Let us turn now in the scriptures to the Gospel of Mark, chapter number 7, where we have read the Word of God already. Mark, chapter 7. And let me begin by simply giving you a little overview of what we're going to be doing this morning. Hopefully it will follow the word we give and it will be clear. First of all, I want to focus on the problem that we're looking at today. And then second, focus on a few illustrations, examples of that problem among the Church of Christ today. And then third, deal with a solution to that problem, how to approach and deal with that problem. And so to consider the problem, let's go to the scripture where it is set very clearly before us in Mark chapter seven. You can find the same account in Matthew's gospel as well. And then the first verse of chapter seven, I'm just going to read through the verses and kind of comment on them as we go through with regard to what is happening here. Chapter 1, chapter 7, verse 1, then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes. Now we pause there for a minute to make this observation. The Pharisees were the very strict appliers of the Old Testament law plus all of the rules they had established to support the law, to see to it that the law of God, the word of God, was being held to, upheld. And so they had countless rules, as we see in this passage, by which they sought to urge and require, demand the subservience of the people. The scribes named here, on the other hand, were a different group. The scribes and the Pharisees didn't always get along. The scribes were the scholars, the copiers of the scripture. They had to copy it by hand and they were very, very meticulous, very conscientious in doing so. So much so that they would count the letters in an entire book of scripture to make sure they hadn't left one out or added one too many. And they had a vast, vast knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. Whether that knowledge was truly a useful understanding is another question. But suffice it to say, they were the scholars and the Pharisees were the ones who cracked the whip, so to speak. They were separate groups. Ah, but we find them together in this first verse. And the picture being drawn, I believe, by Mark is this. These various separate, distinct, and at times rivaling departments of religion had found one thing to bring them together, and that's what's happening here. They've come together in order with united force to go after Jesus of Nazareth. And that's further established when in verse 1 it says they came from Jerusalem. Now Jerusalem was 70 to 80 miles removed from where the Lord Jesus was at this time in his teaching. And so what you have is the scribes and the Pharisees from the capital of religion, Jerusalem, from the very heart of Israel's religious customs, joining together and making this lengthy trip, as was mentioned in Sunday school, 100 mile transit for us isn't that bad. We can hop in a car and in an hour and a half, hour and 50 minutes, be there. 80 miles, likewise. Some of you make that an hour trip. I don't, or maybe in the past I have, but we can hop in a vehicle and be where we want to go. These people had to either walk or ride some kind of an animal. And to make a 70 to 80 mile trip for the sole purpose of finding fault with the Lord Jesus Christ These people literally went out of their way to fault the Lord Jesus. There they come. And verse two is the fault that they find. When they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say with unwashing hands, they found fault for the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they washed their hands off to eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. And so this is a tradition of the Pharisees of the Jews. Had nothing to do with sanitation. Germ theory was utterly unknown in that historical era. It had everything to do with religious custom, with tradition, which Jesus shows them their tradition is preempting, usurping, yay, contradicting the scripture. And that's the danger of tradition that we need to recognize today. When Diane and I visited Israel, thanks to the generosity and kindness of this congregation, we purchased a souvenir over there, which is a beautiful little handmade cup, if you will. China and that type of stuff. And you might call it a dust catcher, you know, one of those things that sits on a shelf. You don't dare use it, because if you use it, you will. I will invariably break it so it is there protected on a shelf. Beautiful little piece of art is what it is. But it has two handles on it. Like your coffee cup that has one handle, this one has two. But they are not on opposite sides of the cup. If you can imagine looking at that cup from the top as if you're looking at a clock. and where four o'clock and eight o'clock are, that's where the handles are. And it is made specifically for the use of purifying among the Jews. You see, though their hands may have gotten dirty and grubby and whatever they were doing, acting at during the day, that really didn't matter. What mattered is that they go through the proper religious ritual before they eat, before they do this, before they do that, and so that cup is made so that with one defiled hand, a man or woman may take one handle, get water in it, and pour it over the left hand. Now the left hand is purified. They can set the cup down and now with a purified hand, take it by the other handle and pour it on this hand and now they're both purified, let's go eat. That's what it amounted to. And the disciples of Christ didn't do that. And how wrong they were as per the Pharisees because they were not observing the tradition of the elders. Now indeed, in the book of Leviticus and Numbers, there were instructions about using water for purification. Moses was to sprinkle the people with water. At Sinai, when the law would be given through Moses to the people of Israel