Fundamental NoCo: Christian Liberty (Part 5)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrop. 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.

The Church Is Not a Voluntary Organization

I don't know if you've ever considered that the church is not a voluntary organization. The church is not voluntary, and I mean that in the sense of the universal church. You are given ones. Listen to John, don't turn there yet, but listen to John, chapter 6.

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

A little bit later in the chapter, some disciples followed no more. Jesus said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him, Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well?

Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. If you are a Christian, you have been granted to the Son by the Father.

You just didn't say one day to yourself, I think I'm going to become a Christian. My question this morning is, as we get into the text, how do you come to Christ Jesus? How do you come to Christ Jesus?

On your own? With God's help? That question was asked and answered by a variety of different theologians throughout church history. Pelagians have said, I came by myself. This group of people that would follow Pelagius would say, when it comes to me being saved, I came by myself.

Semi Pelagians, they said, I wanted to come and God helped me. So I had a desire, but God gave me the help. Arminians have said, God gave me sufficient grace to come because Christ died and I cooperated.

Lutherans would say, God brought me and I did not resist. Now, do you fit in any of those categories? You say to yourself, I cooperated. I didn't resist. Or did you say with the biblical writers, God brought me to Christ.

I've been brought to Christ by God himself. I love George Mueller and in his biography, he really, really struggled early on with the doctrine of sovereign grace, with the doctrine of election, with the doctrine that God brings Christians to Christ.

He called election a devilish doctrine. How many people do you know who call sovereign grace a devilish doctrine? But he began to study. And then he said this. The electing love of God in Christ, when I have been able to realize it, has often been the means of producing holiness in me instead of leading me into sin.

God brought me to Christ. And so if you're a Christian today, you didn't decide to become a Christian on your own. You didn't cooperate with God. God made you a Christian. And what was the response when God made you a Christian?

Your response was repentance. Your response was faith. Your response was belief. Your response was, I have a desire to follow Christ Jesus. And I think you know deep down because of the teaching here and also by your own prayer life.

Isn't this the way you pray? When you get down on your knees and say, God, thank you that you allowed me to cooperate with you to make me a Christian, you pray that way. Or if you pray for someone else, how do you pray?

Dear Lord, I've got a friend, a family member, a spouse, and would you please give them enough grace so they can cooperate with what you've done? Or what do you say? God, bring them to Christ. God, save them.

Spurgeon says, you don't pray this way. I was born with power by which I can turn to thee of myself. I have improved my grace. If everybody had done the same with their grace that I have, they might all have been saved.

Thou give us grace to everybody. Some do not improve it, but I do. There are many who will go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was. They had as much of the Holy Ghost given to them.

They had as good as chance and they were as much blessed as I am. It was not thy grace that made us to differ. I know it did a great deal since I've turned the point. I made use of what was given to me and others did not.

And that's the difference between me and them. So if you're a Christian today, you didn't just sign up for Christianity. God in the eternal counsels with the Father, Son, and Spirit granted you to Christ Jesus.

And then in time, can you imagine 1 Peter 1, God made you born again. So if there's that kind of love, that kind of initiating grace, that kind of intention that wants your best, that wants you to glorify God in all that you do, that sees you not based on your sin, but sees you through the righteousness of Christ, what should be our response?

In other words, when we learn about this great love that Father has, remember the song, Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus. In response to the love of Jesus, then our response should be what? To obey, not out of trying to improve our standing, but we say, God, you have done this for me, then out of gratitude, I would like to respond to you, to give you honor, to give you glory.

Since you've done this for me, my response should be obedience and love. So today, if you'll open your Bibles to Romans chapter 14, we see the response of Christians in regard to Christian liberty, as one as a response to Christian love initiated by Christ Jesus.

Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 on Christian Liberty

Now we've been going through the book of 1 Corinthians, and I counted the other day, we've been in the book of 1 Corinthians for 66 messages, and we're up to chapter 9. Now that's halfway through, and so if you're calculating 66 times 2, because there's 16 chapters in 1 Corinthians, you'll probably be wrong, because we're going to go faster.

