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Well, people say that variety is the spice of life. I think there's some truth to that.
It's also the cause of church conflict. Is the church heterogeneous or homogeneous?
While the church might all believe in the doctrine that Jesus Christ died on behalf of sinners and was raised from the dead, what about gray areas?
What about debatable things? What about questionable things where Christians, good
Christians, have some differing opinions on them? In this room, we have some people that believe that Sunday is the
Lord's day and other people that believe that this is the Sabbath. Some are free to do whatever they want and others are more bound to what the
Bible says or what they think the Bible says. What do we do with a group this size? Some of you are public schoolers, some are homeschoolers, some are private schoolers.
What about tobacco? Some of you maybe smoke tobacco, some of you don't. How do we get along?
How about alcohol? Some drink, some don't. Some think drinking is a sin, some don't.
How do we get along with all these issues that we differ on? Some of you put up Christmas trees in your house and others of you think it's idolatry to put such a pagan
Jeremiah tree in your house. Some let your kids dress up as a,
I don't know, a little angel and go to people's houses and knock on the door and say, could I please have some candy?
And other people think it's from the devil. How do we get along in Christianity?
If the two great commandments in light of our salvation is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbors yourself, what does that love look like?
How do we love other Christians who don't believe what we believe on secondary issues, peripheral issues?
The New Testament church was similar. You had Jews and Gentiles coming together and the
Jews might say, you know, my conscience is really bound to Saturday worship and now
I'm having a hard day worshiping on the Lord's day, Sunday. I couldn't eat sea urchin before but now you're telling me
I can? And you've got Gentiles who are in the church and they used to have all their meat dedicated to gods before they ate it and now how can
I eat meat dedicated to a god? The Jew would say there's no god at all, eat whatever meat you want.
The Gentiles would say I came from such a background of debauchery and bacchanalian licentiousness.
I can't drink alcohol anymore and the Jew would say when it comes to alcohol you can see the
Psalms say when God wants to bless his people he gives wine. So what do we do?
Let's turn our Bibles to Romans and find out how Christians get along even though they're different.
Different life experiences, different parents, male, female, Jew, Gentile, white, brown, black, rich, poor, old, young, blue collar, white collar.
Are we going to be divided by secondary issues? The answer must be no because Jesus Christ purchased the church with his own blood and we ought to be unified.
Think about the Bible's discussion of unity. 1 Corinthians 1 unity, 1 Corinthians 2 unity, 1
Corinthians 3 unity, 1 Corinthians 4 unity, Ephesians chapter 4.
Be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. See this is the church that Jesus purchased with his own blood and we ought to make sure we care for his church carefully and not try to act like we want everybody to change to do exactly what we do.
Ray Stedman said years ago in California the favorite indoor sport of the Christian is to get other
Christians to change and act just like. How do we all get along?
Some of you buy guns and shoot guns. Other of you are appalled that they have guns.
I remember people asked me, do I let my boys grow up and play with BB guns? And I said, well, you can do whatever you want.
You're the king of your own castle. But if you don't give them some kind of gun to play with, they'll take their bread crust and form it into some kind of gun to go around and shoot.
What do we do? We have Democrats here and Republicans. How do we all get along?
How do we come before the Lord and say, you know, holistic medicine or going to doctors or are we vegan or do we eat meat?
Can we join the military? Can we not? There's all kinds of questions and the issue isn't who is right.
The issue is how do we love one another properly in light of the cross? Now, this is going to sound like I'm trying to be funny, but I'm not.
I'm just trying to be as basic as I can so we get this picture from the book of Romans. The key to Romans 14 and 15, understanding the liberties we have in Christ, is solved by Romans chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
In other words, if you have troubles with 14 and 15, go back and read the earlier context.
That is to say, the theology of justification by faith alone determines how you live your life.
It should determine the way you live in light of your justification. Turn with me, if you would, to Romans chapter 3, just to remind you how important these are when they're combined.
