God's Black and White on Grey Areas (1): Put the Gavel Down! (Romans 14:1-12)

The Start of a New Sermon Series on Romans 14

Good to see you all as we gather for our time of worship this morning. For the benefit of those visiting or watching online, we are beginning a new sermon series this morning. As you can see on the screen, I've entitled it, God's Black and White on Grey Areas.

By the way, you will notice at various points typing inconsistencies as to how I spell grey. I literally looked it up this week and apparently it doesn't matter. I'm like, well, that helps. The closest I got was that the way I spell it is a Americanized spelling.

At the moment the E isn't, but again, apparently it doesn't matter. You may notice in various things I type it in different ways, the point is the same. Oh, Romans chapter 14, you may want to turn there, Romans chapter 14.

I want to say one or two things about this sermon series as we kind of get started. I'm a big believer in measuring expectations, and so allow me to say one or two words as we come to this series. If you detect, particularly after this morning's message, that my sermons in this series are going to have a more punchy tone than usual, some of you are wondering, is that even possible?

Yes. If you detect a more punchy tone than usual, it's because the text that we are looking at for the next few weeks in Romans 14 right through to verse 13 of chapter 15, by its very nature is incredibly punchy.

That means I'm going to say things that will tread on everybody's toes at some point in this series. I guarantee it. I simply ask that if I say something that treads on your toes, if I say something that makes you uncomfortable, if I say something that you just flat out disagree with, I ask you simply to ask yourself the question, am I offended because he said something that was genuinely offensive, or am I offended because he said something that convicted me about something I'm doing?

I think sometimes when we come to preaching, we need to ask ourselves that question. If he says something and it hits me the wrong way, does it hit me the wrong way because he was either being unloving or unsympathetic, or is it because maybe what he's saying hits home?

So that would be my first thing. Second of all, we will do a bodybuilding session on some of these issues in relation to gray areas, non-moral decisions, whatever you like to call them, because I recognize that particularly as we work our way through Romans 14 and 15, it's going to raise questions.

And so I invite you to store up those questions. I will give you the date when we do the bodybuilding session where we'll talk about some biblical principles for non-moral decisions, and we'll take questions just like we did when we did the session on Christian worldview.

So I invite you to think about that. One last thing, and then we'll come to the reading of God's word this morning. As part of my desire to help you kind of think about this section in a bit more depth than we usually would, each week I'm going to invite you to read the passage with me.

So rather than me just read it, we'll read it out loud together. Now to aid in that endeavor, I will put the CSB translation on the screen so that we can all be on the same page. But of course, feel free to follow along in whichever translation you prefer.

Right, that's all my introductory stuff done. Romans 14, our text this morning is going to be verses 1 through 12. So I'll give you a moment to get there if you haven't already. Romans chapter 14, verses 1 through 12.

If I may tag this text this morning, I've given it the title, put the gavel down. Put the gavel down. You're thinking, what on earth are you talking about? We'll get there. We'll get there. But for now, Romans chapter 14, verses 1 through 12.

If you would stand with me as we read God's word, it's our custom to stand as we read the word out of reverence for it. And as I said, we will read in unison to help out. I've put the same translation on the board so we can all be on the same page.

Romans chapter 14, beginning in verse 1. Brothers and sisters, as always, these are the words of God. Let's start reading in verse 1. Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don't argue about disputed matters.

One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables. One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat. And one who does not eat must not judge one who does because God has accepted him.

Who are you to judge another household servant? Before his own Lord, he stands or falls, and he will stand because the Lord is able to make him stand. One person judges one day to be more important than another day.

Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord. Excuse me.

Since he gives thanks to God, and whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, and he gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord.

And if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Christ died and returned to life for this, that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living. But you, why do you judge your brother or sister?

Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Brothers and sisters, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Go with me as I breathe the word of prayer, ask for the Spirit's help, and then we launch into our series this morning.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we invite your participation in both the communication and reception of this word. We thank you that your word is a deep well that every time we, as it were, let down the bucket of our mind to understand it, we come up with something rich every time.

And Father, we can say that not because of the power of the preacher, but because your word is already living and active. Your word is already anointed. And so, Father, we would simply ask that the Spirit would illumine our minds, that he would shine light upon the word so that we could understand your truth.

We ask these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Please be seated. Be seated. As I said, I've tagged our text this morning with the theme, Put the Gavel Down. Put the Gavel Down. In the early days of the never-ending story that seems to be COVID -19, very early on, I began to watch how the conversation around the virus began to unfold.

If there was one thing that concerned me, and lots of things concern me about this and continue to, it was just how many arguments broke out in a short space of time. Think about it. Those of you who spend even moderate time on social media probably saw some of this.

First, it was, should churches close or not close? Okay, that's a legitimate question, I suppose, in a moment like this. Well, once that decision got taken out of all of our hands, I know here in the state of Oregon, eventually they just imposed a lockdown on all of us and that was the end of that.

Once that decision was taken out of folks' hands, then the fight turned to, some of you may remember this, can you have communion if your church is live streaming or not? Anyone remember that argument going around social media for a while?

Well, I think everyone kind of landed where they landed and we all moved on because that's the nature of arguments, particularly arguments on social media. And then we entered into a debate that we're still in to some degree.

And the question was, well, mosques, wear them, not wear them. The arguments fly both sides. I've seen the rhetoric get very heated on both sides. Some may say, is it a little too soon to talk about that?

Maybe. But regardless, it was interesting to see just how much of a hit Christian unity took during this time. I think I said it when I first introduced the idea of this sermon series, that there's a casualty that COVID has taken that no one seems to talk about.

And the casualty would be that of Christian unity, allowing Christians to disagree on matters and still treat one another as Christians. I'll be honest, my wife will tell you, I find all human conflict to be a profound waste of time.

Most things that people fight about, I don't think are really worth fighting about. You could really live and let live. So already I'm watching this and I'm just like, seriously? Seriously? Seriously?

But my amusement quickly turned to concern because, and I think very early on, I started talking about this. My mind immediately went to Romans chapters 14 and 15. And my mind went here because here Paul gives us some of the most concentrated teaching in the Bible.

I would also say 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 is the other section, but this is a way easier one to deal with than 1 Corinthians 8 through 10, so I chose this one. But in both those passages, Paul gives us some insights into what we could call gray areas, into what we could call areas of conscience, areas of debate.

In theology, often these are called adiophora, things that are neither here nor there. How do we deal with some of these things? You see, while some people try to say, well, the only problem is because there's social media.

Social media just amplifies everything. Well, while I'm not convinced that we're made necessarily worse by the presence of social media, I think at times, and I say this as someone who spends way more time on social media than he should I think at times social media can do very little for teaching us the boundaries between an opinion and a fact.

Now, I'm not saying that disagreements are wrong necessarily. I think disagreements are fine, as Alexander Strauch in his excellent work, If You Bite and Devour, Biblical Principles for Handling Conflict, puts it.

Disagreements are good if we come away sharpened, if a believer comes away encouraged, if two believers walk away knowing better why they believe what they believe and yet able to love the other, disagreements can be a good thing.

Unfortunately, in an age where we've been taught that, think about this, since we were young, many of us have been taught that our opinions on any matter are, think about it, sacred, they're inviolable.

Because it's your opinion, it's worth as much as a fact. Add to that the wider cultural problem of relativism where, well, that's true for you, and, well, if you believe that something can be true for you and not for someone else, of course you're going to think that your opinion matters more than someone else's.

In a world like that, the concept of grey areas, of moral ambiguities, stuff that, quite frankly, just isn't straightforward, I think sometimes as Christians we see a world like that and our tendency is to say, well, I don't want to be vague, I don't want to be wishy-washy like the culture.

