How to Handle Christian Liberty

I wanted to start because I thought this was, we're in a point with Romans where there's practical things that Paul is talking about in the behavior of a believer, and in particular with your fellow believers. And he's divided believers basically up into two categories.

There's strong ones and weak ones. So if you've ever done any teaching and you stand before a group and you say, now which one of you are the strong believers? Every hand goes up, right? No one's going to admit that they're a weak one, at least not publicly.

So in the discussion here, keep in mind that we have already been through Romans 6, 7, and 8, talking about how the Lord knew that just forgiving a sinner his sins wasn't good enough. He had to do something about the sinner himself. And he crucified him. And so we're talking about the behavior pattern of a resurrected human being in Christ and how they should act.

And we have to be taught that because we don't know. What experience do you have before you're saved about how you should behave? You know, other than some laws that your parents put on you. If I do this, I'll get rewarded. If I don't, I get punished. And now we live under grace. And everything that's taught about how a believer ought to behave is under the heading of grace.

OK, so I wanted to start today with a quote from Charles Coates. He said, the present day is not particularly characterized by legal scruples or by great tenderness of conscience. This is about 1950. It's rather a day of lawlessness and license, and we are perhaps more often called upon to seek to bring a good conscience into a greater activity than we are to respect its scruples.

But the principles of this chapter worked into our souls are of great importance in relation to the spirit in which we walk together as brothers in Christ. I thought he did a great job of putting that together. I came up with this title, I actually stole it from Ron Merriman. This is all about how to handle Christian liberty. How do you handle the liberty that you have?

Romans 14, one through three, and by the way, this morning we studied, talked a lot about that one of our jobs as elders is to have public reading of scripture, so you're gonna get more of that from me, because I think it's great, we should do it. Romans 14, one through three says, now accept the one who is weak in the faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One man has faith that he may eat all things, but the other who is weak eats vegetables only. Let him who eats regard with contempt those who do not eat, and let him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God accepted him." Really practical, right? But then he goes from verse 4 through 12, He says, who are you to judge the servant of another?

To his own master he stands and falls and stand he will for the Lord is able to make him stand. So everybody in this room stands because the Lord made you stand. You're not there because you're really good at standing. One man regard one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.

He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord, and he who eats, does it for the Lord. For he gives thanks to God. And he who eats not, for the Lord, he does not eat and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives to himself, nor one dies unto himself. Isn't that interesting? We don't live to ourselves anymore, or die to ourselves. For if we live, we live unto the Lord, or if we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. We belong to Him. For to this end Christ died and lived again, and He might be the Lord both of death and of the living. Last verses, but you, why do you judge your brother? For you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.

Is there anything harder than not to judge? We like to talk about sinfulness, but this judging thing is really a big deal with Paul because I'm going to read some other scriptures to you about this. But this is really hard because we just have this mechanism built into the old man that we judge everybody around us. It's almost like it's a defense mechanism. If I can judge you, I can put you in a place, now I can deal with you. So, okay, you're weak and you're not so strong, and you're this and you're that, and I've made judgments.

What I fail, as a believer, to understand is that both you and I are going to stand before, as believers, the judgment seat of Christ, and you belong to Him, and He died for you just like He did me. So for as written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess and give praise to the Lord God. That's gonna happen with all of us. So each one of us shall give an account of himself to God. So I think sometimes as we go along, we don't think about, I'm gonna have to give an account. for this.

My friend used to say, you know, there are these really visible sins that people do, but they're not the real deadly ones. The real deadly ones are the ones that are hidden in your mind. Those are the deadly ones. So fellowship of believers is really an important thing. And what we're going to find, and this was something I just sort of noticed this week, Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or cause a fall to our brother's way. Chapter 14, verse 13, this is a transitional verse. Things change here. to chapter 5-2, what we really find here, and in the handout I put seven of these, it teaches us that there are nine exhortations by Paul to believers.

