It is good to be together again in the House of worship and to
praise God together as we ever have done.
I've titled our sermon this morning, Is your life freedom
based or law based? And there's a big difference
there. Do we live by the letter of the
law or do we live by the principle of the law?
And there's a difference. I've had conversations with
people. One man mentioned to me one time
in how some in some countries how they have laws, but then
it's the letter of the law by which every decision is made.
The implications of it or the spirit of the law is not that
important. It's the letter of the law
versus other countries where, Oh yes, the intent was right, the
reason the person disobeyed the law or the person circumvented
the law or went around the law. And so that is taken to account
as well. And so the law may not be judged
the same way. The law may not judge the same
way. Every time when the letter of
the law is given more weight than the intent or the principle
of the law, a shift has been made that does more harm than
good. In 1998 and a warm spring
evening, a young guy named Christopher Searcy was playing
basketball with a few friends half a block away from
Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago. 3 teenage Latino gang members
looking for a black target approached and shot young Searcy
in the abdomen. His frantic friends carried him
to within 30 feet of the hospital and ran inside
Ravensbrook Hospital for help. The emergency room personnel
refused to go outside to assist the dying boy, citing policy
that only allows them to help those inside the hospital.
The boys called for nearby police to attend their wounded
friend. When the officers arrived on the
scene, they proceeded to call for an ambulance, but the
officers themselves, they refused to carry the boy inside.
While passersby pled with the officers to get the boy in the
hospital, he lay in a pool of blood, unconscious.
When after several minutes, the ambulance had not yet arrived,
the police gave in and carried Cersei into the emergency room.
But then nothing could be done to save his life.
As is often true when we legalistically insist on the
letter of the law, the needs of others are overlooked.
Beholding to a standard operating procedure, the Royal
Law of Love was pinned to the mat.
Initially, hospital administration vehemently
defended the E Rs lack of involvement and only after a
barrage of community outrage did the Ravensbrook Ravenswood
Hospital reverse its policy of treating only those inside its
doors. How does one decide as to
whether something is the right thing to do, the permissible
thing to do, the lawful thing to do or not?
As human beings, we know that life is bigger than just us
individually. What I do effects those around
me, my wife, my children, grandchildren, in my wider
community. What we do as a church effects
those around us. We do make an impact.
There are biblical principles to follow in life that we need to
know and live out. There are some things that are
always just wrong. They're never right.
For instance, idol worship. We've heard a little bit, quite
a bit about idol worship recently.
That's always wrong. Denying Christ is always wrong.
It's never the right thing to do.
We have stories in the Bible where people were forced to make
that choice, and they chose to suffer the consequences for
doing the right thing by refusing to do the wrong thing,
even maybe for a good cause. And vice versa.
For instance, the story of Daniel's three friends who chose
to face the fiery furnace instead of buying before the
huge idol King Nebuchadnezzar had made last Sunday, Pastor Joe
preached on Feed your love for the Lord.
That's what those guys were doing.
And he went on to explain what the fallout is.
If we find something or if we feed something else then our
love for the Lord. And he'd made reference to idols
in particular. Feeding selfish motives and
desires where the focus is on self preservation instead of
glorifying God is always wrong. I'm not saying we should not
take good care of ourselves or we cannot enjoy good things in
life, but whatever it is that we do in our inmost being, we must
always be on guard against our own selfish motives.
We've been going through the book of First Corinthians here
for quite some time now, and I believe today is sermon #21 and
we've got quite a ways to go yet.
But it's amazing to me as I'm preparing sermons, as reading
what Joe is preparing, Jonah is preparing, how this all is one
big picture in terms of freedom and how God wants us to live as
His servant, as his servants in this world.
The Corinthian church had a lot to learn, and so do we.
But I'm very grateful for this letter in Scripture to reflect
on. Look at how they were instructed
to work through their issues that they were facing.
As I mentioned, for a while now we've been looking at the theme
of freedom and what it is and what it's not.
We've learned of the importance of not putting the value of
weight on dead things like idols and food offered to idols.
And Paul wrote the church, idols are nothing.
It's not sinful to eat food that's been sacrificed to an
idol because idol is nothing but that.
Freedom to eat was not to be used if it was a stumbling block
for another weak brother who had a weak conscience, for whom
eating meat offered to idols was a problem.
So in order not to be a stumbling block, Paul instructed
them to use the principle of love to address the situation.
