Book of Romans, 14:16-15:3 - Freedom in Christ | Handling Doubtful Disputations, Pt. 7 (05/15/2022)

Good morning, I want to first thank you for being here for my mom's memorial service on Thursday and I had worried about it for days that it wouldn't be enough, you know, to, I mean how do you take a person's life down into a few minutes and so we figured the answer to that was to make it last three hours and it helps, it helps a little, you can get more of the life in but thank you for being there for our family, we needed it and I was really proud of my kids, all five of them were amazing and I think I cried all the tears I've had for a while, I grew some more though after that the next day or so but it was, it was fitting for my mom, she was a wonderful person, she was a leader for everyone in our family starting with me and it's just always funny thinking back because her mother was not an only child but the good brother died in a plane crash and the bad brother got disowned so she kind of was an only child and then my mother was an only child and I was an only child so we had like, we had three people at our family reunions every year, three or four, it was always small and and then Charlotte and I had three kids and then Ben, the surprise baby Ben came along and then we had Matt on purpose and then the family was a little bigger and then they grow up and I get new sons and daughters that are not sons-in-laws and daughters-in-laws but sons and daughters and grandbabies and so Nana found herself with about 24 people every, about once a month, we'd have a birthday for somebody or maybe one or two at a time sometimes and she'd always come and she'd be sitting there through the whole thing and I know it had to be loud and noisy for her but she loved it and she, in fact, she was at one of those when she had that second little baby stroke that let us know something was going on and we had to help her get home and time she got home she was normal again so but then the next one was the one that got her, it was bad and we thought she could, we thought she would be able to maybe, you know, through therapy and things to get where she could live a more normal life but then all of a sudden the last three days she started having strokes again at night and she'd wake up different the next morning and the last one was just, I knew that was going to be the day, it felt like it was so fortunately all the children were able to be there so we were all around her the whole day and it was, it was a wonderful thing to watch my children ministering to my mom and something else.

It's bittersweet, isn't it? Well, anyway, I don't want to talk too much about that lest I not have the ability to see very well up here so let's turn to Romans chapter 14 and I've talked to several of you guys who had lost your moms already and you keep telling me it never goes away so I'm sure that's true but you don't want it to go away, do you?

I was driving to church this morning and I was by myself because Charlotte's ill today and Katie and Dave are out of town and so I've had so many trips by myself to Corsicana from Mahea, coming to school, coming to the office, all through the years and it's, there aren't usually many cars out there.

It's a nice drive and it's a good place to pray and a lot of times after I get through, my first person I always prayed for was my mom every morning so that's kind of unusual now when I start to pray, you know, but then when I get done I usually start looking around and thanking the Lord for the beautiful grass and beautiful sky and birds singing and all that, you know, and even through after the curse there's so much beautiful, so many beautiful creations of God and you can talk to him about that and this morning I was thinking yeah but the grass isn't quite as green and the sky is not as blue and the birds are off tune today a little bit but anyway, well let's go to Romans chapter 14 and this whole chapter has been talking about things we ought not to be bickering about pretty much, wouldn't that be a good way to put it?

And the Lord even tells us how to deal with things where we have disagreements with our brothers and sisters over small issues, not over how salvation works, we wouldn't want to fellowship with people that don't have that right, we might want to witness to them but we don't want to fellowship with them, right?

But smaller things, how do you deal when you have a disagreement on things that are not as important as say salvation and how that works and that's what this chapter is about is how to deal with that and we've learned several things, we learned that first of all it really helps if we realize that our brother or sister that we think we're disagreeing with and they're wrong of course, right?

It's always them that's wrong, well they're not our servant, they're the Lord's and they serve him and we'll all answer before him for the things we do and say and whether they be right or wrong and he'll straighten all that out so we don't have to straighten it out, that's one good thing that helps.

The second is that not only do they belong to him but he holds them up, he's holding them up right at the time you're tearing them down in your mind at least, hopefully not talking to other people about them in a negative way but that'd be even worse and the whole time we're doing whatever we're doing, the Lord's holding them up and the scripture teaches that in this chapter and then it says when it comes to things you might dispute and you remember the examples in this one of them has to do with like meat eaters versus vegetarians, right?

And the scripture says let every man be persuaded in his own mind so I don't have to require you to be just like me and you don't have to require me to be just like you, we just need to do after our study and I don't think this is not the same as humanism where it says what's your truth, if you hear people say that young people now they say well my truth is this and I'm going it doesn't work that way, you don't get to have your truth like this right here is the truth and we all have to live by it and there's the standard but that's not what I'm talking about, I mean let's assume you're in the word and you're walking with the Lord, well it still says you got to be persuaded in your own mind about certain things and I may be persuaded a different way and we don't need to argue about that, that's what that's talking about and then the fourth thing is we must take any perceived imperative like if someone brings something from scripture and says well y 'all aren't doing this right, well we need to look at the context and make sure they're getting it right, right?

