God Forbid!

So, the title of my sermon today is...pop up here... A quote from the Bible, a quote from the Old Testament, a quote from the New Testament, may I say, but it's in the Old King James. And if you have an Old King James, you might remember these words that said, I want to talk about that, God forbid! God forbid! That's the title of my sermon. Now, this will also be the first part of a two-part that I will give next week. As I have been working on and talking about and finally answering your requests to give a message on the seven or eight or even possibly nine scriptures that people use to debunk, I can use that word, debunk what you believe, what I believe, and what mainstream Christianity teaches. I want to read something here, though, the first of this. In Romans 5 and verse 20, you don't have a scripture for that. It's not up here because I intentionally did that. But I want to read Romans 5 and from the New Living Translation, two verses, Romans 5, 20-21. It says, God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became abundant. So just as sin ruled over all the people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ. So that is one of the scriptures because what I just read, grace now abounds and so the laws no more. We don't have to keep the law. The laws keeping of the law has been done away with. You'll hear that in mainstream Christianity quite often. If you tune into messages given tomorrow morning, many will teach that. Well, I would like to go to a scripture just down from that in Romans 6 and verse 1. And this is from the old King James, Romans 6 and verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue and sin? Remember what I just read? So Paul's answering here. What shall we say then? Shall we continue and sin that grace may abound? So if we sin more, there'll be more grace. And everybody will love that, and God will love that. That's what is referenced from what I just read in Romans 5 that the law is done away with. And here, Paul follows that up. The book of Romans then said that grace may abound. God forbid. God forbid. So he's saying, and if you're reading one translation, it'll say, of course not. If you're reading another one, it says, certainly not. It's something we can just say, oh well, the more I sin, then the world can have more grace, and it'll be a greater world.

And Paul says, that's ridiculous. God forbid that that would take place.

So sin more, more grace. It doesn't even make sense, especially if you read. How many of your kids go, well, you know I'll forgive you, Jeff. Yeah, there's Benjamin. He does something wrong that you never do anything wrong. I know you're the perfect child. But if you were to go, you were to correct him and say, but I'm going to forgive you.

Well, thank you, Dad. So he goes and does it again so you can forgive even more. And again, and again, and again. But, Dad, you're able to show forgiveness, which is love. So the world is full of, I brought more love into your life, Father. That's what this is saying. And so Paul is like, hmm, but yeah, you'll see this Scripture used time and time again. So today, I want to give you three of the most misused Scriptures in modern Christianity. There's only a few verses like that, as I've said, and I'm wanting to put together a small paper.

As a matter of fact, at least I'll ask you. Mary even thought it might be a good idea to have them laminated. It's the eight or nine Scriptures that all of Christianity, most of Christianity, uses to attack, besmirch the church we attend to or the keeping of God's commandments and everything that comes from this book. So I'm wanting to break that down because I know Andy Fry had the same thing. Jeff had the same thing. I get calls on these same Scriptures, and I basically know what they are.

Where are they going to go to? I have a problem with this. Or, can you teach me about this? Why does the Bible say this? And so today and next week, I want to dispel those arguments that are given so many times. And so, the very first I'd like to say before I get into this is there are four pillars of the Church of God today.

There are four pillars of the United Church of God or the Church of God for that matter. In fact, you have four pillars here. We know that the foundation according to Scripture is who? Christ. Christ is the foundation. But these are four pillars that most of the people that do not attend a Church of God.

Other ones don't go by these. They don't adhere to the doctrine that we see in the Bible of these because the first pillar is the Sabbath. The Sabbath. The second pillar, the Holy Days. The third pillar, the commandments. And the fourth pillar, clean and unclean meats. Clean and unclean food. So, I want to look at these because, according to other people's thoughts and why we are wrong, is that the Sabbath was changed.

That's what they say. The Holy Days were fulfilled. That's what they say. The commandments were done away with. Nailed to the cross, as many say. And then the fourth pillar, Peter and Paul, between the two of them, they changed the clean and unclean meat by their Scriptures.

That is a big difference between us and so many churches in the world today. Like turn two, the one book that I'll be covering a lot of today because that is the book that most people that want to complain or argue or debate will go to when they want to critique, criticize whatever word you want to use, our beliefs.

