continually preaching. Whatever else He did, whatever other activities were found in our Lord, this great activity stood as the mountain peak activity over all others. He was found throughout Galilee preaching, preaching. And according to verse 14, the main thrust of His preaching was a heralding of the Gospel of God.

8:07 The good news, the good news that Almighty God in Jesus Christ had come forth for the deliverance of sinners from sin and its consequences. And we had occasion in the conclusion of our study last Lord's Day to note, that these words do for us at least two things, or they ought to. They elevate and dignify and sanctify forever the activity of preaching. If this was the predominant activity of our Lord, then preaching is forever elevated, dignified and sanctified as the grand means

8:50 by which God will establish the kingdom of grace in the hearts of men. And then, and secondly, we noted that our Lord has forever enshrined the glory of the Gospel itself. He preached the Gospel of God. He preached that message of good news focusing in Himself and in His own mighty power and in His grace and compassion to sinners.

The Structure of Jesus' Galilean Preaching: Indicatives and Imperatives

9:19 Now this morning we come to examine verse 15, and in it we have what we might call an explanation. An expanded description of His Galilean preaching. An expanded description of His Galilean preaching. Just as we noted the verb preaching is in a form which emphasizes continuance of action, so the word saying, verse 15, begins with these words, and saying, that is continually saying, continually saying, continually emphasizing, emphasizing these lines of truth.

10:00 And if you will look carefully at your Bible, you will notice that you have two couplets of thought. This is what He was continually saying in Mark's expanded description of the preaching in Galilee. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Those two things emphasizing what is.

10:27 The time is, the kingdom of God is, and then the second couplet, what men ought to do. Repent ye and believe in the gospel. So we have two statements of what is. These things that we can well describe as the two indicatives of our Lord's preaching.

10:54 For instance, if I say, this is October 9, 1983, that's an indicative statement. That's a statement of what is. Now you may be ignorant of it. You may be utterly indifferent to it.

11:13 You may even vociferously deny it. But what is, and this is October 9, 1983. Whether you like it, whether you know it, whether you agree with it, that's what is. In what is, that's an indicative.

11:32 And our Lord in His preaching was setting forth these two great indicatives telling us what is. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Then He followed with two imperatives.

11:50 Imperatives are commands. They tell us what we ought to do or what we ought to be. And the two imperatives are very clear. Be ye repenting and be ye believing in the gospel.

12:08 And they are so joined as to make it evident that our Lord continually brought forward these two imperatives in this expanded description of His preaching in Galilee. Now we often bring these two things together. Here's a mother. And she's, out with a young teenage daughter who's been somewhat of a tomboy.

12:33 She's enjoyed mixing it up on the ball field with the guys and of course the modern so-called feminists. And that's a euphemism. They are not feminists. They are destroyers of femininity.

12:46 They are no friend of femininity. They are the enemies of femininity. And so, if I may come back from that aside, and it's difficult to, mind you. But here's a girl.

13:01 A girl has a tendency to be a tomboy. And now she's all dressed up. She's going to go out with mom and dad to a lovely restaurant. And in the middle of the meal, she starts acting in a way that is very unladylike.

13:13 And her mother leans over and says, Now, dear, you are a young lady. Indicative. That's a fact.

13:22 That's an imperative. And you see how they bring the two together? You are, therefore do. This is reality.

13:29 You are a young lady. Now, act like. What? The indicative.

13:33 The imperative. We use it all the time. We find that exactly the structure in the passage before us. All right?

13:40 Having introduced the passage, having let you see the basic structure of the passage, let us now concentrate on expounding, first of all, the indicatives of our Lord's Galilean ministry. The outline comes right from the text. We'll look, first of all, at the indicatives of our Lord's Galilean ministry. Then, secondly, the imperatives of our Lord's Galilean ministry.

The First Indicative: 'The Time is Fulfilled'

14:05 And thirdly, the application of all of this to us in Montville. We're going to make a quick trip faster than a Concorde jet all the way from Galilee to Montville and see the relevance of all of this to us. Now, if you had been following the Lord Jesus around the area of Galilee into the city of Capernaum, out by the seashore, into some of the other towns and villages, you would have noted that though there were peculiar emphases in one place and significant and specific content to His message in another that differed from here, you would begin to notice certain notes coming through again and again and again and again.