You have seven of them in your handout. What did I do? Oh, I missed the one. Not 5-2, it's 15-2. Okay? I'll correct that next week. So we're going to go through seven of the nine exhortations where Paul directly says, do this or don't do that. Okay? So verse 13 says, therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this. not to put a stumbling block or cause to fall in thy brother's way." The first thing is, he says, stop judging doubtful things. What we're going to find out about all nine of these things is that they don't matter. They're not a big deal. I usually, if I'm judging somebody, what I'm judging them about, I can't find in the Word of God that it's a big deal. It's not.

Don't put a block in front of your brother's way. Well, that's kind of interesting until you look at this one word. This is a great word. At the end of that verse it says, in a linear, it says, don't put a stumbling block in one's brother or a trap. A trap is a really interesting word. Skaldalon is called a trap stick. You know what a trapstick is? It's that thing right there. And you think about that, I was thinking about that, I said, you know, we crafty guys, we're always coming up with trapsticks. I'm going to put you in a position where you're going to take the bait, the trap's going to hit you, and I'm going to be cool because I did it. I judged you about something and I set you up for the fall. Oh, my sin nature is such a wonderful thing.

Therefore, let us not judge. Paul here, he sides with a strong believer when he says, let us not judge. As soon as he uses the word us about what not to do, he's aligning himself with the strong believer. He says, I know I'm convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.

But to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. It kind of clarifies the position of siding with the strong. Objectively, nothing is unclean. Subjectively, you could use the word common there. A man may think certain things are unclean.

I remember Macaulay saying one time that he was raised in a Baptist home and that he was totally not allowed to have a Bible on the floor. And even as an adult, if he saw a Bible on the floor, he thought that was unclean. He had to pick it up. So if you come out of Catholicism like me, you have a whole dictionary full of these kind of things. Oh, you can't do that or you can't do this. I couldn't eat meat on Friday. When I was young, my mom had to wear a covering over her head when she went to church.

None of that mattered in terms of holiness or walking with the Lord at all. involved in taboos or not, objectively there isn't anything unclean because they're all not only created but sanctified by God. So notice the shift here. He goes from objective observation, I know him, I'm convinced, in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, objective fact, to subjective, observation, but to him who thinks anything is unclean, to him it's unclean. Isn't it interesting how much leeway God gives us to make a decision about what we do and what we have. We find out we have this freedom and it's wonderful And we sometimes even take license with the freedom, but if you really take a good look at, well, I'm not going to do this because it just seems subjectively not right with me. You can do it, but I couldn't do it.

And when it comes to food, 1 Timothy 4, 5 says, for everything that's created by God is good. Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude, for it is sanctified by means of the Word of God and prayer. That's what Paul wrote to Timothy. So then, you go to verse 15 and it says, if because of food your brother is hurt, you're no longer doing what? Walking according to love. That's admonition number three. Walk according to love. That's the motivation why you do everything.

Do not destroy with food your food, him whom Christ died. And the next one is, do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. So you have two in that one verse. Walk according to love and don't destroy the work of God in a believer's life because of food.

I don't think, I've been in Holly Hills a long time and I've been to hundreds of fellowship meals, I've never noticed this to be a problem around here. So, if you look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 7, Paul tells the Corinthians, however, not all men have this knowledge, but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, they eat food as if it were sacrifice to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. None of us would care. You know, we're not in an environment where anything is sacrificed to an idol. But food will not commend us to God. We are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. It's a non-issue.

That's really what he's saying. But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you who have knowledge, Dining in an idol's temple will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols, because he sees you, the one who doesn't care, in the temple. And oh, by the way, I think the temple in ancient times was the king supers of where you bought your meat. They were doing most of the sacrificing. For through the knowledge, through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for those whose sake died." What would be a contemporary issue that wouldn't be food?

