opportunity of Dorian and Dorian
failed the show so we're thankful we're thankful for that continue
to pray for those people who have been in the path of that
storm though it's it's an amazing tragedy an amazing tragedy we
went through the first half of chapter 14 down to verse 13 where
it says, therefore. And so let's review for just
a moment what we've seen starting in verse 1 of 14. Basically,
that there are some among us at all times in any given season
who are weak in the faith. We are to welcome them, not quarrel,
not be divisive, not talk about opinions, not divide over things
that are not necessarily essential. Of course, we do give the caveat
the gospel is an essential issue. The doctrines of Christ are essential. But even then, sometimes people
can have error that come in. We need to be patient, loving,
as we correct them. We don't let that go unchecked. But that's not necessarily what's
in view here. It's about opinions over how
a person should act, live, eat, what they should and should not
be engaged with, like festivals or abstaining from certain foods
or eating certain foods. Alcohol would be in that same
aspect there. Sweets, organic foods, you name
it. We could talk, like in verse
5, Paul is saying not to pass judgment on one another and to
be welcoming even though we may have differences of opinion on
literature or festivals or holidays or movies or entertainment or
music or whatever it may be, to not Look with disdain on someone
who may or may not be doing exactly what they should be doing, or
another who may have the freedom in their conscience to do something
that you do not have the freedom in your conscience to do, but
to, as unto the Lord, live for them, not for ourselves. And
that's the aspect that we were left with. Do we despise our
brother? Look at verse 10 there, we'll
start there. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or
you, why do you despise your brother? For we all stand before
the judgment seat of God, for it is written, as I live, says
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall
confess to God. So that each of us will give
an account of himself to God. So what we learn is that when
there is error, when there are things that probably should be
dealt with, if they're not a serious issue of sin, We need to be long-suffering,
we need to be forgiving, we need to be gentle, we need to be patient,
we need to recognize we also have sin in our lives, and that
each of us will stand before the accountability of God. And
by the mercy of God, we're not going to be judged based on how
well we've done our homework. or how well we've abstained from
certain things, or how well we have recognized the seriousness
of pagan holidays, or how well we've labored in our library
of Christian literature. We're going to stand before God
and give us an account, and that account is either going to be
our self-righteousness, which will result in condemnation,
or it will be the righteousness imputed through Jesus Christ,
His perfection for our account. And in that, we hope. So this
is the foundation of how we don't pass judgment. And that's why,
verse 13, let's read together through the end of the chapter.
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer. but
rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way
of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the
Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean
for anyone who thinks it is unclean. For if your brother is greed
by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you
eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let
what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of
God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ
is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue
what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for
the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed
clean. But it is wrong for anyone to
make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat
meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed
is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself or
what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned
if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever
does not proceed from faith is sin. So, as you'll see here,
we've been given the exhortation not to pass judgment. We've been
given the exhortation to welcome one another in the Lord, even
when we see things that may or may not be quite as good or as
godly as they should be. Even if we have differences of
opinions on how these things ought to be understood and practiced,
even if we have certain convictions of our own, we aren't to pass
judgment on those who do not share those convictions and vice
versa. So it's very easy now, if we stopped here and did not
continue to hear Paul's teaching, it's very easy for us to go,
okay, we're not supposed to ever make any type of judgment. We're
not supposed to ever do anything that would cause anybody to,
you know, we're not supposed to ever say anything to anyone
about anything that they may or may do or think or observe
or whatever. And that's not necessarily the
case. And so we see other places where we are supposed to what?
Speak the truth in love. We see other places where when
we see our brother or sister in sin, We are supposed to correct
them with gentleness. Those who are spiritual should
correct the brother. As we see John exhorting in his first epistle
that those who are spiritual should go and correct the one
who has fallen into sin. And so this is where we need
to really start to filter what Paul's speaking of here versus
what Paul is not speaking of here. Paul is not speaking of
obvious sin. He's not speaking of debauchery.
He's not speaking of drunkenness. He's not speaking of sexual immorality.
He's not speaking of lying or stealing or murder or hatred
or dissension. He's not speaking of these things
because these things must be approached, but they must be
approached humbly and carefully and spiritually. He's talking
about things that aren't necessarily sin. It's not necessarily sin
to eat certain foods. or to drink certain drinks. It's
not necessarily sin to observe certain holidays. It's not necessarily
sin to think certain things culturally or vice versa for the culture
to have something to offer someone that's not necessarily spiritual.
