From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I would like to read once more for our consideration together the first four verses in the 14th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. The first four verses in the 14th chapter.

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things; another who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

Now, we've considered the first verse and have seen there that the apostle not only introduces the discussion and consideration of these matters which we describe as matters of indifference, but also lays down the controlling and the guiding principle which governs the whole of his consideration. And now having done that, we're able to consider the first case that he puts before us, and that is this whole question of eating particular foods, particularly the question of eating meats or not eating meats.

Now, again, it is really important that we should carry in our minds that we are dealing with matters indifferent. And indifferent, you remember, means this: the apostle here is not dealing with our attitude towards things about which there is a specific and a clear commandment. There's no discussion about them; you don't discuss a commandment, you carry it out. You obey it.

So he's not dealing with things about which there is clear and obvious commandment. He's dealing, rather, with things which do not come into that category, but about which we are meant to apply the general teaching of the gospel in order to come to a decision with respect to them. Now, if we don't hold that in our minds, of course, the whole argument of the apostle will convey nothing to us.

The second thing I'm most anxious that we should carry in our minds is this: that I have not yet reached the stage of giving or arriving at any conclusions. We're still in the stage of exposition. I say that because certain people drew conclusions from what I was saying last Friday night. We haven't reached conclusions; we've got to go on for some time before we come to that. We are now dealing with exposition. We are showing exactly how the apostle deals with these questions.

Of course, in doing that, in order to try to be helpful, I use some illustrations about people getting married and the use of drink and so on. But now, don't draw any conclusions from that. I was simply illustrating. I'm showing you the danger of doing the very thing with which the apostle is dealing here. So I have not pronounced any opinion of my own yet on any one of these particular matters, and I'm still not going to do so tonight because our business is to see exactly what the apostle is saying, and then we will come and draw our conclusions.

Now, let me emphasize this: half our troubles in the Christian life are due to the fact that we tend to draw conclusions before we're in a position to do so. You know, there are people who do that in every walk of life. It's a very bad judge on the bench who decides exactly what his verdict is going to be before he's heard the two sides of the whole case. Equally bad is a juryman who does the same thing. Don't jump to conclusions. Listen to the facts. Get clear the exposition first.

Then the apostle, you see, he does this himself. This is the whole point of his teaching. So many of us like a kind of ready-reckoner Christianity, as I would describe it. We've got a problem; you turn up your ready-reckoner, immediate answer. Now, there's nothing like that in the New Testament. Never. You see, the apostle takes a whole chapter to deal with this question. So we are in no position to arrive at conclusions. Try to avoid doing it because you'll be jumping at them, and you shouldn't jump at a conclusion; you should arrive at it. You jump in other respects, but not with conclusions.

Very well, now I trust that that is clear. Well, having reminded you of what we are doing and what the apostle is doing, let's come to consider his first case. And here it is in verse two: "One believeth that he may eat all things: another who is weak, eateth herbs." Now, what are we dealing with here? Well, now, here's his first case. It's the question of eating and drinking. You'll find later on in the chapter he deals with the question of drinking in exactly the same way.

And obviously he's referring to the question of eating meat because he says that the weaker brother only eats herbs. He doesn't eat meat at all; he only eats herbs. Now, what does he mean by all this? What's he got in his mind? There can be very little difficulty about this. There is no doubt at all that he'd got Jews in his mind partly. I mean Christian Jews. All the people he's writing to, of course, are Christians; he's not writing to the world, he's writing to the members of a church. He's writing to Christians. And there were Jews who had become Christians.

And they were in trouble on this very matter, and their trouble arose in this way: very natural, very simple. You see, we're all Christians together, but it does make a difference in the Christian life to know what we were before we became Christians. As I was pointing out a fortnight ago, we all tend to carry certain things with us, though we are born again. We're not all in the same identical position. And in the early church, it's quite obvious from the New Testament teaching that Christians who had been Jews had problems which differed from Christians who had been Gentiles.

We've all got these different problems and as I say, we have them even in terms of our very temperament. Well, now, the Jews were in trouble in this way: they had been brought up as Jews to regard certain articles of diet, and particularly meat, whether meat of animals or of fish, as being prohibited. You know, you've got your lists; you're familiar with them in the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus in particular. They were prohibited to eat certain meats like pork and so on, and certain other animals and certain types of fish.

