The High Price of Liberty

Good morning. I give you greetings in Jesus' name. It's truly been good to be here already. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to, uh, Paul's letter, First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 8. On March 23rd, 1775, a group of Virginian leaders met in Richmond in a church building for the second, uh, Virginia Convention.

And of course, uh, this is on the cusp of the outbreak of what became known as the Revolutionary War, and, uh, tensions were very high in Virginia. The governor, uh, the royal governor of Virginia had dismissed the House of Burgesses, which was the, uh, legislative body of the colony, because, uh, a number of the delegates there were pushing, uh, for, for, um, uh, f-f uh, they were pushing for more independent uh, more independence or more self-control and so on.

And those, uh, same delegates met here on March 23rd, 1775, to discuss, uh, what, uh, measures they should take to defend their colony, still, against what they perceived as the tyranny of the British Crown. And they were talking about raising a militia and, and, uh, supplying a militia and, um, and, uh, using that militia to protect their interest.

Now, as you can imagine, there are some probably was some hesitation on the part of the delegates. This is a rather radical step. This may be a step of no return. Once, once starts in this direction, where what might it lead you? Well, there was one delegate there, um, by the name of Patrick Henry, who rose to his feet and gave his s a speech. And this is the speech he gave. "Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will rise up friends to fight our battles for us.

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the diligent, the active, the brave. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat.

But in submission and slavery, our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is inevitable. And let it come. I repeat, sir, let it come. Gentlemen may cry, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace. This war's actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?" And then taking an ivory letter opener in the shape of a knife, an imitation of the Republican, um, orator of the Roman Emp of, of, of Rome who opposed Julius Caesar, he concludes by saying, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." Now, he was known in his day as being one of the best orators. And you know what the impact of that, that speech was? They voted for the militia.

And they got engaged in a rebellion, uh, and a revolution against the British Crown that fo ended six years later with the British Army being defeated at Yorktown and led two years later to a peace treaty in which the British Crown granted the United States its independence or recognized the United States' independence.

However, what did it cost? Well, 6,800 Americans were killed in battle.

Double that were k died, uh, as prisoners of war among the British. Now, that may not seem so much to you, 18 to 20,000 people, um, so on. But if we would think about that in today's numbers and in the sense of what was the population of the United States in those years and what it is today, if it was a comparable ratio, we would be talking about the death of about 7 million people.

And the British lost just as many as did the Americans.

That's a high price for liberty, 7 million people, if we think of it in today's terms. And it's interesting because it's a price that Patrick Henry did not pay for hims pay himself. He went on to serve twice as governor of Virginia.

And in 1799, he died on his 300-acre plantation of Red Hill, the owner of 67 African American slaves.

An irony not lost on Samuel Johnson, the dictionary maker in England, who when the war was going on, he said, "Why, why do we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of Negroes?"

A high price for liberty.

Okay? Oftentimes, those people who are crying for liberty are not the ones who pay the price, but somebody else pays it. And that's the connection I want to make here with what Paul has to say in First Corinthians, chapters 8 through 10.

Paul, too, is concerned about the high price of liberty that some people are demanding. They have.

And he has serious questions as to whether the price is worth it.

I wanna read, uh, chapter 8, verses 1 through to the end of the uh, 13. "Now concerning things offered to idols, we know that we ha all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing, yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by God by him.

Therefore, concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father of whom are all things, and for we and we for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we live.

However, there is not in everyone that knowledge. For some with consciousness of the idol until now eat it as a thing of l offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we the better for it nor if we do not eat are we the worst.

But beware, lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died. But when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak consciences conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I na make my brother stumble."

Now, what is the point or what's the question that Paul's addressing here? What's the issue that he's addressing? He's addressing the question as whether and whether or not Christians should go into the temple of an idol and sit down, probably with their friends, maybe with their family, uh, who are still pagans, and sit down with them and eat a ritual meal in front of the idol, at the idol's table.

