And now will you turn in the Word of God with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. 1 Corinthians chapter 8. In what may seem to be a strange passage to read, but as we saw this morning, it contains some very vital principles with respect to the subject we are studying together And I want to read this relatively brief chapter in its entirety in your hearing. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, beginning with verse 1. Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love literally builds up. If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows not yet as he ought to know. But if any man loves God, the same is known by him. Concerning, therefore, the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, As there are gods many and lords many, yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him. Howbeit there is not in all men that knowledge, but some being accustomed until now to the idol, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food will not commend us to God, neither if we eat are we the worse, nor if we eat not are we the worse, nor if we eat are we the better. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. For if a man see you who have knowledge sitting at meet in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he that is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And thus, sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh forevermore that I cause not my brother to stumble. And then just several verses from the latter part of the 10th chapter of 1 Corinthians, beginning with verse 32 through verse 1 of chapter 11. 1 Corinthians 10, 32. Give no occasion of stumbling, either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, even as I also please all men in all things. not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved. Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ." Let us again seek the face of God in prayer, particularly pleading for the gracious ministry of the Spirit of God to illuminate our minds in the understanding of His truth. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for the privilege of again drawing near to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. And we confess that this is a time of need for both preacher and listener alike, that You would grant to us wisdom and understanding, insight and illumination, Grant to Your servant the grace of utterance, and may we be conscious of Your Spirit's work, opening our minds and inclining our wills to embrace Your truth. We have sung together that a life of self-renouncing love is one of true liberty. O Lord, teach us what those words mean, and give us grace to live in the light of them. Come by Your Spirit and instruct us, we pray, through the Scriptures. And we are bold to ask these things of You, believing that having spared not Your Son, You will with Him freely give us all things. Amen. We are continuing our series of studies in the subject, the Christian and Christmas in the light of the Word of God. Tonight is the seventh message in this series, a series of studies which has brought us into the very heart of the biblical doctrine of Christian liberty. And I want to emphasize again that I've likened this series to a seamless garment, in a very real sense, one needs to see the whole if he is to properly understand any one of the parts. And none of the parts is really valid if detached from the whole. And any who have not heard the whole, I would urge the members of this assembly to take out the tapes from the tape library. Visitors may wish to purchase them from the Trinity pulpit, but I'm very conscious on the one hand of the necessity of pressing on in seeking to complete that seamless garment and yet not simply picking up the threads that we desire to weave in in this seventh study without at least giving the main contours of what has gone before in the putting together of that garment. having sought to establish after some introductory perspectives and exhortation that the keeping of December 25th as the day of religious or social significance in the life of a child of God is an aspect of Christian liberty. That is, it comes within the realm of those things concerning which God has given no clear commandment nor any clear prohibition. A non-moral issue, if the practice of the keeping of that day does not violate any of the precepts of God's moral directives, such as telling the Santa Claus lie and violating the sanctity of truth, as embodied in the ninth commandment, or encouraging covetousness, which violates the tenth and the first commandment, for covetousness is idolatry, I am talking of a celebration of Christmas in such a way as it does not violate the moral principles of God's Word, is to be understood as a practice that falls within the broad category of Christian liberty. And that being so, then the watershed passage from which we must derive the principles to regulate our thinking and then our practice is Romans chapter 14. And so for several Lord's days, we have been rooting around in Romans 14, seeking to discover the four major principles which the Apostle underscores in reference to matters of Christian liberty. The first is that we must unreservedly receive one another with our differing perspectives and practices in matters of Christian liberty. We must not wait until all of us come to a unified consensus in every