We have been looking at Romans, and we come now to Romans chapter 14, which I have titled The Believer and the Weak Brother. We all know who the weak brother is, he's somebody other than I am. This is a very serious chapter. Last chapter ended with a keynote verse that I want to start with today. Paul urges, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Now that is our keynote, and that is a powerful declaration of purpose. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ as though he were a robe to wrap about us so that we could wear his presence in the midst of others. I want you to think for a moment about how the Lord Jesus treated the weak brother. This is not an accident that that closing verse comes immediately before our dealing with the weak brother. When you think of the Lord Jesus Christ's ministry the great kindness with which he treated everyone, the words of sympathy and encouragement that he gave to the sorrowing, the sick and so on, the mighty miracles he wrought in their behalf, the kindly way he dealt with sinners. He spoke very directly to those who were steeped in sin and turned them from their wicked path to what was right. The sharp words he had were for the hypocrites, the people who thought they were better than others, like the Pharisees who strutted their pious deeds. He had nothing but contempt for that and very sharp words. So that verse is important for us to understand as we look at this following chapter. It starts out with a direct command. Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. Alright, this is very clear now. The weak brother is not one who is to be despised or in any way slighted. He is to be received. No qualifications on that one. But, he adds, not to doubtful disputations. In other words, you don't receive him while you get him by the neck and say, listen here, straighten out and fly right. That's the temptation always. And that's not proper. It's forbidden, in fact. The knot here makes it very clear we're not to have that kind of a bad attitude. Now, let's pause for a moment. What about this weak brother and strong brother? What kind of classifications have we got here? Well, Paul immediately launches into an illustration to remove any question we'd have. For one believeth that he may eat all things, and another who is weak eateth herbs. Okay, now that gives us the playing field for this contrast that is following. The one believes that the food does not matter at all. He can eat anything that's set before him. And he knows very well that there are Jews who are recipients of this, who will be disturbed by this. After all, Paul was a Jew himself. He knew all about dietary regulations. But he says very plainly here, the strong one is the one who eats everything without question. The weak now, he may be a vegetarian. Okay? What about this? The principle he's giving here is, don't blink in either direction. You receive them all. Not to argumentation, but as brothers. Now this is very interesting, and is not often practiced in churches. Churches oftentimes have some rather well-known traditions, whether for eating or not eating, depending as the case may be, and they'll get their back up if you violate them. And he's saying very bluntly here, that's wrong. And he's saying this in full view of the Jewish attitudes about the clean and unclean foods. That's where he came from. He had practiced that all his days before he got converted. But now that's all in his past. And the attitude here is, the Lord has cleansed all foods. Doesn't make a bit of difference what you're eating from a standpoint of religion. A good diet is something else, you ought to eat wholesome food, but that's a second question. He's talking about food having religious powers behind it. And you know very well there are cultic movements in this country where the food you eat and the diet that's involved is everything. And that's plainly contrary to what Paul is saying here. There's no plea to go out and eat what's wrong. Everyone is tempted to go out and eat chocolates or whatever. I can speak from experience. But that's neither here nor there from a religious standpoint. What's important from a religious standpoint is submission to the Lord and kindness toward everybody, whatever their background might be. I had to travel to different places in this world and speak as a missionary speaker, and speak to people who had very different traditions about food than I would have. I had one policy, and that was, whatever they served you, swallow it and don't say anything about it, other than it's good if you can be honest. Well, I wound up in Japan, where sushi was the main dish, and eating raw fish, and raw oysters, and raw squid, and raw octopus is not what I would normally choose, let's put it that way. But I swallowed it all. I tried to chew it up ahead of time. The squid I failed miserably. I chewed chewed and chewed, finally just swallowed it, that's all. It was like swallowing a rubber eraser. Well, yeah, there's all kinds of things that you face when you're contemplating this kind of thing. What Paul is teaching here is that diet is not the important thing in life, other than being a wholesome, healthy diet. Religiously, it doesn't matter at all. The Jews thought they had a corner on this with their holy foods and their special diets and all this, and Paul came from that background, and he's throwing it all away. The food does not make you right with God. As long as it's wholesome to eat, eat it. Doesn't make a bit of difference religiously. That's what he's saying. However, there are people in the churches who have different views on all this, and there are some that are strict vegetarians. Well, the attitude there is, let them be. That's the way they believe. That's what they practice. That's fine. That's for them. It's not something that they can push on everybody. So, toleration, kindliness