the book of Romans chapter 14. The title of my message is Christian
Liberty and Christian Love. Christian Liberty and Christian
Love. Let's read the 14th chapter of
Romans and then let me bring the message. I want you to pay
A careful attention now to this scripture, Romans 14. 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 only
herbs or vegetables, no meat. Well, 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. Who art thou
that judges another man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. One man 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 does not regard it. He that eateth,
eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks for what he has. He
that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not. He gives thanks
for what he has. None of us live it to himself.
No man dies to himself. Whether we live, we live unto
the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we
live therefore or die, we're his. We're the Lord's. We're
his servants, his children. For to this end, Christ both
died and rose and revived that he might be master, Lord. both of the dead and the living.
But why dost thou judge thy brother? Why dost thou set it naught,
thy brother? For we shall all, or we do all,
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written,
As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me. Not to
one another, to the Lord. And every tongue shall confess
that he is Lord to God. for the glory of God. So then,
every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. We
hold no account of ourselves to one another but 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, there is nothing unclean of itself, food or drink
or material things. But to him that esteemeth anything
to be forbidden, unclean is to him it is forbidden. But if thou,
brother, be grieved with thy meat, thou walkest thou not charitably
according to charity and love. Destroy not him with thy meat
for whom Christ died. Don't put a stumbling block in
his way with your liberty. Let not then your good be evil
spoken of. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but it's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. And he that in these things serveth
Christ, in what things? Righteousness, peace, and joy,
is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore follow
after the things which make for peace. Let's work those things
over instead of the things that divide us. Let's major on the
things that make for peace. Follow after them, major on them,
pursue them. And things wherewith we may edify
one another, not divide one another and trouble one another. For
me, in settling issues on meat and days and drink, don't destroy
the work of God, don't make that a rule. point of division. All things indeed are pure, but
it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. 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,
liberty? Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he
allows. If your heart condemns you not
before God, you're happy. When you find liberty and maturity
in Christ, you're happy. That's a happy state. Not to
be bound by laws and rules and things of this nature, but to
be free in Christ. If the Son makes you free, you're
free. Not to dwell on things, but on Him. And he that doubteth,
though, He is still bound by the tradition and customs. He's
destroyed, not damned. His soul is not damned, but he's
destroyed. He's devastated, if he does it
anyway. He's devastated because he is
not of faith. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. Now, hold on to your seats tonight. I never have been a
shrinking violet when it came to dealing with things. I usually
try to be as honest and plain as I can be. And the reason for
that is I want to be honest with you. And I want to, in my preaching,
glorify God. And I'm not afraid of anyone
or anything. And I'm not afraid of being fired
because y'all wouldn't put an old man out on the street, especially
an old couple. So I'm pretty safe in being honest
with this congregation. I always tried to be, and I'm
going to keep trying to do so. Now then, I worked on this today,
and I want you to listen to it. This portion of Scripture, Romans
14, that I've just read in your hearing, and you listened real
well, this is written to believers, true believers. This is to believers. This scripture is not written
to church members per se, not written to professors of religion,
it's not written to the general so-called Christian population. This scripture is written to
men and women and young people who are separated to God and
to the gospel. This is written to people who
are dedicated to Christ. They know him and they love him
and they belong to him. And they're committed to Jesus
Christ. Now that's the people to whom this is written. It says
so back in verse 14. Look at the preceding verse of
chapter 13. Preceding chapter 13, verse 14,
just before we move into this scripture, it says, But put ye
on the Lord Jesus Christ. What's that saying? Clothe yourself
with Christ. That's what that's saying. Literally,
clothe yourself with Christ. That's the people to whom this
is written. Of course, we're clothed in His spotless, imputed
righteousness before God by faith. That He is my righteousness,
Christ. That's established, first of all. He is my righteousness.
I'm clothed in His spotless, infinite righteousness by faith
before God Almighty. But I'm also in Christ by faith
in that I have received Him to be my Lord and Master. He is
my Lord. No question about that. He's
my Lord. In a strong, intimate, personal way, I have received
Jesus Christ. It's not just walking in an aisle,
making a little profession of faith, but Christ is, this is
written to people of whom it can be said Jesus Christ is their
life. And it's also to imitate Him.
