direct in all things. We thank You for being such a gracious, merciful, wonderful God. We thank You for guiding us in life and helping us to, Lord, have You to look to to be our power and our hope. In Jesus' name, Amen. Turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 14. Romans chapter 14 as we go through the book of Romans. Romans 14, you know, talking about meats and special days. If you remember, all that is nailed to the cross. Today, there is no meat type of restrictions. In other words, in the Old Testament, if you go through there, and I think it's Leviticus 11, you couldn't eat shrimp, you couldn't eat lobster, you couldn't... You couldn't eat pork. So, you know, if you like a good stack of ribs, sorry. Now, we're going to read today that there are no more restrictions today. And for those that place those restrictions on you, they're wrong. They themselves can have a conviction, and by the way, if they are under conviction that they shouldn't eat those things, it's sin to them that do. So if you believe it's wrong, you need to follow what the Bible says. It's funny, we were talking about bread the other day and how everybody dogs bread today, but really it's like dogging milk and dogging butter. Margarine, somebody came up and had a new thing they wanted to do, so they said, butter's bad, eat margarine. As soon as I got out of my house, I never ate margarine again, and then we all switched over and we found out Butter's not so bad. Margarine's, you know, if it tastes like death, it probably is. Same way with bread. The reason bread is bad is because they've taken all the nutrients out in order to give it more shelf life, GMO, all that. So, it isn't that something's bad because Jesus, as was pointed out, Jesus is the bread of life. Bread is good, so long as you eat the right bread. And that's the problem we have today. They are manufacturing things to give it a long shelf life. They pick fruit. that'll stay on the shelf for a long time because the groceries don't want to lose money. So, it's not about your health. In fact, it's anti-health. Most everything you see going on is they shoot hormones in animals in order to get them to grow faster, chickens to get them to the market faster, and then the hormones go in the children, the children are maturing faster. Why is that? Well, it's because they're putting hormones in there that continue to the growth process. So it's a catch-22. If we say something is bad, it's really the GMO and all the manufactured stuff they do. But here's the thing now. We're talking spiritual now. That's physical health. Now we're going to get into the spiritual realm. Look at verse 1. And just look at this first verse of chapter 14 verse 1, "...him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations." Don't argue over insignificant matters. Listen, if somebody wants to be a vegan, let him be a vegan. A vegetarian, let him be a vegetarian. I mean, if they want to push it on you, that's where the line's drawn. I'm not going to be a vegan. I'm not going to be a vegetarian. I'm going to eat meat. If you ever saw that movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding or something like that. Anybody ever see that? Come on, raise your hands. We had a friend of ours who was Greek and his wife was not, and she said, if you understand George, then you need to watch this movie. So we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And in there, you know, her boyfriend was a vegan or vegetarian, and the Greek, you know, wild, loud aunt says, oh, you eat no meat! I make you lamb. Lamb is meat, but I make you some lamb. It's a funny story. It's a loud story about the Greeks, and it really gives you a great exposure to their mentality, just how they are. I mean, it's funny because you can see our friends in the movie, like the Italians, too. Look at verse 2. Now, I've just offended two people groups. Just didn't want to leave the Greeks alone. Chapter 14, verse 2, For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. So what does it say? It just smacks the other side in the face. It says, look, if you're spiritually weak, you believe you can only eat herbs. Isn't that amazing? The Bible gives the answer to all the ruckus that goes on around the world. It says, look, If you're a weak person in the faith, meaning you don't know your Bible, then you will tell people they can only be a vegetarian even though God produced all things and said it's good for us. Now again, what makes it bad is science. falsely so-called, because if they really cared about science, they wouldn't be allowing people to sell out our future by injecting things into our food system. But, one believeth that he made all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Now look at chapter 15, verse 1, because it talks about those that are weak, and now in 15.1, he says, we then that are strong, spiritually strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification, for even Christ please not himself. So you look at that and you go, he that is weak, receive but not to doubtful disputation. So, you know, I don't have to argue with everybody just because I'm right. You say, well, that sounded really cocky. No, if I'm right and I know I'm right, My job is to give truth out, but it's not to argue with everybody to convince them they're wrong. If you spend all your time trying to convince people they're wrong, you will spend your time with 50% of the United States convincing them that they are wrong about what they believe. We already know 50% has lost their mind. It was in the election. Just had to do the election thing for a minute. Now look at verse 3. Talking about meats. 