Will you take your Bibles and turn to Mark's gospel chapter one, we will be looking at verses six through 11. Here this morning as we continue to make our way through this wonderful book that exalts our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I've entitled my discourse to you this morning "The Declaration of the Son of God."- To be sure, whenever I contemplate the glory of Christ, I just find myself lost in the wonder of it all, don't you? I cannot fathom His infinite perfections. And I cannot comprehend his love for me and all that He has prepared for the redeemed. And as we come together to worship Him through the preaching of His Word, we have a wonderful opportunity to once again focus our attention on the person and the work of Christ. And what a relief that is, rather than having to focus our attention on all the things of the world, like we've had to do all week long, and my how discouraging How depressing. To be sure, I feel like an alien more and more, don't you? Just feel like, my goodness, I just don't belong here and the truth is, I don't. None of us who are in Christ belong here. Charles Spurgeon said, "Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learned the emptiness of everything else." And it's for this reason that we can echo the words of the Apostle Paul, in Colossians, three, beginning in verse one where he says, "Since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of this earth. For you have died in your life as hidden with Christ and God." And then he says, "When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." So let's focus our hearts and our minds on Christ as we come to his word.

This morning, let me read Mark, one beginning in verse one, even though we will focus primarily on verses six, and following. "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Behold, I send My messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord make his paths straight.' John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching baptism, of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. And he was preaching and saying, 'After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth, in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him, and a voice came out of the heavens: 'You are My beloved Son. In You, I am well pleased.'"

Last week, we began looking at these passages actually a couple of weeks ago, under three different headings. The first half of the heading by way of review was the preparation of the coming King. And here we see in Mark's opening statement, there is a royal pronouncement of a divine deliverer, the good news of the arrival and the ascendancy and the enthronement of becoming king. And he's basically saying to the Gentile people, which is predominantly his audience, that Jesus, not Caesar, is the Son of God. He is the one true King. Jesus is the one true sovereign over all of His creation. He is the King of Glory, who has come to save sinners to the praise of his glory, and as our king, as our Lord, He is to be worshipped and obeyed.

And then secondly, we began to look at another heading and that is the prophet of the coming King. In verses four through eight, you will recall that this is a reference to John the Baptist, who was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He was the divinely commissioned Herald of the Messiah, king of Israel. Verse four says, "John, the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." Then we read that, "All the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem", so we have throngs of people coming out to be baptized, the text says, "and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins."

Baptism, you will recall, is a symbol of repentance, a public affirmation of one's identification with the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ. It's merely a picture of the cleansing of sins. A few more thoughts on John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness region of the Dead Sea. And according to tradition, he did his baptisms along that area where you have the shallows of the Jordan River near Jericho. And in verse six, it says that "John was clothed with camels hair, and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey." So what we have here is a depiction of a man who was a prophet and he wore the garb of a prophet, the little phrase that he was a man that that was a hairy man, and he wore camels hair. It indicates that his garments were made of animal skins, we read this in some of the other gospels that describe him. It reminds me of the mountain men that we would have here in the United States. I remember back in the 70s, there was a movie that I liked Jeremiah Johnson, remember that? Robert Redford, boy, that okay, if you want to see John the Baptist, there he is, that's kind of what he looked like, at some level, a rugged outdoorsman, living in the wilderness. Now, there's undeniable parallels here. With Elijah, the prophet that's described in Second Kings one eight, there we read "a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins." So again, a man that's wearing animal skins. And because of the prophecy concerning the Lord, sending Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord, that we read about in Malachi four that we've already studied, the Jews thought that John the Baptist was Elijah, and maybe this is who he is. Indeed, he came, as Jesus said, "in the spirit and power of Elijah", Luke one, verse 17. But he was not Elijah. And as we have studied thus far, he was an Elijah like person announcing the arrival of the Messiah King at His first coming, but there will be another Elijah like person, possibly Elijah himself, that will announce the arrival of the Messiah King at His second coming. I wish I could have been there. You know, whenever I think of the scenes and having been in Israel and know the region, I can kind of play them in my mind. But wouldn't that have been something to see John the Baptist and all of these people coming? This robust, fearless, mountain man, you know, he's no girly man. I mean, this guy, this guy was serious. He had no concern for fashion either. To be sure that his austere appearance and his attire were, were the marks of a prophet, but they were probably also a deliberate rebuke against the refined and ostentatious and expensive garments of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I mean, he was the polar oppositeof what they look like. You look at the ornate and regal wardrobes of the Roman Catholic Pope and cardinals and bishops and in there you will see how the Pharisees used to dress, much of what they wear is directly from the historical garb of the Pharisees. It's funny by the way, I thought about this, in the past whenever you see religious people wearing, you know, some kind of ceremonial headdress or they've got regal accoutrements or some, some formal vestments, some ornate religious attire, know full well that there's all manner of hypocrisy and apostasy going on behind those articles of clothing.