We want to imitate Him. We want to be like Christ. We
want to love as he loved. We want to walk as he walked.
We want to forgive as he forgave. We want to submit to the will
of God like he submitted to the will of God. And these instructions
are for people with that motive. They want to be like Christ.
They want to live for the glory of Christ. And secondly, this
portion of scripture deals with the attitude with the attitude
of true believers toward one another in reference to the disputes
and disagreements which arise over some of these things. My attitude toward you and your
attitude toward one another and your attitude toward me in reference
to some disputes and disagreements which arise over certain things.
For example, these disagreements arise over the observance of
certain days, certain days, holy days, Sabbath days, special days. These disagreements may arise
over these days. Secondly, these disagreements
may arise over what food to eat, or drinks, or personal habits. These disagreements and disputes
arise. I'm going to deal with some in
a moment. In other words, there are conflicts, conflicts over
things which are not specifically commanded or forbidden in the
Word of God. In other words, if we have a
dispute, and you say this is right and I say it's wrong, and
we can turn to the verse of Scripture, and the verse of Scripture says
it's wrong, one of us better straighten up. But we have these disagreements
over Things that are not specifically dealt with in the Word of God.
Let me give you an example. One of my dear friends, a member
of this congregation, was out on the job one day, and there
were three or four fellows standing around. They matched to see who
would buy the Coca-Cola's. They all got a dime out and flipped
it and matched it. And he hadn't been in the church
too long or something like that or believed in too long. He just
said, that's a sin. And one of the men said, who
said so? He said, well, the Bible. The fellow said, show it to me.
So he called me and he said, preacher, I'm up a tree. I said,
which tree are you up? He said, where in the Bible does
it say that you can't match for Coca-Cola's? I said, well, it's not there. Well, do you think it's wrong
for these fellows to match for Coca-Cola's? I said, I don't. I don't. I see no problem. You see what I'm saying? And
that's just a simple illustration, but there are disputes and disagreements
that arise all the time over things that are not specifically
forbidden or commanded in the Word of God. Now, understand
this before I get into this chapter. Note this carefully. These disputes
and conflicts are not disagreement over the gospel of substitution.
Now, we're not dealing with that at all. Paul wouldn't for a moment
tolerate another gospel. We're not going to debate whether
God's sovereign or not. We're not going to debate whether
man's lost or not. We're not going to debate whether
God elected a people or not. We're not going to debate whether
or not the Holy Spirit awakens, regenerates, and calls sinners.
We're not going to debate over the efficacy of the blood of
Jesus Christ. We're not going to debate over
His righteousness. Like I told the fellows in the
school the first day, I said, it's tulip or termination. This
is not up for debate. We're not going to debate over
perseverance. You see, we're not talking about the gospel
of substitution here now. No, sir, not at all. Not at all. Anything having to do with the
personal work of our Lord Jesus Christ, God lays it down and
nails it down very specifically and firmly and without question. Nor is this a disagreement over
the moral law of God. We're not going to debate over
taking God's name in vain. We're not going to debate over
idols and idolatry. We're not going to debate over
having any other God or honoring Father. We're not going to debate
over lying or adultery or stealing or covetousness. The law of God
is not up for debate. It's not up for question. Those
things that are specifically commanded or forbidden in the
word of God, He said you love one another as I love you. I
command you to do that. I command you to do that. So
that's not the issue. That's not the dispute. And the
disagreement is not over repentance. A man will repent or he'll perish.
It's not over faith. A man will believe or he'll die
in sin. Christ said if you don't believe
that I'm He, you'll die in sin. We're not debating over true
inward and outward godliness. We want to walk in honesty. Look back here at verse 13 of
chapter 13. Let us walk honestly in the day. We're not looking for an excuse
to sin. When I deal with this chapter,
I'm not looking for an excuse to sin. I want us to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of Christ and in holiness and honesty
and righteousness, uprightness with a good testimony before
this world. That men may see your good works
and glorify our Father which is in heaven. My reason for preaching
this is not at all a disagreement over true godliness and true
repentance and true faith and true Christian growth. I beseech
you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, Jim Redding,
when last week did you present your bodies, a living sacrifice
wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. But
I'm talking about disputes which arise over the observance of
days. the keeping of certain days,
holy days, the eating of certain food, like a preacher out in
Texas built part of his ministry on abstaining from pork, wouldn't
have a pig on the place, you know, all this sort of thing.
