Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
We'll go ahead and get into the word here this evening.
Now, how many of you had a really, really big lunch and you're
ready for a nap?
Oh boy, this is going to be a tough one.
Then we are going to be getting into tonight a very complex
issue within the church, and that is the relationship between
our christian liberty and freedom and offending other brothers
and sisters.
Okay.
And you would say, well, what?
What are you talking about?
As Christians, we have freedom, we have liberty.
Let me ask, this is gonna be more of a teaching session, okay?
Tonight it's gonna be a little bit different, so I hope you're okay
with that.
It's not gonna be as preachy as much as it is teaching because
it's a necessity to teach through this.
These are the topics that are not always brought out in church.
Sadly enough, these are issues that sometimes get skipped over when
we are looking at other more popular, easier to preach passages.
But we're in the book of acts.
You can go ahead and get ahead of me and get to acts, chapter 15.
We are right in the middle of the Jerusalem council.
Now, I know it's been a couple weeks.
I know we had the McCluskeys here last week.
I know we had a fifth Sunday before that.
So it's been two whole Sunday nights since we've talked about this.
And so I'm going to catch you up with what the Jerusalem council
is and what we can learn from it.
Okay?
So this is a topic that we're gonna be talking about this evening
that is sometimes glossed over or it's over emphasized on one side
or the other.
As Christians, do we live now under the law?
Let me see, yes or no?
Do we live under the law?
No.
We're thankful for that.
Amen.
Right?
Guess what?
You cannot keep the law.
None of us can keep the law.
Now do we throw out the law and say the law means nothing to
us?
No.
There are things that we can learn from the heart of God in instituting
the law, but there is something called abusing our liberty
and offending another brother.
We're going to talk about what the outcome of that would be within
the church, specifically within the Jerusalem council.
So let me catch you up with this.
There's this church in Antioch that had Jews and gentiles as believers.
And so they were fellowshiping together, they were worshiping together.
And ultimately everything was going smoothly as best it could.
And then there were some people that came from Jerusalem.
That started to tell the people that everyone there had to
be under the law of Moses.
So to be a believer, to be a Christian, they had to adhere to
circumcision, which meant this was the gateway to get into the faith.
So you had to do that.
You had to be marked by the law of Moses to become a Christian.
And you had to keep the law to continue to be a Christian, to receive
the grace of God.
So they were preaching faith plus works, faith plus the law.
And you can go back and look at that there.
In the early part of acts 15.
And certain men which came down from Judea.
This is verse one, taught the brethren and said, except ye be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
And so there is the issue of salvation.
Okay?
So to come into the family of God, you must be circumcised.
You must be part of the law of Moses.
And be under the law of Moses like they had been for thousands
of years.
Okay?
Then we see later on in verse five, it says.
But there rose up a certain sect of the Pharisees.
Which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them.
So to get into the family of God, you had to follow the law.
But then it says here, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
And so that speaks to, after they're saved, to follow the law
of Moses.
Or they would not be in God's good grace.
And so there was this conflict.
Because they had heard from Paul and from Barnabas.
That it's by faith and faith alone.
And now they're hearing that it's faith plus the law.
So now they have to figure this out.
So we have what's called the Jerusalem Council.
All these people meet there in Jerusalem, and now they're going
to have this council.
And we see the first person talking here.
It's Peter, verse seven.
And when there had been much disputing, so there was a lot of
conversation, there's a conflict.
Some people believe this.
They're disputing.
Then it says here, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren,
ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us.
That the gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe.
And God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving
them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us.
And so Peter is the first one that steps up and says, no, God has
said the gentiles can come in by faith and faith alone belief.
That is the standard, just as it is a standard with us.
Then he goes on to something very interesting here.
He says that this is the same holy spirit that you have, that the
Gentiles have.
And he says, and put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by this is verse nine by faith.
And so Peter is emphasizing salvation by faith alone.
We're going to get to the importance of that here in a few
moments.
But then he says in verse ten something very interesting now, therefore,
why tempt ye God to put a yoke or a burden upon the neck of the
disciples?
That's not just the twelve disciples.
That's the followers of Christ, which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear.
So Peter's essentially saying this.
We weren't able to keep the law to save us.
Our fathers weren't able to keep the law to save us.
Why would we expect the gentiles now that are accepting Christ
to keep the same law?
We can't.
That's something that God has not expected from them.
And so we see that verse eleven, but we believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as
day.
Peter gives this great statement here at the Jerusalem council
about salvation by faith alone, by God's grace, not by works.
And so we see what happens here in verse twelve.
The multitude kept silent.
So they're thinking about what Peter just said and gave audience
to Barnabas and Paul.
So they're hearing the testimonies of these gentiles coming
to Christ.
And then it says, verse 13.
And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, men
and brethren, hearken unto me.
And so this is where we're gonna pick up now.
James is going to add on to what Peter has said.
Now who is this James?
This is not the apostle James.
The apostle James, as we already know, has been martyred by
Herodore.
So this is not the apostle James.
This is James, the half brother of Jesus.
This is James that wrote, and most commentators will believe that
this is James that wrote the book of James.
He was at this point in time a leader in the church at Jerusalem.
So he holds a lot of weight.
He holds a lot of authority.
Now we don't believe that he holds authority above the word of
God.
That's a whole other teaching, and we don't need to get there right
now.
But there is no man that holds authority over the word of God.
It's the word of God as our sole authority in faith and practice.
So James is just discerning by the spirit here.
And ultimately we know that they don't have the canon of scripture
completed.
So James is here, is explaining this teaching and this
thought process.
And so he says, men and brethren, hearken unto me.
Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles.
He's talking about Peter here to take out of them a people for
his name.
And to this agree the words of the prophets as it is written.
After this, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of
David which has fallen down, and I will build again the ruins
thereof.
And I will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the
Lord.
And all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord,
who doeth all these things known unto God are all of his works
from the beginning of the world.
