Taboo or Not Taboo

As we journey through the book of Romans, we find ourselves this morning in chapter 14. I encourage you to find your place there in your Bible. We're going to take just a moment to set this up, however, because it's such an important passage. I want to make sure we approach it carefully, cautiously, clearly, and with understanding. In the well-cronicled Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted from the mid-50s through the late late 80s, one of the well-known stories to come out of that came out in the early 80s where a Soviet pilot, military officer, flew his plane over Soviet airspace across the border all the way to Japan before he landed. Once he landed in Japan, he requested asylum in the United States, longing for freedom. He was brought to this country and had a terrible time adjusting. He just could not seem to grasp the freedom that we had here in this country. The freedom to go where you wanted to go, when you wanted to go, the freedom to do what you wanted to do, when you wanted to do it, even the freedom to go to a grocery store and see all the array of options available to you. No one looking over your shoulder, no big brother telling you what to do. Mind you, this was the early 80s. Just let that one slide, okay? Just let it go. He just couldn't grasp the freedom that he had in this country to do and say and be whatever he wanted to be. In fact, for a while he thought it was all staged just for him. And it took a while for people to convince him, this is the way life is in America. This is the way we really live. Well, there's something very similar that happened like that in the first century. Many believers in Jesus Christ who became followers of our Lord and Savior came out of a Jewish background. This is particularly true in churches like In Rome that Paul was writing to. So these Jewish believers came out of a background where everything was prescribed for them in the mosaic law. What they could eat, what they could not eat, certain foods were clean, certain foods were unclean, certain foods were acceptable. If they had been drained properly of their blood, you could eat certain meats, you could not, if they hadn't been drained. I mean, everything was laid out for them. Even what they could plant in their fields, they could not plant certain crops together. They had a certain rotation. They had to follow. Even the fabrics they used to make their clothes were stipulated by the law of Moses. You could not mix certain fabrics. And pretty much everything about daily life was prescribed for them in the law. And then add to that the traditions of the Pharisees and the scribes which sought to interpret the law by stipulating every minor detail of life. I mean, coming out of that background you can see where a lot of early believers would struggle with the newfound freedom they had in Christ. And now that the apostles are teaching the Old Testament law is no longer over us. We're no longer to live by that. These early Jewish believers had a lot of trouble adapting to that. And we have to understand, and this is where a lot of folks get confused with this idea of legalism. There were two kinds of legalism in the New Testament. One kind of legalism said, and these were Jewish teachers that said this quite honestly, they would say, they would say, you have to become Jewish, you have to put yourself under the law of Moses in order to be saved. Now that kind of legalism, Paul blasted very strongly in books like Galatians. But there was a second kind of legalism that was more of a struggle because of background. And that was in the case in Romans 14, Jewish believers who just had difficulty adapting to all the freedom they now had. And they wanted to keep some of those restraints of the law, some of them not having anything to do with salvation. They understood that. But it was their way of life. It was their background. It was their national heritage. And so they couldn't just give up all that. And the feasts and the Jewish ceremonies, many of them kept, well, for a Gentile believer, that was, what are you doing? Why are you sweeping your house out for Passover? We're not under Passover anymore. And so there was some contention and difficulty. There were many Gentile Christians who had no clue what Jews were struggling with. There were many Jewish believers who grasped like Paul, the principle of Christian liberty, and they understood that these were areas of freedom now. We were no longer under the law. We didn't have to live that way. And so you can see these three different parties mixing together in the church, Jews who had trouble understanding freedom, Jews who did understand freedom, and Gentiles who had no clue what the fight was about. And put them together in the church. You're going to have some conflict. You're going to have some problems. You're going to have some disagreements. And that's exactly what happened in the first century. So Paul writes to deal with those kinds of issues in the first century church in Romans chapter 14. It is such an important part of living out our righteousness, which is the theme of this part of the letter, that Paul includes it in Romans 14. He also includes it in a letter to the Corinthians. In fact, he spends three whole chapters there, really dealing with this in much more detail. While the issues are not the same today, we still find the issues of Christian liberty and freedom cause great contention and conflict in churches today. And so this is a very important passage of scripture for us. Although the specific issues of change, and we'll see how a little bit, the basic