Christian liberty is not about personal freedom but about considering others, as demonstrated by Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 10. The sermon emphasizes that while many things are permissible for a believer, not all are beneficial or build up the body of Christ. The core lesson is to prioritize the glory of God and the spiritual well-being of others over personal preference, exemplified by Christ's selflessness and Paul's willingness to adapt his behavior to win others to the faith. Ultimately, believers are called to live with consideration for the consciences of both fellow Christians and non-believers, ensuring their actions do not cause offense or hinder the spread of the gospel.
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say a word about tomorrow morning at eleven thirty there's a fellowship luncheon it's the daytime fellowship luncheon and it's for all who are available who can come along and that is at eleven thirty tomorrow morning now I heard that there was a quilter's workshop also but I don't know what to say about that we'll just leave it but we are going to have a daytime fellowship luncheon at eleven thirty tomorrow morning i'll be at that but i will not be at the quilters workshop now we're in first corinthians chapter ten first corinthians chapter ten and we're concluding this section on christian liberty first corinthians ten and we begin our reading at verse twenty four verse twenty four first corinthians ten Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.
Whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat, asking no question for conscience sake, for the earth is the lords and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast and ye be disposed to go, whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not. For his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake, for the earth is the lords and the fullness thereof. Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other.
For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of? For that for which I give thanks. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do all to the glory of God. That would be a good verse, that thirty-first verse. For every believer to take as a life text, you think it over. It says whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. My wife has a little text above the refrigerator.
It was given to her at a Christmas time by a believer, and it simply asks a question. Is it for the glory of God? That would be a good text to have by your telephone. Is it for the glory of God? For when you speak on the telephone, is it for the glory of God? whatsoever you do do it for the glory of God that is a great text for a believer to have as a motto for his life verse thirty two give none offense neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the church of God even as I please all in all not seeking my own prophet but the prophet of many that they may be saved Now may the Lord bless his word.
Let us pray together. With his body purchased me. On the cross he filled my heart again. Make the dead and made me free. Thank you, please take it.
That's a great hymn. That's one of the first hymns I ever learned as a child. We had an old Victrola in our house, and we had a record with that hymn on it, and I believe I learned all the words long before I ever went to school. Learned a tune, too. Can't carry it, but I learned it. So let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for the privilege of singing of our Redeemer, even our Lord Jesus Christ. From sin He ransomed us. From sin He delivers us. And one day from its very presence, He's going to call us into thy presence.
And we'll never grieve your heart again. And we praise you for it. Now as we study together, teach us thy word for Jesus' sake. Amen. We're dealing with a great subject, that of Christian liberty. It was introduced to us back in chapter eight of first Corinthians. Now the Corinthian church is what we could call the contemporary church for all the problems that you'll find in the church today they had in the Corinthian assembly. And therefore this is an epistle that is written to all that in everywhere call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.
And in the early church, in the Corinthian church, they wrote to Paul and asked him questions. Questions regarding Christian living. And especially the subject of liberty. The liberty that we have in Christ. Are there any limits to our liberty? And of course we learn that there are. And our liberty is limited by the conscience of our brother. And you learn the same truth in Romans chapter fourteen. In Romans fourteen we have the words, no man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we're the Lord's.
And you and I have been brought through faith in Jesus Christ into a living relationship with him and whatever we do touches him and the touches of people of God. We're not an island all by ourselves. Whether we eat or whether we drink, whether we live or whether we die, it is unto the Lord. We have been placed in Christ. Now back in chapter eight of first Corinthians, Paul lays down the governing principles of our liberty. Then in chapter nine, these principles are illustrated and exemplified in Paul's own life in his apostleship that he received from the Lord.
And then in chapter ten, these principles are enforced and illustrated from the life of Israel in the wilderness, verses one through thirteen, and then in the church, they're applied to us who are in the church, and you have that in verses ten through thirteen, and then in the remaining part of this chapter. how they are implied unto us. Now, in verse fourteen of First Corinthians ten, we're commanded to flee from idolatry. We who are the lords are prohibited from practicing idolatry.
