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The title of the sermon tonight is God's Word versus Vain Tradition. God's Word versus Vain Tradition. In this passage, Jesus Christ is confronting the Jews and some of their traditions, things that they had added to the Word of God, things that are nowhere to be found in the Old Testament, and that in fact contradicted the teachings that were found in the Old Testament. And he tells these people that they've made the Word of God of none effect through their tradition. Look down at your Bible there in verse 6. He answered and said unto them, Well hath his eyes prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, verse number 9, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Look at verse 13, making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered in many such like things do ye. Jump over if you would to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15, we'll find something similar. Matthew chapter number 15. Now the word tradition is used in the Bible 13 times. 11 of those times are negative. Two of those times are positive. Now what does the word tradition mean? A tradition is simply something that is passed down. Now we could pass down something good. That's why there are two positive mentions that tell the church at Thessalonica, for example, to hold the traditions that they've been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Whereas 11 times the tradition is bad because often bad teachings are handed down that contradict the Word of God. So it's not that tradition in and of itself is bad. There could be good traditions, but often they're bad. That's why 11 out of 13 mentions are negative. Look at Matthew chapter 15, verse 5. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition, you hypocrites. Well did his eyes prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Now let me give you an example of what it means to make the commandment of God of none effect. Flip over to Matthew 23, since you're right there in Matthew 15 anyway. What does it mean when Christ said, You've made the commandment of God of no effect? He's saying that basically the commandment becomes void. It has zero effect. Now let me just tell you right up front that the main religions I'm going to be preaching against tonight are Catholicism and the Orthodox Church, which are the same thing. Roman Catholicism, East Orthodox, it's all the same thing. But look down at your Bible here in Matthew chapter 23, you'll find something that both of these religions are in major violations of. Both of these false religions, Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, they both have set aside the word of God and are steeped in tradition. The word of God alone is not their final authority. It's the traditions of the church. We're the true church, we can do no wrong, and you know, we don't want to see what the Bible says because we are part of the special only right church that can do no wrong. Now look what the Bible says in Matthew 23, these are commandments by the way. It says in verse 8, But be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your Father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven, neither be ye called Masters, for one is your Master, even Christ. So clearly in this passage he's talking about some terms that religious leaders should not use. He's saying they should not be called Rabbi, they shouldn't be called Father, and they shouldn't be called Master. Now did he say in this passage, don't call them a bishop? No he didn't say that, did he? That's a legitimate term. Did he say don't call them an elder? Did he say don't call them a pastor? Did he say don't call them a teacher? No of course not. But he clearly says that these terms are off limits, Rabbi, Father, and Master. Yet we have of course these messianic Jews who we'll call their teachers, Rabbi, in violation of this scripture. And then we'll have the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church who call the priest what? Father. And then they have the Patriarch and the Pope which are just other ways of saying Father. Jesus Christ very clearly said call no man Father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is Christ. In the context of not being called Rabbi or Master either, these are terms that are off limits. So what would a person say when you confront them with this scripture who's a Catholic or an Orthodox believer? What is their response to this? I mean it's so cut and dried, it's right there, isn't it? But here's what they'll all say, because I've had this conversation a hundred times. Well, what about your earthly father? I mean what about your physical dad? Don't you call him Father? Now what they're doing is making this command of none effect, of zero effect, because the way they interpret this is to say, well, since I call my physical father Father, I can call everybody Father. That's how they interpret this. What have they done? They've taken their tradition of calling a man Father in the church and then they've made God's command here of none effect. Now here's my interpretation of this as a Bible-believing Christian. The reason that I call my physical father my father is because he is my father. Seriously he's my dad, so I call him father. And the reason that I call God up in heaven my father is because he spiritually is my father. But that guy in a dress and a funny hat that calls himself father, he isn't my father at all. He's not my spiritual father, he's not my physical father, and God said don't call him father. Don't call him rabbi, don't call him master. You see, my interpretation of this passage, which is what any person with just common sense would say, oh well he's talking about not calling religious leaders father or rabbi or master. He's not saying, hey if you're a slave don't call that guy master. He is your master. You know, he's not saying, oh don't call your physical father father. Well obviously he's your physical father. You got to use a little common sense when reading the Bible. Their interpretation on the other hand just makes it of zero effect because my question to the Orthodox Church tonight and my question to the Roman Catholics tonight is who is Jesus telling us not to call father then? Or is it just of none effect through your tradition? I mean think about that because their interpretation is that Jesus said call no man your father. Just kidding, call everybody father. I mean that's their interpretation in a nutshell. Okay I hear kids from the congregation yelling out father. I don't know who they're calling father but hopefully it's really their