Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Bible says, For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Boy, I love that phrase. You're a vegetarian, have at it. The Bible says him that eateth herbs is weak.

So I'm just not going to go any further than that. All right, let's give the invitation. Lord, we would like to. God's convicted you against eating just salads. You come on forward and go get a steak when we leave today.

I'm just picking. I wish I was skinny preaching something like that. It would make a lot more sense, wouldn't it? All right, look at verse two. God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks.

And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieeth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord. And whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living.

Isn't that great? We're not talking about church people. We're talking about alive and those that have gone.

We have dead and alive here, but that's not what we're talking about. Verse 10. You've always heard the dead in Christ rise at 12 to go to lunch while everybody else is still in church listening to preaching. Look at verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore. Wow, just stop right there.

Isn't that great? You want to argue with the Bible? I don't know how it's clearer than that. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. This is a wonderful passage.

It is one of the most misused and most unused, because everybody's scared of it. Passages in the word of God, and I cannot be more excited today. Honestly, I cannot be more excited to share what God has laid on my heart.

I know I'm a lot more excited than you are, but I am very excited to share what God has laid on my heart today. Accounting 101. This is not a financial seminar. You'll understand. Lord, we love you. Bless our time. May we rightfully divide your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Accounting 101. What are we talking about? Well, we find later on in our passage that we read that one day we will all give account for ourselves to God. So we've got to look at this passage, and we've got to find out if I'm going to give account to God one day, I need to find out what is important to him and what is not that important to God. What is it that I'm going to give account of, and what is it that I'm not going to give account of? May I say this? I am not going to give account for anything in your life.

Do you know that? You say, well, then why do we have at church? Well, I'm responsible.

I'm the under shepherd. But I don't give account for you, and you're not going to give account for me. And so we've got to figure out if I'm going to give account to God. So what is it that's important? What does he tell us to do?

And I could not be more excited. Number one, I want you to look at verse one, two, and three. Look at verse one. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye. That phrase receive ye means welcome him.

That means this, that you know, take him in, love him. But not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things. Another who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him.

Now there's a lot of back and forth and some repeating and different things. And you need to understand that in Romans chapter 14, with the exception of one time, and that would be in verse 13. With the exception of one time, the word judge means to condemn. It doesn't mean that you look at something and determine, you know, that may be right or that might be wrong. The Bible says we are to do that.

We are to look at things and, you know, the Bible says, him that is wise we foresee the evil and keep ourself from it. So that's just part of life. And for people that say, well, I just don't think you ought to judge anything. Well, let me just tell you something.

If you have your wife and kids, and you're in the wrong part of town, and you look down an alley, and you see a whole bunch of the wrong kind of people, and you just walk by that alley, you just judged. Do you know that's part of existing in life is to say, you know what, I'm not going to put my family in danger. If I got to, you know, if for some reason the Zika virus breaks out of Walmart in Kernersville, and boy, they could just crop my sermon and make it sound really bad on the radio, couldn't they? The Zika virus just broke out of Walmart. Okay, hypothetical.

The Zika virus breaks out, and we know, everybody walks in that building and gets it. I'm not going to take my family to Walmart. That doesn't mean I'm judging Walmart. You know, it means I'm judging that Walmart. It doesn't mean that I'm just against, you know, everything. I'm just saying I've got to protect my family. So the word judge here in this passage means to condemn.

It means to pass judgment on somebody. Okay, now notice number one here. I want you to, and this will be on the screen. You need to write this down because this will really help us as a church.

Number one is this. Learn to love people that see things differently. I had a conversation with a pastor yesterday, Brother Tom Wagner. Brother Tom's from our church.

I booked him for a revival in 2017. I love Brother Tom, and he's from our church and served here at our church and different things. We had him for a marriage conference that we had in, and I've always said a man could preach a ladies' conference and a woman could preach a man's conference if we'd let him, but we're just not going to do that.

No, but we had him for a thing. Our folks loved him, and we talked about, and we just had this conversation about how folks are different, folks do things different and all these things. Look at verse one. Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye. That means this. Just because somebody doesn't know everything and see everything the way you do, it says that shouldn't stop you from receiving him.

Receiving doesn't mean we bring him in and put him in leadership. It means receive means that we love and we nurture, and this is my brother in Christ. Notice if you would in verse two.

For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. There are people that believe different things about passages, but there are certain things in the Bible that are just not up for debate. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. That is the gospel. The Bible makes that clear.

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. We cannot debate on that. Does that make sense? But you know there's a whole lot of issues in the Bible and verses and different things that people are going to feel different. That doesn't mean we don't love them.

That means this. If I believe differently than you do, I still want you to love me. We need to learn to love people that see things differently.

