in number 291, and behold, thou
great Jehovah. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah
Pilgrim through this barren land I am with Thee But Thou, Almighty, hold me with
Thy powerful hand. Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I'm gone no more. Feed me till I'm gone no more. the bridge my strength and When I tread the verge of Jordan,
me and my anxious fears set aside, bear me through. The swelling current, let me
say volcano sigh. Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee. I will ever give to thee. in number 517 on storm jordan
story banks I am bound for the promised land
I am bound for the promised land All who will come and go with
me I am bound for the promised land. All o'er the wide, extended
plain, shall one eternal day their God the Son forever reigns
and shall never die away. I am bound for the promised land Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. No shielding wings nor poisonous
break and I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I'm bound for the promised land. When shall I reach that happy
place and be forever blessed? When shall I see I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. If you have a while, let's turn
please to John chapter 3 and verse 24. I'm just going to read one verse
of scripture tonight, and we'll deal with the rest of this chapter
next week. Let me remind you that Sunday's
the last Sunday of the month. We're having the Lord's table
after the morning service, and I know afternoon service, but
we will have the big dinner, I should say. Soup and sandwiches don't exist
at this place. John chapter 3 and verse 24.
For John was not yet cast into prison. Our Father, we thank
you for grace and mercy. We praise you for your great
scheme of salvation. That you came down here and took
on human flesh, made a little lower an angel than the angels
for the suffering of death, to bring many sons to glory. We thank you for the shed blood,
the perfect death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect sin
offering, for no other offering up to that point of thousands,
yea, millions were offered ever took away a sin, or removed guilt,
or imputed righteousness, or redeemed. But in that one great
sacrifice, He by Himself purged our sins and sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high. We thank you, Father, And
we who know we are sinners, who know our frailty and our weaknesses,
even in our wisest hour cannot plumb the depths thereof. We
know that you count us as without sin, forgiven of all our sins. And you've made Christ to be
unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
And He, our Lord, is our righteousness. This is the name by which He
shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. And we thank You that You did
all that for us. For we know then and that of
ourselves we would have never done anything except to sin against
Thee. We praise You for those who are
sick and lost loved ones, these who are suffering with cancer.
I know it's every case. It is our desire that they be
healed and brought to know Jesus Christ. And if they know him now, I pray
you'll give them peace and comfort for what they must face in the
days to come. Help us, Lord, to remember each
other in prayer. Call out each other's names every
day. Help us, Lord, now to worship you in spirit and in truth as
we consider these things that are before us. in Christ's name,
Amen. Now I'm going to depart from
the exposition of this book tonight just a bit. As I was reading
the text, verse 24 made me think of the dynamic between John the
Baptist and King Herod who was responsible for John's imprisonment. It simply says in verse 24, John
was not yet cast into prison This is early in the days of
his ministry. Herod was a ruthless king and
a vile and wicked man. At the crucifixion of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he joined forces with Pilate, who was his natural
enemy. Herod was the king of the Jews.
They were under the control of Rome, and Pilate was the leader
of the Romans in that area. He was not a king, he was a governor.
But those two were opposed to each other. They hated each other
by nature. But in Luke chapter 23, verse
12, as Christ is being questioned
by Caiaphas and is preparing to go to the cross at Calvary,
it says, And the same day, just after Herod mocked him and arrayed
him in a robe and beat him, The same day Pilate and Herod were
made friends together. For before they were at enmity
between themselves. Why were they friends? They were
both found someone to hate. And the one they found to hate
was the Lord Jesus Christ. They hated him without a cause.
But they became friends. This is the king of the Jews,
Herod, king of Israel, Herod, joining up with his arch enemy
to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ. Now his predecessor, who was
also named Herod, had the same name. At the birth of Christ,
all infants under two years of age were to be killed after he
found out that Messiah had been born in Bethlehem of Judah. Now, this sent Mary and Joseph
into Egypt for about six years, and by the angel orders, they
stayed there until that herod died, and they were told to return
back from Egypt. Look over at Matthew chapter
two. In Matthew chapter two, verse 19. through 21 it says,
And when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared
unto a dream in Joseph in Egypt. Now they've been in Egypt for
about six years. Saying, Arise, and take the young child and
his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead
that sought the young child's life. And he arose, and took
the young child and his mother, and came back to the land of
Israel. That was the first Herod. Now
this is the second one. was esteemed by men. He was held
in high esteem by the Jews. He was evidently a great orator.
