Sermon Tone Analysis

! Romans 14

!! *Romans 14*

*Tape #8133*

*Pastor Chuck Smith*

* *

!! Shall we turn to Romans, chapter fourteen.

Walking in Christian love, would be the theme of this chapter if I would put a theme in it.

And it begins with not judging one another.

!!

So Paul said, /Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.

/It is amazing how that we have allowed petty differences to divide the body of Jesus Christ.

Have you ever known anyone who has won an argument?

It’s tragic that there are so many people who want to argue over non-essential things.

There was a big debate at one time of how many angels could dance on the head of a pin?

People got angry with each other because of the differences of opinion.

Shall we baptize people forwards or backwards, or shall we sprinkle them?

Or shall we dunk them three times?

And denominations have been created over such differences.

!! Don’t get involved, Paul said in disputes over doubtful things, especially with one who is weak in the faith.

And Paul brings up some of these disputes that existed in the church at that time.

/2For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.

/That is, weak in the faith.

There are some people today who feel convicted about eating meat.

They are vegetarians.

Paul, writing to Timothy, said in the last days there would arise people who would forbid to marry and command you to abstain from meat which God had created to be received with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth.

!! It’s nothing to argue over but the proper attitude that we are to have over these differences is, /3Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.

/In other words, we are not to look down and say, oh, that crazy guy doesn’t meat.

Can you believe that, you know?

In other words to sort of look down on those who feel those convictions?

But on the other side of the coin, those who have those convictions should not be judging those who eat meat.

You know, I find it rather easy not to look down on those that have those strange convictions, but what I have difficulty with is not judging someone who has greater liberty than I do.

If someone is doing something that I personally have convictions over, I’m prone to say, how can they do that?

How can they say they are Christians?

Look what they are doing.

And so you see, you turn the coin around and it’s a little different.

But the key is, of course as we get to it is to walk in love.

Yes, there can be differences of convictions.

!!

I was talking to a minister from another church one time.

He asked me if I went to the beach.

He should have been able to tell by the tan that I had.

I said, oh yes, I love surfing.

I go down a couple of times a week to Huntington and surf.

He said, oh, I wish I could do that.

But the church that I pastor, they really believe it’s a sin to go to the beach.

Oh, I would love to do that.

I felt sorry for the poor fellow because of the convictions of others that were limiting him from a wonderful sport of surfing.

And yet there are people whose convictions about going to the beach are legitimate.

He was talking about, what all of those scantily clad women on the beach?

I said, what women?

I don’t go on the beach to ogle the girls.

I go on the beach to surf.

I don’t hang around on the beach.

I don’t care for the beach itself.

I love being out in the surf.

But, you see, if a person is having problems with lust, then it is probably best that he has convictions about going to the beach.

And so you see, not all of us are made up the same.

So it’s possible for one person to have honest convictions over an issue and another person not to have those same convictions.

So we’re not to despise those that have the convictions.

But in the same token, they are not to judge us who may not have the same convictions that they have.

!!

For Paul said,  /4Who are you to judge another's servant?

To his own master he stands or falls.

/Let us say that you are very wealthy, that you have many servants in your home, that you invite guests for dinner.

The servants are there waiting on them.

And if one of your guests would start to rebuke one of your servants, whom you feel is doing a marvelous job.

He’s is doing exactly what you told him to do.

He is waiting the table just as you have instructed him.

But this person begins to get on his case.

He says, why did you put my fork over here?

And you begin to judge.

You say, wait a minute.

I told him to do that.

He’s not your servant.

He’s my servant.

I’ll take care of him, if I feel he is wrong.

And yet here we are judging one another but you see, we are all servants of Jesus Christ.

And so who am I to judge the way you serve the Lord.

What I need to be interested in is how I serve the Lord.

That I serve the Lord in a manner that is pleasing to Him.

That I do what He has commanded me to do.

That I am looking to Him for my instructions and directions.

And yet, it doesn’t really work that way all the time, does it?

People are judging how a person serves God, what a person believes, and things of this nature.

There is so much of this going on in the church that it is tragic.

Who are you to judge another’s servant?

To his own master he stands or falls.

!! Then I like what Paul adds here, /Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

/You know I have discovered that.

There were some people that I thought would never stand.

And God made them, upheld them and helped them to stand.

And so this business of judging another for meat.

!! Then he goes on to another issue.

What day should we worship God?

In the early church there were varying opinions.

You see so many of the early Christians were Jews.

And they brought their Jewish traditions and Jewish law into the church.

They still were Kosher.

Peter was Kosher.

When the Lord there in Joppa, let down the sheet before Peter, and he saw all of these manner of beasts and creeping things.

And the Lord said, “Rise Peter, kill and eat.”

He said, not so Lord, I’ve never eaten anything that is unclean.

I’m a Kosher boy.

I’ve always kept Kosher.