Summer of Romans 2018 (Part 25): Union In Liberty (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio, with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Christian Unity in the Face of Secondary Differences

Well, people say that variety is the spice of life. I think there's some truth to that. It's also the cause of church conflict. Is the church heterogeneous or homogeneous? While the church might all believe in the doctrine that Jesus Christ died on behalf of sinners and was raised from the dead, what about gray areas?

What about debatable things? What about questionable things where Christians, good Christians, have some differing opinions on them? In this room, we have some people that believe that Sunday is the Lord's day and other people that believe that this is the Sabbath.

Some are free to do whatever they want and others are more bound to what the Bible says or what they think the Bible says. What do we do with a group this size? Some of you are public schoolers, some are homeschoolers, some are private schoolers.

What about tobacco? Some of you maybe smoke tobacco, some of you don't. How do we get along? How about alcohol? Some drink, some don't. Some think drinking is a sin, some don't. How do we get along with all these issues that we differ on?

Some of you put up Christmas trees in your house and others of you think it's idolatry to put such a pagan Jeremiah tree in your house. Some let your kids dress up as, I don't know, a little angel and go to people's houses and knock on the door and say, could I please have some candy?

Other people think it's from the devil. How do we get along in Christianity? If the two great commandments in light of our salvation is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbors, yourself, what does that love look like?

How do we love other Christians who don't believe what we believe on secondary issues, peripheral issues? The New Testament church was similar. You had Jews and Gentiles coming together and the Jews might say, you know, my conscience is really bound to Saturday worship and now I'm having a hard day worshiping on the Lord's Day Sunday.

I couldn't eat sea urchin before but now you're telling me I can? And you've got Gentiles who are in the church and they used to have all their meat dedicated to gods before they ate it and now how can I eat meat dedicated to a god?

The Jew would say, there's no god at all, eat whatever meat you want. The Gentiles would say, I came from such a background of debauchery and bacchanalian licentiousness, I can't drink alcohol anymore and the Jew would say, when it comes to alcohol you can see the Psalms say when God wants to bless his people he gives wine.

So what do we do? Let's turn our Bibles to Romans and find out how Christians get along even though they're different. Different life experiences, different parents, male, female, Jew, Gentile, white, brown, black, rich, poor, old, young, blue collar, white collar.

Are we going to be divided by secondary issues? The answer must be no because Jesus Christ purchased the church with his own blood and we ought to be unified. Think about the Bible's discussion of unity, 1 Corinthians 1 unity, 1 Corinthians 2 unity, 1 Corinthians 3 unity, 1 Corinthians 4 unity, Ephesians chapter 4.

Be diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. See this is the church that Jesus purchased with his own blood and we ought to make sure we care for his church carefully and not try to act like we want everybody to change to do exactly what we do.

Ray Stedman said years ago in California the favorite indoor sport of the Christian is to get other Christians to change and act just like them. How do we all get along? Some of you buy guns and shoot guns.

Other of you are appalled that they have guns. I remember people asked me do I let my boys grow up and play with BB guns and I said well you can do whatever you want, you're the king of your own castle but if you don't give them some kind of gun to play with they'll take their bread crust and form it into some kind of gun to go around and shoot.

What do we do? We have Democrats here and Republicans. How do we all get along? How do we come before the Lord and say do you know holistic medicine or going to doctors or are we vegan or do we eat meat?

Can we join the military? Can we not? There's all kinds of questions and the issue isn't who is right, the issue is how do we love one another properly in light of the cross. Now this is going to sound like I'm trying to be funny but I'm not I'm just trying to be as basic as I can so we get this picture from the book of Romans.

Justification by Faith Alone as the Basis for Christian Liberty

The key to Romans 14 and 15 understanding the liberties we have in Christ is solved by Romans chapter 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. In other words if you have troubles with 14 and 15 go back and read the earlier context that is to say the theology of justification by faith alone determines how you live your life and it should determine the way you live in light of your justification.

Turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 3 just to remind you how important these are when they're combined. We just cannot take Romans 14 and 15 in isolation and say this is how we treat other people who differ regarding these gray areas are debatable things but it's tied back to Romans chapter 3.

Now remember Romans 1 says pagans are sinful they have no righteousness. A pagan looks at the world and sees the sun and thinks it's a god instead of seeing the sun and the moon and the stars saying a god made those things and has also given me a conscience.

Religious people in chapter 2 are also guilty because man has fallen in Adam. God has credited mankind with Adam's sin and they have fallen in light of that. If you go to chapter 3 we need some righteousness.

We need to be right in God's eyes. How can we approach the holy just righteous creator as judge? We are undone because we're sinful and if you see our resume in Romans 3 .10 no one is righteous. Yeah but what about no not one?

Verse 11 no one understands no one seeks for God they have all turned aside together they have become worthless no one does good. Yeah but what. No not even one. Verse 20 for by the works of the law trying to keep the law if we're corrupt it doesn't matter how much of the law we keep or can't keep because we do it with corrupt hearts no human being will be justified in his sight maybe other people's sight but not in God's sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

And so what Paul is saying is here's the need everyone has for righteousness. We're sinful we need a savior we have no righteousness. We need righteousness and here's the fascinating thing. Take a look at verse 24 it says in Romans 3 .24.

And are justified by his grace as a gift. Can you imagine it's the wonder of all wonders. Think about how sinful selfish self-righteous arrogant boastful prideful unthankful lustful. Just think about all the things that you are that I am and in light of that I can stand before God as blameless and spotless.

I can stand before God now how is it that I could stand before God. And God sees me with his all-knowing omniscient eyes. And I Mike Avendroth not condemned. I'm justified. He sees me as though I'm perfect.

How can that be. It's the doctrine of justification. Because God loves people God loves mankind. And God sent his son who is the eternal God. He cloaked him with humanity. And that son lived a perfect life even on the cross he was honoring his mother.

Wasn't he. Children obey your parents and children honor your parents. On the cross Jesus was honoring his mother. Everything Jesus did perfectly obey the law of God never sinned. He was spotless and blameless.

And on Calvary when Jesus died not for his sins but for my sins he was credited with my sins even though he never sinned one time and simultaneously the believer is then credited with his perfect life.

Justification is more than forgiveness. Although it contains forgiveness justification means I so have Christ righteousness cloaked over me that when God sees me he sees his son. And I can stand before God.

One day you'll all stand before God. And then how can you stand before God with even one sin thrice holy God one sin nuclear winner forever hell. But we stand before God justified. Take a look at verse 5 of the next chapter.

And to the one Romans 4 5 who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly he declares righteous not guilty his faith is counted as righteousness. Verse 7. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven.

Why. Because somebody else paid for them. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will not count his sin not counted against us counted against Jesus confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So now let's think about it. If I stand before the bar of God's justice as holy perfect righteous always obeying the law because of what Jesus's righteousness meant to me. Credited in that to me you mean to tell me if I take a pipe and suck some I don't even know what it's called.

Some smoke into my lungs that undoes the work of God. Mean to tell me is if I take a sip of wine that I'm not. I'm now unjustified. The doctrine of justification by faith. You can't be more perfect than Jesus is.

You can't be loved by God more than you are because he loves you in Christ Jesus. If you have been declared righteous by the work of another your actions can't undo what's already been done. In other words when you believe in justification by faith alone counted as not guilty based on the work of another.

What I do in terms of what day I worship. Do I drink alcohol. Do I smoke cigarettes. I know some people they get all riled up on debatable things like birth control. What kind of birth control do you use or don't use.

And let's divide on that. We are schismatic people. We don't want to be. And justification by faith alone helps us with Liberty. Say well yeah. But you're kind of going on and on and on about this. Aren't you Mike.

Romans 12 1 and 2 2 verses on the mind. Romans 12 6 verses on self. How do we estimate ourselves. Romans 12 13 verses on love. Romans 13 7 verses on the church and state. And Romans 14 and 15 35 verses on how Christian should get along in the local church.

