Participants: Stephen Bohr
Series Code: BOT
Program Code: BOT000003
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00:30 Let's bow our heads for prayer.
00:31 Our Father and our God, what a joy it is to be here for this 00:37 very special presentation on Mark 7:1-13. 00:43 Lord we need the guidance of Your Holy Spirit 00:46 as we open Your Word. 00:47 So we ask for Your presence through the ministry of the 00:51 Spirit and the angels. 00:52 Give us understanding. 00:53 And I ask, Lord, that not only will You give us understanding, 00:57 but You will give us the willingness to follow Your Word 01:00 as the only standard in our lives. 01:01 And we thank You for hearing our prayer for we ask it in 01:04 Jesus' name, Amen. 01:07 In our last study together I read a series of quotations 01:14 from Flavius Josephus, the great Jewish historian, 01:19 who was born in the year 37 A.D. 01:21 I read some statements from Marcel Semo, a Jew, 01:25 and also from George Foot Moore, from his monumental work, 01:30 Judaism, which is composed of two volumes. 01:33 And the central theme of those quotations had to do with the 01:38 Jewish view of tradition in the days of Christ. 01:41 What I'd like to begin with this evening is reviewing what we 01:47 studied last night about the Jewish view of tradition. 01:51 If you remember, there are three main elements that are contained 01:56 in their view of tradition: 01:58 1. They believe that there was a deposit of tradition that was 02:04 composed of the writings of Moses, as well as certain oral 02:10 traditions that Moses received on Mount Sinai 02:14 which were not written down. 02:16 So there was the deposit that contained the written Word, 02:20 as well as the unwritten traditions. 02:23 The second point that we noticed is that there needed to be 02:27 a way of transmitting this information 02:31 from generation to generation; a transmitting mechanism. 02:35 And the reason why is because in the process of transmission, 02:41 particularly oral traditions, or unwritten traditions, 02:44 have a way of changing. 02:47 And so there needed to be a way in which these traditions could 02:50 be passed along in a trustworthy way from 02:54 generation to generation. 02:55 And, of course, this required an unbroken succession 03:00 of religious scholars who would pass on the information 03:05 from one generation to the next in unbroken succession. 03:10 And then we noticed also that at each stage, 03:14 at each generation, it was necessary to have a living, 03:18 teaching office, or a magisterium composed of a group 03:23 of scholars who were experts in infallibly explaining, 03:28 amplifying, applying, and even bringing forth new truths 03:35 from the oral deposit of tradition that had supposedly 03:40 been given to Moses at Mount Sinai. 03:42 So, basically, we have these three elements of Jewish 03:47 tradition in the days of Christ: The deposit composed of the 03:51 written word, the writings of Moses, and the oral traditions 03:54 that God supposedly gave to Moses on Mount Sinai 03:57 which were not written. 03:58 Secondly a transmitting mechanism, unbroken succession 04:03 handing along not only the written word, but handing along 04:07 also the oral traditions in a trustworthy fashion. 04:11 And in each generation a living, teaching, office that could say 04:16 whether a certain tradition was genuine or not. 04:19 And they would take these traditions and they would apply 04:21 them to daily life at each generation. 04:24 Now the key words that are used to describe this 04:29 are the following: tradition, receive, pass on, hold. 04:39 Whenever you find these four words you know that the Bible 04:42 is describing this process that the Jews believed in 04:46 in the transmission of tradition. 04:48 Once again, the key words are tradition, receive, 04:51 pass on, and hold. 04:54 Now I'd like to read a statement from the Talmud. 04:58 That was a compilation of all of the oral traditions. 05:01 It was actually put together after the times of Christ, 05:05 but most of it existed before the times of Christ. 05:09 And in a book in the Talmud, which is called Pirkei Avot, 05:15 which means the sayings of the fathers, in chapter 1, 05:18 and verses 1 and 2, we find a description of this process 05:22 of transmission. It says there, Moses received the Torah, 05:29 that is the written law, the five books of Moses. 05:32 Moses received... Notice the key word received, right? 05:35 The Torah, that is the law. 05:39 And passed it on... There's another one of the 05:42 very key expressions. 05:52 ...passed it on... There's the expression again. 05:57 The Great Assembly, of course, is the group of scholars that 06:01 came into existence after the Babylonian captivity. 06:05 Now verse 3 of Pirkei Avot states that the last scholar 06:11 of the Great Assembly was called Simon the Just. 06:15 And then in verses 4 to 13 we find a list of 6 pairs of 06:23 scholars that come after the time of Simon the Just. 06:27 And this list of scholars culminates with the names of 06:32 two individuals which were known in the days of Christ. 06:35 Their names were Shammai and Hillel, two great Jewish 06:41 scholars in the days of Christ. 