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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to our services tonight here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. It's very nice to see you all here on this Sunday evening. If you don't please find your seats now. Grab a hymnal. Go to hymn number 66. We'll begin tonight. Hymn number 66. 66 at Calvary. Hymn number 66. Once you find your place, go to hymn number 66. We'll begin tonight. Hymn number 66. 66 at Calvary. Hymn number 66. Once you find your place, we'll sing it out on that first verse. Years I spent vanity and pride. Hymn number 66. Sing it out now. Years I spent vanity and pride Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it once for me. We got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Now I'm here to do just everything. Now I'm happy, oh, and that's my king. Now my right to hold my only saint of Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Wearing on my horse who said, No, we got it on Calvary. Lord, you also prepare hearts and ears to receive the message tonight. They would also fill Pastor Dave Burzins once again with their Holy Ghost that you'd fill him with power and oxygen so that he may preach boldly unto us and that he'd preach clearly and comfortably and you'd give him good speech. Everything that's said and done, we give you the honor and the glory that you deserve for it and we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Him number 166. 166. I will praise him. Him number 166. We'll sing it out. On that first verse, when I saw the cleansing fountain open wide for all my sin. Him number 166. Sing it out. I will praise him. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the land where sinners play. In the glory of evil for his blood can wash away each day. Though the way seems straight and narrow, all I claim was left away. My ambitions, plans, and wishes have my feet in ashes laid. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the land where sinners play. In the glory of evil for his blood can wash away each day. Then God's fire upon the altar of my heart was set aflame. I shall never cease to praise him. Glory, glory to his name. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the land where sinners play. In the glory of evil for his blood can wash away each day. Blessed be the name of Jesus. I'm so glad he took me in. He's forgiven my transgressions. He has blessed my heart from sin. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the land where sinners play. In the glory of evil for his blood can wash away each day. Glory, glory to the Father. Glory, glory to the Son. Glory, glory to the Spirit. Glory to the three and Lord. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the land where sinners play. In the glory of evil for his blood can wash away each day. That's good singing. All right at this time we're going to go over the bulletin. So if you need one please raise your hand and we'll get you a bulletin as soon as possible. If you have your bulletin go ahead and open it up. And on the upper left hand corner is our service times and right below that is our sowing times and at the very bottom is our salvation and baptisms for the year. On the upper right hand corner is information about our mega conference for those speakers that are left on the schedule. You can see right there who they are. And obviously this morning was pastor Dave Burson. He did a great job preaching for us. Once again if you ever had a chance right after the service please thank him for coming and preaching for us. Right below that please join us next Sunday August 4th at 10 a.m. for donuts and coffee in honor of those celebrating their birthday in the month of August. And once again congratulations to the Dickens family on the birth of Evie Esther born Tuesday July 23rd 2024 weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces measuring 18.25 inches. Mother and baby are doing well. On the back please join us for our small town sowing event Saturday August 3rd in Glenbar Arizona. Talk to brother Raymond if you have any questions. And all ladies are invited to a baby shower in honor of Artie Anderson. That'll be on Sunday August 11th from 2 to 4 p.m. A catered lunch will be served nursing's only preferred plea arts VP to Mrs. Anderson. You can walk up to her text her or you can send us an email at 441 and we'll forward it to her. Upcoming events are right there. Take a look at those when you get a chance. Let's go over the sowing for the week starting on my left hand side. If you got somebody safe on Thursday go ahead and raise your hand in the number. Any salvation for Thursday. Got 11 the Larson and the other salvation's 15 and the other salvation's for 1 1 back there anybody else Friday salvation Friday 9 1 5 4 3 2 1 No. Anybody else Saturday salvation's for Saturday 5 4 3 3 I see one over there brother Raymond I see one back there and the salvation's for I counted you back there brother is that 2 ok I was wondering why your hand's still up alright you're putting a who 6 alright I think Saturday was the big day ok anybody else did I miss anyone and today 4 1 5 1 10 uno anybody else going once going twice ok brother Hernandez lead us in the next song find the insert in the front of your hymn all of the hymn here my lord if you don't have an insert you can raise your hand we'll sing it on that verse together lord I give my life to you sing it out lord I give my life to you you take control each day I will follow anywhere near or far away here my lord send me here my lord send me I will serve you faithfully here my lord send me lord I watch your birth and will be my faithful guide I will never be afraid you are false beside here my lord send me here my lord send me I will serve you faithfully here my lord send me let me see my mission field all around each day fill my heart with Jesus love lord I pray here my lord send me here my lord send me I will serve you faithfully here my lord send me amen good singing everyone let's go to your suffix now to number 24 hymn number 24 and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood hymn number 24 guys let's roll on that verse number 24 and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood God be for me who cause his pain for me who care to pursue amazing love how can it be that my God should die for me amazing love how can it be that my God should be he left his mother from above so free so rich then his grace and he himself was on my blood and left for Adam's helpless grace his mercy all immense and free for oh my God is now how can it be amazing how can it be that my God should die for me long my grace and spirit lay fast thou in sin and nature's light light I diffuse the drinking rain I for hope the dungeon flamed with light my chains fell off my heart Lord and followed me amazing love how can it be that thou my God should die for me amen at this time we're going to pass the offering place while the offering place is being passed around please turn your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3 2 Thessalonians 3 the Bible reads finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is even as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith but the Lord is faithful we shall establish you and keep you from evil and we have confidence in the Lord touching you that you both do and will do the things which we command you and the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us for yourselves know how you ought to follow us for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you neither do we eat any man's bread for naught but rot with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you not because we have not power but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us for even when we are with you this we commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly working not at all but our busybodies now then that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread but ye brethren be not weary in well doing and if any man obey not our word by this epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means the Lord be with you all the salutation of Paul with mine own hand which is the token in every epistle so I write the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all amen. The second epistle to the Thessalonians was written from Athens. Definitely father Lord please fill pastor Holy Spirit so that he may preach from the Bible so that we your children can receive the message and apply to our lives as in Jesus name I pray Amen. Amen all right it's great to be back here again this evening faith for Baptist Church again I appreciate all the hospitality and getting a chance to see everybody and just stand behind the pulpit and preach out of the Bible for you I appreciate being here and you know this is a lesson for those who only come on Sunday morning if you only come on Sunday morning you're just going to get the face ripping sermon you got to come to both services and then you know maybe back off a little bit and do some other type of teaching so I don't plan I think I kind of blew my throat out a little bit this morning so I'm going to try to take it a little bit easier this evening but I want to actually I want to teach on something tonight I want to teach on traditions versus the Bible to kind of deal with just the concept of keeping traditions and I think that broadly speaking amongst Christians there's a really negative connotation with tradition in general just because of a particular passage where Jesus taught against the Pharisees and their traditions but I think we need to get just kind of a broad scope and just a good understanding on if it's good or bad or what we should even do with traditions and dealing with things that are traditional and I think you're going to see that it all is just going to be a matter depending because traditions aren't bad in general just generally speaking traditions are not bad in fact I think there's good traditions that we could have that can be very helpful and useful and we ought to have traditions established to continue doing good things moving forward and to pass things down and to maintain a good tradition there's nothing wrong with that but of course traditions can get out of balance and end up becoming a problem so that's what we're going to be looking at tonight that's the subject matter for what I'm going to call Bible study this evening we're in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and I just want you just to prove this point of traditions being a good thing look at chapter 2 real quick there's one verse I want to look at in chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians excuse me the Bible says in verse number 15 Therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our epistle so clearly clearly in the New Testament there's a teaching that says keep the traditions now of course we don't believe in the unholy Catholic church right we don't believe in and put tradition on like the same standing as the word of God or something all of our belief and practice comes from the word of God this is where we get our authority is literally from the word of God and we're going to see the dangers too of just following tradition blindly right because we need to have the Bible as our guiding source for everything that we do and how we worship and how we serve but traditions are not all a bad thing clearly like I said verse 15 hey stand fast hold the traditions you've been taught when you receive good traditions keep doing it and that's the whole point of a tradition is something you repeat and do regularly right and the other example of a tradition that you keep here you might not even realize is just the order of service and the things that you do within the service so you open up you'll have a word of prayer you'll sing some songs right you sing a specific number of songs every single time I know when I come here the format is always the same you have a tradition by which you conduct your church service specific number of songs you read the entire chapter that's going to be referenced during the sermon and all of these things are traditions now does the Bible say you must have four hymns that are sung every time you gather together no does it say you must have anything particular about these traditions that you're holding no it doesn't but does that make these traditions bad traditions of course not they're good things right it's good to have a pattern it's good to have that stability it's good to be able to to look at what you're doing and say now first of all is what you're doing scriptural absolutely when you're when you're singing in the congregation to the Lord and praising God yeah you could find a lot of scripture to back that up right prayer preaching all of that right everything that is happening within a church service all has biblical support and needs to be there but the exact order and how you do every little thing down to the detail God doesn't give us all the details on that because that's not as important giving you every single specific detail he allows us gives you the grace and the freedom to come up with your own traditions on how you're going to establish a proper church meeting coming together and hearing from the word of God and praising his name so there's a lot of freedom that way but the tradition is going to help you to maintain standards and maintain good teaching and good doctrine throughout ages so that's part of the purpose of having a tradition is when you keep things the same you keep going back day after week after week you know church service after church service the young kids are going to grow up learning this tradition future generations will be able to know and tell a difference and notice the difference between the old time religion and all this new stuff that's going on right when you keep a tradition for example with the church service like I'm referencing and then you go to one of the fun centers that's got all the smoke and the lights and the rock you know like all of a sudden you're like hold on a second it's going to be really weird for you when it's going against tradition right so there's something that should just jump out at you and at least be able to say hold on a second is this right should we be veering off so far from this now what's going to tell us if it's right is this book right here tradition's not right just because it's the tradition tradition's right if it's following what this book says but tradition is a good thing because it's a tool that can be in place to help you go hold on a second things are changing pretty rapidly here I don't know if this is good this isn't the way we've been doing things I need to to check this and make sure it's correct so here there's traditions that have been taught to the Thessalonians that they're being instructed to keep look at chapter 3 where we started there where we read the whole passage down in verse number 6 the Bible reads now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us so now he's talking about hey when you see these people who are walking disorderly avoid them mark them and don't fellowship with them don't associate with them and he says who are these people well they're the people that aren't following the tradition that we gave you well what is that tradition what is the tradition that he gave them verse 7 says for yourselves know how ye ought to follow us for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you so now he's comparing these people who are walking disorderly and saying well we didn't walk disorderly when we were among you so