You don't even know what it is. Nobody knows what it is. When I was 35, I thought I was middle-aged. Well, I'm at least three years older than that now, and I still think I'm middle-aged. Well, praise the Lord. Open your Bibles to Romans chapter number 14. We're almost ready to finish up the book of Romans. And boy, has it been a wide variety of things to preach on and to learn about in the book of Romans. Have you learned something? Do you come to church looking to learn something? I always, if I go to church and I don't hear anything new, and I'm not talking about something that's not in the Bible, all right? If I never hear anything different than what I already know, then I gotta assume that I've already learned everything and I don't need anything new. But that's not true, is it? Has anybody here learned everything already? We haven't arrived, have we? And so if I go to church and hear preaching, I want to go to Sunday school class and hear teaching, I want something to be refreshing and invigorating and something that will challenge me to reach out in my faith a little bit further because I haven't arrived yet. I've been saved for over 40 years and I'm not there yet. And many of us could say, we've learned so much since we've been saved, we're beginning to think, boy, I must not have known anything when I started. And that seems to be the reality sometimes. Romans chapter 14. And I want to invite you, before I get into the message, I want to invite you to be here, especially if you're a church member, be here tonight at six o'clock for the service. The Lord has given us a particular blessing and I've prayed about it, and I need some direction from you. We're a pastor-led church, but we are congregationally ruled, and so that means everybody in church, including the pastor, has one vote, people who are members. And so I'll give you recommendations about what I think some things the Lord's leading us to do tonight, and I'll share a great blessing with you. But you gotta come tonight to find out what the blessing is. And so if you're here tonight, you'll have a voice in how your church goes. If you're a member of this church, this is just as much your church as it is anybody else's church here. Isn't that true? Yeah. And so we're in this thing together for better or for worse. And thank God, most of the time it's for better. Well, in Romans chapter number 14, we're gonna read the first 12 verses. Beginning in verse number one, 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 that 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 to the Lord. And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, does not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live We live, whether we live, we live under the Lord. And whether we die, we die under 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 the 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 as 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's pray together. Father, we pray that you'd bless us. Lord, open our hearts and let us understand the principles you have in this passage of scripture today. Lord, there's so many things that we learn as time goes on. Some things, Lord, we may feel like we already know and yet we probably need to learn some more. And Lord, we'll only learn more and lay aside the things that were faulty beliefs and take up and embrace those which you introduced to us from your word. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to embrace them with charity and fervency, Lord, because we want to love you and serve you and not ourselves. We pray that you'd help us to understand what we hear from these scriptures today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, we're talking about the strong and the weak today. And strong in muscle is not what he's talking about today. And weak in strength, physical strength is not what he's talking about today. But he's talking about mental, emotional, and spiritual strength and weakness. Some being instructed in the things of God and some not so instructed. We're going to call it the weak and the strong. This is living by faith series. And so if we're going to live by faith, we need to anchor our faith in the things of God. And the way we find out the things of God is to look into the word of God. And we may have some strong beliefs about certain things. You may not be excited that the Razorbacks won the basketball game and the football game both yesterday. You may have very strong beliefs about that, and some people say, I don't give a flip about no football or basketball. And you may have very strong feelings one way or the other, but something that comes out of the word of God, we ought to regard it as fully authoritative in our life. And it has the power the unction from God to direct our life when we recognize it and allow the Holy Spirit to use the word to strengthen us. Now in this whole chapter of chapter 14, Cornelius Stam said this, he said, Roman 14 presents a strong plea for grace and understanding among believers in matters of conduct not specifically dealt with in the Word of God. So we come to this chapter 14 and boy there's some places in the Bible we can clap our hands and stomp our feet and say now there's what the Word of God says and that's what you've got to do. But now today we're talking about things that are not so clear in the Word of God. You know God didn't tell us everything that He knows. Did you ever think about that? This Bible doesn't contain everything that God knows. The Bible