Not Jews, Not Pagans

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You may be seated while you're finding your seat.
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If you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 15 and make your way to verse 19, you can hold your place there.
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That will be the subject of the morning.
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Four weeks ago, we began our examination of Acts 15 and the larger study that we've been doing now for quite some time of the book of Acts.
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And I've tried to stress in this last month the importance of this passage as a watershed moment in the history of the church.
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This is the first time in the biblical record wherein a group of church leaders are gathered together to settle a doctrinal dispute.
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The resulting decision of this council would have far-reaching implications and become instructional for the church down through the ages.
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By way of reminder and for some of you introduction who have not been here through this series, I kind of want to bring us up to speed to where we are today.
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The beginning of chapter 15, it tells us that a group of men have come down from Judea to Antioch and they are teaching that unless a person is circumcised that he cannot be saved.
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And you'll remember that I said this is a major issue in the church because the church at Antioch would have been made up of mostly Gentile converts and thus many of them had not been circumcised and what this group was saying is that you all ain't saved.
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For the vernacular of the south, you just ain't saved.
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And thus the teaching of Paul and Barnabas was then called into question because they had been teaching this church for many years as elders and missionaries in the church and they had certainly told this congregation on several occasions that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved, if you repent of your sins and trust in Him you will be saved and they had not told them of their need of circumcision so now here comes this group of people in and Paul and Barnabas have already told them you can be saved through faith alone in Christ alone.
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This group comes in and says no you can't and thus there is a division, a disagreement arises and they dispute within the church at Antioch.
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They determine that that dispute will not be solved there in Antioch so they decide to go back to Jerusalem because that is where these men have come out of.
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These men have come down from Judea, they go back to where they came from and while they are in Jerusalem they have a discussion among the leadership of the church and then we hear the pronouncement of four separate voices.
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We hear Peter who provides the apostolic voice, we hear Barnabas and Paul who provide the voice of eyewitnesses to the work of God among the Gentiles and lastly we hear from James who provides the pastoral voice pointing them to the scriptures showing them that the promise of God was that this very thing would take place that God would open the door of the gospel to the Gentiles.
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All of the speakers agree on the basic principle of the gospel, salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
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That is the proper expression of the Christian doctrine of justification.
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A sinful man is not made right with God by his own works.
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He is made right with God only by the work of Christ.
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Trusting in anything else no matter how noble, no matter how traditional, no matter how historical is trusting in the wrong thing.
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Now one of the questions that always arises when the subject of justification is discussed is the question what then shall we do with sin? If we're not justified by what we do, if we're not justified by our works, do our works matter at all? If we're not saved by what we do, then does what we do have any consequence at all? Some people say no.
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They argue that once you are saved and they identify salvation as simply mouthing a prayer or maybe being baptized or signing a card or walking an aisle.
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And they'll say that once that is done the ticket is punched and really my behavior after that is of no consequence.
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I remember years ago there was a man who I didn't meet but I knew his roommate.
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These two men lived together.
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They were young men.
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It was in my younger days as well.
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And we were talking about salvation and this man was very big into TBN and other Christian broadcasting things.
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And he would listen to these television preachers and he would imbibe a lot of what they had to say.
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So he was familiar with Christian vernacular.
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And yet at the same time he spent his off hours, the time when he wasn't working, looking through the internet for intimate liaisons with different women.
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He found his joy in engaging in several intimate relationships at a time.
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And what he would say as he left the house to go and engage in these things, he would say to my friend who was his roommate, Well, I'm off again to sin so that grace can abound.
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That was his announcement as he would leave the house for his liaison.
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I'm headed out to sin so that grace could abound.
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He'd obviously heard that phrase but not in context.
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Because what is the context of that phrase in Romans 6? Shall we continue to sin so that grace would abound? Certainly not! But yet that was his motto.
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Such people are normally referred to as antinomian.
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Now that may sound like a big 50 cent theological word, and I guess it is.
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So let me explain what antinomianism is.
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Anti, meaning against or opposed to, and namos is the Greek word for law.
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Antinomian is a person who believes that he is not bound in any sense or any way to God's moral standard.
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That he has no moral law by which he should govern his life.
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That he can essentially continue to live in wanton rebellion to God's holy inspired commands and do so with impunity.
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Just because we are not saved by keeping the law does not mean that the law has no place in our life.
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Christ has not called us to be lawless people.
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Christ has not called us to be wanton sinners.
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In fact, he says those who are rejected from him on the day of judgment are those who have not departed from iniquity, but yet remain living in it, loving in it, learning in it, making it their life.
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Jesus did not save us so that we would remain utterly sinful.
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He saved us that we might walk as he walked.
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We are predestined to be conformed to the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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We are his workmanship created in him for good works, Ephesians 2 tells us.
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Often times, because we are reformed, we get caught up in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.
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By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God and not of works, lest anyone should boast.
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And we stop there.
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But it goes on to say, for we are his workmanship.
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And that word workmanship means we are his art, his piece of art.
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He's created us, he's formed us in Christ Jesus for a purpose.
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And the purpose is that we would walk in his ways, not our own, that we would walk according to his righteousness and not our own, and that we would seek to live for him and not for self.
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We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, not for works of evil.
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It seems like this should be rather simple, but yet it is something that is lost and far removed from much of modern evangelicalism today.
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So looking back now at Acts 15, as the leaders of the Jerusalem council concluded the pronouncement of justification by faith alone, they did not stop there.
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They chose to include a reminder about God's call to holiness.
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And here is the thesis of today's message.
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To become a Christian, you don't have to become a Jew, but you can't remain a pagan.
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And it's really as simple as that.
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You don't have to become a Jew, but you don't get to remain a pagan either.
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With that being said, let's stand and read together.
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We're going to read verses 19 to 29.
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This gives the pronouncement and the resultant letter which goes out.
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Beginning in verse 19, this is the ends of the words of James.
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Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
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For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogues.
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Then it seemed good to the apostles, and the elders, and the whole church to choose men from among them, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.
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They sent Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter.
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The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings.
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Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.
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For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements, that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality.
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If you keep these, or excuse me, if you keep yourself from these, you will do well.
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Farewell.
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Father in heaven, I thank you again for your word.
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I pray, Father, that you would, as I preach your word, keep me from error, fill me with your spirit, open the hearts of the hearers, oh God, for the believers, that they might understand better their call to holiness.
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And Lord, for those who are not believers, that they might understand that Christ alone saves and faith in Him is what redeems.
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And finally, Father, as we deal with the difficult subject today of what it means to cause our brother to stumble and what it means to hold back our own liberties for the sake of the conscience of another, may we all have gracious spirits as we consider this difficult subject.
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In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
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In 1953, Gateway Films produced a dramatized version of the life of Martin Luther.
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In it, Luther was engaged in a conversation with a fellow Catholic priest, one of his superiors, regarding the subject of justification.
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In the conversation, Luther says this, By faith man lives and is made righteous, not by what he does for himself, be it adoration of relics, singing of masses, pilgrimages to Rome, purchase of pardon for his sins, but by faith in what God has done for him already through his Son.
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To which his priest replies, Dr.
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Martin, if you leave the Christian to live only by faith, if you sweep away all good works, all these glorious things you dismiss as mere crutches, what will you put in their place? To which Luther responds, Christ.
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Man only needs Jesus Christ.
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Now, I understand that's a dramatic retelling of the story, and it's possible that the actual conversation between Luther and his superior might have went somewhat differently, but the substance of Luther's argument is captured in that dramatic dialogue.
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Luther believed that man needed Christ alone and not works to be right before God.
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The established church saw such teaching as heretical and dangerous, because they believed that a man left without boundaries would be an unruly man and dangerous.
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Herein is where they erred, and it is where all err who deny sola fide, justification by faith alone.
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Those who err, err in this.
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Just because a man lives by faith in Christ alone does not mean that that man lives without moral boundaries.
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Sola fide does not mean that a man is encouraged to wickedness.
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In fact, it is the opposite.
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Faith is not just an idea of the mind or a mental agreement with a truth.
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Faith is a living, active movement of the soul.
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It produces a man who desires to serve his Lord, not rebel against his Lord.
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As James says, if you say you have faith and have not works, that faith that you have is a dead faith.
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It's not living, it's not active, and it's not real.
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Well, it's obvious to me that when we read this situation in Acts 15, that the Christians in Antioch wanted to be obedient to Christ.
