As I said earlier, this is a
sad, sad story of terrible, terrible wickedness. And now, after this
wickedness, we have the picture of Herod, a man now with a guilty
conscience. a conscience that cannot be calmed
by anything that this world can give. But this wickedness and
his wicked cowardice in murdering this man John, a man he considered
holy and just, is just a foretaste of what was going to happen in
Jerusalem. Soon the Lord Jesus would be declared free from guilt,
by both Pilate and Herod, and yet nevertheless crucified. But at the trial of the Lord
Jesus, Pilate would declare Jesus' innocence, but Herod would mock
and ridicule John's Lord, and yet publicly declare him innocent. The story of Herod is one of
descent from wickedness into greater wickedness. The story
of Herod is written by God the Holy Spirit for us today as a
banner of warning to all who reject the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace. What could have been a source
of great blessing will be for them who reject the gospel a
course, a source of cursing from God, as they are given over to
their wicked hearts leading. And one sin leads to even greater
sins, as hearts and consciences become calloused. There is such
a depth to the well of sin in the hearts of fallen man. And
as it did in Herod's case, it will break out. at times in irrational
hatred and fury. Those who reject the gospel will
be hardened by that same gospel to their eternal ruin. And we
have before us John pictured. He had a ministry A ministry
a man sent from God, and his ministry filled all of Israel
with expectations, and multitudes went out to hear him preach.
And there's a great testimony about John that says that he
did no miracles, but all the things that he spoke concerning
the Lord Jesus were true. John was a faithful witness.
He was a voice crying in that wilderness of religious darkness
that was Israel of that day. And God's servants like John
are bold and honest men. They'll speak the truth of God
no matter what the cost. And it will cost. To be faithful
to the Gospel, to be faithful to the Lord Jesus is promised
to cost you in this world. And to compromise is to pacify
ourselves for our flesh's sake. And it's not to love people as
we think it might be. I ask you to think of one instance
in all of your life where any compromise with the truth of
God and His Word has ever achieved anything. It never achieves anything. Compromise is a poison to faith. And John shows us it is better
to die at the hands of wicked and reprobate men than to compromise
the glory of God. And God's servants will speak
His truth, even if the hearers have great authority in this
world. Herod had authority, in a sense,
authority of life and death over John. But John brought him conviction,
not just of this sin, but of all his other sins. And God's
servants will expose sin as sin. And Herod came from a family
of sinners. He was the vile son of a vile
man. And the Herods were a judgment
on Israel. Israel had these kings, who were
really puppet kings, because Caesar was their real king. But
these men, who were the kings in Israel at that time, were
the descendants of Esau. They were Idumeidians, and yet
they were on the throne of Israel. So the Herod mentioned in this
chapter in Mark is one known as Herod Antipas. And so he's
the son of Herod the Great, who's a Gentile, a descendant of Esau. Herod the Great is infamous for
his cold-blooded atrocities. He murdered the entire Jewish
Sanhedrin because they challenged his authority. He murdered one
of his wives on a whim. He murdered two of his sons,
one just a few days before he died himself, for fear that they
might take his throne. And he had all the male children
in Bethlehem slaughtered in a vain attempt to destroy the Lord Jesus
as a baby. Herod the Great was a vile and
detested man, and his sons were just like him. After his death,
the Roman government divided his kingdom into three parts,
giving three of Herod's sons some authority. Archelaus was
in the southern province of Judea and Samaria, Philip was given
the northern provinces of Trachonitis and Echuria and this Herod Antipas
was given the area around Galilee and Perea. So this Herod Antipas
was a ruthless, shameless, henpecked, lustful man given to every imaginable
evil. He was no less beastly than his
father, only less defiant and less courageous. God himself,
the Lord Jesus, described him as that fox. He was a foxy man. While visiting Rome with his
half-brother Philip and his wife, and Philip's wife, Herodias,
Herod and Herodias became involved in a sordid, public, promiscuous
affair. And when Herod returned to his
province, he married Herodias. But in order to marry her, he
had to betray his brother, divorce his wife, who had been faithful
to him for a long time, and he almost lost his kingdom. His
enraged father-in-law, King Aretas, would have killed him if the
Romans hadn't intervened. And though Herod now, after the
death of John the Baptist, is in his palace, gathered around
him are all these wealthy and influential and prominent people,
He's surrounded by everything that the world thinks would make
life easy and enjoyable. But here we have Herod pictured