And so essentially what we see here is he's quoting the prophet,
saying, this was a prophecy that is now being fulfilled, that
God is going to engraft in the gentiles into the family of Goddesse.
So he says, hey, this was already told to us that we don't
need to be shocked about this.
So he says, this is God's plan coming to pass.
Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble, not them.
So what James says, is this the same thing Peter says, don't
trouble them with something more than what God expects from them.
Don't trouble them with the law.
If the law is not what saves us, don't expect them to do something
to add on to their salvation.
Now, we need to stop here, and we need to say this.
Okay?
None of us struggle with keeping the law of Moses.
I don't think any of you read through the ten commandments or all
613 commandments and say, well, you know what?
We all need to keep that, or none of us are saved.
I don't think we struggle with that.
But sometimes what we end up struggling with is things that we've
been taught by tradition that we think has to be added to have
someone completely saved or to be growing in their faith.
And so what we see here is Peter and James.
And all of scripture tells us that if we add anything to the gospel,
if we add anything to our faith, if we add anything to the
grace of God, we're adding something that doesn't need to be
there.
That's the yoke of bondage.
Now you're going to say, where are you going with this?
Where I'm going with this is sometimes we can abuse this liberty.
We're going to talk about that here in a few moments because James
is about to say they're free to not be under the law of Moses,
but there are some things that they need to do.
You say what?
He's contradicting himself.
He just said that they're only saved by grace through faith.
But now he's going to give them some guidelines.
Well, we're going to talk about what these guidelines are here
this evening.
So he says, verse 19, wherefore my sentence is that we
trouble them not, which from among the gentiles are turned to
God.
So don't trouble the gentiles that have turned to God.
Don't put a stumbling block in front of them.
Don't put a rock of offense in front of them.
If they're trying to follow God, let them follow God.
Don't give them something that.
That we think is so important.
Verse 20.
But that we write unto them that they abstain from pollution
of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from
blood.
Say, what is he talking about here?
Well, essentially what happens here is that James, this is, again,
the half brother of Jesus, he says that there are some things that
we would call them, quote unquote, rules or guidelines that
the gentile Christians should live by.
These were not rules that the Gentiles must follow in order to
be saved or keep being saved.
These were rules that would build harmony with the jewish people
and the Gentiles, the jewish Christians and the gentile Christians.
And so if the gentiles were to eat meat, sacrifice to idols, that
would offend.
If the gentiles ate the meat, it would offend the Jews.
Right?
And so there was something for the gentiles to do to not cause an
offense with the Jews.
And so that's what he's telling them here.
And so, yes, they should abstain from fornication.
They should abstain from the pollution of idols.
But then we see this idea of them eating certain types of things,
like they can't eat this meat that's strangled meat sacrificed
to idols.
This way of living was a very pagan way.
And the four rules were essentially this.
They should abstain from food polluted from idols.
They should abstain from sexual immorality.
They should abstain from meat of strangled animals and of that
blood of those animals to not eat that blood.
And so the instructions were not intended to guarantee salvation,
but to promote peace within the early church.
So I want you to think about it this way.
Could these individuals actually eat meat sacrifice to idols?
We're gonna dig into that here this evening.
We're not gonna finish this complete message.
This is a two parter.
I can guarantee you that.
But we're gonna see in other passages of scripture that Paul says,
meat sacrifice to idols in and of itself isn't evil.
Go ahead.
You can do it.
If it doesn't offend your conscience, do it.
But then we see somewhat of a contradiction here.
James says, don't eat meat sacrifice to idols.
So what is he talking about here?
Well, he's not talking about salvation.
He's not talking about sin.
He's talking about offending our brother.
He's talking about offending someone within the church and going
away.
That would be in my purview as a Christian to live out, but it might
offend my brother.
And so we're going to dig a little bit deeper into that here
tonight.
And he says here in verse 21, for Moses of old time hath in every
city them that preached him being read in the synagogues every
Sabbath day.
And so I want to dig a little bit deeper into this thought process.
But what I want you to think about here tonight is the concept
of unity.
Do we as christians, have freedom to do certain things?
Yes, we do.
Does anything that you do negate the grace of God in your life?
Can you sin and lose your salvation?
We don't believe that.
I don't believe that we can sin and lose our salvation.
I believe in the eternal security of Jesus Christ.
I believe that if we sin, we are still in his grasp.
We still have eternal destination.
So you have the freedom to exercise whatever you want in your
life.
But we're gonna look here in a couple of different passages in the
New Testament about how there's danger in living out my liberty
completely, fully, and not caring about others around me.
And so we're gonna see that the whole heart of the Jerusalem
council was first to figure out how individuals can come to Christ.
Is it by faith, or is it by faith plus works?
But then the secondary issue was the unity of the fellowship when
you have two different types of people, the Jews and the gentiles.
And so I want you to go to a couple other passages that deal with
eating meat sacrificed to idols, because that's the big issue
here for the people, whether or not they were going to eat this
meat or where they weren't, because if they said they're saved
by faith alone, James just says, no, you can't do these things.
And so there's an issue here, and some people would call this a
contradiction, because there's some passages in the New Testament
that say you can eat meat sacrifice to idols.
There's other passages in the New Testament that warn against eating
meat sacrifice to idols.
Oh, there you go.
There's a contradiction.
No, because we're talking about unity here.
We're talking about the difference of my freedom in my salvation
and my discernment in how to deal with other christians.
And then the big issue is the conscience.
The Bible speaks of offending conscience, and then also the Bible
says about how I can be a stumbling block to another brother
or sister in Christ.
So first Corinthians, chapter eight.
Let's go over to one corinthians, chapter eight, because
we're going to dig deep into this topic this evening.
I don't know how much we're going to accomplish, but we're gonna
get through as much as we can here this evening.
So let's think about this idea of meat sacrifice to idols, because
that's in context what's being talked about.
But ultimately, we're talking about the freedom that we have in
Christ.
So, first Corinthians, chapter eight.
And I want you to look at verse number four.
Paul addresses food sacrificed to idols.
