Address—Joseph Countouris
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#172 if somebody could start that.
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The message I have this afternoon.
Has to do with the Word of God.
And it's similar to what our brother Matt spoke on this afternoon.
It has to do with the distinction, the difference between a personal exercise and an uncompromisable truth.
A personal exercise and an uncompromisable truth and the dangers and pitfalls and snares that we can get into.
I spoke on this briefly. I spoke on this recently and Dorothy. So for those who are from Dorothy, I apologize for the repetition. I'll appeal to Philippians Chapter 3, which says to speak the same things is not grievous but is safe. So to begin, I'd like to recall our minds to a little bit of church history and if you'll think back to the time of the Reformation.
When there was a recovery of truth.
And.
The two that we know the most or attribute the most of that time frame has to do with what is commonly referred to as sola fida or fida. I don't know how you pronounce that, and it has to do with the thought that justification is by faith alone, as opposed to the thought that works can provide me with justification.
The second is Sola Scriptura.
Which means that the Word of God is the final and only authority for the believer.
Not too long after the 1500s, when these truths were recovered, another truth was brought out, another theological position.
And it was prima scriptura. Prima scriptura presents to us that the Word of God is first. But not only. Things like common sense reasoning traditions also have.
Just as much divine authority in the life of a believer as the Word of God. Now, I'm not up here to teach theological physicians, but just simply to look back in the history of the church to see where the Spirit of God recovered some of these tremendous truths that we hold today.
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And I'd like to ask you a question tonight. What do you hold to Do you hold to the soul and only authority of the Word of God?
Or do you hold two other things as well?
Your mind, human wisdom, tradition, things that you've been raised with.
Or is it only the Word of God? Let's look at look to see what the Word of God says.
Second Timothy chapter 3, Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15.
Says in that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect.
Thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Perfect here speaks to us of full growth.
What is missing from this list?
Reasoning traditions, Human wisdom.
They're all missing. Why?
Because what we need is to have the Word of God as the final authority in our life.
What's the difference between a personal exercise and an uncompromisable truth?
Well, before we get to an exercise, oftentimes we have a conviction.
Maybe we read the word of God, we listen to somebody speaking to us, and we're convicted about something. They'll confess. In my life, oftentimes I've been convicted about a great many things and I haven't been exercised to practice them. So it's an exercise.
Let's turn to Acts chapter 24.
An exercise I would.
Say, as this verse is going to tell us, the apostle Paul had an exercise is to act upon a conviction.
Acts 24, verse 16 And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. This was an active exercise in the Apostle Paul's life. He had an exercise to do something.
Now, what's a personal exercise?
I want to make a distinction briefly before we go on that my thought isn't to continue with what our brother Matt was taking up.
Though what I have is related, Matt took up from Romans chapter 14, where we have the thought of Christian liberty and our responsibility towards somebody who is deficient in Christian knowledge. They don't understand Christianity. They still think in that chapter in context, that they had to adhere to Judaism.
And for us to exercise our Christian liberty in front of them.
Was going to cause them to stumble or be offended, meaning they were going to do our personal exercise, which to them would be sin.
We're not talking about somebody who is simply offended because my shoes are brown.
And he says, how could you do that? You should wear black, black shoes. That's not what Romans 14 is talking about.
That's not the aspect that I'm taking out.
So what is a personal exercise interesting versus First Corinthians Chapter 7?
It's interesting to read these verses in light of.
Inspiration of Scripture and to see how the Spirit of God the one who would inspire the entirety of the Word of God.
Could take somebody's personal exercise and it becomes inspiration and there's a few things that are tremendously important in reading these personal exercises of the apostle. So first Corinthians Chapter 7, verse seven for I would that all men were even as myself, but every man hath his proper gift of God one after this man or another after that I say therefore to the unmarried and widows it is good for them if they abide even as I.
That was Paul's personal exercise.
He was a godly man. His personal exercise was to remain unmarried.
Let's look down at First Corinthians Chapter 7, same chapter, verse 25. Now concerning virgins. I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained the mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose therefore, that this is good for the present distress. I say that it is good for a man. So today important to see a distinction here between personal exercise and what we're going to read next, which is uncompromisable truths.
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The second thing that is critical to understand in reading these personal exercises is the way the Spirit of God brings it out.