There are minute instructions there and every Jew had been brought up in this tradition. They'd got their ceremonial law. And according to that ceremonial law, there were certain types of meat that should never be eaten. But in addition to that, on certain special days, no meat should be eaten at all according to that same ceremonial law. Well now, they'd got this background of this teaching. And though they had come into the Christian life, some of them were still troubled about this very thing.

And then there was a further problem also for the Jews. Now they were in a church which consisted of ex-Jews and ex-pagans. And these pagans, of course, they had been in the habit of going to their pagan temples. And there they had again taken their offerings, meat offerings and others, and had offered them to their idols. And then there was a system whereby this meat, after it had been used in the temple, could be sold in the shambles, as it's described. And they felt, the Jews felt, that it was wrong to eat that meat; that this had been polluted somehow because it was associated with idolatry.

Then the Gentiles, they had the difficulty to which I've just been referring. They had been brought up in paganism and they'd got their idol temples and they were worshipping these false gods and they were taking these offerings. And they again, you see, had been taught that once meat had been offered to an idol, it should not be eaten. It had become sacred meat and it wasn't to be eaten. Now they were in trouble on that score and they were abstaining from meat for that reason.

But in addition to all that, it seems to me to be abundantly clear that there was still another element in this matter of refraining from eating meat. And that is a general one which one must simply describe as vegetarianism. "One believeth that he may eat all things," every kind of food. "Another who is weak eateth herbs." And he only ate herbs. Herbs is a generic term to include not only what we call herbs in particular now, but anything that grows out of the ground in that way, what we'd call vegetables as well and fruit and so on. It's a generic term which we can best describe, therefore, under the general heading of vegetarianism.

Now, that I say was obviously an element. I'm emphasizing this because some of the commentators would confine this teaching only to the question of the Jews and their prior teaching and the pagans with their prior teaching—that it was purely something religious. But I think the emphasis on herbs insists upon our interpreting it also in this wider sense. Now, the kind of thing that I have in mind is something that the apostle deals with in his first epistle to Timothy and in the fourth chapter and at the beginning. And it's astonishing to me that so many of these commentators seem to have missed this completely.

Listen: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."

"If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise"—which doesn't mean physical exercise, it means this great attention to the physical aspect—"bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

Now there, you see, he's dealing with a teaching which prohibited people to marry and also commanded them to abstain from meats. Now, this was all a part he puts under the heading of seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. He's referring there to those odd mixtures which were popular and current in the first-century world, as they are today. A kind of mystery religion some of them were called. They were a curious mixture of philosophy and magic in a sense and a kind of asceticism.

You've got the selfsame things today. They were popular always in the East, this teaching of yoga, the yogi and so on. They tend to have this. It's a kind of religion, but it's a false religion and it pays great attention to the body and the cultivation of the body and the place of the body in all this. And then as now, they tend to be vegetarians. It's a part of this whole mixture of religion and philosophy and mysticism; it's all jumbled up together. It's always been popular, I say, in Eastern countries and often has a vogue even in Western countries.

Well now, there was obviously a great deal of that in New Testament times. It had filtered into Palestine itself; it was certain to be found in a place like Rome which was the metropolis and the center of the empire and different people went there and they all taught these different teachings. And some of the people had taken up all this. So I say it is necessary that we should include with the peculiar problems of the Jews and the Gentiles who'd become Christians, this cultic teaching which was liable to afflict every kind of Christian.

Now then, let's be clear that that is the thing with which the apostle is dealing. But I want to make another thing quite clearly, make one other thing clear and it is this: that the apostle is not discussing vegetarianism as such at this point. And we are not going to do that. Now, some of you may be vegetarians. That's all right as long as you're a vegetarian for health reasons or for medical reasons. This is a matter of discussion, this is a matter of dietetics, it's a matter of physiology, it's a matter of what is best for the body, and this is open to discussion. And it's all quite all right as long as you discuss it on the medical level.

What the apostle is concerned about is when people make this a religious matter and make it a matter of conscience and insist upon it as being something absolutely vital. Now this must be clear. The apostle has no complaint against the vegetarian who is a medical vegetarian. So those of you who are in that position, you needn't feel condemned. But if it's a part of your whole Christian faith, well then you're in trouble and the apostle does deal with you. If you make it obligatory, and if you begin to say that we're not Christians unless we're vegetarians, then you really are in the position with which the apostle is dealing here.

