God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. You see, the judgment of God, ladies and gentlemen, is not just for the Harrods of the world. It's not just for the Hitlers and the Lenins who claim to be the Savior of the world, who demanded worship and blind allegiance.
The wrath of God will come upon all of humanity who in various ways got rid of Father God and worshipped Mother Earth. It's certainly not fun or pleasant to think about, but God's judgment is real and the punishment coming to God's enemies is certain. Today in this lesson from our Vintage Wisdom series in Acts, we come to an account where we see this demonstrated very clearly. A first century king named Herod refused to give glory to God and instead took glory for himself. He was struck dead by God. Now, judgment is not always so swift, but the lesson is clear. We give glory to God alone or we face His wrath. This is wisdom for the heart.
Stephen called this lesson Glory to God Alone. I want to read you a list of names and have you answer to yourself what you might think these men had in common. I will give you one clue. They were at the height of their career in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Owen Young, Pierre Laval, Hugh Johnson, James Burns, and Harlow Curtis. If you're like me, you have no idea who these men were and you certainly wouldn't know what they had done to make their claim to fame, yet each of these men at some point in their lives were Time Magazine's Man of the Year. In other words, they were judged by society, at least by that particular society, to have had in any given year the greatest impact on the rest of humanity.
And 50 years later, 60 years later, we don't have a clue who they were. If you were living in the first century, the most famous men, the ones that would be splashed across the journals of our country, the most watched family in the civilized world was a family known as the Family of the Harrods. They were all related and they all took that name as they ruled vast empires.
If you think the Kennedy family is well watched or the royal family of Great Britain, I want you to know they couldn't have held a candle to the most powerful family on earth that ruled for over 100 years. They held the highest political offices in the land and their word held sway over millions of people. Now I've given you in your notes a little bit of history.
We have to do a little history to appreciate the application, certainly the interpretation of this passage. You'll see at the top of the chart was the beginning man or the founding patriarch of this dynasty, the first Herod. He humbly chose his name, Herod the Great.
You'll see it there. He reigned for 40 years. This was the man that was on the throne when Jesus Christ was born. You remember the wise men, sometime after Jesus was born came searching for the boy and they came to Herod.
This was that Herod. And remember he told them, well, you go find the boy and come back and tell me because I want to go and worship him too. And of course they were warned he was deceiving. He wanted to snuff out this little life that had laid claim to a title that he had laid claim to, King of the Jews.
And so the wise men being warned went another way. As a result of that, this cold, heartless dictator ordered his soldiers to go to Bethlehem and slaughter all of the male Jewish boys under the age of two. When Herod the Great knew that his health was failing and that he'd soon die, he ordered his generals to capture all the prominent Jews in the land and place them in prisons throughout. His orders to them were, at the moment of his death, they were to execute those prominent Jewish citizens in order to ensure, as he said in his own words, that there would be mourning and lamentation in Israel when I am dead.
Fortunately, his generals disobeyed his order. Herod Antipas, you notice his name, he was the immoral drunkard who beheaded John the Baptist. He was also the one whom Jesus Christ appeared before on trial and this Herod sent him back to Pilate. He didn't want anything to do with him, but Luke does tell us that this particular Herod, Herod Antipas, personally mocked and scoffed at Jesus Christ. Herod Agrippa, the first is another name you have, was the one who killed James and imprisoned Peter.
He's the focus of our study in just a moment. Herod Agrippa the second was the one that Paul appeared before. You remember his defense where he said, Paul, almost thou persuadest me to become a what?
Christian. He wasn't serious. He studied the passage, he discovered he's really mocking the apostle Paul. This family would go down in history really. I didn't mention their murders and conspiracies and their many adulteries. They're all recorded in history if you cared to read and I had Josephus out and I was reading page after page.
It was like some tabloid. This family will go down in history as a family that opposed everything related to Christianity. Jesus Christ, the one and only true God. They hated the sound of his name and it's so obvious to me as you study world history how the prince of the power of the air manipulated this particular family to be in power, hoping to destroy as much as he could at the very birth of Christ throughout the first century as the church of Christ began to develop.
Well, we've been singing songs that all tie in. I hope you see the theme of this hour as we talk about the fact that kings do not rule in absolute sovereignty. God is absolute sovereign over all and that's the heart of our discussion. What I want us to do is go back and take a closer look at this King Herod Antipas, chapter 12, verse 1. Acts chapter 12, verse 1. Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them and he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now stop, can you imagine for a moment the frustration and maybe even the hopelessness of the church.
