Christian Liberty, Part 18

Christian Liberty, Part 18

by Albert N. Martin

Edited transcript of message preached July 18, 2004
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Now if you will, please, turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 14. Assuming that most of you have been with us for some of the previous expositions from this chapter, I'll not read the first half of the chapter, since the focus there is primarily upon what I call general directives to the weak and to the strong. But I pick up the reading at verse 13 where the primary concentration is apostolic counsel to the strong:
"Let us not therefore judge one another any more. But judge or determine this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way, or an occasion of falling. I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself, save that to him who accounts anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of meat your brother is grieved, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your meat him for whom Christ died. Do not let then your good be evil spoken of, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he that herein serves Christ is well pleasing to God and approved of men. So then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify or build up one another. Do not overthrow for meat's sake the work of God. All things indeed are clean, howbeit it is evil for that man who eats with offense. It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have to yourself before God. Happy is he that judges not himself in that which he approves. But he that doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat of faith, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
Well, once again, let us ask the help of God as we come to the study of His Word.
Our Father, we feel very keenly again our need of the present, illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. Open, we pray, Your Word to us. Open our minds and hearts not only to understand, but to embrace in humble, obedient faith all that the Spirit will say to us from the Scriptures. Amen.
A fresh look at the doctrine of Christian liberty. It is this theme that for the past several months has been the focus in most of my opportunities for public ministry here in our assembly. And we began opening up this subject of a fresh look at the doctrine of Christian liberty by considering those massive areas of biblical truth, namely the reality and nature of our slavery and bondage in Adam, and the nature, the reality, the extent of our liberty and freedom in Christ.
We then considered the goal of that liberty. For what purpose has God in Christ set us free from all of those areas of slavery and bondage? And we found the answer in a beautifully distilled statement of Zechariah in Luke 1 verses 74 and 75 in which we are told we are delivered from the hand of our enemies that we might render priestly service unto God without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life.
Then we turned our attention to two great and constant threats to our liberty in Christ, the threat of license or libertinism on the one hand and legalism on the other.
We then proceeded to focus our attention on the use of our liberty in relationship to things neither commanded nor forbidden by the Word of God, and that brought us then several Lord's Days days ago to Romans chapter 14:1 through 15:7, the most significant passage in all of Scripture dealing with this whole issue of how does a Christian free in Christ in that nine-fold blessed freedom that we saw from the Scriptures relate to things neither commanded nor forbidden in the Scriptures? And as we took up this passage, I set before you what I called were four crucial principles of interpreting the passage, things that we must constantly keep in mind if we are rightly to understand the mind of God in the passage.
Then we looked at the foundation and goal of this matter of our liberty with respect to things indifferent. The foundation being verse 5 of Romans 14. Each must be fully persuaded in his own mind. There is to be no forced conformity on such matters within the church of Christ. So you will not find in our constitution a footnote touching such things as lipstick to wear or not to wear, movies to see or not to see, mixed bathing to engage, or... No, no, no, there must be no forced conformity on matters which the Word of God does not explicitly address.
It is within that sphere that the Christian, free in Christ, must regulate his conduct by many principles found in the Scriptures. So the very fact we have these chapters and some parallel chapters in Corinthians is because the apostles were determined that on matters that are not strictly moral, ethical issues spelled out by Scripture implicitly or explicitly, churches should not try to enforce conformity. Each must be fully persuaded in his own mind.
And then the great goal for which we are to strive in the midst of that obvious, known diversity of persuasion and practice is that there be God-wrought unity (chapter 15, verses 5 and 6).
Well, then we drew closer to the passage itself, and we began by considering what I call general directives to the weak and to the strong. And we looked at a number of the passages, particularly the first half of this chapter, and saw four specific directives, both to the weak and to the strong.
And then last Lord's Day, we narrowed in even more closely and took up the specific directives to the weak. And there again we saw that the passage contains four specific directives to the weak, that is, those Christians who not understanding the full extent of their liberty in Christ have a conscience that binds them to do certain things which God does not command and forbids them to do certain things that God is not forbidden. That's the weak man in this passage. He is weak in faith with respect to the full extent of his liberty in Christ. And God has four things to say to him.
Now, I've given you in about seven minutes a condensation of seventeen sermons. If your interest has been peaked at all in this, then I would urge you to consider getting the tapes or the CDs or as this material comes online from our website.
