Turn in our Bibles tonight to Romans chapter 14. We are getting close to the end of this book. So tonight we look at this section on Christian liberty. This is on page 1206 in your pew Bibles. Romans chapter 14. We'll read together tonight the first 13 verses. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. Romans chapter 14, beginning at verse 1. As for the one who is weak in the faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die we die to the lord so then whether we live or whether we die we are the lord's for this end christ died and lived again that he might be both lord both of the dead and of the living why do you pass judgment on your brother or you why do you despise your brother for we will all stand before the judgment seat of god for it is written as i live says the lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. 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. There is the reading of God's Word. Tonight we are beginning a kind of a two-part section here, a series on Christian liberty, and I'm not going to cover it all tonight. We would be here a long time if I did that. But as the book is closing, as we're beginning to wind down the book of Romans, it's fascinating that as we have looked at all of this glorious stuff in Romans, all of the gospel message and all of the doctrines of the Christian faith, and now we've been in the gratitude section for some time. As the book begins to close, he is now dealing with one important problem that he knows is going to happen in a church that cares a lot about truth. And I say that, in a church that cares a lot about truth. The reality is, in any given body, in any given church, not all of you are in the same place spiritually. I mean, that just should go without saying. We tend to act, though, like everyone should be. We tend to act like everyone should be where I am. We have our view of things, and we have our convictions on things, and we tend to act with that kind of premise, that everyone has received this equal level of maturity. And therefore, because of that, everyone should have an equal level of conviction and an equal level of sanctification, that everything should be together on that. And therefore, anyone who is a step behind me in any particular given conviction needs to be brought up to speed, don't they my way now i'm not saying pastor gordon's way i'm speaking in a certain way but in the life of a given church you have a variety of people with different backgrounds and different convictions and different upbringings and i mean a whole host of different things that could be on your minds and hearts in the way that you've been raised and the things that you've been taught and if it's not handled correctly if if these things aren't handled correctly it will have a direct bearing on how that church is built up, on how that church's light will shine on its lampstand. I mean, if you go through Revelation, you see a lot of these problems develop in the life of the church. The church in Philippi had a big problem with two women who were fighting, Iodia and Syntyche, which Paul had to pin them by name and say, stop it. You two, stop it. They were dividing the body. They were fighting. And camps were being taken. Well, Paul's dealing with a certain kind of phenomenon tonight. He's dealing with a certain kind of phenomenon of what you could label the weak and the strong in a given body. The weak and the strong. The strong are those who have come to a mature understanding of what Jesus has done, and like we just sung out in that psalm, breaking the bars, shattering them, giving us freedom, and understanding that freedom, gospel freedom, and being set free from all the forms of legalism and bondage and superimposed laws of men. All these things that happened in the days with the Pharisees. Remember, they had the 613 commands, which were God's commands, and then they had super-added and imposed their own system of laws on top of that, adding all of that. especially in matters of food and drink, washing hands. You remember all this stuff. The weak, of course, have yet to grasp that liberty. They've yet to fully understand that liberty. They haven't really understood what the cross of Christ fully brings for them. And so they struggle with some of these things. And Paul knows because this is a reality in any given church, there are going to be clashes of conviction and there are going to be clashes of practice. And this is vital. This is vital for him to address this. It's a tough subject. It's kind of a difficult one for a pastor to address because everyone has their own issue. Well, let's look at how Paul addresses this tonight with the goal of remembering that we, speaking of brothers here, how we function together as the body of Christ, how we think, how we are to think of one another, how we are the spirit of charity is to dominate as we think of our brothers and sisters look at verse one as for the one who is weak in faith welcome him but not to quarrel over opinion receive one another translation receive one who's weak in the faith but not to doubtful things it kind of captures it opinions doubtful things there are doubtful things there are things that they are questionable and if you were to go through the history of the church, and you were to deal even as you talked to pastors about these things, one of the things that you notice, which is a strange kind of irony that happens in the body of Christ that you have to address up front when you're dealing with the issue of Christian liberty is, is that in the life of the church, we tend to have things all backwards. In other words, we are quickly tolerant, and