Identification Truths Plus 2012

Lesson seven we're actually going to ask, or question seven we'll ask first because it's I think probably good to get that as the first priority. The question is define what a principle is. Because we're going to ask about principles in question one, so we'll start with that. A guideline. A guideline, okay. Do we give your dad's definition that he uses? You give the definition that you think best fits. All right. Let me let me make sure that we understand this.

I do software development for a living and I'll spare you the annoyance of all the nerdy talk. But there are several management approaches that are very common in software development. And when I was younger, I thought at work we should really employ some very rigid structure. If we just have a lot of process in place, and a lot of rules and boundaries, our software would have less bugs in it, and it would work better, and we would ship better quality software to the customer. And so I thought, man, that's fantastic. You'll have all these rules. It will be great.

And as it turns out, that's one of the best ways that you can actually not achieve anything but look like you're busy. As it turns out, if you want to get around rules, what can you do? Just think about politicians or taxes. What do you do when you want to get around a rule? We get fired. You find a loophole, right? A rule you find a loophole for.

What do the Jews do so that they can take the elevator in when they try to observe the law? Well, they set the elevator up to just go to random floors, or hit every floor, and that way they can take the elevator, but they didn't push the button, which would be work, right? But what's a principle? How does a principle contrast with a rule? No loopholes? There's no loopholes. A principle applies itself in a broad foundational sense and not a specific sense. Operational guideline.

But it's something that you do out of an understanding that is a foundation rather than I have this very rigid, small place where this fits. The irony, of course, is that the Jews with the elevators, the rule was, don't work. They extrapolated to pre-tearing toilet paper and setting the elevators to go up and leaving the lights on throughout the whole house and the whole nine yards.

Mike, the principle operates the same way every time. And there's no variance. You can't schmooze with it. It's like the principle of gravity. It operates the same way every time. And it's the same with biblical principles. They operate the same way every time. The cool thing about a biblical principle is that it can have a wide application even though the principle itself can be stated in a simple way.

I like the way that it's been stressed here in this class, and also upstairs in the service to follow, that we are not following laws as Christians, but we are guided by these principles because of who we are in Christ. So it's back to that identification idea of, in Christ, we are following these principles, whether we do it perfectly all the time or not, we have this We've got it written for us. We've got it in our hearts through the Holy Spirit's working. And so the principles are there to guide our behavior rather than the must do this type of thing.

We'll move on to the next question in just a second. The other thing I'd point out that's really awesome about the biblical principles that we have is if one of our core principles as believers is that we walk by the Spirit, That means that we don't have to sweat things like, what is the Bible going to do with the next jump in technology?

The law requires some creativity in how you deal with jumps in technology, right? What does the law say about how you should drive your car? It's not in there. The law had a very cultural and environmental quality to it that really didn't adjust forward in technological development.

But believers don't ever have to worry about that. If man ever builds apartments on the moon, which would be awesome, by the way, if you had to do rehab on the moon because you have less gravity. But anyways, if man ever had some kind of city or development on the moon, we could still walk by the spirit and not have to worry.

So principles are valuable because they let us stop thinking about the rigidity of the 613 Old Testament laws and can walk by the Spirit. So principles, we've defined that and that's good. The first question, then jumping back up in the order of things. When the Word tells us we are under grace and not under law, what does it mean to be under either principle?

Are you on eight? No, no, one. I moved back to one. We did seven first, just simply two, because the order, I wanted to shift. See, the problem is that as I was pre-studying this this morning, because I was prepared to teach last week, and I was going to do it in order, and then this morning I was like, you know what, I'm moving that. So in the handout in the wrong order.

So back to one. When the word tells us we are under grace and not under law, what does it mean to be under either principle? That's how we're to live. That's how we're to live. Okay. I can't disagree with that. But, let's see here. If we were to reword this in another way.

If you're under the principle, What does it mean to be under the principle of law or under the principle of grace? You're not wrong. Is the believer subject to the principle of law or grace or is the believer outside of the principle of law or outside of the principle of grace? Outside of the law. Okay. We live by grace. Alright.

But a believer in the flesh in a conditional sense could decide to try to apply the law. That would not be what they're commanded to do biblically, but it would be something that they may choose to do. Are they under the law? Or are they subjecting themselves to the law? Or the principle of the law? Or are they neutral as a party? I thought we'll ask it that way. Are believers a neutral party?