contains everything He wanted us to know. Now God knows a lot more than this. The Bible says that if He should write it all down in a book, the world itself couldn't contain them all. That's how smart God is. He even knows more than a teenager. So what are we talking about? We're talking about things that the Bible doesn't spell out very clearly, because that's something that God decided we didn't need to know 100% what He thinks on that. And the Bible says in Deuteronomy, the secret things belong unto the Lord. So He knows some things that we're never gonna know. We ought to be very strong in what He has said, but when He didn't say something, We don't need to get too haughty and prideful and arrogant about the things he didn't say. And that's where disputes between believers come in. Because one believer says, well, I think I know what's right here. And the other believer says, I think I know what's right and I don't agree with you. And so you got two believers having different thoughts about something that the word of God didn't spell out clearly enough to make sure that they didn't have a dispute. And so we're talking about those doubtful things today. And in conjunction with chapter 14 of Romans, we could also get a great lesson out of 1 Corinthians chapter number 8, where we need to have some grace, some charity, and liberty towards other believers who may believe a little differently about some things that's not so clear in the Word of God. And if we were totally honest, probably every one of us believes a few things that we didn't get exactly out of the word of God. We kind of got it handed down from grandma and grandpa. Maybe we heard it from maybe the first preacher we sat under when we got saved because, man, we're on fire for God and whatever that preacher said, everything must have been right. Well, he might have been right about most stuff, but most of us have a few little things we didn't get right. And so that's what the Bible is dealing with here. My grandpa, my grandpa Brooks, they called him Tom Sog, because at one time I guess he grew sorghum cane. And so they shortened his name. There were two Tom Brookses in our neighborhood. I say neighborhood, we didn't have neighborhoods, we had hills. And we had people lived on one hill and another hill. And so Tom Brooks lived on the other hill that wasn't very closely related to us. That Tom Brooks, they called him Possum Tom. and my grandpa was Tom Sog, and that's how they could tell the difference which Tom Brooks they were talking about. Well, my grandpa, as many of the old timers did when I was a little kid, a lot of those old timers still farmed with, raised their garden and did some plowing in their fields with a mule, and they'd get out there and break up their garden early in the springtime. Well, my grandpa Tom Sog, he was a believer in planting your potatoes according to the moon. Now, I don't have a clue if there's anything scientific about that or not. Some might argue that it's something to it, but he was almost religious. If there was gonna be a full moon in the last part of February, he said, that's when we gotta plant the potatoes. We can't fool around, because it'll be late March. If we don't get them planted this time, next full moon we have will be way up in March, and that's too late to be planting potatoes. And he'd be out there in frosty weather, plowing the ground, getting potatoes in the ground. It don't make any difference when you plant potatoes, whether the moon's full or whether it's a waning moon, it doesn't really matter. And so they'd disagree about those things. Well, the Bible doesn't say anything about that, does it? You ever seen anything in the Bible about when to plant your potatoes? Some of you thought they grew on trees, probably. But that was my grandpa. But we're gonna get into some things today that will be liberating to some of you, And some of you will probably be mad at me when you leave. But it's okay if you get mad at me. You can ask me for forgiveness and we'll be okay. Some of you will get that tomorrow. There's some things that we as Christians believe that'll be a little bit different. Does that mean we ought to dispute and argue and complain and criticize and assume that because I believe what I believe, And he believes what he believes. It must be me that's right, because I'm always the one that's right. I sold some beekeeping equipment yesterday to a beekeeper that came up from Camden, Arkansas. And after we talked for a pretty good while, he said, well, I've got to go. He said, do you care if I call you on the phone sometime and get some advice from you about beekeeping? I said, you can call me any time. I'll tell you what I know. And it won't all be right, but at least I'll think I'm right. Isn't that the way most of us are? We think because we believe it, we must be the one that's right. If it's not spelled out in the Bible, we think our opinion is the one that counts. But what kind of spirit do we show? We go back and forth on some of these things. If it's not spelled out in the Bible, very clearly, we might go from one extreme to the other or land somewhere in the middle. I heard about the guy that went to the mailbox, walked across the road to get to his mailbox, and he got the mail out of the box, and he started back across the road, and just as he took a step, man, a car was coming straight at him. So he jumped back, and the car darted at him that way. So he jumped over this way, and the car went over this way. And man, he jumped back, and the car