Turn in our Bibles to Romans
14. The message this morning, don't judge
your brother. Mostly what we're going to be
talking about this morning is what Mike just sung about. It's
about our attitude. Our attitude and motives of the
heart. Don't judge your brother. Now,
I'm not saying that we should not make judgments about things.
We should make judgments about right or wrong, or judgments
about people. Sean, you've got to make judgments.
If your daughter or your son is going to go have a sleepover
or something, you've got to make a judgment. Is this safe? You've
got to make judgments. People will tell you, oh, don't
judge me. Judge not that you be not judged.
And I hope to show you at the end of the message that that's
not what that verse means at all. We've got to make judgments
about right and wrong. First Corinthians chapter five,
the apostle Paul told the church to make a judgment. Remember
the man who was living with his father's wife? Paul said, now
you make a judgment about this. He has to be cast out. You got
to make a judgment about what's right or wrong. Every week, you
all, every one of you got to make a judgment about the gospel
that I preach. Is this the truth? Does this
match the word of God? You got to make a judgment about
that. And the subject of chapter 14 is not judging our weaker
brother. It's not talking about not making a judgment about right
or wrong. It's talking about our attitude
toward one another. We make allowances for each other
in matters that are indifferent. And the best example I could
think of is our children. We make allowances for our children
because they're children. They haven't had time to grow
and mature. They've got to be taught, don't they? We make allowances
for them. I'll use Sam as an example. Sam, I don't expect
you to be a man like your dad. I don't expect that. I don't
expect you to be able to go work like your dad. I don't expect
you to be able to carry the load and weight of leading a family
like your dad does. I don't expect you to have the
wisdom that your dad does. You're just, you're young. You
know what I do expect? I expect for you to be a boy.
I expect for you to be silly sometimes and have fun I just
expect that. See, we make allowances for our
children, don't we? But we do have expectations for
them. The same, I don't expect you to be a man. I have expectations
for you. I expect you to mind your mother
and father. I expect that. I expect you to
mind your teachers, to do your best in school. I've seen you
demonstrate great kindness. I expect you. Keep doing that
to be a kind young man. I expect that. Someday, I expect
you to be a man just like today. I expect that. In time. When you've had time to grow
and mature. Now that's right, isn't it? That's how we're to
treat our younger brethren in Christ. We'll be patient with
them. They need to grow up. They need to have time. Give
them time to learn. Now we have certain expectations,
don't we? but we make allowances. Now, these matters where we make
allowances, they are matters that are indifferent. They're
matters that don't make any difference whatsoever to salvation. Listen,
we're not going to make allowances over God's sovereignty and man's
depravity. We're not going to make allowances
over the gospel of substitution. Not one bit. We're not going
to make any allowances over God's electing love. over salvation
by faith in Christ, not by works. We're not going to make any allowances
for righteousness in Christ, not by our doings. We're not
going to make any allowances over the moral law of God. In
this place, there will be no allowances made for free will
doctrine, none whatsoever. But in matters that are indifferent
to salvation or in matters where scripture is not entirely clear,
we're not going to divide over those issues. We're going to
make allowances for each other. I know of sovereign grace, I
mean strong sovereign grace congregations where women wear those little
doilies on their head covering and they do that because they
think that's what scripture tells them to do. There are women I
highly esteem who do that. I don't think that's what scripture
means or what that's instructing us, but we're not going to divide
over it. We've never even spoken of it
because it's a matter that's indifferent. As long as we'll
make allowances for these things, as long as somebody doesn't make
it a gospel issue, as long as they don't make it an issue of
salvation, we're just not going to have a problem. We'll make
allowances for another. You can believe something that is as
totally absurd as the world is flat if you want to. You can
believe that if you want to. I mean, it's absurd, but you
can believe it if you want to. The very moment that you make
that a condition of salvation, the moment you make that a gospel
issue, we're not going to make allowances for that anymore.
See that? We're going to divide. And you can apply that to every
other matter that you're considering. Apply that same standard to it.
