All Meat is Clean, but Not All Eating

So I started this week by happening to read a quote from J. Vernon McGee. You're gonna love this. You guys who think you really are working hard, listen to this. The epistle should be studied with all possible intellectual attention and concentration, talking about the Book of Romans. It's important that the whole epistle should be read right through in the revised version at one sitting, and that this should be done, if possible, day by day for a month." I read that, I thought, gee, I thought we were really with it. The advantage will soon be immense. It should be studied with earnest prayer and personal trust. Intellectual attention alone is insufficient. The epistle should be regarded as a personal letter to us, ourselves.

So here we are going through Romans, a grain of sand at a time. And J. Vernon McGee says, no, you ought to read it every day all the way through for 30 days. Kind of cool. Anyway, so that was my first slide, just to make you feel like you're really. So today, we're going to talk about chapter 14, verses 20 through 23. And we did a little bit of 20 last week. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense.

So who's he talking to, weak believer or strong? Talking to a strong believer. It's good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything which your brother, which would, cause your brother to stumble. That's a good thing. That faith, which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.

But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and whatever is not of faith is sin. Interesting verses. So, last week we talked about, there are nine principles, and we only did seven of them, and we're only gonna do seven this week, because the next two, eight and nine, come actually in chapter five. So these principles are interesting. Paul admonishes the Roman Christians, stop judging one another about indifferent things. The judgment that goes on usually is about stuff that doesn't matter.

Who cares if Bob Eccle has a red thunderbird? Oh, I'm sorry, it's not a thunderbird. Or a borgward, whatever. Don't put a stumbling block or trigger in your brother's way. Verse 15, walk according to love. This is a key verse, I think. Don't destroy with your food or anything else him for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. I barely got seven in there. Show up. Verse 20, don't destroy the work of God. Every believer's spiritual growth is God's work, so don't get in the way of that. So, last week we also had this slide where we talk about it.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9.19, though I am free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all that I might gain the more. And then he said a little later, let no man seek his own, but each his neighbor's good. And 1033, even as I also please all men and all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many that they may be saved. and saved is here more than just coming to Christ. This is saved completely. There's a fabric here that the grace of God has begun with every believer in which the edification of fellow believers by each other may help raise them up, not tear them down.

Of which the selfish refusal to walk in love you're going to pull it down. The great thing about love is it gets you off yourself and focused on somebody else. We find that more people stumbling over the inconsistencies and lack of love in the body of believers than any other thing. Like I said, there are usually issues that don't matter.

I was listening to Macaulay a couple weeks ago. He said that he heard about a church one time that somebody made a fuss about the organ being here and it needed to be over here. And so they moved it and half the church left. So where does it matter where the organ is?

So be strong in the faith. Then it's what we all should be. Only if it is adjacent to the energy of love for those who are weak. for those who are weak. Last week I said, if I said, raise your hands and hear which one of you think that you're a strong believer, everybody's hand goes up. Nobody wants to admit that they're a weak believer, but you know what? Some of you are, some of us are. Guarding against all bragging and that which we receive by grace from God, what you have as a believer, where you are in spiritual growth and conformity to Christ, is a gift of grace.

It's not because you're smart. It's not because you work harder than anybody else. And although I don't discount working, it's because it was God's grace that showed you and brought you along. So, verse 20 says then, don't destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it's evil for the man who eats with offense.

If, you know, I live in a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood. I'm so tempted, my sin nature is so tempted sometimes to go out and start frying bacon in my backyard on Saturday. I would give offense to those people, you know, rather than encourage them. What's that? Turkey bacon. Oh yeah, it could be turkey bacon, yeah.

And then in 15, back in 15, he said, if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love, do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Now, you might think that both of these words destroyed are the same word, but they're not. The word in verse 20 here is not the translation of the word destroy or ruin as in verse 15. but it's the word kadalul, to loose down, to tear down as one would tear down a building.

So the metaphor is that God is building a believer up as part of the body of Christ. And our job is, one of the jobs we have is not to tear down the work of God and building up each believer. So all things are pure. Did God make anything that isn't pure?

Then he says that this is the participle of the strong, which Paul concedes the difficulty is to get the enlightened to understand that an abstract principle can never be the rule of Christian conduct. Do you understand what that says? Understand that an abstract principle, let's say we use the word identification, position, condition. That's a principle. That can never be the rule of Christian conduct. That truth is either worked into you or it's not. Lots of people have the right language, speak correctly, who don't walk by what they say. That's the point that Paul is trying to make here.

The Christian, of course, admits the principle, but he must act from love. Principle's okay, but how do you implement it in your life? It has to be based on love. So, to know all things are clean, do we know that for sure? Yeah, because the word of God tells us.

