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Romans 14:1-12 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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End of chapter 11, his great treatise on the Christian faith, to the application.
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Romans 12, verses 1-2, there he says,
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I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God.
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That's the summary of everything he said, is what he's referring to there, the mercies of God,
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to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
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that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
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And so he's encouraging at the outset of chapter 12 that our whole selves are to be given to God.
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You may recall that I shared with you that the structure of the following chapters is chiastic.
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That means that it mirrors on top of itself.
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You could fold it over and it's reflective in that way.
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So, if you've been around and you know as we talk through these things,
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we usually give it an A, B, C, and then a C', B', A', to kind of show you how that reflects.
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So, chapter 12, verses 3-8, Paul talks there about humble service.
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Then chapter 12, verses 9-16, he talks about love in the church.
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Verses 17-21, relation with the world.
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And then he goes into, at the beginning of chapter 13, relation with the political authorities of the world.
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And then we see the reflection.
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Chapter 13, verses 8-14.
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Again, love in the church.
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And we're going to see in chapter 14, right,
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this continuing outworking of the idea of humble service.
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So, this whole health service to God that expresses itself in the church
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through humble, sacrificial love.
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So, Romans 14, verses 1-12.
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Before I read it, let me remind you, beloved, that this is God's word to us.
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It was written for his glory and our good.
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And so, we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
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As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
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One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
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Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains,
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and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats,
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for God has welcomed him.
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Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?
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It is before his own master that he stands or falls,
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and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
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One person esteems one day as better than another,
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while another esteems all days alike.
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Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
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The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord.
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The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord,
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since he gives thanks to God,
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while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
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For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
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For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.
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So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.
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For to this end Christ died and lived again,
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that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
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Why do you pass judgment on your brother?
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Or you, why do you despise your brother?
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For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
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For it is written,
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As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
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and every tongue shall confess to God.
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So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
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Now there is a lot found in these twelve verses.
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And so as is typical of our time in the Word together,
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I have a simple outline to help us unpack this text.
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And it is as follows.
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Number one, the exhortations.
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Number two, the examples.
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And number three, the foundational reasons.
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And if you wish that started with an E, I also do.
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The exhortations, the examples, the foundational reasons.
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Tell me later if you come up with a good one.
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Number one, the exhortations.
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So we find this first point to be the most straightforward for us this morning.
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I say exhortations, but they are perhaps so closely related
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that I could just say exhortation.
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Note in verses one and three,
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that first we are to welcome the weak in faith.
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We are not to quarrel over opinions.
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And we are not to despise or pass judgment.
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Now these are all cries for Christian unity.
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So you could sum all those up and have Paul say,
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be unified.
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Christian unity or Christian harmony exalts the Lord Jesus Christ.
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In just a bit in Romans chapter 15, verse 5 and 6,
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Paul is going to ask God to give the Roman Christians grace for this very purpose.
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He writes there,
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May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another,
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in accord with Christ Jesus,
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that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Christian, one whose soul has been saved by the work of Christ on their behalf,
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one who has been justified by grace through faith in Christ alone,
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the highest aim of their life ought to be the exaltation of Christ.
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We have to desire as Christians to make much of Jesus and what he has done for us.
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Paul hopes here that the Roman Christ followers and you and I would be given grace for Christian unity
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so that the Lord Jesus Christ would receive glory.
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Today's text helps us understand how.
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The answer is not always agree.
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Because we're going to find that we don't always agree.
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In verse 1 of chapter 14, Paul recognizes that there will be some who will be weak in faith.
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He does not say without faith.
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The end of verse 3 tells us that God has welcomed him, this one who is weak in faith.
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And verse 10 calls him our brother.
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So Paul is speaking of a Christian who just doesn't understand something of his faith.
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And we'll look at this further as we look at the examples.
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But the point is that the one who has been saved by Christ should be welcomed and not welcomed
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in order to quarrel over opinions.
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Isn't that what he says?
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Welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
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Just welcome him.
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He is in Christ.
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Just welcome him.
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There's a pastor by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
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I would encourage you to look into his life.
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And he wrote a little book called Life Together.
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And the entire book is worth a read for the first chapter.
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And in there he talks about how we tend to destroy Christian community
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and neglect the fact that it is a divine reality that Christ has called people to himself and to one another.
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He says the following in that work.
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Quote,
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Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community
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and must be banished if genuine community is to survive.
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So here let me pause for a second.