And idolatry takes many forms. I remember hearing Dr. Howard Hendricks from Dallas Seminary. And if any of you have never heard Dr. Hendricks, If he's ever in your area, don't miss him. For he is a communicator. He communicates with his face and he communicates with his words and with the expressions that come from him. He is worth hearing. But he told a story I'll never forget. He told a story of a doctor who lives across the street from their residence in Dallas, Texas. And he said he's watched that doctor. He said, I watched him with his boat.
Every day he's out there in his spare time with his boat. He's put, and Dr. Hendricks counted. He said he put twenty-nine coats of wax on his boat. I counted. And of course he brought everybody in Torrey Gray Auditorium in the laughter when he said that. And he said, and you laughed? He said, are you taking away that man's idol? This is all that he has in this life. All that he has is his boat that he's put twenty-nine coats of wax on. It might be fifty-nine by this time or maybe many more. That's all he has.
He has his boat. And how about that? He said, think of what he'll have in eternity. Absolutely. Nothing. Don't take away His God. God has told us whom He has called by divine grace to flee idolatry. Oh, I know some men. If you ask them any question about an automobile, they can give you the answer. You ask them questions concerning the things of God.
They know nothing. I know some people who polish their cars to a real shine. The wax on it is like the wax on that man's boat. Maybe not as thick. But they spend time waxing and their automobile is their God. You can tell what is the God of anybody by that which satisfies them the most. And Ha said, when we find people who claim to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that they find something else to give them genuine satisfaction apart from Him. The Word of God says, flee idolatry.
The reason, why does He command His people to flee idolatry? Why in verse twenty three it is answered, or verse twenty. For the things which the Gentiles sacrifice They sacrifice the demons and not the God. And he says, I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons. The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the demons. Now that brings us to an impossibility. There's an impossibility for the child of God. You cannot eat at the Lord's table and you cannot eat at the table of demons. You can't have it those ways. That's what the Word of God teaches.
Why? Verse twenty-two says, It asks a question. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? It's interesting that in relation to idolatry, he brings up the word jealousy. It's in the second commandment that God gave to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai that He said, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth. For I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God. He brings up the word jealousy. Jealousy is that spirit that arises to protect a love relationship.
God is jealous of His honor. God is jealous of his rights. He is. And when God puts a man in Christ and he gives to him the fellowship of Jesus Christ and he gives to that person the cup of blessing and he gives to him that bread which speaks of his own body that was given for him, then God expects something from that person in return. And God is jealous of his rights. And if those from whom God expects something in return, turn aside and they worship at the table of demons, God is jealous. God is jealous of his honor.
And he is angry. Now Paul recognized these principles. And he lays it down here in First Corinthians chapter ten. So when you come to verse twenty three, the verse before which we began our Bible reading this morning. He says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Here we have the principles. The child of God has been set free in the liberty of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all things are lawful, but all things are not expedient, and all things do not edify. So let us explain...
and consider this for a moment before we move on. All things are not expedient. What does that word expedient mean? That word means useful for affecting a desired end. What is the end of a child of God? What is the chief end of man? Well, you have it down in verse thirty-one. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. You have it also in the first question of the shorter catechism of the Westminster Confession. What is the chief and the man? And the answer is the chief and the man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
Now, all things are awful. You've been set at liberty if you're here and you're a child of God by the blood of His cross. You've been set at liberty and all things are lawful. We're free, beloved. But that freedom must be regulated by that which is expedient. That which is expedient. In other words, that which is expedient is that which is suited to the circumstances. And then all things are awful, but all things do not edify. There are multitudes of things that I can do, and there is nothing wrong in the doing of it. But they'll never build up anybody, and they will never build me up in the things of God.
What's most important to you? Everyone in this building this morning, if I talked to you personally one-on-one, you would come to the conclusion with me in your discussion. that the number one priority in anybody's life should be to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to fellowship with Him. But what we say in private to one another when we know that that's the proper answer is one thing. But what we do with our spare time and how we live as believers is altogether something else. And you see, all things are lawful for me.
We don't sit as judges over one another's life. But we should ask ourselves the question, is it for the glory of God? Is it for his glory? Now the test of the believer is not to be found in self. What gratifies me? Or in advantage to self spiritually. What just builds me up? For that is a death knell to the whole of the charismatic movement, as it is known today. What will build me up? What makes me great? That's not the issue in First Corinthians ten.