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They had an active faith, and that faith that they had wanted to be obedient to what God had commanded them to do.
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And they were missionary minded.
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They sent out missionaries, for what reason? To see people come to Christ.
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They were an obedient people.
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They had faithful elders who were teaching them God's Word.
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And I think that's why this was such a big deal.
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If you want to be obedient to God, and someone brings you something and said, this is how you're to be obedient to God, your first inclination might be, well, I need to do this then.
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If I want to be obedient to God, and you're telling me I'm not being obedient to God, and I'm a person of faith, then my first inclination might be what? Well, then I need to do that.
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If I'm wrong, I want to be right.
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The problem was, the stipulation that the Judaizers, the men who came down from Judea, were giving them was the wrong stipulation.
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They had to be circumcised.
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And that's what had to be cleared up.
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But there was another issue that we're going to deal with today.
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And that is that many of these believing Antioch Christians had come out of paganism.
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And even though now they are filled with the Spirit of God, even though now they have a faith that's working in their lives, it's a faith that can be seen, they don't know what's right and what's wrong about everything that's going on around them because they've been brought up a certain way, and they've been reared a certain way, and they've been living a certain way.
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And behaviors that would have been fully acceptable before are now not necessarily acceptable, and they're having some difficulty determining what's the proper way to live.
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As a result, in the pronouncement of the counsel, they not only say, yes, you're saved by grace through faith in Christ, yes, that is true, but also, there are two areas of your life that need to be addressed.
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And if you really boil down what James says in the pronouncement and what comes in the letter that comes after that, it really boils down to two major issues.
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Sexual immorality and dietary restrictions.
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Why would those two things be worth mentioning? Well, these people are coming out of paganism, and pagan worship revolved around the satisfaction of the flesh.
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And what would happen in a pagan temple was that the pagans would go into the temple, they would sacrifice animals to their idols, they would then cook those animals and they would have a big feast, and then they would engage in ritual acts of indiscretion with the temple prostitutes.
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So there was a behavior of worship which involved what you ate and where you laid.
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So it makes sense that in the response to this issue of justification by faith alone, that the church leadership would say, okay, here's some things that you need to address in your life.
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Yes, you're saved by grace through faith alone, but you also need to address the fact that there is some sin that you've come out of that you need to leave.
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Sexual immorality and the engaging in idolatry.
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And we're going to see in a little while, it's not so much about the food that they're eating, but where the food comes from and what it represents.
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You see, these guys are coming out of idolatry.
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They're coming out of a place where they would go in and when they ate that meat, they ate it in honor of that false god.
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When they ate that meat, they ate it in honor of that false deity.
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It was part of their idolatry.
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And so the council says, look, you need to address your idolatry, you need to address your sexual immorality.
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And these two things need to be abolished.
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The principle is simple.
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Leave your life of paganism behind and serve Christ.
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I mean, this happens, folks.
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We have people who come and who come with baggage of a life of sin.
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And they come into the church and they say, I want to be saved.
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And we say, well, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
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Repent of your sins.
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And they say, well, what does that mean? I'm a prostitute.
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Well, that's sinful.
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Repentance is to turn from that.
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How will I live? What will I do? It's all I've ever known.
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How would you address such a person? Would you tell them, well, keep going, I know you need the money? Certainly not, right? Well, that's the situation we have here.
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Yes, you are saved by grace through faith alone, but that is not a license for sin.
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And it's not a license to continue doing what you've always done simply because you've always done it.
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And so there is the call to holiness that comes with the gospel.
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Now, I want to address a serious theological question.
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And I hope that I don't, not that I would ever bore you with the word of God.
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But I do want to address something that is somewhat of a theological minutia.
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It's an issue that I hope I don't leave you like wondering what I'm doing.
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So I'm going to ask, I even put in my notes, warning, serious theological treading.
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Just to kind of point this out.
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This is going to get kind of deep because there is a subject here.
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We know that the Bible is consistent with itself.
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Amen? Yet there are times when we do see tension between certain texts.
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Such as like with James and Paul on the subject of justification.
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There is tension that has to be resolved.
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We've been doing this on Wednesday night as I teach through James in chapter 2.
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So, the issue that arises here is this.
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The Jerusalem council tells the followers of Christ that they should maintain a dietary restriction.
