The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit John and Herod The
sermon delivered by C.H. Spurgeon at the
Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington Mark 6 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 John sought no honor
among men It was his delight to say
concerning our Lord Jesus.
He must increase, but I must decrease Yet
though John sought no honor of men he
had honor for it is written Herod feared
John Herod was a great monarch John was
but a poor preacher whose garment and diet
were of the coarsest kind But Herod feared
John John was more royal than royal Herod
His character made him the true king and
the nominal king trembled before him A man
is not to be estimated according to his
rank, but according to his character The peerage
which God recognizes is arranged according to a
man's justice and holiness he is first before
God and holy angels who is first in
obedience and He reigns and is made a
king and a priest whom God hath sanctified
and clothed with the fair white linen of
a holy life Be not covetous of worldly
honors For you will have honor enough even
from wicked men if your lives are holiness
unto the Lord Let it be written on
John's tomb If he needs an epitaph Herod
feared John Only there is one better testimonial
which any minister of the gospel might be
glad to receive and it is this John
did no miracle, but all things which he
spake concerning this man were true He wrought
no marvelous work which astonished his generation But
he spake of Jesus and all that he
said was true God grant that our master's
servants may win such praise My subject at
this time does not need me to speak
so much of John as of Herod.
I desire to have no Herod in this
congregation But I am anxious about some of
you lest you should be like him Therefore
I will speak out of the tenderness of
my heart With the desire that none of
you may follow the steps of this evil
King I would ask you to consider the
hopeful points in Herod's character First we find
that Herod respected justice and holiness For Herod
feared John knowing that he was a just
man and unholy I like to see in
every man a respect for virtue even if
he himself has it not For it may
be that the next step will be to
desire it And he that desires to be
just is almost so Some have brought their
minds to such a pitch of sinfulness that
they despise goodness and ridicule justice and devotion
May God grant that we may never by
any process be brought into such a fearful
condition as that When the conscience comes to
be so confused as to lose its reverence
for that which is good and holy Then
is a man in a sad plight indeed
Herod was not in that condition He honored
justice, honesty, truth, courage, and purity of life
Though he had not these things himself yet.
He had a salutary dread of them, which
is a near approach to respect for them.
I know I am speaking to a great
many who respect everything that is good and
right They only wish they were good and
right themselves So far so good The next
good point I see in Herod was that
he admired the man in whom he saw
justice and righteousness And that is a step
further For you may admire an abstract virtue
and yet when you see it actually embodied
in a man you may hate him The
ancients recognized justice in Aristides and yet some
of them grew sick of hearing him called
the just A man may be acknowledged to
be just and holy and for that very
reason he may be dreaded You like to
see lions and tigers in the zoological gardens,
but you would not like to see them
in your room You would very much prefer
to view them behind bars and within cages
And so very many have respect for religion,
but religious people they cannot bear They admire
justice How eloquently they speak of it, but
they do not like to deal justly They
admire holiness, but if they come across a
saint they persecute him Herod feared John and
Tolerated John and went the length of even
keeping John for a while out of the
hands of Herodias Many of you like the
company of God's people in fact you are
out of your element when you get with
the profane you cannot endure them and From
those that practice debasing vices you fly at
once You delight in choice company So far
so good But that is not enough We
must go much further or else we may
remain like Herod after all A third good
point about Herod was that he listened to
John It is nothing wonderful that you and
I should listen to sermons But it is
rather wonderful that a king should do so
and such a king as Herod Monarchs do
not often care for religious discourses except such
as come from court preachers who wear fine
raiment and use soft speech John was not
the kind of man for a king's palace
Too rough too blunt too plain speaking his
words thrust too much home Yet Herod heard
him gladly It was a hopeful point in
his character that he would hear a man
who preached justice Holiness and the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the
world It is a fine point and a
hopeful point in any man that he will
hear and listen to an honest Proclamation of
God's Word even though it come home to
his conscience Perhaps I address some of you
who hear the gospel only now and then
and When you drop into a religious meeting
you are like the dog in the library
who would gladly have changed all the books
for a single bone There are many such
people in London Religion does not suit them
Places of entertainment are much more to their
minds Some say of the preacher I won't
hear him again.
He cuts too closely.
He is too personal John said to Herod
that it was not lawful for him to
have his brother's wife But though he spoke
so plainly Herod listened to him Because he
was a just man and unholy That was
well of Herod and it is well in
you my friend if you are willing to
hear the gospel However, practically it is spoken
so far So good, but there was a
better point still in Herod He obeyed the
word to which he listened Herod heard John
gladly and when he heard him he did
many things Many of our hearers do nothing
They hear they hear they hear and that
is the end of it They learn the
way they know the way they are expert
in the way, but they do not follow
the way They hear the gospel invitation, but
they come not to the feast Some seem
to think that religious duty lies in hearing
first and talking afterwards, but they are mistaken
Herod knew better than that He was not
a hearer only he did do something And
it is remarkable that the text tells us
that he did many things Perhaps these were
some of the many things he discharged a
tax gatherer who imposed upon the people or
righted the wrongs of a neglected widow or
Altered a cruel law, which he had promulgated
or changed his habits and manners in certain
respects Certainly in many points.
