Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
If you turn your Bibles, please, the First Corinthians chapter #6
we are back in our series. We've been out of the series
here for a little bit in First Corinthians, and we will, by
God's grace, finish First Corinthians chapter 6 next week.
And then really we're going to pick up some speed over the next
few weeks, covering almost a chapter a week because there's a
lot of. Commonality in some of those
chapters that we're going to kind of put together, but I
really want us to be able to get to a place where in chapter 12,
particularly chapter 13, chapter 15, all of these are what I
would call mountaintop chapters. Chapter 12 about the church.
Chapter 13 about charity, Christian love, the highest form
of love. Chapter 15 the proof of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ and an expounding of the gospel.
These are places we want to be, not that we're trying to speed
over some of these other. Places.
But I do think there's some place where we can make up some
time. Instead of going, as we are
tonight, only three verses, we go 3 verses at a time through
First Corinthians. Jesus will come back before we
get through First Corinthians. So we've got to make some
decisions about exactly how we're going to do that.
But I hope we'll be helped to you tonight looking at three
different verses in First Corinthians chapter #6 you know,
the term Christian liberty is 1. You might have heard before.
You may be familiar with it, you may not.
I'm not sure. But Christian liberty is one of
the most contentious and controversial issues you'll hear
today in Christian circles. And when I say Christian
circles, I'm talking about the broader sense of all which calls
itself Christianity. I would even say outside of what
I would call Bible believing Christianity, but any circle
that would call themselves Christian.
This issue of Christian liberty is one that you'll hear of a
lot. And really Christian liberty
comes down to this. If I am free in Christ, then
what am I allowed to do? Think about that for a second.
If I am free in Christ and when we are free in Christ, we are
free indeed. The Bible says the day you got
saved, you were freed from the old life.
You were freed from the old ways.
You were freed from being under the penalty of sin and bondage
and judgment because of sin. Yes, you were free.
And by the way, you are free today if you know Jesus Christ
as Savior. But maybe we can put it this
way. So how free are you?
Free to do what exactly? And that's what Christian
liberty, this debate about what Christian liberty is about.
Now people will ask themselves, if I'm free in Christ, what does
this mean? And maybe they would even say
this. Does that mean I can do whatever
I want because I'm not going to hell?
Now, a lot of people wouldn't say that.
A lot of people wouldn't articulate that.
They wouldn't be bold enough to perhaps say those words.
But listen, it goes through the minds of many and maybe even
those who aren't as familiar with the scriptures would ask
themselves this question, Does it really matter what I do in
this life if I already know that I'm going to heaven, if I've
already erased the penalty of sin for all eternity?
Not that I have erased it, but that accepted the gift.
You got that so that I have accepted the gift.
So where I will not receive the penalty of hell in my life, the
lake of fire. So can I just go ahead and do
whatever I want? You know, there's a lot of
people that would maybe, again, not articulate but say, well,
what does it really matter? What's the big deal?
And maybe some would look at me or others who are Bible
believing Christians have a much more biblical view on this
issue. And they would look at us and
call it legalists for saying, well, you should live wholly and
righteously and justly in this present world.
It would look at us and immediately throw out that label
of legalists just because we would suggest that it's
important to live a holy life after you get saved because God
is holy, as we just talked about this last Sunday as well.
So tonight we ask ourselves this question.
If I'm free, am I free to send? If I am free to, does that make
me free to sin? So let's go ahead and read First
Corinthians chapter 6 verse #12 where it says this.
All things are lawful unto me, but not all things.
Or rather, let's try that again. I'm going too fast.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not
expedient. All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be brought under the power of any meats for the
belly and belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and
them. Now the body is not for
fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us
by his own power. You know, it's been a little
while since we've been in our series, and so probably a little
bit of review is necessary. Remember, Paul had been
addressing the many spiritual issues that the church at
Corinth had. He had talked at length about
the division between the different groups, the cliques
and the fractions of which they have.
He talked about their pride, their arrogance, about how they
felt they could do whatever they wanted to to do, and he had to
talk to them about that. He talked about sexual
immorality that was taking place in the church.
And it wasn't just taking place within the membership of the
church, but it was also being boasted of within the church
about how open minded they were. And then at the beginning of
First Corinthians chapter 6, we saw that things had also gotten
bad enough that they were taking one another to court and suing
one another in open court instead of handling things like
believers ought to within the confines of the church.
And all of these, these issues really LED us to verse #9 which
says this. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the Kingdom of God?
Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves, of
mankind, nor thieves nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of
God. A rogues gallery, their
attention in verses #9 and 10, and where it's #11 remember
this. And such were some of you
meaning this, that rogue gallery.
You were a part of it that your sin may have been named there,
it may not have been named there, but you were a Sinner
nonetheless. And the Bible says that was who
you were meaning past tense. This was the old life.
This should not be the mark of your life now.
Such were some of you. But ye are meaning the present
washed. Ye are sanctified.
Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Wonderful biblical words, washed in the blood of Christ,
sanctified, set apart for a service, justified.
You are made legally right before the Lord Almighty in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
And so he says all of those things.
But then he addresses Paul does in the verses we just read 2
common thought processes of the people of Corinth.
And I would suggest to you that they are also prevalent today as
well in modern Christianity. It really comes down to this
issue of well sure you said this is who we were, but doesn't
really matter how we Live Today. Remember, these Corinthians
lived in in one of the most wicked cultures you could find
in the known world at that time. To live like a Corinthian, as it
was often said, meant that you lived in a sexually impure way.
Their own city was used as a way to talk about being immoral.
That was the way it was known in the known world at that time.
And they brought this thought process with them into the
church. And so they're asking
themselves, well, yeah, I'm saved.
Does it really matter how I live my life?
And so Paul is going to look at this in a couple different ways
in our text here tonight. Now G Campbell Morgan said this
the whole trouble can be summarized by saying that the
spirit of the city had infected the church.
This is always a peril. The church's business is not to
catch the spirit of the age listen, but to correct it when
the Church of God knows its own business and is living in
accordance with its own mighty laws of life.
She is a perpetual rebuke to the things that are merely of the
passing and worldly age, meaning this, when we live the way we
ought to be and we let the church house affect the world
instead of the world affecting the church house, there can be
real change within the world. And so there's a couple
questions I want us to address tonight when it comes this issue
of Christian liberty. And the first is this, What is
the body allowed to do? So what is this body that I
have? What is the body that you have?
What is it allowed to do? And he starts by saying all
things are lawful unto me. And it's almost as if Paul is
quoting the people of Corinth. It's almost as if he is stating
something that they have been talking about themselves.
Well, Paul, don't you know that we're saved?
All things are lawful unto us now.
We're not under the law anymore. And by the way, it is true,
biblically speaking, when you are saved, you are not under the
law anymore. That is true.
The Bible says the law was our schoolmaster.
To do what? To bring us to Jesus Christ, to
show us that we were lost and that we needed saving.
That's absolutely true. There is an element of truth in
what they are saying. All things are lawful unto me.
Basically, they're saying since I'm saved and I'm free from the
penalty of sin, that I'm really allowed to do whatever I want.
This is what Paul is bringing up in verse #12 when they say all
things are lawful unto me. And again, this is the
prevailing idea of all that falls under the umbrella of
Christianity Today. To preach against sin or listen
to even preach against specific sin is something that most
churches won't do. They might lose members, they
might lose ties, they might lose followers on social media.
They don't want to talk about sin, particularly when they know
that those in the pews, well, they may not even have pews.
They might have whatever they are.
We have these nice church chairs.
I have a feeling a lot of those churches don't have pews, but
they are engaged in activity that they want to preach about
because they know they're going to start stepping on toes.
Now, listen, I don't want to step on anybody's toes on
purpose. I'm not looking to stomp on your
foot, but I'm not going to avoid your foot if the Word is right
there and that's what's going on.
