Jack Thompson"THAT WHICH IS WRITTEN"
Thank you and once again a very pleasant good morning to each one who has honored us with your time. I wish to express the sincere appreciation of the White Park church of Christ for your participation in this program. It is my hope and prayer that what we
are doing each Sunday morning is to the glory and honor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Your comments and questions are greatly appreciated. It is my desire to teach the truth of God's Word, and only that truth. We offer you no man-made schemes; nor that which is based upon the ideas and wisdom of man; which leads us to the subject
for this morning.
In 1 Corinthians 4:6, we have these words from the immortal Paul, "Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written." In these solemn words the great apostle warned us not to go beyond "the things which are written" and this warning is needed today just as much as it was when he wrote it. We simply cannot go beyond what has been written in God's Word.
God has revealed Himself to man in the Bible. In the Bible, we have all the truth revealed that man needs to know in order to be saved. In the Old Testament, God revealed the law of Moses to the Jewish people and, as long as they were true to Jehovah, they faithfully followed that which was written in the law. Their later
apostasies and captivities were the result of leaving what God had written and beg n following their own traditions and ideas. As long as they stayed with what was written, they were blessed; when they forsook what was written, they were punished and condemned! In the New Testament, God has revealed the gospel to all mankind. The early church was admonished to abide by that which was written; the revelation of truth as the Holy Spirit guided those inspired men to write the guidance that came from Heaven. As long as they adhered to this written word, they prospered and were blessed; when they forsook the written word and began to make creeds, follow traditions, and
teach the doctrines and commands of men, they gradually drifted farther and farther from the truth until the early church went into complete apostasy from which it did not recover until many years later. The religious history of the world has been one apostasy
after another and that because man has refused to abide by what is written. This history, as well as the Bible, should teach us the great importance of abiding by "that which is written." Christ, our Saviour, always appealed to the written word as being the final
authority. When in controversy with His adversaries He would say, "What is written in the law? How readest thou? (Luke 10:26). In proving His deity He always appealed to the law, the prophets and the Psalms and "He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, 44). When resisting Satan in the wilderness, Jesus said, "It is written" three times. On one occasion He said to the Saducees, "ye do err, not knowing the scriptures." He told them they were in error because their doctrine was not in harmony with the written word; and all are in error today who teach and practice things that are not written in God's Book. Christ not only appealed to "that which was written" as final and authoritative, but the apostles did likewise. In Acts 2, as Peter preached that first gospel sermon, he affirmed the deity of Christ to those
unbelieving Jews, quoting from the Old Testament scriptures thus proving Christ's divinity by "that which was written." When preaching the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, the evangelist Philip appealed to that "which was written" to prove to him that Jesus was the Christ, "and beginning at the same scripture, he preached unto him Jesus" (Acts 8:35). When the apostle Paul preached Christ, he always appealed to the written word of God as proof of Christ's divinity and he was always quoting from the Scriptures to prove the truth. When, for example, he want to Thessalonica to preach, "Paul, as his manner
was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days, reasoned with them out of the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2). He did not reason from the standpoint of philosophy, the authority of the church, tradition, or the doctrines and creeds of men, but from the Scriptures, for they were the court of final appeal for him. When Paul preached in Berea,
those noble people "searched the Scriptures daily" to see if what he preached was true because they knew nothing could be right unless it was taught in the written word! (Acts 17:11).
As in the days of old, it is just as necessary for us today to abide by "that which is written"! The faith that saves comes through the written word. John said, "these things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (John 20:31). Paul informs us in Romans 10:17, that, "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." If we would, then, be in possession of saving faith, we must accept that written word which produces such faith. There is simply no other way to gain the faith that will save a person, except by the hearing of the revealed word of God. It is not only necessary to abide by "that which is written" in the Bible, but it is equally as necessary for us to remember, and never forget, that the Bible, the written word, and the Bible ALONE is our SOLE and ONLY AUTHORITY in religion and to it our appeal must
always be. Anything taught which is not authorized in the Bible cannot be right. A thing is right and acceptable to God only if it is in harmony with His written word.
Tradition is not authority in religion and should not be taught, accepted, or adhered to. Jesus spoke of tradition, but he always denounced it. His objection to tradition was that it made void the written word of God. Anything that was contrary to the Scriptures received the stern censure of Jesus. He said to the Pharisees, who, like many today, believed that tradition was authority, "For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of man....full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition" (Mark 7:8-9). And in saying this, He forever refuted the idea that people should follow tradition. History shows that when people follow tradition in religion, they always go contrary to the word of God and, friends, there is hardly a tradition practiced in the religious world today, that, in some way at least, does not set
aside God's written word! When people follow tradition, they always come to love the tradition more than the Bible; and when the two conflict, people hold the tradition and let the written word God! Let us, therefore, always stay with the Bible. Let us speak
where it speaks, and let us be silent where it is silent. No man has the right to command something of you that is not found in the written Word of God. Let us revere the written word as God's only revelation of truth and as man's only guide and authority. This is scriptural, reasonable and safe. Any other course leads to apostasy and disaster. Let us follow the inspired words of Peter when he said, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (1 Peter 4:11) and let us always stay with the oracles of God! Let us not add our own creeds, traditions and opinions to God's word; nor take away from it one single command. Let us demand a "Thus saith the Lord" in all things religious and measure every doctrine and practice by "that which is written," Let us "preach the word" and nothing more. We urge you, each one of you, to believe and obey that written word. We who are Christians must live by God's written word, always remembering that Jesus said, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12:48).
My dear friends in this listening audience, do you have book, chapter, and verse for all that you believe and practice? Can you give a scriptural reference for each thing that you do? Where is your authority for many churches functioning under a centralized organization? Do you have book, chapter, and verse for that kind of arrangement? Or, do you possible say, it really does not matter?
But, from what we have seen this morning, it surely does matter. No one can risk doing anything for which there is no authority; no written word to establish it. It is not enough for one to say, "Well I think this or that would be all right." Friends, we had better not
base our eternal destiny upon our "think so's." We better find what God says, and do our very best to practice that and that alone.
Are you a Christian today? If not, will you not, in the words of James, "receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your soul?" (James 1:21). The people in Acts 2 "gladly received the word" and were "baptized for the remission of their sins" (Acts 2:38, 41). The Lord then added them to His family, the church (Acts 2:47).