Well, we're returning again this morning or this afternoon, you think up to three and a half years, I would get that right. But this afternoon, we are returning to Romans chapter 14 moving forward. So if you want to open your Bibles to that context, we've seen really from chapter 12 that Paul has really a singular demand of the people of God. Whatever the specific things that we can point to, whatever the details or maybe the specific areas that he addresses, they all flow out of and can be subsumed under this idea of love. Paul has shown us back in chapter 12 that love is the great demand. Whatever commandment there be, it is summed up in love. And I provided to you a couple of weeks ago, and I want to set it in front of you again today because I think it's very important to our consideration of the practicalities of what Paul is teaching us in Romans 14, a functional definition of love. I don't claim that this is a fully theological definition or in any sense a technical definition, but I think it is a functional definition that is biblical and that helps our thinking with respect to what it is that Paul is teaching us here. And that is this, that love is the conscious, informed and committed dedication and application of oneself in every respect and in every arena to be an instrument for serving the true good of another. Love is the conscious, informed and committed dedication and application of oneself in every respect as an instrument for serving the true good of the other, whoever that other may be. And I think in that alone we're able to see why it is that the natural man does not love. Because the natural man is defined by a frame of reference a perception that originates with and ultimately rebounds to terminate back upon himself. Everything that is outside of us in the way that we are as natural people is understood by, judged and interacted with from the vantage point of ourselves. So that really what we are characterized by is hatred. If love is what I have just said in a functional sense, then hatred is the opposite. It's not burning down our neighbor's house or stealing his power tools or beating him up per se. It's simply viewing our neighbor and indeed everything outside of us from the standpoint of how those people or things can serve our own perceived good. It's all things unto us rather than all me unto the other. And in that sense, I think we can see how it is that love is a sacrificial reality. It is not sacrificial in the sense that I simply subject myself or yield myself to what you want instead of what I want. That's not the sense in which love is sacrificial. Love is sacrificial in that it sees oneself as an instrument for serving the true good of the other. not simply giving the other person his way rather than me getting my way. That can be just as selfish and just as hateful in the way that I've defined it as getting our way rather than him getting his way. And again, it also explains to us how it is that John can say that it is only those who are born of God who love. If you love, you have been born of God. Because the natural man is incapable of living into the reality of a perception and use of himself in that way. It's an impossibility. Only Christians can love, and yet, sadly, there is very little love in the church. In the way that I have defined love, and obviously this in some sense is an idealistic understanding, it is always an admixtured thing in each of our lives. But nonetheless, functionally, this is what love is. And I think there are many reasons that we don't find this in the church. Fundamentally, I don't know that there are many Christians who really understand love in this way. Love isn't simply doing good deeds. Good deeds can be done in a way that has nothing to do with love, as I have defined it here. Service to others isn't necessarily love. Service to others can be just as self-serving and self-perceived as not caring at all about others in any way, shape or form. yielding to others, meeting others' needs. All of those things can be done in a way that has nothing ultimately to do with love. I think the contemporary model that drives the Christian church, at least in this country, also contributes to the fact that there's little love in the church. If there's anything that defines the contemporary church, it's that it glories in individualism. Isn't that true? Even if it's not the kind of radical church growth model that says, what color of curtains do you prefer in a church? How many songs do you prefer to sing? How long of a sermon do you want? What are your needs? What are your interests? What do you want? Do you like drums? Do you not like drums? When would you like to meet? How warm do you want the sanctuary to be? How cool do you want the sanctuary to be? Even if it's not that kind of what I would consider to be a radical self-orientation, nonetheless, the church has recognized that people are about themselves. And if you want to grow a church, you have to meet people at the point of their own concerns. And people are concerned about themselves. So we have every kind of program and every kind of avenue and every kind of facilitation in place to meet every single person at every single place that they think that they have a need or an interest. A self-styled individualistic Christianity. But the individualism also finds itself in the kind of schism that we see in a very, very, very narrow doctrinal precision that says, unless you slice it exactly the way I do, I may be able in some remote sense to regard you as a brother, but I probably can't have fellowship with you. Or a moralistic view of Christianity that becomes so self-fixated on myself, my sin, My struggles, my repentance, my this, my that, all of those things are equally self-oriented and self-preoccupied, self-serving. I think as just a third and a final for the sake of today, a poor understanding of the nature and the operating dynamic of the church is another reason that there is a lack of love in the church. Christians, for the most part, don't understand, even in a properly selfish way, the importance of the body of Christ. Not just again in a generic sense, but in a personal sense. Not just in the sense that, yes, I acknowledge as a theological principle that the body is important. but our own lives being woven into the lives of other saints, recognizing in a selfish way that we cannot grow, that we cannot prosper in the faith apart from the body. Indeed, the truth that the body causes the growth of the body. We spend far more time worrying about our hairdos than we do our souls. And if we really cared about our souls, we would not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, not in the sense that we come to a place every time the doors are open, but we recognize that we need the body. We need one another if we're to grow. And not just people who think exactly the