The Rules of Man

Introduction

Good morning. If you will open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. We find Jesus here having a run-in with the Pharisees and scribes. And it’s about an issue that is all over our world today, the idea of tradition. Do we follow things religiously because of tradition? Well, the Bible surprisingly gives a mixed bag on that. Matthew 15 is clear that traditions of men can have supplanted the word of God. And in following them, we’ve made following God an exercise in futility, serving ourselves rather than the Creator. But as you turn to Matthew chapter 15, and you think about this situation with the Pharisees and scribes, those who would be well versed in what was truly the law of Moses. Consider first this story about a newlywed couple.

As they were newly married, the wife was cooking a ham. By the way, this is not a true story, at least in my life. So you can describe it whoever you want, but not me and Kashka. So you think about the story, though. You have a newlywed wife who’s cooking a ham. And the husband comes home from work and he sees in the trash can about a third of the ham. It’s just sitting there. And he goes to his wife and he says, Honey, why did you throw away a third of the ham? And she said, That’s just the way my mom always did it. And he says, Well, I don’t understand. Can we ask her why that’s the way she did it? And she said, Yeah, of course.

I kind of want to know. And so she called her mom and she asked her mom, Well, why did you always cut off a third of the ham? And her mom said, you know, to be honest, I just did it because Grandma always did it. We’ll have to ask her. And so they make one final call to the grandmother, and they say, and the granddaughter says, Grandma, why did you always throw out a third of the ham? And grandma laughed and laughed. And she finally composed herself. She said, Silly girl, I threw out a third of the hem because our pot was too small to fit the whole thing. You can laugh, that’s okay. When you think about the reason of that story, right, or whether we’re serving God in what capacity at our congregation here or in our individual lives, the question that always matters is not, have people before us done it?

But why did they do it? Right? With the illustration of the ham story, as silly as it is, if anyone, the mom or the daughter, the granddaughter had stopped to think, why did grandma do this, they wouldn’t have been throwing away and wasting all that wonderful tasting meat all those years. But you know, the truth is we do that religiously. We accept things because we were taught them. Our worldview, our view of scripture is shaped by the way we grew up, by the way that people we admire look at. And to be honest, that is an unavoidable act. There is no place you can go that has no bias, that brings no particular worldview to the table. However, there is one way to know you’re pleasing to God, and that’s to stick with exactly what he has told us to do.

1. Why Do You Break the Commandment of God?

And when you check in Matthew chapter 15, as we understand what the Jews and the Pharisees were doing all those generations after God had given the law at Mount Sinai, we see that man had developed, excuse me, their own sense of laws. Pick up in the reading with me in verse 1, and let’s see what Jesus encountered. In verse 1, then the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat. He answered them, then why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die.

But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching us doctrines, the commandments of men. And there’s a story where we think of Jesus and we think of those awful Pharisees who are so often rebuked and condemned, and we say, You get them, Lord. You tell them, you put them in their place. But I think if we’re honest, if we look at this story closely, it might be alarming at how similar we work.

And do you know why we work that way? Because it’s comfortable to us. Because that’s what humans have done. If you don’t believe me, look around the city of Orlando or type in to Google churches in Orlando. There are all kinds of churches you can choose from. Churches that do this, churches that do that, churches that have been around this long, churches that are just now opening the doors. Why is that? Because of people. Because people see things differently, because people reason differently, but also because people have developed different ways of understanding what God’s will is. And we’re going to examine some of those more closely. But think about traditions this morning and think about this story. You had the accusation in verse 1 and 2.

Note specifically, though, that the Pharisees and scribes did understand what they were saying. In verse 2, do you see the language closely there? Why do your disciples, by the way, not Jesus, why do your disciples break what? Break the law of Moses? Break the law of God? Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat. They recognize what it was, but the question would be, if they recognized that their commandments, that their traditions were not equal to God’s law, why were they binding it on the disciples of Christ? The answer is, even though they knew where it originated, they thought that they had equal authority. In fact, in Matthew chapter 23, Jesus is constantly railing in a perhaps the most harsh manner he does.

