Turn with me again this morning to Romans chapter 14. In just a minute, I'll be reading from verses 13 through 23. While you're turning there, just let me very quickly remind you of what we've looked at thus far in the first 12 verses of this chapter. As you'll recall, Paul's exhorting his readers to accept those who are weak in the faith not for the purpose of passing judgment on the weaker brother's opinions, but with the simple understanding that everyone in the body of Christ varies in terms of their level of spiritual growth and maturity to which they have attained. And that's so true, is it not? We are all at different stages of growth. We are all at different stages of understanding, different stages of acknowledgement, different stages of all kinds of things. that are important, but not important enough for us to stand in judgment of one another. As I've said, if we're talking bona fide sin, that which the scriptures point out as legitimate sin, then we need to be following the prescription of Matthew 18, 15 and following, and the other places in scripture where we're called to hold each other accountable for how we act and how we behave in the body of Christ. But if we're just talking about things that are secondary issues, tertiary issues, things in which we might differ according to convictions and opinions and so on and so forth, Paul says that we are to yield to the weaker brother in those cases. Now, as you'll recall, he says that some are free to eat whatever is placed in front of them while others do not share that liberty and thus restrict themselves to eating other things such as vegetables. We're not to stand in judgment of those individuals. And what does Paul say should be our attitude toward one another in those cases regardless of which side of the equation we might be on. He insists that neither the one who eats nor the one who doesn't eat has any right to stand in judgment of the other. Why? Because whether we enjoy certain liberties or not... You all heard that, right? Okay. I'm getting to that age, folks. Paul says, whether we enjoy certain liberties or not, we're both striving to serve the same master. And that's really what's important. The same thing is true, Paul writes, about the observance of days. And we're not talking about the Lord's Day. We went over that in great length in our last time together. We're talking about various feast days. We're talking about various holy days, or days set aside that one is free to embrace and enjoy, and one is free to reject and not partake in. Paul says that while it's true that some regard one day above another, it's also true that other people observe every day alike. This should not be a cause for us to be at odds with those who differ in terms of their opinion or their convictions. Why? Because if each of us is serving the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, And each of us believes that in serving Him, we are doing what we can do to live for Him each and every moment of each and every day. There's really no way for us to stand in judgment of that. I can't judge your motives. I can't judge your loyalty to Christ. I can't judge whether or not you're doing whatever you do, whether partaking or abstaining. I can't judge that in the framework of your service to God. Only God can do that, and we're to let Him do that. Remember what I said, you do you, I'll do me, and we'll let the Holy Spirit settle the differences in these matters that really fall under the heading of secondary, tertiary, and so forth issues. Remember, when this life is over, We will not answer to one another. We will answer to one. And again, that will be the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's continue at verse 13. If you thought the beating would cease, it's not going to cease. This is a point that Paul continues to drive home. Verse 13, he says, therefore, or on the basis of everything I've already said on this subject, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who is in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin." Now again, this might seem like a lot of unnecessary repetition. Paul might sound as if He's beating a dead horse to death. I assure you he's not. In the first 12 verses, Paul has shared with us the basic principle of not standing in judgment of those who have differing opinions or convictions or liberties or even the lack thereof. Here, though, he begins to refine his exhortation by teaching us the extent to which we must be willing to go in order to comply with what he's already instructed us concerning these things. Notice very carefully how he restates his position beginning at verse 13, and then he clarifies or qualifies it at the end of the verse. Basically, he's saying, in addition to everything that I've just said about not judging one another on such issues, he says, make it your settled determination not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. This verb, translated as determine, is very interesting in its construct. This is in the aorist imperative, which means that it's not a suggestion. It's imperative. This is a command. Paul, on the basis of the authority given him as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, is commanding us to comply with what he says about not judging one another in this way. And