Well, good morning. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to Mark 6. Mark 6. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
to be able to come this morning meet together with our brothers
and sisters and to worship your matchless name, to have your
word open to us and to have Christ preached. Father, we pray that
you'd bless us as we have gathered here together this morning with
the desire to worship you, the need to hear from you. Father,
speak to our hearts through your word this morning, we pray. We
pray that you would show us your glory your redemptive glory through
the mercy and grace that's found in our Lord Jesus Christ, through
his obedience and through his bloody sacrifice. Father, bless
us, I pray. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for your people wherever they may meet together today.
In this dark world in which we live, Father, we pray for a revival
in the land. We pray that you'd be pleased
to work in a mighty way reveal yourself to your people, call
out your people, and let us have a refreshing from your boundless
stores of mercy and grace. Father, we pray a blessing for
your people that you've brought in the time of trouble. There
are many here and in other places. Father, we pray you'd be with
your people, that you would heal, that you'd comfort, that you'd
give direction And Father, above all, that you would give a special
portion of your presence in our heart until such time as you
are pleased to deliver them. And Father, all these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. I've titled the lesson this morning,
Religion Versus Repentance. You know, there's a vital difference
between Just having religion, just going through the motions
of religion and heart repentance and faith in Christ. And I sure
would like for us to know the difference. It's an important
subject this morning. Our text begins in Mark 6, verse
14. I'm going to read the text and then come back and make some
comments. Verse 14, and King Herod heard of him, the Lord
Jesus, for his name was spread abroad. And he said that John
the Baptist was risen from the dead. and therefore mighty works
do show forth themselves in him. Others said that it is Elias.
Others said that it is a prophet or as one of the prophets. But when Herod heard thereof,
he said, no, it is John, whom I beheaded. He's 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 holy, and
he observed him. And when he heard him, he did
many things, and heard him gladly. And when a convenient day was
come, that Herod was 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. And he swear
unto her whatsoever thou shall ask of me, I'll give it to thee
under the half of my kingdom. And she went forth and said unto
her mother, what shall I ask? And she said the head of John
the Baptist. And she came in straightway with haste unto the
king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in
a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding
sorry. Yet for his oath's sake, and
for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.
And immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded
his head to be brought. And he went and beheaded him
in the prison, and brought his head in a charger and gave it
to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when
his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse and
laid it in a tomb. And the apostles gathered themselves
together unto Jesus and told him all things, both which they
had done and what they had taught." Now, the first thing that I want
us to take note of here is what happened to John the Baptist.
You know, being a believer does not prevent horrible, gruesome
things from happening to us. Even being a man greatly used
of God doesn't prevent these awful, horrible things from happening
to us. Our Lord said, among them that
are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John
the Baptist. There's not been a greater than
John the Baptist, yet this horrible, he met this horrible, horrible
end. You know, we're to keep trusting
the Lord. I don't care What happens to
us? We're to keep trusting the Lord.
Heartache and trial and all these horrible things that happen to
us, that does not mean that God hates us. It doesn't mean that
God does not love us. For whatever reason, this is
his purpose. Maybe he's trying his people for whatever reason,
this is his purpose. But it does not mean that he
does not love us or doesn't care about us. He allowed this to
happen to John the Baptist who was very dear to our Lord and
a great servant of the Lord. Now that being said, I want us
to look at this story as a picture of the outward show of religion
versus heart repentance, true heart repentance. Verse 20 tells
us that Herod heard John the Baptist preach gladly. He was
glad to hear John preach and after he heard John preach, he
did many things. He did many different things,
but Herod did not do the one thing needful. He did not repent
and trust Christ. Now this is a very important
subject because no one will be saved until God grants us the
gift of repentance so that we turn to trust Christ. Very important
subject. And like I said in the opening,
I want to know the difference between just having a religious
show and having heart repentance. So the first thing I see here
is our need of repentance. Sin is not just what we do. Sin
is our nature. We do what we do because of our
sin nature. And this story gives us just
a small window into seeing how far we'd go if God didn't restrain
us from going that far. Now the particular sin that set
this awful story in motion was the sin of adultery. Herod and
his brother Philip were both rulers in this area. Rome had
given them different areas to rule. And Herod had a torrent
affair with his brother's wife, with Philip's wife Herodias.
And he ended up divorcing his wife and marrying Herodias. Now,
even by today's standards, I mean by anybody's standards, this
is bad behavior. I mean, this is just frowned
upon Behavior to have an affair with your sister-in-law and then
marry her You adultery Adultery first of all is a sin against
God It's a sin against God it violates that glorious picture
that Paul tells us about in Ephesians chapter 5 That glorious picture
of Christ and his bride But adultery is also sin against man you just
think of the the pain and the that causes to the spouse, to
the children, to the family, the pain adultery causes is just
a, it's an awful thing. And John the Baptist, I mean,
this man had backbone. He told Herod, this is wrong. This adultery, this is wrong.
Now, Herod probably didn't like that too much. Maybe he could
overlook it some, because he's so impressed with John, and you
know, he just, he liked to hear John preach, whatever. For whatever
reason, he liked John the Baptist, but Herodias would have none
of it. I mean, she's mad. And she had determined she wants
to kill John for telling them what you're doing is wrong. And
the plot that she finally made happen to take John's life is
just, it's a disgusting display of our sin nature. I mean, don't
think now we don't have the same nature as Herodias. She got her
daughter to do some sort of erotic dance that just, you know, thrilled
Herod so much, he promised to give her anything she wanted.
I mean, up to half of his kingdom, he'd give her just anything she
wanted. And her mother coached her. Don't ask for half the kingdom,
don't ask for money, don't ask for, ask for the head of John
the Baptist on a dinner plate. That's what a charger is, a dinner
plate. And Herod, rather than saying, now wait a minute, No,
no, we're not gonna do that. So he was afraid he'd lose face.
He was, you know, with the people around him. He had the man's
head cut off, and that bloody stump, the blood running out
of the neck and all the things that must happen when you cut
somebody's head off, put it on a dinner plate and brought it
into this party. And people thought this is a fine centerpiece for
a party. I mean, just, that doesn't even
scratch the surface. of how vile our sin really is,
our sin nature really. That didn't even scratch the
surface. As horrible as that is, it doesn't even scratch the
surface. Now, anybody knows, I mean, anybody that knows anything
knows what Herod did is sinful and it's wrong. And people would
say, oh, he needs to repent of his sin. Well, I mean, you know,
he needs forgiveness for his sin, certainly. But you know
the real thing Herod needed to repent of? Herod needed to repent
of whatever he was trusting his soul to. Now, the man had religion. Our Lord said there's not been
a greater prophet than John the Baptist. And Herod heard him
and heard him gladly. I would assume that means he
heard him many times. So he had religion. He had to be trusting
his soul to something. Everybody trusts their soul to
something. I mean, whether it's some convoluted thing, they trust
their soul to something. Maybe Herod was trusting his
political power. That's why he went to such extents
to protect it. Maybe he was trusting in the
outward show of religion. I mean, the man got religion.
He would go to the services. He'd hear John preach, you know.
He gladly heard the greatest preacher in history up to that
time before the Lord Jesus began preaching John the Baptist was
the greatest preacher ever lived and Herod heard him gladly. But
maybe, maybe he trusted in that. Maybe he trusted in the fact
he was saving John's life. There in verse 19 it says, when
Herodias had a quarrel against him and would have killed him,
but she could not, she could not because Herod feared John
knowing that he was a just man and an unholy and he observed
him. Then the phrase there means observed
him as he kept him. He saved him, I guess he threw
him in jail or something, but he saved his life. He wasn't
gonna let Herodias put him to death. Maybe he was trusting,
you know, I did a good deed. Here, my wife, she wants to kill
John, I won't let her. He's trusting in something that
he'd done. But that's not repentance. You
don't even ever read that Herod was sorry for his sins. But even
if he was sorry about it, it's not repentance. Being sorry for
our sin is not repentance. Normally when we're sorry for
our sin, why are we sorry? We're sorry we got caught. We're
sorry that there's consequences to our action. But repentance
is not being sorry. Repentance is not hating our
sin and sinning less. Repentance is not doing many
things. That's what Herod did, didn't
he? He did many things, many religious things. Repentance
always has to do with who we trust for salvation. Repentance,
the word means a radical turn. Repentance is turning away from
what we used to trust in and turning to trust Christ and Christ
alone. It's trusting the opposite of
what we used to trust in. Instead of whatever it is about
the flesh, we trust the opposite of that. We have no confidence
in the flesh now and we trust Christ. That's repentance. And
that's what Herod could not do. And he couldn't do it any more
than you and I could do it unless God gave us the gift of repentance.