Now what is involved in that? Notice number one, there's no disputes. Number two, there's no despising. Notice, look at verse one. Him that is weak in the faith receive you, but not to doubtful. In other words, you don't receive him so we can have an argument. You don't receive him so that we can have a dispute about this thing. No, you receive him to show love. You receive him because we're a Christian and we want to show the love of Christ and they might be weak in the faith and maybe they don't know all the things and all these different things, but we don't bring them in so that we can show them how much we know. We bring them in so we can love them like Christ.

But it's to no doubtful disputations or disputes. Notice secondly, notice if you would, look at verse three. Let him that eateth, let him that eateth despise him that eateth not.

Let not him, excuse me, here I am confused. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not. That means this, there's individuals that are weak in the faith, and that word weak means not experienced, maybe haven't grown as much, whatever. We ought to receive them, we ought to help them, we ought to love them. We ought to fellowship in Christ and you know what, there's going to come up topics and they're going to ask questions and different things. Not all of us feel the exact same way. But here's what's important is that I need to learn to love those that see things maybe differently than me and that means that I got to make sure there's no disputes. It doesn't mean that you don't explain and it doesn't mean you don't have conversation and say, well, why do you believe this? Well, this is what we believe. Well, I don't see it that way. Well, I understand, but this is what God showed me. But God says don't let that get to where it's doubtful disputations and second, don't let you get where you start despising them. We're all different. We believe different things, but learn to love people that see things differently.

Why? Because when you give a count to Christ one day, you're not going to give a count for what that person believes. You're going to give a count for how you treated them.

All of a sudden some of you are like ding, ding, ding. See where we're going, number two. Look at verse four. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth.

Yea, he shall be holding up for God is able to make him stand. Number two, it is not our place to condemn God's servants. Do you know that? Well, why do you say that? Look at verse four. Number one, I want you to see this.

It's on your outline. Number one, it's not our job. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? That servant belongs to that man, not you. Do you get that?

Let me tell you something. I don't walk into a store and I think an employee is being lazy. And I walk up to the employer, can I talk to you for a second? You have an employee over there. They're being lazy. And I think they ought to be fired. Well, guess what?

It's up to the employer whether he's going to be fired or not. That's his employee. Does that make sense? Let me tell you something. We belong to God.

People don't belong to us. And I have to be careful. I'm going to tell you something.

I'm responsible to God as a pastor and I do what I feel God wants me to do. And I answer to him and him only. But I'm going to tell you something.

I always have to remind myself. Let me tell you something. You wonderful, wonderful people don't belong to me. You belong to God. Now I have a responsibility to you. But I'm going to tell you something.

You belong to God. It's not up to me to condemn. Listen, I get up and preach God's Word and anybody that even knows me a half of a fraction knows that I get up and at the best of my ability I'm going to preach God's Word how God I feel lays at me. And I don't do everything right and I'm definitely not the best preacher in the world and I know that. But I'm just going to try to be faithful. But I'm going to tell you something. Out of this pulpit, you are not going to offend me. I'm going to tell you something.

I love you. I don't care what. And anybody that knows me half a fraction knows that.

You know why? You don't belong to me. You belong to God. We are His servants so it's not our place to judge or condemn another man's servant. It's not our job. Notice secondly, it's not our business. Notice if you would, verse 4. Who art thou that judges another man's servant?

To his own master he standeth or falleth. That's not your business. That's his business. In other words this, that's his responsibility.

And I'm going to give you a little bit about God. God takes his responsibility. God's faithful to what his job is. So we don't have to condemn or judge his servants. God does that. That's his business.

Full shizzle, full shizzle, right? It's his biz. However I can make you explain it, understand it today. It's his job.

Notice if you would, third. It's not our job. It's not our business.

Number three, it's not our responsibility. Look at verse 4. It says, Yea, he shall be holding up for God is able to make him stand. That's God's responsibility. It's God's job, it's God's business, and it's God's responsibility to help that individual and make him stand. And he will rise and fall in God's eyes. That's all God's area.

So our job is to make sure we don't condemn somebody else's servants. Are you all with me so far? Say amen. I know I lost you about a few seconds ago, but that's okay.

We'll get you back. Number three, you need to know what you believe. Know what you believe.

Look at verse 5. One man esteemeth one day above another. Another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

In other words, you're going to go around like an ant in a yo-yo or something the rest of your life. If you try to figure out, well this person believes this, I wonder, well then this person believes this. They're a really nice person. And I'm going to tell you something. You have so many people that have no Holy Ghost discernment because they base everything on what they believe by trying to figure out who they think are a good person or a good family. And well they do this so it must be right.

I don't care how good a family is. You go to the Bible and you figure out what God persuades you of. I'm getting about tired of people.

Why do you do this? Well so and so, they're really good people. Well I don't care. Last time I checked, we don't get doctrine from people or families. We don't get doctrine from colleges. We don't get doctrine from churches.