in addition to being an imperative, the Aorist indicates that it's something that we're to do with the utmost of urgency and defectiveness. In other words, if you're doing this, if you're guilty, of judging a brother or sister on the basis of a dissimilarity of conviction, a dissimilarity in terms of liberties and so on and so forth, stop doing that. Stop now. Don't wait to pray about it. You don't need to pray about it. Just stop doing that if you're doing that. Last Lord's Day, I talked about a phenomenon known as the tyranny of the weaker brother. Excuse me, that's a condition where you've got a stronger brother who is at liberty to do whatever he's doing. You've got a weaker brother who comes along repeatedly, incessantly in complaints. I don't like what you're doing. I don't like the fact that you have this liberty and I don't. In fact, I think your exercise of this particular liberty is sinful. Anybody ever meet somebody like that? Generally speaking, they're legalistic in their approach to all things. They believe that we must live by a set of rules and regulations that are intended to make all of our behavior kind of a vanilla construct. We all behave the same way exactly. Nobody enjoys one liberty above another and so on and so forth. We used to refer to these individuals as professional weaker brothers. Because that's all they seem to do is just pick on people who do things that they don't feel like they're free to do. And generally speaking, these individuals can be offended by even the most nonsensical things, as I said. So here's the question. Are we expected to let this kind of brother or sister hold us in bondage? Are we expected to let them run roughshod over us with their own convictions and while we're restraining ourselves from enjoying our own liberties? The answer is no. We're not to do that. But the way we go about not doing that is important. If we understand as our primary presupposition that neither of us has the allowance to judge the other, then even if they're judging us, we have no right to judge them in return. The only thing we can do is, as we talked about with Priscilla and Aquila, we can pull them aside, as they did Barnabas or Apollos, and we can pull them aside and say, look, you know, you're mistaken on this. Let's come to some sort of agreement. I won't mess with you in this regard if you won't mess with me in this regard. Perhaps they'll grow from that. Maybe they'll be convinced that they're wrong. What if they don't grow though? Well, sometimes you just have to shake the dust off your feet and move on. But the last thing you can do is continue to flaunt your liberty, even if they are tyrannical in their weaker brethren status. You know one thing Paul never talks about? And I believe for good reason. Paul never addresses the issue of the tyranny of the weaker brother. Why? Because it's not a concern of his. His overarching concern is whether your weaker brother be a tyrant or not, you are simply not at liberty to judge him in the same way that he's not able to judge you. What happens though when we insist, oh no, I can judge him and I will judge him because he's dead wrong and he's trampling on my own liberties? Well, you know what happens there? You get this constant back and forth that never stops. You get what's being referred to today as the bro wars. You get people lobbying invectives back and forth at each other and it never stops until someone finally puts their arms down and says, you know what, I'm not gonna fight you on this anymore. I'm simply going to continue doing what I'm doing under the conviction that the Holy Spirit has brought to me. You do you. I'm going to do me. We're going to let God sort it out. But the last thing I'm going to do in that process is stand in judgment of you. Because if I am the stronger brother, get this, if I'm the stronger brother, then I'm going to be the one who most closely aligns with what Paul's counsel is here. And his counsel is for me to keep my mouth off of them. You understand that? Why? Because I'm stronger. I'm not shaken when people are upset with my liberties. I simply cater to them as weaker brethren. You know, it's almost the equivalent of what we say in the South when we say, bless your heart. Right? That doesn't mean what a lot of people from the North think it means. but it's still a kind gesture nonetheless. We don't let them run roughshod over us. We try to teach them, but at the end of the day, we don't stand in judgment of them either. We cannot do that. Again, Paul never talks about this. We need to understand exactly what's going on here when Paul speaks of not being guilty of putting any obstacles or stumbling blocks in the way of the weaker brother. The words translated as obstacle and stumbling block are especially noteworthy in the Greek, often translated interchangeably. Both words refer to anything that might be placed in the path of the unsuspecting, which might trip them up or place them in harm's way. The word used to describe both of these things is the word scandalon. You've heard that word? We get our modern word scandal from this. The scandalon initially referred to a wooden stick. It's a wooden stick that was used to prop up a trap that would be set for birds or small game, and there would be bait tied to this stick. And