Four Definitions of Sin in the New Testament

In a few weeks, we'll be celebrating the Passover, the days of Unleavened Bread. It really became in focus that we're going to be doing that this week as I started to look at, you know, we had to prepare the speaking schedule for March and the Spring Holy Days. I had to start working on who's going to be doing the Passover in the three churches and get things organized.

And Ms. Frankie sent me an email asking what she, you know, she helps organize those things for here. What do I want done? And, you know, trying to find a hall for that first day of Unleavened Bread, which would just be one service since all those so many things are going on that weekend.

Well, just do one service. I have a double service in the last day of Unleavened Bread, but the last day of Unleavened Bread is actually on the Sabbath. So we'll just have services here and in Murfreesboro in our regular halls. But I've been thinking about that time coming up. I know we still have one sermon left to do in the series on Revelation 2 and 3, but we've covered the meat of that. So I'm going to take that last sermon and put it off a little while because we need to start getting ready for the Holy Days. And we're going to be celebrating a time, a commemoration of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for sin.

We're going to be talking about sin a lot at this time of year. We're going to be talking about coming out of sin, coming out of Egypt. We're going to be using all these analogies. We're going to be talking about sin. Beyond today, we were able to look at a group of people who watched – it was called a focus group – where they bring in people who watch religious television.

And they were able to give their viewpoints of what they like to see on religious television. And it was almost unanimous. They turned it off the moment they heard the word sin as the least interesting word, even among Christians who are watching programs on TV. We turn it off when there's sin. And yet here we're about to enter a time when we talk a lot about sin.

And we're going to talk about how taking out that leavening is the removal of sin and pride from our lives, all the analogies we learn. Okay. Well, we're going to talk about sin today. We're going to have to look at and think about the definition, the biblical definition of sin. So let me just ask you. Somebody give me a definition of sin. The first thing that comes to your mind, almost what? Everybody's shaking their head. Other people, about four or five of you said it at the same time. It is the transgression of God's law. And when we talk about sin, we always start there.

Today we're going to go beyond that. We're actually going to look at four different definitions of sin in the New Testament. Four different definitions of sin in the New Testament. And what we do, we're going to have to start to look at the days of leavened bread, the taking of the bread and the wine, the symbols of Jesus Christ, the removing of leavening, and we're going to have to understand the deeper meaning of it. Now, if what we go through today is all we're going to cover, it's going to be a little bit discouraging, but this isn't all.

I mean, between now and those days, we're going to have to cover a lot of information to really zero in on the depth of those holy days. Because like so many other things we do, we can do them over and over and over again so many times, they become old hat. We just do them. We know what to say.

You know, if I ask any group in the Church of God a definition of sin, I'm going to get the same response. And you're not wrong. Well, let's expand that out a little bit. Four definitions of sin in the New Testament. Well, the first one is what everyone said, transgression of the law of God. In fact, that's exactly what the King James Version says. Whoever commits sin transgress also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. The New International Version, and many of the, actually the New King James Version, too, and many of the versions translated this way, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness. In other words, if you're committing sin, you are outside the law. You're being lawless. You're not keeping the law. So the same basic meaning. And that is the core beginning starting point of the definition of sin. But let's go to Romans 7. This time of year, you always know you're going to get a sermon in which we're going to be in Romans 6, 7, and 8. This time of year, because this time of year always takes us back to Romans 6, 7, and 8. So let's go to Romans 7. And let's read something here that Paul writes. 6, 7, and 8 is a very complicated passage, and yet it is one of the high points of the entire New Testament.

Because Paul is writing down, and if you read through this, what you see, he's talking about his own experience. He's giving them this deep understanding. And at the same time, he's saying how he discovered it. Because this isn't the viewpoint he had in Judaism. This isn't the viewpoint he had as a Pharisee. And so here he is explaining, I went through a change. Now, he doesn't explain all this in great detail, but when you read it, and he keeps saying, I discovered this, I learned this, I found this out. Well, why didn't he know that as a Jew? He had the entire Old Testament.

