Transcript
We were looking last week at the practical implications of the council of Jerusalem's
decision in the Book of Acts chapter 15 that the Gentile believers were not required to
observe the law of Moses, but were nevertheless strongly encouraged to follow four specific
guidelines that in fact sounded very much like the law of Moses.
Quick review of those, they were to abstain from food sacrifice to idols, from meat of
strangled animals, from sexual immorality and from blood.
The reason for that we've seen together is most likely because it was an accommodation
to Jewish sensibilities.
Jews and recent converts from Judaism had been steeped in these doctrines and for Gentile
believers to flaunt them under the guise of Christian liberty would increase the tension
between the Gentile believers and the Judaizers in Christian community.
And so we have drawn together last week three implications from this decision of the council
of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15.
Let me just quickly run them by you again.
First of all, in Christ the ceremonial law has been abolished.
We read in Hebrews chapter 10, "By the same sacrifices the law is only a shadow of the
good things that are coming, not the realities themselves.
For this reason it can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year make perfect
those who draw near to worship."
The whole theme in the book of Hebrews is that you can make blood sacrifices for your
sin every day again and again, it will not make you a better person.
It can only remind you of how sinful you are, it cannot change you from the inside out.
And so in the fullness of time Jesus comes as the fulfillment of all of these sacrifices
and he enters into the holy place not in the temple or the tabernacle, but the very presence
of God presents his own blood and sits down and by faith in him we are declared righteous.
That's why Hebrews 10 verse 14 says, "By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever
those who are being made holy."
So everything these sacrifices represented was fulfilled in Christ and for that reason
you and I today don't make blood sacrifices, we don't have to abide by the particulars
of the ceremonial law that you read about so much in the Old Testament, a law that placed
a heavy yoke upon the believers because they weren't able to keep up with all the requirements.
Secondly, we saw that the moral law has been fulfilled in Christ but remains in effect
today.
Jesus put it this way in the Sermon on the Mount, "I tell you that unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law you will certainly not enter the
kingdom of heaven."
God's requirement that we should love God above all and our neighbor as ourself has
never changed, the moral law has been in effect since the day of creation.
God still doesn't want us to commit spiritual idolatry, he doesn't want us to take his name
in vain, he doesn't want us to defraud our neighbor, he doesn't want us to fool around
with our neighbor's spouse, he doesn't want us to take something that doesn't belong to
us, that is all part of the Ten Commandments and the moral commandments of scripture.
The difference is these have been fulfilled in Christ by faith in him, we are declared
righteous, God through his Holy Spirit working in us changes us from the inside out and we
are now new covenant believers confident in our standing before God because of the righteousness
of Jesus, which then brought us last week to the area of disputable or questionable
matters and in questionable or disputable matters we are called upon to extend freedom
to each other and that brings us back then to Romans chapter 14 because Romans chapter
14 is one of the classic passages in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul addresses
this issue and so let's read together again from Romans chapter 14 the first six verses
and you can follow along either on the screen or on the insert that you have.
Here's how Paul begins he says except him whose faith is weak without passing judgment
on disputable matters, one man's faith allows him to eat everything but another man whose
faith is weak eats only vegetables, the man who eats everything must not look down on
him who does not and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who
does for God has accepted him, who are you to judge someone else's servant to his own
master he stands or falls and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand, one
man considers one day more sacred than another another man considers every day alike each
one should be fully convinced in his own mind he who regards one day as special does so
to the Lord he who eats meat eats to the Lord for he gives thanks to God and he who abstains
does so to the Lord and gives thanks to the Lord.
Last week we looked at the first of two principles that we can draw out of that passage and I'll
just quickly review those and then get on to where I want to pick it up this morning.
First of all the first lesson that we learn here is that it is okay in Christian community
to have differences of opinion regarding disputable matters, the context here as you'll recall
is the eating of meat that has been sacrificed to idols and also whether or not New Testament
believers were required to observe all the feast days of Israel particularly the varying
Sabbath days and there were some who said I've got to observe those regulations and
there were others who said these have all been fulfilled in Christ they're not important
they were honest differences of opinion and Paul says when it comes to these disputable
matters it's okay to have differences of opinion it's okay to have differences of opinion on
what you do on Sunday it's okay to have differences of opinion about how you wear your hair or
what kind of activities or entertainment you feel that you want to be involved in it's
okay they're going to be different ways of looking at things then he goes on to point
out that the reason for that and this is a very interesting thing that we talked about
for a bit last week is that this is rooted in varying degrees of spiritual maturity he
goes on to say in verse 2 one man's faith allows him to eat everything but another man
whose faith is weak eats only vegetables and the biblical principle is this the more mature
I am in Christ the less I have to depend on specific rules to keep me on the right path
rules are to contain the flesh if my heart is set on God and on the purposes of God then
God will lead me in the right path and so it's a very interesting thing that the more
mature I am in Christ the more I can see what the real issues are and the more freedom I
have in areas of questionable matters and we'll talk more about that in a moment and
that brings us to the third lesson that I really want to point out here in Romans chapter
fourteen and that is this from God's point of view it is all about heart motivation it
is all about heart motivation at the end of the day the Lord is less concerned about what
we do in these questionable matters but more concerned about why we do them let me say
that again at the end of the day the Lord is more concerned about is less concerned
about what we do but more concerned about why we do it listen again to the verses five
and six mark them perhaps on your papers one man considers one day more sacred than another
another man considers every day alike each one should be fully convinced in his own mind
he who regards one day as special does so to the Lord he who eats meat eats to the Lord
for he gives thanks to God and he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God
what's he saying it's motivation that counts if my motivation is to honor the Lord by not
eating meat devoted to idol worship then that's a good thing if my motivation is to honor
the Lord by eating meat that has been devoted to idols because I know that idols have no
staying power then that is a good thing from God's point of view if I observe a Sabbath
day as a sacred day because I want to please God that is a good thing it pleases the Lord
if I have come to understand that Sabbath has been fulfilled in the rest of Christ and
I do what I do in a deliberate attempt at pleasing the Lord then from the Lord's point
of view that is a very good thing and so it depends on my motivation am I doing what I
can to be pleasing to God and if I do then in these dubious matters God really doesn't
care what it is that I do because what I do is less important than looking at the intent
to the heart now why do I belabor that because my experience is we live in a day and age
where the question that God's people tend to ask about dubious matters is not so much
how can I best please the Lord but rather how much can I get away with and still call
myself a Christian isn't that true what can I do on Sunday and still be considered a good
Christian that question has gone through multitudes of people's minds or what kind of entertainment
can I participate in or watch and not cross the line and offend the Lord or what kind
of clothes can I wear and not cross the line and get God too mad at me or any number of
things like that can I buy lottery tickets and still be a good Christian I don't know
if you read the story in the news a while back there is this former monk in the state
of Tennessee who used to be part of an Episcopalian order devoted to poverty who just won a power
ball lottery valued at 200 and almost 60 million dollars and he's gone on record as saying
that he thought his vows of poverty prepared him very well for handling this kind of money
which I thought was really rather interesting God looks on the heart and how different life
would be if the question wasn't how much can I get away with and still be a good Christian
but rather the question was how can I honor God in all that I do listen to the psalmist
I mean really here Psalm 40 verse 8 he says I delight to do your will oh my God your law
your law is within my heart I delight read Psalm 119 where the law of God is said to
be such a delight that he dwells on it and he meditates upon it day and night and you
see the kind of transformation that has to happen in all of our lives so that that we
really our hearts desire is not to get away with things our hearts desire is how best
can we honor the Lord well that's the third lesson that I think we learned from this particular
passage the next lesson that we learn is that we must withhold judgment on those who choose
to live differently from us indisputable matters and this is why I really want you to take
out this insert and mark these passages because four times in this chapter he talks about
not judging let me run you past those verses first of all Romans 14 verse 1 accept him
whose faith is weak without passing judgment on disputable matters verse 3 the man who
eats everything must not look down on him who does not and the man who does not eat
everything must not condemn the man who does for God has accepted him verse 4 who are you
to judge somebody else's servant to his own master he stands or falls and he will
stand for the Lord is able to make him stand and then verse 10 you then why do you judge
your brother or why do you look down on your brother we will all stand before God's judgment
seat we will all stand before God's judgment seat verse 13 goes on to say therefore let
