Man’s Traditions and God’s Way (DCLC – July ’86, Part 4)

Audience: It was in the early days of the kings; they were put there to stop them from wiping them.

Absolutely correct. That’s absolutely correct. The queen was very disturbed because they were always doing that. So, she had a line of buttons. They get down here. So, she put a line of buttons there. Then, finally, she said, “Cover the whole sleeves with buttons from top to bottom.” And they are starting, and this is what’s left. Can anybody tell me what this is or why it’s here? If you ever find out, let me know. I don’t either. Utterly, totally useless. Has no utilitarian value. There it is. Let me just point out something else. All men’s coats, dress coats, have pockets that you can’t get into. That’s right. And you never see anything in a man’s pocket that’s a dress coat. It’s there purely for show; no purpose whatsoever. Handkerchiefs – I know, but we never unfold them. And if we did, we would look totally undressed with something in them. You drop those things out. Nobody ever knew they were gone. Decorative, that’s right, here’s one that’s very hard on your health, it’s never questioned, you have never till this moment questioned it. This was invented, this right here was invented for one sole purpose, and that’s to keep a foot going to the stirrup of a horse’s saddle. That’s its sole purpose. This is a pair of shoes. This is an orthopedic pair of shoes. Costs nearly $100. See that? Utterly wasted because the heel throws the whole human body off a half inch. Does destructive things to you. Tradition. No one ever questions. It ought not to be there. Think about it. Very destructive to your back. Those of you with backaches, if you start wearing flat shoes, chances are 50% you’ll get better immediately. Now, my problem is that I can get it back on, but I don’t know what to do about tying it.

All right, here we go for another one. Do you know why we wear ties or where they come from? Audience – From prison, it’s called a noose; they led prisoners around. Gene – I’ve never heard that. It’s exactly correct. It used to be a napkin. It was a huge thing you put on at dinner, and they got more and more decorative, and they just stayed. So, you see, most of my coats are a tradition of men that are virtually worthless. No, no, no. The Mau jackets don’t have any accessories them. I have no idea where this came from. I have no idea where these (cufflinks) came from, but it is of no necessity whatsoever. What I’ve always been curious about is where this (collar) came from. Also, of absolutely no utilitarian value. I don’t think so, I think it probably evolved from something like that. No value whatsoever.

Well, fortunately, the belt has a purpose and other things like that, but so much that we have and do…I want you to keep this in mind now concerning the Christian faith. It’s like your shoe – there are things you do every day, you never question. Now I think one of the most fascinating thing about this passage of scripture is this, like so many passages of scripture that record the Lord’s words, it has in it three aspects; the Lord’s consciousness of His Father with an a sense of eternity past, a remembrance of things that happened in history long ago, are a very keen awareness of what’s going on around Him; all in this one passage on this one subject. Did you follow that? It’s all here.

I just would like for you to look at the Lord. This passage opens, and it tells us the Lord Jesus Christ is staying in Galilee among the farmers, among the Gentiles, among the highly illiterate. He’s staying in an obscure part of the country and an obscure part of the world to preach, to heal, and He will not go into Judea. Now He’s aware of why He’s not in Judea, or He’s aware of why He does not want to go into Judea. He is walking around with an awesome present sense of something going on. This is not knowledge. He is in Judea while He is in Galilee. Are you following me? If not, you will in a minute. What’s keeping Him out? Hey, do any of you think you’ll ever go home and say, “Gene does not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ.” Have you noticed that I believe in the deity of Jesus Christ? Good, I’m glad you noticed that. While He is physically in Galilee, He’s over in Judea, too. He knows why He won’t go to Judea. He will not go to Judea for one very simple reason; you tell me. He knows He’ll get killed if He goes over there. But the question is, why would they kill Him? And He knows the answer to that, and it is making Him angry. It’s making Him angry. His reason, knowing their reason why they will kill Him. Did you know that they do not know that they will kill Him? There’s not a person in Judea planning to kill Him, but they will kill Him if He goes there. Cross a certain line in the religious world and your life is in danger, physically. If you don’t believe that, sometimes when I get my voice back, let me spin you a few yards. Men are far more wrapped up in their dedication to doctrine than they are to their living Lord.

He is listening to His Father speak to Him, and His Father is telling Him some things. He’s responding, and He’s listening, and He’s going to repeat what He hears. The writer of this passage tells us of many traditions of that day, but it also goes on to say there are many, many more, and the writer doesn’t tell us what there is. It lists a whole bunch of these things, and says there are many others, and the list is quite formidable. How many different things have they picked up along the way that they are utterly totally attached to? Well, if Muhammad will not go to the mountain, the mountain decides to go to Muhammad. Do you understand what I’m saying? That’s an old parable? Jesus won’t go to Judea, so Judea comes to Jesus. The Pharisees, the scribes, and the religious Jews. I would like to introduce you to a Jew who is not religious. That one right there. And when the scripture speaks of the Jews, remember it’s written by a Jew. By Jews, they were referring to the religious Jew and not the ordinary people. Please keep that in mind. That’s a mistake Christians made about 1700 years ago. That’s to our great shame. It has nothing to do with a race of people; it designates the highly religious.

