The Realization About Liberty
Notes
Transcript
Handout
23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
24 Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.
25 Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake:
26 For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.
27 If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
28 But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof:
29 Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience?
30 For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?
The Fundamentals of Liberty
The Fundamentals of Liberty
Look at verse 23, fundamental No. 1. And Paul is summarizing everything he’s been saying.
23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
Edification Over Gratification
Edification Over Gratification
“All things are lawful for me, all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things … there’s the word … edify not.”
Now notice twice it says all things are lawful. Back in chapter 6, twice in verse 12 it said all things are lawful.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (KJV 1900)
12 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.
This was a slogan of Corinthians we’re using.
Apparently, when Paul had been there at one time he had used that phrase. “That all things are lawful.” And they had made it a slogan. So whenever they wanted to go out and do anything, they said, “All things are lawful, all things are lawful.”
Somebody said, “You shouldn’t do … all things are lawful. See? It became a little slogan.
You know, “The Bible doesn’t say we can’t do it. Paul said, ‘All things are lawful’ ” And this was their little deal. See? Everywhere they went this was their slogan. And the basis upon which they did anything, their general principle for all behavior was flashing the little slogan, “All things are lawful.” And it probably came from Paul because it is true.
In the gray areas, it’s not talking about evil, it’s talking about the non-moral, the amoral. In that area, yes, all things are lawful. But there are some limitations.
All things are not expedient, that means beneficial.
All things to not edify, that means build up.
So what you want find out is this: it’s lawful, but is it beneficial and does it build up? You don’t want to say, “Well I want to do it because it’s neutral.” You say, “I want to do it because it’s positive.” And if you’ve got a choice between a neutral and a positive you want to do a positive.
And if all you’ve got in your life is choices between neutral and neutral you’re not doing anything. There’s not enough time to do that, just neutral things.
So how do you deal with it?
Is it expedient? That means beneficial.
Is it going to build up? Is it beneficial?
Will it build up? That’s the key. That’s edification over gratification. You’re not trying to gratify yourself, you’re not trying to satisfy your own ideas, you’re not trying to do what pleases you, you’re trying to do what builds you up and builds anybody else up who will be involved.
Now edification is a very vital word. It comes from the Greek word, oikodomeo, which literally means to build a house.
What is going to build up? Figuratively/metaphorically it means spiritual growth.
This is the issue: everything that I do, everything that you do as a Christian is to be to the end that we are build up,
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
that we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as Peter puts it, in
Now the New Testament it’s got gobs of information about building up people. But there are four basic tools that build us up.
No. 1 the Word; read the Bible. Paul says to the Ephesian elders in
Acts 20:32 (KJV 1900)
32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
“I commend you to God and the word of His grace, which is able to … what?… build you up.” The word will build you up.
Secondly, preaching and teaching. Coming to hear the preaching of the Word of God will build you up.
1 Corinthians 14:3 (KJV 1900)
3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
Paul said to the Corinthian assembly, “Instead of speaking in tongues all the time, what you ought to be doing is prophesying or preaching, because preaching has the end of exhortation, consolation and edification.” It’ll build you up. The reading of the Bible and studying the Bible builds you up, preaching will build you up, love will build you up.
1 Corinthians 8:1 (KJV 1900)
1 Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
“Knowledge puffs up, love builds up.”
And a fourth thing that builds you up is obedience, obedient service.
Ephesians 4:12 (KJV 1900)
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Ephesians 4:13 (KJV 1900)
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
says, “When the saints do the work of the ministry, the body of Christ is … what?… filled up.”
So what edifies? Study the Word, the hearing of the Word, love, obedience, service. These things build you up.
Now, you want to do what builds you up. So you want to study the Bible, you want to go hear the Bible proclaimed, you want to love, and you want to obey. And you’ll be built up. Now this is really a very vital thing in our lives. In 1 Corinthians 14 … we’ll get into this next month… into chapters 12 to 14, which is a unit.
1 Corinthians 14:26 (KJV 1900)
26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
, the end of the verse says, “Let all things be done unto edifying.” Let everything you do have as end result that’ll build you up. “All things be done unto edifying.” Let it build you up.
2 Corinthians 12:19 (KJV 1900)
19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.
same thing. The end of the verse, “But we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.” We do all things to build you up, all things to edify you.
Ephesians 4:29 (KJV 1900)
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
“Let no corrupt communication precede out of your mouth, but that which is good, as it fits the need of edifying.” Everything you say let it build up.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 (KJV 1900)
11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
“Edify one another.” Build each other up. Everything you do, build up. See, there you have it. The guide for our life then is to do what builds us up.
It is edification over gratification that determines what I do with Christian liberty. So I ask myself this question. “Do I have the right to do that? Yes. Will it build me up and will it build up the people around me?” If I answer yes to both of those I’d do it. If I answer no I don’t do it. Practical guideline.
Fundamental No. 2,
24 Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.
. The first one is edification over gratification. The second one gets even more specific; others over self.
Others Over Self
Others Over Self
Now you’re saying, “Well, let’s see. Is it going to build me up, um-hum, yes, but it’s not going to build him up because he doesn’t have that liberty. He’s a weaker brother, it’ll offend it. All right, then I don’t do it. Because when it comes to choosing between what builds me up and what builds him up, I do what builds him up.”
1 Corinthians 10:24 (KJV 1900)
24 Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.
Others over self, verse 24, “Let no man seek … what?… his own, but every man … what’s the next word?… another’s.” And rather than wealth there I’d almost think you could use the word edification.
Don’t seek your own, but another’s edification.
“When it comes down to a choice I’ve got to choose. I could do this. It’s not going to offend me. It’s going to be a good thing. It’ll build me up. If it’s going to offend him then I don’t do it.” That’s the second principle. And this is really the principle of love.
I’m going to do what is spiritually beneficial for both of us if I can, but if I have to make a decision I’ll do what’s most beneficial to him and sacrifice my liberty. And in the long run that’ll be most beneficial to me. Wont it? Because in loving him I have build myself up because love … what? Builds up.
I may say, “Well I could do that and, boy, I’d build me up, that it taught me to enjoy my liberty, and it’d be good, but it’ll offend him.” Then don’t do it, condescend to him, love him, and love will build you up more than if you exercise your liberty and tear him down because that becomes a sin.
All right every Christian then in his liberty has to be guided by a spiritual principle, and that is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” You know, it’s hard, I think, for us to relate to this because selfishness is such a dominant thing.
What have you ever done or what have you ever not done because of someone else?
See, others over self. Say, “Well it’s my liberty to do what I want, so, you know, don’t push me into a corner.”
You have to crucify self and self-desire somewhere or you’re never going to know what it is to really be fulfilled as a Christian. It’s a disaster to the church, anyway, and to the fellowship of believers when everybody exercises their liberty and doesn’t care about anybody else.
That’s what happened in Philippi. And everybody was going at it, and Paul says, “You’d better cool it. You’d better get likeminded and everybody better start thinking about somebody else.” “Look, not every man on his own things but … what?…
Philippians 2:4 (KJV 1900)
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
, on things of others …
Philippians 2:3 (KJV 1900)
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
let everything be done in lowliness and meekness, each esteeming others … what?… better than themselves.” And that’s what he’s saying.
So, principle No. 1, edification over gratification. “Whatever is going to build me up and build him up, that’s what I’m going to do, but if it comes down to building me up or him, I’m going to do what builds him up if it means sacrificing something on my part. And because I’ve loved him and done that, that’ll build me up anyway.”
Fundamental No. 3,
Liberty Over Legalism.
Liberty Over Legalism.
And here’s the balance, here’s what creates the tension at this point. We could all get in a strait jacket pretty soon because there’s somebody who’s against everything. You know, if you look long enough you’ll find somebody who won’t do anything. You just go around like this all the time. “Am I all right? Am I all right? Right? Is that offending you? Oh, it’s not offending you, okay. How’s my tie? Does it […]? Okay.” I mean, you could get to the place where, you know, there’s somebody who’s sort of got their little quirk on everything.
Now how do you find your balance? Well one way is you don’t run around asking everybody. “I would like you to turn in a list of things to me that offend you.” No, no, just cool it on that and enjoy. See? Don’t make … don’t be too fussy about this deal.
Liberty over legalism, verse 25. Now here’s how he illustrates it.
25 Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake:
“Whatever is sold in the market eat, asking no questions for conscience sake.” If you go to the market don’t say, “Say, Mr. Butcher … the word’s shambles in the Old King James. It simply is the Greek for butcher shop, mockalan; butcher shop. When you go there don’t say, “Sir, I would so like to eat this piece of meat. Where did it come from?”
“Well I don’t know. I bought it off a guy who … “Oh, where was that guy? Have you seen that guy around? I must check with him.”
See? And you’re going to trace this thing back and find out that long before the cow was even killed somebody put a hand on it and dedicated it to Zeus. “Oh I can’t eat it. Here’s your meat back.” He says, “Ridiculous.” If you’re going to buy it there just keep your mouth shut. Don’t ask any silly questions. Go home and eat. Enjoy. Don’t be over scrupulous. Don’t get picky. There’s no sense in making a mountain out of a molehill.
26 For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.
Verse 26, “The earth is the Lord’s anyway, and the fullness, thereof, he made them all.” So eat em and enjoy em.
If it isn’t an issue, for goodness sakes don’t make it an issue.
Now Paul has already condemned going to an idol feast and getting into the celebration at the feast and the festival because that’s communing with demons.
