1 Corinthians 10. As we go through the epistles
to the churches, that's what these are, and I love these,
the epistles to the churches. Verse by verse, chapter by chapter,
we go through these and I'm continually reminded of how often Paul tells
us, do not be an offense. You notice how he says it over
and over and over? Do not be an offense. Don't be
the reason for driving anyone away from hearing the gospel
of Christ. And verse 32, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 32, Paul said, Give none offense. Give none
offense. Wouldn't that be wonderful if
we could do that? Give none offense. Neither to the Jews, nor to the
Gentiles, nor to the church of God. To everybody. Anybody. Give none offense. And throughout
the last half of this chapter, that's what Paul is telling us.
Give none offense. And he divides this into two
parts. We're going to pick up in verse
14 and he begins there by saying, give no offense to God. Don't
be an offense to God. And then he's going to say, don't
be an offense to men, to God or men. Now we all know that
our sinful flesh is an offense to God, don't we? To say, don't
be an offense to God. We know that our flesh, by nature,
can't do anything but offend God. Sin is an offense to Him. But in verse 1 of this chapter,
He said, moreover, brethren, brethren, He's speaking to believers
and He's telling them, after the Lord has quickened you, after
He's opened your eyes and called you to Himself, Don't be an offense
to His goodness and His grace by falling back in with or giving
the impression that you're falling back in with religion. That's what he's going to say
today. Falling back in with religion. Do not compromise or give the
impression of compromise for the sake of fellowship with false
religion. Look with me over at 2 Corinthians
chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14 says, Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? Is he saying don't have anything
to do with unbelievers? No. Not at all. We're told to to bring the gospel
unto all the world, aren't we? But here's the key, we bring
the gospel to all the world. We bring the truth to all the
world. We don't lay down in the bed
of lies and get comfortable in the bed of lies just for the
sake of keeping peace with this world. Look with me at 1 John
chapter 1. First John 1, look at verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, the darkness of religion, God
is light. If we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. We lie and we don't do the truth
if we walk in darkness. So Paul is saying, first of all,
let's be warned of the danger of offending our Lord in this
matter of falling back in with religion. Now, go with me back
to the text, 1 Corinthians 10. Verse 14 says, Wherefore, my dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men, judge
ye what I say." He's saying, I know that you have some understanding
in these things. I know that you've been taught
of God in these things. So judge, discern, you decide
if what I'm about to tell you is right. He's about to give
them three examples, three illustrations of this offense. The first one,
he uses the Lord's table. Verse 16, the cup of blessing,
which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body
of Christ? He's saying when we partake of
the Lord's table, you know, we have the bread, the unleavened
bread, the wine. And in doing that, are we not
confessing to God and to men? that we are in union and communion
with the Lord Jesus Christ, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isn't that what we're saying? Why do we do that? So we can
be saved? No. No, I'm not one bit more saved after the Lord's
table than I am before the Lord's table. So why do we do that?
We do that to tell something to God and men. I confess union
and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ." Well, he's saying when
we sit at the table of false religion, when we act like everything's
fine with false religion, we're saying something to God and men.
That's what he's telling them. We're saying something. All right,
his next illustration is the spiritual body of Christ. In
verse 17, he said, for we being many are one bread. and one body,
for we are all partakers of that one bread. We're all one body
in Christ, made up of many members, but here's what he's saying.
Who you gather with is who you will be identified with. That's
who you'll be identified with. I want to be identified, and
I only want to be identified with the gospel. with the truth. That's it. I only want to be
identified with those that bow to the truth of the word of God.
And I know you do too. I know that. And it's difficult
sometimes you'll find this is, I believe, a very, very vital
thing to understand. You're going to find that there
will be times when you're torn over what you ought to do. And
Paul said, I only want to be identified with those who bow
to the truth of God. All right, so his third illustration
is the actual Jews that sacrificed on God's altar. Verse 18, behold
Israel after the flesh, the actual Jews. Are not they which eat
of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar?" What he's saying
is, whatever altar you are standing around is the altar you will
feed from. So be careful. Whatever fellowship
you are having, a lot of times we think we will influence unbelievers. And I'm going to tell you this,
the only person who can influence unbelievers is God Almighty.
And he will use certain things. There's no doubt about it. There
is grace before grace. He'll use conversations and such
on and so forth to bring a person to hear the gospel. But usually
believers think, I'm going to align myself with them and have
an influence on them. It is almost always the other
way around. Almost always the other way around. And whatever table you're standing
around, that's the one you'll feed from. Verse 19, what say
I then? What do I mean by all this? That
the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice
to idols is anything? The answer is no. The idol itself
is nothing. I mean, it's nothing. Verse 20,
but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they
sacrifice to devils and not to God, and I would not that you
should have fellowship with devils. He's saying, I don't want you
to have anything to do with that mess. It's not good, it's dangerous,
all false worship. It turns us from the true and
living God. All false worship. It turns us
from the true and living God. Everything other than God's truth
has to do with man's will. Everything. I don't care what
denomination it is. Every bit of it has to do with man's will.
Free will. And the author of free will was
Lucifer. And I'm going to show you that
in Isaiah 14. Go with me over to Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14 verse 12. It says, How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut
down to the ground which did weaken the nations? For thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into the heaven. Now how
many people say that? I'm going to tell you what I'm
going to do. If anybody's there, I'm going to be there. I will
ascend into the heaven. I will, and I'm going to tell
you, in the scripture, Every time somebody has this attitude,
the Lord brings them down. Every time. You think about these
kings and you think about these... Every time the Lord brings them
down. Every time. He said, I will ascend into the
heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high,
yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Every worship other than God's
will alone. God's will alone. The truth, the word of God is
the only thing that is humble before God Almighty. That's what
it is. It's the only thing that bows
as it should be. He's the creator. I'm the creation. He is the potter. I am the clay. And God's Word and God's truth
bows and says, He will. He will. Everything that says,
I will, you'd better, is idolatry. And I tell you who
the idol is. Right there. Free will. It's the creation of Lucifer. And all of that worship is of
the devil and it is to the devil even though they have a picture
of a white man in a neatly groomed beard and beautiful flowing hair.
I call him Jesus, I don't know any Jesuses but I know a bunch
of Jesuses. It's of the devil and it's to
the devil. And just be warned. Be warned. Paul is saying don't
have anything to do with it. Go with me back to 1 Corinthians
10. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 20 says, But I say that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to
God. And I would not that you should
have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partaker of the
Lord's table and of the table of devils. We may think there's
no real harm in falling in with and aligning ourselves with false
religion in some way, shape, or form. I know what the truth
is. I know what's right. I'm able to decipher it, cut
out the bad stuff, take what's good. I'm okay. Paul says, let's
be warned. Let's be warned. It's an offense
to God. That's what he's saying first of all. It's an offense
to God. Verse 22, he said, Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? The
word jealousy means anger. He's saying, Are we foolish enough
to provoke the Lord to anger? Turn with me to Exodus 20. I
know we're turning a little bit, but I feel like we need to. Exodus
20. This is the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20 verse 3, the Lord said,
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image. A graven image is a man-made religious symbol. It's anything
that man makes that when somebody sees it, it makes them think
of religion. heaven or anything, anything. The most common one known to
man is a cross. When you see a cross, religion. I love doves. I love seeing them
sweep through the air. But as soon as you take a dove,
put an olive branch in its mouth and shoot sun rays out from behind
it, as soon as people see it, they think religion. It's a graven
image. That man, that random man, nobody
knows what God Almighty looks like. That man hanging on the
wall is a graven image. You know, because we put that in some special glass.
It's a graven image. And he said, Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above. If it's in the heaven above,
And when you see it, it represents religion. He said, don't do it. And then he said, or that is
in the earth beneath, a man was in the earth beneath, a cross
is in the earth beneath, or other things can be in the earth beneath.
He said, don't do it. Or that is in the water under
the earth. That's the one that gets me every
time. I know I've told you so many times, how can anybody understand
the word of God? And then out of plastic, carve
them or mold themselves a little fish and stick it on something. How can they do that? Anything
that's under the water. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am an angry God. That's what the word jealous
means. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So what
the Apostle Paul is telling us is don't become comfortable with
these things knowing what an offense they are to our God.
All right, now go with me back to 1 Corinthians 10. Don't be an offense to God, and
then he reminds us once again, don't be an offense to man, God
or man. We should never be a personal
offense in the name of God. This stands out to me all the
time. James said, the wrath of man
worketh not the righteousness of God. My anger. My anger, you know, I'm going
to get mad for God. Well, James said, the wrath of
man, my anger will not accomplish God's work. God's spirit accomplishes
God's work. And so Paul is saying, may God
cause us to use a little wisdom, a little patience and self-control
for the purpose of spreading the gospel. Verse 23 says, All
things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but
every man another's wealth. Now he is not saying every single
thing is lawful to me because he just got finished saying don't
have anything to do with idolatry. Back in verse 6, he said, don't
lust. Verse 7, he said, don't be an
idolater. Verse 8, he said, don't commit fornication. Verse 9,
he said, don't tempt Christ. Verse 10, he said, don't complain.
He's not saying everything is lawful. Have at it. But what
he's saying is the things that God says are lawful to us, all
of them are lawful to us. And because our salvation is
in the blood of Christ alone, Because it is in the blood of
Christ alone. I mean, that's where it is. When you get down
to the heart of what will cause a man to be justified before
God and be in his presence, it's the blood of Christ alone. Because that's the case, it may
be fine for us to do something. It may be fine for us to eat
something. It may be fine to drink something.
It may be fine to go somewhere. Our salvation is not in any of
those things. None of them. We might have liberties. It might
be fine for us to do certain things, but it might not always
be wise. It just might not always be wise.
And I'll tell you that that's more often than we think. It's
just probably not wise. May God give us wisdom. That's
what we need is wisdom in dealing with men and women. What we say, how we say it. Wisdom, that's what we need.
Now, we could never hinder God's work. We just could never hinder
God's work. But I tell you what we could
do. We could bring a bunch of grief to the one he's working
on. All of these warnings, you know, stay away
from this and that. I tell you this, if a person
belongs to Jesus Christ, Not one will be lost. He will be
in glory. But I tell you what can happen.
Early on in life he can get involved with this and the Lord can let
him go down that path and become torn all to pieces. Miserable. The hard way And in the end,
if he belongs to Christ, like the prodigal son, he will bring
him back. He will bring him to glory. But
these warnings are for our good through this life as his children. If my daughters go on a wayward
path, they're still going to be my daughters. But now they're
on a wayward path. And so anyway, We couldn't hinder God's work,
but we might hinder the one He's working on. We might be a grief
to the one He's working on. If we continue to do that, He'll
remove us out of the way. He'll do that. Paul says, for
our own conscience sake, not wanting to be an offense to God,
not wanting to be an offense to men. Here's how you respond
if this happens. Look at verse 25. Whatsoever
is sold in the shambles, and that word means market, Whatever
is sold in the market, that eat, asking no questions for conscience
sake. Whatever you come up on, you
don't have to research it to find out, you know, was this
used for false religion? You know, did this spaghetti
come from the first Baptist church? You don't have to do that. Verse
26, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Everything
belongs to him. 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."
Just eat it. But if any man say unto you,
this is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake
that showed it and for the conscience sake for the earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof." There's plenty of other things to eat
so you don't have to eat this. This thing of false worship is
a matter of the heart and that's what he's saying right here.
A guy came into my store years ago, years ago, and he He came in with a cross that
he made out of matches, wooden matches. And they were angled,
all these matches, and they fanned out. And then it was all these
matches into this cross. And he said, I'm giving these
out. It's a ministry I'm doing. I get these matches, and I glue
them all together, and it's my ministry. And I said, OK. So
he left, and we broke up all the matches. And now we had this
big pile of matches for free. Great, we lit candles and all
kinds of stuff with them. And just because those matches
were at one time formed into an idol, Paul is not saying now
you have to steer clear of the matches. It's not about the item
itself. But if a man comes up who is
really worried that he doesn't want to offend God and if he
says wait a minute, Don't use those. Those used to be in the
form of an idol. Paul's saying now it's time to
say, oh, really? Well, let's just throw all those
in the trash. There's other matches. You don't have to have those.
Whatever it is, whether it's meat, whether it's drink, verse
28, if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice
unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it and for conscience
sake, For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Conscience,
I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty
judged of another man's conscience? For if I by grace be a partaker,
why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? Whether
therefore you do eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all
to the glory of God." He's saying if your response to this is,
why should I do that? Why should I humor them? Why
is my liberty judged? Why should I be hindered for
his conscience? Paul said at the end of verse
31, for the glory of God, that's why. Whatsoever you do, do all
to the glory of God. So he said in verse 32, give
none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor
to the church of God. Even as I please all men in all
things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many,
that they may be saved." I just beg God to save men and women.
That's what he's saying. When you get down to the bottom
of all this stuff and all these details, the heart of the matter
is, and this is what Paul's saying, this is what we're all saying,
I just pray God would save men and women. And may he not allow
me to be a hindrance along the way. I think that all the time
and Lord willing in a minute we're about to have a message
and all I want out of this is to not hinder God's message. Just don't let me step in the
way. I'd love to just sit there the whole time. But may he make us instruments
for his ministry and not against his ministry. May he give us
this wisdom in his word and cause us to all really have a heart
to be for his ministry and not against it. All right, you're
dismissed.