Getting Along When Our Convictions Differ

Transcript

GR 1473
05/29/11
Getting Along When our Convictions Differ
Romans 14:1-12
Gil Rugh

We're going to Romans 14 in your Bibles. We come to a new chapter in the book of Romans and it is a new and final section in the book. The larger section began in chapter 1 and it runs to the middle of chapter 15. And that's the concluding emphasis in the book of Romans. Then there will just be some concluding remarks and comments by Paul. This section is built around the instruction that began chapter 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. Those mercies are what he talked about in the first eleven chapters of Romans, that God in marvelous grace has provided His Son to be the Savior, to bring forgiveness of sins, to bring His righteousness to us so that we can know forgiveness and cleansing and new life, a relationship with the living God through faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work. On the basis of what God has done for us in Christ, and the fact that we have responded to His grace by believing in Christ, we are to present our bodies as a sacrifice to God, to be used by Him and for Him.

Then he began by talking about spiritual gifts as an area where we demonstrate that we have experienced God's grace in salvation and are now living for Him. Spiritual gifts are the enablement God gives to His people, each individually to function in a way that is pleasing to Him in their service for Him. And as we each exercise those special abilities He has given, then we function as one body, a unit. He really comes back to that theme in chapter 14 and the first part of chapter 15. Not by talking about spiritual gifts, but by talking about the unity that we have with all of the diversity that exists. Unique thing about the church that God has established, it is made up of all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds—rich people, poor people, smart people, not so smart people, people of different races, different nationalities. But they are brought together in one body and are to function together. The danger is that we allow the differences that exist among us, and they are many, to divide us. But really what has happened with the grace of God in providing salvation in Jesus Christ is He has caused us to be born again. Remember Jesus said, you must be born again, born from above, made a new creature, a new creation in Christ, one whose sins have been forgiven. Now you are truly a child of God and He has planted His seed within us.

That's what joins believers together and makes us one. In other places of scripture we are called God's household, God's family and we are to conduct ourselves accordingly. That means what binds us together is not that we are all of the same race or the same language or the same social standing. What binds us together is we are children of the living God. Not the general way that people in the world often talk about, we are all God's children. That is not true in the biblical sense. You have to be born again to become a child of God. You are born again through faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, and was raised from the dead because the penalty was paid. That's true of all of us here. Everyone who is here who is truly a child of God, not because you attend this church. That doesn't make you a child of God. Not because you were baptized, that doesn't make you a child of God. It's faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross that brings God's salvation to you, that causes you to be born again, to experience a transformation on the inside that makes you a new person. Now living in a relationship with the living God.

That being the case He brings us together in local churches. And these local churches manifest God's grace. Even the diversity that we have reveals that God has brought us together in a more basic relationship of unity because we have a relationship with Him and we have a relationship with one another as God's people. Now living that out is a challenge. We all have our personal convictions, our personal feelings, we come from different backgrounds, perhaps different nationalities. We sometimes get caught up in those. We have different likes and dislikes, we have different opinions, we have some pretty strong convictions about thins. I have to sort out those things because it's only what God has established as necessary in my obedience to Him that is required of all of us. I can have my personal convictions about items and areas and live in light of them. You can have your personal convictions. I cannot impose my personal convictions on you as a requirement, nor can you on me. Furthermore, we are at different levels of maturity in our growth as God's children. Some have been believers for a long time, some have studied the Word and understand more clearly God's grace and how it works in a life. Others are more immature yet in their faith in Christ. They belong to Christ through faith, but they don't have the maturity of understanding and clarity. There has to be a balance, those who understand things more clearly must be patient and understanding of those who don't have that same level of understanding. Those who have less understanding and clarity on what God has unfolded in His salvation have to be careful that they are not reacting negatively toward those who have more fully understanding. We blur our convictions and our personal desires sometimes with what the Scripture requires.

