Turn to Matthew chapter 14. We have this same story. Mark gave just a little more
detail of it in Mark chapter 6. I preached from this some years
ago and I titled it then, John lost his head but not his life. You know, our Lord said, don't
fear them which can kill the body. But I'll tell you who to fear.
Him who can cast both body and soul into hell. He said, but don't you fear men
and what they can do to your bodies. They can't do anything
other than what I let them do. And we see here the death, or the execution, as they said
over in Mark, John the Baptist. But that was not by accident,
and that was not someone's anger out of control, Herodias. That
was not her anger out of control, and John just got the butt end
of her anger. No, it was predetermined of God. You know, every one of us have
a death to die. We've got to die. And God has
determined, he has determined the way we're going to die. My
dad, you couldn't get my dad on an airplane for nothing. He
would not get on an airplane, afraid of crashing. And I told
him one time, I said, Dad, if it's God's purpose for you to
die in an airplane, you're going to be on an airplane. I said,
I don't know how I'll get you there or how anybody will get
you there, but you'll be on that airplane if that's the way God
has determined for you to live this life. We don't live in this
life incidentally or accidentally or just going through it. Everything
is on purpose. The life we live is on purpose
and has a purpose, and the death we will die is determined of
God. I remember Henry said one time,
he said, the car may be made in Detroit right now that's going
to take your life. That car may be on the assembly
line right now that God's going to use to take you out of this
world. That gives me comfort. That gives
me comfort. Let all the arrows fly. Not one
of them can hit until God directs it, until He directs it to hit. And that's what we see here.
You know, John's in prison. He's in prison. We'll look at
this as the reason why here in a minute. But he's in prison
by the purpose of God. The will of God. Just as Paul
said that the Lord revealed to him that bonds and imprisonment
await you in every city. Let me read something to you.
I just ran over this. I had it in my file and found
it a few weeks ago. And I thought of it this morning.
Here's how the apostles died. Matthew suffered martyrdom by
being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia. Mark expired
at Alexandria after having been cruelly dragged through the streets
of that city. Luke was hanged upon an olive
tree in the classic land of Greece. John was put in a cauldron of
boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner and was
afterward abandoned at Patmos. Peter was crucified at Rome with
his head downward. James the Less was thrown from
a lofty pinnacle of the temple and then beaten to death with
a fuller's club. Bartholomew was flayed alive. Andrew was bound to a cross whence
he preached to his persecutors until he died. Thomas was run
through the body with a lance in East India. Jude was shot
to death with arrows. Matthias was first stoned and
then beheaded. Barnabas of the Gentiles was
stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica. Paul, after various
tortures and persecutions, was at length beheaded at Rome by
the Emperor Nero. Not one of them died a death
that wasn't appointed. I'll tell you what, the death
they died on this earth was a death that glorified God. And that's
exactly how you and I would die. in a manner that glorifies Him,
He gets the glory out of it. Now, let's get to this. I titled
this one, Losing Our Life Over the Gospel. Now, I feel confident
that all of us here are not going to die like they did. Now, it's
possible, but it probably won't happen. We probably die what
we call natural death, sickness or something like that. But the gospel will cost us our life. Salvation is the free gift of
God purchased by the life and death of Jesus Christ. I do not do anything to earn
salvation, to get it from God. I don't give anything for it.
It's the free gift of God. Yet, it'll cost me everything. When the Lord called His disciples,
when He called Peter and Andrew, they were fishing. And they jumped
out of that boat, left, and followed him. They left everything. Peter
said that one time, he said, Lord, we have left all and followed
you. We've left everything and followed
you. We just looked at the parables,
the parable of the treasure in the field, how that man sold
everything he had, purchased that field. the pearl of great
price. How that merchant man sold every
pearl he found, everything he had. He sold everything and purchased
that one pearl of great price. It cost him everything. Following Jesus Christ is an
all-out commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an all-out
commitment. Our Lord said this one time,
He said, count the cost. He said, if a man's going to
build a house. He sets down first and he counts the cost to see
if he has enough money, materials to build the house, lest if he
gets started and he can't finish it, he's embarrassed. Or if a
man's going to fight a war and he's going up against somebody
with 10,000 soldiers and he's got 5,000, he sets down and he
counts the cost whether he can really accomplish what he's going
to do. And the Lord says the same thing
about salvation. And it's totally different than
what we hear today. We've got this easy believism. We have this thing of just trying
to get people saved right now, come down the aisle, and yet
the Lord says, hold up. He does. He says, now think about
this. Think about this. With your emotions
under control, Not when you got everybody whipped up and all,
and their emotions are out of control, then you get them, like,
you know, I was at a funeral here, this has been about a couple,
two or three years ago, and the man was trying to get people
to make a decision at a funeral. At a funeral, when you got the,
when you have people at their weakest, I wanna preach to people
when they've got their faculties under control and they're paying
attention. And our Lord says, Concerning
this matter of salvation, count the cost. Think about this. Because
it's an all-out commitment to me. You might not want to follow
me. John, you might not want to follow
me. It's going to cost you your life. You're going to be in prison,
and they are going to behead you. They're going to cut your
head off. Paul, it's going to cost you
your life. Paul said, I have suffered the loss of all things. For Christ's sake, I have suffered
the loss of all things. You remember that young man when
the Lord said, go sell all you have, give it to the poor, come
follow me? You know, when I read that, I doubt that he would have
actually had to done that, but he sure had to be willing to
do it. He sure would have had to been willing to do it. He
wasn't willing to do it. And that's what the Lord showed.
