So we see here in Matthew 14 how that Herod thought that the Lord was John the Baptist. Come back to haunt him apparently because he had had John the Baptist killed. And this is a indicative of how that, Herod being the example sinner, of course, in our text, depraved in his heart, thinking he's God, satisfying the lusts of the flesh with utter disregard for the gospel that John preached to him.

And here, not knowing who Christ is. not knowing who Christ is. He literally didn't know who Christ was. He thought he was John the Baptist. He thought he was just a man. And he was afraid because he thought he was some kind of a ghost man that was coming back to haunt him. His superstition caused him to not know who he was dealing with now.

This is basic also to our condition. I don't want us to think of these things just in a negative sense. The reason that it's important to see that Herod's evil was a nature. It was hatred for God and his word, not just physical lust. the desire to just have what he wanted, no matter what, no matter what God said, no matter what John said, no matter what anybody said, he's just gonna do what he wants to do. That's our natural tendency to be God. Whatever we do in order to express that God delusion that we have is just a symptom of that, of what's going on in here. You shall be as gods. You'll decide what's good and what's evil. God can say what he wants, but you do what you want to do. It's up to you. You have a free will. All of those things. It's just want to be gods. That's what we are. That's the problem.

But our reason for pointing that out is not just to see how bad we are, but to see how desperately we need the Savior. The solution to our problem is not the law. We can obey the law outwardly, and that's definitely not a bad thing, but our problem is an inward problem. Remember what the Lord said to the Pharisees?

You clean the outside of the cup. And by the way, it wasn't that they didn't commit adultery and horrible outward sin. They were just good at hiding it. The cleaning of the outside of the cup didn't mean that they were necessarily moral. It just meant they were good at hiding it. They hid behind their religious authority, the respect that they had among people by using the name of God for their advantage.

But so that's how I want us to see these things and the fact that he didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, that's kind of negative. That's all of us by nature. We don't know who God is, we don't know who Christ is, we've been separated between us and our God.

But the reason we need to know that is to know that the remedy to that problem is atonement with God, reconciliation with God. And sinners are reconciled in that Christ was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Look at that context in 2 Corinthians 5. The subject is reconciliation with God. And in the context of that subject, it says that God doesn't impute His people's sin unto them, but He imputes it to the Savior.

So in order to understand our need and the purpose of the gospel, it's not just a plan. Plans fail. The purpose of God withstands eternity. But remember what the Savior said in Matthew 16. We haven't gotten there in our study yet, but we will soon. But turn over there with me, please, if you would, to Matthew chapter 16. We're just talking about another clear part of the outline here when looking at King Herod. He didn't know who God, he didn't know who Christ was. He didn't know who he was, and neither do we by nature. And that's the problem. All of his outward sin were symptoms of the problem.

Matthew 16, 13, when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I the son of man am? And they said, some say that you're John the Baptist. Herod was one of those. That's why we're here at this verse. Herod was one. He said, you're John the Baptist.

Some say you're Elijah, because Elijah was a great Old Testament figure that had great authority from God. And others, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets, and he said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? The Lord brought this subject up to make a difference, to show a difference, to show that there's a separation, and there's really only two people. Two kinds of people, there's ones that don't know who Christ is and there's those that do know who Christ is.

But whom do you say that I am and Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, you're the one God promised from the beginning, you're the woman seed, you're Noah's Ark, you're the serpent in the wilderness. You're the sacrificial lamb, you're the temple, you're the tabernacle. You're the showbread, you're the mercy seat. the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, you're really smart. You know your theology. Blessed. Blessed. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. He had told them, blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.

It's revealed unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. It's given to you, but to them it's not given. That's why they're saying, this is Herod come back, or this is Elijah or Jeremiah. They couldn't see past the flesh. They couldn't see past their own religious heritage. Blessed art thou Simon Barjona. And notice he didn't say you're blessed with wisdom. He didn't say you're blessed with, you know, an acute understanding, you're blessed with a high IQ. He said you're blessed in this sense.

My father showed you who I am. You see how simple that is? No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." You know how the Lord Jesus Christ reveals who God is? It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. How can you believe on Him of whom you've not heard? And how will you hear without a preacher? And how is anybody ever going to preach the truth unless God sends them? You see why we make a big deal out of this? This is how God saves sinners. He always has. He always has.

Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. My Father showed you who I am. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. Do you know what causes you to be just be like drawn to Christ, like pulled to Christ? Just seeing who he is. If you ever see, he's revealed me to you. He revealed who I am to you. You ever see him, you're coming. Coming. So let's look back at our text to verse five. Verse five in our text. And look a little closer at this. We'll read another passage of this.

When he would have put him to death, He feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she being before instructed of her mother said give me here John Baptist's head in the charger. The king was sorry nevertheless for the oath sake and then which sat with him at me he commanded it to be given her. And he sent and beheaded John.

In the prison. We see here. As we continue to see ourselves inherent, we see there what a fool our sin makes of us. What a fool the great leader. So great in his own mind that he could have anything he wanted. He's reduced by his own foolishness. To be enslaved to the whims of a dancing girl. Sin entices us with what we want, but ultimately will give us what we don't want. Sin promises sweetness, but its end is bitterness.

We see that in several places in the book of Proverbs, but listen to James 1.14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

Herod was sorry. He was sorry. Is that repentance? Some said that Herod did not want to kill John only because he feared the people, and that was certainly part of it. The people counted him a prophet and he didn't want to be crossways to the people. But it doesn't say in verse nine that the king was afraid. It says he was sorry. He was sorry. Turn with me to Mark chapter six. Verse 16.

But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John whom I beheaded, for he is risen from the dead. For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her. For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him, but she could not. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man, and unholy, and observed him.

And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains and chief estates of Galilee. And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in and danced and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, ask of me whatsoever thou wilt and I will give it thee. So again, we see that it wasn't just for the sake of calling Herod out for his adultery.

He considered John to be credible in what he said. It says here that Herodias had a quarrel against him, in verse 19, but Herod, he would never have done this on his own. Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man. knowing that he was a holy man, that the Lord was using him, that he had been set apart by God to do what he was doing. That's what holy is here. And observed him, and when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. Like King Agrippa, who said, thou almost, almost you persuaded me to be a Christian.

So John had ingratiated himself with Herod. And Herod did not want to do this, not just because he feared the people, but because he feared John. And he feared John because there was some fear of God there, but not in grace. But only a fear that comes with the dread of consequence. For he knew from John and from God that he was a sinful man.

But you might also be thinking that Herod loved the truth. He gladly heard the gospel. Yeah, but he loved his sin more. And he proved that, didn't he? Proved that. For Herodias' sake, he rejected the gospel. Well, that's Herodias' fault. No. Only Herod had the authority. to do what he did. Says she couldn't do it, but she tricked Herod into doing it. Sin entices you with what you want, but it will give you what you don't want. Herod shut up the gospel. He put Herod in prison. So that that which he had heard gladly before, he didn't want to hear it anymore because now his sin is revealed. To whatever extent, not in a saving way, but God showed him something of what he was.

You see, everybody agrees with doctrine when it makes sense. But when it comes home to you. You're going to get mad or real glad one of the two. You're going to get mad because Christ is a rival to your God delusion, or you're going to get glad because you're going to see God's glory in the face of his son.

How many men have turned their back on the truth? And I speak from first-hand experience on this. because their wives loved the church. They loved church. All their friends were there, but they just didn't have any interest in the gospel. They were offended by the gospel, or vice versa. Women, for the sake of their husbands, shut up the gospel. put him in prison, shut him up. No more of that. It just got personal. I don't wanna hear that I'm not God. I don't wanna hear that I can't do what I want.

Sin always brings sorrow, wherever it is. Psalm 38, 17, for I am ready to halt. and my sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare mine iniquity. When God shows you the truth, you can't hide it. He shows you that you can't hide it. If he doesn't show you that, you'll try to hide it. There's a lot of hiding places from the truth. Church is probably the biggest one.

