The Idolatry of Religious Traditions | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series)

Would you gladly meet me in the Book of Mark in chapter 7?

Please Mark chapter 7 together. Mark 7.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

And let's meet together in verse 1.

Now, when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes

who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that, some of his

disciples ate with hands. That were defiled.

That is unwashed for the Pharisees and all the Jews, do

not eat, unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the

tradition of the elders, and when they come from the

marketplace, they do not eat. Unless they wash.

And there are many other Traditions that they observe

such as The washing of Cups and pots and copper vessels and

dining couches, and the Pharisees and the scribes asked

him. Why do your disciples not walk,

according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled

hands and he said to them, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you

Hypocrites, as it is written. This people honors me with their

lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain. Do they worship me teaching as

doctrines the Commandments of men?

Lord. Bless this time, in your word,

may be accurate. May be faithful, may you be

pleased and made your people be changed in Jesus name.

Amen. I love how Jesus in verse 6,

says while did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites?

When Isaiah spoke this he spoke it 700 years before this time

and he had Jesus faithfully and honorably relates this ancient

text to his immediate audience and points towards the

Pharisees. He says, Isaiah was actually

speaking about you. And I find that very encouraging

because it shows me how Jesus viewed the scriptures.

The scriptures are never out of date.

The scriptures are always applicable.

The scriptures are continually relevant if they are hundred

years old. If there are thousands of years

old God, designed the word of God.

Yes, for an immediate context, for an immediate audience, but

more than that, for all people of all time of all generations,

And why bring that up to you is because as we examine Mark,

Mark 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7, we're not just looking at Jesus discourse and

conversation with a group of religious leaders.

We are looking at Jesus thoughts, his ideas, his

desires, his will for us today. He speaking to you and to me

this word is for you. And for me, yes and 2023.

And with that being said, today I want to speak to you about

something specific, my desire. And speaking to you, is to take

this moment and to address the idolatry of religious

Traditions, the idolatry of religious Traditions.

Now in our culture, today, there are many shapes and forms of

idolatry, but I am persuaded that.

One of the most suffocating strongholds that keeps people

back from experiencing, True freedom is when they are tied to

some expression of Faith or worship even though such a

custom clearly violates the will of God.

And there are many of these kind of rituals and ceremonies and

various kind of philosophies that are exercised and various

circles today. But the erroneous elevation to

and devotion of man-made, Traditions were common during

the ministry of the Lord, Jesus Christ as well.

Religious Traditions, the masses find false comfort in them.

Some Global institutions promote them and unfortunately, many

people cannot fully commit to Christ because of them.

And this is a conflict that Jesus faced, and that is proven

by what we see before us today. Here is Christ confronting a

system of ideas that were so elevated and esteemed by certain

group of people, in the name of God though, it had absolutely no

backing from God. And from this tax, we're not

only going to look at what exactly Jesus Took issue with.

We're going to see the heart of Christ concerning tradition

across the board. And this message is essentially

just to prepare you. As an introduction, all we're

going to do today is lay a foundation to prepare us to

actually address some widely-held philosophies and

practices and traditions of our day.

And the reason because he is their idea surrounding our

faith, that true Christians are either unaware of or unconcerned

about and that's concerning to me.

The reason why we're going to do this is because if we are not

informed, what can happen is, you can have genuine, Believers,

confused, and Beyond confusion. What you can have is

illegitimate collaboration. And from a little illegitimate

collaboration, you can even have conversion.

Conversion to false Notions and false beliefs, and misguided

Concepts. And that's what we want to avoid

in a day of growing deception. Do we not before we move on?

Let me clarify something from the start, I'm going to be using

the word tradition throughout this message, but I don't want

it to be misinterpreted in any way.

The general definition of tradition is any long-held

belief that has been passed down from generation to generation.

It's a transmission of ideas or some kind of custom or ideology

that is given over from one person to another or one

institution down to a group of people.

But that is not what I'm referring to know is it nor is

it what the Lord is necessarily concerned about?

The tradition that we are speaking of is any concept or

practice that is revered or recognized as Divine Authority

though? It is absolutely not validated

by the scriptures at all. In simple terms what I want to

speak to you about is any idea that originated with man?

And finds no basis in the complete word of God, but is

treated as Doctrine. And anything that fits in that

category is not only dangerous for us.

It's something that the Lord Jesus Christ.

Denounces severely tradition itself is not evil.

It's actually a neutral conviction.