The highly religious Jew, the Pharisee, and the scribe come and talk to Him. And they’re not just offended, they’re faultfinders. The first thing they noticed was that the disciples, this is so important to these people. John had disciples. Now, they heard Jesus had disciples. Man, when they look to see what kind of disciples this guy’s got, they’re sitting around going…. I mean, it’s ill-mannered even by our standards. The Jews, the religious Jews, are horrified; they don’t wash their hands. Why do your disciples not wash their hands according to the traditions? Boy, this makes the Lord angry. It is then that the writer gives us this great list. I’m going to introduce you to Christian traditions, just so you’ll know that the Pharisees did not all die in the first century. Would you like to hear some traditions that have no scriptural basis whatsoever?

We have made a God out of Sunday school. It’s one of the most, in my judgment, one of the most harmful things you can do to your young children. I talked to Joel and Andrew. Where’s Andrew? Andrew, today, after I brought them up here and introduced them, I asked them questions; they didn’t even understand my questions. You know, they tried to help me, but they were like, “What do you mean by that? Well, I don’t remember.” No recollection of a religious history. What do you remember about church life? Fun. Fun. Swinging on a tire. Spending the night with all the people I run around with. There was nothing we didn’t try. We had all the kids sleeping together at night. During the meetings, take them all down, every kid in the church; had one whole house for nothing but kids sleeping. They loved it, they thought it was great. Parents found out how much kids enjoyed it; parents liked this too. No kids at home. One night out of the week.

Adolf Hitler went to Sunday school. Adolf Hitler could spit out Lutheran theology by the time He was 8 or 9 years old. I mean, doctrinal stuff, doctrinal type stuff. Choir boy, Lutheran church, in his town. Carl Marx wrote one of the greatest theses on the plan of salvation I’ve ever read. Lenon studied for the ministry. Stalin studied for the ministry. Khruschev studied for the ministry. All of them grew up in religious homes, indoctrinated from babyhood. I think they should all have been left alone, left in their ignorance, personally.

Sunday school. I’ve been watching you do this for 35 years now. Sunday school. Say, “Jesus, love me. Jesus loves me.” Say, “Praise the Lord.” Praise the Lord.” Ain’t that wonderful? Cuz by the time that kid’s 8 years old, he’s so tired of that. I mean, Buck Rogers and Flash Garden and Luke Skywalker look great to them, and they’re tired of this Jesus business. 8 years old; worn out. Don’t do it to them, folks. It’s only 150 years old. But aren’t we supposed to train them up the way they should walk? Sure, if you can tell me what that means. Train the child in the way he should go, and when he’s old, do not depart from it. Every denomination on earth thinks that the way to raise him up is according to that denomination’s teachings. You try to figure out what the way he should go is, and he’ll not depart from it, but giving him religion when he’s a kid is not the way he should go.

I’m going to run through a bunch of them right quickly. I’ve already touched on this. There was no such thing as a church building until the year 323 AD. That’s approximately 300 years after the Christian faith. Benches were invented by the Western Catholic Church; in the Eastern Catholic Church, you have to stand up. Protestants came along; they stayed longer than Catholics did, so they put their backs on so they could lean back, and so was born the pew. The pew was born in the Reformation. The pulpit did not exist until Martin Luther took the announcement maker off the pillar of the church, turned it loose, ripped out the altar, there’s a word for that, and stuck that pulpit up there in front. And so was born the pulpit, the sacred desk from which is declared the word of God.

Pastors and the concept of pastors did not exist until the year 1530. I’ve already told you that nothing like that was ever known to man. Next week I’m going to tell you the whole story. Seminaries. The existence(origin) of the seminary is unknown. It has been so completely accepted by the church of the living God that no one has ever bothered to record its beginnings. It sort of came out this way. The first universities the world ever knew, born in about 1200, were all totally for the universal education of the Roman Catholic clergy. All students were Roman Catholic priests. Later, as the secular element came in, the sacred element was moved over to one school, and secular people were allowed to go to school, and there grew up the section in the university that was the seminary. It has since divested itself in most cases of a university, and it’s a school all on its own. When it began…I’ll give you $1,000 if you can find out. I’ll go to the bank and borrow that $1,000. I can’t find anybody in the world who knows when it actually began, and yet it trains all of our preachers. We never go back to the New Testament to ask how the Lord did it and how it was done in the first century. And if we did go back to that, I think your life would be in danger.