Book of Romans, 14:13-15 - Freedom in Christ | Handling Doubtful Disputations, Pt. 6 (05/01/2022)

Church Welcome and Congregational Encouragement

Wow, that was beautiful, Maddie. You know, most of the great singers in this country learned to sing in church, and we've watched Maddie since she was a little bitty singing and just budding as a singer, and now she's blossomed, and so you're going to hear things about her in this country, I think.

She's got one of those kinds of voices where she's going to be well-known, and I'll promise you this, she'll be an influence for Jesus. That's what she will do. So proud. Were you asking if I taught her to sing, Sharon?

I said, did you teach? You asked me if... No, she did. Yeah. Yeah. She is teaching herself to play the piano, and I hope Papa can get some time to help with that. That would be fun. I'll have to have a good memory.

It's been a long time. And if I'm not around, you can always talk to Glenda. Glenda, that was beautiful this morning, too. Thank you so much. Yeah, Ron picks on you a little bit, but it's because of your humility.

You know, you act like you're just not special, but you are so special. I'm glad we got you away from those fundamentalists. Around here, around here, around here, you're numero uno, number one. Thank you so much.

Wow. What a wonderful church this is. We just love being here, and every single one of you is so special, and you guys, too. Thank you for being with us. It's a real blessing. All right, let's go to Romans chapter 14, if you would.

And I got to hold Ada this morning for about a Sunday school hour, and Brother Bill, it speaks well of your teaching that I still was paying attention to your lesson as I was holding my precious grandbaby girl.

And it was a great lesson, by the way. And so that special, I whispered to her, Ada, and I said, you're trying to get in between me and Jemma, aren't you? Said, well, keep working at it. All right, so this one, Romans chapter 14, verse 1, tells what the whole chapter is about.

He that is weak in the faith, receive, but not too doubtful disputation. So you don't want people coming into your church and bringing up little divisive things to try to cause division in the church over things that don't even matter.

And there's so many of those things that aren't major things that should never be a test of fellowship. And this whole chapter is about that. This chapter can get a little uncomfortable, actually, because, especially for me, there are things in here that I probably haven't always operated according to these imperatives.

And we've been talking about imperatives a lot in this chapter, because in Greek and in English, you have imperatives, which means it's like a command. Go do this. And we talk about grace. I appreciate what you said, Ron.

I always appreciate your messages. You give messages before we even sing, and I appreciate it from your heart. You're an evangelist. You're a... You could be a Bible conference preacher. You know, you get everyone fired up and want to go do something for the Lord.

But what you said about grace is so important and so true. If you don't get that, you miss Jesus, actually. But he also, once we are saved, he tells us how to live, doesn't he? He tells us things to do and things not to do, especially with regard to each other.

You know, be kind one to another, gentle-hearted. And you say, well, Paul said that. No, Jesus said that. He told it to Paul when he was in the Arabian desert, face-to-face. And there's no secret to how Paul wrote most of the New Testament.

He spent more one-on-one time with Jesus than any of the other apostles in person. So, which is a miracle, because Jesus had already ascended into heaven. And that he spent that time with the apostle Paul because the Lord had planned the entire church becoming more and more Gentile over time.

And Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. Such a brilliant man. But we got to look at these imperatives and we've been doing that. So, where there is an imperative, where Jesus tells us how to live, we should do that.

We should live by that. But a lot of human beings like to come into churches and add things that Jesus never said and act like it's an imperative, that it's equal in power, equal in authority. And that's what this chapter is about, is don't allow that to happen.

So, we've been talking about that quite a bit. And so, over the last couple, this doesn't look like it's, there it goes. Over the last couple of times, we've talked about going through the scriptures there in Romans chapter 14, moving all the way down from verse one, two, three, four, about through verse six or so is where we are now.

But we've seen several points that we're learning about how to deal with these things that we're not supposed to argue about, not supposed to have debate about. And so, first one was, we must recognize that our brother or sister is another man's servant, not our servant.

