Lesson 57c & begin 14:14-23 Lesson 58a
Romans 14:6-13 · Mike Doyle · Aug 30, 2020
Romans (2018-21), No. 127
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192052133

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

So in lesson 57 we're just doing the last couple of questions and we are in Romans chapter 14 and we've been working through a lot of verses and we're down to the last part. I'm going to read 12 and 13 so then each one of us will give an account of himself to God, and we talked about that, what that account has to do with, which is the beam of judgment.

But rather, therefore let us judge one another, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in your brother's way, So, question 8 says, the word therefore, beginning in verse 13, draws a conclusion. What's the conclusion? What's the conclusion? Alright, get the Jeopardy music going. Look at the verse. The verse says, therefore let us not judge one another anymore. comma, but rather determine this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in my brother's way. So if we are going to judge our brother, we should judge whether our actions might put a stumbling block in his path or not.

So don't you find it interesting that time and time and time again in Paul's epistles, The focus goes off of what and who I am and on to my brother and be thinking about him and his well-being above myself. And it's not automatically spiritually natural to do that. So Paul has to tell us to put our focus on our brother so that we wouldn't do anything that would cause them to stumble.

It doesn't show the love of God to be in a position where you do put a stumbling block in front of them, which leads them to maybe violate something that they hold dear in their conscience, that they think is appropriate, that you may not think it's appropriate. You may have freedom, they may not have freedom, but that doesn't give you the right just to say, well, you should be acting like I act because I have more freedom than you. Paul specifically addresses that issue that don't get in the way there, let the Lord work that out. So you don't want to do anything that would drive a fellow believer away from Christ. You don't want to insert any sort of legalism or opinion or judgment or anything like that towards towards your brother.

John Darby says it's uncharitable to destroy as far as the bearing of our act goes and leading him to violate his conscience or drive him back from Christ as if Christ made Wallace the one whom he died for. So the conclusion is primarily I think be focused on your brother's well-being from the Lord's viewpoint and not from what you think where he ought to be and what he ought to be doing to cause him to stumble. Because as we've learned, if I as a believer think something is sinful and you as a believer think it isn't sinful, if I violate my own conscience, it's a sin for me.

It might not be for you, but it is for me. Any more comments about that? Yeah, Mike, I put down, it seemed like we concluded last week, the word, therefore, draws a conclusion. The conclusion is, to not inhibit my brother's intimacy with Christ, but to enhance it. Yeah. A pretty well synopsis.

That's really good, Jim, because, how do I say this? intimacy with Christ from where I sit is critical in the Christian life. The closer and more intimate we are with Christ, the more we'll like Him. And we can take all of the principles of Christianity and make laws out of them, and try to hang them around Christians' necks. And the problem with legalism is that they have a tendency to separate the believer farther and farther away from this intimacy rather than enhance it.

So, you know, way back when we first started First Corinthians, there was this... Paul said that he planted Apollos, watered, but it was God who gave the increase. Well, God is That's his responsibility to give the increase. Our responsibility is to water. And watering is not something you do legally, it's something you do in grace and intimacy, you know.

And Mike? Yes? One of the things that Newell says that I think fits in here, it says, this is his quote, it says, Wait for me, did not your childhood brother call out to you? So let us wait for one another in the spiritual life. Be conformed in your brother's weakness for the present and accommodate your walk. So you sort of accommodate your walk to accommodate your brother, basically. Don't you find it interesting that the focus always is to come alongside your brother, not to be in front of him or behind him. It's to walk next to him.

And when you walk next to somebody, you're just walking with them wherever they are, whatever they're doing, you know. And you don't need to be encouraging them to run faster or slow down. You just walk with them. That's where the where you're just there, you know. You find, I think, in all of your lives, in my life too, that there are people that come into your life that have a heart for the Lord and they show up and, you know, what you realize after a while, well, they're there for the rest of my life.

My job is just to walk with them, you know. And that takes away the judgmental part of it, it takes away all of that You've got to be doing this, you've got to be doing that. I call it the tyranny of the oughts. I ought to do this, I ought to do that.

As you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, you grow together. We're to grow together as a body and each one of us individually. So when it demonstrates the love of Christ, that's what it does. As far as I can tell, and I've been a believer 40 years, Christ has never twisted my arm. You know? One other thought, Mike, is that therefore it's Christ.

