When Tradition Becomes Perilous

The scribes and the Pharisees, more than the other groups that we see in Scripture. So we continue reading in verse number two. The scribes and the Pharisees ask, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. And so here the scribes and Pharisees are picking at. They’re criticizing the disciples because the disciples didn’t wash their hands in the prescribed way before they ate, which was a part of the religious ritual of the Jews at that time.

Now, I just want to, as we go, because this is not the main point of what I want to say this morning, but just remember that just as these disciples were disciples of Christ, so you are, if you are a child of God, you are a disciple of Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as you can see in verse 2, was judged by the conduct of His disciples.

Do you see that? This criticism wasn’t that the scribes and Pharisees didn’t care at all about what Peter and James and John did. But they did care that they had an opportunity to criticize the Lord Jesus because of what Peter, James, and John did. And we got to keep that in mind, that as disciples of Christ, as representatives of Him, as learners of Him, which is what disciple means, we do absolutely reflect upon our Savior.

And you can say, we might say, well, that’s their problem. That’s their problem. This hyper-atomized thing in our society where it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks about anything I do and how it reflects on any person, be it my family, my friends, or my Lord, that is not a scriptural position. It does matter. And we, just as you see mother, and he that curseth father and mother, let him die the death.

But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition, ye hypocrites. Well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is as we come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, first we want to thank you for the opportunity we’ve had to sing songs of praise that remind us of the truth.

And thank you as well for the kids that have an opportunity to express praise to God in song and to serve you in that way. Lord, I thank you for the church here. Lord, you know every character, every part of the character of this church. Just as in Revelation, walked among the candlesticks so that you walk among us. And especially as we go into the soul refresh, Lord, we desire that we might be refreshed, but Lord, there might be parts in us that need to be fixed, that need to be encouraged, that need to be uplifted or corrected.

Lord, you know us. Lord, you are the one who searches the hearts and reins of men. So Lord, prepare our hearts. Prepare the heart of Brother Roberts as he prepares his messages for us. Lord, help us to be attentive. Help us to be present. Help us to be engaged and focused. But Lord, even this morning as we look at Matthew 15, please give us understanding and wisdom.

Help me, Lord, to say the things you’d have me to say and not say the things you do not want spoken this morning. Lord, incline our hearts to your truth, to yourself, Lord. Help us to examine ourselves. Lord, there might be someone among us who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ and has not been forgiven. Lord, work in that heart. Help that person to see where they stand with you.

In Jesus’ name, amen. So this criticism that came from the Pharisees to the Lord Jesus via his disciples was due to the fact that the disciples did not wash their hands in the way that was prescribed by the elders of the Jews. Now how many of you might have heard of the Talmud? Anybody know what the Talmud is? So you have the Torah, you have the Tanakh, which is the first five books of the law, and then you have the Tanakh, which is the Old Testament.

That’s the scripture. And then after that, you have the oral, they call it the oral Torah, or the oral traditions of the Jews that were passed down orally and then eventually written down that are, they’re old. I mean, old, old. They predate a lot of the things about tradition you find in the New Testament. You find that were written in some form in the Talmud. And so these are the oral traditions that have been passed down by the elders of the Jews.

And part of that was that there was a prescription. There’s a way to wash your hands, to wash yourself when you come back from the market, and to wash different utensils and things that you used before you ate. And that’s what is in focus here. And in fact, I’ll show you one thing. Look at, if you would, at the book of Mark chapter 7. I’ll just give you a peek here.

We’ll come back to Mark in just a minute as well. So you might want to just put a piece of paper there so that you can flip to it quickly. But Mark chapter 7 is the parallel passage to where we those traditions. Now it is notable that these men who are following the Lord Jesus are not keeping the tradition. Is that not notable to you? I mean, they knew what the rituals were, and yet they weren’t doing it.

And obviously, that reflects upon the Lord Jesus. In fact, the Lord Jesus, it seems that when you follow His life and the different things that he does, you can see instances where he intentionally does not follow the expectation of the religious party of his time, even the ones that he might agree with on paper, like the Pharisees. And then this is one example because here his disciples, and we assume the Lord himself, was not doing the thing.

Was not doing the thing. Now on this particular law, notice this. I’ll read a couple of passages here from the Talmud. Don’t worry, it’s in English because I don’t speak Hebrew. But notice what it says, the extreme to which these people would go. This is in the Babylonian Talmud in Sota 4b. It says this, concerning anyone who eats bread without washing his hands, I’m going to edit this just a little to be a little more discreet.

