“Saints Both Weak and Strong!”
Romans pt. 20
Opening Illustration: Louie Giglio: What is God’s Purpose for My Life? From Blue Fish Tv.com
Point: Our teacher in this illustration helps us to see that the purpose for my life is also wrapped up in the way I live my life on a daily basis. It deals with my vertical relationship with God and with my horizontal relationship with others in this world and especially in the Body of Christ. He helps us to see the importance of our text in Romans 14 today.
Thesis: Romans 14 challenges the “Saint” to look out for their brothers and sisters in Christ and to make sure that they don’t become a stumbling block or obstacle. They need to do this because one day they will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an account for how they lived their life and influenced others.
Scripture Text: Romans chapter 14:1-22
1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The 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. 4Who 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.
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He 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. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’”
12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. 14As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. 15If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. 16Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do 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. 21It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
22So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Introduction:
THE CHURCH’S MISSION—A PARABLE as told by Philip Anderson:
Not long ago I visited my sister, a director of patient services for the children’s unit of a large southern California hospital. She was conducting me on a tour through that unit. All the time—echoing through the halls—we could hear the cry of a baby coming from one of the rooms. Finally, we came to that room. It was a little child, about a year old, covered with terrible bruises, scratches, scars, from head to toe.
At first, I assumed the child must have been involved in a terrible accident. Then I looked closely at its legs. Written in ink all over them were obscenities. My sister told me that the child was the victim, not of an accident, but of its parents. Its internal injuries were so severe that it couldn’t keep any food down. The scars on the bottom of its feet were burns caused by cigarettes.
If you’ve ever had trouble visualizing the consequences of human indifference—the perversion of life’s basic relationships—what God himself is up against in this world of ours—I wish you could have looked with me at that battered, crying baby!
But I want to tell you what happened then. My sister leaned over the crib, and very carefully and tenderly lifted the child, and held it next to herself. At first the child screamed all the more, as if its innocent nature had come to be suspicious of every touch. But as she held it securely and warmly, the baby slowly began to quiet down. And finally, in spite of wounds and hurts and past experience, it felt the need to cry no more.
The baby remains in my memory as a living symbol of the choice we face in the mission of the church. Are we willing to let life’s most precious values be battered and starved and crucified by default? Or will we reach out and pick them up and hold them close to our hearts? The time for commitment is not next year, next month, but now!
(From Philip Anderson, Illustrations Unlimited).
This whole chapter found in Romans 14 focuses on the importance of developing good relationships with those who are around us. Paul is pressing the Roman church and the “Saints” of God to make sure that they impact their brothers and sisters in Christ in a positive way and not in negative way. He reminds all of us that there is a “Code of Christian Conduct” which must be maintained. This “Code of Conduct” is to be observed with each other for the sake of the weaker Christian’s. Christians who are babies in Christ will struggle with issues that maybe an older Christian will not. They will have battles raging through their minds and the older more mature and sensitive Christian must be mindful of these struggles and make sure that they do not use their freedom as a stumbling block to the weaker Christian. Instead they will seek to love them in spite of their previous scars and injuries. They will seek to hold them in their arms of love so that their hearts can heal and so that their crying will stop.
Paul is stressing to the “Saints” that they must care for each other, be sensitive to each other, be willing to sacrifice for each other, be willing to help one another, be careful not to offend one another because they are all part of the Kingdom of God and there is day coming when we will give an account of how we lived our lives and treated each other in the church.
