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CPC Sunday School | Law and Gospel #3(11-26-2023: Dan Wann)
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The main ideas from this information are as follows: - God is not static, but interacts with his creation and has a plan for our good. - The old covenant law and the new covenant law are a refining and expansion of God's law. - The new covenant is more powerful and allows for obedient worship to the Lord. - Martin Luther believed that Christians are both Lord of all and servant of all. - Luther's understanding of the gospel was influenced by the verse "the righteous shall live by faith" and the book of Galatians. - Paul lived as a servant to all in order to win more people to the gospel. - Paul had outward obedience to the law, but his righteousness came from faith in Christ. Summary: God is active and has a plan for us. The old and new covenants refine and expand God's law. We are saved by faith, not by works. Paul lived as a servant to win people to the gospel. Our righteousness comes from faith in Christ the nearness and the high above of God and finally Mark talked about the patience of God. Well we also included in this that although God is unchanging that does not mean that he is static. He is not movable and that he is reacting to us. His plan is always his plan but we see through the person of Christ the transcendence the eminence and we see through the biblical accounts the whole of biblical theology or the whole of human history we see that God is moving and doing something so God is not static in time he is interacting with his creation and that is for our good. All right considering that we have the Sinai old covenant law and the new covenant law and so when I say that he is not that he is not immobile that he is moving that his patience is shown we're seeing these covenants being revealed to us for the old covenant and the new covenant but it's actually a refining an expansion a clarification of God's law. So the relationship that we have to God's law is better than those old covenant believers. So again in Sinai that old covenant was less powerful the new covenant is more powerful in its ability to save. It was not yet fulfilled but a foreshadow and an image of what Christ would do for us the mediator in the old covenant being the stone tablets given to Moses but now our mediator is Christ and again those stone tablets are replaced by the law of God being written on the hearts of believers still awaiting the spirit but now applied by the spirit. So we see that the superiority of the new covenant as shown to us in the New Testament. So what is our relationship to the law now as opposed to the old covenant where their requirement was they be obedient to the three different types of law that we've looked at what we are looking at now is we're not saved from obedience to the law. It's not that the law is completely abrogated. It's totally gone that we have no relationship to like what's the law. I don't even hear about that. No we're actually saved in obedience to the law. So we now can do obedient worship to the Lord and the way they're saying that would be that we're not saved merely from our sin. We're also saved to holiness. We can actually fulfill this as we're having the spirit applied in our lives and now our worship is acceptable to the Lord. Yes. Yeah. Great point. Yeah. So if you can hear that or you know at least for the sake of the tape and you made a point that you know that nonbelievers will you know like have. What are we doing here. What is our relationship versus that of the world. How are we righteous. How should we actually live. And that's a that's a great point. So we're going to get a little bit to that a little bit later. Thank you for shadowing for me. And so when we consider how the law has changed between the old and the new covenants we read here that do not think that I have come. This is words of Christ to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them for I say to you until heaven and earth pass away. Not one iota not one dot will pass away from the law until it is accomplished. So we ask ourselves has the law completely fallen away because it has been accomplished. No Christ has not come to free us from every aspect of the law meaning that we're not using it for righteousness now. But this is instructive for us on how we ought to live. So as Andy talked about these are kind of the rules of the game. This is how we live a life which is pleasing to the Lord. Paul had this wonderful illustration talking about Christ who is seated at the right hand of God. And this courtroom illustration where he noted that before the high priest the accused would stand and the jury would be surrounded. This is the Sanhedrin and the person who sits at the right hand with tallying the votes for not guilty and the left hand would be the person tallying the votes for guilty. And so Christ is now seated at the right hand forever declaring the accused us not guilty acquitted repeatedly and he intercedes for us forever. So we see now that in the new covenant we have this advocate who is worthy to make that declaration who has paid the price for us and has set us free. And so we are no longer on a condemnation. So this week having reviewed everything we did the last two weeks although very very quickly I want to look at a couple of things as we consider what is our relationship to the law now. We're going to talk about Luther and his understanding. We'll look at Paul considering the Westminster confession because they say often we wouldn't be Presbyterian if we didn't love the confession in the catechism. So we'll make some points out of that considering the idea of progressive sanctification that although we are delivered from the wages of sin and death and that we are saved we're saved unto something. Unto something is our relationship to the law now and we'll seek to apply that in our lives. So this will either go really fast depending on how the discussion goes or not so fast. Okay so Martin Luther had this idea intention. So if we say well what is our relationship to the law now. And Luther says the Christian man is most free Lord of all and subject to none. And a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone. So are you Lord of all or a servant of all. Are you subject to none. Are you subject to everyone. And the answer to that is yes. Great job Luther. Well you know where does that come from. It's actually on a small treatise that he wrote to persuade the pope of his understanding of the gospel called on Christian liberty or the freedom of the Christian man. And so this was prior to the Reformation the 90s. The thesis has not been print printed and published on the church store yet. This is his attempt to try. Guys we've got to reform this. We've got to have an understanding and he actually writes to the pope that this is the key for understanding the entirety of the gospel. Consider what an audacious claim it is to be itinerant priest in Germany writing back to the home office and saying hey Pope I need you to understand what the gospel really means. Quite a statement. And so what he's saying here is this is a positive argumentation for his views. Well what is it that led him to really have those views. Well we all have this idea that this is the key verse for Luther that the righteous shall live by faith. And that's absolutely true and that he was putting off the Catholicism which required these acts of attrition contrition. These earning your salvation and the Catholic view of salvation is really synergistic. Not that God comes down monarchistically on his own and saves us of his own accord reform view. But we do our part and the Lord infuses the grace which is required for us to make it the rest of the way. And