Now, we can all agree, hopefully tonight, that idolatry
is sin, that idolatry is wrong, that idolatry is something
that we should not deal with.
Okay, but what if meat is sacrificed to idols?
What do we do?
Well, Paul deals with that here.
So he's not justifying idolatry.
He's talking about eating meat sacrifice to idols.
So, verse four, as concerning, therefore, the eating of those things
which are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol
is nothing in the world.
So what is Paul saying here to the teaching?
In this teaching, he's saying, an idol is nothing.
An idol's not real.
An idol is made up of gold or wood.
And so the idol in and of itself does not corrupt the meat.
It's the action or the heart behind it.
It's the worship of that idol that's a sin.
It's eating that meat and saying, well, I'm partaking of this
in the spirit of this idolatry.
But he says, in and of itself, the idol is not a real thing.
And so he says, consider those eating of the things sacrificed to
idols.
We know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there
is none other God but one.
So it says these idols are just nothing.
There's only one God.
For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or
in earth, as there be many gods many, and lords many, but to
us there is but one God, the father, of whom all are all things,
and we in him, and one lord Jesus Christ, by whom all things,
and we by him.
We're gonna go all the way down here to verse number 13.
HoWBEIt there is not in EveRy man that knowledge for some with
conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered
unto an idol.
So he says, there are some people that eat it with that mindset
of offering it to an idol, and they are sinning.
Okay, that is wrong.
And so he says so.
And their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
So he's talking about someone who has an understanding of this
idolatry, and they're eating it with the understanding that that
idol is in that meat and that meat is corrupted.
He says, if they have offended their conscience, being weak, then
they have sinned.
But MEat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat, are we
the better.
Neither if we eat not, are we the Worse.
But take heedless any means, this liberty of yours become a stumbling
block to them that are weak.
And so what does he say here?
He says, it doesn't matter what you eat.
It doesn't matter what you eat because meat is meat.
But he says, if there is an individual who in their conscience
is, this is a sin.
We need to be cautious of that.
We as a person need not be a stumbling block to somebody else
in our freedom.
We're going to get to that here in a few moments.
A little bit more, he says, for if any man see thee which has
knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience
of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which
are offered to idols?
And though thy knowledge shall be the weak, shall the weak brother
perish for whom Christ died?
But when ye sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience,
ye sin against Christ.
So he says, yeah, you could eat meat sacrifice to idols on your
own, and that's not a sin.
But you take meat sacrifice to idols, knowing that that person is
offended by that, knowing that person will lead back into sin and
idolatry.
You have now sinned against Christ because you sinned against
your brother.
So there's discernment there.
Do you have freedom to eat the meat.
Yeah, because the meat is one way.
It's the same thing.
Even if you sacrifice to an idol, it doesn't mean anything.
But if your brother, who has a background in that pagan worship,
eating that meat might mean that that's a lifestyle back into
paganism.
That is an offense.
If you push them into that, oh, come on, eat some meat.
It doesn't matter.
You see, as a christian, we can exercise our freedom, but when
we're pulling someone into a lifestyle that they were saved from
and saying, hey, you have the freedom to do this, this isn't really
a sin.
You're now pulling them into a place of sin.
You've offended your brother.
Ultimately, you've sinned against the father.
That's what it says there.
You sinned against Christ.
Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no
flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother
to offend.
He says, be cautious.
This is what we talked about this morning.
Be cautious of your testimony.
I don't want to be a stumbling block to somebody else.
And so ultimately, we see with what James is saying in the Jerusalem
council is, hey, gentiles, don't eat the meat.
Sacrifice to idols, you had the freedom to do so.
But in the church, you need to seek after that unity.
You eating meat to that sacrifice idol is gonna cause your
jewish brother to stumble.
So don't do it.
Keep unity.
So the thing is, is within our churches in America today, a lot
of times what happens is the focus is me.
What can I do, pastor?
Am I allowed to do this?
Can I do this?
How much can I do?
Do I have the freedom to do XYz?
I can tell you, as a pastor, I get that question all the time.
Is it a sin for me to then fill in the blanken?
Sometimes it's very clearly in scripture.
Yes, this is a sin sometimes in scripture.
I can tell you, no, the Bible doesn't say anything about that.
But I can tell you that that isn't the biggest question.
The biggest question is me doing this.
Is this going to offend another brother and hinder them in
their spiritual walk or hinder the gospel to be presented?
And so what Paul says here is, yeah, I could eat the meat.
But verse 13, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no
flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother
to offend.
And so he says, be cautious of how you deal with others, because
I'd rather have unity than me just to exercise my freedom.
And so what he's saying, is this.
Having the right to do something doesn't mean that we should
do something.
Sometimes we have the right as a christian to have freedom, and
there could be some, what we would call gray areas, and you might
have the freedom to do that and do it.
But if it's offending another brother, then that's where the issue
comes in to.
And so that's the whole idea of the issue with James speaking
to those former pagans, those gentiles, to say, hey, be cautious
of how you're dealing with the other jewish people within your church.
I want you to go to another passage of scripture, just a couple
pages over in first corinthians, chapter ten.
First Corinthians, chapter ten, verse 23.
This is a verse that I think is a verse that we all need in that
next step in our spiritual maturity.
Okay, let me tell you the question should not be, can I do
this as a Christian?
You can.
Let me just tell you.
If you sin as a Christian, there is God's forgiveness.
There is God's grace.
Romans chapter six, though, says this, why offend God's grace?
Why abuse the grace of God?
And so this verse is a verse I take a lot of people to because you'll
hear a lot of people say this.
Well, can I do this as a Christian?
Does the Bible explicitly say that I cannot do this?
I'll tell them no.
But let me read this verse to you in verse 23 of one corinthians,
chapter ten.
And if we can grasp this, this can help us in a major way in our
spiritual maturity.
He says all things are lawful for me.
This is Paul speaking here.
He says all things are lawful, meaning I'm not bound by the law
anymore.
I don't have to follow the 613 commandments.
