Text: II Kings 17:7-23<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. How do you determine what is right or wrong?<\/p>\n
A. How does your neighbor decide? Or your co-workers?<\/p>\n B. We all base our behavior on standards that we have accepted as authoritative, but\nthose standards vary.\n
C. What makes a good standard?<\/p>\n
1. It needs to be fixed<\/p>\n
a. A standard that constantly changes would be difficult to follow.<\/p>\n b. “Let’s see, today is Tuesday so it is wrong to eat catchup on\nhamburgers today, but tomorrow we can’t have mustard on hot\ndogs.”\n
2. It needs to be fair and equitable<\/p>\n a. Standards that differ because one is rich or poor, or based on ethnic\norigins, or gender are not good standards\n b. We don’t like it when celebrities are released from crimes, mostly\nbecause of their celebrity status.\n
3. It needs to be reliable<\/p>\n
a. The standards need to produce good results.<\/p>\n
II. Personal Standards<\/p>\n A. In answering people’s questions, I have been struck with the realization that many\npeople look no further than their own feelings as a guide.\n 1. One woman wrote that she feels her husband no longer loves her. She was\nfrustrated because he wouldn’t discuss divorce with her.\n 2. A fan of Binny Hinn ignored evidence that Hinn was a false teacher,\nsaying he saw the empty wheelchairs. He knew that Lord was behind the\nwork. He wouldn’t trade that feeling for all the world.\n 3. A young man wanted to know what he should do because he felt he\ncouldn’t wait to have sex.\n
B. In all these cases, an appeal is made to personal feelings.<\/p>\n
1. Feelings are given greater weight than facts.<\/p>\n
2. Yet, feelings change. They can be manipulated.<\/p>\n a. You can watch a movie and laugh, cry, get angry, or feel\nembarrassed.\n b. But if I asked you, you would admit that the movie was not real.\nYou know that it is just actors reciting lines made up by other\npeople.\n c. Even knowing it is not real, you let your feelings change based on\nimaginary circumstances.\n
3. If feelings can be so easily altered, why do people trust them?<\/p>\n a. Instead of reasoning things out, he foolishly follows his heart –\nProverbs 18:2\n
b. A fool to trust your own heart – Provers 28:26<\/p>\n
4. Feelings are neither fixed, nor reliable<\/p>\n
C. One’s conscience is not a adequate guide<\/p>\n
1. Paul acted always in good conscience – Acts 23:1<\/p>\n a. But this is the man who in younger days killed Christians – Acts\n9:1-3\n
b. This man later said he was the chief of sinners – I Timothy 1:15<\/p>\n
c. Because he persecuted the church – I Corinthians 15:9<\/p>\n
d. If we appeal to Paul’s conscience, at what point was he right?<\/p>\n
2. A conscience can be seared – I Timothy 4:2<\/p>\n
3. It can be trained – Hebrews 5:14 <\/p>\n 4. If a conscience is trained well, it can make a good rough guide, but it\ncannot be a standard – Romans 14:22-23\n
D. Can a person be his own standard?<\/p>\n
1. Too many people think this is the case – Psalm 12:4; Judges 21:25<\/p>\n 2. “I don’t see anything wrong with it.” Means that I find it acceptable, so\ntherefore I’m doing it – Psalm 10:3\n
3. People make mistakes<\/p>\n a. Jacob “knew” that his son was killed, but he was wrong – Genesis\n37:33-25\n
b. Man is not capable of directing his own way – Jeremiah 10:23<\/p>\n
c. Doing your own thing was forbidden – Deuteronomy 12:8<\/p>\n
4. That is why the Old Law required two or more witnesses<\/p>\n
a. One man is easily wrong, but it is harder to fool many<\/p>\n
b. Seek the advice of many – Proverbs 15:22<\/p>\n
III. Scholars as a Standard<\/p>\n A. It is common to hear people quote some commentator or biblical scholar and say\nthat if a wise man believes it, then it must be so\n
B. Our faith is not to be in the wisdom of men – I Corinthians 2:5<\/p>\n
C. It should not be who says, but why they believe it. <\/p>\n 1. A true wise man should be able to explain why they came to their\nconclusion.\n 2. But that means we are not accepting the man’s conclusion but learning\nhow he applies an authority greater than himself.\n
IV. The Majority as a Standard<\/p>\n A. Well, if it is harder to fool multiple people, then the more who follow something,\nthe more right it must be.\n B. I had a man call the other day wanting money, but he quickly began berating the\nchurch. He asked if I knew of Karl Ketcherside and Max Lucado. How, he wanted\nto know, could I condemn them when so many follow their teachings. Had I\nnoticed that conservative churches tend to be small? Didn’t that tell me\nsomething?\n
1. I directed his attention to Matthew 17:13-14<\/p>\n
2. Israel fell as most of them turned to idolatry – II Kings 17:7-17<\/p>\n
C. How can this be?<\/p>\n 1. Many will not think for themselves, but will assume that if others are\ndoing it, it must be right.\n 2. We have a tendency toward a herd mentality, following the crowd, caving\nin to peer pressures.\n
D. The truth is the majority is rarely right.<\/p>\n
1. Yet, we use it all the time. <\/p>\n
a. “All my friends are doing it!”<\/p>\n
b. Everyone is investing in XYZ, there must be something there<\/p>\n
2. Proverbs 1:10-16 – Right and wrong is not based on peers<\/p>\n
E. “Other religions do it”<\/p>\n
1. Many practices are justified in a manner of keeping up with the Jones.<\/p>\n 2. If the church done the street gives food to the poor, serves coffee in the\nmorning, or has a camp, then others want it too.\n
3. Like Israel’s argument for a king – I Samuel 8:5<\/p>\n
4. It is another form of making men the standard for what we do.<\/p>\n
V. Government as a Standard<\/p>\n
A. Governments exists to uphold standards – Romans 13:3-4<\/p>\n
