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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Jesus gave his life a ransom number on Calvary, on Mount Calvary, cruel Calvary.
way by blood that we might be proud of, praise the name.
Salvation has been brought down, glory.
We'd to welcome you to the Florida School of Preaching Harvester podcast.
My name is Brian and with me are
For Cinemaseres.
and Steven Ford.
And we are happy to bring you another lesson today, a discussion as we talk about,
continue, part two of Truth versus Tradition.
And as we pointed out last week, tradition sometimes is a bad word that people think of it
as, but it really just simply means that which is handed down.
Now, if a tradition is handed down from God and we properly understand the Bible and
ascertain the truth and make the proper application,
then that tradition is always good.
It's always going to be beneficial to us because it comes from God.
And such examples of that would be 2 Thessalonians 2.15 and 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 6
where tradition is used in that way.
However, the other source, possible source of a tradition is that it comes from man.
And if it comes from human origins, then that tradition can be good if it helps us to
expedite
what God requires of us such as singing, song books, microphones, things of that nature,
PowerPoint.
However, if a human tradition gets in the way of God's law or cancels out God's law, such
as we had in Matthew 15 with the Pharisees and they're not taking care of their parents,
you know, that and the hand washing and all involved in that context,
then that tradition is evil because it usurps or takes away the Word of God from the Word
of God.
And so a natural flow into that is, you know, what we're calling here inherent sin versus
instrumental sin.
Is our sin because we violate tradition and is it perceived sin or is it, you know, like
for example, the head covering in Corinth, I mean, you know, the principle that
women are subject to men in the home and in the church does not change, but that head
covering in Corinth, you know, it showed that the women wearing those head coverings were
in submission, and so it would be wrong in that culture to violate that head covering.
It would at least leave the wrong impression about Christians.
And so that's what we want to talk about here.
Inherent sin versus instrumental.
Now,
inherent just definitions here sometimes that would be called intrinsic and what that word
means is by nature is something wrong by nature and i do like to kinda compare that with
the works of the flesh in galatians five nineteen to twenty one
Now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish
ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.
Of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice
such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Okay, and so those, I would argue, are inherently evil, inherently sinful.
That is, there's never a right time to practice fornication, idolatry, drunkenness, etc.,
etc.
However, the works of the fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, Galatians 5, 22-23, go
ahead and read those, please.
But the fruit of the spirit is, yeah, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such, there is no law.
Okay, and those things I would argue are inherently good, at least the way they're meant
right there.
You know, love, joy, peace, all those are good.
There's never a wrong time to practice love, to practice joy, to practice peace, at least
as they are intended there.
And so those are inherently good, inherently evil.
And understanding this principle will allow us to focus on the real issue in many cases,
and that is expediency.
And that directly relates to unity in the brotherhood because if I do something that's an
expedient, it might be different from the way you do it.
But does that make me wrong and you right or vice versa?
Or can we still be unified in those situations?
is a room, yeah.
And it seems like a lot of our difficulties come from that, where obviously if somebody's
doing something inherently sinful, the division that would come from that is good, you
know, so if they get withdrawn from, or if they say, we can't walk with you anymore while
you're doing that until you repent, etc., etc., obviously that's good.
But if I'm doing something that is viewed as sinful but actually isn't,
because of a lack of that understanding over expediency, etc.
And division comes from that.
Obviously then we've got a problem.
There's lots of, not lots of, but there's a couple biblical examples of that I think where
you have those differences of opinion over that.
And things that are done because they're expedient that maybe you wouldn't do otherwise.
I'm thinking of Timothy getting circumcised, for example.
But on that same coin, there's a reason Titus didn't get circumcised.
So it kind of just depends on the context there and the situation.
Yes, very true.
And so that brings me up to or brings us to the instrumental sin instrumental.
Before you jump there, I just want to say something.
You said something that I want to just kind of underscore.
When you read the passages and you talked about the intrinsic good or intrinsic bad, it's
the way in which they are using the text.
And what made me think about that was when you look at works, the flesh hatred is in
there.
