¶ Introduction to Series
But you're going to have, there's plenty of the day left. I appreciate you being here. In case you missed last week, just to catch you up, we are in week two of a short series. I don't know how long it's going to be, but probably, probably only two more weeks, a short series through first Corinthians eight through 10.
And I heard from not, not one, but not two, but three different people who said they had this experience last week of like finding out what we were going to talk about and saying like, I don't know about that. That seems like a weird thing to talk about, because we're talking about this passage about food sacrificed to idols, and they're like, I don't know. But by the end, they all said, three different people. It was good. It ended up being good. So, you know, the Bible is surprising.
I love hearing that because I really do believe that the Bible is fascinating, and not just like in just like, oh, it's great to study old ancient books, right? It's fascinating because even when we look at parts that feel irrelevant, right? I mean, this topic of food sacrifice to idol doesn't feel super relevant to us. But when we read the Bible carefully and thoughtfully for what it is, I'm always surprised that we get so much from it.
And it's kind of like, just like my commitment to try to teach the Bible for what it is, not try to make it more exciting than it is, because it's already plenty, plenty exciting. Because these chapters are, I feel like there's a couple of verses in them that are sort of like well-known verses talking about freedom, but we definitely don't think much about the context of these verses, right?
This whole idea of food sacrifice to idols, because in this three chapter section versus chapters eight through 10, Paul is really going deep into this situation that feels irrelevant to us. But what he's doing is he's instructing the church and how they ought to deal with this particular issue. And when Paul gets particular about ancient problems, we have the tendency to think, who cares? It's not something that we deal with. We don't have a food sacrifice to idols issue anymore.
And so I understand that reaction, but I think that it comes from a place of having a wrong idea about what the Bible is. And we've talked about this already. I'm going to keep talking about it again. But, you know, I, we have this, uh, this quote that we looked at last week from I Howard Marshall. It says this, I'm going to need up there cause I didn't write it down and get the next one. There we go.
It may be more helpful to recognize them. That is the scriptures more specifically as documents of mission. They show us how the church should be shaped first mission. And they deal with those problems that form obstacles to the advancement of mission. I believe I, Howard Marshall, is right about this, that the Bible as a whole is not like we normally think of it. It's not a set of law codes or rules or regulations. It's not a rule book.
It's not a book that just prohibits some things and allows other things. If you read it that way, I think it becomes irrelevant and abstract and feels like an ancient sort of book that doesn't really apply to us anymore, and it only has a very narrow use.
But if you read it as documents of mission, which especially the New Testament is, I would say we could argue the same for the Old Testament, but if we read it as documents of mission, then we ask ourselves this question, how is this particular encouragement or prohibition or admonition, even if it's not immediately relevant to my context anymore, what is it doing? What is the the Lord through the scriptures intending to do in God's people?
Then that question becomes relevant to me. You know, if I start to ask myself, how should I be shaped for mission in the way that Paul or whoever was writing this letter or piece of scripture was trying to shape the people in his time for mission, then it becomes relevant to me because the Bible is not a rule book. It is a book that describes and just says, this is what God's mission is. This is his work in the the world.
And it describes his mission to reconcile all of creation to himself through Jesus Christ. That's the story of the scriptures. God created everything good. The world is a fallen, broken place, and God is putting it all back together. He's restoring what was lost. We read, I think, a good statement of mission in Colossians 1, 19 through 20, a pretty famous set of verses.
It says, for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, that is in in Jesus Christ, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. The Bible tells us that God is up to something, and he's doing it in Jesus Christ to, through his blood shed on the cross, reconcile all things to himself, to reconcile, restore the relationship, restore the peace between God and people.
The gospel is not a set of rules or a law code. It is God's action to reconcile all of creation to himself, to restore relationship through Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection. It's not a rule book. Jesus did not come, and this is really important. Jesus did not come to bring more and better rules than the Old Testament. That's not what he was doing. He actually came to set people free from law and to give them life.
