Romans chapter 14, and we'll
read from verse 1. 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 herbs. 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
judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for
God is able to make him stand. 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. 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 at naught 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. 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. But if 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. 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 men. Let us therefore
follow after the 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 is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither
to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor anything whereby thy brother
stumbleth or is offended or is made weak. hast thou faith, have
it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not
himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth
is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith, for whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. We do well as the people of God. We do well when we come together
in the gospel, always to keep the Lord Jesus Christ constantly
before our eyes. In matters of practical religion,
practical theology, as well as in our doctrinal divinity. What do I mean by that? In our
theology. Let us keep Christ before our
eyes. Let us be looking to him. And
in our practical application of that theology, let us be looking
for opportunities to emulate Christ, to copy Christ, to follow
the pattern that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us. I say again,
for doctrine, look to Christ. Look to his words. look to his
works, look to his ways, and we will not go far wrong in our
spiritual understanding if we walk closely after him. And for our example, as far as
we live in this world, as far as we interact and deal with
one another, let us look to Christ. as our pattern and example. For
he tells his disciples, follow thou me. Walk the way that I
walk. Put your feet in the steps that
I make. Follow thou me. And for day-to-day
principles of living, in dealing with believers in the church
and unbelievers in the world, in dealing with our relationships,
be that in the family or the workplace, whether it is with
the authorities that we have to deal with, or our employers,
or the poor around about us who are ignorant and careless of
their soul's wellbeing. Let us endeavour to maintain
the Lord Jesus Christ as the focus of our attention, that
our beliefs might be true, and that our practices might be honouring
to our God. So we look to Christ, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And here in this
chapter that we have, chapter 14, before us this evening, the
Apostle Paul speaking of faith. He tells us that whatsoever is
not of faith is sin. These things that we have before
us are of a very practical nature this evening. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. So whatsoever is of faith is
holy, just, and good. Christ is our beginning, and
Christ is our end. Christ is our alpha and Christ
is our omega. Christ is our first and Christ
is our last in all matters of faith and conduct. I want to deal with this passage. Romans chapter 14 this evening. In the context of verse 17, I
want us to look at verse 17 and then using that as a little bit
of an entrance or a vehicle into this chapter to endeavour to
unpack some of the lessons that we have here. Verse 17 of Romans chapter 14
says, The kingdom for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink,
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. I think this verse is useful. I think that it's a verse that
might help us to open up some of the insights that Paul is
giving to these believers at Rome, these Jews and Gentiles
who worshipped together at Rome. I think that there's wisdom here
in dealing with spiritual interactions between men and women, practical
matters with respect to church life. The apostle says that the
kingdom of God is not meat and drink. Now by the kingdom of
God, we understand that establishment of divine rule, establishment
of Christ's rule amongst his people here upon earth. The Lord
Jesus Christ is king and every king has a kingdom. And we are
recognising the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ when we
come together, gather together, establish ourselves as his people
in a local congregation and seek to honour him and serve him and
worship him as our king, as our leader, as our captain. And what
the apostle is here saying is that that activity, that gathering
of a local congregation of the Lord's people, as was Rome and
the believers at Rome, as indeed is the church here in Great Falls. This is the kingdom of God. This
is the local manifestation of the kingdom of God. And he reminds
us that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not
made up of practical things. It's an established foundation
upon the spiritual truths that God has given to his church. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not about externals. It's not about what we wear. It's not about what we do. It's
not about where we go. It's not about how we speak,
how we think, how we feel, what our opinions are. It isn't about
who our friends are. It's not about how we spend our
time or our money. It's not about what we eat or
don't eat or drink or don't drink. All of that is incidental. All
of that is unimportant. It's inconsequential. All of
these external things. The kingdom of God is spiritual. The kingdom of God is internal. The kingdom of God is righteousness
