I'm going to go ahead and take a look at some of the things that are going on in the room.
I'm going to take a look at some of the things that are going on in the room.
But the problem is when you teach for doctrines the commandments of men, look at verse number
seven.
Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
So there's a problem when we take a rule that we've made up and start teaching it as if
it's God's word.
And that's what they've done here.
They're teaching that the disciples are somehow sinning because they're not washing their
hands before eating, even though the Bible itself says no such thing.
Now jump down to verse number fourteen.
And when he had called the people unto him, all the people unto him, he said unto them,
hearken unto me every one of you and understand, there is nothing from without a man that entering
into him can defile him, but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile
the man.
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
So Jesus gives this sort of cryptic answer.
He doesn't really explain the answer.
He answers in parables and says, nothing that goes into the man can defile him.
It's what comes out of the man that defiles him.
And then he says, you know, if any man have an ear to hear, let him hear.
And he just kind of walks away.
But as Jesus often did, he explains to his disciples what he meant.
Sometimes he'll speak to the crowd in somewhat of a riddle, but then with his disciples he
explains exactly what he meant.
So it says in verse number 17, and when he was entered into the house from the people,
you know, so he's basically, you know, away from the people.
He's in the house now.
His disciples asked him concerning the parable and he saith unto them, are ye so without
understanding also, do you not perceive that whatsoever thing from without entering enterth
into the man, it cannot defile him because it enterth not into his heart, but into the
belly and goeth into the draft purging all meats.
And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man, for from within
out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, theft,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
All these things come from within and defile the man.
And so what Jesus is saying here is that the Pharisees and the rest of the Jews are
emphasizing the wrong thing.
They're so worried about some contaminant coming into their body and defiling them,
they don't understand that the bigger danger is the things that come from out of our heart.
And so these guys have all kinds of sin and all kinds of wickedness and iniquity.
Jesus preached against their sins many times.
For example, in Matthew 23, he rebukes the Pharisees hard for their sins and those sins
of the Pharisees, those are the type of things that we ought to be worried about defiling
ourselves with, not worrying about that we didn't wash our hands before we ate because
that's not a big deal.
Because if we don't wash our hands before we eat, whatever we get germs or whatever
goes into our mouth, you know, it's going to go into our belly and eventually it's going
to go out the draft, meaning it's going to go into the toilet eventually, right?
Whatever comes in, it's going to go into the toilet, you know, that's not what we should
worry about.
We're worried more about the heart and it's worse to be a thief than that you didn't wash
your hands before you ate or to be a murderer or to be a blasphemer or to be filled with
pride or to be an idiot, right, to be foolish because the Bible talks about foolishness
here.
All these sins that are listed, the evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, hey, that's what's
going to defile you, that's what corrupts you, not because you didn't wash your hands
before you ate, you know, these germs that you would get from doing that are not as big
of a deal as all these horrible sins that proceed out of the heart of man and so he
said worry less about what's going in and think about what's coming out of your heart
because that is a much bigger issue.
So this is a pretty easy to understand passage, right?
But I want to really home in on just three words here in this passage and the reason
that these three words are so significant is because they're not found in this account
when we read the Gospel of Matthew, okay?
So if we read the Gospel of Matthew, we have the same story, we have the same teaching,
but these three words are not there at the end of verse 19, purging all meats.
Now I don't believe anything in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental,
you know, if something's in the Bible, it's there for a reason and when something unnecessary
is tagged on, you know, that really makes you pay attention and say, well, why is this
here because, you know, apparently it wasn't absolutely necessary to the story because
it's not in Matthew and so why does Mark include this?
You know, what extra understanding do we get from these three words that Mark includes
this when apparently you can have the story without it over in Matthew and there's no
issue?
What does this mean, purging all meats?
Okay, well, first of all, I'm going to give you the obvious understanding just when we're
reading our King James Bible and then I'm going to show you how the modern versions
have corrupted this passage and turned it into something bizarre and absurd and in fact,
I think this is one of the dumbest things that I've seen in the modern versions and
I've seen a lot of dumb things in the modern versions.
This has got to be one of the dumbest and I'm going to go through and show you how virtually
all the modern versions completely twist this and you're going to walk away seeing how their
interpretation is impossible and clearly the KJV has it right, okay, beyond any shadow
of a doubt.
So purging all meats.
What does this mean?
Well, we have to understand that that phrase, purging all meats, is modifying the phrase
that comes before it.
Going into the draft, it's basically saying that in the process of going out into the
draft, it purges all meats in the process, right?
So we eat something, it comes into our belly, it goes out the draft and in the process of
going into our belly and going out the draft, it purges all meats.
What does that mean?
Purge.
Well, you know, the word purge is very similar to the word purify, okay?
And if we think about other scriptures in the Bible that use the word purge, one of
the ones that really comes to mind is about the tree that brings forth good fruit and
the Bible says that God will purge that tree so that it can bring forth more fruit.
So what does it mean to purge the tree so that it can bring forth more fruit?
Well, the branches on the tree that are not productive.
The branches on the tree, they're just kind of like dead weight.
They're not actually good branches.
They need to be trimmed off.
So if you've ever had trees, you know that sometimes you have to trim your trees and
sometimes trimming off branches will allow more resources to go to the good branches
that are actually productive and you can get better yield of fruit that way.
So we understand purging a tree, right?
You cut off the branches that don't bring forth fruit.
What about purging silver, you know, and you purge out the dross, for example, when you're
purifying a metal, you purge out that which is worthless, that which is junk, that which
you don't want because you want to purify what's there.
Think about what happens when we eat food, okay?
When we eat food into our body, it goes into our stomach and it goes out the draft but
what happens in the process of that food being digested?
Our body takes from the food everything that is helpful, everything that is profitable,
it grabs hold of the protein, it grabs the carbohydrates, it grabs the fats, it grabs
vitamins and minerals and it puts those things to use in our bodies.
But here's the thing about the food that we eat.
Many things in the food that we eat are not useful to us as humans.
We can't do anything with them.
They become wasted and so that's why we have to use the bathroom, right?
And when we go to the bathroom, what we're doing is we're discarding everything about
that food that was unusable, that was unprofitable, that had no value to our body.
