We're going to talk about doubtful disputations. This is a very complicated section of the Word of God, believe it or not. You get into situations like Romans 7 where you know that you're on complicated, controversial ground where a lot of false teaching is manifested. Where people will say that there is Oh, this thing fell down. That's the problem. Boy, I didn't know what in the world that sound was. OK, much better. They'll say that, you know, Paul is walking in sin and that everybody's going to have this life of walking in sin. And there's just a lot of confusion about Romans 7 instead of understanding clearly that he's talking about having temptations inside that we are to resist. And the same with Romans chapter 14. If you don't interpret this right, It'll lead to a lot of misunderstanding. And this is a favorite chapter for people that want to walk in liberties that are not liberties. And it's a favorite chapter. So we are going to begin this week just kind of laying a foundation for further study in the chapter. Let me read the first three verses. Well, you know what? I think it'd be better for us to read the whole chapter. Amen. Let's read the whole chapter, Romans chapter 14. Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. Who art thou that judges another man's servant to his own master? He standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he does not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks, and he that eateth not to the Lord, But to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God things. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not, thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine or anything whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak. Has thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself and that thing which he alloweth in the final verse of this chapter, he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith But whatsoever is not of faith is sin. I'm going to read the next. Well, never mind. We'll read that in a few minutes. Dear Lord, bless this study with these men. Of this section of Scripture. Keep us from error, God, and help us to hear and obey, to discern what you're teaching us here in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, the quest before us is to find out what doubtful disputations refer to. And it's very important at this time. That we compare Scripture with Scripture, because other places of Scripture will give you information that will help you understand some things that may not be immediately apparent. Or you could come to a wrong conclusion if you don't use Scripture to interpret Scripture. And let's begin by saying, him that is weak in the faith, receive ye. Now, we're talking about believers here, right? If they're weak in the faith, then they're obviously a believer, right? Him that is weak in the faith, it doesn't say that he doesn't understand anything about the faith. Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye. That means into your fellowship of your church, but not to doubtful disputation. So there's a way to receive the weak and there's a way not to receive them. Now, doubtful disputation does not appear in context to refer to things that are blurry or questions that are so perplexing that we should leave them to God. David refers to these things in Psalm 131. Now, you can make an application to these things. You can make an application and say in perplexing questions that belong to God, we ought not divide over those things. You understand? David said, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me. There are some things that belong unto God, some secret things. And then there are some things that he has delivered to us. He's revealed to us that we are to understand. And so the secret things that belong unto God. All those questions and hypotheticals and cloudy things that we can't see at this time. Why in the world would you debate those things and even hinder your fellowship with a brother when nobody knows these things? And what is the purpose? Paul said that, I came among you as if I knew nothing but Christ Jesus crucified. And what he means is, He dealt with the issues concerning Christianity and he wouldn't divide over something that, you know, it's just ridiculous to go divide over when we need to be concentrating on the Bible and on Christ and things like that. Now, what I want you to realize is the context here is talking about weak in the faith. If they're weak in the faith, they're wrong. This has nothing to do with gray areas. This is not talking about areas that we don't really know the answer to and that there's these gray areas. And what you have is movements in Christian churches all across America to make things that are clear if you just open your eyes and see it. The Bible says they're plain if you just have the right heart about it and you study and open your eyes. But nevertheless, there are plain things that are complicated to many people because of our hearts. Amen. Who's bouncing? Who's chirping? OK. We may certainly learn from this chapter how to have charity. Humility. Thank you, brother. And patience in such areas. You may learn that when you're dealing with perplexing things that man doesn't have a lot of light on. Let's have patience with one another about Let's not get exercised about these things to where we are going to break fellowship. And I've discerned in brethren a lot over the years, and I'm sure it's been in myself and folks have maybe discerned it with me. I've discerned some harshness with one another that's just totally unnecessary. It's totally unnecessary. You're just about certain things that it's just not right to be harsh over. But in context, the doubtful disputations which Paul raises in the illustration refer to things. That at least the strong in faith have no doubts concerning. He says in Romans 14, verse five, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He gives an illustration, he says, one believe that he may eat all things and other who is weak, Edith, herbs, vegetables. In other words, he abstains from meats for whatever reason. Now, although there is certainly an application here to vegetarianism, I believe from other scriptures that that's not even the subject that's raised. You have a movement today where people are saying Adam ate nuts and he ate spinach and things like that. So therefore, it's wrong for us to eat anything. And there's an incredible blindness among folks. You'll say, well, what about Jesus eating lamb and fish? And and it's almost as if like you didn't say anything. You know, there's the whole Hallelujah movement and things like that. They say, well, you know, I don't know. I just know Adam ate nuts. Well, I know you. I know Jesus ate lamb and ate fish. And so. Sir. Passover, yes. And so let's. Let's understand the context, though, that I believe is occurring here. In verse. Two of chapter 14. The Bible says, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. I need you to understand. that even if you are fully persuaded, I'm fully persuaded that you can eat fish and lamb and other meats that God has ordained for food. I'm fully persuaded. I'm fully persuaded. Now, I spend a lot of time drinking vegetable juices and spinach and things that I put in a Vitamix. Kelp, not kelp, but kale and chard and whatever. I'm into vegetables. But my point is, is I'm fully persuaded in my own mind from looking at the scriptures that I can eat meat. But whether you are fully persuaded or not. You must follow the law of charity with your conviction. But the reason I say I do not believe that these are people walking among them that said, Adam ate nuts and plants. And I think that that's really what all we should eat. I don't think that's what was happening there. What I believe was happening by comparing Scripture with Scripture. When we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, we get more background into what's happening in these early churches. And Corinth was not much different than Rome. As far as some of the situations, you're