Meat, you know, forbidden to the Jews in the Old Testament. And then again, now listen to
this. You and I were raised with certain taboos, not the young
people in this church, but the some of you older folks, we were
raised with certain taboos and traditions associated with so-called
holiness. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Some of us were brought up in
misery, in misery, with these taboos and traditions, and they
were handed down by religious zealots. Somebody told me not
long ago, you know why when you go to restaurants you order chicken
by saying white meat or dark meat? Do you know why? Your history
teaches you. The Puritans wouldn't say breast.
That's right. No way in this world that one
of those old men say breast or thigh. They wouldn't do it. That's
the truth. You wouldn't dare say a woman
was pregnant. They were just taboos, you know,
taboos associated with when movies came out. I remember when radio
became popular, half the preachers in the country preached against
it, that devil box. And you know what happened when
television came out. And you know, I was in a meeting one
time up north, and bless your heart, these folks were so unhappy. All the little girls wore these
black stockings, you know, and bonnets, And they were just frightful
little animals. And we were sitting around talking.
There was a man with me, sitting around the pasture zone. Twenty
people there, twenty-five people. We were talking, getting along
fine, you know. And two little boys walked over
by my friend. He was standing there and he
said to the little boys, he said, you boys swim. And every eye
in there got that big. And color just drained out of
some of the faces of the women. That's evil. Swimming? And it
got quiet and I thought the meeting's over, you know. But I could go on and on and
on talking about taboos and traditions, rules and regulations that have
been handed down by religious zealots to promote what we call
holiness. And usually this holiness is
an outward veneer. of holiness, and if you scratch
through it, you'll find the devil incarnate. That's exactly right. For example, now hold your seat. You'd have a difficult time proving
from the Word of God total abstinence. Do you know that? Now come on. You'd have a hard time proving
from the Word of God. total abstinence from all alcoholic
beverages. You couldn't do it in the Scripture.
You just couldn't do it. It can't be done. Right there
when I was reading a while ago, down here in verse 21, it says,
It's good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything
whereby thy brother stumble it. In other words, if you cause
him to stumble, don't do it. But the Word of God doesn't teach
abstinence from alcoholic beverages. It doesn't do that. Now, the
Word of God warns you about the dangers of them. There are a
million dangers associated with them. But there are a lot of
dangers connected with overeating, but I haven't seen any of y'all
abstaining yet. I said, that's right, seriously.
I've traveled in countries, in Spain and France and other countries
where that's the first thing they, believers, I mean believers
who are suffering for Christ. We had just down in Valencia,
Spain, we had gone back in an alley to meet in a little building
because of fear of Catholic harassment. The little church was not allowed
to have a light on the street or a sign. But we'd gone back
there and 200 people met with the possibility of losing
their jobs and their children put out of school. We never had
to do anything like that for the gospel. And after we preached
and we had a delightful time, went to the pastor's home, six
preachers, Brother Griswold and I, and the first thing put on
the table was a glass of wine. I wouldn't have been a pretty
something to start lecturing them about the use of wine. Those
who suffer for Christ's sake, you know, it's ridiculous. Absolutely
ridiculous. Now there are dangers associated
with it, and I'm telling you that. And you just have to be
very, very scrupulous and careful in the use of these things, but
as far as taking a stand like some folks
do in religion and calling it holiness, I cannot do that, not
to be honest, when my Lord made it. And when Paul exhorted Timothy
to drink it for his stomach's sake. You see what I'm saying?
