All right, Romans 14. You know,
when you get over to sections of scripture, as many of the
theologians say, or what they call the practical sections of scripture, which
I told you before, I don't really divide it like that. I think
the whole thing is practical, the doctrine. And I say all the time, maybe
y'all get tired of hearing me say this, but you realize more
and more how living the life of a Christian, a real believer,
is an impossibility for us. And that's why it takes the sovereign
mercy and power and grace of God to keep us in the faith.
Because if it were conditioned on us, we would blow it in a
second. And that's why I want to stress
that these exhortations, these things are hard. They're not
easy. And just like the song says,
I never promised you a rose garden. It's a warfare. And it's difficult,
not only because of the opposition that we have from the world,
which is there every day. We live in a world, you're gonna
have trouble, Christ said, in the world. Tribulation, but he
said, be of good cheer, you know, if y'all do the right thing.
No, he said, I've overcome the world. Now Christ overcame the
world. We don't have to fear condemnation,
because we stand before God in him. And we have his power through
the Holy Spirit to enable us to keep looking to him. We persevere. And the reason
we persevere is because he preserves. That's the foundation of it.
But these things are difficult, not only because of our opposition
from the world, but also because of an opposition that we have,
each one of you, including me, have within ourselves. It's called
the flesh. We have to fight more with ourselves
and deal with ourselves. And then not only that, we have
our relationships to deal with as the family of God. And that's
not always easy. I don't always make it easy for
y'all to love me. And vice versa. And we've all
got our opinions and our ways and our habits and our personalities. I'm telling you, it's tough.
Now, am I telling you anything you don't know already? And what holds us together? It's
not our personalities and our likes. It's the grace of God
that binds us together in the fellowship of the truth. And
then we have instructions, we've got the instruction book here
that lays the foundation that I know if you're a brother or
a sister in Christ, how I'm to treat you, how I'm to look at
you, how I'm to view you, and how you, for me. But sometimes
we'll, you know, not every little thing that we go through in daily
life is covered here, just the foundation of it. And so, you
know, I think about, and that's why I call it advanced citizenship,
because it's not easy. And it takes the grace and the
goodness and the power of God, and he has to keep our eyes focused
upon Christ. We have to run the race of grace,
looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.
If he left us to finish it, it wouldn't be finished, would it? But I always think about Christ
when he sent the disciples out into the world to preach the
kingdom. And he told him this, and I think this is something
that we have to keep in mind in dealing with all of our relationships
with the world, as we look at them as lost and in need of salvation,
but with each other. And Christ told his disciple,
he said, be wise as serpents, but be harmless as doves. And
sometimes I feel like I just don't act wisely. That's the
problem. I don't use the wisdom that I
should use and I regret it. Sometimes I'm not as harmless
as I should be in dealing with people. And so nowhere does that
show forth more in this thing of weak brethren and mature brethren. And I've entitled this lesson
Liberty. That's what it's about, Christian
liberty. Look at verse 14. Paul writes here, he says, I
know and I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus. Now this is not Paul's
opinion. This is not his opinion. But
I know. You know what faith is? It's
to know something from God's word. It's something that you
cannot deny. I've got on this thing when I
was going through the issues of repentance. If you truly have
God-given faith in Christ, All right, there's three things I
know about you. Number one, you cannot deny it. Number two, you cannot ignore
it. And number three, you cannot
leave it. If God, the Holy Spirit has convinced you. And that pertains
to other issues other than the gospel, gospel-related issues,
our liberty in Christ. Paul's saying, I know. Remember
he said, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed. Well, this is a no here. Now,
how do you know this, Paul? Did you all take a vote on this?
Is this majority opinion? He says, no, I'm persuaded by
the Lord Jesus. Now, what do you know and what
are you persuaded of in this specific area? And we have to
keep these scriptures in their context. He says, I'm persuaded
that there's nothing unclean of itself. Boy, that's a, you
know, when you're dealing with people who have been brought
up in false religion, and people like what Paul was dealing with
here, maybe some of them were brought up under the old covenant,
that kind of thing, which was a covenant of taste not, touch
not, handle not. There are things that are unclean.
And this uncleanness doesn't mean dirty in health-wise. This
unclean means that it was ceremonially unclean, even though it could
have been dirty health-wise. I mentioned last week, I think
the dietary laws under the old covenant did have some things
to do with health, but it was mainly ceremonial. For example, you remember when
the Pharisees challenged Christ about his disciples eating with
unwashing hands? He's not talking about dirty
hands, he's talking about they didn't go through the ceremonial
washings that the Pharisees required. And so it's kind of like a person,
you know, like for example, today, there are people who will not
touch a bite of food until they pray over it. Now that's not
required. I mean, it's not required. Okay,
what's required of us as believers? We're to give thanks all the
time in every way. And I'll say this too now. Somebody
says, well, somebody bless the food. We don't bless the food.
God's already done that. We simply thank him. And we don't have to make a public
spectacle of it. In fact, really, if you read
Matthew 5, 6, and 7, he tells us not to. And I heard a man
tell me one time, say, well, if I didn't pray, he said, that's
my witness. Listen, public prayer is not
our witness. Preaching the gospel is our witness.
But we thank God. That doesn't mean every time
we sit down, we're obligated to make a public, like in a restaurant
or something like that. And I know people get offended
about that. Don't you pray? I pray all the
time. Pray always, ceasing. I never cease Him to pray. Thank
God for every breath I take, but I don't stop and pray before
every breath I take. You see what I'm saying? But
people get caught up in their traditions. Well, this uncleanness,
this issue of something, what the Jews would call, you might
have in your concordance there, the word common. In other words,
it wasn't special. Well, Paul says there's nothing
unclean of itself. And he says, but to him that
esteemeth or judges anything to be unclean. To him it is unclean. Now again, keep it in its context.
This is not, what Paul's saying here, he's basically teaching. what he taught in the book of
Galatians and Colossians, that these distinctions of meets and
days that were prevalent under the old covenant, that they're
abolished now. Christ came and has fulfilled
all of that, and under the new covenant, believers aren't required
to live a life of taste not, touch not, handle not, in the
sense of these clean and unclean animals, keeping of certain days. Now that doesn't mean we can
go out without any governor on our conscience, and go out and
do anything we want. Brother Wormack was telling me
about a fellow in his church whose wife looked at him and
said, well, y'all believe you can do anything you want because
you believe in grace. And I said, well, you know what
I do with people like that? I said, I look at him and said,
well, what is it you want to do? Think about it. You mean you're doing things
you don't, under the preaching that you're under, which is legalism,
you're doing things you don't want. Think about that. Does that honor
God when you're doing things you don't want? I'm going to
church, but I don't want to, but I have to. Well, that's legalism. I'm not going to eat this or
drink that. I want it, but I'm going to do
what I don't want to. You see what I'm saying? The
issue of grace is that we do have the desire to serve the
Lord. Now, granted, in the flesh, We
do have other desires that are not right, evil desires. We have
to fight, it's a warfare. So, you know, it's not that I'm
two different people, I'm one person, but there's a warfare
inside. And so we fight that warfare.
But these distinctions that were so prevalent under the old covenant
are gone now. These dietary, the ceremonial
laws are not binding on new covenant believers. And these weak believers,
he says, now, the freedom and the liberty is the first part
of verse 14. I know and I'm persuaded by the
Lord Jesus, there's nothing unclean of itself. It's not what goes
into your body that defiles you, it's what comes out of the heart.
Didn't Christ teach his disciples that? Why do you think he had
to teach them that? Because they've been taught all
their lives that this will defile you, that'll defile you. Preachers
today do the same thing in false churches. This'll defile you.
But he says, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean,
to him it is unclean. Now, we gotta be careful here.
And I don't know the exact issues that goes through a person's
mind when he says, well, I'm not supposed to eat that, or
that kind of thing. I'm not sure. But I know this. He's talking about mature believers
who have that liberty, who are not bound in their conscience
by this prohibition. And then he's talking about weak
brothers and sisters who are still bound in their conscience.
And as far as I can see, it cannot be in a way that challenges the
gospel or he wouldn't call them brethren. Now, how do I know
that? Well, look at Galatians chapter
five. Now, this is where you've got
to be very careful. Keep it in its context and you've got to,
You've got to interpret scripture with scripture. Look at Galatians five and verse
one. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. Now listen to this. Behold, I,
Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ will profit
you nothing. Well, what does he mean by that?
He's talking about the legalism of circumcision, physical circumcision
required under the law, we started back with Abraham, that is intended
in their minds to be a part or parcel of their salvation, meeting
that condition in order to attribute unto themselves some form of
righteousness. Look at it, verse three. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he's
a debtor to do the whole law. In other words, he's talking
about the legalistic pride that comes from doing something that
would make you right in the sight of God. That I could say, well,
if I do that, I'm righteous. If I'm circumcised, that makes
me righteous. Now, that's not the only thing, but that's part
of it. Well, Paul says, if you're circumcised for that reason,
Christ will profit you nothing. Circumcision for that reason
is a denial of Christ. And over there in Galatians chapter
two and verse 21, what did he say? He said, if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now you could
apply that to the issue back here in Romans 14. If any of
these were abstaining from certain foods, or keeping certain days
in order to see it as their righteousness in the law. Do you think Paul
would call them brethren? Because he didn't in Galatians.
In fact, he called that another gospel, didn't he, in chapter
one? If we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel
to you than that which we have preached, let him be anathema.
But that's not how he's talking here in Romans 14 because he
recognized something that through this, God gave him some wisdom
in how to deal with it. So here's a weak believer, and
he's just not convinced in his conscience that the distinction
of days and foods has been abolished. He has to be taught. And Paul
says, well, to him, verse 14, or Romans 14, that esteemeth
anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Now what's he
thinking in his mind? Well, he can't be thinking like
those legalists in Galatians, or he'd say, let them be anathema.
He's not thinking about those legalists in Colossians. Remember
what he said? Let no man therefore judge you
in meat and drinks and days. That's will worship, he said.
You know what that means? That's self-imposed laws and
rules that I think that if I, by the power of my own will,
if I keep them, I can be right with God. The only thing that
makes a sinner right with God is the obedience unto death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And another thing he's showing
here is that the mature believer is right and the weak believer
is wrong. But how is the mature believer
to act? That's what he's talking about.
Well, he's to act in love of the brethren. He or she is to
look at these things as, hey, it's just not that important. whether I exercise my liberty,
I can do it. There's no problem. God doesn't
look down on me if I have a barbecue or something. That's not gonna
hurt. But what's more important? If
you've got a weak brother or sister in Christ, is the barbecue
more important or the weak brother or sister? Well, we belong to
God. Now, We'll talk a little bit
more about this, but look over in verse 15 of Romans 14. He says, but if thy brother be
grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably? In other
words, if you're upsetting that brother or sister, that weaker
brother or sister, just over this issue, not over the gospel
now, you're not walking charitably. You're not walking in love. He
says, destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died. That's
the key right there too, that line, for whom Christ died. Well, that's a believer. Christ
didn't die for anybody who continues in unbelief and dies in unbelief.
The he that believeth not, the wrath of God abides on him. That's
talking about people who are born in unbelief, remain in unbelief,
and die in unbelief. So whoever he's talking about
here, Christ died for them, that means they're gonna come to faith. And if he calls them believers
or brethren, they've already come to faith. But Christ died
for them. What does that mean? It means
their sins are put away. That means God cannot impute
sin to them. God has imputed righteousness
to them. But for whatever reason, they still have this sealed on
their conscience that God commands us not to eat that stuff. Or
God commands us to eat this. So how are we to deal with it? Charitably. That's in love. Love the brethren. And he says,
destroy not him with thy meat. Now, nobody for whom Christ died
is gonna be destroyed permanently perish in their sins. So what's
he talking about? Keep it in its context. He's
talking about in their conscience. Because they have not been convinced
in their conscience. You don't want to bring a stumbling
block in them that caused them to put their minds on that instead
of on Christ. Now, you getting the idea of
how hard this is? Lord, give me wisdom, give me
compassion for weaker brothers or sisters. Give me wisdom on
how to deal with them, because I don't always know. I know this,
I'm not to flaunt my liberty just to get a rise out of them,
as they say. But they do need to be taught.
You know what I would suggest for a weaker brother? First of
all, a weaker brother or sister, I would suggest that they search
themselves to make sure they're in the faith. Make sure that
you're not making this part of your righteousness before God. That's number one. In other words,
if in some way you think that this makes you holier, or more
righteous than me, you're treading on dangerous ground right there.
Read the book of Galatians, I'd tell them. And secondly, I'd take them right
here to Romans 14. I'd take them to other passages
too to teach them. But the destroy here doesn't
mean that they'll perish eternally. You can't take their salvation
away from them. Nobody can take our salvation
away from us. But he's talking about in their
conscience and look at verse 16, he says, let not then your
good be evil spoken of. Now he's talking about brothers
and sisters in Christ. He's not talking about how we
deal with the world. Turn over to First Thessalonians
chapter five. And you need to see this because
I've had this pulled on me several times. Listen to what he says here in
the last part of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 21. He says,
prove all things, hold fast that which is good. Now he's not talking
about what the world calls good. Now there are some things that
we agree with the world on what is good. Like for example, being
an obedient, responsible citizen. You know, we've got traffic laws
and have speed limits. You may not obey them all the
time, but they're good, aren't they? They're good for us. Well, the world says the same
thing, even though they may disobey it too. But he's talking about
that which is good in God's sight. Because what does the Bible tell
us concerning good and the world? It says that by nature men call
good evil and evil good. We'll look at the next one, verse
22 of First Thessalonians. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. All appearance of evil. Now is
that all appearance of what the world calls evil? No. They call good evil and evil
good. And whenever we are in a position where the gospel is
challenged and how a sinner is justified before God, how a sinner
is made righteous, what are we to do? Are we to placate the
legalist? Well, Christ didn't. Remember
when his disciples ate with one washing hands? He didn't say,
fellas, all right, y'all go wash your hands real quick. No. He
said, don't do it. Whenever they were picking corn
on the Sabbath, and they were challenged, what did Christ say?
All right, guys, stop picking the corn. Old Mother Israel there
is offended. No, he said, pick some more.
And he taught him about this. Just because the world calls
it evil, it doesn't mean it's evil. So we're not to live our
lives by the standard of the world. But when it comes to brothers
and sisters in Christ, we have to be careful. We have to use
wisdom and compassion. Now go back to Romans 14. He
says, verse 17, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.
Now this is what the weak believer needs to have sealed in his mind. It's not what you eat, what you
drink. What does that mean, we can eat
and drink as much as we want, anytime we want? No, no, no. Everything in what? Moderation. But the kingdom of God is not,
listen, here's the kingdom of God, righteousness. Now, does
my eating or drinking, does that make me righteous? No. What does? The imputed righteousness of
Christ. That's the foundation of the kingdom of God. That's
how God justifies the ungodly. And then peace, well what comes
from righteousness? Peace with God. And we believe the same gospel,
that peace with us. And joy in the Holy Ghost. And
that's what it is, joy. That's the kingdom of God. Verse
19 he says, or verse 18, he says, for he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Now what he's
saying here is, what is it that makes us acceptable to God? We're
accepted in the beloved. God doesn't accept us or reject
us on the basis of what we eat or drink. And even our obedience
to the glory of God is presented before God through our mediator. Washed in the blood. Everything
about us is washed in the blood. Clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. And so, he who serves Christ is acceptable unto God
and approved of men. Well, it's certainly approved
by our brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ. But what I
believe, if he's talking about all, all men, he's talking about
even when unbelievers accuse us, we will make sure they cannot
do it. If they do it, it's unjust. Peter
said that. He said, now, if you're persecuted
for the gospel, for Christ's sake, that's fine. But if you're
persecuted for bad behavior, if you go out here and speed
and get caught by the police and they give you a ticket, don't
come out of there saying, oh, I'm suffering for Christ. No,
you're not suffering for Christ, you're suffering for your bad
behavior. So he says in verse 19, let us
therefore follow after things which make for peace. Not peace
with the world, you're not gonna have that. Not speaking peace
where there is no peace, but peace among brethren. and things
wherewith one may edify, build up another. We don't want to
tear our brother or sister down, we want to build them up. We
want to be an encouragement. And we need to teach from the
word. Remember what Paul said, I know
and I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus that this is the case.
Though the mature believer is right in his Christian liberty,
the weak believer's wrong in being bound in their conscience.
So we want to teach, we want to be patient, we want to be
kind, we want to use wisdom, and that's tough, I know. Verse
20, he says, for meat destroyeth not the work of God. Now you
know what the work of God is there? A sinner saved by grace. We are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. Whether I eat meat or don't eat,
that's not going to destroy God's work. Nothing can destroy God's
work. Didn't Christ say the gates of
hell will not prevail against His church? All things indeed
are pure. Now is Paul saying that we can
put in a blanket over everything? No, he's just saying that these
things, these distinctions, all things are pure, but it is evil
for that man who eateth with offense. In other words, you
know that eating this particular thing is right, there's nothing
wrong with that, but if you eat it with the intention of putting
a stumbling block before a brother or sister, that's evil. The eating
the meat's not evil, but if you do it for that reason, that's
evil. He says in verse 21, it is good
neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor anything whereby thy
brother stumbleth. or is offended, or is made weak.
I've heard people say, you know, well, this person gets offended
if I drink a glass of wine, so I'm not gonna do it in front
of him. And I heard a man say, well, that's being hypocritical.
No, it's not. No, it's not. It's being wise. You parents, do you ever do anything
that you didn't wanna do in front of your children? Well, of course. They're not ready to handle it.
So you're not being hypocritical to say, well, here comes brother
so-and-so, let's not bring out the wine today. Because he'll
get offended. Now if brother so-and-so, or
what we call brother so-and-so, if he thinks that drinking the
wine's gonna send you to hell, or him not drinking's gonna get
him to heaven, then you need to talk to that person. Say, now look, let's go to Galatians. Tough, tough life, isn't it?
We couldn't handle it, but by the grace of God. All right,
he says in verse 22, hast thou faith? Are you convinced in your
conscience by the word of God that this is okay? Well, have
it to thyself before God. You don't have to flaunt it.
You don't have to display it publicly just to get a rise out
of people. Happy is he that condemneth not
himself in that thing which he allowed. And again, he's talking
about your conscience there. If you're the work of God, if
Christ died for you, you can't destroy anything about that. Only God can send sinners to
hell. But he's talking about our conscience.
And then verse 23, and he that doubteth is damned if he eat,
because he eateth not of faith, for whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. Now, he's talking about something
here, keep it in its context. What do you mean he's damned
if he eats? In his conscience, he must feel like that God does
not allow this, that this is God's commandment, I wanna follow
God. And if I don't, does that mean
that he's gonna look at himself as lost? Well, I'm not 100% sure
about that, but I know we can, have you ever, you believers,
have you ever been in a situation where you've done something and
you wonder if you're even saved? I think that's the thing he's
talking about here. I've done that. Lord, I'm such a pitiful servant.
Am I really saved? And you know what? If you are
saved and the Spirit of God abides in you, what does he do? He drives
us right back to the Word of God to give us the assurance
that we can only have in Christ. So when he says whatsoever is
not of faith is sin, he's talking about the weak believer who's
not convinced in his conscience by the word of God that this
distinction is over, so therefore he's thinking, if he does that,
I'm committing sin. Now, again, if his mind, if it's
the legalism, you know, we're all, as one man said, we're all
recovering Pharisees. The spirit of the flesh, a big
part of that is self-righteousness, even legalism. We still have
to fight it, don't we? We do. Our tenor of life is looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. But we've got to
fight self-righteousness. So I don't know how you would
look at something like this in every individual situation, but
in teaching and being wise and compassionate to a weak believer,
whatever you do, whether it's in matters of eating or drinking
or keeping days or not keeping days, you need to do it in the
spirit of love and truth that makes both of you wind up on
the other end of the discussion, looking unto Christ. for all
salvation. How do we do that in every individual
situation? I don't know. But I do know the
basics. I do know the foundation. I do
know the goal. And that's the way we're to handle
it. All right.