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Now turn with me in your Bibles to Mark chapter 6, and I'm going to be reading from verse 14 through verse 29 in the Gospel of Mark.

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Now the Gospel of Mark was written so that you and I may have an idea of who Jesus Christ is.

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And the bottom line is that we believe in Jesus because of the testimony that is written down.

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But there's something else we've got to keep in mind about Mark's Gospel.

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It is written to believers who were often in fear from persecution.

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And one of the themes that you find in Mark's Gospel is rejection and persecution.

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And today we're going to look at a passage in which a spokesman for the kingdom of God is put to death because he is committed to the truth of the kingdom.

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It is a flashback.

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Herod, the leader, hears that Jesus is doing miracles and he remembers that he put to death John the Baptist and he thinks John has resurrected himself from the dead.

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This passage tells us about the cost of truth.

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Let's give our attention to God's Word.

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King Herod heard about this.

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For Jesus' name had become well known and some were saying John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.

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And that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.

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Others said he is Elijah and still others, he is a prophet like one of the prophets long ago.

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But when Herod heard this, he said, John whom I beheaded has been raised from the dead.

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For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested.

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And he had put him bound in prison.

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And he did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife whom he had married.

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For John had been saying to Herod it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.

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So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him.

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But she was not able to because Herod feared John and protected him knowing him to be a righteous and holy man.

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And when Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled yet he liked to listen to him.

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Finally the opportune time came and on his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.

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And when the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.

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And the king said to the girl, ask me for anything you want and I will give it to you.

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And he promised her with an oath, whatever you ask I will give you up to half my kingdom.

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She went out and said to her mother, what shall I ask for?

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The head of John the Baptist she answered.

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At once the girl hurried into the king with the request, I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

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The king was greatly distressed but because of his oath and dinner guests he did not want to refuse her.

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So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head.

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And the man went, beheaded John in the prison and brought back his head on a platter.

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He presented it to the girl and she gave it to her mother.

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And on hearing of this, John's disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tube.

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Let's pray and ask God to bless his word for us.

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Our Heavenly Father we need your Holy Spirit to work in our hearts this morning to make us receptive to your word.

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May it lead us, guide us, may it mold us so that we are followers of you.

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May we constantly trust in your presence to lead us, protect us, and to guide us to our eternal home.

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Hear us now, O Lord. Amen.

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What do the following have in common?

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Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

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The way to a man's heart is through his stomach and McDonald's is a mom's best friend.

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What do they have in common?

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Well, it's what's important to a particular person.

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It's what they desire, what they think will make them happy.

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Now when it comes to the Christian community we have values too.

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We have values of what we think is important and one value that we should certainly have is truth.

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Now the world doesn't have a very high regard for truth.

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The older I get, the more I find that people lie.

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Forth, they misrepresent the truth. They try to put on airs.

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They try to make themselves seem better than what they are.

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And if you are in one of those situations where you've got to confess up to what you have done,

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people will not tell the truth. They will lie.

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But when you think of Jesus Christ, when you think of the Christian community,

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what you come to your mind is truth.

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We're in the business of truth, aren't we?

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What did Jesus say?

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I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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Jesus was a man of truth.

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And in the Psalms what do we read about what God desires?

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Surely you desire truth in the inner parts.

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And then there are the words of Jesus as well, the truth will set you free.

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But do you realize there are times where if you are a person of truth, it will not set you free?

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In fact, believing in the truth can either cause you a lot of trouble,

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or you will disregard the truth.

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And that's what we want to look at this morning.

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You are to be people of truth, just as Jesus was.

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But here's where the problem is going to come in.

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It could cost you.

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And then you've got a problem.

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You're either going to give up, you're going to act like the rest of the world,

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or you're going to act as Jesus would act.

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That's what we want to look at.

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And as you go through this passage, we've got to look at some characters.

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And here's the first character we're going to look at this morning.

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John the Baptist.

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Because for John the Baptist, the truth won't always set you free if you follow God.

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John the Baptist, he was certainly committed to the truth of God's word,

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and to the kingdom of God.

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From his very beginnings, he was anointed for that purpose.

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Remember, he was a miracle baby.

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Elderly couple, Zachariah and Elizabeth.

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And from the very beginning, he underwent Nazarene vows.

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He was not to consume alcoholic beverages in renunciation of earthly joys.

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He was not to have his hair cut.

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He was to avoid dead bodies.

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He was doing all this so his life would be dedicated to God.

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And telling people what God's kingdom was about.

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And he was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth.

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And if you look at his ministry, what was he doing?

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He is out of the wilderness.

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He is preaching.

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He is telling people to repent for the kingdom of God is near.

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He wants people to come honestly to God.

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And he was out there in his camel hair clothes, his leather belt, eating locust and wild honey.

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A man who looked like a prophet from God.

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And he was with that message, repent.