Look at the spirit of the Apostle Paul when he takes up a personal exercise.
He is speaking as one that has this himself.
He even feels as if it would be good if everyone were able to do it because then we would be more free. We wouldn't have the cares of our wife. Wives wouldn't have the cares of their husbands, as he goes on to say. And yet he recognizes that not everyone is going to have the same personal exercise as him, and that's OK.
That's Christianity. That's what is normal to Christianity.
So let's look at a uncompromisable truth to see the distinction. I might also refer to this as a Thus saith the Lord.
It's where we have a verse we can turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 5 that we cannot rest with it. It says what it says. It's doctrinal truth. It is objective, not subjective. It's what the Word of God says, not what the word of God doesn't say. First Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 11 Says, But now I have written unto you, not to keep company. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner.
With such a one, no not to eat.
Doesn't say if I agree or if I want to, or if anything. It's just. It's just an uncompromisable truth.
It's a doctrinal fact. This is something that we cannot compromise on. If somebody has called this, if somebody is going on in one of those, these sins with such a one, no, not to eat, do not mix with them.
We could turn to many uncompromisable truths. My point isn't to add Scripture to Scripture, but just to bring out these principles. Let's look over at Romans chapter 12, and we're going to see here a verse that presents to us both.
An uncompromisable truth and personal exercise.
Romans chapter 12 and verse two says and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Be not conformed to this world. That's absolute. That's an uncompromisable truth.
It's a thus, saith the Lord, We can't rest with it. Now. How do you apply that?
Why doesn't this first follow with a list of things for us?
Why don't we have a legal standard here?
Why don't we have all my personal exercises after this verse?
Because the way this verse affects me is going to be different than in a way it affects you. The way this verse affects me today is going to be different than in a way it affected somebody 500 years ago. So when we read this verse, we need to read it and understand that this is an uncompromisable truth. Be not conformed to this world. And then we need to take this verse up carefully.
As we apply this verse to our lives and we need to be careful of how we then apply this to other people's lives. Now, why is that? I'm going to ask a series of questions as I go through here. What happens when I take a personal exercise and I push it on someone else, either directly or indirectly?
What do I take up with?
So I've taken something that the Word of God has not specifically said.
I have an exercise about it like the apostle Paul had. Then I take that exercise and I say if it's good for me, it must be good for you.
And I say you should be doing this. What am I taking up with? That is the definition of legality?
Legality.
Let's look over at Galatians chapter 6.
Galatians chapter 6 and verse 12.
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
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When we take a personal exercise, something that is not an uncompromisable truth.
Something that is not a Thus saith the Lord in the Scripture, and we turn it into an uncompromisable truth for the Saints.
For others, and we present it that way, we're taking up with legality.
And we're seeking to just simply make a fair show in the flesh. But it's just the flesh.
It's the flesh in its religious form, which is just as nauseating to God as the flesh in its license form in its worldly form.
When I do this, I have dominion over your faith. The apostle Paul exercised himself in Second Corinthians chapter one to not have dominion over the Saints over their faith. We don't want to have dominion over one another's faith. But by forcing my personal exercise on you, I would be having dominion over your faith because that thing that I'm forcing you, forcing you to do, is not faith.
Let's go back one chapter.
How serious is legality? I find that, at least among the gathered Saints.
I feel that legality oftentimes gets a pass.
And I know that there's it's often that people cry legality and really what they want is a looser path. I understand that.
But we can take those thoughts and we can erase our failures and our shortcomings, the areas where we have gone after legality.
And I believe that it often gets a pass because it looks godly. It looks the part, and if something can just look the part, we're OK with. It makes our assemblies look good. Looks like we have an assembly that's really going on well, even though it's just a fair show in the flesh.
That's not what God wants. In fact, let's read these verses. It's condemned Galatians chapter 5 and verse seven. You did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not from him that calleth you. A little, little Levin leaveneth the whole lump.
The Word of God says that to take up with legality for me to push my personal exercise on you, it would be sin. It would be sin. Oftentimes what happens is I have exercises and those exercises come and go. And I'll have an exercise and I'll push it on the Saints and I'll go over some of these later ones that I have done and then that exercise will go and.
I'll take up with another exercise.
But I never judge.
