"Who Are You to Judge?" Romans 14:1-12 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Well, if you have a Bible, would you open it to Romans chapter 14?

Romans 14 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 14.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

As we continue our study in the clarity of Scripture, we now edge towards the more practical end of the spectrum.

What do we do in light of the clarity of Scripture?

And we'll address that in part this evening and then again next week.

Romans chapter 14, verses 1 through 12.

Romans 14:1–12

Let me read them for us.

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?

It's before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person esteems one day is better than another, while another esteems all days alike.

Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

The one who observes the day honors it in honor of the Lord, observes it in honor of the Lord.

The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God.

While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.

For if we live, we live to the Lord.

And if we die, we die to the Lord.

So then, whether we live or whether we die, we're the Lord's.

For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother?

Or you, why do you despise your brother?

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

A CNN article published yesterday begins with the following words.

Quote, America is a divided nation.

I'm not just talking about when it comes to who we choose to represent us in government.

I'm talking about the choices we make down to as mundane as where we shop for food.

But in this world where residents of the United States can never seem to agree there is one massive event where Americans of all stripes find common ground, the Super Bowl.

The article goes on to tell us that there is really only one event that time and time again nets over 100 million viewers.

It's the Super Bowl, with the lone exception of the series finale of MASH.

The article says that this is the one event that all Americans come together around in such numbers and in such ubiquity.

And the article is titled, quote, The Super Bowl, America's Great Unifier.

I think it's telling that, according to this author, the one thing that apparently unifies Americans the most is an event that centers on cheering against half of the country at the same time.

The Super Bowl might feel like a unifying thing to people these days because I think the author has something right that America is a very divided country, isn't it?

There's all kinds of things that we're divided over.

You name it conservative, progressive, COVID stuff, LGBTQ, coffee or tea, I don't know.

Whatever it is that you want to divide over, you can figure out a way to divide.

And I think the reality is that the church is not immune.

We face division and disagreement even in the church.

We feel the sting of sharp division as well.

Baptists or Presbyterian, Old Earth or Young Earth, dispensational, covenantal.

Here's one.

Drums or no drums.

Premillennial or the other views that are wrong.

Which is the correct one, we don't know, but the point is there are disagreements in the church.

Just like there are outside of the church.

So what's the solution?

What do you do with all this disagreement?

I think the solution is the clear word of God.

And that may sound antithetical because you might say in your mind, if God's word is so clear, don't you think it would be universally understood the same way such that there would not be disagreements?

Well, we've looked at a number of different aspects of the clarity of Scripture in order to understand why it is the case that if God has spoken clearly, we do still have disagreements about interpretation of Scripture in the church.

The first is that the Bible is clear because God is good.

We look back to Genesis.

We saw that God speaks in a clear way because that's a reflection of his goodness.

And then we learned that the Bible is clear really only for those who obey it, because it's the kind of text that demands submission to it in order to be understood.

And then last week we learned that the Bible is clear only in Jesus' light.

When Jesus illumines his word by his Holy Spirit, he gives us sight and understanding to see what's really there on the page.

But you might still say, okay, I believe in the goodness of God, I'm submissive to the scriptures, I love Jesus, I think I have the illumination of the Holy Spirit as I'm reading this book, and I still disagree with my brother or sister, who also is all those things.

So, what gives?

Why are there still disagreements about what is apparently a very clear word?

And really, there's three reasons.

One is that we're still sinners.

We can certainly reject God's word because of our sin, because we don't like what we read.

Even though we're redeemed and have new sight, we're still fallen in the flesh.

Second, it's because of our finitude.

We're limited beings.

We don't know everything.

There's a limit to the amount of information you have at any given point in your life, and you're always learning more and more and more, and you're filling out the gaps.

It's not necessarily a wrong thing or a bad thing, it's just our finitude.

We're creatures.

And third is distance.

So if you're keeping track, sin, finitude, and distance.

Distance meaning we have a distance from the original authors of the text, don't we?

Both in culture and in time.

They wrote in a different language, they had different customs and idioms and thought patterns.

So we have to transport our minds back into the ancient world in order to understand something of the author's intent, and that requires quite a bit of work and study and maybe even archaeology, challenges that that presents.

So the doctrine of the clarity of scripture, as it's been historically understood, never taught that everyone is going to agree on everything in the Bible universally because it's clear.