He couldn't, that's what he could not do. Of all the things that
he could, he could not repent. He could not make himself trust
Christ. All right, number two, repentance
is not a guilty conscience. Now I'm telling you Herod had
a guilty conscience. When it says here that he heard
all the things that the Lord Jesus was doing, He said, in
verse 14, this is John the Baptist risen from the dead. Therefore,
these mighty works do show themselves in him. And others said, no,
it's not John, it's Elias or one of the other prophets. And
Herod heard them, he said, no, no, no, it's John whom I beheaded. He's risen from the dead, he's
come back to haunt me. Herod's conscience bothered him
so bad He just saw John everywhere. I mean, it just bothered him
so bad. He was just certain this man has risen from the dead.
He's coming back to home. He didn't, you know, like one
of the ghosts of Christmas past or something, you know, it had
been a year since he had John beheaded and he still was just
eaten up with guilt about this. Now, you know, the Lord put a
conscience in all of us for good reason. The Lord put a conscience
in us so we know right from wrong. And when we do wrong, our conscience
bothers us so we won't do that anymore. Now conscience is a
good thing. Glad to have one, you know. But
a conscience alone will never make us trust Christ. Never. All our conscience can do is
give us a legal fear. A legal fear that God's gonna
punish me because I'm guilty. Our conscience can only tell
me I'm guilty. My conscience, my natural conscience
will never make me beg God for mercy. That's the human nature
we got from our first father and mother, from Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve fell when Adam sinned. And right after Adam sinned,
their conscience told them we're guilty, we've done wrong. Their
conscience told them. We're ashamed. Now they knew
they're naked and they're ashamed. Now they knew they were guilty
and they hid from God. Their conscience told them they
were guilty. But you know what their conscience
didn't do? It didn't lead them to Christ, to beg Him for mercy.
And when Christ came walking in the cool of the day and said,
Adam, where are you? Where were they? Hiding in the bushes. Because
their conscience told them they were guilty, but their conscience
never made them beg for mercy. A guilty conscience is not repentance
from sin. Every one of us got a guilty
conscience. I mean, it just don't take much for somebody to make
you feel guilty, does it? Because we're so guilty. Look
at Zechariah chapter 12. Repentance from sin can only
come from seeing Christ crucified for my sin, seeing Christ with
the eye of faith. Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10. And I'll pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and supplications. And they shall look on me whom
they've pierced and they'll mourn. They'll mourn for him as one
mourneth for his only son. They shall be in bitterness for
him as one that is in bitterness First Firstborn. Repentance from
sin can only come from seeing Christ crucified for my sin.
You know when I'll repent and trust Christ? When I see what
sin really is. The way I see what sin really
is, is seeing Christ crucified. Look what it cost God to put
my sin away. Look what Christ had to suffer
to put my sin away. That is when I find out what
sin really is. And when I see Christ lifted
up, our Lord said, when I'm lifted up from the earth, I'll draw
all unto me. All that the Father gave me.
All that the Father gave me to say, when they see me lifted
up, they'll come to me. When I see Christ as he is, I'm
gonna trust him. I'm gonna quit, I'm gonna repent.
I'm gonna quit trusting in my works of religion and my morality
and all the good Christian living that I do. I'm going to repent
of my biggest sin, my religious works, and I'm going to turn
to trust Christ. But I've got to see Him lifted
up, crucified. That's the only way. That's why
we always preach Christ and Him crucified. Because that's the
only way anybody will ever repent. The only way anybody will ever
have faith in Christ. Somebody's got to lift Him up
and show us who He is. Show us what He's done so we'll
have faith in Him. So we'll believe Him and trust
our soul to Him. My conscience will tell me I've done wrong.
