BFM 2000 Salem Study: Religious Liberty

Joel Hayworth

BFM 2000 Salem Study • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

Christian Liberty

Gospel

Freedom

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Introduction

The summer months are always busy in the life of a church and FBC Salem is no different! It seems like the last few months we’ve had a million things going on. If you recall back in January we began going through the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and I had to check my preaching calendar this week to look back at the last time that we had a Sunday night message on the BFM - it was back in May! So much has happened over the last 3 months: Camp Joy, VBS, Mission Trip, Love Thy Neighbor, business meetings church fellowships and so much more. It’s been a full summer and I’m excited to get back into our routine of studying God’s Word together during this Sunday evening time. For the next 3 weeks we’re going to finish up the BFM 2000 and then transition in the fall to go through an Old Testament book. It’s narrowed down to 3 but we’ll see which way the Lord leads when the time comes!

Tonight as we get back into our BFM study, we’re going to skip ahead and backtrack next week. Tonight we find ourselves looking at a topic that has been in the news a lot in recent years: Religious Liberty. We love talking about liberty as Americans because freedom is the talk of our town so to speak. We are blessed to live in a country with much freedom and it’s hard for us to even imagine living in a country that lack the freedom that we possess. Did you know that there are some countries out there that restrict the type of things their citizens can wear? There are some countries that restrict the types of things people can listen to or watch. There are some countries that do not allow their citizens to study certain subjects. There are some countries out there that do not allow their citizens to vocalize certain things publicly. Our nation has so much freedom that we so often take for granted.

The Bible talks a lot about our freedoms and liberties that we experience in Jesus Christ and how that changes the way that we live our lives today. Throughout the history of Baptists, long before the formation of the SBC in the 19th century, we have always been people who have fought for religious liberty. Tonight we’ll look at most importantly what the Bible teaches about religious liberty, the Baptist history of religious liberty, and how we practice religious liberty in our world today inside and outside of our local church. Let’s read article #17 from the BFM.

“God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”

Philippians 2:12 CSB

12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 3:20 CSB

20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

James 4:12 CSB

12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Romans 6:1–2 CSB

1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Galatians 5:13 CSB

13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

Later on tonight we’ll look at our main text of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 8 but for right now I want to examine the history of religious liberty and then use Galatians 5 to see how we live out religious liberty

History of Religious Liberty

Baptists have always cared deeply about religious liberty and have stated that the civil government has to understand that the religious beliefs of their citizens are beyond their control. In other words, there is a separation of church and state. The church is free from the state and cannot be pushed to teach one thing or another - this is a stark contrast to what is taking place in China right now. Did you know that the Chinese government will allow their civilians to possess Christian Bibles now? It’s not the Christian Bible that you and I think that it is, though. See, the Chinese government, which claims to allow for religious liberty, has changed the Bible to fit their narrative. Rather than Jesus Christ being the Son of God who saves people from their sins and gives them hope… Jesus is just like you and I after their revisions. Take John 8, for example, as Jesus says that he who is without sin must cast the first stone. Obviously we know that we’re all sinners and so everyone leaves because His point is received. The Chinese have revised this passage with a different ending. “When everyone went out, Jesus stone the woman himself, and said, “I am also a sinner.” Why on earth would they add this to Scripture? Because they don’t care about religious liberty… They care about control. The Christian message is a threat and the Chinese government isn’t the only one that is threatened by Christianity. This is why religious liberty is important as there is a distinction between church and state.

Historically speaking, Baptists have largely been loyal people to our government. Even though the role and reliability of the government has changed over the years, there has largely been a healthy respect and distinction between the two. This doesn’t mean that Christians can’t be involved in the government - far from it. While not all, several of the founding father’s of our government were practicing Christians and many government officials in the years since have been born again believers as well and some more than others have put their Christian worldview into practice while serving our nation. Things largely are peaceful between the church and state compared to what is happening in other countries. Take the beginning years of the church for instance. We talk about being persecuted for our faith… The early Christians suffered for their faith. Look at some of the ways they suffered: Some were thrown into gladiator arenas to soldiers and animals. Others were crucified. Some were beheaded. Some were impaled. Some were burned alive. Why did all of these things happen? Because the Romans didn’t allow for much religious liberty. You were expected to declare that Caesar is Lord and if you didn’t, you would meet your death. After much persecution by the likes of Nero, Domitian, and Diocletian, in 325 AD Constantine legalized Christianity. Christians were suddenly given rights and even special benefits compared to other religions. You have severe persecution, then tolerance, then the Roman Catholic Church took it to a different extreme as there was no division between church and state. The Pope was arguably more powerful than the emperor at times in the Roman empire and the entire continent of Europe! This power was held by 1 man for years and years, generation after generation.

