Sunday Morning, May 24, 2020, AM

Give us a spirit of supplication. Lord, we know that this is also a place where we gather to praise your name.

Help us, Lord, to exalt your name together. Make us of one heart and one mind, that with one voice, we might declare your greatness, your majesty, your power, your mercy.

And Lord, this is also a place where we come for instruction. Lord, feed us from your word.

Your word is truth. Lord, in all these things, prayer and praise and instruction, we receive these things in Christ today.

Lord, would you unite us as a body, whether we are here in this building or whether we are at home watching the live stream.

Lord, how grateful we are that we are all part of the body of Christ. And every good thing we enjoy is because of Jesus.

So we give you thanks for this day and pray that you would draw near and be glorified in the praises of your people.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship?

Our passage this morning is found in Psalms, chapter 42, we'll be reading verse five. Read together with me.

Why are you, I'm sorry.

Let me get my glasses on, I apologize. Psalms 42, five.

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my

God. Our first song this morning is Psalm 42. And we'll sing verse one and verse three.

♪ And stream so long as my soul deserves ♪ ♪

For the lips shall

I call to see your face ♪ ♪

It is mine, mine shall again sing praise to his sight ♪

Glorious is thy name. ♪ Sincerely, glorious is thy matchless name ♪ ♪

Glorious is thy name, master by job ♪ ♪

Worth the saints of every nation ♪ ♪ Sing thy just and endless praise ♪ ♪

Glorious, glorious is thy name ♪ ♪

Glorious is thy name, also sin and shame ♪ ♪

How didst come to die, O ransom, guilty sinner?

♪ What a treasure we have.

Believe me, what a treasure this is. I was just thinking about that.

Whether you're here or at home, the word of God is available.

Deuteronomy chapter six. This is the second giving of the law, a reiteration, a reminder of what's important.

Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the rules that the

Lord your God commanded me to teach you. That you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it.

That you may fear the Lord your God. You and your son and your son's son.

By keeping all his statutes and his commandments which I command you all the days of your life.

And that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them.

That it may go well with you. And that you may multiply greatly as the

Lord the God of your fathers has promised you. In a land flowing with milk and honey.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.

And shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way.

When you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And when the

Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers. To Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

To give you with great and good cities that you did not build. And houses full of all good things that you did not fill.

And cisterns that you did not dig. And vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant.

And when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the

Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve. And by his name you shall swear.

You shall not go after other gods. The gods of the peoples who are around you.

For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God. Lest the anger of the

Lord your God be kindled against you. And he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massau.

You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded you.

And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord. That it may go well with you.

And that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.

By thrusting out all your enemies from before you as the

Lord has promised. When your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the

Lord our God has commanded you. Then you shall say to your son, we were

Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes.

And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers.

And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the

Lord our God for our good always. That he might preserve us alive as we are this day.

And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all his commandment before the

Lord our God as he has commanded us. May the

Lord bless the reading of his word. Let us pray. Father, we indeed are your people.

You have called us to yourself. We are the sheep of your pasture and you have given us your word to guide and direct us.

And you have embodied it in your son, the Lord Jesus, our savior, the living word.

May we continue to hear his voice and to follow after him all the days of our life.

That we may bring you glory and honor. In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated. Mr.

Bullard, Brother Ralph is with God in heaven today. And while on earth, he lived a life of integrity and commitment to the

Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just read, if I could, just a few of the words of our next song. Come, all

Christians, be committed to the service of the Lord. Turn away from sin and sadness.

Be transformed with life anew. Of your time and talents give ye. They are gifts from God above.

In your work with him, find favor. And with joy, his praises sing.