what does disorderly mean what exactly is that well keep reading verse number 8 neither did we eat any man's bread for naught but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you not because we have not power but to make ourselves and in sample unto you to follow us so he's saying look we had the ability when we came and ministered to you the word of god to receive of your carnal things to receive food to receive you know sustenance while they're preaching god's word but he said we didn't do that we didn't use those things not because we didn't have the ability or the power to but we wanted to give you an example we wanted to show you that hey look we're gonna come in we're gonna work day and night we're gonna provide for ourselves and we're gonna minister the word of god to you and we're gonna show you how to work hard and we're gonna show you how to get things done and we're gonna show you how you ought to be behaving and how you ought to be living your life not a lazy bum but someone who's working working hard and look we're not gonna take anything from you we're gonna work double time to make sure you get what you need and we're the example of not being disorderly if you keep reading it becomes even more apparent look at verse number 10 for even when we were with you this week commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat hey amen that's a powerful scripture look if you're not willing to work then what makes you think that you have the entitlement to eat you don't you at least have to be willing to work and this is biblical this is Bible teaching right here and he's saying look we commanded this like you know when we were there this was the rule this is the way things were for we hear verse 11 that there are some which walk among you disorderly so there's a disorder right working not at all but our busy bodies now them that are such we command and exhort by our lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread so we see here a tradition mingled with a command right the command hey if anyone's not going to work neither should he eat and the command even more clearly there in verse 12 is we command and exhort by Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread the tradition is hey we're the example look at what we're doing we're putting this command into effect we're actually taking the word of God here where the command from the under the authority of our lord and savior Jesus Christ is that with quietness you need to work and eat your own bread we're putting that into practice for you so here's what that looks like you know what that looks like I'm not going to take anything from anyone else I'm going to work real hard and make sure that I supply my own needs and that's exactly what they did and like you said we had the ability or the power it would have been righteous it would have been just fine for them to receive of the people because they're working still they're laboring for the lord they're doing the lord's work but in order to prove the point in order to establish their tradition in order to be the example in order to make sure they understood what does this really mean they showed them and said no this is how you do it I'm working I'm working a full time job I'm doing what I do and you know what I can still serve the lord and I can still do all the things that I need to do and I'm going to take care of myself and you need to work and take care of yourself and then we can still serve the lord and no one can say well I don't have time I don't have time to read my bible I don't have time to go soloing I don't have time yes you do yes you do the disciples gave the example were commanded to follow the lord and do all the things that the bible tells us as believers that we ought to be doing in addition to providing for yourself and for your family and yes it is possible it may not be at the comfort level you'd like to have but it's totally possible turn if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 31 so I really just want to establish this point that obviously there's some really good traditions that we can hold and I'm not going to go into every single possible type of tradition that you could ever have but it has more to do with analyzing traditions this is kind of the purpose this is where I want people thinking about is get the learning get the principles from the word of god understand that no there's actually really good purpose to have tradition there's a really good purpose there's a really good place for it but it has to be in its proper role and in its proper place and we always need to be able to evaluate our traditions and make sure that we are still keeping in line with the word of god and not going out of bounds and not allowing traditions to kind of spiral out of control look at Deuteronomy 31 we actually see I consider these to be even though it is the law of god I consider a lot of the things a lot of the Levitical priesthood stuff especially it's tradition they're establishing order of events and what they need to do with the sacrifices with all the order of the trespass offering the sin offering all these different things that they had to do in their service to the lord but it was always done the same way every single time they had their feasts they had everything established but it was also then part of the culture it's because it was national it was part of their tradition so as people are being brought up by all of these things and it's being passed down from generation to generation and of course we know that there's tons of truth in the old testament greater spiritual truth that's built into the feasts the sacrifices and all of the service oriented things that god has commanded them to do so it's a way it's a mechanism by which people can continue to understand and have that good learning and understanding from the bible sometimes even without fully realizing it by having these traditions and honestly this is one of the reasons why I don't um I'm not against the tradition of observing Christmas for example you know there's some people out there that want to fight against that and be like no it's pagan and the origins and the roots of this and everything look I'm not for Santa Claus I'm not for covetousness and all the things that can get mixed in with the celebration of Christmas but just the celebration of Christmas itself and honoring a birthday of our lord and savior Jesus Christ on his plan I think I think that is a good thing and we ought to keep our tradition in line with what's biblical so is it scriptural going to Saint Nicholas and sitting on his lap and you know expecting him to come down your chimney no no there's nothing that's that's particularly good about that tradition okay and it's definitely not scriptural or biblical right you could argue about how harmful it is but I'm not I'm not really for it the covetousness especially right people trying to tell you oh you have to buy all spend all this money and giving gifts to people and everything like it should not become about you know some drudgery or some chore I have to buy all these Christmas gifts no you don't no you don't and everyone needs to get right on that too in their heart when it comes to gift giving and stuff you give people gifts because you love them you want to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ amen that's the right that's the right part for that but aside from that you know don't get swept up in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday and all the other covetous designed motivations out there for people to make merchandise of you that is not right but you know we need to establish and evaluate the traditions now I had to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 31 even in God's law there's traditions look at verse number 19 this