We can make allowances for certain things as long as somebody doesn't
make it a gospel issue. The Apostle Paul gave us the
clear example of that with Titus and Timothy. He would not allow
Titus to be circumcised. You know why? Because somebody
made it a gospel issue. Paul's brethren said, you can't
be saved if you're not circumcised. Well, that's law. That's salvation
by law, by law keeping it, not by grace. And Paul would not
allow that for a second. He would not make any allowances
there because somebody made it a gospel issue. But Paul and
Timothy were going to go someplace to preach where all Jews there.
And before they went, Paul had Timothy circumcised. Now he did
that before anybody brought it up. So when they got there, those
Jews wouldn't have a hard time listening to Timothy preaching.
This wouldn't be in the way for them. But if somebody made it
a gospel issue first, Paul never would have done it. See, that's
how we can make those allowances, as long as somebody doesn't make
it a gospel issue, a matter of salvation. And here in this chapter,
Paul deals with different things that come up like this, keeping
different days, eating or drinking certain foods, and what it means
to be free in Christ relating to all these things. And those
things, this is what he's teaching us, we're going to make allowances
for each other. Have our attitude, not be so harsh. Just don't be
harsh. I love what Henry said in his
outline about this. This is wonderful. He said, don't demand that they
know immediately what it took you years to Isn't that good
advice? Don't demand somebody know immediately.
Something took you years to learn. Give them time to learn. That's
what Paul's teaching us in this chapter, verse one. He said,
now him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful
disputations. Receive that younger, weaker
brother as a full brother in Christ and just welcome them
into your fellowship with open arms. Now don't bring them in
so you can examine them and find out if they're, you know, weak
in certain areas. Don't do that. You just welcome them in as a
brother in Christ, even if they're weak. And Paul gives us some
examples of areas they might be weak. Verse two. For one believeth
that he may eat all things. Another who is weak eateth herbs.
Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not. And let
not him that eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath
received him. Now remember to whom Paul's writing
this letter. He's writing it to the church
at Rome, who is made up of believers of both Jew and Gentile, people
with very different backgrounds. Those Gentiles, they grew up
very different than the Jews did. They grew up in idolatry,
worshiping idols and stone statues and things, you know. They didn't
grow up under the Mosaic law. They didn't grow up having to
observe the Sabbath or all the dietary restrictions. They were
never forbidden to eat pork. They were never forbidden to
eat unclean animals. And then God saved them out of their idolatry. You know, hundreds of idols that
they had. God saved them by his grace. Now, God saved them, revealed
Christ to them, and they knew this. They knew, I am free from
all that Old Testament law. I'm free from that in Christ.
Christ had kept the law for them. He delivered them from the bondage
to that law. So those Gentiles had a hard
time understanding the Jews. God saved them, but they still
had difficulty eating pork because that had been ingrained in them
from the time they could understand the language. Now, by his mercy
and grace, God saved them too. He saved them out of the idolatry.
Their idol was just themselves. It was the idol trying to keep
the law and earn their own righteousness by what they did. And by his
grace, God saved them. And they knew this. They knew
that they were free from the law in Christ. They knew it.
Eric, it's still hard for them to go to a restaurant and order
pork chops. He just could not bring themselves to do it. They
knew better up here, but they just couldn't bring themselves
to do it. The apostle Peter went through that, didn't he? Lord
put in that vision, put all those unclean animals down in front
of him and said, eat. Peter said, no, Lord. No, Lord, I'm not going
to eat that. He had a hard time with that,
didn't he? And some of these folks, instead of eating something
that might bother them, instead of eating pork, you know, without
knowing it or something, or eating meat that had been offered to
idols and they didn't know it, in order to make sure they didn't
eat anything that bothered their conscience, they just didn't
eat meat. They became vegetarian. And Paul says in verse six that
they ate and gave God thanks for it. They were eating what
they ate, not eating what they didn't eat, in faith and in Christ.
They gave God the thanks. See, they knew they were free
in Christ, but it was just hard to get rid of those grave clothes. It's just going to take some
time to do it because it's difficult to do. So Paul says, well, that
is going on. You be patient and don't be so
harsh. That's our attitude. Don't be
harsh with one another. And the rest of this chapter
gives us several reasons why we're not to harshly judge our
brethren. Why should we be patient with one another? You know, don't,
don't look at somebody and based upon what they do, whether they're
observing a day or not, or what they eat or what they drink,
don't make that be the determining factor that you say, well, they're
not a believer. You know, God hadn't saved them. They all know
better. They don't know the gospel and don't refuse to have fellowship
with them because of it. As long as it's not a gospel
issue. Now bear with them. Don't harshly judge your brother.