We just cannot take Romans 14 and 15 in isolation and say, this is how we treat other people who differ regarding these gray areas, are debatable things.
But it's tied back to Romans chapter 3. Now, remember,
Romans 1 says, pagans are sinful. They have no righteousness. A pagan looks at the world and sees the sun and thinks it's a god, instead of seeing the sun and the moon and the stars saying, a god made those things and has also given me a conscience.
Religious people in chapter 2 are also guilty because man has fallen in Adam.
God has credited mankind with Adam's sin and they have fallen in light of that. And if you go to chapter 3, we need some righteousness.
We need to be right in God's eyes. How can we approach the holy, just, righteous creator as judge?
We are undone because we're sinful. And if you see our resume in Romans 3 .10, no one is righteous.
Yeah, but what about no, not one? Verse 11, no one understands. No one seeks for God.
They have all turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good.
Yeah, but what? No, not even one. Verse 20, for by the works of the law, trying to keep the law, if we're corrupt, it doesn't matter how much of the law we keep or can't keep because we do it with corrupt hearts, no human being will be justified in his sight.
Maybe other people's sight, but not in God's sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
And so what Paul is saying is, here's the need everyone has for righteousness. We're sinful, we need a savior.
We have no righteousness, we need righteousness. And here's the fascinating thing. Take a look at verse 24.
It says in Romans 3 .24, and are justified by his grace as a gift.
Can you imagine? It's the wonder of all wonders. Think about how sinful, selfish, self -righteous, arrogant, boastful, prideful, unthankful, lustful.
Just think about all the things that you are, that I am. And in light of that,
I can stand before God as blameless and spotless. I can stand before God now.
How is it that I can stand before God and God sees me with his all -knowing, omniscient eyes, and I, Mike Avendroth, am not condemned?
I'm justified. He sees me as though I'm perfect. How can that be?
It's the doctrine of justification because God loves people, God loves mankind, and God sent his son who is the eternal
God. He cloaked him with humanity, and that son lived a perfect life.
Even on the cross, he was honoring his mother, wasn't he? Children, obey your parents, and children, honor your parents.
On the cross, Jesus was honoring his mother. Everything Jesus did perfectly obeyed the law of God, never sinned.
He was spotless and blameless. And on Calvary, when Jesus died not for his sins but for my sins, he was credited with my sins even though he never sinned one time.
And simultaneously, the believer is then credited with his perfect life.
Justification is more than forgiveness, although it contains forgiveness. Justification means I so have
Christ's righteousness cloaked over me that when God sees me, he sees his son, and I can stand before God.
One day, you'll all stand before God, and then how can you stand before God with even one sin?
Thrice holy God, one sin, nuclear winner, forever hell. But we stand before God justified.
Take a look at verse 5 of the next chapter. And to the one, Romans 4, 5, who does not work but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, he declares righteous, not guilty.
His faith is counted as righteousness. Verse 7, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven.
Why? Because somebody else paid for them. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will not count his sin, not counted against us, counted against Jesus, confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
So, now let's think about it. If I stand before the bar of God's justice as holy, perfect, righteous, always obeying the law because of what
Jesus's righteousness meant to me, credited that to me, you mean to tell me if I take a pipe and suck some...
I don't even know what it's called, some smoke into my lungs, that undoes the work of God? You mean to tell me is if I take a sip of wine that I'm now unjustified?
The doctrine of justification by faith, you can't be more perfect than Jesus is.
You can't be loved by God more than you are because he loves you in Christ Jesus.
If you have been declared righteous by the work of another, your actions can't undo what's already been done.
In other words, when you believe in justification by faith alone, counted as not guilty based on the work of another, what
I do in terms of what day I worship, do I drink alcohol, do
I smoke cigarettes? I know some people, they get all riled up on debatable things like birth control.
What kind of birth control do you use or don't use and let's divide on that. We are schismatic people, we don't want to be and justification by faith alone helps us with liberty.
You say, well, yeah, but you're kind of going on and on and on about this, aren't you, Mike? Romans 12, 1 and 2, 2 verses on the mind.