the evening before he was to ascend, the people were to wash their clothing. There was to be that cleansing. But a universal everyday purifying with water was not something that was included in those commands of scripture. That was something that had been invented by zealous religious teachers of the Jews in the effort to make sure the scripture was being followed. And doubtless in making those rules, they were very sincere, genuine, and earnest. But what one generation had done and their sincerity was passed to another generation, which passed it to another generation, and in the course of three generations or more, the whole original significance would be lost and it would become simply a tradition. And Christ's disciples, and indirectly, Christ was here, Assaulted by the Pharisees for not heeding the law of God. What was Christ's response? That should always be our greatest interest. How did he respond? Well, verse number five, the Pharisees and scribes asked him, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashing hands? And he answered and said unto them, well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites. Christ went straight to the scriptures. And it is always and only to the word of God which we must resort. And he says, Isaiah the prophet, in fact, prophesied concerning you. Verse six, well hath Isaiah's prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men. as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do. He quotes Isaiah chapter 29. And although Isaiah was not necessarily speaking directly of these people, he was speaking of the people in his own age who honored God with their lips, but their heart was far from them. Yet when he said that, unbeknownst to him, it was foretelling exactly what would be happening this day as these Pharisees and scribes came against Christ. And Christ refers them to that text of scripture which surely they knew but had never contemplated was speaking of them. And it spoke of them at various levels. He said, Isaiah prophesied of you. Don't just proclaim the prophet Isaiah and the law of God. See how he speaks to you when he does so. This must always be the heart of the preacher. As he preaches the word of God, it must first be preached to himself and to his own heart. And as we read the scriptures, and I trust that you are reading them, it must always be not with, boy, that sure applies to so and so on thus and thus, But no, it's written for me, and how, Lord, show me, does it apply to me? He points out that the prophet, in his utterance of denunciation, was speaking, yes, both of the people in his own day, but of these people, and we can, I believe, by extension, apply it thus, of every people, who will have their religious ritual, their system, their traditions, but never know God. And possibly not know God because he is obscured by their religion itself and their traditions. Not only did Jesus say Isaiah spoke of them, but in verse number six, called them hypocrites. They were professing to be something and perhaps had deceived themselves into thinking they were something, that they weren't. And their whole life was like the acting of a player on a stage. Yes, it was full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing. All kinds of activity religiously, but a heart that was dark and defiled and deceived by their own traditions. In addition to that, he says, verse seven, this religion is vain, empty, hollow, and it does you no good at all. Better, it would seem, to have no religion at all than to have one that binds you in self-righteous blindness, that makes you deaf to God and His Word. You see, religion is not good. God alone is good, and religion can be the greatest deceiver and blinder, the case before us being but one example. And these Pharisees who've joined now with the scribes and made the long, arduous journey from Jerusalem, 70 to 80 miles up to Galilee, all in the application of their religious zeal, the outworking of their religious thoughts, in fact, Jesus says, blind, you don't see, you don't know, thus tradition and its vile disservice to humanity. Well Jesus goes on to really then rebuke them in verse number nine by saying what you are doing is in fact rejecting the commandment of God. And while you commend yourselves that you are keeping God's commandments, your actions in fact are a rejection of the commandments of God. What a warning that should be to every one of us. And he proceeds to give an example of how they reject the commandment of God. Verse number 10. Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother. And whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death. Now it was very clear the Ten Commandments said to honor your father and your mother. It's the first commandment with promise that your days may be long upon the earth. And elsewhere in the Old Testament, there's the instruction to the people of God to consider and honor their parents. They lived in a day when there was no such thing as social security or retirement accounts. where parents might be very likely destitute at the end of their life, having spent everything that they had to maintain their family, and now unable to work, how will they survive the remaining days of their lives? They're dependent upon their children, no doubt, to come along and help out. Yes, the scripture commanded, honor your father and mother. Were these Pharisees, were these scribes doing that? Jesus says in verse 11, but ye say, if a man shall say to his father or mother, it is Corbin that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free and ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or mother. What a scandal this was. If one had funds whereby he may help his father and mother in time of need, he had also the commandment of the law to honor his parents, to be helpful to them. But they had developed a system whereby that person could say