problem of understanding what our liberty is in Christ still remains. And in living out the principles of scripture, there's still some conflict on the part of believers today. As we deal with issues of Christian liberty, we're not talking about issues of doctrine. Please understand, we're not talking about issues like the inspiration of the Bible or the deity of Christ or Christ's substitutionary death force on the cross or the way of salvation through faith by grace, through faith alone. We're not talking about the literal resurrection of Christ or the second coming of Christ. We're not talking about basic Bible doctrine. We're talking about issues where the Bible makes no clear command. Issues of living out your faith, daily decisions that we make about what is right and what is wrong, that the Bible doesn't specifically address. And so on those issues, the question becomes, is it okay or is it not okay? The question becomes to do or not to do. And for those of you who understand a little bit about my twisted sense of humor and love of word plays, taboo or not taboo, that's the issue. Is it right or wrong? Is it okay? Is it not okay? There are many issues about which believers disagree. And we need to come to terms with how to deal with those things in our attitudes, in the debate over right and wrong. A lot of Christians basically take the idea of just ignoring others. I don't care what they think. I'm just going to do what I know I need to do. Others bend over backwards to please everybody or try to and they end up twisting themselves up and not. Others develop judgmental attitudes. Others develop arrogant attitudes of superiority. None of those attitudes is pleasing to God. Paul will deal with them all in Romans 14. So let's jump into the text. In Romans 14, Paul describes for us two principles of dealing with issues of Christian liberty, two principles for understanding and dealing with issues of Christian liberty. Actually, there are four principles in this passage, but we're only going to get through the first two today or if like the first service, only the first one today. So we'll take our time because it's such an important issue. We want to take time with Romans 14. The first principle Paul deals with in these areas of Christian liberty and freedom is guard your attitude. Guard your attitude. In the first six verses, Paul talks about the kind of attitudes we should have toward one another in these issues that we may differ on. Now to begin with, let's look at the issue then. What was the issue in the first century that Paul addresses? There are a couple of them in this chapter, but he raises the first one in verse one and verses one and two. Verse one says, accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on disputable matters. That's the way the NIV translates this idea of issues of differing convictions, issues of Christian liberty and freedom. Paul calls them disputable matters, matters about which we may dispute or disagree or differ in our convictions. He says, accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on those issues. Verse two, one man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man whose faith is weak eats only vegetables. Now you can see that the issue then has to do with the eating of meat and we'll get to that in just a moment, but there's some background things we'd understand or we will totally misunderstand this passage. We first of all need to understand what Paul means by someone whose faith is weak. This person is often called the weaker brother. Paul also talks about the stronger brother. For instance, in chapter 15, verse one, he says, we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves will get to that principle later. But Paul divides this issue into two kinds of people, the weak and the strong. And the failure to understand what he means by that has caused a lot of contention even. So let's address that. When Paul says someone is weak, he specifically says they are weak in faith. He's not talking about faith in general. He's not talking about the depth of your Christian maturity or trust in God. A person who is weak in faith in this context may be very strong in their walk with God, may be very strong in their faith in Christ. The word faith here in this context is used in the sense of confidence or assurance that your faith in Christ does give you freedom in areas of disputable matters as Paul calls them. So it's not the issue of I'm not very strong in faith in the sense that I don't really have a good testimony or I'm not very matured in Christ or I'm not really strong as a Christian. A person can be strong in many areas of their walk with God and still fit the description of the weaker brother in a particular issue. Now to be weak in faith means you lack the confidence or the assurance that your freedom in Christ or your position in Christ gives you the freedom and liberty to make your own convictions about certain issues. People who often who are weak in faith or people who see everything is black and white and there are no areas where we may disagree and agree to disagree agreeably. Some people just can't see that. By the way, Paul deals with this issue of weakness in more depth in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and helps us to understand how broad this really is. A person whose weak in faith may also be described as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 8 as someone who is weak in knowledge. He mentions that twice in 1 Corinthians 8 verses 4 and 7. What he means by being weak in knowledge is that a person's convictions on these kinds of issues