toward others who have different practices in this matter. This is not something that should be a divisive element in a church. And he's making that very clear. Now he goes on to say in verse 3, Let not him that eats despise him that eats not, and let not him which eats not judge him that eats, for God hath received him. Now that's point blank. There's no difference. God receives both parties. Now that's, there it is in black and white. The diet that's involved does not help you get closer to God. It's a matter of human choice. And you may have your own opinions about the matter, and fine, that's great. Everyone should respect one another in that regard. But it's not something that is a religious tenet that must be held and everyone else discredited because they do not conform. I'm using that as an illustration because this is what generally happens in churches. There are certain practices that are common, they're accepted, and this is the right way to do things, and everybody else is wrong, and there's an attitude problem that builds up here. And we have to be careful that we don't do that. But instead, we are charitable and kindly toward others who disagree with us on different matters of diet and practice that are not essential. I'll give you a religious example of this one. I have been in churches in different places in the world, in Europe in particular, where the Lord's Supper is celebrated with wine, not grape juice. And I know preachers in this country who would make a fight out of that and say that's just not something we'd ever do. Well, those churches were not inclined toward drunkenness. They had a tiny little container with some real wine in it, and that was the Lord's Supper. I confess, candidly, I partook of their Lord's Supper just as I would here. Frankly, I am a teetotaler, others-wise. I don't like the taste of the stuff, and I don't have anything to do with it. but in that case I was not going to make a fight over a religious practice which according to this passage was totally non-essential. Not everyone shares my opinion on that score, but I am not going to say that Paul was mistaken in what he tells me is God's will here. Everyone may have their own traditions and religious practices, and so on. But according to this, it is not something we should fight over. It's something instead that we should be sympathetic with, we should be patient with others, and kindly in our attitudes toward them, and not flinch on our own position, but not make an issue of things with weaker brethren. Now, that is the example that he gives, and this can be enlarged and extended in numerous directions, which I will not take the time to do this, but obviously the principle that he's given here is a far-sweeping one. We should have our own convictions, we should make sure that what we do is commanded in scripture, and where it is not commanded in scripture, we should be respectful of those who disagree. So, verse 3, let not him that eats despise him that eats not. Let not him that eats not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. He goes on with the thought now, Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Yea, he shall behold not, for God is able to make him stand. Now this is very interesting, because in verse four, that word servant is the word doulas, it's the word slave. Who are thou to judge another man's slave? In the first century world, this was the practice. Here's a person who is not free to go. He's there responding to his master's wishes, doing according to the orders that he sees. Who are you to judge this other person's slave? He's not answerable to you. He's answerable to somebody else, and he's got to do that or else. He's not free to go. Now that is the illustration that has to be transferred back now to the situation. The other believer that you disagree with is God's slave. He's not yours. You have no business telling him what to do. Now that's something we must all recognize. We're not in this world to order God's people around and to make them conform to our own private religious interpretations. Now we have those and we live by them. And this is not grounds for just saying, well, they don't matter. They do matter. And we hold to many traditions here in our church and we rejoice in them. But this is not something we're going to crush other people into lying about. They are God's slave, not ours, and we can be charitable and kindly toward them where their practices may differ. Now in the last part of verse 4, notice that last half. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand. Alright, now here's the encouraging word for everyone. God does not despise the weaker brother. God is able to make him stand. Now that tells us that our response toward those we regard as weak in the faith is to pray for them. that God's grace may indeed strengthen them, that God may indeed help them to stand. They obviously need it, we're concerned about them, but the answer is God's grace, not our argumentation. So this is something that all of us must apply in our own hearts. We're not here in this world to dragoon people into our kind of beliefs and practices. We are here to share the gospel, to win people to the Lord Jesus, to bring them in submission to him, and let him rule in their hearts even as he does in ours. It's hard to let go sometimes. We want to see to it that everybody does things the way we do. But we have to recognize not everybody is alike. Consequently, there are differences of practice, and we have to respect that even though we would not share them. We have our own interpretations, and we live by them. 5. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He is thinking, of course, of the Jewish practices where the Jews keep the Sabbath. That's something that is not negotiable for them. That is what has to be. And Paul came from that background once again. But he is not observing the Sabbath now. He's observing Sunday. It is God's will that we do it on Sunday. What about people who are strict Sabbatarians and so on? Well, I don't think according to this verse it's our place to just simply argue them into lying. We certainly ought to pray for them. and be careful in our dealings with them. But if they want to meet on Sunday, all right. If they want to meet on Saturday, all right. The day is not important. Submission to the Lord Jesus is what's important. And we must recognize that there are differences of practice within Christendom that do not automatically make people outside the pale of salvation just because they have different practices. So there is a temperate position, a kindly attitude toward others who may disagree. I appreciate the kindness of this congregation. You folks are very careful in what you are doing with other people. You are careful in your attitudes toward others, and your kindness is very evident to people who may visit this. People often tell me as the pastor that this is a most unusual church. Some of them come up to me and say, you know, I've never had so many people in all my life shake my hand and tell me they're glad to see me. You know, well, great. That's success. And I commend you all for the kindly spirit that you have toward visitors and outsiders and the way you welcome people into our midst. That's great. It's a fine testimony to have. Now, I'm sure most of you can think of churches where that is not the practice. I can think of churches that I attended one time and vowed I would never be back. It's the kind of thing where they had no conscience about how they treated visitors. They were an intrusion in what was going on. They had their own little clique and you just sat by yourself and kept your mouth shut. And that's sad, really. And I rejoice that we have such a warm-hearted congregation here. You are glad to see visitors. You are glad to see people when they show up. And you say so. Praise God. Now, he goes on to say in verse 6, He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. He that eateth not, to the Lord he eats not, and gives God thanks. Alright, now here is the right attitude. To be pleased with what the Lord does, regardless of the people who may or may not agree with you. Here is one, when he recognizes a day, he does it to the Lord and the Lord accepts it. Someone who says all days are the same and we won't make any difference with that day, the Lord accepts it. Now remember, significantly, the strong believer is the one who is saying everything is the same. The weak believer is the one who is making special days and special diet. Generally, we tend to think in the other direction this way, but that is not the way Paul is classifying it. Paul is a strong believer. Paul is one who could go to any synagogue or any church and fit in. He had been in both. He was not going to make an issue of anything. He was a strong believer. And he's classifying the people who have no regard for food, diet, special days. That's where he stands. That's very interesting. Most people tend to switch that around and think, well, observing these days, that's the good position. Not observing them is a wrong position, but we have to be charitable. Paul is really coming from the opposite direction. He used to be a strict Jew. He used to be an observer of days and diet absolutely, with no exceptions. Now he's turned completely away from that. He knows all the truth lies in Christ, and the days and the diet are unimportant. But he fellowships with Jews, and he can live just like a Jew and never blink. It doesn't bother him at all, but it's not his position. The position is the freedom in Christ. Now, in verse 7, none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Alright, here's the point of fact. It doesn't matter which direction you're going here, which side you're on, none of us lives for himself, to himself. We live for the Lord. We live to honor Him. We live to please Him. That is where all the emphasis falls. And if that's so, no man dies to himself either. When you die, you die in the arms of the Lord. He's waiting for you. Now that's a peace, a comfort for every believer. It's something that we have to recognize daily as we go about our affairs, as we live in this wicked world and attempt to be a testimony for Christ. We live for Him. He's the one who should get the benefit of our life. He's the one who should get the honor for our practice. And when we come to the end of that life, He's the one who's waiting for us. And there ought to be no hesitation about that and no fear connected with death. Death is merely the pathway to meet the Lord. All the fear is gone. Now that's very important for us to understand this as Christians. We're in this world. Sometimes it's a scary place. Sometimes there are threatening circumstances that doesn't affect us at all. We walk with the Lord. We're living for him. every moment of every day. We are his concern, and when we come to the end, it will be his choice, and he's ready for it, and we can relax and let him accomplish his will. Now friends, we have to recognize that the world doesn't understand this at all. And they get frantic when things go against what they want. And for death to loom before them, it's a shattering experience that will go to pieces at the thought. That shouldn't be the case for believers. Because we belong to the Lord. And day by day we live for him. And when he is finished with us here, he is ready to receive us there. There should be no grief or sorrow or panic about that at all. Now what peace that gives to the believer who recognizes as he walks in this world, he is walking with the Lord Jesus, day by day, moment by moment, and when the pathway ends, it will be right on time, exactly as the Lord sees fit, and he's ready. That gives us tremendous assurance. There are no accidents for the