Transcript

1 Corinthians 10:12-33 “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?

All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience’ sake; for the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains. If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake. But if anyone says to you, “This is meat sacrificed to idols,” do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’ sake; I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.“

Free to Be Me. Do you understand this passage of Scripture? You need to understand two key verses and two key. The two key verses. Here are verses 23 and 24. In verse 23, the Apostle Paul clearly states, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. Now when he says all things are lawful, that can mean one of two things. It can either mean that there is nothing within the law, under the law, or by the means of the law that can take away my right standing before God. I’m not under the curse of the law. I’m not obligated to all as to gaining a right standing before God, the Lord Jesus Christ fully and perfectly kept the law. And on Calvary’s cross the Lord Jesus Christ fully and completely took the law as punishment for sinners. That’s all been done. Amen. That’s taken care of. Nothing else has to be done there.

So that could be one of the meanings when he says all things are lawful now. In other words, there’s nothing that I can do as far as violating any law, any rule, any guideline that will cause me to lose my right standing that was purchased by Jesus. I mean, Jesus didn’t pay most of it, and I’m paying for the rest. He paid all of it for redemption was complete when Christ died. Now, that could be one of the meanings when Paul says all things are lawful. But it also could be implying that he’s talking about all things that are not clearly condemned by Scripture as evil. All of those things, those are allowable things. Those are those gray area things where there’s not an absolute injunction from the word against them. All of those things we’re free to partake of.

But actually, I think both of them are really true. It is fully true that there’s no aspect of law and there’s no purpose. Our use of the law whereby to get me into heaven are to, remove the right standing. Jesus says, obtain the law. Can’t do any of those. And that since everything’s lawful. But also it is true that no Christian chooses to exercise the freedom to violate clear, absolutes of Scripture. Those are settled. We should not want to violate any of those. But then Paul goes on and further qualifies. What he’s talking about is he continues there. In verse 23 he says, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. Then he continues, all things are lawful, but not all things edify. Now the last phrase, but not all things edify, modify and further explain the phrase. Not all things are profitable. So when he says profitable, he means profitable to the end of edifying. Or you could translate the building up of other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now here’s where Paul, I believe is coming from. Well, let me go ahead and tie in verse 24. In verse 24 he says, let no one seek his own good but that of his neighbor. Now often the liberal humanist would interpret the Bible and take the word neighbor to mean the world community of mankind. But that’s a wrong interpretation, particularly here. Neighbor here means your brother or sister in Christ, particularly your brother or sister in your local church. I mean, just as you men ought to do good to all people, but you particularly ought to look after the good in the interest of your immediate family, your wife and children. Even though we know we want to do good ol man, but we have a particular responsibility, an obligation to that group. God has put us into to my wife, to my children are to my husband and to my children. And in a spiritual setting to that spiritual family, my local church family.

So he says, we’re not out here looking to see what’s good for us, what’s advantageous for us, what brings pleasure to us. The pattern of our life is to look at events, look at actions, look at behaviors and say, is it good? Profitable to the building up of my brother and sister in Christ? I mean, God put me in the family of God. God led me to this local church and now the motive of my heart is how can I help build up my brothers and sisters in Christ? How can I be a blessing to them? Now here’s a key principle. You can be yourself. Because when Jesus Christ saved you, he recreated you. There was a you that was born out of your mother’s womb, and then there was a new you that was formed when you were born again. You’ve had two births. Now what you’ve got to do is plug into the new true. You, the old you is not the true you. The old use passing away. The new you is the you that was created when the Holy Spirit of God regenerated your inner spirit. And there’s a new man, the Bible word that lives inside of me.

And so I can be what I am and be all that God wants me to be. I can be the new, true me. Follow the dictates. Follow the impressions. Follow the leading of the new me, which is the Holy Spirit leading me and guiding me. And then what happens if I follow the new me? You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to love God and love my brother and sister in Christ. So, so Paul is not saying, get out there and grit your teeth and work as hard as you can and try to make yourself do good for other people. No, Paul is saying just let loose what’s in there. Just live out what you are. Now who lives inside of me? The Holy Spirit lives inside of me. Now, when the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, he naturally loves believers. So I just need to get the old me out of the way. And let the new me be what he is. I’m free to be me, the new true me and the new true me. Genuinely loves God and loves one another.