Well, we shouldn't, I agree. But can I point you out to a really obvious reality that maybe you've picked up on? Christians don't agree on everything. They don't. And I'm going to make a case for Romans 14 and 15 that may be controversial, it may not be.

Because though Christians don't agree on everything, I'm going to say that Paul tells us they shouldn't have to agree on everything. That actually you can have two Christians who both love the Lord, who both want to walk in the light they have as they read the Word of God, and yet they don't see eye to eye.

And I think Romans chapters 14 and 15 give us some helpful wisdom for navigating those grey areas as Christians. And as a church in this very embryonic stage, as a church that's only just getting off the ground as it were, I think we're going to need that wisdom if we're going to make it as a local body of God's people.

Can we agree that? Can we agree that we're going to need some help because there are going to be times where we feel really strongly about something and another Christian doesn't feel strongly about it, and we're going to have to learn to not just live with one another but love one another, and quite frankly get over the fact that they don't see it like you do.

I think we could use some of that wisdom. And so we're going to take four weeks, and we're going to study Romans 14 through to verse 13 of chapter 15, and we're going to allow Paul to teach us a thing or two about the nature of Christian unity, even in areas that are grey.

And as we look at that, we're going to discover God's black and white, written on the pages of this book, on grey areas. Well, as I said, we're beginning that series this morning, and in a few moments we'll come to our text in Romans 14, but before we do, since we're jumping right into the flow of Paul's argument in Romans, we might want to take a moment and paint the context of these two chapters.

Let's kind of set these two chapters in their context, if we may. The lesson to the Romans is considered by many to be Paul's finest work. It's a towering monument to someone you could arguably say is the mind of the church.

I think it's interesting that Paul's, this letter really starts with Paul writing to a church that he kind of knew by name, excuse me, and essentially he wants to get their missionary support. If you want to understand the purpose of the book of Romans, those of you taking notes, Romans chapter 15, verses 14 through 21, I would argue that's the most neglected but the most important section in Romans, because Paul tells us why he's writing.

He wants the support of the church in Rome as he's headed west towards Europe. And so as he wants their support, essentially, just like most of you, you wouldn't sign up for something if someone just turned up on your doorstep and said, hi, I'm so and so, I need your financial support.

You'd want to know a thing or two about the person who's asking for your money. And so Paul writes this letter basically laying out his gospel in the hope of receiving the support of the church in Rome.

And as he does so, he centers the gospel message around this theme of the righteousness of God. The layout of the letter itself isn't too hard to grasp. On the back page of your study guide this morning, I've included a chart which should look something like this.

This is from a really great resource. I encourage everyone to have it. It's called Jensen's Survey of the New Testament. Great for your own personal Bible reading. And this was his chart laying out the letter to the Romans.

And so as you look at that, if I can turn over and see this for myself, you have the prologue, which is verses 1 through 17 of chapter 1. You have a doctrinal section, which unlike Paul's other letters, which tend to be very balanced, the bulk of the letter is the doctrinal section, which makes sense because he wants to emphasize what it is that he teaches.

That's doctrinal section you can break down into four. So chapter 118 through to 320, you have the problem of sin. The fact that God's righteousness is demonstrated in the fact that he gives his law and that we show our unrighteousness by breaking his law.

Then you have chapter 3 verse 21 through to the end of chapter 5. And there the emphasis moves from sin to salvation. How it is that God's righteousness is imputed to the sinner in justification. Chapter 6 through 8, Paul discusses sanctification, the fact that God's righteousness now is not just credited to us, but now we walk in that righteousness.

Chapters 9 through 11, he defends the righteousness of God in relation to the Jews and the Gentiles. Why is it that God had all these promises to Abraham, but his promises to Abraham seem not to be fulfilled?

Is God unrighteous? And he answers that quite convincingly in 9 through 11. From chapter 12 through to 1513, which is where we are in the grand scheme of things, Paul lays out for us, well, the practice of righteousness.

