complete dependence upon the
Lord for all needed help this evening. I wish to direct your
very prayerful attention to the chapter that we read together
in Paul's epistle to the Romans, chapter 14. And by way of text,
verses 17 and 18. Romans chapter 14, verses 17
and 18. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. For the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. for he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men." It was Martin Luther, who knew
a thing or two about the liberty of the Gospel, who said, exhorted
those of whom he wrote to, to ever be mindful that Satan always
attempts to undermine the liberty that the Christian has in the
Gospel, and to ever stand on the tiptoe of faith, ever looking
unto Him, that He may keep us in this liberty. I'm not speaking things tonight
that are peripheral, though some consider them to be so. They're
not. I'm not speaking about things
tonight that are unimportant. They're not. These things are
the very fundamental, the very fundamental of what it is to
walk after the spirit and not after the flesh. It may go against
the grain. It may not be very popular. But
dear friends, it is truth and it is truth to rejoice in. Now, whenever we consider the
scriptures, we have to inevitably and should consider the context. Sometimes we have more context
before us than others. There are occasions in the book
of the Proverbs, for example, and even the Psalms where we
do not know. the specific context, and we
have to accept that that's the Lord's purpose for us. The Scripture
does transcend these things, we know that. But when it comes
to the epistles, we must ever be aware that these were letters
written to churches. The Scripture is not a collection
of abstract texts, and the epistles particularly are one composite
whole. You and I might write a letter. Some of us may have more cause
than others to write letters. I'm not a great letter writer.
Inevitably, sometimes we have to. And if you write a lengthy
letter, the recipient of that letter may point out a particular
paragraph or two that's pertinent to someone else. And that's alright. But we have to remember that
the whole of the letter is important. And that's where we have to consider
the situation that the Church of Rome found itself in. This
was a very interesting situation indeed. Very interesting. We have a collection of Gentile
believers, non-Jews like you and I, from very different circumstances. Rome was quite a cosmopolitan
place, well known. And all brought together under
one banner, that of Christ and of the Gospel. Within this church
there was a minority of converted Jews. Actually, the church at
Rome is the set pattern, really, for that of which we see throughout
the New Testament age. That's the reason why Romans
11 is so pertinent as it is. It's speaking of the fact that
there will be, indeed, a continual minority of Jews converted. but no great influx at the end
or anything of that nature. What we see here is a church
though, a church that was a happy church in many ways, a church
that was a growing church, a church that knew the liberty of the
gospel. I've brought this to you. What does Paul say? For God is my witness whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son. that without ceasing
I make mention of you always in my prayers. There was much
union here. There was much liberty. And we
see that they had a good report. And what do we see? I thank my
God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken
of throughout the whole world. That's not the whole world indiscriminately,
of course. It's meaning that everywhere
those who spoke of the church at Rome spoke of it very well
and spoke of it in very positive terms. But they had their problems.
They had their issues. They had their difficulties.
And one of them, of course, was having the fact that there were
so many people brought together. And it's again, it's a pattern
for the New Testament church of any size. There'll be all
sorts of people brought together. there were issues. And one of
the issues that was here set before the people, one of these
problems here, was that of spiritual maturity. And that of how this
worked out was in terms of meat and in drink and in the observation
of days and so on. Now the Gentile believers will
not have there would not be a particular issue to them. Most of them would
have come from heathen or pagan backgrounds and converted unto
Christ, but there were others, of course, who would have had
this pressure and would have had this strong force upon them
and that of which would prick their conscience about the eating
of meats and of the observation of days. Now, we have to be clear,
and this is how important it is that we interpret the Scripture,
and the rules for interpreting the Scripture, and how they're
applied properly. And it's this, we must always
look at the New Testament first. That's our principle. We look
at the New Testament, and then we go back into the Old, because
it's from the New, we see the fulfillment, we see the working
out of all these things. And Paul is setting all these
things straight here, to the Church of Rome. And he writes,
and he writes with wisdom, he writes with affection, he writes
with care. And what does he do? Firstly,
he looks to those who are experienced, those who are the strong in faith,
in respect of instructing the weak. Verse 1, 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 only herbs. And we see here that there were
those of whom were mature, those of whom were established, those
of whom were strong, and those of whom were in need of instruction. Therefore, this evening, I wish
to, from this text, divide our discourse into four simple principles
here. Firstly, we see there are no
externals. Secondly, we see there is no
condemnation. Thirdly, we see there is no offense. And fourthly, we see there is
no diversion. So, firstly here, no externals. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost, not meat and drink. The mark of spiritual immaturity
is that that is looking constantly to the externals. Now you might
say, what do I mean by that? One common mistake we've perhaps
made it, I certainly have made it myself, in early days is to
take a list of what we might consider to be taboo subjects
and issues and work through them. And our thought processes, our
mind is, well if we get these things right, we've arrived at
spiritual maturity. Paul says the very opposite here.
He says the very opposite. This is not in meat and drink. It's not in externals. It's not. A fine example of that, of course,
would be the very heart, the very religion of the Scribes
and the Pharisees. Now, why is this so appealing
to us? That's the first question. It's
simply this. It's fallen human nature. We
are wedded. Wedded to the earth. Our flesh
loves works and we love to contribute. That's always the problem. Doesn't
matter where it is. We are a bondage unto ourselves
in our own will and our own works. That's the problem. It's fallen
human nature. We are legal by nature. That's how we are. That's how
we are. And I'd note this. Everything, you examine it carefully. Every religion, but the religion
of free grace, is bondage. Every religion. Doesn't matter
whether it's the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mohammedans,
or free will. It's all bondage to the flesh. And it's all legal. Here we have
a completely different principle, and the point is the principle
is liberated. The scribes and the Pharisees,
what did they say? Why do thy disciples eat with unwashing
hands? Who is my neighbor? We fast often, thy disciples
do not. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. That was the That was the religion
of the scribes and the Pharisees. And you see what so solemn is?
It's religion without Christ. It's being religious but lost. And you see this is the thing
and this is how close it comes. Because you know, we can have
the finest gospel standard religion and be without Christ. That's
so solemn. That's so solemn. But here we
have a principle that's before us that is liberating. No externals. It's not in meat
and drink. It's not in meat and drink. And
thus, here, we have an altogether different principle. Which brings
us on to our second point. No condemnation. What do we read
of here? Verse 10, "...but why dost thou
judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought
thy 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." We don't need to be interested in We shouldn't
have our primary focus condemning everyone else on these matters. That of externals. That of the
peripheries. That of the things that really
don't matter. Why? Because the Lord is judge. The Lord is judged. We don't
need to be judging one another. Now, I must make a distinguishing
point here. We're not saying that we may
never have a disagreement. That's not what Paul's saying.
We might do. And if that's the case, stick
to the issue. Present your issue, present your
problem to them, present your particular disagreement, that
face-to-face, that's fine. That's fine. Stick to the issue
in hand. Stick to the doctrinal point
that's been debated. We don't condemn one another
in these matters. Why? Why? Because the Lord is
judge. The Lord is judge. And what is
more, this is a serious point here, to be about such a mindset, it
is deadening. It's deadening. The scribes and
the Pharisees, they had a lot of power. A lot of power. Religious power and political
power. In those days, of course, the
two were really intertwined. But they were miserable. They
were miserable. Religion without Christ is miserable. And thus, what I'm contending
for... You see, it's not a new thing. It's not a new thing.
Mr Gadsby preached this everywhere he went. This is a Gatsbyite
principle I'm laying before us tonight. A trust we embrace.
It's this. If we cast off these things,
we don't condemn one another over matters of indifference.