You already probably feel the pace picking up in chapter 7 and in chapter 8. But I wanted to look at Romans 14 and some of 15 this morning for this particular reason. It helps us understand 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

1 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul deals with strong Christians and their convictions as they deal with the weak. On the other hand, Romans chapter 14 and 15 talk to both. They talk to both the weak and the strong.

And so here at the church, we have both weak and strong. And how do we all get together? They say variety is the spice of life, I think that's true, but then how do we all act together? How do we act together in a group that we've been drafted into, yet we are so different in so many different ways?

Let me say up front, I want you to have convictions. If they're biblical convictions, then I want you to have them with lockjawed kind of tenacity. When I was a kid, I was always petrified, I'm going to get lockjawed.

You know, I've cut myself on a nail, I'm going to get lockjawed. Well, this particular case, I want you to have lockjaw-like tenacity on biblical doctrines. And I also want you to have other convictions too.

People without convictions, they don't really, maybe I shouldn't say I'm not that impressed but I want convictions. The question we have to work through though in our church with weak people and strong people is this.

Short of Bible convictions, what do I do with my convictions that aren't necessarily biblical? And here's what happens. The strong people in the church, they say, you know what, I'm prideful. They don't say it, but that's how they act.

I've been taught these things, and I know there's nothing wrong with aerobics for Jesus or whatever kind of thing you want to talk about. There's nothing wrong with alcohol in and of itself. There's nothing wrong with this, that, or the other.

And I now become prideful, and so Paul will address that. That's their problem. The strong's problem is pride. Remember back in chapter 8 early on, he even talks about the puffed up head and that Greek word fusio, blown up head.

The strong, they struggle with pride. And the weak struggle with something, but it's something different. The weak struggle with condemning what the strong do. I don't like that. That bothers me. I'm offended.

How could you do that? And so Paul wonderfully, in Romans chapter 14 and 15, deals with both of the issues. I want biblical convictions of this church. I desire those. I also want you to have convictions about other things.

And I don't care whether that's Halloween, whether that's, I don't know, what would be some other ones, dancing. I want you to have biblical convictions. But the question is, how do we get along to the glory of Christ, and how do we keep our unity in spite of having a whole mixture of people?

And by the way, isn't it great that the blood of Christ Jesus and the work of the Messiah on Calvary saves all kinds of people like us? Remember 1 Timothy chapter 2, that there's one mediator between God and man, the Jew Christ Jesus?

Is that what the text says? The man Christ Jesus. All different kinds of backgrounds, shapes, colors, ideologies, and we're saved. But now we're put all into this organism. You've been drafted. The best word would be called.

You've been called into this body. So what do we do? So today I want to look at Romans chapter 14 and 15 fairly quickly, and then we'll see from God's perspective, how do the weak live with the strong?

How do the strong live with the weak? I like convictions. I'm just not so sure unbiblical convictions that you have need to be everybody else's convictions. That's what Paul is going to talk about. Biblical convictions, die for them.

Will we die for the inerrancy of Scripture? I would. Would we die for substitutionary atonement? I would. That Jesus is fully God and fully man? I would. The literal resurrection of Christ Jesus? I would.

There are truths that we hold to be sacred. But there are other convictions that we have that Paul doesn't want us to die for them, and also Paul doesn't want to make sure you go around and A, make sure everybody knows your convictions about whatever it might be.

And number two, that we don't divide over those and say, I will die for those convictions. Some people here think we should have wine in communion, some grape juice. Some people here let their kids play with fake guns, others don't.

Some people here go to taekwondo and kung fu, and others don't. Some go to acupuncturists and chiropractors, others don't. Some people, do we have any vegetarians? I won't ask you to raise your hand, especially in light of what we're going to do after the service.

I'm not preaching this sermon for what we're going to do after service. But if it helps, good. Some of us come from legalistic backgrounds. Some come from very loose, licentious backgrounds. And so if the church is properly going to reflect her groom, her husband, Christ Jesus, then there's a way that we're supposed to think.

And there's a way we're supposed to act around other people who don't have the same convictions that we do. Now, as we come to Romans chapter 14 and 15, I will talk about chapter 3 in a moment, but I do find this interesting.

