Excerpts from Life-study of Matthew, Message 45 ... - Church in Manila

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word of God.] In the Lord Jesus' encounter with the Pharisees, the Lord did not care for the traditions. On the contrary
Excerpts from Life-study of Matthew, Message 45 THE PATHWAY TO GLORY (4) Bible Verses: Matthew 15:1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, 15:2 Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. 15:3 And He answered and said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? 15:8 “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart stays far away from Me; 15:9 But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as teachings the commandments of men.” 15:13 And He answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. 15:14 Let them be. They are blind guides of the blind; and if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. [BEING BROUGHT BACK TO THE WORD OF GOD] As we follow the Lord on the pathway to glory, we experience rejection, the lack of necessities, and the storm on the sea. After this, we face the accusations from religion. Matthew 15:1 and 2 say, “Then there came to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” [C]ertain of the ancients adopted the regulation of washing their hands whenever they ate. At the time of the Lord Jesus, this was a tradition. However, it was not a commandment in the Bible. Nothing commanded by God could ever become a tradition, for God’s word is always fresh. A tradition, on the contrary, is something invented or initiated by man. [T]he historic church has adopted many regulations that are absolutely unscriptural, and it has made many decisions regarding things not found in the Bible. Traditions are very prevailing in Christendom today. The traditional celebration of Christmas is an example. One of our critics has said that the origin of Christmas is not pagan. He even denied the fact that the Christmas tree is pagan. Verse 3 says, “And He answered and said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” The Jewish religionists accused the Lord’s disciples of transgressing their tradition, but the Lord condemned them for transgressing the commandment of God because of their tradition. [The Lord’s dealing with the Pharisees and scribes here condemned them for making void the word of God.] In the Lord Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees, the Lord did not care for the traditions. On the contrary, He referred them to the word of God. [T]he Lord has raised us up to come back to the pure Word. We do not care for man’s tradition, teaching, or practice [CARING FOR INWARD REALITY] The tradition of the Pharisees was outward, but the Lord’s concern was for something inward. The problem between the Pharisees and the Lord Jesus and His followers was that the Pharisees cared only for outward tradition, ritual, and practice, for example, the washing of hands. They cared nothing whatever for inward reality. Therefore, the Lord Jesus pointed them to the inward matter of the heart. The Lord seemed to say, “Don’t care for this outward practice of washing of hands. The dirt that needs to be cleansed away is within you.” In the Lord’s recovery today we likewise do not care for outward things; rather, we care for inward reality. Because the Lord cares for inward reality, we are not concerned about the outward way of having our meetings. It means very little whether the meeting is loud or quiet. We care only for the inward

experience of Christ, for inward reality. It is an insignificant matter whether our hands are dirty; it is the condition of our inward parts that is important. Verse 8 says, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.” Those who follow the traditions may honor the Lord outwardly with their lips, but their heart is far away from God. The outward practice of the traditions seemingly is for God. Actually, however, the inward being of so many who follow the traditions is not for God. They have an outward professing lip, but their heart is away from the Lord. Tradition is a matter of utterance from the lips without reality in the heart. [I]n the eyes of God it is not a matter of the outward appearance, but a matter of the inward reality, not a matter of what we say, but a matter of what we are. [THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND] Verse 14 says, “Leave them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind; and if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” The self-righteous and arrogant religionists thought they were clear concerning the way to serve God, not realizing that they were blind leaders of the blind. Their eyes were veiled by their religious traditions; hence, they could not see Christ and the reality of God’s economy that they might enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Their blindness led them to fall into a pit. Those who follow the traditions are blind leaders of the blind. This is true today. I feel very sad about all those who are being misled. [Those who have been opposing us] have missed the blessing and enjoyment. As the Lord Jesus said, these blind leaders have not been planted by the Father. Rather, they are self-assuming ones, not God-planted ones. Their blindness will cause them to be uprooted. Their follies, quackery, and errors will uproot them. [W]e are following the same way taken by the Lord Jesus and His disciples. They suffered rejection, experienced the lack of necessities, faced the stormy sea, and were accused by the traditionalists and religionists. It is the same with us today. This is the pathway to glory.

Read the verses and footnotes online: http://online.recoveryversion.bible/ Read the complete message online: http://www.ministrybooks.org/life-studies.cfm

