Areas the Bible Does Not Address

Transcript

GRM 537
09/14/1997
Areas the Bible Does Not Address
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We have been studying the book of Colossians. The end of Colossians chapter 2 verses 16 through 23 the apostle Paul has unfolded some of the details of heretical teaching that was confronting the church of Colossea. And we noted that that teaching as verses 16 to 23 unfolded was a mixture of legalism, mysticism, asceticism and biblical truths woven together to deceive and confuse even the people of God. Some have been concerned that perhaps there wasn’t a balance in the picture in our study, so I want to try to give that balance today. Particularly when we talk about asceticism. It is true when we talk about legalism as well. That is I make statements like ?it doesn’t matter what you put in your body, that will not affect your godliness or holiness. There sometimes is a concern expressed that some make take that to mean that you can put anything into your body, and perhaps our young people will assume that means you could take drugs because that is a physical substance and it doesn’t affect you spiritually.

Well I want to say a few things before we look at the main subject I want to consider. Number one, just a reminder for all of us. And I have to remind myself more than you. Any message deals only with a part of the word of God. We can’t cover everything every time. I know sometimes it seems like I am intent on doing that, but sometimes we only do two verses. Obviously there is much more in the word of God than what is said in those two or three or four verses, however many we are covering. So every message, or whatever Bible Study or class you are in, you are not getting a balanced study. It is like you give instructions to your children. You may have some I don’t know, grade school age children, you say to them, ?I don’t want you going over to the neighbor’s yard today. Twenty minutes later you look out and they are playing in the middle of the street. You call them and you say, ?what are you doing in the middle of the street? They say, well you said I couldn’t go to the neighbor’s yard. Well that didn’t mean that they couldn’t go out into the street. Supposedly there is a reservoir of knowledge and understanding being built up. And I know it doesn’t seem like that with kids. And they do sometimes use the argument, you didn’t tell me that. But they were told on a previous occasion. But you have to keep that in mind as we study the word of God piece by piece. We don’t have a complete picture in any of our studies. But as you look back over the last year, the last two years, last four years, you will see a more balancing perspective. When we are done with the book of Colossians, you will have the balance that God gave to Paul in this letter. And some of that that you are concerned about will be coming up as you proceed into chapter 3. So keep that in mind when you are studying the word. You are not getting a complete picture. It is not my intention to give you a complete picture. My intention and goal is to explain as clearly as I can what is being said in the verses that we are studying at this time.


Secondly, the unbeliever will be confused by the word of God and will pervert the truth of God. For example, we talk about the grace of God which is the issue when we talked about the Colossian heresy, the perverting of that grace. Jude verse 4 said unbelieving false teachers have turned the grace of our God into licentiousness. There is no way that I or anyone else can keep the unbeliever from being confused by the truth of God. And that is true of unbelieving young people as well as unbelieving adults. So when I say that what you put in the mouth does not defile the body. If a young person wants to go out and say well therefore I can go out and take drugs, I cannot clarify things for that unbelieving young person. They want to pervert the grace of God just the way unbelieving adults want to go out and use that as justification for ungodliness. We cannot correct that. The only solution to that is the grace of God by the power of the Spirit working to change that heart and the confusion is removed. I realize you are clear on that because most of you who speak to me on a concern will say now I understood what you were saying, or it was clear to me but . . . Well when you tell me that, I am in my heart saying, oh praise the Lord. It worked. And I realize there is immaturity and maturity in the body. People are in different stages of growth, and it just takes time. So that is a general background.

On this matter of discipline. I almost did a separate sermon on it but you were spared because I did not have the discipline to put it together. The Bible does speak about discipline. Now I used an example that we need to be careful without young people, using them as an example, that we think that because they are developing discipline for example in athletics that that will make them a more disciplined Christian. And there is no necessary connection between the discipline that is exercised in the physical realm and the discipline for godliness. That is the point that I am making. Really everybody has discipline. You may have a teenage son in your house. You look at his room, and it may be a disaster. If there was any evidence in the world of a lack of discipline and order it is that room. But you go out and look at his car. And it gets polished every week and he is disciplined in an area, just not the area you want him to be.


