Mysticism And Sola Scriptura (part 3)

Bethlehem Bible Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

It's easy to spot overt mysticism of the Hindu flavor. The force is an energy field created by all things.

00:11

It surrounds us, penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together. It is all powerful and controls everything.

00:19

Who said that? Obi -Wan, that's right. It's easy to see mysticism in modern

00:30

Hinduism. Yoda said, for my ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is.

00:39

Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us.

00:45

You must feel the force around you. Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere.

00:52

Yes, even between the land and the ship. But it's harder to spot mysticism when it's wrapped in evangelical garb, when it's wrapped in evangelical livery.

01:08

A long, long time ago, one of the earliest Christian mystics, Pseudo -Dionysius said, the soul must lose the inhibitions of the senses and of reason.

01:20

God is beyond the intellect, beyond goodness, and it is through unknowing, it is through unknowing and the discarding of human concepts that the soul returns to God.

01:37

We have the revealed Word of God, we have propositional truth, and we have an attack.

01:45

The enemy is mysticism. A desire to find truth on the inside, apart from the revelation from God.

01:56

Don Whitney said, mysticism refers to those forms of Christian spirituality which attempt direct or unmediated access to God.

02:07

To try to have access and communion with God apart from the Word, outside of the

02:13

Word. And my question this morning is, why do you think it's so popular? We've talked about mysticism the last couple of Sundays, and I was going to preach today about Jacob's Ladder, but so many folks said,

02:25

I've been instructed and encouraged by the mysticism discussion, can you just keep going?

02:31

And so, one more. But I asked the question, why is mysticism so popular?

02:37

Well, it feels good on the inside. It's pushed by publishers. And you know, you don't have to study very much.

02:48

Listen to what Tozer says. The amount of loafing practiced by the average

02:54

Christian in spiritual things would ruin a concert pianist if he allowed himself to do the same thing in the field of music.

03:02

The idle puttering around we see in church circles would end the career of a big league pitcher in one week.

03:09

No scientist could solve his exacting problem if he took as little interest in it as the rank and file of Christians take in the art of being holy.

03:21

The nation whose soldiers were as soft and undisciplined as the soldiers of the churches would be conquered by the first enemy that attacked it.

03:30

And then I love this line. Triumphs are not won by men in easy chairs.

03:41

And here's really the good news for Bethlehem Bible Church. I know you like to study the Bible. I know you enjoy it.

03:47

I know you're diligent. But every one of us could put our hand to the proverbial plow of Scripture more often and more regularly.

03:55

Right? I don't think on your deathbed you'll say, you know, I spent too much time praying and I spent too much time reading the

04:03

Bible. What a shame. So this morning I want to again encourage you to not buy into internal mysticism, but to study the sufficient

04:13

Scriptures. Because when you do, you're going to see your Lord and Savior brightly and clearly.

04:21

Because we know, as Luke says, quoting the words of Jesus, all

04:26

Scripture speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when you want to see Jesus, you have to have your nose in the book.

04:37

Mysticism is very popular today because it has a close cousin, a first cousin, and her name is

04:43

Postmodernism. Absolutes, gone. Relativism, A number one.

04:52

Experimental, empirical, science, data, objective, propositional truth.

05:00

No. We want personal, anecdotal, experiential, individual.

05:13

And when that happens, when you exchange healthy nutrition with black and white propositional truth, revelation from God, and you say, you know,

05:24

I now want to move to subjective mysticism.

05:32

Friends, think about what Jesus said. It's super simple. Sanctify them in truth.

05:39

Finish it. Thy Word is truth. Don't we want to be more practically sanctified?

05:45

Positionally we're set apart. We're declared righteous. We've been given new hearts and new lives all because of our advocate

05:54

Christ Jesus and His work. As the Father sent Him and the Spirit propelled Him into ministry.

06:00

And then we're just going to change it for mysticism? Shirley MacLaine said,

06:07

Truth as an objective reality simply does not exist. Is that a truth statement by the way,

06:13

Shirley? But that's another question. Your truth is my truth. My truth is your truth.

