Alright, let's turn to 1 Corinthians
10. And let's begin with verse 23. All things are lawful for
me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me,
but all things edify not. Believers are free from the law. They are free from the law. Especially
that portion of the law which is fulfilled in Christ which
has to do with these ceremonies and different things that they
are dealing with here in these meets and drinks and feasts and
these Gentiles practicing idolatry and all that kind of stuff. There
are no meets or drinks forbidden to believers. Nor is there anything
common or unclean in and of itself. Nor does the eating of any kind
of meat or bird or anything else defile somebody when they eat
it. That being said, Paul makes two
statements concerning these things. First of all, The eating of certain
things, though they are allowed, he says, are not necessary. They're not expedient. They're
not like the air we breathe. Air is necessary. You hold your
nose for a little bit and you'll see how necessary it is. If we don't breathe within just
a matter of minutes, if we don't breathe in some fresh air, we're
going to die. And these eating of meats and
these types of things that he's talking about here, they're not
like water. They're not necessary. If I don't
drink water in a couple days, I'm going to die. It's lawful for me to eat a skunk
if I want to. It's lawful, but it's not necessary. You see what Paul's saying? It's
not necessary. It's not expedience. It's not
a have-to situation. And then secondly, Paul says
this about these Christian liberties. He says, all things edify not. It's lawful for me to eat these
things and drink these things and go here and go there. It's
lawful for me to do it. But when I do it, it doesn't
edify. And that's my purpose. That's
why God's left us in this world. is to minister to his sheep and
the calling out of his elect. We're interested in edifying
people. I'll tell you, my whole life
changed when I was edified with the truth. And that's what we're
after. Everything we do, we want to
do to that end. And we can get into situations
where eating and drinking something lawful makes a stumbling block
for our weaker brethren, And it also throws a roadblock in
our ministry to the community around us. And everything that
the believer does ought to be done with the good of others
in mind. How will this situation or that
situation be perceived? I need to think about that before
I go there. Will my going here or there or eating this or that
or drinking this and that cause harm or become a reproach or
a hindrance to the ministry? Then don't do it. Don't do it. All things are lawful, but all
things edify not. Now look here in verse 24. Let no man seek his own, but
every man another's wealth. The word wealth here means spiritual
well-being. It means peace of mind. I had
to get out my big dictionary and magnifying glass to go back
and see what this meant back when the Bible was translated,
how that word was used common in that day. And that's what
it meant. It meant peace of mind. It meant spiritual well-being. And in Romans chapter 14 on this
same subject, Paul sums up the matter and says this, none of
us liveth to himself. Do we? Is that how we live? Are we just living to ourselves?
Are we just doing what pleases us? If I want to go here, go
there, I'm going to go do what I want to do. Is that how my
life is run? Is that how I think about things
when I go to do it? Well, Paul says this, none of
us live it to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Whether
we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or
die, we are the Lord's. And if you'll go back and read
Romans chapter 14, you'll find out that what he's talking about
there is weaker brethren. He's talking about the very same
thing there as he is over here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
He's just looking at it from a different angle. God did not set us free to follow
our own agenda. but to follow him and to be fellow
laborers with him in his kingdom. So be careful how you live. Be
careful where you go. Everything we say and do has
consequences. And I'm not talking about the
losing of your salvation, but I'm talking about doing harm
in the community, being able to minister in whatever community
we live in. And especially, it does harm
to weaker brethren. Let us not just try to make ourselves
happy and satisfied, but also those around us. All right, verse
25. Whatsoever is sold in shambles,
that eat, asking no questions for conscience sake. Is anybody in here other than
Brian? Because I told him what it meant yesterday. Do you know
what that word shambles means? I always thought that meant He
tore something down. It was laying there in a pile.
It was in shambles. You know, that's what I thought
that word meant. That's not what that word means at all. It means
a butcher shop or a butcher stall. And he said, basically, what
he's telling you here is you go down to the butcher shop to
buy you a leg of lamb and you go in there. He said, buy it,
but don't ask no questions. Don't go in the butcher shop
and say, where did that lamb come from? Did that lamb come
down there from that a church that offered lamb sacrifices. Does that goat meat come from
down there? He said, go down there, buy your
meat, come home and fix it with clear conscience. Don't go down
there asking about the history of it. Ask no questions, he said,
for conscience sake. In older times, you didn't have
any Walmarts or Kroger's, so they went down there kind of
like they do down in Mexico. If you ever go down to visit
Walter Gruber, he's going to take you down to that open-air
fish market. I guarantee you, just talking
about it, I can smell it today. It's not like going to Kroger's.
And what Paul's telling these Corinthians here, just go down
there and get it and don't ask no questions about it. If you
ask and find out it was a sacrifice offered to idols, now you've
got a problem. There was no problem before, even though it was a
sacrifice offered to altars. It's nothing in it to defile
you. It wouldn't defile you if you
ate it. But now you found out what it was. And the person who
sold it to you knows that you found out what it was. And he's
going to know what you're going to do with it. The meat is still
just meat, and the meat won't defile you, but now you've got
a spiritual problem which can affect both you and the one who
sold it to you. So just buy the meat, eat the
meat, and don't ask no question. That's what Paul said. For the
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If He sanctifies something,
you remember that what he said out there before Peter, all those
forbidden meats under the law. And Peter said, I've never ate
anything common or unclean. And he said, don't you call common
and unclean what I've sanctified. And if He sanctifies something
and tells us we can eat it, we ought not have any more questions
about it. He's the Creator of all things, and all the things
were created for Him and by Him. The earth is the Lord. Do you
see what Paul's telling them there? And the fullness thereof,
it belongs to Him. 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. But don't ask no questions about
it. Don't ask no questions. You go to this celebration, and
I don't know. Providence has a way of presenting
itself before you, and these things have a way of presenting
these things before you, and you get sucked into them before
you know what's going on. And here you sit. You go down
to this celebration, whatever it is, maybe with some relatives
or friends or people you work with. We had a lot of things
our company put on. And Thanksgiving, we had a big
deer roast and everybody go to it and all this kind of stuff.
Anyway, you get in that situation, they serve you up a big leg of
lamb on your plate, just eat it. Just eat it. Don't ask questions. And Paul, that's what he tells
us. Just don't ask no questions.
And for the same reason as before, for conscience sake. For conscience
sake. Brethren, meat offered unto idols
is not defiled, only the person who offered it. Just the person
who offered it. That's what's defiled. And you
can eat it with a clear conscience. But to know that it's offered
to idols, and for them to know you know, is forbidden because
it makes you a partaker of their idolatry. 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. Verse
29, conscience I say, not yours, but of the other. For why is
my liberty judged of another man's conscience? I remember
Brother Don telling me about a preacher friend of his out
in Southern California who was invited to preach at a nudist
colony. And he was talking to Don about
it. And Brother Don told him that
they didn't invite him there to hear the gospel. They invited
him here for their own guilty conscience. They invited him
over there to put his stamp of approval on what they were practicing. And that same thing goes for
gays who join local churches and all these other wicked practices
of men. partake of meat in a public feast
with anybody privy to what's being done is to be a partaker
of their idolatry and to give your personal approval for what's
being done. And you've got to really be careful
because you've identified yourself with a church. And now the church's
name is involved in all of this. Paul said, don't do it. Not just
for your sake, but for their sake. Why is my liberty judged
by another man's conscience? What Paul is saying here is that
to openly and knowingly partake of their idolatry only leads
them to condemn you for your own compromising of what you
said you believed. You teach one thing, but you
do something else. Verse 30, for if I by grace be
a partaker, Why am I evil spoken of for that which I've given
thanks? Now Paul's not arguing here for
his right to go where he pleases and eat what he pleases. He's
asking rather, he's asking this, why should I present a situation
that will expose me to the evil tongues and blasphemies and reproaches
of men by eating these things under these circumstances? Why
do I do that? Why would I want to do that?
He's just trying to help these people avoid situations. And there's so many other things
I can eat. Think about that. They give no
offense, and there's so many other places to eat them that
cause no problems whatsoever. We have the liberty, but we don't
have the necessity. We have the liberty, but sometimes
our liberty don't edify. What Paul is saying here is to
think things through, evaluate situations, and then do what's
best for the good of everybody concerned. Verse 31, whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now brethren, there's no clear-cut
lines in your daily lives, but each decision, each circumstance,
each situation has to be evaluated, and here's the rule. Do all for
the glory of God. Why am I going down there? Why
am I going down there? And how does the glory of God
fit into this thing? How is my going down there going
to yield any glory to Him? You see what Paul is saying?
And it doesn't just have to do with the few things that he was
discussing here, eating and drinking, but he is saying do all things,
everything you do. God's glory is manifested in
the salvation of His elect through the person and work of His dear
Son. And this is the governing force that reigns over all we
do. If our doctrine does not yield
all the glory to God, we've got something other than the doctrine
of Christ. Our worship, if our worship is
about something else, we're not worshiping in spirit and truth.
Our lives, our lives are to be lived for the glory of God. Our
preaching, prayers, giving, our jobs, our families, whatsoever
you do, he said, do all for the glory of God. But believers are not all mature. We have young believers, immature
believers. They haven't all been studying
for 40 years, 50 years. And those who are reflect that
maturity in their lives and in their daily affairs. Immature
believers make mistakes and bad decisions, and they irritate
the ministry of the church because of it. They're young believers. They're immature believers. They're
just like your own children going out into the world. Over in Hebrews, Paul talks about
the strong meat. The strong meat. And people say,
they used to tell me when I was asking questions about predestination
and election and all those things in the religious circles where
I was at. And they told me, said, that's
strong meat. That belongs to men of full age. And I said,
well, you're 78. You ought to be able to give
me the answer. But this strong meat that he's
talking about here, that's not election and predestination.
That's milk. That's the sincere milk. That's
not strong meat. Strong meat is being able to
take these things and apply them in your daily lives. That's the
strong meat. James said, pure religion and
undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the
fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep
himself unspotted from the world. That's strong meat and that's
pure religion. To live for the glory of God
is to live and walk in humility, trusting only in the blood and
righteousness of Christ. It's to find a full satisfaction
in Him and to have a full assurance of faith in Him. And to let what
God has done for you and others dictate how you live. That's
what it means to live for the glory of God. Verse 32. Give none offense, neither to
the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. And
when Paul says, give none offense, he's not talking about the offense
of the cross. He's not talking about men being
upset over the gospel. The gospel of Christ is offensive.
And nothing short of compromise can take away the offense of
the cross. It condemns men's nature. It condemns man's mind and his
heart and his intellect. He declares his mind enmity against
God, his heart as a cesspool of iniquity, his righteousness
as filthy rags, his intellect as non-existent, and it lays
the axe to the root. They're going to be offended
when they hear the gospel. It's not the offense of the cross
which we're told to avoid, but rather the offense of situations
and circumstances. Avoid those things. And brethren,
believers are new creatures in Christ. And these are your family. These are your family. This is
those with whom you plan or profess to plan to spend eternity with. You think about that. Brother and sister are not just
religious names, but they are the fact of our spiritual family. They are our brothers and sisters
in Christ. You know, they came to the Lord
and they said, your mother and your sisters and your brothers
are outside the door. He said, who is my mother? Who
is my sister? And while I long for my family
to be saved, I also realize that I have a family. And it should
be far closer to me than my blood relatives. And it will be in
time. It takes a little time. It takes
a little time. It takes a little edification.
It takes a little learning. And it takes a revelation in
the heart. And knowing these things, I ought to live my life
with them in mind. I ought to live, you know, just
like I do. I made a lot of sacrifices for
my children and for my brothers and my sisters and my family.
And they made a lot of sacrifices for me. I need to do that too
with my spiritual family. And I ought to schedule my life
around the gospel and the fellowship of His saints. You see where
Paul is going with this thing. You come into a church. This
is the means that God is going to mature you. This is why He
left preachers and evangelists and pastor-teachers. This is why He put those. This
is why He gives those. It's for the maturing of the
saints. to get them grounded and settled and to teach them
and make them to know how to live and make them to know how
to glorify God in their lives. But if we avoid that, if we just
throw that aside and say, well, that's not necessary, that's
just optional, you know, and if I don't have anything to do
on a certain Sunday, I might run over there, you know. No.
No, it's necessary. It's necessary for your spiritual
health. And the more often you go, the
more edified you become, the more mature you'll be. And you'll
know how to walk. You'll know how to discern good
and evil. You'll know how to discern doctrine or right. And
you'll know how to tell men and women and witness to men and
women and to tell them what you believe and to teach your own
children, to teach your own children at home.