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. Again, what's the point? The point that I'm getting at is, listen, you may know the truth, and somebody else doesn't know the truth, you try to help them, but the Bible says, listen, don't despise them. Our problem is we take things personal. Well, I can eat whatever I want. You don't believe you can eat whatever you want. You don't believe I can eat whatever I want. And then you despise them for what they believe. Listen, if they have a true conviction about it, help them, but don't despise them. That's the problem is we have all these divisions. Now, if you come in this church and you start teaching everybody that they can only eat herbs, you won't live long in here, but let's say you try to go around and convince everybody, I would probably try to stop you because it's my responsibility. However, if we had somebody come through the door and they go, look, I'm a vegetarian for spiritual reasons. And they told me because look at the Old Testament. And I'd say, well, you know, all that's nailed to the cross and it's done away with. I'd give them a little bit, look at their face. They don't want to agree. I'm not going to despise them. Come sit down. I probably won't even preach on it. because it isn't my job to fix them the first time they walk in the door. And by the way, if you have people that come in the door and they don't necessarily agree with us, just let it go. Give them time. Let them understand that, look, it's a maturing process, a growth process. When I came in that door 44 years ago, I didn't know anything. All I knew was there's some guys teaching the Bible here and they gave me enough to convince me I needed to come visit. So let him come visit. So as you go through, look at verse 4. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own mastery standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another. Another esteemeth every day alike. Does that include Sundays? Is Sunday part of every day alike? So if you look at me, and listen, I am an anomaly. I have people that, you know, go to other churches and they say, well, I don't even email on Sunday because it's work. And I look at them and I go, okay, I won't email you. You know, but I'm telling you, if I've got something to do on a Sunday, sometimes I will do it, sometimes I'll refrain for testimony's sake. But you say, well, no, you have to have a day of rest. It's probably a good idea for most people. You tell me how I'm going to rest on Sundays. Oh, well, then you should have another day. What, for spiritual reasons or for physical reasons? If I don't need it, I don't do it. If I need it, I get sick and I'm out for a week. That is why I believe God lets a little sickness come in our life in order to slow us down for a little while and let us sleep longer and watch football all day. I wasn't even sick yesterday and I watched football all day. Just because that's what I wanted to do yesterday. Now I worked, I have my computer on my lap and I did some work. But what I'm telling you is it's not really your business to tell me how to live my life. Not my business to tell you how to live your life. As a pastor, people look at pastors and they go, no, you gotta tell us, what kind of car do I need to buy? Just stop. I got enough problems in my life, and they aren't very many, but I don't wanna micromanage your life. I want to manage my life and my wife can manage my life as best she can try to intervene. She's shaking her head like, why do you throw me under the bus? She doesn't micromanage my life. I'm just telling you that. She is a good wife who isn't normal. Now, I've offended all of the females. So right now, I have the Italians, the Greeks, and 50% of the population. Actually, I'd say it's higher than that because women outlive men for whatever reason. That's why I married an older woman, so we could just die at the same time. Gosh, where does these things go? Verse 5. Verse 5. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth 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. In other words, Just both are serving the Lord on opposite sides of the fence. Can you imagine that? Somebody that doesn't know exactly what you think you know is serving the Lord. Doesn't that really blow your mind as independent Baptists that know everything? That is our problem. We get into these things and we think, well, we're right. And listen, we know a lot of Bible, no doubt about it. If you've been in church as long as I have, 40 plus years, and you've been in Bible-believing Baptist, independent King James Bible-believing Baptist churches, you've learned a lot of Bible. But it doesn't need to make you so heavenly-minded that you're no earthly good. We have to figure out how to live in a world that doesn't know truth. We have to find out how to live in a world where we can help people that haven't seen what we've seen and try to help them to mature along. But you