Then we see how Paul used himself as an example in
explaining this concept. Paul did not use his freedom,
his rights to financial compensation for his work and
this church. He had the right to be paid for
his work. He reminded them that he had the
right to get paid for what he was doing, but for the sake of
the gospel, he said he didn't want to do that.
One commentator that I read made this comment.
He said because Paul had decided to not take pay for his work as
a missionary, church planter and pastor.
And Corinth, there were people who were thinking he was a
lesser apostle, not not as much of an apostle as the other guys
who were taking the payment for the for their work.
And Paul refutes this strongly says no, that's that's not true.
He used the radical illustrations from daily life to
highlight what his rights were and why he was refusing this.
This morning. We're in chapter 10, starting
verse 23, and in this passage Paul deals with one benchmark by
which we must decide and by which we do decide daily, how we
live out our faith. Pastor Jonah covered some of
this already in chapter 8 when he preached on the right use of
knowledge. We heard that knowledge by
itself just puffs up. We're given knowledge not for
the purpose of prideful focus, self focused living, but for the
purpose of loving one another. There's a difference.
In chapter 8, Paul emphasized the importance of considering
others more important than ourselves when it comes to
eating and eating in temples. And we'll get there in a bit,
but that get that phrase, eating in temples.
So you could actually go and eat an idle temple.
One commentary put it this way. In chapter 8, he writes, we have
a weighty paragraph in which one phrase, one phase of the
difficulties dealt with the question whether a Christian
ought to attend a feast in an idle temple, Chapter 8, verse
10, where of course, the different food items had been
sacrificed to the idols. But in chapter 10, he deals with
the case in which the meat had been bought in the meat market,
where the meat might have been coming from a temple sacrificed
to idols. What do you do?
Well, let's read 1st Corinthians 10 verse 23. 1st Corinthians 10
verse 23 to 11 verse one. All things are lawful, but not
all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not
all things build up. Let no one seek his own good but
the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever sold in the meat
market without raising any question on the ground of
conscience, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you
are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you, without
raising any question on the ground of conscience.
But if someone says to you, This has been offered in sacrifice,
then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you, and
for the sake of conscience. I do not mean your conscience,
but His. 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 what?
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God. Give no offense to Jews, or to
Greeks, or to the Church of God, just as I try to please everyone
and everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of
many, that they may be saved, the imitators of me as I am of
Christ. When reading a letter in
general, there's so much that can be learned just by paying
attention to the way a letter is written.
The letter, of course, tells us what's in the writer's mind as
he writes, but it also tells us a lot about the questions that
are being addressed and responded to.
The way the letter is constructed.
In this case, no doubt one serious matter.
The church was eating meat. Worship, worship have been
sacrificed to idols. You can just imagine living in
Corinth, temples everywhere, big business meat being sacrificed
to idols, sold in this, in the restaurants, in the temples and
whatnot. And in fact, you could actually
go and eat inside of a temple. There was some eating places
where Christians actually could do that, so to speak.
And it was not always easy to know where to draw those
boundaries. What do you do?
How does one live in a society like that?
How does one go about one's daily life?
Does nothing matter? Is everything OK?
Or are there boundaries? And which ones are?
Then how far do they go? Paul says all things are lawful
but not all things build up. Help.
All things are lawful, but not all things build up.
Commentators don't all explain this verse the same way, and
some say that this phrase all things are lawful but not all
things are beneficial. It was not a statement from Paul
saying that all things are lawful, but instead Paul was
using their own slogan language as a comment to say that's what
you Corinthians say. You believe this, all things are
lawful. And the case in chapter 5 with
the adulterous man was a case in point.
It's OK, they said, in fact they were proud of it.
But that doesn't work that way. And it's true.
In Corinth they had gotten to the idea that sin didn't really
matter anymore. Again, in chapter 5, that was
not lawful. It wasn't even permissible, but
they thought it was. Then of course, there are some
commentators. Take the other side, won't go
into that. But he says in verse 24, let no
one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor.
So that's the benchmark. There's there's more we'll get
to a bigger one. But this is one the idea or
comment it is lawful does not address the deeper issue.
What's the motive and what is it I'm doing?
How is it affecting someone else?
Just because something may be OK for me from a legal standpoint
does not mean it's the right thing to do.
The first point we'll look at this morning is don't focus on
the law. Just don't do that.
Not the law is bad. It's not unholy.
It's not sin. No, the law is not bad, doesn't
say it has no value. God created, it's good, it's
holy, but it was never and never had the power to save a person.
