march 15

Today we will end chapter 14. Chapter 14 has been one of those chapters that is not often focused on but needs more attention paid to it. The last few chapters going back to chapter 12 have been on the Christian and their relationships.

How Christians need to act among one another always encouraging each other lifting each other up in brotherly and sisterly love. How we are to treat the nonbelieving World. Paul then, in chapter 13, transitioned into the christian's relationship with the state and then we defined the role of the state or the government.

Then Paul goes back to focus on our relationship with each other and his specific focus is between two different Christians who are in two different walks of life. He focuses on those who are weak in the faith versus those who are mature in the faith.

And as a reminder I want to point out that Paul says weak in the faith and not weak in faith. He is not declaring that this person lacks faith what he is declaring is that this person is new to the faith.

So at the beginning of chapter 14 Paul says that we are to accept the one who is weak in faith or new in faith and then Paul gives us the description of a person who is new in the faith or weak in the faith.

The specific example that Paul gives is that this is a person who refrains from eating certain foods or considers one day above another. He then describes the one who is more mature in the faith as somebody who is OK with eating the food because they know that idols are meaningless, they are not real.

They also began to realize that there are not certain holy days where one is holier than another but that every day is the same.

In this chapter Paul declares that the purpose and our motive for accepting the one who is weaker in the faith who is also the same one who is typically passing judgment, is a person who should be accepted because they were first accepted by Christ.

And Paul gives warnings to both those who are infants in the faith and those who are mature in the faith and he tells the ones who are infants , do not be judgmental. Stop judging these other people who have the faith to realize that they are not harming God if they ate the food.

He then turns to those who are mature in the faith and he tells them stop having contempt for the ones who are infants. Help them, give them time to grow. Don't assume that they will be that person all the time and don't disregard them because of their zeal with no knowledge.

Paul then gets to what is important. Because the area of focus that Paul has been discussing are the areas of indifference.

He is not saying except the ones who commit heresy and blasphemy's, he's saying except the ones who may not see eye to eye on you but are still within the confines of Orthodox biblical Christianity.

And all of this is for the sake of unity so Paul gets to the very nitty gritty of what truly unites us, what our focus should be on for us to remain connected and united and he says it is the Kingdom of God.

Our minds need to be set on the Kingdom of God where we look at righteousness and if you remember we're talking about an imputed righteousness.

That Jesus lived a righteous life on behalf of his people and then died to answer for their sins. And all who have faith in the atoning work that the son of God did will have his righteousness imputed onto them

Just like our sins were imputed onto the sun. So we magnify this doctrine, we soak in this doctrine and it is all for the glory of God our Salvation is all for the glory of God. Our sanctification, our sanctifying walk in this life and the fruit that we bear are all for the glory of God.

It is not for us to be recognized, it is not for us to talk about ourselves, it is not for us to magnify our opinions , all that we do we do it to the glory of God.

So the Kingdom of God is a focus on the gospel message. We have to be gospel centered so we have righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That needs to be the center line of it all, that is the center line of our thinking is the work that Jesus did we now have peace with the father through the work of the son on the cross and we now have our joy in the Holy Spirit.

And so now we walk in love and we encourage each other in brotherly and sisterly love. We engage the world and be countercultural and we bring this gospel message declaring a message of repentance.

We then submit ourselves to the governing authorities because the governing authorities must be in submission to the lordship of Jesus.

A lot of them do not know that their office is in submission to him but it is and they will be held accountable for the things that they do.

Yes, chapter 13 needs to be one of those chapters where we realize that the governing offices that the state has is under the lordship of Jesus and they are accountable to him and nobody is getting away with anything.

our joy in the Holy Spirit has no problem leading us to being submission to the governing rulers and at the same time holding those were working contrary to the word of God accountable by reminding them that the office they fill is accountable to God.

Anne through our focus on the son, peace with the father and joy in the Holy Spirit we should be able to be united in that.