Now the Bible does say that we are to be disciplined as God’s people in our lives. Just a couple of examples. I Thessalonians chapter 5. There are several different words for discipline. And if we were going to have a detailed study, we would have a series of different words we would have to look at. But I have just taken a couple of passages that show the point that we want to make before we move on. In I Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 14 Paul says, ?and we urge you brethren, admonish the unruly. The word for unruly there means idle, lazy, undisciplined, disorderly. Unruly gives you the idea that it is an undisciplined, disordered life. And it can be unruly, gets out of hand. He uses the same basic word over at the end of 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 several times. Verse 6, ?now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life [That is our word.] not according to the tradition you have received from us, for you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example because we do not act in an undisciplined manner. Same basic word we have translated unruly. Paul says we didn’t act in an undisciplined manner, in an unruly manner, a disorderly manner. Verse 11, for we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life [There is our word again.] doing no work at all but acting life busy bodies. So here you see the area where there is a lack of discipline or disorder in the life. They weren’t working as they should in the physical realm to provide for themselves and so on. That was wrong for them. In fact Paul says that these believers at Thessalonica ought to separate themselves from people who live this kind of disordered life.

So we want to be careful when we talk about the fact that the physical discipline. There is not necessarily a connection between being disciplined in an area of our life physically and being disciplined for godliness doesn’t mean there should be no discipline in the physical areas of our life as believers. It doesn’t mean it is not good for our children to learn discipline. It does mean we want to be careful that we don’t begin as parents to equate the two. Oh I am glad my children are learning discipline in playing baseball because therefore they will be more disciplined as Christians. It doesn’t have a connection. I know from the little I read about baseball and watch baseball, a lot of disciplined baseball players aren’t Christians. Their discipline has nothing to do with godliness. We would like to see for believers, discipline in a variety of areas. And there should be. We want to be careful that the physical, we don’t begin to associate that with the spiritual.


In I Timothy chapter 4 verses 7 and 8, ?bodily exercise is profitable for a little but godliness is profitable for all things. The word used, we get the English word for gymnastics from or gymnasium. There it means to train or exercise yourself. Bodily exercise, bodily training, bodily discipline is profitable for a little. Godly discipline and exercise is profitable in all things. The same basic word is used in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 14 where it talks about those who by practice have their senses, exercise discipline in a godly realm. There is the maturing in the spiritual realm. That is what we are concerned about, that we develop that exercise of discipline. One more passage on that. Turn over to II Peter chapter 2 verse 14 where you see an example of the discipline of the ungodly. And we see it all around us, but this is just an example from the Scripture. Same basic word we talked about that we get the English word gymnasium or gymnastics from. Second Peter 2 verse 14, ?having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed. That word trained, discipline, exercise. These false teachers and godless people have discipline. And they have trained and exercised themselves. The problem is it is in the realm of greed. They have learned it well in every area. I just want to be careful we don’t begin to equate discipline in this physical realm that that will carry over into discipline and godliness. Everyone is disciplined. A couch potato guy can be very disciplined. He doesn’t do anything but lay around on the sofa and watch sports. Well that can be very disciplined. You ask him anything about college teams everywhere and who is going to go where in the draft. He may not be disciplined in reading a book, but he has got his own discipline. So what we want to be concerned about is the discipline of our life applied to godliness. Incidentally Paul had already complimented the Colossians in chapter 2 verse 5 about their discipline and there he used a different word, it meant order. The military word, that everybody was in their proper place. So they were exercising a discipline for godliness and functioning as they should in their part in the church. Colossians 2:5. That is the background.

What I want to talk about today is how we deal with areas the Scripture does not deal with. We have talked about this before, but it has been a number of years. This is sort of the balance of what we talked about with asceticism, legalism; we are not kept by a set of rules and regulations. But how do we know as a believer what is right and wrong? Since what you put in your mouth does not defile the body, is it alright to take drugs? Is it alright to smoke, to drink alcohol? What you do with your body doesn’t matter, so can you go to movies, can you go to the Casino, can you fill in the blank? Because no matter what example you use, somebody feels strongly that you shouldn’t put that in the gray area. If the Bible doesn’t say it is sin if you do it or the Bible doesn’t require you to do it, then it is an area of liberty. The Bible doesn’t say, ?Thou shalt not smoke cigarettes or cigars, and cigars are the in thing today. Now is it right or wrong? Show me a verse, ?Thou shalt not smoke cigars. Or a verse that says you should smoke cigars! Well then we get into, well, Godly people don’t do it. Then we say, well, Charles Spurgeon smoked cigars, G. Campbell Morgan smoked cigars. They were great Bible teachers. Therefore I want to be a great Bible teacher, therefore I will smoke cigars. Not a valid connection.