Would it be church attendance? Would it be, well, I'll tell the story again. When I was first a Christian, first year as a Christian, I didn't know where to go to church. I didn't know anything. down as folks were going to the church in Aurora. And the pastor was an amazing guy. He had a great memory. He could memorize scripture and just rattle it off.

And I noticed one day when I left the church that there were a couple of these sort of old, ugly cars in the driveway of the church called the Borg Ward. And I found out later that the pastor, one of his hobbies was to buy these borg wards and recondition them. Well, over the year that I went to church there, there was three borg wards, and four, and five, and six. I found out that all the elders bought borg wards. Why? It was the symbol of spirituality in that church, whether you had a borg ward or not. Again, I go out in the parking lot here, I don't have to worry about that. Well, maybe Bob with his hot rod.

And thus by sinning against my brother and wounding their conscience when it's weak, you sin against Christ. You see how much emphasis Paul is putting on the fact that the strong believer with lots of freedom, he just doesn't go around flaunting his freedom. You've got to be paying attention to his brother, whether his behavior is influencing that brother or not. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again so that I might not cause my brother to stumble. What's more important, what you had for dinner or your brother stumbling?

So, therefore, don't let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. Verse 16, that's admonition number five. Don't let them, don't let that men not, I can't read it, let not them, your good be evil spoken of, literally blaspheme. Good here refers to the use of Christian liberty by those who are strong in the faith, which is good and delightful to God in itself. There's no problem. But it might be a problem to give liberty to your brother.

1 Corinthians 10.25 says, eat anything that's sold in the meat market without asking questions. For conscience sake, for the earth is the Lord's and all that it contains. I think everybody here probably has that freedom to be whatever they want. The strong, though, must always have the weaker in mind. You may have incredible liberty in Christ, and that's a good thing. But you need to watch out and pay attention to your freedom because someone not having your freedom calls your walk wickedness.

I did then, I have to confess, I did that to a woman that was in this church. She asked me one day, she's not here anymore, she asked me one day what the purpose of the church was. And before I could answer, she said, isn't it to go out and save souls? I said, well, I don't think that's the purpose of the church. I think the purpose of the church is to prepare people to go out and save souls.

And I had the freedom of saying that, but I should have been paying more attention to her because I haven't seen her since. I'm disturbed over that. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it was to her. It was to her. So don't let your liberty, don't lose your liberty, but use it carefully, really carefully.

If one of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go and eat, and that is set before you without asking any questions for conscience sake, but if anyone should say to you, hey, this is meat sacrificed to idols, don't eat it, for the sake of the one who informs you, for conscience sake. They only would have informed you because it was an issue with them. Issue with them. It's the same thing about, you know, some believers can't go to movies, better not drink any wine, all kinds of different things. 17, for the kingdom of God, and this is a really cool verse, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. What does that say about all of these taboo things? It's not a big deal, but what is it?

It is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So this verse is the reason why believers should be careful about their walk. Because we're now members in Christ in God's kingdom. We're sons of the Most High God. Strong believers. because of who they are and where they are, should learn via the Holy Spirit to be paying attention to what you as a strong believer can do or not do. Saying that the kingdom of God is not eating food and drinking, it isn't that important a thing, is really what it's saying. But it's interesting here. It's the act of eating. Paul's one word, it sweeps the whole Christian platform clear of the waste of all the traditions of men. All of them. There they go. Courtney said this morning, what was it about, and I should have written it down, that were encouraged by Paul to be together, study the Word, what was the other thing? And that's good enough for me. We were in Bob Lockwood's room yesterday, and we just dawned on me, well, we'd like to talk to Bob, but the best thing we can do is just, I don't know, five minutes, and we just prayed for him. Prayed for his family. That's what you do.

So man cannot even see the kingdom of God, except by a new birth down from above. You know, we talk about the kingdom of God a lot, and the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, and if you were a Pharisee, the kingdom was a big deal. It was the deal. He says to him, you're never going to see it, or are you ever going to get into it, unless you're born from above. Nicodemus didn't understand what he was talking about.

