Tradition Versus God's Word
Notes
Transcript
We didn’t quite finish Mark chapter 6 last week. So, we’ll quickly wrap that chapter up as it lays a wonderful foundation for us as we open up chapter 7.
Turn to and read Mark 6:53-56. Pray.
And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.
This was likely the highpoint of Christ’s popularity. At this point Christ had the large crowds and name recognition and likely everything that went along with it. If this was success then Christ had it! However, we know that it would not last.
We must be careful of popularity and fame - even though that seems to be what many people are clamoring for. Popularity and fame are extremely fickle and fleeting. They do not last. In fact, Jesus spoke these words in Luke chapter 6:
Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
As Christians, popularity and fame should not be what we are seeking after. In fact, Christ specifically warned His followers that they would be hated and persecuted by the world.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
We must prepare ourselves for the same treatment. If they hated, rejected, and persecuted our Lord Jesus Christ then they will hate, reject, and persecute us.
Now, back in Mark chapter 6…When Christ and His disciples disembarked the ship, wherever they went, they streets were lined with sick people who simply wanted to touch the border of Christ’s garment. Had they heard of the woman who had been healed simply by touching his garment? (Mark 5:27-28)
Notice, vs. 56 says, “…as many as touched Him were made whole.” Now, we understand that it was not simply the touch which made them whole. It was their faith in Christ which made them whole. Just as Jesus had said of the women in chapter 5:
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
And praise the Lord, that’s still true today. As many as will come to Christ, in faith will be made whole!
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
Now, we turn our attention to chapter 7.
Turn to and read Mark 7:1-13.
Tradition vs. God’s Word
Tradition vs. God’s Word
In these verses we see a group of scribes and Pharisees that had come from Jerusalem to “observe” Christ. They had, undoubtedly, heard a lot of stories about Christ and wanted to come check things out for themselves. However, we quickly see that there was a problem...
And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
They found fault.
They found fault.
This group of religious leaders did not come seeking the truth. As we see so often in the Gospels, these religious leaders did not want to know the truth. They were simply seeking to find fault with Christ; they were seeking to find some way in which they could accuse Him to the High Priest so that they might get rid of Him. He was, as they say, cutting in on their territory. If the people were following Christ that means that they weren’t following the Pharisees.
The battle lines were thus drawn…It was men’s traditions versus God’s Word.
For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
Just to be clear, the disciples weren’t being accused of eating with dirty, filthy hands. They were being accused of not being ceremonially clean. We understand; there is nothing wrong with washing your hands often. In fact, now, we are being encouraged to wash our hand as often as we possibly can! The problem was...
They were more concerned with tradition.
They were more concerned with tradition.
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
John Halsey, who has now gone on to Heaven, wrote, “Multitudes were fed, the blind received their sight, the deaf had hearing restored, the palsied people were healed, the dead were raised, but the religious establishment was only concerned about a tradition. It is very hard to comprehend such religious blindness!”
What is tradition?
The word that is used here literally means, “to give, to deliver, to hand over.” Our English word comes from the Latin meaning, “to deliver.”
Noah Webster defines tradition as...
Delivery; the act of delivering into the hands of another.
We have a lot of traditions that have been delivered from one generation to another. Every family has traditions. Every church has traditions (whether they want to admit it or not). Noah Webster, in his definition of tradition, stated, “Traditions may be good or bad, true or false.”
I need to stop here to make some application without, I trust, getting too far off topic. While there is nothing wrong with passing traditions down from one generation to the next, we should be even more concerned about passing the truth down from one generation to the next.
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
The Apostle Paul was concerned with making sure he had passed down the truth to young Timothy and he was also concerned that young Timothy passed the trust down to the generation that followed him!
Going back to Mark chapter 7…The scribes and Pharisees, and other religious groups, did an excellent job of handing their traditions down to the next generation. The question for us to ask ourselves is this:
Are we doing as good of a job handing the truth down to the next generation as these scribes and Pharisees were of handing down their traditions?
For the sake of the next generation; for the sake of our country; for the sake of this church; for the sake of the cause of Christ we had better be able to answer “Yes” to that question! We need to heed Paul’s warning:
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
As we move on, we see...
They pointed to tradition; Christ pointed to Scripture!
They pointed to tradition; Christ pointed to Scripture!
Look again at verses 6-9.
There are several statements in those verses which show how the Pharisees and scribes treated God’s Word.
In vs. 7 we read that they, “taught for doctrines the commandments of men.” Instead of teaching the truth they taught tradition.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
I am certain that these scribes and Pharisees, while they had great portions of Old Testament scripture committed to memory (in their minds), it was not in their hearts!
In vs. 8 we are told that they, “laid aside the commandment of God.” That means they left it; they forgot it and they turned to tradition.
Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:
In vs. 9 we are told that they “rejected the commandment of God” in favor of their own tradition.
And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.
It’s interesting. The word, in Mark 7:9, that is used for reject means “to declare to be invalid.” Is not that the way the world, today, treats God’s Word? To the world, God’s Word is of no value.
So, the question to ask ourselves is...
How do we treat God’s Word?
Have we forgotten God’s Word? Have we rejected God’s Word? Have we laid God’s Word aside in favor of something or someone else? Or as Colossians 3:16 states...
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Jesus Christ, in Mark chapter 7, and in many other passages of Scripture sets the example for us.
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
and...
For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
Jesus Christ , the Living Word, lived His life according to the written Word of God! In a sense you could say that the religious traditionalists did not have an issue with Jesus Christ; they had an issue with God’s Word!
Because of all of this...
They made God’s Word useless!
They made God’s Word useless!
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
The phrase none effect means to make void.
Suppose I had here in my hand a check. Suppose I were to write across the front of that check the word, “Void.” What have I done? I have made that check useless; it’s no good.
That’s exactly what the scribes and Pharisees had done to God’s Word; they had made it useless. In its place? Their traditions.
May I ask you a question? Is God’s Word simply an expensive paper weight or maybe merely an ornament for your coffee table? Have you made God’s Word useless?
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Or are we living in such a way to prove to the world that the Word of God is powerful?!
One final thought: Tradition cannot give to you eternal life. Notice Christ’s words to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:15
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Tradition cannot save a person. Only God’s Word - the Living Word of God - can save.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
The scribes and Pharisees had taken the law of Moses and twisted it into a useless tradition. But, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, brings grace and truth.