GRACE BIBLE CHURCH
PASTOR ROBERT R. MCLAUGHLIN
SUNDAY 11-13-2022
GBIBLE.ORG
PDF:
EPHESIANS - 0290-022
DIVINE DECREES, PART 19
GREEK DRAMA, PART 10
CONCLUSION
2PE 2:1:11; JAM 4:13-15; 1KI 11:1-6; MAT 7:24-28
The Doctrine of the Divine Decrees.
We begin with our entire passage that we have been noting concerning the Divine Decrees which is 2PE 1:2-11.
These are the corrected translations that we have so far as well as a few last verses we haven’t translated yet, so here is what we have so far.
2PE 1:5 Now for this very reason also, making every effort, by means of your doctrine supply virtue, and in or with your virtue supply biblical academic information.
2PE 1:6 and in your knowledge, biblical academic information supply self-control, and in your self-control, supply perseverance.
2PE 1:7 and in living the spiritual life supply brotherly love, and in your brotherly love supply impersonal unconditional love.
2PE 1:8 For if these qualities [the dramatic seven] are yours and are keep on increasing, they prevent you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2PE 1:9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short‑sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
2PE 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
2PE 1:11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
We are now ready to continue our subject with the fact that the religious leaders of Israel came to Jesus and asked Him a question.
The religious leaders came to Jesus, as it were, seeking information, seeking enlightenment.
Therefore, they ask a question.
MAT 15:2 “Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands before [not “when"] they eat bread.”
The scribes and the Pharisees contend that the disciples are violating the tradition of the elders.
MAT 15:3 And He answered and said to them, "And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
We have here doctrine versus tradition.
In tradition, we have a good thing, a taboo, and there is nothing wrong with it except that it is not spirituality.
Jesus therefore says that this is not an issue.
Whether the disciples wash their hands or not is not an issue in spirituality.
The scribes have brought this up but our Lord is going to give them a bona fide illustration of what they are trying to say, and He is turning it all against them.
Now, here where it all truly begins.
They have something in their tradition called the corbon, and He is going to show them the corbon versus the fifth commandment.
What is the fifth commandment?
EXO 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
Exo 20:12 has to do with divine institution number three, the family and being prolonged and the and days long” refers to life span.
If you are going to have a long-life span here is one of the issues which determines it.
The word “honor” has a number of concepts.
As it occurs in the Hebrew here, it refers to the principle of obedience to the authority in the home toward the mother and the father.
This commandment is designed not only for that period of time which we call childhood but it also has some concepts later on after one reach adulthood.
However, its primary concept is in childhood.
This is known as “the corbon,” a tradition connected with giving and really it is a giving gimmick.
We have giving gimmicks today and so did they!
They had them in that day.
Apparently, The synagogues were having trouble raising money and they thought of the corbon and made it a part of the tradition.
MAT 15:3 And He answered and said to them, "And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
The commandment refers to the doctrine of the Word of God, in this case Exodus 20:12.
The religious traditions of the Pharisees are legalistic and therefore are contrary to the principle of grace.
Washing the hands before meals is a good thing but, to make it a part of spirituality is a bad thing and becomes legalism.
In other words, you are doing something to become spiritual, you are washing your hands.
So, A good thing is magnified out of its context and it becomes legalism when it is brought into the spiritual realm.
And now Jesus is going to show them that they are the ones out of line.
So, He says, “by your tradition,” which is literally “because of the existence of your tradition” you are in violation of the Word of God.
MAT 15:4 "For God said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'
This question is going to be resolved now but not by their tradition.
When they approached;
They put the emphasis on their tradition, that is their criterion, but Jesus is going to answer them by going from the traditions and taboos which they have developed to the Word of God.
He is going to start from the Word of God.
There is a problem here, and that is the fact that;
Religion always substitutes tradition for doctrine.
They emphasize their tradition and their program and the Word always emphasizes doctrine (and this is also an issue that we have to face as believers).
The fifth commandment is given in this verse.
“For God commanded,” this is the Word now, saying honor thy father and thy mother.”
And our Lord now gives the meaning of the second part of that commandment.
The Greek word “honor” means not only to obey, but it also means to have respect for authority, to honor on the basis of respect for authority rather than on the basis of love.
And notice:
The word “commanded” is in the aorist tense; the word “saying”` means He kept on saying this to the Pharisees under Divine Sarcasm; ISA 64:6.
ISA 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual rag.
That is Divine Sarcasm for the woman.
The apostle Paul used Divine Sarcasm for the man in GAL 5:12.