Remember that from maybe last time? Our brothers and sisters are not our servants. They don't have to live exactly like we want them to live. They serve the Lord, right? And the Lord has the ability through himself, through his word, through the Holy Spirit to mold all of us into what he wants us to be.

We don't have to spend a lot of time trying to make each other be exactly like ourselves. And that's what a lot of this chapter is about, recognize that our brother or sister is another man's servant.

They belong to Jesus Christ, not to us. Therefore, they will stand or fall when they are judged by Jesus, not when they're judged by us. That's the first point. By his or her own master, shall he or she stand?

See how modern I am? In the old days, we would just use the formal masculine, but now we got it right. In fact, if you wanted to get it really right, you would just say they, and that way it has no sex.

So, by they own master, shall they stand is exactly how they're saying it in the universities. And the first use of they there is totally incorrect grammatically, but that's how they're doing it. But anyway, so our brothers and sisters stand by their own master, Jesus Christ, not us.

In fact, he, our brother or sister that we may be having this dispute with is actually held up by Jesus. He's holding them up at the time we're trying to tear them down. Because what we tend to do as humans is we have parties like Republican and Democrat, Sharon.

Parties, think of it that way. The Greek word for division is the best English word is parties. So, the two parties don't like each other, right? So, when we tend to have a debate with one person in church, we'll go get four or five others to be on our team and they might get four or five others to get on their team, or they may not.

They may be more godly than we are. And they're just sitting there and we're building a team against that team. You see how that works? And that's of Satan. Every time that's of the devil. So, we have to guard against that because Jesus is holding them up at the same time we're trying to tear them down.

Who do you think is gonna win? Jesus is gonna win that little battle and it won't go well for us. The third thing is let every man be persuaded in his own mind. You have some disputable things that are not even in the Bible.

Bible doesn't tell you exactly how to dress, what music to listen to, whether you can have a social drink or two or four. It doesn't tell you. You know why it doesn't tell you? Because we want it to tell us so that it's all black and white and we can put a list, no more than two drinks in Park Meadow Church of alcohol.

Beyond that, you're going to hell. All right? No more than a half a cigarette a week or you're going to hell, right? Or for me, no more than one donut a week and you're in trouble, right? But the Lord didn't set it up that way.

He set it up where each of us individually have to have a walk with Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit. And we have to have such a close walk that he tells us what pleases him and doesn't and that's what we do and don't do.

It's that simple and no one wants to live that way, mostly in the churches. They want to have sets of these rules. But that's why it says, you know, let each person be persuaded in their own mind. And then the fourth thing is, now that mind, by the way, should be informed by scripture.

Would you agree with that? It's not like humanism we're talking about. It is a, it's kind of like we do in stock trading, right? An educated risk or in science, an educated guess. A hypothesis, an educated guess, all right?

But in Bible, it's a Bible-informed thought. Like we must be persuaded that what we're doing is not a sin or we shouldn't be doing it. And we're persuaded by how much of this we've been taught by the Holy Spirit and our teachers and they're every different way God teaches us.

And that's how we're persuaded. So let every man be persuaded in his own mind. All right, and then the fourth, let's take any perceived imperative in context of the Bible to make sure it's actually saying to do that or not do it before judging our brother or sister.

And then the fifth thing we've learned is we are not to judge others with regard to disputable things because each of us live and die unto the Lord and Him only. That kind of fits with like point number one we just discussed, all right?

And then the sixth thing was, and this is the one that's a problem for me. I mean, it says point one through five, everything we just talked about indicates that in grace we're free, right? We're not bound by rules.

And then the sixth point comes in, yeah, but don't make your brother stumble. So there you go. So now here in Texas, I'm not able to drink a beer, okay? I just can't drink one, not even one. Why? Because I'm a pastor.

And in the Bible belt, you go to hell if you drink one beer, if you're a pastor. Now it used to be for anybody. It used to be for deacons and godly men and women. Now it's okay for the rest of y 'all to drink.

In fact, right after the Bible study, you can go off to Dallas, find a club and have drinks. I know of a church where they do that with their college and career class. It's in Ennis, Texas. And I have drinks after Bible study.

