And those of you who know, we're
going to, our next reading of is going to be Galatians. And
just to distinguish the difference, this is exposition, but it is
extremely quick exposition and it is block, block, block. It's not something that just
Like if I were to teach this on a Sunday morning and we were
to slow down and we were to take every theological principle,
every phrase, every proposition that's necessary and expand it,
it would be years and years and years and years and years. I'm
even going through John's Gospel a lot quicker than I probably
should have. but it is sufficient. So there
are things that I've looked back over and when I get to later
sections I'm going to go through them again a little bit in detail
as we pick up. But tonight we're in Romans 14.
Let's read together through verse 12 and then we'll talk about
it. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him but not
to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat
anything while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not
the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not
the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God
has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment
on the servant of another? It is before his own master that
he stands or falls. and he will be upheld for the
Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as
better than another while another esteems all days alike. Each
one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who
observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. The one
who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to
God. While the one who abstains, abstains in the honor of the
Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself,
and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the
Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we
live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end,
Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of
the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your
brother? Or why do you despise your brother? For we will 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 then, each of us will give
an account of himself to God. Let's keep going. Therefore,
let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather
decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way
of a brother. I know that I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that
nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone
who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved
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."
I will probably not get through all of this, but I will touch
on all of it tonight. Because it is one thought. It
is one continuation of thought. We saw in chapter 12 where Paul
begins to point the gospel into a consequence. He starts to point
it into a place where now, because these things are true, because
God has done what he has done in Christ for his people, we,
the elect, now we see that it is all for his glory. And furthermore,
then, we should live in a manner worthy of the calling of God.
We should live in a manner worthy of the glory of God. We should
live together in intimacy in a manner worthy of the glory
of God. And so by doing, we give glory to God. We give praise
to God. People are intimate and growing in their knowledge. of
this truth. So we need to love that which
is good and abhor that which is evil. It's a clear teaching. We don't love the world or the
things of the world, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
the pride of possessions. For these things are not of the
world, as John would say, but are not of God, but are of the
world. And the world and everything in it is passing away. I like
to teach that to children and to young people in this manner.
Why would we go into a rotted trash can full of meat to pull
our food? We wouldn't want to do that. We wouldn't be able
to do that with our normal senses. It would be repulsive for us.
So in the same way that the world is passing away, why don't we
run into a rotting place to try to gain that which gives us sustenance
in our affections? So in that way now, we know that
we should, as long as it depends upon us, live at peace with not
just our brothers and sisters, which is mandated, but also our
enemies. We should, as long as it is up
to us, try to live in peace. This includes chapter 13, which
is the what? Which is the dealing that we
talked about last week where Paul deals with the government,
with the magistrate. We are to obey the laws of the
government as they are under the authority of Christ and His
Word and as they are honoring to God. But even when we disobey
those illegal or immoral laws, we are also understanding that
we are subject to the sword of the government. But for the most
part government in its picture and its purpose is to hold the
sword to keep good what is good and to praise that which is good
and to be a consequence for evil. So we as Christians then are
to be subject to the magistrate as unto the Lord. And then also
we are to not be indebted to one another. We should give freely.
We should pay taxes. We should not worry about the
things of the world and we should not walk as the world walks in
orgies and other places of darkness. We should walk properly. We should
not quarrel. We should put on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we should make no provision for the flesh in order
to gratify its desires. And the desires of the flesh,
which is why I interjected 1 John 2, 15-17 about do not love the
world, the desires of the flesh are manifold. For some of us,
there are some very deep, dark, and devilish things that we might
be tempted by. But for others, it may not be
necessarily things that are bad in and of themselves, like we
see Paul talking in chapter 14 about what someone may eat. It
is not wrong in itself to eat X, Y, Z, but when we do it blatantly
to exercise our liberty at the cost of our brother or sister's
conscience, we are doing that which is evil. We're desiring
that which is evil, which is not evil in itself, but it's
a desire to do evil because we are not considering our brother.
Now see, this is a very convoluted truth. The doctrines here that
are found in Romans 14 are extremely abused. They're abused in a lot
of ways. They're abused by legalists because
they want to see things their way. They're abused by people
who aren't legalists. They're abused by antinomians.
