We got into verse 4 last week, Romans chapter 14, and we're going to start at verse 4 with a little review. Romans chapter 14, starting at verse 4. Are we all there? All right, let's pray. Father, we come to this evening, and Lord, we thank you again for your goodness and for your grace. Thank you for your wonderful mercy. Lord, we would all deserve, we would all be on our way to a devil's hell if it weren't for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us of all of our sins. So thank you so much for the blood that you shed at Calvary. Thank you for that blood which is in heaven right now on the mercy seat. Thank you for coming to this world 2,000 years ago. We can't wait to get out of it. You chose to come into it. knowing what was gonna happen. Father, I pray you'd speak to us tonight. I pray you'd minister to us tonight. We need manna from on high. Our souls are hungry, thirsty for the word of God. Lord, we need your help. We look at our country and as November's approaching, there's more and more consternation about what could happen to this country. And Lord, you know we deserve it. We deserve judgment. We deserve punishment for what's going on in this country. But Father, I'm praying tonight for the sake of your children in this land and for the ministries that come out of this country and for the missionaries that are supported and the works that are done. Father, I pray you'd give us another four-year reprieve. Either way, you'll be able to take care of us. I know that. who would hate to see what we have slip out of our hands. Lord, we need to be strong believers. So Lord, I pray tonight that you would minister to us. All you have to work with up here is a piece of dirt, but I pray you'd fill this piece of dirt with your spirit and let your words come forth. I pray you'd fill this piece of dirt with your power and your passion and your wisdom. Father, I pray you'd minister to us. Well, thank you so much. We love you tonight, Lord. Please minister to us in Christ's name. Amen. All right, let's pick up with Romans chapter 14. We got into the aspect of judging. In fact, Romans chapter 14 has to do with a Christian's relationship specifically to another Christian and how to learn to get along, if you will. We kind of went over the fact last week that there's a lot that goes on in others' lives that really are not any of our business. And we don't need the Holy Spirit sheriff running around. We don't need the Holy Spirit police force running around trying to correct everybody, trying to fix everybody, trying to let everybody know what they're doing wrong. We don't need that. The person that you need to deal with is the one that you look in the mirror at every day. You work on that person. If that doesn't keep you busy enough, maybe you have time after that to work on somebody else. But I guarantee you, you keep looking in the mirror, you'll have your hands full. You work on that guy, and the other person works on that guy. And if everybody's working on that guy, maybe we'll all get together and turn out to be something really good. Amen. But you deal with that person in the mirror and mind your own business on things that are not your business. Now last week we began to get into some things on whether there are some things in scripture we're supposed to judge and some things we are not supposed to judge. So we began to look at some of those. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 15 the Bible says he that is spiritual Judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. And I mentioned that the context of that is a Christian's ability to understand the spiritual aspect of the Bible, which the natural man can't get. That's such an important thing to understand, especially as we deal with lost people. We try to deal with lost people and eventually we start dealing with spiritual truths and things like that. They ain't gonna get that. They are not going to get that. What they get is the fact that they're sinners. What they get is the fact that thou shalt not commit adultery means thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not bear false witness. They get that. They understand that. They can understand Christ coming to this world 2,000 years ago and dying on the cross. They can understand His ability to resurrect from the dead and that they need to trust Him. They can get that, but that's about as far as they're going to get. So when you deal with people that are lost, we have got to keep it simple. You know, because a natural man, as we're going to look at some verses tonight, the natural man just cannot get it, can't receive that stuff. And so as we look at this thing here, again, the context of this is spiritual things. And 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14, the verse before that, says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So that's the natural man. He doesn't understand God, doesn't understand the concept of God. He's tried to read the Bible, and maybe he's read through the Bible, but he's not getting anything out of it. Can't figure out why you would want to come to church on a Thursday night, and then twice on Sunday. Who in their right mind would do that? Especially when there's golf now being broadcast. Who would want to be in church? He can't understand that. That's the natural man. And he thinks this is foolish. The foolishness of preaching is what the Bible talks about. So that's the natural man. So notice in the verse that we read, verse 15, that the judgment is of things, not people. The spiritual man judges all things, yet he himself judges no man. So what things are we talking about? Well, you look at the context. 