way we do. Where we're going to find a church where everybody does the same thing that we do. A church that's centered around pro-life issues, or a church that's centered around homeschooling, or a church that's centered around serving the poor, or a church that's centered around this, or centered around that. But the body of Christ, the body is an organism that promotes and sustains the well-being of its members. But we don't believe that. We don't believe that at Sovereign Grace Community Church. And the church at large does not believe that. The church is about the individual. And where there is this emphasis upon the individual, whether it's my sin, my need to deal with this, my need to deal with that, or the selfishness of my needs, my wants, my issues, my problems, My considerations, my need of a nap, whatever it happens to be. We end up with the same thing, a lack of love in the church. Self-preoccupation rather than love. And what Paul is doing here, I think, is step by step, he's dismantling this whole idea. He's tearing down this edifice and he's showing us that the Christian life is a life of love. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means love. If we understand that in the broadest sense, then there's nothing in the truest sense and there's nothing that falls outside of that. It sounds simplistic. Oh, the Christian life is just a life of love. But there really is nothing outside of that if we understand it properly. It is a life of intimate communion with the saints in which all things are directed towards the mutual good of one another. That's what the Christian life is. One of the points that came out at this conference down in Colorado Springs, and perhaps it was overstated, but I think there was a validity in what he said, is that if you look at the New Testament writings, Even as it implicates the saints coming together in a worship sort of way, but certainly in terms of the overall teaching of the New Testament with respect to the Christian life, the presentation and the preoccupation of the New Testament is far more horizontal than vertical. The vertical is presumed, but the emphasis is much more on the horizontal as far as the practicalities of instruction in the New Testament. And that is very true. It's easy to love God, but the scriptures tell us that if we can't love our brother who we see, do we really love God whom we have not seen? Paul is showing us what it means for us to love one another, and this section from verses 13 to 23 really, I think, deals with the fulfillment of the overall obligation. The overall obligation that is love for one another that he puts in terms of mutual acceptance. How is that fulfilled? And it really is this idea of building one another up in Christ. Don't miss that prepositional phrase on the end, building one another up in Christ. Unless we're building one another up in Christ, we're not loving one another. We're not loving one another. I'd like to go ahead. I'm reluctant to take the time to read this whole section through verse 18. We're going to consider the first half today, 13 through 18. But I want to begin back and just read through very quickly from verse one, because this all hangs together so tightly. And I know from week to week, it's easy to have it all kind of go out of our heads. Paul says, now, except the one who's weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only, and let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you then to judge the servant of another? It's to his own master that he stands or falls, and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man regards one day, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. For he who observes the day observes it for the Lord, and he who eats does so for the Lord. For he gives thanks to God, and he who eats not for the Lord, he does not eat and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself or dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he should be the Lord, both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? And you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God, as it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall give praise to God. So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. I know and I am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But to him who thinks anything to be unclean to him, it is unclean. And if because of your food, your brother is hurt, then you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died and therefore did not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. He who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. I said to you last week, and this will come out in verse 20 more explicitly, but in Paul's theology, he sees that fundamental to being a Christian is that the foundation of Christ has been laid in the soul. Everyone who is a believer has the foundation of Christ laid in his life. In other words, every Christian is grounded in and is being constructed upon this reality that is Jesus Christ. Not simply believing information about him, but actually being joined to him by the spirit and being transformed into him. We are grounded and founded upon Christ in the sense that it is his gospel that we have embraced. If we are believers, it is his spirit who now indwells us. It is His Spirit who seals, who is transforming us, who is teaching us, who is producing the life and the likeness of Christ in us, and who is moving us forward to this appointed destiny, which is Christ's likeness. The foundation of Christ has been laid in every Christian's life, so that all that we are, all that we are becoming, is in Christ. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. And the fact of this foundation, again, as I said to you last week, the very fact of that foundation, not just in my soul, but in every believer's soul, it establishes our responsibility and also provides definition to how it is that we live with one another. You don't lay a foundation and go away. You build. The foundation is the step in a process, and if the foundation has been laid, then we have a responsibility to build on that foundation. That's what the Christian life is, building on that foundation in our own souls and building in that foundation or on that foundation in one another's lives. That's the point of accountability that Paul speaks of when each will give an account of himself to God. So Paul's overall concern, and again, it will become more clear next time as we deal with the last part of chapter 14, but in Paul's language, believers are obligated to build on the foundation of Christ. That's what it means to live the Christian life. And particularly his concern is with how we build on the lives of one another. He's not denying the fact of our responsibility to our own souls, but he recognizes that building on the foundation of our own lives finds at