Amen. Please, if you would, turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 14. Let's pray once again. Oh Lord God, your word is like a sword. that cuts into the deepest parts of who we are, our thoughts, our intentions, our attitudes. Lord, we ask that you might grant it would be a healing cut and that every part of who we are would be brought captive to Christ. Father, be pleased to cause your word to be alive to us now. For we pray in Christ's name, amen. Well, dear guests, it's our custom to stand, but please don't feel you must. We recognize that this is the Word of God. That's why we stand. So please, if you would, stand for the reading of the Word of God. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. Everyone who believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother or you? Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. Do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. You may take your seats. The church is like a duck-billed platypus. The church is like a duck-billed platypus. This is a thought that Philip Yancey puts forward in a column, and I just want to invite you into some of his thought. Consider that the platypus has a flat, rubbery bill and no teeth and webbed feet like a duck. And yet it has a furry body and a beaver-like tail and nurses its young like a mammal. And it walks with a lizard-like gait and lays leathery eggs like a reptile. And even the male has a spur that can administer a poison. And so it strikes like a snake. Now this strange animal stymied scientists for years, and the first platypuses that made it back to England in the 1800s were judged to be frauds. So Europeans were still reeling from imported genuine mermaids, which happened to consist of a monkey's head sewn onto a fish from the China Sea. And so they weren't about to fall for that kind of thing once again. But the platypus, you must admit, has a certain kind of charm. Because somehow or other, it actually works as an animal. And it's not hard to imagine that God perhaps had some fun in designing this creature that sort of breaks all the rules. That's why the church is like a platypus, because its combination of so many incompatible features into a single animal gives us hope that we can, well, live where we break some of the rules of organisms in which we're involved. So the New Testament likes to talk about the church as an organism, as the body of Christ, as the flock, and as the family of God. But it also functions like an organization. Most churches have some sort of formal governing body, and they involve themselves in personnel management. Even a church that has only one staff person oversees volunteers in its various ministries. But every church, like it or not, becomes an organization. And so it's both. Organizations tend to be, well, structured around one set of rules, and organisms, on the other hand, families and small groups, another. And the church falls somewhere between these two. And because it does, there's tension. Now, I'd be uncomfortable in a church that was all organization or just all organism. And rightfully, people who love organizations find some reason to criticize the church because, well, sometimes it does have poor management. Sometimes, well, it has sloppy procedures in dealing with people and it's generally inefficient. But organism people complain loudly when a church has too much organization, because it loses that personal family touch. So this tension's really unavoidable, and a healthy church lives with these polar opposite dynamics all of the time. They create tension. We want to be efficient, yet compassionate, diverse, yet structured, and flexible. And so we have to live like a mammal, a fowl, and a reptile. And this is only one of the many ways that tensions exist in a church body. Many of the tensions we experience are because of our differences. God has purposely drawn together into a local church a group of people who, well, wouldn't naturally choose to associate with each other. And this is part of the beauty of the gospel, and you can see it back in the New Testament. I won't take you there right now. But God has created a situation that's ripe for tension, irritation, and conflict. Now, why would he do that? Well, it certainly isn't because it's the easiest way to do things. Actually, a much more homogeneous group would find it easy to get things done. Now, my hunch is that God wants me to learn how, not just to tolerate, but actually love, serve, and care for people who are very different than myself. I call this the sandpaper ministry. God uses other people to knock off my rough edges. In some places, I need to be planed. I need a quarter and a half inch off on both sides. In some places, nothing less than a saw will do because there's a couple of extra board feet. If I'm ever going to be Christ-like, I need to undergo this kind of ministry. And these differences and tensions that seemingly would result in the fracture of every church are there on purpose. And the New Testament repeatedly summons us to work at unity. So just how is it that we are to be united, one in mind and voice? Well, in this brief series, we've been considering this. And last week, we explored part of this passage. And we saw there's attitudes and perspectives that lead to action, lead to the action necessary to maintain unity. We'll look closely at this. And one of the things we saw is that at the deepest level, these are issues of the heart. Here's what I mean. We must not judge others. That means in the sense of condemning them, of writing them off, of treating them with contempt. And we do so with being clear about what's morally right and wrong and increasing clarity about what's true and developing convictions that are derived from the scriptures. Not judging in the sense of condemning