just going whichever way he went. So finally, he got over by the mailbox and just stood, and the car stopped. He walked over to the window of the car and the car window rolled down and it was a squirrel driving. The squirrel said, I just wanted you to know what it feels like. And sometimes it's that way when it comes down to what we believe. We think the Bible may or may not teach this, but we've got an opinion very strong, and so we think my way must be right, and we got different people darting back and forth in different directions. So in a nutshell, if you get bored in a few minutes and decide to leave, I'll just tell you, oh, one's already leaving. If you get bored and you decide to leave, I'll tell you this, we ought to have charity one towards the other. That's the bottom line. How should Christians behave toward those who don't seem to agree on matters that are not just spelled out in the scripture? You ever have anybody, you'd tell them what you believe about something and they'd say, well, give me chapter and verse. Give me chapter and verse. Well, is there a chapter and verse for everything we believe? Do you have a chapter and verse for everything you tell your kids? You can make rules in your own home without having chapter and verse. I mean, you're the big person, right? Well, I want to give you four points today that I want to meander through and give you some thoughts to consider. First of all, you've got to realize there's at least three different kinds of conduct. What kind of conduct does the Bible condemn? And clearly it's against the Bible to do this. And what kind of conduct maybe be good or maybe it's bad or is there even a third different kind? Well, there's three different kinds of conduct. There's conduct that is definitely bad. Would you agree with me on that? There is conduct that's bad. And I guess we'd say there's conduct that's right. So there's some things we ought to do that's right. There's other things that we ought not to do that are wrong. Are we still together on that? Nobody's gone to sleep yet? Now what about in between those two? We know some things the Bible spells out that's wrong. We know some things that are right. Aren't we to pray? Aren't we to pray? Yeah, we know that's right. Should we tell other people about Jesus? We know that's right. Should we get drunk and drive down the highway and kill people? I think we'd all agree that's probably wrong. So there's things that's right and wrong, but what about some things in the middle that the Bible doesn't speak about? Let's call it the unspecified. There's right and wrong and unspecified. Some things are not spelled out in scripture. If the Lord didn't reveal a certain thing to us, that's the ones we gotta consider today. Will Rogers, you probably heard somebody say, some hills are not worth dying on. There's some people that'll battle over things. You might go to battle for your wife or your husband because they're special to you and you love them and you might even risk your life to make sure everything's okay with them. But there's some hills that's not worth dying on. Will Rogers said, a bulldog can whoop a skunk, but it ain't worth it. And it's that way with some of the arguments and disputes that we as Christians face sometimes. There's some hills that's just not worth dying on. Can I let that brother just be himself when the Bible doesn't speak to whatever behavior we're considering? Can I just let him be himself since the Bible doesn't say, as long as there's not some other Bible principle that makes it clear that that behavior is wrong? Well, we see that in this passage of Scripture that we just read. What's the first one? The first one is about diet and drink, what you eat and what you drink. Some brothers, now these are all Christians in this passage of scripture that he's talking to at the church at Rome. They're all Christians, and so it's not that some are just lost and are professing Christians. This seems to be speaking to genuine Christians. And he said, there is a brother here that thinks that he can eat meat, any kind of meat. And another brother said, well, I don't trust those meat sellers down at the market. They had markets in those days. And I mean, they'd kill an animal. They didn't have refrigerators, you know. And so they'd kill an animal and they'd hang it up in the market and they had to sell that thing that day. You couldn't, you had no place to store it. And so you'd walk into one of those markets like we saw in, where was it, in India and the Philippines. I saw markets which were fresh meat and they'd have chickens and ducks and turkeys and pieces of beef or ham. pork hanging up, and you just pick out the one you wanted and you had to take it home and cook it right away. I mean, you didn't have time to wait for it to spoil. And so that's the way it was in Bible days. But they had another problem going on. They had pagan temples, and in those pagan temples, they would sacrifice animals in the pagan rituals. And of course, idol can't eat that meat, right? I mean, an idol is just a dumb idol. He's nothing. He's like a statue. He can't eat the meat. So after they sacrificed the animal to the idol in the temple, they said the priest couldn't eat it all. See, they had the pagan priest that's supposed to eat of all the things that were sacrificed in the temple, but man, they're sacrificing all these things. And the priest couldn't eat it all, so the priest would pack up all his meat that's left over, and he'd carry it down to the market, and they'd