Now this morning, I must plunge right in and begin to take up with you the apostolic directives to the strong. You see what we're doing in the progression and unfolding of the study. We'd come up to the passage saying, "Here are the tools by which we can work at unearthing and mining out of the passage what God put into it." Not what we'd like to put into it, what others may put into it, what did God put into it? And we looked at our four tools by which accurately and responsibly to unearth and to open up what the passage teaches.
Then we looked at what the passage teaches to the strong and weak together. Certain things they are both to do and not to do. They are both to receive one another in a way that mirrors Christ's reception of them. They are not to stand in judgment of one another. Certain things we are all to do and we are not to do.
Then we went back and said, now God has some things to say to the weak. God has some things to say to Mr. Weak Christian. Certain things God commands him to do. Certain things God said he is not to do.
Well, in a similar way, God has some things now to say to the strong. And remember who the strong are. The strong are those who have a broad, settled understanding of the nature and extent of their liberty in Christ. Understanding it, they believe it, and believing it, their conscience is not bound to refrain from things that God has not put out of bounds, nor are their consciences bound to do things that God has not commanded them. In the passage, of course, it focused on such things as meats and drinks and keeping certain days. But the principles apply to anything that is not explicitly commanded nor forbidden.
Now, what does God say to those of us who are the strong? We're not saying that we are strong in every area of Christian grace, we are strong generically in faith. No, but with respect to the issue of the passage, we would rightly judge ourselves to be the strong. We're not hung up on things where God does not hang us up. Our consciences are free. We understand in great measure the full spectrum of our liberty in Christ. What does God say to us? Well, I would like to suggest that if we are to grasp the heart of what is contained in the apostolic directives to the strong, think of those directives in these categories. We're going to look this morning at the foundation for all the specific directives to the strong. Heading number two: four specific directives to the strong. And then the third heading is--that will wait till next week, because I'm not going to preach a two-hour Puritan sermon. And that is, heading number three will be the capstone or crowning directive to the strong.
So do you get the imagery? Today we're going to look at that portion in this section of the Word of God that identifies the foundation upon which all the specific directives are built. And having looked at the foundation, then we're going to look at the four specific directives to the strong. And then, God willing, next week, God puts a capstone over those four, which rests down upon the foundation that we'll identify. So we'll have foundation, specific directives, and a capstone, and that will find us in chapter 15, verses 1 to 3. So that's where I hope to go with you, God helping me, time permitting.
All right, first of all, then, the foundation for all the specific directives to the strong. When we come to God's Word to the strong, considering the various commands and exhortations and warnings, is there any unifying principle? Is there any common denominator? Then I'm going to use a word that I don't like to use in other contexts. Some of you will recognize it. Is there a master key that unlocks every door of specific directive? And I believe there is. And if we fail to see, understand, and internalize this foundational issue, the four specific directives will inevitably become a form of Pharisaic checklist morality. There is a common denominator to those four specific directives. There is a unifying ethical concern and principle. There is a master key. And where is it? Look with me in your Bibles. Verse 15: "If because of meat your brother is grieved, you are no longer walking in love." Paul says to the strong, as he isolates one aspect of the sin and the moral weakness of the strong in relationship to the weak, "If and when you do this, you are no longer walking in love."
Now here a little Greek grammar is in order. When Paul wrote, "You are no longer walking in love", he did not use the verb "walking" and then the preposition "en" in Greek, our "in love", but he used the preposition "kata", and he used "love" in the accusative and "kata" with the accusative means by the standard of or according to the rule of. So we could translate it this way: "Mr. Strongman, when you do this particular thing that you ought not to do, it is an evidence that you are no longer walking according to the rule and the standard of love."
And it is the rule and the standard of love that is the foundation of the four specific directives to the strong. They are simply an apostolically inspired answer to the question, "Paul, how will walking in love manifest itself as I relate to my weak brothers and sisters." Paul says "Walking in love will result in your cheerful, joyful compliance with these four specific directives." But these directives are not isolated, independent, little ethical snippets. They are the outworking and the manifestation and the concrete expression of true biblical love, one for another.
Now do you see why one of my insistent principles of interpretation was, whatever Paul says in chapter 14:1 to 15:7, he doesn't forget what he wrote in the earlier part of the letter? He doesn't forget on page 14 of his 16-page letter what he wrote on the first 13 pages. This is what he already said to all believers, weak and strong, about this matter of loving one another (chapter 12, verse 9): "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren, be tenderly affectioned one to another, in honor preferring one another." With no specific relationship to matters of weak and strong and Christian liberty, he had already given this blanket direction to all of the saints of God there at Rome. Let love be without hypocrisy. In love of the brethren, be tenderly affectioned with an affection that makes the concern of my brother my concern. And where I can step aside for his interest and for his sake, I am prepared to do so as a manifestation of brotherly love.
