See everybody here, at least
remember to move their clocks forward. So, let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 70 in your hardback timbrel,
number 70, Holy, Holy, Holy. Let's all stand together. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy, merciful and mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee, which wert and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love, and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. Looks like some
folks forgot to move their clocks this morning. They'll come in
the second hour and wonder what's going on. As we were singing that hymn,
I was just thinking about Psalm 22. When the Lord quoted Psalm
22 from the cross, when he said, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And then he answers that question
in verse three when he says, but thou art holy. Why did God the father forsake
Christ on Calvary's cross? Because of his holiness. When
the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for us, God had no choice
but to forsake his son. His holiness would not allow
him to even look upon his own darling son. Holy, holy, holy. Pray the Lord to give us grace
to be able to enter into some semblance of worship of a holy
God. We want to, as a family, rejoice
together with Adam and Rachel Clark and the birth of little
Benjamin. and so very thankful for them. Adam and Rachel are
home this morning watching the services online, so they'll be
back with us soon, I'm sure. Let's go to the Lord together
in prayer. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we have
access into Thy presence. that we have acceptance before
the. In the person. Of our Savior,
thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who bore our sins on
Calvary's Cross? In order to satisfy your divine
justice. Establish your holiness. Lord, put away our sin by the
sacrifice of himself. What great comfort and hope you've
given us and knowing that we have an advocate. Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. Lord, we come before you in need. Of an advocate in need of a savior.
Her Lord left ourselves. We are nothing but sin. We ask
now that you would be pleased to send your spirit in power.
to open the eyes of our understanding, to open our hearts, open your
word, open what no man can shut, open the windows of heaven and
come down. Speak to our hearts, reveal to
us again the glory of thy son and give us comfort and hope
in him. For it's in his name we ask it,
amen. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Mark chapter six. our study in Mark chapter 6 and I want to introduce this
message which I've titled Beware of the Leaven of Herod by quoting
from Mark chapter 8 verse 15. The Lord was once again on the
Sea of Galilee in a boat with the disciples And he speaks to
them and says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of
Herod. And the disciples didn't know
exactly what he meant. He thought, they thought that
he was rebuking them because they had forgotten to bring bread. And he thought, they thought
he was talking about physical bread. And he said, he rebuked
them. He said, don't you remember?
He said, I fed the 5,000 with two loaves and three fishes,
you know. I'm not talking about physical
bread. The only bread you need is the
one that's in the boat with you. I'm talking about a doctrine
that will damn your soul. And he said, beware. of the leaven or the doctrine. He said a little bit of leaven,
a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump. If you compromise
the truth of the gospel in any way, it will destroy the gospel.
What is the leaven of the Pharisees? Well, it's a works gospel, isn't
it? The leaven of the Pharisees was a works gospel. Salvation
by works. I can find acceptance with God
by something I do. That's the leaven of the Pharisees. So now what was the leaven of
Herod? If the Holy Spirit had not recorded
on several occasions the Herods in the Bible, we would give no attention whatsoever
to them. They were cruel, bloodthirsty,
infamous characters. of hatred and yet the Lord has
given us many references to them. Here's the first one in Mark
chapter 8. What was the leaven of the Herods? I'm quoting from Mark chapter
8 now but I want to go back to Mark chapter 6, I'm sorry. What
was the leaven of Herod? Herod was not an individual person.
