Watch Out!

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Well, you're opening your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8. If you're using your provided New King James Pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 890, Mark chapter 8, beginning at verse 11, Mark 8, beginning at verse 11, and we'll read through verse 21. Hear now God's word.

Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, testing him. But he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation. And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he departed to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. Then he charged them, saying, Take heed! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned amongst themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, Why do you reason because you have no bread?

Do you not yet perceive nor understand this? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes do you not see? Having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up? They said to him, Twelve. Also, when I broke the seven for the 4,000, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?" And they said, seven. So he said to them, how is it you do not understand?

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we plead with you this morning that you would enlighten our eyes to see. that you would unstop our ears and that we might hear, that you might do a heart operation today and that you would take out our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh, that we might see, hear, and believe, that we might remember and understand. It's a work only your Spirit can do, so Father, we pray that you might do it in Jesus's name. Amen.

Sermon

You know, there's certain things that happen with different occupations. You know, if you work down in the sewers in New York, people might treat you a certain way, especially if you're just coming off work duty. But there's something I didn't anticipate when the Lord called me to be a pastor, and that was how awkward conversations would get, especially when you're strapped next to someone on an airplane. There's certain things I've noticed as you come into contact with people and you're a pastor, you get to know people, and I always wait to tell them I'm a pastor until I have no other option other than to do it. Because the second somebody finds out that I'm a pastor, there's a few things that happen.

Number one is they stop cussing. Number two is they start to apologize for the things that they have already said to me. And number three is they start justifying the things that they believe. It's interesting, as I go through that and I have these awkward conversations with people, there's a conclusion that I've come to. One is that nobody is perfect. And that two, there's very few true atheists in this world. As I talk to more and more people, everyone has a conscience, nobody's perfect.

And as I talk to them, I find out is everybody wants to justify what they believe and why they believe it. But the truth for us to take home today is that Jesus is our teacher. He is the truth and he is the object of our faith. People want to tell me why they believe what they believe, but many of them don't have an objective standard to say what they believe. Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ has taught us So we have a standard by which to believe. And so there's three, there's two things you need to watch out for and one thing you need to look toward. Two things you need to watch out for and one thing you need to look toward. The first is you need to watch out for Pharisees. You need to watch out for Pharisees. Now, I'm not telling you to, you know, don't go to Chicago and walk along the North Shore and if you see somebody with blue tassels hanging from the bottom of their coats to stay away from them, that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying Pharisees can even be in the church. Pharisees happen all over the place. I'm using this word Pharisees in verses 12 through 15 to be those who are legalistic. Look with me at the text, verses 12 through 15. He's arguing the Pharisees here, Jesus.

But he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Surely, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation. And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he departed to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. Then he charged them, saying, Take heed!

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. This idea of leaven here is don't think so much like dry yeast that you buy in the little packets, but think of starter and for sourdough bread. And so you've got to watch out for the stuff that they have. And if you get too close and it gets kneaded into you, it will spread into your own life. Jesus is saying, watch out for them.

Be careful about them, because see, there's a legalism that these people have. They're deeply religious people. They are deeply pious people. They are deeply ingrained in what they believe. It's not something that they just flippantly treat, but it's actually meaningful to them.

And yet, if you lean into what the Pharisees would teach, it was do, do, do. Obligation, obligation, obligation. Constantly, as Jesus says, loading things on men's shoulders and yet not being willing to lift a hand to help. Constantly laying upon others a system of religion that ends up in the place of self-righteousness.

Because what happens if you think that you are doing your duties, doing your duties, doing your duties, you've got all your T's crossed and all your I's dotted, what does that mean for you? Well, it means that you could say, I, I've done it all. I'm the right one. God's not going to have anything wrong with me, because I don't have anything wrong with me.

Have you ever met someone like that? Have you met someone like that? It's like, well, there are phrases for people like this that are not polite enough to say from a pulpit, but there are people like this that you just scratch your head at and you go, I've seen what goes on in your own house. I've seen the way you treat your wife. I've seen the way you talk when you're not around other people. You can point to areas in their life where it's like, no, no, no, hold on.

You don't have it all together yet. What do you mean? Why do you look down your nose at everyone else and act like you're perfect? They're demanding a sign from Jesus because they're not going to change their beliefs unless something from heaven changes. But what we've seen is that there is signs from heaven. And yet it's still not good enough. Why?

Because it points out that there's someone greater than themselves. They believe that God is holy. The Pharisees really did believe that God is holy. But the Pharisees believe that they're also holy. That they could do enough of God's commandments to earn their own righteousness. They trust at the very heart of it to themselves.

But there's a problem here, isn't it? If you truly do have a tender conscience, If we take seriously God's command, be holy therefore as I am holy, when have you done enough? When have you prayed enough? When have you done enough penance? When have you given enough? When have you read enough of your Bible? Is it enough to read your Bible one time a day? One time a year? Maybe a whole time in one year. Maybe you need to read it five times through in a year. Would then it be enough? Do you need to give half your money, maybe more than half your money?

