Once again we're in Luke chapter
9 and we'll be concerned with verses 6 through 10 today. And as we looked last week, where
the Lord called his disciples together and gave them power
over devils and diseases and sent them out to preach the gospel
and to heal the sick. And we had this great lesson
that he taught us on total reliance on Christ. He said, take nothing.
And they took nothing except the gospel with them. They didn't
take any food. They didn't take any walking
sticks. They didn't take all those things that we looked at
in the Old Testament that he provided for them. And then later
on in Luke chapter 23, we found out he was testing them when
they got back. He says, well, when I sent you
out, did you lack anything? And they said, No, nothing. So it was a great lesson for
them and for us on total reliance on Christ. Whatever He demands,
He supplies. He's always that way. So today
in verse 6 it says, And they departed and went through the
towns, preaching the gospel, and notice it doesn't give very
much mention really to throwing out devils and healings and stuff,
although we did find that later on in chapter 9 and again later
on in the book of Luke, they were all pretty proud of themselves,
because, boy, even the devils are subject to us, and they were
pretty excited about those things. And yet the gospel is the important
thing. So they departed, went through
the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod
the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him and he was perplexed
because that it was said of some that John was risen from the
dead and some that Elias had appeared and others that one
of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod said, John,
have I beheaded, but who's this of whom I hear such things? And
he desired to see him. And then it goes on to tell about
the disciples when they got back from their, their work and, uh,
and he took them aside. So, but today we're dealing with
this little block of three block, three verse block of scripture
regarding Herod. And, and boy, what a descriptor
of how pernicious are the effects of sin in the fall. And I was
going to, I had originally, I'd planned to kind of move through
this and kind of move on to a little bit different section here in
Luke chapter nine, but While I was kind of reading through
this, I stumbled across this word that just kind of drew me
into it. So we find a word in this portion
of the narrative that just brings out in stark view to the redeemed
of the Lord. Just how damaging, how destructive
are the effects of sin in the fall. And I thought it might
be good to just spend just a quick minute on a little background
on Herod the Antipas who we're dealing with here. Earlier in
Luke we had Herod the Great who was the king over the whole area
when Jesus, in the birthdays of Jesus, and he had tried to
have Jesus killed. Remember from Matthew chapter
two, where is he that is born King of the Jews and all that
narrative that we talk about there. And when he died, his
kingdom was divided by the Romans into fourths and Herod, Antipas
here that we're talking about. He was the Tetrarch. It kind of galled him. They said,
well, your title is going to be Tetrarch, ruler of a fourth. He didn't even get the good country.
He didn't even get the good land. He kind of got the skunky part.
He got the land. He got these two regions here
called Galilee and Perea. Galilee was kind of the area
on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and up in that region.
Then he had this borderland Perea that was the area that encompassed
kind of the east side of the Jordan River about midway down
to the Dead Sea and kind of that area of the Gadarenes that we
talked about in our appointment in Gadara. It was kind of a deserty
region and if you look on it on your Google Earth, it's kind
of really harsh land. So he wasn't too particularly
happy about being in charge of that. Plus, that was an area
that the Romans were always feuding with the Persians. They weren't
successful at it. But they were always sending
troops in there. Whoever had that region there
was responsible for kind of helping supply the troops. So there was
kind of an extra burden on that whoever was the ruler there to
support the armies as they went through there. It was a big expense
and kind of a headache. But if you wanted to advance
in the Roman Empire you had to kind of do your best. Another
task that you were charged with was making sure that there weren't
any rebellions or insurrections in your area that you were in
charge of. So, if you wanted to stay in
the good graces of the Roman Emperor, then you had to kind
of keep things in line. In the background here, it had
been pretty quiet, and then you had John the Baptist coming up. He was preaching in there in
the wilderness around Jordan. Multitudes were flocking to him.
And so that would be cause for concern to a ruler saying, hmm,
all these people are flocking after John and listening to him
and that's kind of scary. And then he had him beheaded. And now he's got Jesus. Same
thing. You know, he's going around doing
all these things. The Lord God Almighty was causing
the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk, and the blind to see. He raised a couple of people
from dead right under Herod's nose, as it were. So, he'd heard
of these miracles. It says here that he desired to see Him. Not because
he desired to be a believer, because, I'd like to see somebody raised
from the dead. I'd like to see some miracle performed. I'd like
to see some lame guy walk or some blind person see. So, you
know, I was thinking about in our government, the president,
he gets a daily briefing every day. Here's what's going on.
And I'll bet you Herod got a daily briefing. Well, here's what Jesus
did yesterday. He healed like a thousand people
that had ailment. Everybody that came to him, he
healed. And he raised a couple people from the dead. and all
these things that he did, and plus he was preaching the kingdom
of God. And we already have a kingdom.
We don't need another kingdom. The Romans are against another
kingdom. So these things are worrisome
to him, but he wanted to see Him. And then this interesting
word comes up, and let's just read from Verse 7, And now Herod
the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him, by Jesus, and
he was perplexed, because that it was said of some that John
the Baptist was risen from the dead, and some that Elias had
appeared. And you know, we find in some
of the other Gospels that he himself said those very things.
He said, I wonder if this is John the Baptist, arisen whom
I beheaded, or is he one of the prophets? And so this interesting
word perplexed comes into play and he desired to see Jesus. And we know by the scriptures
that the intent of Herod and also the religious sects was
being threatened by these activities here. And it was all according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will." We think about all these things that have come
into play. We think of the Roman Empire,
and they're taking over that region, and setting up rulers,
and different governors, and things that came into play, all
according to the Scriptures, all according to the decree of
God. In Mark chapter 3, it says the
Pharisees went forth and straight away took counsel with the Herodians,
those people that were after Herod, against him, how they
might destroy him, Jesus. And in Luke 13, 31, the same
day there came certain of the Pharisees, came to Jesus and
said, get thee out, depart hence, for Herod will kill thee. They
didn't really care. They weren't worried about him
being killed, they just wanted to be rid of him. And they said,
well if we go tell him that Herod's out to kill him, and they knew
that because they plotted. So they said, Herod's going to
kill you, maybe you'll go away and go bother somebody else and
leave our area alone. As worried as Herod might have
been about trouble brewing, he was still curious to see firsthand
some of this miracle business that he'd been reported about. And we find that was still true
even to the time of when Jesus was on trial. Turn with me to
Luke chapter 23 for just a brief second here, and we'll read a
little bit there in Luke 23 verse 4 through 9. Then said Pilate to the chief
priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. And they
were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people. teaching
throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. And
when Pilate heard Galilee, he said, oh, that's Herod's province. Then it's his problem, not mine. It's when Pilate heard of Galilee,
he asked whether the man were a Galilean, and as soon as he
knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to
Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time. And when
Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was desirous to
see Him of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him,
and he hoped to have seen some of the miracles done by Him.
It was kind of like going to Las Vegas to see the show, you
know. Then he questioned with him in
many words, but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests
and the scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And Herod, with
his man of war, set him at naught, and mocked him, and raided him
with a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate there. And
you can read the rest of that narrative. But it does say in
verse 12 that Herod and Pilate that same day were made friends
together. They were made friends together.
They had a common enemy in Christ. Because before that they were
at enmity between themselves. They didn't like each other.
But they didn't like Jesus more. And that was their common thread
there. We read there in Luke 13, 31,
where certain of the Pharisees came and saying unto him, get
thee out, depart hence, for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto
them, you go tell that old fox, behold, I cast out devils, and
I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I'll be perfected.
That's probably not what they wanted to hear. Oh man, not only
is he not leaving, but he's going to do more stuff. So, you know, we find that the
psalmist recorded those things a thousand years before they
transpired in our time. In Psalm chapter 2, Verse one, why do the heathen
rage? They were just raging about Jesus. He's just upsetting the
whole equilibrium of things. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? Why do they imagine a useless
thing? Why do they imagine that they can get rid of the Lord
God Almighty? Why do they imagine they can
get rid and be done with the creator of all things? And the
only answer to the problem that they all have, which was sin.
Why do they imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves.
They set themselves against him. They got ready and they put themselves
in a position of opposition. And the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break
their bands asunder and cast away their cord from us. He that
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them
in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. And he
says, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill Zion. And you know, this very thing
about the kings of the earth, this Herod and Pilate and everyone
setting themselves in array against the Lord, it's quoted. in Acts
the 4th chapter. Acts 4.25 says, Who by the mouth
of thy servant David had said, Why did the heathen rage? And
the people imagined vain things. The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. And then in verse 27 of Acts
chapter 4, they name names. And they say, well, here's who
this was prophesied of. for of a truth. He said that
the prophecy was true that David said against thy holy child Jesus
whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel were gathered together. And it says
you know what they were gathered together. They were gathered
together to do whatever thy counsel before determined to be done
in the councils of the eternal covenant. And so Again, we read
there where Herod and Pilate entered into an agreement with
each other against the Lord. That brings us together today
to the lesson and the word that we were looking at. It just tells
us how this word pernicious that describes sin and fall. That's
not the word we're looking at, but it's just, this tells about
it. It's destructive to the point of causing great injury. It's
destructive to the point of killing. And that's what it means. How
pernicious are the effects of sin and the fall. And one of
those effects of sin is that, that seems to be magnified. You
know, the, The sin and the fall destroyed a lot of our spiritual
ability, but it kind of enhanced some natural tendencies that
we have. One of those is the ability in
a person to rationalize thoughts and behavior and activities and
beliefs. In my Webster dictionary it says,
usually in self-deception. That's what we rationalize things
to our own line of thinking and usually it's in a deception of
ourselves. The Bible says the heart is desperately
wicked and deceitful. Who can know it? And you can't
even know that you don't know it. So you just can't really stress
that enough. The effect of sin is just death, spiritual death,
and it can't be overcome by any physical means. And yet we rationalize
to explain away evidence. the differences between what
we see or what's recorded and what we wish to be true in our
unregenerate state. That's kind of what we do when
we rationalize things. We say, well, there is no God. And if we say that, that means
we deceive ourselves into saying, well, that must be true. If we
say it enough, there's no God. And if I say there's no God,
then What do I have to be worried about? If there's no God, there's
no penalty. There's no sin. There's none
of that stuff. Or we say God, as what they said
in the Old Testament, you're unequal. You don't treat everybody
the same. Well, you know, if you treated
us all the same, we'd all just be charcoal. We would have been
as Sodom and as Gomorrah, except the Lord had left a remnant to
us. We say, I know God is sovereign,
but I have a will. I am more sovereign than he is.
What do they call that, an oxymoron? It's just like saying two stupid
things and trying to make one intelligent thing out of it.
It's just wrong. God is sovereign, and yet just
a period after that. Absolutely. And we say, well,
it's only sin because we call it sin. And we're always re-evaluating
and re-classifying sin in our brief lifetimes that we spent
here on the earth. How much of that has gone on?
Well, things that were pretty bad sins when I was a young guy,
young kid, well, now they're just common everyday occurrences.
And they're just not even looked at. They don't even raise an
eyebrow. And yet the Lord is, you know,
He's long-suffering to us. He puts up with a lot of that
stuff because the last sheep hasn't been brought in yet. As
soon as that happens, it'll be over. So today we're looking
at this word. I want to get back to this word
perplexed that we find in verse 7. Herod was perplexed. And in
the Greek, it's this interesting compound word. And it's formed
from two words, which the first half of it kind of gives the
idea to avoid something because of. You avoid something because
of. And the second word gives you
the idea of no way out. And so Herod was perplexed. Every
day people are bringing him evidence of the Lord God Almighty doing
stuff that no man can do. Of who he was, what was going
on, and yet he says, well what do I do? If I say he's the Lord
God, then what? And I don't want that. If I believe
in the kingdom of God, what about this kingdom that I'm in charge
of? Where does that go? So he rationalizes all these
things away. So, no way out. He didn't have an out. Except,
just saying, it ain't so. It ain't so. So clearly, every
day he had some message about some notable miracle accomplished
by Christ. The disciples ran into the same
thing. In Acts, the church, the Jews said, well, he did some
notable miracle by healing this guy. If we say that was wrong,
then we're against God. And if we allow it to happen,
then more people will go after him. So what do we do? They said,
Okay, we're going to turn you loose, but don't preach any more
in his name ever." And they said, well, you know what? We kind
of have to go with God on that one. They had the same problem,
but no way out. We mentioned all these people
that the Lord talked about in Luke earlier. You go and tell
John what you've seen. The dead are raised, the lame
walk, the deaf hear, the blind see. The gospel is preached to
the poor. devils are cast out in Gadara.
And the most worrisome thing again was though the multitudes
of people going after him. And even most of them were just
after the same thing as he was after. They just wanted to see
some show and not for any spiritual good or blessing. And so in spite
of all the mounting evidence that was presented to him daily
that this Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. His aim was to
have Him killed, and unbeknownst to Him, it was according to the
decrees of the Most High God. And we read that in Acts 4, verse
27-28, For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
has anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles,
the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determine before to be done. And that's
elaborated on in chapter 2 of Acts in verse 23-24. Him being
delivered in our place. He was delivered in our place
as our substitute by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. And you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain whom God hath raised up. The very thing that we celebrate
every Lord's Day. having loosed the pains of death
because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." And
you know what? We find that recorded in Psalms
1610 and Psalm 110. And again, we point out that
there's hardly one single thing that happens in the New Testament
that wasn't written about in the Old Testament. And to people
that say, well, the New Testament is just the gospel and the Old
Testament is just history stuff. Well, Everything that happened
and everything they said is recorded somewhere in the Old Testament
if we just have eyes to see it and we look for it. This perplexing, the evidence
was overwhelming, yet the power of the fallen sin is so great
that it just can't be overcome by any natural means. There's
no way out save one, and that is from saving grace. Turn with
me over to John chapter 14. Jesus said, John 14 6, I am the way. There's no way out, but he said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And the Apostle Paul wrote that
there's no plausible excuse for being perplexed. In Romans chapter 1. Verse 16,
he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, in that gospel,
that's what Romans starts out with, is the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the gospel of his Son concerning Jesus Christ. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith from beginning to end, the total reliance
on Christ. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth and unrighteousness. Those who say there is no God,
there is no sin, there's no judgment, there's no nothing, there's no
salvation, there's no right, there's no wrong. God is not
offended, because we say there is no God. And it says, but in
verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest
in them. They can say all they want to,
but the evidence is clear that there is a God. For God hath
showed it unto them. Now somebody is lying. Either
the scripture here is lying, or the people that are saying
there is no God are lying. It can't be both. God has showed
it unto them for the invisible things of Him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse. You can't look out there and
claim, well, there's no God. This is all a big fluke, big
accident. The creation declares the hand
of the maker. The scriptures are replete with
examples of the results of the fallen, subsequent total unbelief. And we find total unbelief is
just the opposite, polar opposite of total reliance on Christ.
That's just the two things that we have. We are either in one
category or we're in the other. There's no gray middle ground
there as religion would have you. Well, you can believe a
little bit or most stuff, but you don't have to believe everything.
And our pastors always saying, well, how much do you have to
not believe before you're an unbeliever? So in our next segment
in Luke, where he feeds the 5,000 people, Well, it says 5,000 men. It doesn't
say whether that includes women and children or not, but it does
say 5,000 is a lot of people if that's all there was. fed
them with the two fishes and five loaves of bread. We covered
that in one of our previous Bible classes pretty extensively about
that miracle. The classic example of what's
being taught in today's lesson, just as we've seen in previous
lessons, the Lord gives a lesson and then he gives us an application
of it. He gives us an example of it.
In John 6.22, regarding this same block of scripture here
where he feeds the 5,000, in John 6.22, we'll turn over there and read
this real quickly. We'll read from John 6, 22. The day following, when the people
stood on the other side of the sea, saw that there was none
other boat there, save the one wherein two of his disciples
were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into
the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone. Howbeit
there came other boats from Tiberias, nigh unto the place where they
did eat bread, and after that the Lord had given thanks. Tiberias
was a city that Teherad built there on the shore of Galilee. When the people therefore saw
that Jesus wasn't there, neither his disciples, they also took
shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. So they went
over to the northwest shore of the lake there. When they had found him on the
other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest
thou hither? And Jesus answered them and said,
Verily I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. For him hath God the Father sealed. And so he's speaking
to them in spiritual terms. And they said unto him in physical
terms, what shall we do that we might work the works of God?
And then Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of
God. This is his work, not your work. This is the work of God
that you believe on him whom he has sent. And we're kind of going through
Luke chapter 9 here, and we're reading a passage from John chapter
6. Now we're in verse 30. And they
said, therefore unto him, what sign showest thou then that we
may see? Can you imagine that? He just
got through feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread, two
fishes, raised people from the dead, lame walked, blind see,
deaf hear. devils cast out, all these things.
And then they said, well, when are you going to give us a sign?
It's just incredible. What sign show us then that we
may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers
ate manna in the desert, as it's written. He gave them bread from
heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, if
they could just see the gospel in the Old Testament, the bread
of life, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then they
said unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus
said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
But I said unto you that you also have seen me and believed
not." They just wanted the show. They just wanted the physical
aspect of it. You know, it just takes something
more than human means to overcome that. And, you know, religion
is full of, well we want a sign whereby a person can attempt
to obtain salvation before the end. That's what all this eschatology
stuff is about. Well, if we had a sign we'd know
when the end was coming and we could appeal to Jesus for salvation
just in time. Up until then we can just go
ahead and do what we normally do. So, there's no sign given. It takes a work of divine almighty
power and grace rooted in eternal electing love of the Father,
the redeeming sacrifice of the Son in their place, and the Holy
Spirit breathing into them the breath of life. and giving grace
to believe, and having total reliance on Christ for salvation.
The Lord told Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you can't
even see the kingdom of God. Unless you're born again, you
can't enter. You can't enter it, you can't
know it, you can't see it. He tells him in John 6.37, No
man cometh unto the Father but by me. And those that come, he
says, I won't cast out. There are no whys. I cast out
in ourselves. There is no way out. But the
truth is in evidence. And Jesus said, the evidence
is there, but you would not in Luke 13, 34. He says, how oft
would I have gathered you? And you would not. You wouldn't
be gathered. You don't want. You rationalize in a way. Romans
9, verse 16 says, So then it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. For the same
Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, or Herod, as you may interpose
his name here in this same Scripture, even for the same purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
My name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardeneth."
And so, friends, the truth will make you free. So, be free. Until next time when we take
another look at whom say ye that I am.