We are in Titus chapter 1 and
we have got down now to verse 14 and I want to read verses
14, 15, and 16. We are going to limit our service
tonight, our study, to just one verse, verse 14, but I want to
read the other verses. Not giving heed to Jewish fables
and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Unto the
pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and
unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and their
conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient and
unto every good work reprobate." Now, let's just look for a few
minutes at verse 14 concerning fables and commandments of men. Paul mentions these two here
in verse 14, and here he adds Jewish fables. Jewish fables. The Jews have a book, and they
really count it as their Bible. It's the Talmud, T-A-L-M-U-D. It's a book of what you and I
would call fables and commandments of men. It's all in the world
it is. But they say they got it from God that when the Lord
gave Moses the Ten Commandments upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses
the law and He gave Moses two laws. He gave him one written
down and He gave him another that he basically whispered in
his ear. and then before Moses died he whispered it in Joshua's
ears and Joshua passed it on down to the judges and finally
they begin to write these things down that's written in Talmud
and they count that now as the Word of God. It's the commandments
of men and fables, it's just fables, Jewish fables. The definition for fable is this,
to tell a falsehood or falsehoods, to feign, to invent, to devise
and speak of as though something were true and real, a story or
tale invented, devised, imagined, assumed, a fictitious narration. I gave you one fable. It is just
a funny little thing, but they have got some bad ones. But in
their Talmud it says when Christ the Messiah sets up His reign
on earth that wheat, the stalks of wheat will not produce grains
but they'll produce loaves of bread. That's one that's always
stuck with me but that's a little fable that's written. Of course
that may be a harmless thing. Some of them are bad things.
Let me give you an example of a fable that they started concerning
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll remember
this. In Matthew chapter 28, this is
a fable and it's still among some of the Orthodox Jews today.
Remember when Christ raised from the dead and the soldiers that
they sent to guard the tomb? came back to the high priest
and said, you know, he's risen. This is what happened. An angel
came down and we were his dead men. And the high priest took
them to the Sanhedrin council and they gave them money. Remember
that? They offered them money and they
took it. And they said, here's what we
want you to say. Here's the tale we want to get
started that while you slept, His disciples came and stole
his body away. And Matthew said, this is still
reported among the Jews until this day. They started that,
and it's a fable. It's a fable. And it's still
around among some of the Jews today. Peter said this, we've
not followed commonly devised fables. It wasn't something cunning that
we devised to slip in there and get His body and hide it somewhere
and bury it. He said we were eyewitnesses,
didn't we, of His majesty. We saw Him up on the Mount when
God said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And He said we have a more sure word of prophecy, and that's
this Bible. this book, The Word of God. So
they tried to start that fable, and it worked with some. And
it still works with some, no doubt. But it's not just Jewish
fables. Boy, the Gentiles are bound with
fables. And I've got three books here,
and I want to bore you just a little bit with some of these fables. But they're amazing. They're
amazing. Let me give you one fable. And it's an old story. I don't know where it came from,
when it originated, but it's got into professional Christianity. Some of you know Bob Coffey.
He's Henry Mahan's son-in-law. Bob and Becky Coffey were married. And Becky is dead now and Bob
is remarried. But he went to a church down
in Lexington. He was telling some of us about
this. And he was sitting there in a huge congregation and the
pastor was up preaching about the thief on the cross. And here
is his story. Here is the story that got started.
Bob said, this preacher told this story. He said, on the cross
when the thief said, Lord, remember me. He said, Here's what happened. One day Christ and His disciples
were going out into the country and this band of men came out
from behind the rocks to rob them. And their leader told them,
No, we can't rob this man. He's a good man. He's Jesus of
Nazareth. So he kept him and his band from robbing the Lord
and His disciples. And on the cross, he looks over
at Jesus and says, Lord, remember me? It was payback time. You know, I scratched your back
and you scratched mine. Bob Coffey cornered that man
in his own congregation and said, You have lied to these people.
