The sermon 'The Dreadful End of the Proud and the Flourishing of the Word of God' by Trent Moody explores Acts chapter 12, focusing on the downfall of Herod Agrippa and the growth of God's Word. Herod's pride and arrogance lead to his downfall, illustrating the biblical principle that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The sermon emphasizes that the events in Acts are not mere historical records but divine lessons for personal reflection and growth in Christian maturity. It highlights the role of divine providence, showing how God uses both miraculous and ordinary means to accomplish His will. The sermon warns against the dangers of pride and flattery, encouraging believers to guard their hearts and give glory to God. It contrasts Herod's response to flattery with that of Peter and Paul, who redirected glory to God. The sermon concludes with a call to humility and recognition of God's sovereignty in all aspects of life.

Acts chapter 12. I do want to begin with some context in verses 1 through 4 just to help us to remember this Herod Agrippa. So I'm going to read verses 1 through 4 and then I will skip down to verse 20 and read through verse 24. Thus says the word of the Lord, now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church and then he killed James the brother of John with the sword And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. And now it was during the days of unleavened bread.

So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. And in verse 20, now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, But they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king's personal aide their friend, they asked for peace because their country was supplied with food from the king's country. So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them and the people kept shouting the voice of a God and not of a man and then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of the Lord grew and multiplied. Let us pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for the word that you have given us today. Lord, you have demonstrated for us your great sovereignty, your power to deliver, your power also to destroy. There is no one who can escape your hand. Lord, we are all people under your authority under your sovereignty whether we sit as a king upon a throne or whether we are a small child in our mother's lap. Lord you control all things and you work all things together for your glory and for the good of your people.

And so my prayer today father is that you would take this word and use it for the good of your people. Lord may you open our hearts and our minds to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls and we ask it in Jesus name amen you may be seated This morning I was wrestling through this week as I was wrestling through this passage. This theme kept coming into my mind as I was reading and studying these things and it's listed there for you on your outline. The dreadful end of the proud and the flourishing of the Word of God. What a contrast that we are given here this morning in this text.

We've come to the last few verses of chapter 12 and it would seem that we will just coast through to the end and simply read this as a ending history of the life of Herod the King. Not so much unlike the end of a lot of kings in the Old Testament that we've read about that you've no doubt read about. We could read it as if it said, Herod Agrippa died in the 54th year of his life. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord like his father. He stretched out his hand to harass the church and shed the innocent blood of James the brother of John and put Peter in prison and an angel of the Lord struck him and he died of worms." And then we could close this chapter and move on to chapter 13.

But I believe that if we did that this morning that we would be neglecting and robbing ourselves from a tremendous blessing of instruction that God has for us this morning. This would leave us all feeling pretty good if we could just end this chapter thinking about what happened to Herod this wicked man and he got what hit what was coming to him and we could move on we could start our fellowship meal and enjoy the rest of the day But that's not what the Lord is wanting to teach us into this passage. I believe that if we were to do this, we would miss what God has for us in this text, what God has for this church, for every individual man, woman, and child sitting in this room. And I think we would miss something that we desperately need to hear. I've begun a few of these messages in the book of Acts by quoting this passage in 2nd Timothy 3, 16, and 17, and I want to do so again because I want us to understand something.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work. Brothers and sisters that is my desire for you this morning As we have opened up these last, almost the last four verses of this chapter and chapter 12, I want you to be thoroughly equipped for every good work. I want you to be that man and woman of God who is complete. I want you to be fully mature. I want you to grow into the likeness of Christ.

And so I've read this passage in 2nd Timothy because I do not ever want us to simply read a narrative passage and think that God simply put it in there for us to learn some very interesting historical facts. That's actually not the purpose of the Bible is just to give you historical facts of what took place 2000 years ago. There's actually more that God wants from us and for us. I want us to always be asking the question to ourselves, multiple questions, how is this passage profitable for doctrine, for teaching, for me to understand something that God is wanting me to understand about Him and about His world and about what He is doing. What doctrine does God want me to learn?

What reproof do I need to receive from this passage? What correction, what instruction in righteousness do I need to learn? In what way am I needing to grow in Christian maturity so that I will be equipped for every good work. I want you to understand that a text is not simply a text, but rather it is God's chisel to conform you into the image of his son. So this morning we could read this and we see this in this passage.

