Questions & Answers

And pushing the issue of liberty in Christ and do we have liberty to do everything except sin? The answer is yes and we don't want to make our brother stumble but there's some questions that have come up that I want to explore a little bit more tonight in question and answer type of style.

Throughout the year if you have questions about the Bible make sure you write them down and give me the question and four or five times a year we'll have times like this where I'll read the question and then I'll give you what I think the answer is.

But what I like to do on Sunday nights is ask you the question and get your input first and then I'll tell you what I think and it's the one a few times a year where I get a little interaction I kind of think how the congregation is thinking and of course I'll do the typical politically correct oh that's very good insight when you say something that I don't exactly want but I'll say what I'm looking for is this and so tonight it'll be Q &A we'll see how far we get.

We'll get back to Hosea and Ephesians probably in the fall and so we'll just be in Romans for a while on Sunday morning and then we'll be in questions and answers and some other issues cleaning up Liberty issues from Sunday morning.

It's a very big topic and it's something that's not preached much and that's why I wanted to discuss that very thing. All right any other announcements before we start tonight? If you don't have a Bible you'll need one because we want to talk about what does the Bible say about certain things.

I will say especially for the visitors that are here today if you have certain thoughts and I teach something that's different I'm not right necessarily and you're not right necessarily the Word of God is our final arbiter.

It is the one the word is not only sufficient but it's right and it's authoritative and it doesn't matter what my traditions might teach. Matter of fact I'll say things tonight that I probably wouldn't have said 10 years ago but the Word of God is what we bow to right and we submit to including our what our parents taught what our friends teach what our old pastors taught we have to bow to God's Word and if you don't think I'm right I know I'm not right on everything so you better be good Bereans.

I just don't know what I'm not right on. You know years down the line I change of view and I think oh yes I teach that differently or maybe in a more mature way so it is your job it is your duty to study the scriptures.

True? You need to know the scriptures and it's my job of course to try to divide them rightly but I want to try to challenge you with some things tonight and if I'm asking the questions out loud and you hear somebody give an answer that's different than what you like then just bear with them and let's just come to a conclusion you know in a loving way.

Liberty in Christ and the Authority of Scripture

All right here's the first one we might as well start and make it fairly hot in here. Tattoos. Now remember this morning we've been looking at liberty in Christ Romans chapter 14 and 15. 35 verses on Christian liberty what we can and cannot do.

I'm not here to promote any kind of vice I'm not trying to do that at all but I want you to think through these issues. If I say to you can a Christian get a tattoo what would you say if someone came to you let's say you're a mom or a dad and your son comes can I get a tattoo.

What do you tell them. Certainly if you're a parent you can say no because you have authority in the home and they have to obey or that's sin they're going against the their authority. But what would you give for a Christian rationale for why you should or shouldn't get a tattoo and please give me Bible verses if you can.

So anyone what would you say. Okay let's go there Leviticus 19 28 please turn your Bibles there and let's read that and then let's talk about it. That's excellent matter of fact this is the only place in the Bible that talks about what we would call it's a Hebrew word but what we would call a tattoo or an imprint or a marking.

There are other places in the Bible in Jeremiah in Leviticus and Isaiah where there are markings that people would cut themselves. And in the old days these pagan religions and in the Middle East and in the East and Egypt they would be in some kind of trance and some kind of state and they'd be worshiping their God and many times it would be kind of a Bacchanalian drunken feast and they would begin to just cut themselves as they were worshiping.

And so there's all kinds of cutting things in the Bible about you know even I'll read Jeremiah 47 5 how long will you bash yourself. How long you gonna worship false gods and cut yourself. So let's read Leviticus chapter 19 verse 28 and then take a look at it a little bit.

I'm so pleased with is that the Bible is sufficient it can teach us everything we need to know Leviticus 19 28. You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves.

And if you think I'm playing around I am Yahweh. I am the covenant-creating God of the universe. Capital L or D. All caps. I am the Lord. Almost like an explanation. Exclamation point. So you say Leviticus 19 28 that's the only place it talks about tattoos.

