Now those of you who were with us last Lord's Day will know that in the ministry of the Word of God this morning, we come to the continuation of a series of sermons, a series entitled, The Christian and Christmas in the Light of the Word of God. It was the mind of your elders that with all of the unavoidable reminders of another Christmas season pressing in upon us from every direction, and since it has been some time since the principles of the Word of God which ought to regulate the thinking of the people of God in such seasons have been clearly and systematically expounded that it would be good for those who are jealous to maintain a good conscience before God to have the light of Holy Scripture brought to bear upon those consciences. And as I've indicated, this morning is the third installment of a four-part series, the fourth part to be given, God willing, tonight. And since each part is dependent upon the others, and together they form the whole of at least the basic principles by which an earnest Christian should be able to determine with a good conscience what his conduct ought to be at such a season, I trust you will indulge me the necessary time to give a very condensed review of what we covered last week, and I will stick very closely to the review that has been written out in full. I trust I will not do so in a monotone, in a way that will bore you, but in the interest of time, please bear with me as I seek to give the distilled essence of what we considered last Lord's Day. I began by focusing on what I would call the fundamental assumption of my dealing with this theme. And that assumption is that in the heart of every true Christian, not in the heart of everyone who is a professing Christian, everyone who is viewed as a Christian by others, but in the heart of every true Christian, in the heart of everyone who has been born of the Spirit of God and is truly united to Christ in a saving union, There is a passionate desire to obey such clear injunctions as 1 Corinthians 10 31 and Ephesians 5 and verse 17. In those texts we are told whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, including the celebration in any way or non-celebration in any way, of the Christmas holiday whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And in the heart of a true Christian, there is a passionate commitment to glorify God in everything. And in Ephesians 5, 17, we are told, do not be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And surely in the heart of every true Christian who has been given a heart of flesh into which God has placed his spirit and upon which he has written his law, there is a desire to know and to do the will of his God. And then I sought to identify the fundamental difficulties we face in addressing this subject. Though, as true believers, we do desire, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, to do all to the glory of God, and though we do desire not to be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is, the moment the words are heard, the Christian and Christmas, in the light of the word of God, One cannot help but almost hear and see materialized before his eyes the internal struggles into which people are thrust. Struggles from three directions. Inherited traditions. And nothing is so stubborn as an inherited tradition shrouded with religious connotations. That's why Jesus had to say to the Jewish leaders of his day in Matthew 15, 7, you make void the word of God by your traditions. And they were suffused with religious overtones and implications. Inherited traditions make it difficult for us, objectively, to consider matters such as how we should or should not observe such a holiday. And then there are the emotional and sentimental associations. What can be more emotional than Bing Crosby singing, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, just like the ones I used to know? Chestnut roasting by an open fire. It's just gooey, gushy with emotional connotations, isn't it? And if some modern-day Grinch or Scrooge, in the name of biblical Christianity, is going to in any way make those wonderful, gushy, emotional clouds vaporize, our defenses go up. It makes it difficult, then, you see, inherited traditions, emotional and sentimental associations, and then, of course, there is the constant pressure of the world. Romans 12 and verse 2, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, and it's obvious that the world loves Christmas. No one would debate that Christmas is the world's holiday. Anyone debating that is either willfully blinded or is living on a different planet. And so when the believer comes to this question, he feels the pincer pressure of inherited traditions, emotional and sentimental associations, and the pressure of the world, and therefore he stands before the question on the one hand with a renewed heart longing to know and do the will of God, to glorify Christ in everything, and yet he knows that these things can be an impediment. What then is he to do? Well, he is first of all to cry to God. He's to pray. He is to pray that the Spirit of God will bring him to the place where his perspectives line up with Isaiah 820, to the law, to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them or no dawning for them. And the Christian is prepared to pray, Lord, bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. He's prepared not only to pray that his mind be brought subject to the Word, but that his sentimental dispositions and emotions be regulated by truth. When Jesus prays in John 17, 17, Father, sanctify them in the truth. Thy Word is truth. Part of the then, what's being sanctified, is the emotions of his people. Sanctify them. And of what are they composed? Not only minds that think and bodies that act, but emotions that feel. And the sanctifying influence of the Word of God must touch our emotions, and they must be brought subject to the Lord Jesus. And then we must pray for moral discernment, as Paul prayed for the Philippians in Philippians 1, 9 through 11, that their love might abound more and more in all knowledge and discernment, that they might approve the things that are excellent that they might have moral discernment with a view to making the right choices on ethical issues, which ultimately result in the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Then secondly, we must not only pray, we must then seek to get the facts of the case clearly and accurately established in our understanding. You see, we live in a day that despises sanctified Christian thought. But like it or not, it is in the realm of sanctified Christian thought that we make progress in grace. The scripture speaks of the renewing of our minds. We are told to set our minds on things above. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, soul, and strength. And so we must begin then, having prayed and maintaining a disposition of prayer, we must get the facts of the case clearly and accurately established. And last Lord's Day we looked at four sets of facts. Fact number one, there is no biblical warrant whatsoever for the remembrance of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ by means of a specially designated day of religious or social celebration. I can almost feel the knee-jerk reaction of some. Well, there goes Grinch again. Listen, it is a fact. Search your Bible and see if the Bible warrants any special day designated for the remembrance of the birth of Christ. And you will look in vain. Neither our Lord nor his apostles established such a day. Therefore, no individual Christian should ever allow his conscience to be bound to a sense of duty to observe the day. He may observe the day for one reason or another, but it must never be from a conscience bound by an authority other than the word of God. And this is why no Christian church can impose upon its people in their corporate life any activities or objects which would indicate a corporate recognition of December 25th as a day of special religious significance. The church can only implement the rule of Christ and his apostles. Teach them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. Paul says, if any man be spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I say unto you are the commandments of the Lord. If our Lord and his apostles mandate no special day of remembrance of the birth of Christ, no church, no minister, no pope, no council of bishops, no reverend, or group of elders has any warrant to impose the remembrance of such a day upon the religious life and the corporate worship of its people. If we can impose a day, we can impose a thousand and one rules which are not rooted in the Word of God. And it's because we want to jealously guard Christ's crown rights in His church that we impose no such day upon your corporate life. Second fact is that the designation of December 25th as the day to commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is rooted in pagan and diluted Christian origins. The designation of December 25th as the day to commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is rooted in pagan and diluted Christian origins. It does not appear until the 4th century, that is, the 300s, the mid-300s A.D., and it is clear that It is found in association with Constantine legitimizing and legalizing the Christian religion and the incorporation of previous pagan festivals and feasts into the so-called Christian calendar. Now that's just a fact. What we do with it is something else, but that is a fact. shocking to many Christians. They think somewhere there must be hidden away in the Bible something, surely something that says on one Sunday a year you've got to read Luke 2 and Matthew 1 and Matthew 2. And it ought to be sometime around in December, especially toward the latter part. I mean, how can you even claim the name Christian if you don't do that? Well, there are some who have great reservations about that day because it has a very strange mother and father. Its mother is paganism, and its father a diluted Christianity. And some are not enamored with its child. Then fact number three is that the current celebration of Christmas in our society, both secular and religious, is pervasively, I didn't say exclusively, but pervasively pagan, humanistic, materialistic, and licentious. And anyone whose eyes are open would not debate that reality. And fact number four is, in God's common grace, much good has and continues to come to men in connection with the Christmas season. In God's common grace, much good has and continues to come to men in connection with the Christmas season. God's common grace being that benevolent activity of God, which though it does not impart the blessings of saving grace, it does two things. It restrains men's potential for evil and actually endows them with the dispositions and desires to do that which is good. It is not acceptable to God because it comes from an unregenerate, unbelieving heart And without faith it is impossible to please him, but the work in itself is beneficial to mankind. And we looked at the many indications of that, and several of you came to me after last Lord's Day evening and said, Pastor, if anyone questions your fourth fact, I'm ready to bear witness to its validity. It was my softened disposition to religion that made me attend a Bible class in my college dorm that led to my conversion. at a Christmas season. Someone else, I went to a Christmas Eve service. I wanted a churchgoer, and there I was converted. It is simply a fact that God in common grace has and continues to do much good in conjunction with the Christmas season. Well, in the light of those four facts, what is the Christian to do? Determined to walk in the light of his Bible, he sees in his Bible no biblical warrant for the setting of a special day of remembrance of Christ's birth. He sees and knows from his own observation that the actual keeping of the day as he beholds it is marked by these un-Christian characteristics. He knows its origins are pagan and a diluted Christianity, and yet he sees that God does much good at that season of the year. What should his attitude be? Well, you have the two positions that I believe are simplistic and unbiblical. The one which says there must be total personal rejection of anything to do with the day, And there must be an aggressive endeavor for its total eradication from the life and practice of any professing Christian. There are those who hold that position very strongly. I will reject it for myself, and I will aggressively labor for its extermination within the ranks of those who profess to know God and love His Son." In other words, in their minds, it is in the category of an unmixed moral evil. As Paul says in Ephesians 5.3, Let all fornication and uncleanness or covetousness not be named among you as become saints. They would say, let no recognition, celebration, participation of the Christmas holidays be named among you as become saints. They would put it in the category