I can eat whatever meat I want.
I can do this.
If the Bible doesn't explicitly say that it's a sin, I
can do this.
And even if the Bible does say it's a sin, I had the freedom to
do it.
Now I have to deal with the consequences.
I can disobey my savior, but I had the freedom as a Christian, I
can do what I want.
I'm not gonna lose my salvation.
But then he says this, but all things are not expedient.
That means better, good for me, beneficial.
Say it this way, I can do all things as a Christian, but not all
things that I can do are beneficial to me and to others around
me.
This is huge because that's not usually our mindset.
Our mindset is this.
Well, I don't care what anyone thinks about me.
I'm gonna do what I wanna do.
I'm a Christian.
I'm free.
God's not gonna.
God's the only one that can judge me, right?
Yes, but all things are lawful for me.
But not all things are expedient.
Not all things are beneficial for me or for others around me.
All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
Meaning this.
Some things that I do as a Christian, I can do, and I'm not
gonna lose my salvation.
God's gonna still love me, but it's not going to be beneficial for
my spiritual growth, and it's not going to be beneficial to edify
other christians around me.
Think about that for just a few moments, because this is an area
of the christian life that I think comes later on in our spiritual
maturity.
So, for example, and I don't want to go too far into picking out
specific gray area items, but there might be something that you
say, you know what?
I have no problem doing this.
I have no problem exercising this.
And I can't see anywhere in scripture that says that this is
wrong.
Okay, fair enough.
But if me doing this, is this going to help me in my spiritual
growth, or is this going to hinder me in my spiritual growth?
Well, possibly could hinder me.
Well, then that's something that I don't need to necessarily
do.
There's another thing in the spiritual walk.
Okay.
This isn't going to hinder me at all, but it might hinder someone
that I'm discipling or that I'm ministering to or that I have
fellowship within the church with.
And so it's not expedient to edify.
And so here's the test that I would say for you to do within the
church.
Is this.
Can I do this in the word of God?
Is this a sin?
Okay, that's your first step.
What does the Bible say?
The Bible says it's wrong.
Just don't do it.
The Bible doesn't speak specifically to this.
Then what you do is you say, okay, is there a principle there?
Okay, there probably is some element of a principle there, but
if there isn't an element of sin or either an element of a principle
in scripture, then we would say, okay, is this expedient for
my spiritual growth?
Is this going to build me up in Christ?
And then the next question that I would ask is this, does it
edify the other believers around me?
If you check the boxes there, then do it.
Live it up.
Do what you want to do in that case you say what?
I've never heard a pastor tell me to live it up.
Well, if you do all those checks right there, then God has
given you the go do it.
And a lot of times, people are like, well, that's not good.
I'm just telling you now.
There's interpretation there.
Okay?
The interpretation would be, well, you know what?
The Bible says this, but I don't mean it to say that.
I don't think it says that.
Well, that's where you get into some issues.
Okay?
Some people might say, well, I don't think the Bible actually says
this.
Well, you're misinterpreting scripture, and that's a whole other
conversation for another day.
But what I would tell you is, check the word of God.
If the Bible says something about it explicitly, it is sin.
But if there's something that we would consider to be a gray area,
then you do that check of what verse 23 says.
Is it expedient?
Is it edifying?
But then go on a little bit further there.
In verse 24, it says, let no man seek his own, but every man another's
wealth.
Meaning this.
I shouldn't be thinking about myself.
I should be thinking about others in these decisions.
Like, that's the big thing.
Cause we're always thinking about ourselves.
Like, what can I do?
Am I allowed to do this?
Can I.
You know what?
The gentiles.
Okay, fast forward to when they go back to Antioch, because
Paul and barnabas are gonna bring the message back to Antioch.
Some of the gentile christians could be like, well, I can't eat
meat sacrificed to idols.
I can't eat the blood of these animals.
Come on.
I had the freedom to do that.
No, it's thinking about others.
And so that's what it says there in verse 24.
Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth whatsoever
is sold in the shambles that eat, asking no questions for conscience
sake.
So it's like, don't overthink it, okay?
For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
If any man, if any of them that believe not, bids you to feast
and ye be disposed to go whatsoever is set before you eat,
asking no questions for conscience sake.
And so going back to the meat.
Sacrifice to idols.
You go over to a gentile's house.
They have meat there.
Don't ask if it's sacrificed to idols.
Like, just eat it.
Okay?
That's what he's saying here.
But he says, but if any man say unto you, this is offered in
sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it, and
for conscience sake.
For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other.
For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?
For if by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of?
For that for which I give thanks.
Whether.
And then he goes on to this classic verse, whether therefore
you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all the glory
of God, give none offense, neither to the Jews nor the Gentiles,
nor to the church of God.
So it goes back to the spirit of, am I offending another brother
in this?
Am I offending somebody else?
And he says, hey, if nothing's mentioned, you have freedom to do
it.
But if something is mentioned, stop and make a decision, okay?
Now, you know that's going to offend someone's conscience, so stop.
You don't have the freedom to go forward.
And so it goes back to that phrase, having a right to do something,
quote unquote right.
Or having the freedom or liberty to do something doesn't mean
that we should.
And I want you to think about this phrase here this evening.
Liberty is limited by love.
Do we have christian liberty?
Yes, but that liberty should be limited by love.
If I love my brother in Christ and I'm discipling him, and I know
that this is going to cause him to fall back into a pita that
he got saved from, I need to love him enough and love God enough
to die to my liberty to say, you know what?
I don't need to do that.
I don't need to do that specifically in front of him so that
I offend him to go back to that way of sin.
And so love, in this case, is trumping our liberty.
You say, don't we have 100% liberty?
We do.
But ultimately, we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Isn't that what the Bible says, to love them?
And so I wouldn't want someone to offend me.
I wouldn't want someone to bring me to a place of sin in my
life.
Now, let me pause here, okay, because I need to clarify something.
This is not talking about someone doing something that you
don't like, okay?