He'd come to a deeper understanding of sin and salvation, which is what the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread are all about. I'm going to read this from the NIV. I usually like to read the New King James. The NIV isn't always the best translation, but in this passage, it's written in a way it's easier to read out loud. So let's start here in verse 7. Breaking in the middle of a thought, and we'll come back and look at different parts of this, both today and between now and the Passover. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Well, the first part of this chapter, he's talking about how you can't be saved by the law. And that actually, as Christians, they're freed from the covenant of law or the Sinai covenant. But he said, wait a minute, am I telling you that we don't have to keep the law? No. He said, that's not what I'm saying. Certainly not. Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said, do not covet. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced to me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. Now what's he saying? He said, I would not have known a definition of or of sin if I would have not had the law. Now, as a Pharisee, he had a clear understanding of there is sin, and the sin is explained by the law. And if I break that law, I have to receive forgiveness by God. I have to go do a sacrifice to receive forgiveness from God. But he's about to say it actually goes beyond that. We start with, yes, it's a definition. The law is a definition. But when I really understood the law, the implication here is you have to understand, when I was a Pharisee and when I was in Judaism, I didn't really understand the law.

Because why would he have come to a deeper understanding? Why didn't he know this 20 years before this time? He says, but when I really understood covenants, all the law did was show me that I coveted. And the more I understood the law, the more I understood I coveted. So, the law became like a curse. Now, remember, as a Pharisee, he saw the law as the blessing from God, which it is. He saw the laws of blessing from God, and he kept the laws of God. And in the letter, the Apostle Paul kept the law remarkably well.

But when he understood something else, he understood I'm in real trouble here by the law of God. So, he goes on, he says, Once I was alive, apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. Well, when did he discover that? Once again, that wasn't part of his Jewish upbringing. But wait a minute. I have the laws. I do the laws. I'm alive. Before God, I'm alive. I'm spiritually alive. And he says, and then I found out, as I really began to understand the law, I'm condemned because I break the law. You know, you think about the shock to him. Here's a man who, I'm sure, never committed adultery, kept the Sabbath his entire life. Never worshiped an idol. Never. Never stole. And can you imagine the shock when he found out that he had committed murder by killing Christians? I mean, of all the commandments about loving your brother, the commandments, the most odious, the most terrible is murder. What can you do any worse to another human being? He had kept all the commandments his whole life. He had them down pat.

Then one day, he was confronted by Christ, and he realized, I've murdered.

You can imagine the shock of that. He says, verse 11, for sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me. What deceived him? What deceived him? Sin, not the commandment.

But the commandments, he had this belief that he was saved by the commandments. But when he started to really understand them in the depth of what it meant to be confronted by Jesus Christ, it was like, the commandments tell me I'm bad, not I'm good. He thought the commandments told him he was good, because he lived in a group of people who kept the commandments.

He says, so then the law is holy, the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. So he says, it's good. The commandments are good, but I found out I had a problem with them.

He goes on, he says, did that which is good then become death to me? By no means. But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment, sin might become utterly sinful. He says, you realize what this means? He says, I really realized I wasn't saved by the commandments. The commandments were given to show me how sinful I am. And when I really understood them, I realized I'm not actually good. I thought I was good and I'm not. He said, the problem is sin was a greater issue than I thought, because sin had deceived him. Now you think about it. How could sin deceive him? You know, thou shalt not steal. I don't steal. That was the apostle Paul. He never stole. So how could he be deceived by it?

That statement we're really going to have to look into between now and the holy days. Sin deceived me. Wait a minute. Thou shalt not steal. How do you get deceived by that? It could be deceived by that, could you? So how was he deceived by sin? We'll explore that.