Not self, and not even that which is an advantage to me spiritually. But others becomes the chief aim. For notice verse twenty-four where we began. let no man seek his own but every man another's and this is the truth in Philippians chapter two usually when somebody ministers on Philippians chapter two they usually begin with verse five let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus how many of you can quote verse four you see verse five is based on verse four Verse four of Philippians chapter two says, Let not every man look on his own things, but also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. For if the Lord Jesus had looked on his own things, he would have never come to earth. He would have stayed in the glory. But he looked on me in my lost estate. He looked on me in my sin and misery. That second Sanza of the first hymn in our hymn book, the worship hymn book. It says, He saw me ruined by the fall, yet loved me notwithstanding all. He saved me from my lost estate, his loving kindness. Oh, how great. And I like the way Barnhouse changed the word to that hymn.
He took that stanza and he wrote this. He saw me ruined, weakened, faint. and raised me up to be a saint. He looked at Christ, now that my race, his loving kindness flows from grace. Oh, I love that. I love that. Let every man not on his own things, but on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Therefore, in the passage that we read this morning, two questions are answered. question number one is how is the believer to act and then question number two why is the believer to act that way and the whole of this answers two questions how am I supposed to live as a Christian and second you know we ask when people tell us this is the way it should be we always say why must it be that way well here we have it we answer the question how and we answer the question why.
Notice how is a believer to act. You see, this answer depends on how many questions you ask. I better say this now instead of later. I was saving it for later, but I'll say it now. In answer to this, it depends on how many questions you ask. This becomes very important. See, I was raised in an area of the country where there were a lot of taboos. You don't smoke, you don't drink, you don't dip snuff, you don't chew tobacco, you don't go to the movies, you don't dance, you don't do this and you don't do that.
And I came up looking at other people's lives to see what they did or they didn't do to determine whether they were Christians or not. I was raised with all the taboos that you can find. Now I've been asked multitudes of times by people, is it all right for me to dance as a Christian? Is it all right for me to go to dances? And you know how I answer that? I answer that it's all right for me, but it's wrong for you. Then that sounds strange, but it's true.
And yet that's the very key to First Corinthians ten. It's the very key to understanding this passage. The person who asks the question asks it for a reason. How am I supposed to live? It all depends on how many questions you ask. That sounds strange, doesn't it? For you see, the questions that you ask in this passage, it teaches me that you have a conscience about it. There's something wrong with doing it. You see, God has set me a liberty. But if you have a conscience about it, I don't have a conscience about going to a dance.
Now, I'm not going to go, but I don't have a conscience about it. But if a person asks the question, it shows that they do, and therefore it's wrong. Now, the question is raised here about meat that is offered in sacrifice to idols. But it covers the same territory. Is it all right for me? Somebody may come up and say, is it all right for me to smoke? I'll say it's all right for me. But it's wrong for you. The very fact that you ask the question shows that it's wrong. And you can go down the list. And that's the thrust of this passage.
And you study it carefully and see if you don't come to the same conclusion. It's the only conclusion that you can come to in this chapter. Now notice, the questions that you ask reveal your conscience. They reveal, and they're very revealing. Now the believer's privilege is, now watch it, verse twenty-five. What's whoever is sold in the shambles that eat, asking no question for conscience's sake. Now, what are the shambles? It's an old English word for the marketplace. Let's put it like this. Whatever is sold in Kroger's, whatever is sold in Harris Teter, or mention any other marketplace, Windixie, he asking no questions for conscience sake.
It was a marketplace of the day. Now there's something you must keep in mind. We must keep in mind that when they offered sacrifices to idols, a man may bring a bullock. And only a small part of the bullock is offered in sacrifice, and the rest of it becomes the offerers. And he takes that bullock that had been offered to an idol. He takes it to the marketplace, and there you can buy a rabbi steak at a much cheaper price than you could buy otherwise because it had been offered in sacrifice to idols so you see afterward that animal that was offered in sacrifice to demons was offered in the marketplace at a cheaper price now what is the believer to do so you see the answer how the answer to how what is your believer to do notice first of all things sold in the marketplace for the child of God could be bought and eaten.