hang it up and sell it in the market. Well, the Bible says in this passage of scripture that as long as you give thanks, all things are okay to eat. Every creature of God is good to eat. I mean, as far as biblically speaking, I guess you could skin a buzzard and eat it. I don't think I'd look forward to it. I'm saying they would have all this pagan idol temple meat hanging up in there. So the weaker Christian that hadn't learned this liberty of just not questioning where it came from. So this weaker brother standing there at the market with another brother who was a stronger brother who knew that he had liberty to eat all that meat. It didn't matter if it had been offered to an idol or not. An idol is not anything. So that idol didn't, he didn't, contaminate that meat, and it was okay for a Christian to eat that meat. So this weaker brother, he's eating herbs, he just eats the salad, and so he sees his other brother that's gonna buy some meat, and he punches him in the arm and says, you gonna buy that meat? And the brother said, well, of course, man, that's brisket, we're gonna smoke that, baby. And the weaker brother that eats the salad says, well, you ought not to eat that, and the other guy says, why? Didn't you see that priest bringing in meat a while ago? That's probably some meat that's been in the temple. I don't know for sure, but I bet you it is. He's a conspiracy theorist. He said, I bet you it's been in the temple, and you ought not to eat that. And so he's got a doubtful attitude towards that meat, whether it ought to be eaten or not. And the other Christian says, well, I think it's okay to eat. So you got two guys there that's got a different opinion about whether to eat that meat or not. and the Bible's addressing eat meat or whether you drink certain drinks or not. Everybody knows Pepsi's the only one you ought to drink. We got some Coke people here? Yeah, we got a few Coke people. They'll learn better if they stay in church long enough. So he's saying there's not really anything wrong. Paul knows there's nothing wrong. Paul knows about the liberty. He knows that eating that meat wouldn't be bad. But if it's going to make that weaker brother stumble, then I'll pass over it for now and not make a big deal out of it and don't argue with him about it. And so that's the context of what we're talking about. So we've got meat and drink and then holy days. Some of the Christians in those days were still celebrating some of the Jewish rituals, holy days had been passed down and they're saved and not under the law anymore but some of them are still participating in that and doing those days and so some thought they should celebrate those days and some didn't think they ought to and it wasn't any big deal to them one way or the other. And so that was in dispute. And there are modern conflicts for us today that's not clearly addressed in the scripture. I've had people say to me, we need to quit preaching against things like marijuana. Not tell people it's wrong. Because after all, weed is an herb. You ever heard them say that? Weed is an herb. Marijuana is just an herb, and so smoking is good. Well, I don't think the Bible's talking about smoking herbs in the first place. Even if you consider marijuana as an herb, then you'd have to also understand that hemlock is also a plant, and you could eat hemlock, but it'd kill you. So there's wisdom in not eating every herb of the field. And if we really want to know the difference between whether it's good or bad, and this is a debate that's going on right now about marijuana. They say we ought to legalize it. But doesn't the scripture talk about soberness? Clear thinking? Didn't Solomon's mother say, don't you drink wine because it will pervert your judgment? And any mind altering drug or drink would fall under that same category. So we have got scripture on that, that we shouldn't eat or drink anything that's going to alter our thinking. So we don't make crazy judgments or get in a car and drive down the road and kill somebody because we're intoxicated. It doesn't matter if it's marijuana or wine or whiskey. If it intoxicates, so the Bible principle, here's all I'm saying. Does the Bible ever address marijuana? No. So we got no chapter and verse. So preacher, you can't preach against smoking marijuana. Yes, I can because the Bible says that we're supposed to be sober and able to make judgments and to be safe. And so if I'm going to stay sober, I would need to stay away from the liquor and the weed. Oh, boy, it's tough. Are you all smoking marijuana? I should get more amens than this. See, I told you I was gonna make some of you mad. So what I ask people when they say, well, there's nothing wrong with smoking marijuana. It's an herb. I say, well, and they say, you got no chapter and verse in the Bible. I say, well, do you think then by that same style of judgment, would it be okay to shoot heroin in your veins? Well, no, everybody knows heroin's bad for you. I'd say, well, the Bible doesn't talk about it. Hello? The Bible doesn't say anything about heroin and shooting it in your veins. So if you use the same judgment, then heroin ought to be okay, too, if you've got a half chapter and verse for everything. But if you go back to the principle that's underlying the soberness thought in Scripture and clear thinking, then it wouldn't matter if it's booze, marijuana, or heroin. We have a scriptural principle. So here's all I'm trying to do with that point. Just because the Bible doesn't spell it out in chapter and verse, we