don't do it by looking down on people. I know the truth. You don't know the truth. I'm better than you. Not according to that Bible. Each man esteemeth everyday life. Now, look. I don't place one day above another. Now, what do I do on Sunday? I come to church on Sunday. Why? Because Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday. because Jesus had them gathering on a Sunday. It's not the Sabbath day. It isn't like you're going to be stoning me because I'm gathering sticks on a Sabbath day like they did in the Old Testament. Listen, a lot of Old Testament stuff, great. That's Israel. That's the Jews. All that's nailed to the cross. But the point is we have got to figure out how to figure out to get along but not compromise. I'm uncompromising. I believe what I believe because I know truth. But it doesn't mean that I need to bash everybody else and we've had a habit of doing that in general. Look at Philippians 1 because this will be very telling if you pay attention to what it says. Philippians 1 Verse 14, now watch this context very carefully because it'll get you. And many of the brethren in the Lord, who are we talking about? Christians. Waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Boy, I like that. If you would get bold, you might get other people bold. You know why I do what I do in the community? Because I want to show people a little boldness. You say, well, people look at it and think, well, you're cocky, or you're conceited, or you're arrogant. Guess what? People say, I'm arrogant, I'm cocky, I'm conceited, whatever they say. But there's a fine line between that and just being bold. I know what I know, and therefore I'm bold. And I'm unapologetic. Verse 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife. That's bad. And some also of good will. The one preach Christ of contention. Notice they're preaching Christ. Not sincerely supposed to add affliction to my bonds. They preach Christ of contention, but they're still preaching Christ. but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. Some preach Christ's contention, some of love. What then? Here's your answer. Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice and will rejoice." So what if everybody hadn't crossed their eyes? Yeah, what if they don't cross their eyes and dot their T's? What if they don't... I can't even say it right now. What if they don't cross their T's and dot their I's like you and me? I therein rejoice, so long as they preach Christ. See, there's the dividing line. You've got a church that teaches some false doctrine. And what do you do? They preach Jesus Christ, buried rose again, you've got to be saved by trusting in Him, you believe on Him, you're eternally saved. You rejoice they're doing that part of the work. Now that's different. See, the thing is, you rejoice over that, it doesn't mean you compromise, you change your position. You just figure out how to encourage them to preach Christ. And through your boldness, they may preach Christ more. Now again, I wish everybody could know the Bible. I really do. But not everybody's gonna know the Bible. You know what you and I need to do if we know some Bible? We need to rejoice that God was merciful to us and gracious to us and gave us truth and knowledge and understanding. But we do not need to be condemning others that preach Christ. That's the guy. You say, well, what if they don't preach Christ? That's a whole different ballgame, and I'm not dealing with that right now. I'm dealing with churches and groups that actually teach and preach the gospel. I will tell you this, when I first got saved, I went to a church, Never heard the gospel there, but somebody in an apartment around here showed me I was lost, I needed Jesus my Savior, I got saved. July 6, 1980, you know what I wanted to do? I wanted to go back to the pastor and I wanted to say, hey, are you saved? In a big old church around here, that's the largest church in this area right now. But I did talk to them since, and I actually slipped and said, yeah, I went to that church, and I never heard the gospel once, and I'm sitting with the assistant pastor of this new church, and I shouldn't have said it. And I'm talking to the guy that spawned off of that, and he goes, we preach Christ. And that was five years ago. And I learned, look, I gotta be more circumspect. I need to be careful because if they are teaching Christ, and I do believe that they are, then I need to rejoice. You say, well, look at all the programs and look at all the... Praise God they're preaching Christ. Why? Because they're going to reach people I'll never reach. See that? That means we can rejoice that souls are hearing the gospel, even if they don't get the rest of the story. Now, there are churches that teach a false gospel. I don't rejoice. They say, pray to anybody, pray to everybody. Everybody and all the saints can hear you, and they muddy the water and Christ isn't preached. I don't rejoice over that at all, and they need the gospel. Some of them need to get saved, no doubt about it. And they're condemning people to hell through religion. I don't rejoice over that. If they preach Christ, I therein rejoice. So look at verse 7 of Romans chapter 14. He says, For none of us live to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. You know