The sin Remember, our brother was just standing up here.
Earlier today. And he said if we sin, we have to confess it to the Lord, the sin that we committed.
Have we taken up with pushing personal exercises on the Saints? Has it been for their benefit? Does the Word of God outline to us that that is for their benefit, to push uncompromisable personal exercises as if they're uncompromisable truths? I ask you think about it, and if and if you have done it as I have done it, we need to confess it.
Confess it as sin, and if we don't, a little leaven leavens the lump.
We always like to look perhaps out at Christianity and apply these verses to organizations that horrify us.
How does this apply to us? How do these verses apply to you and I? Have I pushed my thoughts on others?
Galatians, chapter 2, verse 21.
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by law, then Christ is dead in vain. How important is this subject?
At the heart of this subject is the cross.
The cross.
When we take up with the law either as justification for a believers life or for merits to stand before God, I take up with the law and Christ is dead in vain. What was the point of the cross if I can merit a standing for myself or force you to merit a standing before God? What was the point of the cross? And yet the cross stands as the answer to man's depravity, being unable to.
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So, so to take up with that which has failed is to set aside the cross. We can't do that. It's not profitable. It won't benefit the Saints.
Why do we fall into this snare?
Well, on the one hand, we fall into this snare because.
We have an idea of what godliness is and our lives are made-up of following the word of God, following uncompromisable truths, but then having personal exercises. And oftentimes we take that idea that we have at any given time and we think that this is the model way for the Saints to go on. And oftentimes what we do then is we fail and we fall into the snare of the the enemy and we try to get.
Unity.
Through uniformity.
That'll never work.
Another reason that this this snare comes into play is because as our brother was exhorting us this morning to read the word of God, we need to read the word of God.
If I need to know what the Word of God says for myself, because it's the final authority, I actually have to put the time in to the Word of God to read it, to know what it says. But it's a lot easier just to come perhaps to meeting and to sit down and to have somebody tell me what they think it means and we begin this vicious cycle.
We have to, each one of us, dig into the Word of God.
What does Galatians 5 present to us?
It presents to us the end result of taking up with legality and and assemblies, and that is biting and devouring. How is it that you can have an assembly where you have brothers who agree even on personal exercise and uncompromisable truths? They almost agree completely and yet that assembly is ridden with biting and devouring.
Because the Bible says that's what's going to happen.
He says if we take up all the gap with legality then we're going to bite and devour.
Now we can either stop and say the word of God says this.
There's something in it for me.
Or we can gloss over it and act as if it's not happening. Or perhaps we need to actually judge.
Where I have taken up with this. Confess to this sin. Recognize it for what it is, Recognize how God sees it.
And then go on according to what God has said.
Next question, how do I take up with the Word of God in a way that does not deny this truth?
Let's look at Hebrews chapter 13.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
And verse 9 says, be not carried away with diverse and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Would you like change in your assembly? Would you like zeal and real growth in your assembly? Would you like that in your life? Would I like that in my life? You know the way that I get that in my life?
It's not by.
Creating a fence or a fold by going to Old Testament truths.
It is by understanding and dwelling and thinking about grace found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Considering what he did, where he came from and where he went to.
Other than that, it will not profit them that are occupied. That's what the Bible says, it will not profit.
Let's look at another verse in First Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6.
I'm going to read this in the new translation, the Darby translation.
That there's one verse.
That I would like everyone in this room to walk away with this afternoon. It is this verse.
And to go home and to think about this verse and to study this verse and just ask, what does it mean?
Now these things, brethren, have I transferred in their application to myself in a policy for your sakes, that you may learn in us the lesson of not letting your thoughts go above what is written.
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That you may not be puffed up for one up one for such a one against another. I trust we all know First Corinthians. These first four chapters deal with division. Division that came in as a result of human wisdom.
Human wisdom that was expounded by gifted men, gifted men who had people rally around them depending on the different views that they presented, extra biblical truth. And so one person would stand up and he would present something, human wisdom, extra biblical truth. It was beyond Scripture. And you know what would happen at Corinth? There was about 20 of them, let's say. And they all said that, brother, he's got real discernment. He can see what I can't even say.
I don't see that in the Bible. And they'd rally around him and the next person would do it, and the next person would do it.
And pretty soon there were divisions.