And it's difficult for us to establish how this translates
to our to our present day, but if you remember what I said two
weeks ago, we have to remember that what we had in Rome was
we had pagan festivals, and we had Jewish festivals being practiced. And so with the pagans, they
didn't need to observe and contemplate the Jewish festivals as holy
and righteous and awesome, and in the same way, the Roman people
shouldn't worry about all the festivals of Rome, or the Jewish
people shouldn't worry about all the festivals of Rome as
if they were defiled by being a part of these practices. And
that when someone had a conviction on that, I don't believe that
for me, this is what I need to engage in for my joy, for my
conscience, for my purity, I abstain. Great! Then don't judge your
brother when he doesn't. And so it takes wisdom either
way. But if we left it there, it would really just put it up
in the air. How do we then judge? Well, I think we judge in the
whole of Scripture. I think we judge in these matters that are
sort of not as important as we think they are. And all of these,
even the food, you need to understand, is related to the festivals of
both people groups. If they eat this food that was
sacrifice to an idol, the Jewish people would say, oh, no, we're
not going to be a part of that. That's evil. Or if they saw the
Jews eating food or no versus not eating food because it was
unclean. Like pork. So you see, most of
these issues were prior conversion. They were things that were cultural
and sometimes even religious, but they weren't necessarily
spiritual. They weren't invested in the
economy of grace, in the economy of Christ, in the Christian life.
And so Paul's telling them to let this stuff go. Stop, don't
worry about it. Let it go. Don't try to mold
your brother or sister into the perfection that you think he
or she should be. But stand firm in the position
that we have in Christ, knowing that we are escaping the judgment
of God because of the finished work of Christ. We will stand
before God complete and full and whole because He has sanctified
us. And because of that, we should
not pass judgment. We should not pass judgment.
That's what he starts saying in verse 13. And it says on any longer,
do not pass judgment on one another any longer. So that means it
was happening. That means that Paul had gotten reports that
these people were dividing and physically and relationally were
having division amongst the church of Jesus Christ because they
were passing judgment on one another. They were looking at
each other in a way that was tasteless, with disdain. But instead of that, Everybody
just doing what they want to do and knowing that it hurts
each other. What does Paul say? Don't pass judgment. Don't pass
judgment on your brother or your sister because they don't see
that you have the liberty to do that. So we'll start with
that area. But rather decide. You know what that means? Make
a choice. Make a choice to never put a stumbling block or hindrance
in the way of a brother. Now what is a stumbling block?
Now listen, this is an abused text. Because I could sit here,
and I could pull out my pen and paper, and I could come up with
a list of hindrances and stumbling blocks. And I could say, you
know what, when you're chewing gum, it's a stumbling block,
because it causes me to have, you know, and everybody's got
gum, and I'm like, I don't care, chew gum. Or I could be chewing
gum, and you could say, it's a stumbling block. When you're
trying to teach, that would drive me insane to hear that. But you
can't start making that a spiritual thing. You know, James, you're
just really not being Godly because you're chewing gum while you're teaching. Well,
what if I've got a nervous tick? That's the only way I can teach.
I mean, what does it matter? I mean, the list could go on
and on, and it's this plethora of never-ending annoyances that
never resolve. And so here's what Paul says.
Never make a choice to put a stumbling block or Henderson will win a
brother. And then he emphasizes the authority through which he
says this, I know, I am confident that I am persuaded in the Lord
Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. So what's he saying
there? Now I'm going to massage this
text into other application for us because we've dealt with things
like this in our congregation. Paul is saying that there is
no food that you can put in your body that is sinful. Paul is
saying there is no type of food, there is no preparation of food,
there is nothing, no matter if it was done at a satanic worship
service and then you buy it in the market, you're not contaminated
because the food is God's creation and He made it and it is clean.
And he gives that statement to the divine authority of Jesus
Christ himself. That Christ has taught him this. Now that's bold. And if we don't
believe that, then all of Paul's doctrine is in the trash. Everything. But it is unclean for anyone
who thinks it is unclean. Alright, I see my children. All
five of my children, they've grown up differently, different
mindsets, different attitudes, different personalities, different
experiences. And then they've all been fairly
clean. You don't go outside barefooted.
You wash your hands before you eat. You wash your hands after
you eat. You wash your hands before you go to the bathroom. You wash
your hands after you go to the bathroom. All these things to stay clean.
But my five-year-old is filthy. And I was thinking about that
yesterday. I mean, she's sitting there at lunch yesterday with her hands
on the bottom of her shoe, rubbing the bottom of her shoe. And I
thought I was going to set myself on fire to purify myself. I mean, you see, and that's just
a silly example. That is filthy. That is ungodly. I mean, you know, but to her,
it's not dirty. It's not dirty and she isn't
dead yet. I don't think it's coming, but she's not dead yet.