The good news of Jesus is not that we can get over sin by behaving better, paying more attention to the things that we're messing up with, by obeying more and better laws, the laws that Jesus brings. It's that we are invited into a real life with God. Colossians 2.13 says it this way, When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with him and forgave all of our trespasses.
He erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us, and he's taken it away by nailing it to the cross. What God has done in Jesus Christ and what the gospel, the substance of the gospel, is that God has done this thing, and the effect is that the debt, the obligations, the rules and regulations which are opposed to us are done. They're nailed to the cross. The price is paid.
We no longer have this obligation to law. We no longer need to go around living our lives like a riddle to be solved. The riddle being, how can we be good enough to make God happy with us? How can we earn God's favor? We are free from this question because Jesus sets us free from the endless quest to measure up in our strength. We're free from law. We're free from having to hold ourselves to this standard, to have to perform, jump over the hurdle of law.
In Christ, through faith in what he's done, we are set free from the law. We are freed from condemnation. We're freed from shame. We are freed from the treadmill of self-justification, always trying to perform. Because of what Jesus did, we're good with God on every level that that is possible. We're good with God. He sees us as good. Because we have the righteousness of Jesus that washes us clean, and we're good. The relationship is good. It's right. It's stable.
We are washed clean. We are accepted. We are reconciled. We are forgiven. We are family, and we are loved family. We are free, and freedom matters. I mean, if we read the New Testaments, particularly Paul, we have to understand that freedom matters. Galatians 5.1, we touched on that last week. Paul says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. He had the goal in forgiving and reconciling people to set you free.
If you're reading the New Testament and missing the reality of the freedom that you have in Christ, I would encourage you, go back and read it again. It's a major and important point that you are set free. You are free from law because of Jesus Christ. Christ, but doesn't that bring up a lot of questions? A lot of questions that we need to ask ourselves regularly as a church.
Questions like, well, if we're free from law, why does someone like Paul seem to go around telling people what to do all the time? Well, because that's kind of like law, right? Isn't that law? Isn't it that law and rules, like, isn't that the opposite of freedom? Isn't freedom just I can do anything I want? Isn't that what freedom is? Or even we can wonder questions on kind of the other side of this issue.
If this is not a law book, like if it's not a set of rules that we have to obey, that we're not, we're bound to, right? Then why even bother? Like why even bother with it? If we have freedom, why not just go off and do whatever we want? Why Why not just spend my days mountain biking all the time and drinking and, you know, doing things that feel good? Like, what's that? Feel good all the time. That mantra, right? Why come to church? Why read the Bible? Why care about being right with God?
Why care about any of this? If it's not a rule book, doesn't that mean that all bets are off, that there are no rules, that I can just do whatever I want and it doesn't matter?
Here's the thing. And I think it's the main thing. the gospel the good news of what jesus christ has done it means it implies that we are set free from the law and we're now alive to something else and something better like we have a life in jesus christ it's not a life mediated or confined by or dependent upon law and our law keeping, but it is it is a new kind of life we're alive to something new and better romans
8 1 through 2 says says this, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. This is a contrast being drawn, right? Paul isn't saying this old law is being replaced by this new law. I mean, he's saying, though, that this new thing, this spirit of life in Christ Jesus is replacing the place that law once had.
It's becoming a new law. Paul's not preaching a new law, but he's preaching a living relationship with God by the spirit. That is what's standing in the place where law once was. It's not a different version of law. It's something entirely different. And that's why Paul is always in trouble, right? Paul is always in trouble because he wouldn't just create a bunch of rules and regulations. Um, there's a, there's a missionary guy from about a hundred years ago. His name's Roland Allen.
He makes this point really clearly. And I've got, I've got a couple long quotes from, Ooh, they're so long. They're so long. I'm sorry, but, but they're really good. other case, he's making this point about kind of the distinct message that Paul had. He says this, this is the most distinctive mark of Pauline Christianity, which I think we just call it Christianity, right?
