Beware of Modern Herodians

Introduction: The Importance of Biblical Warnings

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, March 9th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I turn this morning to the 8th chapter of Mark, Mark chapter 8, and I shall read just the text that has been the focal point of our attention for several Lord's Day mornings, Mark 8 and verse 15. Our Lord Jesus, speaking to the twelve, it is said of him, and he charged them, he seriously laid before them a command, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And in the parallel passage in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, we read in verse 6, And Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

1:15 And verse 12, Then understood they that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Now let us again ask God's help upon our meditation in his holy. And infallible word. O our Father, we thank you for that which we have in this hour already known of your gracious presence, for the privilege of confessing our faith in your beloved Son, living that perfect life on our behalf, dying that cruel death for our sins. We thank you that we've been able to confess together our confidence that, though heaven and earth are at odds with us, we have been able to confess together our confidence that, though heaven and earth are at odds with us, we have been able to confess together our confidence that, though heaven and earth pass away, your word shall never pass away. Your word does abide, and your word does guide our footsteps. Now, O Lord, as we come to our study in that word, may it come to us not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance.

2:35 May this warning of the Lord Jesus be more. More deeply and intelligently etched upon our hearts than even hitherto it has been. Crown our meditations in this text with a mighty outpouring of your Spirit upon us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

3:04 Now, as we return this morning to our expanded application of Mark 8 and verse 15, we do well to remind ourselves that, biblical warnings are one of the major instruments chosen by God to do two things. First of all, to prod sinners into the way of life and salvation, and to prod saints to remain upon the narrow way that leads unto life. For example, the words of John the Baptist recorded in Matthew 3.7, are an example of a warning intended to prod sinners to get into the way of life and salvation. For John said, Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And then in Colossians 1.28, we have a classic example, what we would call an epitomizing text, of how warnings are used not only to prod sinners, to get into the way of life and salvation, but to prod saints to remain on that narrow road that leads to life.

4:24 For Paul could say, Whom we preach, that is, with reference to Christ that he preached, warning every man as well as teaching every man, that he might present every man complete or mature in Christ. Now, one of the most important warnings of our Lord, is that which we have come to in our consecutive expositions in the Gospel of Mark, the warning recorded in Mark 8 and verse 15. We come this morning to our final message, and this is the final final. After a broad exposition and application of verses 14 to 21, the paragraph in which the warning occurs, and after seeing the vital points, the vital connection between that paragraph and verses 11 through 13, we return to verse 15 to do several things. First of all, to underscore and to note carefully the method by which our Lord warned His own disciples of serious religious error. He used the method in which He exposed the manner of errors working. He called it leaven.

5:46 A little bit goes a long way. It has an active, infectious, self-perpetuating power. And then in warning them about this insidious acting of the spirit of error, He did not warn in vague generalizations, but in concrete, specific, unmistakable, descriptive terms. He warned them of the teaching of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees and of Herod, or the Herodians.

Review of Previous Warnings: Pharisees and Sadducees

6:22 And having seen that principle, we had occasion to notice that our Lord used it repeatedly, as did His inspired apostles. And then for two lords days, we've been concerned to press on and examine precisely what the leaven, or teaching of these groups was, and to ascertain their condition, and to ascertain their condition, and to ascertain their condition, and to ascertain their condition, and to ascertain their condition, and to ascertain their condition, contemporary manifestations, and then to employ the method of Jesus in warning you, God's people, about the contemporary leaven of the Pharisees and the contemporary leaven of Sadducee and of Herodian. Now in the course of proceeding along these lines, I have given you two exhortations. We come, God willing, to the third this morning. The first was to beware of the leaven or teaching of contemporary Pharisees. And having established from the Scriptures that hypocrisy, externalism, and traditionalism were the leading characteristics of Phariseeism, we concluded that the most vivid, the most horrible current manifestation of those three leading elements is the system, called Roman Catholicism.

7:47 And I sought to warn you, lest in any way you be deceived by the sweet smiles and the pseudo-humility of the Papa of Rome, I warned you beware of the leaven of this contemporary Pharisaic religious movement, which if it ever gets into your system and begins to work its way out, will result in the destruction of yourself, your soul. And then I gave a second warning. Beware of the leaven or teaching of contemporary Sadducees. And once again, we turn to Scripture.

