And I invite you to turn again this evening to Romans chapter 14. If you're using the Bibles in the seats, it's page 948. Page 948. And we'll be considering this evening just the end of the chapter, verses 19 through 23. Romans 14, verses 19 through 23. This morning we looked primarily at what not to do with a brother or a sister who is weaker or stronger in faith than you in the context of what the Bible speaks of as disputable matters. And we touched on it. We want to look more carefully this evening at what you are to do. And this could be summarized under a particular word that's found over and over in the scripture some 60 times in the New Testament in its various forms. And I have to confess it's a word that I'm partial to because of its sound, its edify, to build up. But I'm also partial to it for its imagery. If you've been in my office, perhaps you've noticed I have a photo from a calendar from many, many years ago that Nancy and I had. It's an Amish barn raising. And in this photo are over 700 men putting up a fairly substantial barn in a morning. And the reason I like that photo is because it pictures community working together. And the church is a community that works together and builds each other up. The structure that we are building is not an Amish barn, but the very church of Jesus Christ. And so listen to God's word, Romans 14, beginning in verse 19 through the end of the chapter. So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. And please join me in seeking God's favor in prayer. Our Father in heaven, would You open our eyes to understand and to behold You from Your Word this evening? Might we hear from Christ speaking through Your Word? And might we understand how to live in response to your word, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. So how is it that you as the church, particularly in this context, but of course there's a broader application, how is it that you are to build one another up? Well, it begins right there at the beginning of verse 19. Pursue peace. Pursue peace. Literally, it's pursue the peace. It's pursue, as it translates here in the ESV, what makes for peace. And that pursuit, it's the same kind of idea that the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12 verse 14, pursue peace with everyone and holiness. Without it, no one will see the Lord. It's this running after, it's the stretching of an athlete for the finish line. It's a word that can be used in a negative sense to persecute. And it's used all through the New Testament that way. It has this sense of an aggressive pursuit. And even the lexicon suggests even the word expel. And the image that comes to my mind is a baseball umpire expelling. a player or a manager. It's not a casual thing. It's not a, excuse me, would you mind walking off the field now? It's get out. You're done. You're gone. And that's in the negative sense, but in the positive sense, it's that same kind of aggressive pursuit, running after whatever promotes peace. Whatever promotes peace. That's the goal in our relationship with one another, particularly in the context of these matters of dispute. Matters in which the scripture does not command nor forbid. And yet where there's disagreement among Christians. How do you act? How do you react with your brother if he differs with you on these matters of opinion? How you act, how you react according to the scripture is you do whatever promotes peace. We know what peace is. It's the absence of war. It's harmony between individuals. The word that's used here is primarily describing a state of being. It's that you are at peace with this one. The lexicon suggests it's a sharp opposition to war. It uses these words, it's passionately asserted, emotionally felt and palpable opposite of war. And so I think we could we could understand that it needs to be a passively asserted peace. It needs to be an emotionally felt peace. It needs to be a palpable peace. That is, you can touch it, you can feel it, you can pursue it. Now, we know, of course, that it's possible to pursue a false peace. Jeremiah, God rebuked his people, as he says, they've treated my people's brokenness superficially, claiming peace, peace, when there is no peace. And so it's not merely that we say we're at peace, it has to be something that's really there. Those of you who are history buffs or older than some others, at least will remember the account of William Chamberlain meeting with Hitler in September 30th, 1938, and signing a peace treaty with Nazi Germany. And he came back to Britain under fanfare. People were delighted they were going to be peace, and he announced, it is peace for our time. And just less than a year later, Germany was at war with the United Kingdom. And so it's possible to promote a false peace that's not really there. It's also possible to promote a weak peace, a peace that has no strength. Ezekiel speaks of that kind of peace. The prophet says, by the inspiration of God, they had led my people astray by saying, peace where there is no peace. And since when a flimsy wall is being built, they plaster it with whitewash. In other words, they're building something, they're building a wall, but they're not very good at it, or it's not very strong. So let's paint it white. It'll be stronger then, won't it? Now, you probably used paint to cover something up before, and that's kind of the image that's going on here. But the Scripture is not calling for a false peace. It's not calling for a weak peace. The goal is not appeasement. Appeasement is often compromise at the sacrifice of principles. That's not what it's being called for. In this context, we might imagine that someone was trying for appeasement rather than peace. Someone who's stronger than others who are convinced they shouldn't eat meat. Someone's convinced that they can't eat meat. And they say, you know what? We want to all be at peace. And so let's just make a rule that no one can ever eat meat anytime. No, that's not what the scripture is asking for. There may be times that you won't eat meat to be sure, but it's not an appeasement. It's a seeking of peace. It's a recognition of your brother and sister. We are together in Christ. This difference, it's not a trivial difference, but it's a difference between two people who are at peace with God. And if you're not at peace with God, then you can't really be at peace with someone else in an ultimate sense. Romans, Paul speaks earlier in Romans 5 about that peace. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God. And if you've not been justified by faith, you don't have peace with God, and you're not going to be able to very consistently carry out a desire to be at peace with one another. You're not going to be able to promote peace genuinely from the heart if you're not, first of all, at peace with God by justification through faith. The commitment of the Christian who's at a difference with another Christian is to say, I will not be at war with regard to these differences in these disputable matters. I will be at peace. I will not be at war. Pursue whatever promotes peace. Pursue whatever builds up. And again, it's right there in that first verse. Pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification, for mutual up building. Paul talks to the Ephesians in a similar way, speaks of the work that God is doing in building the church, that in Him, the whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him, you also are being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit. And then a little bit later in chapter 4, he talks about how that happens by the members of the church. Christ gives leaders to the church in order to equip the saints so they can do works of ministry so that the body of Christ will be built up. The goal is unity in the faith, agreement as much as possible, maturity in Christ's likeness until the whole body is built up in love. That's what we're about. We're trying to build up the body of Christ in love. And so if you have a difference of opinion on these disputable matters, ask questions like, how can I build up this brother? How can I build up this sister? How can we together become more built up in Christ? How can we together become more Christ-like? How can I take part in what Jesus said he's doing? I will build my church, Jesus says, but he invites us to participate in that work. It's his work, but he includes us in the work. Maybe it's not entirely different from a father who's working on some kind of a construction project at home, and a young son or a young daughter says, Dad, can I help? And he knows, well, there won't really be any help. But sure, you can hold the nails or you can hand me the hammer. The amount of work that we can do compared to what Christ is doing, there's a far greater divide than from a child who's not really able to help his father in some kind of a construction project. But God enables us, God calls us to be involved with Him. Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. And so we can build. We can build alongside with God. We can build alongside with Christ. And our efforts are small compared to what God is doing. But that's what we're to pursue. How can I take part in the Lord building his house? How can I take part in Jesus building his church with this brother, this sister? Don't don't think of this in the abstract. Think of a person with whom you disagree. Don't look around. But it can be real right here at Springs Reform Church. There could be someone that we disagree with on something that's not commanded nor forbidden. How can I be at peace with them and how can I build them up? How can I pay them the debt of love that I will never be done paying? How can I love them as a brother and a sister? How can I pursue peace with them? Can I run after peace? Can I run after building them up? And you might ask, well, how long do we have to do it? Only until the body of Christ is completely built up in Christ. In other words, for your whole life, for the rest of your life, until the building is done. When the building is done, when Springs Reform Church is fully sanctified, then you can stop. Because from that point on, you'll be in glory and you'll be praising God forever. Some of you have been working on this building for a long time. And guess what? The work's not done. Now, if we looked at the proportion of the work that has been done and the work that's yet to be done, I think we're past half. I think we're well past half. I think we can look and say, hey, I think we could even get to the point where we thought the work at this church building was done. But we'll never get to the point where the work at this church is done. The work of building up, the work of promoting peace, continue to do that. And the pursuit of peace is seen in the absence of destruction. So not only are you called to pursue peace, but you're called to not destroy or, as the outline says, don't destroy. Imagine with me, I know many of you haven't seen it, but that Amish barn raising that I talked about. Imagine 700 Amish men scattered across a building, a wood structure, going up in a morning. And then imagine, and in that photo, there are a few people who are at the base of some of the significant timbers that are holding the structure up, and they're