that we're going to talk about, their convictions are misinformed. They have not understood the word of God correctly. Either they have not understood the issue of freedom correctly, liberty and Christ correctly, or maybe they have misunderstood a passage of Scripture. Case in point. Many people who say it's wrong for a woman to wear slacks use Deuteronomy 225 for their proof text, which says a woman ought not to wear a man's clothing. Without realizing the context of that passage, that passage is not talking about modern day clothing or a peril that may look similar. The context where Moses is dealing with false religions and their expressions of sexuality and expressions of abomination to God in the midst of talking about a lot of other sexual abominations, he's talking about people who dress in clothing of the other sex. He's talking about cross-dressers or transvestism to use modern day terminology. He's not talking about wearing a pair of slacks that may resemble a man's pair of slacks. That's what he's talking about. Then ladies, you can't wear blouses, you can't wear belts, you can't wear tennis shoes, you can't wear socks, I mean all those look like men's clothing. That's not the issue. But some people who misunderstand that text have their convictions misinformed by a misunderstanding of Scripture have formed strong convictions on an issue that the Bible would consider to be an issue of Christian liberty. So that's an example of someone who may be weak in knowledge their convictions are misinformed from Scripture. The remedy to that is learn the Bible better, understand Scripture better, have your convictions molded by the Word of God, not by your culture or your upbringing. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 8, a person may be weak in conscience, weak in faith, weak in knowledge, weak in conscience. He says that three times in 1 Corinthians 8, and basically what he means by that is someone who is conscious is overly sensitive and condemns them about things that the Bible doesn't condemn us for. The Bible never says this is sin, the Bible never gives a clear command that this is wrong or this is right, it's an area of freedom that we can make our own convictions about and decisions on, and yet some people's convictions are very strong and their conscience condemns them over an issue, the Bible doesn't condemn them over. So the conscience is weak. The remedy to that is the conscience must be formed by the Word of God again. You know, conscience is not always a safe guide. It really isn't. The Bible talks about the fact that the conscience can be seared, burned so you don't feel anymore. The prompting of conscience, it can be hardened or calloused by repeated activity of sin, your conscience no longer bothers you. The conscience is not always a clear guide. The Word of God is the clear guide. And our conscience can be overly sensitive in an area that the Bible doesn't condemn us about. And so you may be weak in conscience. And then fourthly Paul says you can be weak in will. Talks about that in 1 Corinthians 8 as well. And that is a person who may have a strong conviction on an area, may be convinced to go against their conviction and thus demonstrate their will as weak. They're not willing to stand up for their own conviction. So when a person is weak in faith, he may be strong in a lot of areas of Christian life and walking with God, but maybe particularly over sensitive in this area or that area or maybe misunderstanding what scripture teaches in this one particular area and other areas that may be very strong believer. So don't think the distinction is between a strong Christian and a weak Christian. That's not the idea in Romans 14. The weaker brother is in particular areas of Christian liberty. Maybe a strong prayer warrior. She may be a strong believer in the holiness of God and wanting to live out righteous living. Maybe strong in a lot of areas, but weak in this particular area. Maybe because of a lack of knowledge about scripture or conscience that is overly sensitive because of upbringing or background or something like that. Okay. So weaker brother, stronger brother in this particular context, look at the issue that Paul brings up. There's two. One man's faith, and this is the stronger brother here. One man's faith allows him to eat everything. But another man whose faith is weak eats only vegetables. Now, I know what you stake lovers are thinking. I knew it all along. Vegetarians are unspiritual, right? They're just weak. Oh, no, no, no, no, that's not what Paul's talking about. He's talking about, in the first century, people who came out of a Jewish background who had trouble adapting to the freedom now that you could eat everything. There were no more clean, unpleaned distinctions, no more mosaic. I'll tell you if the blood hasn't been drained properly from an animal, you shouldn't eat it. And for many of those Jewish believers, they had adopted the position that since I, you know, I've got so much a part of my background as a part of my heritage, part of my life. I just can't see my way out of that yet. So I'm just not going to eat meat. I can't be sure it's been drained properly if I buy it in the market, you know, and I just, you know, my parents spelt this way. I was taught this. It's just such a part of me. I just have trouble understanding that. And so I'm going to continue to be a vegetarian. And Paul says that's the reason for that. Although maybe a strong believer in many areas, the reason is a weak, a weak faith, a weak grasp of freedom that our freedom in Christ allows us to eat whatever. Now, I want you to