Law, Liberty and the Building up of Oneself

Well, let's take our Bible and let's turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Like I said earlier, we're going to be in Titus chapter 2. This will be later on in the message. There are some verses that I want us to see, but we're going to primarily be in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Now, just like Romans chapter 14, we're not going to cover everything here, and you need to be a good student. You go study and you go look at maybe what I didn't bring out, and I believe the Spirit of God will help you see some things to just flesh out this message and what the Lord wants to teach us a little more.

Now, I think everybody knows we're still continuing in this series that I've been calling Life in the Body. We're looking at a lot of subjects dealing with a lot of needs, addressing some topics that I think are very pertinent for us in our day and in our time. Now, the Sunday before last, we covered a very, very important subject for us and the fact that we can have very different Christians within the life of the church. Now, I'm not talking about differences that we are very aware of. I'm not talking about differences in our jobs or hobbies or even our personalities.

I'm talking about much different, deeper differences, and these differences have the potential of being dangerous. Think about that. Some of these differences can have the potential to be dangerous in the life of the church. Remember what I shared at the beginning of the message last week? Within the church, we have some who are attracted to rules. We have Christians, they are attracted to law. They love those black and white lists. They are attracted to living out the Christian life through do's and don'ts. They just see the Christian life through these lists, through law, through do's and don'ts.

And these kind of Christians can be prone to legalism. I think some of you know that. But then there are others. There are others who seem to be the opposite. They are attracted to grace. They are attracted to liberty. They love their freedom in Christ and they are attracted to living out the Christian life through freedom, in liberty, in love and grace. And they see the Christian life not through the lens of law, but through the lens of liberty. Now these Christians, sometimes they can be prone to abuse freedom. They might be prone to abuse their liberty.

And you see right here in the life of our church, the longer we are here together doing the work of the church, the more these types of differences will be realized, the more we will see them come to be in the life of the church. And look, when this happens we need to deal with these differences properly. Now what did we see? What did we learn the week before last when we were in Romans chapter 14? Paul showed us that we can't destroy, we can't divide, we can't even disconnect the body of Christ over non-essentials, over matters of Christian liberty, matters of the conscience.

We can say it like this, over matters that we would call convictions. Now these are non-essentials, these are not clear commands in the scripture. Paul showed us that it is each individual Christian's responsibility to love and accept and receive all true Christians in the body. And he showed us that it is every Christian's duty to build up one another in the faith in the local church. Remember, the strong Christian must love and must accept and even build up the weak Christian. And then think about it, the weak Christian must love and accept and the weak Christian must even build up the strong and that is possible.

Now remember the title of the message, Law, Liberty, and I posed it as a question there in the end, the end of the title, Law, Liberty, and the Destruction of the Church. This can destroy the church if we don't deal with these differences properly. And so the answer to the question is no, never. These types of differences cannot divide and destroy. It can't even fracture the unity, we can't allow that to happen. Now remember where all of this came from, this was a real church.

Paul's writing the letter to the Romans and it was a real church and they had these real problems and Paul was addressing those who love law over here and those who love liberty over here and what were they doing? They were judging, they had contemptuous attitudes and it was creating problems in the church. So this was real and it can't be real for us if we're not careful. And listen church, make sure you get what I shared in that message. You need it, make sure and this is not just for today, this isn't just for tomorrow, this is for the years to come. And I thought about it like this, you need to absorb and you need to accept that teaching.

Yes, you need to absorb it and you need to accept it. It needs to be a part of your understanding. It is essential for the unity of the body and the work of the church for the years to come. And it isn't a matter of if this type of conflict will come, it's a matter of when. It's just going to happen. Now I said last week or the week before, we have dealt with these kind of matters in the past. Yes, we have. We have had some in the life of our church in the past. They have blown it here, but yet there are some of you, you have dealt with these matters well and I'm very happy to say that.

Now I said something in the previous message that we really need to think about it. We need to think about it. Not only is it important how we live these matters in our personal lives, it is more important how we live out these matters in the local church. Now I know we can't violate our conscience in non-essentials. We learned that in Romans chapter 14. We cannot violate our conscience in these matters of conviction, but also we cannot disconnect, divide, or destroy the body either. Romans 14, 19 to 20, it forbids us from destroying the work of God in these matters.