least part of its significance or part of its fruitfulness in building into the lives of one another. And what Paul will show us is that this building process has two components. The part today, verses 13 through 18, is more focused upon the negative aspect. The obligation to build into the lives of one another has a positive aspect in the negative aspect. The negative aspect is this. We don't tear down what's already been built. How do we contribute to building on this foundation of Christ? Well, we, first of all, don't tear down what's already been built. And the second part, which will come out more, it kind of fleshes out near the end of where we will finish today. But it becomes more evident, particularly in verses 19 and 20, is that we also continue to build upon what has already been laid. We not only don't tear down what is present, but we build upon it. We have to do both. If we're trying to continue to build on this foundation, but we're tearing down at the same time, then we're not making any headway. And so both aspects are important. I want you to note also by way of kind of introducing this, that in this particular section, Paul's concern is upon the strong and their interaction with the weak. He's dealt with both the weak and the strong throughout chapter 14. But in 13 and following, he's more concerned and focusing upon how the strong exercise themselves, build on the foundation of Christ in their weaker brethren. And I think the reason for that emphasis ought to be obvious to us if we think about it. If our responsibility is to not tear down and rather to build up. Then it has a greater implication moving from the strong to the weak than the other direction, because those who are more mature have a greater capacity to destroy and tear down their weaker brethren. They also have a capacity to build into their brethren in a way that can't be fully reciprocated from the weak back to the strong. Now, I'm not denying the mutuality, but the capacity that the stronger, more mature believer has to destroy or to build up the weaker brother is a more intensive sort of thing. And the principle is best communicated, I think, by working from the weak or from the strong back down to the weak. Again, I'm not denying, neither is Paul denying this principle of mutuality. But by talking about how the mature believer interacts with the weaker brother, he can communicate the principle, I think, much more clearly. I want to just treat this under a couple of different heads. First, Paul opens this up with a general exhortation. This is typical of Paul. He gives kind of a general exhortation that he develops it. And what he does is he gives us that exhortation in verse 13. Then in 14 and 15, he fleshes it out. He clarifies the exhortation a little bit to where he ends verse 15, I think, by essentially restating the exhortation, but in a more powerful and a more significant or clearly important kind of way. In other words, he will show us that this issue of not putting an obstacle or a stumbling block in front of our brother ultimately implicates our responsibility to not destroy our brother. to not destroy our brother. In verse 16, Paul gives us another exhortation that in a way follows as a conclusion, a general conclusion, a general understanding of the outcome that flows out of this exhortation and the failure to meet it, the failure to honor it. In verse 17, he gives us a framework for understanding his instruction, and then in 18, he shows us the outcome of this exhortation in terms of the significance to those who, in fact, meet it or who exercise themselves towards it. So that's the way that I would like to address it today. So verse 13, then Paul says, therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. Note that Paul says, let us not judge our brother anymore. Well, at the very least, what we can say is that Paul sees this as something he has to consider himself. He's not standing outside of the picture and lecturing the Romans and saying, you all need to get this figured out. He's talking about a general maxim, a general principle that applies to every believer. And it's a general maxim that also points to the fact that we all have a tendency to be guilty of this. We've seen this throughout chapter 14. Whether it's looking down on our weaker brother or condemning the stronger brother who doesn't have the same scruples that we have about certain things, we all have the tendency to judge one another, Paul included. And he says, let us not judge one another anymore. But the second thing I want you to see about that exhortation is the play on words that he uses, and it's more clear in the original language. But what he says is, let us not judge, but let us judge. Let us not judge, but let us judge. He's not saying leave off all judgment altogether. He's saying you need to start judging your brother in a different way. You need to move away from what is the tendency in judgment that we have to another sort of judgment, another sort of perspective, another orientation in judgment, start judging differently. In other words, what Paul is saying is instead of passing judgment on each other, either by condemning or by holding others in contempt. Start exercising a different sort of judgment. What judgment is that? A determination that I will never be a hindrance to my brother. that I will never put an obstacle or a stumbling block in his way, something that will impede him, either by stopping him or by tripping him. So Paul is saying, start thinking differently, judge your brother differently, don't not judge at all. But we're moving back again to a different kind of judgment that is oriented around love. I'm not sitting in judgment of my brother, I'm judging him in such a way that I'm determining to serve his good. Negatively here, by not putting an obstacle or stumbling block in front of him, the general exhortation then is this, do not stumble one another. Do not cause one another to stumble. And Paul says, I, too, have to reach this judgment. I, too, have to live in the conscious commitment to this judgment. Verses 14 and 15, then Paul begins to flesh this out. He says, I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. And I want you to see, first of all, that here it becomes explicit what was implied before. Which is, and I mentioned this to you before, it's not even Stephen. It's not that the weak and the strong stand up at the same level of understanding or the same level of correctness. I said to you before that those who are mature in their faith do stand in a superior position with respect to their understanding and therefore with respect to their practice. In terms of correctness, they hold the higher ground. And so Paul says, I am convinced and not just impersonally convinced, but I know to be true in Christ that nothing is unclean in itself. And here in context, he means