in the Holy Spirit. so that those who have a knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour, those who have been
brought together with that local body, that local fellowship,
at that spiritual level, they are the body of Christ. Now we could spend all the time
that I have this evening Endeavouring to prove and demonstrate and
show from multiple scriptures that this is so, that the true
church is a spiritual body, not an external body. The true church
is spiritual and we could look at the prophets and we could
look at the apostles, we could look at the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. But I don't want to take the
time to do that. I'm simply going to give you
one reference here, and we'll go back to 1 Samuel to get that. One reference which shows us
what it is that the Lord is looking for when He speaks to His people. Just turn with me to 1 Samuel
chapter 15. 1 Samuel chapter 15. This is the account of Saul's
battle with the Amalekites. And Saul, when he fought against
the Amalekites, was told by the Lord, the word of the Lord came
to him, he was told through Samuel that everything and everyone
was to be slain amongst the Amalekites. Now we could take some time to
explain why it had to be absolute and why it had to be a comprehensive
destruction. Amalek in scripture is a picture
of the flesh. And what Samuel was telling and
showing Saul here was that the flesh has to be eradicated. It has to be taken out of the
picture. that there's no worship, there's
no good thing, there's no spiritual good comes from the flesh. And
so we find that Saul went to battle with the Amalekites and
the Lord gave him the victory. But did he do as he was told
with the comprehensive destruction of all that was Amalekite? No,
he did not. And we discover that he retained
certain things. So in chapter 15, 1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse 22,
we read this. And Samuel saith, Hath the Lord,
let me just go back, since we've all turned to the passage, let
me go back. Verse 19. Wherefore then didst
thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the
spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said
unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have
gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the
king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But
the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of
the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice
them unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath
the Lord as great delight Hath the Lord as great delight in
burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the
Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken
than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also
rejected thee from being king. This judgment fell upon Saul
because of what he did in disobeying the word of the Lord. Now, the
word of the Lord, as John tells us, is a picture or a name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And rejection of the word of
the Lord is rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. What Saul
did, in many ways, may have appeared commendable. He did all that
the Lord had said, save with these two reservations. He kept
one person alive, just one person in the whole of that nation,
the King. This surely would be glorious
to God because God had granted this victory and here was the
king, now alone out of a whole nation, to be praided and to
be shown to have been completely destroyed by God's power. And the cream of the spoil, the
sheep and the cattle, to be offered to God. Now I don't know whether
he was fast on his feet and he was rationalizing the situation
a little bit here and he said to himself, I'll explain it like
this. But whatever the case, that was
the explanation that he gave. And Samuel says to him, hath
the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. Because thou hast rejected the
word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee. Rejecting the
word of the Lord. It might seem that it was not
really very much that Saul did here. But here's the point. that there is no righteousness
before God in this flesh by the things that men do. Even if we
were following it to the very best of our ability, doing everything,
getting it 99% right, there is no righteousness there. There
is no acceptance save by being obedient to the word of the Lord
entirely and completely. And that acceptance can only
come because our flesh is sinful, because our ways are evil, because
there is iniquity in our heart, can only come as a work of grace,
can only come through the imputation of righteousness that is acceptable
to God. And of course, this is what we
call justification. And that has been the message
of the Apostle from the beginning of this book. Through chapters
3, 4 and 5, he has been speaking of the fact that we are justified,
we are made righteous, not by the works of the flesh. The Lord's
not looking for our sacrifice. The Lord's not looking for the
things that we can do for Him. He is looking for obedience,
and that obedience which is acceptable to God is obedience to the Word
of the Lord. It is obedience to what Christ
has done. It is obedience to the approach
that God has opened. By Christ, the door, the way,
the truth, the life. To whom? Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ is the entrance of acceptance before
God. There is no justification but
by the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ. And that is
a gift from God. Not at all based upon the works
of the individual. You don't become part of this
kingdom of God by the things that you do. Saul couldn't become
part of the kingdom of God because in the flesh there was sin and