one comes in the form of a song Deuteronomy 31 19 now therefore write ye this song for you and teach it the children of Israel put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel for when I shall have brought them into the land which I swear unto their fathers that floweth with milk and honey and they shall have eaten and filled themselves in wax and fat then will they turn unto other gods and serve them and provoke me and break my covenant so God already knows what's going to happen so in advance he's saying teach them this song I want you to make sure that everybody knows this song teach it to your family teach it to your kids just keep this song to be a witness for generations to come when things get really easy when you've got this inheritance and the children of Israel start to stray away from the Lord I want them to remember and know this song when they stop reading their Bibles when they stop going to church when they stop worshiping the Lord they're going to still know this song why because he's establishing it as a tradition yes it's part of the law but he's establishing it in a way that it's going to carry forward so that people don't forget about it verse 21 and it shall come to pass when many evils and troubles are befallen them so when all of a sudden they find themselves in a big mess because they've strayed away from the Lord that this song shall testify against them as a witness for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed for I know their imagination which they go about even now before I have brought them into the land which I swear he's like I know this in advance but I want this song to be a witness I want them when they've forgotten everything else and they find themselves in a bad situation that they know hey we're being cursed because of God because of his law and this is going to be contained in this song so when they actually start thinking about the words of the song that they have all known they've all sung they've all you know heard it forever oh this is what this means maybe it'll be a wake up call to getting back to teaching about the Lord so it's a good tradition it's a good way of keeping things within the culture so there's plenty of good uses for that I mean good traditions set up traditions in your household with your family you know soul winning traditions celebration you know traditions all kinds of good things can be set up especially for care of future generations now turn if you go to Colossians chapter 2 because we're going to look at some examples of bad traditions and this is going to be where people might throw away the baby with the bathwater so to speak of saying well all traditions are just real bad and here's why no they're not all bad clearly some are good but some are bad and we need to keep this in check so let's look at Colossians chapter 2 verse number 6 the Bible reads through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ so the warning here is warning about other traditions the traditions of men right so as a believer he's saying look we want we need to be rooted and built up in Christ we are established through Christ our life how we live what we do needs to have that establishment the foundation of Christ we need to be rooted and built up in him so beware of these other foundations of these other things that are out there these philosophies of man that are out there that might sound real interesting or real intriguing and kind of get you go oh wow this sounds pretty true right and you hear some things that might sound real good but it has nothing to do with the Bible or nothing to do with God or it's just kind of its own philosophy of man beware because that could spoil you that could turn you away just from the truth that we know is in the word of God you say what are you talking about Pastor Burzins well here's what I'm talking about philosophy vain deceit tradition of men rudiments of the world and just my own personal experience with this type of a thing is getting really wrapped up in politics and political think and political ideologies and just kind of going down this pathway of trying to figure out like well where is the truth in this and you know there's going to be different schools of thought and reasoning that sound really good but they're not based in scripture and the stuff that sounds good the reason why it sounds good is because it's going to match and line up with what the Bible says so this is where you're going to get that but while you're invested and interested in these things that sound real good because they have these nuggets and similarities of truth in what they teach don't get too wrapped up in it so that you get carried away from the source of the truth from being rooted and grounded in Christ as opposed to whatever philosophy that you have for me it was getting really interested in politics as I mentioned but then like into libertarianism and you start looking at anarcho-capitalism and all these other words and things you know like ideas and well you have the non-aggression principle and you've got all these other axioms that they philosophize about and try to come up with their utopian society and look I'm not against all of that broad brush in general right there's some truth and there's some good things about liberty and freedom that are good for you but at the same time you know when you follow their logic you're going to find yourself pitted against the word of God so you know the example is and if you don't know about all this stuff don't worry about it but you know like the non-aggression principle they're going to tell you well you can't have the death penalty for capital crimes for example well hold on a second I don't care what your stupid philosophy says you know the Bible tells us what the law ought to be and what the punishment ought to be for specific crimes so so hold on a second I'm not going to go along with that if you're telling me that your axiom and your principles are telling you that we can't have the death penalty and especially against sodomy or something like that like no sorry you lost me there but unfortunately sometimes Christians will get so wrapped up in these other philosophies these other mindsets they get just real interested in it they like the news and the debates and all the political talk and it just kind of motivates them and stirs them up that they end up getting their minds in like this Fox News world instead of in the Bible world and become listening and getting wrapped up in the philosophies of man and these vain traditions as opposed to just maintaining a proper viewpoint on this stuff they're going to spoil you now I'm not saying you can't get involved in politics or whatever I don't care what you do on that front just make sure that you're not getting wrapped up in some other philosophies and when they contradict the Bible that you don't ditch the Bible right keep the word of God in its proper place primacy and authority with how you think about things and don't let any other man-made philosophies come in and spoil what the Bible says for you and don't go trying to fit the Bible into some man-made philosophy right and go well how is this going to work let's see no you make anything else fit this cause this is the source of the truth and turn if you would to Mark chapter 7 so we do have to be aware about the traditions of men and the rudiments of the world and not after Christ those things that the Bible is warning us about philosophy vain deceit but there's another warning that Jesus gives regarding tradition in Mark chapter 7 it's also found in Matthew regarding elevating a tradition and giving it a higher standing than it deserves right even some traditions could be good traditions but they still need to be recognized as just a tradition as opposed to say a commandment of God we