The sermon "Love Above Liberty" by Jeffrey Johnson focuses on the delicate balance between exercising Christian liberties and the responsibility towards the spiritual well-being of fellow believers. Johnson begins by clarifying that Christian liberties do not encompass the freedom to sin or disregard God's commandments. Instead, these liberties refer to actions not explicitly addressed in the Scriptures but are permissible within the moral framework of Christianity. He emphasizes the importance of love and consideration for weaker believers whose faith could be adversely affected by witnessing others partake in activities they find questionable or sinful.
Johnson identifies two primary situations when Christians should voluntarily limit their liberties: first, when exercising such liberties contradicts the principle of love; and second, when these actions could potentially cause a weaker brother to stumble in their faith. He further elucidates six reasons why believers should sometimes "imprison" their liberties, including avoiding becoming a stumbling block, preventing the emboldenment of others to act against their conscience, avoiding the destruction of another's faith, and recognizing that liberties can become sinful if they harm another believer.
In summary, Johnson's sermon "Love Above Liberty" advocates for a nuanced understanding and application of Christian liberties, urging believers to prioritize love, unity, and the spiritual growth of the community above personal freedoms. He stresses the importance of discerning when to exercise liberty and when to forgo it for the sake of love, thereby fostering an environment that supports the spiritual development of all believers.
The sermon "Love Above Liberty" by Jeffrey Johnson focuses on the delicate balance between exercising Christian liberties and the responsibility towards the spiritual well-being of fellow believers. Johnson begins by clarifying that Christian liberties do not encompass the freedom to sin or disregard God's commandments. Instead, these liberties refer to actions not explicitly addressed in the Scriptures but are permissible within the moral framework of Christianity. He emphasizes the importance of love and consideration for weaker believers whose faith could be adversely affected by witnessing others partake in activities they find questionable or sinful.
Johnson identifies two primary situations when Christians should voluntarily limit their liberties: first, when exercising such liberties contradicts the principle of love; and second, when these actions could potentially cause a weaker brother to stumble in their faith. He further elucidates six reasons why believers should sometimes "imprison" their liberties, including avoiding becoming a stumbling block, preventing the emboldenment of others to act against their conscience, avoiding the destruction of another's faith, and recognizing that liberties can become sinful if they harm another believer.
In summary, Johnson's sermon "Love Above Liberty" advocates for a nuanced understanding and application of Christian liberties, urging believers to prioritize love, unity, and the spiritual growth of the community above personal freedoms. He stresses the importance of discerning when to exercise liberty and when to forgo it for the sake of love, thereby fostering an environment that supports the spiritual development of all believers.
We will look at this morning when we should shackle our liberties. When should we imprison our freedoms? But before we get into when and why, the when and why of shackling our freedoms and imprisoning our liberties, we need to know what we're talking about when we talk about Christian liberties. Now, this verse is going to tell us to think about our brothers, and sometimes we have to forego what we're free to do. We have freedom in Christ to do certain things, but because those activities could be offensive to a weaker Christian brother or to withhold from doing such things. But what do we mean by Christian liberties? Well, we got established, first of all, what we don't mean. We're talking about Christian liberties. We're not talking about the freedom to sin. Christians do not have freedom to sin. There is no liberty for us just because we're under grace. There's no liberty for us to break God's commandments. We're not to sin that grace may abound. We're not free to do away with the explicit commands of scriptures. There are many commands of scriptures and every one of them, from the greatest to the least, the greatest being, love God with all your heart, mind and soul, the least would be be kind to Jeff Johnson. Whatever the commands are. We're to obey every one of them. We're to obey the greatest and the least of the commandments. We do not hold the pushing away the third use of the law. The first use of the law is that the law is to restrain evil in wicked man, and that it does. It seems to be doing it less and less these days. The second use of the law is to condemn us as sinners, that it would drive us to the gospel in Jesus Christ. But even as Christians, we hold to the third use of the law that the law is a means of instructions in righteousness. We're not as some who say, let's just live and do as what's in our nature and we're free to do what we want to do. And we don't need the law anymore. The law is exempt. We're exempt from