The Restraint Of Christian Liberty - [1 Corinthians 8:1-6]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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September 18, 2011

00:01: Robert Greene Ingersoll said, if a man would follow today the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal.
00:08: If he would follow the teachings of the New, he would be insane. Let's turn our
00:16: Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, and follow the teachings of the
00:21: New Testament. Just how relevant is 1 Corinthians chapter 8?
00:28: How relevant is this book that we have? It doesn't take you very long to say,
00:33: I'll pick up an old Sports Illustrated from 10 years ago and try to read it, and it is out of date.
00:39: It doesn't take you very long to say, let's pick up some old computer programming books, and to see if we can get some money off from them on eBay, and you pick up languages like, at least back in my day,
00:49: Pascal, COBOL, FORTRAN, BASICPLUS, BASIC.
00:55: They're just so outdated, and yet here we have this book. Even if you look at the New Testament, the
01:00: WPI students are smiling. I'm talking your language. I'm meeting you where you are. By the way, we're glad to have
01:10: WPI students. How many WPI students do we have now? Great, and they all sit together except one back here.
01:15: Oh, one over here too. Here we have the New Testament, 2 ,000 years old.
01:21: Is it relevant? Does it apply for us today, to us today? Is it pertinent? What can we learn?
01:28: And out of many passages, this one in particular, because at Corinth, there was all kinds of unique things going on in this very debauched city, and so does it mean much to us?
01:42: The Bible says in Psalm 19, the law, our Torah, our instruction of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.
01:49: It's complete. It's all -sided. It takes care of every angle that we need. Can you imagine
01:55: God in all His eternal wisdom can write a book that's closed, complete, finished, a closed canon, and yet to every generation past the book of Revelation, it applies?
02:08: That's pretty amazing to try to write something so transchronologically relevant. Only God could do that.
02:15: This isn't an old -fashioned passage. It's not antiquated. It's not out of date. It speaks directly to us in our particular church situation.
02:27: God's Word has many rich names. I found just a few before we get into the text. Is not My Word like a fire, declares the
02:33: Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock? For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing as far as the division of the soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
02:50: For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and abiding
02:55: Word of God. Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
03:05: If a church growth guru came to me and said, let me help you with your business strategy. How do you get that new building down there in Boylston?
03:12: I know something that they would tell me not to do. They would say, never preach 1
03:18: Corinthians 8, 9, and 10 to your congregation. Put them to sleep.
03:23: It'll bore them. This is kind of old and out of date. Martin Luther said,
03:31: I study my Bible as I gather apples. First I shake the whole tree that the ripest may fall.
03:38: Then I shake each limb. And when I have shaken each limb, I shake each branch and every twig. Then I look under every leaf.
03:46: And so today, let's shake 8, 9, and 10 and look under every leaf of at least the first few verses of 1
03:52: Corinthians chapter 8. Let's read chapter 8 so you get an idea. Remember, Paul's answering their questions.
03:58: And there's kind of a flag that tells you, oh, here's another topic because he says, now concerning, concerning such and such.
04:05: He starts it in 7 .1 and now he does it here in 8 .1 again. They've had questions. Remember, Paul had been there for how many months?
04:13: 18 months, 1 Corinthians, Acts chapter 18, 18 months. He's been there for 18 months and you know he's poured his heart out.
04:19: Remember Acts chapter 20, when he was at Ephesus for three years, what did he teach them? Everything.
04:25: I'm sure he taught the church of Corinth everything too. It was just compressed in about half the time.
04:30: And they know about Christ's life, his death, his resurrection. They know about church unity. They know about depravity.
04:37: They know about all kinds of things. And now Paul leaves and goes away and there's still some issues in the church and now they've got questions.
04:43: Paul, you've taught us, but now we'd like some clarifying comments. So he answers another question here in chapter 8.
04:51: Now concerning, there's the flag again, food offered to idols. We know that all of us possess knowledge.
04:58: If you have ESV, notice quotation marks. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
05:05: If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves
05:11: God, he is known by God. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no
05:20: God but one. For although there may be many so -called gods or so -called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one
05:32: God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist. And one
05:38: Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
05:46: However, not all possess this knowledge, but some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol.
05:53: And their conscience being weak is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do.
06:03: But take care that this rite of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
06:09: For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
06:18: And so, by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
06:25: Thus, sinning against your brother and wounding their consciences, when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
06:30: Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
06:38: So, big picture, in context, biblically, they're dealing with this issue, food offered to idols and then eating in the place where that food was offered.
06:47: For us, we're going to look at something that's apropos as well, and that is, what do we do with gray areas?
06:54: What do we do with areas of the Bible that we don't have a lot of specific instruction? What do we do about areas of liberty?
07:01: What do we do when it comes to debatable issues? I can think of lots right now. How do we deal with debatable issues in the church that aren't really talked about biblically?