there was disobedience and there was iniquity. And we only become
part of the kingdom of God by that grant of grace and righteousness,
that gift of faith by which we lay hold upon the justifying
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness of
God, as our standing and acceptance before God's holiness. So when the apostle speaks about
food and speaks about meat and speaks about wine and says that
the kingdom of God is not based upon these things, he is directing
us to look beyond the material, the fleshy, the circumstantial,
the worldly, and see the ground of our acceptance with God and
that that is exclusively and only righteousness in the Holy
Ghost. So when he says that the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, He is pointing
us to that only righteousness, that righteousness which comes
through the Holy Ghost, the righteousness of God that has been accomplished
at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer and Reconciler
of His people. And so the kingdom of God is
not meat and drink, but righteousness. This faith that we have itself
a gift, lays hold upon this work of God in an individual's soul,
this justifying grace which he gives. And the gift of faith
lays hold upon that work of God in the individual's life. Now
I want to make an important distinction here in the context of this passage,
because there are very many religious people in this world. The world's
full of religion. And all of these religions claim
to have faith. All of these religions claim
to believe. They speak about faith, but It
is only those who have the righteousness of the Holy Ghost, it is only
those who have the righteousness of God imputed to them, and then
are granted that faith whereby they can lay hold upon that righteousness
of God, that are truly in the kingdom of God. Regardless of
the church name, regardless of its denomination, regardless
of its doctrinal creed, only those who have true faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, which lays hold upon the justifying
righteousness of God, truly are in the kingdom of God. If you have no righteousness
of the Holy Ghost, you have no grace, you have no part in the
kingdom of God. Now those in that religious world,
they imagine that their righteousness is about what they do, how they
live, it also includes whether or not
they have made a decision to follow after Christ. It has to
do with that whole free will notion of what it is to be a
Christian. That decision that an individual
makes to follow after Christ, to commit themselves to God,
to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That decision, that's
like Saul, that's like King Saul saying, I've done everything.
I just kept this so that I could worship God properly. I just
kept the king so that we could hold him up and look at him and
say, we've had victory over you. I just kept the sheep so that
I could go to Gilgal and there offer sacrifices to the glory
of God. And the Lord says, I don't want
your sacrifices. I want you to obey Christ. I want you to approach me upon
the grounds of acceptance, not do your own thing. Free will salvation is no better
than the works of Saul in his disobedient sacrificing to God. And that's what people are doing
all over the place. They are bringing their sacrifices
to God. They are bringing their contribution
to the work, bringing their part in the process to God under the
misapprehension that God finds that acceptable. So how are we to distinguish
between those of faith though weak and childlike and
little and tender, who are untaught, who are shallow in their apprehensions,
who are drinking milk when they should be eating meat, and those
who have no real faith at all. How are we going to know in the
congregation of people who gather in a church, in a place, who
are the lords and who are not? Paul is showing here that of
these two categories that we are endeavouring to distinguish
between, the first construe that their efforts are in some way
enabling their acceptance with God. The second, they are offering
their good works in grateful thanksgiving to God and in an
effort to worship him properly. The first group have no real
faith because they aren't approaching God upon the ground and foundation
of the blood of Jesus Christ alone, but seeing rather that
there is justifying merit in their own fleshy works. Whereas the second have a weak
faith, and they haven't grasped that true worship is only spiritual. So there are those who have,
although everybody talks about faith, there are those who have
no real faith, and there are those who have weak faith, but
it's genuine. And it's sometimes not easy to
tell these people apart. So how are we to do it? How are
we to deal with a situation like this? It's the second group that
Paul has in view. It's the second group that he
is writing to these Romans, these Roman believers about. And he
is saying in the opening verse, him that is weak in the faith,
receive ye. Receive the one that is weak
in the faith. Now, if we were having people
come to this church and wanting to identify with this church
and making their professions of faith, How are we to know
if they've got a whole load of strange ideas and thoughts? How
are we to receive them? How are we to accept them? Do
we close the door upon them and say, well, no, I'm sorry, but
you've got some crazy ideas about what you can eat and drink and
what you can wear and what days are acceptable? This was the
problem that they had in Rome. And Paul is speaking about these
that are weak in faith, and he is explicit. He says, receive
them. Receive them. Not to doubtful disputations,
not to silly arguments. We're not opening a debating
society here to talk about the vagaries of individual opinions.