And as I say, that parallel in First Timothy 4 at the beginning is very germane to this matter which he's dealing with at this particular point. You see there, as he makes clear, it was being made a matter of conscience. And the moment you do that, you are falling into this error about which he is concerned. Very well, his case is that there is a difference between the strong Christians, those who are strong in their understanding of the faith, remember, and those who are weaker, for the time being, in their understanding of the faith.

And the difference, says the apostle, between the two is this: that the people who are strong in their understanding have come to see that all this distinction between meats, which had been taught to the Jews under the old dispensation, no longer applies. They could also see that there was obviously nothing wrong whatsoever in eating meat offered to idols. Why? Well, because there is no such thing as an idol; there's no such thing as another god. There is only one God. Now First Corinthians 8 deals with that, of course, in detail.

There are no other gods. Well very well, if you go to your idol temple and offer meat, there's nothing happened to the meat at all; it isn't sacred meat, there was no god there to start with. So the stronger Christian has come to see all this, and he therefore is perfectly happy in eating all these various kinds of meat. And he's equally clear about the folly of those mystery religions and those cults and all their foolish teaching about prohibiting to eat meats and so on. Now he has seen all this.

But you see the weaker Christian does not see this. And it is because he doesn't see it that he eats nothing but herbs. Now, it is probably the case that many of them had decided to do this in this way: they were in a little bit of doubt perhaps about some things. But then because of their very condition, they were so afraid of doing something that was wrong. They said, "The only safe thing to do is not to eat any meat at all. If you don't touch any meat of any description, you can't go wrong." So they'd become vegetarians and they were eating nothing but herbs for this purely religious reason.

Now that's the position with which the apostle is dealing. The stronger Christians, you see, had understood the kind of teaching given by our Lord himself. I read to you that section out of the seventh chapter of Mark's gospel at the beginning in order that we might be reminded of our Lord's teaching. You see, this is where he shocked the Pharisees always. They said, "He's a lawbreaker." He seemed to them to be a man who was flouting the laws as given. They couldn't see that he's the fulfillment of the law and that his coming and his perfect work in our salvation has done away with the ceremonial law. That's gone.

Our Lord has put an end to that; the ceremonial law no longer applies. The stronger Christian can see this and he acts accordingly. Though he'd been brought up as a Jew, he would now eat pork. He wouldn't hesitate and so on. Whereas the other, I say, had failed to see this, and in his fearfulness he decided the only safe thing to do is to eat nothing but herbs. Very well, now in the third verse, the apostle says there are two main dangers arising from this matter and he deals with them.

Here they are: "Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth." Here are the two dangers. And you notice that the danger varies according to whether we belong to the one class or to the other. The danger of the more enlightened Christian, the stronger Christian, is to despise his weaker brother. I don't think there's any difficulty about understanding this. The danger always for the more intellectual kind of person is to despise those who are not intellectual or not so intellectual.

Intellectual pride is a terrible thing and it is a sin, of course. And it is the sin that is always most ready to encompass a man who's got understanding. Intellectual understanding tends to produce arrogance. And the man of learning is generally a man who despises others who haven't got the learning. Of course, this is true; you see on the natural level we're all familiar with this. The Greeks, who were a very intellectual people and a very learned people, they divided the whole world up, as you know, into Greeks and barbarians, wise, unwise.

And they looked with disdain upon these people who didn't know. Now, that's always the danger with the man who's got understanding and learning. His besetting sin is to despise people. "These people," they say, "they know no theology. They haven't read. What do they know? Who are they? Got a bit of experience." There it is, you see, they tend to look down upon them and he thanks God he's not as these other people are, especially these more emotional type of Christian people.

It's the besetting sin of a man who's got understanding. Let's not forget this, who may be in that group in this congregation at this moment. But the apostle knows his people, he knows human nature. And he knows that this was the particular danger of these people who could see things more clearly. "Don't you despise the other," he says. But then you see, the danger with the weaker brother is quite different. And his danger is this: "Let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth."

Are you surprised at this? Does this come to you unexpectedly? Are you surprised that it's this way round and not perhaps the other way round? Wouldn't you have thought perhaps that the stronger man was in danger of judging the weaker one? It isn't; the apostle knows what he's talking about. This is absolutely right: it is the weak brother who is always most guilty of judging. He doesn't despise—he's got nothing to be proud of and he can't despise others—his great danger is to judge the stronger.

