Lord willing we'll look at the
rest of chapter 10 from verse 23 on So first Corinthians 10
23 all things are lawful for me But all things are not expedient
All things are lawful for me But all things edify not I Now
the context restricts this to things eaten or drunk as they
pertain to adorning of the doctrine of the gospel. It's specific,
but at the same time as just about always in the scripture,
it's a principle that applies to many things. We've seen how that things offered
to idols are perfectly fine to have been eaten at the time We
don't really have anything like that now, but at the time animals
were offered commonly to idols both False idols of man's imagination
and also to the Lord In the sacrifices that were still
offered under the Old Covenant But because that idol is nothing,
verse 19, it gives us the reason why it doesn't matter. It's not
something you need to avoid because the idol is nothing. It doesn't
change anything. And also that which is offered
to the Lord in faith is fine to eat because the animal itself
is nothing. It's meat only. And that's important
to understand in the case of worshiping the Lord back then
and now, because as I said, it applies to different things.
But the offering of the animals to the Lord, that animal wasn't
anything special. Paul said the blood of bulls
and goats can never take away sin. That's why it was okay,
it was fine to eat meat that was offered to the Lord too,
because it wasn't the animal itself that was anything special.
It was only the worship, the gospel significance in those
sacrifices and who they pictured that was significant, not the
animals themselves. And so all of this is lawful
for me, he's saying. But there is in this same letter
a statement to the Corinthians that states this. Succinctly,
I think it'll be good to look at it look at chapter 8 verses
1 through 9 of 1st Corinthians This will you'll be reminded
of this and just how clear it applies to our text tonight Chapter 8 verse 1 now as touching
things offered unto idols we know that we all have knowledge
and In other words, we all understand that the animal is nothing, it's
not a sin to eat things offered to idols. We know that we all
have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but love
buildeth up. That's edify, that means to build
up. Knowledge puffs up, but love
builds up, and if any man think that he knoweth anything, he
knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. Don't get high and mighty
about how much doctrine you know, and to heck with everybody else
and what they think about it, because we know better. You don't
really know anything yet, anyway. But if any man love God, the
same is known of him. That's our hope, not our knowledge
of doctrine anyway. but his knowledge of us. 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. For though there be
that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there
be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him, Howbeit there
is not in every man that knowledge. For some with conscience of the
idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol,
and their conscience being weak is defiled. But meat commendeth
us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither
if we eat not are we the worse. So we know that, but take heed
lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block
to them that are weak. Not everybody has the same amount
of understanding, of light on different things. And you might
consider that this is just nothing but a history lesson, seeing
that we don't have anything offered to idols anymore. But it's the
principle of love in action. Love buildeth up, love edifieth,
and that's the word in our text. Not all things edify. But if
you love somebody, you're gonna build them up. You're gonna do
that, which is edifying. And so that's the principle we're
talking about, and you can see how many things that will apply
to. Love in what we do, love in action,
love in consideration to others. Love edifies. Just because it's
otherwise fine with God for me to do a certain thing does not
mean that it's fine with God for me to do it in such a way
that a brother is offended. And so being right, you can be
wrong. In that sense. Now verse 24 in
our text, let no man seek his own, but every man another's
wealth. You see that the word wealth
is in italics, it's not there. This is a solemn and important
exhortation because we tend to think only of ourselves.
Just be honest about it. We tend to think mostly, just
about all the time, most of the time, of ourselves. And so this
is important. It can't be that way among believers.
We're exhorted over and over. Listen to Philippians 2.3, and
this is, If you take the word wealth out, which as I said,
there's no Greek word there for wealth. It's let no man seek
his own, but every man another's. And listen to this verse in that
spirit. Philippians 2, 3, let nothing
be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every
man on his own things. but every man also on the things
of others. That's what our text is saying.