So John the Baptist was a very rugged wilderness, mountain man, type of a guy, and he lived and he preached in the wilderness. I also love the fact that he was not a vegetarian. He was a carnivore. Now that I've offended all your vegetarians, believe me for me beef, it's what's for dinner, right? But his diet was locusts and wild honey. Locusts, grasshoppers, by the way, this was the only type of insect permitted as food in the Mosaic law. And I might also add, he ate other things besides just locusts and honey. But this was his predominant meal. Leviticus 11 verse 20. In the law, we read "all the winged insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you. Yet these you may eat among all the winged insects, which walk on all fours, those which have above their feet, jointed legs with which to jump on the earth. These of them you may eat, the locust in its kinds, and the devastating locust in its kinds, and the cricket and its kinds, and the grasshopper and its kinds. But all other winged insects, which you which are four footed, are detestable to you." By the way, whenever you read all of these seemingly bizarre diet restrictions and things that are clean and unclean, what God is trying to communicate to his people, is that there is a difference between that which is holy, and unholy. And so these are living illustrations of this. He's trying to impress upon the people, the difference between what is acceptable in his eyes and what is unacceptable. And I might also add that the dietary and hygienic benefits were only of secondary importance, a lot of people make a big deal about making sure they only eat what was in the Old Testament, although most of them leave out the locust, I've noticed. But the main purpose here was to teach the importance of separation and obedience unto the Lord because He is holy. That's the point. And it also made it very difficult for them to socialize with the pagans all around them because of the different diet. By the way, locusts are relished in lands where they flourish. I know it's quite offensive to us. I remember, I ate them for the first time, when I was in Africa, along with, they love to eat these termites, they've got these huge termite mounds and they stick these, these bamboo type shoots down there, and the termites come out and they get them and they make them in different ways. I kind of had to hold my nose, but I've eaten some of those things. And they removed the legs and the wings, and they will roast them, they will boil them and they're nice crunchy, little dried treats if he put a little honey on them. So by the way, if you cringe at this, if you knew what was in a hot dog, you'd say pass the locusts, right? So perhaps his simple diet was part of a Nazirite vow that he had taken, to be separate to the Lord to be dedicated to the Lord, we can't be certain. But to be sure, he is described as an ascetic and dedicated to God's servant, as a prophet.