going to have a mix of Jewish believers and a mix of Gentile believers and somehow know that those Gentile believers and Jewish believers are going to come with all of this background and all of these things and all of these habits and cultural things. And they have to come together and they have to get along. And so we have. Scriptures like Romans 14 that will try to bring unity in the Church of God. Now, when we look at chapter eight of First Corinthians, here is the context. And I do believe it's the same context in Romans chapter 14. He says, now is touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all have knowledge, knowledge poppeth up, but charity edified. What's the teaching here? He's saying that there are meats We've gone over this not long ago in first Corinthians, chapter eight and first Corinthians, chapter 10. He's saying there are meats, good meat. OK, there's lamb. And it's been offered up in a ritual to idle. A good situation, an example, an illustration today, I get regular emails now about how over in Costco or wherever there are meats and down at the bottom. It basically says Halil or whatever it's called. They say that this food has been certified. It's basically been offered to Allah or whatever. And there's a big, you know, people send out those emails and, you know, don't buy that meat. Now, if they did something unhealthy to the meat, then I can understand an email. Why? Hey, you need to know what they're doing to that meat. You know, they're poisoning it or that's totally fine. But to get all upset But you can see how there'll be Christians that are zealous and good Christians that say, I ain't no meat that they offer to Allah. I mean, no way I'm not going to touch that. And you can understand even that thinking you understand. Well, that's how it was there. You have these Jews that have been very scrupulous and they're offering things on the idol. They said, I'm not touching that. If I have to live in Rome, I'll just eat vegetables and that's it, because I don't know whether or not they've offered my hamburger unto some idol somewhere. And I'm not going to take a chance that I'm going to defile myself by eating something they offered to one of these false gods. Well, Paul says we all have knowledge. Meaning most of us understand that you can eat meat. And if they have offered it into an idol, it doesn't make the meat unclean as long as you're not offering it into an idol. So Paul saying, we know the meat is all right, but I need to teach you to have charity as concerning, therefore, the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice and idols. We know that an idol is nothing in the world. Howbeit, there is not in every man that knowledge. For some, with conscience of the idol, unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience being weak, is defiled." Alright, so what's happening in Corinth? You likely have some Jews that have been converted unto Christ. They're believers. And for whatever reason, they believe that eating Gentile meat is wrong. We're not even discussing unclean meat or clean meat, according to the Osaic law, we're discussing meat that's good, but it's bad because it's been offered into an idol. Jewish believers were many of them were saying, no, don't touch it. Others. knew that it was acceptable, according to their liberty, to eat that meat. As in Corinth, there were Jews in Rome who had been saved and had joined the church there. Anybody else need to leave? All right, brother, Amen. Acts chapter 28, when we came to Rome, So they're in Rome. After three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together. And when they appointed him a day, there came many to him in his lodging to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law and Moses and out of the prophets from morning to evening. And some did what some believed the things which were spoken and some believed not. So what we see here is you have now Jewish believers in Rome. I'm sure these Jewish believers join the church there in Rome. So if you have Jewish believers joining the church there in Rome. Perhaps them and others had great confusion concerning the issue of meats that had been offered to idols, as we see in first Corinthians. To avoid eating this meat that had been offered, it was a standard Jewish practice to eat only fruit or herbs. In fact, we have a record from Josephus and he tells us that Jewish leaders, unbelievers, when they came to Rome, they ate only fruits. And the reason they said, I don't want to be defiled by meat that had been formally offered to idol. We're not dealing with an issue where you can look at the meat and know we're dealing with. Obviously, roasted lamb, it looks good, but there might be something wrong with it. So to avoid accidentally eating something that somebody has done, offered to an idol, when Jews came to Rome, they said, we're vegetarians, we're fruitarians, whatever it is, we are not going to eat meat. Well, I believe that situation is the same right here in chapter 14. When these Jews became Christians, they did not always immediately understand their liberty to eat meats that had been so offered. Paul goes on to say, now, listen, you are at liberty to eat meats that are offered in the idols as long as you don't commit idolatry yourself, don't participate in idolatrous festivals and finally, don't become a stumbling block to the weak. Notice, he says in 1 Corinthians 10, whatsoever is sold in the shambles, the butcher shop, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. Now, the above question in context would most certainly have to be, has this otherwise good meat been offered in sacrifice to idol? That's the question. He said you don't have to ask that question because it doesn't matter. So it looks like good lamb to me. This wild fish, I tell you what, what ocean you get that from? That's wild. Of course, they didn't have farm raised fish back then, probably. If they did, they didn't put a bunch of chemicals and stuff all over it. But nevertheless, good fish, good meat. But you had to ask a question. Had to ask a question. But he says, you don't have to ask a question when you go to the butcher shop. You don't have to ask if it's been offered to an idol. Why would you not have to ask a question if it's been offered to an idol? Because it doesn't matter if it's been offered to an idol. The meat's meat. Of course, he would have no way of knowing if it had been offered to an idol by simply looking at the meat. Because it doesn't do anything to the meat. Now, when I go to the butcher shop, I say, is this antibiotic free? Is this hormone free? I can't tell by looking at it entirely. Can you? This grass fed, what did you feed it? Where did it come from? I ask those questions, but I've never once asked that somebody pray over this and offer it to an idol. I've never once asked that question. And Paul said a mature Christian isn't going to ask that question. But guess what? Everybody in Christ isn't mature. Everybody in Christ doesn't understand their liberty. And there's no way you can grow a church and always have every person that comes to church be a believer that's strong in Bible knowledge. They just don't happen that way. You're going to have many that are going to join your church, come into fellowship that are weak in many doctrines and subjects and things. So going back. Yes, sir. On your two examples, I feel very comfortable being charitable towards those that would be weak on the idol issue, but I'm not as prone to be as charitable on those that would preach a doctrine of abstaining from meats in comparing that with elsewhere where it's referring to it as being a doctrine of devils, especially in light of the example that you said where they're just kicking against a clear scripture. How would you balance that? He's going to do that in a second. Basically, you balance that by Well, we'll get to that in a minute, because it's one thing for somebody to be weak in Bible knowledge. And you got to understand the context is not understanding your liberty. And we're not even