But my conscience can't make me trust Christ. But if God the
Holy Spirit gives me the gift of repentance, I'm gonna trust
Christ. I'm gonna quit trusting myself
and start trusting Christ. All right, here's the third thing.
Repentance. It's not just going through the
outward motions of religion. In verse 20 it says, Herod feared
John. Knowing that he was a just man and a holy, Herod was very
impressed with John. And he observed him, he saved
his life. And when he heard him, he did many things and heard
him gladly. Herod was so impressed by John. It made him do many things after
he heard John preach. I just know this. He started
regularly attending the services, buddy. He heard John gladly. So he would regularly attend
all the services. He probably started giving. I
bet he was the biggest giver in the church, don't you think?
He probably started talking a religious talk. He'd get his buddies around
the table, you know, and he'd talk about John, talk about what
John said, these strange new doctrines that John's preaching. He probably quit, or at least
he tried to hide, most of his outward sins. Now, he couldn't
give up the one of adultery, could he? No, he stayed married
to Herodias, but most of his outward sins, you know, he tried
to hide, except where God would meet him at his point of rebellion.
this thing of adultery. But all Herod's outward show
of religion went out the window quick, didn't it? All it took
was for a girl to do some dance, a strip tease or something, you
know? Herod was so henpecked. It was easy for Herodias. It was easy for her to just get
him to drop all his religion and cut off the head of a man
that he knew was just and holy. He was so impressed with him
and so impressed with his preaching, but it took nothing for him to
cut the man's head off. I'm glad people don't do that
today. I can't tell you how many times I had my head cut off by
now. I mean, it's just, it's the same old story. But salvation
is not liking the preacher who has the ability to speak powerfully. That's not repentance. Salvation
is loving Christ. Not the preacher, but Christ.
Now, if you love Christ, you're gonna love those who preach.
How beautiful are the feet upon the mountains of those that preach
Christ and preach grace. But salvation is loving Christ.
Salvation is not getting an interest in a new doctrine. I've never
heard this thing before of sovereign grace. I never heard that before. Substitution and satisfaction.
Salvation is not an interest in a new doctrine. Salvation
is a hard interest. in Christ. And you know how you
can tell if you have a hard interest in Christ? Do you need Him? Do you need Him? That's a hard
interest in Christ. Salvation is not following the
preacher. Salvation is following Christ. It's trusting Him. You
see that? That's what it is. All right,
here's the fourth thing. There's just one message that
grants repentance. and God's servant always preaches
it. John the Baptist always preached
the same message. It didn't matter who was in the
crowd, who was listening, he always preached the same message
to rich and poor, old and young, he preached the same message.
John's message was a message of repentance, wasn't it? Repentance
from sin. His baptism was a baptism of
repentance, confessing sin. We have to repent of our sin
and claim that we're sinners who are in need of a savior.
That was John's message. John always preached repent from
your sin and turn to trust Christ. And I tell you, you know, I say
repent from your sin, but you remember who he's preaching to?
Devout Jews. What he was telling them is repent
of trusting in your religion. All these motions of religion
All these just pictures of Christ, all these things that gives your
flesh glory because of what you've done and what you haven't done.
Quit trusting in that and turn to trust Christ. Now John was
the forerunner of Christ. He was the last of the Old Testament
prophets and he came to prepare the way for Christ. He came to
tell people Christ is coming. The long awaited Messiah. God
promised him for 4,000 years. Now he's coming. And it was John's
honor to be able to point him out and say, here he is. Behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And
John preached that message to everybody that came to hear him.
I don't care if it was poor Jews out there by the River Jordan,
or if it was King Herod on his throne. John always preached
the same message. John even told Herod, you're
a sinner, and you've got to repent. and he pointed Herod's sin out,
he wouldn't let it go. Right is right, wrong is wrong,
and John would not let it go. He did that. He told Herod the
truth. Knowing Herod could kill him,
knowing Herod could put him in jail, knowing how Herod could
make his life miserable, John preached the truth to him anyway,
because that's our job. Preach the truth of Christ. Preaching
a lie is not gonna help anybody, is it? but preaching Christ the
truth will. And that's what John did. And
he told him, repent. Look back at Matthew chapter
four. Repent of all the good things
that you've done that you think makes you righteous and trust
Christ. That was the message of John the Baptist. That was
the message of the Savior himself. Matthew four, verse 17. From
that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent. for the kingdom
of God is at hand. Turn and trust Christ. That was
the message of Christ. And if you look at Acts chapter
17, that was the message of the apostles. Acts chapter 17, verse 30. This
is the apostle Paul preaching to all those smart philosophers. In verse 30, he says, in the
times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now, commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. That was the message of John.
