Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Mark 7:6-13, KJV
- Series: Alone (2017), no. 1
- Date: Sunday, October 22, 2017 (Morning)
- Venue: Trinity Baptist Church — Seminole, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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Text
The Bible as Our Sole Authority
We are going to be talking today about the role the Bible plays in our lives as Christians as the sole authoritative standard for our faith and practice. It serves as the North Star. It serves as the objective standard.
On October 31, 1517, which will be 500 years ago this coming Tuesday, a German priest named Martin Luther nailed a letter to the door of his castle church in the town where he served. That door served somewhat like the bulletin board of their day. Today, if you want to get everybody stirred up, you post an opinion on Facebook. That is what he did back then. He nailed this letter to the door, the equivalent of his news feed.
That letter outlined 95 specific areas of disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church based on his careful study of the Bible. Luther was one of the privileged few who could read Latin and had access to a Bible. As he studied it, he found that he disagreed with some of what the church taught and some of what he had been teaching. He outlined these disagreements with a number of teachings and practices, particularly the sale of indulgences.
If you are not familiar with the story, an indulgence was a certificate from the Pope, a piece of paper, that said you were absolved of sin, or a certain amount of sin, and would give you time off in purgatory or guarantee immediate travel to heaven when you died. There are many problems with indulgences. One of those is that they were being sold to people, especially people who could not afford them. Some of those who sold them were apparently extorting money. The whole thing is an extortion racket if you look at what the Bible teaches about salvation.
The idea that people could buy a piece of paper to deal with their sins and ensure that they went to heaven bothered Martin Luther. As he studied his Bible, he realized that it was wrong to guarantee somebody forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven because they had bought a piece of paper. If I remember the history correctly, these were not being sold to help the people. They were being sold to finance either the construction or the refurbishment of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
When Luther posted this letter to the door, it caused such a stir that it became the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation. It led to some of the most important biblical doctrines being once again openly proclaimed in the Western world.
Why the Reformation Matters to Baptists
When I have talked about this before, I have had people say, usually very politely, “What does this have to do with us? We are Baptists. We are not Lutherans.” I get that. There are Baptist historians, and maybe you have read a little book called The Trail of Blood. I have as well. There are several books like it that talk about Baptist history and say there were always pockets of underground believers in the forests and mountains of Europe. They were isolated, but they kept biblical doctrines alive from the time of the apostles to the present day.
There is some truth in that. There are others who say, “We are Baptists. We came out of the Protestant Reformation.” There is some truth in that too. Looking at both sides, I can see influence from both sides.
Whether you fall down on one side or the other, whether we are Protestant or not, and I know we are not Lutheran, we can look at this and say that before this, there were pockets of believers. There were underground churches and underground believers on the European continent who kept the flame of truth alive, but had to hide it under a bushel at the cost of their lives. After this, the truth that had been held in secret was now out in the open, and it set Europe on fire.
Whether you take the view that we were around before that or that we came out of it, either way, what had been done in secret was now out in the open. God’s Word was being proclaimed openly. The truth about salvation was being proclaimed openly. Whether we had anything to do with it or not, we can rejoice and give glory to God for the fact that the truth was out.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to study some of these essential truths that were rediscovered 500 years ago in hopes that we will embrace them, preach them, defend them, and pass them along to the next generation of Christians. The series we are starting today is not all about Martin Luther. It is not about Lutheran doctrine or Lutheranism. I would not even stand up here and say I affirm everything Martin Luther stood for. He said some horrible things about the Jews, and he had some wrong views on communion. This is about the biblical doctrines that were rediscovered by that spark that set Europe on fire 500 years ago.
When Luther posted this letter outlining his disagreements, he was hoping merely to spark a discussion about the excesses of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. Instead, he found that the people in charge, the powers that be, did not really want to have a discussion. They wanted to put him on trial. They gave him about four years of arguing back and forth, and then they called him to stand trial.
In 1521, Luther went to the city of Worms, where they held what is called an imperial diet. It was something like a congress or parliament, though it sounds strange to call it the Diet of Worms. He was sent there and commanded during this trial to recant his teachings. They told him, in effect, “All the trouble we have caused for you will go away if you will just say one word: revoco, meaning, ‘I recant. I was wrong. I take it back.'”
Instead, he stood in front of all these religious leaders and political leaders. There were representatives of the Pope there, and even Emperor Charles V was there. Martin Luther looked at the crowd and told them that he could not agree with church tradition if it meant disagreeing with the Bible.
Scripture Above Every Human Authority
I think we would take that as a given today. If what the preacher says goes against the Bible, do I not tell you that at least a couple of times a month? If what I say goes against the Bible, do not listen to me. We take that as a given today, but back then it was revolutionary.