He goes on, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I'm unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. Was he an alcoholic? No, he wasn't a slave to getting drunk. Was he a slave to committing adultery? No. We see a slave to using God's name in vain? No. In the Jewish world, as a Pharisee, his every day of his life, he was conscious of not using God's name in vain in any way. So how did sin deceive him? He understood that what we have through the law is a definition of sin. But he said, when I really, really understood what the law meant beyond Judaism, he said, I ended up realizing I was condemned to death.

How can that be? What he discovered was that the law defines sin, but it has no way to save you if you've broken it.

And also we find, and we'll talk about this in another sermon, to Paul he realized sin is universal. To him, sin was something pagans did, or maybe bad Jews.

And he realized it was universal. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He says that in Romans. All have sinned. So what do you do when you've sinned? How do you save yourself? The law doesn't give you a way out. It just doesn't. So that's one of the great definitions of sin, and we have to explore that, because the law of God tells us what God does not or what He forbids.

It tells us what actions He accepts and what He doesn't accept. So that's the first definition. The second definition is found in 1 John 5.17. So let's go there. We're going to come back to Romans, as we will a number of times over the next couple of weeks. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 17.

All unrighteousness is sin. I could have just quoted it, but I wanted you to see it. All unrighteousness is sin. Well, we do know that we have in the Old Testament that God's law is righteousness. It defines righteousness. But this goes beyond that.

It's very interesting the word righteous or righteousness, and it has different applications in the scripture. In the Old English Bibles, it was translated right-wiseness. In other words, it was a process of the way you thought. Your actions were righteous because you were wise. You were wise in what was right. If you're wise in what was right, you act right. That's why God is always called righteous. What He thinks is right and what He does is right. Righteousness literally just means being right. What we will find is the apostle Paul uses it to talk about human actions, whether they are a righteous action or an unrighteous action. So you'll see that used even in the Old Testament. Righteousness means being right, so you can do something that's not right. And all unrighteousness is sin. Now, God shows His righteousness by coming into our lives and judging our sins. That shows He's right, by the way. God, as Judge, says, nah, it's no big deal. No, He says, you have sinned. And I could make a whole book. You know, we could list all your sins your whole life. And I can say you deserve death, and I'm right. God doesn't back down from that. He says, I'm right. If you try to argue, you're wrong. Well, we just add another sin down.

He also shows His righteousness. This is an amazing point. Paul talks about this in a number of places. He shows His righteousness by sending His Son to die for us. God's so right, He saves us from being wrong. That's God. He's so right. He's so good. He saves us from being wrong.

That's His righteousness. So, it comes down to us. Our purpose in life is to learn the law, definitions of right and wrong, and to learn righteousness. Righteousness goes beyond the law. Romans 6. Back here, take another look at this spring holy day set of passages that I always pick and choose in different parts of Romans 6, 7, and 8 to go through at this time period. Romans 6, verse 14.

I'm breaking into a middle of a thought here. The first part of chapter 6 is He's talking about how we need to be baptized to symbolize the washing away of our sins so that we're no longer slaves to sin. He keeps bringing up this point in here that we're slaves. Well, if it's just a matter of, here's a list of things to do, and here's a list of things not to do, then wouldn't righteousness be easy? I do these things, and I don't do these things, and I'm righteous. It'd just be easy. But Paul, who believed that's what righteousness was, and was by every definition of, in a physical definition of a human being, was righteous. He was shocked as he had to move from being a Pharisee into being a Christian. Not that he was wrong in terms of defining righteousness or defining sin, but that he wasn't those things. He didn't know that. Look what he says here. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. Now, here's the important point. He says you're not under the law, the penalty of the law, but you're under grace means something else. That you are under a special blessing and favor from God.

This is in spite of the fact that you are a sinner.

In spite of the fact that you're a sinner, you're under special grace from God. He said, well, what does that mean? Well, let me ask you this. How many of you contacted God and said, hey, let's have a relationship? How many of you contacted God and said, I figure you'll forgive me of a pretty good person.

How many of you initiated and can maintain a relationship with God? I can't. God initiated a relationship with me and only he can maintain it. If God one day says, Gary, I'm tired of having you around, I won't breathe the next second.