And you will say, it's always 100 % wrong to hate.
Well, is it?
And it's the way it's intended in that text.
Psalm 119, 104, hating every evil way.
Well, is that wrong?
you know, gotta...
Yeah, that's what want to kind of underscore that so that you don't have it where somebody
just tries to run away with it and kind of be cute with it.
know, hey, that means anything and everything.
Yeah, great point.
We're in Auburndale, so you got the train noise coming through.
Yeah.
Polk County, my brother.
Yeah.
Anyway.
left that maybe somebody thought that's kind of one of our sound effects for the
it's funny because you said run away with it and then you the runaway train in the
background.
If I mentioned his left, that would be pretty cool.
Yes, and did qualify that in the fruit of the spirit part of that, but yes, it is
qualified the way it's intended there.
It's always a sinful thing, but yeah, the word, we can't hate, we are to hate some things
for sure.
But the way it's used there, just like joy, know, let your joy be turned in the morning,
know, James would say, but the way it's intended in Galatians five, it's always good, good
or bad thing.
All right, so but instrumental is sometimes that's called extrinsic, extrinsically, and
that means by its use.
you know and so this is kinda touching on what Forrest was talking about that some things
are morally right but the manner in which they are used the expediency of it may make them
wrong and I think a classic example of that would be eating meat you know meat was created
by God for us to eat and first Timothy 4 verse 3 through 5 as long as it's received with
thanksgiving
and understanding it's good to eat and even the question arose in first corinthians eight
which really that that same question is dealt with in chapter eight nine and ten uh...
of that context but is it is it okay to eat meat that's been sacrificed to an idol and of
course right off the bat some of them i think no way how can you even think about yeah
eating that when you know
idolaters have just been worshipping that or whatever they do in that but yet when you
read that text Paul says doesn't you know meat doesn't matter right you know we know that
there's only one God and just the first couple verses chapter 8 verse 1 now concerning the
things offered to idols we know that we all have knowledge knowledge puffs up but love
edifies and if anyone thinks that he knows anything he knows nothing
yet as he ought to know but if anyone loves God this man is known of him therefore
concerning the eating of things offered to idols we know that idol is nothing in the world
and that there is no other God but one and so there's no such thing as a false as a little
g god even though people act like there is and so eating meat that's been sacrificed to
that non-existent God there's nothing wrong with it at all however
as he does say in the text, that if there...you know, verse 6, for us there is one God,
the Father, of whom are all things and we for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom
all things are all things and through whom we live.
However, there is not in everyone that knowledge, for some with conscience of the idol,
until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol,
and their conscience being weak is defiled.
But food is not commended to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do
not eat are we the worse." And then he goes on to talk about those things, but if it
causes our brother to sin, or if it violates our conscience or our brother's conscience,
then Paul says, verse 13, a food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat
lest I make my brother stumble.
And so that eating
is good, but it can be sinful in certain situations.
Right.
I think he gets to that at the end of that whole discussion to you know, in first
Corinthians 10, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God
where you have that ability.
But in that situation, you might not be able to do that because of those outlying outlying
circumstances.
Yes, and often mention this story doing a mission work in Jamaica.
We were dropped off in a neighborhood one time and I saw the guy pour live crabs into this
big pot of boiling water with corn and potatoes, just like a crawfish boil, you know?
And then we came back about lunchtime, and of course they always tell you not to eat
street food, but I saw the guy pour them in live and they were ready at lunchtime and I
was hungry, so I bought me some off that guy and I started eating it.
And one of the local brothers comes up to me and says, brother Brian, brother Brian, we
don't.
over there's a lot of seventy adventist influence in that area and so they all thought
shellfish and crabs were unclean and so around here people need to have some clean now i
could have just exercise my authority in my liberty and said all i'm gonna eat this anyway
but then that were ruined my influence so i just packed it up in the newspaper as another
thing newspaper to use for a heavy wrapped up in my newspaper snuck it back to the to the
house we were staying at and i'd just chowed down amongst my brother
was just fine.
