Day 98=9/6/2016

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II. Practices Not Included in God’s Revealed Word Are Unacceptable.

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The previous point provides a necessary inference about unrevealed practices. But God’s word deals even more directly with such practices. Consider the following principles:

A. The Principle of Ownership

Everything in the Universe, especially in the church, belongs to God.

Acts 17:24 — God made the world and everything in it since He is Lord of heaven and earth.

1 Chronicles 29:11,12 — Everything in heaven and earth belongs to God. He reigns over all.

Matthew 16:18 – The church, in particular, belongs to Jesus because He built it.

Acts 20:28 – He purchased it with His blood.

Ephesians 1:22,23; 5:23-25 – The church is His body. He is head over all things to the church, like a man is head over his wife. Therefore, the church must submit to His will.

To practice things not authorized by God is to fail to honor our head and owner.

Should your body obey the instructions of another person’s head? Does another man, who has no authority over your wife, have the right to tell your wife to do things you never told her to do? Does your neighbor have the right to use your house or car differently from what you have decided? May he have a party in your house or drive off with your car without your permission?

Note that you don’t have to tell every other man specifically not to try to tell your wife what to do and not to try to get your body to obey their head and not to try to use your house and car in ways other than what you have chosen. These things are wrong because they violate the principle of ownership and headship. No one can use your property without your permission.

Likewise, if we belong to God and if specifically the church belongs to Jesus, what right do people have choosing to practice things different from would the owner has chosen?

What right do men have making rules for the church or authorizing practices that are not included in what God has authorized?

God does not have to specifically say not to do these things. All such things are wrong because they violate the principle of ownership. No one has the right to use God’s property without His permission.

[Colossians 1:18; 2:19-22; Psalm 95:3-5; 24:1,2; 50:10,12; Haggai 2:8; 1 Chron. 29:12,14]

B. The Principle of Wisdom

God’s wisdom is infinitely above that of man.

Isaiah 55:8,9 — God’s thoughts and ways are above ours and completely different from ours. We cannot possibly know God’s will about a matter unless He reveals it.

Jeremiah 10:23 — The way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Man is simply not wise enough to know how to live apart from God’s revelation.

Since we do not think like God does, we cannot possibly know God’s will unless He reveals it.

Often people will defend some religious practice because it “makes sense” to them. “I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

But if our human wisdom accepts something, that proves nothing about whether or not God approves it.

Proverbs 14:12 — There is a way that seems right to man, but the end is death.

2 Corinthians 10:18 — Not he who commends himself is approved, but he whom the Lord commends. The fact that we approve a thing does not in any way indicate the God approves it.

Knowing this, God completely revealed His will for us in the Bible, then He warned us not to follow human wisdom.

Isaiah 30:1 – When people devise plans and take counsel not according to God’s Spirit, they add sin to sin and practice rebellion.

Whenever we practice things not revealed in the Bible, we are following fallible human wisdom instead of God’s infallible wisdom! Instead, we must practice only what is revealed.

[1 Corinthians 1:21-24; 2:5,10-13; Isaiah 65:2; Jeremiah 8:9; 17:5; Psalms 81:12,13; 94:11; Proverbs 28:26; 14:14; 21:2; 16:2; 20:24; Ezekiel 13:2,17]

C. The Principle of Worship

Worship that pleases God must be directed by His truth.

John 4:23,24 — To please God, worship must be in spirit and in truth.

John 17:17 - But God’s word is truth.

John 16:13 - And all truth is revealed in the gospel (as already discussed).

Matthew 21:25 - But every religious practice is based either on God’s authority or else on man’s authority. If God did not originate a practice, then man must have invented it.

Since the gospel reveals all truth, then any practice which is not revealed in the gospel must not be part of the truth but is human in origin and therefore vain.

Matthew 15:9,13,14 — Worship is vain (worthless) when based on precepts of human origin.

The purpose of worship is to please and glorify God. We honor and respect Him when we do what He says. If we do what men say to do instead of what God says, then we are not showing respect for God and His will. Instead, we are showing respect for the men who invented the practice. So instead of pleasing God by our worship, we displease Him.

[1 Kings 12:32,33]

D. The Principle of Love

Love leads us to do what pleases the one whom we love.

Matthew 22:37 — Loving God is the most important command there is.

John 14:15 — But Biblical love requires keeping God’s commands. [1 John 5:3; 2 John 6]

Sometimes people think that, as long as they claim to love God, it doesn’t matter whether or not the things they do are in the Bible. But love leads us to seek to please the person we love, rather than pleasing ourselves.

To invent unauthorized practices is to show love for men, not for God.

People often defend their religious practices saying, “I think it’s beautiful,” “I like it,” or “We’re satisfied with it.” All that is proved by such statements is that we are pleasing ourselves, not God. When we love God, we do what pleases Him, not what we want.

Luke 16:15 — What is highly esteemed by men is an abomination to God. The fact that we like a thing does not at all mean that God likes it.

Doing what we want in worship is like a man who gives his wife a chainsaw for her birthday, because that’s what he wants. Does that show love for the wife? No, it shows love for himself.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 – When men seek teachers and teaching according to their own desires, the result will be to turn away from the truth and follow fables. Instead, we must “preach the word.”

If we love God, we will do only what He wants, not what we want.

But remember that we can’t know what He wants except as He has revealed it in the Bible, and the Bible completely reveals what God wants.

Rather than being an excuse for overlooking what the Bible says, love is actually a reason for doing only what the Bible says.