Matthew chapter 14 this morning. I've studied this passage at
the beginning of Matthew 14 for some time this past week, and
the words of a song caused me to think of something that I
had not thought of. High King of heaven, my treasure
thou art. The Lord Jesus Christ just preached
in Matthew 13, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure. And I'll tell you, he was talking about the kingdom
of heaven and how was John the Baptist described? He came preaching
the kingdom. Repentance toward God and the
kingdom of God. And it says in Matthew 14 1 that
at that time Herod the Tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus. He
heard of this Jesus of Nazareth and what he was saying and what
he was doing and said to his servants, this is John the Baptist.
And it occurred to me, you know why he said this is John the
Baptist? Because he's saying the same thing John the Baptist
was saying, preaching the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is like
a treasure. The kingdom of heaven is like a householder. The kingdom
of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed. And he heard of
this Jesus and he said, that's John. Come back from the dead. It was said of John the Baptist
once that everything he said concerning Christ was true. This John the Baptist, he's risen
from the dead and therefore mighty works to show forth themselves
in him. For Herod had laid hold on John.
Why did he say he's risen from the dead? Because Herod's the
one that killed him. Herod had laid hold on John and
bound him and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother
Philip's wife. For John said unto him, it is
not lawful for thee to have her. We've seen the name Herod before
in this study in Matthew in chapter two, but that was Herod the King.
And this is Herod the Tetrarch, who was apparently the son of
Herod the King. who had ordered the deaths of
every male child in Bethlehem and all the coast thereof from
two years old and under so that he might kill the Lord
Jesus Christ, the promised Christ. So this Herod is the wicked son
of a wicked father and is a monument here in the scriptures in the
eternal word of God to the depravity of man. which all of us would
be if not for God's grace. Will we be a monument to God's
grace like that woman of Canaan? The Lord himself said, behold,
a woman, a monument of the grace of God. Or will we be like Herod,
a monument to the depravity of man? And this Herod, he's a warning
to us. If God gives a man some success in this life, some prosperity,
and especially some authority with them, with these things,
it's our tendency to think that we should have whatever we want.
And all of that's relative. You don't have to have that much
to think that way, or to desire that, and that to be the desire
of your heart. How many politicians are corrupt? And how many become involved
in scandal and become open monuments to the depravity of man like
Herod did here? We know of many just in our lifetime
and that's just the ones that got caught. Because they were
given a little authority and some means whereby to express
their depravity. And some people see that and
they say, well, power corrupts or money corrupts. No, it doesn't. No, that's not right. Authority
does not change the human heart. The heart is what it is from
birth. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. The nature does not change just because social status
changes or just because your pay grade changes. Success, prosperity, and authority
only give a sinner the freedom to express what was all along
in his heart. Herod wanted Herodias. But Herod,
that's your brother's wife. Your brother Philip, that's his
wife. Don't bother me with details. Do you know who I am? And somewhere
along the line, Herod met John the Baptist. And John did something
that there's a pretty good chance that no one had ever done to
Herod his whole life. He told him the truth. And John
didn't just tell Herod the truth about his sin, like our Lord,
by the way, with that woman at the well in John chapter four,
he told the truth about her sin, didn't he? He confronted her
with her sin, like John did here. Concerning her adulterous relationships,
he inquired about her husband. And she said, I don't have any
husband. And he said, I know that. And the man you're with
now is not your husband. But like our Lord who exposed
that woman's sin, but then spoke to her of water that he could give her so that she would never thirst
again. And so I have no doubt, because
John preached the same thing our Lord did, that John did not
expose Herod's sin without telling him how sin can be put away.
And we'll see that in Mark chapter six in a moment. Another thought
will lead us over there, but remember this when we go there.