Now if I were to say to you but does that say to the Christian we can't have a tattoo. I was hoping we wouldn't go to Leviticus so fast but Maxine beat me to the punch. Oh I said it this morning. Well too bad.

I was thinking about tonight's. You're honest. Good. Thank you Doug. Well it's okay. That is a great principle for interpretation. We're look. Let's look at not just the verse but the close context. In the close context there's all kinds of other prohibitions as well.

And look at the closest one verse 27. And I'll look around to see anybody's hair do is to see if this is in fact the case you shall not round off the side growth of your heads. No bowl cuts with phlobies.

In other words matter of fact. I used to know pastor and he'd get his haircut with a phlobie. Kim knows who that is. It wasn't me. Pardon me. A phlobie is one of those things on KTL and it's on Ronco that you see on.

She can't buy in the store but you can get for $19 .95. And you hook it up to your vacuum cleaner and it sucks your hair up and out and then cuts it off. And so you just give yourself a haircut. It's called the phobie.

I never thought in all my years of preaching I would ever be talking about a phlobie from the pulpit my entire life. Dan's thinking I brought a guest. And here we go. So what was it talking about here.

Can you imagine you shall not round off the side growth of your heads. Matter of fact a decade ago that was a very popular way to cut your hair. As you'd shave it. If you were a guy here you'd let your hair grow longer.

There. He just says not to do that nor harm the edges of your beard. No trimming your beard. You're to let that thing grow. And so an excellent principle when you're trying to deal with an issue like this is does the Bible speak about it at all.

Maxine says yes Leviticus 19. And she's right. Doug brings a good point. Let's be careful when we see the Bible. And is this written to us all. The Bible certainly is for us. Isn't it all 66 books. They're inspired by God.

They're profitable. And they do everything from teach us to correct us to rebuke us to train us in every part of righteous living. But we have to ask the question what if Jesus is saying something to the Apostles.

Do that does that mean. It's necessarily said to us. What about when God is telling Moses to do something. Doesn't necessarily mean something to us. Okay before I keep talking give me some more comments about this issue of tattooing.

What would you tell someone about if they were going to get a tattoo. Is it right or wrong. And again we're not talking about someone who's not saved and they walk into the church with the tattoo. I think we should welcome those people.

My father's no longer alive. But if my father walked in you would see a huge tattoo here and another tattoo here. And they were cool. This big huge dragon he got in Korea. And I would just look at those tattoos on this massive guys forearms and think man I obeyed my father believe me he was bigger and he had dragons on his forearm.

I mean come on we're not talking about that. We better be lovers of people these days who have tattoos who aren't Christian. Shouldn't we so many people are getting tattoos. We better make sure our arms are wide open.

For those that have some kind of obvious marking on their face or their neck or somewhere else. And I could probably go around the room and find some here that people got before they're saved. So I'm not talking about that.

But what about Christians. Yes Romans 12 1 and 2 were to use our mind and we're not to be transformed by the the world in the spirit of the age to use my words. Is that what you would be saying. Okay so okay that's good.

Let's just take a look at that Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. I see where you're going now. Now you'll slowly start to see that with some issues and some problems in daily living. We can't find a verse that says you should or you shouldn't.

So we're going to have to construct some principles out of the Bible to give us wisdom. And so that's what we pretty much have to do with tattoos. I don't think you can go to a verse and say matter of fact if I was we'll talk about homosexuality in just a short time.

If I was a homosexual and you quoted to me Leviticus whatever about that's an abomination to God. I would tell you there's all kinds of other things that you probably do. And you're telling this telling me I can't do this one verse.

And even though they're unregenerate and they're not saved they still know that they have to be consistent. If this is given this law is given by God through Moses at Mount Sinai for Israel. Then how can you push that on to the church or push it on to a culture.

So Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 after 11 great chapters he then says live like who you are. Therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God chapters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 those mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.

It's no longer church about sacrificing animals year after year after year. You are the sacrifice acceptable to God. Certainly only through Christ which is your spiritual service of worship. Negatively don't be conformed to the world.