In our heavenly Kingdom like thinking which needs to be our focus, we should be able to set aside the indifferent things and say here's what is important . And say we can have peace because this Hill is not worth dying.

And so chapter 14 has been one of those chapters that are just so relevant in our time. In a time where we all feel like we have to be right. In a time where we all want to stand on a soapbox or we wanna sit on a high horse.

And it seems like nobody is immune to this behavior. It seems like everybody gets their turn on their soapbox. And each time somebody does get their turn, they think they're doing something so Noble.

Maybe some of the things we are saying don't have to be said. Maybe, when it comes to the in different things and not the essential things, we can live and let live. So we are not going to get super defensive over what somebody eats or what a day a person observes.

What if they dare come and attack where are central thinking should be such as the Kingdom of God, then we stand firm like good soldiers of Christ and we defend our faith. If you notice Paul's reference to the Kingdom of God is trinitarian.

So we will not allow people to attack the doctrine of the Trinity comma and we will not allow people to attack the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and we will not allow people to attack reconciliation to the father through the son.

Honestly you can wrap up the entire day of Salvation in that. And we will not allow them to attack the joy walking in the Holy Spirit, life in the spirit, life as a Christian life as a new creature in Christ.

Set aside the in different things and focus on righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And so now we approach the final three verses of this chapter and the final three verses are so wonderful and so needed as a great encouragement on how the Christian character should be and how we should desire this.

So let's look at the words of Paul and break these verses down.

Romans 14:21 NASB95

It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.

No here is one of these wonderful verses select Christian should probably mark down somewhere. Use it as a reminder on how our attitudes should be. Pause is it is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything, now stop right there.

The focus of this is not on food wine or anything. Paul is not declaring that you should not do these things at all these are just examples. He is not building a doctrine on a specific food or drink that a Christian can or cannot be involved with.

The point has never been on the consumption of food drink or the observance of days. That has all been examples to show us how we should interact with one another and how our attitude should be.

But now that we are informed that there are those among us who are newer to the faith or weaker in the faith comma the mature believers now have the responsibility to be more sensitive to them. Life is not about you being able to exercise your right the way you see fit in front of who you see fit.

We have this Liberty in Jesus but we also have a responsibility. Boy I tell you that is something our culture can learn a thing or two about yes we have Liberty but we also have responsibility. You are free to say whatever you want to say so long as we have the First Amendment but be responsible for the things that you say.

You have the freedom to own a firearm of your choosing but use responsibility with that firearm be responsible with it.

You are free to publish your opinion as you see fit but exercise some responsibility when you do such a thing. The common mindset is I have this freedom and I can do what I want. That mindset isn't the life of the Christian as well.

Paul is not saying that you do not have Liberty but he is saying you have responsibility within the confines of Liberty. And because there are responsibilities within the confines of Liberty it is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.

This is the theme that we're constantly seeing in this letter from Paul, life is not about you. Get over yourself for a moment. we run the risk of hurting a brother or sisters walk by the very things we do.

Understand that, our actions can become a stumbling block or an obstacle to another person. You must never be OK with the idea that you can be in the way of somebody else's walk with the Lord.

So it is good to protect a fellow believer by exercising a little bit of responsibility. So maybe you have the faith to be involved with something that somebody who's weaker in the faith refuses to be involved with. Or perhaps it's not even that, let's just stick with the food example that Paul is using.

Maybe you have the faith to eat that specific meat in front of somebody who doesn't. But the instruction that Paul is laying out, this Liberty but with responsibility, maybe you refrain from eating that meat to protect somebody who is just not quite there with you.

Why should I not eat what I want because of somebody else? Because Paul says it is good. Again it's not about you it's not about them it's not about the food not about the days. It is about glorifying God and performing before God.

It is good because God says it is good. And the reason why it is good, it is because it mirrors the attitude of Jesus. Because what Paul is describing here is selflessness. You have the right to take part in that meal but you choose not to to protect somebody else.

That is selflessness. A selflessness that is very similar to a selflessness of washing another's foot. That the Lord of all creation kneel down on one knee to wash the feet of the ones who serve him and not only the ones who serve him, but the feet of one who will walk in betray him.