For example, you know, the most common carbohydrate in our world is cellulose but here's the thing,
humans can't break down cellulose and so animals can break down cellulose.
This is why a cow can eat grass and you can't.
Part of the reason why is because we can't break that down.
If we were to eat grass, it's all just going to go right through us.
We're going to get very little, if any, nutrition out of it because of the fact that there's
a lot there that we can't break down.
But any food that we eat, even if it's something that's good for humans to eat, even if it's
meat, even if it's fruits and vegetables, even if it's bread or whatever, there's going
to be a portion of it that we don't use, that we don't digest, that goes to waste.
That's what goes out the draft.
So basically if you think about it, there's a purging process that is going on in our
digestive system where basically there's a separation that's taking place between that
which is good, that which is nutritious, that which helps us, you know, perform the functions
that we need to perform, and that which is unprofitable is basically removed from the
food in a sense because, you know, part of it is going into our system and being used.
Another part is being segregated and, you know, channeled into the toilet to get rid
of it.
The part that we don't need, the part that we don't use, or maybe even a part that would
be harmful to us or toxic unto us is going to go down the toilet.
So it's pretty easy to understand here how when we eat food and that food goes into the
belly and out the draft, that in the process of going out the draft, there is a purging
of all food.
There's a purging of all meats.
All the meats are purged because they go out the draft, they go into the toilet, okay?
Very easy to understand, very clear, okay?
Let me show you what the modern versions have done here, okay?
And I want you to pay attention because I honestly think that this is one of the dumbest
things in the modern versions.
It's really absurd.
I'm going to read for you from the ESV, first of all.
You look down at your King James Bible in verse number 19, I'm going to read for you
from the ESV.
It says, since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled, okay?
So far we're pretty much saying the same thing, right?
It doesn't go into his heart, it goes into his stomach, it's expelled.
But then in parentheses, instead of saying purging all meats, it ends the quote of Jesus.
So Jesus stops talking and then it puts in parenthesis, thus he declared all foods clean.
So the King James says purging all meats as part of what Jesus said.
Jesus said, hey, it goes out the draft, purging all meats.
That's what it's doing.
What they've done is they've ended the Jesus quotation and they've taken that phrase purging
all meat and this is how they've translated it, thus saying he declared all foods clean.
Now how did they get this strange translation?
Well let's look at a few other versions.
How about the message?
Here's what the message says, that took care of dietary quibbling, Jesus was saying that
all foods are fit to eat.
Okay, that's the message.
Here's the New American Standard Version, because it does not go into his heart but
into his stomach and is eliminated, end quote, thereby he declared all foods clean.
Any tea, for it does not enter his heart but his stomach, then goes out into the sewer,
end quote.
This means all foods are clean.
NIV, for it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach and then out of the body,
end quote.
In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.
New living translation, by saying this he declared that every kind of food is acceptable
in God's eyes.
There are so many problems with this and I'm going to prove to you 100% that the King James
is right and all of these modern versions are way wrong.
Now you say, how would they even come to that conclusion, where would they even get that?
Well the King James Bible is actually literally translating pretty much word for word what
the Greek says here, okay.
Now the Greek word for purging also can mean purify because purge and purify are really
close words and so the Greek word can mean purifying.
So the most literal translation here would be like purifying all foods, right, purging
all meats.
So I mean the King James Bible is translating what the Greek says.
So where are they getting this interpretation?
They're basically looking at this phrase purifying all foods or purging all meats and they're
interpreting it as that Jesus by saying this is purifying all food or that Jesus by saying
this is purifying all meats whereas the King James is basically saying that we eat food,
it goes into the draft thus purging all meats because we took a dump and now we've purged
all meats.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying now that I've brought it down to your level?
Okay so basically, just kidding.
So the bottom line is that their interpretation is ridiculous and let me explain to you why
because of the fact that this would mean that Jesus is just basically just defying the Old
Testament law, just blatantly rejecting the Word of God.
Now look, Jesus Christ said, I did not come to do away with the law.
Think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets, I came not to destroy but
to fulfill.
Jesus Christ, the Bible said in Galatians, was made of a woman made under the law.
Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, amen?
When Jesus was on this earth, you know what he did?
He followed the Mosaic law.
Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day and he followed the law of Moses to a T perfectly.
He was without sin and that included that he followed the law because when Jesus is
talking in Mark chapter 7, guess what?
The Old Testament is still in force.
The Bible says a testament is a force after men are dead.
Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
And so when did the New Testament start?
When did the New Covenant start?
Start when Jesus died on the cross, okay?
Now keep your finger there but go to Colossians 2.
Colossians chapter 2, when Jesus died on the cross, that is when we go into the New Testament,
okay?
Mark 7, the New Covenant has not begun yet.
The New Testament has not started yet and so Jesus is still under the law.
So here's what's so stupid about this interpretation.
They're saying that Jesus, by saying this, declared all meats to be clean.
That means, according to them, I guess Jesus is just saying that we can eat pork now.
But here's the problem with that.
You can't eat pork until after Jesus dies on the cross because when you're under the
Old Covenant, you've got to follow that old Mosaic law, okay?
Look at Colossians chapter number 2.
The Bible talks about these ordinances or carnal ordinances, the meats, the drinks,
the divers, washings.
It says in verse number 13,
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to
us and took it out of the way, watch this, nailing it to his cross.
So when the Bible talks about the blotting out of ordinances, it says he nailed it to
his cross and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly
triumphing over them in it, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect
of a holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things
to come but the body is of Christ.
So he's saying, hey, don't worry about the meats and the drinks and the holy days and
the Sabbath days because those ordinances are nailed to his cross.
So were they nailed to his cross in Mark chapter 7?
No.
This is ridiculous, it's stupid.
Like how in the world can you claim that Jesus is just telling him, hey, eat whatever you
want?
But you know what he's basically saying?
Throw Leviticus 11 in the trash.
Folks, that's garbage.
Jesus Christ did not go around telling people to ignore the law of Moses because they're
under the law of Moses.
Now are we under the law?
No.
We're in the New Testament, we're not under the law, but what about the people he's talking
to in Mark 7?