06:24

Timothy Leary said in 1968, the LSD guru, Reality is whatever you make it.

06:33

That's just not Timothy Leary. That's just not post -modernism. That's mysticism. President Clinton said to Georgetown University years ago,

06:45

Nobody's got the truth. You're at a university which basically believes that no one ever has the whole truth.

06:51

Ever. We are incapable of ever having the entire truth. And once we believe that, then your opinions equal to your opinion, which is equal to my opinion.

07:08

Everybody's experience is equally valid. No need for dogmatism. Why is mysticism so popular?

07:18

I'll give you another reason. Because discernment is a bad word. Oh, discerning ministries.

07:26

Friends, we are, as you know, commanded to discern and commended to read

07:33

Acts and see the Bereans who studied to show themselves approved.

07:39

Please turn your Bibles to Galatians 1 this morning. Let me give you another reason, a big reason why

07:44

I think mysticism is so popular. This is how we'll start off the message today. Galatians 1.

07:51

Mysticism so prevalent, so popular, so mainstream now, because there are men in the pulpit who are afraid to say no.

08:01

People don't want to say the word no. I mean, think about it when you raise your children and parent.

08:07

Eventually, parents, you're going to have to tell the kid. We used to say this to our kids all the time. That's a no -no.

08:14

That particular thing you're doing right now or touching, that's a no -no. And where are the people who will stand up and say, no, that's not right.

08:24

Paul writes often, kindly, nicely, warmly, and then he writes

08:35

Galatians. I mean, it is one of those letters. And look at how it starts.

08:43

How do you start the letter? Grace to you and peace. Well, he'll get there. But how does he start the letter?

08:51

These are the three words in Greek. Paul, apostle, not.

08:58

And the rest of the book expands the word, basically, not.

09:05

This other gospel, it's not the same gospel. Peter, you're not going to do it.

09:11

No. When you're starting to mess around with the Gentile way of justification. Justification by works of humans, no.

09:20

Sanctification by works alone plus the law, no. That's a no -no.

09:29

I mean, look at it. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the

09:36

Father who raised Him from the dead. Machen said the word not is a small but weighty word.

09:50

He said that word not, we are today constantly being told, ought to be put out of the

09:56

Christian's vocabulary. Don't say mysticism's no good, pastor. Don't say no.

10:02

Don't say not. Our preaching, we were told, Machen said, ought to be positive, not negative.

10:08

We ought to present the truth but ought not to attack error. We ought to avoid controversy and always seek peace.

10:16

Now listen to what Machen said with regard to such a program. It may be said at least that if we hold to it, we might just as well close our

10:26

New Testaments. For the New Testament is a controversial book almost from beginning to end.

10:35

They are at least full of argument and controversy. No question certainly can be raised about that.

10:42

And then it's so true, think about it. How do you define things? Machen says all definition is by way of exclusion.

10:51

You cannot say certainly what a thing is without contrasting it with what it is not.

10:59

Have you ever listened to this boasted non -controversial preaching? This preaching that is positive, not negative?

11:05

This teaching that tries to present truth without attacking error? What impression does it make upon your mind?

11:12

We will tell you what impression it makes upon ours. It makes the impression of utter inanity.

11:19

Utter inanity. And I have to admit I had to look up the word inanity. I'm glad I did.

11:26

I didn't say Sean Hannity, I said inanity. It means silly. It means shallow, inane.

11:36

Friends, I wonder if that's in your vocabulary. No. No. The church,

11:45

Machen concludes, needs above all else men who can say no. For if it is only men who can say no, men who are brave enough to take a stand against sin and error in the church, it is only such men who can really then say yes and amen to the gospel of Christ Jesus.

12:02

No to our works. Yes to Jesus' works. No to our own salvation. Yes, Jesus accomplished it all.

12:10

No to mysticism. Yes, we have the word of God in our own hands.

12:16

Where are the no men? And don't you think we are really in the time where people will not endure sound doctrine?

