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The speaker apologizes for feeling distracted in a previous class and emphasizes the importance of unity and obedience in the Christian life. They discuss the concept of Christian liberty and how it is not the freedom to do anything, but rather the freedom to live in obedience to God's Word. They mention that they will not cover chapter 9 in this lesson and move on to discuss the topic of food sacrificed to idols in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. The speaker uses examples from their work as a funeral director to illustrate the importance of being present and showing love to others. The Bible says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. I'm thankful for that this morning. Being free. That's what we're going to talk about this morning. If you'd like to open up In Your Wholeness Heritage, True Christian Liberty, Lesson 6. I would like to say before I get started, and I don't want to start off on a bad note, but I would like to apologize. When I feel like I've done something wrong, I want to apologize. Last week, I felt like I failed my Sunday school class in a way. I didn't read anything that was wrong. We talked about the sacrificial lamb and the resurrection. You might think, well, that can never be wrong. My heart was teaching to a class that wasn't here, and I do apologize for that. I don't want to fail you all. Pray for my Sunday school class. I love y'all. And my heart, I feel like, at times, was somewhere else, and I do apologize for that. But we will get into Lesson 6, True Christian Liberty. The theme this morning is, when a person comes to Christ for salvation, he experiences marvelous liberty. In the Christian life, there are biblical guidelines for this liberty. Our golden text comes out of Galatians 5, and 1 says, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. We'll go ahead and read the introduction. Today's lesson will cover chapters 8 and 9 and part of chapter 10. We will be dealing with the issue of Christian liberty. We know that when a sinner comes to Jesus, repents of his sin, and believes on the Lord as Savior, he is set free from the power of Satan and sin. This new believer now embarks upon a life of liberty in Christ. But what is the nature of this liberty? Is it the liberty to do anything he pleases? Certainly not. He is now to live in liberty as he lives in obedience to God's Word. Disobedience of God's clear commands is not liberty, but rebellion. While living in Christian liberty, we understand that we are expected to obey the Scriptures as God's final authority in all matters of life and conduct. Now our introduction does say that we'll get into chapters 9 and 10, but I apologize, I don't think we're going to get into 9 today. There's just so much, and I'll say that and then I'll cut 10 minutes short, and I don't mean to, but chapter 9 really stands alone. It does go hand in hand with chapter 8, and I love it, but there's just so much in it. I didn't really know how to pick it apart, and I wanted to do it justice. It does talk about Pan and the pastor, the man of God, and I know Brother Tim would like us to give that much attention, so we will wait on that for another day. But turn with me, I'm just kidding, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 8 this morning. It's good to see Brother Ronnie in the Sunday school class. I was telling him as I walked in, or as I drove in, I was this morning, I was praying for my Sunday school class, of course, and I got to those people that I didn't really intend to be there, and I got to praying for them that the Lord would help and strengthen them. I was thankful I hadn't seen that truck out there, I was really thankful. We're thankful that he's able, and we're still praying for him, and of course, Sister Glenda, we love her. We are still in Paul's letter to the Corinthian church this morning, and there's a couple things I'd like for you to remember. More than likely, Paul is in Ephesus when he's writing this letter to Corinth around probably between 53 and 55 A.D. Paul first addresses problems in the church that he has heard from someone named Chloe, if y'all remember, and the first and foremost was the problem of division, there was a division among them. We can take a lesson in that, and we did talk about how we first have to have unity before we can really solve any problems going further. Today's topic is closely tied to that thought of unity, really. Paul then moves on to questions that the Corinthians have asked from themselves, questions that they might have had themselves. We need to keep in mind that Paul was going around establishing and planting churches, Brother Quentin, and he could only spend so much time at a church and then move on. We learned in Acts that he spent about a year and a half in Corinth, and to address every problem that was there and every problem that might arise would be physically impossible, so they had some questions, and we're going to get into some more of those today. The first question that Paul addressed was concerning marriage and divorce in chapter 7 that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. But we are now in chapter 8, and they have a question concerning the food sacrificed to idols, and I think it's a pretty interesting chapter here. So let's get started in chapter 8, verse 1 says, Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies. In Jesus-like fashion, Paul kind of answers, starts answering this question with something that might seem totally off base at first. Jesus was good at that. He got to the root of the problem when somebody posed the question to him, and this verse, the second part of this verse to me sounds like, to me, a proverb that comes out straight from King Solomon. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies. We all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies. Puffeth up in the Greek language is phusio, means to inflate. To edify in Greek is oikodomeo, which means a house builder or construction. Both words, Brother Ronnie has a sense of rising up or going up, but to edify is much better. I like to think of a bubble gum. You can chew it up, get it all pliable, and blow a huge bubble, and it's impressive. And somebody will say, how did you do that? How did you blow a bubble that big? You can really impress someone, but it won't last very long. We know that it'll eventually pop. It's empty on the inside, and it's just full of hot air, and that's being puffed up. As a funeral director, you can imagine that I get a whole lot of people sharing their story to me. It's a large part of my job, really. When we enter a deceased or a loved one's house, they'll start telling you how they died. We'll ask questions like, how long have they been sick? We want to show that we're interested in these people. We're not being patronizing. Most of the time, we really are. Have you all been dealing with this very long? What happened? They'll start sharing those stories. Sometimes it can be very long. At the arrangements, we'll sit down, and we'll start compiling stuff for the obituary, and we'll ask, what was his interest? What kind of hobbies was he into? Did he have any type of church affiliation? They'll really go down a long road. There's a business side of it. It might be 1 o'clock, and you're trying to give this family time. We know, in the back of our mind, they want this funeral starting tomorrow, but the obituary has to be in by 2 o'clock, according to the news enterprise. We've got things. The clock's ticking, in the back of our mind, but we don't really want to show that. They'll be telling those stories, and the emotions will be running high, and they'll share things. During the visitation, even more so, Brother Joseph, we'll be sitting around. I had a visitation this weekend, and that family really didn't have a whole lot of visitors. They come to me and talk to me for a very long time, which I appreciate. I like stuff like that. It makes the time go by a little bit better, and you get an opportunity to hopefully witness to people, but at least to get to know people. After a decade of being a funeral director, or actually a little over a decade of being a funeral director, do you know one thing that I can say that will help just about everybody? I'm really asking. Does anybody know? Because I don't know. There's nothing. There's not one thing that I can say that really helps a whole lot. Nothing. Nothing I say really helps. It'll take time, and it'll take the Lord. It took a long time for me to learn that. I felt like, oh, I'm failing everybody. I don't have anything perfect to say. I'd sit across from some grieving spouse, and I'd be thinking this whole time, you know, they'd be talking to me about their dead husband, and I'll be rocking my brain, and I'll be thinking, well, you know, when is this lady going to quit talking about her dead husband so I can quote 1 Thessalonians 4 and 13 to him? I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. Then I think in my mind, wait, what if he wasn't saved? I could say Psalms 46 and 1, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And then I think, well, the word trouble doesn't really translate, Brother Tim, to death very well, so maybe I could just say that God is the lifter up of my head, but I don't really know the rest of it. I know it's in Psalms somewhere, but I don't know exactly what to say. And this whole time she's pouring her heart out to me, and I'm trying to think of something that's really going to sweep her off her feet, that's going to really wow her, tell her something that I really know. And it's never wrong to quote scripture to somebody, but I'm really, you know, in my mind I'm having this conversation, and I'm not even present, I'm not even really listening to this lady that's pouring her heart out to me. I'm not showing her anything, I'm trying to think, well, how can I impress this lady? And that happened to me for, you know, a long time, until I realized really what they wanted me to do was to just be present and sit there and listen to what they have to say. Love is more important than anything else that you can offer another person. First Corinthians 13 and 13 says, and now about a faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. It's not always so much about knowledge and what you can tell someone, it's about showing them love and that you care and attention. Back to First Corinthians 8 and verse 2 says, and if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. Even in general, Brother Joseph, nobody likes a know-it-all, you will have a hard time winning sows if you're this type of person, a know-it-all, Brother Ronnie. I thought there, and Camden really don't care if I'm not trying to throw him under the bus, he really don't mind. I know he don't because he's changed, but I thought, Brother Tim, when Brother Camden, my son, had a work of sanctification in his life, there's two major things, and Christy will agree with me, that I noticed right off the bat. Now, I know