WWUTT 219 Pass Judgment On Your Brother?

We are not going to agree on every single theological issue. There will be differences of opinion. But the opinion that you have is not to make yourself look brainy or smart. It's supposed to give glory to God when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Happy Thursday, everyone. I hope that June has gone well for you because now it's just gone. Today is the last day of the month of June. I was reminded how close we were to the end of the month when I noticed fireworks going off all over town.

I don't know what the laws are about fireworks wherever you live. If you're in California, I don't even think you have sparklers or whatever country you live in. But here in Junction City, Kansas, we can shoot fireworks all week long until like 2 o 'clock in the morning after the end of the 4th.

And then we have to stop shooting fireworks. So it's kind of like no holds barred all week, and it sounds like a war zone. So when I started hearing fireworks, because we're also close to Fort Riley, so you know people like blowing stuff up.

But anyway, when I started hearing fireworks, I realized how close we were to the end of the month. And so here we are, June 30th, July 4th, coming up on us this weekend. We are in Romans chapter 14, and we're looking at verses 5 through 12 again today.

We'll finish up this section and then do the remainder of Romans 14 next week. So if you want to open up your Bibles, let's read here starting up in verse 5. One person 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 God, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. We come back to verse 5 here. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. And a reminder in those first four verses, chapter 14 verses 1 through 4, the example that Paul uses is food.

So when we're talking about those who are mature in the faith, those who are weak in the faith, those who are weak think that there are certain things that you can eat and certain things that you can't.

And if you eat the things that you can't eat, then you have defiled your conscience and your body. But those who are more mature that understand, as Jesus said in Mark chapter 7, declaring all foods clean, those who are more mature in the faith should not look down upon those who are weak.

But by the same token, those who are weak should not look down upon the mature. Those who are weak probably think that they are the mature ones. So they need to understand the instructions as it is given, mature, weak.

The point is that we are not to quarrel over opinion. So even if a person is confused about whether they're mature in the faith or weak in the faith, the instruction still applies. Though they might think of themselves as being wise in their own eyes, they still need to heed the instruction in Romans chapter 14 not to quarrel over opinions.

We are to welcome one another. We are to show continued charity to each other in the body of Christ, being patient with one another, showing love and grace and growing all the more in our understanding of these doctrines as we teach and are encouraged by this teaching, growing together into the head who is Christ.

This is the description that is given in Ephesians chapter 4. So again, in verse 5, one person esteems one day is better than another. So then Paul moves from the food illustration to days of the week.

Which day should we be worshiping on? One person thinks this day is better than another one. Another person thinks this day is better. Or another person thinks all days are alike. But each person needs to be fully convinced in his own mind.

Do not let your conscience be torn on that day of worship, because then it will affect the genuineness of the worship that you give to God. So be fully convinced in your mind that this is the day that belongs to the Lord, and then dedicate that day to the Lord.

Although I explained yesterday how Christ has fulfilled all of the laws of the Sabbath, we still should have a day of the week that we are committing to Christ. In Acts chapter 20, you have the story of the Apostle Paul raising Eutychus from the dead.

And it begins in verse 7 by saying, On the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread. So you had the church that was gathered together the first day of the week, on the Lord's day, to be together to worship and to hear the teaching.

Because Paul was about to depart the next day, so he talked all day. He talked all the way until midnight, according to verse 7. Well, Eutychus was sitting in the window of the upper room that they were in, and as Paul just kept right on talking, Eutychus got tired, and he fell asleep.

And he fell out of the window and hit the ground, and he died. So the Apostle Paul ran downstairs, and he kind of like hunches himself over Eutychus, and brings him back to life. And so then they go upstairs, and they started eating again.

So how about that for a church service? Somebody died in the middle of it, and Paul raised him to life again. So anyway, the point of bringing up that story again is that it begins by talking about how they were gathered together on the first day of the week and committed that entire day to being together and hearing the teaching and breaking bread and fellowshipping.

And so that is the way that we need to commit ourselves to a day that is in service to the Lord. We are fully convinced in our minds that this is the day that belongs to Christ. This is the day that I'm not going to let myself be distracted by all these little trivial things and trinkets in the world, and I'm committing myself to learning and being with the Lord and being with the saints, and so be fully convinced about that.

Although there were disagreements as to which day was better than another, be fully convinced, and 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.

So ultimately, the purpose in whether a person is eating everything or thinks that some foods are not great for eating and abstains from eating those foods, ultimately the reason that they do it is not because they think that they're great, because once again, not to quarrel over opinions.

When you're quarreling over opinions, you think that your opinion is better than everybody else's. But that's not the point. The point is not to elevate yourself. It's not to show yourself to be right.

Ultimately, the point is to give glory to God. So a person who eats whatever they want to eat, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God, as Paul said to the Corinthians.

The person who abstains also does so to the glory of God. And so with both persons, the reason that they do this is to give God glory. So there's no reason to quarrel over this and try to force your opinion on someone else.

Again, we're talking about tertiary matters when it comes to these things. So then in verse 7, Paul says that 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. And this is just another way that Paul is saying everything that you do, do it in service and commitment to the Lord, giving glory to God in all things.

