It is a wonderful blessing to be here and worshipping among you. I do want to again bring greetings from the people of Lincoln, your brothers and sisters in Christ, but also the people of Omaha that I forgot this morning. I know that there are many of them who have worshipped among you before. The Haddox from Greeley and so I know that he would want me to pass along his greetings as well. The message is going to come from Mark chapter 8. Portion of scripture that we read there beginning with verse 11. Let me just read verse 15 where it says, and he charged them saying, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. It's never wise to avoid a sign that says beware. Beware of falling rocks, beware of snakes, beware the road is out, the bridge is down. Whatever it might be, if there's a sign there that says beware, only a fool doesn't take heed. And when the message of beware comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then it is even more important for us to see exactly what it is that He is warning us about when He tells us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. And we can see that he has just dealt with the Pharisees, beginning in verse 11, where the Pharisees came forth and began to question him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. The Pharisees are asking Jesus to prove himself. The Pharisees and the Jews were always asking for a sign. They demanded proof You say you're the Christ, prove it. You say you're the Son of God, show me, prove it. The Pharisees are asking questions all the time about what authority to do this, give us a sign, give us another sign. Jesus has promised them the sign of Jonah, He's promised them He'll tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days, and He gave them miracle after miracle already. Yet here they are still again asking for yet another sign. Show us more. Give us more proof. We want another. We're not yet convinced. Can you give us another sign? This time maybe one that will convince us. And then the Pharisees would sit around and pick apart whatever sign was done, whatever miracle was done, and they'd want another. It was a rinse and repeat formula for the Pharisees. They wanted Jesus and they wanted God to fit their demands. They wanted God to answer to them. And the Pharisees are coming to Jesus saying, meet our demands, meet my expectations, do what I ask, and then I'll consider following you. Then maybe I'll bend the knee. Maybe then I'll become a disciple. But first, do what I say. Because the Pharisees, even here as they come and ask for a sign, know that he's done miracles. If you were to just flip back through the first eight chapters of Mark, you'd see that he already had healed the sick. He'd already cast out demons. He already restored a person's hearing. He had cleansed a leopard. He restored a lame man. He'd fed thousands of people by multiplying bed multiple times. He'd cured a bleeding woman. He'd raised the dead Jairus' daughter. And he had done more miracles that only a few people knew about. Those were just the public ones. Yet here they are saying, we need a sign. Maybe you should do another miracle. The Pharisees want Jesus to fit nicely into their little box. Then they can be okay with Jesus. Because everyone can be okay with God as long as God does everything they say and everything they want. But unfortunately for the Pharisees, this is not how God works. The Pharisees are in the grips of idolatry, unable to see and unable to perceive what's standing right in front of them, the Christ. And it didn't matter what miracles he'd done, and it doesn't matter what miracles he would do. It didn't matter even if he had given them a sign right when they asked for it. They wouldn't have understood, just as they didn't with all of the miracles we listed a moment ago. Their hearts were hard. They were following after the idolatry of self, or the idolatry of tradition, or whatever idol they may have been following. They weren't walking by faith, and they weren't able to see and perceive and understand. They had ears, but they couldn't hear, and eyes, but they couldn't see. And notice Jesus' response in verse 12. And he sighs deeply in his spirit. Jesus can see their hard heart. He can see their idolatry. He can see that this is not a genuine asking for help. This is them tempting him. Do another sign. This is them trying to establish authority over Jesus, and it grieves him. He sighs deeply in his spirit because here are a group of people, the Pharisees, who had the Scriptures, who memorized the Word, who knew the Law, but yet didn't know it in their hearts at all. They could recite verse and chapter for you, but when the embodiment of all that the Old Testament spoke of stood in front of them and cured the leopard and made the lame man walk and fulfilled the Scriptures, they couldn't see it. They didn't want to see it. And not only that, they stood opposed to it. And they demanded their Lord to be underneath them. And Jesus is so grieved that as the disciples go with Him and depart into a ship, in verse 15, He warns them, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. He warns them about that heart attitude that does not want to bend the knee, that wants God to conform to what they want, rather than wanting to conform to God. He has seen their hard hearts and he warns his disciples because it is something that so easily creeps into our own lives. Jesus is directing them to the heart of the issue, for the issue is always the heart. And He even asked them when they don't understand, are your hearts slow? Have your hearts hardened? Have they failed to take to heart the message of Jesus? Because even as believers, it's very easy for us to get caught up in the idolatry of the world. It's the messages that we always receive when we're turning on the television, when we're around town. It's always bombarding us. It's all around us. And He's warning His disciples because it is easy for us to be consumed and to say, I want the Lord to do what I want. Let my will be done. And Jesus warns them, beware of this leaven, beware of this idea because a little leaven can leaven the whole lump. If you let it in just a little bit, it will go throughout your whole life and