Alright brethren, let's turn
to Romans 14. I'm going to just read one verse and then
we'll look at it as we go. Romans 14 verse 13 says, 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." Now, Christ is teaching us here that those that
are strong in faith should limit our liberty, should limit our
liberty motivated by Christ's love for us and our love for
our brethren. We have liberty, but we should
limit that liberty, not exercise that liberty toward a weak brother
or in the presence of a weak brother. And we ought to do this
constrained by Christ's love and by our love for the brethren.
Now, I want to get right into this. I've titled it Acceptable
to God, Approved of Men. Now first of all, Christ has
given his saints liberty. He's given us liberty from the
old covenant law. Liberty means he set us free.
In this country we know what that means, liberty. It's liberty,
freedom from the old covenant law. He says in verse 14, I know and am persuaded by the Lord
Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. Now the Lord Jesus
teaches his people this, he persuades his people of this, that no thing,
nothing that we eat or drink or any days or anything, no thing
is unclean of itself. Sin is not in things. In the garden, it was not the
fruit itself that made Adam sin and plunged the whole human race
into depravity. It was the fact God forbid him
to eat that fruit. The sin was not in the fruit.
Our Lord tells us that there's no sin in things that go in the
mouth. Take alcohol for an example.
That's a big one that religious folks have a hard time with.
Well, there's no sin in alcohol. There's no sin in alcohol going
into the mouth. He said, not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth the man. It's that which comes out of
the mouth. It comes from the sinful heart.
That's what defiles a man. Now, it's sin if a believer's
breaking the law. If he's getting intoxicated,
if it's interfering with his responsibility, that's sin. That is sin. But there's nothing
unclean of itself. And nothing that goes into the
mouth will defile the man. That's what Christ said. But
not only that, now look at this verse again. Christ has redeemed
his elect from the law so that there's nothing which was required
in the old covenant law that is sin of itself or unclean of
itself. Nothing in that law, to you and
me now, is unclean of itself. Circumcision, meat, drink, Sabbath
days, feast days, and all the ceremony, all those things, brethren. Paul said, I know and persuaded
by the Lord Jesus, there's nothing, nothing in that law that's unclean
of itself. He told the Galatians, stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be
not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back
to the law thinking there's anything you can do that's going to make
you righteous or holy or that's going to add to Christ who is
our righteousness and holiness. We are not justified by the law.
The law was a schoolmaster until Christ came until we've been
given faith in Christ. The law was a schoolmaster, but
after that faith has come, we're no longer under the schoolmaster.
Christ has set his people free from the entire yoke of old covenant
bondage. He's freed us from that. Those
things in the ceremony, we're going to see again in the second
hour, those things all typified Christ. But Christ is the image. They were the shadow. Christ
is the image. And Christ fulfilled everything
that was written in the Law and the Prophets. He fulfilled everything. The whole Law. He redeemed us
from the curse of the Law. The curse of the Law is we couldn't
keep it. And it condemned us. He redeemed
us from that curse being made a curse for His people. So we're
not under that. What law are we under? We're
under the law of faith, which worketh by love. It means we
worship God in spirit. We don't look at the temporal
things. We worship God in spirit, not
in the oldness of the letter. Now, Paul said in Romans 7, now
we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were
held. That we should serve in newness
of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. Here's the law
we're under, Romans 8, 2. The law of the Holy Spirit. The law of life in Christ Jesus. has made me free from that old
covenant law which was sin and death. That's all that old covenant
law ever gave anybody was sin and death. But the law of the
Spirit, the law of life in Christ has freed me from that law of
sin and death. But in the heart of a weak brother,
you have a weak brother, he's weak in the faith. And here's
why he's weak in the faith. If there's anything that he esteems
to be sin, to him it is. If he esteems it to be unclean,
not to observe this or that or the other thing, to him it is
unclean. Look here in verse 14, second
part. But to him that esteemeth anything
to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Look at verse 20. Meat destroys
not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but
it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. Verse 23, he that
