Go with me back to Mark chapter
6. We just had these verses read
to us of John's beheading. John the Baptist beheading. And
this is a sad account to me. This is a sad account. Not for John the Baptist's sake,
though. I'm not sad for John the Baptist.
God Almighty ordered this for John the Baptist from the foundation
of the world, didn't he? That sounds strange, doesn't
it? It's true. His days were determined. The number of His months were
with thee. Thou hast appointed His bounds
that He cannot pass. The scripture says it is appointed
unto man once to die. Well, he had an accident. No. There are no accidents with God.
There are no accidents with God. Everything is in His hand. Everything. It's by His permission. It's according to His sovereign
will and purpose. Everything that happens. Oh,
this right here was a tragedy. No, this was on purpose. This
was on purpose. And it was for John's good. At
that exact moment, he was catapulted into glory, wasn't he? But I'll tell you why this is
a sad account to me. It's because Herod and this woman
Herodias and her daughter, they all died in their sin. That's
why it's sad. They all died in their sin. This is the same Herod that our
Lord stood before whenever our Lord went on trial. Pilate sent
him to Herod. You remember that? And Herod
said, I don't see anything in him. Send him back to Pilate.
Same Herod. This man Herod had the blood
of God's messenger and the blood of God himself on his hands.
Literally, physically on his hands. In this account that our
Lord has recorded, right here in His Word, do we not clearly
see man's wickedness? This whole thing is just so wicked.
Verse 14 says, And King Herod heard of our Lord, for his name
was spread abroad. And he said that John the Baptist
was risen from the dead, And therefore mighty works do show
forth themselves in him." Herod thought it was John the Baptist.
And the reason is because our Lord was preaching the exact
same message that John the Baptist preached. Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And he said, I've heard this
before. This is familiar to me. Verse 15 says, Others said that
it is Elijah and others said that it is a prophet or as one
of the prophets. You know, nobody will call Him
God, will they? They won't call Him God. Everybody acknowledges Jesus.
Who doesn't acknowledge Jesus? Does anybody not acknowledge
Jesus? But nobody calls Him God. Jesus of Nazareth is the highest
God. He is the highest God. There is no God higher than Jesus
of Nazareth. None. God the Father said all
men must honor God the Son. He said, Thy throne, O God, is
everlasting. Verse 16 says, But when Herod
heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded. He is
risen from the dead. For Herod himself had sent forth
and laid hold upon John and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake,
his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her. For John
said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's
wife. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him. She had
an inward grudge. And she would have killed John,
but she couldn't. She wanted to, but she couldn't. Now the fact of the matter is,
here's what Moses wrote in the law. He said, if a man dies having
no children, if a man dies having no children, his brother shall
marry that man's wife and raise up seed unto his brother. That's
what the law said. So either his brother Philip
wasn't dead or he had children. He had a family with this woman
Herodias. And what Herod and Herodias did
was a sin in God's eyes. It was absolute sin in God's
eyes. And God's messenger exposed it. That's what happened. That's
what happened. When a person comes to hear a
true messenger of God, and one of these days I'd love to be
one. Maybe God will make me one this morning. But whenever a
person comes to hear a true messenger of God, I tell you what he's
going to do first. He is going to expose our sin. First thing. Oh, what? If a man is a true messenger
of God, if he's a true messenger for God, he will declare without
compromise man's sin against God. He will
tell the truth. He will at all costs. At all
costs, without compromise. Why? Because he's a great man?
No, because God has grabbed hold of him, put a message in him.
Well, I mean, does he do that? Does he, does he very boldly,
without compromise, expose men and women's sin to him because
he hates people? Is that why he does it? Does
he grit his teeth and all that kind of stuff? Because he just
hates people. No. It's because he loves God. because he loves God. He tells
the truth for the glory of God. Everything is for the glory of
God. We're not meeting here this morning
so anybody can get a pat on the back, especially the preacher. He don't need a pat on the back.
We're meeting here this morning for the glory of God. We're here
to glorify God. It's for the glory of God and
it's for the good of men and women. We're meeting here for
the good of some sinners. Now we're about to see, this
is not the only thing John said to him. John preached a message
to him, an entire message. Let's read down through this
and then I want us to see this message John preached. Verse
19, therefore Herodias had a quarrel against John and would have killed
him but she could not. For Herod feared John, knowing
that he was a just man and unholy. And what that means is Herod
knew this man's sin of God. He knew he was telling the truth.
He did know that. And any sinner against God, once
they hear the truth about sin, they know the man's telling the
truth. But it says in verse 20, Herod feared John, knowing that
he was a just man and unholy, and observed him. And when he
heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. He heard
John gladly. Now here's the problem for Herod.