8:24 And from Scripture, we learn that the leading characteristic of this religious sect could be described as skepticism, rationalism, and clericalism. And therefore, it is right that we should infer from that that the contemporary Sadducee is the religious liberal. With his skepticism, all that he cannot fit into his little pea brain, he rejects as irrational his rationalism, his clericalism. And for you who are visiting, who wonder if indeed these were valid assumptions and applications, I can only commend the tapes to you.

Identifying the Herods and Herodians in Scripture

9:05 Each one is at least an hour in length in which I sought painstakingly from the Scriptures to establish these principles. And now this morning, in the spirit and language of Mark 8, 15, I would warn you to beware, to take heed and to beware of the leaven or teaching of the contemporary Herods or the party called the Herodians. In the text as we see it, in Mark 8 and verse 15, Jesus localizes, specifies this leaven in its conjunction with the person of Herod himself. Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. In several other places in the Gospels, we have references to the Herodians as some kind of a party or group of people. For example, in Mark chapter 3 and verse 6, we have already encountered them. And the Pharisees, went out in straight way with the Herodians to counsel against him how they might destroy him.

10:25 Now we know from the parallel passage in Matthew 16, that on this occasion, Jesus warned his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees, we learned that from Matthew, and then from Mark, that he warned them of the leaven of Herod explicitly, the Herodians implicitly. Now for good and wise reasons, the Holy Spirit guided Matthew to mention the first two, that is, the leaven of Pharisees and Sadducees, and Mark only the first and the third. Now what those good and wise reasons are, God alone fully knows. I am personally convinced there is at least one dimension of those reasons that is clear to us. The book of Mark was written primarily with the Roman mindset in view. And surely with the connection of the Herods with Rome, being the puppet governors and kings in that part of their empire called Palestine, this would come with tremendous force to a Roman Christian who would understand something of the religious principles of a follower of Herod.

11:47 But be that as it may, what I am going to do this morning is precisely what I have done in covering the other two prongs of the warning. First of all, we must ask and answer from the Scriptures this question, what was the leaven of Herod or of the Herodians? Well, we must first of all begin with Herod. Since the warning in Mark focuses on him, his person, as embodying the teaching and the principles which infected others, we have got to sort out precisely who this Herod was.

12:28 And as far as I can remember in all my years of preaching among you, I have never so much as given you five minutes sorting out the Herods of the Bible. Now when you read your New Testament, you are going to encounter three different Herods. The first Herod is called Herod the Great, not in the Bible, but in secular history. And that is the Herod who was alive at the time of the birth of Jesus.

12:55 We read about him in Matthew 2, 1 and following, Luke chapter 1, verse 5 and following. Familiar words, we hear them again and again during every Christmas season or Advent season. These words, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King. And then we subsequently read of the fact that it was this Herod who sent out a decree that all the children two years old and under should be killed.

13:29 And subsequently the text says of this man, verse 19 of Matthew 2, But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying, Take the young child and his mother. So just a couple of years after the birth of Jesus, this Herod died. Now this particular Herod called Herod the Great, we learn from secular history, ruled on behalf of Rome over all of Palestine, I'm sorry, over all of Judea from approximately 37 B.C.

14:09 until a couple of years after the birth of Jesus. So this is the story of the angel of Christ. From what we read in Matthew chapter 2, it is evident that he was very jealous to guard his position of political power and influence. So when he heard from these magi from the east that one was born to be king, he immediately felt threatened.

14:38 And under the guise of wanting to go and worship him, he said, Look, when you find out that the angel of Christ is going to be king, you will not be able to go and worship him when all the while he had one intention to kill him because he felt threatened in his position by one who was not a usurper king sent by Rome, but one who was a home-born king of the Jews. Well, this man and his life is a saga of sickening, debauchery, jealousy, carnal ambition. And since the Scripture is silent about those details, I will not weary you with them. Suffice it to say that after he died, one of his sons, who is called Herod the Tetrarch or Herod Antipas, was appointed to rule in the territory of Galilee. Now, you know where Galilee is. We've been up there in Galilee for most of our expositions in the Gospel of Mark and Perea, some of that surrounding area. Now, this is the Herod we already encountered in Mark chapter 6.