But I think it would have been sinful for me to eat that, knowing that after I was made
aware of that, knowing that would offend the local people or they would cause a stumbling
block.
They wouldn't have thought I was serious about Christianity and I would have lost my
influence.
And so I think it would have been sinful for me to eat it there in that situation.
And so I chose not to.
You would have also, with the causing the stumble, teaching them to violate conscience,
which was to train our conscience to help us to make the right decisions.
But if you say, man, don't worry about it, then the lesson that they're learning is, okay,
I'm gonna do this against my conscience, not having necessarily learned correctly, but
they're just learning, okay, I can violate my conscience, so later on when something else
comes up, they will maybe lean on that practice, I can violate my conscience.
Yeah, and that's a good point.
I think, and there's a term in here, let me see how the weak brother, the weak conscience
and so forth.
And I think that directly correlates with understanding of Scripture.
The conscience is made stronger as we learn Scripture and are sure of things.
Of course, Romans 14 deals with that as well.
Yeah, this thought about being weaker isn't a slight against them.
You know, you're dumb or anything like that.
It's just their faith is young or immature yet, and it's not fully developed.
And so you don't want to hinder that in their process.
That term weak sometimes in our common vernacular, it can have a negative connotation to
it.
And it's not negative here.
They're just not matured fully yet.
That's a good point.
Sometimes people talk about, maybe this is a great thing to bring up, sometimes people
talk about like the tyranny of the weaker brother, you know, and to what degree do we,
know, if there's, you know, for example, here in our context, if you've got 150 member
congregation, there's one influential family that says we shouldn't be eating, you know,
fellowship meal in the church building.
Should we then not not offer it at all because we've got the one family that says hey our
conscience is bothered if we eat in that church building it because I that sometimes leads
to division because in that situation if the eldership says well, we appreciate your
perspective, but We don't see anything wrong with it.
And now that is anybody else so we're gonna go ahead and go through with it that family
likely may leave
But at the same time, if we're always capitulating to whoever has the softest conscience
or the however you would word that, you know, the weaker conscience, if you will, then
you're going to be you kind of your hands are tied for a long time with a lot of different
issues, you know.
So I think that's one.
And maybe we can't flesh all that here.
But I think that is one topic that really gets a lot of congregations in a bind because
they out of love.
We do want to defer to the weaker brother.
But at the same time, once you
on that scale it's hard to do consistently
Yeah, that's a very good point and I have seen that happen in congregation sometimes.
And as one old brother said, are they really stumbling or are grumbling?
So a lot of people will bring that up.
to try to get their own way.
Yeah.
was like, for example, eating in the church building.
Yet the people that do that are usually people that have, and I guess every situation
would be different, but a lot of times what I've seen the people that are doing that are,
been Christians for 20, 30 years and they just happen to believe that doctrine that we've
talked about a couple of episodes ago, the anti-ism as it's sometimes called or
non-institutional.
And so they're not really stumbling over it.
They're just grumbling at one to have their own way.
However, if it were a new Christian or something, I would take the time out to study with
them.
Yeah, it'd be a teaching moment and try to train the consciousness to show them through
scripture that it is an option, a scriptural option.
Kind like some of the stuff we talked about a few episodes ago.
It also reveal the heart of the individual.
So even if it is a person who's been a member of the church for a number of years and they
say, you know, I just, think we shouldn't eat in the building.
And you study with them, let's see what the Bible does say.
And they are able to see it and they still kind of dig their heels in.
They kind of then would reveal what's going on and maybe give the eldership an idea of
what they should do moving forward instead of saying, well, we're never going to eat in
the building anymore.
say, well, you know what, we've talked to the John Doe family.
They refuse to acknowledge it after we studied with them for X amount of days.
or times and so we're going to move forward and have the meals now.
That's a little bit different too.
a great point yet because i think sometimes people use that as a way to get whatever they
want that idea of hey you're making me stumble or this bothers my conscience or whatever
and i'm not saying we ignore that don't get me wrong but and i think wisdom obviously is
needed here to apply that to say okay where is this genuine and where is this something
else that's going on but i think sitting down and teaching and thinking about the maturity
level and all those things those are all great points
I guess there could be tyranny on both sides too.