He feared John, but not John's God. That's the problem. He reverenced and he was in awe
of John. There's another John I know of
that people reverence. They're in awe of him. His last
name is Calvin. And this man right here feared John, but he
didn't fear John's God. He stopped at John. Verse 21, And when a convenient
day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his
lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee. And when
the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased
Herod, and them that sat with him, The king said unto the damsel,
ask of me whatsoever thou wilt and I will give it thee. And
he swear unto her whatsoever thou shall ask of me, I will
give it thee unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth
and said unto her mother, what shall I ask? And she said, the
head of John the Baptist. And she came in straightway with
haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give
me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And
the king was exceeding sorry, yet for his oath's sake and for
their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And
immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his
head to be brought, and he went and beheaded him in the prison.
and brought his head in a charger and gave it to the damsel and
the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard
of it, they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb. Herod rejected God. He rejected God's word and he
rejected God's messenger, but he wouldn't reject her, would
he? Not her. Now a man named Rolf Barnard,
there was a preacher years and years ago named Rolf Barnard. And he preached from this text
and he titled that message, The Sermon That Cost the Preacher
His Head. And he's right. He's right. This was the sermon that cost
the preacher his head. The message that is being preached
today in most every single pulpit, the message that is being preached
right now in most every single pulpit is a message of compromise
and lies. That's what it is. It's a message
of compromise and lies. It's a message that does not
offend the flesh at all. The last thing I want to do is
offend the flesh. I don't want to offend anybody here today,
not one soul. But the message that is being
preached does not offend the flesh of men and women at all. But I will tell you this, it
offends God Almighty. It offends God Almighty. That
message of lies, what it does is it pulls the shades down over
people's eyes. It just pulls that dark shade
right on down and it lulls their souls into a sleep. The scripture
calls it the sleep of death. They go into one place and they
go, that sounds nice. Then they go over to this place and, oh
yeah, that's very pleasant. But the truth, the actual truth, the message
of God's truth, it has a little bit different response. This
is how you can know if you're listening to the truth or not.
When the truth is clearly declared, something happens. Every time,
something happens. It causes men and women to either
slay or be slain. Every time. Every time. one or the other. Paul said,
there's a war in my members. When God's actual word is clearly
declared, here's what it causes. It causes men and women to either
hate that message or hate themselves. One of the two. Go with me to Luke 23. Luke 23,
look at verse 46. It says, And when Jesus had cried
with a loud voice, now here's our Lord hanging on the cross,
bearing the sin of His people. Here is redemption. Here is justification. Here is God's goodness. This
is God's mercy right here. Here He is hanging there. And
when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into
thy hands, I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. Now, when the centurion saw what
was done, when this man saw why it was done, everybody knows
Jesus Christ died on the cross. That is not news. I have news,
good news everybody, Jesus Christ died on the cross. People say,
well thank you, but that's not news. It's not news to me. Everybody knows Jesus Christ
died on the cross. But when this man finally saw why, when he finally saw why this
was done, when he saw God's holiness, And when he saw his own sinfulness,
and when he saw what Christ was willing to do, and what Christ
had to do to redeem sinners back to God. There was one way to
redeem sinners back to God. And here this centurion sees
this and he knew. When he saw what was done, he
glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man. And all the people that came
together to that site, beholding the things which were done, smote
their breast. When they saw Christ give up
the ghost, they heard Him say, Father, into Thy hands I commend
my spirit. And He sovereignly bowed His
head. Everybody started smiting their
breast. Why? Why were they doing that? It's because when they saw the
truth in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they realized if God
hadn't done that to Him, God would have done that to me. They saw what was waiting for
them outside of Christ. If I'm standing outside of Jesus
Christ, everything He went through, I will go through. If God hadn't done that to Christ,
he would have done that to me. Now we know the response that
the truth caused in Herod, Herodias, and her daughter. Here's what
I want to see this morning. Let's see if the Lord in absolute
mercy will give us just a little bit different response to the
message, okay? Go to Luke chapter 3. This is the message John preached
to them. Luke 3 verse 1 says, now in the
15th year of the reign of all those men right there. Verse
2, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priest, The word of God
came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. God sent his
word to this man and called him to preach. Now to quickly prove
that this is what Herod heard, look with me at verse 18. And
many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.
But Herod the tea-trark being reproved by him for Herodias
his brother Philip's wife And for all the evils which Herod
had done, added yet this above all, that he shut up John in
prison." So this right here is the message that cost the preacher
his head. All right? Verse 3. And he came into all the country
about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins. We looked at that last week.
He preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Here's
what John came preaching. We're all sinners. We're all sinners. And we have
no ability to help ourselves. There's no point trying to hide
it. We're all sinners, we have no ability to help ourselves,
and our only hope is in the goodness and the gift and the calling
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's repentance. That's the
heart of repentance. I'm a sinner. I cannot help myself. You're my only hope. That's the
heart of repentance. Verse four, as it is written
in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Then said he to the multitude
that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? He didn't pull any punches, did
he? They were all coming to be baptized. I bet you they had
a little bit of a surprise. You know, they thought, well,
he's going to be happy with me. I'm going to come and be baptized
by him. He said, O generation of vipers, who warned you to
flee from the wrath to come? John preached these exact words
because John was told by God Almighty to preach these exact
words. Now I want you to turn with me.
This is the last time we're going to turn. Go to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 verse 3 says, The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness. That's John the Baptist. Prepare
ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. John was called to preach this
because God was going to be manifest in the flesh. The actual God. The God that everybody wonders,
who is God? He walked this earth and he said,
I want you to prepare my way. God was going to be manifest
in the flesh. I am telling us this morning, this exact same
truth. I have been called to preach
this exact same truth because that same God is coming back. He is coming back. For all this
time, all through Moses and David and the prophets, they kept saying,
He's coming. He's coming. And all of a sudden, the whole
host of heaven said, Here He is. He's coming back. This real man, a man is God. His name is Jesus Christ and
I have been called by Him to tell you He's coming back. Here is what's going to happen
when He comes, all right? Verse 4 says, every valley shall
be exalted. What that means is, every secret
thing, every hidden thing, all of the sins that are down in
the depths of the heart, down in that blackness, forgotten
depth of the heart, Every single one of them are
going to be made known. In Revelation, it says the books
were opened. What that means is as we go through
this life, every thought we think is being recorded. It's on record. This is true. Every feeling we
feel is on record. Everything we do his own record
and in that last day God's going to call the whole world to come
stand before him in what he calls the judgment and the books are
going to be open. Day one to that moment right
there. And every single sin that we've
never even known about, every fleeting second of anger, you
know how something happens and you kind of settle down? That
was recorded. Every fleeting second of lust,
of unbelief, every fleeting second of desire for anything other
than God Almighty and His Word, every second of it is going to
be made known. It's all going to be brought up. Verse 4 right
here says, And every mountain and hill shall be made low. Every proud look. Every proud
heart, everyone who is lifted up because of sin is going to
be brought down. Every single one going to be
made low. And he said in verse four, the
crooked shall be made straight. All the lies that are being told
from pulpits. People bless their hearts. Oh,
I feel so sorry for them. They're being lied to. They believe those men and women. All the lies are going to be
straightened out. And he said in verse 4, the rough places,
some of you have done a little work with wood. You see some
rough places on there. Everything that goes against
the grain of this word right here is going to be planed off.
It's all going to be made plain. Verse 5 says, and the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see together
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. That means it's going
to happen. Revelation 1 says all kindreds
of the earth are going to wail because of him. Verse 6 says
the voice said cry and he said what shall I cry? All flesh. The man standing up
behind this pulpit is flesh. All flesh. All flesh. He said, all flesh is grass. What does that mean? That means if it stands alone,
it will be cut down. That's what I do to my grass.
We all belong to Him. We're His grass. I have grass. I have a half acre of grass.
And as it lifts itself up, every time I see it get lifted up just
a little too far, you know what I do? Cut it down. Verse 6, the voice said, Cry,
and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.
Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but... You all like Ephesians too as
much as I do. When you get to that part that says, but God, but, all flesh is grass. And I'm withering, I'm withering. We got some beautiful little
children in here and the higher they get, the more they wither.
Skin starts to wither, it's all withering. It's all gonna be
cut down. You tell everybody, all flesh
is grass, but, Look at verse 8. The Word. Who's the Word? In the beginning
was the Word. The Word was with God because
the Word was God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. All flesh is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever. As you are by yourself, be prepared
to get cut down, but there is someone who will stand forever. He's going to stand forever. Here is what God has called his
true preachers to cry. flee from the wrath to come. The wrath is coming. There is
a way of escape. There is a way of escape. That's what John told Herod.