He was an improved man For John the
Baptist had an influence with him for good
For Herod feared John and when he heard
him he did many things I'm speaking to
some who when they hear a sermon put
a part of it into practice And they
have done many things since they have first
attended here for which we are very grateful.
I His Sabbath breaking and he has tried
and succeeded in a great measure in leaving
off profane language and thus he has greatly
improved And yet he is only a Herod
after all for Herod Was Herod?
After he had done many things and in
his heart.
He was still prepared for all sorts of
wickedness Yet he did amend somewhat and so
far So good there was another point about
Herod namely That he continued to hear the
preacher gladly For it is put into the
end of the verse as if to indicate
that he heard John still John touched his
conscience, but after all he still heard him
gladly He said send for John the Baptist
again Herod the eighth would listen to Hugh
Latimer though He denounced him to his face
and even sent him on his birthday a
handkerchief on which was marked the text whoremongers
and adulterers God will judge How cried let
us hear honest Hugh Latimer Even bad men
admire those who tell them the truth However
unwelcome the warning they believe it to be
honestly spoken and therefore they respect the preacher
a Good point this You who are present
and unconverted have heard most cutting sentences from
me You've heard of judgment to come and
of that eternal wrath which rests upon those
who die in their sins Let me warn
you then that if after hearing the denunciations
of God's Word you are still willing to
hear I Have great hopes of you so
far So good there was yet one other
point about Herod and that is His conscience
was greatly affected through the preaching of John
For I am inclined to think that a
certain translation which renders the passage Herod did
many things in another way May be a
correct one Herod was perplexed or Herod was
made to hesitate Such a sense is found
in some manuscripts He loved his sin, and
he could see a beauty of holiness in
religion, and he wished to be holy but
there was Herodias and He could not give
her up when he heard a sermon.
He was like a relative of his in
after days almost persuaded Yet he did not
give up his last He could not go
the whole length John would have him go
He could not leave his bosom sin and
yet he felt as if he wished to
leave it there was a halting between two
opinions a hesitating a wavering He was inclined
to good if he could have good and
have his pleasure too But his pleasure was
so very much his master that he could
not escape from it It was like a
bird taken with lime twigs He wanted to
fly but sad to say he was willingly
held limed by his last This is the
case with many of our here's Their consciences
are not weaned from their sins.
They cannot give them up and yet they
wish they could They linger on the brink
and fear to launch away They are almost
out of Sodom have almost escaped the fire
shower and yet in all Probability they will
stand like lots wife a pillar of salt
because they will look back and love the
sin that lingers in their heart Consciences nowadays
seem to have gone out of fashion But
to have a conscience sensitive to the preaching
of the word is an admirable thing And
if you have such a thing so far
So good there were six good points about
Herod then But now very sorrowfully I want
to indicate the flaws in the case of
Herod The first flaw was this That though
he loved John He never looked to John's
master John never wanted anybody to be his
disciple, but he cried behold the Lamb of
God Herod was after a sort of follower
of John, but never a follower of Jesus
It is easy for you to hear the
preacher and love him and admire him and
Yet the preacher's master may be all unknown
to you.
I Pray you dear friends.
Do not let this be the case with
any of you.
I Am the bridegroom's friend and I shall
rejoice greatly when the bridegroom wins your hearts
God forbid that my ministry should ever lead
you to myself and cause you to stop
there We are only signposts pointing to Christ
go beyond us Be followers of us as
far as we are followers of Christ, but
in no other respect It is to Christ
you must go the end of all our
ministry is Christ Jesus We want you to
go to him direct to seek from him
pardon from him redemption from him a change
of heart from him a new life for
vain will it be if you have listened
to the most faithful of Preachers and have
not listened to the preacher's master and obeyed
his gospel You will be Herod's and nothing
more Unless grace leads you to Jesus Christ
the second flaw about Herod's case was this
That he had no respect for goodness in
his own heart.
He admired it in another But there was
none of it in himself our Savior described
Herod admirably What a master sketcher of human
portraits was Christ He said of Herod Go
ye and tell that Fox Herod was a
foxy man selfish full of tricks Timid when
he was in the presence of his superiors
But both cruel and bold when he was
in the presence of those who could not
defend themselves We sometimes meet with these foxy
people They want to go to heaven But
they like the road to hell They will
sing a hymn to Jesus, but a good
roaring song they like also when they get
merry companions together by all manner of means
a Guinea to the church oh Yes, admirable
thing But how many guineas are spent upon
some secret last?