It speaks almost nothing of the church. It's just speaking to us here about this man named Herod and how He came to his very destructive end, very humbling and humiliating end of his life. But I don't want us to read over that thinking that there's nothing here for me today. There is actually a lot here for each of us today and especially for myself. So my aim this morning is to lead us through this passage just word by word, statement by statement.

And I desire to do something this morning. I want to hold up the mirror of God's Word. And I want every one of you to look into the mirror of God's Word and see what it is that you look like. Every one of us, I would feel assured, looked in the mirror this morning before we came to this church. It looks like you did anyway.

But how many of us looked right here into the mirror of the Word of God and said, Lord What is out of place? What do I need to fix? Lord, show me myself this morning. I believe that if you were to look into these pages, you would see something that might shock you. And I want to show you what that picture or that image may be in this sermon.

So therefore as I aim here this morning to show you the mirror of the Word of God, it is not that we are to be egocentric in thinking that every passage is about me. It's not. There is historical facts here. There are real people in a real time and a real context. But in one sense, we do stand before the Word of God and when We do stand before the Word of God and when we do stand before the Word of God, it is most certainly for us.

It's not necessarily about you in an egocentric way of what does this mean to me? But it is for you. What is God wanting to teach me. How is God wanting to change me? So I want us to look into the mirror of God's word.

David Peterson, I think I sent this out in the email this week, but he gives us a really succinct and clarifying summary paragraph of these last few verses and this is what he says, Luke's intention in this section is to link Herod's end with his arrogance towards God and his fellow human beings. Herod's treatment of James and Peter is an early expression of that same attitude and behavior. Divine retribution does not come upon him until he finally manifests his idolatrous self-glorification in a very public way. Meanwhile, God has shown that he is still sovereign over those who conspire against him and his people. And in various ways throughout Acts, readers are assured that God will judge those who oppose his work or provoke him to anger by self-promoting deceit and idolatry, either in this life or in the next." That is a very succinct, very well-stated summary of these last few verses.

And I want to build upon that idea and that concept because it's good for us to be reminded that nothing in this life and nothing that we see happening in history happened by happenstance. There's no such thing as happenstance in one sense because it's all done by providence. Rather, God is working all things according to the counsel of His will. Now stop just for a moment and let that hit you where you are right now. Every single thing in your life this morning, everything that happened to you this week, everything that will happen to you in this coming week, God has ordained according to the counsel of his will.

He did it for his glory. He did it to change you from who you are into what he wants you to be. He is taking his divine chisel, if you will, and he is carving out and then he's taking his, as I've mentioned before, his 20 grit sandpaper and he's beginning to hone us down and to rub us and to mold us and to make us and to conform us into the image of his only begotten son. And so as you think about God being over and ordaining all things, I want you to always have this in your mind, that there is a greater purpose than just your happiness and comfort in this life. God is doing something and I want you to comprehend this in this moment in time and as we look at this passage before us.

In verse 20 it seems as if life for Herod was going to continue on as normal. We read here in verse 20, now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon but they came to him with one accord and having made Blastus the king's personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace because their country was supplied with food from the king's country. And it seems as if we're gonna learn some things about commerce and trade, and perhaps maybe some tariffs will be thrown in there. Who knows? We're gonna learn some things about what's going on in the political sphere for Herod.

And it just seems like, man, he killed James, the brother of John. He throws Peter into prison. He's harassing the church. And then he leaves from there. And he just picks up with his political life as if he's going to continue to coast through until the very end.

And if we looked at that and we could think in our own minds, it seems as if God had let this rascal, this heretic grippa off the hook for all of the harassment that he has brought against the church and the murder of James and the arrest of Peter. But let us not forget that he also had 16 guards put to death because they allowed Peter to escape which was obviously out of their control. But as we will see in point number one, God is setting the stage for divine judgment. If you will, it is as if God is honing the appetites, He is wetting the appetites, He is working in the very natural ways of the human heart to bring about a determined end. God's not always working in just miraculous things, but God is always working in all things to accomplish his purpose.

He can actually work in a way in which he sets before you life and death in the very things that your heart is prone to long after. And what I mean by that is we see Herod here. Now Herod had been very angry with the people. Now God we know in the Old Testament he hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Why did he do that?

He told Moses that he was going to do that. And God worked by very natural means to bring about that hardening and it was the natural inclination of Pharaoh's heart. It seems here for us that Herod is a naturally an angry man when he does not get what he wants. And I want us to look at that and to see what God wants us to learn from that. So God here setting the stage for divine judgment.