Romans 12, 6 verses on self, how do we estimate ourselves?
Romans 12, 13 verses on love. Romans 13, 7 verses on the church and state.
And Romans 14 and 15, 35 verses on how Christians should get along in the local church.
It's very, very important. So let's give you two requirements in light of justification this morning so we can stay unified in spite of our differences in debatable areas.
Two requirements in light of justification so we stay together, we love one another in spite of debatable areas, in spite of our taboos.
Number one, strive for harmony found in verses 1 to 12.
Strive for harmony. We are different people and so what do we do in light of our justification?
We're still going to strive for harmony. Let's take a look at verse 1.
We're going chapter by chapter through Romans. We're going a little faster than normal, but I'm trying to do Romans 16 chapters, 16 weeks.
So, hence the speed. Romans 14, 1. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
The weak in faith doesn't mean he's not a believer or she's not a believer in Christ Jesus, but they're just immature in the faith.
They're just a brand new Christian and they haven't figured out the significance of justification by faith alone.
They believe it, they understand it to some level, but maybe their theology is
Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. They don't understand all the details and they don't see the connection between theology and methodology.
That if God declares me righteous based on the work of another, what I do or don't do in these debatable areas, specifically certain worship days, food offered to idols, that doesn't change my status before God.
When God says you're not guilty, you're not guilty. And so, the weak person has a hard time figuring that out.
The weak person also likes to go, I can't believe those strong people are doing that. How could they? Now, the strong person, they realize justification by faith alone has given them freedom in Christianity.
They can eat what they want and do what they want and they don't undo their faith. But the weak, while they look to the strong and say, how could you?
The strong have the propensity to look at the weak and go, kind of arrogantly looking at the weak.
And so, Paul says, as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him.
What do you do when you're around an immature believer? I know what I want to do. I want to tell him, grow up.
I want to tell him, go talk to the other elders and when you grow up, then we can hang out together. I love to hang out with mature believers.
By the way, there's nothing wrong with that. When you get to hang out with mature believers, I hope you think that's a great opportunity.
When my brother and I talked Sinclair Ferguson into going to have dinner with us, I just thought this is going to be so great.
I get to go hang out with the mature believer. I have to like parse every word and explain every little detail.
Well, for the mature, we love to say, yes, welcome them. But how about those new
Christians? How about those Christians that are still trying to figure out, how does justification by faith alone apply to tobacco, for instance?
I think once at this church, I saw over here we had a swimming pool filled with water like this and there were some apples in there.
And I think some of our kids were bobbing for satanic apples. How did that happen under my watch?
What do we do with people like that? And if we're not careful,
I know this would be my propensity, when you're around weak or immature people, you kind of want to just avoid them.
And you say, you know what, you can be very pompous. I know, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit will do this work in my brother.
And then later I'll hang out. And what does the text say though? Welcome him. Please come over.
I want to be a part. I want you to, this is brotherly, cordial love. Welcome. What's the opposite?
Shun, stiff arm, black ball, black list.
Welcome the one who's weak in faith. This is used in verse 7 of Romans 15.
Take a look at this. This is convicting. Romans 15, 7.
Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.
How did God welcome you? He welcomed me as sinner, as ungodly, as immature, as wired into self as possible.
And He said, welcome. But for us now as Christians, unless you think the way I do about school, about ammo, about voting, about all these other things, then you're blackballed.
Now, of course, if you have friends who are like you, I don't care.
That's fine. It's the gravitational pull of friendships. Oh, hi, you have kids in public school?
Yeah, I do too. Is it hard? Yes, it's hard. Let's get together. But if you then say, if some homeschool kid comes around here, homeschool family, they're so out of here.
Maybe it's more prone where the homeschool families say, we want to unite and circle around one another because of the persecution that homeschoolers face.
And so we want to be around each other. Great. But the second you say, there's that family over there, our single mom and our kids, and their public school, and we can't have them over here.