And to me, I'm like, I've got to go dip her in bleach. I've
got to bathe myself because I watched it. I mean, it's awful, awful,
awful, awful. Awful. Get in the bed without
washing your feet if you have walked. Wear your socks in the
house. Don't get in the bed with pig-wiggled feet. You see, don't
go outside and check the mail and come inside and get in the
bed. They make flip-flops and bedroom shoes for such of that
sin. And that's, you know, to me, it's unclean. And this has
nothing to do with what Paul's talking about. But it shows you
the comparison. But to most people, it don't
matter. Oh, look at that love bug on my big toe, baby. Better
change your sheets tomorrow. I'm getting into bed. I mean,
you know. Uh-uh, that's not good. Some people have different variations
of what is acceptable and unacceptable. And I'm not better because I
want to be cleaner. Matter of fact, I say that I
probably won't live as long as people who don't worry about
this kind of stuff. I probably won't. That's probably why I
have higher anxiety than most people, because I'm thinking
about things like that. Well, if I think something's
unclean for my spiritual life, then I should abstain from it.
But if I think it is clean, and you don't, and vice versa, we
can't pass judgment on one another. Because if it is not directly
said very clearly in Scripture, this is sin, then we should not
call it sin ourselves. And Paul deals with that too.
What about the weakness though? What about the weakness? I have
a weakness. Let's just use that illustration. Because weren't
there ceremonial laws about washing your hands and feet before you
ate? Why was that the case? Because God knows all things
and created all microorganisms and microbes that kill people.
And he knows that if you wash your hands and feet before you
eat, you're likely not to die. I mean, that's really the way
I look at it. But yet at the same time, how many people are
dying because of dirty hands right now? None. Not here, not
in our culture, not in this world, but in other parts of the world,
yeah, maybe so. They don't have a way of dealing with bacteria
at all. But to me, I have a weakness. I'm not shaking hands at a restaurant
if I'm eating, you know. Thank God for the fist bump.
Whoever created that, that just gives me awesomeness. I don't
want to shake hands. I don't know where that guy's
been, coming to the restaurant, digging in his nose, scratching
his ears, scratching his rear end, getting blood bugs off his
shoes. I don't know what he's been doing.
He's going to come in there, shake my hand, and I'm going to eat my sandwich.
No, thank you. I can't deal with that in my conscience. Now, this
is silly stuff, right? Now you're getting a picture
of some of my real bad nuances. It's just there. I can't stop
it. But I can't look at this guy
and say, oh, he's a heathen. The same way they can't look
at me and say, what's wrong with that guy? He's a freak. That's okay. I'm a clean freak. Better be
a clean freak than a dirty fool. No, I didn't say that. But here
we see then, if that bothers me, and you know it bothers me
for you to pick the bugs off your toes at the table, And I've
tried to be patient. I've tried to bear with your
weakness. And you just don't get it. Oh! But I'm not going
to pass judgment because it's not spiritual issues. It's just
gross. And you know that and you sit
down at the table and you say, man, I don't have a bug on my
chew today, but let me go get one. I'll make James squirm.
See, that's the illustration. If I know it bothers you, that
I'm overly freaky with cleanliness and you sit down without washing
your hands, I shouldn't go have you wash or start handing out
Clorox wipes or spraying you with Lysol all over. That would
be good. Or put a bubble over you so you can't contaminate
the rest of the group. I should bear with you. I shouldn't do
anything on purpose to cause you angst. And that list goes
to infinity, doesn't it? I mean, it's never-ending. Just
like the list of things that bother us is never-ending, now
the onus is put on us. There are things that we know
that are about us that we should not purposely do for the sake
of just hurting somebody, especially in the spiritual conscience of
someone else. We are to be caring, we are to
be loving, but where does that end? And that's why it's instructed
for both. The one who thinks it's clean
and the one who thinks it's unclean. So the one who thinks it's unclean,
don't put a stumbling block to the one who thinks it's clean.
By being overbearing, by being judgmental, by passing judgment.
by making it spiritual when it's definitely not. And the one that
thinks it's clean, the one that says it's unclean, vice versa,
I don't even know which example. Don't look at one in disdain.
Don't purposefully flaunt your conviction at the detriment of
the other, of your brother and sister. So this is really what
it deals with. And verse 1 of chapter 15 is
a continuation, so we ought to, we who are strong, have an obligation
to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. And that's the end cap of this
entire teaching right here. We're not supposed to think about
ourselves. We're not supposed to put ourselves first. We're
not supposed to put our desires first. So if I know my desires
hurt your conscience, if I'm aware, if I'm not aware of that,
there's no problem. When you don't speak to me about
it, you can't hold me accountable for anything. And it's not your
neighbor's job to tell you about your problem when somebody else
has a problem. That's really not a problem,
according to Paul. So, it's unclean for those who
think it's unclean. For if your brother is grieved
by what you eat, you're no longer walking in love. What does that
mean? I mean, we get together in here.