Where they... Would you phrase that again? The way this question is worded is not a bad way to word it. When the word... expand upon the text of the question. When the word tells us we are under the principle of grace and not under the principle of the law, what does it mean to be under the principle? Are you trying to get to what Christ talked about when he said you are either slaves to God or slaves to the devil, you are not really in control of the situation, but you can decide which path you're going to take, whose slave you're going to be in essence. Are you trying to get to that kind of idea? That's the principle we're after, yes. So what does it mean to have to be under one of those two principles?

I wasn't going to, this I guess isn't answering your question, but I was just thinking of the whole gravity thing, you know, and if there isn't gravity in space. So let's say you were living in a, under the principle of no gravity, and you like did all these things because you had to, because that was what you were living in your environment, and then the environment change to gravity and you're still trying to live under the no gravity rules.

That's actually a pretty good illustration of things. I think the key element here is to try to get away from the ideas that I determine. What I determine is who's going to control me. That's as much freedom as I have. The law told me what I had to do, but it gave me no power to do it, and so all it did was bring death. And I was under the principle, not the Mosaic law necessarily, but the principle.

Well now, I'm under the principle of grace. And the liberty that God gives me is to, I hate this word, but to present myself to the grace principle so that he, the spirit of God, is the one that enables me to live under grace. That's where the reckoning principle ties in, that we reckon ourselves dead. Because the way the grace principle is, is that the minute I think that God needs my cooperation in terms of performance, I've moved out of the grace principle.

Well, and I failed to have a start off by reading the Bible passages over there, but if we look at Romans 6.14, which by now in this class hopefully is somewhat familiar, he says, For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. If sin is not master over you, then who is master over you? Christ. Christ is our Lord, we can say it that way.

But the principle is that either we are subjecting ourselves under the flesh or we are subjecting ourselves to the direction of the Holy Spirit and submitting to Christ. But we don't get to claim neutrality. That's probably the one point of arrogance that the flesh likes to pull out, and the truth of the matter is that we're still submitting ourselves to the flesh, but the flesh really likes to think highly of itself.

The flesh likes to say, I'm pretty good. Have you ever watched a Hollywood movie where at the end the result was that everybody was pretty good? I mean, I would say that a majority of the movies, if they're not an action film, end with everybody being pretty good. And so we start to think of ourselves as kind of a neutral party that's pretty good.

But the biblical principle is that we are either submitting ourselves to the Lord or we're submitting ourselves to the flesh. And so we want to obviously avoid doing that. Well, submitting ourselves to the flesh. Question number two is, does being under a grace system or principle mean that we can do as we think is best in our own minds? This is actually a principle that goes all the way back to Genesis and I think it's really an important one for us to understand. Can, since we're under grace, can we do whatever we'd like because we know it's good? Give me some Bible verses, don't just tell me cuz.

The wages of sin is death. Okay. The wages of sin are death. But sin is paid for. So, does it matter? Romans 5.21 says that sin is a reigning principle. It reigns over me, I don't reign over it. So if I'm not living under grace, by default I'm under sin. I've been crucified and crushed and I no longer live. There is a strong repetitive principle, and Paul covers it from all the angles. Because we're crucified, that shouldn't be true of us.

Just because grace covers it doesn't mean it should be applicable. In Romans 6, shall we say, are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? And then verse 2, may it never be? No. And I don't know what the verses are, but there are a lot of them that say don't rely on the wisdom of man or the intelligence of man. Yeah.

Proverbs 14.12 is one that I've always looked at. There's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Oh, wow. That's great. Do you say the address for that again?

Proverbs 14.12. If you will turn to Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, I said this is a principle that goes all the way back to Genesis a few minutes ago. I just want to correct you on one thing. references are not addresses. Yes. Oh man. He's on the website. Any time. Watch out. You're technology. The IP address. Oh. Torment the nerd. Alright. So Genesis 6 starting in verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And in verse 6, the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. If we move forward, we run into judges. What do judges say over and over and over again? What was right in his own eyes?