06:42 So basically what we have here is a process of passing on 06:48 tradition from Moses to Joshua, to the elders, the elders to the 06:53 prophets, the prophets to the men of the Great Assembly, 06:56 the last man of the Great Assembly was Simon the Just. 07:00 Then you have six pairs of scholars that culminate 07:03 with Shammai and Hillel in the days of Christ. 07:06 In other words, not only was the written Word passed along 07:10 throughout each generation, but all of these oral traditions 07:14 were supposedly kept pure as they were passed along 07:17 from one generation to the next in unbroken succession. 07:22 Now it's interesting that in those verses, verses 4 to 13, 07:26 the expression passed on is used twice. 07:32 And the word received is used seven times in those verses. 07:38 I want you to remember those terms because we're going to 07:40 come back to them in a few moments when we discuss Mark 7. 07:45 Now in the Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament we find 07:50 these words about this process of transmission of tradition. 07:55 It says there: The absolute authority of the tradition... 08:11 In other words, what gave these traditions authority was 08:15 the belief that these had been passed along in unbroken 08:19 derivation from the times of Moses all the way 08:22 till the days of Christ. 08:24 Now we've been studying a theoretical concept. 08:28 What we want to do in the next few minutes is take a look at a 08:34 passage that we find in the gospel of Mark that illustrates 08:38 in living color how this idea actually was applied 08:43 in real life situations. 08:45 So what I want to do is read Mark 7:1-13 so that we get 08:52 the view of what we're going to discuss, so that we have it 08:56 in our minds, and then we're going to take this passage 08:59 verse by verse, and we're going to explain it. Mark 7:1: 09:10 Remember these are the ones that believed in this 09:12 concept of tradition. 09:24 That is some of Jesus' disciples. 09:33 And then we have this explanation: 09:45 Now here we have one of those key words. 09:49 Here's another key word. 09:52 Verse 4: 10:02 Now what's the next word? 10:06 Do you see the terminology that is used here? 10:22 There it is again! 10:49 Now here comes the key word again. You what? 10:54 And then again the key word. 11:11 Here's the word again. 11:13 And now Jesus is going to give an example of how they 11:17 stick to tradition instead of to the written Word of God. 11:21 Notice what it says in verse 10. 11:33 That's a quotation from the writings of Moses. Verse 11. 11:38 In other words in contrast to Moses you say... 12:10 Now lets examine this passage verse by verse and try and 12:17 determine the meaning of what Jesus is saying to these 12:22 religious leaders in His day. 12:24 So lets go to verse 1 where it says, Then the Pharisees, 12:28 and some of the scribes, came together to Him 12:31 having come from Jerusalem. 12:35 Now the question is, why did these individuals 12:38 come from Jerusalem? 12:39 Why did the Pharisees and the scribes come from Jerusalem? 12:42 In the Review and Herald, March 8, 1898, Ellen White 12:47 explains the reason why these individuals were sent. 12:51 This is how she explains it. 12:55 In other words this group. 13:07 In other words they were spying Jesus out to find some reason 13:12 to accuse Jesus Christ. 13:14 Now the question is, who were these leaders? 13:17 Let me give you a summary of the types of people that they were, 13:21 these scribes and Pharisees. 13:23 First of all, we know that these individuals loved to receive 13:29 recognition from the multitudes. 13:31 In fact their religion consisted mostly of externals with the 13:36 purpose of impressing the populous. 13:39 We know, according to Jesus, if you read this in Matthew 23:7 13:44 that they really enjoyed, and relished the idea 13:48 of being called Rabbi or teacher. 13:51 They also loved to be called Father, interestingly enough. 13:56 In fact, this led Jesus to say in Matthew 23:9, Don't call any 14:03 man on earth your father, because you have only one 14:06 Father, your God who is in heaven. 14:08 Also we find in Matthew 23:14 that Jesus described these 14:13 religious leaders as devouring the material 14:17 possessions of the widows. 14:18 In other words, they were greedy. 14:20 Also Jesus said in Matthew 6:5, 6, as well as Matthew 23:14, 14:29 that these individuals loved to utter long prayers, 14:35 repetitious prayers to impress the people with their piety. 14:40 And they loved to give alms in public so that people believed 14:45 that they were extremely religious. 14:47 These are the types of people that Jesus was dealing with 14:51 in the scribes and the Pharisees. 14:53 And these were the ones that were sent to spy out Jesus, 14:58 to find something to accuse Him of. 15:00 Now let's go to verse 2. 15:05 That is some of the disciples of Jesus. 15:15 Now in a moment we're going to notice that this is not dealing 15:17 with hygiene. This is not dealing with cleanliness. 15:21 It's dealing with ceremonial washing. 15:23 Lets go on to verses 3 and 4. 15:25 It explains why they accused Jesus. 