Story: When Winthrop and the Puritans arrived in Salem they were shocked to discover a settlement which had been devastated with sickness, death and despair. The people who greeted them at the shore were lifeless, lethargic and in a depression. Many wanted to go home to England and the settlement was like a camp site not a city as they had expected. The settlement seemed doomed to failure just like Jamestown. Instead of being a city on the hill shining the light of Christ it was a camp site filled with darkness and hopelessness. Winthrop overwhelmed by the sight returned to the ship “the Arabella” and started praying to God for help and insight in what to do. That night the thoughts and the vision started pouring into his heart and mind from the Holy Spirit. After the vision and inspiration was clear in his heart and spirit he sat down and wrote out “A Model of Christian Charity.” The Lord spoke to him that night and told him this was the solution to the problem in Salem. He returned the next morning and met again with Endecott the current Governor who he would replace and they talked about what Endecott had learned from the Pilgrims down the coast. Winthrop got his confirmation from that discussion which pointed right to the vision he got for this cities renewal. He then called a city wide meeting telling everyone to come out dressed in work clothes, leaders, nobility, gentry everyone! When they showed up as their new governor he stood there with his work clothes on and then shared the vision he had received from the Lord. He told them that all of them would work together building each other proper dwellings. They would all become servants of each other and usher in the plan and the purpose of God. They would not only honor the 1st Commandment of Jesus “To Love God” and serve Him, which they had been doing. They went to church twice on Sunday and held Bible Studies during the week. But they would also honor the second Commandment and that was the horizontal relationship they were to have with each other in the community. Jesus also told them to “Love each other like they did themselves.” So it was time for all of them to roll up their sleeves and work hard for each other to create a community driven by a servant’s spirit. The leaders he included where also going to role model servant leadership by being willing to work hard physically for their neighbors who where in need! The result Salem was birthed and the city was lit on fire for Jesus.
T.S. – The church of Christ is to be a place of healing a place filled with love and compassion not a place that abuses others in the Body. So as part of the church I need to ask some questions to you today in light of Romans 14. How well are doing in serving your brothers and sisters in Christ?
I. How are you using the freedom you have in Christ? (Romans 14:19)
a. What are you doing with your freedom – flaunting it in the face of others?
i. Are you injuring others in their faith walk with God by your radical freedoms of expression?
ii. Are you using the freedom you found in Christ righteously or selfishly?
iii. Yes, you are free in Christ and in this nation but what are you doing with your freedom – reference the Time magazine this week.
1. Their article on “The Case for National Service!”
a. They state, “Millions of Americans want to help their community, their country, their world. Here’s a plan to put those ideals into action” (Sept. 10, 2007)
b. Scripture addresses for us the danger in abusing the freedoms that the Lord has given us.
i. 2 Cor. 3:17: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
1. Where there is freedom God id there in the midst of it! He is watching!
ii. 1 Peter 2:16: “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.”
1. We are warned not to use our freedom to cover up evil but live like a servant of God.
iii. James 2:12: “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.”
1. We need to know that we will be judged by the law that gave us freedom and how we used that freedom in our lives.
iv. I Cor. 8:9: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”
1. We are warned not to be a stumbling block to others by how we use our freedom!
v. Galatians 5:13: “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature rather, serve one another in love.”
1. We are called to be free – but use that freedom tapered by love for good and not for the indulgence of the sinful nature.
vi. Romans 14:16-21: 16Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do 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. 21It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
1. We are warned in our text not do the “Stumbling Block Act of Disgrace.”
a. Because if you do then you are abusing the freedom that God has blessed you with and you will be judged for the abuse of your freedom.
c. Observation: I look at American Christianity today and I have to ask the question: “Is the church using the freedom they have in Christ as a license to do what ever they want?”
i. American saints I believe are using their freedoms to indulge the sinful nature. What is the sinful nature – lets be reminded:
1. Galatians 5:19-21: 19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
ii. I believe the church will eventually lose the freedom they possess today because of the abuses running wild in the church.
1. I see Christians abusing their God given freedoms for self-expression, for the license to live together in sin before marriage and their reasoning because they have the right and you cannot judge me!
2. I see them justifying their selfish ways with the Gospel.
3. I see them judging others harshly because they point out their sinful ways.
4. I see them being obstacles and stumbling blocks to other baby Christians by showing its okay to live in sin God does not mind.
5. I see them abusing baby Christians by their deceived mindset and revealing that they do not need direction from the Word of God.
a. The lie, “It’s all in how you interpret the Word man!”