There are some traditions that are harmless.

There are some traditions that are even good but the factor

that makes all the difference is whether or not such a tradition

cooperates with the word of God or challenges it.

That's what makes the difference.

And what Jesus is facing here is a catalog of teachings that

challenged the supreme authority of the written word of God look

here at verse 5 with me again, it says you're at the end of

verse 5 In the questioning and the fault-finding from the

Pharisees they wondered. Why didn't you hold to the

tradition of the elders? This was a set of extra biblical

teachings, that the Pharisees promoted and regulated by are

also observed by a majority of Jews.

How do I know that? Look at verse 34, the Pharisees

and all the Jews, do not eat, unless they wash their hands

properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.

And so, this is not only proposed by the Pharisees, it

was popular in Jesus day, but I think it's worth asking the

question. Well, where did the tradition of

the elders begin with? It's clear that it was prominent

but what was the Genesis of this?

What was the conception of this? And some believe that the

tradition of the elders and I need you to lean and because

this is going to be more teaching and preaching but it's

absolutely essential The tradition of the elders is

widely believed to be the oral law among the Jews and two

centuries later, right? This oral law.

This is the something that was verbally transmitted was

officially recorded and compiled and what is known today as the

mishnah, right? A collections of commentaries

and even commands about and around the word of God and often

beyond the word of God, but at this time in Jesus, day, Mark

Mark 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7, the Tradition of the elders was still verbal.

It was not concrete, it was not inscribed anywhere.

Again, there was transmitted word by word and we see here

that these kind of traditions, actually, in their own tradition

explains where they came from, in the talmud, you can look this

up yourself It is recorded that these Jews believe that this

oral law was given by God at Mount Sinai and downloaded to

Moses. And from Moses, he entrusted,

Surah Men by teaching these kind of laws and then the cycle

started, these men, Faithful Men would then transmitted to the

Next Generation and that would happen from generation to

generation. And as time went on, this oral

law would be expounded upon and X expanded as well.

And what's interesting? Is that the oral law, not the

same as the written law. Is what you see in the Hebrew

scriptures. The oral law was heavily

enforced after the Babylonian captivity, so the Jews were

taken from their land and brought into Babylon.

You remember that? That's in our Bibles when they

returned there was such a fear of experiencing God's

discipline. Again that the Jews of that

time, decided to really implement the oral law and why

was that because they wanted Oral law to function as a fence

around the Hebrew scriptures, the clear commands of God, given

in the word of God, they wanted the cushion to make it that much

more difficult for the people to actually violate the word of

God. And so, it provided parameters

that before you come to the central idea of the word of God

and either disobeying it or fulfilling it, you would have to

go through all these other hoops and all these other kind of

ideas before doing that. And so it seems intelligent, it

seems like there's good intentions there, but you can

imagine the problems with this and what was the problem with

this? That eventually the line between

the oral law and the written law of God was blurred It was

blurred to the point where the oral not laws, now seen as equal

and in some cases, even superseding the written law of

God. And now you have people even in

Jesus day that are measuring their godliness up to the

standard of the tradition of the elders.

Instead of the clear revealed will of the Lord. and so, now,

everything about their supposed sanctification is about rituals,

it's about ceremonies, it's about external formalities,

instead of True Heart Devotion to the Lord, The way he designed

it to be. And so this is what Jesus was

dealing with this kind of a practice.

And again, it might have originated with good intentions

but it became extremely problematic.

You know, you asked some people today, why it is that they do

certain things in the name of God or in the name of religion

and you've probably heard it. I've heard it many times.

Well, this is just what our family has done for Generations.

This is what our great-grandfather's have done on

both sides of my family. So this is why we attend the

church that we attend or this is what our culture is all about.

And so our culture has done this for centuries.

So why would we break that lineage?

We're going to uphold that because this is something that

we've known. Since we could even remember.

And here's the point that I want to make whenever the word of God

is not recognized as sufficient pay attention, I didn't say

divinely inspired Note that I say without error, you have

people who hold to Traditions that view the word of God as

divinely inspired and without error.

The problem is, whether or not it is sufficient.

And if you do not see the word of God as sufficient, you open

yourself up to what you might believe to be compatible

authorities. In other words, other ideas or

beliefs, or instructions, or teachings, that seemed to work

with, in your understanding, the will of God is revealed in the

scriptures but what often happens is, whatever you think

to be compatible ends, up, conflicting and even

contradicting the word of God is saying really.

