Making the Hard Decisions Easy
Selected Scriptures
I told you this morning that I want to just share some things very practical from my own life, along the line of making the hard decisions easy. And I want to pull together a lot of things out of the Word of God. But before I do that, just a little bit of introduction.
The Bible is very explicit on matters of sin. There's no any reason to wonder what it is that God forbids. You can start with the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord lays out the things that He does not permit. There are other things which God commands us to do and not to do those is sin. We are not in the dark about sin. The things explicitly spelled out in the Scripture are very clear to us. We know what's wrong. We also know what is right in regard to many things, for God has given us very clear word on that.
Now we don't want to talk about what is explicitly right and what is explicitly wrong in the Scripture, we want to talk a little bit about what falls in the middle because that really poses the difficult problem when it comes to decision making. If somebody proposes to you the possibility of lying, cheating, stealing, killing somebody, committing adultery, coveting, that's pretty obviously not acceptable. If somebody proposes to you the idea of reading the Bible, praying, witnessing, sharing the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word with someone who needs to hear it, that's pretty obviously right.
But what about all that stuff in the middle to which the Bible doesn't explicitly speak? And this is a large category. For example, there are some people who say that there are certain foods we should eat and certain foods we should not eat. There are those today who would want to bind us to an Old Testament dietary law and tell us that true spirituality is really involved with what you eat. And, of course, if you eat pork, or any thing that's not kosher by Old Testament law, you've committed a sin.
Other people would tell us that you can drink certain things and not other things. And if you drink certain things, that's sinful. And certain other things are not. And there's a lot to be said about that in Scripture but no specific prohibition regarding what we may or may not drink.
Some people believe, and this might sound strange to you, but it's true, some people believe that sports are sinful. In fact, I know a man who feels that way very strongly and says he's writing a book on the sin of sports. Now some of you don't believe it's a sin, to you it is a god. And you bow down and you worship it...every opportunity you get.
There are some people who believe television is a sin. If you own a television, you're not spiritual. There are other people who are zombies. They stare at that box. Doesn't matter what's on, even a test pattern tickles their fancy and they'll watch it as long as the fuse lasts.
Some people would say that if you go to a movie you've committed a sin. If you enter into a theater, you're participating in ungodliness. If you plunk down your...I don't know whatever it costs to go to a theater...that you are paying money into the godless movie‑producing industry. Other people say, "Well, you can go to a movie and it's a diversion, it's recreational, you can see the beauty of certain scenery," and so forth.
There are people who think that if you do anything on Sunday other than sit and read the Bible, you have entered into sin. You're not...when I was a little guy growing up, I can remember when we were back in...particularly on the east coast, in Philadelphia...you were not allowed to do anything on Sunday that even remotely resembled recreation. We came home in our little Lord Fauntleroy suits with the little stiff collar, and a little tie, and sat on the couch all day. Couldn't read the funny papers, couldn't read the sports page, couldn't look at television, couldn't go out in the yard and play catch, couldn't take a walk, we sat. The only sin we could commit and we could commit that sin all we wanted was the sin of gluttony. We could literally gorge ourselves on Sunday. And, of course, most of the women spent all morning cooking up this massive meal by which we sinned all afternoon, but couldn't...but couldn't run it off. And so we were stuck with the consequence of our evil. But that sin was tolerable. And in most evangelical circles it still is...as given evidence by the shape of most evangelicals. But anyway...we'll stay away from that one.
I remember as a little boy that you could play cards. You could play cards as long as the cards didn't have jokers, spades, clubs and those other things. If they had anything else but those, they were okay. But if they printed those on them, that was sinful and no self‑respecting person would ever pick up a card and see one of those markings on it without dropping immediately lest he commits some evil. Now you could play "Pit" and scream and shout and throw things, and that was all right, but watch what's on the card.
There were people who believed that certain games were sinful. Certain games like "Monopoly" taught materialism and there should have been a game called "Humility and Poverty" for those who really wanted to pursue true spirituality in their recreational life.
