Do Not Consume One Another

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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November 15, 2021

00:02: And I'm going to read the whole chapter.
00:09: It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.
00:17: Behold, I, Paul, sow to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
00:24: And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law.
00:31: You have been severed from Christ.
00:34: You who are seeking to be justified by the law, you have fallen from grace.
00:39: For we through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness.
00:45: For in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love.
00:53: You were running well.
00:54: Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from him who had called you.
01:01: A little leaven, I'm sorry, yeah, a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.
01:07: And I have confidence in you and I in the Lord that you will adopt no other view.
01:13: But the one who is disturbing you will bear his own judgment, whoever that person is.
01:19: But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, then why am I still persecuted? And the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.
01:28: I wish that those who are troubling you would have mutilated themselves.
01:35: For you who were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.
01:45: For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.
01:48: In the statement like this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
01:52: But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you do not consume, that you not be consumed by one another.
01:59: But I say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
02:04: For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another.
02:11: So you may not do those things which you please, but if you are led by the spirit, you are no longer under the law.
02:18: Now, the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, decisions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like this, of which I have forewarned you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things, they will not inherit the kingdom of God.
02:45: But the fruit of the spirit are these, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law.
02:56: For those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with all of its passions and desires.
03:02: And if we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit and let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
03:13: The argument of the whole, before we get to verse 15, the whole argument of the book of Galatians was they had turned from, or were in the process of turning from justification by faith and turning back to the Mosaic covenant.
03:30: And although the Galatians were not under the Mosaic covenant, the Judaizers had come in, Judaizers meaning those who were still following the Mosaic law, following the Mosaic law not for heritage reasons, but for justification reasons.
03:42: They had come into the church in Galatia and they were demanding that these men be circumcised.
03:50: And Paul was saying, look, when I came to you and the gospel that I preached was, let me say this correctly, circumcision-less gospel, which means no circumcision.
04:01: These guys came in, if you know the story, also came in with, you can read it back in Acts.
04:07: The James gang came in with Peter, meaning James from the church in Jerusalem.
04:13: They came in, they quit fellowshipping with the Gentiles and they begin to part ways with the Gentiles because of circumcision.
04:23: Well, Paul then begins to address all of those issues through chapters one through three.
04:28: When we get to, I mean, one through four, when we get to five, he makes the statements of freedom, not having the message that he preached was neither circumcision nor uncircumcision because he says this, it means, it doesn't mean anything, but it was faith working in love.
04:46: He said, you were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? And he's speaking of those Judaizers that came.
04:53: It says, this persuasion did not come from him, meaning Christ, who called you.
04:58: He's saying, look, let that little bit of legalism that's coming into your body, let that coming into the local assembly, let that come in and it's going to permeate and it's going to cause all of these dissensions.
05:11: And he goes on and we'll get to that in a minute, that what those wind up being.
05:15: And Andy has one of these in here, the one another.
05:19: So I'm going to try to go around it a little bit.
05:23: But although it all works through us serving one another in love.
05:28: And remember, when we started this whole series, it it all is rooted in our love for one another, which ultimately flows out of our love for Christ.
05:38: And when you get to verse 15, he says, but if you bite and devour one another.
05:46: How many scriptures just in your mind, think for a minute, does the Bible talk to us about the use of the tongue? Think about it.
05:56: Proverbs is is is just loaded.
06:00: The life and death is in the power of the tongue.
06:03: And does it mean as the false teachers think that you have the ability to create your own environment? It's saying the words that we speak have a way of either edifying or building up someone or tearing them down.
06:16: Even James says that the tongue being so small, it can set a it can set a flame just as a little rudder on a boat takes a big ship and it can very just tweak that little rudder and it can turn its course.
06:31: Well, so it is, too, with the tongue.
06:33: And we're supposed to be careful with what we speak.
06:37: But it's interesting that Paul doesn't say, hey, be careful with your tongue.
06:43: What does he say? He says something about teeth.
06:47: He says, bite.
06:49: What does it mean to bite? Think about what I mean to bite.
06:53: If a dog bites you, what happens? That's it.
06:56: It hurts.
06:57: Yeah.
06:58: And when dogs bite you, it's for a specific purpose and it's to cause pain.
07:03: And he's saying here, don't bite one another.
07:08: Well, how do we bite one another? Let's write some of those down.
