Romans 14:1-4 “Weak Believer, Strong Believer” - The Men's Bible Study with Steven J. Lawson

all right man here we are we're ready for the bible study i can tell you're ready and it's going to be a great study today it's going to be um very provocative in many ways so uh before we get started i want to welcome everyone who's watching by live stream whether live or posted later thank you for joining us and for those of you who are here on site i have such a deal for you what so what is that over there is that a electrical drill um i've got two free books for you if you want if you want them and the publisher sends me stuff that i write things in this first one is uh called one foundation it was uh to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of john macarthur at grace community church and it has chapters by rc sproul macarthur's father martin lloyd jones uh al mohler mark dever conrad and beewee and others including yours truly so hardback book i would encourage you pick up a copy it's worth it just for lloyd jones okay so um so they're free over here and then this other book has just come out joel beakey and i collaborated on a book harmonizing paul and james where james or paul says we're justified by faith alone and then james says no it's by works and so how does this harmonize all of your answers excuse me all your questions all your answers are questioned uh all your questions are answered uh in this book so i would encourage you dr beaky and i spoke at a conference a number of years ago i think it was up in grand rapids michigan so those are free you can pick those up over there please do otherwise we'll start selling them at herb's house so they're free so i'm ready to dive into this study it's going to be a great study hope you got your bible and ready to to look at this i think i should begin with the word of prayer especially seeing who all's here so father as we begin this study i ask that the ministry of the holy spirit who is our primary teacher would be at work in our minds and in our hearts as you would lead us into the truth i pray that you would use me as a secondary teacher to try to open up the meaning of the text and make application so father bless these men who are present and bless everyone who was watching by media we pray this in christ's name amen all right here we go romans chapter 14 romans chapter 14. and today we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 4 and the title of this study is weak believer comma strong believer weak believer strong believer so as always i want to begin by reading the passage first and to introduce it to us and then we'll work our way through it the apostle paul writes now except the one who is weak in faith but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions one person has faith that he may eat all things but he who is weak eats vegetables only the one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats for god has accepted him who are you to judge the servant of another to his own master he stands or falls and he will stand for the lord is able to make him stand interesting verses are they not with these verses we begin an entirely new section in the book of romans and it's going to be a lengthy section that will take us to chapter 15 verse 13. and the focus is upon matters of christian liberty and matters of conscience and specifically what is not prohibited by the scripture and so the issues in this section are threefold just to give you the overview in verses 1 through 4 the issue is foods diet foods not prohibited any longer by old testament dietary laws and then in verses 5 and following the issue is on days meaning festivals holy days and not celebrating certain days that were required by the old testament law and then the third deals with wine and drinking wine which is in verse 21 and also in verse 17 when it talks about drinking so those are the the issues and it deals with christian liberty and matters of conscience and these three issues food days and drink are divided excuse me we're dividing the church in rome and it sorts out into two different groups or two different groups in the church wrestling with these three issues and the two groups are the strong and the weak the strong brother and the weak brother and the strong brother is the one who eats all things the weak brother eats only vegetables i just want you to know i'm more narrow than that okay [Laughter] i don't even eat vegetables okay i'm the weakest of all the weak all right [Laughter] that's my life verse verse 2 right there so i've been looking for that verse my whole life wish my father was still alive i could show him that verse i frustrated him to no end growing up all right then the the strong believer is the one who doesn't make a distinction among days i mean um you know valentine's day celebrating that is nothing to him it is to the to the weaker brother and then the matter of wine in verse 21 and it is implied in verse 17 the stronger brother feels free to drink wine the weaker brother does not so those are the issues on the table and paul is appealing to both groups to love the other group and to accept the other group in their differences in the way that they see this issue these principles can extend to other pertinent matters that christians wrestle with today for example just to be highly controversial okay as if we're not already there can a christian dance can a christian smoke a cigar i should say good christian can a good christian smoke a cigar can a good christian dance can a good christian go to a movie can a good christian play cards can a good christian have a tattoo the answers to these questions are found in principle though those are not being directly addressed in these verses and so it