PREACHED;OL,9-27-03,am
“THE HAUNTING GUILT OF HEROD”
INTRODUCTION:
1» PEWEE
DOBBS
A. Served as a
soldier in
1. He was a good soldier until one afternoon
his platoon was almost wiped out.
2. He came across a Vietnamese family that
would have saved the men by were afraid to speak.
3. In anger—shot them…
B. Interview—Dobbs said with tear-filled
eyes, “Now I see those people everyday just as clearly as you or me. They
watch me at night when I try to sleep. If I live to be a thousand years old,
I’ll still see them when I lie down to go to sleep.”
2» What about
us?
A. Not
Dobb’s crime…
1. Have known stinging bite of sin-pierced
conscience!
B. Amoral culture laughs at guilt & conscience
1. Has a way of reaching each of us
a. May haunt our thoughts & dreams…
Invade our
quiet hours of meditation…
Force its
way into our privacy…
Paralyze us
with constant pain of regret…
3» But a
guilty conscience is necessary!
A. Makes
us aware of our sin…
Forced to come to grip with
our actions…
Keeps us pliable for
repentance…
Motivates change…
B. ALEXANDER MCCLAREN: “There is a
resurrection of deeds as well as bodies, and all our buried badness will front
us again, shaking their gory locks at us, and saying that we did them.”
1. II Cor
4» That
brings us to our text, Matt 14:1-12.
A. Can you sense the guilt that seeps from this
passage?
B. What had gotten Herod into this position
in the first place?
1. Totally wicked man…
a. Visited his brother in
b. Seduced her and persuaded her to leave his
brother and marry him…
c. She being a totally wicked woman, did so…
2. Wickedness was exposed by God’s righteous
servant!
a. Herod was angry, but Herodias was
furious!
b. The sword of the Spirit pierced his
conscience!
1) Heb
4:12,13
c. We can do one of two things:
1) Repent or Strike out!
C. What do we learn from Herod about the
complicated webs we weave that result in guilt and the pangs of conscience?
DISCUSSION:
1§ The confusion & tragic consequences of a
failure to deal in a spiritual way with our sins!
A. Vs
3,4. “Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison
for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John was saying to
him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her…” V 5. “…he wanted to put him to death…”
1. What you see here is a man dominated by
lust, power and pride!
B.
Herod and Herodias had several choices:
1.
Repent –
Ignore the
message –
Rationalize
–
Seek
approval –
Silence
the messenger –
C. We see the last solution today in the
militant homosexual agenda.
1. Not just live and let live, but approval—“What
I’m doing is OK.”
a. And if you don’t approve of what we’re
doing, we’ll ruin you!
C. Shows us the often deceptive power of
sexual lust and desire.
1. Especially, again, when it is
coupled with power and pride!
a. Sadly, portrayed in the reaction of Herod
to his impetuous promise born in the heat of passion and incestuous lust:
1) When he had time to realize his mistake,
his pride in losing face before his wife and his guests would not allow him to rescind
his pledge!
2 It can happen to anyone, even a “man
after God’s own heart.”
a. David and Bathsheba
3. The text does not tell us, but one is made
to wonder if the dancing of the daughter was by the urging of Herod, or the
plotting of Herodias.
a. Either scenario, she took advantage of
his lust to manipulate what she wanted!
b. Oh, what tragic webs we conceive when our
motivation is to deceive!
1) But that’s the way the Devil operates on
us!
a) John the Baptist & Urriah, the
Hittite.
3. James
1:14,15. “But each of us in tempted when he is lured and enticed by
his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin
when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
a. Esp. note James’ words, “…each of us…”
NONE OF US ARE IMMUNE!
2 Shows us the necessity of being open to
godly warning and the buffeting of our passions:
A. I Thessalonians 4:2-8. “For you
know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will
of God, your sanctification (holiness): that you abstain from sexual
immorality; that each one of you know how to control his body in holiness and
honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that
no one transgress and wrong his brother in this mater, because the Lord is an
avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever
disregards this, disregards not man by God…”
3§ To deal positively with our sin, we must have the
proper emotional reaction conviction of sin.
A. It is important to note the reaction of
Herod and Herodias:
1.
Mark 6:17-20. “…Herod…had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for
the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her.
For John had been saying, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s
wife.’ And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to
death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a
righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was
greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.”
a. There is no contradiction between Matthew
who said Herod wanted to put him to death and Mark who said he kept him safe.
Both give us different perspectives of his reaction to John:
1) He knew that John was a righteous and holy
man…
2) He didn’t like his message, although he
was curiously drawn to listen to him…
3) He really wanted to silence him but he feared
John and what the people would do if he killed him, since they viewed him as a
prophet…
4) He was a bundle of contradictions!! That’s
what sin does to us!!
B. What
godly emotions should we have?
1. James
4:8-10. “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and
mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
2. II
Cor 7:9-11. “As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but
because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that
you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that
leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief (that’s what Herod
had) produces death (It led to spiritual death for Herod and physical
death for John). For you see what earnestness this godly grief has produced
in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what
fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved
yourselves innocent in this matter.”
1˜ Feeling guilty is not acceptable
in our Post-modern world:
A. But we must always remember that God has
given us our conscience to warn us and help us, so that we rid ourselves of any
sinful practice and make sure that we remain in a covenant relationship with
God.