It does not, as often as assumed, settle what the Christian has to do in any given case. Just because it's clean to me, it might not be clean to you. It does not define his responsibility, but only makes it clear of the obligation that he has. The greater obligation I have is not to shove some groceries down your throat.

The greater obligation I have is to love you, to love you, walk beside you. Acknowledging that principle and looking with love at other Christians, the effect of any given line of conduct on them, he has to define his obligation for himself. I have to know and understand who I am in Christ and what he would have me do. My brother becomes increasingly more important than myself is.

So the word pure here, the purity is ceremonial, it's non-moral in its implication. I tried to find something that looked like a Jewish meal. That's as good as I could do. Some take this as a warning to the weak, but the whole tone of this passage is rather a warning to the strong believer. This word pro, I can't say the word, the man who eats with offense, is the man by whose eating another man is made to stumble. He uses this over and over again, days and food, because it was a big deal back then. But if one has not the assurance of his own conscience freely to obey this command of God, let him not violate his conscience, but wait humbly upon the Lord, by his word to strengthen him and bring him into the true Christian liberty.

Let's say you're growing and learning and someone has informed you about, well, you know, when you're more free, you won't have to worry about addiction to that or eating that or not eating that. The food is indeed in itself clean. Now, some things aren't. I was thinking, well, what things aren't? You know what the first thing that came to my mind? Tattoos. Then the next thing that came to my mind was cigars.

Anyway, but to him who eats with a bad conscience, everything is evil. A young believer, if it's evil to him, it is to him. God plainly says concerning those who command to abstain from meats that such are giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons because he himself created meats to be received with thanksgiving by them that believers and know the truth, 1 Timothy 4, 1 through 5. If you come out of a denomination like I did as a Catholicist, and there's all kinds of this stuff, and you're taught that by doing these things or not doing them, you will become more spiritual. If you become a Christian and you start to grow, it isn't that you're anti this thing, it's that they really don't matter.

That isn't what the Lord's looking for. It's good to eat meat or to drink wine or do anything, but it's good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything in which your brother stumbles. This word good here really means noble. So you could translate it, it's noble not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything whereby your brother would stumble or ensnare or is made weak because of my behavior.

Put it this way. Each of us, each of these three things in this verse. the effect is less in the preceding one. In other words, if you take them out and go, this is first, this is second, this is third, greatly strengthening and enlarging the exhortation as you go along in the verse. I'll show you what I mean.

The first one says, don't cause your brother by your use of your liberty or in any conduct of yours to have his fatal flaw. You may have the freedom, but if you're thinking about your brother over here who doesn't have the freedom, You don't use your freedom because you don't want him to stumble. You don't want him to fall.

And if you notice, Paul takes a lot of time in these, in chapter 14, on this single issue. This is a big issue to him. 24 verses about this issue. The second thing is don't obstruct his Christian course by doing what might act as a snare to your brother, inducing him to act beyond his conscience.

I think I've been guilty of that. Oh, come on, you can do that. Leave that behind. My Catholic friends say, well, should I stop going to church? I say, no, you need to go to church. How else are you going to find out? The truth isn't there. You've got to go and find that out. The third thing is, is don't use your liberty. If your weakest, weaker brother, although he sees you are right, is not yet strong enough to follow you. and would therefore become disappointed and discouraged if he sees you do it.

If I'm free to smoke a cigar and you see me light it up and it's a big deal with you, I've caused a big problem with you. I'd look at these cigars and think, gee, they're pure, what's wrong with them? I'm gonna die of cancer, but they're pure. Or how about a cheeseburger?

So, As much as I don't like Jamieson, Fawcett, Brown, because they're mostly reform, listen to what Jamieson said about this. The injunction to abstain from flesh and wine and whatever may hurt the conscience of your brother must be properly understood. Noticeably, the apostle is treating of the righteousness or of the regulation of the Christian conduct with reference simply to the prejudices of the weak in faith. And his directions are not to be considered as principles for one entire lifetime, but simply as caution against too free use of Christian liberty in matters where other Christians through weakness are not persuaded that such liberty is divinely allowed. I thought that was really a great statement, and how they put it, and I'm not recommending Jamelson, Fawcett, and Brown to be one of your study guides, because they're pretty reformed, but I thought this was a great statement. So, verse 20, Sue says, the faith which you have Have as your own conviction before God.

Happy is he who does not condemn himself and what he approves. Another story. When I first met Miles Stanford, quickly he had moved to Denver from the Springs and there were groups of people that knew about him. I didn't know about him before I met him.