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What he's saying is the thing you think that should exist as community,
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the particular agenda that you have,
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he's saying should have no part in Christian community.
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Go back to his quote.
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He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself
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becomes a destroyer of the latter,
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even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.
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God hates wish dreaming.
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It makes the dreamer proud and pretentious.
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The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community
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demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself.
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He enters the community of Christians with his demands,
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sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly.
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He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren.
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He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community,
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as if his dream binds men together.
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When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure.
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When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash.
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So he becomes first an accuser of his brethren,
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then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.
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Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship.
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Because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ.
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Long before we entered into common life with them,
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we enter into that common life,
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not as demanders, but as thankful recipients.
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We thank God for what he has done for us.
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We thank God for giving us brethren who live by his call,
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by his forgiveness, and his promise.
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Christ himself, his person and his work,
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is the reason that we are a community.
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It's a divine reality that we exist as Christians called together.
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And this is the place that we must begin.
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As for the one who is weak in faith,
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not without faith.
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Weak in faith.
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Welcome him.
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And he goes on.
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Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains.
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Let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats.
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For God has welcomed him.
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So it goes both ways.
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The strong in faith, by implication, are not to despise.
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And the weak in faith are not to pass judgment.
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The difference here between these two phrases is negligible.
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The first is a strong Greek word that means to think a person is less than nothing.
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And the second, another strong Greek word that means to isolate.
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So to put them outside.
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They are both quite the opposite of welcoming.
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Paul is telling us that if a person makes a credible profession of faith in Christ
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and doesn't see eye to eye with you concerning an opinion,
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they ought not be treated with disregard.
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They should not be dismissed or considered unfaithful
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simply because their faith is expressing a varied opinion from your own.
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This, of course, raises all sorts of questions about acceptable disagreements.
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And I am thankful that Paul did not leave off his argument here.
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But notice, we are meant to welcome one another because we are in Christ
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and not to destroy unity over opinions.
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So he gives us two examples, perhaps to help us understand what he means by opinions.
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The first is a person who believes he may eat anything,
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while a weak person eats only vegetables.
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The second, found in verse 5, is one person esteeming one day as better than another,
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while another esteems all days alike.
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So, we see here two examples of what Paul is calling in verse 1, opinions.
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Now, before we consider them, let's be clear about what Paul is not saying.
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He is not saying that people can believe whatever they want to,
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and the church is not to defend the truth.
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That's not at all what he is expressing here.
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You may be familiar with what Jude wrote in Jude verses 3 and 4.
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Beloved, I was eager to write to you about our common salvation,
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but I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith
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that was once for all delivered to the saints.
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Contend for it. Fight for that faith.
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For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation,
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and ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God and its sensuality
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and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
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Error has and error will creep in to the life of the church.
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And the church is to be the pillar and buttress of the truth.
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Paul warned the Roman believers in Romans 16 verses 17 and 18.
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We'll get to in a couple of weeks.
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I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions
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and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.
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Avoid them.
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For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.
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And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive.
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In other parts of the New Testament,
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false prophets or teachers are spoken of as deceitful spirits
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who advocate doctrines of demons.
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That's 1 Timothy 4.1.
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And as those who will secretly introduce destructive heresies,
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even denying the Master who bought them.
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2 Peter 2.1.
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They're called false brothers.
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2 Corinthians 11.26.
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False apostles.
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2 Corinthians 11.13.
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False teachers.
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2 Peter 2.1.
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False speakers.
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That is, liars.
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1 Timothy 4.2.
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And false Christs.
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Matthew 24.24.
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The Apostle John tells us, therefore,
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Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits
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to see whether they are from God,
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because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
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1 John 4.1.
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Paul's last words to the Ephesian elders when he met with them for a farewell on the beach near Miletus
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included a somber warning about inevitable false teachers.
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He said,
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I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock,
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and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.
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Therefore, be on the alert.
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That's in Acts chapter 20.
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So, in today's text, Paul is not saying that it is okay to entertain varying opinions about the doctrines that are essential to the faith.
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He is saying that working out the implications are going to yield disagreements,
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and these are not reasons for disunity.
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So, let's look at these two examples, right?
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Which would have been readily understood by the Roman believers.
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They would have said, oh yeah, yeah, we've been having those disagreements.
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First, we have this person believing he may eat anything,
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while the weak person, Paul calls him, eats only vegetables.
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So, vegetarians are weak, I think is the lesson for today.