14:49 And two of them would have been these indicatives. You would have heard Him saying, first of all, again and again, the time is fulfilled. Perhaps a better translation would be the time has come to the full and remains full. It's the picture of someone filling up a glass of water.

15:12 Suppose one of the deacons who filled this glass of water for us started with just an eyedropper in an empty glass. And he put a drop, drop, drop, drop, and begins to fill the glass. And after many, many minutes, it's filled right to the top. And then he continues to make it drop.

15:29 Well, it has been, it has been full and it would remain full and overflowing. That's the picture here. The time has come to the place of fulfillment and it remains full. Now, what is our Lord referring to in such language?

15:50 Well, all through the centuries, from the first gospel promise there in the Garden of Eden, by prophecy, by type, by shadow, by symbol, God had indicated that a time was coming when in grace and in mighty power, God Himself would break in to this tragic situation of human sinfulness and bring deliverance to sinners in the person of a mighty Redeemer called the Messiah. And prophecy, these again and again,

16:32 pointed to the times of Messiah. And that hope gained momentum in the hearts of the true people of God through the centuries so that when we come into the New Testament, it speaks of certain Jews who were waiting for the consolation of Israel, who were looking for the salvation of Israel. They understood and believed that a time would come when all that God had prophesied would come to its realization and Messiah would appear in His grand and glorious work of salvation. Now, though that hope burned primarily

17:16 in the hearts and thinking of people in Israel who had the prophecies, remember, some of it even spilled over into heathen nations. For remember those magi, those wise men who came from the east? All the way to Jerusalem? Something of that hope.

17:36 Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east and are come to worship Him. Well, what our Lord was asserting in this first indicative all throughout His ministry in Galilee is this. You are no longer to look forward to a time when Messiah will come.

17:59 There is no longer a dropper, dripping, dripping, dripping. The cup is now full. The time has come to its fullness and it remains. The time is fulfilled.

18:14 In other words, Galatians 4, 6 is the great interpreter of this phrase. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son. And when the Son appeared, the cup is full. The time spoken of by the prophets has come to pass.

18:38 Messiah is in our midst. And by these words our Lord makes it abundantly clear that this world is not a mass of cosmic dust floating in space under the random pressures of chance and other physical forces. When He says the time is fulfilled, He places His approval upon the whole biblical concept that God is the Lord of history. That all that transpires upon this little speck in this vast universe that we call the earth

19:23 is under the direct, loving, sovereign control of the God of heaven and earth. He is the Lord of time who dictates what will unfold at any period and epoch of time. And so the Lord Jesus, speaking in the context of people who had been conditioned to think in this way, their minds steeped in the prophecies of the Old Testament, He comes and He announces this first indicative. He doesn't say, The time shall yet come.

19:57 That's what all the other prophets said. He says, The time has come. It is fulfilled to the full. No longer look for something great to happen out there.

The Second Indicative: 'The Kingdom of God is at Hand'

20:10 Something has happened here. The time is fulfilled. That's the first great indicative. Then, if you followed Him around Capernaum, around the Sea of Galilee, you would have heard another note coming through again and again.

20:25 Look at it in the text. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Now perhaps again we could better translate to make the sense of it a little more clear.

20:42 The kingdom of God has come near and remains near. A form of the verb is used which means the kingdom of God has come near and it remains near. Now this phrase, the kingdom of God, is nothing less than one of the most important, vast and complex themes in all of Scripture. There are literally dozens and dozens of books written seeking to capture all that the Bible teaches on this theme of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, God's kingdom.

21:26 Now obviously I'm not going to launch, into a 30-sermon effort, to speak on the kingdom of God. But what I am going to do is to try to give you a simple little working definition that captures the heart of the biblical teaching bound up in this pregnant phrase, the kingdom of God. And here's the little working definition. The kingdom of God is the reign of God exercised for the salvation of His people and the destruction of His and their enemies.

22:04 When Jesus preached all through Galilee, the time has been fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. What was He announcing? He was announcing that the reign of God exercised for the salvation of His people and the destruction of their enemies was now at hand.

