Then let us adore and give him
his right. Wouldn't it be good if just one time we could do
that? Oh, we try. We praise him. But we have never yet praised
him in the measure that is his right. But we will. We will. And actually, I think
it's interesting, Paul said, singing and making melody in
your hearts to the Lord. I say we never give him his right. From our hearts we do. It's just,
it's all mixed in with what we do in the flesh as well. But
by the grace of our God, we have been given the ability
from our hearts, our spirits born again by his grace. We've
been enabled to praise God purely and completely. And it'll be
good when we no longer, like Paul says, have to carry around
this body of death that hinders every good thing we try to do.
Now back to Romans chapter 14. Yesterday I came across a Facebook
group. I think it used to just be called
the Five Solas. In the Reformation, they had
the five solas, meaning the five singularities. And if I can remember
them all, the scriptures alone, grace alone, Christ alone, through
faith alone, for the glory of God alone. I think that's the
five solas. But they had the five solas and
the Ten Commandments. And evidently somebody who's
my Facebook friend made a comment, and so I got a notification.
I went to see what it was about. And somebody had posted. a challenge,
as it were, to show from scripture where God had ever rescinded
the Ten Commandments. Now, that question had come up
before from the same person, probably in another group or
something that I was aware of. And I'd given an answer, but
I never got a response to the answer. But among the comments, that was spoken against those
who, like me, believe that the Ten Commandments are not the
rule and guide for Christian living was this, that without
law, we don't know what to do. How do we know what's the right
thing if we don't have a law to tell us? Now, I'm not going
to spend any time much time trying to unravel the issues of the
Ten Commandments and the place of the Ten Commandments
in the life of a believer, but I will tell you this. The Ten
Commandments are wholly inadequate to guide the life of a believer.
They were written for a rebellious people, and they outline, for
the most part, just bare decency. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
That's not a very high bar to reach. When you get to the New Covenant,
the law is husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for her. Under the Ten Commandments, as
long as you didn't cheat. Now, I don't want to say anything
against that law given at Sinai. It came from God. But people
misunderstand its purpose. But we who believe, when we say
that we are not under the Ten Commandments, either as a means
to gain blessing, or as a guide for our lives, when we say that,
we're not acting as though we have no law. We do. We have a
law that sets before us a much higher standard than what you
will find on those tablets of stone. And it's the law of love. And I don't mean sentimental
love. The law of love is a law that
is impossible to keep apart from spiritual life. Now, I know that
God has given, we might call it a measure of restraining grace.
I don't want to get in a battle over words, but he restrains
people from acting as badly as they could. He restrains us from
acting as badly as we could. If he didn't do that, civilization
would be impossible. And we know that unbelievers
experience a kind of love. There's the love of husband and
wife, the love of parents for children. They have all that,
just like believers do. But the love that we are called
to in the gospel is a love that transcends even those loves. It transcends the love of spouses. It transcends the love of parent
and child and friends and all that. It transcends it because
its source is found in God himself. And it can only be expressed
by those who have experienced the love of God and love him
in return. And this love has as its most
critical aspect self-sacrifice. Now we see that same principle
active in other forms of love that even unbelievers practice. Parents will sacrifice themselves
for the sake of their children. Husbands for wives, wives for
husbands. But this love that the Bible tells believers is
to be the dominant characteristic of their life toward all, and
especially to those who are of the household of faith, this
love puts self on the shelf. I wasn't trying to make a reference
to Elf on the Shelf or anything like that, but there it was.