Now an area of real conflict in the early church in New Testament times, the time we are talking about. We study the letter to the Roman believers, the church at Rome, believers who were gathered together in the church at Rome. There was a real division in those early days of the church because many of those who believed in Christ came out of Jewish backgrounds. And Gentiles who were saved came from a totally different world. Now they had to live together as one people. And that brought conflict. The Jews came out of a background where you didn't even have any contact with Gentiles, you wouldn't go to a Gentile house, you wouldn't eat food with a Gentiles. You tried to avoid contact with a Gentiles because you realize under the Jewish law, the Mosaic Law, if a person had contact with a dead body or had some issue of blood and they touched someone, they brought defilement. The Jews were always afraid if they got any contact with a Gentile, they would get defiled in one way or another. The Gentiles by and large despised the Jews.

You know much like the attitude that is in the world today. Many people believe the problem is the Jews. Even leaders of countries, if the Jews would just do this, basically get out of the way, it would solve many of the problems in the world. In fact it was so strong it got to a point in the late 40s A.D., Claudius just said, no Jews can live in Rome any longer. I just don't want to have any bother with them, it's too much trouble. All the Jews have to leave Rome. Now Gentiles get saved coming out of that anti-Jewish background, Jews get saved who were raised to never have any contact with Gentiles, and now God saves them and says, now you come together in one body and you treat one another as fellow children of God.

You know when we try to deal with this today, we still have this conflict. We would say, you ought to start a congregation for the Jews. That will solve the problem, right? Then Jews who get saved can go and have church with Jews and Gentiles who get saved can have a Gentile church and they'll have church with Gentiles. And that will solve the conflict. But that's not God's plan.

I was visiting with a pastor this week and we were talking about what you see in ads for churches. They will have a contemporary service, they'll have a traditional service, they have a blended service. This means what? If you like this style service with this kind of music and the preacher doesn't wear a tie, come at this hour. If you like a preacher with a tie, come at this hour. If you don't know what you like, come at this hour. We'll have both. What are we saying? We're making these things dividers among the people. Wait a minute, we come together. People from other nationalities come, we say, we ought to start a Spanish church for Spanish people and a Russian church for Russian people, and an English church for the English people. Well wait a minute, what is God's plan? To bring us all together in one body and we learn to function together.

For the Jews that's the background for what we are going to talk about in Romans 14-15, the Jews and Gentiles getting along. Food and days were big to the Jews. We still have that today. You have kosher food, the Jews want to eat only this kind of food. Some of you just came back from Israel. When we were in Israel on one of our trips years ago, we would eat certain kinds of food in one dining room because they had a separate dining room with a separate kitchen because they don't mix their food. So you're having breakfast, they had it in this dining room and they had a kitchen that prepared the food for that dining room. You're having dinner, you eat in this dining room, it was prepared in a different kitchen. They didn't mix it, they don't use the same utensils, the same plates, none of that.

So they get saved and these Jews come thinking, I still want to observe these foods. I think it's more pleasing to God if I don't eat pork. I think it's more pleasing to God if I observe the Sabbath day. Then you have people who have believed and they understand—these things are not important any longer, they don't matter. And it created tension among believers.

So that's what Paul is talking about in Romans 14-15, the allowance for differing opinions, allowing for growth and appreciating one another on the basis of what God has done for us in Christ. That we are God's children, we live under His authority and we must be willing to leave it there. Now there will be areas, we have to be careful. If you try to say that keeping the Mosaic Law is necessary for salvation, you are cursed to hell. That's Paul in Galatians 1. If you say that observing certain of the Mosaic Laws are necessary to be a holy person, you are foolish, he says in Galatians 3. How could you who have begun by the work of the Spirit in your life now continue to grow by keeping the Law? It's all the work of the Spirit in your life. But there is room for personal conviction and growth.