And you see there's a connection between the personal, between the corporate, between our own personal lives and the life of the body. There's a connection and there is this spiritual tension, you see? But this leads us to some other questions. I think some of you ask these questions and you should be asking these questions. How do I deal with these matters of conscience in my own life? How? How do I deal with these issues in life if they are not clearly spelled out in the scriptures, how to approach all of this? That's where I want us to go this morning.

I want us to think on these things on a more personal level, all while not disconnecting from the local church. Remember that tension? I want us to revisit what takes place in the local church and address how we begin to deal with these matters in our life. We're just taking a couple of more steps here. Now remember the circumstance that I pose to you. Someone comes to Christ. I mean, God saves them. Or we have a believer. They come into the life of the church. See, there are two ways that people come into the life of the church. They come to faith in Christ and God unites them. Or they come into the life of the church as a believer.

And look, this is just how they're wired. They love rules, they love law. They see living out the Christian life through the lens of do's and don'ts. That is the way they are wired. But then the opposite or the seeming opposite. Someone comes to faith in Christ or they come through the membership process of our church. They're a true believer. And they don't see the Christian life as rules and law. They see the Christian life as grace and liberty, freedom. They are just wired that way. And over time, over time, we see how they live out the Christian life differently.

Now think about it through the months and through the years as we see each other live life, we see how we live life differently. And I'm telling you folks, these two types of people will live life differently. Now I gave us a list and I'm going to zoom back through it. The one who loves law and the one who loves liberty, they're going to view things like television and movies and music. I just say it like this, "Entertainments." They're going to view those things different. Think about it.

Whether it's sports, being involved in sports, watching sports, going to athletic events, television, movies, music, just this large subject of entertainment. A lot of times, these two types of Christians can view these things different. I mentioned this one. This was a big one. This is a really big one for Christians in our day. Social media. How do we deal with social media? The one who loves law, they just might have their conscience violated if they think about using social media. Oh, but the one who loves liberty uses social media for a good thing. Now, social media leads us to sin. It doesn't matter what category we fit in. It's sin.

But you know, I mentioned this one. This is a big one. Convictions about what we do on the Lord's Day. Some Christians call this the Christian Sabbath. The New Testament refers to Sunday as the Lord's Day. And there's been this nagging question all throughout the ages. What can a Christian do on the Lord's Day? And how should Christians view the Lord's Day? And that can be very divisive. And the one who loves law, and then the one who loves liberty might approach the Lord's Day Sunday completely different. And then how we manage our family. You know, it doesn't matter how we view these things. The husband is the head of the home.

Isn't that right? That's God's ordained plan. The husband is the head of the home. But when you get down to the nitty gritty of how we lead our children, whether we have an organized, real family altar, or whether we emphasize teaching as we come and we go, there are a lot of people who view those things different. And when we get into matters of the family and how we lead our children, I mentioned one that can be a hot topic issue. How we educate our children. I want to clarify something that I said. There are some who feel led of God to homeschool. There are some who feel led of God to use private education.

And then there are some who do feel led of God to put their children in public education. Now in some places you can't do that. I'll give you a good example. I have a friend of mine who pastors outside of Nashville. He lives in a little town called Greenbrier. And he told me this, he's told me this numerous times. He says, "You know, Greenbrier reminds me a lot of Brookhaven." He said, "The school system is full of Christians. It's full of church-going folks." And he said, "You still can put your child in public education there.

They don't teach a lot of the things that we see in culture." He said, "I've got friends who are involved in the public education system there." He said, "But you cross over the line in the Nashville proper." He said, "You couldn't dare put your child in that public school system." Now I know those things are changing fast. This is a hot topic issue. And what I'm trying to show you is, these are things that we pray through and we work through and we want to be led of God here. But what I'm showing you is this, those who love law, they can view these kind of things different. And those who love liberty, they can view these things different.

But the question, as a Christian, how do I deal with these issues in life that are not clearly spelled out in Scripture? These are non-essentials. These are not moral issues. These are not clear commands. How do we approach these issues? Now I want to start off with four questions. Four questions, and tied to these four questions are four principles that come right out of the verses that we read earlier in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Now I'm not going to read these verses. I'm going to read them as we go along. And I'll give you these questions. I'll try to give you this information on the screen. It'll help us.