He says, concerning anyone who eats bread without washing his hands, it is as if he engaged in immorality with a prostitute. As it is stated, for on account of a harlot, a man is brought to a loaf of bread. This is why they’re making such a big deal of it. Because they’ve been taught by just not washing your hands, it’s equivalent to fornication. Here’s another example by a man named Rabbi Akiva.

He was in prison, and in one particular instance that’s related in the Talmud, half of his portion of water in prison was spilled. So he only had half of his portion of water. And it says this, Rabbi Akiva said to him, So, would you agree with me that this is next level? The guy would have rather thirst to death with the water and use the water that he had to wash his hands rather than for drinking.

So what the Lord does is in verse 3 is he piv honor one’s father and mother. No matter your age, your age is irrelevant. It is still a commandment. And that, of course, speaks to the way that we speak to and about our parents. But it also speaks to what Jesus is referring to here, which is taking care of your parents when they can no longer take care of themselves, which is what’s being described here.

That is still something the Lord commands us to do. That is not common in these days. In fact, that is actually one of the descriptions of the last days, is that people will no longer show affection for their parents and be obedient to their parents. That’s what the Lord describes in the last days. So the commandment of God was to honor father and mother. It’s a very serious commandment.

He that curseth father and mother let him die the death. It’s a very serious matter with God and the law. Verse 5. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

So let me just give you a kind of backup a little bit. I said you needed to go back to Mark. Go back to one other verse in Mark, if you would, chapter 7. I want to show this one verse in verse 11. Mark 7, verse 11. In this passage, verse 11 says this, But ye say, if a man shall say to his father or his mother, it is korban.

That is to say, a gift. By whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. Same thing, but it added that Hebrew word, korban. That’s a Hebrew word. It’s put directly into English and Mark. Here’s what that means. The word korban means gift. It means offering. If you want sort of animal that you find in the Old Testament scripture. This is the offering. It refers to something that is offered at the temple.

So here’s what’s happening here. So this guy makes his money and he pays his bills like he’s supposed to. He pays his rent. He pays his mortgage. He pays his light bill. He pays his water bill. He pays everything he’s got to pay. He pays for his insurance. He takes care of his family. And when he’s done, he has, say, $300 left. And he has this thing.

He wants to give it as an offering to God. This special offering. There’s a special certain something. Maybe it’s the building fund. Maybe it’s a special missionary offering or whatever the case might be. He has this money. He’s paid his bills and he wants to do something extra with this money that’s left over. But he also has parents who are depending on him for their livelihood. Now the law of God says that that man should take that money and honor his parents with that money.

In other words, take care of their needs and make sure that they’re provided for. But he’s not doing that. What he says is, so he’s going to dishonor his parents because if you don’t honor your parents by taking care of them, you’re dishonoring them. You’re violating the scripture, which is what the Lord is saying. So they take the money and they say, listen, mom, listen, dad, you know, I’d really like to help you.

But this money that I have here is Korban. It’s an offering. It’s already been dedicated to God. So I can’t help you. I’m sorry. And then he takes it to the temple and he gives his offering. And everybody looks at him and says, wow, this guy is really, really dedicated. He is faithful. He is so generous. Look at it. He’s helping out with the building fund. And the Lord says it’s unacceptable because he has violated the word of God.

And the tradition in this case was this statement. If you had this money and you said, Mom, Dad, this is Korban. This is dedicated as an offering. Couldn’t touch it. Just by stating it. So you know what he’s doing? He’s putting this offering, which is a part of his religious front, the religious facade that he’s maintaining, and that’s what you see here, the hypocrisy is mentioned. He’s putting this offering, which is his religious facade, he’s maintaining that rather than taking care of his parents.

When the Lord says, it is better to obey than to sacrifice, which is the opposite of what is happening here. He’s sacrificing rather than obeying what God says. And the reason he can do that is because tradition says, if you dedicate that to God, you can’t touch it. You say, it’s an offering. You utter those words. It is off limits. That’s the tradition. And that’s what the Lord says.

Verse 6. And honor not his father or his mother. He shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. What the guy should have done is he should have made sure that his duties are taken care of before he gives this special offering. That’s what he should. In other words, his priorities are all out of order. His religious face is what’s important to him, even above taking care of his own parents.

