Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 13, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - Grub for the Wrong Gods

Transcript

November 13, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - Grub for the Wrong Gods · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good to see you, everybody.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being with us this morning.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, how many of you follow the NBA?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Literally none of you.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're aware of it at least?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Play basketball.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So last year in December, uh two teams played each other, two NBA teams, uh, which nobody's gonna be familiar with, I guess, but the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies, okay?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Oklahoma City Thunder, they scored 79 points.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is a regular season game.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Memphis Grizzlies scored 152.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, uh, and that was without their best player.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, how many of you have ever been a part of a team or been a fan of a team that got absolutely blown out?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not fun.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And towards the end of the game, you're like, what are they doing?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, so the the Grizzlies, they were up, they had doubled the score of the Thunder at half.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the third, they were up 51 points, okay?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then they kept pouring it on.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh setting an NBA record, if I didn't mention that yet, for a point differential.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we get to this point though, and even a lot of hardcore sports fans get to this point eventually where they're like, at some point, technically, yes, you can keep scoring until the end of the game.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But there's kind of a camaraderie, a sort of a sense of a greater purpose where you're like, but we don't embarrass them, we don't pour it on, we don't do this kind of thing.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: People are looked down upon when they do that.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning we're going to kind of take that principle that technically you can do something, but the greater encouragement, the greater purpose is that we would act with love, and we're going to apply it to something that even fewer of you are familiar with than NBA basketball, which is food being sacrificed to idols.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's talk about that for a second.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: In American culture, uh, we are not very familiar with food that is sacrificed to idols.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: That is not something that is common, right?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there are many idols that we have in our culture, uh, but they are not as um specific, maybe, or as obvious as they were back in Greek culture, right?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You have Zeus, Poseidon, um, you have Aphrodite, you have Demeter, you have uh Hermes, you have all of these different gods that we've heard of before, made out of marble or you know, different kinds of stone, uh, sometimes wood, and then you have, especially in Corinth, in Greek, in Greece, you have all of these temples devoted to them.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's very obvious what was an idol.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but as a part of that, as a part of that culture, you would also sacrifice food.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're familiar with that because it's in the Old Testament.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews used to do that and uh when they had the temple.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we come to our modern context, or really the context we're talking about in 1 Corinthians, that's still happening, but now that food is being offered into gods that aren't real.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that becomes a problem because for almost every single person who came to faith in Christ, who lived in ancient Corinth, which is where our letter, 1 Corinthians, was addressed to, almost all of them were coming from this pagan background, right?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: They had been worshiping all of these idols, and then this scruffy tent maker named Paul comes along and is like, hey, there's this guy named Jesus.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you believe in him and trust in him, it means that your life changes a little bit.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: One of those things is that you only worship one God and not the entire pantheon.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But also, you have to change, or you should change, the way that you're living your life in order to reflect your faith in Christ.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when Paul is talking about these things too, you can un you have to understand that our letter, 1 Corinthians, I've explained this before, but our letter, 1 Corinthians, is not really 1 Corinthians, right?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: They have had multiple exchanges already, and so part of 1 Corinthians that we read is really a response to something that the Corinthian church had already written to Paul.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see that today.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you know that, when you read the letter, it's gonna make a little bit more sense about what Paul's trying to say.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna take this principle, right?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna say that we can't live our Christian life on technicalities, but we're supposed to have a greater rule that is supposed to affect every single thing that we do.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And with it, we're going to use kind of the vehicle of food sacrifice to idols, and we're gonna say that it still applies to our life, even if you've never done that sort of thing.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So as we get started, we're actually gonna be going through all of chapter 8 today.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's only 13 verses.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then Paul's argument spans a couple chapters, and so then at the very end, we're gonna skip to chapter 10, where he kind of concludes his thoughts.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll begin in chapter 8, verse 1.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, now about food sacrificed to idols.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: We know we all have knowledge.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here, verse one, you get a sense of what Paul was doing in responding to their letter, right?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We know that we all have knowledge.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so that statement must have been something that this group in Corinth had sent to Paul.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Probably what happened is Paul said, Hey, I know all of you have come from a background where you were sacrificing to these idols and you were eating the food, and not just eating the food in the temples, but you were being invited to uh homes back in Corinth.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't very large.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of people would rent out the temples to have their dinner parties.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, okay, so you're eating food sacrificed to idols for religious purposes, you're eating it there for dinner parties, you're going into um private people's homes, and uh you're eating food sacrificed to idols.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Even the meat that you're buying in the markets was previously sacrificed to idols, and you need to be sure of where it came from.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul says, flee from idols, walk away from these kinds of things.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the Corinthians come back with a response that says, but Paul, we found a loophole.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: We can worship Christ and also do the stuff that we've been doing beforehand so that we don't have to give up some of our friendships, our social standing, maybe our political ambitions, what have you, because this identity and this culture and the politics and the social life were so intertwined that Paul saying flee from idols meant that they were going to have to flee from their previous lives, or at least the way that they were living them before.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So he is now responding to that argument.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Paul, we found a technicality.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's sub point B, we have freedom in Christ, which means that we can do this.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so now he is going to sort of address those things.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: We know that we all have knowledge, right?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And upon that sentence right there, he is going to build the rest of his argument.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of gives away a lot of the stuff.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to be talking about love later on, but he is going to contrast, right?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: What it means for those who say, I'm really smart, I know a lot about Jesus, I know my Bible very well, I have more things memorized in it than in most people.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, you know, it's great.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: It really is great.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: We should be people of God's word.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: We should know it.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: We should study it.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: We should be memorizing it.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, if you think, though, that you are better than people and you know more than other people simply because you have greater knowledge, he says, you ironically, you've missed the point.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says you have placed all of your decision making upon your own intelligence instead of God who really does know it all, right?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so you've become the know-it-all, even though you don't, and we're supposed to trust in the God who does.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: He says there's two sort of pathways you can run.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can either follow the path of knowledge, which is going to lead you down this certain way.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Corinthians are acting that way right now, right?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Technicality, Paul.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or they can go with love.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he says love builds up.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing that knowledge does not do.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Rarely, somebody who thinks that they are smarter than everybody else makes the people around them feel very good, right?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul says there's a problem here.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: You are proceeding and trying to live your life, thinking you know all the answers.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And in reality, I'm going to call you to do something which is exceedingly hard, and it is to live by the law of love.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says the better thing is to be known by God rather than to think you know everything.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: But only the ones who are showing with love, right, are acting like they are known by God.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Paul calls them out into the table.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says there are two ways you can walk forward.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: One of them isn't going to be good, and he's going to continue to address it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: As we go forward into verse 4, now he's going to get more specific.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: He says, about eating food sacrificed to idols, then we know that an idol is nothing in the world.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: See those quotes?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's responding to more arguments, and that there is no God but one.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: All things are from him, and we exist for him.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: All things are through him and we exist through him.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I already said it, but right, we've got more of an argument, and Paul is quoting them.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think he's using sarcasm here.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: That would just be how I would be responding to somebody.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you can imagine that they've come forward and they're like, hey, Paul, remember, hey, we we know a lot of stuff, and uh, Paul, we want to be um eating this food for idols, and hey, we know that they aren't real.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: We know that these idols don't mean anything.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: We know there's only one God.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul's like, okay, yes, that is true.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul's gonna develop something that's really, really important, which is kind of this two-fold view of idolatry.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul is going to, it's not just Paul's view, it's it's the biblical view throughout all of history of how the Israelites and now both Jews and Gentiles should view idols, which is that there is both a lack of power that people often associate with them, right?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever seen the ruins over in Greece, and they've got these massive temples for mighty Zeus, who is able to do all of these different things, or in Corinth.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: They have a temple for Aphrodite, and because they're so close to the sea, they worship Poseidon.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: All of these figures they hold so much power towards.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, well, to that end, yeah, they don't, they're nothing there.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're silent, they're made of marble, and they they're not real.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, they aren't anything.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, there is a power behind them.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's the people who worship them, though, don't understand it.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: They think they're worshiping Zeus, they think they're worshiping all of the other names, they're worshiping Satan is what's happening.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they are confused about what they're doing, but because we live sort of in this binary world and the sense that for what is not of God, right, is against him, then Paul says, any time that you are in these temples, any time that you just think you are having a dinner party with friends and they have sacrificed to Zeus, he says, they might not understand it, but you should.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not Zeus behind there.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's a fake, imaginary, marble individual that can cast lightning from the clouds atop a mountain.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says there is a deeper truth.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: As we go to kind of gonna skip ahead and then we'll come back.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter 10, he talks about this.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What am I saying then?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: That food sacrifice to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I do not want you to be participants with demons, right?