Because a lot of times we pull this card out, if someone does something
that isn't our preferential thing.
Well, I don't like that you, you know, let me use something very
vague.
I don't like that you sit in this pew up here.
Okay?
That bothers me.
Okay.
Well, they're not sitting in that pew and offending your conscience.
It's when you offend someone to a place of sin.
Right?
It's not just doing something that someone else doesn't like.
And you go, well, you've offended me, brother, so therefore
I want you to stop doing that.
Okay?
I don't like when you drink coffee around my presence, so stop
drinking coffee.
Well, it.
How was me drinking coffee going to lead you to sin?
If you can lay that out for me and you could explain to me my actions
lead you to a place of sin, then as a brother, I have to respect
that.
But just because you don't like what someone's doing, you can't
pull the card of saying, well, I'm the weaker brother, so don't
do that in front of me.
Well, what sin is this causing you to fall into what is appealing
to your flesh by what I am doing?
So there's discernment here, because we can't all walk around
saying, well, I gotta exercise my preferences on this person.
This is talking about the issue of sin being a stumbling block
to sin.
And so I want you to think about that when it comes to exercising
the weaker brother card.
Right?
Well, I'm the weaker brother, so don't do that.
Well, here's the thing.
Maybe you are the weaker brother, but the concept must be
that you are going into sin here and then is it?
And this is how the unity works.
You tell me that this is offending you.
You tell me that this is leading to a place of sin, then I
must respect that.
In love.
A passage of scripture that made me think about this is psalm
133.
Psalm 133.
Verse one is a passage of scripture that speaks of this unity.
And, folks, let me tell you that if there is one thing that we
should seek after, obviously it's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But when we come to dealing with other people within the church,
we see the heart of God.
And the heart of God for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ
is unity.
If we don't have unity, we have to get to the root of that.
And when we have brothers and sisters exercising liberty and offending
other brothers and sisters to sin, we can't be unified in that.
And so I must be willing to say, I will stop this if this is
causing you to sin.
And so, psalm 133, one, behold how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity.
That is a testimony to say we're dwelling together in unity.
We don't have time to go there.
But in Jesus high priestly prayer.
In John 17, Jesus prays for the unity of the church.
We see over and over again in the book of acts, unity is the heart
of God.
And so we go back to the Jerusalem council.
Why would James give these four rules to the Gentiles?
It was for unity.
It wasn't for their salvation.
Because go back to that acts passage.
Okay.
What is being decided in the Jerusalem Council?
Is it morality?
No.
What's the core issue of the Jerusalem council?
Salvation and sanctification.
Right.
Salvation, predominantly, do you have to be under the law of Moses
to be saved?
Okay, so then we see the rules that he gives.
Those four rules, if you go back to them, pollution of idols,
fornication.
Now you would say, is fornication wrong?
It is a sin.
Yes, fornication is wrong.
But do people that have fornicated, can they get saved?
Yes.
Okay.
Yes.
Sins are forgiven, right?
If you come to Christ in faith, in repentance, your sins are
forgiven.
And so James is not saying, well, they have to be people that
don't do these things to get saved.
No, what he's saying is these are things that you seek after so
that there can be unity in glorifying God in the way that you
live a righteous life.
Cause he doesn't list here.
Don't lie to each other.
He doesn't.
I mean, we know lines of sin, but he doesn't list that.
And so he's specifically talking about things that were pagan
that would have offended the jewish people to the point where
they would have fallen into the same path.
And so what we can see here is that this is a desire for unity within
the church.
Now I want you to see Galatians chapter five.
Galatians chapter five is another passage that deals with our
freedom and our liberty.
So our freedom and our liberty should be celebrated within our faith.
We're not in a cult.
You don't have to keep a list of hundreds and hundreds of rules.
You can't lose your salvation.
So we have this freedom, and we should be celebrating that, but
not celebrating to the point where we exercise our flesh.
So what happens within churches today, and really throughout
all of history is that when we emphasize freedom and liberty, it
becomes an occasion to the flesh.
And then we mingle in sin within the church.
And then we have a church that looks exactly like the world.
Okay?
Now does every church have to be a certain way?
No, that's why we had the freedom to be the type of church
that we're called to be.
But what does Galatians chapter five, verse 13, say, galatians
513 says, for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty.
So you're called unto liberty.
As a Christian, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.
There it is, but by love serve one another.
So why is liberty given to us?
Not so that we can exercise our flesh, but so that we can serve
one another, so that we can have people within our church that
are from different backgrounds and different cultures and different
preferences and different mindsets, and we can be unified in
that common purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so we can have freedom and liberty to be different.
We can have freedom and liberty to extend ourselves to a
place that maybe not everyone could go.
So, for example, brother Tom might be able to minister to someone
because of his freedom and liberty that I'm not able to minister.
Because maybe we have a different background, a different
upbringing, you know, maybe there's someone in the church.
I won't pick an individual out because I don't want to pick any,
you know, pick on anyone.
But maybe we have someone that was saved out of a life of really
dark, bad places, and they knew what it was like to be addicted
to drugs, and they knew what it was like to be part of really
bad things.
And because God changed them and saved them, they now can minister
to other people.
And they have freedom to minister to people that maybe would
never listen to me, okay?
Because I come in, I've been in a christian home my whole life,
and I grew up in church, and I go to someone and they're like, yeah,
this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
He doesn't know what I've gone through.
Well, maybe this fellow up here who has gone through all that
struggle can go with his freedom and liberty and minister
to somebody else and lead them to Christ.
That's the beauty of our liberty.
And so he says, our liberty is not there for an occasion of the
flesh.
I can do this.
I had the freedom to do this.
God never says, I can't do this.
Yes, but is it an occasion of your flesh to exercise your freedom
and your rights?
Or is it to say, I'm gonna serve one another?
Is it by love and service, or is it by an occasion of the flesh
that we're exercising our liberty?
So one last passage of scripture, then we'll circle back
to the book of acts.
I want you to see Romans, chapter 14 with me.
Romans, chapter 14.
