WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.339 God has an opinion about idolatry that's very strongly expressed throughout the pages of the Bible. 00:00:05.560 --> 00:00:06.280 He hates it. 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:09.740 So you come to the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament, 00:00:10.200 --> 00:00:15.179 and the first three commandments address idolatry. 00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:18.879 You shall have no other gods before me. 00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:24.480 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:26.839 or on the earth beneath or in the waters below, 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:30.879 and you shall not bow down to them or worship them. 00:00:31.780 --> 00:00:37.399 No other gods, no manufacturing idols, and no bowing down or giving yourself to them. 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:42.280 You come into the pages of the New Testament, you come to a place like Romans chapter 1, 00:00:42.820 --> 00:00:44.280 and verse 25 it says, 00:00:44.480 --> 00:00:47.120 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:53.159 and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever blessed. 00:00:53.579 --> 00:00:54.000 Amen. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.799 And what it's telling us there is that the whole world is destined for judgment 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:00.759 because we are idolatrous. 00:01:01.539 --> 00:01:04.939 We put created things in the place of God and we live for them. 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:11.980 Most of us, and when I say most of us, I think I mean people maybe from a Western culture like me, 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:15.000 don't have idols in the cupboard. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:19.599 The concepts here are a little bit obtuse in some ways, 00:01:19.659 --> 00:01:21.980 and some of the things being spoken about in this passage. 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:26.560 But if Pastor Faye was here tonight from our Mandarin congregation this morning, 00:01:26.659 --> 00:01:29.159 she could stand here and speak in quite a different way 00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:34.380 and tell us about how she was recently invited into the home of a Chinese convert, 00:01:34.740 --> 00:01:37.560 and she was asked into that home for one reason, 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:41.880 and that was to come in and smash their idol and pray for them as a family. 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:50.399 Westerners, we're idolatrous, but we're more subtle with our idolatry. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:58.120 We seek wealth or we seek possessions or relationships or sex or esteem, whatever it is. 00:01:58.179 --> 00:02:01.759 We look for security anywhere other than in God. 00:02:03.239 --> 00:02:04.560 And God hates it. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:07.299 He won't stand for rivals. 00:02:07.420 --> 00:02:09.060 He wants us to depend on him. 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:11.199 You go back into the Old Testament, 00:02:11.460 --> 00:02:13.759 and there's some wonderful passages in the Old Testament 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:17.640 where the prophets literally mock idolatry. 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:22.340 And let me read one of them from Isaiah chapter 44. 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:23.980 And it's a picture. 00:02:25.140 --> 00:02:27.659 But listen, the carpenter, this is Isaiah speaking. 00:02:27.659 --> 00:02:32.859 The carpenter measures with a line, and he marks an outline with a marker. 00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:37.139 He roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:41.280 He shapes it in the form of a man, 00:02:41.699 --> 00:02:45.879 of a man in all his glory that it may dwell in a shrine. 00:02:47.359 --> 00:02:50.800 He cut down cedars or perhaps took a cypress or an oak. 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:55.219 He let it grow among the trees of the forest or planted a pine, 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:56.620 and the rain made it grow. 00:02:57.659 --> 00:03:00.400 It's man's fuel for burning. 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:04.060 Some of it he takes, and he warms himself. 00:03:05.219 --> 00:03:06.439 He kindles a fire. 00:03:06.539 --> 00:03:07.379 He bakes bread. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:12.439 But he also fashions a god and worships it. 00:03:13.379 --> 00:03:15.560 He makes an idol, and he bows down to it. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:17.159 Half of the wood he burns in the fire, 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:19.460 and over it he prepares his meal. 00:03:19.519 --> 00:03:20.460 He roasts his meat. 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:21.759 He eats his fill. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:23.659 He also warms himself. 00:03:23.859 --> 00:03:25.120 He says, ah, I'm warm. 00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:26.079 I see the fire. 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:30.480 And from the rest, he makes a god. 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:31.440 He's idol. 00:03:32.580 --> 00:03:33.760 He bows down to it. 00:03:33.820 --> 00:03:34.700 He worships it. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:35.540 He prays to it. 00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:36.700 He says, save me. 00:03:36.760 --> 00:03:37.720 You're my god. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:41.960 They know nothing. 00:03:42.140 --> 00:03:43.420 They understand nothing. 00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:47.240 Their eyes are plastered over so that they cannot see. 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:48.420 Their minds are closed. 00:03:48.419 --> 00:03:49.739 They cannot understand. 00:03:51.259 --> 00:03:52.959 No one stops to think. 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:56.319 No one has the knowledge or the understanding to say, 00:03:56.699 --> 00:03:58.839 half of it I use for fuel. 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:02.159 I even baked bread over the coals. 00:04:02.579 --> 00:04:04.819 I roasted meat and I ate. 00:04:04.819 --> 00:04:09.219 Oh, shall I make a detestable thing with what's left? 00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:13.000 Shall I bow down to a block of wood? 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:15.719 He feeds on ashes. 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:17.879 A deluded heart misleads him. 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:23.399 He cannot save himself or say, is not this thing in my right hand a lie? 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:27.560 I was thinking about the message for the night. 00:04:27.679 --> 00:04:30.120 I reckon you could pick up some of these passages of the Old Testament. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:35.919 You could work yourself up into a lather of sweat with a very powerful biblical argument 00:04:35.919 --> 00:04:38.060 to say that idols are absolutely nothing. 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:39.539 They're foolish and stupid. 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:43.120 They have no real power. 00:04:43.219 --> 00:04:43.879 They're a joke. 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:49.959 What can a bit of wood that somebody's carved on a lazy Sunday afternoon do to anyone? 00:04:52.180 --> 00:04:56.620 And as I preach, I can tell you what a fool you are to give your life to such a thing. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:01.100 The people down in Chatswood who burn incense in their shops 00:05:01.100 --> 00:05:05.879 and give their morning offerings on their altars are wasting their time. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:11.480 We know that it won't make one iota of difference to the business they get that day. 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:13.480 Because that's why they do it. 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:22.139 And in some ways, that's a secular sermon. 00:05:25.019 --> 00:05:29.259 An atheist could preach almost the same thing with equal passion. 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:34.259 For me, I believe in one God. 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:36.639 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:05:37.259 --> 00:05:39.980 The atheist over here, he doesn't believe in any God. 00:05:39.980 --> 00:05:48.360 But we both think that other religious practices are nonsense. 00:05:48.819 --> 00:05:50.540 We actually agree at that point. 00:05:50.540 --> 00:05:59.200 So even though idols are nothing, in other ways, they are taken very, very seriously in the scriptures. 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:05.220 Daniel will not eat food from the king's table because it has been sacrificed to idols. 00:06:05.340 --> 00:06:08.040 He will take a stand over idols. 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:16.100 Daniel will not bow down to an image of the king, even though he will be given a death sentence because he will not bow down. 00:06:17.760 --> 00:06:22.120 He could have rationalised the food and the image away with scriptures that said to him, 00:06:22.180 --> 00:06:23.180 look, these things are nothing. 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:26.280 I'm going to eat them because I know that there's only one real God. 00:06:26.780 --> 00:06:27.879 He will not do that. 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:28.960 He takes a stand. 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:34.539 In Numbers 25, idols are a huge snare to the people of God. 00:06:35.799 --> 00:06:40.560 Verses 1 to 3, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:44.139 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. 00:06:45.339 --> 00:06:48.019 The people ate and they bowed down before these gods. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:52.599 And so Israel joined in the worshipping the Baal of Peor, 00:06:52.779 --> 00:06:55.079 and the Lord's anger burned against them. 00:06:55.079 --> 00:07:00.740 And what you see there is that their hunger for sex led them into worshipping other gods, 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:05.099 and God's anger was so great that he killed 24,000 people that day. 00:07:07.019 --> 00:07:10.079 You come into the New Testament again in Acts chapter 15. 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:17.879 One of the big disputes in the early church was people are coming to Christ from a non-Jewish background. 00:07:18.259 --> 00:07:20.560 They're coming out from the Gentile world. 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:26.240 They've got no history in terms of the scriptures and what God's people's practices were. 