Sermon Tone Analysis

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.”

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.

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

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.