MARK 6:25 “A NIGHT OF BLOOD IN THE BALLROOM”
A) Let me say first that there are certain sins which go together.
* Drunkenness, for example, leads to vile language, and often times leads
to violence and to bloodshed and murder.
* Drunkenness often times leads to impurity and uncleanness – So the sin
of drunkenness never goes on its road alone.
B) This is also true of sins associated with the modern day dance.
* If you take the Word of God and study the history of mixed dancing as
recorded and condemned in the Bible .......
* You will find that the dance hall has associated with it a whole mixture
of iniquity, and we will see that as we study this text.
C) One of the associations of the modern day dance is drunkenness,
so drinking and dancing are tied together.
* Another association of dancing is the various sins of uncleanness, and out
of it comes infidelity in the marriage bond, immorality .......
* Adultery, fornication, sodomy, and all the rest of the sins that are classified
in God’s Holy Word as uncleanness.
D) Uncleanness is the result of the modern day dance.
* The breakup of homes – Families – The pollution of young lives .......
* The start down the road to the black hell of immorality – It’s all part of
the setup of the modern day dance.
E) It seems to me that there is compromise among God’s people today
in regard to the seriousness of the challenge of modern day dance.
* It used to be that God’s people and the church stood against the modern day
dance, but not so today – They even allow it to go on in the church.
* Today we can say, “I look for the church and I find it in the world – I look
for the world and I find it in the church.”
F) Now having introduced my subject with those remarks on the
present day situation, let us look at this passage of Scripture.
HEROD THE KING
A) Out into the pages of this Word from God, there stands King Herod.
* He is one of the most despicable and sickly characters in the Bible.
B) The first thing we notice about him is he has no stability of character.
* He has no resistance to the lures of temptation and the fascination of
this world’s sin – But let me tell you something .......
C) When the Bible portrays a sinner, the Word of God is very careful
to tell you everything good about him.
* So if you’ll look with me at v.20, you’ll find the good things about
Herod – But before we read the verse, let me say this .......
D) This is staggering – People, when they condemn other people, they
forget about the good points and they major on all the bad points.
* The Bible doesn’t do that – Let me show you what the Bible does do.
* The Bible when it draws the character of the sinner and paints the character
of a man who has gone down to hell, it still portrays all his good points.
E) Let me give you a couple of examples – One is in Gen. 34.
* This is the story of the sad breakup of the family of Jacob with sin.
JACOB AND HIS DAUGHTER DINAH
A) Jacob had a daughter called Dinah .......
* And instead of staying with her mother, she went into the world to see
the way the daughters of the land behaved themselves.
* The daughters of the land in which she went to sojourn with her father
were evil – And it wasn’t long until Dinah lost her virtue.
B) She lost her purity and modesty through the schemes and plots
of a man called Shechem.
* Yet when the Bible writes up the character of that man, it says in
Gen. 34:19 that he was more honourable than his brethren.
* It still gives him credit for what he was.
NAAMAN THE LEPER
A) In 2 Kings 5, you have the story of Naaman the leper .......
* And in v.1, it tells you he was a great man and an honourable man,
and also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. (Humiliating – Lev. 13)
* The Bible plays fair – So if you’re here today and you’ve never been saved,
when you stand before God’s judgment bar, you’re gonna get a fair hearing.
B) Herod got a fair write up in the Word of God.
* What does it say about him? – Let’s read v.20 .......
C) That is what the Bible says about Herod – So we have some points
in his favor – Let me show them to you .......
* 1: He recognized the holiness and the justice of John.
* He recognized that John was God’s man.
D) He recognized holiness, truthfulness, and integrity when he saw it.
* He had no holiness himself – He had no justice himself – He had no
integrity himself, but he recognized it in the man of God.
E) 2: He feared God’s man ... He had a sense of fear when he heard
God’s man preach.
* One day he was out in his chariot and he saw a huge crowd of people.
* He told his driver of the chariot to halt the horses, and he said, “What is
this crowd?” ... He said, “A prophet is preaching sire.”
F) “Who is this prophet?” ... “It’s John the Baptist sire.”
* Herod sat in his chariot that day and he heard the man of God preach
and it stirred his heart – He had never felt that feeling before.
G) Then John saw the king, and that fearless preacher pointed his
finger of accusation at him and he said .......
* “King Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
* I see the frown on Herod’s face and he says to his driver, “Let’s go,
drive on the horses.” – And he returns in anger to his palace.
H) But that didn’t keep him from going back again to hear John.
* He went back on many occasions to hear John preach.
* But I want you to notice something .......
THE THIRD THING ABOUT HIM IS: HE HEARD HIM GLADLY
A) He took a delight in hearing God’s faithful man.
* One day I imagine him asking Herodias to come and listen to John.
* She went, and behold the same message to Herod, but this time he
pointed his finger at Herodias – And she got boiling mad.
B) She told her husband Herod, “Let’s get out of here.”
* Herodias, the adulteress said, “You have got to stop John preaching,
I want you to kill him.” – Herod said, “No, he’s not going to be killed.”
C) She nagged away at him until he commanded John to be put in prison.
* No longer the fearless prophet of God stood and denounced the sins of
his day – He was silent in the prison cell.
D) Herodias had not given up her hatred against the man of God.
* You will notice what the Bible says in v.21 .......
E) A day that Herodias planned for – A day when that evil, filthy woman said,
“I will get back at that preacher at last who embarrassed me publicly.”
* You will notice the subtle way in which it was done.
A BIRTHDAY SUPPER WAS PLANNED
A) First of all, there was a birthday supper planned.
* There was food, the drinks, and toast after toast was drunk in that feast
with his palace aides, army officers, and the leading citizens of Galilee.
* All the evil of a Roman festivity was carried out that day.
B) Herodias said, “Before night comes, I will have the head
of John the Baptist.”
* Then after the drinking and the feasting, Herodias’ daughter came
in to dance – Let me tell you something about this dancing.
C) Back then in Bible times when a woman danced at these types
of parties, it was a dance of lewdness.
* The woman would dance undressing herself as the dance proceeded.
D) So there was not only drinking, but there was the filth of the dance.
* There was Herod prepared carefully by Herodias for the last act in the
damnation of his soul – The killing of God’s man.
AFTER THE DANCE
A) After the dance there was the filthy language he swore.
* He opened his mouth and took God’s name in vain.
* I want you to notice the downgrade in this thing.
B) It started with a drink – It went on to a dance – And then it
came to the oath.
* Here is a man, the worse of drunk, his passions aroused by the
suggestiveness of the dance, and he takes God’s holy name in vain.
* He swears to Herodias’ daughter in v.23, “Whatever you ask of me,
I will give it to you, unto the half of my kingdom.”
C) I hear the cheers of all these great men of that kingdom .......
* As they see the king prostrate himself before this half dressed woman
who was dancing before them all.
D) What does she do? – She heads for her mother.
* She asks her mother, “What shall I ask?” ... And that evil mother says,
“Ask for the head of John the Baptist.” ... She says, “Be quick about it.”
* You will notice what the Scripture says in v.25 .......
E) “Before his passions cool – Before he sobers up, go in and tell
him to kill John and cut off his head .......”
* “And bring it drenched with blood on a charger and present it to me on
the dance hall floor.”
* It was a night of blood and it was a night of damnation for king Herod,
and v.26 says that “the king was exceeding sorry;”
F) I want to tell you something – Sin will make you sorry in time,
but sin will make you eternally sorry in the lake of fire forever.
* I wonder how many souls that are sorry now eternally in hell?
* Souls who are sorry they have rejected Christ – Sorry they lived a life
of sin – My friend, it will be too late to be sorrowful in hell.
DO YOU REMEMBER A MAN THEY CALLED ESAU?
A) Heb. 12:17 “Esau found no place of repentance, though he sought
it carefully with tears.”
* The sobs of Esau – There are sobs in hell.
* If I could open the door to the pit of hell today and find Herod, you would
see his soul sobbing, and he is still sorry.
B) Sorry for the mad fool he made of himself on that dance hall floor.
* Sorry for the fact that he put his hand to the murder weapon and sent his
guard to take off the head of John the Baptist.
* He is sorry, but it’s too late to be sorry – He was sorry, yet for his oath’s
sake, and for the people who sat with him, he did the deed of blood.
C) The company you hang with will take you to hell if you let them.
* He was afraid of the people who sat with him.
* There are people who will go to hell because they’re afraid to make the
break from them.
D) They’re afraid to say yes to Christ because of the person with them.
* For their friend’s sake or for their companion’s sake they are prepared to
walk over the blood of Jesus and do despite to the Spirit of grace.
* There are no friends or companions worth going to hell for.
CLOSE
A) Herod motions for one of the guards who was standing close by
to come forward to him.
* You can hear the clank of that guard’s armour as he steps forward to
the king’s throne, and Herod says to the guard .......
* “Go to the prison cell, pick out John the Baptist, cut off his head,
put it on a charger, and bring it to me.”
B) The guard salutes and I hear the clank of the guard’s metal armour
as he goes down the palace floor and down the steps to the prison cell.
* Then John the Baptist hears the guard coming along the stone floor of
Herod’s prison – Suddenly, the door opens.
C) The guard says to John, “Your death day has come.”
* Without any prior notice he is made to lie down on the floor with his face
turned toward the wall.
D) The guard draws his sword, and in one hard swift swing, the head
of John the Baptist is severed from his body.
* That special man, the forerunner of the Saviour, was dead as his soul takes
flight to paradise – And the guard picks up the head by the hair.
E) I see that guard as he produces a silver charger .......
* And he takes that severed bleeding head and places it on the charger
and places the blood stained sword back into its sheath.
* Then the guard starts marching up out of the prison, up the stairs and back
to the drunken birthday party.
F) As he walks across the ballroom floor, the music is stilled.
* Every voice is hushed as they see what he is carrying – A charger with the
head of a preacher still bleeding in the charger.
G) He presents it to Herod – Herod presents it to Herodias’ daughter,
and she takes it and curtsies, and then she presents it to her mother.
* She looks into the face of John the Baptist, curses and says, “You’ll never
embarrass me again, you freak.”
* It was a night of blood in the ballroom.
H) Do you know what happened that night? – Herod and Herodias
sealed their doom for all eternity.
* How do I know? – Look at Luke 23:9 “Then he questioned with .......”
I) Herod lost his soul at the dance.
* If you read the history of Herod, you will find that he went from
bad to worse from that day.
* Herod and Herodias rejected the gospel – That’s what they chose to do,
and you’re gonna have to make that choice right now.
J) Which will you choose? ... Receive the gospel or reject it?
* Receive Christ or reject Him? ... What are you going to do?