of unmixed moral evil. So they act, so they speak, so they write, so they preach. And frankly, they can be very nasty to anyone who will not accept their judgment. But then on the other end of the spectrum are those who also have an equally simplistic and I believe unbiblical response. They say there must be total personal acceptance of all that is not grossly sinful and an aggressive endeavor for the re-capturing of Christmas for Christ among all professing Christians. There is a total acceptance stripped of the grosser moral abnormalities and a commitment that all Christians ought to be stirred up to capture Christmas for Christ. Well, again, I believe that's a simplistic and biblically inadequate answer. What then does the child of God do? Just throw up his hands? grit his teeth and wait for the time to pass and say, I'll forget it till next year. No, be not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Don't be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord for you is, that you might, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do in reference to this designated holiday, do all to the glory of God. What then is the answer? We've said we're preaching on the subject of Christmas and the Christian in the light of the Word of God. Well, my basic answer is this, that we must place the observance or non-observance of December 25th as a day of special religious or social significance in the category of Christian liberty. We must place the observance or non-observance of December 25th as a day of special religious or social significance in the category of Christian liberty. Now, when I use the term category of Christian liberty, what am I talking about? That phrase describes those practices which are neither commanded nor forbidden by the revealed Word of God. practices concerning which each Christian is responsible to act according to the principles of the Word of God which apply to such issues. And no passage is so full of the major principles as is Romans 14.1 through to the end of the section, 15.13, but especially the 14th chapter of Romans. And so, for the remainder of the time this morning and again this evening, I would ask you to turn with me to that portion of the Word of God. For I am personally convinced that if, by the enablement of the Spirit of God, we can grasp the principles in this portion of the Word of God, we shall know for ourselves the will of the Lord with respect to what we individually should do in response to this holiday season. In other words, the opening up of Romans 14 will not be the articulation of a uniform policy for the celebration or non-celebration of Christmas that is incorporated into the Constitution of Trinity Baptist Church. The day that happens, or anyone attempts to make it happen, I hope many of you will rear back on your hind legs and say, No! No one can legislate where God does not legislate. Unless someone is prepared to prove to me that I sinned when I sat and enjoyed watching my grandchildren open up lovely colored boxes with lovely colored paper, taking out necessary items of clothing that were provided for their use and tell me it was sin for that clothing to be purchased, for it to be put in boxes, for it to be given, and for me to enjoy watching them receive it. Unless you're prepared to say that taking one of God's creation like a poinsettia and putting it in one's living room is sinning against the God who gave us all things richly to enjoy, including nice, big, red-leafed poinsettias, Unless you're prepared to prove from the Bible that a feast with turkey or ham or some other special things is inappropriate on a given day that is designated by pagan and diluted Christian origins Christmas Day, unless you're prepared to prove that that is moral turpitude and sin, then this whole issue must indeed be put in the category of Christian liberty. things neither commanded nor forbidden by the Word of God, things in which every Christian must be fully persuaded in his own mind. Now, as we approach Romans 14, I want you to envision three steps leading us up to and into the chapter. And these steps, though behind us when we get into the nitty-gritty of the four major principles that are embodied in the chapter, they must be kept in the back of our minds, conditioning all that we discover together. And step number one is this. Whenever you begin to enter into the room of biblical teaching on Christian liberty, always put your foot on this step First, here's step number one. In the exercise of our Christian liberty, we must never violate the moral law of God or frustrate the goal of the grace of God. In the exercise of our Christian liberty, We must never violate the moral law of God or frustrate the goal of the grace of God. Now look at Romans 14 for the clear indications of this. Paul is dealing in this chapter with the kinds of things of which he can say in verse 14, I know and then persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself, save that to him who accounts anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean." Now, is that a universal statement applying to any and every act of... Of course not. In the context, he's talking about the eating of certain meats and foods. We know that's what he's speaking about, because look at the next verse. For if because of meat your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Furthermore, in verse 20, all things indeed are clean, how be it is evil for that man who eats with offense. In other words, the matter of Christian liberty pertains to issues that are not in direct violation of the law of God or that frustrate the goal of the grace of God. Those things are clearly dealt with in the preceding chapters in Romans. For example, look at chapter 13, verse 8. Oh no man anything, incur no foolish unjust indebtedness. Have no unjust, unpaid debts. This is not a direct prohibition of borrowing money. For Jesus said, Give to him who asks of you, and from him that would borrow of you, do not turn away. You see, people take one verse and build their whole doctrine. If borrowing is sin, Jesus was telling His disciples to sin. Because He said, When someone would ask to borrow of you, give it to them. Now does he say if someone asked you to murder, kill someone, they asked you to fornicate? No. Those things are sin. Borrowing is not in itself sin. What Paul is condemning here is the incurrence and the maintenance of unjust indebtedness. Oh, no man anything save to love one another. Why? For he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. But Paul, I thought we were free from the law in Christ. You built up that whole doctrine in the opening and central chapters of Romans, yes. Free from the law and its condemning power. Free from the law and its power to call us into sin. But free from the law as a standard of righteousness? Never. And therefore, without any qualms of conscience, he says to believers, justify no condemnation because they are in Christ. They have died to sin. A people of whom he previously spoke, saying in Romans 6.14, you are not under law, but under grace. He says to these Christians, Oh, no man anything save to love one another for he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law for this. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not kill. You shall not steal. You shall not covet. If there be any other commandment, forget the whole bunch of them, because you're not under law, but under grace. That's the way some would have written, but not Paul. If there be any other commandment, and there are, he names a few of the Decalogue. And there are others. It is summed, not canceled, negated. It is summed up in this word, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor. Love, therefore, is not the negation, the cancellation, but the fulfillment of the law. When in love I regulate my conduct by the law, law fills up to the brim the standard set by the law and renders to God that which is pleasing to Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Christian liberty must never be viewed apart from this fundamental stairway into it, that in the exercise of our liberty, we must never violate the moral law of God. That is not liberty. To violate the moral law of God is sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. Nor must we frustrate the goal of the grace of God. And what is the goal of the grace of God? Well, look in this very chapter, 13, again. Let us walk becomingly. Verse 13. Let us walk becomingly. Let us walk in a way that becomes what we are as Christians, children of the day. Not in reveling in drunkenness. Not in chambering in wantonness. sins of sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, now notice, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. The great end of the gospel is that the Christ who took our nature to himself in Mary's womb the Christ who took upon Himself all of our obligations to the law, both in its preceptual demands and in its punitive punishment. The great end of the gospel is that being saved by the doing and the dying of another, we should put on that very Christ and the virtue of His grace and power to the end that we would not fulfill the lusts of our flesh. Or as Paul says in Titus 2, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, teaching us what? That enjoying our Christian liberty, we can live a sloppy life and prove our freedom in Christ. That's the way some would write, but that's not what the apostle wrote. This is what he wrote, the grace of God has appeared. bringing salvation to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to Himself a people, His own possession, boiling with passion to do good works. That is the sense of the verb zealous of good works. That is the end of the Gospel. The end of the gospel is to have a people who live soberly. That is, they're in touch with the great realities of the dangerous territory that they are in. The God of this world is pulling the strings at this season of madness. The God of this world, unlike our Lord Jesus, who could say, the Prince of this world comes and finds nothing in me. He comes to you and me and He finds plenty with which to work. our remaining sin, our propensity to evil. And so the end of the gospel is that we should live soberly. There is no truth with the powers of darkness in the well-being of your soul just because it's December 25th. And you must live soberly into and through and out of Christmas madness and righteously. That is according to the standard of God's holy law and godly, like God, in this present evil world with a heart set upon the return of the Lord Jesus. And surely any activity that could cause us to be embarrassed at His return is a violation of the end of the gospel. My little children, let us abide in Him that when He shall be manifested We may have boldness before him and not be ashamed that he's coming. You see, to talk about Christmas in the category of Christian liberty, we must begin with this step number one. In the exercise of our Christian liberty, we must never violate the moral law of God or frustrate the goal of the grace of God. We never, under any circumstances, at any time of the year, have any right to do either of those two things. Now you see, that is a knife that cuts. It means that while I, as a Christian man, if you're a father, the head of a home, a mother, I have liberty to give some personal or domestic significance to the Christmas holiday. That's your liberty. To have a day to which you want to assign some special significance, to remember the birth of Christ, you may assign another day to remember his temptations, assign another day to remember his baptism, another day to remember anything you want, anything that helps you remember Christ. Go to it. Grab it. Run with it. So long as it doesn't violate the Word of God. And you are free, who are heads of homes, to regulate in what way there will be, quote, seasonal celebrations in your home. However, however, you are not free to introduce to your own practice or to that of your family anything that violates the moral law of God or frustrates the end of the grace of God. That means you will not perpetuate the Santa Claus myth. Because it is a violation of the first commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before me, and any creature of whom it can be said, he knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows when you are good or bad, That is giving to the fat, old, jolly, ho-ho-ho man divine attributes. For my Bible says the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good, not the eyes of Santa Claus. You are not at liberty under any guise of the emotional well-being of your children to lie to them and to teach them the blasphemous dogmas of Saint Nick. Oh yes, but prove to me that you can perpetuate the myth of Saint Nick. Now I'm not saying you're sinning. If Daddy wants to put on a Saint Nick costume and they know who he is and none of the like, I'm not saying you can't put