Then the Protestant Reformation arrives just over 500 years ago with Martin Luther and others wanting to remove the manmade traditions of the day and get back to simply what the Bible teaches. Part of this practice included religious liberty being reinstated as people could worship God without the danger of the government shutting them down or chopping off their head. This is the Baptist belief called the Priesthood of the Believer - meaning that because of Jesus we have access to God through Jesus Christ individually and that we don’t have to go through a human mediator, pastor, priest, or pope! As Phil 2:12 shares, we work out our own salvation. This topic led to issues. For years after the Reformation, Protestants (Baptists) were hunted down and killed by the Catholic Church and the Church of England. From the very beginning, Baptists have wanted people to be able to practice their religion and have the freedom to do so wherever they are at. Now, this applies to Baptists, Methodists, Church of Christ, Assembly of God, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and others as well… See, you can’t have selective Religious Liberty. Baptists have long advocated for liberty for people of other religious backgrounds because we see this as a right given to us by God to all people as the BFM states.

Having just gone to Guatemala and hearing horror stories about the past regimes there, we know that we cannot force people to become Christians. People have tried that for hundreds of years and even if you dunk 7 billion people, you can’t force them to change their heart… Only God can do that! We promote religious liberty in our country and we use our liberty to share the truth of the Gospel with others and we pray that in doing that, they might be saved by our God! Here’s the difficulty: The same liberty that allows us the freedom to practice Christianity is the same liberty that allows non-Christians to have the freedom to practice their beliefs in our country. The same liberty that we have to pray in public is the same liberty that non-Christians have to pray in public as well.

This is a brief history of religious liberty and why it matters so much… Let’s look at why we have this liberty in the first place in Galatians 5 as Paul talks about our freedom in Christ and how we are to use that freedom

1 Corinthians 8:7–13 CSB

7 However, not everyone has this knowledge. Some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food sacrificed to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not bring us close to God. We are not worse off if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat. 9 But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? 11 So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. 12 Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won’t cause my brother or sister to fall.

How Should We Use our Religious Liberty?

Lots of people use the term Christian to try and get an advantage in this life. Think about government officials - it seems like everyone, or at least most people, are Christians or believe in God. So often this is advised of people in power to try and gain extra votes just by using the name Christian. Is this how we should use our Religious Liberty? Should we treat our relationship with Christ as a title to be exploited and gain the approval of other people? That’s not the right thing to do. We don’t use our liberty to make things easier or to get our way or for personal gain… We use our freedom to glorify our Savior. In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about how we must use our personal religious liberty. This same argument is used in Romans 14 and to an extent in Galatians 5. Paul is addressing a problem in the church about what to do with meat offered to idols. Some believe that eating this meat is ok and others believe that it’s wrong. Paul’s reminder to these people who are divided is to not use their freedom to lead a brother or sister to fall into sin or to condemn them as a sinner for an action that they do. You have 2 groups here in Corinth and Paul labels them as the weak and the strong. This has nothing to do with physical strength but everything to do with their conscience. The essence of this passage is to not allow your liberty to turn into a stumbling block for another believer.

Now, it would be wrong to go to the temple and participate in the deeds of darkness taking place there… But in the marketplace, the meat used in pagan temple practices would be for sale at a far discounted rate. Some viewed this as sinful to eat… Others said it’s cheap, and I used to eat it because it was all I could afford growing up and now that I’m a Christian, I’ll gladly eat it for the glory of the Lord. Who is right and who is wrong? That’s what we all want to know in life and especially in passages like 1 Corinthians 8. Paul answers and says that neither is exactly right or wrong.

For many of the Jewish Christians in Corinth they were the “weak” individuals and they believed that knowing what had happened with this meat meant that it was wrong to eat it and if anyone did, they weren’t a faithful Christian. For many of the Gentile Christians, they were the “strong” individuals who didn’t see anything wrong with eating this meat because they never had the dietary laws that the Jews did. Some see this as participating in idolatry - which is sinful and wrong - others see it as not a big deal. Paul shares that this is an area of Christian liberty. That the problem is not the knowledge or conviction that we have, the problem stems with what we do with our freedom and liberty.

True Christian liberty is not about using our freedom to make people like us but laying our freedom down for others. This is what Paul talks about in chapter 9 as he says this

1 Corinthians 9:19–23 CSB

19 Although I am free from all and not anyone’s slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone, in order to win more people. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law—to win those under the law. 21 To those who are without the law, like one without the law—though I am not without God’s law but under the law of Christ—to win those without the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some. 23 Now I do all this because of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings.

What should we be doing with our freedom? We think about the other person rather than the freedom that we have. Are you ready to turn up the heat to a billion degrees? Let’s apply this principle to our daily lives.

From a strictly convictional standpoint based on God’s Word and my conscience, I have never and have no desire to consume alcoholic beverages. I could give you my rationale behind that, but ultimately this is an area of Christian liberty. I know born again Christians who disagree with me and their conscience allows them to do this in moderation. Strong and Weak - they’re the strong one and in this case I’m the weak one. That’s ok! Here’s what I can’t do. I can’t look at a friend who consumes alcohol in moderation and say that they’re probably not a Christian because they’re doing something that I would never do. Paul is saying here that I am wrong whenever I do this. Why? Because the Bible doesn’t say that alcohol is wrong - it says that being drunk is. Paul is saying here that eating the meat isn’t wrong - participating in idolatry is. We have different consciences when it comes to our role. My conscience tells me that if you don’t start you won’t have to be worried about where to stop - but someone else’s conscience might be different. Here’s what the strong person can’t do: Just because their conscience says that something is ok it doesn’t mean that it’ll be ok for everyone else too.

Paul gives us the right mentality in chapter 9 - we use our freedom not for selfish gain but to point people to Jesus and proclaim the Gospel! We don’t use our freedom to tempt others or cause them to stumble. See, we don’t demand to exercise our rights - that’s what citizens of this earth might do, but we’re called to walk as citizens of heaven while on this earth. We are called to be sensitive to the needs of others in our midst and especially those in our congregation. This might mean that you have to do things differently around some people so that you don’t tempt them into sin. This might mean giving someone else the benefit of the doubt instead of automatically jumping to the conclusion that anyone not like you is a filthy depraved hell-bound sinner. It’s not about legalism when it comes to Christian liberty. Jesus had some harsh words for the legalistic pharisees of his day and He would have harsh words for the pharisees in the church today. We have Christian liberty in many respects and we have to be gracious towards our brothers and sisters in Christ.

At the same point there are some things that are right and some that are wrong - we have to stand firmly on God’s Word rather than what we think or what we’re told. There is black and white, but there’s also gray. When we hit the gray area, we have to point one another towards Christ, not towards sin. This might require us to lay our civil or American rights down.

The last 3 years everyone has been talking about “my rights” and the things that the government can and can’t “require” us to do. What if we reframed the question. Instead of asking ourselves what our “rights” are, what if we asked ourselves how can we use our liberty and freedom to glorify Christ? Sometimes following Jesus requires us to break the tyrannical laws of the land (see the Christians in the Roman Empire) and other times following Jesus requires us to lay our rights down to put the needs of someone else above the needs of ourselves as Philippians 2:3-4 told us a couple of weeks ago.

Conclusion

Liberty is a controversial subject. Baptists have always fought for religious liberty for ourselves and for other groups because of the fundamental separation between church and state. Our calling is to use our liberty to glorify Christ. Whether it’s something we eat or drink or something that we watch or do or the clothing that we wear, we could come up with some helpful principles but ultimately we have a whole lot of liberty and we have to steward it wisely. The Bible gives us clear commands us to not use our liberty to tear someone down or to lead someone into sin. This will require us to think carefully in this life and to know that we may not always agree, and that’s ok.

As we think about our personal liberty, we must also recognize the blessing it is to have the religious liberty that we have in this country. Baptists of old fled England and Germany and Sweden to come to the United States and experience the religious freedom that we experience each and every day. This is a blessing, but we cannot take it for granted! We must use our freedom not for selfish gain, but to proclaim the Gospel to those around us. We should pray for those in positions of leadership who are forced to make decisions that are divisive. Pray that they would have godly wisdom and abide within their God-ordained role and not overstep it. As the BFM shares, there are some things that the state has no business doing because the Bible is clear. Pray for your government leaders to stand on God’s Word. Pray for your teachers to exercise their religious liberty and teach for the glory of God. Pray that we as a congregation wouldn’t use our freedom as a license to do whatever we want but that we’d use our freedom to make much of Jesus in all that we do!

5 things in closing:

- Religious liberty is grounded in Scripture

- We are blessed to live in a country w/ religious liberty

- Religious liberty applies to all religions

- Therefore, we just make sure we use our freedom to practice our religion to proclaim Christ with others

- We must use our religious liberty to glorify Jesus, not exalt ourselves and stay in our comfort zone

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