B. But are governmental decisions a determiner of right and wrong?<\/p>\n 1. Many act this way. Things once seen as sins are felt justified because\npeople managed to get governmental allowances for their sins.\n 2. Abortion was once wrong, but is now legal. Homosexuality was once\nwrong, but is wining more allowances daily. Divorce was once frowned\non, but now we have “no-fault” divorces. \n
a. People are seeking to legalize marijuana usage. Why?<\/p>\n
b. Does government allowance make it use good?<\/p>\n
c. Is alcohol or smoking good because the government permits it?<\/p>\n 3. It is not only in civil governments, but we find people striving the same in\ndenominations’ religious governments\n a. Denominations have voted that hell isn’t real. That living together\nwithout marriage is not a sin. That homosexuals can be clergy\nmembers.\n
C. But governments can and have been wrong!<\/p>\n 1. German government once allowed the destruction of their Jewish\npopulation. Because it was authorized, did it make it right?\n 2. Government laws are constantly changing. At what point were they right?\nIs every change necessarily an improvement.\n
D. Just like the majority view, governmental views are no standard.<\/p>\n 1. We get lulled into following them. Especially when those laws have been\nmostly good in the past.\n
2. Once again, we yield to the herd mentality – Acts 4:18-20<\/p>\n
VI. Cultural Traditions as a Standard<\/p>\n
A. Different societies have different traditions<\/p>\n 1. In America bribery is seen as wrong, but in many small countries it is\naccepted as a way of life.\n
2. Filipino culture states that something is right if you don’t get caught.<\/p>\n 3. Sweden has a culture that accepts sex outside of marriage as normal (and\nwe are rapidly changing to the same standard in America).\n
B. Just because society accepts it, does it make something right?<\/p>\n
C. Jesus condemned Jewish traditions – Matthew 15:1-6<\/p>\n
1. Jesus wasn’t condemning traditions. <\/p>\n 2. A tradition in and of itself is not a determination of right or wrong. It just\nshows currently accept practice.\n
3. But we already have shown that the majority is often wrong.<\/p>\n
D. Then too, culture changes.<\/p>\n 1. The standards for dress accepted today are wildly different from 50 or 100\nyears ago.\n
2. Practices accepted today are different than 50 or 100 years ago<\/p>\n
a. Living together without marriage<\/p>\n
b. Carrying a gun<\/p>\n
3. Society is too fluid to be a standard<\/p>\n
E. “We’ve always done it this way”<\/p>\n 1. Even in the church there can be cultural traditions. But traditions are not\nproof. \n 2. The Jews had long standing traditions that turned out to be wrong –\nMatthew 15:1-14\n
3. We have to guard against man-originated traditions – Colossians 2:8<\/p>\n 4. If we say “faithful brethren” have always done something, then isn’t the\nstandard men instead of God? – Galatians 1:10; I Thessalonians 2:4\n
F. “It does good; therefore, it must be right”<\/p>\n
1. Basically the claim that the end justifies the means.<\/p>\n
2. If we as a whole see it as “good” then it must be good.<\/p>\n
3. Romans 3:8 – Cannot get good from evil<\/p>\n
4. But then, who defines what is good? <\/p>\n
a. This is a standard that needs a standard behind it.<\/p>\n b. Does instrumental music become right because it sounds nice or\nthat it is claimed to keep people on key?\n c. Can we change the elements of the Lord’s Supper because we like\nthe taste of chocolate cookies and milk?\n
VII. The One True Standard<\/p>\n A. The one common thread is that each prior standard was based upon men,\nindividually or in groups.\n
1. We tease about people pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps<\/p>\n 2. But this is what is happening when man looks to himself to be his own\nstandard – Jeremiah 10:23\n
B. Man’s standards must be higher than man – Isaiah 8:20<\/p>\n
1. Proverbs 14:12 – Man is easily deceived<\/p>\n
2. Isaiah 55:8-9 – God is higher than man<\/p>\n
3. Proverbs 3:5 – Trust God, not your own understanding<\/p>\n 4. Jesus claims, and has been proven accurate that he holds all authority –\nMatthew 28:18\n
5. Jesus’ words will judge us – John 12:48-50<\/p>\n
C. God has given us a standard in His word – II Timothy 3:16-17<\/p>\n
1. It is the truth – John 17:17<\/p>\n
2. Has everything we need – II Peter 1:3<\/p>\n
3. Was given once for all – Jude 3<\/p>\n
4. It is perfect – James 1:25<\/p>\n
D. You cannot alter perfection and get something better<\/p>\n 1. The Old Law was not to be changed – Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs\n30:5-6\n
2. The New Law is not to be changed – Galatians 1:6-10; Revelation 22:18-19<\/p>\n
VIII. A good standard does no good if it is not followed<\/p>\n
A. John 14:15 – Show love for your God this day.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFundamentals of Christianity\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Standards of Authority Text: II Kings 17:7-23 I. How do you determine what is right or wrong? A. How does your neighbor decide? Or your co-workers? B. We all base our behavior on standards that we have accepted as authoritative, but those standards vary. C. What makes a good standard? 1. It needs to be fixed a. A standard that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":26590,"menu_order":18,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29335","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26590,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/fundamentals-of-christianity\/","url_meta":{"origin":29335,"position":0},"title":"Fundamentals of Christianity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Fundamentals of Christianity by Jeffrey W. 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