This will be our last study in
this chapter, and I wanted to dwell mainly upon this one subject.
We announced it last week, and I want to read the verse here
in Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 26. And thou shalt bestow
that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen,
or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever
thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy
God, and thou shalt rejoice thou in thine household." Now, this
was pertaining to their interest into the land of Canaan when
the Lord had chose the city, Jerusalem, to put His name there. They were going to build a temple,
and He said, when you are in the uttermost counties We would
call them today when you were way up north or way down south,
and you're going to bring your tithes to Jerusalem to worship,
and you can't carry it all, turn it into money. In other words,
sell it, get money out of it, bring your money to Jerusalem,
and there you can buy oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink
or whatever your soul desires. And that's our subject this afternoon,
wine and strong drink. Wine and strong drink. And I
want to deal with this because there's issues involved in this.
And I just want to tackle it and look at it. But there's two
questions that I want to ask us first of all. And I think
these questions will help us in understanding this subject
this afternoon. The first one is this. Are you
and I willing to trust God? I mean, in His words. what he
says in his word, to have the final say to our faith and our
practice. Are you willing, am I willing,
to trust God in his word to tell me absolutely what I'm to believe
and what I'm to do in my life? Are we willing to trust God?
That's the first question. The second question is this.
Are we willing to trust our brothers and sisters? the saints, the
believers, and the Lord, to walk by that rule. Two questions. Are we willing to trust God,
whatever He reveals in His Word? Do we trust our brothers and
sisters to walk according to that rule? Now, you'll see why
I ask you these two questions. I want to study this subject
tonight, but I don't want to bring in my personal opinion.
And I don't want to try to find out what you believe about this
subject and preach your personal opinion. I don't want to bring
in my family culture. I know how I was raised in the
hills of Tennessee to believe about wine and strong drink.
I don't want to bring in any personal convictions or my opinion. I want to bring wholly and totally
the Word of God concerning this subject. One thing I've noticed
in my studies, and maybe you've noticed in your studies too,
if I deliberately shy away from studying the subject, it usually comes back in a negative
way to me. It usually comes back that I
wish I had of studied that subject. Because if I've truly studied
a subject out, I've always found this, it's either helped me or
helped somebody else I talked to. None of us completely understands
every subject in the Scripture. If a man tells you that, he's
not telling you the truth. None of us understand all the
subject in the Scripture. And I'll be honest with you,
the more I study, the bigger the Bible gets. It just gets
bigger and bigger and bigger. But if we'll take the time to
study subjects out, it'll help us. It'll help us. And think about this, there's
no subject in this Bible that will hurt you if you come to
the knowledge of it. I have had times when I was scared
to death, afraid to study a certain subject in the Bible. But I learned
better than that. I finally realized this subject
will not hurt me. It can only do me good if I'll
come to the knowledge of it. And it'll do other people good
if you'll come to the knowledge of it. Because the Lord is out
to use you somewhere at some time in studying that subject. Now, having said that, I want
to make a statement that may shock you. There was a time it
would have shocked me. It's this, the Bible does not
teach the necessity of total abstinence from wine and strong
drinks. Now does that shock you? There
was a few years ago that would have shocked me. And I would
have been so shocked by it that I would have probably ran you
out of town if I had the authority and the power on a rail and tarred
and feathered you. That's how dogmatic I was about
the subject. I could tell you what my personal
convictions were. I was raised in Tennessee. My
dad was a Free Will Baptist preacher, and I was raised, if you ever
took any alcoholic beverages as a beverage, then you had committed
an awful sin. That's the way I was raised,
and that was my personal conviction. There was something that happened
to me not long after the Lord saved me, and I blessed Him for
it. I wouldn't go back to it again for all the world. I got
in an awful, awful trial right after the Lord saved me. I mean,
darkness came upon me. It was the worst time for probably
two or three years in my lifetime. But there was something good
that came out of that, and it was this. When I came out on
the other side of that trial, and I tell you, I went for a
year or two, I didn't think I was going to get out of it. I thought,
this is a death that I'll never get out of. But the Lord brought
me through that dark trial in my life. And when I came out
on the other side, one of the things I noticed that He taught
me was this. The only thing I had to hope
in was His Word. I don't call it a profound, but
there was a deep, settled reverence. a deeper reverence for God's
Word when I came out of that trial than when I went in that
trial. When I came out of it, it wasn't my understanding anymore.
It was His Word. It wasn't my conscience anymore.
