FBC Morning Light – March 3, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Thursday morning to you. I hope your week has gone well thus far, and you're seeing the Lord bless your labors for him.

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Now today, we're reading in Romans chapter 15, and you know Romans 15 follows Romans 14. How's that for a no -brainer?

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But the point is that in Romans 14, you know, Paul is talking about how we shouldn't be we shouldn't be judging one another in terms of these doubtful things, these things where there's no clear directive from God's Word.

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We're left to draw conclusions from principles and precepts and so forth from the

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Scriptures and apply them to the various things of life as we encounter those things. And sometimes we fall down in different places as believers in Christ regarding the practices or whatever of those things that are disputed, if you will.

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But in Romans 15, Paul builds on that, and he says that we who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak.

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So, you know, there are some Christians who are young in the faith, for example, and are very sensitive to some things because of where they've been and experiences of life that they have gone through.

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They're very vulnerable to temptation in some areas where, you know, if you've been a believer for a long time and you never struggled in a particular area, you don't have to worry about that.

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And there are things that you might be able to do that don't affect you in the least bit and tempt you to do anything wrong or think wrong or whatever.

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But that wouldn't be true of a brother in Christ. So, he says, we who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and not to please ourselves.

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Now, there's a statement Paul makes that flies right in the face of contemporary thought, isn't it?

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We are not to live to please ourselves. But, he says in verse 2, let each of us please his neighbor for his good leading to edification.

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So, Paul is, you know, you hear this mantra all the time, you know, live for yourself, go for what you want.

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If somebody else doesn't like it, too bad for them. That's their problem, that kind of a thing.

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And Paul says, no, no, as believers in Christ, we do need to think about each other. We do need to care about each other.

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We need to think about how our actions and behaviors and choices impact those who whose consciences are tender and who would be vulnerable to sin if they were, you know, doing the same thing that we were doing.

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They'd be vulnerable to temptation to go places and get involved in stuff in ways that don't affect us.

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We have to think about that. We have to be concerned about them, not live to please ourselves.

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Now, in that second verse where he says, let each of us please his neighbor for his good leading to edification, you know,

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Paul does give a couple of boundaries, if you will, or parameters regarding that, let each of us please his neighbor.

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So, he doesn't end there. Because, you know, sometimes what would please our neighbor wouldn't be for his good and it wouldn't edify him.

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So, for example, let me give you an example here of something like that parents, Christian parents, are running into these days.

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Parents of kids who are maybe, you know, fourth grade on up, maybe even younger, but especially you start to see it in late elementary, middle school years, and that is this whole matter of having a phone.

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You know, kids see other kids with phones and they see their other, their friends, you know, have smartphones and they're playing games on them and they're doing

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Twitter and Instagram and all this kind of stuff as sixth graders. And it looks like great fun.

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And it looks like it would be pleasing to your child to have one of these things so that he could be immersed in the virtual world and immerse himself in all of these various things.

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But you're a smart Christian parent. And so, you know, you look at that and you say, no, no, that's not good for you.

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That would not be good for you. Yes, it would please you, it would please you, but it would not be good for you.

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And it wouldn't build you up in the faith. It wouldn't lead you to Christ and it wouldn't grow you in faith in Christ.

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So, I'm sorry, I'm not going to do this to please you. I'll have to say no.

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So, those are a couple important qualifications to that, let each of us please his neighbor. It's got to be for his good.

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We're going to please him for his good and for his edification. If something is something that would please him is not good for him and is not going to help him grow in his walk with Christ, then

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I can respectfully and kindly decline yielding to that thing that would please him.

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The other thing I wanted to point out here in this chapter is that, you know, right after he says this,

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Paul gives the example of Christ and he says, even Christ did not please himself. But he says, as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

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So, Christ didn't live to please himself. Christ lived and died to please his

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Father. And to accomplish the purpose for which he was sent. But then the next verse is what

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I wanted to key in on. He says, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the

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Scriptures might have hope. So, one of the values of the Old Testament Scriptures is the examples that it provides, good and bad.

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And those examples can help us in knowing how to live and making decisions of everyday life.

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Now, that does have with it a certain caveat, doesn't it? The caveat is, we'll have to know what those

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Old Testament Scriptures say. So, I know, for example, there are some Christians whose attitude toward the

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Old Testament is, oh, you know, it's just all these stories and then there's these names and there's these things and there's these things and I, you know,

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I just want to read the New Testament. The New Testament is for Christians. The New Testament is for New Testament believers, followers of Jesus.

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The Old Testament, eh. Well, you have that attitude. For one thing, it's not a very good attitude because all

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Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable. But you're also missing out on learning from these examples that are good and bad that help us understand how to live, how to walk this journey.

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So, let that shed a little light on how you view your Bible. You know, we're following a

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Bible reading plan that we've been publishing and right now we're in, you know, every other day we're in the

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Old Testament. We're reading in Chronicles and about to finish that up. And going on into other passages in the

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Old Testament and I hope you're following along with that. If not that plan, then another plan that at least incorporates the

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Old Testament because therein are things written for our learning that we, through the patience or the endurance and comfort of the

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Scriptures, might have hope. Well, yeah, read the

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Word. It's good for us. All right, Father. We thank you today for these two areas of challenge and encouragement.

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I pray that we would be encouraged to please our neighbor for his good and his edification.

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We would be encouraged to read your Word in the Old Testament, learn from the examples that you've provided for us.

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And this we pray in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. All right.