The Perfect Servant

We're now going to continue our meditation with God's help on the first chapter of Mark's Gospel. Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Mark chapter 1, verse 9. 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 open and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.

And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him.

Now 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. In our last message we considered John Mark, the writer of this gospel, and the first verse of the chapter in connection with the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In today's message, starting to read at verse 9, we find the perfect servant came to be baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. Here we find the blessed Lord taking his place among that little Jewish remnant. Those who came to John confessing their sins and were baptized by him.

In Luke's gospel chapter 7, there are a couple of interesting verses that I'd like to read to you in this connection. Luke 7 verse 29, And all the people that heard him, that is John the Baptist, and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.

Now we know that our Lord Jesus never sinned. He knew no sin. He was the sinless Holy One.

And yet he takes his place with his remnant here and is baptized by John the Baptist. And we notice in verse 10, And straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened. We find several times, possibly four at least in the Bible, where the heavens were opened.

And in each and every case in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, there was a man in this world that walked this world to the glory of God, sin apart, and time after time the heavens could be opened unto him. For here on the earth was a man who always did those things that were pleasing in his Father's sight.

And so it says, the heavens opened and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. Notice that everything centers around the perfect servant. Here the Spirit descends upon him.

There were other people there, including John the Baptist, but the Spirit of God only had one object here on the earth, and that was him, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased. You see, if you compare this with Matthew chapter 3, you'll find the Father said, This is my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased.

It seems to me that in Matthew 3, where Christ is presented as the King of Israel, that the Father is introducing to his people his beloved Son. Here in Mark's gospel, the Father speaks directly to the Son. His delight is found in the Son, and he says, Thou art my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased.

A direct testimony by God, out of heaven, addressed to his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are some who might mock and say, Well, you never can rely on the Bible, because Matthew says, This is my beloved Son, and Mark changes it and says, Thou art my beloved Son. It may be that some of you listeners will meet that kind of opposition.

But pay no attention to it, beloved Christians, because the unsaved man cannot understand these things. It's like an Englishman trying to speak Chinese. They cannot understand the Bible.

The unbelievers are in darkness, spiritual and moral darkness, and they cannot understand the Bible. While you and I who are Christians, we praise God for this difference, for we see that the Spirit of God is bringing before us two distinct thoughts in connection with the open heavens and the Lord Jesus. This is my beloved Son.

Here he is, this, Israel. This is my beloved Son, but here in Mark, to the perfect servant of Jehovah, he addresses it right to the person of Christ. And we who are Christians, we praise God for this difference.

We delight to see the Father rejoicing in the Son. There are others who teach that there is no such a thing as the Trinity. They challenge the Christians and say, We're in the Bible.

Do you ever find the word Trinity? Well, that's true. It's not there. But the fact right here in these verses is established to everyone who has eyes to see by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit.

Notice the Trinity here in these verses. Verse 10, He saw the heavens opened, that is, God the Son, He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him. There we have God the Spirit.

And in verse 11, the voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased. Here we have God the Father. And so we have the Trinity.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, all here together in connection with that blessed one, the perfect servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody can deny this truth unless Satan has blinded their minds. O dear Christians, let us accept our Bibles.

Let us treasure the Bible. Let us remember it's the only book in the whole world, beloved friends, that can be a hundred percent relied upon. It is the Word of God.

God breathed, God given, inspired of God from beginning to end. The precious Bible, the Word of the living God. Somebody has said recently, It's the only thing in the whole world today that never changes.

And I have enjoyed those words because they are true. Where in the whole world, under the whole heavens, can you find a person or anything that does not from day to day change, have to be revised and corrected and altered? Only the Bible stands, beloved friends. The Bible stands unchallenged by man except in his folly.

It stands, beloved, as a testimony to the one who is in heaven, the unchangeable God with his unchangeable Word in the world today, the Word of God. And we praise God for the open Bible. We believe it's true.

It's God's Word. It's our treasure on earth. Now verse 12, And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.

Here we have a wilderness mentioned. And immediately we think back into Genesis chapter 2 and we see that beautiful Garden of Eden. What a contrast to this wilderness here in Mark 1. A beautiful garden.

No sin there at that time. Everything fresh from the hand of the all-wise Creator here in the wilderness, suggesting to us a change, a garden, a wilderness. And what do we find in this wilderness in verse 13? And he was there in the wilderness forty days.

Now we know that forty, the figure forty in the Scriptures speak of testing. The Lord was now to be tested. Does this show, beloved friends, as the enemies of Christ declare that this blessed one was tempted to show that he was just an ordinary man? No, it does not.

The Lord Jesus was tested. He went into that wilderness perfection, sinless, holy, undefiled, and he left that wilderness after forty days exactly the same as he entered it, sinless, holy, undefiled, without sin, but he had now been tested. And tested, beloved friends, and leave in you and me an example to follow in his steps.

If you read the Gospel of Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4, you will read about the temptations that the Spirit of God has omitted here in Mark. And you will find that the Lord never argued with Satan. Never once did he even suggest that because he was the Son of God, an almighty and all-powerful and sinless, the tempter had no right to tempt him.

He was God manifest in the flesh. The Lord, as a dependent lowly man, did not use those words, but he did use the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and three times in those three temptations that are mentioned, he said, it is written. Now, we have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.

How often today you and I say, what is the harm in that? Is there anything wrong with that? Can you tell me anything wrong with this or that? The perfect servant didn't speak that way. The Son of God, our Lord Jesus, never spoke that way. He said, it is written.

As the dependent man, he used that weapon, the sword of the Spirit, to defeat Satan. And he has left you and me an example to follow. What saith the Scriptures? Let us remember that, dear Christians.