Because he's the author of so much of the New Testament and he's the voice of accepted reason and authority of what we would say it is to follow Jesus. He says, this is the most distinctive mark of Pauline Christianity. This is what separates his doctrine from all of the systems of religion. He did not come merely to teach a higher truth or a finer morality than those who preceded him. He came to administer the spirit.
Before St. Paul, many teachers had inculcated lofty principles of conduct and had expounded profound doctrines. Men did not need another. They needed life. Christ came to give that life, and St. Paul came as a minister of Christ to lead men to Christ, who is the life that they may find life, that they might find life. His gospel was a gospel of power. And so he taught and for all, and for that all his life, he was, was, was one long martyrdom.
If he would have admitted for a moment that his work was to introduce a higher law, a new system, he would have made peace with the Judaizers and he would would have been at one with all his contemporary reformers, but the gospel would have perished in his hands. In his own words, he would have fallen away from grace. Christ would have profited him nothing. The point is that Paul was not preaching a new set of rules, better or more refined rules.
Paul was preaching life, power, and the spirit at work in people. Relationship with God by the spirit, not a relationship with God mediated by a set of rules. If you're married, what makes your covenant bond works is not that you obey the rules. A healthy marriage is not made only by not cheating on your spouse and doing your chores. These are important, I promise. But that is not really the substance of your relationship.
Even if you keep those rules, you don't have a strong and valuable relationship. But if you have a strong marriage relationship, you will keep those rules. Paul is not coming and just preaching a new set of rules. He's coming and preaching relationship with God through the spirit. The spirit is at work in men and women. God is not afraid. He's not distant. He's not just writing you letters and saying, go do this, go do this. He's living with you. He's at work in your life.
He's a God who's not afraid of you and your sin and your failures, which will be inevitable. He steps right in there with you. He wants to work with you. He's going to abide and continue on with you.
Paul understood that the gospel was not about a new set of rules, but a new kind of a life available to people through the spirit, through Jesus Christ's death, resurrection, through his sacrifice, through his forgiveness, a life of relationship with the living God through the spirit bought by Christ. And it's a totally different thing. I have more long quotes from him To kind of elaborate what he means, he kind of illustrates what this looks like.
He says, we have this truth illustrated in his practice, in Paul's practice again and again. Because Paul's ministry was built around this principle that the Holy Spirit is alive in those who are trusting in Christ Jesus. They don't need more and better rules. They don't need more overbearing leadership. They need to learn to trust the Spirit. We have this truth illustrated in his practice, in Paul's practice again and again. He did not establish a constitution.
He inculcated principles. He did not introduce any practice to be received on his own or any human authority. He strove to make his converts realize and understand their relation to Christ. He always aimed at convincing their minds and stirring their consciences. He never sought to enforce their obedience by decree. tree, he always strove to win their heartfelt approval and their intelligent cooperation. He never did things for them. He always left them to do the things for themselves.
He set them an example according to the mind of Christ, and he was persuaded that the spirit of Christ in them would teach them to approve that example and inspire them to follow it. He gave place for Christ. He believed in the Holy Ghost, not merely vaguely as a spiritual power, but as a person indwelling his converts. He believed, therefore, in his converts, and he could trust them. He did not trust them because he believed in their natural virtue or intellectual sufficiency.
If he had believed in that, his faith must have been sorely shaken. He believed in the Holy Ghost in them. He believed that Christ was able and willing to keep that which he had committed to him. He believed that he would perfect his church and that he would establish. Strengthen, and settle his converts. He believed and acted as if he believed. If we read Paul and we read his interactions and even in some of his bossiness, right?
He's not saying, here are the rules that I have. These are the things you need to obey to be right with God. He's saying, don't you know that the spirit is alive in you? Don't you know that you're dead to law, but alive to something so much better, to a relationship with God, that he speaks to you, that he's at work in you. And he wants your intelligent cooperation with him. He doesn't want your drudging, box-checking kind of obedience.
He wants you to seek him out and to have this relationship with him and to pursue that dynamic of love for God. Which Jesus says is the perfect type of law, to love God, to love neighbors. He's asking us something so much more than simple law keeping. But it's not something that we can't do. See, Paul understood how the gospel works. People are free from law, but they're alive to Christ, alive to God who's put himself within them by the Spirit. And we are called to give a place to Christ.