That's grace.

That's grace. And Paul says, realize you're under grace. You have been called by God into a relationship with him that you can't initiate and you can't maintain. I guess if it was possible for you, for this moment on, to be absolutely perfect the rest of your life, maybe God say, oh, I'll maintain a relationship with you. But that's not possible. So it's a useless discussion, right? Besides, you've already sinned, so you're already doomed.

He says, what then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? Now, we've just looked at sin is the transgression of the law. So realize what he's saying here. Because we're not under the law, the penalty of the law, or sometimes uses the law to mean the old covenant, but notice what he's saying. Does that mean we can break the law? He says, oh, no, of course we can't break the law. So that's not his point. So what is it? You know, is he just talking in circles here? He says, certainly not. Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves who you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. Now, we're really beginning to understand and crack into more than a definition of sin being the law. That's part of the definition. The law defines sin. But anything that's not righteousness is sin. Anything that goes against the way God thinks, the way God acts is sin. Now, do anything today that's not exactly how God thinks or act? You may not have broken one of the 10 commandments today, but have you done something that isn't exactly the way God does it? That's sin. It separates us from God.

And he says, see, we're slaves to it. Now, we're going to talk about coming out of slavery, aren't we? And we're talking about coming out of physical slavery. We're talking about the slavery of Satan as Pharaoh. I mean, we got all these things we're going to be talking about in the days of 11 bread. Coming out of Egypt, he says, but God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which you were delivered. Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. That's beyond the law.

That's literally a slave to how God is. We become a slave to how God is.

How he defines things. He says, I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

So it's more than just keeping the law. We actually now have to become holy and all the definition of what it means to be holy. If you remember, a couple years ago, I gave six sermons as an introduction to holiness, and that wasn't everything. That wasn't everything.

So righteousness has to do with us becoming holy, separated by God for God's purpose. Remember, that's what holiness is. Separated by God, chosen by God for his purpose. You were separated by God for his purpose. At any time, you and I don't adhere to that separation for his purpose, we are being unrighteous and we are sitting, because all unrighteousness is sin.

This relationship with God is more than 10 do's and don'ts. It is everything we are. And this is what Paul had discovered and talks about in Romans 6, 7, and 8.

It was shocking to him as a practicing Jew who kept the law to find out he was not acceptable to God. I say kept the law in the letter of the law, that he wasn't acceptable to God.

The next definition, or third definition of the four, is in James 4.

Verse 17. Now think about this one.

This isn't talking about stealing. It's not talking about lying.

It's knowing to do good and not doing the good. It's sin.

Sin is a transgression of the law. That's where I always go first. That's where you go first. We should. But we can't stop there. When you know to do good and don't do it, it's sin.

Wow, how do we define that? We can make a whole list of explanations of that, but I think the best one is right here in James. James says this when James writes this comment. It's in the context of a whole bunch of things he's dealing with. The book of James is a fascinating, fascinating book. I think sometime in the future I'd like to do a series of Bible studies. I even thought about doing just a series of sermons on James. It would take five sermons to go through the book of James. So he says this in the context of a lot of issues he's dealing with. James has not written. His epistle isn't written to a specific church. It's written to the churches at large. So it's written to all the churches. Let's go to chapter two. And let's look at something he says here.

An example he gives of sin. He says, well, because it even mentions the law here, by the way. He's going to give the law that this breaks. But it has to do with not doing good. It's not like you've done something in ways, but you'll see that you have. So I didn't overtly do something, but you did if you do what he says here. He says, my brother, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. He says, we can't hold on to our faith if we make a caste system within the church. You can't make a caste system within the church. That there's somehow, you know, the really good Christians, really bad Christians, the middle Christians, and we all sort of gauge ourselves which group we fit into. For if there should come into your assembly a man with the golden rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and there should be a man wearing a fine clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say to him, you sit here in a good place, and say to the poor man, you stand here, sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Okay, think about that a minute.

