When JESUS came into HIS ministry work, you might have thought that HE would have taken on Herod or Pilate or the evil Roman Empire. HE chose to go after something much deadlier and more dangerous: the religious lukewarm church…the church that practiced the traditions of men and used HIS Name, but knew HIM not…they would ultimately plot HIS crucifixion…..
GOD does not seem to be impressed with the things the world calls great. Consider Moses, a man taken from his people and raised as a pagan, who later flees to the wilderness for 40 years. All this before he is reunited with his people and sent by GOD to deal with the enemy of his people. The traditions of men would have called for the stoutest of the Levites, but GOD didn’t want that. Then there was an insider who GOD used, but he had to be stripped clean of his traditions of men before he could be used and that was Paul on the Road to Damascus: Acts 22:3-16: “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for GOD just as you all are today. “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify from them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.
So why were the Religious lukewarm leaders so deadly? It was because of their traditions “of men” and not GOD. Their rote religious practices that put GOD in their own selected boxes. And why can you not put GOD in a box, even today? Because GOD’s ways are not our ways and you cannot contain the uncontainable. Here are some startling moves GOD made outside of the traditions “of men”
1. GOD sent HIS only SON to earth through a virgin human being to be born in a manger with animals.
2. GOD came as a man to earth to die on a cross for all men in a horrible abusive way at the hand of HIS own worst enemy through HIS own creation.
3. JESUS walked among the leaders of the religious lukewarm church and pushed their buttons and boldly declared to them HE was GOD.
4. JESUS made it known to a woman at a well who had five men as partners WHO HE was really first and not prior to one of the “Religious” leaders.
5. JESUS selected fishermen to be HIS disciples who would have not made the cut of being selected to be among the Religious leaders of their time.
6. JESUS spent time with the commoners, tax collectors and prostitutes and rebuked the Religious leaders.
7. JESUS did not come to take on the politics of the time even though the tradition “of men” called for it.
8. Although the Messiah was to be the High Priest of the people, JESUS was not Levitical. HE was from the tribe of Judah and this is throwing the Jews off even today…
9. GOD says clearly over and over despite the Traditions “of men” that HE is coming for the FEW—THE REMNANT—THE LITTLE FLOCK—THOSE ON THE NARROW PATH…the ones who will be left behind are on the broad way—and yet the mainstream church is looking for a great revival…they will be looking back like LOT’s wife when the LORD comes for the few.
10. GOD uses the least likely over and over: David who slaughtered Goliath, Gideon who was the least of the tribes of Israel, Esther an orphan girl to become a queen, Daniel a young man captured by a pagan ruler.
11. JESUS went after the fishermen to be HIS disciples. Why not a group of carpenters? And if fishermen, why did JESUS choose to be in the household of a carpenter?
GOD is not influenced by or impressed with the traditions “of men.” You could even call them: the customs “of men,”…the ideologies “of men,”….the plans “of men,”…the predictions “of men,”…the timetables “of men,”….the theologies “of men,”….the philosophies “of men,”…the vain pursuits “of men,”…the theories “of men,”….the doctrines “of men.”
What are one of the traditions “of men” today that the Bible said they will be SAYING? The Bible said they will SAY “PEACE AND SAFETY,” which is precisely what the Bible predicted and that the people are all excited about. But be careful of the traditions “of men,” the inference in scripture is that their pursuit of peace and safety is not “of GOD.”
Colossians 2:8 (KJV) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after CHRIST.
Mark 7:8 (KJV): For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 (KJV): For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Matthew 3:7 (KJV) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Colossians 2:8 (KJV) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Luke 3:7 (KJV): Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 23:33: Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Matthew 12:34: O generation of vipers can ye being evil speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Matthew 3:7 (KJV) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Revelation 2:15: So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.
THE TRADITIONS “OF MEN”