He gives us several very good reasons here. First, don't harshly
judge your brother. God has received them. See that
at the end of verse 3? For God hath received him. Now,
if God's received them, brother, they're saved. And if God has
received them, who am I to say I won't? Isn't that foolish? If God has received them into
his family and into his fellowship, I should too. Paul calls them
here brethren. Now, if they're our brethren,
they're a child of God, aren't they? And here's the thing about
children. From the moment that brand new
baby is born, that brand new baby is a full-fledged member
of the family. Full-fledged. Doesn't matter
how small they are. Doesn't matter how weak they
are. If they're a child, they're in a family. God has received
them. Now, we ought not be harshly
judging them, should we? God's received them in Christ,
so they're perfect. Just bear with them a while until
they learn something. Second, don't judge your brethren.
Well, we can ask ourself this question a lot. God says, who
do you think you are? Verse four, who art thou that
judgest? Who do you think you are to judge
another man's servant? Yeah, I can't put myself above
God. God has received me. You can't say I know better than
he does who's saved and who's lost, who knows right from wrong.
I can't say that. And certainly, I can never know
what's in another man's heart. I can see your actions. But you
know, I could be misreading those things. I might not know the
real reason why you're doing them. Somebody might limp. I forget why I read this. Somebody
might have a limp. But you know, it might be they
got a rock in their shoe. You know nothing about it. Maybe
they're not limping. Maybe you think, well, they hurt
their knee or they hurt their ankle. Or it could be they got a rock
in their shoe. You know nothing about it. But
don't touch them. We just don't know who you think
you are. See, this thing of believing Christ and following Christ has
to do a whole lot more with our motives, with heart, than what
our actions are. And we can't know what really
is in someone else's heart. So just don't go there and don't
judge them. We're not qualified. Third, don't judge your brethren. Because that's judging another
man's servant. Verse four, who art thou that judges another
man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or followeth. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. Every believer, I don't care
who they are, every believer is the Lord's servant. They serve the Lord, not you. I had several jobs before I became
the pastor here. Supervisory jobs, the last one
was Ohio Valley Wholesale. I loved working there, it was
a great place to work. And every year I would give performance
reviews to the people that worked for me. But you know, never one
time, never once did I give a performance review to the guy that delivered
down there to the warehouse. He worked for somebody else.
He worked for a trucking company. I didn't give a performance review to
the mailman that came every day. He would work for somebody else.
Only those people who worked for me. That's the Lord serving. They're serving the Lord and
they answer to the Lord. Maybe they're wrong about eating
pork or eating, drinking alcohol or observing a day. Maybe they're
wrong, but you know what? They're serving the Lord. Maybe
they're wrong, but the Lord's going to make them stand. The
Lord will make them stand. This is, I hope you get a hold
of this. This is such comfort. This just thrilled me. I saw
this this week. None of us are going to stand or fall based
upon whether we eat pork or drink alcohol. None of us. standing
Christ. He makes us stand. We stand in
the grace of God. We stand because of the faithfulness
of the Savior, not because of our faithfulness. We stand because
of the wisdom of the Savior, not because of our wisdom. We
stand because of the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ, not
our goodness. God's servant will stand. Paul doesn't say, well, maybe
he'll stand. We'll figure out in the end if all. No, he says he will
stand. He's the Lord, so the Lord will
make him stand. He will. It doesn't matter whether
he has weak faith or whether he has strong faith, does it?
Because it's not the strength of faith that saves. It's the
object of faith. It's Christ, the object of our
faith, who saves. And he will never, ever let one
of his servants fall. Verse 9. For to this end, Christ
both died and rose and revived. Here's why Christ came, that
he might be Lord. both of the dead and the living.
And if He's our Lord, He's gonna make us stand. That's what He's
gonna do. All right, fourthly, don't harshly judge your brethren,
because listen, they're serving the Lord the best way they know
how. Verse five. One man esteemeth
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 unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not
the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth,
eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth
not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. You see,
both the weak and the strong, they're both serving the Lord
the best way they know how, aren't they? They're both fully persuaded.