Sing with me together, come, all Christians, be committed. ♪

Come, all Christians, be committed ♪ ♪ To the service of the

Lord ♪ ♪ Make your lives for him more vetted ♪ ♪

Tune your hearts with one accord ♪ ♪ Come into his courts with gladness ♪ ♪

Each is sacred vows to you ♪ ♪ Turn away from sin and sadness ♪ ♪

Be transformed with life anew ♪ ♪ Talents give ye, they are gifts from God above ♪ ♪

To be used by Christians freely ♪ ♪

Proclaim his wondrous love ♪ ♪ Come, serve the

Savior ♪ ♪ Talents and offerings with you bring his praises sing ♪ ♪

God's command to love each other is required of you ♪ ♪

Showing mercy to a brother mirrors his retentive heart ♪ ♪

Showing he has his divine ♪ ♪

On the cross sins were forgiven ♪ ♪

He's at his name be given consecration ♪ ♪

Grace and love will you receive ♪ ♪ For his praise give him the glory ♪ ♪

For the spirit and the words his name has spoken ♪

Our last song this morning is More and More. Invite you to open your

Bibles and turn with me to Romans chapter 14. Be looking especially at verses 13 and 14.

This morning we'll be reading verses 13 to 23. In our series, except one another.

Except one another. Go ahead and pray for us.

Father, I thank you so much for gathering us together on this day, in this place.

Pray that you would nourish us as our heavenly Father, providing for us the food that we so desperately need.

We give you praise, our King and Savior, Jesus Christ, as our Good Shepherd, guide us, we pray.

Show us how it is that you would have us love each other. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would bring a very clear understanding to our minds of these words that you have provided for us.

And we ask that you would warm our hearts to it. God, we ask for this grace that we would be the amen on earth of your will that is in heaven.

We pray these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, amen. Do you ever wonder if the shrinking in the

American mind of God's sovereign involvement, the shrinking in the

American mind of God's sovereign involvement in the day -to -day affairs, and the expansion of the

American civil government's intrusive control are somehow correlated? That there seems to be the drop -off of one and the increase of the other?

The replacement of God for the state is no new idolatry. That's been around for quite a long time.

Just ask the early Christians, the replacement of God with the state.

But it is certainly in vogue today. Made in God's image, we were created, designed to serve our greater glory, to honor our maker.

But if we regard him as more and more distant, more and more restricted to small slivers of human experience, it only makes sense that in the void, we turn to other deities.

Made in God's image, the worship switch is hardwired on. So if we deny

Christ's authority and glory in any area of human experience, then just what deity does govern that area?

The ancients worshiped the gods of agriculture, the gods of fortune, the gods of the stars. Today, many

Christians consider business and politics and education and science to be the domain of experts, but certainly not matters that Christ is concerned with.

For many Christians today, Jesus Christ is one of those cross -legged gurus up on the mountain.

He's all about letting go of everything, rising above and claiming inner peace in all situations.

And he doesn't have any thoughts about proper civil governance or about a philosophy of education or how to do science or how to run a business.

And in fact, if you were ever asked about these menial matters, he would encourage us to do the best we can and go with the flow as much as possible.

Make no waves, make no waves has become the prime Christian virtue. And so many

Christians have a very small Christ up on a mountaintop. They know their sins are forgiven.

They know they're going to heaven when they die. They want others to have that same joy as well.

But for them, the right hand of God from where Jesus reigns is a guru's hut.

Now that approach, I believe, falls apart when we are increasingly confronted with a civil government with regulations that cost folks their jobs due to scientific claims made by a thought -cloning academy.

And all of a sudden, it matters. It matters how civil servants make their decisions.

It matters how businesses are to operate. It matters about the process by which scientific doctrines are preached from academic shrines and what kind of thinkers are stirring the pot.

Now, if all of these areas are not the purview of Jesus Christ in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid, who owns all things, upon whose shoulders the government rests, if these matters are not his purview, then whose purview are they?

What deity governs those areas? To whom should we offer our fear and obeisance and bow down if those areas are not under the purview of Jesus Christ?

