In fulfillment of a promise made
a long time ago to a number of you, we have finally begun a
series of studies in the broad area of biblical truth, commonly
called Christian liberty. And several weeks ago, we engaged
in the first of a series of studies that I will imagine will encompass
at least probably eight or ten Lord's Day evenings. And if that
estimation is true to past history, it'll be longer than that. Now,
in the previous study, I attempted to accomplish several things.
Number one, I introduced the subject by showing the tremendous
importance of any consideration of the nature of the liberty
bequeathed to a believer in Jesus Christ. And I referred to a number
of passages in the Old and the New Testaments in which the note
of liberty forms one of the dominant notes in the chord of the gospel. The gospel is not a simple message. It is a message comprised of
several fundamental elements. We should liken it to a major
chord, and one of the dominant notes in that chord of God's
truth, called the gospel, is this whole matter of liberty. Our Lord Himself said, If the
Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. And one of the Reformers rightly
said that no summary of the gospel is complete unless it contains
an adequate statement concerning the precise nature of the liberty
that is purchased for us by Jesus Christ. Then in the second place,
I attempted to give a brief historical background to the whole subject
of Christian liberty. And we looked into the apostolic
history, that is, the history of the Church recorded in the
Scriptures, and I sought to bring your attention to four factors
which forced into prominence the subject of Christian liberty.
There was the factor of transition from the Old Covenant to the
New. the factor of expansion of the church from a predominantly
Jewish church into the Gentile world. There was the problem
of inclusion, bringing these Jews and Gentiles together in
one functioning, worshipping, serving body of Christ. And then, fourthly, there was
the problem of defection, that is, the ever-present threat of
heresy. which on the one hand would rob
believers of their liberty in Christ, and on the other hand
would seek to drive them into the abuse of those liberties,
and the New Testament documents are full of indications that
that tendency to defection from the norms of God was very active. And then we just briefly touched
on the centrality of this doctrine in Reformation history. Why were
the Reformers so adamant in pronouncing such strong things concerning
the doctrine of Christian liberty? Well, it's because most of them
came out of Rome, and if there's one thing that characterizes
classic Romanism, it is the word bondage. So these men who felt
the terrible bondage of Rome had been brought into the liberty
of the gospel and were jealous to preserve that liberty in all
of its biblical dimensions. And then I concluded the study
trying to demonstrate that there was a contemporary necessity
laid upon us. For many of us have, in our religious
background, been subjected to influences that have greatly
misunderstood, if even been aware of, the doctrine of Christian
liberty. And so on the one hand, many
of us have some barnacles on our hull that we picked up when
we were floating through those choppy seas of our past religious
experience. And on the other hand, we see
some people who claim for generations to have believed this doctrine,
and there seems to be a rather indifferent attitude toward personal
godliness, and we're scared to death at the thought that perhaps
believing and appropriating the biblical doctrine of Christian
liberty might lead us into such a lifestyle. And so, there is
a very pressing necessity for us to grapple with the doctrine.
Well, that's what I attempted to do in an hour's time, and
I've covered it in about four to five minutes. Now tonight
my purpose is this. I wish to set before you a broad
biblical and theological statement of the doctrine of Christian
liberty. A broad biblical and theological
statement of the doctrine of Christian liberty. We want to
get the main pivots of biblical truth before we descend to particulars,
for most of our problems arise from trying to grapple with specifics
until we've grappled with our principles. Now there are several
ways that this could be done. I have chosen a way that I trust
is the wisest for our purposes, and that way is this. We're going
to use the Westminster Confession as our guide, as our framework
for a consideration of the biblical and theological statement of
this doctrine. Now, recognizing that there are
some of you that wouldn't know the Westminster Confession from
a blind cat if they both met you at the same time in the same
place, I should perhaps mention just a word about the Westminster
Confession. In the years 1644 to 1648, an
assembly of theologians, most of them were pastor theologians,
they were men engaged in the work of the ministry, met at
the direction of their ecclesiastical and primarily their civil authorities
to draw up a confession of faith and a declaration of church order.
and uh... for the most part there were
anywhere from sixty to eighty men meeting at any given time
over that period of four years drawing up what has come down
to us as the westminster standards and since these things were thrashed
out in that place that is called westminster abby uh... the center of the uh... government
of near the center of the government of Britain, they have come to
us under the title the Westminster Standards, the Westminster Confession,
and Catechisms. And many feel that this is perhaps
the richest of all the confessional statements that came out of the
Reformation, and I share in that conviction, and one of the reasons
is this. The Augsburg Confession, which was the official confessional
statement of Lutheranism, was basically the work of two men.