But I want us to see the first question. The first question, does the matter at hand here, does this build me up? You can simplify it. When we're looking at a subject, we're asking a question here. We're dealing with a non-essential, something that deals with conscience, something that deals with the conviction. Does this matter at hand build me up? Now let's look back at verse 23. Paul says, "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful." All things are lawful, but not all things. Here's the word, build me up. Now here we see that Paul is laying out for us a very important principle.

The fact that spiritual edification is more important than any personal gratification. Let me say that again. Spiritual edification, spiritual growth is more important than any personal gratification. Now remember who we are. As born again Christians, we are blood bought. We belong to Christ. He purchased us on the cross. We are not our own. We are in Christ as new creations. He is Lord of our lives. So it's not about what I want or what I feel or what I desire. It's about what he wants. So remember who we are.

Now Paul is saying here that for true Christians, their spiritual edification, their spiritual growth is more important than any personal gratification. Now when Paul says here in the verse, "All things," he does not literally mean all things. He is not saying that it would be acceptable for a Christian to commit adultery. No. He's not saying that it would be acceptable for a Christian to steal or to get drunk. See the list can go on and on. Those are clear black and whites. We understand that. These are clear commandments and we would never accept those or break those in our lives.

Paul is speaking of things that pertain to Christian liberty, matters of the conscience, non-essentials, we can say the word convictions. And what Paul is saying here is this. There are many things in a Christian's life that can be perfectly legitimate, but for certain reasons it would be unwise for the Christian to participate in those things. So here's the principle out of verse 23. Spiritual edification or spiritual growth is more important than personal self gratification. I give you an example here. I want to try to help you here. Sometimes this can be difficult.

Back in the summer during our COVID shutdown on Wednesday nights, I was finishing up seeking to finish up our study through the book of Proverbs. And when I was going through Proverbs and I got to the section on Proverbs that dealt with alcohol, I preached a four-part message on alcohol and I made several statements that are key here. First of all, the scriptures do not command, do not drink. But the scriptures do command, do not get drunk. So to have a glass of wine or to have a sip of alcohol is not a sin, but drunkenness is. Now the difficulty comes where the line is, and that's another subject for another day. So I want to be clear here.

I cannot say that the scriptures say a Christian cannot drink, but I can say the scriptures emphatically say drunkenness is a horrible sin. But I stated there that out of Romans chapter 14, it is my personal conviction and it is the conviction of the elders and the leaders of this church that we will not drink. Why? Because we do not want to cause anyone to stumble and see what I'm showing you is this. It is more important for me to focus on my personal spiritual growth and edification than the gratification of self. Maybe I would enjoy a glass of wine. I don't. Maybe I would enjoy a sip of alcohol. I don't.

But it's not about what would make me feel good or what I would enjoy. I know for me it is not best spiritually to partake in those things. So I pushed out of sight. The most important thing is my spiritual growth and my spiritual edification. And there are many things that we could talk about here. Many, many things. So what do we see here? We're dealing with convictions. We're dealing with freedoms. We're dealing with liberty. And listen, folks, when you are contemplating these things, ask yourself. When you're contemplating a conviction or a freedom or even a prohibition, will I spiritually edify? Will I spiritually grow?

Will I edify myself if I engage in this activity? Or is this something that satisfies me but it will harm me spiritually? See the simple principle? Spiritual improvement must come before personal gratification. Now I want to pause here. I want to give you a little warning. Never, ever approach these issues with a question like this. Can I get away with it? Never approach this with a subject like this, with a question like this. Can I get away with it? Or how close can I get to it without committing a sin? You see those kind of questions? What you're doing is, is you're flirting with disaster. You're flirting with temptation.

And you're not approaching the matter properly. So the question, does the matter at hand? Does the issue at hand? Does it build me up? And the principle here is this. My spiritual edification is more important than my personal, fleshly gratification. Now the second question, does this matter? Does the question, does the issue at hand, does it offend others? This conviction, this liberty, can I do this? Does it offend others? I want us to look at the second verse or verse 24. The second verse in our verses. Let's read it together or look at it together.