on a costume and stick a pillow in your belly. Don't. Don't say that I said if anyone who ever had on a red suit and a pillow in his belly is going to hell, I didn't say it. But I am saying that all liars have their part in the lake of fire. And a parent who will lie to his child deliberately and willfully simply because lying is acceptable to perpetuate a blasphemous myth. Where's your loyalty, parent? to God's law or to the traditions of men. Furthermore, you can't use the day as a justification for gluttony or drunkenness. The sixth commandment, thou shalt do no murder. Gluttony and drunkenness are subsumed as violations of the sixth commandment. You and I are never at liberty to be gluttons. Are we at liberty to have feast days? And if it's a sin to feast, then the Son of God can no longer be called holy, harmless, separate from sinners, for he went to feasts. And he so enjoyed himself that the Pharisees took hold of it and said, Ha, ha, ha, a gluttonous man and a wine to burn. You see, if Jesus had sat at the feast with a nice big plate with nothing but a cracker in the middle, And where the wine glass was, had nothing but clear water, they never would have had anything to take hold of. And say, Cotton! Winebibber! Why? Because when all the courses came by, Jesus had a due portion. I can see the Son of God licking His lips, nudging someone next to Him, saying, wasn't that good? I wonder what the next course will be. His first miracle, never forget it, was performed at a seven-day wedding feast. That was the tradition in Palestine. The wedding feast wasn't three or four hours. It went on for a week. And when the wine ran out, Jesus said, serve your rights. You didn't have to dump stuff there anyway. Don't you know it's the devil's poison? No. He says, fill up the jugs. And when the wine was distributed, they said, hmm, this fellow's kept the good stuff till last. Who made the good stuff? The Lord Jesus did. Now, does that go down all right with you? Does that stick? Well, if it sticks, I'm sorry. That's the Jesus in my Bible. But never once, never once did the Son of God swallow one mouthful that crossed over the line from perfect sobriety. He knew what it was to drink wine that makes glad the heart of man, but never drank so much and in such relationship to other things as to impair to one millionth of a degree his perfect rational awareness of the will of his father and his desire to walk in accordance with the law of his Though he knew what it was to feast, he never crossed the line into gluttony. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. See why it's important if we're going to talk about Christmas in the context of Christian liberty to start on stair number one? You see how vital it is? There are Christians who would not dare in any other setting To play loose with the law of God who feels somehow the establishment of this holiday gives me the right to do so. It does not, child of God. What about the tenth commandment? Thou shalt not covet. He cannot use the day to indulge personal covetousness or to foster covetousness in his children. For according to Colossians 3, 5b and 6, covetousness is idolatry for which thingsake comes the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. Those who say, I don't care what the tenth commandment says. If I want things and I want to want them, even if I can't have what I want, I'll want what I want. God says such people will come under the wrath of God. Because the heart was not given to be a cauldron of covetousness. but to be an instrument of supreme attachment in love and devotion to the God who made you. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. So if you choose to have some degree of exchange of gifts in your family, you will see to it that within your power covetousness will not be fostered. And now hear me. Here's the cruncher for many of you. I believe my Bible, if I recollect, has ten commandments that comprise the moral law of God. Not seven, not eight, not nine, but ten. And one of them is, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. That original creation Sabbath designated such in Genesis chapter 2, when in the unsinning context of Eden, God established a cycle with one day and seven, peculiarly sanctified and blessed and set apart, even for Adam in his innocence. Rearticulated and incorporated into the Decalogue with some peculiar Jewish surroundings, yes, But the essence of the fourth commandment is God's moral requirement, which according to Jesus pertains to a day, Mark chapter 3, that was made for man. not man for the day. It doesn't say the Sabbath was made for Jewish man or the Sabbath was made for men during the Jewish economy alone. It says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Lord of the Sabbath to what end? To abolish it? No. To strip it of all that was distinctively Jewish. and then to surround it with all the glories of New Covenant redemptive life and power so that He even changes the day from the seventh to the first day of the seven-day cycle and suffuses that original creation Sabbath with all the glory and wonder and privilege of an accomplished redemption. in which by faith the people of God who have entered into the rest of faith can celebrate each recurring seven days a Sabbath unto the Lord, not as a burden, but as a joyful convocation with His people, a joyful retreat from the ordinary pressures and burdens of life to give, as our own confession says, a whole day unto the Lord. Now that's why crunch time came for many of you this year. By an accident of the calendar, December 25th, a day in the category of Christian liberty was overlaid upon a day that is not a matter of Christian liberty. Long before the calendars were printed for 1994, And when the calendars were printed, stamped on December 25th, would say, Christmas Day, Almighty God had marked out this day and said, My day, the Lord's day. Well, how can I then eat or drink or whatever I do to God's glory if the price of keeping man's day, that I'm free either to respect or not respect, is that I must defy the Lord of heaven and earth and refuse to give him the day that he's marked out. That is not a matter of Christian liberty. That's not living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil age. The framers of our confession captured this so beautifully. I've sought to lay out the biblical principles. Listen to how beautifully they've summarized it in paragraph 3 under the section in chapter 21 on Christian