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[0:00] Amen. Please take out your copy of God's Word. Turn to the Gospel according to Mark chapter 7. Amen. It's good to be here with you today, and I'm glad that you're here with us. If you are a guest with us today, we have been preaching, working together through, verse by verse, through the Gospel according to Mark, looking at the life of Christ together.

[0:29] And we've come now to chapter 7, and I'm going to read to us the first 13 verses. 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.

[0:48] 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.

[1:03] 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.

[1:20] In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.

[1:34] For Moses said, Honor your father and 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 is Corban, that is, given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.

[1:55] And many such things you do. This is God's word to us, written for his glory and our good. We will all do well to listen to it and obey it.

[2:06] Join me in prayer. Father, we do praise you this morning for the person and work of Jesus Christ. We thank you that you are drawing us together even now to hear from your word, and we praise you for it.

[2:22] I pray, Father, that it will be powerful this morning in our lives, in my preaching of it and in the hearing of it and in the application of it throughout this next week. This is a gift from you.

[2:34] We cannot accomplish this on our own. No perfectly put together speech. No convincing nature of my argument. Not the best note-taker, best listener in this room can possibly understand and apply your word unless you work in us to accomplish that by your spirit.

[2:53] And so we pray that that would be the case this morning, that none of us would leave here unchanged. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So we have another one of these confrontations on the religious of Jerusalem with Jesus.

[3:10] Now he's coming to a close of his Galilean ministry. It's beginning to wind down. He's just fed the 5,000. It's the last of the largest groups.

[3:21] We'll see him feed later 4,000 as the reverb is being worked out of the system right now. But this is winding down. When he's going to move from the region of Galilee, he's going to go to Tyre and Sidon, some other places.

[3:35] He's primarily going to be focused, through the rest of the Gospel account of Mark, on teaching the disciples. And he'll encounter the world, the lost along the way. And he'll be teaching the disciples things as that happens.

[3:46] And we kind of see this heightened level of confrontation as the religious of the day are getting more and more nervous about the things that Jesus is teaching.

[3:57] And they confront him here. As he is allowing his disciples to eat with unwashed hands. And we'll explain that in a bit more degree in just a moment here.

[4:09] But I want you to focus your attention in on the very beginning of verse 7. This is the axiom statement. This is the thing we really need to draw our attention to and really notice. Everything else in this text builds around this.

[4:22] This little phrase, In vain do they worship me. In vain do they worship me. It is possible to worship the right God wrongly.

[4:38] And this is a frightful reality. That you could worship the God of Moses, the God of Abraham, the God of Jesus, and do it wrongly, and find yourself outside the faith, is a frightful reality.

[4:55] You see, they thought that they were worshiping God rightly. In fact, their lives were devoted to this. These Pharisees and the scribes. The scribes would have been the academic elite.

[5:08] They would have come down from Jerusalem. You see, they were probably called as some elites down. Help us come and confront this Jesus because he is confounding our accusations at every turn and we need your expertise to come down from Jerusalem, the center of religious learning.

[5:23] These people devoted themselves to what they thought was the right worship of God in their legalism. And we see that Mark's parenthetical statement that it was not just the Pharisees and the scribes, but that it was all of Israel at the beginning of verse 3.

[5:40] The Pharisees and the scribes and all of Israel worshipped in this way. This small group of Judaism, the Pharisees numbered about 700 in these days, had so convinced the nation that they must follow the traditions of the elders rather than submit themselves to the Word of God.

[6:01] Today we see this happening with either legalism or liberalism, right? With good intention, but that there's a strain from the teaching of the Word and a living that is supposed will bring us into righteousness by the outworking, the showing of what we do rather than the change that happens in our hearts.

[6:21] Matthew 23, verse 13-15, Jesus rebukes the scribes and Pharisees. He says, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

[6:40] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselytite. And when he becomes a proselytite, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

[6:54] You see the good intention here. They would do all this traveling to just bring one convert into Judaism. All of this work to see this accomplished. And yet, what they're accomplishing is the opposite of what they hoped to do.

[7:07] Well-intentioned, but wrong. To quote the great Wes Shelnut, the song he once wrote, which he thinks he picked this up from someplace else, they were providing air conditioning on a train ride to hell.

[7:22] Air conditioning on a train ride to hell. And the issue at hand here, really, concerning the worship of God, is an issue of heart. God desires heart worship.

[7:37] Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5. God says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

[7:49] And we're speaking here of the heart as the center of who we are, our very being. Don't misunderstand this as the beating vessel that pumps blood to our organs.