comes down to a matter of what does the scripture say where's your conscience on these matters and how you must love the one who has a different view or perspective on this okay so we've got a lot to talk about here so let's just hop into this just remember i didn't write this okay we're just talking about what god has written here all right so verse number one the acceptance required that's the first heading the the acceptance required verse 1. now accept the one who is weak in faith this is addressed to the one who is strong in faith that that is implied that the one who is strong in faith must accept the one who is weak in faith and the word except here is in the imperative mood meaning this is a command and it's in the present tense meaning he must always accept the one who is weak in faith as he may have a different perspective on these issues now the one who is weak the word weak here i need to comment on this the word weak means feeble it means sickly in fact most of the times it's used in the new testament i looked it up this morning it's actually translated sick someone who is physically ill and sick it means one who is diseased and therefore left very weak and impotent but he's not talking about physical weakness he's talking about a spiritual weakness and so we see right here that in the body of christ there are believers who are weak in faith and others are strong in faith not everyone is at the same level as spiritual maturity and when he says in faith there is actually a definite article the in front of faith it just doesn't come through in our english translation so he is weak in the faith and the distinction here is between subjective faith and objective faith subjective faith is your trust and your your your uh commitment to something that's subjective faith objective faith is christian doctrine the faith the faith once and for all delivered to the saints jude three and so what is in view here though it doesn't come through in the english is the faith it's objective faith he is weak in understanding the christian faith therefore he is also weak in his walk with the lord so that that is what is being said here he is weak and being taught the truth he is weak in understanding the christian faith and so therefore he has a shallow knowledge of what is permitted and what is not permitted he is not as well taught as the stronger brother but this is addressed to the stronger brother verse one that you must accept and that means to welcome into the circle of your your fellowship don't don't shun him don't keep him at arm's length and he was saying a little bit don't belittle him and don't don't make fun of him don't don't mock him that's not loving and i just want to remind us this whole section revolves around christian love the larger section in chapter 12 verse 9 through through uh 21 is all about christian love and in chapter 13 verses 8 through 10 it's all about christian love that carries over now into chapter 14. and so the stronger brother should show love to the weaker brother and and and and accept him welcome him with open arms and an open heart into his his friendship and and fellowship that this should not drive a wedge at all in the church between brothers in that sense it's a very elementary secondary issue it should not be driving the the the circles of of relationships so you're gonna have to rise to a higher level than allowing your your your circles of fellowship to be dictated by this okay that that's why he will say in in in verse uh uh 17 for the kingdom of god is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy spirit those are the real issues but nevertheless paul must sort this out for the church in in rome okay so at the end of verse 1 he says but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions so the stronger brother should not pass judgment on the opinions of the weaker brother in other words he shouldn't condemn the weaker brother he should give him time to grow in his knowledge of scripture he should give him time to mature and get to a more advanced level in his faith now please note he says his opinions that's referring to the opinions of the weaker brother and he doesn't say convictions he says opinions and and there is a little bit of a of a demeaning by saying his opinions but paul is speaking the truth by the holy spirit these are just his opinions they're not rooted and grounded in scripture now the word opinions i think you would find this interesting comes into the english language as dialoguing and the inference here is that the weaker brother is dialoguing with himself he is within his own mind debating this and within his own he's not debating this with the scripture he is debating this within his own mind he is a man deliberating within himself and so paul is saying the stronger brother while he's sorting this out in his mind and while he's deliberating within his own mind do not be coming down hard on him because he once were a weaker brother too give him time to mature and to develop in his christian faith so that is the acceptance required now this leads us second to the abstaining clarified the abstaining clarified and that's in verse 2. and so paul now makes this division within the church these two different groups he says and he begins with the one who is strong in faith one person has faith that he may eat all things this person is a stronger brother and he has a strong beliefs he he has confidence that he may eat all things now when he says eat all things this means all things that were once prohibited by the old testament dietary restrictions now paul is saying the stronger brother knows that those restrictions are no longer binding on us and it may be a while since you've read those dietary restrictions and