Practical Guidelines

Recap of Christian Liberty's Foundation and Implications

0:05 Now, as has been announced, we continue tonight, the fourth in a series of studies on the broad biblical doctrine called Christian Liberty, or in the words of the Confession of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience. I will attempt in about five to seven minutes to capture the main threads of thought that we've sought to lay out before you over a period of some three hours. We've begun each study by reminding you that the whole note of liberty is one of the dominant emphases of the gospel of Christ, both in prophecy, in the pronouncements of our Lord, and in the infallible interpretation of the work of Christ given to us in the apostolic letters and in the epistles, the note of liberty comes before us again and again and again. I shall cite but two verses as an example of this note. If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed, John 8, 36. And then the exhortation of the apostle in Galatians 5, 1, for freedom did Christ set us free.

1:23 Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. So as Calvin has so accurately stated, in his treatment of this subject in the institutes, no summary of the gospel is complete without a statement on the precise nature of the liberty purchased by Christ, extended to us in the gospel and applied by the Holy Spirit to the believing sinner. Now what I've attempted to do in the previous studies is first of all to give some historical background to the doctrine of Christian liberty, both in the apostolic church and in the post-apostolic. Some reference to the importance of this doctrine in the light of the contemporary situation. And then we launched upon a broad biblical and theological overview of the doctrine using the Westminster Confession of Faith as a framework within which to collate and gather the biblical materials. And in those four paragraphs of the statement found in the Westminster Confession of Faith, there is perhaps the most comprehensive, the most profound, the most accurate statement in short compass of this doctrine to be found anywhere in uninspired literature. And in that section of the confession,

2:47 we have a statement of the nature of Christian liberty, the fruits of Christian liberty, and then the qualifications of that liberty. And then what I attempted to do in the last study was to set forth the theological basis of our liberty in a more definitive and in a more precise form. And I suggested using Donald McCloud's article from the Banner of Truth magazine back in 1971, I believe the July-August edition, that the liberty that is ours in Christ rests upon these four biblical theological pillars. The sonship we enjoy as believers.

3:29 Second, there was the servitude that is ours in Christ. That is ours as believers. Thirdly, the sovereignty of God over the consciences of believers. And fourthly, the supremacy and sufficiency of Scripture as a guide to believers.

3:47 Now those four things are the immovable pillars of any appreciation of our liberty in Jesus Christ. If you are a stranger to what it means to approach God with the spirit of adoption, enabling you to cry, Abba, that is, Father, then you can know nothing of true liberty. No serious thought of God, as He's revealed in Scripture, against the backdrop of what you know yourself to be as a sinner, can bring anything other than the bondage of dread and fear. And it's only when we have seen that God reconciled to us in Jesus Christ, and have by faith made our approach to Him through the merits of Christ, that we are enabled to come in the liberty, the liberty of adopted sons, and call Him our Father. And yet coupled with this is the realization that those sons we are bond slaves, loving bond servants of Jesus Christ the Lord who purchased us. And in that relationship of sons and servants, we recognize that God alone has the Lordship over our consciences, and that He exercises that Lordship by His Word and His Word alone. And then we concluded our last study by drawing out three lines of implication or application of that fourfold theological basis of our liberty.

5:13 This means that in the realm of doctrine, worship, and conduct, none but God can bind the conscience of a child of God. Only God can tell me what doctrines are to be believed. The Church has no right to construct its own, and to force confession from its adherence to man-made doctrines. In the realm of worship, the Church can bind the conscience to no practice of what is clearly revealed.

Introduction to Practical Guidelines for Exercising Liberty

5:40 And in the realm of conduct, the Church can make no regulations but those clearly taught in the Word of God. Well, I did it in less than seven minutes. Now we come tonight in our fourth study to consider the beginning of another whole area of concern with reference to this doctrine. Having set out the broad, biblical and theological overview from the Westminster Confession, and those who are not here, I did not preach the Confession.

6:08 We preached the Word, turned to many passages, simply used the Confession as a guideline. Having then seen in a more distinct and precise way the fourfold pillars, or the four pillars, the fourfold foundation of our liberty, and what that means in these three areas, we come now to what I'm calling practical guidelines which relate to the exercise of our liberty in Jesus Christ. And God willing, when I begin tonight, I hope to conclude next Lord's Day evening. Practical guidelines which relate to the exercise of our liberty.

6:45 And I propose to handle the subject by doing two things. Number one, I want to articulate a major principle of distinction, and then having done that, I want to give three fundamental practical guidelines which determine the exercise of our liberty, and then we'll occupy ourselves with the fourth one for the entirety of our study next Lord's Day. First of all then, a major principle of distinction. If you've got your thinking cap on, if you're not quite sure, reach up and push it down good and firm.