We're at liberty. We're at liberty. We'll come
to the point of this liberty in a moment. But it's there,
isn't it? It's there. There's no Condemnation. And this brings us on to the
third point, which is but a brief one, but a necessary one here,
and that of no offense. Now, Paul is writing and speaking
in this way that a man has to be free, That's absolutely true. You read Tobias Christ, there's
a sermon he preached, No Licentious Doctrine, and he says this, he
says, if a man is a true Christian, he's a libertine. What does that
mean? He's a free man. He's a free man. He's a free
man. And thus here, he's freeing himself
But he doesn't burden another man unnecessarily. He says here, it is good neither
to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to anything whereby thy brother
stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. I must stress it,
there were those there within the church who would have a weak
mind. They were of a weak conscience.
The matters of meat and drink were a problem to them. And thus,
he's saying, Thou shalt faith, have it to thyself before God.
Don't offend. Don't offend. Be mindful, discretion
has its place. It has its place. Now having said that, of course
he's saying don't offend intentionally. We may offend unintentionally
and some people will always be oversensitive. That's how things
are. That's not the case. He's just
saying be mindful. Be mindful. But the real point, I'm coming
to the fourth point here, and this is really the crux of the
message this evening, is that of no diversion. No diversion. Do not be diverted away from
these things. Righteousness, peace and joy
in the Holy Ghost. Consider those for a moment.
Righteousness. To abide in righteousness. What's that mean? Well, it's
not yours and it's not mine. That's what that means. Every
true believer will feel the need of a righteousness. Because the
Lord does not deal in half approvals. He doesn't deal
in half truths. He deals in absolutes. Years ago when Mr. Henry Mahan,
who some of you know, first started preaching, he went somewhere
to preach and there's a young man, somebody stopped him at
the door and he said, Mr. Mahan, how good does a person
have to be to get into heaven? He says, just as good as God.
And that's exactly true. We are in need of a righteousness. And Christ's righteousness covers
a sinner absolutely and completely. There's no half measures here.
But dear soul, you will feel your need of it. You see, sin
is deadening. And the more we look to ourselves,
the deader and the worse we feel. There's never any liberty in
self anywhere. anywhere. I know there's a tendency
amongst many to glory in looking to self and think that's a mark
of grace. It isn't. It isn't. It isn't. If we honour Christ, if we honour
Christ, We have to say, we cast ourselves on him, sink or swim. Here there is a righteousness,
and it's a righteousness that's absolute, and it is a righteousness
that is free. It's free. It's not cheap, but
it's free. And this is what we have here,
this is what we see here, and all we feel our need of it. And
the reality is, we don't think that we ever get past it. Some
people think they're getting progressively sanctified. Well,
I can only speak for myself. I've got nowhere, nowhere, nowhere
in the last 16, 17 years. I am as much dependent upon the
righteousness of Christ here on the 17th of January 2024 than in April 2006. That's the
reality of it. The flesh does not get... What
does Paul say? For in me, that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. No good thing. We are in need
of a righteousness. And thus, if we glory in Christ's
righteousness, that's the highest exaltation we can give to the
Saviour. the highest exaltation. You don't give any exaltation
to the Lord by thinking you've progressed and you've got somewhere
because we haven't got anywhere. But here we lay ourselves at
the very base and we have to exalt a risen Christ. Righteousness. Righteousness is there. It's
there. Righteousness and we read here
of peace. peace. Now, we live in a world of turmoil. We live in a world of strife, in the natural sense. There's more to it than that,
isn't there? Because we can live in peacetime, as we might say
here. We can live in relatively stable situations in respect
of family and in respect of workplace and so on and so forth and all
these things could be fine but to be miserable within and once
again we look back to the scribes and Pharisees they had all the
power those that persecuted Paul everywhere he went They followed
him, didn't they? The Jews followed him with anger
and with bitterness. But what does he say? What does
he say? There's no bitterness there,
is there? He says, I am what I am by the grace of God. He was writing to Timothy. He
said he was ready to depart. The time of his departure was
at hand. To live is Christ and to die is gain. Why? Because
he had peace. He had peace. Now, this is something
that is so rare. So rare. But the Lord gives it. My peace
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, the
Lord says. It's not ours to take at will. It's not a scintilla of free
will, is it? But the Lord, in His mercy, gives peace. He gives peace. This is part
and parcel, here we might say, of the economy of grace in the
Gospel and living in it. Old Mr Grace, who was the pastor
until He passed away in 1965 at Orsic, where I'm the minister
now. They said if you enter his house, which is a council house
in Thornhill, they said he was like heaven on earth. Because
he lived, he lived in the joy and he lived in the liberty of
the gospel. There was no way like it. You
can believe it, you can see it. He had peace. He had peace. Now this is something that we
must know something of in measure. In measure. And let me say this. We don't live in the felt sense
of it all the time. We know that. We know that. But
what do we say? Underneath is the everlasting
arms. If a house is built upon the
rock, When the rain comes, when it beats down, when the wind
comes, it stands. Why? Because it's there. The root of the matter is that
there is an inward peace. The love of Christ shed abroad
in a sinner's heart brings peace. It does. It does. And thus, he
says, and joy. And joy. Now this once again, these things
are not a dichotomy are they? They go together. They go together. And if a man has joy, he can't
hide it. He can't hide it. It's there. And it makes itself
manifest. You see the difference is this.