It can't redeem a person, it can't pay for the consequences
of sin. It can't do none of that.
It can only shed light who God is, what God is, and what his
expectations are. And then also reveals we just
can't do it. We just don't measure up.
The law of God is specifically an outline of what God wants,
what his, what he, who he is, what he expects.
It doesn't specifically outline every last the detail of our
lives. Oh, but it would be nice,
wouldn't it, if we had a big book?
Oh, I have this thought. This is a thought sin.
I thought about that. Is it sin really?
I think I'm going to buy an extra something.
Is it sin? Let's oh, let's look at that
law. It doesn't work that way.
We must ask, is it helpful? What will this do to my
relationship with Christ? And of what kind of heart am I
asking the question? We as human beings need to know
what God wants and does not want, but then to do what God
wants and not to do. And that's where grace comes in.
That's where a relationship with Jesus comes in.
The law is not what a follower of Jesus focuses on and how to
live his or her life. Yes, it's there, the commands
are there, and it's all good. And the Jewish leaders were
fixated on this. What does the law say?
And they would do what the law
said. Does it hurt somebody?
I don't care. And Jesus broke the law all the
time. Touching, touching lepers and
the unclean and all not proper hygiene.
Even Subs and wash their hands and they eat and stuff like
that. The whole eagle system, very
strict and rigid rule based living.
And many people love this even today.
It's amazing how people love rule based living and
oftentimes, well, what should we do?
Let's make a rule. Let's make a rule.
That's what happens when rule following becomes the end.
Jesus came to bring a new covenant.
Jesus came to restore us to himself and for us to have a
relationship with him not based on a legal code, but on grace.
If our claim is to live by the law, then we live beneath what
we're called to. Paul is saying the legal code of
the law is not how this works. As God's children, we no longer
ask, is this lawful? We look to a different benchmark
and that doesn't mean that there are not some things that God's
strictly forbidden. There are some things that are
actually wrong, sinful. The benchmark that Paul uses is
relationship focus to ask is it lawful and that of that make a
decision can be religiously right, legal, terribly
misguided, however insensitive and I days are even wrong.
Legally right but morally wrong. Think of the young boy who died
of his wounds because the hospital followed rules.
Paul is teaching his readers here to ask the question is it
lawful? That question does not address
the real issue. It does not go to the heart of
the matter. It does not address address the
motive of the heart and that is why because in so many cases it
was day-to-day living. It just doesn't go well.
The law of the Old Testament with all its rituals, its
ceremonies, it had passed, it was, it was, it was good.
But the New Covenant changed things.
And as we read in chapter 8 verse one a few weeks ago,
knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
There are things in life that are not wrong, as in being
against the law, but they're not right either as they relate to
from what motive they're lived out.
Just because a person is allowed by law to do something, that in
itself again, is not the right thing to do.
So instead of looking at the law as a religious Jew would, we'll
call to freedom. Notice Paul's next words.
Words here. Eat whatever is sold in the
market without raising any question on the ground of
conscience. For the earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereofs. Wow, what a relief.
Now I can go shopping, I don't have to worry.
Just take my grocery cart out by the faster check out and who
cares? Sacrifice to idols are not just
meat. Idols don't count anyway.
I'll just eat it. Whatever they have.
Embrace your freedom. For some people, they realize
they're sinners. They realize they need to
repent. And it's not that they were bad
people from a social standpoint. They just know they need to
repent and surrender to Christ to be saved.
And So what do they do? They go inward in their hearts
to the right to remember all the wrongs they've done, all the
sins they committed and repent of them and confess them.
And it's good. I'm not, I'm not knocking that.
OK, but then they fail because they do not embrace freedom.
They're still bound not by living in sin, but by trying to
live by a moral performance based code in which the law
breaking becomes more important than the grace factor.
They're not living in love. In essence, they're not sinning
by doing wrong things, but sinning by doing the things out
of the wrong motive and often times pride in self self
righteousness, which is still sin again.
So they're still in bondage. They're still not free.
And I know this because I was there many years ago.
That's hard for many people who are Christians.
Living life is very dark and very burdensome because they're
constantly questioning how saved am I?
Am I really saved? Maybe I can't transgress the
law. Is this right?
Is this wrong? And they spend all their time
fixating on that. He pauses.
No, just go shopping. Don't worry if it's me to offer
to idols or not. Jesus clearly said you will know
the truth and the truth will set you free.