they're found in leviticus 11 and they're found in deuteronomy and deuteronomy chapter where is it here 14. now there were reasons for these dietary restrictions and i'm going to talk about that just in just a moment it's probably the last thing you thought we would be getting into so the strong brother has faith that he can eat those things that were once prohibited under the mosaic law now notice the end of verse 2. but he who is weak he's vegetables only he thinks he's still under the law he thinks he's still under the dietary law some commentators take this as uh the meat or the other meat as food that was offered to idols like first corinthians eight through 10 i don't think that that is the best interpretation here because there's no mention of meat offered to idols in this context i think it's referring to actually the old testament dietary law and the best commentators actually take it that way so he eats vegetables only he he is so strict and he is so narrow that he won't even eat the meat that was allowed under the mosaic claw he's gone down to vegetables only now it is important to note the word only is not in the original it's supplied by the translator so it could actually be that he eats meat that was not prohibited under the old testament law as well as he primarily eats vegetables all right so let's just talk about this for a second these restrictions are found in leviticus chapter 11 and they spell out certain restrictions and that it may not seem like there's a reason for this to us trust me god is brilliant god is all wise there is a reason in the mind of god and it probably deals with in fact it does deal with that god is using this as an object lesson to show that there needs to be a separation in your life from the world and it is at the end of leviticus 11 verses 44 and 45 the famous verses that are quoted in first peter 1 15-16 you shall be holy for i am holy thus says the lord that verse comes at the very end of leviticus 11. after he's gone through this laundry list of telling you which animals you can eat which you cannot eat which uh fish and water life you can eat and which ones you cannot eat which birds you can eat and which ones you cannot eat which insects you cannot eat so he goes through this whole thing and and you may think why on earth we've got a whole chapter on this and there are so many questions i'd like for god to give me the answers to and i don't have those but i've got this laundry list on dietary restrictions well there were certain hygiene benefits so that that has to be acknowledged but more specifically god is drawing a straight line in the sand to show you need to to live different than the pagan nations that will be around you once you're in the promised land it's simply an object lesson and that object lesson is repeated in deuteronomy 14 when paul when moses gives the law the second time but that but this object lesson is removed with the death of christ because it's a part of the ceremonial law and we know that it's removed because of acts chapter 10 when peter receives this vision he's in a trance and there's a sheet that's let down from heaven you remember that and there's clean and unclean animals in it that's by leviticus 11 and deuteronomy 14 and and peter says oh no we can't eat what what is unclean and and the angel says no god has made it all clean now so you you can eat all of this so that's just by way of background we need to know this regarding what all is going on here in this discussion now here's the other thing you need to know the strong and the weak the strong believers are primarily gentile believers the weak believers are primarily jewish believers and the reason for this is the gentile believers have never they never even knew the old testament so this isn't a problem for them that they didn't even know about leviticus 11. they didn't know about deuteronomy 14. they they they're pagans in the roman empire a long ways away from jerusalem and now they have been converted through the preaching of the gospel they don't have hang-ups they just came into the kingdom and so they are free to eat anything they're probably saying what are y'all even talking about the jewish believers who have been raised as hebrews and have been raised under the old testament mosaic law and have been raised not eating certain animals and fish and and birds now all of a sudden they're in the church and and let's just say they're over at someone's house and they're having dinner or they're at the church and they're having an agape feast and and and it's like we're all having a meal together as a church and the gentile brothers bring out these things that were forbidden in the old testament and the and the jewish believers they're like in shock that you you can't even look at these things much less touch them and and so that's kind of the larger context of of what's going on and they have not yet been properly instructed in the in the christian faith that those things are annulled at the cross of christ and you now have complete freedom the object lesson is no longer in play and those things weren't unclean anyway as far as literally inherently it was god chose them to be unclean so as to make the point that there are certain things i don't want you touching in this world all right now that christ has died on the cross the object lesson is removed okay and that's why also we're not bringing a lamb to be sacrificed on uh in our worship service and that's why there's not a real priest all those things have been fulfilled in the cross all right now let's keep plowing ahead this leads us now to verse three the attitude guarded the attitude guarded paul now issues a warning concerning the attitudes of both the strong and the weak brother and