And Matthew chapter 23, with all the woes against the Pharisees and the scribes, what does he call them time and again? Hypocrites. Why? They would preach, but not practice what they preached. They would bind all kinds of laws that perhaps had good intent. We’re going to talk about one of those in just a moment. But they knew what the law was, and yet they elevate it to the status of God. By the way, in Matthew chapter 15, this is not about Jesus, and so one could say, well, it’s not a sin on Christ, because it’s his disciples. But if you consider that multiple times Jesus had no regard for the traditions of men, then you understand that Jesus did not have to follow the commandments of men.

Look at Matthew chapter 12. I think this is an important point to realize. That Jesus, who lived in sinless perfection on this earth, in complete and utter submission to God’s will. Note Jesus’ reaction to these commandments of men. In Matthew chapter 12, we see two such examples. Beginning in verse 1. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. He said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who are with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priest?

Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the guiltless. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. And yet there’s another example at beginning in verse 9. He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him? He said to them, Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?

Of how much more value is a man than a sheep. So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And the man stretched it out and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how? To destroy him. And so the Pharisees had been actively going for Christ. They were trying to catch him, they were trying to get him. Why do you think it was so important, by the way, that the Pharisees and scribes catched Jesus or his disciples in some sort of transgression of law? Because if that was the case, then this man who could heal others, who could restore an armed, to a man with a withered one.

This Jesus was the Christ. And if he sinned, he was not the Messiah that his followers claimed him to be. He was not who Peter would acknowledge him to be in Matthew chapter 16, that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And so they were actively against Jesus for their own reasons, but also to disprove the very deity of the Christ. And you see, Jesus responds to this, as you would imagine, quite eloquently and to the point. In verse 3, you know, this is the complete turn of phrase. The Pharisees and scribes point to the disciples and say, They’re breaking the tradition of the elders, and Jesus says, And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

2. Corban: Making Void the Word of God

You see, there’s the real rub in this. It’s not the idea of tradition itself. We’re going to examine that in the Bible momentarily. But the problem was they had so elevated it that they made it equal with the law of God, with the law of Moses. And the problem with that was not only were they binding this law that is not from God as if it were, but they’re not obeying what God had said. Look more closely. Do you understand what had happened here? In verse 4, for God commanded, honor your father and mother. We understand that idea pretty clearly. And whoever reviles your father or mother must surely die. But if you look at Mark chapter 7, you see a better example of exactly what Jesus is exposing here.

Look with me in Mark’s account. I think this is important to look at. In Mark chapter 7. As you look at the parallel account in Mark chapter 7, note beginning in verse 9. And he said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is Corbin, that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father and mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down, and many such things you do.

I think if you know nothing else about Matthew chapter 15, it’s an excellent place to look at the scripture and to see where Jesus condemns men for making void the word of God, in name of their traditions. But specifically, what was the problem with this Corbin? Because that sounds like a great thing, does it not? Look at Mark chapter 7. Look at that in verse 11. Corbin, that is given to God. What does Jesus have? Why does he have a problem with the people marking their possessions to be given to God? Corbin, the idea being a gift. Certainly you can see from this context, the idea is you would set apart those which those things which are yours. But what’s the problem? What does this have to do with father and mother and honoring them?

Well, in verse 12 is the key. Then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. And what is the impact of that in verse 13? Thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. The problem was that what the Pharisees were commonly doing is they would name things such as their house or any of any number of things. They would say, This is Corbin, this is a gift to God. And you know what the catch of that was? That it couldn’t be given to father or mother. And you want to know the best part about claiming Corbin, is you could enjoy it for the time being. So what you had was rather than children who are grown helping their parents who are in need, if I as a child call Corbin on my possessions, I cannot dedicate those to my parents.

