Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Romans chapter 14. Have you ever noticed that throughout
the Scriptures, God commands His saints to love one another,
He commands us to be long-suffering to one another, to be kind, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
us. He teaches us to restore a fallen
brother in the spirit of meekness. But not one time does God ever
tell one of His saints to accuse our brethren and divide from
our brethren. He never tells us that. God commands
believers to be gracious and to be merciful to one another,
trusting one another to Christ Jesus our Lord. That's what He
commands us to do. He commands us to be gracious
to one another, merciful to one another, trusting one another
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Now first of all, I want you
to see here in this passage, let me just read this to you.
Verse 1 says, Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but
not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may
eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him
that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which
eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. Who
art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master
he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for
God is able to make him stand. God tells me here, first of all,
I'm to receive my brethren. I'm to receive my brethren. He
says there in verse 1, Him that is weak in the faith, receive
ye, but not to doubtful disputations. Now this is a true brother. This
is a true brother. This is somebody who God has
given faith. This is somebody who believes
the gospel in spirit and in truth. He's weak, but you notice there,
He's in the faith. He's weak in the faith. There's
only one faith. It's the faith God gives. It's
called the faith of God's elect. That's in Titus 2.1. It's the
faith of God's elect. It's the faith of the saints.
It's the common faith. So this one's weak that he's
talking about, but he's a believer. He's weak in the faith. We're
not talking about here's somebody who worships the will and works
of man. This is one who believes God
when he says that we all send in Adam and come into this world
totally to praise. This is not somebody who believes
that God foresaw some good in us and that's what caused Him
to choose us. This is one who truly believes
the Word of God, that God chose His people freely by His grace
without any regard to us whatsoever. This is not one who's going around
speaking about Christ died for everybody. And not speaking of
Christ as accomplishing redemption, this is a brother who truly believes
Christ died for his particular people and justified each one
for whom he died. He believes that God preserves
His people who He's regenerated. He regenerates His people and
calls them to faith in Christ and makes them willing in the
day of His power and then preserves us so that we persevere in faith
until the end. This is a true believer we're
talking about. We're not talking about a will worshiper here.
We're talking about a true believer. Now, what's He weak in? What makes Him weak? Well, God
gives us the description here of those who are strong in faith
and those who are weak in faith. This is God's Word now. This
is not just your preacher standing here giving you this description.
This is God's description. This is God's description of
those that are weak in faith and those that are strong in
faith. He says in verse 2, For one believeth that he may eat
all things, another who is weak Edith Erbs. So God says the one
who is strong in the faith, he knows and he is persuaded by
Christ that he has liberty. He knows and is persuaded by
Christ that our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed his people from the
law. He brought us out from under
the law and gave us liberty. He knows we are not under law,
we are under grace. That's what this strong believer
believes. Look over at 1 Corinthians 8.
I want you to see this. Paul said it's concerning therefore
the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto
idols. We know that in idols nothing
in the world and that there's none other God but one. Paul
had liberty so that he would eat meat that had been used in
the worship service of idols. He would go down to the shambles
and buy this meat after they had got through using it to sacrifice
to idols. He would go down there and buy
him a big ribeye and take it home and eat it. Even though
it had been offered to idols. Why? Because he said, we know
an idol is nothing. There is only one God. Verse
5, though there be that are called gods, just because a man calls
an idol a god doesn't mean it's a god. There be that are called
gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many
and lords many. But to us there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him. And one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. Howbeit there
is not in every man that knowledge. Let's look back at Romans 14. The man that doesn't have this
knowledge, God says, is weak in the faith. He's weak in the
faith. He believes that he can only
eat herbs, only eat vegetables. He was raised up all his life
being taught not to eat meat, especially not meat offered to
idols, and he was raised just eating vegetables. Well, now
God's called him. The Lord Jesus Christ has given
him faith and brought him out from under that and taught him
the truth as it is in Christ. But he still has these grave
clothes. He still has these grave clothes.
It takes a while to shed these grave clothes, don't it? You've
been in the faith for a while, you know you still got them.
After 20 or 30 years, you still got them. God says He's in error. God says He's weak in the faith.