And it's not self on the shelf to watch everybody, it's putting
self on the shelf. We no longer, in love we're called
to no longer consider ourselves. It says in verse 1 of chapter
15, we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the
weak and not to please ourselves. Now one reason that people, some
people, I don't want to generalize too much. There are faithful
brethren who believe the Ten Commandments are the rule and
guide for life. And by the time they're done
reinterpreting them, I really can't find much fault with what
they say. But those who most loudly try to put people
under the jurisdiction of the Ten Commandments. Most of them do that because
each of those commandments, certainly the latter six, which deal in
our relationships with one another, put limits on how much we have
to do. They, like the Sabbath day, Not
because they are required by that law to set one day out of
seven aside. They like it because it leaves
six days. They think it does. It leaves
six days for them to live for themselves. They like the law
of the tithe. Not because it requires that
they relinquish 10% of their money. but because it allows
them to keep 90% of it. They see believers, that's not
the way they are taught to live. That's not what we're called
to do. Yeah, we've set aside Sunday
as the day we meet, but that's more the result of that's just
the way the culture is. I mean, if we had our meetings
on Tuesday, many of you would never be able to come because
you're off to work. Well, Sunday, at least so far,
is a day our culture at least throttles back on how much work
it requires, and so it makes a handy day for the church to
meet. 10%? I remember I got a kick out of
Tim James. He said, if this church were
ever to resort to tithing, we wouldn't be able to make ends
meet. God's people do not live under the bondage of the tithe.
But as sons of the father's household, freely give, freely give for
the support of the work of the ministry. You don't have to browbeat them
to do it. You don't have to give them incentives.
You don't have to manipulate them in any way in the flesh. I don't speak very often about
church attendance. Why? I believe those who love
the Lord and hunger and thirst after righteousness, who long
for Christ, You'll see them when they're able. Why? They want to be here. And you don't have to threaten
them that if they don't give enough, God will take it away
from them. their bigger regret, if they
have any regrets about their giving, is that they can't give
more. So you see, we're not at all,
believers are not at all under a bondage to any kind of law
that calls on us to do something other than what we, from our
heart, would desire to do perfectly. Now I know our flesh objects
to all of this. Can't change that. It's gonna
be that way till the day we die. Let me ask you this. What would you be? What would
you be if you could be anything you want to be? How would you treat your brother
or sister in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you could treat them any way
you want to treat them. If you are a believer and can get your flesh to shut
up for a minute, I'll tell you how you would live, if you could,
perfectly. spotlessly, in every way, pleasing
to the Lord. Paul said, the things I want
to do, that's not what I do. And the things I don't want to
do, that's what I end up doing. So you see, the Law and the Ten
Commandments and that whole covenant that was entered into there in
Sinai, that was a bondage placed upon rebels who didn't want to
do the right thing, and therefore they were put under a bondage
to force them. But when you come to believers,
they do not require that kind of bondage. They may need instruction. But they are not goats, they
are sheep. And our Lord said this, my sheep
hear my voice, and they follow me. This law is love, and within
the context of church relations, That is, relationships among
the various members of any given congregation. This law of love is expressed
this way. Verse 19, let us therefore make
every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. We are called to peace. In fact, the book of Hebrews
says, as much as lies within you, be at peace with all men. Believers should not be known
as troublemakers, rabble-rousers. They should not be found creating undue disturbances in
the culture. When the disciples went out to
preach, of course, the leadership of that day was opposed to what
they were saying. And they beat them and put them
in prison. And then when they let them go, they said, well,
we're going to let you go, but don't you ever preach in that
name again. And you know, I don't sense any high and haughty attitude
on the part of the apostles when they responded. They said, you
discern this for yourself whether we ought to obey you or obey
God. But the only time that they would
disobey the authorities is when the authorities required of them
that which God had prohibited or prohibited them from doing
that which God had commanded. Otherwise, they were peaceful
people. Follow after peace. Peace was the common greeting
among the Jews. Shalom. Hebrew word for peace. And it meant more than simply
when you desired peace for someone. It meant more than simply we're
not going to fight each other. It was actually wishing that
all things concerning men were at peace, well-ordered, that
they were well-supplied, that there was peace within their
mind over the issues of their own life. It was quite the greeting. And I dare to say such peace,
to be able to have that kind of peace in heart and mind, To
live peaceably among people, to be known as a peaceable person is a blessed thing. Peace, mutual edification. I remember as a kid, I'd hear
that word, preachers say, we should edify one another. And
I thought, well, whatever that is, I guess we ought to do it.
