A Righteous Life Amongst the Wicked

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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I'm going to start today with a bit of a story, a bit of a biographical account.

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I'm going to start not in the 1900s or the 1800s, but in the 1700s.

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In 1723, there was a 19 -year -old young man. His name was

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Jonathan Edwards. You probably have heard that name before. It was in the years 1722 and 1723, when

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Jonathan Edwards was just 18 years of age, and then 19 years of age, he compiled a list of 70 resolutions.

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If you think of New Year's Eve, when so many people put together a list of half -baked

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New Year's resolutions, it was like that, except it was fully baked, and it was on a much grander scale.

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It took him almost two years to compile all of this. It was on July 3rd that he finished up resolution number 63 of these 70 resolutions.

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His goal in all of these was to the end that he would glorify

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God to the utmost with the life that God had given him. Resolution 63 read like this.

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I'm going to reframe it, just in case you don't catch it because of the flowery old

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English. But he said this. He said, And on the supposition that there was only one individual in the world at any one time who was properly a

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Christian, in all respects, having Christianity always shining in its true luster and appearing excellent and lovely,

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I resolve to act just as I would do if I strove with all my might to be that one who should live in my time.

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Now, in case you didn't catch that, this is what Jonathan Edwards was getting at.

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He resolved, children, think about this even with your young lives today. He resolved that if there was to be only one man in all of the world who would truly live as a genuine

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Christian, with true faith in Christ, with sincere devotion, with moral excellency, with Christ -like character, if there's only going to be one of those type of people in his generation, he wanted to be that one.

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And if you know anything about Jonathan Edwards' life, if you've read a biography or heard an account, you'll know that he did astonishingly well on this commitment.

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I think he would probably be the first one, as would we, to confess that he was woefully imperfect in his efforts, that he was cast upon Christ for his merits for eternal salvation.

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But on the whole, I think, at least for us, looking back on Edwards' life, we would say that he succeeded largely at living as a godly man, living as a diligent husband, as a careful and godly father, as a faithful pastor, a theologian, a missionary.

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He was even elected the president of Princeton Seminary. And it's a remarkable thing, actually, to look at how

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Edwards lived out this resolution so well. Not only does he stand out as one of the best and the brightest

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Christians of his generation, but one of the best and brightest Christians of a generation, sorry, of a nation.

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To this very day, even, Edwards is widely regarded as the most important theologian in American history and one of the most eminent

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Christians in 2 ,000 years of church history. And it all started with this.

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When he was just a teenager, he resolved that even if it meant standing in the world alone, in a world that was devoid of Christian witness or fellowship, he would stand alone for God.

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Even in a darkened world, he aspired to shine with brilliance and with purity for his master.

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And then by God's grace, he did it. Now, I open with this account today because we see some of the exact same qualities that we see in Edwards' life and in Edwards' account in the text that we are studying today.

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As we open our Bibles, you'll know that we're in Matthew, or Mark, excuse me, not Matthew, Mark chapter 6 and verse 14.

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We find John the Baptist in his final days of life and ministry on this earth.

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It could be said of him that he has fought the good fight. He has run the race. He has finished the course.

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The finish line is in sight and just beyond the finish line is a crown of righteousness that has been prepared for him.

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And as we see, as we look now at John the Baptist's final days, we see his righteous life.

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This is really the full picture of what's in our passage. John the Baptist's righteous life contrasted, like stars, bright stars on a dark sky, his righteous life contrasted with the wickedness of Herod and of the surrounding world.

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And as we examine these two accounts, these two extremes, this is really what we learn today.

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What is it that characterizes a righteous life among a wicked generation?

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Oh, how does God want us to conduct ourselves when we look around? And how many of us do this regularly when we look around and find that we are at odds with the world and that the world is at odds with us?

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How are we to conduct ourselves in that type of situation? And dear saints, isn't this so badly what we want to know in the midst of a depraved world when we feel like we're always swimming against the current?

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When we go to work and we're in the company of those who not only don't believe in Christ but even who hate

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Christ and who hate God. When we go home and find ourselves amongst unbelieving family or go to school.

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Brother, I think about you at the University of Alberta where the Christian fellowship, as far as I'm aware, consists of two people in the whole study of law.

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How do we stand for God? How do we resolve to live to please

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Him no matter the cost? Well, I think that here John the Baptist gives us, he shows us what that can look like.

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And so what we're going to do today, it's a shorter, well it's kind of a short passage, but it'd be amazing, you'd be amazed how long we could go, but I'm going to try to distill it into four main points.

