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Bible preaching from the pulpit of Choice Hills Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina
Go ahead and take your Bibles this evening and open them to 1 Corinthians 10.
We're going to be looking at a few different passages this evening.
And this evening I want us to consider this thought.
Christian liberty in the Christian home.
Christian liberty in the Christian home.
And we're here in the United States of America, and we're patriotic people,
and I'm sure many of us are familiar with the Declaration of Independence.
Probably couldn't quote the whole thing, but you know a few lines from it.
You know, when in the course of human events.
But then the phrase that everybody really likes is that we hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are endowed by their creator
with certain inalienable rights.
Among them are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.
And in many ways, American culture is built off this idea of rights.
We have rights that are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.
We have rights that are enshrined in the Constitution.
And these are things that we hold dear.
And they're in many cases things that are worth us standing up for.
The right to worship the Lord.
The right to gather and to express ourselves.
And these are things that we consider to be very precious to ourselves.
But I think if we're not careful that this frame of mind that's so focused on our
rights and our prerogatives and what we're allowed and what we have coming to us can start to cloud
our minds and even impact the way that we interact with other people, even impact the way that we live
our Christian life. And we see in the world around us, in many ways, it's a culture of rights just gone crazy.
Because now everybody wants to talk about their rights
and how their rights are more important than everybody else's rights.
And in a very ironic turn, people are using their rights to try to take away the rights of others.
They're using their rights to try to oppress
others. And we see it in the news. People who have certain lifestyles, they say, I have a right to
do this, and I have a right to express myself, but you don't have a right to express your opposition.
You don't have a right to say, well, no, because of my faith, I have to take a stand against this.
Because of my faith, I can't go along with this. Because of my faith, I can't perform this ceremony. People are using
their so-called rights to literally oppress other people
and try to take away their own rights.
You know, the Bible speaks to this. And the Bible speaks
to the sort of mentality that we ought to have. And so
we're going to switch gears a little bit.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about politics tonight.
I think we all understand there are certain rights that we should stand for as Americans,
that we ought to fight for as Americans.
But what I want us to look at tonight is this idea of Christian liberty
and how we as Christians, and specifically in our families view our rights that
have been given to us by the Lord. Christian liberty in the Christian home. So let's go ahead
and pray and then we'll read some verses and get into it. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you so much for once again this opportunity to gather together in your name.
Thank you for the truths and song, the opportunity to praise you with our voices.
Thank you for those who've made the time this evening to be out at church again.
Pray you'd help us, Lord, to open up our eyes of understanding,
to see your word that you'd speak to us in a specific way by your Holy Spirit.
Lord, that you would indeed make us in a specific way by your Holy Spirit, Lord, that you would
indeed make us more like our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is our desire and we ask you to grant it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
To start with, I want us to look at this idea of Christian liberty as it is exemplified in
the scripture.
And so we're going to look at a few passages that kind of develop
this idea. And the first one is in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. This is a passage that I've interacted
with a lot, specifically being in Cambodia. I know Pastor Adam has done the same. It's talking about
meat offered to idols.
Probably not an issue most of you run across on a daily basis.
But it is actually a real live issue in many places around the world,
and Cambodia is one of them.
I was just talking to Brother Devin before the service about one of the main holidays in Cambodia called Pchumbun,
which is just starting actually right now.
And it's a time of year when
the Cambodian Buddhists believe
that the gates of hell are
opened up and that the spirits of
those who are currently
suffering punishment because of the bad karma
they've had in past lives are come back
to earth looking
for some sort of offering from their descendants.
And so the Buddhist faithful,
they will go. You're supposed to go every day for 14 days to go and bring offerings to different temples. And it's offered. They take these little rice balls and throw them out as an offering to
these spirits. They cook all these special meals and they offer them to the monks at the Buddhist
temple. And that's the celebration. And you literally have tables
and tables and tables of food that has been offered to, if not
idols per se, evil spirits.
You have people with Chinese heritage in Cambodia and they have
Chinese New Year. And literally what they'll do is they'll make this
huge meal,
a special meal, the biggest, fanciest meal they'll have all year long.
And they'll set it all out.
And before they eat, they'll take incense and they'll burn incense
and they will offer it to their ancestors.
And then, once they've done that, everybody enjoys a meal together.