22:29 Now again, it was the Old Testament scriptures which had led His ancient people to expect such a kingdom. The prophets spoke of the coming of the kingdom of God in which the people of God would be delivered and saved, in which their enemies would be crushed and put to rout. Now the Jews in their blindness by and large, they put a meaning upon those prophecies that was utterly unfounded. Many of them cherished in their hearts the coming of the kingdom of God in such a way that was political and carnal and external.

23:13 And they were expecting a Messiah who would come riding upon a white charger and gather an army and make its way to Rome and put down Roman rule and deliver the Jews from what they thought was their great enemy, the Roman rule. Now it was their mistaken, crass, carnal view of the Old Testament prophecies. But that was not true of the Israel within Israel. Those who had spiritual perception under the Old Covenant, we read of them in such chapters as Luke 1 and 2, they understood that this deliverance that would come in the kingdom of God was a spiritual deliverance.

23:54 And I commend for your careful consideration Luke's Gospel chapter 1 and again in chapter 2. But now think of the point in which our Lord comes. John the Baptist has been as it were his spiritual shock troops. And he appeared on the scene in the wilderness of Judea.

24:15 And what was he preaching according to Matthew 3? He was preaching the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God is at hand. It is near. It is coming.

24:24 And then he began to zero in upon the matter of sin and the necessity of repentance and looking to the Messiah. In what light? There comes one, he said, whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. I baptize in water.

24:42 He shall baptize the Roman Empire in judgment. No, he said he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You see, John had been working on the national conscience to somehow bring home to them that the kingdom of God was a spiritual reign.

25:04 It was the coming forth of Messiah to deal with the great enemy which was human sin. To effect the great deliverance which was deliverance from the devil and the power and chains of sin. And so now the Lord Jesus comes. And what does he preach throughout all of Galilee?

25:25 This second indicative. The kingdom of God is now at hand. It is near. I, the King of grace, have come.

25:35 And I have come to announce my grace to needy sinners. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me to do what? To preach glad tidings to the poor. To open the prison house to those that are bound.

25:50 To give sight to the blind. To declare the Lord's duty. I have come. I have come to proclaim the name of kingdom of grace and of salvation.

26:03 This is why the Lord Jesus could say as recorded in Matthew 12, If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then has the kingdom of God come among you. The kingdom of God is present where the devil is defeated and where men are released from his power and from his grip. That's the mark of the coming of the kingdom. Now you remember the Pharisees didn't understand this.

26:26 They said, Show us a sign. How are we going to know when the kingdom comes? He says, The kingdom is among you. Open your eyes.

26:34 Open your eyes. The reign of God saving sinners and crushing the enemies of God. That reign is among you. And in all of its gracious power and omnipotent mercy and condescending love Jesus says, The kingdom has come and remains.

26:58 Now those are the two great indicatives. Wherever He went through Galilee He preached. The time has been fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.

The First Imperative: 'Repent Ye'

27:07 Now secondly, notice the two imperatives. We're just expounding now. Notice the two imperatives. Repent ye and believe in the gospel.

27:20 Now again, the form of the verbs emphasize continuous action. Be ye repenting is what our Lord was saying. The time has been fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.

27:35 God's intervention in grace and power to bring salvation and to destroy His enemies. This demands something of men. Now follow closely. Men have no choice that the kingdom of God should come.

27:51 That was on God's time schedule. But having come solemn obligations were laid upon them. The time has been fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.

28:06 Now these imperatives are laid upon their consciences. And the first is repent. Be ye repenting. What did that mean as that word fell upon the ears of those hearers up in Galilee?

28:22 The very concept means to look back and reflect. Reflect upon your patterns of life. Reflect upon your relationship to God. And reflect long enough to perceive rightly what you are as a creature of God estranged from God through your sin.

28:40 Reflect long enough until something of the horror of what it means to be a guilty sinner under the wrath of a holy God begins to grip your heart and make it tremble with holy horror. And reflect longer until you see the odiousness of your sin. The heinousness of what it means to be full of self-righteousness and self-will and self-pursuit and all the other refined religious forms of sin. Think long enough until your hearts feel the bitterness of what it means to trample underfoot the laws of the God who made you.

