Thank you gentlemen. We had a little ad in the paper yesterday. I want you to understand that we put the ad in the paper not because we feel that we're better than others. Not because we have any attitude of superiority, not at all. But we put it in there because we felt it as a church we wanted and needed to take a stand on on the issue that is currently the greatest challenge that we face to our freedoms.
And so would you pray please that God would use that in a very positive way in our community? Going to turn in our Bibles today to 1st Corinthians chapter 8. I invite you to open your copy of the Bible that you brought with you this morning if you did. To 1st Corinthians chapter 8. Memorial Day is far more than the unofficial beginning of summer. Originally it was called Decoration Day. Do any of you remember that? It was called Decoration Day.
It was originally an observance of a day to honor the fallen Civil War soldiers. It began in Waterloo, New York in 1866. After World War I however, it became a day to remember all of those who have lost their lives defending our nation. On July the 4th every year we celebrate our independence. But on Memorial Day we remember what it costs to keep our freedom. And we need to remember that. Because freedom is not a novelty to be played with. It is not a heritage to simply be taken for granted.
Freedom is a treasure to safeguard. It is a legacy for us to pass on. It is a tool to use. It is a blessing to share. Someone has said people who will not use their freedom to defend their freedom do not deserve their freedom. I agree with that. And in fact I believe that we will lose our freedom in this nation if we do not rouse ourselves from the stupor that has come upon us to challenge the enemies of our liberty.
Others have done so in past generations and we in our generation must do the same. We are free to worship, to speak, and to gather here today because of those heroes proved in liberating strife who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life. America is beautiful because of them. It is the land of the free and the home of the brave. And it will remain so if you and I in our day have courage like our forebears to face adversity.
From Valley Forge to Guadalcanal to Antietam and the Alamo Islands to the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, liberty has required a sacrifice. We still enjoy this sweet land of liberty because of the patriotic sacrifice of America's sons and daughters who are willing to put everything on the line for the sake of freedom. Political freedom is a wonderful heritage. We too like them must jealously guard it and fervently do everything that we can to protect it.
The freedom of speech, the freedom to worship God as we choose, the freedom to own property without the fear of the government seizing it, all of these are threatened in America today. Not because of Al-Qaeda, not because of foreign enemies, but rather because of cultural political correctness and socialist politicians and big government. You and I have a duty and a responsibility to protect and protect America.
You and I have a duty and a responsibility to protect the freedom that our forefathers died to pass on to us. That freedom includes political action according to our constitutional privileges. One of those of course is voting and I hope we're all registered to vote. If not, you need to get registered and we're going to give you an opportunity in the weeks to come. Another privilege is that of supporting good candidates.
And another one is contacting our representatives to tell them how we feel about things. How many letters do you suppose it takes to make a difference with your congressman? How many of you would say, well, probably a thousand or more. Would you lift your hand? That's what I would think. More than that?
Congressman Mike Pence from the state of Indiana told us when we were in Washington recently that if he gets ten letters from his constituents, handwritten or typed personal letters regarding one single issue, it's enough for him to call a staff meeting to find out what's going on. Do you realize that perhaps with our congressperson, you and nine friends could get their attention in Washington if you just wrote a personal letter?
But what is even more precious than our political freedom is our spiritual freedom. That is the privileged position of every child of God. He has given us liberty from condemnation. He has given us freedom from guilt. He has given us freedom from legalistic religion. Liberty from the expectations of perfection. Freedom to say no to the power of sinful patterns in us. And all of this comes to us freely through the cross of Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote to the Galatians and he said it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again with the yoke of slavery. Jesus Christ died that we might live in spiritual freedom. But what is that freedom? And how are we to use it? This is what Paul is addressing in the text that we are looking at today. Let me read it for you. I am going to read the entire chapter. It is short. We will only be dealing with part of the chapter this morning.
He says, Now about food sacrificed to idols. We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up. Is that true? I remember one person who attended a church that I pastored who thought we were all very lucky to have him in the congregation. Because he knew so very much. He was a seminary graduate. And when he spoke it was the final word. Knowledge puffs up. But love builds up. Notice the play on words there. The English translation captures it very well.