Is that really the case? Yes, it is the case, one of the

strongest examples of that is Roman Catholicism.

All. Look at all the heads.

I just came up. Roman Catholicism doesn't see

the scripture as the sole authority of their teaching in

faith and practice. They actually have three streams

of authority. The first stream is what you and

I hold to but we hold to completely and sufficiently

that's the Sacred Scriptures but they go beyond that to say that.

No no it's not just Sacred Scriptures, you need sacred

tradition and what a sacred tradition, sacred tradition is

what the Pharisees viewed, as their tradition, the oral law.

In other words, what the Catholics would believe the

Roman Catholics? Is that what the apostles have

taught not necessarily in the word of God?

But through their own mouths, that has been transmitted over

time to the true church which they believe is their Church.

Church. And only the church holds those

understandings and are able to present those teachings to the

Common People, sacred tradition, you're saying there's more to

that. Yes, there's more than that,

it's not just sacred scripture is not just sacred tradition.

It's the magisterium What's the magisterium?

Well, it's their church. And what they believe about the

magisterium is that their church and their leadership alone is

able to give the proper interpretation of scripture and

Beyond, the proper interpretation of scripture.

They even have the authority given supposedly by God, to

determine what is actually Doctrine, and what is not

Doctrine, whether it's found in sacred scripture or not.

Singh. Is that real or prepare yourself

for the coming weeks? It is very real and one of the

recent examples of that you can already feel how that is an

issue with one of the recent examples of that is the idea of

the Assumption of Mary. What is the belief of the

Assumption of Mary that bodily? Mary at the end of her life Rose

in to heaven and there's debate, whether she died first or she

didn't die first. But what's more important is

that this is a teaching that has been established by the Roman

Catholic Church as Dogma. What's dogma mean, Dogma means

that it is something that was given by God and is binding.

It's not optional, it's not secondary.

If you claim to be a Christian, you have to believe that

Doctrine. You're saying well, okay.

But isn't that an ancient thing? No, it was actually established

in 1950. So you understand why I'm

bringing this up. And I'm going to bring up

different examples in the coming weeks, but it's crucially

important and Jesus. Shows in this text how this

happens. Not just in one kind of

Institutions but in many kind of Institutions and it can bleed

into what we know as legalism even in an Evangelical churches.

But look here with me quickly in verse 8 of Mark chapter 7, you

Mark 7 · chapter mention

read the first six seven verses, look at verse eight, he

addresses the Pharisees and he says, you leave the Commandment

of God and hold to the tradition of men.

When the nasb uses the word neglect.

Instead of the word, leave you neglect.

The Commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.

See the danger of valuing tradition is that it can easily

lead you on the path of ignoring the word of God as your supreme

authority because of how much you cherish another ancient or

familiar idea. Do that long enough and what

tends to happen is that the word no longer becomes the standard

by, which you scrutinize any idea or belief concerning faith

and practice and for the for some what happens is the

scriptures eventually become something, that's totally

ignored altogether and not consulted at all concerning

certain issues. What happens is, people say well

whatever is passed down is more important than whatever is

written. And you see what the Pharisees

that that's what they do right here.

I mean, they approached the disciples and what's their issue

with the disciples. At this point.

You didn't wash your hands before you ate.

This is not a hygiene problem. I advise you to wash your hands

before you eat. That's not tradition.

That's just good hygiene. Yeah.

No. But there's a ritualistic idea

behind this that I don't have to break down to you.

It's clear enough here. This is more about piety than it

is about personal hygiene. And let me put this as a side

note. If you're a disciple of Jesus

Christ and the only criticism that the enemies of the Gospel

have against you, it is concerning futile.

Empty spiritual ideas, you're in a really good place.

You're in a really good place. Points something in my life that

harms or violates the word of God.

I'm in trouble pointing to anything else.

That doesn't concern God's will. I'm in a good place in my walk

with the Lord. So this is what they're doing,

is it surprising? It shouldn't be surprising to us

and they come and they and they question the disciples, why do

your disciples not walk, according to the tradition of

the elders and, you know, this perhaps in your walk that you've

had similar questions asked of you.

Why don't you view again? Mary, the way we view Mary per

se or why don't you baptized the way we baptized or?

Why don't you seek the intercession of the Saints?

And why do you why do you deprive yourself of such a

Wonder in such a Grace. And when those questions usually

come to me that initial response and I hope it's yours as well as

well, because the Bible says Because the Bible says, but what

happens is when tradition is so upheld, it begins to outshine

scripture and takes primary place.