so Luther rejects that. But let's consider that a little wrong button. I thought it was right. So he lives in light of this right here. First Corinthians 9. And so Luther sees this actually to go skip around a little bit. All right. Ignore that. So the heart beat you could say of the Reformation was that the righteous shall live by faith. But the root of that is actually the book of Galatians. And so if you go back and look at Luther's writings he will refer to the epistle of Galatians as his Katie which is the same name as his wife. So this conveys the affection that he has for this book. And if you look at Galatians it's almost the book of Romans in miniature. It's just a little more tight. It's a little bit more condensed version of what is our relationship with the law and how do we go on. Romans is of course a favorite of everyone because it has so much explication of the relationship to the Jews in the Old Testament and where we stand now and the mechanics of salvation. But you see that in miniature in the book of Galatians. And so this is really the root of his gospel understanding. He says we're not going to add like the Judaizers in Galatia. We're seeking to add to. Yes you have salvation but we need to add these other acts and we need to add these other things. We have to perform these rights and stay kosher and live in light of all of that. And Paul reject that as well as Luther. So the results of this gospel transformation comes from this fruit of the tree. So if this is the roots of the tree this is the fruit that we see afterwards. So in First Corinthians 9 Paul says for though I am free from all I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them. So he goes on to talk about to the Jews he becomes a Jew to those under the law. He becomes under the law to those who are weak. He becomes weak. And the purpose of that is I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings. So it's from a selflessness not a self-righteousness but a selflessness that Paul is saying that he does all of these things he subjects himself to the law that he has outward obedience to it so that he might be persuasive and win more to the law. So when we consider Paul and his life he was exemplary as a Jew. So in Philippians 3 he gives kind of his resume as his standing to make this argumentation with his relationship to the law. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law a Pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law blameless. This is in the scripture so we say 100% blameless that Paul never disobeyed his parents that he never ever broke the Sabbath that he didn't have any covetous thoughts. No but from an outward obedience by the standard of an Old Testament understanding Paul would have said yes I've lived a blameless life. So considering that in a different way on his resume there are several things circumcised of particular tribes. This is highest standing that he possibly could. A Hebrew of Hebrews is an idiomatic phrase to say of all of the outward righteousness that we are doing that we are striving as Jews at the time I excelled. And even his deeds a Pharisee a person who has prized himself in studying and understanding the law being an expert in it zealous righteous outwardly. There's things by heritage and there's things by accomplishment. So even the things that Paul could not have controlled on his own were credited in him in his account in his resume in his acumen as to have his standing to say that this is this is my righteousness. How many of us can say like well even even if you're outward deeds even if you have lived righteously do you have the parentage you have a heritage to say yes even even born into righteousness. But what's his response to that as he goes. This is the end again in three five and six. His response is indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ my Lord. So even though from a Jewish standpoint at this time who said I am 10 out of 10 hundred percent a plus and it is all enough because of knowing Christ because of the supremacy of this better gospel this better covenant that I can receive. All right. Well how does that get applied out. So Paul again he says he becomes weak for those who are weak he puts himself under the law for those who are under the law and two of his protegees and the pastors that he is training up to take over the church afterward are Timothy and Titus. So in Galatia there is a cycle there named Timothy the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer but his father was Greek. He's well spoken of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium and that is to say Galatia. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him and he took him and he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places. So Paul takes Timothy and has him circumcised. What about Titus. But even Titus who is with me was not forced to be circumcised though he was a Greek. Both of these are Greek brothers Timothy and Titus and one is circumcised and the other is not. Can you imagine being Timothy and going back and reading the book of Galatians later. Wait a minute. How come I hadn't been circumcised and he did not as an adult as an adult quite an experience. Why. Thinking of first Corinthians nine. Why would he do that. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. He says in the text he had Timothy so that they might win more and Titus the example this is coming out of Galatians is to preserve the gospel. And so if we go back and we look at in Galatians it's because these Jews were false brothers who slipped in despite our freedom that we have in Christ so that they might bring us into slavery. So not for a moment will Paul compromise. They're saying well you got to have this guy circumcised. No because the motivation and the heart behind what you're doing is so that you can bring us into submission and that he does this so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved that they're not going to allow them to add in workspace righteousness. But at the same time we consider in the book of Acts Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him and the results of him conforming to outward customs of the time. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in the numbers daily. So he did this because it was a tool for him to be more effective in evangelism. He submitted even his body to this burden so that he could be more effective. He becomes slaves all so that he might win more. So would Paul have said that the law was effective for exposing sin restraining evil teaching righteousness knowing God's character understanding the work of Christ is applied in our lives. Yes. What do you say that it's good for personal righteousness. No no that you are not righteous in and of yourself because the righteous shall live by faith not by outward obedience. But he uses this and so that he may spread the gospel more so that they can share in the blessing they're in. All right. Thinking about Presbyterian perspective chapter 20 of the Westminster Confession is on Christian liberty. So we will not read all of this but we'll pull up some highlights. So the liberty that Christians have is purchased for us by Christ for the freedom of guilt of the guilt of sin. So we are free from the guilt of sin but that does not mean we are free from any kind of relationship to the law whatsoever. Under the New Testament the liberty that we have is further enlarged because we no longer are required to observe the ceremonial law when it comes to issues of conscience how we relate to the law that the Holy Spirit indwells each of us and the Holy Spirit will be instructive to each of us say what about this thing. What about this. Can I do this. Should I avoid this. That will maybe look different in each believer. And then as we