15:38 And in the Greek that means frequently, in a special way. 15:42 A better translation is they washed their hands frequently. 15:46 And then notice, holding, that's one of our key words. 15:51 That's another one of our key words. 16:03 Here comes the key word again. 16:05 And another key word. 16:13 Now this accusation has nothing to do with hygiene. 16:17 It has nothing to do with physical cleanliness. 16:20 We all know that when we come to the table, we are supposed 16:25 to wash our hands before we eat. 16:28 But this issue does not have anything to do with washing 16:31 your hands before a meal. 16:33 This is dealing with ritual, or ceremonial cleansing. 16:38 It's a religious ritual cleansing that is being 16:42 spoken of here. It's not talking about washing your 16:44 hands before you eat. 16:46 Now I don't know whether you noticed, but three times in this 16:50 passage Jesus makes it very clear that this issue of washing 16:56 was only the tip of the iceberg, because there were many other 17:00 such things. It says three times Jesus says there are many other 17:04 things, many other such things that you do 17:06 because of tradition. 17:08 In other words, the washing issue was only one of many 17:13 practices that they based on tradition. 17:16 Now I want you to notice the technical terminology. 17:21 I know that I've underlined this, but it's important 17:23 that we underline it again. 17:24 Notice in chapter 7, verse 3, it speaks about the holding 17:31 to the tradition of the elders; technical terms that we read 17:35 from Josephus, we read from George Foot Moore, 17:37 and we read from Marcel Semo. 17:40 They used these identical terms to describe Jewish tradition 17:44 in the days of Christ. 17:45 Also in chapter 7, verse 4, we have the expression, 17:49 which they have received, to hold. 17:52 In other words, they receive it by transmission, 17:54 and they hold it. 17:55 In chapter 7, and verse 5, it speaks about the tradition 17:59 of the elders. In chapter 7, and verse 8, they hold. 18:04 Notice once again the key term: they hold the tradition of men. 18:07 Verse 9 says, your tradition. 18:11 And in chapter 7, verse 13, it speaks about the tradition 18:15 which you have handed down. 18:18 Now let me ask you, the expression received, 18:20 and handed down. Does that have an idea of transmitting? 18:24 Of course it does. 18:26 Handed down means that they got it from previous generations, 18:31 and received means that they've received it. 18:33 And what do they do? 18:34 They hold it. They hold these traditions because they believe 18:38 that it's part of the deposit of tradition that God supposedly 18:45 gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. 18:48 Now regarding this idea of the tradition of the elders 18:53 that is used several times in this passage, 18:56 the Jerome Bible Commentary, which interestingly enough 18:59 is a Roman Catholic commentary, has this to say about the 19:02 expression, tradition of the elders, which is used several 19:05 times in this passage. It explains: 19:27 So what was this expression, the tradition of the elders? 19:31 What does that mean? 19:32 It means, according to this Roman Catholic commentary, 19:36 a rabbinical term. 19:37 That's a term of the Rabbi's for the body of unwritten laws. 19:42 This is oral tradition. 19:43 That the Pharisees considered as equally binding 19:47 as the written Torah. 19:49 Now Ellen White described this mass of tradition that existed 19:54 in the days of Christ. 19:55 In Manuscript Releases, Volume 20, page 338, 20:00 she explains about these traditions that were held 20:04 by the religious leaders. She says this: 20:23 See the terminology? 20:25 And then she explains what? 20:29 Are you catching the nuance of what this view is? 20:34 And then she says: 20:44 A mass of oral traditions! 20:47 All of these oral traditions supposedly were given to Moses 20:50 at Mount Sinai. And in each generation the living voice, 20:55 or the magisteriam, would take some of these oral traditions 20:59 that had been preserved, and they would bring them forth, 21:01 and they would say, This was given to Moses at Mount Sinai. 21:04 But you could not find these things in the writings of Moses. 21:08 They were supposedly brought forth by the religious leaders 21:11 in succeeding generations. 21:13 Now I want you to remember all these details because 21:17 in our next lecture we're going to show how Jesus always 21:21 answered accusations, and always answered questions 21:25 appealing to the written scriptures, never to tradition. 21:28 And then in the following two lectures we're going to examine 21:31 the Roman Catholic view of tradition 21:33 from their own writings. 21:35 And we're going to discover that the terminology that Roman 21:39 Catholics use is identical to the terminology that was used 21:44 in the days of Christ regarding Jewish tradition. 21:47 Now the Pharisees and the scribes had a 21:51 rigorous casuistry. 21:52 In Matthew 23 we see a description of these rigorous 22:01 details that they had for every aspect of life. 22:05 Ellen White describes these burdensome and oppressive 22:09 observances that supposedly were given to Moses, 22:13 and which were handed down. 22:14 She says in The Desire of Ages, page 617: 22:24 In other words, these oral requirements were so complex 22:29 that no matter how much people tried, they could not obey them, 22:33 because they were too complicated. 