So we're going to talk in Romans 14 and into chapter 15 about weak Christians and strong Christians. That sounds like it is prejudiced, because if you call someone a weak Christian, you put him in a different category than a strong Christian. That's true. The strong Christian is the one who understands more fully and clearly God's grace and the liberty he has with that grace. Not to do everything, but to do everything that God says would be pleasing to Him. The weak Christian is one who does not have as clear an understanding yet, a full understanding of God's grace. He still thinks, because of his background and teaching that he comes from, that he will be more pleasing to God if he limits his diet and observes special days.

So Paul begins Romans 14 by saying, now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Now there you see the distinction on what you can eat. One person thinks, I can eat whatever I enjoy. He's the stronger Christian. He understands God's grace frees him from any bounds or responsibilities regarding food to be eaten. The weaker Christian is one who thinks he will be more pleasing to God and God expects him to limit his diet.

So Paul says in verse 1, now accept the one who is weak in faith. We are talking about those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ. They have understood their sin and guilt before God, they have understood that there is only one Savior and only by believing in Him can they receive His righteousness, His forgiveness. But they are weak in their faith, they are immature. It's like in your family, you have older children and younger children. The younger children don't have the understanding and clarity in their thinking yet that the older children do. The older children, you can tell them, you are older, you are more mature, I expect more of you.

So here is what Paul says, accept. He is talking to the stronger Christian, the more mature Christian. You accept the one who is weak in faith. Accept, means to welcome him, receive him. He is accepted as a full and complete member of the body of Christ. You do not receive and welcome him because I'll get him straightened out kind of attitude. Not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinion. You don't look down on him because he is immature. Doesn't mean you don't recognize he's a more immature Christian, but you don't sit there to pass judgment on him. If you really understood grace, you wouldn't hold that position; if you really understood grace, you would be willing to have a hamburger with me. Wait a minute, you don't welcome him so you can sit in judgment on his opinion. You welcome him as a full member of the body of Christ because he belongs to Christ. That's the point. Immature Christians are welcome, and they're not welcomed as second class citizens. They are not welcomed so that the more mature, more knowledgeable can sit in judgment on them, put pressure on them. Allow the Lord to do His work in their life.
The one area he talks about is one person has faith that he may eat all things. You'll note, this is all about believers and living out their faith. One person, maybe it's a Jewish believer who has come to understand, I don't have any obligation to try to keep the Mosaic Law any longer. Maybe it's a Gentile believer. It doesn't matter. They understand grace now and those food regulations and requirements don't apply. If I want a ham sandwich, I'm free to have a ham sandwich.

But the weaker Christian thinks he shouldn't eat that meat. In fact because of the problem with meat being sacrificed to idols, Paul had to deal with this remember in his letter to the Corinthians, we'll talk about that in a future study, that they shouldn't eat meat because meat was in practice before it was sold in the marketplace by the Gentiles was sacrificed to idols. Now what am I going to do here? Get this all confused. I could be eating defiled meat. So they are vegetable eaters, that's safe. That's all right but be careful about sitting in judgment on one another on these things. It's not a biblical requirement that you eat meat. The Bible in revealing God's grace does say you can eat it, but it doesn't say you must.

Some Christians get confused on this. I listened to a person being interviewed on a news program this week. And they were talking about, and I got in after the interview had started, but they were talking about how they had come to know that it was more pleasing to God that they lose so many pounds and eat this way. And it's been so helpful to me to understand that it's more pleasing to God that I eat this way and don't eat these things. And I sit there thinking, I don't know if this person is truly a believer. They obviously have never read Romans 14. That's not an issue in being pleasing to God. We try to follow the world and build Christian diet programs. And I'm not saying it's as healthy for you to eat some things as others. But neither is it for me to sit in judgment on what you eat. I like certain foods, that's what I eat. I think you would be better off if you ate what I eat. Do you have oatmeal every morning? You don't know what you are missing. Some of you have bacon and eggs every morning and you are sitting there thinking, what a dull, boring person he is. And that's just not Marilyn thinking that, that's others. But wait, you can have personal convictions. I eat certain things and don't eat certain things. Some want to eat vegetables, some want to eat meat. That's not the issue here.

