If you would please turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 8.
I was going to read the entire chapter
and we'll see if we can condense that
a little bit.
1 Corinthians chapter 8.
Now as touching things offered unto idols we
know that we all have knowledge.
Knowledge puffs up but charity or love edifies.
And if any man think that he knoweth
anything he knoweth nothing.
Yet as he ought to know but if
any man knoweth of God the same is
known of him.
As concerning therefore the eating of those things
that are offered in sacrifice unto idols we
know that an idol is nothing in the
world and that there is none other God
but one.
Now going down to verse 7.
10 Howbeit there is not in every man
that knowledge for some with conscience or custom
of the idol unto this hour eat it
as a thing offered unto an idol and
their conscience is defiled.
Verse 10 or verse 9.
Take heed lest by any means this liberty
of yours become a stumbling block unto them
that are weak.
Or if any man see thee which hath
knowledge sit and meet at the idol's temple
shall not the conscience of him which is
weak be emboldened or built up to eat
those things which are offered unto idols and
through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish
for whom Christ died.
But when you sin so against the brethren
and wound their weak conscience you sin against
Christ.
Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend
or stumble I will eat no flesh while
the world standeth lest I make my brother
to stumble.
We'll stop with that.
I'd like to say at the beginning of
course that to study the epistle of Paul
to the Corinthians it's very helpful and important
I believe to learn how to divide it
into its sections.
I'll just say at this point that I
take it that there's a section of teaching
that Paul is giving commencing in chapter 8
that goes on until chapter 11 and verse
1.
It's a it's a section that has to
do with a question of whether my conduct
is really not only according to the will
of God but is it going to be
beneficial or harmful to my brother and with
whom I have fellowship.
One thing about Paul's teaching is that his
teaching is very it's very shall I say
orderly.
He taught the truth very orderly and you
see that in the epistle to the Corinthian
believers where he begins in a certain fashion
and he develops his argument gradually until he
reaches the conclusion.
And when it came to this issue of
eating food that was offered to idols you'll
find that he begins almost on one side
of the question and he ends up on
the other side of the question.
And he does that because he wants to
defend something that was very important and he
wants to defend something else that was even
more important.
So his teaching was very orderly.
It's also a teaching that was very definitely
progressively instructive.
In other words moving from one point to
the other and building until the final conclusion
is reached.
I think that you'd find that in this
section where you first of all read in
verses one through six that he's defending the
liberty of those that felt that it was
perfectly acceptable to eat food that had been
offered to idols.
He says we all know that an idol
is nothing.
So in that sense if you read the
context of these first seven or six verses
you find that he is defending those because
he says we know that an idol is
really nothing and whether you eat food offered
an idol it's not really that important.
But then he changes his point of view
and he's not defending the liberty but he's
also reminding them of the restrictions of the
liberty.
He says you have liberty yes but not
liberty that's unrestrained.
You don't have liberty to do whatever you
want to do if you think it's all
right because you have to consider the other
believers in your assembly.
You can't just do whatever you want as
if you're a man or a person living
on an island and there's no one else
around.
If that were the case you do whatever
you feel is right between yourself and God.
But he says you've been brought into a
fellowship.
You've been brought into a relationship with other
believers and you simply cannot conduct yourself that
way because you may by your actions have
a harmful impact and cause disaster in the
life of another believer.
Now he develops that very nicely because he
takes both sides of the argument in chapter
eight.
That's what I take it to be.
But in chapter nine I notice another thing
about Paul's teaching and that is he didn't
teach anything that he didn't practice personally.
He comes into chapter nine he says I'll
give you an example.
He says there are things that the apostles
do that I don't do.
They're perfectly right to do them and they're
not violating the will of God if they
have a wife and they take the wife
with her with them or if they're involved
in other activities that's perfectly legitimate.
But he says I don't do those things
and I do it for a reason because
I don't want to hinder the gospel in
any way.
He tells the Corinthian believers also I could
be like them and I could receive fellowship
from you.
I could receive money to help support me
but I don't do that because I don't
want to hinder in any way the gospel
that I'm seeking to preach to you.
And so he takes himself and he could
he could properly use his own life and
his behavior as an example of them to
reinforce the principle that he's seeking to teach
them.
That only tells us brother that if you
stand before God's people and seek to teach
them anything make sure your life is consistent
with what you're trying to teach.
Otherwise those who know you will realize that
it doesn't have any weight at all.
It won't have any impact.
A man's life should sustain and demonstrate what
he seeks to teach to others.
We're always told to practice what we preach
and that's where it definitely applies in each
one of our lives.