Why can't we grow up and be mature? But now, if there's a weak brother,
it's hard to break traditions. You know, Peter had that tradition
of not having anything to do with the Gentiles. It took the
very power of God to straighten him out on that. And if it was
a weak brother brought up where I was brought up this way, that
anything associated with anything like that was, you're going to
hell if you drank a bottle of beer. Going to hell. There wasn't any hope. I mean,
you just sealed your doom. And I just can't do that, and
be honest. I've got to tell the truth. I've
got to tell my young people the truth. Because I cannot have
them associating a carnal, external holiness and calling it God's
holiness. It's not. Holiness is the right ordering
of things for the glory of God. The right conduct in our lives
and attitude toward anything for the glory of God. I'll tell
you something else. You have a difficult time doing
away with movies and television from the Word of God. They're
a difficult time. I know they're bad movies, but
they're bad books, but you're not going to burn my books. I've
got enough judgment to select a good book. Do you have enough
judgment to select a good play or a good movie or a good television
program? They're bad plays, but I want
our young people to have plays in school and in their classrooms
Courtroom dramas you have, those are skits and plays. You can't,
we just can't lord it over people's consciences and souls and call
it godliness. I know that many men abuse sports,
but I don't want to outlaw exercise. You'd have a hard time if I was
talking about those people about swimming, you know. And we had
a problem here in this congregation about 25 years ago over swimming. Some of the families went swimming
out at Carter Cave. And I think two or three people
quit church. That's sad, isn't it? You can't keep your family swimming.
God made two-thirds of the earth water, but he didn't command
us to stay out of it. I tell you this, when Peter jumped
in the water and swam to the Lord, he knew how to swim. He
learned down somewhere. And I tell you, if you teach
your children to swim, you may save their lives someday. That's exactly right. There's
judgment in these things. There's Christian maturity and
judgment to be exercised. Proper clothing is certainly
required, proper mode of attire, but the Word of God in your heart
will tell you about that. It'll tell you about that. And I'll tell you another thing.
You have an awful problem. I know there are a lot of men
who are advocating what they call Christian Sabbath. And they
have, they want to close all the stores on Sunday and keep
everybody home on Sunday and all, it turns Sunday into a Sabbath
day. Now wait a minute. You have a hard time proving,
from this book right here, that Sunday is to be observed like
the Jewish Sabbath. You'd have your battle on your
hands with honest people. I know Arthur Pink held to it
and a lot of other men, but a lot of things Arthur Pink said that
came from Arthur Pink. That's right. And you'd have
a hard time proving it from the Word of God that we're to observe
Sunday like the Sabbath was observed. And then I'll tell you something
else. I picked up my paper and all the preachers are going to
fight the Kentucky lottery. But now I'll tell you this. I
have some ideas. You know that preacher was preaching
pretty strong on the lottery until his wife won it. Did you
read that in the paper recently? That did cause a problem. Because she promised the church
$6,000 to fix up the auditorium. That would have an effect on
your message, wouldn't it, Mike? Do we not have types of lottery
all the time around here now? Your children come and have these
little tickets. from school, that I bought three
or four of them that win me some groceries, or a turkey or something,
you know? Isn't that what we buy, all these little pieces
of paper that if my number's drawn, I get the turkey, or get
the groceries. In fact, I won one one time.
Isn't that the same thing on a smaller scale? Now come on,
is it? Honestly. How can you do that and then
go on record opposed to this other? I like what the young
lady said in the paper today, if you want to buy a lottery
ticket, buy it, but don't make me buy one, I don't have to.
Now wait a minute, any of y'all send this Reader's Digest sweepstake
back every year? Same thing. Any charter? Same thing. Now preachers, I
could go on mentioning various things, and you know what I'm
talking about. There are things that we've had laid on us And
we've been squeezed with them and we've been embarrassed because
of them. There's some men in this congregation
who come to church on Sunday morning, they like to play a
little golf Sunday afternoon. They work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday. And a half a day Saturday most
of them. And the only time they have to, if it rains Saturday,
they don't have any opportunity to go out at all. And you think
I'm going to get up here in this pulpit when I can play on Tuesday. I can play on Thursday. Isn't
that right? But they can't. You can't. And
I'm going to get up here and condemn him and say, that's the
Lord's day. Well, Wednesday is the Lord's
day too, and Tuesday is the Lord's day. You see what I'm saying?
He's not right. And we let our preachers make
prisoners out of us. put us back into captivity, put
us right back under the bondage from which Christ delivered us.
