Let's open our Bibles today to
Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6, and beginning
our reading in verse 14 through verse 29. And King Herod heard
of him, for his name was spread abroad, and he said, that John
the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works
to show forth themselves in him. Others said that it is Elias,
and others said that it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. 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. Then
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 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, The girl asked of
me, whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he swear
unto her, whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee
unto 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 any 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, 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. I want you to notice that our
text began with the word and, verse 14, and. And this helps us to know the
time period when this took place. It was between the time when
the Lord Jesus sent out the 12 apostles for the first time to
preach the gospel, that we have in verse 7. And he called unto
him the 12 and began to send them forth by two and two. And
it was between the time that he sent them out and their return,
if you notice in verse 30, and the apostles gathered themselves
together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they
had done and what they had taught. That word an is a connective
word and we see the time when this took place. It was between
the time that he first sent the 12 apostles out to preach the
gospels and their return. Then I want you to notice the
next words. King Herod heard of him. In the New Testament, we have
three different King Herods, and each one is associated with
murder. Three King Herods, and each one
associated with murder. The first King Herod is also
called Herod the Great. And the only thing great about
this man was his wickedness, his evil. his sinfulness. He was a wicked man, and he's
the one who sent and had all the infants two years older slaughtered
around Bethlehem when the wise men came asking where the Messiah,
the King of the Jews, should be born. a wicked man. You know,
the scripture speaks of those infants there as innocents in
one passage of scripture. Doesn't mean that they were born
without sin, but we think of small children as innocent in
the sense that they have not learned, been exposed to what
comes later in life. And I thought about this as well.
When we hear of someone committing murder, now it's always awful.
It's wicked. It's sinful. Whether it be an
adult, but it just seems worse, doesn't it? When someone has,
has killed, mistreated a small child. How evil and wicked is
the heart of man. Thank God he has kept me from
ever doing that. And I know it's just by the grace
of God. Whenever we see evil in other
people, we need to recognize the same seed of evil is in our
wicked hearts. And it is just by the grace of
God, his restraining grace, that has kept us from doing something
as bad or worse. Don't you love God's grace? I
do. The second King Herod is the
one in our text this morning. And when the first King Herod
called King Herod the Great, I assume he was called the Great
because he reigned or ruled over a larger territory. And you can
read about him in secular history associated with Mark Anthony
and Cleopatra, and he was very astute in getting power and keeping
power because there was so much contention at that time in the
Roman Empire. But when he died, he had four
sons that he left. He divided his kingdom into four
parts. Look with me in Luke chapter
three, just a moment. In Luke chapter three. Now in the 15th year of the reign
of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, now
notice, and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip,
Tetrarch of Etheria and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysandius
as the Tetrarch of Abilene. Now that word Tetrarch actually
means a fourth part. a fourth part of government.
He divided his kingdom into four parts and left it to these four
sons. You say, well, there's only three
listed here. That's true, because the first
one, Archelios, he was reigning when Joseph and Mary came back
out of Egypt, brought the young child out of Egypt. And so Joseph
did not tarry in Judea because he reigned in the stead of his
father. But you see, he had now died, and Rome had not given
this to Idumean. That's what they were. They were
not Jews. Now, the first king Herod, he
had married a Jewish princess. He did that in trying to get
the Jews to follow him and accept him. But the Jews never did,
of course. That's the reason he decorated
the temple. You know, in John chapter 2,
The Lord Jesus Christ said, destroy this temple, and in three days
I will raise it up. And they said, well, listen,
this temple was 42 years in being raised up, and you're going to
raise it up in three days? Those 42 years had reference
to the first King Herod, who had beautified the temple there
in Jerusalem. And from what I've read, it was
gilded with gold. The roof was very beautiful,
ornate temple. You could see it as you approach
to the city. And the sun was shining upon
that gold, reflecting off of it, how attractive it was. But
from the time of his death until the time of John the Baptist's
ministry, that first son, Archelius, had died, and Rome set pilot. Pilate was now the governor,
not a Tetrarch, a governor of Judea. So the second King Herod,
the one in our text, he too is associated with murder, the murder
of John the Baptist. And then the third, if you want
to turn to Acts chapter 12 with me. And this King Herod was the grandson
of that first King Herod. And he followed in his father's
footsteps. He was a murderer. Acts chapter 12 and verse 1.