And then there are people who believe that it's a sin to stick leaves in your mouth and set them on fire and blow smoke through your nose. I was just in North Carolina and I saw most of the deacons doing just that. And I asked somebody how it is that that's not a sin and they said they all raise tobacco back here so that's not a sin.
But anyway, there are other people who say that if your hair is too long, that's a sin. And if it's too short, that's not a sin unless it's really too short and that may mean you're gay so find a middle ground somewhere so you're not sinning on either end.
There are people who believe certain clothing styles are basically reflective of a sinful society. Now I don't understand the fashions today. I really don't. Personally, I believe God is symmetrical. You understand that? I believe God is symmetrical. He likes the same thing on both sides of you. But I see...see, I see clothes that go every which way. I mean, crazy things like exploding things and everything all around. But I think God is a God of symmetry. But anyway, that's just me. I like a pocket on both sides of my shirt, what can I say?
And there are some people who...some people who feel that certain musical styles are sinful. Rock music is sinful. And we might even agree with that. Country and western is definitely sanctified. They must not be listening to the words.
There are some people who think that it's okay to have boys and girls together swimming, and there are some, many in the south, for example, who believe that's a sin. They call that "mixed bathing" and that is forbidden.
But there are a lot of things like that that enter into the area where the Scripture really doesn't have anything to say and so we're left with having to make some decisions. Now the easy way is to make up a list of rules. That's very easy. We'll just decide. We'll get a committee and we'll say this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is right. We'll just live by those rules. And if you keep the rules, we'll call you spiritual. And if you don't keep the rules, we'll call you fleshly. That's the easy way out.
As Christians, we need to know how to make decisions about those kinds of things. There are these things that face us every single day in our life. How do we decide? Well, I'm going to give you two handfuls of principles, all right? We're just going to lay them before you. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them except to share them with you. These are the things that I use in my own personal life. I sat down one day and just wrote them down, just out of my own experience. I didn't have to go study to figure them out, these are the things that I ask myself periodically whenever I'm faced with making a decision that isn't black or white in Scripture. The sooner you learn to apply these things, the more you will enjoy your spiritual experience and understand what it means to be free in Christ and yet submissive to His perfect purpose.
Number one principle, and I'm going to give you ten, I think, if we have time. Number one, and you're saying already we won't, but I'll fool you...number one, I'm going to do this tonight, folks, in the next few minutes...number one, I ask this question: will it be spiritually profitable? Will it be spiritually profitable? Look with me at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 12. A familiar text, I just want to touch on that. We studied it in detail in our study of this wonderful epistle. But notice verse 12, watch it carefully. First Corinthians 6:12, "All things are lawful." Now let me qualify that by saying this, all things that are not unlawful are lawful. That's what he means. There are some things in Scripture that are already said to be unlawful or sinful. He's not talking about those things. What he's saying here is all things that are not unlawful are lawful. Okay? All things in that sort of middle ground, that non‑moral area are lawful for me. All things not unlawful are lawful to me. "But all things are not...now this word literally means to my advantage, they are not to my spiritual advantage, they don't profit me."
So, I ask myself the question that Paul is posing right here, will my doing this enhance my spiritual life? Will it cultivate godliness? That's a fair question. That's a basic question. Will it cultivate godliness? Will it be profitable to me? Will it be to my advantage? Will it profit me?
There are some things that are not wrong. I think about sleep. Sleep is not wrong, sleep is good. I try to do that now and then. I'd like to do it more than I'm able. But there's nothing wrong with sleep. In fact, there's nothing wrong with sleeping in. Do you ever look forward to a morning when you can sleep in? Sure you do. Sometimes it's Sunday morning, but the Lord will punish you for that. But I mean, we all look to those times when we want to sleep in. I mean, that's a wonderful thing. But that good thing of sleeping in and collecting your physical strength if done too frequently will not be to your spiritual profit because it will cultivate what? Laziness. In and of itself, it is not wrong but it creates a habit of dullness. And overdone it is not to your benefit.
Now there are many things like that in life. Whatever they might be, you ask yourself the question: will it be spiritually beneficial? Will it be to my profit? To my advantage? Will it cultivate godliness?
