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Bro. Otis Fisher
I want us to go back to the 14th chapter of Romans, to the 9th verse, please. Most of you have been through this a couple weeks ago, but somehow our tape got messed up and we're so close to getting a full set of tapes that we wanted to go back and get this lesson again.
And everyone heard us from 14 .9, the book of Romans. Live while you live, the world would say, and seize the pleasures of the day. Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries, and give to God each moment as it flies.
Lord, in my view, let both united be, I live in pleasure while I live for thee. Life's evening, or each day, will take its character from the day which precedeth it. I couldn't help but think of Rocky with this.
And if we would close our career in the comfort of religious hope, we must prepare for it by early and continuous Christian habits. Verse 9,. And to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, or resurrected, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and the living.
Now this is talking about physically dead, not spiritually dead. So it makes absolutely no difference, David, whether you're alive physically or you're dead physically. He's still our Lord. Death is but a separation.
A physical death is a separation of the body from the soul and spirit. That is, if you have a new soul which God has given you. There are no moral blanks. There are no neutral characters. Each day we go forth and sow the seed that has been given to us, which, even if it's good seed or bad seed, depends upon our nature.
We have the new nature. Therefore we have been given the good seed. Verse 10,. But why dost thou, doest thou, weak brother, judge thy brother? Or why dost thou, strong brother, set at naught thy brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Myron, everybody goes to court someday. Everybody. This week has been not really difficult, but a time of thinking more so for me. And if my pocket was full of stones, I have no right to throw one of them at the greatest backslider that ever lived.
The only difference between he and I is the grace of God. Our little minds cannot determine who's saved and who's not. What are you supposed to be like if we could? David, what would that lead to if we could determine?
Well, I'm so glad it is not like that. So you see how wise he is. So if we show hatred against the sinner instead of the sin, what are we doing? We're sinning. Who said that? Bill. If we but had a believing belief regarding the judgment of that great day.
Now we say we believe it, but I don't believe it in most of us that we really believe it or we'd act a little bit different. If we did, it would silence all of our condemnation. Verse 11. For it is written.
Martin, what does that mean when it says it is written? All right, so what he's going to say is nothing new then. No new doctrine or revelation. It is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.
Bill, give me your thoughts on every tongue confessing to God. Well, what would they confess? So even the worst sinner that has ever lived would worship God? They would recognize who he is. See, as people that have gone through their lives saying there is no God or we have the only God or only we have the God, someday we'll realize differently.
Martin, my trouble is, my problem, and every day I face this, I'm going to say it anyhow, I would like for Bill Clinton to be judged right now. I'd like to see it. That's wrong for even saying it, but I think I'm voicing the thoughts of a lot of people.
But we do have comfort in knowing that everybody will face judgment. And as Paul tells us, we each will have to give an account of ourselves, not others. He's going to do it? Oh, I'm so glad to hear that.
That was worth while you've come. Every knee, and as Garland said, that means both of them. So then, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God, not others, but himself. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore.
The anymore indicates that they have been doing that. But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. Let's talk about that for a little bit. That no man, be thinking of an illustration of how we as a Christian, in living our normal everyday life, could put a stumbling block in somebody's way, some weaker Christian, weaker in learning just who he is.
Byron, can you give me a hypothetical situation? You could have if I hadn't asked. Diane, an illustration. Bill, give me a practical, everyday, down-to-earth illustration of how this could be.
Activities and actions that we know are wrong. I don't think that I go around and do things deliberately on purpose to make somebody mess up and stumble. I don't do that. But what I do is I sometimes turn my back and pretend I don't see something that is wrong.
And I'll speak out against it or about it, and I don't. So I make a rule and say, don't judge that person. But if you don't inform a person that they're doing something wrong, you say, this is not a proper thing to do.
And I think you are putting stumbling blocks upon them. Especially for me or for David being in the ministry full-time, it would be easy for us to cause somebody to stumble by the words that we might say.
For instance, I'm a relatively level-headed fellow most of the time. But sometimes I lose my grip a little bit. And for somebody to hear me say something, especially if my wife and my children would come first, because they're with me most of the time, if I'm driving down the road and somebody cuts me off, and I don't just think, but I actually say, man, that guy must have left his brain at the house this morning.
He's a real idiot to cut me off like that. That could cause them to stumble in that, one, thinking that saying something like that is okay, and two, in thinking, I can't believe that my husband, my dad, quote, man of God, would say something like that.