He's in error. He's in error. He doesn't understand
liberty that you have in Christ. But God says He that's strong
in the faith, He enjoys that liberty. He knows you have liberty. Well, how does God say we should
treat one another when this is the case? How should we treat
one another? were to receive each other. Look here in verse
3. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let
not him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath
received him. God says to the strong in faith,
Don't accuse your brother or criticize him because he believes
he can only eat certain things. Don't accuse him. Don't criticize
him. Don't put pressure on him and
try to force him to walk the way you walk. Don't esteem him
lightly and consider him a legalist and an unbeliever. Why not? Receive him because
God has received him. God has received him. Do you
really believe that we're not saved by anything we do? Well, then how can the things
we do stop us from being a child of God? They can't. You know, we talk about that
verse where Paul said, neither the circumcision avails anything. And we jump on that and preach
how that, oh, we're not saved by the works of the law. But
we forget the second part of that, neither does uncircumcision
avail anything. Just because you're not under
the law and you don't do those works, that doesn't avail you
anything. A man can be a legalist in not
doing the works of the law as much as a man who does them. God has received him. God, that
word means God's taken him to himself as one of his own. As his own. God says to the weak
in faith, do not judge him that eateth. You see, notice there
he says to the strong in faith, don't despise him that eateth
not. Don't esteem him an unbeliever
and esteem him lightly and despise him. But then he says to that
one weak in the faith, don't judge your brother who has liberty. Because that's what a weak brother
has to do. He's apt to try to pass sentence
on that brother that enjoys his liberty and say, oh, he's licentious. He's living in sin. He can't
be God's child. He doesn't even have regard for
God. He doesn't even try to obey God's
law. God says, receive him for God
hath received him. Brethren, none of us who believe
God, none of us know anything as we ought. None of us do. Before God and compared with
Christ, All of us have weak faith. Remember what our Lord Jesus
said to His apostles? There's some there who were strong
in faith, some who were weak in faith. He said, Oh ye of little
faith. He said that to all of them.
Compared to Christ, we all have weak faith. We don't see ourselves as strong
in the faith anyway. If God has taught you something
about yourself, a believer doesn't see ourselves as strong in the
faith. Lest we're overcome with self-righteousness and pride,
we don't see ourselves strong in the faith. We see an unbelief
that's in us and we cry out, Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. We look to Christ because we
depend on Christ entirely and we look to Christ praying, Lord,
increase our faith. Increase our faith. We don't
think we're strong in faith, and yet, here we are, weak in
faith, and God has received us as His own. He's received us
as His own. That means God is my brother's
father, the same as He's my father. God's taken him to be His son,
the same as He has me. It means God received your brother,
and therefore you receive him. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. God's
received him. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea rather that's risen again, who's even
seated at God's right hand, who lives right now making intercession
for that brother. that you judge. Receive Him. Christ has received Him. God
has received Him. Now, let me ask you this. What's
the quickest way? What's the quickest way to upset
us fathers and mothers? What's the quickest way? When
somebody judges and condemns our sons or our daughters. You
can get a mother or a father upset real quick by that. You
come in and you start condemning one of our sons or our daughters.
Well, God says this in verse 4, Who art thou that judgest
another man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth, yea, he shall be holding up, for God is able to
make him stand. My brother, My sister. They're not my servant. They're
Christ's servant. They're not my servant. They're
Christ's servant. So if I criticize him, I'm criticizing
his master. If I criticize him, I'm criticizing
Christ. Criticizing his master. Do I
not believe God's able to make him stand? We preach the sovereignty
of God. We preach the power of God to
save through the preaching of His Word. And then we're going
to turn around and take it upon ourselves to try to make one
of His children obedient. How was He made Christ's servant? How was He made Christ's servant?
Same as you were. Same as you were. God the Father
chose Him in Christ before the foundation of the world by His
free and sovereign grace. Christ Jesus laid down His life
for that one. Made Him the righteousness of
God in Him. The Spirit of God gave Him life,
regenerated Him, gave Him faith, gave Him all things that pertain
to godliness. and the Holy Spirit of God dwells
in that brother and in that sister. Well, how does a spiritually
dead sinner, how does he come to have life? How does he have
spiritual life? Look over Ephesians chapter 1. How does he have spiritual life?