see that the person who is strong is the one who has grasped the area of freedom, understands freedom and liberty, and says eating meat is not an issue anymore. Woohoo! I can eat steak. Yay! That's not an issue anymore. I can eat pork. It's not an issue anymore. He understands that, understands now those choices are in the area of freedom and liberty I'm not bound by the law of Moses. That's the strong brother who understands clearly the position of freedom in Christ. And the issue here is regarding the eating of meats. Now, let me just tell you a kind of dreamed up illustration that might have happened in the first century to help illustrate the tension this could cause. Moses, brother in Christ, Italian member of the church in Rome by the name of Dominic, has just come out of the marketplace and he's loaded down with stuff. As he's leaving the marketplace, he sees his brother, good Jewish brother, whose member of the same church there in Rome by the name of Boaz. As Dominic meets Boaz, Boaz says, hey, Dominic, how you doing brother, what you got there? And Dominic says, oh, we're having a barbecue tonight. And I found some great deals, tea bones for 11 cents a pound, sirloin for 9 cents a pound and you wouldn't believe the price on pork. It was a steal. Why don't you come over and join us for the barbecue tonight? And all of a sudden, Dominic realizes that with every mention of meat, Boaz's frown has gotten darker. And with the mention of pork, Boaz shakes his head and walks off angry. It takes Dominic by surprise and he's trying to figure it out when all of a sudden he realizes I have just been judged as being unspiritual because of my choice of meat. Now you can see where if left unchained, those kind of attitudes could eventually lead to the church of the Holy Carnivores and the church of the Holy Vegetarians. A split in the church at Rome. You can see where it could lead that direction with people who get upset with each other, judge each other as unspiritual or not a real Christian if you do that and begin to pull apart from each other. So the issue then, eating meat and how it affected Jew and Gentile believers in the same church. Now before we jump into the attitudes that Paul suggests or commands that we have toward one another when we differ in these areas, I think we need to make this 21st century stuff. There's probably not a person in this room that has a problem with the issue we've just talked about. That was a first century issue. That was because of the culture and composition of the church in the first century. The issues have changed but there are still many issues over which Christians differ, disagree, debate, divide, still lots of those kinds of issues. And at the risk of losing my job, I'm going to bring some of them up. The issues today are different but they are nonetheless still very real. So what I want to do is just bring up a whole list of issues that we face today, all of which in 39 years of the ministry of the Word I have faced, every one of these I've faced. I've been criticized for, been condemned for, taking either one position or the other on these issues. Every one of them. So I know they are issues. Some of them aren't as real now as they were 30 years ago but these have all been issues in the Christian community that have divided people. One of them I mentioned earlier, women wearing slacks. Is it right for women to wear slacks? That's not as much of an issue as it used to be. I think most people who have a good solid Bible background realize the misuse of that scripture and that's not really much of an issue anymore. But still among some believers, this issue is the whether a woman ought to wear slacks to church or not. There's some Christians who say, wait a second, we ought to dress our very, very best. Which in their thinking means where really, for me, Tine wingtips. When in reality, probably most expensive piece of clothing you can buy today's pair of jeans. So it depends on how you define best. But there are those who differ, differ on that. Should a woman wear slacks to church? People take differing positions on that. Another issue is it right for a Christian to eat in a restaurant that serves alcohol. Boy have I ever heard that one. Now for many of you that may not be an issue at all. You would say, what are you talking about? I can go to X restaurant, whatever it may be. I don't have to sit near the bar. It doesn't tempt me to see someone else with an alcoholic drink on their table. I love the food at this place. I go for the food. Doesn't bother me a bit. But there are lots of believers who maybe because of background, maybe even because of being an alcoholic in the background, or because of their upbringing in their family or even their church religious background. They just have trouble with that and they think it's wrong for them so they don't go. But I've heard Christians debate that issue and fight over issues like that. To take that issue a little further is it right for a Christian to drink any alcohol? And there are lots of Christians who would say, what do you mean? You think that's a debatable issue? Let's call for the ballot right now. And there are others of you who would say, wait a second. I think even science and medical knowledge tell us now that a little wine is actually good for the heart. So is it really an issue of right or wrong? The Bible clearly says drunkenness is wrong and to be careful because wine is a mock or strong drink is raging. Don't be deceived by it. But does the Bible really teach you should never taste any wine? Do you think I'm going to answer that right now, don't