What saith the Scriptures? Man does not like to hear the word of God. He likes human reasoning, human ideas, human methods. But we'll always be defeated by Satan if we try to use man's poor, dark reason.

We have the sword of the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God. It is written. Now, it's interesting to notice who was in the wilderness with the Lord.

First of all, in verse 13, tempted of Satan, we find that Satan was in the wilderness. Secondly, we find that the wild beasts were in the wilderness. And this is humbling for man, is it not, that those wild beasts apparently recognized the Creator.

They didn't attack the Son of God. They apparently must have known something about who this person was, not to touch him at all. But who attacked the Lord? Man did.

Who spit into the face of Jesus? Man did. Who marked the back of Christ? Wild beasts? No. Poor fallen man.

Who nailed those blessed hands and feet to the cross? Man did. Who murdered the Son of God? Man did. This is indeed humbling for every one of us.

He was with the wild beasts. And thirdly, the angels ministered unto him. What an assortment in that wilderness.

Satan, the wild beasts, and the angels. And beside that, the eternal Son of the living God was there, the perfect servant of Jehovah. Now, let's notice verse 14.

Now, after that, John was put in prison. Now, this would remind us of the enmity and hatred of the world against any that belonged to Christ. John was God's servant.

He was the forerunner of his beloved son. But the world had no place for a man like John, so they put him into prison. And later, he was beheaded and murdered, just as his beloved master was to have done to him shortly after.

John was put in prison. Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Now, today we preach the gospel of the grace of God, the kingdom that the Lord Jesus presented to Israel in the gospel of Matthew and its principles in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, was rejected.

The king himself cast out, went back into heaven. And God sent the Holy Spirit down on the day of Pentecost after the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man, died and rose again and ascended into heaven as a man for eternity to sit on the throne of God. Then the gospel of the grace of God was preached, offering to men and women worldwide, Jew and Gentile, a complete forgiveness, a complete and a full salvation through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cleansing power of his precious blood, giving the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, eternal life, and all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ.

Here the Lord preaches the gospel of the kingdom of God. That gospel will be preached on a future day by the Jewish remnant who will take that gospel not to the hard-hearted people of Christendom who have rejected the gospel of the grace of God and turned their backs on Christ and God's offers of mercy and salvation, but to the Gentiles who have never heard the gospel of his grace. They will hear the gospel of the kingdom announcing the coming of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those who believe that gospel are the sheep of Matthew chapter 25, starting to read at verse 31. Those who reject the gospel of the kingdom will have the portion of the goats in Matthew 25, and of them we read they will go away into everlasting or eternal punishment. Dare any one question eternal punishment when the Lord Jesus Christ, the only man who never sinned and who was God manifest in the flesh, declared in all faithfulness, and thee shall go away into everlasting punishment.

Dare any man of any race, of any creed, no matter how highly they may be educated, I say, dare any man to change the words of the Son of God. May the Lord preserve us, beloved, from entering into arguments with poor blind men. May we only do one thing, and that is to quote, quote, the word of God, the truth, for it is the word of God that brings blessing, that touches the heart and the conscience, and brings man into the light, into the presence of God himself.

Now notice the message in verse 15. The Lord spoke here. What did he say? The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent ye and believe the gospel. Notice three great points that Christ preached here. The kingdom of God is at hand.

There was the Son of God himself preaching this message. There he was, beloved. The kingdom of God is at hand.

Now in Matthew you'll find it's the kingdom of heaven. Here's the kingdom of God. Every professor of Christ, true or false, is in the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom under the heavens.

But to enter the kingdom of God, one must be born again. Only the true, only the wheat, are found in the kingdom of God. But again I say, in the kingdom of heaven, there are the wheat and the tares, as we find in Matthew's gospel, chapter 13.

Now notice what the Lord said. Secondly, repent ye. He was calling on the people to repent of their sins.

Repent ye. Now there is a lot of confusion about this subject of repentance, but actually and simply it means this, that man takes his place before God as a sinner and declares that God is just, that God is holy and that God is right, that man is a wreck, a sinner, lost, undone and hellbound because of his or her sins. They take sides with God against themselves.

Like the people of Luke 7, including the publicans, they justify God. Thirdly, the Lord said, believe the gospel. Now again today it's the gospel of the grace of God.

Believe the gospel. I wonder how many listeners of these weekly tape messages have ever given a moment or two of time to ask this question. Do I believe the gospel? The gospel presents Christ as Savior and Lord, a free salvation.

Man doesn't like to receive anything free. He wants to do something. He wants to be able to say, I had my part in this, but God will not stand for that.

The only part that you and I, dear Christian, had in our salvation was our sins. That was our part. And that was the only part we had in our salvation.

Everything else was done by the Lord even to that gift of faith. For faith is the gift of God as we find in Ephesians 2, verse 8. And so everything we have we owe to Him so that in the glory all praise will be to Him. In heaven we will not sing, like some people seem to think we will, how worthy we are, how good we are, why we're so wonderful that we're here in heaven.

No, beloved friends, we will sing rather, thou art worthy. For the Lord Jesus Christ, by His finished work, not only glorified God about the question of sin, but He made a way open for poor, lost, vile sinners to be saved by the grace of God. And how blessed and how wonderful this is, beloved.

A finished work, a glorified Christ, the Holy Spirit on the earth, the heavens open to whosoever will. This is the gospel. And the Lord Jesus said to these people, believe the gospel.

Believe the gospel. Friend, we can't do one thing to save ourselves. Even pick up a grain of sand from the mighty seashore, we couldn't even do that to save ourselves.

The work has been done by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I trust that everyone who hears my voice will believe the gospel. There are so many Christians who never get settled peace because they look at themselves instead of to Christ.

May the Lord bless this message for His glory. If the Lord will, we'll continue our message on the other side of this tape.