You're not even willing to do this, because it's going to cost
you everything, everything. And there's going to be a time
when this earthly life comes in conflict with our new life
in Christ. We'll be faced with following
Christ on a straight and narrow way or compromise. Or compromise. Listen to Hebrews chapter 11.
Let me read some things I haven't written down here, 13 through
16. It says, These all died in faith, not having received the
promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them. Absolutely convinced of them.
Are you convinced that God is real? That salvation in Christ
is real? That heaven is real? That there's
going to be a new heaven and a new earth? Are you absolutely
persuaded of that? Paul said, I'm persuaded that
he's able to keep that which I've committed to him. Are you
persuaded of that? They were persuaded of them and embraced
them. You see, if a person is truly
persuaded, they'll embrace. They will embrace. They embrace
them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on this
earth. That's all. We're on a pilgrimage.
We're on a pilgrimage. From the time I was born on this
earth, even though I didn't know God for many years, I was headed home. The Lord was
guiding, directing my steps to the point of bringing me under
the gospel, hearing the gospel, believing the gospel, and in
His time, I'll be going home. I'm just a pilgrim here. This
is not our home. This is not our home. Christ
said, I'm going to prepare a place for you. John, there's a place
prepared for you. He's about to have his head cut
off. But that's all he lost was his
head. He didn't lose his life. You know why? Christ is our life. Christ is our life. When Satan
wanted to go up against Job, the Lord said, you can touch
all that he has, but here's what you can't touch. Here's what
you cannot touch. What was it? His life. You know
why he couldn't touch his life? Because Jesus Christ is his life. That's why he couldn't touch
his life. Christ is his life. Christ is our life. We're just
strangers and pilgrims on this earth. For they that say such
things declare plainly that they seek a country. We are looking
for a country. And truly, if they had been mindful
of that country which they came out of, like Lot's wife, You
know, she was mindful of Sodom. She couldn't get her mind and
heart off of Sodom. And if they had been mindful
of that country, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now, they desire a better
country. A country where there's peace.
There's real peace. A country where there's real
freedom. A country where there's real love. A country where the
king of glory reigns over. That's the country we desire.
We desire a better country. That is a heavenly country. Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. You know, a city is where a lot
of people live. He didn't prepare a village, a city, huge, because
of the host that's going to be there. Now, every child of God that's
a pilgrim, a stranger, looking for another country, whose heart
is set on God, every child of God's gonna might as well expect
conflict in this country, in this life, in this world. The
absence of conflict reveals a problem. I think it does, I think it reveals
a problem. Not that we go looking for conflict so I can feel like
I'm on the right track. We don't go looking for it. But
due to the nature of the gospel and human nature, it's going
to come. It's going to happen. It cannot not happen. It can't
do it. Now let's look at John here.
Who was John? John was the forerunner, the
messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who John was. His coming
was the fulfilling of the Word of God. His very existence fulfilled
the Word of God. He was called of God. He was
sent of God. He was God's ordained messenger,
the forerunner of Christ. The forerunner of Christ. They
had no excuse not to believe. God sent a forerunner. He sent
a forerunner. You know, if God's going to save
a sinner, He's going to send a preacher. Now, I'm telling
you, you're going to hear from a preacher. If God's going to
save a sinner, that sinner is going to hear from a preacher.
God's going to send a forerunner, a preacher of the gospel. John was the last of the Old
Testament prophets. There are no more prophets. There
are no more prophets. Israel has not had a prophet
since John. And here's the reason why. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ is that prophet that Moses said should
come and He's the end of it. We don't need anymore. It says
in Hebrews chapter 1 that God has spoken to us in His Son. He's the last prophet. He is
that prophet. Hear ye Him. Listen to Him. Open up the book and listen to
Him. When the gospel is being preached, listen to him. He's
that prophet. He's revealing God. He's telling
us who God is. John was a faithful witness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over in the Gospel of John,
chapter 1. Look in verse 15, John bear witness
of him that is of Christ. And he cried, he didn't whisper, he wasn't backwards,
he wasn't ashamed, he cried. He lifted up his voice saying,
this was he of whom I spake, he that cometh after me is preferred
before me for he was before me. He's God. And of His fullness
have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man
has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him, and that's
who He is. That's who this man is. He's
the Son of God. That's what He's saying. And
this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites
from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? He made an impact. His preaching made an impact.