consider that believing the doctrines and commands of other people those who are outside of our own personal experience is if we do this blindly. And this is the key here to do so blindly is to betray the liberty of conscience and destroy reason also. So sections 3 and 4. However if we practice some sin so that we can you know we're saying well this is a Christian liberty issue. But what we're really doing in the heart is to say I don't really want to obey the law there. So I'm going to claim Christian liberty. That is absolutely abhorrent. This is destroy the end of Christian liberty. The whole point of us having liberty is that we don't longer have to do things so that we would be righteous before the Lord. So we do not ever claim sin as just an issue of liberty so that we can keep our pet sins. But the purpose of this is that we might mutually uphold and preserve one another and we should never do anything under pretense to oppose lawful power or exercise of it. So those points in summary in much bigger fonts we can read them effectively. We are free in Christ but we are not free to do whatever we please. The Lord alone is a God of conscience but we are free to go away from the commandments of men which go beyond the matters of God's word. So if it isn't God's word it's absolutely still the case. We cannot say well it's an issue of Christian liberty. I really feel like murdering this guy and so I'm just going to go ahead and do that. No the law of God in some aspects is still absolutely valid. We do not use this as an occasion for sin and we are to use the law to uphold and preserve one another matters of faith and worship. This kind of stopped me dead in my tracks because as you will recall we have a pretty broad category of what are matters of faith. For example if the righteous are to live by faith which which things are we not living through which things are we not experiencing as we are living in life feels like almost everything is an issue of faith. And if we're to present our bodies as a living sacrifice which is your spiritual worship even your body everything that you do is a matter of worship. So as I'm considering this we are free to go beyond the commandments of men in matters of faith and worship. What is not included in the Venn diagram. So we say over here all this is faith and worship and those circles do not really overlap. At the same time we prefer our brother and the purpose of this freedom that we have been given is so that we can build a kingdom of Christ. It is not for our own means it's so that we can serve more effectively. So yeah we're completely free but and that is where Luther is getting that we are Lord of all mass or subject to none and yet servant of all and being put under preferentially towards other people. So if we consider the confession more broadly what is our reform perspective of the duty towards the law. Consider the idea here that a quarter of the larger catechism is the explication of the Ten Commandments and various aspects of the law. So if you're looking at your larger catechisms 98 through 148 50 questions a quarter of this thing is devoted to our relationship to the law. So it's certainly not that the Westminster divine said all right well the law is out. We don't have to consider that anymore. That's done. Now we think about this very carefully. So if we go back to the confession for a little bit as we're considering sanctification it says they who are once sexually called and regenerated having a new heart and a spirit created in them are further sanctified really personally through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection by his word and spirit dwelling within them. The dominion of whole body of sin is destroyed meaning the power of sin over us is destroyed and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened. So destroyed in its power but not in its presence. So sin still abides within us and we will continually wage war against it. But this is getting at the idea that we must seek holiness and the spirit enables us to more and more progressively win that war without holiness without obedience to the law without some kind of this is the outworking of a love for Christ. If you love me you will follow and obey my commands. And so without that there's no evidence of fruit in your life. It says that no man will see the Lord. However the sanctification is imperfect in this life. So we're all going to be at different places when we are saved. We're all going to start from places. And so if you have been blessed enough kids to grow up in the church the entire time and you've really never had a day where you didn't or a week where you didn't sit under gospel preaching and your parents have faithfully instructed you your starting point is going to look a whole lot different than I personally did. I do not have Christian parents. I was about 17 or 18 before I ever darkened the door of a church. And so where I started was going to be different than some of us kids in this room. And that's a blessing. But we need to recognize that even as we grow older where you are versus where your brother is may look a little bit different. We want to see that continual growth. So this war on number three although the remaining corruption there is has for a time may prevail. We're sure that the supply of power from the Holy Spirit will cause us to overcome that. So we're going to see continual growth. So it's not this is not an excuse to say well everybody starts a different place. And so that guy's been real rough life. We don't have to consider holiness in this life. No we do. But it may look a whole lot different if you have been saved as a 50 year old held angel just got fresh out of prison. The sanctification in your life is going to look a little bit different than it will say Pastor Marks. Absolutely. And this question what do we have in common. Grace of Christ. And so there will be fruit. There will be sanctification but different trees grow at different times. There's pecan orchards. There's apple orchards. They have different fruits and they're going to look different. But each of those members of the body of Christ will work together and we're going to be different and even our gifting. So the holiness that we have because of the sanctification is required of us. Without it no man will see the Lord. It is incomplete until glory but is progressive. It will overcome and saints grow in grace and protected and are perfected in holiness because of our fear of the Lord. Well how are we to fear the Lord. One it's a gift that to we do the ordinary means of grace. No God's character more and more. And as we know him more we understand God better than that should give us two things. One fear. Second gratitude because if you understand the power of the holy God that we serve and we are pleased and privileged to worship to know him better is to worship him more rightly. So now we get into our relationship again we talked about the moral law is abiding and the confession absolutely says that we no longer need to have more observe the ceremonial law and the civil law although we have a civil law where we are now which we are under we're no longer under the civil law of Israel. We do not have to put parapets on our roof but we have talked about the idea that that general equity still applies to us. We put fences around our pools. We do things out of love for neighbor. We there's no Old Testament commandment that says you shall not drive 100 miles an hour in a residential area. But there certainly is one in the Texas Penal Code. And so you are under that portion of the law. But then they find that there are some gray areas in life. So what I wanted to do is finish this series by talking about what about the gray areas. What about the things that we don't necessarily