dad. But anyway look at Galatians chapter 1. Go to Galatians chapter 1 and I'm just going to show you some other scriptures that warn us about how tradition is not always of God. You know we shouldn't always just follow everything that's been handed us as a tradition. These are just other negative mentions of tradition in the New Testament. Look at Galatians 1 verse 13. For you've heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion. Because he's not saying in God's religion. He's saying in the Jews religion. It's another religion, it's a false religion. He says in the Jews religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. What religion was that? He was brought up a Pharisee, he makes that clear, at the feet of Gamaliel who is one of the authors of the Jewish Talmud. Says in verse 14, and profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. He's talking about how before he was saved he was steeped in the traditions of the Jews religion. He was zealous in that religion. He says I was in Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Be doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. What was Paul's thought of his time being brought up in the Jews religion and studying the Pharisee way of worshiping God? He said I count it dung in comparison with knowing Christ. Now flip over if you went to Colossians chapter 2 verse 6. Colossians chapter 2, that's what false tradition that adds to the word of God and nullifies the word of God counts in the sight of God. Dung is what it counts. Look at Colossians chapter 2 verse 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you've been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power. This is such a great passage because it's saying you're complete in him. You don't need anything else. He's everything that we need. Don't let people ruin you, he's saying. Don't let people spoil you with a bunch of philosophy and vain deceit that is according to man's tradition. As you've received Christ the Lord, so walk in him. I don't know about you but here's how I received Christ the Lord. Somebody opened this book and showed me from the Bible how to be saved. That's how I received Christ the Lord. My mother by the bedside went through the Scriptures with me and showed me from this book how to be saved and you know what? As I received Christ the Lord, that's the same way I'm going to walk in him. By faith in this book, people opening this book and showing me what this book says, me opening this book for myself and seeing what it says and believing it. Hey, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I didn't get saved by the tradition of men. I didn't receive Christ because of some kind of a ritual or some kind of a tradition that was passed down. My mom didn't say, well you know what, in our family we've been passing down the way of salvation and now you're old enough son, I'm going to pass down to you our philosophy, our way of salvation. No, she said, well here's what the Bible says. Here's what the word of God says. That's how I'm going to walk in Christ and you know what, I'm complete in him. I don't need someone else to come along and add doctrine that's not found in this book. This is everything that I need. Now flip over to First Peter chapter one. First Peter chapter one is another scripture that uses the word tradition in the New Testament. First Peter chapter one, the Bible reads in verse 18, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Notice the word that keeps coming up in all of these scriptures about tradition, vain. Did you notice that? Over and over, just vain, vain, vain. Vain means completely worthless, empty, without value. It's just a waste of time. Not important. Not valuable. No, it's God's word that will endure forever, but man's traditions will come and go and fade as a leaf. Now First Thessalonians chapter five, you don't have to turn there. Turn to First John, if you would, chapter two. First Thessalonians 521 says, prove all things, hold fast that which is good. Now prove means to test. So he's saying, test everything and hang on to that which is good. So all of us have received traditions. When we grew up in our family, there are certain traditions of how we live our lives, how we do things. The churches that we grew up in, if we grew up in church, had a certain way of doing things. They had various traditions, many of which were good. But the Bible commands us in every generation to stop and evaluate that which is handed to us and not to just take it and just say, well, this is what the previous generation did, so let's just keep doing the exact same thing. No, we need to stop and test it with the word of God. Hold fast that which is good and discard that which is bad. We don't need it. And it's the job of every generation to do that for themselves, to study, to show thyself approved unto God. Not just, well, as a group we're approved. No, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You see, many people are on their way to hell tonight because of the fact that they've never stopped to evaluate whether the religion that they were brought up with is even the right religion. Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, they go, oh, that's just what I was born and raised. They're not stopping to evaluate. Catholics and Orthodox tonight that are on their way to hell tonight because they haven't stopped and said, wait a minute, are these traditions even right? Do they match up with the word of God which never changes? They'll sit there and say that their tradition never changes. Okay, maybe that's even true and I'm going to get into that in a moment. But the one thing we know for sure doesn't change is the word of God. This is what we ought to anchor our soul to and we need to prove everything according to this book to see if it measures up. Now, those who are Orthodox and those who are Roman Catholic, they're not able to back up their beliefs from the Bible. If we were to just go toe to toe with these people with Bible in hand, we would basically just demolish all their doctrine because it's not based on the Bible, it's based on tradition. And so we could show them scripture after scripture after scripture that salvation is by faith alone, not through the sacraments. We could show them scripture after scripture that would destroy their false belief system, calling the priest father and praying to Mary and all this other stuff that's totally unbiblical. But here's what those who are Orthodox and Roman Catholic will fall back on when you try to show them, look, here's what the Bible says. Instead of talking about that, here's what they