For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Now, that can be confusing because Jesus said in Matthew 22 that he is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Hmm. Well, let's look at the story. Matthew 22, verse 23, the same day Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection. So what's the difference between a Sadducee and a Pharisee? Pharisees believe there is an afterlife.

You have to be as perfect as they are in order to get to that afterlife. The Sadducees don't believe there's any resurrection of the dead at all. So they're trying to catch Jesus in a catch 22 related to this idea of a resurrection of the dead.

So they said to him, teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died and having no offspring left his wife to his brother.

So to the second and third down to the seventh after them all, the woman died in the resurrection. Therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her. But Jesus answered them, you are wrong.

So there you go, because, you know, neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God?

I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not God of the dead, but of the living. And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. OK, so there's the statement in context in Matthew 22.

And then when you read it again in Romans chapter 14, it says that to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord, both of the dead and of the living. You have dead spoken about in two different ways.

The way that Jesus used dead with the Sadducees in Matthew 22 was final. OK, he's talking about death as in final. The Sadducees believed a person died. They were dead. They were not coming back to life.

But Christ is illustrating here that God is not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, men who had died in the flesh, but were still alive in eternity.

The way that we are to understand the context in Romans 14 is not the same as in Matthew 22. Rather, it is the context like we would read in a place like Revelation 2012. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.

And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. We read in 2 Timothy 4 .1 that Jesus is going to judge the living and the dead.

We read this also in Acts 10 .42. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. Those who are alive and those who are dead who will be standing before the judgment seat of Christ.

So that's more the context of Romans 14. Not to be connected with the way that living and dead is used in Matthew 22. So why do you pass judgment on your brother? Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

So it is not for you to pass judgment on another because of some tertiary matter, but rather to show charity to one another. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.

Which sounds familiar, right? Sounds like the hymn of Christ as Paul gives it in Philippians 2 .5 -11. But here he's quoting Isaiah 45. And he does the same in Philippians 2. He just expounds on it a little bit more.

But here is a direct quote from Isaiah, verse 12. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Though we are justified by faith alone, as Paul has been saying all the way through this letter to the Romans, what we do affects God's judgment of our service to him and the rewards that we will receive.

So a person gets into heaven because they were justified by Christ, period, by the grace of God. Or a person goes to hell because they were not a follower of Jesus. But level of what we receive as far as our reward is concerned is determined by the level of service that we did for God.

And so all of us are going to be judged. Whether we are in Christ or not, the thing about those who are in Christ is we will be judged by the work of Christ and those who are not in Christ are going to be judged by their own works, which of course will lead to condemnation, eternal judgment in hell.

So let's bring this back around full circle. We as Christians are to be charitable to one another when it comes to tertiary, non-essential matters. And not quarreling over these things, but being patient with one another.

There will be opportunities to teach, to grow a person to maturity. And it might not be the right time. Maybe there's just something in the season of life that they are in. They just don't want to hear it or don't want to quarrel about it or don't want to have their mind changed.

Fine. Let them to continue to believe what it is they believe about this tertiary matter so long as they are giving glory to God in all things. Here's something we need to understand. Not everyone in a church is going to agree on every single thing perfectly.

And furthermore, I don't believe that we should. Because then what happens is we're automatons. We're just robots. We're just, you know, it's groupthink. We're following the rest of what everybody else is doing.

And we don't have original ideas ourselves. Not that that is a license or permission for you to disagree with everybody else. We need to be of one mind in Christ, as Paul talked about in Romans 12, 5.

As he also says in Philippians 2, 5, let this mind be in you, which is in Christ Jesus. So we are unified with the mind of Christ, but we're not going to agree perfectly on every single issue because we're still individual people inhabiting fleshly bodies.

So we need to be charitable to one another. And the ways that we disagree can help to grow one another. As Paul said to the Corinthians, there must be factions among you so that those who are genuine might be revealed.

In our disagreements, do we show that we still love our brothers and give charity to one another, despite the fact that we might not see eye to eye on absolutely every single thing? Then we display the genuineness of the love of Christ that is on our hearts.

So let us be charitable to each other, not holding grudges with one another, not arguing over simple little tiny different things, because then it will cause other people to stumble as well. But let us continue to show charity, bear with one another, and those who are strong, as Paul says in Romans 15, 1, which we'll get to in a couple of weeks, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Again, it's all to the glory of God. Our great God, we thank you for these instructions, and I pray that we learn how to follow them, how to obey them, how to apply these things, and guide us in this.

Give us patience with one another, that we might challenge each other and grow one another, despite the differences that we have. We can use our differences to challenge each other, to study the Word all the more.

So let our grounding foundational point of truth always be the Word of God. Guide us and teach us in these things. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. All right, this coming Sunday, I'm going to be preaching on this particular section that we just looked at over the course of the week, but some new things are going to be added that I did not get to this week.

So if you would like to join me for that sermon, it will be at firstsouthernbaptistchurch .org. The sermon will be updated or uploaded sometime later on in the day. You won't be able to follow along live on a Sunday morning service, but sometime later in the day, the sermon will be uploaded, and we'll talk about some other things related to what we have studied this week in Romans 14.

Otherwise, God bless. We'll be back again tomorrow answering questions and emails taken from listeners. You can always shoot me a question to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of the church family committed to gospel teaching, and we thank you for including us in your Bible learning.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in God's Word when we understand the text.