15:43 This is the Herod who laid hold of John the Baptist, who heard him preach gladly. This is the Herod who, when he made that rash promise to his paramour's daughter, is the Herod who had John the Baptist beheaded. And I hope some of you can remember when studying Mark 6, 14 to 29, we gained some insights into the character of this Herod Antipas. We learned that he was a horribly tortured man, sensuous and unprincipled and a man-pleaser on the one hand, and yet somehow attracted by the vigorous, godly manhood of John the Baptist on the other. We learn from Luke chapter 13, verses 31 and 32, that Jesus labelled this Herod a fox, the only person that Jesus ever labelled by way of figure of speech with the likeness to an animal. Now, he said some pretty strong things about the scribes and Pharisees, whitewashed sepulchres and all the rest. And John said to the Pharisees, you brood of snakes, but I believe this is the only incident in which Jesus called another human being after the name of an animal.

17:08 He was shy and cunning and carnivorous like a fox. So Jesus said, go tell that fox that I must accomplish the will and purpose of my heavenly Father. Now, it was this Herod who had a brief encounter with Jesus at his trial prior to his crucifixion, Luke chapter 23, verses 7 and following. So you've got the two Herods straight, Herod the Great alive at the birth of Jesus, he dies shortly thereafter, and then during the period of our Lord's ministry, the Herod, Herod the Tetrarch, Herod Antipas, is the one who governs over Galilee in the very region where Jesus spent much of his time ministering and did so many of his mighty works. And then, later on in the book of Acts, you'll come across another Herod, that's Herod Agrippa I, and you'll encounter him in Acts chapter 12, in verse 1, and there are several references to him in the book of Acts. Now, in addition to this information, we have just several references to a group called the Herodians, Herod with an I-A-N-S. That is, in some way or another, they were labeled as being the followers and the adherents of Herod.

18:35 If you were attached in some way or another to Herod, in a peculiar manner, you were labeled as a Herodian, or as an Herodian. And the references are very few. Matthew 22, verses 15 and 16. Matthew 22, verses 15 and 16.

19:00 Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might ensnare him in his talk. And they sent to him their disciples with the Herodians saying. So they would know who they were. They were somehow marked out as belonging to this party or sect, and therefore the Pharisees could send along with their own some of these Herodians.

19:29 And you have a reference to them in Luke 20, 20, a parallel passage in which they are called spies. The parallel passage is, they are called spies, certain spies that are sent to Jesus in the passage parallel to the Matthew 22, 15 and 16. Then as we have just previously seen, we have a reference to them in Mark 3 and verse 6. They joined with the Pharisees in a determination to destroy Christ.

19:59 And the Pharisees went out and straightway with the Herodians took counsel against him how they might destroy him. And then we have the reference in Mark 8 and verse 15 where the warning is about the leaven of Herod himself. Now if you are going to come up with any conclusions about the leaven of Herod or the Herodians and use only your Bible and its utterances, not its silences, this is all the material you have to work with. So after you have read the reams of pages of what people try to call and collate out of the secular historians who don't agree, most responsible writers in standard Bible dictionaries, if you look up Herodian, will say something like this. We know very little for certain about the Herodians. One thing is clear, they were not a distinct religious party as were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. That much we know.

The Leaven of Herodians: Characteristics and Principles

21:03 Whether they were a distinct political party, that we do not know. All kinds of questions rise in our minds. One thing is clear, that whoever they were, whatever their principles were, it was something that filled, as it were, the religious air at the time of our Lord, so that He felt constrained not only to warn the disciples, beware of the teaching of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, but He warned them to beware of the teaching, the principles, the perspectives, of Herod and of the Herodians. For remember, He ruled up in Galilee. It was there that His influence was most powerful, and probably there that Herodians, whatever they were, were most numerous and were constantly present and to some degree were aggressive in seeking to propagate their perspectives. Well, what then can we say at least tentatively about the identity of these Herodians? Well, they were most likely Jews found primarily in the Galilean region who in their younger days under the influence of Herod the Great

22:28 had come to be enamored with much of the imported Roman lifestyle that had come into Palestine. It was this Herod the Great who both to promote his own glory and to placate the Jews rebuilt that temple at Jerusalem that was so magnificent that the disciples came out with their Lord and said, look at this marvelous building. He was determined to make it more glorious than it was in the days of Solomon. Now, most likely it was the generation living during the reign of Herod the Great when you had a younger generation of Jews grew up who were fascinated with the, quote, liberty that the Romans had. We know that Herod the Great imported into Palestine much of the preoccupation with competitive sport that was present at Rome, that he built amphitheaters for the conducting of such sporting activities. He brought with him, of course, his Roman idolatry in which the Roman leader, the Roman leader, the Caesars, were to be regarded as God. And certainly from what we know of Herod Antipas, Herod the Tetrarch from Mark's Gospel, chapter 6,

23:53 they brought Roman morality into Palestine. Here's the man who's living with his brother's wife and John says it is not lawful for you to have her. It is there in that setting when the Roman sensual dance becomes the very catalyst that results in John losing his head. So the picture seems to be this, that a younger generation of Jews growing up under the magnificent and apparently beneficent reign of Herod the Great become enamored with the lifestyle of Rome, with the paganism as it comes to expression in that setting.

24:34 And while maintaining their identity as Jews as far as where they would worship, and while maintaining much of their, quote, Jewishness, having embraced Herod's influence as something that was beneficial and desirable, they would be utterly insensitive and indifferent to any deep messianic hope. They would not like the Pharisees or even the Sadducees and like the Zealots and like the true godly remnant in Israel be longing for the coming of Messiah who would not only be their true liberator in spirit but would himself establish his own righteous reign. They would have no sympathy for a messianic hope of the coming of Messiah. They were perfectly content with what Rome had brought them. Furthermore, because their Jewishness and their Hebrew connections were but inherited and surface and did not reach the realm of religious convictions, they would be very pragmatic in terms of which face they would show in any given set of circumstances.

25:53 Shall I show my Roman face and affinities, or shall I show my Jewish Hebrew face and affinities? They were what we could probably call the political base devotees as opposed to the Zealots who hated the presence of the Herods who were a constant reminder that a usurper had come and taken away self-rule and self-government. These were the people who didn't want to rock the political boat. You see, they opposed Jesus because he was a threat to their political stability.

26:34 They join according to Mark 3.6 with the Pharisees. Unlikely but bedfellows. Pharisees, the strictest of the strict, who are determined to be Hebrews of the Hebrews even beyond what Scripture requires.

26:51 The separated ones. And yet, they join with this loosest group of their fellow countrymen in their common opposition to Jesus because they were committed that he was a threat or they were convinced that he was a threat to their political stability. And are therefore committed to his destruction. Mark 3 and verse 6.

27:14 They seem to be what we would call not only political devotees and activists but earthbound sensualists. They would have no heart for the high and holy standards of Jesus. Can you imagine a Herodian who loves the freer lifestyle of Rome? Who loves the more open-ended ethical conduct of the Roman?

27:37 Listening to the sermon on the mount in which Jesus talked about plucking out right eyes and cutting off right hands? And loving enemies and doing good to those that despitefully use you? Not meeting with the fist of power one who opposes you, but turning the other cheek? Can you imagine how that kind of teaching would have sounded upon the ear of a compromising Herodian?

28:02 If indeed they took their moral standards from the one who bears their name in this text, and were aware of the leaven of Herod, then we have reason to assume that his own moral laxity formed the code by way of example and probably precept for all who were identified with him. So if he can join himself in an incestuous relationship to his brother's wife, for there was a mixing of bloodlines beyond the permitted boundaries of the word of God, if that can be permitted in your idol and your hero, if the parson may fiddle, may not the people dance, and one can again only imagine how the standards of Jesus with reference to holiness of life and to strictness of walk must have irritated and galled the Herodians even as the preaching of John galled the conscience of Herod and his paramour. And then they were obviously religious pragmatists. They learned well from grandfather Herod. Herod the Great, you see, had no commitment to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem that it should fulfill its God-intended purpose.

29:25 A place, as Jesus said, that would be a house of prayer for all peoples. No, it was a sop that he threw to placate the Jews and to promote his own political position and stability. And so the Herodians picked up on that dominant motif of religious pragmatism. They were prepared to keep as much of the ways of Old Testament religion as was necessary to keep up their station and place in the land of the Jews.

29:57 There was no hard hatred for Roman idolatry. There was no hard hatred for Roman blasphemy. There was no hard hatred for the man-made religious perspectives of the Romans. No, they were religious pragmatists.

30:12 Now then, that's the best I can do after all of my research in trying to answer the question, who were the Herodians? What was the leaven of Herod? Well, it was that leaven of a people who had some professed adherence to the revealed religion of the Old Testament, but who at heart were political activists, earthbound sensualists, and religious pragmatists. Now then, we ask the second question we've asked in each of the two previous messages.

Contemporary Herodianism: Political and Earthly Ambition

30:46 What is the leaven of contemporary Herodianism? What is the leaven of Herod as manifested in our day? And to that question I answer, surely, surely, it finds its expression in those who want just enough religion as is necessary to further their political and earthly ambitions and relations, but not so much as to make them radically holy or heavenly minded. You see it?

31:29 It finds its contemporary expression in those who want just enough religion as is necessary to further political and earthly ambitions and relations, but not so much as to make them radically holy or heavenly minded. You see, the things Jesus taught and preached, if you believed them, they would disrupt national solidarity anywhere. When a group of people begin to take seriously what Jesus teaches about truth and God and reality and salvation and the life which leads to everlasting life, that will break the solidarity. That will bring the sword. There will not be political affinity and unanimity when the word of Jesus begins to take supreme control of men's consciences. And so the Herodians, they'll have enough of temple and sacrifice and priest and law as will further what?

32:43 Political, earthly ambitions and relations. But let one come along who demands radical holiness, radical heavenly mindedness, radical commitment to self-denial and cross-bearing and the world to come. And the Herodian mind and spirit cannot, cannot be comfortable in his presence. Like Herod the Great, they may support religious institutions while undermining the very purpose for which those institutions were ordained of God.

33:22 They will interact with people of high clerical standing. Pharisees and chief priests and Sadducees and Herodians are found locking arms in their opposition to Jesus. They'll interact with people of high clerical standing not to further a knowledge of truth, but to oppose all that is distinctly true. In other words, there are good God and country religionists whose God is really country and in saying their God is country what they mean is the good life, the life in which I can claim to have the best of both worlds.

34:03 Not so much of God is to make me radically holy, radically heavenly minded. Oh no, I want just enough of God to keep the ship afloat on this wonderful sea of carnal delight and sensuous pleasure. And earthbound materialistic perspective. I want enough of God to keep that ship afloat.

34:24 Get them old commies and shoot them because they might sink this ship floating on this sea. And so we're going to bring God threatened political stability which for us means material prosperity, self-indulgence. For communism we're rooted in the fact that it's a system built upon lies and the dehumanization of man. It would be the same hatred that would rise up against everything that opposes itself against God.

35:04 Riches as much as commies, sensuous indulgence as much as the destruction of our so-called political liberties. You see the modern Herodian spirit finds expression in those who use the name of God and the institutions of religion and clerical associations only as much as is necessary to keep their own political and personal ambitions secure. Sound familiar? They use the name of God. God bless you all. The institutions of God. The church.

35:58 The official spokespeople for God. Clerics. Ministers. And what do they do with them?

36:04 They use them only as far as is necessary to secure the support and the perpetuation of personal ambition, carnal perspectives and earthbound delights. And I say to you as God's people, if Jesus needed to warn His own disciples to beware of the leaven of Herod, beware of the infectious spreading principles of Herod and his followers, if that warning needed to be uttered then, how much more does it need to be uttered now to us, the people of God, that we beware, be alert, be on our guard, not only against the leaven of the Pharisee, that is, externalism, traditionalism, and that cursed spirit that breathed all the way through the Pharisaic religion, namely hypocrisy. Beware of that! And we need not only to beware of the leaven of Pharisee, but of Sadducees, with his rationalism, his skepticism, and his clericalism. But we need to be aware and be on our guard against being infected with the leaven of Herod, with allowing ourselves to think that we can, as it were, have so much of God and truth and His people and association

The Common Denominator: Opposition to Jesus

37:32 with all of those commodities as will promote the good life, radically different, not enough to make us radically holy, radically heavenly-minded, radically selfless, radically like Jesus Christ. Now as I seek to bring all of this to a focal point of final application, this is the question that has pressed itself on my mind and heart as I have spent these weeks trying to understand from Scripture what Jesus meant in this warning. Was there any one common denominator in these three groups? Was there any common ingredient in the leaven of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians? And as I went to my Bible with that question, I came up with a very clear answer to that question. Yes, there was one common denominator.

38:37 Now think of the vast spectrum of difference. Way over here to the right, we have the Pharisees. They were the strictest of the strict, and yet marked by his hypocrisy, his adherence to tradition and his externalism, the Sadducee with his skepticism, rationalism, and clericalism, the Herodian with his worldliness, political ambition, and sensuality. What in the world do a bunch of people like that have in common?

39:05 They had one thing in common. You say they're all human beings. Yes, that's true, but that's not the thing they had in common. They all fell in Adam.