talking about essential liberties. And sometimes in some of these cases, we're talking about somebody saying, I can't buy that meat right there because it's been offered to an idol. And the Bible is telling me how I'm to deal with a Christian. that doesn't believe it's OK to buy that meat. Now, he's going to go on to say, and certainly we have the whole book of Galatians and other scripture, that if somebody comes among you and says this ought to be a public teaching of the whole church and all of you are a bunch of reprobates. If you touch that meat that's been offered unto an idol and number three, I don't even think you're saved. Because there's no salvation to anybody that touches that meat. Now, we've got a different situation there. And Paul says, let him that eateth not. If you abstain from that meat because you don't understand your liberty in Christ, you still aren't permitted to judge those in the church. See, so those that do understand their liberty have to be careful not to just knock that fellow on the head and say, you're just an ignorant, dimwitted, whatever, that they need to be careful how they deal with him, giving him time to grow. But he has to be careful that he doesn't go around, spread around the whole church. This church is evil. They're just demonic. And, you know, they eat meat that's sacrificed unto idols and they're all going to hell, you see. So there's two sides to the same. And hopefully we'll manifest that as we continue. I was just going to say another difference maybe is, you know, if you were at the store and one of them and the meat was offered to the idol, then you might be able to say, you might be able to say, well, just eat this other meat here that's not offered. You go, OK, and you could just do it to be charitable. But when you are commanding to abstain from meat altogether, it's just like, no, no, you just can't even eat meat. It's only you got to be a vegetarian. There's you're not cutting into your in one case, you're really just making life a little more inconvenient for the person, but you could, in charity, go along and you could eat it. But in the other case, it's something you really ought not to do, you know, stop eating meat entirely. Yes, yes. And we're talking about non-essentials. We're talking about situations where people, because of their immaturity, or wrong upbringing, or wrong teaching, they don't understand their liberty. And we're talking about true liberties. We're talking about things the Bible says are true liberties. And if people don't understand those true liberties, here's the context of how we're to deal with it. And. So we're not given a blanket situation or teaching here for every single issue, because we could he's already written first Corinthians, chapter five, where the whole church was receiving into fellowship a known fornicator among them. And he believed it was acceptable to do that. And everybody said, we got to have charity, we got to have grace. Well, they got in a lot of trouble before the Lord for that. So we're not getting a blanket teaching here. You folks just don't fight. But that's how it's often used today. No matter what the subject is, no matter how important, no matter how grave, no matter how devastating to the Christian life, if you don't understand it, you're told today, look, the D word is a naughty word and they mean doctrine. And the whole world is against Bible doctrine. So, we've gone to this other extreme today where there's no walls, there's no controversy, there's no nothing. We're all accepting. The church is marching in the homosexual parade saying, we just want to love everybody. Agape, agape, agape, agape. And what they mean is love everybody, love everybody. And what they mean by love is never tell anybody they're wrong. Just receive them into your fellowship, whether they're homosexual or what. Where are you going to stop? I would not guess that they're going to be so agape with child molesters. You understand that? But we're not far from them being agape with child molesters and bestiality and every other perversion. But this thing's just fallen. It's fallen. All right. Now, let's look. The disputations in Romans first 14 must refer to certain issues that are not grave enough to divide fellowship. Paul never implies that the issues do not matter. Or he never said there is no way of knowing who is right or wrong concerning them. Don't ever say, well, there's just no right answer on this thing. If it's if it's if it's something in the word of God that the Bible says no, but Paul's not saying, well, you know, This idea of offering meat unto pagan gods. Well, nobody really knows whether it's right or wrong to eat that. And you folks just don't fight about that because that's the D word anyway. That's dealing with doctrine. And we just want to come together and not fight over doctrine, you know. He's not saying that. He spends the whole section saying these Christians are ignorant. They're weak. They don't know what they're talking about. But he says in love, I want you to understand that it's all right to eat that meat. I want you to make sure you walk in charity toward them. Don't you become a bully? And be careful how you deal with them in their blindness. Paul simply shows that in a church, we must know how to be right and yet act right while we are right. Two big differences, isn't it? We may err by being too lenient, as we already said in 1 Corinthians 5, or we may err by being too hard, despising the weak in arrogance. Remember when the man repented over in 2 Corinthians? What did they say? They didn't want to let him back in church upon his repentance, right? that you can have brethren. A wise pastor will try to moderate things, but you're always going to have some are right. We might be being too lenient. Some might be being too hard. And somehow or another, we've got to find that biblical perfect balance and walk in it. And you're going to have brethren that are on one side or the other. And you've got chapters like this to say that we need to come together and we need to have this perfect balance of love and strive. to be what God wants us to be. The weak, those who are wrong about some lesser issues, may thin by judging the brethren who are right. So, God's not giving a free pass to the weak. If somebody comes in and they say, you know what? I found out at Costco they're offering this meat to a Muslim God. Anybody that goes to Costco is a sinner. We might get that these emails are circulating all over the Internet. We might get people joining our church here pretty soon that have these views. I think we did not long ago. So my point is. You have to know how to deal with those situations, but Paul says we have to be charitable. But he also says that the folks that aren't right, And that's kind of a sad thing. They're like, who's he calling weak in the faith? You know, he's saying I'm not right. He's saying you still, you that are weak in the faith, y'all need to watch how you deal with the other people that think they're at liberty. And Paul says they're right about it. They are at liberty. For example, in regard to meats. The Christians who believe that the meat had been offered to idols was somehow impure or unclean, could be guilty of judging the Christians who knew they were at liberty. I'll give you a perfect example today. I come into the lunchroom and there's a big argument and there's a big fight and brethren are red in the face and they're going, I say, what in the world is going on in here, brethren? Well, they brought this meat from Costco. It's been offered to a Muslim god. And they're screaming it out in front of everybody. And then you've got three or four brethren that are always ready to get that old sword out. And they're red in the face. And they're going to teach him, this is wrong, this is wrong. And they're shaking and they're all red in the face. You know, brethren, both of you, Both of you. Can't we discuss things without fighting? Can't we discuss things without railing on one another? Can't we have peace together and be patient with