Welcome friends to the line of fire. Michael Brown, delighted to start this week together with you as we are here once again to infuse you with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. As we talk all this month about a subject you don't hear much about, but it is found throughout the word. Almost every book of the Bible talks about it, the beauty of holiness. God's call to us to live holy lives, which are beautiful lives, blessed lives.
We're going to talk today in the next few days about the perils of Legalism. Oh yeah. Call a friend, tell them to tune in. If you're not getting my... monthly frontline newsletter.
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So Early on in this series, which we've been going through the whole month, When we talked about Holiness, we said one of the reasons that people react negatively to holiness is that we love the flesh, we love to sin. You know, it's just like if you're an unhealthy eater, you don't want the doctor to tell you you have to change your diet. The same way, if we're addicted to sin and love our sin, we don't want someone preaching against that sin. But there's another reason that people react negatively to preaching on holiness, and it's because they associate it with legalism. They associate it with some angry preacher, probably a hypocrite himself, hitting them over the head with the Bible and condemning them because they don't conform to some outward norm.
And many of you experienced that in your own home, in your church growing up. And because of that, you've kind of swung the other way. My goal this month is to get you to see how beautiful holiness is because it's becoming like Jesus in thought and word and deed. It's being holy because the Lord our God is holy and everything about him is good. And therefore, he wants us to be like him.
That is the ultimate good. But we're going to spend some time unpacking legalism. And every quote that I share with you, I'm going to be sharing quotes from contemporary leaders and quotes from scripture. They're all found in the book.
Okay. Listen to what Pastor Chuck Swindahl said in the preface to his book, The Grace of God. awakening. This is written, oh, in the 80s, I believe. Bound and shackled by legalists' lists of do's and don'ts, intimidated and immobilized by others' demands and expectations, far too many in God's family merely exist in the tight radius of bondage dictated by those who have appointed themselves or a judge and jury.
Long enough have we lived like frightened deer in a restrictive thicket of negative regulations. Long enough have we submitted to the do's and don'ts of religious kings of the mountain. Long enough have we been asleep while all around us the grace killers do their sinister nighttime work. No longer! It's time to awaken.
The dawn is bright with grace. Maybe in the early 90s he wrote that book, but many of you relate to that. Many of you relate to a religion of do's and don'ts. Yes, there are do's and don'ts throughout the Bible, including the New Testament. There are many calls to do this and many calls not to do that.
We've been through many, many verses over these couple of weeks thus far, digging into the word, seeing what it says, but. God's method of changing us is to change us from the inside out, and then our heart is to please Him and do what's right, and now these words and directives come to show us the way to live, to please Him, and the way to live that is best for us as His children. But many of you are used to this. The moment you hear preaching and teaching on this, you recoil because you've already been hurt. You've already been beaten.
You've already been hammered over the head with legalistic preaching.
So, we want to try to work through that and lift that burden and yoke. off of you.
So Again, what exactly is legalism. We talked about it early on, now we're spending more time. It has several different forms. But all of them flow from the same source, namely, religion without relationship. emphasizing standards more than the Saviour.
To an unsaved person, the legalist preaches justification by works, saying you're a wicked sinner and you need to get rid of all your filthy habits if you want the Lord to accept you. Right? That's what they hear. I have to stop doing bad and start doing good before the Lord will accept me. There's no grace in this message.
There's no exalting of the life-changing, sin-cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. No clear proclamation of mercy. The declaration of God's love expressed through the cross is muffled. If it's even heard at all. Consequently, And hear me, this is legalistic thinking.
The proof of the new birth is seen almost entirely in what someone no longer does. That's how you prove the new birth, that you no longer do certain things. There's no proof that you've received forgiveness of sins. No proof that you're in intimate relationship with God as your Father. No proof that there is evidence of a new life inside of you.
Rather, you just don't do certain things. That, for the legalist, is proof of the new birth. You say, but doesn't Jesus call us to leave everything and follow Him? And doesn't the Word clearly call us to turn from our sin? Yes, through the cross, through the power of the blood of Jesus, through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Through the power of the gospel, not through simply saying no to the bad stuff and yes to the good stuff. Within the church. Legalism is easy to spot. It judges almost entirely by externals. And yes, It does judge.
It quickly condemns those who don't immediately conform to the particular group's outward norm. And generally speaking, the more legalistic a church group is, the more particular they'll be about one or two specific aspects of behavior. Or dress, making those the standard by which everything else is measured.
So, you may go to a particular church, and the whole emphasis is on smoking cigarettes and going to the movies. You can gossip. You can wear seductive clothing. You can. Be cruel to your kids.