Furthermore, in chapter 13, in verse 8, "Owe no man anything save [here's your only standing debt that you ought to constantly remember you have; you don't need to wait for a monthly statement from the bank to know what your debt is] to love one another." That's your constant debt to your brethren. You have a debt of love. "For he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, shall not steal, covet, any other commandment. It's summed up in this word, namely, love your neighbor as yourself."
Now note, love works no ill to his neighbor. When my neighbor is my weaker brother, love will never allow me knowingly, carelessly, willfully, indifferently to inflict ill upon him. Love never works ill to its object. And so, as we will see, there are no fewer than five or six specific ills that are inflicted on weaker brethren by stronger brethren when they indulge their liberties in the presence of the weaker brethren thoughtlessly, carelessly, insensitively, and the Scripture says love does not do that. Love does not work ill to its neighbor. That's why love is the fulfilling of the law.
Now, if we fail to grasp this fact, as I've already alluded to, that walking in love toward our weaker brethren is the unifying and foundational issue, we will eventually fall into the mentality and practice of the Pharisees. They tithed mint and anise in cummin, but omitted the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, here's the parallel passage, and I want you to see it with your own eyes (Ephesians chapter 5, the same phrase of walking in love). Chapter 5, verse 1: "Be therefore imitators of God as beloved children." Imitate God. What a high calling. I am to imitate God. I am to be like God. In what particular way? "Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, gave Himself up for us and offering Him a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell." We are called upon as the people of God to walk in love, a love that mirrors that very principled affection and grace in God; that affection and principled grace manifested in the sacrificial death of the Son of God. I am called to walk in it, walk according to the standard and rule of that kind of love.
And I define love as I have in years past in this way: love is that God-like, Spirit-imparted grace that moves us to will and to seek the good of its object, even at great personal cost. "Walk according to love." And what is that love? A gushy, mushy, unprincipled, ill-defined, undefinable feeling that once in a while I get when I see my brother or sister and they happen to have their face put on right and look all smiley and chirpy and I feel good and I love them? No, no. It is that God-like, Spirit-imparted grace that moves me both to will and to seek the good of its object, even at great personal cost to myself.
And the biblical justification of that definition is found everywhere in Scripture, but I read but one passage that distills it (1 John 4:9 and 10): "Herein was the love of God manifested in our case, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent..." He loved and sent. God so loved that He gave. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." Now I say that the foundation for all the specific directives is that love operative in us by the present power and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
And I hope some of you have already made the connection when we were dealing with the two great enemies of our liberty, libertinism on the one hand and legalism on the other. One of the texts I expounded in your hearing was Galatians 5:13: "For you, brethren, were called for freedom. Only do not use your freedom for a launching stage to the flesh, but through love, slave for one another." That's a literal rendering. Don't be slaves to one another. Never. Christ is my Master. No man is my master. You're bought with a price. Paul says, "Be not the slaves of men."
But I am so free in Christ, free among other things from the tyranny of self-serving and self-seeking, that I can, if it is an expression of biblical love, I can slave on your behalf. I can make myself subject to things to which I am not legally bound by the explicit pronouncements of God's Law and Word, but which I voluntarily, joyfully do for you, my brother, my sister, if it will advance your walk with God and make you have a better testimony for Christ.
Now, if we are strangers to that love, operating in the sphere that we're dealing with, namely, how do I as a stronger Christian exercise my liberty in the presence of weaker brethren, if that love that God-like Spirit-wrought, principled affection and disposition and grace, is not operating in me, so that I am joyfully willing to restrain the exercise of my liberty for the good of my weaker brethren? How does the love of God dwell in me? And that brings us into a serious indictment. If I love the expression and the manifestation and the exercise of my liberties more than the well-being of my weaker brethren, I do not love them. And my Bible says, "He that loves not, knows not God. For God is love" (1 John 4:8).
So we've looked at the foundational issue as we approach the specific directives to the strong, and it is the mandate of love. Now we come, secondly, to the four specific directives to the strong, or God's answer to the question, "How are the strong to walk in love as they relate to their weaker brethren?"
