"Tradition"

In this sermon from our ongoing study of the Gospel of Matthew, Pastor Russell Howard draws a line between spiritual discipline and spiritual deception. Habits and behaviors can be genuinely helpful to a believer's walk with God. But when external conformity becomes a substitute for biblical obedience, or when rule-keeping becomes the currency we use to earn God's love, those traditions become dangerous. They inoculate us against the very thing Scripture calls true holiness.

Jesus encounters the Pharisees at the height of this tension. They have traveled over 100 miles from Jerusalem to challenge his disciples over a handwashing tradition rooted not in God's law but in the oral traditions of the rabbis. Jesus turns the accusation around: they are enforcing human rules while violating the actual commandments of God. He quotes Isaiah, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Then in verses 10 through 20, he makes an assertion that upends their entire framework. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person. It is what comes out of the heart. The real problem has never been unwashed hands. It has always been an unwashed heart.

Pastor Russell closes with this anchor from Ephesians 2: "By grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Obedience matters, but obedience proceeds from a transformed heart, not from an attempt to earn favor with God. If you have been trying to make God love you more, this message is the grace-shaped correction you didn't know you needed.

Sermon Notes

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026