The Major Principle of Distinction: Essence vs. Exercise of Liberty

7:18 Will you please? And use a hairpin or bobby pin or two to make sure it doesn't fall off halfway through. And I'm dead in earnest when I say that if you do not grasp this major principle of distinction, you'll miss much of the whole teaching of the word of God and the subject of Christian liberty. And the principle of distinction is this.

7:40 There is a difference between the essence of our liberty in Christ, understood and appreciated, and the exercise of our liberty actually expressed in specific conduct. Now let me give you that again. There is a difference between the essence, the thing itself, the essence of our liberty in Christ, understood and appreciated, and the actual exercise of that liberty in specific conduct. You see, the understanding and appreciation of our liberty in Christ is an inward spiritual reality. It pertains to God, to me, to my relationship to God, and to the world in which God has placed me. It's a very individual and personal thing. But the exercise of my liberty brings other factors into its orbit.

8:48 I do not exercise my liberty simply in the presence of God and of myself. My liberty in Christ is exercised in the presence of the world, in the presence of fellow believers, in the presence of the people of God. So the essence of the liberty is one thing, and the exercise of the liberty is quite another. To state it a little differently, the appreciation of one's liberty is wholly inward, but the exercise of the liberty is primarily outward.

9:23 And the classic statement of this principle of distinction that I have found anywhere in uninspired literature is in John Brown's commentary on the book of Galatians, in which, commenting, on that section which we're exhorted to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, John Brown says, quoting another and then using his own words, it is a very important observation of a judicious commentator that, quote, there is a great difference between Christian liberty and the use of Christian liberty. There John Brown ends his quote without telling us who he was quoting. But he does tell us he was quoting. Christian liberty, John John Brown speaking, is an internal thing. It belongs to the mind and conscience and has a direct reference to God. The use of Christian liberty is an external thing. It belongs to conduct and has reference to man.

10:21 No consideration should prevail on us for a moment to give up the essence of our liberty. That's relationship to God. But many a consideration should induce us to forego the practical assertion or display of our liberty. Doesn't that say it beautifully?

10:45 I about danced a jig sitting in my chair when I first read that. And that's no small thing to do, to dance a jig sitting in a chair. But nonetheless I almost did it. No consideration should prevail on us for a moment to give up our liberty.

11:00 As we saw in our last study, to relinquish the liberty I have in Christ is to despise the death of Christ. ...

11:09 I am willing to set me free, free from all man-made regulations of worship, of conduct, and of doctrine, that I might be his adopted son, his loving bondservant. And therefore John Brown rightly says, nothing should prevail on us for a moment to give up our liberty. But many a consideration should induce us to forego the practical assertion or display of our liberty. So having set forth this major principle, your principle of distinction, let me now proceed to some of the fundamental factors which determine the exercise of liberty. What are some of the factors John Brown had in mind when he said many factors will cause us to forego the exercise of our liberty? Well, as I've tried to cull from the scriptures and from literature that seeks to be true to the scriptures, an answer to that question, I believe the four major factors which will govern the exercise of our liberty are these. Number one, the prior claims of personal holiness. Two, the powerful claims of the advance of the gospel. Three, the practical demands of edification, and then, God willing, next week, the practical

Guideline 1: The Prior Claims of Personal Holiness

12:24 claims of the weaker brother. And when we're done dealing with those, we will have, I trust, touched on every major portion in the New Testament, dealing with the practical demands of the weaker brother. the subject of Christian liberty. First of all, then, in the exercise of my liberty, holding firmly to the reality that I'm a free man in Christ, that nothing can bind my conscience but the law of God, that nothing will be regarded by me as taboo or unclean, but what God Himself has revealed is unclean, holding tenaciously to that principle of my liberty in Christ, factor number one that will guide me in the use and in the expression of that liberty is what I'm calling the prior claims of personal holiness.

13:16 Now, why do I do that? Well, for this simple reason. All who are called into the family of God as sons and daughters are called unto a life of holiness. That's a fundamental axiom of the Word of God.

13:30 Romans 8, 29.

13:32 Whom He did foreknow He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. He set His love upon us and marked us out to be made over into the more likeness of His own beloved Son.

13:51 To use the language of Paul in Titus 2, Christ redeemed us from all iniquity. For what purpose? That He might purify unto Himself the peculiar people zealous of good works. To use the language of Peter, be ye therefore holy as he which hath called you is holy.

14:08 Be ye holy in all manner of living. I trust in this place. I need not labor that point. All who are called into the family of God as sons and daughters are called to share in the family likeness.

14:22 They are called to holiness. Now, in the pursuit of holiness, conformity to Jesus Christ, which means in the most practical terms I know, conformity to Jesus Christ, conformity of heart and mind and life to the revealed will of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. That holiness and in the pursuit of the same, the believer soon finds there are many things which though not sinful in themselves impede his progress in the pursuit of that goal.

15:00 Do you follow me now? Things that I am free in Christ to enjoy. In the material world, in personal activity, in human relationships, things that nowhere are condemned in the word of God as being sinful in themselves, but because I am called to holiness while maintaining my absolute liberty in Christ with reference to those things, I will find myself relinquishing the exercise of that liberty in the interest of the pursuit of the Holy Spirit. In the spirit of holiness.