And so parents are in need while I’m sitting in relative wealth. Because I’ve said, this is for God. You can’t have any of this. And so what had happened was a good natured idea, perhaps, dedicating things to God, had completely corrupted the idea of what God truly intended, which is for children to take care of parents, and of course, in like time, parents to take care of children. God has always mandated an expectation that we take care of one another. And you see here an example where the tradition stood in the way of God’s law, thus making it sinful and a problem for the Jew. You see, there’s a strong warning back in Matthew 15. And when Jesus quotes Isaiah, imagine if this was said of you.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Were the Pharisees religious people? Well, depends if you think about their outward actions. Of course they were on the outside. They had many good words for prayer. Wasn’t it in Matthew chapter 6 that they were going out and they would pray so that others would hear them and they would see how holy these Pharisees were. But this also teaches me, like Jesus makes the point to them, that if I’m going to ignore the commands of God to follow traditions of men or do whatever I please, because I want to or I see fit or I can angle it in my mind to be right.

That my worship is in vain.

3. How We Would Fall Prey to Traditions of Men

You see, the key with the Pharisees is how did they get here? How did they become so corrupted and hardened to make their own laws that would violate or stand diametrically opposed to the laws of God? You see it at the end of verse 8. While they honored with their lips, where was their heart? Far from me. If our hearts are soft, if our mind is open and we seek to please God, we will care only for and strive to please God exactly as he has commanded us to. We will not seek to add our ideas, we will not seek to blend what makes us feel good, but do what God has said. And that’s the whole matter. But when you think about the problems with traditions of men, we see we’ve seen already that they can make void the tradition of God.

They can make void that which we are to keep. And yes, I said traditions of God, and we’re going to look at that. But you see, also they can result in vain worship and even lead to hypocritical service. Those are some heavy weights. Those are some heavy charges to be leveled against people who seem religious, who know what God expects of us. Let me ask a question. How is it, if we know this, that we would be like that? I could easily go the route and say, well, in Matthew 15, the Pharisees and Scribes knew the law, and yet they did it, and so could we? And that’s true. But allow me to think for just a moment of this group, this congregation that meets here at South Bumby.

How is it that we would ever fall prey to traditions of men that lower us to the point of rendering void the word of God or leading to any sort of failed service to him, whether it be in vain or hypocritical? Can I suggest a couple of ways? One might be we do things because we always have done them that way. If someone were to ask you when you come here this morning, why are there no instruments of music? Why was no one playing the piano? What would you say? Would you say, well, it’s because the churches of Christ just don’t do that? You know, that we’ve never done that in my whole life here. That’s just not what these Christians do. Well, you could say that.

4. Traditions in the Bible

But is that the right answer? Is that why this congregation doesn’t worship God with the instrument? What about questions of why do we take the Lord’s Supper once a week rather than daily or once a quarter or once a year? Why is that? I think what we have to identify is what are traditions in the Bible, and then come back and examine each practice through the correct lens. You see, look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 with me. I think this is important. It’s easy to demonize traditions, and yet the Apostle Paul is very clear in the book of 2 Thessalonians and also in 1 Corinthians, but at a passage in chapter 11 that we won’t look at this morning, that traditions are to be followed. Look closely with me here.

I think this is an interesting point. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, note in verse 14 beginning, to this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been called, but through the gospel of Christ. Verse 15, so then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by a letter? Did Paul misstep? Are we truly as Christians follow tradition? We’ll look at chapter 3 and verse 6. Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us. Now that’s interesting.

Why is Paul in verse 15 of chapter 2 and verse 6 of chapter 3 saying, you need to keep the traditions which we have set you to walk in? What type of traditions was Paul saying they need to be kept? Those given by who? Those given by God. And verse 14, what was it that I called them? To this he called you through our gospel. Is that the gospel that was Paul’s? It was Paul’s message? Well, Paul certainly shared in the good news of the gospel, but it was not his, it was the Lord’s, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. These traditions are essential because they are given by God. That is what sets these traditions apart from those that the Pharisees and scribes wrongfully binded on the disciples of Christ in Matthew chapter 15.

