The Way of Deliverance

My way. You've heard it, a lot of people have. It's sometimes known as, not just one of Sinatra's biggest hits that he's ever had, but it's also known as the American anthem of self-determination. In fact, when President Trump won the presidency, he played this at his inaugural ball. Jay Z, the famous rapper, actually sampled this song for one of his songs in 2002. And at the funeral of slain rapper, Nipsey Hussle, which was in 2019, they actually had that played there as well. In a poll of funeral directors in the United States, the number one song played at funerals was "My Way" by Frank Sinatra. I find that interesting because it's a testament the song is to American individualism and to self-determination. And it's not only a song that is loved, it seems, by a whole bunch of people in our country and truly around the world, it's not just loved, it's lived by. People do things their own way. And I figured, as we turn the corner from winter and begin to look towards spring and look toward Good Friday and Easter, that maybe we need to look at it a different way, the way of Jesus, the way of the cross. See, the idea of the way is really important to the gospel writers specifically the gospel writer, Mark. And if you have a Bible or you have a digital device, I would love it if you would pull up the very first page of Mark's gospel. If you're new to all of this and new to church or the Bible or faith or any of those things, great. You don't have to feel weird about this. If you're at one of our campuses, there's probably a copy of scripture there nearby you. If not, you can pull up, there's apps on your phone to be able to do so if you're sitting by someone that you know and they have a Bible, then you can look on with them. Mark is the second gospel in the New Testament. Matthew is the first one, Mark is the second one. And I really want you to begin with the very beginning of Mark's gospel because this idea of the way is really important to Mark's gospel. He begins with helping us to see that and the gospel itself begins to unfold as we'll see over the next few weeks with the same theme about a way. And I want us to look in Mark's gospel chapter number one, the first three verses and it says this, "The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him." So two times right here in the beginning of Mark's gospel, we actually see the idea of the way being communicated to us. And what we have to remember when we're reading scripture, particularly when we're reading the gospels is that the very beginning of the book frames the whole narrative. It frames the entirety of the story. So you don't just go, "Ah, they started here and it means nothing." No, it means a lot, because what it's doing is it's setting up for us thematically what the book is actually about, what it's actually trying to say to us. And in Mark's gospel, he does something very interesting at the very beginning, remembering that, by the way, Mark's gospel, if you read scholarship on that, was really Peter talking to Mark and Mark communicating this. So you could actually call this Peter's gospel, so to speak, because Peter is the one who's influencing the writing of this gospel that Mark is actually giving to us. And how it begins is it begins by talking about the good news of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, and then immediately begins to quote Old Testament to apply it to the story of Jesus. It's the very first thing out of the gate, taking pieces of the Hebrew scripture, and applying it to the story of Jesus. Now, context is really important and I want you to understand this. When you're reading Old Testament passages in the New Testament, when you see New Testament writers who were quoting a passage from the Old Testament, remember this, that in the ancient world, it's not just about the single verse that you're reading, it's actually about the context of what that book was about, and about what that chapter was about, and about what that section was actually about. You see, this was commonplace for the ancient reader, they understood this really well. They knew full well that when there's a quote from a piece or just a verse of scripture from the Old Testament that it's actually calling to remembrance the whole of that book and what it's trying to convey. And so when we begin to look at this passage of scripture, what we see immediately here is that we've got, Mark's saying that it's written in Isaiah, the prophet, and then he quotes there. Now, what you may or may not know is that he's actually quoting both Isaiah and Malachi. Those of you who have a study Bible may see at the bottom that actually, he's quoting Malachi first, and then Isaiah, second, some of you going, "Oh, man, is that a mistake? Did Mark make a mistake?" No, he didn't make a mistake, not at all. In fact, it was common practice in the ancient world that when you are quoting two passages of scripture together, you often referenced it just as one. And oftentimes, you referenced it as the second one in the two passage quotation. And so that's exactly what Mark does here. He says, "As it's written in Isaiah, the prophet." But what he first quotes is not Isaiah, but he quotes the Prophet Malachi. And it's important for us to understand that what Mark is setting up here when he talks out of Malachi. And to do that, I wanna go back into Malachi for just a moment, and we'll look at a little bit of the context of what Mark is actually referring to here when he quotes Malachi chapter two, it says this. It says, "You've wearied the Lord with your words. 