In that assembly, all rallying around teachers.
And the apostle Paul comes in, and he presents himself and Peter, Apollos, in the place of these teachers who are doing this, who are presenting human wisdom, extra biblical truth, as if it was divine.
And he told them, as we have in this verse.
Learn the lesson in US of not letting your thoughts go above what is written. What a safeguard.
That you and I, everyone in this room.
Can see what God wants us to do because we all can read what God wants us to do.
For me to go beyond what is written.
Would for me, would be for me to offend in these points. Let me give you an example. Imagine the apostle Paul, he writes First Corinthians. He tells them that my judgment is I think it's best if you remain unmarried, don't get married.
And the reason I think that it's good that you don't get married is because that you can serve the Lord freer. You don't have a wife, you won't have children, you won't have to provide a home and covering. You'll be able to just serve the Lord.
Is that true? Yes, it's true. Now imagine if he went around after writing this epistle. The pistol gets sent around, It's read in the different assemblies.
And he comes to an assembly and he comes up to you and he says, don't get married. Getting married is wrong. And you say, well, I thought you, I thought you wrote, I thought you said.
No, no, no, don't get married. They'd be wrong. I'm not married. You don't get married.
You know what Paul would be doing? He would be offending in this verse. This verse says don't let your thoughts go above what is written. Even the apostle Paul who wrote Scripture could not let his thoughts go above what is written. He couldn't do it. Can you and I do it? Can we come up with extra biblical truth? Can we read in between the lines of Scripture? We can't, Not without harming ourselves or harming others.
The greatest safeguard that we have is sticking to the sole authority of the Word of God as the Word of God, as God gave it what is written.
What are some ways that we practically deny the sole authority of Scripture? What are some ways that we have struggled with?
The first one I'd like to look at is traditions.
Let's look at 2nd Thessalonians 2.
Because somebody may turn here.
As a justification for using traditions, what is a tradition?
That's continuing on with what has always been done, because if it's always been done, it must be the right thing to do, right? OK, so Second Timothy, Second Thessalonians.
Two verse 15.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught. Somebody might say, well, this, this is telling us we need to hold the traditions right. Let's keep reading. Context is always key, whether by word or our epistle.
Whether by word or our epistle, this word traditions could be translated instructions. The same thought is in the next chapter.
It has to do with the thought of the Apostle Paul handing down instructions as he would travel around, either by word or by writing it down.
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It's not teaching for us to continue on with what has always been done because it must be always right. Let's look at Mark Chapter 7.
Mark Chapter 7.
Verse six. He answered and said unto them, Well hath Isaiah Isaias the prophet prophesied of you hypocrites, prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people on earth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Teaching for doctrines, for truths, for uncompromisable truths.
The commandments of men for laying aside the commandments of God ye hold to, ye hold the tradition of men.
As the washing of pots and cups and many other such things such like things you do.
What a rebuke have we taken up with traditions? Give you an example of the tradition and the danger of it.
Lord's Day morning in our assembly.
Oftentimes when we remember the Lord in his death, when the Money Box has gone around, I believe it's when the Money Box has gone around or just before the money boxes. Put that back onto the table and the loaf is covered and the the we have a little.
Like handkerchief that covers the wine glasses and it gets folded and everything gets nice and neat.
And week after week, somebody does this.
It's a tradition.
Is there anything wrong with traditions?
Traditions in and of themselves, I would say there's nothing wrong with them.
You might have family traditions. Maybe you have pizza every Friday night. Maybe you go shopping every Saturday.
It's a tradition. Things you do in your family. Maybe you have a family night. We have a family night in our family. It's a tradition. Is there anything wrong with that tradition? No, there's not. That's not what the Lord is talking about. The Lord is talking about when we spiritualize tradition. And so the danger is, is for us to look at that tradition that takes place at the end of breaking of bread and to spiritualize it.
And to say that this is something that is honoring to God and then it becomes a spiritual, uncompromisable thing.
Before you know it, and that's what he's talking about.
There's nothing wrong with putting the bread back together. I'm not telling you that you shouldn't put the bread back together. Or put the little napkin. Fold it up.
But when we spiritualize tradition, things that have just always been done.
And we try to put spiritual weight behind it that won't be for the benefit of ourselves or our assemblies or the body at large.