I don't, see, you see why I have a problem with chapter 14, right? I'm violating it right now. I'm pointing the finger at those people. Oh, this is a tough chapter. I told you it was boring. I was being facetious.

It's like, I don't like the chapter. It's too hard. So now you can't make your brother stumble, all right? So what is that? You could go with that for hours thinking about, well, what does that mean? Does that mean I can like, I can have a beer if I'm by myself with Charlotte?

No, because that would make her stumble for real because her dad was an alcoholic and died at the age of 30 something from it. She has never touched alcohol. So what does it mean? You see how tough that one is?

So we kind of talked about that one last time. In fact, chapter 14, verse 14 says, I know, well, let's look at verse 13. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or occasion to fall in his brother's way.

Wow, now we tighten it back up and get a little stricter, don't we? We get a little stricter on what we allow ourself to say and do and so forth. And so then we come to the seventh one, which I want to talk to you a little bit today is, Paul says there is nothing unclean in and of itself.

And he was taught that by Jesus. So was Peter because Jesus lowered his sheep with what Peter thought was unclean food. We talked about it. Peter said, I'm not eating it because it's unclean. And God said, don't call what I now say is clean.

Don't call it unclean. Because Jesus has died, buried, risen again. He's in heaven, he presented the blood. You're not a Jew anymore. It's neither Jew nor Gentile. Now you're a Christian and it's clean for you.

That's what God taught him. So now God teaches Paul these things. So in this verse 14, it says, I know, and this is interesting, the emphasis Paul puts here. I know, and I am persuaded. Now, if you already know it, why do you have to be persuaded because you can start to doubt it, right?

So he knows this is true. And then he's persuaded by the Holy Spirit. Yeah, it's still true. You might doubt it from time to time, but it's still true. There's burn. She's doing the same thing. I'll do it the same thing.

They're trying to get the greater part of my inheritance. It's a great game we play. I know, and I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus. And then Maddie sings like that. So like until I looked at Fern, Maddie had it, right?

I don't know. It goes back and forth. I got to live to be 200 years old. That's the key. I am and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, in and of itself, Paul says. Now, do you think it's interesting?

He says, I know and I'm persuaded. The Holy Spirit, like I know, I know from my walk with God. I know from what Jesus taught me when I was face to face with him, but I also know because since he, since that part's over now, the Holy Spirit persuades me.

I'm right about this. Wow. And right before it, he said, don't let your brother stumble. Now, how do you like putting those two together? All right. So Paul says, okay, if you're born again and the Lord is living in your heart and you're walking with him and your spirit filled, there is nothing unclean in and of itself.

You won't do anything unclean, but don't make your brother stumble because to him, what you're doing might not be right. He may think it's not right because he doesn't understand grace yet. So it's the reason I taught Ron grace so that I can do whatever I want to with Ron because it won't bother Ron anymore.

Probably the wrong dude to teach that to, right, Pam? Wrong guy to teach that to. All right. So, so now we got to, you know, now we got to deal with this thing about all things or no things are unclean.

So let me take you to an interesting parallel passage in the Holy Spirit used Paul to write this one too. It's in first Corinthians 10 23. We always remember God's the author of all of it. That's why I don't have a red letter Bible because the words of Jesus are no more important than the words of Paul because Jesus gave those words to Paul and they're the words of Jesus too.

There's no difference. The Bible is all of it. God breathes all of it is by the Holy Spirit. And so it's all important. So look at this one first Corinthians 10 23 all things are lawful for me now in the in the one we're studying in Romans today.

He says there is nothing unclean. He kind of puts it in the negative this one. He puts it in the positive. So there so look at this. I know and I'm persuaded that there's nothing unclean in and of itself.

Now this one puts it in the positive says all things are lawful for me. Wow. Grace is pretty good. Isn't it? It's almost like the Garden of Eden again, isn't it? He said the problem there is you had one thing that wasn't lawful.

Yeah, that tree but he says all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. What does that mean? All things are lawful for me, but not all things help me grow to be the strongest Christian I can be.