'How have we wearied him?' you ask. By saying, 'All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them' or 'Where is the God of justice?'" Then here's the quotation that Mark uses. "'I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come,' says the Lord Almighty." See, what Malachi is doing here is he's kind of reminding the people of Israel that there's a need for them. If you read the whole of the passage in its context, that there's a need for them to turn from their sin and turn back to the Lord, that they are needing to repent of their sin to find forgiveness of their sin, and they need to turn back to the Lord because the Lord is going to show up suddenly, and there's going to be a messenger that's going to prepare the way for that, and Malachi is helping us to see this idea of repentance or turning back to the Lord because what he does just two chapters later, is he also echoes a promise, and that promise is in Malachi chapter four and he says this. "See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction." Now, many scholars talk about the hearts of the parents to the children and children to the parents, not just as any old parents and child, but actually as the forebears, the patriarchs, and the people that would come after them, Israel, that that was the idea. But he actually gives us this promise about the Elijah that's supposed to come before this great day of the Lord. And what's interesting is when Mark begins to open up his gospel here that you all have in front of you because you all brought Bibles and you all have them right there in front of you, either in paper or on a device, you all have them right there in front of you. And you're looking at that right now, instead of looking at me, you're looking at it right now. And you see what Mark is actually doing here, Mark is quoting to set something up because he's introducing the ministry of John the Baptist. You see, Jesus actually told us that John the Baptist was the Elijah to come at another point. That's why when you get to verse four of Mark chapter one, it says this, "And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." You see what Malachi is doing, what Mark is doing is he's referencing Malachi, talking about this idea of repentance, talking about a messenger to come, talking about the Elijah to come, and then what Mark does is he introduces John the Baptist. He's giving us a clear picture that that's who he's talking about. So Malachi talks about this idea of repentance and sets up John the Baptist and he also quotes Isaiah here in this passage of scripture, right? What he's quoting from an Isaiah is Isaiah chapter 40 verse number three, here's what it says in Isaiah, "A voice of one calling, 'In the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'" Generally speaking, he kind of quotes the majority of Isaiah chapter 40 verse number three. Now, Isaiah 40 is a really important chapter in Isaiah's entire book, right? All the vast number of books that are in there, 66, right, that are in Isaiah chapter 40 is the hinge, it is the turning point. Chapters one through 39 in Isaiah are about judgment, and chapter 40, begins with comfort, comfort my people, and begins to give hope that there is going to be one who is going to be able to help them avoid the judgment that is due them. But instead, it is this good news that God is going to be the one who cares for them and shapes their life. And so we see in Isaiah chapter 40 this hinge point, and what Mark is doing is helping us to see that there is good news that's on the way. That's why he introduces his book by saying the beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. And then he uses a good news text, Isaiah chapter 40 verse number three to talk about this idea of good news that's on the way. You see, what Isaiah was talking about was, talking about a release or a deliverance from Babylonian exile. Isaiah was talking about that but what Isaiah was also doing was using a deliverance that happened a long time ago as kind of the picture of that deliverance, the Exodus, right? When Israel was in bondage to Egypt so long ago and they were freed from that bondage, that's what Isaiah is doing. In fact, just a couple of chapters later after Isaiah 40. In Isaiah 43, listen to what is said. "This is what the Lord said, he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together and they lay there never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick. Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." You see, even though this was from Isaiah's perspective, applied The Babylonian exile in the Babylonian captivity. He was using pictures from the great Exodus at that time. Why? Because what Isaiah is talking about is deliverance. That's what Isaiah is actually trying to help us understand his deliverance. So in Malachi, listen to this, Mark quotes Malachi to help us understand repentance and he quotes Isaiah to help us understand deliverance. And this is what's setting up everything because he says, "This is the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written." And then he quotes Malachi about repentance and he quotes Isaiah about deliverance. And he's helping us to start figuring out that he's going to be pointing to someone. Now, obviously, he's introducing John the Baptist. But John the Baptist is the voice crying in the wilderness, right? That's what Isaiah says, right? He's the voice crying in the wilderness. Now, what's interesting is if you read Isaiah chapter 40 about this voice that's crying in the wilderness. The voice is not named as to whose it is in Isaiah 40. You know why? Listen, because it's not consequential. It's about who the voice is talking about. That's what's consequential. And in fact, when Mark talks about this voice crying in the wilderness and then introduces John the Baptist to us, it's not because he wants to tell us everything in the world about John the Baptist. It's because he wants us to realize that John the Baptist is actually talking about someone else. In fact, listen to what it goes on to say in Mark's gospel chapter one, it says, "John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey." Oh, by the way, there are some trees there they call locust trees that you can eat from, I've actually seen them. So it could be the insects or whatever they are that he's eating, I don't know, he was living in the desert, or it could be from this tree that he's eating locusts and wild honey. And this was his message. Here's what John the Baptist had to say. "After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." You know what John's message was? Not me, him. Not me, him. He must increase, I must decrease. That was John the Baptist's message. His message wasn't about himself, his message was about one to come. That's why he is the voice of one calling in the wilderness where Isaiah says, "We don't even know who that voice is." Mark says, "That's John the Baptist." But the voice is not what's of great consequence, it's who the voice is talking about that is of great consequence. And so what's happening here is that John the Baptist is actually pointing to Jesus and he's pointing to Jesus as the deliverer, the one that Isaiah was prophesying about, the one who would bring deliverance, Jesus is God's way to deliver from sin. Jesus is God's way. There's a way that's being prepared by a messenger. It's being prepared for the way of the Lord and that way is Jesus himself. He is God's way to deliver from sin. In fact, in the next verse in Mark, we see that theme advanced. Here's what verse number nine says and I told you to open the Mark because I'm walking you through it, all right? Here's what verse nine says, "At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." So this is actually how Mark introduces us to Jesus in His gospel after saying, "Here's the beginning of the good news of Jesus," and then he quotes the Old Testament, then he introduces us to John. And then he says, "Then Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." Why does this talk to us about deliverance? Why is this talking to us about how how Jesus is going to be the way of God to deliver us from sin? Why getting baptized? Well, Mark just says he got baptized in the Jordan, but John's Gospel actually says it's more specific. Listen to how John's Gospel says it in John chapter one. "'I baptize with water,' John replied, 'but among you stands one who you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.' This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan where John was baptizing." John's real specific now about where this is occurring. It's Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, which means it's on the east side of the Jordan, Bethany on the other side of the Jordan. It's where Jesus was baptized. So it's a little bit north of the Dead Sea and it's on the east side of the Jordan, so to speak, river, but he was baptized in that place in the Jordan. Why does that matter, Jerry? What's the big deal there? Because this place where Jesus was being baptized was the same place that Joshua from whose name Jesus comes, Yeshua, God who saves. It is the same place that Joshua led the Exodus out of bondage ultimately after the long years of traversing the wilderness, and led them across the Jordan into the land of promise. Because right there at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan where Jesus was baptized, here's what happens, they come out, and where they come out across the Jordan is exactly Jericho, which is where Joshua ended up. So now the picture that we're getting is that Jesus is the new Joshua who's going to lead his people out of sin's bondage and deliver them into a new way of living. As well, this is not just the place, by the way, where Jesus was