Romans 14, and we will read from verse 13 to verse 19. If you are there, I commence reading. Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know, and I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. by what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking. but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus saves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up-building. We're looking at the chapter that deals with us not passing judgment on one another. And ultimately it is imploring us to have an ambience, an atmosphere within the context of the church where unity is largely guaranteed. And it is guaranteed primarily because we as God's people have learned to accept one another first and then work out our differences. rather than first of all deal with our differences and then see whether upon dealing with them we can still be together. And those differences are not largely to do with the definition of the gospel. It has nothing to do with the immediate law of God, the Ten Commandments, but the differences are largely to do with personal qualms, the kind of issues that are to do with the way I perceive things compared to the way you perceive things. And in this particular chapter, It had to do primarily with Jews and Gentiles. And the difference in terms of diets, the differences in terms of observation of days, these were deeply rooted in the religious lives, especially of the Jews. And then they're coming now into the same church with the Gentiles. Inevitably, there are a lot of issues that come up. And what we've tried to do, as much as possible, as we've begun from chapter 14, making a way through, what we've sought to do is to find more current, regular, kind of issues that affect us as Christians within our bracket. And we have noted that there are a lot of issues that cause us to fight, to have friction among ourselves. And so those are the examples that we have largely talked about. The last time we were looking at this passage, we were in verse 17, where the apostle Paul took two steps back as he was dealing with this whole issue. of not allowing what we consider to be good to be spoken of as evil. We were dealing with us stopping to do anything that may not be unclean to us, but other brethren consider that to be unclean, that for their sake we hold back our freedoms. And the apostle realized that there will be resistance to this demand. And so he takes a few steps backwards to answer the question, what really is Christianity? what is at the heart of the Christian faith. And he brought out three ingredients, and it was righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. He said this is really what the kingdom of God is all about. And the righteousness obviously has to do with moral righteousness. And that has to do not so much with what I want to consider righteousness to be, but the law of God. The Ten Commandments map out what righteousness is. And then peace, and the peace again has to do with a person who deliberately seeks not only to be at peace with God, but also at peace with others. And then thirdly, and lastly, it was the joy in the Holy Spirit. Not joy that is arising from parties and outward pleasures, but a joy that arises from within and flows out. And consequently, as it flows out, it affects everybody around you. the heart of the Christian faith. That's experimental religion. That's the way it ought to be. A joy that does not depend on outward circumstances, but one that continues flowing. Now, the Apostle Paul, having explained what true Christianity is, the irreducible minimum, the experimental, experiential Christianity, he goes on now to say that individuals, believers who serve Jesus Christ in this way, save him. the right way. And hence the title of my sermon, Saving Christ the Right Way. I love the way in which one of our previous speakers has developed a theme or a motto for his church, and that's Dr. Hemsworth Jonas. The motto, the statement that is under the church is preaching the doctrines of grace, and then he has practicing the grace of the doctrines. And ever so often when I've seen it, I've thought to myself that that's one area that those of us who are Reformed need to continue to be reminded. That it's not simply preaching the doctrines of grace, it is also learning to practice the grace of those doctrines. And it is when we learn to keep a balance of these two that we serve Christ the right way. Let's quickly then look at this verse in a little more detail. I think the first assertion that we see here, which the Apostle Paul takes for granted, but I don't want us to take it for granted, is the fact that the Christian life should be described as a life lived in service to the Lord Jesus Christ. as a life lived in service to the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the way he opens it when he says, whoever thus serves Christ. Now notice, this chapter is not about Christian service. This chapter is about unity. Unity between believers who are coming from diverse backgrounds. And yet the Apostle Paul takes it for granted that one of the reasons why disunity comes among God's people is because they genuinely are living out their lives as they ought to live out their lives. And how ought they to live out their lives? It is simply this, saving the Lord. It is saving the Lord. And it is because they are serving the Lord consequently that this disunity between Jews and Gentiles come in. Let me quickly try and give us a quick background. Imagine a member of this church. who only arrives just as the service is beginning, parks the car, comes in, squeezes somewhere here, and as soon as the service is over, greets the pastor at the door, jumps into the car, and is gone until next week. Now, that's about half of our membership, by the way, so I'm not describing a very strange animal. Imagine that person doing that for the next 10 years. Here's my question. Will that person ever clash with other believers here? Never. That person doesn't even know what's happening in your individual lives. At least the kind of examples we have here about whether someone is observing the Lord's Day or not, whether somebody is having a