So we've seen the preparation and the prophet of the coming King. Now we want to focus this morning number three, on the preeminence of the coming King, notice verse seven. "And he was preaching and saying, After me, One is coming, who was mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals." Now to “loose sandals”, meant that you would also wash the feet, and that was the duty of a Gentile slave. And what's also interesting is, according to ancient Jewish tradition, a master's disciple would do everything for his master that the master slave would do, except that he would not untie the sandals and wash the feet. That was the lowest of the lowly tasks, because it required removing the sandal and washing the feet. And John is basically saying, I'm not even fit to do that. Here we see John's humility, right? We see his subordination in relation to the Messiah King. Would that we all share such virtues, especially men that stand in pulpits, would that we all have that level of respect for the Lord? One of Satan's great schemes is to put men in pulpits that are self-aggrandizing. They're self-promoting. They're self-appointed. They're basically predators in pulpits, wolves in sheep's clothing, celebrity entrepreneurs wanting people to look at them, drawing attention to themselves rather than to Christ. Often they're sexually immoral men who crave prestige and power and money. Like the Pharisees, you know, I can hear Satan instructing his generals these days, to tempt pastors in particular, to seduce them to be some of the hucksters of our modern era, to deceive them into believing that somehow if we're going to be effective in evangelism, we need to become more like the world. We need to soften some of the edges of the gospel. We need to become more friendly with the world so that people can see that we're just like you, they will have more success. And with this different kind of a gospel, we can appeal to the felt needs of the spiritually dead that want to be entertained and pampered. What a lie. Make the pastor labored understand contemporary culture more than scripture, trick him into thinking that his church needs to be more attractive to the culture. So that those who are at enmity with God will feel more comfortable in it. So they will reinvent the gospel, adjust the message, it will mold themselves into showman that will put on a show to attract loud, large groups of people. pastors who will focus more on personal image and pleasure and then personal holiness. And then little by little as you love the world, you begin to think like the world, you begin to act like the world, you begin to dress like the world, you become part of the world. And together these strategies will fill up a church with pseudo-Christians that are Christian in name only. And yet, because the church looks successful in the eyes of the world, people are deceived into believing that God is somehow in it.

Well, folks, this was not John the Baptist. Moreover, this was not the apostles. This is not the model of the New Testament. John knew that he was merely a steward of the mysteries of God. He was lower than any slave. He was merely the messenger, the forerunner, the herald of the coming King, willing and joyful slave. That's why later on, he told his disciples in John three and verse 30, "He must increase but I must decrease." It's interesting as well in the apostle John's gospel, we also read how John the Baptist was baptizing beyond the Jordan. "And when he saw Jesus coming," he said in John 1:27, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Beloved, that must be our message. Jesus is the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world. I'm not going to stand up here, nor should you and say, "Behold, a great teacher who is willing to be an example of self-sacrificing love", or "Behold, the divine benefactor who has come to make us healthy and wealthy and successful", or "Behold, the social justice savior that came to liberate black people from white people, white, racist, and make us all woke", no, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."

As Paul said to the Corinthians, First Corinthians two two, "I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Dear Christian, that the transcendent holiness of the person of Christ and the greatness of what he has done for us, should humble us all to the very core. And this is what ignites our zeal for evangelism. In fact, Paul put it this way in Second Corinthians four beginning in verse five, "We do not preach ourselves but what Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants." Literally your slaves for Jesus' sake. "For God who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the one who has shown in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." Literally, little privy pots that's all we are. Why? "So that the surpassing greatness of the power of will be from God and not from ourselves."

Now back to verse seven. It says that John was "preaching and saying, 'After me, One is coming, who is mightier than I and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.'" And then he separates himself now even further from his master in verse eight, and he says, "'I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'" This is a reference to the miracle of regeneration, at the moment of salvation. Biblically, at the momentof conversion, all people, all Christians, are immersed into Christ Jesus, Romans six, three. And at that moment of regeneration, we're suddenly drawn out of darkness into God's marvelous light. At that moment, we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, we are forever placed in the body of Christ, the church, the sphere of the Spirit's sanctifying power and indwelling presence. Now, John knew that his baptism couldn't do any of that. He could only wash the outside, he could never wash the inside, he could never transform a person. And so we are immersed by Christ with His Holy Spirit and through the Spirit, baptism, believers are forever united to Christ, and put into unity with all other believers. That's why Paul said in First Corinthians 12:13, "For by one Spirit we are we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves are free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. You see, folks, this is the purification and transformation of the new birth. That is a result of the New Covenant. And this was prophesied in the Old Testament in Ezekiel's prophecy, chapter 36, verse 24, and following we, we read this, "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land, then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances."