That's, that's the question. Some people are saying no. Some people are saying it's doesn't matter. Okay? Doesn't matter. All right? And so Paul starts, uh, first of all, and I think this is something we need to understand when we read Paul's letter, uh, first letter here to the Corinthians, is that there are a number of times in which he is quoting something that has either hadn't been written to him or he has heard coming from the Corinthians.

And to understand that he is responding to something, it's very important because otherwise you get into some really odd i-ideas or understandings of what's happening here in this letter. Okay? And this is, um, this there are some earlier examples in chapter 7. There's some. And so on. And this is a case. Okay?

So he's talking about, about things offered to idols. And I think he here is starting off by quoting the Corinthians. "We know we have all knowledge." I think that's what the Corinthians are saying. And then how do they what do they do with that knowledge? Well, they say, "We know there is only one God."

Well, that's true, isn't it? One cannot dispute that. Okay? There is only one God. "We know that an idol is nothing in the world." Well, yes, that probably in the because there's only one God, well, what is that idol? Well, Jeremiah tells us it's a piece of stone or a piece of wood. And he, you know, he makes you if you remember that very, uh, s almost sarcastic imagery he draws of people carving this idol and then sweeping up the shavings and burning it in, in to keep themselves warm. And you know, the, the shavings did them more good than the idol that they made.

'Cause that idol can't really help them. And so, yeah, on the surface, that idol is nothing. Okay? Because there are many gods and many lords. But for us, there's only one God and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom all things and through all things we live.

That certainly is true, isn't it? There is one God and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom all things whom are all things and through whom we live. All right? Now, one of the things I think is very interesting here is that the Corinthians are not completely the, the people who are making this argument are not completely off the wall. And their argument sounds very plausible. Okay? It sounds very plausible. It's built on some ideas that are true. But it's not and, and, and there's this claim to having all knowledge, to having you know, "We really know what's behind this all. It's just nothing.

It's just nothing because there's only one God and one Lord Jesus Christ. Those, those idols are nothing." Okay? Their focus is on knowledge. Uh, and it's a it's a perceived perhaps intellectual o knowledge, but I think it's also a perception of a s that they have a superior spiritual knowledge. And one of the things that you can definitely pick up as you read through Corinthians is that the Corinthians have a very highly exalted estimation of their spirituality.

But Paul is not normally impressed because along with this high estimation of their spirituality, there are some really glaring problems that they're facing. And he goes he goes through them, and he'll he's not finish this is we're right here kind of in the midst of it. But you know, he, he talked about the fact that they're, they're willing to accept a man who's living with his mother-in-law.

There are things that they're willing to accept, and they and they, they think that they're really broad-minded, they're open-minded, that, you know, they are really super spiritual kind of people and they can handle this.

And Paul is telling them, "No, you are not. You are not." And I think the thing that we want to notice here, what is Paul saying is, is the thing they really should be focusing on. Is it the knowledge that they think they have? No.

He said, "What you should be focusing in on is love. What you should be focusing in on is love, and particularly how what you do impacts your brothers and your sisters in Corinth.

H-how is what you do does it benefit them or does it harm them?" That's the question Paul has. And if it harms them, all these supposed claims to knowledge is are not really going to cut it with God.

It's not really gonna do. All right? He's not gonna be impressed. He says, "What, what does knowledge have to do?" Well, knowledge puffs up. And particularly knowledge when you know, the thing that I, um when I was, um was when I was in college, I went, uh first year, you're a freshman, and you know you know nothing. But after a year, okay, you've learned the ropes, you know how to kind of navigate and so on, you learn how to figure out the professors, what they want and so on, you learn how to study and everything. And by the second year around, you think you have this thing by the by the horns. And you know what they call that second year?

Sophomores. Wise fools. Why? 'Cause they think they know more than they actually do. They got a little bit of knowledge, and they think they know everything.

That's the kind of knowledge Paul is talking about here. They got a little bit of knowledge, got a few things under their belts, and they make they from that, they draw some conclusions. Conclusions you might say, "Well, a lot maybe that m-makes logical sense." But Paul is saying, "No, you're wrong.