6. I see freedom in Christ as an excuse to offend others and to not be driven by the Words of God.
7. I see freedom in Christ being used to condemn those who say something about the excesses in American Christianity and the modern day church.
a. The modern day Prophets is still being condemned like in the Old Testament!
iii. Thoughts on America from a Treasury of Bible Illustrations: William Arthur Ward wrote these moving words: “I believe in America. “I believe it became great because of its faith in God, its hope for independence, and its love for freedom. “I am grateful for America’s glorious past; I am awed by its unbelievable present; I am confident of its limitless future. “I am not ashamed to take my hat off and to stand at attention when Old Glory passes by. I do not apologize for the lump in my throat when I repeat the Pledge of Allegiance. I am not embarrassed by the tears in my eyes when I hear ‘The Star Spangled Banner.’ “Like millions of Americans, I want a free choice, not a free handout. I prefer an opportunity to prove my abilities on the job rather than a license to demonstrate my frustrations in the street. “I am an old-fashioned American with a new-found determination to do my part to make democracy work.”
1. Today’s Christians need to have this same kind of devotion and commitment to their country like this man does.
d. Scripture repeatedly warns the “Saint” about falling prey to using their freedom for the purpose of sin or for personal indulgences.
i. We need to accept each other’s weaknesses and strengths – We need to be willing to guard others from temptation because we are all “Saints” brothers and sisters who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. We need to protect the weaker ones from harm!
a. This means teaching them the truth of the Word and not just trying to tickle their ears.
b. Parents are you doing this with your kids?
c. Parents are you a “Stumbling Block to your child’s faith walk?”
2. We mature Christians need to deny ourselves the right of doing some things --- that we could do -- because we care about others!
ii. We need to make sure that we do not judge our brothers and sisters or put them down because of a certain belief that they have about doing something to make sure they stay pure in Christ.
1. We need to be mindful of our freedoms and our actions with those freedoms.
2. Paul tells us to be sensitive to others – watch your actions – don’t injure another person’s faith walk.
T.S. – The teaching in Romans 14 addresses how we are to be responding to others in the Body of Christ and reminds us not become a hindrance to others but a blessing to others. Our actions and daily life will tell whether we care about others in the Body of Christ.
II. Do you genuinely care about your brothers and sisters in Christ?
a. Do you judge others ruthlessly? Do you have no regard for the feelings of others? Do you do what you want to do because you are free in Christ to do whatever you want to do?
i. What’s you attitude toward others in the Body of Christ?
1. Do you say “That’s so old fashion and out of date that organ music!”
a. Who are you to judge? Are you God?
b. When does all the Gospel music have to align with what you like?
i. Are you a living sacrifice?
2. Do you say, “That’s so lame their slow moving music!”
a. Who are you to judge what God accepts as praise and worship?
3. Do you say, “The drums are too loud and of the Devil!”
a. Who are you to judge what God accepts as praise and worship?
4. Do you say, “That music is to fast and sickening to God!”
a. Who are you to judge what God accepts as praise and worship to Him?
ii. The main question here is this “Who are you to decide what God enjoys for praise and worship – when did you become God?”
iii. Really you need to ask yourself - How do you view older Christians, younger Christians?
1. How do you look at you older or younger brothers or sisters in Christ?
2. Do you really love your brothers and sisters in Christ?
a. Both the old and the young – or even the middle aged?
3. This week I was looking a website from a former “Youth pastor who I knew and I was very impressed with his pictures and lists of his heroes:
a. They were all older people in Christ from a church he had been a youth pastor at – they senior saints and they were his heroes.
