Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20070506.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Corinthians: Discipling Believers With Very Sinful Backgrounds
VI. Relating Well To Others Regarding Liberty, License and Legalism
A. Shaping The Right Way To Understand Liberty, License and Legalism
(1 Corinthians 8:1-3)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) The world's ignorance of spiritual or even religious facts is enormous. For example, Tom Krattenmaker's April 30, 2007 article in USA TODAY, p. 11A entitled, "How little we know about religion" noted that 75 % of the American people think Benjamin Franklin's saying, "God helps those who help themselves'" is from the Bible! To counter such ignorance, Krattenmaker lauded teaching on the Bible in public schools if "Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and . . . Especially Islam" were also taught (Ibid.) To push his inclusion of the teaching of Islam for the sake of world peace, he cited Wajdi Said, executive director of the Muslim Educational Trust, a K-8 school in Oregon, who said: "The Islamic faith . . . accepts everybody . . . We need to educate Americans about the loving and caring face of Islam." (Ibid.)

Though there are many decent, non-terrorist Muslims whom we Christians are called of God to love in Romans 13:8, the fact remains that Muhammad's last words calling followers to harm non-Muslims are said by Islamic scholars to repeal the Koran's former contrasting verses so that they are obliged to heed verses like Quran 9:5 where it directs regarding non-Muslims: "Fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem." All who try to present Islam as a peaceful religion must face these facts, and see that Islam is not truly a peaceful faith!

(2) Yet, even if we Christians know some spiritual facts unlike many in our dark world, we must understand how to use them well!

Take witnessing our true faith for example: (a) some think Christ gave us authority to give a tract to a cashier we meet in a store, and to tell her the Biblical facts that she will go to hell if she fails to reject her church's gospel and trust in Christ! I met a cashier who had just faced such a believer, and she was seething with anger! (b) We might say the believer had sinned by "license", not honoring the cashier's privacy (c) and others would say he was "legalistic", holding to a belief common in some areas that he had to be abrupt lest he miss a chance to witness to her and God punish him if she went to hell!

So, we ask, "Besides the world's ignorance of spiritual facts, even Christians often do not understand Christian liberty, sinful license or errant legalism, so HOW do we START to build a BASE for a RIGHT UNDERSTANDING of USING God's FACTS?!"