what a word to use in our day. We are tolerant of an attack on the essentials. Now, I'm going to make the case that even though I get nervous with the distinction because of how it's abused, that there are essentials and there are non-essentials. But when it comes to the non-essentials, people will leave a church. People will bolt. People will fight. People will dig the heels in. They won't forgive. They won't talk. And you could go through this. Forget if the pastor messes up the doctrine of the Trinity. Forget if the pastor gets justification all wrong. forget if he really messes up and tolerates bad doctrine forget if he preaches another jesus and this happened in corinth that he would have to say to them you guys put up with it they were tolerating these kinds of things but sing an old psalm um face some unfriendliness in the life of the congregation disagree with the decision of the elders dislike the type of people in the church dislike how tables fence so i mean i could give a hundred of these things all this other stuff and people are fine to break the fellowship it's a strange thing isn't it completely backwards when we come to the biblical writers and we look at what they're dealing with they're so balanced when they approach these things, and this spirit of charity and how they handle these things is very beautiful, but they're not pushovers when it came to the essentials by any means. Notice how the apostle addresses this in verse 1. I want you to be welcoming to the weak. I want you to go out of your way to greet the weak, but not quarreling over opinions. When you hear that, you have to ask what opinions he is talking about. And I suppose to get there tonight, you could say, to begin with, there are those whom we are not to welcome, aren't we? Well, sure. Here we're called to welcome somebody. But there are other places in Scripture we are called not to welcome certain things and certain people. You remember 1 John said there are certain people we are not to welcome. And when the gospel was at stake, when it was that kind of issue, you remember how forceful the apostle was. he was not nice. Remember this. He got in Peter's face over getting it wrong. It was that serious. Remember when Peter in Galatians showed up in Antioch, he withstood him to his face. He got right up into his face and he rebuked him over this. And remember what happened when the Jews would come around, Peter would duck away because the Gentiles, he didn't want to be seen with the Gentiles. He didn't want the Jews to think he was siding with the Gentiles, so he ducked down out when the Gentiles came in, and Paul saw that whole action as a direct attack on the very news he was preaching. Good news. He wasn't being straightforward about the gospel, and Paul didn't hold back on that. In fact, he leveled upon the church of Galatia saying, you guys are bewitched. I mean, that kind the language is so foreign to us, but it was strong. You're bewitched by turning away. And he rebuked them. I mean, who can forget the book of Jude? The book of Jude opens up and it says right at the beginning, the call that is given to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Why? Because certain men have crept in unnoticed, who have turned the grace of God into lewdness even denying jesus christ contend it's warfare no soldier takes down the armor no soldier doesn't fight we've looked at that in second timothy john would come along and say test the spirits to see whether they be of god why because many false prophets have gone out into the world and you can't be that naive um remember in colossians paul would write to the church in Colossae, do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed worship. False humility and neglect of the body but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. It was always two-pronged. In other words, Paul would go after those who abuse the gospel, but then he would go after those who then would tolerate false lifestyles too. It was doctrine in life. And remember in 1 Corinthians, he said, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean the sexually immoral people of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters. Since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I've written you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person. So in other words, when somebody says, I'm a Christian, and then lives perpetually in unbelief by doing those things, you can't have fellowship with that. That's this morning. You can't marry an unbeliever. That's an essential. That's an essential to what we confess. So, that's not what Paul's talking about tonight. All that to say this. Tonight, he's talking about opinions. And this is really important because it's these things in the history of the church that we typically have divided over. It's these things that have hurt us. We've accepted the other things, which is wrong. But these things have killed us in the life of the church and many christians fall into sure gross being naive with the whole ecumenical movement that it's just about unity and that we shouldn't criticize anything or anyone that is incredibly naive in light of all of scripture's teaching that we just join hands with anyone who says the label christian that's not what the scriptures are ever calling us to do but he is saying tonight that the things that we are united together which can't be compromised are these essentials of the gospel and that's why we go through the confessions boys and girls that's why we read they help us to get a core of what we believe the main thrust tonight of paul is the second point on these opinions paul is