12:26

I think so. I think we're in the day and age where people want to have their ears tickled, to use 2

12:34

Timothy chapter 4 language, accumulating for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.

12:41

I think I told you the story when I was boxing once. I was probably about 14 years old. And Scott, my friend, put on his boxing gloves,

12:49

Scott Labs. I put on my boxing gloves and we squared off in the basement on 79th and Pratt Street.

12:58

And I knew to cover my face. I knew to cover my nose. And he gave me a haymaker within about 10 seconds of our fight.

13:08

We were friends. Why do friends fight? I don't know. That's a no -no. And he hit me in the ear.

13:18

And I just ran upstairs crying to mom. It hurt so badly. I couldn't believe how badly my ears hurt.

13:26

Let alone having somebody take a bite out of your ear in a boxing match. Truth boxes the ears.

13:32

Truth convicts the ear. Do we like sweet words? Of course. But sweet words aren't any good.

13:40

The yes and amen to the promises of the Lord Jesus Christ aren't any good until we with Paul say,

13:47

Paul, Apostle, not. So in this series

13:56

I've asked a bunch of questions designed to help you completely and utterly trust in the

14:02

Word of God so that you might read it more, study it more, memorize it more.

14:09

The first question was, do you remember? You believe that the Scriptures are sufficient, right?

14:15

You believe that the Scriptures are sufficient. That God's Word is breathed out.

14:21

It wasn't even a word that existed in Paul's day. We think he made it up. That Scriptures are breathed out and as God breathed life into the nostrils of Adam, as the

14:32

Savior breathed upon His disciples, received the Holy Ghost in John 20, He breathes out this

14:39

Word. Paul's opponents, Timothy's opponents.

14:45

Let's talk about genealogies. Let's talk about certain parts of Moses. And Paul says all

14:51

Scripture is sufficient. All Scripture is adequate. There are no deficiencies at all.

14:58

Donald Whitney says the Scriptures alone are our final authority.

15:06

So when mystic Christian Richard Foster says in his runaway bestseller 20 years ago,

15:12

Celebration of Discipline, when he says, Lord, is there more you want to bring into my life?

15:21

I want to be conquered and ruled by you. If there's anything blocking the flow of your power, reveal it to me.

15:29

I want more spiritual resources than I am experiencing. He's not satisfied with the word.

15:38

Question number two, you believe that the Scriptures are inerrant, right? I know you believe they're sufficient, and I know you believe they're inerrant.

15:47

And so remember what we did here? Why don't you turn to Romans chapter 5? No, you know, excuse me. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter 13.

15:54

What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to say no to mysticism and yes to the Word, not to mysticism and yes to Scripture.

16:03

And so we look at the sufficiency of Scripture, sola scriptura, the last two

16:09

Sundays. We also looked at here in question two how the Scriptures don't have any errors.

16:15

So why go to the inside where we're sinful, where we're curved in on ourselves, where we can't trust ourselves?

16:28

It's one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. Why go to the inside where there's corruption when we have the clear

16:35

Scriptures? Now, I found this fascinating in Ezekiel chapter 13, verses 1 through 9.

16:44

It's not new where people say this is what God says, but it's not really God.

16:49

It's their own bosom. It's their own hearts. It's their own ideas. Trying to tell other people this is what

16:55

God wants for you, and it's nothing but a pipe dream, Ezekiel 13, verses 1 to 9.

17:03

The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are prophesying, and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts,

17:15

Hear the word of the Lord. It's from their own bellies, their own gizzards. Thus says the

17:23

Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit. See, people that follow their own hearts and have the

17:30

Disneyland theology or Disney movie theology, I guess it's the same thing. They follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.

17:40

Your prophets have, verse 4, been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. They've not gone up into the breeches, built up a wall for the house of Israel that it might stand in the battle in the day of the

17:54

Lord. This kind of preaching doesn't fortify. They've seen false visions and lying divinations.

18:04

They say, declares the Lord, when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect

18:10

Him to fulfill their word. Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination whenever you have said, declares the

18:19

Lord, although I have not spoken? God told me, people say, outside the word.