Now most of this point is simply for context, but I hope that it will have an instruction built into it for your personal reflection and instruction. And I hope to bring that about in the end. But let us set a context, a political context if you will, and a context of what this passage is saying to us and what was happening in history. Just in case you didn't know, politics is never simply about politics, but it is very often intermingled with personal self-interest, but also divine controls. So whatever you see taking place in our world today in politics is not just about politics.

You see everything is under the sovereign hand of God, and yet at the same time, as we think about our leaders and leaders around the world, politics is not simply about the good of the people, but it's actually about how much good can they do for themselves without being caught. Themselves without being caught. Not all politicians, but a large majority of politicians have ulterior motives in what they do. In Daniel 4.35 the Bible tells us, all the inhabitants of the earth, this is the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, no one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done?

In every point of history, throughout history, this is true. God does whatever he pleases. Among the host of heaven and among all the inhabitants of the earth, God's will is being accomplished even though we may not understand it. Our brains and our understanding are so finite We cannot grasp the largeness of what God is doing. It should come as no surprise to anyone that a man like Herod would be easily angered and also easily provoked when he does not get his own way.

We see this even in the opposite way of that in which when he killed James he had some form of anger there because murder begins with anger in your heart. He did it not only for because of this anger in his heart but he did it for a political motive as we spoke about last time. He was hoping to accomplish something and he did. It said that he saw that it pleased the Jews and therefore he moved to arrest Peter also and then wanting to bring him after the feast of unleavened bread and Passover that he would bring him forth and destroy him with a sword as well. And so he had these motives here that were acting and he was in fact king and he expected that others to acknowledge the fact that he was king and that they should act accordingly in knowing that he was king.

You see he was accustomed to getting his way. He was accustomed to telling someone to jump and them saying, well how high would you like me to jump? He was accustomed to him telling them what he wanted to eat and they got him what he wanted to eat. This was King Herod Agrippa. This anger though that he had and displayed was not simply a fleeting fault, but rather the word carries with it here in the text of an idea of having a hostile state of mind towards a group or towards a person or towards a group of people.

Here Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. We're not told why he was angry, but that he was angry. And his anger was to such an extent that He was meditating upon that anger. It was a hostility that he had towards them. One commentator note on account of some supposed affront which he had received from them and which provoked him so far that having vowed a severe revenge, he was preparing with all speed to make war upon them.

Now I do not think it was a kinetic war that he was going after them with some form of physical force, but there's more than one way to make war against your political enemies. We've seen that like right in the forefront of our political atmosphere taking place across the world today there are more than one ways to wage war. One of the ways of waging war is through commerce. One another way is to using trade and or the lack thereof to bring financial ruin upon another nation or financial pain to get that nation to act in such a way that you want them to act. All nations do this.

This is not unusual and this is exactly what we see taking place. Some things never change. There's nothing new under the sun. So Herod was highly displeased with these people of Tyre and Sidon. Literally again, he was in a hostile state of mind.

He was contemplating hostilities towards them. These two Phoenician cities were not subject to Agrippa. They were somewhat independent and free, but God was working. He's setting the stage, if you will, for him to bring divine judgment on an extremely proud man. However, he still wanted something from them in return.

And until that time, apparently these two cities were unwilling to grant what he was desiring. And so what they wanted was food. These two cities were located in such a way that they had a great trade industry across the ocean. They had ships and They were bringing trade into that land across the Mediterranean Sea. But the problem was that they were not situated, they did not have the agricultural means to to produce the food that the large population demanded and therefore they needed food from elsewhere.

They relied upon Herod we're told. They're relying upon Judea and this surrounding land to provide them with the very thing that they needed on a daily basis. This was apparently true all the way back to Solomon's time of these two cities. In 1 Kings 5-8 we read about this very thing happening when Solomon was building a temple. He was needing cedar and cypress trees and so he made a deal with the kings of Tyre and Sidon that they would supply him with the wood and material to build the temple and yet he would supply them with food, with grain, so that they would have bread to eat.

And so this was still how this city operated. But in this midst of this situation here of this anger, these people of Tyre and Sidon, they saw and understood his anger towards them and they did not want to receive the anger because they understood that he was holding a very important card in his hand, he had the means by which to bring them to their knees. And so they send a delegation. This is often done. These two cities decided to join forces and come together and seek peace.

