In Acts chapter 12, we're going
to be closing out Acts chapter 12 verses 21 through 24. And you can follow me in your
outline under point number 9, point number 9, where we have
begun to deal with the fate of the Antichrist, Herod. As you
guys know, we have been dealing with this for several weeks,
Herod. Here is the son of Herod the Great who sought to kill
the Lord Jesus Christ when he was a baby in fear of his kingdom
being taken over by one who was called Messiah. And now this
Herod has sought to destroy the disciples. He has killed James
and he is now in pursuit of Peter. But Peter is delivered. He escapes,
as we have seen over the last several weeks. And now we are
dealing with the fate of Herod, the fate of a despot, a king,
a ruler over a small region of Palestine. He is a servant king
under the Roman emperor, the empire of Rome. And so he is
not a major monarch, but he does have enough authority to kill.
Obviously he has, for the pleasure of the Jews, killed James and
he wants to kill Peter. And that's what's in his heart.
And we have seen and have considered the theological and redemptive
implications of how political kingdoms ultimately will seek
to thwart, if not hinder altogether, the cause of the gospel, because
the gospel declares Jesus Christ as King. And because Christ is
viewed as King, Every government in the world has every right
to be threatened by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is just
a natural antithesis that occurs when people believe in God and
then people live out of a conviction that God is the highest authority
on planet Earth. The logical consequence is that
if we are people who believe in God, if we have received from
God a revelation that we call the word of God, and we live
by that word, if our culture, if our government, if our society
is falling short of submitting to the true and the living God,
then the government knows that the people of God have a stronger
authority, a greater source of truth by which they have every
right to stand up in opposition against that government. All
governments have that concern. And therefore most every government
that has been on planet earth that has operated under the power
and auspices of the devil has sought to quail, if not altogether
exterminate the children of God, because the children of God pay
total allegiance to King Jesus. Now we have an ethic, as you
guys know, the word of God tells us that we are to obey those
that have the rule over us, and that every government that's
established is established by God, and therefore the rulers
are ministers of God per se. But that's a simplification of
things that are very complex, as you know. When we deal with
the ethic, ethos, of how do we operate in a governmental construct
that actually functions on principles and paradigms, models of government
that oppose the word of God, then we're at odds with that
government. And how we act or respond to
their policies and legislation is going to differ depending
on the nature of the culture, depending upon the relationship
of that government to its people, depending upon the reasonability
of the leadership in that government, and depending upon the giftedness
of the people of God in relationship to its government. This is almost
an aside, but because we are closing out the last few verses
of chapter 12, I want to just kind of sort of cause you to
think this through. In the book of Acts, obviously
the church is coming up against the government, opposing it,
right? Herod is opposing the church, attacking the church.
And what the church is not doing, the church is not taking up arms.
It's not accruing to itself weapons of war. It's not, as it were,
amassing swords and putting together a military to fight the government,
is it? It's not doing that. What is
it doing? It's praying. Scattering in order
that it might live Just like Jesus said that the church should
do in the gospel Matthew Mark Luke and John remember when he
says now when you go out and preach the gospel Into every
city that you go if that city receives you then let your peace
remain in that city in order that you might spread the gospel
in a Context of peace and harmony and unity with the citizens of
that city or that town or that state In other words, the ethic
of the Christian, from a biblical standpoint, is that the fruit
of righteousness is only sown in peace, that the kingdom of
God does not spread by military force or swords or wars on a
political and social level, and that we are not called upon to
go into countries and force them to believe the gospel. That's
not the ethos for missionary work. Missiology does not call
for us to kick in doors and threaten people and subdue kingdoms on
a political level. The people of God paradigmatically
are like lambs. We're there to be a blessing
to cultures in countries. But we're not there to take over.
We're not there to run your government. We're not there to take over
your cultures. We're not there to bring everybody
into subjection to some new political system. Now, granted, we've had
these problems throughout church history, where the church has
actually, in my opinion, overreached its boundaries and overreached
its authority and have, as it were, unjustly involved itself
in political realms that has been to the detriment of the
gospel. You cannot do politics and the
gospel equally without there being some kind of deficit. Church
history has proven that for us. About the most auspicious period
of time that we can look back on where we might say Christianity
had some advancements was the Reformation period of the 1600s,
1511 through 1531, where in Europe, Germany, where Luther made major
inroads in terms of teaching the common people the Bible by
translating it into their own languages. And then gradually
reforms began to occur. And then with John Calvin, as
well, Geneva and France they began to influence the political
structures there So Europe became a model of how the gospel can
influence Persons on a personal level where they develop a stronger
moral base and as such becoming good people Now can implement
secular policies that reflect biblical truth reflect biblical
truth But it's not like we're taking the Bible and saying,
now you're going to become Christians. And therefore, because you are
Christians, now we are a Christian country. That's a non sequitur.
I don't actually believe that. America was never a Christian
country, per se, in that regard. Even though we try to fight for
those titles, I don't believe that that's the case. And I'll
say it like this before we deal with Herod's doom and fate. Whenever,
if we were to, ostensibly create a Christian nation. Do you know
what that nation would be called biblically? The church. Because the church is the Christian
nation. Only the church operates under
the lordship of Jesus Christ and by a constitution that's
been written called the Bible. Only the church is the Christian
state, our Christian nation. We are a peculiar people. We
are God's nation all over the world. So that kingdom is already
established. It already has its monarch. It
already has its authority. It already has his constitution.