15:39 At this point, please turn to Hebrews chapter 12.

15:43 Hebrews chapter 12.

15:55 Having given to us this great gallery of the men and women of faith who by faith triumphed and persevered, we are exhorted as we were reminded several months ago when Mr. Fisher expounded this passage, therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, notice what we are to lay aside. Lay aside every weight and the weight of the Holy Spirit. And the sin which doth so easily beset us.

16:24 And let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, etc. Now in preparation for the race, we are not only to lay aside sin, that which is clearly condemned by the law and word of God and anything God condemns explicitly is sin. Any duty to which He calls us that we do not perform, is sin. Any evil which He forbids and yet we indulge in it, it is sin.

16:57 When we do not measure up to the thou shalt's we sin. When we leap over the boundaries of the thou shalt's not, thou shalt not's we sin. But, the writer to Hebrews says, the runner is not only troubled by sin that must be laid aside, but he said every weight, it's perfectly innocent and perfectly within the realm of an athlete's liberty, to come up to the starting blocks for the two-twenty with his hiking boots on. That's right.

17:29 And with his backpack strapped to his back. And with his winter parka on. I mean, there's nobody who can say you can't run with those things. That's against the rules.

17:38 I've never seen the rules of any race which dictated how heavy a man's shoes could be. Or whether or not he could have a backpack. All they say is you gotta get in the starting blocks with the others. Make sure you don't come out before anyone else.

17:51 And if you get over the line without, without moving out of your lane and shoving anybody else, you'll win. Now, if you can do that, with your hiking boots, and with your backpack and all the rest, well, that's fine. But the most well-trained athletes in the world have not been able to devise a way in which they can do that. And they strip themselves down to the bare essentials, taking off from their bodies, every, albeit legitimate in itself, but every thing that would impede their efficiency as a runner.

18:25 That's the imagery here. Lay aside every weight. Why? Because there is something before us which demands the dealing with these things that would impede my swift progress through the course.

18:39 And likewise, you and I as the people of God, fully appreciating the liberty that is ours in Christ, not going around with a conscience laden down with 1422 lists of things that we can and cannot do. Cannot do because this one has said, no, no, no, we're God's sons. And we have the run of the house. All things are yours, life, death, the world.

19:05 Everything is ours in Christ. He hath given us all things to enjoy.

19:12 Yet when we come into the starting blocks, we say, wait a minute. There are things that in themselves legitimate, which could be received as the gifts of God. But they hinder me in the pursuit of holiness. Yes, therefore, therefore, in the language of 1 Corinthians 6, 12, all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient.

19:38 Now, Paul didn't mean all things are lawful. Absolutely. Because in that very context, he's telling these Corinthians, be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor idolaters, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind shall enter the kingdom of God.

19:53 Those things are not lawful. And if you're determined to do them, you'll go to hell. That's what he says. But in that context, he says, all things are lawful.

20:01 That is, all things concerning which the law of God does not speak with explicit condemnation. They are matters of indifference. All things are lawful, but he says, not all things are expedient. And though I'm a free man in Christ, it is not in my own best interest in the pursuit of holiness to fully or fully to indulge all of the liberties that are mine.

20:27 This is the emphasis that you find in first Corinthians chapter 10 is. Well, Paul has treated the subject of Christian Liberty and the latter part of chapter eight. Then in chapter nine, we shall see subsequently, he He shows how he relinquishes liberties for the powerful claims, which the advance of the gospel make upon him. Then in chapter 10, he gives a warning about a people who had great privileges, the nation of Israel, who had exposure to tremendous opportunities, But in spite of all of that, their carcass is rotted in the wilderness.

21:01 And now he utters a warning in verse 12. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Remember, remember, Christian, you are not indulging your lawful liberties as an unfallen man or as a perfected saint. You're carrying around in your bosom dry tinder.

21:24 And many liberties are like fiery upon the dry tinder of remaining corruption within the human breast.

21:35 Now what may be sparks to my tinder may be water to yours. And that's why I can't tell you what is a weight to you and you can't tell me what is a weight to me. But I better know what is a living, live, burning spark to the tinder of my own remaining corruption and lay it aside. No matter how legitimate it may be.

21:59 In itself. That's what Paul's saying. Let him that thinketh he standeth. The man that can have dry tinder strapped to his back and boldly and brazenly walk back and forth in front of a raging bonfire is a fool.

22:15 Paul says you better not play the fool. You know the tinder is there. Don't go near the sparks even of legitimate liberties.

22:25 Therefore, when anyone under any circumstances justifies to himself or to others the indulgence in things, which erode his own pursuit of holiness, he's violating the clear commands of such passages as Galatians 5.13 and 1 Peter 2.16. Let's look at them.