GAL 5:12 Would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.
Paul says you want everyone to be circumcised and cut of the flesh, well you haven’t gone far enough, you should cut the whole damn thing off.
Remember this is Divine sarcasm inspired by God the Holy Spirit.
The aorist tense means that this is a once and for all principle and He keeps saying this to every generation.
Every generation is involved in this but remember;
EXO 21:17 "And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
This is the way God looks at it.
There is a divine discipline for believers who reject parental authority and are going to die young because the last phrase in EXO 21:17 you shall surely be put to death.
There is no way to get around it because the only thing that holds a nation together is divine institution number three, the family.
And speaking of death, and in this passage, turn to 1JO 5:16.
1JO 5:16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.
The sin leading to death is from Divine Discipline and therefore when we know that, we should not even pray for the individual.
Stability in family life leads to stability in national life, and as goes the families of the nation so goes the nation itself.
Instability in family life leads to instability in national life.
Remember;
The corbon gimmick is found in the last two verses of MAT 15:5-6.
MAT 15:5 "But you say, 'Whoever shall say to his father or mother," Anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given to God,"
MAT 15:6 he is not to honor his father or his mother. 'And thus you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
Corbon is the Greek word translated “gift,” in Mat 15:5, the word is taken from a Hebrew word “charav” and it is a word for making something a sacrifice.
The word refers to a sacrifice or a gift which was brought to the altar; LEV 1,2, and 3.
This word was taken out of its context by the religious crowd and given a broader religious meaning.
They decided when they wanted to raise money and that the way to do it was this.
Get a person to leave his money to the synagogue or to the temple, and in order to do that what you do is pronounce all of your estate the corbon.
And When you say your estate is surely be put to death, it is a reference to the corbon which means that it will go to the temple, but in the mean time you can use it, you can spend it, and you do not have to pay taxes on it.
And These wicked religious would buy anything with the money, I said anything!
So, Here was a way of avoiding income tax and keep from giving to your parents.
Totally satanic all the way.
And that is the way it was used and that is the principle that is involved here.
Now what is the problem?
The parents come to the child, the parents are destitute, and they ask for help, for money.
The child who is now an adult says: “I am sorry, I can’t give you any of my, money, my estate is the corbon.”
Therefore, He can spend it any way he wants to, he can live it up and have a big time, but he doesn’t have to give his parents a cent because everything he has by way of money belongs to the temple, it is the corbon.
Therefore, they used this for themselves and justified it to their parents by saying,
“Oh, I would love to help you but I don’t have the money and I can’t give anything to you me because it belongs to the Temple.”
Liars – hupokrites – deceivers -- murderers, and yet they did it to their own blood, their own family and friends.
This is the way they avoided helping their parents.
Not because they didn’t love their parents because in most cases they did, but because they loved money more than them.
They did it in the name of tradition; they did it in the name of the corbon.
So The corbon violates the Fifth commandment.
And Jesus points out that the traditions actually violate Bible doctrine.
Rather than criticizing these disciples for not washing their hands before meals, they had better take another look at tradition.
They claimed tradition was salvation and spirituality when in reality tradition was in violation to salvation and spirituality.
The last phrase in verse 5 is an idiom.
MAT 15:5 "But you say, 'Whoever shall say to his father or mother," Anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given to God, " Everything that I might have used for helping you is the gift of the corbon.
MAT 15:6 he is not to honor his father or his mother. 'And thus you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
Note in verse 6, He now makes the application.
In other words,
Legalism always attacks doctrine and legalism always makes null and void the grace of God.
One ounce of legalism destroys the grace of God.
And that is hypocrisy because the Bible teaches that;
After the parents have provided for the children that the children ought to provide for the parents, 1Ti 5:8.
1TI 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
So, back in MAT 15:5 "But you say, 'Whoever shall say to {his} father or mother," Anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given {to God,} "
The washing of hands before meals is not a commandment in the Old Testament scriptures but became a very strong part of the Mishna
What is the Mishna?
The Mishna is an authoritative collection of exegetical material embodying which contains the oral tradition of Jewish law and forming the first part of the Talmud.
What is the Talmud?
The Talmud was written by the Jewish leaders who added to the Word of God, which is for bidden in the Word of God; REV 22:18-20.
REV 22:18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book;
REV 22:19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
Also, Solomon said PRO 30:6 Do not add to His words Lest He reprove you, and you be proved a liar.
This is not tradition or the Corbon or Mishna, it is a tradition connected with the giving gimmick.