as a miserable man. The report of Jesus' fame and
Jesus' miracles had reminded him of John, and it filled him
with terror. He remembered his sin in murdering
John, and this was like a burning fire in his soul that he could
not quench. He saw John the Baptist's head
on a platter day and night. He could not get it out of his
sight. He could not put it out of his mind. Herod was found
out by his sin. He had silenced John the Baptist
by putting him in prison, and then ultimately silenced him
with a sword. But he couldn't keep quiet the
voice, that voice that came from God. And it still rang in his
ears. reverberated through his soul
and screamed in his conscience. And as we speak, Herod is in
hell, still tormented by the memory of that preacher of righteousness
whom he refused to listen to, to heed, whom he beheaded. And so there are at least three
instructive lessons in this part of this story. Firstly, God's
truth is never bound, nor is it silenced, no matter what men
do. The preaching of the Gospel brings
forth fruit, either to eternal life in your soul, or it will
be the fire of hell in your soul forever. As 2 Corinthians says,
it's a savour of life unto life, and death unto death, but it
will not be silenced. And your conscience, all of us
have consciences, all of the world has consciences, and it's
an echo of God's holy law in your soul. People mock and laugh
about holiness and righteousness, but the reality is you can never
erase it from your being. because God says He's put it
there. In Romans 2.14 talks about the
Gentile nations. For when the Gentiles, who do
not have the law, they do not have Moses' law written for them,
do by nature the things in the law, these, although not having
the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law
written in their hearts. their conscience also bearing
witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else
excusing them. I think the conscience is the
most powerful part of our constitution. None of us here have spent time
without having the weight of a guilty conscience bearing down
on us, and the pain and the agony of trying to erase what we know
we have done and felt and thought. It makes the guilty soul uneasy. It's the consciousness of guilt
and sin that causes all men to fear death and judgment and eternity. No matter what they say about
their knowledge of judgment and eternity and God, God says they
know about it. There is no such thing as an
atheist in this world. God says people who call themselves
atheists are just liars. They may have calloused their
minds to the point where they believe that. God says they know. Romans 1 says God says they know
because He has made it plain to them and they understand.
They know about God. They know about judgment. And
they know about eternity. And so did Herod. This other thing that John had,
which Herod spurned, was that there is only one cure for a
guilty conscience. Nothing can satisfy my conscience
except that which satisfies the law and justice of God. When God is satisfied, I can
be satisfied. Nothing can quieten my screaming
conscience but the perfect righteousness and blood atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But it's a wonder, isn't it?
And that's what we proclaim. The Lord Jesus has put away the
sins of His people. He's hidden them. He will not
remember them again. His blood, the blood of the Lord
Jesus, satisfies and silences the screams of my guilty conscience. In fact, the blood of the Lord
Jesus compels my conscience, and I hope yours, to declare
that we are justified. Just turn in your Bibles to Hebrews
9, a wonderful passage in Hebrews 9, and it talks about the sacrifices
in Hebrews 9, 12 and following, the sacrifices
of the Old Testament, which actually cleansed to the purifying of the flesh,
our external cleansings that came from that sacrificial system,
all of which was designed to point to the Lord Jesus. Not with the blood, in verse
12, Christ came as high priest, not with the blood of goats and
calves, but with his own blood. He entered into the most holy
place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. He had it
in his hand, it was his. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
for the purifying of the flesh, which was all those external
ordinance could do, how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot
to God, cleanse your conscience? What a word from God. Cleanse
your conscience. When your conscience screams
guilty, we say yes, and then we run to our Saviour. And God
says, finished. God says, these are holy people. God says, blameless. God says,
beyond reproach. God says, by the death and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, that sin which plagues your conscience, for
those who are God's children is put away by the Lord Jesus. Cleansed consciences only come
from God. And so Herod is now a man without
God, having rejected God, and he is a man who is religious
and superstitious. In verse 15 of chapter 6, he
actually, like the others, joined in this speculation about who
is Jesus, Mark's gospel continues. Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? Who
is this man? And they thought it might be
Elijah. They thought it might be Isaiah.