the law. No, the law is still normative over our life. It still has commands on us and we're to submit ourselves to every law, every command of scriptures. The law is binding. Now, it is true what Dr. Moore told us this morning in Sunday school class. It is true. The law cannot empower us to obey. It only reveals when we disobey and tells us what it is to obey, but it doesn't empower us. If you're going to obey the law of God, you have to be born again. You have to have the Holy Spirit. It's grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness. It's grace that empowers us to be obedient. But just because we're not seeking to obey by the law doesn't mean we don't seek to obey the law. It's the grace, it's the Holy Spirit that teaches us to obey God's law. The law is vital to the Christian. We love it. Now, you think about the Ten Commandments, which one do you not like? Which one do you say, "I just don't care about that one"? The commandments, if you meditate upon them, they're beautiful. They're wonderful. The psalmist, when he thought about the wall, he saw a reflection of the very nature and character of God. For us to not to love the wall is not to love God because the law is a reflection of his character. The law can be summed up in love, God your Father, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The law is wonderful. It's pure. It's clean. It's righteous. It's sin that's ugly. It's sin that's disgraceful. It's sin that we should hate. Transgression against the law is what we despise. So when we talk about Christian liberty, we're not talking about freedom to sin. None of us are free to sin. And though our sin does not separate us from a relationship with Christ that's secured in Jesus Christ and nothing we can do can take that relationship away. Our sin does impact our communion with Christ. It impacts us in a very detrimental way. In fact, God hates sin in Christian's life to such a degree that he's going to discipline us. And sometimes that discipline, depending upon the nature of sin, is going to be very severe and harsh and hard because God hates sin. And he loves us. He hates sin because he loves us. And it's like you parents, you don't want your kids doing things that are dangerous and hurtful and damaging. Don't do that. That's going to hurt you. God loves us. And he says this stuff is forbidden because it's dangerous. It's hurtful to you. So God loves the law. And we're to love the law. Matthew five, Jesus teaches us in verse 19, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. And so I don't want to be charged with say, hey, we got Christian liberties and any of the commandments we're free to obey or free not to obey according to our own personal judgment and own personal convictions. No, our convictions are to be guided and governed by God's law. And we're not free to disobey. Christian liberties are not the freedom to break God's explicit commands. However, there are some issues. It's hard to know what God's judgment is upon the matter. The Bible does say all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. When it says all things are lawful in first Corinthians chapter 10, it doesn't say we're free to sin. It says within the arena of freedom, in the arena of things that are not explicitly sinful. And there's lots of things in that arena that we're free to do and not do. I was talking to one person this morning about the freedom to eat donuts. You know, that's one of those clear illustrations. It's we're free to do so. I think if anyone comes upon us as a hate donuts are unhealthy and because they're unhealthy, you're not taking care of your body. And you can make a case that not eating donuts is godlier or more holy because it's taking care of your body better. And so you could string out a case for restraining from eating sweets altogether. Could you not and build a case for that? But in so doing, you're you're building a case. Maybe it's applicable for you. It is good for you because you're a diabetic or something. And you may need to uphold to those self-imposed restrictions and disciplines. But to impose it upon other brothers and sisters is to bring a Christian liberty and bring it into legalism. And so there are a lot of things that within their arena of freedom that we personally or individually have to make judgments for ourselves. What is wise? What would be most pleasing to the Lord? Maybe it's lawful, but maybe it's not profitable. Maybe it's it's good. I can do it, but maybe it doesn't build up. Maybe it's something I do need to restrain from that. I want you to understand when it comes to Christian liberties, we're all on a scale. It's a scale. I was thinking about illustrations and I got to be careful about the illustrations even that I use. But because our whatever illustration I'm not pull out is going to stir up emotions within you. And I'll I dare do it. But if we talk about what music we're allowed to listen to in this paragation, we're going to be divided. We would be we would be divided on that particular topic. And I'm going to tell you there are some music I cannot listen to. It's just I cannot I might not be ready to say you shouldn't listen to it. But boy, it can fix my conscience to listen to it. Maybe I'm the weaker brother, but we have to draw some line somewhere. Do we not? It's kind of like modesty. Where is the line of