And so, they go to a certain book and that book is Romans. So, I want to look at Romans 10. Let's go there first. Romans 10. Romans 10, verse 1. This is not one of the three that I'm giving today because it's one that people reference, though, because it's all tied in. Romans 10 and verse 4.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. It's the end of the law. Paul wrote it. So, we don't have to keep the law anymore and other commandments. Don't lie with it right here. It's in the Scripture. Case settled, right?

Not necessarily. Thank you to go to Romans 10 and go up three verses. Romans 10, verse 1. So, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. So, he's talking about the Jewish nation.

And then he says, For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they who, the Jews, being ignorant, they are, of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For God is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. What is he saying here? It's the end of the penalty of law, of breaking the law. What's the penalty for breaking the law? Death. Death. But Christ came and became a sacrifice that the Jews of that time had a hard time accepting. No, we can't believe that a God didn't come down here and sacrifice himself. We just can't buy into that. No, we're all about the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the Clean England, but we can't buy into this righteousness thing for the grace. And what Paul is saying here is that the Jews need Christ. That's what he's saying. They need Christ. They need to have that understanding, because no matter how much or how great they think they are at keeping the law, the law cannot save them. And that's what the deal to the Romans is all about. So why do I give this in this way today? Well, it's because of a man by the name of Clarence Pitts. I wish I had his picture, but he died 40 years ago. Forty-some years ago. I never got a picture of him. Clarence Pitts was born, grew up, died, all within five miles of the same place. Clarence Pitts was a farmer. Clarence Pitts happened to be my great uncle. Clarence Pitts was a farmer. He had an eight-acre farm, and he milked cows, and him and his wife had this little bitty house. Clarence Pitts could not read. He could not write. In fact, when they finally got a telephone, he wouldn't even answer the telephone.

He farmed. He grew up. He enjoyed life. He always had a smile on his face. He laughed. We were kids. We'd go over there occasionally and spend time.

And he never really worried about life that much. You might even say he was a simple man. Except there was one unique thing about Clarence Pitts. He could play checkers. Any of you ever play checkers? Yes? Are you good at checkers?

Clarence Pitts spent his entire life playing checkers, even from the time he was a child. A man that could not read or write.

Clarence Pitts could not be beat playing checkers. He could only be tied.

He knew every single move that you would play. He was two or three steps ahead of you. He did that for years. I remember playing and he'd just have fun. He'd take half of his checkers off the table. Okay, now we'll make it fair. He would even go to town on Saturdays and play checkers for money. As everybody said, well, I think I can beat you. So they'd lay down money and that's how he earned some of his money. If he was that good. So I looked and said, well, could he have possibly, the simple man, have known all the moves that anybody could make on a checkerboard? So I Googled that. I found out that the University of Michigan did a study on how many moves, good or bad, just any move you could make on that board. You know what they found out? 500 billion billion moves. Now, some of them you would never make, most you would not ever make. But I thought, how could this man have known? Because he wasn't really an educated man. He never learned to read or write. I think he said he went to school the first three years. And he said he didn't want to do three years again. So, quit.

But then I found through their study that there are only seven first moves that a person could make. And then there are only five second moves that a person could make. So if you know those 12, you know where somebody's going. This is what he did. That is what I thought about this sermon. Because my uncle Clarence is so experienced, he knew every move. And he could not get beat. You could tie him, and a few people did.

But over his lifetime, he said he couldn't remember. It was 40 years since somebody had beaten him when I was a child. So he knew every move. So, brethren, I'm telling you today, that's why we're going to go through to this week and next week. The eight are possibly nine moves that main Christianity has to dispel and disprove or say what we teach from the Bible is not legitimate. So I want you to know those eight or nine. So I will go through three scriptures today that are most commonly used. We will then put together the other five next week. And I am giving something even in Vero this afternoon on the Sabbath. I give them one here, but I want to do that. Because I think it's important to know your opponents only moves. Because then you really, it's just like me, I know when I get a call and somebody goes, well, I got a question about what you guys teach. I know it's going to be one of the eight. It usually always is. So wouldn't it be nice at one time when I first started? I had one in the back of my Bible, all those scriptures.

