August 26, 2001

Traditions Of Men

Mark 7:1-23

Today I want to talk about traditions. And I want to start off with a story I heard once about several sisters and their husbands who would get together every thanksgiving at one another's homes for the thanksgiving dinner. After several years, the husbands began to notice that no matter whose home the meal was at, the sister that was fixing the ham would slice off the end of the ham before they put it in the cooking pan.

So they asked: why did the girls always do that? Well that was an easy one; they did it that way because that's the way that Momma did it. So one of the girls turned to Momma and asked: why did she always cut off the end of the ham? She said it was because that was the way her momma did it. So one of them picks up the phone and calls grandma and asked her why she always cut the end off the ham before she cooked it.

Grandma said that was simple; her pan was too short. What once made perfect sense had become a tradition, and continued on, whether it still made any sense or not.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 7, and verse 1.
Mar 7:1 "Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
Mar 7:2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
Mar 7:3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
Mar 7:4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
Mar 7:5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
Mar 7:6 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.
Mar 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mar 7:8 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.
Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." We will stop there for now, and- as you have probably guessed- talk about religious traditions.

There are three types of religious traditions; scriptural, unscriptural, and non scriptural. In 1st Corinthians chapter 11, Paul praises the Christians at Corinth for keeping the traditions that he instructed them about, so we know that there is such a thing as a scriptural tradition.

There are also traditions in the church that have no direct Biblical command, but they seem to go along with what the Bible teaches, and they serve some need. Or at least they did at one time. That would be a non scriptural tradition. Not un scriptural, but non scriptural.

And this is a good place to point out the difference between something that is unscriptural and something that is non scriptural. Something that is unscriptural is contrary to what the Bible teaches. Evolution is unscriptural. Worshiping the Virgin Mary is unscriptural.

Non scriptural is something that the Bible doesn't deal with. What kind of car to buy is non scriptural. Pizza Plus or Burger King? Non scriptural. What time to hold the service, do we need to have a Sunday School? Non scriptural, the Bible doesn't deal with it. God gives us the freedom to decide what is expedient, or not expedient, and then just go from there. So we can see that Christianity has within it both scriptural, unscriptural, and non scriptural traditions.

What is a tradition? A value or behavior handed down from one generation to another as a custom, a word of mouth thing, a written or unwritten rule.

How do religious traditions get started? Usually they start because they seem to meet some apparent need. People want to do what is right, or preserve something that seems good and worthwhile. Or prevent something bad. That original practice or belief then gets converted into some rule of conduct or thought. Written or unwritten.

The next thing that happens, and this is very important, now we need to find a scriptural basis for our tradition, a sanction, we look for some chapter and verse to support this traditional action or thought that we have. And right now, some of you are thinking; "Wait, wait, wait, don't traditions evolve in support of Scripture?" Let me ask you a question? When did God start to need our help? Does Scripture need any support from our traditions? Does Scripture need us to make any rules and guidelines, any traditions to hold it up? I don't think so.

The Scripture sets out very plainly those things which we need to have some traditions about. Paul tells us to "Keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you." The Greek word for ordinances is the same word as traditions, so if you want to know what traditions we need to keep, read the writings of Paul and the apostles. That's all. That's it. Everything we need to know, or do, is already in there, all we need to do is keep hold of what we already have. The Bible already sets out what traditions we need to keep. But human nature loves to add human works to the things of God, we add our own traditions to the traditions of the Bible, and then we try to go back and justify them from Scripture. Hold that thought, I'll come back to it later.

It is natural that the church should have traditions. We try and come up with a way of doing something that is easy, comfortable, and agrees with everybody, and a lot of traditions almost invent themselves.
That means that a lot of traditions are not bad things at all. They had a good reason for getting started. But each of us probably sees our various church traditions differently; some seem good to us, some seem bad. You want to know what the rule of thumb is for that? The ones I like are good, the ones I don't like are bad. Yours are good if they agree with mine. How am I doin' so far? Nod your head if you love Jesus.
"I love Southern Gospel Music, and that church has always played Southern Gospel Music, their traditions are wonderful." "I hate Southern Gospel Music, and that's all that church knows how to sing. Their traditions are terrible." Or how they do their altar calls. Or how they do Sunday School. Or their written or unwritten dress code. Church socials. Whatever. Pick one. Some of our traditions are like broccoli casserole, some people love them, other people think they're a waste of time and effort.

A lot of traditions are neutral, they are neither good nor bad, but some churches can create positive or negative values for their traditions by the emphasis that gets puts on them. The way they enforce them on their members. The price that you pay for violating them.