Luther, Melanchthon, and the The other confessions of some
of the other Continental Reformed churches were the work primarily
of several men, except the canons of the Synod of Dorp. That had
a broader base. But what gives such richness
to the Westminster Confession is that you had, at any given
time, 60 to 80 pastor-theologians, well-versed in church history,
conversant in the original languages, aware of all the various heresies
that had plagued the church, far enough away from the Reformation
to have sorted out some of the imbalances, and they were able
to give to us the cream of the new insights to the Word of God
that came to the Church during the Reformation period, which
was but a rediscovery of the apostolic and biblical gospel. It's for that reason that we're
using the Westminster Confession, because we then enter into the
fruit of all of the pastoral wisdom and insights of the men
who framed that confession. All of their theological sensitivity,
all of their historical perspective. And it is a cop-out for people
to say, well, I didn't come to church to hear a confession,
I came to hear the Bible. Yes, but the Bible through whose
eyes? Just this one preacher who brings to the Bible twenty
some odd years of study of the Bible? No, no, we're going to
bring to it tonight literally hundreds of years. When you add
up all the years in grace that those 60 to 80 men had, and all
the years of ministerial experience, and all of the knowledge of church
history, and the knowledge of theology, why, we're just bloodied
with gift tonight, you see? So, I would not impoverish you
by handling the subject simply on the basis of my own, quote,
independent insights, but we shall together, I trust, enter
into the richness of the statement of the Westminster Standards,
following the standards only so far as they lead us into the
Word of God written. All right, so much for what I
propose to do and why I propose to do it. Now let's address ourselves
to the thing in hand. If you have your hymn book in
front of you, or a Westminster Confession, and we do have the
confession in the back of the hymnal. Will you turn, please,
to page 682. 682. And will you please follow
as I read, sorry, 683, chapter 20 of Christian Liberty and Liberty
of Conscience. Essentially, what we have in
these four paragraphs are three things. The nature of Christian
liberty is stated in paragraph one, the fruits of Christian
liberty in paragraph two, and the qualifications of Christian
liberty in paragraphs three and four. So you have the nature,
the fruits, and the qualifications of Christian liberty. First of
all, then, the nature of Christian liberty. What is it? I read now
from the Confession. The liberty which Christ hath
purchased for believers under the gospel consists in their
freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God,
the curse of the moral law, and in their being delivered from
this present evil world, bondage to Satan and dominion of sin,
as also I'm sorry, from the evil of afflictions, the sting of
death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation, as
also in their free access to God and their yielding obedience
unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a childlike love and
willing mind. all which were common also to
believers under the law. But under the New Testament,
the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in their freedom
from the yoke of the ceremonial law to which the Jewish Church
was subjected, and in a greater boldness of access to the throne
of grace, and in fuller communications of the free spirit of God, than
believers under the law did ordinarily partake of. How in the world
can we sort out all the ingredients of that paragraph? What is the
nature of Christian liberty? Well, there is a very logical
progression of thought in this paragraph. If you didn't see
it, it is there. And in this first paragraph,
in which the nature of Christian liberty is stated, we first of
all have a negative aspect of Christian liberty, a positive
statement, and then a comparative statement. the nature of Christian
liberty is negatively stated freedom from there are certain
things from which we are delivered and then they're all listed positively
there are certain things on to which we are brought this free
access to God and this delightful obedience and then there is a
comparative statement between believers under the Old and the
New Testament, and in what sense did they enjoy the same kind
or the same or dissimilar degrees of Christian liberty? Well, let's
look at a number of scriptures, and I have sought to select only
one or two key scriptures which set forth these truths rather
than running from passage to passage, because if your mind
is at all familiar with the content of the Bible, just the reading
of this paragraph is brought to mind many, many references
from the Word of God. First of all, then, the nature
of Christian liberty, negatively stated, is freedom from the guilt
of sin. And here we can bring before
us such passages as those in Hebrews 8 and in Hebrews 10,
in which the blessing of the new covenant is stated in these
words, their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Not that God has a lapse of memory
and could not bring to mind every sin we had ever committed, that
would be to deny His omniscience. and the perfection of his mind.
But what God is saying is this, I will never bring them to remembrance
so as to call them into an account for the guilt which those sins
deserve. For God to forget our sins, or
in the language of the prophet, to cast them behind his back,
is for God to free us from the guilt which our sins deserve. And then we are told, secondly,
that we are delivered from the condemning wrath of God. And immediately, I hope, your
mind finds itself going to Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We are free from the condemning
wrath of God, where once we were in a state of guilt, and that
guilt deserved and called forth condemnation. Being free from
the guilt, we are blessedly freed from the condemnation that follows
upon guilt. And then thirdly, we are told
that we are delivered from the curse of the moral law. and I hope immediately your mind
went to Galatians 3 and verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree, delivered from the
curse of the moral law. Not the standard of the moral
law, for this very chapter on Christian liberty follows chapter
19 in which evangelical law keeping is clearly asserted in paragraph
5. So whatever the Westminster divines
are teaching about Christian liberty and freedom from the
law, it is not freedom from the law as a valid standard of conduct
for the believer, binding upon his conscience. No, no. But freedom
from the curse of that broken law. And then, fourthly, we are
told that we are freed from bondage to the world. delivered from
this present evil world, bondage to Satan and dominion of sin,
freed from bondage to the world, to sin and to the devil. Galatians 1, in verse 4, in which
we are told that by the redemption of Christ we are delivered from
this present evil world. Acts 26 and verse 18, in which
a man who is converted is delivered from the power of darkness. He is delivered from Satan himself
and brought into the realm of God's gracious liberty. We are
delivered from bondage to sin. Romans 6.14, sin shall not have
dominion. Sin shall not lord it over you. And now, furthermore, having
been delivered from what we would call our objective legal problems,
the entanglements of our sin, objectively and subjectively,
guilt, condemnation and curse, bondage, subjective, to the world,
to Satan and to sin, Now the framers go on to say we're also
delivered from the evils of this present life in terms of the
evil that the world experiences in the midst of them. So they
go on to say we're delivered from the evil of afflictions. Not from afflictions,
but from the evil of afflictions. How do we know that? We know
that all things work together for good. that love God to those
who are called according to His purpose. We are not delivered
from death, but from the sting of death and the victory of the
grave, 1 Corinthians 15. I will not weary you with reading
the verses, verses 54 and 5, from which this very language
is taken, and then we are delivered from everlasting damnation. 2
Thessalonians 1.10, Who delivereth us from the wrath Now, if you
ask yourself, why did they begin a statement of Christian liberty
with these various things from which we are delivered? Now,
follow closely. Unless you understand what it
means to be delivered from the guilt of sin, the condemning
wrath of God, the curse of the moral law, bondage to the world,
to Satan and sin, the evil of afflictions, the sting of death,
the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation, you have
no basis to understand and appreciate, or rightly to handle, the doctrine
of Christian liberty. This forms the broad base what
we are delivered from, so that when any man says, in the perpetual
and slavish indulgence of any lust, oh, I'm just exercising
my liberty. I have every right to say, sir,
until you are delivered from bondage, too, you have no right
to talk about your liberty in Jesus Christ. You see, the foundation
of the exercise of liberty is the reality of our liberation
from these things that are listed in the Confession. All right? The nature of Christian liberty,
negatively, were delivered from. Now, positively, look at the
wording. As also, in their free access
to God, and their yielding obedience unto him, not out of slavish
fear, but a childlike love and willing mind." Two things. This is what we're brought into.