But they also were wise in the things that they did in the worldly wise way and they decided that the best way for them to make peace was to figure out how to make peace with a man that was prideful and arrogant and angry. How do you do that? Well these men decided that the best way, let's make a friend within the court. And so it says, they came with one accord and having made Blastus, the king's personal aide, their friend. I read that this as I was studying and I'm just thinking how did they go about this?

So often I read over text way too quickly and I begin to ask myself how does this these people from a another city in another place not under the jurisdiction of King Harry how is it that they make friends with someone and this personal aid here is actually more than just someone who's one translation I think or one commentator mentions a treasure but it seems as if this word carries with it a more intimate relationship. It's his personal aid. It's also this idea of a chamberlain. This Blastus was not simply an aid, but he was one that was more intimate with Herod in the sense of he knew what was going on within the chamber of his bedroom. He was a man who this word and this idea here denotes an officer who is charged with the direction and management of the chambers, particularly a bedchamber, a man who had charge of the intimate places and spaces of the king.

No doubt he would be a close associate and friend with the king and also one who knew him very well. So I believe that what took place here, and I'm going to interject a little bit of my opinion here just based upon what we see, they made Blastus the king's aide their friend. This raises a question in my mind. How did they do this? How else do you do this?

You have a foreign man that you're wanting to influence, how do you make him your friend? Well the same way people make friends today in political spheres, they offer him some form of gift or bribe. It actually the meaning of this word means having made friend means to prevail upon, to win over, or persuade. In one use of the word it actually means to bribe. And so these men from Tyre and Sidon they made friends they persuaded this man Blastus and they won him over.

How is it that we make peace with this angry king? How do we do this? So believe that we can deduce from this that Blastus was their pay-to-play friend that they could gain peace with King Herod with so that they could again get their food. How important is food? Remember we are either in the midst of or coming on the heels of a great famine.

And so this was very important to them. Every trade agreement consists of this, but too often there are some backdoor agreements going on for personal gain. And that's what Blastus seems to be doing. There's nothing new under the sun, brothers and sisters. These are the same things that take place today.

But I want you to see now in verses 21 through 23 the proud in heart God will humble. I want you to see how God has set the stage, if you will, for this man who has been very proud in heart and very angry to be very humbled. So on a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them, and the people kept shouting the voice of a God and not of a man and then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God and he was eaten by worms and died on a set day. Now what day was this? Historically speaking we read in Josephus and in other places this was a day that was set for shows and entertainments and games exhibited by the king, by King Herod in celebration and in honor of Caesar.

This was not something where only the people of Tyre and Sidon were going, but for the whole city and this whole area these people came and they were going to have shows and games and have a big time. And in the midst of that, had all of these people here and Herod was going to use his rhetoric skills to speak to the people and to demonstrate his prowess as a communicator. And so what does he do? On a set day he decided he would do this. But I want to play upon that word just for a moment and give you a behind-the-scenes look that not only was this a day that was set upon the calendar of King Herod Agrippa to bring a speech and for those people to be there and for all of these games and there was much no doubt if you've ever put on any kind of festival or anything you know there's a lot of work going into that, a lot of planning going into that and on this set day there was these plans that were laid out.

But in another sense there was on a set day on God's calendar in which he was about to bring judgment upon a proud man for his wickedness. You see Herod was unaware of God's timetable. He was unaware of the day in which God had set for his destruction. And I want you to understand everyone who's sitting here today, you may be aware that today is Sunday, August the 24th. Thank you, I almost messed up.

August the 24th. But you may not be aware of what is on God's calendar today. On a set day, God is the God who sets the day of your life and he sets the day of your death. He sets the day of your salvation. He sets the day of your destruction.

And God uses his calendar whereby he ordains all things whatsoever comes to pass. Do not think today is your day and that your plans will rule the day. Herod thought that his plans were going to rule this day, that he was going to come and give a speech and he was going to wow the people and accomplish all of his political goals. But what he didn't realize is that God had set a day and this was the day that God had set for the destruction of this proud, angry, evil man. What is in this day for you?

Is this going to be the day of your deliverance as it was just a few days ago for the life of Peter? Or Is this going to be the day of your deliverance as it was just a few days ago for the life of Peter? Or is this going to be the day of your destruction if you're proud and haughty and heart and that you refuse to bow the knee and to give glory to God. If you are like Herod in that, do you remember the mirror that I wanted you to look into and I said you may be surprised at the image you see in that mirror. When you look into the mirror of God's Word you may be surprised at the image you see and when you look with a Honest heart you may in fact see a King seated upon his throne named Herod Agrippa You think I have not the wealth or the power or the authority of a king?