you? That is a debatable issue. That's an issue of Christian liberty. And Eric knows, do families know this is an issue more in Western Europe than it is even in America for believers. In fact, for many believers, that's a non-issue in Western Europe. They don't see that as a problem at all. But many Christians here in the States really debate and struggle over that one. Another issue is that right for a Christian to attend a movie theater or even a live stage performance, there are believers who differ on that issue. That's not as much of an issue as it used to be with the advent of cable television and DVDs and the internet. I think most people realize it's the content of what you're allowing into your brain, not the location where you watch something. But still some believers fight over that kind of an issue. Contemporary Christian music. Boy, have I fought that issue? And there are many who say, wait a second, not in this service, probably. Although when we started our contemporary service, we had a dear elderly couple who loved the time of this service, hated music of this service and were earplugs for the music. And I would always tease them as they left. Did you take them out for the message? Did just make sure you heard the message. Some people say, well, there's no place for a guitar or a drum in a church. That's the world's music. And there are others who say, wait a second, the Bible talks about music. It talks about the content that we put into our minds. It talks about singing and praying with understanding. It was focusing on what we're saying to or about God or about our testimony. It talks about being able to teach and admonish one another. It talks about Psalms, Him, spiritual Psalms. But does it talk about musical styles? Probably not. In fact, the style of worship and the Old Testament would probably be closer to what we do in this service with the instruments listed in Psalm 150, different kinds of stringed instruments, two kinds of percussion instruments, tambourines, wait until next week on the tambourines. But a lot of people fight over the issue of music and worship style. That's really an issue of liberty and freedom. Even holidays should Christians observe Christmas, should Christians observe Easter, or celebrate Easter, should a child growing up in a Christian home have an Easter basket? Ooh, awful, terrible thing, Easter bunny, awful, satanic creature. And the big one is Halloween, Satan's holiday. So no Christians should allow their child to go trick or treating. And other believers say, wait a second, my kids just haven't a fun time. They're getting a little bit of candy from trusted neighbors and friends and relatives and no big deal. What's the big deal about that? But Christians differ on those issues. And some like to make it an issue just as strong as the doctrine of the deity of Christ. And others say, what's the big deal? I get some of the candy. Let them go. Translations. Some of you love the King James versions of wonderful translations. Some of you love the Anavis, some of you love the ESV, some of you love the new American standard. But yet Christians fight over those kinds of things. I can understand if you're talking about the message, but not those others. Those are good translations. Don't fight over those kinds of things. Education. Wow, I heard Christians fight over this one. Public education, Christian education, homeschooling. Does the Bible talk about any of those? The Bible talks about an underpinning theological and philosophical construct. And that is the parents are primarily responsible for the training of their children. And I would say that can be done in all three settings. I do not believe the Bible says you've got to do it this way. You can be done in all three settings as long as the parents are involved, understand training their children. But there are Christians who fight over those kinds of things. Now here's one that I know I'll get an email about this week, dancing. I grew up believing all dancing is wrong. It's of the devil. And so I never even learned how. So I just want you to know I don't go, you know, in Saturday night, you know, it's just not a part of my lifestyle. And certainly I would never advocate any kind of suggestive dancing or anything that would arouse the sinful nature. But there are many believers who say, you know, a slow dance is a beautiful expression of love with one that I love. Nothing wrong with that. Is all dancing wrong? Christians differ and disagree on that. What about Sunday? Wow, this is a big one. Down through the years I've faced this in many different ways. How do you observe Sunday? Is it the Christian Sabbath? I think those with a clear understanding of scripture would say, no, no, the Bible never calls Sunday the Christian Sabbath. The Sabbath is a part of the Old Testament observance of Israel. We're no longer under the Sabbath rules. But a lot of people still say, well, wait a second, isn't Sunday a special day? And what does that mean? Should I not wash my car on Sunday? Should I not work a job on Sunday? If I have a job that requires me, should I not move my yard on Sunday? If it's the only clear day of the week, should I not play ball on Sunday? And there are lots of Christians who have strong opinions on those issues and want to make them convictions for everybody else as well. Paul will talk about that issue of days later in Romans 14. We'll get to that. But lots of issues like that. And so many more I could mention playing cards. Is it wrong to use cards that are used in poker? Is you know, okay? You know, so many crazy issues about stuff like