So I say, well how am I going to resolve this? Well in any of these areas there are guidelines in Scripture. I mean when people ask me about these questionable things, these are some of the guidelines I give them. We have these in a booklet, When the Bible Doesn’t Say, that they are in the process of reprinting. But I just want to walk through these questions. You might combine some of these, you might add a couple to it or arrange the list differently, but these questions and similar kinds of questions are the questions you have to ask regarding issues the Bible does not directly address.

Now keep in mind we are not talking about what the Bible says is sin. I don’t apply these questions to the issue of telling a lie, of committing immorality, of stealing; the Bible addresses that. That is a settled issue. Of being part of a fellowship of believers in the worship of God and serving Him. I don’t have to apply these questions; the Bible addresses that. But these are areas where the Bible does not directly speak to.

Two key portions of the word, just so you have it in your mind. I Corinthians chapters 8, 9 and 10. Romans chapters 14 and 15. Now those are the two areas of the word that you go to that are really devoted to that kind of issue. First Corinthians chapter 8 to 10, Romans 14 and 15. There are other verses that would be perfect, but those are the two main blocks of scripture that address handling questionable issues. What I have done is made a list of eleven questions that need to be asked regarding these issues that come to confront us. Let me say this at the beginning and I will say it again later. These are questions that you ask yourself. What I like to do to get my way is take these questions and turn them around on you, to try to get you to conduct yourself the way I want you to do it. And really they are questions I have to ask myself. The first one will be an example.

The first question that I would raise is: is it is a stumbling block to the weak? We will go to I Corinthians chapter 8. Now let’s talk about the weak and the strong Christian. The issue at Corinth that Paul is dealing with is food sacrificed to idols. Many of the Corinthians came out of a pagan background. In the context of their pagan lifestyle and pagan worship they would take the food and offer it at an idol’s temple. That would be an acknowledgment that this idol was their god and had provided it for them and they were receiving it from him. Now it becomes a question after you are saved, do you eat this food that has been sacrificed to an idol. You have a friend who says come over to our feast. Come over to the temple. Come over to our house. I would like you to have dinner with us. And you know this is going to be food that has been sacrificed to an idol.


The weaker Christian is the Christian that thinks I can’t do that. That would defile me because that food in being sacrificed to an idol partakes to the character of an idol and would defile me. The weaker Christian is the one who doesn’t understand that he has liberty in the grace of God to do that. It is the same issue in Romans 13. Food is the issue, not the same details. There it would be a Jewish kind of situation. What foods are you allowed to eat or not allowed to eat? What days do you have to observe or not observe as we have talked about with legalism in Colossians? But the weaker Christian is the same one. The weaker Christian is the one who doesn’t understand that in the grace of God you have liberty to eat all foods. So in the context of God’s present grace, no day is special above another day. So I want to understand who the weaker Christian and who the stronger Christian is. The weaker Christian is the Christian who hasn’t grown. We usually turn this around in our thinking. I am the strong Christian because I am the Christian who doesn’t eat those kind of things, who doesn’t smoke, who never has a glass of wine with his meal and so on. Well I may not do that, but that doesn’t make me the strong Christian. So I understand in the grace of God I can. I may be a strong Christian and choose not to do it. But the weak Christian is the Christian who believes it would defile him if he did.

