Legalism in the Church (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

We're here to take your calls as well. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. This is Mike Abendroth. Today is the first live show from the church, Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Welcome to WVNE 760 AM. As the Lone Ranger has Tonto, and Batman has Robin, I have Pastor Steve Cooley with me here in the studio. Welcome, Steve. Mmm, quinoa salad. Steve is our regular co-host and guest on Tuesdays.

Mondays we have the sermons, of course. Tuesdays we talk about issues in the local church, ecclesiology and related issues. By the way, I just got an email today from Al Mohler's assistant. Next Thursday we'll have a live interview with Dr. Al Mohler from Southern Seminary, specifically talking about his new book, Wood from the Fire.

That's next Thursday, so stay tuned for that. Steve, what do we have going today?

Defining Legalism and the Baker’s Dozen of Church Rules

Today we have a list of legalisms. In fact, I've entitled it a baker's dozen.

A baker's dozen of legalisms. So that's a true 13. True 13. I don't think they do 13 anymore. Do they have bakers anymore, or is it just kind of Costco BJ's? They absolutely have bakers. Alright, well what is legalism to start with?

We should probably talk about it first.

Legalism is setting up a standard that the Bible itself doesn't set, and then holding other people and yourself to it.

That's right. Do you think it's trying to figure out some list of rules instead of being guided by scriptures that would say, energize by the Spirit of God? I think that's what I just said. I read this today.

What must I forsake, you may ask? Colored clothes for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don't eat any more white bread.

You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard. To shave is to lie against Him who created us. To improve on His work. It was written about 1800 years ago. What has changed in the area of legalism?

Not much. It sounds like me, right after I got saved, I had about the same ideas.

That's true. When you first get saved, you tend to be legalistic because when you're unsaved, when you're not saved, you have all kinds of sin and you want to stop those sins. Sometimes you go farther than what the Bible does.

It reminds me of the two Baptists who met in Europe. One Baptist was from America. The other was from Germany. They were sitting down and several American Baptists began to smoke cigarettes. The German Baptists were aghast.

In fact, they were so shocked, they almost dropped their beer. What do you have on that list? The baker's dozen of legalisms for us today, Pastor.

They all take the form of, it is a sin. It is a sin to drink alcohol.

We pretty much knew that was going to be at the top of the list, didn't we? No Compromise Radio Ministry audience. I think we know that many people teach that it is a sin to drink alcohol. Is it always a sin to drink alcohol?

No, it's not. What would we say to someone if they came to us, they're a new Christian, and they said, well, you know, I had to stop drinking alcohol?

Well, I would say, as a new Christian, certainly you do things like that. I don't know. I mean, basically, people overreact. I wouldn't discourage somebody from that because it's not always the most wise thing to drink.

That's true.

Why Alcohol Is Not Always Sinful

Let's talk about that in a bigger picture. I know we've got the list of 13. This will probably be a 13-week series because this alcohol issue is such a big issue. And I don't think we think properly about it, or biblically, because as Pastor Steve was just alluding to, we are so far to the left of center.

If biblical truth is 6 p .m., the culture is so far to 5 p .m. on the clock, and so overdoing with drunkenness that when people get saved, instead of reverting back to 6 o 'clock, the pendulum goes farther, and they end up doing things that the Bible never commanded them to do or expect them to do at 7 p .m.

Wouldn't you agree?

That's exactly right. I did just a modicum of research. I used my vast computer skills. And the word wine appears 262 times in the Bible in 237 verses. Now, I didn't see exactly how many times it was referred to as a sin, but I did just a couple.

God actually creates or causes wine in Psalm 104, 15, and it's also described as a blessing for being righteous stewards of our finances in Proverbs 3, verses 9 and 10. And so you read that, and you understand immediately just in those two verses that it cannot always be sinful.

Well, why would Jesus make it as well? Some people say that he made the grape juice, the really good kind, later. By the way, you should do some study out there, No Compromise Radio Ministry audience, to find out who actually made grape juice, and I think you'll find it would be Pastor Welch, the Methodist pastor, because he didn't want to use wine.

Of course we're not advocating drunkenness. True or false, listening audience? Drunkenness is always a sin. Steve, what would you say? True. Proverbs 20 says, Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.

Furthermore, not just unwise, but sinful. Last night I was in Boston. I didn't even tell you this, Steve. I was in Boston, and Kim and I were riding the T-Home, and we were at the Kenmore Station, Green Line, outbound Riverside, and a girl came walking down the stairs, and she fell and began sliding down the steps, step by step by step by step.