is an attitude. It's really a disposition of our hearts. And Paul says we'll all have to give an account to God for our actions, not only for the moral choices we make, but how we treat people. That gives us perspective, that we're going to give an account of how we behave, not just what we believe, not just what choices we make, but how we treat people gives us perspective. And it is to lead to this action that's at the close of what I've read. We are to accept one another. Jesus has accepted them. He died to redeem them. And so we are to accept our brothers and sisters who differ with us in disputable manners, like whether it's okay to wear baseball caps to worship. That was last week's sermon. If you think that's out of left field, no pun intended. or church worship instrumentation, or how frequently or the manner in which communion is offered, or even whether there is only one true and right principle to interpret the Bible. I could go on. The list is almost endless. But last week, as we looked at this, I said there are many more principles that we need to adopt and act on if we're going to navigate our differences and the tensions they produce to safeguard our unity. And I want to quickly go through these. You have them in your outline, in your bulletin. And so I'm going to move fast. I'm going to announce the point. I'm going to say it. And then I'm going to say a word or two about it. But much more could be said about any of these than I'm going to say. So the second point is to recognize that those who differ with us are seeking to please God. They're acting in accordance with their best understanding of what the Father likes. Now we need to appreciate the qualification there, best understanding. Because just like we're growing in obedience, we're growing in becoming Christ-like if we're his follower, we're also growing and maturing in our thinking. But none of us has arrived. None of us has an exhaustive knowledge of all truth. We still see in a mirror dimly. And it will always be the case. The third thing in the outline is this, we live before God. We don't live for ourselves. Paul's thought here is not about Christian community and that how we behave affects one another, that's true. That's just not what he's saying here. What he's saying is, here is the same sort of thing he says elsewhere. We were bought with a price. We do not belong to ourselves. We cannot conduct our lives in that manner. And to do this, we have to overcome the very strong bent in us towards self-centeredness. Augustine describes sin as being curved in on ourselves. And as I've reflected on my own life, I think that's profoundly true. I am curved in on myself. The fourth point is this, that we should avoid by our example encouraging someone else to sin against their conscience. Now your conscience is a God-given faculty. It's like a compass. It's meant to point to true north, to what a person recognizes as morally right or their highest standard. But like the needle of a homemade compass, it can be magnetized to point in any direction you'd like, south, east. It doesn't have to point to true north. And so it is with our conscience. Our conscience can approve things that are in God's eyes are wrong. They can be dulled. They can even be seared. But our conscience can also be more restrictive than God's standard. That's part of what Paul's getting at when he talks about the weak not eating meat here. Paul's clear here that no food is off limits morally. But this doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to instruct our conscience, because none of our consciences completely lines up with true north. We need to continually, in fact, instruct them. And that's a part of what the teaching office of the church does. Paul does it here in this passage. He says, all foods are clean. I have to leave it to you to work out the implications of all of what's taught here. It's extensive. But the main point's this, we must not destroy someone by encouraging a fellow Christ follower to do what they believe is wrong. We must not encourage that by our example. We shouldn't invite them to participate in something they believe is morally wrong before God. The fifth point is this, that we are to act in love. Paul elsewhere writes that without love, the most eloquent spiritual speech, the greatest spiritual gifts, the most profound spiritual knowledge, and the most superlative sacrifice are empty. He writes that to the Corinthian church because, in fact, those are the very things that they have elevated above love. And then he writes, in a very practical vein, this in chapter 13, verse 4. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Now, by way of honest disclaimer, I must tell you that nobody's ever confused me for the embodiment of what I just read to you. I'm more unlike this than I'm like this. But what Paul's saying here when he speaks of love in our text is that love yields its rights. It's not self-seeking. It doesn't insist on its own way. In fact, Paul says here that he gives up his rights, and he says it in many different places. He calls that church. to give up their rights in a legal dispute, to be wronged, rather than to go to court. And it's our unwillingness to yield our rights that is, well, why we insist on our point of view carrying the day. And, well, you can do the math. What that means is it's a sign of our lovelessness, of our self-centeredness, and our pride, how difficult and actually mostly unwilling we are to give up our rights. The sixth point is this, let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. We're not to stir up strife, encourage conflict, polarize the congregation, nor intentionally poke somebody in the eye over a difference. Why would I say that? Well, it's a lot harder in America not to poke people in the eye, because