so he says in verse 3 the one who eats meaning he eats all things it's the stronger brother this one is the stronger brother the one who eats it is implied all things is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat and the one who does not eat is the weaker brother and he is still bound by his conscience actually the things that are no longer regulative in the christian life but the stronger brother is not to regard with contempt this weaker brother because he hasn't been properly taught yet what are the boundaries what what are the guard rails in in in the christian life so the word contempt means he should not ridicule him shouldn't put him down shouldn't make fun of him in front of others in the church shouldn't mock him shouldn't belittle him should not speak of him or to him in a dismissive way that these are just secondary issues the kingdom of god is not eating and drinking brothers it is love and joy and peace that's the kingdom of god now he then addresses the weaker brother and says this is a two-way street it's not just that the stronger brother shouldn't look down upon the weaker brother the weaker brother should not have a judgmental spirit towards the stronger brother because he feels that he has freedom to eat or drink certain things so notice what he says in the middle of verse 3 and the one who does not eat meaning he will not eat those things that were once forbidden in the past under the mosaic law is not to judge the one who eats well the one who eats is the stronger brother and he is exercising his liberty in christ to to eat a pork chop you know to to eat a cheeseburger and he's not to judge me he's not to criticize he he's not to put him down so again this whole context is one of christian love remember that romans 12 verse 10 he says be devoted to one another in brotherly love give preference to one another in honor do you see that chapter 12 verse 10 that this is the fleshing out of romans 12 verse 10. i need to give preference to my either weaker or stronger brother and and not make this a divisive issue and then in chapter 13 verse 8 he says oh nothing to anyone except to love one another for the lo the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law verse 10 love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law chapter 14 in the first half of chapter 15 is actually getting down into the weeds of fleshing this out okay so whichever side of the fence you're on show love towards the one who is at a different place in their christian life so this leads now to the final heading i want to give you the approval given and that begins at the end of verse 3 and it includes all of chapter 4. and here is why mutual criticism from either side is out of place so he says at the end of verse 3 for god has accepted him now this is actually addressed to the weaker brother though it applies to the stronger brother but in fairness to the context here it's actually directed to the weaker brother and so is verse four that you should accept the stronger brother in his exercise of christian liberty you should accept him because god has accepted him but he it applies equally to the stronger brother you should accept the weaker brother because god has accepted him who are you to reject the one that god has accepted you better accept the one that god has accepted so we come to verse 4 who are you to judge the servant of another again this is directed to the weaker brother who are you the weaker brother to judge the servant that's the stronger brother of another and another refers to the lord who are you to judge who are you to criticize and the answer to this rhetorical question is you are not the judge so don't get your nose up in the air you're not the judge god is the judge each man must do what god what that person believes god in his conscience is leading him to do because god is the lord over the conscience which is that internal god-given instrument within every person of what is right and what is wrong so don't be causing someone to act contrary to their conscience now your conscience needs to be informed by the word of god and some people's consciences are weak because they have not been properly taught so that's another factor there as well so it should be noted that paul's instruction mainly focuses upon the weaker brother not the stronger brother here it is the weaker brother who needs the most help it is the weaker brother who is most easily offended because he is actually narrower than the truth it is the weaker brother who has the most problem with matters of christian liberty now the stronger brother can have problems with christian liberty he can go too far and abuse his christian liberty so he can have problems on the other end of the spectrum but it's the weaker brother who has the most problems with christian liberty and seeing another brother doing that which his conscience is telling him no you shouldn't be doing that but the issue is your conscience has not been yet properly taught so let's continue in verse four and i and i realize this is an interesting section of scripture to say the least so in the middle of verse 4 to his own master he stands or falls that's referring to the stronger brother the one who is stronger in faith will stand or fall before his own master and that is the word for master curios is the word for lord and it is a reference by way of analogy to the lord jesus christ so the stronger brother will stand or fall not to you but to the lord himself because the judgment seat of christ is coming and that will be the major point that that paul will make in verses 10 11 and 12 which we may get to next time and notice just to get ahead of ourselves just a little bit verse 10 why do you judge your brother or you again why