Notice why. Verse twenty-five and twenty-six. Whatsoever is sold in the marketplace that eat, asking no questions for conscience sake, for the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. We don't need to ask any questions. We're going to enjoy the provision of God. This is a divine provision. God has made it. And the person who has been called the liberty, he can say this, I can eat it, and I can eat it with joy because God has provided it for me. Now that's only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is, however, if you're told, ooh, that was offered in sacrifice to idols, then you can't eat it.
Why? Not because you're called the liberty. We are called the liberty, but because I'll wound my brother's conscience. The brother who brought up the question revealed his conscience. I have a conscience about touching anything that was offered in sacrifice to an idol. I can't touch it. And we who are the children of God are willing to forego that for the sake of winning our brother. This is what Paul meant back in chapter nine, when he said, I am made all things to all men in order that I might win some. Our greatest purpose in life is a proclamation of the gospel and proclaiming the truth of the liberating power of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ in order that men and women are saved from their sins.
And we must be willing to pay any price in order that our brothers and sisters in the flesh hear the message. And they trust Christ. There's a price to be paid. So you see, it's not our conscience now. When somebody raises a question. It's my neighbor's conscience. And I have to be careful for his. And Romans verse fourteen states it so well. Dealing with the same subject. Dealing with the same subject. No man lives to himself. And no man dies to himself. So you see my friend. How you live and how you act.
Let me put it like this. When I was a young fellow in our neighborhood, there was a group of boys, young men. And it was right after World War II. And I was the only one who had a car. It was a nineteen thirty-four terraplane. I don't know if you remember those cars or not, but anyway, I had one. I could tell you a lot about the engine, by the way. But I remember we go swimming every night. We had no bathroom in our house. So we'd take a bath at the stone quarry. And a bunch of us followers would go out to the stone quarry. It was a men's retreat, if you know what I mean.
So we'd take ivory soap and go to the stone quarry. Well, Dick Pefley, who lived right down the street, I was sitting on the front porch one large day and I was reading the scriptures. He said, come on, Phil, let's go for a swim. I said, no, I'm not going today. So why not? Well, I said, today's Sunday. This is a day I've given to the things of God. And the real problem was I had a conscience about going on, swimming on a Sunday because I was taught that it was the wrong thing to do. And I honored my conscience. I honored my conscience. Dick Pesley knew not the Lord.
I had no problem. I had no problem. But you see, no man lives to himself. Are we willing to forego anything for the benefit of others? This is a day of our rights. I want my rights. You hear it time and again. For the child of God, I've given them all up. I've given them up. My only right. is to see that I don't wound my brother's conscience and that I tell him how to be saved. That's my right. And that I don't cause an offense so that he'll stumble.
That's my right. Don't stumble your brother. It's more important for me not to stumble my brother than that I can do, than that I have my own way in any way. area of life. Now let's move on. Why is a believer thus obligated? So now we have to answer the question why? Why are we thus obligated? You see, the answer is in verse thirty-one. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. If I wound my brother's conscience, it can't be to the glory of God. In verse thirty-three, Paul says the last verse, even as I please all, in all things.
Not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many. In other words, you and I are not in this world to seek our own profit. The child of God's reward is not in this age. It's going to be in the world to come. That's why we are told the world and all its desires passes away, but he that does the will of God abideth forever. And if I were to be able to gain wealth the amount that Henry Ford had or somebody else, I'm going to leave it all. But he that does the will of God is going to be rich not for paltry eighty or ninety years, but for all eternity.
And the scripture says, not the scripture but the hymn writer. And the hymn writer is right. When we've been there ten thousand years, by shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing his praise than when we first begun. Eternity doesn't end. What are you living for? William Kelly, that great linguist, among the early brethren, he wrote some great books. You have to have your thinking cap on when you read William Kelly. But he had a nephew who was going to Oxford in England. And the professor couldn't understand how the nephew of William Kelly knew more Greek than he did.
