Our passage this morning is Galatians chapter five, 13 through 15. Short passage this morning and an important topic that we're gonna discuss. Just to put it back in the context, chapter five starts out with, stand fast. in the freedom, because Christ has set us free. And then Paul says right before our passage that the ones who are troubling the Galatians, he wished that they would cut themselves off. Harsh words for these troublemakers. And the reason why he was so harsh is found in verse 13. For you, oh, brethren, he's addressing them, you have been called to liberty. The preposition means for the purpose. This is why God has called you. That's why Paul says, I wish these troublemakers would cut themselves off, because this is the purpose that God has called you. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity or an occasion as a springboard for your flesh. But instead, through love, serve one another. Be a slave, dulate, it's a command. For all of the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware, lest you be consumed by one another. Father, Christian freedom is to be guarded. were to stand fast in our freedom. It was for the purpose of liberty that you set us free. The purpose that you called us was unto liberty and unto freedom. And God, today there is a huge distortion in Christianity about what Christian liberty really means. So God, I pray today that you will help us as a Christian family to recapture the true biblical meaning of Christian liberty. God, that we would understand the ramifications of compromising our liberty, but also the guidelines that show us the proper use of Christian liberty. and how, God, You can be glorified and how we can win people to Christ if we understand this principle in its biblical context. God, today, open our eyes so that we might behold wondrous things from this passage. God, I pray today, if we are abusing our Christian liberty, if we're using it as a cloak, as a cover-up for our flesh to do what we want to do, God, that your Holy Spirit will convict us, that God, you will rebuke us. And God, if we are slipping into legalism, where we're no longer enjoying the freedom. God, I pray that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to that and we can repent of it, God, and walk in that balance of what true Christian liberty is all about. God, we pray this for your glory. We pray, God, that you would transform us today more into the image of Christ who lived out this liberty every single day. God, he modeled it when he healed people on the Sabbath day. He modeled it when he told lame people to pick up their beds and walk on the Sabbath day. He modeled it when he when he ate with unwashed hands. He understood the true heart and meaning of the law of God. And he lived it out in the spirit and not the letter. So God open our hearts today in Jesus name. Amen. And you may be seated. So if you got a bulletin this morning, you have an outline in your bulletin because this is not going to be a normal message for me. I don't think any of them are normal anyway, but this is going to be more of a lesson, a teaching, and I want you to take notes because I've got so many enumerations that no way you're going to remember it. And so this is something that you'll have that you can go home after church, you can use it with your spouse or your kids for devotion, or you can use it as fire starter if you need to, whatever you want. But hopefully, as you go through this passage with me, go through the notes, that you'll be able to internalize this and you'll actually be able to say, okay, I know what Christian liberty really is. Today, I know how to apply it and I know when I am abusing Christian liberty. So the first thing that I need to do is really define what Christian liberty is. But love, this is the bottom line in this passage. It says, for liberty is what you've been called to, only do not use your liberty as a occasion or opportunity for your flesh, but through love, through love, serve one another. For all of the law is wrapped up in this one saying, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you're biting and devouring one another, you better beware because you're just going to rip each other to shreds. That's sort of a paraphrase. And so love really is how we are to use our freedom in Christ and not to abuse it. So if you can remember that one thing, that's going to go a long way. If you could just ask yourself, am I really loving God by what I am doing right now? Can I watch this and say, I'm loving God? Can I do this with a friend and say, I am really loving my friend? If you can just remember that, you've got the really, this is the whole sermon in a nutshell, but Christian liberty is not to be confused with a license. License is just the opposite. Really license is the attitude that I am free to choose whatever I wish. And those results are going to be in excessive habits. that ultimately bring harm to you and people around you. That's what license does. Live however you want. You're free in Christ. But when you take it to that extent, it ends up with abusive behavior and excessive actions that harm yourself, hurt your testimony, and hurt people around you. When taken to the extreme, Christian liberty can just be another form of slavery. You know, I'm free in Christ. And you start imbibing in something, and that thing then becomes your master, and you become enslaved to whatever that habit is. So don't be fooled today. Christian liberty is the free gift of God to liberate the soul. That's what Christian liberty is. It's the free grace of God to liberate the soul so that we willingly and joyfully serve God, not out of compulsion, but out of a willing heart. That's what Christian liberty is. Let me say that again. It's the free gift of God to liberate our soul so that we willingly and joyfully serve God, not because you have to, but because you want to, because you love the Savior. Christian liberty means that the Holy Spirit has taken those stony tablets that Moses wrote on, and He has written them on the fleshly tablet of your heart." That's Christian liberty. 