doubteth is damned if he eats. That means he sins if he eats
and he disturbs his peace if he eats. Doesn't mean he's damned
eternally. There is no condemnation for
those in Christ but he sins and his peace is disturbed because
he eateth not of faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Christ
is eternal and so his work is eternal. That finished work he
accomplishes is eternal. Meat and drink and anything else
we do is not going to change that. It's not going to change
that. But if a man in his heart esteems
anything to be unclean, then to him it's unclean. You see,
we saw last time that God looks on the heart, on the motive,
and this is talking about motive. If it's unclean in his heart,
it's unclean for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. If he can't do it, believe in
God, and be happy and know that he's not condemned into human
sin. Now brethren, this is why we
cannot force each other into liberty and you can't force a
man who knows his liberty to observe days and weeks and meets
and all those things. We can't force one another to
do anything. The only one who can give faith
and grow us in faith is Christ. So we have to wait on the Lord. Our problem is when we get tired
of waiting and we try to make it happen. You can't do it. You
can't do it. It's just not like raising your
children and you can correct your children and stop them from
doing this or that. How would you like it if I tried
to treat you that way? It wouldn't work, would it? but
He gives you faith in the heart. Even if in these churches where
they force people to do something outwardly, it's not a faith,
it's sin. So we can't force each other,
we have to preach the gospel and wait on Christ to work in
the heart. Now, so uncleanness is not in
thing. It's in how we esteem a thing. If a man esteems something sinful,
then to him it's sinful. Alright? Secondly, because that's
so, it is sin for those strong in faith to offend a weak brother
by our liberty. It's sin. If there's a weak brother,
And I know he's going to be offended if I drink alcohol. And I'd go ahead and do it anyway. That's sin. That's sin on my
part. Now let me show you why. Verse
15. But if thy brother be grieved
with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy, that
is sin not against, don't wound him with thy meat for whom Christ
died. Paul gives us a good example
in 1 Corinthians 8. Let's go back over there again.
We read the first part of this last time, but I'll just read
the second part. 1 Corinthians 8 and look at verse 8. 1 Corinthians
8. Meat commendeth us not to God. Meat does not commend us to God. For neither if we eat are we
the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse. You see,
that's what it means when it says there's nothing unclean
of itself. It don't matter if you partake
of it or you don't partake of it. It doesn't affect your standing
with God. It doesn't affect our acceptance
with God. But verse 9, but take heed, take
heed, be careful lest by any means this liberty of yours become
a stumbling block to them that are weak. For if any man see
thee, which has knowledge, sit at meet in the idol's temple,
he said earlier, we have knowledge to know that an idol's nothing. It's a non-entity. It's nothing. People can call it a god, but
that don't make it a god. An idol's nothing. There's one
God, the true and living God. This we know. He says now, If
any man see thee which hast this knowledge, sit at meat in the
idol's temple. Here you are in an idol's temple,
in a pagan idolatrous temple, and you're sitting down eating
steak that was used, being offered to an idol god. Now you know
that don't matter. It does not change anything with
God because that idol's nothing and that meat that was offered
to it's nothing. It's just a steak and you're
having it in an idol's temple. But if a man sees you doing that,
shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to
eat those things which are offered to idols? If you ever been emboldened
to do something that you otherwise might not have done because you
saw an older brother do it, you know, I've done that where you
think of somebody you know in the faith that does this and
so you think, well, it's not bad. Well, watch this. He's weak
though, this one's weak. He's emboldened to do this by
his brother. Verse 11, and through thy knowledge
shall the weak brother perish. That means his conscience will
be wounded. Look, and it's a weak brother
for whom Christ died. But when ye, watch this word,
when you sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience,
that's what he means by perish. You sinned against the brother,
wounded his weak conscience, you sinned against Christ. Wherefore,
if me make my brother to offend, if he's offended by what I eat
or drink, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest
I make my brother to offend. You get that? Now let's go back
and let me look at this. You think of these offenses now.