They're still under the law and so they're not supposed to just eat all meats and just
eat whatever they want.
That is a ridiculous interpretation, okay?
Look what the Bible says in Matthew 23, flip over if you would to Matthew 23.
And then I'm going to really get to the elephant in the room about this bizarre interpretation
that they have in these modern versions.
But it says in Matthew chapter 23, verse number 1, then spake Jesus to the multitude and to
his disciples saying, verse 2, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not ye after their
works for they say and do not.
So what he's saying is that when the Pharisees tell you to follow the law of Moses, do it.
Don't be like them because they're a bunch of hypocrites.
But they're sitting in Moses' seat and so when they tell you to do these things that
are from the law of Moses, do them.
He's not saying like, man, it doesn't matter, you know, let's do all this quibbling about
the dietary restrictions, man.
Like the message said, right?
We're not going to quibble about the diet.
So basically what they're doing is they're making fun of the law of God that Leviticus
11 is a quibbling.
It is blasphemous.
You know, quibbling about, it's not quibbling, it's the law, it was the law of God.
Now we're not under that law.
In the New Testament, we may eat all things.
Noah when he got off the ark was told he could eat everything.
But during this period of being under the Mosaic law, there were certain meats that
they were supposed to abstain from and Jesus is not just saying, oh, let's forget that.
Let's skip that.
That only goes out the window in the New Testament, which starts when Jesus dies on the cross.
Therefore the NIV is wrong.
The ESV is wrong.
But let's just talk about the elephant in the room.
How about the fact, and I hope you're there in Mark chapter 7 if you want to get there
real quick.
How about the fact that this passage has a completely different context?
They're taking this verse totally out of context.
Is the passage about them eating pork?
Did they say, well, why did the disciples eat pork?
Why did they eat pork?
And then he's like, well, you know, I'm just going to purify all foods, man, just everything.
That's not what, is that what happened in the story?
Folks, it wasn't about eating pork.
It wasn't about eating shrimp, okay?
As much as I like those two activities, that's not what this chapter is about.
The chapter was about eating without washing your hands.
So Jesus isn't saying ignore Moses' law.
Jesus isn't saying skip the law of Moses on foods.
No, you know what Jesus is actually saying?
He's saying you're making stuff up that's not in the law of Moses.
You're ignoring the word of God.
He said you made void the word of God through your tradition.
You're keeping the tradition of the elders and you're ignoring God's word, but the modern
versions have Jesus basically saying, hey, you're keeping your own traditions and ignoring
God's word.
Oh, by the way, ignore God's word when it comes to food.
How dare you Pharisees make the word of God of none effect through your tradition.
Oh, by the way, let me just make Leviticus 11 of no effect real quick.
Let me just tell you to ignore all the dietary laws of Moses real quick.
Folks, who is writing these modern versions?
How could anyone be this stupid?
Folks, you can read Mark 7 a thousand times.
You will never come to the conclusion that this is about eating all foods or eating all
kinds of meat.
It's about not washing your hands, my friend, which was a rule that is not in the Bible.
Jesus is saying, do what the Bible says and don't worry about these extra biblical rules.
But in the modern versions, Jesus is like, hey guys, we're going to start some of the
New Testament early.
This is the most doctrinally bankrupt interpretation I've ever seen.
It makes no sense.
These neo-evangelical Christians, the modern version crowd, they do this actually all over
the Bible because they'll basically take the woman taking an adultery and say that that's
Jesus repealing the death penalty.
I guess Christmas is coming early because he's repealing the death penalty early.
Now first of all, the death penalty still hasn't been repealed because the death penalty
is still a good idea even now.
And in Romans 13, the death penalty is supported.
But the point is, they're trying to say that Jesus is basically throwing out the old covenant
teachings in John chapter 7, throwing out old covenant teachings in Mark 7.
It's premature because a testament is a force after men are dead and otherwise is of no
strength at all while the testator liveth.
There is no New Testament until Jesus dies on the cross.
That's why he said this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you.
My body is broken for you and this blood is the blood of the New Testament because the
New Testament starts with the death of Jesus with his broken body and shed blood on the
cross.
It doesn't start in Mark 7.
It doesn't start in John 7.
It doesn't start in John 8 verses 1 through 11.
No, my friend, it starts in the death of Jesus Christ.
That's what the Bible says.
And so they're just wrong.
I mean, who's on these, I mean, wasn't someone on the committee for the NIV like, excuse
me, but how can Jesus be, you know, ending the dietary restrictions way before he even
dies on the cross?
It doesn't even make sense.
Doesn't it make more sense what the KJV said?
And you know what?
You don't, don't you think the NIV people, they knew what the KJV said because the KJV
is from 1611.
It's been around for 400 years.
What they did is they looked at what the KJV said.
They rejected it.
The obvious that when things go out the draft, that's how your body gets purged of all meats
is by using the bathroom.
That's obvious, but they have this cute little interpretation that all of a sudden now God
is just bringing one tiny piece of the New Testament early.
It's ridiculous.
It's absurd, but you know, you're going to trust these modern versions and then you wonder
why we're King James only.
You wonder why we're King James only.
And you know what?
I think that these people aren't even thinking for themselves or doing their own work.
Otherwise explain to me why the ESV gets this wrong.
The NIV gets this wrong.
The new American standard gets this wrong.
The new living.
They're all saying the same thing.
And I would love for anyone to try to defend this to me.
I would love for anyone to try to defend Jesus telling people to eat things against the law
of Moses before he dies on the cross.
Have fun trying to defend that because it's crazy and it's totally wrong.
And so these modern versions are way out to lunch on this.
Now normally I wouldn't go this deep into a subject like this on a Sunday night, what
I'm about to say, but I'm going to go a little deeper on this translation issue of this passage
just because it involves the Omicron variant.
This is the Omicron variant in Mark 719.
And the only reason I'm going to bring this up is because, you know, we're all dealing
with Omicron and some people might not even know what that word even means.
So there's actually an Omicron variant here in Mark 719.
Now I've already explained to you where the modern versions got their stupid interpretation.
How they took this purifying all foods or purging all meats and turned it into this
like parenthetical statement of Jesus is saying you can eat anything, you know, instead
of leaving it in the quotation where it belongs.