specifically food and drink. He's not saying there's nothing in the world that's unclean. Fornication is fine. He's not saying that. He's saying with respect to these issues I'm talking about, I know, I know that there is nothing that's unclean. And so Paul is not making all opinions being equal in terms of correctness. It's not this egalitarianism or postmodern kind of thought that says, hey, you have your truth. I have my truth. It's all the same. No problem. We all believe whatever we believe. He's not dealing with that in an ultimate sense. He's saying that there is truth. Not all convictions are equally true to the word of God. But what does he say after that? He says, nevertheless, to him who thinks something to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Paul knew that nothing is unclean in itself, but he also recognized that there are believers who have the conviction that things are unclean. And so Paul is saying that in spite of what is true in the objective sense, the convictions of our fellow believer are not to be disregarded or despised. Paul knew what was true, but he recognized that others have different convictions. And he wasn't saying, gee, maybe their convictions are right. Maybe it is wrong to eat meat. Paul said, no, I know, as he said, we'll say to Titus, I know that to the pure, all things are pure. I know that there is nothing unclean in meat or drink, but My brother who is convinced in his own mind is more important in that sense than the truth. And so what Paul is saying, and this is vital to understand, because we always want to lop off heads for the cause of truth. It's about the word of God. I'm going to go slay my brother for the word of God. And as I've said to you before, there is a place to stand. But Paul is saying for the sake of his argument here, objective correctness is irrelevant to the point he's making. Objective correctness is not the issue. What is the issue? Well, he makes it clear to us in verse 15. If because of your food, your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. What is the commandment that is set in front of us? Love. Love. And what has Paul told us about love? It does no harm. Right? We saw that earlier. Love does no harm. And Paul says, if your correctness brings harm to your brother, then you are not walking according to love. And now your rightness becomes wrong. Your correctness becomes sin. There is a principle more important than having exactly the right understanding of a particular issue. The principle that is more important is love. Love does not make truth irrelevant, but it makes truth a matter of benefit and not destruction. And I'll deal with that more as we go through this. Love is the issue. Paul says that the one whose correct understanding hurts his brother has violated the law of love. He has caused his brother who is weaker, his brother who holds a different conviction, to be distressed in his faith. That's the idea of hurting him, to distress him, to stumble him. to grieve him, to agonize him. And so again, as I mentioned to you last time, it almost can be lost upon us. There's an ironic quality to what Paul is saying here. The exercise, he's saying, of mature understanding, the exercise of mature understanding and conviction can become When it's devoid of love and not governed by love, it can become an issue, not of the glory of Christ, but the blasphemy of Christ and the dethroning of Christ. As I've said to you so many times through this context, what we think is standing for truth and for the glory of God is often yanking God off the throne and making us the point of reference, us the judge. Our brother has to serve us and our convictions and our opinions. And we can exercise correct, mature understanding and make it end up being an issue of blasphemy. Because in binding the weak brother to our convictions, our correct convictions, by the way, and Paul's testifying to us here, the offending believer is made our servant. He's no longer able to hold his convictions with a good conscience. We have caused him to stumble. We've caused him to stumble. And so instead of building on the foundation of Christ with gold, silver and precious stones, first Corinthians three, we are doing what we're building with wood, hay and straw. And ultimately, we're tearing down. Should we labor to see our brethren grow in their understanding? Yes. But we labor to see them grow into Christ. And when we destroy our brother's conscience, when we violate his conscience, when we cause him to be stumbled in his faith before God, we're not building him up. We're tearing him down. There's a way to correct our brother, if you want to put it that way. And I don't really like to put it that way. But I've had some of you say over the last several weeks, well, gee, are you saying that we can never correct anyone? If our brother becomes convinced of Mormon theology, well, we just let him hold his own convictions. No, I'm not saying that that would be absurd. But the issue is love. If you love the brother who's been convicted of his Mormon convictions, you will cause him to grow up into Christ, not simply destroy him. That's the point. And so Paul then shows us in verse 16, the outcome of failing in this regard. He tells us. In verse 16, he brings out another exhortation that kind of flows out of what he's told us in verse 15, we can destroy our brother with our food, and it's not just about food, but he's talking about we can use our convictions to destroy our brother. And note how he qualifies that brother, one for whom Christ died. It ain't just about us or him. We're destroying one for whom Christ died, and who do we serve as master? Christ. So how can we be servants of Christ and destroy that which belongs to Christ? We can't. So Paul brings out this further exhortation that is a conclusion. What is the outcome of of failing in this regard? What is a good thing is spoken of as evil. Literally, what Paul says is do not let your good be blasphemed. That's what he says. Do not let your good be blasphemed. It's what I said a few minutes ago, what is objectively true and right and correct can become an issue of blasphemy. It could become an issue of blasphemy. By using this terminology, Paul is saying it's much more than just a negative sentiment. Our brother is not real happy with the fact that we haven't really handled things properly. Paul says it comes down to an issue where we, in a sense, compel our brother to respond to us in such a way that he speaks against God. He speaks against God in the response that he brings back to us. Paul has said everything is clean. Nothing is unclean. To the contrary, all things are clean. God has given to us all things to enjoy. And they are sanctified by the word of God and prayer. All things are clean. And in the present argument here, Paul is saying food and wine are clean. God has given you