They're abused by every iteration of people all over the place,
from true gospel believers to false gospels. They're abused. And people will take the scripture
and twist it and make it work for themselves so that they can
get their own way, all aware of a weak conscience or what
they would think is a spiritual strength, all the while being
weak. Here's a newsflash for you. Those who think they're
strong are actually weak and those who think they're weak
are probably strong. The people who think they're super spiritual
are really the weak Christians. The people who think they have
the end run on what is awesome and perfect and good and if you
just follow their example, they're the ones who we have to bear
with. They're the ones. But friends,
this flies into all this teaching here in Romans 14 flies into
the face of the American way. It flies into the face of individuality. It flies in the face of self-preservation. It flies in the face of everything
because what it says is no matter what we do, everything that we
do in our lives and everything that we are and everything that
we have is subject to how it helps and edifies our brothers
and sisters. Everything. From our clothes, to our money,
to our time, to our abilities, to our talents. Everything we
are. We are living in a place and a culture that's antithetical
to the gospel. It's antithetical to proper ecclesiology. It's against the norms of spiritual
life. And we always wonder why it's
so hard in America for there to be true church, and for there
to be true worship, and for there to be truth. It's because it
goes against the American way of living. And in that, we have
to come to a settled state. We have to look at what this
is teaching. James Tiffins needs to understand that though I have
many things and many hobbies and many interests, if those
things get in the way of your life, then those things need
to go out the window. We see it in marriage to a better
degree. Sometimes people would say, well,
if this hurts you, then I'll put it down. But moreover, we
see the opposite. We see the opposite. We see wives
telling their husbands, I don't care what you want because I'm
not doing that. I'm my own person. We see husbands telling their
wives the same thing. I'm going to do what I want and
get what I want and give how I want to give and act how I
want to have. Like the Addams family, I do
what I want to do and say what I want to say and live how I
want to live and play how I want to play. And that's antichrist. It's antichrist. And yes, there
is this place in our lives where we have to think about self-care,
we have to think about self-preservation, we have to think about, you know,
bathing and feeding and preparation for the future and planning for
tomorrow and wondering what's going to happen in our own household,
because even a pastor, if he's not managing his own household,
he needs to get that in order so that he can manage the household
of God, because it's directly related. But it doesn't mean that we do
one in lieu of the other. So as we're able to take care
of our own bodies, see, this is what Paul talks about in marriage
in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5. And then later in other places
of the scripture, where as our own bodies, we take care of it,
we nourish it. We preserve it. We deal with
ourselves in a way that we're not starving or dying or sick.
Then we extend that out to our spouses and to our household
and to our children and to our immediate relatives and to our
neighbors. So much so that we should understand that that is
a small picture of an eternal reality of what Christ has done
for the church. At the cost of His own body,
at the cost of His own glory, at the cost of His own esteem,
He laid Himself down for the sake of His church, of His body. I don't even like to use the
word church anymore. Of His body, of His sheep, of His beloved,
those that have been given to Him by the Father before the
foundations of the world, that He died for them and died in
their place, that they might be the righteousness of God,
the enemy of Christ, or the people that He died for.
those that He loves, those that the Father has given Him. And
so as we see all of this unfold, that's why it's very important
that we keep it in context. We keep Romans 14 and these teachings
in context of the rest of the chapters of the whole of the
letter because it is a letter. It is not a bunch of individual
little things being taught. It is a letter written at one
time to be read and understood in the fullness thereof. so that
we learn and act in a way that the scripture calls for. So let's
look at this. Let's look at this and look at
both sides of the coin as we open this up and may the Lord
grant me the wisdom to be able to express this the way the scripture
shows. So we do all things. We put on
the Lord Jesus. We do not quarrel. We have intimacy
together in the gospel so we do all that we can to be at peace
with one another As for the one who is weak in faith, the Bible
says welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. Now let
me show you something. This is an example where people
would say, oh, you're just weak in faith. You're weak in faith
because X, Y, Z. Well, we don't get to decide
what weakened faith means. The context of Paul's writing
of God's Word decides what weakened faith means. And he says right
there, if one is weak in the faith or weak in faith, you welcome
him. That means you embrace him and
you give him the shirt off your back and you die for them because
they're your brother in the Lord. And I'm using that gender neutral
there. Brother, sister in the Lord.
They're your sibling in Christ, and if they're weak in faith,
you welcome them. And you welcome them, and this
is where people really mess up. What's the context there? Not
to quarrel over opinions. And you wonder why I spent an
entire night machine gun firing through Jude. Because this is
the verse that a lot of people go to. Well, this is a weak brother
in the faith, but I've got to correct that crud. No, you don't. Shut your mouth. Let your weak
brother be weak while you be strong and keep your mouth shut.
Teach him. Admonish him. Encourage him.
Teach him the Bible. Don't quarrel over his opinions.
Well, he's got a bunch of opinions, but if you're going to quarrel
over the opinions, then you're just as opinionated as he is. Who's the
teacher? God the Holy Spirit or James
Tippens? It better not be me or y'all are in big trouble. Expositing the Word of God is
exposing what it actually says in its context in a language
that we can understand. We don't need doctorates and
we don't need all this years and years of wallowing through
commentaries and someone else's experience in the Christian faith
in order to understand the simplicity of what is head right there.
