Let us then turn in God's Word to Romans 14, as we continue reading where we left off a couple of weeks ago. Last week, of course, was Pentecost, so we took a Sunday off from this sermon series. But we will read from Romans 14, beginning reading at verse 13 and reading through the end of our chapter as we consider how we are to deal with those who have weaker consciences before Almighty God. So let us hear together the word of Almighty God. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good 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. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat, nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith, for whatever is not from faith is sin. Now as far as the reading of God's Word, may he add his blessing to our consideration of it this morning. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, as we open this passage of God's Word, I love what Paul starts out with. There is nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. We live in a church culture today where people spend a lot of time saying, you can't eat this, you can't eat that, you can't do this, you can't do that. Brothers and sisters, we have the Word of God which refutes so many of those things. And we have to be careful that this passage is not talking about people who have unbiblical ideas about this sort of thing. Notice the time frame in which this is being written. This is the transition period from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And so what might be in people's minds about, you can't eat this, or you can't do this, or you can't do that? Well, of course, that's the Old Testament laws, the Old Testament ceremonial ideas. And there would be those who say, you know what, I have to be careful that I don't eat pork or that I don't walk too far on a Sunday or something like that. We have to be careful. People use this passage and passages like it in the scripture to say, well, I have this idea has no place in scripture. But I have this idea that this is so important, I will not eat this, or I will not do this, or I will not do that. This is not about people who say, well, you've got to be vegetarians, or this or that or the other thing. Now, if that's your personal conviction, that's one thing. But I'm sorry, we cannot preach that to other people and say, thus saith the Lord. People do this sort of thing, and I'm not just talking about vegetarianism. Whatever it is about our food or whatever it is about so many other things, about holidays or so many other things, people get so uptight about that stuff. The Bible is very clear that we are not talking about unbiblical hang-ups that people have. But this is about someone who has a historical problem with something out of the Bible. As I said, especially the historical context is someone who would be a Jew and coming out of that Judaism and saying, I have still to be careful to obey the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. Of course, that's blown out of the water by what happened to Peter with the sheep. But notice what this says. This says we need to edify one another. We need to learn from the Word of God. This is not about people who say, well, I can't have wine at communion because that's going to make me an alcoholic again. Or something like that, where Christ commanded. If we don't do it, we're subverting God's command for our own ideas. Now example of this, let's start with an example so we can understand perhaps the situation. I've heard of a woman who had been converted to Christianity from a cult. And she had been abused in that cult. And she began attending a mission church, which was renting a building and guess what? That building was owned by this cult. They're kind of nice sometimes. They have church on Saturdays, and so the building's wide open on Sunday. And so oftentimes, those sorts of things work well. But she couldn't get past the door of that building. This is the example of a weaker brother or weaker sister, not just somebody who says, well, the Bible doesn't say anything about this, but this is my hang-up. I don't want to do this or I want to do that. We need to study the Bible. When this fact of this woman was presented to the church, they immediately sought for a different place to meet. Not because the cult was anything, but because of her experiences in the cult, she couldn't worship there. Now this passage does speak of not eating meat or drinking wine. And as always, we must look at the context. What kind of meats and wines are being spoken of here? Meats and wines offered to idols. Meats and wines that would have been not allowed in the Old Testament context. Notice the verse 14, the word unclean there. Anything to be unclean. And it is in this context that Paul says in verse 21, it is neither good neither to eat meat or drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. And so the theme that we want to see in God's Word this morning is God calls believers to care for their brothers and sisters in what they approve. God calls believers to care for our brothers and sisters in what we approve and how we act. In verses 14 through 18, we're called to avoid being stumbling blocks to our brothers or sisters. And in verses 19 through 23, we are told that we are to seek peace in all that we do. So, Paul, and we with Paul, need to stand up and say that we are going to avoid, we are going to resolve not to be a stumbling block. Not to cause our brother or sister to fall in what we do. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 8, verse 9, "...but beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak." We need to be careful that we are not a stumbling block to those around us. And Paul says, I know that there is nothing that is unclean of itself. We must realize the freedom that we have in Christ and that there is biblically not unclean food in this world. We spend time with people worrying about genetic modifications, or whether it be earth-friendly or whole foods. We have to realize that all of those ideas have a spiritual underpinning, a basis, and we have to be careful about that. But notice what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10.25, eat whatever is sold in the meat market asking no questions for conscience sake. We live in a culture that says, well, the most important thing about the food is the ask and the questions. On the other hand, then, continuing in verse 14, to him who considers anything to be unclean, it is unclean. Whatever is not from faith is sin. You have to realize that. The Hebrews says in a much more broad context, without faith it is impossible to please God. If we're doing something that doesn't arise from faith, it is sin. 1 Corinthians 8 verse 10, For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? We have to realize that everything we deal with in our culture has spiritual underpinnings. We don't need to worry about them. But when someone says to you, hey, this was offered to idols. Well, we don't say that very much anymore, but people go into their spiel about the food and how this is perfect or this is terrible. We as Christians need to have sensitivity to their consciences. and to bring them to the Bible, where God says these things are nothing. But we have to understand, and I think we forget that, people in our culture may not have little temples where they stick up little statues and bow down before them. But the idols of our culture are still very real. And they may not have little statues, but they may have political or social norms that they say these are more important than the gospel. And people run after that sort of thing. And when we see that they are saying, well this is so important because it pursues this as the highest good, then we have to be careful. And we as Christians need to be careful not to offend their consciences. Now think about Daniel for a second. And people might say, well, Daniel is the exact opposite of what you're talking about. Now this was a different time, and the food laws of the Old Testament were in effect. And Daniel didn't want the food that had been offered to idols. He knew that. And his life was therefore a witness. What did he eat? Cabbage. Not just vegetables, by the way. The Hebrew there actually has the word cabbage. Can you imagine eating cabbage every day? Three meals a day? Now, I don't mind sauerkraut and stuff like that, but I think after three meals a day for a couple of weeks, it'd get old. And yet, such was Daniel's and Shadrach, Meshach, and Mednego's commitment to God and to obedience to God's law, that they would not defile themselves, the Bible says, with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine that he drank, And he requested the chief of the eunuchs that he would not defile himself. But we have to realize that there are those who have a commitment and they say before God, I'm not going to do this or I'm not going to do that. And we need to be sensitive to our brothers and sisters in that. Walking in love, that's what we read in verses 15 and 16. If your brother is grieved, verse 15, because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. This is not love, but this is hate. 1 Corinthians 8.11, And because of your knowledge shall the weaker brother perish, for whom Christ died? Are we going to walk on their consciences? I hope not. I dare not. Where are we going? The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, verse 17, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We so often get excited about what we have to eat, to stick through our mouths into our stomachs. And what's important is the glory of God, is salvation. 1 Corinthians 8, 8, But food does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worst. Notice two sides of that right there. Food does not commend us to God. If we are eating The perfect food, we're no more saved than if we eat the worst food around. Oh, that terrible junk food or something. But people get all excited by it. We need to be in service of God. Neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. It is rather righteousness in Christ, peace with God, and joy in salvation. So how do we live? We are to seek peace in everything, in all that we do. We are to seek edification in peace. Now that edification word, what is that? To build one another up. Not just me, myself, and I. How important am I? But building one another up as the body of Christ. Loving one another. Pursuing peace. Pursuing peace with one another and peace with God. Pursuing edification. To build one another up in the truth. Notice the context in which Paul writes this. There is a brother or sister in Christ who doesn't realize that these things are nothing. There's so many people who spend their time worrying about this and that and the other thing, the next thing. And we need to build one another up in one aspect so we realize that all of these things that are offered after this important idea over there or that important idea over there, running after the things of this world instead of the things of Christ and of God, we need to build one another up. Love one another in the truth. And this brings peace about the things that we eat. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 12, Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the advocation of the church that you seek to excel. For the building up of the church, it doesn't matter just whether it's just me, It's much more important that we love one another as Christ, as the Church of Christ. And we are not to destroy our fellow Christians for food, to avoid those things which cause true offense to a brother. It is evil for the man who eats with offense, we're told there. Romans 14 verse 15, Yet if your brother is grieved by your food, and you are no longer walking in love, do not destroy with food the one for whom Christ died. And the point, the direction is until we would be built up, edified by the teaching of God's Word so that we understand what we read in verse 14, that there is nothing unclean of itself. But we need to love the brothers and sisters more than we love our food and our bellies. That we abstain, verse 21, if it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine or do anything which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. We need to love our brother so much that we would abstain