everything to enjoy. They are good things, good gifts of God to be received with thanksgiving, gratitude to be enjoyed. That's the good thing. Do not let your good. But he says also that the weaker brother may regard some or all of those things as things to be avoided with an equally good conscience before God. For him, those things are unclean. in his own faith before the Lord. And so when the mature believer insists on partaking again, just to keep it with Paul's argument, it's not about food per se. It's not about wine per se. Paul's dealing with issues of liberty, individual conviction. But to keep it with his argument, when the more mature believer insists on partaking of food and drink, to the detriment, to the hurt of his brother, or when he simply sits in a condemning, contemptuous sort of attitude towards his weaker brother, he's causing what is a good thing to become evil. And that's so in a couple of different ways. The obvious way is that the believer himself is stumbled, the weaker brother, and now he ends up speaking against these things and this person. The good things that God has given become a point of of blasphemy. They become they become in some ways something that that argues against the gospel. And I'll explain that with this broader sense. It's not just the relation between these two people. OK, this person is stumbled by this. So now he says this person is an evil person. That's not really the point. It's much bigger than that. The issue is that ultimately the gospel brings an understanding of life. It's the gospel of liberty, the gospel of freedom. And God has given to his children all things to enjoy. When they understand them properly and they use them properly, they live in the liberty of the gospel. But when we use it in such a way that it tears down our brother, what is the glory of the gospel? The liberty that we have in Christ becomes an issue of captivity. We put shackles on our brother. We bind his conscience and we shackle him to an offense that he can't escape from. So the liberty of God, the liberty in Christ in the gospel becomes an issue of captivity. And it becomes a point at which now this freedom is spoken against. The gospel itself, the gospel of freedom, now tears down and results in a captivity that is spoken against. And in the broadest sense, it gives also to the world a reason to blaspheme. The good news of the gospel The gospel is spoken against when the world sees that the freedom that comes in Christ results in offense and destruction, conflict, division. When the good news brings those things, it's spoken against. The world already has those things. The world is full of division. The world is full of offense. The world is full of of conflict, of self-centeredness. The world already has those things. Who needs a gospel that only promotes those things? Who's interested in a freedom that is only freedom to destroy another brother? What sort of a God brings forth that sort of good news? Who wants anything to do with a God whose gospel only fosters and cultivates the problems that are already in the world? Selfishness, pride, destruction. What is the point of a gospel that only perpetuates those things? Paul recognized that more is at stake than simply the relationship between me and my immediate brother. There's more at stake than simply that. This issue of the good thing being spoken of as evil has ultimately cosmic implications. It implicates everything. What's at stake are, among other things, God's glory and the integrity and truth of the gospel. Because that sort of life of liberty argues against love, it contradicts the gospel and the world sees that. The gospel of freedom becomes both the bondage of our brother and it becomes the point of blasphemy for the world. And Paul makes this clear to us in his explanation in verse 17. He says first in 16, don't let what is a good thing for you. Don't let the good, your good become spoken of as evil, because the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. What seems perhaps to us at first glance to be nothing more than, this is just my liberty and my brother isn't as mature as I am. And so, well, that's his problem. What seems to be just an insignificant thing of a difference between believers and some little irrelevant matter of individual consciences, Paul says has cosmic implications. It's not about individual expression, it's about what? The kingdom of God. Do you think about your liberty in that way? Do you think about your convictions in that way? I started by saying we're so individualistic. We think of our own lives in terms of our own lives, our issues, our interests, our problems, our needs, our wants, our schedules, our relationships, our this, our that. Who sees it my way? Who's here for me? Who's going to hold my hand in this? Who's going to do for me what I need? And so we become so set in our own convictions and we stand against everybody who doesn't have the same conviction. And Paul is saying it's not just enough that you don't stand against that brother. You have to understand that even the use of your own convictions has implications for the kingdom of God. It's much bigger than us. This is part of discerning the body. It's much bigger than us. We're one little piece of a scheme that sweeps everything into its grasp. This is one of the great beauties of understanding the scripture in terms of a huge redemptive historical understanding. We have been scripted into a story that takes everything into its grasp. And we are not individuals. We are a part of a story that has everything in its grasp. And the way that we are towards one another, even with these issues that seem unimportant, implicates the kingdom of God. Paul says that's the framework that's to govern the use of your liberty. There's a framework that we have to think about our lives as believers and how we interact with one another. We have been delivered from the dominion of darkness. We've been translated into the kingdom of Christ. This is a kingdom that is a new creation. I don't want to become so redundant that people start to check me out, but I'm telling you, we don't think of Christianity properly. It's not a bunch of information that we embrace. It's not believing the words in this book per se. It's a new creation. It's a new reality. It's the kingdom of God. The kingdom has come upon us. The eschaton, the new age has come. All things are new as it pertains to us. And in the process of building the kingdom, all things will be made new. Romans 8. We live with that eschatological angst. We live in the context of a groaning for what is already, but not yet. Not just, gee, someday I'm going to go to heaven. We live in the reality of a new creation. And Paul says that the kingdom of God, that's the overarching definition of this reality that has come in Christ. Paul says it's not about food and drink. And he's not