Now the mature Christian is the one who understands that food is not the issue. Come back to Mark 7 for a little bit of review. Verse 14, Jesus called the crowd to Him again and He was saying to them, listen to Me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him. But the things which proceed out of a man are what defile the man. When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples, His close circle of followers questioned Him about the parable. Note what He said to them. He said to them, are you so lacking in understanding also? They are weak, they are immature at this point. Do you not understand that whatever goes into a man from the outside cannot defile him because it does not go into his heart. It goes through the digestive system. We understand that, we have people who still don't understand that. They talk about, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, you have to be careful what you put into it. You don't. Now be careful, I'm not saying that everything physically is good for you, but that has nothing to do with defiling your body before the Lord spiritually. It's not what you put in your mouth that defiles you because that never gets into the heart in that sense. Thus He declared all foods clean. The Old Testament Mosaic Law is no longer in force. He'll bring it to its final conclusion with His crucifixion, fulfilling it. He was saying, that which proceeds out of man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander. All of these kinds of things proceed from within. Remember Jeremiah 17? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Only the Lord knows the heart. And it's His salvation that changes the heart so a person can understand, it's not the food that is defiling. There are people still today who teach that if you eat this kind of food, you'll be more pleasing to God. They still think the Mosaic Law is telling us how to live. That's not the case. All foods are clean in the sense that they are not spiritually defiling. Now you have to decide personally what foods you think might be better for you or healthy for your family, or what you are going to cook for them and so on. But it's not a spiritual issue.

Turn over to Acts 10 which we have just studied together in the evening service. Peter was a Jew, he wouldn't even think of going to the house of a Gentile. So God gives him a special revelation one day and He lowers a sheet before him in a trance, a vision. And in that sheet there are all kinds of animals that were declared unclean under the Mosaic Law. And a voice from heaven tells him to get up and kill the animal and eat it. Peter says, I can't do that, Lord. Verse 14, I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean. Again a voice came to him a second time. What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy. Peter gets invited then, following this, to the house of a Gentile Roman soldier named Cornelius. And when Peter gets to that house he tells them, Cornelius and those with him there. Verse 28, you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him. You see how strong the division was between the Jews and the Gentiles there. I wouldn't even have thought of coming to your house and visiting with you. Yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean. So I came without raising a question.

So these convictions carry over. Come back to Romans 14. The one person, verse 2, thinks he may eat all things comes from that kind of background. One person thinks he only can eats vegetables comes from the other side of the background. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat. Contempt, disdain, looking down on them, he just eats vegetables. He is so immature. Don't you understand anything about God's grace? There is no reason you can't have a ham sandwich here, have a ham sandwich. Grow up. Whether we express that, we think that in our minds. We are not to regard them with contempt, think of them with disdain. That is so immature and lacking in knowledge.

The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat. Now note this. And the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats. The one who thinks he will be more pleasing to God if he doesn't eat this food, can follow his convictions. But he shouldn't sit in judgment saying, he shouldn't be eating that ham sandwich. So you see here you cannot impose these. This is what the book of Galatians deals with. When a person comes in and says that you must do thin in addition to believing, he is preaching a false gospel and must be dealt with.

If a person says you must observe these rules regarding what you eat and the days you observe and that to be a person pleasing to God, that teaching cannot be tolerated. But a person who has personal convictions and chooses to hold those must be dealt with, with respect. But neither of us, no matter what our view, has the right to look down on another believer or sit in judgment on them.

Why? The end of verse 3, for God has accepted him. Period. God has accepted him. So can I look down on one? I mean, if God accepts him, how can I put myself in position to look down on him? Do I have a better opinion than God? Or how could I sit in judgment of one that God says, I have accepted him. So this point becomes crucial. God has accepted him. That's foundational. You can mark it, underline it, highlight it. God has accepted him. If he is acceptable to God, he is acceptable to me. I'm not going to sit in judgment of one that God says, I have found acceptable. I have made him acceptable, and thus he is acceptable to me.