Now, Mark continues here. He says, "In those days", referring to the days in which John was baptizing at the zenith of his baptizing activities, He had probably done this, by the way for at least six months or so. "In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth, in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan." Now it's important to notice that Mark says, "Nazareth in Galilee", why? Because most of his audience were Gentiles. And they didn't know where Nazareth is. I mean, it was some obscure little podunk place in Galilee. It's interesting, by the way, Galilee was heavily populated by Gentiles because when the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722, the Israelites were deported, and it allowed the Gentiles to move into that area and populate the region. So even by the time of the first century, the Jews viewed that region with contempt. They even looked down on fellow Jews that lived there, and certainly they had nothing but disdain for the Gentiles that live there. We get a clearer sense of this in John 7:41. There we read "Some were saying, 'This is the Christ. Still others were saying, 'Surely, the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? Obviously they had forgotten or perhaps they never even knew about Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Messiah that he made some 700 years earlier. In Isaiah nine in verse one we read, "But there will be no more gloom for her, who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on, He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them."

So Jesus comes from Nazareth, in Galilee, to the Jordan to be baptized by John. And here we have the first recorded meeting between John the Baptist and Jesus. Remember, now, when John the Baptist was born, his parents were quite old. So no doubt they died, you know, soon after he was born. And so he lived in the wilderness as a young man, and the Lord Jesus was raised all the way up in Nazareth in the Galilee. And so John didn't even know what Jesus looked like. Which is really an interesting thought. In fact, in John 1:33, he says, "I did not recognize Him." And then he adds this, "But He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'" Now, a very fair question to ask is, why did Jesus need to be baptized? After all, baptism is for those who repent and come to faith in Christ and want to identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And Jesus was the holy, spotless, undefiled Lamb of God, he was without sin, the writer of Hebrews tells us. Well, the answer is basically threefold. First of all, he was baptized to fulfill all the righteous requirements of God. Now, Mark omits some of the details of John's objection to Christ being baptized, Luke omits it as well. But Matthew includes it. And this was Jesus first public appearance, Jesus would have been about 30 years old. In Matthew three beginning in verse 13, we read this, "Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him," by the way, in Greek tried to prevent is one word, one verb, it's in the imperfect tense, it means that it's constantly, continually happening here. He's basically continuing in his attempt to prevent him from being baptized. And he's saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me? But Jesus, answering, said to him, 'Permit it at this time for in this way it is fitting for us,'" and here's why, "'to fulfill all righteousness'. Then he permitted Him." You see, since baptism was the will of God, and because Jesus perfectly submitted to the will of God, in every way, he willingly obeyed His Father.

But secondly, he did this to identify with the sinners that He came to save. You see, a man had to suffer and die for men. Jesus was a "theanthropos" he was a god-man. He was fully God and fully man. Isaiah, in fact, declared in Isaiah 53:12, that the Messiah would be, quote, "numbered with the transgressors. Yet He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors." And we know that as our substitute, according to what Paul said in Second Corinthians 5:21, "The Father made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." And certainly his baptism foreshadowed his willing submission to the death that we deserved. His baptism looked forward to his death, his burial and His resurrection. Just as Christian baptism looks back upon them. And for Jesus to be lowered into the water, and then rising again, was a magnificent picture of what would soon take place in His death, His burial and resurrection. So, from the outset of his ministry, he demonstrated not only number one, his willingness to fulfill the righteous requirements of God, but secondly is identification with sinners that He came to save. And then finally, the final reason I believe he submitted to baptism was to divinely authenticate his ministry.

Notice verse 10, "Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a loud voice came out of the heavens; 'You are My beloved Son, in You, I am well pleased.'" Oh, dear friends don't miss this. This is a magnificent, glorious event that is occurring here. This was a regal ceremony, this was a aroyal coronation of the messianic king. That's what's happening here. This was a divine commissioning and an inauguration of Jesus public ministry. And I want you to notice that it involves all three members of the Triune Godhead. Imagine what John the Baptist saw and imagine all those probably several 1000 people standing around him. Imagine what they saw. I mean, this is absolutely staggering. This is unforgettable, try to put yourself in that position. Here they first of all, see the sinless Son of God, the messianic king of Israel, standing there in the waters of the Jordan next to John the Baptist. Moreover, they see the Holy Spirit descending upon him in some mysterious, visible form, that could be likened to a dove, gently lighting upon its perch. It wasn't like it was a dove or some bird, but he's trying to describe this mysterious event that's occurring. So not only do they see the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, but they hear God the Father audibly expressing his approval of his beloved Son. Now, this was no surprise to John or any of the others that were familiar with Old Testament prophecy that speaks of the Holy Spirit, anointing the Messiah for service, and empowering him for ministry. We read about this, for example, in Isaiah 61, beginning in verse one. And here again, all three members of the Holy Trinity are functioning together. It says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners." A prophecy that was given some 700 years prior to Mark's historical narrative. You know, I absolutely cannot fathom the incarnation of Christ. I mean, there's no parallel in the human experience. None of us can fathom that. Paul described it in Philippians, two beginning of verse six, that "He existed in the form of God, yet He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men." But you know, what is also wonderful to consider here is how the Holy Spirit descended upon Him at His baptism, but then ministered to him throughout the remainder of his life. You will remember that the spirit was present at his birth, obviously is present at His baptism. The Holy Spirit will be with him at his temptation, throughout his entire ministry during his miracles, at his death and his resurrection. And beloved, think of this, that same Holy Spirit dwells within you and me. Absolutely incomprehensible. So in this ineffably glorious scene, Jesus looks up and it says "He saw the heavens opening." The term opening and the original language is "schizo." We get different English words from that; it means to be forcefully or violently torn apart. This is what Jesus sees. And all of them see, by the way, that's the same verb that Mark uses in Mark 15:38, where he says the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So he sees this and then the Spirit descends upon Him like a dove, a visible symbol of the Divine confirmation and the empowerment of the Messiah. Something that everyone could see.

I found an interesting, wanted to look into some of the ancient literature regarding this. If I can bore you just for a moment, because a lot of times you don't read these things, and I think it's fascinating. In a second century AD, Greek, lets call it a pseudo graphical text. It's called "The Testament of the 12 Patriarchs." There's an identical but unrelated Aramaic text called the testament of Judah. By the way, they found some of this among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Sowhen we go to Israel, those of you who will be with me, I'll show you that region in the where the, the Qumran where the ascetics lived. And in that ancient text, there's a similar passage to the one that we read about in Isaiah 61:1, where it talks about "the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed Me." And in the testament of Judah, this text speaks of "the messianic king as the star of Jacob, upon whom the heavens will be opened to pour out the spirit as a blessing of the Holy Father." Interesting. And one scholar by the name of Edward says, quote, "The rendering or opening of Heaven is highly significant. Here's why. Because Second Temple Judaism commonly believed that with the cessation of the great Old Testament prophets, the Holy Spirit had ceased speaking directly to God's people, the absence of the Spirit quenched prophecy, and God was believed to speak to the faithful only in a distant echo, called the "bat kol," in Hebrew, a daughter of a voice, the opening of the heavens, at the baptism of Jesus, thus inaugurates the long awaited return of God's Spirit. A period of grace begins in Jesus in whom God reveals himself in the world in an unparalleled manner." End quote. Another ancient document from Jewish tradition, elaborates on Isaiah's ministry, it was called "The Testament of Levi." It was composed, we believe, sometime around 250 BCE, and it actually anticipated what Mark describes in his narrative by expressly mentioning all three of these eschatological signs, he says, The heavens or it says, "The heavens will be opened, and from the temple of glory, sanctification will come upon him with a fatherly voice as from Abraham to Isaac, and the glory of the Most High shall burst forth upon him, and the spirit of understanding and sanctification shall rest upon him in the water, for he shall give the majesty of the Lord to those who are His sons in truth, forever." End quote. And while those things are not inspired, I find it fascinating to see how the people thought in those ancient days, and how God revealed Himself consistent with these truths.