Verse 8 of I Corinthians 8. We saw this in our previous studies in Colossians. Food will not commend us to God for we are neither the worse if we do not eat nor the better if we do eat. The physical food is not the issue. In the context he has made clear an idol is nothing. He picked this up from the Old Testament prophets. Old Testament prophets made clear an idol is just a block of wood. Part of the block is carved into an idol, the other part is used for firewood. It is nothing. Well some believers didn’t understand that. Some believers don’t understand that today. They would say oh my, if you have an object of pagan worship brought over from a foreign land that had been used in worship, you had better get it out of your house. Why? Well there is some kind of magical power, demonic power that will influence your house. Don’t you understand? That is just a block of wood. It is just a stone. It doesn’t have the power to be good. It doesn’t have the power to do evil. And Jeremiah says don’t be afraid of it. So it is with these idols. Paul says we all know an idol is nothing. So we mature Christians understand that. And idol is nothing. There is only one God. But not everyone has that knowledge he said in verse 7.

So first question in should I do this or not, eat this food or not. Verse 9, ?But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you who have knowledge dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience if he is weak be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols. Through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, a brother for whose sake Christ died. We will see more of this as we move along to later principles. I have to take into consideration the weaker Christian. Will it be a stumbling block to them? Will it cause them to get drawn into things that they don’t understand and are not ready to deal with in their immature state? We do this with our children. There are certain things that when they are older, when they are adults would be fine. They are not good for them as children. They are not ready for that. They don’t have the understanding to deal with it. That is what Paul is saying here.


Now be careful. This is a question I have to ask myself. Weaker Christians like to turn this around and wave it and say wait a minute, wait a minute. I am a weaker Christian. That offends me. You shouldn’t do it. Well you ought to learn in light of Scripture you don’t have a right to tell me not to do it. We read these in Romans 14 in particular. That is not the purpose of these questions. The purpose is for me. Now I have to be sensitive. If I, if you do say you know that really bothers me that you do that, then I have to take that into consideration, because if it is a stumbling block to you that is one of the issues I have to deal with. We want to be careful about turning this around as though now I am the weaker Christian. Now I can run around and push you around and tell you what you can do and what not do. Because all I have to do is to say you know what you do offends me. And if you don’t stop, then you are wrong. Now you are misusing the Scripture and misinterpreting it and misapplying it. But individually and personally you do have to consider, is this a stumbling block to the weak. What will be the impact upon Christians who don’t have the maturity yet to handle this? I don’t want to put their life in turmoil. I don’t want to ruin them, (That is a strong thing to say in verse 11) put their life in disarray as God’s child. It is like you don’t expose your children to some things because you don’t want to ruin their young lives.

Second question: Will it cause misunderstanding regarding my motives for serving Christ. Look at chapter 9 of I Corinthians verse 12. Here he is talking about the right he had to be paid financial remunerations for the ministry. And he establishes the truth here that those who teach the word and proclaim the truth of God have a right to be supported by those that are ministered to. But he says in verse 12, if others share the right over you, do not we more; nevertheless, we do not use this right but we endure all things that we may cause no hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. Here he gives an example of one of his rights, but he did not use it because it would have been a hindrance to the gospel. If he had come to Corinth and proclaimed the gospel, people got saved and these young immature believers, he now began to ask them for money, it would have blurred the issue. Is he here for the money? And then those accusations would have caused confusion for these new and immature believers. So Paul made it a pattern, he went there he supported himself. In some places he supported himself or was supported by more mature believers in other places. So there could be no question about his motives in ministering the gospel.

There have been a couple of places where I have ministered the word and they have given me a check and then I have later mailed that check back as a donation because I was uneasy whether they had the maturity to deal with that. I didn’t want there to be questions. The real reason he came is he just likes to pad his salary. In fact one of those places I did hear back about 6 months that the accusation had been made that the real reason I was there was because I like to supplement my salary. I was glad before the Lord that I had mailed their check back as a donation. Now do I do that everywhere? No, I take the check from Indian Hills regularly, I never give it back. Thank you very much. But I am dealing with different people, and that principle has to characterize us in our service for the Lord. Will this cause misunderstandings regarding my motives for serving Christ? Then I can forgo my rights, but I could say, yeah Scripturally there is no reason for me not to. But in this particular situation it would not be best.