29:24 To use your body as a playground for self-indulgence. To break the holy commandments of sex and of life and of parental relationships. Wherever the Lord Jesus went preaching the time has been fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.

29:42 The reign of God in grace and mercy is near. What does that demand of us? He says it demands that you repent. That you think upon what you are as a creature, as a sinner as one under wrath and under guilt. Repent!

29:58 And he used a remark, a form of the verb that emphasized this is not the act of a moment. This is the acquisition of a disposition. Be continually repenting. My kingdom is a righteous kingdom. Those who enter

30:14 it are to be a righteous people. Between them and sin there is to be a radical and a perpetual and irreversible divorce. Repenting. But then he said be ye believing.

The Second Imperative: 'Believe in the Gospel'

30:32 Be ye believing. In the gospel. Another key word and suffice it to say that the word believe means to receive with the mind the truth of the gospel. To lay hold with the affections the great realities couched in the gospel and above all to give yourself up to Him who is the theme of the gospel.

31:05 This is a unique construction found only here in all the New Testament. Believe in the gospel. All the other constructions point to believe in the Lord Jesus or believe upon Christ or upon the Lord Jesus. Believe in, believe into, believe upon. But there

31:26 is this unique stroke and as I've wrestled with it and read the commentators, it is my own present conviction that I would not die for this conviction in this verse though I would die for it elsewhere by God's grace that what our Lord is carefully doing by the inspiration of the Spirit through Mark is underscoring at the very outset that there can be no saving dealings with the person and work of Christ apart from the objective truth about Christ couched in the gospel. So he says repent ye and believe in the gospel. In other words,

32:09 and this we should be able to relate to, as a young woman shows off her engagement ring, she doesn't show you the diamond apart from its setting. Her diamond is set in the midst of those prongs that are attached to the ring. Christ is the diamond of the gospel. Mark made that plain in the opening words.

32:37 The beginning of the gospel concerning Jesus Christ. He is the glistening diamond in the gospel. But he never comes to us without a setting. Christ only comes to us in the setting of the gospel. The facts

32:55 about him. Who he is. What he's done for sinners. You see, that great diamond does not come to us floating down from heaven on a wispy filmy of some kind of mystical notion. Christ comes

33:16 to us couched in the very firm setting of the gospel. The facts about who he is. And Mark gave us one of the most fundamental ones in his opening words. It is the gospel concerning Jesus Christ, Son of God. Therefore

33:36 to believe in the gospel means that we are prepared to receive the truth about Christ, his person. Christ and his work as we find in the full blown description of those essential elements of the gospel later on in the epistles. Christ died for our sin. Our own subjective meaning upon the death of Christ.

34:02 And say, well I contemplate the death of Christ as a good man. And I find that it strangely warms my heart that one so good and noble should so freely give himself in a situation where he was misunderstood. And something of that patience in the face of misunderstanding moves my heart in a woozy way. And I find I love Christ.

34:23 I must be a Christian. Rubbish. You must believe in and that gospel says Christ died for our sins. And until your heart is moved to trust him as God's only appointed sin bearer, you have no notion of saving faith.

34:53 None whatsoever. You must come to believe in him. In the setting in which he is presented to us. Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried

35:09 and he was raised again from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures. Oh you mean it's not enough to say that the lovely idea with the bursting forth of life in the spring to think of the idea of a resurrection that the spirit of Jesus lives on in the world and lives on in his church. I don't need to really believe that Joseph's tomb was emptied. Come off it. We know that

35:40 dead people don't rise from the dead. My friend, to be a Christian means that you believe in the gospel. That he was buried. That he, the same Jesus whose body was laid in Joseph's tomb came out a resurrected Lord never to die again. Wherever the

36:04 Lord Jesus went he called men. Here were the imperatives. Be repenting. Believing in the gospel. Oh hear me.

36:15 He didn't say believe in yourself. That's the message of Bob Schumer. You're not such a bad person. I mean chuck yourself under the chin. Look in the mirror and smile

36:26 and say how wonderful you are. You can really do it. You're not this little helpless worm you think you are and certainly you're not a groveling hell deserving wretch. You're alright.