I tell people, try to imagine if we had Thanksgiving dinner. You know, it's the biggest meal of the
year. You got the turkey. You know, they have a roast pig, but we've got a turkey. We've got all
this special stuff. Everybody's together. And then before we ate it, we offered it to idols
or we offered it to spirits. And that's literally what they're doing. And this was
also an issue, maybe not in exactly that nuance, but this is the issue
that was going on in Bible times in the world of the Apostle Paul.
And so in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, he's
talking about this, and we don't have the time to go through the whole passage.
But with this kind
of setting in mind, a situation where you have Christians who've come from an idolatrous background,
they have done these sort of rituals before, they're trying to figure out, now that they're
Christians, how should they behave? How should they use their liberty? How should they use their rights?
We'll start reading in verse 22. He says, All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.
Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience' sake.
He's talking about the markets there.
The woods have been in Cambodian markets, and they might characterize it as a shambles as well.
A different kind of shambles.
For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go,
whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience' sake.
But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols,
eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience' sake.
For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.
Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other.
For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?
For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of
for that which I give thanks?
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do,
do all to the glory of God.
Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. There's a lot in this passage,
but this is the main thing that I want for us to see this evening.
Is verse 23, it says,
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
As Christians, we know that we are freed from the law.
We have freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not freedom to sin, but freedom to do a lot of things.
And these Christians here, he's going through this and kind of working through the ramifications of that.
And the conclusion is, food that God created is good for us to eat.
And it's okay for us to eat it.
It's not a sin.
It's not a sin to eat that food.
But, he said, that's lawful.
That's my prerogative.
That's my right.
I can eat that if I want to.
But, there might be situations in which I might not want to do that.
I'm free to do it,
but because of Christ and His love and the Holy Spirit,
I'm also free not to do it, but because of Christ and His love and the Holy Spirit, I'm also free not to do it.
Because there are cases where it might be lawful to me, but it's not expedient.
Not expedient.
And of course, this idea of expediency has to do with something that's helpful, with something that's profitable.
to do with something that's helpful, with something that's profitable.
And really, if we were to look at the word,
it literally comes from a word that means to bear along with.
To bear along with.
And this idea of something that's going to be helpful and profitable for other people.
And we see that reiterates. He says, all things are lawful for me, but all things
edify not. What does edify mean? It means to build up. It means to help. This same idea of doing the
profit and the help of other people. And he said, in all of this, my priority is not my rights and
what is legal and what I can do and get away with, my priority is what is expedient and what
is edifying to those around me.
This is Christian liberty.
We're free to do it, but we're also free through God's power not to do it if it's not expedient.
Let's look at another passage.
Romans chapter 14.
Romans chapter 14. Romans chapter 14.
We're just going to read the last few verses
and then go into Romans 15.
The same idea.
It's talking about the same context,
specifically this idea of meat offered to idols.
In Romans 14,
starting in verse 19,
he said, It says, And here we have a lot of these same notes. He's saying, look, it's not wrong. It's
pure. You don't have a problem eating that meat offered to idols. You know that idol is just a
statue. You know those spirits don't have any power over you. God created the meat. It's good to eat.
But there are some people that you would harm. And so maybe you shouldn't do that.
And he brings in the example of Jesus Christ. He said, verse 3, even Christ please
not himself. Let me ask you this. Did Jesus Christ demand his rights when he came to the
earth? Did he exercise his prerogatives when he was here on the earth. He did not cling to his rights in heaven,
that glory and the worship and the service that he had in heaven.
He did not even demand his rights as the Son of God on earth.
He did not even demand his, what we would consider to be basic human rights.
Jesus was willing to sacrifice those rights
and to give up those prerogatives
for another person's good.
And so this idea of Christian liberty
and the fact that this true strength and maturity
is demonstrated many times by surrendering our own rights
rather than demanding them.
You say, Brother Matt, what in the world
does this have to do with anything?
We've looked at Christian liberty exemplified in Scripture, but now I'd like for us to think
about this, Christian liberty expressed in the home.
So turn over to Ephesians chapter 5.
It's a well-known passage as we think about the family and the different responsibilities and prerogatives
of those who are in the family.
And oftentimes, we start in verse 22, we read about wives, we go down, verse 25, we got husbands.
Chapter 6, we read about wives. We go down. Verse 25, we got husbands. Chapter 6, we got children.