I'm not looking for anybody when I'm hearing the Word of God.
But I will tell you this, there's oftentimes the Holy
Spirit's looking for you and you say, well, I don't think the
Holy Spirit's really looking for me when I preach.
It could be you're not listening because I imagine when you're in
church, as the Word of God has given the Holy Spirit ought to
work on all of our hearts just as I work on messages.
I mentioned just on Sunday that I have to work through those
issues on my own as I'm in the study before I even get into the
pulpit. The Holy Spirit speaks, but
there's a lot of churches that won't speak against sin or
specific sin. Many churches today look and act
no different from the world. In fact, the calling card of the
church is this. We want to look as much like the
world as possible. We want the church to look more
like an arena where an NBA game is played than the House of God.
No, that's not an accident. That's a specific choice.
They what are they trying to do? They're trying to make people
comfortable with the things of the world, thinking that they
will bring them to Jesus Christ once they made them comfortable
with the things of the world. But The thing is, is that Jesus
Christ oftentimes made people uncomfortable, not because he
didn't love them, but because he would confront them with their
sin. In a loving manner.
Listen, the woman at the well was made very uncomfortable when
he started talking about her husband's and the man he was
living with, she was living with now was not her husband.
But he also did it in a very loving way in which he still was
able to bring her to him. The woman that was caught in
adultery, he didn't say hey lady, no big deal right?
He said to her, go and sin no more, but he still showed her
love and compassion. And this is what's often lost
today and churches like this that would preach from the word
of God and say that sin is sin and righteousness is
righteousness and name specific sins from the word of God.
But often have those types of churches lob the title legalist
at us. You are just a legalist by the
way. Those people don't even
understand what the term legalist means.
They use that term as a slur. They use it as a way to mock or
make fun of us. The term legalism means to
follow the law to achieve salvation and having standards
isn't legalism. Trying to live a holy life is
not legalism. To try to acknowledge the
holiness of God within your day-to-day life it isn't
legalism. It's the life that God has
called us to live, but we are free in Christ.
I just told you a few moments ago, John 836 If the Son
therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Galatians 51 stand fast therefore in the liberty where
with Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. And Paul is saying that as he's
talking to real legalists, that the Galatian folks in those
churches of Galatia we're dealing with Romans 8, verse 2.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ hath made
me free from the law of sin and death. 2nd Corinthians 317 Now
the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is.
I love this one. There is liberty.
Amen. It's right there on the sign.
If you don't see it, my name's out on the sign.
That's on purpose. But that verse is on the sign.
You know why? Because when people go by,
nobody drives in because they say Adam, Adam Rivero's.
I can't even say my own name, Adam Rivero's name on the sign.
But I hope someone will see that the Bible says where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty, and that will draw them
to the House of God. I pray that's the case.
But listen, we are free in Christ.
I agree with those who would say, well, you're free in
Christ. We're not arguing that.
But we're free in Christ, and freedom in Christ does not mean
freedom from living for Christ. Did you catch the difference
there? Freedom of Christ in Christ does
not mean freedom from living for Christ.
Here's another example or several examples.
And it's interesting that all of these are always around the same
places where it talks about the freedom we have, and then it
reminds us the other side of that.
Romans 618 Being then made free from sin, you became the
servants of righteousness. Galatians 513 For, brethren,
you've been called unto liberty. There it is again, only use not
liberty as an occasion for the flesh, but by love serve one
another. Jude verse 4.
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of
old ordained to this condemnation.
Ungodly men listen, turning the grace of our God into
lasciviousness. Meaning this they took the grace
of God and they turn into something ugly because of their
sin and their unrepentant sin. Galatians 219 through 21.
For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto
God. I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless I nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh.
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of
God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead
in. Vain Romans 6 one and two may be
my favorites. For what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
First two says, God forbid. It's repeated again later in
Romans chapter 6. The idea that some that were
being dealt with by Paul of the Roman Church would say something
like this. Well, if we receive grace when
we sin, the more we sin, the more grace we get.