Who are you to judge the servant of another? The word translated servant is an unusual one, this is the only place Paul uses it. It is used a couple of other places in the New Testament. Some of you have in your margin in your Bible, a house servant. It's the Greek word house, oiketes, the first part of that oik. It's a different ending, it's a household servant. We are in God's household, God's family. This individual is a servant in the household of God. He is not my servant. You are not my servant, I am not your servant. We are God's servants, right? Well, who am I to judge the servants of God in that sense? Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls. That's right. And who is the Lord, the master of the house? It is God, it's Christ. So it is His evaluation that matters, not mine.

Note this, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. You know we all recognize the basic principle. We are saved by grace, we stand before the throne of a holy God declared righteous by Him. We stand acceptable in His presence based on His grace, not our merits. Well then, every believer will stand. For the Lord who is the master, that's the word there, He is the master, He is the Lord, is able to make him stand. He stands by the action of God in our lives, right? So then I am saying that this servant is a failure because he won't eat meat. Or the one who just eats vegetables prides himself, I think God is more pleased because I live a more committed life. And in my diet I try to restrict myself.

There is a movement among some in evangelicalism, although that word has become almost meaningless, called spiritual formation. They want to go back and admire the monks and the ascetic life and all of that. That doesn't come from Scripture. We get these ideas and you learn the rules and go back to study what these monks taught and said. I mean, we learn nothing. Are we still so without understanding? These things are not what matters. So the Lord will make each of His children stand. That assures a successful outcome.

Verse 5, one person regards one day above another. It's not just food, it's days. Another regards every day alike. There are differences of opinion. Some of those Jews coming out of their background thought they ought to observe the special days that the Mosaic Law said were important. Some Jews had been saved and had grown to understand the grace of God that they don't need to observe any special days, whether it is the Sabbath day of the week or other special holy days. Of course the Gentiles never did have a recognition of them. So one person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. What's the principle? Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. If you think that setting aside a certain day and you're not going to do anything on that day but read your Bible and pray and fast, that's fine. It's your conviction before the Lord. Now if you say that everyone ought to do that and they'll be more acceptable to God, that's not okay. Each person must be convinced in his own mind. There is that liberty. But we cannot impose that on somebody else. We're talking about realms that the Scripture does not require. There are certain things that are not matters of liberty that we don't become convinced in our own mind on because God has made it clear. For example, immorality. That's sin, it's wrong, that must be judged and dealt with. Lying. That's a sin, that's wrong, that must be judged and dealt with. And so on. But these areas where God says there is liberty. He does not say you must observe a certain day or eat certain kinds of foods. Nor does He say you cannot observe a certain day or you cannot restrict yourself to certain foods. So each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. It's personal, it's individual. So I ought not to impress upon you my conviction in this area, nor should you, yours. That doesn't mean we can't talk about it, can't talk about why. Why you might believe this is more pleasing to God and I talk about this. Then what it comes down to it, we have to come and say, what has God said. What has the Lord of the house required? And we grow. The weaker Christian will grow to see grace does not require him to restrict his eating. But by the same token he may choose to still do it. That's his opinion.

I've come to understand in grace that having a drink of an alcoholic beverage is not sin. It is not forbidden in Scripture. I still do not partake of alcoholic beverages myself. Just because I've come to understand grace more fully doesn't require me to do everything that grace allows me to do. And there are certain things I maintain as a personal conviction for myself. I select that one because there is probably division in this body over how it goes.

Verse 5, one person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be convinced in his own mind. Why? He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord. He who eats does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God. And he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat. And he gives thanks to God. You see the principle being set down here. We are living for the Lord. And the person who chooses to restrict himself is doing it because of his love for the Lord, commitment for the Lord, and desire to be pleasing to Him. Now it may be it is immaturity.

