Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks? (Part B)

Love takes work. And if you think it's this emotional, inspirational thing, well sometimes it is, but many times it's not. It's zero inspiration, it's sheer commandment. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, if you met my neighbors, you wouldn't mind if I didn't love them. That's not true. And what does it mean? It means bottom line of love is. You're not trying to harm the other person.

You'll take any opportunity you can to help them. in spite of them. If that is not the definition of love, then why did Christ come? He demonstrated that to us. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.

Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Romans. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick as he continues teaching through the 14th chapter of the book of Romans on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Verse 15: Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love.

Do not destroy with your food the one. For whom Christ died. And so there he's trying to break up fights. The food fighters. on both sides.

And it's very difficult. Because he does not want to tell them how to think. He wants to give them truth and let them figure it out. That's why he's going to get into if you think it's wrong and you're still doing it, now you're sinning. It's because he's not bullying them.

There's a phrase we have in our culture. You might not hear it so much today, but it's called a bully pulpit. And it comes from pastors trying to use their pulpit and authority of the pastorate to really get what they want done. and not so much what the Scripture once done. Or what the Lord wants done.

Anyway, the highest and noblest form of freedom Yields. to smaller things, to petty it's you know, it's I can take that one on the chin. When Paul says, if eating meat makes my brothers stumble, I will never again eat meat. He's saying, well, if this is going to trip up and hurt somebody, then I can I can do that one. Christ will call you to bend over backwards from time to time, but I have noticed He's not ever called me to be a contortionist.

There have been times when I've been inconvenienced. But there's a point, there's a limit to that. It doesn't get out of control. When you learn these things, we call it maturity in Christ. But part of being mature in Christ is to understand you can become immature still if you're not careful.

It's um It requires Uh I guess that's why we have so many illustrations about farmers and working and patience because it requires hard work and maintenance.

Well, coming back to this Romans fifteen, Romans 14, verse 15, yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. You are no longer walking in love.

Well, love is a commandment. It's a New Testament commandment. And it overrules all the commandments. It is the greatest of them all. It is the evidence that Christ is in us.

This is not a common love. This is what we call agape love. Galatians 6, as I referred to earlier. If you've not memorized Galatians 6 verses 1 and 2, you might want to put that on your list. Brethren If a man is overtaken in any trespass, Shoot him.

doesn't say that. That would be horrific. But it's practised. If A man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Well, that bearing others' burdens is that bending over backwards sometimes that I was referring to. He says Do not destroy with your food the one whom Christ died. Significant problems arise out of insignificant things sometimes. We should know better. and ends up doing the devil's work for him.

Is it really that important that you stand your ground all the time on insignificant petty things? I know it's hard.

Some again, I think I mentioned this last week's or something Uh sometime.

Someone mentioned to me about someone else who liked a particular Christian author. who I don't like. And it just bothered me. I mean, physically. I mean, I could feel him.

I was like, I don't like that guy. But that's not my place. I mean, he's not a heretic. But he's that close. You know, that's my problem.

It's not for me to go riding in on a... White horse and shining armor and to say, Thou shalt not read him? Fine if you want to read it. He wasn't a heretic. Anyway, verse 6, I know some of you are saying, who is that guy?

Not telling you. Therefore, verse 16: Do not let your good be spoken of as evil.

Well, don't make it easy for the devil. We're not to be careless as Christians. That lesson comes straight out of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The emphasis is very heavy in those two books. You cannot just waltz onto the temple ground and offer whatever you want, any way you want, anytime you want.

There are barriers. Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10 found that out.

Well, really, they the witnesses found it out. Nadab and Abihu were struck dead. We are not free to be careless. Love takes work. And if you think it's this emotional, inspirational thing, well, sometimes it is, but many times it's not.

There's zero inspiration, it's sheer commandment. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, if you met my neighbors, you wouldn't mind if I didn't love them. That's not true. And what does it mean? It means the bottom line of love is. You're not trying to harm the other person.

You'll take any opportunity you can to help them. In spite of them. If that is not the definition of love, then why did Christ come? He demonstrated that to us, that while we were still sinners, Christ Jesus died for us. Verse 17, for the kingdom of God is not Eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

You can substitute eating and drinking for some other little petty thing, but here's what was the problem there. God is more interested in our dying to the flesh than how we feed the flesh. And that, of course, is a double entendre, speaking of the spiritual flesh, and the we feed the physical flesh. But we're also to not Feed. the metaphorical flesh.

the carnal behavior, the natural behavior. There's anyone really think. that Jesus suffered and died so we could argue over foods. or other petty things. It really helps to say, wait a minute, what's going on here?

What is what is the objective? in this contest. Is it to prove that I'm right? Or is it to see the The end game, the long fight that I'm involved with. Which takes a lot of patience.

You know that with your children.

Sometimes you just have to wait. Before you can explain certain things to them, things take time. But righteousness, he says, that's what matters. But righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness is not a suggestion for us.