You may not, but let me ask you this, who is seated upon your throne. Who do you obey? How have you arrayed yourself? Whose applause are you seeking? Who do you see Do you see when you look into the mirror of God's Word?

Who do you see? Calvin notes that Herod, though he had one purpose, he notes the Lord had another purpose for this set day. For he set the oppressor of his church on high, God did, that he might have the greater fall. God set him up. You see God is setting the stage, if you will.

He was setting the stage for Herod and for all of the evil of his own heart to come forth, for the pride of his heart to be demonstrated before a whole huge crowd of people. And God was allowing him and setting him up so that God would destroy him so that everyone would know that there is a king seated upon a throne and it's not the one who is sitting here in the garments of Herod Agrippa But there's actually a king seated upon a throne that is the king above every king. He is the king of kings and he is the Lord of lords and he is king of all the earth and he does whatever he wishes among the inhabitants of men. He was seated, Herod was, in royal apparel it says. Herod, not the Bible, but Josephus in history tells us on different occasions, specifically Josephus though, that he was arrayed in such a way, this royal apparel, it was a garment that was wrought with silver.

He was decked in this very fabulous silver garment. He came to this throne where he would give his speech before daybreak, he situated his throne in such a way that as he sat upon the throne that the Sun would rise up and shine upon his garments and sparkle. And that's the scene by which he wanted to give his oration, his speech to the people. It was striking. It was reflecting the glory of the sun.

It was no doubt to dazzle the eyes and the beholders that here he was seated upon a throne in a public theater making a speech to them, not simply to those of Phoenicia, these deputies if you will, but to all the people assembled there in this grand occasion and he sat upon his throne harried in his pride and swelling of his heart. No doubt he was impressed even with himself and the splendor of this garment of the spectacle that he had lined out and planned. He sat on this throne not thinking about him who sits on the throne in heaven, but simply who was seated upon that throne. Instead of considering Isaiah chapter 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated upon the throne high and lifted up. Herod was not a man ignorant of the Scriptures.

You remember his main dwelling place before this was in Jerusalem. He went to the temple and he offered sacrifices. It is believed that he even was reading the Scriptures and the law as Deuteronomy commanded kings to do. He was of Jewish descent. He understood and he read the Word of God and yet he did not take it to heart.

Listen, how dangerous of a place are you seated this morning that you're seated here under the Word of God. You know the Word of God, you've read the Word of God, but you're not heeding the Word of God. You're not considering what saith the Lord. And who is it seated upon this throne of yours? Is it you?

Do you bow the knee to every whim and everything that you want? Do you make backroom deals so that you can circumnavigate the word and the laws of God so that you can get all the things that you want to get and still look as if you're living right before the Lord and before his people. Oh there's a way to do that. We can manipulate and we can connive and we can scheme and we can flatter with the words and we can put on and we can do all the stuff. But let me tell you something, you're not fooling God.

The book of Hebrews says that we are laid bare, we are naked before him. You hide nothing. God sees everything. God sees everything. Listen to the shouts of the people, the voice of a God and nod of a man.

Can you even imagine what this did to the heart of Herod? I mean get the picture here he is seated upon the throne he's in a silver garment the sun shining upon him he's giving this speech and the response of the crowd the voice of a God and not of a man the voice of a God and not of a man. The voice of a God and not of a man. They did not only say it once or twice, but look at what the Bible says. And the people kept shouting the voice of a God and not of a man.

Over and over they were chanting this over and over to King Herod. And can you imagine what was happening to his heart? It was bubbling forth and what was oozing out of every pore and fiber of his being was pride. And no doubt Blastis had informed the people of Tyre and Sidon of the pride of Herod. I personally think, this is a personal thought, that they helped, that Blastus helped them into understanding how to manipulate an arrogant king.

Brothers and sisters, the Bible says pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. And when pride comes then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom. There is set before you here the mirror of God's Word for you to gaze into. It is a mirror that will show you yourself. Not as you look on the outward appearance of what you looked at this morning before you came to church, but it will do something much greater.

It will reflect for you your soul and it will show you your nature. It will demonstrate for you and reveal to you the honest state of your soul. Would it not be true that if each of us were to be honest with ourselves and we were to look into the mirror that we would see Herod himself in his pride when we looked into the Word of God? It's easy to look down on Herod and think, man, he's so prideful. Look at his anger.