Directive number one: don't exercise your liberty in any way that causes spiritual harm to your weaker brethren. Don't exercise. Notice I keep using the word "exercise". I'm not talking about giving up our understanding of our blood-bought liberty before God. What Paul refers to there in Romans 14 with these words in verse 22: "The faith that you have, have to yourself before God." He says to the strong, "You have strong faith with regard to your liberty. Don't give it up. Hold it tenaciously." But holding it is one thing; exercising it is quite another. And so what Paul underscores as directive number one is, do not exercise your liberty in any way that causes spiritual harm to your weaker brethren.
Now look at the terms used to describe what the strong can really do to the weak by the careless, thoughtless, selfish, indiscriminate exercise of their liberty. Look at verse 13: "Let us not therefore judge one another anymore." And then by a marvelous use of the same Greek word but with an obviously different nuance, "Let's not stand in the role of judge to one another anymore, but decide this in the solemn judgment of your own mind that no man put [now notice the first thing] a stumbling block in his brother's way [or an occasion of falling]."
The strong, according to this verse, can do two very bad things to his weaker brethren. He can put a stumbling block in his brother's way. And the concept there--and as I tried to find some present analogy, some of you know what it is to be in a house, you've not been there before, and you didn't notice that they had a raised door sill. And that sill was maybe raised just about an inch, may have been beveled up and down, but you didn't see it. And so you're walking very sprightly in it. What happened? You stumbled over the raised sill. That's the imagery that's here. He says, "No stronger brother is to in any way become like a raised door sill to his brother, who is walking surely with a good conscience before God.
He's weak in faith. He's refraining from things that are not sin in themselves, but to him they are sin, and until his conscience has life and his faith lays hold of that life, to him it is sin. But he's walking securely with a good conscience, albeit he's a bit uptight. When those special days come around, he still ticks them off in the calendar and says, "Oh, I've got to do something special religious on this day [not to earn his salvation, but he feels before God it would be wrong to simply ignore that day]." He can't yet eat his meat; he can't yet drink his wine, but he's a happy, spirit-filled, obedient, clear-conscience believer. He's walking steadily, steadily, steadily. Along comes a stronger brother who exercises his liberty in the careless, thoughtless, unloving way. And what does he become? He becomes a raised door sill to that man. And we'll see how that happens. And he stumbles. That's, strong brother, sister, what you can do to your weaker brethren.
You can be a stumbling block or "an occasion of falling" (is an effort to try to translate the untranslatable). The word used here literally means the stick that the animal would trip and the trap would be sprung. And it's the picture of being the occasion of someone getting ensnared. They're walking along again, free, to the extent that they understand their freedom in Christ. The strong brother or sister does something in his or her presence that acts like the trapstick on a trap. And the person is ensnared--by what? Ensnared by blooding his own conscience, by being emboldened through the example or the subtle or not so subtle pressure of the strong to do what the strong is doing, though his own conscience is not yet persuaded is right. So he does it under the influence and cajoling and pressure of the stronger brother. He bloodies his conscience. He's ensnared in his sin. Strong brother, sister, that's what you can do. That's what I can do to my weak brother, and that ought to be enough to scare us witless.
But that's only the beginning. Not only can we be, according to verse 13, a stumbling block, an occasion of falling, but look at verse 15: "For, if because of meat, your brother is grieved..." Now the word "grieve" here doesn't mean just feeling a little bit sorry. It speaks of deep, crushing, bitter sorrow of heart. And it certainly does not mean, if because of your meat, your weaker brother is grieved, that you should think you could eat meat. No, God's already told him, "Don't you, weaker brother, judge the strong." So if you feel pain, that you think a stronger brother is sinning because he's exercising liberty where you can't, you need to get your act together as a weaker brother/sister. Don't go around saying, "What you're doing grieves me. Stop it. The Bible says you're not to grieve me. I'm grieved you wear makeup. I don't think any holy woman should wear makeup, and I'm grieved to see it on your face. Take it off." My friends, that's the tyranny of the weak. Don't you budge before that one iota.