detail of Christian liberty before we receive one another with unreserved Christian affection and goodwill. This is the first directive enunciated in the chapter, verses 1 and 2, and it comes as a climactic directive to both strong and weak in chapter 15 and verse 7. Secondly, we must neither despise nor judge one another because of our differing perspectives and practices in matters of Christian liberty. This is the emphasis of Romans 14, verses 4 and 5, and also verses 10 through 13a. Here the apostle tells us, sorry, verse 3, let not him who eats, despise, or said it not, look down his snoot at him who does not eat and regard him as silly and overly scrupulous, and let not him who does not eat stand in judgment on him who does eat. Let him not look upon him as worldly and unworthy of respect as a mature Christian. We are not to despise or to judge one another because of our differing perspectives and practices in matters of Christian liberty. Then the third principle is very clearly underscored in verses five to nine. We must determine to maintain a good conscience under the Lordship of Christ in matters of Christian liberty. Verse 5, let each man be fully assured in his own mind, and he is to be fully assured not in the context of unprincipled self-determination, but in the context of either regarding the day as unto the Lord, or not regarding the day as unto the Lord. Whether he eats certain foods or does not eat, his eating or non-eating are unto the Lord. And the pervasive emphasis of verses 5 to 9 is that each Christian must determine to maintain a good conscience under the Lordship of Christ in matters of Christian liberty. And the crowning statement on that principle is given at the end of the chapter. Happy or blessed is he who does not judge himself in that which he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat out of faith, and whatsoever is not out of faith Whether the thing in itself is sin, if I cannot indulge in it, participate in it, in the conviction that under the Lordship of Christ I am doing that which is pleasing to God, it doesn't matter if ten thousand mature Christians all around me can do or eat or participate in that activity with a good conscience. If I cannot, it is sin to me, and therefore I must not. Then this morning we began to wrestle with the fourth principle relative to the matter of Christian liberty as it applies to the celebration of Christmas or anything that falls within that orbit of Christian liberty. And it is the principle that is most thoroughly dealt with in Romans 14 and most clearly amplified in parallel passages such as 1 Corinthians 8 9 and 10, and the principle is this. We must be committed to regulate the exercise of our Christian liberty within three categories of enlightened, principled, Christian love. We must be committed to regulate the exercise of our Christian liberty within three categories of enlightened, principled, Christian love. And in addressing that principle, I highlighted a crucial distinction that undergirds it, And it is the distinction between our understanding and appreciation and internal experience of our Christian liberty and our external practice and exercise of that liberty. And the best way I know to review that head very briefly is to read the very judicious comments of John Brown in his commentary on Galatians. It is a very important observation of a judicious commentator, here John Brown quoting Calvin in this sentence, there is a great difference between Christian liberty and the use of Christian liberty. John Brown again, Christian liberty is an internal thing. It belongs to the mind and conscience and has a direct reference to God. The use of Christian liberty is an external thing. It belongs to conduct and has reference to man. No consideration should prevail on us for a moment to give up our liberty. But many a consideration should induce us to forego the practical assertion or display of our liberty. And I am asserting that here in Romans 14 and in the parallel passages, that which will cause us to forego many an expression of our liberty without relinquishing that liberty in the theater of our consciences is love to our brethren, love to sinners, the unsaved, and love to our own souls. And then we began to open up that first category of principled, enlightened Christian love, which must regulate not our appreciation of our liberty, but our exercise and display of that liberty. And I stated it this way, our exercise of Christian liberty must be within the constraints of an enlightened and principled love to our brethren. And where did we see that in the passage? Well, by asking four questions of Romans 14, 13 and following, and the parallel passages in Corinthians, this is how we saw the issue unfold. What is the heart of the apostolic directive? Romans 14, 13b. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore. That concludes the statement on principle number two. Do not judge or despise one another, but judge this rather. Come to a definitive, settled perspective and commitment of mind and heart that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way or an occasion of falling. This must be a matter of visceral commitment that I will never exercise my liberty in such a way as to occasion the stumbling or the falling of a brother causing the grief attendant upon his tragic fall, or even putting him into the course of apostasy. Verse 15, For if because of your meat your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love, destroy not with your meat him for whom Christ died. And that brought us to the second question. Why am I under such an obligation? And the answer of verse 15 is because such a walk alone is consistent with true brotherly love. If I'm insensitive about regulating the exercise of my liberty by the constraints of love for my brethren, the apostle says I no longer am walking in love. Well, what's the big deal if I'm not walking in love? There is a real question if I'm in a state of grace, for he that loveth not knows not God. The scripture makes it abundantly clear. By this we know we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. And we love not in word only, but in deed and in truth. And when the deed of love demands the restraint of the exercise of my liberty, I am not walking in love. How can I assure my conscience I love my brethren? When I'm ready to run the risk of their falling into sin, dishonoring Christ, or being pushed into the direction of apostasy, if something I put in my mouth is of greater value than the state of their souls. The answer is obvious. And we look to the third question in seeking to open up the passage. How can I identify what this occasion of stumbling or falling is in a brother. There's a lot of misconception about this. People think if another Christian doesn't like what I'm doing, that's causing him to stumble and therefore I ought to stop. No. The passage here in Romans chapter 14 very clearly indicates that causing one to stumble or to fall, is bringing a brother into a state of spiritual destruction. Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died. And in the parallel passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, where the more limited focus is meat offered to idols, you have an actual description of how this happens. Here in chapter 8 in verse 10 we read, If a man see you who have knowledge sitting at meat in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he that is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And thus sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. To cause one to stumble or to fall is to indulge in a practice in such a way that by the power of example, or sometimes persuasion, a man is led to engage in an activity before his conscience tells him it is right for him to engage in that activity. He engages in the activity because he assumes you're a mature brother, you're a mature sister. If you can do that with a good conscience, then I should be able to. And even though his conscience has not known the touch of the liberating power of truth about that area of liberty, He still regards that meat as inseparably bound to the worship of idols and therefore of the very essence of idolatry. He's emboldened by your careless example to follow that example, wounds his own conscience, grieves the Holy Spirit, puts himself in a tragic spiritual state, And this is the identification of what it means to be an occasion of stumbling or falling to our brethren. And then question number four, what are we to do so that we may not be guilty of such a gross violation of love to our brothers and sisters? And I answered from these various passages, we must face the fact that not all Christians have a clear understanding of all their blood-bought liberties in Christ. And that will always be true. As God is adding to the church, such as should be saved from a diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds, there will never be a flat, wooden uniformity of conscience on non-moral issues. And as I said this morning, any church that thinks it can solve this problem by being wiser than God and going beyond the law of God and the precepts of God opens itself to a frightening pattern of legalism and ultimately checklist morality, where people will be keeping all the rules all together, while, as Jesus said, in the process end up violating whole flocks of the law of God. And the Lord will say, in vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrines the traditions of men, and you make void the word of God. Face the fact that there will always be a diversity of conscience within any healthy body of God's people. And secondly, embrace the clear directives that call you to the regulation of your liberties in the interest of your brother's spiritual well-being. Embrace what the Word of God says here in Romans 14, 13. come to a settled judgment and a definitive conviction that I will not put a stumbling block in my brother's way or an occasion of falling. that I will, verse 19, follow after the things that make for peace and the things whereby we may build up one another. Determine that you will not overthrow for meat's sake the work of God, that is, the work of God in the life and in the heart of your brother. Determine that you will live in the light of verse 21. It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby Thy brother stumbles. It is not an indication that you've given up your liberty when you deliberately, voluntarily refrain from the exercise of that liberty. That's a good thing. You've got these wild-eyed libertines saying the only good thing to do with your liberty is to display it everywhere, all the time, in every circumstance. That's not what the apostles said. He says, it is good not to. It