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It's not at all, right?
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Now, there are two possibilities why an early Roman Christian may have abstained from the eating of meat.
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In either case, it is most probable that they were Jewish.
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So, these are Jewish converts to Christ.
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They may have been strictly vegetarian either to, first, avoid eating any meat that had been offered to an idol,
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or, secondly, to avoid any meat that was considered unclean under Old Testament law.
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Either way, these were permissive things.
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And the Gentile believers would have had no issue eating meat in any case.
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Either way, you might imagine that there was a rub when these Roman Christians had a meal together,
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which they regularly did.
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Some wanted nothing to do with meat.
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They wanted to be extra cautious.
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Paul is not arguing that these people thought that this would earn their salvation.
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He would have been hard against that.
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These are people who know that they're Christians, but they want to be so careful.
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They're just not sure.
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Their faith is weak.
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So, they're going to avoid meat altogether at the potluck.
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And others in that fellowship were eating bacon-wrapped shrimp.
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And it could have caused problems between them, disunity between them.
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Paul says, this variance in opinion is no reason not to welcome one another.
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Notice that Paul calls the eating of anything an act of faith or trust in God.
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The first part of verse 2 says, one person believes, has faith that he may eat anything.
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And the other is simply an act.
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He does not use the word believes of the weak person.
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Now, you may think then, well, then it is my job to convince the weak person that they are weak
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and that they should change their ways.
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However, at the end of the chapter, Paul says, whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats
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because the eating is not from faith.
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For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
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And note that at the end of verse 5, Paul says,
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each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
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So this is not an unimportant example.
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He's saying, you should know what you think.
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He's also saying, there's a proper way to think about this.
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But even if somebody doesn't agree, we're not going to not welcome them.
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Just because their faith is weak.
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And hear me, beloved.
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But the best place for a person's faith to be strengthened is where?
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It's in the life of the church.
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Where the truth is expounded.
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And we encourage one another to love and good works each day.
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His second example, perhaps is a little more vague than the first.
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There it says, one person, verse 5, esteems one day as better than another,
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while another esteems all days alike.
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We may find that the first example has little to no bearing for us today.
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But there is disagreement amongst faithful, sound believers
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as to what Paul is even referencing in his second example.
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It's fascinating to read commentaries.
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I've got a collection of works on the book of Romans
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and how kind of split down the middle they are
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about what he's even talking about in this verse.
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And I find it especially fascinating how matter-of-fact some of those commentators are about it.
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Some say that he is speaking about the Sabbath,
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and others say that he is speaking about other Jewish holidays.
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How you read this example will depend on what you think is true
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of modern-day Sabbath observance.
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A lot of Bible thinking has to go into understanding what could be meant by verse 5.
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And guess what?
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I do not intend to work any of that out for you today
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because that is not the point here that Paul is making.
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In fact, if you were really hoping,
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first time we read through that,
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that I would draw up some battle lines for you this morning,
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then the exhortations of this text need to land especially hard for you.
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So, how are we to know when and possibly how to disagree agreeably?
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And when and possibly how to disagree disagreeably?
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Because there are some times for that as well.
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There is a time to be clear for unity,
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and there is a time to stand firm and to not be moved.
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There are cries in our day for Christians to have spines of steel
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over matters of comparative minor importance.
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These cries are most often made by people on social media.
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And I'm concerned that the pressure to turn our focus from primary doctrine
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will be used by the enemy to erode the very foundation of that doctrine.
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It grieves me to see so many Reformed thinkers
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become what seems to be at times enemies over lesser matters.
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Oh, we have this great big God theology that we hold together.
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We believe in the doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Christ alone.
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We have so much to be unified on.
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And yet, how we ought to think about particular matters of politics
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are ripping us apart.
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Now, if you've been with us for very long,
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you have heard me speak of the need to become well-versed
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in the practice of theological triage.
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Some of you probably heard me read the text and went,
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Oh boy, here we go again.
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Well, here we go again.
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Triage is the process of assigning urgency or importance to a matter.
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If a bus that is full of people were in an accident
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and that number of people were brought into an emergency room,
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those patients would be ranked for treatment
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from most severe need to least severe need.
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A charge nurse or a doctor would do that very quickly.
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Who needs urgent attention
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and who can sit in the waiting room for hours and hours
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waiting to be attended to?
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This can, and I will tirelessly argue,
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should also be done theologically.