The Bible says, be not many masters, for in many things we offend all. So oftentimes by the words we say, we can cause somebody else to stumble.
Okay, but that man might have been an idiot. He might have been. That's a good illustration. In off-guarded moments, in times when words seem to come out without planning it, just a reaction to things.
Now, another aspect at which we must look is that for me to prevent my putting a stumbling block in another Christian's way, then I must be sensitive to the other Christian. I must know to the best of my ability at what level they are.
And all the time that I sit here, I'm evaluating each one of you. And that's just the teacher's job. So even if I think I know where you are and what you believe, I still have to be very, very careful.
Because what Myron said, these phrases that we use, now we cannot guard all of them. Let me give you an example. Joe Shepard, that used to live here, was a very dear friend of mine. He moved to Kansas.
I have one other friend. He lives in Miami. But he and I was talking one day at church. And it was before services, and he was talking about this suit that I have on today. He gave it to me. He wore it one time to his daughter's wedding.
He never wore it again. So he said, I want you to have it. And he says, I've outgrown it. I can't wear it anymore. He said, I was 59 when I started. Now, and I mean 29. He's talking about waist measurements.
Well, some elderly woman heard him and told somebody else that he was 29 when he got married. That's the way things get started. Now, she fortunately said it where Joe could hear, and he corrected her.
But I just wonder how many times we say things and people just hear half of it and then assume the rest of it, and we're in trouble. We cannot guard against all of that. So it behooves us to always watch, make it a habit of what you say.
Be very careful. Think before you speak, and that's my problem. I speak lots of times without thinking, and it's very obvious. All right, let us not therefore judge one another. And to the very best of our Christian ability, to not leave a stumbling block for someone to fall.
In other words, stop trying to direct the pathway of others all of the time. I know and I am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. Now, this is Paul stating his mind. He says, to me, there is nothing unclean of itself.
So by that, what it does not tell us is just as important that there is nothing clean by itself. Inanimate objects have neither good nor bad. It depends totally upon the use of it. But then he goes ahead and says,.
But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is. Now, let's see what that says. First of all, Bill, what does the word esteemeth mean?
All right.
But to him that holds a certain thing in high honor or believes a certain thing to be a certain way, then to him it is that way. So that, first of all, proves sin is where? In the mind. And if someone thinks that we are supposed to meet on Tuesdays instead of Sundays and they really believe that and they practice it, even though they are the only ones and they really believe it, is it wrong for them to do that?
That's right. So, then it'd be all right for us to find fault with them because there's nobody else there? If a person believes something to be unclean, now Paul's talking about, specifically about eating beefsteak, that had been, the meat had been offered to an idol someplace and then taken down to the shambles and sold and that was usually the best meat in town.
He had no problem with that because it was just meat. But if his neighbor, who was not as firmly founded in the truth as Paul, saw him eating that and knew from where it came, then that would cause the neighbor to do one of two things.
Condemn Paul. Well, maybe three things. Ignore it or do the same thing when his conscience would not allow him. Therefore, he sinned, doing the same thing that Paul did that did not sin. The conscience of a child of God is what?
The voice of God. A man who tells the truth, believing it to be a lie, he's guilty of a lie. A man that tells the truth and believes what he told you to be a lie, then he's guilty of telling a lie. You follow that?
You can tell the truth in such a way that people don't believe you. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. You're not walking in love. Destroy not him with thy meat, because Christ died for both.
Treat all others as the Lord treated you. David, how did he treat us? He treated us as one of his from before the beginning. Let not then your good be evil spoken of, if we do good. Myron, listen to me.
At least he has his recorder going. If we do good when we could have done better, then our good becomes evil. So whatever you're doing, whatever it is, do it the very best you know how to do it. Even if it's robbing a bank.
Do it the very best that you know how. If that had been pounded into my head and heart when I was real young, my life would have been different. But it wasn't, so I'm not. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.
Verge, what other words could we substitute for meat and drink? For the kingdom of God is not what? First of all, kingdom means what? Authority, rulership. So his rulership is not composed of material things.
Yes, yes. Anything you can measure is not the kingdom of God. But it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's what it is. The kingdom of God is rulership of God and does not consist of things.
For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Now, David, why is the distinction made here between that you serve Christ is acceptable of God? What's the distinction between Christ and God in this verse?
Would you rather I hadn't asked you? So the Father looks at us through the filter of the blood of Christ.