07:12: See, we got these big old giant boards.
07:15: Andy, I can't even reach the top.
07:19: We're going to get you a stool.
07:25: How do we how do we how do we bite one another? Well, what kind of words though? OK, we'll say hurtful words.
07:40: Oh, man, you already hit the bottom line.
07:43: That's all right.
07:44: But that's what I was saying.
07:46: That's part of the application of it.
07:48: That's right.
07:51: Hurtful words.
07:56: I have that gift.
08:01: Sarcasm.
08:07: What else? We know they weren't really biting one another in Galatia.
08:15: Deceit.
08:16: Sure.
08:18: We'll say deceitful speech.
08:23: Is it I before he except after he? What is it? That's good.
08:31: Yeah, this was very much what was going on in Galatia.
08:39: They were deceiving those people to think that God was not going to save them if they didn't follow the circumcision.
08:45: So, yeah, deceitful speech.
08:46: What else? Texting.
08:56: I don't think they were texting in Galatia.
09:00: Sure.
09:01: No, that falls under the harmful words.
09:04: We can be sarcastic in texting.
09:06: We can be deceitful in speech and texting.
09:08: What else? Backbiting.
09:15: I guess I need to so that y'all can see.
09:27: That would lead to the devouring one another.
09:30: And we'll talk about that in a minute.
09:33: What else? Gossip? Yep.
09:36: That was one of them.
09:37: That would be the actual application to a good bit of this.
09:44: Does gossip just does gossip always have to mean untruth? No.
09:52: You can spread you can spread the truth about someone.
09:55: But do it in such a way that you're trying to defame that person's character.
09:59: What else? We got all kinds of room to write.
10:08: What else? It has to do with our own pride.
10:14: What's that? To build us up and try to put other people down, our pride.
10:19: Condescension? Yep.
10:30: Condescension speech.
10:31: All right.
10:31: What else? I'm fixing to ask for some illustrations of these.
10:39: So I want y'all to tell me how we have used hurtful words.
10:47: So you think we got we got enough here to get us going? Yeah.
10:52: All right.
10:52: We're hurtful words.
10:56: Mocking.
10:56: Yep.
10:58: How do we mock one another? Yeah.
11:07: Or having we mock one another's and it's easy for teachers to do that when you have a little bit more knowledge than the person next to you.
11:16: Or if you're discipling someone and you begin to go, I can't believe you don't get it.
11:23: Yeah, I've been guilty of that.
11:25: Sometimes when you say that to someone, you can never take that back.
11:29: And you will ruin the that relationship to walk with that person and teach them.
11:36: Oh, man, yeah, because it's a it's a it's a spirit of condescension.
11:40: You're speaking down to someone.
11:42: Think about this.
11:42: Those of us that have come to to understanding the doctrines of grace, how did you come to understand it? Was it through your own sheer will? No, it was through the work of the spirit in your heart.
11:59: So who are we to speak down on someone when they can't grasp a hold of it? Is it that's condescending speech? And then we mock them by saying, I can't believe you don't get it.
12:10: It's all over the Bible.
12:11: OK, it is all over the Bible, but we can't convince someone for that.
12:14: I what else? Unrighteous judgment.
12:30: You don't have to start all the way at the top of stretching out, just get on the old back, unrighteous judgment.
12:39: And that is exactly what the Galatians were doing.
12:43: They were making a standard of their own righteousness.
12:47: Making a standard of their own righteousness.
12:50: All right, how do we how do we make unrighteous judgment? Speak of just forget Galatians for a minute, because I don't think we're going to argue about circumcision in here.
12:57: We'll think of how do we make our own unrighteous judgments? Ma'am, you talk about my shorts.
13:13: Yeah, we make unrighteous judgments by appearance.
13:18: That's really good.
13:19: It is because we all pay man.
13:23: The first thing we look at someone, we immediately make a judgment on someone, especially in church.
13:30: I know.
13:31: Well, the first time I saw my wife, I made a judgment, too.
13:36: She was hot.
13:38: Yeah.
13:38: Appearance.
13:39: We immediately we immediately make a judgment on someone.
13:45: And a lot of times that judgment can be wrong.
13:49: That judgment can be very wrong instead of like we've often said, you know, we should judge someone by their character and the words that come out of their mouth.