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And I will tell you, when he preached, he would get in your face.

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Remember what he says to the Pharisees and the teachers?

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What do you guys want?

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You vipers?

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That's pretty cutting, isn't it?

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I guess he didn't take that course on how to win friends and influence people by Carnegie.

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Oh, no, but he was truthful to the kingdom of God.

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And look at what is happening here.

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He is in conflict with Herod Antipas, not Herod the Great.

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And the reason that there is this conflict is over the truth of the gospel.

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And it is because of the situation that Herod was in.

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He was having an immoral, adulterous affair with his brother's wife.

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It says quite plainly in the law of God, in Leviticus chapter 18,

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do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife.

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But that's exactly what he was doing.

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And he put John the Baptist in a prison that was known as one of the worst prisons of the time.

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It was a place of loneliness and it was grimy and it was an unassailable fortress.

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And while he is in that prison, John the Baptist would feel the cold steel on his wrists,

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his ankles, and his neck.

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And he dies because he's being set up.

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Now I want you to know here, Herod somewhat entertained by John.

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He's interested in his message.

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But he's put to death for that message too, because of telling the truth.

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There was a Christian thinker, his name was Blaise Pascal.

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Here's what he wrote,

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Those are weaklings who know the truth and uphold it as long as it suits their purpose.

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And if it doesn't, they abandon it.

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That was not true for John the Baptist.

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Remember what Jesus said, if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you?

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He was being persecuted.

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The Southern author Flannery O'Connor once said,

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The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

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Now it doesn't change if we like it or dislike it, it's still there.

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And for John the Baptist, it will lead to his death.

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Now why do I tell you that this morning?

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Because sometimes in this Christian world of ours, we think if we do the right thing,

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if we are truthful, it will always turn out to go well for us.

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That may not be the case.

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In fact, telling the truth may lead to harsh circumstances.

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It is especially true if you're a Christian and you have to proclaim the gospel in the face of unbelief.

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They will not like you.

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They will reject you.

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And I want you to think, for instance, back in your high school days,

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if you went to the Christian meeting, what was on your mind?

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What are people going to think if I go?

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They're going to label me a Christian.

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And we may think that the best thing to do is just don't go.

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But that is not what God requires.

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Or if you have made a mistake and you tell the truth when you're called in front of your supervisor,

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telling the truth does not always go well.

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And it's not because the truth is wrong.

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It is not because God is against you, but we live in a very fallen world.

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And the truth is not often received well.

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But the question is, are we going to be truthful?

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I heard this story about two chemistry majors at Duke University.

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And they had gone out the night before the exam to another town,

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and they were partying, and they got back too late to take the exam.

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So they went in and they told the professor, well, we had a flat tire.

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Okay, the professor says, I'll give you another exam.

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He put the two students in different rooms.

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Two questions.

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First question was easy.

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You didn't even have to have the chemistry class answered.

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It was worth five points.

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But there was a second question worth 95 points, which tire was flat?

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You can either tell the truth or you can lie.

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That's the choice.

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For the Christian, we have to be committed to the truth.

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The truth may lead to hardship.

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But he's not the only person I want to look at in this passage about truth.

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Let's take a look at Herod, for instance, here.

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Because for Herod, the truth won't set you free if you see it as inconvenient.

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And that's exactly what he was doing.

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Now, let me tell you, Herod's a great center.

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Big center.

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He comes from a very, very dysfunctional family.

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That's what we would call it today.

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His father was Herod the Great.

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His father had five wives.

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He massacred his children at death.

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He ordered the nobility to be killed so that there would be weeping at his funeral.

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And it was said it is safer to be one of Herod's pigs

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than one of Herod's sons.

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Because of how cruel he could be to his own family.

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So this is the environment he was brought up in.

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And I want you to notice here, he violated God's law by sleeping with his brother's wife.

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And then he allows murder.

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Now, I've got to tell you, if you look at him here, look at verse 17, for instance.

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He is uncommitted.

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He did, in verse 17, give orders to have John arrested.

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And he bound him and put him in prison.

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He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married.

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Why did he do it?

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Because of his brother's Philip's wife whom he'd married.

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And you can also look at verse 20 where it says this,

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because Herod feared John and protected him knowing him to be a righteous and holy man.

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And when Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled.

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And he liked to listen to him.

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Let's get the picture straight.

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He hasn't arrested because of Herodias.

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He then listens to him and is interested in the message.

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He's sort of thinking about the message.

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But then what happens?

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Well, he hasn't executed.

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And why does he have him executed?

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Because the situation that we find here, he may have had some pangs of conscience.

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That doesn't stop him.

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Do you realize that there are people who may actually think,

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you know, there's something right about Christianity.

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But they are not willing to do anything about it because it's an inconvenient truth.

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When I was at Florida State University, we had a professor in the Religious Studies Department.

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He was supposed to be very smart.

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He agreed with a lot of tenants of Christianity, but he was never going to commit to biblical Christianity.

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Why? It would have cost him too much.

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His intellectual reputation.

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And he wasn't going to go for that.

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Oh, he believed it.

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But he wasn't going to turn his life over to it because it was an inconvenient truth.

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Just like Aaron, who may have thought, you know, there's something about this message of John the Baptist.

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He's making me think.

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But then there's this party.

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And he's got the first citizens of the realm there.

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And his Herodias' daughter comes out, and she must have done some sort of dancing.

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I think it was probably a very provocative type of dance because princesses are not supposed to dance in front of other people.

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And so she uses that moment to get what her mom wants, which is the head of John the Baptist.

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And now Herod is in a position.

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Do I deny my daughter? Do I make myself look like a fool?

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Oh, that would be too inconvenient.

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And so he has John executed.

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Let's talk about non-believers for a moment.

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Why is it that as much as we try as a church, why is it people don't want to come to Christ?

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Well, we could say it's because the Holy Spirit is not working, and I agree with that.

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But from a purely human perspective, the reason they don't want to come to church,

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the reason they don't want to have anything to do with Jesus Christ is because it's inconvenient for them.

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They would have to give up their sin, and they don't want to do that.

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It's not you.

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It's they're hanging on to their sin too tightly.

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And if that is the case, the truth will not set you free because you don't really want to believe the truth.

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And even in Christian circles, there may be a little bit of Herod in all of us,

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because if there is something that is embarrassing in the Bible, a doctrine that may seem offensive,

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maybe it is the teachings about the Sabbath or human sexuality.

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What might we say? Oh, we really don't believe that because it's inconvenient.

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Back when we were in a Mississippian church, the denomination asked us to do something about abortion in America,

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and there was going to be what was known as the life chain in Laurel, Mississippi,

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where they wanted the Presbyterian church to come.

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So I brought up the issue.

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And for a lot of people in our conservative little church, oh, that was a bit inconvenient.

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What would people think if we go and we protest something that is morally repugnant to God?

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Be careful, brothers and sisters, in Christ.

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The truth can be inconvenient.

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But if we look at Herodias, it's not only that truth is inconvenient.

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It is also the truth won't set you free if you hate the truth.

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And I got to tell you, she's a great sinner, too.

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She obviously is agreeing to this adulterous relationship with Herod.

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She leaves her first husband, manipulates this one.

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She is not a person who is of high moral character at all.

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And look at how she feels about this in verse 19.

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What does the Bible say about her?

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It says this, so Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him,

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but she was not able to.

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Oh, she hated what he was saying.

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She hated the truth.

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She despised the truth and its messengers.

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So what did she do?

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She uses an opportunity that her daughter provided to have of a man of God killed.

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Why?

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Hatred.

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Hatred of God's word.

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Now, you've got to understand this.

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People hate Christianity.

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Oh, I hate to say that.

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I wish it weren't true.

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But if you look at the Bible, it is true.

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What does Scripture say?

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Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come to the light,

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for from that his deeds will be exposed.

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In John chapter 7, it says,

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That the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.

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Throughout the history of the church, people have hated Christianity.

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And why do they hate it?

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Because of the truth.

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It tells them that their deeds may be evil and impugnant to God.

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It may tell them that their life is not what God wants.

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And instead of changing or wanting to know more, what's the reaction?

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Hatred.

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And I dare say that what Christianity is facing in the world today is a lot of hatred.

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A lot of hatred.

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Because of the truth of the Gospel.

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Now, if you're a Christian, let's be honest.

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John the Baptist is in heaven with Jesus.

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But life did not go well for him.

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But he was committed to that truth.

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And as we look at these three different episodes with three different characters,

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where do you fall?

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With John?

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With Herod?

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With Herodias?

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And believe the truth enough that you are willing to follow in the footsteps of Jesus to your own cross.

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Is the truth of Christianity merely inconvenient to you like it was for Herod?

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Or do you hate the Gospel?

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Because it exposes the evil which is in you.

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As we go into the second part of this year,

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keep in mind, my fellow believers,

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the truth, while it is right and pleasing to God and you are required to follow it,

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may not always set you free in the way that you think it should.

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But don't worry.

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God's grace will sustain you.

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Even through the troubles that it can bring.

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Just like it did for John the Baptist.

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He's with Jesus.

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And rejoicing because he's part of that eternal kingdom.

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Let's pray.

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Our Heavenly Father, we ask now, our Lord and our God,

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that you will prepare us for what lies ahead.

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If our commitment to Christ creates problems,

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sustain us and help us to know that your love will not fail us.

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We are guaranteed a place in heaven and the new heavens and the new earth.

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We also ask that if there are those who hate your Gospel

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or it is inconvenient that your spirit will overcome their evil

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and help them to repent and turn to the truth of Christianity.

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I make this prayer in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.