Brethren, let's turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 8. 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Next Thursday is Christmas Day
and every year I get the same questions about this time. There are some believers And
I'm speaking of believers. There are some believers who,
knowing that Christ was not born on December 25th, knowing that
Christmas originated as a pagan, quote, holy day. It's not a holy
day. Knowing that there's much idolatry
associated with the manger scenes and then what the Catholic Church
does and all of that stuff. And so they don't have anything
to do with it. And that's fine. That's fine. It's fine until they speak against
believers who gather with their families and who put up a tree
or give gifts to one another and until they start speaking
strongly against them. And then there's a problem with
it. And then there are other believers who enjoy the fact
that at least once a year this world is forced to acknowledge
the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I like the fact that folks
kind of get a little nicer around this time of year and give gifts
to one another and spend time with their families and we're
thankful for those things. But I got to thinking about those
two opinions, and it led me to 1 Corinthians 8. And I was just
reading this, and things that are indifferent, indifferent,
things that are indifferent, things that are not the issue
and not vital, they're not to be made into laws. And we tend
to do that, you know. We can turn a law into grace
if we're not careful. But things that are indifferent,
they're not to be made into laws. And these things are not always
black and white. It's not just... We don't worship
God in the letter. We worship God in spirit. And
that means we have to use spiritual discernment because every case
is not always the same. It's not just something written,
chiseled in stone. This is a spiritual matter. It's a matter of spiritual discernment.
I hope you'll see that in the message. One believer may think
that idols and meets and days that if you get around them or
have anything whatsoever to do with or don't observe certain
meets or these things that they'll defile you. They'll defile you. Believers believe that. Believers
think that. And they're wrong to cut off
brethren that consider idols and days and ceremonies and all
these things just to be nothing, to have no bearing on anything. They're wrong to cut those folks
off. And likewise, a believer who understands that he's got
liberty in Christ, he shouldn't use that liberty to put a stumbling
block before the weak believer who thinks he should observe
certain ordinances and days and what have you. But here's what
I want us to get from the message, God-given knowledge, God-given
knowledge accompanied with God-given love. It teaches us, brethren,
to love our brethren, to seek their edification, to see them
grow in grace and the truth, but it never causes us to want
to divide our brethren, or to divide from our brethren over
something that, especially over something that's indifferent,
completely indifferent. Now let's look here at this text,
and our subject is love, liberty, and weak brethren. Love, liberty,
and weak brethren, and that's our divisions. Now he begins
in verse 1, he says, as touching things offered unto idols. When
idolaters finished with their religious service, we're talking
about folks that don't know God, they don't know Christ, and they're
worshiping a God they made up in their mind, and perhaps carved
Him out into an image of some sort. But after they finished
with their religious service, they would take the meat from
the sacrifices that they offered to their idols and they would
sell it in the marketplace. You could go there and buy meat.
Just like you'd go to the supermarket and buy meat. They'd sell it.
Or if they were having a festival or something like that and you
had a friend that wanted you to go with them to this, you
could go there and some of the Corinthian believers would go
in there and they would sit down and they'd eat lunch with them. And it was meat that had been
offered to the idols. Now, they weren't to do it if
the folks were saying, hey, we're offering this to idols now. We're
doing this in service to an idol. Then they were not to do it.
But just to go in there and sit down with their friend and eat
this meat, there's nothing wrong with that. That's fine. But there
were other believers who wouldn't dare eat that meat. Because to
them, this was offered to an idol and it was off limits and
they wouldn't dare touch it. Now both of these are believers,
the one who ate and the one who didn't eat. They're both believers.