18:26

It's just like back in those days in Israel. Verse 8, therefore, thus says the

18:34

Lord God. Do you want to have Him really speak? Here's what He's really going to say. Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore, behold,

18:42

I'm against you, declares the Lord. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations.

18:49

They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the

18:59

Lord God. That is eerily familiar to when people say, yes,

19:08

God just spoke to me. Question 3, you believe that the

19:15

Bible is more sure than experience, right? Of course, you do. Remember, we looked at 2 Peter, where Peter, James, and John see the preview of the second coming, and they say in 2

19:26

Peter 1, verse 19, we have the word more sure.

19:31

The Old Testament that prophesies the second coming is more sure than Peter, James, and John getting a sneak preview on the

19:39

Mount of Transfiguration. The word is more sure.

19:48

But people want experiences. Greg Boyd, in his book,

19:54

Seen as Believing, said, it's not that we believe intellectually. It's not what we believe intellectually that impacts us.

20:01

It's what we experience as real. That's Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

20:12

Well, I have an experience, and God's talking to me, therefore it must be true. Beth Moore said,

20:23

God spoke to me recently and said, my child, in between more intense rests, I want to teach you to take

20:29

Sabbath moments. God, according to her, said,

20:34

I'm going to tell you something right now. Beth, and boy, you write this one down, and you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it.

20:44

In 2012, she was told by God, allegedly, to stop sowing over and over in the exact same field.

20:55

I knew God was talking to me. How did she know it? From written, revealed, external revelation?

21:04

No. She's listening to herself and proving it through experience. Number four, you believe that the highest form of communion with God is through His Word, don't you?

21:18

Of course. Question number five, you believe you can make decisions without signs, don't you?

21:25

Remember we talked about that last week a little bit? I don't want to get into too much. How do you make a decision? If you can't have God tell you from the inside, if you can't just look at an open door or a closed door, you can't just have a hunch about something, some intuition, impression, and make that God speaking.

21:40

Oh, you can have hunches and impressions, but they're not infallible. So what do you do? How do you make a decision?

21:47

I found a few this week that I thought were really interesting. I guess you could read somebody's aura.

21:54

Have you ever read somebody's aura? Four feet around me, I don't know if you know this, but I have seven main auras that you could read.

22:04

See, I've been your pastor for 18 years, and you don't know these things about me. I guess you could read my handwriting, graphology.

22:12

Or if you're really weird, I can't even pronounce it. Let's go to the next one.

22:19

Cardopody. What's cardopody? Sounds like a game, you know,

22:26

Yahtzee or something. Feet divination. You read not the palms of someone's hands, but you read the bottom of their feet and make a decision.

22:38

We learned last week, if you have a decision to make, what does the Word say? What does wisdom say?

22:45

And then what would you like to do? Make a decision. Bruce Waltke said, if you're struggling with a specific question, rather than trying to magically divine

22:53

God's answer, spend time drawing close to Him in the Word. What makes sense in your judgment, students, if you have to make a decision?

23:06

Often, Waltke said, God guides us by simply letting us use our heads. Question number six.

23:13

Now we have the new information. Question number six. You know that God wants to have you use your mind, right?

23:22

You know that God wants you to use your mind, right, in your Christianity? Let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter six, and then we're going to go see

23:29

Matthew 22 as well. Deuteronomy chapter six. Paul talks in Romans 12.

23:35

We could go there if we wanted to, about the renewing of your what? Minds. You need to use your minds as a

23:42

Christian. Of course, we're emotional people. We have emotions. That's true. I would never discount that.

23:49

I think they're more a caboose than an engine. But here I want you to be reminded that God wants you to use your mind.

23:59

He wants you to study. He wants you to look up words in Bible reference books and to be engaged.

24:05

Think just for a quick second as you're finding Deuteronomy. If you have a favorite

24:11

Christian hero, per se, like a modern missionary or a speaker or a preacher, every single one of those were men and women who studied, who engaged their mind, who sweat, who are sweating and toiling to study.