No, in fact, it assumes that we will not interpret every text perfectly.

And in this very passage, Romans 14, in Scripture itself, Paul assumes that there are disagreements in the church.

Paul himself knows that there will be disagreements based on the text of Scripture, and he gives advice on it.

And the first thing that I want you to notice is that Paul's response is not to say, let me solve the argument for you.

Did you notice that when we read it?

Paul could have, as an apostle, come in and say what he really thinks, which he says in verse 14, I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing's unclean.

He could have just started there and said, That's it.

That's not all he says.

Because he has a different path forward for us when it comes to disagreement in the church.

I wonder, as you think about this text and approaching it, what kind of disagreements you have with other believers and how you relate to those people that you have disagreements with?

What kind of conclusions do you arrive at that are different from them, and how do you respond?

Do you just say, well, we all disagree, it's too hard to know, so whatever.

You might be right, I might be right, who cares?

You just kind of give up.

Or do you do the opposite and you just dig in your heels and say, I'm right and you're wrong, and that's all there is to it?

Or is there another way?

I think there is.

Paul says, we can disagree not like the world, but we can disagree like Christians.

Al Moeller himself recently said that Christians are probably the last people on earth who can have an honest disagreement.

And I think that's true.

And so Paul is going to show us in this passage this evening how to disagree with Christian charity and clarity.

And it's really just two parts, and I'm just going to use the language of the text.

One from chapter 15, verse 7, welcome one another, and then the other from this text, be fully convinced.

That's it.

It's just two parts.

How to disagree with charity and clarity.

You welcome one another and you be fully convinced.

First, we welcome one another.

Paul, in writing his letter to the Romans, is in Corinth, the church that knew much about division, and he is anticipating as he's writing to this church that he's never been to, what kind of disagreements they may face as they engage in the Christian life.

And so, based on his experience with other churches and disagreements that naturally arose from divergent interpretations of Scripture, he counsels them as to how they should approach those who he says are weak in faith.

Verse 1 as for those, as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

Couple of things to note.

First, the word weak in faith.

Isn't it interesting that Paul doesn't say the one who is wrong?

Although apparently he thinks that.

He does think that there's a right and a wrong position here.

That's not what he says.

He says weak, weak in faith, as in someone who just needs to grow.

They just need to go to the spiritual gym and work it out.

They're weak.

They are objectively weaker than a stronger brother, but Paul doesn't think of them as right or wrong.

He thinks of them as someone who just needs to grow.

And also notice he calls them someone who's weak in faith.

In faith, meaning he's a Christian.

And one thing that he tells them not to do, he says, not to quarrel over opinions, not to just get into a bunch of endless debates.

And notice the word here, opinions.

I think it's a good translation.

Opinions, meaning we're not talking about a debate over the nature of the gospel.

There is no debate over the nature of the gospel between Christians.

All Christians agree on the gospel.

Otherwise, they're not Christians.

So there's utter clarity on the gospel such that there's no debate there.

And I don't think that he's talking here about sin issues either, necessarily.

I think what he's talking about is, he calls it opinions, something like a secondary issue, a Christian liberty issue.

What food is permissible, he's going to go on to say what days you regard as special, certain interpretations that amount to secondary issues, not gospel issues.

And his point is, whatever the case with these secondary issues, you just do not debate about them endlessly.

That's not the point.

If that's your approach with this thing, you've got exactly the wrong approach.

He says in Titus chapter 3, if someone is like that, in fact you've got to warn them once, twice, and then kick them out of the church.

Titus 3 · chapter mention

You don't put up with people who all they want to do is fight about doctrinal positions.

That's not healthy or helpful.

No, the main command in this verse, it sticks out, I'm sure you've noted, as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him.

Welcome him.

Welcome, like a word of hospitality.

Bring him into your house.

Warmly receive him, embrace him, love him as your own.

Regard him as a family member, one to whom you belong and he to you.

Notice it's the opposite, welcome him of verse 3, despising and passing judgment, being judgmental and not caring about that person and thinking lowly of them.

And notice this welcoming him, the object is him.

This Paul's response to there being a disagreement about a doctrinal issue, a secondary issue, a Christian liberty issue in the church, is his first intuition is let's not resolve the issue.