2 Corinthians 3 is another passage that deals with Christian liberty, and that's where Paul cites that, 2 Corinthians 3. When a person turns to the Lord, he is taken out of death and into light. He's taken out of darkness and into light. He's taken from the kingdom and the dominion of Satan who puts you into bondage and he translates you into the kingdom of his dear son who sets you free. Jesus said this, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. For whoever practices sin is the slave of sin. So that's why Christ came, was for liberty. Now, when Moses came down from the mountain, he had a veil covering his face. And Paul says in that same passage in 2 Corinthians 3 that there's still that veil over people's heart when they read the Old Testament law. But he says, nevertheless, if the heart will turn to the Lord, the veil is removed. and we, beholding as in a mirror the glory of God, are transformed from glory to glory. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Freedom. So when your heart turns to Christ, The veil has lifted, and you see life as it really is, and you are set free to make godly choices and to desire spiritual things. Paul, in this letter to the Galatians, really starts out talking about Christian liberty and for Christian freedom. In Galatians 1 and verse 4, in his introduction, Paul says this. Jesus Christ gave Himself on behalf of. The preposition is instead of. He took the place. Jesus Christ gave Himself in the place of, instead of our sin. And then we've got a purpose clause that He might deliver us from this present evil age. The word age means the attitude, the environment, the worldview, the world system that we are living in, and we are delivered from that. That's why Christ gave himself. It was for freedom. It was for liberty. By introducing the law, by introducing just a little bit of leaven, as we read last Sunday, a little bit of leaven leavens the entire batch of dough. Paul said, if I am still preaching circumcision, then why am I persecuted? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. All Paul had to do was just say a little bit of law, and we could add that to the gospel and everything would have been all right. But by introducing anything that you have to do to achieve righteousness, you have perverted the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus paid it all, the hymn writer said. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. Jesus washed it white as snow. Isaiah 1.11. Come now, let us reason together. I'm sorry, 1.18, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be as red like... Anyway, I messed it up. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Come and reason, he says. This is, I want to forgive you, I want to cleanse you. And if you add anything to that, Paul says, you have messed up the gospel. Is that my phone? Somebody, maybe, I don't know. Something's dinging anyway. All right. Where was I? So in Galatians, Paul is defending the gospel of liberty. And in chapter 2 and verse 3, he says, but neither Titus, who is with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And I did this because some false brethren came in under the radar, and they came in to spy out our liberty in Christ. He says, I did not yield to them by submission even for an hour so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. So they were trying to catch Paul out, and he says, I am not going to give in to anything that's going to send the wrong message about Christian liberty and Christian freedom. How and when and why Christian liberty is to be used, those are difficult and mature spiritual questions. that the seasoned believer struggles with. I struggle with them. Counseling people, we struggle with those. How do you use our creed? When do I use it? When do I refrain? And those are the questions that Paul answers for us today in this passage. There is no pat answer. Just do this and everything's going to be fine. In Paul's letter today, he gives us two broad guidelines, and we've got to pay attention to these guidelines. There are two. Those two guidelines are simple. One is love. Am I sacrificially giving myself to serve God and others? That's what love is. So I have to ask myself, does this behavior that I'm choosing to do, There's this attitude that I am thinking about. Am I loving when I do that? Am I serving God with all my heart? Am I serving people? That's what love is. So that was that's the second principle, the second attitude. Am I being a slave? To the body of Christ, am I serving others or am I self indulging? So if you can ask, answer those questions, am I doing this just for self