And Romans 6-7 and eight basically lays bare the idea.
If that's your philosophy, then you truly and fundamentally
don't understand who Jesus Christ is or the war between
your flesh and your spirit. You don't understand it.
And I would say to everyone who struggles with sin.
So I would say to everybody that you ought to go to Romans 6-7
and eight. And if you read those chapters
every day, listen. You do yourself well because it
deals with this issue. Yes, you are free, but listen.
You're not free from serving Christ.
You actually free to serve Christ because you have been
made free to achieve freedom means that both a negative and a
positive thing has happened. Listen.
To achieve real freedom, something negative has happened
and something has positive has happened at the same time.
For instance, freedom from Great Britain meant that colonists
needed to willingly serve a new nation.
The call is, you know, 250 years ago, you know, right around this
neck of the woods where all of this was taking place, they
decided they were going to be free from British rule.
Did that mean that there was no more rules anymore?
Does that mean that it was like Outback Steakhouse?
No rules, just right. I don't think George Washington
ever had a blooming onion, but I don't know.
Maybe he did. Was that what it was?
No, no, they were free now to serve a new nation, that freedom
from one, the negative brought a positive.
Now we are free. We are no longer subject under
the heavy thumb of the British Empire.
Now we are free to be able to become the Republic that we are.
It reminds me of the story of the man who came up to Benjamin
Franklin on July 4th, 1776 and said this, Mr. Franklin, what
kind of government have you given us?
And he answered a Republic if you can keep it.
The idea was not that it was going to be chaos or
pandemonium. There had to be a new government
in place, but everyone willingly gave themselves to be under that
new government. The negative and the positive,
that's what it is. You think of those who were
released from slavery in 1865, the awful, awful curse of
slavery upon this nation, and the slaves that were freed in
1865. But then they also had to have
freedom in their new life as well.
And unfortunately, there were many who were tricked and there
were many who were or were told different things.
And some of them became in different types of organizations
or groups or thought processes because they were tricked by
other people that maybe they weren't slaves anymore, but they
were pretty close to it, that they went from the negative and
not into the positive. And so, yes, you are free from
Christ, you're free from sin. That's the negative, that old
way, that's the negative. You're done with that.
But that doesn't mean we're just free to do whatever we want.
The old life, we couldn't serve Christ, but now we get to serve
Christ. You say, well, that's just being
enslaved to 1:00 and then a slave to another.
Well, I mean, if you want to look at it that way, the Bible
calls it being a bond servant. What is a bond servant?
It means this. I'm going to willingly give
myself to you because of your great affection for me and
because of my great affection for you.
I don't have to do this, but I want to do it because I love
you. You know what Christian liberty
is. Nobody's forcing you to do
nothing. But you want to serve him
because you love Him. Well.
Who says I? Who says I've got to live
righteously? You know all things are lawful
unto me. Well, all things are lawful unto
me, but Paul says there's a couple issues and he mentions
them at the end of the verse. He asked a couple questions or
he poses a couple questions for us to look at tonight.
And the first is this. When you're looking at these
issues of life, we have to ask ourselves this, will it help
you? Because he says this, All things
are lawful unto me, but not but all things are not expedient.
So what does that word expedient mean?
Well, according to the 1828 dictionary, it means this, that
which serves to promote or advance any means which may be
employed to accomplish an end. Are you free to do anything you
want? Technically yes, but you have to
ask yourself this question. Will it actually help you in
your Christian life? That's a good way to know
whether you should be doing something or not.
Is it actually helpful to you? All things are lawful, but not
everything will be helpful to my spiritual life.
For instance, consider sex outside of marriage as it's
going to be mentioned in verse #13 when it talks about
fornication, sexual sins. Sex outside of marriage is like
a man robbing a bank. He gets the money, but it's not
his, and he will eventually have to pay the consequences for
robbing the bank. Consequences that are anything
but gratifying. And that's the way that sin is.