Who are you? Who are you? Who art thou? And
he confessed and denied. I'm not the Christ. Some of them
must have thought he's the Christ. He said, I'm not the Christ.
I'm the forerunner. I'm just a voice. Who's preaching this morning?
If the gospel is being preached, does it matter? Listen to me. Doesn't matter. I'm just a voice. The next preacher stands here
is just a voice. The one you need to leave here
with this morning thinking about is not me, it's Jesus Christ. If I don't leave you thinking
of him, if you're not impressed with him, either one of us has
got a problem. One of us has got a problem. He confessed, I'm not the Christ.
And they asked him, Then are you Elijah? And he said, No,
I'm not. And he said, Are you that prophet
that Moses said should come? And he said, No. One said, Who
are you then? I'm just a voice. That's all I am. And John, in
his preaching, never changed his message. His message never
changed. No matter the crowd, his message
never changed. Look over in verse... Look at verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. Look down in verse 35. And the next day, after John
stood with two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as He
walked, he said... What did he say? The same thing. Behold the Lamb of God. His message
never changed. He saw Him one day, He said,
that's God's Lamb. The next day He saw Him, He said,
that's God's Lamb. And you know what? Until the day I die, that's
my business. Jesus Christ is God's Lamb. Look
to Him. Look to Him. Now why is He in
prison? Well, in John 3, verse 30, John
said this, He must increase and I must decrease. One of the things that I hope
that happens here is that your estimation and thoughts and love
for Christ will grow and grow and grow. And I'm just one of
you. I'm just the one God put here
to preach. I'm just one of you. He must increase, I must decrease. The ministry here is not to be
built around me. It's built around Jesus Christ,
because me will be gone someday. Henry used to say that. I don't
know how many times he said that over the years, and I listened
to him, and I would say, boy, I hope that doesn't happen. I
hope that doesn't happen. But it did. It did. The day came when he didn't stand
in that pulpit ever again. But Jesus Christ is still the
same. He's still the same. When I'm
gone, he won't be. He won't be. John's in prison. Listen, he's
in prison for his message. Herod heard him. Heard him gladly. Herod did many things. He heard the gospel. John preached
the gospel to that man. They didn't sit around chit-chat
about politics. John talked to him about the
gospel. And Herod, he was listening. But listen, here's the faithfulness
and the honesty of God's preacher. When John's speaking to Herod,
one day he said, it's not right for you to have your brother's
wife. You're committing adultery. He
said, that's not right. Herodias heard that and she got
mad. She wanted to kill him. She wanted
to kill him over the truth. He told the truth, that's all
he did was tell the truth. But I think John... I think John
really had a real interest in Herod. Herod was listening to
him. He was preaching to him. And
he's telling Herod the truth. Herod, you're the king, you're
the governor, you're the ruler, but you're wrong! What you're
doing is wrong! Before God Almighty, it's wrong! I wrote an article not too long
ago, Preaching or Meddling? Do we just stay on some doctrine?
Do we don't touch the lives that we live? Do we not do that? We saw this in Thessalonians,
Thursday. You read it back there in Ephesians
chapter 5 back in the study. It deals with the whole life.
It deals with the whole man. True preaching does. John's in prison for his message.
See, the natural mind is enmity against God. Truth exposes hypocrisy. It exposes
a false refuge. It exposes lies. Truth pierces
the heart and lays man in the dust. It lays him in the dust. And humanity, apart from the
work of grace, don't like it in the dust. He wants on the
throne. He wants where God's at. Now,
humanity wants where God is. We want to be on the throne and
God underneath us. That's why men hate, men and
women hate the sovereignty of God. When you put God on the
throne, that's when you see the knives come out. That's when
you see that the hatred of human nature comes out, is when God's
on the throne. Truth will run a rat out of its
hole. Truth convicts of sin, but listen,
but not always leads to salvation. Not always. Let me show you the
effects of truth. First, when it comes in power,
And then when it just comes, and the person's conscience troubles
them. And the first thing a person
will do is try to justify themselves. Apart from a work of grace, when
your conscience really bothers you, the first thing you'll do
is justify yourself. I guarantee it happens every
time. You'll justify why you do what you do. Turn over to
Acts chapter 2. In Acts chapter 2. Let me get over there. In Acts chapter 2, in verse 36. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus,
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and
the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? We are in trouble. We crucified
the Son of God. We're in trouble. And that's
when Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ, the name of the one you crucified,
for remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost. They were pricked in their hearts, and they were...