once they went into the trap and got the bait, the moment they picked the bait up, it would knock the stick down and the trap would fall down on them. This word skandalon came to mean over time, anything that might lure someone into sin. Paul says anything, whether right, wrong, or indifferent in your own mind, anything that might be an obstacle or be a cause for someone else to sin should be avoided at all costs. Do not place an obstacle or a stumbling block before your brethren. As those who are aware of the various stumbling blocks that might trip up our more immature and less experienced brethren, we're to avoid doing anything that might put them in harm's way. Now, I realize this is a tough pill for some to swallow. Some of you might already be thinking, yeah, well, I'm not okay with having to conform to my weaker brother. He just needs to grow up. How many times have you ever said that? Anybody ever said that? I'm so tired of that person. They just need to grow up and leave me alone. Well, that's kind of a fleshly reaction, but that's not the reaction that Paul's advocating here. The point remains the same. Paul commands us to do the very thing that runs afoul of our natural tendencies. Thankfully, he explains himself beginning at verse 14. Read it with me. He says, I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. And again, Paul returns to this familiar refrain of eating various things that other brethren considered unclean, he says, Look, I know with absolute certainty that there's nothing unclean, so I'm free to eat whatever it is I want to eat. But if my brother is not similarly convinced, any eating of that which he deems unclean would in fact be a sin in his mind. And it could very well be that scandalon that lures him into sin. To go against one's conscience is sin. If your brother sees what you're eating and he is not okay with that, but he just goes along to get along and he eats it himself, will not his conscience be pricked at that point? It will. And you'll be the source of that scandalon in his life. Paul wrote something similar to Titus in Titus 1.15. He said, to the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, in other words, those who disagree, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. Remember in Paul's day, as it pertains to food in particular, Given that various kinds of food were often used in different ways by different groups of people, normally the pagans would make a great deal over what they ate and why they ate it. Eating the food, even in the absence of any sinful motives, was often considered as constituting approval. You know, let's say corn dogs are considered a pagan delicacy. Heaven forbid that should ever be the case. Just for the sake of argument, let's say corndogs are that which causes people to stumble. My eating a corndog, there's nothing wrong with eating a corndog, because I know and am convinced there's nothing wrong with corndogs. Well, maybe health-wise, there might be something. You get where I'm going with that, though. But if my brother is convinced that that's a pagan delicacy, then my eating of that automatically puts in his mind that I'm approving of that pagan practice. Now you might again protest, well that's his problem, that's not my problem, and you're right. But here's the thing, it is his problem. And we dare not exacerbate that. We dare not pile on when he's weak in a certain area. We just as, likely choose to have something different in his presence, right? That's what love does. When we add to this that there was also a considerable number of individuals who had been influenced by the various dietary laws of the Jews and other sects, you know, it's really easy to see how food might have been considered a stumbling block. In Paul's mind, as he expressed in 1 Corinthians 8, 4, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we, that is those who were mature in their faith like Paul, he says, we know that there's no such thing as an idol in the world and that there is no God but one. So, I mean, if idols aren't representative of reality, then there's nothing that would even possibly affect the meat that was sacrificed to them. But notice how Paul determines to deal with this whole issue as it relates to the weaker brother. Verse 7, however, not all men have this knowledge. This is the big adversative statement. He says, look, you're free to eat this. Yes, indeed. However, not all men have this knowledge, but some being accustomed to the idol until now eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. and their conscience being weak is defiled. And given that this was true, he writes down in verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 8, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. Now with this in mind as the larger context, go back to verse 15 of our text. This is what causes Paul to write here, if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. And here's the thing, Paul's not talking exclusively about food, is he? He's using that as a good example, but you can take the word food and put in its place almost anything that you perceive as a liberty that not everyone shares, right? Paul could have very easily said, if because of your alcohol consumption, your brother is hurt, Don't do that. He could have very well