Most religion is trying to deal with the outward man. and press
these things inward. The Gospel deals with the inward
man. And these things are seen, therefore,
on the outward. That's the difference. That's
the difference between free grace, religion and free will. The Lord
deals with the heart. He deals with the heart. And
if He deals with the heart, these things become manifest. And once more, the joy of the
gospel is there in some measure. We don't always live in the felt
sense of it. You know, being joyful in the
gospel is not. It goes further than personal
disposition. Some people have a more gregarious,
a more outgoing personality than others. We might look at a man
like Peter. Perpetuous and He was someone
who would make his views known. But the Gospel transcends those
things. It transcends those things. And
sometimes it may be a quiet character. Lydian, whose heart the Lord
opened. We don't read over saying a great
deal. It transcends these things. But
if there's joy there, it will make itself known. It will. Now, I want us to note
this. In the Holy Ghost. In the Holy Ghost. Now, this
is the difference, is it not? Is that where the Lord works,
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. That's
reality. There is liberty. And so, the
Holy Ghost illuminates. Is there not times when there
is such a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we can see
is no work of man? No work of man at all. In days
such as when this chapel was being built, what can we say?
It wasn't a group of people getting together, deciding to knock on
doors and conjure people up to do things. The Lord moved! The
Lord moved through the preaching of the gospel. Men gathered together
and formed a church. And this is the pattern. This
is the pattern that we see all the way through. The Lord moving. And that's what we're in need
of today. Is a mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Now you might
say to me, well we live in the day of small things. that may
very well be true. There is obviously a withholding
of the Spirit in some measure, but we have to say this, we have
to say this, we despise not the day of small things, and furthermore,
we have to rejoice wherever we find it, for he that in these
things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. If
you walk in the liberty of the Gospel, then we have much to
be thankful for. Much to be thankful for. We may
be reduced. We may feel our smallness at
times. We may feel our insignificance. And we might feel that the whole
of the religious world is against us, which it is. But if we walk
in this liberty, we won't be moved by it. You won't be moved,
mate. Because if we believe these truths,
that we are free from the law, that the Lord has made us free,
no one will move you. No one will move you. And you
will walk in the liberty of it. These things are wonderful. And Paul, here in writing to
the church at Rome, is instructing them. And even those who are
weak in faith here. He's writing that in the fullness
of time they would be mature. Mature. That's what we see all
the way through. All the way through. Hast thou
faith? Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing which he
alloweth. No man can be another man's conscience. And no man can experience another
man's liberty. We have to experience these things
for ourselves. But the point is they're only
found in one place. They're only found in one place.
And that is in a person. In a person. For in these things
serveth Christ. That's it. That's it. It is knowing a person. We'll
never ever tire of this emphasis. This emphasis. It all comes down
to this. It all comes down to this. It
is Christ in all the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation. It's
not knowing a doctrine. It is not knowing a church. It
is not knowing a denomination. Those things have their place.
it's knowing a person, a person and the liberty is known in a
person and that's our desire as we venture on through this
veil of tears for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he
that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and
approved of men