And he says in verse chapter one 830-6836 So if the sun sets you
free, you will be free indeed. With Jesus there's freedom, not
the focus. Don't do this, don't do that.
Yes there are do's and don'ts. Imagine going on a trip, if you
would, let's say I'm planning on it, to go on a trip, let's say
to Texas. We go sometimes.
OK, the first thing to do, how many signs will there be on the
road? OK, how will I obey the signs on
the road? Now as I go on there, I make a
checklist. Have I obeyed all the signs so
far going down the road? What a trip.
Sure, there's signs. I hope there's signs.
I sure hope there's some signs. Stop light, so don't run a run
into somebody. And signs that show where the
curves are, how fast and safe to go here.
I want signs, but you don't think about them because that's
not the motive for the trip. And in 1st Corinthians 10 here,
the question has to do with eating meat that's sold at the
butcher shop. And it's interesting that Paul
brought the matter of eating meat up in his letter before and
it's it's a must be a big issue. In chapter 8 verse 10, it was
sacr eating meat in idol in temples.
So they they actually would did that.
Paul talks about now he's talking about buying meat that's
been there and now brought to the to the to the shop and he
says he says why they shouldn't worry.
But he says verse verse 26 for the earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. God owns it all.
This should be a great comfort to people when people when a
person becomes free and can freely enjoy the life the way it
was meant to be enjoyed and not attach moral values to things
that are not sin. So does this now mean we have no
responsibility anymore? No, doesn't mean that just
because the signs are not the focus does not mean we don't
live by some of them. But it's because we're free that
we're free to eat or not to eat, not under the law that we're
driven by the law of love, he says.
We're 27. If one of the unbelievers
invites you to dinner, you're disposed to go eat whatever is
set before you without raising any question on the ground of
conscience. Be free as a Christ follower,
accepting the invitation of an unbeliever to go to a meal
restaurant, wherever, maybe even idle temple.
It's not wrong can be a good thing.
In fact, the going out to eat is not the issue.
But the next verse he says, but if someone says to you this has
been offered in sacrifice. Now you have to think.
Then don't eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and
for the sake of conscience, he said.
I don't mean your conscience, but his.
For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's
conscience? Now it's getting to where we
would say getting into the weeds.
How do we navigate this without getting all tangled up and sunk?
Let me just do point #3 have the others best interest at heart.
You do not want to be the cause of someone stumbling because
something that you enjoy with freedom is something another
person has a conviction about, a conscience about.
If my personal freedom, my personal tastes and desires
matter more to me than the weaker brother, than I have an
issue. However, having said that, a
question must be asked. Does this now mean that we go
and see who has the strongest convictions, the weakest
conscience and the most reserved and traditional, whatever you're
going to call it, and use that person's freedom or that
person's conscience as the benchmark on which we decide
everything? No, it's not that all either.
To refrain from eating meat offered to idols in light of the
weaker brothers conscience does not mean Paul's conscience had
now changed. He was still as before, but out
of love for the wicked brother. He's going to slow down,
restrain himself, use his freedom to not do what he can
do, but to abstain for the sake of the wicked person, to build
him up. Not Paul has not changed his
mind, his conscience hasn't changed, but for the sake of the
wicked brother, he refrains from eating.
He's free to not eat for the sake of the weaker brother.
Paul was very sensitive to the people around him.
Paul was very careful not to cause disunity if he could help
it. Paul was a man who always
considered others before himself.
But, and this does not imply that the man with the weakens
conscience is now in control, this is only used in cases where
it's not a matter of violating the law of love.
For instance, if what a person decides to say no to for the
sake of the wicked brother, he does so only in so far as it is
honoring to Christ and helping him up.
Christ must remain center focus. If saying no to the meat does
not honor Christ, does not build a person up, then don't say no.
The point is the law cannot be the goal.
The law cannot be the objective. The intent of the law is what we
must look at, not the letter of the law, but the purpose.
Sometimes this kind of thing takes careful discussion and
good decision making because even Christians, God fearing
people, are not in agreement. They're not on the same page.
There's a story in scripture that I want to use this morning
to highlight this in Acts chapter 15.
I won't read it this morning. I'll read some passages later
on. I'll put them on the PowerPoint
here. It happened in the chapter 15,
the book of Acts, the church had started in Antioch and Gentiles
of all people have become Christians.
That was kind of new to the Jews early on in, in the book of
Acts, that Gentiles could become Christians too.
And so they accepted that. But then there's some Christians
from Jerusalem who called and they say, are you guys, you got
to be followers of Moses. I mean, you got to follow the
laws of Moses to be a Christian. You got to be circumcised.
You find literally that's what they said.
And then the apostle said, we're not going there.
That's not true because Christ saves not circumcision.
Circumcision is no, has no value for salvation.
We're not doing that. And they had a big debate and
they go on and on. They finally said, you know
what, we're going to send Paul and Barnabas to to Jerusalem.
We're going to figure this out in Jerusalem.
They get together and they discussed this and, and there's
this discussion. They didn't agree there either.
They discussed this. Now, what do you think they did?
You think they went to the Jews with the weakest conscience?
The bigs convictions use that as the benchmark from which they're
going to instruct the new Gentiles how to live.
Nope, they didn't do that. They reached an agreement that
did not require the laws of Moses as far as certain decision
was concerned, and most dietary laws and so on.
But they did set boundaries that would contribute to helping the
other person up. James, the leader in Jerusalem,
had something interesting to say to all of this.
He's in the closing arguments. He says my judgement is that we
should not trouble those of the Gentiles that turn to God, but
should write them to abstain from the things polluted by
idols, from sexual immorality and from what's been strangled
and from blood. They reached an agreement.
As to the message the Ruge sent to Antioch, we don't find this
was a message for all churches at all time in in the new in the
new church in Rome in the Roman Empire.
We don't find that. But this is what happened here.
And he says the reason for that is in verse 21.
For from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city
those who proclaim him for he is read every Sabbath in the
synagogues. And this would fall in line
with, you know, being no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the
church. What I find interesting,
however, is how James goes back to Moses and again, I I don't
find it and that should do some more research perhaps, but I
have not found it that this is actually an application for all
the churches throughout the Roman Empire.
But from reading the whole of the New Testament, I'm assuming
that this is not universally binding for all churches.
It's very interesting in this meeting and Jerusalem, they left
something out and you probably think what it was.
The very reason for which the meeting happened in first in
Antioch and now in Jerusalem, the very core reason why this
meeting happened that was left out.
Circumcision, the biggest, heaviest, weightiest matter in
the Jewish code. You got to be circumcised or as
you're not part of the part of the congregation of Israel, you
got to be circumcised or you don't count that.
They left out by not demanding the Gentiles to keep the laws of
Moses except restrictions of eating meat offered to idol and
so on. This was an indicator they were
no longer law based, but principle based, spirit based.
It must have been hard for some Jews obviously to, you know, OK,
we've got to reconcile this. They had to accept the system
was not the goal. They recognize the system has no
saving power because they did not want to add to the work of
Christ. Christ for circumcision equals
salvation. They're not going to go there.
Often times people do that. How much did he follow the
rules? OK, set a confession of faith.
But how much did he follow the rules?
What rules did he follow? And without my rules, then he's
out. Let's look at the letter they
wrote here. Acts 1523.
The brothers, both the apostles and the elders.
To the brothers who are of the Gentiles and Antioch, Syrian
Cilicia, greetings. Since we've heard that some
persons have gone out from among us and troubled you with words
unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it
seemed good to us, having come to an accord, to choose men and
send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men
who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and
Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of
mouth. For it seemed good to Here it
goes. It 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, from blood, from what's been strangled, from sexual
immorality. If you keep yourselves from
these, you will do well. What was at stake here was their
freedom. There were things the leaders in
Jerusalem decided they would teach the Gentiles not to do.
Now he listened carefully, not from a standpoint of being under
the law, but because of the right use of freedom in Christ.
I read a commentary one time about a writer who put it this.
We said, what if, what if the Yep, OK, we're going to
introduce circumcision. I guess that's the best thing to
do, less and less of an offense and the Gentiles get used to it.
We'll introduce circumcision. What would have happened then?
Because then circumcision would have been become part of the
salvation process and it would have been just as one of many
religions would have devolved into something totally different
than it was. And now is of course, we believe
it was God leading through these, these men to to decide
this. He said, and Paul continues on
in verse 30 and 1st Corinthians 10, he says, if I partake with
thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that which I give
thanks. He says my freedom should not be
pressed into the mold of someone's conscience.
To him, it was not an issue of eating meat, but building this
guy up. He's for the sake of others.
He's he's sensitive to them. It's interesting because he
notes in this letter that we assume it's not just one person,
probably the whole, it was the whole congregation.