36:40 Tell yourself that enough until you begin to believe it and then you can go out and be a person who's got his act together. That's not the gospel. That's the message of a false prophet that will send you to hell. Repent of all such silly notions of what you are.

36:57 Repent of your own estimation of what you are. Repent and believe in the gospel. Jesus didn't go around and say repent and believe in the church in the synagogue or in the rabbi. He didn't say repent and believe in the sacraments.

37:15 He said repent and believe in the gospel. And wherever you went Jesus had two notes to his imperatives. Repent. Believe.

Application 1: The Divinely Established Pattern of True Gospel Preaching

37:25 Repent. Believe. Would to God that our land would be filled with such two note preachers. Well, we've looked at the two indicatives.

37:39 We've looked at the two imperatives. And I've desperately tried not to apply but simply to expound though I confess I've weakened it a point or two. Now then, seriously in the closing moments what are we to learn from this? How do we make the shift now all the way from Capernaum the Sea of Galilee where Jesus went about preaching the gospel of God and saying the two indicatives the time has been fulfilled and remains full. The kingdom of God

38:13 has drawn near and remains near. Be repenting. Be believing in the gospel. What's the line from Galilee to Montville in 1983?

38:27 Well, we learn first of all from this passage the divinely established pattern of true gospel preaching. What is the divinely established pattern of true gospel preaching as we see it in our Lord? Well, you'll notice it always begins with the indicatives. It declares what God has done for needy sinners.

38:51 It declares without reservation that God in sovereign grace and love has moved in power toward needy sinners. It declares the indicatives. God has done something. God has so loved the world that he gave. God

39:16 made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. God raised him from the dead. Gospel preaching is firmly planted in these unshakable indicatives. God is. God

39:30 has done. But it never stops there. It always moves on to the imperatives because God has done. You must map out a time scheme that would find me living at this point in history when all the prophecies were fulfilled and I have no excuse to say I'm ignorant that Christ has come and lived and died and been raised again. I didn't

40:02 ask God to do it. No, you didn't. And he didn't consult you or me. But he did it. What is, is.

40:09 Facts are stubborn things. Stubborn, stubborn things. When mom says to her, look, you're a teenager now. Act like a young lady. It won't do for her

40:20 to start slobbering and put her in the thumbs and say, no, I'm just a three-year-old. That doesn't change the fact that she's fourteen and a young lady. And it won't do for you to say, well, I'm just going to ignore that like it's happened, my friend. And because of the great indicatives, these imperatives come to you this morning.

40:40 Be you repenting. Have you thought seriously about what you are as a creature made in God's image? Have you thought seriously about what you are as a sinner who's broken his laws? Have you given serious afterthought and reflection upon what sin is in the presence of a holy God? There is no

41:03 repentance without it. Etymologically, the very word that God uses for the actings of repentance forces upon us the idea of serious afterthought. We've been drifting through life doing what comes naturally, doing what others do. No thought of God and of heaven and hell. God

41:24 says stop! Reflect! Horrible, horrible tale of indifference to God and to his ways and to his son, to his laws, to his You begin to grieve and inwardly mourn and inwardly loathe from that path of sin. That's repentance.

41:51 And that's a divine imperative. Almighty God commands! My friend, you'll wish to God through all the ages of eternity you felt like it when you burn in hell. If you won't repent.

42:12 And then he says believe in the gospel. Throw yourself upon the Lord Jesus as he comes to us couched in that beautiful setting of those simple truths. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised.

42:29 He lives. He reigns to give his grace and his spirit to give power to break the chains of sin. Oh my friend, believe in the gospel. You see what a beautiful, beautiful, simple pattern of gospel preaching our Lord gives us. And my dear

42:49 hearers, that's what we try to do in this place. We don't simply come to you and say, repent, repent, repent, believe, believe, believe. Because you'd have a reason to ask, repent of what? Believe on what?

43:02 So that's why we have a doctrinal pulpit. We're some kind of accused, oh that Trinity Church is just doctrine. My friend, without doctrine you'll go to hell. Doctrine is simply teaching.

43:18 And teaching that is biblical is simply the indicatives of God. But we don't stop with that. That's why other people say, I don't want to go to that place. They're always going after your conscience. Now isn't it funny?