Just think about the other side, because the example you used, Brian, you could have,
know, ate this shellfish right in front of everybody.
know, rub your hands all over everything when you're done too, you know, because you
could.
But that would have been in violation of that first part of there, you know, thinking
about the knowledge you have being puffed up in arrogant and kind of enforcing it,
stuffing it down their throat without them being able to learn better.
You love crab more than you love your neighbor or your brother.
But that's the whole point of the text though.
you love this meat, this food, this whatever it is more than your brother.
and that's a good good point to bring up and that's exactly what Paul's meaning in the
first part of that chapter about you know he Knowledge puffs up but love edifies and
sometimes when we know we're right scripturally, right?
Sometimes that can be a ego problem on our part and we want to ram it down somebody's
somebody's throat right no pun intended there with the meat, but anyway
that about the maturity too because you've got you know like Jesus for example he could
have said I don't want to ruffle any feathers when we walk through this field guys don't
pick any of the grain right because he knew what the Pharisees believed about but they
should have known better and he says no you know and he kind of teaches them that lesson
there about him being Lord of the Sabbath and about their overly restrictive
Traditions of men rather than the commands of God.
So definitely needs wisdom to apply, you know, what's the best in this situation?
But you know when in Jamaica eat the crab in private I guess is the takeaway
It's always growth on both sides.
We need to grow in our knowledge, but then we also need to grow in our humility.
And so for both sides, no matter where we are on that journey, you know.
That's a good point.
And as long as both sides are coming in open and honest and you know have that desire to
to grow.
But if it's mutual love for each other, that would be the thing anyway.
That's where I love where Paul kind of gets to in 1 Corinthians.
It's like, well, wait a minute, man.
How are you doing this stuff?
Aren't you supposed to be loving your brother first?
With every little aspect, whether it be taking your father's bride or dragging each other
to court, the way they're eating meat, Lord's Supper, all that kind of stuff.
Where's the love?
Yeah, how do you really love your brother and you're kind of trampling over his faith or
his family or whatever else is going on?
leads us to 1 Corinthians 13.
There you go, we're preaching now.
But in that same discussion of eating meat sacrificed to idols in chapter 9, you know,
chapter 9 is basically all about just because we have a right to do something doesn't mean
we have to do it.
But he does say, and I like these verses in verse 19 beginning, for though I am free from
all men, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win the more.
And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews.
To those who are under the law as under the law, that I might win those who are under the
law.
And to those who are without law as without law, then he parenthetically states, not being
without law toward God, but under the law toward Christ, in parentheses, that I might win
those who are without the law.
To the weak, I became weak, as that I might...
win the week, I become all things to all men that I might by all means save some." And so
Paul could adjust what he did, and I would say culturally, traditionally, to conform to
the traditions of the people with whom he was working.
Now that would never allow him to violate God's law, but traditional things we can go
again.
We can keep, go against, whatever.
And again, wisdom is the key there.
In all those optional matters, Paul always erred on the side of what would be most
effective for my ability to preach the gospel, you know.
win souls as he says, win, win.
And I think you see the other side of that almost with Peter and Galatians when Paul talks
about him is some, and I've seen brethren take this and apply it to in house, almost like
becoming all things to all men to capitulate to powerful brothers, right?
And jump through the right hoops so that I know that we're good and they approve of me, et
cetera.
And I think you see Peter do that when he's hanging out with the Gentiles and then the
circumcision party comes.
and he adjusts his behavior, he in a way is becoming all things to all men, but almost in
like a reverse order where, let me clean up my act real quick and act the way these
brethren want me to act.
When in fact, they were the ones who needed to learn, wait a second, the Gentiles are
equal, know, coheirs in Christ, et cetera.
And Paul kind of goes through that in the book of Galatians.
you know, remembering why Paul is saying this, I think is important for us because all
things to all men sometimes can turn into
Whatever brother so-and-so is most comfortable with is what we need to do.