And weak people, as we saw last week, can be very tyrannical. They want to bend the whole world to their weak conscience. God says to the weak, "Stop it." No, when he says, "If because of your meat your brother is grieved", look at the context. Why is that weaker brother grieved? Here's why he's grieved. In the presence of the strong brother exercising his liberty, whether by example, plus, pressure, not so subtle, maybe subtle, the weak brother is emboldened to indulge in something concerning which he has reservations. "He that doubts is condemned if he eat, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
Now what happens when he stumbles and falls? He experiences the grief of broken communion with his Lord, the grief of knowing that he has sinned, even though at the time he was overwhelmed by the pressure of example and cajoling and persuasion. He now has the grief of a Christian who knows he's sinned against his God, who sorrowed, Paul says, "with godly sorrow unto repentance". If you're a Christian and you're not grieved when you sin, there's something bad wrong with you. So you can not only cause your weaker brethren to stumble, be the occasion of falling, springing a trap for them, but you can cause them this kind of spiritual grief.
But further, we can, according to this passage--read on (verse 15): "Destroy not with your meat him for whom Christ died." You mean the strong can cause something called no less than destruction to the weaker brother for whom Christ poured out His life's blood? Yes. Now it does not mean eternal destruction, and become a text that can be used to try to prove that what Jesus said in John 6 really isn't true: "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and him that comes to Me I shall in no wise ever cast out. This is the will of Him that sent Me, that all that He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day."
Is Paul overturning Jesus? Is Paul overturning himself (chapter 8)? Paul didn't forget what he wrote: "Whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Whom He foreordained, them He also called. Whom He called, them He also justified." And He doesn't lose a one. Paul didn't forget that. Paul didn't forget it. He didn't forget writing, "I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, nor any other created thing shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus [not even the careless exercise of my strong brother's liberty]." So whatever "destroy" means, it doesn't mean he's going to lose his salvation. But I tell you, it means something pretty serious to use the word "destroy" and to force preachers to explain it doesn't mean what it ordinarily means. That's serious stuff.
Christian, the next time you go to do something that's in the legitimate area of Christian liberty, get beyond merely thinking, "It's my liberty. Don't you stand and judge me." You mean there's a possibility if I do this, in this way, in these circumstances, if I go here, if I watch this, if I drink this, if I eat this, if I say this, I may destroy blood-bought property? What a scarce witness! "Destroy not!" For what? A hunk of meat. "My liberty to have my meat? I gave thanks for my meat. You got a problem with this? Tough luck. Don't try to bind me by your scruples, Mr. Weak Man." Oh no, my brothers. No, no, my sisters. He's talking to the strong. If because of your meat, Mr. Strongman, your brother is grieved, you don't walk in love. Furthermore, you may run the risk of destroying with your meat him for whom Christ died.
There's more. Want to hear some more of what the careless, thoughtless, loveless indulgence of liberty can do to the weaker, and why I say directive number one is do not exercise your liberty in any way that causes spiritual harm to your brethren (stumbling block, occasion of falling, bitter sorrow of heart, destroying)? Look at verse 20: "Overthrow not for meat's sake the work of God." What vivid imagery. He has just said that every child of God is God's workmanship, God's property, and God's craftsm.anship. We ought to be building up one another.
What is the work of God? The work of God is that weaker brother. He is a brother. And why is he a brother? Because God loved him. Christ died for him. The Holy Spirit came in conjunction with the gospel, gave him a new heart, brought him to repentance and faith, united him to Christ, gave him the Holy Spirit, justified him, adopted him, united him to the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection. All of this, that's the brother for whom Christ died. He's God's work.
Are you ready to overthrow? Are you ready to dismantle some of the work of God done at such cost to God Himself for the sake of putting a piece of meat in your belly? For the sake of the taste of a beverage going down your throat? For the sake of being able to say, "Well, I saw this blockbuster movie?" God have mercy on us if we're ready to overthrow for a little celluloid going before our eyes, some beverage down our throat, some style of clothing, whatever it be in the realm of liberty. God help us to recognize it has the capacity to overthrow the work of God.
Verse 21. Some of you have a Bible that also includes the statement, 'It's good not to eat flesh, drink wine, or do anything whereby your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak." And that's a textual issue. Did Paul write that, or was that inserted by a copyist? And I don't want to go into the matter. It adds only one further thought. The words "stumble" or "offended" are already used. The third is "made weak". And if that's what Paul used, then it just adds a sixth thing that the careless indulgence of our liberty can cause to the weaker brother.
And then I want to import one more out of a parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 8.12, and this is the one most frightening of all. Paul is dealing not in a strictly similar situation, but there are parallel principles in certain aspects of dealing with food offered to idols. And notice what he says after asserting some Christians can have liberty to do certain things with meats that have been offered to idols that others could not do. Now verse 9: "But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak." You see the parallel language? Look at verse 12: "And thus sinning against the brethren [that is, the weaker brethren] and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ."