In other words, I'm not looking at life from the standpoint of‑‑Boy, can I do this and get away with it? I'm looking at life‑‑Can I do this and have it increase my godliness? Will it be spiritually profitable? Let's call this the principle, and you can write this one down, of expedience...the principle of expedience. Is it expedient for my spiritual benefit?
Principle number two, and I'm just touching lightly on these, principle number two, and it's a very close parallel, will it build me up? Will it build me up? The first one simply looks at it in isolation, will it profit me spiritually in itself? The second question, will it put me on the path to greater spiritual maturity? Will it build me up? First Corinthians 10:23, go over a few chapters, 1 Corinthians 10:23, he gives basically the same idea, "All things are lawful...that is all things that are not unlawful are lawful...all things that aren't right...that aren't wrong in themselves...all things that are not unlawful are lawful for me but all things are not profitable," same thought. Then this, "All things are lawful for me but all things do not...what?..build me up."
So, I ask the question: will it build me up? And the word is oikodomeo, it means to build a house. Will it add to my life things that increase my spiritual stability, strength and maturity? First Corinthians 14:26 says, "Let all things be done unto edification." Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:19, "We do all things, dearly beloved, to build you up." In 1 Corinthians 9, back a chapter, verse 24, Paul says, "You know that we run and we all run in a race but only one receives a prize so run that you may win the prize." Every man that competes in athletics is temperate, that is self‑controlled in all things. Why? Because he wants to win. Verse 27, "I bring my body into subjection." Literally he says I keep under my body, means to give it a black eye, I punch my body in the eye, if you will, I buffet my body, not buffet my body, I buffet my body, I give my body a black eye for the purpose...for the purpose of keeping it under control in order that what I do may be self‑edifying. I make my body my slave, would be another way to translate that.
Frankly, and this is an honest thing for us to admit, most of us are slaves to our bodily desires, right? I mean, we basically respond to whatever physical impulses are there. That's why I've always said in the matter of self‑control and self‑discipline, there are several key elements. You remember, we covered this some months ago. To be a self‑disciplined person you have to train yourself in discipline. And I use a lot of little practical things like, for one thing, always do the most difficult task...what?...first. That helps you to learn self‑ discipline. Another one that helps me is always be on time. In order to do that you've got to order the diverse elements of your life all to converge to have you in the right spot at the right moment when you're supposed to be there. That's a control. That indicates you can pull the pieces together and manage. And another one that helps me is learn to say no when you have every right to say yes. In other words, when you have a right to go out and just have a great big huge meal and top it off with, you know, hot fudge sundae, or whatever, just say no so you can say to your body, "See, I'm still in charge." Cultivate self‑ control. When you control your desires with your mind, your spiritual mind, you exercise the right muscles in training yourself for godliness.
So, I ask myself the question, if I do this, will it build me up? Will it strengthen me? Will it move me toward Christ's likeness? Toward greater spiritual maturity? Let's call that the principle of edification. So the principle of expedience and then the principle of edification.
The third principle, and for this one turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12...Hebrews chapter 12. And let's ask a third question, are you ready for this? Will it...and this is the negative side of the two we just mentioned...will it slow me down in the race? If I'm running, as 1 Corinthians 9 says, if I'm running to win the prize, if I'm running to obtain, then I have to ask myself if this will slow me down. Notice verse 1 of Hebrews 12, we are in a race, the race of faith. We have seen in chapter 11 a host of people who lived by faith and they are living witnesses of the validity of living by faith. They are the cloud of witnesses who tell us to live by faith. You know, back there at the beginning, verse 4, "By faith Abel...by faith Enoch...by faith Noah...by faith Abraham...by faith Sarah...by faith Jacob...Isaac, Jacob...by faith Joseph...by faith Moses." And it goes on to talk about by faith the walls of Jericho fell down, by faith the harlot Rahab and then Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, on and on and on. Men and women all living by faith.