Number three, and number three, four and five you could put together but I have separated them out for emphasis. First question, is it profitable? I Corinthians chapter 10, verse 23, ?all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable [helpful.] You know part of the problem we get into with some of these gray areas, areas where the Bible doesn’t speak directly, we think it is enough to say it is neutral. It is not good or bad. But you know we don’t want to fill our lives with the doing of things that the best we can say about it is that it is neutral. Well, there are going to be some of those things in our lives, but I want to be careful. It is an important question. Is it profitable, is it helpful that I do this. You see what happens with these questions, it turns it around from my rights, that is not the prime focus. The foundational issue I have to resolve is it Biblically allowable and permissible? Well, then beyond that there is more to be answered. Is it profitable? How will it help me, others, the ministry? You can jot down chapter 6 verse 12 of I Corinthians, same question.

But the fourth question: will it build up other believers? The last part of verse 23 of chapter 10. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.? So you can see it is basically covering the same material, but moves it along a little bit. Profitable, helpful, edify, building up. How will this build me up? How will this build the body of Christ up? I just don’t want my life filled with neither good nor bad. It is like your children. Fine, they have some relaxation built in and they are doing something and you say that is fine, but their only argument for this is there is nothing wrong with this. Well, you have to tell them, well you just can’t fill the days of your life with things that there is nothing wrong with. You have to look, how is this going to develop you, build you up, make you more the person God wants you to be? What does this contribute to edification and maturing within the body of Christ? Will it build you up? Will it build up other believers?

The fifth question follows the same line. Three, four and five, as I mention cover basically the same area. Verse 24, let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. Is it for our neighbor’s good? So is it profitable, does it edify, is it for your neighbor’s good? How does this benefit other people? You are in a battle over food that you are going to eat. I know that I have the liberty to eat it, I’ll enjoy it if I eat it, but that isn’t the question. How is this going to be good for my neighbor, my friend here? I don’t know that it will do him any good, I am the one who will enjoy it. Well then wait a minute Gil, why do you have to do this? Is it necessary, is it for my neighbor’s good?


Part of the reason that I arranged these eleven questions was so that I could put number six in the middle, because it is the main one. Is it for the Glory of God? Is it for the glory of God? We could have put this at the end as the climax, I put it in the middle, I have 11 questions and the middle one is the central one, central to everything, foundational to all. Chapter 10, verse 31, Whatever then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That has to be true for all of our life, but we ought to understand that verse is in the context of a disagreement among believers. And how I should use my liberty, and function with the grace of God that I know and understand. I want to use that for His glory, for Him to be exalted and honored and praised. I don’t want to drag it down to a battle and a conflict over my rights, that I can do what I know I have the liberty to do. And will this exalt my Lord, will this bring glory and honor and praise to Him? The kind of conflicts that would be created out of the wrong use of my liberty wouldn’t do that. It is a distraction from the glory of God. It is a side issue that turns people’s attention away from God and His glory and His honor and His exultation.

You know all of these thing show, all of these questions we are asking, show the change there is to be in the life of one who has been redeemed and transformed by the power of God. Total opposite emphasis that the world has developed on self and learning to put self first and learning to put emphasis on self and learning to love yourself and learning to accept yourself and learning to self, self. And when that is carried over, now I am a believer, but I want to function with a self center, have I really understood the grace of God and do I have the maturity that I think I have? I have more understanding than someone, but if it is not handled properly, it is not true maturity. And that knowledge has to be exercised in the context of true love and that is how chapter 8 of I Corinthians began. We have knowledge, you have knowledge, fine everybody has knowledge, the issue is do you have love? Do you have the maturity to use the knowledge that you have for the good and benefit and well being of others? And central to this, is it to the glory of God?


