Truth has Many Enemies

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

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What brought the death penalty for John the Baptist? He spoke the truth about sin, in particular the sin of someone in authority. Had he remained quiet, he may have lived. We live in a day wherein many do not want to hear the truth about their sin. Homosexuality, abortion, and many other sinful acts are demanding to be sanctified in our culture. Will we remain quiet about the truth, or stand up and face the consequences?

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I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to the 14th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
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Hold your place there at verse 1.
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We'll be reading it here soon.
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Truth is a very compelling, very interesting, and a very popular subject.
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If you just go on to your web browser and type into your search engine the word truth, you will see a myriad of websites and quotes and thoughts which regard the very concept of truth.
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Henry David Thoreau, the great author, said, Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
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James A.
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Garfield said, The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.
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And Winston Churchill said, A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to tie its shoes.
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Well, the Bible also focuses much of its attention on the concept of truth.
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It is called in Daniel 10.21 the book of truth.
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It's also referred to as the book of truth in Ephesians 1 and in James chapter 1.
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The Bible says that we are sanctified by the truth.
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John 17 and verse 17.
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Jesus is called the word full of grace and truth.
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John 1.14.
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In fact, the Bible says that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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John 1.17.
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But the truth, though an interesting subject, is not without its enemies.
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In fact, it has many enemies, which is the title of today's message.
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The truth has many enemies.
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As James Garfield says, it often makes people miserable.
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It can enrage the masses and even have murderous results.
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And those whose lives are lived outside of the truth mock the truth.
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They scorn the truth and they even vilify those who speak the truth.
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Consider the attitude of Pontius Pilate.
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We all remember Pilate, the man who ultimately and finally sentenced Christ to death on the cross.
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Consider his attitude when Jesus was placed before him.
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When Jesus told him that he came into the world to bear witness.
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Cody, stop it.
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Jesus told him that he came into the world to bear witness to the truth.
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And what was Pilate's response? Truth? What is truth? That was the attitude, right? What is truth? Pilate not only disdained the very concept of there being truth, but he questioned the idea of its very existence.
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The reality is that our society that we live in today is getting less and less able to tolerate the truth.
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And those who speak the truth are vilified and hated.
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This is especially so in regard to sinful behavior.
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No one wants to hear that their lifestyle is sinful.
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No one wants to hear that they've done anything wrong.
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And many do not even want it to be a legal thing to be able to say that something is a sin.
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In fact, it's not even politically correct to use the word sin anymore.
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We have to describe everything as a disease or a disorder, a mental malfunction.
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A person's not evil anymore.
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They're just misguided or they're off their meds.
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In fact, the only way we see the word sin anymore is when we use it to describe something positive.
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Oh, that dessert was sinful, right? That's the way we describe positive things.
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Oh, it was absolutely sinful.
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Nathan and I talked about that last week when we had some of Mama G's sinful Easter dinner.
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It was really good.
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But that's the way we use the term, right? This morning I want us to look at the life of a man who was committed to preaching the truth, even the truth about sin.
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I want us to see that sometimes the truth can have severe consequences.
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But that even in the light of those consequences, we still have to say it.
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We still have to stand for it.
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We still have to be firm on it, even in the face of those consequences.
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So let's stand together.
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Matthew 14, verse 1 through 12.
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At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus.
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And he said to his servants, this is John the Baptist.
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He has been raised from the dead.
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That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
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For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.
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Because John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her.
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And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet.
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But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod.
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So that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.
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Prompted by her mother, she said, give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
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The king was sorry.
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But because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.
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He sent and had John beheaded in the prison.
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And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl and she brought it to her mother.
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And his disciples came and took the body and buried it.
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And they went and told Jesus.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.
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We pray, oh God, that you would bless this time.
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Pray that you would keep me from error.
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And I pray that you would open the hearts of the people to the truth.
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And God, that the truth would have its day.
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Not only among us, but in our land.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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From the moment John the Baptist began preaching, he was at odds with many of those who were already in power.
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Just think about the very first words that he's recorded in the gospel.
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What did he say? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.
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Repent means what? Well, it means to turn from your sin.