If I walk contrary to the word of God, here are the offenses. One, I'm not walking in love
toward my brother as Christ commands me to do. I'm not walking in
love. He says there in verse 15, if
thy brother, Romans 14, 15, he says, if thy brother be grieved
with thy meek, Now you're not walking charitably. That's what
Paul said in Galatians 5.13. He said, Brethren, you've been
called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. First, I don't walk
in love to my brother, so I'm disobeying the direct command
of Christ my Redeemer. And then two, I'm sinning against
my brother. And three, by sinning against
my brother, I'm sinning against Christ. That's what Paul told
us. When you sin so against the brethren
and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. See, Christ and His people are
so one. We are so one. that if you do
anything to a brother in Christ, you're doing it to Christ. That's
how one we are. We're doing it to Christ. And
then look at this, fourthly, my good will be evil spoken of. Look at verse 16. Let not then
your good be evil spoken of. Why? How? In what sense will
my good be evil spoken of? right here, for, because, because
I claim to know this, that the kingdom of God is not meat and
drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
What does that mean? The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. It has nothing to do with meat
and drink. Neither are we better if we eat
or drink, neither are we the worse if we don't eat or drink.
It has nothing to do, you don't worship God in carnal things. Worship God in the heart and
spirit. That's true worship. Yes, we
do some things outwardly in our flesh. We came here today outwardly,
and we sit here in these pews outwardly, and we're going to
sing outwardly and all that, but if it's not in here, and
it's not been given to you by God to worship. It's just an
exercise in body. It's a bodily exercise. And Paul
said bodily exercise profiteth little. So, but what does it
mean? Well, if I know and I'm persuaded
that it's not my works that makes me accepted of God, but it's
only Christ my righteousness. If I know this, that Christ is
my only righteousness, it's not my works, what I do or don't
do that makes me accepted with God. It's only Christ my righteousness. If I know this, then I'm going
to want to follow Christ in doing what He tells me to do. I'm going
to want to do this toward my brother or sister. I'm going
to want to obey Christ's word in the way I walk and what I
do to my brother and sister and in front of my brother and sister.
Christ's righteousness does not make His people want to sin by
disobeying His Word. His righteousness doesn't do
that. It doesn't make us justify ourselves for doing contrary
to His Word. If we are doing that, that is
of our sinful flesh and most likely of the devil. Christ makes
us want to obey His Word. If we know He's our righteousness,
we want to do righteous toward our brethren. And then if I know
Christ is my only peace with God, If I know, as Romans 5 says,
that when I was an enemy to God, when I had no strength whatsoever,
Christ came, and by His work at the cross, our Lord Jesus
Christ reconciled His people to God. He brought us back into
peace with God. And so now, if He did that for
me when I was an enemy, having now been reconciled, having now
been made a friend of God, He's going to save me by His life.
This is my assurance. If I know this, if I know Christ
alone is the peace of God and He's our peace with God, then
that's going to make me want to walk in peace with my brethren. That's going to make me want
to do whatever it is that will make for peace with a brother
in Christ. I love peace with my brother
rather than fighting and separation and holding a grudge and all
that. If I know Christ is my peace,
you're going to want peace. He makes his people peacemakers.
The Prince of Peace makes his people peacemakers. If Christ
is my joy, then I'm going to want my brethren to have the
joy that's in Christ. And the way I'm going to do that
is I'm not going to try to draw their attention to me off of
Christ whether I'm exercising my liberty or if I'm observing
days and eating and abstaining. I don't want them looking at
me. I want them to be able to focus on Christ because that's
where this joy is going to be found. A believer will want to
be quick to reconcile. He wants to be quick to come
back into unity with his brethren because he knows something. Sin
is a divider. Sin divides, separates, creates
discord. If you're divided and separated,
it's because of sin. It's because of sin in you and
in the other person. But Christ, the whole gospel
is Christ came and united His people. He laid down His life
for His bride and united each elect child with Him, with God
in heaven and with our brethren on this earth. And so the believer
knows it's so wicked to sow discord and divide because it's undoing
what Christ did. We lose our witness as a church.
That's why Paul is saying, receive your brethren. Receive them,
even the weak brethren, receive them. Because our mission here
is to preach the gospel and spread the gospel forth. It's bigger
than you, it's bigger than me. We have something here that our
minds and hearts should be set on accomplishing that goes beyond
whether I'm happy or not, or whether I'm offended or not.
