Those of you who have been keeping
count of this rather brief series of studies will know that we
come this evening to the seventh and, in all probability, the
final study of this theme of Christian liberty. Now, several
of you are here for the first time. To my knowledge, as I look
out over the congregation and the pain that I felt last week,
I feel again tonight, because much of what will be shared tonight
may go over your head simply because you've not been with
us for the previous studies. And I'm sorry for that, but I
cannot go back and re-preach and re-emphasize and flesh out
all of the principles that, as it were, form the base of our
study tonight. They are available through the
tape library, but I trust you will not be hopelessly lost Having
sought to lay deep roots in the major historical, biblical, and
theological aspects of this doctrine that I've called a delicate doctrine,
we have for several weeks been concerned with a very practical
issue, namely, what principles ought to guide us in the exercise
of the liberty that has been purchased for us by our Lord
Jesus Christ. And I've suggested that the major
lines of teaching, particularly in Romans 14, 15, 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, and really
chapters 9 and 11 of 1 Corinthians as well, suggest to us that there
are four major principles or guidelines with reference to
the exercise of our liberty. Understanding that our liberty,
understood and appreciated, is a Godward and inward issue, and
that the exercise of our liberty is an outward and manward issue,
We need to be governed in the exercise of our liberty by 1.
the prior claims of personal holiness, 2. the powerful claims
of the advancement of the gospel, 3. the practical demands of edification,
and 4. the self-denying claims of the
weaker brother. The self-denying claims of the
weaker brother. Having shown from the Word who
the weaker brother is, What we are to do with reference to him,
we concluded our concern in that area last week by looking at
the passages which indicate something of the horrifying implications
if the strong are not willing to deny themselves in true Christian
love for the well-being of their weaker brethren. And we noted
seven staggering things that are said are said to be the implications
of this refusal. Now what I propose to do tonight
in concluding our study is to speak concerning the responsibilities
of the weaker brother. Having looked at what the scriptures
say concerning the responsibilities of the strong to the weak, tonight
we look at the responsibilities of the weak, both to his stronger
brethren, to his God, and also in a very real sense to himself. Now, as we approach tonight's
subject, let me remind you of two things. Number one, the identity
of the weaker brother. Remember, he is weak in faith,
Romans 14, 1 and 2. He is weak in knowledge, 1 Corinthians
8, 1 to 7. He is weak in conscience, 1 Corinthians
8, 10. with reference to things that
are not clearly condemned in the word of God or clearly commanded
in the word of God, he is weak. He has, in the words of Professor
Murray, scruples arising from religious convictions. But they
are scruples in areas where God's law has not explicitly spoken. And so we see him in Romans 14,
he's uptight about eating certain kinds of foods. He's uptight
about keeping special Jewish ceremonial days. He has scruples
arising from religious convictions. The weaker brother is not the
person who's got all kinds of cultural prejudices and tries
to impose them upon the church. We must never mistake the precise
identity of that weak brother. He cannot grasp the thought articulated
in 1 Corinthians 10, 26, quoted from the Psalms, that the earth
is the Lord's Nothing is unclean of itself. He can't grasp that.
And he has these scruples arising out of his religious convictions,
and God says he is weak in faith. weak in knowledge, weak in conscience. We need to remember that as we
begin to consider tonight his responsibilities. And then, secondly,
I would remind you that the predominant emphasis in the Scriptures is
not on this subject, the responsibilities of the weak, but it's on the
responsibilities of the strong. It took three weeks to expound
what the Scriptures say to the strong in reference to the weak.
We'll be able to take care of the weak, brethren, in one sermon
tonight. So just remember that. But the word does have something
to say. All right, with those two introductory thoughts before
us, what precisely are the responsibilities of the weaker brother? I believe
they are set forth under three categories. Category number one,
the weaker brother must not pass judgment on his stronger brethren. Follow, please, as I read from
Romans chapter 14, verses that have been read a number of times
in the course of this study, each time gleaning different
dimensions of the Apostle's thought. Starting out with the responsibilities
of the strong to the weak in verse 1, him that is weak in
faith receive ye, yet not for decisions of scruples, that is,
don't receive him only with a view to straightening him out, One
man has faith to eat all things, but he that is weak eateth herbs,
so the strong and weak are found together. Now there is a practical
danger that each of them faces. Let not him that eateth said
it not, him that eateth not, and we dealt with that. The strong
is not to despise the weak. He's not to say, well, what in
the world's wrong with you? Are you still half a Jew hung
up with Jewish ceremonies? Are you still half a pagan? Your
conscience is so foul that, man, grow up, will you? You come into
the church with all your scruples, and you jump at every shadow,
and you just need to understand your liberty, man. Get with it.