from food for him. 1 Corinthians 8.13, Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. By the way, the word there, meat, does not just mean what we think of as meat. Meat is dinner. That's what he's saying there. I will never again eat if it's going to make my brother stumble. That's a pretty harsh statement about himself. Blessed is the one who does not judge himself in what he approves. Verse 22. We need to be careful. We need to love our brothers and sisters in Christ enough to care for them. To care what our food says to them. And to realize for the brother or the sister, whatever is from doubt is sin. Paul writes, Titus 1.15, to the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But even their mind and their conscience are defiled. Notice that the person who is saying, I don't want to eat this or I don't want to eat that, is the one with the weaker conscience. There are many dangers from ignorance of God's Word and this is one of them. That we start getting off into things and saying this is bad and that is bad and we shouldn't do this and we shouldn't do that without biblical grounds. And so we need to be built up by studying the scriptures. So that we can know the truth when people are trying to twist it. Because guess what? I'm going to run into that until Christ returns. And we need to know the truth. And we are to avoid putting a stumbling block before our brother. To avoid causing them to sin. Or even something that is questionable in their eyes. And as Paul says, if wine or meat causes my brother to stumble, I will no more eat meat. Now, brothers and sisters, we have to understand something. There are people, as we've said, who try to pull this in an unbiblical manner. That's not what Paul is talking about. We as Christians need to be seeking to interpret and to understand Scripture. And if someone has an idea according to Scripture and says, well then, therefore, I can't do this, I can't eat that, or, you know, we talked about a couple of weeks ago, people who say, well, I can't, you know, celebrate Christmas because I don't see it biblically. then do we spend our time trying to shove it down their throat? I think what we do is we show them biblically, but I don't think there's a right or a wrong there, honestly. And we have a problem as Christians that we, when I have my idea, too often I have to shove it down your throat. And that's not love. That's not caring for one another as a Christian. We need to study the Word of God together. That's why so often when I'm dealing with people and we go through the biblical arguments and they can't accept it, I encourage them, let's just read the Bible then. So whether it be a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to discuss the sovereignty of God with some people who were very much stuck in the Armenian camp. And at the end of the conversation, I said, well, then let's both just read the Bible. Because if we read the Bible, we're going to come to biblical conclusions. And on all of these things, how do we deal with it? We need to be studying the Bible, we need to be coming to biblical arguments and biblical conclusions. And so There are situations where people just have a totally unbiblical hang-up. And I think we have to even be careful in those, but at the same time, we have to realize that there are opportunities to teach there. But on the same time, there might be someone who has a very similar problem. who dealt with a similar issue and in love to that person who grew up perhaps with something in their lives where this was a bad thing. It would be loving for me to abstain, for us to abstain. Example, you could have someone who's a teetotaler just because they don't know what the Bible says. On the other hand, you could have someone who grew up with an alcoholic father. totally different situations with very different outcomes. I'm not ashamed to eat meat which God has given to be consumed according to scripture, but at the same time it would be unloving if someone who had grown up with sacrifices or with something like that had not fully understood verse 14. And I said, well, let's go have some of this meat. There are entirely different ways of dealing with people. And unfortunately, we don't like doing that legwork. It's easier just to rain on people. But we need to love one another. And we need not to be the proverbial bull in the China shop. We need to be careful to understand our brother and sister in Christ. And to love them with the love which God has had toward us. And so brothers and sisters, we're called not to be a stumbling block to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not, as Paul says, that we would destroy with food the one for whom Christ died. We need to love one another, even in what we eat. I can't even sometimes imagine what people do. But brothers and sisters, we need to love one another, even in the things we eat or don't drink or don't eat. Amen. Let us bow before God in prayer and we'll close this prayer together with the Lord's Prayer. Let us pray. Almighty and gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You for the witness which Christ had concerning Himself, witnessed from Isaiah, that a bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench. And as we consider ourselves, we praise You, Lord, for how loving and caring You have been toward us. And we pray, Lord, that we would have that love and that care toward our brothers and sisters in Christ, with the things that we do, with the things that we eat, and that we would edify one another by the Word, that we would read the Bible, and that we would encourage others to read your Word, your Bible, so that we would come to a unity of the true faith through the Word. We pray, Lord, in thanksgiving that you have given us that Word and that you have loved us in such a manner that we can't even begin to imagine how much you have loved us. And so, Lord, we pray that our lives would echo that love toward those around us. For we praise you for the love with which our Savior has loved us. We pray this in Jesus name, praying as Jesus taught us to pray, saying our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.