Okay? You're wrong. First of all, you don't know as much as you think you know. And further, to focus on your knowledge, your superior knowledge," quote-unquote, "rather than on love and on how your actions and what you do impact your brothers and sisters, it's just wrong." And so that's this is the first way in which he's addressing this issue. It's not the only way that he's ad he's actually, as we look in chapter 10, you're gonna see that Paul is, is tackling this whole question of going into a temple and eating at the table of an idol, um, uh, in a second way. But first of all, he wants to tackle it in this way because he wants them to understand that our relationships as brothers and sisters has to be functioning in the realm of love.

Okay? In the realm of love and concern for how what we do impacts our brothers and sisters. Does it build them up or does it tear them down? Does it help them or does it destroy them? All right?

Okay? Um, and then he goes on and says, "If anyone loves God, this one is known by him." And so, you know, it's an interesting thing here that we talk about because we, we have this, this idea of this knowledge. But Paul, I think, is actually talking about, um, about knowing someone. Not just this theor theory, not just this idea, not just this kind of intellectual whatever we have or this heightened sense of spirituality. But do we truly know God, and does God truly know us? Well, who does God truly know?

The one who loves him. The one who loves him.

All right. Then Paul goes in verse 7 in response to what the Corinthians are saying. "However, there is not in everyone that knowledge. For some with consciousness of an idol until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food does not condemn commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we the better nor if we do not eat are we the worst.

Um, but beware, lest some of this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak." So Paul is saying, "Well, you know, there are some of your brothers and sisters who don't think like you do.

Who don't they don't think like you do. When they see that idol, they say, 'That's an idol. I used to worship that idol, and I don't wanna have anything to do with that idol. I am not going into that temple and sitting down at an at a meal with that idol being there.'" Okay?

But what if they look at you and they say, "Well, that brother, he's older than I am. He's been a Christian longer than I am. He just sashays in there with his friends, sits down at that table, eats those choice cuts of meat.

It's probably pretty good eaten. Probably best barbecue there is around in Corinth."

And so on. Think, "Well, maybe it's okay. Maybe it's all right." And he's persuaded to go in, and he but he still cannot in his conscience separate his former life from that idol.

And he's defiled. He may fall back into it. He may fall back into idol worship. He may be lost. And you may have created a stumbling block that re-la results in the loss of this soul. Okay? He says and so Paul says, "Beware.

Beware." Now, when somebody says, "Beware," you know you're supposed to watch out. You know that you're in a dis a dangerous situation. You know you're in a place that you want to avoid. When he says, "Beware," lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak.

All right? "Shall the weak brother perish because of your insistence? There's nothing there. I'm free to go in there and sit down and eat. It's just meat. It's just meat. These are just my friends." Okay? "That idol is nothing. It's just a piece of stone."

Okay?

"Because I've insisted on my liberty."

But Paul is very clear here. He said, "If somehow or another by what you do, you cause a brother to fall, a and he calls him a weaker brother. He calls him a weaker brother." "Who woo and you wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ."

And then Paul says, "If food makes my brother stumble, I will not ever again eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. Never again." Now, that is a pretty strong commitment. Never again to sit down and eat a hamburger.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? Would you be willing to make that commitment? Never sit down and eat a hamburger again if it would mean somebody would stumble. Do you love anybody that much? Do you love any of your brothers that much? Paul says he i does. He w now, I don't think he had to in the end. And maybe this is an extreme example that he's using. Or he's kind of you know, maybe he's talking about some hy maybe this is a little bit of hyperbole on his part. But I think he is making a point that sometimes love for a brother means what? We sacrifice our own personal wants and desires.

That's what it sometimes means. Love for a brother, concern for the benefit of our brother means that we sacrifice some things. We give up some things. We surrender some things, maybe even some things that would be perfectly okay in of themselves.

All right? But Paul's first appeal to them here is that they need to be operating not on this supposed knowledge that they think they have, this superior knowledge they have, but they need to be operating on love for brother and sister and how their actions impact their brothers and sisters, whether it impacts them negatively or whether it impacts them positively. And love has to be the reigning theme here. It has to be what motivates you. It has to be what's in your concern. And that a and Paul's maybe rather hyperla polyc last phrase there points to the fact that sometimes this is giving up some things that are hard to give up for love for a brother.