that. Fashion, whether or not you should eat in a church. In our church in North Carolina, that was such a big issue in North Carolina. We built a separate building for a fellowship hall. What a crying waste of God's money to build a whole separate building just so we could have a fellowship hall because you could not eat in the church building. And no matter how much I preached that people were misunderstanding. First Corinthians 10 and 11 on that issue. It didn't sink in. People just didn't get it. I could go on and on and we don't have time to do that. But there are many of those kinds of issues over which believers disagree. And I can tell some of you are sitting out there saying, how would he even dare suggest that that could be right? Or not a biblical issue? Well, I've got a verse that says, abstain from all appearance of evil. Verse that's on his 5-22. If you look up the Greek word for appearance, it actually means form. It's not everything that looks like evil. Jesus didn't abstain from everything that looked like evil. He got criticized a lot for hanging out with the wrong crowd. But Jesus did abstain from every form of evil. And the word literally means every kind of evil, every form of sin. And that's what Paul suggested we do. So please, in your emails this week, give me scripture. I thank God for the kind of church we have that these kinds of things are not real issues. But with some believers they are, and some people get all been out of shape over these kinds of things and begin to criticize each other and divide over issues that have nothing to do with the word of God. Where there's no clear command about that kind of an issue. Okay, now, do you understand what we're talking about now in Romans 14? You understand the kind of issues? It's not the deity of Christ, not believe in the Trinity. It's not whether or not you believe in the Virgin birth. It's not any of those kind of doctrinal issues. It's issues where the Bible does not clearly say, yay or nay, okay, not okay, to do, not to do, taboo, not taboo. It doesn't say clearly about that. So we have freedom, we have liberty to choose and form our own convictions. Now, in that context with those issues, what are the proper attitudes we should have toward one another? Paul lists three attitudes we should develop toward one another. And by the way, two of these commands are addressed to the stronger brother. I had never noticed that until this week. The emphasis Paul places on the responsibility of the stronger brother. You see, quite often it's the people who at least feel like they're stronger to understand Christian liberty real well, who can get all arrogant and up to the up and think these all weak believers, they need to be in legalists. Paul's got something to say to you if you feel that way. First of all, for the strong brother who has a good grasp of Christian liberty, he says, acceptance is an attitude you need to have. Acceptance. Look again at verse one. And I know we're plowing slowly, but hopefully we're plowing deeply here. But Tim, whose faith is weak without passing judgment on disputable matters. He's talking to the stronger brother obviously because he says you need to accept the one whose faith is weak. If you're the weaker brother, again, you're the brother that may have a sensitive conscience about some of these areas of liberty. So you have, and here's where the wording gets a little funny, you may have a stronger conviction about something is right or wrong. This is biblical, not biblical. If you're going to be a spiritual Christian, don't you dare go to a public movie theater. That's okay. That may be the weaker brother who may have a stronger conviction in those areas. And Paul says to the stronger brother, you accept that weaker brother. And by the way, the word accept is a strong word. It means to warmly welcome. It doesn't mean just a grudging tolerance. I'm kind of put up with him. That weaker brother, now it means a warm welcome. Almost an embrace is the idea. It's a fellow brother with no arterior motives. With no motives like I'll straighten him out, no phony condescension toward that brother, no air of superiority. Well, when you get to understand your Bible as well as I do, none of that, just a warm welcome. And by the way, even if that weaker brother is critical of you over the fact that you see that as an area of freedom, things you're not a very strong Christian. Because you don't do this, do that, don't do this, don't. Even if he feels that way about you, Paul doesn't put any qualifiers here. He just says accepting, accepting. Welcome in. Fellowship with him. He's your brother. He's your sister. Be willing to warmly embrace them. You know, if stronger believers in areas of Christian liberty could see that one principle it would save a lot of divisiveness in the work of God. It means as far as it is possible with us, we could fellowship with other churches that may not see everything exactly the same way we do acceptance. Second command to the stronger brother about attitudes is this. To the stronger brother, humility, humility. Look at it in verse three. The man who eats everything, remember in the context, this is the one who's the stronger brother has a clear grasp of Christian liberty doesn't think that eating of meats is an issue. So he's allowed, it's permissible. The Bible doesn't dictate this anymore. We can eat everything. This is a stronger brother. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not. Now given the one who does not, the one who has the real strong conviction that still eating meats is wrong, he may need to grow a little bit in his understanding of scripture. He may need to grow a little bit in the forming of his convictions and submitting his convictions to the Bible. He may fit the category Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 8 of being weak in knowledge, weak in conviction. Paul doesn't address that here. He just says, if you're the stronger brother, don't look down on him. Don't look down on her. And I've heard so much of that among stronger Christians, condescending attitudes, arrogant attitudes, snide remarks about those legalists. I've been guilty of it myself. Paul says, do not look down on them. Now I know I'll get some emails about this too, so I'm going to address it. I understand the difference between a weaker brother and a Pharisee. I understand there are some people who are Pharisees who no matter how much you show them the Word of God, they will still believe you're unspiritual. If you do this, do this, don't do that. And we can't worry about the Pharisees. But the genuine weaker brother who may differ with us in convictions, don't think of that person as a mental midget. Once they grow up in their faith, they'll be like me. You're guilty of arrogance and pride. Paul says, don't look down on them. Don't feel like you're way up here. They're way down there. They're a natural dinosaur. They'll understand one of these days. They understand as much as the Bible as I know. No, no. Paul says, don't look down on them. Your brothers and sisters in Christ. Third attitude. This one addresses the weak. To the weaker brother, Paul says to have the attitude of grace. Attitude of grace. You see it there in verse 3. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not. And the man who does not eat everything, again, that's the weaker brother who has the stronger convictions about, this is right, this is wrong. Okay, weaker brother, must not condemn the man who does. For God is accepting. If you find yourself in a particular issue as the weaker brother, not being able to see that that's an area of freedom or liberty, having strong convictions that know you should not, woman should not wear slacks. I should always use the King James. I don't believe in that contemporary Christian music. I, you know, if you find yourself with real strong convictions and all those areas and don't understand areas of liberty, you're going to have trouble with critical attitudes. You're going to have trouble with condemning people who have more liberty than you do. You're going to have trouble of thinking of them as not as spiritual as you are because they don't cross all their teeth and not all their eyes just like you do. And the Bible says you need to learn the attitude of grace. You need to stop condemning the brother who does have the liberty to eat all things. Okay, don't condemn, don't criticize if this person does not share all of your personal convictions on all of those issues. Don't become legalistic and saying he's got to do and live and think and dress and act and do, just like me, that's legalism. And so Paul says, don't do that. Show grace. Now, I want to emphasize both sides can be just as guilty of critical attitudes, both sides. I remember writing a car one time to a particular pastor's gathering. It's in another state. It's not the person you're thinking of that was with me. We've gone to the same Bible college and in those days Evan will identify with this standard word, little stricter than they are today. And I think things have become a little more culturally relevant today and understanding scripture a little better. But back in the 60s, early 70s, and a lot of it was the culture and the kinds of churches we were coming from. Very, very strong convictions on a lot of issues of Christian liberty, things that were right and wrong. And both of us had kind of expanded our horizons and understood we felt like the issue a little better. We started talking and he became very critical of the college we'd graduated from. And I don't remember if I had just studied this or preached on it or something, but it just hit me as, no wait a second, wait a second, Romans 14 works two ways. It's not just the weaker brother that needs straightening out. Sometimes it's the stronger brother who needs straightening out in our attitudes. And we begin to condemn and criticize and become arrogant and think we've learned so much and they just need to grow up spiritually. Then we have violated scriptural attitudes. And we need to check on our own attitudes sometimes that we show humility and acceptance to one another and that we all show grace to each other. You know, oftentimes our views on these issues are determined by our background, our family background, our religious background. And our cultural background where we grew up in the United States. I can remember in the early 70s, late 60s when my wife first went to the Bible college we graduated from. She was from New York State. Still is from New York State. She had grown up there. And you know, some folks in different areas, the country see things a little differently. The first Sunday she was there. She saw a bunch of men walk out between Sunday school and church and light up cigarettes. And they were smoking on the church property. And I mean, this is North Carolina. Okay, this is tobacco road. And she was appalled. She was absolutely appalled. She called her dad that afternoon and said, get me out of this place. I can't stand this place. Her dad tried to reason with her a little bit. And you know, those same folks in North Carolina would have looked upon what was typical in New York. What southerners would call mixed bathing? I am a