of their monies, this is set aside as a gift, a gift for Jehovah. It's his, I can't do that. And thereby escape their proper duty before God and men of caring for their declining parents. And by doing so, verse number 15, they were making the word of God of none effect through their tradition. And Christ blasts them with the obvious violation of the word of God and the spirit of the law with this example, this illustration. That's the problem. The problem is that religious traditions develop. And if allowed to develop and rule, they will usurp and contradict and violate the word of God. and it is not an intentional thing that's done. I can't imagine many human beings who would get up one morning and say, hmm, I think today I will invent a false religion to deceive many people and make sure many more of them wind up in hell. No. False religions originate As people sincerely try to apply the scripture, but perhaps through pride think they've come on a new take, and they set that forth and get their system going. It's a sincere effort. And when it comes to the matter of tradition, this is something that all of us should consider. Number one. We are all creatures of habit. Chances are people here got out of their bed this morning and for the next hour did the same thing they have done every morning for the past 40 years. I'm glad they did. You need to brush your teeth and you need to wash your face, yeah. But you get what I'm saying. We're creatures of habit. We're creatures of religious habit. We can get into the habit of going to church and going through this and that in order of service. There, check it off my list, I've done that. Creatures of habit, and habit very quickly develops deep, deep roots and becomes quite difficult to extricate. Not only are we creatures of habit, but we are also Sense-oriented. Sense not in the sense of good sense here, but in the sense of having five senses. We are sensory creatures. Everything we know has come to us by means of hearing, seeing, tasting, touching. The senses are what enable us to live and survive. and we are given unto that sensory orientation in life. But when it comes to the things of God, the things of the word of God, We do not see him with our eyes. We do not hear an audible voice. We are not handling him as John the Apostle wrote of in 1 John chapter one. Rather, we worship him in spirit and in truth. But because we are so sensory oriented, we are ready to accept images, pictures, Rituals? I've told you before, I believe, of the wooden cross that was given to me by one of the teachers in the school many years ago, now deceased. His father was a pastor, and a missionary had given it to his father, and it had been given to the missionary by a native craftsman who, with very, very hardened wood and sharpened tools, had made a beautiful little cross. And 25 or more years ago, I placed the cross here on the communion table, thinking to myself, before I had thought through what I'm preaching to you this morning, that having the cross before us is a good thing. There was a man who was attending at that time on Sunday evenings only. He was from a Roman Catholic background and was troubled by some of the things in the Church of Rome but very much yet connected to the formalism, the ritual, the images, the physical, for in fact the Roman system materializes that which is spiritual in so many ways. which is why there are the statues and the pictures and the crosses and all the rest. And the man said to me one day he was so glad to see the cross at the front as he had begun coming on Sunday evening and that indeed he felt a sense of identity with God by seeing that cross, so much so that he was convinced to go back into the Church of Rome full force. tradition, sensory experience. That is what we are innately prone to. We are creatures of habit. We are sensory creatures. We are also, may I call it, turf jealous creatures. Once we've established a habit, don't try to change it. This is the way I worship God. How dare you suggest anything else? And we get very turfy to protect our own ways. We're all prone to that. And in addition, we're also very creative. Humans are inventive creatures. and how many great new ideas have dawned in the minds of people ruled by sensory experience, by habit, and consequently, a tradition comes out of it. The religious teachers of Israel were very zealous to protect the law of God. When Jerusalem was overtaken by her enemies in 586 and fell, There was a small remnant of true believers, Daniel was among them, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and as they were in captivity, they began to recognize that indeed the captivity was because their people had abandoned the law of God, so they were determined to uphold it, and they began a system which eventually became a collection of traditions, of sayings of the elders, and that's what was ruling the Jewish people when Christ came, and it included such things as the washing of hands in order to guard the scriptures. And what had begun as a sincere effort because of these four characteristics of humanity I've cited became an obstacle obscuring the truth. Christ came. He fulfilled all the precepts of the divine law. He atoned for the sins of all of his people. He sent his disciples forth And the Church of Christ came into being at Pentecost in great power. And within two centuries, the same thing that had happened to the people of Israel and their religious actions had begun happening to the Christians and their religious actions. And there began to develop a body of tradition and sincere, earnest people seeking to do what was right, in fact, were adding their own ideas to the Word of God. And by the 1500s, God moved among various unconnected, unacquainted men in Europe, men who were priests and had studied the system of Rome, but began to recognize that Rome was being run by traditions