And certainly you can do it. And it might seem like it's OK
for a while, but listen, it's not going to help you.
It's not going to help you in your spiritual life.
And this issue is true for inherently sinful actions.
Anger. What's righteous anger, Pastor?
Probably not. Most of our righteous anger is
good old fashioned unrighteous anger.
I think there are very few times in my life that I've had real,
true righteous anger in my life over something that is sinful.
Now we know Christ did. We know that Christ turned over
the tables of the money changers, my Father's house, the
House of prayer. But I know this.
I'm not Jesus. And for my anger to be righteous
boy is going to hit a very high threshold for me to get there.
And so is this anger going to help me?
I'll tell you this. When I look at my life, anger
has hurt me a whole lot more, has helped me.
Bitterness, will it help me? Is it expedient?
I've said before that bitterness is the poison you drink
expecting someone else to die. And I don't know if there's ever
a truer saying outside of the word of God that's ever been
said than that that bitterness is the poison you drink
expecting someone else to die. Well, what does that mean?
It's not going to help you. You can be bitter at somebody
and you could be messed up on the inside and they don't even
know anything is wrong. It's not expedient foul
language. Nothing.
Will it help you? Will it help your Christian
testimony? Foul language?
Is it something that's going to draw more people to Christ?
Is it expedient lust? Well, it's just something that
you know, I'm looking, but really it's no one else's
business. Well, one, the Lord knows you're
looking and it will affect your heart and it will affect your
actions. Well, you know, I can look, but
as long as you don't touch, it's not a big deal.
Where do you find that in the Bible?
But Jesus says the opposite. He says if you've looked with
lust in your heart, it's as if you have committed adultery
because the issues of life don't come down to the actions really
start with the heart. And so he says don't go down
that route. By the way, he mentioned that
with anger too and connecting it with murder.
But I will tell you this will also help you with actions that
may not be inherently sinful, that aren't necessarily named in
the word of God by precept. But in principle, you know, we
would do ourselves well to ask ourselves about our actions.
Is this helping me draw closer to God or not?
Is this TV show I'm watching draw me closer to God or not?
Is this movie drawing me closer to God or not?
Is this book that I'm reading drawing me closer to God or not?
I was listening to an audio book a few months ago.
I had downloaded it and I was listening to it and I had no
idea that the language in itself was so foul and the things that
were discussed were so bad. And it was a subject that I
don't even think it should have even brought itself to be like
that. Then I got to the place where I
said I can't listen to this, I won't listen to it.
I don't want to hear those words being put into my head over and
over again for the equivalent of 15 hours, about how long it
would have been. So it was easy.
Is this helping me draw closer to the Lord?
No Sports. I enjoy sports as much as
anybody, but there are people who bow at the altar.
Sports, professional sports, youth sports.
Is it helping you draw closer to the Lord?
Social media. Does it help you draw close to
the Lord? Oh, sure.
It can be used to be able to win people to Christ and talk to
people about Jesus. Praise the Lord for that.
We try to use it that way here at Liberty Baptist Church, and
it's wonderful when it works that way.
But is it drawing people closer to you or away from you?
The news, We can get so caught up in the news, it messes with
our spirit. You say you're saying the news
is sinful. No, I'm not saying that.
I'm saying this. If you take in the news so much
that you find yourself so riled up, maybe you need to watch less
of the news and find another hobby or be in your Bible a
little more. Is it helping you draw closer to
the Lord? People have phones they can
scroll through social media, video games on the phone,
mindless minutes turning to hours, YouTube videos, 1 cat
video after another after another.
They just keep coming. They just keep sending them to
you. When the first one's done, they
send you another one. What I'm saying is this, we can
look at a lot of things in our life and say, well, my pastor,
is that really sin? Well, listen, I'm just saying it
may be lawful, but is it expedient?
Is it helpful? Everything in our life should
bear that scrutiny. Is it helpful?
But also letter B, we ask ourselves this question, will it
hold you? Will it hold you?
Because he says this, I will not be brought under the power of
any. Paul says that we shouldn't be
under the control of any other entity than God.
Romans 616 Know ye not that whom you yield yourselves servants to
obey His servants? Ye are to whom you obey, whether
of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
Listen, you might say, Listen, I just do what I want to do.
Listen. Throw that out the door tonight.
Throw that completely out. Either you obey God or you obey
Satan. Why do what I want to do?
Well, then, you're obeying Satan because you're obeying the
flesh. Yeah, it's not that simple.
No, you're making it more complicated.
It's exceedingly simple. Romans 622 a few verses later.
But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you
have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.
You're free from sin. You're servants to God.
Galatians 110 For do I now persuade men or God?
Do I seek to please men? For if yet I please men, I
should not be the servant of God.
You know what should hold us? Do you know what you should be
under the power of Jesus Christ? Anything other than Jesus Christ
that we are under the power of, then we've got a problem.
No podcast should have the power to keep me from my Bible.
No ball team should have the power to keep me from church.
No family member should have the power to keep me from living a
holy life. No friendship should have the
power to lull me from sin. No entertainment should have the
power to draw me into watching things that I wouldn't do
personally myself. Do you catch what I'm saying?
That it's not? If it's not OK to do it, you
probably shouldn't be watching it and allow that, in particular
with the issues of fornication and sexual issues.
I know social media platforms should have the power to govern
my thoughts. And a lot of people have just
letting their minds go to the next swipe, to the next video,
to the next like, but the Bible says, listen, don't let anything
hold you. If something's going to hold
you, it's got to be Jesus Christ.
You're his servant. Again, this is not legalism.
Freedom in Christ does not mean freedom from living for Christ.
That we are now free to live for him.
So we ask ourselves, will it help you?
Will it hold you? These are some things we can ask
ourselves about those things that are specifically sin.
We know the answer about those things that maybe we're not so
sure whether it's sin or not. Put it through the filter of
these two things and it will help you understand if it will
draw you into Christ likeness. Don't just say, well listen, I
can do whatever I want, I have freedom.
Listen, I could do whatever. My church doesn't care.
I can do whatever I want. I know I'm going to heaven
someday. Say that's not the attitude of
Paul in First Corinthians chapter 6.
That's not the attitude of the New Testament or certainly the
attitude of the old. So that brings us to the second
question. The first was, what is the body
allowed to do? And #2 what's the body even for?
What's the body for? Remember, their first argument
was this. All things are lawful unto me.
In verse 13 they say this, that they give this very Corinthian
phrase meats for the belly and the belly for meats.
Now they were basically just saying that physical urges were
just that, physical urges. Just keep reading for God shall
destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for
fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body in
many ways. The people of course, were
saying the urge to eat was as natural has the urge to have sex
with whatever your body long for.
Look, if it's natural for you to hunger for sexual intercourse,
then certainly it would be or rather, if it's normal for your
body to be hunger for food, then if if your body hungers for the
other, then it's just it's listen, it's just a natural
craving that that's all that it is.
And if you give in to the one to be able to eat, then you ought
to be able to give in to the other.
Look, the meats are for the belly and the belly are for
meats. The Greeks of Paul's day thought
the soul to be of some value, but consider the body to be a
necessary evil. They had a saying one the body
is a tomb. One Greek philosopher said this.
I'm a poor soul shackled to a corpse basically saying this.
I don't even know what to do with his body.
So if it wants food, it wants food.
If it wants to look at something, then I'll look at it.
If it wants to do something, then I'll just do it.
I mean, after all, it's just the body, the meat for the belly and
the belly for meats. So how does Paul answer this?
Well, he answers it in two different ways.
The first he highlights the temporary nature of the body,
the temporary nature of the body.
Again, they said the body is for sex just like it is for food.
But here's the real issue. The body is not for sex just
like it is for food. The body is for the Lord.
I'm going to say that again, the body is not just for sex as it
is for food. The body is for the Lord.
The body is to be the instrument of the Lord for His use and His
glory. Look at again at verse #13 meets
for the belly, and the belly for meets.