is good not to either eat flesh, drink wine, nor do anything that causes your brother to stumble. Embrace those clear directives given in chapter 10, 33 and 34 and verse 32. Embrace them from the heart and finally follow the example of the Apostle Paul in these things, an example that reflects the Lord Jesus and is normative for all believers. And I want to underscore that. We ran out of time this morning. This concludes the overview of the main contours of that seamless garment as we've been seeking to construct it thus far. When the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Those words read in your hearing at the outset of our study, give no occasion of stumbling, even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved, that they may both be brought into the orbit of God's saving grace and kept within it, not by not stumbling and falling Be imitators of me even as I am of Christ. And that's the precise emphasis that he gave as he carried on this subject from Romans 14 into chapter 15. Let each one of us, verse 2, please his neighbor for that which is good unto building up. For Christ also pleased, not himself. So what are we to do that we may not be guilty of such a gross violation of love to our brothers and sisters? Face the fact that there will be a diversity of conscience and understanding with respect to issues of Christian liberty. Embrace the clear directives that call us to the regulation of our liberties in the interest of our brothers' well-being. Follow the example of the Apostle Paul. which is a reflection of the disposition of the Lord Jesus. Now, in the remainder of our time tonight, I want to do what I'd hoped to do this morning, and that is to address what I would call an anticipated objection to this teaching. Even though I trust I've carried your judgment that it is the teaching of the Word of God, I can anticipate an objection. I've heard this objection. I want to address that objection, and then secondly, I want to give a concrete application of all these principles in terms of a Christmas setting. Hopefully, it will help pull the pieces together in your own mind and give you a working grasp upon these principles. But the anticipated objection, this is it. Isn't this restraint on the exercise of my Christian liberty out of loving concern for my brothers? A denial or a robbing me of the very essence of my liberty? If my liberty is to be so conditioned and restrained by an enlightened and principled love to my brothers, that makes me conscious that I am my brother's keeper and that I have a responsibility to know where his conscience is with reference to matters of things indifferent in themselves, but which may be matters of bringing upon my brother and accusing conscience if he indulges in them or if he does not participate in them. Is not such a perspective restrictive, so constraining and restraining in the exercise of my liberty as to be a virtual denial of that liberty? Well, I answer, absolutely not. I am not allowing my conscience to accuse me that it would be sin to eat the meat that I refused to eat, lest I be an occasion of stumbling to my brother. I'm maintaining my blood-bought liberty in my understanding and in my conscience. When the Apostle said, I will not eat meat Nor will I drink wine, nor do anything that causes my brother to stumble. I will not eat meat while the world stands, he says. Was he relinquishing his liberty? No. He fully understood his liberty in Christ, as we shall see, God willing, next week, so that when he was amongst the Gentiles, he could eat non-kosher food, he could dress in Gentile clothing, he could speak in contemporary Gentile jargon and imagery and draw from his understanding of the Greco-Roman world to the Greeks. I. D. Cain is a Greek. He was utterly free from every ceremonial trapping of Judaism. And yet, when he was among the Jews, he said, I'd be kosher right down to the kind of toothpaste I used. To the Jews, I became as a Jew. And we see examples of it in the Book of Acts. Was he then putting himself under bondage to men's rules and regulations? No, no. In fact, this restraint of one's exercise of liberty for the sake of my brethren shows that I am truly a free man in Christ. Hear me? This restraint of my liberty in its exercise For the sake of the well-being of my brethren proves how free I am in Christ. What am I free from? I'm free from the tyranny of making my own pleasure the paramount concern of my life. What a blessed liberty. Oh, but that piece of me Bought at bargain prices in the shambles would taste so good. Yes, but if in eating it I cause my brother to be emboldened to eat, and in his mind he's participating in the worship of idols and bloodying his own conscience and crippling his communion with God and exposing himself to the danger of spiritual declension or even possible apostasy? How free am I if the twenty minutes of pasting the meat in my mouth is more important than the health of my brother's soul? Who's in bondage? His uninstructed conscience? or my enslaved taste buds and belly. Who's in bondage? Meats for the belly. Belly for the meats! I will not be brought under the bondage of any. And if I cannot say no to meat for the sake of my brother's soul, I'm not exercising Christian liberty by eating that meat. I'm showing I'm a slave to my belly, Belly is my God. This goes for your glass of wine. You have