So many tried to dodge between God and
Satan They do not want to fall foul
of either they hold with the hair and
run with the hounds They admire all that
is good, but they do not want to
have too much of it themselves It might
be inconvenient to carry the cross of Christ
on their own shoulders and become precise and
exact in their own lives If they never
say a word against other people doing so
It is a fatal flaw to have no
root in yourself a damning flaw condemning your
own self To know the right and disregard
it to feel respect for it and yet
trample it underfoot I Judge the doom of
such will be far more dreadful than that
of those who never knew the good who
were trained up in the perlose of vice
and never had a glimpse of holiness or
purity and therefore Never deliberately turned away from
them another flaw in Herod's character Was that
he never loved the Word of God as
God's Word?
he admired John and Probably said That is
the man for me See how boldly he
delivers his master's message That is the man.
I should like to hear But he never
said to himself God sent John God speaks
to me through John.
Oh That I might learn what John is
speaking and be instructed and improved by the
word John is uttering Because it is God's
Word.
No, no, I Do pray you ask yourselves
dear hearers whether this may not apply to
you May it not be that you listen
to a sermon because it is mr.
So-and-so's discourse and you admire the
preacher It will be fatal to you if
you treat the word in that way It
must be to you what it is in
truth the Word of God or it will
not save you it will never impress your
soul unless you accept it as the Word
of God and bow before it and Desire
to feel all its power is coming to
you fresh from the lips of God and
sent into your heart by his Holy Spirit
Now we know Herod did not receive the
word as the Word of God because he
was a picker and chooser in reference to
it He did not like John's discourse when
he spoke of the Seventh Commandment If he
spoke of the fourth commandment, he would say
that is admirable the Jews ought to keep
it But when he dealt with the seventh
commandment Herod and Herodias would say We do
not think preacher should allude to such subjects.
I've always noticed That people who live in
the practice of vice think the servants of
God ought not to allude to things so
coarse We are allowed to denounce the sins
of the man in the moon and the
vices of savages in the middle of Africa
But as to the everyday vices of the
city of London If we put our finger
upon them in God's name then straightway someone
cries.
It is indelicate to allude to these things
John dealt with the whole Word of God
And he did not only say behold the
Lamb of God, but he cried the axe
is laid to the root of the trees
He spoke plainly to the conscience Herod therefore
Had this fatal flaw in his character That
he did not attend to all that John
delivered of the Word of God He liked
one part and did not like another He
resembled those who prefer a doctrinal discourse, but
cannot endure the precepts of God's Word I
hear one exclaim I like practical discourses.
I do not want any doctrine Don't you?
There is doctrine in God's Word and you
are to receive what God gives you not
half a Bible But the whole truth as
it is in Jesus That was a great
fault in Herod He did not receive the
testimony of John as the Word of God
next Herod did many things But he did
not do all things He who receives the
Word of God in truth does not only
attempt to do many things, but he tries
to do all that is right He does
not give up one vice or a dozen
vices But he endeavors to forsake every false
way and seeks to be delivered from every
iniquity Herod did not care for a thorough
reformation for that would call for too great
a self-denial He had one sin he
wished to keep And when John spoke plainly
about that He would not listen to him.
Another fault with Herod Was that he was
under the sway of sin he had given
himself up to Herodias She was his own
niece and had been married to his own
brother and Was the mother of children by
his own brother and yet he led her
away from his own brother's house that she
might become his wife He himself casting off
one who had been a good and faithful
wife to him for years It is a
mess of filthy incest one hardly likes to
think of The influence of this woman was
his curse and ruin How many men have
been destroyed in that way?
How many women are ruined daily in this
city by coming under the vicious influence of
others?
My dear men and women you will have
to stand before God on your own account
Do not let anyone cast a spell over
you I Pray you escape for your life
run for it when vice hunt you I
May be sent at this moment with a
word on purpose for you to stir up
your conscience and arouse you to a sense
of your danger It is always perilous to
be under the influence of an unconverted person
However moral he may be But it is
supremely dangerous to be under the fascination of
a wicked woman or a vicious man God
help you to rise above it by his
spirit For if you are heirs of the
word and doers of evil You will end
in being Herod's and nothing more.