I believe the confusion throughout our country about how to maintain liberty in the face of fear spawns from the failure of understanding who is

Lord. And this confusion is not sourced in our politicians and our

CEOs and our microbiologists and our professors. The church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth, has failed to proclaim the

King of kings and the Lord of lords. The church has been booking tours to visit

Guru Jesus up on the mountain, who can smooth out those wrinkles on your face, rather than heralding

Christ's kingdom come, Christ will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And the confusion concerning Christian liberty within the covenant life of the church both allows and indeed catalyzes the confusion concerning responsible liberty within our

Republic. Why is that? It's because culture comes from the cult.

Worth comes from worthship, the old English word for worship. Culture is religion externalized.

Culture is religion externalized. It is our calling as the saints of God to lead in the society.

How we handle our relationships with one another within the church is to set the tone, is to set the trajectory. While everyone else is still paddling out from the shore, we ought to be already on the crest of the wave.

That means rightly ascertaining the sovereignty of Christ in all matters that we have the wisdom to know what to do about these matters.

Francis Schaeffer observed a generation ago that the basic problem of Christians in this country in the last 80 years,

I guess that'll make 120 years, is that we have seen things in bits and pieces but not totals.

We see things in bits and pieces but not in totals. We've got bits and pieces, bits and pieces of government regulations, bits and pieces about personal convictions, bits and pieces about these different news stories.

But we need God's wisdom to do the sums and realize the total. What are we dealing with?

Because Jesus Christ is our master, savior, and judge, we may live in love for one another, the strong and the weak, accepting one another and living in liberty rather than tyranny, freedom rather than bondage, wisdom rather than folly.

As those ruled and redeemed by Christ, we are to accept one another. So I invite you to stand with me as I read

Romans 14, 13 through 23. These are the words of the

Apostle Paul, the words of our savior

Jesus Christ for us. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love, do not destroy with your food him for whom

Christ died. Therefore, do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil.

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.

Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense.

It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God.

Happy is he who does not condemn himself and what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith and whatever is not from faith is sin.

This is the word of the Lord. You be seated. We're talking about Christ's sovereignty.

The two doctrines that we most need to consider in figuring out how to love one another and accept one another with our differing convictions, which have been made so obvious over the last couple of months about what we consider to be clean and unclean, especially in terms of a pestilence.

How do we accept one another? How do we love one another? How do we unify for the good, for the cause of Christ, even when we have these obvious diverging convictions?

And of course, even though our diverging convictions have been made obvious by the oncoming of a lockdown and a disease, there are many other areas in which we diverge convictionally, and we come across those from time to time.

So how are we going to accept one another? How are we going to love one another? Two doctrines that we must consider,

Christ's sovereignty and Christ's sacrifice. Well, we've been considering his sovereignty and his absolute lordship in verses one through 12, that indeed he is our master and that he is our savior and that he is our judge.

And now we begin to think of his accommodating liberty, his accommodating liberty.

We've seen the grandeur of Christ's sovereignty, just how authoritative he is, how much authority he has, indeed how great and powerful he is.

Now we might tend to think, especially in light of recent events, that in order for a governing authority to acquire more and more power would require more and more restrictions upon the people who are governed in a process of vanquishing multiplicity.

The need is to bring more uniformity among the people so they're more easily controlled.

But in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, his absolute lordship translates into an accommodating liberty among his people, unity in liberty rather than uniformity under tyranny.

Unity in liberty rather than uniformity under tyranny.

A biblical idea long before its American expression. We have unity of worship without uniformity of expression.

You've noticed that as you've visited other churches, as you've seen the worship of our brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world.

You've seen the variety of the expression, but is there not unity in our worship?

We have unity of the spirit without the uniformity of gifts. We have unity of salvation without the uniformity of personal testimony.

One of the great joys is to listen to one another's personal testimonies about how we came to know Christ, how

Christ has saved us. What a wide variety of testimonies we have and yet we all are unified in the one salvation we have in Christ.

We have unity and submission to our Lord Jesus Christ without uniformity of convictions concerning how best we serve him.

To think that Christ, in order to maintain his power, must force all of us to dress, eat, speak, come and go lockstep is to make him out to be a small despot indeed.

We do not do well to reimagine Christ from mountaintop guru to the governor of Michigan.