it will become a dominating problem. If you're not always on the lookout for pride and always willing to bow the knee and say, not my will, but thy will be done, this idolatry of self can grow and overtake you. He sighed in his spirit because it is a serious problem. And he warns his very own disciples because they will have to fight against it. It's easier for us to fall victim to this than we'd like to admit. And we often do, and we end up doing just what the disciples do. And that's missing the work of God in our lives. Because the disciples, as they receive this warning, are in the midst of arguing with each other. They've made a mistake. They got on this boat and they're taking a trip and there's one loaf for 13 of them. That's not going to last very long. And you can imagine that they're probably pointing the finger at each other. I thought you were in charge of all the bread. Who is it that left the seven baskets? And it even tells us in verse 16, after Jesus gives them the warning, that they reason among themselves, saying, it's because we have no bread. They don't understand what He's really warning them against. They're still caught up in their argument. They're still caught up in the physical, and they're missing the spiritual truth. And Jesus tries to reset their minds to the right place when He reminds them of the loaves and the fish, and then the second miracle of providing more. Where thousands of people were fed, and one time they had twelve baskets left over, and another seven. He brings these things to their mind, not because He's trying to say, look, I can make your bread into lots of bread, you don't need to worry about your bellies. No, He's trying to point to them to what those miracles taught. That there's something more important than food. And that's the Word of God. That's the bread from heaven. As we see in John chapter 6, Jesus explains, after one of his miracles of feeding the 5,000, that he's the bread that's come down from heaven, and that the flesh and blood profit of nothing, but that those who feed on his words will have life everlasting. That's the cure to the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Herodians. submitting yourself to Jesus and submitting yourself to His Word, that's the answer. He's saying, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and their idolatry and always be willing to accept the Word. For the Pharisees didn't. They came and they had just seen a miracle and they said, give us another. We don't accept this one. I didn't really like this Word very much. Can we try again? And He's warning them, that can't be the attitude of the Christian. If the Word of God convicts us, if it steps on our toes, then our first response needs to be repentance and moving our feet, not getting angry at the one who stepped on the toes. Jesus is encouraging them to live by faith in His Word, faith in Him. and to beware of the idolatry that would put yourself above Christ and His Word. These verses in verse 18, having eyes see ye not, having ears hear ye not, and do ye not remember? These are quotations or at least allusions to Psalm 115, where the first eight verses of Psalm 115 have a beautiful picture of the theology of idolatry. Where it describes an idol, where it says they've got eyes but it can't see, a throat but it can't talk, feet but it can't walk, hands but it can't help, ears but it can't hear. And it goes through the entire body. And then verse 8 says, and so are those that trust in them. They become just like their idol. And they have eyes, but they can't see. Ears, but they can't hear. Just as the Pharisees had shown they were. Can you give us a sign? Right after Jesus has multiplied many loaves, after Jesus has done miracle after miracle, can we have a sign? They had eyes, but they couldn't see. They had ears, but they didn't really hear His words. Beware of the leaven. Make sure that your heart is pointing to Christ and that your ears are open to His Word and that your eyes are open for His hand working in your life. He's telling them that they should be able to trust in Him, even when life is hard, even when you're down to one loaf of bread in a boat. That there are still more important things. That they can expect all good from the Lord Jesus Christ. And nothing else can take on that role. For anything that takes the role of Christ is idolatry. Everything that points us away from Jesus Christ and toward anything else, toward the world, the physical, or even towards ourself, is idolatry. If we decide to make any other thing the ultimate and the authority and that which we trust in, that has become our idol. If we actively try to make Jesus fit some other mold, that mold has become our idol. Jesus is warning the disciples, beware of the leaven, beware of the idolatry. It will creep up in your hearts. You must fight against it. You must turn to Me and turn to My Word and repent of your sins. Trust in Me. He is pointing out to them also when he points to these miracles of the multiplying of the bread, that the Word of God is more important than food. They're caught up discussing and arguing about one loaf of bread, and they've rightly understood that making sure you eat is an important thing. You need to eat food. It keeps up our physical strength. We do pray for our daily bread. Food is fundamental to our physical life. Without it, we die. But Jesus is directing them to a truth that's even greater and more important. That Jesus is more important. And that his words are food for our soul. It's important to make sure you have enough food to eat. The disciples have made a grave error by leaving behind their food. It's a bad thing. They have made a mistake. Yet they're making a bigger mistake by missing Jesus's point. That his word is more fundamental, that it is our fundamental nourishment for our souls. We must have the Word of God to feed our life. In John chapter 6, Peter does respond when he asks, are you going to leave like everybody else? Peter says, where else would we go? Only you have the words of eternal life. Do we view His Word as that important? Do we long for it? Do we think of His Word as fundamental to our lives? Do we desire it as much as we desire a physical meal? These are questions