Are you wearing the right clothes? Are you saying the right things? Are you following the right traditions? Are you fitting in line with what seems to be right? Is that how you will finally get into heaven? That's what they taught. That's what they believed. Make yourself holy. But if that's your theology, why do you need a Savior? If that's your theology, that you're good enough, why do you need Jesus? Why do you need a sign from heaven? You're your own Savior. A sign from heaven is only going to make them change their minds.

But I'm going to tell you this morning that we, in our circles, can come into contact with people like this, even in religious settings. Even in Reformed, oh shh, don't tell other churches, right? Even in Reformed Presbyterian churches. Because the second we take our eyes off of the righteousness that Jesus Christ gives us, and presume that our filthy rags are enough, everybody else smells the stench, but we look down our noses. And we play the fool, we play the hypocrite.

So watch out. Watch out for the Pharisee out there, but also watch out for the Pharisee here. But there's another person that Jesus tells the disciples as they're on that boat, arguing with themselves. He says, watch out for the yeast, for the leaven of Herod. Now this is interesting. He tells them, watch out for Herod. We haven't heard about Herod for a couple chapters now. Last time we heard about him, he was decapitating Jesus's cousin. Watch out for the teaching, watch out for the life, watch out for the yeast of Herod. What does this mean? We need to recognize, remember, it's not that Herod was an atheist or a religious. No, Herod was, he had plenty of times where he would go to temples.

He would go to the temple in Jerusalem. He would have drunken parties and then later go to the temple. So he's religious, but religion is just something mixed into his life. He's superstitious, he wants to know who Jesus is, and he thinks, oh, Jesus is a reincarnation almost, or a resurrection of John the Baptist.

We might say he is spiritual, but not religious. We find people like this in our culture, don't we? Right, people who are spiritual, but they don't need the church. People who are religious, but they don't need doctrine. People who really have a free spirit about religion. It's whatever seems to feel right to them. If the Pharisees had a spirit of legality, this is a spirit of licentiousness. This is a spirit of self-help with no regard for holiness. Religion is only good for me so long as it is good for me. Right? Will it help me to be a better version of myself? Will it help me to have more money?

There are churches filled. Some of the wealthiest, largest churches in America are filled with this type of religion. The teaching of Herod. Christianity is something you plop on top of your life so you can get health, wealth, and prosperity. So you can make the connections, and you can say the right prayers, and God will bless you with financial well-being. You're going to be pretty hard-pressed to find that in the Scriptures, but just go to the Christian bookstores and you'll find it. how to get your best life now and and how to die as a Christian millionaire and how if you just and don't don't hear this very closely though I need to be careful with you because I even heard this at a homeschool conference where various like really really serious people who want to study the Bible were in this talk and the lady was saying if you just follow these things if you just homeschool your children this way they will be Christians and I looked at Olivia and I was like whoa This is health, wealth, and prosperity on the other side. This is just add on these things and your life is going to be fine. No. No, we find that all over the place in Christianity, but we find it in our American culture as well, the teaching of Herod. Just kind of a laissez-faire religion added to your life.

You know, there's oftentimes, my wife doesn't like this, but I like listening to Iowa Public Radio. She turns it off when she gets in. And I just argue with them when I'm driving by myself. You have to have a conversation with someone. But often they'll have people on the radio and they're very religious people. They want to talk about spiritual things. They want to talk about religion. They want to talk about all these things. But what you find out is it's just their ideas. There's no basis for it. It's just something they think.

But you don't have to turn on Iowa Public Radio. Maybe you like to go on TikTok or Instagram. Maybe you watch too much YouTube and there's influencers talking to you about these things. Or maybe you just turn on the television and these types of things can even come.

It doesn't matter which side of the political aisle you are on. It is on both sides of the news commentary. It's all over the place. Whether you're watching primetime television or whether you're watching Oprah, you'll find this laissez-faire attitude to religion just to enrich your life. But at the end of all of this, it still lands on you. That I'm good enough. I'm good enough. I'm just a mix and mingle of different things and I'm spiritual and that helps me.

It's a religious buffet. We find it in Christian circles often when I talk to people on the plane, when we start talking about Christianity, and then they start talking about, yeah, but I'm a Leo, and I'm always going to be that way, and they start talking about their horoscopes and stuff. Hold on here, I thought we were talking about Christ, where did this go? Or they'll start talking to me about where the Enneagrams are, or they'll start talking to me about Ralph Waldo, if there's a really educated person they'll want to talk about like Ralph Waldo Emerson, and transcendentalism, and the beauty of nature, and all this stuff, but they have no place for Christ. For the one that is the incarnate Word.