1 Thessalonians 4:7, for God did not call us to uncleanness, but to holiness. The Pharisees, in that they were swallowing camels and gagging on gnats. the big things, they had no problem With lying and cheating and sending an innocent Christ to the cross. They had no problems with people suffering on Sabbath days, just as long as they. Did what they told them to do, and they gagged.

on the smallest of things, their righteousness was damaged more than Tolerable limits and peace.

Well, unrighteousness takes away the peace. Satan preaches a false peace. We know that. slick way of Keeping in power. You younger.

Christians You think. You may think, you very likely think, you know more than what you do. about what is out there in the world.

Now you gotta be careful because our youth are not dumb. But they can be Because of inexperience. The antidote to that is to have good people around you. Have people that are ahead of you. that you can learn from, that you can admire.

I encourage younger Christians Get stories from the older Christians. from their days. When they were your age or before, they have a tremendous amount of knowledge to share. You can benefit from that. And you can tell a good church when you have a spread of different age groups in that church.

Now, it doesn't mean all churches without age spread is doing poorly, but it is nice to see when you have the young and the old and those who are in between.

Well, the youth. To know righteousness, that's going to protect you from the lies that Satan will tell. and will keep you from following the mob. And joy.

Well, righteousness leads to peace, and peace leads to joy in the Holy Spirit. Who writes your definitions? Dictionary do you have? The Holy Spirit is the one that writes our meanings for us. Jeremiah 10, he laments, O Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself.

It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

Well, then, who's doing it?

Well, the Holy Spirit that he's talking about here, righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he's not his. Very sobering words. What does it mean to be a believer? What does it mean to be right with God?

Well, the Spirit of Christ is in us. Verse 18: For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God. and approved by men. Righteousness, joy, peace, and the Holy Spirit, these serve Christ. acceptable by God and men.

Not wicked men. Wicked men will not accept us. 2 Corinthians 8. Providing honorable things. Not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

Because I have met Christians who have lived as though they only have to please God. And they don't care what people think.

Well, sometimes it does come to that, but That's an extreme situation.

Well typically in our society. People notice Christian braggarts. Those who are always wearing their Christianity on their sleeve, but not backing it up with their behavior. The world sees that stuff. And they use it against us.

Daniel was a true Old Testament believer. They fed him to the lions. the lions considered Daniel to be unclean. You can't eat him. Why?

He's unclean. The other guys up there, however, John the Baptist beheaded, giving us examples of those who are approved by God. and men, but not the wicked men. James the Apostle. He was either beheaded or pierced with the sword, details left out.

Stephen the servant, Stoned to death. What really got them is when he asked that question: which of the prophets have your fathers not killed? Because you're gagging on gnats. But you're swallowing camels. You have no problem murdering the prophets, but you got a big problem.

with people upholding righteousness. Paul and Peter crucified and beheaded. That's what we believed happened to them.

So verse 19, therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which One may edify another. Paul's constantly got his head in the game. He's constantly looking at. What will get things done the righteous way. Christianity requires effort.

And whatever gains you make require maintenance.

So when he says pursue, he's saying go after this, it's going to take effort. You have to chase it. It's not just going to happen. magically. You know, few of the gifts of the Spirit, very few of them, work well outside the church.

A lot of people don't want to come to church for a lot of reasons. Let's just make sure those reasons are wrong. That they won't apply to us. In Corinthians, Paul talks about the gifts of the Spirit, the charisma. That's the word he uses in the Greek for the gifts.

But when he gets to Ephesians, he uses a different word. When he talks about the Lord giving gifts to the church, to men. Doma is the Greek word there. And now he's talking about he himself has given some to be. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor teachers.

He's saying to the Ephesians: God has gifted the church. with anointed servants. He shall give you shepherds, said Jeremiah, according to his heart. And there are many that resist us because there are many wolves in sheep clothing because Satan targets the church. We should never be surprised at that.

Therefore, pursue the things which make for peace. What's the first star? Ephesians 4:32. Be kind to one another. tender-hearted, forgiving one another.

As God in Christ has forgiven you.

Well, verse 20. I like saying these scripture verses. I can't do them all. But I'm trying. Yeah.

And it's kind of comforting to know that the same goes for you too. The person that gets everything right, that never sins again, that is perfect, please stand up. Yeah. Anyway, verse 20: Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense.

Well, again, the Judaizers were notorious for destroying things with food. And Paul says, do not destroy. Do I do that? Do I destroy good things? Do I destroy the things of the Lord?

We could substitute again the word food here with pettiness. For the sake of pettiness, things that have nothing to do with anything but your preference. Titus, Paul said, to the pure. All things are pure. Yeah, because they're going to stay on the right track.

But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Even their mind and their conscience are defiled. There's darkness there, there's no light. They're not even interested. And there are people that are afraid of coming to Christ.

Because they might have to give up their wicked life. And so he encourages them. To not violate their convictions if they're wrong, because that creates yet another problem. Verse 21: It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine. nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended.

In verse 21, it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine, he says. And Paul again is addressing, has dealt with this in detail in 1 Corinthians 8. But where he says, nor drink wine, if wine makes your brother stumble, then don't have it. When we give communion, we use grape juice, not the grape with the alcohol in it, because we don't want to stumble anybody who may be struggling in that area. Nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.

So avoid. Provoking a situation unnecessarily. There are some areas he just can't help it, he's just gonna have to stumble because he's wrong. But if he says, well, I have a problem with you going to church on Sundays.

Well, I'm going to church on a Sunday. You're just going to have to have that problem. We're smart enough to know when to apply these things. 1 Corinthians 10: Give no offense either to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God. There's a verse that's dismissed quite often by people who Plain price.

Continuing on, we look now at verse Twenty-two. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.

So where he says, do you have faith? He's saying, do you trust Christ? You're a Christian? You've claimed him as Lord. Spirits in you.

The last of some 80 rhetorical questions that Paul has thrown out in this Roman letter. It's a question and answer format. Yet he is chosen. He's not trying to get the weak Christians to eat meat. He believes they're wrong.

And he's already proven these things preached on them. But he is saying to them All right, if I've not convinced you and you're still afraid to eat the meat. Just make sure your conscience is clear because If you begin to violate your own conscience, how can Christ ever? Minister genuinely to and through you if that mechanism is broken. If you're doing things that you know are wrong, even if it doesn't matter they're right or wrong, if you say this is wrong for me to do, It's a sin for me to do this.

Now you've created another problem. And he knows this, that's why he's putting it in there. He's trying to Give them some wiggle room. To figure things out, verse 23: But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not From faith is sin.

Of course, in in the context of our Beliefs. That's what he's talking about. I mean, if you're playing basketball and you take a shot at the basket, but you don't have faith that's going to go in, you're not sitting if you miss. Although technically the word sinner does mean you missed. But anyway, that's another story.

As I mentioned, Several times. It's all about the food fighting that was going on in early Christianity. Those claiming Christ but rejecting the new covenant, more afraid of Moses' law. Than the liberties in Christ, Galatians 2:12. And I bring these verses up to let you know I'm not picking these things out of the air.

What I'm preaching to you is based on what is in Scripture, and here's one example. I'll set the scene up. Paul. Barnabas and Peter are ministering. in Antioch, Syria.

Just north of of Israel. And the Gentiles are flooding into the church, getting saved. And Paul, of course, knowing how to handle this, is doing just that. He's saying, we have a new covenant here, we have a new priesthood. And you're free to eat these things for all the reasons I laid out earlier.

Well, James finds out about this, and Paul says James sent them. to spy out our liberty. There's this tension between the two men.

Well, the men from James comes up and Guess who caves in? Peter And Barnabas. I can understand Peter because Peter's Peter. But Barnabas, the son of encouragement, caves in too. Couldn't handle the pressure.

Not Paul. The next thing coming out of Paul, sound coming from Paul is a sword the sheath.

So he writes to the Galatians because he wants this cleared up. He's a good idea. For before certain men came from James. He would eat with the Gentiles. He talked about Peter.

But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. That Galatian letter, especially in the Greek. But he he He didn't hold back. He said, you want to be circumcised to be said, why don't you just be mutilated? I mean, you just had it at certain points without getting, without sinning, but he's fierce.

Meet or not. The guilt. Where's it coming from? If you are abstaining from or if you're eating, whatever you're doing. What's the basis for it?

Romans 8:2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made us free from the law of sin and death. And he says this over and over and over again because that was the big problem in the church. And the church today has her own problems. And one of them is shallowness.

One of them is, you know, I gotta feel the music.

Well, that's not a sin, but it is not mature either. Do you need to be entertained? Paul said to the Hebrews, You know, I thought you'd be ready for meat by now, but no. You still gotta eat m drink milk. You're not ready yet.

You should be teachers at this point. But no, you're not.

Well, that still happens. And rather than j name names, which sometimes you have to do.

Sometimes it's best to look for a solution. I hope Christians would love the scriptures. that you get strong. When a man opens up the Bible and begins teaching from the Word of God, I love reading sermons of G. Campbell Morgan, Joseph Parker, Clovis Chappelle, Charles Spurgeon.

They're sermons. When they give you Harry Ironside, A.W. Tozier, it just can go on with these men of God. Anyway. Uh just The reason why is not because I like to read.

I really don't like to read. Stop signs give me a problem. But I love the word of God. I know that much. And I love when men open the word of God.

And tell me things that I have missed or need to be reminded of. Not all of it is conviction. Much of it is just sheer joy. And I think that that's one of the things missing in the church today. If there's something, it is the love of the word.

Other things have become more important to Christians. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by entertainment. Faith comes by hearing and by programs for my teens. Faith comes by hearing. Fill in the blank.

There's only one answer. Faith comes by hearing. The Word of God.

Well I'll close with this. Faith is the outcome of contact with God. which brings instruction from God. which comes from the Word of God. And that brings freedom.

Freedom to not sin, freedom to love the scripture, freedom to serve, freedom to forgive one another, freedom to love. and freedom to not give up. Because you're gonna fail. But you can get up every single time. Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Any objections? But you Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com.

We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross-Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross-Reference Radio.

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