Now the new me is Christ in me, and the new me naturally wants to fulfill the law and honor the law. Now listen to this. The law or the rules of Scripture are. The guidelines of Scripture are not my focus. Love is my focus, but the laws, the rules, the guidelines, the principles of Scripture are my helpers as I express my love. Do you get that? There’s a big difference there. The law is not my focus. I’m not a legalist. Love is my focus. The new true me says I love my God. I want to honor him. I love my brothers and sisters. I want to be around them. That’s why it’s hard to convince anyone that you’re saved. But you never want to come to church when you’ve been born again by God. There’s something in you that says, I like being with those folks. I just like to be around them. Now, folks, I want to tell you, there was a time in my life when I wouldn’t care to be around hardly any of you guys, but I got formed again. That’s literally what the word means. And there is not born again, but formed. God said, I’m going to reform you. The first one ain’t right.

And he formed a new me, and he formed a new me with the person of the Holy Spirit living inside of me. And the person of the Holy Spirit loves God and loves other Christians. So I just need to get me out of the old me, out of the way and let the new me take off, and the new me rejoices to honor the law as it expresses love to others. For example, if I love you, I’m going to honor the law that says not to murder you, but to help you. I’m not going to lie to you. That’s the law. The law says thou shalt not bear false witness. The law says thou shalt not steal. Well, my focus in the law, my focus is the love that’s in me for you. And I gladly follow that law to express the right kind of love to you. That’s what I mean by free to be me. I’m free now to be the true me that Christ created in me.

Now Jesus said in John 1415, if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. Jesus said, if you’ve been born again, there’s been birthed in you a new love and a new kind of love. And the chief focus of that love is going to be me. You’re going to love me now. Not that you’re going to be perfect in all your expressions of that love, but there’s a residing presence of love in your heart for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, if you have that love there, there’s going to be a part of you that wants to honor my commandments. Now in the next chapter, he says, John 1517 this I command you, that you love one another. So the new me inside there says, I love Christ, and I want to therefore obey Christ. And the new me says, Christ wants me to love my brothers and sisters. So it’s very natural for me to look out after. I want to build up and edify and do whatever I can to the benefit of the good of my local church family.

So you want to make this thing sort of abstract, sort of nondescript, definite. And we just kind of go out in the workplace and go out in the community and just kind of love folks. Well, that’s generally true, but the overwhelming emphasis of Scripture is loving that particular group that you’re bound with to serve the Lord, your local church family. And that’s exactly whom Paul is writing to, and that’s who he is referring to. So you’ve got to understand that concept that there’s been a new you created, and the new you naturally wants to love Christ and love brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, with that foundation, let’s talk about this freedom. Now, first of all, he says he gives us some exhortations concerning freedom. And there are two exhortations here concerning freedom that I want us to look at. The first exhortation is this, and that is that anyone can fall into temptation, not fall into temptation, but fall to temptation. Fall into the sin that the temptation is tempting you to do. Anyone can fall.

You see here the Corinthians are. And these Corinthians are man, their sight. They’ve had more troubles. And Carter’s got liver pills. I mean, they had everything going on that church, you name it, they were struggling with you name some fleshly manifestation. They were in the flesh about it. You name carnality and backsliding. They pretty much had it in the church at Corinth. And so what is typical of an immature church is that there are little segments and groups that rise up and say, we’re the spiritual ones. And there was some in that church that really thought they were above the rest. They were convinced they were the spiritual elite. And so Paul gives them a strong word of caution here and says, if you think you’re one of those and you’re mature and you’re wise and you can’t fall headlong into sin and failure, you’re greatly deceived. Verse 12, he says, therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. If you think you’ve arrived, if you think you are so wise and so spiritual that you’re above correction, above needing to grow.

And that certainly was the problem in the church at Corinth. That’s why earlier we saw in this book, one group stood up and said, we follow Paul’s teaching. What they meant by that is we’re so wise and mature. We identified Paul as the real man of God to follow. Then another group stood up, says, we’re of Apollos. And they were basically saying, we’re so wise. We’re so mature above the rest of you. We’ve identified Paul as the real man that you’re to follow and, listen to his teachings. Another groups came up and said, hey, we’re more spiritual than all of you. We’re safe. Us are Simon Peter. I mean, we’re really have a rod. Then as another group that was certain they were above the rest, I said, We’re of Christ. We’re so far above the rest, we follow Jesus. And they were really convinced, some of them, that they could tamper with and dabble with and lean into all sorts of sinful environments, and it wouldn’t harm them because they were strong and they weren’t vulnerable in those areas.