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And yet, when the apostle Paul teaches on this subject, he seems to teach in opposition to this regarding the restrictions of the diet.
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Now, we could simply be as the religious liberal and say, well, here's a place where the Bible just disagrees with itself.
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And it's fine to have contradictions.
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Well, number one, it's not fine because truth does not contradict itself.
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But also, these two texts don't contradict themselves either when understood in context.
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So that's why I say I want to address not just what's happening in Acts 15, but I want to address Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8.
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Because all three of these texts deal with the subject of eating meat sacrificed to idols.
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Let's go to 1st Romans 14.
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We know what's said in Acts 15.
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Basically, it's a prohibition.
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Don't eat things that are sacrificed to idols.
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Things that are eaten with their blood.
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Meaning that the blood is not drained out.
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Meaning they're not properly handled.
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The pagan worship would often drink the blood along with eating the meal as part of the spirit of the animal.
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These things, all kinds of paganism that's involved with using blood in ritualistic eating.
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And they're being told not to do that.
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But over in Romans 14, we read the Apostle Paul.
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And remember, Romans is later.
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It's being written much later than the Council.
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The Council is going around 48-49.
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And Romans is being written in the mid-50s.
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So we have this book that's years later.
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And yet, the Apostle Paul addresses the same issue in chapter 14 in verse 1.
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He says, As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
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So the subject here is people who have differing opinions over what they can and can't do in Christ.
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That's the subject.
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What's right and what's wrong.
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And he says, Don't quarrel over these opinions.
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Welcome people who not necessarily think like you do.
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Who might have a weaker faith than you.
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And express their faith a little differently than you.
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Welcome them.
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One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
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By the way, if you're a vegetarian, No, I'm just kidding.
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The Bible calls you weak.
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No, no, no.
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It says, One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
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Now, In this passage, Paul seems to be saying, That dietary restrictions are up to the conscience.
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Because he goes on in verse 3 to say, Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains.
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Let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats.
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For God has welcomed him.
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Essentially, what Paul says is, This issue is a non-issue.
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What we eat is a non-issue.
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Whether you eat the meat or don't eat the meat, It's really up to your conscience.
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And if you eat the meat and I don't, Because I don't have in my conscience the ability to eat the meat, Then I shouldn't pass judgment on you for eating it.
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Likewise, if you eat the meat and I don't, You shouldn't look down on me for not eating it.
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There should be a mutual respect For our personal liberties and limitations on our conscience.
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Now, someone might say, Well, Paul didn't say anything about idle meat here.
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And it's true.
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He doesn't say idle meat specifically.
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But he is, at the very least, Teaching that what we eat is a matter of conscience.
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And he says, He may eat anything.
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That's in the text.
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So, I would argue that idle meat is part of anything.
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And he's saying, essentially, One person will eat anything.
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Another person will eat only vegetables.
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And so, the two are going to be exclusive as to how they eat their meals.
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But they shouldn't judge one another.
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Now, you say, Well, is he disagreeing with the council? The council said, Don't eat meat sacrificed to idols.
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Here, Paul says, You can eat anything you want if your conscience allows it.
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So, is there a contradiction here? Well, I think the answer is found in 1 Corinthians 8.
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Remember, we let Scripture interpret Scripture.
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And if we want to find the answer to any subject, We shouldn't just limit ourselves to one verse or even one book.
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But we should look at God's treatment of the subject as a whole.
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So, go with me to 1 Corinthians 8.
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And let's look at how Paul deals with the subject.
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1 Corinthians 8.
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Now, concerning food offered to idols, What's the subject? Food offered to idols.
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No question here, right? It's not like Romans 14, Where you could debate the fact that he's not talking about idols Because he didn't mention idols.
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Here is specific.
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Concerning food offered to idols, We know that all possess knowledge.
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This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
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That might seem like a weird thing.
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But what Paul is saying, And he goes through it in verses 2 and 3 to explain, Is there are some people who understand That that idol meat is offered to an idol that doesn't exist.
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Guess what, folks? Do you know what a false god is? It's a no-thing.
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Do you know what a no-thing is? It's a thing which isn't.
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Okay, let me clear that up.
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If something doesn't exist, it's a non-thing.
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It doesn't exist.