rather than by the Word of God. and the Protestant Reformation came about. Have you ever looked seriously at a Presbyterian cemetery? Probably not. They're not necessarily fascination points for most of us. The next time you go past a truly Presbyterian cemetery, look for crosses on the tombstones. I don't think you'll find one. And it's not because they've forgotten about the cross, but rather, at the time of the Reformation, John Knox leading the Reformation in Scotland, which was so influential over the development of the American colonies later, was against anything that smacked of Roman Catholic imagery. And you drive past a Roman Catholic cemetery and you will see it's filled with crosses. And there's a reason behind that. Tradition, images, sensory experience, what can I see, feel, hear? Now, what does that have to do with us today? Well, I trust that we have set forth a pattern among humanity that you recognize and will remember. What are some examples of this? A number of years ago, this congregation hosted the annual convention of the American Council of Christian Churches. A pastor in that organization, a dear brother in Christ, a good friend of mine, now with the Lord, entered into our sanctuary, which at that time had just been remodeled. I think it was 2003. We had the remodeling. And he looked at it and suddenly said, where are the flags? What flags? We don't have an American flag. We don't have a Christian flag. Why don't we? Now my point is not to argue for or against flags, that's another discussion. My point is this, the presence of flags in a sanctuary that is dedicated to the exclusive worship of God himself had become an expectation to that brother. And in many churches that you enter today, I'm not saying this to be critical of them, I'm simply giving an illustration The presence of flags in the sanctuary has become a tradition. So much so that in his mind, there was a fault in not having them. Other examples could be given. Back in the 1800s, as the camp meeting revivals were taking place across this country, And a preacher by the name of Finney, Reverend Finney, was preaching and inventing some new ideas in theology. In Zeal to See Souls Saved, they introduced a brand new concept which had never been used in the history of Christ's church, and that was to ask people in the congregation, as they would hear the Word of God preached and be impressed by it, ask them to come out of their seat. and come to a special room, a mourner's room or a mourner's bench, an altar rail where they could kneel and pray and confess their sins. And this became very prominent in American evangelicalism. Charles Spurgeon, the great British Baptist preacher during the Victorian era was highly suspicious of that practice. and others from the European scene likewise questioned the judgment behind telling a person that because they had performed a certain religious action, namely walking from their seat to the front of the church, that they were saved. As I began in the ministry, I certainly was giving altar calls. But more and more, I was meeting people to whom I would endeavor to share the gospel, and they would say, oh, I already did that. I went forward in Otto Green's tent meeting in Bel Air back in 19-whatever. And yet there was no fear of God evident in their lives. There was no sense that they were walking with the Lord or that they had any idea of what the grace of God or repentance or saving faith was. And I came to recognize that a certain tradition had arisen within American evangelicalism, the effect of which was not necessarily to save souls. God is going to save souls, and he will. But rather, it was to offer a religious action that you can take with the assurance that when you take that action, you therefore are saved. And hosts of people, I fear, have been inoculated against the gospel because there has been substituted in its place, sincerely substituted in its place, a certain religious ritual. If you do this, this is what getting saved is all about. But it's not what getting saved is all about. Now, having said that, whether one gives an altar call or not, I will when I believe I should, but I have not in a number of years because I have a concern that souls truly know what they're doing and truly know Christ, and it is a very dangerous thing for us to suggest to anyone that if they follow a certain ritual, that will secure them salvation. But I have no problem with brethren who do that. And I would not speak against them. This is the point I'm making. There are many in evangelicalism who would dismiss our legitimacy. Surely they can't really be concerned about souls because they don't give an altar call. In a method that is not in scripture, that didn't exist until the middle 1800s has now become a tradition so firmly entrenched that one's orthodoxy is judged on the basis of whether they heed that tradition or not. And possibly, to my view, that tradition has brought many people into religion who have not entered Christ. and thus inoculated them against the gospel in its purest presentation. Other examples could be given. The area of prophecy, the Bible makes it very clear to us, Christ will return. He will return in a visible, literal, actual form. We are to look for his coming and anticipate his coming. But around those simple biblical truths, one of which is no man knows when, has arisen a host of various interpretations about when he might come, about a timeline that God has set. And within that world, there are some who, if you don't subscribe to that timeline, which is of human invention, interpreting the scripture then you are not right with God. Another of my brethren, now deceased as well, the longer I live, the more my brethren are on the other side, wrote a monthly newsletter, and in one of them, he made the comment that amillennialism, a prophetic scheme of interpretation, is a liberal