13:56: We immediately look at that person and go, hmm, hmm.
13:59: It's not giving the benefit of the doubt.
14:01: I come from a church where how are you dressed? We're fixing to get it.
14:07: We're fixing to get into that a second.
14:08: Don't worry.
14:09: Yeah, we're fixing to because because all of all of that, we'll just go ahead and go straight there if you want, because all of this unrighteous judgment comes into one big word.
14:29: That's it.
14:31: Legalism.
14:32: What is legalism? That's so funny you wrote that down.
14:35: Before we even started this morning, I wrote down the line between legalism and I don't know the right terminology after that, law of God or what is right or whatever.
14:48: But I actually wrote that down before.
14:50: That's been on my mind.
14:53: Legalism.
14:54: There's a ton of it.
14:55: And that's exactly what all of this.
14:58: There is no if this is not present, a good bit of this goes away.
15:07: Legalism.
15:07: What is legalism? What is it? It's when people or people read the scriptures and say we can and we can't do it based on what they think.
15:20: That's right.
15:21: It's this winds up being a good point of unrighteous judgment because legalism comes out of your comes out of someone's preference.
15:30: And in major and I'm going to say this one because this is an easy one.
15:34: And I was I was involved in that for a little while.
15:38: But hey, the the easiest legalism within a church comes Bible translation.
15:44: I mean, I know there are churches that won't even let you stand behind the pulpit and preach the word of God if it's not a certain type of of of translation.
15:54: And that's that's legalism.
15:56: But just let you know, the standard is not an English translation of the Bible.
16:00: It's the Hebrew and the Greek.
16:02: So if anybody comes to you and they say, well, there needs to be a standardized text.
16:05: Well, there is.
16:06: It's called the Hebrew, the Old Testament, the Greek of the Nether.
16:09: That's what it is.
16:11: What other types of legalisms cause division? Besides circumcision, status, sir, social status.
16:18: Yes.
16:19: OK, OK.
16:23: Social status.
16:28: You know, it's interesting to think about this whole movement.
16:31: Yes, sir.
16:32: It really is legalism.
16:34: That's it.
16:35: What it's all about.
16:36: And then the result is you fight and devour.
16:38: And even the people that awoke are devouring the people who awoke.
16:43: So, I mean, it's because they keep moving the bar.
16:46: Yeah, you keep moving the bar to make themselves elevate oneself and degradate another.
16:53: And that's what legalism does.
16:54: It elevates you and dagger or who it must say you.
16:57: I mean, whoever this person is making the standard, it elevates themselves so that they can degradate the other.
17:03: I mean, in the either in, I think, Mark 14 and the parallels to that would be somewhere around Luke 19, 20, and then Matthew 23, where Jesus is blasting the Pharisees at the temple before he leaves the temple.
17:25: When he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees.
17:27: What does he blast them about? You devour the you, you bite and devour the widows and you go out and you try to proselyte and make.
17:38: Basically, he's saying you're trying to make legalists just like yourself and you make them twice as much a son of hell than yourself.
17:45: So they so legalism is all rooted in your own standard of unrighteous judgment.
17:52: That's what it winds up being.
17:54: Now, is there a standard by which we should live? Yeah.
17:59: What is it? God's standard.
18:03: Do not lie.
18:04: Do not steal.
18:05: Do not commit adultery.
18:06: Do not fornicate.
18:07: Do not.
18:07: I mean, we can read it right here.
18:09: The stand.
18:09: Here's the here it is right here.
18:12: Here's the standard of what not to do.
18:15: Don't say nothing about wearing shorts in church.
18:17: You don't say nothing about not eating shellfish.
18:19: You don't say nothing about hair being too long.
18:21: We don't say nothing about wearing denim skirts and cooking bread and all that.
18:24: All right.
18:25: Says here.
18:26: Now, the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are indeed.
18:33: The connotation is do not do these.
18:36: Don't be immoral.
18:37: Don't be impure.
18:38: Don't involve in sensuality.
18:41: Don't be an idolater.
18:43: Don't be a sorcerer or be involved in any type of witchcraft.
18:47: Enmities, meaning divisions.
18:49: Don't be let there be strife among you or jealousy.
18:52: Don't let there be outburst of anger.
18:54: Cut the disputes.
18:56: Don't let there be dissensions or factions among you.