22:46 Galatians 5 and verse 13. For ye brethren were called for freedom. You see here freedom is viewed as the very end of my effectual calling. When I was called out of darkness into light, I was called into a state of freedom.

23:03 But, he says only, only, use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh. Don't allow the reality of that freedom to become the occasion of putting sparks on the tinder of your remaining corruption. And is not that essentially what Peter is saying in 1 Peter 2 and verse 16? Again, in the context of Christian liberty.

23:29 These are not general exhortations to holiness, but exhortations in the context, in the context of liberty. 1 Peter 2.16. Giving a series of admonitions, he says, as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.

23:51 That is, there is no extent to which my liberty is exercised that I ever forget that I am the purchased property of the living God. I am not anxious to use my liberty, as an occasion to serve my corruption or my flesh. You see the principle?

Illustrations of Personal Holiness and Avoiding Legalism

24:15 The assimilation of the glory of my liberty is inward. The expression of that liberty is outward and relates to specific things. And in the exercise of that liberty, I must always have conscious concern for the prior claims of personal holiness. But I want to underscore what I shared earlier and give a couple of specific nitty-gritty illustrations.

24:37 Only you can determine for yourself and judge for yourself what lawful liberties you must relinquish in the pursuit of holiness. As Pastor Chantry so eloquently stated several summers ago in those two masterful sermons on Christian liberty and self-denial, he said, Our Lord said, If thy hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. He says, Look, there's only one hand that you can cut off in the pursuit of holiness. That's your own.

25:07 God is not going to cut it off. God is not going to cut it off. God is not going to cut it off. He never appointed anyone to go around cutting off other people's hands.

25:11 You see? You see the difference?

25:15 Now, let me descend to some specific illustrations. I was at a family conference last weekend, some of you know, down way out in the boondocks in the Everglades. No phones or nothing. Alligators in the canals.

25:26 I mean, literally, and armadillos crashing through the woods so you couldn't sleep at night. It was something else. Those of you who really like to rough it, I recommend that you go there sometime, but that's not my bag. I'll assure you.

25:38 But anyway, in the discussion, after trying to give some principles to guide parents, it was a family conference and they asked me to speak in the family, and after giving some principles about how to govern one's TV so that it's a Christian TV in the sense that Christian principles govern its use, one man who obviously was very weak with reference to his TV spoke very dogmatically. You could tell his own experience was everything he tried to do to discipline it failed and the only thing he could do was get rid of the thing. And he was about to, he was about to legislate for others, you see. He had come to the conviction that though he was free in Christ to have a TV and to use it, his own corruption was so stirred up by the very presence of a TV that for him, for him, relinquishment of the very presence of a TV in his home was the only way he could pursue practical godliness. But you know what he was tempted to do? And I could sense it in the very way he spoke. He was tempted to legislate for everyone else in that building and say, in essence, since I cannot, cannot pursue practical godliness while having a TV in my living room, how in the world do people pursue a practical life of godliness if you have a TV in your room?

26:51 And I reared back on my hind legs and I said, no, my brother, if that's the only way you can pursue holiness is to put an axe in your TV, put an axe in my house to put an axe to mine.

27:11 No, no. Not because of the economics of it. No, no. But because of the biblical principle of it.

27:18 I will not allow anyone to infringe upon my liberty in Christ.

27:25 I must determine what is a right hand that offends me and cut it off and cast it from me. But I cannot determine what is your right hand that offends and what is your right eye that offends. You see the principle?

27:39 And oh, the cursed legalism that has inundated the evangelical church because two or three generations ago a group of Christians, by and large, found that a certain activity, that a certain form of food or beverage or entertainment was inconsistent with their personal pursuit of godliness and they've legislated to everyone else ever since. My friends, that is an infringement upon the crown rights of Jesus Christ.

28:09 I must, as a believer, in the pursuit of personal holiness, lay aside everything that is a weight to me. But wonder of wonders, some of the very things that are a weight to me are an aid to my brother running the same race. And I'm chugging along, you know, and I see him at my shoulder there and I say, man, how in the world can you keep up with me? The very thing I had to lay aside to keep up with you, you're running with it.

28:36 He says, man, that's the very thing that helps me keep up with you.

28:41 That's right. Isn't that right?

28:49 Here's the man that said I had all kinds of physical problems, couldn't sleep, was restless, and I met such people. I know someone, a dear woman, just recently, and she didn't want to get hurt. She was hooked on downers and uppers and all the rest. So she got bold enough, and it wasn't at my recommendation.

29:04 It was at the recommendation of her own husband. Doesn't live in this area, so you can't win. Who's that? That's none of your business.

29:12 She began to drink a little glass of wine before she went to bed at night. Now she sleeps like a baby.

29:18 So she feels better. She's sweeter to her husband. She doesn't have as guilty a conscience that she's nasty. It's been a help in personal holiness.