If we don’t see that, we can go off a whole lot of negative directions. I want to come back to that point. There are also Jewish traditions of the elders. Look in Galatians chapter 1 and verse 14. I think this one makes the point strongly enough. Paul also talks about traditions, and this way is not quite so favorable. In Galatians chapter 1 and verse 14, notice with me, as Paul is describing his own life, his own journey, he says in verse 14, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

But did you see that in verse 14? Do you think these are the same traditions that Paul was telling the Thessalonican brethren to follow? What does he say in verse 14? I was extremely zealous for what? For the tradition of my fathers. Sometimes there’s traditions that have good merit. They started in a good place. But when we’ve elevated them to the point of God, then while we might understand why they’re there, others, I might not realize that distinction. We need to always stand on the word of God and the word of truth, recognizing if it’s from God, we do it. If it’s not from God, we need to come to a consensus that says this either needs to be done or should not, but not on the basis of it being God’s will, but of our using our Christian formed conscience to make that decision.

In Colossians chapter 2, you see even a further deviation from those commands that are essential. Look with me at this one other passage in Colossians chapter 2. If you note in verse 8, as we’ve already gone through traditions that Paul says we should keep, traditions that he did zealously keep, but certainly would not imply that we are to keep those traditions of his Jewish elders. But look in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. Come down to verse 20. If with Christ you die to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referred to all things that perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. You know why we don’t keep traditions of men? Not only do they violate the will of God, they don’t do any good. We can set up all the barriers and all the walls we personally choose, but human traditions will not stand. But God’s are forever. The will of the Lord will abide. You see, the problem with this view, though, is when you look at the Bible and to the lazy reader, all of a sudden it looks like now we’re confused.

5. Is God’s Word Final?

Do we follow traditions of men? Because there is a major religious body, you’ve heard of them, the Catholic Church, that views traditions of men, although they would call it apostolic traditions, not just the twelve that we know of, or thirteen if you include Paul. But as it’s been passed down. They say the tradition is to be followed just as righteously as the inspired word of God. How do you get that way? How is that possible? First of all, it’s a misunderstanding of why we do what we do. It is a corruption of knowing that God’s will is to be carried out, that there are things that are from God to be followed. That means when we think about how the church organization is set up, it doesn’t matter what men did, it matters what God has put forward.

Now, of course, with the Catholic Church, we can reach a great strong divide among apostleship being passed down or not. But you know where that issue comes back to? Is that issue in the will of God? Where do the apostles pass on their abilities, their inspiration? You see, it all comes back to your understanding of Scripture. Is God’s word final? Is it complete? If it is, who are we to change it? The Jews changed it and Jesus condemned them strongly. What faith do you think we have when we try to change it? Alter it. Or strip by because we can or because we’ve done it. The time to evaluate what we do as God’s people is today. It is now. Frankly, the time to do that was yesterday, but we can only start with today.

6. Is It From God or From Man?

Don’t accept the status quo. Don’t do things just because they’re okay. So then how do we know what to do? You filter through two questions. Why do we do this? And secondly, this answer found in Matthew chapter 21. Look with me there. Is it from God or is it from man? In Matthew chapter 21, there’s a key point that Jesus makes as his crucifixion is looming. In Matthew chapter 21. The challenges are being lobbed from left and right and forward and behind. In Matthew chapter 21 and verse 23, when Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?

Oh boy. Verse 24, Jesus answered them, I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come from? From heaven? Or from man? And they discussed it among themselves, saying, If we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe in him? But if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet, so they answered Jesus, we do not know. And he said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. The question that Jesus asked them certainly proved his point, that they were just trying to catch him and that they were guilty of not obeying God’s command as given through John.

But can we not see that that point stands as what our view, our lens into life is? Not just how does this church organize itself, not just how do we conduct our worship services, but every day of our life. When the Bible says we are to do things, do we do it? How many people have I? Please ask yourself this question as well. Talk to about Jesus this week. How many times have I prayed? I know in 1 John chapter 1 and verse 8 that God is faithful. If I confess my sins, he will forgive me. If I have sinned this past week, have I confessed my sin to him? Do I trust that what he said is so? Or have I created my own standard?

That if I confess maybe once a week, or if I do as I see fit, do we not see that we have corrupted what God’s will is when we change what God has laid out for us? Do we not think that God had sufficient foreknowledge and understanding to tell us exactly what we needed? Not just what he desires, but what we as his creation need. When you think about that. And you consider then the other question of why do we do what we do? The question also becomes, why would we change what we’re doing? I think there’s a lot of movements in this country that have gone back, if you’ve noticed, to community churches. Well, why is that? Well, as a society, we’re kind of like a swinging pendulum.