Remember last week? But when you go into a marketplace and it’s detached from the idol feast it ceases to have any religious significance at all. He says, “Buy it, and eat it, and don’t worry about it. There’s no sense in putting burdens on your conscience. Don’t ask needless questions. Enjoy your liberty. Don’t give it up.” And then quotes
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, anyway.” Don’t be too fussy. Don’t create difficulties. Everything is the Lord’s. He made everything to be received at Thanksgiving. Right?
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
“Just give thanks and eat it.”
But you might have a different situation, verse 27,
27 If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
“If any of them that believe not … here’s a unbeliever … some pagans … they bid you … and actually they bid you over to their house for dinner. You have a bunch of unbelievers that invite you to dinner … and you be disposed to go … and you say, “I want to go. I’d like to go over … that’s my family or that’s my old acquaintances before I was saved. I want to go … whatever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake.”
The word is a legal term, meaning don’t make an investigation. You sit down, you just eat it. You don’t say, “Now about this food here, I’d like to know where you got it.” Just eat it. You have freedom, folk, live it up. Don’t ask stupid questions that are going to only cause your conscience problems. Nothing wrong … incidentally from this verse, there’s nothing wrong with going to dinner with a sinner. You can go to a pagan’s for dinner and it’s a great idea.
The only thing the Bible forbids is in
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
, it says, “You can eat with sinners, just don’t eat with Christian sinners. Those that are living in sin as Christians need to be cut off from the fellowship. Eat with sinners not Christian sinners.” And so go over and enjoy it, “For liberty Christ has made us free,” Galatians 5. Stand fast in your liberty. Don’t give up your liberty. Don’t let anybody take your liberty.
Paul says in
4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:
“They tried to spy out our liberty. We wouldn’t let them.” Enjoy your liberty.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is what? Liberty. Enjoy it, not legalism. Don’t concentrate on a … you go over to somebody’s house and they serve you a nice meal. And you don’t say to them, “Say, was this cooked in wine?” Eat it, just eat it. You want to, at all costs, avoid legalism. See, that’s the point. Don’t be picky.
Now you don’t want to offend the weaker brother, but at the same time you certainly don’t want to make sure that all weaker brothers stay weak their whole lifetime because we all condescend to their level.
See that’s the tension here. You say, “Well how do you help the guy?” You restrict your liberty and then you get alongside of him, tell him why you restricted your liberty, and help him to grow up, so that he can enjoy his liberty. And then when he gets to enjoy his you’ll enjoy yours too.
So when you condescend to that level, when you go down to that brothers level, and you go down to help the weaker brother, make sure that you build up the weaker brother so together you can enjoy your liberty, and he’ll begin to realize everything Christ meant him to be.
You don’t want to make sure the legalists all stay legalistic because we all continually bow to them. We want to get down there, but we want to teach them why we’re doing it, and we want to help them with their liberty so they’ll grow out of that legalism.
We limit our liberty, not to offend, but we certainly should teach the weaker brother the truths of freedom so he’ll grow out of his legalism.
You see, it’s very comfortable to be a legalist; cause you don’t have to do anything internally, it’s all in a box for you. You have a little list, “I don’t, I do, I don’t, I do, I don’t, I do, sometimes I do, I don’t, I do.” You’ve got all your little lists there. That’s a lot easier than living by the Holy Spirit’s power because that you have to yield to in an internal way. So you want to take somebody out of the little box of rules and you want to allow them to have the freedom to operate and the freedom that God has given them.
All right. Three fundamentals: edification over gratification, others over self, and liberty over legalism. And there’s one other fundamental that Paul is teaching us,
Condescension Over Condemnation
Condescension Over Condemnation
… condescension over condemnation.
Let’s go back to this dinner at the pagan house, verse 28 …
28 But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof:
you’ve got another Christian friend there. He’s at the dinner too at the pagan house. And he says to you, “This is offered in sacrifice to idols.” You’re sitting there ready to dig into this nice piece of steak and he’s saying, “Hey, that’s offered to idols meat.” You’re saying, “Why’d you have to bring that up for? I’m hungry. I’m not one who would offend my host right? This really bothers you?” “I don’t believe we can eat meat offered to idols.” What do you do? Verse 28, it says what to do, don’t eat it. “For his sake that showed it and conscience sake.”
Whose conscience? Not yours. Jump to verse 29,
29 Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience?
“Conscience, I say, not yours, but his.” If it bothers his conscience don’t eat it, You say, “Uh, what’s my host going to think? Here I’m sitting … I’m sorry, it’s lovely, I can’t eat.” You’d offend the host, you’re right.
There is another principle.
If you have to choose between offending a Christian and offending a non-Christian, offend the non-Christian.