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Theological triage helps us to determine those matters
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that we must stand firm on.
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That faith, once for all delivered to the saints
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that Jude is talking about in verse 3 and 4,
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and those that Paul is addressing in today's text.
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There's things that we must contend for.
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We must fight for.
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We're not even going to associate with the person
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who would teach such a thing.
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And those we're going to welcome,
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even though we may not agree.
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Now, at this point, I want to be clear.
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This term was coined, as far as I can tell,
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by Albert Muller,
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the current president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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So the term is fairly new.
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However, this concept can be seen historically
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in the creation of confessions and creeds.
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Christians carefully pinning doctrinal standards
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for the sake of agreement,
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saying these are the things that we believe
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that we should agree on,
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and then there's stuff outside of it,
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and we may disagree on some of those things.
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So theological triage breaks down into four orders,
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four matters of importance.
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And I'll take them in reverse order
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and lay them out for you quickly.
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If you've heard this before,
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I have no new examples.
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I am sorry.
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Fourth order doctrine, or quaternary doctrine,
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can't say you didn't learn something today,
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are matters that are just unimportant.
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We could talk about them.
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It could be fun.
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But they do not matter.
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An example, when I get asked this question
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from time to time,
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is there life on other planets?
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Do I think there's life on other planets?
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And if somebody asks me this question,
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I say, I don't know, and I don't care.
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It has no bearing on my life at all.
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When they land the ship,
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we'll start the conversation over again, right?
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But right now, it just doesn't matter at all to me, right?
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It's a fourth order doctrine.
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We can talk about it, but not with me.
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Third order doctrine, or tertiary doctrines,
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are things that are not unimportant,
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but things that are important for the individual.
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And here we see that example in our text today.
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Paul says that each one should be convinced
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in his own mind, right?
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He ought to know what he thinks about these things.
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Should he eat meat or not eat meat?
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What days should or shouldn't be observed?
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Not unimportant,
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important, but for you.
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And if it's important for you,
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you're probably going to want to share
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that conviction with others, right?
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Take them to the scripture,
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show them why you think it's important,
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why you think it's good,
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and honoring to God why it may serve others.
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But you won't break unity over such a thing.
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Someone says,
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I don't know if I see it the way you see it.
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And you say, well, that's okay.
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I'll keep working on you.
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I'll be in relationship with you.
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We'll walk together,
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and perhaps we'll both be wrong in the end.
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Examples.
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Alcohol.
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Is it okay to drink in moderation?
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Should we not drink at all?
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There's some arguments to be made both ways.
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What kind of television should we watch?
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Or movies, right?
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Is there a rating that's too high?
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There are whole churches
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that are formed over these issues.
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These are their things.
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Schooling choices.
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To homeschool or to not homeschool.
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I have a view on every one of these things,
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and I'd be happy to share it with you.
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But if you disagree with me,
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within some parameters,
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I'm not going to call you unfaithful.
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I'm not going to want to have nothing to do with you anymore.
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But I'm going to want to walk along with you.
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Perhaps I learned something from you,
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and you from me.
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I think this is the category
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that Paul is addressing in today's text.
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After third order doctrines,
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our second order,
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our secondary doctrines,
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which are important
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for church
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and maybe some broader ministry
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partnerships,
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fellowships.
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These doctrines are going to define
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our practice
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and possibly define
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sin.
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Maybe there's some things
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that we just find untenable.
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We couldn't possibly agree
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that that's not a sin,
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that this is a sin.
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So,
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these are things
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that we probably
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need to be agreeing on
28:13
as a church.
28:15
View on divorce
28:16
and or remarriage.
28:18
Our church has a position paper on this
28:20
because we think it's important.
28:21
How are we going to counsel people
28:22
as they walk through
28:23
these kinds of difficulties
28:24
in life?
28:26
What might we call sin?
28:28
What we may not call
28:29
sin in those matters?
28:31
The regulative principle
28:33
of worship.
28:36
Our church has agreed
28:37
that this has in it
28:39
everything we need
28:40
for how we ought to conduct
28:41
ourselves when we gather.
28:44
So,
28:44
if you come asking
28:45
for things to happen
28:46
when the church is gathered
28:48
that we don't find
28:49
in this text
28:50
or by necessary consequence,
28:54
you're going to say,
28:54
no,
28:55
this is the text.
28:56
This is where we're going.
28:57
And it's good that we agree
28:58
on that, right?