Yeah, I mean great example is the social drink just so you know where I stand some of you hadn't been around a long time like kids ask me show me in the Bible where I can't have a social drink and I'll say you're asking the wrong question the questions to be show me in the Bible where that'll make me a better witness Christ if I drink and they find out about it so that if they need help they would come to me but I drink with them probably not going to come to me.

That's the better question. Will it help me be a better witness to Christ and live a better Christian life and be happier? That's a better question, but you can ask the other question too because it does say all things are lawful for me, but it also says not all things are best.

Not all things are expedient. Not all things if you really like here's what you got to ask yourself as a Christian. It's Paul likens it to a race often. Do you want to put ankle weights on your ankles before you go run a hundred yard dash and try to beat the rest of us those ankle weights and that's something I mean, you can go buy them.

You can put them on your weight on your ankle. You can take off running and try to beat us but the rest of us maybe we put those on we choose try to win the race right? So you got to ask what kind of athlete are you going to be going to sit on the bench?

Are you going to work out more? Are you going to get in shape more? Are you going to eat the right food more because you want to win like he use Tiger Woods in the golf world Tiger Woods like there's nobody that could touch him because he did everything his dad was was he a Marine?

He was something like that or maybe Green Beret. I think what he was his dad taught him. It's like being a good soldier you like you have to work for this every day if you're going to win and no one could beat him in his day.

He I wish you'd get born again. I wish he has had some of the other professional golfers that are good born-again Christians like Bubba Watson, for example, have witnessed to it, but about a year and six months ago.

He had a terrible car wreck people wonder how that happened. Well, who knows he might have makes you wonder and it crushed his legs. So just two three weeks ago. He played in the Masters the biggest tournament in the world again after recovering and you imagine what he went through to get where he could even walk again, let alone play professional golf at that level.

He didn't come anywhere close to winning but he finished he played four days and finished and so here that people will do that for an earthly like a trophy that may be this tall or in that case, you don't even get a trophy you get a jacket like this.

That's green. You get a green jacket and they will do that for that and here we're living for God. God is our boss. He owns us. He owns our team like he's the team owner of us. He's also our coach. He's also our father.

And so he's given us a race to run and the question is do we want to win it coming in second come in third place being the top 10 be a benchwarmer. What do we want to be? So that's what the word expedient means probably didn't think I'd take that much time on that one word.

Me neither all things are lawful for me, but all things don't edify. So now we have two qualifiers and most people just read right past those two and they like the part that says all things are lawful for me, but there are two qualifiers if it's not expedient and if it doesn't edify your brothers and sisters and build them up and edify yourself and build you up as a strong Christian.

Maybe you shouldn't do it. But does that mean you can tell your brother or sister not to ever do it and look down on them when they do whatever this thing is? No, that's what the first part means. All things are lawful.

That's what the first part means is to keep us from judging each other because we are not all at the same place and some of us that think we're here or not even there because fact we think we're there shows were down here spiritually, you know, we're just all over the place like my friend in the wonderful tall farmer who was a multi-millionaire from farming, but he's also a postman and the only Calvinist brother that I had at First Baptist Mejia and he'd come in my office.

He'd say keep the faith brother David. I was a young dude at that time. He just what he meant by that remain a Calvinist, but then he would say I would say why don't you leave that church and come to our little new church, which was this one.

I just wanted him to switch over and come to ours. He said God's got me over there. I got a lots of people to minister to over there and he said we're a motley crew brother David. We're all a motley crew.

Don't forget that and he'd walk out and what he meant by that to me as a young man is don't you get to thinking you're up here because you're in a church that's going and doing stuff knocking on doors and preaching the Bible and you got this church you think is carnal.

He knew me and he said, you know, we're all a motley crew. Brother Dave God's kids are all motley crew. I never forgot that. Well, we should ask does it build us up? Does it build our brother is up and is it something that's going to make us stronger now verse 24 says let no man seek his own but every man another's wealth Wow and wealth is inserted.