And those two aren't the same thing.
Or it can go too far where you're not being genuine.
to yourself, I don't think Paul did a funny accent to protect you from this place, that
place, or put on a wig or mustache and that kind of stuff.
But if I go to your house and you guys take your shoes off when you walk in the door, then
I can take my shoes off when I walk in the door.
Whatever else, but you can do that without going to the extreme and changing who you are,
changing the message, or that sort of thing.
But the ideal situation is remembering.
what am I here for?
I need to save souls.
I need to help people get to Christ and in that passage I love, I guess you reading, was
it ASV?
James has win, win, win.
Oh King James uses game, and I've got it highlighted in the text just to remember it.
Why is he doing this?
Why is he like Jew?
Why is he acting like a Gentile?
Why is he, I won't say acting, why is he becoming those things?
I just used the King James term.
He wants to win their souls.
He wants them to be saved.
He wants them to be
partakers.
I love how he says in verse 23, and this I do for the gospel's sake.
So he's not getting away from where we were kind of starting out with tradition.
What is written?
What has God actually revealed?
He's not going beyond that.
says, I'm doing this for the sake of the gospel that I might be partaker thereof with you.
He wants himself to stay saved and he wants them to be saved.
So he's not going to depart as did like a Peter.
Yeah, let me let me leave so that hopefully I can you know kind of coax you Exactly,
right, right.
Yeah, that's a better term.
It's not hypocritical
Yeah, for sure.
think you and we talked about this our first couple episodes, you know, how many of our
how many of our problems would be solved by getting back to what is Paul talking about
here?
Love for the brethren.
and keeping the mission in the forefront of our minds of reaching those who are lost
around us, you know?
How much of that disunity would kind of melt away, not all of it, I feel like, but a lot
of it, if we just, hey, let's re-emphasize the love of the brethren, not at the expense of
doctrine, the love of the brethren and reaching the lost, you know?
was a book, was this phrase in the book, love the Lord God with all your heart, soul,
mind, strength and your neighbor as yourself.
That's pretty good singing there.
It does kind of encapsulate everything.
If you love God and by virtue of loving God, His word, His commandments, and love your
neighbor, everything else is gonna fall into place.
You'll do what's for the right reason at the right time and all that kind of stuff.
I love the way we've always done things or I love being well known or I love whatever it
may be, know, once we get our loves out of order, a lot of these problems flow downstream
from that.
Yeah.
The love of God would imply.
as you said, loving his word enough to study it and to grow so that we're constantly
learning.
And there's no way we can get the wisdom on how to use the knowledge unless we gain the
knowledge right along with it.
Exactly.
And then so I think that's great.
But to touch back on something Forrest had mentioned, he just mentioned again too about
why are we doing the things that we do?
And Galatians chapter one, verse 10, I'm looking at here and this is after Paul had said
twice, if the we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel.
let him be a curse.
But verse 10, for do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men for if I still pleased?
And I think the old King James has there for if I yet please.
But that word still, and that just kind of jumped at me a couple years ago when I
discovered that, that word still kind of tells us that Paul was, the whole time he was
being a Pharisee,
At least part of that was trying to please the Pharisees, trying to please others besides
the Lord.
And when I think about people today in the brotherhood, that in the name of being
conservative, in the name of being doctrinally correct, they are trying to please men,
trying to please the crowd that they seek approval from.
And that's why you get a lot of this disunity, because you're not doing it our way.
We are the keepers of
whatever you put in there, King James only, we're the keepers of this, the keepers of
that.
And if you go against that, you can't be part of us.
And the individual people involved in that are really trying to please the others with
whom they are in, and their group.
And so to go against the grain sometimes, even though it's scriptural, going against the
grain is sometimes scriptural, when it comes to traditions, it's not the same thing as
going against God's word.
but sometimes people will confuse that.
Yeah, it's a good point.
especially, unfortunately, with preachers sometimes that's the case.
