FBC Morning Light – March 1, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:05

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you and the first day of March, the month of spring.

00:10

So I hope your March gets off to a great start and it comes in like a lamb for you, regardless of what the weather does outside.

00:18

I hope your month of March will be a great, a great one for you. So as we look into God's word today, we're in Romans chapter 14 and you know, you read through this passage and if you've been a believer in Christ for any length of time following him, you realize that there are any number of things that come up in the

00:39

Christian life that we would, we might call quote unquote questionable things. I don't want to call them questionable because they are, they're items that, they're things, they're areas of life where the

00:54

God's word doesn't directly address. And so, you know, in, in, in terms of how to, how to respond to those things or whether or not to participate or practice or whatever, we have to understand principles of God's word.

01:12

We look at, at precepts and see how they apply to this thing. We look at narratives of the

01:19

Bible and see are there, are there any examples of people in the scripture who, you know, follow this course of action and, and it didn't turn out well so we can draw conclusions and so forth.

01:29

So you know, when you don't have a direct command of God about something, then that's the practice you go through.

01:36

And the thing of it is that Christians can disagree with how they interpret various, various principles or how to apply those principles.

01:48

And the net result is you have, you know, you have believers who are genuinely loving

01:55

Christ and they want to obey him and they want to follow him, want to be good disciples of Christ, and they don't practice certain things.

02:04

And you have other people whose heart is just as sincere and just as desires of loving God and they do practice the same kind of thing.

02:13

Let me, let me give you an example. I've used this example at, in church a couple of weeks ago, the whole subject of a television.

02:22

I know people who don't have a television in their home and that's fine.

02:27

That's, you know, God bless them and they don't have a television in their home for good reasons. And I totally respect them for that and, and motivated by a heart for Christ.

02:40

They want to, they don't want to waste time. They don't want to subject themselves to the, the worldview of a, of a world that's a part that's antagonistic to God and so forth.

02:53

And they just are convinced that it would not be good for them and would not enhance their walk with Christ.

03:00

And they wouldn't grow in grace and knowledge of Christ by, you know, having, having a television available to them.

03:06

They might just end up watching things they shouldn't watch or don't want to watch or waste time watching them and so forth.

03:12

That's fine. And that's good. And, and that they are absolutely right in drawing that conclusion for themselves.

03:21

Because, you know, there are other Christians who are just as godly and just as eager to serve Christ and to follow

03:27

Christ. And they do have a television and they, they monitor it.

03:32

They pay attention to the kinds of things they're watching and so on and so forth. At least they should, you know.

03:38

And if they have a heart for Christ, they will. And, and so, you know, who's right and who's wrong?

03:47

And the answer to that question is yes, they're both right. You know, they're both right. It's kind of like the whole question with Paul and Barnabas and debating whether or not they should take

03:57

John Mark with them on the second missionary journey. Paul says yes. Barnabas says, or Paul says no.

04:03

Barnabas says yes. And they had such a difference of opinion that they went their separate ways. Barnabas took

04:09

Mark and Paul took Silas and off they went. Well, who was right in that, in that debate, in that disagreement?

04:16

Well, they were both right. They both had good reasons and, and worthwhile reasons for, for the conclusions that they reached.

04:24

And, and Paul addresses this whole matter of questionable things here in Romans chapter 14.

04:31

And to be sure there, there are some underlying cultural things going on here.

04:36

So for example, he talks about, there are those who believe they may eat all things and they do.

04:45

And there are those who believe they should only eat vegetables. They won't eat any meat. And you know, what's behind that?

04:51

Are they, are they vegans or, or what, you know, is this ancient veganism? No, I think what's behind that is the, the concern about eating meat that has been offered to idols.

05:02

If you go to the marketplace and you buy meat at the market, you're, you're most likely going to be buying meat that has been already sacrificed to, to the gods, to the idols.

05:14

And they take the meat that's been sacrificed to the idols and they turn around and sell it in the marketplace. And that's how, you know, the, the pagan gods get their worship centers funded and things like that.

05:25

So there were believers who were of the opinion, I'm not going to eat any meat because I don't want to be supportive of the idolaters temples.

05:33

And there were other believers who said, you know, I'm not supporting the temple. I'm supporting my nourishment.

05:39

I'm going to buy the food. I'm going to buy the meat. And, and they both came to, they both came to conclusions based upon their faith.

05:50

And Paul says, and here's the thing, Paul says, let not the one who eats despise him who doesn't eat.

05:59

And let not him who does not eat judge him who does eat for God has received him.

06:05

And what's Paul's point? Paul's point in these disputations, these doubtful disputation things is to avoid a judgmental spirit that says the other guy is not right with God.

06:19

The other guy's got to, the other guy's, you know, he's, he's, he's sinning or he's making a terrible mistake or whatever, because he hasn't come down to the same conclusion that I've reached on this questionable thing.

06:33

Now, again, you know, this can lead to all kinds of problems if we allow it.

06:40

But Paul's whole argument in Romans 14 is don't allow it. Don't allow it to cause a bunch of problems.

06:47

Have the grace in yourself to realize that there are differences of opinion that can be reached on some of these matters that God's word doesn't clearly tell us how to respond to them.

07:03

And you can be in love with Christ and you can follow Christ and you can want to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ and you can love his word and, and all the rest of that and reach a different conclusion from somebody else.

07:17

So Paul's argument is don't judge each other in these things. Let your, your, your

07:24

God's servants, let God judge his own servants. That's his, that's his thrust.

07:30

And he goes on to talking about different days and one person esteems one day above another, another person esteems all the days alike and so on and so forth.

07:38

And in the end of it all, he says in verse 12, each of us shall give account of himself to God. So therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.

07:55

So we respond to each other in these matters in love. So for example, if I know that you don't have a television in your home, you don't want a

08:05

TV in your home for, for whatever reason, you've reached that conclusion for your own edification and your spiritual growth and you come over to my,

08:14

I invite you over to my house, then I would be an idiot to say, hey, let's, let's pop in a movie or let's watch such and such on TV.

08:22

That, that would be egregious. That would not be responding to my brother in love.

08:29

And that would reflect a bad heart on my part. Paul says, no, no, let's not judge one another anymore, but rather let's do this.

08:38

Let's not put a stumbling block in each other's way. Let's, let's treat each other with respect and with love and with appreciation and, and, and respect the decisions, the conclusions that we come to in these, again, these questionable things that God's word doesn't directly address.

09:00

All right. So Paul has much more to say about this in Romans 14. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to go there today and get some more insight for the journey.

09:09

So Father, I pray that you would give us grace and wisdom in our handling of some of these things that good people, godly people, don't come down on the same page on these things.

09:23

Help us to be patient and kind and gracious to one another and avoid that spirit of judgmentalism that can, that can just wreak havoc on relationships, delivers from it, we pray.

09:35

We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. All right. We'll have a good rest of your Tuesday and I, again,