39:13 That's true, but that's not what they had in common. You know what they all had in common? Living as they did and hearing the voice of Jesus, seeing the miracles of Jesus, seeing the effect of Jesus upon those whose eyes were opened to behold him for who he was, as in the case of Nathanael as we read this morning. Behold, thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel.

39:39 They saw what happened. And you know what happened? Pharisee, Sadducee, Herod and the Herodians had one common denominator, and it was this. They were out to get rid of Jesus.

39:55 They were out to get rid of Jesus. We read it in Mark 3, 6. The Pharisees go with the Herodians and plot together to do what? They took counsel against him that they might destroy him.

40:10 What bound them together was their common commitment. We must get rid of Jesus. As long as this man goes around Galilee teaching what he teaches, preaching what he preaches, comes down to Jerusalem, rocks the boat, comes into our temple, destroys the economic framework of our exchange system, turns over the tables, gets a scourge of cord, drives a...

40:37 This fellow is a disturber. And they're committed to one thing. We must destroy Jesus. So as we take these texts, Mark 3, 6, Mark 12, 13, recognize that the chief priests were probably most of them Sadducees.

41:00 Take all of that data in the Gospels and you see that Sadducee, Pharisee, and Herodian are out to get Jesus. And it's interesting, though we're told in the book of Acts that some of the priests became obedient to the faith, Paul was a Pharisee converted. There is no record. I'm not saying none were, but there's no explicit record.

41:20 No explicit record of any Herodian ever being converted. No record of any Sadducee being converted. Acts 4, 1-3 shows that the Sadducees carried on their opposition to Christ even after He went back to the right hand of God the Father. And the bottom line is that the one common denominator in all this leaven is it is opposed to the person, teaching, and influence of the real Jesus.

The Consequence of True Discipleship: Combined Opposition

41:50 Now, what's that tell us? Well, it tells us these two things, and these are the climactic burden of my heart, and I pray God will help me to articulate it and give you ears to hear. Number one, to the extent that we embrace, in faith, live out in obedience, and proclaim with earnestness the true religious principles of Jesus and His apostles, we can expect the combined opposition of every modern Pharisee, Sadducee, and Herodian. Now let me give it to you again.

42:33 To the extent that we as a people embrace in faith, live out in obedience, and proclaim with earnestness the true religious principles of Jesus and His apostles. And what do I mean by that? I mean proclaim the whole counsel of God. To the extent that we do that, we must expect the combined opposition of modern Pharisee, Sadducee, and Herodian.

43:06 Why? Because we are a disturber of all three categories of deviation from God's truth. That's why Paul could say, all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Why Jesus could say in John 15 and verse 20, if they have persecuted me, they will persecute you.

43:27 That's why he could say in Matthew 5, 10 and following, blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. If your attachment to me is real, if it is an attachment of an enlightened faith, of a heightened devotion, expressed in a practical obedience hedged up by my precepts, you will be hated of all men for my name's sake. For you see, to the extent that we embrace in faith all that is revealed, we are a constant burr under the saddle of Sadducee and skepticism. You mean you believe the Bible when it says, in the beginning God created, God spoke and He created the galaxy? And you say yes. You mean you believe that the red...

44:26 Yes. You believe that Jesus act...

44:29 Yes. And when we interact with this book in the posture of humble believing trust, we are a burr under the saddle of the skeptical rationalistic Sadducee. And when we insist upon heart religion, no forms and ceremonies, no merely walking down the street, walking down the aisle, and I listen to something on the way to our retreat on Friday and then again earlier this morning that appalled me, had me crying out in my car out loud, God have mercy, in one of the largest churches in this country after a sermon on election, a preacher spent, I've not listened to it all yet, it's gone over 20 minutes, 25 minutes, getting people to come down the front and absolving them and telling them they're saved, and in the kingdom, and pronouncing blessings upon them like some kind of unrobed priest. And when we insist, no, true religion is not found in ceremony, walking an aisle, praying a prayer, but having a new heart imparted by the power of God. And when we say that true religion involves living not by tradition but by the Word of God prepared to bury any tradition that cannot stand up to the test of Scripture, and when we insist that true religion

45:56 is not just carrying your body out to this building, plunging it down in the pew as though it were a corpse, but having your heart and your soul engaged with God, you emphasize heart religion and every Pharisee in your presence feels uncomfortable. You live heart religion and every Pharisee in your presence feels uncomfortable. So you'll be an offense to Sadducee by your simple faith. You'll be an offense to Pharisee by your heart religion.