have a verse for. Because although God's truth is sufficient it doesn't have direct application not a direct application doesn't have a verse necessarily for everything you're going to encounter in life. But we have the principles and the general equity in God's law which make these navigable for us as Christians today. So as we consider what about these gray areas. This is not a perfect list because it's my list. But these are derived from principles that we can see in scripture as we're making some kind of rubric some kind of diagram that we can ask ourselves. Well am I allowed to do this. Should I do this. I'm like required to do this. So these are some questions that you should ask yourself if you come into something that is kind of a gray area. Well I don't have a verse of that. But how am I going to respond. How will I do that. And so number one is it directly contrary to the law of God. Is there a verse for that. Well you know I don't feel like going to church. No we're not to forsake the assembly of the saints. There is a verse for that. You must go. What is there a civil law against it. So Paul says that we're to be subject to the authorities. We'll get to each of those. So yes this is kind of a breakdown of maybe a good place to start. I would not say that you're subject to my list because Christ alone is Lord of the conscience. But consider this we will at least want to begin to think biblically about the way we make decisions for areas that are somewhat gray. So is it contrary to the law of God. We ask ourselves well is it sin. What is sin. Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. So if we know that there is a verse for that then we need to obey it. Is there a civil law. Romans 13 1 tells us let every person be subject to the governing authorities. So there's no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. So even say well I don't have to obey the state. Well the Lord has put the state over you because here you are. Is my conscience telling me that I should not do this. James 4 tells us for whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it to him it is sin. This is very interesting to me because what this means is for Andy he may have freedom but for me I feel maybe I shouldn't do that. And so for me to do saying X may very well be sin and his conscience is not bound by it. For him it might not be. So is there a subjective quality to the law of God. I would say that there is. Now it's not to say that everything is subjective but there are some things that are an issue of conscience. And so if you are convinced for example our reform Baptist brothers that you like know to baptize a baby that would be wrong if you are consistent as a Presbyterian you say well for you if you're not convinced of this for you to baptize your child and you believe that it's contrary to the law of God or contrary to the mandates that we have it will be a sin for you to do it. But for me for me not to as a Presbyterian to then withhold sign of baptism will hold the sign of the covenant to my children would be sin. Now I can tell you which side I land on on that but for the reform Baptist brother. Yeah he would be disobeying what he believes is the the back to it. He would be not in conformity to the law of God. But this is an area where there may be interpretation and we have to do due diligence to seek out scriptures. Now it could be that further study is required. There are things that I have done in my life choices I've made not bad things here but even just in entertainment decisions how I spend my time that today I would say no I should not have done that but at the time I was not convinced of that and until you are further sanctified until the Lord is working off new things in your life that doesn't come across your radar to say well maybe I should really consider that. So there is a subjective element I'm arguing for sin. So is it a sin again. Will this keep me from faithful service to Christ's kingdom. And we see that Paul says in Corinthians 6 all things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me but I will not be dominated by anything. So if you are spending an inordinate amount of time talent and treasure with some side hobby it might be a sin for you if you are not bringing glory to the Lord by this thing but it's a distraction from what you're intended to do. It may very well be a sin for you but for somebody else maybe not. Does it impact my Christian witness as the world is looking at our lives outwardly. We should be a peculiar people. There should be something a little odd about us. You guys are doing things very differently. Why is that. And the reason that we're doing that is because our lives preach the gospel to other people and we don't want to live in such a way that we would be disqualified from our Christian witness thereafter. We want to have our light shine before men so they will see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. So how people observe us is very important. Does it display good stewardship. So we immediately think of Parable of the Talents and let's talk about monetary use of funds. God has given us things. Nothing that I have is really mine but it's just on loan from the Lord because he's giving me these resources that I might return a positive return on his investment. But also we see in First Timothy. Timothy is warned to guard the deposit entrusted to you. So the deposit is the gospel itself and we know that because he's And we might see the church grow that we might be sanctified in our own lives that we can see fruit in other's lives because we've interacted with them. But also it comes down to material possessions. And am I causing a brother to stumble. So this is very interesting. And we know that because he's avoiding irreverent babble and contradictions which are falsely called knowledge. So this is speaking to not to them. These are people adding workspace righteousness back in. So we have to strive for the deposit of the gospel which has been given to us. So this is very interesting. So Paul is talking about for if your brother is grieved at what you eat you're no longer walking in love. We need to consider the second table of the law. We need to love our neighbor as ourself. And so this is another outward righteousness. But so this issue of eating things. Paul is talking extensively about this. If we consider even the book of Acts Jerusalem Council tell them avoid sexual immorality. Meat offered to idols. If you do these things you're going to do well. So they really boil the law down to something very very simple and practical. But we need to do so in love because there's going to be a different context. There's going to be a different culture. And so if we understand alcohol is probably the easiest example of this. So we as men of cornerstone do love to get together and burn a pile of wood and sit around in lawn chairs and have a beer and discuss this theological things. It's a wonderful time of fellowship. There's nothing wrong. It's actually really great. However if say we had a brother who we found out what this guy never can come to enjoy fellowship he can never come and sit around and talk about theological discussions because for him being around guys who are drinking beers it's too much of a temptation would be causing him to stumble. We need to ask ourselves like is this a weakness of ours. We need to prefer that brother over our own comfort. This does not mean that I'm going to bend when somebody says well I'm afraid of fire so I'm not going to come. We're going to have campfires but I'm willing to give up the beer so that we can pursue what makes for peace and mutual building up. But all right actually we'll go back to that one more thing to think about. However so he says but what you eat and