Her young friend, who was also around 18 or 19, was embarrassed, so she took off. The girl just kept falling down the stairs, until there was a handrail partition that stopped her fall all the way down.

I said to the lady, You better go help your friend. She's going to fall into the tracks. She was so intoxicated. And then she walked over a ways and then fell down again, and I thought, this is Proverbs 23.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Do not look on wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

At the last, it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. She's waking up today, A, with a headache, and B, with bruises, and she doesn't even know how she got them. Drunkenness is always a sin.

Well, just think of the danger also that she could have been in, you know, in the middle of a city like that, or, you know, wherever, supposing her friend had abandoned her. Where would she be? A young woman, drunk and alone.

I thought that exact same thing.

What I didn't quote was Proverbs 23, 35. They struck me, but I did not become ill. They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink. The hair of the dog. I better have a Bloody Mary in the morning.

And so, sin has consequences. Drinking to excess has consequences, and you are sick, you stagger, you become arrogant, Habakkuk 2 says, and we never want to say to the congregation out there listening, the audience listening, that somehow we want to promote drinking to excess.

I frankly don't even want to promote drinking, but what I do want to promote is biblical thinking about an issue that is very, very complex. What do we do, Steve, when people say alcohol in and of itself is an evil?

Well, what we always do, we look at the Bible and see what it says. So, do guns shoot people? Let's use that analogy.

Well, guns do not shoot people. People shoot people.

If everyone could see Steve's face, they would see the sarcasm in his face. We want to make sure that we don't blame alcohol in and of itself. As Steve said in Psalm 104, if God has created something for our good, we don't want to, and God has created something good, we don't want to say it's bad.

H .W. Gibson said, I am the greatest criminal in history. I have killed more men than have fallen in all the wars of the world. I have turned men into brutes. I have made millions of homes unhappy. I have changed many promising young men into hopeless parasites.

I have ruined millions and shall try to ruin millions more. I am alcohol. Alcohol does ruin things, but let's use the analogy, if we don't, of guns. How about sex? Is sex good? Sex, I think, is very good.

There's a phone right there, and if it's either the radio station saying we can't get online or it's somebody calling the church, let's just say we are online. Sex isn't bad. Sex is not bad at all. God has created sex for good, but it's what the human heart does.

It's what the depraved heart does. It's what the perverse heart does with that. And I think of Psalm Isaiah 28, 7. He's also real with wine and stagger from strong drink. There is a problem with alcohol, but it's the human heart is the problem.

Pastor Steve is over in the studio. He's kind of shaking my head. I guess we're still on live. And what we're doing here at the studio, this is our first time live, so we have a backup plan. If I'm not over the air, then the V &E producer, Dave, the crack producer Dave there, he doesn't produce crack, but he's a wonderful producer.

He would call us and we'd have to go live, so we had to answer the phone today. It's not like we forgot to turn off the phone. Alcohol in and of itself isn't bad. Sex in and of itself is not bad. Guns, for instance, they aren't bad.

But drinking to excess is always sin. There are many positive statements about alcohol in the Bible. Let me give you a couple that Steve alluded to. One, Psalm 104 .14, God causes the grass to grow for the cattle and vegetation for the labor of man so that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine which makes man's heart glad so that he may make his face glisten with oil and food which sustains man's heart.

Did you know to Israel, God said, Deuteronomy 14 .26, and you may spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever your heart desires, and there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice you and your household.

What do you think of that, Steve?

Well, I mean, it's pretty obvious that if it's going to make you rejoice and if it's a blessing from God, then it cannot be sin. I mean, to say that it is necessarily sinful is to say to God, God, that which you have given us and told us to rejoice in and told us that it's a blessing is sin.

Right, and you don't want to do that.

If you're listening, do you? If you say you've got a bad track record with alcohol and you have run from alcohol because it has destroyed you and you don't want to drink anymore, I think that's wonderful.

Matter of fact, that is me. So many problems with drugs, so many problems with alcohol, a father who was a drunk. I have run from that, and so 20 years ago, I stopped drinking alcohol. I don't drink alcohol anymore unless it's in NyQuil or if it's in some communion wine, I would drink it.

We're not saying you have to drink. That's not it at all. We're just trying to say we dare you to think biblically about alcohol. People react emotionally. They react viscerally. But we here want you to react biblically.

True or false, Steve? Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out wine and bread. Now, he was a priest of God Most High. Yes. He's all showing me the answer. I knew that. That was Genesis 14, 18. I'm losing my voice.

I sound like I'm 16 years old. Daniel 10, 3. Daniel said, I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the three weeks were completed. After that, I did.