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Repent, the very statement repent, when it's given as a directive, insinuates sin on behalf of the person receiving the directive.
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Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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And it was a direct rebuke against those who were hearing him.
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But beloved, that's not all that he said.
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He didn't simply say repent.
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I want to remind you of what we've already read this morning back in Matthew 3.
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We use it for our call to worship.
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But I want to take you back and just show you a few things.
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Just how unpopular this type of preaching was.
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Think about what he said.
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Go to chapter 3 of Matthew.
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Go to verse 7.
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But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism.
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Now, remember the Pharisees and Sadducees, these are the religious elite.
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You have the conservative Pharisees, you have the liberal Sadducees.
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But they're all sort of together there as the religious elite.
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And he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism.
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Certainly not to be baptized by him, but rather to come and to see what was happening.
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Because this was a time in which many people were coming out and being baptized.
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And they wanted to come out to see what all the fuss was about.
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And he said to them, you brood of vipers.
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Now, I don't know if you ever read the book, How to Make Friends and Influence People.
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But this is like not in there.
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This is not, you know, this is not coming out of the modern evangelistic textbook on how to win converts.
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But this is John the Baptist's approach.
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You nest of snakes.
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Not a very popular thing to say.
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Certainly.
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And he says, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
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It's another way of saying repent.
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And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
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For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham.
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See, that was the thing that the Pharisees always did.
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That was the thing that the Sadducees did.
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They said, of course, we are right with God.
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We're sons and daughters of Abraham.
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We are Abraham's sons.
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We're his children.
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Of course, we're right with God.
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We're right with God by pedigree, if nothing else.
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And Jesus would later make the point that not everyone who's born of Abraham is actually a son of Abraham.
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Paul makes that point in Romans 9.
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Jesus made that point to the Pharisees when he was talking to them.
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And he said, just because you're Abraham's descendant by blood does not mean you're his descendant by faith.
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And that's what matters.
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If he said, if you really were the sons of Abraham, you would have believed in me.
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He goes on in verse 10, Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
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Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.
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He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
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His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
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Just consider how hard of preaching that is.
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Consider the worst, the winnowing fork, the picture of judgment is in his hand.
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And he's going to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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One will go into his barn, the other is going into an unquenchable fire.
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Would it be right to say that John the Baptist was a fire and brimstone preacher? You know, and that's become very unpopular today.
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To even talk about hell is to be considered very, very backwoods.
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Very, very behind the times.
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You, hey, you're not, what's the new thing that's being said? You're on the wrong side of history.
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Have you heard that? That's what we see with John the Baptist.
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We see a man who's willing to say the axe is laid at the root of the tree.
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And any tree that's not bearing good fruit is going to get cut down.
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Not popular.
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Certainly not popular with the religious elite, not popular with the sinful people.
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So it is obvious that he's not going to be winning any popularity contests.
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He's not going to be buying for the number one spot on TBN's network.
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He's not going to be a part of America's Next Top Pastor.
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Yes, I made that up.
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But this didn't matter to John.
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He was not concerned with his own popularity.
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He was concerned with the truth.
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And he was concerned with being an ambassador for Christ.
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That was his main job.
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In fact, he was the first ambassador for Christ.
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We are called, in the Bible it is said that we are ambassadors for Christ.
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Well, John was the first.
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He was the one that God chose to be the forerunner.
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The one who would come out and announce that Jesus is coming.
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And those whom God had opened their ears to hear the truth heard him gladly and were happy to be baptized by him.
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However, his willingness to proclaim the truth caused him to be very unpopular and eventually cost him a severe penalty.
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For there would come a day in his life wherein testifying to the truth would cause him to find disfavor with the authorities.
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And this is the story which I want us to look at today.
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We have read it as our opening text, but I want to go there now and I want to give an exposition of it.
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It's Matthew chapter 14.
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If you want to turn back to there, we're going to read verses 1 through 12.
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Now, this story is found in two Gospels.
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This story is found in the Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospel of Mark.
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And I chose the Gospel of Matthew sort of for pragmatic reasons because Byron is teaching through the Gospel of Mark.