Ephesians 1.22 It says, God's put all things
under Christ's feet and gave Him to be the head over all things
to the church. The church is His body, the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all, and you hath He quickened. You hath He quickened who were
dead in trespasses and in sin. He gave me life. My master gave
me life. How do I have faith? How do you
have faith? Look at Ephesians 2 and verse
8. For by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man
should boast. We're His workmanship. He gave
us faith. Does Christ give each believer
the same degree of faith? Look at Ephesians 4. Look at
verse 7. Unto every one of us is given grace. You know, faith
is a grace given. Faith is a grace given. unto
every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the
gift of Christ. Christ my master gave my brother
the measure of faith that he has. You think he's weak in faith? Well just know this, Christ gave
him that weak faith. Could Christ not have given him
strong faith? Yep, but he gave him weak faith.
It gave him weak faith. So if I doubt him and I dispute
with him, I'm being critical of Christ his Master. I'm being
critical of his Master. Only Christ can increase his
faith. I can't do it. You can't do it. Only Christ can do it. So in
all of this, you know what I've forgotten? If I'm sitting here
esteeming my brother as an unbeliever because he is weak in the faith.
If I am setting him at naught and I want to have nothing to
do with him because I think he is an unbeliever, you know what
I have done? I have forgotten. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? What do you have that Christ
didn't give you? Now if you received it, why do
you glory as if you hadn't received it? Isn't that what we're doing?
If we criticize a brother, are we not glorying in ourselves?
If we accuse a brother and we condemn a brother for how he
walks, what he eats and drinks, what he does, are we not exalting
ourselves as better than him? Who art thou that judges? Who
are you? God says, who are you to judge
your brother? Remember this, brethren. Weak
faith saves the same as strong faith. Both the weak and the strong
are in Christ and saved by Christ. It's not the degree of our faith
that saves us. It's the object of our faith
that saves us. So both are in Christ and both
are justified and made righteous. So we're to receive Him because
God receives Him. Now secondly, remember that we
cannot see a brother's heart. Only Christ can see his heart.
And motive is what matters. Motive is what matters. Look
at here, Romans 15, verse 5. One man, this is weak in faith,
he esteemeth one day above another. Another, who is strong in faith,
esteemeth every day alike. Now this is God speaking. He
says that this weak brother, this one weak in faith, is he
who believes he should observe a certain day. a certain day. Now, in this day and time, most
observe Sunday thinking Sunday is the new Sabbath. They think
it's been changed from Saturday to Sunday. So they observe Sunday
as the Sabbath or as the Lord's Day. Reverend, if the Sabbath
is now Sunday, If that's the case, and if it's as important
and as much of a necessity to observe as men say it is, wouldn't
it be clearly revealed in God's Word? Wouldn't this passage be
a great place to reveal it? And yet, God doesn't say it.
In fact, what God does say to us is this. He says, Christ blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross. He spoiled principalities and
powers. He made a show of them openly
triumphing in them, over them in it. And so He says to you
and me, let no man therefore judge you in meat, what you eat
or what you don't eat, in drink, in respect of a holy day, or
of the new moon, or of the Sabbath, or of the Sabbath, which are
a shadow of things to come. Those things pictured Christ.
He says, but the body is of Christ. Those things pictured Christ.
But the weak brother believes that on Sunday, He should go
to the morning service and hear the gospel preached. And then
he goes home and he spends the rest of the day reading Scripture.