I mean, think about it for a second. When we do our next Sunday meal
and everybody comes in, ethnic food, certain types of ethnic
food, certain types of seasoned food can be extremely pungent
to the nose. Y'all that have lived in the
Bay, I mean, I've seen and smelled 10 different types of cuisine
in one area. And it's tough if you're not
used to that. It's tough. We like to eat curry
at my house. Some people can't deal with this.
Like, oh, my eyes are burning. It's curry in the air. I love
it. Give it to me. And I'm just saying
this as a practical way. Some people like to wear cologne
and perfume. My mother has a reaction. Even
if it has no odor, she has an allergic reaction to the molecules
of aerosols. It's a terrible, terrible thing
to have. So scents, even if they're not smellable, cause her to have
a rash and break out and have an asthma attack. And I know
a lot of people like that. I know a lot of people like that.
And it's new for me. I'm like, hmm, that's some strong
perfume. Some people are now hyperventilating. So sometimes we're grieving people
by what we do. I'm not talking about that as
an example. I'm just, we know that we're grieving certain people.
by what we do, by what we eat, by some of the things that we
participate in. So do we then just ignore it? No, because we're
not walking in love when we ignore it. We're not walking in love
when the things that we do in our lives cause a spiritual divide
relationally with our brothers and sisters. And listen to this.
I like what he says in the 15B here. He says, by what you eat,
do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. I mean that's a
strong statement. But what you eat, whether you
can or can't eat it, don't destroy your brother or sister in Christ.
Don't tear them apart because of your liberty or because of
your conscience. Don't tear them apart because of your strong
spiritual conviction or your weak spiritual conviction. So
how do we do that? You see what Paul's doing here?
Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. He's basically saying
We need to just be quiet about these things. And if someone is too weak to
be quiet, we bear with them as an obligation. We bear with them. But that bearing is not just,
well, there goes my pork. Never again. No, no, no, no,
no. We teach them it's wrong. We correct them in love and we
bring them to that place where we can enjoy that together or
we just don't do it around them. Certain things we can't, but
there's certain things in the assembly we can't avoid. Certain
things in life that we can't avoid. How ridiculous would it
be? Well, I can't fellowship with
so-and-so because they've got this type of food at their house,
this type of drink at their house. They got this type of music on
the shelf. They got, I saw an LP of Elvis singing gospel music. Sacrilege! I mean, it is, but
just the same. See how that's silly? Friends,
I know a lot of people who have that mindset. Who have that mindset. Verse 16. So do not let what
you regard as good be spoken of as evil. See, that's where
we don't let it just rest. If we cannot say anything and
someone else says to you, you know what, because you eat that,
that's evil, that's sinful. Because you do that, that's sinful.
Because you act this way, that's sinful. Then we have an obligation
to make sure that we're not purposefully making the decision to do or
eat or say these things to the detriment of our brother or sister,
but we do not permit them to speak evil of what we know
is good in our conscience. So what does that employ? That
employs a teaching. That employs a coming along inside
and reasoning with people. That employs, in some sense,
a Socratic expression and investment in this relationship. Why do
you think that what I'm doing is wrong? Help me understand
why this is a spiritual problem. Where in the Bible can you show
me so that I can, and be sincere, Show me, lead me. Sometimes it
may take just a few hours. Sometimes it may take a few years.
But either way, we don't let people with weak consciences
overturn that which is not evil as evil. I'll give you an example. The use of alcohol. The use of
tobacco. Listening to music. You know,
I have, I can't even say friends anymore because when I went into
jazz, they dismissed me. Jazz music is evil. Look at the
lifestyle of these people that play jazz. I don't, okay. Classical music is evil, unless
it's this guy, you know. I'm serious. You don't do that. Oh, you don't send your children
to the public university. You don't, you know, we can't
be your friends anymore. We're not your brothers in Christ
anymore. If you don't have enough discernment, this is what, this
could play there. We don't let them talk about
that. Here's one that we've had throughout the ages, and y'all
probably have too. Oh, you homeschool? I can't believe you homeschool.
Or you think your children are too good to go to public school?
Or you put your children in public school? See, we did that for
six months. Huge mistake. It wasn't in Georgia. It was on the West Coast. Huge
mistake. And after three years of therapeutic progress, some
of our children were somewhat cured of their psychoses. It was rough, it was different.
Private school, same thing. I mean, I've seen it in both
camps. I see people who are homeschoolers, they're like, oh, I just can't
believe these Christians would let their children go to school.