Here is what Luther said: “I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the council because it is as clear as noonday that they have fallen into error and even into glaring inconsistency with themselves.” He said not only that they contradicted the Bible, but that they contradicted themselves, and that it was as clear as the noonday sun. He went on to say, “If, then, I am not convinced by proof from holy scripture or cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything, for it cannot be right for a Christian to speak against his country. I stand here and can say no more. God help me. Amen.”
His statement was, unless you can show me from the Bible where I am wrong, I cannot go back on any of this. I am a citizen of a higher kingdom, and I cannot go against my Lord. He said God’s Word calls the shots here. Not the opinion of the Pope, not the opinion of the councils, not the opinion of the emperor, and not even my opinion. God’s Word determines what is right.
They condemned him for it. From that point on until his death, he was a hunted man for much of his life. Fortunately, there were some political leaders who protected him, either for religious reasons or because they liked somebody sticking it to the Pope because it increased their own power. He was fortunate to find people who said, “Sure, we will protect you. Just keep spitting out your sermons and pamphlets, and we will give you a place to stay.” But he was a hunted man in large parts of Europe.
This idea that Scripture stands above tradition, above the pronouncements of church officials, above human ideas, above secular culture, and above anything else in terms of divine authority is the doctrine of sola scriptura. You see that written at the top of your notes this morning: sola scriptura. If you have wondered about that, it is a Latin term. It is one of those fancy theological terms that simply means Scripture alone.
The doctrine of sola scriptura is the idea that divine authority is found within the Word of God alone, within the Bible. As evangelicals, we believe that we should be bound to the Bible alone as the sole authority for what is true and what is right when it comes to our faith.
It is not because we have a book and it is pretty, with gold edges and a leather cover, so we listen to this book because it is the most special book. It is a phenomenal book, but that is not the reason. It is because we believe and stand firm on the conviction that this book is actually the Word of God. It is the inerrant Word of God, meaning it has no errors. It is the infallible Word of God, meaning it is impossible that it could be wrong. It is the God-breathed, inspired, authoritative Word of God Almighty.
If you do not believe that, then I can understand why you would ignore what we say. It does not surprise me when the world outside thinks we are wrong about everything. If they do not believe this book is the Word of God, that makes perfect sense. But I am convicted by faith, by reason, and by evidence that this is the Word of God. If it is that, then it has authority that no other book or resource in our world has.
Tradition Beneath the Word of God
Tradition, when it runs up against Scripture, has no authority. Tradition has no authority unless it comes from God’s Word. We will talk about this a little more in a moment, but tradition itself is not evil. We have all kinds of traditions. I know we like to think we do not because we are not Catholic or Anglican or anything like that, but we have traditions.
Brother Ken normally leads us in two or three songs. Then we have an offering, and the ushers come up at the same point in the service every week. Brother Ken sings a song. Then I come up. This follows a pretty standard format. If we changed it up and did the sermon first and then sang after that, you would wonder what was wrong. It is a tradition, and there is nothing wrong with it unless it goes against the Bible or unless we elevate it to the same level as the Bible.
Tradition has no authority unless it comes from God’s Word, and any teaching contrary to God’s Word should be discarded. That is easy for me to say as the pastor, as the one giving most of the teaching you hear in this church. If what I say and what I teach contradicts this book, it is wrong, and you do not have to listen to it.
Matthew and Mark both recorded a time when Jesus dealt with the Pharisees because they were more concerned with their traditions than they were with obeying the Word of God. Jesus confronted them about the relationship between the Word of God and their traditions.
If you have not already, turn to Mark chapter 7. As we look at this, I will simply tell you about the first five verses. Go back and look it up for yourself. Make sure that I am telling you the truth. For time’s sake, I will tell you the story.
Jesus was ministering to people in Galilee with his disciples when a group of Pharisees and scribes traveled up from Jerusalem to observe him. These legalistic people came up to Galilee from Jerusalem because they wanted to watch Jesus. They watched for a while hoping they would find something he did wrong. Have you ever had people watch you just waiting for you to mess up? That is what they were doing to Jesus. They were waiting for him to do something wrong so they could nail him.
As they watched him and observed, they found no evidence of Jesus doing anything that violated the Word of God. Do you know why? Because he was perfect. Because he was the Word of God made flesh. He did not violate the Word of God, and that frustrated them. But what they noticed was that there were some violations of their traditions.
