Lesson 56b

I told you I had a 30 minute intro. I was kind of kidding and kind of not. What I wanted to do, I can just get my screens up here real quick. There we go. What I wanted to do was kind of just roll back a little bit and give us a running start into chapter 14 of Romans. We're studying really as a section, 12 through 15 really is, as far as Romans chapters 12 through 15, really is more of an application portion of Romans.

It's kind of the practical side, the condition side. So we talk about position and condition. We've been working for, I don't know, how many years now? Goodness, it's been a while. Maybe a couple years, yeah? a couple of years on the positional side.

And now we get into all these chapter 12 through 15, kind of more into the conditional side of things. And so these are application chapters, right? 12 through 15 is more about what it is you do as a result of. So what's interesting is you think about Romans chapter one through 11, what you're getting is doctrine.

And I know that word is a little cliche, especially at Holly Hills, but we'll call it doctrinal identification doctrine or truth. So all of these things are things that Paul is wanting you to know about who you are, given the fact that you are a believer. These are truths about who you are. These are doctrine truths, right? So doctrine teaches us what? What is doctrine? We use it, but what does it mean? Doctrine is just teaching it over the word of God. Okay. Is it? I would like to say it's facts, right? It's the facts about our reality. It's the truth about who we really are. And Paul spends a lot of time in chapters 1 through 11 explaining those facts, those doctrinal truths about who you are. Doctor's not something you have to go to seminary to learn. It's not a fancy word that needs to be, you know, shunned away from it. It's a good thing. Doctrine should come first. It teaches us facts.

And if we're going to believe something, we need to know what we're going to believe in. And Paul's done that all through chapters 1 through 11. So we're working through this doctrinal journey of Romans. And just to give us a context of chapter 14, which we're about to jump into, It's in Romans 1 through chapters 1 through 3 that Paul taught us the reality, and I'm going to keep using that word and repeating it.

He taught us the reality that all men are condemned. So that's the big word that comes out of 1 through 3 is condemned. All men are condemned. In chapters 4 through 5, he taught us that in reality, men are justified by grace through what? That's right. So we've got 1 through 3 condemned, 4 through 5 justified, right?

By grace through faith. And then in 6 through 8, he teaches us that in reality, those justified by grace through faith are set apart. Another word for that is sanctified, right? We're sanctified by the Spirit as we walk by grace through faith. So the story is building, right? All men in reality are condemned, 1 through 3, 4 through 5, they're justified by grace through faith, and 6 through 8 in reality, by that faith we are sanctified by the Spirit as we walk by grace through faith.

And so in Romans 8, He teaches us that in reality, those who are justified by grace through faith, and you see a repetition there, we will be glorified. So we've got condemned, justified, sanctified, and now glorified in chapter eight to reign with Christ in the coming kingdom. So he's laying out, I would say these are almost, and we've said it before, but might bear worth repeating, these are the basics of Christianity. These are the basic doctrinal truths that any believer needs to understand in order to really grow and to start being transformed and conformed and recognizing who they are in terms of identification. So we get to Romans 9 through 11, and he teaches us the reality that God has temporarily set aside the nation of who? Israel. Israel? And is dealing primarily with who? Gentiles. Now he's working with the Gentiles. Doesn't mean he doesn't have a plan for Israel. It means that he is working on the plan towards the Gentile nations, right?

So that's 9 through 11. And then it brings us up to Romans 12, 1, where he talks about, he refers to the doctrines as the mercies of God. Everything that he had been preparing, all through the previous chapters, he summarizes as the mercies of God. And he urges us, based on the mercies of God, to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. acceptable to God.

He says that this is our worship. Is this the worship that we do? And Ingrid, you're a phenomenal musician and many of you have participated in different aspects of worship. But is this the type of worship that he's talking about here? No, it's everyday life. It's the everyday life. It's the presenting yourselves and offering yourselves to him as a living sacrifice. That's exactly right, Gary. And What does that look like? You know, you said everyday lives, but he talks about the proper use of our spiritual gifts, right?