do you regard your brother with contempt for we will all stand before the judgment seat of christ for it is written as i lift says the lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall give praise to god so then each one of us will give an account of himself to god verse 13 therefore let us not judge one another anymore that's those are some quite the verses so it's telling us that every one of us as christians will one day stand at the judgment seat of christ don't think that just because you're justified by faith that you'll never stand in the judgment you will stand in the judgment it just will not be for your sin but it will be for the manner of your christian life and it will be for your ministry and for your service and it will be for the influence that you have had on others and so james 3 verse 1 says let not many of you become teachers my brethren knowing as such we shall incur a stricter judgment and there will be a stricter judgment for some christians than for other christians because more was expected out of some christians because they were given greater opportunities and greater gifts and greater time and greater talent and greater influence so it's not going to be all the same at the judgment seat of christ on the last day and there's going to be a lot of believers we've never even heard of who are going to receive the biggest rewards because they were faithful to pull their oar in the water given what was entrusted to them a lot of praying grandmothers are going to be the heroes in heaven and a lot of preachers who have been given every opportunity under heaven to serve the lord and quite frankly just became entertainers and squandered it they're going to be at the end of the line though everyone knew their name and everyone followed them on instagram and all that nevertheless they're going to have the stricter judgment so here's the point for all of us here today we're all going to stand at the judgment seat of christ that day is looming on the horizon for every one of us and i need to take a deep gulp because god is expecting a whole lot from me by way of training and opportunity and the influences that have been brought to bear upon my life and open doors etc but let me tell you god's expecting a lot out of you as well you're living in dallas texas okay there's a church on every other corner you're not living in nowheresville africa or india you're even at a bible study like this and you're having unadulterated unvarnished truth just pouring out of a fire hydrant into your into your cup the lord is expecting a lot out of you as well and on that last day we're all going to be judged and god is going to sift through the gold the silver the precious stones and the wood the hay and the stubble and what paul is saying to the church in rome as they're becoming entangled over these issues of eating and drinking and holidays listen stop it accept one another in christian love yes there are weaker brothers yes there are stronger brothers but you need to have christian love for the ones that are a different place than where you are in your walk with the lord and stop judging them either way because you're not the judge god is the judge and if you judge them god's going to judge you for your judgment if you want to criticize them then the lord will be convicting you of your criticism so back off and let god be at work in each of their lives and bringing them along remember sanctification is progressive over the entirety of one's christian life and not all of us are at that level of being a stronger brother and some of us are still a weaker brother but god is the one who judges not you now let me read this again to his own master he stands and that means to stand with divine approval with divine favor or falls meaning has divine disapproval or divine disfavor but he says and he will stand it's referring to the stronger brother he he will stand there's a note of certainty about this and why will he stand he says because the lord is able that word abel comes in english language is dynamite god is all-powerful and almighty and god is able to make him stand and the word stand here means to stand to be appointed with approval god is able to make him stand so as i bring this to conclusion and we'll have time for questions and those of you who are watching you can text your questions in and we'll be glad to answer those my question is simply this which brother are you which brother are you and i can't answer that only you and the lord can answer that are you the weak brother in the faith very sincere but still love still living under restrictions that are no longer binding upon the christian life and the christian conscience if you're the weaker brother if so do not judge the stronger brother for his exercise of christian liberties are you the stronger brother if so do not regard with contempt the weaker brother who's just come into the kingdom and maybe he has some things he needs to unlearn before he can learn be patient with him put him under your arm bring him close to your heart and remember the kingdom of god is not eating and drinking those are secondary issues the kingdom of god is love and joy and peace and power in the holy spirit now there's a whole lot more to say on this i realize this and that's why paul takes so many verses to unravel this and i may have raised more questions right now number one than i can answer but we'll we also when we reconvene um we've got a whole lot more verses so this whole thing isn't settled in four verses this is simply putting our toe in the water and so you're going to want to be here for the rest of the story because there actually is more to say paul's just beginning to sort things out on the table but he's going to be connecting some things maybe in some ways that we might not anticipate so we're just going to follow this verse by verse as as we go through this we're just going to say what the scripture says and we're going to go where the scripture goes and we're going to live what the scripture lives so having said that let me let me just bring bring it to conclusion at this point and kent's got the microphone and he's going to say who has a question here in the room i know his speech pretty well go ahead kent anybody have a question yeah okay so i was thinking about what you said we're going to get to that next week okay next week when we're not meeting right now next week when we're not mating no so i i was thinking about this and as you were talking about the the command who are you or the statement who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another it occurred to me that a a congregant or a person in a church could look at their pastor and ask that question and say well you're just judging me how would you you mean the pastor is saying that or the prayer the parishioner is saying that to the pastor like how can you judge me exactly yeah well he shouldn't um he shouldn't and the last church i pastored i remembered i preached on mark 7 in which jesus addressed the pharisees and rebuked them that you hold to the tradition of the elders rather than the commandments of god and i got my car to drive home and and it was like a tornado of holy spirit conviction just hit me and i said to the elders we need to reconvene uh this coming week and talk about this because i don't want to be holding to traditions that are not rooted and grounded in the commandments of god now we can have preferences oh trust me i've got preferences i mean i'm hyper conservative in my preferences but i i need to remember are these biblical convictions that are taught in scripture chapter verse or are these just my opinions are these my preferences and i know what i like and i know what i don't like i can just go through the whole laundry list for you and like i said i'm narrower than the weaker brother i mean i know what i like and don't like but even as a bible teacher and someone who's been a pastor i need to be careful not to impose on the congregation what are my preferences i don't know if that answers your question but maybe maybe not maybe close yeah so i don't know if there's ask me a follow-up question then so let's say the pastor is convicting them of something that they're saying hey this is what scripture says but scripture doesn't say that no this scripture does say oh but scripture does say that why are you judging me oh well i mean matthew 7 you know talks about i'm to remove the log out of my eye but but i am to take the splinter out of your eye so you know we're not to be judgmental of one another but we are to be fruit inspectors and and spiritual leaders are to bring the word of god to bear on someone now if they're in violation of scripture then then the pastor should speak to that person in love with a spirit of gentleness galatians 6 1 says i mean however you would want someone to bring this up something similar to you then factor it down by 50 and that's how you should you know approach that person so no there shouldn't be a free hall pass for for someone in the church who's living in violation of scripture and living in sin that's not the same as a judgmental spirit a judgmental spirit as you're looking down your long nose with a with arrogance and pride at someone that you think is beneath you that that's a judgmental spirit that's different than um approaching someone in love and and saying you may not be aware of this i want god's best for your life you may not be aware of this but i see this in your life and it's in contradiction to scripture we are to go to that one that's what matthew 18 15 through 18 is all about yeah so kent back to you anybody have another question back there did we have one yeah yeah good yeah pass the mic back there yeah pass it back yeah sure just so everyone can hear only easy questions now okay easy questions no uh my question is you know and it's kind of along the same lines but in this day and age with everything that's going on and and that and um it seems like the divisions the the taking a stand is even reaching into the church doctrinally you know i mean even on your instagram post yesterday about this bible study somebody like you know demanded that you repent of your calvinist ways you know [Laughter] so you know i'm glad to say i didn't read that pose thank you for bringing that up sorry you might want to go check that out but seriously there's a there's you know a rash of bible churches where they don't stand on doctrine yeah and uh you know there's primary and secondary issues stuff like the gospel is a primary issue we all have to believe in christ that died and saved and saved us and all that kind of stuff but you know the whole deal about election and stuff like that i mean people are taking hard stances on these things and fighting within each other when there's all kinds of people out there that we could be using our energy on yeah what's what's your advice to yeah yeah no thank you for that question um well first of all the doctrine doctrines of the sovereign grace of god are taught in scripture that they are crystal clear as they are taught in scripture and i will say this in gentleness and love for the one who doesn't see it it's only because you don't know the bible well enough you're not well taught enough in the scripture and i don't say that in a prideful way it's just a very objective matter of fact way and and i can say that because i once was there i once was rankly armenian but it wasn't because i knew my bible too well it was because i