19:00: Stop envying one another.
19:02: And actually, if you go back to the envying, I think it's in James.
19:05: He says, why do you murder one another? It's because you envy and you're jealous and you kill one another.
19:12: And drunkenness and carousing and these things, which he had already forewarned.
19:16: All of those things are.
19:17: That's the standard of what not to do.
19:21: And then you go on down.
19:22: And what's the standard of what is to reign in your body? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against.
19:36: There is no law against those.
19:40: So legalism has a way of creeping itself and making a standard of one's own righteousness.
19:45: And that is what the Judaizers had done.
19:48: And it caused them to bite and devour one another.
19:52: What does it mean to devour? But we know what it means to bite, bite, consume.
19:57: Yeah, we're getting there because that's what it says at the end.
19:59: It does.
20:00: That's actually what it leads to, consumption.
20:03: I know y'all might think I'm weird, think I'm weird anyway.
20:06: I like to watch the National Geographic stuff and like Africa and stuff like that.
20:11: I love it when those cheetahs and stuff chase after them little old llamas or whatever.
20:17: Oh, man.
20:18: And they just clip their legs out.
20:20: All right.
20:21: I know my wife.
20:22: Oh, that poor little thing.
20:24: And that you understand that that's how God created them to eat.
20:30: So watching that, you go, man, that's awesome.
20:35: That's what the that's what legalism does to those who are new converts within the body, though.
20:42: They chase them down, they put on their own and they get their legs out from under them.
20:48: And then they put their own standard of unrighteous judgment of legalism on them.
20:53: And they begin to devour them.
20:55: That's why Paul says, don't do that.
20:59: Don't do that.
21:00: And he says, why? Because you'll be consumed.
21:04: Where is it? Right here.
21:06: He said, if you bite and devour one another.
21:09: And in the Greek, this is not a conditional clause where it says if it's actually could be translated.
21:17: And I don't know if anybody's translation has translated this way.
21:20: But you tell me if it is.
21:21: It could say since you are biting and devouring one another, take care that you don't consume one another.
21:28: Anybody say sense? Does anybody say that at all? It can be translated that way since since you're biting and devour.
21:37: Hey, why would Paul even have to say anything about do not bite one another if they weren't biting one another? Because they were.
21:43: That's that's right.
21:44: That's the that's the implication is this is what they're doing.
21:47: And he says, and do not devour one another.
21:51: Take care that you do not be consumed by one another.
21:54: That word consumed means to annihilate.
21:58: It means to come to bring a destruction.
22:02: How do they destroy one another? How are they destroying one another through that? That's exactly what they're doing.
22:11: And that's what Paul's that's what Paul's saying.
22:13: And we can back up.
22:15: And the application of that is by them undermining the gospel.
22:19: He says back in.
22:21: Chapter five, verse four, you who have been severed from Christ, you are seeking to be justified by the law and you have fallen from grace.
22:32: And we'll talk about that in just a second, if you want.
22:35: But what they have done is they are causing annihilation and spiritual destruction to one another.
22:41: It's interesting that word for consumed is used and that derivative is only used one other time in scripture.
22:49: This particular one.
22:50: And if you turn over to second Thessalonians or I can just read it to you.
22:54: It's interesting the word that where he uses that second Thessalonians chapter two.
23:05: I think it's in verse eight.
23:12: Yeah.
23:12: Speaking about the the man of lawlessness, he says for the mystery.
23:16: We'll start seven sets for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
23:19: And he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
23:25: And here it is.
23:26: Then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth at his appearing and at his coming.
23:36: You know which word right there means to annihilate or to bring destruction.
23:39: The same derivative that you use in that word slay.
23:42: Same one.
23:45: Anybody say it? Does anybody's translation say consumed? Yeah, that's the correct translation.
23:52: See, I know that's legalism.
23:59: That's the that's the word that's used.
24:02: And we consume one another by making up that own standard of rights.
24:07: And I say that bite begins.
24:09: Just we're going to just make that nip injure them, people through legalism.
24:13: And then they begin to devour them because they don't do them do things a certain way.
24:18: And it take care that you cannot be consumed.
24:20: We're consuming one another through envies.
24:25: Strife.
24:25: I mean, we just read it.
24:27: Outburst of anger towards one another.
24:31: Disputing factions.
24:32: Hey, tell me what part of legalism does not cause division.
