A very good morning. It's good to see you guys this day.
If you're wondering, our crowd is sparse this morning, not because people are celebrating St. Patrick's Day,
let's turn together in our copy of God's Word to Romans chapter 14.
We're actually going to finish chapter 14 today by looking at verses 13 through 23,
but by way of reminder, recall how we've gotten to where we've gotten in the simplest way to summarize the first 11 chapters.
Paul sums it up in chapter 12 verse 1 by saying,
the mercies of God, which is everything he's presented prior to that,
I will say that salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone forever.
In light of this, we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
Verse 1 of chapter 12, which is this vertical access response to what God has done for us in Christ.
We're to offer ourselves fully to him, right?
Vertical access here, and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds,
which then plays out in the horizontal access of that offering, right?
That now our lives are to be characterized by love.
Chapter 12 verse 9, Paul exhorts us to let love be genuine,
to abhor what is evil, and to cling fast to what is good,
and therein he summarizes for us godliness.
To be characterized by this, loving genuinely, right?
Which he then begins to play out for us throughout the rest of his letter to the Romans.
So last week we looked at the beginning of chapter 14, verses 1 through 12,
to see these exhortations he gives,
to welcome one another,
to not despise one another,
and to not pass judgment on one another.
You can see that in verses 1 through 3 and verse 5.
About particular things, right?
He's referring to opinions.
Notice that there in verse 1, right?
About opinions.
Not about doctrinal issues,
not about things that are clearly taught to us in the Scriptures,
but about those things that exist in the gray.
Those issues that are not clearly spoken to in the Scriptures.
He's exhorting us to welcome each other,
not despise one another,
and to not pass judgment on one another about opinions.
The examples from the text are about eating and drinking,
and the observance of particular days.
But of course we can see that that plays itself out in varying ways,
as our culture is shifting.
Certainly it does.
Now the teaching in here is not incredibly complex.
In fact, I told Wes earlier this week,
I really just want to get up and read the text to you and say,
okay.
How it plays out in our lives, though,
has a lot of complexity with it.
Lots of complexity.
The application of the truths found in chapter 14
are not going to be easy to walk out together.
So let's see if we can look at it together,
wrap our minds around it together,
so that we're best equipped to do so.
Let's begin by reading in verse 13.
Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer,
but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself,
but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
For if your brother is grieved by what you eat,
you are no longer walking in love.
By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,
but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God.
Everything is indeed clean,
but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.
It is good not to eat meat or drink wine
or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
The faith that you have keep between yourself and God.
Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats,
because the eating is not from faith.
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Join me in prayer.
Father God, we thank you for your holy word.
We thank you that it was inspired by the Spirit,
given to men to write,
that this day we might open it and feast upon it.
I thank you that it is the sufficient source of guidance for our lives,
that you have revealed to us in it all things we need to know to live godly before men.
That where it doesn't speak, we have latitude.
Where it does, we are certainly called to obey.
And so I pray this day that you'll help us each
to apply the truths contained in the last half of chapter 14
as we exercise liberty amongst one another.
And I pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
So, we talked again last week about how we're meant to be interacting with our liberty.
Right?
I think maybe I gave a fair amount of justification to be liberated.
In fact, Paul calls the stronger brother,
the one who practices liberty,
who recognizes that he's been set free from bondage to periphery things,
and now has freedom in Christ.
The weak brother is the one who abstains because he's afraid of what may happen,
who's still working out his faith in some sense by his work.
Right?
I think, though, we're too quick as Christians to stand in camps of the can-dos and the can't-dos.
We make lists, we make signs, and we beat each other up with them.
Right?
And, specifically, Paul begins to address those who are the stronger brethren.
Those who practice these liberties and how they ought to do so appropriately.
Now, before we get into the specific exhortation found in verse 13,
I want to make an overarching observation from the text.
Notice verse 14.
Paul says,
So notice Paul says,
So the question is,
how does a clean thing, right, as Paul says,
everything is clean, everything is permissible,
become unclean or impermissible?
How is it that that happens?
And what we must notice here is that cleanliness and uncleanliness,
or permissibility or impermissibility,
is a matter of conscience and motive.
Verse 14.
Anyone who thinks it unclean, to them it is, in fact, unclean.
Verse 22 and verse 23 speak to our conscience before God,
knowing that we've been given permission by him in the Spirit.
Let's look at some other texts.
Titus 1.15.
Paul writes,
To the pure, all things are pure.
But to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure,
but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Mark chapter 7, verse 15.
There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him,
but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
This is Jesus speaking.
There's nothing outside of a person by going into him can defile him,
but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
And skip down to verse 18 and 19.
And he said to them,
Then are you also without understanding?
Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,
since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled?
Right?
