Christian Liberty (Part 6)

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.

Striving for Harmony by Accepting One Another

When you first get saved, should I eat this or shouldn't I? Should I become ecumenical in my palate? Should I be vegan? He's not condemning the weak. He's not saying good things about the weak. He's just saying, you know, some people are different.

And he goes on to say with some more imperatives here found in verse 3, strive for harmony by accepting, but also treat the fellowship like God does. In other words, don't be more restrictive in fellowship than God is.

Don't be more inclusive, I mean exclusive in fellowship than God is. How does God treat people? What does he do? Well, Paul begins to talk about that in verse 3. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains.

Let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats. For God has welcomed him. So if God's fellowship is you believe in Christ Jesus, you've recognized you're a sinner and God has made you born again, you've responded with faith and repentance and you believe in the literal resurrection, etc.

God says open arms. Then why do you say closed arms unless you agree with what I say? Paul says don't do that. Don't despise. Don't look down on. Don't be more restrictive than God is. By the way, in the back of your mind should be this.

Since God's word performs its work in those who believe, Christians mature. If you're a Christian, you're going to be maturing. If you're not maturing, then I question your Christianity. But you will mature.

In the background, it's all, it's not explicit, but implicit is these unbelievers who are weak will learn to grow. They will grow. And since you're not saved by pallet, what do we care? Shouldn't be fellowship by pallet either.

Whose verdict really counts? Verse four. Wow, this is, this is wild language here. Who are you to pass judgment on the servants of another? So someone has a slave and then you go, that person slave's not working too hard.

That person slave over there doesn't serve me properly. That person slave over there, that slave reports not to you. It is before his own master that he stands or falls and he will be upheld for the Lord is able to make him stand.

So he moves from the servant, then back to the weak Christian. He's going to stand. God's going to make him stand. So why judge? He doesn't report to you. All the weak people here, if you're weak, strange thing is when we are, we hear a sermon, we never think, oh, I'm the weak one.

Unless you're a brand new Christian. Then you go, okay, I know I'm weak, but the weak people don't report to the strong. So why would we snub them or judge them based on what kind of jewelry they hair or what kind of music is appropriate for the church, et cetera.

Actually, Paul goes on to say, just keep your convictions private. This will help harmony, accepting people will help harmony, treating the fellowship like God does helps the harmony and keeping your convictions private.

Look at verse five. And as I read these verses, make sure you look for the words, God and Lord of the Lord of the Lord, of the Lord, to the Lord, to the Lord, to God. One person esteems one day is better than another.

Oh, so food wasn't the only issue. Well, another esteems all days alike. And you know the tension between Jews and Gentiles here. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind, fully assured. So let me give you the Abendroth translation, Abendroth standard translation.

It's the ASV. Paul says, mind your own business. Keep your convictions to yourself on some of those things. I always wonder, there are some people at church I say to myself, I don't really know what they think about some of these issues.

And I go, I'm glad God is working a grace in their life because I don't know what they believe in because it's a sign of weakness and immaturity when everyone knows of the church where you stand on all these issues.

They're not issues about the Bible being true and Christ penal substitution, literal resurrection. They're not those issues. There's all these other issues and everybody knows, oh yeah, I know where he stands on this.

I know where he stands on that. I know where she stands on Halloween. I know where he stands on smoking. Also just mind your own business. You're to be convinced. What's the text say? In your own mind, Christian convictions, private and personal.

Verse six, the one who observes the day, honors it in honor of the Lord. I think they're really trying to please God is what Paul is saying. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord. He's really trying to eat the right thing to honor God.

Since he gives thanks to God while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. Paul is saying the weaker brother here really has a desire to honor Christ Jesus. And so if he has a desire to honor Christ Jesus, then we should be welcoming.

We should count him as a brother. And then verse seven and eight, not just horizontal issues are involved with one another, but also God himself for none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself.

For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's should not the focus of every one of our lives be. We want to honor the Lord.

It shouldn't be ourselves anyway. So why do we go around making sure everybody knows about all our convictions? It's theological. Verse nine, theology matters for to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living.

Before you were a Christian, you were enslaved to sin. And now that God has made you a Christian, guess what he wants? More slavery, enslaved to Christ Jesus, the Lord, King Jesus. Verse 10, why do you pass judgment on your brother?

Are you? Why do you despise your brother? He's talking about the weak and the strong, for we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. We will receive judgment. We are not to give judgment. We are not to give premature judgment.

