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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester podcast.
We are glad that you have decided to join us for this uh
bumper-sowed.
Yes, you heard right.
We are calling these "bumper-soweds" and these are episodes between our seasons, episodes
between our seasons.
And we have finished a great season, number four, which had to do with 1 Corinthians 7,
expedient season marriage.
And we're going to start our next episode five shortly on the minor prophets, practical
lessons from the minor prophets.
But in this bumper sowed, and again, it gets its name because it's episodes between
seasons.
And we think of a bumper crop.
Well, bumper sowed again, but bumper crop.
And since the Harvester podcast is the harvester and your harvest is based on seeds that
are sown and the past tense of sow is sowed.
And so these are bumper-soweds and we're going to store them and what we're going to call
silos.
We're going to group the ones that are similar, that are under the same topic, if you
will, in sections together.
And so this Bumper-sowed series has to do with doctrinal unity and things that should not
come between doctrinal unity but often do.
In Bumper-sowed 1, we talked about, everyone who teaches falsely a false teacher?
And we focused on Apollos, who taught only the baptism of John.
but Aquila and Priscilla took him aside, corrected him, and he was a very powerful
preacher from then on.
And he was before that.
He just needed a little bit correction.
The second episode in this bumper-sode series on Doctrine of Unity is entitled, The
Doctrine of Christ is Neither White Doctrine Nor Black Doctrine.
And we talked about how different ethnicities often claim that that's their truth, and the
other doctrine is just that ethnicity's doctrine.
but yet the doctrine of Christ is one and the same, no matter what the skin color is.
And then the third one in this series is the safest thing, quote unquote, always
scriptural.
And this has to do with people choosing uh something that's spiritually, but then that
comes to a point where they think that everybody should do it that way, and so in essence
it becomes binding their opinion on what is safe as if it were the only exclusive way.
which of course is wrong and it gets in the way of doctrinal unity.
And then today we want to discuss, differences of opinions in optional matters sin?
Yep, let me repeat, are differences in opinions over optional matters, are they sin?
Now when we asked the question, who is the erring?
when we talk about withdrawing fellowship and things like this as the Bible teaches in 2
Thessalonians 3 and 1 Corinthians 5 especially, but who are the ones in error?
Now the answer, of course, truly, are those who have departed from the truth in at least
one area.
They are the erring.
Now the answer is not, as some people want to think sometimes, the answer is not those who
have a different opinion.
than me on matters of indifference or matters of expediency.
That is, I might have an opinion on something, and I might have a very strong opinion on
that, but that does not mean that my opinion is doctrine.
And so to treat our opinion on matters of indifference as if it were the doctrine of
Christ, and then make our opinion the standard of fellowship, that would be sin.
In fact, we have in
First Timothy 4 verses 1 through 3.
In fact, the scripture calls those doctrines of demons, you know, how some would forbid
others to marry or command them to abstain from meat, which in First Timothy 4, Paul does
not go on to talk about the, you know, refraining from marriage.
In fact, he talked about that in a lot of places, but he does go into detail about not
eating meat.
And he basically says we can eat any meat.
as long as we receive it with thanksgiving, unless, of course, it was used in sacrifice
and would violate the conscience of some or cause others to sin, and we did talk about
that in an earlier episode, then it would be wrong.
But the differences of opinion in optional matters, we are allowed to have those.
In fact, we talked in a episode a couple seasons ago, I think it was, every command of God
or every statement of God is either
a requirement, a prohibition, or an option.
And so we need to make sure we know which ones are obligations or which ones are
prohibitions and which ones are optional.
And so we're going to take a look from Romans chapter 14 in this episode when we talk
about our differences of opinion and optional matters since.
And Paul begins in that chapter by saying, one who is weak in the faith, but not to
disputes over doubtful things.
And I'm reading from the New King James translation.
And the weak in faith here are those whose opinions of former regulations and or habits
have bound their faith so that they cannot yet practice the liberties allowed by God.
Now when you talk about, and I like to give, for example, the Corinthian Church, of course
it would apply in the Roman saints as well, but in the Corinthian Church, you know,
there's a culture there where fornication, which is mentioned in almost every chapter in 1
Corinthians, at least in the early chapters, but fornication was common practice with
idolatry and uh eating meat sacrificed to idols and a lot of the things that were going
wrong in Corinth.
had the background in idolatry.