It was His Word. It wasn't what my family believed
or taught me or friends or what the preacher said, but it was
this Word. You know what I'm saying, don't
you? When we fear His Word, when we have a deep reverence for
His Word, we reach the place that that's all that matters. What does the Word of God teach? That's all I wanted to know when
I came through that trial, boy. It didn't matter. It didn't matter
what I thought before, what my personal conviction was before,
what my dad, mom, whoever taught me anything. It just didn't matter.
It wasn't that I didn't care what people believed. But there's
something more important. And that was the Word of God.
What does it teach? I had my personal convictions
I relied upon, my family cultures. I saw awful examples of abuse,
strong drink and wine. And I could go to all of that
and make my argument. But I had no knowledge of God's
Word as what it taught to this subject. So, He brought me to the place
where I became willing to trust Him as He teaches me in His Word. And that's why I asked you that
question. Are we willing to trust Him on every subject He teaches? Are we willing to trust Him? Now, I got through that. I got through that. I became
willing to trust Him. Whatever Lord you teach, but
I'm telling you this second question I still have trouble with. Am I willing to trust you? Am I willing to trust the Lord's
little children that you will walk according to the rule of
His Word? Here's where I find problems
even today with this. You find problems with that?
Let me give you an example. When I make the statement that
the scripture doesn't teach total abstinence from wine and strong
drink, what's the thought that went through your mind? Bruce,
are you telling us that it's all right for us just to go get
a bottle of wine, a fifth of whiskey and just drink and drink
and drink until we're drunk? Is that what you're telling us?
That's the very conclusion I'd have jumped to just a few years
ago. I'd have started accusing you. and everybody else, because
I don't trust you. I trust God. I trust Him and
His Word, but I don't trust you to walk according to that rule.
So what did I do? Well, I began to accuse people
in my mind. I began to think all kinds of
evil thoughts, judgmental thoughts against them. Now, you say, don't
man abuse things? Boy, he does, don't he? And that's
our problem. We've got a good example right
here in this passage. The Lord told them to sell their
oxen and all this, turn in the money, go up to the temple. Remember
what was happening in the New Testament? Remember when they
did that? Then they came up to the temple
to worship, and what was going on in the temple? They began
to abuse this. He trusted them. to know better
not to abuse this commandment. But what did they do? They brought
their oxen and their sheep and their money changers right into
the temple. Remember that? And when they
came up here to exchange that money, where did they go to do
it? Right in the holy place of worship. Oxens bleated. Chickens crowed while they went
in there to worship the Lord. Well, I doubt there's any chickens.
Well, feeding chickens, but there's other animals, oxen, bleating
and bellowing, right in the worship. What did the Master do? He said,
I gave you a commandment, but look how you've abused me. There's
stalls, there's delivery stables outside of town. Go there and
buy your oxen. Go there and buy your sacrifices.
But you come in here to the house of God, my Father's house, which
is a house of prayer. Men are always abusing things,
aren't they not? Yes, they are. They sure are. So we can't say man will abuse
it. So let's just prevent it. Is drunkenness a sin? Oh, my
goodness, it's a sin, isn't it? This is 1 Corinthians 6. Know
you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of heaven? Be not deceived, neither Drunkards. Neither drunkards. This sin, some of God's children
have fallen into themselves to their own shame and their own
confusion. Remember Noah? Four hundred, I think, and thirty-five
years old. When you think a fellow lived
that long, he'd know better. But he got drunk, did he not?
What happened? Shamed. He was shamed. His son
or his grandson looked upon His messenger. Remember Lot? Remember
Lot? Remember what happened to him? Remember the Corinthian church?
Some of them got mixed up in drunkenness right in the communion
service. So this is, it can be an awful,
awful sin. But our subject tonight is not
about drunkenness. The Bible not teaching total
abstinence from wine and from strong drink. Somebody will say
this. Why not just forbid it then?
Why not just teach total abstinence? Well, you'll have to take that
up with the Lord. I don't know. If I hadn't found it in you,
I'd teach that and I'd command that and I'd forbid any taking
of wine or strong drink. But He doesn't. He doesn't. One thing that bothers me, these
commentators and preachers, bless their hearts, they won't trust
the Lord to give the final say on this subject. They just won't
trust Him. And if you ask them if they trust
Him, they'd say, yeah, we trust Him, but it's the saints we don't
trust. I heard a preacher preach a message on this one time, and
it had been years ago, and he came to the conclusion that total
abstinence wasn't taught in the Bible. And then he proceeded
to all but command everybody to totally abstain. That sort of bothers me. It bothers
me. It comes to that second question,
I think. Someone said this, God's children in the Bible never drank
fermented wine but grape juice. Let me read some passages of
Scripture for you. Genesis chapter 9 and verse 20.