modesty? We would all have some general agreement that there is too far. That's just in modest. We would say if we could all come up with illustrations. OK, that is extreme. That's in modest and all of us would raise our hand. But then on that sliding scale of immodesty, we would all have different points where we raise our hand. That's getting close. OK, that's where I that's where I draw the line. I don't want my daughters, my daughter or my children dressing like that. And we raise our hand up. But at different levels. It's like how do we know where God's level is? Now, all of us want to evaluate that. Point of holiness to the best that we can, according to God's wisdom. And hopefully we're using the scriptures and all of scriptures to kind of evaluate where we draw our own personal convictions. And so when I'm talking about Christian liberties and convictions, I'm not trying to get us to say, hey, the most spiritual ones among us have the most Christian freedoms. Nor do I want us to have a way down and be burdened down with all kinds of convictions to the point that we're afraid to do anything. So we all have to kind of work through these things ourselves. You see, liberties are activities that some Christians are free to enjoy while other Christians are not free to enjoy. Christian liberties relate to how we personally apply God's law to areas of our life that are not explicitly addressed in scriptures. And let me give you two illustrations. The illustration we'll see in our text in 1 Corinthians 8 is meat offered to idols. Now, one of the explicit commands is the first command thou shall have no other gods set before you. OK, that's command. We know that there's no liberty to worship other gods. That's clear. We all agree with that. Now, because of that command, it's easy to assume, oh, especially in the day where there was a lot of pagan worship and idolatry. And in the first century, especially in court, the food at the market would be sacrificed, portions of it would be sacrificed to an idol. And that would purify or cleanse the rest of the meat, making it kosher or available for sale. And you could go by that meat and know that it's blessed by a particular idol that was offered to. And you could take it with clean conscience if you're an idol worshipper that this meat has been purified, if you would, by the idol. Now, if you have this command as a Christian not to worship idols, any other god, you may think I cannot eat that meat in good conscience because that's entering into some form of idol worship. That's entering into some pagan superstition. And I want to restrain from that. And many of them did restrain from that. But some, according to our text, was able to purchase this meat and eat it with a clean conscience. And so here's a clear illustration of a personal issue of conscience or Christian liberty that it's hard to put your finger on. Is this sin or not sin? Of course, we know in this illustration, it's not sin to eat such meat. Now, I'll give you another illustration how it works. In the first century, the Jews, it became down into the tradition of the fathers that you couldn't eat without cleaning your hands, washing your hands. Now, that makes sense. We try to teach our kids that. But the reason the Jews impose that upon everyone is because the priests, the high priests and those serving in the temple, they had to have certain ceremonial worshipings for their cups and vessels in their hands. They would do these things because they were set apart for God's holy worship. And so the Jews begin to think, well, if that's good for the priest and if God deems that acceptable worship in the temple, then we should do it at home. So they're applying this principle of washing their hands and they go to washing their cups and vessels and pots and pans and even the chairs and couches that they set on. They got onto all these, if you would, legalistic applications of that principle, and they begin to apply that to everyone to the point that they begin to rebuke Jesus and his disciples for not following their traditions. You see, this is where you're taking a explicit command of scriptures, if you would, and try to make further application in your own personal life. Romans 14 talks about these Christian liberties as doubtful things. It uses the word "doubtful things," kind of identifying wisdom issues, or Christian liberties, or convictions. Verse 1 of chapter 14 says, "Receive one who is weak in the faith, but do not dispute over doubtful things." And it gives us four illustrations of doubtful things. Verse 2 says, "But one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables." So that's an issue of moral conviction. Some can eat meat. Some only eat vegetables. Verse 5, "One person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alive." And we can get into the Sabbath controversies of how people have different opinions on that. Verse 14, "I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus Christ there is nothing unclean of a cell, but to whom who considers anything to be unclean, to whom it is unclean." When you think about that, it goes into music. It goes into what you may watch or don't watch. All these things can be, well, that's clean. That's acceptable. That's not acceptable. Verse 23 says, "Happy is he who does not condemn himself in the wat that