Theological Basis

The point: Do not be ignorant of or fail to live in the light of Christian liberty, as it is a dearly purchased possession.

A listener suggested rearranging the four historical circumstances (Transition, Inclusion, Defection, Expansion) into the acronym TIDE to remember them, illustrating a mental trick for recall.

And in our study thus far, what we've attempted to do is, number one, set this study in a historical perspective. And we look, first of all, into New Testament. New Testament or apostolic history. And we notice that the major portions dealing with the subject of Christian liberty arose out of the peculiar circumstances present in the apostolic church, circumstances marked by transition from the old covenant to the new, by expansion, the church expanding from Jerusalem and the area of Palestine out to the ends of the earth, the problem of inclusion, bringing together these Jews and these Gentil...

1:18 - 2:38 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He expounds on adoption as a legal and familial act, contrasting it with justification. He uses Galatians 4 and Romans 8 to show believers as sons and joint-heirs with Christ…

The analogy of a child heir who legally owns everything but is under guardians until coming of age is used to explain the Old Covenant believer's position compared to the New Covenant son's full enjoyment of privileges.

like you to turn to this passage and have it before you as we study together. Galatians chapter 4, beginning with verse 1. But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a bondservant, though he is lord of all. Here is a man who has not yet come of age. The inheritance is all his in terms of legal title, but in terms of enjoying the privileges of the inheritance, he is no better off than the bondservant, even though legally he is lord of all. He has not yet come of age, and therefore he has not come into the conscious enjoyment of all the inheritance that is legally his...

9:21 - 10:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He expounds on adoption as a legal and familial act, contrasting it with justification. He uses Galatians 4 and Romans 8 to show believers as sons and joint-heirs with Christ…

The contrast between a servant who can say 'O Master' and a son who can say 'Daddy' is used to highlight the intimacy and privilege of sonship compared to servitude.

So he establishes the superiority of the privilege of a son in distinction to or in contrast with that of a servant. Now the servant is in the household, he shares the provisions, but the servant's position is nothing compared to that of the son. Who is heir of all and has the free run of the house. The servant may come and say, O Master, but he cannot come and say, Daddy. And the apostle says, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts based upon the redemptive work of Christ. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law and has sent his spirit into our hearts that we might ...

11:09 - 11:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He expounds on adoption as a legal and familial act, contrasting it with justification. He uses Galatians 4 and Romans 8 to show believers as sons and joint-heirs with Christ…

The feeling of pain when a guest refuses lovingly prepared provisions due to scruples is used to illustrate how God feels when His children reject His gifts due to unbiblical scruples.

For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer. As a son and a daughter of God, all of the gifts of God's creation are given to you by your loving Father. Now how do you feel when you've put yourself out to make lavish provision for a guest who comes to your home and because of some kind of scruples, some influence upon his mind or some other reason, he will not receive what you have so lovingly provided for him. Doesn't that pain you?

16:49 - 17:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Exercise your privileges as a son only so far as is consistent with your posture as a servant of Christ and righteousness.

The Old Covenant practice of a slave willingly having his ear pierced to become a bondservant forever is used to illustrate the believer's glad, willing submission to Christ as a bondslave.

Don't you let anyone else bind your conscience. Your conscience is bound to your master in loving bonds of glad submission. you've gone to the door of the household of God, and you've asked God to pierce through your ear, you would willingly give yourself up to be his bondservant, even as the slave at the time of his appointed emancipation could turn in the old covenant to his master and say, I like the house, I like the master, I choose to live, and his ear would be bored through, and he would be his bondslave forever. However, so when we have come to the discovery of God's mercy to us in Jes...

28:17 - 29:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He defines conscience using Romans 2, explaining its function as a moral arbiter. He then argues that God alone has the right to dictate the standard for conscience, making it a…

Conscience is described as a 'little moral monitor,' an 'arbiter who either smiles or frowns,' to explain its function in judging right and wrong against an existing standard.

He says, they show that they are not totally devoid of the revelation of God's law. They show the work of the law written in the heart and conscience, that little moral monitor, that little moral arbiter who either smiles or frowns either claps or sticks his tongue out at us. Either says yes says no says right or wrong conscience. That little moral arbiter always looks to the existing standard and then says good or bad.

33:47 - 34:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He defines conscience using Romans 2, explaining its function as a moral arbiter. He then argues that God alone has the right to dictate the standard for conscience, making it a…

Personal anecdotes about the difficulty of sleeping after a first lie or the fear after cheating in school are used to illustrate the accusing function of conscience.

What a pain in the neck. He was the first lie. You're told it's awful hard to go off to sleep that night. Wasn't it?

34:53 - 34:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: that principle that the church has power to institute or appoint anything or ceremony belonging to the worship of God, either as a matter or either as to matter or manner, lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstit…

A lengthy quote from John Owen is used to underscore the extreme danger and historical consequences of the principle that the church can institute anything in worship not expressly forbidden by Scripture.

It cannot bind the consciences of its members by saying, you must do this, because it is not forbidden in Scripture. It must be able to say, you must do this because it is commanded in Scripture. We may not feel as strongly on this matter as did John Owen, who once wrote, quote, that principle that the church has power to institute or appoint anything or ceremony belonging to the worship of God, either as a matter or either as to matter or manner, lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition and idolatry, of all the confusion, blood, persecution, and wars that have for so long a season ...

45:34 - 46:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Remind yourselves that you are sons, not servants (in the sense of being bound by human rules), and school yourselves to ask if doctrines, forms of worship, and rules of conduct are from Scripture and from the Father.

A quote from Calvin describing conscience entangled in 'men's rules' as entering an 'inextricable labyrinth' is used to illustrate the crippling bondage that results from submitting to unbiblical regulations.

This is not something peripheral, that is, secondary. It's not something that's way out at the side issue. It is from one side interference with an inalienable and fundamental right of the Christian believer, and from another side it is an irreverent intermeddling with the household of God and an affront to His sovereignty. And then he quotes a very, very choice quote from Calvin, who writing on the subject of Christian liberty says, when once the conscience is entangled in the net, he calls the net of men's rules, it enters a long and inextricable, that's just a big word for saying you can't ...

53:02 - 53:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Remind yourselves that you are sons, not servants (in the sense of being bound by human rules), and school yourselves to ask if doctrines, forms of worship, and rules of conduct are from Scripture and from the Father.

Martin shares a personal story of being so crippled by scruples that he couldn't freely get a glass of milk from the refrigerator, illustrating the severe, internal bondage that man-made rules can create.

It's just, it's hopeless. You get in it, you can't get out, from which it is afterwards most difficult to escape. When a man begins to doubt whether it's lawful to use linen for sheets, shirts, napkins, and handkerchiefs, he will not long be secure as to hemp, and at last will have doubts as to towel. In fine, he'll come to this, that he will deem it criminal to trample on a straw lying in his way.

53:48 - 54:14 Read in full sermon