When Your Herodias is Touched — E.A. Johnston

John the Baptist Confronts Herod’s Sin

In Matthew's Gospel, in chapter 14, we read about the death of John the Baptist, how at Herod's birthday bash, the daughter of Herodias danced a dance for him, and he promised to know if he soon regretted, as Herodias demanded, that John the Baptist's head be brought to her in a charger.

We read in verses 1 through 4, At that time Herod the Tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him.

For 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. John the Baptist reproved the sin of a king, and the reason John's head wound up on a platter was because he dared to touch Herodias, Herod's wife.

The Conflict Produced by Preaching Against Sin

He called out his sin. I submit to you, friends, that a conflict will arise out of a sermon that dares to address the sins of one's hearers. That's the main reason why 99 out of 100 preachers would just preach nice little messages that don't disturb anybody.

They don't want conflict among their people. They'd rather the whole baptized bunch would remain quiet and just go on to hell. But you start preaching hard against sin, and soon you will have good deacons coming for you to wring your neck, because when sin is touched in a person, two things will either occur, conviction and guilt, or rebellion and wrath.

King Herod got fighting mad when John pointed out his sin by putting his finger on it and saying, It is not lawful for thee to have her. It landed him in prison and eventually cost him his head. And when your Herodias is touched, you will respond likewise, friend, and become fighting mad or guilty of sin.

Self-Deception Prevents Repentance

The title of my message this evening, friends, is When your Herodias is touched, men and women will not see their sin. And if they will not see their sin, they will never repent from it. Psalm 36 too sums up the whole shooting match.

For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. Men and women, join our churches by decision. That's no different than joining the local gym. If your testimony is, I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior when I was such and such an age, it won't cut the mustard when you die in your sins and bust hell wide open.

There's no such language in my Bible. If you want to rest your eternal destiny on a slick slogan birthed out of crusade evangelism in a football stadium, then go ahead and risk it. But if you do, your hope of heaven is just a hole in the wall.

The Need for Honest Gospel Preaching

It's high time we preachers became preachers of the gospel and became honest with folks and warned them of their danger of dying in their sins and being cast into devil's hell. Most folks today just walk an aisle or repeat a prayer, which is equivalent to spiritual voodoo because it curses your soul into believing you are a saved individual on your way to heaven when you've never ever seen your sins, never been awakened to your lost condition, and never have exercised biblical repentance toward God nor saving faith in Christ Jesus.

You just did what the pastor told you to do and remain unchanged. You have joined the church through believer's baptism, but you never been born from above and washed in the blood. If you died right now, you'd drop straight into that black bottomless pit of smoke and sulfur.

Conviction, Confession, and Forsaking Sin

You will either fight the preacher who is honest with your soul by putting his finger on your Herodias, or you will come under intense conviction of sin and see your sin, admit your guilt, and be so troubled in conscience that you will be forced to confess and forsake your sin and condemn yourself for it before God and become a beggar for mercy for forgiveness of sin.

Turning from Sin to Christ

Like in our text in Psalms states, you will either ignore your sin and flatter yourself in your own eyes and say all is well with my soul and dine your sins outside the blood of Christ to be cast into eternal ruin and misery or your sin will be touched and it will be seen by you to be a thing very odious to you like a harmful viper that needs to be thrown down and stomped on until dead so you can turn from your sin and turn to Christ for salvation.

Listen to me, friend. Fornication is sin. Adultery is sin. Stealing is sin. Lying is sin. Putting anything in your life above God is sin. Telling white lies is still lying. Cheating a customer by overcharging them is stealing.

Looking at a dirty movie is spiritual adultery. Jesus never preached sin and religion. Jesus appeared on the scene and announced, I am here. Repent. He didn't say, won't you accept me as your personal savior?

Repentance or Judgment

That's hogwash evangelism. You go ahead and accept your little Jesus and remain in your hogwall of sin and just go on to hell. When your Herodias is touched, you will rebel against it and go around chopping off heads or you will see your sin, admit your guilt, and submit to King Jesus.

It's either repent or hell.