b. Here is the big question: “Are you a stumbling block to them?” Thoughts from an article in the book Hard Sayings of the Bible: TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT? (I ADD TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK!) (ROMANS 14:15)
i. Romans 14:15, together with the related texts in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, contains what has often been called the “stumbling block” principle. It is the principle of Christian life and conduct that whatever we do or say should not become a hindrance to the faith and life of a Christian brother or sister. The difficulty this principle has created for many Christians is related to understanding not so much its import, but rather its implementation. What guidance does the apostle give in this regard? How can we know whether what we eat (or drink or wear or participate in) merely offends fellow Christians and is rejected as inappropriate by them, or causes fellow Christians to stumble and fall in their faith-pilgrimage and perhaps even reject the faith? These are precisely the issues with which Paul deals in Romans 14. We shall carefully trace his argument, completing that investigation with insights from 1 Corinthians, where Paul struggles with similar concerns. In the previous chapters of this epistle (Romans 12–13), Paul has laid down central principles for Christian conduct, both within the community of the church and in the larger world of human relationships. Within the fellowship, we are to be more concerned with others than with ourselves (Rom 12:3, 10). In the larger human society, we are to respond to evil with good (Rom 12:14) and thus overcome the evil (Rom 12:21). Both of these “principles” for Christian conduct are undergirded by the most central principle: “Love does no harm to the neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13:10). It is this principle with which Paul now confronts a problem that was very acute in several of the young churches. For Gentile Christians, the issue was whether they could eat meat that was sold in the open marketplace but had come from animals sacrificed in heathen temples. It was a very concrete problem in the context of their continuing social relationships with heathen neighbors and friends. For Jewish Christians, in the context of fellowship with Gentile Christians, there was the tension between Jewish ceremonial laws regarding “clean” and “unclean” foods and the freedom of Gentile believers from those regulations. We see early Jewish Christians struggling with that issue in the Acts accounts of Peter’s vision (Acts 10) and of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15). Most likely Paul wrote Romans from Corinth. Thus his views about the issues facing believers in Rome would surely have been informed by the way he treated this matter in the church in Corinth. There (1 Cor 8, 10) he talks about the “weak,” those who are young in the faith, whose consciences are tender, who are still prone, due to their heathen background, to make the link between the idol and the meat sacrificed to the idol. The “strong” are those who know, who are clearly convinced that idols (and the gods they represent) have no real existence. For them, therefore, meat offered to these gods in sacrifice is neutral. One cannot be defiled by it. The “strong” are clearly “correct” in their theology; the “weak” are definitely “wrong.” And yet, Paul argues, those who have correct knowledge should take care that their knowledge does not lead to the ruin of a brother or sister (1 Cor 8:7-9). For the freedom of the “strong” with regard to this matter may lead the “weak” to return to the sphere of idolatry (1 Cor 8:10-13; 10:23-32). We must recognize that Paul is not concerned here about simply offending others by doing something with which they disagree, or which they deem inappropriate or unacceptable for Christians. Rather, he is concerned about the eternal welfare of these “weak” Christians, about acts which cause them to fall in their spiritual journey, leading to the destruction of their young faith (1 Cor 8:9, 11-13; 10:32).The principles which Paul lays down are identical to those given in Romans 12–13: Do nothing that causes fellow believers to come to ruin (1 Cor 8:13; 10:32); rather, build them up in love (1 Cor 8:1); seek the good of others (1 Cor 10:24, 33). With this background from the Corinthian situation, we are now ready to follow Paul’s similar argument in Romans 14. There the “weak” seem to be Jewish Christians, who have not yet been able to become free from the ritual and ceremonial laws concerning clean or unclean foods (Rom 14:1-6) or the observance of special days (probably a reference to sabbath observance—Rom 14:5). The majority who stand in tension with the weak are most likely Gentile Christians, for whom there is no such thing as “unclean foods” or special days to be observed. Their conflict with each other apparently manifested itself in an attitude of haughtiness or spiritual superiority by the Gentile believers and a condemning, judgmental spirit toward them by Jewish believers. Paul comes down hard on both for three reasons: (1) God has already accepted both (Rom 14:3); (2) we are ultimately accountable in these matters to God and not subject to each other’s limited perspectives (Rom 14:4, 10-12); and (3) since participation in the kingdom of God is not determined by what we eat or drink, neither