Then Paul, uh, in chapter 9 through 1 through through 19 um, 1 through, uh, 23, he goes through and basically tells us what he gave up. What he was what he was what he gave up for what reason. Okay? He gave up, as he says in verse, uh, 22, that "I might by all means save some." What did he give up? He said, "Well, the rest of the apostles had wives. I could have a wife. The rest of the apostles gained their living from preaching the gospel. I did not. I, I stayed there in Ephesus and, and wove tents and so on for two years while I preached the gospel at the same time. I could have insisted that somehow or another I'd be supported.

I didn't do that. To the Jews, I became as a Jew. To the Greeks, I became as a G a Greek by that" and he gave up all this stuff. Why? "So that I by f by some me by any by that I by all means save some.

I do this for the gospel's sake that I may be a partaker of it with you." That's his motive. Okay? His motive is to lo is motivated by love, and he's giving up his own personal maybe we could think of rights. Maybe we could think of liberties or whatever they are. He's giving them up. Why? Because he's single has a single-minded purpose that what he is doing is for the advancement of Jesus's kingdom and to, to preach to people the love of God and invite them into this kingdom, which is not only a kingdom of love between God and each of us but also a kingdom of love among us. And Paul wants this love to be the oil that lubricates everything.

All right? And that should be how we approach it. He says in verse 24, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is tempered in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run thus not with uncertainty. Thus, I fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified."

Paul very clearly indicates to us here that the Christian life is not one of carelessness. It's not a focus on what's my rights and what's my liberty, but it is a it's a life of discipline, of self-control, of focus, and of pursuit.

Okay? And it has eternal consequences. And he's calling all of us to that. He's calling us to a disciplined, careful pursuit. All right? And it's I mean, the guy who John Dee was talking to about eternal security, I don't know what he does with this one.

Did he think that Paul wasn't saved when he said this? I mean, Paul says that I what lest when I preach to others, I myself should be disqualified. Now, he probably has some rather interesting theological gymnastics about that one. But the clear meaning of that is I could lose out if I don't practice this discipline, con uh, self-controlled and focused pursuit.

Paul's first argument is the argument of love that, that you surrender your liberty to benefit your brothers and your sisters out of love for them. You think about the impact that your life has on people, what your actions have on people, and so on. You evaluate that, and you look at it honestly, and you say, "What do I need to strip away to benefit my brothers and sisters, to demonstrate my love for them?"

Okay? That's the first argument. Okay? That's the first argument. So he gets them ready for this because and I think the reason he doesn't jump into the second argument is because he does want them to understand. He could go into the first argument, and they would have missed the point of, of the whole love at uh, the whole love versus knowledge, um, issue that is at play here of the spiritual pride that they have.

All right? And I think also perhaps that spiritual pride has within it the element that I really am stronger than I am. I think that's the reality. I've always been found it interesting. And when, when I hear, uh, hear us and hear other, uh, places and so on discuss this chapter and, and somewhat of a parallel one in Romans where it talks about the weaker and brother and so on, we always assume when we're talking that we are the stronger brother. We always assume that.

We always assume that. I which I find a very interesting attitude to take. Are we really always the stronger brother? Can we honestly look at ourselves and say that? Is there not some spiritual pride operating there if we take that position? I think there might be.

I think there might be.

Now, the second argument or the second thing that how he approaches this. Chapter 10. And I want to read, uh, verses, uh, 1 through, um, 13. "Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud. All passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased.

For their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." Now, these things become our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did. In one day, 23,000 fell. Nor let nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. Not nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition.

And upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're alike, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it."

Okay? Paul, uh, takes here examples from Israel's, um, uh, journey in the wilderness and, and the various encounters, uh, there. Talks about the time when they got water from the rock. They ate and the manna, um, and he says they ate the spiritual food. He, he, he makes a makes a sort of a type and so on. They ate the spiritual food that God provided. They drank from the spiritual drink that was followed. And that rock that they drank from was Christ.