We are brought into a relationship in which we have free access
to God as his sons. Romans 5, verse 1, "...having
therefore been justified by faith, We have peace with God. And then
he goes on to tell us, not only do we have this peace, but we
have this access. Galatians 4 and verse 6, And
because ye are sons, he hath sent forth the spirit of his
Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, that is, Father. The liberty purchased for us
is not the liberty of one form of slavery to another. Now there
is a doctrine of Christian servitude. We are the bond servants of Christ. And that doctrine is frequently
enunciated here. But if we stop in our conception
of our position and relationship to God with the concept of loving
bond service to Christ, we stop short of the New Testament standard.
We are told that we are sons, that we are brought into a relationship
where God is our Father and we have the run of the house in
grace. Not to go around kicking people in the shins like little
brats. No, no. But we have freedom of access
to God and to all of his gifts. For no creature of God is to
be refused, Paul said. You see, when these ascetics
came along and said religion consists in not doing this, and
not touching this, and not doing this, Paul says they're all wet!
No creature of God is to be refused if it is sanctified by the word
and prayer. It is the gift of the father
to his son, whose lavish the gifts of his creation upon his
creatures. So if you don't understand the
free access to God and sons that is part and parcel of redemptive
heritage, you cannot understand the doctrine of Christian liberty.
And then he says, secondly, or they say, in the positive sense,
we have free and delightful obedience to God as sons. Not only free
access, but notice the wording, yielding obedience unto him,
not out of slavish fear, but a childlike love and willing
mind. Now when you hear people talk
about Puritanism was a doleful, dreary, drab religious mentality
that made everyone go around trembling for fear that God would
jump out of the clouds and pierce him through with thunderbolts
of anger. These were Puritan theologians. The cream of Puritanism has been
skinned off and deposited in the Westminster standards. And
they talk in this kind of language, childlike love and willing mind. That's what's been purchased
for us in Jesus Christ. Not only free access to God's
sons, but a free and delightful obedience. And remember, this
obedience is the foundation of our liberty. We delight to obey. We say with the psalmist, I delight
to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. And when the scripture says his
commandments are not grievous, we say, Lord, it's true. Your
commandments are not grievous. And when the Savior says in the
language of Matthew 11, my yoke is easy, my burden is light,
we say, Lord, it is true. So there's Christian liberty
stated negatively, positively, now comparatively. Look at the
confession. All which, in other words, everything
that has preceded this freedom from guilt, condemnation, curse,
bondage, evil of afflictions, this freedom unto free access,
delightful obedience, all of these things were common to believers
under the law. so that what we have under the
gospel is not qualitatively different from what Moses and David had
under the law. There is no qualitative difference,
but there is a difference. Having asserted it is not a qualitative
difference, they then go on to say, but under the New Testament,
the liberty of Christians is further enlarged quantitatively. and specifically in three ways
in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law in which
the Jewish church was subjected to which the Jewish church was
subjected. Secondly, and in greater boldness of access to the throne
of grace. Thirdly, and in fuller communications
of the free spirit of God than believers under the law did ordinarily
partake of. And that word ordinarily is also
a very wise word. So here we have Christian liberty
stated comparatively, and the assertion of the framers of the
confession is that all saints in all ages have had all of the
privileges that have been enunciated, and all you need to do is read
the book of the Psalms to know that it's true. The idea that
an Old Testament believer never, never had any sense of forgiveness. Who wrote Psalm 32? Paul or David? Blessed is the man whose iniquity
is forgiven, whose sin is pardoned. And the word blessed means perfectly
happy. Who wrote Psalm 103? Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy
name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,
who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle, like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him,
he knoweth our frame." Talk about free access to God? That seems
pretty plain to me. Doesn't it? This idea that Old
Testament saints are to be pitied, I read the lives of many of them
and I tell you I drool with jealousy. I think they were the ones, some
of the framers of the Confession had in mind when they said, than
believers under the law did ordinarily partake of. When I read the life
of a man like Isaac, and I read the life of a man like Moses,
and I read the life of Elijah, and I read the life of Jonathan,
and some of these great men and those listed in Hebrews 11, I
think they ought to be pitying me, that I lived at so low a
rate with such great privileges. No, the framers of the Confession
have told us wisely because the Scriptures teach it. All believers
in all ages have had these blessings. David, under the law, said, Thy
law is within my heart. Psalm 119, he talks about running
in the way of God's commandments. He so delights. He says, Thy
word is more precious to me than silver and gold and honey to
my taste. And all of this rich, poetic
imagery showing the liberty that he knew as a true believer under