Angry people are typically prideful people, okay? And If we are honest with ourselves, would we not see Herod thinking that we are something? Here we are seated upon a throne. Is it not true that we too often are sitting there failing to recognize that it is God alone who has a right to sit upon the throne? Do not deceive yourselves.

Brothers and sisters, there is a hered in each of us. There is a Herod in every one of us and every time we sin we are bowing down to this image made of our own hands and do not think for one moment that pride only has one face. Listen to me, pride does not only carry with it one face. Pride is not only a man with a crown with silver clothing seated upon a throne with the sun shining on him and the crowd saying the voice of a God and not of a man. No doubt that is one face.

But pride carries with it many faces. Pride comes in all shapes and sizes. It comes in all forms. Pride can look like self-exaltation and self-abasement. It can look like a strong young man and a weak old man.

It can take the garments of the wealthy and also wear the rags of the poor. It can adorn itself with immodest attire of a woman and also wear the modest clothing of a self-righteous woman. It can look like a rebellious child, but it can also look like a self-righteous obedient child. The truth is is that pride is in every cell and fiber of our bodies. If you're wondering if this sermon is for you, I could resoundly say it's for all of us.

There is not a soul who escapes this. The truth is is that pride it is in every bit of us and it shouts in your ear or maybe whispers you shall be as God's. You can do your own thing. You are the king of your life. This is what pride does.

Pride also does something that these Phoenicians did. They did something very dreadfully dangerous. They flattered the king. Can I just give you a strong warning that if you're a person given over to flattery you are in grave danger And if you're a person who flatters, you're in grave danger? Being flattered or being the flatterer, both are dangerous.

You know, if the story ended here with the glory of Herod and the shouts of the people I could imagine that we all would all have felt like Asaph this morning in Psalm 73. But as for me my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men.

Therefore pride serves as their necklace. Violence covers them in a garment. Their eyes bulge with abundance, and they have more than heart could wish. They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily.

They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore his people return here and waters of a full cup are drained by them. And they say, How does God know and is there knowledge of the Most High? Behold these are the ungodly who always are at ease. They increase in riches.

Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have plagued, I have been plagued and chastened every morning. If I had said, I will Speak thus, behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of your children. When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me." You imagine if the chapter ended here, We would be singing Psalm 73 this morning and stopping at verse 16. But the glorious verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their end.

Surely you have set them in slippery places You cast them down to destruction. Oh how many are brought to desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors. Does that not describe Herod? God has set King Herod in a slippery place. Oh, he is exalted.

He is the king and all these people are shouting the voice of a God and not of a man. He's arrayed in royal splendor and everybody is ooh and ah-ing over this man. And what is actually happening in God's sovereignty and in God's economy, he is setting him in slippery places so that His destruction would come in a moment. And there is a warning here for us. Be careful when you are exalted.

Be fearful when you are exalted. You may be set in slippery places if you are not giving glory to God. Be on guard. You see, our temptation is to think that these events happen simply as happenstance or just simply a declaration of what happened in history. But what God was doing was setting him up to fall.

God sat Herod before that crowd of flatters to reveal his own pride and to stir up all the mire of his heart so that he would cast him down in but a moment. And God raised him up in this pride so that his fall would be even greater. It would have been one thing if God had just allowed an army to come in and to fight with Herod or if one of his men had snuck into his chamber and blasted us was to put a knife into his back. That would somewhat be honorable death for a king. But this?

Here's a warning time for us. I think that there are two dangers at this point. There is the temptation to believe the flatterers and there is also the temptation to be the flatterer. Remember that people who flatter you, you need to write this down, remember that people who flatter you, so that they flatter you so that they can get something from you. Young lady, Beware of the flatterer.

They can come in the form of a male and they can come in the form of a female. Both want something from you. Young man be guarded of the flatterer. Again it can come in the form of a male or a female and they are setting you up. When someone begins to flatter you your heart instantly wants to hear tell me more.

But I want you to say this tell me less I don't need to hear that John Bunyan once was descending from the pulpit and somebody ran up to him and said, Brother Bunyan, that was the most fabulous sermon I have ever heard. And he said, yeah, the devil told me that on the way down. Beware of the flatterer. Did these people really think that Herod was a god? I don't think so.

We are told that they sought peace because they wanted food. Therefore, they made themselves a friend to Blastus. They flattered him as they were most likely instructed. Matthew pull says these impious flatters destroyed whom they exalted. For God will pull down all his rivals.