So we remember that and then we are not to judge others with regarded disputable things because each of us live and die into the Lord and Him only, that's kind of a redundant truth, it's taught almost kind of taught in a similar way twice in this passage and then the sixth thing is and this is where to me it started getting difficult because a lot of what Paul says is like you know all things are lawful to us, we're going to talk about that a little bit more today but then he says yeah but don't make your weaker brother stumble, so then that becomes almost a stronger law than if you had law in some ways, you know you have to really think about that one because that's very, if you think about Jesus himself, the person, that's very much Christ-like, isn't it?

Not to make like he would think about the other person and what do I do in front of him, how does that make him feel, would it make him stumble and if it would, I'm just not going to do that in front of that person and so that's key and then the seventh one was this one and this is kind of we've talked about this a little bit, Paul says there is nothing unclean in and of itself and Jesus taught him this in the wilderness, I'm confident of because Jesus also taught Peter this one time when he needed to learn this lesson but in Romans 14 14 it says I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, I think it's interesting that he mentions that, like Paul says I don't want you to think this is just something that I believe is true, Jesus taught me this right and that is that there is nothing unclean of itself, well that was astounding to the Jews in Paul's time, that was astounding because they live by laws and rules, things you can't eat, things you can't eat, places you can and can't go, things you can and can't do on the Sabbath, all these things and Paul said there's nothing unclean in and of itself, totally changed everything in their world and Paul sort of mirrored this in first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 23 when he said all things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient, all things are lawful for me but all things don't edify your brother, you see how he suddenly brings in Jesus's teaching that don't make your brother stumble, like maybe it is lawful for me to do it but not everything that I do will edify my brother, so it brings that in, you always have to think about that, it's not enough just to say well actually I don't have to live by your list of rules because all things are lawful for me, if I want to have a social drink I can have one right but if I do that and you saw me what would you think, how would you feel, I have to think about that don't I or what if someone I don't even know that's a young person that's seeking the Lord saw me and you, I was a preacher they'd heard about me and you as a preacher and you saw me drinking a nice little social drink, is that what they call it, say maybe after a tradeway meeting in some city far away and yet they had heard of me, that happens, people walk up and say I know who you are, you're David Mitchell, how do you know because you talk funny because you know I have a southern accent and maybe I'm in California that's happened before because you nobody talks like you around here and then it makes them stumble, so you have to think about that, so that to me sort of becomes a law in and of itself doesn't it, so maybe all things are lawful but they're really not because I have to think about the other brother or sister and if I don't do that, I'm not very Christ-like, you know what I'm saying, so that's very strong teaching I think and then you come to even I think a more difficult one to deal with and it's, I think it's found in like the second half of Romans 14 14, so let me read it and then we'll discuss it, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean, so Paul said nothing is unclean in and of itself but to the person who feels that it is, to him it is, so what you cannot do in faith becomes a sin for you but maybe not for another person, well that one is very difficult to deal with when you think you would like things to be black and white, you would like there to be rules like God says do this, don't do this, there it is, but it's not that way, I've had a theory about that for many years now and my theory is that God made it that way on purpose because he wants every one of us as individuals to walk filled with the Spirit and have to be informed by the Holy Spirit whether to do that or not do that in the moment rather than having a list, so that way you have to have a relationship ongoing all the time rather than a list of what you can and can't do and God prefers that because now he's drawn us over to sit in his lap like a grandpa thinks of his grandkids, you know, I really like the ones that'll sit in my lap a little longer than the others, that's the ones that I keep my mind on for my inheritance someday as far as proportionally like the ones that like Katie, Katie picks up on