FOCUS ON THE SCRIPTURES
March 16, 2001
Revised: November 16, 2002 & January 08, 2003
HEAR YE HIM! - THE TEACHINGS AND THE COMMANDMENTS OF JESUS
Matthew, Mark, and Luke record the following event: "Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were conversing with Jesus. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified. Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, listen to Him! And all at once they looked around and saw no one with them any more, except Jesus only" (Mark 9:2-8 NASB). The instruction came from God Himself: Listen to Jesus, and, the Disciples listened to the teachings of Jesus throughout His ministry on earth. Following the death burial and resurrection of Jesus, the disciples, guided by the Holy Spirit, went everywhere teaching the teachings of Jesus to be observed and the commandments of Jesus to be obeyed. The Holy Spirit brought to their remembrance all that Jesus had taught them, and we have the New Testament record from Matthew to Revelation. Jesus said: "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31-32 NASB). And, Jesus said: "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him, the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment what to say, and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me" (John 12:48-50 NASB).
It is, therefore, exceedingly important that we be diligent in our study of the teachings and the commandments of Jesus. "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you," commands the Apostle Paul (Colossians 3:16 NASB). It is the word of Christ, not the reasonings of men based on human inferences, deductions, and /or implications that the Apostle refers to. Let us end the discord and divisiveness that has come from the words which man’s wisdom teaches. Let us reject the human rhetoric that has given rise to those paradigms, based on the reasonings of men, in which there are concepts, words and phrases expressing humanly devised principles as the very Word of God. Also, let us reject the so-called laws derived from these humanly devised principles knowing full-well that those who have made, ordained and established these laws possess no delegated authority, whatsoever, from the Supreme Lawgiver. Let us, once for all, reject all the standards and laws that religious leaders seek to bind on Christians, that are nowhere to be found in the New Testament teachings and commandments of Jesus. Let us tell it like it is: Entirely too many teachers and preachers are teaching their laws as truth and the very Word of God, in spite of the fact, that the authority for their laws exists only in their own minds. Such teaching is false teaching. Clearly, their laws have no authority, whatsoever, over Christians in religious matters and should not be so taught. Let us not be satisfied until we get the words of Jesus so fixed in our heart that we know in our heart of hearts that we are listening to Jesus, and we are following Him where He leads us.
Because, there are teachers and/or preachers who have used their own mental processes to derive new principles from certain religious premises or assumptions, and then they have falsely taught them as the very Word of God and as Underlying; Omnipotent; Inflexible; and Authoritative Biblical Principles; and, because, this is the fountain of much of the religious error that is being taught and practiced today; and, because of the awful damage that religious error is causing to the Body of Christ; let us encourage all of our religious leaders, our teachers and our preachers to listen to Jesus; and, let us encourage them to abandon the practice of teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men; and, let us encourage them to teach and preach instead: (A). The teachings of Jesus to be believed, and, (B). The commandments of Jesus to be obeyed. Is this a serious issue? You bet your life it is.
The following are three examples of:
(A). The teachings of Jesus to be believed.
1. "Therefore every one who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall" (Matthew 7:24-28 NASB).
2. "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16-20 NASB).
3.
"Not every one who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS" (Matthew 7:21-23 NASB).
The teachings of Jesus to be believed are all found in the New Testament scriptures, not in the teachings of religious leaders based on their own deductions, inferences, and/or implications.
The following are three examples of:
(B]. The commandments of Jesus to be obeyed. The following underlined words are verbal expressions in the imperative mood of the original Greek language, the mood of command.
1. "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14 NASB).
2. "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:15-16 NASB).
3. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20 NASB).
The commandments of Jesus to be obeyed are all found in the New Testament scriptures, not in the teachings of religious leaders based on their own deductions, inferences, and/or implications. If Jesus commanded it, we should obey His command, and that should settle it.
"On the part of Truth there cannot be, and on the part of Philanthropy there ought not to be, any truce between Truth and error. They are naturally, necessarily, and, therefore, eternally antagonistic. Satan is the oldest liar in the records of eternity. - But there are the deceiver and the deceived, and these are not to be assimilated, nor in any way confounded, or represented as one and the same. We are all, at times, more or less erratic, being under the influence of erroneous views and principles, without perceiving, designing or intending it" (Millennial Harbinger, February, 1857).