God will have no rival. It may not be in this life but it most certainly will be in the next. And look at this in verse 23, immediately God does something. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him. I believe that Herod was used here much like Ananias and Sapphira were in Acts chapter 5.

I don't think that this is going to happen to everyone who has pride. Obviously it doesn't or else there wouldn't be anybody here this morning. It would be an empty room if God destroyed all prideful people who listen to flattery. So I think this is given here for us to demonstrate not what will happen to all of us but what should. Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever told a lie? You have lied to God when you lie. And so Herod here is set up as a demonstration of what should happen when we sin. Therefore even in this warning passage we should be able to stop and thank God that he has not dealt with us as we deserve. Thank you Lord.

It's amazing that we're not all struck dead every time we sin. But God's grace abounds more and more. Isn't that wonderful? I believe this is the same angel that struck Peter on his side and said, hey, get up, put your shoes on, get dressed. And now he strikes Herod with the sword of God's judgment.

Peter was struck on the side to be delivered Herod is struck to be destroyed And then I want you to note the sin of silence, the sin of silence. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God. You know a man could think very highly of himself if he tries and works diligently to keep the law of God and to obey all of his commands. We can set ourselves up in quite an array of self-righteousness and think we are doing all right, but how often have we sinned by not doing something? Have we given God glory?

This it seems was the sin that released the wrath of God. Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God. Herod in reality should have rebuked the crowd and told them to be quiet and then to give glory to God. Consider the contrast here between Herod's response to receive worship and Peter's response in Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10 and verse 24, and the following day they entered Caesarea.

Now Cornelius was waiting for them and he called together his relatives and close friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted up his hands saying, Stand up! I myself also am a man. But Herod liked hearing what the crowd said.

Behold the voice of a God and not of a man. Peter says, I am not a God, I am a man. Herod received, you are a god, you're not a man. Another is Paul in Silas in Acts 14. In Lystra, a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked.

And this man heard Paul speaking, and Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faked to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand up straight on your feet. And he leaped up and walked. And now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Laconian language, the gods have come down among us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. And it goes on down there and they respond, men why are you doing these things?

We also are men with the same nature as you and we preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God." But not Herod. Herod made the fatal mistake of thinking that he was the source of that reflected glory of the sun shining upon his garments. He failed to acknowledge that it was not he that was shining but it was the creation of the Son of God, the righteousness of God in demonstrating through his creation the splendor of the physical sons as you in glory when it shines first thing in the morning. He thought he was the glory. Brothers and sisters if you've ever received glory from men you better realize that all of your glory is not of yourself.

As Christians we reflect the glory of God. God has given gifts among men. He has given men the ability to do things that are beneficial for the church. But I want you to know sometimes that your greatest gift can be your greatest weakness. It can be the very point at which you are in most danger.

Be guarded. Recognize these things about yourself that if you begin to receive the flattery of men you are in deadly, you're on deadly ground. Be careful. Listen and watch for these things so that you will not enter into judgment. May we ever be those who give glory to God for whatever things we have or can do.

What do you have that you've not received? How was it you came into this world anyway? We've had some new births recently. How did they get here? They didn't have much with them when they came.

And you're not going to have anything with you when you leave. Give glory to God. God's judgment here was quick and painful and humiliating. Matthew Henry says God is very jealous for his own honor and he will be glorified upon those whom he is not glorified by. If you don't glorify God, God will glorify himself in you and it will not be good.

How did he die? We know he was eaten by worms. He was not killed on the battlefield. He was not tricked into his night chamber with a knife into his back. But as Matthew Poole says, no creature is so little or so contemptible but it can be executed by God to use as judgment on whomever he pleases.

A worm. Here you have King Agrippa seated upon his throne in all of his Splendor and what does God use to bring him to nothing? A worm. You think we're something great? God can use a worm to bring you to nothing.

It doesn't take a miracle. We are worms brothers and sisters. We are worms. Isaiah 66 says, and they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me for their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." Josephus tells us that Herod was very painfully sick for five days before he died. He actually, Josephus writes that he was he even acknowledged they called me a god and yet he was in torments.

He was not God enough to save himself, to heal himself, to do anything, but he was sure man enough to die. What a picture that we have here. Mark 9, Jesus describes hell as that place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Isn't it interesting? Herod goes from being eaten by worms in his death to eternal death where the worm never dies.