knew it too little and so i'm going to put the doctrines of grace in another category um i am to teach the full counsel of god i'm not to pass over any of those verses and i am to bring instruction in it and it's not necessary in order to be saved to believe in the doctrines of grace but it is necessary in order to rightly handle the word of scripture so i will go so far as to say that the second thing i would say is we do need to reach the world for christ and there does need to be a balance about where we put our gun powder and i don't want to spend the rest of my life arguing over the doctrines of grace i want to reach the world for christ i want to be like whitefield and say the world is now my parish and so spurgeon said i would rather win one soul to christ than to unpick all of the mysteries in the divine scripture well i know a lot of people who would rather un unpick all the divine mysteries in the bible and be right than to win one soul to christ i'll take it as both i would like to do both but if i had to choi if i had to choose i want to take as many people to heaven with me as i possibly can so i don't want to spend my time um you know um trying to win that debate at the end of the day god is sovereign over who believes his sovereignty so i if you know you may not be chosen to believe this [Laughter] so i can't move you from one line to the other um but people who have come to me like that i i have said this on numerous times i'll answer every question you have tomorrow tonight you do one thing you read romans 9 you read the entire chapter and you come back tomorrow and tell me what does it say after you tell me what the entire chapter of romans 9 says then i'll answer your questions and it's been amazing how that defuses a lot of needless uh wasting of gun powder one of my sons always tells me dad don't waste your gun powder in other words if that really wasn't worth all your energy and time i'd rather spend it winning people to christ however not every time but many times i've taught the doctrines of grace people have been saved i've even taught the doctrine of reprobation and people were saved in fact i remember the first time i taught the doctrine of reprobation that god has actually passed over and hardened hearts um but i went home there the phone rang twice that sunday afternoon i had to go back up to church early before sunday night service and meet with two people who were having a panic attack and came to faith in jesus christ so even the hard doctrines are put there by god for a purpose so as spurgeon said who are we to censor god if god put something in his word we better preach it and not skip over it so i'm going to preach everything that's in the bible as best i can but i'm st my prime the tip of my spear is to win people to christ and to get people into the kingdom so i don't know if that's helpful or not but i love the question yeah thank you for that [Laughter] so ken what have you got there first uh publicly confessed making fun of all your dietary i'm sorry about it when i first met kent he was already picking on me well i do think you should try oatmeal but that's okay we were eating breakfast he was trying to make me eat oatmeal which i don't like so steve we we how many years have we been doing this we have had more questions come in this morning i think than we've ever had yeah yeah we just put our finger on alive [Laughter] i commit you to the lord and so uh well give me the easiest one so one one talks about there's there's a there's a gentleman here uh from germany okay and he says is he well we know where he stands yeah well he's asking about these sausages he says is eating blood sausages for germans and asians okay yeah yes it's okay okay just tell them put some catch up on it and enjoy it it's okay we're gonna have a lot more questions um how do you here's another question how do you deal with someone is a is a stronger brother still supposed to discuss these things with the weaker brother and to lead them into a more mature uh into a more how do they do that and are they just to leave it alone or is there a way to discuss it with them yeah in a loving way and lead them into a mature a more mature faith without offending them yeah we should always be taking people to greater maturity in christ i mean that's what and just to start with the pastor you take people where they are and take them where they need to to go and it's it's a process but it's the same with a parent it's the same with a friend it's the same with a sunday school teacher it's the same with a businessman we're just always trying to move people towards the end zone yeah move them in the direction and it just takes time and you don't have to shove them you just kind of it's a process you lead them so i would say yes we do have that responsibility i think it depends on the nature of the relationship if you're close to someone and it can come up without it being needlessly provocative then i would say if god opens that door yeah then talk about it yeah if this is so sensitive or if it's brought up in an awkward way that injures the relationship and that door just really hasn't opened to talk about it i would just say leave it alone this is not the driving issue right of your christian life um i would talk about following christ loving christ uh imitating christ serving christ i would major on majors this is not a major it's important enough that paul because it was an issue at the church at rome and paul has to take all these verses but nevertheless it's not primary it's a secondary matter so it so if one christian really loves tattoos and they love to drink wine then the weaker brother is to not focus on i mean the stronger brother is to not focus on that and he needs to get