That was the message of the Savior. That was the message of the apostles. And that's the message God's
servant preaches today. Quit trusting yourself. Whatever
it is, quit, just quit and turn to trust Christ. That's the message
of the gospel. The message of Christ, it's the
only message that will produce repentance. The law won't do
it. Morality won't do it. Religion
won't do it. The message of Christ. It's the
only message that will cause us to repent. To trust Him. You can't trust somebody you
don't know. You can't trust somebody that you've never heard of. Somebody's
got to preach Christ to us. Somebody's got to say, look and
live. Turn. Quit looking at what you
were looking at. Quit trusting what you were trusting
in. Look and live. Turn to trust
Christ. Here He is in His Word. Would you sit still for 30 minutes
and let me tell you about Him? Here He is. Trust Him. Let me preach Him
to you. Now, repentance is a gift of God. I can't stress this strongly
enough. Yes, we must repent. But repentance
is not something we can make ourselves do. Only God can grant
repentance. and he does it by the preaching
of Christ. See, somebody's got to tell you
who Christ is so you turn to him, right? Now, if there's anybody
here this morning that wants to repent and can't, you want
to repent, you want to turn to Christ, you want to trust Christ.
Your brother Henry used to say repentance and faith are the
same side of just, you know, two sides of the same piece of
paper, repentance and faith. If you want to trust Christ,
but you can't, Tell you what to do. Hear the gospel preached
as often as you can. Because faith cometh by hearing.
This is how God gives that gift of faith and repentance. It's
by the preaching of Christ. And that's why God's servant
is faithful to preach that one message over and over and over
and over again. Because we just got one message.
It's Christ and Him crucified. He's going to tell the truth. Now, somebody may hate him for
it. but that's not gonna stop him.
You know, I could tell you a bunch of lies that would appeal to
your flesh and you'd probably just love me to death, but you'd
lose your soul. I'd rather risk you hatin' me
and tell you the truth and see if God wouldn't save your soul.
That's what I'd rather do. That's what John did, even though
it cost him his life. I'd kinda like to follow that
example, wouldn't you? Herod did many things, but he did not
repent. And it is my earnest prayer that
none of us here do that very same thing. That we do many things
in the name of religion, but we do not repent. Because our
Lord said, except you repent, you shall perish likewise. I
want God to give me that gift of faith and repentance, don't
you? Now here's the fifth thing. And
I love this. What a great way to end a lesson. Go tell the Lord. Did you notice
that when I read that verse 29? And when his disciples heard
of it, they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb. And the apostles gathered themselves
together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they
had done and what they had taught. Now, what do we do with all the
junk going on in our world? There's things happening around
us and happening to us that are so evil. They cause us to suffer,
they cause us pain, they cause us worry, anxiety. What do we
do with this? What do we do? You know, we preach
Christ, we point people to Christ and nobody's believing. What
do we do? Do the same thing John's disciples
did. Just go tell the Lord. Just go
tell the Lord. in all your troubles, in all
your trials, in all your heartaches, in everything. Just go tell the
Lord. Now, he already knows. He knows. But tell him anyway. It'll do
us good. Doesn't it do us good to commune
with our Heavenly Father? Doesn't it do us good to talk
to the Savior? Just go tell the Lord. There's a songwriter who wrote
this song. I must tell Jesus. I must tell
Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus. I must tell Jesus. Jesus can
help me. Jesus alone. So go tell him. Go tell him. And you'll notice the disciples came to the Lord
and told him, And the Lord didn't say, I already know. He didn't shoo him away. They
came and told him. And he listened. He'll do that
for you and me too. Go tell the Lord. All right,
I hope the Lord will bless that to you.