We get doctrine from the Bible. So you and I need to realize that some are going to think this day, you know, and obviously they're following ritual here. Some didn't believe you ought to eat meat. Some believed you ought to eat just this. Some believe that certain day you couldn't go out and do work. Some believe on Sunday you couldn't go get your ox out of the ditch. And some believe that on Sunday that you could go get your ox out of the ditch. And some believe that you shouldn't feed your cattle on Sunday. And some believe that you ought to feed your cattle on Sunday.

And I'm going to tell you something. You got a bunch of cows, go ahead and feed them on Sunday. Because one of these days they're going to have to get killed and I'm going to have to eat that steak.

So you keep them fed. Because I don't just eat herbs, I eat meat. Alright? I got more I would say to that, but I'm not going to say it. Listen, I want you to get this. You know what you believe. And you don't know what you believe because it's what's popular or what's trending or because you know somebody. Listen, you get in God's Word. And if you don't know and you can't get convinced, then you can ask and you can, but I'm going to tell you something. You get in God's Bible and you stay in it, God will make it clear to you. You know what you believe and that's all you got to worry about. You don't have to worry about what so and so they ask, you can tell them why, but we don't dispute and we don't despise. We just know what we believe. There is no more solid Christian than a Christian that knows what they believe. Doesn't matter what comes or goes.

It's not going to change what they believe. Alright, now we're starting to get to the nitty gritty. Number four. We need to learn it's about the Lord and not us. This is all about accounting. This is what we're going to give account for. Look at verse six. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord.

Notice that. Okay, if you think a certain day special, then you need to think it special unto the Lord. He that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God thanks.

You notice the trend. If you believe a day special, that's fine as long as the reason you believe it's special is because the Lord told you that. If you don't think a certain day special, then make sure that you don't think it's special because the Lord told you that, not somebody else. If you don't think you ought to eat this, then don't eat it because you felt that's what God's convicted you of.

But don't do it because it's trendy. And if you think it's okay to eat meat, then eat meat and make sure you give God thanks for it. You get it so far. Okay, look at verse 7. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Everything should be done to the Lord, nothing should be done for or to ourselves.

Look at verse 8. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's.

Why? Look at verse 9. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living.

Let me tell you something. Everything we ought to do is to the Lord. Everything we believe ought to believe because the Lord has taught us that. The Lord has laid that on our heart. The Lord has showed us that in God's word. If you have your little certain beliefs and everybody has their little certain beliefs, then that's fine. You have your little certain beliefs as long as those beliefs came from the Lord. And as long as you're doing them for the Lord and not anybody else. Because we don't live unto anybody else, we live unto the Lord.

And here's why. Because he bought us, he died for us. He put all the work in and so we need to make sure everything in our life is because of him. That doesn't give us a free pass just to believe what we want. You can say, well I just don't think this and I just don't think that. Listen, God doesn't give us the freedom just to think what we want. He says you have the freedom to do what you believe God has laid on your heart. Now if you say, well I believe God laid this on my heart and he didn't, you're going to take that up with him one day. If you're just doing what we want and we're just using God to justify it, oh God will get through all that. He'll judge all that. I'm going to tell you something, you better not do that.

There's a lot of people that do that. Well I just this, well I just that, well I just this, you know. Well the Lord, well the Lord just hasn't told me anything about that. You better be careful about that because often times it means maybe we're too far away to hear him.

So just be careful what we do. Listen, it's all part of just living the Christian life. Why is it all about the Lord? Can I say this to you this morning?

And I know this is kind of teaching on a Sunday morning but this will help you. Listen, when we dispute, why did he say at the very beginning, no doubtful disputes and no despising. Listen, because when we dispute we make it about us instead of the Lord. When we despise we're now making it about me instead of God. You've got to understand, remember I might believe one thing and a brother might believe a different thing. But if I let that all of a sudden turn into a dispute and now we're mad at each other and despise each other, what we have done is the very thing that should have been about the Lord we've made about us. Yeah, amen. Y'all get it?

You love it? Okay. That means this, that the reason is we've got to realize it's all about the Lord, it's not us.

And if we get selfish and we make it about, well this is what I believe and I think everybody ought to believe this, we're making it about us instead of the Lord. Okay, we're going somewhere with all this. Now we're getting to the nitty-gritty. Okay, I'm going to stop. Look at number five. Remember.

The nitty-gritty. Remember that we all face judgment. Look if you would at verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set it not, or mean to put down thy brother? For we shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God, so that every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Now notice three things. First, we see here that we will bow. Verse 11. We will bow. Every knee shall bow to me. Number two, we will confess at the judgment seat of Christ. Look at verse 11. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess to God.