Praise God we got Christians in schools. If it weren't for
the plurality of my family and the temporality of my movement
over the last 24 years, it probably would have been easier just to
have them stuck somewhere. But it's not a spiritual issue. It's
a conviction. It's a personal conviction. And not every Christian
is going to have the same conviction. But yet we see the circles, we
see the conferences, we see the associations. Oh no, a true man
of God would never let Caesar take his children. Caesar dead. And Caesar can't have what Christ
has purchased. But we do what we do by our own
convictions. And I'd rather not put my children in an institution.
And that is a spiritual conviction of me. But I am so thankful that
some of my brothers and sisters do. And I'm thankful that they
can. And they're not better and I'm
not better for it. It's just better for us, you
see. If someone tells me that I'm
sinful for not taking my children here, or not allowing my children
to do that, or allowing my children to participate in this, like
dance. Oh, your children dance? Oh my
God, y'all are going to hell. I mean, and that's not mocking,
that's a direct quote. Now, of course, there's some
kind of dance that you don't want your children to be involved
with. You show up to the studio and there's brass poles framing
down the ceiling. You know, there's a disco ball there and the lights
are all out. What's going on here? I mean, we don't know what
we're getting into. We don't know. The outfits are
just cotton balls. I mean, you know, you have some
wisdom, but it's not a sin. It's not a sin to play jazz. I think it's more sinful to have
Christian country. That's an oxymoron. There's nothing
Christlike about country music. And I'm joking. All of you redneck
friends of mine out there, maybe who might see this never anyway. Why? Do not let what you regard
as good be spoken of as evil. For this is an explanation for
17, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating, drinking,
but of righteousness. It's a matter of the gospel. It's a matter
of what God has done to establish His people righteous before Him.
It's a matter of peace. It's a matter of joy in the Holy
Spirit. So if I'm righteous in Christ and you're righteous in
Christ and we have difference of opinion about certain aspects
of our life together, then we celebrate those differences and
we don't allow each other to consider the other evil or sinful. We teach each other, we're patient,
we learn, we grow, we keep silent, we bear with one another. and
each other's weaknesses. And friends, we're all weak in
some things sometimes, if not all the time. It's about righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. You see why Paul institutes that
teaching there. Because the one thing that you
don't have when people are judgmental is joy. You don't have it. Oh no, they're
going to think bad of me. Oh no, they're passing judgment
on me. Oh no, they said that to me.
I mean, we've all experienced it. We've all experienced it. There's no joy in the Holy Spirit
there. But the Holy Spirit in the gospel
gives us unity that supersedes all these things. Love never
fails. It holds no record of wrong.
Somewhere along the way, the cultural I keep it real and loving
your neighbor has become conflated. Keeping it real is selfishness. Loving your neighbor is silence
sometimes. There's always justification
for personal sins and vendettas when we rationalize our lives
as more righteous than our neighbors. And there's always justification
then for direct rebellion of God. You don't know what I've been
through, pastor. You don't know how hurt I was. You don't know
how hard that was. You don't know how my conscience
bears witness. Not even thinking that their
disruption and disunity of the body of Christ is more disastrous
than they will ever experience because they fled the scene. You ever think about that? And I would say that probably
a majority of our brothers and sisters who hold to the gospel
of free and sovereign grace find themselves across this country
in a place of loneliness because of this type of judgmentalism
that has been poured on top of their heads and they had to get
away. Because you know what happens
when there's division in a group of people? The majority opinion
wins. It's like we used to always joke
early in the ministry when you'd see this church split or that
church split, it would always say, well, who got the building?
Who got the property? They were the victors. And the
ones who had the property are the ones who had the most influence
and were usually the majority. So let us be the majority of
not passing judgment. Let us be the majority of forbearing
with one another in love at the cost of ourselves. How dare we
say that we are agonizing over nuanced issues when Christ took
the full brunt of our guilt on His flesh and died on the cross.
Who do we think we are, you see? That's what needs to come here. The kingdom of God is not a matter
of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy
in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is
acceptable to God and approved by men. There's a lot there. I could do a whole sermon on
that, but we're reading through Romans. We're not relaxing through
Romans or resting through Romans. We're reading through Romans.
That's what we do midweek. It's not deep exposition. It's
quick flyovers. Who serves Christ? We serve Christ
when we serve one another. We serve Christ when our love
for one another supersedes all of these things that we feel
and think and desire. We serve Christ by being made
righteous in Him. We serve Christ by assembling
together. And we are acceptable to God
and approved by men in the way we live together in love and
unity. In the way we do not pass judgment.