the old economy. But There are distinct advantages
assisting us in the appreciation and expression of our liberty
under the New Testament, and what are they? Number one, we
are free from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and the Bible
calls it a burden which neither we nor our fathers could bear
in the language of Peter. It is called in Hebrews 9 and
verse 10, Hebrews 9 And verse 10, carnal ordinances imposed until
a time of reformation. You see, if you were a true Jew
who was indwelt by the Spirit, and had a circumcised heart,
and you loved God and loved His law, and you approached Him in
the filial freedom of a son in the presence of his father, you
still had to keep all the trappings of the ceremonial law. You were
just getting real blessed in a time of worship, and you were
reminded, here's this ceremonial washing and that ceremonial requirement
and this thing and that thing and the other thing and there
was a sense in which that liberty could not break out into its
fullest expression because of the yoke of the ceremonial law
and bless God we're free from that. And when the Judaizers
tried to impose that back upon believers under the new covenant,
Paul said, stand fast in the liberty where with Christ it
made you free and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage. That's the language of the Holy
Ghost to describe it. Yoke of bondage. Also, we have
this greater boldness of access to the throne of grace. And why
do we have greater boldness of access? Because we have the full
revelation of the Redeemer who has gone into the presence of
God on our behalf, where there was type and shadow We now have
the substance in the book of Hebrews states this. We have
a high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the
Son of God, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of
grace. And so we may look back upon
the historical events of an accomplished redemption and come with greater
boldness, for we have something more than type and shadow to
instruct us. We have the substance that has
come in Jesus Christ. And then on the basis of this,
we enjoy fuller communications of the free spirit of God. than
believers under the law did ordinarily partake of. For you remember
on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God was sent forth
in power, Peter said, He being by the right hand of God exalted,
and having obtained the promise of the Spirit, has shed forth
this which ye now see and hear. And in the book of John, chapter
7, the Spirit was not yet given, given in plentitude, because
that Jesus was not yet glorified. And the sending forth of the
Spirit in copious measures upon all flesh awaited the accomplishment
of the redemptive acts of Jesus Christ. And when he had been
crucified and raised and exalted, the Spirit was given, not on
the basis that they waited for ten days and earned a gift from
God, but the Spirit was given as the crowning gift of new covenant
blessing based upon the redemption of Christ. So then, the nature
of Christian liberty is stated in this first paragraph negatively,
positively, comparatively. Now, my brothers and sisters,
I affirm again what was said earlier. Until this broad base
of gospel truth is grasped by you, you are not prepared to
lay hold of the doctrine of Christian liberty in a balanced and edifying
way. That's why it's foolishness to
try to impose upon people who are not instructed in the rudimentary
elements of the gospel this whole doctrine of Christian liberty.
You must start where the framers of the Confession started, for
they were wise pastor-theologians who saw the necessity of so doing. All right, paragraph two, and
this brings us now closer home to the subject that is in most
people's minds when we talk about Christian liberty. What are the
fruits of the liberty described in paragraph one? I read the
paragraph. God alone is Lord of the conscience,
and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of
men which are in anything contrary to His word or beside it, if
matters of faith or worship so that to believe such doctrines
or to obey such commands out of conscience is to betray true
liberty of conscience and the requiring of an implicit faith
and an absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience
and reason also. Now in this paragraph we are
given two premises and then two conclusions. Two premises two
conclusions or deductions from those premises. Premise number
one, God alone is Lord of the conscience of his people. In
the light of that from which he has delivered us, in the light
of that unto which he has brought us, God has reserved to himself
an exclusive claim over the consciences of his people. Now we must define
conscience if we're to understand this premise. Conscience is that
moral monitor within that says in the light of what it knows
to be a valid standard, yes or no, right or wrong, I shall or
I shall not do this or that. Conscience is part of that remains
of the image of God in man. Man wishes many times that he
had no conscience. Every unregenerate man, while
he's in his sins, wishes he could exterminate conscience. Conscience
is the one party pooper in his fun. While he's sinning with abandonment
and filling his ears, as it were, with the echoes of his own sin,
all is well. But the moment he's quiet, conscience
thunders and begins to suck off and bleed off all the temporary
joys of his sin. That's what it's doing for some
of you right here tonight. Conscience. And conscience originally
answered to one thing in the Garden of Eden. the law of God,
written on Adam's heart, the law of God expressed through
the lips of Jehovah to his creature. But now because sin has affected
the whole of man, conscience is affected. So it is not an
accurate guide in all things. It accuses where it ought not
to accuse. It excuses at times where it
ought not to. It answers to wrong authority.