43:29 On the one hand, we're accused of being too heady and doctrinal. On the other side, we're constantly accused of being too practical and personal. Bless God for the double accusation. May it ever continue. May it ever

43:42 continue! Because you see, some people they like the doctrinal, but they're uncomfortable with the imperative. Other people, they're very practically minded. They love the imperative, but hate the doctrinal. But you see the great pattern of

43:57 gospel preaching? You men preparing for the ministry, this is how you're to preach. You witness to the people at work. You witness to neighbors. That's how we're

44:05 to communicate the gospel. Always sounding forth the great indicatives. What God has done. And in the light of it, what sinners must do.

Application 2: The True Nature of the Kingdom of God

44:15 Then in the second place, we learn from this passage the true nature of the kingdom of God. The true nature of the kingdom of God. Notice the language. The time is fulfilled.

44:29 The kingdom of God is at hand. What are you to do? Did Jesus say go grab the nearest horse? Go to the nearest blacksmith and get yourself a sword?

44:37 And we're going to get us an army! And with this kingdom we're going down to Rome! And we're going to sort things out and Palestine will take her place again at the head of the nation! Now it's sad that some well meaning Bible teachers have actually taught that that's the kind of kingdom Jesus was offering.

44:55 Until the Jews said, no, that's not too good an idea. We'll reject it. My friend, they didn't reject that. They'd have loved that.

45:01 At one time they tried to force it on him. It says in the Gospel of John, they came to make him a king by force and he ran away and hid. Jesus never offered any such kingdom! When he stood in the waters of Jordan and identified himself in a sinner's ordinance with sinners at the hand of a sinner, he was declaring the nature of his kingdom. It was

45:24 a kingdom that would deliver sinners from the bondage and guilt and power of sin unto a life of righteousness. He says the kingdom of God is at hand. Don't get a horse. He says get on your face and grieve over your sins.

45:38 Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand! He doesn't say dream up your schemes, your grandiose plans to rule the world from Jerusalem. He says believe in the Gospel. Come to that flesh

45:53 withering position of saying I have nothing. I am nothing. I can do nothing to present myself to God. I must throw myself upon the mercy of another. What's the nature

46:07 of the kingdom Christ came to offer? The kingdom that drew near in the person of the king. It is essentially a spiritual kingdom. Yes, I know that in its consummation there will be a new heaven and a new earth and even the physical world will be renovated and that will be a manifestation of the gracious reign and rule of Christ. I know that.

46:29 I know that. But in this present age the kingdom that he offers is essentially spiritual. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. You see the spin off of the old pharisaic idea of the kingdom?

46:51 The health, wealth and prosperity gospel preached by Reverend Ike, preached by Mr. Schuller, preached by a host of others. It's just another wrinkle on the old pharisaic perversions of the notion of the kingdom. Jesus described the members of his kingdom as essentially poor. God had chosen

47:11 the poor of this world to be rich in faith. He hasn't described them as the front rank of the successful. He said they'll be the despised and the hated and the misunderstood. Beware of a reviving of the old judaistic notion of the nature of Christ and the kingdom. Now that someone said

47:35 Pastor Martin you've never gone to the right school don't you know that that was the gospel under the old dispensation. Paul preached a different gospel, is that so? Well you read Acts 20 and Acts 28 and you realize he didn't. He said to the Ephesian elders I know that those of you among whom I have gone preaching the gospel of the kingdom will see my face no more.

47:59 And the book of Acts ends with this note that Paul was in a hired house and what was he doing? Preaching the gospel of the kingdom and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus. He knew of no kingdom divorced from the person and work of Christ. My friend that's our message and that's the kingdom we offer. And then finally

Application 3: The Necessity and Inseparability of Repentance and Faith

48:21 we learn from this passage the absolute necessity and inseparability of those activities by which men enter the kingdom. The absolute necessity and inseparability of those spiritual activities by which men enter the kingdom. From God's standpoint men enter when they are begotten from above except a man be born again. John's only two usages of the term kingdom of God in John 3.

48:55 He cannot enter the kingdom of God. From the divine standpoint there must be a divine begetting a sovereign implantation of life. From the human standpoint there must be repentance and faith. They are the two plates of the hinge on which the door to the kingdom opens.