This is what I believe to be one of the clearest teachings on
this idea of exercising our christian liberty and not offending
our brothers in Christ and our sisters in Christ.
Now, you would say, why are you talking about meat sacrifice
to idols?
Because that's what this passage is talking about.
But for us, that's not a big issue.
Like, if I go over to your house, I've been over to many of
your houses or gone out to eat with you.
I don't go, hey, guys, I need to know, is this meat sacrifice to
bail?
I don't ask that.
Right?
That's not an issue in our culture today.
Okay.
I don't think any of you are sacrificing, you know, going to the
marketplace and buying meat sacrificed idols.
I don't think that's the case.
If it was cheaper, okay, I can understand, but I don't think any
of us are doing that.
But there's other things culturally that might cause us to
stumble.
There's other things culturally, and it might be different.
Right.
Different age groups, different backgrounds.
And so what I want us to see here is, what does it say about this?
He says, him that is weak in the faith receive.
Yeah, but not to doubtful disputations, meaning receive those
that are weak in faith, but don't lead them to a place of doubt.
For one believeth that he may eat all things.
Another who is weak eateth herbs, meaning some people might
be convicted to eat anything they want, and that's okay.
Other people might be convicted not to eat that meat and
eat something else.
Herbs.
Let not him that eateth despiseth him that not eateth.
Meaning you shouldn't despise the person that's different than
you in this.
Okay?
And let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth.
For God hath received him, so we're received into the family of
God.
So I can't sit over here and go, well, that person is exercising
their liberty in a wrong way.
Okay?
If they're exercising their liberty in the confines of scripture,
we can't sit there and judge them.
Now, if they are sinning out and out, we can say, clearly that's
a sin.
But he's not talking about that.
He's talking about these, what we would call gray area things that
meet sacrifice to idols.
Verse four.
Who art thou that judgest another man's servant to his own
master?
He standeth or falleth.
Yea, he shall be.
Holden up.
For God is able to make him stand.
One man esteemeth one day above another, and another esteemeth
every day alike.
Meaning there are some people that look at one day and go, this
is a holy day, and we need to honor it.
And we need to do all these things.
And there's other guides.
That's like, every day is just a day.
It's all God's days, right?
And he says, what does he say here?
What does he say here?
He says, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind,
meaning you got to come up with that conviction on your own.
You got to come up with that preference on your own.
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord, meaning
he can use that special day for the Lord.
And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard
it.
He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth thanks.
He giveth God thanks.
And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God
thanks.
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord.
Whether we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
Meaning.
Everything that we do, it's the Lord's.
For to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived.
And he might be Lord both of the living and the dead.
But why dost thou judge thy brother?
And why dost thou set at not thy brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall
bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.
Let us not therefore judge one another any more.
But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion
to fall in his brother's way.
So he says again, the idea is not to judge someone.
The idea is to not put a place of stumbling for another brother.
Instead of me sitting there going, well, I can't believe that
that person does that.
No, I need to look into my own life to say, it's the classic example,
what Jesus said about the plank in your own eye, right?
Don't sit there and try to pick your brother's spec out when
you got a plank in your own eye.
He says, hey, no, don't be a stumbling block or an occasion to
fall in his brother's way.
I know, and I am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing
unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean
to him, it is unclean.
Meaning if there's someone who's convicted by this, they're
convicted by that.
Let them be convicted by that but if thy brother be grieved with
thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably, meaning if you just flaunt
your liberty in front of them, you're not living charitably, you're
not living in a kind way, you're not living in a loving way.
Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Let not then your good be evil spoken of.
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness
and peace and the joy of the Holy Ghost.
For he that is in these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to
God and approve to men.
Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and
the things wherewith 1 may edify another.
Do you see again what's happening here?
It's that emphasis on edification.
It's that emphasis on unity.
It's that emphasis on peace.
For me, destroy not the work of God.
All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth
with offense.
It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything
whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Hast thou faith.
Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he
alloweth.
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not
of faith.
For whosoever or whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
So you say.
That's a lot of.
I'm not going to be able to pick apart that whole passage, but
essentially the thought is this.
There are going to be people that have preferences this way.
They're going to have people that have preferences this way.
We need to walk in unity, but we need to look to the place of not
allowing the other brother, the weaker brother, to stumble.
So if there's something that I can do in my life, and I feel free
to do it, okay, you have that freedom.
But the moment it becomes a place of division within the church,
the moment it becomes a stumbling block for another person
to sin, then you are sinning.
Okay?
So let me give you a real life example.
We've got a guy named Joe, and we got a guy named Bill over here,
okay?
Joe is coming out of a life of paganism.
Joe is coming out of a life of idolatry.
Okay, I'm gonna forget these names.
Bill is over here.
And Bill is like, hey, I'm saved.
And I love eating meat at the market, and I can get a better deal
on the meat that was sacrificed to these idols.
And Paul even said, this meat is free.
This meat is good, we can eat of it.
So which one's wrong?
Well, neither one of them.
They're both saved.
They're both okay.
They're both right.
This guy over here that got out of the life of paganism, though,
he's like, I can't eat that meat because that's going to take
me back to a place that I used to be in.
And I don't want to get back to pagan.
I don't want to get back to idolatry.
I can't.
I don't.
I'm going to abstain.
Then he looks over at Bill over here and he says, bill, I can't
believe that guy, bill over there is eating that meat.
Sacrifice to idols.
He's wrong for judging him and his freedom.
But then let's say Bill comes over to Joe and says, we're in the
market together.
And he goes, hey, Joe, I got some meat over here.
It's sacrificed to the idol.
But you know what?
Come on, you can do it.
You can do it.
And he eventually wears that brother down to the place of saying,
okay, fine, I'll offend my conscience and I'll eat the meat.
Fine, I'll do it.
And so he's searing his conscience, and that's not a good
thing to do, to push that off.
And so now who's sinned?
Well, if he eats of the meat, he's sinned because he's offended
his conscience.