Do not argue over opinions with your brothers and sisters who
are weak in the faith. Let them be welcome in the Lord
Jesus. And then as God has commanded
and ordained you by the power of the Spirit, only then, under
the subjection of the elders of the church, with the authority
of God's Word, are you allowed and permitted to teach and admonish. Now see, that sounds crazy. Sounds like a cult trying to
shut me up. No, it's not. It sounds like God opening His
sovereign mouth to which we should be paying close attention. That's what the Word is teaching
them. Don't quarrel. When we feel the fire in our
belly that we got to do something to make something right, we are
not trusting in the sovereignty of God. No one who has been called
of God with that erratic emotion is called of God. Not called of God. First responders. are cool, calm, and collected
in their job because they've trained to be that way. And the
reason they go to the fire, or they go to the wreck, or they
go as paramedics, is because the rest of us will be running
around like crazy people. Screaming and yelling and hollering
and hoping that somehow we'd get it fixed. We were hitting
people with guitars trying to put the fire out. I mean, there's
a whole lot of things that we would do wrong because we have
not been trained. If we are to take the mantle
of teaching people in their error, we by God better be trained by
God. It makes sense. Makes sense. We're not to quarrel over opinions.
Quarreling is evil. Every time it happens, quarreling
is evil. Quarreling. Do not quarrel. Do not provoke. Do not be haughty. Do not be wise in your own sight. That's where I see a lot of young
pastors, myself included. I had a lot of brain stuff. A
lot of brain stuff. And unfortunately, the men that
launched me into ministry were unbiblical because they didn't
qualify me and they did not teach me. And I floated around for years
on my charisma and my ability to never forget anything. But
God soon showed me the error of that. We don't quarrel. The wise man is the one that
can keep his mouth shut even in the midst of the greatest.
Frustration. God. Creates wise men. And by the mercy of God, if he
would strike me dead before he'd make me a fool. One person. What are these opinions
here? Look at it. Context, right? Context. Well, how about somebody that's
preaching a false gospel? Listen, we dealt with that in Jude. But
even then we can't quarrel. Even then we rebuke, we correct,
and we move on. We're not going to call someone through quarreling
to come to the truth. So the context then continues.
And it's interesting to think, as some people who aren't here
tonight might listen to the sermon later in the week, and as I said
what I just said over the last few minutes, they might have
got a little haughty and frustrated. A little quarrelsome in the spirit.
Don't you tell me what I can and can't do. No, God has. And
the very thing that I said in the beginning, they've already
subjected through assumption, which is sin, what applies to
them and the very reality of their own quarrelsomeness. But now let's get to the context.
Verse 2. One person? What are we not going to quarrel
about? The opinions? Here's an example. This is what Paul's
talking about. Not which way you should be baptized.
Forward? Backward? Up? Down? Upside down? Hose them off? Sprinkle
and spit on them? Roll them through? Doesn't matter.
He doesn't bring that to the point here. But if you're going
to quarrel, keep your mouth shut. Because you're not to quarrel,
even on that. You're not to quarrel, ever. You're not to. debate, you're not to argue,
you're not to confront in a haughty way. Teach the scripture. But now let's go back to the
context. One person believes he can eat anything, while the
other person eats only vegetables. Well, the Lord showed Daniel,
why am I saying this? Because I said this before, I
used to believe this. What he should and shouldn't eat, he
shouldn't eat the king's meat, blah, blah, blah, blah, So we
shouldn't either, and I'm more spiritual than you because I
ate the Daniel diet." Well, how about because he didn't
eat meat, maybe the lions didn't want to eat him. He smelled like
a plant. They're like, I don't want to
eat this guy. He's a spinach guy. And that's a joke. God shut the mouths
of the lions. But maybe he did it because they
didn't... I'm just teasing. We know God had a purpose in Daniel's
diet. Nobody's fussing about it. The Mediterranean diet and
all this kind of stuff, I mean. But it has nothing to do with
your standing before God and it's not about honoring or dishonoring
God. Lo and behold, I think it's dumb and not wise to eat a box
of Krispy Kremes every day. But if you think you can, in
good conscience, worship God and praise Him for every sticky,
licky bite, then by God, nobody else should be able to rebuke
you. But if we love that person, we should say, So, you think
it's wise to eat that many donuts? But that's not the point here,
is it? The point here is that there's a spiritual aspect. Somebody's
seeing someone eating meat. Somebody's seeing someone eating
something else. And then that person who says
in their conscience, I'm not going to eat that stuff because
it doesn't honor the Lord. And then they look like this in their
heart toward the person who does. Well, one day they'll grow up
and be spiritual like me. And Paul says it's evil. Paul
says that's a heart of sin. Thank God for the grace of Jesus
Christ. Thank God for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us because,
oh my goodness, how many of us have never had that spirit? We've
all had it, even our children here have had it. Let's be honest. We've all felt like we got the
spiritual rollercoaster rolling upward while somebody had fallen
off the rail on something. Well, they don't have a Bible.