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Paul.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, hey, all of you who have knowledge, let us think clearly about this.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: You say that you have found a technicality, and what we're going to see develop over the next couple passages here is Paul says, yes, food in and of itself is neutral.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's no power associated with food.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't operate any of our lives in a vacuum.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is with context.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not, you know, pasta salad.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's pasta salad offered to a demon.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, you can't do that.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't be participating in that.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's danger there.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so he has these very specific reasons he's laying out for, again, something I recognize isn't totally a part of our culture, right?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: There aren't too many temples that we can go to and sacrifice goats.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not that I'm aware of.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: But these principles continue to apply.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul gives a specific answer.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, what you're doing is much more harmful than you realize, but as we're going to see, he says, but the main reason you shouldn't be doing it has nothing to do with knowledge and has everything to do with your care for somebody else.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because, see, all of these things that they were living for, right?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: These gods, these are things found in Greece.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: This one right here would be the statue of Zeus that had then been, has since been knocked down, and you can see the size of the tiny little people around here and how big it was.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine being back in Greek culture, seeing these things every single day, and hearing somebody said, Not only do I know one who is greater than Zeus, not only do I know one who is more magnificent and powerful than all of these things, but that is literally nothing.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yet you think it is.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: We can see that Paul, to kind of conclude this point, thinks about demons, thinks about idols the same way that has been thought of throughout the Bible.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: In what is perhaps one of my new favorite Bible passages, Jeremiah 10 5, like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: They must be carried because they cannot walk.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and they cannot do any good.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation 9 20.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of the people who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshipping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Frankly, that right there sort of summarizes what he's saying.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, they can't see, hear, or walk.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally a piece of wood, but they have been duped into believing it has power.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: In reality, they don't understand the true demonic power behind this.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's so important to understand.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says this is not some kind of benign activity.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then 1 Corinthians 12, 2, you know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led astray by mute idols.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is, they might say that they worship God now, but they still want to live that life.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: As we move forward, well, actually, as we go back, there is one thing I wanted to point out here in verse 6.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: See, Paul does believe what they believe, right?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Those of this kind of this group of knowledge who are saying all of these things, he's like, I do agree with you.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't agree with kind of the outcomes that you're drawing from what you're saying.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: They say, there is only God but one, and he goes, Yes, a hundred percent.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yet for us there is one God, the Father, all things are from him and we exist for him, and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, all things are through him and we exist through him.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: If I were a smarter man, I could talk about that verse for about 45 minutes.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is one of the most amazing, uh, we would call it like Christological, but describing the relationship between the Father and the Son.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at it, right, this is probably for study in your own time, but if you look at it, you're going to see this beautiful sort of theology that Paul just sort of throws to them in a verse.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: All things are, right, the Father, all things are from him, and we exist for him.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have one Lord Jesus Christ, all things are through him, connecting with from him, and we exist through him instead of for him.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm making a massacre of the text there with my drawing, but I want you to see these parallels that he's drawing.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful statement.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, No, what we believe in is something that is true and powerful and makes a difference.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: But now we get to the point where Paul's going to say, you have to avoid these things for a greater reason.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where the principle of food for idols begins to draw into our lives because we can begin to associate the things that we're doing with the things that Paul is talking about.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, however, not everyone has this knowledge, meaning the knowledge that he just shared about the true reality of idols.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody is so inclined.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food sacrificed to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Food will not bring us close to God.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are not worse off if we don't eat, and we are not better if we do eat.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Paul has created a what was surely a realistic situation, but for the context of the letter was a hypothetical, right?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: He says, There are people, there would be some people who are so used to living this life of idolatry, right?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: They've done it for 20, 30 years, however long it is, whenever they came to Christ, right?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: That is how they live their life.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then Paul comes along and says, hey, yeah, but there's this guy who died on a cross for your sins, Jesus.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so then they come over to that side.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: But hey, like any of us who have come to Christ when we were adults, we know that kind of our history, right, it can call back to us.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like we set it, you know, apart and just completely shut off those things because it was such a huge part of our life.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it, like a siren call, it says, Yeah, but don't you remember what it was like when you worshiped me in this previous life?