Out living your life.
John the Baptist was cast in the prison because of his preaching.
King Herod had married his brother's wife named Herodias.
And John the Baptist preached publicly against this vile and unlawful relationship.
And for that reason he was arrested and thrown into prison.
While in prison, John began to have some doubts and concerns about who Jesus is and what he was doing.
His doubts worked against his faith and caused him to question the person and the work of Jesus.
Now brothers and sisters, the extent of John's cognitive dissonance should not be minimized.
Is it contrary to any true theory of John's prophetic mission that he should be for once seized with a spasm of doubt?
Great men are not at their greatest all the time.
Paul reminds us that we have this treasure, but it is still in an earthen vessel.
You hear me this morning.
There are sufficient reasons for John's doubt.
Matthew has highlighted the mixed response to Jesus' ministry.
John had ample reason to believe in Jesus, but the delay of Jesus judging sin, John's current imprisonment,
and increasing opposition from the religious leaders has shaken John's confidence.
The honest ones of us worshiping this morning, the honest ones of us this morning will readily admit that there are times when we all experience doubts and fears.
There are times when we wonder about our salvation and about our faith.
During these times, we ask ourselves some pretty deep questions.
Am I really saved?
And if I'm saved, am I really secure?
What if I made a mistake?
What if Jesus is not the only way to God?
What if the Bible is just a book and not the Word of God?
The honest ones of us in here will admit it.
We don't say it out loud.
We don't want to tell anybody.
But deep down in the very recesses of our soul,
if you're honest about what your faith means, there have been days when you've questioned your own salvation.
Serious Christians really take a look at, is this all true?
Is my living in vain?
Is my preaching in vain?
Does going to church make sense?
Does believing God really pay off?
Is this a show?
Or am I here because it's real?
Am I going to heaven?
Is there a heaven at all?
These questions are in the throats of serious believers,
and we are scared to let it out because we don't want to seem doubtful.
But a faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted.
And brothers and sisters, God is not intimidated by your questions.
God is not taken aback by your doubts.
John is saying, I don't really want to give my life for something if it's not true.
John's doubts and the way Jesus deals with those doubts are an example for all of us who are true disciples.
Jesus does not upbraid John the Baptist.
He does not scold nor does Jesus criticize.
Jesus does not get angry because John has some doubts.
Here is how Jesus lovingly answers John's questions.
John's disciples come to Jesus in verses 2 through verse 6,
and they want to know, John sent us to ask you, are you the one?
Are you the one that should come or look we for another?
Jesus does not scold him. Jesus is not angry with that question.
Here is how Jesus answers John's doubts.
He tells John's disciples, go back and tell John the blind see.
The lame are walking.
Leppers are cleansed.
The deaf are hearing.
Dead people are being raised to life again.
And the gospel is being preached to the poor.
Brothers and sisters, if John focuses on the words and works of Jesus,
he will not take offense or be scandalized by the gospel.
It's the word in the Greek scandaliso, which means the gospel is a scandal,
because Jesus is born of a mother without an earthly father.
That's scandalous.
Jesus is talking about he is the son of God, and he's God himself.
That's scandalous.
Jesus is talking about before Abraham was, I am.
That's a scandal to the Jewish people, because Jesus is not saying I'm like God.
He's saying I'm God in the flesh.
And Jesus said, don't be offended by that, because my words and my works speak for themselves.
John, like many of us, fell into the mistaken notion that we are architects of the kingdom
and not day laborers.
We, like John, fall into the notion, the false notion that we are architects and not hired hands.
We think we ought to build the kingdom when God just hired us to work in the field.
They were trying to lay that on Paul and Apollo's.
Paul said, I preached.
Apollo's watered.
But God gave the increase.
It's my responsibility to preach the gospel, not to build Lilligrove Baptist Church.
That's what God is going to do.
My responsibility is to preach the gospel.
It's something like this.
Don't get mad with the mailman, because you get a light bill.
He's just delivering the mail.
Don't get warm with me in the middle of this message, because I'm the mailman, because I'm going to say some stuff here in a minute that's going to upset somebody.
But it's not my gospel.
It's the Lord's gospel.
And if I preach it and you don't hear it, then the blood is not on my hand.
But if I don't preach it and you go to hell, God is going to hold me responsible.
Jesus said, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, because the night is coming when no man can wait.
The one who teaches the truth and responsible for the truth, they just got to teach it.
Brothers and sisters, we are living in some perilous times where men will not endure sound doctrine.
They will heed for themselves teachers having itching ears.
They will join a church that's saying what they want to hear.
They will follow a preacher who is saying what they want to hear.
They want to hear his podcast, because he's not talking by sin.