It already has its bylaws and ethics for us to live. What we
have been called to do is to live simultaneously as a real
viable kingdom in the midst of another kingdom. So Jerusalem,
which is our paradigm for the church, lives or coexist with
Babylon, which is the secular world system. And the two are
at odds. But the goal of Jerusalem or
the kingdom of God or the church of the living God is simply to
be salt and light in the world with the objective of preserving
humanity until God's judgment comes with the objective of helping
human beings live a better life because they walk under a much
more stable, moral, ethical system. And wherever we are finding ourselves
obeying God's law, we live a better life. And so America has prospered
over its 300 years, 400 years of existence. And Europe has
prospered over its 700 years of existence. 600 years of existence because we
have allowed the Word of God to permeate our body politic
on a personal level. We've allowed churches to be
planted without molesting them or accosting them. We've allowed
the Word of God to have free reign in the marketplace. We'll
talk about that here in a moment. And because the Word of God had
free reign without much tension or opposition from other systems
of religion, then we have seen the prosperity of nations under
a sort of biblical worldview, if you will. But what we are
not saying is that that missiology amounts to creating a Christian
nation. We are not. And so what will
happen is over time, by virtue of the nature of politics and
the changing demographics and the whim of politicians and rulers,
the gospel ebbs and the gospel flows and ebbs and flows. And
where we are here in the 21st century in America, we're in
an ebb, to be honest with you. When we think about America as
a whole, I'm talking about the larger aggregate of America.
It's been now a good 50, 60 years that we have been in an ebb,
a slow ebb, a slow dissipation of biblical influence. And in
the process of the deterioration of biblical influence, that vacuum
has been filled up with radical levels of secularism and all
of their ideological constructs that you and I know that basically
have led to the kind of morphing that our country has now entered
into. Us as well as Europe. We would
call it a departure from God, and it really truly would be.
This is where we are. And at some point, if this trajectory
continues, there will be opposition openly against the Christian
as it is through policies and legislation and in small pockets
around America. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? There will be open opposition because the culture will be conditioned
for that. There will be enough of a of
a cultural majority that will say, let's no longer tolerate
Christian worldviews. If these people do not want to
be Christians who don't have a Bible, well, let's stop them
from having any influence. Let's punish them for their views.
And this is where, if there is anything that is important for
us to try to retain in America, and that is freedom. It's really
important for us to understand the commodity of freedom, even
freedom in a pluralistic context. And what I mean by that is as
much as I want to be free to be able to view and air and express
my opinions, I'm willing to let Islamists do the same thing and
Buddhists do the same things and Hindus do the same thing.
And your new agers do the same thing. And everybody else is
free to voice their opinion. I think that that's the safest
environment to be in. As long as we have enough character
and integrity not to disrespect each other to the degree that
we become fascist, intolerant, and therefore harmful and hurtful.
But this is the problem with politics. Politics is always
creating dichotomies with the objective of making them hostile
enemies towards one another. And this is where Christians
have to be careful not to get drunk on politics because politics
will make you drunk and it will strip you of your moral ethical
values because it will categorize you in a certain, under a certain
title and certain framework where you're part of a certain group
and automatically you're viewed as being against the other group.
And this is where we have to be careful as Christians involved
in politics. Politics is a necessary evil.
Politics has certain virtues. Politics is better than all out
war. Some countries don't have a political
system that's intricate and balanced and promising. And so they're
fighting, and it's tribal, and the majority wins are the most
powerful win, if you will. That's a lack of good policy. But what I am saying to the Christian
is that we have to be careful to not be distracted from God's
ultimate objective for our life. And that is the spreading of
the gospel. And to be able to do that from a biblical standpoint
and in a context of freedom, pursue freedom, pray for freedom,
vote for freedom. Freedom for all because in the
context of freedom What that means is we are allowed to preach
the gospel and share the Word of God Which we believe is the
power of God unto salvation So that no matter what the other
person's worldviews are bring them to the table. Let's talk
about them Let's see whether or not your worldviews hold up
to sound logical principles. I And let's see whether or not
the word of God is able to defend its own propositional truths
over against yours as well. And let's see what the spirit
of God will do in the conscience and hearts of men and women who
are willing to be civil and rational in the theater of debate. Does
that make some sense? I think that that's the only
way. I don't think that you can enforce or legislate morality
on people without that kind of fair open dialogue. You're going
to create people that are resentful of you. It would be no different
than those who want to impose Sharia law. Am I making some
sense? And so in the God's world is
large enough for us all to live here. As long as we respect each
other as human beings is large enough for that to happen. And
then I think in that context, the gospel actually would have
advantage because I do not believe that there's any other truth
other than the truth of the gospel. And all other truths are either
relative truths that have their place under the absolute biblical
truth or they are not truths at all. And they need to be in
a in an appropriate way exposed as not being truthful so that
people can be delivered from error and enter into the kingdom. All right. Enough for that. Point
number eight. Point number nine, the fate of
the Antichrist, Herod as verses 19 through 23. And what we have
began to look at last week was how that in his sitting on his
throne, as we read over in verse 21, and upon a set day Herod,
arrayed in royal apparel, this is Herod Antipas, He was arrayed
in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto
the people. Remember, having been frustrated
that Peter escaped, and having punished his own soldiers, he
now leaves and go to this region of the world by Tyre and Sidon,
as we see in verse 20. And the citizens there are really
beholden to Herod because they owe him. So here he is sitting
on his throne, And he begins to preach to them. That's fundamentally
what oration means. Verse 22, And the people gave
a shout, saying, It is the voice of a God and not a man. And this
is where we began last week to deal with a real problem. And
I think we'll be able to expand on this a little bit. under point
number eight, the fate of the Antichrist. Here, Rob, and we
dealt with the first point last week. His emissaries are condemned.
