Contact Stan! Join Our Mailing List! Return to Main "Fellowship" Page Return to Index of Don Patton Materials	Don Patton on Romans 14 Don Patton Chart of 100 Items Below is an electronic representation of the disputed chart of 100 items which Don Patton introduced into his sermon in 1990 at the Judson Road congregation. Following the chart are all references to the chart which Don made in his lesson. This should be helpful in determining if the chart was linked to Romans 14 as applications of the text. Abortion Baptismal Garments Bartending Blackboards Blue Jeans Boxing Brewery Work Bulletins Bussing Bustles Capital Punishment Carnal Warfare Carpet Color Cheerleading Christmas (Individual) Coffee Cokes Covering Dance Bands Dancing Dating Activity Decorative Crosses Divorce Drive-Ins Easter Eggs Evolution Exposed Ankles Football Girly Magazines Guns Hair Styles Holding Hands Holidays Home Classes Horse Racing Hunting Insurance Jack-O-Lanterns John Birch Society Kneeling Length of hair Length of skirts "Low" neckline Majorettes Makeup Meeting Houses Mini Skirts Moonlanding Movies Mustaches Novels Obesity Pantsuits Pedal Pushers Dominoes Ph. D's Piano (Individual) Picture of Christ Playing Cards Politics Pray before Col. Projectors Square Dancing Stained Glass Windows Public School Pulpit flowers Race Relations Rebaptism Recreation Religious Papers Religious Schools Remarriage Seat Cushions Shaving legs Social Drinking Shorts Women Working Slavery Smoking Spanking Speed Limits Sports Cars Proms Providence Steeples Sweat Suits Sweaters Swimming T-shirt Television Ties Toupees Trick-or-Treat Whistling Kissing Winking Skating Xmas Trees "X" for Christ Beards Sermon Quotes (In which the chart is referred to...) Furthermore, when we look at this chapter, it is obvious that we're talking about individual matters, not congregational matters. A brother that's conscientious regarding these differences that are of an individual nature. In v. 5, we read one man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced. Likewise in v. 6, he that regarded a day regardeth it unto the Lord, the point being it doesn't involve the others. It's between him and the Lord. And that's emphasized continually in the chapter. He that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he regardeth it not. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord. He that giveth thanks, he that eateth not, to the Lord. This is not between you and the brother, it's between him and the Lord. An individual practice under consideration. Individual matters do not directly affect the whole. Congregational matters, like matters of worship in the congregation, as a group, necessarily affect the whole. And when things are wrong, on that level, then you're going to be involved, regardless, whether you believe it's right or not. You can't participate. That's a different circumstance. In 1 Tim. 5:22, he says lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. When you enter into a practice as a congregation that's wrong, then you are not keeping yourself pure. You're becoming contaminated. You become partaker. But the situation under consideration here was not involving the whole. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls. The emphasis is, this is between him and God. None of your business as far as setting him at naught or judging. It is your business as far as his eternal salvation is concerned as we'll emphasize in a moment. But it's not your job to set him at naught at this point, to end the relationship, to be contentious. We'll emphasize more the meaning of that in a moment. Congregational matters necessarily produce division because we cannot be partakers of other man's sin. And that's why issues like instrumental music and missionary societies, those things that involve the expenditure of the collection of money, necessarily involve being partaker of the action of the whole. And I don't think there is any way to be party to that without being guilty of sin. These are not the matters that are being discussed in this chapter. They necessarily involve everyone. There are other items, like the public contentious teaching of the word, the promotion of false teaching publicly. In 2 Jn. 10, if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed, for him that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker in his evil deeds. (Those who publicly teach and promote and proclaim error to lead souls astray, purposefully, and broadly, then these individuals you cannot have fellowship with. Those who are factious, likewise, constitute a party which we cannot have party in and Paul says to Titus in ch. 3:10, reject a factious man after a first and second admonition. And so, when we are dealing with factious individuals that destroy the unity and the enthusiasm and the souls that could be reached with such enthusiasm, when we are dealing with the public proclamation of false doctrine or when we are dealing with issues that all are necessarily involved in, then we're not dealing with the things that this chapter described, but rather we're dealing with individual issues such as we had on the chart earlier. Now you notice that this last chart is lots smaller than the other one. There aren't that many congregational issues. There are a whole lot more than we'd like for there to be. But there are exactly ten times as many on the first chart as on the one we just looked at. And I think that really understates the relationship. There are many more individual issues over which brethren fall out regarding and these are the things addressed in this chapter for which there is no excuse when we have dissension and falling out among brethren regarding instructions. Notice the commands, not suggestions, not advice, but the commands that are given regarding these issues, the scruples, the individual conscientious decisions made among brethren: some wrong, some incidental, but differences that we have over such matters. He commands in v. 1, him that is weak in the faith receive ye, yet not for decisions of scruples. Now he's not weak in regard to his faith in Christ and the resurrection. but he's weak in his understanding. Some understood about the Jewish days, some understood about eating meats, and some didn't. They're weak in their understanding. But this brother who is conscientious about this individual matter of difference is one toward whom we are commanded to receive. Now the concept of receiving is just the opposite of derision, refusing to accept, looking down your nose at, that is in refusing this warm reception that Christians ought to have from one another. The word translated "receive" from Thayer, the original word, means according to Thayer, to receive, to grant one access to one's heart, to take into friendship and intercourse, Rom. 14:1; 15:7. God in Christ are said to have received those whom formerly estranged from them they had reunited themselves by the blessings of the gospel, Rom. 14:3. This is the warm relationship that ought to exist among Christians but here he's speaking about Christians who have differences sometimes over matters that are wrong. And he says you receive them under these circumstances. Yes, they're wrong. But these individual matters of scruple that don't involve you in sin are matters between brethren that ought not to divide. And we are commanded to receive in such circumstances. In Gal. 2:5, he talks to those who gave to he and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. I think that's the idea involved in the word receive. No second class brethren concept to be allowed under these circumstances. (How do you treat them? Well, as long as you have this situation where you're not involved in the sin, where you have a conscientious brother, then the command is don't you dare set him at naught. You receive him. And when you refuse to do that you're going to be lost yourself. Now if brethren will learn that lesson, which they have generally practiced, but there's just some things they seem to get madder at than other things. And that's about the only explanation about whey they divide over some things and don't on others. They just get madder about it. And that's not what ought to be the determining factor. There is a very specific difference that requires us to divide in some instances where we can't be partaker in another man's sin. But there are things where we're not involved where this is another man's servant. It's between him and the Lord and we're commanded under such circumstances where you have a conscientious brother don't do it. And let's not be guilty of that, but brethren have. And that's why we've had all of these dissensions, tens of thousands of them, much more than the hundred that we had on the board a few minutes ago. Enough things that we have to divide over. But not nearly as many as what we have divided over and we ought to be ashamed. And the answer to it is in the divine wisdom that we have from this chapter.