You sin against Christ. In what way? Remember Matthew 25? "Come, you blessed, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. I was hungry, you fed Me; sick, you came to Me. Lord, when did we see You hungry? When did we find You in prison? Inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these, My little ones, you did it unto Me." Christ is so unashamedly united with His people, including weaker brethren who at times can be a pain in the neck with their scruples. As Calvin said, "Some of them get so fastidious they won't use linen for their handkerchiefs. Then they get to say, 'Well, that's extravagant. I won't use this, won't use that.'" And he gets down to where he uses a term, "They won't even use the raw material that's taken from the husk of a thing and made into a certain kind of thread." I mean, their consciences just get constantly all... It's hard to live with people like that. But Christ died for them. Christ set His heart upon them. Christ has drawn them, united them to Himself. And if because it's hard for us and it makes demands upon us who are strong, we're unwilling for it, and we're willing to go ahead and wound their conscience, we better face the fact we're sinning against the One we say we love and in Whom we trust for our salvation.
So according to this passage, there are no fewer than five and possibly six horrible things that the careless, loveless, Insensitive use of the liberty of the strong can inflict upon the weak: cause him to stumble, fall into the snare, inflict emotional pain, in some sense destroy him, to some degree overthrow the work of God, make him weaker yet, and above all, we sin against Christ.
Now, how would this actually all come together in the situation there at Rome? And I really wrestled with this because I want to put it now into a concrete visual image that I hope you can all relate to. So let's go back to Rome, but we're going back to Rome with 20th century or 21st century American foodstuffs and accoutrements and all the rest. So we're in a time warp, okay? We're going to take the stuff we could use in this setting and we're going to back to Rome, first century.
There's a group of Christians who've heard the reading of this epistle. They've heard the elders perhaps make comments upon it. Maybe there's been some congregational discussion about it. And a month or two afterwards, there are a group of the brothers and sisters who like to have, as the early church did in Acts, house-to-house fellowship, eating their meat with singleness of heart, praising God. And so they agreed to have about a dozen of the families come together at one of the more wealthy members who's got a nice big patio, covered patio, and they're going to have a potluck supper.
And so they, by some process of mutual acquaintance and the rest, they get together, and a dozen families are going to come together, and everyone's told, "You bring what would be adequate for your family" like we do at our family night suppers, and then we'll share a common table. Well, among those twelve, there are ten strong brethren. They can eat all kinds of meat, they can drink all kinds of beverages. But then there's two weaker brethren. One of them's a no-meek weak brother, and the other one's a no-wine weak brother. And their wives share the same conviction. And the brethren within the church are aware of this. They didn't go and violate the counsel I gave last week.
The weak often tend to form their own little clique within the church because they're comfortable with one another, and they can sit and criticize the strong and judge them. And the strong often, they form their cliques so they can feel comfortable, break out whatever meat and wine they want, and know nobody's going to have a raised eyebrow. And then they can talk about these silly weak brethren who they know, the same night, are out of a restaurant eating, can't enjoy... You know, of course, that never happens among us. That just happens elsewhere, all right?
So there at Rome, they're fully aware that we've got two weak brothers and their wives. So they come, and they're on the table. There's some lovely orduvres, and there's some salads, And then there's some different kinds of breads and condiments. And then there are some lovely vegetable dishes and vegetable casseroles and different kinds of rice. But then there's a beautiful, juicy, fat-laden roast leg of lamb. And then, for you folk from the southwest, there's a rack of big, fat, laden, dripping, barbecued spare ribs. They got some barbecued spare ribs. And then for you southern folk, there's some real nice, again, cholesterol-laden, thick, triple-dipped, sun-fried chicken. Fried in deep, real old-fashioned lard. I mean, this is the real stuff. All right? And there it is, all spread on the table. And then someone brought up a nice big old jug of homemade wines. Everything's right there on the table.
You got the picture? Now you're all going to say, "Stop preaching, I've got to go home and eat." I hope you've got more sense than eat most of that stuff that I talked about. All right. So now, one of the brethren who has asked the people over at your home and says, "Brothers, sisters, let's give thanks to God for the privilege of being together, for all the good things God's provided." And though Paul hadn't yet written it, he had a flash of a predictive element, and he said (as the Apostle Paul is going to tell us later on), "Every gift of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. Sanctified by the Word of God in prayer. Let's pray." And so this brother prays God will set apart for holy uses all of these good gifts that they're now about to eat. And everyone says a hearty amen.