Here's a man who's arresting and executing them not because they've broken the law but because it pleases the majority of his constituents. The political processes are always more interested in the opinion of man rather than the opinion of God, what works in the polls rather than what the providential mind would have. The opinions of people will always outweigh the opinions of providence.
In fact, as I was thinking about this, it made me want to go back and I want to do that briefly with you here. If you'd hold your finger here and just turn to Daniel. Daniel chapter 4, verse 17. Nebuchadnezzar, who was the greatest world leader at this particular time has had a dream and he tells Daniel his dream.
He wants an interpretation. This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers and the decision is the command of the holy ones in order that the living may know that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes and sets over it the basest of men. In other words, Satan is manipulating his men into world power.
But God informs us that while Satan may manipulate, God is over all sovereign and he is responsible for the appointment. Now Daniel interprets the dream. Look at verse 24. This is the interpretation, O king, of your dream. This is the decree of the most high which has come upon my Lord the king that you be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field and you be given grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven and seven years will pass over you until you recognize the most high is the ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes and in that it was commanded to leave the stump with the roots of the tree. That's a picture of his kingdom. Your kingdom will be assured to you after you recognize that it is heaven that rules. What a great phrase.
You ought to underline that. Heaven rules with one little flick of God's sovereign finger. He will lose his sanity and presence of mind and be reduced to living like an animal.
Medical community would call this lycanthropy, a form of insanity that causes someone to live as an animal. In other words, because you place yourself as the center of your universe thinking you are all great and all powerful, God will have his say and you will be an illustration for the rest of humanity for the rest of time that it is heaven ultimately that rules. Well, I think Nebuchadnezzar must have thought that it was Daniel who was a little crazy because verse 29, 12 months later, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. The king reflected and said, is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty.
Do you think he's a little self-consumed at this point? While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven saying, King Nebuchadnezzar to you it is declared sovereignty has been removed from you and you'll be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place will be with the beast of the field. He will be given grass to eat like cattle and seven years will pass over you until you recognize that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes. As great as you think you are, you are a puppet in the hands of a sovereign God. In fact, people do not experience freedom until they come into that will of the sovereign God. And it happened just as Daniel predicted to this man who did not believe or follow the true God of heaven, he began to walk about as an animal on his hands and knees, fingernails grew long as wild grew, his hair grew matted and wild and... The main message from this event in history is that heaven is in control. See, Nebuchadnezzar gained the throne than this text tells us in Babylon only because God willed it. And God will teach a lesson through his insanity. He would regain his sanity only as he himself submitted to the fact that God is God alone.
His glory will not be given to another. Sometimes we see that judgment come while we're still living. Sometimes we see it in a generation. We've seen it in the Soviet Union. Ceausescu ruled Romania, hated Christianity, hated Jesus Christ with a passion. We didn't get any of this through the news.
You got to read other sources. But a few weeks before he was assassinated, he rewrote the Orthodox Christmas hymn. It was Christmas time. To no longer sing of God but to sing of his own glory and he had his name written into the hymn, had the choirs of his country forced to sing it. Sometimes God moves like that and with a flick of his finger, he changes the world rulers. Sometimes he chooses to allow them to vent their full fury. Herod is on the throne for the same reason. God appointed him, an evil man in order to teach an eternal truth that God alone is sovereign. And if he chooses, he can with one little flick of his finger, reduce that puny man to walking on hands and knees, eating grass until puny man recognizes that God is God alone and we do not claim glory to him.
He is due all glory forever and ever. The church does not need to feel frustrated or afraid. God is in control. I could give you a couple of thoughts here very quickly.
They're not in your notes, but let me just suggest a couple of thoughts. The power of political leaders can never overthrow the purposes of God. Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church and the gates of hell, the plans of hell, the purposes of hell, the council of hell will not prevail against it.
I will build my church. It's exciting to be part of a local manifestation of his church, his body, and to know that he will build his church. This is his church. Is it mine? It isn't the leadership's.
It is his. He has promised to build it no matter what happens. Second, the nations of the world can never extinguish the holy nation of God. First Peter two nine says that those who place their faith in him are an holy nation, a peculiar people. You can interpret that any way you want. That typically what that actually means is that we belong to him as a unique possession.