This is the best way they know how. Now Paul here is talking
about days. He's talking about the Sabbath
day or other feast days that were required in the law. And
a better example to us would be Sunday. You know, we live
in the Bible Belt. I can remember the day that most
businesses were closed on Sunday. It's not that way anymore, but
that's just the way people at that time thought they ought
to do things. Now, to me, this is what I see in Scripture. The
Lord made Sunday just like He made every other day. The Lord's
the Lord of Sunday, just like He's the Lord of Tuesday. So
to me, I think it's fine in the summertime, if you've got to
cut your grass on Sunday, Cut it on Sunday. If you want to
go to the grocery store on Sunday, go. If you want to go play golf
on Sunday, might go. Perfect requirement. But you
know, there's some believers. I'm not just talking about religious
people. I'm talking about believers. There's some believers that would
really bother them because they think Sunday's a special day.
They think you ought to devote the whole day to worship and
meditation, to reading God's word. Buddy, I don't argue with
you. I mean, we'd all be better off
if we could do that. I mean, they make a good point. But some
people can't do all these other things, going to the store, whatever
they've got to do. You know, they can't do them
all the other days of the week. They work commitments and things.
Life's busy, isn't it? I mean, life's hard. And if that
bothers somebody, I'll tell you what I would do. I wouldn't play
golf with them on Sunday. I wouldn't let them know I'm
going. I wouldn't let them know I'm cutting my grass on Sunday. If
they're my neighbor, I just wouldn't do it to you. I just wouldn't
cut my rights on Sunday if it would bother them. As long as they don't make it
a way to earn the righteousness. For Scott Richardson said, he
said, I let my boys play basketball on Sunday. He said, now, if it
bothers somebody, I just tell the boys, don't play basketball
on Sunday. But if somebody says that's how you make a righteousness,
that you can't play basketball on Sunday, Scott said, I'm going
to make my boys play basketball on Sunday. I'm going to make
them. As long as they don't make this an issue of righteousness,
let it go. Just let it go. Some believers,
speaking of a day, think it's wrong to celebrate Christmas.
I mean, they just think it's wrong because it started out
as a pagan holiday. I understand what they're saying.
I understand it completely. Not the way I think about it,
but I understand what they're saying. And I tell you what,
I'll still have fellowship with them. Absolutely, I will. But
here's what I won't do. I'm not going to invite him to
our house after Thanksgiving, because we're going to treat
him. I'm just not going to invite him over. I just wouldn't hurt
him that way. You know, they think, well, gosh,
a Christmas tree star now is an idol. I don't want anything
to do with an idol, you know. Well, I don't agree. I mean,
they can think that if they want. I don't agree. I think they're
missing out on some good times. But you know what? They're not
my servant. They're not my servant, and both. Both believers, now, whether
they celebrate the day or they don't celebrate the day, both
of them are doing what they think is the best way to serve the
Lord. Then don't be hard on them. All right. Fifthly, we've kind of already
touched on this, but don't harshly judge your brethren because we
live in Christ, not by what we do. Verse seven. For none of
us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For that
we live, we live unto the Lord, And whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live, therefore die, we are the Lord's. I'll
quote Henry's commentary on this again. He said, I'm not a separate
tree planted on a hill, but I'm a branch along with other branches
in Christ. I'm not a building which stands
alone, but I'm a stone among other living stones in the living
temple of Christ Jesus. I don't live under myself. I
live in Christ and everything that I do affects the other branches
and the other living stones. Now, none of us live by what
we do. We live in Christ, don't we? We live by faith in Christ. And I should live for Christ. I should live in faith in Christ.
And I shouldn't judge how another believer is doing the same thing.