said, because of your movie preferences, your brother is hurt. Don't flaunt your movie preferences. Because of your reading preferences, your brother is hurt. Then don't share with him what you're reading. Don't let him see you reading that which might wound him or hurt him. Whatever it is that might cause harm to a brother or sister, our love for them should be enough of a catalyst for us at least temporarily to suspend our own liberties. It's all about love. It's not about how rebellious you can be. It's not about how arrogant you can be in your own liberties. It's not how convincing you might think yourself to be in terms of winning that weaker brother to your side. None of that matters. If you have not love, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, then you're of no use at all. Understand that. There's a reason Paul injects love into the equation here. He says, if for no other reason yield to the weaker conscience of your brothers and sisters because you love them. As I was studying in preparation for this message this morning, I came across another Really helpful quote by Ray Steadman, our brother JW back there. You know Ray, don't you? Or he was your pastor at one time? Yeah. But Ray Steadman offers some really good insight on a number of things. But he wrote here, listen to what he said. I think this is really helpful. He says, I liken this issue to crossing a swinging bridge over a mountain stream. There are people who can run across a bridge like that, even though it does not have any handrails. Anybody running across with me? Chad, yeah, Chad probably would. He says they are not alarmed by it. They can keep their balance well. They're not concerned about the swaying of the bridge or the danger of falling into the torrent below. That's fine. Some people can do that, but others cannot. You watch them go out on a bridge like that, and they are very uncertain. They shake and tremble. They inch along. They may even get down on their hands and knees and crawl across. But they will make it if you just give them time, if you let them set their own speed. After a few crossings, they may begin to pick up courage, and eventually they are able to run right across. It is like that with these moral questions. Some people just cannot see themselves moving in a certain area that they have been brought up to think is wrong. They have difficulty doing so. As is the case of the swinging bridge. It would be cruel for someone who had the freedom to cross boldly to take the arm of someone who was timid and drag them across. to force them to run across. They might even lose their balance and fall off the bridge and suffer injury. This is what Paul's warning about in Romans 14-15. I think it's a beautiful analogy. None of us would dare think of doing that. You find a brother who is legitimately afraid, fearful of his life, and you're one who is stronger in that area, would you even think to grab him by the hand and drag him across the bridge? Of course you wouldn't, unless you did not love him. True love would compel you to say, you know what? I'll walk with you every step of the way, inch by inch. I'll even get on my hands and knees and cross with you if that would make you more comfortable. But we have to get across this bridge. Now apply that to all these other issues of the weaker versus the stronger brother. We who are strong in certain areas should be willing to lay down our own liberties if need be and go alongside our brother or sister in Christ and help them along. That's what love does. Rebellion does the other thing. Arrogance does the other thing. Prideful insistence that it's my way or the highway does the other thing. The insistence that you can't be a real Christian unless you do it my way does the other thing. You get where I'm going with that? This is what Paul's saying. Pay heed to the weaker brother, love him, and then all things will proceed as they're intended. Again, the bottom line here, as Paul expresses at the end of verse 15, is that we simply not destroy with our liberty him for whom Christ died. And let me just say this as an added layer of explanation, just so there's no misunderstanding. Again, adopting a rebellious spirit and insisting that you're gonna continue in your liberty, even if it's at the expense of your brother's conscience, that's really one of the strongest proofs that you yourself have a lot of growing up to do in terms of demonstrating the kind and degree of love that the Lord Jesus has called us to. It might just be that you're the weaker brother. You're at least weak in terms of understanding what Paul's admonition is here. If you will not love your brother or sister enough to slow down and wait for them, if you'll not love them enough to abstain from some of your own liberties because you might injure them, you have a lot of growing up to do. And I know people are gonna say, well, I don't really, I don't like that. I wanna be who I am and I wanna be so proudly because I am who I am by the grace of God and I'm gonna continue doing what I'm doing. Do you see the lack of love there? You have genuine cases of brothers and sisters being hurt by your exercise of certain liberties. Just stop. This is what Paul's saying. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, 23? He said, all things are lawful. See, I'm not arguing that you can't do certain things. You know, if one of your hobbies is standing on your head, gargling peanut butter and reciting the Greek alphabet backwards and forwards, oh, you do that. Don't do it in my presence, because I'm going to think some really weird things about you. But I mean, if that's your thing, go do that. The word of God doesn't prohibit it. If your thing is mowing the lawn on a hot Sunday afternoon, or Saturday afternoon, I'm sorry, don't mow your lawn on Sunday, it's the Lord's Day. But if you're doing this on a Saturday afternoon and you go to your garage and you might have a beer, you do that, you knock yourself out. Nobody's telling you what you can and can't do. This is not a matter of license. This is a matter of being aware that other brothers and sisters don't share your liberties in those regards, and you're to stop for their sake. Paul says, all things are lawful. Not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. What should we be doing? We should be edifying. We should be building one another up. And even if we're accused of tearing down, even if that might sound like it's an unjust charge against us, whatever that thing is, we need to stop doing it. At least temporarily until people can grow up and come to see the truth in those matters. My prayer is that the Lord would make us all more focused on loving and edifying one another as opposed to doing any harm to one another. MacArthur helpfully notes this, he says, you need to set your life on a path that will not grieve others, that will not make them follow you into something their conscience tells them not to. That means you have to get close enough to each other to know where you stand on those issues. You have to know the hearts of the people around you so that you can be sure to have an unselfish love for them. You see what Paul's doing, he's promoting unity in the body. He's saying enough of this discord in the body, enough of these disputes, enough of these arguments about who's stronger than the other, and I can do this, nanny nanny boo boo, you can't tell me I can't. Enough of that. Love one another. Edify one another. And if you find things that you're doing, saying, or things that you're participating in that bring your brothers and sisters down, stop doing those things. Why? Because you love them and you're wanting to edify them. Paul continues in verse 16 of our text. He says, therefore, do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. You know, Paul sounds as if he's advocating the free exercise of one's liberty, but that's really not the case at all. What he's doing is actually protecting and preserving Christian liberty by insisting that the stronger brother who enjoys such liberties never exercise those liberties in such a way that he knows will invariably result in his being labeled a sinner by the weaker brother. Don't let what you're able to do be called a sin by anyone else. How can you avoid that? By not flaunting it. by not majoring on it. You know, I mean, there's a big difference between enjoying one of your liberties as you're able and taking a selfie of yourself enjoying one of your liberties and posting it all over social media to rub other people's nose in it. Do you see the difference? What are they gonna say about you if they don't understand that liberty? They're gonna say you're evil. Paul says don't give them an opportunity to do that. Don't give them an opportunity to call what we know to be good, not good. Kenneth Weiss, Greek scholar, adds some insight here about the word good. He says, Paul is referring to Christian liberty, the freedom of conscience, which has been won by Christ, but which will inevitably get a bad name if it's exercised in an inconsiderate, loveless fashion. Something good can still be called bad, simply because you're insistent on flaunting that thing. Newell says the same thing, albeit a little differently. He says, good refers here to the use of Christian liberty by those who are strong of faith, which is indeed good and delightful to God in itself, but in the use of which one must take heed that it not be judged and spoken evil of by the weaker brethren. We must always have the weaker brother in mind You may have a very blessed liberty in Christ, and that is good, but watch in using your freedom, lest someone not having your freedom calls your path wickedness. Do not lose your liberty, but use it carefully." It's very helpful. Just use it carefully. Our liberties in Christ are indeed good things. We've been freed from the bondage of legalism. We've been set free from that endless list of do's and don'ts relative to the most mundane things imaginable. We enjoy the freedom that we have in Christ, and again, it's a great blessing. But we do need to ensure that if we're teaching one another one thing, it's how to love one another, it's how to edify one another. In fact, this is what Paul's doing in his letter to the Colossians, Colossians 2. We read some of this last time, Colossians 2, remember this is where he talks about some regarding one day as above another and others regarding the day as the same. But down in verses 20 through 23, he has this to say. He says, if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourselves to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. In