Man Has Spoken

He answered and said to them, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.' But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God" - then he need not honor his father or mother.' Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'" (Matthew 15:3-9).

. . . “You have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.” Again, each word in this indictment of Jesus is revealing, affirming, and damning.

God is. God has spoken. But many people, in their arrogance, believe that God, and what God has revealed and said, is outdated and irrelevant. The elders proved that in the days of Jesus, thus their oral traditions. The various religions of men have proven that down through history. Even some institutions professing to be Christian have proven that their ceremonies, traditions, rituals, doctrines, and dogma are more important than God and His Word.

Of course, there are those who claim that belief in God, and in the Word of God, is mere foolishness. “One would go mad if one took the Bible seriously; but to take it seriously one must be already mad” (Aleister Crowley). “The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals” (Christopher Hitchens). “God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance” (Neil DeGrasse Tyson). “If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it” (Thomas Carlyle). Man has spoken and his words condemn him - forever.

Intellectually, medically, and technologically enlightened, even astute, but spiritually ignorant, unenlightened, dead. You should expect those who have no spiritual life would have no regard for God or the things of God. That was the situation with the scribes and Pharisees. They had heard of God, even knew a lot about God, but they didn’t know Him because they had no regard for Him, Jesus Christ His Son, His Holy Spirit, or His Word. The elders of Israel were religiously enlightened and astute, but spiritually dead.

“It is clear, Lord Jesus, that our world is under the curse of sin that has darkened the mind, soul, and spirit of mankind. We are so spiritually blind we cannot see the very clear and definitive proof of Your wisdom, power, glory, and majesty. Empower Your Word in our witness so that it will bear fruit in the lives of those to whom we witness. To Your honor and glory I ask, Amen.”

Pastor