And Paul, in the midst of that attitude, those liberties they were taking in great areas, flirting with sin, Paul warned them, if you think you can’t fall, you better be careful. Anyone can fall. Matter of fact, I submit to you that God specializes in bringing down believers who think they’ve arrived because he loves you too much to leave you in that foolish condition. You see, the strength of our standing is never in us anyway. It’s in Christ, in us. That’s why Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. He strongly emphasizes this by the words take heed. In other words, beware. Your fall is probably just ahead. All are capable of falling. And until you and I are glorified with our new glorified bodies in heaven, and therefore have removed this old fleshly body with its lust, we are a candidate for God’s correction and instruction and more maturity, and we are vulnerable and capable of falling.

So Paul exhorts these people in this who have really, gone to the extreme in this concept of Christian freedom. He said, you guys better be careful. You think you’re too mature. Thank you. Too wise. Thank you for I think you’re going to fall. You better be careful. So there’s an exhortation that anyone can fall. But also he gives them an exhortation. Not only that, but anyone can flee from temptation. Not only can anyone fall while in temptation. Hour two temptation. Anyone can flee from temptation. Verse 13. First of all, he says, no temptation has overtaken you. I think he’s playing their own. Perhaps what they had asked him in a previous letter that perhaps some of them were involved in some of these gross sins that he’s warned about earlier in chapter ten, because it was just some unusual, unique, supernatural, special temptation that came on them. And and only a few of them faced it. Paul said, and all this big monster had overtaken you in some special, unique way. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man.

Now, I believe some translations put there that, you can bring out of their translation this well-known phrase God will not put on me more than I can bear. I want to submit to you. God regularly puts on you more than you can bear. He just will not put on you more than he can bear. He’s trying to get you out of you and into him, and so he’ll put you in that place. Whether you’re really the standing, his strength, or you are, you don’t stand and you don’t make it. You don’t persevere. But his point is, Paul is saying to the church at the temptations you’re facing are the same temptations that fall to the lot of all of humanity. There’s nothing unique, nothing extraordinary, nothing special about your case.

And then not only that, he said, but God is faithful right in the middle of verse, and God is faithful now, faithful to do two things according to the Apostle Paul here. Number one, he’ll not allow you to be tempted beyond what you’re able. I do not understand completely the sovereignty of God, but I’m going to tell you, God is in sovereign control, even of the enemies temptation that comes against you. You listen to me, friend. Satan is in total yielded submission to Almighty God. There is not some dualism in heaven of Satan working over here, and God working over here, and God’s wringing his hands. Saint Paul, which had some people on earth to work with. I’d like to get Old Satan. I’m struggling to figure this thing out, to think I’m a little ahead of Satan. I think it’s going to work. If I can just get a few believers to believe right and do right and stand right and all this other stuff, my friend, listen to me.

God said all the temptation that the enemy brings to you. It has to be filtered through an omnipotent God. He’s faithful to see that that’s the way it comes. No temptation is going to come to you that beyond what you are able. So he’s faithful to take care, to make sure that the temptation that hits you is not beyond what he’s giving you the capacity to endure. Then he says also, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape. So I said, first of all, I’ll not bring you a temptation beyond your ability. And secondly, I’ll bring alongside the temptation the way of escape. I’m not a Greek scholar, but the Greek scholars that I studied said it’s the picture here is just like a man traveling. And there’s two forms, not two forks, one fork. And you can take one of two paths.

And every time you’re faced with the fiery temptation, there’s the path that leads directly to sin. And equally beside it is the path that leads to escape. And God said, I’ll be faithful to make sure you have both every time. I’ll be faithful to make sure when you face the fiery trial of sin, I read the temptation. There are two paths, and you can make a choice at that point. At Robertson, probably the greatest great scholar who’s ever lived and wrote said this about this text. It is coward. The cowardly to yield to temptation and distrust God. You have a point at temptation to say, I don’t want to follow this temptation. I do, I trust that God’s way is better than sin. And every single time that we sin, we have in a cowardly spirit said, I distrust God’s way of escape. I believe the sin is better than the escape.

Paul says that’s the way it is. When you and I face temptation, can I give you three practical words here as far as the way of escape, how I think God perhaps offers the way of escape. I guess that would be a good way to phrase it. Offering the way of escape. The first one is meditation. When you have scripture that you’re meditating on, you’re ruminating in your heart and mind. It gives you added strength to pick the way of escape. It gives you added motivation, added vigor to deny the temptation and enter the road. The path of escape. David said, how can a young man keep his wife pure? That’s a good question. The reason he uses young man because that’s when the hormones are kicked in. That’s when he’s most vulnerable to those strongest temptations that come in a person’s life. So. So David picks that man out. He says, how can a young man, even in that stage of life, keep his wife pure?