I ate and I drank. I was even looking at numbers, and it talked about the Nazarite vow and that after a certain point, they were allowed to drink. And I'm going, it is so obvious, so clear in Scripture over and over and over again.

Let's keep pushing the envelope a little bit here. Psalm 4, 7 compares the joy of the Lord to lots of wine. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and new wine abound. When they had a harvest and when they were making wine, they thought this is a blessing from God, and God relates joy to the Lord to abundance of wine.

And if it were a sin, we would expect to see something like the judgment of God is like wine. You're exactly right. How about Song of Solomon?

Song of Solomon 1, 2. May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than Welch's. For your love is better than wine. Wine is good. Wine is wonderful. Of course, to excess sin, but that's not what we're arguing here.

We're arguing that the Bible does not always say wine equals witch's brew. Strong drink equals demon rum. You've got to drink Welch's or else. No. Did you know, Steve, regarding the judgment of God, a lack of wine is viewed as a judgment from God?

Absolutely. Well, I mean, if to have wine is a blessing, and the Bible teaches that, then a lack of wine would be some form of a cursing of a judgment. You're exactly right.

That's why I've got you in the studio. Jeremiah 48, 33. So gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field, even from the land of Moab. And I have made the wine to cease from the wine presses.

The shouting will not be shouts of joy.

Well, couldn't that be grape juice?

I like grape juice. It just has too much sugar for my liking. How about Lamentations 2, 12? They say to their mothers, where is grain and wine? As they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mother's bosom.

We, of course, do not want to promote drunkenness at all. The point today is, we don't want you to think unbiblically about wine. Steve, tell me about Passover meal, and do you think that was a grape juice, or do you think that was wine at the Passover meal?

I am confident that it was wine. Okay.

How about when Paul told Timothy to drink some wine for his stomach's sake? Was he just not getting enough antioxidants and vitamin C, and needed a little bit of grape juice?

What was the situation there? No, the point would be that they used wine to actually help purify the water. It would kill some of the things in the water because it had a little bit of alcohol in it. And so the point was, you know, it will help your stomach.

You will get less organisms in your water if you put a little wine in there. So, again and again, we see that alcohol, in and of itself, is not condemned in Scripture.

Well, don't you think Timothy was almost lealistic, like we are discussing today? And Paul had to say, Timothy, remember, you may have came from some kind of Bacchus God wine culture. You might be very immoral.

You might have drank into excess over and over, like Augustine. But now, you can't say no to wine because it's an antiseptic for you, and you need to make sure you put your legal way for your own good.

Right. I mean, he was surrounded by a culture that encouraged drunkenness, that encouraged excess. And so it's only natural to think that he might have been somewhat reluctant to even engage in a moderate amount of alcohol.

Right. And so, if you're wondering, at our church, we don't have wine at communion. We easily could, but I didn't want to make it some big issue. We don't try to have drinking parties with the board and the people of the church.

We don't sell wine-tasting books in our store, although I know some churches do. We're just trying to take controversial subjects. As a minor tag goes in No Compromise Radio, always political, always provocative, always in that order.

And we think it provokes thought. We think, say, Steve, tell me what you think about this. We don't drink wine as an elder board because we take a higher standard. We have a higher standard of drinking.

We know the Bible says, okay, it's not sin in and of itself. We don't want to get drunk, of course, but we don't want to drink it because we have a higher standard. Mmm, higher standard.

And I mean, I think that it's pretty close to legalism for me. For me, it's just a matter of personal choice and a matter of, you know, really, I just don't want to. It just doesn't intrigue me. I mean, true confessions.

You know, I once upon a time, many years ago, before I was saved, I did get drunk one time. And during the midst of that, I told myself, you know what, I'm never going to do this again. And by the grace of God, I never have.

It's an abominable feeling, and I can't imagine what would make somebody want to do it again. That's true.

Christian Liberty, Elders, and Higher Standards

You related something that made me think of this, Steve. Would you agree or disagree? When someone said, we have a higher standard and we don't drink because we're a strong Christian, we're a Sunday school teacher, we're an elder, we're a leader, we're a deacon, we're a pastor.

My question to them is this, and I think it's a fair question. A higher standard than Jesus and his apostolic messengers? First Timothy chapter 3 is clear. Elders ought not to sit next to wine for a long time, literally.

They ought not to be those that sit next to it so long that they become drunk. Of course, he doesn't mean you can't just sit next to a bottle of wine for two hours when you study. It's a sin if you do that.