He spends the rest of the day in prayer, listening to sermons,
and then goes back to hear the evening message. And he believes
he should spend that whole day devoted to the Lord. You know
what God says? Fine. Go ahead. He's weak in
the faith, but God says, let him do it. Let him do it. A weak brother believes he shouldn't
regard Christmas Day, because he knows that's a pagan holiday
that was made by a bunch of pagan rebels. He shouldn't observe
Christmas Day. He does nothing to acknowledge
the Christmas season. He believes he shouldn't acknowledge
Halloween, because he thinks dressing up in costumes and handing
candy out to kids is sinful. He's weak in faith. Well, let
him do it. He's weak in faith, but let him
do it. God says the strong in faith
regards every day the same. To him, every day is the Lord's
day. To him, you worship the Lord
every day the same. On Sunday, this strong brother
goes to hear the gospel. On the way home, he stops at
a restaurant, gets himself to eat. When he gets home, he turns
on the TV and watches a ball game. That evening, if they have
an evening service, he goes back to hear the gospel preached that
evening. God says, that's fine. That's fine. He's not wrong to
do that. He's strong in faith. He sees
the liberty Christ has given. Christmas comes around. He's
thankful God's made a day so that this world has to acknowledge
the Son of God came into this world in human flesh. And he
likes Christmas trees and lights, so he puts them up a Christmas
tree, strings it up with lights, and gives gifts and receives
gifts. He doesn't attach any religious significance to that
whatsoever. He's not putting up that tree
as Isaiah said and bowing down and worshipping it. He just puts
it up because it's pretty. He gives candy out to all the
kids that come around at Halloween and comments how what a nice
costume they're wearing. So what are these brethren to
do with each other? How are these brethren to treat
each other? They're at odds on how they practice. They're complete
odds. How did they treat each other?
God says, do not intrude upon your brother's conscience. Don't
intrude upon your brother's conscience. Verse 5, at the end, let every
man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Now, listen carefully. You are not to try to live by
my conscience. And you are not to try to make
me live by your conscience. Whatever in your conscience you
believe a believer should do, you are not to try to intrude
on my conscience and make me do that. And however I believe
a believer should walk, I'm not to intrude on your conscience
to try to make you do that. Let every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind concerning what God would have him to do. And here's the truth of it. Every
believer who's born of God in whom the Spirit of God dwells,
walks in the light God has given Him. Every believer does that. He walks in the measure of light
that God has given Him and does what He does unto the Lord. That's so of every believer. Because we believe in irresistible
grace. That's why it's true of every
believer. Look here in verse 6. He that regardeth the day,
regardeth it unto the Lord. He that regardeth not the day,
to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to
the Lord, for giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not, to the
Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us, not
one single believer, liveth to himself, and no man dieth to
himself. Whether we live, we live unto
the Lord. And whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live therefore or
die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died
and rose and revived that he might be Lord over all his people. That's what he said. Over the
dead and the living. He's Lord over all his people. Christ died rose again and was
revived that He might be Lord in the hearts of all His people
from the youngest to that one that's just about to die. From
that one that's just been born again to that one who's about
to part from this life into God's presence. He's the Lord of both
of them. He's the Lord of both of them.
When God gives His child life and faith in Christ, Though he
is a newborn baby in the faith, he lives unto the Lord the same
as that believer who's been in the faith for 50 years. That's
what he's saying. He lives unto the Lord the same
as that one who's been in the faith 50 years. Now, he may practice
some different things. Eli wasn't born full grown like
his daddy. He wasn't grown full grown like
his daddy. A believer is not grown full
grown when he is born of God. But who would blame Eli for crawling
and for eating baby food and for slobbering all over himself?
Who is going to take offense at that? God's children are born babies.
And as a baby in Christ, he may believe he can only eat certain
meats. He may believe he has to observe
certain days. He might take the radio out of
his car because he thinks it's sinful to listen to music. But in his heart, what he's doing,
he's doing because he's fully persuaded this is what the Lord
would have him to do. This is what the Lord would have
him to do. And those strong in faith are not to blame him for
acting like a baby. No more than you'd blame Eli
for acting like a baby. Now, if I judge my brother, and
I insist my brother walk as I walk, Then I'm playing the legalist. Then I'm saying the way I walk
is a necessity. If I judge him and I cast him
out of the church because he doesn't walk like I walk, now
then my heart's revealed. Now I'm saying what I'm doing
is necessary for salvation. I'm saying I trust in this work
to make me accepted of God. I put myself in Christ's place. I put myself in the judgment
seat. I make myself to be the master. But listen to this. Verse 10, Why dost thou judge
thy strong brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy
weak brother? For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall
confess to God. So then, every one of us, talking
about believers here, we shall give account of ourselves to
God. You're going to give account
of yourself to God, I'm going to give account of myself to
God. And brethren, he's saying here, it's not the judgment of
men that matters. Now, we're going to see in a
minute, we don't want to do anything to cause our brethren to stumble,
but it's not the judgment of men that matters. Whenever the
Corinthians were blaming the Apostle Paul and saying all those
things about him, at one point the Apostle Paul wrote and he
said, I don't really care that you're judging me. Your judgment
is not what really matters. The judgment that matters is
Christ Jesus, our Master. And this is not a fearful thing
for a believer, because we believe and trust and know that by His
righteousness, by His words, our Lord Jesus Christ is going
to present us holy, unblameable, and unapprovable before God.
This is not given to terrify us, it's just given to teach
us that that brother who's trying to be a judge, don't let that
affect you too much. Because it's not him that matters,
it's Christ. He's the judge. He's the judge. Now lastly, I really want to,
let me just read this to you. We'll come back and look at it
another time because it's too important just to go through
it quickly. But let me show you this last
thing. Never do or say anything that will trip up your brother.
Never do or say anything that will trip him up. Look here in
verse 13. Let us not therefore judge one
another anymore. but judge this rather, that no
man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's
way. I know and am persuaded by the
Lord Jesus, Paul said, that there's nothing unclean of itself. Sin
is not in things. And it's not sinful for me to
eat or drink anything. But he says this, but to him
that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. It is. But if thy brother be
grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably, destroy
not him with thy meat for whom Christ died. If a brother is
offended, if you have a glass of wine, don't have a glass of
wine in front of him. That's being charitable to Him.
Don't do it in front of Him. Listen. Let not in your good be evil
spoken of, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that
in these things serveth Christ. It doesn't matter if he's observing
or not observing. It doesn't matter if he's drinking
or not drinking. But he that does these things
serving Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after
things which make for peace. And things wherewith one may
edify one another. For meat destroyeth not the work
of God. Do we really believe that if
a man does not observe a day, that's going to destroy the work
Christ accomplished? Of course not. Of course not. Christ is our Sabbath. He's our
bread from heaven. If I don't eat some kind of earthly
bread, is that going to make Him cease being my bread from
heaven? No. All things indeed are pure But
it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither
to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother
stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Now watch this. Hast thou faith? Do you believe
that it is not wine that is sinful, only drunkenness? Do you believe
that? Do you have faith that nothing
that goes into the mouth can defile you? Have it to thyself
before God. Don't do it when the brothers
around is going to be offended. Have that faith to yourself before
God. Look at this. Happy is he that
condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. You
can be happy having your glass of wine knowing in your heart
God doesn't condemn me for this. Now if you have liberty of conscience
to drink wine, That's fine when the weak brother is not around.
But if you do it around the weak brother, now it's sin because
of your brother. Look, he that doubteth is damned
if he eat, because he eateth not of faith for whatsoever is
not of faith is sin. It doesn't mean that he loses
his salvation and is damned before God. It means he loses his peace
of conscience. When he does that, it goes against
his conscience, and his conscience, he's going to be damned. He's
going to say, oh, I shouldn't have done that. He won't have
any peace, won't be able to sleep, because he did something that
went against his conscience. Look at Romans 15.1. We then
that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak,
and not to please ourselves. In other words, don't have this
attitude that, well, I don't care if you're offended or not,
I'm going to do it. He said, let's don't please ourselves.
Please your brother. Do what's good for your brother.
Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. What's our constraint? What's
our motive? For even Christ pleased not himself,
but as it's written, reproaches of thee fell on me. That's our
constraint. Christ did this for us. Look
at how Christ didn't please Himself but pleased us. He came down
from heaven and took flesh. He went to the cross. You think
He was happy on the cross? No, He went to the cross and
died for His people. He had the reproaches of His
people cast on Him that He might save us from all iniquity. Everything
He did, He did for His brethren. So let us do what we do. for
our brethren. Amen. Let's stand together. Take a little break. I went a
little long. Our gracious God, we thank you
for this day and we thank you for this word. How high we need
to be taught this and how we need to be turned from our self-righteousness
for making ourselves judges of our brethren. Lord, teach us
to receive one another and to trust one another to Christ.
We know you will make us stand. Forgive us, Lord, our sin and
our doubting and our disputing. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.