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:29.660 And the big question of the day was, 00:07:29.860 --> 00:07:35.500 do these people need to get circumcised to show that they're a true blue member of the people of God? 00:07:36.939 --> 00:07:40.199 And the matter is taken to the apostles in Acts 15. 00:07:40.340 --> 00:07:43.779 Paul and Barnabas come from the church outside of Jerusalem, 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:48.779 and they tell them the delightful news about people from many nations coming to Christ. 00:07:48.779 --> 00:07:51.679 And they say, what do we do about this issue? 00:07:51.739 --> 00:07:55.199 We don't think they need to be circumcised to show that they're a real Christian. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:58.479 And the apostles agreed with them. 00:07:59.139 --> 00:08:01.199 And they said to them, don't worry about the circumcision, 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:03.819 but there's only four things that we want to ask of them. 00:08:04.599 --> 00:08:06.599 People coming to Christ from other cultures. 00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:24.360 Three out of the four things that they were asked were to do with food. 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:27.060 So you're not to eat food offered to idols. 00:08:27.200 --> 00:08:29.720 You're not to eat food with blood still in it. 00:08:30.140 --> 00:08:33.360 I heard a really interesting example of that when I was in South Africa. 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:36.460 I heard a couple of the pastors talking one morning, 00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:38.399 and one of them was defending her culture. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:42.320 And the other one was saying, I'll tell you why we want to leave that culture behind us. 00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:47.379 He said, one of the initiation practices for young men in our culture is that they go out, 00:08:47.419 --> 00:08:50.120 and when they're 14 or 15 and they go out and they're initiated, 00:08:50.500 --> 00:08:53.860 they are required to take a bite out of a living animal. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:08:59.620 And then don't eat any strangled meat either. 00:08:59.620 --> 00:09:03.159 That was an insight I wouldn't have seen in my own culture. 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:10.340 1 Corinthians 8, and have your Bibles open there now, 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:13.399 raises exactly that issue. 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:17.279 Verses 1 to 3, about food offered to idols. 00:09:19.080 --> 00:09:21.360 We know that we all have knowledge, 00:09:22.019 --> 00:09:25.000 and knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:30.279 If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. 00:09:30.700 --> 00:09:33.779 But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:40.879 He's addressing an issue that the Corinthian church has raised in response to his teaching. 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:46.080 So I think he's already come along as he would have done with all the Gentile churches, 00:09:46.220 --> 00:09:51.039 and he has taught them about refraining from food sacrifice to idols. 00:09:51.039 --> 00:10:00.219 They would know what the apostles in Jerusalem have requested of the people who are coming to faith in other places. 00:10:01.779 --> 00:10:05.559 And they effectively say, look, we've got knowledge when it comes to idols. 00:10:07.019 --> 00:10:08.939 We don't need to be instructed. 00:10:09.099 --> 00:10:11.779 There's sort of a play on the idea of knowledge here. 00:10:12.459 --> 00:10:14.159 We're okay, we've got knowledge. 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:21.860 And he says to them, careful, careful, because knowledge is very good at puffing people up with pride, 00:10:22.139 --> 00:10:26.179 and you think you know something when you don't know it the way that you should know it. 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:33.500 And I think the Corinthians are actually asserting their right to make their own decisions in Corinth 00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:37.759 without being instructed by other believers in another part of the world in Jerusalem. 00:10:38.079 --> 00:10:39.319 They're running their own show. 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:46.740 And they have knowledge, and they're able to argue their case biblically and persuasively. 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:52.860 They're well-grounded in some ways, but they are missing something they think they know, but they don't know. 00:10:54.640 --> 00:10:59.600 I was really good at sitting in university lectures, understanding everything that was explained to me on the board. 00:10:59.680 --> 00:11:00.400 I'd sit in my seat. 00:11:00.820 --> 00:11:03.180 I could understand why the lecturer was doing it all out there, 00:11:03.220 --> 00:11:06.340 and then I was required to duplicate it in an assignment or an exam. 00:11:06.340 --> 00:11:09.740 And I didn't really know it as well as I thought I knew it. 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:11.639 Got in lots of trouble, often. 00:11:13.180 --> 00:11:16.040 And Paul says to these guys, you lack something, you lack love. 00:11:18.220 --> 00:11:20.680 Knowledge puffs up, love builds up. 00:11:22.420 --> 00:11:26.560 They think that their freedom extends to eating food that's sacrificed to idols. 