WWUTT 1547 All Things to All People (1 Corinthians 9:21-23)

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The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 .22 that he has become all things to all people so that all means he might save some.

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This does not mean use any means at your disposal to win somebody to Christ when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in 1 Corinthians 9, picking up where we left off yesterday, but I'm going to start reading here in verse 19 and go through verse 27 to keep things in context.

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This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. For though I am free from all,

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I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.

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And to the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, though not being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law.

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To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.

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To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

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So I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

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Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?

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Run in such a way that you may win. Now everyone who competes in the games exercises self -control in all things.

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They then do it to receive a corruptible crown. But we an incorruptible.

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Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim. I box in such a way, as not beating the air.

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But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others,

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I myself will not be disqualified. So yesterday we were considering, as Paul says here,

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I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.

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And then he gives these examples. The first example we got to yesterday in verse 20. To the

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Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, though not being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law.

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As Paul says in Romans chapter 6, we are not under the law, but under grace. He knows that by the grace of God, he is not required to keep some of those particulars of the law.

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Ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Christ. Even the moral law, like we don't really talk about this.

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We almost section out the moral law as being something that we have to keep, but we don't have to keep the ceremonial law.

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But even the moral law was fulfilled in Christ. And Paul says that we fulfill the law whenever we do what it says.

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So at the end of Romans chapter 3, Paul says that we uphold the law. We do not overthrow the law by this faith, but we uphold the law.

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And then he says later on in Romans 13, and you see this also in Galatians, that love is the fulfilling of the law.

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So when we love one another, we're upholding the law. We fulfill the law. As the law is fulfilled in Christ, we could not have kept any part of it, but Christ who kept all of it in Christ Jesus, now we are able to keep the law in a way that is pleasing unto the

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Lord. So when we love one another, we are fulfilling the law. When you love your neighbor, are you murdering your neighbor?

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No, you're loving your neighbor. So you are fulfilling the law. You are doing what the law requires. You're not committing adultery with your neighbor's spouse.

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You are loving your neighbor and therefore fulfilling the law. When you are satisfied in all that God has given to you and you are completely thankful to the

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Lord, you're not coveting anyone else's goods and therefore keeping even the 10th commandment and fulfilling the law.

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So love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. And as Paul says in Galatians chapter 5, if we do these things, producing the fruit of the spirit against such things, there is no law.

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The law will not be held against us on the day of judgment. It's all been fulfilled in Christ.

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So we as Christians are not under the law. We are under grace. But Paul, when he interacts with Jews, will behave as a

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Jew, as one who desires to keep the law so that they will not think of him as an antinomian, as somebody who is just living in such a way that I can sin or do whatever it is that I want because the grace of God covers me.

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If he were to behave in such a way that the law does not apply to him, like if that's the way that he came across to Jews, they would not want to listen to anything that he had to say about this

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Messiah because they would just know, hey, the Messiah just is going to tell us to overthrow the law of God and we cannot do that.

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So Paul's desire was that they see Christ fulfills the law. As Jesus said in Matthew 5, 17,

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I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. So he needs that entrance to the

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Jews to be able to share this, these things with them so that they may see Christ and then know that in Christ, we are not under the law, but under grace.

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He has to do these things strategically, very carefully, all in the wisdom of God, behaving as one who is under the law, though he himself is not under the law, behaving as a

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Jew in though Paul was a Jew. Remember what he says in Romans chapter nine,

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I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the

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Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen in the flesh.

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They are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises to them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the

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Christ who is God overall blessed forever. Amen. So in his own flesh,

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Paul associates himself with Jews, with the Israelites, because he was born in in the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

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That is Paul's heritage. But it is not his heritage as a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that guarantees him the kingdom of God.

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It is only by faith in Jesus Christ. Consider what he says in Philippians chapter three.

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Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh, for we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

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Going on to verse four, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. Also, if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh,

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I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a

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Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

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But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

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Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing

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Jesus Christ, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain

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Christ. So Paul, though he loved his Jewish heritage, counted it as nothing for the sake of Christ.

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You know, he even used his Roman citizenship as a means to be able to advance the gospel of Christ.

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And he talks about that with the Philippians as well. The Philippians were a proud Roman people.

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And yet Paul says to them in Philippians 3 .20, but our citizenship is in heaven.

