1. Herod Antipas was a son of the wicked Herod the Great, the tyrant who slaughtered the innocent children in Bethlehem.
2. The history of the Herod family is a sordid tale of murder, immorality, treachery, and incest.
3. Herod Antipas is referred to here as "the king" (Matt.14:9), but technically he was not a king. Actually he was a tetrarch (Matt.14:1; cf. Scofield margin, p. 1018).
4. A tetrarch originally signified the ruler of a fourth part, but it later came to mean by popular usage any ruler dependent upon the Roman emperor. This is why the Jews cried out: "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15).
5. Herod was a sly and ambitious rascal. Our Lord said of him, "Go ye and tell that fox, behold, I cast out devils" (Luke 13:32).
6. Unger’s Bible Dictionary says of Herod: "His administration was characterized throughout with cunning and crime, intensely selfish and utterly destitute of principle."
7. The Bible says, in John 1:6, that "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John." John the Baptist was just the opposite of Herod Antipas. Whereas Herod was weak and carnal; John was noble and faithful.
8. And even though Herod liked John, he had him executed.
9. I have entitled this message, "The Murder of John the Baptist," or "The Deceitfulness of Sin."
10. My outline is very simple:

1. HE WAS WARNED OF HIS SIN
2. HE WAS CONVICTED OF HIS SIN
3. HE WAS ENSLAVED BY HIS SIN

1. Herod had first married the daughter of King Aretas, an Arabian king, but divorced her in order to marry Herodias.
2. Herodias was married to Herod’s brother Philip, but abandoned him so she could run off with Herod. Adultery, divorce, and incest was common among the heathen, especially among the Herod family, and John the Baptist preached against it (cf. Lev.18:16; 20:21).
3. He confronted Herod with his sin and said: "It is not lawful for thee to have her" (Matt.14:4).
4. James Smith wrote: "The heavenly searchlight is made to flash into the dark, hidden parts of his life. His besetting sin is pointed out, his unlawful life exposed. This was the day of his merciful visitation if he had only known it" (Handfuls on Purpose).
5. When Herod left this world he had no excuse. It was only a few short years later that Herod and Herodias were banished to Gaul by the emperor Caligula, and soon they died. Herod had been warned by John the Baptist, but he would not heed the warning.
6. Mark tells us in his account: "Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not" (6:19).
7. Both Herod and Herodias would have killed John right away but Herod would not because "he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet" (Matt.14:5).
8. Again, Mark gives us more information: "For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly" (Mark 6:20).
9. Therefore, Herodias waited for her "convenient day" (Mark 6:21) to kill him, all the while allowing her anger and animosity toward John to build up.
10. With a wicked mother like her, it is no wonder that her daughter turned out the way she did (Mark 6:21-24).
11. These types of banquets were rowdy and raunchy. The dances were lewd and disgusting, designed to appeal to the perverted, sensual appetites of drunken men.
12. And there are parties like this going on all over this wicked NYC area on any night of the week (right next door), with lewd dancing, drinking, worldly music, and all sorts of wickedness and debauchery.
13. How sad to read of a shooting taking place at some wild drinking party on a Sunday night, a time when decent people are in church worshipping God.
14. And what is really disgusting is that some of this debauchery is going on in churches! When I was a teenager, all the Roman Catholic churches (I have heard that the Protestant churches were doing the same) had teen dances where all sorts of drinking, drugs and immorality was going on. They were held in dark basements with loud rock music.
15. And some of the wildest parties are after so-called "christenings," when worldly unsaved people have their babies sprinkled by the priest and then they get drunk!
16. Herodias knew Herod’s weakness (the devil knows your weakness too), and so she had her daughter perform her salacious and lascivious dance for him.
17. Her scheme worked – Herod "said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee" (Mark 6:22; cf. Matt.14:7).
18. But Herod was warned. Remember Mark tells us, "For Herod feared John…" (Mark 6:20). The word "feared" means he respected him and his message, but he did not want to give up his adulterous relationship with Herodias.