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What it looks like to be a righteous person, a righteous man or woman in the midst of a wicked generation.

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And so we'll start in Mark chapter 6 and verse 14. And I'll read those three verses.

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We're going to focus, even in the midst of these two main characters, largely on John and on his character.

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With a little bit of contrast from the unrighteous, the wicked parties in the story. And so if we look just at John for a second, and even just at the witness of Christ, the first point that I want to draw out here is this.

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That the righteous will, I'm sorry I don't have a bullet to insert today, but the righteous will, by necessity, stand out as distinct from this world.

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Noah and Elise, if you want to live a righteous life in this world, you have to prepare to be different, different from the people around you.

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That's exactly what we see here. So this passage immediately follows on the heels of what we heard last week.

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And you'll remember from the second half of our brother Neil's sermon that the disciples were called.

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They were called, they were sent out, and as they went, they proclaimed a message of repentance. They cast out many demons, they anointed people with oil who were sick, and they healed many of their diseases.

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And then here at the beginning of verse 14, what we see is that in addition to all of this, and in addition to Christ's mighty works, this news had spread beyond the immediate region of Capernaum, that's on the northeastern shore of the

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Sea of Galilee, and beyond. It went even as far as the household of Herod. And we're going to get into Herod because he's such an important character in this story.

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But Herod ruled over two areas in the nation of Israel or surrounding the nation of Israel.

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That was in the area of Galilee where Christ largely ministered, at least up to this point in the

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Gospel of Mark, and then in a place called Perea. And if you can picture a map of Israel and you see the

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River Jordan that kind of acts as the natural border, it was on the east side of the

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Jordan that ran as far south as the Sea of Galilee. I see my brother looking up the map in the back of his

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Bible. So, but Galilee, and then east of the Jordan River. And as the word of Christ's righteousness spread, there were many theories about who

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Christ was. Some said that he was Elijah. And they said that because, if we remember back to the story of Elijah, he was taken up in 2

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Kings 2 and verse 11, in a chariot of fire into heaven.

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And so people anticipated that Christ would return, especially when they read texts like Malachi 4.

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In Malachi chapter 4 and verse 4, we're told, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the

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Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

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And so people were expecting, is this the prophet Elijah? Is this John the

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Baptist? In verse 15, we saw, is this one of the prophets? Maybe one of the messianic prophets that Moses spoke about in Deuteronomy chapter 18.

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Verse 15, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you from your brothers.

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It is to him you shall listen. And so, here in the midst of this dark world,

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Christ is beginning to stand out. Not only at his home base in Capernaum, which we've heard so much about, but across the land, people are beginning to take notice, because they recognized

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Christ as a righteous man with miraculous powers. And as I noted just a moment ago, this information slowly made its way to the political elites of Christ's day.

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And in particular, Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas is the Herod that we're going to talk about in this story.

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And we read here that Herod had previously beheaded

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John the Baptist. And that when he heard of Christ's teaching and his miracles, he actually feared that John the

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Baptist had come back from the dead. And verse 17 gives us some insight why that was.

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Because Herod, kids, if you can think about this, Herod had actually married his brother's wife.

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And so when John spoke up about this grotesque relationship, his days were automatically numbered.

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And at this point, really, I've only summarized what the text is telling us.

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But if we were to look a little bit deeper, and this is the kind of study that I love, the reason why I love to study the scriptures and the geographical and the historical context, we really gather so much more about who

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Herod was and just the cultural climate of Christ's day, how depraved this place and this time really was.

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And so it's important for us to know who is Herod Antipas. Well, Herod Antipas was born in 20

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BC to the ruler of the Jews at that time. His dad was known as Herod the

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Great. But despite his name, Herod the Great was not really great at all.

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He was a brutal man. He was known for being completely violent towards his opponents, just a ruthless dictator.

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And we only read about Herod the Great in a few places in scripture. And if your family is gathered around, if you've ever done this, where it's

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Christmas time and you gather around the fireplace and you're reading. And in the book of Matthew, looking at the narrative of Christ's birth, you read about Christ's incarnation, the incarnation of the

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Son of God. And then we come across Herod the Great in chapter 2. And Herod the Great was the one, if you remember back, when he learned that the

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Messianic king had come. He said, oh, please tell me where he is so that I can worship him.

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And when the wise man, the Magi, didn't come back to tell him where Christ was, he ordered that all the children, all the boys, two years and under, in Bethlehem and that surrounding region, be murdered.

