Christian Liberty #16

The point: Examine your understanding and practice of Christian liberty to ensure you are not swinging to an opposite error.

The analogy of a pendulum moving swiftly through the center but pausing at extremes illustrates how people, in moving away from one error, often swing to an opposite error instead of finding balanced truth.

God opens our eyes to see the error. And we feel that the safest thing for us is to move as far away from the error as we can and the further away we move from the error, the closer we are to the truth. When, as this man of God observed, often what we are doing is moving closer to an opposite error in our effort to move away from the previous error. Or to state it under a different imagery, one man of God has suggested that we need to think of a pendulum.

4:14 - 4:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third directive is to recognize and respect in one another the fruit of saving grace, specifically the passion to please the Lord Jesus Christ in everything. He illustrates…

This example describes a 'weak' brother (John) who eats only herbs for breakfast, but gives thanks to God, demonstrating his passion to please Christ according to his conscience.

It is the passion to please Jesus Christ. And he says the evidence of that is very tangible. Here's a Wednesday morning and you go to Brother John's house for breakfast. And Brother John is the weak one.

19:04 - 19:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third directive is to recognize and respect in one another the fruit of saving grace, specifically the passion to please the Lord Jesus Christ in everything. He illustrates…

This example describes a 'strong' brother (Joe) who eats meat and drinks wine for lunch, but also gives thanks to God, demonstrating his passion to please Christ in his liberty.

noontime, you're going over to Brother Joe's house for a meal. And lo and behold, Brother Joe's a strong brother. He can eat any kind of meat. He can even enjoy a glass of wine in the middle of the day with a good conscience. So there on his table, he's got hamburgers and he may have a BTL sandwich, but there's meat there and there's a glass of wine there and he says, now my brother before we eat, let's give thanks to God. And so he says Oh Lord, thank you for all of your good gifts. Thank you for the food and drinks set upon our table. Lord, it comes from you.

20:32 - 21:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not judge brethren who enjoy their liberties in Christ as being worldly.

Martin references Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in John 2, noting that it was 'good stuff' and not grape juice, to challenge the scruples of those who judge others for drinking wine in moderation.

But that's your problem, not theirs. They're accepting that wine as God's gift that makes glad the heart of man. They don't have a problem when they read John 2 that Jesus didn't make Welsh's grape juice. The head of the feast, Stephen, said, Hey, you can save the good stuff to last.

34:58 - 35:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the madman who has mistaken his tattered garments for the flowing robes of majesty and his chains for golden bracelets studded with jewels has not erred so widely as the man who has mistaken carnal license for Christian …

A quotation from an unnamed writer compares mistaking tattered garments for robes of majesty to mistaking carnal license for Christian liberty, highlighting the danger of abusing freedom.

As one writer said, the madman who has mistaken his tattered garments for the flowing robes of majesty and his chains for golden bracelets studded with jewels has not erred so widely as the man who has mistaken carnal license for Christian liberty. Well, then we come to number four. All right? The fourth general apostolic directive in this chapter is this.

38:39 - 39:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Trust God's grace to guide believers, rather than relying on man-made rules, which only produce Pharisees.

The metaphor of 'cookie-cutter people' illustrates the negative outcome of forced conformity, contrasting it with the legitimate diversity and liberty that the gospel allows among believers.

When Joe bends over his herbal meal and Mike bends over his meat-laden meal, let's believe that both Joe and Mike are seeking to please Christ in the meal for which they give thanks. And in that context, you see, our very, our very liberty becomes a manifestation of the mighty power of the gospel in which outsiders come among us and see we're not a bunch of cookie-cutter people all the time making sure that every little facet of how we dress and our entertainment standards and all a host of things in which there is legitimate diversity, we're not a bunch of cookie-cutters, that we are free to ...

46:55 - 47:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Trust God's grace to guide believers, rather than relying on man-made rules, which only produce Pharisees.

The story of Saul's conversion on the Damascus Road is used to illustrate how genuine saving grace radically reorients a person's life from self-pleasing to asking, 'Lord, what will you have me to do?'

You see, in principle, what happened to the apostle Paul, not in the external details, but in principle happens to every single person who ever is laid hold of by the grace of God. The moment Saul of Tarsus, murderer of Christians, abuser of the people of God, has a revelation of God's grace and glory in the face of Christ on the Damascus Road, what is the first verbal response from the mouth of this man who's apprehended by a gracious Savior? What were his first words? Once he said, Who are you, Lord? He knew this was a divine manifestation. And he says, Identify yourself, Lord. And when the ...

49:40 - 50:35 Read in full sermon