Now, Paul's left off this, they
ask him some questions about marriage. Then he takes up idols,
meat and offered in sacrifice unto idols. And he's talking
here about liberty. He's talking about knowledge
and people eating meat that's offered in sacrifice unto idols. And all, you know, in these pagan,
these They offered their sacrifices—sheep, ox, cattle—to their gods, and
then they'd use the meat for food at their feast, and oftentimes
they'd take the meat home with them, or they'd take it out to
the marketplace and they'd sell it. They'd take it out and sell
it. And some among the Corinthians,
they would go in that marketplace and they would buy that food
and they'd bring it home and eat it. knowing that it is offered
in sacrifice unto idols. And then there were other people,
the Corinthians, who would go into those temples when they
were having those feasts, and they would sit down and eat at
those feasts where those idols were and where those sacrifices
were offered in idols. And I'll just read it to you,
but you remember in Acts 15, when they brought the charge
against the Gentiles and said, circumcised and keep the law
of Moses, they can't be saved, and so they got together and
they came. This is one of the things that they said. He said,
For it seemed good to us and to the Holy Ghost, and to lay
upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that
you abstain from meat offered to idols. and from blood, and
from things strangled, and from fornication, from which, if you
keep yourselves, you shall do well." Now, that was the message,
that was the letter that was circulated among the Gentiles.
Well, here are these Gentiles, they're concerned about this
again. And they're worried about this, see somebody eating it.
You know, it'd bother me if I seen somebody, I think if there's
an idol, and they was sat down at an idol and started eating
from it. what would have been after the sacrifice to it. But
let's look at what the apostle says here now. He said in verse
1, now, now, we're going to have to offer marriage now. We're
going to deal with these things that's offered unto idols. Now
it's touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all
have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity
edifies. Now what he's talking about here,
we know that meat that's offered to idols. We everyone know that
an idol is nothing. It's a block of wood, it's a
piece of stone, and it cannot possibly defile a believer. There
ain't no way it can defile a believer. It's a pagan idol. But some of
us, and some of those in this bunch of believers here, they
thought it was not fit. Was it right? to use this knowledge
of Christian liberty that they had to wound a weaker brother,
or grieve a weaker brother, or offend a weaker brother. Because
there were some weaker brethren among them who were convinced
that it was wrong to eat this meat, and they were offended
when they saw others that did it. And so Paul replied and said,
we know that an idol is nothing, absolutely nothing. And we all
know that. And he said in verse 1, he says,
"...now touching things offered up." We know that an idol is
nothing. We know that it cannot hurt us. And that we have this knowledge,
all of us who are mature believers. But there's weak believers. Let
me just give you an illustration of a weak believer. And Paul
said over in Romans 14, verse 1, he says, "...him that is weak
in the faith, receive him without doubtful disputations." I mean,
you know, if you think he's weak, you know, receive him. He may
be weak. He may not be nothing like you.
But now let me tell you somebody that's, say, four or five years
old in the faith. How strong and how grown up is
a four or five-year-old person? That's the same way it is with
a believer. He's a four or five-year-old believer. You know, a 12-year-old
and a 40-year-old, there's a world of difference in them, and that's
the way it is. Paul's talking about believers. There's weak
believers. There's people that, they have to grow, they have
to learn, they have to be instructed in the things of Christ. And
so here's these men and brethren that's eating meat off of diamonds.
Paul says, we know that we have this knowledge. But if you have
this knowledge, and you use this knowledge without charity, without
love, because charity edifies, charity builds up. And if you
have this charity, and you don't care about offending somebody,
or grieving somebody, or hurting somebody, And here's what he's
saying is we all have this knowledge, but knowledge puffs up, but charity
edifies. And so knowledge, you're having
this knowledge that you have this Christian liberty to eat
anything you want to eat. Nothing unclean of a self is
received with thanksgiving. And you do this without wisdom
and love, without thinking about and being considerate about the
other person and your effect on them, it leads you to pride,
it leads you to conceit, it leads you to division. And see, wherever
there's love, and I know this as well as you do, love edifies.
And that word edifies means to build up. It means to establish.
It means to care and concern to build somebody else up. It's
tenetarium, doesn't it? And what Paul's saying here is
the man who has this knowledge about, can sit down and eat meat
offered to sacrifice to idols and eat it at his table, he said
he can do that. But what if it offends somebody,
if it causes somebody to stumble? He says, well, love would cause
me not to do that. Love without, you know, knowledge
without love, all it does is fills you with pride. Fills you
with conceit. And that's what he's saying here.