that we ought to be asking ourselves. Along with questions such as, does God's Word satisfy us? Or are we looking for something more and something else? Are we more like the Pharisees where we're saying, you know, maybe I'll try something different. Give me a different sign. Can I have a different word? The disciples here are struggling to see that Jesus is speaking of His Word and they're failing to see its value. In another Gospel account of this incident, Jesus rebukes them, O ye of little faith, because of their failure to see the importance of God's Word, even over and above the physical bread that they were discussing. He is encouraging them to walk by faith and not by sight, to live by faith in His Word and faith in who His Word speaks of Him. We must walk a life that is trusting our good Savior and the words that have come from His mouth. We must live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. It's not an accident that you'll see so many references to food and the Word in the Bible. Because everybody understands the fundamental nature of food. And we're often called to see the even more fundamental nature of God. Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We're called to taste and see that the Lord is good. We're called, in 1 Peter chapter 2, to be like newborn bays longing for the pure milk of the Word. Or Hebrews 5, 12 through 14, saying that we should desire the solid meat rather than having to go back to the milk as a foundation. Jeremiah 15, 16, your words were found and I ate them. And your words became my joy and my delight. 1 Corinthians 10, 4, all drank from the same spiritual drink and ate the same spiritual food from the rock and the rock was Christ. Isaiah 55, where he says, come and buy and eat. Eat the words that will nourish your soul. Or Ezekiel 2, 8, listen to what I say to you and don't rebel like the rebellious people. Open your mouth and eat what I give to you. A verse that could easily be applied to the Pharisees here, who would not open their mouths and eat, and instead demanded something else. Or Ezekiel 3.3 in Revelation 10.19 where the scroll is eaten and it's sweet to the mouth and bitter in the stomach. We could go on and on and on with pictures of the Word of God being as food for us. Because it must be our daily bread. It must be where we turn and where we flee and where we run. This should be what our soul cries out for just as our stomachs cry out to be filled. Our soul should say, you haven't picked up the Word of God today. Feed me. Because these are the words of eternal life. This is the Word. that teaches us of our Savior, and we should come to it desiring it, longing for it, and willing to submit to it. So when we read here of Jesus telling us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, we need to remember that anything that directs us away from Jesus Christ is not a comfort and not a hope, it's an idol. And we must beware. You can't partake of just a little bit of idolatry. You can't partake of just a little bit because it's the leaven that will grow and will consume your life. The first question of the catechism is there's only one comfort. It's the only comfort in life and in death, the only one. All other comforts are false comforts and false hopes and false joys that may be good for a moment, but in the end will fail. The comfort of Jesus Christ is for life and death. All else we must beware, which leads to a second point to remember. That Jesus is telling us here that His Word and His promises should be what fill us up. That should be what we feast upon. In order to combat the idolatry of the world and the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herodians, we need to fill up on His Word. We need to fill up on Him. Let His Word be in your heart and be on your mind and be on your lips. Daily feed from His Word. Because there is no substitute. We are called to be in the word and to be in prayer every day. Jesus here is reminding the disciples the importance of his word. They were concerned about one loaf of bread and he wants them to be concerned about their souls. Which leads to one final point. And that is here in verse 12 where he sighs deeply in his spirit. And he says, why does this generation seek after a sign? We must make sure that we are coming to the Lord and to his word with the right attitude. Coming as those who are humbly submitting. to our Lord and Savior, saying this word is what changes my life. My life does not change the word. I don't change the word to fit how I live. I let the word change how I live. There are many out there, even those who will claim the name Christian. who will come to His Word and say, well, I don't really like this part, or this part's not for us today, or haven't we moved on beyond this part of the Bible? They're really making the same error as the Pharisees. I don't like this. Give me another. And it grieves our Lord and Savior for His Word to be used. It grieves Him to see it go to waste when people throw idolatry up and pretend it's Christianity, as the Pharisees did. Sighs in His Spirit. We must make sure that we are coming with a different attitude than the Pharisees, that we come to Jesus with the attitude of humble submission and not coming to Jesus as the Pharisees did. They did come to Jesus here in verse 11. They came forth, they came, but they came for Jesus to bow to them, not for them to bow to him. And that is an error that we can never make. Let us go to him now in prayer. Gracious Lord in heaven, we thank you. We thank you that even though we are undeserving and even though we have so often fallen short that you have still given us your son and you have given us your Holy Spirit and you have given us your inspired word. Create in us, oh Lord, hearts that long for your word, hearts that cry out to hear your truth, that are only satisfied when they have been directed to you. Give us knees that are quick to bend, heads that are quick to bow. Give us that humble and contrite spirit that acknowledges that you are the Lord and Savior. Lord, we thank you for your son, for his life, his death on the cross. We thank you for his words. We thank you for the words of eternal life. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.