[8:00] This is the center of who we are. Religion kills. Outward trappings, outward appearance of righteousness kills. Its end is destruction and death.

[8:12] But heart worship gives life. This is how we find these Pharisees and these scribes coming and bringing this accusation.

[8:24] Mark chapter 12, verse 28 to 34. You'd do well to turn there if you'd like to join me. Mark chapter 12. Here we see an exception to the dorm.

[8:39] A scribe who seems to understand what Jesus was teaching. Beginning in verse 28, and one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that he answered them well, asked, which commandment is the most important of all?

[8:52] Jesus here answers quotes from Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5. The important is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

[9:04] The second is this, that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to him, You are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one and there is no other besides him.

[9:16] And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings! And sacrifices.

[9:27] And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. It's an issue of heart, right?

[9:38] We must be changed by God, that we will submit to his ways. The things that we do on the exterior are the evidences of a changed heart. But those evidences do not change who we are.

[9:52] This was not a new issue just in Jesus' time. In the past, this was a problem as well. It seems to be kind of knit into our sinful character that we would want to trade the commandments of God for the traditions of men.

[10:06] In the days of Isaiah, this was true. Turn to Isaiah 1, verse 11. Get ready to Bible drill this morning, or at least jot down these references. Isaiah 1, beginning in verse 11.

[10:27] What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, your religion, says the Lord? I have had enough of burnt offerings, of rams, and the fat of well-fed beasts.

[10:38] I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?

[10:48] Now get, these were prescribed things. God had asked them to do these things. But he says to them, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings.

[10:59] Verse 13. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. The two can't walk hand in hand.

[11:11] Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.

[11:25] Your hands are full of blood. Now here's the answer. Here's the right way to worship God. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean.

[11:36] We do this by the blood of Christ. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless.

[11:46] Plead the widow's cause. These are the evidences of changed hearts. Come now. Let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

[11:57] Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

[12:12] This was not a new issue in Jesus' time. This was a problem in the days of Isaiah as well. It's also a problem in the days of Malachi after Israel's return from exile. Malachi chapter 2.

[12:23] This is the prophet right before Matthew if you don't know where that's at. Just before Matthew, Malachi chapter 2. After God is commended by the prophet Malachi the service of Levi, the first in the priestly order, in verse 8 he says to the priests of that day, but you have turned aside from the way.

[12:47] You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people inasmuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction.

[13:03] So it's happening after the return from exile. After Israel had been taught a great lesson at the hands of their enemies, and they returned, they'd been restored by God, it was still an issue.

[13:15] It was an issue in the days of Peter and Paul, after Jesus' death and his resurrection. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6.

[13:26] 1 Timothy 6.

[13:37] Verses 3 through 5. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

[13:48] He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissensions, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

[14:04] So men in this day were already preaching what we would call the prosperity gospel. And the warning to Timothy is to shut them up. This is not truth.

[14:15] Quiet them. Peter experienced it too. 2 Peter 2. Verses 1-3. But false prophets also arose among the people. Just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

[14:34] And many will follow. Many will follow their sensuality. And because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle.

[14:47] And their destruction is not asleep. It was happening there in this case as well. And was predicted that it would happen both by Peter in the text we just read as well as by Paul in 2 Timothy 4.

[15:00] Verses 3-4. Paul stated this would be the case. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

[15:17] This is a problem in our day. People who have wandered from the truth of God. People who have wandered away into myths.

[15:28] People who have built religion which kills which damns people rather than bringing them to Christ and having their hearts be changed. Now let's take a look at our text and let's see three ways that the Pharisees and all the Jews worshipped God in vain.

[15:48] But don't miss that this has application for our day. Don't put this off and distant for the Pharisees and all the Jews. This was a problem for them. The reason I just read to you all those texts was to show you that this is a sweeping problem.

[16:00] It existed way back then and it certainly exists now. So three ways that the Pharisees and all the Jews worshipped God in vain. In vain do they worship me.

[16:10] Number one by being hypocritical. The first part of verse 6 and he said to them well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written. He constantly was railing against them this accusation that they were hypocrites that they said one thing and they did quite the opposite that they set a standard up for the people of Israel to live to that they themselves could not keep and they did this by mounding laws that were called hedge laws on top of the law of God.

[16:42] In order to prevent people from breaking the law of God they added all these nuances all these extra things they stacked them up they piled it around so that no one could possibly keep all of them and they missed the very point of the law of God.