24:38: Is there it always causes division, always causes division to to the to the who does and who does not.
24:47: That's what it always depends on.
24:49: It always depends on who's doing the most and who's doing the not.
24:52: The Pharisees were the best at it.
24:55: Jesus said, you tithe and you tithe on mint and dill.
25:00: Y'all know what those were, right? The dill, the smallest little tiny seed.
25:04: And they would pick it out and get a tenth.
25:06: He said, you do that, but you forget the major things.
25:10: Love and mercy, the more weightier things of the law.
25:15: So what what else does legalism do within the body? Division amongst the legalists.
25:26: It sure can.
25:28: Because when it ain't legalized enough, they go a step further.
25:32: Yeah.
25:32: Draw a circle smaller.
25:34: And then you wind up having some circles where it's only one person standing in that circle.
25:38: And if you've ever been in that that group, then you'll realize if you're the only one standing in that circle, you're wrong.
25:45: Yeah.
25:46: If everybody doesn't meet your standard, you're wrong.
25:53: Legalism also roots out false teaching.
25:59: Here, I'm going to explain.
26:02: The Judaizers came in with legalism, right? Paul then admonishes them.
26:08: I think that's what Andy taught on last week.
26:11: He admonishes and exhorts them.
26:13: Don't listen to these people.
26:16: So so through right teaching, the legalism is rooted out.
26:21: The false teaching is rooted out by good teaching.
26:24: Look, if there was if legalism never arrives, if if the if the legalist.
26:33: Never raises its head within the church, and how do we how are we able to know truth and error? Right.
26:39: Right or wrong? No, disagree or agree.
26:44: I guess it brings about or creates or reveals the standard.
26:51: It does.
26:52: If you go to Corinthians, what did he say? He said that very thing.
26:56: These have charismatized to show you the truth and the error, to show you who's who's right and who's not.
27:01: Now, we don't like those dissensions within the body, but they're necessary.
27:05: I can't remember the passage right off in Corinthians, but it's necessary.
27:08: Those divisions within the church are necessary.
27:11: It has to happen so that you can root out the the truth and error.
27:17: Is it sometimes very contentious? Yeah.
27:20: And sometimes it can be rough.
27:23: Can be very rough.
27:24: You don't think it was rough in Galatia? You don't think it was rough when in Corinth, when Paul says, hey, I sent Timothy to you, you were a little rough on that guy.
27:36: But you know who I'm fixing this in? I'm fixing this in Titus.
27:40: I'm going to send Titus to straighten it out.
27:42: Let me just think about Titus.
27:43: Just think of the name, man.
27:45: Maybe the old Roman square jaw.
27:48: He's showing up to straighten it out.
27:51: Not Timothy.
27:53: Old Timothy couldn't handle it.
27:55: So he's going to send somebody else to straighten out the faction.
27:59: So what else can cause? We're going to leave this as this, too, can be very destructive.
28:11: And we do all of these things to.
28:14: What other causes us to bite and devour one another within the body? Christian liberty.
28:31: The other dish.
28:32: That's it.
28:34: So that's the other ditch.
28:36: There's the ditch of legalism.
28:37: Yeah.
28:38: Yes, sir.
28:41: He spoke of that back 13.
28:56: For you were called to freedom, brethren.
29:00: Only do not turn your freedom into the opportunity to the flesh.
29:04: And then and you'll handle this next year that you serve one another in life.
29:08: Serve one another.
29:10: So how do our liberties then become divisive? It certainly can.
29:18: I think that's something that we get.
29:19: He brought that up.
29:20: That's a good thing.
29:21: When it says to cause your brother to stumble, what does that mean? Weaker in faith.
29:28: OK.
29:30: Weaker in faith.
29:31: What else? Question.
29:35: OK.
29:37: You have to get a certain way.
29:39: And you say, I'm a Christian.
29:41: This is how you're supposed to act.
29:42: And you're not acting the way Christ wants you to.
29:44: Well, that that would be that would be the lead.
29:46: That would be the legalism part.
29:49: When it says don't cause your brother to stumble, it doesn't mean don't cause him to question.
29:55: It means it's the word scandal on which we where we get to to be entrapped, to sin, to be caught in a snare, to call someone to sin.