So he says in verse 31, he says, so whether, and here's the
here's the sent, here's the theme verse for this passage.
Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God. That's the benchmark.
All of our actions in life should be governed by the reason
for which we do them. What's the motive?
There's a story in the New Testament of Jesus going, Jesus
telling a story of the Pharisee going to the temple to pray and
a tax inspector goes to the temple to pray and both pray to
prayer. Both did the right thing.
Praying is the right thing to do.
Both were the right place to pray.
Time was the right place to pray, pray.
However, very different men, very different prayers.
The Pharisee prayed reminding God how good he was, how was he,
how much he was doing and that he was better than everybody
else and and better than the tax collector over the corner there.
And the tax collector he prayed too.
He just prayed, Lord, be merciful to me, a Sinner.
It wasn't a very big prayer, not a long prayer, but a very deep
thorough prayer directed towards God.
Look, I need help, Lord Jesus the tax collector went home
justified rather than the Pharisee.
You see, the Pharisee was a law keeper, a rule keeper, and the
rules were not necessarily wrong, they were actually good
rules, but for the wrong reason. Often times you find it easier
to follow the letter of the law and be totally blind to the
heart of the law. If we glorify God in all we do,
what's the best way to do it? Well, Paul continues.
He says give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or through the
Church of God. Just as I try to please everyone
and everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of
many, that many may be saved, Paul uses himself as a role
model. He says be imitators of me as I
am of Christ. It's not self, it's God.
Too often people who claim to be Christians live such poor
testimonies. Their witnesses are destroyed
not so much for doing sinful things, but doing the right
things with sinful motives. Paul says whether Jew or Greek
or the church is aimed as in all things, glorify God and all
situations live so that God is honoured that others may be
saved. So how are we doing?
What's our benchmark from which we decide how we should live we
will not face issues of eating meat necessarily offered in
temples. That doesn't happen anymore and
it still happens that people dedicate meat.
There's halal meat you can buy and there's kosher meat you can
buy won't go into that doesn't affect us.
But last Sunday Pastor Doe preached and this this line has
stuck with me. He says whatever cools our
desire for God is idle version and this can sometimes happen so
imperceptible we're hardly aware of it.
And that's why we need each other to remind us remind each
other, hold each other accountable.
We can do this without even thinking.
And so sometimes the question is, Hey, pastor, would it be sin
if I or would it be sin if we OK, I get it and I understand
the the intent of behind the question and I'm not judging
them to ask that question, but I there's a but there's a flag
there and the flag is this. So why not ask would it glorify
God if I would it glorify God? If we use that phrase as the
starting point, that changes it. Because if I say, hey pastor,
would it be sin if I I'm looking there?
Or if I say would it glorify God if I it's a different direction
And that's how Paul lived his life?
Will what I do help up my brother and bring glory to God?
Will that do that? If it does, great, then I want
to do that. If it doesn't do that, well,
it's not about me. I shouldn't do it.
Paul filtered everything he did through that grid.
How should this change us today? This the things that Satan wants
to use to tempt us, We have to evaluate.
We're free. Let's, let's not create a
catalogue of rules for which we consult every conceivable
situation where we only need to click a button.
Oh, that's the rule for this thing.
Click about. That's the rule for that thing.
The Christian life is not a pathway of rules.
Oh, that's the rules, but not for the purpose for which people
apply them. The Christian life is a
relationship with Jesus founded on the law of love and truth.
It's a life surrendered to Christ that means death to the
old life and new life through grace.
We must ask ourselves, what have we to learn?
It's important we learn from the right source, from Scripture,
from the Spirit. And in the fellowship of the
Saints. Jesus condemned the Pharisees
for their religiosity. They were so fixated on all the
other things like following this and that and the other rule.
So is my life is your life, Is our life freedom based or is it
law based? Again, verse 31.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God. Who am I living for?
May God give us grace to live in freedom, the power of his
Spirit. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you
that You've not left us as people to ourselves.
You did give us the law, and it's a good law.
And as people, many times we've turned that into an idol where
it became more important than the reason for which she gave
it. We replaced it with you, and we
worshiped the law instead of You.
Lord, from your word we see that you set us free to be free, not
to again be slaved in legalism, but give us the eyes to see the
hearts to understand what it is you've done for us and what you
require of us as your servant, Paul wrote.
Help us, Lord, to do all we do for your glory and Your honor
with Thanksgiving. Amen.