And the way we, when we think of these things, now we're all
gonna think these things, right? And we just put them to death. We
just say, nope, I'm in Christ, he's in Christ, she's in Christ,
we're in Christ. I'm not gonna destroy the one
for whom Christ died because of what I eat. It's not important. And it takes wisdom. Because
the one that says, well, I just am not willing to lay this down
for weak old sister so-and-so or weak brother so-and-so, then
you're really the one that's weaker now. And if everybody's
willing to lay down what bothers them for the sake of another,
guess what? Nobody's bothered about anything. Do not, for the sake of food,
destroy the work of God. The work of God in the gospel
is revealed perfectly in the assembly of the saints who are
walking together in the unity of the faith once and all for
once for all given to the saints. The unity of the saints with
the faith, the gospel given to the saints. We don't destroy
the work of God. Because if there are people who
claim to have the spirit of God within them and you cannot see
that confession because they will not be in unity in a relationship
with you, they are under discipline and expelled from the fellowship.
Let me say that again in a different way. If we are in unity in the
gospel and we have the same spirit, then that same spirit will devour
the flesh among us so that we walk in unity together in our
relationship. And those who refuse fellowship
are expelled because they're confessing they don't have the
same spirit. If what you eat, or what you
wear, or what you watch, It's enough for me to disobey
God and hate you by divorcing myself from you. Then the spirit
that I speak in is not the spirit that you have. And this gets muddy. So verse 19 gives it a little
bit of an example, a little bit more understanding, so then let
us. Let us, together, you realize
there's no individual that Paul's talking to. Just like tonight,
when I exposit this, I'm not talking to any one of us. I'm
talking to all of us, myself included, as the words echo out
of my brain into my ears. Let us pursue And this is the
command. Let us pursue. We run after,
we long for, we go toward. Let us pursue what makes for
peace and mutual up-building. Isn't this the point? Mutual
up-building. We come to the to the gospel,
we have unity, we have a mutual Father, we have a mutual Savior,
we have a mutual Spirit, we have a mutual truth, we have a mutual
responsibility, we have obligation mutually, we are together for
what makes peace in a building, and yes, it would be a lot more
peaceable if all of you did exactly what I wanted you to do, wouldn't
it? But the problem with that is
if you all do what I want you to do, Then what about what you
want? What about what you want? What
about what you want? What about what you want? We can't all do what
we all want everyone to do. So we just have to accept us
for who we are and recognize that mutual upbuilding includes
a diverse people with a diverse opinion, with a diverse maturity,
with a diverse spirituality, but with a unified gospel in
one spirit. So do not, then verse 20, for
the sake of food destroy the work of God. Do not undermine
the gospel for the sake of these liberties, for the sake of these
opinions, for the sake of these frustrations, for the sake of
these nuances. Everything is indeed clean. Now, does that mean sexual immorality
is clean? No. Does that mean drunkenness
is clean? No. Does that mean murder is
clean? No. Let's use some common sense. We already know what is
good and what is not good. We already have been taught for
years. We have wisdom to know. But if
you think about it for just a moment, how many of the things that we
have considered sin throughout our entire lives, especially
the adults in the room, have we thought sinful just because
it was culturally sinful? Almost as though we've been raised
in the cult of the Mennonites. And it's the cult. They just think it's sinful because
we're taught it's sinful. We think that it's wrong because
we've been taught that it's wrong. We see those frowny old faces
in the deacons' meetings and we go, oh, that's probably not
a good thing. I better not tell anybody that anymore. We know what honors
the Lord with our lips and our eyes and our ears and our hands.
We know what honors and what dishonors the Lord. Clearly,
those other things are issues of conscience. It doesn't matter
their origin. It doesn't matter their intention.
If you can worship with a tree and presence, then do so. But you better worship Jesus
Christ, the living God of the Bible who created all things
and made himself a human to die in place of his people and rose
from the dead. You better make sure your worship's in line. But if you can't have good conscience
and simply by faith, then do it. And if some of you feel so
compelled to not even have a wreath on your house that grows naturally
from the ground because it reminds you of paganism, cut it down
and rest. Rest by faith that you've cut
it down by faith. Everything is indeed clean, that
which is good, of course, but it is wrong for anyone to make
another stumble by what he eats. Don't flaunt our liberties. It is good then not to eat meat
or to drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
Now we're getting out of the picture of eating and drinking
into doing anything. Doing anything. So what is it
that you could do that would cause me to stumble? How about
using small profane words from time to time I mean, you hear it all the time. You're not going to work in law
enforcement communities and railroad communities and business world. You're not going to work at the
chicken farmers and abstain your ears from profanity. And you're not gonna work in
those areas and be around those people and hear it all the time
without sometimes adopting every now and then an accidental, incidental,
oopsie-daisy word. Because it becomes habitual.