But you receive them, the weak in the faith. Those who are lacking
light in these spiritual truths. Perhaps they are new believers
carrying with them a whole load of baggage about what a Christian
is and what worship is. Perhaps they're slow of mind
and not as smart as the rest of us. And they need to be looked
after and cajoled along the Christian path as new young pilgrims. Perhaps they're just dull. and
just difficult to learn and we have to keep going over the same
lessons week by week by week by week with them. They're weak
in the faith. Paul's example is to do with
eating and undoubtedly this would be at a time particularly significant
amongst the believers there in Rome. Because the Jews had come
out of all these shadowy symbols, all these types, about what the
Lord Jesus Christ's coming was all about. And they had their
feasts, and they had their holy days, they had their sacrifices. And what we discover is that
there is always a proclivity amongst individuals to begin
judging one another, to say, no, that's not right. That's
not how you should be doing it. Well, this is what I've always
learned. This is the way that I was brought
up. This is what I was taught. Well, no, that's not what I was
taught. And then you start to get and aggression building. Then you start to get sections
forming. Then you start to get little
groups that say, well, this is how it should be done. And the
people with the good spokesmen, they start to get the ascendancy.
And the other people feel as if they are being marginalized
and pushed to the side. That's just the way people get
on. Remember what we saw? That was
the very first problem when we were thinking with some of the
younger ones about the trouble in the early church in the book
of Acts. People were saying, it's not
fair what's happening here. And there are always these strong
pools, especially when we have got a background, perhaps an
understanding in religious things as to what's acceptable and what's
not. Let us remember what the writer
to the Hebrews says upon this matter. He said, Christ being
come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, not of this
building, our Union with one another is not based upon meat
and drink, not based upon fleshy things, but it is based upon
a spiritual reality of righteousness and justification. And yet weak
these brethren are. They're weak brethren. So how
are we going to deal with the differences that they have? And
Paul's language is fine. It's delightful here as he starts
to unpack and unfold some of these aspects. He's saying, remember
to keep your eye upon Christ. Remember to keep your view on
the Lord. Remember that righteousness is
a gift. It doesn't come through meat
and drink. It doesn't come through feasts
and fastings. It doesn't come in any of these
ways. Remember that. That's the guiding principle.
Thereafter, verse five, let every man be fully persuaded in his
own mind. Be fully persuaded. Don't receive
these weak in the faith to doubtful disputations, but let each man
be fully persuaded. Now, if you're persuaded on something,
it means that you've thought about it, you've talked about
it, You've reasoned about it. You've got a rationale for the
position that you take, and this is part of what a Christian fellowship
does. It talks about these things.