Now back to Mark, verse 10, "Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him, and a voice came out of the heavens: 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.'" Dear friends, can there be any greater affirmation of the deity of Christ in all of Scripture than what we have right here? Can there be any greater affirmation that he indeed was the Messiah of Israel? I mean, he is verbally affirmed by the Father. He is visibly anointed by the Holy Spirit. What more proof do you need? In fact, later in Jesus ministry, when his divine credentials were being attacked by the religious leaders of Israel, he points to his baptism as proof of his messianic coronation, we read about it later on in Mark 11, beginning of verse 29, "And Jesus said to them, 'I will ask you one question and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things.'" See they were asking, "By what authority are you doing this stuff?" So he's going to ask them a question, to answer his attack. He says, "'Was the baptism of John from heaven or for men? Answer me.'" Boy, can you imagine being interrogated by the Son of God? It's like, all of a sudden, you've got that mule staring at a new gate look, right? You just don't really know what to say. And that's what hit them here. He says, "'Answer me.' They began reasoning among themselves, saying, 'If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Then why did you not believe him?' But shall we say, 'From men'?'-- they were afraid." Mark says, "of the people, for everyone considered John, to have been a real prophet. Answering Jesus, they said, 'We do not know.' And Jesus said to them, 'Nor will I tell you by what authority, I do these things.'" In other words, if you're going to reject John as a legitimate prophet, then you will also deny what happened to me at my baptism. You will reject the eyewitness testimony of all those people who saw the Holy Spirit anoint me, who heard the Father affirm me. And if you're going to reject all of that, willfully reject the coronation of the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, then there's nothing else that I have to say to convince you. I've been there before with people on various things. And when you get to that point, the next greatest priority is what's for dinner. Because these people are spiritually dead, their hearts are hardened. They cannot embrace the truth of Christ, unless God initiates that in the miracle of the new birth, in the miracle of regeneration. You know, one of Satan's greatest strategies, is to mislead people into believing that man's only problem is his will. Therefore, a sinner can be induced into making a decision for Christ through argumentation. So people are deluded into believing that regeneration can be proven by physical effects like approaching some imaginary altar and repeating some sinners prayer. And many believe that the Spirit's work of regeneration is to merely persuade the sinner to resolve to make a decision for Christ, to help them make that decision and become a Christian. Sopeople become very skilled in emotional, manipulative techniques to get believers to make a decision for Christ and to accept Jesus into their heart. And frankly, all that does is widen the narrow gate and broaden the narrow road with an easy believeism gospel that bears no resemblance to the genuine gospel of repentance and saving faith. And then what happens is people confuse emotionalism and mere professions of faith as works of God, and false professions then will become the norm. And without genuine saving faith, these churches will be populated with people that do not know Christ, but think they do.

So Jesus doesn't try to argue them into the kingdom. He knows their depraved minds are darkened by sin, their hearts are hardened by willful unbelief, and only a divine work of the Spirit can change that now, no doubt that happened for some of them later on, the text doesn't say. And so here Mark's narrative gives us a real glimpse, does it not, into the declaration of the Son of God at His baptism. Let me close with a few thoughts here this morning that I hope will be an encouragement to you and will challenge you.