do have good principle to avoid those things. And I hope every parent in here agrees with me on that. There's all sorts of things that people disagree about. And if it's not coming under some sort of precept or principle in the Bible, you know the difference between a precept and a principle, right? A precept is a specific command, thou shalt not kill. That's a precept. I mean, it's spelled out. Now, principle comes, it's a little more general. It's not as specific as a precept. A principle is underlying those laws, underlying those precepts, and so you can take that same principle and apply it in different areas, and that's just what we did with the booze and the drugs. But there are some that we don't know for sure which way the Bible seems to lean, and so we have some unspecified areas that God didn't reveal to us and there we need to have charity. There's two kinds of believers. Now we said there's three kinds of conduct and there's two kinds of believers. In this passage of scripture you have the weak. That's the ones without broad instruction. They're a believer and they know a few things. And they think they know a lot. I thought I knew a lot when I first got saved. After six months, I thought I had it all down pat. And as the years gone by, I figured out I didn't know very much at all. So a weak believer would be like in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse number 1. Now it's touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. So here's what I'm saying. The Bible is saying to us that if we have knowledge, if we get too proud of ourselves for what we think we know, it'll puff us up and we'll be more likely to be uncharitable to other people who hold a different opinion about what is right and wrong or what is best and not best if the Bible doesn't spell it out clearly and we'll get puffed up with pride and we don't want to do that. Nobody likes to be around a know-it-all, do they? Isn't that kind of irritating to be around somebody that will correct you about everything and appear to know everything? Nobody likes to be around know-it-all, or a critic, or somebody who is very prideful. And that's what the Bible is talking about. And as time goes on, we learn more. When I first got saved, I was just, I don't know, maybe a week or two into it, and I was in the building business back then, and I was helping the church do something. They had an old building they were fixing up for a fellowship hall, and I was in there helping do some stuff, just working. The song leader there is old Sonny James. Some of you heard me talk about Sonny James before. He was an old auctioneer. Man, he was big and burly like a bear. I was bent over working on something and he said, Brother Rick, have you got your billfold in the left back pocket? I said, yeah. He said, why are you wearing it on that side? I said, I don't know. What's wrong with it? As a Christian, you ought to know better than that. I said, why? He said, the left side is where homosexuals wear their wallet. I said, you're kidding. He said, no, left side. He said, everybody's gonna think you're a homosexual. I took it out and put it on the other side. After I put it on the other side, he started laughing. I said, now what? He said, I was just joking. See, new believers are very impressionable. And so we may believe things at the very beginning that later on we learn. Now, there's nothing wrong with wearing your billfold on the left side. You can wear it on the left or right, either one. The Bible doesn't address that. That's one of those areas that the Bible doesn't talk about, which side to wear your billfold on, okay? And so you can wear it on either side. But there are a lot of other things that are serious matters that people get in disputes over. Many people fall victim to conspiracy theories about politics and health and religion. And we have very strong opinions. I mean, you've seen that going on with the COVID debate. Some people are very strong about vaccination, some very strong about not taking the vaccination. And what does the Bible say? It doesn't say. I think the Christian position for us to be, since that is one of those things that doesn't seem to have a Bible principle even, much less a command, that if somebody wants to be vaccinated, I say, have at it. If somebody says, I don't want it, I don't trust the vaccination, I don't want to have it, then don't have it. That's something you make up your mind on. We believe in liberty, liberty to stand or fall before your own maker. Everybody can make up their own mind about those things. Now if the scripture says very clearly what you ought to do, then you ought to do it. If it says very clearly that you shouldn't do something, then you shouldn't do it. But if it's a gray area and it's unspecified, then don't get bent out of shape if somebody else doesn't agree with you about it, right? Hello? We're gonna be here a long time today if I don't get more amens than that. I'll just keep preaching till two o'clock till I get an amen. Keep in mind, there's never a license to sin. Never a license. You say, well, I don't know the difference whether that's right or wrong, so I'm gonna go ahead and do it. Well, as it's been said oftentimes, when in doubt, don't. When in doubt, don't. Until you get a clear leading from the Holy Spirit of God or convictions based on the scriptures, it's best not to feel like you can just go and do anything you want to do because you hadn't heard about it in the Bibles. In fact, ask somebody that's well studied