Now, this is a most interesting and a most important matter. What does he mean here by judging? Well, what he means is this: that the great danger of the weaker brother, when he sees his stronger brother eating all kinds of foods and meats, is to say, "That man is not a Christian, for if he were a Christian, he wouldn't be eating those things." And you notice the stronger brother doesn't tend to say that the weaker brother is not a Christian; he doesn't judge. He despises.

He doesn't despise—he's got nothing to be proud of and he can't despise others—his great danger is to judge the stronger. He is a Christian, he says, I suppose I've got to admit that he is a Christian, but—and so he despises him. But you see the trouble with the weaker brother is that his temptation is to say the other man's not a Christian at all. He judges him. He passes a final verdict upon him. And if he doesn't go the whole way of saying that the man's not a Christian at all because he eats these meats, he is very ready to say that at any rate he's very lacking in faithfulness to the truth and in earnestness as a Christian.

He really does sit in judgment upon him as Christian qua Christian. Now, this is a most interesting and a most important matter: that this should be the particular tendency of the weak brother. And I want to show you this in order that we may be perfectly clear about it. The tendency to sit in judgment upon other Christians and to query whether they're Christians at all is almost invariably a sign of weakness, not of strength. Here's the great lesson we've all got to learn: it is the weak Christian who is most ready to pass final judgments upon others, especially in terms of their conduct.

Now then, here is the question: have you faced it? Why should this be the peculiar temptation of the weaker brother? Because it is, as the apostle says. What's the explanation? I don't think there's much difficulty about supplying the answer: it is solely due to the spirit of fear. The trouble with the weak brother always is that he's the slave of the spirit of fear. And you see, it shows itself in this way: because he's not clear about things, and because he is by definition a fearful kind of person, he wants to safeguard the position.

And you see, it shows itself in this way: because he's not clear about things, and because he is by definition a fearful kind of person, he wants to safeguard the position. He wants to make sure that he's right. And because his thinking is not so much in terms of the teaching as in terms of this spirit of fear and carefulness to guard himself and the whole situation, he very naturally tends to multiply rules and regulations. He draws up his lists. But he's not content with doing that for himself. Because he does it for himself, he thinks everybody should be doing it.

And the result is that he gets his list and not only applies it to himself, he applies it to everybody else and wants everybody to conform to his idea and to his pattern. And the whole thing, you see, is entirely due to the fact that he's of a fearful spirit. He's so terrified that he will go wrong that, as I said about meats, "Well, now, the only safe thing to do is this: I won't sort of judge each one on its merit and make sure; cut out the lot, then you're safe. You can't go wrong then. Eat nothing but herbs, then you'll be perfectly safe and you'll be perfectly all right."

In the end, he judges the standing and the position of others in terms of these things and of these things alone. And that's the thing the apostle is dealing with. He's judging his brother. He's making this the acid test as to whether a man is a Christian or not. Now, let me give you some parallels to show you the importance of this thing. Take for instance that famous chapter in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15, the account which we are given there of the great council that was held in Jerusalem.

The account which we are given there of the great council that was held in Jerusalem. You remember how Paul and Barnabas went up from Antioch and consulted with their brethren, the apostles and the elders of the church at Jerusalem, concerning what exactly should be demanded of the Gentile Christians. This was the very thing that they were discussing. And remember, it wasn't only a discussion about circumcision; it was a more general discussion. There were those who said that these Gentiles who'd become Christians should come right under the Jewish ceremonial law, that they must adopt it all. That was the very question which was at issue.

And you remember how Peter puts it, it's in the 10th verse: he reminds them to start with, you see, that God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, some people seem to think that that's the text for entire sanctification or sinless perfection. It's got nothing to do with it. Purifying the hearts there just means this: that God enabled those Gentiles to believe the truth unto salvation in exactly the same way as the Jews. This doesn't deal with sanctification.