[16:56] The very point of it being that we are meant to live righteous before him and we can't so we need a savior. Every road in the scriptures leads to Golgotha. The law was meant to show us our need of Christ but they became legalists they began to add on extra things all around do we not know people like that this day?

[17:19] Matthew chapter 23 verse 25 through 28 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence you blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean clean your heart so that your actions will be clean is what he's saying to them verse 27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanliness so you also outwardly appear righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness their hearts were not changed they did a lot of things that seemed righteous on the outside but they were not because they were done for their glory and not for the glory of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ John 14 15 Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments so get it right that if our hearts are changed if we have been compelled by God to believe in Christ and our desires are now being shaped into his desires and we love Jesus for the reality of the gospel all these songs we sing together that are so gospel centric are also Christo centric that we might praise the one who redeemed us if we love him we'll keep his commandments we'll do the things he told us to do the commandment keeping is a result of the love of the changed heart not the other way around now at this point

[18:55] Jesus' statement here is so scathing because none of us can say that we keep Jesus' commandments as perfectly can we? I certainly cannot right? is that not great evidence that I don't love him at all?

[19:08] 1 John chapter 1 gives us some better understanding I think of this bring some comfort to your Christian souls 1 John chapter 1 beginning of verse 5 this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all he is perfect he is righteous he is holy if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin now get he's talking about habitual practice here right?

[19:54] John's talking about a person who walks in darkness it is the characteristic of their life they walk in darkness versus the 1 in verse 7 the characteristic of their life is that they walk in the light notice the summation of verse 7 the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin verse 8 if we say we have no sin you find the Pharisees would find themselves this way the legalists of our day would find themselves in this position if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us we don't have a clear picture of who we are we don't know that we need a savior verse 9 if we confess our sins praise God he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us in some ways we're all hypocrites aren't we?

[20:45] we say one thing and practice another it's very often that we don't practice what we preach but the regenerate heart the one that is close to God the person who is pursuing God knows this full well and is humbled by it throws themselves on his grace and mercy knows that we have a high standard that we've been called to that we cannot keep apart from his work in our life it is true that God uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines the religious elite of this day were self-proclaimed straight sticks drawing lines that they supposed were straight but they were horribly mistaken they thought they were doing this on their own under their own power yes those of you who like propaganda that's where that came from in vain do they worship me by being hypocritical in vain do they worship me number two by having their hearts distant from God the second part of verse six this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me turn to the book of Hosea chapter six

[21:54] I hope by the time you young people leave Christ family church you love the Old Testament and I hope that none of you only carry a New Testament with you to church that's only a part of the scriptures Hosea chapter six verses one through six now there's just been this accusation made to the people of Israel by the prophet Hosea if you read there at the end of chapter five and this is the response to it okay now I want you to I want you to know that it's going to sound really good for the first three verses I'm going to tell you why it's not verse one come let us return to the Lord for he has torn us that he may heal us he has struck us down and he will bind us up after two days he will revive us on the third day he will raise us up that we may live before him let us know let us press on to know the Lord his going out is sure as the dawn he will come to us as the showers as the spring rains that water the earth this is not true repentance and God's going to give us a clue to that here in a moment through the through the prophet Hosea right but what they are doing is expecting something of God without first repenting of their sin right they are just saying yeah time and time again

[23:15] God has restored his people time and time again we mess up God came back this is a let's sin so that grace may abound type of attitude which Paul said of may it never be emphatically we cannot go on living our lives that way if we are thankful for what God has done for us we will live righteously as a response to it right look at his response here verse 4 this is God speaking to the people of Israel because of their response Hosea chapter 6 verse 4 what should I do with you oh Ephraim what should I do with you oh Judah your love is like a morning cloud like the dew that goes early away therefore I have hewn them by the prophets I have slain them by the words of my mouth and my judgment goes forth as the light for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings see that steadfast love that he requires our hearts being close to God a desire to commune with him and meet with him and live appropriately in response to that

[24:21] Psalm of David Psalm 28 verse 7 David writes the Lord is my strength and my shield in him my heart trusts and I am helped my heart exults and with my song I give thanks to him if our hearts are thankful if our hearts are near to God our lives will reflect that our lives will be the song in which we give thanks to our God in Hebrews chapter 10 first part of verse 22 says in light of the gospel truth that the writer of Hebrews has presented so far he says let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith it's a matter of heart and these people these scribes and these Pharisees had hearts that were distant from God thirdly in vain do they worship me one by being hypocritical two by having their hearts distant from God three by placing the tradition of men above the commandment of God and you see that in this quote from Isaiah 29 13 the last half of verse 7 teaching as doctrines truths doctrine not words simply means truths the commandments of men now they had done all types of things as I mentioned previously and here we actually see in the rest of our text we see