I go through it so much now. And that's why I'd like to have it either laminate or make something and you can put it in your Bible. Because it's good just to pick it up and read it. Because you're going to know. You know those eight or nine places and you know how to look at that. We'll give you an explanation of why it's used and what it's used on. But it reminded me if you were a fan, as I was in football back when I was growing up and Joe Montana was a quarterback for San Francisco 49ers. Love Joe Montana. But he had a coach named Bill Walsh. Bill Walsh, when he was coach, he put in what is called the West Coast offense. It's not used that much today, but it was for about eight or nine years. And they won Super Bowl and Super Bowl and was in the Super Bowl and won so many times. What was unique about Walsh is he said, I've only got seven or eight plays. That's it. That was the West Coast offense. But if we run it exactly right, they're going to have to stop. They've got to know which of the eight we're going to go with on certain plays. And so I found that unique as he said, we're not going to change until they stop us. Well, about seven years after they had started, teams began to figure out ways to stop them.

And Joe Montana left and Steve Young came in and within a year or two they had figured this out. Well, that made me think about what we're looking at in these scriptures today. Because there's only seven or eight. You can possibly put nine. Somebody even stretched it to ten. So I want to look and have explained because we're basically going into the Book of Romans. So it's hard to understand what you're about to read in the Book of Romans unless you understand what I'm about to give you. I'm going to give you about three minutes, four minutes, of an explanation of the Book of Romans that I hope you will write down because ever since I studied it in the Book of... in the top of mind, because it helps me to understand. One of the things you must understand is the history of the Roman Church and some background which always helps. You can find this out. I got most of this from Josephus, the historian. There are other historian, Tacitus. There's various historians, but I found that Josephus gave pinpointed dates and times and so forth like this. So without understanding the Book of Romans, you're going to be probably jerked back and forth by what's wrong with Paul? Why did he say this and why did he come and say this? And then why does it mean here? Well, that's important to understand. First, we understand that Paul was a Sabbath keeper. He didn't change and he kept God's law. He was a Jew, but he also taught Hebrew of Hebrews, he called himself. But he also taught about this incredible thing of grace, mercy that the Jews were not big on. He wasn't really taught that much about it. And he taught about Christ. Andy, about my age. I'm going to go into ages today, Andy. It's about my age, but 50 years ago, if I grew up with Andy, I could have said, you know, Andy's been gay all his life. Because 50 years ago, gay didn't mean what it does today. 50 years ago, gay meant happy, of joy. But if I said that today, people would not understand it. But if you know the history, then you can begin to understand it. And for all those that the internet might have broken up, Andy is not gay.

But that's how things can be distorted. And you have to understand because people will put a slant on it. One thing about it, the book of Romans was written, my Paul, around 57 to 58 AD. If Paul was killed in Rome at around 64, so this would have been six years or so before he died. But the church was established, and that's what's important. In Rome, at the time of this book was written, there were over one million people in the city of Rome. That's a big city for back then. That's a big city for me now.

And that they had certain laws and rules, and one of those is more than 25 people couldn't gather together because it could be signs of an insurrection. So only 25 people or less could gather together for services. So when he writes his letter, he's talking to the churches. You'll see he addresses quite a few people in chapter 16 because not everybody was in the same church like we are here. They couldn't do that. The church was large, so they had houses, churches and houses scattered out their realm. Guests between 10 and 12, some of them said 15 churches at that time. So here's what changed. Here's why Paul wrote the letter. And if you don't have this written out, please write it down in your book of Romans because it's this simple. That the Jews came to Rome to do business, and they were good business people, always have been. And so they came to Rome at the time in the early years before the church was established. And they ran businesses. They were money changers. They were doing a lot of stuff selling, buying and trading. Well, as your things will tell you, actually the Jews got kicked out of Rome in 19 A.D. or A.C.E., but they were allowed back in after a few years. But then Claudius became emperor in around 41, and he had a lot of problems with Jews. They're questioning everything from the way the government was run, their taxes, and they also didn't accept him as a god, as emperors of Rome typically were to be considered. And so he's saying, all right, I've had it. I've had it with you. So in 49 A.D., he kicks all the Jews out of Rome. The church had already been established in the early to mid-40s. Paul had established it.