That's where we've been. We've been in some spiritual gifts. We've talked about loving others, blessing others, helping others, praying for others. Living peacefully with others is where we've been recently in the last few weeks. Being humble, submitting to governing authorities. Loving our fellow citizens and living in light of the, you know, his any moment arrival. I mean, living in light of the fact that he can come at any moment. And so these are the these are the mercies of God. And and focusing on those aspects of doctrinal application, really, we're talking about how you offer yourself as a living sacrifice.

And so now we come to Romans 14. And this is where a lot of Christians get a little confused. Right. So they're like, hey, this is the gray areas. This is where you get to get into some gray stuff. But I would ask you, Does the Bible have any gray areas?

No. Is that a universal no, or does someone have a thought there? I don't think it does. I think that they may be gray to us, but until the Spirit of God shows us what certain things really mean, in and of itself there are no gray areas. I don't think.

Well, then you could take this chapter and you could expand it to the rest of the scripture. It's kind of like, well, if it's right for one person and not right for another, which we'll get into, does that mean that maybe the Bible's that way? Maybe that's just how you see it. And I recognize that we at Holly Hills don't think that way. But I would venture to say that the majority of believers do. It's a fog. It's a bit of a fog. And you just got to kind of read between the lines. do more of it than you don't. Just get a little bit more on the right side of the fence than the left side of the fence.

But that's not the way doctrine works. Fact is fact and reality is reality and we live in the reality of the scripture and I think that's really important. As we move into some of these freedom verses, and when I say freedom, it's freedom for the strong and no less judgment for the weak. So we're going to talk about that. But these are very clear. These are not gray areas of doctrine. These are very, very clear.

And the Bible is, and to your point, Mike, the Bible may not be understood. And that actually constitutes what Paul calls a weaker believer. when we don't understand, it takes time. So we talked about last week, question number one, that was my intro, how long did that take? That was a good 10 minutes, pretty good. So Courtney, do you consider yourself a strong believer? I'm muted, oh wait.

It, well you know i looked up a couple different verses on that you know as far as i goes you know sometimes in reality yes there's times in groups i'd feel alive it have a better handle on on scripture than some you know with the dedication to resist people who don't know the identification truths and some of those things or teachings on grace or uh... faith or some of those you know when you talk to people and how they uh... how they what they know.

And so yeah, there's times, you know, but then there are other, uh, uh, verses, you know, I'd looked up, um, in Galatians six, one and three, there's about talking about the stronger brother or, you know, those types of things. First Corinthians two 15. but he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. And let me see if I can get back to the Galatians 6, one. And brethren, even if anyone who is caught in trespasses, you who are spiritual, restore such one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. And then I think in three, four. basically examining yourself. So long answer, but sometimes yes, depending on, you know, and then others I feel woefully under, you know, spiritually assessed versus some of the people I talk with. Yeah. Man, it feels like you were ready to teach that. Really good answer. Yeah.

So the strong here are believers whose understanding of the word really frees them from, and I'm going to use a word that I never actually speak out in my own life, but the understanding of the word frees us from religious scruples. And the word scruples, it's an interesting word.

It's all throughout a lot of the commentary. So it seems to be a pretty popular perspective on the way that folks recognize what's going on here. But this idea of scruples being a feeling of doubt or hesitation, so it's doubt, it's hesitation. The weaker believer is, they're hesitating, they're doubting, they're not understanding fully, right? Their scruples are in the way, is the way that a lot of commentaries refer to it.

But yeah, it's just that hesitation with regard to, Morally, what do I do? And you know, how do I how do I apply this to my course of action? So I'm just hesitating and confused And so that's one of the the mentalities of the weaker Believer and to flip that around to the answer to question number one a strong believer doesn't hesitate in that way So that means what what do they they're not hesitating. They're not doubting. So what are they doing? It makes them strong Believing. Believing. You're right, Russ. They're believing and they're trusting in the doctrine or the truths, the reality that they've seen in the scripture.