The next one I'd like to think about or like to talk about is what I would call buffer rules. Buffer rules.
So the Word of God will present to us that there are things that we should not do, but what we like to do because we have the fleshness and the flesh desires law.
Is to create buffer rules in front of those.
And we like to instruct the Saints. Sometimes we like to instruct you young people on these buffer rules.
And our thought is, is that if we can create these buffer rules for the Saints, they will be even less likely to do the sin that is that the Word of God outlines is wrong.
Let's look at Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis chapter 2.
Verse 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die. Genesis 33.
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, This is Eve speaking. Now God told them, Don't eat. Now Eve is speaking to Satan, to the snake. God hath said, Ye shall not eat it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
What did she do? She created a buffer rule.
Did that buffer rule keep her? It didn't.
In fact, I would put forward to you that when we create buffer rules, we are more likely to offend in the sin that we are trying to keep ourselves from, because the strength of sin is law. That's what the Bible says. So instead of just taking up what God hath said, that uncompromisable truth, I'm not talking about going as close to it as possible.
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The Word of God instructs us, Turn from it. Walk not by it, turn from it.
Pass away. I'm talking about putting an active rule in front of what God has said. It won't work. It hasn't worked for 6000 years. It's not going to start working today.
Take God up with what he has said, His uncompromisable truths.
What was the first thing that Eve did? She touched it.
And when she touched it, then she ate of it. And I would submit to you that when we create these buffer rules for the Saints, for the young people.
And we present them as uncompromisable truths when they offend our law.
They say, well what's the point? I already offended it.
I might as well go all the way. The strength of law, strength of sin is law.
Those laws do not work. They will not benefit the Saints.
They will not benefit ourselves.
Let's look at another one, another difficulty that we we struggle with.
And it is Brethren, sayings and phrases. Brethren, sayings and phrases.
And so we might say, well, Steve Stewart says, or Robert Bullard says, or Bob Tony says, or Dad says, or Darby says.
Or, Kelly says, maybe somebody likes Kelly better than Darby.
Now.
Am I saying that we shouldn't listen to Steve Stewart?
Robert Brillard, Bob Tony that we shouldn't read Ministry Garvey or Kelly? FB Hole or Hamilton Smith.
I say listen to him and read, dig in, but understand what they were given for.
These men have gifts, they have gifts that were given for the church in some instances or to the church in some instances, and therefore our benefit. But they are for our benefit to know what God has said, not what they have said. And so for example, I'll give you an example, a brother who is back in the Dorothy Assembly.
He went to meeting one time and there was a gentleman came out from school and the gentleman was a Catholic, a Roman Catholic, practicing Roman Catholic.
And after meeting, he was talking to him. They were both in high school at the time, and he was talking to them, to him. And they got into a debate on some point of scripture. And finally this brother and a bit of frustration says, well, Darby says this.
And the Roman Catholic said, who's Darby? Why isn't the word of God enough? Now think about that for a minute. A Roman Catholic saying, why isn't the word of God enough to somebody who's gathered to the Lord's name? Well, this smote that brother.
And the truth that I'm presenting was a help to him and he has passed this down and has been such a tremendous help to many of us.
If we read Darby and we are simply quoting Darby, Darby had a tremendous gift. He was a gift to the church. But if we are just taking up Darby and quoting Darby as if it is divine inspiration, then we just become a Darbyite. That's all we become.
What Darby can be used for, what he should be used for, what he would want to be, I'm sure used for would be to show us what the word of God says.
If we take and rally around anyone, whether it's Darby or Steve, Robert, anybody, we go back to what the same problem was in the in Corinth. We need to make sure that we don't do that. Be careful of brethren sayings and phrases.
Next one human wisdom. First Corinthians chapter 2, the introduction of human wisdom.
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, verse 6. Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor the Princess of this world, which come to nought.
Be careful, brethren of human wisdom.
Human wisdom was taken up first in Corinth amidst all of those difficulties. Why? Because if they didn't fix that problem, they couldn't fix any of them. If they didn't fix the issue of not letting their thoughts go above what is written, then they couldn't fix any of them. Not even the moral issue, which they couldn't even comprehend. Or some of them couldn't.
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We have to fix this issue first, allowing human wisdom. Sometimes we think of human wisdom and we think it's like something to do with the world.