That's what Paul is talking about. It says, welcome. It literally is in the present imperative.
Keep on taking to yourself. Keep on loving them. Keep on showing patience to them. And then you say,
OK, now I know what I'll do. I have to welcome them. It's simple. It's easy. Any child could read that passage, welcome.
So I know what I'll do. I'll welcome them with open arms to sit them down to change their mind. That's what I'll do.
I'll have them over for the explicit purpose. It's kind of like you ever get invited to somebody's house, and you talk to them for like two hours, and then it's time to go.
And then one minute before you leave, they tell you the most important thing. They tell you now the reason why you're over there.
By the way, I wanted to just talk to you about such and such. OK, that's fine. But you know the end always has the important deal.
I think we should flip it around and front load it. Let's get all that stuff out of the way, and then let's eat steak tartare after that or something if you're a stronger brother in the
Lord. So we'll invite the people over. Come, we want you.
We know you're different, kind of odd and immature. But come on over, and now we're going to set you straight. That's not the idea here.
See the text? But not to quarrel over opinions. Welcome him, but not welcome him to quarrel over opinions.
And you know, Paul, if it was justification by works of sinful man, Galatians.
But if it was, well, you know, maybe Timothy should just get circumcised because it'd make it just easier on him for ministry,
Acts 16, fine. This isn't a matter of adding works to the gospel. This is how the gospel affects the way you live.
The gospel is not now God has received us with open arms, and we've got to get everybody else to believe the way we do because then we feel better about our position.
I have to tell you, when I first got saved, I got saved out of debauchery, licentiousness.
And so the pendulum was way over here to sin. And then when I first got saved, I think the pendulum went way too far over here.
And if I saw somebody smoking a cigarette, I'm not talking about cigarettes are bad for you, and cigarettes are habit -forming, and cigarettes cost a lot of money and all that, but I just thought, that guy's got to be a pagan.
To take dried leaves, roll them up, and put it in some white paper, light it on fire, inhale, and blow it out with some kind of ring, you're going straight to hell.
When I first got saved, if your kid dressed up like a jelly belly and went out and knocked on the door for some candy,
I was thinking pitchforks. I was thinking some kind of Anton LaVey, Book of Satan or something.
Reminds me of that Curtis Vaughn story where the Baptist theologians and the
American theologians and the German theologians got together in the 1920s to talk about their
Christian faith. And, you know, those German theologians were so appalled by the
American theologians smoking that they almost dropped their beer. I mean, it's amazing to me to think of that.
Now, see, I want you to have convictions, but I want you to know your convictions on the gospel.
There's one God, one mediator, one advocate. There's one God who makes propitiation.
You ever think about that? Every other religion says, God, here's a little basket of goodies for you.
Here's a virgin. Here's a baby. Here's a food. Here's an apple. Please be merciful. But for Christianity, it's
Romans 3. God makes propitiation, and He gives His only
Son as a ransom to save sinners. And in light of that salvation, how do we act?
If you look at verse 2, you'll see the strong and weak people here. One person believes he may eat anything.
That's the strong Christian because what you eat does not determine or undo God's gavel of justification, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
The strong are able to grasp the significance of Christ's death for daily living. They're not under Old Testament mosaic laws and rules for what to eat, what's clean and unclean.
Aware of grace, and the weak are still learning. They're sensitive to sin, and it's easier to have a do and don't list, isn't it, in Christianity?
Just tell me what not to do. And the weak also are so weak that they'll follow the strong, even though they're not convicted to do the same thing.
Except, I ask you the question, when people differ from you on justification, I think you evangelize them.
When people differ on these questionable, debatable gray areas, what do you do? You open your heart and your home.
You accept them. Look what else Paul says in verses 3 and following. He just says,
I don't want you to be more restrictive of fellowship than God is. This is all striving for harmony. You accept people, that helps harmony.
You treat the fellowship like God does, that helps the harmony, verse 3. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains.
Don't, if you're strong, don't despise the person. Contempt, look down on literally, throw out as nothing literally.