What happens if someone walks in to our service one day and it's somebody off the street, and they walk in, and they haven't had a shower, and they don't dress right, and they say, I'm here because I have found out that we're supposed to keep the Sabbath, and we say, what, go home and get dressed? We are now judging by evil thoughts. I'm not saying there isn't a standard we should uphold, but notice what he's saying here. By the way, James is really hard on rich people in the church. James is really hard on rich people in the church. So he says, haven't you become, you're an evil judge, but if somebody comes in, they have a nice suit, nice dress, well-dressed, you know, sort of people that have looked, seem to have some kind of culture, we say, wow, those will be a great addition to our congregation. He says, there's something wrong with you. He says, listen, my beloved brethren, as God not chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who have loved him, but you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? Now these are people outside the church, but he says, look, it's rich people that are tend to be persecuting Christians. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, now he actually brings us back to a law. What's the law? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You do well, but if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Who do we think should not be part of the Church of God?

That's a sin here of, you know, it's not like I've done something wrong. I didn't go up and abuse the person. I said hello, but they smelled sort of bad. So it was a short hello, and I moved on.

This is sometimes called sins of omission, right? I didn't do anything, but you did.

You know, there's another place where Paul says true religion is the visit, the widow, and the orphan. If you never visit a widow or an orphan, you're committing a sin of omission.

Yes, you're sitting. Just read the book of James.

If you don't love your neighbor as yourself, you are sitting. I am sitting. I am sitting. There is no place in the Church of God that we could have prejudice against anybody that they should not be here. They should not be part of us. And he's specifically saying poor people. Of course, the Church, you know, when I was a kid, the Church was filled with nothing but poor people. You know, back in the 60s, when everybody was from West Virginia and Southern Pennsylvania, there were coal miners and farmers. And let's just say we actually had servants on. You really should take a bath before you come to church, okay? Needed servants on that. But it wasn't. Nobody was oppressed. Nobody was oppressed. He says, for whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble at the one point, he is guilty of all. And he goes on and he talks about do not commit adultery, do not commit murder. And he says, but you know what? If you are oppressing people, specifically talking about in the Church, as these people are good enough for whatever reason, maybe they have some mental problem. Maybe, you know, whatever. And you say, well, I don't like them, or they shouldn't be here. He says, you're committing sin. That's a whole different definition of sin, isn't it? And yet he actually goes to the law to do it. Sins of omission is what we know we should do something and we don't. Because we're too busy, we've got something else to do. Well, we should be kind, and we're not kind, we're sitting. Boy, what do you mean? No, no, no. Show me the law. Actually, I can show you lots of instructions in the Bible about righteousness. I can show you lots of commands in the New Testament about being kind. But I have to admit, there's no one in the Ten Commandments that says, thou shalt be kind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Unless you don't care. I mean, the only way I guess you could be unkind is if you say, hey, everybody be unkind to me, I don't mind. Nobody believes that, right? We want people to treat us right. That we have a responsibility to treat everybody else right. Well, we refuse to pray for our enemies. Now, this one's taken me a long time to really grab hold of. When I refuse to pray for my enemies, since Christ orders me to do so, I am sinning. I am being unrighteous to an act of omission. But I'm not doing anything to my enemies. I'm not hurting them. I'm not complaining about them. Are you praying for them? Well, no, I don't want to pray for them. They might get blessed or something.

What if God brings them to repentance and I didn't get my pound of flesh yet?

You know, I didn't get my retribution yet and they're forgiven and I have to forgive them too. What am I supposed to do here? That's a sin of omission. It's a sin.

At this point, you know, you probably feel a little discouraged. Right? The sin thing is a whole lot bigger. It's a whole lot bigger. Yeah, it is. And this is what Paul discovered and it knocked him down. It knocked him down. That's why when you read the last part of Romans chapter 7, he's in agony over this. And he had been an apostle for a long time, by the way, when he wrote Romans. And he's struggling with this sin thing is a whole lot more complicated than I thought in Judaism.

