WWUTT 1561 All Things are Lawful but Not All Things Build Up (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)

The Apostle Paul has said over and over again, to the Corinthians here, that they are to not subject themselves to things that will cause them to stumble, that are not of God, but instead they are to cling to Christ when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and picking up where we left off last week.

So I'm going to start reading in verse 23 to verse 33 out of the Legacy Standard Bible the

Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.

All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but that of the other person.

Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience' sake, for the earth is the

Lord's as well as its fullness. If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience' sake.

But if anyone says to you, this meat is consecrated to idols, do not eat it.

For the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience' sake, I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person's, for why is my freedom judged by another's conscience?

If I partake with gratefulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which

I give thanks? Whether then you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.

Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.

So I want to come back a moment here to what we had finished up last week.

I'm going to jump back to verse 19 here, where Paul says, what do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

No, because as Paul had said previously, an idol is nothing. It's an empty thing.

So whatever is sacrificed to an idol is not inherently made unclean, because it's not like there's some sort of evil spirit that inhabits that idol that then goes into the thing that was offered to it.

No, Paul says, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.

And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. So though you can eat the food that was sacrificed to an idol, you still have to keep in mind that what a

Gentile does to anyone other than God, it's still something demonic.

There's nothing about that thing that is inherently evil. There's no evil spirit that passes into the food.

It doesn't matter whether you eat the food or not. It doesn't commend you to God. It doesn't make you forsaken.

You know, as Paul had said earlier, talking about these things concerning food sacrificed to idols.

So you're not defiled just because you ate the food that had been sacrificed to an idol. Nevertheless, the actions of these

Gentiles, whatever it is that they do that is not unto the Lord, it's still unto demons.

It's still something demonic. Consider something that Paul said to Timothy. This is in first Timothy chapter four.

But the spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons by the hypocrisy of liars who have been seared in their own conscience, who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which

God created to be shared in with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

So notice those things that the demonic teachers what it is that they are teaching.

They forbid marriage and they advocate abstaining from foods which

God created to be shared in with thanksgiving. So is it wrong to not get married?

No. As Paul has said here to the Corinthians, it's actually better for you considering the times.

It's better to not be married so that you may devote yourself fully unto the things that are of God to the married.

He says, live as if you're not married. In other words, you still need to be putting first in your mind those things that are done unto the

Lord before you think about those things that must be done unto your spouse or unto your children.

It's just to say that you must love Christ above all else. Don't let anything hinder you from obeying or serving

Christ, loving him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We love our spouse to the glory of God.

We love and discipline our children and teach them in the ways of God to the glory of God.

All of this is done unto the Lord. Our service is first to him before it is to anyone else.

To anyone who decides not to get married, they don't do anything sinful.

But if somebody tells you it is a command. Now, remember, Paul said to the Corinthians, I say this as a matter of opinion.

As somebody who is trustworthy to tell you these things, not as a commandment.

And yet these false teachers will say it is the command of God that you not get married.

They forbid marriage. So that's the teaching of demons. It's one thing to say, it would be wiser for you to not get married.

Or if you are married, remember to live first for the Lord and not for your spouse or for your children.

That's okay to say. But the person who comes along and forbids marriage like it would be a sin to get married.

Well, that that's the teaching of demons. And as we had talked about when we were in that particular chapter earlier in Chapter 7, 1

Corinthians 7, that's that's the Roman Catholic Church. They forbid their priests from getting married.

It's the teaching of demons. Straight up says so. In First Timothy, Chapter 4, verses 1 through 5.

So what else do these false teachers forbid? They advocate abstaining from foods.

They forbid eating certain foods, which God created. We shared in with Thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

So those who will tell you it is a sin to eat a certain food, they're actually encouraging something demonic.

Because God does not forbid the eating of these foods. Now, there are differing opinions regarding this.

As Paul talks about in Romans Chapter 14 and other places, some believe they're abstaining from a certain food in honor of the

Lord. They're not correct, but they're weak in conscience. And so Paul says not to quarrel over opinions, but to welcome the weak person.

There's still a an expectation upon the one who is weak in conscience that they would mature and no longer be weak in conscience or impose upon anyone else, though they believe that they should not be eating these foods.

They should not impose upon anyone else that you cannot eat these foods. So that's something

Paul goes into in Romans 14 concerning matters related to conscience.

It is a demonic teaching to forbid certain foods like you would be in sin if you were to eat this particular food.

They forbid marriage. They advocate abstaining from foods, which God created to be shared in with Thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

As it says in March Chapter 7, Jesus declared all foods clean in Acts Chapter 10 before Peter goes and preaches at the house of Cornelius.

He's given that vision from God in which God says, rise, Peter, kill and eat so that he would understand that there is nothing about what he eats or what a

Gentile eats that makes them unable to fellowship with one another. The Jews saw the

Gentiles as unclean because they ate foods that were forbidden in their dietary laws.