I will only allude to another point in
Herod's character That his religion Although it made
him do many things Was rather one of
fear Than of love it is not said
that Herod feared God But that he feared
John he did not love John he feared
John The whole thing was a matter of
fear He was not a lion you see
he was a fox Fearful timid ready to
run away from every barking car There are
many people whose whole religion lies in fear
With some it is the fear of men
The fear of what people would say if
they did not pretend to be religious The
fear of what their Christian associates would think
of them if they were not reputable With
others there is the fear that some awful
judgment would come upon them But the mainspring
of the religion of Christ is love oh
To love the gospel to delight in the
truth to rejoice in holiness This is genuine
conversion the fear of death and the fear
of hell Create a poor poor faith Which
leaves men on Herod's level still I conclude
by showing you very Sorrowfully what became of
Herod with all his good points he ended
most wretchedly first He slew the preacher Whom
he once respected it was he who did
it though the executioner was the instrument He
said go and fest John the Baptist head
in a charger So it has happened with
many hopeful here's They have become slanderers and
Persecutors of the very preachers before whom they
once trembled and far as they could they
have taken off their heads after a time
in dislike being rebuked And they proceed in
their dislike till they scoff at the things
they once reverenced and make the name of
Christ a football for their own jests Beware,
I pray you beware For the way of
sin is Downhill Herod feared John and yet
he beheaded him a person may be Evangelical
and Calvinistic and so on and yet if
he is placed under certain conditions He may
become a hater and a persecutor of the
truth.
He once avowed Herod went a step lower
however for this Herod Antipas was the man
Who afterwards mocked the Savior?
It is said Herod with his men of
war set him at naught and mocked him
and Arrayed him in a gorgeous robe.
This is the man that did many things
under the leading of John His court is
altered now He spits on the Redeemer and
insults the Son of God Certain of the
most outrageous Blasphemers of the gospel were originally
Sunday school scholars and teachers young men who
were almost persuaded yet they halted and hesitated
and Wavered until they made the plunge and
became much worse than they possibly could have
become if they had not seen the light
of truth If the devil wants raw material
to make a Judas the son of perdition
He takes an apostle to work upon When
he takes a thoroughly bad character like Herod
it is necessary to make him plastic as
Herod had been in the hands of John
Somehow or other Border men are the worst
enemies in the old wars between England and
Scotland the borderers were the fighting men and
So the border people will do more harm
than any until we get them on this
side of the frontier Oh that the grace
of God may decide those who now hesitate.
I may mention to you that before long
Herod lost all the power he possessed He
was a foxy man and always tried to
win power But in the end he was
recalled by the Roman Emperor in disgrace That
was the end of him Many a man
has given up Christ for honor and has
lost himself as well as lost Christ Like
the man who in the old Catholic persecuting
times was brought to prison for the faith
He said he loved the Protestant faith, but
he cried I cannot burn So he denied
the faith and in the dead of night
his house took fire The man who could
not burn was forced to burn, but he
had no comfort in that burning For he
had denied his Lord If you sell Christ
for a mess of pottage It will scald
your lips It will burn within your soul
like molten lead forever For the wages of
sin is death However bright the golden coin
shines and however musical may be its chink
It will prove an awful curse to the
man who sells his Lord to gain it
today The name of Herod is infamous forever
As long as there is a Christian Church
the name of Herod will be execrated And
Is it not a solemn reflection that Herod
feared John and did many things and hurt
him gladly I know that no young man
here believes that he will ever turn out
to be a Herod I might like the
Prophet say Thou will do this and do
that and you would answer is thy servant
a dog that he should do this thing
But you will do it Unless you are
decided for God an appeal like this once
startled me When I was young and tender
there was a hopeful youth who went to
school with me who was held up to
me as an example He was a good
boy And I used to feel no particular
affection for his name because I was so
perpetually chided by his goodness And I was
so far removed from it being younger than
he Saw him enter upon his apprenticeship Enter
upon the gaieties of a great city and
come back dishonored It horrified me Might not
I Dishonor my character and when I found
that if I gave myself to Christ He
would give me a new heart and a
right spirit and when I read that promise
of the Covenant I will put my fear
in their hearts that they shall not depart
from me It seemed to me like a
character insurance society If I believed in Jesus
Christ my character was insured For Christ would
enable me to walk in the path of
holiness This charmed me into desiring an interest
in Christ If you would not like to
be a Herod be a disciple of Jesus
Christ For there will be no choice for
some of you Some of you are of
such powerful natures That you must either thoroughly
serve Christ or serve the devil An old
Scotsman was once looking at Roland Hill And
the good old gentleman said What are you
looking at?
He said the lines of your face What
do you think of them?
He replied I think that if you had
not been a Christian man, you would have
been an awful sinner Some people are of
that sort They are like a pendulum They
must swing one way or the other.
Oh That you may swing Christ's way tonight
Cry Lord Help me to cleanse my way
Help me to be holy thine help me
to possess the righteousness.
I admire the holiness.
I respect Help me not only to do
some things, but everything thou wouldst have me
to do Take me make me thine and
I will rejoice and joy in him who
helps me to be holy God bless you
dear friends for Jesus Christ's sake Amen