he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin." The point is, is like if your conscience convicts you, don't do it. And if you're violating your conscience, you're not operating in faith. You're operating in sin. So there are some things that may be sin for you, but not sin for me, or vice versa. There may be some things that are sin for me, but not you. You say, "Well, I thought the law is absolute." Well, here we see the application of the secondary principles of the law are relative to our conscience and how we deem best to apply it in our particular situation. And so we have liberties and we have convictions. I don't mean. But sometimes we have to forego our liberties. Sometimes we may know, "I can do this. I can partake of this. I can eat this. I can drink this." But I shouldn't in the circumstances. Maybe I should forego what I'm free to do. And that's the point of 1 Corinthians 8. Now, sometimes it's hard to know when to stand fast for your liberties. Like, I'm not going to be controlled by someone else's conscience. That's not right. Just because you think what I'm doing is simple. I know I have a clean conscience before God. I'm not going to allow you to control me. And that's kind of our natural disposition. I'm going to do what I want to do. As long as I'm right with God, I don't care what you think about me. I don't care how you feel about my activities. You see, sometimes it's hard to know when to stand our ground and when to shackle our liberties. Think about Jesus Christ. You know, He got in trouble constantly because He went against the traditions of men. He constantly got in trouble because He offended people by what He did. One of the things He got in trouble for was Him and His disciples, or at least we know about His disciples, they would eat without washing their hands. And they blamed Christ for this. And Christ didn't go, "Hey, wait a minute, disciples. You're being unnecessarily offensive. Wash your hands so you don't offend them." No, He stuck up for His disciples. He said, "It doesn't matter what makes you clean is not your outward body. It's not what you put in your body. What makes you unclean is what's in your heart." And so He used it as a means to teach them the truth. And He stood up for the freedoms of His disciples. Think about when Jesus had the paralytic man in the temple pick up His mat. He says, "Pick up your bed and walk." Now, it was so busy in the temple area that He could just rise up and walk. The guy could have got up, been healed and walked. And no one would have known because it was so crowded. But because He says, "Pick up your mat," He's carrying a mat and the Pharisees saw it and they got offended because He's working, if you would, on the Sabbath day. Jesus could have avoided all that hostility. He could have avoided the scene by just saying, "Hey, leave your mat there. No one's going to get that ratty, dirty, faint. Anyway, it's not worth much. Just pick up. Just get up and walk." He could have done that, but He told them to do something He knew would stir up the scribes and the Pharisees against Him. Why did He do that? Because He's standing up for liberties. Paul did this in the church of Galatia when he says,"Stand fast therefore in the liberty which Christ has made you free. And do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage." So there's a time and place to hold fast to your liberties, especially when you have someone who's legalistically trying to control you by their convictions. They're trying to manipulate you and they're judging you and condemning you. It's like, no, this is a time to stand up for your freedoms. And we'll see in a minute, it's because your freedoms and liberties are not going to get them to sin against their conscience. They're just trying to take their conscience and rule over you. So there's a time and place to stand for your freedoms. But there are other times when we must forgo. Think about Jesus when He paid the temple tax. They come up and said, "Do you not pay the temple tax?" And Jesus looked to Peter and says,"Hey, I am the Son of God. Do the children of the king pay taxes?" He says, "Though I'm exempt from the temple tax so that I might not cause an offense, you'll fish in and get the shekel to pay for you and for me." He did that simply not to cause offense. So sometimes Christ is purposely offending people, the legalists and Pharisees and scribes. Other times He's working hard not to be offensive and goes the extra mile to do something He doesn't even have to do. And we see that with Paul where he did not circumcise Titus but circumcised Timothy. For Titus, he says, you don't need to be circumcised. You're standing up for your freedom because the Judaizers were requiring circumcision as a means of salvation. And because that's a form of legalism of adding works to the gospel, you have to stand up against that. All did. But concerning Titus, he says, you should be circumcised or Timothy, you should circumcise because you're going to be working with the Jews. And so we don't need to have unnecessary offense. Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 10, "Give no offense either to the Jew or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as also please all men in all things, not seeking my own prophet, but the prophet of meaning that they may be saved." So here's the question. When do we forego our liberties? When do we say I don't need to partake of that even though my conscience says it's okay? Well, there's two occasions when we need to shackle or imprison our liberties. And there are six reasons why. There are two occasions when we need to imprison our liberties. The first one we see verses 1 through 3, when our liberties are contrary to love."Now concerning food offered to idols," verse 1 says, "we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God." So here's a basic rule. Here's a basic principles of knowing when to enjoy your liberties and when to forego enjoying them."Operate from love." This is the great rule. This is the great law. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. So operate in love. Romans 14.5 says, "If your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love." Romans 10.24, "Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being." You see, this is the end objective of the law. So if you're just using your liberties as a selfish means of, "I'm doing what I want to do, when I want to do it, and I'm standing up for my rights," that's not loving. That's the very antithesis of the law. You're being selfish. You're being self-centered. You're thinking about yourself. You're not thinking about the well-being of others. I mean, there's a time and place to say, "I can't do this anymore because this is offensive." So operate out of love. Second occasion, when to forego your liberties. We see in verses 4 through 7 as when your liberties become a stumbling block to the weaker brother. Verse 4 says, "Therefore, as to eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven and earth, indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, for whom all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all are all things and through whom we exist. However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through formal association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled." So these are new Christians who have been brought out of idolatry, and though we may know from Scriptures that there's no such things as any other God than the real God, there are going to be some new Christians, especially in the first century, who still really believe that there were other deities, there were other real idols that were real gods. And so they didn't have the truth that there's this truth, and because of that lack of knowledge, their conscience convicted them that they didn't need to have any association with their former lifestyle. They didn't want anything to do with that, and you can understand that. You can understand someone says, "Listen, I've been delivered out of that? That has enslaved my family. That's a generational thing on my father and my grandfather and my great-grandfather. I was in bondage to it, and now that I'm out and away from it, I don't want to look at it. I don't want to be near it. I don't want to see it. I don't want to touch it. I don't want to taste it. I don't want it in my home. I don't want it anywhere around me." You understand that, right? I mean, because in their heart and their conscience, they just want to worship Jesus Christ. They truly love God, and they hate sin. And for us to go, "Hey, you're a weak, uneducated Christian, and you're in bondage, and us to be little them and go in and take our Christian liberties and plump them in front of them is very unkind and unloving, to say the least." It's not what God would have us to do. He would have us to not be offensive, and it's easier for us to do without, to say no to those things. And by the way, if there's something in your life that's a Christian liberty that you say,"I have to have," there's an idol in your life. We have to be willing to forsake everything for the well-being of God's people. Now, listen, a weaker brother is not a hard-nosed legalist. See, legalists are those who add works to salvation. We oppose legalists. Anybody says, "Faith in Christ alone, plus what you do, plus these rules, and plus this and that, before you're right with God, that we must oppose." That's what Christ did with the hand-worshing of standing up for the rights of the disciples there. That's what Paul did in Galatians 5.1, standing firm for our liberties. Legalists are those who push their convictions on others. Legalists are prideful and condemning. We've all known someone in our past that have all these rules, and it's like they've got a list of things of don't touch, don't taste, all these things as Paul says have the appearance of godliness but deny the power thereof. They've got all these rules, a list of them, and if you don't conform to every single thing that the personal conviction they have, they look down on their nose at you, they don't associate with you, they say that you're a sinner, and that is the legalism that we want to fight against. You see, legalists do not operate in love. They're selfish and they're prideful. They're hypocrites. The perfect example of the biblical legalist is the scribes and the Pharisees. This is what Jesus says about them in Matthew 23,"For they preach, but they do not practice, they tie up heavy burdens hard to bear, and they lay them on people's shoulders. But they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You neither enter in yourself nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like white-horse tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." You see, we're talking about a weaker brother. We're not talking about a hard-hearted, self-righteous, demanding legalist. We're talking about a weaker brother. We're talking about those who truly have a sensitive conscience toward sin, and they don't want to commit any sin that they think would be wrong in the eyes of God, and they're very tender. In fact, in some sense, we need to be careful that we don't become where we don't have a sensitivity to sin, that we lose that tenderness, that we go, "Well, I've got all these freedoms," and we forget that,"Hey, I want to be precise in my obedience. I want to be careful of how I conduct myself." You see, the weaker brother has a tender conscience and is operating out of the knowledge that they have. We see that in verse 7, "Howver not all possess this knowledge, but some through former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defile." So in the presence of the weaker brother, our conscience is to be bound to their conscience. This is what it means to operate in love. We willfully bind our conscience in the presence of the weaker brother's conscience. So we say, "I'm not going to do that," or be offensive in any way. Now, those are the two occasions. We bind our conscience or we bind our liberties when love calls us or when our activities could be offensive or could cause people to stumble. And then the rest of this text, verse 8 through the rest of the chapter, gives us six reasons, six reasons why we need to imprison our liberties when the occasion is right. First reason, verse 8, "Because our liberties don't make us more spiritual, food will not commend us to God; we are no worse off if we do not eat, and we're no better off if we do eat." You see, this is not what's important in the eyes of God. These Christian liberties, we can talk about the donuts as just a funny illustration. You may or may not be better off physically. We can discuss that. But spiritually, you're not better off or worse off eating sweets in moderation. It's not affecting your spiritual life. And so if it's not affecting your spiritual life, then you're no better off eating than you are not eating. And we need to keep them in the proper evaluation of our freedoms. I don't have to have this because I'm not eating more spiritual because of it. Romans 14, 17, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, joy, and the Holy Spirit." So don't feel like you have to stand firm on these things that you can live without. Remember, you can live without them. God knows you don't need them. They're not what's vital to your life. The second reason we need to imprison our liberties when their time is right, we see that in verse 9 because our liberties could be a real stumbling block to others. Look at verse 9, "But take care that this right of yours," see, it's your freedom, it's your right, you have the privilege of doing it,"does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak." Okay. Romans 14, 1 says, "Except him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on his opinions." Now, I know sometimes those who have a lot of convictions judge those who don't have as many convictions. Romans says, "Don't do that either." But we who may have less convictions tend to judge those who have more. It's like when we go, "You're just a weaker brother." No, the Bible says, "Do not pass judgment upon them." Romans 14, 2, "For one person has faith to eat all things while another who is weak eats only vegetables." Verse 13, "Therefore, let us stop judging one another, instead make up your mind not to put any stumbling blocks or obstacles in your brother's way." Verse 20, "Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food." All food is clean, but it's wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block. I mean, imagine you've got someone who says, "Man, I can't eat this meat offered to idols." And you go over to his house and you're chewing on a T-bone, you know, and you're just doing it blatantly in front of them. And they saw you purchase it, you know, and you're just flaunting it in front of them. It's like, "Don't do that." Verse 21 of Romans 14, "It's better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble." Third reason, because our liberties could embolden others to go against their conscience. How would it cause them to stumble? It's not necessarily they see you eating something, then they go, "Oh, I don't like that." The problem is they may actually do something against their conscience. Look at verse 10, "For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols?" And when you think about this, especially the young Christians, they may think,"Hey, this is sinful. I can't do this. I can't listen to that. I can't go to this place. I can't do this." And they have all these convictions out of their love for the Lord. And their heart says, "Don't do stuff like that." And you don't have those convictions, but you go ahead and do it in front of them. And you know they're weak in that area. And you do it in front of them, and the next thing they know, they're feeling a little embarrassed. They want you to judge them harshly. And for whatever reason, they're emboldened. They're encouraged. They go ahead and go against their conscience, and they do it. They partake with you. And you