The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God. So then about eating food sacrificed to idols. We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world. And that there is no God but one. For even if there are so called gods. Whether in heaven or on earth as indeed there are many gods and many lords. Yet for us there is but one God. The Father. From whom all things came and for whom we live.
And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ. Through whom all things came and through whom we live. But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols. That when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat. And no better if we do. Be careful however that the exercise of your freedom.
Does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge. Eating in an idol's temple. Won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols. And so this weak brother for whom Christ died is destroyed or is ruined. By your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way. And wound their weak conscience. You sin against Christ. Therefore if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin. I will never eat meat again.
So that I will not cause him to fall. Paul is saying in this chapter that your freedom in Christ. Is based on truth. And guided by love. Based on truth what we know. But guided by love. Our concern for another person. Just as we must use our political freedom. We must exercise to our spiritual freedom. And the Bible says to use that freedom to serve God's purposes. Now as Paul points out here he is responding to a specific question. That had been asked of him.
It related to a cultural issue in Corinth. And it was. What about meat that has been offered to the idols. Here in the city. Now this problem arose in three ways. First of all. There were public sacrifices of meat to idols. And after it had been offered to idols. It was often sold on the market more cheaply. And so people who wanted to buy an economic cut of meat. Would go to the market and buy the meat that had already been offered to an idol.
There were others who were invited by unsaved friends. To come to their homes. And there they would offer food. Meat that had been offered to idols. Because they were idolaters. Was a Christian to eat that meat or not? And then there was a third way the question rose. And that was that in many of the public and social gatherings. Of Corinth. Many of those were held in pagan temples. And so the believers had a division among themselves. Some felt that to participate. To eat.
Might suggest that somehow they were also participating in idolatry. Even though they had been saved out of that. And so they were convinced that to participate by eating this kind of meat. Was to compromise their faith. But there were others. Who felt that the idols were nothing. This is what they knew to be true. And therefore offering a meat that was offered to nothing. Meant what? Nothing. And so they felt free to eat it.
Now I don't know if you've seen any of the meat offered to idols that Costco sells. No, it's really not an issue today is it? This particular issue. But we do have similar issues. What about gaming? What about gambling? Going to Vegas for a weekend. Or to Reno. What about drinking? Social drinking. What about dancing? What about smoking? Where's a verse in the Bible that gives you absolute knowledge that one of these activities is wrong? You see these are things that believers today debate.
And some issues are debated more in some areas than other issues. Somebody says, well I know the Bible doesn't prohibit those things. Paul points out the fact that when we know something. We face a danger. And that is our knowledge can make us self-focused. It can puff us up. So we're thinking about ourselves and maybe even how superior we are because we understand the issues that others don't. I enjoy this. God doesn't tell me I can't do this. Why can't I partake? What's wrong with it?
I have the right to do it. Paul says those who think they know something need to be careful. They may not know as much as they think they do. In light of that I want to give you a little quiz this morning. This is a pop quiz. I don't have time to give you the whole quiz. I'm sorry. But a quiz. Number one, how long did the 100 years war last? Can somebody tell me? Right. 113 years. Exactly. What country makes Panama hats? Right. Ecuador. From which animal do we get cat gut? Right.
Sheep and horses. Exactly. In what month do the Russians celebrate the October Revolution? It's in November because their calendar is 13 days behind ours. What is a camel's hair brush made of? You all know this. Squirrel fur. Exactly. You see, sometimes we think we know things. We may not know things as well as we think we do. Now, it may be true that we have knowledge. But Paul is saying to us here, is that all that matters? No. He says it's not all that matters.
He says you need to let love take action in your life. Because the action of love is to make you others focused. Others focused. Knowledge is balanced in our lives by love. Now, today we're just going to take the first half of the chapter. And next week, God willing, we'll finish it. What I want to say to you in part one of this message is that your spiritual freedom is based on what God says is true. So we're going to deal with the knowledge aspect this morning.
As you know, liberty does not exist in a vacuum. Liberty has to have some basis for it. It has to have a legal standing. Our freedom as Americans is based upon what document? This is not part of the quiz, by the way. Right, it's the Constitution. It is based upon the Constitution, which has roots that go all the way back to 1215. And what amazing document? Does anybody know? The Magna Carta. The majestic charter, which was actually forced upon King John by his subjects. He was reluctant.