You've maybe heard of an edifice. It's an old word for a building. And therefore, when it talks
about mutual edification, it's talking about building one another
up. While we were gone, we put a
hold on our mail. and had it set up, and it all
got delivered yesterday. And I didn't even get up with
enough motivation yesterday to walk out to my mailbox and pull
out all the stuff that had been delivered there yesterday. But
I did this morning, and I came in, and I was dividing it out,
you know, between the 90% that should go in the trash and the
couple of bills that might have showed up. You know what most
of it was? And it's to be expected. I guess it was political ads. And every one of them, the main
theme was tearing down the opposition. Nobody had anything positive
to offer. So-and-so is against Iowa farmers. So-and-so is for
China. So-and-so is this. So-and-so,
you know. Of course, they just all got But those who have been born
of God, those who are believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, we
can leave off that business of tearing people down. Especially within the household
of faith. We gather like this, it's not
to tear each other down, it's to build each other up. It's to strengthen faith in one
another. The book of Hebrews says it's
good for the heart to be strengthened, to be encouraged with grace. And that should be the tone of
all of our talk with one another and all our talk about one another. First I'm just going to say talk
with one another, but then we talk about one another when we're
with other people. What does it say? Let your speech
be with grace, seasoned with salt. Let it be something good
to hear. And he says here, let us make
every effort. The word translated there, make
every effort, is a much stronger word than make every effort.
It is to pursue like the predator pursues prey. That's what the
word means. Man, I did what I could. None
of us has done everything we can under the power and grace
of God in this business of peace and mutual edification. He's saying it certainly looks
this way to me. Now, there are things, let me
make this clear, there are things more important than peace. Give you an example. Truth. Truth. Now, we're not called
to get all angry and red in the face and yelling at people that
don't agree with us, or don't agree with what we believe the
Scriptures are saying. But we will not surrender truth
in order to keep peace. However, if we are talking about
believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, the issue of truth has already
been settled. Right? If you don't believe the
truth, what did our Lord say? You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall set you free. Paul said, speak the truth in
love. So, so far as the ministry of
the church is concerned, you would say truth is paramount,
which of course that means Christ is paramount, because He says,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. So yeah, we're not
going to surrender on those matters. But in all, practically all of
the things, peace, building one another up. Now let us, excuse me, the enemy
of peace and mutual edification is self. Now, I've sometimes made the
statement, hate is not the opposite of love. And I know in some sense it is,
but I'm trying to make a point. The opposite of love is not hate.
The opposite of love is self. When we love ourselves at the
expense of others, we have failed to love, period. Insisting that things be done
my way is the fountain of all war. I want it this way. You know
what peace says? Unless it's a matter of truth,
Unless it's regarding something about which the scriptures are
clear and we are not permitted any compromise or anything like
that, unless it's one of those things, peace is to rule the
day. And that will often require us
to give up our way in favor of what someone else says. Even
if we're convinced that their way is not the most mature way. We'll get to that here in just
a minute. And building up ourselves, each of us building up himself,
usually follows the pattern of tearing other people down. Why? Well, it's a whole lot easier
to tear people down than it is to actually build yourself up. One of the things I was taught
as a kid, I was taught it so much and so well, I thought everybody
understood it. And it's this, that the person
who is always attacking others and finding fault, they do that
primarily because they, in pride, they want to be better than everybody
else, but they can't be any better than they already are. So the
only way to look better than others is to make them look bad. That's what the world does. That's
what we do from time to time, isn't it? So and so did such and such.