Let them try. They cannot extinguish the pure nation of God. Well, Herod is about to experience the wrath of God. Go back to Acts chapter 12.
God will make of him an illustration for the rest of time. We studied now in Acts chapter 12 in our last discussion the escape of Peter from prison. Remember the angel appeared. His chains fell off.
The soldiers remained chained to nothing while they slept. It wasn't until the change in the guard that they realized in the morning that Peter, the prize prisoner of Herod, was gone and it wasn't long before he was celebrating. You remember with the church that was in the middle of their prayer meeting and they offended Rhoda and they probably cleared it all up and went on. You remember that study.
You're with us. And notice verse 18. Now, when day came there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter.
That's an understatement. And when Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards. That word examined is used in the original language to imply interrogation by torture. Herod didn't call the soldiers in and say, now, fellas, I'd really like to know what happened.
Please. He interrogated them by torturing out of them a confession. False though it was.
Why? That was his only choice. There must be a conspiracy. Otherwise Herod comes face to face with the fact that his throne, which is at war with the throne of heaven, his throne is losing. So there had to be a conspiracy. So he extracted from one of them or from all of them by way of torture a confession and he ordered, the verse tells us, that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.
Stop. In other words, he's running from the issues. The polls have changed. There's a fiasco in Jerusalem.
People are upset. His own guards seem to be guilty of insubordination. There's those rumors of miracles and he has to be thinking as a rational man. He knew the confessions were contrived. If they had conspired to release Peter because they were in allegiance to the church, why did they remain chained to the walls? Why didn't they have as part of their conspiracy a way for them to escape as well? Why remain behind and be killed?
He knew. In fact, the phrase spending time there from verse 19 can be literally translated to rub away. He was trying to rub out of his mind and his troubled conscience, the truth that he was fighting, that his throne was in opposition to the throne of heaven. And so like many today, he's running, he's leaving. He goes to a resort, Roman town named Caesarea to relax, to be pampered, to try to rub out of his conscience, his murders.
Like people today, even in our own land who run into alcohol or drugs or promiscuity, relationships impurely designed might be things that could be good but become obsessions like sports and money and career and cars, whatever it might be. He's just running, running, running, trying to drown out a troubled conscience. I had an old professor, he used to say, people are rushing, rushing to keep their appointment with death. Does that ever occur to you that the only people that can really stop are Christians that no longer have to run from a troubled conscience because they have yielded their sinful selves to Jesus Christ has cleansed them from every stain? Ever thought about the fact that you're the only kind of people that can sit on a porch in a rocking chair and watch a sunset and enjoy every minute of it?
You can drive down the road in a car without the radio on or anything on and just think about the Lord and your life. You can take quiet like this. He's running, running, but he's a powder keg. He's so frustrated as he tries to rub away the gnawing gillig in verse 20. He's very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon.
Why? Well, with one accord they came to him having won over Blastas the king's chamberlain. They were asking for peace because their country was fed by the king's country. Something had happened in this little tiny country. Tyre and Sidon, it was nothing. They were nothing to Herod, but they had done something to offend his greatness. And so he imposed upon them some kind of economic blockade. They were outside of his jurisdiction, but yet they received food from his country. Well, he stopped it.
I'll show you. He's frustrated. There's something else going on inside, but this is coming out. And so Tyre and Sidon, they bribed this fellow named Blastas, the king's chamberlain. That is, he ran the king's bedroom. He helped the king get dressed.
He said, Blastas, please. You know, they gave him some gifts. We showed how desperate they were to have to go so low on the totem pole to get to the king, but they got ahold of the guy that helped him get dressed.
Look, when he's getting dressed, give him a good word. You know, there's people over in Tyre and Sidon. You know, king, they're, here, here's your shirt. They're not so bad. Now put that arm in there.
Why don't you just kind of let them go without greatness? It worked. Herod plans to address representatives from Tyre and Sidon in just a moment.
We'll get there, but let me tell you a couple of things that happened. Josephus, a historian, a Jewish man who lived during the time of this occurrence, wrote that Herod, Antipas, selected for the day that he would give his speech in Caesarea to the representatives of Tyre and Sidon. The celebration festival day of the anniversary of this city, it was a celebration of Claudius Caesar.