pointing to the future and saying, in heaven, you won't have to eat and drink. That's not what he's saying. He's saying the kingdom of God is the defining reality of the world now. The kingdom has come. It's not about things like eating and drinking. Those are not key principles that define and order the kingdom. It is about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Why righteousness? Well, first, because it's the dominion of the righteous one. But more than that, every citizen of the kingdom is clothed in His righteousness. This kingdom is God's own righteousness. It's not us being better people. Have you done well this week? Come into my kingdom. It's the kingdom that is defined by God's own righteousness. God is the righteousness of this kingdom. And nothing unclean enters into it. because it is God's kingdom that is overarched and defined by His own righteousness. Not people doing a better job than they used to. It's a kingdom in which there is nothing unclean in it. And because of that, because the Lord of the kingdom makes all things clean, because they are now bound up in His own righteousness, no food can be unclean. Not that you don't eat in heaven now. The kingdom of God is now. It's a righteous kingdom. Therefore, no food can be unclean. Nothing in the kingdom is clean, unclean. Nothing in the kingdom is unclean. You see that imagery at the end of Revelation, nothing unclean comes into the city right outside of the dogs. There is no unclean food, but this kingdom that is defined by God's own righteousness is not eating and drinking. Food and drink are not the issues in God's kingdom. So what does that mean? It means that things that are clean in themselves, there's nothing unclean in the realm of God's kingdom, but things that are clean in themselves must not be allowed to produce defilement. They must not be allowed to become instruments for defilement and destruction. The food is clean, but it's not the issue. That's Paul's point. God's kingdom has no place for the uncleanness of defilement and destruction that comes by the way that we interact with one another in a wrongful way. You don't violate the kingdom by eating food, drinking wine, not eating food, not drinking wine. You defile the reality and principle of the kingdom by sinning against your brother. Do you see that? It's not about food and drink. It's the dominion of God's righteousness, and therefore it is a kingdom of peace. One of the great promises of the Old Testament is that when God brings his kingdom, it will be the kingdom of peace presided over by the prince of peace. They will not hurt or kill or destroy in all my holy mountain. Peace will reign. A kingdom of peace, reconciliation of the enmity, the estrangement between us and God, between us and ourselves, between us and one another, between us and the world in which we live. The restoration of Shalom. It's a kingdom of peace. And so the promise of peace of the Old Testament becomes the key emphasis or a key emphasis in the New Testament that peace has come. This kingdom is a kingdom of peace and not just forensic justifying peace between us and God, but the peace that is the reconciliation of relationship between us and God and between ourselves and ourselves and between ourselves and one another. Peace. Peace. So how is it, Paul is saying, that matters of food and drink, which are clean in themselves, but how can those things, what right do those things have to jeopardize and compromise peace? The kingdom is about peace, just like it's about righteousness. And he says, thirdly, it's about joy. Why? Where there's righteousness and peace, What is there? Joy. How can there be righteousness and peace without joy? But John records for us in the Upper Room Discourse, and I'm not going to read that, but you can go back and read the first 10 or 12 verses of chapter 15 of John's Gospel. In that passage, Jesus makes it clear that joy is realized in love. Joy I give you, my joy I leave you. I tell you these things that my joy might be in you, that your joy might be complete. And what am I telling you? Love one another. The righteousness of the kingdom is grounded in love. The peace of the kingdom is grounded in love, not just God's love, but our love. But ultimately, God's kingdom that his righteousness and peace are grounded in the fruitfulness of his own love. And so also joy in the Christian life, joy in the kingdom of God is realized in the context of love. So how is it that we will steal one another's joy by not walking in love? It's not about our food and drink. That's Paul's point. Get over it. It's not about that. You've got to think bigger. Got to think the kingdom, got to think what's true. Who are we? What is the body of Christ? What are we about? And so the outcome of this heeding, the outcome of not heeding is the destruction of our brother and that which is good being spoken of as evil, being blaspheme. But what is the outcome of heeding the exhortation, the outcome of living with one another in this way that Paul is speaking of? It's acceptable service to Christ. He who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Now, literally, the way Paul says this is the one serving Christ in this is acceptable to God and approved by men. The subject of his statement, who's the subject of is approved and is acceptable or is well pleasing? It's the one serving Christ in this. Well, what is the this? He doesn't tell you. The NAS supplies this noun way in this way, and I think that's a valid insertion in that the idea of the this, that demonstrative pronoun is the one who serves Christ in accordance with these principles and these understandings that are set in front of you. The one who serves Christ according to these truths. That one is well pleasing to God and approved by men. Not just while pleasing to God, but approved by men. Why acceptable to God? He doesn't mean in a legal sense, this will justify you. He's saying God is pleased when his people live in this way. Why? Because they testify to him. They testify to his gospel. They testify to his kingdom. They're not lying against the truth. When we destroy our brethren for the sake of our convictions, we're lying against the truth, right? We're ordering ourselves as if something were true that's not true. Because the kingdom of God is not that way. So when we live into the truth of the kingdom, God is pleased. When we serve Christ in that way, not trying to correct our brethren, not looking down on our brethren, not making ourselves the standard with our brethren in the name of serving Christ. When we serve our brethren unto Christ, when we serve Christ in that way. God is pleased because now we are testifying accurately to the gospel. To the truth of the gospel, to the reality of the gospel in our own lives. And to me, it's kind of set in sharp contrast, this idea of what is well-pleasing to God and