By keeping it according to thy word? I have hidden our treasure, thy word, within my heart, that I might not sin against thee. I put it in there and hidden it in my heart. That’s why we’ve developed our Practical accountability notebook system. Not because the notebook special, but you have to have some structure to keep it going in your life so that we hold each other accountable. And that’s why I have two different groups of folks that I meet with every week. And I’m accountable for the verses I’m memorizing because I need the added help when the temptation comes. Meditation helps immensely. Secondly, prayer. Just run to God with it. Run to God, transparent and honest as you can possibly be. The temptation hits and go to God says God. I’d love to do that. I don’t you sit back there and possibly tell God that’s evil. God, I don’t think I would like that. Now it’s evil, but you’d love it. Amen.

To be out and then say, God, isn’t that just like my fallen flesh? Isn’t that just like my old, wicked heart to desire something that you say is evil? Oh, God help me. Because I’ll fall if you don’t help me. God, if you don’t help me, I’m sunk. And watch God take you to the way of escape. You can’t. You can’t fall into temptation. Carry on a conversation with God at the same time. It’s absolutely impossible. Meditation, prayer. And the third thing is accountability. Accountability for those areas of your life that you believe Satan’s getting the victory over and over and over again. Pray that God will bring somebody in your life. It would be wonderful if God would give you that kind of transparency and openness with your husband, or with your wife and say, honey, this is an area that I’m just weak in. I’m uncomfortable in this area.

I don’t like the fact that I blow it in this area. And I want to give you the freedom. Matter of fact, I encourage you check up on me in this area. Or maybe a brother in Christ, our sister in Christ. Now, these aren’t the kind you want. Wouldn’t want to have too many of these. And you’d want to pray about the person you get with. But there’s great strength and accountability knowing there’s going to be a check up in that area. I’m not even saying this should be very structured or even long term, but our seasons and times in particular areas where it’s so strengthening to be accountable, know they’re praying for you and know they’re going to ask how you did in that area. The Bible says in Proverbs 2717 that iron sharpens iron. Therefore one man sharpens another. Well, he’s continuing here, talking about this, fleeing from it.

Notice verse a rather that, that that you don’t have to fall to temptation. There is that way of escape. Whatever temptation you face is common to man. He’s given that exhortation that all can flee temptation. Now he gets to their particular area that they’re having a particular struggle with. Verse 14, therefore, my beloved brethren, flee from idolatry. In other words, this this temptation of idolatry is not to be dealt with. It’s not to be experimented with. It’s not to be analyzed. See it and run. As far as I know, the only other sin in the Bible where God says, just flee it. Some temptations may be overcome by fight. Then there are other temptations that can only be defeated by flight. This was one of them in the Corinthians case.

I mean, it’s reasonable to say that every single member of the church had an extended background in idolatry. It was the particular sin that they were particularly vulnerable to. So he says, in that area, you guys better just hightail it and get out of there. Don’t mess with that one. In other words, there may be some gray areas. There may be some allowable things. But when you journey into you can’t journey into those allowable areas of conduct. Our behavior. When the sin of idolatry lurks nearby, you’re too prone to fall in that area. Flee. So even in the allowable areas, when it comes to idolatry, stay away from it. Now, some of you over here, there may be some allowable areas. I mean, some area. Scripture is not real clear on, but because of your past failures and struggles, you can’t go into those allowable areas.

But your brother or sister can. They don’t have the faith in that area. You over here, there’s some some allowable areas, some area Scripture’s not clear on. But because of your past failures and sins, those particular things you can’t you can’t mess with, though. But over here, it might be a whole different one. And for the church at Corinth, it was idolatry, which of course was also connected to fornication and sexual immorality. They were particularly vulnerable there. Now we know that they had begun to go back to the temple and die. I mean, the pagan temples, the ones they were saved that they had begun, begun to drift back into that and dine in these temples and hang out there and, all under the pretense that an honest nothing in idols just wouldn’t stone. Paul taught us that. And the meat sacrificed to the idols. Well, that didn’t mean anything.

