ACTS IN ACTION: ALMOST OR ALTOGETHER CHRISTIAN

Scripture: Acts 26

 

So we come near the end of the ministry of the first great evangelist, the first missionary of the Church, St. Paul. Arrested for disturbing the peace, challenging the power and politics of Rome and the authority of the Jewish establishment with his claim that Jesus Christ is Lord, he plays the card of his Roman citizenship, appeals to Rome, and his final journey begins. He will carry the Gospel to what is now the Italian peninsula, to Rome, courtesy of the Roman army transporting him all the way. The last stop is the court of King Agrippa where he shares his own personal witness and the message of the Gospel. When he has finished his witness, the King responds with the classic words (in the King James Version): “Almost thou persuades me to be a Christian.” And Paul says, “Would that not only you but all who hear me would be not only almost, but altogether Christian.”

 

John Wesley preached on this text to the Oxford University community at St. Mary’s Church on July 25, 1741. He had planned to preach a sermon castigating the university community for their lack of faith under the title “How Is the Faithful City Become a Harlot,” but thought better of it and decided on this one instead. Historian Sugdeon says, “No wonder there was a large congregation. Since his last appearance at St. Mary’s three years before, he had become the best known and most abused man in England.” Excluded from the churches, he had begun open-air preaching. He founded the societies which would become the germ of Methodism and a thorn in the side of the established Church. He allowed laymen to preach in the societies. The newspapers were full of attacks on Wesley and the Methodists. Sugdeon says, “It was surprising the university allowed him to preach, and it was not at all surprising that the university flocked to hear him.”

So St. Paul was in trouble for preaching against Caesar in Rome and Mr. Wesley was in trouble for preaching against the hollow apostasy of the university in Oxford—both around the theme “Almost Christian.” More recently, Kendra Creasy Dean wrote a book about the study of religion among youth and used the same image as the title for her book: Almost Christian: What the Faith of our Teenagers is Telling the American Church.

 

So what is the “Almost Christian”?

Mr. Wesley described the “Almost Christian” as one who is willing to go “only thus far, almost persuaded to be a Christian.” He gives three characteristics:

 

1. The person with what he called “heathen honesty.” We would call it human decency, basic goodness.


2. Having the form of religion—That is, religious practice, doing good, avoiding evil, the outside of a Christian. Of course, he does throw out a zinger for those who come to worship “…gazing about, with all the signs of listlessness, careless indifference, either asleep or reclined in a most convenient posture.”


3. Sincerity—A desire to serve God, to do his will. In more contemporary language, Kendra Dean says the Almost Christian is “Christian-ish.” She says young people in America see religion as a nice thing for nice people; “an adherence to a do good, feel-good spirituality that has little to do with the Triune God of Christian tradition and even less to do with loving Jesus Christ enough to follow him in the world.” So she says American youth grow up to imagine God as either a butler or a therapist, someone who meets their needs when summoned, and helps them feel good about themselves.

 

She concludes: The problem is not that we are teaching young people badly, but that we are doing an exceedingly good job of teaching young people what we really believe: Namely, that Christianity is not a big deal, that God requires little, and the church is a helpful social institution filled with nice people focused primarily on folks like us. (page 12) You might say Christianity-lite, Christian-ish, and Almost Christian.

 

So what is the answer? What does it mean to be Altogether Christian?

Well, I can give you Wesley’s answer or Dean’s answer, but instead, let me give you a picture—three examples of what it looks like to be an Altogether Christian.

 

1. First, Judson Collins

Some of us recently ventured out to visit his grave, but relatively few Michigan Methodists know his story. Collins was born in 1823, the seventh of ten children born to his parents. The family moved to Michigan when he was a child and settled in Unadilla. (Where the heck is Unadilla? Just west of Chelsea.) When the University of Michigan opened its doors, he was one of five in the entering class. It is interesting to note that at the time, U of M students were required to attend weekday worship services at 6:00 every morning! During a revival meeting at First Methodist Church in Ann Arbor, he was converted and felt called to the mission field. He graduated from U of M in the first graduating class in 1845 and went to teach at the newly opened Albion College, a school for women. While he was there, he pleaded with the mission board to send him to China, and the answer he got was: “No mission there—no money to send one.” But he was determined. Finally, in April 1847, he set off from Boston Harbor and sailed around the Cape of Good Hope….it took five months to make the journey through five oceans to reach China. He was 24 years old. No one welcomed them, distrust surrounded them. With only a Bible and a few leaflets, within a year he had learned the language and established both a boy’s school and a girl’s school and was preaching regularly. But his health began to fail, and after just three years he was forced to return home without having made a single convert. No one knew he had returned. The Michigan Methodist Conference was meeting at the time and when the door opened and he walked into the hall, only his brothers recognized him because of his weakened condition. He died on May 13, 1854 at only 29 years old. But the work he began provided a toe-hold for education in China. He gave his life for Christ. He gave his life for China. An Altogether Christian.

We all know that few of us will give our lives as missionaries in China or anywhere else, so what does it look like in common, ordinary, everyday life? What would a home grown, human size, down-to-earth Altogether Christian look like? How about this one. We all knew him as the soft-spoken, silver-throated voice of the Detroit Tigers, but beyond his popularity and fame…

 

2. Ernie Harwell

…was a deeply committed disciple of Jesus Christ. He used to tell the story of the day in spring training—1961 on an Easter morning—when he happened to hear Billy Graham on the radio,

speaking at Peace River Park in nearby Bartow. He said, “That day, I gave myself to Christ. I’d been raised in the church. Christ had always been a part of my life. But on that sunny Sunday morning in Florida, Christ became my center, and that has made all the difference.” Twenty years later, when he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, he said, “I praise the Lord here today. All of my ability has come from him. Without him, I am nothing.” All of his success, all of his fame, altogether a Christian. Judson Collins, Ernie Harwell—they modeled John Wesley’s definition of an Altogether Christian: One who loves God and loves his neighbor, and whose life is marked by faith. Wesley’s classic sermon ends with these probing questions, albeit in the language of the 16^th century: The great question of all, then, still remains. Is the love of God shed abroad in thy heart? Can you cry out, “My God and my All?” Do you desire nothing but him? Are you happy in God? And is this command written in your heart: That he who loves God loves his brother also? Do you then love your neighbor as yourself? Do you love every man, your enemies, even the enemies of God, as your own soul, as Christ loved you?

3. One more down-to-earth, human size, real life story…

My maternal grandfather’s name was Emerson Randall Radaker, but we always called him “Pup”—everyone did, even his children, my mother and my aunts. I knew him as a kindly old man, shall we say “pleasantly plump,” sitting in his wooden Adirondack chair on the front lawn, or rocking in his favorite chair in the sitting room with the ever-present coffee can on a piece of newspaper on the floor beside him. There was also a formal living room in his old farmhouse, but no one ever went in there. But my Aunt Mildred, the oldest of the five sisters and one brother, told a different story. She said she remembered him in his younger days as a bullish, hard-working, hard-edged western Pennsylvania coal miner with a foul mouth and a quick temper. Aunt Mildred said she could remember Sunday mornings when her mother would line up those six children to walk the mile and a half to the little Ramey town Church, wearing boots and carrying their good Sunday shoes with them. They would start out and my grandfather would stand on the porch cursing and shouting until she marched her little band around the bend and out of earshot. Then one day one of the Radaker cousins was preaching a revival at that little church, and for some reason, Pup went. When the altar call was given, he went forward, knelt at the kneeling rail, and gave his life to Christ. When the cousin came to pray over him, he said, “Emerson, if I come back tomorrow, will you still be a Christian?” And my grandfather said, “Yes sir.” Then he asked, “Emerson, if I come back next month, will you still be a Christian?” And Pup responded, “Yes sir.” “If I come back a year from now, will you still be a Christian?” Once again he said, “Yes sir.” And years later when his grandsons carried his casket past that little church to bury him on the hillside, we could all knew he had kept his promises…an Altogether Christian. Mr. Wesley would say an Altogether Christian is one who loves God, loves his neighbor, and has faith. Kendra Creasy Dean says being an Altogether Christian instead of an Almost Christian means “moving from niceness to holiness,” that just being good enough is not good enough, that

following Jesus means learning to love him, and loving him means participating in his mission and allowing God to change us into disciples. As Mr. Wesley ended his sermon: “May we all thus experience what it is to be, not almost only, but altogether Christians.”