Look at verse 13 Jesus says, thus making void the word of God

by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things

you. Do you know what making void

means to deprive of its force and Authority?

Tradition can do that. It can seek to empty the power

of God's word in their life or in a Facebook, faith-based

institution and how many of us in this place have addressed

these issues within within our own families or friends and

we've sat with people with with Open Hearts and genuine hearts

and trying to convey the truth of the gospel.

And when you bring out certain things from the word of God and

you confront certain practices that they might hold to, it has

no effect on them. In fact, what you learn is that

they are More willing to break the word of God, for their

tradition and to break their tradition for the word of God.

How does that happen? The same way it's happening

here? And Paul was like this before

his conversion in Galatians 114, he declares, and I was advancing

in Judaism Beyond many of my own age among my people.

So, extremely zealous. Was I for the traditions of my

father's So, extremely zealous, people get very passionate about

tradition. To the point where it's more

important than anything else, including the word of God?

You know what that tells me about Paul.

Here's what it tells me, then, when you truly come to Christ,

you give up everything including your tradition, no matter how

binding it is on you. No matter how binding it is on

your family, no matter how binding it is on your culture.

When you truly come to Christ, you turn away, not just from

your sin. Not just from your belly and not

just your sexual morality but even Concepts and beliefs that

challenge the word of God. Unfortunately, many people today

are like Paul who are like Paul before when he came to Christ.

Think that they are honoring Christ at the same time.

But Jesus here has a different opinion because when you had

that kind of a Zeal, what tends to happen is, there is some kind

of form of Abandonment of the word of God.

And that's what he shares. He says first you leave the

Commandment of God but that's step number one.

Step number two is what you find in verse 9.

So in verse 8 he says you lead the Commandment of God.

And in verse 9 he said to them you have a fine way of rejecting

the Commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.

It always starts with neglecting, it always starts

with ignoring, it always starts with adding thinking that it's

compatible and over time, if you're not watchful and will you

end up doing what the Pharisee did and that's outright defying.

What the word of God is now? Here's what I find interesting,

I don't believe the Pharisees would admit that their

ideologies, and their Concepts, and their theology rejected.

The word of God, no, they praised the prophets, they

memorize and esteem the law. They would speak highly of what

was delivered by Moses and the psalmist, right?

But Jesus, accuses them of rejecting it.

Why? Because, in theory, they did

that, but in practice, they didn't.

In practice, they spurned the Lord and what they were doing

and what God clearly laid out in his preserved truth.

And that's what many people do today, they claim to honor the

Bible. They have beautiful Bibles in

their homes. Beautiful Bibles.

In their gorgeous artistic buildings.

But does it have authority? What's really being taught?

What's really being conveyed? What's really being passed down?

What's really being delivered? That's the most important

question. And Jesus exposes the Pharisees

for this by pointing out. One of their misguided practices

that they thought and taught as God's will come here to verse

10. For Moses said, for Moses said,

honor your father, and your mother, and whoever reviles

father, or mother must surely die.

But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever

you would have gained from me as Corbin, I was given to God then

you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or

mother. Look with me again in verse 10.

The first two were three words here for Moses said, hold on to

that. Now, look at verse 11, but you

say that's the heartbeat of tradition.

Tradition, the way I gave you. The definition earlier will

always add or subtract from the word of God.

Moses said when he says, Moses, he is referring to his

authorship as given by God Moses said this, but you're saying

this In Jesus quotes. The fifth commandment as

inscribed in Exodus 20:12 which deals with honoring your father

Exodus 20:12

and your mother to remind the Pharisees That it is a lifelong

call to care for your parents. It's a lifelong responsibility

for you to look out for those who have taken care of you,

given birth to you. And even if they didn't

necessarily treat, you the way you desired to be treated, there

is still a demand to honor them. And so serious is an Eyes Of God

that to disobey this kind of a command is worthy of the capital

punishment. Why is the Lord bringing this

up? Because one of the traditions of

the elders is that they would Escape that responsibility by

claiming that their resources were Corbin.

Carbon which means as we just heard devoted to God, how would

this play out? It's very easy.

Let's say, aged parents needed financial assistance and

rightfully. So they approach their son or

their daughter to ask for that kind of an aide.