Don't be shaped by them. You all have different kind of jello molds. Don't be like jello shaped to the conforming mold that that that you're in and we're in the world. We're certainly that's true. But don't but be transformed rather by the renewing of your mind.

So maybe we could put a case or a principle that it's our body and we should use our body for God's glory. Well what if someone said I'm going to be like someone's many of your bumper stickers and you have a bumper sticker and your bumper sticker says Jesus is the only way when I've seen them in this parking lot let's see after you die smoking or non-smoking or something like that.

I mean I see all kinds of different bumper stickers. John 316. What if you're going to get a tattoo on your arm. And it's going to say for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. And there it is John 316 and you're going to do tattoo witnessing.

I mean we laugh. But some of you parents with younger kids you're gonna have kids coming up to you. And you're gonna say my buddies and youth group or my friends over here I'd like to get a tattoo. Why or why not.

Well let's turn to another passage to help us. And why don't you turn to first Peter chapter 3. This is what I would probably do if I had it and I do have three daughters and a son and they were to come to me and said should I get a tattoo.

Dad. The real issue with these things are motives. And the real issues are what does God think about the heart. And there is something on the inside that's much more beautiful than on the outside. And so this is probably what I would do.

I couldn't find a verse. I could say you're living in my house thou shalt not. And you can't do that. And if you do it's going to be sinful because you're to obey your parents in the Lord. And certainly this is not a command to make you sin.

But I don't think we can use Leviticus chapter 19 very well because those things were tied with pagan practices. If you worship the false God back in those days let's just pick a God. I mean you could pick pity if a for a God if you'd like.

And if you worship pity you could have tattoos that would show people you were a pity worshiper. I mean it sounds horrible. But all false false God worship is horrible. You could get certain tattoos. People do it almost the same today.

I mean when I was young and I was really stupid and I was thinking about tattoos. I was saying to myself oh you know what kind of tattoo do I want. And I was thinking I get a tattoo of the Rolling Stones tongue sign.

I mean come on I'm so God prevented so glad God for preventing me from having that. And that's who I worshipped was the Rolling Stones. Can you imagine what a letdown. And so we can't really go to Leviticus.

We could say God's given us a body and he's created us without tattoos. And how could we defile his body. And I think that's a very good point from Karen. But look at how this internal beauty shines through if you will and this is probably the way I would approach it with principles from the scripture and wisdom versus a thou shalt not.

And I think we get too carried away with oh here it is in Leviticus. Therefore you shouldn't. I think we have to take one more step to be intellectually and theologically accurate. And here he's describing ladies.

And it would be true for a man with hidden beauty. Yes. But this context here is ladies. And he says but let it be the hidden person of the heart. And he's talking about ladies that have husbands that aren't obedient to God's Word.

If you want to be beautiful here's how you act. It's in the hidden person of the heart. And just listen to this language. It's so just it's just pretty. It's beautiful with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God.

This friendliness this real beauty is precious in the sight of God. Gentleness. Gentleness means just kind of docile and gentle cooperation and not insistent upon my rights and my way. And you imagine here's a disobedient husband and here's a wife.

And if God says through Peter if you really want to be beautiful you don't have to be pushy and you don't have to be aggressive. You don't have to be assertive and demand your way somehow trying to coerce your husband to do what you want him to do with external means.

There's spiritual ways to get things done. And it's on the inside this submissive meek inward nature that's imperishable. Isn't that a neat word free from decay. This is what counts the most it lasts the longest.

And so if you were to ask me my daughter were to say I'd like to get a tattoo I would say not things like Leviticus tells you you cannot but I would try to go right for the motives and say why would you want to do this.

And if she said I'm doing the John 316 ministry then I would say there are other ways to evangelize. There are better ways than that to evangelize at the end of the day. If a husband said my wife would really like me to get a tattoo on the bottom of my foot that says I love my wife.

And I got a friend who can do it for free and it's it's gonna be healthy and and she just wants to see. You know I love Kim on the bottom my foot. I don't know why she put it there but I'm just trying to think of some kind of innocuous place to put it.

I could not or could I discipline them from this church. They've sinned by getting a tattoo and we are going to evoke discipline. It says in Leviticus 19 don't put any marks on your body. So we have to be very careful.

