Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
For many years we have gone over to the neighbor’s house to pick their apple trees. They have a bunch of them surrounding their house, and didn’t want them going to waste, so we would go over with some four gallon buckets and pick them on a sunny afternoon. When we finally got home, we would cut them into thin strips, string them on a fishing line, and hang them up in the rafters above our wood stove. Eventually they would dry out and we would eat them throughout the fall and the winter. But whenever we picked apples, we only picked the ones that we really wanted, and the ones that were undesirable, we left on the tree. Whatever type of fruit it is, a lot of people will only pick the ones that they want, and pass over the rest. Sometimes they harvest using big machines, but people will stand alongside the conveyor belt, and pick the ones that they want, and throw the rest away.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
Many people who profess to be Christian are the same way when it comes to the teachings of Holy Scripture. Like picking certain apples, some people will cherry pick certain parts of the scriptures that appeal to them, but then completely disregard the rest. Many of them will cling to a verse or two, and believe that they are going to heaven based on them alone, without making any attempt at repentance or abiding in the will of God. To obtain eternal life, we must be completely transformed, which will only happen through a thorough understanding of the will of God. Only then can we be transformed into what God wants us to become. Christianity is far more than cherry picking a few verses that appeal to you, because we have to understand our faith in order to live it.
“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18
Imagine your dad giving you a list of five things to complete before suppertime, but when you look at them, you only choose the ones that you want to do. After all, you really can’t stand doing dishes, and you hate taking out the garbage. Perhaps you can cut twice as much lawn to make up for the items that you skipped. But in the end, you really didn’t complete the things He commanded you to do.
Matthew 21 ²⁸ But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. ²⁹ He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
³⁰ And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
³¹ Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
³² For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
Before I became a believer I hated teaching. I completely loathed the profession and probably wouldn’t have done it no matter how much money that you gave me. Other things were far more interesting to me, and I wanted to pursue them instead. When I was baptized into the Christian Life, I understood through scripture that I would need to learn to do the thing that I hated in order to please God. God wants men to preach and teach, something that I had.to learn to do in order to walk in His will. Whatever it might be, we must learn to do the things that God commands us. At times they might go in complete contravention to what you want to do, but none of us can cherry pick our way to salvation. We must study the scriptures and know them completely so that we can walk in the perfect will of God.
Ephesians 4 ¹¹ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; ¹² For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: ¹³ Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
When I was a child I really didn’t like eating vegetables. In fact, when nobody was looking, I would take them and stick them in my pockets just so I could have second helpings on other things that I liked. Even as adults, a lot of us will cherry pick the things off our dinner plate that we like the most, and then leave the rest. But one thing is for certain, if you want to get to heaven you must eat the entire meal of God’s Word. At times there will be rebukes and corrections from scripture, but we must humbly open our ears to the truth. God is chastening us for our benefit, and we must humbly endure the things that we might not want to hear.
Hebrews 12 ⁵ And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: ⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. ⁷ If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? ⁸ But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
In order for sinners to become Saints, we must be renewed in the knowledge of God’s will. If you only cherry pick certain verses that you want to hear, you can never go through a complete transformation and conversion.
“And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” Colossians 3:10
To be born again in the Spirit, we must be converted by the Spiritual things of God.
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:23
Imagine a commercial airplane pilot who cherry picks certain information from the flight manual and then skips the rest. All you would have is a completely uneducated pilot who more than likely is going to crash the plane. Some people will shipwreck their faith for this very reason. Rather than growing in the knowledge of God’s will, they chose the path of willful ignorance instead.
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,…..” 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Only by fully understanding the will of God, can we walk worthy of Him.
Colossians 1 ⁹ For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰ That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;” Philippians 1:9
How much can you know about a novel by only reading a paragraph? In order to transform into what God wants us to become, we must be filled with Spiritual knowledge. Sometimes the truth can hurt, and just like a sword it can plunge deep into our souls and convict us of our own sinfulness. But we must never turn away our ears from the truth of scripture, because it is given to us for our correction and guidance. A newborn baby cannot grow on one bottle of milk, they need it every single day, and you will never grow in the faith on only a few verses. We must increase in knowledge, and move on to perfection, rather than spending a few minutes each day, doing some……
…….Cherry Picking
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.♥️
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