But the Word says, they that preach the law don't keep it
either. They don't keep it either. So
I'm going to say to the brethren, I hope you can go see your ma
on Sunday afternoon, spend the day with her, go on a family
picnic. Be here Sunday morning. You're here for the faithful
anyway. And if you have to be somewhere else once in a while
on Sunday, that would be all right, too. That would be all
right, too. Because I believe you could worship
God somewhere else, too, don't you? I don't believe he's confined
to the walls of this building. I really don't. Don't get in
bondage, even to church attendance. You see, when these things become
I hope you came here tonight because you wanted to, because
you wanted to sing, and praise God, and see one another, and
read the word, and hear what the pastor had to say. I hope
you didn't come, oh, it's Wednesday night, I've got to go to church.
It'd be better not to go, John. That's a bondage, isn't it? And
I've been freed from that. And you just, somebody says,
I've got to go to church on Sunday. No, you don't. We get to go. We get to go. We're healthy and
able to be there. And we're just through the years,
though, and we've got that tithe, you know, and that Sabbath day
and that Christian Sunday and all this sort of thing, and I
could go on and on and on, mention various things which the religious
world and the natural world associates with so-called holiness, but
which the true believer knows has nothing to do with holiness.
It has nothing to do with my relationship with God. And these traditions and customs
are going to continue. They're going to go on. You're
not going to change what these people around you and you work
with and even your relatives think about these matters. If
you went home and told them what I preached on tonight, some of
them would drop their false teeth. That's right, they would be horrified. You mean that preacher told you
to go golfing on Sunday afternoon? He's lost. That's exactly right. These traditions and these customs
are going to continue and are going to be a source of conflict
as long as we live. But here in chapter 14, I want
to run over this just briefly, what we're to do about those
who are still in bondage. And you know what Paul calls
those who are in bondage to these things? Weak brethren. I always thought the man that
was so austere and unbending and so regimented and so bound
by his religion, I thought he was strong. No, he's weak. He's
weak in the faith. He's strong in his tradition
and he's weak in faith. And I'll tell you another thing
about it, if he's not careful, he'd be weak in righteousness.
Because he's going to try to build his righteousness on these
things instead of on Christ. And so it says here in Romans
14, 1, him that's weak in the faith. Now he comes along, and
all his life, and we've got ministers here and new people coming all
the time from different places, and they're going to bring these
grave clothes in with them. They're going to circulate among
you, and you're going to have to be careful. You're going to
have to be careful, very careful in your talking with them and
dealing with them and witnessing to them because they've still
got these traditions. You who are mature, and you who
are strong, and you who have good, strong liberty in Christ,
and you who are not bound by these things, but you are set
free, and you are motivated by your love for Christ, not by
some rules and regulations of religion, when these people come
in, and when they associate with you, and move next door to you,
and go to church with you, you are going to have a problem communicating. But now it says here in verse
1, that weak person, receive him now, receive him, love him,
take notice of him, Bear his traditions patiently. Don't pass
judgment on him too quickly. Don't cut him off. Don't cut
him off. And don't demand that he immediately
know what it took you a long time to learn. See what I'm saying? Don't expect
him in one sermon to go from bondage to freedom. Religious
tradition to the freedom. Don't expect it. You didn't get
there that quickly. God had to teach you. You had
to grow up. And verse 2 says, For one believeth
he may eat all things. And you know this has to do with
that meat offered to idols. I don't have to go into that.
You know, they could buy meat cheaper because it was offered
to idols. And Paul said an idol is not anything. Well, if I can
buy that meat for 50 cents, I'll buy it, he said. Yeah, but it's
been offered to idols. What's an idol? Paul said an
idol is a figment of your imagination. There's just one God. But now
wait a minute. This man who used to offer the
meat, he's got a different impression. He used to go to those services.
That's right. Well, verse 3, let not him that
eateth despise the man that eateth not. He'll have a glass of wine. Oh no, that's evil. Ah, you're
foolish. Take it. Now wait a minute now.
Wait, hold it. It's been evil to him 30 years,
how can you change like that? See what I'm saying? There may
be somebody here that got offended a while ago and I mention that,
you know, but nevertheless, I've got a mission, I can't keep the
truth from everybody to protect one man preaching. But when you're
talking to someone, hold it now, don't despise that man that eateth
not. It says here, and let not him
that eateth not judge him that eateth. God hath received them both.