And this guy who's persuaded him to eat the meat has now sinned
as well.
You see how that goes?
So sometimes we can be on either side, because I've heard of
a lot of christians saying, hey, come on, do this.
There's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing.
You gotta do this.
Come on.
To be a good christian, you gotta exercise your freedom.
You know what?
That is wrong.
Don't offend someone's conscience.
I know that with my kids, sometimes I'll say a certain thing
to them, guys, we can't say that.
We can't do that.
And sometimes I might be doing something, dad, you said that word.
You said that word.
You shouldn't say that.
And I'm not saying bad words.
I'm saying words that just aren't.
We don't want our kids to say.
But sometimes I might say like, you know, you get it.
And I don't wanna use any of those words tonight.
Cause then they'll catch me on that.
But you know, stuff like that, dad, come on.
And like, as a Christian, I have the freedom to say those things.
Right.
It's not a curse word.
It's not a bad word.
Just words that we don't want to say.
It's not.
They're kind of crude.
And so what happens is, like, then I'm offending my children by
saying, oh, you know, I can do it.
So you go ahead and do it.
Right.
I'm teaching them to not listen to that conscience that God
has placed on their heart.
Now, sometimes our conscience can be a moving target.
Sometimes we can actually have a conscience.
That's more than scripture, right?
Oh, I can't.
You know, and that's something that we deal with in discipleship.
There's some people that have a conscience to do anything.
Right.
I can't do this.
I can't say this, I can't do that.
And the issue is that the conscience is not the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the guide.
But ultimately, our conscience can be seared.
It can be changed depending on our culture.
And so what do we have to do?
We have to base our conscience in the word of God and the guidance
of the spirit.
And so I'll say all that.
To say this, we go back to acts 15, and we'll conclude with
this.
We see that James institutes these rules to allow the gentiles
to walk in unison with the Jews, both Christians, so that they
can have unity.
And so what we can see here is that the issue of the Jerusalem council,
even though we don't deal with meat sacrifice to idols, we deal
with issues of is salvation and sanctification by the law or
salvation and sanctification by faith.
If it's by faith alone, then does it matter what we do?
Yes, it still matters what we do.
It doesn't save us.
It doesn't keep us saved, but it does deal with that idea of walking
in unity together.
And so there are groups that declare that you must do this to
stay saved.
There's people that declare that you must do these things to
get saved.
But as christians, what we have to understand is that all of
these arguments can be solved if we look at the truth of scripture
and know that we have liberty in God's grace, but we limit our
liberty for the sake of love.
So are there things that I could possibly do in my christian
walk that could offend a brother, even if I'm not sinning?
Yes.
So I need to be cognizant of that, and I need to love my brother
enough to say, you know what?
I'm not going to do that thing specifically in front of them.
And as the Bible says, flaunt my liberty.
Okay, now this is where a lot of churches are scared to deal with.
I'm scared to deal with this because if I got up here and said
to you guys, there's rules at this church, to be a member of Middletown
Baptist Church, like I mentioned this morning, you got to
do this, this, this, and this.
Well, I've effectively now become your conscience.
I've effectively now have tried to pull away the discernment
and say, just do whatever I tell you to do.
The problem with that is that's never what the Bible says.
The Bible says for you, it's individual soul, liberty.
All of us have the responsibility to discern what the
spirit is calling us to do accordance to the word of God.
And so we feed Silas right now, Silas does not feed himself,
but Norah and Micah are feeding themselves.
Micah doesn't sit down at the table like Silas and put his bib
on and get to the table and just sit there like this and go,
all right, dad, I'm ready.
And I go feed.
That's what Silas does.
He opens up his mouth and we put the bottle in or we put the oatmeal
in or whatever.
But we would hope that as they get older, they can feed themselves.
Now, Micah, I'm not gonna feed you, okay?
He's gonna feed.
I'm gonna cook for him and I'm gonna prepare it for him.
But then there's a place where he becomes 20 and 30.
Dad, can you come over to my house and cook me chicken nuggets?
I'm going to say, no, son, you're an adult now.
You're married, you have children.
You can take care of that yourself.
Do you see how there is that not independence, but God dependence
in the Christian's life as well?
So a lot of times it's like, what should I believe?
I remember I went off to college, dad, what do I believe about
this?
And I remember my dad telling me, well, what do you believe?
I don't know.
I tell you what I believe, but what do you believe?
And you need to know that thing.
And so a lot of times as christians, we want to be spoon fed
what's right, what's wrong.
But the truth is, is there are going to be some times where we have
to grow out of that babe stage and move to that teenager adult stage
to say, you know what?
I'm going to get more dependence on God and not another
individual because you could come to me and say, well, pastor,
should I do this and do that?
Well, I don't know, in scripture, it's not a clear statement
on that.
So you're going to have to discern in the spirit and in the
word how to deal with that.
So, for example, should I go and do this?
Well, did you do those checks?
What's the word of God say about this?
Well, there's nothing that the word of God says one way or the other.
Okay.
Is there a principle in scripture?
Well, I don't see a principle in scripture.
Well, is this beneficial expedient for your spiritual walk?
I'm not sure.
Is this going to help other christians in their walk?
Oh, probably not.
I could see this, this and this happening.
Well, there is an issue there, and then we need to check that now.
And I'm going to digress here in a moment.
But I will say this on the flip side of this, you can live in
fear of man and say, well, I can't do anything that God's calling
me to do because I know that someone's going to get upset about
this.
You ever tried to please 100, 200 people at once?
I have.
Let me tell you how that goes.
It doesn't go well.
You could please maybe half, and if on a really good day, you
can maybe please about 75%, but you're never gonna please 100
people.
So what do you do?
We please God.
And then you do your best to show love and grace to people.
Well, you know, as a pastor, there's things that I could say to
you, this is not wrong.
And other people could say, well, you know what?
I don't like that they do that.
Well, is it, remember, is it a stumbling block to an offense of
sin or is it something that you just don't like?
Right.