It talks about the ways in which people's perceptions are brought
into the fellowship. What's right? What's wrong? What's good, what's not so good,
and we are persuaded as we are brought together under the gospel
principles that we have. Don't receive them to doubtful
disputation, unhelpful argument, but to reasoning and learning
and thought-provoking direction. Don't judge one another censoriously. Don't blame one another because
they've not seen what you've seen. What is it Paul says to
the Corinthians? Who hath made thee to differ
from another? What hast thou that thou hast
not received? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? If you've
got some greater light on a subject, on a matter, than your brother
or your sister, that's not your place to give that person a hard
time because they don't see it as clearly as you do. If you've
been given light in this subject, that's the Holy Spirit's gift
to you. And you've got a greater obligation
to the people around about you than had the Holy Spirit not
given you that insight and that light. We stand before God. We stand before God by grace. Everything that we have is his
gift. That righteousness that we have
by which we stand is his gift to us. And every single person
that is accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ Every single person,
all who have faith in Christ are acceptable to Christ, acceptable
to God, and they ought to be acceptable to you and to me. Paul talks about giving thanks
for your food. You give thanks for your food,
whatever that might be, whether it's food or drink or whatever
else it is that we have as a liberty to exercise and to practise,
and we eat, we engage, we follow through. If our conscience is
clear before God, then it is clear before God, and we have
that peace in the Holy Spirit that He gives. So he's talked
in verse 17 about the kingdom of God is not meat and drink,
but righteousness. Our standing before God is the
righteousness which he gives. And the peace that we have is
having a settled view in our own hearts as to what is acceptable
and what is not. That peace is a peace before
God because our conscience is clear on a particular subject. A settled assurance is ours that
what we're doing and what we're engaging in is not problematic,
is not wrong and is acceptable to God. Just look back at chapter
12 with me, please. The chapter 12 of Romans. The apostle there says, and remember
that this passage from chapter 12, we've kind of moved, as it
were, from the more doctrinal emphasis in the apostle's writing
to the Romans into more practical things. And he says in verse
one of chapter 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, therefore
saying that that these practical applications are built upon the
doctrinal truths that have been expounded in the earlier chapters.
I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto
God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed
to this world but be ye but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. If you flip over to the end of
chapter 13, verses 13 and 14, He says there, let us walk honestly
as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering
and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we talked about that. Putting
on the Lord Jesus Christ is learning about Christ. It's an active
engagement. It's going to the Scriptures. It's learning together, whether
that's under the direction of the preacher, the pastor, in
his sermons, in his ministry, whether that is in our own private
reading, whether it's Scripture reading, whether it's conversation
and sharing together in the fellowship of the Lord's people. We're putting
on Christ. And the putting on of Christ
means that we are following after the teachings of Christ and the
patterns of Christ. And this is the ruling pattern
of our life. As we put on Christ, those things
which are inconsistent with Christ, they begin to fuel unacceptable. We think to ourselves, the Lord
wouldn't do that. The Lord wouldn't say that. The
Lord wouldn't speak like that. The Lord wouldn't do that. And
we have, because we are spiritually alive individuals, because we
are the temple of the Holy Spirit, having fellowship with the Holy
Spirit, sharing together in the church with the Lord's people,
we begin to find that our behaviours are moderated, that they are
directed and that we see things that we didn't see before. We
deepen our knowledge, we deepen our experience in the things
of the Lord. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. And he's talking to believers
here and he's saying, don't be hypocritical. Hypocrisy, God
hates hypocrisy. He hates the idea that people
say one thing and do another. And that's not to be us. We've
not to indulge ourselves in the flesh, but we have a settled
assurance a settled assurance, and though that settled assurance
differ from individual to individual, yet in love we do not judge one
another, because we stand before God, we stand in the Holy Spirit,
we stand acceptable by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the righteousness which he has bestowed, and we stand before
our own Master, and it's not your call to undermine me before
my master, nor my call to undermine you, if we have a settled conscience
with respect to our conduct and the things that we do. And so
that peace in our own heart becomes peace in the body of Christ. We don't go around judging one
another that he does this and he does that. He goes, do you
know where he goes? Do you know what he does? Do you know what
he says? but rather we see that together
we are bound before God by the blood of Jesus Christ and by
his righteousness. And that peace then is not the
peace of worldly conformity to a particular code of dress or
way of living or way of talking. We don't all dress up in exactly
the same clothes so that there's no difference between us. There
is difference between us at every level and in every way because
we've all come from a whole host of different backgrounds. And
yet those differences are not the grounds of judging one another
or censorious views that we hold against one another. There is
a peace. Because we have the righteousness
in the kingdom of God, because we have faith together in the
things of our standing before God, there is a peace in our
heart and there is a joy in the body. that comes from the Holy
Spirit. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness. Seeing our righteous standing
upon the blood of Jesus Christ and peace, having that settled
conviction, that settled assurance of what is acceptable and unacceptable
as God the Holy Spirit directs us and leads us and as we put
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that leads to joy together in
the body of the fellowship. We learn together under the gospel. The Holy Spirit leads us into
truth. We have a sensitivity, we have
a teachableness, which makes us realise that when something
is said, when something appears to run contrary or to diverge
from what someone else holds, Why do they think like that?