You have lied to these people. That's a fable. That's a fable
that got started somewhere. Somebody devised that up in his
head and other people go around and tell it. It's not just the
old Greek gods that they made up and told century after century
that we call fables. Man, they've got them right in
professing Christianity. Fables. Fables. Let me read you
the first one. Here's the Book of Mormons. There
was two ladies I met at Clarence and Gail's house, Sister Dalton
and Sister Liston. And they gave me this little
book on Mormons. Let me read you just a little
bit of it. Here's a couple of places. Joseph Smith saw our
Heavenly Father and he saw Jesus Christ. Of this experience, he
said, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head above the
brightness of the sun which descended gradually until it fell upon
me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages whose
brightness and glory defied all description standing above me
in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling
me by my name, and said, pointing to the other, This is my beloved
son." He saw the Father and he saw the Son. The Restoration
of the Gospel. In 1820, as he had done throughout
history, our Father in Heaven again chose a prophet to restore
the Gospel and the priesthood to the earth. The prophet's name
was Joseph Smith. As a young man, Joseph was confused
by the differences among the many churches in his area and
wanted to know which church was right. Knowing he lacked wisdom,
he followed the counsel found in the Bible. If any man lacked
wisdom, let him ask of God. Joseph Smith decided to ask God
what he should do. When Joseph prayed to know the
truth, our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him.
Jesus told Joseph not to join any of the churches, for they
were all wrong. And they drew near to him with
their lips, but their heart was far from him. As God had done
with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and other prophets, He called
Joseph Smith to be a prophet through whom the complete gospel
would be restored. Now listen to this. Restoration
of the priesthood. In 1829, Joseph Smith received
the same priesthood authority that Jesus Christ had given to
his apostles. John the Baptist, who was baptized
by Jesus, appeared to Joseph Smith and conferred on him the
Aaronic Priesthood. a lesser priesthood. Peter, James,
and John, three of Jesus' apostles, later appeared to Joseph Smith
and conferred on him the Melchizedek priesthood." That's big, isn't
it? That's big. Let me read the back page. What
should I do? That reminds me of another thing.
What should I do to be saved? Remember that? What should I
do? Two things. Read the Book of Mormon. Two,
pray to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book
of Mormon is the Word of God. What is that? You know what that
is? Fables. Fables. A tale devised. Something conceived in the mind
and told as being the truth. Told that was real. This is real. one of the Catholic books. I don't take anybody's
word for anything. I go to the horse's mouth. I've
got all kinds of these books at house and when I want to know
something about them, I read them. This is going to be interesting
to Mr. Baker because he's studying on the apostles and we have something
here on Nathanael. Now here comes straight out of
Catholicism. This is their book. St. Bartholomew
was one of the twelve apostles. His name was Nathanael. He was
called Bartholomew to indicate his lineage. He went as far as
India preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and ended up preaching
in greater Armenia where he was eventually skinned alive and
beheaded. His major relics are in a church dedicated to him
now in Rome. He died in the year 72. His feast day is August the 24th. It was his custom all during
his apostolic life to say to the Blessed Mary, Hail Mary,
full of grace, the Lord be with thee. Blessed art thou among
women. He said this a hundred times a day. and a hundred times
at night. Now you will find that in the
book and teach us that, right? When you come to Bartholomew.
What is that? That's fables. That's fables.
Here is Divine Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary. The front,
it says, the Blessed Mary spake to Saint Dominic. And here's
what she said to him. One day, through the rosary and
the scapular, I will save the world. But on the back, I just
want to read these to you, and it's 15 promises from Mary to
Christians who recite the rosary. Now here's what you're missing.
I'll read 15 of them. I read them to my wife, and I
told her she needed to hear this, but listen. This is what Mary,
somebody said Mary spoke to them and made these known. Somebody
devised these things. Now listen to it. The Rosary.
You know what the Rosary is, the little beads. Hail Mary the
Mother of Jesus, pray for us sinners. Hail Mary the Mother
of Jesus, pray for us sinners. Here is 15 things she said. Whosoever
shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary
shall receive signal and graces. Number two, I promise my special
protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite
the rosary. The rosary shall be a powerful
armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease
sin, and defeat heresies. It will cause good works to flourish.