24:33

Now look at how God wants you to love Him in response to what

24:38

He's done. To Israel, He said in Deuteronomy 6 .4, Hear, O Israel.

24:46

This is what we call the Shema. Hear, O Israel. The Lord, this personal name for God, Yahweh, our

24:54

God, the Lord is one. You shall love the

25:01

Lord your God with all your... Now notice these three. With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

25:14

And, of course, what do Jewish people do for emphasis? I have an iPad here that I'm preaching from and it's got a bunch of yellow markings.

25:23

And I put a yellow marking there, a yellow highlighter because I'm trying to make sure that I don't forget that, that there's emphasis, that there's importance there.

25:32

And so if you're Jewish and you're writing in Hebrew, how do you make emphasis? No highlighters back then, so what do you do?

25:39

You repeat one word three times. The famous one is what? Holy, holy, holy, we just sang it.

25:46

Or you could say something like this, Six things the Lord hates, yes, even what? Seven. He hates all seven, but He especially hates number seven.

25:54

Or you can say one thing three different ways. Kind of a parallel.

26:04

Expanding. And He does that here. With your heart and your soul and your might.

26:09

Mark it down. Heart, soul, might. Heart, soul, might. Now let's turn to Matthew 22, please, and see how

26:18

Jesus quotes the Shema. Everybody knows the Shema if you're Jewish.

26:24

You grow up with it. Everybody back in those days did. Now we're going to see

26:29

Matthew chapter 22. What was built into the Hebrew language, now

26:35

Jesus makes very, very explicit. And what we're after is your mind.

26:41

Remember now Deuteronomy was heart, soul, and might. Heart, soul, and might. Give it all you've got.

26:47

Love God with all your heart, soul, and might. Did you get that? Heart, soul, and what? Might.

26:53

M -I -G -H -T. Now what does Jesus say? Matthew 22, verse 36.

27:04

Teacher, what's the great commandment in the law? And he said to him,

27:14

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

27:19

So far so good. His Bible memory is perfect. And with all your

27:25

M -I... Wait a second. I thought it was heart, soul, and might.

27:30

And now it's heart, soul, and mind? Jesus says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

27:38

I guess Jesus is misquoting Scripture. This is the great and first commandment.

27:48

You're to love God with your mind. He wants your mind. Your mind is a terrible thing to waste because it's been created by the

27:56

God of the universe. Think about how God can create your mind. Now think about this for a second. Your brain is not your mind.

28:04

Your brain contains your mind, but your brain isn't your mind, and God makes your brains, and then

28:11

He gives you a mind. That's weird. Want to know something weird?

28:16

Sometimes I know if I'm losing a congregation. I don't think I'm losing you, but I'll just tell you the story because I know I'll get the young kids to wake up right now.

28:23

You're already awake, but... When I was a kid, we were poor, but my grandma was poorer.

28:33

So you go to Grandma's house. She has special lunches for you. Bologna was too expensive for Grandma.

28:42

So you'd walk into the house, and you'd smell something, and you're like, you know what? It still smells bad. Even if you're boiling kidneys for the eighth time, it still kind of smells funny in the house, doesn't it?

28:59

And then she would say, well, today we're having lunch. What are we having today, Grandma?

29:04

Hot dogs? Oscar Mayer? You're having a brain sandwich.

29:15

Wonder bread? Wonder bread. French mustard? Boiled brains.

29:22

Mmm, the consistency. When I was a kid, we didn't want to eat any kind of liver or kidney.

29:29

We called that smashy meat for the sake of emphasis.

29:41

I'm not discounting love. I'm not discounting joy. I'm not discounting fiery, burning, zealous emotion.

29:50

Godly jealousy. Wanting the affections of one who should be giving you affections. I don't discount emotions at all.

29:57

But we are in a hyper -emotional society. We even have to have mood music.

30:04

We have to have music that helps us kind of get the scene. You know, you get on the YouTube, and you click on something.