What is it that they've understood that I haven't? What is it that
I could say to contribute to perhaps their development and
growth? And there is a mutual desire
to care for one another, to support and help one another, and to
receive those things in return also. It's a positive momentum. It is a moving forward under
gospel truth, under the direction that the Holy Spirit gives us.
to learn from one another. I don't answer to you and you
don't answer to me. We both answer to God for the
things that we say and the things that we do. But Paul goes a little
bit further here. because he's speaking about those
that are weak in the faith and receiving them, receiving them
into the body of the church, receiving them into the kingdom
of God. And those who are strong in faith,
they are to love the weak in faith. They are to indulge the
weak in faith. They are to be careful with them,
as we would be careful with our children, as we would be careful
with those who had particular needs and were not as advanced
perhaps as students and disciples in the things of God. There has
to be a pastoral care, like a shepherd with the sheep. And Paul goes
on to speak about this. He speaks about the obligation
that rests with the strong in faith to love and care for the
weak in faith. But there's a beautiful irony
here. Because the weak in faith think
that they're the strong in faith. And the strong in faith Well,
they know that they're the strong in faith. You see, we all think
that we're right. We all think that it's the other
person that's wrong. And I look at you and I say,
you know, that person, he doesn't eat pork. Doesn't eat pork. Why would anybody not eat pork?
And they say, well, Because I read in scripture that you're not
to eat animal with cloven feet. Yeah, but that's changed. Well,
it's not changed as far as I'm concerned. I know the truth of
the word of God. I take the truth of the word
of God. I live the truth of the, you're the compromiser. I'm the
one that's strong. You're the one that succumbed
to the pressures of the outward world. So what do we do in a
situation like that? We have to reason together. We
have to talk these things through. We have to come under the gospel.
We have to think about the fact that these things are differences
of opinions amongst true believers. Some are strong, some are weak.
and we have to work through these things together, but we haven't
to judge one another to the detriment of the body. Now, we are not
to compromise on the truth of the Word of God, and we are not
to allow error to come in to moderate the truth that the Lord
has given us. But in matters of little significance,
Let the wise be wise and let the strong accommodate and forbear
with the weak and the foolish. Look at verse 13. Chapter 14 again, verse 13. It
says, let us not therefore judge one another anymore. 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 is nothing unclean of itself, but to him
that he steameth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Now, if you make a big thing
about pork to an individual, And that person has a conscience
about eating it. It's not a problem for you. Eat
as much as you like. Go ahead. But don't force that
man to eat it. Don't do that. Because it is
wrong for him to do it because his conscience is not clear on
this subject. The kingdom of God isn't about
food and drink. But there are those who are weak
in the faith and we've not to put a stumbling block before
those people so that their consciences are grieved by the things that
they are called upon to do. A pastor, and I'm not just speaking
about an individual that stands up at the front and does the
preaching, a pastor, tenderly leads from the front with love. And we all have a responsibility
in the body of Christ to serve one another, minister to one
another in such matters. We don't whip the sheep along
from behind with a stick. And what does that lead to? Well,
it leads again in verse 17 to the joy in the Holy Ghost because
there is a spirit in the congregation. There is a joy which we have
together in the Lord in the things of our faith. Peace reigns amongst
the brethren who are committed to each other, neither to grieve
one another nor to crush one another upon these different
ways of looking at things. And that's a lovely principle
of Christian conduct that is to rule the Church of Christ.