But if you're sitting next to it, drinking it for a regular basis, then you would become drunk and then you're disqualified from being an elder. But if you have a glass of wine, you're not disqualified.

That's right. And again, it is just a matter of not when... I think if somebody says they want to have a higher standard because they want to be able to counsel people who struggle with alcoholism or whatever, as long as they understand that there is no prohibition in the Bible against alcohol.

There is none.

Well, I wonder if that old slogan in Latin, in vino veritas, in wine there is truth. But for evangelicals, too often, when it comes to wine, instead of looking at the truth in Scripture objectively from an external source, from God, we tend to look at it, as I said earlier, with our feelings, with our record, with the homes that are destroyed.

I married to Kim 20 years. Her mother and father were destroyed because of alcohol. My father, he checked himself into a drunk tank kind of thing before he died. And his life was ruined by alcohol as well.

And I'm sure I'm strange today because of all that. That maybe explains my idiosyncratic behavior so I can blame on someone else. We're not trying to promote drunkenness. True or false, Steve? Drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God.

True. I found 1 Corinthians 6. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, he's... I mean, can you imagine this is in the background of that passage, Deuteronomy 21, and they say to the elders of this city, this Sars is stubborn and rebellious.

He will not obey us. He's glutton and a druid. Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death so you shall remove the evil from your midst and all Israel shall hear of their fear. We don't want to promote drunkenness, but we don't want to promote Baker's dozens of legalisms either.

I mean, the very idea that somehow not having alcohol in your house or something like that makes you holier, I guess that's the real issue. Does it make you more godly if you avoid the very presence of alcohol?

Touch not, taste not? Yeah. That's what I'm thinking about. That's right. People would tend towards legalism. This is going to be a several-week series on Tuesdays with Pastor Steve, but it's easier to make up rules, isn't it?

Yes, it is. We just kind of check off. Versus obeying Christ Jesus from the heart by Spirit of God, that is much more difficult. Well, and Jesus himself said,.

You know, it's not what goes into your body that defiles you, it's what comes out.

Mark 7. That's exactly right. And so we want to challenge you that if you don't want to drink, we don't want to drink. Save brain cells, save your calories, save money, whatever you want to do, that's fine.

But don't go around thinking that if you see wine in someone's house, you need to tell your kids, we have to pray for that man's salvation. That's what people do. Oh, they see someone smoking a cigarette.

We'll get to cigarettes maybe next week. Did you know, audience, that it is a doctrine of demons to go around and say things that God created for good aren't really good? Now, the passage in 1 Timothy 4 relates to marriage and foods, so I don't want to jam alcohol in there, but I will say this by principle.

When God makes something good and He has created something, we ought not to reject it as long as we receive it with gratitude, for it is sanctified by means of the Word of God and prayer. That's 1 Timothy 4,.

Verses 1 to 5. We don't want to call something evil when it's not evil. It's the heart. Just as Pastor Steve just said, it's the heart that makes things evil. Yeah. Just thinking in terms of how people view this, I mean, even if legalism is designed or the heart of legalism is to impose actions from the outside, and just as you were saying, God's not concerned with outward appearances.

He's concerned with the heart, even thinking back to prohibition in this country. What was the point of all that? It didn't make anyone more godly. In fact, it made it worse because the heart of man is deceitful and wicked above all else, and so they just went around To break laws to get it.

To break the law. That's right. I mean, they made it in their bathtubs. They made it wherever they had to because they weren't going to be denied alcohol. That's correct.

We know that legalism does not curb sin. Legalism doesn't curb sin. You give a bunch of legalistic rules about marriage and sex and you're not going to have fewer pregnancies. You're not going to have less experimentation with it.

And strict rules don't do any of that. Sometimes, actually, it stimulates more sin. If you just try to restrain people with.

Rules and regulations, you will wind up with a rebellious group of individuals. Absolutely. Do that with your kids. You know that. Teach your kids a bunch of legalistic rules. We do this. We don't do that.

We do this. We don't do that. And you never explain to them.

That God wants obedience from the heart and you will wind up with a rebellious child. Well, Steve, great list today. Sorry we only got to one. It is a sin to drink alcohol. I see on the list, just to give further kind of anticipation as our time is running out, there are movies on here, tattoos, tobacco, cable TV, restaurants, trick-or-treating, voting for Democrats, hip-hop, rock and roll, heavy metal, women wearing pants.

It's crazy out there. This is one crazy place. Golfing on the Sabbath, Shabbat, Sunday. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and Steve Cooley was in our studio today. We're very thankful for Steve and his ministry.

We will see you tomorrow, same time, same place. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WV &E, its staff or management.