cultural dinosaur, aren't I? I go way back. You remember that? You remember the debates at camp about boys couldn't swim with girls, you know, and that kind of thing in the south. You wouldn't even be seen if a girl was walking in a bathing suit. It didn't matter if it covered her from her ankles to her neck. You still had to wrap towels around you and could not, you know, no mixed bathing. Well, I wouldn't advocate mixed bathing either. Mixed swimming is what they really meant. And, you know, northerners were appalled that southerners acceptance of a smoke and southerners were appalled at the northerners acceptance of mixed bathing of all things. A lot of it is cultural background where you grew up. All of those things and more can influence our convictions about what's right and wrong and where we need to understand the scripture is, many of those areas, if they are all of them, if they're not clearly defined in the Bible, are areas of liberty, areas of freedom. We are free to form our own convictions and we should not judge each other. Be critical of each other, look down on each other, condemn each other, accuse someone of not being a spiritual as me either because they're on the weaker or stronger end of the spectrum. Other way those attitudes are wrong. I'll never forget one of the best demonstrations of a godly attitude I ever saw when I was doing some educational work up at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois back in the early part of the 2000s. One of my professors was Dr. John Woodbridge who was at that time the main church history professor at Trinity. Dr. Woodbridge was a brilliant man, is still a brilliant man. In the summers he goes to Paris and teaches at the Sorbonne, the university there in Paris. He teaches 16th century French history to Frenchmen and he teaches it in French. I mean that's kind of man he is just a brilliant man but one of the most godly humble men I've ever known. Just his graciousness and his character just impacted me so deeply. I'll never forget one day in class we were taking a class on the history of Evangelicalism and fundamentalism in the United States and he has a great background in both movements and fundamentalism is basically the movement that most of us kind of grew up in and really strong on a lot of these issues taking very strong stances on a lot of these cultural issues. Evangelicalism is a movement that basically believes all the doctrines of the Bible, the same doctrines but maybe is not quite as tight on some of those issues of separation. He had grown up in a fundamentalist kind of camp and real strong. In fact his father taught at a university that if I mentioned the name of everybody he would probably recognize very strict, very strong, very separated from everything and everybody and his father taught there and he had a great respect for that tradition, that history. Yet he himself had chosen to move more into the Evangelical camp and not be a strong on some of those kinds of issues but I will never forget that morning in class. He mentioned the president of that particular institution and he said this man is going to be on Larry King live tonight, he's going to be interviewed on that national stage and I know they will try to make a fool of him and try to mock him and ridicule him. I want us to pray for him today. Now that man who was going to be on television probably would have been very critical of John Woodbridge and some of his maybe lack of stances and certain things. But I'll never forget Dr. Woodbridge saying he's our brother, he's representing all of us tonight. We need to be praying for him and he stopped the class and we had prayer for that brother. I'll never forget the impact that made on me. May God help us to realize that some things just do not matter. May God help us to realize that and I'm so thankful for the freedom that exists in this place but I don't ever want to take that for granted. I don't ever want to assume that some issue might not arise that we will differ on and people will be at each other over and the vision could occur. So may God help us to realize what really is important in the Bible, what really is a doctrinal issue that we would fight over and stand to our dying breath for. And then what is it that doesn't really matter in the scheme of really being a spiritual person that we are able to form differing convictions on those issues of liberty and freedom without being critical or judgmental to each other. May God help us to realize that difference. That some things just do not matter. What would you bow with me in prayer? Father help us to understand your word better and even Lord where we may have included issues as issues of liberty that maybe you do speak more clearly about help us to always be open to correction from your word and to adopt the spirit that you command us to in the book of Romans to accept one another not to have a superiority attitude, a condescending arrogant attitude toward brothers who may differ from us. To be willing to show grace toward one another, I pray Father that you would help us not to major on issues that really don't make any difference to our spread of the gospel around the world. Help us to be Romans 14 kinds of Christians. I thank you Father for this church. I do want to just take a moment, Lord, to thank you for the grace of the acceptance that is shown in this place. May we never allow that to be changed or disturbed. May we always focus upon the things that are essential and be willing to disagree on some other things, agreeably, lovingly, graciously. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.