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Right? An idol is a non-thing.
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Because it doesn't exist.
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It's a false god because people worship it.
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But it's just like the idols that they carve out of wooden stone And they bow down to it.
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They're bowing down to the wood and to the stone, But they think that there's something in that that gives it power.
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It doesn't have that.
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That thing inside ain't there.
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It's a non-thing.
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And that's why Paul goes on in verse 4, Therefore as to eating of food offered to idols, We know that an idol has no real existence.
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And that there is no god but one.
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There ain't but one god.
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And when somebody bows down to a false god, They're bowing down to a nothing.
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It doesn't exist.
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For although there may be so-called gods in heaven and on earth, As indeed there are many gods and lords, Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things, And for whom we exist, And one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, And through whom we exist.
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Simple truth.
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Idols don't exist.
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Therefore sacrificing the idols doesn't do anything actually.
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As a result, there's really no inherent danger In eating a meat that's offered to an idol.
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If you eat a meat offered to an idol, It ain't gonna come get you.
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There is no boogeyman in the meat.
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There's no boogeyman in the Buddha, Or the statue, or the totem.
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It's just an empty vessel.
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Everybody got the argument so far? Because now Paul takes a left.
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Because he said all that, But in verse 7 he says, However, not all possess this knowledge.
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What was he talking about there? He said, but some, Through former association with idols, Eat food as really offered to an idol, And their conscience being weak is defiled.
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You see, some people coming out of paganism, Even though they come into Christianity, And they're being taught monotheism, There's only one God.
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They're being taught that Jesus is Lord, To the glory of God the Father.
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They're being taught about the work of the Holy Spirit, Yet they still have the vestiges, Of this hanging over of their false teaching, That they grew up with.
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And for them to sit down at a table, With meat that is offered to an idol, Would to them be violating their conscience, Not necessarily because they believe the idol exists, But because they know at one point, They worshipped that idol.
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At one point they knew they bowed down.
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Even if it is a non-thing, To them it was a thing.
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And to them it was a real enough thing, That they were willing to sacrifice, Maybe even their own child.
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To them it existed.
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And thus to them, To sit at that table, Would violate their conscience.
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Verse 8 he says, Food will not commend us to God.
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We're no worse off if we do not eat, And no better off if we do.
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But take care that this right of yours, Does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
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You have the right to eat, But it's not always right to eat.
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Does that make sense? You have the right, But it's not always right.
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And he uses an example in verse 10, That I think is just very, very practical.
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He says, For if anyone sees you have knowledge, Eating in an idol's temple, Will he not be encouraged, If his conscience is weak, To eat food offered to idols? What is he saying? Here is a person who should not eat meat offered to an idol, Because his conscience is bound not to do that.
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He has the vestiges of his paganism, Still within his conscience, And his conscience tells him, Don't do that.
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And he walks by the temple, And there you are sitting there, Eating your prime rib, That's just been offered to the false god.
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And he goes, Man, that rib looks pretty good.
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I tell you what, If he can do it, Why can't I? You might say, Well, shouldn't he know his liberty in Christ? Not if he doesn't have it.
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Liberty, according to the apostle Paul, Is subjective.
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And some men are bound more than others, In their conscience.
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And it's not necessarily our job, To free men from that binding.
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Verse 11, And so by your knowledge, This weak person is destroyed, The brother for whom Christ died.
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Thus sinning against your brothers, And wounding their conscience, When it is weak, You sin against Christ.
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Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, Lest I make my brother stumble.
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Paul says something about his own liberty.
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He said he's willing, To forego his own liberty, For the sake of someone else.
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That to Paul, A soul, Is more important, Than his freedom.
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Now, At this point, It would seem as if Paul is arguing the fact that, Eating in the temple is okay, And it's really only not okay, If somebody sees you.
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So maybe you should wear a cloak.
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Maybe you should hide your face, And go.
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Well I want to turn to chapter 10, Because I think he clarifies it even more in chapter 10.
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Turn over to 1 Corinthians 10.
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Because again, If you want to spend some time with this, 8, 9, and 10 deal with this subject.
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I just don't have time to give an exposition of, 8, 9, and 10 this morning.
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But, Read the whole thing in context.
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But, Really in chapter 10 verse 18.
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Verse 18 he says, Consider the people of Israel, Are not those who eat the sacrifices, Participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No.
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I imply that what pagans sacrifice, They offer to demons and not to God.
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I do not want you to be participants with demons.
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You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, And the cup of demons.
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You cannot partake of the table of the Lord, And the table of demons.
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Now, This is not Paul giving theological double talk.
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But he is making a point here.
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There is a point in which, When you engage in something, It does become idolatrous.
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That there is a point at which, You can make it idolatrous, By participating in something you know.
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If everybody sitting around the Buddha, Worshipping the Buddha, And you come up and sit and bow down, And say, But I am not worshipping.
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Really? Well, what are you doing? Well, I am just sitting here with my head bowed, Talking to air.
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What are you doing? You are still engaging in the same act, That the other idolatrous people are engaging in.
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You are still participating in what they are doing.
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How is that not violating your conscience? That is the issue.
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How are you able to do that totally free? And this is why he says, In verse 23 of that same chapter, All things are lawful, But not all things are helpful.
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All things are lawful, But not all things build up.
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Let no one seek his own good, But the good of his neighbor.
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Eat whatever is sold in the market, Without raising any questions, On the grounds of conscience.
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For the earth is the Lord, And the fullness thereof.
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If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner, And you dispose to go, Eat whatever is set before you, Without raising any questions, On the grounds of conscience.
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But if someone says to you, This has been offered to sacrifice, Then do not eat it, For the sake of the one who informed you, And for the sake of conscience.
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I do not mean your conscience, But his.
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For why should my liberty Be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, Why am I denounced because of that For which I give thanks? So whether you eat or drink, Or whatever you do, Do all to the glory of God.
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Give no offense to Jews, Or to Greeks, Or to the church of God.
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Just as I try to please everyone, And everything that I do, Not seeking my own advantage, But that of many, That they may be saved.
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Paul's policy is very simple, And that was kind of a long section of verses.
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Let me sort of see if I can break it down here for you.
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If you know something is sacrificed to an idol, If you know that that has happened, And you know where that meat came from, And you know what its purpose was, And you know that eating it is part of the idolatrous practice, Then it's best to not do that.
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But, if you don't know where this meat came from, And somebody just puts it in front of you, Don't say, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Is this idol meat? Just eat it.
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It's a don't ask, don't tell policy.
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That's funny.
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It really is.
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It becomes an issue of the meat itself Doesn't have any inherent danger or value.
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But when we know that this is idol, When we know that this is used for idolatry, Then it's best to avoid it.
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It can't really hurt you.
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It doesn't have any inherent power.
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But when we know that such a thing as idol meat, We should avoid it for the sake of conscience.
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If not our own, For the sake of someone else's conscience.
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Now, What does it mean When Paul says He doesn't want to make his brother stumble? The reason why I bring that up is Because I do think that that has been misunderstood.
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And I'm going to ask you to Stay with me for another couple of minutes as I try to This is a big subject.
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And while Paul has given an expression to liberty here, He's also giving a binding of the conscience.
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And one of the things that can bind our conscience Is other people's consciences in a certain situation.
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Causing your brother to stumble Means simply this, That you would flaunt your liberty In such a way that it would cause that person To disobey their conscience On an issue, whatever the issue is.
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As far as examples go, I think Brian Borgman gave a good example.
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He said in his life he knew a man Who grew up in his life And he did gambling, Was his vice.
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And he spent all of his money gambling on sports.
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And he buried himself into a hole of bankruptcy Through gambling on sports.
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Now that man cannot enjoy going to a ballgame.
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He can't enjoy just sitting at a ballpark Because of his former life and sin And what it meant to him.
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So Pastor Borgman said, Why would I violate his conscience? Why would I go to him and say, Hey, come to this game? Why would I even encourage him to do that Knowing what is his former sin? You might say, Well, I want to help him learn his liberty.
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Where does it say we're supposed to do that? And some may say, This may seem like an extraordinary example, But it really isn't.
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It happens with all sorts of things.
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It's not necessarily a sin to attend sporting events, Or to go to a theater, Or to eat at a restaurant that serves alcohol, Or even to have a drink of alcohol.
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But not all Christians have the freedom to do those things, And we do not have the right to condemn a man Whose conscience has bound him against something That we are allowed to do.
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If my participation in something Would cause someone else to participate When they shouldn't, Then I am sinning.
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Now, that's what it means.
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What does it not mean? What does it not mean to cause a brother to sin? I am not causing you to stumble Just because I do something you don't like.
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Let me just clarify what I'm trying to say.
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This is another example from Pastor Borgman, And he tells the story of a seminary president Who grew a beard.
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Now, a lot of our men in the room Are paying attention now.
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The seminary president grew a beard, A nice, good one, too.
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He had a summer break, He came back and he grew this nice, fluffy beard.
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And he went to a church to speak On behalf of the seminary.
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And as he was standing up behind the pulpit Preaching the Word, He noticed a woman in the congregation Who was quite disturbed in her countenance.
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And after service, he walked down from the chancel And he was greeting people with handshakes And arms of love.
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And this lady walked up to him and said, You must shave that beard right now Because you're causing me to stumble.
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And he said, ma'am, unless I'm encouraging you To grow a beard, And your conscience is telling you no, Then there's no way I could be causing you to stumble.
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Just because I do something that you don't do Doesn't mean that I'm necessarily Seeking to cause you to stumble.
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Only when my freedom is flaunted To encourage you to do something that you shouldn't do Is when I'm violating Paul's command here, His admonition.
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But here's the situation, Here's where the rubber meets the road, though.
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We do need to be careful How we live before our fellow brothers Because of their conscience.
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The beard thing is kind of silly Because having a beard is not a sin anyway.
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It's a virtue.
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But there are things that someone For instance, I mean, drinking is a big deal.
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Some people should not drink Because their conscience is absolutely bound to that.
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We talked about this in Sunday school.
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You know, some people should never have a sip of alcohol Because their conscience is bound to that.
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And we have to be sensitive to that When we're having people in our homes Or when we're going out with them That we're not encouraging them to violate something That is not necessarily a sin But to them would be a sin.
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Same thing with movies or anything else.
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Some people don't need to go to the theater Because their conscience is bound to that.
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We should not trouble them To violate their conscience.
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So now I just want to return finally And bring a conclusion to the sermon Back at the Jerusalem Council.
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Why did the Jerusalem Council Add a restriction in their declaration? Simply this, For the majority of Gentile converts Their former life was paganism And while pagan gods do not exist The worship that they were doing To those pagan gods was real.
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As a result, they needed to abandon All vestiges of their paganism And follow Christ alone.
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So this is, in that sense, Very much directed at a specific context.
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But it has within the context A broader, principial idea That when we leave our paganism We need to leave it behind.
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And we need to follow Christ.
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Now on the back of your bulletin I gave you three things to consider For today's message.
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Three application points.
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And I'll just give those A very quick outline of them And we'll close.
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Very simply, This is how we ought to live.
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Number one, Anything which is sinful, Expressly sinful, Should be abandoned.
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This is the sexual immorality, The idolatry, That needs to be abandoned.
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But there are other things too.
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There are things that are expressly sinful.
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And they should be abandoned.
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Number two, Anything which violates our conscience Should be rejected.
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Guess what? There are things that you can't do Because your conscience is bound to them.
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And that's just it.
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People often come up to me and say, Pastor, is it wrong? Is it a sin if I do this? My first question back to them always is, What does your conscience say? Because if your conscience is telling you no, I don't have to take you to the Word To try to tell you yes.
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That's simple.
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Finally, Anything which causes a brother to stumble Should be avoided.
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Ultimately, I need to have more love for you Than I have for my own liberty.
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And I know that's hard for us Because as Americans, We love one thing, We love liberty.
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But do we love each other more? Are there things in our life That are objective sins? Repent.
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Are there things which violate our conscience And yet we still do them? Repent.
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Are there things which we do In violation of our brother's conscience, On purpose, in his presence, Without concern for his soul? I say to you today, Repent.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your Word.
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I pray that this has been an encouragement To your people and useful In their growth in Christ.
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I do pray that we would understand Our need to repent.
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Not only of objective sins, But also those things Which our conscience has bound us to.
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And also, To love our neighbor as ourself, And never seek to put a stumbling block Before our neighbor.
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I pray that this has been Glorifying to you, God, And edifying for your people.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.