Eternal Power In Christ – Relevant Life Changing Truth (John 1:12)
Mark 7:6-13 – “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. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”
“The keeping of human commands always leads to the neglect of the divine.” – Charles Spurgeon.
Verse 9: “Full well” – Jesus is rebuking them here by saying in effect “Are you not acting in a most self righteous and pious manner, by preferring human traditions to God’s commandments?” The guilt and foolishness of the scribes and Pharisees are exposed by this condemnation. It is a terribly sinful thing to put the traditions of men on a pedestal higher then God’s Word. It is a terribly sinful thing to establish rules of governance in a local assembly based just on traditions of men and not the Word of God. It is a terrible and sinful thing to put in effect things that will alter men’s futures and their capacity to serve God and all the while those things are based more in the traditions of men then the Word of God. – Always make sure everything is based in God’s Word. Research things out for yourself, dig deep into the Scriptures’, and come to conclusions and convictions for yourself, and do not just rely on what you have always heard; but own those beliefs for yourself by careful and exhaustive Bible study.
INTRODUCTION: We need to create the good habit of daily Bible reading. We either have good habits or bad habits. If we have not developed the good habit of daily Bible reading then we have developed the bad habit of NOT reading the Bible daily! Time is a factor in daily Bible reading. Lots of people say they do not have the time. Let’s look at the reality of time. James 4:14 says “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” As you see James teaches us that our time on earth is brief, but a vapor in comparison to eternity. If we do not develop the good habit of daily Bible study our time on this earth will catch up with us. We will have spent our life on earth not utilizing the time we had for Christ. Many Christians will meet God never having read his Word through once. Wouldn’t that be a shame; to meet God, to meet Christ, knowing everything that was done for you, because He loved you, and you never having bothered to completely read His love letter to you?
WHY IS GOD’S WORD SO IMPORTANT? – Because it contains God’s mind and will for your life, because it is the only source of absolute truth in the world, and because it is the Divine authority for your life. (II Timothy 3:16-17 – 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 perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.) God inspired men of old with His Holy Spirit from time to time, influencing them to speak or write His will to men. (II Peter 1:20-21 – Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.)
Adam Clarke speaking about these verses in Proverbs said “Everything that God has pronounced, every inspiration which the prophets have received, is pure, without mixture of error, without dross.”
The great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon had these thoughts of this verse “So we are invited to trust in an effectual gospel which can by no means fall to the ground. We have no cunningly devised fable put before us, but the infallible truth of God who cannot lie. All things else may fail, but the promise of God will be fulfilled as surely as God is God.”
THE GOAL OF COMPREHENSION– We need to do more than just topical studies in the Bible. A topical study is looking up all the relevant passages to a certain topic and studying those. This is not a bad way to study the Bible, but we also need to study the Bible book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse as it was written. Why work at studying the Bible as whole and not just topical studies? Because with topical studies you risk taking or applying a verse out of context; we need to consider all that God has revealed to us in His Word. (Psalm 119:160 – Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.)
“The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.” – A. W. Tozer
“The Bible is a harp with a thousand strings. Play on one to the exclusion of its relationship to the others, and you will develop discord. Play on all of them, keeping them in their places in the divine scale, and you will hear heavenly music all the time.” – William P. White
BASIC BIBLE STUDY TOOLS – Some suggestions for some tools to use as you study the Bible to help and get the most out of your Bible reading/study time. We are told to study God’s word, and we need to study it as efficiently as possible. (II Timothy 2:15 – Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.)
First you need to make sure you are using the right Bible. The King James Version is the Bible English speaking people should be using. Some Bible’s have a paragraph layout instead of a verse layout. The paragraph layout helps you get the complete thought of the writer but can be difficult to use.
LEARN TO LOOK FOR A BIBLICAL VIEW ON ISSUES – AND NOT JUST A TRADITIONAL VIEW – Titus 1:9 says “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” Notice the verse says “by sound doctrine” not by tradition of men but by well thought out, researched, studied and reasoned teaching based on God’s Word and God’s Word alone.
We always need to be thinking toward a Biblical view and not just a traditional view. (Mark 7:8a & 13) To get a proper view on any subject we must take into account both God’s terrible holiness, and His gracious forgiveness in view of the sinfulness of man. To find the Biblical position on issues, we must:
Seek Biblical answers not just traditional answers, not just good sounding answers, not even at first glance what would appear to be “Biblical” answers, but seek to actually examine the Scriptures for what they truly and actually say. Scripture cannot contradict Scripture and remember and keep at the forefront of your mind that our Lord strongly condemns placing mans traditions above His Word. Learn to always make sure the position you are taking or the stand you are making on an issue is based on God’s Word and not just mans tradition. (Mark 7:6-8a & 13 – 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. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.)
WHAT SHOULD BE MY REPSONSE TO THE WORD OF GOD? – Because the Bible is so important to us, because it is so important to learn and heed its teachings and truths, the Bible teaches us that our response to it should consist of the following:
IN CONCLUSION – For the person willing to study the Bible carefully, there is great reward. (Psalm 1:1-3 – Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.) We need to create the good habit of daily Bible reading. Many Christians will meet God never having read his Word through once. Wouldn’t that be a shame? This is why we need to develop the habit of Bible reading and study and keep it up the rest of our life. You need to make reading the Bible a pleasurable experience in order to make it a habit and keep it up. Don’t make it like work, start out small and with the New Testament, Genesis, Psalms and Proverbs then progress to the rest of the Bible. Make use of Bible study aides, make sure you study in context, and make sure you study in church and at home. Most importantly make sure you are studying out of the correct Bible so you can trust you are learning correct doctrine and teaching and not missing others that are left out of the wrong versions of the Bible.
Why is studying the Bible so important to us and “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” The Bible is so important because it contains God’s mind and will for our life, because it is the only source of absolute truth in the world, and because it is to be the Divine authority of our life. The Bible can cleanse our way because it is infallible, because it is inerrant, because it is complete, because it is all sufficient, and because it provides assurance for our salvation.
The Bible is the source of absolute truth, it is the source of victory, it is the source of spiritual growth, it is the source of power and it is the source of guidance. In God’s Word, a genuine Christian may have unlimited confidence. We can wash our minds and our souls by the studying of, meditating on, and praying over the Word of God. The Word of God is of extreme importance in our life. The Word of God is essential to the cleansing of our soul, minds and spirits.
Because of what the Word of God is, what it does, and how it benefits us, we need to respond to it appropriately. We need to first of all simply believe in it as the living Word of the all powerful, omnipresent, omniscient God. We need to honor it, we need to love it, we need to obey it and when necessary, be willing to fight for its truths and teachings. Most importantly we need to be sharing it with others. We need to be witnessing from it to others in order to bring more into the household of faith. What are you doing with the Word of God? Are you neglecting it? Are you not honoring its teachings? Do you need to recommit yourselves to God and His Word? Do you need to put God’s Word back into the proper place in your life? Make that decision and make that commitment to God to make His Word paramount in your life.
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