things quickly, she will coach her three children, this is how grandpa is, so you need to like sit in his lap longer than the other kids, I think she may coach them a little, I'm not sure if she does that and then Ben and Ashton don't have to even deal with it because they will just do it and then Jenny's over there already got the two grown ones, now her Ella is, I've always called her my lap baby because she would sit on my lap whereas others would jump off, you've heard me tell, you get tired of my stories, but others would jump off and go play, she'd sit on my lap until she knew I was good to go and then she'd jump off, so she's always been that way and Tyler is sweet as he, believe it or not, you think he's a big tall dude, you know, just sweet as he can be, now Finn on the other hand, like he will say, it's like my pants are on fire, he sits there, oh it burns and he jumps off, he's got because he's learning about everything in the universe, so I don't hold that against him because I know why he does it, he's just like, I got to go learn something, sorry I'll be back papa, but anyway they're all different and wonderful, but you know, that's kind of how it goes, so God is like that too, he wants us to sit on his lap thinking of your kids and grandkids and how you feel about them, I think is a great learning experience for how we should treat the Lord, and so therefore he's made it where we don't have a list of rules, we have to ask him right now in the present, you want me to do this or not, will you do this with me or not, and then we have that ongoing relationship, that's my theory on why all of a sudden we have grace, and see a lot of people confuse grace, boy it frightens me a little to see some of the modern churches, where they confuse grace to mean all that the scripture says is that all things are lawful, that's all it says, but if you read scripture, it didn't stop there, it said but not everything is expedient and not everything edifies your brothers and sisters, it added that, but they leave that off, so now like anything goes in church, I've talked with godly friends of mine who are even in the ministry who tell me that they have grown kids who go to church every Sunday, but they'll throw a curse word out there anytime they feel like it, as if there's no problem with it, isn't that amazing, in this generation they'll ask interesting questions like well who gets to define what a curse word is anyway, why can't I say that, who defined that that's a bad word, now how would you answer that, that young people are asking questions like that now, my friend said I did in my home, and you ain't saying that, so I like that, I like that answer, but it's a hard question sometimes, because we didn't ask those questions to our parents, did we, because we had like a strap back there or in my case of David board with my name on it sitting by the breakfast table, so I'd see it every day, first thing in the day, so I didn't ask my dad, well why can't I say blankety blank, Bill did you ask your dad anything like that, no, Raymond did you, I doubt it, Sharon probably didn't either, and I bet your kid didn't ask you that either, so you know think times are a changing, so let's deal with this thing a little bit about what you cannot do in faith is sin, Paul says in 14 14, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean to him it is unclean, now I want to dwell on that one a little bit, because we haven't talked about it much, this can actually be problematic in our lives, because there are other scriptures that indicate that the Lord does not want us walking around with guilty conscience, we don't serve, we don't tend to serve him well when we think we're not right with him, if you notice that, we tend to kind of just further backslide, we had a funny backslide example this morning didn't we, but anyway, you know when you think you're backsliding, you don't tend to serve the Lord, so the Lord doesn't want us going around with a bad conscience over something that's not even a sin, does that make sense, but maybe we think it is one, but it's not one, so let's talk about that, now James 4 17 says therefore to him that knows to do good and do it that not to him that is sin, well that's kind of one of those areas where you're not dealing with a scripture, you're not dealing with a rule, you're just like you looked over and you saw this lady on the side of the road with a flat, and you just kept going because you were late, now how do you feel gentlemen, how do you feel, well you feel like you just sinned, well then you did, right, so that's a little part of this understanding that, but that's not the main thing I want to deal with, I want to deal with this idea where you like there's something that you do or something you should have done that you didn't, you can put it both ways, and to you, you just feel like that's sinful, but you're not sure the Bible even says it is, but you just feel guilty about it, right, let's talk about that a little bit.