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And so Herod the Great was a ruthless and violent man. And he had one of many sons was

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Herod Antipas. Now, when Herod the Great died in 4 BC, the Romans distributed the kingdom amongst three of his sons.

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They were Archelaus, Philip, and Antipas. And Herod Antipas quickly got to work at continuing his father's legacy.

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One commentator tells us that while Herod Antipas was less able, he was not less ruthless.

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And so he was all about exuberance, all about luxury. Maybe that's, he was a cunning man, a merciless ruler.

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That's probably why Christ referred to him as that fox. If you remember in Luke chapter 13.

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But all of this, all of Herod's evil, was not what inspired the murder of John the

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Baptist. No, it was his lust for his brother's wife. And history,

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I believe it was Josephus, tells us the story of how Herod met his brother's wife

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Herodias. One day while Herod was visiting Rome, he was staying in the home of his brother

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Herod Philips. He was, sorry, staying in his brother Herod Philips' home. And he became acquainted with his brother's wife

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Herodias. And during this brief courtship that they had, if you could really call it that, after a short time they hastily divorced their spouses and married each other.

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And so you've got a man who betrays his brother, steals his wife, and marries her.

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Now you'd think that would be bad enough. But what if I told you that Herodias was actually

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Herod Antipas' niece. That long before they had taken over the kingdom, there was a man named

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Herod Aristobulus. He was another son of Herod the Great. And for one reason or another,

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Herod the Great decided to kill him. And make his children a group of orphans.

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And one of the children amongst Herod's orphans was Herodias.

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And so you'd expect that at some point Herod Philips or some of the other brothers would come around and show mercy to these orphan children.

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But instead of showing mercy, Herod Philips set his gaze upon one of the children,

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Herodias. Instead of looking after her and caring for her, he made her his lover and his wife.

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And so here you have not only adultery but incest.

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And it speaks to the fallen conditions of that day in which Christ and in which John the

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Baptist lived. It was a dark time. These were dark leaders. If you've ever complained about the leaders of Canada, the

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Prime Minister or the President or the Premier or anyone else like that, they don't weigh up to the slightest degree when it comes to the

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Herods. But as we read about John's righteous life, even in spite of the wickedness around him, what we see is both

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John and of Christ standing out. Standing out because of their righteous power.

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Standing out because of their righteous life. And we see that they were neither surprised nor were they deterred from standing out as being distinct, as being separate, as being set apart from the world around them.

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John the Baptist and his Saviour saw this kind of deplorable, dysfunctional lifestyle.

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They saw that this was their ruler. This was the society in which they lived. And we see no indication that this was a stumbling block to any of them.

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They knew that it was characteristic of this fallen world. And dear saints, how often do we, when we live in this world, like I said earlier, go to work amongst unbelievers and find them cursing

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God and swearing and engaging in all kinds of debaucherous stuff. How often do we say it's because of the environment that we cannot live a holy life?

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Here we see that even in the midst of a fallen environment, in the midst of a fallen setting, in the midst of a dark world, it is possible to resolve and by God's grace to live a righteous life.

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Now I'm not talking about a perfect life, but an upright life, a morally excellent life, a life that's committed to holiness.

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I think that oftentimes one of our greatest hindrances, one of the greatest hindrances to our holiness in this life, is that we are just simply too reluctant to stand out as different and as separate from our peers.

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I know even if I look at my own heart, I care too much about what people think of me. I fear man's approval too much.

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I care too much about man's praise. But here we see John the

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Baptist and Jesus Christ living in this unrighteous world and they're okay to be different.

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Now Noah, that's why I said as a young man going to school and growing up and going to university and going to work, you must be prepared.

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We must all be prepared to be different and that that different is good.

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I once read an account of the life of, well maybe I'll mention his name afterwards, a famous evangelist.

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And on one particular occasion in Chicago, there was the president Woodrow Wilson.

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He said that he had an encounter that he would never forget. It was a very commonplace. He went into a barber shop and as he was laying in this chair, he became immediately aware that there was a personality that entered the room, a person that came into the barber shop.

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And as the man sat down in the chair to get his hair cut next to him, he thought, what is it about this man?

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Just the way that he asked the barber questions about his own life, about his own soul, just the very air about him.

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He was obviously a very upright man and he could tell that even the barbers, it wasn't just him, but even the barbers noticed that there was something different about this man who had come into the room.