But not only that, the Greek text underlying the King James Version of the Bible is known
as the Textus Receptus or the Received Text.
I like to call it the traditional text, you know, the traditional text of scripture, the
one that's been passed down, the one that's been used for centuries, the one that's tried
and true.
We call that the TR or the Textus Receptus and most of you are probably familiar with
that term, Received Text or Textus Receptus, the traditional text of scripture versus a
new reconstructed text of scripture.
You see, our text of scripture has been the same for the last 400 years, over 400 years,
whereas the modern versions, they have to keep changing because the Greek text that
they're based on keeps changing.
So, you know, my Greek New Testament lines up with the King James, it's a Textus Receptus,
it's a Scrivener edition of the Textus Receptus and, you know, it's going to say the same
thing when I go to the grave as it says right now, okay, whereas the modern versions are
based on a Greek text called the Nestle Alonde and it's on like its 28th edition and they're
coming out with the 29th edition very soon and no one thinks that the 29th edition is
the last edition.
I don't know, they've already planned a 30th and a 31st edition because they keep making
changes and there are changes planned that are going to be over the next decade, they're
working on different changes.
They have a text that keeps changing.
Now look, we believe in the traditional text of scripture that the Holy Spirit has been
using for centuries, we're not part of the Bible of the Month Club digging up some old
manuscript and saying, well this, maybe this is the original, this is older.
You know, no, no, no, we believe that what God has preserved is what we have and it's
the same as what it's always been and we believe it, okay, so everybody understand that, right?
So here's the thing, there are two letters in the Greek alphabet that are really similar
to one another, okay, and you've heard of both because one of them is Omega.
Everybody's heard of Omega, right?
Jesus said on the Alpha and Omega.
Well, not only is there in Greek Omega, but there's Omicron.
Now what does micro mean?
Omicron pronounced in English omicron, but in Greek it's pronounced omicron, okay?
Omicron means little o, little o.
What does Omega mean?
Big O.
You know, mega.
Mega means big, right?
Micron means little.
So you got the big O and you got the little o.
Does everybody understand that?
So you know, you're going through the Greek alphabet, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon,
and you go through the alphabet and you get to mini omicron, or mini c omicron p, and
then you end in Omega.
So you have these two letters, big O, little o, okay?
Well, here's the thing.
In the textus receptus, you have the little o at the end of this word, which means that
it's a neuter word, which means that the purifying cannot be applying to Jesus because Jesus
isn't a neuter person.
He's a dude.
Jesus is male.
So if you have the right Greek text, you would never come up with this crazy interpretation
that Jesus is saying all meats are pure now.
You can only have that interpretation with the corrupt, modern Greek text.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Because if you have the textus receptus, it has an omicron, which means it's neuter, which
means it can't be referring to Jesus.
It's referring to the process of going out the draft.
Going out the draft is what is purging all meats.
That process is neuter because it's not a man or a woman.
It's just a process.
It's a verb.
So basically that is what you would have to believe and that's why the King James Bible
translators, I mean, they wouldn't even have to think twice about this.
Whereas with this new corrupted Greek text, they've changed the omicron to an omega and
now it makes it masculine.
Now even with this masculine word, it still doesn't have to refer to Jesus because it
could refer to the draft, which is masculine.
So it goes out the draft purging all meats, the draft purges all meats, whatever.
But it's wrong anyway because the traditional text is what's right.
My point is that because of this omicron variant in Mark 719, the King James Bible, the text
that it's from, you could never ever get this dumb interpretation that came from their corrupted
Greek text.
But even if you had their corrupted Greek text, you'd still have to be an idiot to think
that this is saying that Jesus is making all meats clean when that has nothing to do
with the context and it's not right in the timeline because Jesus hasn't died on the
cross yet.
Does everybody understand?
Okay so let me hurry up and get to a few applications here.
I want, I know I spent a long time on that, but you know, I just want to drive in how
bad these modern versions are, just how they ruin doctrine.
Because if you have a Jesus who's just ignoring the Mosaic law, telling you to ignore it,
telling you not to quibble about it, just do what you want, ignore the Bible, folks,
that's not the Jesus of the Bible.
The Jesus of the Bible said, I didn't come to destroy the law of the prophets, I came
to fulfill.
The Jesus of the Bible got up and said, when the Pharisees tell you to obey the law of
Moses, they're right about that.
He doesn't just get up and say, man, we just need to get free, bro.
Eat whatever you want, man.
That's not what he's saying.
He's saying that if you eat something contaminated, it's not going to hurt you, but stealing will
contaminate you, adultery will contaminate you, fornication will contaminate you, blasphemy
will contaminate you, but is eating without washing your hands going to contaminate you?
No, because worst case scenario, you take in something bad, it's going into the toilet
anyway eventually, and you're going to be okay, you'll get over it, okay?
Now let's get to another interpretation from this.
Food in the Bible can often symbolize doctrine.
Now you know, if I get up and preach to you, it's sort of like I'm feeding you.
A lot of people will say that they left a church because they said I wasn't being fed
at that church, right?
Because we go to church and we're fed from the word of God because doctrine is a spiritual
meal, okay?
You know, for example, Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 16, 6, take heed and beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, then understood they, how he bade them not
beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
So when he says, hey, watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees, he's using an illustration
of hey, watch out for their doctrine.
I'm not saying don't get bread from them, I'm saying don't get doctrine from them, which
is like bread because it's like food, it feeds us spiritually.
So here's the thing about this, okay?
If you stop and think about it, none of the food that we eat is perfect.
No food that we eat is perfect, right?
There's always going to be some impurity or contamination or, you know, something wrong
with it.
No food that we eat is perfect, right?
But don't we strive to eat the best food that we can?
We look for the cleanest food that we can.
We look for the most nutritious food that we can.
None of it's perfect, but we strive to eat the best food that we can, okay?
Now it's the same thing with our doctrine.
I mean, shouldn't we strive to get the best Bible teaching that we can?
Is any Bible teaching going to be perfect?
No.
You say, well, I don't want to listen to Pastor Anderson.
But here's the thing, even Pastor Anderson could make mistakes or have error.