And I think it's a very good important thing for us to realize that Christ was operating in the Old Testament times. Okay? He was operating then too. Okay? But it says even though even though they drank okay? Even though they drank and even though they ate the spiritual food and the spiritual drink that came from Christ, God was not well pleased with them.

Be and their bodies were laid scattered in the wilderness. And why wasn't he well pleased with them? Because they presumed that having eaten and drank that spiritual food and that spiritual drink that they were okay. The rest of it didn't matter.

Okay? They were safe. I guess we could say they were eternally secure.

Okay? They were eternally secure. He says these are examples for us. Why? Because they were idolaters. You remember it's uh, remember that, um, that Moses went up into the mountain, and he didn't come down. And so Aaron made this golden calf. And, and Moses comes down, and he hears this he hears this dancing and singing and so on. Uh, the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.

Now, it's very interesting here that eating and drinking are tied in to worship. Eating and drinking are tied into worship. When we, you know, share together the cup and the bread, that is part of worship. It's a spiritual eating, and it's a spiritual drinking. And Paul's gonna talk about that here a little bit later on.

When the children of Israel participated in the Passover, it was a spiritual eating. They were participating in God's covenant. All right? But they presumed upon that. They presumed upon that. And they thought that they could fault they could eat at G at, at the Passover meal, and they and at the same time, they could worship the golden calf.

They thought that and it says, uh, nor less commit sexual immorality as some of them did. In one day, 23,000 fell. That's when they came into, uh, Moab, and they were seduced by the Moabites. Balaam seduced them, and they began to worship the gods of the Moabites. And they began to have relations with the Moabites, and God was not pleased.

And, um, Elishar, um, uh, rose in righteous indignation and, and killed a man and a woman who were engaged in immorality. And there was judgment upon them for it.

Talks about the serpents who destroyed them because of their complaining. All these things are written to us for examples.

Eating and drinking, the cup of the Lord and the bread of the Lord is no protection against false worship, also participating in false worship. Do you get the picture? Paul's moving into this. He's moving in. He's carrying them along. He's showing them the Old Testament examples.

Israel could not eat the Passover and worship an idol and it be okay with God. Israel could not sit down and eat a meal in presence of an idol and rise up and play and dance before that idol and God be happy with it.

They were participating in something they should not have been participating in, and judgment came upon them. God brought judgment, and it was very severe judgment. And Paul is saying these things were written for our example. Okay? They're written for our instruction. Take heed.

All right? He says, "Let him who thinks he stand take heed, lest he so he fall." Again, it is the characteristic of spiritually proud people to think that they are stronger than they are and that they can stand better than they can.

And Paul's warning against us that. So it begins helps he helps them to understand that in their insistence upon ignoring what that idol is and whatever it is and just simply saying it's nothing going in and sitting down and eating this meal, it's a violation of love because of the negative impact it's having on other brothers and sisters, causing them to fall. But now, he is moving or seguing into a, a much more clearly made point, and that is you are actually participating in idolatry.

You are actually participating in idolatry. You are doing the same thing that the children of Israel did in the wilderness. And God brought judgment on them. You are being presumptuous, and God will bring judgment on you for your presumption just as he did for those. Therefore, he says in verse 14, "My beloved, flee from idolatry. If I speak as to wise men, judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread.

Observe Israel after the flesh. Are not all those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What am I saying then, that an idol is anything or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God."

And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table. No I know the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

What's the message? Flee idolatry. Have nothing to do with it. Avoid it. Run from it like it's the pandemic or even worse. It's a plague worse than COVID ever will be.

And you think about okay? Uh, listen. You think about the measures that some may think are very extreme. And I'm not gonna weigh in on that one or the other. That's, that's a matter of opinions. Some of you may not think they think they're rather extreme. But one thing you will have to say is that, that why have they come up with extreme measures? It's because they think the stuff is deadly. That's why.

All right? And they want to avoid that. Okay? Paul is calling for similar kinds of extreme measures. And here, I think we can be a little bit maybe certain about this. Okay? Why? Because idolatry is deadly. It will kill us. It will kill us. All right? And he says, "And I speak to wise men." I wonder he's just being a slight sarcastic there.

