"The Commandments of Men" (Sermon)

All right, let's turn to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15, and the title of this message is

The Commandments of Men. The Commandments of Men.

In Sunday school, we were looking at a lesson loosely based on Acts chapter five, where the disciples, they asked a question, should we obey

God, or should we obey men? And of course, what's the answer?

They asked sort of a rhetorical question. Of course, we should obey God, but back then and even today, there are churches, some churches follow men, the commandments of men, and traditions of men, but other churches, other

Christians always seek to follow Christ first and foremost, and that's really what we need to do.

So this question of the commandments of men versus the commandments of God and the word of God, this is really a question of authority.

I mean, who gets to decide? Who gets to decide what's true and what's not true, what

God's people need to do and what you should avoid? In the day and age we live in, I think you realize that right and wrong, in the minds of most people, right and wrong is decided by popular opinion, really, which gets shaped by people in charge, people that run the television networks,

Hollywood, the educational system. You have social media influencers and all the rest, and what's right and wrong, what people should do and not do is decided by all these people with influence, and yeah, it's popular opinion, and the sand is always shifting underneath our feet.

What was bad 20 years ago today is good. Things are always changing.

Words are constantly being redefined, and as for that most important question of what is true, people now say things like truth is relative or there is no such thing as absolute truth or this one that really gets me, you know, you need to speak your truth,

I'll speak my, everyone needs to speak their truth, but the truth sort of gets lost in all of this, so these are confusing times that we're living in.

People wonder who should I listen to? Even in a religious context, a Christian context, you have one religious leader saying one thing, another religious leader saying another, and they're both claiming that they're following the

Bible. I mean, how do you decide what's right and what's wrong? Well, in the first century, they had to deal with very similar circumstances.

They had the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests, the leaders of Judaism. They claimed that they were following the scriptures, but they were saying one thing, and then

Jesus comes along and he says something very different, so how do the people know what to believe?

Well, let's look at this passage. Very relevant, I think, Matthew chapter 15. We'll start by reading verses one through nine.

It says, then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, "'Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?

For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.' But he answered and said to them, "'Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

For God commanded, saying, "'Honor your father and mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.

But you say, whoever says to his father or mother, "'Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God,' then he need not honor his father or mother.

Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.'"

And I'll explain that in just a moment, but verse seven, Jesus says to them, "'You hypocrites, well did

Isaiah prophesy about you saying, "'These people draw near to me with their mouth "'and honor me with their lips, "'but their heart is far from me.

"'And in vain they worship me, "'teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"

So you see right off the bat this contrast. You have the commandments of God, you have the word of God, then you have the commandments and the traditions of men.

And what made things more complicated was that the religious leaders of Israel, they tried passing off one for the other.

So they had tradition, they had their commandments, but they said, no, this is the word of God. But it wasn't always the word of God.

They would claim that their tradition, which Jesus identifies as traditions of men or commandments of men, they said it was in fact from God.

This morning, we're gonna cover verses up until verse 20, but just to get a handle on what's happening.

So the scribes and Pharisees, as most of you know, they were the people that most of the Jews looked to as far as if you wanted to know the truth, if you wanted to know how to live a godly life, where do you look?

You look to these religious leaders, scribes and Pharisees. Who do people look to today? I mean, you tell me.

The average person, where do they look? If they wanna know how to live the Christian life, where do they turn?

The Bible. The Bible, okay. Now that's a good answer, but I'm thinking not everybody turns to the

Bible. Where do other people look? Well, some people turn on the radio.

It's whatever this guy said or whatever that lady on TV said. I mean, people are looking in all different directions, but as far as ancient

Israel, they are mainly looking to these religious leaders. Again, scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, all the rest.

So they were the ones responsible for teaching biblical truth to the nation, and a lot of what they said was correct.

I mean, you could take the most far out preacher on radio or television that you probably shouldn't listen to, and still 85 % of what they say is probably gonna be true or whatever percentage.

So that was true with the Pharisees. A lot of what they said was right, but they were dead wrong when it came to some of the crucial issues.