Verse 4, we got fathers.
Then we got servants and masters.
But oftentimes, we forget the verse that precedes all of it.
Ephesians 5, 21.
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
You say, Brother Matt, what's that all about?
I thought only wives were supposed to submit.
I believe there's something that the Lord wants us to understand about our mindset
beyond just the duties that we have.
That God has given each one of us certain roles in our families,
certain duties and rights and responsibilities,
but that over all of that,
we need to have this attitude that Jesus Christ had.
And this mutual submission one to another.
That is to say, putting others' needs and others' rights above our own.
This is not the only place where it says this.
Hold your place, well, no, let's go ahead over to 1 Peter 5.5.
I apologize, we're skipping around a little bit,
but there's many verses in the Bible that help us understand this truth.
1 Peter 5.5.
It says,
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, yeah, the young are supposed to submit to the old.
But then the Bible goes another step, said,
well, let's all be submitted to one another
and be clothed
with humility. And this attitude of, once again, being willing to put others' rights
and others' prerogatives above our own. Turn back a page to 1 Peter 2.16. There's warnings
throughout the scripture to try to put us on guard against abusing our Christian liberty.
1 Peter 2, verse 16 said,
As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
but as the servants of God.
Once again, if we're not careful,
we get focused on what we are owed,
the rights we have,
how we think we ought to be treated.
If we're not careful, we get focused on that and it becomes a cloak of maliciousness
and it becomes something that we make other people's lives miserable with
because we've got so focused on what is owed to us and what our rights are.
Turn over to the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13.
Once again, talking this idea of Christian liberty.
For brethren, Galatians 5, 13, Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty.
Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another,
take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
We have the liberty,
but we're not to use it as occasion to the flesh.
but we're not to use it as occasion to the flesh.
I believe that we need to practice this truth in our homes,
that there is a danger that we get into this mindset where we feel like we need to demand our rights.
We need to demand our rights.
Maybe you're a husband,
and you feel like your wife is not giving you the respect that she ought to,
that she's not obeying you the way she ought to,
that she's not submitting to you the way you ought to,
and you take it into your own hand to remind her what her place is
and what she is supposed to do.
This is my rights. This is what she is supposed to do. This is my rights.
This is what you are supposed to give to me.
And you become a demanding husband.
Hammering on his wife.
Or maybe you're a wife.
And you feel like your husband is not giving you the consideration that he ought to.
He's not sacrificing himself the way he ought to.
He's not giving you the love that you ought to. He's not sacrificing himself the way he ought to. He's not giving you the love that you want to. And you begin to try to work on him and remind him and help him understand
what he ought to be doing. And you become a nagging wife because you are focused on your rights,
what you are owed, what people ought to be doing for you.
I remember talking to a man who had been in ministry for many years,
and he talked about doing marriage counseling.
People come, and they've got their list, right?
It's like, well, my husband, this, that, and the other thing.
He's not doing this. He's not doing this.
Or my wife, she does this, and I can't stand it, and this, that, and the other thing, and this is what the Bible says she ought to be doing. And he said that
oftentimes he would ask people, he said, whose list are you looking at? So often we're experts
on what other people should be doing for us, right? You know, oh man, we know exactly what our wife
should be doing. We've got those verses memorized.
Wives, submit yourselves.
You know, we've got it down.
We know what people should be doing for us.
You know, ladies, we've got a list.
We know this is what the husband's supposed to do.
This is what the Bible said he's supposed to do.
Maybe even children.
Well, you say, well, this is what parents are supposed to be doing.
Well, you say, well, this is what parents are supposed to be doing.
And we get into this mindset where we are completely focused on what people ought to be doing for us.
We're looking at their list saying, you're not checking off the boxes.
You're not doing what you're supposed to do.
And let me tell you, there's few things more miserable than a home where everybody is demanding their own rights.
There's few ways that you can make yourself more miserable and more filled with self-pity than focusing on whether my needs are being met
and whether people are doing what they ought to do for me.
And nobody can ever feel more sorry for yourself than you can.
Oh, my wife. Oh, my kids. Oh, my husband.
They're falling down on a job. They're not doing what they ought to do.
Quick trip to misery. Quick trip to being discontent.
Quick trip to being very unhappy and feeling sorry for yourself.
