Life of Paul Part 23 - The Black and White Issues

Good morning, folks. How's everybody?

Hey, it's wonderful to have you here. Let's open the Bible and study together. Acts chapter 15, if you would, and we're going to be continuing in our study of the life of the apostle Paul and particularly with Christian liberty. You know, I grew up, as most of you know, Jewish. I went to synagogue, I fasted every Yom Kippur, every Rosh Hashanah. I went through all the training necessary to prepare for my Bar Mitzvah, which I did. I went to Hebrew school twice a week. I went to Sunday school. We celebrated Passover. We celebrated Hanukkah. I watched as my mom lit Sabbath candles every Friday night and prayed. And even on occasion during weekdays when they needed someone to come in and read Torah at the synagogue services, I would go in and do that. And yet the truth is, in those days, I was in bondage. I was in bondage to a system of human religious performance, always wondering when I'd done enough or if I'd done enough to somehow earn my way into heaven and into God's good graces and never having anybody being able to tell me what was enough and when was enough.

Nobody knew. Now, folks, just before Christmas in our study of the life of the Apostle Paul, we looked at Acts 15, where we saw the wonderful news of the Bible that when we give our life to Jesus Christ because of what He did for us on the cross, He sets us free forever from a system of human religious performance. And it's been a few weeks since we looked at this, so I want to come back now.

I want us to review what we learned a month ago. And then we're going to go on to talk about this issue of Christian liberty, of our freedom in Jesus Christ as it relates to our everyday performance. Most churches won't talk about this because they just won't, about dancing and drinking and smoking and chewing and all that other stuff.

They won't talk about it. We're going to talk about it because I believe what the Bible teaches on this subject is both intellectually challenging and spiritually motivating. So we're going to be talking about this for the next several weeks, and then we'll dive back in and keep going on chapter by chapter with Paul's life. Okay, so that's the plan.

Let's review now. What did we learn when we looked at Acts 15 a month ago? Well, we learned that Acts 15 was all about the Jerusalem Council, and the Jerusalem Council was precipitated by what happened in verse 1 of this chapter, Acts 15, 1. So men came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, where Paul was, and they were teaching the Gentile brothers there, unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. You cannot have eternal life.

You cannot go to heaven. And so the Jerusalem Council met to address two issues. Issue number one was just how does a person get eternal life? Is it on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ plus nothing? Or on top of faith in Christ, are there some human works?

Are there some human acts of performance like circumcision or anything else that we have to do to complete the deal? They answered it in verse 11. Verse 11, Peter says, No, we believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus, the undeserved mercy of our Lord Jesus, that we are redeemed, just as they, the Gentiles, are. The Bible reiterates here that salvation, eternal life, going to heaven, is through the undeserved mercy of Jesus Christ, that when we trust what Jesus did for us on the cross plus nothing, God gives us eternal life, salvation, a relationship with Him as a free gift.

Human works, human effort have absolutely nothing to do with it. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, For it is by God's grace that we have been redeemed, not by human works, so nobody can boast. Here we have one of what may be the greatest piece of news anywhere in the Bible, that our relationship with God through Jesus Christ is completely apart from our human performance. Friends, I believe this is a liberating truth. This is a wonderful truth because this truth sets us free to become everything that God made us to be.

Knowing we're not on a performance trip with God liberates us to really become the people God wants us to grow into. You know, my son Jonathan, who's 16, said an incredibly profound thing to me a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about baseball, and he plays baseball, plays high school ball in his dreams to go on and play farther than that.

We'll see where it goes. But anyway, he said, You know, Dad, he said, If I know that the coach has total confidence in me and I know that my starting position is secure no matter how I play, that even if I go 0 for 4, I'm still going to start the next game. He said, That's the kind of situation where I can relax, where I can go out, where I can go for the gold, where I can give it all I got, where I can take risk, where I can become the best player that I'm capable of being. But if I'm under the pressure that I know if I perform badly, that my starting spot is at risk.

Every single time I go out on the field, he said, I'm tight, I'm nervous, I can't be the best I can be, I can't become the best player possible, and it takes all the joy out of playing baseball. And I thought later, you know, that's true life, isn't it? You know, when I know in life that I'm under a human performance system and that at any moment I could get shwacked and I can't perform my best, neither can you, we're tight, we're nervous. It's when we know that we have a relationship with God that is completely apart from performance, that whether I go 4 for 4 or whether I go 0 for 4 someday doesn't make a bit of difference with God in terms of how he loves me, how he accepts me, my eternal standing with God. Friends, that's when I can relax, that's when I can go for the gold, that's when I can take risks, that's when I can rise up without fear and become everything God made me to be, and that's when it's more fun to live, too.

Now, if you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your personal Savior and you've got this feeling down inside of you that there's greatness in there, there's destiny in there, there's something more in there than you can pull out, you're absolutely right, absolutely. And friends, let me tell you how to get it out. It's not by listening to self-help seminars, don't do that. It's not by spending your money on self-help books.

All you're doing is making the author rich. That's not going to get it out of you. The way it comes out is when we give our life to Jesus Christ, when we enter into a relationship with God where human performance is not the issue, that liberates us to begin rising up and becoming everything God created us to be, to reaching that destiny. If you're here and you've never trusted Christ, 2002 is the year we've got for you. We want you to make that decision this year.

God will start bringing that destiny out and taking you places you never dreamed of. Well, let's go on. We're reviewing still. What was the other issue that the Jerusalem Council dealt with?

It was this issue. Once a person becomes a follower of Christ, now how far does our freedom extend when it comes to our everyday Christian life? Meaning, as a follower of Christ, do I have to act in a certain way? Do I have to keep a certain set of rules in order to stay in God's good graces?

Or, as a follower of Christ, am I free to act any way I want without jeopardizing my standing, my relationship with God? And they answered this question too, verse 19. James says, It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. The Message translation translates it that we should not trouble the Gentiles who are turning to God. And he goes on to explain what he means, James does, by making it clear that he's talking about by laying all kinds of Christian performance on these people.

James says no. And what James was reiterating here was that our freedom in Jesus Christ applies to our Christian life just as much as it applies to our eternal life. Romans chapter 8, verse 1, Therefore, there is now no condemnation, no matter how I act, for those who belong to Jesus Christ. For when you gave your lives to Christ, you were adopted into God's family as dear children. When we gave our lives to Christ, we became children of God in the way that the rest of the human race isn't. And as God's children, His love for us is unconditional.

It doesn't float up and down based on what we do or what we don't do. Romans chapter 5, verse 2, Through faith in Christ, we have gained access into this gracious position in which we now stand as a child of God. I'm in a gracious position with Almighty God where my eternal standing with God is based on grace, not my Christian performance. God's love and acceptance of me is based on grace, not my Christian performance. I'm free from all of that performance nonsense, and God wants me to know I'm free. God wants me to enjoy being free. Galatians 5, 1, It is for freedom that Jesus has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourself be entangled again by a yoke of slavery to even Christian performance.

Now we're still reviewing. What's the point? The point is, as God's child, I have the freedom to act any way I want to act without endangering the bond that exists between me and my Heavenly Father.

You say, Well, so long. How far does that freedom really go? Well, it extends to both areas of our Christian life. Every action you do falls into one of two areas in your Christian life. Either gray areas, these are areas that the Bible doesn't speak to. You will not find a thou shalt or a thou shalt not in the Bible for these things, and our freedom is absolute and total in the gray areas of the Christian life. You can go to movies, play cards, cut the grass on Sunday. You can gamble, listen to secular music, and wear short skirts. You can get a tattoo, dance, have a beer, smoke a cigar, and have more nose rings than Miss Piggy, and God will still love you just the same, and your eternal life will still be just as secure.

It doesn't make a bit of difference. Now, this Christian freedom also applies to the other category of things in our Christian life, which is the black and white issues of life. These are the areas of the Christian life where God does say something in the Bible about them, where God does have a thou shalt or a thou shalt not in the Bible about them. And, folks, Christian liberty means that you and I have absolute liberty to perform in any way we want to in the black and white areas, and God will still love us just the same. Listen, as sad as it makes God, and it makes God very sad, you and I can take LSD, sleep with our boyfriend or our girlfriend, commit adultery, watch pornography, cheat on tests in school. God will still love us just the same, and, God, our eternal life will be just as secure. Now, as Christians, it makes us uncomfortable to say that. A lot of churches would never allow their pastor to say that.

And, you know, I may find this one won't either before it's all over. But this is the truth of the Bible. This is what the Bible teaches. Now, we established that several weeks ago, and we said we were going to come back and finish.

So that's all review. Now we're going to launch into some new stuff. And let me say this to you. Christian liberty is undiluted in the Word of God. We have it. But the Bible doesn't stop there.

Oh, no. The Bible balances this truth out by calling upon us to limit our liberty, to temper our freedom in some areas of life, and the Bible then gives us reasons why. And this, over the next several weeks, is what we want to look at.

Now, today, we're going to look at the black and white areas. Why does the Bible call upon us to limit our liberty, to temper our freedom in these areas where God says, don't do those things? We have liberty to do them.

So why in the world does the Bible tell us not to do them? There are reasons that we want to go over today. And then next week, we're going to come back and start talking about the gray areas and what the Bible has to teach about using our liberty in those areas.

So that's our plan. And in answer to the question, why, if we have liberty, does God ask us to refrain from exercising our liberty in these black and white areas? He said, well, Lon, remind me again, what are the black and white areas? Okay, lying, cheating, murdering, robbery, cheating on our taxes, adultery, premarital sexual relationships, homosexuality, abortion, pornography, the things that are clearly addressed in the Bible. And God says, don't do them. Even though we have freedom in those areas, why does God tell me I can't, I shouldn't use my freedom?

Well, here's the answer. 1 Corinthians 10 23. All things may be permissible for me, but not all things are beneficial. All things may be lawful for me, Paul says, but not all things are profitable. Friends, it is lawful for me to go as fast as I want in Montana, but that doesn't mean it's profitable to go 175 miles an hour in a snowstorm. It's not profitable, but it's legal.

Hey, as many of us has learned, it is legal to buy any stock in the NASDAQ you want. Now that doesn't mean it's profitable. Many of us have learned that the hard way, but it's legal.

You can do it. And in the same way, there are things in our lives as followers of Christ that are just not profitable. And God says, don't do them. You have the freedom to do them? Yeah, but don't, they're not profitable.

Now, why? I want to conclude today by giving the five reasons the Bible tells us why these black and white issues are not beneficial. They're lose-lose propositions. They're not profitable.

Here we go, number one. Reason number one is because they offend God. The Bible says God is a holy God and that there are some things that just flat offend Him.

And these are those things. That's why it tells us in the Bible, don't do them. These are things that will cause a breach in our warmth, in our friendship with God when we do those things. Will we lose our eternal life?

No. Will it cause a hiccup in our relationship with God on an everyday basis? You bet it will, because these are offensive to Him. Now, as a parent, there are some things my children can do that are very offensive to me. One of them, for example, is lying to me. I hate that. That is one of my hot buttons. Tell me anything.

Tell me the worst thing you ever did. I can deal with that. Don't lie to me. She said, well, Solana, what happens when they do lie to you? Well, you're kind of making an assumption that they lie to me, but it's true. Okay, it's true. So anyway, what happens when my sons lie to me?

Let me tell you what happens. When one of my sons lies to me, does it sever my relationship with my son? Am I no longer their father? No. Does it change my unconditional love for that boy? No.

Do I withhold food and clothing from that child? No. Of course not. But it does mess up the warmth and the intimacy in our relationship until we get those things straight, because that offended me. Now, friends, the same thing is true in our relationship with God.

These black and white things offend God. Does it mean if you and I do one of them that it will sever our relationship with God? No. Does it mean if we do one of them that it will change God's unconditional love for us? No. Does it mean God will stop providing food and clothing for us?

No. But will it interfere with the warmth and the closeness of my walk with God? Yes, it will, until we get it straight.

You say, well, how do you get it straight? 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins, cleanse our relationship, put us back close together again. But, folks, these things offend God, and they interfere with the warmth of our relationship with Him. Don't do them, God says.

Number 2, reason number 2 is that they quench the power and the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives. You ever played this little football game on Nintendo or Dreamcast or whatever the thing is, where when you kick off, the little meter goes up and down, and you've got to try to kick it when the meter's at the top. You ever play that? Or otherwise the ball only goes like 5 yards or something. I'm terrible at these games.

I don't know what it is. Somehow between...my mind's got it right, but my fingers don't get it right, and I'm always making 8-yard kickoffs or something like that. Well, you know, the Spirit of God in our life is a lot like that little up and down meter. The Spirit of God in His flow in our life goes up and down and in and out, and what the Bible says is we want to be operating with the Spirit of God's flow all the way at the top.

We want the meter all the way at the top, all the time we want it at the top. That's the only way we can operate at warp speed spiritually in our life, and that's why the Bible says, 1 Thessalonians 5, 19, do not quench the Holy Spirit. Don't stand there with a water hose or a squirt pistol and squirt fire on the Spirit of God in your life. Don't take the meter down, and by doing these black and white things, we grieve the Holy Spirit. We quench the Holy Spirit. God left us here to be used, but we can't be used unless the Holy Spirit is working through us at maximum warp. And, folks, it's really sad how many Christians are operating on reserve power and making 5-yard kickoffs in our world because we're doing things that quench God's flow in our life.

These black and white things will do it. Number 3, third reason why these things are unprofitable is because they bring bad earthly consequences on our life. Galatians chapter 6, verse 7, do not be deceived. Nobody makes a fool out of God, for whatever a person sows, that is exactly what they will reap. And then God goes on to say the person who sows to please their own sinful nature, the person who does these black and white things that I'm telling you not to do, they will reap, literally the word means decay, rottenness. Now, friends, what I'm about to say to you, you can take to the bank.

I've seen it over 53 years. It is true. Here's what I want to say. Whenever we disobey God in one of these black and white areas, we will always live to regret it, always.

I've never seen it fail, sometimes bitterly so. Every one of these black and white issues carries a sting like a scorpion, which is why God tells us stay away from them. They have consequences that are ugly and nasty and painful. God says in His love, don't do them.

They're going to hurt you. You know, I lead tours to Israel. Most of you know that. And one of my favorite places to go is up on the Golan Heights, which are on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, and the Syrians occupied the Golan Heights for a number of years. Finally, the Israelis ran them off in 1967, but between 1948 and 1967, they had military units up there, and every day they would shell across the Sea of Galilee the Israelis on the other side.

And so finally there was a war. The Israelis ran them off. But if you go up there today, there are still fields up there on the top and on the side of the Golan Heights that are completely surrounded by barbed wire, and they have big red signs, and here's what those signs say. They say, warning, mines, exclamation point, stay out. You say, what are they talking about? Well, they're talking about landmines that the Syrians put in there that are still there. The Israelis have never removed them because a lot of that land ain't even worth reclaiming. They just put a fence around them, put a sign up, and said, hey, there's landmines in here, fellas.

Don't go in here. Now, I never met a tourist in my life who stood there and looked at these signs and said, you know, these Israelis, they really get on my nerves. All they want to do is take all the fun out of life. I mean, they are the biggest party poopers I ever saw. They are so prune-faced. They are the biggest killjoys in my life, putting up a fence like this and telling me not to walk in here.

No, nobody says that. Everybody stands there and says, thank God they put that sign up, and I'm not going in there. And yet isn't it amazing, you know, there are minds in life. And God puts up signs and says, warning, minds, don't go in here. And people stand there and go, you know, he is the biggest prune-faced thing I ever saw in my life. He wants to take all the fun out of life.

He's the biggest killjoy I ever saw. How dare him tell me not to do something. Folks, what are we, stupid? We must be out of our minds. God put those signs up and said, don't go in there because when you go in there, you're going to get your leg blown off or worse. Smart people say, thank you, God. Thank you, God, for putting those signs up. And smart people, they listen to the signs. Why shouldn't we do some of these black and white things?

Very simple, friends. They're landmines. They'll blow your leg off, blow your body in half.

They'll destroy you. God in His love has put up signs saying, don't do it. We ought to be smart enough to listen to Him. Number four, why are these things unprofitable? Number four, because they compromise our spiritual platform with people.

I mean, 1 Peter chapter 2 says, keep your behavior excellent among unbelievers, Gentiles, but he means unbelievers, so that by doing right, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live as free men. I love this. Because we are free men. Live as free men. But do not use your freedom as a cover up for evil.

Instead, use your freedom as an opportunity to serve God. I think the greatest objection to Christianity, and you've heard it as much as I have, you try to share with somebody, and what do they say? They say, well, you know, I knew a Christian once, and they did this, and they did that, and they did the other thing, and if that's what the Christian is, then I don't want to hear it. How many times have you heard something like that?

I hear it all the time. Now, you know, these people have a point. There are certain things you and I can do that will completely cause us to lose our platform to share Christ with others.

They will just write us off. They say, well, on the gray area, some of these gray area things you can do that. Well, you're right. You're right. There are some groups of people in some locations where if you do some of these gray area things, dancing, drinking, smoking, gambling, whatever, you can completely blow your platform.

That's true, and we're going to talk about that beginning next week. But when it comes to these black and white areas, friends, you do any of these things in any place at any time with any group of people, and your platform is gone, and not just gone for you. It's gone for any of us who want to come behind you and try to reach that person that you lost your platform with.

Many times it's gone for us, too, because they bring your example up and throw it at us. God left us here to reach people, friends. He didn't leave us here just to have fun and buy stuff. He left us here to reach people, and what a stupid thing for us to do to ruin our platform by doing those things that God tells us.

If you do them, people are just going to write you off, and they're going to write everybody else off that tries to reach them. Number five, and finally, why is it that we should stay away from these black and white issues? Number five is because they rob us of our reward in heaven. First Corinthians chapter three speaks to this. It says, no one can lay any other foundation than that which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Okay, now as followers of Christ, we all build on that same foundation, but we can build on it with two different things. We can build with gold and silver and precious stones. We can build permanent things, good things, lasting things, or on the foundation of our relationship with Christ, we can build wood, hay, and stubble, impermanent things, worthless things.

We've got our choice. The Bible goes on to say, in either case, our work will be shown for what it truly is, because the day we stand before the Lord will bring it to light, and God's fire will test the quality of each person's work. This is talking about our performance review when we get to heaven. We've talked about that before, and the imagery here is that God takes a big old flame thrower out and turns it on everything we've done in our life. Now, of course, the things we've done that are permanent and lasting and good, like gold and silver and diamonds, when the fire dies, they're still there.

Wood, hay, and stubble, man, they're gone. And then the Bible says, if what we have built survives the fire, we're going to receive reward for that. If everything gets burned up, we ourselves will still be saved. Our eternal life is not in question, but we will suffer loss of reward. You say, well, Lon, what exactly are these rewards that God's given out in heaven? Well, friend, I don't know. The Bible never says. I can tell you this. Whenever God's given out rewards, you want them.

Whatever they are, you want them. And so what the Bible is telling us is when we do these black and white things, these black and white things are like reward suckers. All they do is just take all the reward out of that time and energy that we're putting into doing these things.

It's crazy. Why do these things? They're worthless and they rob us not only of eternal reward, but they bring pain and heartache on our lives down here. Why do these things? So let's summarize.

What have we learned today? You say, well, I don't even see why we talked about this. I mean, anybody in their right mind knows if God says thou shalt and thou shalt not, you shouldn't do it.

So why do we even waste a whole message talking about this? You should sit in my office on a Tuesday. If you think this is so obvious, come be a fly on my wall.

I have people come in there and tell me the most unbelievable stuff you ever heard in your life. And when I say to them, didn't you know the Bible said not to do it? They go, well, yeah. Well, okay. Then why did you do it?

I don't know. Well, we needed to talk about this today because there are some reasons why if we know what the Bible teaches, friends, there's some reasons why we shouldn't do these things. So I don't think we wasted this.

Maybe if you feel we wasted it on you, come sit with me on a Tuesday and I think you'll change your mind. So let's summarize. What have we learned today? We've learned that we have freedom to do whatever we want as followers of Christ. We will still go to heaven. God will still love us and God will still meet our needs.

That is true. But there are certain areas of human behavior where God says to us, I want you. I command you. I call on you to limit that liberty, not to exercise that liberty.

These are the black and white areas. And why does God ask us to limit our liberty? Number one, because these things offend God and they disrupt our daily relationship with Him. Number two, because these things interrupt the power and the flow of the Spirit of God through our life. Number three, because these things bring bad earthly consequences our way. Number four, because these things compromise our spiritual platform with people. And number five, because these things rob us of our rewards in heaven. You say, well, Lon, if everything you've said about these black and white issues are true, we would have to be an idiot to do these things, Christian liberty or no Christian liberty. Bingo.

Bingo. That's the whole point. In fact, that's what God says. Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 29.

Oh, that my people's hearts would be inclined to keep my commandments always so that it might go well with them and their children forever. Friends, God wants us to be smart. And smart people don't walk into minefields. God wants us to be smart. Smart people don't look at signs that say, warning, mines, stay out and go, you know what? That signs for everybody else. But I'm going to be able to walk through here, even though I see dead carcasses all through the field.

I'm going to be able to walk through here and I'm going to be able to make it without being hurt. Smart people don't do that. God wants you and me to be smart. If He tells us their minds somewhere, stay away, don't use your liberty there, it's because He loves us, friends, and He's trying to keep us from getting hurt. We would be very wise to listen. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us today about everyday life right down where we live.

We have choices to make every day and many of them involve these black and white issues. Lord, my prayer is that first of all, you would remind us, we are free. You're not threatening us with the loss of our eternal life. You're not threatening us with the loss of your love. You're appealing to us to be smart, to be obedient children, to trust you that you know what you're talking about, and to limit that liberty in the areas where you tell us it's dangerous, it's harmful, it's offensive to you, to simply say, Lord, because we love you. Fine.

We just won't use our liberty there. God, my prayer is that you would talk to each one of us here today about these areas in our lives and that if we need course corrections here today, you would give us the courage with your help to make them. Lord, guide this series, make it a blessing, inform, challenge, and motivate our lives, and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.