But I noticed that all of these people began to coalesce around him. And I remember at a Bible study at Bob Eccles' house one night, there was this group of people there that were Stanfordites, best way to say it. And as we went through the study, I noticed that if anybody spoke up and said anything in regards to the doctrine that we were studying, if it didn't line up with what these people thought Miles Stanford talked, then they would jump on you. You know, I nicknamed them the sissy uglers.

Because that's what would happen, and that happens a lot. You find someone who you really admire, and people start to focus in on that person's doctrine or teaching, and that becomes their Bible. And if you're in an environment with them, and you don't line up with them, there's gonna be some issues.

So what's the secret to that? Have your faith, your own conviction before God. Happy is the one who doesn't condemn himself and what he approves now. To the strong believer, Paul says, do you have faith? And his answer is, have it to yourself before God.

We have probably known people whom, in this sense, we did not know about them. They had learned yet were content not publicly to use that great liberty of faith which God had led them into. I'll tell you somebody you all know who's like that, was Joanne Lockwood. She was a woman of great faith, but she would never say, well, you ought to be, you know, called the tyranny of the oughts, you ought to be doing this, and you shouldn't be doing that, and you ought to be doing this.

There is an issue here about a person's faith has to be you and the Lord alone. not through somebody else. Anybody who's a teacher, or an elder, or any kind of an influencer in Christianity, he knows without a doubt, if he has any spiritual sense at all, is that his job is to point people to Christ, not himself. If you notice, some of these televangelist guys, they're always trying to get you to go through them to Christ. That's not our job. Our job is to say, there he is there. That's where you need to go. And you do it in his word.

So the faith which we have, your own conviction before God. Before God, it means, it's a part of speech. I spent time with the interlinearity with this, because I thought it was kind of neat. It means before, in the presence of, in the sight of, And it's talked about 100, before the presence or the sight of God, you and him, you and him, not you and Miles Stanford and him, not you and J. Vernon McGee and him, you and him.

And him is in God's word. To be strong in faith then is right. only it should be adjacent to and with the energy of love for those who are weak. Second time I've had this up. Regarding and against all boast, also in that which is received by grace from God. I can't overemphasize that the whole Christian life is between you and the Lord Jesus Christ, Him. It is blessed to have faith. And yet it is more blessed to have that faith before God when using the freedom it gives, that it doesn't confuse others, it might confuse another. If you're gonna talk, or you're gonna demonstrate, or you're gonna teach, or you're gonna lead, you lead people to Christ alone, Him. So the man whom Paul declares happy is he who can eat what he pleases and drink what he pleases and without any qualms of conscience to condemn himself while he does so. That's a happy man.

However, it's much more blessed to have a liberty before God, which we do not use on account of our brother's weakness than to insist on the liberty so it be distinctly given. You may have a great liberty to function a certain way, but you can't foster that on somebody else. You can't tell them, well, if you wanna be spiritual, you gotta do what I'm doing. No, their faith has to be before the Lord. The faith which you have, have before the Lord. And the last part of that verse is, happy is he who does not condemn himself and what he approves. Well, he approves is an interesting word. It means to allows or permits or approves or literally he put it to the test. We've seen this word a lot, dokimadzo. What's dokimadzo mean? It means you put something to the test with an expected result. It's like you take iron ore and you smelt it, burn it, and what do you get at the end? You get pure steel. You do the same thing with precious minerals and stuff like that.

So this believer that Paul's talking about has put his face to the test before God, and it has come out with an approving view from God that it's okay, but that doesn't give him an open door to push it onto me. For though this believer has in his mind that he is free, In such or such a matter, it is his conscience checks him, he judges. He puts to the test himself. If he rushes ahead, he makes a mistake. But he who doubts is condemned, for he eats because his eating is not from faith. And whatever is not of faith is sin.

How many times have you been lectured on this last part? The one, the interlinear says, the one but being doubtful or wavering. What about that one? The word damned or condemned is not the meaning here, although it's in the New American Standard, it's certainly in the King James. What it really means is, is that it's a state of conscious condemnation into which one falls who gets beyond his faith in the exercise of his liberty.

Go back to the cigars. I'm not sure I can smoke one or not, but I'm going to do it anyway. My conscience is going to talk to me. So, I'm going to talk about conscience. Conscience is a really interesting subject, and I can't tell you how many times over the years, and the Bible studies how this word has come up, and we've talked about it. And I took this from Lewis Sparrow Chafer. As a native faculty of every human being, conscience is most difficult to understand, and has too often been wholly neglected in the works of anthropology and psychology.

I thought we were studying theology. Immanuel Kant, everybody know who Immanuel Kant is? He's a philosopher. In college we had to study. I thought he was crazy. Immanuel Kant presented what has come to be the time-honored threefold divisions of immaterial part of man, intellect, sensibility, and will. That's what he came up with.