22:34 In fact, some of the traditions contradicted other traditions, 22:38 as we're going to notice. 22:39 She also says in Signs of the Times, January 3, 1900: 22:56 Notice once again the terminology. 23:06 The oral traditions were regarded as what? 23:09 as the Word of God, as much as written scripture. 23:12 Then she continues saying: 23:32 In fact no dimension of life escaped their prescriptions 23:39 and proscriptions. 23:40 Most often the Rabbi's majored in minors, and minored in 23:48 the weightier matters of the law. 23:50 In fact in Matthew 23:4 it says, speaking about the 23:55 scribes as Pharisees: 24:08 They became oppressive in their enactments, in their ceremonies, 24:12 and in their teachings. 24:14 And the people were suffocated by all of these traditions 24:17 that supposedly were given to Moses, but which were really 24:21 not given to Moses. 24:22 They were never written down. 24:23 Now Marcel Semon, this individual who wrote this very 24:28 good book, Jewish Sects, on page 32, has this to say about 24:34 this concept of tradition that existed in the days of Christ, 24:37 and how this concept was a rigorous casuistry, 24:41 and very oppressive to the people. He says this: 24:47 This is the writings of Moses. 25:01 That's because the writings of Moses deal in principles, right? 25:04 They don't give every little detail about what to do in every 25:08 little circumstance of life. 25:09 Now he continues saying: 25:15 In other words they had to take these big principles, 25:18 and then they had to explain how these were to be applied in each 25:23 situation in life. 25:24 Now he continues saying: 26:03 What a way of describing it! 26:05 And that's what Jesus had to deal with. 26:08 And that's why we're going to find that Jesus always answered 26:12 objections based on the written scriptures. 26:15 He never speculated. 26:16 He never said Moses brought this forth, you know, 26:19 and he gave it to the next generation in an oral way 26:23 for them to pass it on. 26:24 Jesus always faced issues in His day by quoting 26:29 the written scriptures. 26:30 We're going to notice that in presentation 4. 26:33 Now Ellen White, in The Desire of Ages, page 617, describes 26:38 this casuistry which was practiced by the Jews 26:42 of Christ's day. Particularly the religious leaders, 26:44 the scribes and the Pharisees. She says: 26:57 Now listen to how ridiculous it was. 26:59 Here's an example. 27:27 In The Desire of Ages, page 616, she says: 27:45 Now listen to this: 28:09 In The Desire of Ages, page 395, she further describes as before, 28:15 and she's speaking about Mark 7 specifically. 28:46 Are you understanding the situation that 28:48 Jesus had to deal with? 28:49 And we're going to find that in the contemporary Christian world 28:53 the same is happening in Roman Catholicism. 28:58 Now lets go on to verse 5. It says: 29:13 Now it's important to realize that the scribes and Pharisees 29:17 expected Jesus to compel His disciples to obey 29:21 the tradition of the elders. 29:22 And this indicates that this tradition had the force of law, 29:26 right? Because they expected Jesus to enforce this law 29:30 among His disciples. 29:31 They're saying, Why don't You enforce this 29:33 tradition of the elders? 29:35 The Rabbi's in the times of Christ were expected to compel 29:39 their disciples to obey this, and other traditions, by precept 29:44 and by example. Now I mentioned that this has nothing to do with 29:49 hygiene, or cleanliness. 29:51 Let me share with you a list of the rules and regulations 29:55 regarding washing, so that you see the type of problem 29:59 that Jesus was dealing with. 30:00 I'm getting this list from a book written by 30:04 Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried. 30:05 It's called, Code of Jewish Law. 30:08 It's a collection of Jewish laws, and it's pages 125 to 130. 30:13 And I'm just taking some examples from these pages. 30:16 Now these are the rules and regulations that existed. 30:20 The water must be poured out of a perfect vessel, 30:24 having neither a hole, nor a crack. 30:27 It must be even at the top without any indents 30:31 or projecting parts. 30:32 Here's another one. 30:35 When using a vessel with a spout, the water cannot 30:39 run through the spout. 30:40 Here's another regulation. 30:43 First wash the right hand and then wash the left. 30:46 Here's another one. 30:48 The water must cover the entire hand up to the wrist. 30:54 Here's another one. 30:56 No part of the hand can remain unwashed, 30:59 therefore the fingers must be slightly parted that the water 31:03 might run down the entire length of the fingers. 31:06 Here's another one. 31:08 The water must cover the fingertips, and the entire 31:11 circumference of the fingers. 31:13 Here another. Water should be poured twice on each hand. 31:17 Here's another one. 31:18 After washing each hand you should rub them together 31:21 and recite Psalm 134:2. 31:23 That shows that this has to do with religion, 31:26 not only with cleanliness. 