So there were mostly in 49 A.D., according to theologians, the church was about 80 percent Jewish, only 20 percent Gentiles in 49 A.D. So then he kicks all the Jews out. How do you think that changed the church? Well, it made it smaller, just like COVID has for us here. It made it smaller, but during that time, the church grew with Gentiles. And so then when Claudius died and his young relative came in and became the head, it looked good. His young relative was named Nero. And in 54 A.D., Claudius died. And so Nero wanted to bring in more money to the city, more tax money. He opened it back up to the Jews to come in, set up their banks, set up their business, do all this kind of stuff. So what happens? A lot of Jews came back to Rome, where they had had connections and businesses. And so the church, of course, began to grow again. So then, by the time Paul writes this, two to three years later, this letter to them, there's problems, there's issues. Because all the Jewish Christians came in and said, this church isn't like the church we left.

Even the teaching. You're not doing what we do in where we're from.

We don't like it. And so what happened? There was conflict in the church, because you had what was considered law keepers and grace keepers. Oh, it's more about law. No, it's more about grace. That's what we've been taught. Here you have this battle that went on. You had struggle, conflict, that Paul had to address with this letter. So this is why I bring this up. Because, and you can write this down, chapter one, as we know, because of this letter that Paul wrote. So Paul, he was brilliant in many ways. Sometimes hard to understand, but he was the way he handled things from Areopagus to even to the island of Crete or any of these other places he went. He was an amazing thing. So here he writes this letter, and the very first thing he does is he addresses the majority in chapter one, which is the Gentiles. So chapter one is basically pointing out some things to the Gentiles. And you know there were Jews going, yes, go after them, Paul, when they were hearing that, yeah, you lay that on them, Paul. But then chapter two that we run into, or the continuation of the letter, is addressed to the Jews.

And then he goes and addresses in chapter three both the Jews and the Gentiles. And then he goes back to chapter four and addresses Gentiles. So he does this back and forth. So he covers both sides of everything and points them to about the middle of the road.

Because the Gentiles had become very worldly. They were beginning to accept things, and the Jews were very like, oh, la. And so here Paul does this so that he can help the church to grow.

That's what he wanted, and helped to point them both. Not a condemnation of either one, but he gets pretty bold. As you can see when I said, he said, what? God forbid! Interesting Bible study. Take Romans and see how many times in the Old King James it says, God forbid. He's very strong. He's very strong about this. So with that backdrop, I'd like to, because I thought it was so important, and I wanted to cover that, I'd like to go to the three main verses we're going to cover today as I give this. I'd like you to turn to the first scripture that is used to say, we just don't get it. The church's God don't get it. We don't understand that. It's a different... Well, look who he's writing to. So if you will, go with me too, and I'll read from the New King James here. Romans 3 and verse 28. Romans 3 and verse 28. Therefore, which is a continuation of what he just talked about, therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. You'll hear that many times. So what does that say? You don't have to keep the law. We're justified by faith. We don't even have to worry about the law. So how do you answer that? How do you do that? So by faith not works. It's all faith, no works. That's the scripture that's used so many times. Well, context is everything. So if you have something there, context, context. Because I've had people take a sermon I've given and taken one sentence out of it and come back and sent me an email and said, and I said, well, that's what I clarified it just two sentences later. This is what the situation is here. So let's go. Let's go and let's knock this one out if we can. Romans, go back to Romans 2, because this is to the Jews. Romans 2. See, because you got on first, you got on the Gentiles in Romans 1. You can read all that. But in 2 and verse 17, chapter 2 and verse 17, indeed you are called a Jew and you rest on the law and make your boast in God. Okay, so he says that's who you are. But go down to verse 29. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision of the heart in the spirit and not the letter from the praise is not from men but from God. So I won't go through the previous verses in that, but it's all about circumcision. Since the Jews believed, circumcision gave them the right to everything God had. They were God's people because of when all the way back to Abraham.

That's why Paul even talked about an uncircumcised man. A circumcision uncircumcised doesn't mean a thing, but it's having your heart circumcised.

That's what he was getting into, and he was having to tell the Jews. It's not just because you walk in the church and you go, well, I'm special because I'm circumcised, and you're not.