00:11:27.740 --> 00:11:32.500 And in asserting that freedom, they are effectively rejecting a loving instruction, 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:35.280 a loving request, a loving instruction not to. 00:11:36.340 --> 00:11:39.860 They have this independent streak. 00:11:39.980 --> 00:11:42.980 They stand apart from God's worldwide church. 00:11:43.160 --> 00:11:44.500 They know what they're doing. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:45.360 Thanks very much. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:48.480 Thanks for the advice, but we're okay here on this issue. 00:11:55.560 --> 00:11:56.120 Pride. 00:11:57.060 --> 00:11:58.100 We know better. 00:11:58.100 --> 00:12:07.019 And my problem, and perhaps our problem, is that we can use our versions of Bible knowledge 00:12:07.019 --> 00:12:12.379 to stand in a secure and a prideful position over those who know less than us, 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:14.139 or that we think know less than us. 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:19.620 And we operate in a way that becomes a bit like it's my way is the highway. 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:27.759 And we use our Bible understanding to mow a path over those whose understanding we deem to be less than us. 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:29.960 So we push ourselves up. 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:31.360 We puff ourselves up. 00:12:31.799 --> 00:12:35.480 We judge others as deficient in relationship to us. 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:41.440 And at the same time, we effectively give ourselves permission to do exactly what we want to do. 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:48.120 Chrysostom was one of the early church fathers, and he wrote about this passage. 00:12:48.259 --> 00:12:48.580 He said, 00:12:48.580 --> 00:13:02.300 There's linkages to 1 Corinthians 13, which we'll come to on the celebration service in a couple of weeks' time. 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:05.879 In 1 Corinthians 13, verse 2, it says, 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:10.420 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:16.420 and if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing. 00:13:16.419 --> 00:13:19.339 And then in verse 8, 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:22.120 Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:24.219 And in verse 13, 00:13:24.839 --> 00:13:31.819 And now these three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:36.559 So you come back into 1 Corinthians 8, verse 3, 00:13:37.339 --> 00:13:39.899 and you see that it is a rebuke to pride. 00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:43.799 It doesn't really matter what you know. 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:47.379 It matters who you are known by. 00:13:49.379 --> 00:13:53.159 To love God and to be known by God. 00:13:55.479 --> 00:13:58.740 It matters more that he knows my name. 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:01.319 He has called me by name. 00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:03.139 I am his. 00:14:03.139 --> 00:14:09.939 So the issue here is food sacrifice to idols. 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:14.559 And in some ways, Corinthian meat is just like Jerusalem meat. 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:17.379 Animals are slaughtered at the temple. 00:14:18.139 --> 00:14:19.259 They're offered to gods. 00:14:20.319 --> 00:14:22.980 Some of it's burnt up completely as an offering. 00:14:23.179 --> 00:14:27.179 Some of it goes to market to generate income for the priests or to feed their families. 00:14:27.179 --> 00:14:31.859 It's eaten at pubs and clubs and marriage banquets around Corinth. 00:14:32.179 --> 00:14:35.279 Some is taken home by the worshipper to feed his own family. 00:14:35.379 --> 00:14:36.159 None of it's wasted. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:43.239 And so a Jew, what would a Jew not normally eat? 00:14:43.319 --> 00:14:46.279 They normally wouldn't eat things like pork chops and prawns. 00:14:46.479 --> 00:14:47.759 That was the ritual. 00:14:47.899 --> 00:14:49.079 That was the ritual food. 00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:57.180 But a Jew would also not eat Corinthian beef because it had been sacrificed to an idol. 00:14:58.540 --> 00:15:05.300 And a Corinthian with any scruples wouldn't eat Jerusalem lamb because it's been slaughtered by the name of the wrong God. 00:15:06.160 --> 00:15:07.300 They're not going to eat his. 00:15:07.420 --> 00:15:08.200 I'm not going to eat yours. 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:09.280 And he's not going to eat mine. 00:15:10.820 --> 00:15:12.720 Because they're worshipping the wrong God. 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:17.420 And so you get this Corinthian Christian comes along. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:21.820 He's been asked by his brothers in Jerusalem not to eat meat sacrificed to idols. 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:25.500 But he knows other things that embolden him. 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:29.840 He knows that Jesus in the Gospels declared all food clean. 00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:34.139 He knows that idols are only created things like Isaiah did. 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:35.420 They've got no power in themselves. 00:15:35.560 --> 00:15:37.420 They're only something that's made at the hands of men. 00:15:37.680 --> 00:15:38.399 They're nothing. 