1 Corinthians 2, look back at verse 9. Let's see if we can figure out what the things are. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9 says, But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. So we look at that verse and say, man, he's talking about heaven. He's talking about all the blessings of God. Yeah, you know, and I have not seen nor ear heard what God has in store for us. These are the things which God has prepared for them that love him. Look at verse 10. But God hath revealed them, what them? The things which God hath prepared. God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. So how does God reveal things by His Spirit? Do we lay in our bed at night and having eaten too much pizza about one o'clock in the morning start seeing visions and what have you and God speaks to us and we have these dreams? Is that how the Spirit reveals these things to us? He reveals them through the Scripture. The spiritual things are found in the Scripture. So the lost man says, man, I don't understand the Bible. It's just full of these and those and all that stuff. Yeah, because you're lost. But a Christian is going to get that stuff. Verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So again, he mentions that thing. He wants us to know what God has given us, not just an eternal life, but the blessings he's given us in this life, forgiveness, redemption, adoption, et cetera. He's given us all these things, and we can get it because God gave us his spirit so we can understand it. It really makes a difference when you read a book If you have a book you're reading, okay, I'm reading a book, so-and-so is the author, don't really know the guy, don't know anything about the guy, read his book. But then you take another guy's book and say, I know this guy, I personally know this guy here, I know the way he thinks, so when I read the book, I'm getting more from that, because I know the guy, than a book that's just written by somebody I don't know. So we get to go to that book, it's not just a book, it is somebody we personally know. Somebody who not only we know, but lives inside of us. The author of the book lives inside of us and helps us to comprehend what he's trying to say. See, that's the cool thing about it. But again, the things are freely given us. That's the things he's talking about. Verse 13, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. So he says we're out preaching and we're speaking these things. We have been taught by the Spirit of God. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So here you think about that. Paul wrote a letter to the Thessalonians. He wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus, a letter to the churches of Galatia, a letter to the Romans, and all that. And before the New Testament was complete, that church had that part of it, this church had that part of it, and all that. And eventually, as they traveled around and began to copy these things, they would take these different writings of Paul and compare them. and compare what Paul said here about what Paul said over here, Paul said this about over there, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things and really getting a complete picture. That's what we have the ability to do because we have the Holy Spirit. He that is spiritual judges all things refers to the fact that a saved man has the power to discern spiritual things. A natural man cannot judge him in those things because he just doesn't get it. So one of the things we are to judge is what God has done for us. And to look at the scripture and evaluate the scripture and realize all the things that God has for us. We can do that. I'll give you another one. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Verse 3, and if you understand 1 Corinthians 5, you know what's going on here. There was a very immoral thing going on at this particular church. He said in verse 3, for I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that had done this deed. So this guy was doing this deed. Paul said, I'm not there. I've heard about it. And in my opinion, in my attitude, although I'm not there, he says, this is what you need to do. This is the judgment that needs to be done to this guy. Verse 12, he says, for what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." So Paul is saying, look, there's stuff on the outside we can't deal with. There's things going on outside the church, there's nothing we can do about that. But we certainly can do things about what's going on inside the church. So again, the context is a reference to a man involved in an act of fornication and it's known by the church. Verse 1 of that chapter says, it's reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. That's what's going on. And the real issue there, the real issue there is that it was reported commonly among you. When the whole church knew about it, and the people that were familiar with the church, many of those people began to know about it, then it's time for church discipline. That's what Paul is talking about. And Paul is basically saying, here's my judgment, I'm not there, but here's my judgment, throw the guy out of church. Give him over to the devil and let the devil have some time with it so he gets his heart right. And if you read 2 Corinthians, he did get his heart right. But this is talking about church discipline. So who are you to judge me? If what you're doing is sin and it's commonly reported among everyone in the church, then it's our business. What you do on your own is your business. When it becomes known and it's known by everybody in the church, then it becomes our business. And when it's our business, we're going to do something about it. We're going to do something about it. 1 Corinthians chapter six. 1 Corinthians chapter six. And I told you last week, it's interesting how many of these are in Corinthians. Because Corinthians was the most carnal churches in the New Testament. So you've got these issues showing up in Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter six, starting in verse one, it says, dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? So here's this issue. Some of them were suing each other. You know, your little Tommy busted up my little Bobby's bicycle, I'm taking you to court. They're doing stuff like that. They're going before a lost judge in a lost court situation and dragging each other Christians in front of a lost judge. And Paul said, what in the world are you doing? Verse two, do you not know that the saints shall judge the world, and if the world shall be judged by you, are you not worthy to judge the smallest matters? Know you not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life. He said, I don't understand you people. He said, you need to realize that there's coming a day when you're going to judge and be part of the judgment, part of the great white throne judgment, where sinners will be judged and the fallen angels will be there and they will be judged by you. You and the Lord are going to bring judgment on these angelic beings. He said, how in the world, if that's the case, how in the world Can't you handle the little problems that come up in church? Handle it yourself. Little in comparison to the great white throne judgment. Daniel chapter seven. Daniel's account of the great white throne judgment. Starting at verse nine, he said, I beheld until the thrones were cast down, the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, the hair of his head like the pure wool, his throne was like the fiery flame, his wheels as burning fire, a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him, thousands, thousands ministered unto him. That's us. and the good angels, if you will. And 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him, that's the lost. The judgment was set and the books were opened. Where have you read that before? Revelation, great white throne judgment is set up, judgment is set, they stand before him, we're standing with him, and the books are opened up. So this is a great white throne judgment. We're gonna be there, we're gonna be part of that. And Paul is saying, if you're going to be part of that, you certainly can handle some situation in a church on the earth. That's what he's saying. And again, at some point, we are going to, notice he said in verse three, know ye not that ye shall judge angels? At some point at the great white throne judgment, these fallen angels are going to be brought in front of us. How we're going to partake in this judgment, I don't know. We're with the Lord, but we will be part of the judgment upon them. We're going to judge the sons of God that showed up in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 4. These are not the pure line of Seth. These are angels, angelic beings, sons of God is what the term is. We read in 2 Peter 2 and Jude 6 that there are some angelic beings right now that are in darkness, that are held in everlasting chains until the day of judgment. That's not all of them, but there's plenty of devils around right now. But this set that said they left their first estate, and we know from Genesis they were having relationships with women, And I'm not going to say the result created giants, but it added to it. And these angelic beings as part of the flood were chained up and put in the heart of the earth in a special location in the heart of the earth. There they are until the great white throne judgment. They'll be brought up and we're going to judge them. And then, of course, all the angels that rebelled with Lucifer, which includes the whole hierarchy in Ephesians chapter six, principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness and high place, all that stuff. We're gonna deal with that crowd there. And again, Paul is saying, if you're gonna do that, why in the world are you going to court with each other about silly stuff? I'm not saying that it's wrong to go to court at any time. There are some times you need to go to court. such as an adoption you need to go to court that has to be done in a courtroom situation there are things like that that need to be done in court what we're saying is this don't go to court because you're mad at so-and-so or you think you have a case against so-and-so you want to sue a brother and sister in Christ he said that's not why you would go to court you handle that in church I remember years ago there was a guy in Ohio and he had some connection with the churches in Toledo and what have you, and he had had a boy's home, there was an issue there, and we decided as a bunch of pastors and what have you, and I wasn't a pastor at the time, but assistant pastor I guess, to have the hearing at the church. So we brought him in, we questioned him, And he presented his case and all that, and we made a determination. I don't remember what the determination was. I just remember sitting there and having different guys question him. And my mistake was I had a real good question and I didn't ask it. Because I'm listening to this stuff and I'm thinking, wait a minute, wait a minute. There's this and then there's this, and I didn't even bring it up. But, you know, we did that. Somebody could have taken him to court or what have you. No, we handled that on our own. And that was a very serious thing for people on the earth, if you will. But there's other stuff. Some Christian schools, if you don't make your payment, they'll take you to court. Well, I understand how bad it is when you're trying to run a Christian school and people aren't paying the bill. I get that. But I don't think going to a court, a secular court, is the answer, and I think that's what Paul is talking about here. So what's the church gonna do? Church will make a decision, and God will honor that decision. You say, that's all you can give me? Yeah. Somebody owes you money, and you can take them to court to get the money, instead, You take, you know, the usual procedure, you approach them, they don't wanna talk, take two or three elders of the church, they don't wanna talk, let them come before the whole church, let's hear what you have to say. And if they still refuse and disagree and the church says, wait a minute, you're wrong, and they say, no, I'm not wrong, yeah, you're wrong. You say, well, nothing was accomplished. That decision that that church makes about that guy, God hears that, God honors that, and then you simply step back and say, the Lord's gonna take care of it. And the Lord does take care of it. So I might lose some money. Yeah, you might lose some money. It might cost you to obey God on some occasions. But that's the way it is. Alright, 1 Corinthians 11. Here's another one. 1 Corinthians 11. And look if you would at verse 31. This is the Lord's Supper. We've gone through this context before. And the issue here is that people are misusing and abusing this particular event. They have turned it into a party. They've turned it into a banquet kind of a thing. Some people have a lot of food. They're shutting the people that don't have any food. It's becoming a real mess. And Paul says, why don't you just stay home and eat? And when you're done with that, then get together and we'll do the Lord's Supper. But then he gave this statement. He said in verse 31, if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Paul gave him an out. He said, here's the deal. If you would judge yourself, you know what he just said? If you'd go look in the mirror and deal with that person in the mirror and get that person straight about this thing in the mirror, then you won't be judged. If we would judge ourselves. That is a out for many things, not just here. I would say in any issue in life that you're going through, I think if you went before the Lord and said, I can't believe what I've been doing. I just can't believe how stupid I have been. I've been doing this. I realize it's wrong. I feel so bad about this. Lord, I want to get this thing straight. I want to get this thing corrected. I'm going to do everything I can. I need you to give me all the strength and the grace you can to correct this thing. But Lord, I want to correct this thing." And the Lord will say, all right, I'm with that. The Lord says, I'm good with that. I'll help you. If we judge ourselves, we should not be judged. And again, you know, judge yourself, deal with yourself. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, and if you understand your book of Corinthians, you know that chapter 13 and 14 deal with the gifts. 12, 13, and 14 deal with the gifts. 14 is special with the sign gifts. He says in verse 24, but if all prophesies, so he's dealing with the gift of prophecy. But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, nor unlearneth, he is convicted of all, he is judged of all. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. You know what that's talking about? First of all, he's talking about tongues. He said, you know, if everybody's speaking in tongues, and somebody that's lost, a lost Gentile, the unlearned, a lost Gentile comes in, he's gonna look around and say, you people are nuts. And if I've ever been in a charismatic meeting where they're all speaking in tongues, my thought is, you people are nuts. But if you walk into the church and people are prophesying, it's a preaching meeting. People are preaching. He says, if a lost man walks into that, he's going to get under conviction. He is convinced. He's under conviction and the Spirit of God judges him. Judges him about what? The secrets of his heart. about his sins. And what does he do? This is the closest you're going to get right here to an invitation. He's going to hear that, he's going to be convicted, and he's going to fall on his face and worship God and get saved and all that stuff. But notice that he is convinced of all, he is judged of all. Preaching does that. So how in the world You know, can a guy that stands up there talking and all that, how can that happen? Well, the strangest things happen when people preach. And I have been in situations where we've gone back to a church, a year later, and a guy comes up to me and he says, you know what you preached last year? He said, I thought about that, thought about that. I said, man, that really helped me out in life. And then he tells me what I said. And I'm thinking, I never said that. That's not even what I was preaching about. But somewhere along the line between here and his ears, the Spirit of God took that thing and put it on him and that's what he thought. That's what he thought. Craziest thing. Or people come in, you know, and you're preaching away on something, and you don't know why the Lord led you to preach a particular thing, but you're preaching away on it, waxing eloquent and all that stuff, and this guy's really falling under conviction because he did what you're preaching about last night. You've never seen the guy before. He walks in and the Spirit of God starts right away, that's you, that's you, that's you. And the guy thinks, you know, you've been talking to my wife, you've got my house bugged, something, you know. But that's what it is. And preaching just does some crazy things. I remember one time we were preaching at the University of Toledo years and years ago. And I was preaching on the love of God. There's a nice grassy area out in front of the student union there. And I was preaching on the love of God. This was in the 80s. I'm preaching on the love of God. God loves holiness, God loves righteousness, God loves repentance, et cetera, that kind of stuff. And I'm carrying on and I just made the statement. I didn't write this down ahead of time saying I'm gonna say this at this point. When you preach, you just, stuff comes out. And I said, you know, there's probably somebody here last night that talked his girl into getting an abortion and you're just as guilty of murder. And I was carrying on about that and I looked to the right and there's five fingers pointing at one guy. And I had no idea that I was to say that or anything like that. That's just the crazy thing about preaching. Now, you could say, well, he's judging me, but it's the Spirit of God judging through the preaching. Anyway, that's that issue. So, you know, preach. If you're a preacher, preach. If you're ministering, preach. They'll accuse you of being judgmental, but if you're just giving them the Word of God and they're saying you're judgmental, what's happening is the Holy Spirit is dealing with them. And the Spirit of God is judging them. It just happens to be coming out of your mouth. 1 Corinthians 14, look at verse 29. Now it continues on in dealing with the gifts of prophecy. And when it comes to prophecy, he says in verse 29, let the prophet speak two or three and let the other judge. So here's a case where you have no New Testament written or maybe just one of Paul's epistles. You have at the time the sign gifts, which are prophecy, one of them being prophecy. And so somebody is preaching away and somebody is prophesying. Well, the order is this, two or three, two or three. by course. In other words, number one, you go first, number two, you go second. And while number one is preaching, number two and three are listening and listening for error. Listening as the devil crept into that thing somewhere. And when he's done, number two is going to stand up, one and three are listening. So that's what he's talking about, let them judge. And I've always told you this, listen, when I preach to you, I can make mistakes. The church at Berea was more noble than those in Thessaloniki in that they received the word of God with all readiness of mind, Paul said, and then searched the scriptures daily to see whether those things were so. And that's the checks and balances that God gives in the church. Then in Romans 14, and this is the chapter that we're in, down to verse 13, the last part of verse 13, he says this. But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. Here Paul is telling us we need to judge ourselves and make sure our behavior isn't causing someone else a problem. Now that is very important. not to be a stumbling block? Is our behavior causing somebody else to fall? So I'm gonna give you an illustration and I'll give you one, let's take one subject tonight and that is the subject of dress. How does your dress, how do others respond to the way you dress? And of course this falls kind of on the ladies more than on the men. And what I've done in your paper that is I've given you the Islamic opinion. Now let me tell you how Muslims think about how ladies dress. Al-Hashim Kamara Antagona, who's a Muslim cleric up in Canada, wrote the Toronto Sun, this is his editorial, because there were some rapes