And while we may not be quite so plain as that Pharisee when
he prayed, I thank you, God, I'm not like other men, that
doesn't mean we never have that thought. The most common practice that
destroys this peace and mutual building up is there in verse 13. Therefore,
let us stop passing judgment on one another. Now, you'd think
that those whose sins, as many and as horrible as they are. You'd think those that had been
freely forgiven for all their sins would never cast an eye
of judgment on anyone else. But we do, don't we? That's part of that warfare of
flesh and spirit. Now, let me make clear what the
scriptures mean probably in most places, but certainly here when
he's talking about judging one another. He's not saying that
we cannot observe the conduct of, or as
we observe the conduct of other people, that it would be inappropriate
to say, well, that wasn't right. If I came up to you, let's say
I'm back there, and we're shaking hands, and you come up, and instead
of shaking your hand, I pop you in the nose instead, you're at
complete freedom to say, you shouldn't have done that, because
I shouldn't have. But that's not what's meant here
by judgment. They're talking about this. Paul's
talking about this. Making a judgment about a person's
relationship with God based upon what they do. Trying to discern the unseen
things of the Spirit according to what is observable by the
flesh. He said, don't do that. Don't
do it. You say, well, but I just can't
see how a Christian could do that. Well, I bet if we knew
everything about you, there'd be people saying, well, I can't
see how a Christian could do what you do. My old legalistic way of seeing
things. And all of us have that. Again,
it's in our natural cells. We're born with it. Religion
breeds it into us. And we're never completely free
of the idea. But the old legalistic principle,
I'll tell you this, it looks at me and says, how can someone
like you claim to be a child of God? Well, I'll tell you this, my
claim has nothing to do My claim to be a child of God has nothing
to do with what I do or what I've done. If it did, I could
make no legitimate claim to being a child of God. And yet we do that to others. We judge. Our brothers and sisters,
according to what they do, we judge them as to whether sometimes
we'll even say, well, I just don't even know if that person's
ever been saved. Or we might just, you know, maybe we've learned
not to say those words. Well, that person is in a low
spiritual state or something. I remember that from the religion
I was raised in. And I know in my first year of
Bible school, man, that place had so many rules to follow.
I mean, they were very strict. And if you had opposition, you
know, if you expressed any dissatisfaction, that's a spiritual problem. You
need to get right with God. We judge those who are outside
the faith. We judge those who are of the
household of faith. We are so prone to a judgmental
spirit that the scriptures must tell even us, stop passing judgment
on one another. I'll say this. I hope I've learned
a little bit of that principle over the years. And I can say
this, that life, at least my life, is much easier, much more
pleasant when I don't set myself up as a judge. Really? And have you noticed that the
most judgmental people are often the most miserable people? They are miserable by themselves,
and they're miserable with their people, or with the people they
are around, and the people that are around them are made miserable
by them. There is only one who can judge, and judge rightly,
and not be miserable in the process, and that's God. We judge one another because
we perceive differences among ourselves. And there are differences
among ourselves, aren't there? Look back here, or just a few
pages over, in 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Verse 7, it says, 1 Corinthians
4, verse 7, for who makes you different from anyone else? Now,
most often I've heard preachers apply that as saying to believers,
well, who was it that made you a believer and others are still
in unbelief? And that's a legitimate application,
certainly. Are you a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Don't ever look down on those
who don't believe. You didn't make yourself a believer.
God did. He worked in you to will and
do according to His will. He's the one that worked a new
birth in you which creates spiritual life and that spiritual life
expresses itself in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
believe, you can't take credit for that faith. God gave it to
you. However, that's not the point
Paul is making. He's not talking about differences
between believers and unbelievers. He's talking about the differences
among believers. And there are. If there were
no differences among believers, it would be entirely peace, wouldn't
it? I mean, you're at peace with
everybody who completely agrees with you in everything, Believers have differences. And look here in verse one, now
we're back in Romans 14. Romans 14, verse one. Gonna have to get a bigger clock
on that back wall. It's getting harder and harder
to see. Not that it makes any difference,
but. except him whose faith is weak."
Did you see that? There are differences among the
people of God in matters of faith. Now all believers have the same
object of faith. There's no difference there.
When the Bible talks about a believer, everybody believes something,
so they're not just talking about everybody that believes something.