So no, just like no meal is 100% perfect, Pastor Anderson's not 100% perfect, my teachings
or my sermons aren't going to be 100% perfect, but you want to seek out the best Bible teaching
that you can.
And you're searching the Scriptures daily to see whether these things are so, and you're
matching up what you're hearing from the pulpit with the Word of God and making sure it jives
because you want to eat the best diet you can spiritually, just like physically you
want to eat the best diet that you can.
Everybody understand?
So is any food perfect?
No.
It's not.
Therefore, when we eat food, there's waste.
There's stuff that our body can't use.
There's stuff that our body gets rid of.
We get rid of it in the bathroom.
It goes down the toilet, right?
But what if we eat something that is truly poisonous?
What if we eat something that is truly toxic?
You know, what if it has E. coli in it?
What if it has salmonella in it?
I mean, what if it has hepatitis A or something?
You know, if we eat something, isn't that a foodborne, isn't that the foodborne one?
B is the STD and hepatitis A is the foodborne, something like that.
But anyway, you know, if we eat something that has truly poisonous content, like some
harmful pathogen, you know what our body's going to do?
Our body's actually going to reject the entire meal.
You know, sometimes you can eat something bad and next thing you know it's like, you
just puke up the whole thing because your body's like, I don't want any of this.
Or sometimes, and this has happened more often with me, I rarely throw up.
Even if I eat something bad, I typically don't throw up from eating something bad.
Typically it comes out the other end, okay?
And so a lot of times we'll eat something bad and it makes it through the stomach.
You know, if we got an iron-clad stomach, sometimes we can handle it and maybe it's
churning a little bit, but our stomach gets through it.
But when it gets to our intestine, our intestine says, you know what, we need to get rid of
this now.
Now normally there's a process of going through the intestine that takes a certain amount
of time, but sometimes our body's like, nope, we're getting rid of this right now.
Because the body wants to absorb as little of it as possible.
So it's just like, get it out.
And so that's when we're sprinting for the bathroom, running to the bathroom, because
our body is like, nope, we're doing this now.
We're not doing it later.
We're not doing it five minutes from now, we're doing it right now.
And I hate to use this crude word from the pulpit, but it's called diarrhea.
That's what it's called, diarrhea.
Perfectly good English word.
That's what it's called.
This is how our body gets rid of something poison, and you know what, this is an illustration
of basically how we handle doctrine too.
When we hear good preaching, when we hear good Bible teaching, it doesn't mean that
everything about it is 100% useful or 100% perfect.
So even when we eat a good meal, there's a portion of it that gets purged or purified
where we say, you know what, that was an awesome sermon, but you know what, that one part,
I don't think that part was biblical, so we're going to go ahead and flush that because can't
use that.
You know, that doesn't jive with scripture, right?
Now look, it doesn't mean that I'm never going to eat that food again.
You know, it doesn't mean that I'm going to reject that food because it's not perfect.
Look, no church is perfect.
No preacher is perfect.
We don't want to have this attitude that if it's not perfect, you know, we can't listen
to it or we can't hear it.
You know, if it's something in there that is not correct, that's the part that, you
know, we purge that meat and it goes down the draft and it's no big deal, right?
And see, then there's preaching that's truly toxic and sometimes maybe what if we're listening
to a sermon and the preacher starts saying, hey, you can lose your salvation.
Folks, that's E. coli.
That's salmonella.
Okay.
In fact, that's E. coli H157H7, the worst strain.
Okay.
And you know what?
That is something where at that point, you know, we got to, we got to send that in the
toilet where it belongs immediately, right?
You know, if I'm listening to something and they start denying the Trinity and they start
teaching that you can lose your salvation, they start teaching a workspace salvation,
you know what?
It's just like, I want to just puke up that.
Start teaching immediately because I don't want to absorb any of it because it's toxic.
It's poison, right?
I'm running for the bathroom.
I can't get there fast enough to expel that garbage down the draft, put it down the toilet
where it belongs.
That kind of trash.
Everybody see the difference?
So look, there's teaching that's not perfect, but you know, hey, it's, it's from a saved
Christian and it's got good stuff in it and we can, you know, and people will often say
like, well, you know, just chew up the meat and spit out the bones and whatever.
But here's the thing, don't tell me to chew up the meat and spit out the bones if the
meat has salmonella in it because spitting out the bones is not going to help me when
I got food poisoning 24 hours later, is it?
And I'm telling you, listening to heretics is poison.
Damned-able heresy is poison.
Listening to somebody that's not perfect, okay, we all do that.
You're doing that right now.
You're listening to somebody who's not perfect right now.
But listening to a heretic, listening to somebody who is, is a poisonous, toxic person, well,
you know what, that's just stupid because you're going to end up puking your guts out,
you're going to end up on the toilet for hours, okay?
And so this is what we could get from this as well.
And you see, this goes back to what Jesus was originally teaching.
Jesus is teaching that look, not washing your hands, you know what, that's not as damaging
as all the sin you guys are into.
In fact, the Bible doesn't even say that you have to do it because let's say you don't
wash your hands, what's the worst thing that can happen if you eat without washing your
hands?
Well, you know, let's say you get a little bit of dirt in your mouth, right?
I mean, think about it.
You know, you might have a little dirt on your hands and look, I've, I used to work
in construction and my hands were covered in dirt and you know, sometimes there wasn't
really an opportunity to wash your hands and I would like recite these scriptures, pray
a little prayer and then just eat my food anyway.
Because sometimes, you know, you just, who's ever been in that situation?
You're on a work site, you're on a job site, your hands are dirty and there's just not
a way to wash your hands.
There's no running water, there's no, you know, there's a port-a-john out there and
there's, and that's all you got.
And so you end up just kind of just wiping your hands off and you eat with unwashed hands.
You know, so let's say a little bit of dirt or a little bit of sand or whatever goes into
your food.
Guess, guess what your body's going to do?
Your body's going to purge that.
The sand, that, that grain of sand, that quartz is just going to pass right through
you.
It's just going to come right out.
You know, it's like when a little child will sometimes swallow a toy or something and then
you'll find it in their diaper, you know, at a future date.