He didn't just preach against sin. He pointed to Christ and
said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away sin. In all that he said, with everyone
he talked to, he was a preacher of the kingdom of God. And John
did not compromise the message for anybody or anything. Will
we? He spent his final years in prison
and then was beheaded just for telling the truth. because he told the truth. John Bunyan, in his autobiography, writes of being visited in prison
by his wife and children where he had been thrown for telling
the truth, for preaching the kingdom, the same message that
John preached and that our Lord preached in chapter 13 where
we've seen. And John Bunyan writes this about
that, his wife and children would come and visit him. And he said,
the parting of with my wife and children is as the pulling of
the flesh from my bones. And I'll just warn you now, I've
read this several times. I've never done it without crying
because I think maybe I could see myself
here. by God's grace. What hardships and miseries and
wants my poor family are likely to meet with if I am taken from
them, especially my poor blind child, who is nearer to my heart
than all beside. Oh, the hardships that this poor
blind one will have to undergo will break my heart to pieces. And when Bunyan, it's written
that when Bunyan was in prison he would often try to hide the
fact that he was crying from his blind daughter Mary, who
it is said would feel his face and if she found any tears would
kiss them away. And those who had put John in
prison for preaching the gospel would say to him, Mr. Bunyan,
All you have to do is sign this paper and promise not to preach
this message anymore, and we'll let you go this afternoon." And John Bunyan answered this
way, if you let me go, I'll preach the gospel ere the sun sets. He was in prison for 13 years,
but he wrote nine books while he was in there. The prison bars
couldn't stop him from propagating the Gospel of his Lord Jesus
Christ. Just as Paul said, the Word of
God is not bound. And Herod's reaction to the truth
was the same as that of every sinner without grace. He put
him in prison. Well, every sinner doesn't do
that. Yes, they do. Everybody doesn't have the authority
to incarcerate people, but in effect, they do exactly the same
thing. They shut up and shut out the truth of God however
they can, just like Herod did. Not being able to discount or
deny the truth itself, they will shut up or shut out the one who
tells it. They separate themselves from
the voice that speaks it by whatever means is available to them. and see here that as you read
this passage, verses one through 12, we'll see some more of it
in a minute. You might say at first blush
that this is a story about John and Herod, but look at verse
two. Herod said to his servants, this
is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead and
therefore mighty works to show forth themselves in him. But
why did he say that? Because he heard of the Lord
Jesus. If you read verse two and then
notice the word four in verse three, four, we see this, this
story is just a detailed explanation of how that Herod did not know
who Christ was. That's Herod's problem. And that's
yours if you don't know him. Herod's problem was not that
he had power and prosperity, nor even that he had been corrupted
by those things. That wasn't his problem. His
problem was he didn't know who Christ was. And this is just
an explanation of that. Do you remember what our Lord
asked His disciples in Matthew chapter 16? I know we haven't
reached that in our study yet, but you've heard it many times,
I'm sure. In Matthew chapter 16, turn over there with me,
please. Matthew 16 and verse 13. When
Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the son of man am? And they said, some say thou
art John the Baptist. Herod was one of those. Why did he say that? Well, let's
read on. Some Elias and others Jeremias,
or one of the prophets, he saith unto them, but whom say ye that
I am? Our Lord is drawing a clear distinction
between His disciples and everybody else. What's everybody saying?
What's the word out there? He already knew what people were
saying. He knew the thoughts and intents of their heart before
they ever spoke. But now he says, but who do you
say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. If you can say that from your
heart and know that to be true, Everything else will fall into
place. All other doctrinal truth and knowledge, if you know Him, you're not going to arrive at
Christ through doctrine, but you'll arrive at doctrine through
Christ. You're going to have to meet Him and know Him. You're the Christ. You're the
Son of the living God. Peter didn't know much else at
that point. And there wasn't much to Peter. We find that out
all along, don't we? That man in John chapter nine,
he didn't know much, did he? They said, this man's a sinner,
admit it. And he said, I don't know if
he's a sinner or not, but I know this, I was blind and he gave
me sight. I know something about him. And
he found out later, And the Lord said, do you believe on the Son
of God? And he didn't say, are you a
sinner or not a sinner? Or what about this doctrine or
that doctrine? He said, who is he that I might
believe on him? And our Lord said, thou hast
both seen him with eyes that couldn't see anything before
you met me. And it is he that speaketh with
thee. And he bowed and worshipped him.
Well, he didn't know much, did he? But he knew somebody. How
much do you think that thief knew? He knew everything because
he knew Christ. He knew the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're the Christ. You're the Son of the Living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, You remember when the disciples
said, why are you speaking to them in parables? They don't
understand a word you're saying, and they don't like what they
do understand. They're offended by it. And our Lord said, it's
given to you. The answer to the question is,
it's not about them, it's about you. Why did Herod and these
others say, hey, John the Baptist, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah, or one
of the prophets, Blessed are you, Simon. Blessed are you. Flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee. None of them know who I am. They
have all kinds of theories, but they can't tell you who I am.
But my Father did. My Father revealed it to you.