That's the vocation of a Christian. People who are called to give a place to him. He's taken the place where law once was. We have a relationship with him now. We are not trying to measure up on the basis of law. We're just trusting him. We're just listening to him. We're just trying to obey him. We're just trying to love him. Not in a performative way, but because there's so much joy and peace in that.
And even before you've done a thing, you know that you're loved, you're forgiven, you're cleansed, you're accepted. That's what relationship is about. It's not do the things and then, it's you're already have all those things and now you're free. Now you can become a person who's filled with love. We don't sing for our supper as Christians. It's not about how good you perform. You could never earn the love and grace and forgiveness and acceptance.
It's given to you freely. We don't sing for our supper. We've sit at a table that's been set for us, and we're told to just eat, enjoy ourselves, delight ourselves in his presence. That's not the same thing. Those are different things. Christian, you're called to enjoy the Lord. That's something that your freedom has bought for you.
You're secure and you're safe and you're loved by the one who's paid the price for your sin even when you make mistakes even when you let yourself down and you let god down you're loved and accepted and forgiven and the call to maturity is just to sit deeply there and let the lord by his grace transform us it's but it's through relationship it's not through you being better at obeying the laws and the rules.
It comes through you loving the Lord more and being drawn more deeply into this relationship. Now, you might remember that this was supposed to be a lesson on 1 Corinthians 8 through 10, and we haven't gotten there yet, and we're already halfway through. So let's do that. If you have a Bible, just open it up. 1 Corinthians 8. We saw last week that what Paul is doing is he's mediating a conflict between two groups of people in the church at Corinth.
One group, Paul just kind of says, like, has a really good nuanced theology. It's a theology of freedom, actually. Something that Paul has taught throughout all the churches, that they're free people.
¶ The Bible as Documents of Mission
And these people know that they're free. They know that they're not in this relationship that's about obeying rules, right? They know they've been set free. And so whatever they do, they think if we acknowledge God and we're thankful for the Lord, like, why aren't we free to do anything? And so they come into this situation of eating food sacrifice to idols. And they're saying to themselves, what's the big deal? Like, this is just meat.
It's just meat. So we're just going to eat it and thank God for it. And we're free. It's like, we're not going to get caught up in something that it's some kind of entanglement spiritually that's so, that's so wrong because they feel that they're for free. Jesus Christ has set them free from all these rules and obligations, and he's overcome darkness and evil, and so why can't they just eat this meat?
So on one side, there's that group, and then on the other side, there's this group of people who think, no way. They think, sure, we have freedom, but we can't do something like that. We can't, in good conscience, go ahead and eat something that's been dedicated to something something false, to a demonic presence even, to an evil Roman God that doesn't exist. Sure, maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, but it's like, it's like icky.
It's gross. Like we don't want to do that. So Paul is mediating this conflict. And fascinatingly, Paul doesn't play theological umpire. He totally could. And he does a little bit later actually. But in this early stages, he doesn't get into the arguments. He says, you believe this, you believe you have freedom. The other people don't believe they have freedom. He says, isn't that a conundrum? him?
How do you move forward? How do you mediate this conflict? And what he does is he says, okay, we're not going to do theological umpire. We're not going to, we're not going to do that. We're not going to enter into the conflict that way. But he does say this. We talked about it in first Corinthians eight, nine, be careful speaking to those who feel themselves to be free. Be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.
So an encouragement, an admonition, not on the basis of some theological rule, some set of laws, but on the basis of caring for others, Paul says, you should care about that. You should be careful that your freedom and that your rights don't become a stumbling block to the weak. His appeal is not to a law or a rule or to his own authority as an apostle saying, hey, I told you about Jesus.