You know, it's not ideal but it happens.
You know, I remember there was this, there was this kid when I was a kid that swallowed
a penny or something and then it came out, you know, and whatever.
So because your body sees that penny and it's just like, I, you know, I can't do anything
with this and it just sends it out the other side.
So what the Bible's saying is that, you know, your body has a way to deal with stuff that
it can't use and it has a way to deal with poisons.
So even if I, even if I have something truly toxic on my fingers and then I eat my sandwich,
you know, what's the worst thing that's going to happen is I might get a case of the runs,
you know, right?
I might have a little bit of diarrhea.
I might throw up or whatever but at the end of the day, two weeks later, I'm probably
going to forget that it ever even happened, right?
But what if I committed fornication?
What if I stole something?
What if I committed adultery or blasphemed God or whatever?
You know, isn't that a lot more serious than just, oh man, you know, I ate at that Mexican
restaurant.
It was kind of sketchy and I was on the toilet for a while.
You know, look, if you, guess what, if you go on a missions trip to another country and
I'm not talking about the Virgin Islands now because that's the US Virgin Islands,
amen?
America!
But let me tell you something.
When I went to Palestine, let me tell you something, I spent some time sending things
down the draft, my friend.
You know, and after I got home from Palestine for five days, you know, my body was rejecting
some things, okay, for about five days straight.
You know, you go down to Mexico and you eat aguachiles, you know, you're eating raw foods
in Mexico, you know what, there's a chance you're going to be taking some extra trips
to the bathroom, but you know what, it doesn't have to ruin your vacation.
You know, you take a few extra trips to the bathroom, but you're still having fun, you're
still eating tacos, you're still going swimming and doing whatever, hey, it's not a big deal.
Typically it's not, and that's what Jesus is saying, like, look, this is what you're
worried about?
You're just worried about getting a little bit of dirt in your mouth?
Big deal, your body is designed to purge all that.
If you get dirt in your mouth, your body has a game plan to get rid of it, to fix it.
Your body knows what to do.
But this stuff that's coming out of your heart, you know, that's a little bit harder to deal
with, isn't it?
You know, it's a little harder to deal with the blasphemy, pride, and foolishness than
it is to just say, hey, I had to take five extra trips to the bathroom.
Not a big deal, my friend, you get through it, you get over it, and your body is maybe
a little stronger when you're done, whatever.
And so that's what the Bible's actually saying, that actually makes sense.
That actually is consistent with the Word of God.
So we need to do what the body does, and if you would flip over to Luke chapter 16, we
need to do what our body does.
We need to have a way to get rid of trash out of our life, right?
Get rid of waste, like lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us.
You know, there's a lot of just crap in our life that we need to get rid of, right?
Just like our body does, and it just flushes that stuff and gets rid of it, okay?
Just as our body purges all meats, we need to do the same thing.
You know, whatever meat that we take in as far as doctrinal teaching, we need to see
if it lines up with the Word of God, and there are going to be some parts of it that we may
end up saying, well, this part didn't line up with the Word of God.
Folks, if someone listens to my preaching and finds something in my preaching that doesn't
agree with the Bible and says, well, I'm going to accept Pastor Anderson's teaching here,
but except for this one part that Pastor Anderson said, I don't think that part's biblical,
and then, you know what, then they should reject that part.
If part of what I said is not biblical, reject that part.
Now, take the part that is biblical, learn from it, grow from it, use it, let it nourish
you, but if there's something that's not biblical, by all means, get rid of it, because the Bible
is the final authority, but if a pastor or a preacher is serving up something that's
laced with E. coli, you need to just stop eating there.
You should try to puke as fast as you can and just like, bleh, you know, whenever you
hear the heresy that's damnable, does everybody understand the difference?
And so, you know, we take in certain teachings and, you know, ideally we can use all of it,
but some things we just can't use, some things are just not good, we get rid of them.
Things that are toxic, don't even put it in your mouth, and sometimes you just taste it
and you can tell it's bad.
Sometimes you take one sip, and who's ever done this, you take a sip and you just, without
even thinking, spray it.
You just go, pfft.
And it's like, you didn't even have to think about that, it's a reflex, because our bodies
are designed to get rid of bad stuff, so it's like, bah, it's bad, bah, don't even put that
in the stomach.
And then you put it in the stomach, it's like, okay, the buck stops here, you're not going
into the intestine, you're going right back where you, bleh.
Or if it gets into the intestine, you know, it can't go backward in the system, you know,
it needs to go forward, I mean it does sometimes go backward, that's really bad.
But anyway, it's a medical condition that's out there.
But basically, you know, even when it's in the intestine, your body's like, okay, well,
you know, at this point it's reached kind of a point of no return, so let's just do
it as fast as we can, let's speed it up folks, and then you're running for the bathroom.
Right?
But now here's a question that could come up, a question would come up that, well, you
know, Pastor Anderson, you're saying that, you know, when somebody is preaching or teaching
us the Bible and they're clearly not saved, and they're actually teaching damnable heresy,
that we need to just stay away from that, you know, just shut that off, like I can't,
you know, if somebody believes you can lose your salvation, it's like, I can't even listen
to this guy's preaching.
Somebody's denying the Trinity, I can't even listen to this guy's preaching, it's damnable
heresy.
Somebody's a Mormon or a Seventh-day Adventist or Jehovah's Witness, I don't care how good
what they're teaching is, shut it off.
Because it's not worth it for the E. coli that's in there, okay?
But then the question comes up, you know, well, can we learn from non-Christians at
all?
Because some people will, they'll go too extreme on this where they'll say, well, I'm never
going to listen to anyone that's not a Christian, I'm never going to read anything that's not
written by a Christian, and here's what I would caution you, is that, here's the thing
about that, I don't want to learn spiritual truths from non-Christians, but I can learn
other things from non-Christians.
I'm not going to listen to some damnable heretic preacher teach me the Bible, okay?
I'm not going to listen to a Mormon preaching me the Bible because I don't want to get E.
coli, okay?
But can I learn from people that are not Christians?
Well, here's what we have to understand, is that, you know, you're at your job, for example.
Your boss might have a lot of things to teach you at your job.