through my lifetime, the character of public conversation, public discourse, has become increasingly coarse. And we live in a period of great polarization in the matter of our politics and policy. And so disagreements are expressed, doesn't matter where you look, with hostility. Respect is mostly absent. The courtesy of actually listening carefully and trying to understand what a person means by the words that they use is gone. Those who disagree with us are the enemy. They're seeking to destroy the nation. And it's these very dynamics that have spilled into Christ's church. to the distress of tens of thousands of pastors. There are tens of thousands of pastors who would like to find something else to do because it's exhausting to live in that environment where there should be harmony. Of course, the larger church has often acted in a similar way through the history of the church, writing off those whose conclusions about the practice of baptism or the Lord's Suffering differ from their own. It's not simply that they said, well, this is what we think is right and this is what we're going to do. No, they actually, just the mean spirit in which it was all done. Luther divided the nascent reform movement because he was absolutely immovable in his position about this. He couldn't imagine a church where people would hold different positions than his own. It's just hard for me, though, to imagine that Jesus intended the Lord's Supper to be the table that divides his church. This is the table that divides the church. It shouldn't be that way. The word peace means harmonious relationships between Christians. It speaks of the bond that we have with one another. And trivial reasons are given to justify the breaking of relationships. Sometimes it's nothing more than my way or the highway. Sometimes it's an unwillingness to forgive, to hold onto a grudge, to nurture bitterness. Many, many people in the church water, fertilize, and grow bitterness in their lives. And there's just a host of similar issues. Grievance is real or imagined. And every shade of difference, though, about a point of doctrine or a practice is not a hill to die on. And sadly, our part of the body of Christ is jokingly referred to as the split piece because we have a long history of finding something to disagree with each other and we form a new denomination. The latest splinter group out of the PCA just formed another group. This is a sad, sad thing. The seventh principle here is we are not to please ourselves. We live in community. God in Christ has fashioned us into a faith community, and he intends that with all our differences. He doesn't intend us to all be alike. And this tension and stress is meant to cause us to grow up in Christ's likeness. It's a gift to us. Now, I like to be comfortable. I don't like tension. But I need this perspective. I need to see that tension is a gift and not that everybody's gonna be won over and see everything the way I do. So let me draw these four sermons together, and I want to drive this home as it relates to your future as a church, because you're going to navigate many decisions from deciding who will be your next pastor, to what it looks like to strengthen the church and prepare the church for his arrival, and for your ministries to have greater effectiveness and impact. Jesus prayed for and expects us to be united. Both the New Testament, by command and example, exhorts us to do that. But how do we do that when we face decisions? Well, the first thing we need to ask, this first sermon talked about this, is what does the Bible say? Is something clearly taught about this? Or is there something that we can deduce is a good and necessary consequence of what it teaches? The Bible's very clear, you shall not steal. And God expects you to work that out and apply that in every circumstance that you're faced with. The second thing we need to ask is, can a careful study of the Bible make this matter clearer? Of course, the more you, Read, think, and absorb the Bible, the easier this will get. The more you'll be able to see how the Bible might speak to an issue it doesn't appear to address directly. The Bible says far more about marriage and parenting than the few verses in Ephesians might lead you to think. The third thing is this. We have these seven inspired directives. about how to deal with matters that are debatable. But these are not a recipe. Now I like to bake and I can tell you that if you're baking bread and it calls for three cups of flour, four cups will be disastrous. They will just not work out. And so when I say it's not a recipe, it means you just can't apply this mechanically. It requires wisdom. and actually deep heart work. The good news is Jesus is that wisdom that we need. He has become for us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification. And we grow in wisdom by deepening our relationship with him. The more intimate and personal our relationship with him, the more open we are to letting him correct us, which probably mostly happens in relationship, where you'd probably prefer it not to happen. The more we experience life with him, then when we feel tension with others or we have a disagreement with others, it means we need to own our emotions. We need to probe our attitudes and thoughts about that other person. The stronger our reaction is to a person who's disagreeing with us, the more it is we need to look at ourselves. So they're very practical decisions that churches make that are not issues of biblical authority. Should we buy round tables or rectangular ones? Well, when you face a decision of this sort, you just need to listen well, share what you know that helps, make your case, and give up your right to have your viewpoint or preference, carry the day, and being willing to submit to the decision. This