Now, I'm not going to make this all about this, you understand. But there are two judgments that will go on when the Lord comes back, obviously. There will be the great white throne judgment and there will be the judgment seat of Christ. The great white throne judgment is when obviously Christ judges the unsaved. That's where they are sent to hell because they didn't believe.

That's the great white throne. The judgment seat of Christ is what we call the judgment or the giving account for those that do know Christ. Now we believe if you put your faith and trust in Christ, you have been forgiven of your sin. That means we are now made nigh by the blood of Christ.

That means now we are part of the family. But it doesn't mean that we will not give account. It means this, that I'm not going to be accused, but I am going to have to give account.

And what does that mean? It means that at that day every tongue will confess and everybody will give account. Saved or unsaved, everybody is going to give account. Here's the problem.

Now listen, I want you to get this. Those who are unsaved will have to give account for their sins and they don't have anything to pay for that. So they are going to go to hell. Us who are saved will give account for our service because our sins have been covered.

Does that make sense? So that means that the judgment seat, you and I have got to understand, do not ever get away from this in your Christian life, that the day is going to come I'm going to give account for what I've done for God. Now listen to me.

We spend so much time arguing, disputing, debating, trying to fix everybody and their friend. And the problem is at the judgment seat of Christ we will get no credit or account for any of that. You and I have got to remember that at the judgment seat of Christ I've got to give account of what I've done for God. Who have I led to the Lord? Who have I witnessed to? Who have I been a testimony to? How have I represented the Lord? And look at me, dear friend, I'm afraid of so many times we spend all of our life doing things that will not matter at the judgment seat of Christ.

You know why we have, you know, one of the reasons we have a bus ministry and different things, and Brother Scott and I have talked about it, many of you that work in the bus ministry, you know one of the reasons why we have Upwards and we have Awanas and we have Outreach and we have all these things, you know why? Because we want to give you an opportunity to have a great judgment seat. We want you when you get to that day when you give account to God to be able to say, Lord, as much as I fail, I've worked hard and I've been faithful.

And that day you're going to wish you had given him more. And I'm going to tell you something, there will be a lot of folks that really, I got saved but I never really did anything else. And you know ministries at a church reaching folks, helping folks, it gives you an opportunity to have a great judgment seat.

Wow. It literally gives you a little something that you can give back to God. So you and I, we get away from it, we get involved and we're consumed by so many things and what ought to consume our mind is the day is coming, I just woke 10 of you up, the day is coming where I will give account for my service, what I have done for God.

You say, yeah, but you know people quit and it's just hard. Oh, let me tell you something, at the day of the judgment seat of Christ, you'll be so glad you did. You'll be so thankful that I just kept with it and I just kept working. You'll be all, these people said those things and yeah, they criticized and yeah, but you'll be so thankful that you'll have something that you have done for Christ. We will bow, we will confess, we will give account.

Let me read this to you and we'll be done today as I give you the last thing. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17, listen to this. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.

Look at me, I guess I'm just, this is not a personal agenda, but I just want you to understand. Do you realize that those that are in any kind of authority, when you have people that answer to you in any kind of authority, we'll give account for that one day. You realize, listen, I'm not going to pay for your sin because I can't even pay for my sin.

Christ paid for all of our sin. But I'm going to give account one day, listen to me, at the judgment seat of Christ because I had authority, I had leadership and I'm going to give account how I did. And I'm going to give account one day to the Lord, if God made it very clear on my heart that this is what I want you to do at this church, but I let pressure or whatever say, well okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going to give account for that.

It doesn't mean that there's other people that might do that, that they're going to be bad or they're going to, no, no, no. You have to figure out what God has convinced you of. You need to be fully persuaded and stick with it.

Stick with it. Don't worry about so and so. Don't worry if so and so says, well I'm offended that you did that.

Hey, if you can justify between you and God and God made that clear, don't worry about what so and so says. Don't worry about it. Now listen to me, I want you to get this as we close. Number six, last in, we're done. We got three minutes till twelve. Well, I have six to twelve on this one.

Some of you probably are like, I got five after. Okay. Look at verse thirteen. Look at verse thirteen.

What's the point of this whole thing? Let us not therefore judge or condemn one another anymore, but judge this, notice this word rather. This is where the word judge is different. Alright, let's not condemn our brothers anymore. Let's just stay away from that. But what we should judge rather, this is what's important.

That's what that word rather means. God says not this, this. What does it say? That no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in the brother's way.

Now listen, get this, number six. Instead of condemning a brother for falling, it's our job to make sure we didn't cause it. If my brother falls, the Bible already said, ye which are spiritual, restore such in one. So my job as a Christian, if a brother falls, is to get down there, help him and get back up. But God said, don't judge them if they fall. Quit judging your brother.

What you ought to spend your effort doing is to make sure that I don't do anything in my life that could cause my brother to fall. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.