30:05: If someone does something so that causes me to stumble, I can remember specifically, I had a I had a tattoo that I got covered up on my arm and it was an offensive tattoo and I got it covered up.
30:20: And it wasn't a few weeks later.
30:22: Put my arm around.
30:23: I think it was Jake sitting here, put my arm around him and it was on my wrist and it had been covered up.
30:30: And the lady at the church we were currently at, she had a problem.
30:32: It was there before.
30:34: And she had a problem with what I covered it up.
30:37: And she said, you are causing me to stumble.
30:40: I was like, well, what do you mean by that? She said, well, you know, now what was there was offensive.
30:47: And now you covered it up with something just as offensive.
30:51: And I said, well, what do you want me to do? And she said, well, I'm not sure.
30:56: I said, would you want me to have it removed? She said, that would be great.
30:58: I said, well, if I find your hair offensive, would you have your hair removed? Yeah.
31:04: Yeah.
31:05: And I just thought, well, what does it mean to be stumped, to make someone stumble? And that's when I begin to look at what that means.
31:10: Anytime somebody says they disagree with something that you've done, we cause them to stumble.
31:14: That's not it.
31:15: Is it causing you to lead someone into sin? Look, if my Christian liberties, whatever they are, lead another person to sin against their conscience, that's wrong.
31:26: That's wrong.
31:28: I mean, we could lift some liberties if you want.
31:30: What are some liberties that we could cause people to lead them into sin? And what are they? Well, that was that certainly we don't understand that because we don't go to temples where steaks were offered up and people were eating good meat.
31:46: But that is that was causing the person to sin against their conscience.
31:50: And what did Paul say? He said, don't do that.
31:54: Don't do that.
31:55: Look, if me and Rosanna Mike were going to go out to the temple or go out in Corinth, I wouldn't take them to the Montana grill next door where the meat was going out of the temple into the back door for them to eat if they said that bothered them.
32:13: And Paul says, was there anything really wrong with the meat? There was nothing wrong with the meat.
32:19: But if they're because they lived in Corinth and they knew what was connected to that meat, Paul said, hey, don't cause any conflict with them.
32:28: You've got the liberty to go eat that meat all you want, because idols aren't really real.
32:33: They're not real gods in the meat.
32:34: There's really nothing wrong with the meat.
32:36: But if it's going to cause those individuals to feel as if they're stumbling, sinning against their conscience, don't do it.
32:44: Now, if me and Mike were in Corinth and Mike said, check it out, dude, I got some good steak over there.
32:49: Let's go get one.
32:50: And Mike has no problem with it.
32:52: Me and him are going to go chow down.
32:54: Because it doesn't cause him to sin against his conscience.
32:57: That's the that's when you have Christian liberty.
33:01: It is is the ability to do things but not intentionally offend your brother.
33:08: Now.
33:10: There was a time when I had Bible study and cigar night at my house on the back porch.
33:19: And I didn't invite people over there.
33:21: I don't do that anymore, by the way.
33:23: So if you say, hey, can I come over? I'll do that.
33:26: Yeah, I don't do that anymore.
33:29: I didn't invite people over that had issues with that.
33:34: Why? Because you would be intentionally causing a hindrance, the spirit hindering the Holy Spirit for that person to be in study.
33:42: Or I would be causing intentional conflict to that man's conscience.
33:49: Now, there were other things that I did that I thought were right and other people thought were wrong.
33:56: For a while, I went and did bar ministry.
33:59: I would go.
34:00: I didn't go in the middle at 1 a.m.
34:02: OK, just let you know.
34:03: We would go to the parking lot where they would have these concerts outside clubs and we would pass out tracks.
34:09: And I had he was a close friend of mine at the time.
34:13: He said, I completely disagree with what you're doing, but I'm afraid for you.
34:18: I said, dude, don't even pray for me.
34:20: If you disagree with it, don't pray with me.
34:23: But I didn't ask him to go with me because I knew that would have bothered him that we were going to a place that he didn't.
34:29: He thought was not the place the gospel should be shared at that time.
34:33: So I didn't ask him to go.
34:35: But that was a Christian liberty.
34:37: Look, if you can go, if there is there anything that says I cannot go to the parking lot of a bar to share the gospel.
34:45: No.
34:47: I think all the controversial it is in several places, we have a Sunday school teacher one time that I don't know, 10 years ago or whatever, and one of the churches.