We're going to give an account to Christ on the Bema Seat. Therefore, I mean, who are we to be judging anybody? It's the Creator that's that's only one capable of judging, so that the fact that we're judging is a little bit arrogant, and whenever I judge, the only satisfaction I get goes to the old man, it seems like. That's a good point, Jim. That's a really good point.

You know, back in verse 11, it says, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess, and shall give praise to God, so then each one of us will give an account. of himself to God. You know, all of you belong to the Lord Jesus, so I don't have any right to tell you how you ought to be behaving in terms of your spiritual growth. Now, come next Sunday, we're going to talk about, in 1 Corinthians, a brother who's in incest, and Paul says, you've got to definitely do something about that. And there's a difference between walking next to your brother and dealing with him if he's in an obstinate sinful behavior pattern that affects the whole body that he lives in or he functions with. But this is talking here is talking about everyday walking around existence with your brother. that you loved him, and that, you know what, he's never going to have to give an account to you before you give an account to him, but we're all going to stand before the Lord, and we'll have to give an account, you know, not from sinfulness, but from the degree to which the life of the Lord Jesus was lived through us by the Spirit.

I was just gonna, oh sorry, I was just gonna add, or not add, but kind of throw out the caveat of I recognize that this passage has to do with privileges that came out of Christianity from Judaism with regards to eating and observation of days and such. But it's interesting that, I mean, we've talked about other issues as well that might, like what we eat, what we drink as well, those are in context.

But it seems like today, I mean, the political climate is so so hot. How are we to behave with a brother during such hot political times? What does that look like practically? I just wanted to have that thought out there because that's what we're facing right now.

It's probably not as much what we eat or what we drink or what day we go to church as much as it is a disagreement about where we're going as a country. who we believe at this point in time to be our leaders and how our leaders are behaving. I hope that doesn't derail you as much as it just inspires a bit of a conversation here.

Well, you know, it's a good example, J.D., because underneath all that's going on today is actually judgment. one group judges another and they get judged back and it all has to do with how you think and how you feel and how you view and it shows you that you take love out of the equation and you take Christ out of the environment and judgmentalism seems to be the next step you fall into and to the point where people are going to get out their guns and start shooting at each other It shows you how, two things I think, it shows you one, how sinfully insistent the old man is, that you conform to the old man's way of thinking. And two, that there really isn't any restraints on the old man except the cross of Christ.

And if, you know, Bob Eckel was, a week or so ago, he's involved with a huge hassle with the American Diabetic Association based on this judgmental stuff with racism and all that kind of thing. And he told the board that all men are exactly the same at the foot of the cross. You think he got judged for that statement? You better believe he did. But he's absolutely right. We are all the same at the foot of the cross. This kid that was shot seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin, his mother is a Christian, and she gave a statement yesterday. If you can find it, go listen to it. It's really cool.

She's a believer, and she talks about judgment, and she talks about the criteria with which the society is trying to judge one another is irrelevant, because we're all God's children. Color doesn't matter. Gender doesn't matter. We're all God's people. And God is the one who gets to judge.

It's really kind of cool. Good thought, J.D., because I think everybody is twisted in turmoil about the political issues of the time. Yeah, I think you're right. And the very first number of comments there, you know, we're wrestling with the leaves at the top of the tree when at the root of it all, especially with believers, is the love of Christ and the love for one another in Christ. I love the statement, Christ in me doesn't have a problem with Christ in you.

And to sometimes peel back those layers and get back to that reality. It takes time and it can be difficult even with believers. I mean, to be real honest, believers are, like you said, they're perplexed about what's going on and where to go and how to believe. But we've got to get back to that root, which is the love of Christ and who we are in Christ. And so, yeah, I appreciate your comment there. Yeah, that's fine. So, last question.

How do we put a stumbling block in our brother's way? How do you do that? And, well, maybe it would make it to question, what is a stumbling block? What is the thing that you would put in your brother's way that might cause him to stumble? I think the focus here is judgment, is the stumbling block, that if I judge you or judge others, That in itself becomes the stumbling block, it becomes the occasion for falling. If I know that I'm going to make some comment to one of my brothers from a political viewpoint, and I know he doesn't share the same viewpoint, and it gets him angry, or again, it causes him to stumble, puts a trap or a snare where I'm trying to set him up, so that maybe through trickery he'll start to look at things my way. That's a stumbling block that I have purposely put in front or maybe I just do it with a glance or with a dismissal, something like that.