And since the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, believers are said to be in the Spirit and no longer in the flesh. That's our position. To which earthly distinction and meets and days and all that other thing have really nothing to do. So note that the words here are not Righteousness in Christ referring to your standing. Understand what I mean by that? In other words, this righteousness is righteousness in the Holy Spirit referring to our walk. Our walk is righteous. We have the standing, but this verse talks about the believers walking in righteousness.

It doesn't talk about joy in the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God now is all together in the Spirit. It's the only place it happens is in the Spirit of God. and we're all in Him. And the kingdom of God is peace in the Holy Spirit, meaning action, not standing. When the kingdom of God comes, this will be the characteristics of it everywhere. We kind of get a preview by being in Christ of what the kingdom and how it functions.

So it leaves the forms and the ceremonies and the days and the seasons and unclean meats and all that kind of thing, just leaves them out. And they're really not Christian. When I finally dawned on the fact that I couldn't eat meat on Friday as a Catholic, I used to think, well, what does that have to do with anything? And I still don't know why they implemented it. Maybe they were trying to help the fish market. Most of the things that are taboos to you are either Jewish or pagan. One of those two things.

And such religious distinctions as those concerning eating and drinking are certainly not at all something that's consistent with being in the Spirit of God. Romans 8 and 9 says, and this is the position of it, however, you're not in the flesh but in the Spirit. Definitive fact, that's where you are. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, because if anyone does not have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Don't you find this verse is really interesting? talks about ownership, talks about intimacy, that in the Spirit of God, you absolutely have the Spirit of Christ and you belong to Him.

And eating and drinking isn't part of that. And judging your brother isn't part of that. And all these other things that you may think, oh, I can't put my Bible on the floor. I may have the privilege sometimes of curtailing my own liberty for the good of another. Ever think about that? Lord, give me an opportunity to curtail the liberty you've given me for the benefit of somebody else, one of my brothers.

So the kingdom of God isn't eating and drinking at all. And in those whose energy, the Spirit's energy, all the real options, operations of the kingdom of God now are. Like one of the things is to love, agape. Where does that come from? It's got to come from the Spirit. So it's important things are righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Those are the things that matter. We can afford to surrender our personal liberty as to eating and drinking to further these things.

It is in these things that we serve Christ and we become acceptable to God and approved of men. No one can condemn me for refraining from using my personal liberty to secure your good. Who's going to complain about that? Nobody will. So, verse 18, for the ones who, he who is in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men.

The one serving Christ refers to the condition of righteousness of life. I serve Christ in the spirit. I have peace of heart and joy in God and I'm walking in the spirit and it's displayed. So my fellow brother can see that. And further, it proves that verse 17 has reference to a practical walk and not our standing. We're talking walk here. The one walking is what? That way is well pleasing to God and approved of men. Now, the Lord said in John 12, 26, I am, if a man serve me, Him will my father honor. Nothing, I think, pleases the Lord more than someone who has a heart for his son.

We have men, men can see that and they may not agree with your spiritual convictions, but they also admire the fact that you are free and you do live like that. So, such service is made possible only since the coming of the Holy Spirit. You can't live the Christian life without Him. It's impossible. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit is that service of Christ which delights God.

And it's really interesting, this word approved of men is the word documas. We've been through the documas and prosmas, those two words. Documas is that there's a proving out You go through a proving process at the end so that you will be approved, that you are what you have been tested for. This shows documents approved of men. Men will not always admit it, but they approve a believer who walks righteously in divine peace and joy.

Have any of you, and I'm sure because I've heard you say this, have people come up to you and say, boy, there's just something about We've got to rest in you. What is that? Where did you get that? Well, you know, that's the opening door. So then, he says in 19, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. This word pursue is a great word. It's really a strong word. It means we use it for persecution. Hard to follow, hard after, like hunting, stalking, you're after. So this is the number six of the nine. Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.