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And as Woodrow Wilson looked at him, he thought, who is this man? And he thought back to an evangelistic crusade that he attended a while earlier, and he realized that this was

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Mr. Moody, D .L. Moody, that was sitting in the chair next to him.

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And he noticed how, just in his very manner of life, his very power of being, his presence, even his essence just created a stir in the room that the shopkeepers talked in hushed undertones, that they were raised to elevated thought.

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And as Woodrow Wilson looked at D .L. Moody, interacted with these people with a holiness that was different than anything he'd ever said.

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He said, I felt that I had left, as he left that place, as I had left a place of worship.

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Makes me wonder, when we go to work, we're going to be told later that Herod the Great, that he feared

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John the Baptist, this powerful man, that even in his presence he feared him. How often do we go into work, or go into school, or go into a place of business, or go in amongst our families, and people sense, this man is a holy man.

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This woman is a holy woman. And so here we see a righteous life, these righteous lives in contrast to the wicked.

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And we see that, in contrast, the wicked are completely subject to their own environments.

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And not only that, the wicked's consciences are pricked by the upright lives of the righteous.

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John MacArthur says in this passage, he says, By his guilt -laden confession, Herod showed that he could not forget the evil he had done, and his conscience led to that eerie feeling that John was back from the dead.

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How often, dear saints, do we join in when we hear our coworkers complaining and grumbling, or gossiping, and we join in with them.

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When in reality what we see here is that we are to be different, and that in being different,

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God uses that to convict people, even without a word. So we're to live lives that are distinct from the fallen world around us.

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We'll look at verse 18 next. Verse 18 says, For John had been saying to Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.

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And Herodias, verse 19, had a grudge against him, and wanted to put him to death.

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But she could not. The next thing that I want us to see is this, not only should we live a life that is distinct from others, but the righteous, number two, openly hold to biblical convictions.

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They're not afraid to say what is true, so long as it is biblical. So well before Herod's trip to Rome, where he met his niece, and eventually his future bride, he'd entered into a marriage with the daughter of a man named

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Aretas. He was the king of Arabia, also east of the Dead Sea. And this was a politically motivated marriage, no doubt.

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But it was a genuine marriage, a genuine marriage in the sight of God, and in the sight of the law of God. So when

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Herod speedily divorced his wife, only to betray his brother and steal his bride, it was not only an affront to the law of that day, but it was an affront to God.

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And it was an affront to God's word. And this sin on his part was well documented and widely known.

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In fact, the king of Arabia, Aretas, later retaliated against Herod, and even caused more pain and suffering for Herod's people, as he leveled a crushing victory over one part of his land.

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And so John the Baptist heard of this godless behavior on Herod's part, and as a prophet to the nation, he rebuked

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Herod before everyone, before all, before the nation. And this was not a subtle statement on his part.

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We actually see in verse 28, if you look at the present tense, that John the Baptist had been saying, implying repeatedly, had been saying repeatedly that Herod's actions were wrong.

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There was a repeated rebuke, regardless of the cost. And we see later in that verse that John was reprimanding

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Herod as a matter of, not as a matter of preference or of opinion, but his conviction, which he voiced freely, was based on a biblical text.

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It was based on John's appeals to the law. And he probably had a couple of passages in mind.

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Leviticus chapter 18 is one of them. Also Leviticus chapter 20. Maybe he quoted

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Leviticus 20 verse 21 to him. It says there, If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity.

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He has uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be childless. Interestingly enough, there's no record that Herod and Herodias ever had a biological child together.

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But here is John, in a spiritually dark time, boldly addressing a godless leader.

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Not for politics. Not for policy. Not even for his foreign encounters, but for his refusal to obey the word of God.

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Now I try not to quote too many commentators, but this commentator just says it so brilliantly.

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His name is James R. Edwards. He says this, John was a prophet without price, whose thundering call exposed the unrighteousness in any quarter.

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Like the courageous prophets before him, John understood that the proclamation of God's word included moral responsibility.

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There were no sacred cows in his herds. He did not read the polls before speaking and acting.

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He protected no special interest, nor did he predicate what he said and did on chances of success.

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John's was a costly courage. In so doing, he risked a swift end, which eventually came from a cold sword wielded by petty functionaries.

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John the Baptist held to biblical convictions, and that required that he knew his

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Bible, that he knew Leviticus chapter 18, that he knew Leviticus 20.

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I think sometimes, I remember an article from Tim Chaldees, where he said, I wish that some Christians would just stop talking, that just because they know something about something, that they have to give their whole opinion on the matter.