And so the question is whether a believer should eat this meat
or should not eat this meat. That was the question they wrote
to Paul about. And so this is what he's going
to answer them. Now I want you to see here, this is not a yes
or no answer. He don't just write them and
say, now as concerning things touching, I offer to idols, no,
don't eat it. He didn't say that. I want you
to watch this. Watch what he says. First a word
for the believer concerning love. Verse 1. He says, Now as touching
things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Now
he's speaking here about knowledge that an idol is nothing, and
knowledge that we are to love our brethren. Now he's speaking
here to mature believers. This is who knows this, is mature
believers. They've been grown in grace,
they've been taught They understand that an idol is nothing. And
he says, they've got this knowledge that they have liberty from the
ordinances, from touch not, taste not, handle not, and what have
you. That's what he's talking about
here. And that's what we know that have been grown in grace
and matured by God's grace. You know when Christ set you
free, He set you free indeed. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. When God brought
us to Christ by His grace, He brought us out from bondage,
out from the touch not, taste not, handle not, out from the
law, and He brought us to the end of the law, which is Christ
Himself. And having Christ, we have the
righteousness of God, Christ Himself. Paul said in Romans
14, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not meet
and drink and observing days and all this. That's not the
kingdom of God. That's not what God's true kingdom is. The kingdom
of God is peace, is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. We've been brought out from the
old covenant law and we're not bound by the old covenant law
in any regard whatsoever. We are in the Holy Spirit. We've been baptized into the
Holy Spirit in addition to being born of the Holy Spirit. We're
in the realm of the Holy Spirit now if we're true believers.
And in the Spirit, we worship God in Spirit and in truth. We rejoice in Christ, who is
our righteousness. We have peace with God in Christ,
who is the peacemaker. We joy in Him. And we do this
in Spirit, in the Holy Ghost. This is what the Kingdom of God
is about. And if men insist on these things, The Apostle Paul
told the Colossians now, if they insist you come back under ordinances
and observe days and all those things, he said, now if they
insist on those things, you don't ever let a man bring you back
into subjection to those ordinances, ever. There's a difference between,
as we're going to see, being loving to somebody and patient
with a believer. And that lawmonger that comes
and says, except you do this or that, you can't be saved.
There's a difference between those two. Paul said concerning
those men in Colossians 2, you don't have to turn there, I read
it to you Sunday. He said, Christ blotted out the
handwriting of ordinances which was against us. He blotted out
that covenant of works we were under in Adam, and he blotted
out the covenant of works that was given in Mount Sinai. We
as Gentiles were never under that. But he blotted that out
for God's elect who were Israel in that nation. He blotted that
out for them. He blotted that out. He fulfilled the law completely. And he's the end of the law.
He nailed it to his cross, he said. So he said, don't let any
man judge you. Don't let him bring you back
in subjection to meat or drink or respect of a holy day or of
the new moon or of the Sabbath days. Everything the old law
said, it was a shadow and a picture and a type of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I gave you this illustration
a long time ago, I think. If you had a picture of somebody,
Ravi, you're gone somewhere and you're on a trip and Debbie's
got a picture of you. And she just holds on to that
picture and thinks, oh, I just can't wait till he's here. I
can't wait till he gets home. I want to see him. That's what
the law was. The law was a picture. And God
showed His people that He called by His grace in that old covenant.
He showed them Christ in those pictures and types. And they
saw Christ to come. But now Ravi, if she gets home
and she's still holding on that picture and saying, oh, I love
Ravi and she's not giving you any affection, something wrong.
But when the when the when the body comes, we let go of the
picture and we lay hold of the body. And that's what Paul said
of the law. It was the image. It was the
picture or the picture. Christ is the image. He's the
body. And so he says now, he says to you and me who believe,
since we're dead with Christ to the law, he says, why do we
act as though we still live in that old world under that old
covenant or even why do we act as though we live in this present
world, that our life is based on, is going to be determined
by something we do in this present life? He said, no, no, your life
is already at the right hand of God in Christ Jesus. So he
says, so then don't be subject to these. Don't let me bring
you back into bondage again. Christ has freed you from that.
He's freed you from that. Now, the same principle that
he said there applying to the old covenant, it applies to idolaters
and things that they days and things meets that they use. It
applies to that, too. It applies to that, too. The
same principle does. Now, look. We have knowledge
of our liberty in Christ. Believers do. We have knowledge
that the mature believer does, that he's freed us. But if we
have that knowledge and it's not accompanied with love toward
those believers who don't have it, then brethren, we really
don't know anything as we ought to know. And that's what he says
there, verse 1. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity
edifieth. And he says, and if any man thinks
that he knows anything and yet he's puffed up, yet he doesn't
have this love, he doesn't know anything as he ought to know.