In chapters 1 through 11, Paul is laying down doctrine, and then the duty comes in chapters 12 and following. Oh, once in a while he'll give an imperative early on, but the bulk of the conduct for the Christian, in light of our righteousness given to us by God, is found in chapters 12 to 16.

But I did notice, just counting, in chapter 12 through 16, he has 2 verses on the mind, 6 verses on an estimate of yourself, 13 verses on a call to love, 7 verses about church and state. And without trying to be scientific and say we have to weigh verses, I did find it fascinating, though, that there are 35 verses written on how we should accept other people who differ on issues not related to the Bible.

That is to say, chapter 12, 1 and 2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that's an important thing. Later on, though, he just puts tons of weight on this issue. You say, well, that's because the Romans were probably studying, they were probably dealing with that issue, and they were not doing well.

That could be true, but Paul wants us to know, today as well, that this is going to be an important doctrine. How do we respond to the grace of God? How do we live in light of the cross? In other words, when we have inevitable disagreements.

So let's go to Romans chapter 14 and 15, and this morning for an outline, I'll give you 3 exhortations to love other people in the local assembly, since God has loved you in Christ before eternity passed.

Justification by Faith Alone and the Righteousness of God

3 exhortations to love others. Maybe 3 requirements to keep Christ's church unified, even though we have differences and we have debatable areas. Now, you're going to see a lot of strong and weak talk in this passage.

Let me just say a couple things to start. Strong and weak people in the context of Romans 14 and 15, and 1 Corinthians 8, 9, and 10, they both believe in Christ Jesus. They both are born again. They both are believers.

We're not talking about the strong or Christians and the weak aren't. No, both are Christians. But the difference is very interesting. The strong have understood who Christ is, and then they flesh it out in their lives.

They know the doctrine of justification by faith alone and Christ alone, grace alone, and then it shows up in their life. But the weak know they've been justified by faith alone. They just don't live it out.

They're not sure about that. And again, remember I said the last couple weeks, immature Christians, I like immature Christians. Because when you're newly saved, what are you? You're a new Christian. You're an immature Christian.

You're a weak Christian. We just don't want to be weak when we should be strong. We just don't want to be immature when we should be mature. The strong here in this passage grab hold of faith and understand justification by faith alone, and then it changes the way they live.

They realize all foods are okay. Meat's fine. Whatever day of the week I'm to worship, why put one day above the other? We have freedom in Christ Jesus. What I do, can you imagine what has been done to me in eternity past, at Calvary, when I was saved, and what's going on to me right now?

There's nothing I can do to make God love me less. Sometime read John 17 again, especially towards the end. Can you imagine when God sees you in Christ Jesus, He sees you through the righteousness of Christ Jesus, and He could not love you more because He loves you as much as He loves the Son.

You say, well, you know what? If I eat some pig, will God love me less? No, He won't because I understand justification by faith, and now it's fleshed out. I think it would be helpful if we turn back to Romans 3, just for a moment, to understand justification by faith.

I firmly believe that if you struggle with liberty in your Christian life, it's because you don't understand justification by faith alone. That is to say, I have a problem. Well, it's a doctrinal issue.

Chapter 14 and 15 aren't just dropped in like a parachute behind enemy lines. They follow the long train of a whole book of Romans, the righteousness of God. That's how you define Romans. And then how do we get the righteousness of God credited to our account?

And if it is credited to our account in chapter 3, we see an illustration in chapter 4, we get the benefits in chapter 5, then how shall we live? So if you don't understand issues about Halloween and issues about alcohol or whatever you think are some of the gray areas, for you maybe they're not gray areas at all, but they're debatable areas at least.

Couldn't you at least grant me that? This is a debatable area in Christianity. It all goes back to justification. It all goes back to your theology. Because if you grasp that, and then God uses what you know and you live out that truth, you'll be on your way to becoming less and less weak and more and more strong in your faith.

So I love Romans chapter 3 because it's tied to chapter 14 and 15. If you're weak today and you say to yourself, I watch other Christians who are strong and what they do I do, but then I feel convicted afterwards, you'll be helped.