sanctification is, you know, there's different looks on it and, you know, you might get sanctified or something, Brother Quentin, but it's a progressive thing. But there was a definite work of sanctification in Camden's life, and there's two things that I noticed. Number one, he really stopped picking on Kelsen. That was like, that was something that he really enjoyed. Like, even when he stopped picking on everybody else and being judgmental, he really gave it to Kelsen and Kelsen would give it back. It's just brothers and sisters, and Casey was kind of like the little peacemaker in the middle, but it took him a long time to get over that. But it almost seems like overnight that he just stopped doing that, Brother Tim, and I can almost pinpoint the time. And at the same time, he stopped being a know-it-all. He was a very big know-it-all there for a while, for a couple of years, wasn't he, Christy? He was, I mean, he just knew everything. And, you know, I went from being this man that knew everything in his eyes to just probably, it seemed like to me, and it wasn't that bad. But to me, it felt like I was just the dumbest person in the world, you know. And the problem was, a lot of times, he has a great memory, so a lot of times he was right. And then he would Google it to prove that he was right and what I said was wrong. And it really irked me, Brother Tim, and he'd been like that way with Christy for a long time. But it bothered me that he didn't think that I knew everything. And he was right a lot of times. But and I had to tell him, I said, Camden, you know, when you talk to your mom or you talk to me, you can be right and you can be wrong at the same exact time. It depends on how you approach it. It depends on your attitude. So don't be puffed up when you're correcting your mom or correcting anybody. But one day that all changed and it literally seemed like overnight for Camden. Now, I thought as far as being a know-it-all, Casey and Camden one time, and they might they might not like that I share this, but one time Casey and Camden had to go. They went at the same time to get a driver's test. There's a few years apart between them. But Casey waited a little while and then Camden wanted to get his. And it just happened at almost the exact same time that they was going to go get their driver's test. They've already got their permit. And and knowing Camden and I just I felt I just knew that Camden was going to walk away with a driver's license that day. And Casey probably wasn't. That's just how I felt. And I remember coaching Camden and telling him, hey, we're going to be really proud of you. But if you don't, you know, if you get your license and Casey comes back and she don't get hers, you know, let's keep the rejoicing down to a minimum. Let's be conscious of it. And, you know, next week, she'll go try and she'll probably get it. And then we'll go out to dinner together and we'll just celebrate together and we'll wait. And he was like, you know, I understand that. You know, that's fine. And well, sure enough, we go up there or I don't even know that I was with you. But Casey took hers, come back, I was ready to go. Got her license. Camden went out, come back. He had a little bit more work to do and he didn't get his license. And he had to come back, I think, maybe a week later or whenever, however long it took. I don't I don't really remember at this point, but I could tell it bothered him. But he was very good about it. And Casey really had a hard time being rejoiced with herself because her brother didn't get it, too. She wanted to celebrate with him. That's just her heart. But I'm not trying to just brag on my kids all morning, but he he didn't get it. And and she did. And and I could tell it bothered him, but he didn't say a whole lot. And when I got home, I told him, I said, Camden, I said, you unwittingly and and not and not voluntarily did a big thing for Casey this morning because she didn't have a whole lot of confidence in her abilities, Brother Ronnie. And Camden really, really did. And, you know, and I think he was more nervous than he let on. But I told him, I said, you know, that really helped her. You may not have wanted it that way, but you not getting it and her getting it, it really helped her, you know, because Camden was the know-it-all in the house. And Brother Tim might not question whether I don't think he'd care if I shared this, but being a know-it-all and thinking that we've got it all figured out, that we've apprehended Brother Ronnie, Brother Tim told us the other day that we need to be praying for other churches, that we haven't made it ourselves, you know, and, you know, there might be some people that hasn't figured things out and maybe we are. And I hope that we are a little further along than some of these other denominations. I hope that we've got it right, Brother Joseph, but we need to pray for those, not be judgmental and think that we're better than these other churches. And the other day we had a funeral, Sister Connie's funeral, and they really wanted Brother Tim to sing and say something. Brother Wayne thanks a whole lot of Brother Tim and rightfully so. And, well, Sister Michelle couldn't make it, so I called on Sister Leanne to play the piano, and she was kind enough to agree to do it, which I was very thankful of. So I couldn't wait to hear Brother Tim sing and Sister Leanne play. He's one of my favorite. And I'm not just trying to lift him up either. He's one of my favorite singers in church. And Sister Leanne obviously is