When the Bible talks about a believer, it's talking about someone who
believes God through Christ. Peter said, through Him. Do you
believe in God? Of course, Christ is God. Nonetheless,
as the human mediator between God and men, through Christ the
mediator, we do believe in God. And yet not all believers have
the same strength of faith. There are differences in the
level of understanding. And this is something that we've
got to learn patience on. I've heard, you know, preachers,
faithful preachers. I'm not, you know, those that
aren't preaching the gospel, it doesn't matter what else they
get wrong. If you haven't got the gospel
right, nothing else matters. I'm talking about faithful men
in the gospel, and yet they set a very high bar in the
level of theological understanding that a person must have before
they can rightly claim to have been saved. And I noticed this,
I grew up, well I say grew up, through adulthood. Been around many of them for
more than 40 years. And I noticed this among some
of them. Every time they grew, shall we say, to a deeper understanding
or higher understanding or better understanding or whatever it
was, the gospel, they raised the bar up to that. Now, I think
a lot of times they did that without realizing that's what
they were doing. My thought was, well, if now
you've got to believe all of this, this has to be your doctrine
before you can say you're a believer. What were you last week before
you believe that last little bit of information that you've
added to the pile? As I've said, I told you before,
I was raised in fundamentalism, which began about a little over
100 years ago. And it started out as a set of
five doctrines, which were set forth as, these are the fundamentals
of the faith. And if you don't believe these,
you can't rightly say that you are of the faith. And of course,
it doesn't take long. As soon as they come up with
a name like fundamentalism, people will take that name as a badge
of honor. I'm a fundamentalist. Before
long, they start adding stuff to it. And I remember, and we're
going back to the, well, up through college age, because I went to
a college that would have been described as fundamentalist.
And some of the bigger lights in fundamentalism, they'd say,
well, is so-and-so really a fundamentalist? And it would be not on things
of those original five doctrines. They'd added things like, well,
they think it's OK to go to the movies. They think it's OK to
have a beer. You can't be a fundamentalist.
And everybody was in a race to see just how, quote, fundamentalist
they could become. While I was at college, the Lord
was pleased to show me What's often referred to as the
doctrines of grace goes by other names, names which generally
create more fighting than anything else. But I came to realize,
or was taught by God, that God's in control of His grace. And that's the men that I associate
with, the preachers I associate with, the ones that I bring here
to replace me like Brother Lance Heller who was here last week
when I wasn't here and he preached to you. He believes those things.
I wouldn't bring someone here unless they believe those things.
But even among them, you find them adding this and adding that
and before long, you have got such a strictly defined system
of doctrine that must be expressed with particular words, or they're
gonna say, I don't know about you, whether or not you're really
saved. And I've done some of that in
the past. Just shows you judgmentalism,
isn't it? It's just part of us. Believers have differences in
the degree to which the principles of the gospel have infiltrated
our mind or our consciousness and flipped all the switches
that need to be flipped so that we see things through gospel
eyes. For example, what we're talking
about here, let us therefore make every effort to do what
leads to peace and mutual edification. That's not natural to us, is
it? That's just not the way humans
are. If humans were naturally that way, there would hardly
be a need for newspapers, because all newspapers do is print the
bad news. And the reason they do that is
that's what people want to read about. But there wouldn't be
wars to report. There wouldn't be murders to
count. Why, if everyone lived completely
by the principle of love, there would not be any need for government. Really, there wouldn't. People
that love one another, you can trust them. But love is a gospel principle.
And it takes time. God introduces this new principle.
And from our hearts, we understand that salvation is by grace and
grace alone. Salvation comes by Christ and
through Him alone. perceived by faith alone. We
know all of that from our hearts. But that doesn't mean that we
understand how that should affect our perception of everything
else. It doesn't flip all the switches
right away. In fact, I'm sometimes just bum-fuzzled when I see something. and think,
I should have seen that long ago. Why did it take me so long
to realize I don't have to cast a suspicious eye on my brother
or sister simply because they don't come to church as
often as I think would be good. Or their personality rubbed me
the wrong way. It occurs to me maybe mine rubs
them the wrong way too, you know. Boy, when I stop and think about
this, and I'm telling you the truth here, Uncle Scott said,
I'm not preaching, I'm telling you the truth. Sometimes, when I am able to
see who I am and I think back on how I've acted over these
36 plus years together, I am amazed y'all put up with me that
long, really. And maybe you think the other
way, too. I joke, I have for years, I've joked with other
people when I go to visit and how things are going there, and
I say, well, me and the folks there at church, we've got a
symbiotic relationship. They're always afraid I'm going
to quit, and I'm always afraid they're going to fire me. So
it keeps us in line. Brethren, isn't it an amazing
thing that people with such different opinions about many things have dwelt together in peace
like this for all these years? We need to thank God for that. When I do think about our differences,
I have to say within myself, I mean I just know it to be true,
why have we been together these years? Because God, the God of
all peace, the God of all grace, has held us together and worked
in us So that we did not allow, or
he did not allow us to follow a fleshly path that destroyed
us. Now we never got very big, that's
obvious to see. But we live in peace. And I'd
rather live in peace with 30 or 40 people than have this building
full of people that argue and bicker and get upset over every
little thing that happens. Well, he said, let us not judge
one another. Believers do have differences
of opinion on matters of right and wrong. This all started with
me talking about the law, and I'm going to wrap this up quick,
try to anyway. When God saves a man, That man
will have a natural conscience in him that guides him according
to what is right and wrong. And generally, well, not generally
speaking, always, the natural conscience is not a good thing. And most often it is bound up
with rules that never came from God. Dietary rules, he mentions
that. He said in verse three of chapter
14, well, we'll go verse two. One man's faith allows him to
eat everything, but another man whose faith is weak eats only
vegetables. The man who eats everything must
not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not
eat everything must not condemn the man who does. For God, God
has accepted him. Now, we're probably not afflicted
very much with dietary laws. But remember, you know, the gospel
went out, but Paul, even when he was going to Gentile cities,
he always went to the synagogue first if there was one there.