If we're divided, then that ruins our witness before sinners of
how Christ unites His people. because it's walking directly
contrary to it. So that's why Paul is saying
here, receive your brethren. Receive them. Look at Romans
14, 18. Now he spoke of righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That means this is spiritual,
isn't it? It's spiritual. Now watch this. For he that in these things and
righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. He that in
these things serveth Christ. You know what that means? It
means he does what he does to his brother as unto Christ. He's treating that brother like
he's Christ Jesus himself. Why? Because that's how one Christ
is with his people. What you do to them, you're doing
to him. So he that serves Christ treating
his brother in righteousness and peace and joy, he's serving
Christ. He's doing it as unto Christ.
And this man is acceptable to God and approved of men. By using my liberty to offend
and to create division, that's not acceptable to God. And that's
not approved by men. Neither one of them. It's causing
my good to be evil spoken of. I've heard believers justify
themselves for exercising their liberty in offending weak brethren. They, you know, do whatever it
is that they do. They have whatever they eat or
drink. And they know it's going to be
offensive to a weak brethren. They do it anyway and they justify
it by saying, well, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.
It's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It's
spiritual. Well, that's true. It is. But
that text in the context, that's not given for you and I, if you're
a strong brother, strong in faith, that's not given for you to justify
offending your weak brother. It's given as a reason why we
shouldn't. That's why it's given. Though
I claim the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, I may make
that profession. Here's what my good will be spoken
evil of. I can make that claim. Well,
the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. But by insisting on exercising
my liberty, I'm saying it is meat and drink. That's as real
as one sinner who's extra legal and he's saying you've got to
do this, you've got to observe this day, you've got to eat this
meat, you've got to stay away from that meat. That man is saying
the kingdom of God is meat and drink. And so is the brother
that insists on exercising his liberty. He's saying the exact
same thing. If I know the kingdom of God's
not meat and drink, if I know Christ is my righteousness, Christ
is my peace, Christ is my joy, then I'll not have a problem
limiting my liberty for Christ and for a weak brother. When
men came and they insisted, they were going to force Paul to circumcise
Titus, Paul said, we withstood them. We did not submit to that,
not for an hour. Why? Because those men's motive
was wrong. They were saying it was necessary,
that you can't be saved without this work. That's what they were
saying. So Paul said, no, because that's
wrong. But then Paul turned around and there's Timothy, a half Gentile,
and he's not circumcised. And Paul wants to take him with
him into a Jews' temple to preach the gospel. And so Paul said,
now before we go, Timothy, you're going to have to be circumcised.
Why? Why did he do that? Paul knew
the Jews And he knew circumcision was nothing, but he knew the
Jews thought it was something. And he knew they would not be
able to hear him preach the gospel of Christ at all as long as Timothy
was sitting there uncircumcised. He knew that. And Timothy knew
it too. Paul knew Timothy knew it because
he wouldn't have suggested it if Timothy wasn't persuaded in
his own heart that circumcision is nothing. You see what I'm
saying? If a person really believes that
the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, it's not in our works
that we do. If he truly believes that, then
he will limit his liberty. He has the liberty to do this
or not do this, but he won't do the thing if it's going to
offend his brother. That's a man who really understands
liberty. Now, thirdly, And this is our
last point. So then, if I know this, truly
know, and hear Christ speak these things, then let me limit my
liberty around my weak brother. That's what I will do. Now watch
this, verse 19. Let us therefore follow after
the things which make for peace. and things wherewith one may
edify another. Look at verse 21. It's good neither
to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother
stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? I've got faith to drink this
glass of wine. Have it to thyself before God
instead of before the weak brother. You know, these folks that want
to make an exhibition out of prayer and want to hold their
hands up and all that stuff, just tell them, go home in your
closet where it's nobody but you and you're before God and
pray like that all you want to. But don't come in the house of
God and do it before men. Draw attention to yourself. They
don't do that kind of mess at home in their closet by themselves.