what is blasphemous. To fall short in this area is to, in a sense, provoke a blasphemy, a blasphemous response in our brethren, in the church and in the world. But to live in this way is to do the opposite. It's to be well-pleasing to God. In this way, the joy and the peace and the righteousness of the kingdom are manifested and exemplified and exalted in practice. The kingdom is righteousness, joy and peace. But how do we bear witness to that? By living in this way. And he says, finally, that kind of service gains the approval of men. Well, obviously, it gains the approval of the weaker brethren who are not being caused to stumble. Right. But it's bigger than that. It gains the approval of the church, because when one suffers, all suffer. When one is distressed, all should be distressed. When a brother is destroyed, the church is undermined. Because we're all in it together. The body is an organism. It's not just about me and Paul or me and somebody else. It's about the body. And when one member suffers, all suffer. In one sense, the whole church is caused to blaspheme the gospel. But ultimately, it extends beyond the church to the world. Just as the world has cause to blaspheme when we don't live in love in this way, the world is forced to attest to the gospel. I'm not saying that loving one another in this way is going to cause people necessarily to be saved. But what I am saying is that we force them to have to acknowledge, as much as they try to run from it and deny it, we force them to have to see what the gospel really is. And that Christianity isn't just another religious choice. It's a new creation. When they see people who don't live the way they formerly lived, when they see people who actually love, people who actually view themselves as being set apart to be consumed upon the service and sacrifice of the faith and the edification of others, it makes them take notice. It forces them to smell the fragrance of the gospel, whether they respond to it positively or not. It becomes a point of condemnation to them, if nothing else, because there's a true witness to the gospel. There's an honoring of the gospel when we interact with one another in that way. So what do we do with this? I just want to kind of sum this up for you as we close today. Paul has told us that there is one obligation, it's love. And think again in terms of that functional definition that I gave to you. Love is the conscious, informed, committed dedication and application of oneself as an instrument for serving and promoting and seeking to secure the true good of another. Love fulfills all law because it's that. Love does no harm. Where there's love, there will be no law. I was speaking with a guy at this conference, and he was asking me how I felt about kind of the Mennonite conviction of saying we shouldn't have punitive laws because really it's about trying to restore people. We shouldn't be punishing them. It should be a restorative thing. And I said, well, the truth is that God has not given the civil government the sword for nothing. And in the context of sin, Love provides a restraining sort of action. It doesn't mean that love isn't about a restorative function. But the natural world can't love. It can't function in love. It can't respond to love. And so, law has to have a punitive aspect to it. But in the kingdom of God, and certainly in the consummation of the kingdom, there will not be law. There will not need to be law. Because all law is summed up in love. And when we love ourselves, even truly and properly, and when we love our brethren truly and properly as extensions of this consuming love for God. There is no law, not only against those things, but there is no law needed in view of those things. There will be no code book in heaven. Because love is the perfection of law. And so, Paul is telling us that all things are to be viewed and exercised in terms of love. Christian maturity is a matter of love, not having the right answer. It's a matter of love, both with respect to doctrine and with respect to practice. Ultimately, the correctness of our doctrine and the outflowing correctness of our practice are still matters of love. Paul says, I can have all knowledge and I can have all faith. But if I don't have love, it's useless. It means absolutely nothing. So, mature understanding, what Paul calls the strong among the saints, mature understanding is to serve the good, the true good. It's to serve the building up of the brethren. We are obligated to build on the foundation of Christ in each other's lives, not the foundation of ourselves. We're not seeking to build the superstructure of ourselves on the foundation of Christ. We're seeking to build all up into him who is the head, right? The goal, Paul says, the whole point of pastors, teachers is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And what is the work of the ministry? The mutual co-laboring so that we will all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of the stature that belongs to Christ. The pastoral responsibility is to equip you all so that we can all together labor to see each of us come to full maturity in Christ. Not clones of one another. Full maturity in Christ. So if the way that we hold our doctrine becomes a source of stumbling to our brethren, then our good doctrine is useless. It's worse than useless. It becomes a point of blasphemy. The truth is a tool for building up. It's not a weapon to destroy. The truth is a tool to build up, not a weapon to destroy. Sometimes that building up process requires a little bit of house cleaning, but it's not a weapon of destruction. And it's the same with our freedom. I hear from many of you, and I know in my own life, Probably if I could put it into the most simple sense of what is the most glorious aspect of the gospel in the realization of our personal lives, I would say it's to understand and live into the freedom that we have in Christ. Is there anything more glorious than to be free in Christ? To be free of that bondage. Of guilt and shame and struggle and self-righteousness. As Plantinga says, to be forced to always retreat into the cave of our own being and try to bury there all of our insecurities and sin and guilt under a mound of our own accomplishments and constantly oscillate back and forth between pride and despair. And we've been set free from that. Is there anything more glorious than that? And so our freedom is not something to be minimized or despised or thrown away. It's the glorious privilege that we have. The sun has set us free and we are free indeed. And we're not to despise that or set it aside. We should never again, Paul said in Galatians, allow ourselves to be subjected to a yoke of slavery. Never. But we have been set free to love. Set free to love. Christ has liberated us and he has renewed us and he has empowered us by his spirit so that we can use