Now, I mustn't go into that tonight, tempting though it is to go into it. You may say, "Well, wasn't that a compromise in and of itself?" No, it wasn't, because they've established the principle. And the principle is that the Gentile convert has not got to become a Jew, as it were. But at the same time, to avoid trouble and to avoid offending the Jews and to work through this period of transition, they said, "We recommend them that they just don't do these things." Now, I shall expound that when we go later on into the body of this 14th chapter of the epistle to the Romans because people seem to think that the apostle is inconsistent even in this chapter.

But then there is another example in the second chapter of the epistle to the Galatians, and it's a very interesting one. Peter had come to see these things quite clearly. But you remember that we are told by the apostle there in that second chapter, beginning at verse 11: "When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation."

But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all and then you remember the argument. Well now, that really is exactly the same thing. You see, this was the peculiar Galatian heresy. It is the heresy of saying that to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough. Justification by faith alone is not sufficient; you must add to it. And here they even persuaded Peter for a while that it was wrong for him as an ex-Jew, now Christian, to be eating with ex-Gentiles who are now Christian.

Justification by faith alone is not sufficient; you must add to it. And here they even persuaded Peter for a while that it was wrong for him as an ex-Jew, now Christian, to be eating with ex-Gentiles who are now Christian and Paul shows very plainly that Peter, unconsciously, by doing that was denying the very center of the gospel. That's why he had to withstand him to the face in public, though Peter was an apostle. He was fighting for the very essence of the Christian faith. And you see he goes on, therefore, in the first verse of the fifth chapter of Galatians to say this: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

Now, that's the very thing the apostle is dealing with here in this 14th chapter of the epistle to the Romans. And then you've got, you remember, at the end of the second chapter of the epistle to the Colossians the same kind of thing. And the apostle puts it in these terms: "Let no man beguile you," he says at verse 18, no, further back, let no man... 16th verse: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, he puts all these scrupulosities into that category of the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances (touch not, taste not, handle not) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.

Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. You see, that's why they did those things and that is why these cultic teachings still do that sort of thing: a voluntary humility, neglecting the body. But they'd got a wrong view of the body; they regarded the body as being sinful and evil, and that's heresy; it's not true. Christian teaching doesn't say that. And so they introduce all this involved system of what you eat and what you touch and what you do. And it's a denial of the gospel, says Paul. You're being robbed of this liberty which you've received as Christian people. Well now, that's the sort of thing which the apostle has in his mind here in this 14th chapter of the epistle to the Romans; precisely what he's dealing with. Now, let us see the relevance of all this to us today.

For instance, the prohibition to eat fish on a Friday. That's a human invention; it's not in the Scriptures at all. But that's only one example of a whole system that they've introduced, rules and regulations that they've brought in telling people what to do and what not to do. The whole idea behind a period called Lent is just this very thing with which we are dealing. Now, it isn't merely that they suggest that this might be good and helpful; it is commanded. That's the trouble. It's when it's commanded, it's when it's laid down and when you are regarded as being defective in your Christian discipleship if you don't do these things, it comes into the very category of what the apostle is dealing with here.

Now, that's true not only of Roman Catholicism but of Anglo-Catholicism and every other kind of pseudo or imitation Catholicism of which there is so much at the present time. But let's not think that we are guiltless, therefore, who don't belong to these Catholic traditions in the Christian Church. I personally wouldn't hesitate to say that the temperance movement in the Christian Church and as a part of Christian teaching fell into precisely the same error. I have never spoken at a temperance meeting under the auspices of the Christian Church for this precise reason.

You remember this movement came in in the last century; I believe I mentioned this a fortnight ago. It came in in the thirties of the last century. And it began to become a part of the preaching: temperance preaching, preaching against drink, then preaching against tobacco, preaching against various things, afterwards the cinema, then the television. And there are people, this is the main staple, as it were, of their preaching.

Now this is to me guilty of exactly the thing which the apostle is dealing with here. And I'll show you why. I'm only giving you the list at the moment. You will also find the same thing in many evangelical movements. Now, I want it to be quite clear that I think any movement or any society has a perfect right to draw up its own rules and regulations. And if you join a society or a club or an institution or a movement that has got its rules and regulations, it is your duty to keep and abide by those rules and regulations. If you don't agree with them, you shouldn't belong to such societies.

But if these things are made a vital part of discipleship, if they're in any way suggested as being essential to Christian profession, then they equally fall into this selfsame category with which the apostle is dealing at this point. Now, I think you will see at once how this, therefore, is something which is very, very much in evidence at the present time. It becomes a legalism.