You say, “You’re kidding me?” Nope, that’s what it says. “If you have to choose between offending a Christian and offending a non-Christian, offend a non-Christian.” You say, “We’re trying to win him.” The way to win him is for them to see the validity and the honesty and the purity of your Christianity. Right? And if you’re sitting at the table fighting each other he’s not going to get a Christian message no matter what you eat. You see? “The way to win people … Jesus said … is to love each other.” Isn’t that right? You love each other and the world’s going to know we’re his disciples. If you have to choose between offending a Christian and offending a non-Christian, offend a non-Christian. And make sure you maintain the unity of the love of the body of Jesus Christ because that’s the greatest testimony that we have in the world. See, that’s his point.
So condescension rather than condemnation. Don’t do something that’s going to make your Christian brother condemn you.
Verse 29, “Why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience?” In other words, I certainly don’t want to say, “Well, I’m going to do this and have him condemn me for it. I don’t want to get in a position where my liberty … my act of liberty is going to be condemned by another man’s conscience. The word judge means condemn. Don’t let him condemn you. Enjoy your host, if you will. And you know what your host will see? He will see an act of love. And he will say, “If that man loves that other brother enough to make that sacrifice there must be something to that.”
Verse 30 adds a further point.
30 For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?
“If I, by grace, be a partaker … in other words, if I recognize God is giving me this food why would I be evil spoken of that for which I give thanks?” Now let me tell you what that means. It would be pretty ridiculous to say thank you Lord for the gracious gift of this food, and then go ahead and eat it while your brother was condemning you. That’s inconsistent.
Don’t thank God and go out and do something that’s going to make some other Christian condemn you for doing it.
“Lord, thank you for the marvelous liberty that you’ve given me. Lord, bless this meal,” and eat up and drink up and here’s a Christian brother condemning you … condemning you. That’s ridiculous. You can’t thank God for something that another Christian brother’s going to stumble over. So condescension over condemnation. If you have to choose between a Christian and a non-Christian, offend the non-Christian at that point, in order that your love might be made manifest to the world. And I don’t mean that you should just run out and offend non-Christians just at will.
Just in case you might think that, verse 32 says,
32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
“Give no offense neither to the Jews nor to the Greeks nor to the Church of God.” The basic rule,
Beloved, don’t offend what? Anybody. But if you have to choose, offend yourself before you offend a weaker brother. And if you have to choose, offend an unbeliever before you offend a weaker brother. But if you can don’t offend anybody. Condescension over condemnation. Don’t do anything that’s going to cause somebody else to condemn you. Now there are the fundamentals.
The Foundation of Liberty
The Foundation of Liberty
Why does he give us the fundamentals?
Why does he tell us edification over gratification, others over self, liberty over legalism, condescension over condemnation, verse 31,
Notice our Function
1 Corinthians 10:31 (KJV 1900)
31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
“Therefore … here’s why … so that whether you eat or drink or whatever you do it will be done all … what?… to the glory of God.” God is glorified when you do it with these principles in mind.
You want to glorify God? Do you think it’s important to glorify God or to be a reproach to God? To glorify. Do you want to glorify him follow the fundamentals. What is the purpose, our function… bang … verse 31, “That God will be glorified.”
The Following of Liberty
The Following of Liberty
It’s fine to have the Fundamentals, it’s fine to have the Function, but Paul closes with a very typical, practical word. He says, “Let me give you a model to follow.”
32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
Verse 32, “Give no offense neither to the Jews nor to the Greeks nor to the Church of God.” And there you have the three divisions, incidentally, of humanity: Israel, the Gentiles, and the church. Don’t offend any of them. And here comes the following … even as … what’s the next word?… I. Paul says,
33 Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
“I’m the model. I’m the pattern. Even as I please all men, in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be … what? Saved.
And here sums it up: Don’t offend the unbeliever.
The first idea was don’t offend yourself. Do what builds you up.
Second, don’t offend the weaker brother. If you have to offend an unbeliever to keep from offending a weaker brother then offend an unbeliever.
But finally Paul says, “If you can avoid it don’t ever even offend an unbeliever. Do whatever you have to do that they may be saved.” And, here is the sum of it, verse 1,
1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
“Be ye followers of me. Do it like I did it because I’m doing it like Christ did it. Follow me I’m following Christ.”
Example is vital folks.
No occasion, give no offense, no occasion to sin, no cause for stumbling, don’t do anything that offends anybody: Jew, Greek, or the church.
No action of ours should prevent a Jew from coming to Christ.
No action of ours should prevent a Gentile from coming to Christ.
No action of ours should prevent a Christian from growing to maturity and being built up.
And no action of ours should prevent us from being built up. So Paul closes with a word of example. “Do what I do, I’m doing what Jesus did.”
God wants to be Glorified!
Are we more interested in His Glorification or our Satisfaction?