So it's really interesting how we do that all the time to one another and Again, if I'm thinking about my brother's welfare above my own, then I don't ever want to be in a position where I would be an occasion for him to fall or to sin or to in any way take away his progress of growing in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. And I think one of the hardest things to learn but one of the things you have to depend on the Lord about is just not to be judgmental. It's okay to judge objectively, but judgmentalism is a different thing.

I'm going to try to insert my opinion on somebody else, on my brother, and I think what you find as you grow in Christ You know, a couple of times in Scripture it talks about that in Christ Jesus there's neither male or female, bond or free, and it goes through that whole list. And all the things that we get all wrapped up about in our society, because we're new creatures in Christ, none of that matters. Because there's no skin color in Christ, there's no free person or non-free person, slave, there's no, you know, even male and female. All of us in Christ are entirely new creatures, and the makeup of this new creature totally dismisses all of the problems, the judgmental problems that our society has. So if we walk that way, and from that perspective, then we don't have the tendency to put stumbling blocks in front of our brother, you know. So, any comments on that?

Yeah, Newell says, stumbling block is something in us that grieves a weaker brother. But I think it's a little more than that, too. I think it's something that offends him, you know, or that causes him to take liberties, like, you know, maybe he has a weakness with alcohol. And we don't have a problem with alcohol. But if we drink in front of our brother who does, it'll give them an excuse to start drinking alcohol again and cause them to fall that way.

Yeah, or I was talking to a guy in my neighborhood who's a believer and he's a young believer, although he's probably a guy 45, 50 years old, he said, you know, I'll be honest with you, I really have a problem with smoking, I wish I could quit, you know, and I'm standing in front of him, I can smell the smoke on him, right? So we had a conversation about how God would free him from addiction to nicotine. And he will do it, you know.

And the discussion went, well, if you have a bunch of refrigerator rules and that's what you're trying to follow, you're not going to get free that way. You're going to get free by trusting the Lord to free you. What you don't need are rules on how to get free. What you really need is a Savior. It's one thing to be saved. It's another thing to have a Savior. It's one thing to be free from the things we don't like about our flesh. It's another thing to have someone who is the freer.

And that's the key, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, if you take something away, it needs to be filled up with something else. That's right, with the Lord Jesus. Yes. If you have nothing else, then Courtney's going to be up here. All right, we're on Lesson 58.

And, you know, before I start that, actually, I was going to comment, but, you know, J.D., your question, comment, you know, think about it, fits in, and I was going to wait, because a lot of what Lesson 58 will deal with some of that. As I was preparing this lesson, one of the things that I kind of stepped back, which I always say we dissect these sections of scripture in very small ones, look at the words, look at everything, but when you go back and step back, I did that this week when I was preparing, and it's really kind of interesting.

It's like a giant funnel. Starts out on a very broad scale and now he's focusing it down to a very you know to us basically and I kind of go back to when we started Romans and you look at where Romans is in the book and in the Bible and There we go see more of my fat belly The thank you bill The The books aren't laid out chronologically. They're laid out with, you know, progressive revelation from Paul. He builds on something, and then he builds the next one, and the next one, and that's how all of the scripture is laid out. It's not chronological.

Looking at Romans, when I stepped back and looked at it, when you look at when we start in chapter 12, what is it? You know, it begins with relationship in the church. And then it's society. And then in 13, we get to government. All these big things that were how we relate to them. And then you get to 14. And now what happens?

We're starting to look at how we relate to other brothers. You know, we've gone through the church, society, government, and now it's focusing down. And it's kind of interesting as I look at it, it seems like in the first part in 14, it seems to be kind of thinking about your brother and thinking about that aspect, focusing on that. What's now transpiring is we're now focusing not on the other brother in 14 and now really begins in verse 13 and moves on. It's really looking at us. And so it's kind of interesting how, again, the funnel is coming down. And now in these verses, it's kind of what about us as believers and how we relate to that and what we've been seeing in chapter 14 is things, food, and festivals, and dates, and times, and all these things, and the weaker brother.