And let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
Both need to say, we're going to stop holding judgment or making judgments against each other.
God has made room for them, and it's not salvation by palate, so it won't be fellowship by palate either.
Who are you? Boy, that's tough language, isn't it? That's Nathan -like language, verse 4. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?
This is like a worker at home. This is like a person that you hire to come clean your house for the day.
It is before his own master that he stands or falls. If you've got a house servant, they don't answer to the visitor, they answer to the head of the house.
And he will be upheld for the Lord is able to make him stand. This person who differs from you on birth control, homeschool, guns, anything else you can think of, doesn't report to you.
So, you just let it go. Don't judge them, don't snub them. How much makeup is too much?
What about material goods? What kind of cars do you drive? We could divide over so many things.
Paul says, I want you to strive for harmony in light of justification. Take a look at verses 5 through 8.
Paul's really going to try to drive home that the way you strive for harmony is you just answer to the
Lord. You keep your convictions private. See when I read verses 5 through 8, if you can notice, here especially in ESV, of the
Lord, to God, to the Lord. The person who differs with you on debatable things doesn't answer to you.
He's trying to do it before the Lord. One person, verse 5, esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.
Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the
Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God.
While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself.
For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the
Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the
Lord's. Here's what's happening. When a person gets saved, they're by definition a weak
Christian, an immature Christian. They don't really understand the dramatic revolutionary ethical effects of justification by faith alone.
They still understand enough about God to want to please Him. If you've been freed from your sins and you don't have to go to hell, you deserved it, you earned it, and you don't have to go.
So you say to yourself, I just think about myself as a new Christian. Lord, I want to honor you.
Lord, I'd like to please you. I want to do the right thing. And for me, coming from a drunken background,
I'm not going to touch alcohol. Probably by definition, I thought back in those days, alcohol was sinful.
It's just what I thought, and I thought, you know what? I just have to run from this. But here's my point. I didn't do it because my friends thought it was right.
I didn't do it because my wife thought it was right. I did it because I'm before the Lord. Lord, I want to live a life to you and for you.
And so how could we look at a weak, immature Christian like that and say, uh -uh, uh -uh, uh -uh.
No, you do these things for me because I'm convinced that alcohol is irrelevant as long as you don't get drunk.
So you believe what I believe. And I'm sitting here thinking, no, no, wait, you don't know how it's destroyed my life and destroyed my wife's life and parents' and grandparents' and all this stuff.
I just got to run from that. I'm thinking about this before the
Lord. I really want to honor Him. And so Christian friends, Bethlehem Bible Church, when you meet weak
Christians and they have certain convictions and they're trying to do them before the Lord, you let them.
They'll change. I believe in progressive sanctification. See the passage in verse 5 again, let each one should be convinced in his own mind, not your mind.
They'll learn, they'll grow. I now realize it's the heart. It has nothing to do...
Alcohol isn't the problem, the heart is. Sex isn't the problem, the heart is. Christian convictions don't define right and wrong, only
God's Word does. And we ought to be patient and love, as we heard about in 1
John 4 today, other Christians. These people do this all for the
Lord. More theologically, verse 9, take a look at the passage, Romans 14, 9.
For to this end, Christ died, lived again, that He might be
Lord, not us. We're not Lord of other people, both of the dead and the living.
Christ is the Lord. The weak are not our slaves, we are the slaves of Christ, the Lord. Lordship over His redeemed people, and we have to acknowledge that.
You aren't my people, this isn't my church, this is the
Lord's church. And He lays down His life in obedience to the will of God, purchases the church. By the way, if you want judgment, stop judging yourself and remember the judgment you're going to get, verse 10.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Are you, why do you despise your brother?
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. This is 2
Corinthians chapter 5, judgment, not for sins. You never get judged for your sins anymore, aren't you glad?
Makes you almost want to turn into a vocal Baptist, right? Aren't you glad you never have to stand before God if you're a Christian and answer for your sins?