want to talk about. Well, we're the oldest church. That's kind of what they fall back on as, well, we have this unbroken tradition that goes all the way back to the early Christians. And here's what the early Christians did. So therefore, because the early Christians did it, it must be right. You Johnny-come-latelys in 2015 or 2016, you know, you think you're just going to read the Bible for yourself. We've been worshiping the Lord the same way for 2,000 years. This is what they'll say to you. I've heard it so many times I can't even count. And they'll say, oh, you know, for 1,500 years everybody did this stuff until Martin Luther came along. I mean, that's what they really believe. They believe that everybody was a Catholic until Martin Luther came along and that they're the one true church. And by the way, Orthodox even call themselves Catholics, okay? So there's just everybody Catholic, there's Orthodox and Roman Catholic, and then Martin Luther came along. And here's the thing about Martin Luther, even he said he's Catholic. He's like, I didn't leave them, they left me. That's what he said. So the bottom line is that their way of backing up what they believe is not to rely solely on the Word of God, but to say, well, we have this unbroken tradition, you know, we've been worshiping God the same way, we're from the original true church, we have this unbroken lineage. But here's the reason why, well, before I get into the reason why that doesn't make any sense, let me say this, that we as Bible-believing Christians believe in what we believe solely on the authority of the Bible. This is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice, but really a better way of saying is that it's our sole authority in all matters of faith and practice. It's not just the main thing, it's everything. This is the boss right here. I'm not the boss, you're not the boss, this is the boss, all right? Look at 1 John 2 and let me show you why we believe that the Scripture is our sole authority. It says in 1 John 2, 26, these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you, but the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and his truth and his no lie, even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. Now when we read this verse, what's clear is that we really don't need man to teach us anything. We can learn everything that God has for us with just the Bible and the Holy Spirit, that's all we need. That anointing that we've received of him, the Holy Ghost will teach us all things. Listen to what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 16, howbeit when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. So according to the Bible, the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. And the Bible says here in 1 John 2, we don't have need that any man teach us. The same anointing teaches us of all things, and his truth and his no lie, and even as it hath taught us, we shall abide in him. That's what the Bible is saying here in 1 John chapter 2. Now the orthodox or the catholic will come along with their big stamp that says void. You know like they do with checks and you know void. You know they come to think about, oh you call your dad father, void. They'll come along with this and say, well Pastor Anderson, aren't you teaching people? Make it void. Move on. They just throw out the scripture because well we know God gave us teachers, therefore it's void. Move on to the next thing. But wait a minute. Just because God gave us teachers, does that mean that we have need for man to teach us any doctrine? No. You see, God gave us pastors and teachers, why? For the edification of the body of Christ. For the perfecting of the saints. Why? Because we're going to learn better with a teacher helping us than if we were on our own. Look at this. When I was a kid, I taught myself how to play the piano. I did not have piano teacher, I did not have piano lessons. I taught myself for years how to play the piano when I was a little kid. Then I got to be about 9 or 10 years old and I was able to finally get piano lessons. And then I was able to learn more. And I was able to learn faster, why? Because when you have a teacher, you do better than when you're by yourself. But is it impossible to learn on your own? I mean, is there anything on the piano that would not be possible for me to figure out on my own or with a book of some kind? Oh, well to get the real secrets, you know, you got to have a teacher. And some teacher, some guru is going to come to me and whisper in my ear the piano secrets that have been kept since the foundation of the world. No. Because I could teach myself how to play the piano. You could teach yourself how to play virtually any musical, you just get a book and fool around with it, figure it out. Even without a book, there are people who've taught themselves and become great musicians, right? But is it easier with a teacher? Of course. Someone guiding you. See, it's the same thing here. What the Bible is saying here is that we don't need man to teach us, meaning that there's no doctrine that we can only get from man. Every doctrine can be gotten just with you and the Holy Spirit and this book. And if there's a doctrine that you need someone else for, it's a false doctrine. Because all true doctrine comes from this book. And it's all revealed by the Holy Spirit. Now, you say, well, I'm going to stay home from church then. Well, you know what? Then you're disobeying God because he commanded us not to forsake the assembly. And he gave us pastors and teachers for a reason. Not because we need them to learn, because we can learn everything on our own. No, because it will help us. It will edify us. It will perfect us. It will equip us for the work of the ministry better than being on our own. Two are better than one. And when you get together in the church, you accomplish more than when you're going solo. It's just a fact. It's not good for the man to be alone. We need to come together and work as a team in the local body, in the local church. So this is a really important scripture. You ought to memorize this scripture here in 1 John 2.27. I think this is one of the most important verses in the whole Bible. I mean, it's critical that we understand that God's Word and the Holy Spirit will teach us everything. We don't have to have man to interpret the Bible for us. There's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The pastor does not act as a mediator. The Catholic priest, dead sure, does not act as a mediator. Mary does not act as a mediatrix. No. There's one mediator. It's Jesus. And we can go directly to the source right here and learn what we need. Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Actually go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. I'll just read for you 1 Corinthians 11. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2 because we're going to see a lot from 2 Corinthians here. Now here's the problem with the logic of those that are Orthodox or those that are Roman Catholic where they say, well, we have an unbroken tradition that goes all the way back to the early Christians, therefore what we're teaching is right. Not because the Bible says it's right, but because we've carried these traditions and passed them down. The problem with that is that even at the time of the apostles, there was already a lot of false Christianity out there. So having an unbroken tradition, even if you could prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, we have an unbroken tradition that goes all the way back to literally the first century when the apostles were alive. That still proves nothing because there were false prophets and false teachers even back then. Look down at your Bible and prove that to you. That means nothing. Now first of all, these people's tradition doesn't go back quite that far anyway. But even if it does go back to the second century or the third century or the fourth century, meaningless because even if it went back to the time of the apostles, it means nothing since there were liars and false teachers then and that's whose tradition they've received. Now look down at your Bible in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 17. It says, For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. That's back in his day. He's saying there's all kinds of people corrupting the word of God. These aren't people just following a completely different religion of paganism or Buddhism or Hinduism. No, these people are corrupting the word of God. Now flip over to chapter 11. Chapter 11 verse 3 it says, But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we've not preached or if you receive another spirit which you've not received or another gospel which you've not accepted ye might well bear with him. Back then he's warning the Corinthians. There are people preaching another Jesus, another gospel. Even back then, another spirit that they're receiving. And we know that that's a devil if it's another spirit. It's an unclean spirit. Look down at verse 13. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. That's in his day already happening. He says, And no marvel for Satan himself has transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works. Look at verse 24. Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I've been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, watch this, in perils among false brethren. Right here he's saying there are false brethren out there. People are pretending to be saved and they're not. Look at Galatians chapter 2. Flip over to Galatians. While you're turning I'll read for you from 1 Corinthians 11 verse 18. For first of all when you come together in the church I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. So did the heresy come later in the Protestant Reformation? Did the heresy come later in the 4th century, 5th century, hundreds of years later people started breaking off and, no, even in the days of the apostles there were all kinds of people teaching all kinds of different things and many of them were teaching lies. Even at that time. Here is another very important scripture to always keep in your mind. There's nothing new under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see this is new and it's been already of old time which was before us. And you have to understand that today we look around and we see all these false gospels and false Christs. We see all these different churches and guess what? Back then it was the same thing. All kinds of false teachers and false gospels. That's how it was back then. I'm showing you the proof. And that's how it is now. Okay ask yourself this question. Are most people going to the right churches or the wrong churches? Oh but back then it was different. Most people went to the right church back then, right? No there's no new thing under the sun. Back then the false teachers heaped to themselves, or I'm sorry, the people heaped to themselves false teachers having itching ears. They had itching ears then. Look Paul told that to Timothy. He said the time will come when they'll not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. He wasn't just prophesying the 21st century. He was saying even in your lifetime Timothy there's going to come a time when people won't want to hear true doctrine. I mean even before Jesus came a lot of the Israelites were telling the prophets to preach smooth things unto them. Joel Osteen was around in the days of Jeremiah the prophet. Smooth things being preached. There's nothing new under the sun. I mean if we were living in the time of Jeremiah the prophet we could find the Rick Warren and the Joel Osteen, you know, and you'd find Steven Anderson, you know, some guy screaming about man's tradition being a lie. And now we need to read the Bible. I mean you're going to find the same things then that you're going to find now. As it was then, so it is now. You know people ate and they drank and they married and they were given in marriage. It's life. And to sit there and say, oh well we have a tradition that goes back to 200 and some AD or 100 and some AD or even the first century is meaningless because there were more false teachers back then than true teachers. Just like now. Same thing. See God's word was corrupted in the first generation. He said there are many which corrupt the word of God. See there were people preaching another Jesus when the people who walked and talked with Jesus were still alive. They're already preaching another Jesus. They're already preaching another gospel. It means nothing to prove that even if they could prove that which they can't. But look if you would at, where did I have you turn? Have we read it yet? Galatians 2, 4, and that because of false brethren, unawares brought in who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage to whom we gave place by subjection. Know not for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue with you if we say the context of the book of Galatians, that bondage was salvation by works as opposed to salvation by faith. Well you know what? That's the exact bondage that the Orthodox and the Romans are in tonight. Both kinds of Catholics. They're in that bondage of work salvation. And Paul said, yeah there was a lot of that in my day too. False brethren coming in, he said, I didn't even give place to it for an hour because I wanted the truth of the gospel to continue. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter 1. There's a mountain of evidence of all the false doctrine that was being preached even in the first generation of Christianity. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5, now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. Look at verse 19, holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I've delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. You know this one wasn't even in my notes, this just popped into my head. Philippians chapter 3, he says, be ye followers of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensemble for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who mine earthly thinks. He's saying look, I'm weeping when I think about how many people there are that want to lead you astray. He said follow us because there are so many people out there that are trying to lead you to a path of darkness. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 1. Now this one just takes the cake right here, 2 Timothy, who believes the Bible is the word of God tonight? Okay, well, okay, well then keep that in mind going into this verse, okay? What's he talking about here? In 2 Timothy 1 verse 15, this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. Obviously I don't believe he's saying every human in Asia is turned away from him, but he's saying all the preachers in Asia have turned away from him and he names a few of the preachers. He says all they that are in Asia have turned away from me, he said, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. He's naming some of these preachers that have turned away from him. But yet, but yet today we're told that the church that has its headquarters at that time that it was founded in what, Byzantium? Which is where? Asia. Because Asia in the Bible is referring to Turkey. So here the apostle Paul says, all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. Okay, where is the headquarters of the East Orthodox Church historically been? In the city that today is called Istanbul, which used to be called Constantinople, which before that was called Byzantium, which is in Asia. So Paul's saying, and this is by the way written at the very end of his life, 2 Timothy, his final epistle where he said, I'm about to be offered the time of my departures at hand. I've fought a good fight. He says, well at this point, at this late date, all these preachers in Asia have turned away from me. Okay, so basically all these preachers in that geographic area are already in his generation, they're forsaking true doctrine to the point where he's calling them out by name and saying these guys are lying. I need to warn you about these people, Timothy. I need to warn you about it. What's he saying? He's saying that the people in the very geographic area that they got their tradition from, a bunch of them are turning away from him and lying and preaching false doctrine. Because the East Orthodox Church, why is it even called Constantinople? It's called Constantinople because of a guy named Constantine, who is a Roman Emperor. And this Roman Emperor Constantine, and I used to read about this a lot when I was a teenager, I really loved ancient history so I read up a lot on the Roman Empire and Constantine and everything. And see, Constantine was a co-emperor in the Roman Empire around 300 AD, around that period. So he's a co-emperor but he wants more power for himself so he starts taking over other parts of the Roman Empire and he eventually comes to power over the whole Roman Empire. Now when he comes to power, on the way to power, he goes up against another co-emperor, okay, I forget the guy Maximian or something like that, he goes up against this other emperor and they fight this battle but before the battle he gets this vision where he sees a cross in the sky and he hears a voice that tells him, in this sign, conquer. So they all put that on their shields, these Roman pagans. They put that symbol of the cross, and people disagree about exactly what style of cross it was, but he puts this symbol on all their shields and they go to battle and they win. So then Constantine says, well the Christian god is the powerful god, the true god. And his dad had worshipped the sun god, Constantius Chlorus, had worshipped the sun god and was a monotheist so he already kind of had that background from him. So then he extended tolerance to Christians throughout the realm and he basically turned around a policy of pagan Rome to where now Christians are tolerated and accepted and it's even promoted. But he himself did not become a Christian, quote unquote, and I use the term Christian very loosely, until the very end of his life because he surrounded himself with all these phony preachers, okay. Now around this time in the early 4th century, a lot of the Christians, kind of the type of people we're reading about in all these verses by the way, all these false teachers and liars and false prophets, they started arguing about doctrine to the point where they were literally killing each other. Now does that sound like these are Bible believing Christians? They're killing each other over doctrine? But they start actually having violence and beating each other and killing each other. So Constantine, he's the Roman emperor. He has not yet become a convert to Christianity but he's tolerant of it. He's saying, well, you know, the Christian God has power and yada, yada, yada. But he wants the Christians to get along because that's in his best interest as emperor. So what he does is he brings all the quote unquote Christian leaders together so he gets Joel Osteen, he gets all the famous preachers. He gets the Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Rick Warren. He brings in John Hagee, T.D. Jakes, whoever's the TV type preachers of the day, he brings in all the popular preachers and he says, listen, you guys all have to agree on doctrine. No more fighting each other. No more killing each other. You guys need to get along and agree on this stuff. So they all get together and agree at this ecumenical council and they come out with the Nicene Creed of, hey, this is what we all believe as Christians. And you know what, there's just no dissent allowed, like you just have to agree on this. Then subsequently they would get together and have other councils where they would say, we all have to agree on doctrine. We need to hammer this out and figure it out. Think about getting a bunch of phony preachers