WWUTT 1373 Pursue Peace and Mutual Upbuilding (Romans 14:15-19)

The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing. And if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Romans 14 and the Call to Mutual Upbuilding

Thank you, Becky. We're back to Romans 14 today. And as with yesterday, I'm gonna start out reading verses 13 through 19. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.

By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. I'm gonna read that last part again, and I'm gonna come back to it again at the end of the lesson.

But once again, verse 19, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. In these last two verses here, verses 18 and 19, we have what our objective is supposed to be here, serving Christ and building up one another.

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Doctrinal Matters

When it comes to these tertiary issues, tertiary means third tier. So you have primary issues or fundamental issues. You've got secondary doctrinal matters, and then you have tertiary matters. Those fundamental things are the doctrines that are necessary for Christian faith.

Like for example, believing in the deity of Christ. If you do not believe Jesus is God, you cannot be a Christian, because only God saves, and only faith in Christ is saving faith. And so you must believe that Jesus is Son of God, seated at the right hand of the Father, who reigns over all, all things given to him by the Father, that we are his inheritance, that he is coming back to judge the living and the dead.

And then when he has received the kingdom to himself, he presents it back to the Father, and we will be forever with him, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and the Bride of Christ rejoicing together forever in glory.

We're with the Godhead. We're not part of the Godhead. So don't hear me saying that when I say Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and the church. I'm not adding another part to the Godhead there. See, that would be heresy.

And we do not become God. That's another essential doctrine there, that God is God and we are not, but we rejoice in being included in his eternal plan of salvation. Amen to that. So again, those are primary things.

Those are fundamental issues. Then you've got second-tier issues, and those might be the doctrines that separate us out in denominational beliefs, for example, Presbyterian and Baptist. They're separated by secondary issues.

Baptists believe in baptism by immersion and by confession. Now, Presbyterians also believe in a baptism by confession, but they believe in infant baptism, that there is a baptism that does not need to be by a confession of faith.

And so it's because of that difference of opinion on the practice of baptism that we have different denominations, Presbyterian and Baptist. And it's not that the Presbyterian are heretics. There are Presbyterians going to heaven.

And of course, I'm speaking as a Baptist, because though we disagree on the manner and the interpretation of covenant, and therefore that goes into how we practice baptism, it affects how we practice baptism, just because we differ on that does not mean that we're not brothers and sisters in the Lord.

The Baptists are brothers with Presbyterians and Presbyterians brethren with Baptists. But because we have a difference of opinion on how these ordinances are supposed to be practiced, our worship services are separated.

The Presbyterians are gonna have a worship service one way and the Baptists are gonna have a service another way. There are certainly some similarities there, but differences in the administration of the ordinances.

That's an example of secondary issues that separate us. Tertiary issues are going to be differences of opinion held by different members of the same body. So let's just focus on the Baptist church context.

Let's say you've got one person in the church who believes that the sanctuary or the worship center, they might differ on the name even of what that room is supposed to be called, but they have a certain opinion about the sanctuary that this sanctuary is just supposed to be pews.

There's not supposed to be any extracurricular activities going on in here except the worship that we offer as a body unto the Lord through songs, through preaching, through the practice of the ordinances.

That's what this room is for. But then there's somebody else within that church who may believe, no, we can turn this room into an all-purpose room. There is a time which that moment is supposed to be sacred unto God.

You know, this hour and a half that we gather together is worship, but we can take up chairs, and then this room turns into kind of like a game room. The kids can run around and do their games and stuff like that.

So see, that would be a difference of opinion. One is so convinced, their conscience, in their conscience, they are convinced this room should be sacred, and we shouldn't apply this room to anything else.

But when we're gathered together for worship, and there's another who thinks it's just a room, what makes the church service sacred is that the people of God are gathered together for the same mutual purpose, but the room doesn't make that sacred.

We can use this room for other things. So there's another example of a tertiary matter. And the person who is convinced of something, let him be convinced in his own mind. As it said earlier in verse five, each one should be fully convinced in his own mind, but let's not pass judgment on the one who does this, nor do we despise the one who abstains from a particular opinion, okay?

Those are the distinctive marks that Paul has made over the course of Romans 14 here, and he's calling the church to mutual upbuilding, to pursue what makes for peace, and for mutual upbuilding. You're going to have these differences of opinion.

One is more mature in faith, one is less mature. One is weak in faith. He uses strong and weak as his terms here in Romans 14, and then we have it repeated again in Romans 15. But though we have these differences of opinion, we must pursue what makes for peace.

This is not a cause for division. It is not a cause to despise one another over. And so when we see people that walk away from a church because of the color of the paint, I mean, we joke about this stuff, but it's real.

There are people who walk out of churches, they leave a church because they didn't like the color of the carpet. We had this happen in our church, a church that I served in in Kansas. We had this happen several years back when we were making a lot of renovations.

And I remember as a pastor, I rejoiced to see all of the mutual upbuilding that was going on. And the church was getting together, we were painting, we were changing carpet, we were making repairs, a really intensive work that we were doing over a span of about two or three weeks.

And there was even a church from Michigan that came down and helped us out. It was part of their missions work. They couldn't go out of the country that year, so they decided to apply the money that they had raised to helping out different churches around the country with some repairs they needed and stuff like that.

And our church was one of them. It was so wonderful for that church to come and help us. And so it was great seeing all the camaraderie and the friendship and the relationships that were going on. And I remember thinking to myself at one point over the span of those two or three weeks, I remember thinking, boy, I'm so glad that we are a church that is mature enough not to break division over the color of the paint.

I didn't hear one person complain about the color of the paint that had been chosen. Well, I spoke too soon. I mean, because a few weeks went by and then the murmuring started up. And I started hearing about this murmuring, which was coming back to my ears.

There were some circles in which it was being said, why didn't they come to us about the color of the paint? I've been here 20 years. Nobody asked my opinion on the color of the paint. Well, we had put it before the church.

We had said, if you want to be a part of this group that's helping to choose colors and even what brand of paint we're going to use, all this kind of stuff, then you have to be with this committee and or talk with somebody of that committee.

And they didn't hear anything. Not until all of this was already done. And then somebody's looking at the walls and they just decide, I don't like that color. It's somebody else's fault. And they should have talked to me about it first.

That's extremely self-centered for us to start taking that approach about these tertiary issues. You need to ask my permission before you do such and such a thing. And there was one guy even, I remember coming back to church, we hadn't seen him in weeks and he comes in and he just starts pointing at repairs that were made.

I actually did not see this happen. This was somebody else that told me about it, but he just starts pointing at stuff like, that's wrong, that's wrong. What is this? Oh, that's terrible. And he just sat around and huffed.

And I remember that particular Sunday that he came back because I actually owed him money and I went up to him and I said, hey, I got that money for you. And I just handed him the bills and he just kind of snatched it from me all grumpy like.

I was like, church was about to start and I didn't have time to be like, hey, what's wrong, man? And I'm really terrible at reading that kind of thing anyway. I just, I still kind of made a note of it and was like, okay, well, I'll talk with him about that later.

And then I never saw him again. And I was asking somebody at the church, where did so-and-so go? And they said, oh, he came back this one Sunday and he was just pointing out all the things that were done wrong.

Though he did not help out and he was not part of the renovation work at all. He just starts pointing at all the stuff that had been done wrong and then just kind of sat around in a huff. Then he walked out and we never saw him again.

And then I remembered, oh, that was that Sunday I gave him money. And I saw that he was kind of grumpy, but never responded to my phone calls, never replied to emails. And so it was generally understood by the church that this was a guy who left our body, our membership, because he didn't like the color of the paint that we chose.

So we make jokes about that, but it really does happen. And it's ridiculous for us to bind other's consciences to stuff like this, as though they sin because they didn't ask our permission or they did not share our biases and our particulars.

We must pursue what makes for peace. We must pursue what builds one another up in the midst of these things, not breaking fellowship with one another. The person who walks out of a church because they didn't like the color of the paint or the color of the carpet, they've broken fellowship over something that is, can you even call that a tertiary issue?

That's like fourth, fifth, or sixth quadrant issue, quadrant, and it's, yeah, quadrant's four. So if I'm throwing in five or six, but that's just to say that's way out of bounds of peaceful disagreement here.

Christian Liberty Without Causing a Brother to Stumble

We should never break fellowship over things like that. We must build each other up. Now I said yesterday, and I haven't come back to this yet, that I wanted to focus on that part of verse 13 that says, we must not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother.

Paul goes on in verse 14 to say, I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.

By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as spoken, I'm sorry, do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. So we got two parts that are going on here.

And just like Paul has over the course of Romans 14, he has addressed those who are weak and those who are strong. Let not the one who is weak, pass judgment on the one who is strong and let not the one who is strong, despise the one who is weak.

That's going back to Romans 14 three. And you can look at that again in context. So we must consider one another here. That's the summary of what Paul is saying. Philippians chapter two, put other's needs ahead of your own.

Each one must consider not just his own needs, but even be considerate of the needs of others. This is pursuing what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. And we must not in our Christian liberty, flaunt our liberty and do those things which might otherwise cause a brother to stumble.

He says, once again, I'm convinced that nothing's unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. But if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you're no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.

Let me give you an example of this. So a few years ago, there was a, I'm not gonna mention the ministry names as I talk about this here, as I give these examples, but there was a podcast ministry that had an emphasis on drinking.

I think it was even part of their name. So they had this reformed group, a group of reformed brothers alike in their doctrinal alignment. They were all Calvinists in other words. And they contacted me and they asked me if I would join their program for an interview.

And I declined, I told them that I could not do it. And I just left it at that. I really did not tell them why I wouldn't be a part of it. But here's the reason why, because that particular program emphasized drinking and they even talked about the kinds of drinks that they would drink.

Today, I'm drinking such and such a lager or I'm having such and such a whiskey or something like that. So they would platform alcohol on their program where they would also talk about theological issues and things like that.

A couple of the guys I think enjoyed what videos and so they wanted to have me on for an interview, but I declined. And the reason why I declined is because I had men that I was discipling in my church who were just getting over an alcohol addiction.

And how would that look for their pastor to be jumping on a program where they're actually talking about alcoholic drinks, probably even drinking them while they're doing the program and promoting alcohol consumption.

I was risking causing my brothers in the Lord whom I was discipling, I was risking causing them to fall right back into that sin just so I could promote my what ministry on their program. I could not in good conscience, I could not partake or participate in that program.

And frankly, it does grieve me to see some of the Christian ministries that are out there that will incorporate those kinds of things in the ministry they do. Like for example, you might watch a podcast or like a video podcast.

So they're streaming it in addition to doing the online or the audio feed. So you see them in the video and they're drinking while they're doing their talk or they're smoking cigars or things like that.

There are Christians who are doing such things that I'm not gonna pass judgment on for doing that. I don't do them, but I'm not passing judgment on them for doing it. However, they should not be flaunting that and therefore causing a brother or a sister in the Lord to fall into sin.

If your brother is grieved by what you eat, the alcohol you drink, the cigar that you smoke, then you're no longer walking in love. You're promoting or you are flaunting your own Christian liberty instead of considering the conscience of another brother and sister in the Lord.

By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. I'm not talking about a Christian having a glass of wine or smoking a cigar or a pipe or something like that.

I'm not calling those things evil. In fact, I wouldn't call them evil until a person gets intoxicated. If they're consuming alcohol and they get blitzed drunk, well, that's sin. Scripture explicitly says that we are not to be given over to drunkenness.

And as a pastor, it's a requirement for me that I cannot be a pastor who goes and gets drunk or I disqualify myself as a pastor. Pastors who are going out and getting drunk, they are disqualified as ministers according to the qualifications that we have in 1 Timothy 3.

So drinking an alcoholic beverage is okay. There's nothing sinful about that, but it is sin if it causes somebody else to stumble, if you've not considered the conscience of somebody else in this Christian liberty that you enjoy.

And it's sin if you overindulge in it. Everything in moderation. It's the same with food. Food, there's nothing wrong with eating any kind of food. As we've talked about yesterday, and I reiterate again today, there's nothing unclean.

No food is unclean. But you can overindulge in that food. You can gorge yourself. You can be consumed with greed. What's the vice sin that goes with that? Gluttony, right? So that's the sin name for it, gluttony.

You can become a glutton, in which case your eating of food even becomes sin. But eating food in and of itself is not sinful. And it's the same with consuming alcohol. It's the same with smoking a pipe or something like that.

There's nothing inherently sinful about it, but it can become sinful if you go too deep into that. Sex in marriage, it applies there as well. Now this one, I mean, it would be a little more careful with this, but notice that I said sex in marriage.

Any kind of sex outside of marriage is instantly sin. But sex in marriage, there are ways that you can even take that and turn it into something that is not pleasing to God. I think that sex within marriage is meant to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife together, intimately, privately, it's not anybody else's business, sex in a marriage.

But there are people who flaunt that and then I think it becomes sin. Ed Young Jr., for example, did his thing several years ago. You remember the thing, you might've seen this stunt where he had a bed on the top of his church and he and his wife were laying in that bed and doing sermons from that bed or something like that.

I can't remember how all that went. But it was all part of his, what he called a sexperiment campaign. And that was just provocative and ridiculous. And I think that it took something that is sacred and wonderful and to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife as God has meant it to be enjoyed and it was taking it and flaunting it and turning it into something to sell a book and kind of stir up interest and things like that.

That's when it becomes sinful. Church by the Glades in Florida, they've taken sexuality and have incorporated into some of the tracks that they hand out. And it's not like it's porn, but it's still meant to entice people.

It's meant to intrigue their interest. That's not how we sell the gospel. In fact, we don't sell the gospel at all. We share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others and we don't kind of spruce it up in such a way to make it more appealing to the world.

People who are worldly are going to hate it. It doesn't matter how you dress it up. If you dress it up in such a way as to make it more appealing, then you're gonna turn it into something that's not the gospel.

And whatever you win them with is what you win them to. If you use titillating things to attract somebody to the gospel, then it's gonna take those carnal fleshly things in order to keep them there. Then it's not the gospel they're in love with, it's their own flesh.

So even those things that God has called good, we can turn into something else that is not good and it there become sinful. And we have caused, we have destroyed the one for whom Christ died, as it says in verse 15.

Verse 16, so do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. So likewise, what you regard as good should not be spoken of as evil. But then notice verse 17, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So we don't eat and drink our way into heaven. It is the righteousness that we enjoy imputed to us through Christ, the peace that we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the joy that we experience in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who's been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what the kingdom of God is all about. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Now, approved by men there doesn't mean approved by the world. It's that those who are godly, since we're talking about the context of the church, approve the one who serves Christ.

He may have differences of opinion on these certain matters, may practice these things as a matter of conscience, but he is approved by men if he's a servant of Christ. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding, not putting stumbling blocks between one another, causing each other to stumble, not flaunting our Christian liberty, not calling evil those things that are not evil, but we pursue what makes for peace and we build one another up.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your patience and your long suffering with us and help us to show kindness to each other as you have shown kindness to us, gracious with one another, letting our speech be seasoned with salt so that we may know how to answer each person and building one another up in the Lord, not tearing one another down.

Forgive us our sins, lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake and give us that wisdom and knowledge on how to help one another walk in righteousness. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

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