We have so much prophecy already fulfilled, being fulfilled, and to be fulfilled. And Satan hates it. And so he throws at the church, at Christians, at the world, everything he can. But we should stand strong in the face of these things, just on simple clause like this, as it is written in the prophets.
That's the source. That is the, that's what validates what we believe, what the Bible says. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Gospel of Mark.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Mark chapter one, as he begins a new message called John the Baptizer. The Gospel according to Mark chapter one, verses two through eight. As it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of Yahweh, make his path straight. John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts and wild honey and he preached saying, there comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptizer, quite a few places in this paragraph where I could have taken the title from, but this one fits. And his role was preparing the way for the King of Souls to come and be received and that he did, a vital part of the credentials of Christ, of Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ. And we look at verse one, as it is written in the prophets, behold I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.
There's a lot of force in these words, as it is written in the prophets. Criteria for Messiah, they were manifold, there were many prophecies that you had to fulfill if you were going to be the Messiah. And today, if someone were to say, as many have over the centuries, if they were to claim that they were the Messiah, well the first question you had asked them was well where were you born? And if it's not Bethlehem, they're disqualified.
I mean how do you get yourself born in Bethlehem? Are they Jewish? Are they from the tribe of Judah? Are they of the line of David?
Is there a forerunner? Did you have someone, not one of your converts, not a crony of yours, but was there someone independent of you that was announcing your arrival, consistent with the prophecies of the Old Testament? And if you look at the Gospel of Matthew, there's Matthew, a Hebrew writing to Hebrews, and he's constantly saying that it might be fulfilled, that it might be fulfilled. By that saying, Matthew breathed life into the Old Testament. He said this is relevant, this is happening right here.
It's fulfilled, and you're living through it. When Peter writes his letter, he says we did not follow cunningly devised fables. We didn't follow these stories made up by someone. He goes on to say we were eyewitnesses. We, not I only, there were others. We saw him, we were there. John does the same thing decades later when he writes his Gospel. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
We saw him, and it was not just me, there were others. There's a lot of power packed into, as it was written in the prophets, just like the prophets said it happened. No other religion on earth can claim these spiritual features, not like us, not even close. We have so much prophecy already fulfilled, being fulfilled, and to be fulfilled, and Satan hates it. And so he throws at the church, at Christians, at the world, everything he can. But we should stand strong in the face of these things, just on simple clause like this, as it is written in the prophets.
That's the source. That is the, that's what validates what we believe, what the Bible says. Now here in verse 2, Mark, having given us the heading in verse 1, he is now opening up and quickly introducing us to John the Baptizer, the forerunner of Christ, the one that is the herald. He's announcing, here comes the king, make way, and I'm all, and he, well he, John, also clearing the road for the fulfillment of this message and the messages to come. Mark blends the prophecy from Malachi, chapter 3, verse 1, and from Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 3.
He blends them together. In fact, some translations will put, as is written in Isaiah, that's actually not correct, and that's why I don't use those terms. It's not really wrong, it's a liberty that should not have been taken, because this first quotation here is from Malachi. He will quote Isaiah in the next verse. And this, of course, is vital to the faith, both then and now. This blending of the verses is not uncommon. Paul did it, for instance, in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14 forward. He blends the prophecy together. We do it today even in our psalms. We'll take a part of a psalm and then the next verse that we sing is another part of a psalm.
There's nothing wrong with that, long as we are not corrupting what it means. He says, Behold, I send my messenger here in verse 2 before your face. He's still doing this, God is.
He's still sending messengers. Not only messengers to assemblies, not only pastors, but individuals, witnesses of Christ. But John, what he was called to do, we're called to do in a little bit of a different way, but basically it is the same. We are announcing the coming of the king, and that if you're not ready for his arrival, there is a severe and eternal consequence. Behold, I send my messenger before your face.
That word behold means this is dramatic, this is serious business. John is the messenger, and he will, in his ministry, make it clear. Again, Malachi chapter 3, verbatim in the translation that I have, Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.
There's two individuals there. There is the messenger, and of course, as I mentioned John, preparing the way, and then there is the ruler. But the messenger, going to John's gospel just for a moment, chapter 3, John speaking, You yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. John knew who he was. He knew what his role was in life, in ministry. He knew what his purposes were, and he executed them, even at the cost of his life. And John's gospel chapter 1, I'm not going to take the time to read it because it's so nice, I'd start commenting on it and we'd take up time from other things we have before us, but there it is all made very clear that John knew who he was, he knew who Christ was, although he had a doubting moment, but he got past it.
The second person in this prophecy of Malachi, that's quoted here by Mark, is not only about the messenger, but the owner of the temple, the ruler, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is every bit Lord. He is more than my Savior. He is my Lord. In fact, he couldn't be my Savior if he wasn't my Lord. That's where the power to save is.