Herod was a dynasty, much like Pharaoh is a dynasty, much like
Caesars were a dynasty. There are three Herods mentioned
in the Bible. Herod the Great, that's the one
that Rome put in charge of the Jews. in 38 BC, and he's the
one that was reigning when our Lord was born. And he's the one
who sent for the wise men from the east and asked them where
the king was with the full intention of having the Lord put to death. And the angel of the Lord, you
remember, spoke to Joseph and told Joseph to leave. And Joseph took Mary and Christ
down to Egypt for three years. And then when the Lord spoke
to Joseph and told him that Herod was dead, he came back. Now, The scripture makes it clear
that what God did with Herod the Great was in fulfillment
of prophecy. The Bible makes it clear that Rachel, you remember after the
Lord fled to Egypt, Herod sent his soldiers to Bethlehem and
had all the babies, two years and younger, killed in that region. And the scriptures in the Old Testament
prophesied to that event when they said that Rachel would be
weeping over the loss of her children. Let me show you that
passage. It's in Jeremiah chapter 31. We're going to deal with all
three Herods here in just a moment. The message is beware of the
leaven of Herod. And Jeremiah chapter 31, we'll begin reading at verse
15, thus saith the Lord, A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation
and bitter weeping. Rachel, weeping for her children,
refused to be comforted for her children because they were not. Now the actions of Herod were
ordained of God as difficult and painful as they were for
the for the people of that area, God was using Herod the Great
to fulfill this prophecy. And we'll see that with not only
Herod the Great, but his son, who is the Herod that our Lord
dealt with. And then his son or grandson,
which is the Herod that the church in Acts chapter 12 had to deal
with. The first point that I want you to see in all of these Herods
is that they were, well, the heart of the king is in the hand
of the Lord and he directs it whithersoever he wills. They
were being used of God to accomplish his divine purpose. And that's
not just true of Herod. That's true of your employer. That's true of every king and
leader in the world. Our God hath done whatsoever
he wills with the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the
earth. No man can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? Our God reigns sovereign. The
devil is God's devil. Our God has never been threatened
by any of the actions of any man. To the contrary, though
men are fully responsible for everything that they do, let
no man say when he sins that God made him do it. James makes
that clear, doesn't he? For each man sins of his own
volition. He is drawn away by the lust
of His flesh, and when sin is complete, it bringeth with death.
Man is responsible for his sin, but our God is so glorious and
so sovereign that He's purposed the sin of man to accomplish
His own purpose. And so with Herod the Great,
this prophecy was fulfilled. And there's There's more in this
prophecy. Look at verse 16 in Jeremiah
chapter 31. Thus saith the Lord, refrain
thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears, for thy work
shall be rewarded, saith the Lord. And they shall come again
from the land of the enemy. He's comforting the hearts of
these grieving mothers who are trusting the Lord and saying
to them, cease from your weeping Your children are going to return. And verse 17, and there is hope
in thine hand, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come
again to their border. If I was a parent that lost a
child, I'd hold on to that promise. I'd find some hope and comfort
in what the Lord has said here in this passage of scripture. The leaven of Herod. What is it? Well, we see not
only that Herod was being used of God to fulfill prophecy concerning
the slaughter of these children, but Herod was also being used
of God in the sending of Joseph and the Lord Jesus Christ down
to Egypt. For in Hosea chapter 11, verse
1, the scripture says, out of Egypt I have called my son. out of Egypt, I have called my
son. The Lord had to go down to Egypt. You see, the Lord had
to do everything that we've done. We were brought out of Egypt. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
as the sinner's substitute, had to go down to Egypt and come
out of Egypt as a picture of what he's done for us in bringing
his people out of the bondage of the taskmasters of the law. And so Herod the Great was used
of God to fulfill at least those two prophecies. And then we have
this Herod that's spoken of in our text. And this is the Herod that had John
the Baptist put to death. This is also the Herod that is
spoken of in the scriptures. You remember when the Lord was
taken on that night of his crucifixion, he was brought before Pilate
and the accusations were made and Pilate could find no fault
in him. And so Pilate sent the Lord,
the scripture says, that night to Herod, to have him interrogated
by Herod. And Herod asked the Lord lots
of questions. And the scripture says, turn
with me to Luke chapter seven. I'm sorry, Luke chapter seven,
I think is the, Let's see if this is it. No, I'm so sorry. I'll just tell
you the story. When the Lord was brought before
Herod on the night before his crucifixion, The scripture says
that Herod asked him these questions and then the scripture declares
this horrible condemnation on Herod when the Bible says that
the Lord answered him nothing, nothing. The worst thing that
can happen to a man is for God not to speak to him. for God
to be silent. And that's exactly what happened
to Herod. And so Herod dies, and then his son, who is the
grandson of Herod the Great, takes over. And the grandson
is the one spoken of in Acts chapter 12, when Herod saw that it pleased the
Jews that he had had James put to death. And so he arrested
Peter and put Peter in prison with every intent to have him
put to death the next day. And that was the night that the
angel came and opened up the prison doors and Peter walked