baptized, it's the same place that Joshua crossed over into the promised land. It's also the same place when you begin reading about Elijah who is passing on his mantle to Elisha, it happened in the same place. And by the way, Mark has already quoted from Malachi and we should have in our minds that there was an Elijah to come in advance of the deliverer. And he was called John the Baptist. And here where John the baptizer is baptizing who is now the Elijah who was supposed to come is baptizing the brand new Joshua who was going to be delivering his people out of bondage and into a new way of living. Jesus has shown to us in Mark's gospel to be the great deliverer of God, the way of God for the forgiveness of sins of humanity. This is a remarkable passage of scripture when you just begin to waltz through it and look at it as opposed to just reading fast. When we pause to look at what's being said, it is absolutely remarkable, remarkable. I didn't even mean to do that. That's how cool I am. Well, what Mark's gospel goes on to do is not only talk to us about this picture because this picture of Jesus getting baptized is actually a foreshadowing of his death. He's being submerged in the water only to come out of the water. It was a picture of his death ultimately that's foreshadowing. Right here in the very beginning of Mark's gospel, he's actually giving us a picture of what the way of Jesus is going to look like that it's actually going to look like this picture of death, but resurrection. This is the picture we get right from its inception. But then Mark actually gives us Jesus first words of his ministry, his public ministry. Mark records his first words this way, in verses 14 and 15. It says, "After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe the good news." Repent and believe the good news. The good news of what? That the God who has been watching his people knows that they are in the bondage of sin and that they can only be delivered by the deliverer who is Jesus. He's the new Joshua who is coming to lead his people out of captivity. But how is he going to do that? He's going to do that by way of a cross. That's where Mark's gospel actually ends up going. He's going to do it by way of a cross. The good news is that Jesus is bringing the kingdom of God to Earth, the forgiveness of sins, but it must be believed that's why repentance is necessary. That means a change of mind that leads to a change of direction, that's the idea of what repent means. It's a military term it means to do an about face, you're going this way, and you stop and you turn, and you go this way. You've got to rethink the world. Why? Here's why. Their way wasn't working. Only God's way works, and God's way is Jesus. Your way, my way does not work. The last song, if I die soon, make sure that the last song I want played at my funeral is that I did it my way, and I like "Blue Eyes.' He didn't even like the song by the way, you can look it up. He didn't write it, but Paul Anka wrote it, but he didn't even like it. He grew to not like it at all. I don't want that song at my funeral. If my life is about my way, I am up a creek. I want my life to be about God's way and God's way is Jesus. His way is the only way that works. And what Mark is doing from the very outset, even though he's doing it in pictures, even though he's doing it in foreshadowing, even though he's doing it by connecting the dots to Old Testament prophecy, he's showing us that the way of Jesus is the way of the cross. You can jot this down, if you like. This is kind of a big idea, "The way of deliverance from sin's bondage is the way of the cross." That is the way of deliverance from sin's bondage. It's the way of the cross. Those are the themes that we get when we begin to open up Mark's gospel. He's giving us this theme of deliverance and repentance, and freedom from sin's bondage. But what we know is it only comes by way of the cross. See, that's why Jesus a few verses later, and I won't show them to you, but if you were continuing to read in the Bible that you have in front of you that you're looking at that you always do look at and that you always bring with you, if you've got that in front of you, what you see is just a few verses later, Jesus makes a statement, "Come follow me." Why does Jesus say follow him? Here's why. It's not just because he knows the way, it's because he is the way. That's why he says to follow him. He doesn't just know a way, like you're talking to somebody who's been to that place before, he is the way. He doesn't listen, he doesn't just say follow, he says, "Follow me. It's me. I am the way that God has designed for the sake of the deliverance of people from sin's bondage, but that would only happen by way of a cross." Why the cross? Because it was the only way, the only way. You think it to yourself, "Oh, wait, wait, wait. Why would the cross of Jesus be the only way?" Oh, it's because the power and penalty of sin is so overwhelming to people who tried to do it their way, that there's only one way to break sin's power and penalty over a human soul, and that's through what Jesus did on the cross. That's it. Nobody else has a chance because Jesus is the deliverer, Jesus is the perfect one, Jesus is the Lamb of God that John the Baptist pointed to, and said, "He is the one who can take away the sins of the world."
Now, that reminds me of something that, and I just mentioned the power in the penalty of sin. I wanna pause there for just a minute because that's worthy of our consideration, because when we're talking about the theme here in the very beginning of Mark's gospel being one of deliverance from sin's bondage, we better pay attention to what that entails. The first thing that I would note to you is this is that, "The cross delivers us from the penalty of sin." The cross is what delivers us from the penalty of sin. This is what Jesus death on the cross does. You see, when Mark is giving us this talk in the beginning of John's baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, he's helping us to understand that there's a problem, that people have a problem with sin. I want you to understand that sin not only affects everyone but it has consequence. Paul actually said it this way, the apostle Paul in Romans 323, he said that all have sinned and fall short or come short of the glory of God. Everyone see this word all in the Greek language means everybody, means all, means exactly what it says. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all have. Listen carefully, I need you to understand wherever you are, whatever campus you're on, wherever you're watching from, wherever you may be listening from, every single person who's ever lived or ever will live has been touched, scarred, marred, deformed by sin. Sin has affected every single human being, nobody is without sin, except Jesus. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And listen, because the glory of God, God is so glorious, he's holy, he's perfect, he's just, he's righteous, that means that he cannot and he cannot just wink at sin, he must deal with sin. In other words, sin must have a consequence because God is holy. For God to be holy and righteous and just simply means that he must deal with he must judge sin. That's why a few chapters later, the apostle Paul says it this way. He says the wages of sin is death, not only will we physically die, but we will spiritually die. The payment for our sin is death, God must judge sin. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in the new Joshua who delivers his people out of the bondage of sin. We have eternal life in the way who is Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is what God has been so gracious to give us because what we see is that we underestimate sin and its consequences in the world that we live in. People don't even want to talk about the idea of sin. "Oh, I'm a sinner." You hear that stuff all the time, right? "Oh, so I'm a sinner, you can't hang out with me." Like sin's no big deal. Sin is an offense to a holy God. God didn't make us to live in sin. We made ourselves that way 'cause we're sinners both by our nature and by our choice. Everybody can testify to it. You have to put aside all of the, I'm a pretty good guy, I'm a pretty good gal. Put all that aside because all of our righteous works that we've justified in our own name are like filthy rags in the sight of God according to what Isaiah teaches us. God is serious about sin and sin has consequence. That consequences is that it interrupts our relationship to God, it separates us from God, and it must be judged by God because God is just. He can't wink at it, he must deal with it, because sin is everything that ranges against the glory, the beauty, the perfection, the justice, the holiness of God. Sin is everything that isn't that, and God will deal with it. That means that we, in our lives, listen to this, we begin to gather a debt that we could never pay. We are racking up sin upon sin. By the way, sin that we don't even know about because we just talked about the sins that we commit, not the sins that we have harbored, that nobody can see. Not the sins that we've omitted, the good that we should have done and didn't do, which is sin, according to the scripture. You're like, "Man, it sounds like you've got no way out." You don't, no way out. It's why we're in bondage, it's why we need a savior, it's why we've been wandering in the spiritual wilderness and need a new Joshua to lead us home. That's why because we were all lost and we all need a savior, we all need to be found. We can't find our own way home. But that's why God has been so gracious to come and rescue us 'cause we have a debt that we could never pay, and there's only one way to deal with it, and we can't be the ones to do it. I read a story from James Montgomery Boice's commentary on Romans. And he was talking about a young Russian who in the early 1900s was working for the last Russian czar of the Russian Empire, Czar Nicholas, Nicholas II. This would have been the early 1900's and the czar had commissioned this young Russian to work on one of the border areas, he was kind of a border treasury agent. And what he did there at the border of the Russian Empire is he used the the