dealing with these things in the life of the church body and notice how he goes about to explain this. He gives certain examples tonight of doubtful things or of opinions that should not divide us. And there are a whole bunch of things like this that go on in the life of the church. This was obviously a big problem facing Rome. And if you get into the context a little, you can understand this. The issue probably went something like this. Mark 7, let me give you an example. Jesus says, There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him. But the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Now that's going to cause a lot of problems. He knows that. That's why he said, if you have an ear, let him hear. It was a hard teaching for who? The Jews. That was a really hard teaching for the Jews. They in rigor had the whole clean-unclean distinction. And Jesus knew that would be difficult. Only people who had ears to hear could understand that. And when the person in whom the Spirit has opened up their mind to understand the gospel, it is a beautiful freedom that they understand. And they understand that it's not those kind of things that defile. But it's really amazing because in Romans, the sense that we're getting here is the patience and forbearance of the Holy Spirit in working in people's lives who are not and have not fully understood that yet. Now, I'm still going to make a further distinction in that. Remember, the Jews were expelled from Rome by Claudius and later returned. And when you remember that Jerusalem council in Acts chapter 15, there was a clash of Jew and Gentiles over these kinds of things. The Jews were really concerned about foods and observance of days, religious days. And the Gentiles, without any of that former baggage, understood their gospel freedom. They understood it. They didn't have, they didn't, those things weren't necessary. And we could kind of transfer this a little bit, couldn't we, to our day. We have certain practices of our tradition. And some people dig their heels in and if it's not done this way, you're not really doing it right. there's that kind of conviction. If they don't follow our map, if they don't follow our way of doing things, the way we do, how we've always done it, and you have people who come in and they've never seen this. They've never really looked at the way that this particular branch of Reformed Christianity has done certain things. Now, Paul makes a very important distinction tonight that's crucial when people thought that by observing days and eating certain foods there was some contribution to their justification before god he was in your face over it i mean this was colossians this is galatians remember colossians let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come but the substances of Christ and he goes on therefore if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world why is the living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations don't touch don't taste don't handle which all concerns concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men in these kind of cases with Judaizers Paul didn't allow it pushing that stuff, especially when it was at the heart of it was some kind of securing of favor before God by doing this stuff. In Romans, he's not dealing with that. It's fascinating because he's dealing with Jews, but he's dealing with Jews and Gentiles in the church together. You see the difference? He's looking at a church with a mixture, and there are problems all that we've considered about the gospel in these first 13 chapters some of the jews were still observing the daily customs they were still doing it they still had some convictions about it we know that we all like our routines i know it because a lot of you sit in the same seat every sunday and i know where you sit and that means i know if you're here or not by the way. The fact is in Rome, in Rome, some were observing days. They were restraining from certain foods. And the Gentiles hauled out some pig. Didn't go over well. They hadn't grasped their freedom yet. They hadn't fully understood their freedom yet. But they're there. They're listening to the gospel. They're in the church. Can you imagine the loggerheads that went on between these two groups imagine the fighting they thought they were remaining obedient to god and paul considers them weak paul considers them weak but he knows this stuff can totally destroy church oh it can totally destroy a church this is the problem in philippi that i mentioned that their gospel i mean in philip in philippi it's really fascinating i'll come to this at the very end in philippi he begins with look you need to remember your gospel fellowship because as time went on, they got all splintered out over these kinds of things, and it totally disrupted the body. And Paul's saying, remember what united you. Remember what you came together for. Remember why you were set apart as a church. Paul was concerned that walls would again go up, that Christ had tore down. And in these issues, these opinions of men, and Paul is calling for patience here. He's calling for real patience. He's calling for unity to pursue those things that make for peace and mutual edification. Paul knows what happens that when each group gets critical of each other, it's not going to go well. Now, he takes up the issue of foods. Notice in verse 2, one person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. He agrees. The stronger are those who understand this. The stronger are those who understand that listen the gospel has taken all these distinctions these shadows and it has it is fulfilled and that you don't have to be judged in food or drink and meat but there were still some who had the tradition he goes on in verse 3 let listen listen how he addresses this let not the one who eats and i love the words he chooses here um in the greek i won't do all that but i i want you to just try to focus on it here in the English. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains. And let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats. Notice the different verbs being used there. There's two different responses depending on whether you're weak or strong. And so notice what happens. When somebody who's strong and they understand their liberty and they see somebody in Christianity doing something that they feel attacks their freedom on them, Paul says the word, and it's fastening the word he chose. The word that he chose is there's disdain that builds up in the heart towards their brethren. They hate them. Hatred comes out. Disregard. Despising of them. Prideful looking down on disgust. This is what goes on. I mean, this is just what goes on. You could hear the Gentiles, right? in prideful arrogance against the Jews. Why should we, these vegetarians, why do we have to put up with that? Jesus freed us from that. And the weak were the ones who wanted no diversity of thought on any of these things because they had always done it that way. This is how we've always done it. The old way, the right way. And what kind of attitude develops on those part? Pride, contempt, judgment. You pass judgment on the newcomers, the Johnny-come news. Not lately, Johnny-come lately. It's interesting what Paul says about the week. Let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats. The week we're disdaining the newcomers, which is so backwards to our thinking, isn't it? We could use a million examples tonight. I, it's been interesting, you know, when I was up north, alcohol was the one thing that, you know, you bought nobody, you didn't let anyone see you were buying alcohol. Down here, it's a lot freer. I've noticed that. Think about the alcohol thing. It's a good example we could use, couldn't we? Bible doesn't forbid the use of alcohol, but this debate rages on in Christianity. It rages on depending on certain fundamentalist circles, and Christ has freed us with liberty to use alcohol, not to abuse it, not to get drunk. We know that. If anything, we have the tendency to use it as a cloak for vice. That's the danger, isn't it? But you see what we could do with somebody who comes along and says, you can't be drinking alcohol. I could really despise that person for that. You don't understand the gospel, man. And they could stand back and pass judgment on me that I'm not really a Christian, because I drink a glass of alcohol. Some have taken such hard-line stances on things, what do they do? Without any biblical warrant, because they've reacted, they condemn. This is what goes on in Christianity on these kinds of things. One of the most fascinating examples I ever read was by the Scottish preacher John McNeil, who asked his congregation years ago to imagine a conversation between the two blind men that Jesus healed. And maybe I've used it here, but the one in John 9, remember, when Jesus healed the man in John 9, and then the one in Mark 8, he did it totally differently. And can you imagine these two getting together after the fact? They both are looking at each other. And one of them, imagine them getting together, and one of them says, hey, tell me how it happened, man. I want to hear your story. And the other guy says, well, Jesus spit on the ground, and he rolled up clay, and he plastered it on my eyes, and then I went to the pool of Siloam, and I washed, and that's how I was healed. The other man tells his story and the man who was spit on says, wait a minute, you left out the part of Jesus putting mud on your eyes, making clay, and then you had to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The other one says, well, I don't know anything about that. That's got to be the way it happened. It's got to be. You must have forgotten that, that he put mud on your eyes because you see, that's how he heals. He spits on the ground, he makes clay and puts it on eyes, and then he washed you. wash in the pool. No, no, didn't do that with me. Just spoke and I received my sight. Digs in his heels. That's not right. It's not right. If you haven't had my experience, I'm really beginning to doubt whether you see. Thus, in the early church, you had two new denominations, the mudites and the anti-mudites. Here is the response from our Lord on this. Who are you to judge another servant. You hear what the Lord just said? He's my servant. I brought him here. To his own, his master stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. He may be weak to you, but God has the power. Don't you see he's working in everyone differently? Same goal, but in other words, not at the same speed. Whether one is strong or weak, that person answers to the Lord, doesn't he? And on these areas of freedom, you don't have the right to pass that kind of judgment. You just don't. He gives another example. One person esteems one day above another, verse 5. Another esteems every day alike. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. What sort of days is he talking about? He's not talking about the Lord's day. That's a direct command. He's talking about still the Jewish problem of observance of special days. The Jews had a whole host of them. And notice here, he's not, when they were using it for justification, Paul went after it. But when they struggled with it, notice here he's seeing that as weakness. So there was a fine distinction. There was a fine distinction and difference between observing the day because I think I'm gaining justification or doing it because I think it's special above another day. That's a real weakness. That's a real weakness. And we know this. We have special days. But if you're observing those special days because you think they're more special than the Lord's day, that is a very big weakness. You may do it out of sheer gratitude. That would be a strength. But that's not what I've often seen. I've often seen as a pastor that these days become so packed with superstition that there's real weakness. And we saw this a few years ago when Christmas Day fell on a Monday and a whole bunch of churches canceled Sunday. And they all came together on Monday instead. Directly against the commandment of God. And you see this with the Super Bowl. Dangerous extremes of weakness. I want to make it clear, there's nothing wrong to worship the Lord. I don't believe, I believe it's freedom to worship the Lord on any day of the week. if the elders call that. I do. But if we think that day has something more special than the day that God has given us to rest in Him, that is a weakness. Now, I can observe it with thanksgiving and not attach something, but notice here how Paul is having us think through these kinds of issues. The point is, he who observes the day observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. So, don't judge the one who doesn't. You see? He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God. He who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat and gives thanks to God. So, and sometimes, listen, the weak, strong distinction is, I'm going to always see myself as strong. You're going to always see yourself as strong. And because of that, you should probably view yourself as weak. You see? What is Paul calling us to see tonight? Through our convictions at times, though our convictions at times may be weak or misguided, a true Christian, a true Christian, and that's how he wants you to look at your brothers and sisters. This is the judgment of charity. A true Christian is not doing what he does to do it to himself or for himself. Paul says the judgment of charity is to view it that he's doing it as unto the Lord. And that is the judgment of charity in these areas of liberty that we should fall on, on that side. So that being true, he's given us a reminder. None of us lives to himself. See that? You're not living for yourself if you're a true believer. You've decided you're living for the Lord. None of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. That's how you should look at everyone. In the body, as a Christian. I'm not talking about the outside. For to this end, Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? Notice this in-house. For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one shall give an account of himself to God. What he's saying is, that person stands before the Lord. You're not his judge. And that's really important to remember. When we have different people that come in among us. They're not going to look like us. Maybe they will. How do we receive them? Don't judge one another anymore on these things, Paul would say. For the kingdom of God is not in eating or drinking, but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So rather, resolve this. See it? Why do that? Don't put a stumbling block in front of someone. Do you need to? you ever see people who just want to make their point and they're going to dig it in and they're not going to bend one of the characteristics of a christian is willing to yield on these kind of things for the sake of the body that's a humble spirit and that's why paul would say in philippians therefore let us as many as are mature now listen to this statement we'll close with this as many as are mature, have this mind. It's the mind of Jesus. And if in anything you think differently, if there's something in the body of Christ that you think differently about, what does he say to do? Split? No, no, no. God will even reveal that to you. What does that mean? As you work together, as you pray together, as you demonstrate Christ's likeness together, God will deal with the problem of the division. He'll give it to you. And then he says this, Nevertheless, to the degree to which you've already attained that unity, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. So tonight, to the weak, Paul says, stop condemning. To the strong, he says, stop despising. And may the wisdom that is from above, first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, Without partiality and without hypocrisy, may the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. That's maturity. I close with verse 19. Therefore, let us pursue the things that make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, we thank you and praise you that you care to demonstrate for us the way that we should behave and let us, having been loved to the degree that we have been loved, pursue peace and pursue the things that build us and keep us from foolish divisions and stupid disputes and let us be united and fight and contend for that which matters the most. And may in this place your name be exalted as people look at all of the differences as you bring in, and we pray this, that you bring in from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, different people, uniting us as one. And when the world sees our love for one another, that we can actually achieve that by your grace, that they will glorify our Father in heaven. And by that kind of love, all men will know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray tonight. Amen.