They noticed that the disciples did not always wash their hands before eating, which was a violation of their traditions. I am glad my children are not in here because I do not want to confuse them. Always wash your hands before you eat. Always wash your hands when leaving the restroom. Benjamin and I, when we were on the road this weekend, were both horrified as we went into gas stations and saw men walk out of the stall and out the door while we were standing there washing our hands. Then we saw them over at the drink dispensers, and it made me never want to drink anything in public again.
We wash our hands. This is something we learned in kindergarten. It is important. It is a good idea. But that is not really what they are talking about here. I am not saying the disciples were eating with nasty, filthy hands. The Pharisees had a big ritual they went through, a ritual purification and ritual washing. The issue was not necessarily that the disciples were eating with dirty hands. They were not going through all the motions to show outwardly how pure and clean they were as Jewish people.
That ritual did not come from the Word of God. It came from the tradition the Pharisees built around it. They had extensive traditions about how to wash their hands, when to wash their hands, and the washing of eating vessels and utensils. When they saw this, they were outraged. They came to Jesus and demanded an explanation as to why he would let his disciples act in such a way.
Jesus Rebukes Empty Religion
That is when we get to verse 6. Jesus answered and said unto them, “Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites.” That is a soft answer, is it not? He starts out, “Isaiah was right about you hypocrites 700 years ago.” As it is written, “This people honoreth 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.”
Isaiah had said in chapter 29, verse 13, “Wherefore the Lord saith, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” What Isaiah was saying, and what Jesus seized on, was that these people were hypocritical. They liked to act and sound religious. Outwardly, they wanted to be thought of as religious, but inwardly, their hearts could not have been further from God if they had tried.
That is a danger we run into when we follow traditions and rituals, saying, “We have always done this before,” and going through religious motions while our hearts are cold toward God. We have to be careful of that, even as believers who come from what we would say is a tradition without traditions. We have to be careful not merely to go through the motions, but to make sure our hearts are close to God and our desire is to honor him.
Jesus identifies the Pharisees and their concern for their traditions with this statement from Isaiah. Isaiah was talking about another group, certainly, but it applied to the Pharisees as well. A lot of times these prophecies could have an immediate fulfillment and a future fulfillment. This would be the future fulfillment.
Jesus says they are hypocrites because outwardly they say, “We love God. We are devoted to God. We do all this for God.” But really it was about their own traditions and about looking religious. They wanted people to say, “Those Pharisees really have it together. They are the best. They are the most religious people. They are the holiest.” They wanted the praise and applause of men.
He says they are incapable of truly worshiping God. Notice this in verse 7: “Howbeit in vain do they worship me.” They were not really capable of worshiping God, at least not the way he deserved, because they were trying to come to him on their own terms rather than in humble obedience. We have to be careful of that as well.
God says there are ways he wants us to worship him. He wants us to worship with clean hands. He wants us to worship him with our whole heart. He wants us to worship him alone. By the way, clean hands does not mean going through that ritual washing either. It means we have behaved ourselves and honored him with our hands. God is not content with whatever time we have left over for him.
God has certain criteria, certain ways he wants us to worship him. You see it in the Old Testament. They had all these rules they did have to go through. In the New Testament, we are not under those ceremonial rules, but there are still things we are supposed to do. We are to worship him in spirit and in truth. There are ways God wants us to worship him, and it becomes a real problem when we try to come to God on our own terms and say, “God, I do not care what you want. This is how I want to worship you, so this is what I am going to do.” That is really a rebellious attitude toward God.
Rather than humbling themselves and obeying him, they wanted to come to him on their own terms. God will not accept false worship. God will not accept half-hearted worship. God will not accept self-centered worship. Jesus chastised them for teaching human commandments rather than God’s commandments. They could have spent their time warning Israel to follow God’s commandments. Instead, they were focused on trying to get everybody to follow their commandments.
When Tradition Cancels Obedience
We look at verse 9: “And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honor 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.”
Jesus says in verse 9 that their traditions had led them to disregard God’s Word completely. A moment ago, I said there is nothing wrong with traditions. But they had come to a point where they had elevated tradition until it was equal to God’s Word or even above God’s Word. By doing that, they had taken God’s Word out of the place it appropriately would have held in their lives. They had taken their allegiance away from God’s Word and given it to their traditions.
Jesus gives them an example. He does not really answer them about the washing. We talked about this Wednesday night some, but it often seems like Jesus is sidestepping the question asked of him when really he is zeroing in on the question that needs to be answered. Jesus is not a politician avoiding the question. He is saying sometimes, “Your question does not matter. Let us come back around to what really does.”
He says, “You want to talk about commands? You want to talk about something you are supposed to do? I will give you one example: your treatment of your parents.” He pulls out Exodus 20:12, where it says, “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” That is the fifth commandment. That is one of the Ten Commandments. All of God’s laws were important to them, but these were the ten, the top ten, that he carved into stone.