We're going to get that in chapter 2. Jesus is going to say, what's easier to do? To say your sins are forgiven, or to heal a person that is in need of healing, just with your word? And so he says that you may know. And then he, of course, tells the paralyzed individual, you're no longer paralyzed, get up and walk, take your bed and leave. And he was proving his point that anybody can talk a big talk, but it takes the power of God to back it up.
I'm looking forward to that section in a few months. Who will prepare, again, and now back in verse 2, who will prepare your way before you? The Romans, who were largely Mark's audience, we covered that a little last session, they scoffed at the ancient roads and trails that went throughout various kingdoms. Even the Persians. The Persians had that great highway, you know, that went from Persia all the way into Turkey.
Their couriers would take the mail and other messages. And that did not impress the Romans. In fact, just to kind of, going off on the side to get an overview of what God was doing, Alexander the Great, who conquered the Persians, he did not like their culture.
He didn't like anybody's culture but the Greek culture. In fact, his goal was to make everybody speak Greek and come under the lifestyle of the Greeks. And in so doing, unknowingly, he was preparing for the Greek New Testament.
Our New Testament, the source of our New Testament is the Greek language. And God sort of made a, leveled the playing field so that that message could easily travel. And he also prepared the roads to bring that message and he used the Romans to do that part. Well, anyway, Alexander, of course, he didn't like the Persians. He felt that they feminized the men and that the men became too lazy and used to comfort, that they were worthless on the battlefield and, well, you know, those were his views. Largely he was right.
Not entirely, but a lot of it. Well, the Romans come along, they conquered the Greeks and they make these roads. And the Roman manifold reasons why they did it, those roads were magnificent.
Some of them are still there to this day. One thing about those Roman roads is that they made them as straight as they could on purpose. They did not want these winding roads.
They wanted them straight. And if there were obstacles, they would clear them. If there were rivers, they would bridge them. If there were mountains, they would tunnel some of them. Again, still there to this day, their road engineers meant business because the emperor's business demanded haste.
We are supposed to have such a view of our king, his business. It demands effort, labor, straight roads. The emperor's roads were for his letters and his legions.
His couriers were to move swiftly throughout his empire and his legions were not to be delayed. Over 50,000 miles of stone paved roads by the Romans and another 200,000 miles of secondary roads, compacted, would run off for rain and just amazing. So when Mark comes along and he says, who will prepare the way before you, make his path straight, the Romans would appreciate that.
God did too because God did make those roads straight. Phoebe took a letter from Corinth to Rome using, of course, those Roman roads, likely the Appian Way, all the way straight into downtown Rome, delivers a letter. The letter is so powerful, we have it to this day.
Of course, those of you who have been in the military, you know a lot about writing letters. Do you think any of your letters are going to survive 2,000 years? Not likely, but that letter to the Romans and others, they did and all this makes a lot of sense when you begin to peel back the history behind all the letters that Paul and John and Peter wrote and you find out that God was working behind the scenes and nobody noticed so many of the things that he was doing, just like it is to this day. God does things we don't know what he's up to and then many times, boom, you see it. It comes to pass. As Jesus said, wisdom is justified by her children.
The proof will be in the pudding. Verse 3, he continues, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of Yahweh, make his path straight. See, he's quoting Isaiah and when Isaiah makes that quote, he's using the covenant name of God with the Jews, Yahweh or Jehovah. And here, Mark is applying it to Christ. This quotation is in all four of the gospels.
It is that important. The Holy Spirit is insisting that it be repeated in each of the gospels. Again, a quotation from Isaiah chapter 40. And John the Baptist, using his prophetic symbol of water baptism, there in the wilderness, which itself was symbolic, him preaching in the wilderness. I mean, why wasn't he preaching in downtown Jerusalem? Why wasn't he at the temple?
He was a priest because they had become so corrupt, he wanted nothing to do with them. He took his ministry, he took his pulpit out into the wilderness. And from there, he reached Jerusalem, Judea, and as Matthew tells us, in all the regions around there.
Quite impressive. As I mentioned, John was born to be a priest by inheritance. We got that from the Gospel of Luke. But the Holy Spirit did not need another priest according to the line of Aaron.
He had plenty of those. What the Holy Spirit wanted was a prophet according to the order of Elijah. And that's what he got in John. This lone, courageous voice lifted up loud enough, sure enough, to bring many converts. Remember, we're talking about this morning John the Baptizer, the forerunner of Christ. An essential fulfillment of prophecy. Because had there not been this forerunner, then Christ would not have been able to fulfill the Scriptures.
But of course, that wasn't going to happen, as Matthew is so used to saying, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Prepare the way of Yahweh. Again, that is the Old Testament. That is a literal translation from the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is Yahweh of the Old Testament.
He is Yahweh in human form. Jehovah Witnesses don't understand this. They fail to see that Yahweh, or Jehovah, is the Christ, the same person, and the appearance of him here in the New Testament, being marked out by John Mark here in this verse we're looking at, just testifies to this. When you come to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul says, let us, he says, nor let us tempt Christ.