Excerpts from Life-study of Matthew, Message 46 THE PATHWAY TO GLORY (5) Bible Verses: Matthew 15:22 And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders and cried out, saying, Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter suffers terribly from demon possession. 15:26 But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. 15:27 And she said, Yes, Lord, for even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you as you wish. And her daughter was healed from that hour. [THE NEED FOR INWARD CLEANSING] In chapter fifteen, immediately after the dispute regarding the washing of hands, there is a record of feeding on Jesus (15:21-28). [This] second section was the immediate continuation of the first section. Matthew had a definite reason for putting these two sections together. His purpose was to show that what the Lord wants is not the washing of hands, but the eating of Him, the taking in of Him as food. He does not want us to wash outwardly; He wants us to eat, to take Him in. No matter how many times we may wash our hands, we shall still be hungry. In 15:21-28 we do not have washing; we see a dirty dog eating. The Lord does not care about the washing of hands. Whether you are outwardly dirty or not does not mean anything to Him. What truly matters to the Lord is that your hunger is satisfied. The Lord Jesus did not say to the Canaanite woman, “Yes, you have the right to eat of Me, but you are dirty. Wash yourself first and then come back to eat.” No, the outward washing is in the foregoing section, not in this section. Here we see the matter of eating. In this chapter we see that what matters to the Lord is not outward practices, but the inward condition. We should not outwardly wash away the dirt; rather, we need to be cleansed from within. The question is how we can be inwardly cleansed. In order to be cleansed from within, something must get into us, and the only way this can take place is by eating. As the nourishing food, the Lord Jesus is the best cleansing element. When He comes into us as food, He not only nourishes us, but also inwardly cleanses us. He does not wash our hands; He washes our system, our very being. This matter of inward cleansing through the eating of Jesus is the link that joins the first two sections of chapter fifteen. In today’s religion what is taught is mostly like the washing of hands. On Sunday after Sunday, sermons are given mainly on the outward washing. However, what people need is not the outward washing, but the inward cleansing, the cleansing in life and nature. They need a cleansing element that can get into their system, even into their vessels. They do not need the outward washing of hands, but the inward washing that comes from the proper eating. Jesus is not only the nourishing food; He is also the cleansing element. I can testify that day by day the Lord Jesus is getting into me to cleanse me from within. He is washing my inner being. In the church life we are not being washed outwardly; on the contrary, we are being cleansed and purified inwardly. [STANDING IN THE PROPER POSITION— AS A HEATHEN DOG UNDER THE TABLE OF THE MASTER] The disciples were troubled by the crying out of the Canaanite woman, and they asked the Lord to send her away. This indicates that once again they were instructing the Lord, telling Him to do something. This also was the principle of the law. The disciples seemed to be saying, “Lord, she is crying out and troubling us. Can’t you do something, Lord? Please send her away.” At this point the Lord said [to His

disciples], “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v. 24). [But in] verse 26 the Lord answered the Canaanite woman: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” The Lord said that the children’s bread should not be thrown to the dogs. This indicates that in the eyes of the Lord all the heathen are dogs, which are unclean in the eyes of God (Lev. 11:26). When the Lord Jesus referred to the Canaanite woman as a dog, she said, “Yes, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (v. 27). The Gentile woman seemed to be saying, “Yes, Lord, I am a dirty, pagan dog. But don’t forget, Lord, that even dogs have their portion. The dog’s portion is not on the table like the children’s portion. The children’s portion is on the table, but the dog’s portion is under the table. Now, Lord, You are not on the table, in the land of Israel. You are under the table, in the Gentile world. You are in the very place where I am. You are not on the table where the children are. You are now under the table where the dogs are. Lord, the dogs may eat the crumbs that are under the table.” The Canaanite woman was keen, and the Lord Jesus was caught by her. Because I am very careful in doctrinal matters, I have wondered why the Lord Jesus did not tell the Canaanite woman to wash herself and then come back and eat....According to doctrine, this woman definitely needed to be washed. But why did the Lord Jesus not ask her to wash herself before eating of Him? If the Lord had done this, He would have been acting contrary to what He had said in the foregoing verses when He belittled the matter of outward washing. Here the Lord is emphasizing the matter of eating. But this does not mean that we do not need to be washed. The blood is available. We may strike the blood and eat the Lamb. But in order not to confuse matters, in this section on eating, the Lord Jesus said nothing about washing. I believe that the Lord Jesus did this purposely to show His disciples that they needed only one thing—the eating. Even if we are as dirty as pagan dogs, we still have the right and the position to eat Jesus. Oh, we need to be uninhibited eaters! Do not wait until you have washed. Come to the Lord just as you are and eat of Him. As the words of a hymn say, “Just as I am, I come.” We need to say, “Lord, I come just as I am. I don’t need to change or to be cleansed. Lord, I need You, and I come to You to eat. Even if I am a dirty dog, I come to You just as I am.” Eating is primary, and eating is everything. [REAL HEALING COMING FROM PROPER EATING] The Canaanite woman did not come to the Lord because she was hungry; she came because her daughter was sick. But the Lord turned the situation to the matter of eating. The Lord did not say, “I came as a Physician to the children of Israel, and I cannot heal any heathen. I cannot cure dogs.” Rather, the Lord seemed to be saying, “I came as bread to the children. It is not right to throw the children’s bread to the dogs.” Although the woman’s request had nothing to do with eating, the Lord purposely related her case to the matter of eating to show us that what we need is not outward washing, but eating for the inward nourishing. In his doctrinal arrangement Matthew put these matters together that we might understand that for the kingdom of the heavens we do not need outward cleansing, but what we need is for Christ to get into us. Are you sick or weak? Do you have certain problems? Do not try to deal with these things in an outward way. Instead, deal with them in an inward way by eating Jesus. In fact, you should forget about all those things. What you need is not outward washing, but Christ coming into you. The Lord seemed to be saying to the Canaanite woman, “You don’t need healing. You need Me! And you do not need Me outwardly; you need Me inwardly. You need to eat Me. I came as bread for people to eat, to digest, and to assimilate. I would like to get into your being, into your system, vessels, and fibers. I would like to get into your very constituent and become you. Thus, you need to eat Me. Don’t deal with things in an outward way. Rather, deal with everything in an inward way by taking Me into you. As long as I can get into you to nourish you, every problem will be solved.” Read the verses and footnotes online: http://online.recoveryversion.bible/ Read the complete message online: http://www.ministrybooks.org/life-studies.cfm