abstaining nor partaking is a cause for judgmentalism (Rom 14:13, 17). Having shown that both the strong and the weak are to be faulted for their attitude toward each other (Rom 14:10), Paul nonetheless surfaces a special concern for the weak ones (Rom 14:15-16). In this he is clearly in keeping with the special divine concern for “the weak ones” throughout the Old and New Testaments. A strong faith is less vulnerable than a weak faith. In the race of faith toward the finish line (see Phil 3:13-14), the strong are less likely to stumble over some obstacle than the weak. Therefore, the eating of foods which the weak believe to be unclean is an act that is potentially dangerous for those of young faith (Rom 14:13-14). It is an unloving act by the strong if a fellow Christian “is distressed because of what you eat” (Rom 14:15). In light of the rest of the verse (“Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died”) the NIV rendering “distressed” is probably too mild. The Greek word, in addition to “grieve,” “pain,” “distress,” can also mean “to injure,” “damage” (as in RSV). Injuring another’s faith may lead to its ultimate destruction. As in 1 Corinthians, so here also Paul is deeply concerned about Christians’ growth toward mature faith and their eternal well-being. The imperative of love (Rom 14:15) means that Christians are to act in ways that build each other up rather than in ways that tear each other down (Rom 14:19-20), in ways that hold each other up and help each other along rather than in ways that cause others “to stumble” and “to fall” (Rom 14:20-21). The basis for this kind of Christian conduct is the principle that “each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up,” which Paul articulates at the conclusion of the discussion (Rom 15:2) and grounds in the life of Jesus: “For even Christ did not please himself” (Rom 15:3). In the final analysis Christian conduct is grounded in Christ’s self-giving, sacrificial love (Rom 15:8). Paul does not tell us how to discern, specifically, when our conduct will bring injury to a fellow believer’s spiritual life and possibly to a falling into sin’s sphere of domination. What he does seem to believe deeply is that when life is lived in fellowship with Christ, driven by his love, seeking to imitate his life, then we will have the kind of sensitivity to each other which will prevent us from harmful acts.
c. So let’s take a few moments today to address the “stumbling Block Principle” and apply it to certain cultural issues of the day.
d. The questions, “To get a tattoo or not?” “To get more and more piercings or not?”
i. Leviticus 19:28, reads, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” KJV - then in another translation 28“‘Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD. (NIV)
1. Let’s look at these laws in Leviticus 19 for a moment!
2. Are all these laws really outdated?
ii. Let’s now look at text in the New Testament – “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.”:
1. Sometimes Christians object to body modification on the basis of it defiling God’s creation — after all, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 is fairly clear that the body is the temple, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 3:17, a dire warning is issued: “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
2. I would like you to think with me for a moment:
a. What is considered a master piece in Art? A design that is so amazing and unique that there is nothing else in the world like it. It’s a one of kind piece of work.
b. No lets consider what would happen if a individual slipped into a Museum and decided to paint their own little picture on the corner of say, “The Last Supper” What would the response be from the world?
i. Happiness! Or outrage!
c. Now let’s apply this to God’s master pieces of art – everyone look at the person next to you. Did you know that that person was designed and created by God. They are a master piece and they are unique and no one looks like them because God created them that way.
d. Now let me ask you question- How do you think God feels when someone – a human artist comes along and decides by the owners consent that this Master piece needs their art work on it really make it complete?
i. How do you think God feels about this?
ii. Did you know that their some people in the Body of Christ would call this defiling the Master Piece that God created – they look at it as putting graffiti on the Temple of God!
iii. So there are people within the Body of Christ who would find – these practices objectionable – the truth is if their mentor in the Lord went out and did one of these things it could cause that person to stumble in their faith – so if we follow the teachings of Paul then we should really prayerfully consider our “Freedoms.” And how far can we go with them without being a stumbling block to others?
iv. Quotes about tattoos:
1. Pat Bullock, director of the Wichita, Kan.-area association of Southern Baptists, said Christian Scripture “teaches us that your body is the temple of God, and you are not to desecrate the temple.” A tattoo, Bullock added, “is a desecration.”
2. Rabbi Nissim Wernick of the Ahavath Achim Hebrew Congregation said Judaism objects to tattoos. “This is a question of marring your body, period,” he said. “We are not allowed to mar the body.”
v. Some of you are now thinking, “But Pastor Mike that is there problem!”
1. Well let me point you back to Romans 14 – whose problem is it according to the writing of God?
2. Paul says “Don’t be a stumbling block to others in Christ!”
vi. The reality check is if you choose to tattoo your body then you need to realize that you have now become a stumbling block to others in Christ and even to some non-Christians!
iii. Now for those of you beaming and wanting to judge all the tattoo people - Paul on the other hand reminds us that those who judge others with tattoos need to be careful too that they don’t become a stumbling block to others as well because God is the ultimate judge of everyone!
1. Now some may say “I am confused!” “So what are we suppose to do?” Well you need to understand something – we are to be living sacrifices for Christ according to Romans 12 – so your body is not yours it belongs to Jesus so what you want really does not matter! What matters is what does He want!
iv. So Pastor Mike is it a sin to get a tattoo? That is really not the question here today. The question is, “Is God just okay with it or is He all for it?” The question is will my freedom of expression be offensive to someone and injure them in their faith walk? That’s the question!
1. My personal position: I will be very clear with you that the Holy Spirit has told me to never get a tattoo, to never get a pierced ear, to never get into body alteration because I would never want to be a stumbling block to another person – another brother or sister in Christ.
a. Share the story: I had a strong desire to get a tattoo and an ear ring after being a Christian over 30 years ago.
i. The answer was very strong from the Holy Spirit, “NO!”
ii. This text came to me from Romans and it spoke to me not to become a stumbling block to others in Christ.
iii. The Lord had called me to be a pastor back then before I knew it and he was helping me avoid a big mistake that could hinder my ministry impact in the future.
1. Some people in the Body of Christ today believe it is a sin to have a tattoo, to also have an earring and many piercings.
2. Today I can minister to all these people and not be a stumbling block to any of them. Why? Because I denied myself this right so as to be a living sacrifice for Jesus Christ. I choose to lose to what I wanted so as to fulfill the cal of God on my life!
2. I have been called to be a living sacrifice – and that means I give up my rights for the sake of the Gospel and its message.
a. This is God’s will for my life! This is part of God’s purpose for my life!
e. Next cultural issue - The question – “To show the crack or not?” Fashion without modesty should I do it?
i. Share the story while substitute teaching at Amery school.
1. A girl states, “A little crack never hurt anybody!” After letting hers hang out for al to see.
2. The truth is “yes” it has injured others.
a. How? Because boys are affected by how much a girl shows of herself!
b. Let me ask you today this question “How many girls - without modesty in dress - have become a stumbling block to Christian boys and men!”
i. How many do you think?
ii. But Pastor Mike it’s their problem not mine!
1. Wrong – you need to re-read Romans 14 – it’s your problem and God will hold you accountable for what you flaunt to other brothers in Christ!
ii. I want to get a bumper sticker movement which states, “Put the crack back!” (Brian Bougher)
iii. How about showing off the bra’s of today – never heard of in years gone by but today we are one step closer to exposing more because of “Our right – our freedom of expression”
1. Here is another bumper sticker -- “The bra is raw keep it undercover!”
2. Do you have a problem with what I am saying? Go re-read Romans 14!
f. Nest issue - The question, “To gamble or not to gamble?”
i. I have not gone into a Casino because I would never want to be a stumbling block to someone who has this addiction.
1. I prefer to error on the side of abstinence then hinder someone in their faith walk.
2. Romans 14 guides by actions and steps!
g. Next issue - The question, “To drink or not to drink?”
i. Read verse 21, “It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
1. It is better not to do it! It’s better to follow the teachings of Romans 14 – Why? The Judgment Seat of Christ!
2. Share the story of drinking a few sips of (near beer) after being a Christian for a couple of years. I was convicted by the Holy Spirit and I threw it away and Kathy and I talked about it that night.
a. “Mike it’s not about your right it’s about your willingness to be a living sacrifice and not a stumbling block to another!”
ii. Share about the wedding- the surprises the impact of the witness of the mature Christians and the immature Christians.
