No Substitutes accepted
The word substitute means: Put in the place of another; switch seemingly equivalent items.
In some cases a substitute is acceptable and can save us a great deal of money. For example, I had to replace my passenger mirror assembly. If I bought it from the dealer I was going to cost 200 dollars, but I found someone that made their own version of the mirror assembly and the sold it for 70 dollars. Looks the same and works the same, so substitutes like that work great.
However, they do not always work out very good. I remember back when I was teenager that someone gave us some hamburger meat they had prepared themselves from their own cows. I loved hamburgers, but this hamburger meat was prepared differently, I don’t know if it had soy mixed in with or some other ingredient, but it did not taste like the hamburger meat I was used to eating, and at the time couldn’t stand it. Though it was the same product it was prepared in different way, so this one substitute that did not work out well for me.
I am sure all of us have experienced good and bad cases when it comes to substitutes, but when it comes to God’s Word and what He has taught us to do, no substitutes are accepted nor can a substitute replace what God has taught us.
To help us see this simple truth, I want to share with you several example of where people tried use a substitute for what God had said and how it failed.
Our first example comes from the example of Cain:
Genesis 4:1 Now
Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have
acquired a man from the LORD." 2
Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of
sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain
brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought of the
firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his
offering, 5 but He did not
respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 So the LORD said to Cain,
"Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 "If you do well, will you
not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its
desire is for you, but you should rule over it." 8 ¶ Now Cain talked with Abel
his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose
up against Abel his brother and killed him.
Heb. 11:4 implies that
Cain did not offer his sacrifice by faith, which Paul tells us comes from the
hearing of God’s Word (Rom 10:17). So, Cain tried to offer God a substitute for
what God wanted them to sacrifice, but as we read it did not work out because
God did not respect it. Not only did this cause Cain to become angry, it lead
him to killing his brother. As the story continues, God addresses Cain about
his sin and pays the consequences for it. Keep in mind that all began with him
trying to offer God a substitute, so the first recorded example teaches us that
God does not accept substitutes.
Our next example comes
from:
Genesis 16:1 Now
Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian
maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2
So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children.
Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And
Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3
Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to
her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the
Sarai was getting older
and began to lose her trust in God’s promise, so she tried take matter into her
own hands and substituted herself with Hagar. While it seemed like a great
substitute at first, she quickly found out that it would end up causing her
great grief and sorrow. As we read, Hagar begin to look down on her and if we
took the time to read Gen. 21, we would see that eventually that Sarah would
end up sending Hagar and this substitute child away from their camp.
Many times people think
they have come up great substitute that will take care of their problems
instead of waiting on God’s timing or trusting in His promises and wisdom. When
they do, they will find out that many times things don’t work out like they had
intended because we cannot substitute what God has taught us and expect it to out
for the best.
Sometimes substitutes can
even bring about death as in our next example:
Leviticus 10:1 Then
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it,
put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not
commanded them. 2 So fire
went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
These two sons of Aaron
tried to offer a fire to Lord that He did not authorize and their attempt to
substitute the fire God did authorize with a strange one cost them their lives.
Not only that notice what else we learn about their deaths:
Leviticus 10:3 And
Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke, saying: 'By those who
come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be
glorified.' " So Aaron held his peace.
4 ¶ And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of
Uzziel (uh zeye el) the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, "Come near,
carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp." 5 So they went near and carried
them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said. 6 And Moses said to Aaron, and to
Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, "Do not uncover your heads nor tear your
clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren,
the whole house of
Not only did these men
die a fiery death because of their substitute, they also did not receive a
funeral nor were they allowed to be mourned for. If this account doesn’t show
you that we should not attempt to substitute God’s Word with our own ways, then
I don’t think anything will.
Another notable example
comes from King Saul. First notice what God told him to do:
1 Samuel 15:1 Samuel
also said to Saul, "The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people,
over
I don’t think this
message could have been made any clearer, yet watch what Saul does instead:
1 Samuel 15:4 So Saul
gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand
foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah.
5 And Saul came to a city of
Saul decided to go
against what God clearly told him to do. Would God make exception in this case
and accept the substitute that Saul was offering? Well let’s see:
1 Samuel 15:10 Now the
word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying,
11 "I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king,
for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My
commandments." And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all
night. 12 So when Samuel rose
early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, "Saul went
to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on
around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal." 13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and
Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed
the commandment of the LORD." 14
But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my
ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" 15 And Saul said, "They have
brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep
and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly
destroyed." 16
Then Samuel said to Saul, "Be quiet! And I will tell you what the LORD
said to me last night." And he said to him, "Speak on." 17 So Samuel said,
"When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of
the tribes of
Like Saul, if we try to
substitute God’s commands with our own, we too will be rejected by God and will
have to deal with the consequences of our actions. Notice last few verses about
Saul:
1 Samuel 15:35 And
Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel
mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over
One more O.T. example
shows us that God will not accept inferior imitations when comes to things
sacrificed to Him:
Malachi 1:6 "
A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am
the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My
reverence? Says the LORD of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you
say, 'In what way have we despised Your name?'