do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So if I'm talking about causing my brother to stumble my brother needs to actually have a problem with this. It's not that he'd prefer that not be the case or it's an irritation but causing your brother to stumble means that you're leading them into sin by the thing that you have done. So it's not that we never are going to bug anybody that we won't have a holy irritation and annoyance with one another but if your actions cause another to fall into sin. So it's not that we just disagree with one another because there will be disagreements amongst us. However he also has this middle phrase so you do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. So at the same time that we have this brother who I in this example he does not like what Paul is eating. So he wants to prefer him because he does not want to destroy him for Christ died. But he also says don't let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. There's an interaction implied there. So if someone says well we can't have beer like it says really clearly in the Bible that's not the case. We can't have beer. Well hold on brother and then we can talk about those things. This is actually in a way encouraging us to wrestle with scripture with one another because immediately after that it says the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. How do we get this peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It's because we as brothers are wrestling through these things because we're considering what God's law says because we're seeing the freedom we have in the gospel. And so maybe I'm trying to convince this person because I'm not going to allow him to say that this is evil. However I'm simultaneously preferring him. I'm exhibiting the fact that I am subject to none and Lord of all but servant of all and subject to everyone. That tension exists. And one more thing to consider when we consider Matthew Chapter 5. Jesus is repeatedly using this phrase you have heard it said. He doesn't say you see that it is written. But this is the anecdote. This is the addition the commentary on the law. And so he refines and shows the true intention behind that. And the example would use this adultery. He said you know you've heard it said he's describing adultery but I tell you. And so what Christ is doing is refining the law of Christ is never less than the law of Moses. It's the fullness. It looks at the heart. It's not that the new covenant is a laxing of the log and Christ said they cannot come to abolish it but to fulfill it. And so when you consider the matter of hearts not merely outward works of obedience. So as you're considering all of those seven questions is how can I go through these things and decide whether this is something I'm free to do or I must do. Those are a helpful guide. Does anybody have any questions about those. Until we get into some practical examples. Any. Obedience. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so Mark on the very first week talked about that we need to seek just men who will create just laws for us. So what do we do as Christians when we are sitting under an unjust government and unjust laws. How do we do we just say well you know God establishes authority over us. I guess we just sit back and take it. That's something to consider and work through. Brian. Oh we got worms. Let's do it. I think in that case you have to prioritize protecting life and the fact that they want to commit murder over lying to them and that government had become so idolatrous and that they were their God with the Aryan race and they wanted you know and so you know it was not unlawful. It's actually the right thing to do to lie to them. So Brian brings up the example of hiding Jews during the Holocaust because you have an evil government who's over you. So I think I put number one as number one is it directly contrary to law of God because there is a hierarchy implied in this that we obey the Lord not men but even consider the Hebrew midwives who are commended for their faith disobeying Pharaoh. So there is a place and there's a whole nother Sunday school series about fear of sovereignty that we're considering putting on this next fall looking at who who has authority to say what in which situation. Ultimately we obey the Lord first and foremost. That means the government tells you that you have to surrender all the Jews and have them sent to the concentration camp. No no absolutely not that because we fear the Lord first and foremost. But that's a great point and we'll get a little bit to that I hope in a minute here. OK. We'll start with something fairly vanilla. So I've heard this said a bunch of times that you first become a Christian and you throw away all of your sexual music and then gradually you become reformed and you end up buying all of those old records back again. I can tell you that you know like there's the zeal of the new believer that says yes everything for Christ I'm going to get rid of absolutely anything that's not just Jesus Jesus Jesus. God has made all things and he's made them good. He's made culture he's made people he's made people to be creative because that mirrors his character and expressive. So and again different places in your face may require you to be obedient in different ways. I don't think there's anything wrong with somebody who first comes to Christ and becomes particularly zealous. But I think it's also OK for us to have freedom. But we should consider our entertainment choices. You know is there anything directly contrary to the law of God and say thou shall not rock and roll. Well no not exactly. But is it a good witness. Is it a good utilization of my time for video games. You know there's nothing wrong with playing Mario Brothers unless you're doing it 14 hours a day and you're living in your parents basement and you're no longer productive member of society. I think that we can take even a good gift. There is no good gift that man cannot corrupt. So all right. What about violent entertainment. Maybe you've heard of the NFL. We watch games last week man. I saw this quarterback get hit by three linebackers. That's got to be a thousand pounds of meat falling on top of this guy. It is certainly a violent sport. One step further if we consider as we're watching two men step into the octagon and beat the living daylights out of one another. Are we watching basically the Roman gladiator experience. We've recreated that. There's really truly nothing new under the sun. So instead of the Coliseum we have the large fighting venues on the Las Vegas Strip slightly more sanitized. Nobody's nobody's being fed to lions. All right. All right. So I'm going to be slaying some sacred cattle here today. I know that we do love fighting sports and it's fun. But you know there's a difference between these things. So it could be that for you you think yeah I really love this. And if the reason that you love it is sportsmanship if it's the technique if it's the training that goes into this if it's respecting the art and the craft of it and the real battle. Great. If you in your heart really look at your motives and say I really like people knocking each other's teeth out. That's fantastic. That may not be for you for you. The MMA might not be a sanctified event for you to watch. All right. I didn't I couldn't pick a horror movie. So this is the generic stand in generic horror movie. So there is something cathartic about watching a suspenseful film. And you know there's there's some really what's going to happen. And so in some ways there's a contrast issue. My life doesn't seem quite so bad if nobody's running after me with a chainsaw. And there's an entertainment value to it. But do those movies have good triumphing over evil. Is it a use of something scary that's