Now, in redemption, God has delivered us from all of these things that
we studied in paragraph one, in order to bring us back to
that place of original intention, where, as His creatures, our
consciences will be bound to no other authority but the authority
of the God who made us in His image. Now, there are two texts
of Scripture which assert unequivocally that God alone is Lord of the
conscience of His people. The first is in Romans chapter
14, and it's in a context of Christian liberty. Dealing with
those things that we'll discuss in subsequent studies, the adiaphora,
the things indifferent, things not evil or sinful in themselves,
but concerning which some believers have scruples of conscience,
in this very setting, The Apostle Paul says in Romans 14, for 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 hath power to make him stand. The key phrase is this, to his
own Lord he standeth or he falleth. That believer, Paul says, is
answerable to his God and to his God alone for the things
which he does or does not do that fall into the realm of things
indifferent. The second text is James chapter
4. In a context where believers
were speaking evil of one another, based upon wrong judgments of
one another, he says, I'll read verse 11, Speak not one against
another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother,
or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth
the law. But if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer,
but a judge. One only is the lawgiver and
judge. even he who is able to save and
to destroy, but who are you that you judge your neighbor? There
is one lawgiver and judge. God alone is Lord of the consciences
of his people. That's the first fruit of our
liberty in Jesus Christ. Premise number one, God alone
Lord of the Conscious, premise two, God governs His people by
His written word and His word alone. Notice, He hath left it
free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything
contrary to His word or beside it, that is, in addition to it,
if matters of faith or of worship. so that to believe such doctrines
or obey such commands out of conscience is to betray liberty
of conscience. The assertion they are making
is this. As God alone is Lord of the conscience of his people,
God governs that conscience and administers that lordship by
the scriptures and the scriptures alone. Now here we come to our
fundamental view of the Word of God. Do we believe what Paul
said in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17? All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, that is, teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto every good
work. Is the whole of the Bible sufficient? to give a whole standard of conduct
that is pleasing to God, or do we need something in addition
to the Bible? The assertion of the framers
of the Confession is, we need nothing in addition to the Word
of God. And if we allow anything in addition
to the Word of God to bind our consciences, we are forfeiting
the liberty that is purchased for us in Jesus Christ and allowing
intrusions into the domain that God himself reserves for his
own authority. Now, you see, coming out of Rome,
this was a very real issue. Because, you see, the teaching
of the Church of Rome is that the consciences of the faithful
are to be bound not alone by the Scriptures, but by every
pronouncement that the apostolic succession makes upon the Scriptures. So the conscience of a good Romanist
is bound to all of the decrees that come out of the councils
of the bishops and from the popes and from the papal seed. And
the poor conscience is bound to every single thing. Why? Because the authority is
in the church. Therefore, the church can continue
to pronounce what is truth and what is right and what is wrong.
And you see, these dear men took much of that seriously when God
brought them out into the liberty of the gospel. They reared up
on their hind legs, as it were, and said, never again shall we
be subject to the dictates of man. You see, the cults are the
same way. Almost all of them have their
own structure of legalism that's based upon the peculiar revelations
of the founder of that cult. The Mormons with their regulations
against coffee and tea to which they bind the consciences of
their people. Now it's one thing for me as
a brother to say to another man, look, I think you're pumping
down too much coffee and the xanthines and the rest are bad
for your heart and bad for your cardiovascular system and will
eat holes in your stomach. Now that's one thing for me to
exhort. Another thing for me as an elder to say you drink
more than three cups of coffee a day and you're on the carpet.
You see, there's a difference. Now the cults often bind the
consciences of their followers with regulations to which they
must submit upon pain of excommunication and discipline. Sound very familiar? What about churches that say
you can't become a part of us unless you agree that. And then
they give you the list of their membership covenant. It has nothing
to do with biblical norms. It has to do with, you will never
do this, do this, go here, go there, taste this, touch. My
friends, where? Oh, but the Bible says worldliness! Ah, yes, it does say worldliness.
But I can't for the life of me see that worldliness spells M-O-V-I-E-S. You see, you've made a switch.
You've made a switch. And this is the thing that they're
crying out against, is anything that would intrude upon the conscience
of a believer but the authority of the Word of God. Now that
authority, rightly understood in the case of many believers,
will, with reference to most that is paraded as film art,
will cause a believer on good conscience to say no to it. Not
only no to it on Bloomfield Avenue, but no to it in his living room.
Whereas those who simply submit to a list wouldn't be caught
dead going to the theater on the avenue, but they'll spend
ten hours a week watching the same garbage in their own living
room, and it never bothers their conscience. Why? because they've
not grappled with the principles. And all they've done is look
at their checklist. That's the mentality that the
confession and the biblical concept of Christian liberty goes after
hammer and phone. All right. So we have two premises. God alone is Lord of the conscience
of His people. God governs His people by His
written word and His written word alone. Now, in the light
of that, we have two conclusions in this paragraph. Conclusion
number one is this. To believe doctrines or obey commands which men have
made concerning which the word is silent is to relinquish the
liberty of conscience purchased by Christ. So that to believe
such doctrines or obey such commands that go beyond the word, out
of conscience, you see, to do it with a sense that I'm morally
obligated, is to betray true liberty of conscience. You know, the apostolic writers
were just as careful to fight this tendency as they were to
fight the tendency to license and liberty. Look at two key
texts of scripture, Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter
two. These false teachers commonly believed
to be what we would call Gnostics, Those who did not like the simplicity
of the gospel in the sense that Christ alone was preached as
mediator and an adequate mediator, but they came with their many
intermediaries, and with it they had a very rigid set of rules
of ascetic way of life. Now notice how Paul comes at
this thing, Colossians 2.16, Let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink, It's a conclusion drawn from his doctrine of the
cross. He's expounded our fullness in
Christ based upon the redemptive work of Christ. In the preceding
verses, 8 to 15, he says, Therefore, in the light of the liberty procured
in the agony and blood of the Son of God, let no man judge
you in respect of meat or drink or respect of a feast day or
new moon or a Sabbath day. And I believe in this setting,
He's speaking of not the weekly Sabbath, but he's speaking of
the special feast days and Sabbath days which are a shadow of the
things to come. But the body is Christ's. Let no man rob you of your prize. See what he considers it? He
says you have a prize that's been purchased by the blood of
Christ. And that prize is freedom from
all the ceremonial trappings. Let no one come along and snatch
that prize from your hand by a voluntary humility and worshipping
of the angels dwelling on things which he hath seen vainly puffed
up by his fleshy mind, and not holding fast the head from whom
all the body being supplied and knit together through the joints
and bands increaseth with the increase of God. If ye died with
Christ, you see, he's back to the nature of the redemption
purchased. If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world,
why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves
to ordinances, handle not, nor taste, nor touch, all which things
are to perish with the using, after the precepts and doctrines
of men? You see what he's telling them?