Point number B, his audience are blasphemers. Would you agree
that verse 23 or verse 22 is describing a blasphemous expression
on the part of the culture? Here's what they say again. And
the people gave a shout saying it is the voice of a God and
not a man. Now, granted, we're dealing with
first century Rome. We're dealing with, you know,
elements of the culture around that region, Palestine and beyond,
where we can say that they are pagan and maybe have a strong
propensity towards deifying men, which was an element, a component
in the Greek and Roman culture. People were deified. You know
that, right? You know, rulers were deified. It was a prominent
thing for the Caesars in Rome to be viewed as gods. I mean,
where we have the term curious, that is the word for Lord for
us. Curious was commonly a term that
was appropriated to the Caesars, and they were to be viewed as
saviors, gods, lords over people, having the ability to kill or
to make alive. And so this is not a large leap
for these people to begin to laud Herod as a god. It is the voice of a god and
not a man. And my conclusion is that this
is an audience of blasphemers. I'm actually quoting Romans chapter
one, verse 19 through 21. And you can look at it with me,
but I'm gonna share with you a few other verses too. What's
going on in Acts chapter 12, verse 22, when the common people
who are human beings, just like you and I are, are calling this
leader, Herod, a God. Romans chapter one, verse 19
through 21 will explain what happens when you and I misappropriate
the real facts of what human beings are and what the conditions
of our society is. Go with me to Romans chapter
one, verse 19. And I just want you to see once
again, what's taking place. Maybe you'll agree, maybe not.
In Romans chapter one, I'm gonna start at verse 18 and then I'm
gonna go through verse 21. Now this is Paul's treaties on
the right for God to punish humanity because of their idolatry. For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Do you guys see verse 18, the
last line? I am asserting that the last line of verse 18 is
exactly what these people are doing when they say it is a God
and not a man. This is the voice of God and
not a man. So let me build my argument just
briefly. These people are not so ignorant
as to not know that Herod is a man who puts his clothes, pants
on one leg at a time, just like you and me. They're not so ignorant
as to not know that they are really pushing the envelope when
it comes to asserting some kind of deification on this man. And
human beings who would engage in this same kind of idolatry
know deep down in their conscious that they are crossing lines.
Now, what God says is even though humanity behaves in a fashion
where they will deify animals and deify God, that is to lower
God and make him something less than what he is, This act of
idolatry on the part of human beings is something that deep
down inside we know we are doing. And so what I am saying is that
what you are about to read in terms of God's reaction to Herod
and to the people is a consequence of God knowing that what the
people are doing is suppressing the truth, holding the truth.
That last line, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. For
those of you who have been part of our Roman series, what you
know is God is indicting all of humanity for living a life
of constantly suppressing the truth. And whenever we do not
tell the truth about a thing, we are taking sides with the
enemy of God and holding down truth, which is pressing up,
pushing up to show itself for what it is. We are holding it
down. I use the analogy because in
the Greek it's this way, it's in the present indicative verb
form. It's like taking a beach ball. Blowing it up full of air
and trying to push it down under the water You only gonna hold
it down so long Eventually that ball is gonna work its way around
and pop up right? That's how God's truth is We
are never Permanently holding God's truth down In his providence. He will allow it to be held down
long enough to expose people to expose every one of us as
to whether our allegiances to truth or not and For instance,
on this occasion in Acts chapter 22, I'm gonna read the other
few verses. We'll go back in Acts chapter
12 rather. They were shouting for a long period of time. It's
not the voice of a man. This is the voice of God. And
they just kept shouting it. It is the voice of a God. It
is the voice of a God. Long chants. You know how crowds
do when they get all frothed up. They just chanting for a
long period of time. It wasn't one time. They constantly
said it. This is the original language.
They were suppressing the truth. Now watch what God says. Because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has
shown it unto them. That's verse 19 God argues that
humanity deep down inside in his conscience knows That he
is wrong and that he is he is hiding the truth and reality
of who God is Because God has revealed it to them verse 24
the invisible things of him that is God from the creation of the
world are clearly seen as That's an argument that God is making,
that if you look at creation, you can know who God is. Being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power
and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, unapologetic,
unapologetic, no apology, no defense, no argument. When you
look at creation, when you look at the universe, when you look
at this vast, vast, seemingly unending universe, What you see
are the marks of an infinite God who created the universe
to reflect his character in nature. People often ask, even scientists,
ungodly men who don't understand the reason for which all things
were made, why would God make a universe that appears to be
expanding by hundreds and millions of galaxies? And then why would
God make mankind to exist on this little small planet called
Earth when we are just a speck in the midst of the massive magnitude
of what appears to be an endless universe? And they're saying
it makes no sense that God would do that. Well, that's because
you're failing to understand why God made it. You're assuming
that God made this universe for you. God made this universe for
himself. That's Revelation chapter four,
verse 11. Now, when we capture that and we begin to understand
the enormity of the universe and the complexity of its makeup
and the exquisite nature of how just our solar system operates
and how everything is so conditioned for life on planet Earth versus
other solar systems, then we begin to understand the wisdom
of God. And then it begins to make sense that God has spoken
to mankind as the pinnacle of his creation and given him a
mind to be able to think like God. It makes all kinds of sense.
What if there are no other human beings on any of the other planets?
There is no reason, therefore, for God to do anything but make
himself known to us in the way in which he does. And because
God has spoken so, so magnificently about who he is, He's the God
that sits on the circuit of the universe. That's a big God. He's the God that encompasses
eternity. That's massive. He's the God
that fills heaven and earth. That's huge. And he gave you
the ability to actually comprehend that proposition I just shared
with you. Go try to talk to your cat like that. He'll look at you and say, more
milk please. God didn't, sorry, God didn't
make me to contemplate Him like that. But He made you and me
to contemplate. He gave us the capacity with
consciousness in mind to so easily and readily meditate upon and
embrace and think through the statements that I've just made
that they are not at all unreasonable, absurd, or even implausible if
you accept the proposition that there is a God. As soon as you
believe that there is a God and you believe in God in the framework
in which he has revealed himself, it makes all the sense in the
world that he would have made a universe like this. God is a magnificent
God and he is so rich in his own personality, characteristics
and attributes. We'll spend all eternity getting
to know God and getting to know the universe that he made. Part
of the promise for the people of God is that upon us being
glorified, we will be able to enter into the fullness of the
things that God made that we should have been able to enter
into prior to the fall. But I have not seen, ear hath
not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man. those
things that God has done for those that have loved him. Just
imagine the possibilities of being glorified, being a partaker
of the divine nature on the level of perfection, and thus being
able to, as it were, peer into and peruse this magnificent universe. Just imagine how exponentially
wiser you and I will be upon glorification when we are brought
into the fullness of being created in the image of God as is the
son of the living God by whom God created all things. Just
imagine what we will be able to enjoy in terms of the full
experience of the universe when once we are out of this prison
called earth in this physical life that's collapsing under
sin. The possibilities are enormous. Having said that, my argument
that what God is about to do to Herod is completely appropriate. One last verse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened,
Let me just read the next two professing themselves to be wise.