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Well, this is not John just giving an opinion on the matter. This is John standing for what is biblical.

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It makes me think of the world that we live in today. How many things around us are happening that are just so unbiblical?

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Now, there very well might be hills that we ought not to die on, but I think as Christian brothers and sisters, we need to use our discernment.

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There are hills worth dying on. There are doctrines worth standing on.

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There are values, biblical values, that are worth living for, even worth dying for.

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We're to be, Scripture says, salt in the world. In that way, we're to function as believers and as church to preserve justice and righteousness in the land.

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We're to be light in the world. That is to display the glories of Christ and expose the darkness.

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As the church militant, one of the functions of the church itself is to restrain evil in the world.

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Now, I'm not talking about that new lingo that says that we need to go out there and change culture.

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But what I'm talking about is as a church living for what is right, speaking up for what is right, speaking up or against that which is wrong.

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And we read other exhortations to do that. We read that, for instance, in Paul's writings, in Ephesians 5, in verse 8.

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He says, For at one time, and doesn't this describe us, at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the

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Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

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And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

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In 2 Corinthians 10, it says, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

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We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey

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Christ. Oftentimes, when we think about taking thoughts captive, we think about taking our own thoughts captive.

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But here, Paul's talking about taking other thoughts captive. Of bringing the truth to bear, in not only our own lives, but in the lives of other believers, and even in the lives of the people in this world.

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It reminds me of so many people in Scripture. I think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who would not bow before the idol in the valley.

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Of Daniel, who even when he was told not to pray, I find it interesting that Daniel could have,

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I don't know how big his house was, he probably could have moved away from the window. But no,

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Daniel had resolved to pray. And so at the window where he prayed, every single time, he got down on his knees and prayed to his

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God. And we see that in the history of the church. John Bunyan is probably a perfect example of that.

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John Bunyan's story is, in some ways, is a heartbreaking story. He spent 12 years in the

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Bedford jail. Just a walking distance from his home. And the reason why he was there is because he insisted that he had been called by God to preach the gospel.

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He had been called by God to preach to his church. And because of new laws enacted under King Charles II, it was now illegal.

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And so what they said is, you are going to go to jail. And you can stay in jail until the day that you decide that you no longer want to preach.

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The day that you say, I will not preach, you're free to go. But John Owen, even as an example,

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John Owen said, and he was just such a learned man, he said he would exchange all of his learning just for his ability to preach like John Bunyan, in simplicity and in power.

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And so John Bunyan said, then I must remain in jail. I cannot go.

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If I must choose violating my conscience and disobeying God or being in jail, I will be in jail.

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And so oftentimes during the day, his blind daughter, her name was Mary, would walk from their home to the jail cell and deliver him food.

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In order for him to support his family, he would make long bootlaces. He was a tinker by trade, just making and repairing little things.

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And so he made bootlaces, and he would sell those bootlaces to support his family. And he spent 12 years in jail, standing up for biblical convictions.

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When someone asked him what it was like to be in jail for 12 years as his children grew up, just a short distance away, he said, it was like tearing of my flesh from my bones.

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And all he had to do was make one simple statement, I will not preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he could be gone.

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And so John waited for 12 long years in that overcrowded, unsanitary, poorly heated

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Bedford jail. And this is something that others, or that we learn about him, is that in the providence of God, while John was there, he authored

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The Pilgrim's Progress, the second bestselling book of all time.

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And George Whitefield says of that book and of John Bunyan, he said, could these books have been written without the rod of affliction?

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He said, The Pilgrim's Progress smells of prison. It was written when the author was confined in the

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Bedford jail, and ministers never write or preach so well as under the cross. The spirit of Christ and of glory rest upon them.

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So, dear saints, what are the areas in your life, in your workplace, in your family, where you must speak the truth, where you must uphold biblical convictions?

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We see that that's exactly what John the Baptist did here. So we've seen, then, that the righteous will by necessity stand out as distinct from the world.

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The righteous openly hold to biblical convictions. And we see a third point in verse 20 here.

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It says there, For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe.

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When he heard, he was greatly perplexed. Yet he heard him gladly.

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Thirdly, we see that the righteous seek the good of the wicked. The righteous seek the good of the wicked.

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And I'll add this, often by the witness or the proclamation of God's word. As I said,

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Herod was a very powerful man. He ruled with the authority of the Roman Empire at his back.

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He frequently made displays of his great wealth and political force, and yet in verse 20 we're told that he feared

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John. This was not because he was a political threat. It's not because he was a murderer or a thief, but scripture tells us it's because John was a holy and a righteous man.