Shame. Well, they don't have the right
clothes. Shame. They're not praying before their
meal. How do you know? Because they don't do this. I
mean, you know. It's not the point. We don't
debate and crawl over these opinions. Let not the one, and look at
verse 3. It's powerful. It reiterates, or it's reiterated
later in the same way. Paul cuts no corners in the rebuke
here. Let not the one who eats despise
the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass
judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. That's where Josiah should have
put in a big reverb. God, God, God. God has welcomed him, so welcome
him. He may be weak in the faith.
Who's the weak one in the faith here? The one that abstains from
meat. The one that abstains. The one that has a set diet because
it's a more spiritual diet. Well, pastor, now you're really
running against the road right here. You're going to fall off
in the ditch. We're supposed to be stewards of our bodies.
Temples are the Holy Spirit, don't you know? God don't want
to live in a rundown shack. So, stop your quarreling. That's none of your business.
You see, that's really what Paul's saying there. It is wise to be
a steward of one's body. It is nice to have some physical
fitness. But there's gonna come a day
where God's gonna stop all that. He's gonna break our bodies down.
And we won't be physically fit. We're going to die, beloved,
in the flesh. We're going to die. We're going
to get old unless we die of some catastrophic disease or disaster
before we get old. We are going to change. Our hair
is going to fall out. Our teeth are going to fall out.
Our bones are going to get brittle. We're going to stop moving as
quickly as we are. I'm not talking about anybody
in here who may have reached that age already. It's going to happen. But it's
not an excuse to just be frivolous with our bodies. But at the same
time, it's not for us to think that we're more spiritual because
we don't do those things. And that's the point Paul's trying
to make. Quit passing judgment on the one that God has given
to the Son. Don't pass judgment on the one that there is now
no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Don't pass judgment. Friends,
this is one of the most frustrating realities of church life. You
ever notice that? And what's crazy is that it happens
even when it's not happening. It's happening even when it's
not happening. Because you have a family, they'll come in. They
want to be part of the fellowship. They want to be part of the spiritual
family. They don't know anybody. They don't know anything. Maybe
they recognize my face. Maybe they called me on the phone.
Maybe they talked to one of you. They might know one or two people.
Or they may just be a cold-called stranger that just popped in
one day, riding through town. Who knows? But this does not
take place in our presence, but in their heart it takes place.
So even in the hearts of some people, they are already thinking,
these people are passing judgment on me. I know they could smell
the cigarettes when I walked in. I know they saw that bumper
sticker, that cognac bumper sticker on my car. Oh my gosh, I better
go scrape it off. They want to go to lunch, I better scrape
it off. Why? Because that's what we do. So
even when we're not passing judgment and no one else is passing judgment,
sometimes we feel like people are passing judgment because
we're so conflicted in our conscience about what we're doing and we're
not secure that it's a liberty that we should take. So what
does Paul say about that? You'll see. He's talking about
that very same thing. But here's what he says. Don't pass judgment,
because you can't pass judgment on the slave of another. If the
master of the slave is approved of the slave, then who are you
to say the slave's not doing the job that he's supposed to
be doing? We are all the servants of the Lord Jesus, who is our
master, and the Lord will make the weak one stand. He won't
fall. He'll stand. And you know how
he'll stand? By the righteousness of Christ.
That's how he'll stand in the day of judgment when God would
say, he's not going to, I'm just making this a story, but God
would say, all the righteous stand and we who are in Christ
can stand. Now y'all go on over there. We're
about to get busy. And then he judges the nations
like that. Ain't no take a number in the
day of judgment. All who are standing in Christ
stand next to Him in glory, next to the majesty on high. And all
who are not in Christ are cast into eternal judgment. Immediately. The Lord makes us stand. The weak and the strong and the
strong and the weak, we stand. Another example Paul gives in
verse 5. One person esteems one day as better than another. It's funny how it's so easy for
me to overlay contemporary dialogue and debate on these issues. Well,
we ought to be worshiping it on Saturday. That's the real
Sabbath. That's the real Sabbath, but
it's not the real Sabbath, because the real Sabbath is Christ. The real Sabbath is in the gospel.
The first day of the week is when Christians get together
to celebrate Him. the Sabbath. So one person esteems
the day as better. Well, I believe Christmas is
the most holy day of the year. No, it's not. It's pagan. It's
pagan in its roots. It's pagan in its history. It's
more pagan than Halloween, believe it or not. And I can show you
that historically. But if you came in here at five
minutes till seven, you'd have heard me singing a Christmas
song about Santa Claus. And I was whistling, and I'm
like, why is there a song in my head? What is it? And sister
over here gives me the lyrics. And I go, oh yeah, I'm singing
the song about Santa Claus. Let's worship now. But some people love Christmas. Some people love to celebrate
the coming of Jesus Christ, the God of all creation incarnate
during that season. Let them worship. They do it
as under the Lord. Well, the tree is, you know,
the devil's tooth and then this and that. And I'm not mocking
people who have that weakness. It's not weak to celebrate Christmas.