49:16 Repentance and faith the two plates on the one hinge by which men pass into the kingdom. They are both necessary. They are inseparable. As Spurgeon has so beautifully said repentance is the tear in faith's eye.

49:35 And I like to think conversely that faith is the gleam of hope in the wet eye of repentance. And any true looking to Christ will be with an eye of hope and an eye with a tear. My friend let me bring it all home to your conscience as you sit here this morning. Do you know what it is to be a repenting man or woman who thinks seriously about what you are as a creature of God and a sinner?

50:07 Do you know anything of those elements of true repentance? Do you? Do you? Or do you?

50:15 Do you not? You're not in the kingdom of God. And if you're not in the kingdom of God do you know what kingdom you're in? You're in the kingdom of Satan.

50:25 The Bible only speaks of two. Kingdom of darkness, kingdom of light. Kingdom of God, kingdom of Satan. Do you know anything of what it is to believe in the Gospel?

50:36 To dare to stake the whole weight of your immortal never-dying soul upon him who died, who rose, true man. Are you embarrassed about what you're called upon to believe in the gospel? Or do you glory in those marvelous mysteries that your Savior is God and man, one glorious Redeemer,

51:04 inked in unmixed natures, and yet one person, my blessed Redeemer. And I believe He died, and He died my death, and He rose, and He lives, and in His life I have life. Do you know anything of faith? My friend, from the words of Jesus, don't go out and say, oh, that's Trinity's emphasis.

51:29 My friend, today we emphasize what's not in this book. May God blast this place to the ground. And when what's in this book is preached, then don't cop out by saying that's Trinity's emphasis. Jesus went about Galilee saying, repent and believe in the gospel. And that's the Jesus you'll need

51:46 a day of judgment. And if you meet Him a stranger to repentance and faith, it will be better for you. You've never been born. But thank God, no matter what you've been or done, you meet Him as a penitent believing sinner, and He's going to welcome you. He's going to welcome you on the basis of all He

52:06 did for you. And He's going to make you the basis of the amazement of angels and seraphim and cherubim when God's done with rotten sinners who are repentant believers. They will be the amazement of all intelligent beings in the universe. That's what God's committed to do with you and with me. Will you be one of us?

52:30 Oh, may God grant that you'll not rest until you can say on biblical grounds, I'm one of them. I'm one of them. I'm one of those that God's going to make the display case of His own almighty grace. You see why some of us could care less about making a lot of money if only we can preach a gospel like this?

52:51 Well, we could care less what people think about us. Just for the sheer inward joy of proclaiming these indicatives, God has done something, laying out those imperatives with the authority of God, and I trust the tenderness of Christ. What a privilege to be a gospel preacher. None of us can preach it the way He did. But oh, to learn from Him that this is men's great need. Well,

53:21 that's what Jesus did in Galilee. Wherever He went, He preached the gospel of God and was saying, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Do you say, oh, I wish I could have been

53:37 there to hear Him? He'd tell it better than I could, but He wouldn't tell you anything different.

53:45 He wouldn't tell you anything different. So don't be nostalgic. Thank God that He's brought His word to you and embrace it with all your heart.

Closing Prayer

54:04 Oh God, our Heavenly Father, we worship you and praise you this morning. Our hearts run out with gratitude and adoration that the time has been fulfilled. Great Lord of history, we thank you, we praise you, that in the fullness of the time you sent forth your Son. We thank you for the record of His own announcement of the kingdom having come.

54:37 In His person, we thank you. Oh, we praise you that we live this side of the full revelation of His mighty spiritual kingship established by His own death and resurrection and the giving of the Spirit. Lord, we would be bold to plead that those glorious indicatives will come as good news to many hearts this morning and that those imperatives will be seen in all of their graciousness. That some this day will repent and believe and that in all of us, our repentance and our faith

55:15 will be renewed and strengthened as we have heard the call of our Lord Jesus to be repenting and to be a believing people. Lord, write your word upon our hearts. May the great day of unveiling reveal that your word was not preached in vain this morning. Hear us.

55:37 Oh, hear us. Hear us in our cry. And may the blessings of your grace rest upon us as we part from one another. We plead in the name of our great King and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.