29:27 And I know others who dare not trust themselves to take one tablespoon, a tablespoon full of anything with any alcoholic content because they know the moment they do,

29:39 they're putting sparks on their tinder. You see?

Guideline 2: The Powerful Claims of the Advance of the Gospel

29:46 Our liberty in Christ is inward. The exercise of that liberty is governed by the prior claims of personal holiness. All right? Secondly, and we'll never get through the three tonight, the powerful claims of the advance of the gospel.

30:03 Our liberty in Christ is to be exercised in the light of the power of the gospel. in the light of the power of the gospel. in the light of the power of the gospel. And the powerful claims of the advancement, that's a better word, of the advancement of the gospel.

30:17 I believe it is accurate to say, and I don't often say I believe, but I do believe this, it is accurate to say that everyone who is called into the fellowship of Christ is called into the defense and proclamation of the gospel. Now listen closely. I did not say that everyone who's called into the fellowship of Christ is called into an activity of verbal confrontation with sinners in the defense and proclamation of the gospel. Nor did I say that everyone who's called into fellowship with Christ is called to be an evangelist.

30:51 No, no. But everyone who's called into fellowship with Christ is called to the defense and proclamation of the gospel because that's the task of the church. And if you've been called into fellowship with Christ, you've been called into the fellowship of His people. That's why Paul could write to the Philippian church now.

31:09 Not a, band of evangelists. Not some kind of special board of high-pressure salesmen for the gospel, but to the church with the great diversity of gifts, with the great diversity of capacities and inclinations and opportunities. Yet he could say of the whole church in Philippians 1, verse 3, I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy for you. Your fellowship, your sharing, your koinonia in furtherance of the gospel from this day until now.

31:50 He thanks God for the church that shared with Him in the work of the gospel. In the furtherance of the gospel. We could approach it from the standpoint of the commission given peculiarly and explicitly to the apostles in Matthew 28. Make disciples, baptize, and teach.

32:10 There are no more apostles. Contrary to some, there are no more apostles with capital A. The requirement was to see Jesus Christ. So when God would make another apostle, capital A, named Saul of Tarsus, who did not see Christ in the flesh, He gives direct revelation.

32:29 There are no more apostles with capital A.

32:33 Great confusion is coming because some people who get an English concordance and know a few Greek words say, ah, but Barnabas was called an apostle, yes. But in what sense was he called an apostle? There are no more apostles with capital A. The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and that foundation is laid.

32:52 The new Jerusalem is seen to be constructed with foundation stones on which are the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

33:01 I had to put in that little aside. It's needed in our day.

33:05 And where was I doing? What was I putting it in there for? All right. Okay.

33:09 Now the task given to apostles. Many of the apostles Many of those tasks have now merged into the general responsibility of the church. And the church is to make disciples and to baptize and to teach, etc. So then, the whole church is involved in the defense and propagation of the gospel.

33:31 Now, with the previous qualification, not every member is to be evangelist, etc. But every one of us should have a sense of holy constraint that the advancement of the gospel be a cause to which we are personally committed and for which there is a sense of personal responsibility. Now, the apostle Paul is a tremendous example of a man who felt the claims, the powerful claims of the advancement of the gospel with reference to his Christian liberty. Turn, please, to 1 Corinthians 9.

Paul's Example of Relinquishing Liberty for the Gospel

34:07 1 Corinthians 9. The very one who has taught us so much for we've looked at many of his own words in establishing the doctrine of Christian liberty, free from the doctrines of men with reference to what we believe, free from the commandments of men with reference to what we do, free from the dictums of men with reference to how we worship. Well, we've looked at many statements in the writings of the apostle. He understood this doctrine well.

34:35 It is he who has taught us most of what we know about it. And yet, this same man says, reading now from 1 Corinthians 9, am I not, free, see, Christian liberty? Am I not an apostle? Have not I seen Jesus our Lord?

34:52 One of the requirements for being an apostle with a capital A.

34:57 Are not ye my work in the Lord? If to others I'm not an apostle, yet at least I am to you. For the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. My defense to them that examine me is this.

35:11 Now, this is interesting. He says, those that would want to prove whether or not I'm the real thing, whether I'm some phony apostle or the real thing. He says, here's my answer to them. Here's the mark of my true apostleship.

35:21 To know that I'm committed for the advance of the gospel to the ends of the earth and the establishment of the church. It is found, he says in essence, I'll give you a summary paraphrase and then we'll look at it. He says, it is found in the fact that I am again and again relinquishing lawful liberties in order to advance the gospel. You see, the false apostle doesn't do that.

35:43 He uses his false apostleship for self-aggrandizement, for his own praise, to fleece the people. He always has some ulterior motive, but Paul says, the validity of my apostleship is seen not only in the signs of the apostles that are wrought in me, but he says, look, it's found in this.

36:07 Have we no right to eat and to drink, that is, to eat any foods and to drink any drink? For all of God's creatures are good and nothing is to be refused. And may I remind those who may be tempted to get on the vegetarian cult, you better beware of despising God's gifts. The Bible speaks of meat as one of God's gifts.