Don't treat him that way. Don't despise him. We've dealt
with that. But now notice, immediately he turns to the weaker brother
and says this. And let not him that eateth,
eateth not, judge him that eateth. For God hath received him. Then
he sticks with the weaker brother. Who art thou that judgeth the
servant of another? Notice he doesn't say who art
thou that despises. That's the problem of the strong. He hangs
in there with the weak brother. He gets on the track with the
weak man, and he says, all right, now look, who in the world are
you, Mr. Weak Man? To judge your brother, Mr. Strong
Man. Who in the world are you to judge the servant of another?
To his own Lord he stands or falls. Yea, he shall be made
to stand, for the Lord hath power to make him stand. And so the
apostle speaks to the weak, and he says, you must not, under
any circumstances, pass judgment upon your stronger brethren."
Now, precisely what is the judging here forbidden? Well, let's look
at how the conscience of the weaker brother works. He wants
to be a holy man. These are scruples arising out
of religious convictions. Now, what does holiness involve
in practical experience? Well, it involves two things.
positively keeping all that you know and believe to be the precepts
of God, and positively avoiding all things that are prohibited
by God. If sin is any lack of conformity
unto or transgression of the law of God, righteousness is
everything that is in conformity to the law of God, and in keeping
with the prohibitions of God. As you seek to be holy, you try
to avoid what is evil and perform what is good. Thou hast loved
righteousness and hated iniquity. Isn't that practical godliness?
In thought, in word, in motive, in attitude, in deed? Seeking
to do all that God has commanded, endeavoring to avoid all that
God has forbidden. So here's this weak brother who
has the root of the matter in him. He's a brother. He's one
for whom Christ has died, whose heart is bent upon being holy. Now, in this particular setting
of Romans 14, what happens? Well, as he gets up one morning
and he thinks, now, I want to be holy today, and that means
I will not do anything forbidden of God. In his mind, he thinks
that God has forbidden the eating of certain meats. So he cannot
eat meat. Why? For him, it's inconsistent
with the pursuit of holiness. Take, for instance, Peter, with
reference to eating some of that nice fat pork and some of those
juicy pork chops that were let down in the sheet. There in the
book of Acts, he said, Lord, I can't eat that stuff. They
look good, they taste good, but it's unclean. Nothing unclean
has ever come into my mouth. You see? I can't be a holy man. I can't be a true servant of
Christ. You see what we're driving at now? He gets up in the morning
and he says, Lord, whatever I eat today, it cannot be certain meats
because I believe in my religious perspective that they are forbidden
by God and I want to be holy. And holiness means, on the one
hand, not partaking of what God forbids. Furthermore, this happens
to be a special ceremonial fast day or feast day. And this poor
man thinks that he's still obligated to keep these days. So he dare
not look upon this day as just any other day in the week. He
says, why, this is a special day. And to the Lord I must keep
this day and enter into all that God has intended by marking out
this special ceremonial feast day or fast day. That's why Paul
says, he that regards the day, verse 6, regards it unto the
Lord. He's doing it in the pursuit
of holiness. Now get the picture of the weak
brother. He gets up in the morning and he says, whatever I do in
the realm of eating, I cannot eat this or that because it would
be a violation of my pursuit of holiness. The way I regard
this day, I must regard it in the light of my conviction that
it is a special day appointed by God to be kept for God in
a peculiar way. Therefore, to be holy means that
I regard this day as unto the Lord. He isn't long into the day before
his strong brother comes by, and lo and behold, he starts
talking about the wonderful sausage and eggs breakfast he had that
morning. And everything in him says, How in the world can my
brother Joe? I thought he wanted to be a holy
man, but since holiness for me before God means no sausage with
my eggs, How in the world can Joe really be sincere? He says
he wants to be holy. I mean, he sits in the same congregation
with me and prays and sings, more holiness give me, more likeness
to Christ. But I think he's a phony. I mean,
how in the world can a guy really want to be holy and disregard
this matter of distinction in foods? And he's just about beginning
to push that in the back of his mind, when his friend says, well,
I'll see you later. I'm going down to such and such
a place with my kids today, and we're going to spend the day
in the park. You mean you aren't going to give this day peculiar
religious significance? He says, why, of course not.