And so if you're a Corinthian, you're baptized into Christ, and you're a new Christian,
those old habits do not die very quickly.
In fact, even when I became a Christian, it took me a while to get my tongue under control
and things like that.
You might not know it, but I came from a rough drug culture life, and a lot of those
thoughts, a lot of that language did not change overnight.
In fact, I used to...
and that's like forty years ago, but I used to even have nightmares about, you know,
sneaking around smoking cigarettes or doing other things that weren't good, and uh cussing
and all that kind of stuff, but it took a while for me to get over that, and so when he
talks about weak in the faith, he's talking about as it uh pertains to liberties.
We know that there is freedom in Christ, there's liberty in Christ, that we are allowed to
do some things.
that we don't have to but we can their optional matters but sometimes people knew in the
face of that come to those conclusions and sometimes people who have never studied or been
taught don't have the right conclusions on optional matters and sometimes people just
refuse to accept what the bible teaches on optional matters and choose rather to stay
uh...
in the opinions that they have heard and held to as if they were doctrine and one fellow
said one time about
you know, not eating in the church building.
And sometimes, you know, we can acquiesce and not do it just so we don't, you know, cause
others to sin or whatever.
But this brother said, sometimes we have to make sure and discern is it a matter of true
stumbling or is it just a matter of grumbling?
And a lot of times with people who hold these positions for years, even though they've
been taught differently, it's not a matter of stumbling.
it's more of a matter of grumbling and they want their way and that's kind of what we're
talking about here in these optional matters but when paul says from the from the get-go
receive one who is weak in the faith that tells us that they need to be treated a certain
way and so again uh...
the weakened faith are those whose opinions of former regulations or habits in their
former life before conversion have bound their face so that they cannot practice
the liberties allowed by the gospel now they're still to be received policies this word
received comes from a greek word that means to welcome and effective yes he translated
welcome or to accept the new american standard has to accept and the phrase disputes over
doubtful things comes from two greek words the first means to argue dispute in the second
means to be judgmental to doubt to question
to argument or dispute.
the King James translates this doubtful disputations, that is the phrase that's translated
there, disputes over doubtful things.
The ASV 1901 translates that decisions of scruples, decisions of scruples,
the new american standard says for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions and
then the s v there has to quarrel over opinions now again these pick opinions have to do
with optional matters and as we go through romans fourteen these are optional matters now
some people would try to put mechanical instruments of music in worship in romans fourteen
but that's not an optional matter
That is a prohibition when we understand the New Testament and what it teaches about
worship.
And so there things like that that people will try to put in Romans 14 that are not there.
Now, eating meats is, drinking certain beverages is, but not uh things that God has
already prohibited.
Those cannot be put in Romans chapter 14.
At least they cannot scripturally be put in there.
All right, it must be kept in mind that these disputes or scruples or opinions are over
matters of option or indifference, and that none of themselves, they are not obligated by
God.
For example, in Romans 14, 2 through 3, Paul says, For one believes he may eat all things,
but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge
him who eats.
for God has received him." And there's that word received again, and so we're to receive
one another as God receives us.
But notice, if God receives such brethren with their view on matters of indifference, that
is, whether I should eat meat only or eat vegetables only, then who are we to condemn them
because we have a different view?
Such amounts to supreme arrogance on our part.
Verse 4, Paul says, who are you to judge another servant?
to his own master he stands or falls.
Indeed he will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand." And so again, who are
we to judge another person's servant?
And of course, you know, this was written in the context of slavery, but we are slaves of
Christ, Romans 6, 18, 1 Corinthians 7, 21 and 22, and so Christ is the one that we are to
please.
not other fellow slaves or fellow servants.
All church members, whether weak or strong, must realize that we all belong to the Lord.
And it's the Lord Christ who died for us, He lived for us first, He died for us, He rose
again, that we might belong to Him.
And Paul details this in verses 7 through 9 of Romans 14.
Let me just go ahead and read that verse 7.
For none of us live to himself, and no one dies to himself.
For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.
Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the
dead and the living." Through verse 9.
And so, Paul tells us that.
And so, if God receives such brethren, then so should we.
For God is able to make him stand.
since we do belong to God, we must honor God.