think, "Oh, this is a victory. I taught them the Christian liberties." And all the while in their heart, they feel condemned. All the while their conscience is convicting them. All the while they're doing it but not with faith. All the while they're doing it, and they're sitting against their conscience. And you see, it's never wise or safe to go against your conscience. It is never wise to lead other people to go against their conscience, causing them to sin in their conscience. Now, it may not be sin for you, but if you go against your conscience, you're saying, "I don't care what you think, God." You really think God says this is wrong. And you're going, "I don't care what God thinks about it. I'm going to do it because I don't want to be embarrassed. I'm going to do it because I want to do it." Whatever the reason is, it's sitting against their conscience, and God views it as actual sin. The fourth reason we are to chain our liberties is because our liberties could destroy the faith of others. Look at verse 11."And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother to whom Christ died." Romans 14, 15 says the same thing."If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died." I mean, this could lead this man or this woman down a path of sin. It's like, "Well, I've messed up. I've done this." And his conscience is condemning them, and on they go into greater sin. Fifth, we should chain our liberties because our liberties could be sin. Look at verse 12."Thus sinning against your brother and wounding their conscience, when it is weak, you sin against Christ." Now, you could do something that in other contexts you have freedom to do. Eat or drink something or whatever it may be. Listen to something. I mean, there's tons of things that we could put in this category of discernment, wisdom, liberties and freedoms. There's tons of things we can put in that category. But though you may be able to do it privately, enjoy it, and you know your conscience is clean before the Lord, and God is smiling upon you, and you have faith, you can do it for the glory of God, you may have that freedom. But if you do it in front of someone that causes them to sin against their conscience, then the Bible says, "Then you are sinning against your brother." And if you're sinning against your brother, you're sinning against Christ. Therefore, you're doing something. Now your freedom is no longer freedom. Now your freedom is sin. And we don't have the freedom to sin. See, our job is to love, to build up, not to destroy. Thus, our liberties can become sin if we're not careful. 6. The last reason. Because our liberties are not what's important. This kind of comes back to the first reason. Look at verse 13."Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble." I think this is what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 6."All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful.""All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.""Food is meant for the stomach and stomach for food." God will destroy both one and the other. You see, whatever liberties we have, don't live and die for those things. Those are things that are not what really matters. What matters is love. What matters is building up others. This is what's important. Now let me close with some concluding guidelines. Because, again, there's sometimes you have to stand up for your liberties. You've got to know the difference between a legalist, a true legalist, and someone who has a weak conscience. You know, a true legalist is not going to be tempted to do that. He's just going to judge you for it and condemn you for it. Maybe you think you're not even a Christian because of it. That's a true legalist. Stand up against them. But we're talking about those brothers and sisters that truly, truly want to love the Lord and says, "I can't do this because I see it as sinful." It's not proper for me to do this. Those you want to protect, those are the little ones. The Bible says it would be better for you to have a millstone put around your neck and bone in the seed than to fin one of the little ones. You don't want anyone to sin against their conscience. You don't want to encourage anyone to go against their conscience. And so we operate out of love. That's the guideline. What is loving? Second, know the difference between a legalist and a weaker brother. My third and final rule of application to help us, when in doubt, so if you can't determine if it's a legalist or a weaker brother, when in doubt, go without. When in doubt, it's better to go without something than stand up for something. Let's pray. The Lord, give us the wisdom to love our brothers and sisters, not wrangle over and fight over Christian liberties and freedoms. Lord, I pray that you had got all of our hearts to have convictions that are shaped by your word, that we have tender conscience. Lord, let us operate out of love for your people. Lord, we know that the kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking. That's not what's important. What's important is love and mercy and kindness and forbearing one long with one another, enduring even the scruples of others, as you've told us. Lord, give us the grace that we need to operate in a way that pleases you, not sinning against a brother or sinning against Christ. This we pray in your Son's name. Amen.[BLANK_AUDIO]