And the four fellows, he's sent into a tailspin again. He said,
how in the world can he be pursuing holiness? God's marked this day
out as a special day, and He acts like it's just any other
old day in the week? I really begin to question. In
fact, if He goes on that way, it won't be long before He's
going to go clean out of the Christian faith and be an apostate.
He's going to fall. How do we know that's what Paul's
driving at? Well, look at the language again. Verse 4, Who
art thou that judgeth the servant of another? To his own Lord he
standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be made to stand,
for the Lord has power to make him stand. One man esteems one
day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each man
be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regards the day,
he says, All right, Mr. weak man, you regard it out of
conscience to God. Fine. He that eats, eats to the
Lord, for he giveth God thanks. He that eateth not unto the Lord,
he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us, weak
or strong, if we are believers, lives to himself, and none dies
to himself. For whether we live, we live
to the Lord. Whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether we
live, therefore die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ
both died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the
dead and of the living. But thou, why dost thou judge
thy brother?" It comes back to Mr. Weakman. And then he comes
to Mr. Strongman. "'Or thou again, why
dost thou set it not thy brother? We shall all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ.'" You see what he's saying? He's saying,
look, Mr. Weakman. If you bring your brother
to the bar of your scruples, you're doing three things. You're
usurping the prerogatives of God to his own master or servant,
standard or fallen. Mr. weak man, don't you push
God off the throne and try to take his place with your friend
George. You let him eat his sausage. Though you couldn't eat it, you
give him his right to eat it, and not grudgingly. Acknowledge that the same Lord
who brought you into loving subjection to himself as the fruit of the
intention of his own death is the one who's brought your friend
into the same subjection to himself as the fruit of the same death.
To this end, Christ both died and rose again. Don't you usurp
the prerogatives of God? Secondly, he questions the validity
of his brother's professed submission to Christ. That's why Paul keeps
emphasizing. When he does not regard the day,
he does not regard it as one answerable to God. When he regards
it, he regards it as one answerable to God. When a man eats, he eats
giving God thanks. In other words, he says, Mr.
Weak Man, don't you dare question the validity of your brother's
professed submission to Christ. Christ is his Lord as well as
yours. Don't ever forget it. And then there seems to be, it's
not as clear, but I think it's a third dimension of this in
1 Corinthians 8. He says, you show, Mr. Weakman,
a blurred vision of the essential issues of the Christian life.