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:45.699 And he doesn't care that the priest has offered some words over them because they're all a load of mumbo jumbo. 00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:49.399 I'm a Westerner. 00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:51.679 Again, this is not my cultural background. 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:55.379 For me, if Jamie Oliver says it's good, then it's really good. 00:15:56.139 --> 00:15:59.220 And if my wife or one of my daughters cooks it, it's even better. 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:02.639 I eat what takes my fancy. 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:06.559 I don't normally eat with respect to God other than to give him thanks 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:08.939 when we give thanks at the table before we eat our dinner. 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:15.199 We workshopped this message in my community group the other night. 00:16:16.179 --> 00:16:21.639 And Cecile, who's of Asian background, said something that made me really stop and think. 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:25.359 She said that her family background takes her often to a Buddhist funeral. 00:16:27.079 --> 00:16:32.119 And she said when there's a Buddhist funeral, they put on a really decent Chinese meal with lots of food 00:16:32.119 --> 00:16:34.279 and the priest says his bit over it. 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:40.139 And she told us that she was at a funeral and her Christian friend said to her, 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:40.959 we can't eat that. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:43.000 It's been offered to an idol. 00:16:45.740 --> 00:16:49.959 And I think for her it was a bit like, oh, it's really good food. 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:56.639 But her friend's conscience wouldn't allow her. 00:16:58.039 --> 00:16:59.799 And so Cecile's got this dilemma. 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:02.699 She gave me permission to say it this morning so I can say it again tonight. 00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:04.220 She knows it's just food. 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:07.000 It's all from God's hand. 00:17:08.259 --> 00:17:10.080 The idol is a nonsense God. 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:11.799 It's an invention of man. 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:13.240 It has no real power. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:18.440 But there are other less obvious problems. 00:17:20.080 --> 00:17:24.740 Her friend was Christian but she didn't yet understand her freedom. 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:28.759 There's social pressure. 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:29.720 We want to fit in. 00:17:30.059 --> 00:17:30.980 We want to conform. 00:17:31.120 --> 00:17:36.440 We don't really want to spend all afternoon at the funeral explaining why we don't want to join in and eat the food. 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:37.940 What's wrong with you guys? 00:17:41.099 --> 00:17:44.620 And it's a really good looking dinner and I'm one for a Chinese banquet. 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:50.900 Taste the pork bun and, you know, salivating about the chilli crab just thinking about them. 00:17:50.900 --> 00:17:55.519 So what do you do? 00:17:58.360 --> 00:18:00.440 Do you tell your friend how ignorant they are? 00:18:01.780 --> 00:18:06.360 Do you give them an on-the-spot Bible lesson explaining the reality of what we have in Christ? 00:18:08.140 --> 00:18:14.540 Do you follow up with a practical demonstration of freedom by scoffing the Chinese banquet and say, look, it didn't hurt me? 00:18:14.539 --> 00:18:22.779 Or do you say to your friend, I want to want a Christ too. 00:18:23.659 --> 00:18:24.759 Let's just eat the veggies. 00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:39.279 In verses 4 to 6, Paul affirms the Bible realities about idols and about God. 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:48.160 He said, about eating food offered to idols, then we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one. 00:18:49.379 --> 00:18:56.259 And even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, 00:18:57.720 --> 00:19:01.059 yet for all of us there is one God and the Father. 00:19:01.399 --> 00:19:04.379 All things are from him and we exist for him. 00:19:04.380 --> 00:19:11.340 And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, and all things are through him and we exist for him. 00:19:12.700 --> 00:19:20.420 And you go into the Bible commentaries on this passage and they will tell you that this is one of the most wonderful Christological statements in the New Testament. 00:19:21.860 --> 00:19:22.720 Idols are nothing. 00:19:23.320 --> 00:19:31.160 Everything exists for the one God and Father and our existence is through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God. 00:19:31.160 --> 00:19:40.840 But I don't really want to dwell there right now except to say that it is a huge affirmation of the Old Testament teaching that we've already looked at. 00:19:42.259 --> 00:19:50.940 It's a magnificent picture of the glory of Christ as being the one who gives us existence and reveals to us God, his Father. 00:19:50.940 --> 00:19:59.840 That is true knowledge and the Corinthians get it in part. 00:20:01.539 --> 00:20:04.180 But what they don't get comes in verse 7. 