We also do not do well if we mistakenly believe that Christ's accommodating liberty is even the third cousin of anarchy, which is why we need to consider the economy and the ethics of his kingdom as we have them here in Romans 14, 13 through 23.

First of all, kingdom economy, verses 13 through 18.

Now, when I say the word economy, what comes to your mind? Economy, what comes to your mind? Perhaps a mob of yelling, sweaty

New Yorkers throwing little bits of paper around in front of an endless stream of lights and numbers.

Maybe a grain silo next to some train tracks on the plains of Kansas.

Maybe an old gravel road cutting through the deep brush to an oil derrick down in Texas.

Maybe a shopping mall filled with people milling about. But what about a household?

What about a household? Economy comes from the Greek word oikonomos, oikonomos meaning house and law, house rule, the way a house is run, everything pertaining to a household.

It's a good reminder that in any society's economy, it is made up of the ways in which families are governed in their homes.

Interestingly enough, today's Proverbs 24 verses 3 and 4, by wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established, and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Well, I believe that Christ runs his household with utmost wisdom, and I believe that he organizes his household with the greatest of knowledge and understanding.

You see, Christ has a household. We've already been talking about the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

How is it that he wants us to live for one another? What are the rules of his household?

He said that money makes the world go round, but we know who hung the earth on its axis and gave it a spin.

What we're interested in is what makes his kingdom go round. In the economy of Christ's kingdom, how do we handle the variety of convictions?

How are we to unify in liberty? Let's consider, first of all, the mind of the matter in verses 13 through 14.

The heart of the matter and the end of the matter. We'll have to wait. The mind of the matter. Paul uses several terms in these two verses which tell us that dealing with convictions is first a matter for the mind to work out.

There are indeed emotions to consider, but first the mind must untangle these conundrums.

And we indeed are to put our minds to work in this kingdom of Christ. Be of this mind, have the mind of Christ, we are told.

In verse 13, we have some important calls to make, some critical judgments to make.

Not to be, we're supposed to be critical or to be judgmental, but there are important judgment calls to make.

And Paul's language here in verse 13 encompasses both signs, right? One another, right?

Let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.

And that goes for both sides. As he's talking to the stronger brethren who do not have as many restraints as the weaker brethren who have more convictions.

One side has more freedom, one has more restraint. But to both, he says, think this way, consider one another on these grounds.

And he's saying, first of all, do not, let us not judge one another anymore.

So of course he's against the legalism that is so dividing the church in Rome.

But at the same time, let's be clear, he's not calling for lawlessness.

He's not calling for an outbreak of sin. He is not advocating antinomianism.

It's been widely observed that while the most famous reference in the Bible is still John 3 .16, the most quoted verse is actually in Matthew 7 .1.

Do not judge so that you will not be judged, which is the favorite verse of many a pagan.

Now without context, that statement of Christ is nonsensical. Christ wasn't being nonsensical.

It was within his masterful teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. But to take that verse out of its context and wave it around is ludicrous.

Standards still exist. Standards still exist. Now of course, the point is that we are not to arrogate to ourselves the jurisdictional powers of the standard makers like Adam and Eve, to go to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and partake of it, to be like God, to determine good and evil for ourselves.

No, that's not what we're supposed to do. And yet there are still standards given to us, handed to us from God.

And we still have judgment calls to make, right from wrong, wise from foolish, true from false.

So this verse also can be taken out of context and waved around and it's part of the arsenal of the antinomians.

Well, who are antinomians and what is antinomianism? Well, despite the way that it sounds, it is not a protest movement against horrid little garden figurines.

Antinomian means against law, against law, anti -nomos.

It's an idea often expressed this way. Well, since we live under grace rather than under the law, since Christ fulfilled the law, there's just no more law to follow at all, which is a rather unfortunate and curious way to read the scriptures, especially since many passages in the

New Testament show us Jesus and the apostles decrying lawlessness. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness,

Jesus says. Paul asks, what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? The apostle

John says, everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness and sin is lawlessness.