I could not discipline them and I wouldn't want to discipline them. And so I'd have to be very careful even if I said man now what a waste of money as I'm drinking my $5 Starbucks coffee. I mean you know please.

So the real issue of all these things are what is here's a good way to decide. And this is what I try to teach my kids too when they're younger you have all kinds of rules. When they get older you keep trying to expand it out and look at motives.

And why don't you try the good better and best approach. Certainly it's not a sin to get a tattoo. But there are other issues. What about the money. It's a permanent decision. What are you trying to do.

Are you trying to be cool on the outside. Are you trying to conform with their to your friends all those kind of things. But I would probably not say well Leviticus 19 says it. Therefore you can't. Okay questions about that.

Yes Scott. Yeah. And really the theme of course the last two Sundays and you know what if you've been here I have tried to push your conscience up against these liberty issues. So you have to not be legalistic right.

So I'm trying to push that. Of course you know I'm not trying to say Ron Farrar's got the new youth group and we're going to go down to the tattoo parlor and then going to go down and buy a case of cigarettes.

I mean I'm not trying to do that. Of course I'm not. And make sure you're here Sunday and you'll you'll hear from me that there are things that people do that are very unwise. My main point is this when people are different and when people even do unwise things and let me even push it farther sinful things we better make sure we love them.

Because I know if I do something stupid or sinful or dumb I still want to be loved by you. We are not always going to make right decisions. That's why the unity of the church is so important. Because we need to love in spite of.

And that's what love does at home. And in the church we have differences. We're not the same. We're not all clones and we're going to we're going to love people even though they don't look like us and act like us.

Don't spend our money like us and don't do what we do right. And so I don't want to get all wild about tattoos when they're just pretty much yanking something out of the the Torah that's not even for us.

And if you're covenant then maybe you can you have a better leg to stand on. But even then I think you have a hard time. Jonah. Well a couple comments. If somebody was a brand new Christian and they said I'll have the liberty in Christ to get a tattoo.

And therefore I'm going to one of the things I might tell them is why don't you just wait a few years and see if you still have that desire. Because it's going to be a permanent thing unless you want to spend $500 on X Y Z.

And again I'm not talking about you've already got a tattoo. I could care less if you're going to a church picnic and you've got a big tattoo. Don't wear a t-shirt to cover it up. I mean I don't care.

I don't care what people. I mean we are to receive people as they are. I have no issues with tattoos. My issues are what kind of scripture we use to do to try to. We all do it. I don't like something.

Therefore I'll find things in the Bible to prove my point. Just go ahead and admit I can't prove it from the Bible but I can give some good principles. The other point about worldliness. Remember worldliness is not necessarily the world does tattoo so we do.

The world drinks alcohol so we do. That's not necessarily worldliness. What is worldliness. They're selling systems of thought. Humanism and religious religiosity those kind of things hedonism. They're selling systems of thought.

That's worldliness. All right. Any other comments. So longest half-hour sermon I've ever heard on tattoos. Yes. Well and when we have other friends ask yourself the question as a follow-up to this morning.

And I have to be careful too because I have a certain way that I think godliness should present itself. I don't always live that but I have a certain way that I think it should present itself. And other people have different ways.

And so if I'm not careful I can spend all my time if I had. If I said my goal in life is to teach my son not to get a tattoo. The way I would not do that is going around trying to blister him over the head with these anti tattoo verses.

I'd want to teach him here's who Christ is here's what he's done. This is why he had the payment at Calvary has been in full. This is why he loves us and we are to be living ambassadors. We get the pleasure and the privilege of serving our King forever and ever.

And we are to think about life and think about the world as stewards as ambassadors of the king. And we have been enslaved. Our slavery from sin has been broken and now we are slaves of the Lord. We are bond servants.

And I would rather teach him that because then he's going to say when he's 18 I don't need a tattoo. I don't want a tattoo versus the thought. Well we got to make sure we have all these rules because some Christian somewhere might be having fun and we don't want him to do that.