34:57: Right.
34:58: And they invite us to send me and I over to the house.
35:00: And oh, yeah, cool.
35:01: You know, we're going to go hang out.
35:03: And then they brought out the bottles of wine.
35:04: Right.
35:05: And I don't drink because of our past.
35:07: We don't drink it.
35:08: We're you know, we're drunk to do that in the past, so we don't drink it.
35:11: Was it going to cause us to fall? No, because we were more mature than that.
35:14: But they caught me by surprise because they were drinking so heavily.
35:18: You know, they were like pouring the wine in big, big glasses of thing.
35:22: Now, if you drink wine, cool, that's your thing.
35:24: Right.
35:25: But if you get drunk, that's a different thing.
35:27: Sure.
35:27: Right.
35:27: So anyway, no, no.
35:29: And I've actually I was called a Galatian symbolism, grew up youth pastor.
35:35: And this man was very, very influential in my life.
35:37: I love him even to this day.
35:39: I had a good relationship with this pastor in another church.
35:42: And I said, hey, I'm having some issues of conscience.
35:45: Can you meet with me? And one of them was dealing with alcohol and some other stuff.
35:50: And I didn't tell him what I need to talk about.
35:52: He said, sure, you just tell me when you want to go.
35:54: I said, well, you tell me and I'll meet you there.
35:56: And he called me at you know that he said he called me up Sunday afternoon.
36:01: He just how about tomorrow at one o'clock? I said, yeah.
36:04: Where do you want to go? Mandarin Hill House.
36:06: I was like, all right.
36:08: So we sat down and we began to say, hey, man, I'm reading scripture.
36:11: Men with Christian liberty, men that I actually love and care about.
36:15: And I says, but I'm struggling with is have I have have I created my own standard of righteousness, like you said, because of the past that I come out of.
36:28: And he just and his nice saw spoke and he says, Mike, you're a Galatian.
36:33: I'm like, what do you mean? He says, you're trying to justify yourself by the works of the law.
36:40: You can't do that.
36:42: He says, you can't do that.
36:44: If someone has the liberty to go do those things, it doesn't call and they're not living in such a way that it's causing sin in their life.
36:52: And leave it be so.
36:54: So so I was just thinking, you know, liberty, liberties can sometimes be used in such a way.
37:05: I guess I'm trying to think through it.
37:07: So someone comes in and they say, you know, Mike, you wearing your shorts is really bothering.
37:18: Take them off.
37:22: OK, how about no, how about no shorts? I put it back on.
37:31: If your shorts are thin, you cut them off.
37:34: You can dig down that path.
37:36: In other words, you can be paralyzed by someone continuing to say, you know what, you really hurt my confidence.
37:44: So at some point, there's got to be that line.
37:48: Right.
37:49: So one week they don't like your shorts.
37:51: The next week, they don't like your beard.
37:53: Well, that was the thing with the tattoo.
37:54: Yeah.
37:55: What was on the arm was certainly offensive.
37:59: Certainly.
38:00: But then I covered it up with something else.
38:02: And then that was offensive.
38:04: So it wound up not being really it wound up not really being what was on the arm.
38:10: It was just wound up being she didn't like tattoos, period.
38:14: Which is almost a form of inward.
38:16: Oh, no doubt.
38:17: Almost in a reverse order.
38:19: Well, you use your conscious, your conscious.
38:26: Well, you know.
38:26: Yeah.
38:27: You use it in a way to bind other people.
38:32: And you use that as your reasoning.
38:35: So it's and I've seen it work both ways.
38:38: Right.
38:39: So if it like we can take our Christian liberties and make them device divisive by saying, hey, man, we'll just take, for instance, I'm going to use you, for example, he said they they went to a place where those people having drinks or whatever.
38:54: But if those people go, hey, man, you're a weak Christian because you don't have the liberty to do that.
39:01: Well, that becomes divisive because now you're making division because a guy's maybe his preference just, you know, I want to do that.
39:08: We could take movies.
39:09: We could take playing cards.
39:10: We could go and we could be go say going to festivals.
39:13: I mean, being civil, you'd like to go to festival stuff, not doing any more at the beach.
39:18: We used to go to the opening of beaches and all that.
39:19: And we're not going down there to get hammered.
39:22: We're going down there to walk around.