strictly godly diet by your definition, that person would not know. Why? Well, they don't visit you. They don't say to themselves, well, you know, my brother there has a funeral. My sister there has somebody who is sick. Let me go and visit. Let me attend to them and so on. They don't do that. And because they do not do things like that, they will never clash with you. But it's usually that Christian who feels a sense of duty. It is that person who will walk into our lives because they are connecting, they are fairly deliberate in relating to fellow believers. And so, for instance, we've had quite a number of sicknesses in the church in the recent past. I could drop names here, but the bottom line is a number of children have ended up in hospital for a number of our parents in this church, one after the other. In fact, one of the families, the baby has even died. Now it's possible, for instance, that you can be a member of this church and you've not visited a single one of them. Zero. It's as if nothing has happened. Come Sunday, you still come to church. Go through the motions and go home. There's been nothing on your heart that, look, I'm a servant of Christ. I am the channel through which Jesus in today's world is blessing believers. And of course, seeking to serve the unbelievers. And therefore, it is my duty as a member of this body to be as Christ within this body. And therefore, I will do something about this. I have earned a bit of money, my salary, I help out. I have a bit of fuel in my car, let me go and visit this one who has had a funeral, and another one who has had a sickness, and so on. I will make phone calls to find out how they are doing, and so on. Because it's Christ working in me. Now it is when you are doing things like that, that you begin to brush shoulders with fellow believers. You are at your home and you go to the kitchen because you are helping perhaps with the cooking, there's a sickness, you open the fridge and you find some alcohol there. That's when these things are beginning to come up while you are there. You are serving the Lord. You begin to ask serious questions when you are there. And these things begin to happen. You go from church, like right now, it's the Lord's Day, and bang, you say from church, let's go and visit those brethren and so on. And you get there and you find they did not come to church, but they are watching Arsenal versus whatever, Sheffield. But, you know, they must change for this. And so issues that are being dealt with here begin to be dealt with. In other words, the point I'm trying to make out of this is that when the Apostle Paul says, whoever that saves Christ, he's saying whoever saves Christ in this way. So it is the in this way that he's trying to deal with. But the first part, whoever saves Christ, he's just taking it for granted. So here you are. You've not seen this brother or sister for a while in church. And you say, this week, I'm going to visit her. I'm going to visit her. And you go. And as you visit, you find the kind of company they are keeping, the kind of things that are happening. You stumble. You begin to address it. It is while you are serving the Lord. And brethren, I'm very concerned about this. that we could be reading phrases like this without realizing that they are taking certain things for granted. And what they're taking for granted is this, that we are, as Christians, we are servants of the Lord. Now the word that the Apostle Paul uses here for serving the Lord, whoever thus saves Christ, is actually not the word diakonos, which has to do with being a servant. It's a normal word. But it is the word duros, which has to do with being a slave. Being a slave. In other words, it's someone who has made a total surrender of his life and of his rights to Christ. That's what he's talking about here. So it's not the kind of employment that you have with your employers where you even knock off at 17 hours. You've knocked off. Now you've got your own private life to live. No, no, no, no. The phrase he's using there is one where everything about you, your employment, your talents, your money, your time, your everything belongs to Christ. The point I want to make is this, that it's the only Christianity in the Bible. There is no other. And the kind of Christianity we've gotten used to around us, trust me, beloved brethren, it might be acceptable to us, but it's a backdoor into hell. That's what it is. It's a backdoor into hell. If you have not utterly and completely surrendered everything about you to Christ, you are not yet a real Christian. Because remember, Jesus hung upon the cross 100%. He died in order to purchase us to himself. Now, you don't pay such a price and then accept to enter a negotiating table where some people it's 50% and others it's other percentages. No, no, no. You demand the whole or nothing. The whole or nothing. In other words, the question I'm asking as we move on is this. Have you surrendered everything to Christ in your life, your entire area? Do you go through the process? How does Christ want me to use my money? How does Christ want me to live this way? How does Christ want me to function as a father, as a mother, as a child? How does Christ want everything? It is how does Christ want me to do this? Now, one test we can use. In fact, you don't even have to do it yourself in terms of passing judgment. Give it to your friend. Let me tell you the example I'm thinking about. Your Facebook page. Give it to a friend of yours and then say to that friend, go through the last one month, two months, three months, and just tell me, who am I serving? you may be shocked to discover that you think you save the manager of Manchester City, or Manchester United, or Arsenal, or Liverpool, or something, or that you save yourself. Because, strictly speaking, when one looks there, It's hard to find Christ. Your master is difficult to find. And the good thing with that is it's in black and white, because you can't change it. If someone said, OK, what do you talk about with your friends? We always want to remember the last time we ever said anything about Christ. Brethren, listen to me. There's nothing in the Bible