1 Corinthians
6 19 and 20 we were bought with the price we are not our own therefore we ought to glorify
God in our bodies and in 2nd Corinthians 5 15 we are to honor God as well he says and so
we are not to serve self but we are to serve God however when we insist on everyone
agreeing with our opinions in matters of indifference or matters of options
We are selfishly serving self and demanding that others do as well.
Furthermore, since we all belong to Christ, He will do the judging and, of course, we must
let Him do the judging.
In Romans 14, 10-12, Paul writes, but why do you judge your brother?
Or why do you show contempt for your brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
for it is written as I live says the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue
shall confess God verse twelve so then each of us must give an account or shall give an
account of himself to God and so we must give an account to God and of course the gospel
of John chapter five verses twenty four through twenty nine says that Christ will judge us
on the last day
and will be judged according to what we have done.
All right?
And so, we must receive one another in matters of opinion.
Secondly, we must not condemn one another in matters of opinion over indifferent things or
optional matters.
All right, since God is going to be our infallible judge,
Paul says in verse 13, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not
to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.
And so we must not condemn, or as the ESV translates this, pass judgment on somebody, just
simply because he does not agree with our opinions on indifferent matters.
Instead, we should determine not to cause the weak brother to fall into error by forcing
our opinion on him.
Now the word translated stumbling block, or the New American Standard has that obstacle,
is a word which generally means to strike or knock against.
Figurally, however, it refers to the cause or process by which one falls.
And so the word translated cause to fall
You'll recognize this from English if we were to transliterate it, it's scandalon.
And so it's the same word we get scandal from, scandalon.
And that word originally referred to the piece of wood which kept open a trap for animals.
And so, figuratively, it is an expression for that which causes another to fall.
And it's used again in Romans 9, 33, in Romans 11, 9.
as well as in Revelation 2 verse 14.
And so Paul forbade the strong to cause the weak in faith to stumble and hurt their
conscience.
Now, exercising freedom in Christ must not cause others to fall.
Even though we, as more mature believers, have studied the Scriptures, spiritually mature
I should say, Christians, we know what our liberties are.
and we know what they are not.
And so, for example, and I give this illustration quite a bit, I was in Jamaica one time
and doing some door knocking on an evangelistic campaign and we were dropped off early in
the morning and I saw the guy pour live crabs into a big old pot of boiling water with
corn cob in there and potatoes, just like a good old fashioned crawfish boil.
And we came back about lunchtime and of course they usually tell you not to eat street
food but.
I was hungry and I knew those crabs were good.
They were alive when he dumped them in and they've been cooking all day till lunchtime.
And so I bought me a crab with the fixings with it, started eating it and one of the local
brethren came to me and said, in this part of the country we do not eat crab.
And he explained to me why, because there was a lot of saboteur and influence there who
wrongly hold to the old law, dietary laws, and they bind those.
and since they have a lot of influence in their in that area most people think it's wrong
to eat crap especially if you call yourself a christian and so i could have argued said
well i have freedom in christ eat this because first timothy chapter four verses three
through five tell me i can eat whatever meat i want as long as i were i receive with
thanksgiving i could have done that but i did not i quietly wrapped it back up and pretend
like i didn't and hope nobody notice so i didn't want in in
ruin my influence in that area but I guarantee you once we got back to the compound I tore
into that that paper and ate that and it was very very good but I do not want to do
anything to ruin my influence and so along those same lines Paul wrote in first
Corinthians 8 and 9 when he was talking about eating meat that was sacrificed to idols he
said in verses 1 through 8 we have
Liberty to eat that because we know that there's no such thing as another God.
There's only one God and we know that but he does say in verse 9 but beware Lest somehow
this liberty of yours become a stumbling block There's our word stumbling block to those
who are weak first Corinthians 8 9 and so those who force their opinion on another may
cause him to violate his conscience and thus fall so if I was to force
that brother or force others to say, hey, I'm going eat this crab anyway, whether you like
it or not, even though it would bother your conscience.
But you say, hey, I want to be like this guy.
He's spiritually mature.
So I'll go ahead and violate my conscience in eating this crap.
Well, that's wrong for me to do that.
So I did not do that.
But anyway, Paul further instructed in 1 Corinthians 8 verses 10 through 12.
He said, for if anyone sees you have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the
conscious of him who is weak
be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols.
And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died.
But when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin
against Christ." And so that puts it in a whole new perspective when he says we sin
against Christ, because we do.
When we sin against fellow man, we sin against Christ.