1. We had some who were drinking – some who were not and some of their children following the led of their parents.
a. Share some of the comments from the child of the parents just having a few:
i. “I was not sure what I was doing because it was my third glass of wine and I was feeling pretty tipsy!”
1. Laughter from mom and dad – Christians!
ii. Share some of her other comments.
1. “I need more!”
2. “It helps with the stress!”
h. Is life all about doing what you want to do? Or is it about doing what Christ wants you to do?
i. Paul tells us “Don’t be a stumbling block -- instead be a blessing!” “Do not allow your good to be spoken of as evil -- protect the good at all cost – even if you have to be a living sacrifice in a certain area!”
1. Live for Christ not for yourself or for the culture of the day!
2. Live for Christ not for the latest fashion statement!
ii. Is life about doing what you want to do? Answer – “NO!” It’s about pleasing God and dying to our self-centered ways and seeking the good for others!
1. 1 Corinthians 10:23, 24: “23“Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive. 24Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
T.S. – So the point is how do we as “Saints” live our life? Do we care about others do we follow the word and be a living sacrifice? The end of this chapter tells us to live a life of faith because all else is sin.
III. Did you know that everything that does not come from a heart filled with faith is sin? (Romans 14:23)
a. What does a life filled with faith act like – what is their “Code of conduct?”
i. A righteous heart does not seek to sin!
ii. A heart filled with the peace of God does not condemn others nor offend others!
iii. A heart free of sin and filled with faith has joy because they are in the will of God!
b. So what is this faith that Paul is talking about here? This from Encyclopedia of Biblical Facts:
i. Faith - Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true (Phil. 1:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). Its primary idea is trust. A thing is true, and therefore worthy of trust. Faith is the result of teaching (Romans 10:14–17). Knowledge is an essential element in all faith, and is sometimes spoken of as an equivalent to faith (John 10:38; 1 John 2:3). Yet the two are distinguished in this respect, that faith includes in it assent, which is an act of the will in addition to the act of the understanding. Assent to the truth is of the essence of faith, and the ultimate ground on which our assent to any revealed truth rests is the veracity of God.
ii. Temporary faith - Temporary faith is that state of mind which is awakened in men and women (e.g., Felix) by the sight of the truth and by the Influence of religious sympathy, or by what is sometimes styled the common operation of the Holy Spirit.
iii. Saving faith - Saving faith is so called because it has eternal life inseparably connected with it. It cannot be better defined than in the words of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism: “Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.” The object of saving faith is the whole revealed Word of God. Faith accepts and believes it as the very truth. But the special act of faith which unites to Christ has as its object the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 7:38; Acts 16:31). This is the specific act of faith by which a sinner is justified before God (Romans 3:22, 25; Galatians 2:16; Philippians 3:9; John 3:16–36; Acts 10:43; 16:31). In this act of faith the believer appropriates and rests on Christ alone as Mediator. This assent to or believe in the truth has always associated with it:
• a deep sense of sin,
• a distinct view of Christ,
• a consenting will, and
• a loving heart, together with
• a reliance on, a trusting in, or resting in Christ.
It is that state of mind in which a poor sinner, conscious of his sin, flees from his guilty self to Christ his Savior, and rolls over the burden of all his sins on him. It consists chiefly, not in the assent given to the testimony of God in his Word, but in embracing with trust the one and only Savior whom God reveals. This trust and reliance is of the essence of faith. By faith the believer directly and immediately appropriates Christ as his or her own. Faith makes Christ ours. It is not a work which God graciously accepts instead of perfect obedience, but is only the hand by which we take hold of the person and work of our Redeemer as the only ground of our salvation. Saving faith is a moral act, as it proceeds from a renewed will, and a renewed will is necessary to believing assent to the truth of God (1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:4). Faith, therefore, has its origin in the moral part of our nature as much as in the intellectual. The mind must first be enlightened by divine teaching (John 6:44; Acts 13:48; 2 Cor. 4:6; Ephesians 1:17, 18) before it can discern the things of the Spirit. Faith is necessary to our salvation (Mark 16:16), not because there is any merit in it, but simply because it is the sinner’s taking the place assigned to him or her by God, his or her falling in with what God is doing. The basis or ground of faith is the divine testimony, not the reasonableness of what God says, but the simple fact that he says it. Faith rests immediately on, “Thus saith the Lord.” But in order to appropriate this faith the veracity, sincerity, and truth of God must be owned and appreciated, together with his unchangeableness. God’s word encourages the sinner personally to accept Christ as God’s gift, to embrace him, to take Christ as his or hers.