Now with so many people testifying to the significance of the life of faith, we are also to live by faith, to run the race of faith. Now in order to do it successfully, notice verse 1, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Now the key that I want you to notice, "let us lay aside every weight and the sin." Now what do you conclude from that? That the weight is different than what? Sin. We are to lay aside sin and we're to lay aside the weight. Well, what's the difference? To run in this agon from which we get the word agony which is the word for race, this demanding grueling life of faith requires determination, perseverance, self‑discipline. And in order to do that, we have to lay aside every weight as well as sin.
Now what is "every weight?" The word is onkos. It simply means "bulk...bulk." It isn't sin. It's just needless bulk, something that weighs us down, diverts our priorities, takes our attention, sucks our energy, dampens our enthusiasm for the things of God.
Now let's take an athlete who is going to compete in the 100 meters, and let's say that before he ran in the 100 meters, say in a world class event, he went out and got drunk and committed sins of dissipation and then came in and tried to run. He would be running without having set aside sin. He sinned against his own body and sucked out his strength. But let's assume that he trained perfectly, that he did everything he was supposed to do in the process of preparation, he was in top physical shape, everything was as it ought to be in his training, his moral life was clean, he didn't dissipate his body, but he came in and decided to compete in combat boots and a wool overcoat. That wouldn't be sinful but it would be pretty stupid. That would be unnecessary bulk.
Let me put it simply to you. Is it sinful to go out with your wife on a Saturday night and have a late dinner and just eat a nice big meal and then go for a drive and sit in front of the moon at the beach and tell your wife how much you love her and go home at two o'clock? Is that sinful? No. You say, "I wish my husband would do that." But, let's add one other dimension. You have a prayer meeting at 8 o'clock Sunday morning and you have to teach the Word of God at 8:30. Let me tell you, it's not sinful to do that but it is a lot of unnecessary bulk that will have an impact on what you're able to do the next morning.
So, there are some things in our lives that we restrict for no other reason than that they would slow us down in the race, right? That's why for me, for example, Saturday night is a very sacred time. It is a "do nothing" time. I can remember when my boys were playing football games, thankfully the last one is finished with his football career now, Mark. And I can remember Saturday night football games and I would go out, and when your son is playing football, you get into the thing. I get into it anyway, having played so much and loving the game. And you're watching your son and your emotions are running high at a fever pitch, and you come back and you're playing the game over and over, especially if your son breaks his leg and he's in the hospital, as it..as happened at homecoming last year and he severed his femur right at the growth plate, and we're there half the night...and we've got to get up the next day and preach the Word of God...and so forth. You get your emotions and your mental processes running down the wrong channel.
Now it's not sinful to go watch your son play baseball...eh, football unless you think football is a sin. And that's your privilege, I guess. But the point is, you add to your life unnecessary bulk. You don't need that. You don't need to encumber yourself with that.
There's lots of forms of bulk...legalism, ceremonialism, needless waste of time that sucks your energy and fouls up your priorities. So you ask yourself a simple question, will it slow me down in the spiritual race? Anything that impinges upon my effectiveness in serving Christ, I won't do that. It might be something in and of itself is not evil, but it becomes a needless weight for me to bear. Let's call this the principle of excess...of excess.
Number four...number four, will it bring me into bondage? Will it bring me into bondage? First Corinthians chapter 6, back to the verse we started with, 1 Corinthians 6:12, listen to this: "All things that are not unlawful are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient or profitable," then this, "All things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of...what?...of any." I will not be brought under the power of any. I will not allow anything to master me...to master me.
We should never allow a non‑moral thing to become our master. And yet there are people...think of it, man, the king of creation, we saw it in Psalm 8, we heard it sung, "What is man that thou art mindful of him, You've made him just a bit lower than the holy angels, You've crowned him with glory and honor, You've given him dominion over creation, he rules the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, he rules the land and all it produces, man, the king of the earth." But isn't it amazing how he yields up his sovereignty to the stupid little things? How many men have turned into absolute slobbering blithering idiots because they can't control what comes out of grapes? How many people have ended up dead because they can't deal with tobacco? How many people literally have their lives totally run by a television which is a bunch of wires that were invented by man, the king of the earth? All of a sudden television is king, television is sovereign, and man is nothing but a slave to that. Drugs, invented really and discovered by man for the benefit of those who have need of them, becomes the master of so many men, so many women.