Paul says, "Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." Short verse, but powerful. "Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." Here we see that Paul lays out another important principle. The fact that others are more important than self. Remember, remember who we are. We're blood-bought. Remember, we don't belong to ourselves. We belong to the Lord. But remember where we live. We live the Christian life within the body. So we see who we are. We belong to Christ and we see where we live. We see our place and it's in the church connected to the body, the local church.

And Paul is saying that for the true Christian, others come first. You see? The spiritual well-being of others is more important than any personal want or desire or any personal whim. Paul is saying this here. In all the decisions that Christians make in life, those decisions must come, must not come out of fleshly, selfish thinking. Those decisions can't be made only thinking of self. But the decisions we make should be filtered through what is best for our brother, our sister, and even our neighbor. And what Paul is saying is this. There are many things in a Christian's life that can be perfectly legitimate.

But for certain reasons, neighbors, brothers and sisters may be offended. And for whatever reason, that choice would not be good for the neighbor. So the principle here. Christians should think of others first. For the true Christian should put others above self. I'll give you an example, another example. I'm just using me. I remember years ago when the vote in our state came up about the casinos. I'm old enough to remember the Mississippi Gulf Coast before the casinos. But the casinos have changed everything in many ways. But what I want you to see is there's a debate among Christians. Can a Christian go to the casino?

Can a Christian go to the casino and eat? I even knew a Christian years ago. He had the debate in his church. Can a Christian work at the casino? But for me, personally, I could go into any casino. I could eat a nice meal. I could enjoy that meal. I could never sin. I would never be tempted to gamble. I could walk in and I can walk out. But here is the question. If I enjoy that liberty, what does it do for others? Does it offend my neighbor? Could it offend a brother or a sister? You see? Yesterday, my nephew was married. I shared that with you earlier, the scripture reading. And they had the rehearsal supper at one of the local golf courses.

Many of you know that I grew up playing golf. I worked at that particular local golf course. And I was not converted then. And I think about all of the sinful activities that went on in that day. And I think about so many sinful activities that can take place in those types of arenas. And it reminded me of a preacher that I know. I'm picking on preachers today. I heard the story of a preacher who liked to play golf. Nothing wrong with playing golf. And I heard the story of a preacher who liked to play golf with a group of lost people. There's nothing wrong with playing golf with lost people. But the story went on.

They talked about how he had great camaraderie with those lost people. And also how he would pay off his debts, his gambling debts, when he played golf. See, he was abusing his liberty. Golf was okay. Maybe even playing with the loss was okay. But he was compromising. He was compromising in that area. And see, it was causing other people to be offended, you see? So folks, when we are contemplating these issues, when we have decisions in front of us, and when we're forming our convictions, and what we say we can do and can't do, we must ask ourselves, "Will this offend my neighbor or not?" The simple principle is this.

The good of others always comes before self. Remember who we are and remember where we live. Now, here is a warning here. Here's a warning. You can't get hung up on Pharisees. Listen, folks, there will always be Pharisees around you who live by rule after rule after rule after rule. And listen, they will nitpick you to death. And anything and everything you do, they'll nitpick you. And everything you do will offend them. You can't live like that. I remember years ago in my home church, Brother Dennis, my home church pastor, you know, he faithfully dealt with these things in the life of the church.

I was sharing this story with Jared a couple of weeks ago. Back in that day, Brother Dennis would wear nice cowboy boots with his suit. I mean, he dressed in a suit every Sunday, every Wednesday. And it was just his style. He would wear nice cowboy boots with his suit. And I'll never forget one time he just quit wearing his cowboy boots. And somebody said, "Brother Dennis, why don't you wear your cowboy boots anymore?" You know, we had on loafers. Sunday school shoes. He said, "Well, there was a lady in the church that complained. She kind of nitpicked and got on what I wear.

I just thought maybe it'd be better off not to wear them." Now, what am I showing you? Somebody that would nitpick. Now, Brother Dennis just said, "You know, my boots aren't worth it." But the point I'm trying to make is there's always a Pharisee. There's always a rule monger who will nitpick you to death. And you can't fall into that trap. You can't live like that. And so when we're dealing with these types of matters, we have to look for the good of others above ourselves. But we can't go so far where we fall prey to and victim to the Pharisee. So number three. We're just moving along in these questions.