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of these people, these Christians who who do desire to know Jesus and have relationships with him, they say, Yeah, we're having such a hard time, though, setting behind the life that we used to live, and we're trying to do both at the same time.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul brings up a really interesting point here.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: He uses the word conscience.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul in all of his letters uses the word conscience 20 times.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Eight of those are present in this argument.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is huge to what he's saying.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Conscience is often, for a lot of us, it's sort of the thing that tells us that we shouldn't be doing what we're doing, or that maybe we should be doing something we don't want to do, right?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: That would be good.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: But for Paul, our conscience is a much deeper spiritual reality than just sort of this like alarm bell, this spidey sense that's going off at the back of our head.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: For him, he says, their conscience, this thing which he would also say later on in places like his letter to the Romans is something that is impacted by the Holy Spirit, that as we get closer to Jesus, we get a better mind, a mind that reflects Jesus and makes us want to act and behave and think and speak like Jesus and tells us when we aren't, he says, this conscience, right?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: It should be trusted in many respects as long as it is telling us to do something that is biblical.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, so there's this problem where these people who are trying to live both lives, their conscience is telling them it is wrong.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Their conscience, because they have not better yet developed their relationship with Jesus, they don't perhaps understand the problem and living in both worlds.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says, those of you who say you're smart and who are so close to Jesus and are so proud of that faith, he says, you need to think about the weaker brother and sister.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you need to think about those who you are condemning and leading astray because their conscience is not able to tell them what is right or able to help them change their minds.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Their conscience is weak.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And because their conscience is weak and they see supposedly these stronger Christians who are going out and eating the food sacrificed to idols, right?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're watching them, they're saying, hey, supposedly that's what I'm supposed to be like.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, these strong Christians ironically are leading the weaker ones into defilement.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, food will not bring us close to God.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: We are not worse off if we don't eat, and we are not better if we do eat.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't think this is about food.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is about the principle of how you're handling the food.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: There it is.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thunder and grizzlies right there.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Technically, the food that you're eating, it's neutral, Christians, Corinthians.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Technically, what you're doing, I don't like it.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: You probably shouldn't be doing it, but you do have freedom in Christ.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you are probably able to engage in those things in a way that doesn't sear your conscience, perhaps.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Paul seems in later on in chapter 10 to disagree with that they could possibly do that, but here he's just responding to their loophole.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You have freedom.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Technically, you have freedom.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: How are you using that freedom?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because the way that a lot of you seem to be using the freedom is creating a stumbling block for the weak, those who don't understand as well.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's the stumbling block?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: For if someone sees you, the one who has, we might put in air quotes, knowledge.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, won't his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you're sinning against Christ.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat so that I won't cause my brother or sister to fall.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Two main things are happening here.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is he's talking, he's describing what the stumbling block looks like.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's basically saying, People are running towards Jesus and you are throwing things in their way.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: You are making it harder for them to come to know Christ.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And for some of these people who are weak, who don't know him very well, but are trying to get to know him better, those of you who are leading, who say you know so much, who have found the loophole, supposedly, he says, you are harming their faith.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And some of the words that Paul uses here in this passage are really significant.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of commentators would kind of shy away from saying that Paul, Paul's basically just saying, you know, you make their faith hard.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: But when Paul says here, not only do you wound their weak conscience, but they are ruined by your knowledge and that they will fall, he's talking here about really significant spiritual damage.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you have experienced that before.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you who have people in your life, whether it's family members or leaders or things like that, who they have presented stumbling blocks to you in your relationship with Christ, things you had to climb over and overcome so that you could have a better understanding of who Jesus is and what he's called you to do in this life.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you know how hard some of those obstacles can be, right?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: How long it takes to overcome some of them, years, decades, for you to realize that the thing maybe that you were taught was not true and was actually harmful.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it was because somebody who you probably saw as a stronger Christian, a more mature Christian, laid that before your path.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: We should listen when Jesus says that it is better for someone to tie a heavy stone around their neck and throw themselves into the ocean before they lead a child astray in the faith.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Significant spiritual abuse.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's talked about a lot right now in media because unfortunately it happens a lot.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says it's spiritual abuse what you're doing.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says you're taking your technicality, you don't care about the people who are following after you, who are looking at your example, you are wounding their conscience, you are ruining them by their knowledge, and ultimately you're causing them to fall.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what does Paul say?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, what's the response?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat so that I won't cause my brother or sister to fall.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that statement that he's making there, right?