It will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God. It will
withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its
vanities. It will lift them to the desire for eternal life,
eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify
themselves by this means. The soul which recommends itself
to me by the recitation of the rosary shall not perish. Whoso
shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the considerations
of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune.
God will not chastise him in his justice. He shall not perish
by an unprovided death. If he be just, he shall remain
in the grace of God and become worthy of eternal life. 7. Whoever shall have a true
devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments
of the Church. Those who are faithful to recite
the rosary shall have during their life and at their birth
the light of God and the plenitude of His graces. At the moment
of death they shall participate in the marriage of the saints
in heaven. I shall deliver from purgatory
those who have been devoted to the rosary." I don't know why
they go to purgatory if they were faithful to the rosary anyway.
She just said that, didn't she? The faithful children of the
Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven. You shall
obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary. 12. All those
who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their
necessities. I have obtained from my divine
Son that all the advocates of the rosary shall have for intercessors
the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of
death." Fourteen. All who recite the rosary are
my sons and my brothers of my only Son, Jesus Christ. Devotion to my rosary is a great
sign of predestination. I don't know what that means.
I guess I mean, you know, Holy Mary, the Mother of God. Oh,
I'm one of His. Holy Mary, the Mother of God. Oh, I'm chosen.
I don't know what that means. But isn't that amazing? I listen
to a Catholic station sometimes when I go down to Tennessee,
and they preach that stuff. I've listened to them 30 minutes.
I've listened to them 2 or 3 hours on my way back from Lexington. They do nothing but recite old
saints and visions and dreams. That's what those things are,
all they are. Aren't you glad that you and I have the faithful
Word of God? We don't need that junk, do we? It's just junk.
But look at the people that's deceived by these fables. It
starts out little bitty, just a little tale that's told. If
you've studied anything about the history of Ishlam, it started
out in the little peanut brain of a fornicator and idolater
over in the Middle East out in the desert in a tent. He started
writing all that garbage down. He had no idea there would be
billions of people someday worshiping Allah. It starts slow, doesn't
it? It starts slow. It's little,
but a little lemon. What does it do? Lemons the whole
lot, doesn't it? Take just a little roll dough
of leaven, put it in a whole pan of flour and start stirring
it all up together, and after a while it's all level. That's
what these silly things are doing. Fables. Jewish fables, old wives'
fables, and cunningly devised fables. And the Bible speaks
of all of them. So there's your fables. There's
a few examples. I'm sure you can think of many
more. And he says this, secondly, not giving heed to Jewish fables
and commandments of men. Now look at a place with me back
over to your left. Look in 1 Timothy chapter 4. Here we have an example of this,
the commandments of men. Look what he says in verse 1
down through verse 5. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisies,
having their conscience seared with a hard iron, forbidding
to marry and commanding to abstain from meat. Now here are some
of the commandments of men. Forbidding to marry. Now if it had said encouraging the single life, we might say,
well, that's all right. Paul did that, didn't he? He
said if you're going to give yourself to the service of the
Lord, to the ministry, it would be better for you not to have
a spouse because all of us here that's married know that married
life takes up a lot of time, doesn't it? You spend time with
your wife, and the wife spends time with her husband. It takes
up a lot of time. He said the unmarried care for
the things of the Lord. They've got time to do that.
