I invite you to turn to Romans chapter 14. In our study of Romans, last Lord's Day, we examined the first 12 verses of chapter 14 on the topic of Christian liberty. In these 12 verses, we saw the weak and the strong Christian, what each one represents, what each one is, The pluses, the minuses, the advantages, disadvantages, the strong points and the weak points of the strong Christian and the weak Christian. But the overall teaching in Chapter 14 is that of Christian liberty. There are many qualifications on this doctrine because there are many abuses of it in the church today. But today we want to look at in verses 13 through 23 how Christians hurt each other. So follow along as I read Romans 14, beginning with verse 13. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or 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 to 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 and what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith for whatever is not of faith is sin. A man was walking across a bridge one day and a little ways down, he saw another man standing on the edge of the bridge about to jump off. Immediately he ran over and said, stop, don't jump. Why shouldn't I? He said, well, there's so much to live for. Like what? The jumper said, well, the potential Samaritan said, are you religious or atheist? The jumper said, religious. Me too. Are you Christian or Jewish? Christian. Well, me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant? Protestant, he said. Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist? Baptist. Wow. Me too, he said. Are you Fundamental Baptist or Reform Baptist? Reform Baptist. Amazing. Me too. Are you Landmark Reform Baptist or are you Strict Reform Baptist? Well, I'm Strict Reform Baptist. Well, me too. It's amazing. Are you strict reformed Baptist of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith or strict reformed Baptist of the 1644 Baptist Confession of Faith? Well, I'm strict reformed Baptist of the 1644 Confession of Faith, to which the other man replied, die, you heretic, and pushed him off. What's the point? Well. This may seem far fetched in the physical sense, because what true Christian will push someone off a bridge. Obviously, we're not trying to be silly here, but in a judgmental sense, this kind of thing happens all the time. Christians and churches are pushing their brethren off of bridges and they're throwing their brethren under buses, as it were. There are professing Christians who have nothing to do with you unless you believe almost exactly the way they do or exactly the way they do. Unless you're that strictly formed Baptist 1689, you're going off the bridge kind of thing. So. When I visit other churches, sometimes overseas or conferences, sometimes people approach me and they start up a conversation. But before they speak to on a personal level, they're very guarded and they begin asking you probing questions specifically about what you believe. And it seems like they have a mental checklist when they start talking with you. And that checklist serves as kind of a litmus test to see whether or not they're going to continue fellowshipping with you right there and then. And some of these well-meaning brethren are very subtle about it. They try to be nice and others are not so subtle. If they don't like what you answer, they abruptly end the conversation and leave. And you're left standing there feeling judged and hurt. Has that ever happened to you? The conversation. May have been lively all along and edifying to both of you until they disagree with something you said or something you believe or you step on one of their sacred cows and then their countenance falls. You see it. They look down and then they leave and you become persona non grata. Is that right? Should that take place? Well, you know, Christians can be very judgmental and hurtful. Some of us have been on both ends. We've given the hurt and we've received hurt. We've been hurt by other believers. Because. They don't believe exactly the way we do. And because of that, they're not going to fellowship with us. I see many well-meaning Christians in their zeal. In their zeal for the truth of God's word. will wind up violating the relationship rules of Christian liberty or violate the law of love simply because of ignorance, their ignorance of these rules. The teaching of the Bible in Romans 14 and in other places which lay down for us the rules which regulate and circumscribe our relationship with each other in secondary areas of the faith. In areas of Christian liberty, how do I relate to my brother, my sister? In areas of convictions that I may have that someone else doesn't have about doctrine, about certain practices, how do I relate to them without getting offended or without being condescending towards them in my relationship with them because I feel I have more truth than they do or I'm more convicted about a truth than they are? How do I navigate through all these very tenuous sensitive areas of relationship in these secondary areas of the Christian faith without getting tripped up or without becoming an instrument of grief and sorrow and hurt to other people. This is what we have discussed in Romans 14 in particular and verses 23 through the end of the chapter. And again, Christians and their zeal mean well sometimes, but they end up violating these rules because of either ignorance or a lack of sound teaching. There's no expository, doctrinally oriented teaching ministry in their church, and they wind up never covering these issues from a pulpit that is dedicated to preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God through expository preaching. Or perhaps they violate these rules because of the bad examples of their rulers, their leaders in the church. The leaders are judgmental. The leaders are censorious. The leaders are condemning, and therefore the followers do as the leaders do. Well, our text teaches the rules of Christian liberty to prevent us from doing this, to prevent judging and hurting one another. That's what this message is about. Sometimes we hurt another believer and we don't realize it. And that other believer just simmers with that hurt for years. It's not easy to get over someone who has bruised and wounded you deep within your heart. You're struggling. You're trying to forgive. You want to keep it between you and the Lord. You don't want to make a big deal about it. But sometimes it takes us months and years to get over a deep wound given to us by another Christian. So we learn in Romans 14, we can still love another believer, though we may differ in some non-essentials with that other Christian and have varying degrees of sensitivity in our consciences in the practice of Christian liberty. We are on all different levels when it comes to our consciences being sensitive to certain doctrines, certain practices in the Christian life. When we see someone else doing something that we would never do because our conscience is very sensitive to that particular practice, then we see that someone else is on a different level, a varying degree of sensitivity in a particular area. We will have thoughts in response to that observation of a brother or sister who's doing something based on Christian liberty that we would never do. How do we respond to that in our thoughts? How do we relate to that person without judging them, without feeling even just a smidgen in our hearts that they did something wrong or that we're better than them? How do we rein in all these thoughts, these emotions, these judgmental feelings when we see people in the church are brethren doing things that we would never do. Or on the other side of the coin would you and I as the stronger Christian without care or sensitivity to their consciences do something deliberately in front of them that we know would cause them to stumble because they're weak. in that area of the Christian life and would never have the conscience to do such a thing. How could we be so insensitive, so uncaring towards a weaker brother or sister to do something like that and wound them and grieve them and cause them to stumble because in their past life as an unsaved person, they were an alcoholic and they can never come even near a glass of beer or any kind of alcohol because They were so addicted to it and they abused it so much. So knowing that, how could I go near a brother and drink alcohol in front of him since he is so sensitive to that? So there's both sides of this issue covered in Romans 14. And at Christ Bible Church, all of us fall within the parameters, within the boundaries of weak or strong or somewhere in between on that spectrum. And we all have to answer these questions because we're all required to follow these rules and Romans 14 very, very carefully and diligently. We can't ignore these rules. We have to implement them in our practical Christian living in terms of our relationship with our brothers and sisters. But there are some believers who are unwise and unloving because they don't understand these rules. They don't know how to apply these principles of Christian liberty in their relationships, and therefore they cause other brothers to stumble. So please don't fall asleep today and then tomorrow you'll violate one of these rules. And it was because you fell asleep in the sermon on Romans 14. Don't bow your head like this. I know you're sleeping. Come on. God's trying to help you here and equip you. Let me give an example of ignorance and insensitivity and arrogance on the part of some Christians. A man died and went to heaven and an angel met him at the pearly gates and said, Would you like a tour? Sure, he said. The angel then led the man down a long hall with many doors. They stopped at the first door and the angel opened and said with a whisper, These are the Presbyterians. Closed the door and then quietly went down. to the next door. And the angel whispered as he opened the door and he said, these are the Baptists. Closed the door. Quietly, the angel closed the door and went to the next one. The man was confused. But the angel whispered and said, this is the last one I'll show you. He quietly opened the door and whispered, here are the non-denominationalists. The angel shut the last door and led the man back to the gate of heaven. But the man asked the angel, why did you have to whisper? The angel replied, because each group thinks they're the only ones in heaven. You don't want to disappoint them, that there's going to be more than Baptists and more than Presbyterians and more than those in Christ Bible Church in heaven. Sometimes we bring that chip on our shoulder, that attitude into church and into our relationships with Brother A or Brother B. We may go to a conference where a Presbyterian church is hosting it and we're Baptist. And we come in there with our chest sticking out and, you know, they're like one notch below and they baptize their babies, but we don't do that. But we don't prepare ourselves ahead of time and remember that Pardon me, these Presbyterian brethren are saved and Christ died for them. And if he died for them, he shed his blood for them and their children of God, just like you and I may be. They may be wrong on the issue of the mode of baptism, but they may be holier than me in my relationship with the Lord. So we need to be very careful in this area because it relates to Christian liberty. And some people really do act and some churches act as if they're the only ones in the world. They have this condescending attitude and leave little or no room for differences in doctrine and in practice and give no space to others in the matter of liberty. You know, unity among believers is very important to God. And we can strengthen unity in our relations with others by understanding the diversity. That the church is made up of and respecting one another's liberty. In the Lord Jesus, that will strengthen unity, for example, in First Corinthians 12, turn their first Corinthians 12, we see diversity. And in verse 12, for as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. Verse 14. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many. Verse 20. But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. and the eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of you or again the head to the feet I have no need of you know much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary including the weaker brethren when it comes to Christian unit liberty they're necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on these we bestow greater honor and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty. But our presentable parts or our stronger parts have no need. These are the ones within liberty who can partake of all things without a tender conscience. So we see both the weaker and the stronger brethren. are part of this diversity making up the whole body of Christ, irrespective of race or economic status or education or gender or age. Verse 24, but our presentable parts have no need, but God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it. That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. There's a clue here as to where we're going in this message. And the clue is that God composed the body, he designed it, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, to the weaker member. That's the key. Follow the weaker member because the answer concerning how we should handle this issue of liberty in our relations with other brethren is based on how God views the weaker brother and therefore how should we view it that brother weaker brother or sister and relate to him or her. Now there are many different Christian groups or churches who think they're the only ones that are going to heaven. But this is not what the scripture teaches in Romans 14 1 through 12 what we looked at last week. This gives us the background and the context on the issue of Christian liberty but If we stopped at verse 12, we might get the impression that Christians are to leave each other alone and let the weak remain weak. Don't mess with the weak, just let them be weak. But the chapter doesn't end at verse 12. There's another 11 verses that explains further how we should relate to those who are weak. The emphasis on the second half of the chapter is not on the weaker, stronger relationship. But it's now on the brother-brother relationship. The weaker is the brother of the stronger and the stronger is the brother of the weaker. That's the emphasis on verse 13 through 23. In verses 1 through 12, the emphasis is on explaining and defining who the weaker brother is and who the stronger brother is and how they relate to the larger matter of Christian liberty. Now we're brought to the next level. God defines the weaker and the stronger individuals as brethren, and we are to treat them as brethren. As brethren. All right, in the first place, stop hurting your brother. Look at verse 13. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this. Not to put a stumbling block or cause to fall in our brother's way. Right off the bat, he acknowledges a practice. It's sad to say that believers were judging each other. And the text implies that it was an ongoing practice in the church. Look at verse 13. Let us not judge one another anymore. They were doing it. They were judging one another. But God says, don't do it anymore. Don't keep on doing it. Stop. What about some of us? If we have this fine, harsh edge about us, maybe we don't mean it, but we come across as judgmental and sharp. Is that something we need to be concerned about? Yeah. Let's blunt that edge by the love and grace of the Holy Spirit. Well, how were the members judging one another? Well, there are different kinds of judgment. There's good judgment and there's bad judgment. Bad judgment is the judgment where we condemn people in the place of God. We presume to know people's thoughts or motives. We go beyond the realm in which we're to go. We even make judgments based on appearances. And we condemn people. That's that's God's job to condemn and to judge in a very scrutinizing way of seeing our ethics and morals internally and otherwise and making judgments and chastisements accordingly. But we're not to do that. The other kind of judgment that actually is good judgment and commanded is the judgment that we should make in terms of discerning of spirits in terms of determining what is from God and what is not from God, based on the fruits that we see in people's lives. Jesus said, by the fruits that you will know them. We do not condemn these people, we do not make a final judgment, but we use the criteria that Jesus himself gave us, the measure of the fruits of people's words and actions to make a determination of where they are coming from spiritually and morally, because a person filled with the Spirit of God, a person who has God in him, is always going to be bringing forth certain evidences and actions and fruits showing the fact that God is with them, that God is in them, that they're saved and they're believers. And so the judgment that we're not to make with our brethren, or anyone for that matter, is the kind of judgment where we condemn people. And believers were doing this in the Roman Church. And he says in verse 23, don't judge each other any more. And, you know, it's hard to rein in your thoughts. It really is. That's why we daily need to come before the throne of grace and have the Holy Spirit through repentance and faith in Christ sift all these tendencies that are building up momentum, turning into strongholds of our immediate thoughtful reaction towards people when we greet them, when we see them, when we converse with them. We need to have all those tendencies to judge and to be those with evil thoughts, sifted from us by the cleansing blood of Christ in the posture of repentance on a daily basis, preferably first thing in the morning, and by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who begins and ends. The grace is the source of the beginning and the end of the grace we need daily and throughout our whole lives to be holy, to live holy lives. So God commands the believers to stop judging each other. We have so much more to do, so many more important responsibilities and goals, than to be nitpicking, to be picky-uning each other, looking at each other down our nose, finding fault with each other, quick to be thought police. Aha! I caught you! I'm doing this, saying this. That's not what we are. By God's grace, for 25 years, In February, God has preserved us with our reputation as a loving church. Not that every once in a while we fall off the narrow road on this duty, but we thank the Lord for grace in this area. But we should not presume upon God's grace that we might continue to be faithful. So let's abandon such rash conduct as judging other believers Someone who Christ is not going to judge because he died in their place and he paid their sin debt. It's a very dangerous practice to judge. It's very uncharitable, charitable, uncharitable. Judgment begins to the Lord. He alone has the place to condemn those who should not be acquitted. So it's really a plain fact. of experience, it's a reality that very often we do hurt each other by judging each other. We can hurt each other. Wherever our relationship exists, there's always the possibility that things will go wrong and the whole relationship will break down and that old man will come up and will say the most wicked, unthinkable things to each other in a fit of rage that we would not say when we were in the spirit, when we're in the spirit, when we're in our normal frame of mind. So we need to guard against this as well as our the very thoughts that we think and not judge each other. Actually, experience teaches that even the best of relationships have their challenges and trials along these lines. So it requires us to be constantly vigilant and diligent to guard our hearts. For out of them flow the issues of life. To walk with the Lord daily, to be refilled to overflowing with His great strength and power. to reign in and control these fleshly tendencies in judging each other. Now, this is necessary background to what God's going to say in verses 14 through 23. But he starts with in verse 13, stop judging each other, because really that's the negative side of the whole issue of Christian liberty, is that when we see each other doing things that we would never do, the tendency of the flesh is to judge. So we as Christians need to train ourselves to develop the habit Not to judge, we need to grow from weak to strong, from immature to mature in the area of we ourselves having the liberty to use these things and partake of these things. Or when we see others partaking of these things, not to judge them. That's a sign of maturity when you're able to do that. And so as the best of Relationships have their challenges. This is no less true of Christian relationships. How we conduct our relationships is extremely important to God. And is powerfully evidenced in the two greatest commandments in the Bible, to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself. You can't do that without having a relationship with God vertically and with our neighbors horizontally. The two greatest commandments in the Bible are couched in the environment and milieu of relationships, and he supplies the power to conduct both the divine and the earthly relationships and regulate them according to his laws, rules, and grace and strength. And that's the way in which we hold our relationships with everybody according to the grace and strength that he gives us, and the rules which regulate all relationships in the Bible. And this issue of Christian liberty is all of, well, 95% it's about relationships. Because when you opt to enjoy the various liberties that you enjoy as a mature Christian, Sooner or later, unless you just live in a monastery as a monk out from the side of people and you bring nobody into your home and may see a bottle of wine in the China cabinet, you know, another believer is going to find out that you enjoy certain liberties that they in their conscience do not feel obliged to enjoy. And you're going to be tempted to make an adjustment, a negative adjustment in your relationship following that knowledge. And don't don't you don't want to do that. You want to be mature as a believer. Not only in the sense of being able to partake of those things if you so desire to grow to that level where your conscience is not offended by drinking a glass of wine or partaking in some other activity that you have the liberty to do so. But in the area of how do you view and think about and relate to a brother who partakes and uses his liberty in a way that you would never. You have to prepare yourself. How are you going to relate to that brother or sister? This is what the Bible says. Because we can affect each other. We can hurt each other. Verse 13a says we can judge each other. Verse 13b says we could put a stumbling block in their way. Verse 13C says we can cause a brother to fall. Verse 15A says we can grieve him. And verse 15B says we can destroy him or devastate him. If you don't handle how you relate to another brother or sister properly and follow the guidelines regarding Christian liberty. in your relationships with others. You can do all these things, one or more of these things negatively and tear down the body of Christ. But God doesn't want us to be a stumbling stone, but a stepping stone in other people's lives. If you're a stronger brother, I believe it's okay to drink a glass of wine once in a while. And of course, drunkenness is a sin. We do everything in moderation. Even those things which are identified as. Liberty within the realm of Christian liberty, still you you can abuse those things without partaking of them in moderation and without. Using them in the right way, according to the rules of Scripture. But if you feel like it's OK to drink a glass of wine or use a faithful translation of the Bible other than the King James Version, You have the liberty to use the NIV or some other translation. I wouldn't recommend the NIV, by the way. See, here I am, violating my own. I recommend four versions. But if you want to use the NIV, that's between you and the Lord. Don't let me bind your conscience. But there are weaker brethren who may judge you severely because they see you reading the NASV, the New American Standard Bible, or seeing you drink a glass of wine. You may even be ostracized or shunned from their fellowship or considered unsaved because you don't agree with them in all the secondary areas of the faith, including matters that are considered liberty of conscience by the majority of evangelical Christians and churches. You need to be careful because you can be cast out from fellowship individually by another believer and really hurt by them. If you're not careful, verse 14 says, I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there was nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be unclean to him, it is unclean. So God identifies two people here in verse 14. The person who sees something and realizes whatever he sees, there's nothing in and of itself of this earth that's unclean, like food, like a day. But then there is another person who sees those kinds of things because of their and because of their past life and their experiences and the way in which they related to those things, like certain foods or certain days or certain rituals. Their conscience is still, as a Christian, very sensitive to those things. But to this other brother, the stronger one, oh, everything's the same. There's no difference. We can eat anything. But to this weaker brother, he considers something unclean. To him it is unclean. But the Bible goes on to say that the goal is to be mature, to get to the point where you see that there's nothing unclean in itself. In other words, no foods are unclean, no days are unclean in and of themselves, no people are unclean. God taught Peter this lesson, and when he fell into a trance, you remember, on the roof of Simon the Tanner's house. Afterward, God sent him to preach the gospel to Cornelius, his household. And he told the household in Acts 10, 28, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. You talk about racism. And the Jews took it to an unbiblical level. There was healthy racism, if there is such a thing, where God says, don't let the pagan nations poison and infect your relationship with the Lord. That's the kind of it's called worldliness. Don't be worldly. Don't be influenced by the world's idolatrous activities. But we continue, God has shown me, Peter said, that I should not call any man common or unclean. There's nothing unclean of itself. But these there are two types of people in the church, one who can partake of everything lawful. And the other who is still weaker and coming up to speed little by little as he matures and grows in the faith and the Holy Spirit opens things up by way of awakening to him or her eventually that, you know, I can eat this chocolate cake. Maybe they had some kind of nightmare about chocolate cake when they were growing up and they could never eat it. But now the Lord is bringing them to the realization that chocolate cake is OK. Verse 15, 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. This is strong language. And it again emphasizes the fact that you can hurt by an unbiblical approach and practice of Christian liberty. You can severely hurt another brother or sister. The description here is scary. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. In other words, we can hurt somebody so bad it would take them a long time to recover. So in this verse, God spotlights some important principles which are now rising to the surface. They're coming into the spotlight that God has prepared us for from verse 13 till now. And what is that? Well, there are more important issues than you sitting down and eating your bacon in front of a former Jew who now is and now is saved, who would be greatly offended to see you eat your bacon. Because he's still wrestling with the whole idea. My grandfather, if he got saved when he was 98 years old, just before he died, I know that there would be a lot of baggage he would have to unpack in the area of being kosher. He was kosher his whole life. Kosher means to eat nothing unclean that the Old Testament dietary rules and laws described as unclean. And for 98 years, he never ate anything from a pig, no bacon, sausage or ham. We talked about this last week. Now, I can tell you, if he got saved when he was 98, just before he died, and we got together, grandson and my wife, to rejoice, I would not order at the meal bacon or sausage if he was there, even though he just got saved. I could cause him to stumble by eating that in front of him. So the brotherly issues or the issues, the doctrinal issues that come to the surface now in connection with Christian liberty are that of brotherly love, edification and peace. These are spiritual issues and they trump and dominate every other consideration in the matter of Christian liberty. Your preferences and your rights and your likes or dislikes in the area of liberty take second place. When it comes to the consideration of brotherly love and being sensitive about your other your brother's edification and his. Prosperity spiritually and the peace that you enjoy between you. That's what God says here. He's creating this imaginary scenario where he says, your brother is grieved because of your food. Here are two Christians sitting down. And the weaker brother looks over at your plate and he sees that there is bacon on there. He would never eat bacon. It's unhealthy. A pig, at least according to Jewish scholars, is a very unclean animal. Don't worry, Rob, I eat bacon. But this man came out of the Jewish faith. And he's still very sensitive to those things. And he looks over at my plate, he sees bacon and sausage and ham. And he's horrified. And he becomes so grieved in his heart, his head hangs down. It may take that brother a long time to get over that. So what's the solution? Well, if you know ahead of time that here's a brother who's very sensitive about that particular food and he would stumble. Don't order bacon, ham and sausage when you go out to eat with him. Be a vegetarian for that night or have a steak. That's from a cow, right? Yeah. But don't order anything that would cause him to stumble. And then he's fine. You're fine. And you're happily fellowshipping away. The meal is over. You go home and everyone's happy and you're at peace. And brotherly love prevailed in that situation. That's the point. How do we apply? This command to walk in love, he says. The next phrase after if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. You violated the law of love because in your selfishness, even though you knew he would be offended if you ate bacon in your selfishness, you violated the law of love and you ate bacon in front of him. The law of love is more important, walking in love with a brother, maintaining That unbroken love relationship with your brother is more important than your your insatiable appetite for bacon. At that very moment, you have to have it. You have to have your bacon fix. What does this text say about accepting others in regard to their faith? Well, this text is saying we must accept others who eat everything. Now, one day up in Fairfield after a Bible study, I think Amanda made, was it jambalaya? Now, I'm not a big fan of seafood, but I can say one word about that. I ate the jambalaya. Right? And it actually was not too bad. That's that's the example I would give. Right. We accept others who eat everything, we must accept others who observe sacred days, there's some among you in this room who observe Christmas, there are others who don't. and would be offended if you got invited, perhaps, over to another brother's house that had a Christmas tree in the living room with presents under the tree. Well, don't invite somebody during Christmas time over to your house so they see the tree and they get grieved. Right? We must accept others without judging them. If we fail to respect one another's liberty, God describes the way The strong Christian can grieve the weak Christian. He says, your brother is grieved because of your food, you're no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. OK. Let me give you an example. Paul deals with a similar problem in 1 Corinthians 8, where the question was, should Christians eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols in heathen temples? And the first Corinthians 8, you don't have to turn there, I'll read it to you. Verse 9 through 13, but beware, lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak. 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? This obviously the implication is if he sees you eating meat in the temple, but he hasn't worked through that yet in his conscience, he's still weak and immature. But he says, anyway, I think I'll do the same thing. And he does it and he finds himself he's really convicted that he shouldn't have done that. He hasn't worked through the issues yet in his conscience. The Holy Spirit hasn't given him or brought him to that level of maturity that you're at to be able to handle that without being convicted. But he finds himself suddenly convicted that he did the wrong thing by doing that. Verse 11 and because your knowledge of your knowledge shall the weaker brother perish for whom Christ died. But when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. So that settles the matter. If you're the stronger brother and you use your liberty in front of someone that causes them to stumble by grieving this brother, you end up sinning against Christ. The Bible teaches. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. Verse 13. Clear. At least not in front of him. So the principle here is that though the strong Christian has spiritual knowledge, he can eat all things. He must be sensitive and loving and using his knowledge and liberty so that the use of his liberty doesn't hurt the weaker Christian. For example, we read in the same chapter of First Corinthians 8, 1 and 2, we know that we all have knowledge, but knowledge puffs up. But love edifies. It's in the very context of this issue of Christian liberty that this matter comes up. And in this verse, God's pointing out that knowledge and love must work together. Knowledge must be balanced by love. That is the knowledge, the maturity, the level we're at that we, you know, everything is clean. All days are the same. I can partake of everything. That's the knowledge he's talking about. That must be balanced by love. That's what must be tempered by love. Love for your brother. So then the issue is not how does something that I'm allowed to do affect me? So much as if I do this, how will it affect my brother? Will it make him stumble? Will it grieve him or even destroy him by encouraging him to sin? Is using my liberty really worth harming a brother just so I can enjoy some food? No. One preacher said that the favorite indoor sport of Christians