39:24: She can eat cotton candy.
39:26: Yeah.
39:26: Oh, yeah, we do.
39:27: A lot of people watching.
39:28: I think we have to consider the fact that some people are looking for a reason to be offended.
39:33: Sure.
39:34: I mean, they're looking for that.
39:38: Attention of the victim is a I don't I don't know.
39:41: But even with Lee, even the word offended is can be a loaded word because the Bible says if your brother offends you, go to him and that's how it said the Bible doesn't say that.
39:54: The Bible said if your brother sins against you look offended.
39:58: Me and Andy can have a conversation that might be that we might offend one another without ever sinning against one another.
40:07: He might say something I don't like.
40:09: I might say something he doesn't like.
40:11: And that's usually where the offended can be.
40:14: OK.
40:14: That doesn't mean we sinned against one another when if we're sinning against one another, either through legalism or liberties in Christ.
40:23: That's wrong.
40:25: That's wrong.
40:27: But just hey, if somebody said, well, you've offended me, will you specifically and Keith will tell you how many times we've had conversations with people and I said, OK, you name the sin that person sinned against you.
40:38: This person in his body sinned against you.
40:40: You said they were.
40:42: What did they do? Point to me chapter and verse where they sit.
40:47: What sin was it? And you know what it winds up usually being? I didn't like what they said.
40:52: I didn't like what they did.
40:55: It was my preference.
40:57: Somebody comes up to you and sops you in the eye.
40:59: Well, do they sin against you? I'm not offended, but I have to go.
41:02: OK.
41:03: All right.
41:04: Oh, it's time for us to wrap it up.
41:06: Yes, ma'am.
41:07: I think I think a lot of times that offense is a person just using it as an excuse not to get closer to the Lord.
41:19: They offended me because they were so they offended me because I'm going to last a lot of this.
41:26: No, that's not it.
41:29: What it is is.
41:31: You know, you know what you should do or maybe you don't, I don't know, but they're but they're they're pushing back.
41:38: I found that a lot.
41:41: You know, you do this.
41:42: You're supposed to be a Christian.
41:45: Hey, I have to say, what standard are you pointing to? I'm not you.
41:50: I'm saying whoever these individuals are.
41:53: What's the standard? Well, the thing is, you're not going by a standard.
41:56: That's it.
41:57: I don't know if they're I don't know if they pick and choose or they heard that you couldn't do this or that.
42:03: You know, I mean, they don't have a theology that they would say that they but they don't because they don't have the word.
42:12: I mean, we being civil, I had some friends that were very they were part of the quiver full movement and they birth control was wrong.
42:22: And OK, well, that's your got your conscience.
42:25: You know, they had 11 kids.
42:26: Praise the Lord is her womb was fruitful.
42:30: But then when it came time, he was tired of having children.
42:33: He said, hey, man, I don't think I want to do this anymore.
42:36: Well, hold on now for 22 years.
42:39: You've blasted everybody with your own standard.
42:42: You're fixing to have to eat your words.
42:45: So we we use preference as a definition.
42:50: Correct.
42:52: Yeah.
42:53: Yeah.
42:55: And where's our where's the standard? It's not my preference.
43:00: Preferences can be OK.
43:01: You know, look, I prefer the new American standard.
43:09: You prefer probably the King James, correct? He prefers the new King James.
43:13: But at the end of the day, I'm not dividing over with a brother over what translation he he reads.
43:19: But it seems like most people that have legalism, things like that, it goes back to pride because they want to be right.
43:25: Sure.
43:26: Yeah.
43:27: Yeah.
43:27: I want to be right.
43:28: I want you to be wrong.
43:30: I want you to be wrong because I have this special knowledge or I have this special insight that you don't have.
43:35: And we got to go.
43:36: Mike, you'll close us in prayer.
43:40: Holy Father, we thank you for this opportunity to open your word.
43:44: We thank you with a spirited hug to our brother.
43:47: We pray, Lord, that we would not err off to the right hand or the left through the sad of the ditches.
43:53: We keep in the straight and narrow way at least the life in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
43:59: We pray that you be with our brother Pete as he prepares to bring your word.
44:04: Pray that you'd use him to speak those words to us.
44:08: Strengthen your people, save the lost and be glorified in all that's said and done.
44:12: It's in Christ name we pray.
44:14: Amen.