[25:45] Mark's commentary on that in the parenthetical from verse 3 and verse 4 right they weren't talking about them eating with dirty hands it wasn't that they had soiled hands and they just couldn't believe that they would possibly do that because there was Old Testament commandment to clean your hands right for the sake of staying healthy and we all know that they knew it in this day as well right you don't go do something real nasty and then go eat with your hands right not a good idea I hope you all know that right not a good idea this is not what they're talking about the disciples weren't sitting around with with gross hands in that way but they were speaking of this further tradition that they had stacked on just look at his explanation and I like to read it with a bit of sarcasm for the Pharisees and all the Jews did not eat unless they washed their hands holding the tradition of the elders and when they come from the marketplace they don't 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 it's like he's marked going and on and on and on and on and on all these other things that they do that's his commentary there and then Jesus shows them another example another way in which that they've done this and remember that he sums up at the end of verse 13 and many such things you do this is not the only two cases in which they did this they did this in many many ways and his summation is you leave the command of God hold the traditions of men and he said to them you have a fine way of rejecting the command of God in order to establish your tradition for Moses said honor your father or mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die so Moses gave by God a commandment to honor your father and mother and that if you're sinful and you don't the end of that is death but you say these religious elite you say if a man tells his father or mother whatever you have gained from me is Corban that is we get the again Mark's little commentary that is given to God this was a common practice this term was similar to a term that referred to the temple treasury and so it became a kind of oath you could take monies that you had and you could set it aside for the expressed intent of giving it to the temple service whether in your life or when you died it would be set aside for that purpose so what this person would be doing saying to his father or mother rather than caring for them in their older age when they were no longer able to produce for themselves they didn't have 401ks or any other types of retirement investing in this day they relied on the younger people to take care of them so they said to them whatever you would gain from me is Corban

[28:27] I'm not going to give it to you I'm going to give it to the temple service instead then you no longer verse 12 permit him do anything for his father or mother thus making void the word of God by a tradition that you've handed down and many such things you do so the explanation this is the accusation that Jesus makes back in response that they had taken these teachings of men and placed them above the word of God beloved this happens so so much in our day I have as I come to preach the word of God I don't think I'm the best preacher of the word of God there are many men more talented than I am more full of the spirit quite often than I am but I gotta tell you I come to this thing fearfully I do not want to say something that would cause you to follow me and not follow our risen and reigning Lord the word of God points you to him you ever wonder why all my sermons are so text heavy it's because I just don't know what to say I just don't feel like I have anything really good to say to you at all but the word of God speaks to our hearts and our lives this is why because I see this rampant in our culture

[29:35] I see pastor worship see guys saying look like me right that's that's hypocrisy that's legalism look like me I'm ahead of you watch me watch what I do this is the way I treat my wife this is the way I eat food this is what I exercise this is all the things we get all the steps and all the processes for being more like the pastor I don't want you to be like me I'm a sinner I screw up all the time I want you to be like Christ I don't want to help point you to that very thing this is why I mean literally I tremble before I preach sometimes I'm a type 1 diabetic I think I'm low many of you have caught me drinking grape juice in the back the juice we use for the Lord's supper because I think I'm low and more often than not I'm just nervous because it has such weight there's so much value for your living in it I don't want you to hear me if it were possible for me to disappear from the stage and you guys just hear the word of God I would do it I would absolutely do it what the

[30:37] Bible is brutal absolutely brutal the book of Jude verses 12 and 13 speaking of false teachers says these are hidden reefs at your love feast as they feast with you without fear shepherds feeding themselves waterless clouds swept along by winds fruitless trees in late autumn twice dead uprooted wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame wandering stars it's like he can't get enough adjective to explain these type of men for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever Charles Spurgeon said of this text if I must be lost let it be anyhow rather than as an apostate an apostate is one who falls away from the truth who's walked away from the truth it's one who teaches the traditions of men over the commands of