Somebody in this church I know is having fun tonight and I'm gonna put a stop to it. And sometimes that's how I live my life. Well we can enjoy life. And you go to the store and you think there are 50 different kinds of ice cream that God has given man the wisdom to make.

And I can just well I love that taste. God thank you I've got taste buds to eat that to drink those things. God you've given me life. I mean Ecclesiastes is the book of the culture to preach. Life is hard.

Life is difficult. You will die very quickly. So while you are on earth recognize all of life comes from God and enjoy it. Enjoy your wife enjoy your husband enjoy your kids. And you know don't be you know so wound up you can't enjoy life.

And I mean I'm preaching to myself because you know you know why men lives 10 years longer 10 years shorter than women do. It's because they have slow strangulation over 40 years with these ties. That's a Howard Hendricks thing.

All right. Any other comments about tattoos. My real point is this when people are different and everyone here is different including your own spouse and kids we are to love them. And what does Paul say to Timothy as a pastor.

To example for other given examples others. 2nd Timothy 2 verse 1 be strong in grace. And we'll learn next Sunday morning that Jesus was very impartial and Jesus died for people with scars and marks. He died for eunuchs.

He died for all kinds of different people. And we want to make sure we're impartial like Jesus when there are different kinds of people. Okay questions before we go to the next one. Boy let's see what we'll do here.

I've got so many different things to do. All right speaking about Christ's death. Let's let's skip over that one. We'll do that maybe next week. Let's turn our Bibles to Titus chapter 2 verse 14. And I want to talk the next little bit about why Jesus Christ was.

His death was so great and so complete and so sufficient that nothing needs to be done for the Christian while they're waiting for their new body. In other words we don't have anything left in our lives to be purged after we died after we die.

In other words is Christ's death sufficient. Or do prayers for people who have died need to be added. And you know what I'm getting at. But I'm not here to bash anyone. I'm here to tell you that if you read the Bible that if you studied the Bible you can rejoice in the fact that you don't have to die and then wait for saints to pray for you and somehow be purged from your sins.

Right. Christ's death was sufficient. Christ's death was excellent. And so this issue of purgatory comes up a lot. And I just want to tell my friends that believe in purgatory look to the cross. You're missing out the wonder of the cross.

And how Jesus died for my sins past present and future. He died for my sins of thought word and deed. He died for my sins of omission and commission. He died for my sins that I never even confessed because I didn't even know I did them or I can't remember that I did them.

And you just think about the greatness of the cross. Can you imagine those three hours from noon until three where it became dark in the middle of the day. Noon and it's dark. And it's not because it's raining.

And you'll study the Old Testament and you'll see darkness and judgment going together. From noon to three God takes as it were the entire punishment through all the eons of hell and condenses it to three hours and then punishes his son for you.

And I want you to know that when Jesus Christ died on the cross there was no semicolon. After that there was no colon there was no comma. There was no. And it was done. And when Jesus said it is finished and that has been paid it has been finished.

And we as Christians should be rejoicing that we can look to the cross and say we don't have anything left to do in terms of our sin. Look at Titus chapter 2 verse 14. This is about the closest you're going to get in the Bible for the word purge or purgatory or purify.

It's right here. But it's it's it's different than you might imagine. Titus 2 14 wonderful clause here who gave himself for us that is the gospel on our behalf in our place in the place of sinners for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession zealous for good deeds.

Now does anyone here have a study Bible that gives you the Greek word for purify. There you can get some masters not master seminary but I think it's called the master study Bible. You can have Greek and English words which would be good.

Isn't that required in the Greek class. Scott. Yes. Well that's a good guess. I was going to try to be funny. You know if you're in Spanish you know what's the Spanish for angel. Angela. You know it's sounds like that's the Latin word.

Is what it sounds like. I don't know. Yeah. But that's not the Greek word. But that sounds more like the Latin word. And I wasn't trying to bust your chops. So just just laughing. We're laughing with you Jonah.

We're not laughing at you. No good guess. At least Jonah. Jonah had a guess. It's anybody else. Uh. No. K-a-t-h-a-r-i-d-z-o. Catharidzo is the main root word. And what do you think. We get that catharsis cathartic.