It's weak to think it's sinful too. Do I do it? No. But my family does. And my children love to put a
tree up. If it was up to me, I'd burn it off. Spray it with
the water hose after it was done and then blow it up with tannerite.
But it ain't got nothing to do with it being a holy day. It's
got everything to do with it. I despise it. It's the most expensive,
ridiculously busy, aggravating time of the year. And your house
is a mess. And everybody's upset. Well,
y'all didn't come over here. Why don't you come over here? You
know what? You know where I live. Ring my doorbell. Get it. I'm complaining. But what if
somebody esteems it? What if somebody esteems this
festival? You know what really kills me
is I got Christian friends who decided a long time ago, you
know what we're going to do to really honor the Lord? We're
going to keep all the festivals of Israel. I don't think you're
keeping the festivals at all. Number one, because you are not
doing anything that looks like a bloody massacre. I don't see flies coming out
of your mouth and setting up on your table where you have
offered a sacrifice. So you're not, you're just enjoying
some little trinkets of history. But I don't think you're spiritual
and practicing pagan rituals. You know, that's the God of the
Bible and Jesus fulfilled them. Let's quit making the shadow
more important than the truth. But that's okay. I've been part
of a Seder before. I love it. Man, Robin, when we
first got married, we lived in Savannah. We were members of
the Jewish Educational Alliance. I love the culture. It was neat.
And when I lived in the Bay, I spent a lot of time hanging
out with Muslims. And every now and then, I'd catch
some of these families in the midst of some of their festivals,
and there I was, sitting on the floor with my shoes off, eating
food that I didn't know what it was. I'm thinking, I have sat myself
down in a satanic ritual. I mean, you know, that was the
first thought. I'm gonna die. I'm going to hell right now.
I can feel it. The grace of God doesn't cover this. Come to find
out what they were doing is just what they've always done for
years, what their grandparents taught them. And they were converted.
They were Christians. Oh, I'm so excited. I'm glad
that the God you were praying to was Jesus. I didn't even know
what you were saying. I mean, I was scared. I didn't
know what to do. It was a new experience for me. New experience
for me. But it don't judge them. I don't
judge them because they still have certain things hanging in
their house. It's like I don't judge anybody when I go in their
house and I see Uncle Billy on the wall knocking on the door.
Revelation 3 on the bottom of it. Let me in, I want to save
you. Uncle Billy, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus from Kentucky. We don't pass judgment. We don't pass judgment because
people will esteem another day and somebody is fully convinced,
each one is fully convinced in their mind. Those people who
are fully convinced that it is sinful to celebrate Christmas,
it would be sinful for them to celebrate Christmas. I think
it's sinful to celebrate Easter in a like manner. I don't do
it. I don't make much of that season.
Why? Because I think it's silly. When
churches change the schedule, change the decor, change the
music, change the focus, change the preaching, change everything
for a day on the calendar. Silly. I'm not a big birthday
guy either. But if you wish me happy birthday,
I had to find out how you knew and then remove it from social
media, you see. I changed my birthday years and
years ago on Facebook to a date that wasn't my birthday. And
I got all these exciting happy birthdays in the middle of nowhere.
And I thought, what in the world? I had forgotten. I had to go
change it again. So we observe it, we don't judge them. The
one who eats, the one who eats anything he wants, he eats in
honor of the Lord. The one who abstains, abstains in the honor
of the Lord. So the one who eats and has the liberty of conscience
to eat is not thinking about all the things that you may be
thinking about or someone else may be thinking about that's
not something they should be doing or something that might
not please the Lord. Paul was saying, let's be quiet,
let's cheerfully welcome them in the faith and let's realize
that we're probably the weaker brother or the weaker sister
and we need to just praise God. I wish it was written in scripture
somewhere. A social addendum to the laws of Christ about how
people should eat at a table. How they should put their food
in their mouth and keep their mouth closed while it was chewed.
And how they should wash their hands before they come to the
table. You know what I'm talking about? Emily Post. Isn't that her name? The old etiquette woman. It might
not even have been post. It doesn't matter. I wish there
was a section of scripture that had that in there. See, I told
you. Don't come to the table acting
like a heathen. It's ungodly. It's the same stuff. It's the
same stuff. What do you think we're supposed
to do if we can't even get along with differentiating opinions
on how we should eat and what we should worship, I mean, what
we should celebrate? It's not an issue of spiritual
immaturity or lack of knowledge. I have artifacts that I've had
through the years that my great-grandparents gave me that their parents found.