And so we have no license to read this verse as a formula for anarchy, for antinomianism, for lawlessness.

By Paul saying, therefore, let us not judge one another anymore. He does not mean by that, that harboring vile affections, gossiping or cheating your customers or other kinds of fleshly indulgences are all fair game.

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound, God forbid. We understand the context of this verse.

It's about the non -essential convictions that we have. It's about whether or not we wear masks and a pestilence, whether or not we shake hands during COVID -19, whether or not we come to church during a virus outbreak, those kinds of convictions, that's what it's about.

So we ought not twist this verse as a license to sin or as a restraining order against any accountability.

What Paul is after is ending the divisiveness that is present in the church in Rome. He's not advocating for lawlessness, but he's also guarding against legalism.

There is no gain in exchanging anarchy for tyranny. Paul's point placed in its proper context is just this.

The weak are not to judge the freedoms of the strong and the strong are not to judge the convictions of the weak.

And that's what he means when he says, therefore, let us not judge one another anymore.

So the weak are not, and again, the definitions of weak and strong are set within Romans 14 and 1

Corinthians 8, 1 Corinthians 10. It is simply a reference to those who are under restraint.

I will not partake, I will not do this, I can't affirm that. Okay, so that's the weaker brethren.

And the stronger brethren are those who have the freedom to partake in those things.

The weak are not to arraign the strong to their court of opinion with their list of various offenses that the strong have committed and then seek to demonstrate to themselves and to their other weaker brethren just how poorly this strong brother lives.

Likewise, the strong are not to hold counsel on the foibles of the weak and detail all the reasons why they think that the weaker brother is inferior.

And where does this dynamic come from? Over to Matthew 20, dealing with his quarreling disciples, and he established the baseline about how we are to treat one another in the economy of his kingdom.

These are his household rules. This is how things are to work between brothers and sisters in Christ.

Verses five to 28. But Jesus called them to himself and said, the

Gentiles lorded over them. That's where that phrase comes from. You know that the rulers of the

Gentiles lorded over them and their great exercise over them.

It is among you, but whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.

This is the son of man not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

The strong nor the weak are to lord it over the other.

Now that's how pagans handle their problems. All must do as the great one prefers.

The great man makes all others serve him, cater to his preferences, step in line with his convictions.

That's not the way it works in the economy of Christ's kingdom. It's not the way among Christians.

The strong and the weak are to serve one another. They look at Jesus Christ as the Lord of us all, far greater than any of us.

And he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And so this should be our approach. This should be our approach. And so leaving off claims of lawlessness, engaging in divisive legalism, we are left with what?

With loving one another through discernment. Verse 13 of Romans 14 reads in the new

American standard, let us not judge, but rather determine this. Now the word judge and the word determine are the very same word in the

Greek. That's why the King James reads, let us not therefore judge, but judge this rather.

Right, same word twice, judge, judge. So Paul says, don't judge, but judge.

Right, does that make sense? Don't judge, but judge. Now what's the difference?

Well, we know the difference between driving 75 miles an hour on the highway and driving 95 miles an hour on the highway, don't we?

That's a big difference. Anybody who's ever done it knows the difference. I'm not saying anything.

There's a big difference between 75 and 95. And there's a big difference between navigating through heavy traffic and committing road rage in heavy traffic, right?

There's driving, and then there's driving badly. There's judging and then judging badly.

We're gonna have to use our mental faculties for good, but that doesn't mean we don't use them at all.

We are to take this very same mental capacities we would use to judge one another and use them for discernment instead.

Take the very same capacities to analyze, separate, ascertain and evaluate and use them for discernment for each other's good.

By his strength, a man may abuse his wife and his children, or he may use that very same force of voice, the same power of muscle and protect his family, strengthen his family, provide and nurture his family.

And what kind of a man is he who concludes that because patriarchal strength has been used for evil, that he will now abdicate his responsibilities and become a passenger aboard the vessel he ought to captain?