He was able to move the masses with his orations. But he had
a bad end, if you will. In Acts chapter 12, Herod dies. In Acts chapter 12, verse 21,
It says this, and upon a set day, Herod arrayed in royal apparel,
sat upon his throne, and make an oration unto them. And the
people gave a shout, saying, it is the voice of a God, not
a man. I mean, they were enthralled
with this guy. And immediately, after the crowd shouted, it's
the voice of God and not a man, and immediately an angel of the
Lord smote him. because he gave not God the glory,
and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost." But the word
of God multiplied. He was eaten of worms, right
there in front of everybody as he was arrayed in his royal robe,
speaking great oration, and listening to the applause of the people,
and wherever the worms come from, probably from inside because
we got them in there. And they ate your way out and
killed him. And because John told Col. Herod
the truth, he got in trouble. Herod had married his brother's
wife, which was against the law for him to do. He had married
his brother's wife. His brother was still alive.
And he married his brother's wife. He was an adulterer. And he called John the Baptist,
because he'd heard a lot about John the Baptist's preaching.
And John came before him. And he said, just preach to him.
And he said, well, I'll tell you the first thing. He says,
you're an adulterer. You're not supposed to be with
your brother's wife. Well, that made his wife really
mad. Herodias made her really mad and Herod imprisoned him
because his wife wanted to kill him. wanted to kill John the
Baptist. And his wife wanted John dead.
And she got her wish later, at a later date, when Harry's birthday,
she asked for John's head on a platter. She did that after
her niece, or her daughter, one, had done a sensual dance in front
of Harry on his birthday and got him all worked up. And he
says, anything you want, I'll give you. She said, well, my
mom wants you to cut off John the Baptist's head. He was in
prison. Cut off his head and bring it to me on a platter,
bring it to her on a platter. And because he was the king and
he made an oath, he couldn't go back on his word. He cut off
John the Baptist's head. Cut off John the Baptist's head,
put it on a platter, and gave it to his wife. Let's look over at Mark chapter
6 at the count of that. Mark chapter 6 verses 21 through
28 says that when a convenient day was come that Herod on his
birthday made a supper to his lord and high captain and chief
of states of Galilee and when the daughter of the said Herodias
came in and danced and pleased Herod and them that sat with
him and the king said unto the damsel ask of me whatever you
will and I'll give it to you It must have been some dance.
Some people say it was the dance of the seven veils. I don't know
whether that's true, but some historians say it was. And he
swore unto her, whatsoever thou shalt ask me, I will give it
unto thee, unto half my kingdom. That was really some dance. I'll
give you half my kingdom. That was a dance. And she went
forth and said to her mother, what shall I ask? And she said,
the head of John the Baptist. That's all. That's what she asked
for. He came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked,
saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger, that
is, a plate or a dish of some sort, the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry.
Yet for his oath's sake and for their sakes which sat with him,
he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent
an executioner handed his head to be brought. And he went and
beheaded him in his prison and brought his head under the charger
and gave it to the damsel. And the damsel gave it to his
mother. That's how John the Baptist died. But notice in verse 26
of this here it says, it records that Herod was exceedingly sorry.
He didn't want to kill John the Baptist. But the seductive dancer
had brought him out of the oath and he had to keep his word.
He was sorrowful because what he Because what he felt concerned
John. He had a relationship with John
the Baptist. John had fearlessly told him the truth and openly
exposed his sin, and it had an effect on the king. That's recorded
in verses 19 and 20. Now you think about the dynamic
here, John the Baptist is just a wilderness preacher. He's got a following,
he's been baptizing a lot of folks, not yet baptized in the
Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 3, but he's He's baptized a lot of folks,
he's popular, and the king wants to hear from him. The king wants
to hear from him. I've seen that happen a lot of
times, when people of power didn't even want to hear some famous
preacher preach, and here he was, he's going to have it. And
he probably figured, you know, he's like most preachers that
come in there, tell him kind of what he wants to hear. And
he stands up and says, you're an adulterer. He says that to
the king. You're an adulterer. It is not
lawful for you to have your brother's wife. Therefore Herodias had
a quarrel against him and would have killed him, but she could
not. The king didn't kill him, put
him in prison. Many years ago, I preached a
message from this verse on how the truth often affects people,
stirs up their minds, but they yet perish in their sins. I can
tell you the number of times I've seen people affected by
the preaching of the gospel. I've seen people emotionally
and intellectually intrigued, and then like smoke in the wind,
they disappear. I remember one young couple that
was under Jim Byrd's ministry that got in through the doctrine
of election, and they liked it. They liked to talk about it.
They were steadfast in their attendance. They attended solemnly
great conferences. They boldly declared what they
heard. Their enthusiasm made me think they were among the
elect. I met them. They were a fine young couple, young married
couple. Then the wife got pregnant and
they had a baby girl. Soon their attendance fell off.
Then they stopped attending worship and finally they just disappeared.
Jim went to see them and they told him that they no longer
believed what he preached about election. because they could
not accept the fact that their daughter might not be one of
the elect. And I suppose that they felt that that would persuade
their daughter to use her free will to assure her salvation.