saw some I was showing you how I believe we could look at some of the commandments of God the song that he had people learn that can be labeled as a tradition but there's still the word of God right it's still it's still found literally in the law and the word of God but then there's other things showing people how to work it has the backing of a command but a tradition that just kind of shows you how to implement those commands which still is a good tradition but what could happen is the tradition of for example showing people how to work really hard can then morph into something different that says like well you know if you're not working 12 hours every day then you're sinning you're not right with God right because you're not working hard enough or something you know something to that effect of you know where you start twisting what the Bible actually says into something and some man made rules that now it's not that's not what the Bible says right hey a good principle could be biblically based and saying you need to work really hard and here's how I do that and I'm going to do this by working this many hours this many days a week or whatever hey that's fine it could be helpful for people but don't turn that into now this is a commandment and making bad applications of scripture into commands that don't exist and this is what we see Jesus teaching about look at Mark 7 verse number 1 the Bible reads then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem and when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled that is to say with unwashing hands they found fault and I think this is probably going to be kids that read the Bible one of their favorite passages because we're talking about washing your hands before you eat right are there any kids here mom and dad tells you did you wash your hands because I say that okay I say that to my kids right now is washing your hands before you eat a bad thing no it's not but we're going to see how this is abused and it was turned into something that it's not by the Pharisees okay so so they had this rule where you know first they see the disciples eating bread and they didn't wash their hands so disciples are out with Jesus they're working they're toiling and they go and make a sandwich whatever they get some bread and they're like whoa whoa whoa hold on a second they didn't wash their hands and first of all that's a big red flag I mean how many adults are you going to go to like you're at work and be like hey man did you wash your hands like you're eating your own food why are you getting in my business why do you care if I washed my hands but this is what's happening these are adults right the Pharisees are going your disciples aren't washing their hands they're finding fault verse three for the Pharisees and all the Jews except they wash their hands off eat not holding the tradition of the elders so the elders had this tradition that says you need to wash your hands before you eat okay that's fine verse four and when they come from the market except they wash they eat not and again is this is this particularly a bad practice no you go out in public you go to the market you go shopping right and you come back well I'm going to wait till I eat until I wash my hands fine so what is the problem let's keep reading and many other things there be which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots braising vessels and of tables then the Pharisees and scribes asked him why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders but eat bread with unwashed hands I mean they're really upset about this I mean they're going to Jesus hey how come your disciples aren't washing their hands first huh Jesus what's up with that he answered and said unto them well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites and you know this is the big problem with them by the way as the hypocrites as it is written this people on earth 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 this is where the tradition goes out of bounds this is when it becomes an error when you start saying hey your tradition of washing your hands now they started to teach that as a commandment of God like hey you're not right with and that's why they're going to Jesus and that's why they're finding so much fault with them thinking that they're in this great sin because they didn't wash their hands like oh hold on a second chapter and verse please where the Bible says that if you don't wash your hands you're in sin you're not going to find it but that's what they taught but it was the commandment of men and you know this should also give us a little bit of pause in general of making too broad of an application that would cause someone to think they're in sin because of something you find somewhere in scripture and then taking it to an illogical end right because here's what I could think about this I could say well hey if I were thinking about trying to make this a commandment of God you know your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost so we need to obviously care for and do what we can to make sure we're protecting our body so if you're not washing your hands then you're putting yourself at more risk to receive some kind of germ or infection or something that's going to harm you which then is kind of destroying the temple of the Holy Ghost see so you're in sin if you don't wash your hands before you eat do you see how that works and look people do this and you got to be careful about you have to watch out for that now everything about that is okay until you start saying well now you're in sin and now you're you know this is a commandment of God it's a teaching it's a tradition of man and that's all it is and you know what about the traditions hey to each their own you don't like my tradition you don't have to follow my tradition the commandments of God you have to keep those my tradition your tradition you could do things different it's just there as a guide as a help but they taught them as doctrines but they were just the commandments of men verse 8 for laying aside the commandment of God you hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things you do but it's not even just that with them it gets worse for the Pharisees verse 9 says and he said unto them full well ye reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition so not only are they elevating some traditions to be like equal with the word of God or equal as a commandment of God they've actually gone so far as to elevate their tradition and then remove or lower God's commandment to where their command has the precedence over God's command and he gives them an example here of how they do that verse 10 for Moses said honor thy father and thy mother and whoso cursed father or mother let him die the death and look that's a pretty straight forward commandment out of the word of God it's one of the 10 commandments honor your father and your mother and whoso cursed father or mother let him die the death and hey you know there's a generation the Bible talks about there's a generation there's a generation that's coming where the children don't respect their parents at all and we're seeing that manifesting and it needs to be stopped you know there needs to be more respect for elders and for especially for parents when the kids just talking back and mouthing off and all this other stuff and hey kids will mouth off kids will talk back from time to time they need to be disciplined they need to be chasing but when the Bible says whoso cursed father or mother let him die the death in the Bible that's more than just a back talk that's more than just getting out of line you know a curse is a serious thing a curse is the exact opposite of a blessing when you start when you start wishing evil against your own parents right that's a big deal