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Guest (Male): Grace is wonderful and free, but it's not easy. Let's talk on Key Life.

Guest (Male): This is Key Life, here to communicate the freeing truth that God's not mad at his children. Steve invited our friend Jerry Perrys to teach this week. Jerry is the pastor of Christian Family Worship Center, House of Grace, and the author of Grace, the Real Good News of the Gospel.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Dr. Jerry Perrys is with us and he's introducing us to the book of Matthew and his friend Matthew, and his bigger friend Jesus. We're looking at some of the themes in this book. Dr. Perrys is taking us through that.

Steve Brown: Jerry, let me read, let me read a passage and then you can teach us.

Jerry Perry: Mhm.

Steve Brown: This is from the 14th chapter of Matthew. I'll start at the third verse, for Herod had arrested and imprisoned John as a favor to his wife Herodius, the former wife of Herod's brother Philip.

Steve Brown: John had been telling Herod, "It is against God's law for you to marry her." Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of a riot because all the people believed John was a prophet.

Steve Brown: But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodius' daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him. So he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted. At her mother's urging, the girl said, "I want the head of John the Baptist on a tray."

Jerry Perry: Mmm.

Steve Brown: Then the king regretted what he had said, but because of the vow he had made in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders. So, John was beheaded in prison and the head was brought on a tray and given to the girl who took it to her mother. Later, John's disciples came for the body and buried it and they went and told Jesus what had happened.

Jerry Perry: Wow. This is such a tragic story.

Steve Brown: It really is.

Jerry Perry: John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin and he was the forerunner telling people that prepare you the way of the Lord. And for John to have come to this demise in his life, Matthew is right about this.

Jerry Perry: This story in the book of Matthew's always intrigued me. It intrigued me because after reading it and getting the revelation from it, I found out that just because it's God, doesn't make it easy.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry Perry: You know, sometimes I hope this bless someone. You can have tragedy in your life as John the Baptist did, and God knows all about it.

Jerry Perry: And somehow or another, he gets you through it, but doesn't exempt you from it.

Steve Brown: So true. You know, another part of that story is that John, when he was in prison, had his doubts.

Jerry Perry: Yes.

Steve Brown: He sent, he wanted to ask, "Are you the real, have I made a mistake?

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: Are you the real one?" His disciples went to Jesus. Jesus said, "Go tell John. Go tell John, the blind can see, the dead are raised, the cripples are dancing." Just tell him, "Be cool."

Jerry Perry: Yeah. But he didn't save him.

Steve Brown: No, he still died.

Jerry Perry: He still died. And that's the thing that, you know, that the Lord showed me in this scripture, that you can pray for being healed, you can ask God, "God, why don't you heal my family? Why don't you heal my my person or my daughter, my son?" And they still pass away, and God says, "I'm still God."

Jerry Perry: You know, and that's why the topic today is, grace is free, but sometimes to receive grace is not easy. Just because it's God, doesn't make it easy. And there are times that God says no when your prayers are being, when you're praying, asking God for a yes.

Jerry Perry: Sometimes he says, "This is not in my will," for whatever reason. And I don't want to sound like a preacher that say, "Oh, I know what God is up to." Sometimes you just don't

Steve Brown: Have no idea.

Jerry Perry: You have no idea. But I want you to be encouraged that you're not the only one that has had tragedy in your life. You're not the only one that things have happened to, and you're not the only one that have felt forsaken when God did not come through. His own cousin had to deal with this, but God was still God.

Steve Brown: Yeah. And was still present.

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: I had a friend, his name was Sam Rowland. I did a, I went around the world with him. He was a cultural commentator and a Christian, a scholar. He taught me some stuff.

Steve Brown: But he called me one time and asked me to pray for his son, who was really sick in the hospital. And his son got well. And he called me and he said, "Steve, he's fine. God was faithful." And then there was dead silence. And he said, "Erase that." He said, "If my son had died, God would still be faithful."

Jerry Perry: Wow, wow.

Steve Brown: Pretty heavy.

Jerry Perry: Yeah. Yeah. And that's the challenge of walking in faith.