Listen to this. Noah planted a vineyard and drank
of the wine and was drunk. And was drunk. He drank of the
wine. Genesis chapter 19 and verse
32. Lot's daughters made him drink
of the wine and the firstborn lay with him that night and he
perceived not when she lay down or when she arose. Why? He was
drunk. Drunk on wine. Listen to Ephesians
chapter 5 verse 18. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess. Now you may get sick drinking
too much grape juice, but you can't get drunk on grape juice.
It's wine that you get drunk on. Listen to Acts chapter 2
verse 13. This is the day of Pentecost
when the disciples were speaking in tongues. Some of them didn't
understand. And here's what they accused
them of. These men are full of new wine. New wine was strong
stuff. It was strong stuff. And Peter
said, these are not drunken as you suppose. New wine, drunken
as you suppose. And in 1 Corinthians chapter
11 where Paul was rebuking the Corinthians because they were
bringing in their meals and their wine and separating themselves. Those who were rich, they had
plenty. They'd bring in a big meal and they'd get over in the
corner with their family. or you were some poor family
over here that had nothing. And Paul rebuked them for that,
and he said, here you are, and you've got plenty. And some other
people are hungry. And you're drunken. You're drunken. Wasn't that an awful thing to
do there? They came out of heathenism where they used wine and strong
drink and abused it, and they fell right back into this, even
in the Communions. But I showed you, I was telling
you that to show you that wine that they used in the Scripture
for the most part was fermented wine. It's fermented wine. Albert Barnes and Adam Clark,
both of them were very, they were sort of part, Dave, on theology,
but both of them were teetoters. Boy, I mean, total abstinence,
both of them were. But both of them, when they came
to the communion, used fermented wine. Both did. And that's what they say the
Jews used and the early church used. Both men agreed to that.
So I wanted to show you that, that this was not grape juice.
You can't get drunk on grape juice, but it takes fermented
wine. The wine in the Bible is not
always fermented. They call just about everything
wine. They made wine and they had grape juice, but they didn't
call it that, they called it wine. Then they made fermented
wine, some of it was wheat wine, and some of it was strong wine,
the new wine, and some of it was vinegar. We call it sour
vinegar. But they had different processes
of making wine. You often read about the wine
press in the Old Testament and the New Testament. They had wine
presses. That was a huge container that they would dump the grapes
in. Underneath that, they had a vat. It was some kind of container.
The wine press had holes in it, and they'd dump the grapes in
there. Sometimes they'd walk on it.
Sometimes they had poles that they would jar the grapes and
squash the grapes. It would come out in the vat,
in the little container at the bottom. Sometimes they would
drink the grape juice that was in that, but they called it the
wine press because everything that came out of the grape was
called wine. You never read the word grape
juice in the Bible. It's not in there. It's wine.
It's wine. John Gill commented on Deuteronomy
3, verse 14. The Lord was talking about the
blessings, especially that they'd obtained in the land of Cana.
And here's what he said. Thou didst drink the pure blood
of the grape. The pure blood of the grape. John Gill was commenting on that,
and he knew all about Jewish history. And he said the way
they got the purest grape juice, and I can't imagine what grapes
in the land of Canaan would taste like. Still, I guess to this
day, some of the best grapes in the world. But back then,
they were. But Gill said, with these pure blood of the grapes,
they'd find the choices great, and they handled them real careful.
If they could find a huge cluster and all of them were ready to
explode. They were just ready to explode.
And he said they would take them and they would dump them in the
wine press. And they would pour other ripe
grapes in on top of them. And he said under that pressure
those grapes would just explode and that juice of those ripe
grapes would run down through the wine press into that vat.
And they said that was the choicest wine. It wasn't fermented yet. But what they'd do, they would
drink that, and then they'd keep the rest to make wine or vinegar
or other things out of. Look here with me. We even have
a record of that. It's down in Egypt. Look in Genesis
chapter 40. The Jews drank a lot of their
grape juice this way, and they made wine out of the rest. But we have a record of that
concerning The butler, remember the butler and the baker? I told
Brother Larry, when Side Note Brother Larry come in, I said
something to him about we were the butlers and he's the baker.