Now we're talking about almost how do we deal with that, and how do we deal with that brother? And it's more kind of an introspective look at us, or in this case with Paul, too. How do we deal with that? And it kind of goes with what JD was talking about. How do we relate to the brother in all this turmoil? What about mass? You know, your brother wants to wear them. I don't. Or vice versa. How do we deal with that?

And these are some of those things, and especially, you know, we'll see in 14, kind of how to deal with that. And then we're going to see kind of the whole program again, but focus down on what we do. And so, like I said, it's kind of the funnel is coming down. We're looking at a brother and a weaker and what makes it. Now we're looking at how do we as believers deal with that? So, I want to go through and we'll go through the passage. You know, the other one is, well, another comment I had before we get started was, you know, this all funnels down in the funnel.

The last part of the funnel is, it all focuses on the love of Christ and the love of Christ in us. And as I was reading this week, I think it was either in, I can't remember if it was in a Hungry Heart or whether it was just my daily reading, I can't remember. But in 1 Timothy 1 and in verse 5, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. That's the end of the funnel. That's the goal, is love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.

It goes on then, where does that come from? If you go down to verse 14 of 1 Timothy, And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. So again, the source and the end of this funnel is love of Christ, and where is that found? In Christ.

So that's really kind of where we're going with, and where Paul's going with this section of Scripture. We're kind of getting down to the final point where it's your intimacy with Christ, your focus on Christ, and when you do that, the love of Christ is a result of that.

With that, I always like to go through the whole passage. So this, again, Lesson 58, and we're in Romans 14, going through verses 14 through 23. So I'll read those. I like to always get it just for context and just not dissecting it right off the bat. So Romans 14, verses 14 through 23, and we should have included 13 in this too, because that's really the beginning of this a little bit, but 14, verse 14, beginning.

I know and I am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love, do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.

Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who is in this way served Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then, we pursue these things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense.

It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith. And whatever is from faith, whatever is not from faith is sin. That one is going to be, I think, about a whole class, just on that last verse, I can tell you. Anyway, so, getting to the first question. What comes first, knowledge of a truth or persuasion of a truth? Knowledge. Knowledge.

And I just looked, I think we brought it into the other classroom. Where is my prop? It's not here. And JD, you probably know it, so why don't you say what it is? Faith in the facts come before, I don't know, whatever it is. Yeah, faith in the facts is like the train on the tracks, and feelings are like a caboose that follows. Is that close enough? That's close enough. I never get it right, but I know the general idea is that facts and knowledge come first. before feelings and other things.

So, in this one, it's, well, I'll read it from the New American Standard. Verse 14, I know and I am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean It says, I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there's nothing unclean in itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. So, it's pretty obvious here, again, that you have to have knowledge first.

I know, and so if you look at the know, It's the, and I butcher the Greek language, oida, I think is the way it's pronounced, and that's an absolute or positive knowledge. So, also from Zodiates, it strictly means to have seen, perceived, and apprehended. So, Paul is saying, I have seen, I'm persuaded, I've apprehended this truth. And this is contrasted with Gnosko, which is the know experientially, and it's not the same as the factual known of Oida. So when you look at that, this is a known fact, he knows it. It's not because he just kind of saw it, he knows this fact. And so when you look at the, it's kind of interesting to look at the Greek part of it, Greek-ish, you know, weird stuff, but the tense, voice, and mood of this, it's perfect, active, and indicative. So does everybody remember what those are? You know what the perfect is? The perfect tense? Crickets. It means that this knowledge is a past completed action with present results. And Winnie is sitting here, and I still hold her cheat sheet that she made up years ago, that has all the Greek tenses. I think I handed it out a few years ago to everybody in one of our classes, but I still use that.

And the voice is active, that means I actively do this, and the indicative mood is the statement of fact or reality. So therefore, this, I know, means that I actively obtain knowledge from Scripture, with convincing by the Holy Spirit, and that this is a fact. So, it's kind of understanding how we change on the second one about being persuaded. So, the Greek word there is pithos, or pithos, which means to persuade, particularly to move or affect by kind words or motives. So, for Romans 14, 14, its meaning is to let oneself be persuaded or to be persuaded.

So again, when you look at the 10th voice of mood, it's interesting, because this is perfect passive and indicative. So what is the passive side? It is the action that we've done to me, the receiver of it. Yeah, the receiver of it. So on this one, therefore, the I am convinced or persuaded means that I have been convinced from Scripture and the Holy Spirit. So it's acting on me. It's coming to me.