You have to do what I tell you. he simply cautions them that those who are free those who are strong ought to consider how they are treating those who are weak and what the exercise of their freedom is doing to those who don't have the same perspective as they do he goes on to kind of explain a little bit more about what's at risk here picking up in in verse 10 he says if someone sees you the one who has as knowledge,
dining in an idol's temple, won't his weak conscience be encouraged to eat the food offered to idols? So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. Now, when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you're sinning against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never eat meat again so that I won't cause my brother or sister to fall.
Paul's demonstrating for us something that's really interesting. He isn't laying out, again, a bunch of rules or a law code. He's actually drawing his ethics. He's drawing his teaching, his instruction to them from his vision of the mission of God in the world. He's saying he's He's getting his oughts, not from a set of rules, but from the mission of God. He doesn't just say, oh, food sacrificed idols. So icky.
He appeals to those who are free from law to change their behavior on the basis of God's mission. Because freedom needs to be guided by purpose. We made this point last week. I will make it this week, and I'll make it again next week and the week after. We are free people with a purpose. We're free, but it doesn't mean that we're purposeless. It doesn't mean that we wander and have no direction in life.
Your freedom is not meant to be squandered that way. Your freedom is meant to be driven by purpose. We're free people who find ourselves a part, not with our own agendas, but we find ourselves a part of God's work in the world, his mission, and especially his work within the church. God is advancing this plan to reconcile the world to himself through the called out gathering of believers throughout the whole world.
He's using the church to be a light of witness to what he's done in Christ to the whole world. And so the mission is, I don't want to say dependent in an ultimate sense, but it depends in a degree upon the church. Like he has decided to use the church for the advancement of that mission. And so we don't find ourselves in this kind of like set free situation without any context. We find ourselves in the context of a story of God. God is using the church.
And Paul understood this because he understood how the gospel works. And he understood that what the church is called to do, the church is called to grow people and build them up. People who have been set free from Jesus, who have heard about this good news of what Jesus has done. The church is called to bring people into maturity and into fullness of faith in that fact of what Jesus has done.
The church is really called to set people free, to proclaim freedom and to teach people to live into that freedom, to live into that restored and reconciled kind of life. And so Paul appeals to these free people who have actually understood some good things about the freedom that they have, but he says to them, don't let your rights stumble the weak. Because if you, the mature, are stumbling those who are less mature, and he doesn't have a problem with that language.
He says, these people are probably less mature. They don't have this strong sense of freedom yet. He says, but if you stumble them by the exercise of your rights, like you are breaking the whole plan. You're getting in the way of what God is trying to do in the church. He's trying to take these immature people and grow them up into a fullness of what they're called to in Christ.
¶ Freedom Guided by Purpose
And if by your use of freedom, you're getting them off of the road, off of the path, then how are you serving your purpose? And he talks about what that stumbling would look like. It's not just that he would offend them or make them feel like dumb or something like that. There's a particular stumbling that he's concerned about. He says, if you do anything, he basically is pointing to their conscience. If these mature people would do something.
To the less mature, to teach them to ignore their conscience, to ignore their convictions, then that's sin against them. That's the damage that would be done. It's not that, oh, you're just not treating them the right way. It's by doing this, they're going to see your example and they're going to say, I guess this is what mature people do. And so I'm just going to ignore my conscience. I'm going to ignore my conviction. I'm going to do this thing anyway.
And Paul says, That's a major problem. That would be sinning against Christ even at this point. So what's going on here? Paul isn't saying that the strong need to love the weak by just being nicer to them or catering to their preferences or even changing their own opinions. He's saying, you hold the views that you hold. He's not trying to, again, theologically umpire about freedom. He's saying, for all intents and purposes, you're free.
But Paul knows this, a Christian who has learned to ignore their conscience is dead in the water. And if what your example is doing is teaching these younger people who are young in the Lord, who haven't matured into their freedom with purpose yet to ignore their conscience, you are denying them the one thing that they need to grow in that relationship with Christ. You need to preserve that above all things.
Things conscience really matters for a christian we are free from law but we are not free from our purpose and we're not free from a relationship with god and the christian life is driven forward not by again our keeping of law and our performing to a great standard our jumping over hoops but just by this listening to the holy spirit how do you grow in your purpose how do you grow into to maturity.