I said, you're the bakers and we're the butlers. And I reminded
him the bakers had his head lifted up. Remember that? The butler
was spurred, but the bakers got his head lifted off his shoulders
by a favor of God. But here in verse 9 of Genesis
chapter 40, This is the way they did it in Egypt, but this is
also a type of the way they did it down in Canaan also. In verse 9 of chapter 40 of Genesis,
and the chief butler, this is where Joseph was in jail, remember?
And Joseph told their dream. And the chief butler told his
dream to Joseph and said unto him, In my dream behold a vine,
a great vine, was before me. And in the vine there were three
branches and it was And it was as though it budded, and her
blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth
ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,
and I took the grapes and pressed them unto Pharaoh's cup, and
I gave the cup unto Pharaoh's hand." That basically is what
they did in the wine presses, only it was in a much bigger
process. They took these ripe, ripe grapes,
and they were ready to burst anyway, and they just pushed
them, and I don't know if he had little holes in the cup that
went down in another container, but pure grape juice. Just pure
grape juice. You know, you can't, I was talking
to the representative from Wellesley's Grape Juice Company just the
other day, and the representative was telling me about they had
a wine now that they've been producing for the communion of
some people. And it's supposed to be a purple
wine of pure grape juice. Well, I doubt it. I just doubt
it. Because when you read on their
label, 100% grape juice, well, just read right on to the contents.
And it starts out with filtered water and calcium, some kind
of chloride and stuff. And all this is not pure grape
juice. I hope that they have this pure. But I can't imagine
what this tasted like. Can you? The pure blood of the
grape. And they use grape juice because
it's only, it's grapes because it's only the grape, the purple,
deep purple that represented the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I imagine, well, history
tells us that that was indeed fermented. So there we have what
we would call grape juice, but it's the pure blood of the grape.
Now I want to look further and I want you to go to some scriptures
with me. to look at the Scriptures concerning the fermented wine,
what we know to be fermented wine. Okay? Look at some Scriptures
with me. Look in 1 Timothy chapter 3,
all the way over in the New Testament, 1 Timothy chapter 3. If you have a few Bibles, you'll
find it on page 1293, 1 Timothy chapter 3. Look in verse 3 and verse 8.
This was concerning the pastors, the bishops, the elders. A bishop,
in verse 2, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant,
sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach,
not given to wine. That word there means addicted.
Not addicted to wine. Must not be addicted to wine.
But look down in verse 8. Likewise must the deacons be
graved, not double-tongued, not given to much wine. How much
is too much? That's what we've got to be careful.
That's what we'll talk about in just a minute. But see, he
doesn't forbid, does he? Not given to much wine, but he
did say not given to any wine. And in verse 3, it means don't
be addicted. Don't be addicted to anything.
except the Lord in spiritual things. Likewise, must the deacons
be great, not double-tongued, not given too much wine. Look in another passage. Look
in chapter 5 in verse 23. Paul was writing to this young
preacher, Timothy. And from what he tells us here,
Timothy didn't drink any wine. He didn't use any wine at all.
He is what we call a teetotaler. He never used anything like that.
He had some stomach trouble. And Paul wrote this to him in
verse 23, and he said, drink no longer water. In every commentary
I've read, it says, drink no longer only water. Now that could
be right or not, I don't know. But use a little wine for thy
stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. If Paul hadn't wrote
to this man that it was all right to use some wine, this young
man would have never did it. I mean, for some reason or another,
he just abstained from wine. He had a stomach trouble and
an ailment, and Paul told him that wine would help him. I don't
know if he's going to mix it with his water or what, but he
said, use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. So what I'm telling
you here is that the Scriptures does not forbid the use of wine. or strong drink, for many wine,
for many wine. Look here in Titus chapter 2,
right on to your right, in Titus chapter 2. Go past 2 Timothy
in Titus chapter 2. And he says almost the same thing.
Titus chapter 2 in verse 3, he's speaking to the aged women, what
examples they should be in their behavior. The aged women likewise,
that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, Not false accusers,
not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. Not given to much wine. But it doesn't forbid it, does
it? It doesn't forbid it. One more passage, look in 1 Peter
chapter 4, in verse 3. On over to your right, in 1 Peter
chapter 4, in verse 3. Look in verse 3. The time past
of our life, here's Peter speaking of his own life before the Lord
saved him, may suppleth us to have wrought the will of the
Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, in lust and excess of wine. Excess of wine. Be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess. But it doesn't forbid the use
of it, does it? Now, having said that, I want
to give us some cautions, okay? I say cautions, not blame. I'm not here to blame. I'm not
here to accuse. I'm not here to be judgmental.