My Father which is in heaven. Except a man be born from above,
He can't see, much less enter into the kingdom of God. Then
look at verse five back in our text. That's where Herod was. Now he's one of these ones that's
not blessed of God. The father had not revealed to
him who Christ was. And that's his problem right
there. He didn't know Christ. He didn't have any excuse for
not knowing who he was. But he didn't know him. And he
had not been blessed of the father to know him. But verse five,
and 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, they had a big party for Herod's birthday. 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 a charger, on a plate, on a dinner plate. That's what that word is. And
the king was sorry. Nevertheless, for the oath's
sake and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it
to be given her. And he sinned and beheaded John
in the prison. We see here what a fool our sin
makes of us. This great leader, great in his
own mind at least, is reduced by his own foolishness, his own
sin, he's reduced to obeying the whim of a dancing girl. He was at her command that day. Sin entices us with what we want. Sin promises sweetness, but its
end is bitterness. James 1.14, every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, and then
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin,
when it's finished, brings forth death. Herod was sorry. Some said that Herod didn't want
to kill John just because he was afraid of the people, and
that had been part of it. Verse five, we see there that
he said, they think he's a prophet. But it doesn't say in verse nine
that the king was afraid when this happened, that he was scared,
you know, that something was going, it says he was sorry.
He was sorry. Turn to Mark chapter six, verse 16. Mark chapter 6 and verse 16. But when Herod heard thereof,
he said, It is John whom I beheaded. 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." The
original language there, if you see your margin, it says an inward
grudge. When he told the truth, she had
an inward grudge against him for it. And would have killed
him, but she could not. She couldn't just openly stab
him in the heart. That's what she would have done
if she could have. She knew there'd be consequences for that. Verse
24, 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. I don't know what that is exactly.
He did many things, but I know this, the truth affected him. The gospel affected him. And
it wasn't just when he said, It's not lawful for you to have
your brother's wife. That's just in the context of
the gospel that he said that. When John spoke, he preached
the gospel. He told the truth of God. He
preached the kingdom. He preached repentance. He went around preaching, repent
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Change your mind about
who God is. and about what you are, who you
are before God, and about how a sinner can be just in the sight
of a holy God. Repent. And when a convenient day was
come that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his Lord's high
captains and chief of states 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. You see
that it's the same story, just a different account of it. And
maybe you're thinking there, you know, well, Herod sounded
like a pretty good guy. He listened to John, and it affected
him. It affected what he did, and
he heard him gladly. He knew that he was a just man. He knew he was telling the truth. Hmm, but he loved his sin more. You think about this. For Herodias'
sake, he rejected the gospel. He shut up the man that preached
it by putting him in prison. Well, that's Herodias' fault.
No, no, it's not. Only Herod had the authority
to put John in prison or to cut his head off. Herod shut up the gospel, or
did his best to, and killed the man that preached it, because
he loved himself more than the Christ that John preached. Mark
it down. He loved his wife. He didn't
marry her in God's eyes. But he loved himself more than
Christ. That's what it always boils down
to, doesn't it? Me or him. Me or him. My thoughts or his thoughts? My way or the way? Me or Christ? How many men have turned their
back on the truth because their wife loved the church? that they
were attending because of their friends there or because of something
else where things were there that they liked but no gospel
was there. How many men? Or because their wives simply
had no interest in the gospel. How many have left because of
that? Or were offended by it? Or vice
versa. Women for the sake of their husbands.
It comes down to you and God. You won't be able to blame your
wife or husband in that day. I've seen it. And you know, where we worship,
there's relatively few that worship. And yet, how many times have
we seen that? And we learn this too here, sin always brings sorrow. He was sorry. And you will be
too. One way or another, you're going
to be sorry for your sin. David was sorry for his sin.
He said in Psalm 38, 17. For I'm ready to halt and my
sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. Yeah, I will too. I will too. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You
know why? Because of sin. Not his own,
but mine. Because of my sin and yours,
if you're his, He was a man of sorrows. Did you know that he suffered
for my sin all of his life? We talk about him suffering for
sin on the cross. No question about that. That
was the culmination of it. The forsaking of his father took
place there. He bore all of my sin in His
own body on the tree. I know that. He suffered all
of His life. He had sorrow all of His life because of me. Because of the sin of His people. He bore all of my sin on Calvary
and was punished by God the Father for my sin. And in the garden, when the weight
of my sin began to bear down upon his soul, he said, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful. Even in death. But Herod wasn't
sorry because he was a sinner. He was sorry because of the result
of his sin. Because he respected John. and
liked him. But he didn't like him as much
as he liked his sin. And he didn't like the Christ
that he preached as much as he liked himself. He was sorry because
of the result of sin and like Judas who was also revealed to
be the greatest of fools. What a fool! He took thirty pieces
of silver for the Son of God What an absolute blithering idiot
our sin makes us. We're not talking about Judas
now, we're talking about me. What a blithering, drooling-on-myself
idiot I am in my sin before God. Not just vile, but stupid. Someone wrote a little poem that
stuck in my mind for years. Still as in days of old, men
by themselves are priced. For 30 pieces of silver, Judas
sold himself, not Christ. And that's what happened. He
sold himself. What will a man give in exchange for his soul?