I thought of them when I read of what Herod felt concerning
John. Look at what he felt, verse 20
of Mark chapter 6. And Herod feared John, knowing
that he was a just man and a holy and observed him, and when he
heard him, he did many things, and heard him flatly. This was
how John or Herod felt about him. He feared John, as far as they
can see. He feared John. Now, being a king, he rightly
should fear no one. His word was law after all. He
feared John because the truth of his adultery could not be
denied. The old adage, conscience makes cowards of us all, stands
true. He feared John because the truth
had found him guilty. The truth had found some kind
of purchase in this man's mind. And that seems like a good thing
as all who are saved by grace know and feel their guilt. That
seems like a good thing. He knew John was a just man.
This does not address the idea or the Bible doctrine of justification
by blood or justification by grace. The word just here means
that he knew John was a man who knew the truth and was not afraid
to speak it. He knew John was honest. He said he knew John
was holy. It doesn't say he was a holy
man, it says an holy man. And this does not address here means separate and speaks
to John being one who dwelt apart in the wilderness and only showed
up to preach about Christ and point out the king's sins. It says that Herod observed John.
This actually means that he put him in prison to keep from killing
him. That's what that means. See, his wife wanted him dead
right at that moment. when he told the king, it's not
lawful for you to be married to that woman. She wanted him
dead. So he put him in prison. Put him in prison. It literally
means he saved him. He saved John from the wrath
of his spouse. And it also says he heard John.
Which means that the words of John stayed on his mind, that
he pondered them and even respected them. And when he heard John,
it says he did many things. Now, he doesn't know what those
things are, but it suggests that he might have tried to make some
adjustments in his life and his behavior when he heard John speak. Maybe he decided to do things
a little different. And this is intimated by him being exceedingly
sorrowful when he had to kill John. Finally, it is said that
he heard John gladly. He heard him gladly. Think about
that now. This perhaps indicates that he had further conversations
with John. And he talked to him perhaps often, maybe went to
see him in prison or invited him out of prison to come and
talk to him. Seems like he might have began to enjoy John's company
for some reason. And maybe this is one of the
many things that he did. The records of John's ministry
were that he told men that he was a voice crying in the wilderness.
That's how he regarded himself always. He was a forerunner of
the Messiah, the Savior. Maybe this was involved in their
dialogue that made Herod hear him gladly, I don't know. By
all appearances, when you read this about Herod and his relationship
with John, by all appearances this account of Herod would classify
him as a candidate for church membership in most of religion
today. Read it again sometime. Think about it. They want this
fella in church. They want him in church. He hears
the preacher. He fears the preacher. He wants
to save the preacher. He counts the preacher a just
man and a holy man and gladly hears him. Now let's sign him
up. Let's sign him up. He's a good fella. He'll fit
right in with the rest of us folks here at church. But we
know that his end, and we know what his end was, he got eaten
by worms. And the reason given for that, according to Acts,
the reason he became the lunch for a carnival of worms was that
he did not give God the glory. He reserved that for himself.
The last phrase of verse 20 reveals the answer. He heard him gladly. The word gladly tells us what
kind of hearer to her it was. When our Lord gave the parable
of the sower, he spoke of a stony ground hearer and described him
as hearing the word gladly. Hearing the word gladly. Look
over Matthew chapter 13. This is the great chapter of
many parables by our Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 13 and
verse 20. He that receiveth the seed into
stony places, the same as he that heareth the word and an
honor immediately with joy receiveth it. That was Herod. He heard the word and he with
joy received it. He heard him gladly. Yet he hath not rooted himself,
but deareth for a while For when tribulation or persecution arrives
because of the word, by and by, he is offended. He is offended. He was on the ground here, receiving
with joy, but in the end he found no purchase in his heart, and
the troubles and tribulations that his wife caused were an
offense. I thought about this. I thought
about preaching the gospel. I can't tell you how many people
says, how long have you been at Sequoia? How long have you
been in Cherokee? I said, 47 years. Preaching gospel
47 years, that brings to a lot of places. Verses like this always make
me pause. I want you to know Christ. I want you to know him
with all my heart. And if you do, be thankful. that the Lord plowed the ground
of your heart and the seed of the gospel found fertile ground
there. Many have been like Herod. They've heard and feared and shown interest, but have
gone away. If the Lord has revealed the
truth to you, it's according to His good grace, His good mercy,
No wonder he says so many times in scripture, be thankful. Be
thankful. Look at Luke chapter 8. Chapter 8 and verse 10. Our Lord
said to His disciples, unto you, it is given to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of God. When He speaks to others in parable
that see Him, they might not see Him. And hearing, they might
not understand. Herod saw and heard He was, in one sense, you might
say, a disciple of John for a little bit. Look over at chapter 12,
I believe. Verse 32. Father bless this understanding
and pray for us.