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I am going to take, I'm going to sacrifice, I'm going to inconvenience myself because I am so concerned about the well-being of my fellow Christians.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And his example that he presents here is he says, hey, the brother or sister for whom Christ died.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if there's ever been an example of one who had freedom, gave it up, it would be an understatement to say inconvenienced himself so that the weak could thrive, it would be Jesus.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was innocent when he went to that cross.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not deserve to die.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: He did not deserve to be crucified.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: He was perfect.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's the only one who's ever been perfect.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, because of his love for us, right, because of the Father's love for us, he went to the cross, gave up his freedom, willingly endured things that he did not deserve so that he could be a substitute for us on that cross.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: He took the punishment that we deserved so that we could live free.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's a good word that describes us, it would be weak, right?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: The strong sacrificed himself for the weak.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, now think about that.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: And in this minor, trivial example of food sacrifice to idols, he says, if some person might be saved because I became a vegetarian, he says, I do it forever.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's far more important for me to care for others than to exercise my freedoms.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: I willingly give them up, like Jesus did.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: To finish out our section here and to kind of bring this passage home, right?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to skip ahead to verse, or excuse me, to chapter 10, and we're going to finish our argument there.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is going to kind of conclude this.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And in chapter 10, he says, in verse 23, is where you'll see I kind of brought two passages together, 23 through 24 and 31 through 33.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is permissible, but not everything builds up.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: No one is to seek his own good but the good of the other person.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the Church of God, just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: You might recall in chapter six, if you were with us, we went through an almost identical passage as verse 23 here.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: The one difference was the very end.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial, right?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Christian freedom, what we should do with it.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is permissible.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter six, it was, but I will not be mastered by anything.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it had to do with sexual immorality and the way that they were pursuing those kinds of things.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here we see that he changes that sort of fourth part, and he says, but not everything builds up.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: You might recall now to the very beginning of the message when he said that what builds up?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Love.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Love is what builds up.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the knowledge, the thinking that you know better than people, this trying to live your life on a Christian technicality, those things, those don't build up.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is permissible, but not everything builds up, or we might also be able to say, is done with love.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God, as we said.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the Church of God, just as I also try to please everyone and everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably heard that verse before in verse 31.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Eat or drink, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Notice, though, it is not just some kind of generic statement about living with holiness.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: It travels all the way until Paul gives his reasoning down here, so that they may be saved.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God, including even to the infinitesimal, the smallest parts of your life, which seems so neutral, how you eat and you drink, even those should be done in a way that can save people.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: What Paul is not saying here is that he's a people pleaser.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness, that guy, okay, is probably the furthest thing from being a people pleaser that has ever existed.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he is stubborn, he's all he is speaks with the voice of God, but is kind of sarcastic, okay?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And um is a little gruff in the way he speaks with people.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: He is not a people pleaser.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: But he is saying if it would benefit the faith of somebody, if ultimately they would have a better knowledge of Jesus Christ, a better experience of Jesus Christ, a better freedom and pathway to knowing him personally as their Lord and Savior, he says, I'd do anything.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give it all up.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'll change my whole life just so some people might be saved.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Over the next couple weeks, we'll kind of look at more things within this passage.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to see in chapter 9 next week, he's going to talk about how he has rights to be paid because he preaches the gospel.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yet in this particular situation, when he is in Corinth, he gives up that right so that more people might be saved.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: He gives more examples after that, but this is something he is going to illustrate over and over again.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so let's kind of break this down and then let's build this back up here, right?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean because we don't sacrifice food to idols?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: How can we apply this?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you might think of a uh a teenager, perhaps when you were a teenager and you were in your first relationship, and you said, What's the line that I cannot cross?
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we all did it.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: What's the line that I cannot cross?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: How far can I go until it's too far?
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then you set that line, probably too far.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: You set that line, and then in this warped sense of legalism, you think that the way that you are serving God is by going up and until that line and no further, right?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: That the way that you uh conduct your faith, in this case, in this relationship that you have, this dating relationship, that God is pleased if you go up and right up against the line, and he is displeased when you go over that line.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's this view that in our attempt to be faithful with ulterior motives, we are living our Christian life by trying to find all of the lines, living up until we get to them, thinking that we can pursue all of our desires and all of the technicalities that we want because we haven't crossed the lines yet.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Paul would say, is that really what following Jesus is about?