They want to hear his sermon, because he's not talking about unrighteousness.
I wish I had somebody to help me.
Let's look first of all at John's essential greatness.
Here's what Jesus says about John's essential greatness.
The dispensation of John the Baptist was peculiar indeed.
John stood between the law and the gospel.
He transcended the prophetic office through his unique relationship to the Christ as the Messianic forerunner.
John is the turning point of salvation history, preparing the final fulfillment of God's plan in the person of Jesus Christ.
John is the culmination of the Old Testament and the launching pad for the New Testament.
He is the link between the inaugurated and realized eschatology.
He is in another world between the already and the not yet.
He is the last prophet before the coming of the Christ.
He announces the kingdom, but before the kingdom can be inaugurated, John has been beheaded.
Because he told Herod to his face.
It's wrong for you to marry your brother's wife.
And Herod, who was too much of a weasel to listen to what John had to say, this girl came to a party that Herod threw.
Herodius behind the scene told that girl, when he asked you what you want for dancing naked before him, tell him you want the head of that so and so John the Baptist.
She dances and Herod says whatever you want, ask.
She says I want the head of John the Baptist.
And John the Baptist is beheaded because he preached the truth.
That ought to be a word to those of us who call ourselves preachers and pastors and prophets in this age.
When everybody's speaking well of you, beware of that.
When everybody loves you, beware of that because when you tell the truth, you're going to make some enemies.
If you're trying to live godly in Christ Jesus, you are going to suffer persecution.
I wish I had somebody to help me preach it.
If you stand for something in the kingdom of God, people are going to hate you just because of what you stand for.
Because if they hate it, Jesus, the servant ain't no greater than his master.
John is the prophet who was himself prophesied.
This made him more than a prophet.
Malachi chapter three says, behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me.
Jesus seizes the moments of John's doubts to teach about John's apacal significance.
In posing a rhetorical question three times, Jesus was paying tribute to John's sterling character,
his moral fiber, his natural ability, his spiritual stature, and his unflinching resolve.
Jesus asked three times, what did you go out there to see?
Because what you bring to a thing conditions what you bring away from it.
Y'all miss that?
What you bring to what you see is what you take away from it.
That's why some folk never worship.
They never get excited in church.
They never praise God with enthusiasm.
They never get out of control giving God glory because what you see is what you get.
And if he's not done anything for you because you've not put yourself in the way, then worship is just routine.
But if God has answered your prayers, if God has delivered you from a struggle,
if God has opened the door for you to take care of yourself, when you come to worship, it's not a spectator sport.
I ain't come here to watch you shout.
I didn't come here to watch you get happy.
I'm too busy praising God for myself.
I'm too busy thanking God for what he's done for me.
And I know I must be grateful for that if you don't get anything out of this preaching, I'm not preaching for you.
To God be the glory for the things he has done.
All this singing the choir just got through doing.
Some of y'all looking like a calf looks at a new gate.
Like a little puppy when he's scared to put his foot in the water.
But to those of us who dumped in the water and we've tried God for ourselves.
We know that God is a way maker.
We know God is a provider.
We know God is a deliverer.
We know God is a very present help in the time of trouble.
And so I don't care what you say about me on Facebook.
I don't care how you laugh at how I shout.
I came here to tell God thank you because praise is payment for blessings already received.
He's done so much for me.
I owe him my praise.
I owe him my hallelujah.
What did you come here for?
What did you come to see?
I need one or two more witnesses.
Jesus said, did you come here to see a reed shaken by the wind?
John ain't no weak, unstable, 90 pound weakling.
He's neither fickle nor vacillating.
He's not easily moved by public opinion.
He's not a politician.
He's a prophet.
And the reason many of us who preach can't preach the truth is because we are in the pockets of politicians.
The reason why we can't be a prophet, P-R-O-P-H-E-T is because we are in it for prophet, P-R-O-F-I-T.
You can shake your finger in the king's face if you're getting money at the king's table.
That's why I don't let no politician talk when they come here to lily grow.
Because every other word comes out of their mouth is a lie.
I'm not afraid to say that because everything I get comes from the tithes and offerings of the lily-grove missionary Baptist church.
And so I am free to say what the hell I want to say because I am paid by the people of God who come here Sunday after Sunday to hear me preach.
The wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life.
And whoever does not like that finds you another place to worship.
You gotta be bold to talk like that.
You gotta be a man to talk like that.
You gotta have some people standing behind you who are ready to fight for you to talk like that.
The reason I span out and cry loud is because I got some women in here who will take their heels off.
What you say about my pastor?
Some brothers in here who ain't too safe, they working on their salvation but they're not there yet.
