You Are Not gods

Romans 14:1-3 (KJV) Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, [but] not to doubtful disputations. (2) For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. (3) Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

Grace Is Terribly Hard To Understand

The Bible has many difficult concepts for us to believe. Consider The Trinity of God. Yes, it’s hard to understand that God is One in Essence, but Three in Person. We are told in John 1:1-18 that Jesus Christ, The Word of God, is identical to the Father in some ways and distinct from Him in another. Our Lord Jesus told us:

Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) … All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Jesus said “Baptizing then in the NAME”, not “in the NAMES”. There is one “NAME”, one authority, but “three PERSONS”.

The Trinity is very difficult to understand – but very clearly Biblical, so we MUST receive it by faith.

What about the free will of man and the Sovereignty of God? The Bible teaches that the Triune God is “all knowing, all powerful, and everywhere present”. The Bible says “Our God knows everything” (1 John 3:20), that

Psalm 139:4 (ESV) Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

God knows everything, and “declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done” (Isaiah 46:10).

The Sovereign God has decreed that “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:15-16), and “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). The decree of God calls us to come.

The Bible says that God gives us freedom to choose or reject Christ. We can repent, and receive salvation – or die in our sins and receive judgment. How free will and predestination work together is a mystery – but we must receive it by faith because the Bible says so.

We are saved by Grace – and this is hard for us to understand.

Salvation is by GRACE.
New Birth is by GRACE.
Eternal Life is by GRACE.
Forgiveness is by GRACE.

Preach! GRACE tells us to come with God with the faith we have, whether little or big, and God will bring us into His family. Grace rests entirely on the work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. Grace is possible because of the work of God the Holy Spirit. Grace is granted because of the will of the Father.

John 1:16 And of HIS FULLNESS have all we RECEIVED (lambano, Aorist), and GRACE for GRACE.

Break that verse down. “Of HIS fullness”. Salvation is based on what our Lord Jesus Christ did on the Cross and at the empty tomb. He fulfilled the Law of animal sacrifice. He paid our penalty. It is “HIS fullness have ALL WE RECEIVED”. Jesus paid it all, and we receive the benefit. We receive “GRACE for GRACE”. We don’t deserve it. But when we recognize our brokenness and come freely to Him, surrendered to His Lordship, we receive “GRACE for GRACE”.

Grace Is Hard To Understand Because Of Our Nature

In the Garden of Eden Adam brought humanity into darkness and out of Paradise because of greed and pride. Made in the image of God, Adam wanted to BE God. This is what Satan told Adam and Eve:

Genesis 3:4 (NKJV) {If you eat what God forbade} You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

The lie that Adam was sold is that (1) God is a liar, and (2) You yourself can be God. It is insane that the created can become the Creator, but this is what Adam bought. We’ve been paying for it ever since.

We’re born wanting to be God. It starts in the crib. Cry, demand satisfaction, and someone will run to you. As children, we always knew better than our parents. Some parents – wanting to be gods – ignore the Word of God in child rearing. The Bible says in Proverbs 22:15, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him”. Children want to be gods. Children that grow up to be adults, are adults that want to be gods.

gods don’t understand Grace!

Grace begins when you submit to God, when you admit you are not a god. Grace can only be received when we “deny ourselves, take up the Cross, and follow Him” (Mark 8:34; 10:21). Listen to me, Beloved. The TRIUNE GOD asks that you do three things:

– DENY YOURSELF: I am not god
– TAKE UP THE CROSS: Make it yours. Jesus died for me.
– FOLLOW HIM: Jesus rose from death, and leads us through the Spirit and the Scripture

Jesus saved us by denying Himself, going to the Cross, and obeying the Father. We who are His are to do the same thing. We deny ourselves, take up the Cross, and follow Jesus.

God gave Israel the Law to teach them that they are not gods, that we need the Messiah, the Son of God. When Jesus came to this earth, He came with the intent of saving us from our wrongheadedness. The Law was to teach us that we cannot be good enough on our own to get to a right place with God. We’ve previously read in Romans:

Romans 7:4 (ESV) … my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

The Christian is saved by Grace so that we might SERVE God,
not BE gods!

Romans 6:10-11 (ESV) For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The Christian is dead to sin, but alive to God – just as Jesus is. Jesus denied Himself for us. We deny ourselves for Him. We do not belong to sin anymore, but to God.

Romans 6:12-14 (ESV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Grace is not a license to sin, but frees us from our desire to be gods, a satanic doctrine. We are freed to serve God.

Preach: Our Lord Jesus chastised the leaders of Judaism, the Chief Priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, because they did not follow God, but tried to be gods. They added things to God’s Word that were not there. Jesus harshly told them:

Mark 7:6-9 (ESV) Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

We Must Not Have The “I Am god” Mentality Among Us

Romans 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

In the Church at Rome there were Christians who were Gentile in background, and there were Christians who were Jewish in background. Both had different cultures. Gentiles either worshiped no god, or worshiped false gods. They may have made animal sacrifices to their gods – but not like the Jews.

God taught the Jews to bring clean animals to the priests to be sacrificed. God told Adam that “the day you disobey Me, you shall surely die”. When Adam sinned, God covered his sin by sacrificing a clean animal. When God saved Israel from Egypt, He commanded animal sacrifice. Sins could only be covered by the Blood of the clean sacrifice (Hebrews 9:7, 18). God commanded “a sin offering for ATONEMENT” (Exodus 29:36), the offering taken from the animals that God called “clean”.

The CLEAN animals that could be sacrificed were any animal with divided hooves that chewed the cud. God also specified to the Israelite that they themselves could only eat CLEAN animals. This included not only the animals I previously mentioned, but (1) Everything in the water that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or streams (2) Winged insects that walk on all fours, such as Locust, Katydid, Cricket, and Grasshopper. The Israelite could not eat the UNclean animals (everything NOT in the above list). Leviticus chapter 11 specified clean and unclean animals. To eat an unclean animal made the Israelite ritually impure. They could only restore their purity before God through REPENTANCE and RITUAL CLEANSING.

The Old Covenant with its laws of sacrifice looked forward and introduced the Coming of the Messiah, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Once Jesus came, He died in the place that the clean animals temporarily held.

1 John 1:7 … the BLOOD of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

The animals were temporary. What Jesus did in bringing us to God is permanent. Once Jesus fulfilled the Law by becoming “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19), there were no more clean and unclean animals. God clearly demonstrated this when He spoke to Peter:

Acts 10:9-16 (ESV) Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

Jesus’ death on the Cross ended the animal sacrifices. It also ended the restrictions on clean and unclean animals.

Jewish Christians, raised in a culture of “clean and unclean”, came into the Church with those thoughts still in their heads. Gentile Christians were not raised with the concept of “clean and unclean”, so they would eat a variety of meats. The Jews refused to eat the unclean, the Gentiles saw all things as clean.

Romans 14:1-2 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

When the Church came together for fellowship meals, the Gentiles (having never heard of clean and unclean animals) would eat whatever smelled good. The Jews, however, though born again by faith in Christ would be very uncomfortable eating at a Gentile table. They would eat the vegetables, but not the pork.

Romans 14:3 Let not him that eateth DESPISE {exoutheneō} him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not JUDGE {krinō} him that eateth: for God hath received him.

Word Study: The Gentile believer who ate all things would have a tendency to exoutheneō, to consider the believer who would not eat “of no account, to be contemptible”. The Jewish believer, raised under the dietary laws of Judaism, would see the Gentile believer eating something “unclean” and krinō, declare that this believer is actually unsaved. God’s response to both Jew and Gentile is “I have RECEIVED them”. Though from different backgrounds, both are children of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Going back to verse 1,

Romans 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

Word Study: The phrase “DOUBTFUL DISPUTATIONS” is the Greek dialogismos diakrisis, or “human judgmentsand traditions”. We are not to use our backgrounds, our human teachings, to weigh or judge another person as to whether they are worthy to be in the family of God. God received them. God received them. Their dress may be different from yours. Their mannerisms, their raising, their background may be different.

You are not god. You have no right to impose your opinions, your cultural differences, your background, your raising on other Christians. If the Bible does not forbid or encourage it, then chill out!

Now, should judgments be made in the Body? Absolutely! When a professed brother or sister in Christ moves into that which God has said is sin, we are to quietly show them the Scripture, and lovingly tell them to cease.

1 John 3:2-9 (ESV) Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

Is what your fellow Christian doing “sin” as defined by God, or is this “human judgments and traditions”? Let your standard be “What does GOD say?”, not “What do I as a god think?”

The Bible is very clear on what IS and IS NOT sin. Here’s a few texts:

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV) neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Timothy 1:9-10 (ESV) the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine

That last phrase, “whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine”, means “whatever the BIBLE directs”. I do not set the standards, and neither do you. God does. Jesus does. The Church and the Christian belong to Jesus. “God hath received him”. So I need to love him, and put away my prejudices and opinions.

The Christian belongs to God.
The Christian is Christ’s servant.

Let The Word Of God Be The Judge

Romans 14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

You do not belong to me, nor do I belong to you. We belong to God. I believe in the Doctrine of Eternal Security. Those who have come to God and surrendered their godness, who deny themselves, take up the Cross, and surrender to following Jesus – these people are born of the Spirit. The Bible is clear that the genuine believer shall endure to the end. The Apostle wrote:

Romans 8:38-39 (NKJV) I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God is able to make you stand!

2 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV) I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

God is able to make you stand!

John 10:27-30 (NKJV) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.”

God is able to make you stand!

John 6:39-40 (NKJV) This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

God is able to make you stand!

Romans 14:5-6 (KJV) One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

Again, the Gentiles had certain calendar days that they were raised to respect, whereas the Jews had certain feast days and holy days that they culturally upheld. The Apostle tells us, don’t worry about it. “He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it”. As long as the person is honoring the Lord Jesus in the keeping of that day, then it does not matter. For instance, for the Jew the Sabbath is on Saturday. But we Gentiles have kept Sunday as the Lord’s Day. Does it matter? No, not at all. As long as you are honoring the Lord Jesus one day in seven, you are pleasing to God.

The Church that Jesus is building is a mix of different cultures, different backgrounds, but one Shepherd, one Savior and Lord. Let us love Him and serve Him. We are not gods. What does the Scripture teach us? I end with this:

Romans 14:7-8 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

Live your life so as to honor the One Who saved you. You and I belong to Him. Let us act like it. Amen!