Isn't that interesting?

His first intuition is you welcome him.

It is people-oriented.

It is towards your brothers and sisters in Christ.

He's going to talk in just a second about what you do with the actual truth itself.

But the first thing he wants you to think when you have a disagreement with a Christian brother or sister is how to care for them, how to love them well, how to welcome them and receive them.

And why should you do that?

Paul makes it real plain in verse 3.

Don't despise the one who abstains, let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats.

Why?

Because God has welcomed him.

Because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

When you were in the position towards God where you could not possibly disagree with him more about yourself and his holiness and your sin, he said, I am sending my son to die for you with open arms to bring you into my house.

That was God's disposition towards him, so what's yours?

Is Paul's point.

If the gospel is true, and if this person has been welcomed by God Almighty, who are you to hold him at arm's length?

That's what he says.

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?

I hope you appreciate what we're talking about here is nothing more complicated and more difficult than humility.

Humility is your disposition towards other people that says, I prefer them over myself.

I think about them and regard them over myself.

Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Have this mind in yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

That he gave up everything in order to welcome you in.

He didn't prefer himself, he preferred you.

That's the nature of humility, and that's Paul's attitude towards those with whom he has disagreements.

Notice what Paul doesn't say.

If you have disagreements, if there's a weak in faith brother, what you need to do is make sure that he becomes super lapsarian just like you.

You need to make sure he dots all of his I's and he crosses every T just like you, and he has the exact same statement of faith, and it's like five miles long, and it's exactly the same as yours.

He doesn't say that.

The first thing that he says is you welcome him like God welcomes him.

And notice he says, it's before his own master, verse 4, that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld.

For the Lord's able to make him stand.

Listen, it's not on you to make sure that that person gets it right.

God is able to uphold him, isn't he?

God's able to make this person stand, he's able to make him grow, he's able to instruct him by his Holy Spirit and his word.

That doesn't mean that you don't have conversations.

It doesn't mean that you don't have a coffee and talk back and forth about the things you disagree with, but it means that your disposition towards that person cannot be, I will not welcome you until you agree with me.

If you do that, you have just made yourself the Pope.

You have just said, I am in charge of all doctrine, and if you disagree with me, then you're out.

And do you see how that's so opposite of this passage?

Who's the master?

God, not you.

You're just another slave, you're another servant.

Your responsibility here is to build up other servants, welcome other servants as you both serve God.

God is the Lord, and God's his Lord as well.

You're on the same team.

So welcome one another.

I imagine, and if you'll imagine with me, two kids who are making cards for their parent, and they're coloring them, and one of the kids says to the other, No, you're not coloring that well.

It's not in the lines enough.

And the parent walks in and sees this interchange happening.

What's the parent's response to that?

Yeah, no, they they really need to fix that coloring problem.

They need to get that in the lines.

Is that the response?

I don't think so.

I think it's why are you talking to them like that?

I love both of your cards.

However, messed up they both are.

I just love them because I love you.

I'll help them grow, I'll help them learn.

So it is in the church.

If you demand that everyone agree to your interpretation of scripture in order to be close to you, then you have crowned yourself as the master, not as God.

And isn't it interesting that God has designed Scripture and language and interpretation in such a way that there is no once-for-all definitive interpretation outside of the text that we look to.

But instead, he has constantly beckoned his people back to the word to individually and as a gathered body interpret it for themselves so that they have to be dependent on God and his word always.

He doesn't want there to be some superstructure above the word that we depend on, like my opinions and my interpretation.

He wants all of us to be driven back to him and to his word.

You realize omniscience was never the goal for you.

God never intended for you to grow to the point where you knew everything he knows.

The goal is for you to please him.

And you know what pleases him?

When you welcome your brothers.

Even when you have disagreements.

Which means, I think, to disagree well in the church means you're gonna have to become comfortable to some degree with the fairly uncomfortable reality of disagreeing with people.

You're going to have to get used to the reality that there will be people who differ with you on ideas and interpretations, and that's okay.

They're still children of God, and so are you.

You welcome them.

Ask yourself, how many meaningful Christian friendships do I have with people with whom I have meaningful disagreements?

I'm not saying you like gotta seek out all the people that you fight with the most or something.

I'm not saying that.

But I'm saying if there's a person who you know that you have significant disagreement with doctrinally or scripturally, whatever it is, is your first inclination, I just don't want to deal with that?

Or is your first inclination, I want to find out more about them?

I remember in our doctoral program asking Steve Lawson, he was doing kind of a talk on uh the late R.

C.

Stroll, what was his favorite thing about RC?

And his answer through tears was that R.

C.

was just one of the best friends you could ever have.

Across any aisle.

He had friends in every denomination, of every stripe, every theological color.

And he was loyal and dedicated to every single one of them.

Does that sound like you?

Is that the way that you welcome one another?

Well, that's part of Paul's response to how we disagree with Christian charity and clarity, but it's not the full picture.

First, towards people, you welcome them.

Secondly, he says, you be fully convinced.

Look at verse 5.

One person esteems one day is better than another, while another esteems all days alike.

So here's another potential controversy.

Maybe it's the Sabbath, maybe it's Sunday, who knows?

Whatever your particular holiday or weekly commitment is.

He says, whatever the case, end of verse 5, each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

First of all, notice, he says, in his own mind.

It's just like a little reminder from Paul, you only control your own mind.

You don't control other people's minds as much as you might like to.

But with your own mind, he says, be fully convinced.

That is a strong word.

I think it's about as close as the New Testament comes to telling us, be absolutely certain.

Know this for sure, down in your bones.

Have strong convictions about this.

Paul uses this elsewhere in Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

He prays that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ.

Or he says in Colossians chapter 4, verse 12, that Epaphras is praying that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

Colossians 4:12

Or back in Romans chapter 14, he says in verse 14 about himself, I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean enough itself.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

Paul's not waffling on his position, is he?

Is he convinced?

Is he certain?

Is he sure?

Certainly seems so.

He even says about the Thessalonians, when we came to you and preached the gospel, it didn't come to you in word only.

It did come in word, but not word only, but it came to you in signs and in the Holy Spirit and in full conviction.

That when he preached, those words, the words of Scripture, preached, became settled convictions in the hearts of the Thessalonian believers.

In particular, convictions we find come from a clear word.

That's why Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, after saying that we press on to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, verse 15, let those of us who are mature think this way.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also.

God will sort this thing out, but you think that way, and then he says this, only let us hold true to what we have attained.

So have convictions, is what Paul is saying.

Believe things that are right and true and actually in the scriptures.

If you want a really clear example of how this plays itself out, go to Acts chapter 18, where Apollos comes on the scene and he knows the scriptures really well, but he only knows about the baptism of John, and so Priscilla and Aquilicum, and they teach him the way of God more accurately, it says.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

Verse 6, the one who observes the day, because he has a conviction about it, observes it in honor of the Lord.

And the one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.

For if we live, we live to the Lord.

If we die, we die to the Lord, so that whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord.

Everything that we do is for the Lord.

It's to honor the Lord.

And his point here is that you cannot do those things absent convictions.

If you try to honor the Lord with a convictionless mentality where you don't actually believe anything, you're just an amoeba floating around, then you will not succeed in honoring the Lord.

You have to have convictions to do that.

And why does it work that way?

Well, look at verse 9.

He says, For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

What he's saying is, Christ died so that you might believe, have convictions, and live out those convictions to glorify him as your Lord.

Jesus is not glorified by a refusal to land your plane on all issues such that you will never take a stand for anything, and you never actually end up doing anything either.

That doesn't glorify the Lord.

No, you land your plane, you make a commitment, you believe what the text says.

That's how convictions glorify the Lord.

I'll give you an illustration of this.

1841, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the train companies decided they were going to start running on Sunday.

Gasp.

And the Christians in the day were not happy about this, especially one of my favorite Christians, Robert Murray McChain.

And so, in his pulpit at Dundee, he preached a fiery sermon called I Love the Lord's Day.

And it was all about how evil the trains are because they run on Sunday.

And that sermon got turned into a track, and that track got circulated all over Scotland, and a bunch of people picked it up, and a whole movement started, and they shut down the trains on Sunday so that people would go to church instead of going somewhere else.

I mean, that's a man of conviction.

And that conviction led to him glorifying the Lord, didn't it?

Whether you agree with him about the Christian Sabbath or not, that's not the point.

The point is he had convictions from Scripture and he lived them out to the glory of the Lord.

All of life, from the beginning to the end, all of it is for God's glory, and if you would glorify Jesus, you must first have convictions about the true right way to honor him.

And what I'm trying to say here is that there really is nothing humble or loving about uncertainty.

I think there's been a massive confusion that's happened in the last generation or so where we have been tricked into thinking if you are uncertain about something, that makes you humble.

Think about it this way.

Was Jesus certain about what he believed?

Was he humble?

Humility has to do with your relationship with people and God.

Convictions have to do with your relationship with the truth.

I'm arguing that a right way to read the scriptures is to be both humble and certain.

A humility and a conviction.

And Paul concludes this incredible thought by pointing us heavenward.

He says in verse 10, why do you pass judgment on your brother?

Reiterating the charge from earlier.

Or why do you despise your brother?

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

This isn't the great white throne, this isn't condemnation, this is the bima seat, eternal rewards.

All of us will have to answer to God for what we have done with the life that He has given to us.

The question is: He's placed a Bible in your lap and people in your life.

What will you do with them both?

What will you do with the Bible and with your brothers?

Will you welcome the brothers and believe the Bible?

Or will you try to find some other way?

Ultimately, he says, your judgment before God depends on this.

And he quotes Isaiah 45, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God, so that each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Are you prepared to give an account to God for the way that you have dealt with disagreements in the church?

Are you prepared to face your Lord, who is also the Lord of your brother and sister, and say, I welcomed them as you welcomed me?

Are you prepared to say, with this book that you've given me, I believed every word to the best of my ability.

I studied it and I learned and I tried to have convictions and I lived those convictions out to your name.

Are you prepared for that day?

George Whitfield and John Wesley, even though they were good friends, had strong disagreement.

They started the Holy Club together with Charles, and slightly later George Whitfield developed some different convictions about the sovereignty of God in salvation.

He became a strong Calvinist in John Wesley, the other direction.

To the degree that Wesley wrote, quote, He told me, this is Whitfield, he would not join with me or give me the right hand of fellowship, but was resolved to publicly preach against me and my brother wheresoever he preached.

That was the beginning of their disagreement.

Over time, it seems, they softened in their relationship towards each other, but only deepened in their conviction in the truth, to the degree that both were more and more convinced of their doctrine and more gracious in brotherly love for each other.

Someone asked George Whitfield, you might have heard this before, uh, George, will we see John Wesley in heaven?

Because of his rank doctrine.

And Whitfield said, No, I don't think we will, because he'll be so close to the throne and we'll be so far.

And then Whitfield, uh, when Wesley was sick and near death's door, wrote him a letter.

And here's what the letter said.

Thinking that he would lose his friend in a mere matter of hours, he wrote, A radiant throne awaits you.

And ere long you will enter into your master's joy.

Yonder he stands with a massive crowd, ready to put it on your head amidst an admiring throng of saints and angels.

In God's strange providence, Wesley recovered and Whitfield died before him.

And Wesley preached his funeral.

Friend, what will you do with the Bible?

And what will you do with your brothers?

Will you welcome them and will you believe it?

This is a clear word.

It's never meant to divide the family of God.

It's only meant to instruct and help.

Because verse 9 says, To this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Let's pray.

Oh God help us.

We so quickly make ourselves the master and diminish your role in our lives and so badly in our pride want to be right and for other people to know that we're right.

And yet this word rebukes us and reminds us how desperately we need a savior like you.

One who welcomes the weak, one who sees the flailing and petulant, the sinful and forlorn, and brings them home.

Makes them his own.

So God, we we ask for hearts like yours that receive prodigals, that love the brothers, that welcome those who have turned to you in faith.

And God, we ask too that in this church you would raise up men and women of deep, strong biblical convictions.

That we would be known for the clarity of our thinking about the Bible, the power of the truth on our lips.

That we would not shy back from controversy because the world doesn't like what you have to say, but we would stand firm on this authoritative and clear word, knowing that you have spoken.

But Father, may those convictions never divide us.

May they only draw us together even when we differ.

May the blood of Christ unite us.

May we be one even as he prayed for us to be one.

And may that unity bear itself out in godly proclamation of the truth to a dying world that has no idea how to disagree like this.

And we ask all of this in Jesus' precious name.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with Jesus.