My God and My Country

Word of God

But he replied and said, "It is written, 'It is not by bread alone that a man lives, except by every word that issues from the mouth of God

The Gospel According to Matthew 4:4

The Gospel According to Mark 7:9, 13

All commentary and study notes are prefaced/edited by Dr. Riktor Von Zhades

9 And he said unto them, Well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may observe your own tradition. 13 Making the word of God of none authority, by your tradition which ye have ordained: and ye do many such like things.

Brethren:

We must look within ourselves and ask; do we follow (Read Joshua 24:15, 21, 24) God, or man? Do we adhere to certain ways and things for the sake of those ways, or do we read and study what the word of God says on all issues? The songwriter Bob Dylan once wrote some lyrics about serving;

“ Now it may be the Devil, or it may be the Lord, but your gonna have to serve somebody” Friends who do you serve, God or man? (Read Acts 4:19-20, Acts 5:29; Galatians 1:10)

This writer also wonders, if those that claim to serve, do so from the perspective of what they can get from God, as opposed to what God can get from themselves? - Dr. RVZ

“One great design of Christ’s coming, was, to set aside the ceremonial law which God made, and to put an end to it; to make way for which he begins with the ceremonial law which men had made, and added to the law of God’s making, and discharges his disciples from the obligation of that; which here he doth fully, upon occasion of the offence which the Pharisees took at them for the violation of it. These Pharisees and scribes with whom he had this argument, are said to come from Jerusalem down to Galilee—fourscore or a hundred miles, to pick quarrels with our Saviour there, where they supposed him to have the greatest interest and reputation. Had they come so far to be taught by him, their zeal had been commendable; but to come so far to oppose him, and to check the progress of his gospel, was great wickedness. It should seem that the scribes and Pharisees at Jerusalem pretended not only to a pre-eminence above, but to an authority over, the country clergy, and therefore kept up their visitations and sent inquisitors among them, as they did to John [the Baptist] when he appeared, (Read John 1:19).” - Matthew Henry - 17^th Century Theologian