He says in 1 Corinthians 8, dealing with this matter of meats offered
to idols, he says, why are you getting all uptight about this
business anyway? Verse 8 of 1 Corinthians 8, food
will not commend us to God, neither if we eat not are we the worse,
nor if we eat are we the better. He says, are you going to allow
your whole perspective and relationship to your brethren to stand or
fall on the matter of foods? He says, how ridiculous! Eating
foods and abstaining from foods? What basic difference does that
make in your relationship to God? What can the difference
of vegetable protein or meat protein in your belly do with
your relationship to the God of the universe through Jesus
Christ and in the Holy Spirit? He says, now tell me the connection
between those things and then maybe I'll get all upset with
you. He tries to show them how ridiculous it is. So I say to
any of the weak among us, whose consciences have scruples about
things which don't seem to bother others. It may be in the area
of what you eat, what you drink, what you wear, where you go,
how you keep certain days, how you don't keep them. In the whole
spectrum of the things included in these principles, I solemnly
charge every weak brother, and I don't say weak in a despising
way, I say it in the sense of the biblical usage, but I say
to every weak brother or sister, as I have solemnly charged the
strong with much greater vehemence, because there's much more material,
I solemnly charge you to not be guilty of judging your brethren. Don't usurp the place of God. Don't question the validity of
your brother's professed submission to Christ, and don't show that
you have a distorted vision of the essential issues of the Christian
life. All right? Second responsibility
of the weaker brother. In addition to this responsibility
not to pass judgment on the strong, he must not violate the present
light and standard of his own conscience. He must not violate
the present light and standard of his own conscience. And I
read several portions again from Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians chapter
8. The Apostle says in Romans 14
and verse 5, He that regards the day I'm sorry, verse 5. One man esteemeth one day above
another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man, now
here's the key word, be fully assured in his own mind. Now that's real, vigorous, biblical
individualism. Let each man, each man, each
woman, each boy, each girl, We're not going to have some kind of
consensus of the Trinity Church mentality on these issues. And when that day comes, God
have mercy on us. So often I get letters from people,
what's the position of your church on this, on that, and on the
other thing? Things concerning which the word
of God is silent. And then they say, what's the
position of Reformed Baptists? And so there's some kind of Pope
sitting somewhere sending out his decrees with his blue list
of forms of recreation that are permissible and his blacklist
of books and forms of entertainment that are ridiculous but that
mentality is so pervasive in evangelicalism that I get letters
literally all the time. What does your church say about
this? And well of course I can't dictate
back seven sermons on Christian liberty. So I tell him to get
in touch with Roger and get the series from the Trinity pulpit.
That's what I tell him to do. So this matter, you see, is so
vital. Let every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind. Now, once he's come to a persuasion,
out of religious principles now. Remember, we're talking about
a man answerable to the Lordship of Christ. That's the dominant
emphasis in the first twelve verses. Now he says, verse fourteen,
I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean
of itself. Now that's nothing in the context.
There are things unclean in themselves. The Bible says no unclean person
shall enter the kingdom of heaven. The nothing must be interpreted
in the context. Nothing in the way of foods is
unclean of itself. Nothing. That's what he's talking
about in the context. save to him who accounteth anything
to be unclean, in his own persuasion he accounts a thing to be unclean,
this man that cannot eat meat, to him it is unclean. Here's
a man fully persuaded, we go back to our friend you see, fully
persuaded that it would be uncleanness, it would be contrary to practical
holiness to eat meat or certain forms of meat. Now what is he
to do? Well, the apostle goes on to
say to this person, if that's so, verse 22 and 3, the faith
which thou hast, have to thyself before God. Happy is he that
judges not himself in that which he approveth, but he that doubteth. Here's that man who said, well,
you know, maybe, maybe it's all right there, but maybe, well,
go ahead and have, he's not fully persuaded. that he can take that
meat and say, O God, my Father, to whom this world belongs, O
God, my Father, who has given me all things richly to enjoy,
I receive this meat as your gift. I eat it with thanksgiving. Strengthen
me to do your will. He can't do that. He says, well,
do you know how many people are there? Well, I'll go ahead and
have a piece of meat. And every time he's masticating,
every chomp of his uppers and his lowers on that piece of meat,
he's getting pain. Not in his uppers and his lowers.
Not in his dentures. He's getting pain. Where? In
his spirit. Why? He's condemning himself. Because, why? He that doubteth
is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith, and whatsoever
is not of faith. is sin. And I say to any who are weak
in conscience, weak in knowledge, weak in faith in any of these
areas, do not violate the present light and standard of your conscience
for anything or for anyone. For when you have religious scruples
about anything, and you still indulge in that thing, or in
the case of keeping special days, you do not keep that special
day, you are taking, of course, an action which to you is sin,
and that is sin, for you are choosing that which may be innocent
in itself. But because it is moral evil
in the present standard of your conscience, the very fact that
you are making a choice in the direction of moral evil is sin. God says it must not be done.
Notice the same emphasis in 1 Corinthians 8, verses 10 to 13. Food will
not commend us to God, neither if we eat are we the worse, nor
if we eat are we the better. Thinking in terms of the influence
of the food upon us objectively apart from our conscience in
relationship to it, Paul says, why get all uptight about it?