You think about the Catholic Church and when it had its run and it was at the tops of even governments. What was Luther’s response? Well, the Catholic Church is teaching faith by works, right? You have to have a works-based salvation. Well, what Luther’s thought was, well, that can’t be, so what’s gotta do? It’s got to be grace only. Nothing. The pendulum swinging all the way back. And so we’ve had all these organizations of men. You see a Methodist church here, a Baptist church there, you see all these different types of churches. What’s happened? Well, now we’re going back to community churches, non denominational churches. Why? Because we’re swinging the other way. We recognize that that type of division is not from God. That division is from man.

This isn’t judging anyone other than to say that when we divide, we are not doing what God expected of us. As Christians, we all look to the head. Who is the head of the body? Jesus the Christ. If everyone who claimed Jesus to be the Lord and Savior served him like it, this world would be a vastly different place. And it would start with me. It would start with this congregation because I would, in all things and in every avenue of my life and in the service here at this congregation, would ask, what does Jesus expect? What does God want? You see, there’s that movement like the house church movement. And that idea is we’re going to call for something new because you know what’s happened over time as these churches have gotten so ritualistic, and we just do the same thing, we sing the same amount of songs, and we say prayers at the same time, and we meet on Wednesday night for Bible study.

We need something more. Well, first of all, we need to be careful not to establish a new tradition. Because what happens is with that house church that started because it’s so breaking the traditional norms. What happens after about a year or two? It’s a new tradition of men, is it not? And everyone’s welcome to worship where they please as long as they do so in a manner that’s pleasing to God. But if we’re going to change for the sake of changing or the sake of something new, ask this one question of yourself. Is this idea from God? Or is it from me? Why am I changing? Am I searching for an emotional appeal? Am I looking for something that I haven’t been getting? Ask yourself, is this what God wants?

Conclusion

Is this what God expects? When you examine the idea of tradition in the Bible, you will see that Paul was clear in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and 3, and as I mentioned before in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and even in verse 2, the idea there are some traditions that are to be followed. But the reason they are to be followed is simple and clear. Because God made it so. When I act in my life, I need to know why God made it so. It’s not okay to say other churches do this. It’s not an acceptable answer to say, because we’ve always done it that way. The day we do that, we will leave God’s principles behind. Because when we ask any question that is not what has God said, we have removed our anchor.

Our anchor is the Word of God. And when we lift up that anchor, we might not find ourselves in the middle of the ocean overnight, but if we keep it up, we will shortly. We will drift. We will change. We will be tossed to and fro, whether it be by the traditions of men, the traditions of holy men as we see them, or just doing what I desire. If we leave the will of God, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves when we turn around and see that God has never moved. And yet here I am, distanced, miles from the God I want to love and serve. Will you go to God and pray with me? Our dear God and most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful, wonderful day that you created.

We recognize you as the one true and living God, whom we give thanks to. We praise your great and holy name, recognizing your power is completely beyond even our comprehension. Lord, please forgive us of when we sin. Help us to focus on serving you and not just do so in lip service, but to examine your will, to not be like the hypocritical Pharisees and scribes, but rather to trust you, to learn what you would have us to do and to apply that, not make our own rules, not consider anything other than what would you have us to do. Lord, as we worship you this morning, we pray that we do it in spirit and in truth, worshiping you as you have decreed, and that we will benefit from serving our Creator, that we will be as iron sharpens iron, impacting one another, encouraging one another, even teaching and admonishing one another as we sing praises to you.

Thank you, O Lord, for sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. We know that through Him, through His submission to your will, we can have a hope of being with you for all of eternity. Help us to live out that understanding. Help us to live out the confession that Jesus is the Christ. Help us to examine your will, to look at our hearts. If we need to make the change, to do so, not because we feel like we’re missing something, but because we know you would have us to be better, to be changed, to be your child. Thank you, O Lord, for all of your blessings. It’s in your Son’s name we do pray. Amen.