07:12: For instance, what does the Bible say about taking some dried leaves, rolling them up with some paper on the outside, putting it in your mouth, lighting it on fire, and then inhaling?
07:23: What does the Bible say about that? What does the Bible say about dressing up as an astronaut and going to somebody's door and saying trick or treat?
07:40: Now, both with smoking and with Halloween, you probably have ideas. You probably think, this is right, this is wrong,
07:47: I'd never do that, no, that's below me. I did that, we do that, we have a right to do that. We have all kinds of people here.
07:53: Here's the good news of Bethlehem Bible Church, we're growing. Here's the bad news of Bethlehem Bible Church, we're growing.
08:01: And as we grow and the Lord brings new Christians, guess what comes with new Christianity?
08:06: A new convert. Immature ideas, undeveloped ideas, and weak consciences.
08:14: And so we have to be very careful. Those of us, if we think we're strong on an idea, the main point
08:20: Paul's going to say is not for us to walk around saying, we've got our doctrine right, we're set.
08:27: But if we've got our doctrine right, it should flow to other people. So, if you think, for instance, it is a sin to go to movies, but it's okay to watch them at home with your
08:37: DVD. You'd never go to the Passion Pit, to the movie theater, but you'd stay there at home.
08:43: Then when somebody else says, oh yeah, I just saw that new movie, Paul has an idea for you, and that idea is not to jump on them and attack them.
08:51: If you really are strong, and if you really are right, you're to be humble and say, I have a goal.
08:56: And so chapter 8, here's the goal. We went to love other Christians. Knowledge is good. Paul never says, be ignorant, brethren.
09:04: It's kind of like a new denomination. We have the Plymouth brethren, we have the separated brethren, and we have the ignorant brethren.
09:09: But that's another sermon. He doesn't want you to be ignorant. Doesn't he say over and over and over in 1 Corinthians, do you not know?
09:15: Do you not know? Do you not know? Do you not know? What are we going to do? People say, well, you teach too much doctrine at the church, there's too much head knowledge.
09:23: You can never have enough knowledge of the Scriptures. John Calvin's Bible Institute for Christian Religion.
09:30: You want to know what real knowledge is, to understand the knowledge of God first, and of ourselves second.
09:36: Can you know too much about God? What Paul's going to say is, yes, we know about God, but then it should filter down on how we love other people, especially others in the church, who don't do what you do.
09:48: Say, well, you know, we don't play with cards at our family. We never grew up playing cards, and we don't play cards. We don't use a devil's deck.
09:55: And then somebody comes over to your house, and the kids are making some kind of a house of cards, and what do you do?
10:01: How do you go about it? Now, I've given you some funny ones, but let's get to a real one that even happens at this church.
10:08: What do we do with all the backgrounds of this church when it comes to homeschooling, private schooling, and public schooling?
10:16: The answer is, if you think homeschooling is right and biblical, then your response to other people needs to be filtered through 1
10:24: Corinthians 8. In love, in the right way. Your goal is never,
10:29: I've got to get them to do what I do. But see, that's what we end up doing. I do it, therefore it must be good, and I'm going to try to get you to do it as well.
10:37: Now, if it's something that's a black and white biblical issue, well, that's fine.
10:42: That's what leaders do. That's what we do. But these other kind of issues, well, we demand feed children.
10:48: No, we schedule feed children. No, we bear our children in the hospital. We bear our children at home. And all of a sudden, can you see what happens when we do this?
10:57: It reverts back to 1 Corinthians 1, 2, 3, and 4 about division, about unity, where we're supposed to be tied together by Christ Jesus has died for us.
11:11: Can you imagine, as I look out there, you don't look anything like Wes Boylston. Wes Boylston, not right, not wrong.
11:21: Wes Boylston just looks like what it looks like. Pretty much white, suburban. And don't you like it that when you preach the
11:28: Gospel, who starts coming to the church? Only white people? Well, if the pastor's white, the congregation will be white.
11:33: I don't want that. If the pastor's been redeemed by Christ's blood, I want other people to come who have been redeemed by Christ's blood.
11:40: I want Jews here, Gentiles here, whites here, blacks here, females here, males here, the list goes on.
11:47: But coming with all that, we are different. And you know what the world will say? Difference is bad.
11:55: Male -female difference is bad. And we have good strength in our difference.
12:04: Difference. Well, we don't dance. Oh, we love to dance.
12:14: We don't believe in birth control. We believe in birth control. We're Republicans.
12:22: We're Christians. Oh, sorry. I mean, we're Democrats. Wait, I didn't see that. Let me get my glass out again.
12:31: We tithe. We give freewill offerings. We're sacrificial.
12:38: We put up Christmas trees and say, that tree reminds me of the death of Christ Jesus. We don't put up Christmas trees because Jeremiah says that's a pagan symbol.