out of the prison that night. And Herod found out about it
the next morning and told his guards to have the prison guards
put to death. And then that very day, he stood
up before the people and gave a speech. And this is all recorded
in Acts chapter 12. And the people cried, it is the
voice of a God and not of a man. And the scripture says that Herod,
because he refused to give God the glory, was in disorder. smoked by the angel of the Lord,
eaten with worms and gave up the ghost right there on the
podium where he was speaking. So I don't know what that means. I don't know how a man's eating
with worms before he gives up the ghost, but I don't want that
to happen to me. And that's exactly what the Lord
did. So these, these Herods, they
were, used of Rome to control the Jews. Now, here's the thing
about the Herods. They were not Jewish by birth. In about 150 BC, there was an
uprising among the Jews and they had taken over the region called
Idumea and the Herods came from that region. and forced the people
of Idumea to submit to the law of the Jews. And so these Herods,
they gave lip service to Judaism, but they had no interest. in
the things of God. They were religious only in their
casual identification with Israel, but they were not sympathetic
to the Jews in any way. And so, what is the leaven of
Herod? The leaven of Herod is to give
lip service to the gospel, but to have no real interest in the
things of God from the heart. And the Lord saying to the Pharisees,
beware, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, a gospel by
works, and beware of the leaven of the Herod's. One who says,
well, yeah, I've got an identification with the things of God, The evidence
is to the contrary in every way, in every way. They were cruel, ruthless. They gained power by murder and
intimidation. Herod the Great had his own wife
and two children killed because they threatened his position. All right, so these men as evil
and wicked as they were, were used of God. This Herod now that
we're going to read about in Mark Chapter 6 is being used
of the Lord to move John the Baptist out of the way. When
John said, I must decrease that he might increase, John didn't
know the full impact of what he was saying. but how merciful
the Lord was to take John out so quickly and to take him to
glory. This is the Herod that has John
the Baptist put to death. You remember what happens, and
it's all recorded right here in Mark chapter 5. Let's begin
reading in verse 14. And King Herod heard of him,
for his name was spread abroad, and he said that John the Baptist
was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show
forth themselves in him. Others said, it is Elijah. And
others said that it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. And
when Herod heard thereof, he said, no, it's John, whom I beheaded. He is risen from the dead. Now, he had heard of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but he came to the wrong conclusions about who
the Lord Jesus Christ was. You remember when the Lord asked
the apostles, he said, do men say that I am? And what did they
say? Well, some say that thou art
Elijah, risen from the dead. Some say that thou art John the
Baptist. Some say that thou art one of
the prophets. And the Lord said, whom do you say that I am? They
all got it wrong. They all got it wrong. Herod
gets it wrong. He heard of Christ. This has something to do with
the leaven of Herod. to hear of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but to come to the wrong conclusion about who he is. And what did
Peter say? Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. We know who you are. And what
our Lord say to Peter, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh
and blood didn't reveal this unto you, my father, which is
in heaven and upon this rock. the confession that you just
made about who I am, the Christ, the anointed one, the one son
of God to accomplish the salvation of his people, the successful
savior. Upon this rock, I'm going to
build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. I'm going to accomplish my purpose. What is his purpose?
What is his purpose? The salvation of his people.
and the glory of his name. That's his purpose. Not one of
his sheep are going to be lost. He's going to accomplish his
purpose. Now, Herod came to the wrong
conclusions about who the Lord Jesus Christ was because, first
of all, he listened to what other men were saying. Some say that
thou art Elijah, risen from the dead, for no man can do the great
works that thou do, except God be with him. You must be one
of the prophets. Isn't that what Nicodemus said?
You've got to be a son of God. You wouldn't be able to do the
things you do if God wasn't with you. And what did the Lord say to
Nicodemus? Nicodemus, you can't understand who I am. You can't
perceive of the kingdom of God until you're born from above.
The spirit of God has to teach you. You can't learn about who
I am from other people. You can't even learn from who
I am by what you observe with your eyes and ears physically. You can only learn who I am if
the Spirit of God is pleased to reveal me to you. Now here's
where Herod falls short. We don't want to be identified
with Herod. Herod listened to what other
men said about Christ. He looked at what was happening
and he made the wrong conclusion about who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. And you and I will come to the same conclusions that Herod
came to if the Spirit of God doesn't teach us. If he doesn't
open the eyes of our understanding, if he doesn't, the natural man
cannot receive the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness. He can't see them. He doesn't
understand them. He can't perceive of them. We
are completely dependent upon the Spirit of God to teach us. Now, what drove Herod to the
conclusion that he came to? This is a very important part.
What drove Herod to the conclusion that he came to about who the
Lord Jesus Christ was? What conclusion did he come to?
This is John whom I beheaded and he's come back from the dead.