And I tell you what, if you're not interested in the edifying
and profitability to others, having knowledge is just worthless
knowledge. That's all it amounts to, worthless
knowledge. Absolutely worthless. Then he says here in verse 2,
And he says, and if any man think he knows anything, he knows nothing
yet as he ought to know. Now, he says, I know this stuff.
Well, this is true in any matter you enter into. If anyone imagines
that he has come to know and understand, got a handle on everything
in the Scriptures, and oh my, does not use that
knowledge that God's given him. with wisdom and love for others,
and regard, especially regard for the glory of God and the
peace of the church, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.
Why isn't the world used to having any knowledge if you're not using
it for the glory of God and the good for somebody else? We're
just learning for the learning's sake? We're just learning for
knowledge's sake? And that's why he says if he
does this, and he thinks he knows something, he don't lose love,
he don't lose grace, he don't have regard for the glory of
God, then he don't know nothing at all. That's what he's saying
here. And oh, you know, he ought not
never please himself. And this is, look over here with
me in Romans 15. You know, anybody that's just
out to please themselves, well, you know, and say, well, I can't
help but out of fancy. I'm going to do it anyway. Oh,
that's no charity in that. You may have the liberty to do
it, but would it be love to do it? Would it be wisdom to do
it around certain people, around somebody that's weak that you
don't know how they're going to react to how you do that,
how you act and how you treat that subject? And so you say,
well, I know. And I'll tell you, I know all
this and I know all that in here, but now listen, if you don't
use that knowledge with wisdom and love and grace and for the
glory of God, you don't know nothing yet. That's what he's
saying here. And you know, if a person's just
out to please himself, our Lord didn't even please himself. Look
what it said here, Romans 15, what? We then that are strong
ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. That's exactly what
Paul's saying over here. There are people that are strong
and there are people that are weak. And you know, we ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Now, if we had our pleasure, we wouldn't do anything, you
know, we wouldn't bear anybody else's burdens. We'd say, well,
let him care, you know, I can't help it that he's weak. And I
found this out over the years. And like that message this morning,
and it's still, it just, You know, I lived with that before
I brought it here and still living with it. And it had a profound
effect on me. But I know that most people that
are weak would never know they're weak. They don't see their infirmities. But there are a lot of people
who have great infirmities, and we have to bear with their infirmities.
They have weaknesses, they have inabilities, you know, and they
don't know it. They're not conscious of it.
And yet you have to put up with them. You have to deal with them.
You have to take them the way they are. I heard Scott Rich
say one time, one time about somebody said, if you're going
to love them, you're going to have to love them the way they are because they
ain't going to change. And you take them the way they are. And
that's what they say in here. You take a person the way they
are. If they're weak, you take them in their weakness. If they
got warrants, you take them with their warrants. If they've got
a personality that's abrasive, you take them with that personality
that's abrasive. You take them the way God made
them. If you're going to love them, you have to take them where
they are, because you ain't going to change them. God made them that way,
and that's the way we're going to deal with them. So we ought
to bear the impurities of the weak, not to please ourselves.
Now listen, let every one of us please his neighbor for his
good, to edify him. Listen now, for even Christ pleased
not himself. Even Christ pleased not himself.
But as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee
fell on me." So back over here in their text again, and he says
here in verse three, now we know that we have this knowledge about
things offered to idols. Idol's nothing. That, oh, if you have this knowledge
and you don't use your knowledge with love and with some wisdom
and some grace, And you think you know everything, and you
think you've got all the answers, and you don't use that knowledge
with wisdom and grace, you don't know nothing yet as you ought
to know. But if any man loved God, the same is known of him. And if a man truly, truly loves
God, God's done a work of grace in his heart, he will manifest
that love for God. He'll manifest that love for
Christ. He'll manifest that love for
his brethren. by being careful not to hinder
that person or offend that person. He'll be very careful not to
use his liberty and his knowledge not to please himself, but he'll
use it to edify others, to build others up. And then it says here,
that same is known of him. God will approve that man, bless
that man, and use that man for his own glory. And that's the
thing he's saying, and we come back to this thing. faith, hope,
and charity, and the greatest of these is charity. And if all
the things that we have and we need is for God to put His love in
our hearts, where we can actually treat people and look at people
as they really are, and love them like they are, and not see
anything wrong with them, wouldn't that be something? And that's what he's saying here. If any man loves God, he's worried,
he's concerned about how he treats other people. He don't want to
offend. And then down here, verses 4 through 6, look what he says.
Talking about offering as concerning, therefore, the eating of those
things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols. Now, you want to
know about eating those things that are offered in sacrifice
unto idols. We know that an idol is nothing
in the world, and there is none other god but one. For though
there be that are called gods, a little g, you see, there is
none other god but one. For though there be that are
called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, whether you call
them gods that are in heaven or gods here on earth, as there
are gods many, and thus lots of lords too. But unto us, to
us who are believers, us who know Christ, one God, the Father,
whom are all things, and we in Him, one Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom are all things, and we by Him." And what he's saying here,
he says, now if we just could turn those things off and unveil
them, we'd know that an idol is nothing. A pagan idol is absolutely
nothing. It has no real existence. It
has no meaning. It has no power. It has no value. I think I put in a bulletin one
time that this young boy got converted down in Mexico. And
Mexico is Catholic. Oh, it's so Catholic. And right
in the center town, there's a cathedral right in the center town. In
every single pueblo down there, there's a cathedral right there. And everything that goes on in
that town goes around that cathedral. And this young man, this young
boy, got converted. And he tried to witness to his
mother and his father, and they wouldn't listen to him. And they
said, there's our God. There's our Savior right there.
Pour into a cross. Crucifix. Well, that young fellow
got out his hammer one day while his mom and dad was gone. He
took that crucifix down and smacked it all to pieces with that hammer. His daddy got home. He said,
oh, oh, oh, oh, what have you done? What have you done? You've
killed it! You've destroyed it!" He says,
now what could that do for you when it couldn't even keep me
from destroying it? And ain't that the way it is,
beloved? An idol has no power. They can put up statues, they
can put up It has no power, no real existence, no power. We
know that there's only one living God. No God but Him. Here is
the Lord. Our God is one. But there's many,
many so-called gods of pagan people. There's gods in heaven. The sons of God to a lot of people.
The moons are God's to a lot of people. The stars are. The
angels are. Dead men are. You know how many
people are worshiping dead men? They're fixing to make the last
pope before this one into a saint, and they just got one little
opening step, and they're backtracking him so people can pray to him.
Huh? And women, Mary, Mary, Mary,
Mary, oh, hail thou mother of God. Pagan gods, And yet, they say, astrology,
the first thing they do when they get the newspaper, they
want to read the astrological, say, what's going to happen to
me this week? That's as pagan as it gets. I ain't nothing no
more pagan than going by your signs. And that's what he's talking
about here. There's gods many, lords many, but to us there's
one God. Whether they can worship the
sun, the moon, the stars, the dead men, all the saints, And I've seen something the other
day. We were flabbergasted. Do you
know that the drug dealers and all these drug dealers that's
killing all these people in Mexico and Colombia and all them places,
you know that they've got a saint for drug dealers? Particularly
for them to pray to, to keep them safe so they won't get killed?
Evidently not very effective. And then they said the gods on
earth. Oh, how many creatures on this earth people worship.
People starve to death in India, and cows land in the middle of
the road. They take milk from their children
and feed rats with it. They go to a temple and shave
their heads and offer their hair as a sacrifice to their God. This goes on now, down in Haiti,
you wonder why Haiti is such a mess down there? Them people
down there are still offering chickens and goats to false gods
and dancing around naked with one another in the middle of
the night. Worship snakes and everything else, and that's what
he's talking about here. And oh, statues, people gotta
have them, the statues. You can get people watching statues.
People bow down to statues. You go to a Catholic and all
this and you go to some place like that and you'll see them
bow down to statues, whatever it may be. Yet for us, yet for us, Paul
says, there's only one God. One God. And He's the Father. Oh, everything that exists, He's
the fountain of it. He's the source of it. It's by
Him we live, move and have our being. And I tell you, beloved,
Paul says, you know this, they said, oh, we got a scripture,
I see all your idols, I see all your gods. He said, but I see
this altar here with the scripture to the unknown God. He said,
the one that you don't know, just in case we miss one, we'll
put the unknown God. There's one out there, somebody
that we don't know. We'll discover him one of these
days, and when we do, we'll put his name on there too. But listen. He said, Him declare unto you,
God that dwells in heaven and don't dwell in temples made by
hands, He don't need silver, He don't need gold, He don't
need to be worshipped by the works of men's hands. It's by
Him we live, move, and have our being. We don't need nothing
we got. We need everything He got. And
we have to give existence to their God. And oh my! And Paul says, not
only do we have only one God and one Father, but there's only
one Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. One Redeemer. He's the one that saved us, the
only Savior. And He's by whom God made everything
in this world and upholds all things by Him. And beloved, He's
the one, and I tell you what He says, and the one Lord Jesus
Christ by whom are all things. All things that are, God made
through Him by Him. Our salvation is by Him. He's
our Redeemer. His righteousness is ours. He
justified us. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. And beloved, He's the one that
reconciled us unto Himself, and that's why it says, and we by
Him. Everything we have is by Him. We have knowledge that comes
by Him. We have grace that comes by Him.
Righteousness is by Him. If we know there's one God, we
know it's because of Him. Oh, my. And I tell you that all
these gods... And you know that God... I'm
going to say a few things here. I hope I don't make anybody mad. There are so many gods in this
age. And we're not immune to them. We're not immune to them. You
know, we're so bound by noise, and Obie mentioned it today,
it's the hardest thing in the world to find some place to be
alone and where there's quiet. Television going all the time,
computer going all the time, radio going all the time, CD
going all the time. We never have time to be alone
with ourselves. And so we have these things that
we set up in the place of God. And you know, we just, we so,
NAB was so bombarded and so rushed and so much stuff going on, and
we just got all this information just coming from every direction.
And just stop it. Just stop every once in a while
and say, oh my. I need some quiet. I need some
peace. I need some time to think. You know, we can't even get in
touch with what we know about ourselves because we always got
something coming in. Nothing ever going to help. And
I started to say this this morning, but I said I didn't, so I'll
say it tonight. Talking about the Word. Talking about the Word. You know how we need the Word
and how, you know, that light that shines into a dark place.
We know more about what's going on in the world than we do about
what God's Word says. We know more about what's going
on in politics than we do about what Christ says. We're interested
more in what some pundit says than what Christ says. And that's what I'm talking about.
That's why Paul's into this. Let's back up from this business.
We're not immune to this flesh getting control of us. This flesh
having us so bound in it, and we get bound by it, and we can't
break ourselves loose from it. And we get addicted to it. We
get bound by it. Verse 7. But now he talks about howbeit
there's not in every man that knowledge. Every man don't know
that there's only one God. Every man don't have this knowledge
that there's only, that an idol is nothing. Howbeit there's 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. And what he's
talking about here is there are some Christians, some believers
here, who were former idolaters. They worshipped in these temples.
They ate this meat offered to sacrifices. They went to these
feasts. And in their lives, they were
accustomed to thinking that that idol was real and living. You
could not convince a Catholic that a statue of Mary, if you
was to tear it down and burn it, that, I mean, that would
hurt you bad. You go to Mexico down there and
start that, or go someplace where they've got to start taking their
idols away from it, and I mean they're ready to fight. And that's what he's talking
about here. So he thought these men, they were accustomed to
think of an idol as a real and a living thing. And then if they
saw you and their former idolaters, they saw you sat down and eat
this meat, they would be offended. Said, I used to think that was
real life, now I know it's nothing. And then here he's sitting down
and eating meat offered to that idol. And what Paul's saying
here, if they sat down and ate with you, their weak consciences
would be offended, would be defiled. But then he says in verse 8,
But mead commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are
we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse. And
what he's saying, you know, is that there ain't no kind of meat
that's going to make you any better. It's not meat that commends
us to God. Is anything you ever eat going
to make you, commend you to God? Well, I'm going to quit eating
pork. Well, good. It ain't going to make you any
closer to God. It ain't going to change your relationship with
God whatsoever. And that's what he said. No matter what he said
in front of you, it does not change your relationship with
God. Whether you eat it or whether you don't. Whether you partake
of it or whether you don't. But I'll tell you what will affect
your relationship with God. It's you not considering the
other person, the person that's weak. And that if you sit down
and eat that knowing it's going to injure that weak brother,
and that's what he says in verse 9. But take heed, lest by any
means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them
that are weak. Be careful. Be careful. That our personal liberty, and
we all got liberty. We all got liberty. And we all
have understanding, but don't let our personal liberty and
our personal understanding become a hindrance or a cause of causing
a weak brother to stumble. That would be violating brotherly
love. Just because we can do something
doesn't mean we should do something when somebody else is weak around
us. We should never do it. Look with me in Romans 14, just
a moment. Let me show you that. And I've done this. I know just
as well as I know my name, my liberty has become... I know
I've offended somebody, people with my liberty years ago, and
I'm sorry for it. I didn't think of it. Just all
I was thinking about was myself and what I could get by with,
what I thought was good for me. Didn't think of the other person,
how it would affect them, how other people, how it would affect
them. And I don't ever want to do that again, never. God help
me, I never do. But look in Romans 14 and verse
13. Let us not therefore judge one
another any more, setting judgment on what's right, what's wrong.
But judge this rather, make this kind of a judgment, that no man
put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
I know, and persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there's nothing
unclean of itself. That meat that's offered in sacrifice
to those idols, it's not unclean, unless it's unclean to the person
who esteems it to be unclean. So if he esteems it to be unclean,
don't you eat any of it when he's around. And that's what
he says, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him
it is unclean. Now listen, but if your brother
begreed with thy meat, Now walkest thou not charitably, you are
not going to walk in love, but you are going to destroy, not
him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. You are going to offend
him, you are going to hurt him. And so back over in our text,
let's be careful, let's use our Christian liberty. Take heed lest we use our liberty
that could cause somebody else to stumble, especially somebody
that's weak. Then in verse 10 and 11, For
if any man see thee, knowledge, set 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 unto idols? And through thy knowledge
shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died." Now here
you are, you're sitting down to eat a meal, sitting down to have some meat.
And a weak brother who hasn't a clear understanding, he doesn't
understand liberty, our liberty, your liberty. And he'd see you. He said, boy, he's the preacher. He's learned. He's an old fellow.
He's been along the way a long, long time. He knows an awful
lot. He says, well, if he can do it,
maybe I can do it. You know, maybe it won't hurt
me. And what he does by following your example, knowing that he
overrides his own conscience, his knowledge, and his own understanding. And he violates his own principles
because he sees somebody that's stronger and wiser than he looks
up to. And if they do that, and they
violate their own conscience and their own principles, He'll
say, through thy knowledge shall your weak brother perish, for
whom Christ died. And what he'll does, if he ever
overrides his own conscience at one point, watches somebody
older and wiser than that he looks to. And he does that, then
he'll get carelesser and carelesser and carelesser, and next thing
you know, he's really made a mess out of
it. And then he says in verse 12, and this is really serious
to me here. I don't know what you think about
it. But when you sin so against the brethren, to cause somebody
that's weak to go against their own conscience because they look
to you and have some confidence in you, and when you sin so against
the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against
Christ Himself. You sin against Christ Himself.
When you, by your example, near anybody else, draw men into practices,
go against their own conscience, because they have this great
confidence in you. And to do that, you sin against
Christ, showing that you don't love Him, and you certainly have
not honored the Lord Jesus. And that's why Paul says in verse
13, Wherefore, if something so simple, and this goes with anything, You can take and put in this
anything. Whereas meat make my brother to offend, cause him
to stumble, cause him to be weak, cause him to override his conscience,
if it hurts his feelings and makes him lose confidence, I
will eat no flesh while the world stands, lest I make my brother
to offend. I never get to eat another piece
of meat in my life," Paul's saying. I'd rather do completely without
as to offend one of those little ones for whom Christ died. And that goes with anything.
I don't care where you go, what you do, what you drink, what
you wear. Would you all agree with that?
And I know what it is to do that. Our Father, in the blessed, glorious
name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Father, I pray that you'd use
these feeble efforts tonight, so feeble, that you'd use them, Lord, to
your glory and our good, And Father, make us be conscious
of other people's, their needs and their feelings. Help us never to cause us to ever seek to please
ourself and care not how it affects anybody else. Help us never to
be that way. We're that way by nature. But
Lord, we don't live by our nature. We live by You. We live by Your
Word. We live by the Holy Spirit. We live by this new nature. And
so we ask you to please enable us, enable us never to cause
a brother to stumble. And if we do, please ask for
forgiveness. And if we do, always make us
stop and think and consider other people before we do say things
we ought not do or say. Guide us in these things. And
Lord Jesus, bless these dear saints of God as they go home,
go to their jobs, go to their lives, go to their worries, go
to their troubles, and go to their anxieties, their heartaches,
their sicknesses. God bless them, strengthen them,
and encourage them. Use them for your glory. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.