That's where he'd start. And many of the converts to Christianity,
in the beginning, they were Jews. Now, the Jews did have some dietary
laws from the Old Covenant. And they were raised, you don't
eat pork. One of the good reasons not to
follow a Jewish religion. My years here, I've really got
to like pig. I'd hate to think I wasn't allowed to have bacon.
But they couldn't. Now, it wasn't because there
was essentially anything wrong with pigs, with their flesh. There's something wrong with
pigs, that's for sure. I tried helping a guy load them one time, the most obnoxious animal I ever
had to deal with. So I only did it once. But we
know, and Paul said that here. Verse 14, as one who is in the
Lord Jesus, I'm fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But you realize if someone is
saved and they have this thing in their conscience that certain
foods are not permitted to eat, that feeling doesn't leave right
away. Do you remember when the Lord
appeared to Peter? in a vision, in a dream, and it says out of
heaven came a sheet and the sheet was opened and there were all
kinds of four-footed beasts in there. It included some that
the Jewish dietary laws called unclean. And the voice said,
arise and eat. And Peter said, no, no, I've
never eaten anything unclean. Boy, that bacon smells good,
but I'm not eating it. And God says, don't call unclean
what I have made clean. Now, of course, that was to illustrate
that the Gentiles, you know, because Peter was sent on to
the Gentiles and officially took the gospel to the Gentiles. But
the point was, even our Lord talked about food and said, it's
not what goes in the mouth that makes a man unclean. He said,
whatever you eat, you chew it up, you swallow it, the body
does whatever it's going to do with it. And then I was listening
to Brother Tom Harding preach on this very scripture, and he
says, and you flush it down the toilet. He said, that's it. It
doesn't make you unclean. He says, what's that comes out
of a man's mouth? What makes him unclean? But if a person has a conscience
about those things. They say, I don't believe a person
should eat that. Okay. Fine. It doesn't mean he's lost. It
doesn't mean he doesn't understand the gospel. And you know what
it says we're to do? Well, chapter 15, verse 1, we
who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak. Those who for whatever reason
Time and the grace of God have come to an understanding that
through the gospel, all these things have been made clean.
God doesn't care what you eat. That never was the issue. Such a one, and that's what's
considered strong faith. Faith that has transformed the
mind. What are we to do? Well, we don't
look down on the one whose faith is weak. even if never in their
life they are able to overcome that old conscience. No. You
accept them as brethren and count them as accepted by God. Every bit as accepted as the
man whose faith is strong. And then, when you're around that person, you don't flaunt your liberty.
in front of them. I'll give an example because
he mentions a drink as well. I was raised in a teetotaler
home and a teetotaler church. And it was a teetotaler church
because they found a certain amount of righteousness in the
fact that they didn't use alcohol as a beverage. I was in a teetotaler
home because my mom was raised by an angry alcoholic and she
wasn't going to have that in the house. And when the Lord gave me a clear
understanding of the gospel, one of the first things I did
realize, and I mean I could think it through, there's no sin in that bottle. There might be sin in me, but
sin's not in things. And anything that God has made
can be used. Of course, it can be abused as
well. But the issue is not the thing.