indulgence? Now there's no law that says you have to be at church every single Sunday. That's not found anywhere in the Bible. The Bible does say, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. And you can say, you know what, this morning, I just feel like I have got to be alone with God. And I'm gonna get on my bike or I'm gonna get on my motorcycle and I'm gonna go up to Montecristo. And I am just gonna sit and I'm gonna worship and I just need to be alone. Because you have the Christian liberty and the freedom to do that. And the next Sunday you say, you know what? I haven't had a round of golf for a while. I'm gonna pack up my golf clubs and I'm gonna go out and worship Jesus out on the golf course. I hope you shank everyone into the woods if you do that. But that's what it, and so you gotta ask yourself, what am I doing with this liberty? Am I just indulging myself? So those two principles, love and servanthood, that guides our Christian liberty. So I want to start out also defining what real legalism is. This week, I was accused of being a legalist by somebody. And he was talking to Caleb Wendt. And Caleb Wendt was just sort of, listen to this guy, because he didn't know that Caleb worshipped at this church. And he was going on and on, ranting and raving about what a legalist I was. And I praise God for the things that I was accused of, because they're not legalism. And what legalism is not? One, legalism is not living by a biblical conviction. When the Bible says something and you want to obey it and you want to live by it, that, my friend, is not legalism. That's love for God. Paul, in 2 Timothy 4-2, told young preacher Timothy, he says, preach the word, convince people, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine for the time will come where they will no longer endure song doctrine, but will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. Just tickle their ears. Don't preach anything biblical. Don't preach anything that's going to rock the boat. And Paul says, no, this is biblical conviction. The second thing that. Legalism is not. Legalism is not a desire to pursue holiness. In your Christian life, if you are pursuing holiness, you are obeying scripture. Hebrews. Chapter 12 and verse 14. says pursue. The Greek word is an imperative command, and it's the Greek word dioko, which means literally to persecute. I am to persecute. I am to pursue after holiness. I am to be passionate for holy living, sanctified, consecrated life, dedicated unto my Savior. I am to pursue it. And the rest of that verse says, for without holiness you will not see the Lord. Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God. So that's not legalism when you're pursuing holiness. It's not legalism that you want to live by biblical convictions, nor is it legalism because you want to develop spiritual disciplines in your life. Because you say, I'm going to get up and I'm going to have a time of devotion with God, and I'm going to do it daily. I'm going to have a time of prayer, and I'm going to do that daily. I'm going to fast once a week, and I want to do it this day, and these are the reasons why. That is not legalism. Now, we don't broadcast it. We don't blow the trumpet when we do those things. Hey, I had my devotions this morning, everybody. I'm gonna post it on my Facebook. I don't have Facebook, so I can't do that. But anyway, you know what I'm saying. But the desire for spiritual disciplines in your life, that's not legalism. In fact, Paul says this. Know you not that those who run in a race all run, but only one person receives the prize. Who receives the prize? It was the person who was disciplined. The person who got up and said, I'm going to do my morning run. The person who was disciplined and said, I'm not going to eat that dessert. It was the person who was disciplined who says, I'm going to do those hard workouts up that hill. That's the one who wins the prize. And he says, they do it to earn a Stephanos. a wreath crown that fades away. But we are disciplined because we are running a race to win an incorruptible crown. That's not legalism. He says, I therefore run not with uncertainty. I fight not as somebody who beats the air. I keep my body under. I keep it under subjection, lest by any means, if I preach to others, I myself am disqualified. as 1 Corinthians 9.24. So what is legalism according to the book of Galatians as we're going through this? Three things what Galatians talks about here. The first one is when you add anything to justification, that's legalism. If you add anything to Jesus's finished work on the cross to say, I am good with God, that's what legalism is. Well, I've done this, this and this, therefore I must be going to heaven. No, that's legalism. The confession is Jesus Christ alone, his grace alone and faith in him alone. Galatians chapter two and verse 20. says this, I do not, I'm sorry, 21. I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. That's legalism. You add anything. The second thing, when I rely on man made rules and rituals for sanctification, and spiritual growth. That's legalism. When you start adding rituals, man made rules, and you say, if you do this, this and this, then you will grow spiritually or then you will be sanctified. That's legalism. You're trying to do it by the law. You're trying to do it by human merit. And that's not how