36:33 Now, you're free not to eat meat, but don't you go binding people's consciences to say that is in the best interest of their preservation of their temple of the Holy Ghost. You be vegetarian, fine, you've got your liberty.

36:49 You need to beware of anything that infringes upon these principles. He says, don't I have a right to eat, that is, any kind of meat, to drink, any kind of beverage? Don't I have this right? And the answer is obvious.

37:02 Of course I do. Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles and of the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Apparently, these men took their wives with them. He says, don't I have a right to go out and get a wife and lead her around?

37:17 It's a rather, funny imagery, but, he says, don't I have a right? And the answer is obvious. Of course, marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled. It's only whoremongers and adulterers that God will judge.

37:32 He won't judge apostles who get married and lead their wives around with them. He said, of course not. I have a right. The answer is obvious.

37:40 All right? Or, I only in Barnabas, have we not a right to forbear working? Why am I laboring with my hands? Is it that I have no right to live of the gospel?

37:50 He said, of course not. And then he gives some illustrations. What soldier ever serves at his own charges? Whatever soldier was ever sent by his country to the front of the battle and then his commanding officer said, now go on out and get yourself some bullets and go make yourself a rifle.

38:03 No, no, no. If the country sends him, they supply him with the ammunition needed. They supply him with the materials to fight. And he changes the imagery.

38:11 Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit thereof? If a man goes out and plants his vineyard, no one accuses him of being selfish if he takes some of the grapes and eats them. He says, if I'm laboring the gospel, no one should accuse me if I live of the fruit of that labor and I receive the monetary support of God's people. Do I speak these things after the manner of man or saith not the law the same?

38:33 So he says, now if my human reason has captured your yea and has brought your consent, I want you to know that I haven't just tricked you with human reason. He said, this is what the scripture says. For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shall not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God careth or saith he it assuredly for our sakes?

38:52 Yea, for our sakes. For our sakes it was written because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope and he that thresheth to thresh in hope of partaking. If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things? If others partake of this right over you, that is, you've got paid ministers among you, do we not yet more?

39:10 Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we bear all things that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. That's the principle. He said, I have a right to have a wife. I have a right to live of the gospel.

39:30 I have a right to eat any food, drink any drink. In my relationship to God and in His presence, I'm His free...

39:43 He said, out there in the world, he said, there's something that drives me and I cannot escape its pressure. It's the desire that the gospel be advanced. It's the desire that by every legitimate means I gain the ears of men in advance the cause of my beloved Savior and His gospel and He says, for this reason, I did not use this right, but I'm willing to bear all of these inconveniences. Why?

40:10 That there be no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. He felt the powerful claims of the advancement of the gospel. And then he goes on to develop the theme even more. Know ye not that they that minister about sacred things eat of the things of the temple?

40:26 So did the Lord ordain that they that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel, but I have used none of these things. And then he goes on into that amazing statement, verse 19, though I was free from all men. That is, no man could say, look, Paul, eat kosher food only. He said, look, I'm free in Christ to eat any kind of food.

40:51 I'm free from all men. Though I was free from all men, I understand the nature of my liberty. What did I do? I brought myself under bondage to all.

41:02 He doesn't mean in his conscience. He meant in his conduct. See the difference? I'm free in my conscience, but in my conduct I brought myself under bondage to all for what end?

41:15 Look at it. What was the end in view? That I might gain the more. He was constrained by this powerful motivation that the gospel be advanced.

41:30 So he brought himself under bondage to the scruples of the Jew who was still all tied up in the ceremonial lois and to the Jew I became as a Jew. To the weak I became as the weak. And when the Gentile man had his, he said, I was willing in my external conduct to live like a straight-laced legalist while all the time is free as a bird in my heart before God. See the difference?

41:57 You see, legalism is when the conduct is a reflection of the disposition of the mind and heart. The poor Christian who thinks this is a no-no and that's a no-no and this is a no-no.

42:11 No, really. And his spirit is shriveled. And what a view he has of God who's filled the world with good things.

42:21 Most of them no-nos.

42:25 Like putting a child in a room full of brand new toys and put a sign over nine-tenths and thou shall not touch.

42:34 Now you see, the poor person who's not touching, touching, touching, doing, going, seeing, because of that he's crippled. But the man who like, Paul can say, all of God's gifts are mine. But for the sake of the gospel, I'll write no over every single one. I'll bring myself under bondage to all that I might gain.

42:55 See the difference? Oh, if you get nothing else tonight, I hope you get that distinction. Now what's that say to us? It says to us, dear people, if we feel one little measure of what Paul felt, that as a congregation, not just me as a preacher, not just the elders in this assembly, not just those who have some gift for public ministry, but that we as a congregation are under solemn and powerful claims to advance the gospel in our generation, it will mean that though free as a bird in our hearts, we'll relinquish many lawful liberties that we might gain the more.