Number 7, will it be offensive? Look at verse 32 of chapter 10, give no offense. Now note how broad this is. Either to Jews, or Gentiles or to the Church of God. Don’t be offensive to believer or unbeliever is what he is saying. Now you have to keep this in context again. If you share the gospel with the unbeliever, many times you offend them. Jesus disciples asked Him during His earthly ministry, don’t you know that the Pharisees were offended by what you said? We are not talking about the offense of truth. I can’t change that. This is what God has said. I present it to you with the desire that you would believe it and accept it. But I can’t change that. It is offensive that believers do not indulge in the sinful practices of the world around them because that becomes a testimony against those who are doing them. Those kind of things are not what he is talking about. We are talking about it in the context of the gray areas. Using that term for lack of a better one. I am not to be offensive as a person. In other words if I can avoid offending a person, I can avoid offending them. And it gets into a variety of areas. I was given a ring from a relative that passed away, so I had the ring sized and wore it. I hadn’t preached here twice, and I had some people come up to me afterwards and wanted to know why I was wearing this extra jewelry. Well you know you can go through all the history of the ring and why you got it. I put in on a dresser and it reminds me when I see it on the dresser. I don’t have to wear it; it just is not a big issue. What a little thing, but if that offends somebody I don’t have to do it. I realize somebody might be offended by my tie. Well, somebody else picks out my tie. I do tell them, now remember I am a preacher. There will be a variety of kinds of people there, so keep it within a certain bounds. So I don’t have to go over and eat the idol’s meat just to prove I can eat idol’s mean when I know it will be offensive to someone. By the same token I don’t have to refuse to go to my unbelieving friend’s house when he invites me to dinner because I say I wouldn’t come to your house and eat that food that has been offered to an idol. What kind of pagan do you think I am? That would be offensive but it does nothing for the gospel.

We have all been in situations where we have watched public figures who claim to be Christians, and you just are embarrassed because they are being offensive and it has nothing to do with God’s truth. And you are embarrassed by it. So we don’t have to give offense in these areas. So that is one of the guidelines. If it offends you if I do it, I won’t do it. If it offends you that I don’t do it, I’ll do it. I have liberty. That is not being hypocritical. You may say, well you do it with one person, you don’t do it with another, you are a hypocrite. No, I just want to be sensitive to the situation. Now if I told them, oh yes, I share that religious conviction, I would never do that and allow that to hinder my relationship, that would be hypocritical. But I am not saying that I believe this is an issue for me in my relationship with God. It is an issue between you and me. So when I am with you I don’t do it. But I am not saying I don’t do it when I am not with you. If you are offended by eating a ham sandwich, I don’t have to have a ham sandwich when we go to lunch, I can have turkey. But I am not telling you I don’t eat ham sandwich at home. So would I be a hypocrite? No I don’t have to everything I have liberty to do all the time. It becomes hypocritical if I imply to you that this is my conviction, or I do believe that this is necessary for a right relationship with God. No, so this area, will it be offensive? It has to do with who you are with. When you are with the Jews there are certain thing that will be offensive, so I don’t do it. With Gentiles there are other things. You know with the church I don’t want to be offensive if I can avoid it. There are a variety of illustrations.


Now again we have to be careful, this is not for me to turn around and walk up and say, you know, that dress you are wearing, that coat you are wearing, that tie you are wearing, that is offensive to me. Therefore you shouldn’t wear it anymore. Maybe they’ll say to me, that is none of your business, and they’d be right. It has to be handled right, this isn’t another one of those blankets for me to walk around and if I am offended you are wrong. Again Scripture is clear, Romans 14 develops it in particular. We are not to be judging from either side on this. I don’t have the liberty to do it, if you do it I guess that is the way it is. That is the seventh question, will it be offensive?

The eighth question: will it master me? Let’s back up to chapter 6 verse 12. The first part of this verse, ?all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. That went with our third question, is it profitable. But look at the last part of verse 12. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. I do not have the liberty and freedom to put myself back in slavery to anything. So that must be a question I ask myself. Will it enslave me? Will it control me; will it dominate me? That is something you have to take into mind. Future tense, will it master me? I have to be careful of the potential this has for me. Again you have to decide. You have to be careful; you cannot be brought under the control of anything else. So this, some things you know they say, are addictive. Well, I want to be careful of that. I don’t want to run around and say the scripture says that you shouldn’t do it because it addicts you; that enslaves you. You know, I want to be careful on that. Because you know if they smoke cigarettes, tobacco and that is addictive to them, could I have another cup of coffee please? Well, stop drinking your coffee. If you are a heavy coffee drinker, you probably get a headache, at least I do. So what are in, some people, nothing with caffeine in it, well fine. I can’t draw that line for you. You have to decide, are you addicted. If you think you might have the potential, stop it for a while. I am not addicted to tobacco, well don’t have it for a while. I am not saying you should or you shouldn’t, but I am talking about in the spiritual realm. Physical realm, you’ve got a physical question about tobacco, ask your medical doctor. You have got a spiritual question about tobacco, we can talk about it. The physical thing is a different area. I am not saying that these things will be healthy for you, but I am talking about what it does to you spiritually. Will it master me, and dominate my life?