we grow spiritually. And our support verse for that is found in Galatians three, three through five. Are you so foolish? Have you begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Are you now made perfect by human effort and human merit? That's not how we perfect. That's not how we grow in Christ. Have you suffered so many things in vain? If indeed they were in vain, therefore the one who supplies the spirit to you and the one who works miracles among you, how does God do it? Does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? So if you add anything other than Christ and the Holy Spirit to grow spiritually and His Word is a living spiritual book, that's legalism. Third, when spiritual disciplines, listen to me, because we can take spiritual disciplines and we can turn them into legalism. And this is how it happens. I get up every morning, I have my devotions at 5.30 a.m. And I'm thinking now in my mind, if I will just simply do that every single day, I'm going to grow spiritual and I'm going to be more like Christ. And I no longer get up and I say, thank you, Lord Jesus. I get to look at your smiling face. Thank you, God. I get to read your word and it becomes living. Thank you, God, that I'm going to be nourished this morning and I'm going to worship you. When your spiritual disciplines become nothing more than a checkbox, I did it. That's legalism. And Paul says, how is it? When you didn't even know God, you served by nature those things that weren't God's. And now you're turning back to weak and beggarly elements, having known by God rather that now God knows you. And so the Galatians, they had done all these spiritual disciplines before they got saved. Then they came to know God and God knew them and they were enjoying that relationship. And then they started back into spiritual disciplines, observing days. observing months, observing years, and he says, you guys are missing it. You're putting yourself back under bondage. So those three things is what legalism really is. So in our passage today, in Galatians chapter 5, it says, you were called for the purpose of freedom. So let's just kind of define what Christian freedom is. Christian freedom means that I am no longer hopelessly trapped under sin. Because that's where you and I were. We were hopelessly trapped, ensnared under sin, and Christ has set us free from that. So let's look at some verses in Galatians to support that. So let's go to Galatians 3.22. You can follow along with me, or I'll read it, or you want to just jot it down, you can. But the Scripture has confined The word confine means to enclose in a net and trap like a shoal of fish. It's used in the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 5, where they threw out the net and it enclosed and captured those fish. Well, the Scripture, the Bible has captured us and confined us all under sin. In Romans chapter 3, and verses 9 and 10 say basically the same thing, that the law, the scripture, has confined both Jew and Gentile all under sin. And how did it do that? It did it through the law. The law was given so that every mouth was stopped and the whole world was guilty before God, Romans 3.19. What about the Gentile? The Gentile was given a conscience and the law was written on his heart that accused him. And so the scripture has written on our hearts, if we're not a Jew or written on the Ten Commandments, if you were a Jew, it has enclosed everybody. You're trapped and you are hopeless to save yourself outside of Jesus. And so freedom means we've been set free from that. Number two, we're no longer a slave to guilt. You remember in the Old Testament, they had to bring their sacrifices every single time they sinned, and they had to do it monthly, and at the end of the year, they had to have the Day of Atonement? And the writer of Hebrews says those sins can never make the conscience perfect. because there's a remembrance of sin every single year. It can't make us free from guilt, free from the law, a wonderful condition. We now have guilt that is gone. That's freedom in Christ. And so Paul, in Galatians 3, And in verse 23 says, But before faith came, we were kept under guard, like a prison guardian watching over us, condemning us all the time. We were kept under by the law. But now that faith has come afterwards, has been revealed, therefore we are no longer captivated by it. The third thing that we've been set free for is that we are no longer under a tutor, and we've been set free. The law had to guide every motion, every action, every thought, because we were immature. And Paul uses a term called the pedagogus, and he says, when you were young and immature, you were under that tutor. That tutor took you to school, the tutor showed you how to do your homework, made you do your reviews, and got you ready for class the next day. Well, that's what the law was. It just told us everything to do. But now that we're free in Christ, I don't have to have the law. We have now the Holy Spirit doing those things for us. And Paul says you were called to this. But after faith has come, we are no longer under the tutor, so we're set free. We're no longer mandated by rituals, but rather by relationship. And we no longer rely on human effort and merit, but we operate under the promises of God led by the Spirit. Let's go over to 423. Galatians 423. But he who is