who you belong to? You belong to Christ. If you're saved, you belong to Christ. We are the Lord's. 1 Corinthians 6.19 says you are not your own. Mark 9.41 says you belong to Christ. Ye are the Lord's. We do not own ourselves. He owns me. And by the way, that reflects in my life. If I don't own myself, then I ought to live in a way that I submit to Him, and as I submit to Him, He guides me in things and directs me, and I understand the direction I'm supposed to go. And then, you know, some of you may look at it and go, well, gosh, why does He do this and this and this? I'll tell you why. Either I'm in the will of God, or I'm out of the will of God. That's it. You say, well, you're doing this. I'm either in the will of God or I'm out of the will of God. And it may not be your business to tell me I'm out of the will of God. I belong to Him and He needs to convict me and bring me into line with His will like He does every single one of us. And you've got to understand that. Here's the thing, draw nigh unto Him, He'll draw nigh unto you. You go, well, Lord's over there. Well, the Lord hadn't moved. I'm here. I used to be here. And the Bible says if I'll draw nigh unto Him, He will draw nigh unto me. But if you stay over here, He's not going to draw nigh unto you. So you go on, look at what he says. He says, verse 9, 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? Why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You do realize after you die, you're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and be judged for the things that you have done since you've been saved. And the Bible says we're going to see for the things that we've done whether it be good or bad. And so I'm not supposed to judge everybody else for the things they do because they're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I'm going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I'm not going to testify on their behalf. They're not going to testify on my behalf. They're going to stand alone. I'm going to stand alone. You're going to stand alone before the judgment seat of Christ. That's what the Bible says. Look at verse 11. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Philippians 2.10 says, every knee shall bow. It confirms that right there. You will bow before the Lord, and you will confess to God the things that you've done since you've been saved. You say, well, I haven't lived the perfect life. Nobody has. You'll be judged according to your work. You have a foundation. That foundation is Jesus Christ. And if you build wood, hay, and stubble on there, it's all gonna burn up. You build gold, silver, and precious stones, the Bible says it'll be tried by fire and it will last. You'll receive an eternal reward. What you do in this life determines your whole eternity for the future. And you just have to decide what's important. Your life in this life is a vapor that appeareth for a moment and vanisheth away. It goes... And that determines your whole eternity. I don't know about you, but I look at that and say, well, I've got an awesome responsibility and I've got to do what I've got to do in order to love the Lord, live for the Lord, and try to encourage others to do the same. Verse 12 again, So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that steameth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 1 Corinthians 6.12 says all things are lawful. If you believe something is wrong, that's called conscience. And if your conscience convicts you and you do it anyway, to you it's wrong, even if it's not wrong. If you believe it's wrong, it's wrong. And that's what's so neat about the Bible. You go, well, they don't know the truth, but they think this is wrong and that's why they don't do it. Well, if they don't do it, then it is wrong if they do it. You never try to convince somebody to do something you want them to do because you know the Bible, they don't know the Bible. Don't try to do it. You have to show them truth and let them see that. Verse 15, getting back to the meats again. But if thy brother, Christian, be grieved with thy meat, how walkest thou? Now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died. not then your good be evil spoken of. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." So what do we need to look for? Two things. Peace and edification. We need to edify others. The Bible tells you in 1 Corinthians 11, 23, all things edify not. We need to edify. We need to build up others. We need to help them mature and go strong and become spiritually strong. Edify one another. Verse 18, for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore follow... I already said that. Peace and edify. Verse 20, for meet... Again, that's the context we're looking at. Destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense." All things are pure. You can eat anything you want to eat. But if I went out to eat with a Messianic Jew, that's somebody that says, well, I'm still a Jew, but I'm saved. He's really not a Jew anymore, neither Jew nor Gentile in the body of Christ. But if he believes that and he says, I'm kosher. I don't eat pork. I'm not going to order pork in front of him. I follow the dietary laws of the Old Testament. I'm not going to order shrimp, and I order shrimp almost every time I eat. I'm not going to