together. You got a Catholic and an Orthodox and you got the Pentecostals and you get the Lutheran and then even throw, let's say I'm there too. Let's say they bring me in, hey, Pastor Steve Anderson, come on in, although I would never be invited to such a thing, I would never go to such a thing. Neither would any Bible-believing Christian, neither did any Bible-believing Christian because they're not going to get in bed with Caesar and say, yeah, let's figure out what our doctrine is, Caesar. Let's all wear a toga and get together and figure out what we believe about the Bible because they already know what they believe about the Bible and they're not interested in compromising because what's the meaning about compromise? Let's all compromise. Not interested in compromising, thus sayeth the Lord, period, case closed. Not interested in getting along with people who teach lies. You think Paul would have showed up at this? No, he said, I didn't give place by subjection to these people, not for an hour. Excuse me, I'm foaming at the mouth and let me say this, you know what, I'll bet you that meeting lasted more than an hour. Paul couldn't have made it through. When he listened to all these bunch of pagans in their dresses and their phony doctrines, he would have said, I'm out of here. I'm going to go preach the gospel. I'm sick of this. I don't need you guys. I'm independent. But you see, they get together at these councils and they all agree on everything where they're basically getting together with a pagan Roman Caesar and figuring out what we're all going to believe. And so Constantine was very involved in this forming of the Roman Catholic Church. And then, you know, 100 or so years later, a lot of them split off where they didn't agree with what they're deciding at the council and became the Oriental Orthodox. And then in 1054 AD, the rest of them broke off and became the East Orthodox. But it all goes back to that corrupt beginning of Constantine getting a bunch of false teachers together, getting all, let's get all the Christian leaders together and we can all agree. Well, here's what happens when you mix the truth with lies, it's all lies. I mean, think about it. If you got nine preachers together that were bad and one preacher that's good and said, let's all agree on doctrine, what are you going to end up with? Good doctrine? Pure doctrine? True? Right doctrine? No. And by the way, it's all political. That was Constantine's motive, getting power, gaining power, retaining power. He was an ambitious person that shed all kinds of innocent blood, a bloodthirsty warrior king in the spirit of Babylon, in the spirit of Persia, in the spirit of Alexander the Great, the sodomite weirdo that he was, in the spirit of the Romans, conquest, kill, make everybody bow the knee to Rome and as much as iron crushes and breaks in pieces everywhere it goes, that's what Daniel said the Roman Empire would be like. Here's your Roman Catholic Church, a bunch of phony preachers getting together with a bloodthirsty evil tyrant, oh, but he extended tolerance to Christians. Great, you know what, that's wonderful, but it wasn't because of any altruistic motives on his part, it's because he wants power. So he asked all his phony preachers that he, you know, heaps unto himself. He says to them, what do I have to do to get saved? What do I have to do to make it into heaven? What do I have to do to get my sins forgiven? Now, instead of telling them what the Bible actually says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, that's not what they believed. They said, well, you be baptized and that'll wash your sins away, but then after that you have to keep getting absolved and you have to confess and you have to, you know, go to the priest, they're Catholics, you got to go to the priest and you got to, you know, keep on doing this. So here's what he basically said, he said, well, you know, I have to do a lot of sin as emperor. I mean, I'm killing innocent people, you know, I'm doing all kinds of evil things every day because I'm the Roman emperor. So he decided to wait. He said, I'm going to wait until I'm at my death bed and that's when I'm going to get baptized. So he literally waited until a week before he died and he got baptized when he was on his death bed, he's sick and dying, old man. He gets baptized and then when he got finished being baptized, he wore all white every day after that. I'm serious, this is a true story. He got baptized, then he just wore all white and he just kind of tried not to do anything. Just don't sin because you washed away everything, so let's just see if we can glide in here without sinning. Okay, that's what he did, that's true. So that's when he converted to Christianity right before he died. But this is the guy who's presiding over all these meetings and all these councils to figure out doctrine so we can all agree on our doctrine. I mean, it would be like if we literally got with Obama. We get together all the phony preachers of Phoenix, Arizona and around America and all the big name preachers and we all get together and Obama says, alright now, you know, we all need to agree on doctrine now. No more fighting, you guys all need to get along, so we're going to get, I mean, isn't that just ridiculous? But it's no more ridiculous than letting Constantine decide. This pagan, evil, murderous Roman Emperor. So you know, that's the origins of all this junk, the Catholic, the Orthodox, etc. Let's keep going in the scripture here. Where did we leave off? Where did I have you turn? Whoa, let's agree here. We all have to agree, Obama said. And Timothy chapter 2 says in verse 16, But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth of earth, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. So here he's warning about more false teachers, but look at the next phrase in verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. Well, what's the foundation? The word of God. The Bible says, Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock. And listen, when you're building on the word of God, you're building on the rock. This is the foundation, not the shifting sands of what some emperor says, or what all these false prophets, when they get together and agree, come up with. It's not just Paul that warned about it. Look at 2 Peter, 2 Peter 3. While you're turning there, I'll read for you from 3 John. Even John talks about how phonies had crept in. 3 John 9, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I'll remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither did he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. So who's in