Number nine, will it promote peace? Back up to Romans 14. We should bring a couple of verses out of Romans here. Romans 14, verse 19, So then let us pursue the things that make for peace, and the building up of one another. We could put that last part of verse 19 with our fourth question, will it build up other believers. We ought to pick up the first part of it, ?pursue the things that make for peace. That is in the context of building up one another. So these questions could be arranged differently and connected. But it is to promote peace among believers. What will the doing of this do to the harmony of this body? That is the factor. You know I mentioned smoking cigars. If I smoked cigars, it would really be offensive to some of you. It would be more than that. It would bring about a divorce in my home, so it would be definitely wrong for me. There are other questions we haven’t brought up. But would it promote peace? Well it wouldn’t. They would be a body divided over the rightness and wrongness of it. You know it wouldn’t do anything for the peace of this body. So do I need to do it or any other kind of question. I would have to consider that. Now again that is not one that people can turn around and say well I don’t think you ought to do it because it divides the body. Well I want to be sensitive but there is that the other side needs to be careful about waving it around. If you don’t have a verse on it and it is not identified, then even though you have strong convictions on it, you might just have to accept it. And for each of us we have to be concerned how it affects the peace of the body.

While you are in Romans 14, does it violate your conscience? This relates to some others we have talked about as well. Look at verse 23. He who doubts is condemned if he eats because he is not eating from faith. And whatever is not from faith is sin. This is where I have to be careful and allow for growth. To talk someone into the fact that an idol is nothing, food sacrificed to an idol is nothing, therefore you should eat if you understand the grace of God could be leading that Christian into sin and thus ruin. I don’t want to destroy him for whom Christ died over the issue of food. You say the food is nothing. The idol is nothing. What do you mean? I didn’t lure him into sin. You did if you encouraged him to violate his conscience because he did it with the conviction this is sin. This is wrong for me. And so in doing, he did sin. He did what he believed God would not have him do. And even though that was a personal conviction, nonetheless when he violated his conscience in that matter, he sinned. And when you encourage a Christian to sin and here we are dealing with immature Christians, you throw their life into turmoil. And you don’t know what the outcome will be because now you have encouraged them to violate their conscience and you don’t know where that will lead.


We need to be very careful. We think we understand grace and we may. We want to educate God’s people and bring less mature Christians along, but God has to grow them. People come along and say to me is it alright if I smoke? Is it alright if I go here? Is it alright if I do that? If the Scripture doesn’t say I have to say I can’t tell you. Well what do you do in this situation? Well, I want to be careful. First I explain what I do doesn’t mean it is what they ought to do. I can share with them how I have handled something. But I want to keep in the context that doesn’t mean it would be right for you to do. You violate you conscience in doing it, don’t do it. And as they grow in grace, they may become comfortable with it. Here we are talking about grey areas. I realize people get comfortable with sin over time. But I don’t want to get comfortable with violating our conscience. That is sin. And that brings ruin. So the mature Christian, be careful. You can explain grace to people. You can explain. You know people come up and say I don’t know why they do that. They often go to a third person. It seems to me it is wrong. You may explain to them the Scripture doesn’t say that is wrong. You may disagree whether it is the best thing for them to do or not because the Scripture doesn’t say. So you have to leave that between that person and the Lord. And I can explain grace and liberty, but I want to be careful. They have to grow, otherwise I encourage them to violate their conscience. That brings ruin to their Christian life as we saw in other passages. That is a personal question. You can’t answer that. People come in and ask me, do you think it is alright if I do this. Well if it is a question that is not dealt with in the Word, my first question is do you believe it is alright before God that you do it? Because usually they have some question. That’s why they are in to see me. Well, no. Well then for you it is wrong, sin. If you are doing it and you believe it is not alright before God that you are doing it, it is wrong for you to be doing it. Stop immediately. The Bible doesn’t say that you could never do this. This is an area of liberty. But for you now it is wrong for you to do it. In your growth and development as a believer if you come to the place where you believe now it is acceptable for you, then that would be a matter you decide before the Lord.