If a person wanted to, they could declare that their

resources have been devoted to God Corbin set apart in

consecrated. Assuming that it is given over

to some charitable cause, well, that's a donation to the temple

or to some local synagogue. The idea here is that because of

Corbin, you cannot claim this from me even though you're my

father or my mother. And this is heartbreaking for

many reasons. And one of the reasons why this

is a Despicable vow is because although a person would declare

their finances as korban, there wasn't a requirement for an

immediate pledge. You didn't have to give that

money up necessarily to that charitable cause right away.

You can withhold that money and you can actually do with it as

you please. The main point of it is that it

puts a restriction on you of giving up, something that you

want to hold on for yourself. Even if that something would

honor God's word and fulfill the fifth commandment and here's

where it gets extra nasty. Because while you would dedicate

this, the idea is that you were actually selfishly holding onto

it while maintaining a form of piety.

I'm honoring God by doing this. I'm sorry Mom.

I'm sorry, Dad. I know you're in need, but I'm

giving what you're asking for to the cause of Yahweh.

So I cannot help you. Jesus points out this hypocrisy

and he shows just how deadly tradition can be and that's

exactly right. You see what tradition does and

people don't even realize and this is why I'm bringing this to

you because I want you to feel the heart of Christ here.

This is not my idea. If you're upset your don't get

upset with me, get upset with Christ.

Jesus here, realizes that man. Can so pervert the idea of

tradition that it literally sucks away, the power of God

through the word of God, unto salvation and untrue, true,

sanctification and transformation, that's what

tradition does. This is why he comes at it with

such aggression and sternness and Clarity because ultimately

what it's trying to do is usurp what God had given to us as the

source of our true godliness. So he deals with it head-on.

And when you look at the Lord here, you know I realized

something. So inspiring Do you get any

impression that Jesus here? Promotes another kind of

authority apart from the scriptures.

Do you have any kind of in cleaning, any kind of leaning

that the Lord is open to the concept that besides scripture,

you can have a b or c know you don't?

He keeps eluding to the Commandment of God, he keeps

pointing back to the word of God.

And even when they come to their, with their initial

accusation, Jesus quotes, the word of God when the Sadducees

approached Jesus about their ideas of the Resurrection.

And they try to trap Jesus because the Sadducees did not

hold to an afterlife. You know what Jesus says you

neither know the scriptures or the power of God.

It's always the scriptures with Jesus.

It's always the word of God with the Lord.

And as a side note may I say this I think it's worth it.

It may not tie into the theme but it's worth mentioning.

There's a principle here with the Corbin idea, right?

We may not use that word korban, but it is a very real Temptation

for us to dodge our duties to our spouses and to our children.

In the name of serving, God be careful.

Be watchful the way that you honor.

God, one of the strongest ways that you honor, God Is by loving

your family. Well, loving them very well.

A lot of people are committing korban.

Without using the word and their families are starving for love

and affection and time. And it's all done in the name of

serving him. But again this is why I'm

bringing this to you as form of introduction because I want you

to realize how crucial this is. And you just amended, it's

clear, right? Jesus, obviously upholds.

And esteems the scriptures Above All Else, everything else is

subservient. Everything else surrenders to

what has been written? That's not how many people feel

And even in this day the reason why I'm doing this and I and

that reason why I think it's crucial importance because even

in our day today there is a great enamel ring with tradition

these days. You have some people who've come

from and some of you have come back from a traditional

background and the Lord, open your eyes to that and you've

turned away from that. And for some, it's still has a

clutch on them. And for others especially young

people today because I believe they're uninformed and they are

they are lured by a veneer, they are drawn to this concept of

tradition and what begins to take authority is historicity

how long something has been going on for and then.

So you have people turning away from Clear scripture and now

willing to flirt with Concepts that they think is compatible

that they think is Is harmless, when in fact is leading you

down, a path of danger. Great danger.

And your Doctrine Now, you might not like the direction that

we're heading into for the next few weeks.

You might be thinking yourself, brother?

Why don't you just stick to preaching what we believe why

touch on what other people believe?

And I get what you're saying to some degree.

But can I remind you of the words of Jude?

Let's turn that before we break bread together.

Go to Jude chapter Well, there's no chapter Jude 3.

Jude 3. So pastoral of him, in the first

word of verse 3, beloved, although I was very eager to

write to you about our common salvation.

What does he mean by that? I was, I was looking to

actually, initially write to you about the elements of the faith

that you and I share our common salvation.

What you and I as a Community of Faith whole to as the essentials

of our faith, I was actually planning to write these things

to you. And then he goes on to say, I

found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for

the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints.