But you know something, even though I knew it, I could think
it through. I could go through the logic of it. It took me years,
and I mean years, before I didn't You know, if I'd be around some
brethren that had no problem having a beer or something, you
know, I might have one with them, but I always felt a little bit
guilty about it. Now, I'm thankful to God I never
had a taste for the stuff. Because I'm one of those persons,
I find something I like, I like it a lot. And alcohol's one of
those things I've said, boy, you uncork the bottle, the bottle
might uncork you. Be careful with it. There's power
in it that can overpower you. But the scriptures also say that
God gave wine to make glad the hearts of men. And if a person can use it responsibly,
fine. But you know what? There can
be believers, there are believers, honest to goodness believers,
think that it would be sinful to partake of any of it. What are you going to do? Well,
what you shouldn't do is go knock on their door with a beer in
your hand. Hey, what you doing? Or if they come over to visit
you, hey, would you like something to drink? You don't flaunt that
liberty because until his mind has been changed by the gospel,
that is, until he understands that this freedom comes to him
via the gospel, through faith, until then, That which his conscience
tells him is wrong is wrong for him. That's why it says in the
last verse there, everything that does not come from faith
is sin. Now, those are just two examples.
The other one he mentions, and I'm not going to get into detail
about it, but he talks about observing days. And again, you
can see how the Jews would be about this. The Jews converted
to the Gospel of Christ. Well, he's been keeping a Sabbath
for as long as he can remember, or at least told he should. Do
you think that right away he's going to be able to cash that
off? No. Many of the people in this area,
I don't know if they emphasize it as strongly as they used to,
but they considered Sunday to be a Sabbath and then brought
all the bondage of the law about the Sabbath day into Sunday. Well, somebody's raised in that
just because God saves them doesn't mean that right away, if ever,
they're going to feel as though Sunday is no different than any
other day in the eyes of the Lord. Let them, if they want
to observe the day, fine. And also, it says, and then the
one who does observe the day is not to cast a suspicious judging
eye on the one who doesn't. Now why? Why are we to do this? Chapter
15, verse 7. Accept one another then, just
as Christ accepted you. Has Christ accepted you? All
through my upbringing I was told I need to accept Jesus. Nobody
ever told me that the issue wasn't me accepting Him, it was Him
accepting me. That's where the problem lay. Has Christ accepted you? If He
did, on what ground did He accept you? Did He accept you because you
were better than someone else? If that's what you believe, then
I can't, I mean if that's honestly what you believe from your heart,
that Christ accepted you because you appeared better to Him, then
you don't know what the gospel is, because that's at the very
heart of the gospel. Peter said, it's not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He has
saved us. Christ accepted us entirely out
of the goodness of His own heart. So much so, and knowing that
justice must be satisfied, He surrendered Himself unto death,
even the death of the cross. so that God, the judge of all,
could, his wrath would be satisfied with regard to our sin. But Jesus Christ, and God our
Father, did not look down on heaven and say, okay, I'm gonna
accept that one, because look, he goes to church on Sunday,
he's doing the best he can, he reads his Bible every day. He
did not do as some say, look down through history and saw
who would believe and chose to save them. It says, this is Ephesians 1,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, according as He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. And brethren, before the foundation
of the world, I hadn't done anything good or bad to make God choose
me. Now, you think on this, is it
not wonderful that you don't have to pass judgment
on people? That you don't have to go around,
well, they missed three Sundays in a row. I don't know how a
Christian can do that. Makes me wonder about them. We'll
see. Oh, I heard so-and-so cuss the
other day. Now, if he knew God, he wouldn't talk like that. Well,
it says that Peter denied the Lord with oaths and curses. I guess it can happen. Oh, beloved of the Lord, how
blessed you are. You've been accepted without
regard to what you do. Treat your brothers and sisters
the same way. It makes for such a peaceful
congregation, and you can begin to build one another up instead
of tear one another down. Well, I'll stop. I probably made
my point long ago. It just took me a while to be
quiet. Eric?