So at this point, Paul's reasoning had gone through the process to a point where it was complete, with the result that he'd come to a finished persuasion that was permanent. He stands persuaded. He could not be budged from his conviction. So sure was he of the truth of the matter. So that's the beginning of this. So he's starting this section where I am absolutely, can't be moved, persuaded, I'm convinced, and I know, I know the truth, and I'm convinced about this. So, the question is, with this, what is Paul so convinced of, and why? What's he convinced of?

I am convinced, I know, and I'm persuaded, or I'm convinced. That there's nothing forbidden and essentially unclean. He knows that, and he knows that it's no longer relevant to us who are not under the law. Did everybody hear that? Any other additions? I want to say that there is nothing defiled and unholy in itself. What was that? In the amplified it says nothing is defiled and unholy in itself. Okay, and JD, I think you had something then, Mark. JD? Oh, I was just agreeing with Joran, like that was really well said. Right. What I wanted to point out was the fact that in contemporary Christianity, they have it backwards.

They get convinced about emotion or feeling, they won't lose their mind out. Believers don't read the Bibles like they should, so they don't know really what the facts are. Somebody comes along as a persuasive speaker and tells them how they ought to feel about a scripture rather than what it actually says. So there's very little observation today of what the scriptures really say.

And not only that, J.D. Beck talking about their political climate, you know, boy if there's anything that demonstrates people are actually taking other people's lives based on misinformation because they feel like it's right. You know, the term systemic racism, what does that mean? The point is that you, in the same way with Christianity, read the books and listen to people, and they don't define terms, they don't have the... they don't go dig it out to see if what they think is really right or not. And so that creates a subjective Christianity based on how I feel and what I think is right or wrong, rather than what God's Word says. And once I get away from God's Word, there's nothing but chaos.

Absolutely. Any other comments? Are we specifically talking about food in verse 14 when it says nothing unclean of itself? We'll expand on that as we go. Yes, yes it is, but I think it's broader than that. So we will We've been talking all through 2014 about festivals, times, dates, food, all these different things. And actually, when we get down to this, we'll get down to where it actually says meat or food. So it's kind of specific. And I'll address that in just a minute, Kathy, about the broader aspect of that.

First one I really want to get to unfortunately, I think yeah one minute. I'm getting the one minute call I guess the first thing about this that I want to focus on that I know and why I said why with this Paul is so convinced of what is he convinced of and why and I want to start kind of more with the why First Paul's declaration of his knowledge and persuasion is what what does the verse say? I?

He's persuaded and convinced what? In the Lord Jesus. In the Lord. So, that is, he finds his source in the Lord. This is not merely his reasoning. This isn't him just figuring it out. This is from the Lord. And so that's the key part, I think that's the bedrock part, and maybe to go into what Mike said, is without that foundation in the scripture, you're on your own reasoning. And how good is that?

And where does that lead? To where we are today. So, we'll continue on with this. With this question, we'll get into the, you know, what and whys. And kind of, Kathy, answer your question. You know, where it focuses on. Because again, it does really focus down. And it gets down to where it actually says food or meat. Very specific. But it's a broader topic. And he's addressing a broader thing using that as an example.

So we'll get into that a little bit more next week. Okay, thank you. All right, we will close. Let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for this time, even though these crazy times. It's so easy to be distraught, to be brought down, and all the different things going on, all the changes that are going on, all the different things. And realizing that this really is a challenge or just seeing our fate.

Do we believe you are in control of all things? Do we understand that you're in control of everything that's going on right now? And do we believe that? Are you a sovereign God? Are you in control of this? And the chaos, the things that we see from an earthly perspective, just challenging our faith that it is still, you're in control of all of this.

And again, above all else, as we focus down the end of this funnel, it's your love. And even though we may not look at this process and see it, it's still the basis of all your relationship with us is love. And we just thank you for that, that it's nothing that we've earned. It's through grace, the unmerited blessings from you. And again, we just Thank you for the time where we can open up your word and just to see all your truths and how magnificent they are in a dark world to have the light of your word and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We just thank you for that immensely and that you haven't left us alone. Again, we just pray that all that we say and do this day will honor and glorify you and we just again, thank you in Jesus name.