Likewise, just because critical judgments have been used to great harm, we have no call then to purposefully be simple -minded and hide our heads in the sand.

Or to use our insight and our analysis profitably seeking to serve one another.

How is that? Two things Paul says, don't stumble each other and don't scandalize each other. Stumbling blocks and scandals.

New American Standard has obstacle and stumbling block. King James says stumbling block and put something in each other's way.

That's just reminding us when you look at the various translations how closely aligned these words are, right?

So, but the first word is more passive than the second one. A stumbling block, something left out in the way.

It's like your child leaving Legos on the floor of the hallway for your nightly podiatric stimulation.

In our Christian liberty, we are not to leave stumbling blocks just lying around, waiting to trip up and harm our brothers and sisters.

We are to eliminate opportunities that others may take offense at, okay?

Now, how do we do that? We have to judge, we have to determine, we have to use our discernment to think about those matters and that is a matter of love towards one another.

For example, consider church attendance during a pestilence.

Now, the weak may lay a stumbling block before the strong by insisting that no gathering be done at all, which leaves the strong with no recourse to obey

Christ in their conviction to gather together anyway. Or the strong may lay a stumbling block before the weak by making little to no provision for a sanitation and caution.

And then the weak would be all the more isolated from regathering when they can. Yeah, you see how that works?

Well, what about this next word? Not only should we not lay stumbling blocks in front of one another, but we ought to consider also not to scandalize each other.

Scandal is more active. It actually comes from the Greek word skandalon. And this is not a matter of forgotten

Legos carelessly left in the dark hallway. This is the rubber spider hung above the door in the bathroom at the end of the hallway.

It's not that it targets anyone in particular, it's just whoever may run into it. But that's the idea of skandalon.

It's a gotcha mentality, but it's not necessarily directed at anyone personally.

You may have seen the Farside comic in which the two cavemen have set up a huge box with a stick elevating one side.

By the stick under the box, they've placed some meat in hopes that some beast will come along and eat the meat, knock over the stick, and the box will collapse on top of them, and thus they have their supper.

Of course, these cavemen are not too smart, so they're hiding in the box waiting as the dinosaur approaches.

Skandalon, the word picture for skandalon, is the stick that elevates the box. That's what a skandalon is.

It's the stick that elevates the box. It's the thing that will trigger the trap. So let's take up our previous example of a stumbling block, and let's turn that into a scandal.

Let's say you post or tweet or comment about your conviction one way or the other about church gatherings during a pestilence, and you do more than simply clarify your understanding of clean or unclean as your nonessential conviction.

You actually go further to state that those who disagree with you are not loving their neighbors rightly, and that those who disagree with you are fearing man, or that those who disagree with you are failing

Christ, are not loving God supremely. Well, that is a scandal, a skandalon.

You've not necessarily identified a fellow church member, but you sure set up a snare. They're easily gonna come across it.

They may hear of others discussing your conclusions, but you have scandalized them.

You're setting it up so that your conviction, your nonessential conviction has now become the standard by which you judge your fellow

Christians, and you make that known. You set it out there, and then someone's gonna bump into it, and then you've scandalized them, and I think that those kinds of tactics only bring harm to those who employ them, like Grog and his buddy hiding in the box, but as those ruled and redeemed by Christ, we are to accept one another, not only to think about each other in a certain way, fellow slaves, brothers and sisters, but also to employ our thinking for one another's good.

So if I notice a divergence of convictions, what am I looking at? What am I looking at? I am looking at an opportunity to direct my thinking and my determination for my brother's good.

Let's consider these convictions and how we are to assess them. Verse 14. I know and am convinced,

Paul writes, in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

So you see the two sides there. Paul is obviously identifying himself as part of the stronger brethren.

I don't have any restraints on my conscience about these matters, but others do, and they are right to follow those.

So he's obviously placing himself in the strong camp, but it doesn't mean that he's against the weak camp.

So how is Paul persuaded of his liberty? He's obviously not someone who's expressing doubtings about whether he should eat or drink or observe holy days.