The Lord’s not pleased with that. He is not pleased with that. Maybe the thing the guy should have cut out, and this absolutely applies to us, maybe the thing the guy should have cut out was all the Starbucks visits and all the eating out and the buying the new set of furniture and upgrading the car or whatever that he might have done so that he would have the money to do his duties and give the offering to God.

But no, no. He wanted to make sure. He did all that on the front end. And so that he had to choose between giving the offering and his parents. That’s just bad. But the tradition allowed that. It allowed it. But the thing I want you to see here, notice verse 3. And I just want to point out a couple of contrasts. Verse 3 says this, He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God?

That’s the first thing. By your tradition. That’s the second thing. He says it again. Verse 4. For God commanded. Verse 5. But ye say. You see this? The commandment of God and the tradition of men are set at odds. They’re in conflict in this case. And this is the whole point that the Lord is saying in this verse. Again, the whole issue was the tradition about washing hands and all of these things.

And they were so focused on that specific thing, which was not a commandment of God. And yet they’re judging the disciples as if it was when it wasn’t. The only thing the Old Testament scriptures say about washing the hands and washing the feet was when the priests went into the temple. Before they did their service, they had to wash at the laver. How many of you remember that?

That was the only thing. And yet now it’s been kind of expanded by the tradition into something that it never was in God’s Word. So there is a distinction the Lord is making between what God actually said, the commandment of God, and what man has invented as traditions. You see, what happens is, what man does is he blurs the line. Religious man does this. And listen, I want to say, I’m not down on religion.

I’m religious, okay? I come to church, I pray, I read my Bible. You know, that’s what it means to be religious, right? All of us are religious. That’s not a bad thing. Religion is not bad. But it is a fact that religious people, especially those who build the systems, seek to blur the distinction that Jesus is making here between the commandment of God and the tradition of man.

The Lord is drawing a hard, bold line between the two. But the scribes and Pharisees are saying one is the same as the other. And by doing so, what they’re doing is they’re borrowing the authority that comes from the Scripture and kind of piggybacking on that authority to enforce their own tradition as if it’s Scripture, but it’s not. But they’re not bothering to tell you that. And religion is absolutely filled to the brim with examples of this.

And if it’s not emotion, let me just stop here. There are three things that are used to determine whether, in religion, in Christianity, there are three things that are used to determine whether a thing is right or wrong as far as in religious matters. Emotion, whether it feels right, whether I think it’s right. Experience, whether we’ve had some sort of religious experience associated with the thing. And the third is what we’re talking about today, tradition.

If it’s not emotion or experience, tradition is the single strongest driver of anti-scriptural practices that exists. Tradition drives it. Men say, well, this is what our church does. This is what our religion does. This is what, and they’ve been doing it for a long, they’ve been doing it for a long time. I mean, look at all these people, all these adherents to this religion. They have been following these traditions.

I mean, certainly there must be something to it. And in fact, that’s the whole thing. That’s why tradition is so appealing to so many people. And actually, what’s interesting is, especially among younger people, that the gravitation toward tradition, religious tradition, is growing. And so a lot of younger people are kind of gravitating toward religions that lean heavily, Christian religions in particular, that lean heavily on religious tradition.

There’s not much regard for Scripture. You know what? It’s somewhat assuring and comforting because, after all, tradition. It borrows the bandwagon fallacy. You know what that is? Well, everybody else is doing it, so that’s what I’m going to do. Except you go back in history. And you say, well, see all these people? All of these people, all these years, they’ve been doing this. And so, hey, I mean, there must be something.

It must be right. There must be something to it. And this idea, this tradition, is becoming, it’s kind of in vogue now. It’s kind of trendy. And tradition has been appealed to and continues to be appealed to as a justification for all sorts of things. In fact, tradition is, and you’ll see it in a minute, but tradition is often used as the justification for ways that Scripture is twisted.

In other words, Scripture is actually affected by the tradition that has been held in their faith, in their religion. Some people say, well, this tradition is true because it’s old. I’ve had conversations, they’re just maddening. Well, we believe this because this is what they believed in the 300s. But what does God say? Well, it goes back to the 300s. Well, that’s good. But what does God say?

Is that what the scriptures teach? I mean, but look at this religion. It has a billion people. Not to mention that that contradicts the other religion that has a billion people. But anyway, I digress. But it has a billion people. I mean, all of these people believe this. But what does God say? Romans tells us very clearly. Let God be true, but every man a liar. If all eight billion of the inhabitants of this planet were to say one thing that contradicts what God says, it is to be rejected.

You say, that sounds crazy. That’s the authority that God has as the Creator and as the Lord of all. He is right. He is right. Let’s look at a few examples of this. Look if you were to Acts chapter 16.

Verse 33. I’m going to say something very plain. To most of you, it’s not going to make any difference because you already believe it. Infant baptism is found nowhere in the Bible. It does not exist. But if someone was going to argue for infant baptism, this is likely one of the primary verses they’re going to look at. Acts 16, verse 33. It says this. And he, that’s Paul, took them the same hour of the night, this is the Philippian jailer, and washed their stripes and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. So because the Philippian jailer had a family, we don’t know how many in his family, and he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with all his house, verse 31.

And then his house was baptized. It is assumed that therefore there were children in that. There were infants, not even children, but infants. That’s it. I mean, you can make connections with, you know, those of you that have studied this doctrine, you can make connections with Old Testament circumcision and all that. But as far as New Testament, clear New Testament scripture, this is it. And it doesn’t even say it.

So the doctrine of infant baptism is actually a doctrine of tradition that has been passed down. Now the question is this, why do people hold this doctrine without any commandment of God? Without any scriptural backing? You know why? Tradition. You see, the scripture has been made to fit the mold of the pre-established tradition. And what I’m saying is infant baptism should be rejected as a practice that is not scripture.

Look at another one. Look at John chapter 6. John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Verse 53. Then Jesus said, John 6, verse 53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. How many of you would raise your hand and be honest and say, that’s kind of a hard verse to hear.

Yeah. Keep reading. Keep reading. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. The doctrine of transubstantiation is the doctrine that in communion, the bread and the wine are transformed before your eyes into the literal body and blood of Jesus.

This is real. Roman Catholicism teaches this. And by taking this transformed bread and wine, by eating it, you’re doing what Jesus says here. The problem with that is, well, there’s two problems. Number one is verse number 63. Verse 63, Jesus says, It is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.

And he’s saying, I’m talking about spiritual things. And even if he wasn’t talking about that, and he was talking about actually eating his flesh and drinking his blood, he did not prescribe any way to magically turn it into this bread and this wine, into his blood, because there’s no bread or wine mentioned at all in this passage, you see. But this is the passage that is twisted, that’s shoved into the whole of transubstantiation.

And then, now you say, why are you going on with all this? Are you just in a bad mood? No, it’s not that at all. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, this is important. This is serious. Tradition is serious. Why does Catholicism teach that? Why do religions teach that this bread and this wine is transformed into the body and blood of Christ and the verse says that’s how you get eternal life.

You have to eat it. That’s what is claimed. Why do they believe that in the mass, it is transformed into that? You know why? Tradition. And you say, well, who cares what they think? Let them do their thing. We do our thing. You be you, I be me. Right? Well, except this. John 1.12 says this. But as many as received Him, that’s Jesus, the Word. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.

And we will repeat and we will say, like the Scripture says, that we must receive Christ, receive Christ. And a person that believes in transubstantiation says, when my priest tells me I receive Christ every mass, when I eat the bread and drink the wine. Why? Tradition. And here’s the danger. Here’s the grave danger. Is that one is trusting their soul on the fact they ate the wafer and drank the wine.

That is not a minor difference. After all, that’s how you receive Christ. The Bible does not say that. It says, John 1 verse 12, but as many as received him, to them gave. Not faith in a wafer or a process whereby wafer and wine is turned into body and blood of Christ. That has its own set of issues with eating human flesh in general. It was repulsive to the Jews.

Jesus was obviously not referring to that. But if my soul is resting on the assumption that I’ve already received Christ, I do that every Sunday, I’m in peril. Because what the Bible, here it is now, what the Bible actually says, I’ve missed. I’ve rejected the commandment of God to hold to a tradition. And you know what’s at stake? My soul. That’s what’s at stake. So it is absolutely a big deal.

It is absolutely a big deal. You see, this in particular, not just this, but this doctrine, transubstantiation, undermines the very truth of the gospel and personal salvation, whether a person goes to heaven or hell or has eternal life or not. And I could go into more. The use of images and icons for worship is a direct violation of the second commandment in Exodus chapter 20. The use of idols like idols of Jesus, Jesus on a cross, Mary, Peter, and praying to the saints, all of those things, icons and pictures that exist in Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism are all violations of the second commandment.

But tradition says, oh, we’re not worshiping, we’re venerating. They’re just aids in worship. They’re just aids in worship. But what says the scripture? By tradition, what is being done? The word of God is being violated. As someone touches and pets the toe of the Apostle Peter’s statue, as someone bows and weeps and cries before a statue of Mary, who is by tradition, not Scripture, considered to be the mother of God.

It’s blasphemous just to say. And yet people are staking their very soul on this tradition. Look if you would back at Mark. Mark chapter 7. One more time. Listen to these words very carefully. Because some people say this. They say, well, yeah, we have our tradition, but we believe the Bible too. Well, here’s the problem. In the cases where tradition contradicts the scripture, here’s what Jesus says.

Verse 9, and he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition. That’s strong words. Here’s what it’s saying. If a person believes that they receive Christ by taking the Eucharist, the bread and the wafer, they’re rejecting the commandment to receive Christ like the Bible says. And that is only done to the peril of one’s soul. If a person believes that they receive eternal life in that way, or that they must be a part of that church or some church in order to have eternal life, they have rejected what the scripture says about that to their own peril because the commandment of God is what is left behind.

You see, the grave danger with man-made tradition. Let me pause here and say this. What is the problem with tradition? All tradition is not bad, but here’s the thing with tradition. Tradition has its origin in man. The Word of God has its tradition in God Himself. That’s the key difference. It doesn’t matter how far you go back with tradition, how ancient the tradition is. Its origin is man.

And those guys, 1 ,500 or 1 ,700 years ago, were just men. The origin is man, even ancient man. But the Word of God has its origin in God Himself. And if we are going to approach God, if we are going to be saved, if we’re going to have eternal life, if we’re going to worship God, we must do so not according to tradition of man that has its origin in man, but we must do so based on the basis of what God himself has said.

Not what other people have said, Not what other people have said about what God has said, but on the basis of what God Himself has said. Let me ask you a question before I go any further. Is your hope for heaven resting upon the very words that God has spoken. Or is it resting on what your mom and your dad told you? Or is it resting on what your preacher had told you?

Or is it resting on what your religion has taught you at confirmation? Those are all faulty. Those are all traditions of man that have their origin with man. Listen, is this not an important question? Are you going to heaven or hell? How do you know? Upon what are you trusting? You say, well, I’m good, I’m good. Now I’m going to get to the Baptist, okay? The tradition of the nice little sinner’s prayer.

The rededicating your life to the Lord. Many young people my age went to these camps and they were encouraged to rededicate their life to the Lord. Nobody knows what that meant. They went down to the altar and they cried their little adolescent heart out because their hormones are out of balance and they’re in a love struggle at the camp, right? Because they got two boys that like the girl and two girls that like the boy and they’re fighting over it.

You all know what I’m talking about, right? And they go down to the altar after an emotional service and they rededicate their life to the Lord and have no idea what’s going on. Have no idea if it’s found in the Bible or not. Some guy comes down, kneels down beside him and says, you want to rededicate? How about you just pray this prayer after me? And they pray it and they think that’s good.

And listen, that ain’t in the Bible. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That’s in the Bible. And that call is based upon someone’s personal faith in Christ. And if that’s not there, it’s useless. It’s vain. It’s a tradition. So we Baptists have a lot of traditions. Dangerous traditions also. We do. And you know one of them is that right there.

There have been a lot of Baptists, especially Baptists that got baptized when they were little kids because some preacher wasn’t scrupulous to make sure they understood what they were doing and understood that they had personal faith in Christ first. And they think, well, I’ve been baptized. And you say, are you saved? Oh, yeah, I’ve been baptized. That’s not what I asked you. That’s not what the Bible says.

You know, your preacher might pat you on the back and say, hey, you’re good, you got baptized. I baptized you. That don’t matter. Just a man. Is your, I just listen, is your soul resting on the truth of the word of God? And if so, how do you know it? Do you know it? I’m not asking, I’m not interested if you personally are convinced. You can be convinced of a man-made tradition and your soul resting on it all day long, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to take you to heaven.