He says, you people are all tied up with rules and regulations
that have nothing to do with the Word of God. They are the
rules of men. And when you subject yourself
to those things, this is a practical denial of the redemption purchased
for you in Jesus Christ. And that stirs his soul. He gets
disturbed with it. And then he goes on to say, yes,
these things outwardly. Make people think you're a very
pious individual. Indeed, a show of wisdom and
will-worship and humility and severity to the body. But see,
they have nothing to do with real sanctification. They're
not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. Then
he goes on in chapter 3 and says, The only way to conquer flesh
is not by man-made rules and regulations. It's to lay hold
of your liberty in Christ. If ye then were raised with Christ,
Seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God, for ye died, and your life is with Christ
in God. Oh, dear people, do you see?
Some of you may be sitting there even now, very nervous, saying,
what in the world is the preacher trying to do? Is he trying to
get Christians to go on out and live like the devil? No, no,
my friend. You won't get away with that around here. If you
live like the devil as a professing Christian or member of this assembly,
Then you'll have to be given over to the devil. 1 Corinthians 5. No, no. Now don't
you go out and say that, my friend. That would hurt because that
would be a lie and a breach of the ninth commandment. We're
simply trying to underscore the biblical principle. So beautifully
stated in the confession, the fruit of the liberty purchased.
God alone is Lord of the conscience. He exercises that lordship through
the scriptures alone. Therefore, to believe any doctrine
or obey any command of men in areas where the word is silent
is to give up what Christ has purchased. It's to be robbed
of my prize. Not only do I suffer, but my
Savior is insulted. Second passage, Galatians chapter
two. And this passage, coupled with
another incident in the life of the apostle, is a wonderful
example of the proper use of the doctrine of Christian liberty.
You remember when he's going to go out on a missionary journey
with Timothy? Timothy, uncircumcised, knowing they'd go to many areas
where Jews, the minute they found out, Paul had a Gentile companion. He was the product of a mixed
marriage, you remember? His father was a Greek, his mother
was a Jewish. He said, well, Timothy, let's
go down to the local rabbi and get you taken care of before
we go out so that if anybody asks a question, we can say,
oh no, he's a kosher companion, he's one of us, he's circumcised.
We're just going to take away any problems of conscience. But
now here's a different situation. In that situation, circumcision
was a matter of the adiaphora, things indifferent. because no
one was binding the conscience of Timothy to be circumcised
in order to be a full-blown Christian. But now in Galatians 2 we have
a different situation. Verse 1, Then after the space
of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking
Titus also with me. And I went up by revelation,
and I laid before them the gospel which I preached among the Gentiles,
but privately before them who were of repute, lest by any means
I should be running or had run in vain. But not even Titus,
who was with me, being a Greek." Now think of it, in Jerusalem,
not out there in the boondocks in some Gentile town where they
just had a few Jews of the dispersion in a synagogue. I mean, you were
right there. I mean, this was the New York
of Jewry. I mean, that's your Jerusalem.
There, this was it. He says, but not even Titus,
who was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And that,
here's why he said, because of the false brethren Privily brought
in, who came in privily, to spy out our liberty, which we have
in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. To whom
we gave place in the way of subjection, no, not for an hour, that the
truth of the gospel might continue with him. Oh, I love that language.
I think Luther would have written something like that. We gave
place, no, not for an hour, How long does it take to have a man
circumcised? A few minutes, he says. He said, if I did that,
I would have relinquished the truth of the gospel. These men
were coming with man-made commandments, saying circumcision is essential
to full standing in Christ. And Paul says, if I yielded for
a moment, I would have relinquished the truth of the gospel, that
the freedom Christ has purchased has set us loose from the yoke
of the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law was originally
given by man. And if anyone tried to bring
anyone back under that, and Paul was horrified, what would he
say about rules that never came from God in the first place? If he says that about rules that
God originally gave, but now has set aside and says, we will
not give place, what would he say to rules that God never made? I tell you, the Apostle Paul
would get in trouble in the evangelical churches in our day. He had the
nerve to write Romans 9 and to teach the doctrine of Christian
liberty. And that's bad. That's bad. To say that God's
on his throne in the salvation of sinners and God's on his throne
in the government of the lives of his people. That's why he
goes on in chapter 5 to say in vigorous language, Stand, for
freedom did Christ set us free. Stand fast, therefore, and be
not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Vigorous language. Well, that's the first conclusion
or deduction. To believe doctrines or obey
commands which men have made, concerning which the word is
silent, is to relinquish the liberty of conscience purchased
by Christ. Second deduction is to force
such doctrines and commands upon men not taught in the word is
to destroy the liberty purchased by Christ and to violate the
sanctified functions of reason itself. Look at the language
of the confession and the requiring of an implicit faith. You see,
on the one hand, you have the believer who is obeying commands
or doctrines out of conscience, not taught in the Word of God.