just sawing away. They're destroying what others are trying to build. Now, that's not in the picture. It's jarring, and it's supposed to be jarring, but that's what is called for here. Build up, don't destroy. Don't destroy God's work. What is the work of the church? It's God's work. This is far beyond merely personal preferences in matters in which we have the privilege to have personal preferences. It's far more than that. This is the work of God. And so we're called, do not destroy the work of God for food. Now, I like meat. But more than the work of God, it's a poor comparison. God is at work in building up even this weaker brother. Well, God, I'd like you to work a little bit quicker on this weaker brother of mine. Well, your weaker brother probably wishes God would work a little quicker on you, too. And you probably wish that God would work a little quicker. God is at work. God is at work in building up His church, and He invites us to come alongside Him and to be involved in that. But the danger is, don't destroy that work. Don't destroy that work in the context here for the sake of food. You have freedom to eat meat. The Scripture clearly says that. Everything is clean. And yet, are you going to eat meat that's going to destroy the work of God in another? We looked this morning at verse 17. The kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So what am I pursuing? Am I pursuing my right to eat meat? Or am I pursuing righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit? And am I pursuing that not just in myself, but in the work that God is doing in my brothers and my sisters within the church? Don't destroy God's work. Secondly, don't destroy your brother's faith. Don't destroy your brother's faith. One writer put it this way. He said, they should be concerned about something bigger than the preservation of their liberty. And sometimes we get caught up in what we can do. And that becomes primary. And what Paul is telling us here is don't make it primary. This writer goes on to say it should be their burning passion. Not to impede the spiritual progress of their fellow brothers, don't destroy your brother's faith. It's wrong to make anyone stumble by what he eats. It's wrong to put a stumbling block in someone else's way. It's good, if necessary, to not eat meat or drink wine if that will keep your brother from stumbling. The sense of the words there is to put a trip hazard in front of them, and they trip over that trip hazard and they fall. And maybe I was the only ornery boy, but I suspect some of you were, and some of you girls might have been ornery girls, and some of you boys and girls might be ornery now. And I don't know why, but sometimes we think it's kind of cute or kind of funny to make our friends trip. You're walking behind them and you clip their foot so it clips their other foot. Have a nice trip. See you next fall. Or someone's backing up and you squat down below them and they back up over you and fall down. And when we're kids, we think it's cute. Kids, it's not cute. Don't say, well, the preacher said I can do it. No, the preacher didn't say you can do it. Preacher said don't do it. Don't cause your brother or your friend to fall physically, but far more significantly, don't cause them to fall spiritually. Don't make them stumble. Don't make them fall. Don't make them live in such a way that they fear that they have sinned. Don't make them stumble. Don't destroy their faith. And of course, faith given as a gift by God cannot be ultimately destroyed. But what's being pictured here is that someone might become so concerned about their behavior, so unconvinced that they should have done what they did, that they begin to wonder. They begin to wonder if their faith is genuine. They begin to wonder. They've injured their conscience. And the call is don't do that to your brother. Don't make them fall into sin. Don't make them think that they're falling into sin. Don't destroy your brother's faith and don't destroy your brother's conscience. You're allowed to eat meat. The Bible says you're allowed to eat meat. But if you lead your brother who is not yet convinced in his own mind that eating meat is allowed, if you lead him in that condition to eat meat against his conscience, than you're damaging your brother's conscience. In these disputable matters, don't put your energy in convincing one that you might see as a weaker brother, no, it's okay, you can do it, it's okay. Now, there can be a time that you sit down with the Scripture and you study the Word of God together and you say, what does God say about this? Is there freedom in this matter? That's different from sort of bullying them to take part with you. That's another thing that we do as kids and we do as adults. You know, I'm just gonna put pressure on you until you do what I want you to do, whether you want to do that or not. And the damage is severe. Whatever is not from faith is sin. So don't destroy. Pursue peace, don't destroy. And thirdly, please God. And that really is a summary, it's a summary of much of the chapter. Please God. You're not merely aiming to be at peace with your brother, but you're aiming to please God. You're not merely aiming to build up your brother, but you're aiming to please God. You're not merely aiming not to destroy or tear down, you're aiming to please God. Now, you can only please God if God is already pleased with you. We talked about that this morning. If you have been accepted by God, if you have what Paul has been describing in Romans, a righteousness by faith, that you have said, I know that my works are not sufficient, I know that I'm a sinner, I