When a Prophet Rebuked a King

I have a remarkable message out of my Bible for you today, friends, because it goes against the currents of the political landscape of our day. My message is entitled, When a Prophet Rebuked a King, and my text can be found in Matthew's Gospel in chapter 14. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 3-12. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His holy word. 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. Let me pause here, friends, to say that John the Baptist did what we are unwilling to do from our pulpits today, and that is to rebuke sin and reprove sinners. John told King Herod to his face that he was a sinner who needed to repent and turn from his sin.

It amazes me how the religious right today has thrown its arms around President Trump and the cheer for him while overlooking this man's adultery with prostitutes. Some big-name pastors want to be in his inner circle so bad they'd rather look the other way than reprove what the world already knows. But John the Baptist had no political ambitions, and he was willing to call sin black, and he'll hot and fearlessly rebuke a king for marrying his brother's wife.

John the Baptist accused Herod of wickedness, adultery, and incest. John reproved him in plain terms, in no uncertain terms, in charging him with sin by saying, It is not lawful. We see the result of John's sermon.

It cost him his head. We see the drunken king at his birthday party, and he makes a rash oath to the dancing devilish daughter Herodias, and she, being instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John the Baptist's head in a charger. Now we see the blood drain out of King Herod's face, because the only reason he didn't kill John off already was that he feared the people because they counted John the Baptist as a prophet.

But now the bloated king gives the order to behead John because of a rash oath he now regrets. We read, And he sent and beheaded John in the prison. Like I said, friends, we won't do what John did because when a prophet rebuked a king it cost him his head, and we like our heads too much and our reputations too much to rebuke sin.

From the pulpit today, we'd rather just give our hearers nice little messages that don't upset anybody while we let them go on to hell. We preachers love to dialogue and give our opinions about things instead of faithfully and fearlessly preaching God's word, but I believe the apostle Paul told his disciple Timothy Wright when he said, Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. And when Paul goes on to describe the pulpits of our day, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own loss shall they heap themselves teachers having itching ears.

Most congregations today go out and get them a pastor who can scratch their itch, but John the Baptist wasn't afraid to put his finger on the sore spot in King Herod's life and call sin, sin and put his neck on the line. But we preachers hold back because when we read our Bibles, we see when a prophet rebuked a king, it cost him his head. Let us pray.