But when this thing comes down to it, who are we to judge one
another anyway? You can't see my heart. We're everyone confined to looking
on this outward flesh, and we can fool each other, we can deceive
each other. We can't see our hearts, so we've got no business
judging one another. A man is out of the heart proceeds
the issues of life. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. Not as you think he is. And so he says, who are you
to judge another man's servant? To his own master he stands or
fall. Yea, he shall be holden up for
God's able to make him stand. And one man esteems one day above
another. There's going to be people who
come here that wouldn't dare buy a sack of groceries on the
Lord's Day. They call it Sunday. I had some
dear friends who used to come down here from Grand Rapids to
visit us that wouldn't eat in a restaurant on Sunday. They
wouldn't dare go in a restaurant on Sunday. They let Doris fix
for them, but they wouldn't go to a restaurant. Another man esteemeth every day
alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Now,
to be fully persuaded in this direction, Christ is our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath, and I
don't regulate or isolate my worship to Sunday. We worship
Him every day, every day, and every night. He's the Lord of
every day. But, verse 6, that man that regards
the day, he regards it to the Lord. He's the weaker brother,
and he that regardeth not to the... For example, some of these
men, John's been celebrating the Sabbath for 40 years. That's hard to break those long,
long, long, long traditions. And so let him, let him, he's
got to be taught by God. You can't, what if you convinced
him someone else would unconvince him? Let God convince him, he's
convinced forever. He that regardeth the day, regardeth
not the day to the Lord, he that regardeth it not. He that eateth,
eateth to the Lord, and he that giveth, and giveth thanks, and
so forth. Now look at verse 7. None of us lives to himself,
and no man dies to himself. I'm not a separate tree on the
hill, I'm a vine in the branch, and so are you. I'm not a separate
rock or a building out yonder, I'm a rock in the temple, Christ
Jesus. That's what he said. We're not,
we're not. Individualists who wear the body
of Christ. That's what he's saying here.
And whether I live or live unto the Lord, whether I die, I die
unto the Lord. Whether I live or die, I belong
to him. I'm a part of his body. So are
you. So is every believer. To this end, Christ died and
rose and revived that he might be Lord of the dead and the living.
All the children in the household are in the family, whether they're
weak or strong, whether they're immature or immature, whether
they keep a day or don't keep a day, whether they eat or don't
eat, they're in the family. They're to be treated as such.
Why do you judge your brother? Why do you set it naught, your
brother? Why do you separate yourself from him? for some indifferent
cause. Why do you disassociate yourself
from him? We are all standing before Christ. This is not talking about a future
judgment when we'll be judged for the fact we didn't win so
many souls. This is we're standing before Christ now. He's my judge
now, you're not. And he's your judge, I'm not.
That's exactly what he's saying. We do stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. As it is written, as I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow. Believers do bow. We're bowing now. This is written
here to believers. We do bow now, and every tongue
does confess, so then every one of us shall give account of himself
to God. If you read the preceding verses, it shows you I don't
live to myself, I don't die to myself, we're one in the body
of Christ, we all stand before our Lord, our Master, our Judge,
and we give account of my actions and thoughts and deeds to Him,
not to one another, not to a committee, but to Him. He's over this thing,
He's the Lord. And we have no right to disassociate
ourselves from some brother, or judge some brother, or put
him on the shelf, or put him out. Let God take care of it. Isn't that what it's saying? Because we're just, we're not
individual. You can't cut one of the trees
down. It's a branch. Alright, let's read it quickly.
Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this
rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall
in his brother's way. Now somebody says, Aren't you
kind of leaning on hypocrisy there? You believe something's
all right, but you don't do it to keep them offending? Oh no,
you're just talking about common sense. Just talking about common sense. Don't put anything... You have
a liberty. You feel that... In other words, I wouldn't go
to Grand Rapids, Michigan to go shoot golf on Sunday afternoon.
Now that... No more than I'd raise pigs in
Israel. I got better sense than that. Ain't nothing wrong with
raising pigs, but if I was a missionary in Jerusalem, I wouldn't raise
them. Would you? Well, that's hypocrisy. No, that's
not. That's good sense. And if you're around someone,
and they're weaker brother, and you're in a restaurant or something,
you just be careful about a lot of things. You're careful around your children.
You don't care to talk about things personally. You don't
talk about it in front of Christians. You don't dare talk about it in front
of Christians. You see what I'm talking about?