So in Romans chapter 14, you have to go several verses down from where we are from verse 14 all the way to verse 23, and it sheds a little light on it, it says, and he that doubts is condemned if he eats, but because he eats not of faith, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

So here you have an example of a person who realizes this meat that's being served was offered to an idol, and now they cook the meat, they're serving it to me, people are eating it, and I feel guilty about that, this particular person feels bad about it.

All right, so now if he thinks it's wrong to eat that, can he eat it in faith, and what here's how I define what that means, what does it mean if you can't do it in faith, it's a sin, what does that even mean, if you try to figure that out, because it's kind of strange language, see if you think I'm right here, but I think what it means is, and this is where I got this way that I've taught my kids, I don't know what kind of music to listen to when they're by themselves in the car or whatever, is I think it means if I literally ask the Holy Spirit, will you do this with me, and he says no, then I can't do it in faith, does that make sense, like I'm doing it outside of faith, I'm just back in the realm of the flesh now, and I'm just by sight or whatever I want to do, I'm just doing it, right, I am not walking with the Lord while I do it, that's what I think it means, so if you can't do the thing with the Lord right there with you, then can you do it in faith, because that's what our faith is about, is we can't see Jesus, we walk with him by faith, so I can't do it with him, therefore I can't do it by faith, that's sort of my definition of what this means, where it says whatsoever is not of faith is sin, so what about that, well let me, let's look at one example in the Bible that might help a little bit, I have to find my glasses because this Bible is a little bitty print, I'm going to go to one, we sort of alluded to this one earlier in this study, but we didn't really talk about it much, but in Acts chapter 10, we see the story where Peter had been taught clearly by the Jewish law certain things he couldn't eat, things he could eat, like he could not eat catfish, that was a funny story at the memorial about my mom, I had so many people tell me they loved that, Sharon, and I had people from everywhere, Raymond, telling me that when you talked, it just got him, got to him, but so he couldn't eat catfish, couldn't eat bacon, and so Peter wouldn't eat these kinds of things, and so now we're dealing in the context, what's interesting about this is Cornelius, a Gentile, needed someone to witness to him, and Peter knew he's a Gentile, and he's kind of struggling with that is the context of this thing, and so here we pick it up, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, because I don't think he really wanted to talk to this gentleman, and he became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and he saw heaven open in a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth, and wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air, and there came a voice to him, rise Peter, kill and eat, and Peter being a good Jew, and think he was pleasing the Lord, didn't he, because he's keeping these rules that he thought God had made, and Peter said, not so Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean, and the voice spake unto him again a second time, what God has cleansed that call not thou common, so if God says it's okay, don't you say it's sinful, that's the lesson, now this was done three times, why do you think it had to be done three times with Peter, because he ain't listening, right, three different times the voice from heaven told him the same thing, now I want you to think about that for a minute, God is speaking with the voice, which he did in the Old Testament times, and you got to remember some of the New Testament was living in the Old Testament time, because the church didn't start till after Pentecost, but even after that there's a transitional period, if you follow it through the book of Acts, where predominantly the Christians were Jews, Jewish believers, and it even in the book of Acts, it transitions to where it's more and more Gentile believers, and less and less Jewish believers, and the church became more what it is today, so you had some Jewish things that were there in the early beginnings, and then began to transition away, and pass away, like the Jews always felt that the only way you could impart the Holy Spirit was by putting your hands on the other person, and if you remember in the Old Testament, they were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit, were they, but he could fill them, he could come upon them, and do mighty things as with Samson, for example, but they imparted that by the touch, the laying on of hands, that's a very Jewish thing, well you got so many people in churches today thinking they got to do that, and they do it because they don't understand how to rightly divide the word of truth, they don't understand their dispensations, where God deals differently with us, but if you read carefully with an open mind, rather than what your denomination has taught you, you will see a transition away from that, for example, in the book of Acts, you'll see a section where the gospel is preached, and they lay hands on people, they say well I didn't know there was a Holy Spirit, remember that one, and lay hands on him, and he gets filled, he gets indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and then you'll go just a few chapters over, and you'll see Peter preaching, and all of a sudden it says, and the Holy Ghost fell upon them that heard, they didn't need anyone to touch him, they got saved, and they were indwelt by the Spirit, and there's your change, there's the transition to the way that it is during the church age, and Acts is a transitional book, and any group that tries to form their doctrinal positions on the book of Acts is going to be messed up in their doctrine, they're not going to understand, they're going to be doing things that are no longer even done that way, well one of those things according to Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 is God does not speak to us any longer as he did through the prophets, which means visions, dreams, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, prophecy, prophetic announcements, I'm not talking about the kind of prophecy where you're speaking forth the word from the word, that still exists, but where you do it without the written word, and you just say God told me to tell you this, he doesn't do that anymore, so people that tell me with a sincere heart, well but I've seen it happen, and I go well I'm not saying you don't see it happen, I'm saying you need to consider the source, it's no longer the Holy Spirit causing it, you can determine what you think's causing it is okay, but it's not the Holy Spirit, because he won't lie, and he said he doesn't do it in Hebrews one way, so I don't do that anymore, until the second three and a half years of the tribulation, then he will start doing it again, that in itself proves that it there's a transition away from it, or it couldn't start over again if it didn't stop, but anyway I don't want to get off on that, but this is during a part of the time during the transition period, and God literally spoke to Peter, who was an apostle, and he spoke to him three times, and he said things are a changing, things are changing, you can't keep being in this Jewish life, things are changing, Jesus has died on the cross, he has risen, it changed everything Peter, so I'm saying this stuff is no longer unclean for you, so don't tell me that it is, you got it, all right, so here's from that, here's what I think, what about in your lives where you come up with something that maybe your grandparents, your parents, who knows told you that it's a sin to do that, and you search the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, and you don't find anywhere in the Bible where it says, where God says don't do that, what should happen to you at that moment about that particular thing, you should be set free from it, just like Peter was set free from not being able to eat bacon, he was able to eat bacon from that point forward, and if he, the truth is if he weren't able to, he didn't listen to God, did he, so now when we're in a situation like that where we got something someone told us is sinful, and God's Word nowhere says that it is, then we need to be set free where it's not a sin for us, we can do that in faith because God doesn't say don't do it, now if you still, and what I'm saying is the Word of God can set you free from some binding that Satan has put on you through legalism of some sort, and some of you don't even have that problem because you never went to a legalistic church, you never had that background, but some of us do have that problem because we grew up in them, you grew up Pentecostal, I grew up in the, well I grew up Southern Baptist which had no rules at the time, that's why we left the church, like are they even believers, you know, that sort of thing's how it felt, I'm not saying it's true because I was overzealous as a young Christian, but to me none of them seemed safe, so we're leaving, so and I'm not saying that's true, but that's how we felt, so we went here blow and behold we find a preacher that was a legalist, but we didn't know what that was, and Raymond and Sharon experienced some of that with us, and they knew what it was, and the Lord just kept them there, I think to be here now is the reason, but they knew it, but me and Charlotte were so young we hadn't figured it out yet, but we did figure it out because God showed us, but there were a whole lot of things that preacher said we could and couldn't do, and as Charlotte and I began to search the scriptures, we didn't see that in there anywhere, so where'd they get that?