30:09

It's on Facebook, and you can hear that music behind the scenes, and it's already playing at your heartstrings. I want you to love

30:17

God with your heart and with all your might. And what Jesus is saying is, with Hebrew language, when you use words like soul and heart, it means your mind as well.

30:29

It's like a mission control center. It's not just emotions. In America, it's mind is

30:34

I think, heart is I feel. That would be wrong for a Jew. It would be wrong for a Gentile. A Greek reader would know that's not right.

30:42

So what was implicit in Hebrews, love God with your mind and all you've got, Jesus makes it explicit with the

30:50

Greek language in Matthew 22. You've got to use your mind. You've got to engage your mind.

30:57

And think about how God has revealed Himself. When you walk outside and see the sun and the moon and the stars, you think, man, power, authority, wisdom.

31:07

How can you pick up billions of gallons of water out of the ocean, leave the salt, come over to Iowa, and just dump it on the ground?

31:16

And then have all that water run into the creeks, that runs into the streams, that run into the rivers, that run back into the ocean.

31:23

Repeat. God, You're amazing. But now make it more specifically. In the last days,

31:30

God has spoken to us in His Son. And then Luther would say, in this last day, He's spoken to us in Hebrew and Greek letters.

31:40

You have to use your mind. That's why the men that I disciple often, I'll tell them, the first thing you need to do is go take a college -level

31:48

English class. Because if you're like me, you didn't pay attention in college

31:54

English class. Preposition. The only thing you know about English language,

31:59

I would say to my students, is because of that show, hooking up clauses and phrases.

32:06

And what's that show? Schoolhouse Rock. See, I knew you would know. John Wimber said,

32:14

When are we going to see a generation who doesn't try to understand the Bible, but just believes it?

32:24

Richard Foster said, Our rational faculties are inadequate. That is one reason for the spiritual gift of tongues.

32:31

It helps us to move beyond mere rational worship into a more inward communion with the

32:36

Father. Robert Weber, who used to teach at Wheaton, said, he still might,

32:42

I don't know. Over the past two decades, my own personal spiritual pilgrimage has taken me away from propositional and rationalistic mindsets that proclaims an intellectualized, proof -oriented faith toward a

32:59

Christianity of practice and experience. Friends, you don't want to buy into what's called these days contemplative

33:10

Christianity, contemplative prayer. Should you contemplate the Word of God so you see

33:16

Christ? Yes. But contemplative has been hijacked, just like the word meditate.

33:21

Should you meditate on Scripture? Yes. But meditation now is eastern in our minds. Brendan Manning said,

33:28

Choose a single sacred word that captures something of the flavor of your intimate relationship with God, like Jesus, Abba, peace.

33:43

And say, Abba, I belong to you. And then without moving your lips, repeat that sacred word inwardly, slowly, and often.

33:58

When you start to empty your mind, friends, you begin to hear things. Do not do what

34:04

Richard Foster says. Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it. Some people call this contemplative prayer breathing rhythm.

34:18

With the inhale, pray the first part, Lord Jesus. With the exhale, pray the second part, have mercy on me, a sinner.

34:27

Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me, a sinner. And then repeat. I'm dizzy doing it just one time.

34:39

Turn your Bibles to 2 Timothy 2, please, verse 15. And I want to remind you, commend you, spur you on, because I do know you like to study.

34:48

I know you like exposition. I know you like sequential. I know you like what's the Greek word, what's the

34:54

Hebrew word. I want to understand the intricacies of God. God is a precise

34:59

God, and I want to know Him precisely. And I know that's Bethel and Bible Church, and so I want to encourage you to keep doing that.

35:08

2 Timothy 2, verse 15. Paul's writing to Timothy, but certainly if it's good for the goose.

35:16

2 Timothy 2, verse 15. And I know you know the passage. If you want a sequential exposition today,

35:21

I guess it's going to have to wait until next week, but these things are on my heart and on my mind, and everywhere

35:28

I look there's mysticism, and I want to make sure you don't leave the rock of Scripture for the mist of mysticism.