of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh." Human merit, human effort, Abraham trying to do this, to inherit what God has promised him through his own logic. My wife's barren. I'm going to take Hagar. I can just do this on my own. We've been set free from that mentality. It's not me doing it on my own. It's the promises of God. And Paul says in Galatians 5, 13, this is the purpose that God has called you for all of those things that we just discussed. Love and service guides our liberty. Love prevents liberty from degenerating into licenseness, our flesh. So let's look at Galatians five. 13 together. It says, You've been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an occasion. And that word means a basis of operation. A springboard, a platform for the flesh. So let's define what flesh means in this context. In this context, flesh means our unregenerated humanness. Every one of us have still got this baggage that we have to carry to the grave, right? Oh, who will deliver me from the body of this death? Praise be to God that I have the victory through Jesus Christ. But as long as you and I are in this earthly body, we're going to have to fight our humanness, that part that's unregenerated, the physical body that just comes with Christianity, unfortunately. You know, God doesn't just put a magic wand over you and I and we never have any sinful thoughts ever again. We never have any temptation ever again. No, that's not the Christian life. And so Paul says here that we are not to use it for an occasion to the flesh because in our flesh nothing good dwells, Romans 7, 18. So that those who are in the flesh, Romans 8, 8, they cannot please God. To behave fleshly, write this reference down if you want. 1 Corinthians 3.3, Paul says, are you not acting, Old King James says carnally, sarkikos, same root word as sarkos, flesh. You are acting fleshly. Aren't you just acting like mere men? when you get all this jealousy, all this fighting. So Paul says even believers can act just like the unregenerated person. Have you ever been around a Christian who just doesn't even act like they're saved? That's going to happen to you and I if we indulge in our Christian liberty. But through love, love sets us free. Love is sacrificially giving to others. It's a positive command. Sir, be a slave to one another. And Jesus modeled this for you and I. John chapter 13, he says, you call me master and Lord, and so you should because I am. And if I, your master and Lord, have gotten down and washed your feet, then you ought to wash one another's feet. A new commandment I give you. to love one another just as I have loved you. Love isn't an emotion. Love is an action of service to one another. So that is how we guard our Christian liberty. It sets us free. So in summary, liberty is the freedom from the law for justification and also freedom from rituals for sanctification. Through faith, you and I have been baptized into Christ where we have put on Christ. Liberty is never exercised in isolation from Christ's love. Let me say that again. Liberty is never exercised in isolation from loving Jesus. and loving people. It's an interdependence of serving one another. Now, love keeps us from attacking one another. Every commandment is fulfilled in this one saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Isn't that pretty simple? Remember in Matthew 22, they're trying to catch Jesus out. There's over 600 commandments in the Old Testament. And so they ask Him, what's the greatest commandment? He says, this is the greatest commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second commandment is just like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. For all of the law hangs on those two commandments. In Mark, the gospel writer of Mark adds a little more words than Matthew does. And the scribe answers back. And he says, truly, to love God and to love your neighbor. That's more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. And Jesus commended him when he saw that he answered wisely. It's Neah echo, wisely. You answered having knowledge. You're understanding the real essence of who God is and what real spirituality is all about. And Jesus commends him, but he also says, you're not far from the kingdom of heaven. And here's the reality. None of us can love God perfectly, and none of us can love our neighbor perfectly. And so what he is saying, you're on the right track and this is what God wants, but you'll never be able to do it. You have got to cry out for mercy and say, Jesus, save me and write the law on my heart. So love is the fulfillment of all the commandments. Now, Paul uses this mentality quite a bit, or this thought, in the book of Galatians. He uses it in 5.3. So look at 5.3 with me. He says, and I again testify to every man who becomes circumcised that he becomes a debtor to keep the whole law. So this was a Jewish idea. James, the book of James is very, very Jewish. It's the brother of Jesus writing it. And James 2 says, if you keep all the law and yet break it in one area, you are guilty of the whole law. So the Jewish people looked at the law as a composite. Every single precept has to be kept. If that's the way you want to get to God today, then you have got to keep every single one of them. But when he uses it in 514, for all the law is fulfilled in this one word, he's changing his idea slightly. And this