They live in Christ. They live and move and have their
being in Him too. Now, remember, I want to remind
us about this. We're talking about believers,
about those who know and love Christ. This is not saying we
should not make a judgment about somebody who's preaching salvation
by works. They're preaching salvation by
works. Brother, they're not the same tree I am. We make a judgment
about them. This is talking about someone
who has genuine faith in Christ, but they haven't gotten away
from those indifferent things, those things that they learned
in false religion. And I give you a very good example
of that. Many years ago, I knew a very dear believer and he just
felt like he was so sure of this, that we're going to reign with
David, that David, David of Bethlehem, David who slew Goliath, David,
It's going to have a special throne in glory. David's going
to be ruling there. Now, I don't think that's what
scripture means. I'm just utterly confident that
that is not what scripture means. But you know what? He and I still
had sweet fellowship. Because that fellowship was in
Christ. And you know, several years later, you know what he
told me? He said, that David, that those scriptures are talking
about in the Old Testament, I don't think that's David. I think that's
Christ. I said, I think you're exactly
right. And you know what? Our fellowship didn't change
one bit. It didn't get any better because our fellowship was in
Christ all along. See that? We live in Him, in
Him. All right, sis, remember this. Both the weak and the strong
in faith, both of them, answer to the Lord, not to me. Verse
10. But why dost thou judge thy brother?
But 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. Now this goes hand in hand with
not judging another man's servant. We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. Christ is the judge of the earth. He's the judge of everything.
The Father hath given all judgment in the hands of the Son. And
whoever we are, believer, unbeliever, strong in faith, weak in faith,
we're all going to bow before Christ and give an account to
Him. We're going to give an account
to Him. What account of what? Every believer has a stewardship.
A stewardship just means a job. The Lord's given every one of
His people something to do in the kingdom of God. I can tell
you what my stewardship is. It's preaching the gospel. God's
free and sovereign grace. My stewardship is being your
servant for Christ's sake. That's my stewardship. My job
is to point you to Christ, to always point you to Christ, to
get everything else out of the way so you can see Christ as
clearly as possible and to watch for your soul by watching the
doctrine of this pulpit. That's my stewardship. And the
writer to the Hebrews said, I'm going to have to give an account
to God for that. You all have a stewardship too.
Now it may be different things. Eric, you've got a stewardship.
You fill in for your, that's part of your stewardship. But
whatever it is, I can tell you what your stewardship is. It's
obeying that gospel that's preached. Well, how do you obey the gospel?
It's by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's your stewardship. Your stewardship is to support
this gospel however you can with your money, your time, your talents,
whatever it may be. That's your, every person here,
that's your stewardship. And you're going to have to give
an account to God for that. Now, there's no point at all in us
judging one another and grading one another on how well we're
doing in our stewardship business. Because let's just be honest,
none of us is doing a good job as we should. None of us is doing
as much as we can, as well as we can to deserve the glory. None of us, it's not equal. to
the glory of Christ our Savior. None of us, when it's all said
and done, we're unprofitable servants, right? So why bother
judging one another? Just don't be so harsh. And remember
this, we don't stand or fall based upon what we do. We stand
and fall in Christ. We answer to Him. All right,
seventh, this is important. This is part of that attitude
I'm talking about. Don't judge your brother. Don't
be harsh at him. and cause a stumbling block to Christ. Don't make a
stumbling block to peace and to worship for you. Verse 13,
let us not therefore judge one another anymore. Let's just make
an end of that. But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know
and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there's nothing unclean
in himself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him
it's unclean. Let thy brother be grieved with
thy meat. Now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with
thy meat for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil
spoken of." Now Paul said, let this once and for all be the
end of us judging one another. You who are strong, don't judge
the weak for not knowing what you know. And you who are weak,
don't judge the strong for feeling that they have liberty that you
don't feel like you have. And remember this, this congregation
has one purpose in being together as a congregation. One. It's
to worship the Lord. That is our one responsibility. Now don't do something that's
going to cause your brethren to be thinking about you when
they should be thinking about you. Just take yourself out of
the way. If you make you, to where people have to think about
you. You're just constantly insinuating yourself in the situation and
being loud and mouthy. You're making people think about
you. And if they're thinking about
you, they can't worship the Lord. You've made yourself a stumbling
block. See that? And here Paul is talking about
meats. What kind of meat you eat really
isn't an issue for us. So let's talk about drinking
alcohol instead. Paul said that he was persuaded
by Christ himself that there's no food that was inherently evil,
inherently sinful. There's nothing, no sin in that
meat, in that food to harm you. Well, I'm persuaded of the word
of God, the same thing about alcohol. There's no sin in alcohol. There can't be. Our Lord drank
wine. His first miracle was to turn
the water into wine with the intent that people drink it.