But I do want to give some cautions. First of all, looking at this
subject like we have tonight in our text, when he said, Whatsoever
your soul desire, now we know that has to be qualified. Whatever
mess, you wouldn't go after everything your mind thought of, would you?
Well, of course you wouldn't. But, he did not forbid wine and
strong drink. So we looked at that as best
we can, different places in the scripture, where it's not forbidden,
but having looked at it, we want to stress some things. First
of all, we want to stress what? Temperance. Temperance. Temperance. You know, we talk
about that, but I tell you, this is so important, is it not? Temperance
in all things. Self-control in everything. You know temperance is a fruit
of the Spirit. Temperance is what we're to add to our faith.
Self-control. But self-control in everything. Not just this, but in everything. And I've seen this and you've
seen this. You've seen these preachers, bless their hearts,
they've got bellies so big that they look like they're going
to push them around in wheelbarrows. But what do they do? They're
preaching on total abstinence. If you drink a little wine, then
they start bringing all this accusation in. You know when the Scripture teaches
temperance, it teaches temperance in food as well as drink. Solomon said it like this, he
said, blessed is your land when your king is royalty, he comes
from the royal family, and your princess eat in due season for
health and not for drunkenness. You know that word drunkenness
is the same word we use for being intoxicated with wine and stone
drink? It applies to food as well as
stone drink. So the first thing we have to
be concerned with is temperance, self-control. The second one
is this. We have to stress the danger
of wine and strong drink if it's abused. If it's abused, what
happens? A person takes its liberty and
turns it into a sin. You have to be careful with that,
don't you? You have to be careful with that. Listen to these passages. Wine is a marker. and strong
drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise."
Deceived? How can wine and strong drink
deceive somebody? When you don't know and you don't
forget that it can mock you. When you forget that it can get
you out of your mind. When you forget that it can take
control of you and have you thinking things and doing things and saying
things that you would not do. Listen to this, look not on the
wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup,
when it moveth itself aright. That word look not means to lust
not after. It's the same word our Lord Jesus
said, look not on a woman, to lust after. You mean it's sinful
to look on a woman? Why no, unless you lust an actor. Is it sinful to taste wine? When it's fermented, no, but
it is when you become addicted to it. It is when you lust after
it and say, I gotta have more of it, gotta have more of it,
until it mops you. Some of you were at my house
the other night, and my neighbor, bless her heart, she came out
and she, I can tell, I can see it in her face, her face gets
real red, and she's got her cup in her hand, she's walking out
in the yard, and after a while, she's out to head over to my
house if I get out in the yard. She headed over there the other
night. Some of you saw her stumble and fall. Mop tip. Get a mop tip. So remember that. Remember that temperance, self-control
in this, and remember the danger of wine and strong drink. Don't
forget Noah. Don't forget Lot. Don't forget
the Corinthians. Now I want you to turn over to
Romans 14, and I want to end our study with this. And I think
this is some instruction for all of us. Romans chapter 14. Let's begin reading here in verse
1. This chapter is about things
the old Puritans used to call things that are indifferent.
It wasn't things that would be a sin to partake of it. They
were things indifferent. Certain drinks and certain meats,
they called them things indifferent. And they had a lot of trouble
in the New Testament over this. And it produces some trouble
today, doesn't it? I know when I first came out
of the hills and came to Indiana, I had a neighbor that loved to
sit down and drink a beer. And I put him in hell right quick
for it. Lost a good friend, basically, because of it. I could have handled
that a lot better if I'd have known the truth about something.
That's what the Apostle Paul here is talking about. You who
can eat certain meats. Well, certain Jews couldn't eat
certain meats. It was a trial during the transition, and these
Jews could not bring themselves to eat pork. Pork was a sin. And if you had a Gentile that
sat down to eat with a Jew, and the Jew said, Boy, you're an
ungodly man eating that pork. And the Gentiles said, well,
you're a self-righteous, no good for nothing, sorry man. You're
distrusting your own righteousness. That's what's the matter with
you. And there was this conflict created. Boy, it was awful. At least some could use wine
and some couldn't. And they started condemning each
other and despising each other. That's what the 14th chapter
of Romans is about. Now let's look at it. Him that
is weak in the faith. Boy, he's weak. He doesn't know
what he can eat, what he can drink, what he can't eat, what
he can drink. I mean, his conscience, he's weak. But receive him, but
not to doubtful disputations. He's weak in the faith, but he's
not lost. The faith that he has is a gift
of God. He truly believes in Christ.