But they didn't say here, we'll encourage you to remain single. They said, we forbid you to marry. Do you know any organization
that forbids anybody to marry? Well, we do, don't we? There
is that poor fellow over there, I think he was one of the South
Korean priests a few years ago and he got married and they were
going to excommunicate him. He finally put away his wife
so he could stay in the priesthood. We forbid you to marry. What does Hebrews 13, 5 tell
us about marriage? Marriage is honorable in all
and the bed is undefiled. Marriage is honorable. God instituted
it. And it's the only way two men
or two women, a man and a woman, boy, they've got me mixed up
in this. A man and a woman can come together before God in an
intimate relationship is in marriage, in marriage. But these fellows,
he said here, they forbid it, forbid it, under the threat of
excommunication, and commanding us commanding people to abstain
from meats or to abstain from foods. Now, here again, we could
say all foods obviously is not good for us. I just stopped,
me and my wife stopped. We hadn't eaten. I hadn't eaten
since breakfast and I said, I'm really hungry. And we stopped
at, what was the name of that place? Burger King and I got
a Whopper. And I tell you, I feel like I
just, I wouldn't want to eat like that all the time. And if
you come to me and you say, Bruce, I would encourage you not to
be going to Burger King. I would say, I appreciate that.
You're my friend. You're helping me. I had a friend
of mine I used to work with, and every morning for years and
years and years and years, every morning, he went to McDonald's.
and got a sausage-egg biscuit. He loved that. And the last time
I heard anything from him, he was having open-heart surgery
to unclog his arteries. All foods ain't good for us.
And to encourage one another to eat better, that would be
good. But when somebody comes and says, God commands you not
to eat that particular food, He forbids you to eat it, there
is where you get into trouble, isn't it? There is where you
get into trouble. Commanding. Then I would have
to say this. You have yielded yourself to
some seducing spirit and you are promoting the doctrine of
devils. Look what he went ahead to say in verse 3. Which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the
truth. For every creature of God is
good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer." Nothing,
Paul said, no foods. There's no foods that's unclean
in and of themselves. He said, I'm persuaded of the
Lord Jesus. There's nothing unclean of itself. I had a couple of friends of
mine, I was spending the weekend one time, and they told me when
he was in the service back during the Korean War that they had
a little dog they took from America to South Korea with them, and
he said they couldn't let it out of the house. They told him,
don't let the dog out of your house or it won't be back. He
said, they eat dogs. They ate dogs, and they couldn't
let their little dog out. Could you eat a dog? It'd make
me sick, wouldn't it you, to think about eating a dog or a
cat? But there's nothing wrong with it. Different cultures eat
different things. And what God forbids, then we
forbid. But where God gives liberty,
it's a sin in us to forbid it. And that's what these people
and others forbid them to do. Don't you marry. We command you
not to marry. We'll excommunicate you if you
do. You abstain from this. You abstain from that meat and
that meat. And if you don't, you sin. That's
the commandments of men, isn't it? Have you ever noticed how
some cults and far-out religious groups have such strange hang-ups? There are some strange hang-ups
in religion. I'm telling you there is. I didn't
know it, Back when Steve Young, I think he was a 49ers quarterback
years and years ago, followed Joe Montana, it came out on him
that he was wearing a special underwear. And when it all came
out, one of the things that the Mormons do, they have special
underwear. It merged them something, merged
help or something. I thought how strange that is.
And something else that's strange about them, they've got a whole
mountain full of genealogies stored back in their warehouses
out there. If you want to know your genealogy,
you want to trace your family tree back, go out there, give
them enough money, give them your name, and they'll trace
your genealogy back. See where your great-grandfather
come from. And if you give them enough money, if you can prove
he was lost, they'll baptize you for him. That's strange, isn't it? You
know when Paul talked about fables, he talked about fables and endless
genealogies. And they've got them. I was talking
to one of you about a group not too far from here. Now this is
strange. This is strange. This one group, I guess their
pastor wrote out this command for them that the ladies in the
congregation has to have at least five layers of clothes. Five layers of clothes. And they
adhere to that. Ain't that strange? What is in
a man's mind that will sit down at his desk and write out how
many layers of clothes the women in his congregation have to wear?
What's going on in a man's mind? Paul said they're men of corrupt
minds, destitute of the truth. That's strange, isn't it? Fables
and commandments of men. I've got my own personal convictions. You'll never see me out in public
without a shirt on. You wouldn't want to see me out
in public without a shirt on anyway. It's been my conviction.
I just don't do it. I'm just not going to do it.
