10-8-2023 Sunday Sermon Message

Devotional of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Mark 1:14-15

Title: Repent and believe the gospel, for the time is full, and the kingdom of God is near.

        In the beginning, God, who was the Word, appeared in the land of Judea and said something very important. These are the words of Jesus as he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God.

 ” The time is fulfilled.” He says.  And because The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” He says. Finally, since the kingdom of God is near at hand, “ Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” he said. These words were addressed not only to the Jews but to all the people of the world. It is the message of the gospel that John, the Baptist, who was sent earlier to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming, preached immediately after he was imprisoned.

        We need to realize how the time when Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled.” Jesus came about four thousand years after Adam. Jesus was saying that the time had come when four thousand years had passed by. In other words, four thousand years had passed until the time was fulfilled, and at last the kingdom of God was near. God waited four thousand years for His kingdom to come to the world.

        If so, we need to look at what happened during the four thousand years after Adam. First, through the Apostle Paul, God said  that in the two thousand years since Adam, He gave time for the world to seek the Lord:

” And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;²⁷ That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:²⁸ For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.²⁹ Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.³⁰ And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:³¹ Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”(Acts 17:26-31)

       After two thousand years of ignorance and inability to repent, God called Abram, the son of Terra, who was making and selling idols in the land of Babylon in Mesopotamia. God called Abram and promised to bless all nations through his descendants. He made the same covenant with his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, calling Jacob’s twelve sons to be the nation of Israel he had chosen, and revealing Himself by giving the Law through Moses.

              For two thousand years, until God called Abraham, the people of the world were ignorant of God, and until the chosen Israelites sinned, God came to the temple and ruled theocracy, but after He judged them through Babylon, to Mede, to Persia, to Greece, to Rome, God gave the world to the Gentiles, but God finally decided to forgive the sins of both the Jews and the Gentiles, and sent Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, to be the sacrifice for their sins. He also allowed all who believe in the gospel of Christ to enter the kingdom of God without discrimination between Jews and Gentiles.

         God planned in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the words of the Psalms to send Christ Jesus, His seed, who had promised Abraham, to give eternal life to all who believe in Him and enter the kingdom of God.

 Because of this, Jesus said: “The time is fulfilled,” and that is when the time is near for him to establish the kingdom of God in the Holy Ghost.

        Jesus also said that in order to enter the kingdom of God, “repent and believe the gospel.”He said this, knowing that sooner or later He would die on the cross shedding water and blood according to the scriptures, and be buried, in order to take away the sin of the world, and then rose again the third day according to the scriptures, He told us to repent.

       If so, we need to know what He told us to repent of. At that time, people could not help but think of the sins of conscience or the law. Knowing this, Jesus said that when the Comforter Holy Ghost came into the world, He would reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment:

” Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

⁸ And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:⁹ Of sin, because they believe not on me;¹⁰ Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;¹¹ Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”(John 16:7-11)

        To reprove the world means to make the world aware of what they are mistaken about. Because they do not know what sin is, what righteousness is, and what judgment means, Jesus Christ died on the cross according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose on the third day according to the scriptures, in order to take away the sin of the world, the sin that must be repented of in order to enter the kingdom of God is not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and righteousness is that we can only be justified by believing in Him, and we can go to heaven where He is.

        Of course, moral sins and violations of the laws established by the nations of the world are also sins, but those who commit these sins shall be punished according to the laws of the world, but the only condition for entering the kingdom of God is to repent of the sin of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in Him and receive Him. It is at this time that we enter the kingdom of God in the Holy Spirit. Those who have entered the kingdom of God are born again by the Holy Spirit to become a new creature:

” Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new….For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”(2 Corinthians  5:17, Romans 14:17)

 “The prince of this world is judged.” Because Jesus Christ had already taken away the sin of the world when He died on the cross, and when He resurrected, He had already conquered the Devil, who had the power of death, and the Devil had already been condemned by the heavenly courts to be judged in the lake of fire forever and ever. The execution of the devil shall take place at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world:

” between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head…. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”(Genesis 3:15, Revelation 20:10)

         Since the time Jesus spoke of was already fulfilled two thousand years ago, now is the time to repent of the sin of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe the gospel of Christ that Jesus spoke of, to enter the kingdom of God, to meet the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of the rapture, and to be blessed to live forever in the New Jerusalem:

” Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; ² By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.³ For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;⁴ And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:⁵ And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve☹1 Corinthians 15:1-5)

      Those who believe in the gospel of Christ and are saved are those who have been commissioned to preach the gospel of Christ until the day of the Lord’s coming:

” For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”(Romans 1:16)

Amen! Hallelujah!