They became fools and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like under corruptible man and to birds
and four-footed beast and creeping things. Verse 23 is exactly what
we're seeing done in Acts chapter 12. It is not the voice of a
man but of a God that's verse 23. Can you guys see that they
have changed the glory of the incorruptible God and made it
like a man. Paul will indict that in Romans chapter 17. But
let's go back now and work through the rest of our text, Acts chapter
12, and see how God responds. And we'll touch on this too before
we close out tonight. Acts chapter 12, verse 23. Now watch this. And immediately the angel of
the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory. And immediately The angel of
the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory. This is powerful. In my mind,
I'm thinking of something. Here it is, that's right, here
it is. And I see it in our outline. Under point number nine, the
fate of the Antichrist, point number C, Herod's praise was
his what? It was his doom. Go with me in
your Bible briefly to Proverbs chapter 27, verse 21. I want you to mark this, Proverbs
27, 21. And think about how this proverb speaks to where we are
in Acts chapter 12. Herod enjoyed the praises of
men. He enjoyed their accolades. He enjoyed their adulations and
their accruing to him deity in this context. He enjoyed it thoroughly.
He did not stop it. The chants were going. I could
see them ultimately saying, Herod, Herod, Herod, Herod, losing their
minds because he was standing there soaking it in. Here's a
point that I want us to see, and this is what Solomon says.
Verse 21, as the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold,
so is a man to his praise. As a fining pot to silver, and
also the furnace for gold. So is a
man to his praise. Do you guys get the analogy?
Do you see the metaphor? You have a crucible or a finding
pot and you take silver and you put it in the pot. You put that
silver in the pot to do what? Purge it. You put that gold in
the pot to do what? Purge it. But do you know what
the other word is? It's the word test. You test
it. When you place silver in that
vein, you are testing its quality. When you put gold in that vein,
you are testing that quality. Like silver could be fool's silver,
where the bulk of the silver is really just dross. And the
same thing with gold. It can have levels of impurity
in it that are so massive that all you get is a little kernel
or nugget of gold out of it by the time it's purged. Now mark
this what Solomon is saying is you and I have to be careful
when people praise us Because when they praise us we will discover
whether or not we are fools are wise men and women Whether or
not the praise will have corrupted us or at the least exposed us
for being narcissistic self-centered and as it were The the center
of the universe obviously obviously If Herod were a Christian, would
he have endured those blasphemous words by his audience? Would
he have not said, stop, stop, stop, you're committing blasphemy,
which is exactly what the apostles do in chapter 15 when they wanna
make Paul and Barnabas gods in the city of Lystra. They say,
stop, we're just men just like you. But see, sometimes praise,
And we have to be careful with that commodity because it can
be utilized for good and it can be utilized for evil. Is that
true? Sometimes we can go to the extreme of not praising people
for things that are worthy of acknowledgement. The Bible is
very clear. Give praise to whom praises do. Give honor to whom
honors do. It is an appropriate thing for
us to acknowledge when people have achieved goals. But to go
beyond the boundaries of that which is real and to attribute
to a man that which only belongs to God becomes what? Blasphemy. And so in this context, Herod
was tested and he was found neither to be silver nor gold. There
wasn't an ounce of truth in Herod. There wasn't an ounce of reality
or authenticity in Herod. He absorbed everything they said.
He sucked it in. And as a consequence, God immediately
judged him. Let's go back to our text now.
I can actually share one more insight into the subtle political
inferences that are taking place here. You guys remember back
in verse 20 when Herod, when it says that Herod was highly
displeased with the people of Tyre and Sidon. Remember that?
And so Uh, they came to him with one accord and having made blasted
the King's Chamberlain, their friends, they desire peace of
him because their country was nourished by him. Obviously then
as a ruler, he's coming in and they want to placate him, right?
They want to, as it were, appease him. Well, I, I use the very
politically incorrect term last week. Brown knows anybody know
what Brown knows it is. That's just me. You know, when
you're kissing people's butts because you're trying to get
a favor out of them, that's the whole city here. That's a whole
city here. That's also an intrinsic character
flaw on the part of human beings. It is never appropriate for the
child of God to kiss anybody's butt to get favor. And when whole
cities do it, it means that their morals and their standard of
dignity, self-worth, personhood are already corrupted as well.
And when politicians can move in on you and cause you to buy
into their agendas at the compromise of your principles, It exposes
you as well. And so Jude talks about this
in the book of Jude that they have respect of persons and that
they actually prefer others above others because of men's persons
or respect of persons. It's an endemic problem with
all of us if we're not careful to deal with it appropriately.
You can be working in the office. I'll just use an analogy, we'll
go back. You can be working in the office and everybody in the
office knows that there are a couple of top dogs in the office. This
context can be anywhere. It can be anywhere. It can be
at school, it can be at the job, anywhere. And you've got this
pecking order of people who are in power, are influential, are
supposed to be the man or the woman. And you see how people
capitulate to them, how they kind of kowtow to them, how they
kind of give them favors and speak kindly to them and flatter
them. Child of God, don't ever do that.