Go back to our children again. Think about yourselves, even when you were young. Sometimes as children they are with friends, their friends want to do something. And you might have said, I don't think my parents want me to do that, I'm not going to do it. Then you get home and you talk to you parents and they say, that would have been all right, that wouldn't have been a problem with us. But they restricted themselves because they thought at the time it was more pleasing to their parents. That's where this weaker Christian is. He thinks it's more pleasing to God that he restricts himself and so that's what he is convinced of in his mind. Don't want to encourage him to do that which he thinks would be displeasing to God because he is observing the day for the Lord. Or he is restricting his eating for the Lord. The other person who is eating oughtn't to be eating just to prove he can eat anything. He's eating because he really believes this is okay with the Lord and it's pleasing the Lord that I live in light of the freedom He has given me. The same with observing the day.

That becomes the principle—am I doing this to be pleasing to the Lord. Another issue is being sensitive to other believers and that, we'll cover that in a future study. But the basic foundation here we have to be clear on.

Why? Verse 7, not one of us lives for himself and not one dies for himself. This has nothing to do with the poem, no man is an island. Sometimes we see it quoted with this. He says, not one of us lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself. Then we go to verse 8, for if we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. The point of verse 8, not one of us lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself because all of us as believers live and die for the Lord. That's the point. It's not for one another in this particular discussion, it's for the Lord. We don't live for ourselves. We are not our own, we've been bought with a price. Therefore we are to glorify God in our body. We don't belong to ourselves.

So not one of us as believers lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself. For if we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord. In life and death we belong to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. We had a couple of our saints die in the last couple of weeks. They have been transported from this earth to heaven. As God's children they lived for the Lord in this life, now they are in the glory of heaven. They are living for the Lord even more fully than they could in this life. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. He is Lord over us in life, Lord over us in death. That's the point. So live accordingly. We are the Lord's servants, we belong to Him. I'm the pastor of this church, I have a certain role and responsibility. One of that is not to impose my personal convictions on you, that you must like what I like and dislike what I dislike, live the way that I think you should live, and not live the way ... No, you must be biblical, I must be biblical. Now within that framework you have freedom, I have freedom.

Turn over to II Corinthians 5:6. We talk about this when a believer moves on to glory. Therefore, always being of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. As long as I am living on earth in this physical body, I am absent, I am not present with the Lord in heaven. For we walk by faith and not by sight. We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and be home with the Lord. What is better? Grinding it out on this earth, serving the Lord, but dealing with the pain and difficulty and trials? Or being in the presence of my Lord and Savior in glory? Obviously the choice is clear. Therefore we also, note this, verse 9, have as our ambition, whether at home or absent to be pleasing to Him. You ask a Christian, what is your ambition in life? To be pleasing to the Lord. Whether I'm walking this earth or transported to glory, I have one overall ambition. We ought to be ambitious as Christians, but that ambition ought to be pleasing to the Lord. I want to make something of myself, I want to do something. I want to be a man who is pleasing to the Lord. That's what Paul is talking about. Whether at home in glory or here on earth.

And note II Corinthians 5:10, while we are here. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. That's where Paul is building to in Romans 14.

Come back to Romans 14. Now note the foundation for this. Verse 9, for to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living. Carries us back to the early parts of Romans, right? The death and resurrection of Christ provides for Him to be Lord over all. Philippians 2, Christ became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him, given Him a name which is above every name, in order that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. For to this end Christ died and lived again. Died on the cross, bearing the penalty for sin. And He lived again, He was raised from the dead because righteousness had been provided, we read in Romans 5:1. That He might be Lord, both of the living and the dead, the dead and the living. He is Lord, we are His servants. He's the One that we live to please. We need to be very careful about trying to impose my personal convictions on another believer. That believer is to be living a life that is pleasing to the Lord to the best of his ability, not that is pleasing to me. I can have personal convictions, I have strong convictions about something. We can talk about those.