They thought it might be Jeremiah. They thought some of these men
from the dead had been brought back. And Herod, even though
he was a pagan, and though the Jews did not believe these prophets,
These prophets still troubled those who lived as rebels against
God. Herod, when his guard was down,
acknowledged as matter of fact, matters of fact, that he could
not deny the resurrection of the dead and the everlasting
immortality of his souls. Eternal life and eternal death
are inscribed on your soul. people might pretend that it's
fiction, but when guilt rises in the hearts of men and their
consciences scream at the prospect of death, try as people may,
they will never convince themselves that eternity is a myth. But
Herod's conscience was troubled beyond that of these other men,
and he knew, he thought, what had really happened. Verse 16,
John, whom I beheaded, this is the one. He thought that John the Baptist
had now come back from the dead. Not only had he come back from
the dead, but he'd come back from the dead with powers that
John never had. John never did miracles, but
here we have As Herod thought, John coming back and raising
the dead and then be proclaimed in a way which makes him even
more famous than John. So the Lord Jesus had provoked
this by verifying John's ministry. The Lord Jesus made sure that
people knew that John was a true prophet who'd come from God.
In fact, in Matthew 11 it says there is no one born of a woman
who is greater than John the Baptist. And so Herod trembled
when he heard what the Lord Jesus was teaching, what the Lord Jesus
was doing, and the Lord Jesus' proclamation of His authority. And this guilty conscience of
Herod's kept on plaguing him because he kept saying that John
has been risen from the dead. This is John. Verse 20 is a really
instructive verse because it describes Herod who in so many
ways had extraordinary privileges. Imagine having John the Baptist.
at your beck and call for months and months on end. Imagine him
having him in your care and being able to talk to him at your will.
Mark 6.20 says that Herod was afraid of John. Herod, this great
monarch, this friend of the Caesars, he feared John, a man who was
just but a poor preacher who lived in the desert. wore camel's
hair clothing and ate locusts and honey. And so Herod had this
amazing privilege. And we see some hopeful signs
in Herod's character. Herod respected justice and holiness
because he feared John. He knew that John was a just
and holy man. He respected those attributes
and he especially respected them when he saw them exhibited before
him in the flesh in a man. People might admire abstract
virtues, but Herod actually saw this as a living reality in John. Herod, in fact, saw that John
was actually more the royal man than Herod himself. John's character
made him the true king and this puppet king of Rome trembled
before this man from the desert. So people are established and
estimated according to their character, not according to the
rank they have in this society. God doesn't recognise those things.
And so people need to be warned that we have no need to covet
the honours of this world, for God will make sure that His servants
are honoured enough when their lives are those that are lived
in faithfulness to the Lord Jesus. And Herod, because he respected
John and feared him, he actually for a while kept him safe. He
protected him from Herodias, his wicked wife. And even though
Herod, Matthew's Gospel says, wanted to kill him, he still
protected him. And thirdly, Herod listened to
John. a king listening to a peasant
from the desert. Mostly kings will listen to people
who'll tell them what they want to hear, will speak softly and
wear fine clothes. But John was a rough man, blunt,
plain speaking, and Herod heard him gladly. And Herod responded
to God's word. He responded to the words of
John. He was a changed man in some
sense because he had John in his presence. One of the translations
says that when he heard he did many things, but he was also
a man, possibly he was perplexed or maybe he was made to hesitate. Herod was changed because of
his dealings with John. But Herod loved his sin. He could see a beauty in holiness
but he could not give up Herodias. And Herod not only heard John
and heard him often, he used to enjoy listening to him. He continued to hear John gladly. And John touched Herod's conscience
and Herod made efforts to protect him. For even wicked men admire
people who will tell them the truth. Henry VIII used to like
listening to a preacher called Hugh Latimer, and Hugh Latimer
denounced him to his face. And once he sent Henry VIII on
his birthday a New Testament and a handkerchief on which was
marked the text, whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
But Henry's response was, let us hear honest Hugh Latimer. Bad men, even bad men, admire
those who actually speak the truth. However, unwelcome the
warnings from honest men. They believe it to come from
an honest man and they respect the preacher. But the reality
that these privileges that Herod had actually became the source
of great judgment. Because Herod, as well as having