Take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours, speaking
to the strong, become a stumbling block to the weak. For if a man
see thee who has knowledge sitting at meat in an idol's temple,
will not his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat
things sacrificed to idols? For through thy knowledge he
that is weak perisheth, the brother for whose sake Christ died, and
thus sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience
when it is weak, he sinned against Christ. What is the whole thrust
of what the apostle is saying? Well, it is precisely this. When
the weaker brother is emboldened to partake of something against
the dictates of his conscience, he is putting himself in the
path of destruction. And there is only one path of
destruction, and that is the path of sin. And so undergirding all of the
Apostle's statements here is the assumption that to violate
one's present light and standard of conscience in the realm of
religious scruples is to choose a path of evil. And so I say
to some of you who are still weak in areas of conscience,
where perhaps the majority of the assembly may be strong, Don't
be bullied by some kind of group pressure to go one iota beyond
the present persuasion of your conscience. Not one iota! He that doubteth is judged if
he eat, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Now let me give
a word of caution. There is a difference between
religious scruples rooted in conscience and subjective feelings
rooted in habit and past patterns. Now there may be times when you'll
have to kick your feeling right in the teeth in order to get them to catch
up with your conscience. For instance, here's a person
brought up a devout Roman Catholic. And all his life, all her life,
she or he has been taught that to be a good Catholic, you do
this, that and the other thing. All right. One of the things
in the ritual was going through the rosary every single morning.
I mean, as much as you put the left foot out first, whatever
foot you put out first, put your socks on, brush your teeth and
whatever your morning ritual is, this person, part of that
morning ritual for years was thumbing through the rosary.
All right. Now the Lord is pleased to save this person, bring them
out of the blindness and the bondage and emptiness of Romanism
into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Does that
mean that automatically the morning after he or she is saved, there
will be no tendency to slip into the past pattern of reaching
for the rosary? No, no. You see, the person has been
so mechanically and psychologically and emotionally conditioned to
reach for the rosary. If you're really going to be
good, you've got to reach for the rosary. that they may really
feel funny facing the day without the rosary as much as some of
us feel funny going out to the day when we forgot to brush our
teeth after a night you know that cruddy crummy feeling you
feel funny well they may feel the same way now what does that
person have to do does that mean that they must now look upon
that as the dictates of conscience and go say the rosary of course
not they must say now look My conscience looking to the word
of God says there's one mediator and I've come to him in faith
and he's introduced me to the father. And this feeling of uneasiness
or even what on the surface seems to be a guilt feeling if I don't
fund that little string of beads in the mumbo jumbo prayers that
I was taught. That's ridiculous. And that person
needs to walk with iron right over the feelings until the feelings
catch up with the dictates of a conscience enlightened by the
word of God. Is it? Now, some of us have had to learn
the difference between those two things. The weak brother
is the brother whose problems of conscience arise out of religious
scruples. He's thinking of his posture
before God in the light of what he understands His Word to teach.
Now, if God gives you new light from His Word as to the path
of duty, you may have to To use the term again, kick your feelings
in the teeth and walk away and let the gums bleed. And say,
I refuse to have my whole inner psychological and emotional makeup
bound up with rules and regulations that are not of God. You take
the person who has been taught all his life that to be holy
you wear a certain type of clothes, someone perhaps who wore plain
clothes out of religious conviction, and they see the ridiculousness
of this. I'm sure they have funny emotional feelings the first
time they put on a brightly colored tie. Well, they may have to deliberately
keep putting it on until their feelings catch up with their
conscience. You see the difference? That is a fine line, I know,
and that can be abused, but I feel from a pastoral standpoint that
must be said to those of you who may be weak. in some areas. So that's the second line of
directive. You must not judge the strong. You must not violate
the present light and dictates of your conscience. And then
thirdly, you must not be content to remain forever weak. And that's
my word of direction, and I believe I have biblical warrant for it.