I have a lot of family that through the years have traveled in World
War I, World War II, all across the islands of the Pacific. And
I've got little artifacts. And I know full and well that
one of those little statues is probably some kind of little
god. And I've tried for the longest to find out if it's valuable
so I can sell it. But right now it just sort of sits up there
on my shelf right next to my Geneva Bible that's open but
not touching because I don't want to taint it. Right next to my Kung Fu certification
from Master Rose. Right next to a rag that has
a cross on it with a triangle and a circle and a square from
a secret society that I was part of in middle school. where I
make commitments to the Lord for the work of the ministry.
That's when I first told God I would answer the call of the
ministry. And then I lied to Him and I tried to get away from
it. I have all these things. They're
nothing. God's gonna destroy them. And if I'm sitting there
one day and I look up at that stuff and I go, you know what,
that really just troubles my spirit, and I throw it in the garbage, that's
good for me. And if I don't throw it in the
garbage, that's good for me. And if you sit and you go, what's
that devil thing up there? What's that pentagram thing with the
cross in it? Oh, I don't know about you being a teacher of
the word anymore, man. You got some crazy stuff in here. You
ought to see the magic tricks. You ought to see Max Maven on
some of the old books I have. You know Max Maven? Look him
up. Tell me who you think he looks
like in your own culture. Now, there's none of our young
people listening now. I'll give you 30 seconds. That was taken away from me as
a kid. Oh, this is the devil. He looks like the devil. He looks
like Count Dracula. Show it to the adults in the
room here. You know, Max Maven. Magician at large. If you were
to dig through all that stuff and you'd find the Max Maven
face on a book and the, oh, what's the devil doing in the back,
in the pastor's thing? Right next to the book on the
occult, right next to my grandfather's books from the Masonic Lodge.
Yes, I have them. I keep them. I look at them.
When people call me about that, I have strong convictions against
that kind of stuff. Because what they write in their
books is opposition to the gospel. There's a difference. But I have
the books, just like I have every book on the bottom shelf on the
left side of my library that the Kingdom Hall, that the Watchtower
Society has ever printed. I have every book, not every
iteration, but a volume of all their teaching, of all their
apologetics, of all their literature for children. Because they ring
my doorbell, I've got their stuff. We want to show you this. I've
already got it. Come in and let's look at it.
Let's look at my Bible. Let's look at your Bible. We don't judge one another. You
don't know why I do what I do or have what I have or say what
I say. And I don't know what you're doing. I don't know how
you're celebrating. I don't know how you're giving thanks. I'm
not going to pass judgment on what I think you're doing or
assume you're doing and you're not going to pass judgment on
me and vice versa. Because we're giving thanks to
God. If someone opens presents at the
foot of a Christmas tree, and they open up the Bible and
they preach the gospel for an hour, or they just get on their
face and they praise the Lord for the advent of the Son who
came and died for the sins of His people. It doesn't matter
that you have to go hire a U-Haul to throw away the garbage at
the end of the gift wrapping. They praised God for it. And I'm very suspect of churches
who have this vein running through them. There are people in our
congregation who despise holidays and would rather die than celebrate
one. That's why I would never, ever
decorate this building for any holiday. Because if I did, it'd
probably be some Star Wars theme. All right, all the teenagers
can do whatever. I mean, you know, you'd have
Yoda up here floating. I mean, it'd be something weird.
And if all the little girls, you know, it'd be Hello Kitty,
which is probably satanic. I don't know. It's gotta be satanic. They make too much money on that
stuff. Hello Kitty's were around when I was a kid. What lasts
that long? And the list goes on and on and
on. How about what we read? Oh, you're reading fiction. Man,
that's terrible. That stuff is, that stuff, fiction. Okay. Is it? Is it terrible? People have strong convictions
on these things. Don't judge someone based on what they read.
And there are some things we shouldn't read. We got wisdom
to know the difference. We know what is debauchery. We
know what is sexually immoral. We know what we should and shouldn't
look at and we shouldn't read. We don't have a license to just
openly sin. Oh, I know that's evil, but man,
look at this. This is a cool story. But even
then, there's an edifying way to encourage somebody in the
faith in those circumstances. I mean, I personally, loathe
Christian-themed science books. I loathe them. Physics was my
backup plan if surgery didn't go well, and then God put me
in the ministry. And I've read Christian physics
books, and I'm going, let me gag, you see? But yet, apology,
good stuff. Let's do it. Does it matter?
No. Give me somebody who's got a
PhD in physics, who's taught at Cambridge. That's who I want
to learn physics from. And the Bible will give me a
worldview in order to look through that lens rightly at physics. But if you want to use Christian
physics, you want to use it, Becca, you want to use it, more power to you,
great. We did. Wouldn't do it again. That's just one subject that
I'm very keen on. Something else. What do we do?