There couldn't be anything, he didn't create something sinful,
did he? Paul told Timothy to drink it. So sin is not in the
bottle. Sin's not in the liquid. Sin's
in the heart. You drink water, you're gonna
be just as sinful, because sin's in the heart. Now brethren, that's
true. I mean, you just can't take the
word of God and come to any other conclusion. But yet there are
believers who still think it's wrong. They still think it's
wrong to drink alcohol. Maybe they're scared of it. Rightfully
so. They might be afraid of what people think if they see you
drinking. I understand. And here's my response to that
situation. If I'm with them, I wouldn't
order a drink at a restaurant in front of them for anything.
I just wouldn't do it. I wouldn't have them in my house
and offer them a drink. I just wouldn't do it. Because
they'd have a hard time with that. And they'd think evil of
my freedom, and they'd have a hard time worshiping the Lord with
me. They'd be thinking about me drinking a glass of wine.
We'd be harming someone else. See that? Nothing's worth that. Nothing is worth that because
we're stopping the church's sole purpose to worship the Lord. Verse 19. Let us therefore follow
after things which are on verse 18. No, I'm sorry, verse 19. Let us therefore follow after
things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify
another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed
are pure, but it's evil for that man who eateth with the fiends.
It's good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine or anything
whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or made weak.
It's just not worth doing something that's going to offend our brother
and cause him not to be worshiped. Remember up here, verse 8, 15,
Christ died for him. Christ died for him. I've got
a really horrible attitude. If I think I can do something,
if I'm free to do something that's going to offend him and harm
him, Remember this, just because I'm free to do something doesn't
mean I should do it. Doesn't mean I should. Whatever
the speed limit is out here on this road this morning, you're
free to go that speed limit when you leave this building if you
want. That's not wise, given the road condition. That's not
wise. Just because you're free to do it doesn't mean you should.
Use common sense. Just use common sense. Make the
basis of your decision love for your brethren. Make that not
love for yourself, but love for your brethren. And just use common
sense and you won't put a stumbling block to them. Don't harshly judge your brethren
about these things. These things don't matter. Verse
17. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of me. See, what you
eat and what you drink or what you don't eat, what you don't
drink or what you do on different days will not get you into the
kingdom of God. That's not your righteousness.
That's not what makes you accepted by God. So who cares what you
do on Sunday afternoon? Who cares whether you put up
a Christmas tree or not? That's not your righteousness anyway.
Who cares whether you do or you don't drink alcohol? Whatever
you drink is going to go down in the sewer eventually. It doesn't
matter. Brethren, Christ is all that matters. All that matters
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our salvation. So as a body, let's give ourselves
to seeking Christ together. Let's give ourselves to His glory. And let's do whatever we can
do to make this house of worship, a true house of worship where
Christ is worshiped. Not that we're judging what everybody
else is doing or not doing, but that we're looking at Christ,
that we're judging what Christ is doing for his people, what
he is doing for his people. And let's dwell on those things.
Let's dwell on those things that promote peace, that promote unity,
not things that promote division. And then lastly, don't harshly
judge your brother. Think about him in love. Don't
don't do something that will hurt him. Don't force your ways
on your on your weaker brother because it'll just hurt him.
And that's not loving. By this, our Lord says, shall
all men know you're my disciples that have love one to another. Don't do something that's not
loving. Verse 22. Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself and that thing which
he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he because he eateth
not of faith. But whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. Now, if you know it's okay to
drink alcohol, but your brother, he wouldn't do it. He thinks
it's wrong. He just would never do it. Then don't you force him
to drink a glass of wine. Don't you think, well, I'm going
to show you that it's not going to hurt you. I'm just going to pester
you to death until you drink a glass of wine. You're going
to show you aren't. Well, that's just mean spirited. That's just
mean. Paul says, if you do that, He's
damned. It doesn't mean his soul is damned. Christ is our salvation. What
it means is he'll judge himself and he will be so hard on himself
and he'll be harmed. His conscience will be harmed.