Your faith better be resting upon what God says. This is just serious business. Tradition often comes in conflict with God’s Word, and we blur the lines between them or twist God’s Word to fit, and that can lead directly to eternal damnation, because it is a rejection of God’s command. Now, not all tradition is wrong. Take a peek really quick at 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look at verse number 15. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 15. This here is the wedge. This is the way you get the door open. Verse 15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. See, they say. See, this says you’re supposed to keep the traditions. And so basically, once you crack that door open, you can cram in everything that a man might say and say, see, this says you’re supposed to do it.

This says it’s true. Hold on, hold on. But in Matthew 15, Jesus, He said that the Word of God is to be judged. Go back to Matthew 15. Just look at it. What is Jesus saying here in these verses? He’s saying this. He says, Why do ye transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded. You see that over and over. What does the Lord Jesus appeal to when the question of tradition comes?

Whether the tradition is right and the criticism justified or whether it’s wrong? What does our Lord appeal to? This is Jesus himself. He could have just said, listen, I am the Lord of all and I’m telling you, you don’t know what you’re talking about. But he didn’t do that. He appealed to something. What was his authority to which he appealed? You know what it was? The written word of God.

Jesus was the first Bible Christian who based his faith upon what God had said and that’s all. And whenever tradition contradicted it, he went back to the Bible and judged the tradition by the Bible. So even in 2 Thessalonians that we just read, people want to cram all man-made traditions in that verse. But all of those things must be judged by the Scripture. The Scripture preempts all of it.

God’s Word must not be altered or twisted to accommodate tradition. Tradition must be judged by God’s Word in every case and in any case in which tradition conflicts with God’s Word, it must be rejected. And this applies to all matters upon which God’s word speaks. This is what it means when we say sola scriptura. This is what it means when we say the Bible is our sole rule of faith and practice.

This is what it means right here. Now, Matthew chapter 15. We’ll finish up here, verse number 7. Ye hypocrites, the Lord says, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and hon the right kind of jargon, but that does not mean that we’re right with God. We can talk the talk. We can learn to say the right words and that comes from training or from repetition.

And we can learn to say the religious things even when we don’t mean them. Because that’s what you’re supposed to say in that occasion. And then we see someone who is unfamiliar with the jargon. Isn’t it refreshing to see somebody who’s unfamiliar with the jargon? I want to see in this church, I want to see regularly see people that come to this church that don’t know anything about the Lord, that weren’t brought up in a Christian home, come in here and like a toddler, spiritually speaking, toddle into this building or toddle into our congregation.

They don’t really know how you’re supposed to talk or what you’re supposed to say or what the right way to say the right thing is at the right time. They don’t know all of that. But they just from their heart express what God has done in them. That’s what I want to see. Not everybody that’s got it all together. Not everybody that’s got it all neat and tidy and they looked the part.

No, no, no, no, no. But people who are unfamiliar with the jargon say from their heart what they think. This is more acceptable to God than everything being nice. And look, I’m dressed. I’m dressed. I got my tie on. I got my shoes. I’m dressed. I’m not against dressing up or I’m not against getting dressed up for church. I’m not against that at all. So I’m definitely not criticizing that.

But what I’m saying is the Lord is more pleased with someone who speaks from the heart even if they don’t know the right way to do it. The exact way to do, you know, the way to conduct themselves or the right words to speak. He is more pleased with a heart that is pure and sincere in his sight than he is with somebody who’s dressed up to the hilt and knows just what to say and when to say, praise the Lord, all the right things, all the right times, and yet their heart is far from God.

That’s what the verse says. Verse 9. But in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Teaching for doctrines the traditions of men. The Lord does not accept worship based upon the tradition of men. The only kind of worship, the only way that a man or a woman can approach the Almighty God is by what He said.

You and I better make sure that we approach Him based upon that and nothing else. Because He says, any other worship, look at what it says, is vain. Don’t count. That’s what it is. That’s pretty strong. But they go to church and they do this and they’re very religious and they do that and they’re sincere too. If it is not based in the scripture, the written word of the living God, it is not to be received.

The Lord himself doesn’t receive it. That tells us, brothers and sisters, that tells us something. We better know what the Bible says. We better be students of the scripture. We better know what it says and means. Not just be following along like sheep, even though we are. God calls us to worship on the basis of His Word. Would you pray with me?