12:51: There's a story about a pastor who was going to church one day and all the roads were blocked and he had to skate on the river, the frozen river, to get to church one day.
13:02: When he arrived, the elders of the church were horrified that he had skated on the Lord's day. They held a meeting afterwards, vote of confidence.
13:13: The pastor said, yes, but I either had to skate to church or not get there at all. Finally, one elder said, did you enjoy it?
13:22: No. The board said, okay, you're good. Even Lord's Day issues.
13:30: Some here are Sabbatarian, some aren't. I'll even push it past the context. Some here are premillennial, like the leadership.
13:38: Some here are amillennial. So what do we do? And so Paul gives us excellent guidance, especially for people who are wound so tightly, they want an answer, do
13:50: I or don't I? I want a list, you've got to tell me what to do. And especially with the transchronological book like the
13:57: Scriptures, the Bible would be so thick if it addressed every cultural issue in every setting over time.
14:04: So Paul gives us great principles here in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. And we, without trying to sound corny or trite, need to embrace our differences but then think about the brother or sister that is different than we are and we'll be fine.
14:21: So let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 8 as Paul answers specifically the question, is it okay to buy and eat meat?
14:29: Is it okay to go to a place where pagan deities are honored and worshipped?
14:35: You know, it would have been a big deal back in the day if there were Jews and Gentiles in the church. The Gentiles would say, how can
14:40: I go back and defile myself? I used to do that every day. And the Jews would say, hey, we're monotheists, the Shema, the
14:46: Lord our God is one. It's okay, we know they don't exist. So Paul now is going to talk to people who love do's and don'ts.
14:54: He's also going to talk to people who love to say, I can do whatever I want because I know the truth. 1
15:01: Corinthians chapter 8, let's have our outline this morning be watchwords for dealing with gray areas.
15:07: Just some watchwords for dealing with gray areas. Things that are debatable, things that are questioned so that we don't divide over those things.
15:22: What about Christian freedom? Things that aren't forbidden in Scripture, things that aren't talked about in Scripture, what do we do?
15:29: Number one, first gray area, Christian liberty issue when it comes to watchwords is be humble.
15:36: Be humble. The opposite of, oh, humility is prideful. You'll see the tenor, even here, you heard it when
15:43: I read it. That Paul's saying, I want you to be humble and not proud. It's like Churchill who met a man and he said, yes, he is a very humble man.
15:53: But then again, he's got a lot to be humble about. We have a lot to be humble about, don't we?
15:59: I know I do. And so Paul says, look at verse 1 of chapter 8. When it comes to knowledge, knowledge is not the end all.
16:08: Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge.
16:14: This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. In ESV, and I think they're right, you see all of us possess knowledge is found in quotation marks.
16:25: That was probably written to Paul, saying we all have this knowledge. And again, the idea here, contextually, biblically is there's no such thing as God in a meat.
16:37: If you take a slice of meat, there's not a small g God in there. And you don't have to worry about eating the
16:44: God and having, here's what they were worried about. If there's a God in the tenderloin and you eat some of the tenderloin, then what happens to that demon that goes down through your throat?
16:55: Like a lamprey eel, it attaches to your spirit and now you're contaminated by a demon.
17:02: Who wants a demon on the inside of you? So they wanted to be very careful.
17:10: Paul had been to Corinth. He taught them there's no such thing. And now there's a group of people who are stronger in the faith, allegedly.
17:18: We know the knowledge. We know what you said. We've got it down. Yeah, there's some other people here that don't know, but we know.
17:25: And Paul is rebuking them and reproving them. You may know, you may have a slogan, but this idea of egotism in the church and feelings of superiority and we've got it down, we know better, that's the wrong attitude.
17:43: So Paul says be humble. Let me just address you, beloved. You've been taught at this church.
17:51: For as long as I've been here, people, whether it's me or someone else, they've come to the pulpit and they've taught you biblically, exegetically, expositionally, systematically, historically.
18:06: We have IBS classes, we have Sunday school classes, we have conference. You know.
18:12: And so we at Bethlehem Bible Church should never say, we've got some weak people, and just for sake of argument, they let their kids trick or treat.
18:22: Halloween. They believe in Santa Claus and if you rearrange Santa, you know what letters that makes.
18:30: And we know. Well, we might know. But I remember when
18:36: I didn't know. I remember when that fundamentalist kid came up to me when I was 12 years old and said there was no
18:42: Santa Claus and I wanted to punch him. Put some fun back into his mental. I just drew right there.
18:48: Why am I doing this? I thought I was on no compromise for a minute. So Paul just says, you can know.
18:57: He's not knocking knowledge. He doesn't want mysticism, but here's what he's knocking.
19:02: He's trying to knock down the swagger. You've seen pro sports athletes who score a touchdown and some just have that swagger.