You know, we kind of talked about this at lunch without the microphones, you know, but we
all want to be invited to speak on things and write places and be on podcasts and
everything like that.
But if that trumps our desire to, you know, why we got into this in the first place,
right, to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, to love our neighbor as
herself.
Obviously there's going be some issues and you definitely see that here.
And I never noticed that.
If I still pleased men, that's a great nugget right there.
There is always, I think, associated with ministries, especially for those individuals
that would be public teachers and preachers.
I think there is a tremendous temptation to be carried away with that sort of a thing, the
arrogance of it, or wanting to belong to the group and that sort of a thing, which I love,
you know, that God has allowed us to see kind of behind the curtain with Paul.
with his thorn in the flesh, with his many revelations.
Yeah, what would he have been like outside of that?
And I think that there is a great temptation for us if we're not careful in checking
ourselves, allowing the word of God to constantly stay before us when we're applying it,
using it.
not just teaching it, but letting it actually become us and guide us in those things.
I think it's real easy to get carried away with traditions.
If we do this for a while, we may start thinking, if you're a preacher and podcasting,
he's not doing what's right, because this is the tradition and standard that's been set.
If you're not, you don't get your voice out on the internet, then you don't care about
evangelizing.
Well, maybe I'm knocking doors, or maybe I'm sending out letters in the mail, or talking
to the guy at the laundromat, whatever.
but it's easy to get carried away perhaps.
Yeah, absolutely.
And think that's part of why traditions are so alluring is they make us feel good.
Right?
Because sometimes loving God with all my heart, soul, and strength, loving my neighbors
myself is a bit abstract, you know?
It can be.
But if I say, I ticked all the right boxes, right?
Like I wore my phylacteries were the right length and I the right, you know what I mean?
And I wash my hands the right way and everything like that.
Now, at the end of the night when I go to bed, I can feel good about myself because I
jump through all the right hoops.
so I think that's part of the allure of it is I can feel good in my religiosity, but
that's not necessarily true religion.
And that obviously was the problem that the Pharisees had.
And also I think is a comfort in that I know I've got rules.
I know what to do because in the abstract, you you say, okay, eating meat, a lot of people
say, just tell me.
Give me hard and fast rule.
Just give me something, but if I have to choose and let my conscience, what if I mess up?
And I think that also maybe go back, it could go back to maybe our view of God.
He's a hard taskmaster in heaven, and if I get this meat thing wrong, then he's gonna
strike me down to hell.
So that's why we, most people like just hard and fast rules.
Just tell me what should I do?
That way can do that and I can not mess up, that way can go to heaven.
And then if somebody breaks my rule, they're definitely going to hell.
You know what I mean?
And that's where you get into the problem where like, made this rule so that I can go to
heaven and then you just broke it.
So now you're a sinner.
And obviously that binding that is where a lot of those problems come from.
Yeah, that's what we, I think that was last episode where we read about that with the
Pharisees, you know, well why aren't they keeping the traditions of the elders?
And they're looking at them like, hey, you guys are wrong, you're gonna be lost because
we've set the standard and now you're gonna be on the standard that we set, which is,
again, going back to what we kept saying earlier or the last episode is, what's written?
What's written, and let's just do that only.
And that's what Jesus got back to you.
Yeah.
You know, what's the commandments of God?
And that's what they were transgressing.
Yeah.
And again, involved in all that is we gotta study God's Word so that we can know.
And I think that's part of it.
I've often thought about this, that it seems like the Bible is simple enough for almost
anybody to understand it, if it's translated in their language, but yet there's a
difficulty level in it, not to be beyond our reach, but to kind of force us to study to
know.
what says the Lord, because it's a lot easier to say, okay, don't do this, this, this, and
this.
You can do this, this, and that.
That's easier than to study it out and to find out what God really allows me to do.
And sometimes we like the easy way out instead of the hard way to study.
And that's why I kind of like the, you know, if you look at church history and you know,
how did the Pope get to be the Pope?