Continual perpetual torment. Those five days were only the beginning of an eternity. As you sit here this morning, I would like to ask you a question. Have you given glory to God? And what I mean by that is not have you said to God be the glory great things he has done but have you individually bowed your knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and given him the glory that is due him acknowledging and confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

In other words, have you repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ to save you from your sins? If you have never done that, you are remaining silent in the face of God. You are because you are not giving glory to God you will go to the same place where Herod is where the worm never dies. Do not remain silent. You cannot remain neutral with God.

You are either for Him or you are against Him. You will either bring glory to Him or you are bringing shame upon His name. Think of it this way, God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. You ever seen those, I'm going to talk to the guys here, women don't think about things like this but guys have you ever considered you know you had to be in a match with somebody and you think yeah maybe you sizing them up I could maybe I could take that one I can't take that one but mate you can't take this one Can you imagine what it would be if God resisted you? Young man you may think you're something you're nothing.

If God resists you you will be cast down. It was read this morning Psalm 2, kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. You know last night, kind of humorous here, need a little comic relief after this heavy sermon, last night we were talking about this passage and I was reading it and I got down through all of this stuff and kind of gave him a mini sermon you know it was helpful for me to get my thoughts out and I asked this question to my children now what did we learn to be guarded against and one of them said worms. Well I guess we should be concerned and guarded against worms but more importantly we should be guarded against that which requires a judgment of death by worms.

Pride. Pride. Hare did not learn the lesson of Nebuchadnezzar in which he gives God glory and he mentions this in Daniel 4. I won't read it today but you know the passage. And lastly I just want to show you this in closing, the divine contrast.

In verse 24 we read these words, but the Word of God grew and multiplied. What a picture of a contrast. You see Herod the king lifted up into slippery places and come crashing down in a moment. And then you see this other thing that he thought he could destroy by killing James and imprisoning Peter and harassing the church. But the Word of God grew and multiplied.

Great success attended to the Word of God. This persecution that Herod had begun did not take its effect And God's Word marched on. When kings rise and kings fall, there is one thing that is certain and sure, the Word of the Lord endures forever. Not one jot or tittle will pass away. It is God who will sustain His Word and cause His Word to grow.

David Peterson says, Though the Word of God is not fettered, its servants may well have to suffer and be bound. But God's Word is never bound. You can be in a prison cell and the Word of God can be brought forth. I think about John Bunyan and all that he did while in the prison and many others even there today right now as we preach. Not only did it grow but it multiplied and the number of believers multiplied through the word of God which was sown and the seed was scattered abroad so that it through persecution and by their desire to pull down the church did nothing but build up the church.

That's the glory of God in his church. That which people try to tear down is actually that which builds it up. Tyrants will never learn this. They attack the church only to scatter the seed. It's kind of like thinking you're destroying seed by throwing it to the wind.

No, what you're doing is actually spreading the seed and causing the church to multiply and this has been the case throughout all of history. About the worst thing that ever happened to a church is to give it great peace and prosperity. When all is well we tend to lose our sense of urgency and necessity. But let us not be those brothers and sisters who coast our way to heaven, but rather let us be those who use this time of peace and prosperity to further advance the kingdom of God and the spread of the Word and the multiplying of the people of God. And let's be diligent with all that we are to do it.

Isaiah 51 says, listen to me you who know righteousness you people in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach of men nor be afraid of their insults for the moth will eat them up like a garment and the worm will eat them like wool. But my righteousness will be forever and my salvation from generation to generation and as Peter says because all flesh is his grass and all the glory of man is the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower falls away but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word by which the gospel was preached to you. Amen.

Four quick things. Number one, guard your heart from pride. Learn to recognize all its faces. Number two, flattery is deadly. Beware of being taken in by the flatterer and of being the flatterer.

Number three, know who is on your throne. Number four, are you committing the sin of silence? Do you consider your gifts and your estate of your own making? Beware of thinking too highly of yourself or of your own abilities and give God the glory. Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, we come before you this morning acknowledging that you are God, you are the King seated upon your throne. You do your will in heaven above and on earth beneath. There is no one who can stay your hand. Father, we so desire to be a people who are humble, a people who walk in humility and meekness, a people who give God the glory, great things you have done, oh Lord. I pray that you would guard every heart here.

I also pray Lord for any of who are lost here this morning that you would save their soul. Lord that you would cast down their pride, that they would acknowledge you in your glory, that they would not be silent, but that they would speak to God be the glory for Jesus Christ his son and father I ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.