Like some crazy idea, but it can be very religious sounding. It doesn't have to be some crazy worldly idea. It's just called human wisdom because it doesn't emanate from the word of God. It comes from our mind, from our thoughts. Don't allow that into divine things. Next one, misuse of scripture.
I'm going to read a verse from Proverbs 24.
Proverbs 24 and verse 21 My son, fear thou the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change.
This verse has been used an attempt to keep the Saints in a fold.
And we argue that from this verse, we are told that if you want to change anything, then you're offending this verse.
We shouldn't change anything.
I am sure I can just imagine, I'm not sure I can just imagine that Luther was told this verse.
I can imagine that Darby was told this verse. Imagine the change that they went through.
Now.
Should our lives be characterized by change, meaning we get a new job every day? Now, I'm not justifying that.
But if there are Saints who are concerned with tradition and legality and returning to the Word of God as the final authority where an assembly has possibly struggled with that, we shouldn't use verses like this to set that aside. That would be resting with Scripture and offending on this point.
Two more Jeremiah 6 and Proverbs 22.
Jeremiah 6 and verse 16. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said We will not walk therein.
Proverbs 22 I believe we all know these verses. 28 Verse 28 Remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set. Oftentimes these verses are taken up again for the same way that I have just spoken of, not always, but sometimes. And what we're told is that the old paths in the ancient landmarks are what our fathers have said, meaning our literal father or grandfather or great grandfather.
Those men were failing, fleshly men.
The application, the proper application of these verses, if we're going to stick with tradition or whatever it is, is going to be to go back to the Word of God. The old paths are the Word of God. The ancient landmarks are the Word of God. Don't go back to some time in history. Go back to the Word of God, not to somebody's thoughts, not above what is written.
We have to go back to the Word of God.
Another one.
Another area where I believe that we have struggled with and that is adding phrases onto statements to try to make them of more spiritual weight. So for example, I may give a personal exercise to somebody here and then I add on for the glory of the Lord, or because holiness becometh thine house, O Lord. Now if I add on.
A. A phrase from the Word of God to something that is beyond what is written. Does it make it more spiritual?
Does it make it more godly? It doesn't. So imagine Paul again. We'll go back to that example.
He comes to your assembly after saying that his, his judgment was that you shouldn't get married. But every man has their own gift. Every man has their own calling. But then he comes and he tells us, he says don't get married because holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, or whatever it might be to have a willing heart from Exodus, whatever it might be. Does that add spiritual weight?
To what is being said, it doesn't.
What we're really doing is we're trying to rest with Scripture. We're actually perverting it. That isn't a help to the Saints. That isn't a help to our assemblies. That isn't a help to us.
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I want to talk now about the application of this truth, and I'm going to get even more specific than I've gotten already.
And I'm going to talk to you about. I'm going to start with one that I have failed in. But before I do that, I'd like you to think about.
What I've already mentioned tonight, this afternoon, and that is Catholicism. When we think of Catholicism, what do we think about? We think about this, this huge organization with a tremendous amount of doctrinal and ecclesiastical evils.
Does that mean that there's nobody who saved in Catholicism? No, not at all. Or that there's nobody who has life in Catholicism? No, not at all. But as an organization, the truths.
And the false doctrine that are held by that by them is horrendous.
We're horrified at it, or at least I hope that we're all horrified at it. But I'd like to ask you a question.
Where did they start?
Where do they begin?
Where did the thought of transubstantiation begin?
Did it just happen overnight or was there a process?
Steps that were taken.
I know in my life most of these things begin with little steps.
Little steps away from the Word of God, little steps adding to the Word of God. And pretty soon these little steps are huge steps. Now, I don't know where you're at in your life or where your assemblies at and their lives, their spiritual life.
Those in your assemblies.
But I want to ask you.
Does this have any application to us?
Or are we sitting here trying to have this not apply to us?
I'm going to tell you how it applied to men. It wasn't too long ago that I, for all intents and purposes, was a teetotaler. The teetotaler is somebody who writes off the use of wine or alcohol says it's sin.
And I had a personal exercise against drinking any form of alcohol.