31:28 Here's another one. 31:29 You must thoroughly dry your hands, but it is forbidden 31:31 to dry them on your shirt. 31:33 Here's another one. 31:34 If after pouring out water on one hand, you touch it with 31:38 the other hand, or someone else touches it, 31:40 the water on the hand becomes contaminated by the contact. 31:44 You must dry the hand and wash it again. 31:46 Here's another one. 31:48 Before washing the hands we must examine them to make sure 31:52 that there is no coating on them, as that would be an 31:55 obstruction between the hands and the water. 31:57 Here's another one. 31:59 If we have big nails we must clean them well so that there 32:03 would be no clay or dirt under them as that, too, 32:06 is considered an obstruction. 32:08 We must also remove the rings from the fingers 32:11 before the washing. 32:12 And finally, if one touched during the meal, a part of the 32:16 body which is usually covered, or scratched the head, 32:19 or urinated, one must wash the hands again, 32:22 but without saying the benediction. 32:25 How would you like to live in a situation like that, 32:27 where you're just concentrating on all of the little details 32:31 that you have to fulfill in order to live in harmony 32:34 with the tradition of the elders? 32:36 Where in the writings of Moses do you find these prescriptions? 32:40 You find them absolutely no where. 32:41 They are supposedly traditions that God gave to Moses 32:46 orally at Sinai that were passed on from generation 32:49 to generation, and they were rescued from the deposit 32:53 of oral traditions by the Rabbi's at different stages 32:57 in the process of transmission. 32:59 Now Jesus had to confront these leaders. 33:03 And when Jesus confronted the leaders, He confronted them 33:08 with the written Word of God. 33:10 He did not speculate. 33:12 He did not put one Rabbi against another Rabbi. 33:17 Jesus simply quoted scripture when He faced this issue. 33:22 In fact Jesus used three quotations. 33:26 The first quotation comes from Isaiah 29:13, and this one is 33:32 mentioned in verse 6, in verse 6 of Mark 7. 33:46 Is Jesus going to quote scripture now? 33:49 You'd better believe it! 33:50 His answer is based on scripture. 34:04 So Jesus is using scripture to accuse them, and He says 34:09 Isaiah spoke about you folks. 34:11 And Isaiah actually wrote this. 34:14 Now Jesus continues saying, quoting Isaiah 29:13. 34:27 In other words they're to fear the Lord based on the 34:30 commandments of men. 34:31 Can you think of another text that uses the word fear 34:35 and the word worship in the same text? 34:37 How about Revelation 14:6, 7? 34:40 Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment 34:44 is come. And what? and worship Him. 34:47 Fearing God and worshipping Him is in the same verse: 34:49 Revelation 14:7. You say, Now why is that important? 34:53 Because Jesus says, Their fear towards Me is because of the 34:57 commandments of men, not because of the commandments of God. 34:59 And then in verse 7 notice what He adds. 35:10 Now I don't know if you noticed, there's three conclusions that 35:13 we can reach from this quotation: 35:15 1. The battle is between the written Word of God, 35:18 and the unwritten tradition of men. 35:20 Do you see that clearly there? 35:22 In other words the written Word of God, 35:26 versus the unwritten tradition of men. 35:28 2. Even more specifically, the conflict is between the 35:33 commandments of God, and the commandments of men. 35:35 Not only the Word of God, and the unwritten traditions of men, 35:39 but it's the commandment of God versus the commandments of men. 35:44 And did you notice also that the issue has to do with worship? 35:49 In other words by teaching the commandments of God they are 35:52 practicing vain worship. 35:55 In other words, worship is involved. 35:57 When people follow the commandments of men they are 36:01 practicing vain worship, according to Jesus. 36:04 Now Jesus did not quote Isaiah 29:14, but I think that it would 36:10 be a good idea for us to quote that verse immediately after 36:13 the verse that Jesus did quote. 36:14 Notice what Isaiah 29:14 says: 36:20 God is speaking here. 36:39 Isn't it interesting that that verse comes immediately after 36:43 Isaiah 29:13 where Jesus has said, Well did Isaiah prophesy 36:50 of you hypocrites. As it is written, this people honors Me 36:53 with their lips, but their heart is far from me, 36:55 and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment 36:59 of men. And even though Jesus doesn't quote verse 14, 37:03 God is saying in verse 14 that He is going to make the wisdom 37:09 of the wise men to perish, and the traditions 37:13 of men to disappear. 37:15 Now verse 8 of Mark 7. 37:22 Here Jesus is going to explain the reason why He has just said 37:28 that Isaiah prophesied about them. 37:30 Isaiah talked about you, is what Jesus says. 37:32 Now why? What is the reason why Isaiah prophesied about them? 37:37 Notice verse 8. For, that is because. 37:40 Isaiah wrote this because... 37:48 In a moment we're going to see that this refers to one 37:51 of the ten commandments. 37:52 That's an important point. 