one of my favorite piano players. They don't always play together. But it comes to the time where Brother Tim and Sister Leanne was called on to do their part, and Brother Tim got up and spoke, and it went really well. And he went to the back and started to sing with Sister Leanne's playing. And I'm sitting here thinking, oh, here we go. You know, this is my pastor. He's perfect. You know, it's going to really, really help. You know, this is going to be grand. And I just can't wait till they see what my pastor and my sister Leanne can do. And believe it or not, it took him just a little bit to get the right key, Brother Justice, and it went over well after, you know, after the fact. But it just took him a little bit. And it was an awkward thing. He had to speak up here and then walk to the back real quick and start singing. She was playing. And it just didn't jive right there at the beginning. And I was, you know, I was thinking, this is going to be awesome. You know, they're going to get to see what my pastor can do. And but anyways, so it fell a little bit flat at first. And that's just the way things go. And it helps me. I know Brother Tim don't like it. I know, you know, he wants things to go well. I love when Brother Tim messes up. I'll just be honest with you, I love it. It helps me a lot because I am so far from perfect. And to see somebody that I, you know, I put up here sometimes, you know, probably maybe shouldn't in some ways, but it really helps me when something falls flat. But it ministers to me. But then this lady and this man that I don't even know got up a little bit later and she didn't look like my wife. Her hair was probably closer to mine than yours. Brother Austin than our wives, you know, and, you know, just didn't maybe meet the holiness standard. And I look down there singing, do you know how it feels? And I'm sitting there thinking, well, do you know how it feels to have heard this song a million times? And she gets up and she starts saying, I'm telling you, she stung the roof off the place. And it was it was awesome. It was amazing, wasn't it? And we hadn't talked about it, but it really was and brought on much comfort. I'm sure. And it was great. But so we don't always have everything figured out as holiness people. We shouldn't go around being know it all that we've got it all figured out that, you know, we should have it all figured out. But we shouldn't go around with that attitude. We're not perfect and we shouldn't act that way. First Corinthians eight and three says, but if any man loved God, the same is known of him. Knowledge that is most important is the knowledge that God has of them that love him. And you might say, well, God knows everybody, you know, even the lost. He knows everybody. And we understand that Proverbs 15 and three says the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. And Psalms 147 and five says he tells the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names. Great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite. But that is why we are joined with the living for it also says in another place for a live dog is better than a dead lion. It is appointed and a man wants to die. And after this, the judgment, Jesus said on a sermon on the Mount in Matthew seven and twenty one, not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity. But what about those that love the Lord? We can look to what Paul said in Timothy, what he wrote to Timothy, Brother Ronnie and Second Timothy four and six. If you want to turn with me, Second Timothy four and six is for I am now ready to be offered. Paul talking about himself. And the time of my departure is at hand, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. We must be known by the Lord while we are living down here, but be sure to be known by God on that judgment day that will only come by loving him. First Corinthians eight and four is concerning, therefore, the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice and idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one. Don't forget that Corinth was saturated in idolatry. There were false gods like Zeus, the god of thunder and lightning. And and there was the goddess of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. People would make animal sacrifices to these pagan gods, but just if and a portion of the meat would be offered to the false god, another portion would go home with the person and they would eat it. And then another portion would go to the that that priest, that pagan priest. Now, if a priest conducted. What, 10 sacrifices a day, that would really add up, you know, the meat would really add up. What is he going to do with all that? He's going to sell it at the pagan temple. Jewish history states that a priest would turn around and sell it at his pagan market. Some even say that there were like restaurants. It's quite possible that a Christian could find a pretty good deal on some meat once it got overstocked. We see that in town, you know, me and Christy, we like to hit the manager special at Kroger's. It's a little bit brown, but it's still good, you know, starting to turn. We cook it that day or throw it in the freezer. It's fine. That's not what we serve here at dinners, of course. But nobody likes a good deal better than a Christian. We know that. But please don't let someone that just as a side note, don't let someone know that you're a Christian and then try to haggle them down up to an unfair price. It's OK to negotiate. But if you're like if I'm at a yard sale and