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And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

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I'm going to use my rights as an American to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm a proud

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American. I'm proud to be born in America. I'm proud to live in the Midwest. Well, that's where I was when

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I was in Kansas. Texas is still kind of Midwest, but it's South. Now I live in the

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South. I was born in the South. So I just kind of brought the two worlds together, South and Midwest. And I moved to I moved to Texas.

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I'm a proud Texan as well. But these things are not who I am in the eternal scheme.

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Even though many Texans might think of Texas as the promised land. This is not my final resting place.

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I am going to dwell with God forever in glory. So I'm going to use my rights as an American citizen.

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I'll even fly the red, white and blue because of the people who sacrifice their lives that I may enjoy the freedoms that I have here in America.

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But I would count it all as loss. I count it all as loss for the surpassing greatness of Christ.

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My citizenship is with Christ in heaven, first and foremost. So I'll be as an

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American or I'll be as a Texan in order that I might win more to Jesus.

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I've gone and spoken in Utah. I've been in the Pacific Northwest before preaching sermons and things like that.

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And in those places, I will do what is expected of me, behave in whatever way that I need to behave in order to win others to Christ.

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There are some who still believe that they are under the law in the in the respect that they think they still have to keep the dietary laws.

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Well, in such a case, I'm not going to eat the meat that they think is sinful to eat so that I might win somebody to Christ.

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There are those that believe drinking alcohol is sinful. Well, then I'm not going to drink any alcohol. I'm not going to smoke anything.

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If it's therefore going to cause somebody to stumble and fall into sin, it would be better for me to not eat meat, not do anything like that at all.

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Those those unnecessary liberties that we may enjoy, Paul says in chapter eight, verse 13, if food causes my brother to stumble,

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I will never eat meat again ever so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. Notice that Paul's motivation here as he's saying these things to the

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Corinthians, his motivation is the gospel. His motivation is love, the love of God that is shown to us through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave. God himself who put on human flesh and dwelt among us and died for us because Jesus did this for us.

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And this message is contained within the gospel. So Paul is willing to sacrifice for the sake of others that they may come to faith and have everlasting life.

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The gospel is in view. Eternity is in view. The love of God is what

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Paul operates with here and is encouraging the Corinthians to consider others the same way.

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Now, again, he mentions rights that he has. He mentions authority that he has as an apostle, which he's been defending through chapter nine here.

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But he gives those things up for the sake of others to be able to come to the faith. There are going to be certain callings upon certain people that they will be required to give certain things up or compelled by the spirit to give those things up.

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That they may serve God in a way to win others to the faith. And so Paul does this, that I might win those who are without law, he says in verse twenty one.

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And the next verse, verse twenty two, to the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak.

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I've become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some.

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Now, as I mentioned yesterday at the at the start of this particular section, there are many who will use this passage to justify any

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Christian behavior or any let's put it this way, any method that can be implemented in the church in order to draw people in and lead them to Christ, according to the gospel.

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This is an excuse many use, including Andy Stanley. It's almost like anything

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Andy Stanley does when he then has to try to explain himself over whatever he said in whatever sermon that went viral and caused an uproar and got a bunch of people's attention.

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He'll almost always come back to first Corinthians nine twenty two as though it's his motto for everything that he does.

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I have become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some.

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So he utilizes these methods, these things, this seeker sensitive strategy to try to draw people into the church.

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And even the statement that he made about unhitching from the Old Testament a few years ago, he said that was because he was trying to be all things to all people.

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But this is not justification for the seeker sensitive movement. It's not justification to do whatever you want to do in your church as long as it draws people in, because then you look at the numbers as being the end game rather than the gospel itself.

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When Paul had said in first Corinthians one eighteen for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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Later on in verse twenty three, we preach Christ crucified to Jews, a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.

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So Paul was not merely making himself all things to all people so that he could attract the biggest crowd and then drop the gospel on him.

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In fact, I would say that's not even the motivation of Andy Stanley or any of these other seeker sensitive churches, either.

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The gospel is not their motivation. What their motivation is, is attracting a crowd.

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That's why they do that. And like I said yesterday, what you win them with is what you win them to.

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If you use carnal means to get them in the church, it's going to require carnal means to get them there.

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And they realize that once they implement these seekers sensitive strategies or trying to attract what they call seekers, once they get them in the church, they recognize, well, this is what it took to get them there.

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We're going to have to keep one upping ourselves or or raising the stakes in order to keep them engaged, in order to keep them interested.

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If we if we don't provide the best show possible where they're just going to leave and they're going to go somewhere else.

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So even these seeker sensitive guys recognize that you have to continue to do those things in order to keep the numbers up.

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And then the aim becomes the number. It's not the gospel because then they start to realize, well, hey, if we preach the gospel to them, they're all going to go away.

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Once we start calling out sin, once we start talking about the judgment of God, that's going to become a message that will be hard for people to hear and they won't want to listen to it anymore.

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And they're going to turn and walk away. Why? Why will that happen? Why is it that people respond that way?

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Because once again, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

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To us who are being saved, it is the power of God. The message of Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

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But if Paul were to approach Jews saying, hey, I'm not even under the law anymore, well, they wouldn't even give him a hearing in the first place.

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Or if he were to approach Gentiles and say, hey, I've got this law. Well, then the

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Gentiles aren't going to want to listen to that at all. So instead, as he approaches Jews, he approaches them as somebody who is still desirous to keep the law.

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And when he approaches Gentiles, he approaches as somebody who is not under the obligations of the law.

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So when he says, I do all things for the sake of the gospel, I have become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some.

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By all men, he means Jews and Gentiles. Now, I gave an example earlier where we might have to implement this in a real world setting, situation, whatever, a culture that you may find yourself.

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There may be ways that you implement this particular principle, but the way we don't implement it is by sacrificing the gospel that we may draw the biggest crowd of people.

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That's what we see happening among the seeker sensitive movement. Paul says, I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it, because Christ in this message of the gospel,

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Christ gave up his throne in heaven and he took on the likeness of sinful man and he lived among us.

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The word became flesh and lived among us, as it says in the gospel of John. He tabernacled among us.

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He lived with us. He, in his three year ministry, fulfilled the law perfectly, lived a sinless life that we could not live.

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But Christ was virgin born, and so he was without sin even from the moment of his conception, lived his whole life without sin, fulfilling the law, doing the father's will, even to the point of death on a cross.

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Therefore, Paul says in Philippians 2, God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above all names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess in heaven and on earth and under the earth that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the father. This is an incredible display of humility that is not seen anywhere else in the universe.

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God himself putting on flesh and dwelling among us. So that message of humility is right there in the gospel.

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Paul says to become a partaker of the gospel. Then I'm going to I'm going to be humble as well.

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It's it's within Paul's rights to take a wife. It's within Paul's rights to eat and drink whatever it is that he wants.

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It's within Paul's rights to not have to live under the law because he lives under grace.

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But he's going to give up that authority. He's going to give up those rights for the sake of others to be able to hear the message of the gospel and become fellow partakers in that along with him.

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Paul gives those things up for the sake of Christ. And so he is attempting to motivate the

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Corinthians to do the same. Yes, you have a right to do this. Yes, you have the authority to do that. But for the sake of a brother or sister in the

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Lord, for the sake of somebody who may come to know the Lord, be willing to give up those things that you have a right to that you may win some.

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You won't win everybody, but you can win some to the message of the gospel.

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Don't don't put a stumbling block before them, before they get to the gospel. Let the gospel be the stumbling block.

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If they're going to reject the gospel, let it be because they hate the gospel, not because they were put off by something that you said or did in advance of hearing the gospel of Christ.

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We become all things to all people that we may, by all means, save some.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word that we've been given today. And I pray that we would be humble, that we would walk in humility toward one another and even toward outsiders, that we not put a stumbling block before our brothers and sisters in the

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Lord and cause them to sin. And we not put a stumbling block in front of outsiders that would cause them to stumble before they even hear the gospel of Christ.

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But they come to hear through the law that they have sinned against God and they're convicted of heart, and then we give them the gospel that they may know it is by faith in Jesus Christ that you repent of your sin, that you are forgiven your sin, and you have everlasting life with God in heaven and glory.

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We escape the judgment of God through faith in Jesus Christ, who fulfilled all the requirements of the law for us.

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It's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray, Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .tt

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.com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our