Religion. And then David said this, I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. There's two different kinds of sorrow in this regard when it comes to sin, they're sorry that you got found out. Like Judas. And then they're sorry that you are what you are before God. Godly sorrow, it's called in the scripture, godly sorrow. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Why? Because of my sin and yours, not his. He bore our sins and our sorrows. He suffered for my sin all of his life, not just on Calvary. And then he bore all of my sins on the cross. and was punished by God the Father for them in my place. But Herod wasn't sorry because he was a sinner. He wasn't the publican that came in to the temple and came before the mercy seat and beat upon his breast and would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven. He was sorry because of the result of his sin. He was sorry that John the Baptist was killed because he had a personal affiliation with him. But he wasn't sorry for his sin that caused it.

Like Judas, he was revealed to maybe be the greatest fool of all fools when he took 30 pieces of silver for the Son of God. My dad taught me a poem, I guess probably 40, 45 years ago or more, that's always stuck with me, and it's a good one to remember. It goes like this. Still as in days of old, men by themselves are priced. For 30 pieces of silver, Judas sold himself, not Christ.

He sold his own soul. to betray the Son of God. Judas was sorry. He was sorry. Matthew 27, 3, Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself. When he saw the consequences of his sin, he repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.

And they said, what is that to us? Seeth out of that that's your problem And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself Sin always brings sorrow it promises All that you want And deliver sorrow And regret And ultimately death The price for Judas for betraying the innocent blood was 30 pieces of silver. But that innocent blood he shed, he was guilty of in the sense of the role that he played in it. That blood was the price of redemption for my soul.

What a fool for 30 pieces of silver Truly it is the fool who has said in his heart, no God, no God. And the scripture says also that repentance was sought by Judas, but God, whose prerogative it is to give repentance, did not give it to him. It says Judas sought for repentance, but found none. And the reason for that is repentance doesn't come that way for being sorry for the consequences of your sin.

It's the gift of God when you repent of your actual sin, not the consequences of it. God's gift is the repentance. God's gift is the realization of what you are. It's the realization, it's God's gift to reveal to you why you sold Him for 30 pieces of silver.

Why you committed adultery. Why you do what you do every day. Why you choose yourself over God. Why your own life, if you can call it that, is more important than the worship of God. Why is that? Because you hate the Lord Jesus Christ. You love your idea of Him. You love the image, as in imagination, that you have of Him. But you don't love Him.

This life is fleeting, and you're giving away. I thought about this the other day. Somebody said something in a message. You know, sometimes somebody says something in a message and it makes you think of something that's related to that. And I thought this, we're spending ourselves all the time.

You're spending yourself. What are you spending yourself on? You're spending your time, you're spending your efforts, you're spending your attitude, you're spending Whatever resources God has given you, your wisdom, what are you spending that on? Whatever good sense you may have, what are you spending that on? On how to get by in this life? On how to work to buy beans to get the strength? To work to buy beans to get the strength? To work to buy beans to get the strength?

What a sad cycle that is. Herod was haunted, not by the ghost of John the Baptist, but by his own stupidity, his own foolishness. Instead of seeing Christ as the one who takes away sin, He doesn't excuse it. He doesn't sweep it under a rug. He's the sacrifice for sin. He is atonement with God for sinners like Herod. When he saw Christ, he didn't see the solution to his sin problem, but only a reminder of his sin. When he saw Christ, he's like, oh man, this is because of what I did to John the Baptist. He's come back. Instead of saying, This is God's Son. Maybe there's mercy for me at His feet.

Herod, when he heard John, did many things and was glad. But the same thing our Lord said to the rich young ruler could be said to Herod. Here, one thing thou lackest. One thing thou lackest. And for the same reason, the truth was fine and well with Herod as long as it didn't cost him anything, as long as it didn't interrupt his life, his desires, his lusts, his authority, his power, his will, his choice.

God will confront every sinner sooner or later at this one point of rebellion. And if he ever brings you to your face, on your face before him, one thing, what was the one thing? Get rid of all your idols. Everything that is a result of your works has got to go. Come follow me. It's you or Christ. And you answer that question every day of your life. You don't answer that down here. You answer that every day out there.

Let's stop there and thank the Lord, seeing what wretches we are, for his grace. And may he give us a sense of urgency in this, not to go out and rid the world of sin and save the universe and all this kind of stuff, but right here in our small little corner of this world, to honor the son of God while we have time. God give us grace to do that.