And so they're not hesitating with that any longer. And that takes time. It takes a lot of time. You know, we talk about identification truths a lot, and to not hesitate about who you are, you know, your death, burial, resurrection, ascension, seating in Christ takes a lot of time.

And so being strong in our faith and being a strong believer, barring from, you know, chapter 15, verse 1, Those are believers that understand the word, and it frees them from that hesitation and confusion. So I think that's really what is the insinuation here, and we'll get to it again later in the chapter. That brings me to question number two. J.D., just kind of a follow-up, kind of a thing. When you ask that question, I'm a strong believer.

I think there's plenty in the scripture that by saying there's strong believers like these references, just by saying that, you know that there is strong and weak believers. By just the statement of it, they have to exist. It's not like we're making it up or something. The scripture says they're strong. There's weak believers. I go back to the milk of the word. Some can only take the milk of the word and the meat. There's differences on those. I mean, there's so many examples in scripture that show strong and weak believers.

So I don't think there's a guilt factor in thinking that sometimes you're a strong believer compared to others. So it's not like a proud thing. I mean, it does say if you're proud about it, that there's, I think, an issue about that. No, that's a really good point, and hopefully that's not coming across, but I think that your verse that you mentioned in Galatians, I think that's a really appropriate verse.

And this goes on. We're not just looking at strong versus weak. We're looking at how the weak operates within the body. And I think that brings us to question number two. How do we describe those who are weak in faith? So let's flip it around and talk about the weakness side of faith. Katie, can I make one quick comment before you go to? Yeah.

So I was thinking about your question last week, and one of my perspectives is that as a Christian, Sometimes I'm walking in the Spirit, and sometimes I slip over and I'm sowing to the flesh. And when I feel like I'm walking with the Spirit, I'm really coming from Christ.

And when I'm coming from Christ, I feel like I'm perfectly strong. And when I'm sowing to the flesh, I feel like I'm pathetically weak. And to me, it's like, if we're coming from Christ, we have his life imparted in us, we couldn't be any stronger. We couldn't be any stronger of a Christian. So to me, it's kind of like, how often are we sowing to the flesh and how often are we walking to the spirit?

Beyond the knowledge that we have in Christ, it's like when we're coming from Him, we're perfectly strong. And it's like we don't have to compare ourselves to other Christians. It's like when we come from Christ, He is ultimately strong. He is our life. And as long as we're nestled in Him, with Him, we're strong. And Lord knows that's hard to do 24-7.

That was my perspective. No, that's a really good perspective. I thank you for bringing that, Jimmy. That's something that I think we all are, you know, position condition, right? we walk according to our position, and then, you know, sometimes we, you know, we don't, and our faith gets weak. And I think some of the things, I think, I really like the way you phrased it, perfectly strong, because that is what it is. It's a perfectly, it's a perfect strength when we're trusting in the Lord Jesus to do the living through us, then it's perfectly strong. So yeah, very, very applicable to all of us, I think. In terms of the weakness, though, it's good to understand that sometimes we fall out of fellowship and we have, you know, 1 John 1, 9 in order to accommodate us through that process.

But there's those that are, and in this case, they were believers who couldn't let go of Judaism, right? There were certain aspects of Judaism that they were just still very important to them. And we might say that these believers were believers, right? Because they're weak, but they are believers. And we should recognize the differentiation. And some of the differentiation factors that come into that is that they have true faith, they have Christ. It's not as though they don't have the lack of Christ in them.

But because of their legal or traditional teachings, and even just accusations, Satan's accusations on account of like former sins, so things that they did in the past, They get hung up over this legalism and traditionalism and accusations of former sins.

I'm going to stop there and ask, have you ever been in that situation where you feel like there's a legalistic thing you need to do or something that's traditional that requires your Christian involvement? And have you ever felt accused of something that you did in the past?