We have giving gimmicks today everywhere, and they had them in that day as well.
By the way, I was a sucker for a giving gimmick and lost a lot of my savings to a giving gimmick.
You say, how could I be so stupid?
I’ll answer that with a statement that my mentor RBT has made throughout his ministry and that is;
You have not been screwed until you have been screwed by a Christian.
I thought I could trust him because he was a member of my own congregation, but that was really dumb for me to do!
Now, back to our subject.
Apparently, The synagogues were having trouble raising money and they thought of corbon as a part of the tradition.
This is why they did not use the word “scripture.”
It was however an excellent practice for sanitary reasons, but the rabbis and the elders made it a sign of spirituality.
In other words, they said You were not spiritual unless you washed your hands before meals.
Whatever the benefits of sanitation they do not extend into the spiritual realm.
Here is a case of taking something good and making a false issue out of it, because, there is something far greater than what one sees.
PRO 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Washing before meals is not a means of spirituality, it is merely a sanitary precaution.
The disciples of Jesus quite obviously did not observe this taboo and therefore they came under the critical guns of the scribes and Pharisees.
Eleven of the disciples are from Galilee and they run the gamut from fishermen to publicans, they are Peter the fisherman and Matthew the publican who collected taxes from the Jews.
Can you imagine that our Lord took two arch enemies, Peter and Matthew to be His disciples.
This is said to be the motivation for our Lord telling the Parable of the Prodigal son that Deacon John Medeiros taught you last Sunday.
The principle is that religion is constantly looking for the opportunity to criticize anyone who loves the truth or seeks to learn doctrine.
This is something we should all remember.
We are going to get opposition from other believers on this point.
It is from the shallow believer, the believer who is not interested in doctrine,
The believer who is confused about doctrine,
The believer who thinks that happiness in life is simply going out and having fun.
It is this kind of believer who is going to give you at least three systems of opposition.
- Religion is constantly looking for the opportunity to criticize those who love Bible doctrine.
- The second principle is that good in itself is not spirituality.
- The third principle is that this is a good taboo for Jews because it has to do with sanitation, but it is not a form of spirituality.
MAT 15:3 And He answered and said to them, "And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Jesus answers a question with a question. “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”
We have here doctrine versus tradition.
In tradition, we have a good thing, a taboo, and there is nothing wrong with it except it is not spirituality.
Jesus therefore says that this is not an issue.
Whether the disciples wash their hands or not is not an issue in spirituality.
But the scribes have brought this up;
The issue of Bible doctrine versus the tradition of the elders, so Jesus is going to give them a bona fide illustration of what they are trying to say, and He is turning it all against them.
They have something in their tradition, that we should know at this time called ‘the corbon” and He is going to show them” “the corbon versus the fifth commandment.
What is the fifth commandment? — Exodus 20:12.
EXO 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
It has to do with divine institution number three, the family, and days prolonged refers to life span.
If you are going to have a long-life span, here is one of the issues which determines it.
The word for honor has a number of concepts.
As it occurs in the Hebrew, it refers to the principle of obedience to the authority in the home, the mother and the father.
This commandment is designed not only for that period of time which we call childhood but it also has some concepts later on after one reach adulthood.
However, its primary concept is in childhood.
This is the Word of God; this is not tradition; this is not the Mishna or Corbon, this simply a tradition connected with giving.
What is the Mishna again?
The Mishna is an authoritative collection of exegetical material embodying which contains the oral tradition of Jewish law and forming the first part of the Talmud.
It is a giving gimmick.
We have giving gimmicks today and they had them in that day.
Apparently, The synagogues were having trouble raising money and they thought of corbon became a part of the tradition.
But notice our Lord’s answer in;
MAT 15:3 And He answered and said to them, "And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
The commandment refers to the doctrine of the Word of God, in this case, the doctrine found in EXO 12.
The religious traditions of the Pharisees are legalistic and therefore are contrary to the principle of grace.
Washing the hands before meals is a good thing, but to make it a part of spirituality is a bad thing and becomes legalism.
In other words, you are doing something to become spiritual, you are washing your hands.
So, a good thing is magnified out of its context and it becomes legalism when it is brought into the spiritual realm.
And now Jesus is going to show them that they are the ones out of line.
So, He says, “by your tradition,” which is dia plus the accusative, and literally, “because of [the existence of] your tradition” you are in violation of the Word of God.
MAT 15:4 "For God said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'
This question is going to be resolved now but not by their tradition.
When they approached, they put the emphasis on their tradition, that is their criterion but;