the church? Who's in the church? A bunch of unsaved phonies. Who's getting thrown out? The brethren. The real believers. Who's being ignored? The apostle John. So it's not that all the early Christians just all walked in lockstep with Peter and John and Paul. No, in Paul's day, they've already turned from Paul and said, nope, nope, we're doing it our own way, and are leading people down a dark path, leading them after another Jesus, leading them after another gospel. They're saying to John, you're not welcome in this church, buddy. He's like, I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved, hello. I leaned on his breast at the Last Supper. He's not welcome. Diotrophes receiveth John not. Let this sink in. And these are the spiritual progenitors of the Roman Catholic Church. These are the answer. Oh, our tradition goes all the way back. Oh, I know, to Diotrophes. I know your tradition goes all the way back. To Hymenaeus, to Phygelus, to Hermogenes, to Alexander, yet you go back to all the false prophets that were even, at the end of their lives, not even listening to the apostles and throwing them out of the church, because they're a bunch of pagan mystery Babylon worshippers, that's why. But the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3.16, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and are unstable, rest, rest means twist, as they do also the other scriptures under their destruction, their own destruction. So were people twisting the scripture back then? Oh yeah, they were. I mean, I don't, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here. I just have pages and pages of all the false doctrine in the early church. But oh, oh, oh, Pastor Anderson, you're ignorant of church history. You need to read the church fathers. You need to read Polycarp. You need to read Clement of Rome. You need to read Origen. You need to read the church fathers. You know, no, I think I'll just read the Bible. I think I'll read God's word. I'm not interested in these church fathers because I don't call any man father except Raymond Anderson, you know, in California, and God the father. That's who I call father. But I'm going to skip a lot of this for sake of time. I want to just talk about one more thing. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, because one of these traditions that the Orthodox claim is that they know what Jesus looked like. Because they have these pictures of Jesus, right? These icons is what they call them in the Orthodox church. So they have these icons of Jesus and they're not just a representation for them. They literally believe that it's what he looked like. They're not just saying, well, this just kind of represents Jesus. No, they're saying this is what he looked like. And of course he's this white dude with a cute little goatee and long girly man hair. But this is what he looked like. We know this is what he looked like. Because this icon that we have is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy all the way back to the beginning, to the time of Christ. I never read about any icons in the Bible. I never read about any pictures. I never read about the part where Jesus is posing for portraits. You know what I mean? I don't remember that part where he gets in a ship and pushed off from the land and all the painters come and draw icons of him. But here's what's funny about that. Is that the oldest orthodox icon is from like 500 years after Christ lived. The oldest one, so the oldest picture that they have is from 500 years, oh, our tradition goes all the way back to the beginning. Okay, just to put it in perspective for you, okay? Five hundred years ago, just think about what year that was. 1516. Now, do you think a lot's happened since, can you talk intelligently about what was going on in this area in 1516? I mean, would anyone like to stand and tell us, you know, what was going on in this area in the year 1516 in Arizona? That was kind of a long time ago, right? 1516. That's how far, so do you think that a picture that I drew today of someone who lived 500 years ago is going to be accurate? I mean, it's ridiculous, isn't it? But yeah, well, you're 2000 years late, we were only 500 years late with that picture. But here's the thing, I'm not a single minute late because I'm not drawing pictures of Jesus. I get my picture of Jesus from this book and this book does not give a physical description of how he looked when he walked on this earth. But I'll tell you one thing for sure, he didn't have long hair because look down at your Bible. Here's the word of God, so you've got tradition that shows this long haired white dude, white as snow, you know, he looks like an Englishman or something, he's so white. When in reality, Jesus was probably, you know, of an olive complexity, I don't think he was black, you know, these people are like, Jesus was black, you know. I don't think he was black or white, he's probably brown because he's from that part of the world where people were brown. Now I know the Jews, they left Palestine brown and they came back white, okay. That's why they don't get along, that's what the Palestinians said, well, they left brown and they came back white because guess what, it's not the same people who came back. So the point is that these bunch of white people over in Israel, these blonde haired blue eyed Hollywood actors that you think are Jews, yeah, they're Polish, they're from Eastern Europe, they're Ashkenazis that are from Ashkenaz, which is of Japheth, okay. But anyway, the point, that's another sermon that shall be preached at another time. But the thing about that is that, you know, Jesus is not physically described walking this earth because God didn't want us to draw a picture of him, because if it was too much of a physical description then we'd want to draw a picture. Well, that's why it's not there. What does the Bible say in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 13, judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him, but if a woman have long hair it is a glory for her, for her hair is given her for a covering. And some people will say, well, it's just a shame but that doesn't mean it's wrong. But you know what, that's foolishness and the thought of foolishness is sin. Because that's a stupid reasoning. If God's telling you, hey, doesn't nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it's a shame unto him, but you're like, but you didn't say it was wrong, you didn't say it was a sin. But here's the thing, he did say it was a sin. Back up in the chapter and what does he say in verse number 3, but I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. What's