I don't know, and it freed us from those things one by one by one, and my mother and dad knew from the very beginning this was a bad deal we were getting into, and the dude's name was Preston Bunnell, the founder of this church, and his wife was Sandy, and I'm still not sure if the Lord knows her or not, I hope so, but I don't know that he does because of her fruit that she bore back then, maybe she's changed, I hope, but the point is good things came out of it, like our Christian school, they started our Christian school, and so there are many things good, but there were a lot of rules that didn't come from the Bible, so what happens when you live in that, especially at the young age of 20 something, and you're taught that it's the truth along with some stuff that is true, because they did preach the Bible too, then later through later years as you see those things happen, you still judge people that do them.

I'll give you a stupid example, women were not supposed to wear slacks, they were supposed to only wear a dress, all right, so my girls give me so much trouble, Katie and Jenny, because we didn't let them wear pants because of the rules of that church, and they had to do things like we had a horse, Katie had a horse back then, well, how do you ride a horse modestly with a dress, right, and the kids were smart enough to ask those questions, we said, you just have to, so we'll get you some culottes, like no girl wants to wear culottes, right, so to this day, they will throw that at me sometimes, dad, look at this old picture of me wearing these culottes around, look ridiculous, yeah, they did, you know, that sort of thing, well, but we didn't know, we were told it was sinful, and men were not to have hair touching their ears, and Raymond, you're good, but some of you guys out there are a little bit sinful, you know, you're getting close, yeah, so like Rocky Freeman, Rocky Freeman was the best preacher I ever heard, and Preston Bunnell was in his Sunday school class when he was in seminary, Rocky was his Sunday school teacher, so he knew how awesome he was, he would not invite him to speak at our church because his hair was touching his ear, and that, God used that, and also his wife wore slacks, she's one of the most godly women I knew though, and God used those little things to help me wake up later, years later, because I kept saying, well, how can this, how can this be true, because I know Pat, because we went to their house about twice a month and just stayed all day with him, he was my mentor, I know Pat, and I know Rocky, and this guy's telling me they're, they're walking in sin, and I'm going, that ain't, that's not true, so I know something's off, but it's just amazing to me, it took us so long to free ourselves, we didn't, God had to free us, and he picked a day, and we were sitting in a swing, and one moment I said, Charlotte, will we ever be free of these people, the next moment he set us free, in that same swing, same minute, that was so weird, and that's more to the story, but the truth is, sometimes I will still, well, I gotta look at my son Paul with that long hair, and I'll go, he's just not very spiritual, or he'd cut that hair, and then I think, wait a minute, where'd I get that, Jesus had long hair, you know, so where'd I get that, well, I got that from Preston Bunnell, and his name is not Preston Christ Bunnell, right, it might have been Sandy Lucifer Bunnell, I don't know, I just, they're probably going to hear this somehow, but if they do, guys, I hope you've changed, I have, I've changed, I hope you've changed, if you hear this, but anyway, you see my point, so we carry these things, if you ever were in a legalistic church, you carry it still in your mind, which is part of yourself, and so you got to deal with it continually, and the way you deal with it is, is it in this book, if it's not in this book, a man made to rule up, and you don't have to live by it, that's what God taught Peter himself three times, because Peter couldn't get it, and Paul tells us this at least twice, more than that, but two really specific times, so what you need to do is, is you need to examine things, and make sure they're not from your background, rather than the scripture, if they're binding you up, and let the scriptures set you free, the scripture is the only thing that can set you free, now, so I don't know how to say that any better, so let's, let's move along here, does anybody have a question about that though, does that bring to mind anything, or any questions about it, I mean you have to understand this too, a lot of the things, especially if you got it from a church, they will show you a scripture that it's wrong, but if you go back, and you study that scripture in context, it's not even talking about what they're applying it to, it's not even, it's not even close to talking about what they're applying it to, in other words, they took it out of context, and it's not really a rule for us today, maybe never was a rule, so you got to really check it out, it's got to be in context, and it's got to be for you, or it shouldn't bind you, and I grew up in a church, yeah, and if you ever said after that, that tongues is for me, for me, then you are committed to unforgiveness, whoa, so yeah, so you, you were guilty, because you couldn't do it, or didn't want to do it, or whatever, so, so Ron said he grew up in a church, where they spoke in tongues, and if you didn't speak in tongues, or you ever said, well, that's not for me, I don't have that gift, then they would say you committed the unpardonable