For instance: it is good to visit the sick, prepare meals for shut-ins, make phone calls to those that have gotten discouraged, things like that. We went to a church once that had developed a tradition of opening its ladies meetings by having the ladies fill out a score sheet tracking how many phone calls they had made, how many meals they had fixed, how many Bible verses they had read, stuff like that. Then they compared scores... A good practice had become a tradition, and then had evolved into a legalistic score sheet so that some could brag, and others could be ashamed.

Not all traditions are bad. Traditions can give us a sense of continuity and security. They can help us order our lives and keep us from being overwhelmed with having to make constant decisions. For instance; our particular Sunday worship format, as a tradition, is useful. If every Saturday night, Jerry called me up and said: "What are we going to do tomorrow?" and I said, "I donno', what do you want to do?" we would wear ourselves out. We have an unwritten tradition here of doing a few hymns, some announcements, prayer requests, offering, and some choruses. It is flexible, changeable, it is a tradition that just makes life simpler. People from other fundamental Christian churches can come to visit us and our traditions are similar to their traditions, and it puts them at ease. That's cool. Traditions such as that are useful.

What are some of the dangers of traditions? Ahh, now we get back to the Bible verse. The Pharisees found fault with Jesus' disciples because they did not keep the traditions of the elders, the rabbis.
What the Pharisees were referring to was a huge legal interpretation of the Laws God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai. The traditions were not the laws themselves, but the interpretations of those laws.
Kind of like our American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those documents are quite brief, but the legal interpretations of them would fill this room with law books, and new interpretations are being added every year. Same situation with the Pharisees back then. Jesus tells them in verse 7: "In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." And then verse 9: "Full well ye reject the commandments of God, that ye may keep your own tradition."
And then verse 13: "Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered; and many such things do ye."

Religious traditions had superceded the Word of God and created a false religion. And it still happens today. Religious traditions can create a situation where we move away from God into doing something that seems good, but may be contrary to what God actually intends.

Traditions tend to deteriorate into a set of rules, do's and don't's. And then it becomes easier to obey the traditions that we invent than it is to obey God's truth. Because traditions focus on actions; God focuses on the attitudes of the heart, what it is that motivates our actions.

Traditions tend to replace Bible truth. Our fallen human nature tends to replace God's truth with stuff that we come up with. What is the cure for that? We need to periodically run all our traditions through the filter of Scripture and see if they hold up. But no, we prefer to do that the other way around. The flesh would prefer to run the Bible through the filter of our traditions so that we can weed out whatever we don't like. That's no good. If we have a tradition that is contrary to what the Bible teaches, it doesn't matter if mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and a half a dozed preachers roll over in their graves, we ought to call it what it is, a human tradition that is unscriptural, and get rid of it.

Imagine what would happen if 30 million Roman Catholics took the Bible at face value and demanded that the Roman Catholic church go by what the Bible says instead of by what human tradition prefers? We would have the greatest revival the world has ever seen.

What if we did the same thing? We would at least have the best revival that we had ever seen. Why?
Because tradition can keep us from dealing with our own sin. Look at verse 6: "Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Anybody getting nervous? You ought to be. Did you ever get a little dose of religion and quit some of your old sinful habits, and then before you knew it, you thought you were just so sanctified, Um, Um, Um?

For instance; in this part of the country, in our culture, the stereotype is that non-Christians smoke, drink and party, and in this part of the world, traditional sanctification says that when you get saved, you're supposed to quit all that stuff. Ok; that's cool, what else? What else happens? "Duh; what do you mean, what else?" Too often, tradition is taught as a substitute for what the Bible teaches. Too often, I have seen Christians who base their godliness, their holiness, their sanctification, their whole Christian lifestyle on simplistic traditions rather than what God's word says.

I say this because I have been in churches where as long as the members didn't smoke, drink, or party, they thought that spiritually, they had arrived; Glory! They thought that they had something to brag about.
Like the Pharisees, as long as they kept the outside washed according to the rules of the rabbis, they were at the top of the heap, and they could find fault with everybody else. The tradition of their particular church, and it's standards, had replaced the standards of God's Word.

I'm sure we don't have any body that thinks like that in this assembly, but just in case there is any doubt, why don't we go and take a look at what God has to say on the matter of genuine godly sanctification.
Turn to the book of Titus, chapter 2, verse 1: "But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:
Tit 2:2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience." Guys, once you get to the age of thirty, you need to be taking this "aged men" thing seriously. Byt the time you get to forty, you ought to be practicing these precepts regularly. And by the time you get past 45, they ought to be a way of life.

Tit 2:3 "The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;" Ladies, the same thing goes for you. Once you get to the age of being mature women, these things need to start being where you live. And then it goes on to say why:
Tit 2:4 "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Notice that it says twice in here that women need to be teachers. Our culture today is not that different from what it was like back then. When a young woman gets saved, she does not know how to live a Christian life, and she needs a mature woman to teach her. How will you teach unless you are good at it yourself? and if you are not practicing what you are trying to teach, what good is that? "Do as I say, and not as I do?" That's no good.

Tit 2:6 "Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded." We older men need to be teaching the younger men how to live. And if we are not practicing what we preach, we are not fit to teach anything.

Tit 2:7 "In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,
Tit 2:8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
Tit 2:9 Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;
Tit 2:10 Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world"

There are no superficial traditions here, what we have here is a whole lifestyle, a total attitude adjustment from worldliness to godliness. If any of you wives are giving your husbands premature gray hair, if any of you husbands are driving your wives crazy, if any of you are ripping off your employer, if you are going where you shouldn't go, and doing what you shouldn't do, but you are keeping the traditional: "I got saved, and I quit smokin' and drinkin' and partyin', praise God." you have substituted a religious tradition for the reality of true godliness and holiness. You have substituted some good and worthwhile traditional externals for a genuine inside out Biblical sanctification, and you need to go back to square one and start over.

Maybe the reason that I'm so fired up over this, is because God has recently opened my eyes to a my own shortcomings in this area. I was guilty of having a very strong opinion about a certain behavior, and then using a particular scripture to justify my opinion. My religious tradition. Instead of me telling you what it was, let me have you read the Bible for yourself, and see if you come to the same conclusions that I did.

It is the rest of the passage in Mark 7 as Jesus explains His dealings with the Pharisees, Mark 7 and verse 14: "And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
Mar 7:15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
Mar 7:16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
Mar 7:17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
Mar 7:18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Mar 7:19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
Mar 7:20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Mar 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."

I want to talk about the word defile for a minute. When something is defiled, then it is polluted in the sight of God. It is unclean. It is unacceptable for worship. In the Old Testament, it could be something as simple as getting your feet dirty. It could refer to touching something unclean, or eating unclean foods. More often, it referred to being involved in sexual sins with people that you shouldn't be involved with, or it referred to worshiping an idol instead of God. That's what it meant to be defiled. People who defiled themselves were unfit for worship in the tabernacle or temple. God would not permit anything unclean to enter into His presence. We know enough about the Old Testament to understand that. The Law required perfect cleanliness and holiness before anyone could come into the presence of God.

Jesus changed the externals into internals, didn't He? To be saved, to be born again, is to be cleansed from the inside out, to have the righteousness of Jesus Himself instead of our own righteousness, doesn't it? We are no longer concerned with standing righteously before God by what we eat or drink, or whether we have touched a mouse or a bug, we have the righteousness of Christ to take away our defilement.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 3:17 "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

Ever since I was saved, I have been in churches in Georgia, in North Carolina, in Tennessee, and I have heard good men use this verse to preach and teach against Christians abusing their bodies by smoking, drinking, overeating, whatever. I agreed with them. I accepted it at face value. It made perfect sense to me. And that is the traditional interpretation of that verse. There is just one problem with that traditional interpretation; it's wrong. What is it that Jesus says in Mark 7, verse 15? "There is nothing from without, from outside, of a man, that entering into him, can defile him; but the things that come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear."

Hummm. Well, whattya know... Reading that verse a couple weeks ago kinda' messed up my tradition. Back in Jesus' day, it kinda' messed up the traditions of a lot of people, look at what they ask the Lord in verse 17:
"And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
Mar 7:18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Mar 7:19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?"
Mar 7:20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man."

Do you want to know what defiles you, makes you unfit for heaven, makes you unfit to be part of that holy spiritual temple of believers that Jesus is building? Here it is: "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,"

What kind of thought life are you having? Your thoughts toward your neighbor, your boss, your spouse, are they good, or are they evil? Are they consistent with a saved and sanctified new life in Jesus Christ, or are they just as mean and wicked as they ever were? Your thoughts are a barometer to show you your spiritual condition. If they are no different now than they ever were, if they are just as wicked as before you professed faith in Jesus, that is defiling, and that's serious stuff.

How about your sex life? Are you engaged in sexual activity with someone that is not your spouse? That will defile you, no doubt about it.

If that is your lifestyle, then you are certainly defiled, and you need to take a cold, hard objective look at the state of your soul. Are you really saved?

Verse 22, the list goes on: "Murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."
Do you take things that don't belong to you? Do you spend time thinking about how to get things that belong to someone else? How about this word lasciviousness? That refers to an inappropriate sexual appetite that is out of control. Does that describe you? Are you always envious of other people? Are you looking at what they have, and it galls you? Because that's what an evil eye is. How is your relationship to God? Is there a reverence for God in your heart, and on your lips, or would you just as soon slander Jesus as not? Because that's what blasphemy is. Are you proud? Are you foolish? Those are the things that will defile you, those are the things that are the trademarks of an unsaved person, and if any of those things are a regular part of your lifestyle, then you are defiled, you need to take a real close look at your relationship to God, and see if your salvation is real, or is it just wishful thinking?

Does what we eat or drink or take into our bodies defile us? No. Does that mean that we can eat or drink or take anything we want into our bodies, and it's OK?

What did I tell you last week? God gives us the freedom to be stupid, and the wisdom and convicting of the Holy Spirit not to be stupid. 1Corinthians 10:23 "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." I have had people in my family die of emphysema because they spent their lives smoking. Dying in an oxygen tent is not expedient. I grew up with an alcoholic in my family, and those of you who know about such things know that it is not expedient. It is not edifying. If you want a more explicit verse on the subject, use Ephesians 5:39: "No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it." God gave you your body, nourish it and cherish it. Putting harmful substances into your body is neither nourishing or cherishing.

And that's all I need to say about it. Because my focus today is on being true to God's Word, whether it agrees with our religious traditions or not. Romans 3:4 tells us: "Let God be true, but every man a liar."
It is crucial for us to let God's Word say what it really says, and for us not to try and make it say what it doesn't say. God has blessed this place for years and years because we have been a people that have believed that God means what He says, and says what He means, and we try and be obedient.

Psalms 138:2 tells us: "I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." God magnifies the truth of His Word even above His holy name. That means that we need to prize His truth and His Word way above any thing else, even our traditions, even when they are good or useful traditions.

Am I saying today that we can interpret God's Word in such a way that will allow us to indulge in fleshly appetites that war against our souls? No.

Am I saying that just because we can't find a suitable proof text for something which is bad for us, then that makes it OK? No. No. No.

God allows us, as believers, the freedom to be stupid, and then He expects us to live, or die, according to the effects of our wisdom, or stupidity. Someday we will stand before God and possibly He will give us an opportunity to explain why we chose to act stupid. Perhaps He will ask us why we chose to engage in silly, frivolous, worldly behavior that made other people question the sincerity and the usefulness of our Christianity. Won't that be fun...? Perhaps He will ask us why we engaged in personal habits that became personal traditions that became stumbling blocks to our unsaved friends and neighbors. I can hardly wait; how about you? We have two choices: we can rethink our traditions, personal and otherwise, and get them in line with God's Word, or we can start thinking up lame excuses for why we hung on to them.

Traditions. 1Thessalonians 5:21tells us: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." We have some traditions in this place that are godly, scriptural, and good. We need to hold fast to them. Do we have any traditions in this church-personal or otherwise- that are unscriptural or a stumbling block?

I can think of one or two. I don't need to mention them. If my thoughts are from God, then the Holy Spirit can cause you to think of them also. And since Jesus Christ is the head of this church, then we why don't we just wait on Him, and see what He brings to your mind? And if Jesus brings to your mind something that you are doing that you need to quit, then quit it. Even if you have been doing it for as long as you can remember, and you were comfortable with it. If Jesus puts it in your mind that it's time to quit, then it's time to quit.

Or if Jesus brings to your mind something that you have not been doing that you need to be doing, then get with the program, even if it means doing something that makes you uncomfortable. Jesus Christ did not die for your sins to make you comfortable, He died for your sins to make you holy. If you have a comfortable tradition, or habit, or whatever that is keeping you from holiness, then the sooner you get rid of it, the better off you are. And you know I'm dead on the money, can I have an Amen on that?

And in the meantime, why don't we invite the Lord Jesus Christ to make us all like-minded on whatever we need to know about what He wants us to do? Would you stand with me? As we pray together, if there is something that you need to come down to the altar and pick up or lay down, this is the time for you to let God have His way in your life. Would you do it today? Shall we pray?