Hmm, that's interesting. Then he says, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. He is saying that Christ, Christ, was Yahweh in the Old Testament that was tempted by the Jews in the wilderness. You cannot say let us not tempt Michael the angel. You cannot say let us not tempt Moses or Paul. You can say don't tempt God. Thou shall not tempt the Lord your God, the deity of Christ.
There is no excuse for missing this if you come, if you walk through the scriptures in earnest. Now if you listen to others and let them dictate to you what you should believe and not let the scriptures dictate what you should believe, then you're going to be twisted. Paul again makes, well Peter says that about Paul's letters.
He says they twist Paul's writings to their own harm. So we understand, we must understand who Christ is. Clearly John is making a way for him in the hearts of the people that are receiving the message and after all the centuries, again, we still want to have people willfully confess with their mouths, bow with their knee that Christ is Lord before it's too late because every knee will confess, well that would be a trick.
Just seeing if you're listening. Every tongue will confess and every knee shall bow and that's a promise. There will be no way around that in the presence of God's glory. Well here in verse 3 he continues, make his path straight. The very thing both Malachi and Isaiah, hundreds of years earlier, had said would happen and here John is calling his countrymen to clean up their lives. That's what his preaching was doing. The emphasis on John's ministry was preaching. The outcome of his preaching was repentance, not conversions.
We'll come to that in a moment. The people heard what John said and they were moved in their hearts to get right with God. His message carried this demand to clean up their lives morally and remove the religious obstacles that were all around that would offend the coming king. That's what the heralds that went before the king when they said make way for the king, they made sure also that the roads were, any ditches on the road they were filled in, any trees or logs across the road they were removed, they wanted a straight path for the king.
And if that wasn't the case, when the king got there, heads would roll. In verse 4 he says John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. So as I said, John's baptism focused on repentance, on admitting you were wrong before God.
Confession. John did not seek converts. This is before the church. There was no church at this point, not as we know it.
There certainly was no Gentile church. There were Gentiles that were proselytites, they became Jewish believers, but there was no church. And the goal of John was not to convert Jews to Jews. He was trying to get them to return back to the law of Moses because rabbinical Judaism had stripped them from this.
He wanted people to admit before God that the word of God was to determine what was right and wrong, and they were to come under that authority. His baptism could not wash away sins, but his preaching did produce conviction, a conviction of sin, personal sin. That's how souls are saved today. If you do not convict them of their sin, then why should they convert? You can't convert them if you can't hurt them.
And that's where we hurt them. We get down in deep and say, I am a sinner. I need a Savior. As Paul said, who shall deliver me from this body of death? It's Christ. But you've got to understand your, the soul has to understand the desperate need for a Savior.
Otherwise, why bother? In cleansing, the cleansing that goes with repentance as we know it, that would have to wait for Messiah. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin. And that is recurrent cleansing.
Not a one-time pop. Like, I got clean from my sins when I repented, but then I sinned yesterday, and now I'm dirty again. Well, it is still a sin, no question about that. But if you are in earnest in Christ, following the Lord, seeking the Lord, loving the Lord, that cleansing is continuous. It flows through the soul like the blood flows through the body. And the blood flows through the body and it cleanses. You hold your arm up in the air too long and it begins to hurt because the toxins are building up.
You need that blood to flow through and push it out of the way. The blood of Jesus Christ being so much greater than any analogy we could ever give. Mark chapter 10 verse 45, the flagship verse of our walk through Mark. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life ransom for many. In other words, well, not in other words, but belonging to these words, your salvation is not fragile.
It's not this little eggshell piece of armor. Satan can't beat it. He can hurt you. He can make life miserable for you. But he cannot take your salvation from you. There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
What part of that is not understandable? We get that right away. We love it when we hear it.
We want it. It does not promote lawlessness. It fights lawlessness. Because when you recognize that someone died for you, who did not have to die for you, the response is love. And love cares about the object of its love. And if Christ loves me, I want to obey him.
And yes I've got this traitor in my heart, this flesh, this carnality that will rebel at any chance it gets. I still have Christ and therefore with sin abounded grace did much more. Always the message of John must precede Christ. Always the message of repentance comes before the benefits of the Christ in forgiveness. If a person doesn't repent, how can they be forgiven? And that's what has to happen. So Jesus said in Luke 13 verse 5 and 3, unless you repent, you will perish.
It's pretty serious. What John is bringing about here is a change of attitude concerning man's position with God. And then comes the faith.
Verse 5, then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River confessing their sins. Well they came to take their stand with God's view of sinners. That's why they came out. Not all of them. There were in this number some that did not believe and that were going to stir up trouble.
We'll come to some of that in a moment. But they sided with God, God's opinions and God's solutions concerning fallen man. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark right here on Cross Reference Radio.
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