Number three, will the matter at hand, the conviction that we're contemplating how we're looking at a subject, will it lead me into bondage? Will this or could this lead me into bondage? Here I want us to look at verse 25 on down to verse 27. Paul says, "Eat whatever is sold in the market or meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience." Verse 26, 4, and you might see a quotation here, "For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

If one of the unbelievers invite you to a dinner and you were disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience." Now here Paul gives a principle that many, many need. And listen, here is a principle that many do not see. And here's the principle, liberty above and beyond legalism. Liberty is always above and beyond rules in legalism. Now a question, what's going on here? Let me give you the basic rundown of what's happening. In Paul's day, the worship of pagan gods, pagan deities was very, very common, especially in Corinth. It was really everywhere it permeated the culture.

And a part of this worship of all of these pagan gods, many times a part of that worship was sacrificing animals to those little G gods. And after these animals were sacrificed to the pagan gods, the meat was sold in the meat market. And literally they would have places where you could go buy the meat that was sacrificed to the gods there in the market. A question, have any of you ever seen a meat market? I'm not talking about the supermarket. I remember years ago when I went to India with my friend, I remember we were going through Delhi. The capital city now, the Washington DC of India.

And all of a sudden we start going down these streets and it's the meat market. It's an open air meat market, no refrigeration. Animal carcasses hung up there. I mean, we were going back in time. We turned down one street and one of the Indians said, this is the dog market where you bought dog meat. That would get your attention. See in that day, that's what they had. They had open air meat markets and they had the market where you could buy the meat that was sacrificed to the idols. So that's the background. And without in mind, notice what Paul is saying here. First Paul says, eat what is in the market without asking what it is.

That's what he says in verse 25. He says, eat what is in the market without even asking what it is. We need to look back at verse 25. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market. Eat it. Without raising any question on the ground of conscience. In other words, don't even ask where it came from. Paul is saying that if a believer went into the meat market to buy the meat, he was not required to ask the seller if the meat had been sacrificed to an idol. You see that? Paul knew that the meat was not and it could not be affected. Think about that. That God didn't exist. It was make believe.

So he knew that the meat could not be affected by the sacrifice. He knew that this was not a matter of love for Christ. He knew this was not a matter of being obedient to Christ. So Paul says first here, eat what is in the market without even asking. Second, Paul says what is in the market belongs to God. Paul says what is in the market belongs to God. Look at verse 26. For the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof. Some of your Bible translations have a notation here. He is quoting Psalm 24 verse 1.

In the idea or the message here is this, all foods are graciously provided by God for man and all foods are given to man to be used of man for man. The idea here is use it all. God gave it. And then third, Paul says, if an unbeliever sets food before you, eat it. He says, if an unbeliever brings food out to you, eat it. Look at verse 27. If one of the unbelievers invites you as a believer to a dinner and you are disposed to go, you feel led to go, you want to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. Here Paul is bringing up another matter, but he's talking about things.

He's taking things to another level. He is saying this. What if an unbeliever invites you to dinner? What if an unbeliever is having a barbecue and they invite you to their home? Would that believer be free to say yes and go? Yeah, that's what he's saying. You're free to go. And would that believer be free to eat whatever is served? The answer is yes. Paul tells these Christians that they are free to go into the home of an unbeliever and they have complete liberty to be anything that is brought before them. Simply what Paul is saying is this. In the life of the Christian, liberty comes before legalism. Freedom comes before law.

So the principle is simple, but this is a hard principle for some. Liberty and freedom before law and legalism. So folks, when you're contemplating these issues, listen, the list just can go on and on. We don't have time to get into all of the matters that are before us. Ask yourself the question, does my position lead me to bondage? Does it lead me to legalism? Or does this lead me to freedom and liberty? So the principle, freedom comes before legalism. Now I don't have a warning here, but I've got you a modern day proverb. I was listening to some information that Brother Jeff preached on this topic.

Brother Jeff Noblet from Grace Life Church of the Shoals. And there was a couple of quotes that just jumped out at me. And when he was dealing with something of this nature, he said this, and this is a loose quote. Wise is the man who knows his weaknesses and guards himself in these areas. And I'm going to add to that. We got to discover our weaknesses. We got to see and understand our weaknesses. And we've got to understand our weaknesses. See, we cannot let these things lead us into bondage. But then the fourth question, and you could probably guess where this is going. Will the matter at hand?

This question, this conviction, will this issue, will it lead other people, will my freedom lead other people into bondage? Now here I want to read verses 28 to 30. Verse 28 to 30. But if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice. In other words, sacrifice to the gods, little gee. Then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience. I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake without thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? Now this can seem strange.

This might even seem complicated, but here's the principle. Affin the unbeliever, if necessary, so as not to offend the believer. That's what he's saying here. Let me repeat that. Affin the nonbeliever, if you must, so as not to offend the believer. Again, who are we? We are Christ's. We are bought by Christ. We are owned by Christ. And where do we live out the Christian life? In the local church. Yes, in the local church first. In the body of Christ. Now again, notice what we have here. This is a matter of foods.

It appears that we have two believers, one weak, one strong, and it appears we have two believers and a nonbeliever in this situation. And we have food that has been sacrificed to an idol. Paul is saying that even if a believer is the guest of an unbeliever, even though the believer does not want to offend the unbeliever, it is better to offend the unbeliever than the weaker Christian who may be offended here. Paul is saying this, the believers love for his brother in Christ must come before his love for an unbeliever. Now notice what he says in verse 29 and 30.

In verse 29, Paul says, hurting the weaker brother with freedom will cause that weaker brother to be led into bondage. Look at verse 29. I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? See, they will accuse the stronger in their freedom. So Paul is saying that the stronger Christian should refrain from eating, not because of his own conscience, but because of the conscience of the weaker brother. And then verse 30. Paul says a believer can't truly thank God for foods which will cause the weaker brother to stumble and be led into bondage. That's what verse 30 is all about.

If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that which I give thanks? Paul says that a believer can't truly thank God for foods which will cause the weaker brother to stumble and then be led into bondage. So Paul is saying it is better not to make use of freedom and liberty if it leads a weaker in the bondage and they are offended. So the principle, the principle, better to offend the non-Christian so as not to offend the brother. Affin the non-believer if you must, but don't offend the brother, the weaker brother.

So folks, when you're contemplating these issues, when you're looking at these decisions, we must ask this question. Will my decision, will my freedom, will my choice, will it lead a brother into bondage? Will my choice offend a weaker brother, leading them into bondage and them into condemning me? So the principle is simple. Affend a non-Christian if you must, but never offend a brother. You know, I thought about the second commandment. What's the first commandment? Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second is this, love your neighbor as yourself.

So if we are to love our neighbors of ourself, how much more the brothers and sisters in the life of the church, even a weaker brother? So notice what I've given you. I mean, I've just zoomed through these verses, four questions and four principles. The question is this, will this build me up? I mean, we're contemplating a choice. We're formulating a conviction. We're looking at freedom. We're looking at liberty. We're making these choices. Will this spiritually build me up? And the principle is this, spiritual edification must come before personal gratification. And listen, folks, this takes maturity. This takes discipleship.

This takes time. Then the second, will this offend another? And the principle is this, the good of others always comes first. And this is contrary to everything in our culture. This is anti-self, this is putting others first. And then third, will this lead me into bondage? The principle is this, freedom and liberty comes before legalism. And this is so very important. This is where maturity comes, must come in in time. And we must learn how to live in balance in these matters. And then fourth, will this lead others into bondage and the principle, better to offend the non-Christian so as not to offend the brother. Look at that.

What is Paul saying? Protect the brother, protect the brother and sister in Christ, even the weaker brother at all cost, even if it costs your relationship to the lost. Now look, church, listen, folks, it definitely is important how we live out these matters in our personal lives. It is. It matters. We learned in Romans that we stand before God in these matters, but it is more important how we live out these matters in the local church. Romans 14 teaches us that we can't disconnect the unity. We can't divide the unity. We can't destroy the unity of the body.

Listen, we can disrupt, divide or destroy the body and how we live in the non-essentials, these matters of personal conviction. And remember, this is personal and this is corporate. And there is a tension between the two. Both are important. They must be dealt with in balance. We must have balance in all of these matters. Now, as I was contemplating these matters through the week, I came down to two mistakes that we see often. You might can add to this. These two mistakes need to be seen. You need to really get this. Here's where many get out of balance here. See, balance is the key. Maturity, discipleship, time and balance.

But notice how people can get out of balance here. Number one, some find them a church where everyone lives out the non-essentials just like them. That's what folks do. Oh, they love law or they love grace. They love the rules or they love their freedoms. And what they'll do is they'll seek out a church and a people who live out all of these things just like they do. I have seen people drive miles to find a church just like they are. Remember Romans 14, the Jews and the Gentiles? Did Paul tell the Jews to just go on down the road and start them a church?

Did he say, "Listen, Jews, you go down there and y'all can have your lists of what you can eat and what you can't eat. You can have your list about how to deal with these holy days. Listen, Jews, you go down the road and you start yourself a church and y'all just have one of those churches where y'all all dress alike, you talk alike and you live alike." Did he tell them to do that? Or did he tell the Gentiles? Did he tell the Gentiles to go down there and they just have a church of freedom? You know, I thought about it like this.

If the Gentiles would have broken away in Rome and started their own church, they'd have been the church with the loud music. They had had freedom. I mean, it would have been loosey goosey. See, it would have been all about liberty and freedom. See, he didn't do that. And what happens is they're Christians, they think they have to live out all of these non-essentials just like other people and they look for cookie cutter Christians and they look for a cookie cutter church and everybody in the pew is just like they are. Paul did not do that in Romans. Jews, Gentiles, get along. Don't destroy the work of the church for your non-essentials.

That's one way where people get out of balance. Oh, the second way where some get out of balance is this. Some disconnect from the church so they can live out the non-essentials just like they want. See, they don't want to be under authority. They don't want elders and pastors to make them work these things out. They don't want to be in a church where they have to be around people who are different. So what they do is they disconnect from a body. They disconnect from the local body. They don't want church authority. See, they're John Wayne Christians. They're going to go it alone. They're just the tough guys. See, I can do it by myself.

And those are two areas where people can get out of balance here. Now, last week I gave you three points of instruction that I really think have helped us. I'm going to zoom through these and then I'm going to add to it. This is all going together, folks. So be patient with me. First, I say this. I stated this. We must stay rooted in the local church. Listen, we find a Bible church, a healthy local church, and we pour our lives into the local church. This is a healthy local church. And what we have to do is every day and every week, we have to die a thousand deaths.

We have to crucify a million temptations to be disconnected from the local church. I had a conversation this week. This week with a solid Christian who were offering excuses as to why they're just not as plugged into the life of the local church like they should be. See, this is what the Jewish Christian does. He says, "Well, there's just a couple of Jews there, and there's a lot of Gentiles, and I don't feel as comfortable in that small group.

And you know, sometimes I just don't relate because you know I'm a little different, so I just don't go quite like I should." So we got to stay rooted in the life of the local church, and we die to thousands of temptations that would keep us out of the local church. Number two, I stated that we need to stay under our leaders, the leaders that God has placed over us. Hebrews 13, 17 says that the body is to be subject to the leaders. The body of Christ is to be under the authority of the leaders that God has put over them. This is where so many blow it.

So many John Wayne Christians, they don't want to be under the authority of local church leaders, but what they'll do is they will say they're under the authority of celebrity preachers, those who write books, those who preach at conferences. I'm not against books and conferences, but those guys can't shepherd you. And then third, allow your leaders to shepherd you through. That's what we do. We shepherd you through.

And look, as you submit to the leaders that God has over you, and not just the elders, but other leaders who are over you, and more mature Christians, the whole work of the church shepherds you through, shepherds you through, shepherds you through. I shared earlier that I was visiting at Grace Life Church at Muscle Shoals earlier in the week. And you know, I was talking with the small group minister there, and he was sharing about how he meets with men. He has eight men that he meets with. There's this cycle. He meets with eight men, and he pours into them, and after time, they move on, and he meets with others.

And he's talking about the Christian life and personal things and their spiritual gifts. He is shepherding them through life. So we see these three things that we must do. Stay rooted in the local church. We must be under the leaders that God has given us, and we must allow the leaders, and then the church to shepherd us through. Now here, I want to add three more. I want to add three more points of instruction here. Here's where I want us to go to Titus. Turn over to Titus. Turn over to Titus, chapter two. I want us to read verses one to eight. Titus two, one to eight. Now the background here is Titus as an elder.

On the island of Crete, there were multiple churches there, and Paul is writing to Titus as an elder. Titus was not an apostle. Notice what he says. But as for you, remember he's an elder, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in the faith and love, and in steadfastness. Verse three. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good, and they are to train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching, show integrity and dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing to say about us, or evil to say about us. Now here, I want us to see three things.

Three things that we must have in our lives if we're going to live out what we're talking about properly. Remember, we're dealing with non-essentials, convictions, law, freedom, all of these matters. First, we need elders and pastors who give us sound doctrine, sound teaching. Isn't that what we see? Look at verse one again. But ask for you teach what a chords would say on doctrine. What is he saying? Titus, you preach and you teach. Go back to chapter one. Go back to verse nine. Notice what we see here. See, earlier in verse seven and eight, he's talking about character issues. Now he's talking about what the leader, the elder should do.

Verse nine, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So what do we have here? These are elders and pastors who preach and teach sound doctrine and sound instruction in the church. Then we see number two, older men. Older men who give great stability to the church, who are examples in the faith and who teach younger men. Look back at chapter two, verse two, and then on down to verse six. Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love and in steadfastness. And then look down to verse six.

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Now you might say, are those verses connected? Look, it's the older men who teach the younger men. And what do we see? Older men in the church who give great stability to the church, they're examples to the faith and they pour into the younger men. And then older women, older women who are examples of what godly women and mothers are to be and they teach the younger women. That's what we see in verses four to five. So what do we see here?

Entitus, if we're going to live out these non-essentials, if we're going to work them out in our life, living a godly life in our personal life in these matters, and then also living in the body as we should. Listen, we must have all of these things in our life. If we're going to do these things right, we must have elders and pastors over us. We must have the older pouring into us, men and women. Now I want to close, if my voice will let me, I want to close with verse 31 to down to verse 33. Let's go back to Corinthians. Back to Corinthians chapter 10. Notice how Paul changes here. So whether you eat or drink, it's kind of a summary.

Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Give no offense to the Jews, to the Greeks, or to the church of God. Just as I try to please everyone. Sounds like Paul's a man pleaser, doesn't it? But notice what he says. Just as I try to please everyone and everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but of that meaning, that they may be saved. Paul says that in all of these matters, what does he say? Do it all for the glory of God. Isn't that what he says? That was Paul's primary motivation. That's got to be our primary motivation. See that folks? Our primary motivation has got to be the glory of God.

So listen folks, if you can't do it for the glory of God, it's sin. If you're doing something and you can't do it for the glory of God, it's sin. And that must be your driving motivation. That must be your primary motivation. Whatever we do in these matters, it must be for the glory of God. Paul then says, do not offend others. Do you realize that this encompasses all of humanity, Jew, Gentile, and the church? This encompasses all of humanity, especially the church. So in all that you do and whatever you do, you got to ask yourself, does it offend others and especially the brothers and sisters in the church?

And then he ends with his secondary motivation. First is for the glory of God. And second is for the salvation of the lost. Paul says he does not seek what benefits him first so that others may come to faith in Christ. So if you live out these matters whereby you can be a solid witness, you are not in sin. But if you offend the lost, it is sin. So notice big picture. Notice what he's saying. You deal with all of these matters, food or drink, liberty, law, freedom, grace, rules. You deal with all of these matters for the glory of God, for the good of others, especially for the church and so as to win the loss.

Now, what's the title of the message? It's real simple. Law, liberty, and the building up of oneself. The building up of oneself. Listen, folks, this is about building ourselves up spiritually. These things matter. The building up of oneself. And look, I just wanted to add to that. It's the building up of oneself. And if we do it in the life of the church, we're building each other up. We're building each other up. We're building a job. And listen, if we do this right, we will build the church from corner to corner each Sunday, each week, each month. This will be the work that God does in us and through us. So let's take what we've looked at.

This is all coming together. Two messages that help us be able to move forward in dealing with these matters appropriately. Let's pray, and then we will dismiss.