35:36

2 Timothy 2, verse 15. Be diligent.

35:44

Anybody here have the King James? What's the word say in King James? 2

35:49

Timothy 2, verse 15. Study. Be diligent. Study to present yourself approved to God.

36:00

Now, it's more important for pastors and elders and teachers because they're going to be teaching other people, and let not many of you be teachers.

36:09

Stricter judgment's coming. But isn't this true for every Christian? A workman who does not need to be ashamed.

36:17

I hope you think it's true because we have a whole children's curriculum built around this on Wednesday nights. Awana. When I grew up,

36:24

I didn't know what Awana was. I thought it was a manna, but they just sewed the patch on wrongly after having the brain sandwiches.

36:31

And by the way, you're asking the question, did I eat the brain sandwich? The answer is, you do what your mom and dad tell you back in those days, right?

36:44

That's a no -no. I'm actually glad I did. And here my parents were preparing me for Bible illustrations.

36:55

A workman. Blue collar.

37:02

Construction. Anybody ever work construction? Anybody ever wake up in the middle of the night times five to feed the baby?

37:09

Work. Who does not need to be ashamed. Accurately handling the

37:17

Word of Truth. When he says study, that's a

37:22

Greek imperative. Don't spare one iota's worth of effort in this

37:29

Herculean task of Bible interpretation. That word means to do one's best.

37:36

Spare no effort. Work hard. Stay up late. Take pains. Be eager.

37:42

Be zealous. Be conscientious. And it's kind of scary in a sense where it says,

37:52

Approved to the elder board. Approved to the denomination.

37:59

Approved to your spouse. Approved to your friend. Approved to God.

38:09

And look it, you don't want to be ashamed. It's fascinating that word ashamed means

38:20

God's going to be doing the shaming. It's passive. It doesn't mean ashamed.

38:28

It means forced to be ashamed. I'm going to force you to go to the corner and put the dunce cap on.

38:41

Study Timothy. So you have the approval of God Himself.

38:49

Human approval. Popularity. Money. It all just fades away.

38:55

I've studied to show myself approved before God and God alone. I work.

39:01

Labor. Strenuous. Sweat. And what does the text say?

39:07

Look at it again. Handling accurately the word of truth. You know what that means.

39:14

It means to cut it straight. Not crooked. Not with a deviation. To cut a straight path.

39:22

This is a word that was used in different ways, but in one way, I've got a geographic spot here and then

39:30

I need to get over there and I need to make a road. How do I get the road straight?

39:36

How do I cut the road straight through that ravine? How do I cut it straightly and plainly so the traveler can just get there easily?

39:49

The opposite would be Elymas, the magician who was opposing them, seeking to turn the procounsel away from the faith.

39:56

But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him and said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease, and here's the connection, to make crooked the straight ways of the

40:14

Lord? Timothy, you're supposed to cut this straightly and rightly and correctly.

40:21

Don't be like those people, the false teachers, who make crooked the straight ways of the

40:26

Lord. And then last question for today.

40:32

We have to go quickly. This is really what I wanted to get to, but we're going to just make it a five minute question.

40:38

Question seven. You realize how harsh

40:44

Jesus was with people who attack the

40:49

Bible by addition, don't you? You remember, don't you, how harsh

40:56

Jesus was when people attack the Bible by adding to it. Now when

41:03

Jesus was around people who knew they were sinful, who knew they weren't righteous, just how kind of a

41:09

Savior was Christ Jesus. He was actually called a what? A friend of sinners.

41:14

And Jesus, the friend of sinners, on the way to Calvary where He would buy those sinners, ransom those sinners, reconcile those sinners to a thrice holy

41:23

God, wonderfully raise Himself from the dead, would, to use my mom's word, blister false teachers who mess with the

41:37

Bible by subtraction or in this case turn to Mark 7 by addition.

41:43

So what am I after? I'm after you to say it's the Bible alone, Scripture alone, only the

41:50

Bible. So when you add things, and here we'll see it's tradition, or mysticism,

41:56

God speaking to me from the inside or me exchanging my hunch for revelation from God.