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "With so much ignorance on spiritual facts in our world, let alone the ignorance we Christians often have over what is the right USE of facts like Christian liberty versus sinful license or legalism, how do we START to UNDERSTAND the right USE of such facts?!"
  1. When Paul wrote the words "Now concerning things . . ." to begin 1 Corinthians 8:1, he showed he was still answering questions his readers had raised in a letter they had written to him, 1 Cor. 7:1a; (F. W. Grosheide, 1 Corinthians (NICNT), 1980, p. 188).
  2. As such, his words "we know that we have all knowledge" in that verse apparently mimic a saying the Corinthians had expressed to sanction their eating food sacrificed to animals at all times and in all places as a reflection of their Christian liberty, Ibid., p. 188-189.
  3. This ERRANT USE of the FACT of Christian liberty led WEAK believers to AFFIRM IDOLATRY, an ABUSE of liberty, 8:10!
  4. So, to BEGIN his long 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1 address on the subject, Paul taught the RIGHT WAY to UNDERSTAND the proper USE of Christian LIBERTY versus sinful LICENSE AND LEGALISM is to COUPLE this FACT with LOVE, 1 Cor. 8:1-3:
    1. Paul revealed that knowing spiritual facts like the Corinthian believers knew without brotherly love led to SINFUL PRIDE , 8:1b:
      1. Some evangelicals claim that Paul's word that "knowledge puffeth up" counters the study of Scripture, making the gaining of Bible knowledge an evil that produces sinful pride!
      2. However, Paul could not have meant such an idea: at 1 Corinthians 8:2, he claimed if we think we know facts so that we have matured in our knowledge, we know nothing yet as we OUGHT to know!
      3. Thus, Paul claimed that applying the knowledge of a believer's liberty to eat meat that had once been offered to idols (1 Cor. 8:4-5, 8-9) with a LACK of LOVE for the weaker, new convert so that he was led to sanction returning to idolatry by that example, such was sinful pride as it was not tempered with loving consideration for fellow weaker Christians, 1 Corinthians 8:1, 11-12!
    2. Also, Paul implied in 1 Corinthians 8:3 that Bible knowledge must be coupled with a healthy love for the Lord to lead the believer to "the right starting point for his action", Ibid., p. 191.
  5. Glancing ahead to Paul's 1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1 summary of this long section, we note HOW one's KNOWLEDGE of God's FACTS COUPLED with LOVE actually SHAPE the RIGHT WAY for the believer to UNDERSTAND the USE of Christian LIBERTY versus sinful LICENSE and errant LEGALISM (as follows):
    1. Out of love for GOD, Paul taught a believer NEVER may eat meat offered to idols in the pagan temple service itself, 1 Cor. 10:14-16, 21. That is sinful LICENSE, fellowship with evil spirits as opposed to and in pollution of one's fellowship with God, 1 Corinthians 10:22!
    2. Yet, out of that same love for GOD, if the meat that is left over from the idol feast is sold in the market, the believer has full Christian LIBERTY to buy it, take it home and eat it there, 10:25. The meat was God's creation, not that of any false god, so eating it at home was not idolatrous, but honoring to the meat's Creator, God, 1 Cor. 10:26!
    3. Then, out of love for God AS WELL AS FOR OTHERS, be they onlooking weak believers or unsaved people, if no one at a feast the believer attended said anything about it, even if the believer knew the meat was once offered to idols, due to his liberty in Christ, he was to eat the meat, 1 Corinthians 10:27. However, if someone present mentioned it had come from an idol temple, meaning he attached an idolatrous value to the meat, the believer was to refrain from eating it for the sake of the onlooker's conscience, 1 Corinthians 10:28a!
    4. Yet, Paul countered abstaining from eating the meat as though eating it was itself sin -- that would be LEGALISM, 10:28b-30. No, we are to abstain not because eating it is sin, but because eating the meat in this case sinfully harms the weaker brother's conscience, 10:29a!
    5. Thus, a believer was to be aware of how his actions affected others, be they unsaved Jews or Gentiles or fellow Christians, and so limit the USE of his LIBERTY as necessary to edify THEM, 10:31-11:1!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to be saved, John 3:16. (2) Then, by WAY of our LOVE for GOD and for OTHERS, may we COUPLE the USE of the FACTS we LEARN from Scripture to form an EDIFYING BASIS to USE them that we excel even in the practice of Christian liberty while avoiding license and legalism!

Lesson: The Right WAY to UNDERSTAND the right USE of the Bible's FACTS, especially on Christian liberty versus license and legalism, is to COUPLE the FACTS with LOVE for OTHERS and for GOD!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

We opened this message by referring to an errant witnessing effort that occurred in a store in our area. You will recall how I relayed that a believer had abruptly told a cashier as he was in the check-out line that she was on her way to hell for not rejecting her church's gospel and trusting in Christ! This had infuriated the woman who was not at all interested about spiritual things in that setting, let alone about being rebuked for her religious beliefs, so she vented her anger, telling me of the incident even though I was a complete stranger to her!

I thus thought it would be edifying to close this sermon with an illustration of how the coupling of the fact that God wants us to witness to the lost with our need to LOVE the lost in the process can actually make us effective in witnessing our faith. We offer the following account that is taken from the February 1986 issue, p. 74 of Moody Monthly , the magazine's centennial issue. It is a reprint from the magazine's February 1916 issue, and is an article authored by Woodrow Wilson, then the President of the United States:

"I was sitting in a barber shop chair when I became aware that a personality had entered the room. A man had quietly come in upon the same errand as myself and sat in the chair next to me. Every word he uttered, though not in the least didactic [preachy] showed a personal and vital interest in the man who was serving him. And before I got through, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service. Mr. Moody was in the next chair.

I purposely lingered after he left and noted the singular effect his visit had upon the barbers in that shop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thought. And I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship." (brackets ours)

Dwight L. Moody had thus effectively witnessed his faith BOTH to a world leader as WELL as to middle class barbers, and that without misusing his liberty to witness given to him by God, but with THOUGHTFUL Christian LOVE for all involved!

May we also COUPLE our KNOWLEDGE of the FACTS of God's truth with a LOVE for God and for other PEOPLE like Mr. Moody did in that barber shop! Then we will also EXCEL as he did in UNDERSTANDING and hence APPLYING Christian TRUTHS in living and witnessing for the Lord!