these amazing opportunities, had extraordinary faults. The
first flaw was that though he feared John, he never looked
to John's master. John didn't want anyone to be
his disciple. John's message was, Behold the
Lamb of God. John's cry to his people was,
I must decrease and he must increase. Spurgeon so rightfully said,
God's servants are only signposts pointing to Christ. They keep
saying, go beyond us, be followers of us as far as we are followers
of Christ, but in no other respect. It is to Christ you must go. The end of all our ministry is
Jesus Christ. We want you to go directly to
Him, to seek pardon from Him, redemption from Him, a change
of heart from Him, a new life from Him. For vain will it be
if you have listened to the most faithful of preachers and have
not listened to the preacher's master and obeyed his gospel. Spurgeon says, you will be Herod's
and nothing more unless grace leads you to Jesus Christ. So Herod followed John and admired
John, but didn't admire John's master. And Herod also had no
respect for goodness in his own heart. He admired it in John,
but there was none in himself. The Lord Jesus spoke so truthfully
of Herod. Go you and tell that fox. Herod was a foxy man, selfish,
full of tricks, timid when he was in the presence of his superiors,
but both cruel and bold when he was in the presence of those
who could not defend themselves. Another mistake of Herod's was
that he never loved the Word of God as God's Word. He admired John and probably
said, this man, that is the man for me. And see how boldly he
delivers the Lord's message. But he never said to himself,
God sent John. God is speaking to me through
John. He didn't hear John's words as
God's words, and John was an honest man. He said, Behold the
Lamb of God, and he cried, The axe is laid at the root of the
trees. He spoke plainly and he spoke
boldly, but he spoke God's words, and to reject God's messengers
is to reject God himself. Herod did many things. He changed,
but he couldn't give up. The one sin which God had specifically
told him was the sin of great wickedness. He couldn't give
up Herodias. She was his own niece and had
been married to his own brother and was the mother of children
by his brother. Yet he led her away from his
brother's house He cast off a good and faithful wife, and these
sins were left to fester in Herod's life. And Herod's religion was
a religion of fear rather than love. It's never said of Herod
that he feared God, but that he feared John. He didn't love
John, he feared John. His whole religion was fear and
superstition. He was not a lion, he was a fox,
fearful, timid, ready to run away from any barking dog. There
are many people whose religion, whose whole religion sadly relies
in fear. Fear of men, fear of what people
might say about you if you don't pretend to be religious, fear
of what other Christians might think of you if you're honest
about yourself. So much of Christianity is driven
by fear. But the mainspring, the driving
force of true Christianity is love, as John did. To love the Lord Jesus and to
delight in Him. To love His gospel of redemption
for fallen sinners. To love the truth of God. To love holiness. To fear death
and to fear hell create poor, poor faith. And often it just
leaves people no better off than Herod. God's people are motivated
and compelled and driven by love, love of God, love of His Word,
love of the Lord Jesus, love of His people. And so all of
these things which could have been for Herod's salvation eventually
just added to his condemnation. The gospel spurned becomes a
curse from God. And God will cast people into
hell where Herod is, and they'll live out in that horrible place
the painful realities of the wickedness of their hearts. Herod
reminds us that no one goes to hell without justice being seen
to be done, without righteousness being seen to have been honoured.
and without God and His warnings being seen clearly by all. To reject God's messenger is
to reject God's Himself. And Herod, I think, is an emblem
of the opposition of the world to God's children. Like the beast
out of the sea in Revelation 13, it's always irrational. They hated me without a cause.
It's always likely to break out in cruelty, and it will horrify
people. I've been reading this week of
some commentaries on the persecution of Christians down through the
ages, and it is horrifying to think that human beings could
behave like that. And yet, that wickedness is bound
up in all of our hearts. Herod went to hell having witnessed
John, having witnessed the Lord Jesus. He went to hell despite
the prayers and pleadings of John. We live in a world where
there has been peace in the Western world. There's relative peace
for Christians. Sadly, so much of that peace
is because we have compromised so much that Christians no longer
rub up against the world that we live in, but so often we're
seen to be part of it. Well, some of it is just an ancient
display like relics in a museum. But God always will raise up
people who will speak the truth, who will speak God's truth, without
fear of what's going to happen. And they will be persecuted.
To live a godly life in Christ Jesus, you will be persecuted. It's a promise from God. And Herod was given over, as
Romans 1 says, to his sins. And his wickedness just led to
more wickedness. and there is his last sordid
crime. If you turn in your Bibles to
Luke chapter 23, it's the last words we have of this Herod in
the Scriptures. and Herod in the providence of
God was down in Jerusalem when the Lord Jesus was being tried
and being crucified. Even though it wasn't his territory,
God took him down there. In verse 23 of Luke, verse 8,
Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus for he wanted to see Him
for a long time because he'd been hearing about Him and was
hoping to see some sign performed for him. So finally his wish
had been granted. And he questioned him at some
length, and Jesus answered him nothing. And the chief priests
and the scribes were standing there accusing Jesus vehemently. And Herod joined in, just like
a fox, absolutely no courage in any situation, but give them
enough other people around and they will stand and be as evil
as possible. And Herod with his soldiers,
verse 11, after treating him with contempt and mocking him,
dressed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. And now Herod and Pilate became
friends with one another that very day, for before they had
been enemies with each other. And then Pilate summoned the
chief priests. Again he kept saying, I find
no fault in this man. I find no fault in this man.
And he'd send him to Herod for Herod to examine him because
Jesus was a Galilean. Then in verse 23, it's extraordinary. Nor has Herod. I find no guilt, says Pilate. Herod says, I find no guilt when
he's in the presence of Pilate. When he's with the priests and
the scribes, he'll mock the Lord Jesus. He'll treat him with contempt
and he'll dress him in a gorgeous robe. And yet when he meets Pilate,
he says, I agree with you, Pilate. He was a fox, Herod, a sad fox. and he met a sad end. After these
events Herodias stirred Herod to claim greater power and Rome
banished both of them to France and possibly Spain where some
say Herod committed suicide. He was stripped of all of his
titles and all of his power. The wonderful thing about God
is that there is perfect justice at the end. Herod has spent these
past 2,000 years in agonizing punishment, surrounded by the
reality that he scorned both God's prophet and God's dear
son. to have been so close to that
spokesman sent from God, to have witnessed the events of the Incarnation. To see the Lord Jesus is to be
the recipient of remarkable privileges for which Herod and multitudes
through the ages and around us today will sadly forever be the
cause of their damnation. They will die in their sins.
God says to us today, today, if you hear his voice, do not
harden your hearts. For Herod and multitudes like
him, there are no more todays. All that is stamped above the
gates of hell are forever. Every time Herod thinks of his
anguish, forever, forever. And also we need to be reminded
this was not the end of John the Baptist. The instant that
sword flashed and severed his head, John the Baptist was in
a place of the most extraordinary bliss. He actually was there
in the presence of his Saviour. John was beheaded, Stephen was
stoned to death, the apostles were imprisoned, tortured and
cruelly murdered. This is the world's thank you
to faithful men of whom the world is not worthy. These men remind
us that our reward is not here. Our rest, our crown, our wages,
our reward is on the other side of the grave. If for this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. John's been resting in the arms
of his Saviour. John has been rejoicing with
the hosts of heaven for 2,000 years. His disciples came, took
away his body and buried it, buried it ready for that great
day which will come soon of the resurrection when John will have
his body back, his real body, his resurrection body. And John,
who has spent all of these years rejoicing in his Lord, will live
like the Lord Jesus in the new creation. He will be rejoicing. The pains and trials and rejection
of this world last for just a little while. We are just here for a
little season. John reminds us, rebukes us,
and encourages us. that it's worth every little
bit of pain and suffering that the world brings us to stand
up for the Lord Jesus in this world, to live for Him in this
world, to delight in Him in this world, to proclaim His praises
in this world and let the world do as it wants to do. Let's just
rejoice in our God and proclaim Him faithfully. Let's pray.