And he called him in to his office and he said, young man, where did you learn Greek so well? Oh, he said, my uncle William Kelly. Who's William Kelly? He said, I'll bring him to meet you. And William Kelly went in to meet the professor at Oxford. And the professor just couldn't get over the ability that William Kelly had in the Greek language. And Hebrew as well. He said, Kelly, you should be teaching here at Oxford. You can make a name for yourself. And William Kelly only asked a little question, for which world? For which world?
Are we living for this one or for the world to come? And these are decisions that have to be made. They're decisions. This is the answer to why. Why is it like this in the Word of God? Well, it's because there's a world to come. And I'm either going to live for this world or that which is to come. This world is going to pass away, the Scripture says, and all its desires. Isn't it amazing, those of you who have passed forty? passed fifty? Your desires are different than they were when you were eighteen?
Isn't it amazing? The world passes away and the desires thereof? You know Mark Montgomery, he likes to ride in the balloon. You see, I have no desire. Our desires are different. You know why? There's just a few years between us. Desires change. The world passeth away and the lusts thereof, the desires thereof. He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. See, I don't say it's wrong for Mark to ride in a balloon. See, I was young once too. Still am. We'll move on. You see, there's another reason that answers the question why. And then it's found in verse thirty-two.
It's a very interesting verse. It says, We're to give none offense, neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God. And if you read a certain Bible course that you can take, and you find that the first subject they deal with is the distinction between the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God, they use this verse, but they never put it into its context. It's interesting, and I took that Bible course, by the way, years ago. I want to go over this. What does this text teach? Giving none offense, neither to the Jew nor to the Gentile nor to the Church of God. We are not to give offense to the Jew. Why? God had given them special dietary laws under the Old Testament economy.
And if a Jew once has a conscience about eating ham or eating bacon, or something like, you and I are not to offend them by provoking fun and say, oh boy, am I glad I'm not a Jew. I'm glad I'm liberated. Give none offense to the Jew. He may have a conscience about it because of the Old Testament, Leviticus chapter eleven. And he doesn't understand Acts chapter ten in the New Testament. And just because you understand Acts chapter ten and what God had to teach Peter. doesn't give you the right to offend the Jew. Give none offense to the Jew.
Then he says give none offense to the Gentiles. Who are the Gentiles? The Gentiles are those who worshiped idols. They were the idolaters of the day. They're the ones who put them in the marketplace. You don't give an offense to them either. Remember to eat as long as you don't have a conscience about it. and then give none offense to the Church of God. For the Church of God is made up of both Jew and Gentile, who have been brought in by the grace of God to form one body, the Church. As we read in Ephesians chapter two, and we don't give offense to the Church of God. Why not? The Church of God is not to be offended.
And these questions must be answered. And they must be asked by the believer. because others must be the motive of our lives, not ourselves, others. Paul said when he wrote to Timothy, Second Timothy chapter two, he says, Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Paul said, I'm willing to endure anything in order that poor sinners will be saved. How about you?
How about you? I'm going to confess to you very few sermons are preached on First Corinthians ten. But there it is. This is biblical Christian living. I and free I have more liberty than any person in the world and yet I'm willing to forego any liberty that I have to win my brother can you say that can you say that now my next question is are you willing are you willing for you see we have the two sets we have Philippians chapter two Let every man look not on his own things, but also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. We have the example of Christ. And here in First Corinthians, then we have the example of Paul. May I ask you a question? Are you saved? You may find hypocrites in the church, and you may talk about them. But you can't find hypocrisy in Paul. He said, I'm willing to endure anything. You won't find any hypocrisy in Christ. Here's the example. May you find none in any of us. How about it?
Let's sing a hymn in closing. four hundred forty five before we sing let's just ask the Lord to help us our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we bow before thee we stand amazed at your grace we thank you for the liberty that he's ours in Christ and we thank you for the privilege of foregoing any liberty for the sake of the salvation of your people. Give us a heart like Christ. Enable us to truly honor Him with our lives for Jesus' sake.
Amen. Four hundred forty-five. One of the greatest hymns in the book, really. May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day by His love and power controlling me. All I do and say. And then we'll sing verses one and six. Brother Rick, will you lead us please? Let's stand together.