And then, so on the other side of things, as a christian, I need
to be cautious that I'm not.
Remember the judging.
I'm not judging another person in their liberty just because I don't
like what they're doing.
If it's an offense to sin, then that's what Matthew eighteen's
all about.
Someone sinned against me.
What do I do?
I go tell that brother that he sinned against me, and I clearly
explain how that was a sin and how that was an offense to me.
Okay.
And so then there's that process.
And so we could go deeper into this.
We're gonna stop for tonight.
We're gonna come back with part two next week because there's
more to this.
Paul and Barnabas are gonna bring that message back to the church
in Antioch and we'll decide, well, we'll look into it this way,
we'll decide whether or not we go on to the next struggle, because
shortly after this, what happens is that, guess what?
There's more conflict.
Paul and Barnabas are two guys have a conflict.
So we got to deal with that.
What do we do?
Well, the Bible has the teaching on what to do in conflict,
and I can't say that, you know, because a lot of times we exalt
Paul to a place of almost sinlessness, right?
We go, Paul is Paul, and he is.
He's Paul's.
Paul's an awesome dude.
One of the guys that I want to talk to when I get to heaven, like
many of the other people there, but Paul isn't perfect, and
there's some issues with him and John, Mark, and Barnabas, and
even later on, Peter and Paul.
And, you know, so we're gonna get into that.
And I think that's important to deal with, because when we're
looking at unity and we're looking at these nuanced topics of,
is this gonna offend a brother?
These are real things that we gotta talk about, because what's
gonna eventually happen, whether we mean to or not, we are
going to have a conflict with another brother and sister in Christ.
It's going to happen.
So what do we do?
Well, you know what?
Historically, people have done well, let me get back in the old
days, it was get the phone book out, but now it's, let me get
on Google and see where the closest church is.
Okay.
We're going church shopping because these people have offended
me.
That's not the first step.
Does God call people out of churches and move them other places?
For certain reasons, of course.
But where we have seen an issue is that there is a plethora
of churches in the area.
And when there's a minor offense that could have been fixed
and a brother could be gained, there's, hey, we got to leave.
We got to run.
Now, thankfully, at Middletown Baptist Church, we have a lot of
faithful people, and I'm thankful for that.
There have been people that have come here for the right reasons.
There have been people that have left Middletown Baptist church,
I believe, for the right reasons in a good way.
Maybe they're moving.
Maybe God's calling their heart somewhere else.
Maybe there's issues that can't.
You know, maybe there's viewpoints that don't align.
Okay, now I'm a little biased.
I think Middletown Baptist church is awesome.
I think it's the best church in town, and I want everyone to come
here, but that might not be God's plan.
That might not be God's plan for someone.
Maybe someone else is better equipped than another body of believers.
And so we have to be very cautious about conflict and not running
from the conflict, but dealing with it in a very biblical, patient
way.
And I think that's what we talked about this morning, the endurance.
And that's not easy.
So I know that that was a heavy topic this evening.
I know that's not a topic that we necessarily get up and cheer about,
but it's a topic that we have to deal with because it's something
that, at least in my years of the church, doesn't get talked about
a lot.
Right.
We kind of just skim over this idea of offending a brother.
And what does that even mean?
We look at different things and we say, well, you know what?
If I don't like it, then it's bad.
The truth is, though, it's all about.
It goes back to the.
It goes back to the greatest commandment.
What did Jesus say is, the first greatest commandment is to
love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Okay, everything.
And then he says, the second is like unto this, love your neighbor
as yourself.
All of these issues could be dealt with if we follow those two
commandments.
So it's not about following the law.
It's following the greatest commandment of loving God and loving
people.
If we do that and follow the word, we're gonna be okay.
We're gonna be okay.
Are we gonna be perfect?
No.
But if you love God, you're not gonna sin against him.
If you're really walking in love, you're not going to want to
sin against him.
And if you love other people like you love yourself, you're not
going to sin against them.
You know, when I sin against other people is when I start thinking
about myself.
All those passages of scripture that said, don't think
about yourself.
Think about others, don't think about your freedom.
Think about the love that you have for other people.
When I sin against other people is when I start thinking,
hey, they wronged me, so I'm gonna do what I want.
They offended me, so I'm gonna do what I want.
They got me frustrated, so I'm gonna sin against them.
Instead of thinking about their well being, I think about my
well being.
Well, that's the first step.
That I'm wrong in church is not about me.
I'm gonna give you a revelatory statement, and we'll be
done.
This is it.
I know I keep saying that but I gotta say this, okay?
We are at church, not for ourselves.
This is not about us.
This is not about me.
This is not about you.
This is not about a ministry.
This is about Christ.
Everything that we're doing is about Jesus, okay?
We are beneficiaries.
We are background characters in the story, okay?
Sometimes I start to think that I'm the main character in the
story.
I'm the protagonist.
I'm not the protagonist in the story of the gospel.
I'm just a side character that's there to support the main
character, and that's Jesus Christ.
And so when we start thinking that we're the main character in
the story, that's when we can get into a lot of conflict and a
lot of issues and don't think about the unity.
And so what Paul says is this, and I thank the Lord for this teaching.
It's like this.
If I need to die to something in my life, I will do that for the
cause of the gospel.
If I need to remove something from my life that's a stumbling block
to another brother.
I love my brother and I love Christ, and I love the gospel enough
to say, I don't need to do that.
I don't need to do that.
We've got, and I'd love to talk to you about this more because
I've got a lot of examples about this, but we've got people
that will say, you know what?
I can do this.
I have the freedom to do this.
Why is this a sin?
It's not, but how is it beneficial?
And I go back to that passage in one corinthians 1023, all things
are lawful, but not all things are expedient.
Not all things are edifying.
If we just thought about that edification factor, so much more
would be changed within our midst.
So I will end with that here tonight.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us@middletownbaptistchurch.org or
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You can also email me directly@joshmissaroiddletownbaptastchurch.com.
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Thank you so much.
God bless.
Have a wonderful day.