That's what John told Herodias. And they didn't want to hear
it. They did not believe it. They did not want to have anything
to do with it. They hated it. Just like the world hated the
same message in the days of Noah. Right? You know what Noah preached
for all those years? Flee the wrath to come. A hundred years or a hundred
and twenty years. Flee the wrath to come. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. I don't believe that. That sounds
like fairy tale. I don't believe any of it. The
fool hath said in his heart, there is no God, but the fear
of the Lord. When the truth comes, people
go, wait a minute. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. If God Almighty is arresting
you and me, if He is arresting us with the truth of His Word,
that's the beginning of wisdom. You know that? If when you hear,
flee from the wrath to come, if that causes you to cry, where? To whom shall I go? Where can
I run? Where can I hide? Here was John's
message. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world." John cried right there. John
told it like it was. He told everybody their condition,
no matter what, at all cost. And then he said, the reason
I'm telling you is because right there is the only way of escape. The only, you look to the Lamb
of God. Noah cried, get in this ark. If you want to be saved. God's
wrath is about to rain down. You know what they said? I don't
believe that. It's never rained a drop of rain before. And all that God chose to put
inside that ark. Noah could have cried, all flesh
is grass, the grass is going to wither, it's going to get
cut down, but the ark is going to stand. And God put those that
He chose inside that ark, and then when His wrath beat down,
they could just hear it beating on that ark. And they could hear
judgment and God's justice and all of that outside the ark.
And oh, they thanked God for putting them in the ark. This
ark is my salvation. This ark is my only hope of surviving
this. Nothing else survived. God had
to put animals in there to keep the animals around. Nothing else
survived. Right here, Isaiah said in verse
9, O Zion that bring us good tidings, get up into the high
mountain. That's Christ. Oh, Jerusalem
that bring us good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift
it up, be not afraid, say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your
God, the wrath is coming, look to your God. Behold the Lord
God will come. Do you see right there where
it says Lord, how it's capital L, lowercase O-R-D? Jesus Christ is the capital L,
capital O, capital R, capital D, but he's also the capital
L lowercase. That's Jesus Christ. Behold,
the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for
him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. Noah cried, there's one way of
escape. Isaiah cried, there's one way
of escape. John the Baptist cried, there's
one way of escape, and I'm crying today. One way of escape. There's one way of escape. In
your heart, run to him. In your heart, fall on your knees
and beg him for mercy. Cry from the depths of your soul,
I need the lamb that was slain. That's what I need. If you do
that, then it means you've heard his voice. If you've heard his voice say,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, then it
means you're one of his sheep. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. And if you're one of His sheep
that has heard His voice and run to Him to flee from the wrath
to come, then verse 11 right here is for you. Isaiah 40 verse
11 says, He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. And He shall
gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom and
shall gently lead those that are with young. In the midst
of all this vengeance and all this wrath and all this judgment,
God chose for himself a little flock. A flock that is safe in
his fold. A flock that shall not want,
shall not lack anything. A flock that can lie down in
green pastures and rest. A flock that can fear no evil
because the shepherd's with them. A flock that has a table prepared
before them. That's what we're feasting on
right now, the table of his word. A flock that can expect goodness
and mercy to follow them all the days of their life. And we're not going to, I'm going
to close, we're not going back to Luke 3, but what John said
at the end of that message was, this God has a fan in his hand
and he's going to gather all of his wheat and he's going to
get the chaff, he's going to purge the chaff off of it. And
that's what God did when Christ died on that cross. He by himself
purged our sins off of us. And they're gone. And then John
told them he's going to take the wheat that was left, the
seed of Christ, and he's going to gather that into his barn.
And right here in verse 11, he said he's going to take his sheep
and gather them with his arm. Same message. Same message. Here's the last thing I'll say. I don't understand how anybody
could hate this message. I really don't. Not even in the
flesh. I really don't. I don't see how
a sinner could not acknowledge he's a sinner, not see what he
deserves, and then not see God's goodness and his mercy in Christ. I just don't understand that.
But I'll tell you who will never hate this message. A real sinner
against God. A real honest sinner who just
needs mercy. Every true sinner against this
high and holy God will cling to this right here. Jesus Christ
is a hiding place for sinners. He's a hiding place
for sinners. And our Lord told every true
preacher of His, once you declare the truth, every soul that I
bring to a heart of belief, every soul that I cause to hear that
and say, yes, I believe that. He said, this is what I want
you to cry to him. Verse one, he said, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Every soul that runs to me for
mercy, for shelter, for hiding, comfort ye my people, saith your
God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is over. It's accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned for
she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. That's God's message. It's a
good one. It's good news. Do we hate it?
Do we hate it or do we cling to it? Do we reject it or do
we bow to it? If God in great mercy has caused
us to love that, and thank him for it, then it sounds like the
shepherd has made a sheep, called us to be sheep. And if he has,
we have fleed the wrath to come. He's coming, but not for us who
are inside Christ. We've fleed it. All right, let's
stand together.