about full-time servants of the Lord and part-time servants of the Lord. If Christ has died for you and you've come to him, you surrendered everything. Everything to him. Everything. And I'm not suggesting that there should be no football there, but what I'm suggesting is that anybody who sees the football there can see that the ambience that is there, the way you are processing everything, that this is a servant of Christ. Is a servant of Christ. This is what Christianity is. But let's hurry on, because that's just something Paul takes for granted, and I want to just make sure that we don't miss it. What he is really saying is this, that it is possible to save Christ wrongly. That's what he's saying. It is possible to save Christ wrongly. And because of that possibility, we must save Christ in a way that is acceptable to God. And then later on, acceptable to man as well. Let's look at the God side. So I'll change the phrasing a little bit. Whoever saves Christ in this way, that's what that little thus means. Whoever saves Christ in this way, In other words, whoever does not save Christ in this way is not acceptable to God. The point being made there is that it is possible to save Christ and to do it wrongly, to do it the wrong way. What is the right way? The Apostle Paul is coming from the previous verse. And let me try and put it this way to you. The right way is when you are putting first things first. The right way is when you differentiate between that which is a primary issue and that which is a secondary issue. That's the right way. And then you lay emphasis on that which is the primary issue. And it's not saying that the secondary is not important at all, but it is when these two are at loggerheads, they are coming to clash, that you say, I know what is most important and that's what I will seek to maintain. Let's look at the previous verses. I'll begin from verse 14. I know and I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. In other words, I can eat anything and it doesn't damage my relationship with the Lord. Then he says, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean. So for that other person, if he eats something that he genuinely thinks is unclean, then he genuinely thinks he has become defiled. He has a guilty conscience. Verse 15, for if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. So it may be okay for you, but that brother for whom this is unclean, genuinely so, he is affected spiritually. And if I keep insisting that, after all, it's my right. After all, why should I determine my behavior, what I do or not do, by what you can't do. I mean, it's up to you. If that's the way I'm doing things, I'm no longer acting in love. I'm no longer acting in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. Do not let what you regard as good to be spoken of as evil. In other words, be willing to compromise on it. Be willing to let go. Be willing. It might be your favorite menu, let go of it for the sake of that other brother. Why? Because it's a secondary issue. It's a secondary issue. What is it that's a primary issue? Well, he comes to it now in verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking. Okay, so that's secondary. But of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is what is primary. That is what you do not compromise on. And Paul goes on to say that whoever thus saves Christ, whoever saves Christ in this way, who's able to say that righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, these are non-negotiable. I must fight hard to maintain these in the context of God's kingdom. And that's why I'm pouring my everything. Everything else I'm willing to let go. I'm willing to let go. But this I'm willing to die for. It is a hill worth dying for. He is saying such a person is saving Christ the right way. The right way. In other words, saving Christ the wrong way. is when you are fighting, putting up a gallant fight for things that are personal qualms, personal scruples. Things which, for you to finally arrive at the Ten Commandments, you need to go through ten steps. You know, since this is true, therefore this must be true. And because this must be true, this must also be true. And then finally, you arrive at one of the commandments. Well basically what has happened is you've begun long way off with your own scruples, your own qualms. Someone else will actually see things rather differently from you. Don't fight over those things to the point where in the Lord's service you even cause disunity in the church. Don't! That's what Paul is saying. Learn to put first things first. God delights in this kind of wisdom. Look at the example of Christ in chapter 15 and verse 7, which is the example that he's really giving us. Chapter 15 and verse 7. It says, therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. How did Christ welcome us? When we got converted, let me tell you, it was that there was sincere repentance. Sincere repentance. We came, we surrendered our all to Him, and there was sincere repentance, trust in Him, He welcomed us. But here's the point. We were still carrying a lot of baggage from our past. A lot of it. And you only have to be a Christian 10 years to 20 years to look back to your first few years and be utterly ashamed. Utterly ashamed of some of the things that you were still entertaining. And yet, it was because of blindness. It wasn't a stubbornness that was causing you to cling on to those things. It was simply, it was your way of life. You came with that baggage. And over the years, the Lord has been helping you to get over them. He didn't say, no, I have nothing to do with you until you are like me. So you stay there. Because if he did, let's face it, up to today, none of us would have fellowship with him because he knows too much. He saw the sincerity of faith, the sincerity of repentance. He welcomed us and then began to work with us. In other words, Jesus kept first things first. The primary issues are what he jealously guarded. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And then he's been dealing with the rest over the years. And that's all that Paul is saying. He's saying we must be like Jesus. That's all he's saying. Be like Jesus. And as you are serving the Lord and you are getting into one another's lives, you will be finding so much that needs to be swept out of one another's houses, so to speak. The issue is to learn what the primary issues are and then having dealt with that, begin to deal with the rest. Let me hurry on to the second part. He says, whoever thus saves Christ is acceptable to God. and approved by men. Approved by men. That's the second. It is possible to save Christ wrongly, so we need to save Christ in a way that is approved by men. approved by men. What is Paul talking about? It is the exact opposite of what he said in verse 16. Let's go back to verse 16. Verse 16 he says, so do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. In other words, where you have other brethren in the Lord, in the church, or as I will soon show you, even people with common sense in society, that they should be looking at you and being disgusted by what you're doing. Genuinely disgusted. He's saying, don't allow that. That individuals should look at the way you are living as a Christian and say, if that's Christianity, I want nothing to do with it. He's saying, don't allow that. Whereas my concern on my first point about saving Christ was that we have too many people that just don't see their lives under the question, how am I saving the Lord in this area? And with respect to acceptable to God, again we have too many individuals who fail to make the distinction between That which is a primary issue. Things that have to do with salvation. Things that have to do with the major doctrines of the faith. And the things that are personal qualms and scruples. But in this particular case, my concern is that we have too many individuals who have a false view of Christianity. And it is this, that human opinions don't matter. That's the view they have. Human opinions don't matter. What matters is God's opinion. Now this text is not saying that. It is saying God's opinion matters and human opinion matters as well. Let's read it again. He says, whoever thus saves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Both the Lord and human beings are saying this person serves Christ in the right way, in the right way. Now in case you think this is a rare situation, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 8 and 21 actually applies it to himself. and it is with respect to many issues, many issues. Let me begin from verse 16. It's really verse 21 I want, but I want to give the context. Maybe I can even give you the context, just as a description. There was famine in Judea. The Apostle Paul was collecting money from different churches in order to send that money to Judea. That's what this is all about. And Corinth, as you know, was a province in Europe. So that's not in Asia. It was in Europe. And it was in Achaia, the province of Achaia. That's where Corinth as a city was. So he's now talking about the way in which he's collecting money in the Europe section in order to take the money down to to Judea. Listen to this. With him, we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our goodwill. Okay, so there are at least three brothers. that will be traveling with Paul as they are collecting this money. At least three brothers. And the other thing is, at least one of them, it's not Paul who chose him, it's the churches that chose him. And they chose him because of his testimony. He is a well-known individual among them with enough integrity. So Paul is an apostle. But he deliberately saying, I have chosen this one and that one, and that one, you yourselves have chosen him. The churches have appointed him. Verse 20. We take this course, in other words, we are deliberately doing this, having so many people handing the money, so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us. For we aim at what is honorable, not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of men. And then he adds this other one, verse 22. And with them, that is those that have already been mentioned, we are sending our brother, whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. And so the Apostle Paul is saying, although I'm an apostle, and although I genuinely want to save the Lord, so the Lord knows my heart, that this is all about helping the brethren in Judea. I'm however doing it in a way that doesn't just please the Lord, but it satisfies human beings. So human beings, when they test the process, they will see that, yes, it is not possible for the Apostle Paul to have stolen money unless he corrupted everybody else. But how could he have corrupted these particular individuals whom we know and we are the ones who chose them. So he puts a system in place that's honorable before men as well. And so, when collecting the money, he's not collecting it alone. He's collecting it with three or four other people, some of whom are chosen by the churches. They count together. They all add up the figures. When they now arrive in Judea and hand over the money, they count that money with all these people present. They count. Is the money the same as that which was collected in Europe? Yes. They all confirm it's the same. They are able to get back to the churches and say, the money you gave arrived. We were there, we saw it. We were present in the collecting, we were present in the giving. And it tallied. So it's honorable before God and also before men. Now brethren, it is a hyper-spirituality that says, no, I don't need systems around me, no. I should be trusted with money. I should be. What should I do? The Apostle Paul is saying, although I expected to be trusted, I wanted to do it in a way that is also honorable before men. It's approved before men. Now back to our text, therefore. This is no more The way we go about Christian service must be in a way that any godly person will say, yes, this is how you serve the Lord. Now, I do need to add that whereas the apostle Paul would have had in mind godly individuals, he also includes mere common sense. Mere common sense. Another example is when he speaks about dressing. In this particular case, it has to do with hair. short hair or long hair in 1 Corinthians and chapter 11 about head covering. Just listen to verse 14, chapter 11 and verse 14. I'll begin from verse 13. Judge for yourselves, he's saying. That is, you are sitting there, you are godly men and women, judge for yourselves, he says. Is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? And just in case we're quarreling over what discovering is, he goes to talk about it in verse 14 and 15. Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace for him? But if a woman has long hair, it is her glory. for her hair is given to her for a covering. It's basically saying, you know, nature teaches some things just naturally. You don't even need to argue about it because that's just the way God made us. Anyone with common sense should be able to see that this is wrong or this is right or this is the way we go about things. And so in that sense brethren, if we can come back to our application here, it's possible to be in a church and to make what you eat such a contentious issue That even when people now ask, so why did they split? And it was over whether you can eat vegetables or meat. That's why they split! At years. The people shake their heads. They may not even be converted. They just shake their heads and say, I don't know what's wrong with you people. I honestly don't know. But it's true, brethren, some of the issues that cause contention in the church, you sort of pause for a moment and say, we don't have things to fight about. Then we should be fighting about this. Don't we have real sins to fight over? Real issues of godliness to fight over. The point is, there's such a thing as being a contentious person that puts other people off. It just puts them off. They end up labeling you as somebody who just wants fighting. And they dissociate themselves from you. Why? It is because the way you are serving Christ is a way that is not approved by men. So let me ask, are you guilty of this? Are you guilty of being a person who fights over almost everything? Almost everything. You can't differentiate between the fact that this is a preference of mine. That's all it is, a preference. And therefore, everybody around you just feels disgusted by you. Let's hurry on to close. Because today the Apostle Paul is asserting that we need to bear in mind what it means to save Christ a right. And we save Christ a right when we do it in a way that pleases God and in a way that is approved by mature believers. proved even by the common sense that God has given us as human beings. And the way we do it is the way that finally glorifies God. Three words, and I close. Number one, I've already touched on it as I was preaching. It's the failure to realize this that results in petty fights in the church. Petty. But those petty fights, they cause two things. Number one, a church shrinks, and number two, a church splits. The failure to recognize this destroys churches. And that's what Paul is dealing with here. Number two, sometimes the failure to differentiate between the bigger picture, the primary issues, and that which is secondary, is because of lack of conversion. It's because you've entered into the church with your own agenda, not Christ's agenda, with your own. And that's the thing you want to fight for, and fight for, and fight for, and fight for, and it's got very little to do with righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And if you are in that category, the least you can do for yourself before you die is to go to Jesus and say, Jesus, save me. Change this heart of mine so that I should want what you want. That that which is big business for you should be big business for me. Often, it's a sign of lack of confession. Lack of confession. And then thirdly and lastly, we should keep first things first. And it is when we keep first things first that we find that what we want to do is to simply be God's servant to others. to save Christ by being the channel through which God is blessing his people. That's life. That's the Christian life. And therefore, your number one plea with the saints is, brother, let me be your servant. Between last Sunday and today, seven days have gone by. Who have you served? Who? When you deliberately said, today when I knock off, I need to go and find out what's happening in that brother's life, what's happening in that sister's life. Or maybe not even finding out. It is the fact that you know what has happened. And you've said, I'm not going home, I'm going there. I know I'll be tired, but I'm going there. Who? Who is it that you've been thinking about that, you know, when I get paid this month end, I need to help out that brother or that sister. Because friends, that's real Christianity. It's actual service. It's not because you are related somewhere else. No, no, no. It's just that these are brethren in the Lord. The end of the year is coming. And as usual, KPC has a lot of evangelistic activities. Which ministry are you involved in and you are, together with other brethren, planning and working towards a major onslaught for Christ? And you're putting in your time, you're putting in your money, you're putting in your intelligence. I want to repeat, that's real Christianity. This business of simply going to church and going home, going to church and going home, one day you won't go to church, you'll go to hell. You'll miss church and land in hell. Christ loved the church enough to die for it. You can't turn it into simply I'm there and I'm gone. There must be a deliberate way in which you've interconnected with this body. Long before you even talk in terms of membership, you would have already interconnected. Because it's real. It's real. You come into town and you already interconnect with the brethren. You are already serving Christ. May it be, brethren, that the day You will be lying in a coffin here. And we are all shedding tears. May the testimony in our hearts be that we have lost a servant of Christ. And do you know it? That we have lost a servant of Christ. Because we all know in our hearts who saves Christ and who doesn't. Those who save Christ have been servants in our lives. We know it. Without saying it in words, they've said it in their lives. Brother, let me be your servant. Amen.