Now, in the second instance, he's turned around. You see,
there's a pope in every one of us, and now he's requiring implicit
faith in another. concerning things that God has
not spoken about. And he says to do this and to
demand it is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also. There's a sort of a standing
joke among some of the men around, young men around here, when fuzz
on the chin and on the lip and almost anywhere else it sprouts
out began to be the fashion. It was at the time when, you
know, in some places you were looked upon as suspect. It's
a Christian if you just let nature take its course. I had a young
man and I'm serious. I had a young man call me a couple
of years ago on a Saturday night. And he said, Mr. Martin, he said,
I've heard about the church and heard a tape or something. I
forgot what the context was. And he said, I'd like to come
out tomorrow. Can you give me directions? I
gave him directions. And just as I was about to hang up, he
said, oh, by the way, sir, I have a rather full beard. Will that
be any problem? I said, well, I'll answer you
this way. When you come through the back door at that time, Hartmut
still had his full beard and was playing the piano Sunday
night. I said, when you come through the back door, if the man who
plays the piano is sitting there playing a prelude, you'll see
that his beard is probably as full as yours. I said, does that
answer your question? He said, oh, it's so good to hear that. He
said, I've gone to several evangelical churches recently. And I found
I'd been given the cold shoulder and it's been made evident that
I wasn't too welcome because I had a beard. Now that's a tragedy. That's a tragedy. And so when
beards began to be the custom, we made it very plain. When some
of the fellows begin to spout one and you express your aesthetic
response to it, I'd say, well, I think you look rotten, but
I'm talking as your brother and as a private citizen, not as
an elder. You see? And I made that plain every time.
What I say, I simply say, as a person who has aesthetic sensitivity,
and I think you look rotten with a beard. But if you think you
look nice, and your mother and your girlfriend think you look
nice, or you just want to be nasty to the world and grow it anyway,
why, you're perfectly free to grow your beard. That's your
liberty. That's your liberty in Christ.
You see? Now, we laugh, and legitimately
so, but you see, this is a precious principle. I as an elder, we
as a body of elders, we have no right to require implicit
faith and absolute obedience where the word of God is silent.
And even when we've laid before the people the truth of the scriptures,
we appeal to their conscience to have the spirit of the Bereans
to search the scriptures to see whether these things be so. Now,
let me say by way of application before we move on to the third
aspect, and we'll touch on that just briefly and then we'll be
done for the night. It should be clear that in this
area, much of the practical problem is found with respect to Christian
liberty. Do men have the right to make rules concerning things
not condemned in the word of God? to force practices upon
us not taught in the word of God. Well, the answer of the
scriptures and the confession is beautiful. No, men have no
such right, and we sin against God if we submit to their pressures
to obey them where God is silent. We've experienced this as a church.
We've had many pressures to conform to the existing patterns of evangelical
worship. Why don't you have special music?
I just simply said, will you show me from the word of God
that special music, in terms of even sanctified performance,
is part of apostolic New Testament church worship? That's all my
answers, Ted. That's all. Now, do we judge
those who have special music? To my knowledge, some of you
have been coming here for what? Eight, ten years. I don't think
you've ever heard a condemnation from this pulpit about special
music being an unscriptural practice that ought to be condemned. Have
you? Have you ever heard that? Some of you have been here a
while. Anyone heard? No. No, we give a man his liberty
of conscience. But you see, the problem is, many will not give
us that liberty. Why don't you call people down
the aisle? I've just turned the Bible and said, will you show
me? where that is part of apostolic preaching and inviting and urging
men to Christ to force upon them some kind of an external response
other than commitment to be baptized, which is the apostolic external
response. We don't stand here and throw
stones at others, but you see, here's the principle that we
as an assembly, as a body of God's people, must allow no one
bring us into subjection to anything that is not explicitly taught
in the Word of God. We must not do it with reference
to our children, we who are parents. And this is where it becomes
so difficult, so difficult. You need wisdom from God. But
as parents, You have no right to bind the consciences of your
children. Now, there are certain things
which are matters of indifference, which you as a parent have a
right to dictate because of your God-given authority. And you
may have to say to your children, well, look, we can't be two places
at the same time on the same day, and I as the father and
head of the household in conjunction with discussing things with your
mother, we have decided that. Now, the child is just being
cheeky. He says, give me chapter and verse. you tell him there's no chapter
and verse to say you ought to go to that place at that time
but there is one that says children obey your parents and you stick
that under his nose and remind him so again these things I trust
you realize, are said with due qualification, which now moves
us into the third aspect of the confessional statement. We have
the nature of Christian liberty, paragraph one. Paragraph two,
we have the fruits of Christian liberty. And then paragraphs
three and four, the qualifications of Christian liberty. And basically
there are two qualifications. The first one in paragraph three,
they who under pretense of Christian liberty, Do practice any sin,
or cherish any lust, do thereby destroy the end of Christian
liberty, which is, and this is a direct quotation now from the
Gospel of Luke, that being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
we might serve the Lord without fear in holiness and righteousness
before Him all the days of our life. Qualification number one
of Christian liberty is what we might call the qualification
of personal abuse. With reference to personal abuse,
this liberty is no license to sin. That's why the framers of
the Confession wisely said, they who under the pretense of Christian
liberty. And what's pretense? Well, that's
fakery, that's sham. They who under the pretense of
Christian liberty practice any sin, that is, something that
is a violation of the moral law of God, or cherish any lust,
do thereby destroy the very end of liberty. And what was the
end of liberty? We are delivered from guilt,
from bondage, from sin, from the world, and all of this why?