evil. Does the devil get too much credit in this. Is he given and shown as an equal with God. I think we should avoid those things. Whereas Saving Private Ryan which I've actually shown to my kids is probably one of the most violent films I think I've ever seen. But what it's depicting is men using bravery fighting against evil taking the beach and Omaha. There's something this was this was a hard film to watch. But at the same time there's a moral lesson behind that. And so there's actually something good for us to honor and be aware of the sacrifice that other people have made. So but for some of our brothers maybe now know any violence whatsoever. That's not not something to be seen. But consider does this impact your Christian witness. If you're like yes I'm going in opening night and you're going to go see that new slasher film. Well if you're witnessing to somebody and they say well how are you doing this weekend. Like I cannot wait to see this horror film. Maybe not the best look. So if nothing else from the outside when you consider how we're going to be received by the way that we spend our time again we should be a peculiar people diet. Do we have to remain kosher. Well Act 10 tells us no that we no longer have to remain kosher. So no. Is it a good idea to go to the heart attack grill in Las Vegas and order the quadruple bypass burger. Well maybe it's a one off because I mean hey who wouldn't want an eight patty bacon burger. You know but this is an issue of proportionality and scale. If you are constantly eating in such an unhealthy way if you're not taking care of yourself like our bodies are a living temple. This is a sacrifice. So we must actually take care of ourselves on the other end of the spectrum. Do we have to completely give up meat and become vegan. There's actually a moral claim in a lot of veganism like now meat is murder. Now we've been given dominion. So that would be contrary to the law of God that we are told that we can take and kill and eat freely. But on the two ends of the spectrum here you have on one hand you're having somebody imply like if you consider the people who are violently opposed to seed oils maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's not. Maybe that you're so like everything has to be free range non GMO organic fair trade. You can add as many descriptors as you can to your diet. The modern man has not shirked off the idea of kosher. We've just redefined it in our own secular way. And so there is a food code that people will hardly abide by. And they would say well those religious people they're nuts. But these nuts that I'm eating have been gathered by hand by local indigenous people and shipped to me across the world. And so therefore I am moral because I've done a good thing having the best dietary practice possible. So we've just repackaged it in a way that's more palatable to us. Yeah if you're sharing this burger if this is just you know that might be just good stewardship. If you and I are splitting the tab then I don't know eight of us can go out for a burger and we'll have to fight over the bun. All right. Alcohol. Another common consideration in First Corinthians Paul tells us plainly that drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. But at the same time he tells Timothy no longer drink water exclusively but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. So there is a movement particularly in the early 1900s around temperance in the United States. And you know Europe has always been a little bit more relaxed and relaxed about their attitudes toward alcohol. But if you're the temperance movement is born out of this rampant alcoholism there's moderation in this. We're not to be drunk but to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But for some it will say you know for me my personal conviction is that we really shouldn't do that. And again we talked about preferring your brother and being kind to other people and considering them. So moderation is acceptable and we're not going to bind other people's consciences but we need to be wise about that we're using all good gifts. And again we've talked multiple times here about any good gifts that the Lord has been given to that we've received we can absolutely abuse. But we're going to take this idea of for the sake of your stomach and frequent ailments and consider that. All right. What about drug use. Well currently if you're talking about in the United States there is a civil law against that depending on where you are in your locality. Are you in Colorado. Are you in Portland. What about the use of marijuana psychedelics and opiates. Now this seems really outlandish and like really Dan are we talking about us using marijuana psychedelics and opiates. Well why. Paul says you can have wine Timothy for the sake of your stomach. So I'd say if I have a brother or sister who is really doing very poorly they're going to come with chemotherapy. They have cancer. They have unabated pain. There may be a place for some of these things to be used medicinally if it's truly medicinal. There's an enormous difference between having a legitimate use for some of these things and then saying well no this is really just kind of fun. I like feeling like a fool psychedelics. So if any of you are listening to say Joe Rogan or any of the major podcasts this is becoming an issue. And if you have not heard of the use of people using psychedelics either for improving their cognitive function expanding their creativity as a spiritual experience. This is coming. This will be on your radar in the next 10 years. And in fact there's studies that are showing uses of psilocybin or LSD even small doses as a curative for disease states like depression because in the right doses under medical supervision they're actually being used efficaciously. So should we say no never never treat anybody with any of these things. Well how and why. Looking at the why for all of these things really takes a look at the question opiates. If we've had surgery yeah great idea. But does that mean that we don't use this tool very very wisely. We need to be very shrewd about it because we don't want to be chemically dependent upon anything. And so we're taking these things for the sake of our stomach. We're taking these things to cure. We're taking these things to expand our efficacy so that we can be better stewards of our lives and so that we can be better able to serve the kingdom of Christ. Because if you're debilitated and you're otherwise having chronic pain well maybe maybe there's a way out of that. But how long and how much matters dramatically. All right. So those feel outlandish. What about antidepressants. Because there's going to be some people who say that it's sin. No fear not. Do not be anxious. Cast your cares upon me. Christ tells us however there's two extremes here. We can have one person say that all anxiety and depression is all sin. What you really need to do is repent and to the person who's in the depths of real depression. And it's basically a slap in the face. You're telling them to bootstrap their life and just get after it. And maybe that's actually true. Maybe there is some sin pattern in our life that we actually do need to repent of. But that's not to say that therefore the opposite of that is somebody can say well no no it's not sin. All mental illness all anxiety all depression all of that is purely about a chemical imbalance. This is a super complicated issue. What we should do is have grace and mercy and love for our brothers and say that while it is true that there could be sin issues in your life that could be leading you to be depressed. In neuroscience we say that the brain that the circuits that fire together wire together. So if you have some sin that you've really not repented over