19:10: I like it better when they score and they just set the ball down and walk over like I did my job. Overconfidence isn't good.
19:19: Arrogance isn't good. We've got liberty, swagger isn't good. So number one, church, be humble.
19:26: Number two, build up. Be humble, number one. Build up, number two, instead of puff up.
19:35: This kind of knowledge that thinks it's superior does something. Look at the end of verse one. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
19:44: I'll say it one more time. Paul is not denigrating knowledge. He's not somehow saying don't study the
19:50: Bible. Systematic theology is no good. But he's saying the kind of knowledge that says we're superior and you're inferior, he says that just puffs up.
20:00: And what's the Greek word for to puff up? He's used it before in 1 Corinthians. It's an easy one to remember because it's very onomatopoetic.
20:09: It sounds like this. It's fusio is what it is.
20:16: Fusio. Doesn't that sound like you're blowing up a balloon? You're blowing and blowing and blowing and it's fusio.
20:22: So you can just become huge. Your head is so huge.
20:28: I remember when I was a kid, my mother would take us outside of Omaha to a hospital for people.
20:33: And they had water babies there is what they called them back in those days. Maybe that's not politically correct now. And I just remember those children, their heads literally seemed that big.
20:45: It's not normal. It's not right. Something's wrong when that happens. So Paul said when you learn these things, it's good to learn them but then you should help build up other people.
20:57: It's used of, how many carpenters do we have here? That's the word. It's for carpentry. We have more
21:03: WPI students than carpenters. Where you're building something from the foundation up with a nail and with a hammer.
21:11: I have a responsibility now that I know these things to help build that person up so that they might mature.
21:16: This is Ephesians 4 language, Colossians 1 language. One man called
21:21: Paul the theologian, theologian. He's not trying to say be ignorant. But he is saying take that knowledge and do something with it for the other person.
21:30: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's the idea.
21:35: Building up uses a carpenter word then metaphorically as developing a
21:42: Christian's character. So when someone comes to you, BBC, and they do something you don't like.
21:49: Let's say you're a homeschooler. And you say, you know what, this person's in public school. We had it happen here before.
21:55: I don't know if it happened this year. Intense pressure on people who public school. And the people either rightfully or wrongfully receive that with some kind of,
22:05: I'm inferior if I don't. I'm breaking God's law if I don't. The person that's a homeschooler, if in fact they're right, their number one goal should not be conversion to homeschooling.
22:18: Their number one goal should be, do you know, maybe I don't know about the situation with the husband and the wife.
22:23: Maybe I don't understand the situation about this, that and the other. My goal is to get involved in their life and what?
22:29: Build them up. Because now if you're in there building up and getting your hands dirty, you're not doing, we have three clubs at the school.
22:36: Homeschool club, private school club. What's the other one?
22:42: Public school club. We got the three clubs. I don't want to be known for that. You know what splits churches?
22:48: Music, schooling. The two number one things that split the church. I am not saying
22:54: I don't want you to homeschool. I'm not saying I don't want you to private school. I'm not saying don't go to public school. The Abenroth family, as you know, we are equal opportunity school bashers.
23:04: Because it just kind of revolves whatever is best for us. Two homeschool now, two public school now.
23:11: A couple of years ago, it was all homeschool. A few years before that, it was all private school. Maybe just to make some of you mad, next year
23:18: I'll do all public school. I don't know. But when you say you think you're right and you're determined and you think
23:24: I am responsible to teach my kids and I don't want some liberals teaching my kids at school and hand them off and whatever goes through your mind, even right things like that.
23:35: And you say though when I meet somebody else, I need to build into their lives. Then we have the cross thatching of different school mentality.
23:44: Versus, you know what, you don't do what we do, you're out. You're out. I like to say to myself when
23:52: I'm preaching to myself, Mike, build up, don't bulldoze. Build up, don't bulldoze.
24:02: If you would with me, turn to Romans chapter 14, please. Romans chapter 14.
24:08: This also, with chapter 15 of Romans, deals with the same issue. A little bit different angle, but the same issue.
24:16: And here's what's happening in the book of Romans. Romans is a book about the gospel, the righteousness of Christ.
24:22: And how God's righteousness can be, although we have no righteousness, it can be credited to our account.
24:29: Like Abraham. When Abraham was justified, God declared him righteous based on the work of Christ Jesus.
24:37: And Jesus is declared, Jesus bears our sins. Even though he didn't sin at all.
24:47: And so Paul does this. Paul says, you can't get to liberty, chapter 14 and 15, until you understand justification.
24:55: Once you get justification down, do you know if you eat something or don't eat something, it doesn't change your justification?
25:01: Did you know that? Do you know if you sin or don't sin, it doesn't change your justification? Do you know if you school at home or private, it doesn't change your justification?
25:10: Do you know if you say trick -or -treat or not, it doesn't change your justification? All these gray areas,
25:16: Paul says, get justification down, everything else you've got. If you've got it down that based on the work of another, the high priest who was in fact the sacrifice, his work, his will, his priesthood, his saving work, he did it all, you were the recipient of that, you were passive, it happened to you, you didn't do anything except respond with faith that God gave you,
25:39: God did that all, and if he did it all, how are you going to put some kind of soybean in your mouth and affect what
25:45: God has done? So Romans is a little bit different, because 1
25:51: Corinthians asks and answers questions, and Paul here in Romans builds up the treatise. So you might want to just say, right above Romans 14, don't forget chapter 3, 4, and 5 about justification, because liberty only comes through the right knowledge of justification by faith alone.
26:08: But I want you to turn to Romans 14, verse 13, to see the same heartbeat of Paul pastorally, not just at Corinth, but at Rome too, so we get along with people who disagree, get along with people who are in progress, in process.
26:29: Romans 14, verse 13, Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother.
26:40: In other words, resolve in your mind, decide ahead of time, the next time I meet that person that listens to rock and roll music and I think it's got a satanic backbeat,
26:50: I'm resolved that I'm going to love that person. I'm going to love that person.
26:56: I'm not going to pass judgment, I'm not going to say, hey kids, we got some family coming over today, and here's the game.
27:02: And the game's going to be, laugh at this person's judgment about thinking rock and roll music's of Satan, and it's called pass judgment game.
27:12: Paul has kind of a play on words, that's almost what he's saying. You don't play that game, but use your best judgment, use your resolution in your mind to say, we're going to love that person, and build them up, and not put stumbling blocks in front of them.
27:25: Verse 14, I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it's unclean.
27:39: A food's a nothing, but if somebody thinks it's unclean, then I'm going to love them and work with them.
27:45: It doesn't mean you can't help them theologically arrive, but you're not going to be judging them, and your goal is edification.
27:52: Verse 15, For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you're no longer walking in love.
27:59: You can eat, 1 Timothy chapter 4, you can eat whatever you want, to the praise of his glory, of his grace.
28:04: I don't care if you're a gourmet hot dog person, or if you love sushi, you just eat it, and you think,
28:10: God, to God be the glory, great things he has done. Isn't it fun to eat?
28:15: I hope today before you eat, you say to yourself, do you know, God gave me taste buds.
28:22: How about the tongue? Bitter, sweet, I can taste certain things, and then combine that with smell.
28:28: This is a banquet. He brought me to his banqueting table, and I can just eat to the glory of God.
28:36: God, I thank you that I'm not, even under Mosaic law, as you gobble down that shrimp in that drenched butter.
28:44: You just go, God. I mean, we could get so hungry, that you'd have to go outside and eat dirt. Right? Or the food could be dirt, and we'd just go, we've got to eat.
28:54: It'd be just like a little slab of soylent green, and you just would have to eat it, day in and day out.
29:00: It's true. But we get the best. We get lemons and limes and oranges and guacamole and all that.
29:07: Well, you have to have an avocado. But we get just the best. But imagine some people, based on their religious background, and it happens today, especially over in the
29:15: East, this is associated with some kind of idol. I can imagine if I am coming over from the
29:21: East and thinking, I'm going to go down to that Chinese restaurant, Choi Lee, and I walk in, and there's the cat god right there with a few little oranges, and to think, you know, my teriyaki has been devoted to the cat god.
29:31: Do I eat it or not? I wouldn't do it.
29:37: But then we go, you know what? Cat gods don't exist. Hallelujah. And so here's what
29:46: Paul's saying to the Church of Rome. Forget your preoccupation with your liberties. I live in a world, an academic world and friends' world, where their big thing is, we're going to have cigar parties, because, you know, we're just going to sit around and smoke cigars together.
30:04: I know of pastors who, thankfully, have been defrocked, who in California go to their congregants' house with like a little card table.
30:14: It folds up. It's almost like a chiropractic table. And you fold it out and set it up. And it's got all the alcohol there, so you can have a little wine -tasting party when the pastor comes over.
30:24: I don't drink, but alcohol's not the problem. But I'm not going to come to your house with my alcohol set up, because that is doing exactly what
30:33: Romans chapter 14 is trying to tell you not to do. Flaunting liberties. Wearing liberties on your sleeve.
30:40: The older, weaker, excuse me, older, stronger, wiser brother doesn't do that.
30:48: It's not a matter of right and wrong. It's a matter of verse 15.
30:55: Romans 14. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you're no longer walking in love. But what you eat, by what you eat, do not destroy the one, and here comes the jugular, for the one for whom
31:09: Christ died. If Jesus loves unconditionally, without merit, sovereignly, graciously, by His free will, to the fullness of His own death for the sake of these weak, immature, godless sinners, then that's the paradigm for us.
31:29: How does Jesus live? Note to self, don't you like it how He brings in theology? If you think the
31:36: Christian life is don't do that, and don't do that, then you've missed it. Here's the Christian life. I don't want to do that, and I don't want to do that, and I do want to do that, and I do want to do that, because it's in light of what
31:46: God has done for me, and it's because, in this particular example, this is the way Christ does things.
31:53: This is the true WWJD. What would Jesus do? How did He do it? That is a good model of love.
31:58: How does Jesus love? That's how I'm going to love other people. This is theology.
32:06: The one for whom Christ died. Don't destroy that kind of brother.
32:14: Jesus saved. That word destroy there, do not destroy, is from where we get the word
32:19: Apollyon, ruin. We're going to ruin somebody that Jesus saves.
32:24: What's the opposite of saved? Ruined. It could be translated perished.
32:31: Jesus saves. We ruin? Jump down to chapter 15, verse 1.
32:42: We'll look at the other verses next week. We who are strong have an obligation. Does grace oblige?
32:49: Yes it does. You don't earn grace, but when you've received grace you're obliged to bear with the failings of the weak.
32:59: Last week we learned about husbands should please wives and wives should please husband in light of the gospel. And here not to please ourselves.
33:07: I like cigar clubs. I like to drink wine. I'm not saying it's wrong to drink a cigar.
33:19: I'll go on record, it's wrong to drink a cigar. And look at the same language in verse 2 that we saw in 1
33:29: Corinthians 8. Let each of us please his neighbor for his agape, love says
33:35: I want to do what's right for you, what's best for you, to build him up. There you go. Same kind of language.
33:44: Our idea should not be brother shape up. And it shouldn't be telling other strong people in the church well,
33:56: I guess we've got to just put up with them. Put up. Put up with these weak people. People are just newly baptized and don't know what's going on.
34:05: No, what does Paul say? Build up. That's what you want to do. Look at verse 2.
34:11: To his edification. And then it's tied back to the gospel again. Look at how Christ -centered
34:16: Paul is. This is not moralism. This is not therapeutic, moralistic deism. This is gospel.
34:23: Jesus is good for Christians too. The gospel's for Christians too. For Christ did not please himself.
34:31: But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. Jesus suffered and was persecuted and received all those things, including the wrath of almighty
34:42: God, the holy wrath of God that we deserved. Jesus intercepted that and stood in our place and he did it for the
34:49: Father's will. To please the Father. I always do what's pleasing to him,
34:54: John 8 says. So, Christians here at BBC, you learn something, you learn it so then you can worship
35:02: God better and love your neighbor better. How many here were with me in Israel just a few months ago?
35:08: Swam in the Dead Sea. Hyper saline. You just float on the top of it and you just take a picture.
35:15: You're just sitting there on the top of the water like there's some kind of film there. 8 .6
35:21: times saltier than the ocean. A density of 1 .24
35:27: kilograms per liter when it comes to salt. WPI, that's for free. Put that in your centrifuge for later.
35:39: And I always thought about it from when I was a young Christian because I was taught, even back in my Calvary Chapel days, that you know what?
35:45: The fresh, nice Jordan, the water from Mount Hermon comes down into the Jordan, it moves down the valley and then it goes in the
35:52: Dead Sea and then the Dead Sea is a lot of things besides full of saline, but it's dead.
35:58: Why? Because there's no outlet. And so when you learn, ladies, let me get after you for a second.
36:04: Not to get after you, but to encourage you, exhort you. When you come to IBS, 50 -some ladies.
36:10: I think the most I can get even after I bribe people is 25 to come to my class, provided there's 50 -some.
36:16: Boy husbands, we're in for some good lovin' from these wives. Learning, learning, learning, and they're gonna build us up and they're gonna serve us and they're gonna honor us and they're gonna respect us, right?
36:28: That sound weird? Ferdie's shaking his head. Ferdie went like this.
36:34: No, just kidding. No, here's the point. And when the men are in discipleship and meeting with Steve and preaching discipleship, we learn all that so we can think about God properly.
36:45: Yes, there is something for us as we worship God, but it's for others. It's either for God, as we give
36:51: Him glory, or for other people. So all this learning we have, I'm never at BBC going to say, cut all the learning.
36:58: We just need to love. Because friends, that's liberalism. That's the social gospel.
37:05: It's vacuous. It's not Christ -honoring. And it's liberalism to the core.
37:12: Emergent church is just liberalism redone with cooler glasses. But when you've got the indicative, this is what
37:21: Jesus did, isn't the imperative so much easier? In light of what Jesus did for me, this is what
37:27: I'll do. Just two days ago, I sat there and thought of something that you guys should all sit and think about one day, soon.
37:34: I deserve hell, and I'm getting to go to heaven. I deserve hell.
37:40: Speaking of lakes, why do you think hell is called the lake of fire? There's no outlet. And I deserve hell for the things that I've said and done.
37:49: There's a royal, majestic king who created the universe, including me, and he runs the show, and he runs and calls the shots, and he does whatever he pleases.
37:59: And I've offended him, and I've dishonored him, and I've not given him thanks.
38:07: And I deserve by my treason to be banished out of his presence forever. You can just imagine a king saying, take him out of my presence.
38:15: And yet, this king that I've dishonored, I should have been thrown in hell by this king.
38:23: He's saved me. He's delivered me. He's crowned me and said, you're my son.
38:29: You're my prince. I'll give you everything. You've got it all. I'll love you as much as I love my son.
38:35: And he did it not because I earned it, not because I was good, but he earned it.
38:40: The son earned it. He did it all. And I thought, I'm not going to hell. And if I'm not going to hell based on the work of Christ, I think
38:47: I can serve you again today, Lord. It gives you joy. If you say to yourself, you know,
38:59: I deserve hell. And my mission in life is try to tell everybody else what's wrong with their gray areas.
39:06: My mission in life is, since God has saved me and built me up, I think I need to have a new ministry.
39:11: And that ministry is, I'm going to try to figure out, we've got groups here, and we've got differences, and we've got some people in this camp and some in that camp.
39:19: My job is going to be to try to liaise these groups and to bring them together and to make sure that not one homeschooler feels bad with all the public school people, and not one public school person feels bad or among the homeschool people.
39:33: You say, well, why is the whole big homeschool thing going on? Well, I don't really think we have a problem with food offered to idols around the church, but maybe we do.
39:41: I don't even think we have a huge problem with homeschool, public school, private school. I want to make sure we don't have a problem.
39:49: How would we like to defame the name of Jesus based on schooling preferences? And you say, but Mike, that's not a preference.
39:58: Then I'll say to you, assuming that you're correct, your job is to build up people who don't know what you know yet.
40:08: Gray areas, Christian liberty. One, be humble. Two, build up. Three, remember that you haven't arrived.
40:15: Let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. This is a quick one. Remember that you haven't arrived.
40:23: This is all in the context of Corinthians and eating food offered to idols, and now we can easily see principles.
40:30: It doesn't take much abstract thought to say, this is the principle that Paul is trying to teach us through this.
40:39: 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 2. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
40:47: Who here can't learn more about God, about salvation, about Christ, about the
40:54: Bible? We all can learn more. So the first person that says, you know what, I know everything I need to know. I've mastered
41:00: God. Oh, okay. Please. We want to be mastered by God, and then we want to continue to learn.
41:10: That's one of my favorite things about life on earth, is until my dying breath, I can still learn more about God.
41:17: Isn't that good? And then when you get to heaven, you still get to learn more because in heaven, you're still finite, God's still infinite, and can you imagine forever learning in heaven?
41:25: P .S., here's some good news, and you'll never forget one thing that you've learned in heaven. I like that. The language here with the tense, it's a perfect tense to know.
41:36: It means, you know what, I'm the kind of person that I've got it all mastered, and I need to know nothing else.
41:44: I got it down. We're not trying to say, be biblically illiterate, but we're trying to say everybody's a learner.
41:54: Paul was a learner. Paul had not arrived. There's always more to learn about God serving others.
42:02: When we say we know, we're basically saying, here's the cloud that comes out of our head. We know all these things.
42:08: Here's the cloud. I'm ignorant. That's what the cloud says. I don't know anything. And then just a taste, and then
42:18: I'm going to leave you hanging. Number four, what do we do with gray areas, debatable areas, issues where some
42:26: Christians disagree, where there are strong Christians and weak Christians, immature Christians, immature.
42:31: Be humble. Build up. Remember that you haven't arrived. And number four, don't forget about unconditional election.
42:43: I'm not joking. Don't forget about unconditional election. You say, what's going on?
42:51: What do you mean? How do you get that out of chapter 8, verse 3? If anyone loves God, he is known by God. NES translates it the same way.
43:00: If anyone loves God, he is known by Him. Paul is going to give an indirect answer here.
43:07: It's elliptical. He's omitting some information that would just be obvious. And here's what he's saying.
43:13: Friends, everything that you have, everything that you are, everything that you have learned, you've received it from God.
43:24: It's been given to you by divine initiative. You show me somebody that loves
43:29: God, I'll show you somebody in eternity past that God says, I will know you. This is all divine initiative language.
43:36: So the person sitting there saying, I know, I know, I know. Well, you've really been known by God.
43:42: It isn't your stick -to -itiveness. It's not your goodness.
43:48: It's not your study habits. It's not your teachers. It's God knew you in eternity past. He knew you.
43:54: He chose you. And in light of all that, how could any Christian be prideful?
44:02: One commentator said, the initiative in salvation comes from God, not from us. It is God who first loves us.
44:09: God who elects and delivers us from the power of sin and death. Therefore, what counts is not so much our knowledge of God as God's knowledge of us.
44:19: The love of God is not predicated on you believing. Your belief is predicated on God first loving you.
44:29: You say, you know what? Yeah, but God looked down the quarters of time and he saw that I would believe there. He chose me.
44:35: Maybe we have some visitors here. I know BBC people know this. Friends, that is, you know what's so wrong with that?
44:42: Besides Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. But besides that, think about it intellectually.
44:48: If God looks down the quarters of time and says, yes, I'll choose you based on what you do. A, that's works.
44:55: And B, that means God learned something in eternity past. God didn't know what you would do.
45:01: Then in time you did it. And he said, OK, now I know. Therefore, I do it. God is immutable and he's always immutable.
45:07: If I can say that he's sovereign. And when God looks down the quarters of time, he sees sin. He sees lots of men and women who have not fallen too far from the tree of Adam.
45:19: And so then he has to divinely rescue us, sovereignly rescue us. He has the triune plan where the father chooses.
45:25: The son executes that by dying for us. And then the spirit of God makes us alive. And so here's what
45:31: Paul's saying. And we'll look at this more next week. If you are a Christian and you know anything, realize that you've received it from God's divine initiative first.
45:40: And if you've received things, then you're not going to go around saying, you know what? I've got it going on.
45:46: He said it before to the church of Corinth. What have you received? What do you have that you haven't received?
45:56: In other words, when you read this, if anyone loves God, he is known by God. The point is you were brought to a knowledge of God.
46:03: Who here believed on their own? I just sat there and I just, you know, pros and cons, little pluses here and minuses here, plus eternal life and plus hope of heaven and plus sins forgiven, minus deny self, minus hate self, minus sick of self, minus hate self, minus.
46:26: Let's see, which one shall I do? Intellectually, we would all go, who wants to go to heaven? Matter of fact, today, who all wants to go to heaven?
46:34: That's a sorry lot. Better have an altar call. And I don't even do and there's no altar here.
46:41: Who wants to go to heaven today? Wow, that's pretty good. I thought we were going to have some tenderloin afterwards.
46:49: Intellectually, we say, of course, even when I was an unbeliever, I don't want to go to heaven, but you mean to forsake myself and forsake sin and somehow recreate myself and make myself alive and rebirth myself?
47:02: We can't do it. By the way, if we could, shame on God for sending Jesus to die.
47:11: But election is by divine initiative. Christ's death is by divine initiative. The spirit making you alive is by divine initiative.
47:20: And if you at all ever say to yourself, I love God, I know something about you.
47:26: You've been known by God first. You've been known by God first. This is language that comes almost from, at least it's theologically the same as Galatians chapter 4.
47:39: The best. We're going to have to finish here. But now that you have come to know God, and then
47:45: Paul, under the inspiration of the spirit, but if it wasn't under the inspiration of the spirit, it seemed like he'd have to correct himself.
47:51: But now that you've come, you've come to know God. Or rather, to be known by God. If you've been known by God, then you've come to know
47:59: God. The order is, God knows you, then you respond to Him. It's never, I know first, then
48:06: God responds. So here's the deal. When you meet people who are weak and frail, brand new
48:11: Christians, if you've been known by God, then you'll love them. You're not going to wait for them.
48:19: It's not up to them. Can you know God without God first knowing you?
48:27: So Paul basically says, listen, your problem is not just you don't love one another.
48:32: That's the problem with ethical, social gospels. The problem in loving other people stems with the right knowledge of God and the right knowledge of Christ.
48:42: The right knowledge of election. We'll talk more about that next week. Congregation, we're in session for school.
48:52: Public, private home. Halloween's coming up. Pagan Christmas tree time is coming up.
48:59: And when you go to somebody's house and they've got a tree and you don't like it, your job is to build them up.
49:09: Say, you know, I got in somebody's car the other day. We were driving down the road and he turned on rock and roll and it was
49:16: Striper. And that really offends me and I'm going to give him a thought or two about Striper.
49:23: Friends, just tap your toe and wait for another day. Did I just say that about Striper?
49:42: Isn't it good to think one day we'll all think the same way? All have the same mind.
49:50: Well, let's pray. Thank you, Father, for the time we have now in your word. Thank you for granting us,
49:57: Bethlehem Bible Church, unity. Thank you that your spirit has helped us focus on things that are the most important like Jesus, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his soon return.
50:11: Bind us more regarding those things and help us to love people who have different skin color, different sex, different background, different language, different likes, different dislikes, different thoughts.
50:25: Father, help us to build them up. Help us to love them. Help us to please them just like your
50:32: Son, Jesus Christ, who could have pleased himself and would have been righteous by divine act of the will humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross.