Letting Go of Legalism

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Letting Go of Legalism</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=165 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lean on the Power of Jesus"><U><B><IMG SRC="007151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Moving From the Crowd to the Committed"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> previous/next sermon</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.stanbaker.org"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biblical and Theological Studies"><U><B>Biblical and Theological Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Ministry"><U><B>Ministry Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon Notes"><U>Sermon Notes</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personal"><U><B>Personal</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Letting Go of Legalism, Mark 2:13-3.6</B></div> <div> <B>Berean Bible Church, July 2, 2000am</B></div> <bR> <div> Donald Grey Barnhouse, former pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, held a Bible Conference in Montrose, PA around 1928, for about two hundred young people and a few older people. One day two old ladies complained to him that some of the girls were not wearing stockings. These ladies wanted Pastor Barnhouse to rebuke them. Looking those two old ladies straight in the eye, he said, “The Virgin Mary never wore stockings.” They gasped and said, “She didn’t?” Barnhouse answered, “In Mary’s time, stockings were unknown. So far as we know, they were first worn by prostitutes in Italy in the 15th century, when the Renaissance began. Later a lady of nobility scandalized the people by wearing stockings in a court ball. Before long everyone in the upper classes was wearing stockings, and by Queen Victoria’s time stockings had become the badge of the prude.” These ladies, who were the holdovers from the Victorian epoch, had no more to say. Pastor Barnhouse did not rebuke the girls for not wearing stockings. A year or two later, most girls in the United States were going without stockings in summer and nobody thought anything about it. Pastor Barnhouse added this note: “Nor do I believe that this led toward the disintegration of moral standards in the United States. Times were changing, and the step away from Victorian legalism was all for the better.” (Swindoll, Oxcart, p. 339.)</div> <div> – There are different “issues” in every generation.</div> <div> – Introduce the Pharisees, the ones who had the issues, the lists.</div> <div> Religiously conservative, faithful. 1) Not only kept the Law, but added their own interpretations and traditions to be kept at the same level as the Law. Sabbath’s day journey; can’t heal a non-life-threatening situation; can’t pluck grain. Doing rituals for cleansing is what makes one clean. 2) If you didn’t keep the Law you could not go to heaven, have salvation. You can receive God’s grace only by doing the Law (issue in Galatians).</div> <div> Subject: How can we please God and avoid legalism? (Easy to make a list of rules; black and white; but that is not what God intended for Christians).</div> <div> Text: Mark 2.13-3.6</div> <div> Preview: Conflicts between Jesus and religious leaders</div> <bR> <div> I. Three complaints about Jesus (from the Pharisees)</div> <div> A. Mark 2.13-17: He hangs out with sinners.</div> <div> – Pharisees kept separate from “sinners” – those who did not keep the Law like they did.</div> <div> – “Tax collector” issue – they were generally guilty of robbery, increasing their own commission by inflating the value of an item.</div> <div> – ILLUS: Youth group where unsaved kids were coming; complaints from a deacon about this.</div> <div> – Jesus came to reach just that kind of person!</div> <div> B. Mark 2.18-22: He and his followers don’t fast.</div> <div> – OT: fasting required at Day of Atonement; Pharisees fasted twice a week!</div> <div> – Jesus: this is a time of celebration, not a time to fast!</div> <div> – Vss. 21-22: What Jesus was introducing was not mere Judiasm with a small twist; it was a whole new way of life that would be world-wide in its impact. New forms were needed to contain the new thing Jesus was bringing. Fasting before the true God was primarily a Jewish activity.</div> <div> C. Mark 2.23-3.6: He and his followers don’t keep the Sabbath.</div> <div> 1. Mark 2.23-28: Disciples pick grain to eat, “breaking” command to avoid reaping and sowing (work).</div> <div> – Refers to David in 1 Samuel 21.</div> <div> – Vs. 28, Son of Man is Lord of Sabbath!</div> <div> 2. Mark 3.1-6: Jesus heals a man with non-life-threatening condition, considered “work” by Pharisees.</div> <div> – Vs. 6, Note contrast between Jesus’ good deed and the Pharisees plot to kill him.</div> <bR> <div> II. The point: Pleasing God is about doing the will of God, not keeping a man-made list of rules. Pharisees: “he’s not following our rules!”</div> <div> – Modesty and the length of woman’s skirt; music styles; movies; the company you keep; church service attendance, Bible versions, Bible memorization; how you spend time on Sundays.</div> <div> – A Pastor I knew used to shoot baskets with son on Sunday afternoon, in the driveway of the parsonage which was right beside the church; some of his church members drove by and saw them out there and they complained about it, as being wrong to do such a thing on a Sunday.</div> <div> – Choose your preferences in these areas, but recognize them as that – preferences!</div> <div> – Distinguish from rules that help a community function – not the same as the will of God. (Dallas Seminary and rules against drinking at all – not a “will of God” issue, like drunkenness is).</div> <bR> <div> III. Application: Let go of legalism.</div> <div> A. Don’t let others make you feel guilty because of their legalism.</div> <div> – You have the freedom to follow Christ and his commands, with the power of the Holy Spirit. But don’t flaunt it (Rom 14).</div> <div> – Jesus didn’t let the Pharisees make him feel guilty!</div> <div> B. Be guided by biblical principles. (Get into the book, close to Christ, led by the Spirit = discovering the will of God.)</div> <div> – Recognize that there are gray areas, But notice the prominence of grace and love and forgiveness.</div> <div> – Ed Dobson, who is the pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, tells of the time when he had somewhat long hair, and he tied it into a ponytail to preach on Sunday morning. He was trying to deal with the stereotype that Christians are supposed to look and dress a certain way. In a community as conservative as Grand Rapids, he admits that he was pushing the envelope a bit. He finished his sermon by saying, “I’m sure some of you are outraged that I wore my hair in a pony tail. But are you just as upset that your neighbors don’t know the Lord? We get bent out of shape over things that have no eternal significance.</div> <div> – Pharisees were concerned about their list of rules, but they plotted to kill Jesus! (No grace!)</div> <div> C. Understand God’s grace for us.</div> <div> – Grace is God’s unmerited favor; his being kind to us when we really deserve his anger. Keeping the rules doesn’t earn God’s grace – it can’t be earned!</div> <div> – What we deserved was death, as the proper payment for breaking God’s law; but Jesus came to die in our place, so that we who believe in him could go free, and not have to pay that penalty ourselves – he paid it for us! No amount of keeping the rules could force God to do that for us; he does it because he chose to out of his kindness and mercy.</div> <div> – We have been set free</div> <div> 1) from the penalty and power of sin; and</div> <div> 2) from a need to keep man-made lists of rules that we think will cause God to accept us.</div> <div> – But because we are so thankful for how kind he has been to us, we desire to please him, to make him happy, by doing his will, doing the things that he asks us to do in his word.</div> <div> D. Show grace to others.</div> <div> – If God is kind enough to be gracious to you when you need a break, give someone else a break. Forgive easily. (Doesn’t mean that we let others get away with outright sin!).</div> <div> – Don’t make lists of rules that you expect everyone else to follow.</div> <bR> <div> Review: We have learned today that pleasing God is a matter of doing his will, not a matter of keeping man-made rules; and we have been challenged to let go of legalism by not letting others make us feel guilty for not keeping their rules, by discovering what the Bible says about what is right and wrong, by understanding God’s grace for us, and by showing grace to others. We can please God and do his will by being people who know and show the grace of God.</div> <bR> <div> Challenge: An Old native American Indian, after living many years in sin, was led to Christ by a missionary. Friends asked him to explain the change in his life. Reaching down, he picked up a little worm and placed it on a pile of leaves. Then, touching a match to the leaves, he watched them smolder and burst into flames. As the flames worked their way to the center where the worm lay, the old chief suddenly plunged his hand into the center of the burning pile and snatched out the worm. Holding the worm gently in his hand, he gave this testimony to the grace of God: “Me . . . that worm.” (Illustrations, Green, p. 176.) </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2000, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>