But if you don't smoke cigarettes and you don't go to movies, you're holy. or it could be an outward apparel emphasis. you know that you the women have to wear their hair in buns. and the men can't have any jewelry of any kind. And of course, the women can't have earrings or piercing or anything like that.
And it doesn't matter if you're a gossip. It doesn't matter if you're profane. In other words, as long as you meet the outward apparel standard, you're good. That's what legalism does. I even see legalism and other aspects of the body where you're judged entirely by: do you teach this doctrine?
Or you call these certain people out, and you can, you don't have to walk in love, you don't have to walk in mercy, you don't have to do good to the poor, but if you fit that little check. checkbox there, boom, you check that off, you're good. We have to be so careful. And the key is to major on the things that God majors on in the word and to let secondary matters be secondary matters. Max Luke Cato, in his book In the Grip of Grace, made a really interesting observation.
He said legalists end up, quote, in either despair or arrogance. that either give up or become stuck up. They think they'll never make it? or they think that they're the only ones who'll ever make it. Does that make sense to you?
If you've been in those legalistic places, some of you are thinking, yeah, I've seen that. Maybe you struggle with it in your own life. It's like, it's hopeless. It's hopeless. I'm supposed to be perfect.
I can never be perfect. I'm not like these other people. I'm going to hell. Or we are the ones getting in. Nobody else is getting in because they don't live the way we live.
It's one extreme or the other. Max Lucato's right in pointing that out.
So it's true. that God has high standards. We have been bathing you with scripture over and over. Just the very fact, Leviticus 19 quoted in 1 Peter 1 that God says, Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy. That's a high standard.
The fact that he says in 2 Corinthians 6, come out from among them. and be separate. I'll receive you. That's a high standard. The fact that Jesus says, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
That's a high standard. And on and on with other verses that call us in the same way.
So, yes. God has high standards, but here's how legalists fall short. Number one, They try to change a person from the outside in. whereas God deals with us from the inside out. Two They fail to present a balanced picture of the Lord putting too little stress on his mercy.
and too much emphasis on his wrath. That's what happens with legalism. God's angry with you, God's gonna get you, you're in big trouble, and you live your whole life. Under that cloud. Number three.
They do not point the struggling sinner or the struggling believer to the Lord's supernatural empowerment. making holiness a human effort alone.
So, it's a matter of human effort alone. In other words, rather than saying, Yes, this is too difficult for you. Yes, in yourself you can't overcome this. That's where the grace of God comes in. God's grace will empower you.
The blood of Jesus can really cleanse you and change you. The Holy Spirit dwelling within you can give you the power to say no. Instead, they emphasize: you just have to say no, you just have to fight it. And then lastly, In terms of, yeah, God has high standards, but the legalists do something else, they add laws. They had standards.
They had commandments, they had customs, they had traditions that are not found in the Word, making them even more important than the biblical commandments themselves.
So whereas Scripture would emphasize loving God and loving our neighbor, a legalistic church is going to emphasize, do you say, the King James Version of the Bible? Where Scripture is going to say, put forth justice, mercy, faithfulness, put those first, emphasize those first. A legalistic church is going to emphasize a very specific tithing commandment and details of this and that, and that's how you get judged. And that is, again, how people fall into bondage.
So Let's contrast that. with the biblical message of holiness. Let's take a quick break. We've got an important announcement coming your way. Give it a good listen.
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So biblical holiness begins with the heart. and flows through an encounter with God in His Word. It calls for repentance. In response to the Lord's gracious offer of salvation, and it offers a way to be holy. The blood of Jesus.
and the Spirit of God. Biblical holiness is free. Although it requires discipline and perseverance. For the legalist, Nothing is free. Everything must be earned.
Legalism Leads to bondage. Holiness leads to liberty. True on that one. Legalism leads to bondage. It doesn't set you free from sin.
Doesn't liberate you. Does it help you to live in the life of the Spirit? it leads to bondage. Whereas holiness leads to liberty. It gives you victory and empowerment over sin and the flesh and the world and the devil.
So Where does legalism come from? What are the roots? of legalism.
So it tends to arise when the inner core of true religion grows cold. but the outward form of religion is maintained. Legalism is loveless.
So, in other words, you come to the Lord, He changes your life, you begin to live by holy and godly standards.
Now, either in your own life or the next generation, they don't have that encounter with God. They're not living in intimacy with God.
So, the standards that were set in your own life out of encounter with God just become empty standards of religion because the encounter with God isn't there. And now, people are judged by those standards. Rather, the goal should be to get them into an encounter with God, in which case, those standards will become their own standards out of the conviction of the Spirit.