We will receive judgment on that day. For verse 11, it's written as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. Every person will give homage and glory and ascribe greatness, not to us, but as Paul quotes Isaiah 45 and 49, to God.

Verse 12, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God, the strong, not to the weak, the weak, not to the strong. With a counting CPA math kind of language, say, well, on judgment day, I'm not going to have to try to defend the weak people.

Say on judgment day, I'm not going to have to try to defend the strong people. Gray areas are gray areas. We have other things that bind us together. That's kind of a negative side. Just don't do a bunch of these things in light of the gospel.

Making Edification Your Goal

Now Paul turns positively to give our second requirement for love in spite of differences. Make edification your goal. So the first one was strive for harmony in spite of differences. Now number two, make edification your goal.

In other words, build up. So Paul in Ephesians, he would say, put off this behavior in light of the gospel. Put on this behavior. If you struggle with lying, then your response should be unto God. Of course, repentance and confession, but I need to stop lying and I need to replace it with something else, telling the truth.

If you're lazy and you don't work, you need to respond with, I need to work. So Paul says, stop this, do that. He does the same thing here. It's really neat. Stop doing all this critical judgment and make edification your goal.

Now as we work through, I want you to get something in your mind that's very, very important. Here's what's important. Here's what stumbling is in the New Testament. I think it's okay to wear, let's see, let's use smoking.

I think it's okay to smoke a pipe, smoke a cigar. You come over to my house and you smell cigar smoke and you get really mad. You get perturbed. You say, how could Pastor Mike do that? That's not stumbling.

That's just you're bugged and you're perturbed. Stumbling is, is if you think cigarette smoking's sinful because it's destroyed your life and everybody else's life, and you think, you know what, I gave up cigarette smoking when I got saved.

And I went over to Mike's house and I could smell tobacco. And since Mike does it and he's the pastor, I'll do it too. And you smoke. And when you drive home, your conscience is killing you because you thought you've sinned.

That's New Testament stumbling. New Testament stumbling is not, let's use the one with our harvest fest. I commended Stephen Westley last week for one thing. And that is they wanted to just love other people.

But that was not first Corinthians chapter eight specifically. Here's first Corinthians chapter eight applied to our harvest festival at Bethlehem Bible Church. Last year, we let people dress up as, I don't know, astronauts and ballerinas, whatever.

Some people didn't want to come though because they didn't believe you should dress up around Halloween time. So if Stephen West said, you know what, but according to first Corinthians eight, here's the issue.

We let people dress up and people that think dressing up is sinful, let their kids dress up anyway because some of the leader's kids dress up. And driving home from the harvest festival, you think it's sinful because you let your kid dress up.

That's the offense. That's the stumbling. The offense is not, I disagree. I'm bugged. I can't believe Bethlehem Bible Church out of all places would let kids dress up some kind of football outfit on October 30th.

That's just beyond me. That reeks of the world and devil and Satan and unholy trinity. That's what I used to do as a pagan. To be bothered is not the stumbling block. Now, I don't drink alcohol, but if I did drink alcohol and you saw me drink and you said, I don't go for that at all.

How can Abendroth drink? That's not stumbling. That's not the offense that first Corinthians eight nor the offense Romans 14 and 15 is talking about. It's the weak person who says, I don't agree with the strong, but I'm influenced by their behavior.

The strong do things and since I'm weak, I'm just sucked into the gravity flow and then I do it and later I say to myself, I've sinned. That's the issue. So when you say to yourself, well, you know, that really bugs me and I don't like it when people dress up.

Maybe you say, I like to dress up during Halloween, uh, during the harvest festival, the being bugged and disagree and I wouldn't do it that way. Those aren't my convictions. That is not what Paul is talking about in first Corinthians chapter eight and Romans 14 and 15 say, well, you know what?

Um, the church is going to put together a ballroom dancing, so we're gonna have ballroom dancing in the church and you go, I hate dancing. Dancing's for these kinds of people. Dancing is this way. That's dancing.

Is that way? Here's what people do when they dance and you go, I don't agree with it. The church should not be doing it. That is not the stumbling in first Corinthians chapter eight. That is not the stumbling in Romans chapter 14 and 15.

The stumbling is this. You think dancing is always sin and you go anyway because you're, you know, want to be around church fellowship and you know it's sinful in your mind and therefore you see me dance, which by the way, you're not going to ever see.

But then you say, you know what? I just don't agree. That's not first Corinthians eight. That's not Romans 14 and 15. But if you go and then you dance, even though you think it's sin because you watch me dance, that is first Corinthians chapter eight and that's the stumbling we're talking about.

So I wasn't commending Wes and Stephanie for, that was exactly apples to apples first Corinthians chapter eight. I commended them for this doesn't matter one way or the other and their job is this way.

We just want to love other people instead of thinking what my convictions are, what my personality is, what I'm allowed freedom in Christ to do instead of that as leaders. You know what? Let's just love other people.

And isn't that what Paul is talking about? Loving other people since we've been loved. So let's get into this positive side here. Making edification your goal. This is what we want to do. We want to build up.

And I think sometimes even when it comes to gun issues, we were having some people get together to shoot guns not that long ago and some people were really, really bothered. How could a pastor shoot a gun?

I don't like it that Mike gets into guns. Okay. You don't have to like it. But if you say, you know what? I think shooting guns is sinful and when I show up with Mike to go down to the range and shoot, I drive home thinking I'm dirty.

I'm sullied. It reminds me of when I used to be in a gang and I'd shoot people and I am not to do that. That's the issue. Paul says edify by determining not to trip up a believer. Look at verse 13, the focus is on edification.

Then the issue is not who's right and who's wrong. Weak can edify, strong can edify. Therefore let not us pass judgment on one another any longer. You can just hear Pastor Paul, Apostle Paul, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother.

If you really want to judge things, judge this. Judge yourself that you'll never do such a thing. Determine this. Judge this. Don't put some tripping instrument in front of someone that they could trip over it.

Don't do anything in such a way that a weak believer will follow you because you're the leader. He says in verse 14, I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got my theology down. Paul's strong is what he's saying.

I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus, the Lord, the King, that nothing is unclean in and of itself or in itself. But if it is clean for anyone who thinks it is unclean. So that is to say, if you think eating meat is wrong because you used to be a Gentile and you were back at Corinth and back at Rome and they'd offer them to gods and then you ate anyway because I ate, then you'd be stumbled.

I'd make you stumble. If you just disagree with me eating, that's not what Paul is saying. He's persuaded by the Lord. So Paul says you can just say no to yourself. Verse 15, for if your brother is grieved by what you eat, if he watches you and does what he thinks he ought not to do, and then has the guilty feelings later, you're no longer walking in love, but what you eat do not destroy.

And here's just this wild thing. It has nothing to do with, I believe in unlimited atonement. It has nothing to do with, I think you can lose your salvation. He just gives the full weight because there can't be a greater appeal than this.

Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died destroyed, like eternally destroyed. That's the way Paul always uses the word. He's not saying you can lose your salvation if somebody watches you, then stumbles.

He's not saying Christ died for each and every person that was ever born. He's not saying any of that. He's just saying with language, like he used in Rome in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, if I'm going to make somebody stumble, I'll just never eat meat again.

With rhetoric and hyperbole, he's just going to say, here's the issue. The weak brother is grieved because they violated their convictions by watching you. John Murray has a great section in there and you can read his commentary if you'd like to learn more.

Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Hey, what's really important? Verse 16, this is good. Isn't this good? Remember what was really important. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.

What's the local assembly all about anyway? For the kingdom of God, verse 17, is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Either talking about the righteousness of Christ, our ethical qualities, but the point is still the same.

Our life is not determined by some of the things we think we have liberty to do are not due. By the way, at Bethlehem Bible Church, why do you think we never have classes on IBS or Sunday school or anything else that are how to exercise your liberties?

How to understand your preferences? Why? Because the next one that Harrington is going to teach in two weeks is on soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. Because the more you understand the doctrine of salvation, the more you'll live in light of what you know.

So then, verse 19, let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding. That'd be better. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

You don't think you can eat. I eat. And as a leader, you watch me. Therefore, you eat and then your conscience gets you. It's verse 21. Good not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

Looking to Christ Jesus as the Pattern of Self-Sacrificial Love

Summary charge to the strong, verse 22, the faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. And then lastly, we don't have much time and I talked about this two weeks ago, so we'll just make it brief.

If you'd like to understand how to love Christians who differ with you, one, there's the negative side. Don't do this and don't do that. Two, there's a positive side. Go for upbuilding. Three, look to Christ Jesus.