They're doing it so you can see them do it. Listen. Happy is he that condemneth not
himself in that thing which he alloweth. That doesn't just,
that applies to you're happy if you can have a glass of wine
and not be condemned by it. But you're also happy if You
deny yourself in front of a weak brother because this is what's
pleasing to God. Now, should making our sinful
flesh happy, should pleasing our sinful flesh be the test
by which we determine what we will or won't do? Should it? I like what Brother Walter Gruber
said. That time somebody asked him when he was down in Mexico,
are you happy Walter? He said, that has nothing to
do with anything. Whether I'm happy in my flesh
or not has nothing to do with anything. Let's say we're meeting
friends at a restaurant. I'm craving a glass of wine.
I've been craving a glass of wine all day. But there's a weak
brother there and I know he's going to be offended if I order
a glass of wine. Should pleasing my flesh be the
deciding factor in what I do? Should my happiness be the deciding
factor in what I do? No, God's word should. The love of Christ for me should. And my love for my brother should
be constrained to deny my flesh. Whether eating or abstaining,
happiness is obeying God's Word. And whatever the thing is that
you face, happiness is at obeying God's Word so that I'm not condemned
in my spirit and in my conscience. Happy is he that condemneth not
himself in that thing which he alloweth. He's not saying now,
Well, I have faith that I can do this X, Y, Z, which God's
word explicitly says, no, don't do that. He's not saying there
that, well, if you got faith to do that and you're not condemning
your heart, have at it. It may be if you can do that,
it may be what it is is that you just don't have a heart.
God ain't giving you a new heart. So it's not that. He's talking
about happy as he that's not condemned and that which he alloweth,
which is something that's just indifferent. It's not something
God's Word says you have to do or you don't have to do. It doesn't
matter. Happiness is bearing my brother's
infirmities for his good because God's Word tells me to. Look
here in verse 1. We then that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his
neighbor, our brother, our sister, for their good, for their edification. Instead of pleasing myself, let
me please them. Happiness is following my Redeemer's
example. Here's my motive right here.
Verse 3, For even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written,
the reproaches of them, God's elect, that reproach thee fell
on me. When it came between saving his
people by bearing our sins, did Christ do what would have saved
him from that awful suffering and shame? When it came to bearing
the sin of His people, to save His people and glorify God, did
Christ please Himself and abstain from that which would have caused
Him all that suffering and all that shame? That's what it means.
Everything He did was pleasing to the Father and it pleased
Him to do what He did because He wanted to. But it's saying
it would have saved Him from suffering and shame. Did He choose
to avoid that? For all His elect, Christ denied
Himself. He chose rather that our sins
by which we reproached His Father. He chose that our sins by which
we reproached His Father fall on Him rather than on us. That's how we're justified. That's
how we have this liberty. That's how we have this liberty. Believer, that's our motive to
deny ourselves rather than offending a weak brother. Obeying and following
Christ, that's happiness. It's in spirit rather than in
the flesh. I need this. I need to be taught
this. I need to be strengthened to do this. Don't you? Don't
you? What do we do that doesn't please
ourselves? How much do we really deny ourselves
for the good of our brethren? That's what I want to do. That's
what I want to grow in. I pray God will bless it. Let's
stand together. Our gracious God, we thank you
for teaching us this. what you call strong meat. Lord,
make us to be able to digest it and cause us to understand
it and walk in it. Lord, don't let us point the
finger. Don't let us look to see who
else hears this. Let us hear this. Let me hear
this. I need to hear it. I need to
be grown in it. Lord, make each of us say that
about ourselves. Show us Christ and show us more
and more how he denied himself for us. That'll be our constraint
to deny ourselves for our brethren. Lord, we're thankful that the
gospel is the rule we're under. It's this gospel that causes
us to turn from our sin and obey you. It's seeing Christ do what
he did for his people, suffer and bear shame for us that turns
us from disobedience to makes us want to obey him. This is
the fruit of the Spirit. This is the rule we're under. This is how your people are made
to walk after you. Lord, don't let us go back to
the law. Don't let us bite and devour
one another, accusing and excusing one another, ourselves. Make
us to look to Christ and hear the gospel that we might truly
obey you. Forgive us our sins, Lord. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen.