Now, the title of my message
this morning is How to Use Our Liberty. We're talking about
believers here, and we're talking about believers as we communicate
and worship around other believers. And like I said, we begin at
verse 14, but I'm going to start out by reading. I'm going to
read beginning at verse 1. I want to do that in order to
give you some context. on what leads up to verse fourteen
this morning. So we'll start with verse one,
where Paul, writing to the church at Rome, says, Him that is weak
in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is
weak eateth the herds. Let not him that eateth despise
him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge
him that eateth. for God hath received him. Who
art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master
he standeth or falleth, yea, he shall be holding up, for God
is able to make him stand. One man esteems one day above
another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully
persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth
it to the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he does
not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the
Lord, for he giveth thanks, God thanks. And he that eateth not,
to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of
us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether
we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's, For
to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he
might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou
judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy
brother? For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall
confess to God. So then every one of us shall
give account of himself to God. Let us not, therefore, judge
one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put
a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
Now, before we look at verse 14, also, I want to go over some
things having to do with eating and drinking and having to do
with the Old Covenant and these ordinances that was given to
the nation Israel in the Old Covenant. Now, since these verses are speaking
on the subject of eating and drinking, and that's the reason
I'm going to go over these things, and most of these things having
to do with eating and drinking coming out of Leviticus 11, if
you want to look at that sometime, and I'm not going to go into
great detail on a lot of these things, but these laws were given
by God to the nation Israel as a type and a picture. of the
cleanliness and the separation that sinners can truly experience
only by God's grace and through the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Under the new covenant, these
dietary distinctions have been abolished because Jesus Christ
has come and fulfilled all the types and pictures of the old
covenant law. Let's look at a couple of verses
here where Apostle Paul says in Colossians 2, beginning at
verse 14, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it. Let no man, therefore, judge
you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of the holy day, or
of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things
to come, but the body is of Christ. Paul also tells us in 1 Timothy,
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter days some
shall depart from the faith, giving ease to seducing spirits,
and doctrines of devils, speaking lies of hypocrisy, having their
conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and
commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the
truth. For every creature of God is
good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer." Now, people
today can talk about abstaining, from certain foods for health
reasons, and that's fine. But we as believers need to make
certain that our not eating doesn't send a wrong message to an individual. A message that we're sanctified
in some way or made holy by what we eat or what we do not eat.
Our sanctification and holiness and our separation from this
world is in the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness alone.
Christ is the person that separates the believer from the world,
and not what we eat or what we drink. Now in verse 14 that we're
gonna begin with this morning, Paul says, I know and am persuaded
by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself,
but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Here we have God's testimony
that all distinctions of meets and days under the old covenant
had been abolished by Christ's establishment of the new covenant
in his obedience unto death. Paul says that I am persuaded
that there is nothing unclean of itself. These dietary laws
and these ceremonial laws are not binding upon believers under
the new covenant. The weak, immature believer who
were bound in their consciences. In these matters, they were wrong.
The mature believer that had seen that liberty that we have
in Christ, the mature believers were right. No food is unclean
or sinful in and of itself. Whether one eats or does not
eat is neither the issue in salvation nor the substance. of our righteousness
before God. Now, Christ and the grace of
God in and by Him and Him alone is our whole salvation and righteousness
before God. As Paul will state later in verse
17 here, chapter 14, he says, for the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. Paul adds, however, until the
weak believer is convinced in his own conscience. And that's
what we need to be focusing on this morning that Paul is talking
about, is how that believer sees these things in his own conscience.
That he hadn't been fully convinced of these things as of yet. If
he goes ahead and eats, and his conscience tells him that he
shouldn't eat it because he believes God tells him not to eat it,
to him it's still wrong. We who see our liberty to eat
all foods in moderation should not expect weak believers to
violate their consciences, and we should not judge them lost
because of their weakness. In verse 15 here, Paul continues,
he said, but if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest
thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat,
for whom Christ died. See, that tells us that he's
speaking to believers here. He's not speaking to self-righteous
people that, as we deal with some of them concerning these
issues, he says Christ died for these individuals. And so we
know that they're a believer. Now, Paul mentions two undesirable
things we should avoid in dealing with these matters of indifference,
non-vital issues. First, we are to avoid causing
grief in our brother's conscience by questioning his salvation
and excluding him from our fellowship, all based on these indifferent
things, eating and drinking. This is contrary to brotherly
love, which is what is meant by walkest thou not charitably.
Next, we are to avoid destroying our brother with these indifferent
things. To destroy a weak brother is
not referring to eternal death. No one but God can destroy the
soul eternally. We again, once again, this verse
tells us that Paul is speaking of brethren in the faith because
he uses the phrase from whom Christ died. Christ has saved
him securely and eternally by his death on the cross. The blood
of Christ has abolished eternal death for all for whom he died.
There'll no one be found to be eternally in hell if Christ died
for. They are all righteous in God's
sight and cannot be damned eternally. Christ worked out that righteousness
on their behalf, which they are charged with. God the Father
charged it to their account. The destruction here is has to
do only with a weak believer's conscience. His conscience would
be grieved if he were forced or badgered into doing things
he was convinced were contrary to God's revealed will. We are
to love, encourage, and be patient with all our brethren in Christ,
even our weak brethren. Now, this is mainly talking about
in the church there at Rome you had Jews and you had Gentiles.
You had these Jews that come up under the old covenant for
hundreds and hundreds of years and been passed down. They shouldn't
eat these certain foods like pork or fish that didn't have
scales and all these different things having to do with the
dietary law. And so when they came to the gospel, and they
were in the gospel, they're brethren, they believe the gospel, then
they knew that it was Christ and his righteousness alone that
saved them. But they hadn't been taught. See, all they had was
Old Testament scriptures anyway. They hadn't been taught in the
New Testament. These writings did not exist at that time. Paul
was in the process of writing this letter to the Romans right
here. And so they had to be taught all these things. And so they
had to be patient with them in these matters. Same thing with
Gentiles. Gentiles didn't have the law
of God at that time. There was a lot of immorality
surrounding them that they had to be taught concerning their
immorality, the things that were happening with the Gentiles.
Here again, the key phrase is weak brethren, which in these
verses refer to those Jews, like I said, who had been brought
to faith in Christ and repentance from dead works, but who had
not yet been taught and convinced of that liberty that we who are
saved by God's grace have in Christ. Now, these individuals that Paul
was addressing here, like I said, they knew that forgiveness and
righteousness all come by Christ and His death alone. Now, beginning
at verse 16 here, Paul says, Let not, then, your good be evil
spoken of. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. The good here, according to the
context, refers to the doctrine of Christian liberty. which is
a good thing. Christ has procured it and it's
bestowed upon his people. Christian liberty is a valuable
blessing in itself. And with this liberty comes many
privileges and obligation. And these privileges may be evil
spoken of by those who don't understand it, especially if
the strong believer does not use wisdom and show brotherly
love toward that weak believer. We must be firm, however, when
it comes to these things of eating and drinking or whatever. When
it comes to our liberty in Christ, we are to stand firm and cannot
compromise or give in to the self-righteous notions of unbelievers. As we have an example at the
church at Galatia. Y'all remember what they were
going through, where they had these False preachers that come
in they came into the church, and they were saying yeah, we
believe on Christ We believe that he's our salvation But you
must be circumcised or you must do this and that the other To
really kind of seal the deal to make you a little bit more
holier or whatever Just add something a little bit to what Christ had
accomplished and Paul says here in Galatians 5 1 he says stand
fast Therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. But
when it comes to our liberty in these indifferent matters
of eating and drinking that we're talking about here, we can and
we must at times, for the sake of our weaker brethren, forego
our liberty without compromising the gospel of God's grace in
Christ. If the exercise of our liberty in these indifferent
matters cause our weaker brother to stumble, or if it causes division
in the church, or if it's done in a mean-spirited way, it could
be evil spoken of. We must realize then that this
is not the substance or way of the kingdom of God. These things
contribute nothing to the ground of salvation. nor do their observance
or non-observance give any true evidence of salvation. Our entrance
into the kingdom of God is attained and maintained based entirely
on the blood and the righteousness of Christ. Christ alone brings
peace with God and joy in believing. This is the testimony of the
Holy Spirit. Now after Paul says in verses 16 and 17 that the
kingdom of God is not meat and is not drink, but righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. He says here in verse 18, For
he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and
approved to men. We who are saved by God's grace
in Christ serve God in all things, even these indifferent things,
and we do it as the Holy Spirit guides and motivates us by grace.
and by gratitude, and by love. Also, in showing love toward
our weaker brethren, we serve Christ, not ourselves, and not
men. Now, this is acceptable to God,
as it is the fruit of His power and grace, as it is cleansed
by the blood of Christ, and as it glorifies an honest Christ
as our Lord and Savior, and our only righteousness before God.
Then it says, and approved the men, in this verse here. It is
a good testimony of grace toward men and to our brethren, in that
it honors Christ and edifies our brethren, even to unbelievers,
who even though they may insult and accuse and persecute us,
but they will not be able to do these things justly. We must
strive to be at peace with all men at the same time without
compromising the gospel that we believe. In verse 19, Paul
says, let us therefore follow after the things which make for
peace and things wherewith we may edify one another. We know
that concerning the gospel that we believe here in this place,
there is no peace between believers and non-believers. But as fellow
believers in Christ, we are to follow after, or we're to pursue,
all things that promote peace and growth among our brethren.
We are exhorted to make a diligent and continual effort to promote
those things that edify and bind us together, and to avoid those
things of indifference that divide, according to Hebrews 10, beginning
at verse 24. where Paul says, And let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another, so much the more, as you see the day
approaching. Now verse 20, Paul continues
and he says, For meat destroy not the work of God. All things
indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth in offense. The work of God here is the believer
himself, individually, and the whole church, collectively. We
are chosen of God, we're justified and redeemed by the blood and
righteousness of Christ, regenerated and called into the kingdom of
God by God the Holy Spirit. and we're preserved into glory
by Christ. Eating certain foods cannot destroy
this great work, this great work of God's power and of God's grace
in Christ. Satan and all hell will not prevail
against the church that Christ has built and established according
to what Christ himself says in Matthew 16, verse 18, where he
says, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, And upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it." All believers know these things, and we must
not let such indifferent things spoil our unity and our fellowship
with each other. The next part of Romans 14, 20
says, all things indeed are pure. Paul is speaking strictly of
foods, strictly of foods that are eat. There is no sin in certain foods. Look what Christ says in Matthew
15 verse 11. Christ says, And he called the
multitude and said unto them, Hear and understand, not that
which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh
out of the mouth defileth a man. And then in the last part of
verse 20 here, it says, But it is evil for that man who eateth
with offense. Eating certain things is evil
if a man eats such things with the intent to cause a brother
to stumble. The evil here is not the food
that he eats, but in his heart, his motive and intent that he
does these things with an intent to cause his brother to stumble.