Beloved, I pray that you will meditate upon this glorious scene and that you will make it a habit to contemplate on the glory of the person in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So often we get distracted from that and we don't focus on these things as we should. The eminent 17th century Puritan theologian and academic administrator at the University of Oxford, John Owen, expressed it this way, quote, "Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ. And virtue will proceed from him to repair all your decays, to renew a right spirit within us and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience. It will fix the soul unto that object which is suited to give it delight, complacency and satisfaction." He goes on to say, "When the mind is filled with thoughts of Christ and His glory, when the soul thereon cleaves unto him with intense affections, they will cast out or not give admittance unto those causes of spiritual weakness and indisposition." And finally, he says, "Nothing will so much excite and encourage our souls here unto as a constant view of Christ, and His glory." Dear friends, one of Satan's great devices, by the way, they are legion. But one of his primary objectives is to blind men to the truth of the gospel and prevent them from seeing the glory of Christ. Paul made this clear in Second Corinthians four beginning in verse three, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world," referring to Satan, "hasblinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Now think about it, just because we as believers, have seen the glory of Christ, and we have embraced the gospel, don't think that for one minute Satan ceases to attack us at this very area. Because what Satan loves to do is to distort the gospel, to dispute the person and the work of Christ, and to distract us from beholding the glory of Christ to such a degree that we find our greatest joy and satisfaction in him. He does not want that to happen. He's got all these things in the world that we can pursue the fleeting pleasures of the world. It's like a smorgasbord. Think of it this way, if the first and foremost commandment is, as Jesus said, in Mark 12:29, "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength," then it stands to reason that our adversary, the devil, is going to do all he can to prevent this. Does that not make sense? He's not only determined to prohibit God from being glorified by the adoring worship of his bridal church, but he also knows that such worship is directly proportional to the bride's apprehension of the glory of her bridegroom. So he doesn't want us looking at that. And as we behold the beauty of his infinite perfections, as we contemplate his love for us, what happens? Our soul becomes so satisfied in him, that it finds no delight in the fleeting pleasures of sin. And it becomes increasingly resistant to the temptations of the enemy and the allure of the world. So Satan doesn't want us looking at Christ, doesn't want us preaching Christ. And he despises the sanctifying work of the Spirit, knowing that as Paul said in Second Corinthians 3:18, "we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." He doesn't want that to happen. Beloved, truly, when we see Christ for who he is, we love him all the more. In fact, this is the animating force in our sanctification, that is initiated in the miracle of regeneration, that's when it starts. He knows the more we behold Christ, the more we're going to become like him. That's why I challenge you to make it a habit to contemplate the glory of the person and the work of Christ. In closing, as I have written elsewhere, to be sure, "There is no greater privilege in the Christian life than contemplating the glory of the person work of the Lord Jesus Christ, this must be the very air we breathe. We would all do well to learn from the angels who long to look upon the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. We see this illustrated in the position of the cherubim, and the Holy of Holies in the temple, who without stretched wings stood over the Ark of the Covenant and beheld the mercy seat. Theirs was a posture of reverent awe as they gazed upon that golden lid that separated the violated law within from the holy presence that hovered above. That place where the just wrath of God was symbolically propitiated, the Mercy Seat being a type of Christ in the discharge of his priestly office. Would that we be like the cherubim and fix our gaze upon him and behold His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth. The constant beholding of the glory of Christ by faith is the habit of every mature believer, and the greatest tonic to soothe an aching soul that longs for heaven. May every servant of God be disciplined to this end and dedicated to helping others to do the same. Remembering that though you have not seen him you love him and though you do not see him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the opportunity that we have had even this morning to gaze upon your glory. I pray that this will become an ever-growing passion and habit in each of us. That we might render to you that worship that you deserve. And also that we might be able to be increasingly transformed into your likeness, so that we can enjoy all that is ours in Christ, even this side of glory. And finally, Lord, I pray that you will move upon the hearts of those that may not know you as Savior and pray that you will bring such conviction to them that they will run to the foot of the cross and plead for your mercy that you will give so rich and so free. For it's in Christ's name that I pray and for His glory. Amen.