His understanding is not lightened very much in these things. For
one believes that he may eat all things. Those chocolate-covered grasshoppers. But some can't. Some can't. Some can eat pork and some can't.
Another who is weak, he has to eat herbs. He's got awful meat
altogether. His conscience won't let him
eat it. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not. I ain't going to sit and eat
with you anymore. Because you can't eat anything.
Here I am eating pork and you've got me feeling bad because you
can't eat it. Here I am using a little wine and drinking a
little wine for my meal, but you're condemning me for that
because you can't do it. And I just ain't going to eat
with you anymore. I just despise sitting down and eating with
you. Well, look at the other side. And let not him which eateth
not judge him that eateth. Don't look in there and see him
eating pork and say, Man, you're sinning against God. That's wrong. Don't look at Him that's using
a little wine and say, that's a sin. Because it's a sin to
you, it may not be to Him. Look at this. For God hath received
Him. See that? Who art thou that judgest
another man's servant? To his own master he stands or
falls, Yea, he shall be holding up. He may be weak and not able
to eat a meat or drink a little wine, but God will hold him up. He may use meat and use some
wine. God will hold him up. He is God's
servant. For God is able to make him stand.
Then he gets off on days. One man esteemeth one day above
another. Another esteemeth every day of
life. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He
that regardeth the days, regardeth it to the Lord. And he that regardeth
not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth,
he eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he that
eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and he gives God's thanks. He's thankful. Whether he can
eat it or not, he's thankful. If he can eat it and drink it,
he's thankful. Anything, brothers and sisters, we can do that the
Word of God doesn't forbid us to do, If we can do it with thankfulness, then that's fine. That's fine. If you can't bow your head and
give the Lord thanks for it without your conscience condemning you,
then for God's sake, don't do it. It's never safe to go contrary
to the Word of God. It's never safe to go contrary
to your conscience. Don't violate either one of those.
It's dangerous. If you can say it and give God
thanks for it, and there's no Scripture that teaches you otherwise,
then you're clarion. You're clarion. None of us live
to himself. No man dies to himself. Whether
we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the
Lord. Whether, therefore, we live or die, we're the Lord's.
To this end, Christ both died, revived, and rose again, that
He might be Lord both of the dead and the living. But why
dost thou judge your brother? Why are you judging your brother?
Why don't you trust Him? Why are you judging Him? That's
just not right, is it? He's got a master. He has the
Spirit of God in His heart. Stop judging Him. That comes
to my question, doesn't it? Do we trust one another to walk
according to the rule of God's Word? These people weren't. They were judging. It's just
not right for you to eat that poor It's just not right. And look
at this. And why dost thou set it not?
Why do you despise your brethren? So he deals with both sides,
doesn't he? Those who can't and those who can. Those who can
do it, stop despising those who can't. And those who can't do
it, stop judging those who can in these things. 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 on an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Now notice
verse 14. I know and I am persuaded by
the Lord Jesus. that there is nothing unclean
of itself." Nothing unclean of itself. There's no meat. I think he was speaking here
primarily to these poor Jews that couldn't come from under
the ceremonial law and eat these things freely. But to him that
esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. He begins to go a little bit
deeper and deals with this portion of it. Now look at this. But,
but, it's not unclean. It's not forbidden. But, but,
if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, with thy food, with
thy drink, how walkest thou not in love? Charitableness. Destroy not him with your meat
for whom Christ died. In whatever sense that means
to destroy a poor believer. Don't do him any harm with your
liberty. See what he's saying. Let not
then your good be evil spoken of. For the kingdom of God is
not in meat and drink anyway. It's in righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable of God and approved to man. Let us, therefore,
follow after things which make for peace, and things wherein
one may edify another. For meat destroyeth 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 any thing whereby thy brother
stumbleth, or is offended. are his made weak. Hast thou
faith? Look at this. Have it to yourself
and before God. Happy is he that condemneth not
himself in that which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is condemned,
he is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith, for whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. Is that pretty clear? Well, it's
as clear as I can make it. It's as clear as I can make it.
What the Lord doesn't forbid, I dare not forbid. I cannot. And I will not. But there are instructions that
goes along with that, and we've looked at some of them as well.
Okay?