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So I figured I would give you guys both versions.
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Those are in his class.
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I figured I'd maybe be fair.
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But anyhow, we're going to read through this.
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I will be making some reference to Mark's Gospel because Mark's Gospel gives us a little information that's not here.
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But we'll be referencing back and forth.
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But we're going to look at the narrative which is found in the Gospel of Matthew.
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So verse 1 says, At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus.
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And he said to his servants, This is John the Baptist.
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He has been raised from the dead.
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And that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
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You see, at the time, that may sound like a foolish thing to say.
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This is John the Baptist raised from the dead.
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But you have to think about it.
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At this time, there was great debate going on about the true identity of Jesus.
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If you remember, Jesus asked his apostles that question.
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Who do the people say that I am? And what was the response? Well, some say that you're a prophet.
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Some say that you are Elijah.
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And some say that you are John the Baptist raised from the dead.
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So it's not as if Herod here is coming up with some kind of a wild-eyed idea.
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This was an idea that was being popularized among the people.
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That Jesus was some sort of a reincarnation to fulfill the ministry of John.
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But the issue here is that Herod had heard about Jesus and had pricked his conscience.
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He knew he had killed John unjustly.
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He knew that he had committed murder by having John beheaded.
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And upon hearing that there was another minister going about preaching a message which was very similar to John's.
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In fact, it included baptism.
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Jesus' disciples were baptized.
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It says Jesus himself never baptized anyone but that his apostles baptized.
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So here we have another person preaching a very similar message to Jesus.
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Preaching a message and having people baptized.
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It's no doubt that someone would say, well, this is John has come back.
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And that's what Herod's fear was.
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This is John, he's come back to get me.
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Because in verse 3 it begins to tell us how he died in the first place.
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You see, this story is told in the narrative somewhat in a flashback.
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Because it says in verses 1 and 2, we see the situation.
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Herod hears about Jesus and he says, oh, that's John the Baptist, he's come back from the dead.
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Verse 3 begins a flashback of why Herod would think that.
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Verse 3 says, for Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.
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Because John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her.
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You see, Herod was an adulterer and a fiend.
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He was engaging in a sinful act with his brother's wife and it was obviously a well-known fact.
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Yet no one would dare call out the king for his indiscretion.
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No one, that is, except good old John.
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John was unafraid to speak the truth.
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John straight out told Herod that his actions were sinful.
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He said, it is not lawful for you to have her.
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And Herod was furious.
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And though he wanted to put him to death, verse 5, and though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet.
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Herod was sinful, but he was no fool.
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Herod was sinful, but he knew that if he just took John out and had him killed, that he was going to have to deal with a reprisal.
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He was going to have to deal with an uprising from the people because these people believed John was a prophet.
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And he had no desire to lose favor with the people.
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He simply wanted to imprison John, believing that the dungeon was as good a place as any to keep his mouth shut.
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I don't have to kill him to shut him up.
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I just put him in a place where nobody's going to hear him except for the guards, which have loyalty to me.
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So the dungeon would be as good as the grave.
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Just keep him there.
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But remember, Herod was not the only one whom John had called out over sin.
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When John said to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have her.
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Well, guess what? Her was still involved.
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She was implicated in the sin.
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She was implicated in the act.
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And Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, was not willing to simply let him spend his remaining days in a dungeon.
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Verse six.
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But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod.
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And so he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.
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This is a place where Mark's gospel is a little bit more specific.
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Mark tells us in his gospel that Herod actually said that he would give her anything up to half his kingdom.
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Apparently, she did a good job.
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Apparently, whatever it was was very impressive.
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And so he made this very foolish vow.
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We talked about foolish vows on Wednesday of last week.
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We were looking through the book of Judges.
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We were talking about Jephthah who vowed and ended up costing him his daughter because he made a foolish vow.
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Well, here is another example of a foolish vow.
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I'll give you anything you want up until half my kingdom.
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You did such a fantastic job.
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Well, she was, of course, prompted, verse eight, by her mother who hated John.
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Prompted by her mother, she said, give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.
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What a sickening request.
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We think, you know, we see some stuff today.