And so there's this danger that we will get in this mindset where we feel like we have
to demand our rights.
We have to guarantee.
We have to be the one to make sure they do what they're supposed to do.
That can even go another step to where we feel because other people aren't doing their job
that we don't have to do our job. And we begin
to use others' perceived shortcomings and failures
as an excuse for us not to do what we're meant to do.
Say, well, my wife don't respect me
the way she ought to.
She doesn't submit to me.
She doesn't listen to me.
How is she going to expect me to give that kind of love to her?
How is she going to expect me to just keep sacrificing my own prerogatives and just keep giving it up for her?
I don't need to do that.
She don't listen to me anyway.
Say, my husband, he doesn't ever take any time for me.
He doesn't ever try to meet my needs. He never takes time to express love, and I've never seen
him sacrifice anything for anybody but himself. I don't need to listen to him. He doesn't deserve
my respect. He doesn't deserve my obedience or my submission. Maybe a young person here
will say, well, my parents, you know, the Bible says they're not supposed to provoke me to wrath
and they're supposed to bring me up with a nurture and admonition, but they don't even pay attention
to me or the way they interact with me is not right and I don't need to
listen to them. I don't need to obey them.
And if we're not careful, we use other people's shortcomings as an excuse not to do our job.
Which begs the question, why are you doing it in the first place?
Are we really supposed to be doing all these
fulfilling our roles in the family
because of how it's going to benefit us
and so often
this is how
things are presented
well wives
if you'll submit to your husband he'll love you
husbands if you'll show love to your wife,
she'll submit to you.
And so we say, well, I want my wife to respect me.
I want my wife to submit to me.
And well, I'll do this, that, and the other thing.
And then it doesn't pan out.
And you're like, well, I'm done with that.
It didn't work out for me.
I didn't get what I wanted.
Why are we doing all this in the first place?
The Bible says,
all things are lawful unto me,
but not all things are expedient.
And in the end, it's this expediency,
it's the glory of God,
it's the edification of those around us that ought to be motivating us.
Wives, why should you submit to your husbands?
Because that glorifies God.
That's what he told you to do.
Husbands, why should you love your wife and give yourself for her?
Because that's what God told you to do.
Whether or not she listens to you, whether or not she obeys
you, whether or not she submits to you,
you're not off the hook.
That's what God has given you to do.
Children, why should you obey your parents?
Because it is right.
Whether or not,
now I'm not talking about sinful things,
I'm not talking about, I'm talking
about just the everyday stresses of
family life that we experience.
And we use our liberty not to demand our rights, but to be willing to give them up for the good of others.
The question that we ought to be asking in our lives, especially in our families, is not, you know, is this legal?
You know, you see this mindset so much, and I think this is particularly American.
You know, you go to a place like in Asia or whatever, people are motivated by shame.
There's some things they would not do because it would just be, it would look too bad.
But, man, people will do some shameless things if they think they can get away with it legally
and that should not be our mindset as Christians to one another
well this is within my rights
God said this is what I deserve
God said this is what I'm supposed to get
so this is fine I can do this
our question should not be is this legal
am I within my rights?
Our question should be,
is this expedient?
Is this what God has given me to do?
Is this what will be edifying
and build up the people around me?
As husbands, as wives, as children, as parents.
And you know, these household lists in the New Testament, so-called,
it's interesting, we don't often bring this out,
but they always include servants and masters as well.
Our relationships in the workplace.
You know, we say, oh, my boss is a total jerk,
so I don't have to give everything.
I don't have to work hard.
I don't have to work as a Christian.'t have to work hard. I don't have to
work as a Christian. We use these excuses even here. But I believe the Lord would have us to
use our understanding of Christian liberty,
not just in situations like meat offered to idols, but within our homes as well.
situations like meat offered to idols, but within our homes as well. Not to demand that others fulfill their duties, but determine that we will fulfill ours no matter what. Because God has given
us the grace, God has given us the Holy Spirit, we have that freedom to do the right thing. You know,
we're just motivated by our flesh, we're always going to take that path of selfishness.
But God has given us freedom to go beyond that.
And that's what he expects of us.
May God help us to exercise this liberty in our Christian homes,
not to be so obsessed with what is ours,
what our rights are, what we ought to receive,
but to be fulfilling our duties as God has given us for His glory and for the edification of those around us.
Let's pray together.