sin, and so he carried some doubt around with him for years, probably, because he didn't, he, he couldn't, see, Ron was honest enough not to fake it, and he couldn't really do it, so he felt God wasn't with him, right, that's bad false doctrine, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so Byrd said, yeah, yeah, Byrd said he went to church, grew up in a church, where you had to be baptized to be in water to be saved, and if you didn't, you weren't saved yet, blah, blah, blah, yeah, yeah, there's, Satan loves to infiltrate legalism into every church, and there's a little bit of it everywhere, and you just have to, you got to use the scripture in context to know, and if you ever have a question, ask your pastor, I will help you with context, and then if you don't agree with me, fine, show me, show me what you think it's talking about, and we'll discuss it, so you know, main thing is, don't be bound up by man's rules, it will take the joy of Christianity right out of your life, and, and you won't serve the Lord as well, because you can't serve him under rules, you just won't do it, you'll be all bound up, so that, I think that's what that passage there in Romans 14, 14b is all about, what we cannot do in faith is sin, but how do you do it in faith, well, if the Bible doesn't say I can't do it, then I can do it, but I got to check it by a couple of other things, what are they, will it make my brother stumble, and will it edify my brothers if I do this or not, so now it's all in context, okay, now the ninth thing that I see in this passage is, if you love a brother, you will not do something that is not a sin for you in front of a brother that thinks it is a sin, does that make sense, even though you know it's not a sin, but you know he thinks it is, you won't do it in front of him, in other words, you sure wouldn't do it on purpose, just to prove a point, because you don't want to make him stumble, right, so verse 15 says, but if thy brother be grieved with the meat you're eating, now you're not walking in love, wow, that's pretty strong, because God is love, and the very first thing he gave us, one of the first things, one of the 33 things he gave us when he saved us was agape in our heart for other people, but we're not, we don't always walk in agape, because we're flesh and spirit, right, so sometimes we mess up, but one of the ways we can mess up is by, and I'll use one, because this is just not me, I don't have any use for alcohol, when God saved me, took it out of my life, because I used to abuse it a little bit, and so he took it out for me, well, I didn't know at the time he's going to make me a preacher in the south, and preachers in the south can't drink, you just don't like, you don't drink, and that's good, because I don't, I don't go for it anyway, I think alcohol destroys so many families and lives, it's just incredible, but what if I, you know, you know, if I went strictly by the Bible, and I had a drink, and it made a brother stumble, and I knew that he believed that you just never touch it, if you're saved or whatever, and I drank it in front of him anyway, just to show, and honestly, honestly, I know people that have done that to me, where they did something in front of me, that they knew I had a problem with on purpose, to show me it was okay, it hurt my heart a little bit, even though I don't consider myself a baby Christian, I just like, the person knew that, that I don't think that's great, and I do it anyway, so see, don't be that way, right, if you know the person has a problem with something, you know, why do it in front of them, they're not with you that much, they're not with you 24 hours a day, do it when they're not there, don't make them stumble, and I think it's so strong the way this verse reads, where now it says, now you're not walking in love, wow, that is a strong statement, and that is in the Bible, so now we're sinning, would you agree with that, we're sinning against the person in the Lord, because we're not loving them like we ought to, all right, destroying not him with your meat, for who Christ died, okay, can't get any stronger than that, the 10th point that I see, is the important things in the kingdom of God are listed in this passage, they are righteousness, peace, and joy, think about those three things, righteousness, which is imputed to us, it's Christ's righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit, not making sure everyone else believes just like we do, it's not the important thing in the kingdom of God, making sure everyone believes and walks just like we do, is not the important thing, the important thing is righteousness, peace, and joy, we should not make our brothers stumble just because we think we're right, nor should we make our brother have to walk just like we are, and be just like us, so the scripture in chapter 14 verse 16 says, let not then your good be evil spoken of, now this still, this still plays into this thing about doing something in front of a brother that you think is okay, but they think it's not, think about this, don't let your good be evil spoken of, you could be walking with Jesus doing that thing, because you know it's not wrong, and you know he's with you, and you're doing it, but that brother's looking at you thinking you're sinning, and he's going to go tell people you're a sinner, and God said don't let that happen, so now there's, you know, there's something, a warning for us that we need to be careful about our own testimony, because people will tell people we're sinning when we're not, and it won't