I mean, do you guys realize that one of the main reasons why the movie Forrest Gump is so well loved is because the character is so selfless? I know there are people out there Who have critiqued the movie online but there is always a critic out there. But I have actually never met an individual who has said they hate that movie.

The reason why it is such a beloved movie is because the character is a really good character. He was absolutely selfless. Even when people treated him badly he was still there for them. It was a character who never thought about himself he was always thinking about the well being of others.

Even when he went back to go find his friend Bubba he found others laying there and he said I couldn't just leave them there on the battlefield in Vietnam. Selflessness is an amazing thing and when we see it we adore it and we love it.

I love listening to the testimonies of some of the World War two soldiers who fought in Europe. It was a time when people's faith was truly in advice it was a lot of pressure on people's beliefs and for a lot of these young men there was so much doubt and so many questions.

Because of that there were many chaplains who were not well received because The American world had just gotten out of this Great Depression and now here's this Great War and these young minds or like how can we listen to what you have to say about the goodness of God.

World War Two was such a test of faith that one prominent preacher said that Romans 828 was the hardest verse in the Bible to believe because he kept having to visit the homes of parents who got word that they lost their son overseas.

It started to weigh on the pastor himself , it was a very depressing time in American history. So a lot of these army chaplains had a lot to prove and they get it with joy. So it was reported that a lot of these army chaplains were the first on the battlefield and the last.

people didn't see the chaplain's just this man who stood back and prayed they seen him as a man of action and a man that was willing to fight next to them. They saw a man who's willing to use his own body to protect other people.

So I love hearing the stories about a lot of these army chaplains because a lot of the stories were that person was the real deal. That guy made me respect Christians again. That guy led me to the Lord through his bravery and his words.

Desmond Lewis was a conscientious objector during World War Two on the Pacific side, over in Japan. He refused to pick up a weapon because he was a seventh-day Adventist and he was a pacifist which means he did not engage in war.

So he went into the military as an army medic and he was known as a very brave man who went in the middle of the battlefield to pull people off and give them health care.

The movie haxall Ridge was a movie about him but there are numerous documentaries about him because his selflessness was so extreme that people cannot stop talking about him and people wanted to hear his story.

In Colorado I met akkeren refugee who described his childhood in a refugee camp in Thailand. He described it as a place that was once a place of warfare comment that it had land mines still there and so people we're still dying within the refugee camp because the camp was not swept for mines.

He said he had friends not while playing they stepped on him and died. Now he's living in Colorado he works at a restaurant and he's taking care of his mother and he is engaged to be married.

He talked about how much he loved living in America and how much he loves his fiance and is extremely excited to marry her. He said they are planning to have their wedding at the refugee camp he grew up in.

That got my attention, it didn't seem to get other people's attention but i got mine. So out of a group of like 15 people I finally asked why would you take your fiance back to this refugee camp a place that you just said was extremely dangerous?

And he said, oh the reason why I wanna have our wedding in that refugee camp is so kids can have cake. The children over there I've never had cake in their entire life and so I want to bring them cake and i can see them enjoy eating cake for the first time.

We live in a country where a wedding between a man and a woman is like a fairy tale and we are gathering a Princess and a Prince to be wed. This guy is not even thinking about himself he's thinking about the children in this refugee camp so he can give them cake. Selfless.

All of that is just a reflection of the selflessness of our savior. It's a display that we truly are made in the image of God an often, in these acts of selflessness, we truly see how we are made in the image of God. Which is why we're so drawn to these stories but the act of selflessness was performed by Jesus on the cross.

Every other selfless story is an echo of that, it is a copy of that. So when we see people truly acting in a selfless way we love it. And it's not just us Christians who love these things people love these things. People love them because they are displaying that they truly are creatures made according to the image of God.

Selflessness is the idea in the Christian walk. Let's move on to the next 2 verses, the last two verses.