So the scribes and Pharisees, at this point in Matthew's gospel, I mean, the biggest problem with them is that they are rejecting

Jesus as the Messiah. That's the big problem. So that's one thing we know today.

Anyone who rejects Jesus as the Christ, or they reject his divinity, okay, that's somebody you definitely don't want to turn to.

But they were rejecting Jesus. Matter of fact, the scribes and Pharisees, they were the bitter enemies of Jesus.

They hated him so much. At this point, they are plotting his death.

But in order to see that carried out, in order to get Jesus killed, I mean, this isn't an easy thing to maneuver.

First of all, being under Roman occupation, the Jews couldn't, technically, they were not allowed to put anyone to death.

So in order to have Jesus executed, they had to kind of trick or force the

Roman authorities to carry it out. So there was that obstacle. But even if they got to that place where they could have

Rome crucify and execute Jesus, which obviously they eventually did, the

Jewish leaders had to have some basis for this. They had to have some just cause in front of the people to justify executing this rabbi that really was loved by, if not a majority of the people, at least thousands of people all throughout the nation.

So they wanted him dead, but what was their excuse? Well, basically, at this point, they have started what

I would call maybe a disinformation campaign. I wanna use modern language to kind of help us understand.

They're starting a disinformation campaign. They were creating a narrative that Jesus and his disciples were dangerous.

They were just looking to overturn the status quo. Now, there's a little bit of truth in that.

Jesus went in, flipped the tables of the money changer. I mean, right, so that's, yeah, that sounds right. That's what they're doing.

But here's the thing that was not true. They were saying that these men are opposing Moses. They are opposing the word of God.

That certainly was not true. The powers that be, basically, they were slandering

Jesus and his disciples, saying all sorts of things about them that were not true, and other times they would twist what he said.

Remember when Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up again. Well, what was he talking about?

The temple of his body. So he's talking about his death and rising from the dead, but what did they say?

Well, he's gonna destroy the temple, the stone temple in Jerusalem. That's not what Jesus was saying. That's the type of thing that they were doing, though.

So the scribes, Pharisees, they were going around, telling everyone that Jesus wanted to start a revolution, even though Jesus was very clear that's not what he was looking to do, and to put it in the modern vernacular, they were basically accusing

Jesus and his supporters of something like an insurrection, a word that we've heard a lot the past few years, but what's happening now, the religious leaders of Israel, yeah, they're building their case.

They're building their case. The Jewish people, by and large, being lied to, and as for Jesus, the

Pharisees, they're watching his every move. Whatever he does, they're just ready to kind of pounce.

Look, see, we told you he is opposing Moses. So when they see this event that starts out here in chapter 15,

I mean, what do they see? They see Jesus' disciples, they actually ate bread without washing their hands.

I mean, can you believe these guys? I mean, boom, we got them dead to rights.

I mean, if you let them get away with this, society is just gonna break down all around us.

Something has to be done. Of course, I'm being facetious because this doesn't seem like a big deal at all. They ate bread without washing their hands.

Do you think the Pharisees ever ate bread without washing their hands? I'm sure they did, they just probably didn't do it in public, right?

So this whole thing is hypocritical. It doesn't seem like a big deal until you understand

Judaism and their traditions. Notice what they say to Jesus in verse two.

Why do your disciples transgress the commandment of Moses, the book of Deuteronomy?

Is that what they say? Yeah, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?

So you see where their mind is, like this is really what matters, the tradition of the elders. Why? Because they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.

So what is, we have to identify, what is this tradition of the elders? One commentator says this, the word elders literally means old men, but here it means the ancients or their ancestors.

So the tradition of the elders meant something handed down from one generation to another.

Now this was by memory, this is like an oral tradition, some precept or custom not commanded in the law of Moses, so it's not in Exodus or Deuteronomy.

This is something that the scribes and Pharisees held to, and yeah, it was passed along orally.

But they thought it was binding and you had to do it. So this was really just what?

A command of God or a commandment of men? Yeah, it's a commandment of men.