It's very very important. So let's give you two requirements in light of justification this morning. So we can stay unified in spite of our differences in debatable areas. Two requirements in light of justification.

So we stay together. We love one another in spite of debatable areas. In spite of our taboos number one strive for harmony found in verses 1 to 12. Strive for harmony. We are different people. And so what do we do in light of our justification.

We're still going to strive for harmony. Let's take a look at verse 1. We're going chapter by chapter through Romans. We're going a little faster than normal. But I'm trying to do Romans 16 chapters 16 weeks.

So hence the speed. Romans 14 1. As for the one who is weak in faith welcome him but not to quarrel over opinions. The weak in faith doesn't mean he's not a believer or she's not a believer in Christ Jesus.

But they're just immature in the faith. They're just a brand new Christian and they haven't figured out the significance of justification by faith alone. They believe it. They they understand it to some level.

But maybe their theology is Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me. So they don't understand all the details. And they don't see the connection between theology and methodology that if God declares me righteous based on the work of another what I do or don't do in these debatable areas specifically certain worship days food offered to idols.

That doesn't change my status before God. When God says you're not guilty you're not guilty. And so the weak person has a hard time figuring that out. The weak person also likes to go. I can't believe those strong people are doing that.

How could they now the strong person they realize justification by faith alone has has given them freedom in Christianity. They can eat what they want and do what they want. And they don't undo their faith.

But the weak while they look to the strong and say how could you the strong have the propensity to look at the weak and go kind of arrogantly looking at the weak. And so Paul says. As for the one who is weak in faith welcome him.

What do you do when you're around an immature believer. I know what I want to do. I want to tell them grow up. I want to tell them go talk to the other elders. And when you grow up then we can hang out together.

I love to hang out with mature believers. By the way there's nothing wrong with that when you get to hang out with mature believers. I hope you think that's a great opportunity. When my brother and I talked Sinclair Ferguson into going to have dinner with us I just thought this is going to be so great.

I get to go hang out with the mature believer. I have to like parse every word and explain every little detail. And well for the for the mature we love to say yes. Welcome them. But how about those new Christians.

How about those Christians that are still trying to figure out how does justification by faith alone apply to tobacco for instance I think once at this church I saw over here we had a swimming pool filled with water like this and there were some apples in there.

And I think some of our kids were bobbing for satanic apples. How did I. How did that happen under my watch. What do we do with people like that. And if we're not careful I know this would be my propensity.

When you're around weak or immature people you kind of want to just avoid them. And you say you know what. You can be very pompous. I know I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit will do this work in my brother.

And then later I'll hang out. And what does the text say though. Welcome him. Please come over. I want to be a part. I want you. This is brotherly cordial love. Welcome. What's the opposite. Shun stiff arm black ball blacklist.

Welcome the one who's weak in faith. This is used in verse 7 of Romans 15. Take a look at this. This is convicting Romans 15 7. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

How did God welcome you. He welcomed me as sinner as ungodly as immature as wired into self as possible. And he said welcome. But for us now as Christians unless you think the way I do about school about ammo about voting about all these other things and you're blackballed now.

Of course if you have friends who are like you I don't care. That's fine. It's it's it's the gravitational pull of friendships. Oh hi. You have kids in public school. Yeah I do too. Is it hard. Yes it's hard.

Let's get together. But if you then say if some uh homeschool kid comes around here homeschool family they're so out of here maybe it's more prone where the homeschool families say we want to unite and circle around one another because of the persecution that homeschoolers face.

And so we want to be around each other. Great. But the second you say there yeah there's that family over there our single mom and our kids and their public school. And we can't have them over here. That's what Paul is talking about.

It says welcome. It literally is in the present imperative keep on taking to yourself keep on loving them keep on showing patience to them. And then you say okay now I know what I'll do. I have to welcome them.

It's simple. It's easy. It's any child could read that passage welcome. So I know what I'll do. I'll welcome them with open arms to sit them down to change their mind. That's what I'll do. I'll have them over for the explicit purpose.