Romans 14 verse 18 says, for he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. These things
being the love and consideration of one another because we know
that we are of the faith. Let us therefore follow after
the things which make for peace and things were with one may
edify another. So eating meat or not eating
meat or whatever the matter is, it's not going to destroy a work
of grace in a man's heart, but it might cause a breach of fellowship
between two believers. Let us leave aside, therefore,
those things which are insignificant and immaterial matters, and let
us concentrate upon those things which edify and enhance the body
of Christ. Paul says, all things are pure.
Nothing that is done in this flesh will prevent one for whom
Christ died from going to heaven. Think about that for a moment.
Nothing that is done in this flesh, in this flesh, will prevent
one for whom Christ died from going to heaven. Nothing that
is left undone in this body of flesh will prevent one for whom
Christ died from going to heaven. People that have lived throughout
the ages, throughout the generations, throughout the history of the
church, have known an environment, a set of circumstances in their
life, which have led them on one path or another. But if they
were the Lords, they're in heaven today. Whether they did all the
things that we think are important to do, or whether they did some
things that we think they shouldn't have been doing. If the Lord
Jesus Christ died for them, if they stand before their master,
who are we to judge them? All things are pure. There's nothing that we don't
do that will prevent a believer from that union with his Lord. But equally, let a man be circumspect
neither to stumble a weaker brother nor to compromise our own testimony
before the Lord. What a shame it would be if we
became high-minded and heavy-handed upon some weaker brother and
drove him from our company and out from underneath the sound
of the gospel because of things that were insignificant and immaterial. because we decided that he wasn't
dressed right or he didn't speak properly or he said things he
shouldn't say. Rather, we have a love and a
care and a concern for one another. And I'm pleased that the Apostle
Paul added the example of wine to the meat here, because meat
isn't really a great problem for any of us, is it? I don't
suppose there's too many of us that don't eat pork. If you don't,
I know some people are vegetarians, but that's another thing. But
he added wine, he added alcohol. And that has been an area in
the Christian church where there have been strong views and strong
opinions. If you have peace of mind before
God about drinking alcohol, you go ahead and drink your alcohol. And if you don't have peace of
mind about drinking alcohol, then don't drink it. But drunkenness is unbecoming. to the gospel testimony and to
the testimony of Christ. And thus we establish principles
of moderation here. Because those who know the Lord,
those who put on Christ, discover that there are things that they
say and things that they do, ways that they live, which become
a hurdle to our brothers and sisters, become a stumbling block
to our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And that, though I
have liberty to drink alcohol and do, If I do it to the heart
of a brother or a sister in Christ, if they see me in a place where
it offends them that I am doing something in company with people
that it offends them in their spirit and in their conscience
because of that, then I need to be circumspect about that.
I need to be thinking less about my own liberty and more about
the sensitivities of that brother in Christ. If a brother is offended, how
do you know but that he's a recovering alcoholic? How do you know but that he is
not a victim of a family breakdown that occurred because of alcohol
abuse? You need to be sensitive to that.
You need to be aware of these things. That while you have liberty
in your own conscience to follow a particular course, not to the
heart of another. It is better to forgo our freedom
than to hurt a brother or a sister in the Lord. Paul says to the
Corinthians, all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not
expedient. All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be brought under the power of any. We are servants
of Christ, and to be a servant means something. You're not a
free agent. You're a servant, and that means
you're in service, and that means you've got obligation to your
Lord. You are in the kingdom of God. That means there's a king over
you. We are redeemed by blood. We
are not our own to serve our lusts, to serve our flesh. Our
bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And these principles
of love and patience and sensitivity to our brethren, a mutual caring
one for another, are the ways by which we glorify Christ and
nurture the body of Christ. John chapter 13 verse 35, the
Lord is speaking to his disciples and he says, By this shall all
men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us this evening.