and now look the honoring combined with this cursing of your father and mother is going to be applied more towards grown people like that's what it's for is for grown ups people who are either you know late teens or just adulthood where you're not honoring you're not doing your duty as a child for your parent or you're just even worse just wishing their death or wishing horrible things on them and cursing them and according to the Bible you deserve to be put to death for that and yeah does our society have gone really soft on that? Absolutely but again what does the Bible say this is what we need to form our minds around and get rooted in even if it's completely contrary to what the world thinks verse 11 but ye say if a man shall say to his father or mother it is Corban 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 his mother making the word of God of none effect through your tradition which ye have delivered and many such like things do ye so what they did is they made up their own tradition that just says okay when it comes to your father or your mother you just got to tell them put them in their place hey you just consider it a gift however you might be profited by me but that's not what the commandment of God said see they were allowing this to take place to where oh you just tell them that what I do you just better appreciate what I do for you and just consider that a gift and look a gift as opposed to a duty two different things taken care of and that word honor just in case if anyone doesn't know the biblical context that word honor is a lot more than just respect of course it includes respect but when Bible says honor your father and mother it's not just saying yes sir no sir yes ma'am no ma'am it's actually talking about caring for them especially as they get into their older years and supporting them and supplying their need and being there to do to take care of them as they took care of you when you were an infant when you were a baby when you were a child that's the honoring that they need which is why he says he references here if you say it's a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me however you're going to increase that they're disobeying the command to honor your father and mother because they're not doing there's action involved there in the honoring it's a caring for just like when the Bible says in Titus in 1 Timothy chapter 5 for the elders that rule well are worthy of double honor it's not a double thanks it's a double caring of caring for right that's the honor it's being provided for so it's the same thing here with honoring your father and your mother it has to do with caring for them but what did they do they created their own tradition that's completely circumvented what the Bible said saying hey it's your duty to care for your parents and if you don't do it you know you're worthy of death or you're going to curse your parents you're worthy of death and they just disregard all of that and just say yeah you know what whatever you do for them they could just count their lucky stars and be thankful that you did anything for them it's wicked alright shifting gears let's turn to 1 Kings chapter 3 so we can see some of the dangers there when traditions get out of control and they start going against what the word of God says you got a huge a huge problem and this is why you know all the traditions of the Catholic Church we don't observe you know the baptizing of babies the confessing to a man in a booth the you know all of the very the eating of the wafer that they believe is becoming you know flesh in your mouth all these weird traditions we don't observe that because all of them are against scripture all of them are so we don't we don't consider that to be oh well it's really traditional because people have been doing this for a long time well I don't care how long they've been doing it people have been sinning for a long time people have gotten the word of God wrong for a long time too but we're not just going to keep on doing it just because it's old or just because it's been done a certain way for a long time traditions have their place but it needs to be balanced well a great example of this we see of something that lasted for a really long time amongst God's people has to do with the high places and the groves it's in God's law he commanded where and how they were going to worship him and build their altars and it was not to be in the high places of the groves specifically but what happened they built high places and groves and that lasted just throughout like almost all of the nation of Israel's existence through all of the kings almost all the way to the end how many times and we're going to see this I actually have a few references for you where kings are righteous and doing the right thing but they didn't get rid of the high places and I'll tell you one of the reasons for that is why is because it was a tradition because that's the way things have been done and no one challenged that no one was saying hey should we be doing this and we need to always be ready to challenge the things that we do especially when it comes to our service to God but even just in general like what are we doing why do we actually do this we need to learn and understand and know why you do the things that you do well there's always a way it's been done well why why and that's one of the things that I loved even coming here for the first time way back when is that there were some traditions that were held amongst IFB churches that needed to be updated for example the singing the first and last verse of a hymn right hey that's a tradition that's held still to this day in many many many churches and why now look is that the worst thing in the world anyone could ever do no but it's like but why is that the case why are you keep shortening up the amount of time that you're singing by like why is that now the tradition you know I think there's a reason why there's four verses five verses in these songs because there's a lot to teach there's a lot to exhort one another with through the song so singing all the verses a song how about more than just one Bible verse in a church service well here's the one Bible verse and now I'm going to talk for an hour or thirty minutes or twenty minutes or whatever and say there you go but hey that's not the best tradition why don't we read like the whole context of what we're going to be looking at and then get even more context throughout the sermon throughout the preaching these are all things that you need to be and I'm thankful because Pastor Anderson led the way with that now is he unique and he's the only person that ever sings all the songs you know all those verses in a song book or reads a whole chapter of course not of course not there's plenty of other people that have done that throughout history and still do that today but it's just been this tradition that's been happening and we need to stop and go like well wait why are we even doing this this way let's not do it that way and you have to be able to you know it's easy to go along it's easy to continue going down the same path it's comfortable when you start changing things up a little bit that gets uncomfortable which is why in many cases the right tradition can be good because you want to keep people comfortable in a good tradition but don't allow it to get elevated to the point of now your tradition is more like a commandment 1 Kings chapter 3 verse number 1 the Bible says Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had made an end of building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall of Jerusalem around about only the people sacrificed in high places because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord until those days and Solomon loved the Lord walking in the statutes of David