liberty. They who upon pretense of Christian liberty do practice any sin or cherish any sinful lust as they thereby pervert the main design of the grace of the gospel to their own destruction So they wholly destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is, and now quoting from the very Word of God, that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives. And that's taken out of Luke chapter 1. Well, dear people, believing, that the issue of the observance or non-observance of December 25th as a special day to commemorate the birth of Christ, either religiously or socially, is in the category of Christian liberty, understand step number one in the exercise of our Christian liberty, we must never violate the moral law of God or frustrate the goal of the grace of God. Now let me ask you something. Hearing those things, have you found that restrictive? Have you said, oh shucks, if that's so, what kind of fun can you have? Answer not outwardly. Don't even whisper the answer so husband, wife, mom and dad sitting next to your sibling can hear it. But answer honestly in the presence of God. Did you find step number one restrictive? I don't spoil my fun. My friend, if you find obeying the law of God and living consistent with the implications of the gospel of the grace of God restrictive, there's one fundamental reason why you do. It's because you're lost. You are a Romans 8, 7, man or woman, boy or girl. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed, can it be. The disposition of the child of God is Romans 7, 21. I delight after the law of God with my inward parts. Psalm 40 and verse 8, O how love I thy law! I delight to do thy will, I'm sorry, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. If you have heard that first principle that I've called step number one leading into a grappling with the issues of Romans 14, my friend, you better face the very real possibility that it's an indication that your heart's never been conquered by the grace of God. For no true Christian wants to be free of anything that binds him in the proper conduits of love to his God and to his fellow men. And no Christian wants willfully to do anything that would denigrate the glory and power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not saying we don't do both, but I'm saying it is not our settled purpose nor desire And when it is discovered to our consciences that we have broken the law of God or in ignorance have been living in a pattern of violation to that law, we own our sin. We go to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness, and we have a fresh application of the blood of Christ to our consciences, knowing in the language of 1 John that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and the disposition of our hearts with respect to the claims of the gospel Paul has already addressed in the very opening words of this practical session of his epistle. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies, the totality of your redeemed humanity, present it, a living sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual or reasonable service, and be not fashioned according to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove in your own experience what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. You love those gospel constraints to be a living sacrifice unto the God who in mercy has rescued you from the pains and pangs of eternal hell and confirmed to you the promise of eternal heaven. Well, that's step number one, very quickly now. Step number two, we're walking up into the room of a full-blown doctrine of Christian liberty in Romans 14 with its application to the Christian and Christmas. Number two, in relationship to matters of Christian liberty, our participation or non-participation are both equally valid expressions. of our liberty in Christ. Now, we've got to get hold of that principle. In relationship to matters of Christian liberty, our participation or non-participation, that is, in questionable issues, non-moral issues, are both equally valid expressions of that liberty. If we'd come to the view of a non-moral issue. Go back to Romans 14. Here in the context, two things or three things are explicitly addressed. In the opening verses, you have the matter of eating meats. There were some people who had a problem of conscience that made them conscientious vegetarians. And there's no hint here that it was the problem they had in 1 Corinthians 8 that the meat had been offered to idols. There's not a shred of evidence that this vegetarian position was in any way connected with tender consciences that could not think of meat apart from the association with its being offered to an idol. It's not a shred of evidence in Romans 14. It's much more generic. For some reason, which cannot be established to my knowledge from all the responsible commentators I have read, you had people in the congregation who had conscientious scruples about being vegetarians. And you had others, of course, who could eat meat and give thanks to God for it. Then you had the matter, verse five, of certain religious days. One man esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. Now, remember, in the context, that's not talking about God's appointed day any more than verse 14, when it says nothing's unclean. includes all kinds of moral and sexual activity, saying there's nothing unclean. See, if you're going to wrench one out, you can wrench the other out. All the irresponsible quoting of the Bible. God have mercy on us. One man esteems one day, that is, a day that had significance. If he were a Jew, perhaps it was his old Jewish feast days that for donkey's years in his family tradition had great significance. And though he knows their fulfillment has come in Christ, when Passover time comes, he just feels constrained to do something to remember that special time and other Jewish feasts. It may have been other days. that had other associations. The passage is very generic. It doesn't give us the stuff with which to identify the days with precision. And by the time we get to verse 21, he adds the matter of drinking wine. Now, with respect to these matters, these are things that in and of themselves are not sin. The Christian is free to eat meat or he's free to be a vegetarian. He's free to keep certain days that in his mind ought to be kept with significance. He's free not to. He's free to drink wine. He's free not to. Now, the problem is this, and hear me carefully. When people have