It's kind of like you ever get invited to somebody's house and you talk to them for like two hours. And then it's time to go. And then one minute before you leave they tell you the most important thing.

They tell you now the reason why you're over there. By the way I want to just talk about sudden such okay that's fine. But you know the end always has the important deal. I think we should flip it around and front load it.

Let's get all that stuff out of the way. And then let's eat steak tartar after that or something if you're a stronger brother in the Lord so we'll invite the people over come. We want you. We know you're different kind of odd and immature.

But come on over. And now we're going to set you straight. That's not the idea here see the text. But not to quarrel over opinions. Welcome him but not welcome him to quarrel over opinions. And you know paul if it was justification by works of sinful man galatians.

But if it was well you know maybe timothy should just get circumcised because it'd make it just easier on him for ministry act 16. Fine. This isn't a matter of adding works to the gospel. This is how the gospel affects the way you live.

The gospel is not now God has received us with open arms. And we've got to get everybody else to believe the way we do. Because then we feel better about our position. I have to tell you when I first got saved I got saved out of debauchery licentiousness.

And so the pendulum was way over here to sin. And then when I first got saved I think the pendulum went way too far over here. And if I saw somebody smoking a cigarette I'm not talking about cigarettes are bad for you and cigarettes are habit forming.

And cigarettes cost a lot of money and all that. But I just thought that guy's got to be a pagan. Yeah to take dried leaves roll them up and put it in some white paper light it on fire inhale and blow it out with some kind of ring.

You're going straight to hell. When I first got saved if your kid dressed up like a jelly belly and went out and knocked on the door for some candy I was thinking pitchforks. I was thinking some kind of Anton LaVey book of Satan or something.

Reminds me that Curtis Vaughn story where the Baptist theologians and the American theologians and the German theologians got together in the 1920s to talk about their Christian faith. And you know those German theologians were so appalled by the American theologians smoking that they almost dropped their beer.

I mean it's amazing to me to think of that now. See I want you to have convictions. But I want you to know your convictions on the gospel. There's one God one mediator one advocate. There's one God who makes propitiation.

You ever think about that. Every other religion says God. Here's a little here's a little basket of goodies for you. Here's a virgin here's a baby. Here's a food. Here's an unmerciful. But for Christianity it's Romans 3.

God makes propitiation and he gives his only son as a ransom to save sinners. And in light of that salvation how do we act. If you look at verse 2 you'll see the strong and weak people here. One person believes he may eat anything that's the strong Christian.

Because what you eat does not determine or undo God's gavel of justification. While the weak person eats only vegetables. The strong are able to grasp the significance of Christ's death for daily living.

They're not in an old testament mosaic laws and rules for what to eat what's clean and unclean aware of grace. And the weak are still learning they're sensitive to sin. And it's easier to have a do and don't list.

Isn't it in Christianity. Just tell me what not to do. And the weak also are so weak that they'll follow the strong even though they're not convicted to do the same thing. Except I ask you the question when people differ from you on justification I think you evangelize them.

When people differ on these questionable debatable gray areas what do you do. You open your heart and your home. You accept them. Look what else Paul says in verses 3. And following he just says I don't want you to be more restrictive of fellowship than God is.

This is all striving for harmony. You accept people that helps harmony. You treat the fellowship like God does. That helps the harmony. Verse 3. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains. Don't.

If you're strong don't despise the person contempt. Look down on literally. Throw throw out as nothing literally. And let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats for God has welcomed him.

Both need to say we're going to stop holding judgment or making judgments against each other. God has made rude room for them. And it's not salvation by palate. So it won't be fellowship by palate either.

Who are you. Boy that's tough language. Isn't it that's Nathan. Like language. Verse 4 who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another. This is like a worker at home. This is like a a person that you hire to come clean your house for the day.

No compromise. Radio with pastor.

Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston Massachusetts. 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 8 30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on route 110 in West Boylston Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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