Romans

Romans 14:22–23 NASB95

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 not from faith is sin.

Now these last two verses have to be read together because in verse 22 describes one person and verse 23 describes another. First 22 is that of a faithful person who has conviction before God and they live a happy life because they do not condemn themselves with what they approve.

They are somebody who is not constantly living in a state of condemnation and worried about Am I failing and falling today through the days I observe or the food that I eat. Because of their faith they are able to live happy lives because they trust in the one who has delivered them from this system that leads to superstition.

And so this person of faith is able to live their lives without that burden of conviction all the time period contrast that to the person was 23 who if they were to give in to an activity they or if they have doubt when doing the activity , they are condemned.

Not condemned as in condemned to hell or they're not saved, but a violation of conscience that leads to guilt and requires the forgiveness of that sin as we read because it is not an act of faith it is sin. Anything that is not done according to faith is something that is done in sin.

So somebody has it in their mind that eating this meat is wrong but I'm going to do it anyway because of whatever situation and they eat it they are acting in a simple manner because they had just violated their own conscience comma the 8 without faith and they brought condemnation upon their own mind.

And maybe you have been in a situation like that in your own life where you were not comfortable with doing something and you did it anyway and then the guilt came in. Shouldn't have done that, why did I do that and so you have this condemnation on your mind and the weight is heavy.

The reason for those feelings is because you responded outside of faith. You reacted apart from faith and there is no happiness found in that. Ultimately these two verses and the summary of this chapter is that God is concerned with your heart.

The outward actions have to be lined up with the inner thoughts and so are you acting according to your heart or are you acting against it. So if there's something you think you should not be a part of or active in then don't.

dont Act against your conscience. be in line with it and saturate your mind in the word of God among the people of God and with God in prayer.

To ensure that your conscience is always being motivated being pushed bye the word of God. And while Paul does discuss the difference between the infant in christ versus the mature one in the faith, there is a command not to remain an infant in Christ.

now, to be clear, when Paul is talking about faith in this verse he is not talking about saving faith. He is not talking about a trust in the sacrificial atonement rather he's talking about a fixed position of the mind. The word faith is used because it is connected do your Christian walk.

This has been the great revelation of the law itself this has been the great revelation that Jesus has brought to us. God is not concerned with just your outward expressions. He's concerned about what is taking place within your heart and within your mind.

And what is truly in your heart is going to reflect in your actions. And it's not that hard to see, if you are greedy in the heart you will do greedy acts. And what we're seeing take place on a national level is a magnification of what is taking place within the heart of man on a personal level.

I'm not sure how statistics can proclaim now homosexuality is such a minority in population and so is the support of homosexuality. If that is the data that is truly collected then the issue is that people are playing camillians. They will appear to be one way around 1:00 set of people but then become another around another set.

So they could be saying one thing but in their heart they feel a different way about it and their actions are being exercised in another way which could be in support of or even committing the acts of.

The actions that we see before us in the political realm and in the social realm and in the civic realm is a magnification of what's really taking place within the heart of man and that should frighten us all.

The church has wasted so much time trying to force non believers to act like a Christian rather than be a Christian. We had rules in our society that were reflection upon the scriptures but we never took the time to make sure people were actually OK.

We never took the time to be Kingdom focused people and we thought everything was OK because everyone was acting a certain way. We were wrong. And now we have a society that celebrates the wickedness that is within the heart of man.

And we think the schools should be the ones to take care of this we think it is the government's job to get people in line.

If we want to see the heart of man change then we need to go to the divine surgeon and prayerfully bring these people before our God proclaiming our desire to see them have a heart surgery.

For them to have a new heart. But don't forget your actions or magnification of what's in your heart. Do not stop at prayer, take the gospel message to them.

Proclaim the message of repentance plant that seed and if it is God's will for that person to have a new heart they will have a new heart.

That can be at the moment you proclaim the gospel that can be years down the road and you'll never know it. But we don't do it as a system of what works and doesn't work we do it to the entertainment and for the glory of God let's pray