But maybe your boss is Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Oneness, Pentecostal, whatever your
boss is, but he might still teach you how to be an electrician.
He might still teach you how to be a plumber.
He might still teach you how to be a carpenter and you should treat him with respect as your
secular boss and listen to him and not just be like, well, you're an idiot and I know
everything.
Well, no.
Because when it comes to the things of this world, we can often learn a lot of things
of this world, just general knowledge of this world from unsaved people.
But when it comes to our doctrine, we want to get that from a good source, okay?
Because there's nothing poisonous about a Mormon's electrical teachings.
You know, there's nothing poisonous about his teaching of geometry or math.
But you know, so I would read a math book written by a Mormon, but you know, I don't
want to read a doctrine book written by a Mormon because it's going to be filled with
poison.
Does everybody see the difference?
See, the Bible says the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for their
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
So the unsaved man cannot understand the Word of God.
So if he's teaching me doctrine, it's the blind leading the blind at that point because
he doesn't know what he's talking about because he's not even saved.
How can an unsaved person properly expound doctrine from the Scripture to me?
They can't.
But they could teach me other secular subjects.
Now, I'm running up against the clock here, but I just want to quickly crank through this
story in Luke chapter 16, okay?
In fact, for sake of time, let's just go to the Scripture that I want to talk about
in verse 8, and I'll just explain the story.
You can read it later.
But in verse 8, it says, And the Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely.
For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
This is the verse I want to talk about.
Obviously it would take a whole sermon to really expound this passage, and I've done
that sermon.
I've preached whole sermons on this passage, but right now I just want to home in on this
one thought in verse 8.
Now in the story, you have an employee who's a bad employee, and he's a dishonest employee.
And so he's getting fired.
Bad employee's getting fired.
Now because this guy's getting fired, he's nervous because he doesn't know where he's
going to work next.
He doesn't want to be on the street corner begging for money, and he doesn't want to
do any hard physical work.
He says, I can't dig.
I don't want to join up with an electrical company.
They're going to have me digging trenches.
If I go be a plumber, I'm going to end up digging a bunch of holes.
I don't want to do that.
He's lazy.
He doesn't want to work.
And he's like, I'm embarrassed to stand on the street corner saying, you know, homeless,
anything helps, God bless.
I'm embarrassed to do that.
And so here's what I'm going to do.
And he does this scam where he goes around offering all these discounts to all of the
debtors to his boss and saying, oh, you owe $100?
Well, just change it to $80.
You know, we're going to forgive part of that.
They're like, whoa, cool.
Thanks.
Oh, you owe $100?
Let's change that to $50.
You know, don't worry about it, you know.
And he goes around basically, you know, in a sense ripping off his boss by cooking the
books so that these people owe less.
But he does that so that those people will like him.
And then he says, well, after I'm fired, after I'm thrown out of the stewardship, these people
are going to receive me into their homes.
They already like me.
I've got connections with them.
They can take care of me.
You know, I'm, I'm kind of condensing the story, but that's the gist of the story.
And the Lord, now this is, notice this is not Jehovah here when it says the Lord, you
see how it's lowercase.
This is not God.
This is not Jesus.
This is not the Lord God in heaven or Jehovah or anything like that.
This is just the Lord of the servant, the master, the employer is what we would say
in our modern vernacular.
The Lord, lowercase L, commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely.
So here's the thing.
The boss, obviously he doesn't like being ripped off, but he kind of was just impressed
by how smart this guy was.
So even though what the guy did was dishonest, what he did was immoral.
It was ungodly.
It was unjust.
He said, you know, you got amazed, pretty smart though.
That's what it's saying.
It's sort of like if somebody robbed a bank, none of us believes that robbing a bank is
righteous or none of us would approve of that or think that it's good or godly.
But yet what if somebody robbed a bank in a very clever way?
We might say like, wow, that was really smart though, how they did that.
So this guy basically, even though he's getting ripped off, he's so impressed by how smart
the guy was, he kind of has to hand it to the guy.
That's what's going on in the story.
The Lord commended the unjust steward because he'd done wisely.
Not because he was righteous, not because he was godly, not because he was moral, but
just because he was smart.
And look what the Bible says, for the children of this world are in their generation wiser
than the children of light.
Who are the children of light?
The Bible teaches that the saved, it says in 1 Thessalonians 5, we are all the children
of light and the children of the day.
We're not of night nor of darkness.
Who are the children of this world?
Unsaved people.
The children of this world are in their generation.
Not when it comes to heaven and hell, not when it comes to the afterlife, not when it
comes to the word of God, not when it comes to doctrine or scripture, but in the nasty
here and now, they might be pretty smart about things, and in fact, they might be smarter
than you.
In fact, they might be smarter than any Christian.
The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
So basically, can I learn something from an unsaved person?
Now, I don't want to learn my doctrine from an unsaved person, but can I learn about history
or science or electrical work or plumbing or can I learn about nutrition or exercise
or weightlifting?
Folks, I can learn about all those things from an unsaved person.
In fact, here's a quote from Pastor Jack Hyles, you know, famous Baptist pastor of yesteryear.
He said, everyone knows something that I do not know, therefore, all men are my teachers.
Everyone knows something that I don't know, therefore, all men are my teachers.
He's saying, look, I can still learn from people even if they're dumb because everybody
knows something that I don't know and so I can be taught.
So we don't want to have this attitude that says, well, you know, I can't learn anything
from this guy.
I can't learn anything from this person because they're not a saved, born-again Christian.
Well, look, when it comes to your doctrine, you're right.
When it comes to doctrine, let's shut it off and listen to saved Bible teachers as far
as getting our doctrine and getting our Bible teaching.
But I've met a lot of people who pride themselves on the fact that they never read any book
except the Bible.
They're just like, I only read the Bible.
Now I will say this, if you have never read the Bible cover to cover and you've been a
Christian for a long time and you're delinquent on your Bible reading, then I would say to
you, yeah, put away all the other books and just read the Bible because you're behind.
Get caught up.
But to someone who's already reading the Bible, to someone who's reading the Bible, there's
nothing wrong with reading other books outside of the Bible just to learn more about the
world that we live in and just to learn more about life and to learn more about other subjects.