Now be more loving than that. Don't do something to make your
brother's conscience bother him. There is nothing worse than a
guilty conscience. You can't get away from it. Well,
don't put that burden on your brother. You have that freedom
to do whatever this indifferent thing is. You have the freedom
to do it. You do it alone before the Lord, not before your weaker
brother. It's just love, isn't it? And
the believer who understands freedom in Christ, he follows
those things, he's going to be happy. We're free to use all
these things in moderation. Even if religion calls it sin,
we're free to use those things in moderation. We're free. But
I tell you what you're not free to do. You're not free to hurt
your brother's conscience. You're not free to do it. Be
more loving. Be more loving. These things,
these things that are indifferent, they are not nearly as important
as your brother. All these other things have been
thrown away. They're going to be burned up. They're going to be,
but you're going to be with your brother forever. Your brother
is much more important. We can just do without. God deliver
us from being a harsh Pharisee. God give us a loving, tender
heart, it's understanding of our brothers and sisters. Now
I'll show you two more scriptures. First, Romans chapter two. Scripture
has a lot to say about this subject, but not harshly judging one another.
I just want to give you two of them. First is this, don't judge your
brother, because that's just being hypocritical. Romans chapter
two, verse one. Therefore, thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judges. For wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest yourself. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. You know, we judge our brother
and our sister. We look down our nose at them. We're just
being a hypocrite. Just a hypocrite. Because we're
guilty of the exact same sin. Exactly. Now maybe you haven't
committed outwardly, but we've all committed in our heart. Now
come on. We're all guilty of the exact same sin. And if we're
looking down our nose, one of our brethren. Come on. Either man's totally
depraved or he's not. Either Christ is all of our salvation
or he's not. If those two things are true,
we're not above any of our brethren. And we're just being a hypocrite
to live down our nose. God delivered us from that self-righteous
attitude. Now last, Matthew chapter seven. Told you I'd get to this, right
here at the very end. Matthew chapter 7 verse 1. Judge not that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with
what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now
that does not mean that you should never judge anybody. You've got to make a judgment.
if something is right or wrong, you've got to do that. But here's
what it means. Don't be harsh and hold your
brother's feet to the father. Huh? How would you like if God
did that to you? How would you like that if your
brother did that to you? You know, we've all got problems,
don't we? Problems with sin, problems with
attitude and just different things. We've got our own problems to
deal with. Verse three. And why beholdest thou the moat
that's in my brother's eye? But consider it's not the beam
that's in thine own eye. You've got this little splinter
in your brother's eye, but you've got a great big stick in your own
eye. And how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull the
mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam's in thine own eye? Thou
hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and
then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's
eye. You cast the beam out of your own eye, then you're going
to see clearly and realize, oh, that little thing in your brother's
eye might be good. Let's look to Christ for everything. Everything. Let's not be looking
at each other and judging one another. Let's look to Christ
for everything. We're wasting our time to try to fix our brethren
up. We're just wasting our time.
We've got our own sin. We've got our own need that can
only be satisfied by looking to Christ. And suppose our brother
does have a being in his own heart. Only Christ can save him. Only Christ can strengthen him.
And he will make him stand. That's what Paul said. He will
make him stand. God deliver us from that self-righteous attitude
and cause us just to have a little tenderness, a little patience
with each other. So this place is a place where
the focus is Christ our Savior. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. How we thank You for revealing
Christ the Savior to us in Your Word. How we thank You for salvation
full and free by your sovereign grace and mercy in him. It's
all of his righteousness, his obedience, and his blood that
cleanses us from all sin. He is all of our salvation. Father, we pray for a heart that
would be taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us a tender
heart, a loving heart, a compassionate heart, a patient heart. We might
be patient with one another to help one another. Deliver us
from ever being a discouragement or a stumbling block to our brethren,
but always help us, cause us to be a help one to another,
that we might with one accord, with unity of heart and spirit
and motive, promote our Lord Jesus Christ, that He might be
preached, that He might be the focus, that He might be all anyone
can see of our preaching, of our worship here, that your people
would be edified. Father, the only way we'll be
fed and comforted is by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause
us then to be able to lift Him up. The only way sinners will
ever come to Him, the only way sinners will ever see their need
of Him is through hearing Christ lifted up and preaching. Father,
cause us then to put away every other motive, every other agenda,
that Christ may be all in all. It's in His precious name we
pray.