treasury of the Russian Empire, Nicholas's treasury, to pay the soldiers and the troops so that they would protect Russia, and that's kinda what he did, and he had to balance the books and keep the books and do all that stuff. Problem is this young Russian had a gambling problem. And as he began to gamble and lose, and gamble and lose, and gamble and lose, he would continually take money from the treasury to be able to gamble more, money that wasn't his. And he continued to take it and continued to take it and did this for a long period of time. Soon after, well, it was after quite some time, he got a notice that there was going to be an inspection of the books by the government. Well, he knew he was in a bad, bad way. He began to look over the books and he began to walk through 'em, and he just realized that, "I have accrued a debt that is enormous." And so he knew that he was gonna have to do something about himself before somebody did something to him. He was sure they were just gonna take his life because of what he done. So he thought to himself, "Well, I'm just going to do it myself." And so what he did is, he showed the numbers on the books as bad as they were and then wrote next to it, "A debt so great, who could pay?" And he took a revolver and he went to his room, and he determined that at midnight, he was going to do to himself what he knew they were going to do to him anyway. By the grace of God, he fell asleep. And while he was sleeping, the government actually did visit to inspect the books, except this was no ordinary government official. It was Czar Nicholas making a surprise visit, the Russian emperor. He actually walked into the room, saw the book opened and began to look through it, saw how painfully bad everything was and then saw what was written there, and then his aide saw him write something and then he left. Morning came and the young Russian who had endeavored to harm himself but had fallen asleep, woke up, and realized he had failed to do it, what he had planned to do, and he walked back in and he looked at the book, and they are right where he had written, "A debt so big, who could pay?" Underneath it was one word, Nicholas. And the next morning, a bag of gold showed up to pay for everything that he had squandered. You should see yourself in that story, not as Nicholas, but as the young Russian. You were caught red handed, you've sinned and come short of the glory of God. You and I have failed God immeasurably. We have a debt so large we could never pay. But what Jesus did in going to a cross on our behalf was that he who knew no sin became sin for us. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. He paid a debt that we could never pay, even though he did not owe a debt at all. This is the glory of God's grace to us, and listen to this, what the cross of Jesus does is it delivers us from the penalty of sin. We have a consequence associated with sin that Jesus has taken upon himself because we could never pay it, we could never stand up under it. Jesus has taken it died in our place paying for our sin to satisfy the justice of God so that we would not have to face the penalty associated with sin. That is a glorious truth for us that Mark's gospel begins to unfold for us. But Jesus, not only his cross, not only delivers us from the power of sin, from the penalty of sin, it also delivers us from the power of sin. Let me explain what I mean. When Peter who later in life, after he had influenced this Mark's gospel to be written, later in life, what Peter did is he wrote some letters himself. And I want you to listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter two. Talking about Jesus, "'He says He Himself bore our sins' in his body, on the cross, so that we might," listen to it, "die to sins and live for righteousness, 'by his wounds, you have been healed.'" "Die to sins and live for righteousness." See, what Peter is helping us to understand is that the cross not only breaks the penalty of sin, but it is the only thing powerful enough to break the power of sin, because what he says is that we die to sins when we believe in Jesus, when we embrace Jesus, we die to sins, and can live for righteousness. Now, some of you are saying, "It doesn't feel like I've died to sin. Sin still feels like it's all over my life. It still feels like it messes with me all the time. I don't feel like I've died to sin, pastor." Maybe it's because you've misunderstood what Peter's saying. You think die means cease to exist. That's not what he's talking about. He means die as in separated from. That's the picture there. It's not that sin ceases to exist. Sin is rampant in the world, sin still tempts the believer. All of those things are true. But we now, listen to this, we now who have put our faith in Jesus, are separated from sin. This is the process of sanctification. We are separated from sin. In other words, sin no longer has the complete animating power of our lives. It does not any longer dominate everything that we are. We now, listen to this, we now have the power to live for righteousness, where before we only have the power to live for sin, even