And don't ever receive it either. Don't let people tell you something
about you that is not true. Don't let them do it. If they
come to you, say, you know what, man, you're one of the smartest
men in California that I ever knew. Quickly say, do you want
the ground to open up and swallow me up right here? Do not ever
say that again. Do not ever say that again. What? Have you ever left East Oakland? Quickly bring people back to
their sanity. As nice as they're being to you,
flattery worketh ruin. It'll destroy your soul. By the
way, parents, I might as well be pastoral since I'm going to
be gone for two weeks. Don't do it with your kids. See, we
can go overboard either way. We can go overboard of not acknowledging
when they do good. And the kids then take on this
kind of anxiety of always trying to measure up to mom and dad's
expectations, and that can hurt them as well. And that has been
an ethic in our culture years ago when we were more meritocratic.
That is when we believed in meritocracy, hard work for a hard day's labor,
you earn your wages. I believe in that principle.
But there are times in our culture when mothers and fathers were
not as sympathetic and as what we would call in the psych world,
emotionally intelligent, as we should have been. But I think
we've swung to the other end of the spectrum today, where
we basically have turned our children into little demigods,
little gods, where we almost worship them. And we tell them
that they're great and they can never do anything wrong. Little
Johnny is the best thing ever. And their little egos are so
fragile. If you wait five minutes before
you tell them how good they do, they fall apart on you. This
is how you raise a society of people who end up being not only
narcissistic, but levels of addictive behavior patterns and OCD and
all kinds of other maladies occur because they are thinking that
the world revolves around them. And mama and daddy messed that
up. They messed that up. So you want to strike the balance
between letting them know when they've done a good job, but
at the same time, letting them know that you're just a human
being, baby. You're just like the rest of
us. You're gonna have some good days. You're gonna have some
bad days. Achieve your goals, get them and get over it because
that's life. You still have to work your way
to getting to know the true and the living God because that's
the ultimate success. What if a man gains the whole
world and loses his soul? Is he not a failure? Right, and
so we don't wanna teach our children that you live for the applause. You actually wanna teach your
children that they live for the glory of God. And that if applause
come, that they are a by-product of good labors and good deeds
and good works that they do, because they will come. But you
and I don't live on applause. You never wanna live on... In
fact, you can know you're healthy right now. When you think about
applause coming, and the first thing you do is push back on
it in your soul. You push back on applause. It
doesn't mean you're insecure. It actually means you're secure.
So you don't want to end up where Herod is ending up at. We're
going to talk about him in a moment. You don't want to be Herod II
and Herod III. So you're pushing back because
you understand that if I allow applause to become a normative
pattern of absorption, I'm actually going to believe half of the
stuff they're saying, which is not true if you really knew who
I was. Is that true? Interestingly enough,
You and I, if we're gifted at something, if we're gifted at
something, your gift will do a better job for you than your
character deserves. That went over your head. I'll
say that one more time. No, really, it's true. I've seen this all
my life. And this is the problem with us thinking that we are
equal to our gift and we are not. See, God gives us all gifts. He gives us all gifts. And God
actually energizes those gifts to operate for his own sovereign
purpose, both in terms of saved and unsaved people. There are
things that God does managing this world, working through the
lost and working through the saved. It's just true. And he
gives gifts and he takes gifts away based upon how foolish you
act or whether or not you're going to actually give God the
glory for giving you the gift. One of the things we are enjoying
in sports right now, if you are a sports aficionado like your
pastor is, Uh, I appreciate athletes doing much, a much better job
today of openly and boldly declaring Jesus as Lord and acknowledging
that God gave them the grace to do it and the grace to say
it. And they just stand up and say, Hey, God blessed me on that.
When God did that, I give God all the glory. And it's, it may
seem weird for a second to that secular person holding the microphone,
but that's exactly what God wants the Christian to do. That's exactly
what God wants you to do. He wants you to cut the lights
on and give glory to the first calls right away so that those
people do not pour upon you accolades that you know are not true. He
wants you to give glory to God right away. So it's important
for us to see how, in some ways, freedom of speech has been a
real blessing because the name of Christ is being audibilized
in circles that they're tolerating. In sports, they're tolerating
it. And I'm so thankful when that occurs. That's what you
and I should do. Now, what would a Christian look like when he
wins the Superbowl or, you know, wins the Stanley Cup or wins
any sport and reached the top of their level? And the media
says, you did a great job. And then you go on about how
hard you trained and how much you labored and how much you
sacrificed and how you achieved these goals. And you so thankful
for being you. Wouldn't that be a weird interview?
I mean, wouldn't that be a weird interview? We're sitting up watching
you talk about all that you did to do what you did. Would be
something so absent in that commentary that we would all know there's
a big pink elephant in the room. All right, so see, God gives
us all gifts. And those gifts are designed
to honor him. And if we're going to be healthy, make sure that
you don't conflate your gift with yourself. So as the two
to become one, your gift will out, will excel you every time
when you're humbled before God and just accept it as such. That's
just how that works. And so let me see here. Um, let's
go on to verse 21. I think that's what I want to
do now. Look at verse 21, 22. Oh no, we're at 23. Let's deal with
this one. And immediately the angel of
the Lord smote him. And Luke says it's because he
did not give God the glory. So we take that away quickly
up. I'm going to give God the glory every time. I mean, that's,
that's the disposition of my heart. I'm just going to give
God the glory, right? Are you going to do that? You may not
do it audibly if the situation does not allow for it, but in
your heart right away, this is what I meant by pushback. You
push back as soon as they talk about how well you've done and
how good you look it up push back God It was you it was you
Lord. It was you these people may not
understand it, but I do if it had not been for the Lord Who
was on my side? quickly push back in your soul
if you don't have the boldness to just let them know are you
kidding and And then move forward because the Lord smote this man
and notice what the text is So we'll work with this for a few
minutes and then close out on our last point And immediately
the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory and he
was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost. Now, this is a short,
terse little clause that doesn't mean a whole lot to us other
than first and foremost, this was not a natural catastrophe. This was a divine intervention.
where God acted immediately by his angel to smite this man with
a disease that aggressively overtook his body. Now, what Luke is describing
in medical terms in the first century, there were two cases
in the days of Herod, where two other persons were smitten with
the same kind of worms. We would call it cancer today,
but cancer is a generic term, okay? We would call it cancer
today, but there's a legitimate medical term for it. I don't
have it off the top of my head right now, but it's literally
that worms started developing on the inside of his body and
just started, his whole body started rottening from the inside
out, so that worms started coming out of all of his orifices. Any
hole you can imagine, it was coming out. They were eating
him up and Herod died within five days of rot from the inside. Cause you and I know once we
die, we begin to rot, right? And worms take over our body.