The Emergency Situation and Limited Liberties

43:36 You see it? The person who is so irresponsibly content to enjoy his liberty to the full, forgetting that we're in an emergency situation,

43:49 that person really does not understand the biblical doctrine of Christian liberty. For you see, we're not in the Garden of Eden and our liberties will be limited by the emergency situation in which we find ourselves. Isn't this precisely what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7, 29 to 31? Look at it.

44:11 1 Corinthians 7, verses 29 to 31.

44:17 But this I say, brethren, the time is shortened that henceforth the Lord will come and those that have wives may be as though they had none and those that weep as though they wept not and those that rejoice as though they rejoice not and those that buy as though they possess not and here's the key word and those that use the world as not using it to the full for the fashion of this world passeth away. Dear people, we're in an emergency situation. If this world were the Garden of Eden with no hell to come after we all breathe a few more showers and short breaths with no sinners to rescue from the clutches of the devil with no frontiers to be pushed back in the name of Christ if we were in Eden surrounded with all of God's gifts and could enjoy them with no dry tinder within our breasts and with no emergency situation calling and pressing upon us with heavy and weighty claims then we could enjoy all of God's gifts that's what heaven will be all of God's gifts to the full without any backlash of conscience and without any reservation because of an emergency situation but this is not Eden and this is not glory this is the mixed society in which you and I are called upon to be committed to the advance of the gospel

45:45 and your liberty and mine is limited by those claims and I think I know a little something of what that is in these very areas and I ask you to pray for me as in the past days we as a family have come through some real wrestlings you know how much I've been away this fall I mentioned a week ago Wednesday some of this was unavoidable commitments made when Pastor Blaze was still with us and when there was still valid pastoral oversight and I felt I could take these responsibilities but now having been involved in them and the days away from home and wife and flock and everything in me cries out against it now I'm not asking for your sympathy nor putting myself forward as the epitome of fulfillment all I want to do is to pray for you and I'm saying is as Paul does from time to time reasoning from the crucible of his own experience I think I know a little something now what the apostle meant in these things that perhaps I've not known for a while do not I have a right to go home to my wife and kids every night like you do that's what he's talking about do not I have a right nevertheless we have not used these things to the full well then let me touch very briefly on the third area and then we'll be done for tonight not only the prior claims of personal holiness will govern the use and expression of our liberty the powerful claims of the advance of the gospel but thirdly

Guideline 3: The Practical Demands of Edification

47:13 the practical demands of edification when the Lord saved us he united us to his son now that's done only individually and inwardly by the power of the Holy Spirit no one was ever being brought into the kingdom with someone hanging on his coattails you don't get in hanging on the coattails of your mother your father your brother your sister now some people have constructed big long coattails out of the fabric of the doctrine of the covenant now I love the doctrine of the covenant and all the fabric that it sets forth but God never constructed it into a coattail by which you lay hold and get in on behalf of what your mother or your father was or did and some of the folk here will appreciate a little more than others what I'm saying when I say that at least I hope they will appreciate it no no when God saves a man he saves him as an individual you boy girl man woman you must be born again there must be an inward powerful operation of the Holy Ghost imparting new life to you now that's some of the purest individualism in all the world but once the Spirit unites you to Christ and brings you into the kingdom all individualism ceases

48:41 for the scripture says in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13 by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and are made to drink of the one Spirit in the moment I am individually united to Christ I am joined to his body I don't take that by faith I don't claim it that just happens that's the fact I need to wake up to it and live in the light of it and perhaps in few areas is the recognition of this at the practical level more demanding than in the area of Christian liberty for immediately as we reminded you at the communion service those who are being received into membership the moment you become joined to the body of Christ you not only enter the orbit of blessed privilege but the orbit of solemn obligation growing out of your union with Christ and with his people and I want us to look now at two statements of that obligation as it relates to Christian liberty first of all Galatians 5 and verse 13 all of them Christian liberty passages I'm not pressing matters that are extraneous to this subject into the service of the subject but only directing your attention to those things that speak explicitly to the issue at hand Galatians 5.13 for ye brethren were called for freedom that's a Christian liberty passage

50:08 only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh you notice I didn't read the last part of it when I quoted this earlier but I want to now but through love be servants one to another he said the orbit of freedom into which you have been brought is not an orbit of irresponsible individualism no no you were called for freedom now that you're free from the bondage of living only for yourself for that's the bondage of every sinner his world stops at the end of his own nose whatever he does for others ultimately terminates upon himself for he lives unto himself he says thank God you've been liberated from all of that you've been set free now to do what to serve one another in other words one of the critical fruits of your liberty in Christ is that of being released from the bond service to self that you might render loving service to one another