help our testimony, and then when they need help, they won't come to us, because they think we're sinful, so see we have to guard against that too, so this chapter gets more difficult than it seems, because it tells us all things are lawful, but then it starts saying yeah, but, but you shouldn't make your brother stumble, but you shouldn't do it if you can't do it in faith, even if the Bible doesn't talk about it, and but you shouldn't do it if he thinks it's a sin, he's gonna tell everybody you're a sinner, because he saw you doing it, so wow, all right, and then verse 17, for the kingdom of God is not about food and stuff you drink, it, like he's been giving these examples about vegetarians versus meat eaters, and now he brings in whether you drink alcohol or you don't, it, the kingdom of heaven is not about that, it's like those are little things, it's not what it's about, here's what it's about, righteousness, so let's discuss how a person's made righteous, so let's talk about the whole way God has built salvation to work, it all is about what Jesus did for us, not what we do for him, it's all about the finished work of Christ, it's all about that he died in our place and took our sins upon him and gave us his what, righteousness, right, he gave us his righteousness, that's the righteousness that's important, and you can explain that to people, it's not what you do for him, it's that he gave you his righteousness and the father sees it as if it's yours, it's called imputation, so that's important, what I eat and drink is not, it's not, it's not the big deal as far as the kingdom of God, and then what else is important, peace, okay, so how do we have peace, it's kind of easy in a little church like this, but you get a bigger church, how do you have peace if you're going to bicker over every little thing you disagree about doctrinally, that's why you got 10 ,000 little bitty churches, and then the big ones that are big, the reason they have peace, they don't believe anything's wrong, you can do anything you want to do in those churches, they never preach anything, right, they don't preach anything, they, here's what they preach, God wants you to feel good when you go home today, and I'm going to make sure you do, right, and you go home and you, like, you're, you're, you, all you can drink is milk from the bible, that's all you know, you, anybody throws meat out, you choke on it, and you wonder why, so the church gets big, so I mean, it's like, if you're going to have a big church that's good, then you have to understand Romans chapter 14, like Mr. MacArthur's church is big, I bet he's taught chapters, principles out of 14, a lot to keep that church together, I guess, I don't know, I don't know how he does it, but he does do it, so the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it's about righteousness, it's about peace, now the third thing is, it's about joy, the way satan can take joy from your heart is when he convinces you, stuff you're doing is sinful, that's not even listed in the bible, and it's not sinful, you just think it is, because you grew up a church that taught it, or your parents, or grandparents, you heard it from somebody, or society itself will tell you it's evil for a Christian to seek wealth, there's a good example, we deal with that the trade way all the time, because that's a lie, the bible, the bible teaches that God can bless you with wealth, if he, if he thinks you'll use it in his kingdom, and help other people with it, but if you don't, if you've been taught the other, then you don't have peace about it, so it just causes destruction when we believe stuff that's not even in the bible, so peace goes away, and joy goes away, so once we get in the word, and we understand it correctly, and we have a walk with the holy spirit, where we can kind of sense, okay, I don't think he wants me to do that right now, it can even be something that's not simple, couldn't it, and he doesn't want you to do it right now, like I know there's many times in my car, I might want to put some music on, I can't tell you how many times this happened, I'll put something I want to listen to, maybe from my childhood, you know, teen years, or whatever, I got all that music still too, and and I got all the good Christian, new Christian stuff I find, and throw some of it out when I, it's not biblical, whatever, I don't like it, and I'll throw that thing on, and be listening, and less than a minute later, somehow the holy spirit lets me know, we don't want to listen to that right now, and I will turn it off, and start praying, and my mother's first, then Charlotte, and I go right down the list, and I won't tell you which one of you guys is last on the list, but everybody's on the list, and I'll go right through and pray, and he'll say, okay, turn it back on, we'll listen to it, isn't that interesting, that's how we should be walking, and not bound by rules, and laws, and things that are not in the bible, so the important things then are righteousness, peace, and joy, and the holy ghost, for he that is in these things, serves Christ, and is acceptable to God, that should give us some peace, to know this is the right way to live, and approved by men, because you know who men won't approve, legalistic Christians, they think you're a freaking nutcase, they won't approve that, and they go like, why would I want to go to church, if you got to be like that, well, I don't think Jesus ever came across that way, I think pharisees did, I don't think Jesus Christ, anyone ever said, well, if I got to be like him, I