And then they take their plates. And the ten strong brothers and sisters, they all put a good portion of all the different things. They whack off a couple of ribs; they pull off a piece of the fried chicken, and they sit down and they begin to munch and crunch. And by the way, they also take a flask and fill it not quite to the brim with the jug of wine on the table, and then they start to eat. And as they're eating, they look over and they say, "Hey John [this is Mr. Weak Brother], you know, those vegetables are delicious your wife fixed, and these things are good, but you know, you ought to taste this chicken. Man, it is good stuff." "I appreciate the offer, but at this juncture, you know my conscience in this matter. I have still got this association between meat that may in some way have been tainted with pagan sacrifice and worship, or my conscience is still so embedded in my Old Testament kosher patterns." Remember Peter? Three times God had to send a vision and tell him, kill and eat, and he said, "No, no, no, Lord! Nothing unclean has ever entered my mouth!" So that's not far-fetched. And so he says, "I appreciate it, I've just got to stick with my veggies."
And then they notice Brother Pete over there. He's got meat, but he's got no wine in his cup. He says, "Did you miss seeing?" "Oh, no, no, I know the wine is there. I'm glad you folks enjoy it, but I'd rather not." "Oh, why not? I mean, it's good stuff, makes the meal taste better. Just a glass of it, imbibed as you eat your food, metabolizes with it. You're not going to be heady, you're not going to be drunk, you're not going to violate the biblical injunction, 'Be not drunk with wine.' My brother-in-law..." "No, no, I appreciate, but... No, thank you. Before God... I just feel again the association of the wine and the ribald, debased pagan worship of my past. I can't untangle them all. I don't question that you can drink it to the glory of God with thanksgiving."
And what happens? Well, as the meal progresses, by cajoling, by joking, by needling, pressure is brought to the no-meat man and the no-wine man and their wives to the place where, lest they feel socially ostracized, they cave in. And when the weak no-wheat man takes a little bit of that chicken or that barbecued spare ribs, as he puts his hand upon it, conscience begins to move up from a whisper to a discernible voice. And when he moves it toward his mouth, conscience volume begins to increase. And when he bites it and chews and swallows it at this point, conscience is now thundering like a clap of thunder in his own soul.
What's he done? He has sinned. He did not eat out of the context of faith, that is, confidence that God was pleased with him eating that meat, though the thing in itself was not unclean. Paul says, "I know and am persuaded that nothing is unclean, but to him who esteems it, it is unclean. Whatsoever not of faith is sin." What has happened? These brothers and sisters By their cajoling, by their needling, by their encouraging, even though they knew they were weak brothers and sisters, what did they do? They did all six of the things Paul says we ought not to do. That's what they did. And all in the name of good Christian fellowship. You get the picture now. That's what Paul envisions. And he says to the strong,
"Don't do it. Don't put the stumbling block in the path of their obedience to their present life. Don't spring the trap that will urge them to do what for them is sin, lead them into a state of grief and pain, in some measure destroy them, in some measure overthrow the work of God, and above all, sin against Christ. Don't, strong brother or sister, exercise your liberty in any way that causes spiritual harm to your weaker brethren."
You say, "Pastor, that's bondage." Oh no, my friend, that's liberty. I'm so free in Christ from the commitment to please my taste buds and my throat and my personal likes and dislikes that I can say no to them for your well-being. That's freedom. To be so bound to your desire for your spare ribs and your fried chicken and your roast lamb and your vino that you're ready to run the risk of doing those six horrible things to your brothers, to your sisters. What a crass indication of miserable bondage to self-pleasing. One of the things we saw from which Christ liberates us is the idolatry of self-pleasing. "He died for all that they who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him Who for their sakes died and rose again."
So then, what should have happened at that meal? One of two things. Right at the outset, the brother who was leading the meal, leading in prayer, should have said,
"Now brothers and sisters, in the light of the letter that came to us from our apostle Paul, and as we have discussed and become aware of one another, we have two couples here tonight who are yet weak in conscience. But we believe, as Paul told us to believe, that none of us at this table is living to himself. [I'm now paraphrasing verses six to nine.] That every single one of us is giving thanks to the Lord when we eat, giving thanks if we eat not. None of us at this table is living to himself. None of us will die to himself. Whether we live or die, we're all the Lord's. We want to please the Lord. We're going to stand before the Lord. We have a weak brother and his wife. Brethren, let us do or say nothing that would in any way be an occasion of stumbling or of falling, or of grief."