past that he needs to try to get past that now yeah you know i i'm probably the most anti tattoo guy on planet earth okay let's just take that one i'm probably the most anti long hair on on men that there can be but i'm gonna have to at times bite my tongue and and talk to that person about jesus not about this tattoo that's got his girlfriend's name on it you know he's no longer dating yeah so here's a good question how much time do we have one more yeah are weak opinions and weak doctrines to be treated equally well weak opinions come from weak doctrine okay so there's a root in a fruit it's it's the weak doctrine that produces the weak opinions so they're not treated equally in that sense we got time for one more all right i got to figure out which one um in the meantime i i think green you'd like green beans too steve anyway man i may not even be a brother you know here's another one should weaker brothers be pastors wow that's a good question you wanted one more i i would need more information on that one i'm punting on first down on that one well an elder the the word elder means spiritual maturity okay and so a weaker brother is not a mature brother a weaker brother is an immature really more legalistic yeah yeah yeah and so just if i had to go categorically like here are the two categories and i don't have any more information i would say no that a weaker brother should not be a pastor you would want an elder to be your pastor someone who is mature in the faith but having said that i would need more information i started pastoring when i was 30 and i don't know really where i was at that point i might have been a yeah a weaker brother at age 30 yet for sure i was strong in doctrine it just hadn't been fleshed out in my own life yeah i mean i i had sea legs i mean i i was wobbly in my christian walk though my head was much further ahead than my feet i knew more than what i could live out so and god used that in my life and in the life of the church and people were led to christ so again i need more information categorically you would want your pastor to be a stronger brother for sure all right one more question yeah okay since you're you're on a roll and uh i think my clock yeah no we got another we got another minute we got another minute okay in viewing a view of this passage how do we keep the church from being a free for all in the gray areas [Laughter] yeah um does this deal with having to wear a mask or not i don't know hey there are questions um well you know gray areas that takes in a lot and and i i would kind of need to even know a sampling of what those gray areas are i don't think that that in and of itself leads to a free-for-all i would need to know what these gray areas are i i think the whole church does need to understand these verses and does need to understand christian love and and being devoted to one another and and brotherly love and giving preference to one another um so that whatever these gray areas are do not become a free-for-all um and i don't think a a legalistic church is where you cut everyone out with a cookie cutter and everyone their hair is this the length of the dress is this the amount of jewelry is this the kind of car you can drive is this the house you can wear it live in is this i mean it's just on and on what you can eat is yeah you're the width of your tithe no that's in the bible okay now you've gone to meddling okay [Laughter] now you're showing that's contempt you're showing contempt for the weaker brother yes you are yes you are i know that i can see into your heart well men i don't even know when's the next time we meet it's on the website it's uh i think it's september 10th september the 10th so trust me i wish we were meeting next week um and and because i want to work out all these verses where these are headed i don't know that i've ever taught verse by verse through all of these verses so i i'm sorting this out with you and learning i've read it and i've heard others preach on it but i need to sort this out because i don't want to be any wider than scripture i don't want to be any narrower than scripture i just want to be where scripture is i want to set the goal posts where the scripture sets the goal post and and maybe i need to change so maybe i need to repent so i i want to be a lifelong repenter and and being right where the scripture is and i i don't and i don't want to view other brothers who have a different opinion in a way that's unloving also on this i want to major on majors and and not even put stumbling blocks out there for people so having said that men thank you so much for being here i'm amazed that that you continue to come i'll just say this of all the things that i do i love going through romans with you more than anything else that i do in three weeks when we start back yeah it's kind of been kind of off and on this summer but we will be much more consistent through the fall yeah and pick up a consistency and uh yeah yeah we'll be able to plow through this whole section together without many disruptions and and i i want to do that i need to do that so um let me just close in a word of prayer father thank you for these men i pray that you would bless them encourage them sanctify them build them up i pray that even as they think through what we've taught about today may my words simply point to your words and may your words be final not my words but your words so may this just drive us into the scripture and help us be the men you've called us to be we pray this in jesus name amen amen amen amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: OnePassionMinistries

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Length: 66min 39sec (3999 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 13 2020