if we did a few good things every now and then. We have been separated from sin. We now, listen to this, we now don't have to sin, whereas before we did, because we were living in sin, we were in bondage of sin, we were slaves to sin. Now we've been delivered, we've been separated from sin, and now we don't have to live under its power, even though we will be tempted by sin, even though sin will be all around us, we do not have to give in to its power because of the power of the cross. See, what we must deeply believe, ladies and gentlemen, is that the work of the cross, what Jesus has done on the cross through his death and his resurrection, it can break sin's power. Sin's power is so serious, think about it this way, sin's power is so serious that nothing but the death of Jesus can break it, nothing. That's how serious sin's power is in our lives. Nothing but the death of Jesus can break it and his subsequent resurrection, conquering death and hell and sin on our behalf. So what we have to do is we have to deeply, deeply believe that. That's why Jesus said, when he opened his public ministry, repent and believe the good news. The good news of what? That the deliverer can deliver us from the penalty of sin that is justly do us and can break the power of sin when we put our faith in him so that we can live for righteousness. So my encouragement to us this day is this. Let's put aside our way, let's put aside my way, and let's walk in the way of the cross because the way of the cross is the way of deliverance. So put away your self-help books and turn to Jesus because your self-help book does not have the power to break sin in your life, Jesus does. Put away your crystals, put away your rabbit's feet, put away your lucky golden cross necklaces. There are no trinkets that can do what only the power of Jesus, the deliverer, can do. Put away your political tribalism or your self-governance because even if you acknowledge those things, they cannot save you. It can only happen in the power of Jesus. I love you, that's why I'm telling you all of this, because sometimes, we commit ourselves to things and people and systems and trinkets that we think can help us or save us and they can't. Mark's gospel is the beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the only way. Jesus said, "I am the way. No one comes to the Father except through me. I am the way." Your way cannot save, my way cannot save. Our way is not eternal, our way cannot forgive sin, our way cannot pay our debt to God, our way does not lead to the Father, our way cannot bring peace, our way cannot get us into the kingdom, but Jesus can, Jesus can. That's why he went to a cross and he did it for the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down to the right hand of the throne of God. He did it because he loves you, he welcomes you, and he wants you. Sin wants you too, but Jesus says, "Turn to me, and I'll free you from the penalty of sin's consequence, which is spiritual death and separation from God forever." And I will break the power of sin in your life such that you don't, now you don't have to be a slave to sin but you can live righteously because of my life in you." This is the hope, this is the way, the way of deliverance from sin's bondage, is the way of Jesus on a cross dying to save you and to free you, so why don't you come to him? Let's bow our heads together here and on every campus, wherever you may be watching online, if you'll just bow with me for a moment. Firstly, I'd like to say this to you. If you've never come to a place of turning from your sin and putting your faith in Jesus, then I can't think of a better time than now in a better place than this to do that. You might simply just say in your heart, with all the faith that you have, "Lord Jesus, I know that I've sinned and I can't save myself. You are the way, you're the deliverer, you're the one who can save. I believe you died for my sin, I believe you died because of my sin, and I believe you rose from the grave. I confess that you are Lord, I am not, and I surrender my life to you, turn from my sin, and I put my faith in you, Jesus." As our heads are bowed wherever we are, if you just prayed to receive Jesus, then I want to encourage you, Jesus wants you and he welcomes you and He loves you. He desires you. It's why I went to a cross. But we got to quit playing games with sin, quit playing games with religion, and actually learn what it means to walk in faith, and trust Jesus. Maybe for the rest of us that have been following Jesus, we've entrusted our lives to Jesus, but you've realized that if you haven't believed as deeply in the power of Jesus to break us free from the power of sin, then I pray now, Jesus, that you would deepen our faith and deepen our belief and deepen our trust and strengthen us in faith to help us see how you have separated us from sin and we don't have to live under its power any longer. We don't have to sin, but when we do, we find forgiveness and grace from you but we want to live holy, we want to live with your life in us, so we pray that you would help us to do that now in Jesus name, amen.