37:57 There's a key word. 38:06 So what is the contrast in this verse? 38:09 It is between the commandment of God, and the tradition of 38:14 men that contradicts the commandment of God. 38:17 Are you following me or not? 38:19 Very important! And it has to do with worship. 38:24 When we teach the commandments of men our worship is vain, 38:30 which means that our worship is useless. 38:33 Now lets go to verse 9. 38:35 We noticed that Jesus quoted three verses. 38:38 We've only referred to one so far, which is Isaiah 29:13. 38:42 We're coming now to number 2, and number 3. 38:44 Verse 9. He said to them,... 38:49 The word reject in the Greek is better translated invalidate 38:53 or nullify. In other words, all too well you reject 38:57 or invalidate, and nullify the commandment of God, 39:02 that you may keep your tradition. 39:05 So what were they doing by keeping their tradition? 39:08 They were making, or invalidating, 39:11 or nullifying what? the commandment of God. 39:15 Now the question is, which commandment was 39:18 Jesus referring to when He said, Your tradition invalidates 39:22 the commandment of God? 39:23 He's going to speak about one of the ten commandments. 39:25 You say, Which one? 39:28 Well, it has to do with the practice which was known as 39:34 Corban. Have you ever heard of Corban? 39:36 Let me just read you a statement from Ellen White, 39:39 The Desire of Ages, 396. 39:41 And then I'll give you an added explanation 39:43 about what Corban was. 39:45 By the way, the word Corban means dedicated. 39:49 Now this is what The Desire of Ages, 396 says: 40:01 In other words dedicated, he would say over his property; 40:05 Corban, that is dedicated. 40:31 In other words he would say, This is dedicated. 40:34 And his parents would be in need, and he would say, 40:37 I can't help you because this has been dedicated to God. 40:40 Are you understanding what's happening here? 40:43 In other words the law of Corban, we're going to notice, 40:48 contradicted the commandment that said, 40:51 Honor your father and your mother. 40:53 Their tradition contradicted one of the commandments of God. 40:56 In fact, let's notice verse 10 where we find Jesus presenting 41:02 quotation number two to answer this issue 41:06 that is brought forth. 41:07 In verse 10 Jesus says: 41:11 Remember that they claimed to sit on Moses' seat, 41:15 and have authority to teach with all wisdom, 41:18 and all knowledge? 41:19 And whatever they said, you know, was what Moses was 41:22 given at Mount Sinai orally by God? But Jesus says: 41:28 Now what is Jesus going to appeal to? 41:30 Is He going to appeal to some oral tradition that God gave 41:32 to Moses? No, no, no. Notice! 41:44 Now lets just take the first expression, honor your father 41:48 and your mother. Let me ask you, Where is that 41:50 quotation coming from? 41:51 It's coming from the ten commandments. 41:54 Exactly! Exodus 20:12 where it says: 42:01 Jesus is saying, Your tradition of Corban contradicts 42:05 this commandment of God. 42:06 It is opposed to this commandment of God. 42:08 Because by dedicating all of your possessions to the temple, 42:14 and not helping your parents, your tradition is contradicting 42:18 the commandment that says, Honor your father 42:20 and your mother. The fifth commandment. 42:21 And then Jesus quotes also Exodus 21:17, which is the last 42:26 part of this verse, verse 10. 42:38 This, by the way, is a quotation from Exodus 21:17. 42:43 Now what is the purpose of this second and third quotation? 42:47 The quotation from Exodus 20:12, and the quotation from 42:51 Exodus 21:17? The purpose of these is Jesus is saying 42:56 to them, Listen, you have this tradition of Corban that 42:59 supposedly was given to Moses, and you brought it forth from 43:02 the deposit of oral tradition. 43:04 But that tradition contradicts the Word of God. 43:07 So, in other words, what do you go with? 43:11 Do you go with the written Word of God, or do you go with 43:14 the tradition which contradicts the commandment of God? 43:17 Now a little later on in this series we're going to apply this 43:20 to another commandment. 43:21 And those of you who are perceptive know which 43:25 commandment we're talking about here. 43:26 You see the Bible says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 43:30 And it says that the seventh day is the Sabbath 43:33 of the Lord your God. 43:34 But the Roman Catholic Church says, No, Sunday is the Sabbath, 43:40 because it has been handed down to us by tradition. 43:44 And so interestingly enough, by their tradition 43:49 of Sunday observance, what are they doing? 43:51 They're contradicting the fourth commandment 43:54 of the written law of God. 43:55 Is it the same principle? 43:57 What would Jesus do today if He was alive? 44:00 Would He say the same thing; that you contradict 44:03 the written commandment of God by your tradition? 44:06 He most certainly would say that. 44:08 Now let's notice verse 10, and we'll continue 44:13 to verses 11 and 12. 44:17 He's quoting scripture. 44:26 See Moses wrote, but you say. 44:44 Are you understanding what's going on here? 44:46 Now in verse 13 we have the closing argument of Jesus. 44:53 This is what verse 13 says: 45:00 That means you invalidate the Word of God through your what? 45:08 You have what? Notice the expression. 45:12 And this is the tip of the iceberg, folks. 45:15 Three times in this passage Jesus says... 45:22 In other words, the idea of washing was only one issue 45:27 of many where tradition contradicted 45:30 the written Word of God. 45:32 Ellen White in Review and Herald, March 8, 1898 had this 45:40 very significant statement where she's commenting about 45:44 this law of Corban, and how Jesus used it in His argument 45:48 against the scribes and Pharisees. 45:49 She says, They set aside the fifth commandment 45:53 as of no consequence, but were very exact in carrying out 46:00 the tradition of the elders. 46:03 The sayings of supposed great men had been what? 46:08 Oh, great men! Who were the great men? 46:11 Were they lay people? 46:12 Common ordinary people? 46:14 No, they were the scholars. 46:16 They were the PhD's! 46:18 They were the ones that had studied in the universities. 46:21 The ones that had lots of footnotes 46:24 in the works that they wrote. 46:26 The wise men of the earth. 46:29 She says, They set aside the fifth commandment 46:35 as of no consequence, but they were very exact in carrying 46:38 out the tradition of the elders. 46:40 The sayings of supposed great men... 46:43 And now what does she say? 46:45 Had been what? There it is again! 46:47 Had been handed down from what? from Rabbi to Rabbi. 46:53 See the process of transmission? 46:55 From Rabbi to Rabbi nullifying the plain requirements of God, 47:01 making the Word of God of none effect, said Christ. 47:05 And many other such like things ye do. 47:11 Now, what Jesus said went over like a lead balloon. 47:16 You know when the Lord Jesus contradicted their views by 47:21 appealing to written scripture, these leaders 47:24 were infuriated against Him, and they started laying 47:28 plans to slay Jesus, because He upheld the written Word of God 47:33 contrary to their supposed oral traditions 47:37 handed down from Moses. 47:39 In fact, the logic of Jesus was impeccable, 47:43 and it could not be refuted. 47:45 And they knew that it could not be refuted. 47:47 And so they hated Jesus because He came at them with the written 47:52 Word of God, and with the ten commandments, 47:55 and showed them that their traditions contradicted 47:58 the written scriptures of the Lord. 48:01 In The Desire of Ages, page 397, Ellen White explains: 48:16 That's the written law, right? 48:36 Because Jesus required proof from the scriptures, 48:38 the religious leaders led the people to hate Jesus Christ. 48:43 And He led the people eventually to clamor for the 48:46 destruction of Jesus. 48:48 Now let me ask you, Is this going to happen again 48:51 at the end of time? 48:52 Is God going to have a people on the earth that will say, 48:57 It is written, thus says the Lord. 49:01 Not the traditions of men, not your feelings, 49:05 not your emotions, not what has been passed along 49:08 from generation to generation, but It is written! 49:12 Is that going to happen once again that the religious world 49:14 will be enraged against God's people? Absolutely! 49:18 In the book, Christ's Object Lessons, page 304 and 305, 49:22 we find this statement from the Spirit of Prophecy: 50:09 Notice who were the guilty party here. 50:11 It wasn't the common populace, the people. She says: 50:34 Is it going to happen again that the religious leaders of the 50:38 world will turn the members of their churches against 50:42 the people of God for upholding the written Word of God? 50:47 Absolutely! And do you know what? 50:49 The test at the end is going to be the same test that existed 50:55 at the very beginning. 50:56 You see I, in another presentation that I made 51:00 in the Genesis series, I showed how in Genesis 3 the Devil used 51:05 five ways to lead the human race into sin. 51:10 First of all the Devil performed a counterfeit miracle. 51:17 He gave the snake, or the serpent, the apparent capacity 51:21 to speak. That would be a miracle. 51:24 Secondly, he misquoted the Word of God. 51:28 He said, So God has said that you can't eat of any tree 51:31 of the garden. And, of course, Eve corrects him. 51:34 She says, Oh no, no, no, no. 51:35 God said that we can eat of every tree except this one. 51:39 And so what the Devil is doing through the serpent is he 51:44 is twisting, giving the Word of God a certain twist. 51:47 He's not quoting it as it's found from the lips of God. 51:51 In the third place, we find that the serpent is trying to lead 51:56 Eve to use her human reasoning instead of 52:00 following the Word of God. 52:01 Basically the Devil says to her, Listen, do you really want to 52:05 know why God told you that you shouldn't eat from this tree? 52:07 You're not going to die. 52:08 God told you you were going to die, but He didn't tell you 52:11 why you were going to die, right? 52:12 Now I'm going to tell you why God said you were going to die 52:16 when you're really not going to. 52:17 And Eve at this point is saying, Wow, I want to know more! 52:21 And so the Devil says, Listen, God knows that the day that you 52:25 eat from this tree you're going to be just like Him, 52:28 and God doesn't want any rivals around. 52:29 See the reason why He said that you would die is He wants to 52:33 intimidate you because He doesn't want 52:34 anybody to be like Him. 52:35 In fact what the Devil is hinting at is that God, 52:40 at some point, ate from the tree. 52:41 And when He ate from the tree, that's where He got His powers 52:46 as God. And when He saw that the powers that the tree gave 52:49 He said, Wow, I don't want anybody else to have these 52:51 powers, so from now on I'm going to tell anybody, 52:54 and everybody that if they eat from the tree 52:56 they're going to die. 52:57 But they're not going to really die, 52:58 they're going to be like Me. 53:00 And I don't want any rivals. 53:01 And so he's playing mind games with Eve. 53:04 And Eve says, Ah, I have my explanation! 53:07 So God is selfish, huh? 53:08 God doesn't want anybody to be like Him. 53:10 So the Devil is using her reasoning powers 53:14 independently of God. 53:15 And then in the fourth place, the Devil attempts to lead Eve 53:19 to follow the testimony of her senses. 53:22 She saw that the fruit looked good. 53:26 It looked tasty. 53:27 See her eyes are involved? 53:28 Her ears are involved. 53:30 Her taste is involved. 53:31 And then the serpent plucks... 53:33 Ellen White explains how the serpent plucks the fruit 53:36 and puts it in her hand, and the serpent says, You said that God 53:39 had said that if you touched it you would die. 53:41 Here, it's in your hand and you're alive! 53:44 You haven't died, see? 53:45 So the fourth method that the Devil used is to appeal to the 53:52 senses of Eve to lead her to trust her senses. 53:55 And so he's leading her to trust in miracles, 53:58 to trust in a word which is changed, 54:03 to trust in her reasoning powers, 54:06 to trust in the testimony of her senses. 54:08 And then, of course, we know how Adam sinned. 54:11 He was tempted by Eve. 54:14 Let me ask you, Is the Devil leading multitudes astray 54:18 today by what other individuals tell them to do 54:21 contrary to the Word of God? Absolutely! 54:24 And so the Devil from the very beginning has attempted to 54:30 lead human beings to accept standards regarding their 54:36 behavior, and their beliefs, based not upon the written 54:39 Word of God, but based upon many, many other factors. 54:43 You know, what should Eve have done? 54:47 Well, hindsight is 20/20, right? 54:50 You know, Eve should have said, You know what, I didn't know 54:54 that a serpent could talk. 54:56 That's a surprise to me. 54:57 And, you know, I see that you know how to quote God's Word. 55:01 But it's not quoted exactly right. 55:03 But, you know, you have heard somewhat what God said. 55:06 And, you know, what you say, the explanation you give 55:09 about, you know, God knowing that we'll be like Him. 55:11 That sounds pretty reasonable. 55:13 And, you know, my eyes tell me that it's a beautiful fruit. 55:16 And my taste says I'd like to try it. 55:18 And, you know, my touch; I haven't died. 55:21 And, you know, what you're saying appears to be beautiful. 55:24 But what Eve should have said is, you know, It is written. 55:29 Man shall not live by bread alone, but he shall live 55:33 by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. 55:34 If that had happened we wouldn't be in this studio tonight. 55:38 We would be in the Garden of Eden, which would be a much 55:42 better place to be. 55:43 And so, folks, basically, the battle lines are being drawn 55:47 in the world today. 55:48 What the Devil has tried to do is undermine confidence 55:52 in the written Word of God; mainly by postmodern thought; 55:56 the idea that you make your own ethical decisions independently 56:00 of an objective source of truth. 56:02 They say truth is subjective. 56:04 Truth comes from inside. 56:06 Truth doesn't come from outside in a book. 56:08 It comes from your heart. 56:09 And so the Devil has led the world to think that their 56:13 standard of truth needs to be internal rather than external. 56:17 And when that happens you can never trust your own heart. 56:20 In fact, Martin Luther once said, I fear my own heart 56:25 more than the Pope and all of his Cardinals. 56:28 And I believe that Luther was absolutely right, 56:31 because the enemy within is far greater than any 56:34 enemy from without. 56:36 And so the big question is will God's people in these last days 56:42 live by the written Word of God, or will they live 56:47 by the traditions of men? 56:49 Will they live by the standard that comes from their hearts, 56:53 or the standard that comes from tradition, 56:55 or the standard that comes from other individuals? 56:59 That is the decision which will lead you to be on one side 57:04 or the other side in this great controversy 57:06 between good and evil. 57:07 And I pray to God that all of those who are gathered here, 57:11 and all of those who are watching this programming 57:13 on television, will make the right choice. 57:16 And they will choose not to live according to what others 57:20 say, according to an internal standard, but they will choose 57:24 to live by every word that proceeds out 57:28 of the mouth of God. 57:30 May that be our decision. |
Revised 2014-12-17