the definition of having your head covered according to verses 13 through 15, having long hair? And who's your head according to verse 3, who's the head of every man? Christ. So if I pray or prophesy, if I pray or preach, having long hair, I'm dishonoring Christ. And why should I have my head uncovered? Oh, that's simple, because I'm made in the image of God, the Bible says. So let me ask you this, if I'm told in 1 Corinthians 11 not to cover my head, look at verse 7, for a man ought not to cover his head for as much as he's the image of glory of God. So because I'm in the image of God, I'm supposed to have short hair. I'm not supposed to have long hair. But Jesus, who is God in the flesh, had long hair. How do you get there? From tradition. You don't get a picture of Jesus from the Word of God where he's this long-haired girly man. You don't get that from the Bible. You get that from vain tradition delivered unto you from your fathers. That's where you get that doctrine. Because it's not in scripture. Scripture says, shame for a man to have long hair and that the head of Christ is God. So if he prayed or prophesied having his head covered, meaning having long hair, he would have been dishonoring the Father. And he said, I do always those things would please him. Therefore Jesus didn't have long hair. Now show me the verse in the Bible where he had long hair. It isn't there. Well, doesn't the Bible say Jesus had long hair? No. Nowhere did it say that. And they'll say, well, he's a Nazarite. Oh, really? Why did he drink wine then? The Nazarite can't even touch a grape, let alone drink wine. The Nazarite can't touch a dead body. Jesus touched a... Jesus was a Nazarene. Big difference between Nazarene and Nazarite. Nazarene means you're from a town called Nazareth. Nazarite is a temporary vow that they would take where they weren't supposed to cut their hair or eat grapes or whatever. But the bottom line is that if the Bible's our authority, we know that that icon of Jesus is a fraud. So here's what the question becomes. Who is that guy? I mean, think about that. Just let that sink in for a minute. You know, they got the... Oh. It's like, dude, who are you kissing? What strange, random dude are you kissing? Because there's no way that guy's Jesus. Well, who is it? And I mean, when you sit there and then you look at the Catholic Jesus, and he looks a little different, but he looks similar, right? The Roman Catholic Jesus. Then there's the Mormon Jesus. You know, there's these kind of different images of Jesus. And it's just these random dudes. And then I've even seen pictures where they show a guy, Caesar Borgia, from around the time that the Catholic paintings originated, and he looks just like, you know, their Jesus. So it's just some guy, some long-haired hippie that posed for the picture. Who... Look, they're worshiping some picture of some dude that's not Jesus, that was painted 500 years after Jesus lived. But that's where this road takes you of tradition. And then, of course, they always have Jesus in a dress. What did the Bible say? Jesus twice condemned, condemned people. He said, woe unto you scribes. He said, beware of the scribes which go in the long robes. He said, beware of the scribes which go in long clothing. As he wears long clothing? Oh, don't have long hair. Don't go in a long robe. Got the long robe. You say, well, Jesus wore a robe. Yeah, but it wasn't a long robe. The opposite of long is... So you know what that means he wore? Pants. I know this is radical doctrine. Because when you wear a short robe, you better have a pair of pants on. I mean, imagine this short robe... I mean, it's ridiculous. But you know who wore a bunch of weird, funny dresses? Romans. Guys like Constantine. Yeah, those were dudes that went around in dresses. So of course, yeah, when they get all the Christians together and decide what Jesus is going to look like, they make him look like some faggoty dude in a dress because the Caesars wore a bunch of faggoty dudes in dresses. Hello. You say, well, I don't like the word faggot. You're in the wrong church. So the bottom line is this. We need to understand that Christ is all we need and that the Word right here, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God are sufficient unto us for all things that we need, all doctrine, all that we need. And anything outside of this book, like praying to Mary is not in this book. Icons aren't in this book. Emptying out a dust buster all over the church and lighting a bunch of candles, that's not in this book. So therefore, we need to reject it out of hand, prove all things with the Scripture and hold fast only that which is good and profitable and realize that there have always been false doctrines out there and that the worst examples of apostate Christians are the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Those are the biggest false cults that have ever existed. And, oh, they've been around so long. Yeah, and they've just gotten worse. They've been around long enough to just get worse and more rotten and their word eats like a canker. Canker is like our modern word, cancer. Rotten, corruption. I mean, look, the Pope now is saying stuff that even the Pope 100 years later wouldn't have said because it just keeps getting more rotten because they've just never changed it out. Every generation needs to do an oil change on things. I mean, the Catholic Church needs to do more like a diaper change because of all the dung that they've gotten as vain tradition, as Paul called it, dung. And they need the washing of the water, by the way, and they need the washing of the water by the word, and they need a generation that will stand up and prove all things. Praying to Mary? Discard junk. This icon? We don't know who this dude is. Throw it out. Calling this guy Father? Throw that out. That doesn't jive with Scripture. Oh, salvation by works? Throw it out. Losing your salvation? Throw it out. And then, you know what? You'd end up being a Baptist. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for the word, Lord, and thank you so much that we don't have to rely on man because man can lead us down the wrong path, Lord. Thank you so much for giving us the uncorruptible seed, the infallible, inerrant Word of God, and Lord, thank you so much that we don't need commentaries. We don't need study Bibles. We don't need people to interpret it for us because the Holy Spirit will interpret it and guide us into all truth. Thank you for that unction that we have, that anointing that will guide us into all truth, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.