But here's what complicates things. The scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of Israel, they said that when

Moses was on Mount Sinai, we know the story, God gave Moses the tablets of stone, the 10 commandments.

It was written down, right? And Moses obviously wrote the Pentateuch, so we have those things written down.

But the Jewish leader said that when Moses was on the mountain, God gave to him also an oral law that was never written down.

So this oral law that was given to Moses, which this may or may not be true, and how do you really confirm this?

It's not written, so you can't. But it was passed down, so Moses passed it on to Joshua, Joshua to the judges, the judges to the prophets, on and on until that very generation.

Of course, this is problematic. You've probably played, back when you were young, the telephone game, right?

You say something to a person, they tell someone else, someone else, and when it gets back to you, it's totally distorted.

I think that's what happened with this oral tradition. Maybe Moses was given some things by God that were not written, but by the time it gets to the

Pharisees, a couple, what, 1 ,500 years later, I mean, it's just totally distorted.

That's the problem. Why did Jesus come? One of the reasons why God sent Jesus into the world was to set the record straight.

It's very necessary. So here's what we have to understand. According to Jesus, it was the scripture that carried the authority, not the commandments of men.

It was the scripture that was authoritative, not these traditions.

These traditions lacked authority, okay? Now, it's not that, we have to be careful, because it's not that tradition is necessarily bad.

Let's be honest. We have our traditions, don't we? Now, this isn't really,

I don't know, maybe this isn't a tradition, but once a year around Christmas time, we have the cards and fudge thing here at the church.

We hand out fudge and Christmas cards, and we call that like a Morse corner tradition.

Well, it's not really a religious teaching, but there probably are some things that we believe and we teach that don't actually come from scripture, and we're just unaware of it.

I would like to think that, not me, I have it all, it's all from the word of God, but I probably do have a little blind spots, a few blind spots.

I think probably everybody does. That's why we always have to test everything, everything you hear me say, everything

I hear this pastor teach, it all has to be tested over and against what? The scripture.

The scripture. Because tradition is a strong thing, it's a powerful thing. They develop over time, so we need to recognize this still could be an issue today, in some groups it is, but it was definitely an issue back then.

So today, as Bible -believing Christians, we understand if it's written in the

Bible, it's true. Okay? If you don't have that settled, then you need to have that settled, because nothing else is gonna matter.

Anything I say, you take and dismiss. We have to have some sort of set authority, and for the evangelical

Bible -believing Christian, whatever term you wanna use, the Bible is that authority, right?

Amen? God's word is that authority. That's our starting place, and I would say we believe that, because that's what

Jesus believed. We get this from Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 4, verse 4, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, "'but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.'"

According to Jesus, Scripture is the authority, and we know from 2 Timothy 3, 16, that all

Scripture is inspired by God. So we have that set. This is the authority.

Of course, in the first century, they didn't have this. I mean, they had scrolls. They had the scroll of Isaiah, and they had other scrolls, but they weren't in people's hands.

They were at the temple or at the tabernacle, so they didn't have things as easy and clear as we have them today.

So whatever the Scriptures teach, that's the authority, and that's the way it was in the

Christian church for the first few centuries. It was understood. The Bible, God's word, is the authority, but over time, just like in the nation of Israel, the

Christian church, in that general term, the Christian church started to go through some of the same problems, okay?

So this happened within Christianity. Christianity, you know this, it spread like wildfire throughout the

Roman Empire. Christians were persecuted for the first few hundred years, so they would copy the

Scripture, make a copy of a copy, copy of a copy of a copy, and these things just went everywhere.

These manuscripts went in every direction, and just to give sort of a shortened version of the story, when the

Roman emperor Constantine came to power, he legalized the religion of Christianity and sort of became the de facto religion of the empire.

Now, all of a sudden, in the year three, I forget the exact date, 312 maybe, now it became fashionable to become a

Christian. So all these pagans that lived in Rome, all of a sudden, the emperor's a Christian. It's gonna help us if we say we're a

Christian. That's just the way it was. So in that, what happened was you had a blending of pagan

Rome with biblical Christianity, and out of that developed what we know today as the

Roman Catholic Church. So now, all of a sudden, the truth was there, and it's still there, and it's been there all throughout the centuries, but the truth, over time, it became covered and obscured by what?