But he who is a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is of the heart. Followers of God. Go over me to chapter 3. Chapter 3 and verse 1. Chapter 3 and verse 1. What advantage, then, has the Jew? Or what is the prophet of circumcision? Here he's addressing that. Well, wait a minute. The Jews were all, well, yeah, okay, so the Gentiles are just as good as us, and they're not circumcised. And, okay, so what good does it do us? We're Jews. Oh, what is the prophet of circumcision? Much in every way, Paul says, chiefly because to them we're committed the oracles of the teachings of God. Even Christ taught about that, the woman at the well, John 4. But the Jews, you should be happy of the legacy that was handed down and was given to your forefathers instead of making a big deal like we're so special. 2. But it's something that you should rejoice in. 3. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not, or God forbid. God forbid. So he's making a strong point here about these teachings, about what they're about.

Let's go to chapter 3 and verse 20 as he's finishing this teaching.

Verse 20 says, Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. No matter how perfect you keep the ten commandments, you're still you're not righteous before God. You think you are. And what did the Pharisees think they were?

Two men went up to pray, won a Pharisee and won a sinner. Thank God I'm not like this other tax collector.

That's what was coming into the church. Can you talk on that last week?

So then he says in verse 21, But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So he's talking about the righteousness of God is grace, it's mercy, it's love.

And it was witnessed by all the law and the prophets. That was the total, except you're just the Jews were making something out of it bigger than it was. Even the righteousness of God, which is through faith in Jesus Christ, you all and all who believe, there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Show some humility, people. You think just because you've got all this stuff right, you've got sins people don't even know, but they don't see them. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace, that's how we're justified. Made right with God is through grace, not like just keeping, oh well, I keep the Sabbath, I just, oh well, I don't, my TV wouldn't dare, I unplug the thing. And matter of fact, I take it out in the garage and set it there just so it can't come on by itself. You know, that's kind of, I'm living a little bit, but being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ. So he was trying to say, you've got to get back to the understanding of the grace of Christ and why He came so that He died for us, not some animal that stuck on a wood plaque and set on fire. Whom God has set forth to be a perpetuation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness because of forbearance of God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. It wipes out all those sins. What did He say? Blood of sheep and goats and everything else can't take away, it never took away sin. It was covered. Christ's blood does not cover your sins. Animals did. Christ's blood takes it away. It's gone. It doesn't cover it. It takes it away as far as the east is from the west. To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is the boasting then? Somebody was boasting. It is excluded by what law? Or works? No, by the law of faith.

So He's addressing both of them there. You can't have it both ways. It's one way, it's through faith.

Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. What I was talking about earlier. You see the context. Or is he God of the Jews only? Is he not also God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles only also. So yeah, they were saying, well, He's our God.

He just let you come. Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith, do we then void the law through faith? God forbid. God forbid. That. He says, God forbid, on the contrary, we establish the law. We establish the law.

We learn from the law, we keep it, but then we're able to come and have forgiveness. Forgiveness.

By God. Because we call upon, and I'm sure everybody here, or most everybody here, before they came, when they got up this morning, they prayed to God and asked for forgiveness, asked to be cleansed, purged from their sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. The only thing that is possible to take our sins away. I hope none of us got up and go, oh God, I didn't break one of those Ten Commandments this week, but I know I'm going to be at church, and there's people who did. So they need mercy. This is an example of what was going on in Rome.

And you had the other side, the Gentiles who were saying, oh man, you keep those old laws, yeah, you'll die because it's about faith.

So you can see how Romans 3.28 can be taken out of context. If nothing else, just read chapter 3. It'll clear everything. Context. Context. Context settles most of the scriptures. But it's good to have some of those things. Let's go to another one. Number two. Number two is Romans 14. Romans 14. Let's see how Paul's addressing this one. Romans 14. Let's do verse 5.

Romans 14 verse 5. One person Esteems one day above another. Another Esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his mind. All right, there we go. I'm convinced in my mind that Thursday's a holy day. And you poor people, you don't realize it. See, I'm fully convinced, so it's okay. Is that what Paul's saying here? One person Esteems one day of another. You know, let him be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord. Hmm. So that way we can worship God any day we want to. The scripture is used quite often for that. And so we, as a Christian nation, decided that we would just do Sunday. Remember I did something on the Sabbath a few weeks ago and put up what people thought, and many of those came right in here. And he who does not observe the day to the Lord does not observe it. He does not observe it. He who eats eats to the Lord for he gives God thanks and he who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and gives God thanks. Okay, so now we not only can keep any day we want, we can eat anything we want anytime we want. That nasty buzzard is all good.

We can eat a rat and a snake.

That's what these verses say. Let's go on to verse 20 and 21. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure. That skunk and that's pure goody. That's what they say. This is the scripture they use. Everything's pure now.

Everything's pure and not just meat but vegetables, herbs.

Poison ivy is pure. Just stick it in your mouth. Just chew it like lettuce. Huh? That's... I'm going strictly by the scriptures. That's what it's talking about here, right?

All things indeed are pure for it is evil for the man who eats with offense.

Eat for offense. My feeling of giving offense, as my margin says. It is good neither to what?

Eat meat nor drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.

Okay, so how do we look at this? Is this what Paul's saying? Let's go back because it is what? Context. Context. Context. So all you have to do is read the rest of... All you have to do is read chapter 14. Let's do that very quickly now and you will see. Chapter 14 verse 1. Receive... Paul is teaching this now. Receive one who is weak in the faith but not dispute over doubtful things. For one believes that he may eat all things but he who is weak only eats vegetables.

He's talking about meat eaters, carnivores like me, and vegetarians like her.

She'll eat meat if I'm eating it. She likes her veggies and I like my meat. So here is the thing. You had people who were in the church who only ate vegetables and then you had others who were eating meat.

Let him... Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat and let him who does not eat judge him who eats for God has received him. Don't make a big deal. Why are you judging people?

Who are you to judge another servant which we're God's servant? To his own master he stands and falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand. One person... We're going back to those Christians. One person has steams one day above another. Another has steams one day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his mind. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord and he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. He who eats eats to the Lord for he gives God thanks and he who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and gives God thanks. Is the Sabbath even discussed here? Is the Sabbath brought up? No. What is he talking about? He's talking about fasting. Why? Remember my sermon not long ago? What did we find out about the Pharisees and their teachings? And they came in that there were two days during the week in which they fasted. Right? Mondays and Thursdays. And if you fast on Wednesday, you're a pagan. I mean, that's what they believe. They believe they're so right. They've done this all their lives. So they were saying there are certain days that should be fasted on. And they're not our days. So you're wrong. And it also got into eating meat and not eating meat. It was about vegetarianism.

So nowhere is it talking about the Sabbath.

And then you have they had a contention there because there was quite a bit of sacrificing to other gods. So you had food that was sacrificed to idols. And they would have markets set up. You study this in history. They had markets in Rome, just like they do in other countries now, that you go and buy your meat. And so all these people that are pagans would sacrifice their different meat. They were brought in and then they were sold. And then they were like, you bought that meat. You bought that meat. I know that meat was sacrificed to an idol. You do? Well, I didn't see it. But I know it is because it's pagans. They're pagans.

Let's go down to verse 7. For none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live in the Lord. And if we die, we die in the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lords. So quit arguing about these things. For to this end, Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother?

Not talking about keeping a different day. Or why do you show contempt for your brother, for we shall all stand before the judgment, see to Christ, for it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not judge one another any more, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or to cause to fall in our brother's way.

I know and I am convinced by the Lord Jesus Christ that there is nothing unclean, also some of the use of itself, but to him who considers anything unclean, to him it is unclean. That was the meat. Oh no, it can't be unclean. That can't be clean. Oh no, no, no, no, I'm not going over to your house because you're going to eat food sacrificed to idols. You're going to serve meat, and you don't even have any vegetables out there. "...Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love." So this whole thing isn't about the Sabbath day of Edm It's about food. You are no longer walking in love. "...Do not destroy with your food the one with whom Christ died, the one for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is 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 food's sake. All things indeed are pure. But it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor to drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended by you." This is the food we eat. When I was a salesman, I had a customer. He was very him and his wife, wonderful people, but his religion forbade him to drink anything of alcohol. So when I would take them out for dinner, Mary and I, we would sometimes have a glass. We wouldn't drink. When we sat at the table with them, we didn't drink because it would be an offense to them. That's what he's trying to teach the church here. Out of love. Just don't make a religion out of this. 22. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God, happy as he who does not condemn himself and what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith, but whatever is not of faith is what? Sin. Sin. So it defiles your conscience. Don't eat it. But it shouldn't condemn somebody who does. It doesn't defile their conscience, as long as it doesn't go against the law of God. So what is the second verse here? It's about context.

All you have to do is read. When somebody asked me, I said, have you read the entire chapter of 14? Oh, well, no, I had this brochure somebody gave me and I had that verse in it. I need you to show. Well, read. Let's go by and read it. Okay, so you got your Bible there? What do you got? Okay, then I let them read. I stop them. Okay, what's that saying? And by the end, they're going, oh, it didn't mean that. Did it? I said, no, no, it doesn't. Finally, let's go to number three. Number three. Go back to Romans. Romans 7. Get this one. I get this one for sure, occasionally. Romans 7 and verse 6. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. So everybody just brings out, for we have been delivered. Right? We have been delivered, taken away from the law. That's what they say. Been delivered from the law. But then go down to verse 7. If you just read that, you're going to say, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid is what he said. So just when people want to make that, he's saying, well, God forbid you think that. We've been delivered from the penalty of the law. We've been pardoned from the penalty, which is death of sin.

And so we don't have to worry about the law. Oh, wait a minute. Here, what does the law say? Oh, no, I broke it. I'm going to die. No, we're not going to. This is what he's been trying to teach. Now go down to verse 12. Verse 12. So if you read that and say, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would have not known covenants unless the law had said, you shall not covet. So how do we know what to do? It's right and wrong. It's in the law. It's in the work. But we're not helping because we break it. We're not going to have to die because Christ died for us. That's the beauty. The Jews were right about the law, but they thought that was the end of everything. Oh, oh, and the Gentiles, oh, no, no, no, nothing with the law. We'll see. It's just like a ditch. And in the Church of God, if you've been there very long, you'll find out over the years, people jump from one ditch to the other ditch. Let's go down the middle. And then it comes down to verse 12. Okay, so here people want to use that verse in chapter 7, chapter 7, verse 6. It says, okay, we no longer have to keep the law. Okay, so we're delivered from the law. We're delivered from this. All you have to do is take them down to verse 12. Therefore, the law is holy and the commandment holy, just and good. So Paul must have lost his mind.

Oh, that's not what he's into. And let's go back to last verse. Last verse, because this is also tied to this. Let's go back to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, verse 22, because this is used.

But now, having been set free from sin, that means I have no sin. I'm perfect. I've been set free from sin. I've heard a preacher get on TV one day say, I don't sin anymore. I've been set free from sin. And he quoted this very verse. I've been set free from sin. Why do I want to be under the law, which has a penalty when I'm under Christ? And so I do not, cannot, and will not ever sin. That's what he said.

I hope I never see that Judgment Day. I want to see if he can convince Christ of that.

But now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. So they're going to say this. Wait a minute. I've been set free from sin. And then, found in verse 23, it says, Paul says that, for the wages of sin is death. One of the most well, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. It's not complicated. It's not hard. You just have to read. And brethren, that is what we need to know. Here's three scriptures I gave you that most commonly use. You'll find them in a brochure or you'll find somebody that brings them up to you. Hopefully you understand. If not, we're printing this thing out and you can have it. But just read. Just read and have the context so that why? So you can go, well, let me answer that. I got this. No. So that you can help other people. That's what we're here for. It's just not about our salvation. It's about helping other people who need to know, who want to know, who come to you, and they're confused. Is God calling them? Might be. If they're not, don't you want to help anybody anyway? So they're not stuck and they're not ignorant because of what somebody's been teaching. Somebody's been teaching them, which is not from the scriptures, but from their own perception. Because they've had to have something to back up. They usually say, they have to have something because the rest of the book teaches what we teach. So they had to come up with some way to make people believe that the Bible teaches this. Because otherwise they wouldn't have a following. Then they wouldn't have any money. And they wouldn't have airplanes.

And Rolexes. I know that you never ask for money for your gifts.

The jet I'm sitting out there is an ultimate, so it's about it. But, brother, I want you to know these verses, not for vanity, not for pride, but because they are the words of God. And they're words of God that get twisted. Remember what Peter said even about Paul? Some things are hard to understand. But yet, as he said, those unlearned, twist his teachings. We, brethren, have a responsibility and obligation because we love our God and because we love his word. We should be able to serve and help other people know the truth.