Just like me, I have an empathetic ear, so I pull the dialect and
I pull the emphasis of dialect sometimes when I'm with certain
people. Just do that. You start talking
sort of like them. In other words, you sound like
them. Your timbre sounds like them. I want them around the
real country family. I can get real country. But it's not good to do anything
that causes your brother to stumble. In other words, don't do it knowing
it causes them to stumble. You see? But at the same time,
beloved, don't be judged in your heart because you do. Don't be judging your heart because
you do. Just be careful to pay attention to what your brother's
doing and where he is and what he's thinking. And then don't
let him get away with thinking that what you do is wrong, teaching
the truth. And then one day God may set
his conscience free that you can enjoy these liberties together
without violating your conscience, knowing that you're hurting somebody.
You see? And vice versa. So here's this ping pong match
back and to constantly. It's on everybody. Nobody gets
a pass here. It is good not to eat meat or
drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
And verse 22, the faith that you have. Now this is not talking
about the gospel. This is talking about the faith
that you have in feeling clean and pure in your conscience in
doing certain things that cause your brother to stumble. Keep
between yourself and God. the faith that you have in eradicating
certain things from your life because you feel in good conscience
that they are honoring to the Lord for you to remove them from
your life. You know how many people that I have heard make
confession as if they had committed murder because they drank caffeine? And I'm serious. Pastor, I need
to be accountable. I'm trying to get off caffeine.
And I've been addicted to caffeine. I used to wake up in the middle
of the night and drink 20 ounce Mountain Dew hot on the bedside
table just to stay asleep. I mean, that's a problem. I drink
six or eight a day on top of coffee. And not only that, I
was like 9,000 calories of sugar a day. No wonder I pushed toward
300 pounds during that season of my life. It was unbelievable. So yeah, I had to get a handle
on nutrition and health and all sorts of things. But it wasn't
a sin for the rest of the people that hung around me to drink
Mountain Dew and I wouldn't go... But you wouldn't be, you'd be
surprised the number of people who I just need, I need accountability. Great, you need accountability
because this is something that you and your conscience, you
think is good for you and good for you spiritually and good
for you health physically, good for your marriage, good for whatever
it might be, whatever it is you're trying to abstain from. Awesome.
But then when that guy turns around and says, you know, I
thought you were stronger because now I see you drinking caffeine. That's not a spiritual issue.
It may not be a wise thing to do. Gobble down sodas like crazy. That's not what they were intended
for when they first were created. But now it's like the mainstay
liquid of a lot of people. So the faith that you have, keep
between yourself and God. If you feel convicted on something,
great. Live it out. But don't try to impose it on
someone else. That's what Paul's saying there. Because you talk
about cults. When you see a congregation of
people who all act the same, dress the same, sing the same,
look the same, live the same, children are all the same, everybody's
doing the exact same thing, reading the exact same book, same curriculum,
same this, same that, all the way around, that's a little bizarre
to me. Because heaven's going to be
a manifold experience of cultures and diction and all sorts of
things. The body of Christ is a blended
community, not just in ethnos, not just in race, not just in
culture. It's going to be a blended community
in a lot of things. The faith that you have with God, keep
between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no
reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. You see,
and I've got ahead of myself, I've already said that. You've
got to be willing to recognize, not willing, you've got to be
able to recognize if what you're doing is truly an issue that
you have a liberty in your conscience. If you feel threatened because
someone may know that you're engaged in something, you are
sinning by doing that. I'm going to say that again. If you feel in your conscience
that somebody's going to find out what you're doing and they're
going to judge you, then you are sinning by doing that activity
because your conscience is not free. It bears witness to the
fact that you are already passing judgment on yourself by the idea
that someone else may judge you for it. So stop it. And that's tough. Because in
our day, my goodness, the list could be long. That's why we
have to discern. That's why it needs to be, listen to this,
it needs to be more in tune with what we are as a body experiencing
within ourselves, not what the world thinks. Not what our pagan
neighbors or pagan family or unbelieving friends think. What
do we know about the gospel? And what do we know about the
grace of God? And what do we know about our conscience? And what
do we know about our brothers and sisters who are our family
of faith and how they view us in these areas? That is our first
priority. And that alone is our first priority.
And our second priority is that again. If we are to mold ourselves
after the inclinations of a community of unbelievers, then we are never
going to be at peace. Never going to be at peace. So
blessed is the man who has, blessed is the one, Psalm 1. Blessed
is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for
what he approves. If you approve it by faith, walk in it. Don't
flaunt it to hurt your brothers or sisters. but walk in a good,
clean conscience. I mean, I recently looked at
something over the weekend. I'm like, wow, I wonder what
this is all about. And I could not bear 30 seconds. Because
I'm thinking, oh, that's good information, but the context
is terrible. I cannot bear it. There are some
things that, and guys, I can bear a lot. So you can imagine
the crudeness of what I heard. Political commentary, just to
give you an idea. YouTube is not censored. AM radio is. What's this guy
think about? Hey, I wish I never knew. But yet, some people can listen
to that, don't even sweat it. Yeah, that's a good idea. Man,
it's got a filthy mouth. Good idea, good idea. Me, not
me, not for that. Some of you, may even be worse.