And so what the Lord Jesus says about the nature of hell is,
hell is a place of outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing
of teeth and where the worm does not what? Die. So it's speaking
analogously of the continual unending rottening of the body. This has to do with the flesh.
It happened to this Herod and it happened to his father, Herod
the Great, and it happened to a pagan queen of which the early
historical writers made mention of. Herodotus spoke of, Herodotus
spoke of a pagan queen who also was aggressively assaulted by
this kind of judgment. And they were both, along with
this Herod, blasphemous persons who were odious to God. And all
that says is, is that God does punish sin. And so that what
we don't wanna take from this as we begin to move on to our
next point is that Every sickness is God's judgment on us. No.
Every sickness is a consequence of what? Sin. That's right. But
every sickness is not a direct judgment of God from the standpoint
of him being hostile towards us. But every sickness and every
disease, the word is dis-ease, where we're not normal, is a
consequence of sin. Our bodies are breaking down
and then on some cases, it can be much more aggressive and it
can be grotesque. it can be painful, it can be
ugly, and it's designed, in my opinion, to cause us to have
hope in another world. You know, we all, at least we
think we do, we look good. You know, because we're healthy
right now and our bodies are relatively normal, and there's
a generation process taking place where we're renewing all the
time. Our cells are renewing. You guys know that fundamental
biological process. We call it being healthy. Healthy
is when your good cells are renewing all the time, and the bad cells
are diminishing. The good cells are outweighing the bad cells,
and you have what is called relative health. But as we get older,
that cell growth slows down, and so we start to deteriorate.
Second third laws of thermodynamics are setting in right you guys
you guys understand that and then eventually we are in a place
where The bad cells are overtaking the good cells and either we
get cancer or die of some horrible disease That's the consequence
of sin You could be the epitome of the object of God's love and
still have to suffer that plight And again, why does God allow
us to die so that we can have hope in another world and Why
does he allow us to have relatively good health before we start having
really bad health is so that we can count our blessings while
we have good health. Cause our good health is not
guaranteed. So many of us, I, you know, I talk about the summit
all the time. Now, many of us are on the summit. That means
most of us can get hit with bad news anytime you folks understand
what I'm saying. Right. So when I wake up every
day and the bad news hasn't come, I go, hallelujah, Lord. And I can still move my limbs
and play and act around and do what I do and eat and have a
healthy appetite and pray and then sleep well, too, because
sleep is spiritual. I just want you to know sleeping
for for those of you who have guilt complexes about sleeping
Stop having guilt complexes. That's a gift from God to be
able to go to bed at night and sleep for six seven eight hours
I mean solid sleep. I'm talking about cutting down
redwood trees That's a gift from God Are you hearing what I'm
saying? He gives his beloved what? Sleep
see only a few people know those Bible verses Because you know
when our kids are growing one of the things they hate doing
is what sleeping two and three and four You want to make them
take a nap because you know, they need to rest because they
get cranky But boy, they fight the Sandman don't they fight
the Sandman fight him and we be saying don't you understand
son? How good you have it girl. Don't you understand how good
you have it? We wish we could sleep like you And if you can
sleep at night, it's another sign that God has allowed you
a measure of health in that area Because when you and I wake up
in the morning, it is a kind of resurrection from the dead
And there is a newness of life that takes place because you
only have that like this is the only 24-hour Cycle we will ever
have in the universe at any time in all eternity today What we
have today is precious because this 24-hour cycle is all we
got so what you did this morning up to right now is Is what you
made of this one day and you can't do that. You can't do this
day over tomorrow You can do tomorrow like today, but you
can't do this day over tomorrow and you're not gonna do tomorrow
quite like you did today, but if you start to treasure every
day like the lord said treasure every day then you will actually
redeem it and thank God for it. And especially if you have a
day of ease and comfort and joy and a measure of health, you
thank him for it because we could all be eaten by the worms. And
there's a day when we're all gonna give up the ghost unless
the Lord Jesus comes back. Is that true? Yeah, and we have
to learn how to process that too, don't we? We have to learn
how to die for the glory of God, don't we? We have to learn how
to die gracefully, right? Because see, Herod didn't die
gracefully. Now I'm dealing with legend when
I deal with Josephus and Herodotus and others who spoke about Herod,
but what they said was, and this is in the Jewish archives, it
is not biblical truth. So don't quote me as saying this
is what the Bible said. Now I'll get an email by somebody
listening to the study tonight. Pastor, where was that in the
Bible where Herod said, you folks worship me as a God and God saw
otherwise. You folks worship me as a God.