He's a very, very strong believer. I mean, he knows and he is convinced that in the

Lord Jesus, he can do what? Well, he's convinced he can feast with Gentiles on pork ribs smoked over Saturday and Sunday and wash it back with a good wine.

Paul's stronger than I am, but he has full confidence he can do that. And while he's doing that, he's gonna be keeping

Sabbath and attending church and avoiding gluttony and avoiding drunkenness. Right?

And he can do all that. What a strong brother. I'm glad for him. I can't do all of that like Paul can.

What is the source of Paul's knowledge and persuasion? He's in Christ. Do you see this? He is in Christ.

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus. That nothing is unclean in itself.

Just as it was clean, don't you remember it was clean for the disciples to pick grain, grind it up and eat it with unwashed hands on the

Sabbath and it was clean? Why? Because they were with Jesus. They were with Jesus Christ because of who

Christ is. And you remember who Christ is? He's the one who touches lepers and makes them clean.

He's the one who fulfills all of the law, fulfills all of righteousness. He's the one who is our high priest and our temple and our sanctifying sacrifice all wrapped up into one.

And to be with him and to live in him by faith is to be given vast freedom as all things in him are clean.

Now that's not antinomianism. Why? Because there is no wickedness in Christ, no impurity, no falsehood in him.

Therefore we cannot claim drunkenness, adultery or embezzlement as clean in and of themselves simply because we're in Christ.

Those things aren't in Christ. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

He is Christ. He is however the heir of all creation. And so what is received from him and for him is clean.

Paul has been persuaded and continues in knowledgeable confidence that nothing in Christ is unclean in itself, he writes, per se, according to its own nature.

Why not? For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude for it is sanctified by the means of the word of God and prayer.

1 Timothy 4, 4 and 5. Now, I want you to notice that Paul has said in verse 13, we are to determine what?

Not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. And then he turns around and heartily, confidently, robustly declares his freedom in Christ.

Now he's not contradicting himself. He is not by declaring his freedom in Christ.

He is not by simply stating the theological facts, by expressing his beliefs.

He is not thereby simply by doing that scandalizing his weaker brethren. He is not laying a stumbling block before them by simply stating his beliefs.

Do we see that? Paul is free to live in this liberty and the weaker brethren know this is no harm to them.

Weaker brethren must not demand that Paul take upon their restraints. That's the master's business, not the slave's business.

And meanwhile, because Paul is under Christ and serving Christ, he will use his freedom to seek the good of his weaker brethren, not stumbling or scandalizing them.

There's a great many ways in which Paul the strong may accept and bear with the weaker brethren, but it doesn't require him to give up his freedom altogether.

Isn't it more a testimony and a more sweeter expression of love that the stronger brethren is confident in his freedom and has declared it to be so, and the weaker brethren knows that the stronger brethren has not the same convictions that he has.

The weaker brethren knows that the stronger brother does not have the same restraints as he has, and yet the stronger brother around the weaker constantly conducts himself in a way that will not put stumbling blocks in front of him and will not scandalize him.

Isn't that a sweeter way to live in the unity in Christ's liberty rather than uniformity under tyranny?

The reason why the weaker brothers are not harmed by the stronger brothers having different convictions is because of the lordship of Jesus Christ over the strong and the weak.

The strong by being strong are no threat to the weak, and the weak by being weak are no detriment to the strong. They are both under Christ to seek to be for the other.

And notice the reason to restraint at the end of verse 14. Paul says, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

The term in use unclean is used specifically, even technically to refer to those customs and habits which were common in the world, but forbidden to pious

Jews. They just couldn't engage in the same things as others without going against their conscience.

And Paul's not offended by that. I'm thinking of a brother right now, he will not eat a rare steak or even a medium rare steak.

For him, that would be going against conscience. So I'm certainly not going to serve that, if he comes over to my house.

I'm certainly not even going to order that if I'm sitting across the table from him at a restaurant. And I'm certainly not going to tell him about all my experiences eating wonderfully rare steaks in detail.