is what he means in 514. He means the entire thought, the driving force of everything that God expects of you. This is what it is. It's what the Holy Spirit originally intended for everything that was written in the law. You've heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. But I say unto you, if you look and you covet in your heart, you've already committed adultery. That's the love that God is saying that when you truly love, you don't go those places. When you truly love, you don't feel hate in your heart, even though you've never murdered. And so what Paul means here, the very driving force, the very essence of everything that God has ever said is fulfilled in this one commandment. Now, we can go over to Romans. And so if you'd like to, just really quickly flip over to Romans 13. And I'm going to just read it real quick. I'm not going to make any comments. It says all in itself quite succinctly, "'Owe no man anything except to love. Don't owe any man anything except love.'" For the one who loves one another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet. If there's any other commandments, all are summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. legalism or licentiousness, both of them are a ditch. And living in either one of those ditches destroys the Christian body. And that's his warning in verse 15. But if you bite and devour one another, Paul is not thinking hypothetically here. There's three different words for the Greek word, if. This one is the if that's a reality. And if, if you in fact do this, the indicative mood, you will destroy the body of Christ. You think about churches that you've been in where people nitpick each other. Will people criticize each other? Will people have their own rules and rituals and standards where they're judging other people? And they will rip one another apart, and those churches end up being split. Or you see a church that no longer preaches the true gospel, no longer lives by biblical convictions, no longer preaches on spiritual disciplines, and that church runs amok. And so either one of those ditches will destroy the character of God's church. And that's Paul's warning here. If you begin doing these things, you better look out because you're going to consume one another. So as we close, I'm going to give you five questions that you can ask yourself on how to use your Christian liberty. And I think these five questions will clear it up, all the muddy water, all those gray areas. If you will ask these five questions, God will help you to discern, should I act this way? Should I go to this place? Should I engage in this activity? If you'll just go through these five questions, number one, Will this pursue peace in the body of Christ if I do this? And will it build others up in their faith? Just ask yourself that. I'll just give you a simple example. I have a policy, and it's a conviction, that if I minister at a wedding, and maybe you think I'm a legalist, or maybe you don't, I don't know, doesn't matter to me, But I just have a conviction that it is a worship service, that we are setting a couple apart to honor Jesus Christ and to model Christ's sacrificial love for His people. And a wife is to model her love and devotion and reverence for her husband the same way we do our Savior. And to mar that, we're serving alcohol where people will get drunk, serving alcohol where unbelievers come and say, this is the way Christians celebrate a wedding. I just have a conviction that says that I will not moderate a wedding that does that because I can't, in my own mind, say that this is going to bring building up of people's faith. Romans 14, 19 says this, "'Let us therefore pursue after the things that make for peace, and wherein somebody else will be edified.'" Second question that we've got to answer, will this cause a weaker brother to stumble? What if somebody is a believer and they have struggled with alcohol their entire life, and they see Pastor Cross coming out of a liquor store? He says, well, man, Pastor Cross does it. It must not be that bad. And all it takes is one drink for them, and they go right back into that rut. Now, I may have the Christian liberty to do that. The Bible doesn't condemn, necessarily, a drink, but it definitely condemns drunkenness. But what if I cause a weaker brother to stumble? Am I abusing my Christian liberty? Romans 14, 21 says, it is good neither to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is made weak. It may mean the clothing you wear. It may be advertisements that you have slogans on your clothes. And you're saying, oh, Mr. Cross, Pastor Cross, you're putting us under a yoke of bondage. No, I'm wanting you to understand how to use your Christian liberty and not to abuse it. Third question. Will your mature understanding send a wrong message to a baby Christian just because you're a mature Christian? And maybe you're able to handle something. I'm just groping for illustrations this morning, forgive me. But maybe you're a mature Christian, and you want to read Harry Potter. And Harry Potter's a bunch of garbage anyway. And you shouldn't be reading it, but anyway, you're a mature Christian. You know that stuff's hocus-pocus, and casting spells, it's goofy stuff. And you know there's only one God. God controls everything. But you have that knowledge, and somebody else was really into the occult. And they know that demon spirits, those things are real, and they can control you. But you have an understanding that I'm in Christ, and greater is He that's in me than He is in the world. This isn't going to affect me. I'm just going to read it for the pleasure of reading it. But you use your Christian liberty to send the wrong message to a baby Christian. then you've misused your liberty. 