someone that you know has scruples. Perhaps wine and alcohol has been a constant matter of bondage. They have taken the position that for themselves they must be teetotalers. They come into your home, someone that's been a strong believer in their eyes. They see you freely using your wine, not even asking if they have any background that would make it in any way possible that that could be an occasion of stumbling. Does your wine going down your throat mean more than that person standing in the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free from the enslaving power of alcohol? If it means more to you than that man's soul, you're in bondage to your wine. You're not free. Your drinking of that wine is not a matter of liberty. It's an expression of your tyranny. You're under the tyranny of your own appetite for wine. So when I can make myself the slave of men in terms of being sensitive to their scruples and not unnecessarily causing them to stumble, I show I am free from the tyranny of pleasing myself. I show that I am free from bondage of the necessity to indulge my liberty. I show that I am free to be like Christ. blessed freedom. And it's interesting that in both passages, at the end of 1 Corinthians 10 and in Romans 15, the apex of the apostles' exhortation focuses upon being like Christ as He relinquished His rights and His liberties that we might have a Redeemer, that we might be saved, that our reproaches might be laid upon Him. You see, Christ died to free me to live a life unto Him and to live a life of enlightened and principled love to my brethren. How then can I indulge liberties in the name of Christ, to the glory of Christ, if the result is that of causing stumbling or falling to one of those purchased by Christ. How can I say in the language of 1 Corinthians 10 31, I'm eating and drinking to the glory of God, When God's glory is most fully revealed in the face of Christ, in His redemptive activity in delivering people from sin unto a life of holiness, and I indulge a liberty that impedes a man's progress in holiness, how can I do that to the glory of God? I can't. And I'm only violating the clear injunction of a passage to which I would turn you now, Galatians chapter 5, and I'm doing what the apostle forbids in the very context of a passage emphasizing our liberty in Christ. You remember the fundamental problem there at Galatia? You had these teachers who came along saying that you're not a full-blown Christian until you've been to the local rabbi and come under his knife and commit yourself to becoming a full-blown Jew in the keeping of Jewish ceremonies. And those things that have been done away in Christ, and Paul with white-hot passion attacks this teaching as another gospel. and underscores our freedom in Christ as those who on the grounds of the work of Christ have been freely justified and adopted and given the spirit of adoption. And in chapter 5 and verse 1, he gives this ringing affirmation of all that he has been teaching. For freedom did Christ set us free. Stand fast therefore and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. What a clarion call to understand my freedom in Christ, to stand fast in that freedom and not to retreat one inch from it. Don't be entangled again in a yoke of bondage. A ringing call to understand, affirm, stand in and enjoy my blood-bought freedom and liberty in Christ. But very interestingly, the same apostle in verse 13 knows that this is dangerous doctrine, and he gives the corrective. Look at it in verse 13. For you, brethren, were called for freedom. Same word in the original. Overtones of verse 1 only. Use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh. Don't use your freedom as a springboard to indulge your flesh. Here's the wise pastor. No doubt he had seen many a Jew who had come to understand his freedom from the dietary laws and from new moons and festivals and circumcision and all the trappings of the Mosaic system. They were all fulfilled in Christ. And no doubt he had seen people so utterly enamored with their newfound freedom that they were drunk with the heady wine of that freedom, and so he gives a warning. Ye brethren were called for freedom, but don't use your freedom for an occasion to the flesh. And what's the antithesis of using your freedom for an occasion to the flesh? Look at the next part of the verse. But through love, literally, be enslaved or perform the function of a slave one to another. You have the verb form of slave, dulio, in an imperative which trying to give an accurate English rendering would be, but through love, out of the motive of love, enslave yourself one to another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now if I, out of love, because I am free in Christ now from the tyranny of self-centeredness and self-will and the tyranny of my fleshly appetites, which were my God, I am free in Christ, free enough now to voluntarily enslave myself to all of my brothers and sisters, that I might serve their highest spiritual ends and assist them in their spiritual progress. So free that if it means my eating a certain meat will stand in the way of their progress, no meat for me while I'm around them. If drinking a certain beverage impedes their progress, know that beverage around them. If going here, doing this, doing that, I counted my privilege voluntarily to enslave myself to my brethren, that I might help them on their way to heaven. Now brethren, I didn't write that. Nor did someone who was not quite delivered from pharisaic scruples and bondage to Jewish trappings. Here's a man who fully knew and defended at great cost to himself the doctrine of our liberty in Christ. Perhaps there are a few uninspired passages that capture the truth of this more succinctly than this translation of what Luther said on this matter. Luther said, a Christian man is a free lord over all things and subject to no one. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 23, you were bought with a price. Do not be the slaves of men. When it comes to dictating to my conscience, no man has a right to usurp any authority over me. beyond what is found in the Word and will of God in Scripture. You were bought with a price. Somebody owns you. Don't become a slave of men. Men's rules, men's regulations, men's list of do's and don'ts. Don't be subject to men. Yet that very man, as we'll see, God willing, in our study next week, said, though I'm free from all men, I enslaved. Same verb. I enslaved myself to all that I might win some. A Christian man is a free lord over all things and subject to no one. But then Luther went on to say, a Christian man is a subservient slave of all things and subject to everyone. Both are true. Both are true. Free Lord, subject to no one. Subservient slave of all things and subject to everyone. Brethren, the exercise of our Christian liberty must be within the constraints of an enlightened and principled Christian life. I've sought to establish it from the Scriptures. I've sought to answer the major objection to that. Now let me conclude by trying to give a concrete illustration of how these principles would actually work out in a real-life situation here at Christmastime, all right? Here is a man who with his wife has wrestled through the issue, shall we or shall we not, in our family life, recognize any significance with the Christmas holidays, and they come to the conviction, based on a number of principles, that under the Lordship of Christ, they can disciplined by the law of God, so they do not lie to their children, they do not encourage covetousness, they do not indulge deficit spending, but they can, with a good conscience, to strengthen family life and family ties and teach responsibility, and that it's more blessed to give than to receive and a host of other things. With a good conscience, they can establish some principles of Christmas celebration in their homes. And under the Lordship of Christ, they establish those patterns, those principles. They make them known to the children. And so their home has a Christmas tree. And the kids have worked and had lots of fun and learned some disciplines of time and energy and frugality and making various ornaments for the tree. And they've had happy times together as a family. And there are some other Christmas decorations. And they decide that they wanted this season of the year to have an opportunity to express their love to their brethren. So they go down through the church directory and try to pick out people who would make a good mix of the cross section of the congregation, especially those who might not have families to interact with at a time when often families are together and who might feel very keenly the loneliness, perhaps, of being widowed, being single. And so they come up with a list of people. Now it comes time to call them and tell them that on a given day, close to Christmas, or on Christmas Day, they're going to have a gathering where there's going to be a meal, and there's going to be a time afterwards to sing hymns on the incarnation of the eternal Word. They're not going to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. They're going to sing hymns that celebrate the reality of the incarnation. Hymns that are an expression of Colossians 316, the word of Christ dwelling richly in them, speaking and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their heart to the Lord. And there's nobody armed with his Bible that can come storming into the home and saying, you're dishonoring God by singing hymns about the incarnation. Nobody could do it. You can't do it. You might want to, but you won't be able to do it. Not with your Bible. You may say, I don't see how in God's name you think you can sanctify this pagan. Well, that's your problem. You don't see how they can, but remember principle number two, don't judge your brother. Stop judging him. If the pattern of their life clearly indicates that he and his wife live under the Lordship of Christ, stop playing God. Stop it! God didn't ask you to take his place as judge, so don't do it. Don't do it. And if you know that person that might want to stomp in your house because they just can't see how, for them, don't you look down your snoot at them and call them silly and stupid. Don't despise them. So you've got to remember, they all hang together. So the day of truth comes and you've got your list. Now you're going to call people. What do you tell them? Well, what you do is you say this, John, my wife and I have decided we want to have a group of the cross-section of the church family over for a meal, a time of singing praise to our incarnate Savior and Redeemer. And we thought that our gathering would be made more complete if you were present. But, John, you must understand this, our