and then you have the brain really saying well this is the way we work. It's like working on a muscle the stronger we get. So I'm anxious and it's because of some sin in my life. But I do need some help. I do need a crutch. I do need something for the sake of my stomach so that I can get over this. I think it's a both hand and it's going to depend completely on the individual scenario. But what's very important is that we not impose our outward righteousness on other people say well I would never do that. So you need to just repent. And then it's also important for people who are saying well now this is this is beyond my control to have some agency and control and say well I will depend on God. I will depend on the spirits to help me through this and utilize all of the good gifts that he's given me including help medically or beyond that. So the issue here is motivation the purpose that we're using any of these things the scale how much you're using them what's what's what is the goal behind this the frequency the dependence the centrality of the gospel in your life if Christ is first and foremost then anything seems for secondary and if you are using these things in a godly way maybe they're fine but it depends. Right. So the question is do we think that that life has been given a diagnosis for absolutely every single thing. I think that's true. I think that the human experience is hard and we live in a fallen world and that there is some common suffering that is normal for all of us. And I think the antidote to that is not necessarily programs because it's a very humanistic materialistic worldview coming through. You're saying ultimately if we have the right education if we have the right resources that we have the right assets given to these people that we could alleviate all of human suffering. But that's not a biblical worldview. We're looking at this through the lens of the Bible and saying well no sin and destruction and all of the consequences thereof are going to be endemic to our experience. However we need to live in light of Christ. So our antidote is not purely to say well we need to exclusively just give people the right means but it's also not purely spiritual like there is a cause for taking antibiotics and that is a gift from the Lord. And so in the same way that we treat some disease states we need to be able to treat all disease states and looking at them somewhat objectively. But you know if the reason that you have the infection is because you keep staggering yourself with a dirty spike then you need to not do that anymore. So there's both of those things at the same time. And this is if you hear me say one thing this afternoon it's it depends it depends on a lot but we need to be considering these things this rubric at least if not this rubric some other one to think biblically about it. All right is it a sin family planning. So Dink if you don't know stands for dual income no kids. So we have a lovely couple here probably at Sandals in Jamaica. You got a tea hut. If the reason that you have no kids is that you can take better vacations. What you're extracting is the sweetness the fruits the benefit of marriage was not the responsibility of marriage because we are told to be fruitful and multiply. And on the other end some of us own the 12 passenger van and is a mark of pride and actually for some of you people it is a mark of righteousness to say I have as many kids as I possibly can because in some ways it signals something the outside world. I know that when we had our third my parents said oh man I'm so sorry. Like no we plan this and this is the part where you say congratulations when we had our fourth. They're like oh yeah no you guys are weird. So so must we have children. Well it depends if the two of you are we're going to be married. We're going to the mission field. We're not going to be in a dangerous place. So the question is you should ask yourself should you even be married at all if you're going to go and do something for the sake of the gospel. But it may be that forestalling this waiting for a period of time. There's some wisdom in this and I would not bind a person's individual conscious with that but they should consider am I displaying good stewardship. Is this helping build the kingdom of Christ. Well how many kids should you have. So we are told to be fruitful of multiply and the children are blessing from the Lord but we are also commanded to train them up in the way that they should go. And if we spare the rod then we really hate our children. If you are having so many children that you are not actually raising them in the way you should go because you're so busy and frazzled at the end of the day if your marriage is suffering because well we just believe it. Quiverful is the only way to go which is not to say that it's not for you. It might be it depends but you need to be able to be a good steward of the resources that God has blessed you with. Now no child is ever a mistake but you can be a wise parent or can be a foolish parent. There's two options there. It's not whether you'll be a parent in this way it's which of the two will you be and you need to be faithful with the resources that you have. What means of birth control are biblical. If you want to talk to me about this afterwards there's a large discussion which has to be had about this because some means of birth control do not stop implantation. Some means of birth control do not stop excuse me not implantation but conception but only stop implantation so that life is created and it will not reach the fullness of development. And I'll happily talk to anybody about all the specifics of that but that's something we need to consider. And when my wife and I were first married we started on oral contraceptives because I had absolutely no idea that that was the case like oh yeah birth control no yeah this is good. The more you know and the more like we're being good stewards of this we need to consider like what's behind this what are the results of this. We have to dig a little bit deeper we're accountable not just for all these are my intentions but what is the result and what are the consequences for the people who are beyond that's being a good neighbor that's loving your brother. There we go. So as we consider as we peel back this onion even further like what about your vocation or your finances. Can you work for you know this is a bad wording but an anti-christian company a company that has values and works to oppose the work of the gospel. Well what if you're not really you know you're not the CEO of this thing but you just work down in finance you're doing payroll for them. Can you continue to work for that company or if you have the opportunity can you do business with someone just tangentially. Do you support them. Well I would say it depends. What is the how anti-christian because at the end of the day I'm like we do need to buy groceries. So we're going to shop at Target or not. I mean is that your only option. How anti-christian are they. Is it just political giving that they have because if our rubric is if anybody has ever given to a political party that we oppose that is opposed the Christian worldview. How many people can actually buy anything at all anymore. Right. So in that we need to be able to do the best we can. So maybe if you have two options. Well I'm going to shop here instead of there. But we should consider as we're stewarding our resources that we don't want to build up companies that oppose us. And maybe that's an opportunity for us to build the kingdom of Christ by building parallel economies by creating new opportunities to support the church at large. So does the Bible affect your investing strategy. If you have a 401k what stocks are you invested in what companies are involved in