First Timothy 6.10 tells us, for the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pain. By longing for it is pursue aggressively. It isn't the money that's the problem, it's the pursuit that's the problem.

In 2.22, now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, and those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. So Christianity, the life of Christ in the Spirit of God is dynamic, active, pursuing.

Ephesians 4.29 says, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. Not only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, then it may give grace to those who hear it. Pursue, pursue. Pursuing, edifying things is the positive side. Last verse. Don't tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. I am not walking according to love if I use my liberty in such a way as to damage somebody.

I'm a believer. That's a given. Why? because Christ died for him, am I not prepared to curtail my liberty a little bit for my brother's good? Am I not prepared to do that? It is really a question of being in accordance with the Lord Jesus Christ. His life was like that. I have that very life.

Don't tear down the works of God for the sake of food. Do not destroy the works of God is number seven. Like I said, we'll get to the last two next week. What are the works of God? Did you think about that? The works of God here refers to the operation of the Spirit within the soul. The Spirit of God is always trying to grow every believer and to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's done through teaching and fellowship and all the things that go into that. And so here's the admonition.

Don't destroy what God's work is in another human being, because you want to exercise your supposed freedom. As to such matters as eating and drinking, you have full liberty, but we must not forget to walk in love. If I use my liberty without regard to how others are affected by it, I'm not walking in love. I'm not walking in love.

The things of peace are to be pursued. The things of edification are to be pursued. We're to be careful of the works of God and others. Especially when someone that we know as a believer is having a trial. You can't go to them and say, well, listen, if you would stop doing this and start doing this and do that and do that, the trial would be over. Well, if you're a mature believer, you're going to think, well, the trial was brought there by the Lord to specifically grow that person up. And the best thing you can do is just walk beside him. Just walk beside him.

My liberty may tend to destroy the work of God in him. All things are indeed are pure, but a man's conscience may make something of evil to him, and I'm to think of this and to be aware of that. Can't judge that our liberty or even our faith does not damage the weak brother. Nothing can be more delicate or morally beautiful than someone who can do this.

As an example, we were talking about in Sunday school, if you're a strong believer, or you, maybe put it this way, you have understanding of identification truths, and you are confronted with someone, a friend or somebody who is not safe, and you're not sensitive enough to start at page one.

You know, start at Romans 1-1 and present Christ. No, you go right to Romans 6-6 and start talking about identification. What did you just do? Right over their head. And you harmed them. Or a young believer who wants to know, well, what is this identification thing you're talking about?

And you say, open wide, because I'm going to shove it all down your throat really fast. It only took the Lord 20 years to teach it to you. You're not going to shove it down somebody's throat in 20 minutes. You learn how patient God was with you during your life, which teaches you to be patient with your brother.

1 Corinthians 9.19, though I was free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all that I might gain the more.

1024, let no man seek his own, but each his neighbor's good. Even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. It's interesting that all of this judgmental kind of thing that Paul's been talking to here, we learn an element of our freedom in Christ and we want to make sure that everybody knows it, when in fact, Most of us are just beginning down that road. And we're to walk beside people, not in front of them, and not behind them, pushing them. We just live. And they can see from the way you live your life because your focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ and not on yourself. that you live for the profit of them and not yourself.

So that was always Paul's approach to everything. So in closing, let's follow what Paul's doing. Because he was the one who taught us this. He would point us, Miles Stanford used to say, our job is not to draw people to ourselves, but our job is to point them to Christ. So when anybody sees you, we hope that that's where it's going, to him, not to you. No one should be in a position where they have to go through you to get to Christ. You should point them to him, not I but Christ, let's suppose.

Father, how we thank you. We thank you that you teach us these things and show us and warn us and encourage us to pursue your righteousness, to pursue your life, and to pursue intimacy with your son so that his life would be manifested in and through us to all believers and non-believers alike. We are thankful that your grace allows us to. We pray in your son's name. Amen.