Jerry Perry: Is because we've been taught all of our lives, "Take it to Jesus, he'll fix it. Take it to Jesus, he'll make it right. Take it to Jesus, everything will be well." And I was watching a television show the other day and someone was talking about their sister was murdered. I can't remember the show. And it said, "It rocked their faith."

Jerry Perry: They just stopped believing in God. How could God do this? How could God allow this to happen? And there are some people that are listening to Steve that have had some major things happen in their lives.

Steve Brown: Oh yeah, we hear from them.

Jerry Perry: Yeah. And you're wondering how could God allow this to happen? And this is where you have to just trust God when you can't trace him.

Jerry Perry: Sometimes you just got to say, "Father, I believe, but help thou my unbelief." You know, I don't know why, I don't know why God didn't come and rescue his his cousin. I don't know why God did not come and and and take him out of prison.

Jerry Perry: And just let's you know that there are some things that happen in our lives that are not the way we want them to, but God is yet faithful. He is yet there.

Jerry Perry: One more thing. I had a friend of mine whose son died. And he was, he was just, he was really crying and he was just really upset. And he and he cried out to the Lord and he said, "God, where were you when my son died?" And God said to him, "Where were you when my son died?"

Steve Brown: Oh.

Jerry Perry: Oh.

Steve Brown: He says, "I'm in." That's the answer, isn't it?

Jerry Perry: Yeah, he said, "I was in the same place when your son died. I was there."

Steve Brown: Yeah. That was you said when you can't trace. Spurgeon said, "When you can't trace God's hand, trust his heart."

Jerry Perry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: And that's hard sometimes, isn't it?

Jerry Perry: It is. It is. But when you read the word and you don't look for just the victory tour, should I say? Everything is going to be rosy. You can read where God is faithful in difficult situations.

Jerry Perry: God is yet faithful. Because even though John lost his head, he didn't lose his salvation. He didn't lose his place in heaven. He didn't lose his place with God. And this is just a transition from this life to the life to come.

Jerry Perry: So though you may lost someone, they haven't lost you. You will see them again, you will be with them again, and you are going to rejoice with them again if you just keep the faith. Be not weary in well doing for in due season you shall reap if you faint not.

Steve Brown: And and the feigning not isn't something that we do.

Jerry Perry: No.

Steve Brown: It's something he, you know, there's a story about a grandfather who was walking with his grandson and his grandson was holding his grandfather's hand and the little kid kept tripping on stones and falling. And the grandfather said, "Son, let me, let me hold your hand. That'll work better and you won't fall as much." He holds our hand. It's not the other way around.

Jerry Perry: Absolutely, absolutely. And when God has you, you know, Jesus says, "No one can pluck you out of his hands." And and and that's the beauty of this story. It it it's it's tragic from one end, but you know at the very end, God is still there.

Steve Brown: And it's important that we remind people of that because it's so easy to go in the other direction. You know, it's hard to talk about grace and mercy and at the same time to talk about truth and pain and the darkness.

Steve Brown: You know, we don't live in a perfect world. In fact, we live in a fallen world.

Jerry Perry: Yes.

Steve Brown: And God is there and to those who know him, he walks into the darkness with us.

Jerry Perry: Yes. And that's the beauty of it. Dr. Steve, when you realize that God is there in spite of the storm. You know, Romans, the eighth chapter says, "in spite of all of these things, death, life, you know, whatever's coming, persecution, in spite of all of these things, we are still more than conquerors."

Steve Brown: It's so good. You know, we had a guy on our talk show who had Alzheimer's. He'd written a book. We had to do a lot of editing because he was drifting. One of the best interviews we ever got.

Steve Brown: One of the things he told us that I'll never forget. He said he went to the doctor's office and they diagnosed him as Alzheimer's. He said, "It scared me to death." And then he said, "Jesus said to me, when you walk into the mist, I'll walk with you."

Steve Brown: Hey, you think about that.

Steve Brown: Amen.

Guest (Male): That was Steve Brown and our dear friend Jerry Perrys. All this week they've been taking a sweeping look at the book of Matthew and tomorrow we will wrap this thing up. Hope you will join us for that.

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