But he says I can show you an
example.
He says I don't do these things because
lest when I preach to others I become
disallowed, disqualified.
And so he says I restrain my liberties.
In chapter 10 he comes to the example
of the children of Israel.
And he says they had liberties too.
They were brought into the sphere of great
blessings.
And he enumerates the blessings they had received.
And all those things that God had given
to them.
But he says the sad thing is they
were not responsive to those privileges.
They had privileges but they failed to act
in accordance with them.
These medications you take when you get older
they sure dry up your mouth I can
tell you that.
But then he comes into chapter 10 and
he concludes his argument by saying I want
to go beyond what's offered to idols to
what's behind it.
What about an idol?
What about the idol itself?
What's behind the idol?
You have food and you can say that's
innocuous.
Should be no reason why I can't eat
that.
But then you have to think about what
is it connected with?
It's connected with the idol's temple and the
idol.
Well now what's the idol connected with?
It's connected with a demon.
So he says you trace it back to
its origin and you have to realize the
fact it's not permissible.
And the conclusion of chapter 8 is I
don't do those things because I don't want
to ruin the life and the testimony of
another believer.
That's something that we always have to keep
in mind.
We always have to be aware of the
fact my life in some measure what I
do, what I think, what I say, the
places I go to, the things that I'm
involved in, they may hurt or they will
help another child of God.
And we should always have the concern according
to the will of God that we seek
to edify one another.
That by our life and by our testimony
we build up the assembly.
We strengthen the believers and we reinforce principles
and practices in their life to be a
help and to preserve them.
They say there are two sides to it.
You have liberty but you're not living on
an island.
You have to restrain your liberty.
I think the same subject is in his
mind when he reads, when he writes to
the Roman assembly in Romans chapter 14.
There were those who had the custom of
doing certain things they thought that was perfectly
acceptable.
But he says there's the other side of
it as well because there are brethren that
are going to be stumbled and they're going
to be hindered because you think you can
eat food and all these other things that
they were connected with.
So he's making it very clear.
And one thing I want to conclude in
this conference gathering is that you and I
have been brought by the grace of God
into a fellowship with other believers.
It's the unity of the spirit that has
been formed in the bond of peace.
So the essence is to seek to maintain
peace with my brethren.
The essence of it all is to guard
the unity.
It's not our producing the unity.
It's already been produced.
And it's based on the oneness of what
is developed.
Our brother spoke on that yesterday.
But we're challenged, we're commanded, actually it's a
mandate to guard the unity of the spirit
of the bond of peace.
Now you can't guard the unity of the
body of Christ.
But you can guard the unity of the
local assembly.
We don't have a responsibility toward the body
of Christ.
That's the Lord's responsibility entirely.
But you and I have a responsibility toward
fellow believers.
If you can't conduct yourself in a way
in a local assembly that would be beneficial
to the conduct, the testimony, and the principles
of that assembly, you'd be better off not
to be there.
We love to have every believer in the
assembly.
But some are not willing to be in
subjection to the authority that is vested by
God in that assembly.
So that you have this experience, and I
think we have to consciously be aware of
that.
And I want to take up a few
examples before I sit down.
And there's coming, I don't have any notes.
So this is all coming out of my
head.
I hope it's by the spirit of God.
But there's an issue that's coming up among
us and as believers in this state, as
well as in the Midwest.
Is it all right to engage in social
drinking?
Now maybe I'm getting into deep water.
I can swim.
And there are those who would say, it's
perfectly all right for us to drink alcoholic
beverages now and then.
Well, yes, it is.
It's not absolutely forbidden.
Or you say, well, in the word of
God, they drank wine.
Well, you can research a little bit.
I don't think they ever drank wine that
was not diluted.
According to what I understand, that wine in
the scripture was always diluted with water.
But nevertheless, the word of God never condones
it in a sense of encouraging it, except
on rare occasions.
But you say, well, I think that's all
right because it's practiced in the scripture and
I can control it and I don't have
any problem with it.
I'm not going to get drunk.
I'm not going to do the things that
are vile in the sight of God so
far as my conduct is concerned.
Maybe you're not troubled with that.
I'll say that there was a time when
I was a younger believer.
I'm being honest about it.
I thought it was all right, too.
I couldn't see anything wrong with it.
It's really interesting how smart you are when
you're young and how dumb you get when
you get older.
I used to think that about my dad.
He got smarter the older I got.
Well, that's only a sidelight.
The question is not what it will do
to you necessarily.
The question is, what is it going to
do to the assembly?