What a heartbreak it would be to live an “almost” Christian life, then “almost” get into Heaven.

ACTS IN ACTION: ALMOST OR ALTOGETHER CHRISTIAN

You Make the Difference

Matthew 17:14-20

A venture of faith is something only a Christian truly understands. By its definition ventures of faith lack all of the measurable evidence to make it a good business decision. Ventures of faith often lack the kind of historical track record to ever make anyone feel really comfortable about doing it. Yet, ventures of faith are pretty descriptive of Christian living.

 

God defined faith this way: (Hebrews 11:1) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. It is an illogical, optimistic and idealistic approach to life. And I would add, that for Christians it is also realistic. In faith believers will step into a fiery furnace or a lions den for their convictions, confident he will be OK.. In faith, believers will leave family and friends to bring the message of faith to distant and primitive lands. I am here to tell you that YOU MAKE THE DIFFERENCE. You make the difference first, because of faith. Secondly, it is a difference that touches others. Earlier Christ gave this instruction to his disciples:

(Matthew 10:7-8) As you go, preach this message: The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. It had to have been disheartening for them to attempt to drive out the demon in this boy and to have failed. After all, the assignment was clear. So, why did they fail? Jesus answered the question: Because you have so little faith. Earlier in our text Jesus called the disciples and their contemporaries an unbelieving and perverse 2 generation. He called them that because the message of faith was not sinking in. When asked to explain why he talked in parables to the people he said.

(Matthew 13:13-14) Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. The people, including the disciples, just were not getting the message of sin and grace. When Jesus said he would suffer and die for the sins of world, his disciples rebuked him. When He was betrayed His disciples deserted him. When His disciples challenged on their allegiance denied him. When seeing His resurrected body His disciples needed to touch the wounds. In one moment they would draw swords to defend Him. In another they would deny knowing Him. I believe the disciples originally became infatuated with a cause. On one occasion they argued over who would reign with Christ in His kingdom, failing to grasp what the kingdom of God really was all about.

On another occasion they criticized the woman for wasting fine oil and perfume on the feet of Jesus when it could have been sold and money given to the poor. They had semblances of faith, but put all together, it was less than the size of a mustard seed. Does this sound familiar? How many times haven’t we embarked upon a mission of mercy only to meet frustration? How many times haven’t we walked away feeling we have done right in the eyes of God and yet failed? How many times haven’t we read the words of this text and came to the conclusion, I can’t move mountains, therefore I too have weak faith. Christ used this and other examples in the lives of his disciples to illustrate for them and for us that a venture of faith is more than just healing. It is more than just doing nice things. A venture of faith begins with an internal conviction that my number one goal in life is to glorify God. That is more important than driving out demons. It is more important healing the sick. It is more important than saving unborn children from abortion or rescuing the elderly from euthanasia.

You glorify God and please Him when you live by faith. As Scripture tells us, (Hebrews 11:6) And without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is that perspective you have that sin destroyed your relationship with God. Faith is that conviction that though I could not save myself, God saved me when He sent Jesus to die for my sins. Faith is now a heartfelt conviction that entrusts all of life to the will of God, confident of the promise that: (Romans 8:28) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Listen to the words of promise and comfort we find in Proverbs: (Proverbs 3:25-35)

In faith we recognize that there is often temporary blessing in good things, but eternal blessings in challenges, disappointments and failures. We see that in suffering, even if our efforts to help fail, God has a purpose. When we act we do so always with the conviction of the third petition: Thy will be done, regardless of whether it makes sense to me. It is with this faith, given to you miraculously by the Holy Spirit, that you really do make a difference in the lives of others. Christian service becomes not so much an effort with measurable returns, but rather a focused investment, with confidence that success is guaranteed. God Himself said, (Isaiah 55:11) [My word] will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. It is a guarantee! God will make it work. Our role is to simply share it and to reflect Gods love to others.

You make the difference in the lives of others when you become less focused on success, progress and personal accomplishment and more focused on faith, service and contentment in doing the Lords will. God blesses endeavors of faith. The history of our congregation and our lives are testimony to this fact. When all odds seemed to be against us it succeeds as a venture of faith consistent with the Lords will. Even though we face new, complicated and tempting issues of life and death you continue to make a difference in touching more lives with guidance from Gods Word. You wear the little pins so that when asked you can talk about the Creator of life. You write letters to the editor to clarify Gods view of life now and forever. You elect political leaders who uphold the moral absolutes that you have learned from God and who work to keep religious freedom so that you can share Gods Word.

You make the difference that touches others because you know what it means to be touched by God through Christ. And in this service you make the devil stomping mad! He will seek to discourage, embarrass, frustrate and demoralize you. He will attempt to frighten you into silence, lull you into apathy and overwhelm you with the challenges of faith. But hold your ground for as Paul said, (1 Corinthians 15:58) Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Continue to make a difference for you already have, you certainly can through faith, and as God has already promised, you will. Amen.

You Make the Difference

The Key to the Christian Life

No one can live the Christian life in his or her own strength.

It took me a long time to learn this vital truth. For years, I struggled with how to live a successful, joyful, peaceful Christian life. I believed God had saved me, but I thought it was up to me to live a life pleasing to Him.

One day, Galatians 5:22-23 came alive to me in a way it never had before. It explains “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” God showed me that those qualities were not a consistent part of my life. I prayed desperately for Him to show me how to live a godly life. He used They Found the Secret, a little book consisting of 20 spiritual biographies. Through it, God opened my eyes to something I had never realized before: The key to the Christian life is to allow Christ to live His life through you. This truth absolutely revolutionized my walk with the Lord.

Our Condition Before Salvation

Let’s review what the Bible says about our lives before we were redeemed. No matter how good we seemed to others, Scripture says our sins separated us from God. Because He is holy, He cannot tolerate sinfulness. This means He didn’t hear our prayers (Isa. 59:2). Of course, He heard our prayers of repentance. But until we accepted God’s gift of salvation, we were dead spiritually. Every person without Christ is separated from the Father.

What Transpired at Salvation

Before we are saved, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our need for God’s forgiveness. Then we confess— or agree with the Lord—that we have disobeyed Him. We must accept Jesus’ death on the cross as forgiveness for our sins. Repentance, or turning away from our old lifestyles to new life, is another vital part of salvation (2 Cor. 5:17). At the moment of conversion, our sins are washed away. Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Once we are saved, our guilt is erased, and we are assured of eternal life. But we still have

two problems. One, our world is full of rebellion, disobedience, corruption, and wickedness. It constantly challenges us to reject or ignore God’s best for our lives. Second, we still have what the Bible calls “the flesh,” or that part of us that desires to rebel against God. Because of these two things, we will never reach a point in our lifetimes where we never sin.

God’s Provision for the Christian Life

The key to godly living is relying on Jesus to live through us. The fact that we are “in Christ” makes us t for heaven; “Christ in us” makes us t for this life. (See John 17:22-23.) We died to our old selves and were raised to new life. This is one reason why Scripture refers to the salvation experience as being “born again” (John 3:3).  At the moment of conversion, the Spirit of Jesus, also known as the Holy Spirit, came to live within us.

His primary responsibility is to live the life of Christ through us. When we rely on Him, He helps us think, act, and react as Jesus would in our place. As we develop spiritually, we grow in our ability to allow Him to live through us. Galatians 2:20 puts it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (See also Colossians 3:1-5 and Philippians 1:21.)

Each morning you and I can pray something like this: “Lord, it’s Your life—I’ve  surrendered it all to You. Thank You for dealing with each issue I face today.” We will still experience temptation and adversity, but now we know it’s not our responsibility to face those things in our own strength. In His power, we can have joyful and productive lives.

Why did Jesus come to live His life within us?

He knew we would be unable to follow His commands on our own. Without the Spirit’s help, we would be unsuccessful at living godly lives (see Acts 1:8).

He accomplishes His work here on earth by living through us. That doesn’t mean we will be perfect, but that we should “strive according to His power,” not our own (Col. 1:29).

He desires to have an intimate relationship with us. Christ has promised never to leave us (Heb. 13:5). Unless Jesus lives within us, a personal relationship with God is impossible.