He failed, however, to include conscience, vital feature of the human existence, though it is. Conscience is an acquired attitude of, well, I'm gonna give you two definitions. It's either this or this, or maybe somewhere in the middle. Schaefer says that conscience, one school says conscience is an acquired attitude of mind, a mere habit formed by the discipline of early training, which training accentuated the values of good and evil, since conscience is capable of being weakened and seared, it could be expected that, whenever may have been its native strength in the early childhood of heathen peoples, it would be all but destroyed as one's years advance. In other words, whatever conscience you had at nine years old, by the time you're 79, it's a whole different game. Or, Conscience is the voice of God speaking directly to the human soul.

That's the other side, end of the fulcrum. So I think the Bible assumes a presence of conscience in a man as a native factor of his being and predicates such limitations that it doesn't make it a fallible human characteristic. And I put in there from the fall Ask yourself this question.

Before Adam fell, did he need a conscience? Did he need a mechanism inside of him that said, well, this is good and this isn't, and I'm going to approve you if you do this, and I'm going to condemn you if you do this. He didn't need it because he didn't have a sin nature. He was innocent.

So when you sin, one of the jewels you get is a conscience. It seems to be something inborn, universal, rather than an acquired faculty, and to be a voice of human origin rather than the voice of God. Oh, that didn't come out too good. When an induction is made in all scripture bearing on the conscience that dependable facts representing the human competency will be revealed, The word occurs 30 times in the New Testament. Conscience does. So, the conscience acts judicially. It does one of two things. It either accuses you of your behavior, or it excuses you of your behavior.

Romans 2.15 says, in that day, they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience being Witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. It's a good definition. Number two, the conscience acts punitively, inflicting remorse and self-punishment. It certainly does that. Conscience anticipates future judgments and then acts in the way of prediction. Boy, you're gonna get it. You're gonna be before the Lord one of these days. The conscience acts socially in judging others.

So, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith and whatever is not of faith is sin. So, Paul's definition is very simple. It has nothing to do with conscience. It has to do with what is or isn't of faith. If it's not of faith, it's sin. The believer lives by faith and every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

If you spend time thinking about this, it'll drive you to your knees. Because if you're honest before the Lord, you say to him, boy, there are things that are sinful now that 20 years ago were not sinful. But boy, my conscience is convicting me now. It reaches everything in our lives concerning which our conscience is not at rest, in which we do not have faith to proceed, in which we cannot walk with the Lord. So, it's possible that the Holy Spirit works in and through the human conscience when registering his reactions to believers' thoughts and conduct. So the apostle Paul testifies of himself, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 9.1, we talked about that months ago. And the other element here is grace respects the conscience of him.

Those doubts, and instead of trifling with scruples, would rather seek to lead into a due application of Christ to the case by faith Without it all is vain and worse. It's interesting that when you live by faith, you live by God's will, that he's explained to us and given us his word. And if we live that way, our conscience lines up. Lines up.

And as we go along, the subject is best shrouded in mystery, but Personality seems to express its full scope and inclusive when it wills and executes its purpose guided by the intellect and the sensibilities. Nevertheless, over and above this manifestation of personality, conscience sits in judgment for the action to be good or bad.

Just because you became a believer and are involved by the Holy Spirit, your conscience didn't go anywhere. But it can be unreliable because of the environment you grew up in. However, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit for the believer and therefore subject to the mind and voice of the Spirit, the question may be raised whether a Christian really lives at all by the restricted presence which an unaided conscience engenders. A growing believer, a more mature believer, lives more and more and more at the direction of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God and less by conscience, because they don't conflict.

The Holy Spirit becomes the new monitor, and the child of God either grieves or does not grieve the Holy Spirit. It's therefore written. and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God where you are sealed unto the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit, you can't say the Holy Spirit replaces your conscience. What the Holy Spirit is is the source of the resurrected glorified life in Christ. And he will guide you into faith before the Father and the Lord Jesus and a love before and with the Lord Jesus Christ and your your idea or your value system will be changed from what might be humanly good to what is required of your spiritual position in Christ.

So, conscience is a difficult thing to talk about, but I think Chafer did a pretty good job with it here. So next week, we'll go to 5.2, And this is one of those places in the Bible where they shouldn't have put the chapter break at 4.23, they should have put it at 5.2, because it's the same subject and then it changes at 5.3. So we'll finish up this whole thing next week, so let's close.

Father, how we thank you. We thank you that you are working all the time to conform us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one You find all your satisfaction in Him. He is the man. He's the holy man. He's our very life. We thank you. We pray in His precious name. Amen.