I'll stop there and ask if there's anyone in this class that hasn't. I think so. I think situations are a lot of circumstances where you, you know, it's a little whisper in the left ear that says, You think God really forgave you for this or that or you should have done this. I call it the tyranny of the oughts. I ought to do this and I ought to do that. And if you come out of a law-based denomination, it takes a while to get free from the tyranny of the oughts.

I guess the thing, I go back and I don't know if it was Russ or whoever started this with strong or weak or whatever. I think it all goes back to believing. If you don't believe what he says is true about you, you're weak or you fall back into those traditional things because you don't believe what's what he says is true about you, or that all sins have been forgiven, all the things, and it's, I think the weakness comes, the root of it still comes back to not believing what's true about you, or what he says is true about you. Not walking in the spirit, you know, maybe what Jim was saying. Don't you think that emotion-based Christianity is the biggest problem? How you feel about what the Word says becomes more important than what it really says. And when you're stuck in that environment, feelings dominate and the Word of God is objective.

Well, that's the infamous thing. I think it's actually in here in this room. The faith before facts and the tracks and all that. You got to say it right, Courtney. I have no idea. It's actually up here. Well, then read it. It's actually in the classroom here. I've never learned it. Faith in the facts is like the train on the tracks. Facts lead and the feelings follow. Yes. Oh, thank you. Have him take a picture of that. I gotta have it. I gotta have a tattoo on my arm or something. Hey, JD. Yeah.

Uh you know, the thing I was looking a little bit of in Newell's book on Romans and he was talking about uh brand new believers and The instant we believe, we enter into an eternal, never-ending union with Christ. And at that instant, the Spirit indwells us and he will never exit. And Newell said that instead of like a hundred Hail Marys a day or whatever, if you understand this truth that the minute someone just simply believes in the person-worth of Christ, they are saved forever from that point in time, and the Spirit of God will never exit. And so, we're positionally on the same playing field, we're level, and what he said is that the world understood that true, the churches would be filled to the brim. And you'd better be good. How are you doing on those Ten Commandments and the other 613?

And having an eternal union with Christ that will never end just makes us equal. And as far as our growth, that'll happen. But we start out with a home run the instant we believe. I really like the way you mentioned the term eternal union. And I think that's that's that is the exact same between a strong and a weak believer. We both share that eternal union. Right. And in this case, the weaker believer is just struggling with doubt and hesitation. They're scruples, as we've used the term. They're struggling with certain things, whereas the stronger are, they are at peace with them. They're at rest with them.

And so, but I really appreciate what you said there, because the ability to grasp that fact that a person, a believer's death with Christ and their present and eternal union with Him is a truth and a reality is a challenge for believers, right? Eternal security, let's take that one issue. I mean, Cheryl, how many different people in your Bible study have dealt with eternal security issues?

Maybe not, but it's probably more than not. Well, some of them understand that. Of course, the Bible study isn't meeting now, but there were definite... I've talked to others that were involved in the Bible study, and they were really... I'd call them strong Christians, strong believers. So, we've talked doctrinal things, too.

Yeah, the idea of, and Mike, you mentioned it a minute ago, just the doubt that enters your mind about, did he really do this for me? I mean, for me. So, you know, that creates a weakness in our heart because we're not operating in reality. We're not operating in the truths of who we are. And we're not believing what he's told us about ourselves.

Well, I don't think you can discount the fact that the Lord teaches you a truth. And then he puts it through the test for you so that you own it with opposition. And one of the things that that testing teaches us is not to rely on our feelings and to rely on what God says. Your feelings may follow, but they don't determine whether it's truth or not. And I think lots and lots of Christians today base whether their scriptures are true or not on how they feel about them. You know?

Yeah. So let's get to question number three. I think that'll kind of segway us in there. How are the weaker to be received into into the fellowship? Right. So we're talking about weaker believers that aren't necessarily believing what is true about them or confused. They're hesitating. Their scruples are in their way.