Tradition, the commandments of men. The teachings of the Bible became obscured based on what men said about the

Bible. So the truth was there, but it became unclear, until one day, a

Catholic monk was reading the Bible, and he saw, he noticed that what the church was saying about the scripture and what the scripture actually said, the two were not lining up.

Of course, this man was Martin Luther, and what started from that was what we call the

Protestant Reformation. Out of the Reformation came a term that we still use today.

I believe this is, going back to Matthew 4 .4, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

If I can paraphrase Jesus, he's saying the scripture is our authority. So what's the term that came out of the

Reformation? Sola scriptura. So the scripture alone is our authority.

Yeah, that term was coined in the 1500s, but I would argue it really captures

Jesus' mindset, his teaching, his beliefs about where the authority is.

Okay, so you're following me so far? So the Jews, what did they have?

The Jews, going back to Matthew 15, they had scripture, but they also had tradition.

They had scripture and the commandments of men. The Catholic Church had scripture plus traditions and commandments of men.

And we still have to deal with that same type of thing today. So I say all of that just so you know not to diss

Catholics. I mean, we love Catholics, amen? We want, a lot of Catholics need to be saved. We love them enough to say this.

We want them to be saved. But Roman Catholicism, on the other hand, that's a different story.

Because what the Pharisees were doing, what the religious leaders of Israel were doing, it's very similar to what the modern -day archbishops and popes and cardinals are doing.

So it's the same type of situation. What does the Bible say? There is nothing new under the sun.

So these same problems are gonna continue until Jesus comes. Again, it's a very relevant situation.

So we're talking about what? What's the title of the message? The commandments of men. Again, we say,

I believe the Bible. I believe all 66 books. My beliefs are from the

Bible. Are all of your beliefs from the Bible? I suspect, you know, when we reach a state of perfection, that might be true.

But we're all in process here. So let's get to what

Jesus was talking about. Because it's important that we understand, like I said, the relevance of it.

So Jesus, his point was to kind of brush aside all of the opinions, all of the traditions, kind of do away with all of that and just focus on what did

Moses say? What does the Bible say? That's what's important. So Jesus, he goes on to talk about how people are not defiled because they broke some tradition of the elders.

No, people are defiled because they have committed sin. I mean, that's the issue, not that they've broke your manmade tradition.

So Jesus, when we read the next 10 verses or so, Jesus is getting back to the heart of the matter.

And the heart of the matter is the human heart. Okay, that's what matters, not whether you obey men or not, whether or not you love

God. And your heart, what determines your love for God is what are you saying?

What are you doing? All of that comes from the heart. So Jesus will say, it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, it's what comes out of the mouth.

So let's look at this statement of verse three. Jesus is accused, his disciples are accused of breaking this tradition.

And you notice how Jesus responds. Remember, I was talking about jujitsu, apologetics.

You know, when somebody, if you're guilty, if you're wrong, then admit you're wrong, amen? But if somebody accuses you of something and it's totally bogus, it usually works to just kind of flip it around on them.

Right, and that's what Jesus does. So they accused the disciples and look at what Jesus says in verse three.

Well, why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

So you're saying that my disciples are breaking the commandments of men. What's really important is that you are breaking the commandments of God.

You see how Jesus did that? But he doesn't even entertain their ridiculous accusation.

He just gets down to the heart of the matter. I would recommend you do the same thing if anyone ever brings something like that before you.

Then Jesus talks about the fifth commandment of the law, which according to Exodus chapter 20, the fifth commandment is to honor your father and your mother.

The commandment was binding, but the rabbis, see the problem is they had developed a system of getting around the commandment.

So this is called the Korban rule. Who's heard of the Korban rule? Raise your hand. Okay, so like three people, okay.

So you need to know this. Some of the Jews, here's the thing. Some of the Jews didn't want to care for their parents.