He did not want to give his subjects any rights. But he was forced to give up some of his rights as the king to his subjects. And that whole process in English law led eventually to our Constitution today. King John was so upset by it that when one of the leaders of the movement for the Magna Carta died, a very noble person, he ordered him to be buried at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Do you remember this?
And outside the main door to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, there is a plank about four feet wide and six feet long. For the first time in all the times I've been there three months ago, our guide went over there and lifted that plank up and showed me what was under it. It's the grave of that noble man who died 100 years ago. King John wanted him buried there so that everybody who entered the Church of the Holy Sepulcher could walk on his grave. That's exactly why he's buried there.
If you're going to have freedom, there has to be some basis for it. It doesn't just come automatically. Political freedom is based upon legal documents and spiritual freedom is based upon what God says. Jesus said the truth shall what? Shall make you free. That's why the devil likes to blind people to the truth because he doesn't want us to be free. Of course, we learn the truth of God from His Word, the Bible. We all have to admit that our insight into the Bible is partial and incomplete.
But there are some things that are clear, some things that are absolute, about which we can say this is for certain. Number one, idols are nothing. Now be they ancient or modern, western or eastern idols, they have one thing in common, they are all lifeless. They have absolutely no ability to change our lives or to affect us. There is nothing in the world that is more futile than worshipping an idol.
You remember the story in the Old Testament of the Philistines who defeated Israel in the days of the high priest Eli. As a result of that, they took the Ark of the Covenant and they placed it in their temple to Dagon, or we might pronounce it Dagon, in Ashdod. I wrote for you the text from 1 Samuel when it says, the people of Ashdod rose early the next day and there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. They took Dagon and put him back up in its place.
The following morning when they rose there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. His head and hands had been broken off and they were lying on the threshold, only his body remained. Poor Dagon. The futility of an idol. Isaiah talks about this, Isaiah 44. He says, the blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals. He shapes an iron with an idol, rather with hammers. He forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength.
He drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker. He roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of a man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest and planted a pine and the rain made it grow. It is man's fuel for burning. Some of it he takes and warms himself.
And he kindles a fire and bakes bread and he also fashions a god and worships it. He makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire. Over it he prepares his meal. He roasts his meat and eats his fill. He warms himself and says, ah, I'm warm. I see the fire. And from the rest he makes a god. His idol, he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, save me. You are my god. They know nothing. They understand nothing.
Their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think. No one has the knowledge or understanding to say, half of it I use for fuel. I even bake bread over its coals. I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood? The conclusion, he feeds himself on ashes. A deluded heart misleads him. He cannot save himself or say, is not this thing in my right hand a what?
He can't bring himself to say that. Today we are more sophisticated. We have idols not of wood but of ideas. The greatest idol affecting our culture today perhaps is the idol of evolution. Those who worship that idol cannot bring themselves to say, this is a what. They cannot stand to do that. Idols are nothing. We know this. The second thing we know is this, that there is only one god. Now please understand this is not a fashionable notion. Our PC culture demands tolerance for all religions.
America is a pluralistic society and it has become so. That is true. But our nation was not pluralistic when it was founded. Can we repent? Can we say this is a lie? Only God knows. But we the people of God in the midst of this nation are of a monotheistic faith. The faith of the followers of Jesus Christ is rooted in the historic revelation of God the Creator to the chosen family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Remember Abraham was a polytheist. He worshiped many gods.
He was an idolater at the time of his conversion. In the book of Joshua it says this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, long ago your forefathers including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor lived beyond the river and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the river and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. God called this polytheist to himself and gave him the truth. There is only one God and Abraham believed God. He believed that.
And that became then the mark of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the midst of a sea of polytheism and false worship, they were the people who believed in one God who was invisible. Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is what? The Lord is one. Or it can be said the Lord is alone. That's why he said have no other gods before me. Paul says he, this one God is our father. He is our father. Wonderful term for God. That means number one that he is personal.