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is it really just about finding the lines and living up until them?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is a life with Christ, knowing him as your Savior, is the extent of that just limiting your pleasure?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because that really doesn't seem to be the kind of life that Jesus has called us to.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really seem to be the kind of life that the Bible describes can be found in Christ.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: It seems to be a much more limiting ideal, even though you might be able to get further.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: In that space is where I think we find our lesson for this morning, that it's not the line that we're looking for, but love.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the line, but it's love.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says in this particular context with Food for Idols, he says, you keep searching for the line, and by searching for the line, you have missed the point, you have harmed other people, and you have not sought what is best.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: In reality, if you were living with love, what builds up people instead of tearing them down, if you were living with love, he says, you would actually willingly choose to give up far more of your freedom, even though you technically have it, because you knew it was better for other people.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that concept makes sense to us, right?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there are many Christians that would say that love is a bad thing, okay?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: That concept makes sense.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: But where it conflicts with our ideas of how we want to live our life is Paul says, but the love that gives up freedom is ultimately a sacrifice.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the love that gives up freedom is often inconvenient, right?
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: And means that we are giving up something that we might be able to have otherwise.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Common example that people have given is somebody comes into your home who has struggled with alcohol their whole life.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you know that they are battling that hard and they're trying to win that addiction.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: And knowing that information, you say, Yes, but I have freedom to drink as long as I don't get drunk.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in your freedom, you harm the one who is desiring to follow after Jesus Christ.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about what's the line I can't cross with my girlfriend or boyfriend?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: How little can I work without it being seen as laziness?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: What's the least I can give without being stingy?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: How long do I need to act like I'm this person's friend before I let them go?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a way I can dupe the IRS in my business without being a criminal?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly how much can I complain about that person without it being considered gossip?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was nice to my neighbor.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Does that count as my good deed for the week?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we remind ourselves of the Pharisees when Jesus talks about loving your neighbor and they go, Who's my neighbor?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not because they really want to know, but because they want to know how far they need to go, liking somebody they actually dislike, before Jesus says, Okay, good job.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says you're supposed to act with love, the response is not how long, but yes, Lord.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is an indefinite thing.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a journey that I think all of us never really perfect until we get to heaven, right?
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: We are selfish people who are broken, who need Jesus, yet he's set the example for us of love.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Our example, our motivation is Jesus.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning, my question for you is what can you sacrifice in order to love someone better?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: You might have freedom to do the thing that you are doing already.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: For some of you, it just needs to be something you end because it is sinful.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: But for some of you, you have freedom, you've been given this freedom, and yet, because you so desire to exercise that freedom, you're harming other people.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, God says that you are sinning against him when you hurt the weaker brother and sister in Christ, when you hurt the person who you are affecting here.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is a sin that goes up to the very throne of God.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it might seem very simple, but the sacrifice that we're talking about is living our lives like Jesus.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: And as I kind of finish on that point, might I just remind us one more time that Jesus had all the freedom in the world.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: And yet he chose to willingly give that up to sacrifice in a way that, yes, was inconvenient and yes, involved a whole lot of sacrifice.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: But he did it so that we might live.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in embodying Jesus Christ, right, being the people who are supposed to reflect that to the world, the best message that you can give with the freedom that you've been given is I willingly hand it over so that somebody else might know Christ.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Take it.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I don't need meat.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: If that's what it takes, I'll give it up.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure he loves steak as much as the rest of us.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, if that's what it takes for somebody known Jesus, I don't want it anymore.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Take it from me.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: I would rather live my life with sacrifice, knowing that it saved other people than led to their downfall.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, what can you sacrifice in order to love someone better?
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Only you can answer that question.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Use your conscience to figure it out.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Use the Holy Spirit, which is able to work within every, which lives within all Christians, and I'm sure is bringing something to the forefront of your mind right now.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Think about what you can do that might inconvenience you or might cause you a little bit more difficulty, knowing that it might help other people.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we want to love people better.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we want more people to know you.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we want people to experience the love of Jesus Christ.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: And God, we know that we are often on the front lines of that situation.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that we as Christians would use our freedom for good and not to fulfill our own ends, our own desires.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that we would quit looking to find the line that we cannot cross, and instead would stop far before that, giving up some of our freedom so that others might be saved.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: That they would, Lord, see you as you truly are, as the good God who loves us, and that they would see that love through us.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that you would help us by the power of your spirit and the conviction that you provide through our conscience to help direct us as we walk this road.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we all fall short of living with a love that builds up.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: But God, we know that you've called us to it.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so I pray finally, God, that if we take that step, Lord, as you've asked us to, to sacrifice in order to care for others, that, Lord, in that moment, we would experience the fulfillment of knowing that we are acting like Jesus.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps better than we have in a long time.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: God, we love you and we thank you.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.