28:58
So we're not constantly
28:59
in arguments about
29:01
whether or not
29:02
somebody can ribbon dance
29:03
on the stage
29:04
on Sunday morning.
29:06
No.
29:07
If you're a guest today,
29:08
nobody's going to do that.
29:10
Our view on baptism.
29:13
We are Baptists.
29:14
That's an important distinction
29:15
about who we are
29:16
and it's good
29:16
that we agree together
29:17
on that.
29:19
Who should be baptized?
29:20
What is the nature
29:21
of the church?
29:22
It's an important thing
29:22
for us to understand
29:24
together.
29:25
So those are
29:25
second order doctrines.
29:28
And then finally,
29:29
first order doctrines,
29:30
primary doctrines,
29:32
those things we should
29:33
contend for.
29:34
They're important
29:35
for Christian unity
29:36
at the essence
29:38
of Christian unity.
29:39
We must agree
29:40
on these things
29:41
like the deity
29:42
of Jesus Christ,
29:43
justification by grace
29:45
through faith
29:46
in Christ alone.
29:47
Beloved,
29:47
let me say to you,
29:48
these are the things,
29:49
the hills
29:50
that we need to die on.
29:52
This is the foundation,
29:54
I'm worried,
29:55
gets eroded
29:55
by all of this
29:57
gray area application
29:59
that goes on
30:00
out there.
30:03
We should be so clear
30:05
as a people
30:06
about what those things are.
30:08
We must agree
30:09
on these things.
30:11
The second order stuff,
30:12
yep, yep,
30:12
it's really good
30:13
that we hold this stuff together.
30:15
And then outside of that
30:16
are things that we should
30:18
try to faithfully
30:19
work out together.
30:21
Welcome one another
30:23
as we walk through
30:24
the complication
30:25
of living
30:26
the Christian life.
30:30
So this is
30:32
the examples
30:33
that are given to us.
30:36
We've got to work that out
30:38
in a lot of different ways
30:39
in our day today.
30:43
And then Paul takes us
30:44
to some foundational reasons.
30:48
We see this all picked up
30:50
beginning in verse 3
30:51
all the way through
30:51
the end of our text,
30:52
through verse 12.
30:54
And I'm probably going to
30:55
bring these into next week,
30:57
Lord willing,
30:57
as we turn our attention
30:58
to the rest of chapter 14.
31:00
But for the sake of time,
31:02
let's just note them quickly
31:03
and then we'll bring them
31:04
forward into next week.
31:06
So a couple of foundational
31:08
reasons.
31:11
Number one,
31:14
we,
31:14
if you've made
31:15
a profession of faith
31:16
in the Lord Jesus Christ,
31:18
He has saved your soul,
31:19
He's delivered you
31:21
from darkness to light.
31:23
You were not a people,
31:24
you are now His people.
31:26
Your heart of stone
31:27
has been replaced
31:27
with a heart of flesh.
31:28
The Spirit of God
31:29
indwells you.
31:31
If this is true of you,
31:33
we are gods.
31:36
We belong to Him.
31:38
Verse 3,
31:39
it says,
31:40
God has welcomed Him.
31:43
What a statement.
31:44
God has welcomed Him.
31:47
God has forgiven His sin.
31:49
He is clothed
31:50
in the righteousness of Christ.
31:52
God has brought Him in
31:54
to His family
31:55
along with you.
31:58
We belong to God.
32:02
Verse 8 says,
32:03
whether we live
32:03
or whether we die,
32:05
that Christ died
32:06
and lived again.
32:08
Verse 9,
32:09
dead, buried, resurrected.
32:11
That He would be
32:13
the Lord both
32:14
of the dead
32:15
and the living.
32:17
We belong to God
32:19
because of the work of Christ
32:20
on our behalf.
32:23
Great foundational reason
32:25
for there to be unity
32:26
in Him.
32:29
Secondly,
32:31
our eternal position
32:32
is secured
32:34
by God.
32:37
Notice verse 4,
32:39
right?
32:39
Whatever you're doing
32:41
with the eating
32:41
or the not eating,
32:43
vegetarian
32:43
or rational,
32:47
He will be upheld
32:48
for the Lord
32:50
is able
32:51
to make Him stand.
32:54
In the day of judgment,
32:55
we will stand before God
32:57
and we will remain standing
32:58
not because we did
33:00
or didn't get
33:01
the particulars
33:02
exactly right,
33:03
but because of what
33:04
He has done
33:05
on our behalf.