You're set free from law and you're set and you're welcomed into relationship and relationship is not, oh, I know God insists that I give this much money and God insists that I not do these things. And, you know, besides that, I'm totally free. And so I can do whatever I want. It's, it's like, no man, all this whole performing to a standard is done, but now it's just me and you. And I know what you need most intimately. I know you, I know every part of you.
I, you, I created you and I care for you. And so what maturity looks like for a Christian is not benchmarking myself against some arbitrary standard, but just listening to the Holy Spirit. And if you're gonna do something, you're gonna be sitting against these people if you're doing anything to teach them to not listen to the Spirit. Conviction is how people grow. Conviction is how people grow. Anyone in this room, even if you don't believe in Jesus, every person you are
in touch with starts with conviction. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. John 16, 8. I don't have it. John 16, 8 convicts people of sin and righteousness and judgment. Every person you know who's going around in the world, God is convicting them of their sin. He's convicting them of the fact that they're just like dead in the water without him.
They don't even know it, but the Holy Spirit is at work in the world, even amongst people who don't have any relationship with God whatsoever, convicting of sin. And you know what? You who are in Christ and have this freedom, you've been set free, God is convicting you of sin as well. He's convicting you of not like, oh, I didn't measure up to the law, but don't you know that I have purpose and joy and life and peace, and it all comes through faith and trust in me.
He's convicting you of sin. He's convicting them of sin. I just love this because I think Paul just sees this so clearly that what we need to do above all is preserve the mechanism by which God is gonna grow people. We need to preserve that in others and you. And you need to preserve it, by the way, in non-Christians too. If you're gonna be like a witness in the world, you should be a witness for a sensitive conscious because the Holy Spirit's the one doing the work.
He's doing the work among people who are just out in the world, they're just minding their own business. They don't know anything with God. Like you should care for people's, even unbelievers' conscience. You should help them to take care of their soul. By encouraging them to go with their convictions and to listen instead of ignoring when God is putting something on their hearts.
You think about that. Like a lot of times we think we're going around like in relationship with people and we're just like, I don't, I don't, I feel like we don't even know what we're doing. Like, you know, like to an extent we share the gospel and that we got to do that. But the gospel is Jesus Christ has paid the price. He's reconciling the world. And this is this offer of freedom and peace.
¶ Conviction Is Key to Growth
And he's working in people's souls to draw people near to him. Like, like there's something going on. The Holy Spirit is at work among people in their consciences. He's convicting them of their sin. We need to help people with that. And there's, there's people like look around the room. You can help the people in this room and myself included to care about their convictions, to care about what the Holy Spirit is telling them in their conscience to do.
You, you can do that. That's a ministry that we have one to another. That's how we edify one another. Paul was getting that. He says the mature people we're taking away, we're robbing these young people, these immature people of the tools that they needed to grow forward in their faith. The church drives forward as we all grow into our convictions.
Hebrews 9.14 says this, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works so that we can serve the living God. A clean conscience is the thing that we need to serve the living God.
And like, we're forgiven of sin. Like, we're not gonna come back in a condemnation because we stand on Jesus Christ's righteousness, not on our own, but we're led forward in relationship so that we can serve the living God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds through continual conviction, through being led. I got two more points. There's some interesting implications about that. And so I think some stuff that makes us a little uncomfortable.
It means this. I mean, we see it in the church in Corinth. You have people who are of the same body, but they have different convictions. They have different convictions. Doesn't that make it a little uncomfortable? Wouldn't it be nice if we all just agreed on everything all the time? If we saw things the same way?
But what What Paul seems to understand is that there can be people in one body called according to the same purpose with the same Holy Spirit within them, and they might just be like having different degrees of maturity and different degrees of understanding. And he doesn't say, let these slackers do better. He says, okay, you have some immature people. They need to mature, but they're not going to be matured by just telling them to get over it.