is trying to change each other. In Romans 14, God says that we should not try to change someone to suit our preferences. But instead, we should change our action so as not to offend the weaker brother. God is the one who teaches us doctrine and truth. Give each other space. Let us be taught and led by the Lord. Don't try to fit each other in a doctrinal or some other mode prematurely before the Lord matures and works in that person's life. Verses 1 through 12 in Romans 14 deal with our responsibility to respect the convictions of one another rather than to revise them. There is a place for teaching. There is a place for handing out tracts. There's a place for sharing books. There's a place in fellowship where we share what the Lord has taught us and revealed to us in the word. There's a place to correct and admonish and use the great work of apologetics. But it all needs to be regulated and guided by the wisdom of God and by the love of God. We may see a perfect opportunity to try to make someone into understanding the doctrines of grace, but the timing is all wrong. And if we tried at that moment, we wouldn't be able to temper our conveyance of truth with love. We need to use wisdom. And we need love. But verses 13 through 23 instruct us to refrain from using our own liberties when they will harm another Christian. Again, 1-12 in Romans 14 focuses on not trying to change someone just to suit our preferences. Eating in front of someone who we know doesn't like him. We're going to eat anyway, maybe, you know, just to try to change him or we don't care about him. And that we shouldn't do that. But verses 13-22 teach us that we We need to refrain from using our liberties in the wrong way when they will harm another Christian. Number two, we need to stop judging each other, but number two, stop being selfish. That's what verses 16 through 18 says. Look at it. Romans 14, 16. Therefore, do not let your good be evil spoken of, or in the New King James, your good be spoken of as evil. However good your motives may be, in wanting to bring someone up to a level of maturity where you are at doctrinally and in a certain area of Christian liberty. We must always defer and relent to the higher good of edification and peace. Otherwise, if you insist on your own view, your own way, if you insist on pushing someone on your brother at the risk of greatly offending him or causing him to stumble, your good motive in the beginning may end up being evil spoken of. That's what he's talking about here. Like the Pharisees, some Christians tend to major on the minors. Brother, don't you see this point in the Word of God? Sister, I mean, it's right here. Come on, let's go over it again. And meanwhile, they're getting exasperated and wearied and you're trying to force, give them space. And all of your zeal and your good motives to try to fit a square peg in a round hole, so to speak, is not going to work if they're not ready to hear it. So give them their space and fellowship with them on a level, on the same level where you can both agree. And stay there until the Lord brings you to the next level. A rocket scientist doesn't need to know that. It's taught here in the Bible. But some Christians tend to major on the minors because of their zeal or because they're only thinking about themselves and they lose sight. Listen, they lose sight of the big picture because ultimately it's not my view, my convictions, my dreams, my mission. It's not about me. The ultimate goals here in Romans 14 are the preservation of the peace and edification of the saints of Christ. These are the overriding factors that determine the use of my liberty and determine my contribution and my participation with the brethren. The lack of concern for the peace and edification of others. has caused so many churches to split, and sometimes for the most absurd reasons. How many angels on the head of a pin? And there's a debate over that in some churches, and it leavens the whole body, and they end up splitting. Because we have one smart aleck, budding theologian among that church that, you know, is going to force that issue, is going to bring it to a business meeting. You think that's an absurd example? I don't. I've seen it. I've seen it split churches for even more silly reasons. Well, this kind of thing happens when we lose sight of the big picture. And what is the big picture? What is the big picture? Well, verse 17 is the big picture. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Food doesn't bring us near to God. We're no worse if we don't eat and no better if we do. First Corinthians 8 says, 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 worse. It's not about food and insisting on our own rights and liberties and privileges. and not budging and not giving in and not thinking about anybody else. The kingdom of God is not about that the kingdom of God is about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Concern for others and their needs is the higher principle to which God directs our attention here and he brings in the very essence of what the kingdom is in its nature to prove his point, because we can all get sidetracked on, you know, these earthly things that we have as a right and a privilege to enjoy. And we can miss the forest for the trees. We missed the big picture. The Kingdom of God is not ultimately about eating and drinking and having our own rights and liberties if they cause a violation of the weightier matters of the law. That is the big picture. May I remind you what Galatians 5.13-14 says, For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Again, Romans 13, we just covered this in chapter 13, eight through 10. Oh, no one, anything except what? To love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law for the commandments. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, including the regulations on Christian liberty. Are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Love does no harm to my brother who's weaker, doesn't cause him to stumble because I'm insisting on my rights and I grieve him because he observes me using my liberty in a way that he cannot. Let me look at another one last text here, cross-reference Colossians 2, 16 through 23. Colossians 2, 16 through 23. Again, this is a very important one that reminds us about the big picture. So let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. So he talks about food and he talks about days, does he not? Special days here. No one can judge you on food or drink, festivals, new moons, special days, holidays, like they did in the Old Testament. And of course, the imagery here is drawn directly from the Old Testament, where God had specific requirements and commandments against eating certain types of food, against doing certain things on certain days, like the Sabbath. And there were many kinds of Sabbaths. There was a seventh day Sabbath. There were monthly Sabbaths, yearly Sabbaths, Sabbaths connected with festivals. There were regulations. You talk about government