his father only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places so the Bible is clearly you know it's talking about hey Solomon loved God Solomon loved the Lord he had the right heart he had the right attitude he asked for wisdom but even in this passage right here in his verse 3 but there is this other thing okay but he still sacrificed and burnt incense in high places and even gives some reasoning for that it says well people the people burned and sacrificed in high places why because there wasn't a house built but where in the Bible did it say there had to be a house built nowhere David's the one that wanted to build a house it was just in his heart and said hey you know like we have nice houses you've established us this is really great I think we should honor you Lord and build a nice house for you to have like a temple here right this is this was a good thing out of his heart but God that's not how he made it he already gave them laws and rules and establishment on the ark and the tabernacle and how things ought to be done and how they ought to worship so the people didn't have a house still does not justify this is just but the Bible says so what was in their mind like oh well there's not a house so we're just going to go to these high places well but that's what people just did and then continued to do because if that were the case then when Solomon built the temple why didn't they just stop with all the high places oh yeah they didn't they continued to do the groves in the high places you don't have to turn these places turn if you would to Nehemiah chapter 8 this should be the last place that I have you turn to I'm just going to read a few other passages out of the kings for you 1 Kings 14 verse 22 you're going to Nehemiah 8 the Bible says and Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed above all that their fathers had done for they also built them high places and images and groves on every high hill and under every green tree and that's just kind of proving you know God's not happy with this they provoked God to jealousy and made him angry by doing these things by building the high places by making these images and making the groves God didn't like that and even well meaning righteous people righteous kings can fall into the trap of not doing what's right all the time or not fully following everything that God said or even participating in things that God said not to do right so some of those references 2 Kings 12 3 says but the high places are not taken away the people still sacrifice and burn incense in the high places 2 Kings 14 4 how be it the high places were not taken away as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places 2 Kings 15 4 save that the high places were not removed the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places and 2 Kings 15 35 how be it the high places were not removed the people sacrificed and burnt incense still in the high places he built the higher gate of the house of the Lord so in all these references the context is hey this guy was really good and he did this and this and this and here's how he served the Lord and this is some good stuff he did but yeah you know what but they still offered in the high places they still offered in the high places they still offered in the high places they still offered in the high places so over and over and look this can go on for hundreds of years a tradition that could be long standing and long held and the longer it goes people are going to be less likely to challenge it because hey man this is just the way it's been done but you still have to challenge it like the Catholics will try to tell you well this is the way things have been done since you know the apostles like first of all yeah right that's not true but second of all I don't care how far back your religion goes and what you think your traditions the religion of the Pharisees is still around today that doesn't make it right they have all kinds of tradition that they follow because they never received the correction from Jesus and continued with that religion that's a religion of Judaism as we know it today it's a religion of the Pharisees that's the history so we always need to be ready to correct the errors of the past the errors of tradition with the word of God and this is how we're going to keep things balanced and right on Nehemiah chapter 8 is a great example of this now just the context Nehemiah the book of Nehemiah Ezra and Nehemiah this is about the children of Israel coming back into the land after their captivity by the Babylonian empire so just for the context Moses leads the children of Israel out of Egypt Joshua brings them into the promised land right Moses gives them the law they've got the time where judges are ruling the people until they establish a king so Samuel being the last judge you've got king Saul king David with you know you've got the split after king Solomon king Rehoboam you've got the split of the kingdom northern kingdom southern kingdom and you've got all the first and second king first and second chronicles you've got all that history right hundreds and hundreds all these years going by from the time of Moses from the time of Joshua and then through the 70 years captivity and now they're coming back into the land and the events of Nehemiah are taking place just keep that in mind as we keep reading here in chapter 8 verse number 8 so they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading and you know what that was a good thing and that's a tradition that we're trying to hold to today we read in the book in the law distinctly right here's what it says and give the sense of it give the meaning say this is what it means when we read this and this is what it says and cause people to understand what this is talking about this is what we do in church and Nehemiah which is the Tershothah and Ezra the priest the scribe and the Levites that taught the people said unto all the people this day is holy unto the Lord your God more not nor weep for all the people wept when they heard the words of law and it's a lot to take in right so they're hearing the Bible being read and being explained expounded upon and they're weeping they had done a lot wrong right I mean think about their history think about where they're coming from and it's like wow that's a lot to take in for people who are not being taught properly people are not receiving the word of God a whole people nation who had turned their hearts away from the Lord now they're there they're ready to start again they're getting their hearts right they're hearing the word of God and it's just causing them to weep but the leaders the Levites they're telling them wait don't weep like this is a good thing because we got the word of God we're going to give you the word of God we're teaching the word of God we're going to follow the word of God this is good right so we're going to we're resetting where we're at and we're going to check our traditions the things we're done in the past and we need to do things the way they were done that the Bible says so that the word of God says they need to be done so that's a good thing to make that reset verse 10 then he said unto them go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy unto our Lord neither be sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength hey be happy hearing the word of God yeah sometimes it stings sometimes it's not nice and always pleasant to know and to hear about your errors but be happy that God's telling us what our errors are that he's given us instruction he's given us that's a good thing it's a positive thing so let's just put it into place and we're going to be way better off and now God's going to establish us so this is good let's let's rejoice in that so the Levites stilled all the people