And what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? Judas gained thirty pieces of
silver and lost his own soul. Judas also was sorry. He was sorry. Matthew 27.3 Then
Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned,
repented himself. It wasn't true godly repentance.
It wasn't repentance unto faith. and life in Christ because it
says in another place that Judas sought repentance with tears
and could not find it. But he was sorry and brought
again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders
that had given it to him saying, I have sinned in that I have
betrayed the innocent blood. And you know what they said? Why are you telling us that?
What is that to us? Seethe out of that. And he cast down the pieces of
silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. Thirty pieces of silver was the
price for which Judah sold his own soul. The price of betrayal
of the Son of God. But that innocent blood that
was shed was the price of redemption for my soul. Thirty pieces of silver. What
a fool. Truly it is the fool who says
in his heart, no God. No God. Scripture, as I said, it says
that repentance was sought by Judas, but God, whose prerogative
it is to give repentance, to grant repentance if it pleases
Him, did not give it to him. You don't find repentance by
looking for it in your own heart. Paul said to Timothy, teach him
the truth. Peradventure, God will grant
them repentance to the acknowledging of it. Maybe God will give us repentance.
If we're going to find it, that's how we'll do it. We'll find that
God gave it to us. And here we see Herod, a sinful,
wretched man who also sold his own soul and was left by God
to say of the one who was his only hope, It's John the Baptist
come back from the dead. What an idiot. It's a ghost. It's not God's Christ, it's a
ghost. Instead of seeing in Christ the one who takes away sin, Herod
was haunted by his own sin and stupidity when he saw the Lord
and heard of him. When Herod saw Christ, he didn't
see the solution to his sin problem, but only a reminder of his sin.
It's the one who, through my own foolishness, I cut the head
off of. Instead of the end of his sorrow,
he saw only the reason for his sorrow. Herod, when he heard John did
many things and was glad, But the same thing our Lord said
to that rich young ruler could be said to Herod here, one thing
thou lackest. One thing. And it would be said
to him for the same reason. That rich young ruler loved himself
more than Christ. Was that not the choice that
day? He had great possessions and the Lord said, you go sell
them, follow me. And he went away. What? How? He was sorry. He went away sorrowful. The truth was all fine and well
with Herod as long as it didn't cost him anything. God will confront every sinner
at his one point of rebellion. Is that what he did to Herod? And there will either be surrender
or continued rebellion. But you will come to that place.
And then verse 11, his head was brought in a charger and given
to the damsel. And she brought it to her mother.
You picture this now, a head on a platter. She brought it and set it down
in front of her mother, and I'm sure that delighted her. She
hated John. She held that in her heart. Ever
since she had been defied. In her rebellion against God. Ever since she had been called
out because of her sin. She hated this man in the gospel
that he preached. And she had been wanting this
for a long time. Can you imagine the look on her
face? Can you see the smirk of pride on her face? Now imagine the look on her face
when she hears the words of Christ himself in the last day. And
as much as you've done it unto the least of one of these, my
brethren, you've done it unto me. Now, what does she look like? The Lord said in that day, they'll
be crying to the mountains and the hills, cover us from the
face of him that sits on the throne. It was John's head on that platter,
but it was Christ that she hated. And I want you this morning and
me to hear the voice of the Savior saying something else that bears
upon our text this morning, but he's not saying these words to
Herodias now, but to you and to me. In Revelation 1.18, I
am he that liveth and was dead. Why was he dead? Because you
killed him, that's why. And me. We killed him. This is the condemnation that
light came into this world, and you loved your darkness more
than you loved him. Just like Herod. Just exactly
like Herod. I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. That would be enough to cause
those who are without him to cry into the mountains and the
hills but listen to this I'm the one that lives and you killed And I'm alive forevermore Amen and The keys of hell and
death are here in my hand You remember what Peter preached
in Acts 2, 36? He said, therefore, let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. You nailed
him to a cross, but he's not on that cross. He's not there. He's on the throne
and the keys are in his hand. And he speaks to us this morning.
Listen to what else they preach in Acts 4.10. Be it known unto
you all. This is what I want us to know
this morning. That by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by
him, doth this man stand here before
you all. Do you stand before God whole?
It's by that man. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders. And just as sure as I'm standing
here this morning and you're sitting there, there's somebody
in this building which has set him at naught. And though you
might not go so far as to kill in the man that preaches Christ,
you have as far as you're able shut out the truth that he preaches,
just like Herod did. He has said it not of you builders,
but he's the head of the core. He's the chief cornerstone. And neither is there salvation
in any other. If you're gonna be saved, you're
gonna find salvation at the feet of the one that you crucified. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.