somebody's got a dollar on something that's worth 20 and I already know that, but it's not right for me to try to get them down to a quarter. It's a quarter. It may not be seen, but it's very, very tacky. And you're not going to win anybody like that. And that's just that's just a side note that I thought of when I seen it. Apparently, there were some Christians that thought it was OK to go get meat from these places while others did not. So so you got a situation where some would go to these markets, some of these Christians would go to these markets and get buy meat or eat there. And there's some Christians that didn't they didn't think that was a good idea. They didn't believe that was right. They thought it was probably, you know, sin. And this is another source of division that the Corinthians faced. So what does Paul tell him in the second part of verse four, he says, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one. And reading on to five, for though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there be gods, many and lords, many. But to us, there is but one God, the father of whom are all things. And we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things. And we buy him. So Paul says, listen, you know, and I know there's only one true God. We understand that the town, of course, may have many false gods, but we serve one God. We recognize one God. The entire country might recognize many gods, but there is one true God. And we believe that this morning. It doesn't matter why the lamb was killed. It's still meat. They may as well be offering it to Iraq. It's a figment of their imagination that they was offering these this sacrifice to Britain. So there's really nothing to it. And we know that just because they say it's a God doesn't make it a God. And in turn, I'd like to say just because some people don't believe in the one true God doesn't make him any less the one true God. He is and always will be the one true God, whether this world believes it or not. So it's Paul giving them biblical advice. We can actually prove it. Let's look at Exodus 34. I can see I'm not going to get all the way through this. God is meeting with Moses on Mount Sinai. Exodus thirty four and nine, verse nine says, and he said, if now I have found grace and I sighed, oh Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff neck people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for that inheritance. And he said, behold, I make a covenant before all the people. I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord for the terrible thing that I will do with thee. Observe, thou that which I command thee this day, behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the parasite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, whether thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of them. But you should destroy their altars, break their images and cut down their groves, for thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. Lest thou make a covenant with inhabitants. This is the important part here, whether it's all important. Lest thou make a covenant with inhabitants of the land and they go whoring after the gods and do sacrifice unto their gods. And one called thee and thou eat of his sacrifice and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons and their daughters go whoring after their gods and make thy sons go whoring after their gods. So God warns Moses against this idolatry, Brother Austin, and keep in mind that it consisted of three things. Number one, making a covenant with these enemies of God. Number two, taking part in the sacrificial rituals. And number three, solidifying this covenant by eating the sacrifice. In the Old Testament, a man would often make a covenant with another man or God. And to solidify that covenant, Brother Joseph, an animal would have to be killed and eaten. There is another example of this, it's numbers 25 and one, and Israel bowed in Shittim and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab and they called the people into the sacrifice of their gods and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. This is another example of spiritual whoredom or idolatry. Again, it involved three things. Number one, participating in the sacrifice ritual. That's key. Number two, eating the sacrifice meat. Number three, bowing down to the false god. The eating of the meat was not the issue. It was the idolatry that went along with it. Moses tells God's people in Deuteronomy four and two, you shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I command you. We're to live by that principle to this day. Revelations 22 and 18 says, for I testify unto every man that here at the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of this book, of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this book. That's why it is so important to study God's word, rightly dividing the word of truth. We we can't take God's commandments out of context, but it's wrong to add or take away the Pharisees and Sadducees was guilty of this very thing. We've read about it a lot. And the reason they couldn't recognize Jesus for what he truly was, they wasn't rightly dividing it. They was taking it. They was adding to or taking away. God's word alone is the truth. We are not to take it out of context to fit our situation. We don't add to it to help our case. It doesn't bend and it doesn't stretch to fit our lifestyle. Jesus tells those Jews which believed on him in John eight and thirty two. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. I thought this might be a little humorous, but I wear I wear about a size 40, 42 waist and pants. And me and Brother Tim discussed this a while back in Quentin. Brother Quentin won't know anything about this, but really what I love to do is go to town and Haggar and different brands have these pants that has like these little bungee cords on the side. And I wear thirty eight in that brother, Ronnie. So I love to buy those pants. It's a thirty eight stretch. It's not a 40 or 42. So, you know, I'm in a thirty eight, but I'm just lying to myself. That's really not the truth. We can't stretch the word of God like that. With this alone in mind, we can see that eating this meat was not wrong, as Paul had stated. So we've proved that it is, in fact, OK to meet offered to idols as long as we don't partake in the festivities. Right. Well, not exactly. We have to keep reading in verse seven. First Corinthians eight and seven. Says, how be it there is not in every man that knowledge. For some with conscience of the idol unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled. Paul is saying that you have to consider your brethren that may be offended by this thing. It's quite possible that there were new converts in the church, Brother Quentin, that it recently performed these sacrifices to those pagan gods. And that would have triggered them. You know, they were just over there doing that. And now they're saved in this church and they're seeing their brothers over there eating meat from that temple that that could have set a bad example, could offend them. Excuse me, to go back and eat at these temples or see people in the church could trigger them, these weak Christians. Now, let's be honest. None of us are going to face this particular problem. I thought I'd doubt Brother Quentin and Sister Alicia. I think they go eat at Sister Vicki's every Sunday, most Sundays. They're not going to go over and sit down at the table and Brother Quentin say, oh, wow, where did you get this pork loin? It looks delicious. And, you know, she wouldn't say, well, your dad went over to the neighbor's house and they had some meat left over from the sacrifice. So we just got it from them. We're not going to face anything like that. We know that we're not. It's that's not really the issue that we're trying to get out of this. That's not going to happen. But the principle behind the situation might say we might face often. We don't know what might trigger our brothers. I thought before the Lord sanctified me, I had addictions in my life that had me bound. And I would I would be able to get away from that, Brother Quentin, for a time. And then something would trigger me back into that. And I thought one of the most silly things that you would never imagine is the weather forecast or radar. There was a place there was there's a place that I would go to that I would do a whole lot of sin, Brother Joseph. And when I would see that name on that radar, it would really send me down a wrong road. And I would eventually fall to that. That happened to me on a couple of occasions. And you would never guess that a weather forecast would make somebody sin. But it but it did. You know, it sent me down a wrong road. I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to look that up. I'll use this as an example, because I don't think anyone here has a problem with it. But like eating out on Sunday, I don't know if anybody has a problem with that. I'm sorry if you do. I, I do know people that don't agree with it. And I don't happen to think that it's wrong. But if I consider Exodus 28 to 11, I could see somebody's point. It says, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Six days, shut down labor and do all that work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, that God in it, thou shalt not do any work. Thou nor thy son nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within the gates. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them is and rested the seventh day where for the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. We are being served by someone on a Sunday. Are we enablers to those who work on Sunday instead of going to the house of God? Is it better to go home and have my wife to labor and serve me a meal? Should I fast every Sunday? Is Sunday even really the Sabbath? Should I fast every Saturday and every Sunday, just in case now we're getting really crazy. So you can see where these these things can get out of hand. So what is the real problem here? Remember, Paul said in first Corinthians eight and one knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifies. Keep charity or love in mind as we read a little further verse Corinthians, first Corinthians eight and eight. But meat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat or we the better, are we the better? And if we not, are we the worst? The Corinthians that knew that there was nothing to idle meat and went ahead and ate it were no closer to God than those that abstained from it. It actually did not matter one way or the other. That's what Paul's saying. I do want to pause right here and be careful when you read commentaries on this passage. Brother Quentin, I read a couple of commentaries and some from different denominations and some denominations have perverted this text to basically say that you're free to do whatever you feel like doing. Paul is not contradicting God's word by saying that it's OK to drink alcohol or enjoy worldly entertainment or do all other manner of things that God has clearly stated in his word that is sin. If it is in God's word, black and white, they are wrong, whether your brother has a problem with it or not. First Corinthians eight and nine says, but take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to them that are weak. Take heed or be careful or cautious. These are things and there are things in this life that God has give us the freedom of choice over that isn't black and white in his word. We were able to discern from ourselves. Uh, there may be things that you have given up for God willingly. There may be things that you have chosen to give to him because they have become sin or a weight in your life that Brother Tim was preaching about the other day. In those cases, it is not for you to throw it in someone else's face. It may be that you had let that come between you and God, but the next person can simply do it without a problem. It hasn't become a God to them. Um, these things that we, we know they're called personal convictions, uh, Brother Jody Silvers was telling me one time that he was, uh, at a, a youth camp, I believe. And, uh, he heard a preacher had just preached and another preacher came and sit down beside him and they was talking over dinner. And, uh, one of the preachers said, hey, brother, he said, what he said, let me ask you, what are your personal convictions? And Brother Jody said that God turned to him and he said, well, if I told you they wouldn't be personal convictions. And he said, well, if I told you, they wouldn't be personal no more. Those are between me and God. And I think that's good. Uh, you know, uh, there's some things that God deals with us on. That's not a problem for somebody else. I thought, uh, I haven't got this written here, but, uh, uh, Camden has made mention that he don't like having his cell phone up here and, uh, I, I don't have a problem with it at all. And I know that he don't have a problem with it. If I think of a song back there and, uh, I, I can't think of the exact words to it. So I Google it and I come up here and sing it. I know you don't have a problem with that. I'm not going to throw it in his face, uh, you know, either way. Uh, but, but we love each other. I, you know, they don't have any ill will and, and, uh, vice versa, but take heed or be careful or cautious, uh, eight and 10 for if any man see the, which has knowledge, sit at me in the idol's temple. She'll not the conscious of him, which is weak, be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols. So here's a Christian, uh, sitting down at the old Zeus bar and grill brother, Ronnie, and chowing down on a lamb chop. Another Christian that is weak in their knowledge feels it's wrong to do that. Uh, but they look up to you. You have just become a temptation to your brother. Verse 11 and, and through that knowledge show the weak brother perish for whom Christ died. But when you sin, so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. When you do something that makes another fall, you have just sinned against God yourself. We need to do everything in our power to keep our brother from falling. If we love one another, we won't find it a hardship to do that. Verse 13, if we're for, if me make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world stand. It's less. I'll make my brother to offend. Paul says that if it offends my brother, I'll never eat meat again. That's pretty strict. That would be a hard thing for some of us or me, especially. I don't want to be a stumbling block for my brothers and sisters. Let's not be puffed up, but let's edify one another. Let's be house builders working on a building for our Lord. That word stumbling block means scandal on in the Greek language. And I brought this as a, as a prop. This is a. I guess most of us have seen traps like that, but what an animal would come in here and start eating and he would trip this and then he would be stuck in a trap. This right here is a scandal on it, the stumbling block. That's what the Bible is referring to. We don't want to be one of those, a trap for our brother and sister. We can either be builders for Christ or we can hold up traps for the devil. Which one are you? Which one do you want to choose to be this morning? I was trying to help counsel someone the other day that was struggling, and I talked to them for a little while and then I went out to my car and I hesitate to use this as an example because I don't want anybody to think that I think it's wrong because I don't. But it fits rather well. I went out to my car and I grabbed an energy drink that I'd been drinking on that day and I walked back out and I just continued talking to him and I sipped on it and they said, is that an energy drink? And I said, yeah, it's one of those. It was one of those 12 ounce Ilanis and it was sugar free. So I thought it was better for me than most. But they said I'd been trying to talk with him for quite a while and counsel him a little bit. And they looked at me and they said, don't be preaching to me if you're going to drink something like that. And I thought, you know, I really thought they was kind of joking. And what I said, and I hadn't looked at my Sunday school lesson yet. This was right. This was right before that. And but I knew it was in there somewhere, but I honestly thought they were joking. So I only had like one sip left. So I said, well, let me get rid of it real quick. I don't want to be a stumbling block to you. And I turned it up and I drank the rest of it. And that very night I