Now, some of you, I know, are going to go away saying tonight that I don't believe in temperance. Well, all right, you are the jumpers that I was referring to at the beginning. And I'm afraid I've no more to say to you except to appeal to you once more to remember that I am not stating any conclusions. I'm simply putting the matter before you for you to see the kind of thing the apostle is dealing with.

The danger you see the moment you begin to do these things, the danger is that you introduce legalism. And this, of course, has happened very often. Now, I myself was brought up in an atmosphere in which this was very true. In other words, the impression I had of Christianity in my youth was this: that a Christian is a man who doesn't do certain things.

Now, I myself was brought up in an atmosphere in which this was very true. In other words, the impression I had of Christianity in my youth was this: that a Christian is a man who doesn't do certain things. The Christian is a man who doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't do various other things that the people of the world. Now, you see, that's legalism. But that is the inevitable result. Then when you see a man who does those things, you say, "That man is not a Christian; he cannot be a Christian."

This becomes your standard of judgment. That's what the apostle is saying: "Let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth." These things become the standard of evaluation and of judgment. And you more or less decide that people are not Christians. They say, "It's impossible. Look at what he does." Now, can't you see the error in this? The moment you say that, you've become a legalist; you're back under the law.

Or, as Paul puts it in Galatians 5, "you are fallen from grace." Now, there again is a phrase that so frequently misunderstood, isn't it? What he means by "you are fallen from grace" is this: you have departed from the position which teaches that salvation is solely and entirely of grace by faith. He's not saying, as some people say, that a man who's born again can fall into sin and cease to be born again and can come back and be born again and fall again. He's not touching that. All he's saying, you've fallen from the grace position.

You see what you're virtually saying is this: that it is what a man does or doesn't do that determines whether he's a Christian or not. Now, this is something that we must never do at all. That's what he's saying here. You must never allow these things to decide and to determine in your mind as to whether you or anybody else is a Christian, because the moment you do that, you are judging, and you mustn't judge. Now, you see this is, as I say, the peculiar temptation that comes to the weaker brother.

You must never allow these things to decide and to determine in your mind as to whether you or anybody else is a Christian, because the moment you do that, you are judging, and you mustn't judge. Now, you see this is, as I say, the peculiar temptation that comes to the weaker brother. Now, it's for us all to examine ourselves. Are we guilty of this? Have we been guilty of this?

As I was indicating a fortnight ago, the fact that you're a Christian, the fact that you're born again, doesn't mean that at times in your thinking, quite unconsciously, you can fall back to the position of justification by works. You're not consistent in your application and your working out of the doctrine. That's always a sign of weakness. This kind of nervous apprehension, this tendency to judge, this tendency to exalt these things into a central position and make them determinative of a man's whole standing and status with regard to his relationship to God.

He is sheer legalism and when it leads a man to judge his brother, it does indeed become a very serious and a very dangerous position to be in. Very well, now then, there is the case. Perhaps I'd better leave it at that this evening. You see in the last phrase in the third verse and in the fourth verse, the apostle gives the answer—the temporary answer. Before he's come to give his opinion about the things in and of themselves, he says, "Listen: you mustn't judge your brother. Why not?" Well, one thing is that God hath received him. Secondly, you have no right to judge another man's servant. And thirdly, you needn't be worried about this stronger man; there is a way whereby he is kept. And this nervous apprehension of yours, this spirit of fear, is wrong. You're not enjoying the liberty of the children of God. You're not standing fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set you free. But God willing, we'll go on to deal with the answers, that threefold answer that the apostle gives to this tendency to judge next Friday evening.

Let us pray. O Lord our God, we do again thank thee that thou hast given us these things. We would again offer our praise and our worship and our adoration at the greatness of this life into which thou hast brought us. O God, we thank thee for a teaching that expands the mind, and in a day of little small things and of pettiness, we thank thee for a teaching that stretches our minds to their fullest limit and beyond. We bless thy name for it.

But we thank thee that at the same time it warms our hearts and it deals with our will. O God, we glory in thy truth and bless thy name that thou hast not only saved us, but thou hast provided for us this marvelous, wonderful instruction. We offer our humble thanksgiving. And now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now this night, throughout the remainder of this our short and certain earthly life and pilgrimage, and evermore. Amen.