In the very manner in which the Apostle Paul deals with these
things, there is a very positive teaching element. Notice how
cleverly he does this in Romans 14, 14. Now he's going to zero
in on the strong man, and he's going to tell Mr. Strongman to
deny himself for the sake of the weak. But don't you get something
of the tremendous pressure that he's bringing to bear upon the
weak at the realm of their understanding? I know and am persuaded in the
Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself. Well, it's as though
Paul is saying, now look, God has given me as an apostle a
peculiar place of responsibility in serving the Church of Christ.
I'm a bond slave of Christ, and yet the same Paul could say,
I do not come behind the chiefest of apostles in my labors. And
here's some humble new saint there who's got these deep-seated
convictions, tempted to judge his stronger brethren, saying,
no sirree. We just can't eat certain forms
of meat, and all of a sudden one of the elders reads that
morning, here's the great apostle Paul, whose fame in the gospel
is throughout all the churches, says in one sweeping declaration,
I know and am persuaded in virtue of my union with Christ that
nothing is unclean. What's that do to this poor fellow's
whole list of taboo meats? He says it's an invalid list.
You better reconsider it. Isn't that what he said? I know
and am persuaded nothing. However, he said, until he does
that reconsideration, you strong bend to it. Bend to it. But you
see, he's gotten in a little dig. A loving dig to the weak
to instruct them. He does the same thing in 1 Corinthians
chapter 8. Again, in this sort of off-handed
way, as though why it should be obvious to anyone. Verse 4. Concerning, therefore, the eating
of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything
in the world. Anybody who knows his own name
knows that an idol is really nothing. And that there is no
god but one, though there be that are called gods, whether
in heaven and earth, as there are gods many and lords many,
yet to us one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we
unto him, and one Lord, through whom are all things, and we through
him, howbeit there is not in all men this knowledge. You see
what he's saying? It should be self-evident. We
know. I mean, there's no such thing as an idol. So, you're
getting all upset that this piece of meat was one time offered
to an idol, now it's sold in the shambles as a good piece
of bargain meat. He says, in essence, what are you getting
all upset for? An idol's nothing. So how can nothing change something?
The piece of meat was a piece of meat before it was offered
to the idol. Alright, if the idol's nothing, what is the piece of
meat after it's been offered to nothing? It's still a piece
of meat. This is not that simple, isn't it? You see what he's doing?
He's saying to the weak, now maybe you better re-examine your
position. I mean, you're all uptight about this meat business.
It may be not quite as important as you think it is. Now what's
he doing? Well, I suggest that what he's doing is he's saying
to the weak, you must not be content forever to remain weak. And though Paul was the greatest
example of one who complied to the nth degree, as we say, with
the self-denying demands made upon him by the weak, even saying,
I'm willing to become a vegetarian for life. If I'm surrounded by
weak brethren to whom eating meat will be an occasion of stumbling,
he says, I'll not eat any meat while the world stands. Yet while taking that posture
of self-denying love, He does not think it a contradiction
of love to become an instructor to the weak, encouraging them
to go on from weakness of conscience to strength of conscience. And why? Well, we touch some
of this in one of our initial studies. Because the liberty
that is ours in Christ was purchased at so dear a price that it is
in great measure crass indifference to what Christ has purchased
if we do not appreciate our liberty in Christ. That's why Paul could
say in Galatians 5, for freedom did Christ set you free, be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. In 1 Corinthians
he says, you've been purchased with a price, be not the servants
of men. Don't let men bind your conscience. And certainly we ought not to
allow past tradition and indistinct views of God and His world and
things in our place in it. And so I say to some of you,
and I say it again, I trust in true Christian love, who are
my weak brothers and sisters, don't be content forever to remain
weak, but ask God by the Holy Spirit to strengthen your faith
to believe what He says in His that God has given us richly
all things to enjoy. That doesn't mean that you will
partake of your liberty to enjoy all things. You may wish for
a number of reasons to relinquish the exercise of your liberty
in every single area where now you do not understand your liberty.