I'm not going to stumble him, I'm not going to scandalize him. Paul's not offended that others do not live according to the strength of his persuasion.

He grants the point, he affirms the conviction of the weak. If a brother in Christ considers, has thought through, if he is fully convinced as to the uncleanness of a substance or a practice, then for him it is indeed unclean.

Now, two things about this. First of all, that doesn't mean that sin is entirely a matter of subjective opinion or conscience.

There are many, many things that are definitely forbidden and no opinion on a man's part or even the silence of conscience can make right what

God has declared to be wrong. And also, again,

Paul is dealing with the non -essential convictions. Now, these very matters that he talks about in this chapter about diet, what you eat, what you drink, what days you observe.

Here, he's talking in terms of accepting one another in Christ and bearing with one another because it's on the level of conscience and how best any

Christian servant wants to serve the master of Christ. When those very same matters are placed upon the level of one's justification, whether or not you're right with God, on a level of sanctification, on whether or not you are truly holy, and by extension, made a matter of welcome or rejection in church membership,

Paul is absolutely vigorously against all that. These very things can be used to exclude people from a church.

Well, if you don't have the same convictions as the majority, if you're too free, you can't be a part of us, and so on.

Paul's against that. The scriptures give no credence to that.

If someone says, I have these convictions that I live with, okay? I am deeply convicted that I am, for instance, someone will say,

I am deeply convicted that I am not allowed to make a lot of money. I must make less than six figures at all times.

In addition, I would feel guilty if I had more than, let's say, a couple of thousand in the bank.

And all my money, as much as possible, needs to be given away to those who

I consider to be the disenfranchised and the poor, those who are in most great need.

And if I'm not doing those things, then I live under a tremendous amount of conviction and guilt.

Now, if someone says that, and that's the way that they live, and they can't go against conscience and have too much money, and they have to give away as much as they can, then

I love my brother, and I accept my brother, and I'm not gonna do anything to stumble or scandalize him. As soon as that person then begins to say, anybody who doesn't live the way

I live needs to be church -disciplined, you've got a problem. If they say, no one is really holy who has $2 ,001 in the bank, you've got a problem.

And if someone says, unless you live this way with this kind of social conscience, you're not really a Christian, right?

All of those levels are anywhere from heresy to false teaching. But if someone lives with these convictions, and it's a matter of their following Jesus, they think this is the best way to serve

Christ, I love you, brother, I'm for you, I'm not gonna stumble you, and I'm gonna accept you as Christ has accepted me.

Do we see the distinction? Now notice the restraints, and the reason why

I'm saying that, look at the verse 14 very closely. But to him who thinks anything to be unclean to him, it is unclean.

Who is it unclean for? It's unclean for him, not for everybody he knows, but for him, it's unclean.

The restraints of the weaker brethren do not have to become the restraints of the stronger brethren in order for the stronger to accept to love the weaker.

Each side must be fully convinced in their own mind, and seek to glorify Christ by living in unity in his accommodating liberty.

What a joyous thing to serve a master, to live under the rule and the reign of a king who says, you can have that conviction, and follow it to my glory, and you can have that freedom, and enjoy it to my glory, what an accommodating liberty we have in Christ.

And the economy of his kingdom, how we deal with one another is that under that purview, we use our minds and put them to work in the service and in the love for one another, and that's how we have liberty and unity rather than uniformity under tyranny.

So may God give us the grace to be of this mind, which is the mind of Christ. Let's close in prayer.

Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word. I pray that it has equipped us, that it has taught us, and reproved us, and corrected us, and trained us in the ways of Christ.

I pray that you would give us many opportunities to put our minds to work for the good of each other, and may all men know that we are truly your disciples by the love that we have for each other.

I pray these things for Christ's sake, amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?

We're gonna sing the chorus of living for Jesus. ♪

Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to thee ♪ ♪

Please give thyself for me, Master, my heart and soul ♪ ♪

I shall be thy throne, is born to thee ♪

May the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. We are dismissed.