Spiritual is fine, religious is okay, But dogma is absolutely not. Keep that out there. At the end of the day, it's no different from the Pharisees. Their trust is in themselves. Do you see? There's a road to travel down. The road is the narrow path. And on either side of the path, I'm telling you, there is a ditch you need to be aware of on either side. One ditch is the ditch of Pharisees and legalism. The other ditch is this ditch of laissez-faire, hered, spirituality.

But it is the objective word of Jesus Christ, His person and work that we must look to. So I don't want to just warn you, brothers and sisters, of what's on either of these ditches. But the last point here is I want you to focus on the person and words and works of Jesus Christ.

That is what Jesus is bringing them to in verses 16 through 20. I love the interchange that happens here between his disciples. And they reasoned amongst themselves, saying, it is because we have no bread. I mean, they totally missed the point. Jesus' whole point was beware of the leaven, of the Pharisees, and of Herod. And what's the first thing they think about? Oh, man.

They're arguing about the bread, and Jesus... He says in verse 17, Jesus being aware of it, said to them, Why do you reason because you have no bread? This idea of reasoning, dialogizamai, is like arguing or talking amongst themselves. Why are you reasoning between you guys because you have no bread? Don't you yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened, having eyes you do not see, having ears you do not hear? And do you not remember? Are you saying, did you not get it?

When we were just in the Decapolis on the other side, and there was 4,000 people there, and we had seven loaves, we gave thanks, broke in joy. He gave it to the disciples, and the disciples handed it to all the people. And yet they're in the boat and they're worried because they only have one loaf of bread. He says, do you remember when there was a 5,000? When they were all in their neatly ordered rows and all in their right places and there were the five loaves and I gave thanks, I broke those, I handed them to you and you fed 5,000 people? Do you still not get it? The point wasn't the bread. The point was the one who is giving the bread. The point was that the Pharisees are demanding a sign and they won't believe Jesus. The teaching of Herod is a superstition and he just wants to get rid of Jesus.

The point is that it's Jesus Christ who is the bread from heaven. It is Jesus Christ who is the object of our faith. It is Jesus Christ who is the teacher, who has given us his word for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for the training in righteousness that we might be thoroughly equipped for every good work. It is Jesus Christ, not we ourselves who are righteous. Jesus Christ who is the object of our faith he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God it's not the opposite away it's not because we are the righteousness of God then Jesus bore our sin no it's because he knew no sin And yet he became sin for us, that we became the righteousness of God.

Their eyes were not supposed to be on the one loaf of bread in the boat, but on the one who was supplying their daily bread. Their eyes were supposed to be on the Son of God, whom heaven had opened just a few chapters before and said, I am well pleased. Our eyes must be on Jesus Christ, the powerful one, They've experienced all these miracles, and I need to get you to this point here, in this story, that we are going through, we've gone through all these miracles, we're going to have one more, and then we're about to enter into Act 2 of the Book of Mark.

This really acts as a pivot point. The disciples have been doing all this work, seeing all these miracles, all this stuff going on, and yet their eyes, it seemed like, had blinders on them. They seemed like freshmen in high school. They just didn't understand what was going on. But something's about to change.

And Jesus is confronting them. He's getting them to a point to realize that He is the object of their faith. He is the one they're to be looking to. He is the one who will solve their deepest needs and their largest problems and give them eternal hope. He himself is the bread of life.

So Christian, beware. Beware, because on one side of the ditch, the narrow road in which you are walking, there is a ditch. And that ditch is the legalism of the Pharisees. This is why we must daily confess our sins. Ask God to forgive us and to forgive others when they have sinned against us. Beware of that ditch, Christian. Look to Christ. When you start veering off towards that ditch, look back to Christ and get right back on track with the center.

But then you might start veering off to the other side, and Christian, I need to warn you that the ditch there is just as dangerous. It's a ditch of spirituality without any teaching of Christ. Stay away from the teaching of Herod. Stay away from the laissez-faire attitude of spiritualism.

For Jesus Christ is our Lord. We confess that Jesus is our Lord and our Savior. As we confess Him as our Savior, it keeps us out of the ditch of legalism. As we confess Him as our Lord, it keeps us out of the ditch of spiritualism. And it reminds us of the gospel and Jesus Christ is offered to us there.

Beware. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of the leaven of Herod. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, Christians. For as you fix your eyes upon Him, the author and perfecter of your faith, there you will find life in this world that's constantly trying to pull you to one side or the other.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we plead with you once again for your spirit. Lord, I don't know the hearts of some in the congregation here. Lord, please, would you do a miracle this morning? And by your Holy Spirit, would you open our eyes? Lord, would you let us actually remember and understand Give us a spiritual perception that would instruct our souls. Lord, please, wrestle us down. Guide our steps. We need your help, Lord. We pray in Jesus's name.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.