And there'd be no cajoling. There would be no sidling up and saying, "Oh boy, if you only knew what..." No, no, no, none of that. Respecting. And if the weaker brother and his wife who couldn't take the meat, and the weaker brother and his wife couldn't take the wine, understood it, they would then say, "Brethren, we are very, very grateful for your sensitivity to our presence. And we want you to know that when we see you bow your head and you give thanks for everything on that table, that's including the barbecued ribs and the chicken and the lamb and a jug of wine, we're so thankful you can enjoy them with a good conscience. Enjoy." And what happens? With no forced conformity, there is God-wrought peace and unity, and God is glorified.
I spent most of my time on Directive No. 1 because that is the most foundational; it has the most exegetical materials. But looking at the time, there's no way I can responsibly take the other three, so they'll have to wait, God willing, until next week if God spares us and brings us together. So let me leap over, then, to a strand of my final application.
Brethren, most of you do fit the category of the strong, because by God's grace you've been well instructed, and we have studiously avoided any kind of forced conformity on matters of Christian liberty in this church. But there are still some among us who are weaker brethren. Now, if someone for other reasons than conscience before God decides to be a total abstainer for health reasons (and here's one of them) would not indulge as any kind of regular fare the kind of meat that I talked to you about, I wouldn't be up here preaching. I finally got my cholesterol levels down under 200. I'm a natural cholesterol maker. For me, it would be abuse of my body.
Now don't you label teetotalers among us as weak brethren. They may not be. If they believe that wine is inherently sinful in their conscience, then they fit the category of the weak, all right? Someone else may not eat meat simply as a dietary choice or maybe just a preference of taste. That doesn't put them in the category of the weak, but we do have some weaker brethren, that is, whose consciences have yet to fully appreciate the extent of their liberty in Christ.
And when we ask the question, "Am I my brother's keeper, my weak brother's keeper?", the answer is yes, you are. You are his keeper. And as we shall see in the subsequent three directives, we are his keeper in very practical, very fundamentally necessary ways. But you see, we will never, never, never attain to this biblical standard if we have this cavalier attitude "Well, I know the extent of my liberties in Christ, and it glorifies God if I..." and don't think through the whole question that I've emphasized again and again and again and again.
The understanding and appreciation of my liberty in Christ is internal before God. The exercise is external before men. And though no one or nothing should move me to yield the essence of my liberty (it has been blood bought by Christ; don't let anyone rob you), there may be a thousand things to constrain us from the exercise of our liberty in any given situation, so that at the end of the day, I want to clue you in on something. When we finish with the other three directives, you're going to come to this conclusion. The Christian, the strong Christian walking in love, will in many instances live a far more restricted, self-denying life than the weak brother whose conscience is bound in specific points of reservation about his liberty. Because a far more powerful motive to close strict, careful walking before God and men is love than a little set of man-made rules or the barnacles on the hull of a conscience not yet freed into its full liberty in Christ, so that in the future of this church I trust by the grace of God what I had discerned at a pastoral level is an emerging cult of using Christian liberty in such a cavalier, light, and unthinking way by the Word of God will be banished from our midst, and that we, as God's people, filled with the Spirit, whose fruit is love, will be prepared in love to deny ourselves any liberty in its exercise if under God it will promote the well-being of my brothers and sisters in Christ.
If you're not a Christian, and you've been listening at least half an ear this morning, you probably are thinking to yourself, "Man, oh man, the Christian faith makes demands upon you." That's right. But God's not like the taskmasters in Egypt who told them, "Make bricks, and we're not going to give you any straw." The God who sets this high standard for His people is the God who first of all comes to us in the gospel, in the grace and power of Christ and says, "Come to me as a selfish, self-indulgent, self-willed, self-seeking sinner, and I'll break your chains that bind you to all of the labels of your selfhood, and I'll set you free to serve Me, to love Me, and I'll give you power to live to My glory and to the good of others." And when the gospel comes in its power, then we see the kind of stuff I've preached this morning. And it appears most reasonable and most rational and well within the parameters of what can be done by the strength and the grace of Christ. May God grant that you go to Christ and find in Him the fulfillment of His own Word of promise, "Whom the Son sets free is free indeed."