What about people who, I don't know, go to the movies? What
about people who have pictures in their house with their family
or their dead relatives? You know, in some cultures, that's
an offense. It's considered idolatry. Oh, I remember grandma. I mean,
I loved her. Look at that picture. I love her. I love her. Boy, do we not
live in an age of idolatry then if pictures are idolatrous? Can
we be idolaters by looking at pictures? Yes. And I'm not making
light of that. I'm just saying, why are we judging
one another? Just because I don't have pictures all over my house
and you do and vice versa, we should not make judgment on one
another. We should never do that. And then we should not have dogma
spilling out of our lives to say what is better for the Christian
versus what is not better for the Christian. We tried Latin. We couldn't talk
to anybody. So my younger children don't
know it like my older children did. Like you probably do. Come on, let's go, let's go.
You see? And I remember thinking back when I was first introduced
to the Trivium, oh, this is God's way of educating. And it really
had nothing to do with God. It had everything to do with
the philosophers of Greece. So, who's the sucker now? I mean,
you know, I was the guy that was deceived. And does it matter?
No, it doesn't matter at all. The one who eats, he eats in
honor of the Lord. The one who gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains
in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us
lives to himself. This is what I said in the beginning.
None of us lives to himself. And none of us dies to himself. For
we live, we live to the Lord. And when we die, we die to the
Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. We
belong to Christ. And one to each other. So in
that way, everything that I do is done with you in mind, and
everything you do is done with me in mind, and vice versa, and
all around. And so when we see there's something we can learn
from each other in this context, and the first thing that we learn
is that we are all different. We are all different. That's
why, you know, years ago when I found associations of ministries
and churches and pastors who were so like-minded that we could
almost just type out our sermons and just pass them out to everybody.
And the practices of the churches, they're all the same, the liturgy's
all the same, and the focus is all the same, and the integrationism
is all the same, and everything's all the same, and we all look
pretty good. And then, you know, you get to one of their fellowships
and you're thinking, I am out of place. I'm out of place. So don't pass
judgment on them for being so together that they look like
one person. And don't pass judgment on me that I have the liberty
to be a little bit different. And every now and then I might
wear a hat in the pulpit because I forget to take it off. And then when
I realize that, my hair's a mess. And I just don't want y'all to
see that. It's just being silly. Don't ever wear a hat in the
house of God. Good. When you find this house, let me know.
I'll make sure to take it off. I'm wearing a hat on the temple. I think we need to spend more
time dealing with the focus of learning the gospel and growing
in grace, and we do need to worry about how each other are living
their lives on these simple things that are not necessarily commanded
or not commanded of us. And that's what Paul is trying
to say. And why would he bring it up? Because it was happening.
Imagine the conflict. Look at what we've got. We've
got a pagan culture and a Jewish culture. colliding as one body. And then you've got the Passover,
and you've got all this, and these Jews are walking around,
they're dressing funny, they're talking funny, they're praying funny,
they're doing all sorts of things. But they've been closer to God than
these pagan people, but all of a sudden now they realize that
they were exactly far apart. They were completely lost, and
it was only in Christ who brought them above the veil. Because
getting close to God is not with Him. And so now we've got these guys
that probably Hey, you know what? It's the Festival of Artemis.
So I don't have a problem with that. I passed judgment in my
mind right then on 2,000-year-old people that are dead now. I don't
think I'd be going to the Festival of Artemis. They almost killed
Paul and the apostles that day. Remember? In Acts? Great is Artemis
of the Ephesians. They said for several hours they
were screaming about how great Artemis is. What happens to this guy, this
couple, this family? They're in Christ, they're in
the church. Where are y'all going? After church, we're going to
go to the Artemis Festival. It's good stuff there, great
things. I mean, neat shirts, got some
banners we're going to buy. It's going to be real fun. Aha,
that's terrible. You see? Once you go to that
bloody massacre remembrance, the Passo, where everybody died.
I mean, how many kids did your God kill? I don't want to have
anything to do with that. At least Artemis just dropped
a rock in her hole. She's not even real. Well, isn't that great?
We can have fun. Make-believe. It's not Marvel
Universe. Greek gods, Marvel Universe, same thing. And I'm
not saying we can worship false gods, but I'm saying this is
the implication here. There were people from mixed
places in life who had a lot of different traditions that
the gospel did not mandate that they just bleed out all of a
sudden. But the gospel did mandate that everybody tend to themselves
and quit passing judgment on one another. Yes, it might be
wise to not be found at a festival like that. But let me tell you
what, if this city throws a festival and there's 5,000 people standing
out here on this street, I'm going to be out there. And I'll
share the gospel 150 times in an hour. I'm not handing out
a track, turn or burn, none of that garbage. You know, you want
to go to heaven? Too bad. I mean, you know, that
kind of stuff. Or fake $20 bills, and they're like, oh, look at
there. Disappointed? You won't be if you accept Jesus. I mean,
we're not doing those. I had a stack of those one time when
I was in high school. They were so cool. I dipped them in tea,
put them in the back of the car to make them look real brown,
and just throw them all over the place. In New Orleans, I
would do that on the boardwalk. And I'd have a reel, and I'd
go to pick it up, and I'd, meh, and they'd have to come to me
to get it. Anyway, surprised I didn't get thrown in the bay
or the Gulf. For to this end, look at verse
9 and we're done, for to this end Christ died and lived again
that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead. So then
why do you pass judgment on your brother? See, we're not talking
about gospel differences. We're not talking about doctrinal
differences where people are denying the finished work of
Christ. We're not talking about people who are not born again,
who are coming into the church. Jude takes care of that. That's
how we deal with that. When we find that those who come
in under false pretenses and then they begin to become anti-gospel,
then we can deal with that as well. But right here, we're talking
about nuances that may seem to us in our culture extremely important.
But to Paul, the most important thing is that they not divide
and quarrel over things that God will work out in his time
for his purposes. That's the truth. That's the truth. Because when
it's all said and done, why do you pass judgment on your brother
or you? Why do you despise your brother?
Because see, that's what it ultimately ends up being, isn't it? Well,
I can't fellowship with them or I can't be with them. They're
not as righteous as me. They're not as pious as me. They're
not as reverent as me or vice versa. Those people are too pious. Those people are too holy. Those
two people are too reverent. And don't take doctrine from
the words that I use, but that's our vernacular today. Because in the end, we will all
stand before the judgment seat of God. As I live, says the Lord
God, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess
to God. So then each of us will give
an account of himself to God. So if that thing that I do that
may or may not be quite as wise as I should, as long as it is
not completely clear and blatant sin as given in the epistles.
We are to mind our business and love one another and encourage
one another in the faith and recognize that I may be weak. But I will answer to God and
he will judge me according to my weakness. Unless I am a brother and he
will judge me according to the perfection of Christ and I get
a pass for my weakness. God does not see my weakness
as sin. So we shouldn't either. And I think that's the heartbeat.
And then the next section of verses, these next few verses
here, therefore, and I'll segue into this and then we'll close.
Let us not pass judgment on one another any longer. But rather, Decide never to put
a stumbling block or a hindrance in way of a brother. So this
is what we this is what we see. And I'm going to use and I'm
going to use a comparison right now that happened to us in our
lives years ago. Certain literature, very well
written literature that some people have a very harsh aversion
to. And someone was at our house
and they saw them and their nose turned up. I'm surprised that
the boogers didn't come out. The nose turned up and I'm like,
what's that on the shelf for? Hey, hey, y'all read this? And
so what this next section of scripture would be is, I'm not
gonna be offended by that, though I have the liberty to read that.
And it's not, some people are thinking, what was it, was it
pornography? No, it was just a fictional story, a book. So when I get through, We have
this idea, you know, let's take that book and move it. Because
we know these people, it unsettles their soul when they come in
here and see it. Next to our Bible study books. So who's the
weaker? They were. Who was the stronger? We did. What did we do? We didn't
put the stumbling block there. We didn't make a big deal out of
it. But we got it away from them. And we went and said, well, you
know, sneak it to your kid. I mean, you know, I'll show you.
And you want to know what I have an aversion to? I have an aversion
to C.S. Lewis writings. I can't stand
them. But yet, I've yet to meet an
evangelical household that hasn't had them in their children's
faces. I've met one, okay. Because I mean, even in the beginning,
that's how I decided I didn't want them. I read them after
letting my children read them. after Lady Magdalene. I don't
want that garbage. But you know what? If my kids
want to read it, they can read it. But they need to read it
in light of what is true. And they need to understand the
difference in fiction and the Word of God. And so we don't
pass judgment on that. We don't pass judgment on that. That is some of those areas,
and I use that example because it really appalls people. What? Yeah, he was not a believer.
I have his theologies. He did not believe the gospel
of free and sovereign grace. He did not believe in the deity
of Christ most times. And most definitely, he did not believe
in justification, in atonement, in imputation of righteousness.
He did not. But he could write a good story.
He could write a good story. So with that, let's pick up there
next week and show how we should not put stumbling blocks in front
of one another and you'll be surprised how Paul lays that
out. It's really a win-win-win-win-win when everybody loses. That's
what it looks like. Let's pray. We thank you Father
for your love and for the gospel of free and sovereign grace.
We thank you God for your patience with us and most importantly
for our standing before you in Christ alone that we are righteous
even when we're weak and foolish and stupid and sometimes sinful
and don't even know it. We're not making light of sin,
Father, but your word has shown us that these things are not
inherently good or bad, and we need to pay close attention to
the gospel and to our intimacy around the truth of Christ more
than all of these other things. So help us to love each other
in that way. And Father, any of the examples that I've used
tonight, Lord, if they have caused someone to stumble, forgive me.
Let me learn that. Let me learn that. I probably
should be wiser in how I speak. And I pray these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.