As a leader Jude felt it necessary to lean into actually

addressing issues that were challenging the truth.

And he wanted to train the people to know how to contend

meaning to defend to fight for. It's a very strong word.

I want you to know how to contend for the faith and this

is the part that blessed, blesses me that was once for all

delivered to the Saints. Once for all it's settled, it's

done. We're not waiting for extra

Revelation, we're waiting for God to add to the word of God.

We're not waiting for God to subtract from, no, no, it's been

settled and the foundation that concrete is dry.

Right? The foundation of the Apostles

and the prophets, according to Ephesians true to, that has been

determined its once and for all settled.

But some people don't feel that way.

They don't feel that way and that's why I'm calling you as

the Saints of Christchurch to know how to contend and that's

my intention. I don't know how long we'll stay

in. This will trust that.

As God has brought us to Mark chapter 7, he will give us

Mark 7 · chapter mention

exactly what we need for us to be equipped.

And so as we close, It was very hard for me to give you just a

brief introduction. You know what a struggle is in

preaching, at least for me, it's not all.

How am I going to say this and fill up the time?

It's how am I going to say this with?

So little time every week? Pray for me.

I know maybe there are some questions you have or you feel

like some things were not complete.

I'm fully aware of that all I'm doing and all I did it by

presenting this is to prepare you for where we're headed

together. Where we're headed together.

But for now, we turn our attention to the Lord's Supper.

Not a tradition of man. An ordinance that Jesus Christ

has given us. That he wants his church to

honor and honor in a specific way.

Here's what we're going to do things a little differently.

Usually we stand we sing. We have you approached the

table, take the elements, you're seated.

And then Pastor Daniel Bennett, will provide some meditation

before we partake, but listen to this order.

Now we're going to stand, we're going to sing, but then right

away you're going to be seated, we will have our time of

meditation and then we will call you for to partake.

Will give thanks and then we'll eat.

All right. Let me remind you.

I'm sure, Daniel. Remind you, that this is an

ordinance. For the Church of Jesus Christ.

Those who have given their hearts to the Lord, by faith in

him. And believing that what he has

done on the cross is for your salvation, you have repented and

you have believed And you recognize that this is done in

remembrance of him. He recognized that it's not by

your own works. It's not by your own efforts.

It's not by your own striving that you enter into eternal

life. But what he has done alone

through his body, through his blood, if you're a person who

can't say confidently, that's what I believe in.

Then we ask you kindly to refrain from participating

because this is reserved for the children of God, you're more

than welcome to observe. And as you're observing, I love

to say this, when you see Christians coming forward to eat

of this and to partake of this, what you're seeing is people

walking up up to a revelation and that Revelation is.

I cannot save myself. What Jesus Christ has done has

saved me and delivered me. And I am saved based on his

Merit, not my own and maybe you can come to that realization

yourself and maybe one day you too can partake of this table

and so I can invite the pricing to come up at this moment.

As we prepared to sing, I would like to address the person in

here who might even in this introduction, who might be

holding two traditions. Time did not allow me to address

one of the more popular Traditions that are clearly

concerning. But what I want to call to you

to do is ask yourself, what is the authority in my faith?

What is the authority? Is it the word of God or is it

the word of God and it can I ask you something?

Even you Evangelical Believers? Can I ask you something?

Why is it that you do? What you do?

Why is it that you believe what you believe?

Is it because of the word of God is too because it is written.

Really? What this boils down to is an

authority issue, and if you think that this is legalistic,

or if you think that this is nitpicking, or let me give you a

popular one, if you think that this is divisive, then you think

Jesus is divisive? Because Jesus cares about the

truth. And Jesus cares about What

agrees with the truth and what disagrees with the truth?

I know it's not popular but I want to please him.

That's my desire. And if you want to be in the

truth, if you want to be in the totality of the truth, then

you'll be concerned about one thing, as you're driving

motivation. Does this, please my God, Even

at the expense of offending people that I know even at the

expense of may be disturbing people that I care about and who

care about me. You have to determine something.

Do I want Christ to be, please Above All Else. and if you can

say yes to this, then you can rejoice in a chapter like, Mark,

Mark 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7, but if you feel offense, they want to ask you to

step back and wonder why and ask yourself.

Does my emotional disturbance makes sense according to what

Christ has said? As we come forward today, as I

said, it's no mere tradition. It's got inspired.

Can we stand and sing to the Lord together?