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And so to the best of his ability, Herod tried to protect John from his murderous wife, who was obviously very grieved and offended by his condemnation of their marriage.

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But because he was so attracted to the fearful holiness of this particular man, he would call upon John.

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We're told he would call upon him gladly. And as he listened, he would become greatly perplexed, meaning that he was puzzled.

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And it brought a certain degree, when we look at that word perplexed, a certain degree of anxiety because of his own lusts that were confronted by the truth of God's word.

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Now in this particular verse, we could focus on any number of things, but what I want to do is draw our attention to this, that while John was imprisoned by Herod, he would willingly speak to him for the good of his eternal soul.

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That whenever Herod would call upon him, he would bring him perplexing, convicting words of God, but for his own good.

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That even while he was in jail and being persecuted, he did not stop loving the people that God had put before him.

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And this isn't the first time that we've seen this. We saw this, for instance, if you remember in the life of the

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Apostle Paul, after the Jews plotted to kill him. We're told in Acts chapter 24 that he sought every opportunity to share the gospel with Felix, who was the

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Roman governor in that region. In Acts chapter 24, we're not going to read it all, but we're told that Felix came with his wife,

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Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak. And what did Paul speak about?

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He spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned about righteousness and self -control and the coming judgment,

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Felix was alarmed and said, go away for the present. When I get an opportunity, I will summon you at the same time.

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At the same time, he hoped that money would be given to him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him.

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As often as Felix would call Paul, he would speak to him. And what did he do?

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Did he condemn him? No, he spoke the gospel about faith in Christ, self -control, the coming judgment.

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Now, two years later, Felix was succeeded by a governor named Festus. And as Festus was examining

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Paul, he invited another man to help examine him. Does anyone remember what his name was? He was

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Herod Agrippa II. Now, if you want to look at the twisted family tree of the

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Herods, Herod Agrippa was Aristobulus' son, Herodias' brother.

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And so Festus calls Herod Agrippa together and they listen to Paul. And this is what Paul pleaded with, or said as he pleaded with Agrippa.

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He said, King Agrippa, Acts 26, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe.

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And Agrippa said to Paul, in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian? And Paul said, whether short or long,

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I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I, except for these chains.

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That even as Paul was imprisoned, he sought the good, he sought the welfare of the wicked who were housing him, who were imprisoning him.

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And we see this throughout scripture. We see this attitude in Stephen, even as he was stoned.

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In Acts 7, verse 60, and falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice,

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Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, we're told, he fell asleep.

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We're not to love only our friends, not only to love our neighbors. Christ said in the

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Beatitudes, he said, love your neighbor and hate your enemies. But I say, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

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It was a few years ago, I made a very unwise decision. In our home, we like to read stories at bedtime.

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Children, do you remember this book? Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrandt.

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Against my wife's better judgment, or her better counsel, I could say, and against better judgment,

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I read my children Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrandt. I probably should have waited a few more years.

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There was a lot of censoring that I had to do. But this book became so sweet to me.

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And even as we read this story, just to read about a man who did this so well, who loved those who sought to end his life.

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Richard Wurmbrandt was a Christian in Romania during the rise of communism.

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And like John the Baptist, he stood up for what was right. He spoke, as we would say in modern vernacular, spoke truth to power.

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He spoke biblical truth to those who would have none of it. And as a result of that, he was put in jail for 14 years.

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And in those 14 years, he was subjected to starvation and to torture. And if you can think of this, they would actually bring doctors into the room where they would torture

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Richard Wurmbrandt. And the doctors weren't there to help him. No, that would be very kind and merciful on their part.

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But the doctors were there to counsel the torturers and say, okay, if you keep going, he will die.

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They would stop him, stop the torturers, even a few moments before death, so they could allow this man to recover, to heal, so that they could repeat the cycle.

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And so this was Richard Wurmbrandt's life for 14 years. And one day, after an extended period of torture, one of the guards approached

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Richard Wurmbrandt. It wasn't because he was cursing them or because he had done something wrong, but it was because every time that they would torture him, and he had the presence of mind to do it, he would look his torturers, these guards in the eyes, and he would tell them the gospel.

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He would tell them the love of Christ for them. Oh, how Christ died for sinners.

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Don't you know you're a sinner too? And if you would only call on him, you would be saved. You'd be saved from your sins.

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You'd be saved even from this murderous, torturous heart that you have towards me. And he would look at them and love them and plead with them.