home will have a Christmas tree, and our home will have some Christmas decorations. And we're going to sing what people might call Christmas carols. And we realize that in our church family we have differing perspectives and practices regarding the Christmas holiday. And John, please, I want you to know my wife and I will not be offended if in your conscience any kind of participation in Christmas celebration to you is participation in that which is so thoroughly pagan you can't do it with a good conscience. We're not going to be offended if you say no. We'll try to have a rain check to have you over another time during the year. The last thing we would do is have you to violate your conscience. And John says, well, you're having a number of the people. Yes. Would you mind telling me who? And so you name some of the people. And John is thinking, well, they're such mature Christians. I know they're faithful in their devotional life, faithful in their witness, their example of godliness. And John hesitates and is tempted to say, well, those Christians can do it. I should be. And you say, John, John, you're hesitating. It's obvious you have doubts. Unless those doubts are resolved before God in the theater of your conscience, please don't come. We would not want to be an occasion of you violating your conscience. And you take the time to say that to all the people you invite. And so the people who consent to come, unless they've been lying to you, They're going to have no problem of conscience. They have a conscience that affirms that as unto the Lord, they can come into your house on Christmas Day or a day near it and have a feast and sing hymns. All right, now the day has come and they're all gathered. And just as they are gathering, one of the older couples happens to notice that in your home you have on the sideboard a couple of bottles of wine. There's a moderate supply of wine for those who might desire some. And you've sought to provide that, to make the meal complete for some who would enjoy that and give thanks to God for that. But as this older brother notices that, he comes to you and takes you aside and says, whatever your name is, I haven't got a name for the guy in the house yet, have we? We'll call him Henry, all right? And he says, now Henry, I noticed that so-and-so just came through the door, yes? Well, did you know that this brother really struggled with bondage to alcohol in his unconverted days and even as a young Christian? And that on several occasions when he's been around Christians who've indulged their liberty with a good conscience, he's been emboldened and he's ended up on a weekend drunk. And the host says, Well, there's no question what I'm going to do. He makes a beeline to the cabinet, takes the bottles of wine and sticks them in the closet. He's not going to have that wine available if there's the possibility that this man might be emboldened to violate his conscience. He didn't know it ahead of time. Had he, he never would have put the bottle of wine out. but now he gladly puts the bottle of wine away. He joyfully puts it away. He's made himself a bondslave to his brother who was once enslaved to alcohol. And his evening will be complete with Diet Coke and Sprite and ice water and orange juice. And if anybody else's evening won't be complete without it, Bless God they have an evening to show them that they're in bondage. And let their antsiness and irritation that they can't get a mild buzz with their booze be a witness that it isn't a matter of liberty to them. They're in bondage. And it's high time they faced up to their bondage under the cloak of Christian liberty. Now, if the families followed that pattern, what is the result? Each has received one another. When Henry was on the phone calling the families, it was evident that when one said, well, I really can't with a good conscience, he said, brother, I understand. We wouldn't want you to violate your conscience. We'll have a rain check. What's happened? That brother says, hey, I'm fully accepted with my scruples. And in turn, the one who invited them says, I'm fully accepted with my liberty to celebrate the day. They've affirmed that they receive one another with their differing perspectives and practices. Secondly, they've made it evident that they're neither despising nor judging one another. You see, when our brother says, look, if you have scruples about it, brother, please, Please do not come. He doesn't say, if you've got scruples, brother, you're all screwed up. Why don't you come on over and I'll sort you out on the doctrine of Christian liberty. You're all messed up with an over scrupulous cunt. No, no. He treats him with dignity and with love, showing he doesn't despise him. And when John says, well, I really can't come. He thinks after he hangs up and says, how in the world could anybody judge that man to be world treated me with Christlike grace. He didn't despise me. Therefore, how wicked it would be for me to judge him. So they kept principle number two. And then principle number three has been beautifully illustrated. You see, Henry has something more than the church family to think about. He has primarily to think about his own family. And he and his wife have, under the Lordship of Christ, become fully persuaded that it will glorify God in advanced family unity and intimacy and love and responsibility to