The eleventh question as I have put it in my list is will it result in the salvation of souls. Turn back to 1 Corinthians 10 verse 33. In these grey areas Paul was a men please as well as a God pleaser. So in 1 Corinthians 12:33, ?Just 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.? So will this result in the salvation of souls? I want to restrain my liberty and use my liberty with the salvation of men, women and young people ultimately in view. So I want to please them. I want to break down whatever barriers I can. I want to be as good a neighbor as I can. I take it that meant when Paul was with Gentiles who sacrificed food to idols, he would be comfortable eating the food sacrificed to idols, not making that an issue here because it is not a biblical issue. But by the same token when he eats with Jews who might be offended by that, then he didn’t do it. He sought to please men with a goal to salvation to their souls without compromising the truth of God or his conviction. Now again these are questions we ask ourselves, not to evaluate others.


I want to give you an example at home here. In this church, you see it comes up usually when I do a sermon like this, our board of elders have agreed among themselves that as long as they serve on the board they will not indulge in the use of tobacco products or alcoholic beverages. Those two come to mind. I don’t know if there is anything else or not on there. Periodically we review and ask if we want to revisit that, if there would be reasons to drop those common convictions and agreements. They are separate from the biblical qualifications of elders. But they are things that the board of elders believes would be wise and consistent with the questions that we ask ourselves as a board, as leaders of this church that we not do. There is enough issue around some of these things in our day. Would it be the same if we were elders in another place or will it be the same at a future time? The biblical qualifications won’t change. But some of these things that we have agreed would be best for our ministry the promoting of peace in the body, being non-offensive and so on in the ministry God has given us, we have agreed that we would not do that. So a man going to join to the board would be asked to adhere to that. In interviews there have been occasions where a man has said, I disagree. I have liberty. I would not forego that to be part of the board. Well, then you could not sit on the board. Well I disagree that the board would hold a standard that is not biblical. Well I am troubled that you are so committed to this practice of liberty that it is more important to you than serving on the board. There can be rules and regulations and agreements. We ask that we observe church starts at 10:00 and ends at 11:30. There is no verse and chapter. That is just the way we do it here. So we want to be careful that we don’t see every rule a regulation. As long as we don’t say that makes you more acceptable to God, that makes you more holy, that makes you more godly. There are other guidelines and so we try to apply those in our situation as well.

But you have to take them and apply them yourself. Look at your life. Don’t be looking at other people’s lives. They will be wrong. I mean our convictions can sometimes be strong, heartfelt convictions. And that is fine. Certain things I just cannot do. I know I have the liberty in Christ. I know in the grace of God it would violate my conscience to do it. I just don’t believe God wants me to do it. I can’t do it. Now if you do it, that is between you and the Lord. But it is a good thing for me to have to learn that. Because if I am with you and you do it, if they were as spiritual as me, they wouldn’t do it. Why Gil? Because, you are more spiritual than the Lord. No. But if the Lord was writing the word of God today, He would have put that in. I know. Well, we want to be careful. You can hold your conviction firm and fast. But understand when the word of God has not directly addressed it, it is your conviction. It is my conviction so that our lives together will honor Him. Let’s pray.

Thank You Lord for Your grace, for what You have done for us in Christ, for Your grace, for the liberty that we have. Lord it is important in our maturing and growth that we learn how to use our liberty. Liberty is not unrestrained action. Liberty is not license. Lord I pray that we might be honest before You, that we might not distort the word in any way. But Lord I pray for those who are weaker Christians, whose understanding of grace is not as full and complete. Lord may we as we serve together in this body encourage one another in this growth, appreciate the differences in our maturity. May we be instruments for the continued growth of Your body and for the salvation of the lost all that You might receive all the praise and honor and glory that is due You alone as the sovereign God and Savior of men. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.


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GRM 537 Selected Verses