That's not hypocrisy. That's judgment. That's good
judgment. You see what I'm saying? And
that's what he's saying. That's what Paul's saying. In verse 14 he says, I know I'm
persuaded by the Lord Jesus. There's nothing unclean of itself. A friend of mine always took
a Sunday paper. He's a sports enthusiast. He's a pastor. But he does like
his sports page on Sunday morning. But he had a friend from England
over preaching for him. And they're strict Sabbatarians. Christian Sabbath is where this
man came from. You didn't look at a paper, a
television, or nothing on Sunday. All you did was get up and read
your Bible and go to church. and come back and read it again and
go to church. And so my pastor friend went out and got his Sunday
paper and hid it. He hid it on the bed. And his
daughter came in and said, where is my Sunday paper? I can't find
it anywhere. Well, isn't it something how we get
in bondage? There's nothing unclean of itself.
Sin's not in a box, it's in a heart. But, wait a minute, verse 14,
hold it, to him that esteemeth it unclean, to him it's unclean,
till he's straightened out on it. There it is, and it's serious
too. It's serious. There are places
I wouldn't preach this message exactly like I'm preaching it
here. Because there's a time, as a mature people, I'm talking
to people who are near graduation, some of you. And we can talk
about anything. But there's some things that
are unclean. If it's unclean to him, it's
unclean. It's unclean. I read on. If your brother be
grieved with your meat, and you eat it anyway, you're not walking
in love. Don't destroy him with your meat
for whom Christ died. Don't let your good be evil spoken
of. You're doing alright, nothing wrong with it, but he's going
to make something out of it. He's going to make something
out of it. I just think, listen, there are
things that mature believers can talk over, but you don't
talk in front of a young Christian, a new Christian. You just have
to use judgment. He said, for the kingdom of God
is not meat and drink. It's not what a man puts in his
mouth that defiles him. It's righteousness, peace, and
joy in the Holy Ghost. That's the kingdom of God. For
he that in these things serve Christ. I serve Christ not in
meats and drinks and days and ordinances. We serve him in righteousness,
peace, and joy. And that man's accepted of God,
and he's approved of men. They see his truthfulness and
his honesty. Like Benjamin Franklin said about
George Whitefield, I don't believe what he preaches, but he does.
And the best way you can convince a man of what you are is not
by these outward ceremonies, but by an inward grace and love for Christ. So then, verse 19, let's pursue
and follow and strive after those things that make for peace. I
don't need to eat meat. I really don't. I don't need
to. The things I don't need to do,
they're not required. I will if I want to, but I don't
need to. If it's going to offend somebody, leave it off. So let's
not destroy the work of God to show our liberty. See what he's
saying? All things indeed are pure, but
it's evil for the man that eateth with offense and gives offense. It's good neither to eat flesh,
nor to drink wine, or anything whereby your brother stumbles,
or is offended, or is made weak. So have your faith, but have
it before God. Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is that man that condemneth not himself, whose heart does
not condemn him. Somebody got on Mr. Spurgeon
about his cigars. And he said, I'm going home tonight
after the service and smoke a cigar for the glory of God. And everybody
just... And he said, that's right, to
the glory of God. He said, I can go home after
a hard day and study and preach and I can sit down in my rocker
and I can enjoy my cigar and it just gives me peace and relaxation. Anything that relaxes God's preachers
has got to be for the glory of God. Well, that's Spurgeonism. But if your heart does not condemn
you, Have it to yourself before God. But there ain't no use putting
up a neon sign whereabouts it's going to think. Isn't that right,
Cecil? I'm handling it right, aren't I? And he that doubteth,
don't force things on people. And if you're a person that's
not mature yet and weak, you just, don't you say, well, the
preacher says, all right, now wait a minute. If you doubt and
are troubled about certain things, you stay right where you are
until God shows you otherwise. Because if you go against your
conscience, you're going to hurt yourself. If you go against your
conscience. Because if he is not of faith,
and anything is not of faith, it becomes sin. Alright, does
that help? I believe that it does and would. That's the reason I brought it.
Remember me in prayer. I'm going to go up and preach for Brother Scott
tomorrow night, and looking forward to visiting with him, spending
the night, come back on Friday, sometime Friday. All right, Mike,
come lead us in closing hymn.