And then Mark adds the commentary,
Thus he declared all foods clean.
So notice that what Jesus is saying is it's not those exterior things that ultimately really matter.
What ultimately matters is our heart.
And so the question must be asked,
What do our actions, and in this text here, particularly about our liberty,
say about our hearts?
What do they say about our faith?
Do our actions say that our hearts are resting in God as our portion,
our sufficiency, our satisfaction, our treasure?
Or do they say something else entirely?
I'll give you an example from my own living.
Many of you may not have noticed this, and that's quite alright,
but I have tended to dress a little nicer as the years have gone on here when I preach.
There was a day, if you've been around for a while,
that I wouldn't have tucked my shirt in,
would have been collared,
probably would have had my sleeves rolled up.
I never wore open-toed shoes, so I kept the shoes on.
This is not how I like to dress, though.
And as time has gone on,
I've felt the conviction that
if somebody's going to not hear the gospel
because I'm not wearing a tie,
how dare I?
If this was a crowd that I thought required a jacket,
I would do that too.
I would stand up here and sweat
because the gospel is that important to me.
What do our actions say about where our hearts are?
What do our actions say about what is ultimately important to us?
If I were to travel and speak,
I would take a jacket with me,
just to be sure I could cover that.
If a King James-only church ever asked me to come speak there,
I would probably talk to them about the scriptures,
but I would do it from a King James-only Bible,
because I would want them to hear
the things that I'm saying to them
because that is what is ultimately important to me.
My tie also gives me a place to clip my mic,
which I appreciate.
Verse 17 of our text says,
the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking.
So we get too wrapped up into these periphery things
and we miss the main point.
Proverbs 4, 23 says,
keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flows the springs of life.
So it's a matter of our heart.
The clean becomes unclean
because we have improper motivation.
Our consciences cannot be clean before God
because our hearts are not clean before God
and we must get this part of it right.
All the judgmentalism,
all of the unwelcoming attitudes,
all of those things would just dissipate
if our hearts were right
about these unclear issues in the scriptures.
So here's the exhortation,
verse 13.
Therefore,
therefore,
retaining back to the previous verses,
verses 10 through 12,
it talks about God's ultimate and final judgment.
So in light of that,
knowing that God is the final and ultimate judge,
therefore,
let us not pass judgment on one another any longer,
but rather decide never to put a stumbling block
or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Now it's important to know here
that the stumbling block he's referring to
is not the same way in which Christ
is referred to the stumbling block for Israel.
So know that is the case.
That's not the same thing he's talking about here.
In fact,
instead,
he's talking about,
the Greek here is
apolomai.
Right?
Excuse me.
I'm going to back up just a little bit.
The idea of the stumbling block
is the idea of tripping over something.
A hindrance would be something like a fence
that would have been used in that way.
Something that would have kept the brother
from progressing in spiritual nature.
Right?
That would prevent their well-being.
This is what the stumbling block or hindrance is
that he's referring to.
We see again in verse 20,
the last half in verse 21.
It is wrong for anyone to make another brother stumble
by what he eats.
It is good not to eat meat or drink wine
or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
1 Corinthians 8-9 says,
But take care that this right of yours,
your liberty,
does not somehow become a stumbling block
to the weak.
Right?
So the exhortation is,
do not do something
that causes a weaker brother
to stumble into sin.
The weaker brother who has decided
that their conscience is not clean
before God for doing something.
They've decided that they ought not to.
And yet by the way we practice our liberty,
we draw them into it.
We cause them to stumble in that way.
We cause,
we weaken their faith
in that way.
And Paul gives in the text
for this exhortation
at least four reasons
why we shouldn't.
Past judgment.
Why we should decide
never to put a stumbling block
or hindrance
in the way of a brother.
Firstly,
because it destroys the one
for whom Christ died.
We see this in verse 15.
Alright?
And here's our Greek word,
apollomai.
Apollomai.
It means devastation.
The Greek squalor W.E. Vines explains,
the idea is not extinction,
but ruin,
loss.
Not of being,
but of well-being.
It destroys the well-being,
the spiritual well-being
of the weaker brother.
Matthew 18, 14.
Jesus says,
So it is not the will of my Father
who is in heaven
that one of these little ones
should perish.
That's the parable
of the lost sheep.
Right?
He's not talking about
those who are not already saved.
He's talking about
those who are.
The sheep.
And when one goes astray,
we go and we search it out
and we bring it back in
because we don't want it
to perish.
Apollomai.
To not be of good being
spiritually.
That's what he's referring to.
Those of you familiar
with the Pilgrim's Progress,
there's a famous character
in the book
named Apollyon.
This is where
Bunyan got this name for him.
We understand him
to be the devil.
And what does he do
with Christian?
He fights with Christian
to bring him back
into his kingdom.