trust Jesus Christ, I confess He is my Lord, I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. And if you have been saved, then you are pleasing to God. God is accepting of you. He looks at you in Christ and he is pleased with you. But having been saved by faith, we pursue the good works that God has given us to do. In some ways, it's not dramatically different from a child who knows he's loved and accepted by his parents, and he seeks to please them because he loves them. Maybe he cleans his room because his mother asked him to clean his room because he loves his mother. He doesn't particularly want to clean his room, but his love for his mother is stronger than his desire not to clean his room. Nancy and I saw a movie recently, a Christian film here in one of the theaters. And there was a young man who was just a high school graduate. The father was gone from the picture. And he just gave his mother trouble. He didn't clean his room when she asked him to clean his room. And he borrowed her car and he got back late and made her misappointments. And there was just, you could just see he wasn't, You know, he wasn't ready to go to jail, but he was a troublesome son. And in this movie, he came to Christ, he came to faith. And his mother came home, and his room was spotless. And he had mowed the lawn, and he had taken out the trash. It wasn't that he had to do that in order to be a Christian. There was a renewed desire that he had to please his mother, that he had fought against before he came to Christ. And so the picture here of pleasing God is a child who loves his parent, who loves his father God, and desires to please him. And so please God in your faith and practice regarding matters of opinion. That is what you believe and what you do. If you believe in these matters that are disputable, I can eat meat, I can drink wine, I can participate in this special day. I am pleasing to God in this. I am convinced by the Word of God and the Spirit of God within me. That's your goal, to be able to please God in what you believe and to be able to please God in what you practice. And sometimes pleasing God in what you practice will mean that you don't do what you believe you can do. I will not exercise my freedom in a context that will harm my brother. And in doing that, I will seek to be pleasing to God. It's more important to me to please God and build up my brother than it is for me to exercise my freedom. That's what Paul is calling us to here. That's what God is calling us to here. So what is important is not merely what you think and what you practice about these things, but that you do those things seeking to please God. So please God in your faith and your practice regarding matters of opinion, and please God in building one another up. We come back and we really finish where we started. What is your goal for the church? What is your desire for Springs Reformed Church? What is your hope for your brother that is weaker than you on a matter of opinion? Is your desire that you show him how strong you are? Or is your desire that you build him up? You build her up. You make him or her stronger. Paul talks to the Corinthians. This way, he says, strive to excel in building up the church. Strive to excel in building up the church. That's 1 Corinthians 14, 12. And if you look at that in the context, what we see in the context of that, if you go back to verse four and verse three, the context is those who speak in unintelligible languages. Those who speak in tongues in the church, in a language that others can't understand. And this is what he says, he says, the one who speaks in that unintelligible language builds himself up. Look at me. Look at me. Did you hear what I just said? I know you can't understand it because you don't have some of the gifts that I have. Of course, the one who speaks in an unintelligible language, it appears from the Scripture, also doesn't understand it. But nevertheless, look at me. I'm building myself up. That's what happens. But instead, The one who prophesies, and the image of prophesying there is not telling the future, but it's speaking in intelligible words so that others can understand. And those who do that are building up the church for their encouragement and their consolation. Strive to excel in building up the church. And again, all of this is the application of righteousness by faith. You won't be accepted by God savingly because you do this. But if you have been accepted by God savingly, then do this. It's part of offering yourself as a living sacrifice. Romans 12 one. It's part of thinking lower of yourself and higher of others as we go on into Romans 12. It's part of building up the church of Jesus Christ because Christ has built you into his church. Do you have or have you had differences with one another in Christ's church, perhaps in Springs Reform Church, on these or similar disputable matters? The main question is not, are you right or are they right? The main question is, are you building up or are you tearing down? Build up one another. each one for whom Christ died. Pray with me that God would make it so among us. Our Father in heaven, you are the one who builds the church. Lord Jesus, you have said that you will build your church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Would you allow us, as small and weak as we are, to take part here at Springs Reform Church in building up the church? in pursuing peace, in not destroying your work or the faith or the conscience of our brother or sister. Would you continue building us up as we take part, as we strive to excel in building up the church? We pray in Jesus' name, amen.