Allowing Christ to Live Through You

What steps should you take if you desire to let Jesus live His life through you?

Admit your failure. Acknowledge that you feel spiritually frustrated or defeated. You have tried to live the Christian life and been unsuccessful.

Confess your inadequacy. Realize that even if you were given countless chances, you could not achieve spiritual victory on your own.

Acknowledge that Christ is sufficient. Since He is God, He has the ability to meet all your needs— wisdom for every decision, strength for every situation.

Abandon your life to Him. You must give Him permission to live His life through you. Let go of your own efforts to “be a good Christian” or “do enough” to please Him. Instead, surrender your life to Him and rely on His strength.

Confess it to be true. In other words, state out loud, “Jesus, please live Your life through me. I surrender to Your will and yield myself to You.” This is not a one-time commitment; you will probably have to surrender to Him over and over. When you fail, remind yourself again that you cannot live the Christian life in your own power— Jesus must live it through you.

Who is going to run your life: you or Jesus Christ who lives within you? If you are wise, you will allow the Son of God to direct you each day. Let Him give you guidance, direction, and power to make godly choices. Does that mean you will escape all problems, heartaches, and burdens? No. Nor does it mean that you will never sin again. But you won’t have to struggle on your own. Instead, you can walk in the power of the living God—and that is life at its very best.

Of the spiritual fruits—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—which qualities are evident in your life? Which characteristics come easy to you? With which ones do you struggle?

The Key to the Christian Life

What is Christian Liberty?

Galatians 5:13-16

The title of our discussion is the Christians’ Liberation. Recently, I don’t know if it’s happened to you, but recently I have been subjected to one of the greatest definitions of freedom ever given. And I’m sure you’ve heard it if you’ve listened carefully. Aside from the fact that such a definition is so inane that words fail me to express it.

We live in a day and age when men are seeking liberation and so are women. And there’s a new one. Freedom is the word today. Everybody is supposed to be able to respond only to one thing and that’s the desire of his own heart. Everybody should be able to do exactly what he wants to do and self-centered is, as always, the motivating factor.

But I mean, let’s be honest, this is not really freedom not in terms of a biblical definition, because Jesus said in John 8:34, “The man who does wrong is a slave to sin.” Jesus said this. “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free for real.” Freedom comes in Jesus Christ.

And Christianity is freedom. Christianity is liberation. I supposed that the reason that it’s so very difficult for Christians to understand current liberation movements is because we can’t really relate to bondage. Not if we’re truly expressing our liberty in Christ. Now in the book of Galatians, we have already been told several times that we’re free. And of course, what Paul is showing here is that there’s no need to be circumscribed any more to the laws and rituals and ceremonies of legalistic Judaism. We have been set free from all of that in Christ.

And in Chapter 2 of Galatians and in verse 4 he talks about the fact that false brethren came into spy secretly on our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus. That they might bring us in to bondage. The Christians in Galatia had been set free in Christ and some were trying to take them back into a legalistic kind of bondage. Then in Galatians 4, verse 21-33, you have entire allegory given over to define the Christian life as freedom. And it closes in verse 31, “So then brethren we are not children of the bond woman,” but of the free.” So Paul has taken great pains to present the fact that Christians are liberated people. We are free people. We have been set loose from all kinds of external bondage.

And particularly in the book of Galatians he has in mind the ceremonialism that is Judaism. So when we say we’re free when I say as a Christian I’m liberated, what do I mean. What is Christian liberty, what does it involve and how does it operate? We’re going to consider those questions tonight. And just let’s look at three questions.

Number one, what is Christian freedom? What does it mean when I say I am free in Christ?

This is very important and really this amounts to a review of our past studies. Chapter 5 of Galatians, in verse 1 which saw some weeks back says this. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty where with Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Now the verse literally says this. For freedom Christ has set us free therefore stand fast in that freedom and don’t be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. For freedom Christ has set us free.

Christ set us free to be free men. Now in the book of Galatians, watch this, this means we are free from law. We are free from law. It is the freedom of conscience. The freedom from the tyranny of a legal system. Freedom from the terrible pressure and frustration of struggling to keep a code that we can’t keep. We’re set free. And so the freedom that the Christian knows is then at least in our thoughts, freedom from the oppressing awareness that we can’t measure up to God.

But I don’t have that bondage anymore because I do measure up in Christ. He accepts me in the beloved one. The Galatians as we’ve seen had been made mature sons, free men, no longer bound by external restraints but free in the Spirit to act out their own maturity and their own liberty from within. Now this is Paul’s theme. Christianity is not bondage. Christianity is not slavery to a religious system. Christianity is absolute freedom.

And we’ve seen this over and over again. For example, through Jesus Christ, we have been delivered from the tiring relentless performance of religious ritual. And that’s why in my own mind I resist and fight tooth and nail against any kind of formal ritual in the church. Because that’s part of what we were freed from, right? The old covenant was legal, external, and it was given to demonstrate what true holiness is and to show men that they couldn’t make it. They had all the external symbols to portray the sacrifice necessary for sin. They were pictures of the sacrifice to come and once the sacrifice came, there was no need any longer for the symbols.

So Christian liberty then is to take all that Christ provides, be free from having to fulfill a legal code to please God, being free from the frustration that says I can’t make it. Being free from an external set of legal rules that I have to keep. Free to just function in the overflow of the work of the Spirit inside.

Christian liberty. And it all comes by faith in Jesus Christ.

There’s no need to go back to circumcision, he says in Galatians. No need to go back to ceremonies. In fact, in Chapter 4, verse 10, he says you’ve gone backwards, you’re observing days and months and times and years and I think maybe I’ve worked in vain. You’re going back to things that are over with. No more ritual, no more ceremony, no more circumcision. You’re free from all those external bindings.

Now it is true and I add this because it’s important. It is true that the moral law of God hasn’t changed. Nor has the believes obligation to that moral law changed. When I’m talking about the law in the general sense here that I’ve been using, and I’m talking about ceremonial ritual, but also the law morally is included in our freedom. The apostle Paul was going around announcing all this doctrine about freedom and it was a tough thing for the Jewish people to swallow. It was a real stumbling block, because the Jew lived all his life under the legal system. And the Jew prided himself on the fact that he kept the law.

And in addition to that, the Jew believed, and this is important, he believed that the only real restraint to sin just running amuck and to the unbridled indulgence of passion, the only legitimate restraint was law. Do you understand what I mean? The Jew believed that the only way that you could stop sin from running ramped was to set up rules and regulations. And you know something in the old economy he was absolutely right. The only way to stop sin, the only way to prevent everybody from just letting their passions run crazy was to set up rules and to make the punishment so serious. And in fact, in the Old Testament, you find that for adultery and such things like that what was the punishment? Death. And in the old covenant that was the way you halted the activity of sinfulness in the life of a person given over even to God by making rules with punishments so strong that you put fear in everybody’s heart.

And here comes the apostle Paul and he floats in to town and he says I want you all to know you’re liberated. No more rules. The average Jew is going to say oh wait a minute. How can you say that? Because passion will run wild. If you pull down all the little dos and don’ts and you strip back all of those little things, there’s nothing to check indulgence. Now can you understand why he felt that way? The answer is simple. The unbelieving Jew did not understand what it meant to be saved and then have the Holy Spirit come to live inside. And if you read your Bible in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, you’ll find that the Holy Spirit is called the restrainer. Have you read that?

And so now as a believer it is unnecessary for me to have a whole little list of laws and codes. I have the restrainer in me. And incidentally, His power within me is a lot greater than my own ability to halt myself in front of the wall of some law. And so it’s easy to understand that to those who were accustomed to regard law and law keeping as the only controlling factor that stands in the way of self- indulgence and the free reign of sin. And to whom a highly ethical system was everything the

teaching of Christian liberty was a real threat.

And it is obvious that what happened was they accused Paul of being antinomian. That is lawless, of teaching a libertinism that just turned everybody loose. Well, now we’re all Christians and we can just go do what we want. The people who had messed up the Galatians then had charged Paul with rejecting God’s ethical law. And he hadn’t done that all. He had simply said God’s ethical law has gone inside. They didn’t understand that. They didn’t understand that things had gone internal since Christ came to live inside.