But as is often the case when we have a personal exercise and we have all this zeal, it never stays with us, right? And it didn't stay with me. And so in our assembly I began to teach my personal exercise as if it was an uncompromisable truth that if you were to take up with drinking alcohol.
You would be doing something that the Lord is not pleased with.
I used little phrases I picked up along the way when we were going through First Timothy chapter 5 and I said, often times what we want to do is we want to take up with the Apostle Paul's remedy without having Timothy's malady. He had a sickness and I used.
Verses and phrases like that to preach.
Law.
Thou shalt not drink. I justified it with the thought that the Word of God talks about getting drunk and says it. This is sin, it's excess. Don't do it. Be not drunk with wine. And I thought similar to the way the way you thought is that the best way not to get drunk is to not drink at all.
I spiritualized.
A personal exercise.
I went. I let my thoughts go above What is written? What does the word of God say?
The Word of God tells us in Luke Chapter 7.
Verse 34 The Son of Man has come, eating and drinking. You say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine Bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
Now, if drinking is wrong, what have I had just attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ? What do we do every Lord's Day morning?
If drinking alcohol is wrong.
Now.
Am I telling you this afternoon that you should go out and drink? No, I'm not.
Not at all.
There are some here who are too young to drink.
There are some here who possibly have a weakness for drinking and shouldn't drink. There are some here who perhaps know of ones who have a weakness for drinking and you shouldn't drink in front of them, or anyone should drink in front of them.
As we have in context from First Corinthians chapter 8.
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But for us or for me or for anyone to take this personal exercise that I might have, which would be fine for me to say I'm not going to drink, that's OK. But to take that personal exercise and push it on the Saints and to say you shouldn't do that either.
Would be letting my thoughts go above what is written Would be having dominion over faith.
Would be introducing the principle of law would be sin would need to be judged of, repented of.
I had to judge that sin. That was sin.
I would submit to you that if that is your thought to this afternoon.
That more likely there's going to be a difficulty with drinking.
Than otherwise, because the strength of sin is law. I'd like to look at another one.
You and your verse, thee and thou.
Has this ever been pushed?
It's been presented that the endow is more respectful when we address deity.
Is that so? What does the Scripture say? We have to come back to Scripture. And so I'll tell you what I I find in Scripture when I open up the word of God and I looked into this subject, I looked at the pronouns that were used, the personal pronouns that were used. And you know what I found that there was not one personal pronoun that the Spirit of God separated.
For man to use to deity.
Every personal pronoun that is used is used Interchangeable.
Between man and man, between the Lord Jesus Christ and his Father, God and God, between man and the Lord Jesus Christ or between man and God, they're all interchangeable. There's none that are set aside.
So when we come today and we say that we're going to set aside certain personal pronouns because we think it is more respectful, is that an uncompromisable truth?
It's not. Does that mean that I'm telling you you shouldn't pray in you, thee, and thou? No. If you feel it is more respectful to pray and be in Thou, then please continue to pray in thee and thou. But be careful about taking a personal exercise and allowing your thoughts to go beyond what is written and pushing a personal exercise on somebody else.
I've heard others say that this is akin to blasphemy because we remove the truth of the Trinity.
The truth that there are three individual persons in the Godhead, and when we pray in you, we're saying that there's only one.
And this argument takes us outside of scripture and into the English language.
And a simple Google search will show that the personal pronoun U is both singular and plural.
There are other arguments that have been made that I won't take up here, but each one of them.
Is rises to the level of a personal exercise that is not uncompromisable truth. And we need to be careful, brethren, when we take these things and we make them more than they are and we push them on the Saints, it's not for their benefit.
And take another one, pants and skirts. Maybe some of these issues that I'm taking up here this afternoon, they're not an issue to you in your assembly. Maybe you've never heard of them.
But there's many here who have.
Dancing skirts. Let's look over at Deuteronomy chapter 22 and Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse five says the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto the man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.
Does this verse.
Mention pants or skirts.
Is that what is written?
Does it tell us that this is talking about pants or skirts?
I don't think Moses will wear pants.
And in fact, if we were to look into the Word of God and we were to do a word search for skirts, you would find that it is attributed 11 out of 13 times to a man.
Now what is that telling us today?