00:20:06.259 --> 00:20:08.220 Not everyone has this knowledge. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:20.000 In fact, some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food offered to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 00:20:20.940 --> 00:20:31.920 Food will not make us acceptable to God and we are not inferior if we don't eat and we are not better if we do eat. 00:20:33.940 --> 00:20:37.840 So the truth is, food is nothing, it's neutral. 00:20:38.860 --> 00:20:42.940 It doesn't make us closer to God if we do or if we don't eat. 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:50.000 But he says to us and he says to them, he says, not everybody understands this truth. 00:20:51.620 --> 00:20:55.759 For some people the thought of eating meat tears at their conscience. 00:20:56.940 --> 00:20:59.400 For them it is a defiling thing to do. 00:20:59.500 --> 00:21:05.220 To eat the meat is to go on a journey back into the idolatry that they have been saved from. 00:21:05.220 --> 00:21:08.660 It takes them back into the old life. 00:21:10.460 --> 00:21:14.200 And so to press against their conscience is a violation of love. 00:21:16.980 --> 00:21:23.380 Now if you think back to Cecile and to her friend, it's actually in some ways, this is harder for the strong one. 00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:27.420 This is harder for us if we've got this knowledge of how stupid an idol is. 00:21:27.420 --> 00:21:40.160 Because we are being asked to give up some of our freedom, some of the true things that we know, the freedom that we have out of the true things that we know, 00:21:40.620 --> 00:21:43.940 for the sake of the one who doesn't have the same knowledge as us. 00:21:45.380 --> 00:21:49.880 And we are being asked to give way on something that could be considered their right. 00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:52.759 Or something that could be considered our right. 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:58.099 Why can't I eat from that magnificent banquet, that spread of food tonight? 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:02.579 Somebody take me for Chinese after church, please. 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:03.779 Not quite. 00:22:08.759 --> 00:22:12.379 But this is a familiar issue in 1 Corinthians. 00:22:15.339 --> 00:22:18.779 These are the people who are really big on freedom and rights. 00:22:18.900 --> 00:22:19.819 They've said it before. 00:22:19.819 --> 00:22:24.700 One of their slogans, which has been quoted in the chapters before, is everything is permissible for me. 00:22:24.779 --> 00:22:25.740 That's their slogan. 00:22:26.779 --> 00:22:29.939 And Paul comes back at them and says, but not everything is beneficial. 00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:43.980 Last week in chapter 7, we saw that a deeply connected, other person-centred marriage is one in which a man and a woman yield or give themselves over to the other in every way. 00:22:43.980 --> 00:22:52.779 You can give yourself to the other sexually when you know that you can trust their love for you. 00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:58.099 Next week, Sam's preaching from 1 Corinthians 9. 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:03.440 And Paul will use himself as an example of laying aside rights to an income. 00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:04.519 He says, I'm an apostle. 00:23:04.980 --> 00:23:07.220 I'm doing the work that Christ has called me to do. 00:23:07.339 --> 00:23:10.559 I have a right to be paid for you, but I'm not insisting on my right. 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:13.759 I'm laying aside my right for the sake of the gospel. 00:23:16.440 --> 00:23:24.019 And the same sort of thinking comes from Christ himself, the wonderful picture for Philippians 2, which Sam did read to us earlier in the service. 00:23:24.559 --> 00:23:31.799 Where Jesus left heaven, took on the form of a servant, became obedient to death, even death on a cross. 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:41.099 And 1 Corinthians 8, where we are right now, is yet another demonstration of the way of the cross. 00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:47.799 It's a relinquishing of rights for the sake of another, especially one who is weaker than us. 00:23:49.500 --> 00:23:58.399 I have an 80-year-old friend, and he hasn't been to a movie theatre for 60 years since he came to Christ. 00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:13.620 He refuses to go because, for him, it's a journey back into his old life and the remembrance of how he behaved in a dark cinema with women 60 years ago. 00:24:13.619 --> 00:24:23.299 Now, he's strong enough in Christ that he won't, if he was here tonight talking to you, he would not say to you, you shouldn't go to Hoyts. 00:24:26.019 --> 00:24:38.079 But it would be a violation of love if you prevailed upon him to try to make him go and brought all your biblical knowledge to bear about why it's okay and he's new in Christ and he's free of all that stuff. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:48.139 I'm the husband who, at times in my marriage, has pushed on with my right. 00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:51.439 You know, Sunday night, Sunday's sometimes a hard day for ministers. 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:52.619 You think it's a great time. 00:24:52.699 --> 00:24:53.879 I'm glad you think it's a great time. 00:24:54.279 --> 00:24:57.099 Go home after day on Sunday, and sometimes you're absolutely whacked. 00:24:57.879 --> 00:25:02.539 And you get some great conversations, and sometimes you get some really disturbing conversations as well. 00:25:02.539 --> 00:25:10.559 And so I'll go home on Sunday night and sometimes just like to put my feet up in front of a movie, and sometimes the more violent the better, 00:25:10.659 --> 00:25:15.480 because to see a few bad guys blown away really helps my feelings at that time. 00:25:16.460 --> 00:25:21.440 And I feel like I can watch a movie like that without it turning me into a serial killer. 00:25:23.180 --> 00:25:28.500 It doesn't bear on my conscience in a way that disturbs me particularly, most of them. 00:25:28.500 --> 00:25:30.139 There's a few exceptions these days. 00:25:32.539 --> 00:25:40.039 But I have also known and I know that some of those movies have a very negative impact on my wife, Kerry. 00:25:43.059 --> 00:25:48.159 She'll go to bed after watching something like that and she can't sleep, or she'll be disturbed by them. 00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:50.299 But I'll come home. 00:25:50.759 --> 00:25:51.799 I have my rights. 00:25:51.879 --> 00:25:52.819 I have my needs. 00:25:52.899 --> 00:25:54.079 I'll put my feet up. 00:25:54.180 --> 00:25:54.859 I'll watch. 00:25:54.859 --> 00:25:58.639 And she will either leave the room or be churned up. 00:26:01.219 --> 00:26:05.459 That's a violation of love of her by me. 00:26:05.460 --> 00:26:16.600 And violation of love and harm to brother or sister in Christ is the last part of the passage. 00:26:17.259 --> 00:26:17.880 Verse 8. 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:18.740 Verse 9. 00:26:18.740 --> 00:26:26.140 Be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block for the weak. 00:26:27.660 --> 00:26:31.980 For if someone sees you, the one who has this knowledge, dining at an idol's temple, 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:35.740 won't his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:42.559 And then the weak person, the brother for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. 00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:49.440 Now when you sin like this against the brothers and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 00:26:50.619 --> 00:26:54.759 And therefore, if food causes my brother to fall, I will never eat meat. 00:26:55.480 --> 00:26:59.759 I will never again eat meat so that I won't cause my brother to fall. 00:27:03.299 --> 00:27:06.940 I think I experienced something like this when I was at theological college. 00:27:06.940 --> 00:27:14.480 A friend and I were invited by a group of peers to join them to a gathering with a particular name. 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:21.400 I look back now and I think it was probably a bit like a private school boys club, pretty in some ways. 00:27:22.299 --> 00:27:24.940 I hadn't been to a private school so I didn't know these things. 00:27:25.019 --> 00:27:27.100 But here I was being invited into the group. 00:27:28.320 --> 00:27:30.019 It was a privilege to be invited. 00:27:30.320 --> 00:27:34.440 It was connecting with people who had a name, whatever it was, becoming an insider. 00:27:34.580 --> 00:27:35.279 You're one of them. 00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:36.480 You can join them. 00:27:36.940 --> 00:27:45.019 And when I went to join in the fellowship, they were discussing theological issues. 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:48.460 And they were smoking cigars. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:50.960 And they were drinking port. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:53.720 And they were speaking coarsely. 00:27:56.400 --> 00:27:58.120 And I felt shocked. 00:27:59.360 --> 00:28:00.900 I felt isolated. 00:28:01.900 --> 00:28:03.700 I felt confused. 00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:06.240 And I felt affronted. 00:28:06.940 --> 00:28:09.940 And I later told them. 00:28:11.320 --> 00:28:12.860 I said I didn't feel loved. 00:28:14.220 --> 00:28:18.920 I felt like the price of acceptance to become like them, to participate. 00:28:18.920 --> 00:28:28.940 I felt like the price of acceptance was to become like them, to participate according to the unspoken rules of their gatherings, to do their things. 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:30.759 That's a peer pressure type thing, isn't it? 00:28:31.340 --> 00:28:32.360 We want to conform. 00:28:32.500 --> 00:28:33.360 We want to fit in. 00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:44.979 But for me to participate in those things in that way was like a journey back into my old life. 00:28:44.979 --> 00:28:46.079 And I didn't want to go there. 00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:55.419 Now if they forced me, I think it would have been a violation of love and quite damaging to my Christian war. 00:28:55.420 --> 00:29:00.940 I think what they did was they treated me as the weaker brother. 00:29:02.140 --> 00:29:03.920 They took some rebuke as well probably. 00:29:04.039 --> 00:29:07.080 They modified the coarseness of their language and some of their behaviour. 00:29:07.079 --> 00:29:18.079 I look back now and I think I can look back maybe stronger and with more years in between I can look back and say well not all their behaviour was really wrong. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:20.019 I mean they didn't drink to excess. 00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:24.000 And smoking in some ways is a neutral. 