going on at one of the universities nearby. And it was by Muslim men. He said this, I want to mention that the reason why these particular acts are continuously happening is because the Canadian laws, which gives too much freedom to women, are the cause of these attacks. The reason why a woman gets raped is because the way she dresses. Now that's in Islam, but it's not limited to Islam. That's in the Arab culture, but it's not limited to the Arab culture, but there's that mentality. When the refugees from the Middle East went flooding into Europe, into Germany, and Austria, and Belgium, and the Netherlands, and Norway, and Sweden, and France, they went flooding in there. And of course, these countries opened their doors because they thought, we wanna be nice. And when these Muslims went in there, well, listen, you need to understand the Muslim mentality. Wherever they go, they think it's theirs. Any place in this city where there's a mosque that's built, they believe that property is theirs, not the property of the United States. And wherever they go and whatever they do, they think it's okay. And you'd better conform to their ideas, because they're not gonna conform to yours. So, in the Islamic culture, If a woman is raped by one guy or two or three or four guys, and she's gonna try to have them punished for that, what she's gonna find out is this. If I try to take them to the police station and say they raped me, The men there are gonna say this, you deserved it. Look at how you're dressing. You did something provocative. You did something to entice them. And in a case like that, when a woman says I've been raped, she's gonna get punished. That's that society. You say, really? Absolutely. Some less, some worse, depending on how much, how close to Sharia law they are in that particular country. But yeah, yeah. So a woman's not gonna go to the police and say, so-and-so raped me. That's like her saying, I'm guilty of it. A 20-year-old Austrian woman waiting at a bus stop in Vienna was attacked, beaten, robbed by four Muslim men, including one who started by putting his hands through my hair and made it clear that in his culture, there are not a lot of blonde women. So he was enthralled with the fact that she was blonde. So the police responded by telling the victim to dye her hair. At first I was scared, but now I'm more angry than anything, she said. After the attack, they told me that women shouldn't be alone in the streets after 8 p.m. They also gave me other advice, telling me I should dye my hair dark and also not dress in such a provocative way. Indirectly, that means I was partly to blame for what happened to me. That's a massive insult, absolutely. But that's in Austria. And they're telling her, you know, you need to dye your hair. It'd probably be a real good idea if you put the full burka on. That'd probably be the best thing you could do. Unni Wieken, a female professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo in Norway, insists that Norwegian women must take their share of responsibility for these rapes because there was a surge of that going on in Norway. Because Muslim men found their manner of dress provocative. The professor's conclusion was not that Muslim men living in the West needed to adjust to Western norms, but the exact opposite. Norwegian women must realize that they live in a multicultural society and adapt themselves to it. So I'm trying to let you understand the mentality of these people. I could go to India. The Poon-based Equal Community Foundation engages with teenage boys from low-income households on gender issues. Most of these boys, they said, believe that girls in Western clothes are immoral and that they can be harassed because they are asking for it. Now, whose fault is it if a woman gets raped? It's the rapist's fault. I don't care how a woman is dressed, you have no right and justification for doing that. But let's keep one thing in mind, that the way women dress, and I'm walking very softly here, the way women dress can be provocative. It can be enticing to a man. And if you don't believe that, you're rather naive. So with that in mind, let's make that application to the church as a whole with the idea of being a stumbling block. A stumbling block by definition, anything that causes stumbling, perplexity or error. Romans 11.9 talks about, and back again with the Jew, but there's a connection between a snare, a trap, a stumbling block, and recompense. Verse 13 says, stumbling block or occasion to fall. So a stumbling block is something that trips somebody up. So let's think about that. The scripture says that women should dress in modest apparel. Who defines modest? You know, the dumbest thing is a bunch of women sitting around defining modesty. That's stupid. You want to know what modest is? Ask a man. A man will tell you what's modest and immodest. You say, well, preacher, that's his problem. I agree. That's his problem. And in the church, since we have the Holy Spirit, since we have a new nature, since we can walk in the Spirit and not walk in the flesh, it shouldn't be a problem. but you're battling a monster on the inside. So it's a battle. May not be a problem, but it's a battle. You say, well, that's his problem. Okay, let's think about this. I'm