You know, remember David a long time ago, he told God, you know, prayed in his
Psalm 51, against you only have I sinned.
And so ultimately, even though men are involved, we do sin against people, but ultimately
our sin is against God.
And so we must, you know, in differences of opinion, in optional matters, we must receive
one another regardless of our opinion on that optional matter, and we must not condemn one
another.
And then thirdly,
we must encourage one another in differences of opinion in optional matters.
Instead of instigating others to uh fall by binding our opinions on them, we should seek
to build them up in the faith.
And so going back to Romans 14 and verse 19, Paul says, therefore let us pursue the things
which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.
and then Paul here gave two motives that should regulate our handling of opinions in
matters of indifference.
First, we must be motivated by the pursuit of biblical peace.
You remember Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, he said, blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God, Matthew 5, 9.
And so if another's opinion does not violate the unity of the spirit and the bond of
peace, Ephesians 4, 3 through 6, then we should not force that person to change his
opinion to conform to ours.
We all will be on the same mind and in the same judgment when we believe and practice that
matters of indifference are matters of indifference.
1 Corinthians 1.10 doesn't mean we have to agree on every little thing, but what it does
mean is that we have to agree that what God obligates us to, God obligates us to.
We have to agree what God prohibits.
God prohibits.
And we have to agree that optional matters are optional matters.
That's how we are in the same mind, speak the same thing.
That's how we are perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Not agreeing on every little thing.
If we say that we have to agree on every little thing, even if we say it's through the
eldership, we're still saying we cannot have a difference of opinion on anything.
But we can, we do, on optional matters.
not on things that God prohibits, not on things that God obligates us, but only on those
things that are optional.
And again, when we all recognize together that God has options, that God has prohibitions,
and God has obligations, then we can hold to that unity of doctrine, even though we have
differences of opinions on optional matters.
And so again,
Paul gave two motives that should regulate our handling of opinions in matters of
indifferences that will encourage one another.
And so first, we must be motivated by the pursuit of biblical peace.
Secondly, our handling of opinions in matters of indifference must be motivated by our
pursuit of building up the body of Christ.
Now the word translated edify.
or building up in the new american standard or mutual up building in the e s p that comes
from a greek word that means building up strengthening encouraging and it's used to quite
a bit by paul romans fifteen to first corinthians fourteen five first well the verse
twenty six in your member first corinthians fourteen deals with uh...
prophesying verses speaking in tongues in a public assembly
And by the way, a very key word in 1 Corinthians 14 is edify, building up.
And we see that word all over the place in that chapter.
Also, it's used in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 8, and then in Ephesians 2, 21, Ephesians 4, 12.
And so building up, encouraging one another, that is to be our goal not to tear people
down.
And that goes all the way back to our first episode in this silo of bumper series.
having to do with Apollos.
Apollos taught the baptism of John when the baptism of John was no longer in effect.
And as we mentioned in that episode, some brethren today would have just written him up
and labeled him a false teacher, have nothing to do with him.
But thankfully, Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and taught him more accurately the way
of truth.
And so they built up Apollos rather than tearing him down.
Now again, there does come a time to mark false teachers and to withdraw fellowship from
them, but that should be like in any other area of church discipline, that should be the
last resort, not the first one.
And so concentrate on building up people.
Again, forcing our opinion on matters of indifference does not build up and encourage the
body of Christ.
In fact, it does just the opposite.
And so in Romans 14-15,
Paul would say, if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking
in love.
Do not destroy your food the one for whom Christ died, or do not destroy with your food
the one for whom Christ died.
And so destroying a soul is nowhere close to being worth getting my way in what I eat.
Again, I would assume not eat crab again if it meant my brother would be saved.
But fortunately, I can eat crab around a lot of brethren.
But anyway, that's just an example.
Now, when Paul says, your brother is grieved, that word grieve there, yes, it does mean to
cause pain or injury by forcing an opinion on him.
To do so means that the one forcing his opinion is no longer walking in love.
Because you know, love seeks what is in the best interest
of its object.
In this case, there's a quote here uh from Brother Richard Beatty in the Living Word
Commentary Series from 1969.
He says, love not only liberates the Christian from the restrictions of a legal code, it
is free even to accept these restrictions as long as they do not violate the gospel when
others will be benefited.
thereby.
The result of a person forcing his opinion is that the other brother is destroyed for whom
Christ also died.
Romans 14 that we just read.
No wonder then that Jesus said in Matthew 18, 6 through 7, but whoever causes one of these
little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung
around his neck and he were thrown into the depths of the sea.
woe to the world because of offenses for offenses must come but woe to that man by whom
the offense comes and by that word by the way that word offense there is related to our
word stumbling block that we examined earlier and so our differences of opinion in
optional matter sin and of course the answer to that is no
and again we must again make sure that we're truly talking about optional matters again to
put instrumental singing or instrumental instruments of music and worship in optional
matters it just does not fit there and so and i would even put drinking intoxicating
beverages uh...
even though the word wine is used here and that's another study that we will get to
eventually but uh...
that is not an optional matter
and so but uh differences of opinion in in optional matters is not sin but how do we
handle those differences well number one is we discussed we must receive one another
network receive again means to welcome to accept them no matter what their opinion is on
an optional matter now again i'm stressing optional matters or sometimes called matters of
indifference secondly we must not condemn one another because we have differences of
opinion on optional matters
But rather thirdly, we should encourage one another, encourage one another in spite of
differences of opinions because we need to encourage the body of Christ no matter what.
And so error and those in error, that serious business, and it must be taken seriously,
must not be taken lightly.
However, we must make sure that those whom we think are in error actually are in error.
and that they're not just holding a difference of opinion in a matter of option or
expediency.
Because again, sometimes we get those mixed up and think that because he doesn't agree
with my opinion, he must be in sin.
But we need to make sure that we're talking about optional matters.
We can have differences of opinion in optional matters and still be brethren in
fellowship.
So if brethren are truly in error, those who are spiritual must restore them.
And the approach to restoration, however, will have to be customized within the framework
of a spirit of gentleness, considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted, Galatians 6.1.
Because there is a sense in which all erring individuals are not the same.
And we will talk about that in the next couple episodes of this
silo of bumper soles.
But again, in Luke 15, 4 through 32, we have different lost people, and they're not all
the same.
Although I think when you put all of them together, they comprehensively cover everyone
who is lost.
Also in Jude 22 through 23, there's only one chapter in Jude, but in Jude 22 through 23,
he mentions different kind of loss, that somebody got a snatch out of the fire.
and some we work with patiently to bring them out.
But the goal is to bring people out of error.
But again, because somebody has a different opinion than us on an optional matter, does
not mean they're in error.
And so may the Lord help each of us to seek and to save that which is lost, including
erring members of the church, again realizing, as James 520 says, he who turns a sinner
from the error of his way will save a soul from death.
and cover a multitude of sins.
And so let us make sure that people that we think are in error make sure it's truly error
and not just simply a difference of opinion than what we have.
And so we appreciate so much your being with us on this episode and we look forward to
seeing you in a figurative way on the next episode.
i have received some feedback recently and we appreciate your feedback and so please
continue to give us some feedback maybe even some things that you would like to s to
dedicate a season two but we appreciate your being with us and we invite you to join us
again next time
on my
Calvary, cruel Calvary.
Pave the way by blood that we might with a bright shining crown.
His holy name.
Salvation has been brought down.
Glory, praise the Loss of Lord.
Salvation has been brought down from heaven.
God, child, child, and and tell the world around.
Go preach it and tell today to people in sorrow.
Tell today and tell tomorrow.
Preach the word of God that
We might win a shining crown.
Tell of all the laws, salvation is full and free.
To sinners, brethren, and men, but sinners all over the land and sea.
teach them.
Tell of our in every nation.
Tell of our all over creation.
Praise the Lord, bless the Lord, salvation has been brought down.
All alone without a friend, suffered to pay it all.
Yes, He paid it all.
Jesus paid it all.
In His blessed promises, sweet victory can be found.
Praise His Holy Name!
Salvation has been brought down, O Glory!
Praise the Lord!
Bless the Lord!
Salvation has been brought down from heaven.
Go and and and and tell the world around.
Go preach and then tell it today too.
people in sorrow.
Tell it today and tell it tomorrow.
Preach the word of God that we might win a shining crown.
Tell the laws, the law, salvation is full and free to sinners, friends, and blues all over
the land and sea.
Go teach it and tell it afar in every nation.
Tell it afar all over creation.
Praise the Lord, bless the Lord.
Salvation has been brought down.