Okay, somebody say, I do, somebody say, amen, something. You know, there's a lot of weak
Christians who are afraid to express themselves with a verbal amen, amen. But what we do in the body, 2
Corinthians chapter 5, 10, we'll be judged by God, whether it was good or worthless. Our works are judged for rewards.
So Paul is saying this, quit judging the people, if you're weak, don't judge the strong, if you're strong, don't judge the weak, because you all have to stand in front of the judge one day.
So why do all this judging? You need to think about your own self. You'll stand before your
God. You receive judgment, you don't give it, and it's your brother. Well, if you were
Paul, you'd back up things with the Old Testament regularly, and he does that here in verse 11. If you'd like support for the verse 10 judgment, he gives that, quoting
Isaiah 45 in Romans 14, 11, for it is written, stands written.
As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to, not the strong Christians, not the weak
Christians, bow to me, and every tongue shall confess, not to other
Christians, not to weak Christians, not to strong Christians, but to God. And he supports his judgment in Romans 14, 10, with this quote from Isaiah 45.
The weak don't bow to the strong, nor vice versa. What's the conclusion? Then verse 12, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God, to God, to God, not other people.
Secondly, how do we live in light of justification by faith so we keep the church unified? Number one, strive for harmony.
Number two, make edification your goal. Two main outline points today,
Romans 14, 1 to 12, strive for harmony. Romans 14, 13 to 23, make edification your goal.
Let's talk about this a little bit. And you'll see in this section, a lot of strong Christians are addressed.
They're addressed here. Don't injure weak consciences. It's one thing to have liberty.
All right, I'll ask you the question, choose one, liberty or charity? You only get to pick one. Now, of course, we don't necessarily have to pick, but if we had to pick, wouldn't we want to pick love over liberty?
No, I got to have love because love rules. God is love.
We just learned about love today and love and propitiation. No, no, I'm all about liberty. No, love first.
And you'll see that section here. Paul says in verse 13, And therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer.
Haven't we had enough of that? Have we had enough of criticism? Doesn't the world criticize us enough?
Now, why do we have this habit of criticizing each other? Harping and carping, but rather decide, but rather to judge literally.
Stop judging and say, but judge this. Get ready ahead of time for Halloween coming up.
Never put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I honestly don't care what you do when it comes to gray areas.
You'll learn and grow because you don't answer to me. But one thing we have to make sure to do is not, if we're stronger, think we're so much better, or if we're weaker, not to think, you know, why are they doing that?
Stop passing judgment on one another. If you want to talk about regeneration, virgin birth, second coming literal, real ascension, the doctrine of sin, what is marriage in the
Bible, I will die for those truths. I hope God would give me the grace to literally die for those truths.
But on to these other things, I'm going to decide ahead of time not to stumble other people and block them.
And the way that Strong does it is this. Strong says, you know what? You should be grown up by now. I'm going to do this anyway.
You don't think drinking is good? You came out of a night clubbing kind of life, and so you don't think drinking's
Christian, but I do. And so therefore, I'm going to drink in front of you, and you're like, well, wait a second.
Mike's the pastor. Mike's older. Mike's mature in the faith, allegedly. And so since he can do it,
I can do it. Then the Christian weak person drinks and then stumbles because their conscience tells them it's sin.
It's exactly what he's talking about here. A stumbling block, our hindrance in the way of a brother.
There's that brother language again. We don't want to exercise liberty that encourages weaker
Christians to follow us and to sin. Verse 14, here's the statement of Christian freedom.
I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.
But if you're a weak Christian and you think it's unclean, then it's unclean to you. But it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.
And of course, he's talking here about foods. What foods are permitted in the law?
And what foods can you eat? What can you not eat? So if I meet someone and they're
Jewish and they get saved out of Judaism, and I say to myself, well, you know what? I'm supposed to welcome them over, and they're a brand new
Christian. They've been a Christian for a week, and let's see. What shall I do? Well, you know what? They need to learn the lesson sooner or later.