The problem with morality in our modern culture, and we talked about this before the class started, is that the culture says, I think it's okay for us to do this, that, whatever it is. We just had our voting. It's now going to be legalized for everybody to smoke marijuana. Because the culture says that's okay. We could collect taxes on it, right? How could this be wrong? But the morality is what is good in our own eyes. Not the truth of God's Word. Not the righteousness of God as our standard. Then you don't have one set morality.

You have everyone doing whatever they want. It feels good to them. There's a lot of complexity that comes into the world as soon as you bring in relativism. That's the principle is relativism. Everything is relative. My morality is my own thing. Your right to swing your arm ends where my face begins. Those kinds of things, right? But the problem is that Christianity is being oppressed and pushed down over and over again. Because man is doing what is good in their own eyes.

But they reject the fact or the idea that they would be submitting themselves to the principle of the law and the flesh. What? How dare you suggest that? How dare you suggest that this is wrong? But the principle remains true whether they like it or not.

That's the difficulty of all this. The Bible says it's true, it's easy to observe, but it's highly offensive to the flesh. Because they're pretty good, right? Everybody's pretty good. Any thoughts on that one before we jump to number three? There's none righteous on that one. There we go. I don't like that verse. It's so inconvenient for my sense of well-being and self-esteem.

The next question we have here is name five definite commands in Paul's epistle. And this one is... Or epistles, plural. This one there could be a lot more than five if we think about it. I've got five that are on here. So let's go over these five just for the sake of not hoping that you all guess the right five.

If you will, open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, verse 12. We'll start there. We could play Bible verse whack-a-mole and it would be fun, but we'll never get through all the questions. Now I have to tell you Romans chapter 12 is one of my favorite chapters, so you better all agree with me on that. That's the one I was converted in. I was in a Bible study studying Romans when they got to chapter 12. That was it. Now here's Paul, and now these are definite commands, alright? These are commands. So make sure you get out your stone tablets to write these commandments on so you can have your own New Testament content. So Romans 12, 12. Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer. Alright. Now I have to antagonize you. Do you do that all the time? I'm going to treasure this moment in my history.

The truth is this is a longer stanza of direction for the body. It's a longer section that includes even more commands. How about verse 11, not lagging behind in diligence. That is quite frankly one of my own weaknesses. I think we call that sloth in other terms.

Under the principle you're not allowed weaknesses. That's right. No weaknesses. But the truth is that there's a command there. Paul says we need to be doing those things. We're going to keep going through these commands and then we're going to ask some important questions. Continuing on.

Galatians 6.10. We'll turn there to that reference. If you get there, go ahead and read that aloud and see what it means. All right. And as we all know from the wonderfully edifying teachings of Robert Tilton, God deserves a Mercedes Benz and he wants me to drive it. What does this mean, that we do good to all men?

Yeah, but it says especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So if they're not of the household of faith, you don't need to especially There we go. I was going to be nice, but I realized they didn't have a fish bumper on their car, so I cut it off. Unfortunately, they don't have signs on them saying, I am of the household of faith. They will know we are Christians by our love. Except for those we're not sure about. So we have that.

Ephesians 4.1. As we keep going through here. For me, that's only a few pages. Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. That's an easy one, right? There's a command we could just... I wake up in the morning doing that.

The rest of the sentence, though, is with all lowliness, gentleness, long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So it's easy for me to walk worthy of the calling, as long as I don't get specific about it. I feel pretty good about myself today, until we started reading the Bible.

Ephesians 4.24, we'll keep going through the chapter here. And put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. So you just put on the new self. This is all easy, right? Everybody's looking at this going, man, I can't believe we're reviewing these easy things.

The thing is that at 35, I still feel like I'm really wrestling with this. We talked with Abigail. She's 10. She's there in the back, and she's dealing with this. Anyone else here having problems with that? You got all this down? Well, what I want to say is, do you do this without thought, or do you have to devote We're going to look at that question as we move through the rest of the questions. Hold that question. We're going to get to answer it. If we jump ahead, we'll answer it twice. I wrote a computer program to do that. It does it for me. Let's keep going. We've got one more reference.

Ephesians 5.18.

And this is the one that Mike, or Mike actually references the Ephesians 5.23, not 5.18. 5.18, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. I actually, I'm not joking, I went through a church split that was pivoted on this verse. Lots of devastation and heartache. And the irony is that it wasn't even about alcohol. It was about what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But are you filled with the Holy Spirit?