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So this guard approached him one day, and he said, rather than calling him by his first name or by some derogatory name, as often was the case, he said,

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Mr. Wurmbrandt, how is it that you love me? I would never love someone who put me in prison and beat me up.

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How can you fulfill such a commandment of Christ? And Wurmbrandt answered,

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I am not merely fulfilling a commandment by loving my enemies. Jesus has given me a new character, the main feature of which is love.

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Just as only water flows out of a bottle of water and only milk out of a bottle of milk, so only love can flow out of a loving heart.

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Only love can flow out of the heart of a Christian. And as a result of this, that guard became a believer in Christ in that dark jail cell on that day.

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I often tell stories about men. I realize that. I think about the sisters in the room. There are always these witnesses of men, but I read another account in the same book of a guard that came to a man and woman while they were,

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I believe they were in church or maybe they were worshiping at home, and he pointed a gun at their heads and he says, Do you believe that Jesus is the

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Son of God? Do you believe that he is the Christ, that he offers forgiveness of sins? And he loaded the gun and he pointed it at their heads and they said, reluctantly, yes, we do.

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And the guard threw the gun away and he said, then I will believe it too. Are you prepared to speak the truth, to stand up for what is true, to stand up for what is biblical, even to do what is good for others at the cost of your own lives?

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And this comes only, as Wurmbrandt said, by a transformed life, by a transformed character, by a new heart that only

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Christ can give. The last point we'll look at very briefly is this, that the righteous look to Christ as they persevere even unto death.

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The righteous look to Christ as they persevere even unto death. Verse 21, but an opportunity came when

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Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.

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For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl,

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Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you. And he vowed to her, Whatever you ask me,

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I will give to you up to half my kingdom. And she went out and said to her mother, For what should

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I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying,

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I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

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And the king was exceedingly sorry because of his oath, but because of his oath, and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her.

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And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl.

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And the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

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So here we see in this final scene, Herod is at his birthday banquet along with all of the nobility, the cultural elites, the military commanders.

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That word for military commanders are those who rule over a thousand soldiers. In verse 22, we're told that Herodias' daughter from a previous marriage danced for Herod.

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We find from extra -biblical records her name was Salome, this young girl.

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The word girl there means either a female child or a young woman.

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So we don't know how old, but a young girl. And we're told that she performed a dance for Herod and his guests.

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Now for the modern reader, that seems just normal. We might have a party and throw, or throw a party and have a dance at the party.

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But this was a very particular kind of dance. This was a dance that was usually reserved only for hired female entertainers who would be welcomed to the party.

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And because of their hand gestures and because of their body movements, it was a very seductive dance.

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It was meant to be a sensual kind of performance. And it would have been considered very dishonorable or very inappropriate for an honorable woman to engage in this kind of dance, let alone the host of the party, the daughter of the host of the party.

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But we are, after all, talking about a man who married his own niece. And so we're told that he was very pleased by this dance.

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And he offers Salome whatever she would like, any wish under the sun, even up to half of his kingdom.

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And you have to love Herod. He's just, this is a sham. Herod has no kingdom to offer.

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Everything belonged to Rome. And so here he is. He's just uttering up nonsense, empty phrases to somehow promote his own power.

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And after Salome asks her mother what she might do, this is the, as we see in the text, the opportunity that she had.

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And so she asks for the head of John the Baptist at once to be brought immediately.

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Now we're told that from other records, Josephus tells us that John was likely in a place called

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Machairus. It was a place where there was a fortified palace for Herod.

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And providentially, probably long before that, this place was named Machairus.

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And it's Greek name, or it's derived from the Greek word machaira, which means sword.

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So providentially, God had John kept in a place that was called sword, where he knew that he would eventually die by the sword.

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God was not taken off guard. It was ultimately his plan, included in his plan to ransom the world, to give us the scriptures, to give us this example.

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And what's really interesting, actually, is we don't see John almost at all in this account, except that we're told that he was executed and that his head was brought on a platter.

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But I want us to look at what would inspire John to persevere in his service to the end for God.

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He wasn't executed for being a traitor. He wasn't executed for being a murderer or an adulterer, but a righteous man.

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And how did John persevere to the end? I submit to you, it was by looking to Christ.

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That's why I said that at the beginning of this point, the righteous look to Christ as they persevere, even unto death.

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Now, how can I say this? Because this was the whole manner of John's life.

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I love the accounting of John's life in the Book of John, in the Gospel of John.