Don't seek your own, but somebody else's welfare, somebody else's
benefit, somebody else's comfort or prosperity or whatever. Be a blessing to them. The word
wealth there is not a bad word, but it's just, there's no word
there in the Greek for it. It simply says the things of
others. Think on the things of others,
like in Philippians 2, where we just read. How much time do
we spend thinking that way? Thinking on the things of others? We all have to ask ourselves
that and answer in our own hearts. And how edifying is it to always
think of one another and be helpful? Think what an uplifting thing
that is. What a profitable thing that
is. To be expedient, that word expedient means helpful. To be helpful toward one another.
There's nothing that encourages the heart like somebody thinking
about you and Helping you if you need it or Just giving you
an encouraging word letting them letting you know that you're
thinking about them That you love them and that you're there
for So let me ask you a Question about that because I know our
nature and this is the the Spirit of this verse now let no man
seek his own but every man another's and Matters and others welfare
So let me ask you a question when you do something for somebody
else Everybody at one time or another does something nice for
somebody else Do you think in your heart and you may not even
admit it to yourself, but do you think in your heart that's
when they owe me That's when they owe me Or what would they do without
me? That's our prideful nature. How would they get along without
me? Or do you think this way? By
the grace of God, that's a blessing for me. What a blessing to be
able to do that. God gave me opportunity and blessed
me with the means and even more importantly, the desire Be a
blessing to somebody else. Thank God for that. That's a
gift that he doesn't give very many people. Verse 25, whatsoever is sold
in the shambles, that just means the market, it's a meat market. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles,
that eat, asking no question, for conscience sake. The shambles being the meat market,
some of the meat at the meat markets in those days had been
offered to idols. The instruction here is to eat
whatever meat you buy there, not caring whether it was or
wasn't offered to an idol. You don't need to know that.
Don't ask. It's not important. And think about what he's saying
here for conscience sake. Conscience means consciousness of something,
being aware of something with a mind toward determining whether
it's right or it's wrong. And it's something we don't think
about much, but our conscience is always at work in some way
or another. But he's saying here, Don't ask
any question because then conscience enters into the equation. Paul is saying your conscience
has no part in this. Your conscience doesn't need
to sit there and think, well this thing was offered to an
idol. You don't need to think that because God already said
it's not wrong. Nothing to think about anymore.
Nothing to worry about anymore. Nothing to question. Well, I
just don't feel right. Why not? God said it's fine. Don't ask. Don't even find out. If you find out, that something
that you bought at the market definitely had been offered to
an idol, your conscience may kick in telling you not to eat
that. Well, it's just better to, you
know, I just wanna, I don't wanna have anything to do with that.
There's no need for that. If you don't ask, then there's
no part for your conscience to play. That's what he's saying. For conscience sake, don't ask.
Don't care. That's the right course of action.
That's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. And why not? Why isn't it important? It may
well, if your conscious enters into it, there may be a bad connotation
in your mind to something that was offered to an idol. There's
no reason for it, the idol is nothing. And here's, look at
the motivation for acting this way. For the earth is the Lord's. It doesn't belong to a false
god. When somebody offered it to a
false god, they didn't change anything. It doesn't all of a sudden belong
to that false god or those that offered it to him. Belongs to
God and he gave it to you. He gave you the money to buy
it. He made it available for you. We take that for granted
that we can just go get whatever we want. Because the Lord has
made it that way And it all belongs to him This
is what makes your conscience in the matter null and void The
earth is the Lord's and everything in it. He gives it to those he
loves You say well those he don't love get in on it, too Yeah,
he makes his rain to fall on the just and the unjust But it
rains because of the just The Lord's real clear about that
now in scripture. He takes care of his own, those who are in
Christ, chosen in him and beloved in the Savior. The implication here clearly
is that the meat offered to idols is still his. It still belongs
to him. The idol doesn't change that.
The one that offered it to the idol can't change that. Buy it,
eat it, don't ask, don't care. Verse 27. Now here's another
situation. Paul very thoroughly deals with
this so that we don't have any question about it. And think
of all of the different ways that this principle can apply. It is a continual attitude of the
fact that all things are the Lord's and he provides everything
for his people. He says the silver and gold is
mine. And that's good news for us.