saying hold your peace for the day is holy neither be you grieve verse 12 and all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great mirth because they had understood the words that were declared unto them and on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people the priests and the Levites unto Ezra the scribe even to understand the words of the law found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses look at this that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month so now they're reading this part of the law they're reading this part where they say you know it says here because they're looking at it distinctly and they're looking at the word of God and they're going you know this says that we need to dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem saying go forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches and pine branches and myrtle branches and palm branches and branches of thick trees to make booths as it is written so we need to make some tents we need to make some structures here we need to build these booths because this is what was commanded by the word of God look at verse 16 so the people went forth and brought them and made themselves booths everyone upon the roof of his house and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God and in the street of the water gate and in the street of the gate of Ephraim and all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths and sat under the booths for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so and there was very great gladness talk about a long standing tradition of not holding the word of God I mean Moses received the commandment Joshua kept it and it died with Joshua I mean I don't know if it got too uncomfortable or whatever when people stopped doing that now think about this because I mean it's kind of mind blowing to think you can have an unchanged word of God that would be maybe not as accessible to your average everyday person as it is today hey thank God for that but it was still accessible I mean still around they still had the word of God amongst them and especially through all those years all those centuries of time and no one in authority that was establishing these feasts and you know no one made the correction that's the power of tradition right so we can have good traditions that can be very powerful and very long lasting and can last for millennia and that would be a good thing for good traditions but we have to always be willing to challenge the tradition and even if it makes you a little uncomfortable just challenge and be like wait is this right should we be changing something about it are we doing everything right because that's what matters let's make sure we're right in the eyes of the Lord right isn't that what we care about we care about the truth and if we're doing something wrong Lord please show us open up our eyes to the scripture any part of our service any part of our Christian life any of our traditions any of the ways that we observe what you would have us to do Lord open up our eyes give us understanding and help us to see so that we don't just continue in error that might have been started from previous generations because we care about your word and we want to do it right but in order to even be ready for that you need to be in this you need to be in this you need to be reading this daily you need to be studying you need to be understanding you need to be getting it regularly because you know at the end of the day we are all responsible for our own walk with the Lord so whatever traditions you keep measure them against this book no one alive has all knowledge right and understands all things and all mysteries and you know we strive to we want to understand it all we know we can so we're going to be in error but we don't want to get too stiff necked and cling too tight tradition but we do want to establish good tradition so that they can continue forward let's establish really good traditions on all the things that we can see in scripture that are good and right and I recommend in your family start family traditions hey the burzins family here's what we do you're a burzins you're going to do this you're a family this is what we're going to do in my house this is how we're going to you know whatever establish family traditions Christmas traditions or whatever however you want to set it up but something that's going to be mindful of serving God some way of making sure that this is going to continue to move forward something just popped into my mind or something that we had and I think this is somewhat common I used to think it was kind of silly and I didn't know anything about it but this proves my point of why some traditions can be very good traditions on Easter when I was a kid and we would get together at family event family get together for Easter time right it was a big deal we would always go everyone would get together at Easter time and have like a brunch after church and they always served a lamb cake I'm not saying you have to do this but when I was a kid I was just like what's this lamb whatever I didn't know anything about it like I was pretty dumb I was ignorant on it but it was a tradition but now I kind of understand the reason why there was a lamb cake being served right because they're honoring the lamb the lamb of God right slain from the foundation of the world is therefore our savior of course but this is why you can you can set up and establish these you can set up and establish these traditions that it doesn't you know the Bible doesn't say you have to make a lamb cake anywhere but is it a bad thing to have I would say no I think it's a good thing those are little things like that that you could maybe just carry forward and just do and say hey every year we're going to do this every so often this is what we do and the whole goal is to make sure that future generations are going to know the truth are going to be pointed to the word of God are going to receive a testimony like the song that Moses was taught to teach all the children of Israel hey this points us to God this points us to the truth this is something that people might one day just ask and be like wait why do we do that why do we have brides in wearing all white why is it that the minister says you may now kiss the bride why do we have these why is that it why is it like that you know what there's a good answer for that stuff there's a really good answer the purity of the bride nowadays it's just kind of like well we just wear white you got these whores and whoremongers going around it's like well I'm just going to wear white because you don't even know what that's about at all not all traditions are bad we need to establish good traditions but also to always be willing to challenge good traditions and make sure they line up with the bible that's why we always have a word of prayer dear heavenly father thank you so much for your word we thank you for the good traditions that have been established in our lives even up to this point and we pray that you would please help us to just in all that we do Lord that you'd guide us and help us to see the error of our own ways our own traditions or things that we have maybe propped up in our lives that aren't necessarily accurate but that you would help us to be able to teach and train up the future generations and make sure that the truth will continue and that we can design good traditions that can move forward and help people in their understanding and not lose sight of their service to you Lord we love you we thank you for this opportunity to come together it's in Jesus name we pray amen amen if you need this psalm book for 133 save wherever I go it's 133 we'll sing it twice save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go save wherever I go