I had a long conversation this week with a fellow believer and we have differing convictions on something. We talked about those differing convictions. When it is all said and done, he's the Lord's servant and must do what he believes the Lord would have him do; I am the Lord's servant, I must do what I believe the Lord would have me do. And we still love one another, we can pray for one another, serve one another. He lives in a different state so we don't fellowship at the same church, but we have fellowship together.

So verse 10, but you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. That's what we saw in II Corinthians 5. What are you doing? Christ died and rose from the dead that He might be Lord of the dead and the living. But you, why do you judge your brother or regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. You understand, you are a fellow servant, I'm a fellow servant in the body. We will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me and every tongue shall give praise to God. That comes from Isaiah 45:23. We don't have time to go back, but I encourage you to go back later this afternoon and read Isaiah 45 and mark under there the number of times God declares His uniqueness—I am God, there is no other; I have created all things, I am God and there is no other. Then he moves to make this statement in verse 23, every knee shall bow to Me, every tongue shall give praise to God.

So then, each one of us will give account of himself to God. That's ultimately where it is. As a pastor the Bible says, I will give an account for you but I won't give your account. Our differing opinions, our differing convictions comes out in different ways. You know what we're going to do, we're going to remodel our auditorium. Greg referred to that. We may change the seats. Some of you are going to be very happy, some of you are going to be very less happy. We're talking about screens. Some of you will think screens are a bad idea, screens are a good idea. We may change the colors. Oh, heaven be. I was saved in that color, why would you change it? We may even change the setting of the platform. But I have exercised my prerogative, I will be standing here when the remodel is done. What are we going to fight over? Does it matter what the seat is, what kind of seat it is? What the color is? Is that what our relationship to . . . Oh, yeah, that church had a split, new church started. Why? Well they remodeled and people didn't like the seats. Oh, yeah, there is another group, they didn't like the color. What does that say to the world? What really unites us? The color? The seats? I mean, these superficial things. So when it comes in we say, I don't see any need for that. Maybe I don't either, but is that what my relationship with you is about? My relationship with God is about? Understand our testimony before the world is crucial. They ought to see in us what binds those people together. You know, there are rich people, there are poor people and they just love one another and get along. I don't even know that they know who is rich and who is poor. And there are different people in this way and I know people and they just get together no matter what.

A testimony we heard this week which was very encouraging. At one of the funerals a person who has opportunity to observe said, you know, I notice a difference in the people I've worked with at Indian Hills, the way they deal with these things and handle it. That's what our testimony ought to be. We forget there are people watching. So as long as I get the seats that I like, I'll be happy. It doesn't matter. I have my favorite colors, you have your favorite colors. When I paint my house, I paint it the way Marilyn wants it, that's my favorite color. But when it comes to the church, I may not get my favorite color. Am I going to look for another church? No. I was raised with benches, pews. Those are spiritual seats. I mean, that's what the church had down through its history. Are we going to go to a different church, looking for churches with these kinds of seats? You see how it's easy for me to look at it and say, the church at Rome ought to have the maturity, recognize that, accept one another and move. And that's where we will be. And that's how we live. And it's a blessing God has given us. With all of our diversity we keep our focus on who is our Lord and who is the One we are living to please, and that these are fellow servants that are acceptable to Him. And He has made them stand and will make them stand. Then my whole attitude is reshaped to live in a way that is pleasing to God.

Let's pray together. Lord, only you could bring about such a change in our lives because only you can change a heart, only you can make a person new, cause us to be born again, to make us new creations in Christ. Lord, what a privilege it is to belong to you, to be called the servant of the living God, to have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master, to live our lives pleasing to Him. Lord, may we live our lives in such a way in relationship to one another as believers, that we are an encouragement and a blessing to one another, that we demonstrate our great appreciation of your work of grace in each other's lives. Thank you for our diversity, our differences. And thank you, Lord, for the oneness we have in Christ. For we pray in His name, amen.