in the Bible and they might bring you up to speed. Hello? So there's two kinds of believers. There's strong believers and weak believers. And the strong believer would be the one that's more mature and informed. and he knows. Oliver B. Green said, the strong and informed believer is not to exhibit a holier-than-thou attitude toward the weaker brother. So if Brother Derek and I don't agree on something and neither one of us got scripture on it, we don't know. It would be wrong of me to go to him and say, well, look, you just ought to believe what I believe because I think I'm right. Well, he could say the same thing. If we don't have scripture, and it's not really worth debating over whether we ought to eat that buzzard or not. I think I know which position I would take, but I wouldn't get mad at somebody if somebody's starving to death and they eat a horse. I don't particularly find it appealing to eat a horse or a monkey, but there's people in the world that do. And if we've never been starved to that point, we've never been starved, we're willing to eat a horse or a monkey, we shouldn't condemn those who do. Because the Bible said all things are good if you give thanks. The strong believer, look here, here's the attitude of the strong believer towards the weak. Galatians 6, 1 through 5. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one, In the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and he shall have rejoicing in himself alone, not another. And so there are things, if we just can't find out by talking to another Christian or finding it in the Bible, if we just can't find out, whether we ought to do this or not, let's don't condemn one another in those areas. I know churches that won't let divorced people serve in the church. Well, they're living in adultery and they can't serve. Well, I always tell them, well, if you're going to allow them to be a member, then by your own conviction, you're wrong because if you think they're living in adultery, you shouldn't even let them join the church. Why do churches do that? They might let them clean out a toilet or something, but they wouldn't let them teach Sunday school class. That's because they're immorally impure. Yeah? A lot of preachers will let folks that are morally impure into the congregation and they'll take their tithes, but they won't let them serve. What are we talking about? We're talking about a spirit of charitability. And that brings us to number three. One charitable attitude. In the fundamentals of the faith, the things that are spelled out clearly in the word of God, the things that we have commandments for, the things that, the principles and doctrines that are clear as a bell, we ought, look here, as a congregation, we ought to have unity together in those things. I mean, we ought to believe the virgin birth, all of us. All of us. We ought to believe in the second coming of Christ, every one of us. We ought to believe that a man must be born again to see the kingdom of God, every one of us. We ought to believe the things that are spelled out clearly in the word of God. We ought to believe that when you're saved, you're secure forever. Every one of us ought to believe in eternal security because those are things that are spelled out in the word of God. And there ought to be unity around those things. And that's the glue that sticks us together. But what about the unclear things? There ought to be charity. I'm not saying that if Brother Derek and I don't agree on something and if I really have a strong conviction about not doing whatever he's doing, if I've got a strong conviction, then I shouldn't do it. But I ought not be mad at him if it's not clear in the Bible. I ought not be mad at him because he is doing it, right? He wants to paint his house green. I don't like green. I've got a strong conviction about staying away from green houses. I don't have to go over to his green house. I don't have to paint my house green. But I ought not to be mad at him because he painted his house green. True? when a lot of preachers, and there still are some, who thinks that the only shirt a preacher ought to wear is a white shirt. Now when I was in Bible college, I only wore white shirts because I didn't have enough money to buy the colored ones. I could take one white shirt and let my wife laundry it each day, and I could get by on one white shirt because you didn't have to worry about coordinating neckties and suits and stuff like that. So I bought dark socks, solid color dark socks, white shirts, and that's what I wore. It wasn't because I had a strong conviction that any other color was wrong, and neither do I now. I wear white shirts often because they're easier to coordinate, but there's nothing biblical about it. I'm just saying some people got a different idea. And I know preachers today that thinks Another preacher's sinful if he gets up to preach in a colored shirt. I mean, if you want to wear white shirts all the time, that's great. I say, go for it. But don't get mad at Brother Derek because he's got a blue shirt. If it's pink, then we'll get mad at him. Charitable attitude. Some people just need to learn that we all have different ideas about things that are not spelled out in the Bible and we ought not to get mad at others because they don't think the same way we do. Heard about the preacher preaching. Man, he was preaching one Sunday on smoking. And there was a little old lady sitting over on the front row and man, every time the preacher was hitting smoking, she said, amen