come out of a background where there's been either a blatant, pervasive legalism where churches and preachers and others have registered a whole list of things that were no-nos that went far beyond the Word of God. Once they see that in Christ I am free not only from the condemning power of the law, but from all the rules and regulations of men that I might obey God, they then say, now the only way I can prove that I am truly free in Christ is to fully, openly, and repeatedly exercise my full liberties before the eyes of men. And that is a fatal leap of logic. No, Christian liberty, properly understood as the fruit of the redemptive work of Christ, is a matter of spiritual perception and of internal spiritual liberation. The exercise of that liberty is a matter of my external deeds and behaviors. See the difference between the two? One is the disposition of heart so that a man can look upon a given feast day that was part of his life in the past and say, in Christ I'm utterly free from any day except the Lord's. He has imposed a day upon me in His grace for my good, for His glory, for the benefit of His people. Any other day is a day now of man's devising, even though it may have been originally instituted by God. I see in Christ I am free from doing a thing in connection with any Jewish feast. I am free from any feast days that were part of my cultural association. I'm free from December 25th. I can look Christmas Day in the eyeball and say, I can act like you never existed. In Christ, December 25th doesn't have any claim over me. That's my liberty. That's your liberty. Whether you've come to understand that or not is another thing. But your understanding of your liberty in Christ is one thing. The exercise of that liberty is quite another. You see the difference? And as we shall see in Romans 14, Paul has to address the fact, yes, you are free, but it is not good to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother is caused to stumble. In other words, there may be compelling reasons for me, without relinquishing my blood-bought liberty in Christ, in my heart and in my understanding, to forego many liberties. for the sake of my own soul and for the sake of the souls of others. And I resent it if you call me a legalist if I do so. A legalist is a man who thinks he's saved by what he does. We heard about it in Romans 10. Or who seeks to go beyond God's law and impose his own laws as a standard of moral judgment upon others. That's a legalist. But a man who, knowing his freedom in Christ from all rules and regulations of men, is nonetheless prepared to say with Paul, though I am free from all men, yet I've made myself the slave to all that I might win them. That's a truly free man. You see, you've got to understand that your liberty is just as validly expressed when you don't indulge in something lawful, as when you can indulge it to the glory of God. I shall never forget when this was first brought home to my heart over 20 years ago and there was a group of young men and women who had come out of a fundamentalist background with a lot of checklist of no-nos and do this and don't do that. And when they came to see that no creature of God is to be condemned outright, as Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, all of God's gifts are given to be enjoyed. Well, there was an old group of people who felt the only way they could prove that they knew their liberty was to have a glass of wine any time they had a meal, in any place, in any set of circumstances. And I shall never forget one of the young men who understood his liberty in Christ, and his buddies were pressing him to have his glass of wine and he said, brethren, I'm exercising my liberty by saying no, will you please bug off? You see what he said? He didn't say you're sinning by having your glass of wine. He says, please give me the liberty to exercise my liberty by saying no. I'm not saying no because I'm in bondage to an old evangelical standard. I know in Christ I'm free to drink my glass of wine, but I'm so free in Christ that given this set of circumstances, I choose not to drink it. Now leave me alone and don't bring me into bondage to thinking the only way I can prove my liberty is by exercising it. The understanding and appreciation of Christian liberty is internal. The exercise is external. And there are many times, as Paul says in verses 20 and 21 of this chapter, that though all things indeed are clean that fall within the realm of Christian liberty, it is evil for the man who eats with offense. He hasn't yet come to understand his liberty in Christ, and therefore he must not partake of that which in his conscience condemns him, even though the thing is in itself not sinful. But not only does it apply to that individual, It applies to those who know his state. It is good not to eat flesh, nor drink wine, nor do anything whereby thy brother stumbles. Now, as you think of the whole matter of the celebration of Christmas, this principle must be brought into play. And then you're truly Christ's free man. You will be free in certain situations to celebrate it right up to the hilt of anything short. of violating the moral law of God or contradicting the gospel, and to do that for compelling reasons, there may be other times when you may have the appearance of a strict abstainer from anything to do with the day, because you're convinced that in that context you can have the clearest testimony, you can most preserve your own soul, and you can most confront the conscience of an unconverted man. You see, we are free to express our liberty by indulging, participating, or by refraining and non-participation. Am I making sense? You're listening carefully, but I can't read you. Am I going over your head in these distinctions? I labored before God on these matters, dear people. They're so crucial, so crucial. For on the one hand, if I under God should Leave the door open where God has not left it open, and someone goes out in the pursuit of a liberty that becomes damning license. The text that thundered in my ears in my preparation, be not many of you teachers knowing we shall receive the heavier judgment. I said, Oh God, I'd like to avoid this if I could. On the other hand, if I bind your conscience, Just a quarter of an inch beyond what Christ has purchased for your liberty, I am undermining the work of Jesus Christ for those whom He loved and purchased with His own blood. What a serious charge. Well, then the third and final step is