Lesson 56c Q 5
Romans 14:1-6 · JD McCulley · Aug 9, 2020
Romans (2018-21), No. 124
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191950805

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We left off, where were we at? Question five? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. In verse three, let's read verse three. Who can read verse three for me? I will. Awesome. Thanks, Cheryl. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats. All right. Oh, I got an echo.

So in verse three, this is the question for five in verse three, describe how both the weak and strong are regard are to regard each other. So talking about this relationship with the weak and the strong, Paul uses specific terminology with regards to how that weak and that strong is is in contrast. So or is it in contrast? I guess that's the question.

Describe how they are to regard each other. What do you think? Okay, so the weak is not to judge the strong and the strong is not to have contempt for the weak. Why? To treat each other civilly, I guess. Yeah, I mean... Okay, you're right, you're not wrong, it's just... What's the underlying principle here? That we are just to react to people instead of judge people, and have the proper reaction to accept them as brothers and sisters in the Lord. And also because God's already accepted them, so we should too.

I think that's a really good point. So two things, Gary, you mentioned, and then Russ, you mentioned. Gary, you mentioned we're talking about believers here, right? Right. Talking about the strong brother and the weaker brother. Now, we know that there's a lot of scripture as to how we are to love the unsaved, the unbelievers. But this is specifically dealing with the brethren, right? Those who are believers.

So that's the first thing Gary pointed out. Second of all, the very fact that we are placed in Christ gives us the perspective to one another that Christ has on each of us, right? So because Christ loves, we love. I think Miles mentioned that months ago now, but we love because he first loved us.

And I think that that ties in right closely to what's going on here in this verse is for the stronger brother who recognizes his liberty in the Lord, he has to love just as Christ loves. So because the weaker is still accepted, it's not a matter of losing salvation just because of weakness. It's a matter of of growth, right, and maturity. And we've talked a lot about what's the number one ingredient for growth in many cases. And Miles Stanford talks about this a lot.

When you plant a seed, what does it take in order for that seed to bear fruit? It takes a lot of different things, I guess. I mean, there's the nourishment side. But even if you water it, is it instantly going to bear fruit? Not necessarily. And what is it that is required in order for that seed to grow, you know?

You're talking about time? Yeah, time. Absolutely. It takes time. And I think time is one of those things that the stronger brother has to recognize that is at work. God uses that tool in order to grow the weaker brethren. And you were there. I was there. Maybe I'm there. I don't know. We're all weak at times, right?

And we're not necessarily talking about the weakness that we have as a stronger person in faith. That may fall into a different category. But in terms of the weaker brother, it's going to take time. And understanding that as a stronger brother, you can't worry about the days that it takes for a person to get to that place of maturity.

Mike, you had something? Donna's making a comment here in the classroom that she said there's an irony there that the stronger you are, the more dependent you are. Because you have to wait for the younger. You learn, I think, the strong believer is, it's always been my thought that the stronger believer is the most dependent believer. He's dependent on the Lord for everything and he doesn't step out or get ahead of or get opinionated, he waits for the Lord's timing.

And you have to learn that. One of the things that makes a believer, a stronger believer, tolerant of the weaker believer is when he begins to realize how very careful and thorough and tolerant the Lord has been with him so that he can afford to be tolerant and careful with whomever in his life.

I think that ties right back into what Russ said. You're exactly right. The stronger is has learned to be more dependent. That's a very good point, Donovan. I love this statement. This comes out of Romans, the Newell. How a strong man loves to walk with a little child, holding his hand gently and not ridiculing or scorning his weakness. Let us walk thus with weaker brethren. And in hand, it's a really interesting perspective.

We talked about the word scruples, not a word that we use today, at least not in my world, but it's one of those words that represents the doubt and the hesitation that a younger brother has in the Lord and the things of the Lord, the truths of the word.

And that's just one of those things that you grow through, right? And you begin to fill doubt with what? Trust, right? You feel hesitations with what? confidence. And so as we walk hand in hand with them, we recognize that while they're hesitating and they're doubting, we've come to a place of trust and we've come to a place of, you know, we are not worried and we're not hesitating. We're quite confident in the things that what God has said is true of us.