Now about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hand
to vex certain of the church, and he killed James, the brother
of John, with the sword. Isn't that sad? A family, what
are they known for? For murder, for evil. Now, this morning, if you turn
back with me to our text, Mark chapter six, I want to speak
to us from what is suggested to me in the words in verse 20
about this King Herod, and the words are, He did many things. Do you see that in verse 20?
When he heard him, he did many things. He did many things. And I want to mention to us from
this passage of scripture four things that he did. Four things
that this king did. The first thing that he did,
he heard John the Baptist gladly. That's what the scripture says,
verse 20. 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. This man heard John. That's the
first thing that I point out to us from this passage of scripture
that he did. He heard John gladly. Well, we know that many who heard
John did not hear him gladly. Those Pharisees that he addressed
as a generation of vipers, snakes, religious hypocrites, they didn't
hear him gladly. In fact, they questioned what
right he had to preach at all and to be baptizing. Who gave
him that authority? Not everyone who heard John the
Baptist heard him gladly, but Herod did. Herod heard him gladly. You know, there's a passage that
I want to remind us of in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was
one of the prophets in the Old Testament called a major prophet. And he prophesied during the
time that the Jews were in Babylonian captivity. During that 70 years,
God chastened them for their wickedness. And they were in
idolatry, and God sent them into Babylon for 70 years. And Ezekiel
was a prophet there in Babylon with those people. This is what
God said to the prophet one day. He said, they come before thee
as the people cometh. You may want to see this. It's
in Ezekiel 33, verses 31 and 32. But if you don't want to
turn there, I want to read. They come before thee as the
people cometh. And they set before thee as my
people. And they hear thy words, but
they will not do them. For with their mouth they show
much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness. And lo, now
listen, Ezekiel, lo, thou art to them as a very lovely song
of one that hath a pleasant voice. and can play well on an instrument. Ezekiel, they love to hear you. They love to hear your voice.
You're like someone singing a beautiful song. Your voice is so melodious
and as a person accompanying himself while he's singing on
a beautiful instrument. But listen, for they hear thy
words, but they do not do them. Herod, he heard John the Baptist
gladly. Ezekiel preached to those who
heard him gladly and loved to hear him preach evidently, but
they did not do the word of God that Ezekiel preached. That's
the first thing about this man. He heard John the Baptist gladly. Number two. The second thing
is he killed God's messenger. Notice in verse 16, when he heard
of Jesus, he was alarmed, of course, but notice what he said,
whom I beheaded. I beheaded John the Baptist.
He killed God's messenger. God's message to Herod through
his messenger was, it's not lawful for thee to have thy brother's
wife. Now what made that message and
why was that unlawful? Was what he was doing unlawful
because John thought it was unlawful? Because John said it was unlawful? No, it was unlawful because,
as the scripture says, he broke God's law. It's not lawful for
thee to have thy brother's wife. It was God's law that he broke. It was God's law that he set
aside. Now, it was God's that he hated. If he could have got to God,
think about this, as King Herod It was God's law. That's why
he was offended because it's not lawful for thee to have thy
brother's wife. That was God's law. If he could
have got to God, he would have killed God. He couldn't get to
God. Man cannot get to God, but he
does kill God's messenger. That is part of that enmity that
all men have with God. God-haters. Now, that's what
the Bible says. That's what the scripture says
about all of us as we come into this world dead in trespasses
and sins, far off from God. We are God-haters. And if we
could, we would yank God off that throne and place ourselves
there. Herod could not get to God, but
he did get to God's messenger. I have a brother-in-law who's
a preacher, Brother Milton Howard, and I've heard him use this illustration
many times, and it was so appropriate in Mexico where he preached for
a long time, but it's not so much up here anymore because
some of you younger people probably do not even know what a telegraph
is. You never have heard of it. But
some of us older people, we still remember when you would send
a telegraph. Brother Howard used to say, don't
get mad at the man who brings the telegraph. If he brings you
bad news, it's in that paper. Don't get mad at him. He got
on his motorcycle and rode all the way out here and gave you
the message, the telegraph. Don't get mad at him. If it's
bad news, don't take it out on the messenger. That's exactly
what Herod did. He got mad at God, at God's message,
and so he took it out on God's messenger. The third thing that
he did, he suffered from a guilty conscience. He suffered from
a guilty conscience. When he heard of the Lord Jesus,
his very first thoughts He heard of this one who is performing
these miracles, but his thought, his very first thoughts was,
it's John. It's John the Baptist. He suffered
from a guilty conscience. He knew what he had done was
wrong, was evil. You know, there's a saying in
this world, young people, you hear it, let conscience be your
guide. That would be okay if your conscience
was pure. If we all had a pure conscience,
God created man with a conscience, and it does serve a good purpose.