our freedom to serve the good of the saints, to serve the good of the kingdom, the good of the gospel. He set us free not to become enslaved again, and it doesn't just have to be some sort of kind of technical works righteousness to which we become enslaved. When our liberty becomes an issue of our way, our understanding, our correctness, then all we have done is we've taken the freedom from ourselves that we gained in Christ, and we become re-enslaved to ourselves again. And we want everybody else to be enslaved to us. Our freedom just becomes an issue of re-enslavement. Self again becomes the point of measure in all things. That's what Christ set us free from. Why do we want to build again what we once destroyed? Paul says in Galatians 2. It's not just about sin issues per se, it's the whole dynamic of the way our minds work. We've been set free to where it's not about us anymore. We've been set free to love. Because what is love? I can give myself freely for the good of another person without having to have concern for myself. We can't love until we've been set free, but why do we want to be re-enslaved, using our liberty to serve ourselves and to take our brothers captive to ourselves? It's another great biblical paradox. that the only way that we can exercise and manifest to the world our freedom in Christ is when we give ourselves to serve the good of our brethren. The only way that we can really live into and manifest the freedom that we have in Christ is when we, in a sense, make ourselves the servants of one another. Because to fail to do that is to return or to stay back in our self enslavement. We have been liberated to become what? Children of God. We've been liberated to live as free people, but are we going to have our freedom become slavery again? What Paul is talking about here, to fail in this regard, is to take our freedom and turn it into slavery. Our own slavery and the slavery of our brethren. Let me just close by reading with you. Turn to 1 Peter 2. And with this, I'm finished. But perhaps maybe some of what Peter says here will ring in your understanding a little bit more profoundly based on the things that we've considered today. Peter talks again about this reality of being in Christ, what it means to us, and how it manifests itself. He's spoken in chapter 1 about an obedience to the faith, an obedience from the heart that has now brought a renewal by the Word of God that is everlasting. And he says in chapter 2, verse 1, Therefore, putting aside all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy and slander, all of manifestations of self-enslavement, Like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. If indeed you have tasted the kindness of the Lord and having come to him as a living stone, a stone that was rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God. Speaking of Christ, this stone, you also as living stones are being built up in him as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. in order that you would be offering up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him shall not be disappointed. And Peter says, now, this precious value, then, that is in this stone to whom you've come, it is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this has become the very cornerstone, but a stone of stumbling in a rock of offense to certain men because they stumble in that they are disobedient to the word and to this doom they were also appointed. But you, You are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are a people for God's own possession. You, plural, you, the church, not you individually. That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. How do we do that? He's going to tell us, for you were once not a people. specifically referring to the Gentiles particularly. But now you are the people of God. You had not formerly received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So, beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers, as participants in this new creation, as those who are being built up in Christ to be a spiritual house, as a holy priesthood, a holy nation, I urge you to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Think about how this fleshly lust manifest themselves, even as he speaks through these next couple or this next verse, next couple of verses. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, on account of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of his visitation. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution. How do we proclaim his excellencies? How do we keep our behavior excellent among the Gentiles submitting to for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether the king to governors sent by the king for the punishment of evildoers and the praise who do what is right. For this is the will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men live as free men. Live into your freedom in Christ, but recognize that your freedom is not a means of evil. It is as bond slaves of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. How do we proclaim the excellences of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light? By living into our freedom. And how do we live into our freedom? By serving one another in love, as servants of Christ. We can't live into our freedom as individuals. Do you get that? You can't live into your freedom as an individual. You live into your freedom, I live into my freedom, in the context of the mutuality of the saints. the testimony of the church to the world. It is the church that reveals the glories of the gospel to the powers in heaven, Ephesians 3, but also to the unbelieving world. What a privilege we have. Father, press these things upon our hearts, not in a way that we come away browbeaten, beat up, but in a way that we come away full of joy. recognizing not only the privilege that we have, but the power that we have. That we not only are called to love, but we are able to love. That we have actually been set free from ourselves. Hatred is just the life of self as the point of reference in everything. And we have been set free from that. Let us not again be yoked to a subjection to slavery. Father, teach us what it is to serve in the maturity that we have in Christ, to serve our brethren, to serve you by serving them, to labor in all things, to see each one, ourselves included, grow up in all things into whom, in whom and who is the head. Grow up in all things into him who is the head. Teach us these things, Father. Produce the fruit of them in our lives. That we would be that city set on a hill. In this way, serving our brethren, we proclaim the excellencies of the One who has called us. And we keep our behavior excellent among the Gentiles. Do this work, Father. for our soul's sake, for the kingdom's sake, for your name's sake, for the glory of Christ Jesus, unto whom are all things. Amen.