"THAT WHICH IS WRITTEN"
Thank you and once again a very pleasant good morning to each
one who has honored us with your time. I wish to express the sincere
appreciation of the White Park church of Christ for your
participation in this program. It is my hope and prayer that what we
are doing each Sunday morning is to the glory and honor of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Your comments and questions are greatly
appreciated. It is my desire to teach the truth of God's Word, and
only that truth. We offer you no man-made schemes; nor that which is
based upon the ideas and wisdom of man; which leads us to the subject
for this morning.
In 1 Corinthians 4:6, we have these words from the immortal
Paul, "Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to
myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not
to go beyond the things which are written." In these solemn words the
great apostle warned us not to go beyond "the things which are
written" and this warning is needed today just as much as it was when
he wrote it. We simply cannot go beyond what has been written in
God's Word.
God has revealed Himself to man in the Bible. In the Bible, we
have all the truth revealed that man needs to know in order to be
saved. In the Old Testament, God revealed the law of Moses to the
Jewish people and, as long as they were true to Jehovah, they
faithfully followed that which was written in the law. Their later
apostasies and captivities were the result of leaving what God had
written and began following their own traditions and ideas. As long
as they stayed with what was written, they were blessed; when they
forsook what was written, they were punished and condemned! In the
New Testament, God has revealed the gospel to all mankind. The early
church was admonished to abide by that which was written; the
revelation of truth as the Holy Spirit guided those inspired men to
write the guidance that came from Heaven. As long as they adhered to
this written word, they prospered and were blessed; when they forsook
the written word and began to make creeds, follow traditions, and
teach the doctrines and commands of men, they gradually drifted
farther and farther from the truth until the early church went into
complete apostasy from which it did not recover until many years
later. The religious history of the world has been one apostasy
after another and that because man has refused to abide by what is
written. This history, as well as the Bible, should teach us the
great importance of abiding by "that which is written." Christ, our
Saviour, always appealed to the written word as being the final
authority. When in controversy with His adversaries He would say,
"What is written in the law? How readest thou? (Luke 10:26). In
proving His deity He always appealed to the law, the prophets and the
Psalms and "He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, 44). When resisting Satan in the
wilderness, Jesus said, "It is written" three times. On one occasion
He said to the Saducees, "ye do err, not knowing the scriptures." He
told them they were in error because their doctrine was not in
harmony with the written word; and all are in error today who teach
and practice things that are not written in God's Book. Christ not
only appealed to "that which was written" as final and authoritative,
but the apostles did likewise. In Acts 2, as Peter preached that
first gospel sermon, he affirmed the deity of Christ to those
unbelieving Jews, quoting from the Old Testament scriptures thus
proving Christ's divinity by "that which was written." When preaching
the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, the evangelist Philip appealed to
that "which was written" to prove to him that Jesus was the Christ,
"and beginning at the same scripture, he preached unto him Jesus"
(Acts 8:35). When the apostle Paul preached Christ, he always
appealed to the written word of God as proof of Christ's divinity and
he was always quoting from the Scriptures to prove the truth. When,
for example, he want to Thessalonica to preach, "Paul, as his manner
was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days, reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2). He did not reason from the
standpoint of philosophy, the authority of the church, tradition, or
the doctrines and creeds of men, but from the Scriptures, for they
were the court of final appeal for him. When Paul preached in Berea,
those noble people "searched the Scriptures daily" to see if what he
preached was true because they knew nothing could be right unless it
was taught in the written word! (Acts 17:11).
As in the days of old, it is just as necessary for us today to
abide by "that which is written"! The faith that saves comes through
the written word. John said, "these things are written, that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (John 20:31). Paul
informs us in Romans 10:17, that, "faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God." If we would, then, be in possession of
saving faith, we must accept that written word which produces such
faith. There is simply no other way to gain the faith that will save
a person, except by the hearing of the revealed word of God.
It is not only necessary to abide by "that which is written" in
the Bible, but it is equally as necessary for us to remember, and
never forget, that the Bible, the written word, and the Bible ALONE
is our SOLE and ONLY AUTHORITY in religion and to it our appeal must
always be. Anything taught which is not authorized in the Bible
cannot be right. A thing is right and acceptable to God only if it is
in harmony with His written word.
Tradition is not authority in religion and should not be taught,
accepted, or adhered to. Jesus spoke of tradition, but he always
denounced it. His objection to tradition was that it made void the
written word of God. Anything that was contrary to the Scriptures
received the stern censure of Jesus. He said to the Pharisees, who,
like many today, believed that tradition was authority, "For laying
aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of man....full
well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own
tradition" (Mark 7:8-9). And in saying this, He forever refuted the
idea that people should follow tradition. History shows that when
people follow tradition in religion, they always go contrary to the
word of God and, friends, there is hardly a tradition practiced in
the religious world today, that, in some way at least, does not set
aside God's written word! When people follow tradition, they always
come to love the tradition more than the Bible; and when the two
conflict, people hold the tradition and let the written word God!
Let us, therefore, always stay with the Bible. Let us speak
where it speaks, and let us be silent where it is silent. No man has
the right to command something of you that is not found in the
written Word of God. Let us revere the written word as God's only
revelation of truth and as man's only guide and authority. This is
scriptural, reasonable and safe. Any other course leads to apostasy
and disaster. Let us follow the inspired words of Peter when he said,
"If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (1 Peter
4:11) and let us always stay with the oracles of God! Let us not add
our own creeds, traditions and opinions to God's word; nor take away
from it one single command. Let us demand a "Thus saith the Lord" in
all things religious and measure every doctrine and practice by "that
which is written," Let us "preach the word" and nothing more. We urge
you, each one of you, to believe and obey that written word. We who
are Christians must live by God's written word, always remembering
that Jesus said, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words,
hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same
shall judge him in the last day" (John 12:48).
My dear friends in this listening audience, do you have book,
chapter, and verse for all that you believe and practice? Can you
give a scriptural reference for each thing that you do? Where is
your authority for many churches functioning under a centralized
organization? Do you have book, chapter, and verse for that kind of
arrangement? Or, do you possible say, it really does not matter?
But, from what we have seen this morning, it surely does matter. No
one can risk doing anything for which there is no authority; no
written word to establish it. It is not enough for one to say, "Well
I think this or that would be all right." Friends, we had better not
base our eternal destiny upon our "think so's." We better find what
God says, and do our very best to practice that and that alone.
Are you a Christian today? If not, will you not, in the words of
James, "receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to
save your soul?" (James 1:21). The people in Acts 2 "gladly received
the word" and were "baptized for the remission of their sins" (Acts
2:38, 41). The Lord then added them to His family, the church (Acts
2:47).
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