[31:43] God if there be any distinction among the damned those have it who are wandering stars trees plucked up by the roots twice dead for whom Jude tells us is reserved the blackness of darkness forever reserved as if nobody else were qualified to occupy that place but themselves they are to inhabit the darkest hottest place because they forsook the Lord in vain do they worship me by being hypocritical by having their hearts distant from God by placing the tradition of men above the commandments of God and so what does this mean for us today because it does the word of God was written then but it was written for us firstly be sure that you were not apostate be sure that you're not found outside the faith we live in a

[32:45] Christian culture to be sure and many of you may come to church thinking that that's what gains you acceptance to heaven thinking that if you can just stack more good things up than bad things up that God will put that on a scale and accept you into heaven you must know that apart from Christ you are utterly sinful everything you do even the things you may see as good attending church is evil apart from Christ it is from Christ that we are able to have faith and anything not of faith is sin you must understand this you must stand before God one day and claim only the excellencies of Christ for your admission!

[33:32] into his kingdom that's all we've got that is all we've got be sure that you are not apostate that you don't simply go through motions thinking that it gains you godliness secondly correct the one who is apostate correct the one who is apostate we need to learn something from our Lord here and the way in which he deals with his accusers now remember that this is compassionate Jesus right this is the Jesus who was trying to get away from the crowds because he had just learned that his predecessor and cousin John the Baptist had been beheaded he was trying to get away to a quiet place and this large crowd followed him around 20 to 25 thousand people I would have been so annoyed by them but he had compassion on them he saw!

[34:21] them as sheep without a shepherd right he sat them down and not only gave them the things they needed for spiritual life but also gave them the things they needed for physical life this is the Jesus that healed indiscriminately people came up and touched!

[34:34] Him and were healed he went around making people's lives better constantly this is the Jesus who spoke words of life to people right this is that Jesus compassionate in every way but when to you scribes and Pharisees you hypocrites brood of vipers because what they were doing was evil in the greatest sense because they were leading so many astray I don't know what that looks like for your life I would not encourage you to go and confront preachers that you know don't preach the word of God well probably not your place I don't know what it means exactly for my life but beloved we have to be more bold in living the truth of the gospel speaking the truth of the gospel and correcting it there are thousands hundreds of thousands possibly millions of people in just our region being led astray by false teachers so number one be sure that you're not apostate second correct the one who is apostate thirdly do not miss the lesson for our lives now if you are found in

[35:45] Christ you are sure that you're in the faith you can say with confidence that you're not apostate praise God for that as a work of his on your behalf praise God for it but yet we still act like the Pharisees in many ways we can still tend towards this because we still have our sinful nature we can tend to want to make our list and simply check them off this is so tempting right just give me a list it'd be so much easier right just give me a list it wouldn't require my devotion it wouldn't require my relationship with the Lord right just give me the list I can do the list it's no problem God draws us into relationship with him because he is the best thing he is the great end to everything that we do that we might know him experience him and make him known this is why we have life this is why we're not already taken up with him that's why we're experiencing him in greater and more unfolding ways if you all don't know about the man George Mueller I would really really commend any of his biographies to you particularly George Mueller of Bristol written by a man named wonderful read listen to this quote from him after he's recorded

[36:54] Mueller going through an experience in his life where he became more devoted to the word of God as the supreme authority in his life and I just as an aside tell you that he was preaching at a meeting and afterwards three ladies were having a conversation about believers baptism and they asked him what he thought and he said I see no need to be baptized as a believer because I was baptized as an infant and one lady said have you ever searched the scriptures on this matter and he said no I haven't and she said well then I would encourage you to never speak on it again until you have this is the preacher the guest preacher and he was moved to do so he did and he read the entire new testament and praise god he was a baptist at the end of that process as was A.T.

[37:37] Pearson listen to what he says what radical reforms would be made in modern worship teaching and practice in the whole conduct of disciples and the administration of the church of God if the one final criterion of all judgment were what do the scriptures teach and what revolutions in our own lives as believers might take place if we should first put every notion of truth and custom of life to this one test of scripture authority and then with the courage of conviction dare to do according to that word counting no cost but studying to show ourselves approved of God is it possible that there are any modern disciples who reject the commandment of God that they may keep their own tradition and he's asking that rhetorically is it possible yes it is that there are modern disciples disciples in our day who reject the commandment of God that they may keep their own tradition beloved we must filter everything we do through the powerful word of God and it is there

[38:39]  God wrote a book for us we should submit ourselves to it in every way so as we look at the lives of these men that Jesus makes these great accusations to let us also be sure that we will not be accused one day of these same things be sure you're not apostate correct the one who is and do not miss this lesson for those of us who are in the faith let's pray together