He doesn't know anything as he ought to know. Wherever God gives
true knowledge and love in Christ, there's going to be some wisdom
there. And there's going to be some love there and mercy there
and patience there. and forbearance and longsuffering. And we want believers to be edified
rather than to be hurt. Listen to what James said. Let's
actually go there. James 3. James 3 verse 13. Who is a wise man endued with
knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conduct
his works, whatever he does amongst believers, with a meekness of
wisdom. This is that love that accompanies
this knowledge, when God gives this true love with this true
knowledge. Look, he says, but if you have bitter envy and strife
in your hearts, that is against your brethren. He says, glory
not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above. It didn't come from God. It's
earthly. It's sexual. It's devilish. For
where envying and strife is there's confusion and there's every evil
work. But the wisdom that is from above
is number one is pure. It's not it's not deceiving it's
not it's not conniving it's pure and it's peaceable and gentle
and easy to be entreated. You can go talk to a believer
that's got wisdom from above a company with true love. You
go talk to him and he'll talk to And he's not, you don't have
to be afraid of him, he's easily entreated. He says, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. But a man that has
knowledge, he doesn't have this charity, he doesn't have this
mercy, he doesn't have this gentleness and this peacefulness, he doesn't
know anything as he ought to know. He may think he's wise,
but this is where wisdom lies. Now look at verse 2. He says,
if any man think he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought
to know. He doesn't know how to use this knowledge wisely.
He doesn't know how to love and to edify his brethren for the
peace of the church. Instead, he uses that knowledge
to please himself. Use that knowledge to divide
folks. Use that knowledge to... And I've seen, over the years,
men who got an understanding of truth. And they had an understanding
of the truth, of the doctrine. But, man, the havoc they caused
on brethren, and the families they divided, and the churches
they split and fleeced, and all this stuff. You think, that man
don't know anything, as he ought to know. Well, just think about
why does a believer, why would a believer that's matured by
grace and been grown by grace, why would a believer be peaceable
and merciful and easy to be entreated and patient and all those things?
He sees something about what Christ did for him. Listen to
this scripture from Romans 15. We then that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak. You know what Christ did
for us? Think of the infirmities He bore
of ours, brethren. You know the apostles. He walked
with the apostles. And the apostles had the Master
there. They had wisdom Himself, truth
Himself speaking to them and teaching them. And do you know
the boneheaded questions they asked Him sometimes? He would
look at them and say, Have I been with you this long and you don't
know me? But He bore that. And he bore
that unfaithfulness and their doubting right up until the time
he ascended to the Father. One of the last questions they
asked him was, are you going to restore the kingdom now? And
they had heard him say, my kingdom is not of this earth. If it was,
my people would fight. It's not of this earth. But they had so many infirmities
and were so weak and so misunderstood and so slow. But he bore those
infirmities. And look at this, and not to
please ourselves. I'm in Romans 15, if you want
to look there. He said, bear the infirmities
of the weak not to please ourselves. That's what Christ didn't come
to please himself. He came to glorify God the Father.
He came to do the will of the Father. He came to do good for
his people. So he took the form of a servant to do that for his
people. He says, let every one of us please his neighbor for
his good to his edification. Rather than pleasing ourselves,
rather than doing that which we would do and just say, I don't
care if my brother is edified by this or not, I'm going to
do it anyway. He says, rather than pleasing ourselves, please
your brethren for their edification. That's exactly what Christ did
for you and me. He laid down his life. I mean,
laid down his life. And he says there, he says, he
says, for even Christ, please, not himself, but as it is written,
the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. Think of the
things we called him and the things we spoke of him and the
things we thought in our heart about him the whole time we were
in our rebellion. And when Christ went to the cross,
every sin that we've ever thought from when we were in our rebellion
up to this minute right now and everyone we will to the end of
our days. He said, take all that and put
it on me. I'm going to bear every bit of
it and give me all the stripes that they deserve. Give me the
full blow of justice that they deserve. I'll bear it for them.
But you know what he didn't do? He didn't cut us off our ignorance,
and our rebellion, and our unfaithfulness, and our doubting, and all that.
He didn't cut us off for that. And there's a lot of times when
you and me act like we ain't even never heard of Christ. But now look here in our text.
If a believer does love God, or does love his brethren, God
gets the glory. Verse 3 says, If any man love
God, the same is known of him. Now first that means he's approved
of God, he's accepted of God. And you can read Romans 14 and
see where Paul said, Any man that does these things and serves
Christ and loves his brethren, he's acceptable to God, approved
of God. And that's what we are in Christ.
But this word also means that it's the same as being born of
God. Look over at Galatians. In Galatians over there in verse
4. God knew us from everlasting.
He loved His people with an everlasting love in Christ. His love's in
Christ. It's a particular love. And Christ
loved His people when He went to the cross. He knew us. He
knew us. He had our name on His breastplate. But then in our experience of
grace, He knows us. And when He knows us, He makes
us willing to follow Him. Christ said, My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. This is that knowing
where He makes us alive and teaches us in our heart and plants the
incorruptible seed in us. It's that kind of knowing. Galatians
4, 8. Now watch this, what Paul said.
He says, Howbeit then, when you knew not God, you did service
unto them which by nature are no gods. That's when they didn't
even know God. They were lost, blind, dead sinners.
He says, But now, after that you've known God, or rather,
are known of God. You've been known of God. How
turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements where to you
desire again to be in bondage? They've been born of God, they've
been approved of God in Christ, accepted in the beloved and taught
of God so that now they were turned from those beggarly elements.
And he says now, if a believer knows God or rather is known
of God, And he, so that when he loves, he loves God, he loves
by loving his brethren, and being merciful to his brethren. It's
because he's been born of God, and been approved of God, and
been accepted of God in the beloved. You remember that, those two
mothers, who, who, they had, they had children. Each of them
had an infant. And the one mother rolled over
on her mother, on her infant and her infant died. So she went
and stole the infant from the other mother in the night. The
next morning they brought both of them with that infant. They
brought it before Solomon. Solomon said, take a sword and
just split that baby right down the middle. The mother, the true
mother, loved that child. She didn't want to see that child
divided. She said, give the child to her. She'd rather see the
child live whole, not die, not be divided than she would to
have her away and see that baby divided. That's what he's talking
about. When you love God, when you're
known of God, accepted of God, born of God, taught of God, given
this love of God, you want your brethren to be edified rather
than divided and split away and you split away from them because
there's love there. Now that's true wisdom. All right,
now look at this. Now here's a word concerning
liberty in Christ. Liberty in Christ. 1 Corinthians
8, verse 4. He says, "...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 there's none other God but one." Believers
that have been matured by God's grace, we know an idol is nothing. An idol is nothing. I went down
there to Mexico a year or two ago, and I was out there at those
pyramids, and they had a little statue out there about this tall,
and I bought a couple of those just to put up on the shelf when
I got back to the house. And when I said, yeah, that's
their gods that they worship, not to me. It's nothing to me. It's a piece of wood. It looked
kind of cool. I liked the way they carved it out, and I just
brought it home and put it on the shelf. And that was nothing to the believer,
nothing at all. There's one God, and that's who
we serve. Men make idols out of things. We worship the God who made the
things. Men worship special days. You'll
see folks treat December 25th like it's just some holy day.
Easter will roll around. They'll do the same thing on
Easter. They worship days. We worship the God who made those
days. We worship the God who made every
day, and we worship Him the same every day. We're not going to
preach a special message when Sunday rolls around or Christmas
rolls around. We're going to preach the gospel
because we do it the same way every time. It's not even going
to affect our service whatsoever. Men worship dead men. We worship
the living Redeemer who's made his people alive eternally and
says they'll never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my
hand. We worship, the men worship, they worship earthly Mount Zion
and earthly Jerusalem and that earthly temple over there, and
they call that the Holy Land. We worship God in heavenly Mount
Zion, in heavenly Jerusalem, in the holiest of holies, in
which those things were just a picture, and that's the Holy
Land where He is. That's who we worship. So those
things are nothing to us. They're just idols and we don't
worship those things. The Lord told that woman at the
well, he said, there's coming a time when you won't worship
in this mountain and you won't worship at Jerusalem. And he
said, you don't even know what you're worshiping. He said, but
we're the Jews and we know what we worship. We are the Jews. We are the true Jews circumcised
in the heart by the Spirit whose praise is of God, not of man.
We are the circumcision. We worship God in spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And he said, The
hour comes and now is when true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth, because the Father seeketh such
to worship Him. God is a spirit and those that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Where
the, wherever the inward working of the Spirit is not. Could you imagine, I think about
it sometimes, what would it be like if you didn't, if I didn't
have, you men can verify this, if you didn't have the Holy Spirit
giving you a heart to study these scriptures and giving you a little
morsel every now and then to where it just got you on fire
and you're walking around trying to tell everybody everything
you just saw. You know how hard it'd be to study this book? It
would be hard because even with the Holy Spirit, as soon as you
pick it up, it'll make you sleepy faster than anything in the world. But if you didn't have the Holy
Spirit, and wherever the Holy Spirit's not, when folks come
in and they're trying to so-called worship God, they have got to
have images or some kind of outward works or some kind of outward
something going on so that they can see something with the carnal
eyes. because they don't have it going on in the heart, in
spirit and truth. That's just so. Alright, now
remember, when men call something a god, they don't make it a god. They call it a god, but they
don't make it a god. He says, verse 5, Though there
be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there
be gods many and lords many. According to men, men got gods
everywhere. And they're telling you all about
them all over the world. There's all kinds of different religions,
all kinds of gods in men's minds. There's as many different kinds
of gods as there are different kinds of people. More. More. But he says this, But to us there's
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. God in three persons, God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One God in three
persons is the only true God there is. He's the only true
God there is. One God in three persons, and
He's revealed in the fullness of one Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says, in Him, in Christ,
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's the fullness
of the Godhead. That's how we... He's the express
image of God, the Hebrew writer said. Unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. The government's on His shoulder.
It has been from eternity. It was when He walked this earth,
He was born King. And it was on His shoulder when
He went to the cross. It's on His shoulder at the right
hand of God. It's the government of the heaven and earth, of the
whole universe, and especially of His kingdom, of His people.
And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. That's who
He is. All things are of Him and by Him. Everything that's
ever been created, all things in providence and all things
in grace, all things are of Him and by Him. And the believer
is in Him and by Him. We were in Him as our covenant
God when there was nothing but Him. We were in Him. We were in Him by everlasting
immutable love. We were in Him vitally, unchangeably,
inseparably connected with Him. We've been in Him from the beginning. We were in Him when He chose
us. We were chosen by Him. We were
redeemed by Him. We were reconciled by Him. We
were justified by Him. We were sent the Gospel by Him. We were regenerated by Him. We
were given faith by Him and repentance by Him. We were taught the truth
by Him. We are preserved by Him. We are
kept by Him. We are continually being taught
by Him and grown by Him. and we're going to be resurrected
by Him, and we're going to be glorified by Him, and with Him,
and in Him. This is salvation A to Z, and
this is the only God this is said about. There's no God in
this world, so called by men, that this can be said about.
Their gods at some point depend on them to do something. Have
you ever seen a statue that men call a God? He has no hands but
their hands, and no feet but their feet, and no eyes but their
eyes and no ears but their ears. And I've heard men stand up in
Baptist churches and say that about the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a statue. That's the God of man's imagination.
That's not our God. Our God does what He pleases,
when He pleases, how He pleases, because He's able to. He's God. That's the definition of God.
None above Him. He can do what He wants to. And
He does that. And the believer grown in grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus, we worship the only true God
in Christ our Lord and Savior, and we know an idol is nothing.
That means their days, their ceremonies, their offerings,
whatever it is, we know it's nothing, just nothing. Now, that's
what a believer knows. We've got a knowledge of the
true God and a love in our hearts for Him. But now, if you don't
have that love, you might know a lot of stuff about the true
God. But if you don't have that love in your heart, we don't
know anything as we ought to know. If we have it, He gives
the glory. Number two, we worship the one
true and living God in Christ our Lord, and we know that an
idol is nothing at all. Nothing. Now, number three. Here's
a word concerning weak believers. Verse seven. Howbeit there is
not in every man that knowledge. He's speaking of true believers
here. There's not in every, you put believer there for a moment,
there's not in every believer that knowledge. For some, here's
what he means, 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. The weak believer, now I'm going
to paint the picture as it would have been in Paul's day. And
you can apply this to Christmas or whatever you want to apply
it to. But you take a weak believer and he sees an idolater. Slaughter
a pig. Just a pig's all he is. We're
talking about Gentiles, so they probably slaughtered pigs. He
slaughters him a pig. And he prayed over that pig.
And he takes that body and he takes it in there and he offers
it to his idol, whatever idol it was. Sprinkles the blood,
does whatever. Now the leftovers of that pig,
if he's got some baby back ribs or he's got some pork butt or
something, it would be real good on the smoker. There ain't a
thing wrong with it. Put it on the smoker, cook it slow and
low, and it'll be good in about whatever cut you're eating, depending
on what cut you're eating. In about three to six hours,
it's gonna be good. But the weak believer, he's still attaching
some superstitious notion. that that piece of pork is now
impure. And he doesn't fully believe
that the idolater's day is nothing. He doesn't fully believe that
the idolater's prayers are nothing. He doesn't fully believe that
the idolater's ceremony is nothing. He doesn't fully believe that
the idol is nothing whatsoever. And that meat has not been affected
at all by what took place. If he eats a pulled pork sandwich
off of that pig, he's doing so against his conscience. He's doing so against his conscience,
because his conscience is weak. And he still thinks that he shouldn't
eat that. And so, he's not believing Christ
fully. He doesn't see that Christ says,
you're free indeed. You're free indeed. You can eat
it, you're free. He doesn't believe. And so, he doesn't see his completion
is unchangeably in Christ at God's right hand. It's not going
to be based on what he does or he does not do. And so, when
he eats that pork, his conscience is defiled. That means it's wounded. That means it's pierced through,
it's pricked. That means that he sees himself
as sinning against God. And he hadn't changed before
God in Christ at all. Nothing's happened before God,
but in his own conscience he's lost peace with God. He'd been
wounded before God. But be sure to understand this.
The meat didn't do it. The meat didn't do it. Look now
at the next verse. Verse 8. 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. The meat didn't do it. Believer,
Christ alone commends us to God. It's not meat, it's not days,
it's not whether we eat or don't or observe or don't observe this
or that or whatever. That doesn't commend us to God
at all. We're righteous and holy in Christ
at God's right hand, complete in Christ and that'll never change. This is what Paul meant when
he said circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything. It's a new creature. You're made a new creature by
God. That new man that He's made is without sin. And in Christ,
at God's right hand, He's righteous and holy and He's complete there. And that's how God sees it and
that's how it is. Now, please hear this. Things,
things, days and meets and ceremonies, they don't make a believer better
or worse. Things don't do anything. And we've got laws, we're passing
laws left and right against things. That's not where the problem's
at. The problem's not in things. That's asceticism. Worshipping things, thinking
if I change my environment, I'm going to be less sinful. If I
don't touch that, I'll be more holy. If I don't eat that, I'll
be more righteous before God. Sin's not in things at all. If you eat or you abstain, it
doesn't commend you to God. It's not that that does anything. It's our heart that defiles.
You remember the Lord, He wouldn't observe the Pharisee ceremony.
They had a tradition. They had added to the law where
you had to wash your hands before you ate. Every time I wash my
hands before I eat, I think about that. You had to wash your hands
before you eat. And what they prayed was, if
you ate with defiled hands, you're going to defile that meat. And
when that meat goes in your body, it's going to defile your body.
And Christ told them, He said, it's not that which goes into
the mouth that defiles a man. It's that which comes out of
his heart. That's what defiles him. Pass a law against that. God did. He didn't do no good.
God's got to make us a new creature. A new creature. altogether new. But believers are pure in Christ.
We're pure in Him. Things are not unclean in themselves.
But when a believer doubts his liberty in Christ and does a
thing without believing on Christ, that pricks his conscience as
sin. Turn to Romans 14. Let me show you this real quick.
Romans 14, verse 14. Paul said, And I am persuaded by the Lord
Jesus Christ that there is nothing unclean of itself. There's nothing
unclean, nothing common of itself. But to him that esteemeth anything
to be unclean, to him it's unclean. To him it is. He thinks it's
unclean. You can't persuade him otherwise.
He thinks it's unclean. It's not unclean in itself, but
he thinks it's unclean. You understand? The uncleanness
is in his thoughts about it, not in the thing. Look down at
verse 20. Meat destroyeth not the work
of God. All things indeed are pure, but
it's evil for that man who eats with offense. Look at verse 23. And he that doubteth is damned
if he eat. That don't mean he's condemned.
That means we're talking about his conscience will be wounded,
his conscience will be condemned because he eateth not of faith.
for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. You see, you take a weak
believer and their minds are occupied with touch not, taste
not, handle not, with I should observe this and not, they're
looking to the law, whatever. Tell you when they're brought
out of that and they're brought out of all that constant condemnation
and turmoil and strife and thinking they've got to do more is when
they're finally taught Christ is all. Christ is all. and their hearts established
so that they know Christ is really all. When you're brought there,
then your heart's established with grace. And then you know,
it's not this touching and it's not things at all. I've been
made righteous in Christ. I've been made pure in Christ.
Listen to the Hebrew writer. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today and forever. And all those that are in Him
are the same yesterday, today and forever. In Him. Be not carried
about with different and strange doctrines. And you're going to
have them coming along down the pike all the time because men
are constantly inventing new. And He says, for it's a good
thing that the heart be established with grace and not with meats. which have not profited them
that have been occupied therein." Listen to me. If there's a believer,
listen to this. And your mind is occupied with
meats and drinks and the old covenant law and all that sort
of thing. You haven't touched an idol, so you think you're
better. Oh, if you got next to one of them little plastic things
in a manger, you might be defiled. Just listen to me. Turn your
mind from being occupied with all that mess and look at Christ
seated at the right hand of God and see He's accepted of God.
He's right there never to be cast out of God's presence. Eternally
gloried in and rejoiced over by God Almighty and see that's
where you are, believer. It'll never change. It'll never
change. Never change. Alright, now look.
But not every believer has this knowledge. That's what he clearly
said. Not every believer has this knowledge. So what's a mature
believer to do with his liberty before his weak brethren? You
that are mature and know this, what are you to do before a weak
brother who feels this way? Look at verse 9. Take heed lest
by any means this liberty of yours... Make sure you hear that. By any means. Take heed, lest
by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block
to them that are weak. For if any man see thee which
has knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not
the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those
things which are offered to idols?" How many times have you ever
felt as a young believer, you felt, You know, I don't know
if I ought to do this or whatever it is. And some grown believer,
mature believer comes along and he goes, let's do so and so.
And you go, okay. And you did it. Just because
he did it. That's what he's talking about here. You're leading this
weak believer. He sees you do it and he says,
it's okay, I'm going to do it. Now watch what happens. And he
eats those things off of the idols. And through thy knowledge,
shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died. The weak
brother follows your example, contrary to his conscience, not
knowing, understanding Christ has set him free indeed, and
then after he does it, his conscience will be wounded. That's what
the word perish means. Violently wounded. And his peace
with Christ will be interrupted, and he'll fall into great distress,
thinking he sinned against the Lord who bought him. This is
one for whom Christ died, and I've led him to that place. This
is one for whom Christ died, and I've led him to that place. Now look here, verse 12. But
when you sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience... See, that's what that word perish
means. You sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak
conscience, you sin against Christ. That's our constraint, brethren,
for not wanting to lead a weak brother against his conscience. Isn't it? I don't want to sin
against Christ. That's how one we are. Christ
said, verily, verily, I say unto you, as much as you've done it
to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. He said,
if you give your hungry brother or sister food, you've given
me food. You give them clothes on their
back because they needed a coat, you've given me a coat. And he
says here, and you've led that weak believer to the point to
where he did this now, and his conscience is pricked, and he's
in all his distress, his peace is disrupted. You've done that
to me. That's our constraint not to
want to do that, isn't it? Isn't it? Bob Coffey one time
was eyes at his house. Bob knew I said his name, told
this story. He'd be very embarrassed, but
I'm going to tell it anyway. I was at his house, and there
was a bunch of brethren that were there, and he just kept
waiting around and waiting around, waiting around, and finally folks
quit coming. There was a lot of folks that
came that night. Folks quit coming, and he came around then to everybody,
and he said, Would you like a glass of wine? And I said, Sure, I'd
like a glass of wine. And later, I asked him, Bob,
why didn't you Why'd you wait this long to do that? He said,
well, he said, I know there's some brethren that might be offended
by it. And he said, I didn't want to
offend them. That's what he's talking about. That's what he's
talking about exactly. I didn't want to offend them.
I didn't want to offend them. But I've got knowledge. I'm free.
And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I do this
or not. You got that knowledge without love toward that brother,
you don't have the knowledge you thought you had. That's what
Paul said. So that's number one. He says
this, verse 13. What do I do then? Here's five
things. Number one. He says, verse 13, if meat make
my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world
standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. He didn't say he wouldn't
eat it. He's saying, I'm not going to
go to the idolater's temple where he's selling it and buy me a
pork barbecue sandwich there. I'm going to buy it and take
it home with me and eat it at the house. I'm not going to do
it while my weak brother's there because I'll offend him. See
that? That's what he's talking about. And then remember this,
just because a believer thinks he should abstain from certain
meat or drink or observe a certain day, that doesn't mean that he's
not a believer. That doesn't mean he's not a
believer. And he might think he's still under the law in some
way. That don't mean he's not a believer. I even know brethren
who don't agree with me on certain doctrines. And that don't mean
they're not a believer. Look here at Romans 14 verse
1. Most of the time I get accused of being an antinomian. I'll
probably get accused after this message of being a legalist.
But that's alright. I'm preaching the Word of God.
I don't care. Romans 14 verse 1. Look at this. Him that's weak
in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
In other words, don't dispute with him and doubt him. He says,
for one believeth that he may eat all things, another who's
weak just eats herbs. That's all right. And then here's
the third thing. Let not the mature believer despise
that weaker brother, and don't let the weaker brother judge
that mature brother. Look at verse 3. Let not him
that eateth despise him that eateth not. And let not him which
eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. It
don't much matter what I think about him, does it? God's received
him. God's received him. Now look
here, here's the fourth thing. Wait on the Lord to fully persuade
your brethren in their own mind. We don't want to pressure him,
wait on him to persuade him. Look at verse 4. He says, Who
art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master
he stands or falleth, yea, he shall be holding up, for God
is able to make him stand. One man esteems one day above
another, another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully
persuaded in his own mind. Who is going to persuade him?
His own master. He that regardeth the day, he
regards it unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not the
day, to the Lord he does not regard it. He that eateth, eats
to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. And he that eats not,
to the Lord he eats not, and he gives God thanks. You see
that? Trust God, wait on God to make him fully persuaded.
What do we do in the meantime? speak about the gospel to him,
and don't do anything around him that's going to offend him
or lead him to do something against his conscience, contrary to his
conscience. And then here's the fifth thing,
and this is just from what we've seen here tonight. When men try
to draw a line and make you take a side, opposing your brethren
on something that's nothing at all, like Christmas or, you know,
Should you eat this or not eat this or observe this day or that
day or whatever, anything like that? Understand this, that it's
not black and white. We got to use spiritual discernment.
Do you see how Paul addressed this and how he dealt with this
issue? If my brother's not around and he's not going to be offended,
there's nothing wrong with me. eating a meat that was offered
to an idol, or drinking a glass of wine, whatever it is that
God says is right. But if He's around, then I'm
not going to do that. You've got to use spiritual discernment.
And we don't ever want to draw a line, because if you draw a
line, we've made it along. We might as well be standing
up and saying, except you do this, you can't be saved. And
we can do that with knowledge. We do that with knowledge. Man
says something that's off about doctrine, but he's consistent,
he comes, he hears the truth, and he's there all the time.
And all of a sudden we're going to say, well, now, if he was
a real believer, he'd believe that. What have we just done when we
did that? We put knowledge between a man and Christ. We put something
between that sinner and Christ. And saying, you've got to arrive
at this before you can have Christ. That's law, brethren. That's
legalism. No, sir. Don't put anything... We're under
grace. We're not under the law. I hope
that's helpful. I hope it wasn't... I hope it
didn't confuse you more. I hope it was helpful. Amen.