us stop passing judgment one on another speaks to our human tendency doesn't that we create
certain standards for ourselves that we're comfortable with and then we want to take
that standard and we apply it to everybody else and Paul says that's wrong and it's
wrong for two reasons number one we don't know what lives in somebody else's heart and
number two it is God who will one day call everybody to account before his throne of
judgment listen again to how Paul puts it here therefore judge nothing before the appointed
time wait till the Lord comes he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will
expose the motives of men's hearts at that time each will receive his praise from God
judge not said Jesus lest you be judged but now let's be clear that this is in the context
of dubious matters this is in the context of gray areas where you're not sure if it
falls under the moral law or if it falls under the ceremonial law if it falls under cultural
prohibitions that were time bound or if it falls under eternal precepts that God has
established for all of the human race and it's important to understand then that from
a moral perspective the moral law as I said earlier remains in effect and so when the
Bible talks about not judging that doesn't mean that we do not exercise a discernment
over against other people's lives or lifestyle as it relates to the commandments of God as
I said earlier God wants all of his people to honor him and to respect him and to respect
their neighbor and in those places where we violate that we don't just stand by and say
well you know that's your standard versus that is mine no no no no the ten commandments
or commandments they are not ten suggestions they remain in effect for all of history and
in all of those areas you and I have a responsibility particularly in the context of the community
of faith not just to shrug our shoulders and say well you know you do what you want to
do and I do what I want to do no in dubious areas the kind of things that we've talked
about you can give freedom to each other and we're not exercise judgment but when it comes
to biblical values of morality there we have an obligation one to another I like the way
Paul puts it writing to the book to the Galatians he says in verse one and two brothers if someone
is caught in a sin you who are spiritual should restore him gently but watch yourself or you
also may be tempted carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of
Christ the law of Christ is the law to love each other and loving each other means challenging
each other in areas of moral law that are in violation of God's values for his people
and I make a point of that because we live in a day and age of course where every pagan
in the country knows the phrase judge not lest you be judged and we live in a society
where just about everything goes and Christians get caught up in that and they get caught
up in the tension of what does love mean and we live in a society where love means well
you let me do what I want to do and I'll let you do what you want to do and we'll all be
happy together because it's all about inclusivity it's all about including everybody but from
God's perspective that's not how it works from God's perspective there's a day of judgment
coming from God's perspective the road is washed out ahead and people's cars are speeding
at desperate speed to destruction and you and I knowing that the road is washed out
ahead we have an obligation to try to stop the traffic and to say to people listen you
keep on living this way you're going to be excluded from the kingdom of God we're way
too afraid in this day and age in my opinion for us to hold on to biblical values in a
world that is rapidly in a handbasket going to hell wouldn't you agree doesn't mean we
have to be abrasive it doesn't mean we have to be unkind but it does mean that we need
to be clear about what biblical values are and we need to stand for those biblical values
as much as we can speaking the truth in love to one another and to the world around us
enough said it's dubious matters that are being discussed here not values that eternally
don't change and that takes a lot of wisdom read a piece just this past week one of the
leading evangelical pastors in the United Kingdom has now publicly gone on record as
supporting and favoring a gay marriage and there are people who would say well gay marriage
falls in the area of disputable matters I say matters of sexuality biblically are not
areas of dispute they are areas engraved in stone and the biblical commandment that sexual
activity outside of a committed marriage relationship is simply wrong is not going to change no
matter how the times change and we need to be clear in our own mind not just in that
area but in all other areas that God's moral commandments remain in effect those who do
such things so scripture will not inherit the kingdom of God one more point here and
then we'll be done number five fifth lesson to learn and that again is the thrust of this
passage we must not cause people to stumble therefore let us stop passing judgment on
one another is how first 13 begins but then he goes on instead make up your mind not to
put a stumbling block or an obstacle in your brother's way and again let's be very clear
in the context because this makes a huge difference the context here is meat offered to idols
and the more mature a believer is the more he realizes and this is what Paul teaches
in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 that an idol has no real power God is God overall and so you
can eat meat in a clear conscience even if it has been dedicated to idols because God
is God overall you'll notice this is quite a divergence from what the decision was in
Acts chapter 15 that we talked about earlier right and that shows how this is an accommodation
to Jewish sensitivities this is not an eternal principle because already in Paul's day they
were letting up on eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols you follow that argument
was that a yes now an immature believer does not have that knowledge cannot eat meat sacrificed
to idols without offending his conscience and losing his faith and so he doesn't but
now here's the scenario he's coming over to your house and you're offering him meat that
has been sacrificed to idols you're eating it because you know that is okay but he sees