theology. And I read it and I thought to myself, John Wesley wasn't a liberal. Charles Spurgeon wasn't a liberal. The great names of Christian history who lived before the system that man embraces had even been invented. They were God-fearing people. That's but a third illustration of how a tradition gets elevated to the place above scripture. I must conclude. And so third, what are we to do about this? How do we approach the matter of tradition and find protection from being swept away into it so blind and gullible as we are? First, Jesus said, ye must be born again. Have you been born again? Being born again is not walking up an aisle. Being born again is not entering into an ultra-religious system such as the Pharisees and scribes were in the midst of. Being born again is a work of God in your own heart. Just as your first birth came as God gave conception to your parents, so your new birth comes as God with the seed of the word gives conception in your heart. Do you know God? I do not ask if you know about him. I do not ask if you know something about religion or if you've been reared in a religious climate. I ask, have you been born again? If you've not been born again, then you are open prey to traditionalism, to being swept away by the religious ideas of men, however sincere they may have been at their origin, but have become for many simply a ritual of life that they live and imagine themselves to be safe. Jesus said, ye must be born again. And if you have any questions about that, go to the word of God and search the scriptures. For indeed, we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. And if I or Pastor Eshelman can be of any help in that matter at all, that's what we exist to be. Second thing. Look with me at the wall right over here. When the Protestant Reformers, I mean the front section of the wall, underneath the first sconce, where we have the sign sola fide, which means faith alone. When the Reformers recognized how the Church of Rome had become dominated by traditionalism, and they rose up to proclaim the truth. Their proclamation of truth ultimately settled on what we call the five solas. One of them, sola fide, faith alone. You are saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You are saved by believing the word of God. You will not be saved if you must have something to look at, or to feel, or to hear. You will not be saved by reliance upon the fleshly senses. You will be saved only by beholding by faith the one who is unseen, faith alone. That is what the reformers proclaimed. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You fight traditionalism with the new birth with faith alone. Look at the second one, sola gratia. Grace alone. We are not saved by doing the actions the church prescribes. We are saved by the favor of God alone. That's what grace is. He gives us that which we cannot earn, which we could never merit, of which we would be in utter darkness and ignorance had he not revealed it to us. And we believe that by grace alone Christ saves the sinner. And then you see the third under the next sconce, sola scriptura, scripture alone. How do I know that my salvation is by means of faith alone and grace alone? I know it because I go to scripture alone. And the scripture alone proclaims to me that salvation is a gracious gift from God given to everyone who believes. I do not need the traditions of a church. I do not need anything except the scripture that tells me of the grace of God and of the faith by which I lay hold of that grace. And then we come to this side, where we have solus Christus, Christ alone. Neither is thou their salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby ye must be saved. I'm not saved by a church. I'm lost by a church. I'm not saved by its ritual. or by its sacraments and saved by Christ alone. And as the reformers recognized these truths, revival came by God's grace through the scriptures and the Protestant Reformation came to pass. And then, Beneath the second sconce, the fifth sola, sola de gloria, for the glory of God alone. That's what it's all about. And the glory of God alone will be served as we put aside all human inventions, trinkets, images, pictures, religious emblems, you name it, And we come to the simplicity of the gospel. And indeed, the simplicity of the gospel is its most becoming garb. It can stand naked and unadorned and be of greatest beauty to the believing heart. And because we as human beings are creatures of habit live a sensory existence, want to defend our turf, and want something tangible to connect us to our religion and our God. Recognizing the biblical reality of these five solas is the defense from traditionalism provided for those who are born again. Those who are born again are outside of scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, the glory of God alone. Where are you found this morning? Do you know that you've experienced the new birth, that you're truly born again? And may every believing soul here be cautioned against the damning habits of religion, tradition, which will always ultimately preempt and contradict the scriptures, even as Christ proclaimed to the scribes and the Pharisees that day. Let us bow together as we pray. We confess, Almighty God, that all we like sheep have gone astray and that we are prone to wander. And our sights are so quickly dazzled by the latest religious inventions that come along perhaps sincerely intended to advance and substantiate truth, but prone because of our weakness to hide Christ, deliver us from this against which our Savior so firmly and clearly warned in his day. And may his warning this day be applied by your spirit to our own hearts. And for any soul that is here today that does not know Christ, knows only religion, but has never been born again, may this be the day of that glorious birth. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.