Well, it's a lot easier for...
one guy to say do this this this in this then to study it and to find out what the bible
allows and go with that and so the person that says okay here's a tradition do this this
this in this simple do it and you don't do it you can't be part of us yeah and there's a
lot of that the brotherhood today
for sure.
But if it were just, I've often wondered about this, I had a question posted to me about
that very principle, if it were just a fact of obeying rules, God could have just given us
an actual literal rule book.
The do's and the do nots.
But it's more like God doesn't want us to have just that only, but he wants to change our
heart and change our thinking and our conscience so that if there's not a specific
situation,
that may be explicitly stated in the scriptures, how do I handle it?
Well, I have a generic teaching that has molded my conscience to make me understand how to
do or not do said action.
And so it's like,
God teaches by principles.
principles but to change us, you know, and not just because my computer follows
instructions.
I tell my cell phone to go off at 10 o'clock to, you know, wake me up or do whatever and
it just, but my phone doesn't love me and it doesn't, you know, say you know what this
Steven is so nice I'm just gonna do what he says, know, Siri doesn't care about me.
But it's just with God he informs us through his word, we read it, we study it so that we
can have the mind of Christ kind of start to live like him, act like him, be like him and
it changes us over time and not just
an instruction manual, then it's not like a true discipleship.
I think this is a bad word sometimes people act like it is but relationship right that God
actually seeks a relationship with us and that's not opposed to religion true religion is
relationship with a true and living God, know, so Lisa the other yeah exactly But you need
you need that.
It's like you said it's not just that impersonal.
All right.
Here's the standard operating procedure Here's the manual, you know read it and follow it.
There's a lot more involved.
Yeah
Yeah, as Steven was saying that, I thinking about the Old Testament, you know, I mean,
there are some lists like the Ten Commandments, do this, don't do that.
But that's just like a basis.
But there's a whole bunch of other stuff that ties into that.
But it's up to us to study it and to find out what God's will is as it relates to those
things.
There's just no substitute for continuing to grow and study in our knowledge of God's Word
and then how to apply it in these situations.
Those, you find that a few times that people will kind of come to that conclusion, I like
in Psalm 51, where David's like, listen, it's not just about the sacrifice and offerings,
you want a broken and contrite heart.
And it's like, okay, you want the type of heart that loves you to the degree that it won't
sin.
Not just, okay, that answer is A, that answer is B, I'm gonna do just A and B.
No, it's the one that says, why won't I sin?
Not just because it's the rule.
but because I love the one who made the rule, and so I won't sin.
And then, you know, of course, you I won't do the things that hurt other people hurt
myself and lead me down this road of destruction, but ultimately I love God so much that
I'm not gonna sin.
That's a great point.
heard one time and it was it wasn't it was in the denominational world, but they were
talking about parenting and I think it holds true and there's applications to this just to
our Christian life.
They were talking about, know, your goal isn't just for your kids to know the standard.
You want them to love the standard.
Because a lot of people know the standard but that doesn't help them obey it right just
because I know it okay I know it and I'm gonna choose not to do it, you know But if I love
the standard and I know that the standards what's best for me and I know that there's all
the things associated with upholding the standard now Not only do I know it what to do,
but now I actually want to do what?
I should be doing.
And those, I know that those two things aren't always the same thing where, and we see
that in our life.
It's one thing to know it, but it's another thing to actually love the one who gave it.
And that's the goal, obviously.
Yeah, and that ties into the topic here.
know, tradition now which is passed down, the one who gave us that standard is God, and
he's the one that loves us.
He's the one that died for us.
And so it's up to us to love that standard because of who it comes from.
knowing that that standard is going to, when we put that into practice and live it out,
it's going to make us who God wants us to be.
And that would be pleasing to God.
Yeah.
All right, we appreciate this episode.
Appreciate you listening to this episode and just think on these things.
And if you'd like to text us or email us fsop at fsop.net and just put in the subject line
podcast and we'd be happy to answer your questions or maybe if you have some ideas of
future podcasts, just let us know.
But until next time.
glad that you were here on the Florida School of Preaching Harvester podcast.