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We see on the news.
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We see people that behave in depraved ways.
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And we say, oh, this world is so terrible.
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It's getting so bad.
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It's always been bad.
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There's always been people who live their life in utter depravity.
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What kind of a mind thinks up, bring me his head on a platter? But it's in keeping with what we know about the heart of Herodias.
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Verse nine, the king was sorry.
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And let that not ever think.
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Sorry is not repentant.
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Understand the difference, by the way? Judas was sorry, Peter repented.
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That's the difference.
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It's really very simple.
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Judas was sorry, so he hung himself.
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Peter was repentant, he turned his life around and followed after Christ.
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It's simple.
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So when you see the word sorry, don't let that make you think Herod repented.
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No, no, no, no, no.
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He was sorry because he knew this was going to have consequences for him.
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And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.
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He sent and had John beheaded in the prison.
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And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl.
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And she brought it to her mother.
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And his disciples came and took the body and buried it.
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And they went and told Jesus.
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Such a sad, terribly tragic end for a man whose ministry was so powerful.
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A man who's a forerunner of Christ dies a criminal's death in a dungeon.
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It's horrible.
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But it leads to the application that I want to bring to you this morning.
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I want to ask you a question.
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I want you to think about it.
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I want you to really consider the question I'm going to ask and give you a second to think.
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What was it that brought about the death of John the Baptist? What was it that brought the death penalty to John the Baptist? Here's the answer.
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He stood against the authorities of his day.
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He was willing to condemn sin even at its highest level.
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And for that, he paid with his own life.
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Beloved, our culture is rapidly changing.
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And it is becoming ever increasingly unpopular to stand up for the truth of God's word.
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I truly believe that the day is coming wherein it will be illegal to call certain acts sinful.
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Acts that the Bible clearly condemns, but that society has chosen to sanctify.
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Some of you may not see that day.
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But I have no doubt that my children will.
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I believe my generation is on the pendulum.
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We are where it's swinging.
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We are the hinge.
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Right now, we know this.
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Many of you already are well aware of this.
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There is debate going on in the highest court in our land as to whether or not it should be legal for a man to marry another man and a woman to marry a woman.
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It wasn't even a generation ago.
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Bobby and I had this conversation one time.
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It wasn't even a generation ago that in psychological textbooks that the very act of homosexual behavior was considered to be a mental aberration.
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It was a mental disorder.
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Now, if you believe anything other than not only that it's right, but that it is to be glorified, you are on the wrong side of history.
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According to the latest propaganda.
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And before you begin thinking, as some do, that such a thing will have no significance on the life of the church, let me tell you this.
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This will not simply end with making gay marriage, which by the way is an oxymoron, but we'll use the term because that's a popular term.
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It will not end with making that legal.
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It will continue until that behavior is a protected class.
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I believe that.
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One day, I believe it will be illegal to say that such acts are sinful, that such behavior is depraved and that such lifestyle is utterly sinful.
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It is already called hate speech by many to say such things.
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And there are those who want to make such speech illegal and ultimately punishable by law.
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There are those who want me to not be able to say the things I am saying right now.
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And they want it to be punished by law.
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Well, Pastor Frosty, we live in America and we have the Constitution.
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Do you not realize that there are people in our own government who want to see that entire document rewritten? So don't say in your mind that that's going to necessarily protect us and protect the truth of what we say, protect the ability to speak the truth.
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Sooner or later, we are going to be faced with a choice to either shut up or stand up in the face of consequences.
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And we will do just that.
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We'll either shut up or we'll stand up.
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And I know that there are going to be many who encourage us to shut up, even those who might think that they're on our side.
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I imagine there are those people that were in John's day who would say to John, you know, John, if you just didn't say some of these things, you'd have such a longer and more popular ministry.
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If you just weren't willing to say these things, maybe, you know, we could get you a television show.
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We could fill your auditorium.
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The Jordan River couldn't hold the people that we would be able to get baptized.
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I've seen too much in my relatively short time in the ministry.
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My seventh year now as a senior pastor.
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I get notes in my email every week.
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I get newsflashes and things.