It's not in the Greek. So it doesn't really it really doesn't mean kind of an old English way of saying it is not like the trade way meaning when we say wealth because when we say well, we mean wealth and trade way, but what this means is the betterment of the other so let no man seek his own thing, but let every man seek another's that's where the Greek stopped.

Don't seek your own seek. Let every man seek another's well-being. That's a good one to live by. Isn't that's an imperative you see whatsoever is sold in the shambles. Now it switches back to another example of different foods.

We might eat or not eat would judge each other for it. Whatever is sold in the shambles. He's kind of finishing his thoughts on the food thing. Now you're picking on each other thinking each one is more spiritual than the other he ends it with this whatever is sold in the shambles or in the market and specifically in the market where they had offered these animals of sacrifices and then they took the meat.

He said whatever sold there eat it asking no questions for your own conscience sake like don't say hey, is this offered to bail and they say yeah, and then you buy it and he said don't do that. Just buy the meat take it home and eat it and enjoy it because I made it for you.

In fact, he's saying they put everything on the shelf for my children. So it's all on the shelf for you. Just don't ask any questions. Now look, look what else he says for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof boy.

No one ever taught me that better than brother Otis because he's the one that taught me. Long as I live never forget. I've told this to thousands of people at this point in the country. Every time I tell it they go like that is how how God uses lost people.

He uses goats. He uses lost sheep. He uses the sheep. He uses all human beings to put everything on the shelf for his own children for God's children. Wow, that is amazing. So the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and therefore all things are lawful for me that sets us free doesn't it?

But we have some sub points is don't make your brother stumble. Do it if it's not expedient for you or others and don't do it. If it doesn't edify yourself and others build you up to be make you stronger.

So I think it's fascinating that in verse 25 there in first Corinthians 10 he ends up with you know, if you if it's sold buy it and eat it but don't ask about don't ask about it. All right. All right.

So now we come to another I think I mean, I think we could spend a lot more time on all things are lawful to me. Don't you don't you find that that you could think of a lot of questions to ask about that?

What does that mean? How do we interpret that? How do we live by it? A lot of it is it don't you think it's amazing how concise God is when he writes the Bible way more concise than one of my sermons or anything I would write.

That's for sure. But in that one verse where he says all things are lawful for me says but not everything's expedient and not everything edifies. Well that says a whole lot about answering the questions about how you deal with that freedom that we have.

All right, but now let's go to another point that I think is equally maybe even deeper on a deeper level more difficult to understand and deal with I don't think it's that hard to understand. I think it's hard to lit to deal with it.

And here's here. It is look at chapter Roman. We're back in Romans again. Now chapter 14. We're going to look at the second half of verse 14. Okay, Romans 14 14. B but but to him that esteem if anything to be unclean to him it is unclean.

Now, isn't that interesting? Now in Romans 14 14 a he just got through saying all things are lawful to me. 14 13 using 14. I am persuaded to see. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, it's the one where he puts it in the negative.

I wasn't thinking about Corinthians. So 14 a says I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean in and of itself. The second half of the verse says but to him that esteems a thing to be unclean to him.

It is unclean. Wow. All right. Now think about that. This is taught elsewhere in the scripture. But this this is, you know, we'll go look at one place where it's interesting one or two. But what it amounts to is this what we cannot do in faith to us.

It is sin. Now that one is deep and it also relates to how much scripture we have read and been taught by the Holy Spirit where we are in our walk. So it's just difficult to deal with on a practical level.

So so let's think about it. Now, it's here's one that brings some light on it is James 4 17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him. It is sin. That's not quite, you know, it's not quite the same thing.

It's kind of the opposite side of the same coin though. Wouldn't you say that like if you know that something that's some good thing you ought to do and you don't do it, you just sin. Okay. Well in Romans 14 14 be if you think something's unclean and you do it.

It's a sin. Even if God says it's fine. Even if some brother that studied 10 years longer than you know, there's actually no reason we can't do that. We're just kind of hung up in rule. You have that trouble and I do too because of my fundamental and in the couple right over there does because of our fundamental independent background.

We have things that we still don't like and we already know they're okay. We just don't like them. Right? We've got to admit it. We do. So we have to shed those over time though. Otherwise we hold it over a brother sister and to them.

It's not a problem and we make it a problem. We don't want to do that. So but but here's the thing if you can't lose the thought that it's not right for you then then don't do it because it is a sin in God's eyes.

If you think it's not right and you do it, isn't that interesting? So let me give you another one. And let's just drop if you got a real Bible drop down to verse 23 in his chain same chapter of Romans 14 and it sheds light on the same verse for study the day which is verse 14 look at verse 23 and he that doubteth is damned if he eat.

So now he goes back to his allegory. So I guess it's not so much an allegory. It's it's a an example of what he's trying to teach on the food like vegetables versus meat, right? Or can you buy a meat that was at sacrifice to a false God and eat that and be okay.

Why does he say well, don't even ask where the meat came from because he's because Paul is saying some of you would have a conscience problem. If you knew it was offered to bail. Some of you would say hey bill doesn't even exist.

I don't care and you would eat the meat that would be me at this point, but 15 years ago might not have been me. Raymond and Sharon knew me when I had some rules, didn't you? Yeah. Oh, right, but this one he that doubts like if you think bail is real and it's really evil to offer meat to him, you know an animal and then eat that meat then if you eat it your damn now, does that mean you go to hell?

No, because you have to go to the Greek there. It's an old English way of using the word damned. It doesn't always mean go to hell to the 1611 person as it does to us when we say it now just means hell, right?

What it actually means a better way to put it is condemned. Okay, so and he that doubts is condemned if he eats it. It means your own mind is condemning you. You got to know that or you'll get this one wrong.

It's not like God's going to send you to hell because God's already said it's lawful you get that. I mean, we're in the same chapter where he said all things are lawful. All right, so it doesn't mean damn to hell.

What it means is if you doubt and you do that thing like to you, it's questionable whether you should even be and you do it. It will condemn your own conscience. That's a bad thing because it's hard to walk in fellowship with the Lord when you're feeling guilty.

Would you agree with that? And that's what exactly what it does. And so it says in he that doubteth is damned if he eats because he eats not by faith. There's the key. So my whole point on this one is whatever we cannot do in faith is a sin.

All right, so whoever doubts but then eats anyway is using that example. It doesn't mean only food. It could be anything that you want to do and you'd say well, you know, I don't know if a Christian should do this.

But I'm going to do it you just sin even if the thing is lawful because you doubt it you didn't do it in faith like you forgot to ask this Holy Spirit. Would you do this with me or would you be uncomfortable doing this with me right now?

You forgot to ask that but if you will ask that you won't doubt especially if you know the Bible well as you get it no better and better and you ask the question will you do this with me Holy Spirit and be pleased can we do this together and he says yes, then you won't sin this way, right?

So there's some practical information for how to deal with this, but it's really quite fascinating. He that doubtless is going to condemn if he eats when he didn't think he should eat that particular meat offered to that idol because he eats not by faith for whatsoever is not of faith is what sin.

So if you can't do it knowing that the Holy Spirit is pleased with you. That's what it means doing it by faith doing it by like by faith. We can see God with us. We see him with our eyes of faith. We see Jesus walking with us are actually really us walking with him throughout our day by faith.

We see him and we turn to him and we say you want to drink this beer together that and I see that's hard for me. What about you brother Paul? You want to have one together me and you would that be hard difficult, right?

So if we did it, what would we be doing either hiding from everybody or sending or both right? We just like we got enough fundamentalist in this where I'm going to doubt that one and I'm not even saying it's right for me to doubt it.

I don't know. All I know is I do so for me. It's a sin you get the teaching. I hate to use us as an example, but I think we're safe on that one. So wow, it's interesting. Okay. So now let's see. Let's take one more.

Let me read that one again. He that doubted is condemned if he eats because he eats not by faith for whatsoever is not a faith is sin. Now that'll keep us in line with our grace thing. All things are lawful, but like if you have doubts about where the ought to do it, just don't do it because if you do it's a sin.