51:23 I'm free think of the misery is there someone here tonight whom I'm describing the misery of waking up in the morning and thinking only about yourself looking in the mirror seeing only yourself going out into the day thinking only of yourself and in all of the hours of the day having nothing beyond yourself as your bold and ambition and preoccupation and lying down in your bed at night with nothing but yourself in your eyeballs terrible bondage miserable bondage blessed liberty to wake in the morning with a heart that runs out to Christ and to his people that runs out to the Savior and to the desire to edify his people so then the exercise of my liberty will be influenced by this principle can I in the exercise of this liberty truly serve my brothers and my sisters turn back to 1 Corinthians 12 13 and we'll see another one another statement of the same thing 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13 I'm sorry it must be 2 Corinthians 12 that's by one spirit you're all baptized into one body

Edification and Seeking Neighbor's Good (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)

52:52 I quoted that earlier no that's not the verse either I'll find it it's another one of the all things are expedient alright let me turn back to the other one then in 1 Corinthians 6 and we'll find it I'm sorry I copied the wrong reference on my notes alright S alright I'm sorry 1 Corinthians 10 23 that's it 1 Corinthians 10 23 we found it very good all things are lawful now it's in the context you see of dealing with the matter of Christian liberty verse 20 the things the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons not to God here were some people who were still identifying themselves with heathen worship under the guise of liberty and he says look when you do that you're partaking of the worship of demons and you can't do that while professing to be partaking of Christ in the supper of remembrance that he has instituted now he says in verse 23 because he's been talking about meats etc all things are lawful but all things are not expedient all things are lawful but not all things edify let no man seek his own but each his neighbor's good see it he says sure it's lawful

54:20 I can eat any kind of meat that comes from any place as long as it's not rancid or spoiled and it's I can eat it all things are lawful but in many instances it is not expedient to indulge my liberty why because the indulging of the liberty though it may fill my tummy and may cause things to pass over my taste buds that taste good and satisfy me he says they do not build up my brother and I am not to seek just my own but my neighbor's good so you see my liberty will be influenced not only by the prior claims of personal holiness the powerful claims of the advance of the gospel but my liberty will also be limited by the practical demands of edification can I indulge my liberty in this area and still build up my brethren you see the question is not can I do this and not be a stumbling block the question is can I do this and be a means of edification you see the Christian is not just concerned with the negative I don't want to harm my brother I'm concerned with the positive how can I help and assist my brother you see that's the perspective that the apostle brings into focus now you see what's happening some of you may have leaned back when you heard

55:49 the first few messages saying man this is great Christian liberty do what I want you know what's happening as you're sitting here you take that seriously you live more strict than the most high bound legalistic fundamentalist that's right you will but you'll be free as a bird in doing it and that's the difference you see you will live a more strict life because you've got principles that touch you in many areas that his mile long list doesn't touch you you see and that's the curse of making lists with men making lists that men concoct because they cannot anticipate all of the situations in which I'd be able to pursue holiness and exercise my liberty all of the circumstances in which the cause of the gospel will not be advanced if I indulge that liberty all of the circumstances in which I will not identify if I indulge that liberty but when these principles have been in wrought by the Holy Spirit and I carry them about in my bosom as living burning realities by the present ministry of God the Holy Ghost then you see wherever I am in whatever circumstances I find myself I'm Christ's bond slave I'm God's adopted son or daughter but because I've been liberated from the tyranny of self-will and self-indulgence I'm free by liberty

True Freedom: Relinquishing Liberties with Joy

57:19 for the sake of those three things you see you're not free if you can't relinquish your liberty for the good of your brother you're in bondage you're not free if you can't relinquish the liberty of taking that three week vacation to some beautiful spot next year if you can't relinquish that for the sake of raising enough money to put your kid into Christian school when you know you ought to you're not free you're in bondage to your sand and your surf you see if you can't relinquish that little dream castle that you've been building in your mind for the sake of the cause of the gospel you're not free you see true freedom is to be able to receive all of God's gifts with thanksgiving and to relinquish any of them with joy that's freedom isn't that freedom do you know anything about that freedom as you sit here tonight as we bring our study to a close let me press the question upon your conscience are you Christ's free man are you still in the language of Romans 6 a bond servant to sin a bond slave to yourself oh my friend what a miserable tyranny and I have good news for you tonight Christ Jesus came to set the captives free he came to set us free by taking us into the family of God making us his own bond slaves giving us of his spirit enabling us to say

58:48 Abba Father to look upon all his world as his gift to us as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ and then in this emergency situation bound to our Lord in loving bonds of submission and devotion bound to his people in deep ties of the tenderest affection and bound by solemn obligation to see this gospel taken to the ends of the earth I am free to exercise that liberty in the light of the prior claims of personal holiness the powerful claims of the advancement of the gospel and the practical demands of edification God willing next week we'll take up that very difficult subject the claims of the weaker brother and may I encourage you if you get done the large assignment that Mr. Fisher gave you to read through Matthew to read again through Romans 14 and 15 in particular as those chapters will be the seedbed out of which we extract most of our study next week let us pray