and the true and the living God saw it otherwise. Herod had to
admit that God did not see what those people who were shouting,
it is a God, it is a God. God saw him as a man and he saw
him as a sinful man. And just like the man in the
book of Matthew around chapter 12, who said, let me build bigger
barns so I can store up more riches and enjoy. And he said
to his soul, soul, We get to live large now and that same
night god said you fool This night your soul is required of
you Now whose goods are those that you have labored all your
life forgetting me about didn't somebody tell you you're gonna
die one day fool See what i'm getting at and so for the christian
we have to be very careful to understand that this world is
Our home is not our home. It is a place where we can give
God glory We can enjoy certain temporal benefits, but those
temporal benefits are not guaranteed to exist the next 20 years We
can enter into difficult times as we all do and as some of our
brothers and sisters are now And what is what do difficult
times do for us? They are designed to draw us
closer to God They are designed to humble us before God to get
our priorities straight It even does that for some of us who
are healthy when we have loved ones who are sick Tell the truth
saints when our loved ones are ill Doesn't it humble us? I mean
humbles us like nothing and now we are even a little bit more
careful with our life and careful with god and careful with With
what are things that are really more important than the presumption
we have because we're healthy Well, that's the blessing of
getting sick. Is anyone afflicted among you? Let him pray Let him
pray. Is the heart sorrowful? Let him
sing songs. Is he struggling under the duresses
of life? Let him draw near to God so God
can draw near to him. You see what God says? When all
this stuff starts caving in on you, draw near to God. That's
the wisdom that sickness and affliction does for us. It's
designed for us to draw near to God, not run from God, draw
near to God. God's ears are wide open to the
afflicted, to the to the burden, to the heavy laden. God hears
the cries of the heavy laden when they come to God on the
grounds of who God is. And sometimes God has to do that
for us. Our last point here, and we'll close it down. Let
me see here. We're on point number 10. The
gospel is never bound. This is a kind of a a real oxymoronic
twist on what's taking place in Acts 9. And we'll do this
briefly, and we'll pick up on Acts chapter 13 in two weeks.
Remember now, we're off next week, and we're off the week
after. We will be back, I think, somewhere around the 9th, I think,
Sunday, April 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th. The 10th of April,
we'll be back. Here's how it closes out, verse
24 and 25. Now, Herod was eaten up of worms and gave up the goats,
verse 23, verse 24. But the word of God grew and
what? Multiplied. And Barnabas and
Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their
ministry and took with them John whose surname was Mark. Now, if I were parsing the Bible,
now remember I told you in Greek class that your New Testament
Bible, as well as your Old Testament Bible, are not written in a context
where we have chapters and verses and numbers, right? In the New
Testament, we're dealing with letters, like any letter that
we write. There's form and structure to that, but it's basically a
letter. So our translators have determined to put verse one,
two, three, four, five, and then go to chapter two, verse one,
three, four, five. And several times you will look
at the way they close out a chapter and you go, well, why did they
end the chapter there? That makes no sense. Well, they
have their own reasons, but the reasons are not inspired of God.
So if you think that you have as much good sense as they do,
you can determine where you want the chapter to end or begin. For instance, for me, the chapter
ends with verse 24, not verse 25. Look at verse 24, and we'll close
here. Going back to verse 24, because verse 25 is the beginning
of a missionary journey by Paul and Barnabas that enters into
a whole other beautiful track of consideration. But the Word
of God grew and multiplied. Mark how Luke says that. We're
closing here. What is the basic gist of chapter
12? Chapter 12 is Herod coming down
on the Apostles and the church for preaching the gospel He wants
to stop the gospel from being preached. The Jews want to stop
the gospel from being preached. They have killed James They're
going at the Peter. They want to kill all the Apostles.
They want to stop the gospel Well, I've got news for you.
You can't stop the gospel Verse 24 tells us you can't stop the
gospel The more you try to press that, that balloon down, that,
that, that, that, that, what did I call it? That beach ball.
It's going to pop up. It'll be pressed down for a season,
but it's going to pop up somewhere. It just popped up. Didn't it
just pop up? In our text, didn't it just pop up? But the word
of God grew and multiplied. Now Herod, who was the main emissary
under Satan seeking to thwart the kingdom of God, he's dead.
And Peter's free and the gospel spreading. So there's two fundamental
principles in your outline under this point. And we'll close with
that. The reason why the gospel is spreading is because it can
never be bound. And it's not bound because the
promise that God gives us in Isaiah chapter 55 verse 11 is
that God's word will never return void. Just listen to Isaiah chapter
55 11. You've heard it before but I
want you to see the agricultural analogy used by which the word
of God is said to promise a blessing wherever it's preached. Isaiah
55 11 and then we'll look at one more verse in close for tonight.
Isaiah 55 11. Let me start back at verse 8. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Now, verse
eight and nine should not discourage you. They should actually cause
you great joy because you do not want a God that thinks like
you. I'll leave that there for right
now, okay? I'll get back to that later. The world would be a mess
if God thought like you. God would be a liability to us
if he thought just like you. Are you hearing me? We need a
God who does not think like us. That doesn't mean that we don't
think God starts after him. It does not mean that we don't
have the mind of Christ It does not mean that we don't have intelligent
rational conversation with God and can understand him and him
us and we can dialogue and engage and have deep communion with
one another and Understand each other we do and we can It simply
means that you and I as human beings in our fickle ways Don't
act like God Especially at times when we should act like God You guys follow that there are
times when we don't act like God and that's that's when we're
in our worst but God acts like God all the time and Because
he does you and I get to live and breathe and see another day
Are you hearing what I'm saying? see His thoughts are not like
our thoughts. He lets you and I live because
he's a God of mercy and a God of grace, a God of kindness.
He extends mercy, grace, and kindness long enough for it to
blow our synapses. Why would God be so good? Because
that's who God is. More than that, God can fulfill
his promises. And you and I don't always have
the ability to fulfill our promise. Not only that, not only do we
not have the ability to fulfill our promise, but sometimes we
just plain out don't fulfill it. Is that true? We say we're
going to do a thing and we don't do it. God always comes through.
Aren't you glad he always comes through? Think about it now.
Think about if God acted like you, wouldn't people be in trouble?
They would be in trouble if God acted just like you and me. Now,
I'm setting you up because that's what the analogy is about. Watch
this. Verse six, verse nine. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts
and your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow
from heaven, and both are necessary, and returneth not hither, hither
rather back to the clouds, but waters the earth and makes it
bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sore and bread
to the eater. Do you see the process? Do you
see starting from heaven that God blesses the whole earth with
everything necessary for life and godliness. Do you see the
analogy? Do you see the efficacy of what God does from heaven?