But God shall destroy both it and them.
Now the body is not for fornication, but for who?
The Lord and the Lord for the body.
It's not the meat. For the belly and the belly for
meat, he says it's the body for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body. He says you've.
Got it mixed up because you think it's all about you and
really it's all about him. See, this is what all of this
comes down to, the fundamental selfishness of our human nature.
That we want what we want. We argue ourselves into what we
want. And by the way, if you want to
do something immoral, you can find a Bible verse for it.
I'm going to say that again because some of you might not
even know what I'm talking. About here tonight.
If you want to do something immoral, you can find a Bible
verse for it. You say how is that possible?
Because there are churches that call themselves churches that do
that very thing. You.
Can take a Bible. Verse and twist it out of
context. You can take a Bible verse and
give a little snippet of it and try to present Jesus as saying
something that He never said. I'll give you an example.
I wrote about this online a few days ago.
This isn't political, this is just what it is.
You know that there was a Southern Baptist church on
Sunday of which there was a riotous group that came in and
they were chanting vulgar things, not even going to the
politics of what it, which I disagree with their politics,
but they were shouting vulgar things.
They were disrupting worship. They, they were, were violating
the law. All of these things were taking
place. And there was a pastor who was
having to stand in front of him, tried to answer and try to
protect his people. There were children who were
crying that were there that just listen, from what we've seen has
happened in church buildings and people start marching in.
Listen. Can't even imagine what was
going through their heads at that time.
But there was a gentleman who was a reporter whose name is Don
Lemon, who got in front of the group and he said this, I'm a
Christian too. He says this to the pastor.
He's trying to explain why these other people are doing what
they're doing. He's trying to cover for those
people who are acting wickedly. And he says to the pastor, but
I'm, I'm, he said I'm wicked too.
He said, I, I'm a Christian too. He's a Christian man, he's a
homosexual, and he believes that his lifestyle and his decisions
are all found in the Word of God.
Here's what I'm trying to say. You can find any Bible verse
anywhere to try to twist into what you want it to say.
Why? Because mankind is fundamentally
selfish and we want what we want, and if we want to tag a
little Bible verse to it, then we'll do it.
This is why we take listen, the whole council of God, the whole
council of God from end to end. I heard a preacher just a few
days ago shouldn't even be called a preacher who said well,
I just, I just, I just base what I believe by what Jesus said
because whatever Jesus said is the most important says who?
I'm not saying what Jesus said wasn't important.
I'm just saying Jesus is the living word, which means all
scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's
profitable for doctrine. For reproof for.
Correction for instruction of rights.
We just saw this in second Timothy.
You can't just say well, because Jesus never talked about this
issue, it's not important because he never talked about
this issue, it's not important because he didn't talk about
this issue, it's not important. Well, but it was mentioned in
Genesis. It was mentioned in the Numbers,
but it's Deuteronomy. It's mentioned in five other
biblical books. Then you say, pastor, you're
getting on a hobby horse. You're.
Right I am. But really, this all comes down
to this. We are fundamentally selfish
people in our flesh. And we will try to make excuses
for whatever we want. We'll make excuses why
gambling's OK even though people are losing money at a rapid,
rapid rate. It's an epidemic.
And by the way, Massachusetts is #1 which makes us #50 but number
one in gambling money in the United States.
Which again, to me puts it dead last.
But as far as numbers per capita, we spend more on
gambling in this state than anyone else.
Alcohol, tobacco, substances, lewd images.
We can keep going over and over and over again and mankind will
find excuse why it's OK. Christians will find excuses why
it's OK. But this body is temporary.
It's not meat for the belly and belly for meat.
It's the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body.
Well, I'll tell you what I want to do.
You already messed up. It doesn't matter what you want
to do. And this is the pastor thing,
because it doesn't matter what I want.
To. Do What does God tell us to do?
We're on this earth for such a short time.
We have to live for Him because it's not just the temporary
nature of the body. But listen, we got to finish.