But a conscience can be trained to overlook evil. It really can. And this man, he suffered. I
know he suffered from an evil conscience. He knew he was guilty. And when God convicts a person, to save. It's God's purpose to save a
person. He brings that person under conviction. In other words, there's guilt.
There's guilt. For what? For sin. For sin. And there's only one
thing that will cleanse, that will purify, that will take away
that guilt from a conscience that God has convicted. You say,
what is it? It is when God, the Holy Spirit,
according to the Word of God, when He sprinkles the blood of
Jesus Christ on that conscience. When He convinces you, yes, as
bad, as awful, as wicked as you have been, the blood of Jesus
Christ can take it away. And take it, wash it away. That
guilt is then removed. You have peace with God. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Oh, isn't
that wonderful if you have peace with God today? That old guilty
conscience will gnaw. It'll gnaw on a person. You do
everything you can to get rid of it. But I'm telling you, there's
only one thing that will heal a guilty conscience. That's the
blood of Jesus Christ. Thank God it does. The fourth
thing I see about this man is he acknowledged a great Bible
truth. Notice in verse 16, he said,
he is risen from the dead. This man acknowledged a great
Bible truth, the resurrection of the dead. Now, I've read and
been told that most of the world's great philosophers, they all
believed in the immortality of the soul. I believe that's so. That not only does man come into
this world and he knows there is a God. I know people say,
well, I don't believe there is a God. They say that because
they're trying to convince themselves there's not a God. They know
there's a God. And it seems not only is that
innate in man, but the fact that when he dies, he's not like a
dog, he's not like a cow, a horse, and that's the end of it. Oh,
no. The soul continues to exist throughout
all eternity. And all the philosophers believed
in that, but no one ever Before the Christian truth of the resurrection,
none of those philosophers ever thought it possible that a body,
a physical body, that's been sown in the ground, that decays,
turns back to the dust, that one day it's going to be raised
from the ground. That's a revealed truth. And
we know it's revealed in the word of God, and it is shown
to us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord. They
lay his limp body, his dead body in that tomb, my friends, but
on that Sunday afterwards, that first day of the week, he came,
his body came out of that tomb, not now a weak body, but a glorified
body. a glorious body. Herod, this is one thing he knew. There is a resurrection of the
dead. Those are four things that I
see in this passage. Now you can read secular history,
read Josephus, the Jewish historian. He wasn't a Christian, didn't
claim to be a Christian. You can read him and find out
more about Herod. But just from the inspired word
of God, I say these four things are things that he did. He heard
John gladly. He killed God's messenger. He
had a guilty conscience, and he confessed of great Bible truth,
the resurrection of the dead. You know, every other so-called
great religion Nothing great about him. Nothing
great about him. But you could find the tomb of
every one of the founders of those so-called great religions.
The Lord Jesus Christ, you won't find his tomb. Why? Because he's not there. Where
is he? He's at the Father's right hand.
The scepter is in his hand. and he's in control of all things,
all things and all peoples. He's not some poor little Jesus
that's dependent upon you or me. He's the sovereign Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, here's the second part of
the message. Here's some things that he did
not do, and I have two things. First, we looked at some things
that he did. Here's some things he did not
do. Number one, he did not obey the word of God's messenger.