You see, not one thing may change in your external conduct. But
if you're thinking with reference to those things change, you become
a different person. It's no longer the idea that
is so common to the old economy where God was hedging up his
people with rules and regulations, touching meats and washings and
days and feast and all the rest. God called that through the apostle,
the yoke of bondage, which neither we nor our fathers could bear.
but you're God's free child with the full run of the house and
you may not choose to play with all your toys for good and wise
reasons you may not choose to indulge in all of your gifts
but just knowing that they're gifts of a loving father that
you're free to use or refuse out of principles that your father
has given It takes away that spirit that can best be described
as that of a bent over person whose spine is no longer straight
and whose face is cast upon the earth and it causes you to throw
your shoulders back and lift your head up and to say in the
words of the hymn that is not evangelical by any sense but
it fits here, this is my father's world. The earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof. And so dear weak brother or sister,
Do not regard lightly liberties purchased so dearly and which
have so much in terms of your own personal blessing involved
in them. Now, in conclusion tonight, let
me try to wrap all of this up and say that no doubt there are
some of you who sit here and say, what in the world is all
this about? Why people concerned with meats
and days and the whole thing's gone clean over my head. Well,
my friend, that's perfectly possible. But will you just hang in there
a little bit while I try to explain to you why the apostle was so
concerned about this and why we are. The simple reason is
this. If you ever become a true Christian, then you, like these
people at Rome and like the people seated here tonight, will want
to know that you're pleasing the Father who saved you in every
area of your life. They're no longer talking about
little things. You want to please Him in what
you eat, what you drink, and whatever you do. Your goal, according
to 1 Corinthians 10.31, is to glorify the God who has saved
you. And that's why Paul gave whole
chapters over to a discussion of these things that may seem
very irrelevant to you. You say, with the world and the
mess it's in, and with the problems of New York, why don't you speak
about something relevant? Well, listen, this is relevant.
It's relevant to the people who gather here because they want
to be holy. They want to please God, and they want to edify their
brethren, and they want to honor the Christ who's purchased them.
And those are the great issues that are at stake in this whole
matter of Christian liberty. So please, my friend, don't be
so quick to write us off as being totally out of it. Could the
problem be that the reason you're not with it is because you're
out of it? Out of the family of God? out
of the orbit of the concerns that underlie these things. Oh,
my friend, don't be so quick to write all of this off. Maybe
you ought to pause and reflect and ask yourself, could it be
that the reason all of this was so distant and detached from
me is I know nothing of the God whom those people in Rome knew,
whom the people in Corinth knew, and whom obviously some of those
people gathered in that church tonight. No, I plead with you,
don't write it all off as something irrelevant. And then to you,
the people of God, my closing exhortation on this whole subject
is best expressed in Romans 15. It's beautiful language, and
I hope the word is not saccharine in using it. It's beautiful language. Having dealt with this whole
subject of Christian liberty and concluding with the exhortation
that the strong are to bear the infirmities of the weak, the
apostle envisioning a church which will always have strong
and weak dwelling together says, verse 5, Now the God of patience
and comfort grant you to be of the same mind, one with another,
according to Christ Jesus. Now in the context, it obviously
does not mean that you will all have the same conscience with
reference to things in difference. He means be of the same mind
in the midst of your differences, in the midst of the areas where
the conscience of this brother and that brother bind them with
a different conviction with reference to things concerning which the
Word of God is silent. Be of the same mind one to another. That is the mind of lowly self-service,
the mind of mutual love and unfamed affection and acceptance. To what end? That with one accord. You see, if we do not learn how
to relate this doctrine at the grassroots, we may sit under
the same roof and in the same pews, but we will not be of one
accord. The weak brother sitting there
saying that hypocrite. Look at him praising God. And
do you know that he had his sausage this morning? Why, I happen to
know that he went to such and such a movie last week. That
hypocrite. There's no one accord. Why? Because the weak is judging the
strong. And the strong happens to know that that same brother
was invited, just in general Christian concern, to go with
another brother to a ball game or something. And he said, no,
I can't do that with a good conscience. And he's heard about that. And
he sits there and says, how ridiculous. He's despising him. And when
he hears him singing praise to God, he says, what does he know