Now listen to this, from the old covenant and the mosaic law to the new covenant and the law of Christ, not one thing has changed in the mind of God. Do you think God has the same ethics today that He had then? Do you think He has the same morality today that He had then? Absolutely the same. There’s no difference. The difference is we don’t live as Christians under the bondage and slavery of an external system with terrifying results. We live under the internal restraints of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Number Two, to picture the coming sacrifice of Messiah. Once the sacrifice of Messiah was made, you didn’t need the pictures any more, right? So that left only one reason. And the one reason was to keep Israel a peculiar nation, but once the church was established there was no more Israel as a peculiar nation. The Jew and the Gentile became what? One in Christ. So the ceremonial law goes aside, because one it was only for the unique identity of Israel. Two, it was only the picture of the coming of Messiah.

Once Messiah came, the second reason was gone. Once the church was begun, the first one was gone. But the moral law of God never changed at all. In fact, through the Holy Spirit in your life, now God will be able to accomplish what He endeavored to accomplish in the mosaic law of the Old Testament. So Paul gives not only the positive definition of what Christian liberty is, but he defines it very clearly here in verses 13-16. The law was not set aside. It just went inside, fulfilled internally by divine power rather than attempted externally by human power.

Now he’s been accused apparently of being antinomian. That just comes from a word anti, which means against law in Greek, so he was anti law. He’d been accused of that and so he wants to answer that accusation. And so in verses 13-16 he shows

how Christianity is not against the moral law of God. Let me give you a little analogy to help you understand this.

In trying to think how you could express this. I think it was one of the commentators I was reading that hinted it at this idea. Perhaps it was Hendrickson. But Christianity resembles a narrow bridge and it is a bridge spanning a place where two streams come together. One of those streams is one of those crystal clear brilliant sparkling streams, however, it’s a treacherous and deadly rapids. The other stream is a polluted, filthy, mucky, stagnant, vial swamp.

Stream number one so pure and sparkly and deadly is legalism. It comes on like great righteousness doesn’t it? But you can’t stay afloat it’ll kill you. It’ll smash you on its rocks. But the other stream, the polluted one, is libertinism. You fall into that and you’ll drown in the filth of it. And so the Christian maintains balance on the bridge, between the destruction of legalism and drowning in the filth of libertinism. The believer must never lose his balance. There are some Christians who’ve fallen into the rapids of legalism and they’re just getting beat to death.

There are other Christians who are wallowing around in the gross vices of libertinism and being garbaged to the point where they may be shipped out in ultimate discipline. Now this paragraph from 13-16 tells you how to stay on the bridge. It’s a good place to be. Up to this point, Paul has been talking theologically. Now he’s going to get real practical. In fact, Vincent Taylor once wrote, “The test of a good theologian is can he write a tract.” It’s good isn’t it? It’s nice that you can speak in all those flowery terms about all those mystical problems, but can you communicate with the average man.

Paul satisfies the test, believe me. He can go with the best in the theology and he can also come down to where we’re at, can’t he? Now, we’ve seen then what Christian liberty is. It’s freedom from the bindings of the law. Let me go with Paul here and look at our passage and show you what Christian liberty is.

Verse 13, “For brethren have been called unto liberty.” Stop there. Now this is basic to Christian life. We are free. We are no longer under the bondage of a legal system as he’s being saying over and over again. No reason to get circumcised. No reason for feasts and new moons and Sabbath and all those things. And you know, there are some people today who want all kinds of ritual. There are even some Jewish people who want to maintain the Sabbath and they want to do this and they want to do the other. That’s all gone. That’s all finished. There’s no need for any of that.

Now the fact that all that ceremonial stuff is set aside, please does not mean that we change our morality. That we turn in the ethics of Judaism for some kind of new morality. None at all. That doesn’t mean that what God held as true in the Old Testament all of sudden fades away and we’ve got some new stuff coming along in the New Testament. No. Now watch this, it is not at all a change in the content of God’s moral law. It is only a change in the way God brings about the fulfillment of it. From the external fear impulse to the internal. From the code of ethics to the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. That’s the difference.

Let me give you an illustration. Turn in your Bible to Exodus 21. Now this is a most interesting instruction in Exodus 21. And here you have a lot of various and sundry instructions connected to the Ten Commandments which are given in 20. There are all kinds of other ceremonial things involved. And just to pull one of them out that I think is most interesting is 21:1. “Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.” Here’s some of the ceremonial law.

“If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve. And in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.” Seventh year let him go, turn him loose, he’s on his own. “If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he was married then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given a wife and she had born him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out by himself.” In other words, there had to be the fulfillment of that six years. If he married and the wife didn’t marry till the third year, she’s got to fill out her six. That was the standard.

Now, “If the servant shall plainly say,” verse 5, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. And his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door or unto the door post and his master shall pierce his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.” You just lay his earlobe up against the door, put a hole in it. The original pierced ear.

You say what is that trying to illustrate? Just this, the man serves for six years under a legalistic bondage because he has to. The seventh year he can walk out, he’s a free man. You know what he does with his freedom? He says I want to take my freedom to serve you because I what? I love you. Now watch. There isn’t one bit of difference between what the guy did the first six years and what he does the rest of his life. It’s all service. What’s the only difference? The only difference is that it has ceased to be an external requirement and it’s become an internal desire. Do you see?

And in a very real sense when you were saved God just punched a hole in your ear because the moral code of Israel and Moses never changed for a Jew. If you were a Jew who was saved it was just like getting punched in the ear. A Jew kept the same law, but when he became saved you can throw out that morality. He merely began to do it not because it was out there as a fear thing, but because inside he loved his master and he had the capacity and the energy of the indwelling Christ to fulfill it.

Now that’s how it is with our liberty. You can go back to the book of Galatians. Our liberty has no real relation to the morals or the spiritual standards of God. Our liberty has to do with the motive. A devout Jew, now watch this, a devout Jew lived all his life by the code of Moses morally and by the ceremonies when he became saved would drop the ceremonies, but the code of moral truth in the Old Testament would never change. The only difference would be at some point when he came to Christ his reason for behavior would change.

And I’ll tell you another thing, whereas under the mosaic fear law he tried to keep it, but never could. By the indwelling Christ he will. And so we are free, not free to disobey, but free to do what’s right not because we have to do, because we what? Want to. Do you know what freedom is? Freedom is the ability to be able to do what you want. I used to say every time I want to, I’d rob a bank. I do. Every time I want to, I hit people. Every time I want to, I get stoned drunk. You know something? I don’t ever want to. I’ve no desire to do that. But you know something, if I didn’t have the indwelling restrainer, I’d fight that thing constantly.

You know, just imagine two houses built on the same block with a huge giant pane of glass in the front. Identical houses, one guy puts a sign on his lawn, do not throw rocks through the window. The other guy puts nothing there. Who’s going to get it first? There’s just something about that kind of standard that irritates somebody. That’s Paul meant in Romans 7 when he says, “The law stirs up sin in me.”

But I don’t need that external anymore, because the Holy Spirit inside restrains it. So I’m free. But now what does this mean? We said that there are some things that Christian liberty is not. Let me give you the three that Paul gives you. First of all, Christian liberty is not to indulge the flesh. Look at verse 13 again. “For brethren you have been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.” Christian freedom is not to indulge the flesh.

What do you mean by the flesh? Well, we certainly don’t mean what’s clothing your boney skeleton. We don’t mean the physical body. What do we mean? We mean the fallen human nature, the twisted self that’s commit the sin. The old man, if you will. No you weren’t set free in Christ to do whatever you want. And you know, this inevitably what people say when you get in to a discussion say on eternal security. Someone will say do you believe in the security of the believer? Yes. Then they’ll always say if they don’t believe, they’ll say, in other words, you can do anything you want and still be saved.

And I always say no. No, because you see Christian liberty is not the liberty to indulge the flesh. If you’re truly saved, you won’t indulge the flesh to that degree. Because there’s a restrainer inside. All right, look at it again. Verse 13. “Brethren, you have been called unto liberty not to use it as an occasion to the flesh.” The word occasion. It’s a military term and it’s speaks of a base of operation. Don’t make your flesh the base of your operation. Don’t say well, I’m a Christian. I’m going to go to heaven, therefore I can do whatever I jolly well want to do.

No, he says you are not made free to use your liberty as a springboard for the flesh. And he’s really telling the Galatians who come in and tried to say this is what he was teaching. Our freedom does not imply this. But I’ll tell you something, you know, there are people who would like to do this. And I have run into Christians from time to time who are on the borderline of buying that heresy. That Christian liberty means I can sin and get away with it or I can sin and not be condemned or I have the privilege of doing whatever I want. They would defend the fact that you can booze it up and have all the worldly amusements you want and sex and smutty reading and dirty movies and you can appeal to Christian liberty.

No, no, that’s very clear here. Christian liberty is not to be used as an occasion for the flesh. In fact, that message whenever I hear that message, you know what my conclusion is, that they’re not saved. You say why? Because if they’re truly saved, the Spirit would be restraining. You read Romans 8. You read Romans 8 and you’ll find that one of the works of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8 is to subdue the flesh. In fact, whenever you hear somebody propagating do what you want as a sort of a side light in Christian liberty, you can classify them according to 2 Peter 2:18. Turn to it and I’ll show you what I mean.

So whenever anybody comes along and preaches antinomianism you can classify them in 2 Peter or if you want another verse, you can classify them in Jude 4. “Certain men crept in unawares before of old ordained to this condemnation,” listen to this, “ungodly men turning the grace of our God into the lasciviousness.” And lasciviousness just means evil. “Turning grace into license.” That’s what a false teacher does. No, Christian freedom is not freedom to sin. It’s freedom from sin.

You know to give you another angle on it, it means that when you’re free, you’re free to stop being self-centered and be unselfish. Now the greatest liberty in the world is to be free from yourself, right? To be able to give. The best illustration in the world of this is Jesus. He knew liberty like it’s unbelievable. In Romans 13:14, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh.” There’s a contrast there. You either make provision for the flesh or you put on Jesus Christ. You say what does he mean put on Jesus Christ? Well, you see Jesus Christ made no provision for His own desires. No, not all. He said this, and this is what Paul said in Romans 15:3, “Christ didn’t please Himself.” Christ said this, “my meat is to do,” what, “the will of Him that sent me.”

Yes, Christ was free. He didn’t please Himself. He’s the perfect example of selflessness. True Christian freedom is to be free from slavery to self desire and to be totally liberated to do whatever God wants you to do. And that’s an exciting kind of liberty. The implication is simple. Our aim is not to please ourselves. It’s to please the Lord. That’s real freedom. Christian liberty is not freedom to please the flesh, but to please the Lord.

And our motivation is not just the stiff upper lip of duty. But it’s the loving service of gratitude to one who set us free. And there’s great flexibility in there, great flexibility. As we look at the Old Testament, for example, the area of sex is very, very clearly defined. God tolerates no extra-marital, pre-marital sex at all. And nothing outside the marriage bond and there are some very severe prescriptions for anybody who engages in adultery, fornication, homosexuality, anything like that. It is tremendously condemned in the Old Testament.

Now in the New Testament are we to assume all of sudden God’s changed all of his patterns? That now because we have liberty in Christ we can do whatever we want to do and we can say well, we love each other. You say who would ever say something dumb like that. Oh plenty of people, believe me. We even have branches of the church now for homosexual. As if God has thrown the Old Testament out. Nothing has changed. God’s patterns haven’t changed anymore than God has changed.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. God doesn’t change. The advocates of free sex today have infiltrated even Christianity. It’s taken for granted that sexual love is the most important thing and the only way to express love is through sex. And it’s got to be right because we like each other and after all we prayed. And everything in the name of freedom and Christ. That’s not freedom and Christ, that’s the same old slavery to self. The same old slavery to lust. The same old slavery to the flesh.

God’s ethics haven’t changed one bit, not one bit. They’re the same as they were under Moses law. The whole thing has just ceased being external. It’s gone inside and the energy of the Holy Spirit. Ceased being a fear motive and become a love motive. I don’t serve Jesus Christ because I’m afraid of Him. I serve Him because I love Him, right? You can relate to that. Cease being impossible in the flesh and become possible in the Spirit. So our freedom is not licensed to indulge in the flesh, but freedom to know victory over the flesh. Christian freedom then is not freedom to indulge the flesh.

Secondly, Christian freedom is not freedom to injure others. You know, this is a very important area. Look at verse 13 again, back to Galatians here, 5:13. “For brethren you have been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve on another.” Oh that’s so good. Somebody could say hey look man, I’m free in Christ, so I’m going to do what I want and that’s how it is. And you go waltzing off, stomping all over a whole lot of other Christians.

Somebody put it this way not in the biblical context, but he said “your freedom ends where mine knows begins.” And that’s right spiritually. The argument of the Jewish people would have been oh that’s great everybody’s free, so everybody just mows down anybody in the way. And here we get into this whole area of Christian liberty and relationship to my brother. My liberation is not to hurt my Christian brother. Verse 13, look at it. It’s very simple. It says this, by love, agape, supreme kind. By love serve one another.

Now here we come again with the death to self. Your freedom in Christ isn’t to do whatever you want, it’s to do that which is going to help your brother not hurt him. I like this word serve. It means bond slavery. It means to do that which would serve someone else. Make yourself a slave of someone else. You say that’s a kind of a paradox isn’t it? Liberty and slavery? Yeah, that’s a paradox, but it isn’t a contradiction. For such service is voluntary. You say what are you trying to say John?

I’m trying to say what Paul said in Romans 14 and 15. So we might as well go there, because he said it a lot better than I’m saying it. But it’s very easy, now think about this, it’s very easy for the Christian to say well, I’m free in Christ, so I’ll do that and go and do it and make somebody else stumble, right? Paul plays the service over selfishness. Now looking at Romans 14, notice verse 1, “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations.”

And here we have two kinds of people, two kinds of Christians. Did you know there are two kinds? Two kinds of Christians. You say what are they? Weak and strong. What’s a weak one? A legalistic one. What’s a strong one? A free one. A mature Christian is one who understands his liberty. A weak one who’s still hung up on the law. Now the weaker brother just couldn’t accept his liberty. You say well, what do you mean by that?

Well, let me illustrate it this way. All right in the church, for example, at Rome, you’ve got a lot of Jewish people. Okay, some Jewish people get saved. And some of these Jewish people get saved and they’re told all of a sudden you’re free, no more bondage to the ceremonies, you can change your diet. You can change your cooking habits. You can change all the feasts. You can alter everything. You’re free from all of that. And he just gags. There’s no way he’s going to do that. There’s no way he can get by the Sabbath and not keep all the laws. He’s not about to carry sticks on the Sabbath. He’s not about to work on Saturday so he can meet with the Christians on the Lord’s day, the first day of the week. He can’t do that in that his conscience yet.

And he may get invited over to a liberated brother’s house whose having pork chops. He can’t eat them. He…there’s something in his conscience that just doesn’t let him accept his freedom. Do you see? He is free. He can’t accept this freedom. So what is this other liberated character over here do?

Does it just say hey fellow what’s wrong with you and sit and eat pork chops right in his face. You see that would be to flaunt his liberty wouldn’t it?

And all you’d be doing would be hurting him and wounding him and injuring him and making him think less of you, because he still thinks these things are right. The best thing to do is don’t eat those pork chops because then you don’t offend him. Well, that’s the point. There is some that are weak in the faith. Verse 2, “One believes that he may eat all things. Another who is weak is a vegetarian.” You say well does the Bible teach you should be a vegetarian. But if you want to be a vegetarian, you can be a vegetarian. Notice it says who is weak eats herbs. I didn’t say that. It’s right there.

And perhaps they were not pure vegetarians, but they were trying to avoid meats offered to idols. Now some guy it’s legalistic. You know, of course, that it says in 1 Timothy that all things should be received at Thanksgiving. And that all those animals and the sheep in Acts 10 and the Lord said to Peter, “Rise Peter, kill and,” what, “eat.” So don’t worry about trying to vegetarianism biblically. It can’t be done. So there may be a guy though who just doesn’t want to take a chance on eating some meat that had been offered to an idol. You know people would offer things to idols and they’d go out the back door with the stuff and sell it on the street to people and they would wind up buying food that was offered to an idol. Which is no big thing, but for some it was a stumbling block.

So verse 3 says, “Let not him that eats despise him that eats not. Let not him who eats not judge him that eats. For God’s received him.” Listen God takes the weak and the strong, the eaters and the non-eaters. So don’t make a big issue over whether he eats or doesn’t eat a certain thing. And he says to the strong in Chapter 14, listen just remember the weak person hasn’t yet discovered the meaning of his freedom. At heart, he’s still a legalist. He still sees Christianity as a set of rules. He hasn’t yet understood his liberty. And boy there are a lot of Christians like that. I’m telling you, there are a lot of churches like that. Where in the church, they set up a code of rules where everybody has to function by the rules.

You know what they’re doing? They’re implying that the work of the Holy Spirit inside is inadequate. That’s right. They’re trying to go mosaic. They’re trying to re-establish an external code. There are some people who don’t understand their liberty and so they live according to certain ritual and rules. Now what do you do to them? If you’re a stronger brethren and you’re not hung up on that, do you mock him and say look at him, look at him? Weakling. No, you receive him as a beloved brother.

That’s where you are, I love you, and I’ll say praise the Lord and I don’t go there either because I don’t want somebody to see me go there who doesn’t think that’s the thing you should do and then say well look at he, he did that and I’m offended. Now what he’s saying is let the Lord deal with it. Verses 4 and 5, he just says “Let the Lord take care of this.” “Who art thou that judges another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. You let God be the judge of him.”

Verse 5, “One man esteems one day above another. Another esteems everyday alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. If the guy wants to keep the Sabbath for a while, it’s fine, just don’t offend him. Just let him do it. There’s no sense in making an issue out of it. Verse 6, “He that regards the day regards it under the Lord.” I mean, if a guy wants to keep the Sabbath, he’s doing it for the Lord, he thinks it’s right. “He that regards it not to the Lord he doesn’t regard it.” He’s saying man I’m free from that. I don’t want to keep that anymore. “He that eats, eats to the Lord and gives God thanks. And he that eats not does it to the Lord and gives God thanks.” So don’t make an issue out of it.

You certainly don’t want to just flaunt it. No you want to serve lovingly the need of your brother, even though he’s weaker. Now look at verse 13. “Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” Don’t do anything that’s going to make your brother stumble. Verse 21, jump down, “It’s good neither to eat meat or drink wine nor anything by which thy brother stumbles is offended or made weak.” That’s right. If somebody is offended…now nobody today is offended in terms of meat or foods, certain foods. We don’t have foods offered to idols, but there are some people who get offended by people who drink wine. It is good not to do that because it will inevitably make somebody stumble and make somebody be offended and somebody will be made weak. And I’d just rather not do that to my brother.

Now you’ll notice three concepts in verse 21. “It is good neither to eat meat, drink wine, or anything by which thy brother stumbles or is offended or made weak.” Stumbling means to halt the progress. You can actually halt the progress of a Christian by doing something in front of him which his conscience doesn’t allow him to do. You say well, how do you mean that? We’ll pursue it a little further. You can offend him. First of all, you jeopardize your testimony don’t you? He thinks less of you as a Christian as well as the fact that you’ve offended him. In other words, you’ve said in effect to him, I don’t care what you think I’ll do what I want. And that hasn’t shown him love.

But notice this little phrase, be made weak. That is really interesting. If he has stumbled and become offended, he will probably fall back further into legalism. That’s right, because when he sees that thing going on in his face, such liberty will nauseate him and often force him back into deeper legalism. And he’ll fall further away from real freedom and Christ. Well, verse 14, “I know when I’m persuaded by the Lord Jesus. There’s nothing unclean of itself. But to him that esteem anything to be unclean to him it’s unclean.” Isn’t that right? It may not be unclean in itself, but if a guy thinks it is, he just can’t handle it. So bring him a long lovingly, slowly.

Verse 15, “If thy brother be grieved with thy food you’re not walking in love. Destroy not him with your food for whom Christ died.” Jesus loves that guy. Loves his heart. Don’t exercise your liberty in his face to the point where you destroy your testimony and you cripple him and push him further into legalism.

Verse 17, “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Those are the things that matter. Verse 20, “For food destroy not the work of God.” Well, one other verse. 2 and 3, Chapter 15, two verses, well, let’s go all three of them. “We then that are strong are to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.” Now see there’s the crux of the whole issue. We’re not to please ourselves. “Let everyone of us please his neighbor for his good to edification for even Christ pleased not himself.”

I’ll tell you something beloved, Christian liberty is not the freedom to injure my brother. Do you see it now? It is not the freedom to do whatever I want and say I’m free, I’ll live it up. It is the freedom to lovingly serve that brother. There are some things that I could do that are not wrong. But they are those gray area things that to some people would be very, very wrong. And so I don’t do those things, because I wouldn’t do anything consciously to offend my brother. For that would be a misuse of my liberty. That would be a gross misuse of the freedom that the Lord has given me.

Now go back to Galatians Chapter 5 and let’s wrap it up. On the other hand, if you decide you’re just going to use your liberty, you’re going to do whatever you want. You’re going to live it up. You’re going to go out and drink and smoke and do whatever else and dance and party around and do whatever you want and just live it up. Do you know the result? Verse 15, “If you bite and devour one another take heed that you be not consumed one of another.”

If you’re just going to accept to exercise your liberty and just stomp all over everybody else, you know what’s going to happen? You’re just going to have the whole church fighting itself. You know the words bite and devour are words used primarily of animals. Bite, is a word that is used to speak of animals. We act like animals, beasts. Devour means to gulp down. If you’re just going to go around and just take chunks out of each other and gulp them down, you’re going to wind up being consumed, annihilated. You know what will happen to the unity of the body if everybody does that? If everybody exercises his own liberty? Will destroy these people.

You say well, you could sure really change your whole life pattern if all I did was go around worrying what everybody thought. Yeah, but it’s wonderful to do that, because that’s what the Bible says. By love, serve one another. Don’t use like Peter said, don’t use your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness. So Christian freedom then is not the freedom to indulge the flesh and is not the freedom to injure others.

Thirdly, and lastly, Christian freedom is not to ignore the law. You can’t say well, I’m free in Christ. I’m going to ignore the whole law. Verse 14, look at it, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word even this, love your neighbor as yourself.” Listen people, freedom in Christ isn’t freedom to ignore the law. It’s freedom to what? Fulfill the law. Isn’t that great. Freedom to fulfill the law. For Paul the moral law was still the expression of the will of God. Romans 7, you read it. He loved the law. He says, “I delight in the law.”

It was still God’s law, but Paul says I’m not bound externally in the concrete forms of Judaism. But I have the internal form of the law, love of Christ bubbling out of my life in which the whole law is fulfilled. The law is summarized in love. That’s nothing new. That’s Leviticus 19:18, tells us the law is summarized in love clear back then. And it’s now made possible by the power of the indwelling Christ. No, the requirements haven’t changed. But the basis of operation has gone inside. And the law is simply this, “love your neighbor as yourself.”

This then is the message that Paul is giving. Christian liberation does not result in the destruction of others in a plethora of personal pleasure seeking. And Christian liberty does not ignore God’s moral law. It fulfills it from the inside. And you know if you read Romans 13:8-10 he says, you know, “You’ve heard the law, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not covet,” thou shalt not do this, thou shalt not do that, and they said the whole law is fulfilled in this. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” You know, if you have love you don’t need those laws.

Do I need a law that says don’t kill if I love somebody? Do I need a law that says don’t covet if I love somebody? Do I need a law that says don’t steal if I love somebody? Am I going to steal from the one I really love. Am I going to kill the one I really love? Am I going to covet from the one I really love? Am I going to commit adultery against the one I really love? No you see, if love is there, all the rest of the law is fulfilled. You’d say I’d sure like to have that love. You do the moment you’re saved. That’s the point of the whole text. When you were saved the love of Christ was what? Romans 5:5, “Shed abroad in your heart and you fulfill the whole law.”

It’s there. And when the Christian acts on the principle of love, he is fulfilling everything that mosaic law was intended to accomplish, but he’s doing it from the inside. So we’re called the freedom beloved. Freedom in Christ, not to serve self anymore, but I’m liberated from myself to serve God. Number one, to serve God, and then to serve others.

Now in those three points that I gave you, we have every relationship covered. That’s right. First of all, Christian liberty is not freedom to indulge the flesh, right? That’s self-control. Christian liberty is self-control. Secondly, I said that Christian liberty is not freedom to injure others. That has to do with loving others, ministering to others. Thirdly, I said Christian liberty is not freedom to ignore the law, but to fulfill it. That’s toward God. The first point toward self. The second point toward others. The third point toward God.

My freedom is expressed in self-control, love of others, obedience to God’s law. Every relationship is harmonized in Christian liberty. it’s nice to say all that about my Christian liberty, but how does it operate. And that’s the third and last question in our study. How is the expression of freedom possible? Are you ready for this?

What is Christian Liberty?

For many are invited, but few are chosen.

Matthew 22：1-14

Here comes out the parable of the Wedding Banquet.

The King ask his servant to ask for some people to attend the wedding banquet. The people were invited by the King, not ordinary people.

It was a joyful wedding banquet. The heaven is like a wedding banquet. People has not authority to attend the wedding banquet, they can not come until they were invited.

But they refused to come when they got the invitation. But the second time, they were invited by the servant of King again. Some said they had to go to his field, another went to his business. The rest sized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

It was very similar to the last parable of the Tenants in Matthew 21:33-41

Luke 14:15-24

They all alike began to make excuses, the first said, I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Some people said I just got an oxen, still some other people said I just got married. People were easily to be restrict to what he had. Five yoke of oxen means the tools of my business. My life became better now. I want to improve my life even better.

When we evangelized people outside, they were working for the five yoke of oxen. Some people said they just married, they were restricted by the family.

We called many people but they refused.

Taking care of my business, family is important. But the priority is wrong. What we need to think about is that what we put in our first place. The challenge is that if you love and follow Lord first.

In Matthew 6, you got to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Luke14: 25~27

The cost of being a disciple, in the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Yes, the true disciples will have to forsaken something.

The tragedy is that people always said I have to looked at my wife, but how high the divorce rate in the world. It is not you get close to your wife and everything will be all right.

It is so tough to get along with other people, even we try to live with our parents.

 

Matthew 10:34-36

A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. The peace is not the true peace, Jesus came to break the surface peace.

 

How to get better relationship between husband and wife. We need to imitate Christ. We need to love the word of God and love him first, and the better relationship will be set well.

But people who got everything and live in the illusion. But when they come to the end with insipidness. Many people try to change wives. The secret answer of life is let our Lord become the Lord of our life. Rather than we but ourselves on the throne.

 

When God tried to give people blessings and kept sending his servants again, but people had such a big sin to kill the servants of God. The biggest sin was that people knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.

Isaiah 55:1

God’s invitation did not ask you for any conditions. It was freely give. Many people live like this.

“Why spend money on what is not bread, and our labor on what does not satisfy? ”

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

For God’s thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

So the most important thing was that when God called you, follow what he said, put down what you have, put down the temporarily things, and you will get the eternal life.

Matthew 22:8-10

God send his servant to invited more people, they were weak, poor and sinners in other peoples eye. God’s history will not cease even though people did not answer his calling. So the wedding banquet were filled with guest.

 

Matthew 22:11-12

The clothe is what? In Revelation it was the behavior. Noah went to the new life and he keep washing his cloth in his wine. In Book of James, if you are truly faith, you will have the behavior. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

 

For many are invited, but few are chosen.

Fear of The LORD Is The Beginning of Wisdom

Today’s verse is on Joshua 2:1~13

It was talking about the Israelites army try to attack the Jericho, before they did it, they sent two spies into that city. The Jericho was a big city and it was very difficult to attack. Here came out a woman who was very important to Israelites.

Why? Because this woman had the heart of fearfulness of God. She heard the story about God and trusted and she said your God is almighty God, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.

The fear to the Lord is Rehab’s power and wisdom, think about her situation, she hidden two spies which means she was betrayed her country at that time. If her hidden spies were found in her house. She would be killed by the King of Jericho. But she feared to the Lord so she got the power of courage, rather than fear to the man like ordinary people easily did.

Exodus1:15,21

At that time, Boys were going to be killed but the midwives fear to the Lord, keep the boys of Israelites, rather than obeyed the rules of King. So God blessed midwives and let them builded up their families.

We are easily to fear to the things, men which we can see. The person who fear to the Lord will not fear anything else. Before you think about what people will look at me, please first think about what God will look at you instead.

The names of the midwives and prostitute were recorded in the bible and Rehab’s name was in the family of Jesus.

Why? They were so little and even dirty people and gentiles but their names were recorded in the bible.

What was the true mature Christian life?  Fear to the Lord instead of people. Where was the faith coming from? Where was the source of the wisdom? The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Christianity maturity depends on the relationship between you and God. Instead look other people and try to figure out the sting in their eyes, check your balk in your eye first. Christianity maturity depends on how you really treat the God, believe or not, trust or not, love or not and the degree of those three. The root of those three is the fear of the LORD. Why?

Because when you fear him, you will listen to what he said, you will trust him no matter what, your will love him because he loves you and die for you on the cross.

Now let us think about interpersonal relationship, we also should have fear heart to each other. Let us see verse in Genesis 49: 14~18.

14 “Issachar is a rawboned[f] donkey

    lying down among the sheep pens.[g]

15 When he sees how good is his resting place

    and how pleasant is his land,

he will bend his shoulder to the burden

    and submit to forced labor.

16 “Dan[h] will provide justice for his people

    as one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan will be a snake by the roadside,

    a viper along the path,

that bites the horse’s heels

    so that its rider tumbles backward.

18 “I look for your deliverance, Lord.

Each person’s personality are like animals which are different. How to let people really respect each other? Why I have to respect the persons like Dan?

If we check the Book of Revelation, we will find that the tribe of Dan was cut off. So we have to be alert, let us check if we have Dan tribe inside of us. We need to get rid of it.

The reason why we also have to respect people is that they have the image of God. God created human according to his image. So each one of us has different image of God.

Let us continue to see Joshua 2：12

She had the heart of desire of being saved. She believe the power of salvation of God’s army. She lived in Jericho, I can tell some other people like Rehab heard about Joshua’s God stories and how God help Israelites to cross the Red Sea. But none of those people set up the faith like she to help spies and ask for the true sign of salvation to his entire family.

Finally she become the grandmother’s mother of King David. How fear of God’s history. Everything has been decided at that moment when you decide to follow God or Men, fear God or fear men, follow your flesh or follow the Holy Spirit.

The big conversion of your life will happen only if you decide to stand on God’s team, if you trust and obey his commandments. The righteous will live by faith.

Fear of The LORD Is The Beginning of Wisdom

Jesus is Lord!

Today’s verse is at Acts 17:29-31

Do you ever stop to think what shocking statements the Christian religion asks you to believe? In an unbelieving world which likes to think “all steeples point to heaven,” Jesus has declared: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). Or think of Christ’s warnings not to let anything come between us and him. He actually suggested that if our eye leads us astray, we should gouge it out, or if our hand leads us into sin, we’d do well to cut if off. It’s preferable to lose one part of our body than for our whole body to go to hell. I suppose it’s not surprising that astounding statements like these provoked varying reactions to the man who made them. Some of Jesus’ hearers sneered: “He’s out of his mind.” Others said: “He’s in league with the devil.” And it’s not hard to understand how they were led to those conclusions. Anyone who makes statements like Jesus did is either mad, or he’s bad, — or he’s God.

The Scripture has settled the matter for us. We have before us a statement of the apostle Paul which emphasizes a truth which is at the very heart of Christianity, a truth which our world needs to hear: JESUS IS LORD!

Part I.

You will remember that it was Paul who brought the gospel of Jesus Christ into Europe and, in particular, to the country of Greece. We meet him in Athens, where he had preached in the synagogue and in the public marketplace. News of this got to the authorities, and Paul was brought before the Supreme Council of Athens. He was asked: “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean” (Ac 17:19). As he gave his answer, Paul was surrounded by all kinds of evidence of false worship: shrines and statues and altars and temples, all dedicated to false gods. Paul began with a kindly ambiguity (which the Greek authorities may have taken as a compliment): “Men of Athens! I

see that you’re very religious.” But he didn’t remain ambiguous for long, vv 29-31. He spoke about a man whom God had appointed, who was put to death, but whom God raised from the dead. Jesus Christ is the one whom God appointed, whom God designated to be the Substitute who would take the place of a whole world of guilty sinners before God. You can guess this message was hard on the nerves of Paul’s hearers. They, like we, lived in a

world which had an easy conscience about sin. We don’t like to hear that our first parents rebelled against God and passed that rebellious nature on to us. Each of us has a sinful nature, a dark side to our personality that is not interested in God and His plan for us. There’s something inside of me that whispers: “You’re the most important person in life. Your life revolves around you!” But whether we realize it or not, whether we like it or not, God knows we are guilty in his court. That’s the message of God’s holy law, and it offers not one shred of hope for sinners. But Paul told those ancient Greeks about a man whom God appointed to satisfy God’s anger over our sin. He did this by trading places with a human race under God’s sentence of judgment. All during his life Jesus took our place under the demands of God’s holy law. He kept those commandments perfectly — for us. And then, on that awful Friday we call “Good,” he took our place under the curse of God on sinners. When the sun set over that skull-shaped hill, it surely seemed as though the life of Jesus Christ was over.

But listen again to Paul:”… raising him from the dead.” Three days after entering the grave as our Sinbearer, Jesus Christ left the grave under his own power. Death couldn’t hold him, because Jesus is Lord!

When we say that we mean, first of all, he is the only one who can bring us to God. He is the only one who met the problem of sin head-on and solved it. Other religions tell you to forget about your sin, to deny it, to make up for it by trying harder in the future. Only a religion which teaches that Jesus is Lord can assure you that your sin was washed away by Christ’s death andresurrection. You’re assured of a place in God’s family, because Jesus is Lord!

Part II.

It’s no secret that people today are having trouble with life. Why should that be? Did God design life to be so terribly difficult that the average person is unable by himself to figure out what makes life worth while?

The problem isn’t that God hasn’t told us, but that we haven’t been listening. When Paul got to Athens he met some people (v 18) who had their own ideas about how this life is to be lived. The Epicureans taught that there is no next life. Death ends everything. They also believed that the purpose of this life is pleasure. All a person should be concerned about is to seek the most pleasant existence. Whatever brings pleasure is right. Can you see what a belief like that will lead to?

The Stoics had a different idea about how to live. Their idea was: “Think everything out! Whatever doesn’t make sense to your brain (e.g., fear, pain, pleasure, hope), don’t accept.” Your reason decides what is good and what is bad. Now listen to what Paul had to say to these people, to those people who had such mistaken notions about life Paul emphasized: Jesus is Lord! Not only is he the only one who can bring us to God, he is the only one who can make life worthwhile. God has not placed us into this world to be our own little gods, deciding for ourselves what kind of life we’re going to live, what sorts of goals we’re going to set for our lives. That attitude falls under God’s

condemnation. Life works only one way, and that’s God’s way. Take a goldfish out of water, and what have you got? A very unhappy goldfish, that’s what. And keep him out of water long enough, and you’ll have a very dead goldfish. You see, his Creator did not design him to live out of water.

You and I were designed for God, and our life is going to be happy and worthwhile only when the Spirit of God convinces us that Jesus is Lord. Whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, we do it to his glory. That means that my satisfaction, my pleasure, is not the highest goal of my life. And what my brain tells me is right and good might be wrong and bad.

God appointed Jesus to be the only Savior this world is ever going to have. He led him into the grave in order to rescue us, but God raised him from the dead and made him Lord of all. Brothers and sisters, if Jesus is Lord of all, then he’s Lord of you and me, too. He’s Lord of our lives. He’s Lord of our calendars. He’s Lord of our activities. He’s Lord of our sexuality — the way we use our maleness or femaleness. He’s Lord of life, and he’s Lord of death.

He is the only one who can bring us to God, and he is the only one who can make life worthwhile. He does not exist for my sake; I exist for his sake.

When Paul said this in ancient Athens, there were many who refused to listen (v 32). What they were forgetting is that God has told us this not as an invitation for debate, but as an

announcement: Jesus is Lord!

Jesus is Lord!

How Many Times Shall I Forgive My Brother When He Sin Against Me?

Today’s verse is in Metthew 18:21~35

Peter asked Jesus, “How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sin against me? Up to seven times?”

Let us think about the background when Peter ask Jesus about this question. They might live together like a community, eating breakfaset, dinner together, listening to Jesus, walking to evanglizing people out there together. There must be some confilicts when people get so close. Even hasband and wife does so.

Jesus told a story about Master forgive a servent but he could not forgive his brother who owned he 10 pennies and put him in jail and his fellow servent told master. Master said,”I canceled all that  debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”

We could not select to forgive because we did not know how much we own God, and how much he canceled our debts. God want us to understand how much debt he paid for us, he send his only son to the earth and die on the cross for siners like us.

Let us look at next scripture on John 8:3-11

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do your say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jusus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

Do you know what Jesus was writing on the ground? The Law Moses commanded is carved in the stone, but the new law, which is gospel, SIN AND FORGIVENESS, is writed on that moment. The Law Moses commanded was given by God who want them really understand dos and donts but it was not enough, because people have to obey the law, they are in the circle of SIN AND PUNISHMENT. The new law that Jesus bring gave people the power of love so that they can use it to conquer the darkness inside of their hearts.

Jesus said if any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. 8:9 They went away one at a time, no one is sinless, no one can condemn other sinners. Forgiveness is not negleting sins. The meaning of doing this is want to let people to understand the Grace from God.

When we pray the Lord’s prayer. Metthew 6：12, It is said, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgive our debtors. If we can not forgive our brothers and sisters, how can God’s forgiveness come down upon us? We are just like that unmerciful servant, we forget the forgiveness and mercy from God to us.

Here Peter said one of his fellow servent sin against him, his focus is that sin again him, not other people, nor sin against God. Look at Joseph in Genesis who said how then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? We see Joseph’s vertical faith. Rather than horizental thinking, always think about how God will look at me if I sin like that.

I think Peter finally understand that he is not a sinless person who can not comdemn sinners, even the sinless Lord  did not condemn  sinners and remind sinners not commit sins again. What’s more, his forgiveness is unconditional. We usually put some conditions before our forgiveness. If he said sorry first, then I can forgive him.

 

 

How Many Times Shall I Forgive My Brother When He Sin Against Me?

Knowing Jesus

Matthew 17:1~6

There Jesus was transfigured before three disciples.

What events happened before Jesus’s transfiguration?

John Baptist was killed, before Peter confess Jesus is Christ, There were many different points of view about who was Jesus.

Some people said Jesus was John Baptist, some people said he might be Moses and Elijah. But who do you think Jesus was?

The knowing of Jesus has four different levels.

Level 1: He is our teacher and Rabi of life.

When a new believer come to church, it was his first time to know Jesus, he start to understand that Jesus’s teaching and words are so great and really helpful for our life and work. There was a lot of wisdom and similar books were there, Bible was just one of them.

Level 2: He is John The Baptist, Moses and Elijah.

John was the person who prepare the road for Jesus, Moses represents law of God and Elijah represents the greatest prophet in the old testament. Those three people are different than ordinary people. When one of new believers start to realize that Jesus and his theories are so important and great, my life might be changed through it.

Level 3: He is Christ, the son of living God.

After Jesus brought three disciples up to the mountain, he transfigured. Our faith knowing Jesus should come to this level to get the true change. We should accept this Lord into our heart and know he is the only one who can save my life.

But why Peter looked so surprised when he saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain? He has already confessed that Jesus was Christ and son of living God.

Because he has not opened his eyes to know Jesus. Like when Paul did not understand why Jesus called him when he even killed his disciples and put them into prison. Another brother come to touched Paul and something like scales fell from Paul’s eyes and he can see again. Such huge grace come to his life, it took him three years to meditate the love of God and he get changed and start to do great things for him and confessed that he was the worst siners of all the sinners.

Then, Peter said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. He was so easy to get satisfaction and stop there. They heard the voice come from above and they fell face-down to the ground, terrified. He get the holiness sense at this point. Like Jacob did when he was at Bethel and dreamed stairway there. When he a woke from his sleep , he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; This is the gate of heaven.”

Level 4: we should opened our eyes when we know he is our savior and larger than anyone in the world and we will get the heart of fear of the Lord and the holiness sense. When we get to this point we will have the mature Christian life.

Knowing Jesus