believer. There is simply a walk with Christ, homeward, where he's waiting. Now, he goes on to say, For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. He is Lord of all, wherever they are, in the next realm or this realm. He is the Lord. And so we walk with him and we follow his leading and we obey his words because he is the Lord. And so Christ endured the worst death imaginable to show us all there is nothing to fear. Nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. He proved it. And we can face whatever comes, in life or in death, with confident faith. Christ knows what is best, he will accomplish what is best for us, and we may walk humbly with him, expecting him to keep his word. Now in verse 10, But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We are not judges. We are people who stand before his throne. He is the judge, the only judge. And so we need to recognize that when we take to ourselves the authority of judging others and pronounce upon some brother, you know, you're wrong, you're out of God's will, and so on. The only grounds for that is when he directly violates part of the moral code. If it is absolutely crystal clear, you can say, yes, you've broken this that's in God's word. But beyond that moral judgment, there's no grounds for the believer to say, I'm better than you are. I'm more faithful to God than you are. The plain truth of the matter is, God can find problems in all of us, and He is gracious and long-suffering and merciful. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The all here refers to all believers. The wicked, the lost, are going to stand before the great white throne. They stand as condemned criminals who will be sentenced to hell. But the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ never stands in that regard before the Lord Jesus. He has been delivered. The debt is paid. The Lord Jesus himself paid the debt on the cross of Calvary. The sin is blotted out. It's no longer charged to our account. We stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And there the question is, what can he reward us for? What good thing can he do for us in eternity because of anything we have done for him here? Friends, we don't often think of it that way, but we ought to. He is hoping that we will do all kinds of things that he can reward us for. He is rich and bountiful in his rewards. I'm afraid we don't really have a zeal for that. On occasion we do things that we think are all good deeds, so-called, but we aren't thinking of just every day, all the time, pleasing Him. But that ought to be our goal, of living for the Lord all the time, not just once in a while on special occasions, but every moment of every day. thinking of how we may please him. We don't very often think that way, but according to this verse, it's a good idea if we do, because the Lord is watching and he never forgets our good deeds. He will always remember them. Now, friends, we tend to go through life thinking that, well, we're in a secular situation here in this wicked world and we're trying to stay out of trouble and trying to have a good testimony and so on. And we don't think in categories of what can I do that would please God today? What can I do that would be something that rejoiced his heart? Most of the time, we're too busy. We're doing this, that, and the other, and we're not thinking of what His attitude is. Would it please God if you opened up the Bible and read more of His word? Would it please Christ if you talked to someone about the Lord and tried to help them get right with Him? Would it please God if you spent more time in prayer We rarely think of those categories. We're busy, we're doing things, we're just running all the time to get things done. And we don't think, oftentimes, what would please the Lord. It's a very good practice to just put on the brakes once in a while and ask that question, what would please the Lord today? What could I do today that would rejoice his heart? That's a thought that some Christians never have, but they need to. Now in verse 11, here's the solemn majesty of our Lord. It is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God. So there is a day of accounting coming. where we will give an account of what kind of stewards we have been, with our time, with our possessions, with the center of our interest. Is he the center of our interest? And does he dominate what we are thinking and doing? Or are there other things pushing him off to one side? That's something every believer is going to have to face at the judgment seat of Christ. It's not a matter of condemnation. Your salvation is not in doubt. It's settled by the death of the Lord Jesus. You're accepted. But this question is, what can he reward? Well, he can't reward things that aren't done to his glory. He can't reward things that aren't done for him. And that ought to cause us to think, what am I doing for his glory? What am I doing that would honor him? Sometimes it may take a while to think of something. is well worth the effort to stop and think. So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God. There it is in black and white. You will stand before that judgment seat of Christ and give an accounting. You are a steward. What kind of a steward have you been? A faithful steward or a poor steward? In verse 13, let us not therefore judge one another any more But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or occasion to fall in his brother's way. Okay, here's the decision. Don't judge anybody anymore. You're not the judge. You see some Christian who's not doing all he should, some Christian who has a poor testimony, that's not for you to say. God alone knows. And sometimes we can judge very poorly when we jump to conclusions. I remember a pastor told me, something years ago, I was preaching in his church out of state, and we were standing at the door after the service