regulation. The Old Testament was extremely regulated. But in the New Testament, with regard to food and days and other things, all those regulations are removed. So there's this whole realm of decision making now that is no longer strictly regulated by ordinance and my new commandment where we have the choice. We have the choice to decide. Am I going to drink a glass of wine with my fish dinner tonight? Am I going to observe my birthday with my family? or Thanksgiving with the larger family or Christmas. And I can go on and on. I can eat bacon today. My grandfather's coming over for dinner. What is the deciding factor about whether you will do those things? Number one, and the higher factor is, will somebody stumble by you using your liberty? And number two, will my conscience allow me to do it? Your conscience is a deciding factor. Because the word of God doesn't speak to these issues. But even still, there's regulation here. You can't violate all these other collateral laws like offending, grieving, destroying, stumbling your brother in the observance of your liberty. Let no one judge your food or drink regarding a festival, new moon Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substances of Christ. I'm not going to read the rest of the text down to verse 23. You could do that on your own. But the bottom line is, again, the text is saying come out of this, you know. Minutia. Mentality where. All you look at is your liberty and your rights. The substance of those Old Testament ceremonial laws is Christ. They all pointed to the coming of Jesus Christ. He's the fulfillment. And now the knowledge of Christ, the heart knowledge of Christ in salvation and knowing Christ, enjoying fellowship and daily union with him. That's the higher law, the higher principle here. And under that is loving our neighbor as ourself. Verse 18, for he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. In other words, if you keep the big picture where it should be, the little picture will follow properly and you won't violate these other rules and laws which teach us how to relate to our brethren in matters of liberty and in other areas. If you serve Christ by knowing Him, loving Him, walking with Him, maintaining heart union with Him, The hidden wisdom of God and the love of God will be so poured out on your heart that you'll God will give you grace to know when and not when to use your liberty. So as not to violate these other liberty laws in your relationship with other people. Jesus condemned the Pharisees. He said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you paid tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. They were the ones who were the judgmental legalists when it came to this area. Well, in general, but also with regard to Christian liberty, they saw Jesus or his disciples picking grain on the Sabbath day. They jumped all over Him. Why? Because they didn't see the big picture, which was Christ. Deferring to Christ. Looking to Christ. Maintaining union with Christ. Had they known Christ, they would have had the wisdom, hopefully, the wisdom and the knowledge and the grace to be able to negotiate and navigate through these other areas in our relationships with others. You see, it's the internals, not the externals, that must be first in our lives. Righteousness, peace and joy. Where do they come from? Well, the Holy Spirit. By maintaining our spiritual priorities and the power and wisdom that results from it. We'll be able to regulate the secondary areas of the faith, including the use of spirit of Christian liberty. This is essential to maintain harmony in the church and prevent selfishness. Number three, point number three, seek peace and edification. That's what verses 19 through 20 talk about. Look at it. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things which may edify one another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but is evil. For the man who eats with offense, again, he is repeating himself over and over and over again in the text. And whenever there's repetition, God says, this is very important. You need to hear this. You see, if we truly love the brethren. We will seek peace and we will seek my brother's edification and we'll seek to build him up in the faith rather than focusing on my own will or my own desires. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something. 1 Corinthians 10.23 says, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. Which are you? A stumbling block to others or a stepping stone to others? Do you hinder people in their faith by recklessly doing whatever you want to do, not caring who sees you, not caring about the effects of your actions, or do you encourage people in their faith? Are you on the construction crew or on the destruction crew? You see, both the strong believer and the weak believer need to help each other grow. The strong believer needs to be loving, patient and sensitive to the needs of the weaker brother. The weak believer needs to grow in knowledge and not judge the older brother. And as long as the brother is weak in faith. We need to be patient and loving with him. But it's still wrong for the weaker brother to remain immature and think he could stay there in that place of immaturity and never grow. and have a weak conscience. For example, when a baby comes into a home, everything has to change. Baby comes home from the hospital and starts, you know, getting legs, learns how to walk. Now, mom and dad are real sensitive and careful not to leave scissors on the chair or anything dangerous within reach. But as the child matures, the parents can adjust some of the rules and deal with the child in a more adult fashion. It's natural for a child to stumble when he's learning to walk. But if an adult stumbles in this way, we know something's wrong. And therefore, as a weak believer, you need to grow in these matters of liberty. Young Christians need the kind of fellowship that will protect them and encourage them to grow. We can't treat them like babies all their lives. The older Christians must exercise love and patience and be careful not to cause them to stumble. True. But the younger Christians must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And as they mature in the faith, they can help other believers to grow. The weak must learn from the strong and the strong must love the weak. The result will be peace. and maturity to the glory of God. And so the guidelines that determine the use of our liberty are found in the text. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify one another. The guidelines we use, I share with you in the form of questions and applications. Listen, will peace be preserved or disturbed if I use my liberty? Will a brother or sister be edified or grieved if I use my liberty? Are you listening? And will God be glorified or dishonored if I use my liberty? Do I have the right to insist on my way or my preference in any decision if it will cause a brother to stumble or spoil the edification of the brethren or dishonor God? I remind All of us of 1st Corinthians 10, 31 and 32. Therefore, whether you eat or drink, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to what? The glory of God. Give no offense. Very next verse. Give no offense to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. For you, brethren, Galatians 5.13, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." We're talking about seeking peace and edification. Verse 21, it's good neither to eat meat or drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Again, a fourth time in ten verses. He's saying, don't eat meat, don't drink wine, don't do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or made weak. You don't have the right. Your Christian liberty is vetoed. It's nullified at that moment. You don't have the right to use that if it causes someone else to stumble. You see, it's not about me. Ultimately, Romans 15, one through three says, which is the next text we're going to look at. Not today. We then who are strong, look at it ought to bear with the scruples of the week and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ. Did not please himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you, follow me. And lastly, very quickly, number four, respect the conscience and liberty of others versus twenty two and twenty three. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself and what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith for whoever is not from faith is sin. So, again, he ends with. The need to respect the conscience and liberty of others. If you have faith, if you have a clear conscience to do something, to eat something, to keep a day, have it to yourself before God. Do that thing before God, between you and the Lord or others who believe in a similar way with you. Observe that day with those or with your family who believe the same way. Happy is he who does not condemn himself and what he approves. In other words, happy is he whose conscience does not condemn him in the use of Christian liberty. Verse 20, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats. By who? By his own conscience. Because he does not eat from faith. His faith is weak. He's spiritually immature in that particular point, not in everything per se, but in that particular point, he cannot eat without his conscience being bothered. For God says, whatever is not of faith is sin. So. Christians, when it comes to respecting our own consciences and the consciences of others and the liberty of others, must not force their opinions on others. I'm not talking about sharing doctrinal views so as to be edified in fellowship or to even help another brother or sister, because we are called to teach one another and teaching gifts are given. But it's all about context and timing and wisdom and love, even guiding those opportunities to share the word with others. There are certain truths that all Christians must accept because they're part of the essentials. They're part of the foundation of the faith. But areas of honest, listen, areas of honest disagreement must not be made a test of fellowship with another believer. As long as it's not in the essentials in the major areas of the faith, the deity of Christ, the Trinity, inspiration of the scripture and so forth. Talking about secondary areas of honest disagreement, don't make those a test of fellowship. If you're a weaker brother and You say, well, I can't fellowship with so-and-so because they believe Christ is going to come in an amillennial way instead of a premillennial viewpoint. Well, OK. If your conscience is bothered by that, then you have to listen to your conscience, but make sure it's your conscience is not ignorance. But if you've got sincere conviction from God about a matter, keep it to yourself and do not try to force everybody around you to accept that and believe that because sooner or later you're going to upset somebody because they don't believe that way and you're going to cause them to stumble. You're going to get in an argument. You see, no Christian can borrow another Christian's convictions and be honest in his Christian life. In other words, if Rob here is convicted about something that I'm not convicted about, I can't go to Rob and say, Rob, tell me that again and hope that his convictions will rub off on me. I can't borrow his convictions and then try to do something because my heart and my spirit and my convictions may not be there. So when I do that particular thing, I'm not doing it by faith. And I'll get convicted of my conscience and I'll feel like I said. Even if a person's convictions are immature, listen, some of you are young in the faith, you need to understand this. Even if your convictions are on an immature level, you're weaker in the faith in areas of liberty. You must never violate your conscience. You must still follow your conscience. Spurgeon in commenting on whatsoever is not of faith is sin in this text says do nothing about which you have need to ask a question. Be quite sure about it or leave it alone. Whatsoever you cannot do with the confidence that you are doing it right is sin to you. Though the deed may be right to other people if you have any doubt about it yourself it is evil to you. And so again, I close by pointing us all to the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who accepts all of us who are saved. Do you realize if you could add up all the differences and diversity of opinion and convictions, doctrinally and otherwise, in the matter of liberty, there would be billions and billions of variations of differences and all these things. But if you and I are saved, We're all on different levels spiritually and in our growth and our understanding doctrinally and spiritually. But the Lord accepts us all, regardless of the level we're on doctrinally and in our maturity and growth. He accepts us all. We need to see each other through that same grid, through that same eye of Christ. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your grace in helping us to wrestle with this issue, and I pray that some would make progress, that all would make progress in it that need to. We thank you for the grace and strength you've given us not to have the matter of Christian liberty be a dominating problem at Christ Bible Church, but we continue to look to you for the grace to help us maintain our proper perspective as well as love for the brethren. Help us to remember these truths, help them, apply them in our relationship with one another at CBC and with all believers everywhere. We need you to be our teacher. And we need you to help us remember. That in everything we do, we must do to the glory of God and seek the glory of Christ in the end and the edification of our brethren. Help us, Lord, if we have violated the laws of liberty and have caused others to stumble ignorantly. Forgive us. Forgive us. Help us back on the path, a narrow way on this very delicate issue so that we may please you in all things. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.