But I'm not going to force that on you. I'm not going to make
down a commandment and say, this is my personal conviction and
I better never catch you out here without a shirt on. That
would be silly, wouldn't it? The Scriptures, when it wanted
to tell the women how to dress, it would just give one little
simple line, let your women, dressed in modest apparel. That's all he said. He didn't
talk about the lambs or anything. Some strange things go on, aren't
they? Notice quickly what Paul said about these fables. He said
back in our text, he said two things. One in verse 14, not
giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men. Not
giving heed Don't give any credit to this. Pay absolutely no attention
to this at all. When they start blabbing this
stuff, let them know if you can, this is junk. Isn't that what
he said in that last verse? Rebuke them sharply. You and
I shouldn't tolerate such stuff. And if we get an opportunity,
let's tell them. Buddy, that's just a fable. I
had a friend of mine, I used to pick him up on the way to
work, and I knew that he was a quirky sort of guy. He wouldn't
walk under a ladder. I worked with him. If a ladder
was standing out, he'd turn it around. He wouldn't go around.
If he couldn't get around, he'd turn around or he'd go back the
other way. If somebody was on it, he wouldn't go under a huge
step ladder. And if a black cat crossed the
road in front of him, He'd turn his car around and go back another
way. I never said a thing to him until he began to voice his
little fables and silliness and commandments of men and so on.
And then, when we were riding to work, this happened. An old
black cat come across in front of us. He got all tore up, slinging
his hands. I just went right on. And I looked at him and said,
Buddy, you're stupid. You are stupid. You are stupid. That's devilish. That's hellish. We've got a Word, an infallible,
faithful Word to depend upon. Put that foolishness stuff away
from you. And that's what we need to tell
people, isn't it? Not giving heed to Jewish fables
and the commandments of men. Why? Well, He tells us this,
the last portion, that turn from the truth. There may be some
fables that in and of themselves they're innocent, but most of
them turn from the truth. These fables I read to you tonight
out of these books, I tell you, those aren't innocent. Those
have caused hell to be enlarged and populated so that people
believe in that junk. It turns from the truth. Now let's close by looking over
in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 15. Matthew's Gospel chapter 15.
I'll just read you a little illustration example of this and we'll close. Matthew chapter 15 and look in
verse 1. Then came to Jesus scribes and
Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples
transgress the traditions of the elders? Why are they doing
this? It's killing us. For they wash
not their hands when they eat bread. And He answered and said
unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandments of God by your
tradition? For God commandeth you, saying,
Honour your father and your mother. And he that curseth father and
mother, let him die the death. But you say, Whosoever shall
say to his father or his mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me. I don't owe you nothing. I'm
not going to do anything for you. If I do, it's just out of
the kindness of my heart. It's a gift, but I don't owe
you nothing. And verse 6, And you honor not
your father or his mother, that he shall be free, free from condemnation. Thus have you made the commandments
of God of none effect by your tradition. You hypocrites, well
did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draw near to me with
their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude
and said unto them, Hear and understand. Not that which goeth
unto the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defileth a man." And look at this, I have often
chuckled at this. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended when
they heard you say this? Who cares? Who cares? Peter and John were scared to
death, weren't they? They must have been putting some
stock in these commandments of these Pharisees and tradition. He said, Lord, you've hurt their
feelings. Reckon you should apologize or something? Look what the Lord
told them in verse 13. But he answered and said to them,
Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up. Let them alone. Pay no mind to
them. They be blind leaders of the
blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both of them shall
fall into the ditch. And Peter said unto him, Declaring
to us this parable, and he said, Are ye also without understanding?
Do ye not yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the
mouth goeth into the belly, and it cast out into the draw? But
those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from
the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, and murderers, and adulterers, and fornications
and thefts and false witness and blasphemies. These are the
things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth
not a man." So that's what was happening, wasn't it? They were
making void the Word of God, the commandments of God by their
traditions and their silly commandments because they began to put more
worth on their traditions and their commandments than they
did the commands of God and His Word.