destroy the work of God. See, because His conscience, my edifying Him is more important than my rights. We're a society today, well, I've got rights. And that's the destruction of America. I have a right to spend your money. I mean, that's the way the government thinks. They get in an office and they go, well, how do I get your next vote? I've got a promise to give you more than the other guy. I remember I was talking to some student in school, a college student, and he was writing. He says, look at what Bernie Sanders is promising us, the tuition forgiveness. Look at what he's promising us. And I wrote on there and said, whose money is he spending? It's not free. You know why I spent four years in the military? Because my dad said, no, you're not going to go to college. You get a liberal arts degree from Harrisburg Area Community College. And I went, oh. He said, your two brothers went in the military. I just came out. You know where you're going? Yes, sir. I went in the military, and I got serious. I got saved. And I was like, man, they come in, and they salute that guy. And why do they salute him? Because they have a four-year degree, and this guy doesn't. I said, man, I'm going to go to college. And I went to college serious and studied and studied and studied and got an accounting degree, became a CPA later on. Why? Because I earned my education through four-year commitment. Nobody gave it to me free. You say, well, you didn't pay for it. Well, yeah, I did. I look back at how much money, I made $5,000 a year as a, you know, an airman in the military. You know, you say, and I signed on the dotted line, I could have gone anywhere. And if they told me go to this place, I went to that place. And if they told me to do this, I did this. And I said, yes, sir, and I did that. Because that's what the commitment was. And then they committed to me that if you do that, we have the old GI Bill, which I signed up December 76, right before it went out, because that's what my dad said to do. And I got the old GI Bill, and I went to college and got my degree. But I gave up four years of my life for the military in order to do that. Best move I ever made in my life. But you don't get a free ride. For me, destroy not the work of God. Verse 21, It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. You got somebody over here that doesn't believe they can eat certain meats, and if he eats them anyway, he's damning himself. Now, it doesn't mean damning to hell, it's condemnation. He's condemning himself, his conscience, because he believes he can't do it, and you're convincing him, not convincing him, but you're telling him he can do it, you get him to do it, and it's sin to him to do it, even though it is not sin in and of itself. Nothing is unclean, the Bible says. All that's nailed to the cross. And yet when you look at it, we get so wrapped up in it, we don't care about the other person enough to sacrifice ourselves. The Bible says, suffer yourselves to be defrauded. Why do you not rather take wrong? We think our rights, our rights, our rights, we're right, they're wrong. Don't condemn a brother because you're right and he's wrong. Do what is best for that brother. Get out of the way, self, self, self, and think about what joy is. You know, the acronym, J-O-Y, joy. Jesus, others, yourself. Joy. We're last. But we turn that around because we are in a society that says if you don't look out for number one, nobody else is going to look out for number one. You better get what you want. You better make sure that everybody knows that you're somebody to be reckoned with. You're a bull in a china shop around everything and everybody. No! That's not the way we're supposed to be. We're supposed to have a Christian spirit about us and put others before ourselves. And if we'll do that, even when we're right and they're wrong. I guess with my new watch I can't do that as much. Look at 1 Corinthians 8. 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and we'll close on this. He's talking about meats and drinks in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 again. I'm in 2 Corinthians and it doesn't work. 1 Corinthians chapter 8. He's talking about the meats and everything and about your liberty in verse 9. In verse 13, he says, Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. You have a brother that believes he can't eat. Paul, writing the Scripture and knew it better than anybody else, said, I will eat no meat spiritually in front of a brother that makes him offended, because not offending Him is more important than my rights. I will eat no meat while the world standeth, so I won't make my brother to offend." Well, that's a simple thing to take into the new year. It'd be great if all of us, and me too, would live so that we would not be so offensive in what we know. It's okay to live, listen, if you know something and you live right and you do right, fine. But don't push everybody else down because they haven't lived up to your standard. That is the problem. Well, I got these standards and, you know, And I got these convictions and everybody needs to be like me because, no, you're so proud you don't understand that you are the sinner in this case. Think about it. Let's all stand together. We'll start again in about 14 minutes. You are dismissed.