Fear struck their heart, and they said, What are we going
to do? We're in trouble. Turn over to Acts chapter 5. Then Peter, in Acts 5, verse
29, Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We
ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. You know, you might
not want to say that, Peter, you're talking to the wrong crowd.
No, I'm talking to the crowd God has set me before. Him hath
God exalted with His right hand to be a prince and a savior.
for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." Now
that's good news. And we are His witnesses of these things.
And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God has given to them that
obey Him. When they heard that, see the other ones heard this,
they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel
to slay Him, to kill Him. Same message. Same message. And the one group said, what
are we going to do? We're in trouble. And he said,
repent. And the other got mad and said,
let's kill them. Let's kill them. The difference? The grace of God. The grace of
God. That's the difference. You know, when Paul spoke to
Felix, remember how he trembled? He trembled. A man's conscience,
man or woman, can make them tremble under the sound of truth. But
that doesn't mean that they've been saved. Salvation is when
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you follow Him, you say,
I want to follow Him in baptism. I want to be identified with
Him. I believe. Lord, I believe. It's what that
Ethiopian said. He said, I believe Jesus Christ
is Son of God. Philip said, whoa, here's the
water. Let's go. Herod's conscience troubled him.
He knew he was wrong, but he didn't like it being pointed
out. You know, I may be ignorant, but you don't have to tell me.
That's his attitude. He's like, I'm wrong, yeah, I'm
wrong, but you don't have to point it out. Well, if you're going to tell
the truth, you do. There is no dancing up here. There's no dancing
up here. This is telling the truth. The law is written on every heart. Everybody knows right and wrong.
Everybody has a conscience. Now, through sin, we can sear
our conscience. We can become so numb that we
don't feel anything. That's called reprobate. You
can't make a sound judgment on anything. Listen to this scripture
in 1 Timothy 4. Now the Spirit speaks expressly
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking
lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot
iron. You know what it is to sear something?
Callous. You make it so hard and so callous
nothing can penetrate it. It's that wayside hearer. and through much sin and stifling
the conscience with excuses, sooner or later, you don't know
right from wrong. You just make an excuse for everything. But notice here the power of
sin. Over in Mark, as I read to you, it says, For John had
said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have your brother's
wife. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him. It would
have killed him. But Herod feared John, knowing he was a just man
and holy. He knew he was a just man. He
knew he was holy. And he observed him. And when
he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. In light
of this, In light of this, Herod killed him anyway." You know why? To save face. He said, I gave an oath, and
I did it with all these drunks sitting here beside of me, because
they were sitting there drinking and carrying on, and watching
Herod's daughter dance and does this All this stupid dance, you
know, she's doing. Not that dance is bad. But what
she was doing was bad. What she was doing was bad. And knowing this, he put him
to death anyway. Two reasons. God let him be Herod,
his wicked self, and God purposed that death. And that death will
rise up in judgment against Herod, Herodias, and those involved. Love of oneself is so strong
that even when men know what they are doing is wrong, they
do it anyway. They do it anyway. Just because he's Herod doesn't
excuse sin and behavior. Not even when it was King David. God said, I put away your sin."
And he did that by dying in David's place, in the person of his son. But being in a high position
does not excuse sin in one's behavior. In fact, it makes it
more responsible. More responsible. Now, back to
John here, and I'll close. John's in prison, and you would
think, and all these I read to you about the apostles dying,
the death, they died. False religion would have people
believe that they're gonna be happy and successful, that God
wants them to be rich and healthy, that life is good. You know,
you got TV that says life is good, that LG. Life is good. Tell John that in prison. Tell
the martyrs that were burned at the stake. Life is good if it's in Christ.
But I'm going to tell you this, whatever God puts you through,
and me, He's doing it to conform us to the image of His Son. And the servant is not above
his master. If my master suffered, I ought
to be glad to suffer. If my master had no place to
lay his head, I ought to be glad to have no place to lay my head. Now, I've never had to do that.
I've never had to do that. But some have. Some have. True
gospel preachers are never popular with the majority. As highly as... You who know Henry, as highly
as you regard him, he was hated in Ashland for many, many years. His kids had a tough time in
school when he began to preach the gospel. When he began to
preach the gospel, they split off from Pollard. He was not
a well-liked man in town. Was John's death untimely or
unfortunate? It was exactly what God ordered.
Exactly. And there's one thing I want
you to notice here. Over in Mark, I read this to
you. In Mark it says, in verse 12, it says, And His disciples
came and took up the body, the corpse. It says, The disciples
came and took up the corpse, and buried it, and went and told
Jesus. They took up the corpse. John has left the building. John
was not there no more. He was with the Lord. To be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord. All they took
up was a dead body. John was alive and well with
Christ. It'll cost you all. Now, I think
you've had a good life, don't you? I have. I've had a good life. The Lord
has given me so much. He's taken care of me so well. But if he desires to take something
that I have, it's his. It's his. All right.