Okay? Because maybe he's making an appeal to them. "Judge for yourselves what I say." And then he talks about the cup of blessing, "Which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" Now, I want you to notice the next phrase because this is the next sentence 'cause this is very important. "For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread."

Okay? Now, we can debate whether or not what the bread and the wine are. Okay? We can debate that.

I have my ideas about that and so on. But I think that we all will agree that when we are participating in the Lord's Supper, and we, we eat the bread and we drink the, the cup, that we are participating in something that Christ has for us.

It is a remembrance. It is a memorial. It is a sign. It is a testimony. But it's also participation. But notice what he says in this line, "For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread." It is more than just symbolic.

It's not magical. It's not magical. Both the doctrine of transubstantiation and the doctrine of consubstantiation essentially is a form of magic. You say an incantation, and something becomes something. That's not what we're talking about here. Okay? That's not what we're talking about here. But we are talking about a living spiritual reality. And what is it? "We, though many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread." What is the physical presence of Christ on this earth? Is it the bread that we eat in communion?

That's what transubstantiation and consubstantiation says. The physical presence uh, the presence of Christ is in that bread. Or is it in the body of Christ that gathers together and remembers what Jesus did for us? That's where he is physically present.

Keep that in mind. That's where he's physically present. That's where the sacrament is. That's where the real presence is. It's in the gathered body. And that was the point the Anabaptists were making. I don't think they went too far. I don't think they were reacting. I think they were seeing something that others did not see. I think they were looking at this, this passage here and this verse and realizing that the real presence of Jesus Christ was in the gathered body that he calls his body, made up of us.

Okay? Created because he loves us, and he wants us to love each other with the same kind of love. He wants us to be united in that love. He wants us to be concerned about each other, and he wants a wholehearted, single devotion to him without any idolatry.

That's what he wants. And then he says here, "Observe Israel after the flesh. Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What am I saying?" I think maybe he's quoting here the Corinthians again. "That an idol is anything or what is offered to idol is anything?"

Now, he zooms in, and he lets you know what the point is. I have news for you guys. That idol is not just a piece of stone or a piece of wood. There's something behind that idol. There's a spiritual force. And we have to keep in mind that, yes, there is only one God and only one Savior, Jesus Christ. But there are other spiritual forces in the world that are arrayed against him, against God and against Jesus. And you cannot participate in Jesus' Supper and participate in the supper of a demon and call yourself a Christian.

And that's what you guys are doing it. And your, and your vaunted pride and arrogance has prevented you from seeing that. Why? I think they liked the meat. I think they liked the barbecue. I think they liked powling around with their heathen brothers or their heathen, uh, family and, and friends.

They may did not want to quite make it so strict and strong and to create the separation that needed to be happening.

They probably had a lot of people look down upon them and think, "Well, you guys are something."

They probably had a lot of, of peer pressure and societal disapproval that they could very nicely avoid if they just went in there and sat down and had that nice meal because we know, they thought, "There's nothing there. It's just a piece of stone."

Paul says, "No, it's not a piece of stone. You are participating at a table of a demon." 'Cause what they're doing, what your friends are doing is that in that eat just as when you sit down with your brothers and sisters and you take the cup of the Lord and the bread and you proclaim through that Jesus' death and his coming again, you're participating in something there.

And in a like manner, you're participating in something that's evil that you cannot participate in if you want to call yourselves a Christian.

I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

And he, he warns us. Are we to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Pointing back to the examples in the Old Testament. Do you think that we can actually do this and get away with it, that God will let us get away with it? No, he will not let us get away with it.

First of all, it will cause the spiritual death of those who are weaker, but even in their weakness, maybe actually truly more wiser than those who are exalted by their spiritual pride 'cause they know they can't go there.

But it'll also result in our deaths and our destruction just as it brought it bring God's judgment upon us. And it's a fearsome thing to fall into the hands of a living God.