It's a cruel world. So you guys come over, and lots of people like to put out some chips and dips.
We put out pork rinds, because you just ought to, not many calories in pork rinds.
And we're going to have some ham. It's honey -baked ham, and that's what you ought to have.
And you're going to have to learn to figure this out sooner or later. 1 Timothy 4 says, just eat whatever you want.
See, that's no good. It's the other way. Let's see. OK, this person just came out of Hinduism, and they don't think they should eat a cow, and I'm not going to have them over for burgers.
I'm going to have them over, I don't know, tofu burgers or something. I have no idea. I like tofu burgers.
Look at verse 15. See the command here? I want to edify them.
I don't want to trip them up. I don't want to destroy them. I'm not trying to be right. I'm trying to love them. If your brother is grieved by what you eat, they're so grieved, they're bugged at it, and then they follow you.
That's the point. You are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom
Christ died. It's not a matter of right and wrong. It's a matter of love. Don't cause your brother to stumble by violating his conscience because he followed you in an action that he thought was wrong, but you think it's right, and he did it anyway, or she did it anyway, and now conviction.
Don't destroy. See that right there in verse 15? I mean, talk about, this is all
I would need to be personally convicted. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom
Christ died. John Murray said, it is the contrast between what the extreme sacrifice of Christ exemplified and the paltry demand upon us that accentuates the meanness of our attitude when we discard the interests of a weak brother.
What is really important? Well, we want to make people grow, and it says in verse 16, so do not let what you regard as good, freedom in Christ, strong Christians, be spoken of as evil by weak
Christians. By the world who looks and says, the strong can't even take care of the weak, and the weak are upset with the strong.
I don't want that kind of religion. What really matters for the kingdom of God is tobacco and alcohol and trick -or -treating.
Now, please, I just want to say this ahead of time. I don't want any letters, please, about the horrors of Halloween and the satanic backgrounds and how
Christmas was pagan and the Pope started it. It's Bacchanalian worship and all this stuff. My point is this.
My point is not, do I like trick -or -treating or not? Do I like alcohol or not? Do I like tobacco or not? The point is, there are debatable, it's undebatable that there are debatable things in Christianity that we don't really know what to do with.
So focus on what matters. Verse 17, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit. No longer are the Jews underneath the Mosaic Law. Now we have the
Holy Spirit. Instead of external outward rights, internal righteousness, doing right and joy and feeling of conquered, the peace of God with other
Christians, even peace. Stop fighting. It's a low priority.
Christian, what you believe about liberties doesn't really matter much. As long as you love other people.
Say, I can't figure out liberties. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe tobacco is sinful inherently. Maybe alcohol is sinful inherently.
I got to figure all this out. Well, you can study the Bible as much as you'd like. Of course, I want you to do that. But as long as you don't forget my responsibility in light of the cross is to love people in spite of who they are, because I got loved in spite of who
I was. Whoever thus serves Christ, verse 18, is acceptable to God and approved by men.
We serve Christ. So then verse 19, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Let's get together and talk about the Lord Jesus and His word and substantial atonement and the hope of heaven.
Heaven is kept for us, reserved for you. It's not perishable. It's undefiled.
It's kept by God. Let's talk, get together and talk about heaven. Do you know heaven is for real? You know,
Lazarus so missed an opportunity. He goes to heaven and the glories of heaven and then now he's on earth and he's been raised from the dead and he could have made a fortune selling books about heaven.
Okay, back to the passage. Verse 20, we want to edify. We don't want to tear down.
Do not for the sake of food or anything like this destroy the work of God. Now listen to my grammar carefully.
Who is the work of God? Not what is the work of God?
Because the who here is the Christian. Destroy the work of God? That's the Christian with the figure of a building and an edifice.
Who wants to go to some building with a sledgehammer and start knocking it down? We don't want to do that.
Everything is indeed clean. When you understand the cross and you understand
Jesus fulfilled Moses and you understand you're not under Mosaic law, you don't have to worry about clean, unclean anymore. It's moot if you're a strong Christian.