one another? Especially the new folks, especially the new folks that maybe are not as trained or clear in the Scripture. They haven't dealt with a lot of issues and had opportunities to rightly divide the Word. They're just trying to be right in the Lord, right? They're just zealous. They love the Lord. They know Allah is a false god. They say, you ain't gonna stick no Allah mess on my meat. You can do no hocus pocus, whatever it is. You're not gonna, uh-uh, I'm not eating it. Good folks. They're just trying to do right. Amen? So, in our liberty that we understand because of Bible knowledge, Making sure we don't deceive ourselves and fall into false liberty that God never authorized. But in our true liberties, there's a certain way God wants us to act toward those that don't yet understand certain things. And we got to really know who the enemy and the adversary is, you know, somebody just doesn't understand yet. They're not your adversary. They want to come to church and be disciple and they're wanting to know they don't need to be bullied and beat up and yelled at. dealt with with sarcasm and impatience. No, they need to be gently shown the way. But even in this responsibility to gently show them the way, there is a time and a place, is there not? There's a time and a place to show them the way. And there is even something that we'll get to in a moment. Everybody's not always ready for every every little item of Bible doctrine. Sometimes you got to say, you know what? We'll deal with that on down the road here. But there's some other issues that I want you to get right and grow in. Now, the Christians who knew that nothing was wrong with the meat that had been offered. They could be guilty of arrogance and a selfish, reckless use of their liberty in this area. Ha ha ha ha ha. Oh, you're afraid of it? Watch this. And they take the old turkey leg. I got it from Costco. Ha ha ha. Good stuff, man. Is that right? But you've got a lot of Christians like that today. Bully Christians. And they are right. They're just mean as a snake, aren't they? They're just mean as a snake. Puffed up, carnal. And so they might be mature in the faith when it comes to doctrine, but they are not mature in the faith when it comes to love and that spiritual maturity that knows how to be right and act right. It's hard to get a lot of Bible knowledge and. Act right. Isn't that something? That's why there's so much complaint about fundamentalism. Fundamentalism throughout the ages. A lot of the complaints, just a whole bunch of people that don't want to live right. They hate the doctrine, make not provision for the flesh, as we've dealt with in weeks before. They can't stand that doctrine. They know that you shouldn't be a fornicator, but they hate the doctrine, don't make provision for fornication. So that's why a lot of people hate fundamentalism, so-called fundamentalism throughout the area. But it's also true. that if you understand the right way to be baptized, if you understand everybody else is messing up the picture, if you understand separation and standards and godliness and all of these things, if you understand immodesty and the biblical view of these things, if you understand all these things and good and bad music and you understand all these things, I tell you what, it's a heavy weighty responsibility to have all these things be right and then not be Yeah, some other way. I'm trying to think of a good, acceptable biblical word, not be pigheaded and mean and just serpentine. With your knowledge, right? All right. With this whole discussion. Paul, through the Holy Ghost, also deals with the fact that much disunity in the churches can arise by Christians being unsure of their views. Now, wouldn't it help to bring forth unity if everybody wouldn't just open their mouth presumptuously? That's not right. Some people just love to debate everything. They just love to debate. I'll tell you what, if y'all going to take that side, I'm going to take the other side. And they just want to grab something. And I know it's fun to sword fight and exercise. I understand that. But when we're talking about a serious conviction, why do y'all keep looking back at others? Brother, what's going on? Oh, what about copyrights, brother? OK, now listen. Wouldn't it help us come to more unity? If everybody would take time to research, do their homework, or listen, be attentive, come to church. Not in this church. When you're here, listen, study, go home, go over the evidence that's been provided to you, look at it, study it. That is, if you feel doubtful about it. Paul said, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind about things. The point is, is if you've got people that make it a habit to just bring division without investigating things, without listening, they're not even fully persuaded in their own mind. They're just going to bring division. Now, let's make sure we know what we're talking about. Amen. Let's make sure we're fully persuaded and we have proof and we know why. It's not wrong to question things. But the point is, is you don't want to go bring division when it's all because you just haven't studied a certain thing. Or when something has been presented, you've just closed your eyes to the evidence. But you're going to have disagreements like this. But I just want to show you here before we proceed any further that Paul's not saying in Romans 14, hey, you've got folks that understand certain liberties in Christ and you've got folks that don't understand the other liberties. And this is great. It just makes a healthy church. And that's what we want. We want people on this side and others on this side. And this is great. That's not what Paul say. He's more realizing this inevitably will happen. You're going to have the week. He's not saying it's a good thing to not be in unity. Notice if we can't have unity, we ought to be in unity, right? First Corinthians one, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus, that you all what? Speak the same thing. And that there be no divisions among you. but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. In fact, Paul presses this same goal in the very same context we're dealing in, in Romans 14, but beginning in the next chapter. Look at Romans 15, verse 5, the God of patience and consolation. OK, so he's calling me to do some patience in the church of God, isn't he? God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus. That you may be that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherefore receive ye one another. But don't miss verse 14, just so you don't misunderstand Romans chapter 14. He says in chapter 15, verse 14, I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Is it Paul's view that, hey, there's no place for admonishing one another, is that Paul's view? No. But he does say if you're going to take it upon yourself to admonish somebody, you better know what you're talking about. You better be full of goodness and full of knowledge, and you must do it in a way that's mature and spiritual. OK. You have a certain issue and somebody stands up and they're taking care of something, you know, and they're all heated and they say, well, he's wrong about it. So, yeah, he is wrong and you're wrong about how you're acting toward his being wrong. Well, he just doesn't know the Bible. No, he doesn't know the Bible according to that doctrine, and you don't know the Bible according to how to deal with people that don't understand the Bible. That one mind refers to more than just teaching. Or knowledge. It refers also to the humility and patience of Jesus and how we all walk in patience and love and humility. There's going to be times when you have to be admonished. But it ought to be from people that know what they're talking about, who are mature and can do it in a spiritual way. I just hope you see now in chapter 15 that he's not creating the situation that the modern churches of America have created where we don't care what you believe. We don't care what you do. Just come here and listen to the rock music and go home and