that. So maybe you haven't even considered this but maybe we should because these are resources that God has given us and we'll be accountable for those. Is stock speculation a sin. Well what about Bitcoin. I know there's some people who love digital and cryptocurrency here. It's very unstable. It depends. It depends on how much of your assets you're putting into this. It depends on is this your opportunity. Now I will have security and safety because I've got an edge on the market. I think that there's an emerging opportunity for us to grow tremendously. So if you're not being wise with the way you're caring for your family and all of that it might be. What about gambling. Well there's a huge difference between. And this goes back to the speculation idea. If you have 20 dollars that you set aside like I really like playing five dollar nickel slots and it's going to be fun. But there's a difference there between spending 20 bucks in entertainment or going and putting your family so far in debt that you can't feed your children because someday your horse will come in. All right. What do we do when these guidelines are at odds. So I have a couple of examples of this. I'm trying to finish this because we're going a little over today. Let's say we have a child. We're not going to say how old this child is because you can make it up on your own mind. Who feels very strongly that he doesn't want to go to church with his Catholic parents. He has performed convictions and he is not forsake the assembly of the saints. And for him the saints are at Cornerstone. So he says I want to go to Cornerstone and I want to go to church my parents but his parents say no. No no no no. You need to obey us and you need to come to church with us. What do we do with that. One of those is truly being in church and the other is not. Well fortunately I would point that child to. Well it depends on what are your parents requirements in this. Is there an alternative. Can you honor them. Can you show them respect and dignity within that. And Westminster one twenty three to one thirty three is very interesting when you continue considers the relationships of authority that we have and it considers what the duties of superiors equals and inferiors are to one another. So that's really good reading and I think everybody should go home and read that if you have the opportunity. But even superiors this is not purely just your parents. It even goes and expands the definition so far as a family church and the Commonwealth. So your superiors kids as you're an inferior have a broader reach. But again we're going to talk about hopefully this year's fears of sovereignty. The duty you have to your particular parents is greater than the duty you have to your broader church family and even to say teachers or people in authority around you. So again a Christian is to be most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone. We need to be wise about the way we do this. And so I would. This is this is something this is. Do I have an answer for this. Sometimes it's going to have a lot of discussion. You're gonna have to think through these things and it's not going to be just straightforward. All right. Here's my favorite one. This is a satirical example. This could never really happen. You need to really love your neighbor. Right. So the government tells you that there's call it a contaminant in the air and this can impact your health. Right. So they require that you wear a protective hat even when you're in corporate worship. So you need to have this protective hat in order to love your neighbor and to promote your own safety so that you're not affected by this. And so now we have a problem here because one the law of God requires that we have an orderly corporate worship and it's to be reverent. I don't feel like that's reverent. We're going to be subject to the government and that hopefully they've got just laws and this is for your good. So if there's a fire marshal sign somewhere here that gives us a maximum occupancy and we may not exceed that maximum occupancy we can't resist the government and say like now we have 400 people were packing them in this room because the fire marshal absolutely close our church down. We need to be faithful in our service to other people. And so this gets weird because I think if you can imagine what it would be like if people have various opinions on the wearing of the propeller hat. Some people say well no this is a Christian witness issue. We need to love our neighbors in the way that we demonstrate our love for our neighbor is the propeller hat. Why don't you just love your propeller hat and put it on and other people say no this is a compromise of the gospel. We must never wear the propeller hat and we're going to have various opinions on that. Some of our brothers will be ruled by fear and some of us are needing to be a slave to all. Some of us need to put on the propeller hat for our own sanctification. This is a complicated issue and I would say the time course of this depends largely on how serious this can contaminate. So you know maybe two years later this contaminant doesn't seem like a big deal. But at the time you have to deal faithfully with the information you've been given. But again that could never happen. So you haven't heard it said or have you heard it better. Right. So Christ tells if you have heard it said but I ask you have you heard it said so you need to have your hackles up if somebody says to you well if you're not doing this you might not be a Christian or I don't see how you could do that and still be saved. We were talking an officer training in this last week and paraphrase Owen says essentially that the duty of the pastor is exactly two things. One is to convince sinners that they are under God's wrath and the other is convincing Christians that they are no longer under God's wrath. This is the great duty of the work of a pastor because those who are under God's wrath need to very seriously take that case but let us never have somebody impose an outward morality that is their personal belief upon us such that they say you're not saved if you don't do what I tell you to do. This is being a Judaizer. This is the this is failure to guard the deposit that Timothy was warned against. So if we're looking I'm going to get this so bringing that to a close because we are definitely over on time. We are to be most free and Lord of all and subject to no one but we are dutiful servants of absolutely everyone. And the reason that Paul gives us that we're going after this is that we can win more so we can share the blessing of the gospel with other people. That's the motivation and we need to have a relationship with the law informed by that so that we can consider first biblically how we're to respond because there is going to be some gray area in life and we're hopefully going to think about those things a little bit more of a biblical Christian way by considering our duty to man and our duty to God at the same time. There's really not a lot of time for questions so you can find me afterwards or at the back. I'm going to pray and then we'll get ready for worship. Father in heaven thank you so much that you have given us this alien righteousness which is apart from us that we need not strive after justifying ourselves to you that Christianity Lord is the story of God's work redeeming man to himself not the religion of man making himself justified to God. You've given us all of this and Christ and your Holy Spirit which dwells within us and your word help us be lovers of it be students of it that we might be conformed in the image of Christ help us Lord to love you and to love our neighbor. Well we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
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