46:25 And then you'll be an offense to the Herodian, who says, Why? Because you're determined to have a heavenly religion. My kingdom is not of this world, else would my servants fight. Pastor, why doesn't Trinity Church go and march on this and march on that and march on the other?

46:43 Because that's not the mandate of the church. If you as an individual Christian citizen want to march for anything, march as long as it's not an unscriptural cause. If you want to march for the right to plant banana trees in your town, then march! But the day-trick pickets and I tell you in the name of Christ is marching for banana trees.

47:09 God have mercy on us. My kingdom is not of this world. We have here no abiding city. We have no dreams that by the application of Biblical law we're going to have a Christian world and be able to line up all the dicks and shoot them with machine guns.

47:34 No, while we seek to be light and salt and we cry to God to raise up Christian lawyers and statesmen as well as mothers and fathers and every other trade and legitimate occupation, fundamentally the issue is this. We confess that we're strangers and sojourners. We have here no abiding city. We, according to His promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.

48:05 Well, you see a Herodian who wants just enough religion to float his now kingdom. He feels uncomfortable in the presence of a man who says this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up.

48:20 Not just somewhere beyond the blue. They're laid up in the new heavens and the new earth. Hallelujah. Wherein dwells righteousness.

48:30 And when you live with both feet planted firmly in the path of duty down here, but with your affections and heart and rebuke to the Herodian who's only got enough of God and the Bible and Jesus and religion to float his ship upon the sea of the now kingdom. When you're determined that your Christian morality will get as honest as how you handle a paperclip in your office, not just a convenient religion to turn its faith in the presence of the religious to get their support for your own ends, but be prepared to turn that face which is the only face you have. One that looks upon the face of Jesus in prayer in the morning and then goes out knowing you're under his eye into the office and with regard to words and ethics and morals and relationships determined to be as holy as the grace of God and the power of the Holy Ghost can make a redeemed man or woman. I tell you, Herodians all around you will feel uncomfortable. My friends, you listen.

49:44 If we're determined as a church to stake with ever increasing measures the posture that we will be content with nothing less than heart religion as against the Pharisees, humble believing religion against the Sadducees, and heavenly religion against the Herodians, we are not going to win a popularity contest. Settle it. We will never become the quote in church of central western New York, New Jersey metropolitan area. No.

50:24 It will never be fashionable to come here. No. And the day it does, God have mercy on us. God have mercy on us.

The Church's Mandate: Bible-Rooted, Heart, Humble, and Heavenly Religion

50:36 The day it becomes fashionable, Jesus said, take heed. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, people that would buy you to forms and ceremonies and rituals and doctrines not found in this air of them. Flee from them. Have nothing to do with them.

50:57 And if people come into this place and see that they can come with any passage of scripture to any one of the elders and say, in the light of this, how is it you're doing that? And come with a gracious spirit, we're prepared to hear. And if we cannot give a reason for what we're doing or not doing out of the word of God, I hope we'll go back to our drawing board and back to our Bibles and back to our knees and back to prayer as we were doing on our elders' retreat this weekend, reviewing our ministries. What are we doing that we shouldn't do?

51:30 What are we not doing that we ought to do? Lord, give us light. Give us direction. Where?

51:36 How do you word? We didn't call in a sociologist. We didn't call in a professional economist. We didn't call in the experts to tell us how to steer the ship.

51:46 We called upon King Jesus, whose ship it is, who holds the chart and compass in his hand and has transcribed it here in his word. Settle it. If you want a comfortable, polite, religious resting place, you better go look somewhere else, friend. You won't find it here.

52:04 If you're content with anything less than heart religion, I hope there's not one service in this place in which you'll get through the whole thing without feeling very uncomfortable. If you want anything less than a humble, believing posture before this book, I hope you can't sit through one service without feeling very uncomfortable. And if you want something where you want just enough God and Jesus and Christ and the Bible to make you feel comfortable living for this world of sense and time and sensuous pleasure and things, I hope you'll never feel comfortable for one service in this place. Now, is that the burden you have, dear members of Trinity Church?

52:41 Is that the vision? Is that the commitment? If not, you're in the wrong place. Because Jesus said, living radical Christian discipleship will bring opposition.