Because I didn't realize what it took to get me out of it. That's what he never realized. He didn't realize what it took to get him out of sin.

Sins of omission. Our last definition is in Romans 14. Now, we have to really explain this a little because this is a very complicated section to Scripture here. So to really understand what Paul's saying, we have to break it down a little bit. He's talking about a very specific thing because we'll get to the point where he describes sin. And that definition of sin doesn't make sense unless you understand the whole context.

So let's start in verse 1.

Receive what it was weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. Now, he's not saying there aren't standards of right and wrong. There are standards of right and wrong. These are disputed things. These are things where you can't go to the Scripture and find an exact, thou shalt, thou shalt not. Or this is a definition of righteousness. Or this is a sin of omission. This is an area where there may be more than one viewpoint. Doubtful things. So many of the times, it's interesting, in the Church, I've seen more splits in the Church over doubtful things than over solid things. 95 was a huge difference. But much of the time, splits in the Church over doubtful things.

He says, For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Now, let's stop here for a minute. Romans 14 is used to say that Paul is teaching we can eat all meats, and he's teaching we can keep any day. We don't have to keep the Sabbath. When we go through this, the only way you can believe that is you read something into the passage. Because that's not what the passage says. What we have here is people who eat meat and people who don't eat meat. The issue here is vegetarianism. By the way, we're not the only ones who say that. There's even some Protestants who look at this and say, Oh, the issue is vegetarianism. Why? Why would they come to that conclusion? Because some people would eat only vegetables. So that's pretty obvious, right? We have vegetarianism as an issue. We have vegetarianism as an issue inside the church. And there's a probably reason for this vegetarianism. We'll get to it in a minute. He says, Let not one 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. He says, Look, stop fighting over this and leave it alone.

You know, it's amazing how many times in the church we have things that we dispute over, and there's times you just say, just leave it alone. And somebody can't, right? Everybody's going to see it my way. Everybody's going to do it my way. And it'll just drive them into anger. It'll drive them into these disputed things. And I've seen people destroy themselves over this. Well, think about what's here in the church. You can't eat meat. And I'm not going to eat meat. Now, I think this could be strange. Now, for different reasons that we're going to see here, but there's the biggest Sabbath-keeping group in the world. There are, they have a number of people in their organization that will not eat meat because they believe God created human beings to have this perfect diet and in the garden of eat, and the meat wasn't part of it. Now, they don't go around saying, if you eat meat, you're sitting, but they won't eat meat. What if one of those people came into our church and you'd say, well, come over my house tonight. We're having steaks. Sorry, I don't eat meat. What's your problem? You know, we all eat meat. We're a meat-eating group, right? We all probably eat way too much meat for our own good health. I was over at my son-in-law's the other day, and he was cooking all these different kinds of meats he bought, and I know I ate too much meat that day.

So I tried to stay away from meat for a while. He says, who are you to judge another servant? Now, that's a real important point. We're all the servants of Jesus Christ, right? He's the head of the church. He says, come on, you can't judge each other on some of these issues. You can when they're sitting, if someone in the congregation is committing adultery, you can walk up and say, we need to talk because I know you're sitting. If you know somebody in the congregation who's an alcoholic, somebody better go talk to that person. I'll go talk to them. You love them too much not to talk to them, right? Because you want to help them. That's not what he's talking about here. We're talking about whether we eat meat or not. To his own master, he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand. In other words, God isn't going to make a big issue out of this. We're making an issue out of this. One person that steams another day above another and say, and say, this is where they say, well, this is the Sabbath. Some people keep the Sabbath, some people don't. The Sabbath is never mentioned here. This is a strange explanation of the Sabbath. That's what it's talking about. And it probably has to do with fast days, both the Jewish world and the Christian world. Up until the second and third centuries, you will find writings about how Christians fasted twice a day, twice a week. Because the Jews had fasted twice a week. And the days that were picked the fast were sometimes commanded by the local minister.