It's the eternal nature of the soul.
Verse #14 And God has both raised up the Lord and will also
raise us up by His own power. Meaning this, whatever we do in
this life has ramifications for the next.
And whatever we do in this life is so short term.
I've just started. We've just started in the world
of investing, Beautiful, weird world of investments.
And you know what I found? I can do a whole lot more with
$50 now than I can in an investment account.
We'd go out to a nice meal. We could, we could go to the
Olive Garden and get, no, never mind, but we could, we go out
for a nice meal, we could do something like that.
That'd be great. But I found that if I'm patient
and put that in an account, 30 years from now I could buy an
Olive Garden. OK, that's a little bit of
exaggeration. The idea is when you realize the
nature of now compared to the nature of that which is to come,
it changes the way you make decisions.
I'll run that by one more time. When you realize the nature of
now compared to the nature of that which is to come, it
changes the way you make decisions.
The problem was the Corinthians were thinking of the now they
were thinking of the temporary the meats or the belly and the
belly of the meats. And that's why he says God will
destroy both it and them, meaning this the meats going to
be a gone and we're going to be gone someday.
What's going to be left? Your soul and for all.
Eternity. I can't imagine that we would
say. I.
Wished I had lived it up a little bit more while I was on
earth. But I think a lot of us will
echo the him where we say bye and bye.
When I look on his face, His beautiful face, by and by, When
I look on his face, I will wish I had given him more.
And we sing that song and it's sweet and it's beautiful.
Now it will be a reality for us all before we know it.
Well. Christian liberty.
I just, I can do whatever I want, right?
Well, you are free to serve Christ, not free from Christ.
I'll give you this example and I'm done.
How free do you think the Israelites were at the end of
the book of Judges? Twice it mentions.
Particularly the last verse of the book.
In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did
that which was right in their own eyes.
They're free. No judge, no king, no burdensome
theocracy over them. They could do whatever they
want, and they acted in some of the most disgusting and wicked
ways at the end of the book of Judges.
So much so when you read it, you're thinking, are these
really God's children when they are slaughtering each other,
when they are stealing women and forcibly marrying them to
another tribe so that that tribe doesn't disappear to see rape,
to see murder, to see one thing after another.
And you say, are these the people of God?
Oh, yeah. And they're free.
But they got the wrong kind of freedom where they realizes when
they were under God's control, they were more free than they
ever wanted to be. Me tell you, when you're under
the power of alcohol, are you really free?
Well, I could do what I want. You really free.
When you're under the power of pornography, are you really
free? No.
When you're in the power of anger, when every day you're
just ready to fight, are you really free?
When you're under the power of bitterness, I mean, it roils
your soul from morning to night, are you really free?
The answer is pretty clear. The answer is no.
So we look at ourselves tonight. What is the body allowed to do?
Well, we should ask ourselves this question.
We're allowed to do whatever we want technically, but will it
help you? Will it hold you?
Because these are the things that help us serve Christ and
not our own flesh. Then we ask ourselves, what's
the body for? Is it meat for the belly and
belly for the meat? No, it's the body for the Lord
and the Lord for the body. And there's a life that we live
now, but there is a life to come and we ought to live for that
life and not the temporary nature of this.
Listen, don't be defined by what you are against.
I'm leave the studio, I'm done. I don't want to be just the one
that you go to that church and they're just against everything.
You go to Liberty Baptist Church, they're against
everything. They don't even get chocolate
milk. OK, I'm not against chocolate
milk, but you don't understand. Don't be defined about what you
are against as a believer. Be defined in who you are for.
The things that I avoid is not because I'm against all those
things, although I know the word of God is against them.
But it's really I'm not just against them to say them against
them because that's where pride and arrogance can come in.
Well, I'm against them. I'm better at being against them
than you. No, I want to be defined by what
I'm for. What's that?
I want to live for Christ. And as I do, it will be so much
easier to be against those things because I know they will
not help me in my walk with Jesus.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.