What is it going to do to the
testimony of that assembly that you're identified with?
What is it going to do to other
believers?
You know, there are some believers and they're
alcoholics.
Even after they're free from drinking, they haven't
drunken or drank or whatever that is.
They haven't indulged for 15 or 20 years.
They are still alcoholics and they still have
the potential to go back into that.
And the teaching of this passage is that
if you engage in that, there's a danger
you're going to cause them to fall.
You're going to ruin their life and testimony.
You're going to cause them to have a
disaster and even end up away from the
assembly.
So it's not what it's going to do
to you.
It's what is it going to do to
others?
And maybe to yourself, it's not very commendable
either.
You could take other examples perhaps that you
say, well, you know, there are some movie
pictures that they show.
Well, maybe not even in theaters anymore.
They're declining in popularity.
I can see them on YouTube or Netflix
or what are they called?
I don't know what all those things are.
But you say, I just watch those things
now and then.
Well, you can ask yourself, first of all,
dear brother and sister, is it beneficial to
you spiritually?
Is it really enhancing your spiritual life?
You know, there are things that the flesh
desires to see and really enjoys watching and
engaging in.
And maybe you say they're neutral.
But I can tell you this, they're taking
you away from the things of God.
It's one of the things which snatches a
seed away, like our brother's been speaking, or
strangles a seed or prevents it from growing.
But then suppose you're inviting another brother over
or another person over to your house and
they find out in some way that that's
what you're engaged in and they're watching you.
There was a time when they were addicted
to movies and all the things that have
to do with the entertainment world that we
live in.
You think it's going to be beneficial to
them.
It may be something that would cause them
to say, well, that brother, he's so spiritual.
He seems to be doing so well.
He takes part in the assembly.
That sister, she exhibits such a godly life.
And so it must be all right for
me too.
There was a time when they were very
troubled by it, but you're leading them back
into a condition which may be a ruin
to them spiritually.
That's what the apostle Paul was saying.
Don't let this liberty of yours be a
stumbling block.
A stumbling block in this sense is that
which is going to cause the person to
trip up in their pathway.
It's a trigger that is like a trap
and it's going to trap them and they're
going to stop making progress spiritually.
And without you intending to do so, perhaps,
you ruin the life and testimony of another
believer.
The same could be involved in many other
activities.
I'm not actually going in all the examples,
brethren and sisters, because I'd always leave one
out and I don't want to do that.
But just think about your life, your behavior,
your conduct, not only what you do in
your home, perhaps, but also what you do
in public, especially, and ask yourself, if I,
if others realize what I'm doing, first of
all, am I going to help the assembly?
Am I going to build up the testimony?
Am I going to make others in a
surrounding environment realize that we who profess the
lordship of Christ are actually practicing it, carrying
it out in life?
Or we just say so and are not
willing to subject our life to the will
of God.
And the great desire of a heart should
be more than anything else, not what I
want, not what my flesh enjoys, not what
I think will thrill my soul, not what
will be a moment of pleasure in my
life.
What is the will of God for me?
Is that really God's will?
Well, you say God will let me do
it, and perhaps He will.
But is it really what He wants you
to do?
I believe there's a difference between what God
permits and what God directs.
And our desire shouldn't be to do whatever
God will allow me to do.
You know, God allowed the Israelites to refuse
to go into the land.
God allowed them to turn away and wander
in the wilderness for 38 years until they
had all died.
They were over 20 years old.
That's not what God really desired for them.
And sometimes I wonder how many believers have
come right up to the edge of the
land where all the bounty of it and
all the blessings of it are before them
and they can see the evidence of it.
They turn away and they wander in the
wilderness the rest of their life.
I just say this, brethren, because I'm exercised
about it, that there may be things creeping
into our lives today.
I don't know what everybody does in their
life.
I'm not interested.
I have enough problems with myself.
But I'll say this, that the world always
seeks to intrude its tentacles into the lives
of God's people.
They're not always great big things.
They're oftentimes very little.
And they get into your life, they get
into my life, and they result in bringing
ruin, perhaps not just to you or to
me, but to somebody else.
We should appreciate and nurture the unity and
the fellowship that we enjoy with God's people.
I don't agree with everybody.
I know there are believers that do things
that I just say I don't like them.
Simple enough.
But I have a responsibility by life and
practice to seek to exemplify what God desires
for them.
And we desire with all of our heart
that God will build up and strengthen, reinforce
the truths that we believe are so important.
That the changes that the world and the
flesh would seek to bring into God's assembly
might be resisted on an individual level, first
of all, and then as well into corporate
gathering.