Then in Exodus 21:17, God had said, “He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.” That term curse means to revile. We think of curse as saying something ugly to someone or wishing ill on them, but it had a broader meaning. It meant treating them like garbage.
Jesus says, “Here is what God’s Word tells you to do. If you are really concerned about God’s Word, it says to honor your parents and not treat them like garbage. But instead of taking care of your parents, you have developed this whole scheme.” He talks about the Corban offering.
What they would do, instead of taking care of their parents as God had commanded them, was give their money toward this Corban scheme as they had set it up in their tradition. They would designate their resources as Corban, meaning dedicated to God or dedicated to the temple. They would say, “This money, this property, or this livestock that I have set aside, which I am supposed to use to take care of my parents, is really reserved for God’s use.” They would put this blanket of protection over it. It was Corban. It was dedicated to God.
Supposedly, they would put their resources toward God’s use so they would not have to use them to help their families. It was considered a major transgression, a major no-no, to take something dedicated to God’s use and use it on your parents. By designating their resources as Corban, they did not have to give it away to their parents anymore.
Now, there is some confusion. I did a lot of study on this early in the week trying to understand what was in it for them. Was it greed? Did they get to keep it and it just passed to the temple when they died? Did it go to the temple and, because they were so affiliated with the temple, they skimmed off the top? Was it that rather than give to support my parents, I will give it to the temple and look more religious?
The answer I have come up with is yes. It could have been any of those things at any given time. The whole system was corrupt, as Jesus points out, and it was just an avoidance scheme. It was a scheme they had set up in their tradition that said you can do this, completely turn your back on the people who gave you life and whom God commanded you to honor, and look super religious while you are doing it.
The New Testament tells us that if we fail to provide for our family, we are worse than an infidel. That does not mean people who struggle. It means people who say, “I am not taking care of you anymore.” If they do not provide for their household, they are worse than an infidel. So we apply that teaching here. These people were trying to keep their own stuff, turn their backs on their parents, act worse than the pagans around them, and try to look as religious as possible while doing it.
Jesus said, “This whole system is nasty and corrupt. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.” Do you know why they were able to do this? Because they said, “God’s Word over here says this about taking care of your parents. Our tradition over here says you can do this and be okay. Bye-bye, God’s Word. We are going to do what our tradition says.” They were able to do it because they had elevated tradition over God’s Word.
Making the Word of God of No Effect
In verse 13, Jesus says, “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” He says that when they have done this, their tradition has meant that God’s Word means nothing to them. They do not even get to pretend that they have allegiance to God’s Word because they are so married to their tradition. Tradition comes first, and that is wrong.
He points out too that this was not an isolated incident. This was shady enough dealing as it was, even if it had been the only thing they were doing wrong. But he says, “Many such like things do ye.” He says, “This is just the tip of the iceberg. You are doing things like this all the time.” They were using their traditions to get around what God’s Word said and to get around doing what was right.
He told them that by emphasizing and obeying tradition over the Word of God, they were treating the Word of God like it did not matter at all. As believers, I think we would all say the Word of God matters. If it did not matter, you would not be here. I know we have some people out this morning, and I am not saying they are not here because the Word of God does not matter. I am saying that you probably have better things to do on Sunday morning if you do not care what God’s Word says.
And yet sometimes we are willing to elevate traditions over what God’s Word says. We have to avoid that. We have to fight it wherever we find it. When I say fight it, I mean I have to fight it in my own life wherever I find it. “I have always done it this way,” but God’s Word says something else.
I will give you an example. This is not church related, but it is tradition as far as I am concerned. When I was a teenager, I used to listen to country music all the time. I do not mean the pop music they play on the radio now. I mean country music. I was probably the only person in my high school who knew who Merle Haggard was. I could go through and list names. I used to listen to the old country music.
Yet I would gripe at my sister for the pop music she would listen to. I would say, “That secular garbage is rotting her mind.” And my dad said, “Secular, unlike the stuff you listen to?” But I thought, “That is old-timey stuff. That is okay. My grandparents listened to that.” Then I started listening to some of the lyrics. Some of it was just nasty. I mean, some of the songs are fun and clean, but some of it was just nasty.
I remember one morning driving to Moore High School, listening to the country station, and this song came on. I could tell you which one it was, but I would be ashamed to admit I was listening to it. I thought, “This is gross.” I knew what the lyrics were. I had sung along with the song in the past, but I really heard it for the first time. It had bothered me before, and I was preaching at the time. I thought, “I am singing along with these country songs, and I believe what the Bible says about having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.”