You see, you got some people, they just get so spiritual that it's like, well, they can't
learn math, they can't learn science, they can't learn history because it's just, I'm
only going to read the Bible.
They're going overboard.
You know, they're taking a good idea and taking it a little too far.
Okay, so we understand that yes, the children of this world are wiser in their generation
than the children of light and so you need to go to your work with a humble attitude
ready for the boss to teach you something even if he's a heathen boss because even though
you know more about theology than he does, he knows more about, you know, whatever your
job is.
He knows more about that subject, so learn that subject from him.
And you know, I encourage you, if you are up on your Bible reading and you do know the
Bible, read other books besides the Bible too so that you can actually learn other things
about the world that we live in.
And you know what, one of the things that I like about our, you know, I see Brother
Segura nodding his head, you know, I like the fact that the men on our staff, they read
books, they read their Bible, but you know, they also read other books just to try to
be a better worker, just to try to be a better leader, just to try to understand other subjects
that they could use to be a better servant of God.
You know, I, and I'll tell you this right now, I read the Bible a lot, but I also read
a lot of other books besides the Bible, but let me tell you the kind of books I don't
read.
You want to know the books I don't read?
I don't read any theology books.
Guess what I don't read?
I don't read commentaries.
I don't read books about the Bible.
You know what, we got way too many people reading books about the Bible instead of reading
the Bible.
Folks, if I want to learn the Bible, I'm going to read the Bible.
You say, well, you need someone to explain it to you.
I'll listen to preaching about the Bible and, and I can listen to preaching about the
Bible.
I can read the Bible, but I, I rarely would ever read any book about the Bible.
Okay.
And in fact, I would say I could probably live, even though I've read hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of books in my life, I could probably count on one hand or two hands how
many books of a spiritual nature I've read as far as Christian books of a spiritual nature.
Like, you know, like theology books, books about the Bible and, and, and stuff like that.
Very few.
And, and honestly, I have no interest in that type of reading.
But you know, I read, I've read all, I've read tons of books about nutrition.
I've read tons of books about weightlifting, running.
I've read fiction, history, science, math.
I mean, I do all kinds of reading, a very broad reading by unsaved people, but not about
the things of God because the things of God, I'd rather get through preaching and through
reading the Bible.
Because at least when I'm reading the Bible, I know I'm reading God's perfect word.
And when I'm listening to preaching about the Bible, you know, I can actually check
whether that guy has good fruit or bad fruit.
And I can tell if this guy's a good, a prophet or a false prophet, you know, then to just
read all these books.
And you know what?
The Calvinists, they spend a ton of time reading all this theology.
They have these giant theological libraries.
I saw somebody said recently, you know, you can almost tell how bad the preaching is going
to be by how big the theological library, the bigger the theological library, the suckier
the preaching, you know?
And so basically, you know, they, these guys, they know so much theology and they're like,
Oh, here's my reading list for this year.
And it's like 20 theology books.
They're reading the Puritans and they're reading Calvin and they're reading John Gill and they're
reading all these different teachers and theologians past, present, and they're doing all of this
theological reading.
They're going through commentaries and doing all this stuff.
And you know, they think that that makes them know so much about the word of God, but you
know, much of that is leading them astray because what they really need to be doing
is spending hours and hours reading this book.
Look, I've talked to people who've read a ton of theology books and they're on like
their second time through the Bible cover to cover.
First time through the Bible cover to cover.
Second time through the Bible cover to cover.
But they've read like 20 theologians, 30 theologians.
They barely even read the Bible cover to cover.
What is wrong with us if that's what we're doing?
Like we need to read the actual book and you see that's where you get these kind of dumb
interpretations like in Mark 7 of the new versions.
They're not seeing the forest for the trees.
They got a microscope on verse 19 of like, Oh man, you know, what's going on here?
It's like, Hey idiot, it's about not washing your hands.
It's not about pork.
It's not about shrimp.
It's not about lobster.
Wake up, buddy.
Did you even read the chapter?
It's like they didn't even read the context because they're diving down so deep.
They need to just read the book.
So look, I'm all for reading, but, but I'm, I'm for reading the Bible and I'm for reading
secular books.
But you know what?
I'm not into reading a bunch of books about the Bible and theology books because I'd much
rather just read the Bible at that point with the Holy Spirit teaching me.
And you say, well, you need, you need, you know, you need help.
Well, first of all, the Bible says I need not that any man teach me, number one.
So you know, there's no absolutely necessary doctrine that I have to get from someone else.
I can get it all through the Bible.
But it's true that Bible teachers do help us learn, but God has manifested his word
through preaching.
I'd rather listen to preaching.
I learned things from preaching or how about this?
I just learned things from just talking to brothers and sisters in Christ.
You know, uh, you know, I get together with my pastor friends or get on the phone with
them and we talk Bible.
I learned stuff.
They learn stuff.
We all learn cause we're all talking to each other and we all know who we are.
We don't need some theological book off the shelf from 400 years ago.
How about the spirit filled preaching of today?
Okay, so purging all meats, what does it mean?
Means that when you eat something bad or if you eat something that is not useful, it's
going into the toilet.
Purging all meats.
That's what the Bible is actually saying.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and I pray that everyone who's here tonight
was edified by the sermon.
Lord, I pray that everybody in the room tonight would decide that they're going to stick with
the traditional text of the Bible, pray that everybody in this room tonight would always
stick with the King James Bible and the traditional text and not this, this modern junk that is
written by people who clearly don't have the first clue about the New Testament and when
it started and what that entails, Lord.
So first of all, Lord, I pray that we would remain King James only and I also pray that
Lord, we would purge out the junk out of our lives and that we would be smart enough that
when we get some Bible teaching that's tainted, that we would do like our body does and send
some of it down the toilet where it belongs and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Take your song books please and go to hymn number 146.
Hymn number 146, A Shelter in the Time of Storm, number 146.
Let's sing it out.
On that first verse, the Lord's our rock and head we hide.
The Lord's our rock and head we hide, A shelter in the time of storm.
The raging storms lay round us feet, A shelter in the time of storm.
The Lord's our rock and head we hide, A shelter in the time of storm.
Amen.