It’s God’s cow, and it’s God’s meat just because they did something crazy with it. So they were just getting over in the allowable and going to the extreme of justifying their conduct under this freedom. And Paul said, you can’t handle that. Matter of fact, you’ve gone clearly too far. You need to flee in those areas. Now, I do not know exactly what a modern parallel would be today. What is some clear iniquity? Are sin that you could say the overwhelming majority of people had in their life before they were saved. It’s hard in today’s thinking what the parallel would be to pagan idolatry of this day. Maybe something like using profane language, I don’t know, something that just fairly common out there in the world. And when you get saved, it should not be in your life anymore.

Because that and you shouldn’t even toy with those areas that could lead to that temptation, because that’s an area you could fall to. Well, let’s go to verse 15. He says, I speak as to wise men. You judge what I say. Now, Paul is not being sarcastic. Now he is on many occasions. But here he’s saying, you understand what I’m saying? You know, idolatry is a sin. You know, the sin of idolatry was in your past. You know, you’re particularly vulnerable in that area. And you know that if you go hang out in pagan temples under this pretense that an idol is nothing, it’s just wooden stone, and there’s no God but the one true God. And under this pretense that, well, the meanest gods meat God made the cow. And it’s all for him. And you know, when you do all of that, what’s going on?

You know, you’re using your liberty as an occasion for the lust of the flesh and says, you guys are wise, or you judge what I say. You know, I’m hitting the nail on the head. That’s what Paul is saying. Furthermore, he says, I already told them up in up in the previous verses. When he says in verse eight, in last week’s message, he said, nor let us act immorally. The literal great means stop committing immorality. So there was probably somewhat of a pattern of getting back into that sin, and they were excusing all of this under this pretense that these are allowable gray areas. We’re free in Christ. We’re not under the law. So, you know, it’s no big deal. But friend, waltzing carelessly into the allowable can lead to the sinful. That’s exactly what they were doing.

Well, we see two exhortations here about freedom, he says. First of all, know that anyone can fall. You be the last person to say, I won’t fall. Secondly, you need to know that anyone can flee from sin. God has given you that freedom, that opportunity each time. He’s faithful to seek to. Now let’s begin. And we will not spend all of our time here because my time is short. But let’s look at the examples concerning our freedom. He gives two particular examples that pertain to the church at Corinth, and their great and many practical applications for you and I today. The first, example is participating in idolatrous worship. And we see this beginning in verse 16. He’s giving them a practical example from their own life and situation.

He said, it’s not the cup of blessing which we bless is sharing in the blood of Christ. Now this is the Lord’s Supper. That memorial ordinance that God has given the church, whereby we partake of the bread and drink of the juice. As a memorial to the Lord’s death, that is a spiritual communion, a spiritual statement of our oneness and unity with Christ and our oneness to one another. Now he continues, is not the bread which we break, I sharing in the body of Christ. And then verse 17, since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Now he’s not at all implying trans substantiation here. He’s not saying that the blood literally becomes the blood of Jesus. The bread literally becomes the body of Jesus through the the avenue of your mouth and through the esophagus and down into your stomach.

So therefore you have some sort of a literal fleshly union with Christ. He’s saying there is a spiritual union, though that’s very special. When you partake of that juice and that bread, you’re one with Christ. That’s the statement you’re making. And you identify with Christ through that ordinance. And he gives a parallel statement there. And, verse 18, he said, look at the nation Israel. Now this means literally the Jews, not spiritual Israel, which is made up of all saved people of all generations. He means the nation of Israel, which again is a statement, I believe, toward pre millennial ism, which means that God has a special plan for Israel as a nation, and that plan is going to be fulfilled. In other words, the apostle’s viewpoint of Israel nationally, having a standing before the God is before God is still there.

That didn’t be that wasn’t absorbed when the church age being a lot of people would say that, well, you know, there’s no use of the nation of Israel anymore. It’s all the spiritual Israel now. Well, Paul didn’t think that. Paul says they’re still the nation of Israel, and there’s a special plan for them. Now, let’s just look at the nation. Israel are not those who ate the sacrifices shares in the altar what the Israelites would do under the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. They’d bring in that lamb or that gold, that turtledove, whatever the type of offering was, and they would cut the throat with a knife, but the priest would, and then the the animal would be burned, and then they would partake of that offering, literally eat after it was roasted over the flame.

And that was making a statement that we identify with where one with the offering, of course, that was a picture of the fact that they, needed a substitution to take the judgment of God to be their sacrifice in their place. It all pointed to Jesus, of course, but nonetheless, the principle Paul is pointing out there they were worshiping. They were one with the sacrifice. Verse 19. What do I mean, then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that idol is anything. Now he knows they’re thinking about themselves, going to these pagan idol temples there in Corinth. Paul saying again, I’m not saying that in idols anything, just wood and stone. And I’m not saying that the meat sacrificed to an idol, anything, tainted in any way, it’s still God’s meat.