gonna use an illustration here that, I better not walk down there, I'll get out of the camera. Illustration here that probably isn't a good illustration, but it's one you'd understand. if we were in a room of people that were alcoholics. I'm using that term, drunkard is the correct term, but I'm gonna use the term alcoholic. Let's say we're sitting in a building, in a room, with a bunch of alcoholics. And you decide that you wanna drink a beer. See why this is not a good illustration? But you decide you wanna drink a beer. And so you walk in front of those people, and you take your, you know, pop it open, and you start drinking it, and you say, you know what, your alcoholism is your problem, not mine. Is that person correct? Yeah. Whose problem, why are they alcoholics? Because they chose to be alcoholics. They have a problem. So you say, no, that's your problem, not mine. What are you being to these people? What are these people thinking when they're watching you do this? They're getting some urges, aren't they? And they're probably sitting there thinking, what a dirty, rotten trick to play on people. You know we have a problem with this and you're gonna sit there and flaunt it right in front of us. Yeah, it's their fault. But if you come up and do something like that in front of these kind of people, you are becoming a stumbling block. I can do anything I want. You can do anything that's expedient. It's not expedient for you to be a stumbling block for people that are dealing with this problem. I mean, you think about that. There may be somebody that's been on the wagon for five years, but they're watching you and thinking back in the old days, and as soon as they get out of that meeting or what have you, they go out and fall off the wagon. Is it their fault? Absolutely. Were you part of it? Absolutely. You were a stumbling block to a brother and sister of Christ. Make that application to anything. I know David Cloud came out a while back with a book on dress, and what he did, because he interviewed a bunch of Christian men and said, what do you think about this? And they sent their stuff in and he based a lot of his book on what these men had said as far as how women dress. It's a very good book. The bottom line is, ladies, your dress can entice men to at least think some bad things. So what's the big deal about that? Jesus said a man looks upon a woman to lust after his committed adultery with her already in his heart. And once a man begins thinking stuff like that, that's the first step to actually doing stuff like that. Was it his fault if he goes out and does something like that? Absolutely. Did your dress that got him enticed, did that have something to do with it? Absolutely. He's guilty of that, you're guilty of being a stumbling block. Whatever it may be, whatever it may be, we don't want to be a stumbling block. Paul in Corinthians, I believe it is, and I'm just shooting off my hip right now, but Paul in Corinthians, the issue was eating food that was offered to an idol. And Paul says, is the idol anything? No, it's just some big dumb statue. And there's nothing wrong if somebody offers this ribeye steak to this God. There's nothing wrong with eating the ribeye steak, but it was offered to a God. If you feel that way, I won't eat the steak in front of you. I'm not gonna be a stumbling block for you because what you think I'm doing is terribly wrong, which causes you to stumble and mess up somewhere down the road. So I will not do that. If you're a Jew, and I'm trying to lead you to Jesus Christ, I'm not gonna sit there and eat a pork chop or baby back ribs in front of you. If you're a vegetarian, you know, I am a, what's the term? What's the, that's the good term. I'm thinking of the lover of flesh, or what was, it said about the prodigal. I forget what it was. But somebody just likes to eat meat. That's me. If it was running around somewhere, I'm going to want to eat it. If you're a vegetarian, I'm going to be very careful about eating meat in front of you. Why? Because I know you really want to eat meat, but you're going to be a vegetarian. And I could tempt you by eating meat in front of you, so I'm not going to do it. Not gonna be a stumbling block. That's an important thing to understand. So we make a judgment here, and we judge ourselves to make sure that we are not causing somebody else to stumble. Riotous eater of flesh, that's the term I'm thinking of. I am a riotous eater of flesh. Anybody who's eaten with me, you know, a lot of times they just like to turn their head while they watch me eat. I'm a riotous eater of flesh. But if you're a vegetarian, I'm sure I can find something to eat that is not meat that won't be offensive. So we gotta be careful. Of all these things we've talked about here, that's something we really need to be careful about, is are we being a stumbling block by our liberty? Yeah, I can do anything I wanna do, basically. But I'm not gonna do stuff that's gonna cause you to fall on your face. All right, I think we'll stop there for tonight. because next week we'll look at things that we are not supposed to judge and I want to spend some time on that also. Are there any questions or comments? Any questions or comments? All right. What am I looking for here? There we go.