Now that we've received God's righteousness and we seek to walk in light of it, what does that look like? That's where we find ourselves as we come to the letter to the Romans. Romans 14 through 15 is really Paul's last section as he lays out the reality of Christian unity, even when we have differences.

If I can give you a roadmap for where we're going in this sermon series. You can divide Romans 14 through 15 into four principles. Four principles. You have the liberty principle, which is what we're going to consider this morning, verses 1 through 12.

You have the love principle in verses 13 to 23. You have the humility principle in verses 1 through 6 of chapter 15. And finally, you have the acceptance principle in verses 7 to 13. So, four principles.

Liberty in 14, 1 through 12. Love in 14, 13 to 23, which will be next week. Humility in 15, 1 through 6. And acceptance in verses 7 through 13 of chapter 15. For our message this morning, we are considering the first of those.

The principle of liberty. The principle of liberty. What do I mean by the principle of liberty? Well, you guys know that I'm not big on reinventing the wheel if I don't have to. If somebody has said it better than me, then I will quote them.

And at this point, I have to give it up to the 1689 London Baptist Confession. Chapter 21 in that confession, chapter 20 in the Westminster, is on Christian liberty and liberty of conscience. Here's how they describe what I've called the liberty principle.

Quote, God alone is Lord of the conscience and he has left it free from human doctrines and commandments that are in any way contrary to his word or not contained in it. I pause to simply note that the writers of the confession understood that not just doctrines that are contrary to God's word are not binding on the conscience, but if it's not even explicitly said in God's word, it doesn't bind the conscience.

That's an individual decision that you make. So, I carry on. Believing such doctrines or obeying such commands out of conscience is a betrayal of true liberty of conscience. In other words, you as a Christian for the Lord have liberty of conscience in matters that are not sinful.

We'll talk more about this as the message unfolds. In matters that are not sinful to make one decision or another decision and it is not my role as someone who stands before you and opens up God's word or the role of any other Christian to try and bind your conscience one way or another.

Now, I love the 1689, but I do love my Bible even more. So, let's see what God has to say about the liberty of the believer. How does God feel about the liberty of the believer? You see, human nature loves to be a judge.

I think it's inbuilt in many of us that we love the idea of being able to tell people what to do and they have to do it. And I'm going to argue, like I told you, this sermon might get rough at some points because I think Paul is incredibly forceful in saying, as I've given our message the title this morning, put the gavel down.

You are not a judge. In fact, I'm going to argue that Paul gives us four unquestionable reasons why you should put the gavel down. Paul gives us four unquestionable reasons you should put the gavel down and not judge another believer in gray areas.

So, four unquestionable reasons. I don't want to take too long, so I'm going to get straight to work. Know with me, first of all, first reason you should put the gavel down, put the gavel down. You're not the head of the family.

You're not the head of the family, verses one through three. The first reason you should put the gavel down and silence your inner judge is that you are not the head of the family of God, only God is.

Verse one, okay, with me. Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don't argue about disputed matters. Well, before we can get down into the depths of this text, it might help us to define who the weak are in this passage.

Now, a lot of ink has been spilt about the whole question of weaker brethren and who they are. Typically in evangelicalism these days, we often think it's anybody who feels strongly about something, even if they're right.

So, unless you sit there and say, well, okay, it doesn't matter, there are no standards at all, which I think is the other extreme from being overly judgmental. Unless you go down that route, unless you just kind of let people do whatever they want and never question it, oftentimes people will just label you a weaker brother.

So, for example, you tell somebody that you shouldn't say demeaning things about someone and call it a joke, regardless of how our culture feels about that. Oh, brother, you're kind of being one of the weaker brethren right now.

You point out to somebody that they maybe shouldn't flaunt their choice of beverage on the internet for everybody to see. Oh, you're being a weaker brother. I can do whatever I want, my liberties. Kevin DeYoung got in trouble a few years ago because he had the unmitigated goal to say that Christians should not watch the HBO show Game of Thrones.

And the number one argument he got from people, it's my liberty and the law to watch whatever I want. Stop trying to bind my conscience, even though the Bible says you shouldn't put the first things in front of your eyes.

The Bible says you should not take approval in things that are sent for Romans 1 .32. Never mind the Bible says that. Now, if you had the nerve to say you shouldn't watch that, oh, this is the, you probably heard this phrase, the tyranny of the weaker brethren.

Now let me be clear, it's not weak to have standards based on the words of God. It's not weak to say, actually, as a Christian, you shouldn't do that. Because there are some things the Bible is pretty clear about, you know, black on white, that we can't argue with.

But that does beg the question, what does it mean to be weak in faith as Paul defines it here? Now commentators really don't know where to go, and they go all over the place. Some say it's those who lack the confidence that they're free to do certain things.

Other people say it's those who add regulations to salvation and the law by grace alone, through faith alone. Some say it's those who have a defective understanding and faith in God. Others say that, well, those who practice, those who believe that observing certain practices made them a stronger Christian are weaker brethren.

I have issues with that because the Bible does kind of say certain things do make you stronger in faith than others. So I don't think that's what's in view here entirely anyway. Others say, well, it's those who had strong faith in Christ, but they had a failure to understand how faith in Christ allowed them to live in the day to day.

Now, for what it's worth, I think that last option is probably the best one. And I think there's elements of the fourth one as well. Here's my definition for a weaker brother. The weak believer or the weak brother was the one who failed to connect their standing by grace through faith to their daily walk and thus imposed unnecessary regulations on themselves.

Let me say that again. The weak believer or brother was the one who failed to connect their standing by grace through faith to their daily walk and thus imposed unnecessary regulations on themselves. So I disagree with those who say, well, it's someone who's added to the gospel of grace found in Christ alone.

I don't think that's the case because Paul says you're to welcome such a one. He calls them a brother. Paul does not say that about people who add to the gospel. Please read Galatians if you need more proof of that.

Now these ones haven't abandoned the gospel, but they're still immature in their faith. They've not quite made the connection between their faith and how their faith applies in the day to day. Can I pause for a second and state the obvious?

At least I hope it's obvious. Paul believes that both the strong person and the weak person are believers. The issue is not believer versus unbeliever. It's two believers who disagree, who see things differently.

This is where I think as Christians, if I can pause for a second, excuse me. This is where we have to differentiate between the gospel and the implications of the gospel. What do I mean by that? Well, we understand that the gospel is the good news of the forgiveness of sins freely available on the sole basis of faith in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

That's the good news of the gospel. Now out of that good news will often flow implications. Thousands of them, I would argue, because as individuals, you'll begin to realize over the course of your life how the gospel truly does connect to everything.

But, and here's a really important point to gather, the gospel is not the same as its implications. The good news of the gospel is still true even if I don't understand all the implications of it. I don't understand the first thing about how planes work.

I don't. I did not take aeronautical engineering in college. I was a journalism major in college. I don't understand the first thing about how planes work. Do I have to understand how a plane works to get on it?

When I, you know, pay for a flight, does the person at the counter, when I'm, you know, about to jump on the plane, does the person say, now do you understand all the fine intricacies of aeronautical engineering before you come on this flight because that's a requirement before you can get on?

No. I may not understand all the implications of how the plane gets up in the air, but if I get on the plane, I'm trusting the plane will get me from point A to point B. Same thing with the gospel. I may not understand all the implications of the gospel.

Someone you know may not understand all the implications of the gospel or whatever issue, but here's the thing, you can still be a Christian and not understand all those implications and maybe you do as a Christian and Paul says, coming back to verse one, your job is to welcome them.

Welcome that person who doesn't quite understand it the way that you do. The term that's translated welcome here means more than just to say hi at church. It's the idea of receiving folks into a home or a circle of friends or it's used in extra biblical literature to talk about being welcomed into a family after marriage.

You see, Christian, you're not just called to tolerate those who you feel are weaker in faith. You know, it's not that you sit there wishing that they would just grow up and get with the program already.

It's not that you kind of just pat them on the head and you're condescending to them because, oh bless, they just don't get it yet. No, your mission should you choose to accept it is to embrace them. Embrace them and it's not embracing them so that you could win them around with your clever argumentation.

There are some people who are good at this. I'm going to befriend this person because if I befriend this person, if I'm nice to them long enough, I can bring them on side. Now, Paul kind of cuts you off at the knees there.

Look again at verse one. He says, welcome anyone who is weak in faith but don't argue about disputed matters. The term for disputed matters here is the term that's used for opinions. In fact, if you've got the ESV this morning or the New American Standard, both of them actually just translate that word as opinions because that's a good way to translate it.

This isn't the message for me to get into the ever thorny issue of conflict, but can I give you my tweet length view of conflict scripturally? Can I give you my short summary about conflict? If you want to know more about this, James chapter four verses one through three, but this is my, if someone were to ask me, what's the issue with conflict?

From James chapter four, this would be my short answer. All conflict stems from you believing you should get something the other person isn't giving you. Where'd you get that from? James chapter four.

James explicitly says, where do wars come from? Where do quarrels arise? Let's read it. Let me show you something. James chapter four, beginning of verse one, James says, what is the source of wars and fights among you?

Don't they come from your passions that wage war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Where does James tells us wars and fights among us come from? He says they come from your passions that wage war within you. Conflict happens because you believe, again, it's kind of a detail, but I think it's important for us to think about this because it's going to factor into understanding Romans 14.

Conflict happens because you want something. It may not be something tangible. It may be something as simple as I'm right and I want this person to admit it. Okay, fine. You want that. And in that moment, those of you who study biblical counseling, you know about this, the Y chart.

You hit that point of decision. Am I going to go God's way or my way? And often the way that we're taught is because I'm right and this person doesn't see it, I need to argue the point. Well, I'm going to argue that Paul gives you a different way to handle conflicts as Christians.

Paul would have none of that. In fact, he's emphatic. And by the way, I'm going to use the word emphatic a lot in this message because as you look at the original language of this, as I did this week, Paul finds every way to be crystal clear about what he means.

And that's why he can say you're to welcome them. And he explicitly says, but you don't welcome them for the purpose of arguing about opinions. Your mission should you choose to accept it is to embrace them, not to convert them.

To drive home this point, Paul picks up a controversial subject from his day. Look at verses two through three. He says one person believes he may eat anything while one who is weak eats only vegetables.

One who eats must not look down on the one who does not eat. And one who does not eat must not judge one who does because God has accepted him. For those of you who've read the New Testament any amount of times, does it hit you how much discussion of food there is in the New Testament?

It seems that the church was always arguing about food. Well, think about it. When you have Jews who have a very strict diet prescribed to them by no lesser figure than God himself, and then you have Gentiles like myself who has yet to meet some kind of meat that has been cooked that he doesn't like.

When you have those kinds of people and you put them together and say, great, Jew with a really strict dietary requirement, Gentile who eats anything, live together. You can kind of see why that would be a big deal.

But that's just one food fight you see in the New Testament. Another one you see constantly is particularly 1 Corinthians 8 through 10. The whole issue of eating meat that started its journey on the altar being sacrificed to a pagan God.

And I would argue, I think that's what Paul pulls on here. Simply because the language of 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 is very similar, church that's in conflict over some of these issues. So I think he has that in the backdrop here.

And so for the person who, by the way, to give some historical context, in the ancient world, there were two ways you can get your meat. You can get your meat in the market. You can get the good stuff, if you will.