He's been reincarnated in another body and he's come here to torment
me. What was the motivation? What
drove Herod to the conclusions that Herod came to about who
the Lord Jesus Christ was? Pretty clear, isn't it? A guilty
conscience. Guilt. You know that's what man-made
religion is based on. Guilt and fear. And the difference
between the gospel and man-made religion is the gospel is all
about freedom and forgiveness. It's not about guilt and fear.
Guilt and fear are powerful motivators. You put a person under the law,
And you can manipulate them to do whatever you want them to
do if they think that their actions are somehow going to earn them
favor with God. And that's all man-made religion
is all about. And that's what motivated Herod
to come to the conclusions that he came to. And what does the
scripture say? You that want to be under the
law, do you not hear what the law says? Do you not know that
if you violate one part of the law, you've broken it all? But
that's what religion's based on. And men come to all the wrong
conclusions about who the Lord Jesus Christ is because of fear
and guilt. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8. This all has
something to do with what our Lord said when he told the disciples,
beware of the leaven of Herod. Beware that you don't have a
casual view of the gospel with no real evidence of love for
Christ whatsoever. Look what he says in Romans chapter
8 at verse 15. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Who gave us that spirit
of adoption? The spirit himself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time cannot be
compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. And then skip
down with me to verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. We have an advocate with the
Father who presents himself on our behalf. We have acceptance
with God in the Beloved. We have a perfect righteousness
with God in the person of our Savior, confirmed to our hearts
by the Spirit of God. Herod didn't have the Spirit
of God. He came to the conclusions he came to by what he heard from
men and by the guilty conscience that he had for having put John
to death. He didn't want to put John to
death. He had taken his brother's wife,
Philip, and her name was Herodias, and John confronted him about
it. Why did John confront the king
over this matter of adultery? Because he made a profession
of believing in the law. Herod said, I believe the law. They say as long as Herod was
in Jerusalem, he acted like a Jew. He did everything kosher. But
as soon as he got out of Jerusalem, he went back to his old ways. He had a casual interest in the
things of the law. And he said he was under the
law. And John said, you under the law? Look what you're doing.
And Herodias hated John for that. had John arrested and then remember
Herodias' daughter danced before Herod and Herod said to her at
this great banquet, he said to her, he said, he was so pleased
with her, he said, you can ask anything you will of the king
and I'll give it to you, up to half of my kingdom. And so she
ran to her mother and she said, what would you have me, what
should I ask the king for? The head of John the Baptist.
and she went back and she asked harry for the head of john the
baptist and uh... here didn't want to do it but
well this is all in our tax go back with me what is the motivation
for coming to the wrong conclusions about christ it's guilt and fear
guilt and fear The only way we'll come to the right conclusions
about Christ is by forgiveness and freedom. Isn't that what
the woman at the well, when she ran back down to Sychar, she
said, come meet a man who told me everything I ever did. Everything
I ever did outside of the Lord Jesus Christ was nothing but
sin, and everything that I ever did in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ is perfectly righteous before God. I have acceptance
with God by Him. I'm forgiven. There's no more
guilt. There's no more fear. The spirit
of fear is not of God. I have an advocate with the Father.
Whoever lives to make intercession for me. I'm free. Free from the law. Free from the penalty of the
law. Free from guilt. Go back with me to Mark chapter
6. So Herod heard and he said, No,
it's John, verse 16, whom I beheaded. He is risen from the dead. For
Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John and bound
him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife, for
he had married her. For John had said unto Herod,
It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. The
only reason. You've professed, Herod, you've
identified yourself with the law of God. You want to live
by the law, then what you're doing here is not in agreement
with the law. Therefore, Herodias had a quarrel
against him and would have killed him but she could not. For Herod
feared John knowing that he was a just man and holy and observed
him. And when he had heard him, he
did many things and heard him gladly." Herod liked John. He liked him. He wanted to hear
about him. It was just the same Herod. The same Herod now is the one
that Pilate goes to. The night that he sent the Lord
to Herod and Herod sent Christ back to Pilate, And he said,
I could find no charge against him. I can find no reason for
putting him to death. And here's what, here's how that
story ends. And that very night, Herod and Pilate became friends. Now, these two men were political
enemies. This was, I mean, they were just
political enemies. They hated each other. But that
night, they became friends. They had a common enemy. And they struck hands together
at the crucifixion of Christ. So, John confronts Herod. Verse 21, and when a convenient
day was come that Herod on his birthday made a supper for his
lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee, and when
the daughter of the said Herodias came in and danced and pleased
Herod, and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel,
ask of me whatsoever thou will, and I will give it to thee. And
he swear unto her, whatsoever thou ask of me, I will give it
to thee, and to half of my kingdom. And she went forth and said unto
her mother, what shall I ask? And she said, the head of John
the Baptist. Out of all the things, her hatred for John was so deep-seated. Out of all the things she could
have asked for, she wanted the head of John the Baptist. And
she came in straightway in haste unto the king and asked him saying,
I will that thou give me by and by in a charge of the head of
John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry. Yet for his oath's sake and for
their sake, which sat with him, he would not reject her. And
immediately the king set an executioner and commanded his head to be
brought. And he went, beheaded him in the prison and brought
his head in the charger and gave it to the damsel and the damsel
gave it to her mother." What a horrible story. Yet it shed some light on the leaven of the herits. The other thing I want to see,
I want us to see about Herod is that Herod was very superstitious. You remember when Paul went to
Athens in Acts chapter 17 and he went to Mars Hill and met
with the philosophers, the Greek philosophers, the Stoics and
the Epicureans and he said to them, he said, I perceive that
you all are very superstitious. Now, if you look up that word
superstitious, it's a conjunction of two words. The first word
is fear and the second word is the devil. That's what the word
superstitious means, fear of the devil. And again, it describes all of man-made religion. You know how not to fear the
devil? Fear God. Fear God and you won't fear the
devil. But man-made religion is all
based on superstition, isn't it? I thought, why does an absolute
perfect stranger who wouldn't even speak a hello to me in public,
who has no interest in the things of God, immediately say to me
when they hear me sneeze, God bless you. Why do they do that? Why do people
do that? It's superstition. That's all it is. And, you know,
and I want to say, well, you didn't say it quick enough because
my spirit's already gone out. That's what it's all about. You
know, they say it right away, don't they, because they don't
want you to lose your spirit. It's superstition. It's fear
of the devil. I was in a store the other day. A man's got a
red bot right in the middle of his head. What's that all about?
Or is there another place that a woman just a couple of weeks
ago, she had a smudge mark on her, you know, ashes on her forehead.
What's that all about? It's superstition. The lighting of candles and the
bowing to icons and the gargoyles on the buildings, what is it?
It's a fear of evil. What can we do to ward off the
evil? And that's what man-made religion
is all about. It's all about superstition. And this is the
leaven of Herod. He was driven by fear and guilt
and he thought the solution was superstition. You know, I go into a Jewish
person's home and they've got this, I think it's called a musolah.
on the door frame of their front door. And inside that little
box is a copy of Deuteronomy chapter 6. What's that all about? It's to ward off the evil spirits
so they don't come into your home. It's superstition. Whatever it is, you go to any
religious opinion and you'll find that they've got their set
of superstitions. And that's what Paul said. When
he went to Athens, he said, He said, I perceive that you
all are very superstitious. You got all these gods, you got
all these idols, and you even got a statue to the unknown god
just in case you missed one. And that's the god I'm going
to preach unto you. Because you have missed him. You don't know
him. So the leaven of the Herod was A
casual profession of an interest in the law of God, but no evidence of any love for Christ
or desire to worship God. Matter of fact, everything they
all did was contrary. They stood in opposition to the
things of God. Driven by fear, guilt, and superstition. What did we just read? Herod
would not have John put to death, but he had made this public oath
among all these high-ranking officials and in fear of man,
in fear of man. And that's what man-made religion
is all about. You know where you see this or
worse? You know, I gave some examples of some really ridiculous
stuff that goes on in religion. But you know where you see the
fear of man the most in religion? is among the reformed people,
the Calvinist who want to pretend to be more holy than the other
guy. And the whole doctrine of progressive
sanctification is all based on the fear of man. The doctrines
and commandments of man. Pharisees loved the praise of
men and so they had their long phylacteries and they prayed
their prayers in public. And what did the Lord say? Don't
be like that. I was talking to a brother recently. He said they were in a reformed
church and the elders just before the service would start would
all walk down the middle aisle and they had these long black
trench coats on and black hats and they'd sit along the front
row. What's that all about? Intimidate men. The fear of men. And that's what Herod had. And that's part of the doctrine
or the leaven of Herod. The Lord said, beware of the
leaven of the Pharaoh Herod. He said, when you pray, don't
pray like that. Go into your closet and shut
the door. And pray to your father in secret. And your father who hears you
in secret will reward you openly. That's the truth, isn't it? Beware of the leaven of Herod. All right, let's take a break. Yeah.