Everything, going and coming, passes through Jesus Christ by faith. Things, things are not where it is. Thank you, David. These things, righteousness, peace, and joy, this is all that we should desire because this is all we need.
Let us, therefore, follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another. And what's the word edify mean? From the root of edify we get our word education. And that's the purpose of the local church is to educate its members.
They, in turn, go out and exercise their gift. Edify one another. Our thinking of an act to be unlawful makes it unlawful for us. But our thinking it to be lawful does not make it lawful for us. We went through this faster than we did last time.
Who said that? All right. Expound. I don't even know what the word means. All right, let me say it again. Our thinking of an act to be unlawful makes it unlawful. Paula just covered that a short ways back that if your brother considers what you do to not be right, then it's not right for your brother because he thinks it should not be.
So our thinking of an act to be unlawful makes it unlawful. All right. But our thinking it to be lawful does not make it lawful. We cannot take something that is wrong and decide it's all right for me, and that makes it right.
That's right. That's right. The whole world is chasing things, and they always have. And I used to do the same thing, but not anymore. That doesn't mean we're not supposed to have things. We have whatever we have by the gift of God.
Nothing. What can you give him? You can't give him anything. I think what Diane was talking about was in our own mind, in our own heart, we surrender to him in obedience. But that—no, I know that. I just wanted everybody to understand.
And even in that, we cannot give him anything.
You can—well, yes, everything we have has been given to us.
We come into this world with nothing, and we'll leave with nothing.
But I think, on the other hand, Diane's point is—Diane's point is that even like my little 5-year-old, maybe something I gave him 10 days ago would bring the gift to me. I like that. I'm pleased with it.
Let me ask you another question. When you first fell in love with your spouse, what was one of the first things you wanted to do? Give her something. I can remember so vividly in my mind, I could not have been over 4 or 5 years old.
And it continued for a few years. You would be back on the job. Well, I'll talk about my mother then. But without ever saying so, without ever expressing, I love you, what I found—and rocks in our country was very, very scarce.
It was all sand. But when I would find a shiny rock, I'd take it home to Mother. And she'd lay it up on the windowsill. I wanted to give her something. That's just built into us. If we love someone, we want to give them something.
And if we love Christ, we want to give Him something.
You want to show Him, too. Basically what you want to do is show that we do love Him.
That's right. And the best thing that we can give our Lord is obedience. No, no.
I think of what you were talking about. The best joy for me can give me no greater joy than to see her act out in her life that which I taught her. Yes. So for us to act out in our life that which she's given us, the Word, that can bring no greater joy because that's Him.
You're acting out of Him. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right.
That's right. That's right. That brings me to another point which you touched on. So many times I know in our personal life, and it's got to be in yours, too, someone wants to give you something, and you feel like in your heart they cannot afford it.
So you try to not let them do it. Now, there is a very, very fine line of using and manipulating people to give you things, and then on the other side of the line, when they truly want to present you with this, don't stop them because you've robbed them of a blessing.
But it takes very sensitive intelligence to know when. So I would urge you to be very cautious and very careful. Some people can give more than others. We know that. But if God has prompted you to do something, you best do it.
And I would not want to put a stumbling block in their way by not accepting it. Anything else? Let me give you an example. And maybe I've given you this before, but we have a very dear friend. He was in Dallas.
He retired from a phone company 30 years ago or more and now lives up in Frisco. And when he was with the phone company, he was in the management end, and about every quarter they would have a quarterly meeting.
And he said they always had refreshments and food, and they always had liquor. But he wouldn't drink it. He got him a glass and put Coke in it. Well, he never made a big deal out of it, but there was a younger telephone employee there that knew Mac.
He would always take the liquor. Well, after one particular meeting, this younger employee went home and told his wife. He says, you know, if Mac can do that, I can do that. So he did. Mac told me years later, he says, he now is a deacon in a Baptist church, a wonderful Christian.
Mac's not drinking liquor had a direct effect upon that. So we need to be very, very cautious. This Christian life demands that we live it all of the time, wherever we are and whatever we're doing. If there's nothing else, let's stand and we'll be dismissed.
Myron, would you dismiss us, please? Father, thank you for your goodness to us and your grace and your mercy. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, for giving us brothers and sisters in Christ.
And I pray that you help us indeed to live as brothers and sisters, not judging, not causing discomfort, but bothering and abiding, and building up each other again. We thank you for bringing us here today and pray that you would continue to bless us.