Come on, get to it. Get to that filling. So how do we deal with these commands? What do we do? How do I... If I tell Abigail to take out the trash, she can usually do that without too much issue. The other night it was dark, so I can concede that might make things a little more awkward. But that's a simple direct command. But these are more complex than that. How do we deal with this?

By realizing that in the flesh that's not going to happen and therefore relying on God and getting in under that tent, the grace principle to carry it out. I was roommates with another fellow working for Dow Chemical Company back in Midland, Michigan early in my Christian life. He was a young Christian also and he got the idea of working on the fruit of the spirit, one at a time. He'd concentrate on one for six weeks, and then the next six weeks work on another, and after a while he gave up in exasperation, because the way he felt it was happening, he was focusing on doing it, and losing the whole principle of the spirit, which was, no, it's not about doing it, it's about being a new person in Christ.

It's the relationship of life being lived through you. And you're touching on that, it's life. The one that always hits home to me is Ephesians 5, 25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it. And, you know, the minute you realize that this has got to be done through the Holy Spirit working through you, and it's His work working through you, and it's a life. And, you know, as I say, I fall off the horse when I focus on myself and I think I'm trying to do it and I'm trying to do it.

It never accomplishes. It's when you focus on the Lord and He's doing it through me. You can't do this. You just can't do this as a husband in and of your flesh. It's a good thing our wives are able to do their commands, right? As believers, these commands, if we look at them in the flesh and try to respond to them in the flesh, it is impossible.

Now, number four builds on three in such an excellent way. Let's keep going to four and continue on this thought process. If we cataloged all the commands of the New Testament from Romans to Jude, would they be enough instruction for living under a grace principle? Yes. Anyone disagree with that? Alright, how about this?

Why would God give us less instruction than we need? He gives us instruction and then he gives us the Holy Spirit and that's got to be sufficient or he would have given us more. Alright, so there's no problem with the statement that God has given us the instruction we need in the New Testament.

It's a trick question though, so that's really the way this builds up. Is a grace system one that is based on commands? No, it's not a catalog of commands. And that's why it's a trick question. They are there for our instruction, they are there for our direction, they are there for us to know about the righteousness of God in the life of the believer. But they are not there as a to-do list. We are to walk under grace and by the direction of the Holy Spirit. Well it points out the difference between legal statutes and principle. We live as believers under principles not legal statutes. That's the difference. And that goes back to the definition of principle.

It's the way things operate. We have ways to operate. And that's the thing where if we were under a law system, every day we'd have to have a new laundry list for today. And a new list of, you know, how we're going to drive our car today, how we're going to program today, how we're going to, you know, everything. Each day we'd have to have a new list in law. Now principles, it's how things operate. It's a life and how that life operates. And that's what's given in all the epistles. It's how we operate in Christ. And how the principles operate.

It's wonderful in the sense that when you get away from the idea that, oops, I violated that command. and you get a load of guilt on you because you're operating in your mind under this legal principle. So you're saying you're under grace, but in your mind you're saying, whoops, I slipped up on loving my wife, and God's going to get me, or she's going to get me, or they're both going to, and I carry that load of guilt, and I need to go back to there is therefore no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus.

The thing is that we will observe guilt in our own lives. I know that for myself, especially when I was trying to walk under legalism, I would feel guilt all the time. I'm seeing a lot of heads nodding. I think we all understand that problem. The amazing thing is that once we understand that we're under grace, we realize that whenever we feel that sense of guilt, we should immediately turn our attention to the Lord and be abiding again. And we walk in fellowship and we dismiss the guilt as the flesh. We know the source of guilt. The Holy Spirit will convict us to fellowship.

Chester McCauley on understanding grace, that we don't know anything about it at first. And so when we're first confronted with grace and principles, we really are not spiritually educated enough to know what to do next. So we have to be taught. And so we learn, I think we begin to learn grace at salvation And we learn it right up to the, we're continually learning it right up until the very end because it's so foreign to everything that we are as earthly men. Earth doesn't operate on grace, it operates totally on the law of principle. And so grace has to be learned. You can't have someone tell you five principles of grace and you think you have it. You don't. You're learning.

Holly mentioned last week that she had a friend who was concerned that if you want to grow, that's carnal and fleshly. The funny thing is that I think growth is a fundamental part of understanding how these commands are going to be worked out in your life. If you don't have growth as a part of the life of the believer, as an innate part of being a creation in Christ, the result is that Well I should look at these commands and I should be able to do them. Because I don't need to grow. Well how does that work? You have to have growth. But the other side of growth is that it also predefines a state of immaturity. You start as an infant.

That's not a curse. That's part of God's plan. I've learned though that when you're in a class like this and you talk about strong believers and weak believers, the class automatically assumes that everybody here is strong. I will confess to not always being strong in all things. That's the beauty of God's Word. I thought I knew what grace was.

I went to seminary and I had all the technical teaching and then I listened to the Chester McCauley series on grace. in fact my computer system wasn't working right for my network and I went over to Mike's house and Mike was listening to it and that's where I got exposed to it and I was trying to work and I couldn't focus because I kept hearing this Grace stuff and I'm like this is dumb and this is cool but it was like a bulldozer plowing out everything that I thought I knew about Grace because I really thought Grace was just kind of this thing that covers a band-aid for when I sinned I didn't realize it was the operating system.

Can you watch that on on the internet. You can listen to it. I mean listen to it. Yeah, it's on Word of Truth. Yeah, I'll give you the address after. I have a phone. She started first. So I was wondering too if it's like kind of kind of like a I don't want to say this word, use it wrong, but kind of like a prophecy, like you're going to find yourself walking worthy, or you're going to find yourself putting on your new self, like telling a kid you're going to find yourself doing good things, you're going to find yourself loving your, you know.

That's true, but you won't do it through a process of osmosis. that all of a sudden I'm spiritual, you'll be. We are. In spiritual growth I think we're intimately involved in every step and we begin to discover that the Spirit of God is enabling through us the life of Christ. Were we a participant? Absolutely we are. There's nobody sitting in the stands when it comes to walking in the Spirit. Everybody's in the game.

I merely wanted to testify that since I started attending this Sunday school class, I've had occasion to rethink what I thought I knew about grace. So I am thankful for the study that takes time. to talk more about it rather than just sing the song Amazing Grace and think that I got it, even though I love to sing the song. The song actually has a new richness even by the song. I would say there's one more aspect of what Holly's talking about and that is initially there's a resistance within you to the grace and one of the things the Spirit does is He gets rid of that resistance.

It isn't there after a while. You're on the way of abiding in Christ without resistance. Because initially, there is resistance. Again, to do things your own way. That's the growing aspect of it, I think. The growing and maturing in Christ. As you do that, there's less and less resistance.

The other thing I was saying, too, is I think every time I think I have something mastered, Does he use mic for this? Yeah, yeah. I wish. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Iron sharpens iron. We are meant to irritate each other and sharpen each other. Well, question four asks, could we set up enough, enough commands to understand what we need to do to walk in grace? I reworded that error. Question five asks kind of the opposite question. And I think we alluded to this earlier. Are there any issues that come up in our experiences as believers that there are no specific commands for? Can I watch a Broncos this afternoon? First Californians 5, right? First Californians 5. You must have like the new Book of Mormon edition. Can I watch TV? Can you watch TV?

By nature, I'm a very happy person, but I've been so depressed over what's come over our country and how it's changed my lifetime even. And it was even taking the joy of the Lord away from me, you know. And I've learned to turn to Him and give it to Him and not take it on my own shoulders, but on His. And it makes a difference to me. There's a principle, and I'm going to answer something you talked about that's not in the question, but I think it's important.

There's a principle that we're ambassadors in this world. And sometimes you're an ambassador in a war-stricken country. And so when I look at the state of the nation, I think my daughter Abigail is there. She's 10. She's going to grow up in this nation, and things have changed in my lifetime that I don't care for. In the flesh, I used to worry, especially at about 18.

My dad had the conspiracy theory streak in him. He kind of wired me up to be extra nervous for a little while. He doesn't do that anymore, by the way. He sold all his guns. To my knowledge, he has sold all but a few of his guns. He had a number of them. I have some stories, but I won't put them on the recording.

The principle of my fear was one that, oh no, what if we really are reaching this devastating point? And I had lots of fear. I'm good at wording. I have this imagination that can think of the worst possible scenario plus one. And then the Lord said, but what if I've called you to be there? What if somebody needs to hear the gospel and you're there?

That's temporary. We're on this earth temporarily. And tying this back into the question, there are no specific commands for how to deal with a crumbling civilization. Well you know what too, sorry to throw in a silver lining. Please do. We need those.

We are in a country where we're not getting killed. We can meet here. We can be open. We can get a megaphone and yell stuff at the airport. Jesus is going to save you. And you're not going to get killed for it. You know? We still have lots of liberty. The truth of the matter is that those are, from both sides, things that the Bible is not explicitly commanding us on dealing with.

But it's wonderful that as we study the Bible, we see God is sovereign. God has a plan. God is not just hoping things will work out. God's not just benignly smiling and saying, well, do the best you can. God, if we really study it and believe it, He is sovereign. very fact can help.

And then I go to John 17 and see that Christ prayed for us, prayed for me and you, that though we were in the world, we weren't of the world, and that God would keep us through it. And there is great comfort in Scripture as you study the Word. And even though your mind may be troubled about many things, to have that confidence can take you through.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. That's it. So as we're coping with walking through the valley of the shadow of death, or we're living in, let's face it, a very blessed first world country, how do we walk? if we're not walking by a set of laws, if we're not walking by a set of rules, and there are no rules that apply to certain parts of our lives. How do we walk? This is question six for you, Morgan. How do we walk? Question 616 is terrific, I think.

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Okay. So, are you inferring that we should walk by faith? And just like Helen said, it's like, just, you know, trusting. Trusting that God's going to work it out and, you know, when we're called to do what we do, we're going to do it. I think it's more than that. I don't think it's blind like that. I think it's specific. Our faith must be based on specific facts of the Word of God.

It isn't that he's going to somehow work it out. I know what he's doing. and I rest on the fact that he's doing what he says he's going to do. I know that he is in the process of conforming me to the image of Christ. I know that he is working death in me so that there might be life in others. I know those things and that's where my faith rests. It isn't some sort of ethereal cloud thing that I give over to him. I know specifically what he's doing and that's where my faith is focused.

And it's not a set of rules. It's not that. It's a life. I go back to that. It's a life. It's just, like I said, Christ didn't wake up every morning with I'll just talk to Russ beforehand. I really do rest in this. I go back to my oops theory. God never says oops. My loose translation of sovereignty is oops. He knows I rest perfectly in what happens.

It's the football game. It makes politics or a football game. It makes no difference in what we are, who we are, any of that. And it's a life. As we focus on the world, we're taking our focus off of Christ. Whatever's happened in the world doesn't matter. It's who we are in Christ. It's a life. Just remember that. And that's how you can live without all the laws. It's who you are. And the word tells us who we are in Christ and the operating principles.

So we walk by faith in the facts and understanding biblical principles that are If you're looking for the right answer, go right now. Anything like what's going on in the Middle East. While we're walking by faith, though, it's not an indifference to what's going on. And that for me is something that I wrestle with because I tend to be indifferent and I have to ask God to forgive me for not weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice. To not be indifferent to what's going on in the world, but to not get overburdened as it were.

Could Tom just say that again? We walk in what? We walk in faith in the facts and look to apply biblical principles that are revealed in Scripture. empowered by the Holy Spirit. I just want to say, as a kid, my sister and I, my older sister and I, were coming home late in the bus, and it was a crowded bus on Saturday night, I was about 10, 10.30, and my sister said to me, she said, just think, people in the world are just going out, and the people I just want to know what you're doing out at 10.30. Abigail, you're never allowed to stay out until 10.30. She's looking around like, aww. But yeah, walking by the Spirit and abiding and looking at the facts that are revealed in God's Word allows us to stop thinking legalistically and think about the relationship and being directed by the steps. that the Lord will reveal.

And I remember thinking, how do I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit so that I know what that's supposed to be? And I remember people really arguing about that a long time. My favorite thing in all of that is that I was in a charismatic church at that point in time, so the answers were wide and varied. There were all kinds of rules about how you had to live your life so that you could even hear the Holy Spirit. It was complicated and convoluted. Needless to say, I stank at it. Until I realized it was a grace thing. Question 8, not verse 8, or address 8. How does a believer determine if a behavior is okay for him?

This is pretty key, and I think this is partially what Helen was getting at earlier. I think there's a piece in it. Okay. There's a piece. Even if it's not necessarily like a piece like, oh, I can't wait to do it, or I look forward to doing it, but a piece of just sort of knowing it's the thing to do. The Lord hasn't said no? Basically there's a sense of the Lord isn't shutting this thing down.

Yeah. Or it's like just kind of a, yeah. How about if it's based on biblical principles? That's definitely going to be a key part of that. Right. And that's where the piece would come from, I guess I'm kind of assuming that. A piece that passes understanding. Well, that may apply in some situations. I always pray for that when I'm going in for dental work. I don't love dental work. But biblical principles are a key. There is a resting on a believer's individual judgment. And this is the principle of liberty. And I think that's really important.

Mike likes to ask, can I watch the Broncos game? In my household, I can. It has nothing to do with liberty. My wife would rather watch anything else than the television. She's nodding. So everybody's got a TV and wants to have me over. No. The principle is that if I want to love my wife, there's going to be times when I'm not going to watch the Broncos game because I love my wife.

And I don't have any resentment. It's not a legal thing. This is a personal judgment. One of the scriptures that you have up there at the top of all things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. So it isn't so much a right and wrong as is it appropriate? When I was a young Christian, I got lots of advice from people about card playing or dancing or theaters or swimming in mixed company, etc. And I was very confused about it until I kind of plowed through that and got to the point where I realized it wasn't the things And when I prayed about it, it's amazing how God gave me so many other things going on that I never had a chance to worry about whether things were right or wrong. He kind of took away the issue. I think the key to this is, does it master you? That's the key. Can you take it away and you'll be fine? And who masters you? You can only serve one master. And that thing, does the behavior master you? Can you take it away? just love the Broncos, but are you devastated by taking it away?

And isn't there another Bible verse, or am I making this up, that says there are some areas that aren't specifically addressed, but if you feel, you know, in your heart for these things that aren't mentioned, then you do what you feel. Romans 14 and the principles of liberty or conscience.

Thank you. The question, does it master you, is important. That is probably when I think the first time I heard that mic was when I was teaching and it was one of those things that kind of... I don't remember anything else he said that night because I think my brain was just like, OK, stomp everything because I have to think about this.

Because I've been living under legalism. I've been thinking about whether there's rules. I never had any problems with people playing cards because I grew up in Nevada. Of course it's okay, or else the state doesn't make enough money, right? But I did have concerns about alcohol. I did have concerns about various other things where there were issues of rigidity.

And yet, I never considered what liberty was and I never considered the question, does it mastery? The second bells are on so we should stop with this question. But as you go through the week and you look at things in the world, whether you're watching news, or reading news, or you're having a discussion with another believer, or even a non-believer, listen for the things that master those people. Compare those to the principles that God's Word has put in front of you, and be observant of those things. Next week we'll finish, I think, the last three questions, unless Courtney wants to jump in ahead of schedule. But it will be important, as we've gone over this, to just meditate on what God's Word says about those things, and observe it in your life.

Take these things, because I noticed, once I asked that question, does it master me? It changed my whole attitude of how I was watching other believers. If someone comes to you with a sin issue in their life, a believer, they're wrestling with whatever, it's mastering them, isn't it? The issue is that it's mastering them. Sometimes it's not the issue of what it is.

Because that's a liberty. Speeding. How about that one? The flow of traffic is all moving. If you're a legalist, I don't know how Jews live with themselves if they're trying to live by the law. If the speed limit is 65 and the flow of traffic is 67, are they keeping their foot on the gas? Do we have liberty to go sixty-seven? All of those things are, yeah, Nick's nodding his head. He goes, we have liberty to go sixty-seven.

You don't want to be harmful to other people. But the principle of liberty is there. It doesn't master you. That's pretty key. Let's close in prayer because the second bell's rung. It's good to think about. Heavenly Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you for grace. Thank you for liberty. and thank you for the opportunity to gather together here and discuss these truths. We do pray that you would reveal to us areas where we may have been distracted by legalism and instead can be walking in liberty and encouraging one another. We thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen.