Open—Matt Roach
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In the time that we have left, I'd like to say share a few thoughts on the idea of Christian liberty.
And Christian unity.
I'd like to read some verses from Romans chapter 14, Romans chapter 14 and beginning in verse one.
Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things. Another who is weak eateth herbs. Let him that eateth, Despise not him that eateth not, and let him that eateth not. Judge him that eateth. For God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant to his own master? He standeth or falleth. Yeah, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand.
For one man esteem with one day above another, another man esteemeth every day alike. But every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth that unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not today to the Lord he does not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord. For he giveth God thanks, and he eateth not to the Lord. He eateth not and giveth God thanks.
So in this part of the chapter we have Christian liberty.
We have certain things we can enjoy in Christ and we may have different exercises and enjoying those things or not enjoying those things.
I'm going to read some verses in the rest of this chapter, but first I want to go over to chapter 15, kind of the summation of this in verse.
Verse five of chapter 15 it says now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another. According to Christ Jesus, ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. How is it that on one hand we can have Christian liberty?
On the other hand, we can have like mindedness and unity and be in one mind with each other.
Well, it's what comes in between when we read some more verses in chapter 14. We have responsibility.
We can have liberty before the Lord to enjoy certain things He's given us, and we can also have like mindedness with their brethren.
Because of what's in between, and that's responsibility. So let's read back in chapter 14, verse 7.
So it says, For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lords. For to this end Christ both died, and rose and revived, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Why does thou judge thy brother? Why dost thou said it not thy brother? We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me.
And every tongue shall confess to God.
So then everyone of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us therefore judge, let us not, 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. And I know, and I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to the man that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat now, walkest thou not charitably?
Destroy not himeth thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Let not your good be evil spoken of. For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the thing which make for peace, and the things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroyed not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with a fence.
Is neither it is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine or anything whereby.
Thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. So as Christians there are certain things that we could have liberty to enjoy that someone else walking with the Lord may not have liberty to enjoy. And yet we are called to be like minded and to be of one mind, and that's their responsibility.
To contrast that we live in a world that wants to have liberty, freedom, and they want to have fraternity brotherhood. They may call it inclusivity.
But do they want responsibility in the middle? How can they have freedom in this world? And how can they have any kind of unity?
They don't put responsibility in the middle, they put equality. And equality is horizontal. It seeks to level things out. And for an example of that, suppose you're in in high school. High schools have different levels of math. A second grade, 12, there's kind of your basic math, your intermediate and maybe your advanced math. People can choose based on maybe their intellect or the desire to learn math to go into one of those levels. But let's say the school said we have to have equality of instruction for everyone.
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Does that mean everyone goes up into the top class?
Can you raise the basic understanding of the student with the lowest intellect? No, it brings everybody down. You have to bring all the students down to that base level because equality seeks to level the playing field. It's about each person being a lookout horizontally and say, all right, I'm even with that person. I'm satisfied, though it's not really satisfaction. But how can you have equality?
And have true liberty.
Liberty is the freedom to make choices based on your conscience before God. Equality smooths that out. So the world has to put law in place. They have to create rules to ensure that the playing field is level and that there's equality. You don't get fraternity or unity at the other end. You get servitude. What do we have in in Christ is we have the ability to disagree on certain things within the bounds of Scripture and conscience before God.
Because we live in responsibility to God.
Tells us in verse 12 so that everyone of us will give a count of himself to God. We live in light that we have a responsibility to God.
And a responsibility not to offend others as we continue on reading.
And what I find fascinating about this is this chapter is not about you recognizing what you have freedom to do and insisting on everybody else recognizing that you have that freedom. It's reversed. And let me use this example. Suppose I invite you over to my home on a Sunday for dinner, and I have a beautiful pool in my backyard, and I believe it's OK to swim on Sunday. And perhaps you don't agree with that. You don't believe it's right to swim on Sunday.
If I invite you over, we have our meal.
It's not up to me to think, well, I had a response, I have the liberty to enjoy swimming on Sunday. I'm going to go jump into the pool. And it's not your responsibility or your attitude that you look at me and say I don't agree with winning on Sunday. You better not jump into the pool.
My responsibility as a Christian is to recognize what my brother or sister has in their heart and their conscience before God. I don't worry about what I have the right to do or what my freedom is. I look at my brother or sister and concern and recognize that they may have a different opinion, a different conscience before God and therefore I'm not going to judge them for what they have the liberty or feel the liberty to do or to not do. Instead, I am to recognize that my responsibility.
Towards God is to not to offend, not to judge them. And if you're coming into my home.
Attitude towards me should be the same. It's not about what you're bringing as a right or as a as a liberty that you tried to force upon me. Your attitude should be again responsible for God not to offend me. And if we each come into Christian relationship with that idea of what is the other's conscience before God?
Not what my rights are, my liberties are, but recognizing the other person may have a different liberty.
And seeking in unity with Christ to uphold.
That like mindedness in Christ that we may glorify, that we may have one mind and one mouth, glorify God. Christianity is not about selfishness, it's not about my rights. It's about responsibility towards God. And I think sometimes if we forget the fact that Christians do have liberty in certain things and we draw a hard line or make a rule, then we end up judging our brother or sister and what they have freedom to do before God.
So we need to remember that we have liberty.
Before God and a pure conscience to do certain things others may not have that liberty to do. And yet we need to be like minded and live in unity. And the only way to get those two things together is to remember responsibility. Before God. The world tries to smooth things with equality. Equality can only bring people down and only can be done through law.
But we have a savior that fulfilled that law for us. That doesn't mean that we can do anything we want and expect others to say, well, I can't judge them.
A conscience before God is obviously governed by God's Word, and if we keep that before us.
I believe that our enjoyment of each other will be that much more if we can recognize that we had the responsibility to the other person not to ensure that our response or our freedom is met, but that our brother or sister is is welcomed, is encouraged, and that my attitude is for them.
Rest my soul, the word is.
Done.
And.
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It's now somewhere.
There is something here.
Right.