other words, enjoy your liberties and teach others to do likewise, but until you're able to do that, make sure that you're not doing more harm than good by flaunting your freedoms to the potential harm of the weaker brother who still lives according to the elementary principles of the world. As Paul writes here in verse 17, we would do well to understand the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. What is the kingdom of God anyway, and how does it pertain to everything Paul's saying here? You know, there are a good number of people who believe that the kingdom of God is strictly a future thing. It's an eschatological reality. We await the coming of the kingdom of God. Most of us, though, understand, based upon what you've been taught over the years, the kingdom of God is both here and there. The kingdom of God is both now and not yet. Now why do we say that? There is, in fact, a time when the culmination of the kingdom will take place, when sin is finally vanquished, when we're free not only from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, but we'll be free from the very presence of sin. That time is coming. There's coming a time when Christ will rule and reign among us in a very real way that he's not ruling and reigning among us now. But here's the thing, don't mistake the fact that even now, Christ is King. Even now, Christ is ruling and reigning over every facet of every person's life. This is why, as we talked about last week, we must confess that Jesus is Lord. There's not a time in your saved life where you choose to make Jesus Lord. If Jesus is in fact your Redeemer, He is also Lord. And guess what? If you're not redeemed, you know who your Lord is? Your father may be the devil, but your Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because as Luther said, even the devil is God's devil. Understand that there is a very real sense in which Christ rules and reigns even now as King Jesus. And that will always be the case. He's always been the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Last week, we looked at the promise back in verse 11, that there's coming that day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. It's something that Paul repeated to the Philippians. It's something that we would do well to remind ourselves of as well. When that day comes, All men will simply acknowledge what has always been true, that Jesus is Lord, that this is his kingdom. So what does Paul mean when he says here that the kingdom is not about eating and drinking? What he's saying by that is that the kingdom is not about any of the liberties we enjoy. The kingdom's not about those things at all. We're not to be preoccupied with things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things. Instead, life in the kingdom is all about doing what's right, maintaining and enjoying our peace with God, the peace of God and the God of peace, as well as the unassailable joy that's ours through the Holy Spirit. I would dare say this, and Steve mentioned this to me just this morning in a thought that he had during the week, but I mentioned this last week. We would do far better, we would grow much more efficiently and much more quickly as the body of Christ in terms of our knowledge and in terms of our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. We would all grow exponentially if we would just take our eyes and our fingers away from others and put it on ourselves. Think about what that would look like. If I stopped worrying about what you're doing as opposed to what I'm doing, my life would increase dramatically in terms of the peace that I enjoy with God, the unity that I have with the brothers and sisters in this place. What we do individually will have a profound effect on how we are found to be corporately in our loyalty to Christ. And it saddens me, we see all the time people sitting around and all they're talking about is so and so and thus and such and this and that and the other thing. Stop. Talk about what the Lord's doing in your life. How about that? How about a bunch of you just get around in a circle and talk about all the wonderful things that Christ has done in your life? Far more profitable, wouldn't you say? Far more edifying than sitting around pointing fingers at everyone around you and how upset they make you. Focus on what's needed to create this environment of unity, peace, love, and edification. As Hodge rightly noted, he said, There's a new reason for forbearance. No principle of duty is sacrificed, nothing essential to religion is disregarded, for religion does not consist in external observances, but in the inward graces of the Spirit. Focus on what God's doing in you. Instead of bemoaning what God's not seemingly doing in others, focus on what He's doing in you. If you're a new creation in Christ this morning, You've been transformed by God's grace from death in trespasses and sins to newness of life in him. And you need to understand that life in the kingdom has nothing to do with what you eat or drink, but instead has everything to do with choosing to live righteously, peacefully, and joyously. Now, why is this so important? Why am I on and on about this? Why has Paul gone thus far two complete chapters? We've got another chapter to go. And he's still going to be