y'all party, do whatever you want. Doesn't matter. Liberty in Christ. And everybody goes out and gets drunk and fornicates, does what they want, makes provision for the flesh, and they think they're walking in Christian liberty. And when you show them 5,000 other verses, it doesn't matter. They say, regardless of what those 5,000 other verses say, this tells me that we ought to walk in liberty. Well, don't you think it's important that we try to find out what the debate was in that church? Shouldn't we use Scripture to say, OK, now I understand. Meat has been offered to a pagan god, you're to have some patience. But he still says the one that doesn't eat it is wrong. He just says the ones that understand their liberty ought to know the time and place and manner of how to deal with it. These are good lessons, amen? You know what this will help us do? Grow our church. They don't come in all discipled up, folks. They don't come in understanding all the things that you got to watch who you talk to. Amen. You got to watch other people that will influence you mess your mind up. But I'm telling you. Folks aren't going to come to church many times, sometimes they do, but many times folks are going to need discipling and there's going to need to be growth. And if you make them mad, wound their conscience and mess them all up and then they leave here, Well, hey, we can all be right and just sit around, wait for the next victim to come in here. We can pass on, but we'll never grow. Amen. And nobody did that to you, or maybe they did, but maybe they hindered you a little bit. Amen. From chapter 15, we see some important things that will keep us from drawing wrong conclusions from his words in chapter 14. Number one, Paul's not teaching in Romans 14 that disunity is a good thing, even in smaller matters. And number two, Paul is not teaching that there is no place or time to admonish one another, even concerning small things. So you might leave with an understanding. You might say, look, on big things, you can rebuke me. But according to Paul, if it's a little thing or a little sin or a little false doctrine, you shouldn't rebuke me. Well, Paul is saying that there is a time to leave people alone. But you've got to balance that with the Lord Jesus, who said we should pull out even the moat, which is a what? A small speck. Should I deal with specks from the pulpit? Should I just sit up here and say all we're going to do in Kingdom Baptist Church is just deal with beans? It's a big, giant thing. I'll preach on it. But, you know, you start preaching on a little bit of specks. I'll tell you what, you're going to rub everybody wrong. But did Jesus say in Matthew chapter seven, never pull a speck out of a brother's eye? Did he say that? Did he say if they got little things in their life that are wrong, you just leave them alone? He didn't say that. Hold on a second. He also didn't say dive in there and go get every little speck. It's fun. Is that what he said? No. Jesus said. Start with self-examination. It's a terrible thing when you got this big old log hanging in your eye and you're bumping into things and everybody knows that you've got this big old log, but you're going to start being a speck inspector. It's hard to deal with. It's hard to deal with. So start with self-examination, says Jesus. And don't just examine it and say, yep, I have that in my life. Is that what self-examination is all about? No. Examine it and when you see that you've got this big thing in your life, remove it. Forsake it. Pluck it out. Then, once you've overcome that big thing, and you're not a hypocrite, And you know, there might be other things that the Lord wants you to work out. That he's yet to reveal to you or you've yet to open up your eyes and see. Come in the right way at the right time with the right motive in the right manner and take that speck or mote out of your brother's eye. Jesus has spent a lot of time teaching us the way to do it. But nevertheless. It's very important that we don't interpret Romans 14 to say, hey, on little nonessential issues, let's just leave everybody alone in your church. Well, that can't be what Paul's saying, because that would disagree with the Lord Jesus. And Paul's inspired by the Holy Ghost. And Jesus said, go after the specks. And I understand King James Bible says mode, I'm just doing what I should do, giving you the definition of the word. This is why Paul says in Galatians, he that is spiritual, meaning mature, not carnal. Not led by the flesh or heated passion, he that is spiritual should restore his brother who has been overtaken in a fall. Did Paul say, hey, everybody go get him, especially you carnal, arrogant people. He didn't say that. He said the spiritual among you go deal with him. If you can do it without getting yourself in the flesh while you're trying to deal with it. And you need to do it in the spirit of what? Meekness. Well, that's pretty much what we're learning here. We have to have meekness and love and patience, spirituality, maturity. Willingness and humility to look at our own sins and faults and not be a hypocrite when we go deal with our brothers or sisters. And the same thing applies in errors of judgment or doctrine, Romans 15, verse one, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Bear them sometimes means I'm going to put up with them for a little while. And sometimes it means I'm going to talk to them about it, but I'm going to do it in a way that's right in the right manner. A brother who believes that something is wrong that a mature Christian knows is allowable. Should be received in love in a way that makes for peace. However, this is dealing with smaller issues and the brother is wrong who is wrong. By placing himself under unnecessary burdens, he must not judge others or make his scruples a means of salvation. OK, so I got this person that says I can't go to Costco and eat meat that's been offered to Allah. How are we going to deal with him in church? OK, two ways, folks, I'll be patient with him. Man, he's got a lot of stuff right and he's really put away a lot of sin and he understands the gospel and they want to serve the Lord Jesus. Let's give him time to grow and receive him, but not with this big debate that's going to cause a lot of confusion and strife in his life. He'll grow and he'll understand. But regardless, let's not divide over that or hinder his growth. Well, I don't know. He's sending out emails telling us that we're satanic. OK, I'll deal with that. I'll go deal with him. I'll talk to him. Tell him he can't do that around here. But I want you, brethren, to be patient with him and I'm going to tell him to have his understanding that he has and understand and not go create division from the other way. You understand? Jameson, Fawcett and Brown put it this way. Some points in Christianity are unessential. to Christian fellowship, so that though one may be an error upon them, he is not on that account to be excluded either from the communion of the church or from the full confidence of those who have more light. Again, they say, though forbearance be a great Christian duty, indifference to the distinction between truth and error is not thereby encouraged. So what are they doing? They're safeguarding. See, I mean, you don't want to be like these modern churches, many of them. Just allow everybody to just do whatever they want and let the kids grow up all messed up where you can't tell if they're homosexual or not? That's not what we're advocating. Amen? We're not advocating, mess your children all up. I tell you, there's high places in the Old Testament that they didn't remove. The kings didn't remove them. And it's therefore the people went to the high places. You know, those things in your home, folks. that you don't remove those high places out of your home, your children will be affected by it. Your children will be affected by it. Oh, God forbid. Our Bible is not teaching you to be slack or compromised. That's not what we're learning here. But we are learning some great lessons of maturity and how we