don't want to be a Christian, because of, and what I mean by that, is because of how he dressed, or talked, spoke to people, and things like, and how he was, now there are people who said, if I got to be like that, like you know, I got to live for the Lord, I don't want to be like him, there's people that didn't want anything to do with him, I understand, but never because of how he spoke, like he didn't have religious jargon, hey brother, God is good, all the time, you know, it's kind of stuff like, we talk, and the world doesn't talk that way, and they go, wow, I don't want to be like that, Jesus didn't talk like that, he could go into the marketplace, he was, he looked, he looked like a carpenter, big and strong, handsome, probably, maybe not, I don't know, but I'll bet you, as soon as he started talking to you, he was handsome, no matter how he looked, and he drew people to him, we should be like that, we shouldn't be driving people away, because we're legalistic, and we're so much better than thou, and all that sort of stuff, but that doesn't mean we drop down to the level of a drunkard, and don't start having social drinks, so that more people will listen to us either, so there's a balance in there somewhere, Jesus, you don't believe Jesus did that either, so there's a balance in this chapter, if we ponder it, it helps us with that balance, all right, so just because something is lawful, does not make it expedient or helpful to other people, remember from Christ's viewpoint, it is all about people, all about helping people, so if you make them stumble, doesn't help them, if you don't edify them, doesn't help them, let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another, isn't that something, for meat, don't destroy the work of God, because you think it's okay to eat meat that's offered to an idol, I personally think it's fine, because idols don't exist, I mean they're false, I can do it, but if there's a brother in here that it's a real problem with, I will not do it in front of them, and I won't brag about that it's okay to do it in front of them, because then I'm not walking in love, and so over that issue, I should not destroy the work that God's doing in that person's heart, though he may be a baby Christian, I don't want to destroy the work God has started, you see what this is saying, all things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eats when he's offended by it, and you need to remember that, even though you know it's pure, you don't need to convince him yet, let the Lord convince him, it is good neither to eat flesh, nor drink wine, or anything whereby your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak, or might leave and go to another church over it, which is not worth it, so the 12th thing that I see is use scripture to set you free from past legalistic beliefs that bind you up and take joy from your life, and verse 22 says, hast thou faith, have it to yourself before God, happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows himself to do, you see, so you had a problem with something because people taught you it was wrong, right, you go to the scripture, you study it, you study it in context, you say, you know, I don't think that's talking about what they said it's talking about, I think I'm free to do this, and so now you start doing this, and happy is he that no longer condemns himself in that thing that he allows himself to do now that he used to think was sinful, so there are probably things in our lives we need to let the scripture cleanse us from the doubt and hurt from it because it's not even a sin, and we'll be even more free to serve the Lord, and that's okay, and that's what verse 22 is talking about, and verse 23 says, and he that doubteth is condemned if he eats it though, so if you're still at a point where it's just like you just think God doesn't want you doing it, then don't do it, but don't put that on other people, don't tell other people they can't do it, it's between you and God on that issue, because he eateth not of faith, so it's just an example, like if you can't eat the meat offered to the idol in faith, then it is a sin, so don't do it, but if you come to an understanding from scripture that God doesn't really care if you eat it, then you're free to eat it, now you'll have peace and joy in your life, this is kind of what it's teaching, so it's all about growing stronger in the Lord, and oddly enough, the stronger we get, the more freedom we have, but we don't misuse it, you don't misuse that freedom to hurt other brothers or put it in the positive, you use the freedom to help you build people, not to tear them down by stuff you do that you know it bothers them, it's all right here in this passage, and he that doubts is condemned if he eats, because he eats not by faith, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin, now the conclusion to all of chapter 14, I think is in chapter 15, but remember there's no chapter divisions in the original, so I'm going to read the first three verses, chapter 15 verse 1, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves, doesn't that sum it up pretty well, let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification, where he might grow and be built, for even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me, and so Jesus to him it was all about people, it's all about people being built stronger, it was not about himself, obviously, and so we're to be like that, all right that's it, we finished chapter 14, let's stand and celebrate, we get to move on to chapter 15.