That in free access to God we might render loving obedience
as His sons and daughters. So when anyone says, oh well,
I'm free in Christ, and begins to conduct himself not like a
free son of God, but like a wild son of the devil, he's abused
the doctrine, he's resting the scriptures to his own destruction,
and God will condemn him out of his own mouth. So with wise
pastoral insight, they qualified Christian liberty on the one
hand with reference to personal abuse. This liberty is no license
to sin. And we'll look at a number of
passages in the subsequent studies which emphasize this. I had a
number I wanted to share tonight, but time has gotten away from
us. The second qualification is with reference to civil and
ecclesiastical authority. This liberty is not a license
to anarchy. and the summary of paragraph
four, and because the powers which God has ordained and the
liberty which Christ has purchased are not intended to destroy but
mutually uphold and preserve one another, then I'll paraphrase,
those who under the pretense of Christian liberty fund their
nose at the authority of the state and fund their nose at
the authority of the Church, the framers of the Confession
say, such ought to receive the censures of the Church of Jesus
Christ. No, the authority structures
of the Church and the State are ordained of God, Romans 13 and
Hebrews 13. Remember the two thirteens with
reference to constituted authority, the authority of the State, Romans
13, the authority of the Church, Hebrews 13, 7 and 17. Therefore,
any resistance of duly constituted, properly functioning authority
is resistance to God and must be punished. If the civil authority
and if the ecclesiastical authority runs contrary to the clear testimony
of the scriptures, then we must say with Peter in the Apostles
Acts 529, we must obey God rather than men. But those times are
rare for many of us. Some of us will never encounter
such a conflict of authority structure. Well, basically, that's
the biblical and theological statement of the doctrine of
Christian liberty as framed for us in the Westminster standards. Aren't you grateful to God for
the sanctified labors of these men, bringing together so many
strands of biblical truth with such great pastoral wisdom? Now,
let me give you a homework assignment again. I don't know if you did
your last one, so if not, you have a chance to catch up. Please
reread, if you already did the previous assignment, Romans chapter
14, chapters 14 and 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 8, beginning with verse
13, reading right through to the end of 1 Corinthians 10.
Never read 1 Corinthians 8 apart from Chapters 9 and 10, that's
Paul's full treatment of the subject of Christian liberty. And then ask yourself a couple
of very naughty questions that Paul raises in Romans chapter
14. What does it mean when he says,
if thy brother is offended or grieved at your action, you're
not to do it? What does it mean if he's grieved?
You wrestle with that for a bit, will you? What should my attitude be when
I just don't understand how my brother or sister can do what
they do and still walk with the Lord? I just don't understand
how a Christian can do that and grow in grace. What should my
attitude be? Well, that's your homework assignment. I hope some
of you will take it seriously so that when we come together
again God willing, next week your mind will be moving in the
direction of these things and we'll address ourselves now to
some of the more specific areas of concern having laid this broad
base. I hope you found this profitable
and will find it profitable in the days ahead as you come back
to these things again and again. May I say to any who may be visiting
among us, to whom some of these things perhaps have sounded strange
on your ear, There's one thing I ask of you. Have the Berean
spirit, will you? What do I mean by that? Acts
17, verse 11. These were more noble than they
at Thessalonica. You see, you had a bunch of hotheads
at Thessalonica. Paul started preaching things
they hadn't heard before, and they said, let's get this guy
out of here. He isn't parroting the party line. But it says these
were more noble than they at Thessalonica in that they received
the word with readiness. and search the Scriptures daily
to see whether these things were so. My friend, in love to your
soul, I plead with you, allow your conscience to be bound by
no other authority but the Word of God written. But I solemnly
warn you, don't resist the authority of the Word of God written, for
in doing so you resist the God who gave that Word and He'll
call you into judgment for it. May the Lord bring upon us a
holy solemnity as we continue to pursue our studies in this
vital area of practical Christian concern. Let us pray. O Lord, how we thank you for
the liberty that has been purchased for us in Jesus Christ. To think
that we who are in Christ are this very moment free from the
guilt of our sins, free from the condemning wrath against
our sins, free from the curse of the law, free, O Lord, from
the threat of damnation and punishment in the world to come, free from
the evil of present afflictions, and even death itself no longer
has any penal overtones, but is but a discipline to release
us into your presence. O Lord, we thank you for that
liberty that is ours, and we bless you tonight for the work
of our Savior who purchased this liberty for us, who endured your
wrath against him, who in his own death fully satisfied all
the demands of your righteous law, fulfilled every type and
shadow of the Levitical system, that having fulfilled all that
they typified, they no longer bind the consciences of your
people. Lord, we thank you for this liberty.
Oh, help us, by your grace, to stand fast in a liberty purchased
at so dear a price. We therefore plead that you will
help us as we further study this broad and delicate subject, that
you will keep us from those abuses of this liberty into which men
and women have run through the centuries and through which they
have destroyed themselves. O God, keep us, we pray, from
abusing that truth which has been given for our profit and
for your glory. seal to our hearts then the word
studied together and our father we pray for those who may sit
among us who are not free from the condemning law of God who
are not free from the world from their sins and from Satan oh
God having heard proclaimed tonight the liberty that is the portion
of every believer may they be filled with holy jealousy until
they themselves know that liberty through union with Christ. O,
bring them to repentance and faith, and may they seek you
while you may be found, and call upon you while you are near. Now may it please you, O Lord,
to take us safely to our homes, to bless the remaining moments
of fellowship that many of us will have with each other in
this building and in various homes. Crown this your day with
the further sense of your presence and the fragrance of the nearness
of Christ. Receive our thanks for this day,
O Lord. You've been good to us. Oh, how
we thank you that we've known something of your felt presence
in our midst. Oh, God, we confess that many
of us are reluctant to see another Monday come. Back into that godless
environment in the shop, in the office, in the school, on the
subway, in the bus, in the neighborhood. back to the mundane and the routine. But, O Lord, we thank you that
it is precisely there that you manifest the sufficiency of your
grace. Help us, then, to manifest to
others the reality of our meeting with you today. May men take
note that we have been with Jesus. Hear us, Lord, we pray for your
praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.