00:29:24.199 --> 00:29:25.319 I mean damage your own body. 00:29:25.319 --> 00:29:28.619 Yes, there's consequences but maybe it's a moral neutral. 00:29:28.819 --> 00:29:29.700 I think maybe it is. 00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:30.639 You might want to argue that. 00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:37.939 But what they did was they gave way on some of their rights and their freedoms in a way which helped my conscience. 00:29:39.559 --> 00:29:45.399 And it also led to a long term growth in our love for one another and for our growth in Christ. 00:29:48.099 --> 00:29:49.700 I've seen the opposite as well. 00:29:50.399 --> 00:29:51.519 I've probably done the opposite. 00:29:51.659 --> 00:29:53.179 I just can't name it quite tonight. 00:29:53.180 --> 00:30:03.360 But I was shocked by a Christian friend who absolutely asserted his right to serve alcohol at a gathering of church people at his home. 00:30:03.420 --> 00:30:04.160 It's my home. 00:30:04.660 --> 00:30:08.019 I drink and I'm going to serve alcohol if I want to. 00:30:09.660 --> 00:30:15.019 And this particular gathering was one to which we were inviting two brothers who had big alcohol problems. 00:30:15.019 --> 00:30:23.539 And we asked our brother not to serve alcohol on this occasion out of love. 00:30:23.619 --> 00:30:29.819 Not to ban it for all time but on this occasion please would you not serve it because of our brothers. 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:34.379 And he refused to yield some of his freedom. 00:30:35.720 --> 00:30:38.859 And in that moment I think my brother failed to love. 00:30:38.859 --> 00:30:48.699 As a young Christian an older pastor told me that I was a disobedient believer because I hadn't been baptised properly. 00:30:48.700 --> 00:30:57.660 And that caused a crisis of conscience in me that took away my assurance of salvation for three years. 00:30:57.720 --> 00:31:02.080 Every time the issue of baptism came up I was just wobbly and at sea. 00:31:02.860 --> 00:31:04.100 Was I safe in Christ? 00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:05.259 Wasn't I safe in Christ? 00:31:05.360 --> 00:31:07.960 Should I do this baptism this particular way? 00:31:07.960 --> 00:31:13.819 And all about externals and nothing about internal which is what God is looking at. 00:31:16.140 --> 00:31:23.860 But the older, wiser, more knowledgeable brother threw a stumbling block at my feet that robbed me of joy that I had been knowing in Christ. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:29.620 And I can look back now with more strength and hopefully wisdom. 00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:33.240 And I can tell you I think his knowledge was faulty. 00:31:34.340 --> 00:31:36.640 And it led to a failure to love. 00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:46.180 One of the really interesting things about this passage is I think lying in the background of it is Acts 15. 00:31:47.460 --> 00:31:54.259 An instruction to take to all the Gentile churches to be in fellowship with the Jewish church and the wider Christian world. 00:31:56.120 --> 00:32:01.980 And Paul doesn't use it against the Corinthians as a rule, as a law, something you've got to keep. 00:32:01.980 --> 00:32:09.839 He works with them relationally and he asks them to apply principles rather than law. 00:32:09.940 --> 00:32:14.400 And the principle I really want you to apply to this matter is the principle of love. 00:32:15.660 --> 00:32:20.680 I want you to bring love to bear in how you conduct yourselves in relationships over this issue. 00:32:20.680 --> 00:32:31.420 And the Corinthian church had Jewish believers in it because that's where Paul started preaching when he first got there and the synagogue ruler got beaten up and all sorts of things went on. 00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:39.039 They were there in this congregation and the action of some of their brothers was possibly going to cause them great harm. 00:32:39.039 --> 00:32:44.319 If we're Christian, we're slaves of Christ. 00:32:45.480 --> 00:32:48.619 We serve a master who has laid down his life for us. 00:32:49.759 --> 00:32:57.259 He calls us to lay down our lives for each other, to give way, to yield our freedoms for the sake of a brother or sister. 00:32:57.259 --> 00:33:02.140 We belong to a wider church than just St. Paul's. 00:33:03.259 --> 00:33:10.299 We are called to be mindful of brothers and sisters in different congregations within our own church family but also in the world around us. 00:33:12.779 --> 00:33:18.619 And in the end, to live like this and to take these things to heart will build up Christ's church. 00:33:18.759 --> 00:33:23.420 It will grow the depth of love that we have for one another and reflects his glory. 00:33:23.420 --> 00:33:26.860 He warns us. 00:33:26.900 --> 00:33:27.240 He says, 00:33:27.340 --> 00:33:32.420 The weak person, the brother for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. 00:33:33.740 --> 00:33:41.080 Now when you sin like this against the brothers and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 00:33:42.600 --> 00:33:50.200 Therefore, if food causes my brother to fall, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause him to fall. 00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:53.720 We're called to love. 00:33:54.500 --> 00:34:01.140 We're called to live wisely, to not press our freedom over a weaker brother or sister. 00:34:02.420 --> 00:34:04.059 Not over their conscience. 00:34:04.460 --> 00:34:07.660 To do so is a failure of love. 00:34:08.460 --> 00:34:10.699 And it is a sin against Christ himself. 00:34:12.159 --> 00:34:12.519 Amen.