have a biblically disciplined celebration of the holiday. They are fully persuaded in their own mind. But John was fully persuaded in his mind that he should have nothing to do with the holiday, nothing to do with the celebration. So principle number three has been in place, and then principle number four has been beautifully illustrated. where Henry didn't want to be an occasion of stumbling to John or anyone like him. And when that unnamed brother came through the door and the older brother apprised Henry of his past struggles, he proved that he was prepared immediately to restrict the exercise of his liberty in his home and the liberty of others for the sake of this dear brother. who might be caused to stumble and to fall and to be destroyed. Now I ask you, if that scenario should play out, is that bondage? Is that bondage? Is that something to despise? Or is that a marvelous display of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ at work in the concrete circumstances where we have differing judgments on matters that are not clearly commanded or forbidden in the Word of God. And may I urge you as the Lord's people to seek under God Not to follow that scenario to the letter. I had to put it into some kind of form and substance that it made sense, but get the spirit of it. And then there'll be a hundred different ways that it will manifest itself in your heart and in your life if you have embraced from the heart the teaching of the Word of God with respect not only to the Christian and Christmas, but the Christian and anything that falls into the realm of matters indifferent. Now, if you're here tonight and you're not a true Christian, you've probably sat there saying, I have never heard such a detailed, complex, intricate, bunch of nothing about issues that, as far as I'm concerned, Christmas is Christmas. Don't be Scrooge or the Grinch. Just enjoy it. You see, my friend, the reason you think that way is you've never been laid hold of by the grace of God, and that has brought you to the place where the most important thing in life for you is pleasing Christ, because He died and rose from the dead to be the Savior of sinners. And you don't know what it is to have embraced Him as your own Savior from sin, that you might live a life well-pleasing unto God, out of love to this Christ. And that's why for many this has not been an exercise in tedium, fiddling while Rome burned. It has been an answer. Many of you have said how grateful you've been for the series. It has met you at a point of peculiar need. Why? Because amidst all of the moral and ethical madness, immorality and debauchery of this season, you've said, Oh God, what am I to do? And as we've studied the Word of God together, the Lord has been answering the cry of your heart. And nothing is more important to you than pleasing the Christ who loved you and died for you. And you see, my unconverted friend, if you ever become a real Christian, that will be your desire. If you ever, in the nakedness and culpability of your sinfulness, ever see what you are and what you deserve and flee to Christ in all the plenitude of His grace and mercy to hell-deserving sinners like you, then you'll join the rest of us. I don't mean you'll necessarily join this church. But you'll join the rest of us who are very, very fastidious about how we live, even in the Christmas holiday, because we desire in everything to please and honor him who loved us and gave himself for us. God willing, next week we'll take up the other two categories of love. that must constrain us in the exercise of our liberty, not only love for our brethren, which we've addressed today, but love for the unsaved. I'd urge you to read 1 Corinthians chapter 9, and then love for our own souls, the latter part of 1 Corinthians 9 and all of chapter 10, where we have the great principles relative to these other dimensions of the categories of love. that will restrain us and will regulate the exercise of our liberties in Christ. Let us pray together. Our Father, we are so thankful that your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And we pray that these issues that we have sought to wrestle with before you and with your people would by the Holy Spirit be so written upon our hearts that we may be under the constraint of the love of Christ in all of our dealings with one another, that our greatest passion will not be to prove to the world how free we are in Christ by the unfettered, unprincipled, careless expression and exercise of our liberty in any and all circumstances, but, O God, bind our hearts to your holy word, so that we may with the apostles say that we are determined to relinquish any liberty, the exercise of which would cause our brother to stumble, to fall, to be grieved, to perish. Help us. O help us, we pray. Seal these things to our hearts. And for those who have sat among us wondering what all this fuss is about, Lord, take the closing exhortation and may it follow them to their homes and to their beds and to the kitchen and into the workplace tomorrow that they will remember that they were amongst the people to whom pleasing Christ was the most important thing in life. And give them no rest until they too become such a one. Hear our prayer and receive our thanks for your presence, for your help, and above all, for your holy word we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.