But Christian is secure.
Christian is secure
because of what
the Lord of the kingdom
he's walking in
has done for him.
What Christ has done for him.
And he's given him
the tools to fight off
Apollyon.
Right?
That his walk
would not be devastated.
It's a fun connection
for you
to the other night
when we read that together.
That's the Greek word
that that name Apollyon
comes from
in the Pilgrim's Progress.
So we ought not judge.
We ought to decide
not to put a stumbling block
or a hindrance
in the way of our brother
because it destroys
the one for whom
Christ died.
Do you feel the weight
of that?
That as you practice
your liberty
as you say
I've been set free
to do this
or dress this way
partake of this thing
that if you don't do
so carefully
you will cause
your brother
to be weak.
You will cause
your brother
to strain
spiritually.
That is
antithesis of love.
Right?
That's the opposite
of what we're being called
to do.
To walk as children of light.
To walk in love
the end of chapter 13.
It's the opposite of that.
We ought to be
seeking each other's
mutual upbuilding
as he says later here
in the chapter.
The second reason
is because
not passing judgment
not putting the stumbling block
or hindrance
in the way of a brother
is acceptable to God
and it is approved
by men.
It's verse 16
through 18.
1 Corinthians 9
19 says
For though I am
free from all
I have made myself
a servant to all
that I might win
more of them.
Martin Luther once said
a Christian man
is the most free
Lord of all
and subject to none.
And at the same time
he said
the next sentence
a Christian man
is the most
dutiful servant of all
and subject
to everyone.
So serving Christ
in this way
not passing judgment
being sure
that we walk
carefully
in our liberty
it's acceptable to God
and it's approved
by men.
He says to us
to not let anybody
call something
that we find
clean, good,
acceptable, evil.
He's talking about
generally
about mankind
don't let people
look at you
and say
he practices evil.
Be very careful
how you walk.
Something might be
permissible to you
but it's not always
beneficial.
is it?
Thirdly
not passing
the judgment
not putting
stumbling block
or hindrance
in the way
of our brothers
pursues
the work
of God.
Verse 19
through the first
half of 20
let's read that together
so then let us
pursue
what makes for peace
and for mutual
upbuilding
do not
for the sake
of food
destroy
the work
of God.
We can look
previously
in verse 18
excuse me
verse 17
the kingdom of God
is not a matter
of eating
and drinking
but of righteousness
and peace
and joy.
so it pursues
the work
of God
to live
in this way
namely
it pursues
righteousness
and peace
and joy.
Ephesians 4
3 says
that we are
to be eager
to maintain
the unity
of the spirit
in the bond
of peace.
1 Corinthians 8
12 and 13
reads
thus
sinning against
your brothers
and wounding
their conscience
when it is weak
you sin
against
Christ
therefore
if food
makes my brother
stumble
I will never
eat meat
lest I make
my brother
stumble.
I mentioned
this last week
what was happening
at this time
that there were
some meats
that the Jews
found impermissible
according to
old Mosaic law
and for the Gentiles
meats that were
offered to idols
they saw as
dirty.
So many of the
weak brethren
wouldn't partake
of these meats.
In fact
as we see
in the beginning
of verse 14
some of them
became vegetarians
because they so
wanted to avoid
these meats
and Paul here
says in 1 Corinthians
that he himself
would become
a vegetarian
in order to be
sure that he
didn't put
a stumbling block
in the way
of his brothers.
Do we orient
our lives
like that?
Everything we do
seeking the good
of those
who are part
of the family.
So it pursues
the work of God
this building up
of righteousness
and peace
and joy
it brings
to earth
the kingdom
of heaven.
Fourthly
it promotes
a clean
conscience
which leads
to joy.
Verse 22
and 23
the faith
that you have
keep between
yourself
and God
blessed
or happy
or joyful
is the one
who has no
reason
to pass
judgment
on himself
for what
he approves
but whoever
has doubts
is condemned
if he eats
because the
eating is not
from faith
for whatever
does not
proceed
from faith
is sin.
So 22a
the first part
of that
is aimed
at the
stronger brother.
The faith
that you have
keep it
between
yourself
and God.
Blessed
is the one
who has no
reason to pass
judgment
on himself
for what
he approves.
If you have
the faith
to believe
the gospel
to the degree
that you have
liberty
and you
practice it
or don't
you can also
in your liberty
not do things
keep that
between yourself
and God
don't make
issues
out of
non-issues.
We're so
apt to do
this
because we
will be
blessed
we will have
joy
if we're
clean
we have
clean
consciousness
before God
for what
we
approve.
The same
applies
the joy
that's at
stake
here
to the
weaker
brother.
Notice
verse 23
we get
this
segue
the last
half
of 22
into 23
23
says
but whoever
has doubts
is condemned
if he eats
because his
faith doesn't
permit it.