this. And then we'll be already, God willing, tonight to look at the four principles. All right? I'd hope to get to at least the first one this morning, but I believe we can cover them. This third step now is we're making our way up into Romans 14. Never is it right to violate the law of God or to contradict the implications of the gospel of the grace of God. Secondly, in matters of Christian liberty, I may show my freedom by non-indulgence or non-participation as well as participation. Then thirdly, In coming to grips with the principles of Christian liberty, I am going to totally bypass the question of the strong and the weak brother. If you look at the passage, you'll see that it begins, Romans 14, him that is weak in faith, receive. Chapter 15, verse 1, we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. as Paul deals with what he saw was a potential issue that could have caused division at Rome. No indication that there was any division, but as a wise pastor, he is giving preventive medicine. He does so articulating the principles of Christian liberty, not only in the concreteness of meats and certain days and of wine, but also in the concrete reality that certain brethren in respect to these things are called weak in some areas, others are called strong. The same brethren in other areas, the strong may be the weak and the weak may be the strong, and because the whole doctrine of the weaker and the stronger brother is a whole complex issue in itself, I'm going to deliberately bypass it in seeking to drive home the four major principles of Romans 14. I'm just going to read the heads to you now and then send you home. We must receive one another with our differing perspectives and practices, 14.1 and 2, 15.7. We must not despise or judge one another because of our differing perspectives or practices, verses 2 to 9, verses 10 to 13a. Thirdly, we must be fully persuaded of our perspectives and practices under the Lordship of Christ, verses 5 to 12, and 22 and 23. And then fourthly, we must be prepared to regulate our practice in the interest of the spiritual well-being of our brethren, 13b through verse 21. And God willing, that's what I hope to unpack as you gather tonight. But do I hear someone sitting there saying, But you know, I'm disappointed. I came to this place this morning, maybe wandered in from the condominiums to the north of us, maybe visiting from another congregation, and I hoped I'd hear Luke 2 expounded. There were shepherds in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. I wanted to see what Pastor Martin would do with that passage. I was hoping to hear something about Gabriel. coming to Joseph and saying, Fear not to take unto you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he it is that shall save his people from their sins. I'm really disappointed. I've got all this stuff about Christian liberty. Well, if that's where you're at, may I just say two things to you? First of all, remember, that my primary responsibility as an under-shepherd in this place is to feed the flock of God. And I long that the sheep of God in this place come through this season with a conscience that is unbloodied because they have carelessly and mindlessly stumbled their way through under the pressure of tradition, sentiment, and the world. And I have a passionate longing for that because that's why Jesus died, to have a people that would reflect his likeness, that would live soberly, righteously, and godly. So bear the indulgence of my pastoral concern that has, as it were, one eye to the well-being of the flock and one eye to the great shepherd of the sheep who's bought these people with his own blood. And the second thing I'd say is this, that if you came that you might really hear of Christ. You've heard much of Christ. You've heard that Christ came and took our place under the law, lived the life we should have lived and didn't, and under the law died the death we should have died but dare not, and in so doing has released every believer from the condemning power of a broken law. and credited that believer with the perfect righteousness of a fully obeyed law. My friend, that's the Gospel. That's what He came for. For we read in Galatians, in the fullness of the times, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them that are under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, He has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, That is, Father. My dear friend, the real message of, quote, Christmas, if there is such a message, that's it. That God broke into human history. When He did it on the calendar, nobody knows. That He did it, all creation knows. He has come. He has lived. He has died. He has risen from the dead. He has ascended to the right hand of the Father. And He's coming back in regal power and glory to take to Himself all who, self-despairing of ever picking themselves up by their own bootstraps, have thrown themselves upon His person and the sufficiency of His work for sinners. Oh, may you be one of those. And surely, if our study today has pointed you to your need and to the Savior, you'll not be disappointed. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your Holy Word. We are so grateful that amidst all the din and confusion of our own oft-times troubled minds and the horrible cacophony of the voices of men, You have given us a sure word of revelation. Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And we pray that the Holy Spirit would give us the grace to examine the things we have heard from your word and that he would validate them in the theater of our own consciences and whatever adjustments of thought and practice need to be made O God, may every tradition, every unsanctified sentiment, and every pressure of the world be swallowed up in the cross of Christ, buried in His tomb. And may we as the new humanity in Christ know what it is to come through this holiday season as evangelical law keepers, as those whose lives are radiant with the moral and practical implications of the gospel of the grace of God. Bless, then, with understanding and grace this truth to the hearts of your people and for those who sit among us strangers to the salvation that our Lord Jesus came to give to men. O God, give them no rest until, self-despairing, they turn to Him, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Seal, then, your word, and help us to continue to honor you on this, your special day, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.