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John immediately recognized, one of the first people immediately recognized that it was Christ, Jesus Christ, who came to deal with the great problem of human sin, including his own.

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In John 1 and verse 29, it was John that said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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It was in John 3 that he said that it was his great joy that the friend of the bridegroom who stands in the presence of the bridegroom rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

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He said in verse 30, He must increase and I must decrease. John taught the disciples.

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He taught and believed that Christ was sovereign and that faith in Jesus Christ secured eternal life for the believer.

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He said in John 3, 36, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

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Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. And when

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John suffered, he sought solace. I don't know if you remember this, but in Matthew chapter 11, when

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John was in prison, he needed to renew his confidence in who

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Christ was. And so he sent his disciples. As he awaited his execution, and we read about that in Matthew 11 verse 2,

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Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent word by his disciples.

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And he said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look to another? And Jesus answered him,

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Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

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John's hope in life and death was Jesus Christ. That was his only hope and perseverance.

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When he needed help, when he needed confirmation, when he needed something to get him through the imprisonment, what was it that he looked to?

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Who is Christ? Is he really who he says he is? And he found that he was.

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That Christ was his all. And this is really, this is the truth, the reality, the driver behind righteousness in its totality.

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Once I read a story. I love these kinds of stories. It was about a young pastor who wanted to discover the source of true righteousness, the source of true usefulness.

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And this particular pastor, he had just started in his ministry and he found himself very discouraged.

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In spite of all of his study, in spite of all of his labor, his ministry was not flourishing.

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It wasn't that vibrant, vital kind of ministry that he was hoping to preside over. But as he was reading a biography or studying, he heard about a man named

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Robert Murray McShane. You've heard us talk about him before, who had just died recently at the age of 30.

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And yet, even while he had died at the age of 30, he had shaken, he shook Scotland with a tremendous spiritual force.

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And this minister thought, I need to visit where McShane served as a pastor to see what was the secret of his usefulness.

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What was the secret of his righteousness? What made him tick? And so he visited the church and he was given a tour by one of the church members who was present during Robert Murray McShane's ministry in that particular church.

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And the man led this young pastor, this new elder, into McShane's study.

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And he said, sit down in that chair. The man hesitated for a moment and then he sat down in that chair.

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On the table in front of him was an open Bible and the man said, drop your head in that book and weep.

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That is the way our minister always did it before he preached. And he said, come with me.

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And he took him into the pulpit before the open Bible, the open Bible sitting there in front of him and he said, drop your head and drop your hands in that book and weep.

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That is the way our minister did it before he preached. And then the church member took this man around McShane's church and he showed him his manner of living.

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That it was not his main concern to be seen as holy, but to be holy and to look to Christ.

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That Christ was his all. Now you often hear us quote, that McShane quote, for every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.

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That was McShane's manner of living. But if we were to go to that letter that he wrote, he wrote so much more than just that and I want to share that with us briefly.

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McShane wrote to one man, he said, learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.

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He is altogether lovely, such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief.

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Live much in the smiles of God, bask in his beams, feel his all -seeing eye settled on you in love and repose in his almighty arms.

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Let your soul be filled with a heart -ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in him.

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Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart so that there will be no room for folly or the world or Satan or the flesh.

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The answer to McShane's holiness, the answer to his usefulness, the answer to his perseverance until he died at the young age of 30 was this, to look to Christ.

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To cast off all self -confidence and to put on Christ -confidence.

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That is what got John to the end, and that's what is going to get all of us to the end. Not by looking to ourselves, but by looking to Christ.

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I'll finish with these words. In the book of Proverbs, in chapter 20 and verse 6, it says this,

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Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man, who can find?

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Oh, where do we find a faithful man, a righteous man? I think what we realize as we study this text is that this text is not primarily about us.

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Yes, it informs how we got to live our lives, but this text is about Christ. Who is the one who is righteous in the face of darkness?

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Who is the righteous one who came to preach the truth when everyone else was pleased to run after a lie?

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Who is the righteous one who came to seek the good of the wicked? This was Christ's whole mission in life, even on the cross as the

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Romans gambled for his clothing. He said, Father, forgive them. Who is the righteous one who persevered even to death, even to death on a cross?

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It was Jesus Christ. This passage is about Christ. It's about our

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Lord. It's about our Savior. And so, dear friends, we'll finish with this, but let this be an exhortation to us to live righteously, but even more, all the more, look to Christ.

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Believe on him. And if you have not believed on him, repent of your sins and believe in him.