and shaking hands with people as they went out, and he leaned over to me and he said, you know this fellow coming up here, I'll talk to you about him. And a very quiet, unassuming fellow came up there and I shook hands with him and so on. He gave me a kindly word about the sermon I had preached and so on. Thought he was a nice man. And he went on. Well, the pastor took me to lunch afterwards and sat down and he said, now about that fellow I called your attention. He said, when I first came to this church, I thought he was one of the poorest Christians we had in this congregation. He was really inconsistent. He didn't show up at prayer meeting. His attendance on Sunday was capricious. He never volunteered to do anything. I had him down for one of the poorest grade believers in the congregation that I needed to work on. Well, he said, I didn't know at that time that he had an invalid wife. that he was caring for full-time and holding a full-time job down as well, that he was working day and night. And yes, he didn't show up to church every time. He had responsibilities. He said, you know, I had to get down and ask the Lord to forgive me for being judgmental. He's probably the strongest believer in my church. Friends, appearances can deceive. We look at people and we see the outward appearance. God sees the heart. He knows exactly what's involved. He never makes a mistake. And we make so many. We judge people. We oftentimes think we have them pegged exactly. And when we learn all the facts, sometimes we're kind of shattered at what we find out. Friends, a judgmental attitude is always wrong. None of us should have that. Our attitude should be we want the Lord's praise. We want honor from him. And judging the brethren is not the way to get it. We serve the Lord to the best of our ability. We pray for those who may not appear to. We do all we can to help them, because God alone knows the burdens that are involved. Now, he goes on to say, verse 15, If thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died." In other words, don't deliberately flaunt your freedoms in the face of people who have conscience about it. And that, obviously, is coming from the background of the Jewish practices. If you know a Jew who is observant, and you go to lunch with him, don't order a ham sandwich. Okay, that may be a minor detail to you, but it may be something he worries about. You can order a Reuben, or whatever else is involved. You don't have to flaunt your liberty in the face of people who may not understand it. Be kindly toward them, considerate of their background. The Lord knows exactly the truth. and he can help us all to be more considerate and more kindly toward people, and helpful rather than judgmental, which is always wrong. So, in verse 16, let not then your good be evil spoken of, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. God's kingdom is in the spiritual realm. God's kingdom is manifested by heart attitudes of joy and peace, the celebration of God from within. It's not manifested in outward structures and in banquets and so on. These are minor details. The heart relationship with God is internal. That is what is important. That is what we must concentrate on. Each one for our own walk with God. To be close to the Lord, to walk with Him daily, to please Him daily. This is what we should be concentrating on. He goes on to say in verse 19, Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify one another. Peace between brethren is always a blessed thing. Argument and bitter feelings is always wrong between brethren. For meat, food, destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but it's evil for that man who eats with offense. He's selling you there. You can eat whatever you want. There is no such thing as unclean food anymore. That's gone. The dietary regulations are now through. But if somebody has a conscience about it, and in his conscience he's saying to himself, I shouldn't eat this, if you make him eat it, you've hurt his conscience. That's wrong. He goes on to say, It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. So, our attitude is, let's not do anything that will harm the conscience of a brother. Let's be very considerate. Let's be very careful in how we live. We should not be the cause of someone else to stumble. We should be an example of kindness, charity, and rectitude according to scripture. Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing that he allows. And he that doubteth is damned, condemned if he eats, because he eats not of faith, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. We walk by faith. We trust God for every step of the pathway. What we are doing we do by faith in order to please God. Now our conscience is satisfied. We can't keep everyone else's conscience, only our own. The believer and the weak brother. It doesn't really matter who's the weak brother. What matters is, for each one of us, our personal relationship with the Lord should be intense and fervent. We live for him. We want to please him above all things. And consequently, we love the brethren and we do all we can to help them. because of Christ. Every head bowed, every eye closed. In this quiet moment, in our hearts, let's ask the Lord for grace to be a strong believer, to be a blessing to others, to be someone who's a help and not a Pharisee. Oh Lord, Help Thy people to live for Thee. Give us that singleness of heart, that undivided attention, that we may please Thee and walk with Thee day by day and live for Thee in this wicked world. And give us, Lord, a heart of compassion toward others who may be disagreeable and hard to get along with. Help us, Lord, that we may walk with Thee, concentrating upon Thy love and Thy grace and Thy kindness. Lord, we ask that Thou would shine out through us and warm the hearts of others and draw them closer to Thee. Hear us, Lord, for Jesus' sake. Amen.