So Paul's very clear. Can they go into the temple of idols and sit down there and eat? He says, "No. Love forbids it. And there is something intrinsically wrong also about doing it because you're actually participating in the, in the, the, uh, worship of a, of a demon."

All right? Now, then he addresses another question. Okay? And by the way, okay? This is in keeping with what was decided in Acts chapter 15, what Paul is just is he's, he's explaining this and working this out. And in Revelation, if you go to look at the churches, one of the things that you will see is one of the things that's condemned is there are some other churches that are eating meat offered to idols. I think what he's talking about is eating, eating in, in a service like this in a, in a temple and so on. That was always condemned. That was never rescinded. It was not it was not a thing just for that time.

Okay? It's not a thing for its time. One of the things that's very interesting is that the early Anabaptists would not go into a Catholic church after they were converted for any purpose. Why? Because they thought it was a house of idolatry.

Okay?

All right. Now, then he talks about, "Well, what about what about meat that's sold in the marketplace at the butcher stand? What do we do with that?" He says, "All things are lawful for me." Again, I think quoting the Corinthians, "But not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify." Again, quoting the Corinthians but giving that county counter thing. Paul is not just purposely contradictory here. He is trying to help them to understand they have this premise. It's probably not the best premise to work from. And he's trying to show them that what is the premise they want to work for? They want to work on the premise of what is helpful and what edifies.

So the question is not, "Well, can I do it or not?"

Can I do it or not? Is it okay for me to do this or not?

Paul says, "The question you should be asking is, is what I'm doing helpful? Is what I'm doing edifying means building up? Is it constructive?" He says, "Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being." Again, he comes back to the whole principle of love.

We are to seek each other's well-being. We are to think about how our actions impact our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And then he goes on to say, "Okay. What about so what's in the marketplace? What's in the butcher shop?" Well, the fact of the matter is all those sacrifices that were offered, it provided a lot more meat than that could be consumed at those meals. And so what did the priests of those pagan temples do? Well, they were good entrepreneurs. They just simply took that meat and took it down to the butchers in the marketplace and sold it to them for a profit. And then the mar butchers sold it to the people in the streets, and they went and bought it, and they ate it, took it home, and they ate it.

All right?

He says, "For what eat what is ever sold in the marketplace meat market asking no questions for conscience's sake." Why? "Because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," quoting the Psalms. That meat ultimately belongs to Jesus.

Ultimately belongs to God. He is the one who is the owner of a of, of a cattle on a thousand heels. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of uh." That, that meat was provided by the Lord. And you buy it in the marketplace just like you would buy any other meat.

Okay? Don't ask questions about it. Don't worry about it. It's in the marketplace. It's just meat 'cause you're not sitting down at a table with pagans before an idol and participating in worship when you go to the marketplace and you buy a piece of meat.

Now, he does have a caveat here. Again, he is concerned about what we do, how what we do impacts other people. In this particular case, he's not talking about your brothers and your sisters. He's talking about how what you do impacts the unbelievers around you. Okay. Notice what he says here in verse 27, "If any of those who do not believe invite you to dinner, and you desire to go, eat what is set before you asking no question for conscience's sake. But if anyone says to you, 'This was offered to idols,' do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you and for conscience's sake. For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." "Conscience, I say, not your own but of the other.

For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks? Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to the Jews or to the Greeks, to the church of God, just as I also please all men and all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of many, that they may be saved."

All right? So Paul says, "Listen, if one of your family is not Christian, one of your neighbors is not Christian" and I think this is a really interesting thing to keep, keep in mind. You know, a lot of you don't have family that isn't Christian.

That's a great thing. Now, I know that some of you have friends that aren't Christians. Okay? I have family, and I have friends who are not Christians. And so I have to think about, "What am I doing here?" Well, you know, I've gone to my, my family's house and eaten many meals, and I have no problem with that. Now, I have, on occasion, when they, when they, um, break out the liquor, I have, on occasion, said, "It's time for us to go."

And we have quietly picked up, and we have left 'cause I don't want to be a I mean, I'm not gonna participate in it, but I don't even really wanna be around it when it's happening. Okay?