about what Christ has done for him? He's so hung up with all
of his old fundy. Huh? What happens? There's no
one accord. Paul says, no, no. The God of
patience and comfort grants you to be of the same mind, one to
another, according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord ye
may with one mouth Glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, how is that going to come
to pass? Wherefore, receive ye one another with all your differences,
receive ye one another even as, here's the standard of mutual
reception, even as Christ also received you to the glory of
God. Brethren, is it too much to expect
that here in this place, We shall be kept from man-made rules,
from wooden uniformity, from artificial conformity, and maintain
liberty while still being sensitive to the weak, and the weak not,
as it were, trying to become little popes and bring everyone
in submission to their feet. I believe it's possible. This
is the standard God has set before us. May God grant that we shall
cry to him. for a fresh baptism of his own
love the love that seeks not its own the love that bears all
things and it's hard to bear with some weak brethren who have
scruples as Calvin said it so beautifully and I didn't quote
it because some of it was dated but he talked about the poor
weak brother who said he had scruples about this and that
he says first of all he has scruples about what he eats and before
long he's careful lest he even step upon a straw And he talks
about he who will not drink this will not drink that, and then
he ends up saying he'll carry it to the place where the only
things he feels he can drink with a good conscience is bitter
water. And he saw this in his own day. But he also saw the
other extreme. He talked about these wild-headed
people who felt the only way to prove they understood liberty
was to exercise it in every circumstance and in the presence of everyone.
You see, the human heart has not changed. And may God keep
us from the callousness on the one hand that exercises liberty
with no concern for the weaker brother, and on the other hand
from the tyranny of that kind of autocratic spirit that would
cause the weaker brother to demand that the whole assembly bend
to the dictates of his conscience. My wife suggested, and I don't
think it was a bad suggestion, maybe we'll follow through on
it on Wednesday, Maybe whether or not there's sort of a mopping
up study that just brings together any miscellaneous, untouched
areas of broad concern. Maybe we'll have a little box
here Wednesday night. And between now and then, if you have any
fundamental questions on the whole thing that we've covered,
any aspect of it, you write out your question. We'll put it in
a box. Phil, will you remember to have
a box for us, please? All right, thank you. And if it seems that
there are enough broad areas that one sort of general study,
followed along the line of some key questions, would be in order,
then we'll have sort of a P.S. to the study. But apart from
that, this is the conclusion of the study, but I trust it
will not be the end of our consideration of and obedience to these principles
of the Word of God. Let us pray. Our Father, we are amazed at
the completeness of your word. When we've spent some weeks examining
chapters such as these that have been before us. We do confess
that we ask for no further revelation. We do not ask for additional
revelation. We do not ask for fresh prophecies
or words from heaven. We feel in our heart of hearts
if we could but plumb the depths of what is already given. We
should truly know what we ought to know concerning your will
for us. Therefore, we plead in the very
language of scripture, open thou our eyes that we may behold wondrous
things out of thy law. Our Father, we thank You for
the measure to which You have helped us as a congregation in
our understanding and outworking of these principles, but we pray
for more light and for more grace. Deliver us as a people from the
curse of man-made uniformity. Deliver us from the curse of
man-made standards. O Lord, deliver us from the tyranny
of a wooden, rigid conformity in matters Grant that all of
us together may grow in our appreciation of the liberty that is ours in
Christ. But, O Lord, with that give us
an increasing growth in the understanding of what our responsibilities
are in the exercise or in the withholding of the exercise of
those liberties. May we grow in self-denying love. May we by love serve one another. O our Father, as we pray for
ourselves, we confess that our hearts bleed tonight when we
see whole segments of the Evangelical Church following rules and regulations
that were never laid upon them by the head of the Church, while
indifferent to so much that is clearly revealed. O God, have
mercy upon your people. Will you not, in wrath, remember
mercy? and come to your people with
such gales of heavenly blessing, that they shall know and enjoy
their liberty in Christ, and be so immersed in the love of
Christ, that there will be the willing relinquishment of that
liberty for the cause of the gospel in the pursuit of holiness,
in the concerns of the weaker brethren. O Father, hear our
prayer tonight. Seal to our hearts the word we
have studied. And may the blessing of your
own presence rest upon us and abide with us as we leave this
place and as we part one from another. Hear us as we bring
our petitions and our praise in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.