Romans chapter 3 verse 20, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now, but now the righteousness of God. Can you imagine how perfect that righteousness is and how glorious and how holy has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there's no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They've all sinned in time past and they keep on falling short now of the glory of God and are justified, declared righteous by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he'd passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. But what kind of love? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only?

Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Justification by faith alone, when you grab it, understand it, study it, you will live your life then in light of it by the Spirit's empowering and then you'll go, what I eat, the day I worship, all the other debatable areas are really moved to the irrelevant point of over here some place because nothing I can do changes my status before God.

If I eat anything or don't eat anything, I'm still declared just as righteous as I was before. And here we see the love of God because God gives his own son as a propitiation. Remember back in the old days you had all these cults and they would try to mollify some God by giving them some sacrifice, some food, some apple, some banana, something else to mollify that and the person himself as the sinner would want to pacify the God who was angry.

Can you imagine God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit? Knowing we can't pacify God, God himself makes propitiation for us by providing the sacrifice. So all that to say if you struggle with debatable areas, Romans 3 is going to be key for you.

Welcome the Weaker Brother Without Quarreling

Now let's go back to chapter 14 and give you the first exhortation to love in spite of differences. Number one, strive for harmony in spite of your differences. That's basically chapter 14 verses 1 to 12.

Strive for harmony and then he gives three commands in light of that that all have to do with striving for harmony. You see all kinds of imperatives here and they're given to us. I believe you preach with imperatives.

I believe you tell people this is a response to your justification by faith alone and free grace. Strive for harmony in spite of differences. And he says first, accept the weaker brother or sister. Verse 1, as for the one who's weak in faith, the one who believes but they don't really understand the ethical changes from Romans chapter 3 and living in light of justification by faith alone, those kind of people who are weak, they're the kind of people that have convictions and they want them to be everybody else's convictions and they're condemning the strong for living a lifestyle that's a little looser in their mind.

As for the one who is weak in faith, what? Welcome him. Isn't that fascinating? Receive him. Present tense, keep on receiving him. It means to welcome in your home with open arms. Some people have a little mat in front of their house when you walk in to wipe your feet off on, right?

What's it say? Welcome. Welcome. You're going to see how this is all going to drive as there used to be a no trespassing sign to the glory of God and his love through Christ Jesus. He is, as it were, a welcome to us as a great mediator and advocate.

We are to love other people, love our neighbors and ourselves. He just says welcome him. Wholehearted welcome. Receive him. Ray Stedman said years ago, the favorite indoor sport of Christians is trying to change each other.

And so look at what he says at the end of verse 1. Welcome him, but not to quarrel over his opinions. God wants people who are immature and have weak faith involved in the life of the Christians. We don't have, you know, are you a new member here?

Yes, you are. Okay, you stay. You get the room upstairs, the overflow room, and you stay there until you grow up and then you can come out. What does that say about you people up there? I don't know if anybody's in that room today.

No, we welcome them, but our welcoming is not, well, you know what, come over to my house because I'm going to set you straight. No, it's come over to my house. It's not to debate over things, but just because I want to love you.

They trust Christ Jesus. They've looked to him with faith. They've got all kinds of other scruples and opinions and debatable things that you got over years ago, but we're to open our arms because we'll see later Christ died for them as well.

When you meet somebody who's just so new in the faith, Paul is saying, don't just barely tolerate them. Don't treat them some second-class way. Open your arms. Welcome, we'd love to have you. Great, I'm so glad you're here.

By the way, when you've come to Bethlehem Bible Church, you've all had the first time that you've come and I've tried to just welcome you with just common courtesy welcome. I'm thinking to myself this way every single time.

I hate to tell you this, but I'll just tell you anyway. I'm thinking to myself, Lord, this is your church. You can build the church any way you want. You bring the people here sovereignly. And then I say to myself, I wonder what baggage these people are bringing.

And everybody who's laughing, you've got the most baggage as you understood. I wonder where they're coming from. Are they saved? Are they a false teacher trying to creep in unaware? What do they know?

Why they leave their last church? Are they weak in faith? Are they strong in faith? But I don't say, no, you can't come or anything, because I say, you know, this is God's church and my job is faithfulness and stewardship and my job is to minister to sinners.

And if Christ Jesus ministered to sinners, then I will too.

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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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