may have fellowship with those that do not yet understand that something is a liberty in the Bible. For example, Matthew Henry says in the epistle to the Galatians, where he deals with those that were originally Gentiles, but were influenced by some Judaizing teachers, not only to believe such a distinction and to practice accordingly, but to lay a stress upon it is necessary to salvation and to make the observance of the Jewish festivals public and congregational. Here, the case was altered. And it's charged upon them as the frustrating of the design of the gospel or falling from grace. Paul was a very patient with people that don't understand Christian liberty and they try to make something a salvation issue or. They're wrong, he says, in Colossians, let no man judge you in regard to the Sabbath day. Let no man judge you. There's going to be people. And he goes on and talks about how you've got some monkish type of people that walk in that aestheticism, you know, and they have different things that they do. I sat upon a rock the other day and I didn't move. And I was on one foot just like this. Man, I did it for about six hours. See, that's your problem in Christ, man. You're just sitting on that pew. If you get up there like me and just sit on that rock and not move. Wow. The churches began to be filled with people like that. Some of these churches that got compromised and. It created the whole monk and nun movement of the Gnostics and the later the Catholic Church. Matthew Henry says, whereas they should have pitied them and help them and afforded them meek and friendly instruction, they trampled upon them. Man, why didn't you come to church? I got a black eye. Can't even open it. Well, did you get that at work? No. Some of your people from church socked me in the eye. Man, they did that? How come? I told them they shouldn't go to Costco. Punched me right in the eye. Now, I don't suspect that certain folks would go that far. But hey, can you punch people in the eye in other ways? Can you smite them with words? When they should have been pitied and helped and afforded meek and friendly instruction, they were trampled upon. So after those who have knowledge to be puffed up with it and to look disdainfully and scornfully upon their brethren. He goes on to say those who were weak and does not use their Christian liberty judged and censored the strong who did as if they were loose Christians or carnal professors that cared not what they did. So there's two sides of it. Get along in church. And a pastor, many times has to keep peace about things, you know. And people say, but they're wrong. I know they're wrong. So did Paul know that these people that said you weren't allowed to eat the meat, no sacrifice on the idol, he knew they were wrong. He called them weak in faith. But you've got more than one chapter about how to be kind to them and patient with them. And we're only talking about certain issues of not exercising liberty, it's not a blanket statement, just a. You know, even things that are pretty important when you look at them from the right perspective, people have to grow. There has to be time for that awareness to sit in, you know. Some of them come right here the first couple of weeks and they're putting their kids out of school, getting them out of government schools. And they're, I'll tell you what, putting socks on, covering up their ankles and taking the tight T-shirts off. And just they're just growing in the Lord and they get it all straight first week. But the point is, is we got to allow some growing room, right? Growing room. Which says. I want you to study it, I want you to get this thing right. There's got to be, especially in situations like meat sacrifice and the idols. I want you to see something else is very important in the King James Bible, Romans chapter 14, there appears to be a distinction between being weak in the faith and being weak in faith. What do you think the distinction is between being weak in the faith and being weak in faith. That's good, Brother Brian. The faith would be in a sense of a noun. It's dealing with indoctrination or teaching of something as opposed to the verb faith that we exercise. That's exactly right. So, being weak in the faith means that you don't have the knowledge that you should have about meat that's been sacrificed unto idols, to give you the illustration. But being weak in faith, as he says in verse 22, hath thou faith, have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself and that thing which he alloweth. Being weak in faith means, and even in this context, we're not talking about all applications of faith in a Christian life. We're talking about I know that I have liberty to eat meat that's been sacrificed to idols if I do it in a loving way and a watchful, mature way. Why do you know that? Well, I have knowledge, I have faith, I have assurance, I'm fully persuaded that I'm able to do that. I'm fully persuaded that I have liberty to eat meat that's been sacrificed to idols if I obey all the qualifications that God's given me concerning it. But you can be weak in faith. You can say, I'm eating it. I don't know, I'm probably. I'm probably going to get. Impurities, spiritual impurities, I'll probably start becoming a Muslim or something. I'm sitting here eating that meat. Well, why did you eat it if you weren't sure? So you're weak in faith. And it's something a little bit distinct from being weak in the faith. The distinction is removed in new versions, they get rid of the faith. And this is important because Christians can have faith. A Christian can have faith that his position is correct and following or allowing a certain liberty. He can be fully persuaded in his mind and not have any doubts. But this does not mean he's automatically correct. You can be persuaded of something and yet be wrong. You can say, oh, wait a second, I have strong faith that I'm at liberty. To do a certain thing. And that thing can be totally wrong, whether you have strong faith or not. So you're strong in faith. It's a misplaced faith. But you're weak in the faith. I meet Christians every week that say, I have great faith. They may not use that language, but this is what they mean. I have great faith that I can go into that movie theater and watch a whole bunch of nudity and gore and violence and taking the Lord's name in vain. And I can eat my popcorn and enjoy it and laugh at it. I have faith, I'm fully persuaded that I can do that. Well, you can be fully persuaded about something and yet be weak in the faith. And it's why it's so important to leave this distinction here and not pervert it. So you can be fully persuaded and be fully wrong. You can be fully, sincerely persuaded that a course of liberty is a liberty, but it's really that second Peter 2 liberty. It's that liberty that's been promised to you by false teachers that God never authorized. Yes. In the true word of God, it says who showed himself alive by many infallible proofs and then all the new versions change it to convincing arguments. What's the difference between the two? You could be convinced an argument that's not true, but infallible proof, it's perfect. It's infallible. Yes. Amen. So. Jesus said this and Luke 12, he said, he that knew not and didn't commit things worthy of strife shall be beaten with you stripes. He still gets a weapon, right? But he didn't know that it was wrong. In his mind, he had faith that it was right. But he still gets a weapon. Now, sincerity and being truly convinced the wrong thing is the right thing may bring some degree of mercy, but it does not keep us from the consequences in God's judgment. Bible says in verse 23, Romans 14, he that doubted is damned if he eat. Because the eateth not of faith or whatsoever is not of faith is sin. In this case, even when eating meat that is sacrificed to idols is not sin, it is sin if you do it, but don't know why you're allowed to do it. If you come to church. And somebody yells at you and gets on to you. You said, forget it. I don't know why I'm going along with it, but I'll eat the