Digging Deep Holes with Sticks

Digging Deep Holes with Sticks March 6, 2022

Mark 7:6 – 13

My family and I have spent many happy hours traveling on old logging roads in a four-wheel drive.  A four-wheel drive is a vehicle you put into four-wheel drive when you should be turning around so you can get twice as stuck as you would have in two-wheel drive!  Sometimes the only way to get out is to dig.  That’s usually the time you realize that with all the stuff you loaded to overflowing on your truck before you left, the one thing you didn’t load was a shovel.  Have you ever been stuck in a situation you needed to dig yourself out of, and all you could find to dig with was a stick?  Have you ever tried to dig a deep hole with a stick?  Have you then really appreciated just how good the proper digging tool, a shovel, is?

The past week or so has given us a very stark reminder of how perilous the times are we live in.  It is the 21st century, when so much of the Western World, steeped in evolutionary theology, was convinced that the so-called developed world had moved beyond attacking their neighboring country, yet that very thing has happened, and the threat of a nuclear war once again hangs over the planet.  Yet many who identify as Christian are just as convinced that the world is going to get better soon as people of faith finally fix everything. The problem is that many churches are digging holes with sticks, picking up only the smallest bits of truth, often out of context, while leaving the solid weight of sound doctrine behind.

This problem could not have been clearer this past week than when a lady told me that her interpretation of the Bible was just different from mine.  The truth is that if the Bible really is the Word of God, it is not open to interpretation!

 

Mark 7:6 – 13

 

The Jewish religious leaders in Jesus’ time had something that resembled the truth, but Jesus said it was the doctrine of men, and therefore worthless.  It may have been slightly more than the stick, I tried digging my truck out with, perhaps more refined, something like a shovel handle!  But a good shovel handle is just as worthless as a stick when you start trying to dig deep holes with it.  Men’s religious traditions may also look pretty good, but they won’t get you any closer to heaven than where you started.

Doctrine IS important.  The oft misquoted words of 17th century German Lutheran theologian, Rupertus Meldenius, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity,” are the rallying cry of the ecumenical movement.  They are used to suggest we drop any doctrine that divides us.  Such unity sounds wonderfully Christian but is unscriptural and dangerous.  It is like digging deep holes with sticks.   Try as you might, you can never effectively make any progress.

Doctrine is like a good shovel.  It is an effective tool for the work God has called us to.  More than that, doctrine is something God has given us, a part of his holy word.  Woe to us if we decide in our human wisdom to set it aside for what we think is godly unity!  Who are we to pick and choose what part of the Bible to keep and what to discard? “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”  2 Timothy 3:16,17

 

  1. Worshiping – coming to God any way other than his way is vain, useless, empty, of no value
  2. The doctrines of men send people to hell. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” Matthew 23:15
  3. Ignoring what the Bible says and doing it man’s way sends you the wrong way!
  • the traditions of men
    1. God says his way is the only way
    2. God says you are to come to him by Jesus Christ and no other
      1. this excludes priests, Mary, the various saints, the pope, or any other. These are all traditions of men.  John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
  • idle worshiping – God says to worship him only and no other (Exodus 20:3).
  • infant baptism – God says to believe and then be baptized (Acts 8:36,37).
  • baptismal regeneration
    1. God says he sent his Son, that whosoever believes in him has everlasting life.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
    2. God says that there is no other way to be saved but by faith in Jesus Christ. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
  • God says that it is only by faith that you are saved. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Ephesians 2:8
  1. Making the word of God captive to the traditions of men makes it ineffective
  • The Word of God is to be THE measure of everything. 1 John 4:1 – 3   “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”
  • The whole Word of God is still relevant. Jesus did NOT abolish the law. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17 – 20
  • The Word of God does not change and will stand forever.
    1. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Isaiah 40:8
    2. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matthew 24:35
  • “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 1 Peter 1:25
  1. Jesus taught the scriptures and showed how all the Old Testament spoke of him: Luke “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:27
  • The Word of God is NOT to be changed or added to!
    1. God does not change. Therefore, what God has said does not change and is a permanent record of what he has said. “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18, 19
  1. The vanity of man’s way.  Jesus said, “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” 
  • How hopeless it is to worship God in vain! If the time we spend going to church and doing all the things we do to please God DOES NOT please him, nor does it save us, nor does it save anyone else, it is vanity, empty, totally wasted time!
  • Paul said that if we are wrong, we are the most miserable of all men (1Cor. 15:19).
  • Paul said if we are not saved, we are still dead in our sins and still going to hell, and still destined for the lake of fire (1Cor. 15:17,18).
  • However, what 1 Corinthians 15 IS saying is that Christ IS risen from the dead, your sins HAVE been paid for, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ your sins ARE all washed away, and with Jesus as your Saviour you DO have eternal life! “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, lest any man boast.” Ephesians 2:8,9

 

Don’t try digging deep holes with a stick!  If you are trying to earn your way to God by any means, then you are worshiping in vain.  If anyone teaches such a thing, they are teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, not of God.  The doctrines of men are not doctrines of Christian unity, but doctrines of death.  God has always required mankind to come to him by faith.  He has always told us that we cannot come to him any other way.  Isaiah 64:6 says that all the good works we do are like filthy rags.  It has always been and still is ONLY by the grace of God that we are saved, through faith in Jesus Christ, “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Make sure, today, that you are trusting in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.