So Legalism remembers what true spirituality produced in the previous generation of believers, including turning from sin and embracing a holy lifestyle, and then imposes those end results on those who have not had that same experience. And inevitably, it tries to take those standards even further, attempting to please God by demonstrating an even greater zeal than that displayed by the previous generation, or trying to safeguard those standards by putting a protective hedge around them. Oh, we'll go even further. Previous generations said women had to wear skirts down to their dresses down to their knees.
Now we say down to the ankles. Oh, we're going to go even further. Previous generations said, X, we're going to say X, Y, Z. We're going to go further. And that's how we're going to show our zeal for God.
Look, as parents, you may have convictions as to what's right and wrong, and you set them up as standards in your home. And your kids have to live by those standards. But as they get older, if they don't encounter God for themselves, those standards will just seem like negative rules that are restricting them.
Now, I'm not saying you change your standards. I'm saying the key is, unless your kids have an encounter with God for themselves, they will end up casting off those standards.
So while you keep the standards and parameters as parents, you need to do that and be responsible and wise. You need to remember, okay, I've got to be praying for my kids to have their own encounter with God. That is the whole key to their future. future well-being, not just conforming to outward standards, but having an inward change of heart.
So Christian service that once arose out of a heart ablaze for God is now a requirement performed out of habit and motivated by fear. If that's where you find yourself right now, friends, keep listening because you're going to get free from that. and come back into an encounter with God based on his love, and that transforms you and helps you to walk in holy fear. Acts of giving and sacrifice that once came as a natural expression of gratitude to the Lord are now forced on the believer and used. as a measure of spirituality.
So Kent use said this, Dr. Kent used in his book, The Disciplines of a Godly Man. There is a universe of difference. between the motivations behind legalism and discipline. Legalism says I will do this thing to gain merit with God.
All right, that's what the legalist says. I will do this thing to gain merit with God.
Well discipline says I will do this because I love God. and want to please him. Legalism is man-centered. Discipline is God-centered. Let me share that again from Dr.
Kent Yugos' book, Disciplines of a Godly Man. Legalism says, I will do this thing to gain merit with God. If I just do this, God will be pleased with me. Discipline says, I will do this because I love God and want to please him. Legalism is man-centered.
Discipline is God-centered. This is what Oswald Chambers said, and what a depth of relationship he had with God. Oswald Chambers said this a bird flies persistently and easily because the air is its domain and its world. A legal Christian is one who is trying to live in a rarer world than is natural to him. Our Lord said, If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
that is free from the inside. Born from above. Lifted into another world where there was no strenuous effort to live in a world not natural to us. But where we can soar continually higher and higher because we are in the natural domain of spiritual life.
So Grace gives you wings. Remember that poem may have originally gone back to John Bunyan, I shared it earlier, to run and work the law demands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. But better use excuse me, but better news the Gospel brings It bids us fly and gives us wings. Yes, that's the power of the gospel. But Robert Brimstead noted this The idea of living strictly by what the Bible says has been branded as Legalism.
And that's the challenge, that's the tragedy, is that people run from legalism. to license. The moment you preach holiness, And the love and power and truth of God, the moment people hear holiness, they run. Because they just brand it legalism. Why?
Some because they love the flesh and others because they've been burned by legalism. And and and the tragedy. is that people run from legalism to license. They run from sets of rules to Anything goes.
So many believers Who flee from the clutches of legalism, especially when they never seem to measure up to legalism's demands, fall right into the grasp of libertarianism.
Now Almost anything goes. They have cast off all all restrictive rules and oppressive regulations, and in the name of liberty, they've opened the door to license. And whatever comes naturally to this liberated believer is accepted as normal. And of course, the Lord understands my sins. Yeah, he understood our sins enough to send his son to die for them lest we damn ourselves to hell because of them.
And once you cast off legalism and run the way of license, then biblical commandments are brought down to the level of your experience. And anything that brings any kind of spiritual pressure to bear on you, no, no, no, that's not the Lord. That's not the yoke of Jesus.
So the conviction of the Spirit is cast off. Because that's not the yoke of the Lord.
So, friends, we need to... have a balance between legalism and license and that balance Is grace, empowered, and holiness. That balance is an intimate relationship with God, the Word of God, our heart and mind, and through that we conform daily to the image and character and nature of Jesus. I want to speak from my heart to all of you who are struggling right now and see no way out. God, I'm talking about struggling with sin.
If you know the Lord, if you've been born from above, His Spirit lives in you. You're more than a conqueror. You're an overcomer in Jesus. Since you Does not have dominion over you. You may need to get some godly counsel, prayer, even deliverance.
But if you'll just cry out right where you are, God, help, He will give grace. He will show you a way out. With the temptation, He'll make a way of escape. He's faithful. Don't give up.
Cry out and take the steps you know how to take, and you'll find liberty. This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener-supported.
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Okay.