In verse 21, says it is good neither to eat flesh, nor to
drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbled, or is offended,
or is made weak. It is good, therefore, to abstain
from eating and drinking anything that would cause a brother in
Christ to stumble or to become weak. Since it is evil to our
weak brother's conscience, and since it causes him grief, causes
the brother grief, then brotherly love demands that we neither
eat or drink any of these things in his presence. We must consider
that the word brother qualifies these exhortations. Paul is not
exhorting us to feed the self-righteousness of unbelievers. When the gospel
is challenged by any practice or any abstinence, we're to stand
fast in our liberty in Christ. One of the things mentioned in
that was about drinking wine. I thought I'd mention this. I
know a lot of times as we come to the gospel, there's a lot
of things that we've been taught all of our lives. Even though
we were not Jews and wasn't raised up under the old covenant, we're
still raised up under a lot of bad teaching. concerning a lot
of things, having to do with even meats and drinks and drinking
wine, for instance. Like, for instance, when we partake
of the Lord's Supper, we use wine. And a lot of people probably
brought up all their lives drinking grape juice because they've been
taught that that's what it ought to be. And preachers even use
scriptures to try to explain that. We know that should not
be the case. But as we partake of the Lord's
table, we have to explain to our brothers, our brothers in
Christ, new individuals that come into the gospel. We have
to explain to them early on concerning that and why we use wine and
why we use the unleavened bread. All of it represent Christ's
blood and his body and the purity of it. And we have to explain
these things to them. And if our new brothers in Christ,
if they're really a brother, I believe God shows them these
things. Of course, we cannot stop using
wine in our Lord's table just because a weak brother might
come to that. We'd have to continue that, and
at the same time, teaching. I've never seen a case where
a new brother in Christ didn't come to the right understanding
of these things. But there's so many other things
that new believers might come into the church and try to hang
on to, and we need to lovingly teach them these things, teach
them why we have this liberty that's in Christ and these issues,
and why these other things are really used in false religion
self-righteously, you know, in the works of religion that we
all were a part of at one time. I know I was. Now in verse 22,
Paul says, hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he
alloweth. Has thou faith, which is to be
understood, not of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the
doctrines of the gospel, but refers to the specific point
being discussed here in these scriptures that we're dealing
with this morning, which is, are you fully persuaded by God's
word in your own mind that God has abolished all these distinctions
of meets and days? Do you have that faith? If you
are, then you can happily eat and drink in moderation without
any thought of condemnation. Hold fast your convictions, but
do not impose your liberty in this matter upon a weak believer.
Do not make this the ground of your fellowship. This can also
apply to a weak brother dealing with a strong brother. Do not
let your conscience in this matter be the ground of your fellowship.
A weak believer that comes in and says, well, I believe that
you shouldn't do this or shouldn't do this. And then if he does
see a strong believer doing certain things, he would just say, well,
I don't believe a believer would do that sort of thing. Well,
he's wrong, too. He shouldn't be doing that. But as we deal with fellow brethren,
we should in all these matters do it in a loving way. And mainly,
we should go to the Word of God as we show these individuals
these things. And the last verse we'll deal
with this morning, verse 23. And he that doubteth is damned
if he eat, because he eateth not of faith. Whatsoever is not
of faith is sin. Again, damned means condemned
and speaks of the weak believers conscious, not his state before
God. Like we said earlier, if Christ
died for you, if you're a brother in Christ and He's already died
for you and paid your sin debt and provided that righteousness
for you and He's already charged it to your account, then God
would be unjust to wind up sending you to eternal torment. We know
that's not the case. All those for whom Christ died
shall be saved eternally. Now it says, if he eats not of
faith, he eats without being persuaded that it is lawful for
him to eat. He must therefore condemn himself
in the sense that he must agree that he does what he truly believes
is displeasing to God, but not damning to his soul. For whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. If we believe that something
is against God's revealed will, and proceed to do it, it is sinful
to us, even though it might not be in God's sight. In the end, a believer must be
convinced that what we do or abstain from doing is according
to God's Word. And this comes through growth
and grace and knowledge. And it comes through the stronger
believers, those that have come to believe the gospel, working
with these weaker believers in God's Word, showing them in Scripture
what's right and what's wrong in these matters. And that's
what Paul was dealing with here. Don't do things that would cause
your weak brother to stumble in these matters, and don't wound
his conscience. Here he is, he believes certain things are wrong,
and he really believes it, but he's going to wind up doing it
because he's been badgered into doing it or something. We should
be patient with them and as we all grow in grace and in knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.