Question and Answer Session

The point: Be open with brethren about matters of conscience and explicitly question one another to understand their scruples.

Illustrates how a stronger brother might invite a weaker brother to an indifferent activity (seeing a film), and the weaker brother's need to communicate his conscience to avoid offense or hypocrisy.

For instance, you might, as an act of kindness, maybe some of you, to put it in a concrete situation. Some of you might be looking forward to the Christmas holiday, at which time you're planning to take your children to Radio City Music Hall to see a special children's film. Maybe they're going to have a rerun of Bambi or something else. All right?

2:42 - 3:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Communicate dietary or other scruples beforehand when invited to a meal to avoid discomfort for both host and guest.

Illustrates the need for communication about dietary scruples before a meal to prevent awkwardness or a guest being forced to violate their conscience.

I'm glad you can go with a good conscience, but I want you to know that I just have problems in that area and I just could not feel that I was honoring them. So, Brother A says, well, that's wonderful and then seeks to find another channel by which to show his love and his concern and sense of love. You see, that's a sensitivity to Brother B. But Brother B has got to let them know what his problem is in that area, you see, so that this may come to pass in situations where, again, if someone's in your home, you don't know they're a vegetarian and here you've planned a wonderful meal and you put...

3:59 - 4:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Privately ask guests if serving wine or other indifferent things would be a problem for their conscience, and be willing to back off if it causes discomfort.

Explains the term 'Covenanters' (Reformed Presbyterians) and their teetotaling position, setting up a scenario for discussing serving wine to such guests.

Would it be wrong to serve, or would it be right to ask them openly and trust that they were interested? Yes. For instance, those who are many of the folk who are of the Reformed Presbyterian, not the Evangelical, but Reformed Presbyterian Church of America, they're called the covenanters. For short, they call each other covies.

5:48 - 6:08 Read in full sermon

The point: If you believe a brother is violating clear biblical teaching, you have an obligation in love to exhort him.

Martin shares his personal experience of declining a cigarette without judging the offerer, demonstrating how to express personal conviction without imposing it on others.

I appreciate that expression of your love to me. I mean, just like there are times when I've been in an airplane, when people offered me a cigarette or a cigar. I haven't said, no, I don't smoke, I feel of sin. I say, I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I'd rather not.

11:41 - 11:55 Read in full sermon

The point: When declining an invitation due to conscience, express appreciation for the love, affirm the other's liberty before the Lord, and clearly state that you are declining as a matter of conscience for yourself, without proj…

Martin uses the example of church members attending a play to illustrate his ability to personally feel uncomfortable in a situation but not judge those who participate with a clear conscience.

For instance, I don't know who, but I understand recently just came up in a conversation somewhere that a group of our people went to, I think, the paper mill playhouse to see Annie Get Your Gun. I would feel very, very uncomfortable in that situation. But I can honestly say if every one of those who went should right now identify himself, my attitude towards them and my esteem of them will not be affected one iota because I say that might be wrong for me under a given set of circumstances. See?

12:32 - 13:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Addressing the concern about a 'double standard' when adjusting behavior for different people, Martin argues that this is not hypocrisy but love responding appropriately to…

An extended analogy of hiding a wine bottle for a teetotaling relative and then bringing it out for another guest, used to explain that this is not a 'double standard' but love responding differently to different people.

Is it a double standard? Here we are in the presence of this brother. Here's a person who has his table. And on his table he has a bottle of Matus.

15:10 - 15:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that love dictates different actions in different situations, not a double standard, but a single standard of love responding to specific people and contexts.

Illustrates that love dictates different actions based on knowledge of an individual's needs (like an allergy), reinforcing that this is not a double standard but sensitive love.

We say there is a basis of moral absolutes. But in the outworking of those absolutes, love does not always do the same thing in the same situation. For instance, here's a person that just loves shellfish. Love may dictate that when that person comes, your wife provides her casserole.

17:37 - 17:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not trouble yourselves to please every Pharisee who tries to impose extra-biblical separatist standards; there are times to exercise your liberty right under their nose.

Recounts Jesus's encounter with a Pharisee who invited him to dinner, where Jesus's actions led to accusations of being a 'glutton and a winebibber,' demonstrating that sometimes one must be indifferent to Pharisaical judgment.

But we need not be overly upset about the frowns of Pharisees. Never forget the instance of our Lord when a converted Pharisee invited him to his home. Jesus went,

19:43 - 19:56 Read in full sermon

The point: If you know someone has a past struggle (e.g., alcoholism, sports addiction), be sensitive to their needs and remove potential stumbling blocks, even if it means foregoing your own liberty (e.g., turning off the TV).

A story of a woman who, even after deliverance, was so sensitive to the smell of alcohol that she would cross the street to avoid a 'gin mill,' illustrating the need for extreme sensitivity to those with past struggles.

If you happen to know that this person had an alcohol problem and that he really wrestles to this day. Like the woman I think I may have mentioned several years ago. I met a number of years ago at a Bible conference. She was a graduate of a Bible school and then she started dabbling with alcohol and ended up being an alcoholic.

22:00 - 22:17 Read in full sermon

The point: If you know someone has a past struggle (e.g., alcoholism, sports addiction), be sensitive to their needs and remove potential stumbling blocks, even if it means foregoing your own liberty (e.g., turning off the TV).

An example of turning off a football game for a visiting friend who was a 'sports addict' and had to abstain, showing how love dictates foregoing one's liberty for another's spiritual well-being.

a minute we don't want to be an occasion of stumbling to you take the wine bottle off for her sake because you know that it would be the occasion of unnecessary temptation to her the same way if a group of people were sitting around in a home watching a football game on New Year's Day so you have some people over and you're watching one of the bowl games alright into the room comes someone through previous knowledge see we come back to the principle I started with today we get sensitive to each other in these areas you know that this person was a sports addict and I mean was one of these peopl...

23:06 - 23:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that exercising liberty can mean graciously refusing, just as it can mean indulging, and do not impinge upon another's liberty to refuse.

A direct quote from Michael Cantine: 'now remember brother you exercise your liberty by indulging I exercise my liberty by graciously refusing and as I do not impinge upon your liberty don't impinge upon mine,' used to elegantly summarize the principle of respecting diverse expressions of Christian liberty.

that because he has liberty of conscience he ought to have liberty to exercise his liberty when the part of his wisdom might be total abstinence because he's generally weak in his Christian character and he cannot get that close to sparks without being consumed I'll never forget remember that time Michael Kantine said this and it was elegant he was in a situation where this whole matter came up in a practical way and someone was trying to urge him on in a given direction he just smiled and says now remember brother you exercise your liberty by indulging I exercise my liberty by graciously refu...

35:14 - 35:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist the desire for a rigid, structured ethical framework that avoids the wrestling of selfless love, as it hinders evangelism and stifles true personality.

Martin refers to a Christian school where students were identifiable by their rigid external conformity, illustrating the tragedy of stifling individuality and hindering evangelism through legalism.

and the people for the most part are very plastic there isn't the liberation of true God-given personality and that to me is one of the greatest tragedies that's why I fight this thing tooth and nail I try to fight it at every level you'll find that the people that come out of that type of a situation some of us remember some of you went to a certain Christian school a few miles from here down south where there's tremendous rigidity in the external you could spot one of their students three miles away if you had 2080 vision all of them when one of them took to speak you could tell what school ...

38:55 - 39:39 Read in full sermon