I'm not even going on YouTube. Good. You're not missing anything. You're not missing anything.
You know what you don't know you're missing? It's what you
haven't seen. It's what you haven't experienced. It's what you haven't
felt. What you haven't tasted. What
you haven't seen. Whoever doubts is condemned if
he eats. Because the eating is not done
from faith. You don't have faith to say, okay, I know that I am
at peace with God with this. But see, here's what I see a
lot of times on people who don't have a clear conscience about
what they're doing. They go, you know, I know God's
a God of mercy. He forgives everybody. We're all sinners. Don't judge
me. That's not a clear conscience.
You got it? That's not a clear conscience.
That is a convicted soul. I know that somebody right now
is judging me and I'm fine with it because it has no bearing
on me. And now that I know that they're
my brother and they're passing judgment, they're weak, I'll
be strong and I'll hide this from their view. I will not participate
in this for the sake of the one for whom Christ died because
it's not a matter of food and drink and movies and music. It's
a matter of what? It's a matter of righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Because really, at the
end of it all, that's what matters. Four, whatever does not proceed
from faith is sin. I'm going to read my Bible. It could be sin. See, now it
takes a whole new turn, doesn't it? The car that you were driving
so peacefully down the road just went into the ditch and it hit
head on a tree. Spiritually speaking. How can it be sin if I read the
Bible? What's your motivation? What's
the outcome of your experience in the Scripture? What are you
thinking you're going to gain? You know, the Lord's going to
be proud of me. I got my little devotion on. I mean, you see, that's not
from faith. I'll show that guy for chewing
that tobacco. That's not from faith. I'll teach
that church to not tithe and pay for that youth ministry.
Turn to Malachi 3. I mean, you know, that's not
from faith. It's not from faith, it's sin.
If we aren't resting in the sufficiency of the gospel of grace with a
clear conscience in everything that we do, then those things
that don't, those things that cause us to be grieved in our
conscience, we should pause, we should pray, and we should
ponder if we, three Ps, that comes so easy, we should ponder
if these things are actually perfect in our lives for the
sake of God, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of our soul,
for the sake of our joy, for the sake of our unity as a body.
And so we need to put others before ourselves, and we need
to be at peace with what we do in our lives. And when we're
not at peace, if we can't discern, we need to get counsel. We need
to have counsel. We need to ask our brothers and
sisters to show us in the Word of God where we can have peace
in this, in life. And friends, you know it goes
beyond what we eat or drink or look at or do, you know. And
I know people are going to, Antony and Antony, he's saying you can
listen to filth and watch filth and eat filth and drink filth.
I haven't said that. So people who say that are just
liars from the mouth of Satan himself. I've never said those
things and we've already gone through Romans 6, 7 and 8. We
know what the Bible says about sin and we know we are to put
to death the flesh, which is dead in Christ. And we now who
are in Christ, Christ is in us, the new man, the Holy Spirit.
We are regenerate. We are pure. We are righteous.
And nothing we do or don't do is going to affect that righteousness
or that peace we have with God. But beloved, if we're not clear
and clean in our conscience on these things, we need to spiritually
assess them. And the first part of that is
not passing judgment on those who don't agree. And that's where
Paul lands it right there. Let me read the first seven verses
of 15 as we close. We who are strong have an obligation
to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let us each please his neighbor
for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself,
but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell
on me. For whatever was written in former
days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through
the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope, a prayer.
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live
in such harmony with one another, in accord with Jesus Christ,
that together you may, with one voice, glorify the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another
as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. That's the
close of this teaching, and we'll deal with it next week. Let's
pray. We thank you, Father, that we do not have to discern what's
expected of us. that we don't have to worry and
fall prey to fear and guilt and condemnation. But Lord, that
we stand knowing truly that there is no condemnation for us because
we are in Christ. And Father, I thank you for that
abounding love and that abounding mercy. And I pray, Father, that
as we leave our gathering tonight, that we would go into our lives
and go into our homes and go into our day tomorrow with that
wonderful, just wonderful peace, knowing that the gospel is sufficient
and powerful and we are not ashamed of it. We're not ashamed of it.
And so in that gospel, Father, because of your work in Christ
that you've completed and secured for us, we desire to have liberty
with good conscience but not at the cost of one another. So
give us discernment and wisdom in order to live as Christ lived
with the mindset of Christ that he did not please himself but
laid his life down for those sinners for whom he died. which
we are counted in His name. Amen.