Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Law, Tradition, And The Heart
Jesus confronts how traditions can hollow out God’s commands and calls us to a heart-level righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01:People were concerned that he was doing away with the law because his interpretations of the law were not those of the Pharisees. Verse 18, For truly I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Now he did accomplish it. But not by this point yet, right? Verse 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments under the law of Moses and teaches others to do the same. Now who was doing that? By the way, what group was doing that? Who was annulling the laws of Moses and who was teaching others to annul the laws of Moses? Well, the Pharisees. The Pharisees were doing that. He says, if anybody does that, the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And then he says, For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So are the scribes and Pharisees going to enter the kingdom of heaven? No. They teach men not to keep the laws of Moses, but to, they, through their interpretations, annulled them. Okay? And then Jesus goes, like, for example, and we'll look at um, let's see, which one do we want to look at? We'll look at uh 538. 538. What Jesus will do is say, You have heard it said, meaning you've been sitting in synagogue and you heard the Pharisees read this text out of the Old Testament law, which is great. That is the Word of God, right? But then they gave an interpretation, and that's what was at odds with the true intent of the Old Testament law. So he'd say, You have heard it that it was said, an eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to your other temb also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks of you, do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. And so uh the text is the text, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But the question was, what's the interpretation of that text, right? And the Pharisees and Scribes are going around synagogue teaching, well, it means this. And um, Jesus said, No, this is was the intent. I think he should know he gave the law on Mount Sinai. So I think he knows what it means. Um, so that's the name of the game. The name of the game was the Pharisees and the Scribes were sinful. What does the sinful nature do to the text of the Bible? It reinterprets it so it can, in a form, keep it. So the Pharisees and the scribes, they kept everything externally. They didn't keep anything internally. But the point of the law was to reach into our hearts, right? Israel's hearts. So they'd realize they didn't have righteousness, that they were sinners. So they would believe in the one who was going to come and bring righteousness. That's the Messiah. That's the point of the law, one of the major points or reasons for the law. But they externalized everything and thought that they were building righteousness with God. It was a righteousness based on works rather than God's point, which was to show that you can't keep the law, therefore you have to have faith righteousness, right? So let's go to Mark chapter 7. Because this same game is going on today. Okay, there's nothing new under the sun. People are still doing the same thing with the Bible, reinterpreting it to justify whatever it is. Mark chapter 7. Notice verse 1, the Pharisees and the scribes have gathered around Christ when they had come from Jerusalem. And they had seen that some of his disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. In other words, they did not follow a ritual purity tradition of the Pharisees, that Pharisees and scribes required. Okay, verse 3 is the note. Uh for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders. Was this the law? Or was this just tradition? It's just tradition. Tradition. Okay, you've seen the movie, that's good. And uh verse four, when they when they came, uh and when they come from the marketplace, this is another thing they do, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves, and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washings of cups and pitchers and copper pots, and my goodness gracious, these people. Verse 5, the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Oh, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands? In other words, why don't they go through all these ritual procedures? This is the traditions, right? And he said to them, Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but in their heart is far away from me. Okay? In other words, see, externally you honor me, but internally you're nowhere near me. Verse 7, but in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. See, these traditions were just the precepts of men, they weren't God's intent with the law. He says, verse 8, neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. See what had happened? They had, by keeping the traditions of men, essentially negated the word of God. They were not keeping God's commands. He was also saying to them, verse 9, you are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. You're experts. I mean, how good to become an expert, what do you have to do? Practice. Practice practice. Like your whole life has to be about practicing how to do this. What had they been doing their whole lives? Practicing how to set aside the commandments of God so they could keep their tradition. Verse 10 for Moses said, and he gives an example, okay? The law of Corban, he gives an example to show how they had a tradition that allowed them to set aside the actual intent of God's law, his commandment. Okay. Now, when you do that, if you neglect the commandments, you're not keeping the commandments, if you're not keeping them, you're doing what? Sinning. Sinning. And the more if you practice it, you become an expert at setting aside the word of God, then guess what? You're sinning all the time. Sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, that's all it is, right? Now, what does that do to you? What is the effect of sin on a person? It hardens and blinds. It hardens the heart, it blinds the eyes, it deafens the ears. And so the Pharisees in the Gospels become known as the blind, the leaders of the blind. Um, because the people would follow them. So they became blind too, right? Because they were taught how to annul the commandments of God. Even though they heard Moses read every Sabbath in synagogue, they didn't keep it. And so they became they sinned and more and more and became blind. And that is what blinded them from recognizing who he was, recognizing who Jesus truly was as the Messiah. So this is amazing, right? Because these are people who said, Oh, we believe the Bible, we hold to the Old Testament. I mean, my goodness, they memorize a lot of them memorized the first five books. Have you memorized Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers in Deuteronomy? They memorized it, but they didn't know it. Because they had reinterpreted it and they held to their quote unquote tradition. Which were really a man. Can people still do that today with the Bible? Well, of course, they do it all the time.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.