Where you have this this cleansing this cleaning this purification. Now if I read you the opposing doctrine the new doctrine page section 1032 purgatory is a place where those quote who die in God's grace but still are imperfectly purified undergo purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

I'm just telling you we have such a great Savior. We don't have to have that happen. You see Titus chapter 2 verse 14. And purify for himself a people after his own possession. I'm gonna guarantee you that God wants holy people.

God is holy and his possession is going to be set apart and holy. We don't have to do that now I could read you some passages that people use and I will. Let's go there. And you tell me why this teaches purgatory or doesn't teach purgatory.

And why does it even matter first. Peter chapter 1 verse 7. I've seen this be used. You know here's the thing if we only study theology and study just kind of the jot and tittle of things. I think that's that this is part of life of studying theology.

But I'm here to tell you and remind you that when you study theology it should always lead to one thing doxology. A study or a word about God should lead to doxology. I challenge you in the next few weeks as you study something let's say something comes up in the news and I think I'll wait till next week to talk about Toronto and the whole gay marriage thing.

So you say I gotta study. Why does why do people get married. What constitutes marriage. Would you just take one step back and say I'm studying marriage in the doctrine of marriage. For what. So I theologically no one can debate.

So I can stand to approve before God. Because I know the scriptures those are good but those aren't the best. When you study God's Word you should get to know him better and it relates to glorifying him more.

Theology always influences your methodology how you do things and it ultimately influences your what's the other word doxology. Glory. The Hebrew word for glory is the word that means heavy kavod. Yeah I mean I could just think of the 60s in in California.

I wasn't there in the 60s. But you can just think of people walking around and somebody says oh isn't Jesus died in your place and he rose from the dead. And you could hear somebody else say that's what.

That's heavy. Just kind of like say la stop and let that sink in heavy. So when you study these things don't say well I'm studying to prove you wrong. Although you might have a family member and you want to tell them.

But you study so you can then praise God all the more. And so that's why we study some theological issues. That's why a lot of the Bible's theological trick question Romans has how many chapters. That's not the trick question.

That's the lead-in trick question. How many chapters in Romans. How many theological chapters. How many doctrinal chapters 16 you know there's a living about certain kinds of doctrines. So then live.

But the living chapters are living a doctrine about what you've learned theologically. So you glorify God as you live it out. We've got the kind of congregation because I know I'm this kind of person I like to study all the doctrines.

Just Jesus died for the elector. Just you know the non-elect and what's common grace and efficacious grace. And super lapsarian and infralapsarian. And and I'm not in the age of Aquarius. And you know and all these kind of things.

But when you study those make sure Lewis is like that was bad. I know it. But make sure you don't just stop there. Why am I studying this. Because I want to get to know the Lord better in my own life.

I talk more about the word than I do understanding the word and then talking about the Lord. And I want to do the next step. So if I'm talking about purgatory then we should be talking about why it's so important and why God is so good.

First Peter 1 7. What if someone said to you that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is imperishable which excuse me which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I've heard that used to show there has to be some other payment afterwards. What would you say. Already looks down. What would you say anyone. Okay very good. Look in the context. This doesn't have anything to do with dying and then having go to a place where we're purged from our sins doesn't have anything to do with that.

This is talking about a faith. Can you imagine what's first Peter about. To whom was first Peter written. A suffering church. A church that in 64 to 67 AD depending on when you think it was written they were killing Christians and Nero was horrible.

And Nero sets Rome on fire and then blames the Christians. They tar you up and then stick you on a pale impaled spike and then lights you for illumination. Another one I've heard them use is Luke 12 59.

I say to you you shall not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent. You have to say well parables we just don't take everything and try to make a theological point. Look down at first Peter 224.

We could do like Margaret did and go back a verse. But we could go forward to what is Jesus talking about or what is Peter talking about. Excuse me first Peter 224. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.

Very important. Okay last one. And this is interesting. We've done this before. I think this was a question from Doug a couple years ago. But let's bring it up again. Let's turn to Revelation chapter 13 verse 11.