Then he makes his clarification very clear in verse 20. No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become shares in demons. Now, here’s what he’s saying. He’s saying even though the idols just wood and stone, it doesn’t represent some God. There are no other gods but the one true God. Even though the meat is God’s meat. You’ve got to understand, Paul says there are spiritual realities. There are demons who are opposed to God in the work of God. And these demons under the command of Satan or Lucifer, are about the business of designing and setting up false religions all over the world.

And when you go so far under this pretense of freedom in Christ, to actually go back into that the idol temple and actually partake of the meals there and just go through the motions there, and at their same time, many of them are going into the fornication, because to worship in that day meant to have sexual relations with temple prostitutes, he says, when you go into all of that friend you are partaking, you are in league with, you are joining up with the demons who are in the back of all false religion. This is what Paul told young Timothy as he’s preparing Timothy to oversee the churches. He said. But the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

Demons are the masters of counterfeiting under the leadership of Satan, the chief counterfeiter. They are masters at putting together religions that have various touches, are aspects are facades of truth, but at their core they’re evil and corrupt and godless. And so Paul is simply saying, no, the wooden stone is just wooden stone that God made. As far as what that idol is made out of. The meat is the cow that God made. But you’ve got to understand, demons are behind all false religion, and when you touch with that, you get right back in the middle of that. Under this pretense, I’m free. In Jesus Christ, you’re actually partaking, you’re joining league with your worshiping, and you’re saying, I’m one with demons. He makes it very clear also in verse 21, as he says, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.

You cannot partake of the cup, the table of the Lord and the table of demons. He says they’re in antithesis. They’re in opposition. If you’re going to be a Christian and go to the church and partake of the Lord’s Supper at the same time, you cannot be hanging out at the pagan den down there and partaking of their system of religion. Friends are some things that are totally incompatible with your profession of faith in Christ, in your walk with Jesus Christ, and these people who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ and as a pattern of their life, hang out down at the hokey talk, are are find themselves regularly intoxicating themselves with alcohol and 101 other things that is not compatible with your Christian profession. They’re the antithesis you can’t share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons doesn’t fit.

Then verse 22, he’s real strong here. He says, do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than him, are we? Here’s what he’s saying. You belong to the one true God. You’re his possession. First of all, he created you in your mother’s womb. He sustained you all your life with oxygen to breathe, bread to eat, and 1001 other things physically sustained you. Then he bought you back to himself because your sin separated you from him when he bought you back, he also re-created you. He formed a new man inside of you. The new true use. Now there happened by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit in your heart. And not only that, God wanted to be more emphatic about the fact that you belong to him.

He says, I birthed you into my family. I’ve even adopted you into my family. God said, I’ve got you everywhere you can get. God, you’re totally mine. So Paul is saying, do you realize you are completely the possession of God? And you’re going over here to the enemies of God and joining up in legalism? What are you trying to do? Paul says, you trying to provoke Almighty God the jealousy. The word jealousy here represents that feeling which arises from wounded love. It’s the fiercest of all human passions. Paul said, you better think about what you’re doing when you make God jealous. And God can be jealous in a righteous sense because he rightfully owns you. You’re rightfully his. It’s not some sort of fleshly, sinful jealousy. It’s a proper and righteous jealousy.

Well, first of all, he says there, let me give you one example. This thing of partaking back in the system and the practices of idolatry, which the believers in Corinth, many of them were doing. But then secondly, and we’ll close with this when he said, I want to give you the example of, eating meat when it offends a weaker brother. And we I want you to listen carefully here, because this is probably one of the most practical and applicable truths of the whole text. He gives the example of them eating meat when it offends a weaker brother. Now look at verse 25. First of all, he kicks off and says, not eat anything that’s sold in the meat market. Well, I won’t tell you what I can say to that. When it’s warm weather like that, I can say Amen. Hallelujah! Go get me a lamb chop. Go get Misstate.

Go get me some chicken. Go get me some Polish sausage. Go get me some pork ribs. Go get me some beef ribs. Go get everything I can find at the meat market. Let’s have a cookout. That’s basically what Paul saying, man. You want to eat? You want to go down in the meat market and buy anything you want? Now you understand the context from the state. The Corinthians, the meat market predominantly was made up of meat. That early that day was sacrificed down at the idols. Men are the idols. Temple. So Paul said, don’t worry about that. So? So what would they sacrifice it to? An idol this morning didn’t mean anything. Still God’s still good meat. Go to the meat market buying. Eat it. Don’t worry about it. Then he says, last part of verse 25. Go down there and buy it without asking questions for conscience sake.

