Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker discusses the importance of unity in the church and how arguing and debating over disputed matters is not beneficial. They emphasize that only God can bring true peace and unity, and it is not our place to argue about interpretations of scripture. The speaker also mentions the conduct that should characterize the lives of believers and encourages not judging others and being considerate of weaker believers. They stress that our focus should be on pleasing God and living out our faith genuinely. The speaker concludes by summarizing the three principles discussed in the chapter: not judging others, not causing offense, and pursuing peace and edification in the church. Well, good to see you this morning. We are going to look at the 14th chapter of Romans today. Next week we will look at the 15th chapter, and then God only knows what is going to happen the next week. Jack and I are getting under more pressure for that because two other classes want to join us to hear what we've got to say about Israel and Hamas, and I'm really anxious to hear what I've got to say. But anyway, we're going to miss Ken. His brother Jim married a girl in my class in Baylor, so I've known the white clan for a long, long time. Did Jim go to Baylor too? I've met him. He's about my age, I think. Is he older than you? Yeah, he's two years older. So I didn't know Jim until he married our classmate and then found Jim and his family here. So we're going to miss you. Appreciate you. Well, we're in the 14th chapter of Romans, and just for your information, well, let me back up and start over again. We really need to look at the 17th chapter of John. Now, don't turn. I'm just going to tell you about it. In the 17th chapter of John is the last thing Jesus had to say. You really ought to pay attention when somebody is saying the last thing. You think of all the things he could have said. All the things he could have talked about. He prayed for his disciples. He prayed for himself. He prayed for us. Because he said, I pray for all those that are going to be saved according to the message that these are going to distribute, and that includes us. And what is he going to pray for us? You know, he only prayed for one thing. He prayed for unity, which is a very elusive issue. We can't create unity. Paul in Ephesians 4 says we can guard it and we can protect it, but we don't create unity. The Lord creates unity. And we can't create peace. In fact, when John was reading scripture this morning, Brother John, I thought about the message of the angels to the shepherds. It's different in different translations. But I was struck by the fact that he said that he would pray for peace and good will for men whom he chooses, the men he pleases. Or who please him, I guess it says. I thought, well, that's why we have so much war. The world is not pleasing him. America is not pleasing him. So peace is not something we can create. If we could have created peace, it would have happened a long time ago. We tried to, and after World War I, don't you remember it was the war to end all wars? Then there came World War II. Then there came Korea. Then there came Vietnam. And then on and on we go. Only the Lord can bring peace. But it's interesting to me that he prayed for the one thing that most churches don't have, which is unity. And he started in the very first verse. We'll pause just a moment to look at that. In the very first verse of Romans 14, he says, Don't argue about disputed matters. Well, if you're arguing about disputed matters, the reason you don't argue about it is, and the word argue there means to argue to a conclusion, which means somebody's got to win and somebody's got to lose. Don't debate. Discuss. Share. But debate and confusion and chaos and arguing until somebody wins is not a Christian virtue. And so he's saying, I don't want you arguing about things that don't matter. And by the way, nearly everything don't matter. In fact, your interpretation of Scripture doesn't matter. You might be wrong. You might be right. The point is, we're not supposed to ever get in a situation where we argue with others. It turns into anger, and anger turns into somebody's got to win, somebody's got to lose. This is what he said. Don't fight among yourselves. I've told you many times, I've probably preached in over a thousand churches the last 65, 70 years. Rare to find a happy church. Unity is an elusive thing. One of the things I love about our church, maybe I'm just dumb, but I don't hear any fighting or squalling. Nobody trying to get a one-upper on somebody else. This is strictly forbidden. Don't argue about things that are disputed. Now, that means everything. Truthfully, we're not really sure what he had in mind here. He does mention two things, but that doubtless was not all of the things that he would be talking about. I think that he was saying, you're going to have differences, for instance. We might differ on whether pre-millennial or the post-millennial rapture is going to be. Well, that's fine, talk about it. Don't draw swords and fight over it. We could both be wrong. I love Dr. Bell. Dr. Bell and I disagreed on the rapture. And we'd talk about it, and he'd grin and say, well, we could both be wrong, you know. That's the spirit that he's talking about. Now, it was so important that the 7th and 8th chapters of 1 Corinthians are dealing with this same issue. So, Paul, this was not a tertiary issue with him. It was a primary issue with him, and it certainly was with Jesus. So, you don't want to take an issue with somebody until it turns into anger. Until somebody has to win, somebody has to lose. Because, truthfully, it doesn't really matter what we think. We're not on God's planning committee. We're on his preparation committee. He's already planned it. So, what I think about the second coming is not going to change a thing in God's plan. So, don't dispute about things that are disputable. That means anything you disagree with. So, we can disagree, but we do it agreeably. We don't do it disagreeably. And most churches are fighting about something, and it's never something significant. I don't know of any churches that split over some theological interpretation. But lots of churches split all the time. So, this is a very important chapter, because what he's beginning to do now in this chapter, he is beginning to focus on the conduct that ought to characterize the lives of believers. He's talked about how we get saved. We don't have any issue with that. We can't save ourselves. So, he's told us we're saved by grace through faith. That's what he's been emphasizing all this time. Now, when he comes to chapter 14, he's telling us, now that you're saved, things ought to be different. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, if ye demand to be in Christ, he is a new creation. Now, either he is or he isn't. You ever talk to somebody and say, well, don't pay attention to what I just said. That's just the way I am. Well, quit being the way you are. God didn't make you the way you are, if that's what you're talking about. I'll just say there is nothing important enough to create chaos in the family of God. God has blessed us with a great family. We have three kids. Our daughter is married to a seminary professor. Both of our sons are deacons, and one of them is a lay preacher. You know most of them. Tell them I'll get to them later. I was doing a funeral, by the way, and my phone went off in the middle of my sermon. At a funeral. Anyway. In fact, I didn't turn my phone off either until the middle of the sermon this morning. I thought, oh me, what if somebody called me? Okay. But God wants us to realize that we're not the issue. He's the issue. It's not about us. Any of us. It's about Him. And so let's don't get wrought up and out of sorts and seek our way on things that really don't make any difference. And like I say, as far as God's concerned, everything doesn't make a difference. Because He's already settled it. And if He's settled it, we don't have to worry about it. So I assure you the second coming and eternal plans are well in place. It's going to be okay. And we're going to be all right. So let's just discuss what we feel. But let's don't fight over it. Okay. He writes to how we ought to and encourages us on how we ought to walk with the Lord. And that's not an easy thing. Remember in chapter 7, verses 14 to 25, He talks about that battle that goes on inside of every one of us. What I want to do, I don't do. What I hate, you know. He talks about the internal struggle. That's always there. So how do we live in a world where we have a war within and we live in a culture that doesn't appreciate us? We're in a post-Christian culture in America today. We're rewriting American history. The faith and the religious beliefs and practices of those who founded this nation are not even being taught anymore in our schools. There's more in our historical textbooks in Texas about Marilyn Monroe than there is George Washington. Our world's hostile. And so it's really not a good idea for us to split up and fight up and choose sides and create chaos and disunity in the church. Because that's not the way it ought to be in church. Lord Jesus died for our sins. He saved us. None of us are perfect. None of us are ever going to be perfect. Best advice my dad told me when I got in my first church, he said, son, you're not going to always be right. But it's okay. When you're wrong, admit it. Everybody knows it, so you might as well admit it. And just be sure you don't do it again. So none of us are perfect. The only one we can trust never to disappoint us is Jesus. And everybody else is going to disappoint us. And we'll disappoint ourselves. So this is a significant thing. How can we please God not to get saved but to live out our faith genuinely? Now, in this chapter, he gives us three principles. And I can sum up the lesson in these three, and then we can go get an early lunch. Because they're very simple. Judge not. That's the first one. Don't go around criticizing people. Don't judge people. You're not qualified to judge people. Only God's qualified to do that. Oh, offend not. There are some things we have the liberty to do that a weaker brother that he talks about here, or sister, might not understand. I'll give you an illustration. I have never tasted alcoholic beverages. Now, that doesn't mean that it's necessarily a sin that somebody does. The Bible doesn't deal with it enough, except it tells us not to get drunk and don't get stupid about it. But truthfully, I'll tell you one quick reason why I never have drunk. One drink impairs your ability to think straight. That's unquestionable. The more you drink, the less you're able to act functionally and even appropriately. I don't want anything to make me be less than what God saved me to be. Therefore, I choose not to do that. When I eat in a restaurant, someone says, would you like to order a drink? I say, no ma'am, I don't want to spoil my food. I just never have. Now, I'm not going to go to war over that. I can give you an illustration. The name Watchman Nee may not mean much to most of you, but Watchman Nee was a very effective, very famous Christian in China years ago, probably a hundred years or so ago. Has written a lot of books. He wrote a little book on Ephesians, by the way, called Set, Walk, Stand. It's a little book, about 60 or 70 pages, but that's his outline of the book. Set, Walk, Stand. That's the outline of Ephesians. And he gives an illustration in there. Well, take me back. It may not be in there, but I've read several of his books. He did another than Normal Christian Life, which is a very excellent read. But Set, Walk, Stand is a very, you'll not agree with everything, and it's written a long time ago. But anyway, he tells the story in one of his books about leading a Chinese farmer to the Lord. And the practice of that farmer had been all of his life that he always drank wine with his meals. And after he got saved, Watchman Nee went on his way, came back several months later to have a meal with him, visit with him, and he noticed he didn't drink wine. And so Watchman Nee asked him about it. Well, why do you not drink wine with your meals anymore? His answer was interesting. The farmer said, the Holy Spirit would not let me. Now, I tell you that simply to say, if God tells you not to do something that's not biblically forbidden, it's okay to do it, but if it were to offend somebody who may be watching you, don't do it. So that's what he's fleshing out in this chapter. It's not enough that you don't judge them. Don't offend those who would be offended by what you do if it's something that is disputable. So these three principles are judge not, offend not, and then he concludes with follow Christ. By the way, that's the only way not to judge and not to offend is to follow Christ. And Paul is not writing in abstract truths about theology or ethics. He's writing truth to be fleshed out in our lives. He was writing to Jewish believers in Rome who were reluctant to remove some of their Jewish traditions. They wanted to still have some traditions like the Sabbath day. That was the tradition of the Jews and commanded by God. But, by the way, God never commanded us to worship on Sunday. Did you know that? It became the practice of the church. And they did that because to get away from the Sabbath, to get away from what that really said about their faith, they wanted to worship on the day that Christ was resurrected, which was Sunday. So he's dealing with those who still have some baggage. We'll talk about it a little bit more in a moment. All kinds of people came into the church pretty fast. I mean, it was a very cosmopolitan group of people. And many of them came in out of pure paganism. They brought some pagan practices that they had not addressed before they were saved. Most of them in Rome were Jews. The early church in Rome was a Jewish church. It later became Gentile, most of the Gentiles. The Jewish tradition said that you worshipped on the Sabbath and you didn't eat meat and sacrificed idols. Now, Jesus changed that when he said that he removed the restrictions. You couldn't forbid. All kinds of food are okay. And then Paul, Luke, in Acts, when Simon Peter had his vision to go visit Cornelius, if you'll remember the vision Simon Peter had was that a sheet came down out of heaven and it was full of all kinds of animals and reptiles and fish and everything. And then the angel, probably the boy, said, kill and eat. Peter said, oh no, I can't do that. I've never eaten anything that's unclean. You remember what God said? Don't call something unclean that I call clean. In other words, what God is saying, everything is permitted. But everything is not appropriate all the time. So we have to make some decisions about things. There will be some things that are not theologically anchored in Scripture that are debatable or disputable. And in that time, you know, Paul thought every day was holy unto the Lord, while the Jews thought the Sabbath was the only day, and so they had different views. So he said, look, don't argue over what day you worship. In essence, he said, it doesn't matter what day you worship. But I have to remind myself of that. Because all these churches, right, my, Bailey and his family go to church on Saturday. Well, that bothered me at first. Apparently, it was okay with the Lord. So I figured, well, it's not my business. Paul just said, don't get hung up on arguing about things that don't make a whole lot of difference. So I think we have a good reason to worship on Sunday. I think it's a celebration day. I think as believers, it's appropriate for us to worship on Sunday. But I'm not going to get in an argument with somebody about what day you worship. Paul is dealing with it. It's very practical. This is not a theological part of Romans. Romans is probably the greatest theological, doctrinal book that's been written. But in the church, you have people who are strong in their faith. And you have people who he calls weak. Now, he doesn't really define what that meant. But he does identify himself, or at least implies that he's one of the strong. So I would assume that you mean strong in faith, strong in understanding. And there are new people that come in, and they're weaker in faith. They're newer in their faith. They're newer in their relationship to the Lord. And the stronger believers would appear to be violating Jewish tradition, Jewish habit of worshiping on Sabbath. Paul said, don't do that. Don't do that. He's calling for patience with believers who are not mature believers. There are a lot of those in the church. A lot of believers never move on to maturity. He's simply dealing with general principles of not letting differences of opinion in the church cause division. We shouldn't be fighting and arguing about things. Maybe he was telling newer believers and more mature believers that the church has never tended to be a place where everybody agreed on everything. By the way, peace doesn't mean that we all think the same way. Peace is not the absence of violence. Peace is much deeper than that. And I'll probably say a word about that in a moment. But, you know, we're all different. We're all different. Just look around. No two of us look alike. No two of us think alike. We all have our own way of looking, thinking, acting. In the beginning of the church in the New Testament, all kinds of people were in the church. The rich and the poor, the powerful, the powerless, every strata of society, young and old children, conservative radicals, many nations and temperaments, great variety of people, all of them are supposed to be united in the church. Now that's easier said than done, isn't it? We have great diversity in our church. I guess if we went back far enough we might find some tension, but as long as I've known this church, which goes back to 1975, we've had African Americans, Hispanics, Orientals in the church. When I was pastor here, one Sunday I looked at the choir and there were nine different nationalities singing in the choir. And at the same time, when I looked off to my right, over there, there was about 30 or 40 Russian immigrants who did not understand English. And we had a young lady in our church that had gone to Ohio State and got her master's degree in Russian. So I provided her with my notes and we got shortwave radio systems set up. And those Russians were listening to my sermon through the translator on a shortwave radio. Lots of diversity in the church. Well, that sometimes is a challenge because the traditions of different people are different. For instance, have you ever been to a Russian wedding? I hadn't either. But I did. Do you know it lasted three hours? Do you know that the groom walked down the aisle instead of the bride? I mean, a lot of difference. When you bring cultures together, different people together, they're going to be different backgrounds. Everybody who joins the church brings a lot of baggage with it. And we never unload our baggage all at the same time. We lose it grudgingly. Now that's what he's facing in Rome. The Jews particularly did not think it appropriate to eat meat sacrificed to idols. It was not a big problem in Rome. Remember, Paul is writing from Corinth. It was a problem in Corinth. That's why 1 Corinthians 7 and 8 deal with the same issue Paul is talking about here in Romans 14. He was experiencing that in Corinth and he knew sooner or later it was going to land in Rome. So he's warning them ahead of time. That's what he's telling them. When this happens, this is how you're supposed to act and how you're supposed to conduct yourself. You know, we face hard challenges in the church when we try to guard the unity of Christ inside the church and we live in a culture that is antagonistic to the church. So Paul's trying to help us navigate stormy waters and get us through times like those that we are facing today. Well, the diversity in the church means that some people did some things, some avoided other things. And when they got saved, they just didn't all agree about everything. They had to navigate those waters. And some pagans resisted and rejected the self-indulgence of the world in which they lived and turned to ascetic lives and gave up eating meat altogether. They became vegetarians. That was sort of the reaction of those. And Jewish converts wanted to follow Jewish law and observe the Sabbath and not eat meat and sacrifice to idols. They maintained religious habits of their past after they became believers. That was what he was trying to help the church find its way through that time. So the challenge was to find a way to bring all the people together. Remember, they didn't have a New Testament. They actually were getting this letter from Paul which became part of the New Testament. But they had no New Testament to reference. They were part of the instruction that Paul was giving. But there was just a lot of variety. It always has been that way and always will be. Always been folks of every variety in the church, but the only lasting solution is to remember that we all are bound in a family relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And we belong together. And together means we don't belong divided. I remember as a boy... Well, I'm not going to tell you that. Okay. The first 12 verses now of this chapter, it deals with just don't be a judge. Now, he doesn't mean that you can't exercise judgments about things that are obviously wrong. He's not saying it's wrong to conclude that somebody has violated the Ten Commandments. In fact, we have an obligation to help them be restored and realize that that is wrong. But he's talking about judging someone based on non-biblical standards. But some things without a doubt are wrong. Some things are without a doubt right. God's given us that answer in the Word of God which never changes. The Ten Commandments are still the very essence of morality. Anyone breaking one of those commandments needs to be challenged and rebuked by believers. And we have an obligation to do that. The same thing is true of the works of the flesh that Paul describes in Galatians 5, 19-21. We ought to be able to recognize that. We're not judging to say, well, you're out of line doing that. But the Holy Spirit indwells believers and our bodies become the temple of God. And on matters clearly forbidden in Scripture, we have a responsibility to judge and contend for righteousness. That's not what he's talking about. When we deal with matters of conscience where there's no clear scriptural commandment and you have different opinions among believers that could end up in conflict, we're not supposed to argue and divide over those things which means everything. We're not ever supposed to be divided up into someone who won and someone who lost. Nobody ought to win and nobody ought to lose in the church. Every one of us ought to win. So we don't get in a situation where we're going to draw a line and split fellowship. It shows you how we still have a lot of splits, don't we? I preach in churches all the time that it used to be somebody else and then they split off of the church. And sometimes split may be a good thing. Our churches had problems with splits all the way back to the beginning. There was a time back in the 30s and 40s when there was problems and there was a split. Some of the people left and some stayed. And in recent years we've had an essential split. The good news about that split, and I think it was a proper way for it to happen, the people who disagreed didn't get their way left. So they didn't stay to fight about it. I think that's a good thing. We really have one thing the early church didn't have. We've got churches in every corner. You don't like this one? I'll get you another one. Nobody made you come here. My dad always used to say when he was talking casually to people about joining the church, he said, now if you're looking for a perfect church, this isn't it. So he said, don't join if you're looking for a perfect church. He said, oh by the way, if you find one, don't join it. You'd spoil it. So, you know, there's a lot of things we can fuss about, fight about. I'll never do that. There ought never to be something that divides true believers. The conservative resurgence that we went through in Southern Baptist University was not a personal thing. It was an issue that certain ones did not want to regard the Scripture as authoritative. Certain ones did. That's something that we just kind of had to have the great divide. And it was a hard time because we've never learned how to split easily. Conservative resurgence was a very, very difficult time. I lost friends many years over that because they saw it this way, I saw it that way. That was a Scriptural issue. It was not a disputable thing. Either the Bible is the inerrant and fallible Word of God or it isn't. And if it is, it can be trusted wherever you read it. When I got to the Sunday School Board, we had a philosophy in the children's department at Sunday School Board that you could not talk about the cross and the resurrection and all of that until they were nine years old at least. So they eliminated that all from the early years of our curriculum. So they had a retreat. The Sunday School Department did. Harry Pilon was head of the Sunday School area. Some of you all remember Harry Pilon. Harry had been a dear friend for years. I've known him probably 30 years or more. And so he invited me to come speak to his group about 100, 150, 200 people. I remember vividly because it was out of Fort Campbell on a lake up there. And Fort Campbell is one of the big military bases in the country. It's located about 60 miles north of Nashville. And I remember going up there. And I made a point to him. I said, I want to make something very clear. Nothing in the Bible is going to be too deep for children here. We're not going to protect the children from the Bible. In the Scripture, when they stood some time for days at a time listening to the Bible be read, that included the kids. So I said, look, we're not going to try to decide when a child can understand the true meaning of baptism, the true meaning of the cross. We're going to teach what the Bible says and when it's time for them to understand it, they'll understand it. So when you're dealing with issues of theological significance like that, then you have to say, we're not going to do it that way. We're going to do it this way. I never had been president before. And I learned several things. I learned that if I just casually mentioned something somewhere, maybe in the hall, the next thing I knew somebody was doing it. Well, I didn't want that to happen because I'm too off the cuff. No telling what I'd tell somebody in the hall waiting to be in the conversation. But I also learned that I'd written several books and the editor for my books up at Broadmoor was a guy named Joe Johnson. Joe was a jovial Santa Claus type guy. Great guy. Did a great job editing a number of my books. And when I got there, I'd been there about two months, I called him. I said, Joe, let's have lunch. He said, I can't. I said, why? He said, well, I'm too far down the line. My people I'm responsible to wouldn't be comfortable if I had lunch with the president. And I learned something. I could never not be the president. There never was a time when I was president of LifeWay for 15 years that I could not be the president. I was the president. And I had a budget of a million dollars. A million dollars. And we planned how we were going to spend it, but I mean, gosh, I always had somebody wanting to get a purchase order before I could get something. In fact, true love waits. Y'all remember true love waits, the chastity pledge that we created at LifeWay. The guy that you would know that created it was Richard Ross out at Southwestern Seminary. He was taught out there for a number of years. His running buddy was Jimmy Hester. They were big buddies. And they saw me in the cafeteria. I always ate lunch in the cafeteria. My predecessor always ate in his office, never went out in the cafeteria. I always went out. If I found an empty seat, I'd sit down and visit with the people. Well, they wanted to talk to me. So they came to my office, and on a napkin, they drew out true love waits and said, and I thought they wanted my help, you know, my opinion, to help them decide how to do it. What they wanted was some of my money. Because after they stretched it out, they said, we need $25,000 to kick this thing off. Can you provide that for us? I had a million dollar budget. So guess what I did? I gave them $25,000. And it's been a fabulous thing. I wish I had time to tell you all about it. The same day we kicked off the true love waits in America, when we had over 250,000 pledge cards that we staked in the mall in Washington, they had true love waits was initiated in Uganda. The president, Ms. Museveni and his wife, were the leaders of the true love waits in Uganda. At that time, the age rate in Uganda among the population was 30%. And it was spreading rapidly. And I visited with Ms. Museveni probably in the early 2000s when I was over there. And she said, when true love waits started, it was 30% age rate in our country now. By then, I think it's down around 10% or something. And she said, now there are a lot of people working on, I'm telling you that there are a lot of people who worked in Uganda dealing with the age issue. So I'm just telling you what she said. She said that true love waits was the primary reason why the age rate had dropped in Uganda. Oh, I probably told you this. Both her kids took it. And their spouses-to-be also took the pledge. And in their marriage ceremony, they swapped their true love waits cards. Now the advantage in Uganda was, since the president and his wife were the leaders, they had parade and military and fireworks and everything for true love waits. But I'm not even sure how I got to that. But anyway. And I'm looking, time's almost gone. I haven't even started good here. But anyway, March 7, 19, Jesus declared all foods clean. In Acts 10, you have the Cornelius division that Peter had in Joppa at Simon the Tanner's house. And that experience. And in 14.6-8, Paul says, Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord since he gives thanks to God. Whoever does not eat, it is the Lord that he does not eat. And he gives thanks to the Lord. For none of us lives to himself. No one dies to himself. If we live, we live for the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we never die, we belong to the Lord. So, those who are stronger in their faith need to help and encourage those who are weaker in their faith. And Paul uses the illustration to illustrate his concern by contrasting two people. One who eats everything without concern. It's okay. The other is a vegetarian, has a conviction he should not eat meat. And when he was brought to faith, had not yet learned the freedom that he had. And so, those are the two issues that he mentions. And it's just to illustrate to us that we ought not to argue over matters that have to be settled with winning and losing. Issues that don't involve Scripture should not become a tool for division. Neither should issues that do involve Scripture. Verse 4, he asks, Who are you to judge another household's servants? If you're judging, you're judging God's servants. Why are you doing that for? Who's able to do that? The gospel made us free from the law. And we were not free to embrace lawlessness or judge others in spite of what the others might do. It doesn't violate Scripture. There could be genuine disagreement about doctrines of Scripture, but we just need not to be disagreeable. He's really repeating himself, isn't he? Over and over again. He's warning us and he's telling us that this was important enough to Jesus to ask over and again in John 17 that God would grant unity to his people. In 1 Corinthians 3 and 6, verses 19 and 20 in both those chapters, you have talking about that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And he's also talking about the church. And at one point he says, If anyone destroys the body, I will destroy him. You don't hear many sermons on that. But I want to tell you something. Before you even think about creating dissension and division in the church, you better remember God said, You mess up the church, I'll mess you up. I mean, that's how serious God is about this. And we don't think, It's just the way I am. No, no. It's not the way you are. You're not what you used to be if you're saved. And so you can't judge. And then he tells those, well, in fact, strong believers have a tendency to criticize those who disagree with them. He's telling them, Don't do that. That shouldn't be the case. In fact, Jesus said that believers, the Bible indicates, New Testament indicates, we as believers become servants. Become servants. 1 Corinthians 5. Paul says, Who is Apollos? And who is Paul? We're servants. We're deacons. We're just servants. What does it mean? It means someone who waits tables. Being a deacon has no authority in it. Being a deacon is a service assignment. Everybody can serve. Certain ones have a responsibility to serve in a certain way. And that's what we have deacons for. But it is not for deacons to run the church. There's no authority attached to being a deacon. It's servant. Jesus said twice, well, two Gospels record this. He said, I'm among you as one who serves. And He used the word deaconos, deacon. Well, if serving was good enough for Jesus and good enough for Paul and Apollos, it ought to be good enough for us. We're here to serve. We're to be like Him. We're free in Christ to follow renewed issues and to make rational decisions about certain things, but there are some limits to our freedom. Paul says you're not going to do anything that you might have a right to do that's going to offend somebody else. That's why I don't drink. I don't know what it tastes like. I don't care to. But if I did, there'd be a lot of people who wouldn't understand. And that's one of the things that bothers me about the younger generation. We've got many of the younger pastors, well-known pastors, who promote social drinking. Now, I'm not going to debate you on that. I did deliver a message to you several years ago on the whole issue, but we can disagree on those things. But for me, Jesus said, look, don't judge, but just don't judge. Don't use your freedom to offend somebody else. So there are limits to our freedom. So the second thing is, and I'm going to probably skip this pretty well because it's ten minutes to eleven. We're ready to go almost. Let me finish this. The second thing is, don't offend. This chapter teaches us how Christian liberty is to be used. Just because you have a biblical right to do this, that doesn't justify you for doing something. You need to realize that you are a steward of your influence. People watch you. One person put it like this, for some people, you're the only Bible they'll read. You don't know who's watching you. Sometimes I told Carol Ann a couple of years ago, I feel like I'm attending my own funeral when I go places. Because people say, you did this and you did that and this is what happened. You never know who's watching you. I had one of our strongest seminary professors at Southwestern Seminary who's a well-known author of multiple books who told me a couple of years ago when I sat down in the booth at a convention and he sat down and got talking. He said, I need to tell you something. He said, when I was a young preacher, you said this, and he quoted what I said, and he said, it changed my life. I didn't even know it. That's why you don't get your rewards when you die because they keep on coming. I feel like I go around and people have been telling me what I did here and there and how I impacted their lives. Most of it I don't even remember. Which means, I'll give you a good principle, always tell the truth because you don't have to remember what you said last if you do that. If you lie, you're not smart enough to lie. You're not going to remember correctly sometime. So always tell the truth. So anyway, we're to guard our conduct so that we don't become a stumbling block for somebody else. Same thing about the Sabbath. Paul just said, it's a matter of indifference. Honor the Lord every day. You decide what day you want to make a special day of worship. And so that's what we're doing. Alright, last thing in verses 18-23 are just follow Christ. So I'm just going to give you the points on this and we'll be through. He's the way, the truth, and the life. So we need to practice the prohibitions that He gives us. And the following of Jesus Christ will provide the perfect principles that we need for our conduct. So the first one is, the strong should help the weak deal with their weaknesses. Number two, don't please yourself even as Jesus did not please Himself. He came to be obedient to please His Father who sent Him and He did it. Third thing is, receive one another as Christ received you. The weaker brother, by the way, may be the hardest of all humans to get along with. Many times they're full of fear and prejudice and ignorance. They may be the hardest person you ever had to please. We should receive them so that we can learn to be like-minded like Jesus. That will expedite your growth and your maturity in the faith. So, here you are in a church with many different kinds of people both strong and weak believers. And Paul is pointing out you need to be united in one church so the strong should not despise the weak and the weak should not judge the strong. Here's the necessary ingredients for our daily conduct. Judge not, offend not, and by following Christ we can find the necessary requirement for daily living for our lives. That's chapter 14. Now again, Jesus spent a whole chapter in his high priestly prayer in John 17 talking about unity. Paul is spending a whole chapter in Romans and he's going to spend three chapters, two chapters in 1 Corinthians with this same issue. So, it's not a tertiary issue. Getting along and having unity is a primary issue. And so, don't get in a debate where you have to have winners and losers. Don't judge and don't offend. Follow Christ. Father, thank You for Your Word. Bless us as we continue in worship in the days of every one that honors You. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