But since Christ declared all foods clean and then even says to Peter in a vision, you're not separated from a

Gentile by what they eat, but you should fellowship with one another and telling Peter even arise, kill and eat.

So there are no longer dietary laws in effect for the people of God, for God has created all things to be good and can be consumed in honor of the

Lord without defiling one's conscience. So we come back here then to what

Paul is is laying down for the Corinthians in First Corinthians Chapter 10. Now, this food is is specifically considering that food which has been sacrificed to idols in pagan temples, though Paul has said you can eat what has been sacrificed to an idol and it does not defile you.

Yet there are some other things that you must consider, namely the other person's conscience.

You have the freedom to eat that, but don't buy your freedom, cause somebody else to sin or to stumble.

So Paul says, what do I mean then that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?

No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.

By the way, that is an Old Testament reference there. I don't think I mentioned that last week. They sacrifice to demons and not to God.

That comes from Deuteronomy 32. Keep that in mind because I'm going to come back to that. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons,

Paul says. So this is the part where here in Chapter 10, and this is what we discussed last week or what we considered out of this text last week.

This is where Paul says that you must be careful about your own conscience. Because in partaking in those things that you know have been sacrificed to demons, do you cause yourself to stumble?

It is better to not become a partaker in that at all. And you would cause yourself to fall, though you might think to yourself, hey,

I'm strong enough. I can do this and I can resist the temptation. Are you sure about that?

Because in our minds and in our bodies, we are subject to all kinds of sinful passions as long as we inhabit these corrupt bodies.

And we must not allow ourselves to be mastered by anything, as Paul had said earlier. And at the end of Chapter nine saying,

I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

So we must discipline ourselves that we not fall into sinful temptation, which still may arise out of our flesh.

Do not become sharers in those things that are demonic. Verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the

Lord in the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord in the table of demons.

So don't go into those pagan temples eating at those tables, thinking to yourself, hey, I can eat the food.

It's fine. What's the big deal? You sit down at a demonic table like that, those things that have been sacrificed to demons.

And how do you know that your mind won't be given over to that very thing?

Previously, as Paul had talked about not being mastered by anything in First Corinthians, Chapter six, he had said that the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the

Lord and the Lord for the body. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food. But God will do away with both of them.

Yet the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body.

I'm going to come back to that here in just a moment as well. But we discipline ourselves to be unto the

Lord and not to this world and certainly not to the desires of our flesh.

So Paul goes on still in chapter 10 here to say, verse 22, or do we provoke the

Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? You cannot partake.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the

Lord and the table of demons. So he's contrasting the communion table, the

Lord's supper that we do together in church on Sunday. He's contrasting that with the table upon which food is offered in a pagan temple that had previously been sacrificed to idols.

Something demonic was done with that. As Paul says in Romans 14, 23, whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

So whatever the pagans are doing is pagan. It's sinful. Whereas whatever we do, even when it comes to whatever we eat or drink, we are to do it under the glory of God.

That's later on. That's coming up later on in verse 31. So if we think ourselves stronger than we really are, that we can resist this temptation, we can give ourselves to anything.

It doesn't matter. I just won't let my mind go there, right? I'll keep my mind unto the

Lord, even though my body partakes in this thing. Paul says, verse 22, do we provoke the

Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? And this comes back to Deuteronomy 32.

As I said, Paul quoted it earlier in verse 20, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.

That is from Deuteronomy 32. Now, Paul has been drawing here in this chapter in first Corinthians 10.

He has been drawing upon examples from the Israelites who had gone into the wilderness and had sinned against God.

They had groaned against him. They had worshiped false gods. And because of all these different things that they did,

God sent punishments upon them. There were consequences for their actions. So Paul was laying that out in first Corinthians 10, 1 through 11.

And then says in verse 12, therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And Paul had pointed that out.

Just like you saw all those temptations we read about in the Old Testament that had come upon the Israelites. And these things happened to them to serve to us as examples so that we would not crave the same evil things that they did.

They fell into temptation and perished. So no temptation is coming upon you that is foreign to anybody else.

Other people in their flesh have come into these same kinds of temptations. But God is faithful to you who belong to the

Lord. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation will provide the way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it.

And once again, the way of escape is Jesus Christ, that we turn to Christ and we have a power within us to resist that temptation.

That's the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. So we resist that temptation. We turn from it. We cling to Christ.

That is the way we escape the passions and the desires of our flesh. And the moment we're not holding on to Christ and we start thinking, hey,

I can still do these things in the flesh and it'll all be OK. Right. I can I can partake in this a little bit.

Then we're we're not focused on Christ anymore. You've let go of Christ, the way of escape.

And instead, you're starting to flirt with the things of the world. Remember the warning from James in James chapter four, that friendship with the world is enmity with God.

And he calls such people adulterous. You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

So take the way of escape. Cling to Christ. Don't be thinking about entertaining these passions of your flesh, lest you fall.

Take heed so that you do not fall and hold fast to Christ, who is the way of our escape.

Now, God is gracious to us. And if we sin, we have this promise that if we are faithful to ask forgiveness for our sins,

God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's first John one nine.

Paul is not saying these things here in chapter ten to say, hey, once you sin, you've blown it. So make sure you're holding on to Christ or else you're going to perish like the rest of the

Israelites in the wilderness. That's not what it is that he's saying. Grace is still abounding for us in Jesus Christ, our

Lord. If you've fallen, if you have sinned, turn to Christ and to not turn to Christ is prideful to think

I can deal with this on my own or to think, well, God's grace can't cover over what it is that I have done.

So why turn to him anyway? I'm just going to continue to make this mistake. I'm just going to continue to turn down this road.

So why even turn to Christ? Well, if that's where you are in your mind, then you've been given over to your sinful passions in your flesh.

And that's prideful. You you are provoking the Lord to jealousy, as Paul says here in verse twenty two.

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? We have the love of God that has been offered to us in Jesus Christ, our

Lord, mercy and forgiveness. If you will turn from your sin to Jesus Christ, you will be forgiven.

But if you continue in that sin and you continue to cling to those passions and over and over again, you just return to what your flesh wants, then you provoke the

Lord to jealousy. And again, that's a quote that comes from Deuteronomy 32. And this ties right back into all those examples from the

Israelites that Paul had given earlier. So the Israelites who went after their own cravings and suffered punishment as a result of that, the judgment of God coming upon them in Deuteronomy 32, after Moses has given the

Israelites the law again, this is after. Yeah, well, this is before that generation is about to receive the promised land, the younger generation that survived the wandering in the wilderness that God was merciful toward.

They're going to be sent into the promised land and they're going to receive it. Moses gives them all the law again.

But he knows that they're not going to be able to keep it. And Deuteronomy 32 is called the

Song of Moses. And it anticipates that the people of Israel are going to go and worship false gods and they're going to fall.

But calling them to repentance when you do this, when you're unable to keep this law that I have given you and you turn to false gods, repent of your sin and turn back to the

Lord. Here's some of the words that we have here in this. This comes down to this statement made in verse 22.

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Deuteronomy 32, beginning in verse 15, he abandoned

God who made him and treated the rock of his salvation with wicked foolishness.

Now, that's interesting because doesn't that come back to something that Paul had said in verse four, all drank from the same rock, the same spiritual rock which followed them in the rock was

Christ. That's in verse four. That rock is mentioned in Deuteronomy 32 15. They treated the rock of his salvation with wicked foolishness.

They made him jealous with strange gods with abominations. They provoked him to anger.

They sacrificed to demons who were not God to gods whom they have not known new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread.

You neglected the rock who begot you and forgot the God who brought you forth.

And Yahweh saw this and spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and daughters.

Then he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be for.

They are a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness. They have made me jealous with what is not

God. They have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people.

I will provoke them to anger with a wickedly foolish nation for a fire is kindled in my anger and it burns to the lowest part of Sheol and it consumes the earth with its produce and it sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Now, what is being foreshadowed there is that God's mercy and grace is going to be poured out on the

Gentiles who will turn from their sinfulness and their idol worship to worship the

Lord. And the Jews will be jealous because they will see that the favor of God is gone to a

Gentile people rather than the Jewish people. So that's what's being foreshadowed there in Deuteronomy 32.

But you see there the statement that comes from Paul quoting or the statement rather that Paul quotes in verse 22.

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he so we can fall into that same error that the

Jews had done when they provoked God to anger? They provoked him to jealousy.

If we go after our sin instead of after Christ, then we do the same.

Do not think of yourself as being stronger than you really are, but continue to come back to Christ the way of escape from our temptations and the passions of our flesh.

Verse 23, which again is really all I'm getting here getting to here today. First Corinthians 10 23.

All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. Hey, where did we hear that before?

That was in chapter 6 verse 12. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food.

But God will do away for a way with them both. Yet the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the

Lord and the Lord is for the body. And so we've had that statement about food for the stomach and stomach for food.

Paul had talked about that back in chapter 6 when he was warning the Corinthians against sexual immorality.

And here he's talking about the food stuff that they not think that they can they can continue to dine at the table of demons and that they will be safe from their temptations because what else is going on in those pagan temples?

In addition to food that has been sacrificed to idols, there's also a lot of sexual immorality. That's why

Paul connected them both in chapter 6. And he comes back to that statement that the Corinthians would make that was pretty much commonplace among even pagan

Corinthians to think, hey, whatever the whatever the body desires that I can have now.

And now the Corinthians are apt to think, well, I've been forgiven all my sins. So whatever I partake in in the body,

God's forgiven me for it. And hey, it's all good, right? So Paul quoting what the

Corinthians would have said, he says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but not all things build up.

And so as he's talked earlier about keeping yourself from temptation, you must also consider the other person's conscience.

Let no one seek his own good, but that of the other person. And that's where we'll pick up tomorrow.

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