meat that's been sacrificed to Allah. Or maybe you just love men and the pleasure of men so much that you are afraid to. Not to go along with them. And then you eat the meat. But you really are not persuaded in your mind. You don't have faith to eat it. Then you're doing something that you know is wrong to do, even though it's not wrong. It's not wrong, but it is wrong because you think it's wrong. So if you go do it for the wrong reasons. It's wrong. So being weak in the faith means to hold positions in smaller matters that are not according to biblical knowledge. Being weak in faith in this context means to do certain actions, even though we're not convinced it's acceptable before God to do them. A person who is weak in the faith will often be weak in faith. Since the Holy Ghost and the scriptures are truly ultimately contrary to his views, my point is. If you say, I'm not allowed to eat that meat that's been sacrificed unto idols. The Holy Ghost and all of the Scriptures are probably witnessing to you, so you probably doubt your own positions. See, not always. You might be fully persuaded and confident that something's wrong and just be totally wrong. But many times those that are weak in the faith are also weak in faith. They're not even really sure what they're doing. Person who is weak in the faith will often be weak in faith, but we can deceive ourselves and we can be confident, but wrong about certain things. This is some deep stuff that requires a lot of mental exercise, but it all has a purpose for us. OK, it all has a purpose. It's well thought out. It's deep. It makes sense. And it all has a purpose. What does it mean when the Bible says doubtful disputations? I believe the King James Bible is the Word of God and I believe that the Holy Ghost put it there for a reason. The King James Bible translators said that they're taking good versions that have gone before and they're turning them into one perfect version, uniform. They said, Lord, may you be with us as we accomplish this thing. Tyndale said about his Bible, his version, it's a thing not yet complete. I've translated it, You know, it's a little reckless, but if I get time, maybe the Lord will give me the opportunity to perfect it. And of course, he was killed, martyred, he said for the king of England's eyes to be open and he prayed for it. Well. Sometimes you can go. To these earlier English translations. Not to receive a better translation, but receive a little bit of commentary. To see what. What was the thought? That people are trying to bring to us here that the King James Bible perfected and just kind of brought together, Geneva says in Romans 14, not doubtful disputations, but controversies of disputations. OK. The bishop's version. That the King James Bible said they were perfecting. reads not to judgments of disputing. OK, that doesn't help us much, but Tyndale's version gives us some insight. Perhaps Paul calls them doubtful disputations because the disputing will produce certain actions that will produce certain doubts in weak people. This was Tyndale's view of it all. In his version, Romans 14, him that is weak in the faith receive unto you not in disputing and troubling his conscience. So doubtful disputations in this context are disputations not about doubtful subjects. That's not in the illustration Paul uses. Paul's not doubting whether or not you can eat meat sacrificed to idols. Doubtful disputations are not disputations about doubtful things. Doubtful disputations are disputations of such a nature where you are bullying somebody in such a way that you might cause them to do the thing, to eat the meat that has been sacrificed to idols. But they, in their mind, still have doubts whether it's right to do it. So now they're going and doing something because of your bullying, controversy. But they are not yet convinced they have liberty to do it. Likewise, Coverdale's version. Him that is weak in the faith, receive unto you, and trouble not the consciences. Trouble not the conscience. King James Bible, receive them not to doubtful disputation. Well, a doubtful disputation can be a disputation about doubtful things, or it can be a disputation that produces doubts in people. Now, you might say. If the dummy. believes that he can't eat meat that's been sacrificed to idols. Why would I not want to trouble his conscience? Why would I not want to teach him? And the reason is. You have to make sure that he's at a place where he can receive it. that he's in a place of maturity where he can understand it. You've got to make sure the time is right and you've got to make sure the manner in which you do it in is right. I do not believe that Paul is teaching that it's never right to teach somebody who is wrong in smaller matters the truth. It must, however, mean that we're to do so in the right time when they are open and able to comprehend it. In other words, there's a person that doesn't know That they can get the meat that's been offered unto idols. And everybody's gaining up on them. And they're getting hostile. They're having problems with it all. And many times we know, but what we're really doing is it's coming right out of Romans 14 and we don't even know it. But you'll say things like, you know, maybe we should back off of them, give them some time to think. Well, that's exactly what we're learning right here in Romans 14. But somebody says, I think we can just go ahead and get him convinced. I know, but I'm afraid he's not really being convinced. I think he's just kind of caving into the pressure. Well, why wouldn't we want him to just cave into the pressure? Because then when he gets another opportunity, he'll just come right out of it. But let's make sure he really understands this thing. Because if he's just going to follow the winds of doctrine, when he gets around somebody else and puts pressure on him, he'll just fall into that too. Let's make sure that he really understands this thing and give him time to think about it in certain situations. Jesus did this in John chapter 16. He says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. That's interesting, isn't it? Why wouldn't Jesus tell him the whole truth? Did Jesus ever compromise the truth? No. Jesus said, there's just some things I'm not going to... If you're discipling somebody, you're just going to jump right into certain situations? Or are you going to give them some time before you get into certain doctrines? 1 Corinthians 3, I have fed you with milk and not with meat. For hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. Was it wrong of Paul to do that? Well, why didn't Paul give them the meat of the Word? Well, they just it takes a certain amount of maturity to understand it until they grow in Christ and get mature enough to understand it. Why teach them? It's just going to cause problems. Now, that doesn't mean that you just compromise the word of God. I hope we see the qualifications with the whole scripture here. We're just showing that somehow or another. On certain issues, when people don't understand their liberty, they really think that they have to Stay away from that meat that's been offered to an idol. Or maybe follow that Jewish feast day that's in the whatever. If they're good people. And they're in Christ. And you discern that the time is right based on their maturity level. You can let them grow in these things. Or maybe just be very careful how you deal with it. Perhaps the point is that until weaker Christians have a certain level of maturity in Christ, they will not even understand anyway. Endless disputing with such will only produce doubts in their minds, and this can lead them to do things without a full persuasion and understanding of their liberty to do it. And thus they'll actually be persuaded to sin against their conscience. He that doubteth saith, Paul, is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith. For whatsoever is not of faith is sin, and faith there means having the full knowledge and understanding of why you can do something. If you still think it's wrong, don't let me pressure