Well, what that's telling us is that culture is what dictates what we wear. And the culture, when the the Spirit of God gave this verse was different than the culture it is today. And the Spirit of God knew that cultures would change. And knowing that cultures would change, he didn't write down a list of things that you were not going to be able to wear or wear that the list would be endless.
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And yet in every culture and in every time, there are things that pertain to a woman and there are things that pertain to a man. And so, he says, make sure that you're not wearing.
What pertains to a woman? If you're a man or a man woman.
And so in our culture today, what pertains to a woman?
Well, that's a personal exercise. Somebody says, well, women wearing women's pants pertains to a woman, and somebody says men wearing men's pants pertains to a man.
Somebody might say, well, there's a there's a question of immodesty.
The woman's immodest. What about the man? The man I'm honest for wearing pants.
Now there is a question of modesty.
We have to wear what pertains to a woman if you're a woman, and we have to wear what pertains to a man if you're a man in whatever culture you live in. And then we need to find out if there's other verses on the subject. And there are, there's verses that deal with modesty. And so then a woman would have to wear pants that are modest, that pertain to a woman.
That's what Scripture presents and when we try to take up these subjects and we go beyond what is written and we take those personal exercises that we have and we push them on the Saints, it's not for their benefit. It's not for our benefit. We could go on with this list wearing makeup, dress codes in the assembly.
Head coverings.
Hair lengths. The point isn't to come up with a list of things that deal with us now. It's simply to give us the principles for every single one of us in this room to look at, to take inventory in our life, to think about what we hold and then ask ourselves, am I holding a personal exercise in a way that goes beyond what is written? Am I pushing a personal exercise on the Saints and is it harming them? I talked to a brother just recently.
Who is burdened because of the difficulties in his assembly?
The difficulties of what we've been taking up here. And he says every time he tries to take up an address how these things are pushing personal exercises on the Saints, he gets told that you don't, that you need to make sure that you don't offend me and that we need to do things decently in order and all kinds of verses that are out of context of what is being said. Brethren, those things are not helps. This is a difficult topic to take up. It's a difficult thing.
To take these truths up, it's a difficult thing to hear them if we have taken up with them.
And my hope, my prayer is that every single one of us, me included, because I have fallen under the snare and I may fall again. And if I do, I ask that you tell me, Joe, you're letting your thoughts go above what is written. And I ask you to be willing to listen and hear. If somebody comes to you and says you're letting your thoughts go above what is written, don't let your thoughts go above what is written.
I know where time is up. I want to give 3 warnings 1 to husbands. Husbands, we have wives.
Let's look at a verse real quick. First Corinthians 9.
Verse 5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?
Our wives are made in God's order to be subject to us, not because we're smarter or better or more spiritual, just simply God's order. But our wives have exercises. They have personal exercises, and we need to be careful as husbands that we don't run over them with their exercises. Be careful about that, parents.
Be careful when you're raising your children.
As I have raised my children and failed in this very thing, and we present things to our children and our children say, well, why is that? And we don't have a real good answer from Scripture. And so we spiritualize it and we add things to it and we make it seem to them as if it's more spiritual than it is. And they go out and all the zeal of a little child.
We're going to harm them. We're going to harm them. Don't do that.
Just tell them this is daddy's personal exercise. This is mommy's personal exercise. It's just what we hold.
I don't celebrate Christmas. I think that Christmas for myself is not right.
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I think it is returning to the rudiments of this world, but if somebody else celebrates Christmas.
Is that OK? Yes, it's OK, But I can raise my kids to think that if somebody sells rates Christmas, they're akin to the devil. We need to be careful. We need to be very careful, young people.
You're going to return to your homes, you're going to return to your local assemblies, you're going to have older ones in your assemblies who have.
The Spirit who take the spiritual lead.
In your assemblies, and maybe you're going to return to them and you're going to say, what about these things that we've heard? I feel like you're taking up things that are beyond scripture.
And if they repeat to you, I don't care what was said, this is what we do. Or whatever it might be, I don't see it that way. Submit to them. That's what the Word of God says. Submit to them. They care for your souls and appeal to a higher authority. Talk to them. Open up the scriptures with them. Don't rebel. This meeting is not about rebellion. It's about all of us understanding what is written in the distinction between not letting our thoughts go above it.
Not about rebelling against your local brethren, that will be of no profit for you or your families or your local assemblies. It's just thank you for the time.