you eating it number one he is scandalized because he doesn't understand how a mature
believer can participate in something that has been involved in idol worship not only
that but because you're eating it he's gonna try to eat it now his conscience is offended
he gets tied into that whole pagan world of idolatry that he used to be part of and his
faith wipes out that is the meaning of the word stumble it is presenting an obstacle
to faith it doesn't mean I don't like your hairdo you're causing me offense therefore
change your hairdo it doesn't mean I don't like the music that you sing so stop singing
it because I'm offended no no it has everything to do with a weaker brother or a weaker sister
who by the exercise of your Christian freedom and your Christian liberty tries to do what
you're free in doing his conscience cannot handle it he loses his faith and he wipes
out and he does so because of you think of it this way here's a new convert comes out
of a world of alcoholism has come to faith in Christ and has left his life of drinking
behind him he's become part of Christian community and he is growing in the Lord and he knows
that he can't touch a drop of alcohol without risking his new found life in Christ now he
comes over to your place and you're having wine with your dinner and he sees you drinking
wine and you might even offer it to him we've had this problem here in the past where people
came out of that lifestyle and people insisted on plying them with drinks so now what happens
well you're drinking so it must be okay for a Christian to drink right it's one of those
dubious areas drinking wine is one of the passages one of the activities that is being
mentioned here so now he sees you drinking you're offering it to him perhaps or he goes
home and he decides if you can do it I can do it so he takes this for his drink guess
what happens he falls off the wagon down the tubes he goes he goes back to his old lifestyle
he is guilty as get all his conscience accuses him and now he's back in his old way of life
and it's all because of you you made him stumble your freedom made him lose his faith and fall
flat on his fanny that's what Paul is talking about and the obligation here then what's
the solution well the solution is you don't do what you have the freedom to do talk about
that in a moment but we actually had this experience here many years ago and some of
you old timers will remember this we we used to use wine in our celebrations of communion
and then we had a number of people who came to faith and they had struggled with alcohol
in the past and for a little while we had on the tray both wine and juice but then we
discovered that even just the whiff of the wine stirred up desires in those who had left
that lifestyle behind and so you know we made a decision as church leadership at the time
to can the wine and go to all juice which is what we do today well we might not have
handled it very wisely back then but I remember the backlash that we experienced on the part
of some people on an issue that was as plain as the nose on your face from a biblical point
of view about not causing your brother to stumble in fact we lost some people over that
and some of you hear me tell this story they left this church went to another church where
ironically they don't serve wine for communion but grape juice and I say consistency thou
art a very rare virtue but what can be simpler than the realization that you stop doing what
you're doing even when you have the right to do it because it causes somebody else to
lose their faith so notice again then as the passage goes on how Paul describes that in
the verses 19 to 21 let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and
mutual edification they're not destroy the work of God for the sake of food all food
is clean but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble
it is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your
brother to fall and the takeaway lesson is this the more mature you are in Christ the
more the onus of responsibility is on you to modify your behavior so that the last and
the lost and the least the weaker brother or the weaker sister will not stumble on account
of your preferences in life notice how Paul puts it you don't have this on your insert
but chapter 15 goes on to pick this up he says we who are strong are to bear with the
failings of the weak and not please ourselves each of us should please his neighbor for
his own good to build him up and then verse 3 for even Christ did not please himself but
as it is written the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me and his point
there is this the Lord Jesus left the glories of heaven and all the liberties and all the
freedom that he owned as the son of God came into this world not to please himself but
to lay down his life for you and for me and so he says you're my follower you've got
my spirit living in you then that's how I want you to learn to live enjoy your freedom
in Christ don't allow yourself to be put back under the yoke of slavery he says in the book
of Galatians but don't use your freedom to destroy other people's lives and if the
spirit of Christ really lives in us then we will develop the kind of sensitivity that
says if this causes you grief and there are many practical examples of this that we could
talk about but we like the time to do that this morning if my Christian liberty causes
you to lose faith then I will stop doing what I am doing because I do not want to destroy
the work of God for the sake of food the kingdom of God he says is not about eating it's not
about drinking but it is joy in peace in the Holy Spirit and so the more we grow in Christ
the more sensitive we become to what other people's needs are and the more we can adapt
and adjust our lives so that other people can grow up and not be caused to stumble on
account of us perhaps someday we'll come back to this I don't know yet but the practical
implications are profound the takeaway lesson as I said is this the older we are in Christ
the more mature we are in Christ the greater our sense of responsibility for those who
are weak and immature and who need to see in us the manifestation of the love of God
that makes sense we need to put that into practice constantly because that is what builds
Christian community