Their parents were getting elderly and they had better things to do. They didn't wanna care for their parents.

Maybe they had some argument. They didn't get along. They were looking for an excuse to not honor their father and mother.

And obviously honoring your parents deals with a whole bunch of things, not just caring for them in their old age, but that's primarily what they're talking about here.

So the Jews in Jesus's time, they had this loophole where they could make a vow to God that I dedicate all of my money or so much of my money to God.

And since God is greater than my parents and I made a vow to give the money to God, I no longer can afford to take care of my parents.

So you see their tradition, which the elders and the chief priests, they were okay with this, why?

Because this money, guess where the money went? Into their pocket. So yeah, hey, yeah, the

Korban rule, that's good because they were making money off of it. But it was like a loophole or a

Pharisaical legalistic way of getting around God's law and still appearing honorable and righteous when you're actually violating the fifth commandment.

So that's what the Korban rule was. So they come to Jesus about the stuff washing your hands.

He says, no, this is more serious. You're breaking the commandment. What is this called?

The behavior of those involved with the Korban rule. What is this called? I would call it legalistic behavior.

And this is kind of one of my pet peeves. So I'm gonna just take a minute to talk about this. I hope you don't mind.

Today, what I've noticed in modern evangelical Christianity, people that get called legalists are the people that are just trying their best to obey

God and his commandments. And when they see the word of God transgressed or people teaching contrary, they speak up about it.

And they get called legalistic or they're called Pharisees or legalists, right? You've heard me talk about this before.

So let's say someone perceives that you're a little more serious about your faith or in their mind, you're more rigid, which you can be too rigid, that's true, lack grace and all the rest.

But some people will accuse you of being Pharisaical or you're being a legalist when you're actually just trying to do the right thing.

I mean, that is a problem. What is legalism though? Legalism by definition is when you teach that salvation comes through the law of Moses.

So think of the term legalism, okay? Legal refers to the law. The context is the law of Moses.

So legalism is when you teach the salvation comes through law keeping. So like the

Judaizers, they said that, yes, you needed to believe in Jesus in order to be saved, but you also needed to be circumcised and keep the dietary laws.

And in order to be saved, you needed to keep the law of Moses. That's legalism, okay? You're saved by faith plus the works of the law.

Being legalistic, it's like a lawyer. You know, I realize lawyers, it's a good thing we have lawyers.

We need lawyers in our system. So I'm not down on all lawyers, but you know how lawyers are. Some of them will stand before a judge.

They'll come up with some ridiculous way of getting around the law because they found a loophole, right?

They get people off that are actually guilty, right? This is a problem.

So really this way of getting around the fifth commandment and making it seem like this honorable, righteous thing, this is legalistic behavior.

So that's what I would call it because this is what the Pharisees were doing.

And here's the thing, this stuff rarely gets questioned or examined because as soon as you examine it, people get upset.

First Thessalonians 5 .21 says, test all things and hold fast that which is good.

When Paul says test all things, do you think he meant a few things, some things?

No, he's saying test everything. So test what I say, test what the Pharisees were saying, test what modern day

Pharisees are saying or whoever. So long story short, whether it was the

Jewish tradition or modern tradition, maybe the tradition is good, maybe it's not good, either way it has to be tested over and against the word of God, amen?

Okay, so Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees here because they're elevating tradition over scripture.

They're teaching as doctrine the commandments of men, trying to pin

Jesus and his disciples with a violation all the while they're the ones actually guilty of breaking

God's law. So we saw what Jesus said in verse three, why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

So Jesus is exposing their corruption. And then he quotes from Isaiah 29 .13,

look at verse eight, about the Pharisees and the religious leaders, he says, these people, they draw near to me with their mouth and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

And in vain, they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

So what's Jesus saying? He's saying empty ritualism does not bring closeness with God.

If you could go back in time in the first century and walk the streets of Jerusalem, who would appear to be the most righteous men in society?

On a surface level, who would it be? The Pharisees? Scribes? I mean, these men committed their entire lives like to the

Lord, at least that's the way it appeared. And yet Jesus says, your heart is far from God.