II. HEROD WAS CONVICTED OF HIS SIN.

1. "For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly" (Mark 6:20).
2. But being under conviction is not enough. Many lost sinners come to the place where they realize that they need to get right with God, but they still will not repent (cf. Isa.55:6,7).
3. A Sunday School teacher asked her class what the word "repentance" means. A little boy raised his hand and said: "It is being sorry for your sins." A little girl then raised her hand and said: "It is being sorry enough to quit." Herod was not sorry enough to quit!
4. A little boy was converted and someone asked him: "What were you before you were converted?" He replied: "a sinner." "And what are you now?" he was then asked. He said: "a sinner." They now asked him, "What’s the difference?" He answered: "Before I was a sinner running after sin. But now I am a sinner running away from sin!"
5. Herod was still a sinner running after sin. He may have slowed down enough to listen to John the Baptist but he was not willing to get right with God.
6. I am convinced the reason many people will not get saved is SIN in their lives. I remember reading a sermon by Spurgeon and he told of a gentleman in his church that attended regularly, knew the Bible quite well, and seemed to genuinely enjoy Spurgeon’s preaching. But he would not get saved. Many of the members were puzzled. Until after he died and then it was discovered he kept two wives and two sets of families.
7. If you have ever read Charles Dickens you know his books are filled with Biblical references. Yet as far as we know, he never received Christ as his Saviour. Why? He too kept a mistress for many years.
8. Over and over we see sinners convicted of their sin but still unconverted. They simply love their sin more than God, and eventually their sin drags them down to hell.
9. I have seen this many times when preaching and when witnessing to people. And there are many examples of this in the Bible as well (cf. Acts 26:27,28).
10. Herod heard John the Baptist gladly but he would not give up his sin (cf. Mark 6:20). "When the cup of salvation has been deliberately rejected, with what nervous greed men grasp the poisonous cup of sinful pleasure" – James Smith, Handfuls on Purpose.
11. Herod was convicted of his sin, but would not give up his sin. Which brings me to my third and final point.

III. HE WAS ENSLAVED BY HIS SIN.

1. He was consumed by his unlawful lusts (Matt.14:6-11). This sad story is a vivid picture of the awfulness of sin!
2. We have millions of lost souls today that are enslaved by sin – in bondage to pornography, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, dirty movies and TV shows, smutty jokes, and so on. It is degrading, it is vile, it is disgusting, and it is dragging them down to the pit of hell.
3. Foolish people sometimes complain when we preach hard against sin. If they only knew all the people we have to deal with whose lives are shattered by pornography, and adultery, and other filthy sins of the flesh.
4. Herod put John in prison "for Herodias’ sake" (Matt.14:3). The dirty voice of lust drowned out the voice of Herod’s conscience. But his conscience kept on bothering him (Matt.14:1,2).
5. Some one once said: "If your conscience smites you once, it is an admonition; if it smites you twice, it is condemnation." Herod’s conscience had been smote already by John – it was an admonition. He had been warned (14:4). After executing John, his conscience condemned him (14:2).
6. He rejected the light of God’s Word and he murdered an innocent man. How many weak men have been led astray by evil women like Herodias and her daughter? We think of King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel. How many strong men like Macbeth have been dragged down to hell by a Lady Macbeth?
7. And let us pause for a moment and consider: How many youngsters are growing up like Herodias’ daughter? In an atmosphere of sin and debauchery, drinking and dancing parties, and other sinful pastimes?
8. We think of that little six-year-old boy who shot and killed another six-year-old. He was living in a crack house, filled with drugs, criminals, and loaded guns.
9. Sin first entices, then excites, then captivates, and then destroys. Herod was sorry (14:9); Mark says he was "exceeding sorry" (Mark 6:26), but it was too late – he was captivated by sin. He was wrapped tightly by sin’s strong cords; they had him tied up and he felt powerless to break loose.
10. Sin had blinded him. He broke God’s commandments with impunity but would not break his foolish oath (14:9). The oath was wrong to begin with – he was making a bad situation worse by keeping it.
11. Herod was a proud man. He knew her request was wrong but "nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it (John’s head) to be given her" (Matt.14:9).
12. Mark says, "Yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her" (Mark 6:26).
13. He would reject God, but not her. He would reject God’s Word, but not her. He would reject heaven, but not her. Such is the folly of sin! Such is the deceitfulness of sin! Such is the perversity of sin!
14. Sin always leads to death – "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:15).

CONCLUSION:

1. I read in the newspaper of a man who was flying on a plane from Zurich, Switzerland to Beirut, Lebanon. Halfway there, he started shouting for help, complaining that he could not breathe.
2. The plane landed in Athens and the passenger, a man named Joseph Pasatour, died. Undressing him, the hospital attendants discovered that he was a smuggler and had on a corset with 1,500 valuable Swiss watches.
3. The doctors discovered that the watches had restricted his breathing and caused his death.
4. Herod was wrapped tight with the sins of lust and incest. John the Baptist warned him but rather than heed John’s warning, he put him to death.
5. Maybe there is someone here today who is slowly being choked by the cords of sin. Take heed – repent of your sin. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ before it is eternally too late.
6. He died on the cross for your sins. If you receive Him as your Saviour, He will deliver you from all your sins.