There are many things that can enslave us that come from creation which God designed to be ruled by us. So I ask myself the question, will this put me into bondage? I remember a particular preacher who was preaching the circuit in evangelism and finally had to leave evangelism because he was so engulfed in losing money in golf that he literally bankrupted himself. Getting to the point where he was playing for three and four hundred dollars a hole...in a golf match. There are a lot of people in this world controlled by a little round ball like that, a lot.
There are those kinds of things that inherent in them take control of us...take control of us. I watch that happen with music. Young people who are dominated by that. I watch people who are literally paralyzed if they can't get home and see the next edition of the soap opera. So many things can bring us into bondage. Let's call this the principle of enslavement.
So, we ask will it bring me into bondage? Does it have the potential to make me its slave? The principle of enslavement.
Number five, this is a very practical one, will it, number five, will it hypocritically cover my sin? Will it hypocritically cover my sin? You say, "What do you mean by that, John?" Well, I mean this, am I doing it in the name of freedom when the truth of the matter is I'm really pandering my own evil? Look at 1 Peter 2:16. You know that we want to say, "Boy, I'm free in Christ, I'm free to enjoy this, and I'm free to enjoy that and I can do this, and I can do that." The truth of the matter is, you are free but you are simply covering over your lust, or your evil desire.
The man who says, "Well, I'm free to do that. I'm free to go here and see that movie. Why, I'm certainly free to do that. I have that liberty. I'm very selective." But when he goes there, he goes with the purpose in his heart of having his own evil desire pandered to by what he sees. He merely speaks of freedom as a cloak over his evil.
Look at verse 16 of 1 Peter 2, "Don't use your freedom for a cloak to cover your evil." A veil over your evil intent, be honest with yourself. Ask yourself, is this really something that benefits me spiritually, is for my spiritual profit? Is this something that builds me up? Is this something that is not unnecessary bulk but something helpful? Is this something that will not lead me into bondage? Or am I really cloaking over my evil desire? Look at your motive...look at your motive.
People say, young people say, "Well, the Bible doesn't say you shouldn't dance. David danced before the Lord." Well, I can tell you one thing, he didn't dance the kind of dance people do today. But people say, "What's wrong with dancing?" Ask yourself the question. Am I advocating dancing because I know it will build me up spiritually? Because I know it's not unnecessary bulk, it's very important to my spiritual progress and there's no way it can enslave me? Or am I desiring to do that in the name of liberty, in the name of freedom but the real motive is because of my own lustful desire? You see, I've got to get down to the motive and ask myself the real question.
You see, Galatians 5:13 says that it's a very common thing to turn liberty into...what?...license. And you have to guard that...you have to guard that. Let's call this the principle of, so we can stick with our "E" here, equivocation...e‑q‑u‑i‑v‑o‑c‑ a‑t‑i‑o‑n. That means to lie or falsify. And there are people who literally falsify their motives. "Well, I'm free to do that. I certainly am." And they're equivocating their lying, they want to cover their evil intent. The guy who says, "Hey, God made horses, I'm free to go to Santa Anita. I go out there and enjoy God's creation. Those horses just run and I say, `Praise You, Lord, look what You've made,' while I'm dropping money all day long." And what you have there is a cloak of liberty put over the top of an evil intent, which is to gamble, which, of course, is to take the stewardship that God has given and throw it into the air at the discretion of chance.
So, we ask ourselves, will it hypocritically cover my sin? That's the principle of equivocation. Am I falsifying a true motive? Number six, now this is a very important one, will it violate the Lordship of Christ in my life? Will it violate the Lordship of Christ in my life? And for this one I need you to turn to Romans chapter 14. We spent a long time there, but this will refresh you, I think, briefly. Will it violate the Lordship of Christ in my life?
No