The Blessing of Heeding the Warning and Call to Repentance

52:56 Then my final word is sort of the flip side of that. To the extent that we heed this warning of Jesus, we shall know the continued and the increased blessing of the presence of Christ among us and upon us. To the extent that we heed this warning of Jesus, we shall know the reality and the increase of the blessing of Christ upon us and among us. Our Lord says to us from His Word now as He said then, Take heed!

53:32 Beware of the teaching of Pharisees, those who would bind you by externalism and ritualism and traditionalism. Beware of them! Beware of the Sadducees with their skepticism and rationalism and clericalism. Beware of Herod and the Herodians with their sensuality and earthly-mindedness and their pragmatic religion.

53:56 Beware of it! Oh, dear people, to the extent that we heed this warning and mortify by the grace of God every emerging tendency to these things, any absorption of them, we shall know increased measures of the presence and blessing of Christ upon us and among us. For Christ dwells where there's heart religion. Heart religion!

54:26 Religion rooted in the Bible and wrapping its tentacles around the heart. That's Bible religion. Not religion rooted in human traditions and merely floating by the head or wrapping its tentacles around our hands and feet so we're in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time, saying the right words. That's Phariseeism!

54:47 But when what's in this book becomes a matter of life and death principle and conviction and it gets our hearts then whatever has the heart has the whole matter. For out of the heart are the issues of life. Oh, may we cry to God, Lord, never let this place become anything other than a place where there's heart religion rooted in the Bible and practiced from the depths of the beings of Your people. Lord, may Sadduceeism never take any root here.

55:21 May there never be the skeptical, rationalistic spirit of the Sadducee. Oh, God, deliver us from anything other than a humble, believing spirit before Your holy and infallible Word. Lord, purge us of any leaven of the Sadducees. And Lord, purge us from any leaven of Herod.

55:43 Those principles that would cause us to learn the unholy art of knowing when to be more religious for the sake of personal or political gain. It's a wonderful thing to meet a sold-out child of God who has none of that Herodian spirit. You can always count on him being one thing, a thoroughgoing Christian in every relationship and in every set of circumstances. He's wonderfully predictable, wonderfully and blessedly predictable.

56:15 Are you that? Would your face be red if I happened to pop out from under that desk tomorrow at three o'clock in the midst of what you're listening to from some friend at school or college or in the office? Well, my friend, if your face would be red because I was there, it ought to be redder yet because Christ is there. And if you learn how to crank up the intensity of your religion when you come to a special building, you've not learned the first thing of what it is to live in the fear of Christ, under the eye of Christ, to live in the presence of Christ.

56:51 May God write upon our hearts this sober warning of the Lord Jesus. Beware. Be on your guard. Take heed.

57:02 Watch out! For the leaven of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees, and of Herod. Is it too much to ask that God by grace would purge whatever elements of this are among us and that God by grace would so write this text upon our hearts that we shall go to our graves watchful against this infectious leaven and more and more know the reality three H's, easy to remember. Heart religion, humble religion, heavenly religion.

57:39 That's the religion of the Bible. Is that what you've got? If not, you better go get it at the one place you can. And that's at the foot of the cross.

57:48 Pleading with God for Christ's sake to have mercy upon you. I can't give it to you. No church can give it to you. No clergyman can give it to you.

57:55 No water, no wafer can give it to you. Christ alone can. Go to Him. Go to Him.

58:00 Go to Him. Go to Him. And He's not down the front of this building. So I don't ask you to get to Him by coming down here.

58:06 You go to Him right there where you are sitting in your seat. You go to Him with those two legs of repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. Turn from your sin and throw the weight of your soul upon Christ and say, Oh God, I want that kind of religion that comes from knowing Your Son, that comes in Him and by Him and that will cause me to be attached to Him, to live for Him and one day to see Him and be like Him when He comes again.

58:40 Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for the words of our Lord Jesus, His sober pointed warnings and we pray that the Holy Spirit will write them upon our hearts. Oh God, help us because by nature each of us has an element of the Pharisee, the Sadducee and the Herodian in our hearts. And we know that these influences do not only come from without but they rise up from within.

59:16 Oh have mercy upon us. Keep us from the leaven, the teaching, the principles, the precepts of Sadducee, Pharisee and Herodian that we may be thorough going Bible Christians in every facet of our life before You. Thank You for Your presence. Thank You for Your Word.

59:39 Seal it to our hearts. For Your praise and for our profit we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.