Tragically, there are far too many of our leaders, teachers, and preachers zealously teaching and proclaiming teachings to be believed and commandments to be obeyed that are based on erroneous views and principles. They teach laws to be obeyed that were not taught by Jesus or His Apostles. They are teaching, on their own authority, as their doctrines the precepts of men, and they include: The Law of Exclusion; The Law of Silence; and, their own laws to be obeyed regarding The Acceptable Acts of Worship in a public assembly. Some teachers and/or preachers are teaching and proclaiming that in many instances the inspired writers of the New Testament mean not what they say; and, in many instances they teach that they mean that which they do not say. They have identified certain statements that are not commandments in the original language that they believe have the force of commandments, and they dare, on their own authority, to tell us which statements have the force of commandments to be obeyed and which do not. Regarding their teachings concerning scriptures that mean that which they do not say, (where they insist their own views are necessarily implied, even though they are not expressed), they refer to their Law of Exclusion regarding matters not specified, in spite of the fact that their Law of Exclusion is nowhere to be found in the New Testament teachings of Jesus or His Apostles. Further, they have crafted their so-called Law of Silence; and, they proceed to list for us their Laws that Christians are to observe in order to be well pleasing to God that are based on that which the New Testament writers had nothing to say. As is the case of their Law of Exclusion, their so-called Law of Silence is nowhere to be found in the New Testament teachings of Jesus or His Apostles. Ironically, their Law of Silence and their Law of Exclusion are both excluded under the terms of their Law of Exclusion. They refer to their humanly devised and underlying guiding principle and insist that their views are clearly derived by necessary inference from their principle. Fragments of texts out of context, and disconnected and widely separated paragraphs anywhere from Genesis to Revelation, are often misapplied to persuade the unsuspecting that their deductions, inferences and/or implications are the very Word of God. They have been successful in converting entirely too many to their paradigms and their way of viewing things and not to Jesus. Such devil-inspired teaching undermines the clear teaching of Jesus. Let us believe the teaching of Jesus when He said: "A blind an cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?" (Luke 6:39 NASB). We can no longer sit idly by and just simply watch it happen.
Christians are those who have been taught to abide in the teachings of Jesus not in the teachings of men. Christians understand that Jesus means what He has said and not what He has not said. In the very beginning Eve was deceived by this lie and today it is the same old devil’s lie. It is not the privilege of the Christian teacher and/or preacher to impose his thoughts upon the words of the New Testament writers nor to impose his thoughts in the absence of such words. It is not the privilege of the teacher or preacher to have the New Testament writer say what the teacher or preacher, on his own authority, wishes, rather it is his privilege to understand; teach; proclaim; and believe that the inspired writers of the New Testament did select the appropriate words of their language to express all of that which is intended by God and Jesus to be authoritative teaching to be followed by all Christians in all ages; and, that their words convey the very ideas, doctrines, commands, precepts and/or concepts that they were intended to convey. There can be no truce between truth and error.
Writing in Volume III of his Evenings With The Bible, Isaac Errett said: "It is, perhaps, the most eminent peculiarity in our Lord’s teaching that he invites confidence in Himself as the basis of all spiritual good. It is not, Accept this postulate; nor, Be convinced of the truth of this proposition; nor, Subscribe to this philosophy; but Believe in Me, Follow Me. "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." "He that believeth on Me shall not abide in darkness but shall have the light of life." "If any man serve Me, let him follow Me, and where I am, there shall also My servant be." When the Father consummates His gracious designs in behalf of our race, and makes His last best gift to a perishing world, it is no longer a law, written on tables of stone, nor a ritual to enchant the senses, nor a volume of statutes to regulate conduct by external limitations, nor a voice of thunderous power to hold men in a paralysis of fear; but - "This is My beloved Son, in whom I delight; hear Him."
There is no authority from God for the precepts of men that are taught as commandments to be obeyed. Sin is the transgression of God’s laws. Where there is no law there is no sin. The question today is the same as it was in New Testament times: Are we to obey God or men? If that which is taught by our teachers and preachers to be obeyed, has as its authority the fabricated assumptions of men, then it is the precepts of men, and it should be recognized for what it is: False doctrine. Regarding false teachers, Jesus said: "You shall know them by their fruits." The Apostles, for their part, were His witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. They went everywhere teaching the teachings of Jesus to be believed and the commandments of Jesus to be obeyed just as they were instructed by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 28:19-20.
Finally, as mentioned earlier, Jesus said in John 12:48-50 that the Father Himself who sent Him gave Him commandment "what to say, and what to speak." And He said: "I speak just as the Father has told Me." It is, therefore, not surprising that the following instruction came from God Himself on the Mount of Transfiguration: "This is my beloved Son, listen to Him."
Jim Davis
E-mail: jamesdavis@focusonthescriptures.com
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