talking about this very thing. Why is this important? It's important because Satan will stop at nothing to continue driving wedges between us. Satan will stop at nothing to rip us apart, and he's most successful in doing that when he's able to cause friction among us. When he's able to divide us along the lines of the silliest, most insignificant things. by focusing on what really matters. Paul says in verse 18, he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. If you wanna stop being seen as a knucklehead by those around you, stop being a knucklehead, right? I mean, it makes sense to me. And in this way, Paul says, you'll be acceptable to God and approved by men. Have you ever wondered how you can secure God's favor and the favor of your fellow man? This is the way. Well, this brings us to the beginning of Paul's conclusion to this whole thing where he writes this in verses 19 through 23. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself from what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith and whatever is not from faith is sin. You know, I have a tendency to beat the horse, the dead horse, more often than I probably should. I'm not going to do that again this morning. I think Paul's counsel here is abundantly clear. Whatever we're doing that tears down and divides and causes friction and causes disagreements and causes arguments and causes discord, no pun intended for some of you who, if you know, you know. That's not my intention. My intention is to point out that what Paul's saying here is that we can do a lot more in terms of promoting unity and peace and edifying one another and building one another up than we'll ever accomplish by tearing each other down. Now Paul's not advocating that we shamefully hide things from those around us. He's just saying that we shouldn't unnecessarily and unlovingly cause harm to others. Now, I want you to note the flip side of this, too, because I have a word to say about the tyrannical weaker brother. You stop, too. If you don't understand much of anything about your own progression in your sanctification, if you don't understand anything about this, that, or the other liberty, understand one thing. In the same way that the stronger or the weaker, one brother's not to stand in judgment of the other brother, you're not to stand in judgment of them. It's really as simple as that. And if you're doing that, stop. If I happen to do something that's perfectly within the bounds of scripture, if it's not sin and you have a problem with it, much better to keep that problem to yourself. That's why I'm always challenging you. If you come at each other with accusations of sin, you better bring receipts. You better bring the word of God to bear on that thing and not just whatever you've read from first and second opinions. Right? Well, Pastor, that means I have to study the Word of God. That's right. Now you're on to something. Study. As a workman, need not be ashamed. Rightly dividing the truth. And if you'll study and commit yourself to rightly dividing the word of truth, you'll find that a lot of things that you were taking exception to really don't matter. And that in turn will lead you to resign yourself from the whole thing and seek to edify instead of tear down. Up in verse five, Paul said, each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. Stop letting people rent space in your head. Be convinced in your own mind. Cranfield noted, he said, a neutral thing only becomes a right thing when it's done out of faith, out of the real reasoned conviction that it's the right thing to do. The only motive for doing anything is that a man believes it to be right. When a thing is done out of social convention, out of fear of unpopularity to please men, then it is wrong. Think about how much virtue signaling goes on in the church at large today. I'm able to do this, look at me, look at me. That's wrong too. Anytime you seek to draw attention to yourself on the basis of your liberties or your lack thereof, you're doing what Paul has expressly condemned. Don't do that. So what's our primary takeaway from all this? How might we apply all of what we've seen this morning in a really practical, applicational way? Well, as I've said a couple of times now, it's as simple as it is daunting. The answer is as simple as it is daunting. Instead of focusing on what everybody else is free or not free to do, instead of being overly preoccupied with everything that's going on on the horizontal, let's be more content with our own understanding of how things are. Let's be content with our own sanctification, where the Lord has brought us from here to there. Let's be content within ourselves. Let's stop worrying about where Steve is on the path to sanctification and where anybody else might be in terms of their own walks with the Lord. Let's be edifying to them. Let's encourage them. Let's strengthen them. But the very last thing we should do, let's do no harm to them. That's Paul's message here. Only by doing that will we promote the peace, the unity, and the edifying environment that we so seek. As Paul expresses in verse 18 of our text, only then will we be acceptable to God and approved by men. Once again, this is the word of God. Might God use it for our good and his glory. Let's close in a word of prayer.