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And it's always about how to make your ministry last longer, how to attract more people.
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And it's always about stopping the divisive language.
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Don't teach on doctrine.
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Don't do anything that offends.
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And I'm like, which preachers are you modeling yourself after? Because it wasn't John and it wasn't Jesus.
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Both of them got killed for what they said.
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Beloved John stood up.
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Something noteworthy, too, was that he stood up against unbelievers.
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That's something I want to point out.
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Because I heard it said recently.
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Well, we shouldn't say anything about homosexual behavior because it's obvious they're unbelievers.
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And we shouldn't expect anything but sin from unbelievers.
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And I know that sounds sanctified.
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It sounds good.
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But let me tell you what the problem with that is.
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The Apostle Paul did tell us that we shouldn't judge the world when it behaves in sin.
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Because we shouldn't expect anything different that they behave in sin.
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But he didn't tell us not to preach repentance.
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Yes, I don't look at a sinful person who's engaging in homosexuality and say, hey, you know, wash my hands of you.
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You're a terrible person.
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I'll never deal with you again.
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But if I looked at him and said, come give me a hug.
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We're all the same.
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God loves us.
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Then we need to reconsider our message.
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Because the message must be repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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It cannot be keep on in your sin.
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And that's the problem.
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Is that's what we are being told is the right message.
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And people say, why do you pick on homosexuals? You got people in your own church that are dealing with sin.
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You got people in your church that deal with lying.
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People in your church that deal with gossip.
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People in your church that deal with lust.
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People in your church that deal with theft.
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People in your church that deal with all kinds of stuff.
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Why are you picking on the homosexuals? Because nobody is trying to start the first church of liars.
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Nobody's trying to start the first church of adulterers.
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Nobody's trying to start the first church of thieves.
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But they're trying to start homosexual churches.
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And that's a problem.
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You cannot have a church that says sin is okay.
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That sin is righteous.
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And that we're going to glorify sin.
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But that's what they want.
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And we will either stand up or shut up.
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Know this.
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The world is not inclined towards repentance.
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It's not.
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The world hates to hear of its own sin.
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It hates to be called to change.
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And the consequences of such messages will be severe.
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John's consequence was severe.
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And consequences for us may be severe as well.
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But will we stand even in the face of consequences? Will we stand even in the face of persecution? Will we stand? That's the question.
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Only faith.
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True faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ will give us confidence to stand.
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John knew he was the forerunner of Christ.
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He knew he was not the Messiah.
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His job was to proclaim the message of repentance and prepare the way for Christ.
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Yes, John had doubts.
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There were times when John himself was faced with doubts.
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Remember when he was in prison? He sent somebody to ask Jesus, Are you the one who is to come or is there another? He had a moment of doubt.
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And what did Jesus say? The blind receive their sight.
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The deaf hear.
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The poor have the gospel preached to them.
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Go and tell John that blessed is he who has no doubts about me.
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That's where we must be.
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We must be ambassadors for Christ.
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We must still understand our responsibility to proclaim the truth in a culture which does not want to tolerate it.
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We must be willing to continue to share his message of repentance with the world, however unpopular it may be.
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The truth has enemies.
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And if we stand for truth, we will be on a hated side.
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But know this, it's the right side.
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For it is better to stand for truth and be approved by God and hated by men than to give in to a lie and be loved by men, but have God disapprove of us.
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We must stand for truth, always.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for the opportunity to have studied your word and to study about a man whose life was committed to preaching the truth even unto his death.
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We pray that we would have the spirit of Christ, the spirit of John, those men who are unashamed of the truth, unashamed of the gospel, unashamed to preach even that which is hard to a culture that doesn't want to hear it.
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Help us now, Lord, as we leave this place, to have our hearts committed to the truth.
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I pray, Lord, for the congregation.
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I pray if there is one here who does not know of the saving power of Christ, that today you will have used this as an opportunity to have them heard the gospel, to repent and believe in Jesus.
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And Lord, for believers, I pray for a recommitment for them, an encouragement and strength from your Holy Spirit.
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In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
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Amen.
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Beloved, stand with us now as we sing.
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If you have a need, please come.