That is just one verse that convicted me, and it should have. But on this particular morning, I had not wanted to turn it off because I liked the music. My grandparents had listened to it, and it was a kind of tradition. It seemed okay because of what it was. It was not the new hip-hop nonsense. But I listened to the lyrics of that song and thought, “This is gross. You cannot listen to this anymore.”
I said, “Okay, God, your Word says I should not be listening to something that is filling my mind with garbage like this.” And I turned it off and left it off. Now a lot of times if I am driving somewhere and that is the only thing I can listen to, I listen to the news on podcasts on my phone. There have been times when there is nothing but a country station. I will listen to it for a couple of songs, and then one will come on that is just gross. And I turn it off. I do not miss it anymore.
That is just one example where I had this tradition: I had always listened to it, my grandparents listened to it, and it was fun. But God’s Word says that we are supposed to think on whatsoever things are good, pure, and decent. It says to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. For my own conviction, I looked at that and said, “It is tradition or God’s Word. Tradition has to go.”
That is where it was for me. That is just one example. There are many places where we find this in our lives. When tradition contradicts God’s Word, you cannot do both. You have to make a decision, and we have to make sure that we are following God’s Word and not just our traditions.
Scripture Alone for Faith and Practice
Here we get to the points in your bulletin. Sola scriptura means that Scripture alone is our authoritative standard for faith and practice. Jesus did not tell them, “Your Pharisee rules and God’s Word should at least be put on equal footing.” No. He said, “You have taken your Pharisee rules and your traditions and have made God’s Word completely ineffective in your lives. You have made God’s Word as though it does not count at all.”
That is what we do when we take tradition and elevate it to the place of Scripture. We treat Scripture like it does not matter at all. I say this all the time, but God is not content with half of your heart or half of your devotion. It means that Scripture alone is the authoritative standard.
If you want to know if something is right, if you want to know if it is true, you search the Scriptures. If you want to know what God says about something or what the right thing is to do, or if there is a hot-button issue, it is nice to get advice from a friend. You might find something helpful in a self-help book. God forbid that you listen to some of the talk shows on TV that talk about the hot-button issues of our day.
Let me tell you this. What Oprah says, what the ladies on The View say, what Hollywood says, and what Nashville says does not determine what is true or what is right. God’s Word does. Those voices do not determine what we ought to do. God’s Word does.
Scripture has this authority, as I said at the very beginning, not just because it is a fancy book or because we have traditionally believed it. It has this authority because it is God’s Word. All throughout this book, it claims to be God’s Word. I know that in and of itself is not proof that it is God’s Word. We may talk about evidence for that fact at some point. But what we do know is that this book all throughout claims to be God’s Word. It either is God’s Word or it is not God’s Word.
If its claims to be God’s Word are not true, then it is lying to you, and it is not even a book of good moral teaching. If its claims to be God’s Word are true, then you had better listen. It has authority in our lives because it is God’s Word.
Tradition Must Bow to Scripture
Tradition is not inherently evil, but it must not contradict the Word of God. It cannot contradict the Word of God, or it has to go. I said this at the beginning too. There is nothing wrong with having traditions.
Next Sunday, what are we doing? The Lord’s Supper. Does God’s Word say we have to do it on the fifth Sunday, or is that tradition? It is tradition. Does that contradict God’s Word, to do it on the fifth Sunday? No. What does God’s Word say about how often we are supposed to do it? It says, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. So that is an example of a tradition that does not contradict God’s Word.
If we said, “We are never going to do the Lord’s Supper,” and I think there are some churches out there that say, “We are not messing with that. We are not doing that,” would that be a contradiction of God’s Word? I believe so. That would be an unscriptural tradition.
There is nothing wrong with having a tradition, but we always have to remember that tradition is not above God’s Word. It is not even equal to God’s Word. It is beneath God’s Word. Any tradition that contradicts God’s Word has to go, whether it interferes with my life or not, and whether it changes things or not.
That country music example is just one example, but there have been many times in my life where I have said, “This is the way I have always done it, but that is what God’s Word says, so I have to change.” I am not perfect. I do not mean to give you that impression. I am sure there will be times in the future when I realize that things I am doing now are tradition and not God’s Word.
Folks, the bottom line is that our allegiance is either to our traditions and our preferences or to God’s Word, but it cannot be both. It should not be both. It should be this Word. It should be this book.
That is not my opinion. That is not the church’s opinion. That is not even Martin Luther’s opinion. That is what Jesus said. That is what he taught the Pharisees. Your allegiance cannot be to God’s Word and tradition. It has to be one or the other, and it should be to God’s Word.