means you have to have a Christ-like attitude. It calls for humility. And it calls for you to do something that may not be obvious, but it is to value your relationship more than being right. or having your way. That's really hard, because some people are really truth people. They are very, very keen about truth, and their relationships are really secondary. And there are some people that are relational people, and truth isn't important to them. And we're called to hang on to both. But when a decision, a practical decision needs to be made, sometimes what we want to do is just, you know, my way's the right way. I've got the truth here. This is what's best. And we have to value our relationships more than having our way. You see, it's a scandal that Christian churches are regularly marked by fights, by divisions, and splits. It cuts the legs out of the church's witness to the reconciliation that Jesus has effected between us and God. Bible-honoring Orthodox churches in the United States regularly divide over non-essentials, and this grieves God. It wounds Jesus. It resists his prayer and his will. It empties our confession that we, in fact, are in submission to him as Lord. And it offends the Holy Spirit. And there's a lot of collateral damage. Many, many people who live through such conflict disengage from meaningful participation in the life of the church. Some never return. Can you only have fellowship, be in the same church with people who agree with you about every point of doctrine or every church practice? Or can you accept that others want to please Jesus and still have a different point of view? In seminary, My home church, which gave birth to this church, was still in the mainline Presbyterian church. And while I was there, the church embraced the denomination, the Presbytery, the local expression of the church, embraced a pastor who denied the deity of Christ. Well, the deity of Christ is an essential Christian teaching. And so my home church, along with several churches in the Presbytery, did the Presbyterian thing. They appealed up the chain of command. And they were told at the end of the day that pastors could, in effect, believe anything they wanted to. There were actually no essential Christian truths. Well, that is, was heresy. And our church, along with others, with great sadness after seeking to resolve this issue in the manner prescribed, left. And yes, there certainly are essential matters at stake. But if you can only have fellowship with people who agree with you about everything, you're soon going to be alone. If you can only work with people who agree with you about everything, about how everything's done, you're going to find yourself standing by yourself. Do you have to be in a church body that perfectly reflects in its teaching and practice what you've come convinced it should be from your study of Scripture? Well, here's my answer. Actually, it's also the answer that John Murray gave, for those of you who recognize that theologian's name. So I love the PCA. I'm delighted to have been ordained in it and to serve in it now. I love and believe that its practice of plural leadership, of plural elder leadership is utterly scriptural and wise. And I love the system of doctrine that's taught in the Westminster Confession of Faith. It reflects what I believe the Bible teaches. I also have to tell you, even though that's been true, I've always been in a church that's less than ideal. Even though we might agree on foundational doctrines and practices, in fact, living these things out, we've never done all that well. We fail and I could tell you but will not bore you with as much as our plurality of elders is biblical, how our particular expression of it has some serious flaws and causes great heartburn to people and often doesn't come to a good place in dealing with its challenges. And I can tell you personally as a pastor, I've sat in meetings where the elders make decisions. I thought that was really, well, boneheaded And I had to live with the consequences of it. I had to embrace it in humility. And in doing that, I've learned to love. better to treat with respect those I differ with. You see, it doesn't violate my conscience to submit to others in the church when it's not an essential truth or essential morality. Nobody's ever told me to go out and steal or murder. Nobody's told me to deny the physical resurrection of Jesus. Things that have happened and been done have violated my pride. my need to be right, my desire to have my way rule the day, but they haven't violated my conscience. Paul's being very mature in Christ. He's modeling what maturity in Christ looks like here, as he says that he knows all foods are clean. Jesus said that, but he doesn't insist that everybody eat the way he's free to. He accepts people who eat differently, whom he knows are wrong. Can you feel the weight of that? He gave up his rights. He values people above that. See, something like the stance that Paul is taking with food is the way that we actually live in the blood-bought unity that Christ has obtained for us. Accept one another. Accept one another as Christ has accepted you. Accept one another as Christ has accepted you, and so give praise to God. And to do that, you will need to act in the humility of wisdom. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, May you be pleased to grow us in wisdom, in love, in humility, in grace. Help us to discern, Lord, well, what's essential, where we must plant our stakes, what things aren't as important, and those things that really are indifferent. Lord, may we, together, be characterized by such harmony and peace and unity, even as we live with the tensions of differences, to so bring glory to you and to convey in those tensions the reality of what you've done for us in Christ on his cross.