Caesar, the city Caesarea was named after Caesar. And so representatives from all around the empire were there. It was a great photo op opportunity, you know, for the humble Herod. This would be a wonderful time for him to deliver a speech to show his humility and deference to people who need his glory and his help. And so he chose this day to deliver this speech that did nothing more than talk of himself.
Josephus also tells us that he selected a robe made entirely of silver, silver thread and silver coins, designed to capture and reflect the rays of the sun with brilliant splendor. So here comes Herod. All the dignitaries are there, the press is there, the people are there, and he with mock humility and grace delivers a sermon. Verse 21, and on an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum. That is literally bema, bema seat. That's the upper seat where the judges rewarded the victorious athletes.
He took it there on the throne, the outdoor bema seat, and began delivering an address to them. And the people kept crying out the voice of a god and not of a man. The words crying out could literally be rendered cheering. They were cheering, Josephus told us.
It had one over here and then one over there and eventually everybody is cheering. He is a god, not a man. He is God. And somewhere in there Herod did the unbelievable.
He believed it. He took glory to himself. Look at verse 23, and immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory and he was eaten by worms and died. Can you imagine this scene? Herod is dressed in this brilliant garment.
The sun was reflecting off the silver thread. He speaks with pride and false humility to the leaders of Tyre and Sidon. Then these flatterers begin to cry out, he is God. And somewhere in there he, like Nebuchadnezzar of old, says, you know, sounds pretty good. I think I will go ahead and accept their worship.
That is me. And with one flick of sovereign power, God either created, fiat, or released worms within Herod that brought about death. Josephus tells us that Herod lingered for five days before dying.
Why? Well, because of the sin as old as Satan. Because, verse 23, he did not give God the glory. God sent into this world his son who brought with him the plan of redemption within his own body so that those who claim him as redeemer and king, who accept him, who no longer demand that they sit upon the throne of their life, who give the glory for their lives and their ideologies and their philosophies and their plans, all of it is to God be the glory. God is sovereign. Those who reject Jesus Christ, in effect, refuse to give God the glory.
They will populate hell one day. In fact, why don't you turn ahead to Romans, chapter one, just for a moment. This is a description of humanity. I think it could be applied in any generation. Romans, chapter one, verse 21, refusing to give God the glory is happening in every generation.
It is happening today. And in fact, when it comes to American culture, I think you see it more and more every day. It says, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, God is no longer glorified, but the animal kingdom is glorified.
God is ignored while animals and the created world is revered, as somehow the created world some way has the answers. Verse 24, therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who was blessed forever. You see, the judgment of God, ladies and gentlemen, is not just for the Harrods of the world.
It's not just for the Hitlers and the Lenins who claimed to be the savior of the world, the demagogues who demanded worship and blind allegiance. The wrath of God will come upon all of humanity who in various ways got rid of Father God and worshiped Mother Earth, who ignored the glory of the creator and elevated the creation of that wonderful creator, guilty of not giving glory to God alone. Wrath is the result. Well, back in Acts 12, we also discover the grace of God.
Quickly, Acts chapter 12, verse 24, but the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. You see the contrast here? You have worms set in contrast with the word. Worms multiplied in the life of this unbeliever, the word multiplied in the lives of believers. In effect, he is almost implying that all of humanity has a choice. You choose between the worms and the word.
And, you know, the word also works internally, doesn't it? Changing, renewing, reforming. The church is also succeeding in spite of Herod. Look at verse 25, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission.
I like that phrase. When they'd fulfilled all the press, all the attention of the world is over here on Herod. Great, marvelous Herod, the empire of the Harods. That's the work worth watching.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no. There's a little work going on over here from Antioch to Jerusalem, and a couple of people are involved and some believers are praying, and that's God at work. That's worth watching. But the world would think that this was the story. Centuries later, we know this was the story.
And it says they also took along with him John, who is also called Mark. So the passage of Scripture certainly reminds them and us that the Harods of earth can come and go, and they will come and go. And those who rail against God, who seek to elevate the creation over the Creator will come and go. But unto him who sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb, be glory and honor and power and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The glory goes to God alone forever and ever. That's an important truth that we all need to learn and apply today and every day. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey.
We're working through a series from our Vintage Wisdom Library, a series from the Book of Acts, and today's lesson is called Glory to God Alone. If you ever miss one of these broadcasts, but you want to keep caught up with the series, be sure and visit our website. Once you're there, you can listen to each day's broadcast. You can also do that from the Wisdom International smartphone app on your phone.
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