But if you're a weak Christian, we got to love those weak Christians, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.
He sees me eat meat or maybe as a Jewish person sees me eat shrimp.
They eat shrimp, but they still think shrimp is unclean and now they do it. Now their conscience gets them. Verse 21, it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
And you'll see this chapter, next chapter, the priority of stumbling is, the meaning of stumbling is not specifically and ultimately
I'm just bugged at you. It's I'm a weak Christian, I see you do it and I do what you do because you're strong and I want to follow in the
Christian footsteps of the faith of my fathers and elders and those who have gone before me and then
I eat it and then I feel bad. That's Christian stumbling. We answer to the
Lord. Verse 22 and 23, the faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.
Now that is not a verse that the world should give the Christians so we don't evangelize them.
This could be the world's favorite verse. I'm gonna tell the world, just lay off the whole shtick of judge not lest you be judged.
If you want a verse, why don't you use this? You're gonna rip things out of context. You see the context though, it's
Christian liberty. When it comes to gray areas, debatable things, Christian liberty, differences even, keep between yourself and God.
Strong, don't show off. Weak, don't say how could you. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
Approved by God, blessed, spiritual blessed, happy, spiritually happy. Apply both to the weak and both to the strong.
But whoever has doubts, weak one is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith.
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. And Paul isn't finished in Romans 14 about liberty because he goes on to 15 to talk about the same thing.
If you're a Christian, aren't you glad for progressive sanctification and growth?
When I was a kid, I had one of those growing bean deals and we'd always stand there and my dad was about 6 '5", my mom was about 5 '10", 5 '9", and I always thought
I was gonna be like 6 '7". And I was gonna be some kind of pre -Magic Johnson, George Gervin, point guard, 6 '6", dunking on people.
Weak Christians, especially, you're dunking. And I would weigh, I would weigh myself, yeah.
But I would, I weigh myself now. I would measure myself and gonna grow and you know, am
I growing? Every little kid does the same thing. Mom and dad, I'm not growing. But you realize they're growing because their old clothes don't fit.
You know what the grocery bill is. And you're like, yes, you're growing, you're growing. And over time you notice it, same thing.
I don't know if I've grown since yesterday, but if you knew me 16 years ago, I hope by the grace of God, you say,
I've seen some growth in Mike. I've seen the Lord working. God says, I'm gonna start a work and I'm gonna be faithful to complete it.
And I'm not yet done growing, but I think to myself, I still have room to grow and I'm growing.
And so if that's true for me, and if I rejoice in my own growing, then why do I look at these brand new
Christians who just minutes ago I was clapping saying, they just got baptized, brand new
Christian. And then am I really surprised that the brand new Christian who just get baptized says something dumb, says something immature, says something they don't know, says something about weak faith or their
Halloween trick or treating party thing. I don't know, whatever they say, should I really be surprised?
By the way, why am I yelling? This is bad. Love over liberty.
That's what you want for you, wouldn't it? If you want people to love you in spite of your weaknesses or strength, then we ought to do the same thing.
And if you're not a Christian, you're here today and you think you're gonna stand before God because you eat certain things or don't eat certain things.
The only thing you can expect is the wrath of God unfurled on you for all eternity.
Because how horrible would it be for God the Father to execute his son in broad daylight and pour out the
Father's wrath on the son if you could get to heaven by not eating certain kinds of food.
But there's one son, the eternal son, and he is the one to whom you are to look. It's not based on what you eat or how you eat it or what you smoke or don't smoke.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life as a ransom and all those who look to the
Lord in faith will be saved. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we're glad today for your word.
We're glad that we're not left only to our consciences. Father, I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church that she, people in Bethlehem Bible Church would have strong consciences.
But I pray, Father, over time, our consciences would be more and more conformed to your word. Father, we don't want the strong to rule or the weak to rule.
We want Jesus to rule this church. Thankful. We are so thankful that you grow us and mature us and you love us.