And that has to do a lot with the identification truths, right? The younger brother may say, you know, death, burial, resurrection, yeah, okay. don't know so much about this ascension and seating stuff. I mean, this is new terminology for me, and I might doubt or I might hesitate about that as a younger brother, but those are the opportunities that the Lord and us as the stronger have to encourage them in and to walk alongside hand in hand with them in. And so I think that's really the heart of what this verse has to say that weaker brother and also that the weaker brothers want to judge the stronger as well.

So there's a flip side to that as well. To put this back into perspective, too, you know, we again, we dice these down into such small sections. Going back, remember, and, you know, we've just been told, you know, if at all possible, be at peace with all men. And the last one, you know, if there's any other commandment is summed up in saying this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. That is the fulfillment of the law. Yeah, therefore love is a fulfillment of the law.

So progressively he's gone. That was for everybody, the world at large and others. Now it's down to a brother. And it's again that the building up be at peace, love one another, the non-judging. So I think there's, this is kind of getting to a crescendo as far as how we now deal with weaker brother. It's just that we've been told to be at peace with everyone, love your neighbor now, your brother, and to show that same love. And so again, I think there's a little bit of a touch too, which kind of goes back to our grace and that, you know, the spheres of authority.

Do I also have the right to judge somebody, you know, and do they have the right to judge me? Or, you know, it goes back to the offense, you know, just because I'm offended, you know, There's a whole other thing about stumbling versus offending somebody. Again, I think this kind of goes back to that same thought that do I have the right to judge somebody if they're doing something I don't like? They're eating that food that I don't like.

Is that for me to judge them? Which brings us to question number seven. Thank you for that segue. You're exactly right. Why are we not allowed to judge or criticize other believers? Number seven. So why is it that we're not allowed to do that? Because we don't see the whole picture like God does. Okay. So we're not omniscient. We don't know all things. Why is that important?

I mean, I could judge a lot of this stuff without knowing everything. Aren't we told that we can judge righteous judgment? The point being that, I like what that one footnote from Vincent said, judgment is assigned to the weaker believer and contempt to the stronger believer. It seems to me that he quoted this one minister who said, the weak brother is the biggest bully in the universe.

I kind of like that. Explain that. What's that? Explain that a little bit. Well, anecdotally, probably the best way to describe it, people that get introduced to the identification truths, and they see them, and they get real excited about them, it's almost automatic that there's an arrogance associated with that knowledge.

So you immediately turn to your other brothers who don't know that information and you begin to judge them right away because they don't. And you enter into a time in which you're calling everybody out about their phraseology and their view of the scriptures rather than, you know, being patient with them. And what that really shows is even though you have that knowledge, you still are a weaker brother because your whole focus and viewpoint is to judge others who may not have at least an understanding to some degree about a certain aspect of the word of God that you have that they don't have. So therefore, you judge them rather than walk with them as Newell says, walk with them like a young child.

That's, to me, it's okay to be observant and recognize where people are. It's not okay to be judgmental about that circumstance, you know? Yeah, no, I totally agree. And to go back to, I guess, Jim, you were mentioning just the judgment side of things and omniscience. And I think that's a really key factor, right?

So because we do not know everything about what that brother is dealing with and how they are contemplating the Word of God, how they are coming to a place of faith with regards to a certain truth, it's not our job. If we judge, we judge through the Word of God. That's the only way we can judge. We can determine what is right and what is wrong based on the Word of God. Those areas where there's growth and we don't understand, we have to recognize that it's not our concern, it's the Lord's concern. That's the Lord's job in the growth of that believer.

I was going to say, what are we really judging when we judge our brother? Are we judging his old man? And his old man has already been judged. He's been separated. He died with Christ. So why judge his old man? And we can't judge his new man because his new man is perfect in Christ.

That's kind of a tangent, but it just occurred to me. No, it's not a tangent. It's actually spot on. Thank you. That's really good, Jimmy. Yeah, that's good. I was thinking that everything that we know and understand, it comes from the wood. It's not us. So there's nothing for us to boast in, and there's no platform for us to judge anyone about it. Agreed. Yeah, both of those last two comments are spot on. I think those are really helpful in us understanding And I wanted to read this paragraph to you guys with regards to this question. It comes again out of Newell.

How would we as masters of houses feel if, having invited a number of guests to dinner, we should overhear one of these guests criticizing the servant who waited upon them?

Now Christ is head over God's house, and all believers are servants of Christ. let no one undertake to judge, therefore a servant of another, before whom we shall all shortly stand. And meanwhile, no matter what our failures or the attitude of others towards us, the fact remains that our Lord has the power to make us stand before him, our only judge. What a deep comfort these words are. Also, the fact that we are so attached to this in nature doesn't allow us to judge here we're going to judge angels you know when we're in heaven it'll be a perfect judgment we can't judge perfectly here because we're so afflicted with this in nature and i think that's also why god set up government because government is a collection of people and they see more aspects of uh... of the problems and government has the authority to exact capital punishment, but no individual does. You know, last week at the main service, those verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, the first five verses, there's verse 3 and 4 talk about Paul thinking of a small thing that he would be judged by anybody or even judge himself because he recognized as a servant or as a steward of the mysteries of God that judgment was left to the Lord only. And I found that an interesting verse because I think that if we are servants of the Lord, then his judgment about how we're doing or where we are, our behavior is the only one that really matters.

And I think he can carefully judge us before we all even go to the Bema very gently in such a way that it causes us to continue to grow and doesn't condemn us. And only he knows how to do that. Some believers, mature believers, know how to do that, but it's a rare quality that a lot of believers have. But the Lord will judge us. In other words, he will set keep correcting our paths so that we're moving along in the way in which he would have us go. And if we depend on him, we can trust him for judgment, I think. Yeah, the child training aspect of judgment, I guess.

Yeah. Kind of couple those together. And as opposed to despising that as a believer, you welcome that. Yeah, we do. You need it, right? I mean, just like a child needs his father. I think also there's, kind of going to what Jim was saying, that we also have to, I think, make the distinction between sinful behavior and just actions. You know, this is, you know, if somebody's in sin and doing something, two or three witnesses, and then you bring it to the elders. That's a sinful behavior.

You bring it to the elders. They'll address it and do it. Other than that, this is, I think, a coming beside as a stronger believer and helping another brother or sister in the Lord. You're coming beside them at this point, and you're not judging them. But, you know, this isn't talking about a sinful behavior. I think this is something different.

This is, you know, I want to I totally agree. I want to paint a picture of what this verse actually maybe as a group, we can do this. What this verse is talking about food and days of worship. Right. So. We're not talking about blatant sin, we're talking about a Jewish formerly Jewish yet new believers that have traditions and they have legalism in their mind. So, let's paint a picture today of what that might look like. Let's say, maybe it's a formerly Catholic, now newly Christian, and they are really You know, they need to confess. They feel the need to continually confess.

Do you think something like that would fit into what these verses are talking about in terms of not judging them but coming alongside them? Maybe it's, you know, a formerly Seventh-day Adventist who really is convinced that the only day to worship is on a Saturday. Does that fit into these verses? You know, any kind of legalistic background where you might have someone that is of faith or, you know, not, it could even be Mormonism, right?

Or if they're coming out of those things where it doesn't provide true salvation, yet now they're a believer, but they've got these hang-ups, right? You've got these things that they just can't shake off. That's really where these verses fall in line with.

It's not a matter of another brother being deep in a certain kind of sinful state. It's a matter of someone who is weak in their faith, having come from something that has them in bondage, right? Any comments on that? Well, JD, I think going back to verse 1 and accept, The word, except now, except the one who is weak in the faith.

It's the same word that comes from Acts 28, 1. Actually, Acts 28, 2, the native showed us extraordinary kindness, the same word. And so I think what Paul is trying to get is our attitude is correct before the Lord, and we're not judging them, but we're showing them extraordinary kindness. That's really good, Gary. Yeah. That's exactly what that word means. And I think that the kindness is shown in light of these scenarios, right, where a believer, a younger believer is dealing is in bondage to some kind of former way of thinking that they're not they're not ready to shed yet.

And it's amazing, J.D. Chet had an interesting comment, the word opinion and in 14.1 is always wrong. It's a wrong opinion. In the Greek, it is always a wrong opinion. So we don't have to come down on the person who has the weaker position, but realize we come in with an attitude of extraordinary kindness to them and go along beside them, but not agreeing with them, but accepting what our belief is that we can eat anything.

And so it's not a matter of judging them or having contempt toward them. Right. I agree. Really good. Yeah. Well, question number eight. Go ahead, Mike. I'm good. Yeah. Question eight. I want to couple question eight and ten together, and then we'll come back to nine. So I'll read eight and ten together.

Is Sunday a day above all others? And then why do we meet? Or I guess, as Mike says, why do we meek? Why do we meet on Sunday? So is Sunday a day above all others? And why do we meet on Sunday? So what's the big deal about Sunday for us as believers? Is it a day above all others? Well, in the early church, they got together on Sundays, the first day of the week, because that was the day Christ rose from the dead.

So that was true, I guess. That's the way they did it. Well, Cheryl, you just go ahead and answer the question right away and nail it. Well, I don't know. Well, you do know, it sounds like. Yeah, but I mean, as far as us, as far as the church, I mean, the true body of Christ, yes, it is. So there's a tradition there.

Now, is that tradition to meet on Sunday, is Sunday a special day or is it just a commemorative way of worshiping the Lord together as believer? Is it a special day? Is it like the Sabbath? It's a special day for us because we're Christians and that's the day we worship Christ. Well, not that we don't worship him every day, but that's just the day we meet together. It's special for us.

It's special for me, at least. But all of this is tradition. Try to find anywhere in scripture where it tells us how to meet, on what day to meet, or that we sing, or whatever we do. These are all traditions. And Jim, I agree, it's very special. Sundays are always a good time. It's like now, when we can't meet, it's rough. You know, it's a great time. I think we're supposed to.

I go back to the only one that, if you look at it in Acts 2.42, they were continually, continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. and a fellowship into the breaking of bread and a prayer. Yeah, they would do it every day. Every day. Whenever they met to have a meal, they would remember the Lord. That's about the biggest guidance we have, is that they were continually devoting themselves to the teaching and the fellowship and all that, continually.

And they met in houses, and they didn't particularly have the megachurch and all that. And JD, I think what you get, Sunday is not a special day called out in the scripture. It's what we have traditionally made it to be, which is good, Jim, that we meet. Like I said, when we can't meet or traveling and I can't get to meet, I miss it. I miss the fellowship. But it's just traditionally what we've done. It's not a special day.

I think that's what these younger believers were dealing with is that they were coming out of the legalistic perspective of the Sabbath, and that was the day. That was specifically called out in Scripture as a particular day, and so they were committed to a day of worship, and it was very consistent. It wouldn't change. It had to be the same. So this idea of freedom, of being able to worship outside of a specific day, was something that they really struggled with. I think that a Seventh-day Adventist would deal with that as well.

We've always met on Saturday. We've never not met on Saturday. Meeting on Sunday seems foreign to me. It was so foreign to them that they struggled with it. We're told to come alongside them, hold their hand through that growth process. The stronger believer recognizes that each day is a light, and every day is an opportunity to walk with the Spirit and worship the Lord. You may meet together on Wednesday nights. You may meet together on Saturday nights. Sundays happen to be a really good time, and traditionally they are, but the stronger believer would recognize that there is nothing binding about the day of worship.

There's not a specific Sabbath that we would just attend, you know, each week. So, bring us to question number nine. There is a command to forsake not the assembling. So, we have to assemble at some point. You do. It doesn't matter which day, right? So, yep. Thanks, Kathy. That's important. We do need to assemble, for sure. That's the Acts 242, the fellowship. It specifically calls out the fellowship, that means being together. So yes, yeah, Kathy, I mean, that's a very important part, is to be together.

I mean, even Zooming together is, you know, at least the fellowship that Acts 2.42 calls out. Yeah, I like that.

Don't you find it interesting that through 2,000 years of history, the Lord has made it possible for believers to be together on Sunday? by manufacturing a seven-day week. Most Christians are off on Sunday from work. They have the opportunity to meet together. It could have been a Thursday. It could have been a Tuesday. It didn't matter. But he made Sunday the day that, I think, around the world, most people have an opportunity with a day of rest to get together as believers. And it could have been any day.

And at least in our country, it's Sunday and other countries, you know. Now that's really interesting. I think that ties into question number nine. Is it important that we be fully convinced about what our beliefs are about days? So are we fully assured in our own mind that the days are not the most important, yet we have the freedom, we have the liberty in Christ to do fellowship and worship together, and we have the freedom within our country, like you just mentioned, Mike, to do that even on Sundays.

And so it's interesting that the law doesn't allow for this. There's no liberty. You don't get that choice in the law. Yeah, it's bondage to the letter, right? You're in bondage under the law. Whereas under Christ, we have the liberty to choose the day that we worship together. It happens that Sunday be the day that most often we do that. But on Wednesday night, Mike, it's your Bible study. Are you not fellowshipping and worshipping together? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And it could have been every day. Yeah, yeah, totally. So under the law, there's literally no liberty of action.

So that's that legal principle that these believers are coming out of. I think we have to look for that in our own society. I mean, it may be a Jewish, formerly Jewish believer. It might be a Seventh-day Adventist. It might be a Hutterite. You know, Mennonite might be a Church of Christ. Or you came out of Islam and you think you ought to be up somewhere on Friday. Islam and I say it when I say it. How do I men and I Church of Christ?

I'm saying that those could be believers coming out of a very legalistic system. I think that's still applicable. These verses are still very, very applicable to to to those believers who may have already been believers under a different system. Whereas Jewish, you know, being a Jew was not necessarily the case, but in our society we could have those situations. And so, you know, denominational legalism is what I would call it, and coming alongside those denominational legalism.

I've hit my time. Courtney, I see you about to start talking. I want to let you take things in. I just, you know, I can't leave these things alone. You know, it's like... Well, the traditions and what we go through. I think of this now. One, if Mike and Roger decided we're going to meet at Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock, they have the full right to do that as elders and to call that out. Structurally, we are, as Mike said, around the world. Saturday and Sundays are a day off. So structurally, we're kind of not forced into, but it makes it facilitates that. Let us go where we talk about traditions. Tradition is Sunday.

So just think of how we meet when we sit down. We all sit in the same spots when we go to church, when we go to the building. Just go around and sit. I'm gonna sit in the middle of the Anderson clan one day. Or I'm gonna sit, there's times when we sit in a different spot and people don't realize, oh, you weren't there on Sunday.

Yeah, it was. How tied we are to traditions is, you know, we sit in the same spot every time on a Sunday. Why is that? It's tradition. It's funny to watch. Like I said, just one day on a Sunday, everybody's sitting in a different position. See how uncomfortable that is. Welcome to church today. You can't sit where you usually sit. Oh, I know. Well, no, no. Most people are sitting in their same spots. We have new tradition going on now. I know. I saw Brian shaking his head. You cannot, Courtney, you cannot sit between here. I know.

Well, now I can't because of COVID. We can't be in a different family. So I have to sit. So I'll have to wait until we're out of COVID. And then I'm going to sit right in the middle of their section there. At some point, social distancing will become a tradition.

Yeah. I appreciate you guys hanging in there through this lesson. It's been fun the last three weeks here going through the first verses of chapter 14. Who's up next, Mike? Me. Okay. We'll have to deal with that. I know. Let me pray for us and we'll get moving on to the next part of the day here.

Father, how we thank you for the truth that it is that we can grow, that we can mature, that you can bring us to a place of trust and confidence and the liberty that we have in you. And Lord, how we thank you for that liberty and that freedom to to walk by the Spirit and to understand who we are in Christ and not not be bound by the bondage of the law or the letter. And so we pray that we would continue to look for opportunities where you give them to come alongside and hold the hand of a weaker brother stuck in a tradition, stuck in some kind of rut with regards to what your word says, that we might encourage them and love on them and be patient with them. And Lord, we thank you that you have done that with us, that you are patient, you come alongside, you love, and you are so gracious to us. And so we thank you for that. We pray for the next hour. for those that are attending, just for safety and for the opportunity to enjoy the teaching of the new word. It's in your name we pray. Amen.