They got something with them if you open your mouth too many times.
You've got to be bold to proclaim the truth of God because you're not looking for favor from men.
John was no reed shaken by the wind.
Jesus said, did you come to see a man in soft raiment?
The literal translation of that text is, did you come to see a man who was effeminate?
John was a rugged 100% USDA prime man.
John was not a sycophant who sided with the rulers but a bold prophet whose pronunciations got him arrested.
Now I want you to get this.
Jesus does not ask, who did you come to see?
He asks, what did you come to see?
Because it is what John stood for that speaks louder than who John was.
That's John's essential greatness.
But then I want you to look with me at his evident discomfort.
The meaning of John the Baptist was mastered by an almost overwhelming consciousness of the sin of his age and the sin of his people.
John saw formalism covering corruption.
John saw dishonesty practicing officialism.
He saw the tyranny of the conqueror and he rebuked it with his preaching.
And those of us who preach the gospel this morning has got to see corruption for what it is.
We've got to see this transgender mess for what it is.
We've got to see pride month for what it is.
We've got to see lying, unrighteous politicians for what and who they really are.
Because the agenda is a backhand lick against the sovereignty of God.
I am not calling you they or them.
I am not calling a woman he.
God made you a woman.
God made you a man.
And anything that denies that is a slap against the sovereignty of God.
Creature, you've got to be bold enough.
You've got to be a member, church member.
You've got to be bold enough to stand up against it because truth without love is abuse.
But love without truth is hypocrisy.
And no hypocrite is going to stand in the presence of God.
They couldn't stand John.
Matter of fact, they couldn't stand Jesus.
Because the same crowd who didn't like John didn't like Jesus.
Because when you read further down in chapter 11, Jesus said,
Well unto shall I liken this generation.
You're like children in the marketplace.
We pipe to you and you didn't dance.
We wailed and you didn't mourn.
We played wedding music and you didn't dance.
We played funeral music and you didn't cry.
We played the DJ played some wedding music and you didn't do the electric slide.
We came to the funeral and brought flowers and sang sad songs and you wouldn't open your mouth.
John was too hard for you.
Jesus is too easy for you.
John is too rough for you.
Jesus is too nice for you.
You can't follow what the crowd say they want.
Because people don't know what they want.
Let me tell you what preaching is.
Preaching is telling you what you don't want to hear.
And then telling you what you don't want to hear again.
Until you want to hear it again.
Can I make that make sense?
Every Sunday you know how I'm going to end my sermon.
I've been doing it the same way 32 years.
And every Sunday you pile in here to hear me say he died.
And you know what comes next?
Early Sunday morning.
He got up from the grave.
Now the only place you go to hear the same thing every time you go is Frankie Bevel his concert.
As a matter of fact you sing the song right along with Frankie.
You come to this church every Sunday because you know I'm going to say he died.
Didn't he die?
Because there's power not in my saying it, but there's power in the act of it having taken place.
He died according to the Scriptures.
He rose on the third day morning according to the Scriptures.
And every time I say it, it reinforces what you already believe.
John saw sin and condemned it.
And for his condemnation of sin, he was thrown in prison.
And in that prison cell, John is about to lose it.
So he sends his disciples to Jesus.
And he said, ask him, are you the one?
Why should we look for another?
Brothers and sisters, I'm through now.
But when the disciples of John came back with Jesus' words that the blind see, the lame are walking.
The deaf are hearing.
Leppers are being cleansed.
Dead people are getting up from the grave.
And the poor have a gospel priest of them.
John had an eager expectation.
David is through.
Because the first time we hear about a lamb is in Genesis chapter 22.
I need somebody who reads the bible to help me shout right here.
Because in Genesis chapter 22, God told Abraham, take your only son, your uniquely born son,
only begotten son and bring him to a mountain that I will show you and sacrifice him on that mountain.
You're going to help me preach this, won't you? And the Bible says Abraham gets some servants
and some donkeys and they are going up to the mountain and and when him and Isaac get to the
mountain of Moriah, Abraham says to the servants wait here while me and the boy go yonder to worship.
Now Abraham is on his way to lay Isaac down to kill him and he calls it worship.
I'm going to get back to that in just a minute. He and Isaac are on their way up to Mount Moriah
and Isaac is now carrying the wood for his own sacrifice. Abraham has a lump in his throat
and a heaviness in his chest because he knows in his mind he's on his way to take the life
of his only begotten son. While they are walking up that mountain Isaac has a thought.
He says daddy I see the wood. I see the fire. But where is the lamb?
Abraham said my son God will provide.
While they are coming up in chapter two of Genesis looking for lamb,
John the Baptist is coming up in John chapter one with the lamb.