you to go do the thing right unless you know why you're doing it. And we're talking about these small issues of Christian liberty. Paul says in chapter eight of first Corinthians, if any man see thee, which has knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols? And through thy knowledge, shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? This must mean that either in his weakness, he will fall into his former life of idolatry or rather. A finer point that he will now do things which he does not truly have light to do. Thus, not doing them in the fullness of faith, making the action sin in his life for whatsoever is not a faith is sin. And I think we could sum all this up by saying when you deal with brethren that are weak on a certain doctrine. Be careful that you are persuading them and not bullying them. You understand. Now, there's certain things of sin that you have to forbid in your home. And you hope that your family will understand it. But whether they understand it or not, you're not going to smoke pot in my home. Whether you understand your Christian liberty. If I had a teenage boy, you're not smoking a stinking pot in my home, whether you understand it or not. Well, I don't believe preachers ought to force people against their conscience. Well, I believe you got to learn how to rightly divide the word of God. Jacob said, change your garments. We're not going to do things that make for sin and that type of thing. But in certain light matters of Christian liberty, certain non-essentials that you could even give up if you're around weaker folks and it's not sin for you to do so. In certain situations like that, letting people have time to grow and be persuaded is fine. It's proper. This view of doubtful disputations, meaning disputations that produce doubts in the weak, is seen by other commentators. But unfortunately, too many other commentators simply change the text. They don't know what doubtful disputations are. They haven't even tried to figure it out. They haven't even read English language and gone back, got them a good dictionary, gone to some of the earlier translations at the time as a commentary to see if they could understand what men were thinking in that day. because they were so much higher than us in some ways, in their thoughts. You can't come from a TV Hollywood pot filled fast food generation filled with evolution and psychobabble and think you got to sit down and understand a holy word of God that was written at a time when language was pure and holy and men were able to discern such things. So instead of correcting the word of God, why don't they take some time to understand English and try to understand what the word of God is saying? Because they're making a mess all over the place. Thomas Scott in 1839 says doubtful disputations, that is, lest he should depart more uncertain that he came through various and perplexing controversies. The apostle orders that teaching the weak is to be done very gradually, that there may be no contention or vain and unseasonable disputation. He teaches that they should be instructed with mildness and leniency, so that in those things of which he is speaking, we ought to accommodate ourselves to their ignorance from regard to the law of charity, as Beza believes. And I believe that he's pretty close hitting the mark there. The NIV, of course, says do not engage in disputable matters. So never engage in anything where it's going to cause dispute. But what did Paul do? He disputed daily as his manner was. It's not a disputable matter whether it was right to eat meat that's been offered under. Paul never once said that's a disputable, doubtful matter. Did he say that? No. He said you're weak in the faith if you don't understand your right to eat meat that sacrifice unto I. You're wrong. We that have knowledge know that that is acceptable. Likewise, the New King James Version says we should not dispute about doubtful things. Well, I believe that could be true if taken in the right way. But it doesn't fit any of the illustrations Paul gives us. He doesn't give you when he gives you the illustration about these meat that have been offered to idols. That's not doubtful. They're dealing with things that only mature, strong Christians know are right. However, doubtful disputations when defined as disputations that produce certain actions like eating of the meat that then produces doubts. I wonder if I was right to do that. I'm doing it, going along with it, but I really don't know. I don't want to be bullied. I don't want my name blasted all over the Internet. But I'm going to go ahead and I'm just going to give in, even though I don't understand it. There's all kinds of things like that. The brethren, there's many of that know how to bully. They know how to. You can be fully convinced that the judgment seat of Christ is exactly as the Bible says, exactly as my book shows it to be. And so many other hundreds and hundreds of Christians down through the ages, you can be totally, fully convinced. And know that you ought to be standing up, preaching the truth about it. And you can allow brethren, other teachers, other pastors to bully you into silence. Well, if you know something's right and you know you ought to be speaking up, you're damned if you eat, you're damned if you go along with the crowd. How much more? So. The more serious things become. But in context. We're dealing. With issues of Christian liberty. If a Christian is bullied and he therefore does something that in his mind he really thinks is wrong, even if it is not ultimately wrong in itself, it's still sin for him. He's not walking in this liberty because he understood it as liberty. He is, for example, eating the meat that has been offered to idols because he does not want to be bullied, called names, etc. For this first lesson, I believe we've kind of laid the foundation and given you some parameters that we can dive in and study it a little clearer, a little more sharpened. This does not mean that you have a man that's living together before marriage and he needs to leave his fornication. This does not mean, and this is how it's interpreted today by a lot of people on the basis of Romans 14. They say, oh yeah, he joined the church, but he's still living in fornication. You haven't dealt with it with him? Oh, we're hoping that we're going to get to it. How long is this situation? You baptized him? You baptized him? Let him become a member of your church? Let him fellowship with all the other young folks in the church? And he hasn't left his sin? Well, we're trying to give him time. We've just got to decide, brethren, what those issues are. And we have to be led by the Holy Ghost and the Scripture to know what are these issues that we need to be strong on. And what are these issues that we need to be patient upon? And. There's a lot of sin. That's going on today. And Romans 14 is one of the most popular chapters. Oh, you will get sermon after sermon on Romans chapter 14. Oh, and you know what they teach it, they say that there's not a single sermon where Going to wicked movies and all that kind of stuff. Immodesty and all kinds of nakedness and stuff. That's all thrown into the package, you see. And so, basically, if you want to do something that's worldly, just Romans 14 it. If you can't Romans 14 it, Romans 7 it. And Romans 7 basically says, we all have sin. Paul said he did those things that he didn't want to do. And we all do those things that we don't want to do. So get off my back. That's Romans 7. Romans 14 is you shouldn't judge me about it. We should just get along this. Let's pray together. Will you shake my hand? Let's just pray together. Well, what do they say? They're saying Romans 14 me on this thing. I'm going to live in adultery, ruin my life, ruin my health, ruin my children. But will you Romans 14 me? If it was a Romans 14 situation, I would. But I'm not going to Romans 14, a situation that should be a first Corinthians 5 situation. See, I got to rightly divide the word of God, amen? OK, brethren, the floor is open to you.