1 Corinthians 8, 9, but beware lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak. For anyone who sees you who has knowledge, eating in an idol's temple, in other words, you have knowledge. That idol doesn't mean diddly squat. It's just a statue. It's got no breath. It's got no ears. It can't talk. I know that. I'm a mature Christian. I'm going to go in that temple, and I'm going to sit down, and I'm going to have a ribeye steak. But you've got a Christian friend who doesn't have that knowledge. He hasn't matured to that point yet, and he still thinks that those idols are something, and he is now emboldened to go back and do the stuff that he was once saved from. This is what Paul says. If you embolden his weak conscience to eat idols because of your knowledge, shall your weak brother perish for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against a brother, you weak his conscience and you have actually sinned against Christ. That's pretty weighty, isn't it? So that's the third question. The fourth question, is this activity leading me into sin or a habit that might control me? It may not be a simple behavior, but will it lead into something that becomes an idol that controls you? One of the best things that ever happened to me, and it's hard for me to actually say this, but was tearing my meniscus. Maybe Doug can relate. Because guys that like to exercise, you can get obsessed with it. And it can start to control you, even something good. And you might say, you know what? I'm not harming anybody. But it becomes so sanctimonious in your life. It was so bad that one time I was driving through Tennessee with my wife with two kids and she's pregnant. This is a long, long time ago, by the way. I had to get my run in that day. We pulled off the road and I left her in the car with two kids and she's pregnant and I went out for a 12 mile run for an hour and 20 minutes and left her by the side of the road. That's sin, folks. That ain't good. That's not going out and exercising. And so Paul says this, can this activity lead to a habit that controls you? 1 Corinthians 6.12, all things are lawful for me. I didn't break any spiritual laws by doing that. All things are lawful for me, Paul says, but he says this, I will not be brought under the power of any. And I think alcohol has that power, it has that ability to control you and to become your master. Question number five, will the use of my freedom bring glory to God? If I do this, can I do this bringing glory to God and help reach the lost? 1 Corinthians 10, verse 30 and 31, whether therefore you eat or whether you drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God, give none offense, neither to the Jew, that's the religious person. who's lost. Don't offend them with your liberty, the Jew, nor to the church of God, nor to the Gentiles." And Paul says, I do all these things, I've made myself a slave so that I can win the more to Christ. So I know we've gone a long time this morning And it was only three verses, and I haven't even got to my conclusion yet. But hopefully, this is enough for you to think on today and to chew on about what Christian liberty is. You don't have to agree with everything that I'm saying. We can talk about it. Give me a biblical reference, and we can discuss these things. But let's make the Bible our authority for the way that we use and exercise our Christian liberty. I just want to ask you, are you loving the Savior above all else? Because that's the bottom line, isn't it? Number two, do you understand that your Christian liberty came at a great cost? Three, are you motivated by love to actively serve and to minister to other people? because that's what liberty set you free to do. Is there someone God has put on your heart, on your path, that the Lord wants you to serve this week? Has your liberty become a stumbling block to spiritual growth? Has it a stumbling block to others? Is it obscuring the gospel from the lost? And has your legalism turned and degenerated into just doing it by rote memory? And do you need to rekindle your love for the original reason why you were practicing that spiritual discipline? Let's close with that. Father, God, I pray today that as a church that we will be sensitive, that no one lives and dies to himself. But first of all, God, that we have been bought with a price. Therefore, we're not going to become the slaves and the servants of our passions, of our sins and of other people. And Lord God, that you have set us free from the bondage of guilt. You set us free from the bondage of rituals. You set us free, God, from trying to please you and to earn our merit. And God, you have set us free to rely not on how good I perform, but on how wonderful your promises and your grace is in my life. It was for freedom that you set us free. So I pray today, God, that we will use our liberty guided by love and guided by am I serving one another. I pray this for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.