But what is this idea of receiving or accepting? And I like that in the NASB translation, Better than the others personally just because the idea is accepting it is to receive and it is to welcome But how does that work? What is what does that look like in the fellowship? JD yeah, this Bible.

I'm looking at so Welcome him into your fellowship, but not to criticize Sorry Tom, Tom. Joanna, I only heard the part of welcome them into the fellowship and then... But not to criticize his opinions or pass judgment on his scruples or perplex him with discussions. So he will come along as the Lord, as the Holy Spirit teaches him.

You know, you don't want to just go after him. you know, immediately, or at all, but wait for the... for him to absorb the teaching that he's getting. I really like the way that you mentioned that, the absorption of the doctrine, right? We don't absorb it at the same time. We don't understand it all at the same time.

And so, yes, this verse very much has the idea of accepting one another in a way that relies on the Holy Spirit's timing, as opposed to us wanting someone to be at a certain place with a certain truth in the same way that we understand it. Yeah, Romans 15, seven is jumping ahead, but it says, therefore accept one another, same word, accept or receive, welcome. Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed or accepted or received us to the glory of God. So in that same gracious aspect of the Lord Jesus accepts us, we're to accept younger believers who just aren't there yet with their understanding.

Yeah, one of those hungry hearts, I don't know where it is, talked about that very subject, that all of the truth is good for us and we should know it, but it's not all suitable to us depending on where we are in the growth process. And so I think all believers kind of have to understand that about the believer sitting next to you. They belong to the Lord and the Lord is growing them up and you up as fast as you can handle it, and that we're all in a different space in terms of growth.

Positionally, we're all perfect. like Russ was saying, but conditionally we're all somewhere along the road and walking together dependent on each other, depending on the Spirit, depending. Dependence seems to be a big issue with the Lord, that He wants us dependent on Him, but also dependent on each other.

Maybe we should look back to where we were. Fifty years ago when we came to Holy Hills, we didn't know all from grace. That's true. hungry, and we have been evangelized every Sunday, and we could sing just as I am backwards and forwards, but the Lord said, it's the holy hills, and we learned.

Yeah. I like that you mentioned that, Joanne, because Les was just saying, she said, we all start off as weak believers. It's not like we have no faith. We've all done it. And some of us stay there. And some of us stay there. And some of us fluctuate back and forth. Are you admitting something, Mike? Well, yeah. I don't want to sound like I know more than I ought to. I was thinking of students. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead, Mike. As soon as we think we're getting really mature in something and then we start to get proud and all of a sudden we realize we're insane.

It's cool because the strength of this verse or the way that we determine strength in these verses is by accepting the weaker. It's not about your superpowers. It has to do with you accepting the weaker believer. That's all it's saying. I mean, we can add a laundry list of what a strong believer looks like.

But in this verse and in the verses that we've talked about, even Courtney mentioned, it's an acceptance. And as we move to the next verse, verse two, it's about understanding you know, the Word of God. And so acceptance and understanding the Word of God and what freedoms that brings. So let's look at number four. We've got four minutes. In verse 14-2, what does faith allow one to eat all things referred to spiritually?

This is where a lot of folks say, this is the gray area. But is it? No. It's not gray. No. It's just not being under legalism anymore, right? You have the freedom to eat, you know, beyond a vegetarian diet. But that's not a freedom. It's a fact. You know, it's a reality of the believer in this dispensation, right? This age. And there were those that could not handle that. They were coming out of legalism, Judaism, and their faith was not great enough in terms of what Paul was saying at this point in order to free them from just eating vegetables, right? Do you guys agree with that? Any other thoughts there? Yeah, I think this applies to, I like the example of eating because it's appropriate.