preacher, amen, get after it. Preach on that smoking. And after it was over, after the service was over, he looked over and she pulled out a container of snuff and put a big pinch of snuff in her lips. And he went over to her and he said, ma'am, you have the audacity to think smoking is sin and you're dipping snuff? She said, yeah, it is a sin to smoke. He said, why? She said, anything that tastes this good, it's got to be a sin to burn it. See, we try to justify what we do when there's no clear scripture on it, but we won't let anybody else get away with it. When I was growing up, I remember seeing a lot of the older women dip snuff that has snuff juice running down their chin, dripping off. I just think, boy, I'm glad I'm not married to her. Romance would be a problem. difference in opinions. Somebody might think, you see a brother down at Walmart pick up a bottle of, you know, for New Year's, somebody pick up a bottle of that Welch's sparkling grape juice. It looks like a wine bottle, kind of. And somebody might say, well, I think it's thin to buy that stuff. There's no alcohol in it. selling it here in a dry county. It's just juice, carbonated juice. Nothing wrong with it. And the other one says, yeah, but that looks like a wine bottle and you may cause some others to go astray. Well, see, does the Bible ever address something that specific? Well, no, but if you're convinced that it would be wrong and you don't want to influence somebody else or you don't want them to think you're drinking wine, you might choose not to buy the Welch's grape juice. but don't get mad at your brother because he thinks it's okay because it is, after all, just Welsh's grape juice. And if they buy a bottle of it, don't get mad at them. Have your own conviction and a charitable spirit between you and the person that disagrees on that subject. Now I'm not talking about sin. Hey, some sins are just wrong, flat out wrong. Fornication is wrong in every case. Fornication is wrong, so we're not saying, well, if you disagree with somebody about fornication, you can go ahead and do it. No, that's spelled out in scripture. Fornication is wrong. There's some things that are spelled out very clearly, and so it's not a license to sin. It's talking about only those areas that the Bible didn't spell out specifically. Number four, and this is my last point. Everybody said, Three principles for faith. How do we address that? How do we feel comfortable in our own skin about these decisions we have to make where the Bible doesn't spell it out? Well, number one, if you're saved, you've been accepted by the Lord. In verse number three in our passage, it said, let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth, watch this, for God hath received him. Hey, if you're saved and you're in a gray area that you can't figure out from the Bible, then God's received you and he's received me. So let's have a charitable spirit one towards the other. God's received us both. Hey, we're brothers and sisters in Christ. Let's not jump down each other's throat and die on that hill unnecessarily. Number two, we belong to the Lord. In verse number eight, for whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. And whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. I belong to the Lord. And if you're saved, you belong to the Lord. And so we're his, and he's the one we're gonna be accountable to. And that takes us to the next point. We're gonna be judged by the Lord. So don't gossip about your weaker brother or sister. In verse number 10, it says, but why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not, thy brother? Set it not means to cast aside, to shun them. Let me ask you a question. If we get a new church member in here, listen to me, we get a new church member in here who hasn't learned anything, he doesn't know very much, and he does some things that are questionable, and we push him to the side, where's he gonna learn right from? Somebody said this in a preacher's meeting a couple of weeks ago. Every church ought to have some questionable people coming and attending. You ought to have some people who don't know how to dress modestly. You ought to have some people who come that doesn't know that a certain thing is sin yet. Because if you're not reaching people like that, where are they ever gonna learn how to do right if they're not accepted by the people that already know? I'm not saying we take somebody that's willfully sinning and make them a member if they're deeply rooted in sin, but I want them to come and sit and hear the preaching. A guy comes in here and he's got earrings and barbed wire stuck in his face and tattoos all over him, and he looks like he's just been in a fight with a barbed wire fence. Now he may not look just like you, but I'm glad he came in and sat down and heard the preaching. I want him to get saved. That's one of the reasons our church doesn't make a person a member when they get baptized. Baptism is necessary to be a member, but that's not what makes you a member at our church. Because you get baptized and then we do somewhat of an informal official vote and say, if you would receive this brother, this sister, they've trusted the Lord as their Savior, they're baptized, and they believe like we do, if you'd receive them into this membership, would you say amen? And everybody says amen. And so if we think they're at the point where they would make a good member, they're received by that unofficial, or it's an official, but informal vote. See, this way, if somebody's not living for the Lord, they've just gotten saved, and they don't know, say for instance, people, you got a couple that's cohabitating together, unmarried, and if you made them a member by baptizing them, then you'd have to jerk them out of the baptistry and say, now we're gonna church you because you're living together in sin. So this way we can baptize them because that is a Bible command. And then they can go out and if they have time to learn and learn, then sooner or later they either get married or one of them moves out. then they're living right, then we can say, okay, I believe this brother's ready to join the church. Would you receive him? Amen. See the difference? Now, I'm not mad at the churches that make members as soon as they're baptized. I'm not mad at them, I just think our way's a better way. Makes more sense to me. As a pastor, I believe in pastoral leadership, but our church is a democracy. I said that a little while ago, And I'll give you some recommendations, and I think as a pastor, you ought to receive my instruction as valuable, but I've just got one vote like everybody else. I'll tell you what I think we ought to do. And I'll study it out, and I'll pray about it and try to guide you in the right direction, but if the church says, no, I don't want to do that, let's do this. Well, then we'll go in the direction the majority of the church wants to go. Number three, I'll be judged by the Lord, By the way, if you hadn't come to some clear convictions about some of the areas that are not spelled out in Scripture. Now, if it's spelled out in Scripture, we don't have any debate. I mean, the Scripture is just right. Scripture says it's right, it's right. Scripture says doing something is wrong, it's wrong. But about some of those gray areas, if you don't have some convictions of your own at this point, follow your preacher's faith until you develop some based on the Word of God. So I don't follow any man. Well, that's what the Bible says in Hebrews 13, 7. You believe the Bible, right? Hebrews 13, 7. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. So until you develop a conviction, I tell kids, until you develop a conviction of your own, follow your parents. And when you get to be an adult, you've got to go your own way and make your own decisions. But follow your parents when you're living at home. Follow their faith. And if you don't have certain convictions about certain things, find out what your pastor thinks and follow his faith until God gives you some convictions of your own. It may be different than your pastor's. But until you develop some that you feel comfortable with and you know that it's more biblical, Watch your pastor. Ask him. Seek advice. I'll try not to lead you astray. My advice, maybe on scriptural things, might be a little better than my beekeeping advice, because if you ask ten beekeepers about keeping bees, you may get ten different answers. Of course, Baptist preachers are about that way too, I guess. But the scripture's always right. My T-bird, my 65 T-bird was designed V8 engine is designed to run on premium gasoline without ethanol. Now not every station keeps gas, premium gasoline that doesn't have ethanol in it. You know what I'm going to do before I run out of gas, I'll put some of the ethanol gas in that thing to keep from walking. And the next time I get to a service station where they have good gas, I'll put that in it. Same thing goes with your convictions. If you don't have some good convictions, use somebody that you trust to lean on their faith until you develop some strength and get that high-test gasoline that you need. How do we conclude? Have a charitable spirit instead of a harsh, argumentative, debating attitude. One thing is clearly spelled out in the word of God, you must be born again. And I say this for anybody in this room today, anybody watching, listening, If you're not saved, one thing that is very clear in the word of God is that without Jesus Christ, you'll split hell wide open. There is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. He died for your sins. The Bible says you are a sinner when you're born. You're born a sinner. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the only remedy for that sin is not you doing good works. You'll never pay for the sin. The only remedy for the sin is the blood of Jesus Christ, and he shed that on the cross of Calvary. That's one thing that is indisputable, that there is salvation in no other. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That's what Jesus said. And so I'll tell you that without any shadow doubt, there is no gray area in that. If you're not saved today, you need to trust Jesus Christ and his shed blood on the cross of Calvary for your salvation. He paid for your sins. Endorse that check and say, Lord, I believe. I'm a sinner but I don't want to go to hell. I believe Jesus died for me and I receive him as my sinner. Mean it in your heart and he'll mean it. Let's pray together. Father, we love you and thank you for your word that tells us everything that you want us to know. And Lord, for those things that are not revealed in the Word of God, we pray that your sweet Holy Spirit would help us to discover what position we ought to take, help us to develop convictions, strong convictions, until we learn something different or something is revealed in the Word of God that we didn't see. Lord, I pray for those who are not saved. I pray that they'd trust Christ as Savior today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.