So it probably has to do with fast days. There's nothing here that says the Sabbath. So when someone says the Sabbath, you say, well, you're reading something there. It's not there. It's just not there. So we know we have this vegetarian issue. So he goes down to a little later in this passage. He says, he who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. He who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and gives God thanks. For none of us lives 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. He goes on and talks about how let's all center on what God is doing through Jesus Christ, what he's doing in our lives, and stop arguing over a physical thing. But in the church, this was a spiritual thing. Probably the reason why is we don't know why the people were vegetarians. Probably because they couldn't find meat that wasn't sold in the marketplace, which had been blessed by a pagan.

By a pagan priest. That's probably what it is. And if it is, then there may be Jews saying, we can't eat that meat. Or there's pagans saying, ah, we came out of that. We can't eat that meat. But there's a group of people in the church at Rome saying, we can't eat meat. I doubt if it was because they believe vegetarianism was best. It could be. There were certain philosophical groups that didn't eat meat, and they may have come into the church. But we'll look at a minute. It probably has to do with clean, unclean meats. I mean, not clean, unclean meats. But I mean, did I say clean and unclean meats? It has to do with these offered to idols. So he talks about how we have to cut each other's slack on this. Then verse 14, I know I am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there's nothing unclean of itself. Now here's where people say, ah, he's now saying we can only pork. Okay, the word unclean and clean here, there's different Greek words. There's a Greek word that specifically used to mean what the Bible calls clean and unclean meat. The word that he primarily uses through here means something that's ceremonially unclean or that has become tainted somehow. In other words, there's something wrong with it. So he's not talking about clean and unclean meats, or he would use a different word, a different Greek word. Well, he's talking here about something that is ceremonially unclean. And that's why probably he's talking about people who would come into the church who said, I can't eat the meat that's out there because it's all been blessed by a pagan. And I know what those pagan ceremonies are. I used to participate in them and I just can't eat that stuff. Other people were saying, I don't care what that meat was blessed to. I just went down to the market and bought it. But you can see where this would be a matter of conscience, right? If you come into the church and you'd participated in pagan customs, this would be, I can't do that. We must only eat vegetables.

In verse 16, therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking but righteousness, so we get this word again, righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So we're not dealing with a specific issue of law, whether we're not eating pork, but we're dealing with righteousness. For he who serves Christ in these things is accountable or acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.

We think it's a very strong statement here. This must have been tearing that church apart.

All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat or drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Now, I want you to understand what he's saying here.

In this case, as the meat-eater, I'd be saying, well, that person has a weak conscience. They have a spiritual problem. Of course, you could eat meat. I could go through passage after passage of the Bible and show where the people of God have always eaten meat, right?

And he says, it is better to not eat meat. It is better not to do it if it causes this person to stumble.

It is better to do something that you physically think that's not necessary. It is better to do that than to hurt the other person. Different viewpoint. It's not the way human beings usually think this. If I'm in the right, you're in the wrong, you're the one who needs the change.

And that's not what Paul says.

Paul neither defends the eating or drinking of or eating a meat or not of eating meat, but we do know that Paul eat meat from other passages. Okay?

He doesn't defend any position here because that's not the point. He's like, what's it have to do with sin? Well, let's go on.

He says, it is good neither to eat meat or not drink wine or anything. Now, not drink wine is an interesting point, which your brother stumbles or his offenders made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself and what he approves. Does not condemn himself. Go against something that he feels strongly about. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin.

I doubt if there's anybody in this room that would say, you know what? I have a chance tonight to go over someone's house and they're cooking a great big filet mignon.

That that's a sin. I'm just asking, is there anybody here that thinks that eating a filet mignon is sin? Well, you'd probably be embarrassed. Okay, but anyways, not too many of us would say that eating means a sin, right? What if there's somebody that said, I can't? I can't because what if somebody came in and said, like I said from the large Sabbath keeping group that there are people who believe that I just don't eat meat because I don't think is what God had them do in Eden. Would you say, you got to come over my house when you smell those lamb chops, you're going to be a meat eater. I guarantee it. Is that what we do?