You talk a good game, you look good on the surface, but your heart is far from God.

You know, that can be an easy thing. That means they had to be self -deceived. They had to be totally self -deceived.

We wanna make sure this never happens to us. How do you know? How do you test that?

Well, Jesus gets into it. Let's read the rest of Matthew 15, starting in verse 10.

He's getting down to the heart of the matter. Verse 10, and when

Jesus had called the multitude to himself he said to them, hear and understand, not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.

Then his disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?

Do you think Jesus is worried about that? I don't think he's worried about it. Verse 13, but he answered and said, let every plant or every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be uprooted.

This is a direct statement against the Pharisees. They will be uprooted. So let them alone, like ignore them.

Why? For they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch.

I submit to you that if someone back then could travel in time and walk our streets and just people today, when they look, who are the most godly people in society?

Whoever it is they're looking to may or may not be the most godly people.

What determines that? How they look? No. The things they say? That they have long robes and a big hat and they look very religious and pious?

That's not really the issue. The issue is, are they obeying, not the commandments of men, not do they obey and teach tradition what matters?

Are they obeying the commandment? Are they obeying God? And what's the greatest commandment today?

If God could tell mankind one thing, that you need to do one thing, what is that one thing?

Love the Lord with all your heart. I'm talking about one thing and one thing only.

God, the commandment he has given in the new covenant is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

It doesn't matter how you look, how good a game you can talk, what matters is do you love

Jesus? Why do you determine whether someone loves Jesus? According to Jesus' own words, what did he say?

If you love me, keep my commandments. Not keep the traditions, not commandments of men, keep my word.

Verse 15, then Peter answered and said to him, explain this parable to us.

Now, this isn't one of the more difficult parables you thought Peter would have understood, but Jesus said in verse 16, are you still without understanding?

This is a mild rebuke, I guess. Verse 17, do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?

That's a polite way of putting it. Verse 18, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man.

So here's what matters. Yes, that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the commandment in the

New Testament that we need to follow, that we need to do. But here's how you tell whether or not someone's truly converted to the

Lord, whether or not they're just giving lip service. Verse 19, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.

You guys are so stuck on your tradition. You're worried about them washing their hands while you're ignoring just this law breaking that's going on.

I would just end with this. Maybe there's somebody, they read this and they blaspheme me.

I have blasphemed God. False witness, I have lied. Theft, I've stolen.

Fornication, I've done that. Maybe some have even committed adultery. God forbid anyone here has murdered someone.

You never know. What about the person who realizes, even based on a few of these things,

I have fallen short. Well, here's the good news of the gospel, that all of those things can be forgiven.

It's not about you keeping traditions. It's not about that. It's not about washing hands. It's about you realizing in your heart, you have a heart problem.

People have a problem and it's called sin. But the good news of the gospel, if a person would believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ, believe that he died on the cross for their sins and rose again the third day, the promise of God, if a person would believe that and trust in that, which is the gospel, what?

They would be saved. So that's what matters. Believing the word of God.

You want to know the truth. If there's someone listening, they're confused. They don't know where to turn. I'd say this, don't listen to me.

Don't listen to me. Open up the scripture. Look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans.

Look at the Bible. Look to what Jesus says. That's where the truth is. That's where you will find salvation.

Salvation is only found, not in traditions, not in commandments of men, in the commandment of God, that a person believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Let's pray. And Heavenly Father, I just pray that there may be someone today wondering, where do

I turn for truth? Is this really the case that the

Bible contains the truth of God, the truth for life? Lord, I just pray that they would ignore all of the voices that are telling them to go in a different direction, all of the temptations to pull them down another path.

I just pray they would seek Christ, that they would open the word of God and simply pray with an open mind and an open heart and say,

Lord, show me your truth. I'm so confused. I don't know what to believe.

Lord, I'd like to think that every person in this church knows exactly what the truth is, knows where to find it, is solid in every regard, but Lord, we're human beings and I realize that may or may not be the case.

I just pray that they would look to the commandments of God, to the word of God and not the words of men.