That's Romans 15, one to 13. Here's actually a real case for WWJD. Who still has a WWJD bracelet on? Anybody? All right. Come and gone. There's so many things that we can't do what Jesus did. Talk to Satan out in the wilderness.

Stuff like that. Minor things, right, Charlie? But here is the example of Christ. Now, Christ's example culminated at Calvary. Of course, he was assuaging the wrath of God. Of course, substantial atonement is the linchpin of understanding God's perfect atonement.

But it did show an example of love. That's not the key thing for the atonement, but it does show that and that's exactly what Paul is talking about. Christ's life and Christ's death as an illustration of love, wanting what's best for others.

Self-sacrificial love. Couldn't you describe Jesus' life and work by self-sacrifice? I think you could. And so when you ever have a problem in your Christian life, the best thing you can do is look at Christ Jesus.

What did he do? How did he go about doing it? The answer is Christ Jesus. And then take a look at the passage. Isn't this just great? We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

I think if you said to yourself, not even knowing what the next verse has said, you should be thinking, that's exactly what Jesus did. Laid down his life for us. That's how we know love. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

That's exactly what Christ Jesus would do. We don't even have to know the next verse. We could understand that. Almost summarizing the first, all of the chapter 14 of Romans. And then here comes his example.

A theological appeal. For Christ did not please himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. What did Jesus say? Not thy will, but thy will be done. Not my will.

Romans, excuse me, 1 Corinthians 13. Love does not seek its own. Jesus said in John 4, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and accomplish his work. So when you look to Christ, you say to yourself, my number one goal is not to shut down that gun club at church.

By the way, we don't have a gun club. If you want to start one though, I'll sign off on it. You've got to come up with your own budget. My goal is not to try to bring back outfits for the harvest festival.

My goal is not, you know, once in a while somebody will invite me over to watch a TV show and I'm going to try to shut that all down. The goal is to focus on Christ Jesus and then to honor God in light of who you are in Christ Jesus.

Have this attitude in yourselves, Philippians, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

Like Paul does all the time, to give weight to his argument, he quotes the Bible. And then he begins to quote Psalm 69 and other passages. If Christ was insulted and reviled and killed because of his association with God as God, then we can restrict our liberty because of our association in Christ Jesus.

Verse 7, go down there. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. How did Christ welcome you? I know how he welcomed me, as a wretch. How did Christ welcome you? As a sinner. How did Christ welcome you?

As weak. How did Christ welcome you? As ungodly. How did Christ welcome you? As helpless. How did Christ welcome you? When nobody should have welcomed you, Christ welcomed you. And he's become our advocate.

He's become our mediator. He's become our savior. And he's become our Lord. He received us as sinful. We receive other people even though they're weaker. We receive other people even though they're stronger.

So for Bethlehem Bible Church, I think the Lord has been doing a good work in our life here. And I'm very, very happy to see you flesh out your thoughts in your life of justification by faith alone. And coming full circle, when you realize God has loved you in eternity past, then it's a lot easier to love other people.

If you realize that God drafted you into his church, he's called you, then you respond with gratitude and love. If you struggle with these issues, then may I remind you that you should probably begin to study the Godhead and start with the love of God.

For many years as a new Christian, I didn't want to know anything about the love of God because I thought it was too sappy, too inane, too modernized, some kind of K-love love of God. But the older I get in Christ Jesus, the more I want to understand how God would send his Son and have him lay down his life for me, that he would love me even though I didn't deserve it.

John Owen, the great Puritan, said, The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay of the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him, is to not believe that he loves you. Can you imagine? Not some horrible sin, not some pornography, not some adultery, not some lie, not some deceit, not something else, but to forget theology, to live in Romans language, to forget chapter 3, 4, and 5, knowing you deserve chapter 1 and 2 because that's who you were, and then living out who you are in Christ Jesus.

We all aren't going to agree on decisions. For the ones we disagree with, then we say we disagree, but we love one another instead. When elders make decisions and you don't like them and you have to submit, then when God gives us discipline, then my response to you is, duck.

Because the elders will have to decide. Paul doesn't want the strong to be puffed up, and Paul doesn't want the church dominated by the lowest common denominator of the weak. He wants both to be looking to Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus is worthy.

Isn't it good to study the Bible? Isn't it good to say, you know what? God knew ahead of time all the things that we would need, and he's given us this trans-chronological, trans-cultural truth that we can understand in a local church.

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 bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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