And can you see now why John would say a man can receive nothing
except to be given to him from heaven? And so when heaven pours
down on earth the rich water necessary for the process of
life to take place, God is being good to us. And so his word is
that same way for us. Mark the analogy. Watch it, verse
11. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth It
shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please and it shall prosper in the theme where unto I send
it for you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace
and the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you
into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their
hands instead of thorn shall come up fir trees instead of
briar shall come up myrtle trees and it shall be to the Lord for
a name that is God will get the glory for it. for a name, for
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. You see Isaiah
now is boasting in the immutable promises of God's word to fulfill
itself in our life in an analogy. And so I also quote Matthew 24,
14, and I'll close here. Jesus told the disciples that
this gospel will be preached in all the world to every nation,
and then the end shall come. The reason why the sun still
rises in the East sets in the West, metaphorically speaking,
is because the gospel is going forth. When you wake up tomorrow
morning and you wonder why God gave you another day and why
he gave us all another day, it's because the gospel is going forth.
And when we see next week or the year 2016, how many of you,
if you're old like me, I promise I won't keep you long. How many
of you are just amazed that we are even in the 21st century?
And here's the reason why. Man, a whole bunch of you, y'all
old. I got some old saints in the house. No, do you guys remember
do you if you if you've been a Christian anytime? Do you remember
the 70s and the 80s? We just had come out of the Cold
War and you know, there were lots of instability between Russian
American and China and all that and all of the end time prophecies
going on and how you know, we're on the brink of the tribulation
period in the Antichrist coming and maybe the church will get
caught up. Maybe not. And if if we caught at the movie
theater, maybe we're not going All of those uncertainties. And
then, you know, we heard about 1984 and 1994 and then Y2K. Anybody know what I'm talking
about? All of that. All of that stuff. This is the
year 2015. I'm on my sixth grandchild. I didn't even think I was going
to not see. I didn't think my kids were going to grow up. listening
to the prognosticators with all of their false assumptions about
what they were sure was gonna happen for which they wrote books
and sold books and then readjusted books and sold them again the
next year when it didn't happen. Failing to understand our God,
failing to understand your God, that your God is so long suffering,
so plenteous in mercy, that his view of time is so far beyond
our view of time, though he operates in this time-space continuum
because it's part of his plan. He's not outside of it, but he
transcended. That God is never weary, but
oh Lord, it's 2,000 years now. When they gonna get it right?
For God, A thousand years is as a day. 24 hours. God can easily encompass
a thousand years in a 24 hour. See, infinitude can do that.
When you possess infinitude, when you possess eternity as
part of your nature, you're never in a hurry. Is that true? You're never in a hurry. When
you possess eternity in your nature, you got time to fulfill
your plan. And then coupled with infinitude,
you've got omnipotence. You can make it happen. And then
coupled with omnipotence where you can make it happen, you've
got omniscience. You're very intelligent. You're
smart. And then on top of omniscience with omnipotence and infinitude,
you've got the character of love and virtue and wisdom. You can
do good. for tens of thousands of years.
See now, this is where I jack up all my prophecy buffs. They
get mad at me when I go to talk and the Lord could leave this
world operating for another thousand years. They go to throwing their
books up in pens. Jesse, you just destroying all of our goals
and agendas because God's thoughts are not like yours. See, I get
excited about science stuff, so I'm not going to go there
because I know I'm boring you. But I can see us around another 100,
200, 300 years. Kill me, I'm committing heresy,
I understand that. But I can see it. I can see the church
dealing with human issues 100 years from now with technological
advancements that right now scare us. They scare us when we think
about the capacity and power of what technology right now
is already tampering with and plans on employing as part of
conventional lifestyle. But that's because we fail to
understand that God has already seen it. Do you understand that
the apostles could not have imagined this time you and I are living
in? When John looked down the corridors
of time, I'm talking about the apostle John, in Revelation chapter
17, and he saw this great whore sitting upon a scarlet colored
beast, and he marveled at her because of her beauty and her
splendor and her garb and her dress. He was looking at our
world now. And it blew him away because
she was so spectacular in his eyes. Remember, we're using acrostic
language in the Bible because it was written in the first century,
right? We're not an acrostic language. We're not talking about
21st century terminology. So this woman dressed in all
of this, this garb of royal apparel sitting upon a scarlet colored
beast for John, he was just amazed at her exquisite beauty. And
we know it's a symbol of the world, this fallen world system.
But it is so massively beautiful and alluring even to the men
of God. that had him fixed. He marveled
at it with great admiration. You know what he was seeing?
Our generation. You know what he was seeing? The generation
that's coming after us a hundred years from now. You know what
John was seeing when they rode on donkeys? And they were talking
about the Lord coming back on a white horse. Again, you know,
we're bound by time analogies. He ain't coming on a white horse,
neither is he coming on an F-15 fighter or whatever other jet
you're talking about him possibly flying. These are all metaphors.
But what John saw was the future. And he was amazed at it. But
you and I are not to be so amazed at the future as to not believe
that God is on his throne and that he's still going to see,
I think about this. I think about when we develop
these major sort of cities that are going to be floating out
in space and people living in these massive systems that are
self-contained. They're going to all be living
there because they want to escape the judgment on the earth, right?
The problem is, is going to be human beings on these systems.
And I'm thinking right now, Lord, how would you have us preach
the gospel to them? What technology will we be using
to preach the gospel? Because if they're human beings,
they still need the gospel. It doesn't matter how technologically
advanced we are. Until the last human being is
created, humanity will need the gospel. And wherever human beings
are in their flawed state, sorrow and pain and suffering will be
there. And the only remedy for sorrow and pain is the grace
and mercy of a God whose son was offered up as a substitute
for sinners, by which we could be justified freely by his grace
and have peace with God in our conscious while we're on the
earth and with the promise of eternity forever with him, if
we would just trust him. That will be good news for any
sinner anytime between now and the next 2,000 years. Let's close
in prayer. Father, thank you for this time.
Thank you for my brothers and sisters. As we go our way, give
us traveling mercies, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. God bless
you.