In other words, he says, don’t even take time to ask your conscience about this one. You don’t need to sit around and fool around. Try to pick on your conscience. So it was sacrificed to an idol earlier in the day, or maybe the last part of the day before it. Still, God’s made is down there in the secular meat market. Bite and eat it. I think there’s an exhortation for some of us believers here in that today we sometimes are too concerned about all the evil connections to some product, to. Friend, I want to tell you, the world is evil. Satan’s the God of this world. If you’re going to remove out of your life and stop purchasing anything and everything that may in some way, shape or fashion be touched to some evil, cause you got to go on to heaven and we can assist you with that if you like.

But I mean the world’s evil. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not against Christians organizing ourselves and particularly addressing certain issues at certain times. If you’re going to avoid all things that have any touch of evil, influence of evil on it, you have to go out of this world. The world’s evil. Satan’s the God of this world. Now, again, there’s another extreme in Paul’s already dealt with that. Also, you don’t want to go to the other extreme either, but nonetheless says, don’t even check your conscience on that one. Just go by them. Eight eight and have a good barbecue that the pastor over. Verse 26 he says, for the earth is the Lord’s and all it contains. That’s a quote from the Old Testament that was basically the prayer of the Jew before they sat down to eat.

They’d say, God, it all belongs to you. You made this cow, you grow this corn, you made the reverse seed. It’s all from you. We’re grateful you’ve allowed us to have some of it today. And then verse 27, if one of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go eat anything that set before you, now he’s saying there is room for social fellowship and interaction with unbelievers. He says, basically, don’t get all hung up. If an unbeliever invites you over eating, he thinks, but before you bless, of course, an alcoholic beverage. But then he says, without asking questions for conscience sake. In other words, it’s it’s served at a private table, even though the people are heathen.

And if you start clarifying what happened to that made earlier, you might get in a situation where some other, maybe younger, a weaker believer there has a problem with eating that meat, and now you’ve got a problem of offending his conscience. And it gets complicated and gets into a mess, he said. The best thing to do if you want to go eat, go on eight. Just eat what’s there and don’t talk much about it. Now verse 28, but here’s the exception to what Paul is saying. But if anyone should say to you this is meat sacrificed to idols, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you. And for and you really are out in the word he is. If you have the numerical standard and for his conscience, say now, the context strongly implies that here you have a mature believer with a strong conscience eating at an unbelievers table meat that’s been sacrificed.

An idol is not saying anything. Then you have an immature believer who’s also been invited. The immature believers come out of idolatry. He has a real problem. I mean, categorically he believes it’s evil and sin to eat meat sacrificed to an idol, even though it’s not done at the temple, it’s at a table in a private setting, but that weaker believers convince categorically this is wrong. So Paul says, if you’re sitting there and the weaker brother says, this is meat sacrificed an idol, Paul said, immediately, give up your liberty. You’re perfectly tolling, completely free to eat that it’s not sin and you know it. But if it causes that weaker brother to stumble, surrender that liberty. For his conscience sake.

You see, you don’t want to take something that’s good and do it. And teach another weaker brother who still thinks it’s bad because he’s not spiritually mature yet. But if he still thinks it’s bad and he sees you do it, he may do it. And you are teaching him to violate his conscience. And that’s one of the most awful lessons you can teach anyone to violate their conscience. The conscience is an important tool, an important instrument God has put into all of us. The conscience may not be in form completely. The conscience may not be mature completely. But you never encourage a brother or sister to violate his conscience. You give up your liberty first, even though that particular thing, you have great freedom in it. Now he continues to explain this.

Verse 29, I mean not your own conscience, not the conscience of the mature believer who knows he’s not sinning by eating that meat, but the other man’s. Then he says, for wise my freedom judged by another man’s conscience. Now, when he says that, he’s not saying that with indignation, like, well, why do I have to give up my freedom for him? I mean, why do I have to do this just because he’s immature and he hadn’t learned he doesn’t know better. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying, let me explain to you why I let his conscience dictate my freedoms. That’s what he’s saying. Have you learned in Christianity the higher rank you ascend to in the church, the less freedoms you have. He said, let me tell you why I let his conscience dictate my freedoms.

Here he is, verse 30. This is why, if I partake with thankfulness, if I eat that meat, I know God made that cow. I’m thankful to God for the cow. Thank for God that I get to eat it. That’s worship of the true God. That’s good. That’s gratitude to the true God, he said. But if I do that, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks? He said, if I do that in my heart, I know what’s good, proper and right. But it causes that weaker brother who categorically believe it’s sin. Then I’ve given that weaker brother the ammunition to slander me, to question my commitment to Jesus Christ, can question whether or not I should be a leader in the church, to even question whether I should be brought for the church for discipline.

And that does no good for anybody, just causes a mess. And Paul says, is that worth it? It’s worth it to hold your freedom when it could cause that kind of trouble. No. Let’s go back to our original premise. Listen, folks, there’s a new me in here, and the new me loves my brother and sister in Christ. The motivation of the new me is to do what it takes to to serve, edify and build up my brother system. The new me is never first concerned about my liberties and my freedoms. The new me is first and foremost concerned about what’s best for my brother sister in Christ. Not that I got a grip my teeth and bear down and try to remember and do it right now. That’s just the way the new me is. Not the old Jeff, certainly, but the new Jeff that Christ put in there is like that.

He verse 31, he sort of summarizes this thing up. And in verses 31 through 33, we sort of have a summary statement. I actually and he says, whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. He said, just think about, is this going to glorify God? Listen, hey, what glorifies God the most? What glorify God the most? A healthy, harmonious, Bible based, spirit filled local church? Are you with me? You cannot ever be right with God and go through this world. Not concerned about your local church family? Paul is saying, man, when I think about my individual freedoms and liberties, because I’m matured in the Lord and some things aren’t a temptation to me, and I know some things are not sinful, that perhaps at one time I thought were sinful.

I’m growing. I’m understanding. He said. But man, I put all those freedoms and liberties on the altar of the building up of my brother and sister in Christ to what is good for them, because that is what’s going to bring the most glory to God. Brothers and sisters in harmony, brothers and sisters sacrificing themselves to help one another build up one another, strengthen the church. In another general summary statement, he says in verse 32, give no offense to the Jews, are to Greeks, are to the Church of God. Do not knowingly go out and offend somebody from any background. And then verse 33, he says, I do this myself. I’m not telling you to do something I’m not trying to do.

Paul says in verse 33, just as I also please all men and all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved right quick. In the last 3 to 4 weeks I’ve had three different men in this church come up to me, and all three of those men are genuinely. I want to listen. I want you to swear I’m back. I tell you, they are genuinely willing to lose between 30 and $70,000 apiece. That’s rightfully theirs for the good of another Christian and for the benefit of the body of Christ. That’s not blowing smoke. That’s not hypothetical. That’s not maybe so that’s absolutely true. And those men are living out biblical, local church Christianity. I mean, if they wanted to, if they wanted to be mean spirited about it, I mean, they could they could do a lot of things, but they’re saying, hey, I can do without the money, and that’s better than to do something that might cause pain, misunderstanding, disharmony, and hurt the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And you know what I’m finding out? Businessmen after businessmen after businessmen, after businessmen. This church has learned you honor God’s principles, not Wall Street. And then your business is up to God. Isn’t that good? I’d like for God to be your CEO. God’s in charge. Then that’s just a. Those men have painted for me a beautiful picture. And we’re not they’re not begrudging. They’re not saying, oh, I guess I’ll have to do it. Well, Jeff, that what? No, it’s nothing like that. And that’s what the word said. But that’s what I want to do. Pastor giving up Liberty’s so-called rights for the sake of another brother sister and for the building up of the body of Christ. Now, Paul made it very, very clear.

So he’s talking about I don’t offend Jews, I don’t offend Gentiles, I don’t offend the Church of God. Never, never, never would he violate biblical standards and moral absolutes to do that. And some of that goes on in our world today. But that’s not the heart of Paul. So what’s the whole summarizing thing of this text? Paul says, you’re free to be you. I’m afraid to be me. That is the new me, the new me that was created when I was saved. The new me that has a as its chief motivation to love Christ and to love my brother and sister in Christ. You don’t have to put the law over my head, brother. I love my brother and sister. You don’t have to beat the law on me like the law was my motivation. My motivation is love. I look to the law to find out how to love best. But love, the Bible says, fulfills the law. Amen. You’re not going to steal. You’re not going to cheat. You’re not going to commit adultery. When you love somebody. And that’s where we are free to be me, the true new me. Jesus formed in me.