Where it might be more applicable in our society is whether you drink alcohol or not. You know, some believers are free to drink it and others are actually not free. John the Baptist wasn't free to drink alcohol. Well, do I, because I have my freedom, do I just, you know, if you're not free and I know about it, I'm just gonna swill down alcohol in front of you, like it or lump it? Don't flaunt it, yeah. Or you don't drink it. It's real simple, you know. Because you don't need it, you know? It isn't one of those things that you, it's necessary.

It goes to all kinds of different things, how you pray. I remember when Vern first got to Holly Hills, he's doing things that are new, like he's standing up and he's using PowerPoint and a computer and that kind of thing, and there was a guy in the audience that didn't think he was doing the right thing, not having a Bible in his hand. or who was it, Ironside said, or no, it was Chester McCauley, he said, I can't put my Bible on the floor. I just can't do it.

There are a couple things in this too, that when you look at all the things we've been through this too, that you do think, we've been through this in 12 and through this, If at all possible, be at peace with all men, love one another, show love. Even though you have the freedom to do all those things, you do it in love, you do it to keep peace.

All those things that we've shown, even though we have the freedom to do it, if you know a brother is an alcoholic or something, you don't drink in front of him. The flip side, I want to say, though, is what we taught actually in some of the grace classes and goes back to my thing about offenses.

If I'm drinking and you just don't like it and you're offended, you have the right to come to me and say no just because you don't like it? Is that the same thing as a brother who you don't drink because he's an alcoholic and you don't drink in front of him? But if somebody who doesn't like drinking comes before you and says, hey, I just don't like it. Courtney, I would say that one of the things that these verses teach is that you put the other person's values before your own. And even if it's something like you're describing, still, you know, I'm not going to force my right just because you're offended.

I'm not gonna do it. I know I'm not sinning. I'm not judging whether they're sinning by approaching me or not. But when my focus is not on me and on the welfare of my fellow believer, even if they're in the wrong, I still think that's where the focus ought to be. Well, yeah, the Bible talks about not being a stumbling block, right? So I'm not sure that...

I think these verses are related. I'm at time, but I think these are related. They're not saying all of those exact things, but in this case, it's talking about not going to Courtney's on Labor Day weekend because there's going to be a lot of smoked meat out there. because we're going to offend him.

But this, you know, J.D., this goes back to some of the teaching that we did do in that class and the stumbling and what that means in the stumbling. Yeah. You know, that's what, Mike, I'm a little curious about your response and how we taught. in that, you know, the stumbling was, that was specific to have it doing something that brought somebody back into a sinful, sinful behavior. Yeah, that's true.

That I offend you, and that it's a stumbling block. It was, you did something that specifically brought you back to a sinful behavior, i.e., I'm drinking in front of an alcoholic, and it weakens him and brings him back to that. He specifically went into those things about, you know, if somebody just doesn't like, I think Jester McCauley goes into that about, you know, if you're smoking, you know, and do you have the right to smoke? And does somebody, you know, I mean, if it's in a place and you're smoking and it's irritating them, but they just don't like the fact that you smoke, you know, do you have the right to say that? And there was a whole section that we, you know, he went on that about. you know, what the difference is between offense, offending somebody, and, you know, and it's also incumbent upon the person who's, you know, attacking that person is their sphere of authority and all the things we taught on that.

You know, there's a whole bunch tied up into all that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, here's, how are we doing time-wise, JD? We're done. Two minutes over. I'll quit. We'll pick it up next week. I hate that we have to do that. I'll pray for us here and we can summarize this and maybe cap it off a little bit more next week on question number four.

Dear Father, Howie, thank you so much for the truths here. the ability for us to grow in our faith. There's a maturity that we as believers recognize that is possible. And it all happens through faith. It happens through the faith and the doctrines that you have told us that are true about us. And it's the reality of who we are, who you are, what this world is all about, and what you're doing. And so, Lord, we thank you for how the scripture brings us to reality and teaches us to accept the weaker and recognizing that we are all in eternal union with you. So we thank you for that union and it is your name we pray. Amen.