They're gonna be matured by them listening to the conviction of the Holy Spirit within them. So you need to give them time and you need to preserve their conviction. You need to teach them the skills, the ability to listen to what God is telling them to do. And that means that if you feel like you have some theological insight and it's right, you have a strong conviction about it, you can share it with a brother and sister, but maybe they're not gonna see it the same way.
And you need to just keep praying and you need to encourage them to pay attention to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaking in scripture, the Holy Spirit working in their lives. And that's what's important.
¶ Unity Through Listening to God
Unity is one in the church and preserved in the church by teaching people to listen to God above everything else. And God speaks through scripture, right? Speaks authoritatively through scripture. It's one through teaching people to listen to God, not by getting increasingly particular about secondary and tertiary doctrinal issues. And it's hard to like divide up lines and decide what's most important. And yeah, being in the church is hard, right?
But we were called to care about when we're engaging with other people, like caring about, okay, what is the Lord doing in their life? That is the most important thing. It's the most important thing is what is God dealing with in their heart and in their mind right now and teaching them to be people who are careful to that. Worship team can come up. I got one last point. And this is the thing. This is the thing that's really hard for me.
As I read this, right, Paul is speaking to knowledgeable people, rational people, intelligent people about what they should do. But I think the other thing that cuts through all of this is that for the mature and the immature is that we are all called to be irrationally sensitive to the spirit. We are all called to be irra- and sensitive is such a weird word. I regret putting that up there. All right.
Replace sensitive with, I don't know, whatever word you think is less weird, whatever, less woo-woo. But like, I mean, to a degree, I think this is it. And I just have to tell you that you need to be careful not to mistake, not to make the mistake of thinking of maturity as no longer needing the Holy Spirit to guide you, that you've got enough, you got things sorted out because that's not maturity. Don't think of maturity as my life is good enough.
I'm not under any conviction anymore more because then you're saying, because I've obeyed the laws well enough, as opposed to there is no laws. Actually, the only law is I'm led by the spirit. I'm listening to him. He's guiding me in my day-to-day life.
¶ Maturity in Listening to the Holy Spirit
We never mature past listening to being led by and obeying the Holy Spirit. Maturity is I do things and other people look at me and say, why are you even doing that? You just say, I just can't get over the fact that God wants me to do this. I can't even explain it. But I just like, I feel like he's telling me to do these things. And, you know, remember the Baltimore Bridge thing last month? Thanks, Bob. I know you all did. I know you all did. Our charismatics are here
participating. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. The thing is, when we ignore our consciences, when we cease being sensitive to the spirit, we're like that bridge. It picks up steam, or like that ship. The ship picked up steam, the engines died, but it just kept going, and it broke a lot of things with its inertia. First Timothy 1, 18 through 19 says this. He says, Timothy, my son, I don't think I have this up here.
Timothy, my son, I'm giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you so that by recalling them, you may fight the good fight, having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and have shipwrecked their faith.
What in the pastoral epistles, you know, particularly here in Timothy, what Paul is doing is he's kind of warning against false people and false teaching and how he describes these particular false teachers is that they have rejected a good conscience and the result has been a shipwrecked faith. Do I think maybe these people could still be saved? I think God is really gracious, so sure. shore, but they had been denied the power because they failed to listen to their conscience.
They failed to listen to the Spirit. They have now denied themselves the capacity to move forward and to navigate life with purpose and to make use of freedom in a helpful kind of way. And so the word I want to leave you with is to recover that sensitivity to the Spirit and to protect it. It's not childish. This is the thing. I have thought this way. It is sort of like childish and it's like a youthful zeal to be really into listening to what the Spirit wants me to do.
And I've thought, and I need to repent of this, I think even more so, I have thought that I'm good and I have it figured out. I have it figured out. But that's just not true. you. Maturity for me and for you is not growing past and into a competence to manage my life. Maturity is learning to continue to listen to the Spirit. We need to preserve that above all else.
So I want you to think about that, and we're going to take some time to worship the Lord, and then I'm going to come back up in a minute. I have a few more things I want to say. So why don't we just worship the Lord together?