33:07
This will be our plea
33:08
before Him
33:09
in the day of judgment.
33:11
Why do you get
33:12
to enter into my glory?
33:13
Not because I abstain
33:15
from eating meat.
33:17
That'll be a poor reason
33:18
to stand before God.
33:19
We will only be able
33:21
to plea
33:21
the perfect sacrifice
33:23
of Christ.
33:24
That's it.
33:25
The Lord is able
33:26
to make Him stand.
33:27
Our eternal position,
33:29
if you're in Christ,
33:29
is secured
33:30
by God.
33:33
number three.
33:36
Paul's examples,
33:38
the way these believers
33:40
are acting,
33:41
are heartfelt.
33:43
These people are convinced
33:44
in their own mind.
33:45
They believe
33:46
it's the proper thing
33:47
for them to do.
33:50
You should welcome people
33:52
who are acting that way.
33:52
These are not people
33:53
who are being licentious.
33:54
They're not casting off.
33:56
They're not trying
33:57
to live without the law.
33:59
They're trying
34:00
to honor the Lord.
34:02
Verse six says this,
34:03
the one who observes the day
34:04
observes it
34:04
in honor of the Lord.
34:06
The one who eats
34:07
eats in honor of the Lord
34:08
since he gives thanks to God.
34:10
While the one who abstains
34:11
abstains in honor of the Lord
34:12
and gives thanks to God.
34:16
People genuinely trying
34:17
to pursue
34:18
and genuinely trying
34:19
to do the right thing
34:20
before their God,
34:21
even if it's not
34:22
the particular way
34:23
you might do it,
34:25
should be welcomed.
34:29
Fourthly,
34:31
God will judge
34:33
our temporal works.
34:37
Verse 10 says,
34:38
we will all stand
34:39
before the judgment seat of God.
34:40
Verse 12 says,
34:41
each of us will give
34:42
an account of himself
34:44
to God.
34:46
It's all going to get
34:47
worked out in the end.
34:49
We're trying to navigate
34:50
these difficult matters,
34:53
all of these intricacies.
34:55
If we are in Christ,
34:57
it's going to get sorted
34:58
in the end.
35:00
And we don't have to judge
35:01
each other in those
35:02
minor particulars
35:03
because God will.
35:06
We have great reason
35:09
for unity.
35:12
God is going to sort
35:13
the details in the end.
35:16
If we have been justified
35:17
by grace through faith
35:18
in Christ,
35:18
then we are securely God's
35:21
and belong
35:21
not only to Him,
35:23
but to each other.
35:26
As we seek to follow
35:27
Him faithfully
35:28
in all the minutiae
35:29
of our lives,
35:30
we need not miss
35:31
that Christian unity
35:33
is a work
35:34
of faithfulness.
35:36
It's part of that.
35:37
It's part of that pursuit
35:39
of how God would have us
35:40
live our lives,
35:42
that He would have us
35:42
do it.
35:43
The focus of our effort,
35:44
however,
35:46
is not the unity,
35:47
but rather the focus
35:49
of our effort
35:49
is the truth
35:51
of who each of us
35:52
are in Christ.
35:56
I know I blew
35:57
through those reasons,
35:58
but note the major portion
36:01
of that text.
36:03
Paul is declaring
36:04
who it is that we are
36:05
because of the work
36:06
of Christ
36:07
on our behalf.
36:11
And so I want to close
36:12
with a quote
36:13
from A.W. Tozer,
36:14
and this is on your bulletin
36:15
if you'd like to read it
36:16
along with me.
36:17
He said this quote,
36:20
Has it ever occurred to you
36:22
that 100 pianos
36:24
all tuned to the same fork,
36:26
because I'm not a tuning fork,
36:28
are automatically tuned
36:29
to each other?
36:31
They are of one accord
36:33
by being tuned
36:34
not to each other,
36:35
but to another standard
36:37
to which each one
36:38
must individually bow.
36:41
So 100 worshipers together,
36:44
each one looking away
36:45
to Christ,
36:47
are in heart,
36:48
nearer to each other
36:49
than they could possibly be,
36:51
were they to become
36:52
unity conscious
36:53
and turn their eyes
36:55
away from God
36:56
to strive
36:58
for closer fellowship.
37:01
So let's pray together
37:02
to that end
37:03
that we would be fixed
37:04
on Christ
37:06
and be drawn together
37:06
in unity.
37:07
as we call it