7 "You offer defiled food on My altar. But say,
'In what way have we defiled You?' By saying, 'The table of the LORD is
contemptible.' 8 And when you
offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the
lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he
be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?" Says the LORD of
hosts. 9 "But now
entreat God's favor, That He may be gracious to us. While this is being done
by your hands, Will He accept you favorably?" Says the LORD of
hosts. 10 "Who is
there even among you who would shut the doors, So that you would not kindle
fire on My altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you," Says the LORD
of hosts, "Nor will I accept an offering from your hands. 11 For from the rising of the sun,
even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In
every place incense shall be offered to My name, And a pure offering;
For My name shall be great among the nations," Says the LORD of
hosts. 12 "But you
profane it, In that you say, 'The table of the LORD is defiled; And its fruit,
its food, is contemptible.' 13
You also say, 'Oh, what a weariness!' And you sneer at it," Says the LORD
of hosts. "And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; Thus you
bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?" Says the LORD. 14 "But cursed be the deceiver
Who has in his flock a male, And takes a vow, But sacrifices to the Lord what
is blemished -- For I am a great King," Says the LORD of hosts,
"And My name is to be feared among the nations.
Just as the profane
sacrifices were not pleasing to God, when we try worship God with man made
substitutes such as musical instruments or any other manmade teaching, then our
worship will not be pleasing to God either. Also cannot give God our seconds
our or thirds. No, we must give Him our best and give Him our whole heart, mind
and soul.
As Jesus warned the Jews:
Matthew 15:7
"Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 'These people draw near to Me
with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far
from Me. 9 And in vain they
worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' "
Our worship to God cannot
be something that we just do as external show. No it must come from the heart
and must be done in accordance to God’s will. As Jesus told the woman at the
well:
John 4:24
"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit
and truth."
The Pharisees and the
Scribes were not the only ones that were accepting substitutes during the N.T.
time so were the Galatians:
Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you
that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly
portrayed among you as crucified?
These Galatians were
trying to accept another gospel, but this kind of substitution will not work. As
Paul expressed to them:
Galatians 1:6 I
marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace
of Christ, to a different gospel, 7
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert
the gospel of Christ. 8 But
even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what
we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone
preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be
accursed.
It doesn’t matter what
covenant we study in the Bible, all of them have this same theme which is we
cannot and must not substitute our ways for God’s ways. We have no right our
authority to add our wisdom and our ways to God’s commands. When we do, it will
be rejected by God and so will we.
Our worship and the way
we live our lives is spelled out for us in the N.T. We can either accept and
live by it or reject it by doing our own thing. Unfortunately, man has a
tendency to offer substitutions instead accepting what God clearly teaches. For
example:
Man is has declared that
there opinions and man made doctrines are to followed even if they go against
what Bible teaches. Yet John tells us in 2 John 1:9 that if we do not stick
with the doctrine of God that we will lose our relationship with God.
2 John 1:9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the
doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ
has both the Father and the Son.
Man has declared that
denominations are acceptable to God, which means that there is more than one
church, yet Jesus said, that He only has one church (Mt. 16:18) and Paul agrees
that there is just one body (Eph. 4:4). Paul condemns the idea of having
denominations and calling them after some man.
1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I
plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all
speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. 11 For it has been
declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that
there are contentions among you. 12
Now I say this, that each of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am
of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of
Christ." 13 Is Christ
divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Others are teaching that
are many ways to heaven, but Jesus declared that there is only one way to
heaven and it is through Him (Jn. 14:6) and it is called a difficult road to
travel that only a few will find (Mt. 7:13-14). The only way the travel up that
difficult road is by obeying the will of Father:
Matthew 7:21 "
Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Some have tried to take a
shortcut to salvation and say that all you have to do is believe, yet James
teaches us in:
James 2:24 You see
then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
A quick look through
Scripture shows that we must also repent (Lk. 13:3), confess Jesus as Lord
(Rom. 10:9-10) and be baptized to be saved (1 Pet. 3:21). We cannot substitute
God’s plan of salvation by faith alone.
Others want to add to
God’s instructions on worshiping Him in Spirit in truth by adding musical
instruments and other things to make the worship service more appealing to our
senses, yet we are told by God to sing and make the melody in our heart (Col.
3:16; Eph. 5:19).
Of course the list could
go on and on, but the main point I hope you take home with you from this lesson
is that God is not going to accept substitutes for what He has commanded us to
do in His Word. If we allow ourselves to give in or be influenced by the way of
man, then God is not going to be pleased with us. So, let’s always do our best
to stick with what God’s Word teaches us so that we don’t find ourselves trying
to use some cheap imitation from man.
Adapted from Jeff Asher