He doesn't
believe that
what he's
allowed to
do
he's doing.
Because the
eating is
not
from
faith
for
whatever
does not
proceed
from
faith
is
sin.
And this
is often
used
the little
ending
here
of
verse
23
to
recognize
that what
is good
and what
is bad
what is
permissible
and
impermissible
is a matter
of faith.
How is it
that God
is leading
us?
So
me wearing
a tie
because I
feel that
God wants
me to wear
a tie
on this
Sunday
morning
proceeds
from
faith
and therefore
it's good
for me to
do this
very thing.
If I wore
this tie
simply to
please men
it wouldn't
be from
faith
and it
would be
sin.
If you
have decided
to abstain
from alcohol
and yet
you feel
this pressure
to practice
your liberty
as some
people we
know do
and therefore
you drink
just because
you just
want to
prove
I'm set
free in
Christ
I'm allowed
it's okay
but it
doesn't
proceed from
faith
from an
earnest
searching out
of God's
will for
your life
sin.
It's a
strong
exhortation
to the
weaker
brother.
1 Timothy
1.19
Paul writes
we are to
hold faith
and a good
conscience
by rejecting
this
some have
made
shipwreck
of their
faith.
We're to
hold to
that
we're to
search out
before God
I so wish
sometimes
that the
Bible just
had a simple
to do list
like the
appendix A
right we
could just
flip to the
back and
there would
be a
don't do
and a
do list
that sums
up for
us
everything
instructed
to us
and that
it goes
beyond
even what
the scriptures
go beyond
just so I
can be
sure
right
tie on
Sunday
got it
right
no tie
the rest
of the
day
the rest
of the
weeks
okay
I'm good
right
don't you
wish we
could just
do that
sometimes
just have
a new
law
handed down
to us
right
just make
it a little
bit simpler
do you ever
ask why
that hasn't
happened
for us
why is it
that we're
given very
specific
parameters
about some
things
and not
others
if treated
properly
it draws
us
to God
he wants
to know
you
and to
be known
by you
if I
had a list
of rules
would I
ever
implore God
for his
will for
my life
no I
had to
follow the
list of
rules
right
in that
way
our savior
could have
been
a pink
bunny rabbit
that comes
to the earth
hands us a
list of
rules and
says do
this
and you
will be
saved
right
that's not
what we've
been called
to in
Christ
we've been
called to
a relationship
we've been
called
brothers
we are
his adopted
children
now
right
and as
such
we've been
given
latitude
in some
things
we're meant
to come
close to
him
to know
how it
is
we're meant
to walk
out
our faith
what is it
that my
love
looks like
right
day to
day
moment
by moment
as I
said I
find this
teaching
rather
simple
I don't
think there's
a terrible
amount of
complexity to
it but
putting it
into action
in our
lives
can be
horribly
complex
but that
complexity
causes us
to depend
on him
for those
answers
to recognize
that we're
regenerate
we are new
creations
and therefore
we have the
spirit of
God
abiding in
us to
direct
our every
step
what is
permissible
what is
impermissible
right
it's a matter
of
conscience
ask
that God
would work
in you
the proper
form of
this love
that you
might not
cast
judgment
that you
might seek
to not
put a
stumbling
block
or a
hindrance
and walk
your faith
out
see how
it plays
out
so I
ask again
what do
our actions
say
about our
hearts
particularly
regarding
our liberty
what do
they say
about our
faith
do our
actions
say that
our hearts
are resting
in God
as our
portion
as our
completion
right
our
sufficiency
our
satisfaction
our
treasure
is that
what our
actions
say
as we
practice
liberty
together
or does
it say
something
entirely
different
does it
say that
our
God
is now
our
liberty
that we
have
in
Christ
Hebrews
3
12
through
14
says
take care
brothers
lest there
be in
any of
you
an
evil
unbelieving
heart
leading you
to fall
away
from the
living
God
but exhort
one another
every day
as long
as it is
called
today
that none
of you
may be
hardened
by the
deceitfulness
of sin
for we
have come
to share
in Christ
if indeed
we hold
our original
confidence
firm
to the
end
so you
see that
we're
meant to
work
together
on this
type of
stuff
right
not to
let
these
little
issues
the
non-issues
that we
make
issues
become
a dividing
thing
amongst
us
but to
exhort
one another
to see
that the
way we
live
matters
and to
walk
these
things
out
not to
let
the
deceitfulness
of sin
creep
in
even
as we
do
things
that
are
scripturally
permissible
but by
the way
we do
them
have
become
impermissible
we're
meant to
press
each
other
into
the
truth
that we
might
have
confidence
firm
to the
end
let's pray
together
turn
Thank you.