Because he freely gives us all things in Christ. Physical, earthly,
temporal, spiritual, eternal. There's nothing that's not at
his disposal. And no good thing will he withhold
from those that love him. It's a constant attitude of that
and acting accordingly. Verse 27, if any of them that
believe not bid you to a feast and you be disposed to go, whatsoever
is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. This assumes now there's a there's
quite a bit of teaching in this in this sort of obscure verse
This assumes that you may generally speaking Know by their fruits
as our Lord taught us whether a man's an unbeliever or not If a man be an unbeliever then
then you act this way in this situation so Generally speaking,
you're not yourself passing judgment on anybody, on their soul. But
if they don't confess the Lord Jesus Christ, if they don't worship
God, if they have no interest in the gospel, then there can
be little doubt. So that's just a sin, you know,
you can know that. If an unbeliever asks you to
dinner, And for some reason you, whatever, maybe they've been
friends since you were a kid with you or whatever. It just
means that you wanna go, that we're disposed to go. It just
means you want to. We're not forbidden to eat with
unbelievers. Our Lord ate with us, so. Sinners, we are warned against being unequally
yoked. together with unbelievers, but you may want to go for whatever
reason. Friendship. Now, there may or there may not
be meat offered to idols being served at this dinner. It's just
you don't need to know. Again, don't ask. And this also
is for conscience sake. It seems in this verse that it's
still talking about my conscience if I'm the one that goes to this
meal and there's It's an unbeliever and you have good reason to suspect
that maybe you know, they bought meat offered to idols Then For your so that conscious doesn't
enter into it Don't ask And then look at verse 28, though.
But if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice
unto others. You didn't ask, but somebody, somebody volunteered the information
anyway, and we can see from the context why they did that. You
can imagine why they did that. But look at what the course of
action is now. Eat not for his sake that showed
it and for his conscience sake. And I added the word his there
because it's scripture. We'll see that in the next verse.
And for his conscience sake. And listen, the same reason is
given. For the earth is the Lord's. In one case, eat because the
earth is the Lord's. In another case, don't eat for
the same reason, but in a different sense. And we'll look at that
in the context also. So imagine you're at this feast,
you've been invited by an unbeliever, and an unbeliever tells you flat
out this meat was offered to idols. So what about then? Don't eat it. Do not eat it. Why not? Well, the same reason,
because the earth is the Lord's. In verse 26, the reason is that
meat belongs to the Lord. It doesn't matter if it has or
has not been offered to an idol, it's his, he gives it to him,
he pleases. If he gives you some of it, eat
it. You don't need to know, your conscience has no part in it,
because God says it's fine. In verse 28, the same reason
is given, but for a different reason. If that makes sense. Everything belongs to God and
he's given to his people to enjoy and to use to sustain life and
to enjoy life and do everything that we do. We entertain ourselves,
we enjoy a good meal, we go out to dinner with people, we have
fun, and God, He gives us all of that and so there's no need
whatsoever to eat something offered to an idol. And in this case,
there's a good reason not to. In this case, there's no reason
to because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Our nature is Adam's nature and
God said the whole garden, everything you want, it's all yours. except. May we not be like that now and
just say, well by golly, it's fine, I'm gonna eat it. If it
kills everybody, no, don't eat it. And there's a good reason
why not. Look at verse 29. Conscience
I say, not thine own in this case, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged
of another man's conscience? What is conscience? It's consciousness
of something, awareness of something with a mind to determining whether
it's right or wrong. An unbeliever has no right to
do that. Don't give them the opportunity
to make a judgment on something you did. The one way to absolutely
defuse that and not give them the opportunity or the pleasure
in this case, because he deliberately asked to see what you would do. So you completely defuse the
situation by not eating. Nobody can say anything about
it. Nobody can make a judgment that affects you or that's about
you even. That's not their business. So
don't make it their business. That's the reason in this case.
Now he's talking about the conscience of the unbeliever. I'm gonna
say everything I just said, but in case I missed something, I
wanna go through it on here. Not because it affects us, but why give them the occasion
to judge you by an evil conscience? Because their conscience is evil.
By nature, our conscience is evil, it's depraved, just like
our will, just like our nature, our conscience is depraved. I've
given you this example before, and you know this is true. One
man's conscience will bother him if he steals a pencil from
work. That'd be Vicki. If she accidentally took a pencil
home from work, she'd be like, oh, I've gotta take that back. I wouldn't give it a second thought. She's nicer than me. But another
man can murder somebody and not lose a wink of sleep. Your conscience
is depraved. It's messed up. Don't count on
it. But it says here now, why is
my liberty to be judged of another man's conscience? And then verse
30, it talks about being evil spoken of. So we see the motive
here. It wasn't just an innocent thing.
Oh, by the way, this was offered to an idol. You know how unbelievers
are, because we have one inside of us. We know exactly how they
are. They do it on purpose to see
what you're gonna do, to trip you up and to say, oh, you're
eating defiled meat or something. And they'll say it to other people. Don't give them the opportunity.
Just defuse that. Just like he did with the Corinthian
church. Some of them were saying, well,
Paul, I don't know about him. He wasn't even around when the
Lord ascended. Is he a true apostle? I think
he may just be in this for the money. How do you defuse that? Don't take a dime from you. Not
one dime. Don't send it. Don't give it.
Don't even talk about it. Just completely diffuse it. Don't
give him the excuse. That's what this is right here.
Conscience I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is
my liberty judged of another man's conscience? It's still
liberty. You still have every right to
eat it, but don't do it because don't give them the satisfaction. An evil conscience, this diffuses
it. They may talk bad about you over
it, can't do that if you don't eat. They may think bad of you
over it wrongly, but they can't do that if you don't eat any
of it. Think of it this way. The conscience,
and everybody has a conscience, everybody's born, and grows up
and becomes aware of a conscience, but an unbeliever, the conscience
of an unbeliever is irrelevant in this matter. Who cares what
they think? Natural man's conscience is evil
and depraved. All a natural man's conscience
can do is accuse him. And it doesn't do a very good
job of that, us being fallen and sinful and masters at justifying
ourselves. That's just evident. A believer
has a conscience also, though. Still, not reliable. Still not a good
compass of what's right and wrong. because you'll justify yourself. Or depending on your level of
coldness to an indifference, it'll excuse you. But here's
the thing, a believer does have a good conscience in this sense. You can't trust it any more than
you ever could. But what's good about a believer's
conscience is two things. A believer's conscience is good
in that it absolutely and utterly condemns us. Whenever you do something, you
don't have to sit there and be aware of it and say, was that
right or wrong? I'll tell you this, it was sinful. I'll save
you the time. You don't need a moral compass
to tell you whether you're evil or not, you are. And everything
you do is sin, still. You see what I'm saying? A good
conscience will do that now. When the Lord enlightens your
conscience, it'll condemn you every time. You don't need your conscience
to do that. The word of God is our hope, our trust, our amen. Don't have to wonder if I'm sinning
or not, I am. No question about it. It may
be a relatively good or bad deed outwardly now, and that's relevant. It's better to worship the Lord
tonight than mow your grass when the Lord's people are meeting.
It's relatively good. But you know what our hearts
are. We're full of sin and self-righteousness and selfishness and everything
else, we're corrupt. So a good conscience will condemn the stuffing out of you. All of my righteousnesses are
as filthy rags in the sight of God. But also my conscience is
a good conscience and a pure conscience, as Paul talks about,
because it looks to Christ, not me. God looks to Christ, not me. And he gives us that grace to
look to Christ and not me. That's a pure conscience. I don't
have anything to be guilty about, though I sin every moment. I don't have to sit there and
think. Oh no, I don't need my conscience to condemn me. My
conscience is pure of all sin because Christ is my righteousness. Doesn't mean we sin that grace
may abound. But I don't have to wonder if
what I do is sin and I don't have to worry about it. If we love him now, With all
of our heart, we're gonna seek to honor Him in all things. My goodness, if me sinning could
unsave me, what would it be the point of ever saying we were
ever saved? A good, a pure conscience. I am
conscious that my thoughts and my actions are evil, but I'm
also conscious by the enlightening grace of
God, faith in his son, that Christ has died for my sins according
to the scriptures, and that he justified me before God in his
perfect representative life and with his precious blood.
That's a good conscience. So don't give up. An unbeliever
has no business judging a believer. A believer has no business judging
a believer. So what about an unbeliever? Don't give them the satisfaction. Don't make it a situation where
that's even possible. Don't eat it. If they make a
point of it, Turn with me to Hebrews 9 11 Hebrews 9 11 now since the conscience
is our consideration Let's look and see how blessed We are of
God in the in the matter of our conscience. I before God and
things like this and everything to which the principle applies.
Hebrews 9, 11, that Christ being come and high priest of good
things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made
with hands, that is to say not of this building, not the Old
Testament covenant temple or tabernacle or offices or sacrifices
or any of that. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." And look
what this is leading up to. Christ has redeemed us with his
precious blood. He is the one offering for sin
forever. By which? were justified in the
sight of God. For if the blood of verse 13
bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh in a ceremonial sense,
in a typical sense, then how much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience? from dead works. Your consciousness with a mind
toward determining what's right or wrong, being judged about what you do
or don't do is over with. Your conscience purged from dead
works to serve the living God who redeemed you with his precious
blood freely. Your works are no good when it
comes to your standing before God and they're no good as a
moral compass, as influencing whether or not you think something
was good or bad that you did. Your works are worthless in both
cases, in every case. but your conscience is purged
by that precious blood. Now, according to our text, the
best thing for an unbeliever's conscience is to not even allow it to enter
into the matter. Same as yours. That's what happens when you
abstain from eating that meat offered to an idol in this particular
situation, where it's pointed out deliberately to you that
it was. Take away their ability to judge
you or to say anything about you, which they have no right
to do anyway before God. No right. Verse 30, for if I
by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for
which I give thanks. Don't let it happen. Don't give
him that opportunity. He's going to talk about it.
That's why he told you in the first place, because he wants
to talk about it. Just like they did to the master,
they asked him questions and tempted him with things to trip
him up. Verses 31 through 33 together. Whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Isn't
that simple? Do it for his glory. I know everything
I do is full of sin, but by his grace, we can do it for his glory
anyway. We can do it for His glory. If
I don't eat it, I'm not eating it for His glory. And if I eat
it, I'm eating it for His glory. That's just so beautiful. If
that could only govern every second of our lives, for the
glory of our Savior, of our Redeemer, to magnify Him in this wretched
world and give none offense Neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles
nor to the Church of God Doing it to the glory of God
means that you don't do it out of spite or out of income, you
know in consideration Somebody else Paul says even as I please
all in all Not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many
That they may be saved May the Lord give us the right motive.
The glory of God in the saving of sinners, in the comfort of
his people and being a blessing to them if you've done it to
them. And how unbelievers feel about
things and even how we feel about things is irrelevant. What did
God say about it? The only time it's irrelevant
what somebody thinks about something is when you need to guard against
unnecessarily offending a weak brother in Christ for love's
sake. Love edifies. Knowledge, without
love, it'll just puff you up. It'll make you a monster. Without knowledge, you'll be
a stupid monster, and with knowledge, you'll be a smart monster. But
love now. The fruit of the spirit is love. Love is doing or not doing. Think
on the things of others. Because that's expedient. It's
helpful. It's profitable. And give no offense to those
who love the Lord. And yet may not be I've taught everything just yet.
You're not either, and I'm not either. And give no occasion
to the enemies of God to blaspheme. Amen. Thankful for gospel instruction
that applies every moment of our lives. Amen, let's pray.