Isaac says daddy where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham says God will provide.
While Abraham is saying God will provide, John is getting ready to baptize Jesus in the Jordan
and John will baptize with these words. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
While you are coming up one side with your problem, God is coming up the other side with your answer.
While you are coming up one side with your trouble, God is coming up the other side
with your deliverance. While you're coming up one side with your misery, God is coming
one side with your depression God is coming up the other side with your
sunshine somebody ought to help me close here I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
when it's cold outside I got the month of May I guess you say what can make me
feel this way while I'm coming up with my trouble on one side God is coming up
with my deliverance on the other side I need somebody to help me testify that
there is a lamb who takes away the sins of the world John said are you the one
or should we look for another come on help me answer John with Jesus we don't
need to look for another the one that we need to look for has already come the
one that we ought to have joy in has already shown up the one that we ought
to get happy about was already born in Bethlehem he was already reared in
Nazareth he was already baptized in the Jordan he had already healed the sick
and raised the dead he's already given sight to the blind he's already made
the lame to walk he's already made the dumb to speak and the reason why you are
in here this morning because we know he is the one we don't have to look for
another savior he is the one you remember some years ago
Lewis Farrakhan preached over at the church a pleasant grove on the other
side of the highway and Lewis Farrakhan said if Jesus is your shepherd you need
to look for another shepherd I didn't go to that service I heard that's what
Lewis Farrakhan said but if I had a chance to talk with brother Farrakhan
this morning I would tell him I don't need to look for another shepherd because
I already have the shepherd I've been looking for the Lord is my shepherd I
shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leads me beside
the still waters he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for
his name's sake he ain't gonna walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil for God is with me his rod and his staff they comfort me he
prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies he anoints my
head with oil so that my cup is just running over surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life and when it's all over I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever that song is good going forward is also good
going backwards I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and the reason
goodness and mercy follows me is because he prepares a table before me in the
presence of my enemies and the reason he prepares a table before me is he wants
to anoint my head with oil so that my cup is just running over the reason why
my cup is running over he makes me to lie down in green pastures the reason he
makes me lie down in green pastures is because he's made me come on the still
waters the reason I'm right by still waters is because the Lord is my shepherd
the reason I shall not want because I know who my shepherd is he's Adam's
Redeemer he's Abel's vindicator he's Abraham's sacrifice he's a rock in a
weary land he's a shelter in a time of storm he's a friend when your friend
lifts bread when you're hungry y'all know him don't you he's God's only son he's
Mary's baby boy he's James and Jude's older brother he's Matthew's king he's
Mark's suffering servant he's Luke's great physician he's John's word made flesh
he's acts coming of the Holy Ghost he's the only begotten of the father full of
grace and truth he's the blessed and the only potentate he's the faithful and the
true witness y'all know him don't you he's distinctive in supernatural capacity
he's superlative in sovereign majesty he's exclusive in spiritual beauty he's
radiant in eternal splendor he's matchless in superlative he's the God of
gods he's the prince of princes he's a virus of ten thousand he's a bright and
the morning star he's the rose of Sharon he's the Lily of the valley y'all know
him don't you one Friday on a hill called Calvary he died didn't he die but
Sunday morning he got up from the grave with all power in his hand if you know
him and you're not ashamed to testify if he brought you and you know he's the
one if he's made a way for you and you know he is the Christ if he opened doors
for you and you know he's the redeemer if he's brought you from a mighty long
way and you're not ashamed to testify why don't you look at somebody tell him
he is the one he is the one he is he is he is he is he is he is he's able he's
available he will he can won't he do it I said won't he do it why don't you
grab somebody tell him God will God will
he walks with me he talks with me he tells me I am his own I know it's time
to go I know how to be wrapping up here but I got so much to be thankful for I've
got so much to be grateful for I know it's time for the benediction but he's
opened so many doors he's made so many ways he's answered so many prayers he's
dry so many tears I need a witness this morning I got a story to tell thank you
Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank
you Jesus thank you thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus Thank
I know he's alright
Before
Before I offer the invitation
Here is the most important part of this message
If you forget everything I just said remember this
Jesus said there's not one born of a woman
Greater than John the Baptist
But the least in the kingdom is greater than him
Here is why come on ask me why come on ask
John was a bride groom
We are the bride
The church is the bride of Christ
John was just a bride groom
Ushering the bride
John saw the kingdom from a distance we in the kingdom
John was a herald we are beneficiaries
John saw policies we bought policy
John was a forerunner now you and I are running forth
Trying to tell somebody
Come see a man
Who told me all that I ever did is not this man Christ