God's messenger said, it's not lawful for thee to have thy brother's
wife. But he continued to live in what
was an adulterous and incestuous relationship that he had with
this woman. And as I thought about that,
I could not help but think of another king. This was King Herod. But I thought of another king
to whom God sent a messenger one day, and he said, Thou art
the man. King David. Because he too had
committed the sin of adultery and even murder. God sent him
a messenger. Nathan, the prophet, went to
him and said, Thou art the man. But how different, how different
did David, a child of God, how different did he receive God's
message. We soon hear him pouring out
his soul in prayer unto God. Have mercy upon me, O God. According to thy loving kindness,
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. You don't hear Herod praying,
do you? Don't hear him crying out for mercy? But we do hear
David purge me with hyssop. That hyssop is what they applied
the blood of the Passover lamb with to the to the door lentils,
wasn't it? Purge me with hyssop, purge me
with the blood of the promised one who is to come. Purge me
with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me, wash me and I shall
be whiter than snow. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunge beneath that flood,
lose all their guilty stains. Brother Ralph Barnard, a pastor
and preacher I heard many years ago, told an experience he had
years ago, visiting out in Yellowstone National Park, I believe it was,
and there was that old geyser, you know, that comes shooting
up every so often, and very hot water. And he said there was
a lot of visitors around that pool, and they were all looking.
He said he pulled out his old handkerchief, kind of dirty. Had to work on his car along
the way, you know. And he took that handkerchief
and put it down in that water and pulled it out, white as snow. And he started singing, there
is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
And he said, the people around there visiting in that park,
they joined in with him, singing of the blood of Jesus Christ. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Jesus as of a lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Oh, wash me, David prayed, and I shall be whiter than snow.
How does Herod receive the message? Well, he has a big birthday celebration. He did not obey God's messenger. We don't read of him confessing
his sins, forsaking his sins. No, he has a big birthday celebration,
birthday bash. And you know, that's the way
men try to quiet a guilty conscience. They feel a little guilt in their
conscience, and what do they try to do? They run here, they
run there, they've got to hear music, they've got to be watching,
they've got to be entertained. The last thing in the world they
ever want to do is to be alone. Alone with God. Why? Because they're trying to have
that conscience. Won't do it. Won't do it. No one should imagine
that Herod, when you read this story, don't imagine that Herod
and Herodias were not behind this whole scheme to put John
the Baptist to death. No one should believe that Herod
was such an honorable man that once he made a vow that he wouldn't
deny to complete that vow or his oath. And even if a person
makes an oath, if it's a sinful oath, he still shouldn't do it. No one should believe that Herod
had any scruples about breaking his oath. He had no doubt they had this
all orchestrated, the way it was gonna take place, him and
the roadies. And before all those people,
it looked like he was justified in doing what he did. Well, he
wasn't justified before God. The second thing, he did not
look by faith to the Lamb of God that John the Baptist had
pointed out sometime before. John the Baptist pointed that
out to some of the Lord's disciples, didn't he? When he saw Jesus
walking toward him, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh, which
beareth away the sins of the world. Has he taken your sins away?
Beareth away the sins of the world. Takes them away. In closing, I want to remind
us of this truth. The things which are seen are
temporal. The things which are unseen are
eternal. To the world looking on, John
the Baptist was a great loser, a great loser. Herod the king,
he was a man who was blessed. Well, we know that just the opposite
is true. The Lord Jesus said this about
John the Baptist. He said, of those born of women,
there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. And what
did he say of Herod? I believe he said of Herod these
words, for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul? That's what He said about Herod,
you know, I'm convinced this morning, my friends, from the
word of God, if you could see Herod today,
you would see him suffering the punishment of God. And you know
what you would still say are here. You would still say that
guilty conscience. The worm that doth not. that guilty conscience, and he'll
have that throughout all eternity. I'm so thankful today for the
gospel of Jesus Christ. It's still the power of God unto
salvation unto all that believe. Do you believe in Christ today?
Do you receive him as your Lord and Savior? If you do, it's because
he has received you. You know that. You need to confess
him if you've never confessed him in baptism. Say, I don't
feel worthy. Who does? Nobody. No one. It's not your worthiness. It's his worthiness. We are accepted
in him, in his worthiness. Let's sing a hymn before we go
home. Number 46, oh for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's
praise. Number 46, and let's stand as
we sing.