went home and studied this and this very scripture was in here. But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to them that are weak. And I got down and I prayed about it. And I said, I said, God, what are you trying to tell me? And I gave that energy drink up and I haven't had another one since. And I told this person that I that I gave that up and that I was sorry that if I become a stumbling block because they wasn't joking and it bothered them and they had compared it to something that they battled in their life with. And to me, I think it's a huge stretch. Like I would never put these two things together, but they did in their mind. And so I don't I don't want to be a hardship or a stumbling block for anyone. If somebody says, don't preach to me while you're doing that, I want to consider that. Now, there are some soured Christians. I'll admit there are some Christians out there that are bitter and and they're going around trying to pick people apart. And and and we don't we didn't. Brother Austin, when you when you made the when we decided on these bylaws and you put them together so well, we researched the word of God and we put it against the word of God, didn't we? We didn't go to like that most bitter Christians say, well, this will this be all right. We don't do things like that. We we went by the word of God, but we also don't want to be a stumbling block to anybody. First Corinthians eight, nine says, but take he less by any means, this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to them that are weak. We are talking about true Christian liberty this morning. It's love that bought our liberty through the crucifixion of our savior, Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Romans five and one, we're going to have to cut a little bit short. Our liberty has been bought by the crucifixion of our savior, Jesus Christ, that we've already sang about this morning. Romans five and one says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, but whom also we have access by faith into this grace where we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulations work with patience and patience, experience and experience hope and hope, make it not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet parent venture for a good man. Some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us, his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He loved us so much that he died for our freedom. I got to thinking about that, brother Tim was talking to Brother Evan Binkley here the other day and had talked to him a whole lot. And I was just tickled to death to see the Binkley's come in the other day. And he's a very kind man, got a great spirit about him. And when I seen him come in, I made up my mind I'm going to go talk to him. I got a chance to do that. And I asked him how he was liking the van that he got from Sister Jessica Brooks. And I think everybody knows that he got Brother Eric's van. And his face lit up when he talked about it, brother Tim. He got to tell him about all the controls and how he takes care of it and how it all worked. And he said that he doesn't feel like a prisoner anymore, that he's got his freedom. And he said that he prayed for something like that for a long time, and he started to say that it was a blessing. And when he got that blessing out, he stopped and he hesitated. And he said, of course, I hate how it came about. I hate how I got it. And I told him, and as I'm sure a lot of people have told, told him that Brother Eric would have loved for him to get that. I know that he would have. And it would be a real shame for Brother Eric to die in that van just to sit there, not being used by anyone. I went home and I got to thinking about that and I started telling Lord, Lord, I hate the way that I got my freedom. I hate what they did to you. If there was any other way, Lord, I hate what I hate, the crown of thorns. I hate the nails that they drove in. I hate that you was crucified and mocked and spit upon and and all this. I hate the way it came about. But he died, Brother Ronnie, for my freedom and he died for your freedom. And I'm so very thankful for that, even by the way it came. Aren't you? It was a shame that he had to die like that, Brother Joseph. But what more of a shame would have been if he died and I didn't use it for my freedom? We have liberty this morning. True Christian liberty. Galatians five and one again. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty where we're with Christ have made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage, that bondage that we sang about this morning. We are not in Egypt's bondage anymore. If you are saved this morning, you're free. Jesus says in John 10 and nine, I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. We can act as a door greeter for Christ, knowing that he's the door and open the door for people and try to show people the way, Brother Joseph, or we can live our lives as a stumbling block and we can we can hold up these traps that the devil has laid for us. Do we want to be that or do we want to be a door greeter for Christ? The choice is ours today. I don't want to be holding up traps for the devil. I want to be saying, here's the door. Come this way. Come this way. There's a door. There's freedom over here. We got to close. I skipped a lot. Closing verse Romans 12 and 10 says, Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love and honor, preferring one another. Thank you.
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