But we'd all say, but they don't have to do that. That's not the point. You understand? That's not the point. The point is, if they don't have the faith to eat the meat and you force them or shame them because they won't eat it, or you make them do it against their conscience, you're the one who sinned. Because whatever faith is not said, you've caused them to sin, therefore you've sinned. See, if you cause somebody else to sin, you've sinned.

Jesus talks about that. You offend somebody and they sin because of your offense. He says, you've sinned. He talks about that. Matthew 18 and other places. So what he's saying here is, if you really have faith and you really understand the brotherhood in the church, you will not offend somebody over a physical issue, even if you're right.

Even if you're right. Because it's sin for them to do that. I've had people—I've given an example of this in the modern world. I've dealt with it a number of times. Someone who comes from a T-toler background, because he talks about wine here. That's very interesting. Because I've had people come—they came from a Baptist background, never drank their whole life. Come into the church and they want to, they say, well, I can take that little bit of wine and pass over because I understand that's a command, but I can't stand to drink it. It just was drilled into my head, and they actually go over people's houses and they make fun of them. You have to have this wine. You will like it. Here, you must drink this beer. And they said, what do I do? And I said, you tell them, I'm sorry, I do not have to do that. You may have it if you wish, but I will not. And if they try to force you, they're the one who's sinning. And if you drink it, and it goes against your conscience, and you go home and feel like you have to repent, then you have sinned because you went against your conscience. Now, this is about doubtful things. Remember, we're not talking about thou shalt and thou shalt not. Those are pretty obvious. But there's no place in the Bible that says, you have to eat meat. And there's no place in the Bible that says, you have to drink alcohol. There's no place. In fact, the Bible contains all kinds of instructions on, be careful how you use alcohol over and over and over again. But see how the modern context? I've actually seen that happen where people have tried to get somebody to take a drink, thinking somehow they're doing some good for that person. I knew a person one time where a minister commanded them to take a drink. He said, what should I have done? Say, no, I'm sorry, I cannot.

If it goes against your conscience that much, you can't sin before God. You say, well, that's not a sin, but it is to them. And that's the point he's making. What happens is that person begins to break down their conscience. They may sin again on another thing. What happens when they're really into a sin? When you break down a weak person's conscience, what do you do to them? Boy, this sin thing is pretty complicated, isn't it?

Yeah. I wish it was just the Ten Commandments. It'd be a whole lot easier.

That's just the starting point. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed, well, that's okay. Let's go back to Romans 7 here. We'll end with this. I say, well, you haven't finished it. Nope. We got a couple of weeks before the passover. We're going to have to go through some more things here.

Because we still have to discover some issues Paul had to deal with as a Pharisee who knew what sin was. It was defined by the law. He knew what grace was. It was, go do a sacrifice and God forgives you. But that wasn't all of it. That'd be like saying, I've gone through the fifth grade. That's all I need to know. He didn't understand. He was still a child. He didn't get it. And then he did.

Verse 14, in Romans 7.

We read this before, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. I'm sold under sin. I'm a slave to sin. I'm sold to it. It's a whole new concept here. This is what we're going to have to explore next time. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not do, I agree that the law is good. He says, when I don't want to do something wrong, when I know later, oh, that was a set of a mission, I should have done something there and I didn't do it. Do you ever have a regret because you could have helped somebody and you didn't? I've done that. I should have just, oh, come on. I got too much in a hurry and I didn't do this. And I could see that person was hurting and I should have gone and helped them. He says, I know that's the goodness of the law that leads me to that. It helps me understand that. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Sin that dwells in me. Boy, that's outside of what he had believed as a Pharisee. And that's part of what we learn through the days of 11 bread and the Passover. So that's what we'll talk about next time.