c. Faith in Christ secures for the believer:
• freedom from condemnation, or
• justification before God;
• a participation in the life that is in Christ,
• the divine life (John 14:19; Romans 6:4–10; Ephesians 4:15, 16, etc.);
• “peace with God” (Romans 5:1); and
• sanctification (Acts 26:18; Galatians 5:6; Acts 15:9).
# All who thus believe in Christ will certainly be saved (John 6:37, 40; 10:27, 28; Romans 8:1). The faith = the gospel (Acts 6:7; Romans 1:5; Galatians 1:23; 1 Timothy 3:9; Jude 1:3).
d. Faith is the “belief system” of an individual who is a saint – if a “Saint” does not have a root system – a belief system intertwined in faith in God then they are not a “Saint.”
i. Faith in the Lord should define our “Code of Conduct in life.”
ii. Faith in Jesus should compel us to live like “Saint.”
iii. Faith in the Word should direct the way we live in this world.
iv. Faith in the Kingdom of God should give us our perspective in this world.
v. Faith in the church – the Body of Christ should inspire us to be a part of it.
vi. Faith in God’s faithfulness should empower us to press on toward Heaven and Eternity.
vii. Faith in the Holy Spirit should lead us and guide us in what we do and say on a daily basis.
Conclusion:
The answers to the 3 questions I have proposed to you today are very important – Why? – Because they will enlighten you to how well you will fair when you stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ.
We will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an account of what we did as “Saints!” There are no exceptions to this judgment – all “Saints will face this moment in eternity!”
Romans 14: 9-12:
9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’”
12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
John Bevere states that many Christians will be shocked at the Judgment Seat of Christ because in America today , “One of the greatest hindrances to people coming to know the will of God is the fact that when they read Scripture, they will read what they believe rather than believe what they read” (101, Driven by Eternity). He goes on to add, “…We allow our experience to interpret the Word of God rather than allowing the Word of God to establish truth” (102). Many in the Body of Christ see truth through tainted –distorted glasses and the result is they have incorrect knowledge, misguided doctrine, preconceived notions of God and His ways and this is extremely dangerous and will be dealt with by God at His Judgment Seat.
Remember Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
Lets look at whole text here: Matthew 7:13-27:
13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
15“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. (By their Code of Conduct!)
21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Jesus makes it clear that all Christians will stand before the Judgment and give an account of their lives here on earth. Paul also references this in another place in the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 5:1-11:
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.
The Kingdom values the following character traits or the right “Code of Conduct” for “Saints” and those who possess these traits will be rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ:
1. Righteousness – right standing with God means we have a vertical and right horizontal covenant relationship with God and His Kingdom.
2. Peace – Which comes from the Spirit that says, “You are where God wants you to be – in His will!”
3. Joy – from the Lord is in your heart because you know where your hope and your help originates from!
a. Remember it is a divine revelation which makes you leap for joy because you know “It is well with your soul!”
These traits make God smile and please Him but if we use our freedom to indulge the sinful nature or to bring down another “Saint” then we will be held accountable at the Judgment Seat of Christ – the reality check is if you do not finish strong as a “Saint” then you may not make it into your destination!
Concluding thought: John Bevere states, “Remember, where we spend eternity is determined by what we do with the cross of Jesus and His saving grace, but how we will live for eternity in His kingdom is determined by the way we lived here as believers” (187).
The Final Question that we need to answer today: Will I be a “Saint” who edifies and builds people up or will I be an “Aint” who becomes a stumbling block to others?
“Choice is yours!”