42:02

I just want you to see how tough Jesus is. With the false teachers,

42:09

He let them have it. The woman at the well, generous, kind.

42:16

Oh yes, He still told the truth, but He was doing it in much gentler, much gentler fashion.

42:25

Mark chapter 7 verse 1, all the bigwigs come into town to try to get Jesus. They're going to gang up.

42:32

Mark 7, Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Him when they had come from Jerusalem.

42:41

You're going to need more than one man for this confrontation. John says, lots of Jews were seeking to kill

42:50

Him. It had been seen that some of the disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed.

43:01

Now this has nothing to do with hygienically washing your hands. This has to do with ceremonial cleansing.

43:12

And they had a way to do it, pouring water. You know what it reminds me of? When I was in the operating room and I would talk to the surgeons as they're getting ready to go into the operating room and they're at the scrub sink and they have a certain way to scrub their hands before they rinse their hands off and then walk into the operating room so the nurses can give them proper sterile gloves.

43:31

There's a certain way to wash because if you wash your hands and then you hold them down, then things just trickle off like that.

43:39

But if you wash your hands and hold them up, then they trickle down this way and any kind of unclean thing in the operating room would dribble off.

43:46

But here it has nothing to do with hygienic. It has to do with ceremonial cleanliness.

43:53

Verse 3, For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders.

44:03

They come from the marketplace. They do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe such as washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots and everything else.

44:14

They even made up a prayer to sanctify it. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, King of the

44:20

Universe, who has sanctified us by Thy laws and commanded us to wash the hands. Some of the

44:32

Jews thought if you ate with unclean hands, the demon called Shibta would come and enter you. Jesus, your people aren't washing their hands.

44:45

Markley said, Bread eaten with unclean hands, ceremony of the unclean hands, for the Jew was no better than eating with hands full of excrement.

44:54

They are adding things. And the

45:00

Pharisees and the scribes ask Him, verse 5, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?

45:12

And He said to them, I mean, here's the scud. Rightly did

45:19

Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written, This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.

45:30

You fakers. But in vain do they worship

45:36

Me, verse 7, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men, adding to the

45:41

Bible. And what do they do when you add to the Bible? I'll tell you what you do. You go for the addition and you leave what the

45:47

Bible says. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.

45:54

You mark it down, whether it's Hinduism, whether it's Roman Catholicism. Once you abandon the Word and say, once you add to the

46:01

Word, you abandon the Word. And He said to them, You nicely set aside, how sarcastic, biting to the bone.

46:10

You nicely set aside, oh yeah, the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

46:17

You're going to add to the Word and then you're going to neglect the Word and that's wrong to do. And then

46:24

He gives an illustration of it found in the next few verses. It is what my friend once called the hypocrite limbo.

46:33

How low can you go? And look at verse 13, last verse we must close.

46:42

Thus invalidating the Word of God. Now you think of not tradition, but think of other things that people want to add to Scripture, like mysticism, like experience, like so -called revelation outside of Scripture.

46:54

Invalidating the Word of God by your tradition, which has been handed down, or for mysticism, which has come from the inside.

47:01

And you do many such things as that. First you neglect the

47:10

Word. The vacuum must be filled. And then you reject the Word for what's filled the vacuum.

47:19

I know you love the Scriptures. I know you study the Scriptures. But there's a major push in evangelicalism.

47:28

And it's from the inside now that Scriptures aren't sufficient. They're not enough to show you the brilliance of Christ and have communion with Him.

47:36

You need more. And the search for something more always yields less.

47:43

Let's pray. Father, thank You for our time in the Scriptures. What a great

47:49

Savior Jesus Christ is. His death, yes. His resurrection, yes.

47:54

But even the way He taught, even the way He would say, no.

48:01

And so, Father, thank You for being a good Father to us, disciplining us when we need it, saying yes, saying no.

48:08

We know You care for us because if we have the greatest gift, salvation, we'll have the lesser gift. And that is all that You've done for us.