That's why the God that we worship is not the same God of Buddhism, which is really atheism, or the God of Hinduism. He's a personal God. The gods of these other religions are not personal gods. They're impersonal. This God that we worship is father, that means he has all authority. It is his. He is the source of creation. It all came from him. He is the one who caused it to all come to pass. God spoke and it was so. He also says that this one God that we worship is the one Lord, Jesus Christ.
I love the fact he puts his whole name there, Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us he is the God-man. He is unique. He is one of a kind. We know this. It is absolutely certain. It is the basis of our faith. He is deity and humanity in one person. He is the Christ. He is the designated Savior who was to come into the world. The Lord Jesus Christ carries out God's purposes. He is the agent of creation. God is the source of creation. It is the Son of God who is the agent of creation.
He is the Word of God. He is the one who sustains everything, gives everything its life. We know this, says Paul. We know it. And because we know it, there is an implication I need to tell you. The meat that is offered to idols is kosher. It is clean. Meat that is offered to nothing can be contaminated by nothing. Paul says in Romans 14, nothing is unclean of itself. God created all things for us to enjoy rightly, including food.
And so holding up a piece of meat before an idol neither defiles it nor harms its nutritional value. Now I want to conclude with four quick statements. Number one, God's truth defines everything else. Please know this. That's why we're taking a stand as we are on the issue of our day. God's truth defines everything else that there is. It defines who God is, number one. Humans do not define God. We dare not make God after our own image. God reveals Himself to us. He does it in creation.
He does it through His spoken, His written Word. Secondly, God defines for us what is morally right and wrong. By the way, where does this whole idea originate? That there are some things that are right and some things that are wrong. Where does that come from? Animals don't have that. I had to train my dog. He didn't know what was... he had no conscience at all. It comes from God. And it comes uniquely to human beings, this whole idea of right and wrong.
The day in which you and I live, right and wrong is often thought of as a personal taste rather than the truth of God. I like the taste of that or I don't like it. It works for me, maybe it doesn't work for you. You can't impose your morality on me, that's not my taste. And then the king of all whoppers, you can't legislate morality. Baloney, that's all law is. If somebody's morality codified, put into law, that's all it is. The question is whose morality is going to be put into the law?
Boy, I would love to talk more about that, but I need to go on and say the Bible defines number three, who you are. That you're a special creation. You're no accident, you are created in the image of God. The Bible says that you're a member of a fallen race. A race that is in rebellion against the Creator. And therefore subject to evil and spiritual and moral darkness. The Bible says that you have incredible worth to God. And despite the fact you were fallen, He loves you desperately.
The Bible tells us that you are made to exist forever. Forever. That's who you are. Christ died for you. Finally the Bible tells us, God defines for us what our future is. What your future is. The Bible says that every person will spend eternity either in heaven or in hell. Heaven or hell. We make the choice. Number two, God's truth will set me free or God's truth will condemn me. That's the power of truth.
To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Those who believed Him. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. How do we get to the Father? Through Him. He's the truth. The truth can free us. The fact of the truth is that every person who encounters the truth never leaves the same way. You can't. You can't.
Because the truth demands a response and we either respond positively or negatively whenever we hear the truth. You cannot leave this room this morning the same way you came in. It's impossible. If anyone comes to the truth, Jesus says, if anyone believes on the truth, that truth will save them. But if they neglect or reject it, it will come down hard on them. For the Bible says those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
It goes on to say in Thessalonians, they perish because they refuse to love the truth and so to be saved. The basic principle is this. I practice. I practice what I believe. That's what Paul is saying in these verses. We have knowledge. We practice what we believe. Now there's a Lomorian who wants to say about that and I hope you'll be back next week to hear the rest of the story. What is the truth that dominates your life today? Are you living in the truth?
You say, well, I believe the truth, but I'm not sure I practice the truth. Well, the fact is that we practice what we really believe. Do you understand what I'm saying there? You and I practice what we really believe. Are we believing the truth and basing our lives on it? Because folks, eternity hangs in the balance to that question. Father, may we this morning be people who know the truth and are therefore set free. And out of that freedom, we practice what is true as well.
In Jesus' name, amen.