Two Journeys

I'd like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to the text that you just heard read, 1 Corinthians. This morning we're looking at 10:23-11:1. Now, as I have opportunity to share the Gospel, I frequently have recourse to ask questions of the individual, questions that I think all of us have to face. Especially if someone's coming from an atheistic background or from not a spiritual background, there's just certain big picture worldview questions that all of us have to face, and I found it a helpful approach to the Gospel.

And I want to begin this sermon by those questions, questions of origin. Where does everything come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? And specifically for us, how did I come to exist in this world that I see with my eyes?

Secondly, a question of purpose. Why did everything come into being? Why do I exist? What is my purpose in life? And then thirdly, the question of destination. Where is all of this headed? Where are we going with all of this? What's our destination? What's my destination in particular? Now, everyone has to face these three questions. In 399 BC, the Greek philosopher, Socrates, at that time on trial for his life, said this famous statement, "The unexamined life is not worth living." What he meant is just to simply exist and never face deeper questions is worthless. However, I fear that many live exactly that kind of life, an unexamined life. They don't really think about these three questions much. They don't address the question of origins. They just look around at the universe as they experience it and they accept it as what it is and they don't really ask where it all came from.

The question of purpose, they live for one purpose and that's to feed their own desires and pleasures. Whatever makes them sensually happy or feel good at that moment is what they live for. Paul spoke of people like this, Philippians 3:19. He said, "Their god is their stomach." So they're living for immediate, sensual gratification, or if they have a little more philosophical outlook, for a long-term sensual gratification, able to defer pleasure for now so they can have more pleasure later. But they're still... Their god is their stomach. And then the question of destiny. They don't really think about tomorrow. They make plans as far as it suits them to get ahead in life to achieve temporal success, money, power, pleasures, prestige, the various things the world has to offer.

And so they either just are immediately looking for those kinds of pleasures. I think about, sadly, the number of college students that are addicted to playing video games and don't even go to class. And so they're addicted to whatever makes them immediately happy even if they have to drop out of college. But then there are others that have the discipline not to do that and get excellent grades so he can get into a graduate programming and become some high-powered executive for the exact same reason, so they can satisfy their sensual pleasures. It's not really a difference. For such people, feeding their lusts and desires and appetites, is in fact, their central purpose in life. As Paul will say later in 1 Corinthians 15, this philosophy is summed up with this phrase, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." We don't have a long time here in this world. We got to get all the pleasure we can while we can before we die.

Now, Peter said of false teachers who by their false doctrine exchange the grace of God for a license, you do whatever you want, to live a life of sensual pleasure, this is what he says about them, 2 Peter 2:12, "They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts, they too will perish." So there's just a kind of a physical, sensual way of living that Peter says is very much like a brute beast, creatures of instinct. And as creatures of instinct, they live what Socrates would call the unexamined life. They don't really seek to answer these three ultimate questions that I put in front of you, the question of origin, how did all of this come to be, a question of purpose, why did all of this come to be, the question of destination, where is all of this headed? But praise God, Christians are uniquely blessed by the revelation of God in Scripture to answer these three questions.

We would be no different than any of them if it were not for the grace of God. We would still be in darkness. We would also be creatures of instinct. But the Bible has spoken into our dark minds, into our dark foolishness and told us the truth. God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, Psalm 119:105, and it tells us the truth about all of these things. So the question of origin, you don't have to wait long in the Bible to find out that one.

The very, very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." That's how everything came to be. That's why there's something rather than nothing. God created all of it. The Bible teaches that the universe is a special creation of the hand of God flowing from the mind and heart of God.

I love Psalm 8:3. It says, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers…" Think about the skillful craftsman. For, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place…" And not only that, the Bible makes it plain that we ourselves are created especially by his hands. God knit each one of us together in our mother's wombs. Psalm 139:13-14, "For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made." That's a question of origin. You are not some cosmic accident of time plus chance, you are a special creation of the fingers of God.

Secondly, the question of purpose. Why did God make all things? Well, the answer is consistent in the Bible. He did it for his own glory. God created all things for his own glory. Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands." God did not create the universe out of emptiness and need like he's lonely. The Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, had perfect, harmonious fellowship. God created the universe out of generosity, out of fullness, not emptiness. He wanted to give himself to us. And so he created the universe and created us in the universe that he might give himself to us. And so, we ourselves are created, first of all, as displays of God's glory. We put God on display. We are created in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 says, "God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female, he created them." We were created in the image of God.

If you can imagine an artist that wants to do a sculpture, a bust, let's say, or a full statue of someone, why would they make an image? It's so that the people can remember the person that's being honored by that piece of artwork? Same thing with a portrait. Why would somebody sit for a portrait? Why would somebody else pay for it and all that? Why would they hang it up? So we can remember that person whose image that is. Then why did God make seven plus billion images of himself? The world, the universe is not about us, friends. It's about him. I think about the ego of Alexander the Great leaving 23 Alexandrias everywhere he went, alright? And the most famous is in Egypt, but there are a bunch of others. We should not ever imagine, however, that God suffers from ego. He is a full being. He doesn't need anything from us. He wants to give himself. And so he creates 7 billion of his own images, and every time you look at a human being, you're looking at the image of God.

But not only that, in redemption, God did it for his own glory. Isaiah 43:6-7, says this, "Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." So we're created to be displays of God's glory, but we're also created to be enjoyers of, tasters of the glory of God, students of it. We're supposed to receive it in and know it and study it and marvel at it. We're supposed to taste and see that God is glorious. And so I like the idea of students. It says in Isaiah 6:3, the seraphim cried to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory." We're not going to put any glory there. It's already there, woven in every lily of the field, every creature, every mountain range, every ocean. It's just, displays the glory of God. Our role uniquely is to study it and know it, having been crafted by God. And so it says in Habakkuk 2:14, "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." We are created to be students of the glory of God, to appraise it and marvel at it. That's what we were made for.

Sadly, however, we fall into sin, and in that sin in Adam, we often sin in Adam, and we ourselves confirm to Adam's bad choice by making bad choices of our own, and we exchange the glory of God for darkness. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So we don't display God's glory as we should and we don't appraise God's glory or enjoy it as we should. We became corrupt. We sinned then became corrupt, and instead of delighting in the glory of God, we have become idolaters. We worship and serve the creature, the created thing rather than the creator who's forever praised. Amen.

For this reason, God sent his son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world. He lived openly every moment for the glory of God. He never disobeyed his heavenly Father at any moment. He was sinless, and he displayed the glory of God in all of his works, his mighty works, loving miracles that put God's nature on display. So you look at Jesus, you behold the glory of God, all of the healings that he did. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He fed the hungry. He stilled the storm. He put God on display. Hebrews 1:3, "The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." He just put God on display. He was able to say to his own disciples, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." You're looking at the radiant glory of God when you look at Jesus, and especially he died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice so that we idolaters who exchanged the glory of God for creature things, that that wrath of God that we deserve for that exchange got put on his own son and he died in our place, and God raised him gloriously from the dead on the third day.

And now the Gospel of Jesus Christ stands ready to transform our darkened hearts. God is ready to speak light into darkness of unregenerate lost people, 2 Corinthians 4:6, "For God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.'" And so that's what happens when we're born again. That's what happens when we're redeemed. We see the glory of God in Christ and we love it. That's a new creation work. And so by faith in Christ, all of our inglorious sins, our dark sins, have been atoned for by faith in Christ. We are transformed from darkness to light, and now we are called on to live every moment for the glory of God.

We're to see God's glory in the world and in life's every moment, and we are to delight in the glory of God. We are to see even in the tiniest moments, even in something as simple as eating and drinking, we are able to see the glory of God in it. Look at Verse 31, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." We're able to savor it and also to display the glory of God, to put God on display by our good works, that others may see our good works and glorify God who's in heaven, so we are able to shine. That's the question of purpose. We have a very important purpose, don't we? To both see and enjoy the glory of God and to put God on display ourselves.

Thirdly, destination. Where is all this headed? I'm just going to say one word: Glory. We are headed for glory. It's like the small amount of glory that we display and that we see, it's as nothing compared to the world we're headed to. We are going to a new heaven and a new earth. We're going to a new Jerusalem, a radiant city, and it says of that new Jerusalem, Revelation 21:23, "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb [that is Jesus] is its lamp." And the most glorious thing there will be in eternity, will be the bride of Christ. Nothing in all of all that he creates or has ever created, brings him as much glory as the perfected bride of Christ, the new Jerusalem, the radiant city of God where he will dwell, the radiant bride of Christ. And I love... One of the angels said to John, who is right in the Book of Revelation, I love this, Revelation 21:9-11, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb."

Don't you wish you have been John? See what she's going to look like when God is done, when Christ is done making her holy and purifying her and getting her ready, "And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, and it shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal." That's what the church is going to look like. That's what the bride of Christ is going to look like when all is said and done. It's going to be radiantly glorious, and if you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, you'll be part of it. You'll be shining like the sun in heaven and so will your brothers and sisters, and you're going to enjoy seeing the glory of God in them, and seeing the glory of God in the new Jerusalem, seeing the glory of God in the new heaven and new earth. That's where we're heading. That's where we're going.

Now, whatever work we can do now to bring that about will not be wasted. Our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Even the smallest thing, even eating or drinking, we can do for the glory of God and we can store up treasure in Heaven. We can live every moment for that future. We can be so filled with hope, and boy, does the world need it. The world is so sad and hopeless, wrapped up in its idolatries and its wickedness and its sin, and it needs the church to shine.

Well, that's all preamble. Now, we have to understand the context of this statement. 1 Corinthians 10:31 can, with, I think, out much harm, be taken out of context and just used. And so I've mostly done since I've been talking, but now I want to set it in its context. Now, we're finishing a three-chapter unfolding of an actual church problem that the Corinthian church was having concerning eating meat sacrifice to idols. If you've not been with us and you heard the Scripture read, it's like, "Meat market? What is that?" And we end up... We go from the meat market to the glory of God. We have to see this thing in context and try to understand what Paul's doing with 1 Corinthians 10:31. So for three chapters, he's addressing this topic of, "What about meat sacrifice to idols?" Remember, the Corinthians were a pagan people. They were a Gentile people who had pagan worship involving animal sacrifices that were offered to gods and goddesses to idols made of stone and metal and wood, and the Apostle Paul came and preached Jesus Christ and him crucified and resurrected, and some of the Corinthians came out of darkness into light, and they became part of a new work of God, the Church of Jesus Christ there in Corinth.

But there was still an ongoing issue of, "Well, can we eat the meat that's been offered to idols?" And some people understood the doctrine that Paul had laid on them, that an idol is nothing. It's nothing. And the gods and goddesses that are celebrated by the idols don't actually exist and that meat is just meat, and Jesus said, "All things, all foods are clean." And so, Paul himself probably said the slogan we've heard again and again, "Everything is permissible," or, "All things are lawful." He said that. "Look, you can eat any food you want." Meat doesn't have a spiritual contagion, or virus to it, it was just meat. Well, the problem was that some of those Corinthians had understood that, accepted it, and moved ahead, that that's right. And they were just flaunting their freedoms in front of some new perhaps converts or those that had not come along sufficiently in the doctrine, and they were wounding them because they were saying, "Look, I think we need to have nothing to do with that life. Even the meat, we're not supposed to even eat the meat." So those were the weaker ones.

And so, Paul gave us a principle in Chapter 8 of love limits liberty. Limit your freedoms if you're going to damage your brother or sister in Christ, or someone else. So yeah, it's just meat, yes, they're just idols they're nothing, but you better be careful with your freedoms; love limits liberty. Then in Chapter 9, he gives himself as an example, sites varieties of examples how he limits his own freedoms, and specifically when it came to eating and drinking and what he wore and how he carried himself in amoral things, things that didn't matter, just a matter of culture. He would shift and fit into whatever culture he was trying to reach with the Gospel. To the Jews, he became like a Jew to win the Jews. To the Gentiles, he became like a gentile to win the Gentiles. "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means, I might save some."

He's using himself as an example, and that's how this whole section ends in 11:1. Follow my example. He's presenting himself as an example. But then at the end of Chapter 9, he transitions. He said, "Now, concerning the actual pagan rituals and the meat and the temple prostitutes, and that whole scene, it is actually very dangerous. It's dangerous to your souls, oh Corinthians, and it's dangerous to my soul. And so I actually beat my body and make it my slave, lest after having preached to others, I myself may be disqualified, so I want to be very careful about how I live. I got to be very, very careful of paganism, and about temple prostitution, and about the whole meat thing, there is a spiritual danger there. And I'm very careful with myself concerning this, because," on into Chapter 10, "I don't want you to be ignorant about what happened with the Jews."

Now, they as a Gentile people, might not have known Jewish history, but the Jewish nation was brought out of a pagan idolatrous system in Egypt and they had been infected by that. They go across the Red Sea, and Paul uses language almost like they're Christians. They were baptized into Moses in the Red Sea and they ate the spiritual food and drank the spiritual drink, so he's using language like the Lord's Supper, and he's saying, "But look what happened to them. Most of them never made it to the promised land. Their bodies were scattered all over the desert."

Now, those stories were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages, has come. We have got to be careful. They were killed because of idolatry, they were killed because of sexual immorality, they were killed because of worldly mindset, that's why they didn't make it in the promised land, they didn't trust God enough to enter the promised land of new Joshua. And so, they died and their children entered instead of them. And so he said, "Be warned. If you think you're standing firm, you better take heed, you better beat your body and make it your slave. Because we are still under temptation. Now, look, "no temptation has seized you except what is common to man, but God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear but with the temptation, will make the way of escape so you can stand up under it."

"So you better watch yourself, you walk, you Corinthians, you walk by the temple prostitutes, you walk by, you can smell the meat, you walk by it every day. You are still in danger, you better watch out." And so, he tells them in Verse 14, "Flee from idolatry…" "Flee, run from it, don't think you can mix Christianity together with the old paganism. Don't say, "Look, hey, I know it's a lie, I know it's false, but you know my family, they still do it, there's still these high festival days, and my bosses or my co-workers, whatever, they'll be offended if I don't partake so I know it's false, but I'm going to... '" He said, "Don't do it. Flee idolatry. It's a danger." Why, Paul, is it a danger? Is it because idols actually are something? No, they're nothing. And the gods and goddesses don't exist, but I'll tell you what does exist. Demons, fallen angels. Demons exist and they have power. And they're alluring and they're dangerous, and you cannot participate spiritually with demons and also participate with the Spirit of Christ with Jesus Christ. You've got to break off from that whole system, and never do it again.

Alright, so that's the context. Now, we're at the final phase of the argument, and he's going to talk about some other issues. What about meat sold in the meat market? Okay, and what if an unbeliever invites you to your home? He's just dealing with some case studies here and we're going to walk through this. And these practical guidelines are very helpful, but vastly more importance is the one supreme purpose to our lives. Verse 31, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God," so whatever you do, you should think I want to do what it's maximally for the glory of God here, whatever it is. That's how it fits in context.

Now, let's look at some guiding principles. And I love... John MacArthur gives us some good headings on this. I didn't steal his sermon. I want you to know that. I don't do that, but I just want to give him credit because he is so good at headings. And the first heading here is edification above gratification.

Edification Above Gratification

Edification above gratification. Building up the church is more important than gratifying your taste. Paul returns to that slogan that they probably got from him. "Everything is permissible or all things are lawful." It's always in quotations in the English translation. It's like, alright, as you say, or that's the slogan, "Everything's lawful," so I can eat any meat I want, right? Well, all things are lawful. Yes, that's true, but not everything is helpful or beneficial. All things are lawful. Okay, true. Not taking that back. If meat is meat, you can eat whatever you want. But not everything edifies or builds up or is constructive. Now, here, we need a very strong image in our mind that I've returned to again and again in my preaching, that there is a great building project going on in the world, spiritually. Christ is building his church, and he's building this spiritual structure out of living stones. 1 Peter gives us this image, Ephesians 2 gives us image. You've heard it many times before, it's a great image. There is this spiritual structure rising to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. And 1 Peter tells us that we are living stones. We have been quarried from Satan's dark kingdom and we are brought in to be a spiritual temple.

So, this edify language is not everything helps with that construction project. Edification is building other people up for the glory of God or building up the church of Jesus for the glory of God. Either way, individually or corporately, edification. Edification then above gratification. Gratification is doing what you want to do, what your desires and tastes and preferences are. What do you like? What do you enjoy? Look, edification is more important than gratifying your taste and your desires. Your liberty is restrained by your higher commitment to edify or build up the Church of Christ.

Others Above Self

Second heading, "Others above self." Look at Verse 24, "No one should seek his own good, but the good of others." This is the basic call of the Christian life, following Christ's pattern of denying ourselves for his sake, for his glory. Matthew 16: 24-25, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

And again, Paul says in Romans 15:2-3, "Each of us should please his neighbor for his good to build him up, for even Christ did not please himself…" Christ didn't come into the world to please himself. He came into the world to save lost people. Don't think, "What do I like to eat or what do I not like to eat?" That's not important. Others are more important than you are. We are so selfish. Do you feel it? Do you feel that relentless drive to make you happy? It is so powerful, so strong, fanatical commitment itself. From infancy, we've been like this.

We have to, by the power of the Spirit, say no to ourselves, and bless others. The question I want to ask you, this is a question that's been searching my heart. What have I given up that I have the right to do, so that I can bless someone else, either non-Christian or Christian? What have I given up, said no to, that I have the right to do, so I can bless another person? We have to live a new life, not a consistent life of asking, "What's in it for me? What's in it? What do I get out of it?" It's not the question. "How can I bless another person for the glory of God?" That's what we're asked.

We live in a selfish world, and we've got that same heart. Philippians 2:21, it says, "For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ…" God calls on us to imitate Christ in putting others' needs and benefits ahead of our own." Philippians 2, 4 and 5 says, "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitudes should be the same as that of Christ, Jesus." He's our role model, as we'll see at the end, 11:1, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ."

Liberty Instead of Legalism

Third heading, "Liberty instead of legalism." Liberty instead of legalism. The principle of freedom still does exist. Meat really is just meat, dear friends. There is no spiritual contagion on the meat. And so you can eat as long as some things are addressed.

Case Study #1: The Meat Market

And we're going to look at these case studies. Case study number one, the meat market. Look at Verse 25 and 26, "Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."

Let's try to understand this context. At the temple, animals were sacrificed. The priest would get to eat some of it, but he wouldn't eat all of that. These were big animals, and so the residual would go to the meat market, and would be sold there at the meat market. But other meat was also sold at the meat market, the whole thing was mixed together. And so, just a farmer, let's say, that raised cattle, that's where he would sell it for profit. The whole thing's all mixed together. And so the meat vendors would not usually keep track, like have a special table for the meat that was just offered to Aphrodite or Apollos or Zeus. And then the meat that just came straight from the vendor. It's all mixed in.

What Paul's saying is a Christian can go and just find a cut of meat that you want, you want to serve it tonight to your family, just buy it and don't ask any questions about it. Don't raise the question of conscious, "I need to know." There's no need for you to know because there's no possibility of a spiritual contagion as long as you don't raise the question. And why is that? Well, he says, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it." Psalm 24:1, "God made meat, in this case, to be enjoyed." 1 Timothy 6:17, "God… richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." But don't ask the meat vendor where it came from. Once he tells you, "Oh, this came right from the temple of Aphrodite," you can't eat it at that point, it's been marked with a story. It doesn't have any spiritual contagion, but now it's an issue between the two of you. You've had that conversation, then don't buy it, don't eat it. Maybe you say at that point to the meat vendor, "Do you have any meat that you have no idea where it came from?" "Eat that." So "I'm not eating that." It'd be a good witnessing opportunity. "Why can't you eat the meat?" "Well, let me tell you." It'd be a gospel opportunity, but don't eat it once it's been stuck with a flag coming from a god or goddess.

Case Study #2: Eating at an Unbeliever’s Home

Alright, case study number two, eating at an unbeliever's house. This, again, is a key issue. The Corinthians were there to be light in a dark place, they're there to witness. Hospitality is going to be part of it. Eating, sharing meals together, that's going to be a big part of it. Either you have some people over to your house, or in this case, some unbeliever asks you to go to their house. You can imagine people with scrupulous conscience will say, "I can't go eat. Who knows what they're going to serve us?" He said, "Don't do that." Look at Verse 27-29, "If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put in front of you without raising questions of conscience."

It's the same principle, just whatever they serve, just eat it, enjoy it, make sure you thank the host and hostess. Be good-mannered, but don't ask where it came from. But Verse 28, "If anyone says to you, '[Oh by the way] this has been offered in sacrifice,' then do not eat it. Both for the sake of the one who told you and for conscience' sake." Now, Paul has to be very careful, Verse 29, "The other man’s conscience…not yours." Your conscience shouldn't be bothered by it at all. We covered that. It's just meat. But the other person seems to have a problem with it. They raised it, so you got to be concerned about their conscience. That's what he's saying.

Where that inside information comes from, I don't know. Maybe it came from the host or hostess themselves. Maybe there's another brother or sister Christian that's come. And they say, "By the way, I recognize that wrapper for the meat. That comes right from the temple of Apollo." It's like, "What did you have to say that for? It looked so good. We could have enjoyed it but now look what you did." Don't say all that, alright. But just say, imagine it's a brother or sister in Christ from your church that's there, and say, "Look, you need to know where that meat comes from." They bring it up. Then don't eat it.

You've been brought to a fork in the road ethically at that point. You're going to have to offend somebody, there's nothing you can do. Interestingly, he said, "I would rather have you offend your host and hostess than offend your brother in Christ." Isn't that incredible? You have to explain that the hostess perhaps worked really hard on that meal, you have to say, "I can't eat it." That's going to be extremely awkward, but it's more important to maintain unity horizontally with your brother or sister in Christ. Put their conscience ahead of even the good manners of that situation. And again, it will be hopefully a good witnessing opportunity, "Let me explain why. It doesn't have anything to do with your... I'm sure you did a wonderful job cooking, but just we need to explain why." And that's a ministry opportunity.

Look at Verse 32-33, "Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews or Greeks, or the church of God." Paul has in mind other Christians that are there. "Even as I try to please everybody in every way, for I'm not seeking my own good but the good of many so that they may be saved." Now, here we have to make a final statement about legalism. Liberty over legalism. We can't be ruled by other people's consciences. They need to come up to the strong position, not stay down in the weak position. All you weak conscience Christians, you need to get up to a strong place where you recognize idols are nothing, and meat is just meat. You need to get with the program and get there for the good of the church. Look at Verse 29 and 30, he says, "Why should my freedom be judged by another person's conscience? If I take part in a meal with thankfulness, then why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?" You could imagine, behind that kind of a little bit belligerent statement.

Now, the Judaizers that wanted Christians to still maintain kosher and didn't seem to act like they knew Jesus had declared all foods clean. And Paul says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm and don't let yourself be bound by a yoke of slavery." Legalism. So behind... Like no meat on the table. We're not even doing meat right now, we're talking doctrine. Meat is just meat. Alright, let's learn that lesson. That's what he's saying here.

God’s Glory Above All

Now, above all of these things is the glory of God. This is the final principle just as it was for us today, the first principle. Look at Verse 31, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Smallest details of life can be elevated to the level of the eternal glory of God. How do I eat for the glory of God? Well, in context, it's just, my eating and drinking is not that important. Winning other people to Christ, now, that's important. That's a central way of understanding that.

But another way is just simply, we can enjoy delicious foods, knowing that God made them for your taste buds. The variety of flavors is staggering. I was in Harris Teeter just the other day, and I couldn't believe the variety of cold cereals. I was overwhelmed, I didn't know that there were five different versions of Life cereal. That's quite remarkable. But even more, just think about vegetables, fruits. A well-stocked produce area is remarkable. Think of the different flavors that God has made, and God made them so that you would enjoy them. For the earth is the Lord's, God is so good. Even eating a peach or some grapes or a salad made from some fresh... All of those things, God made for your enjoyment, you can eat it to the glory of God, if you recognize the divine origin of even simple blessings like that.

And the same thing with drinking, you can drink even a cup of cold water and say, "Thank you God for refreshing me on a hot day," just being extremely God-centered at every moment and extend it to just the menial chores of life. You can do laundry to the glory of God. You can study for your midterm exam for the glory of God. You can make your bed for the glory of God. Every single moment can be lived for the glory of God if you do it in a God-centered way. God, thank you that you've given me this opportunity to do this right now. It's a beautiful thing.

Paul ends with the power of example. "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." Now, you may wonder, why are we going over into Chapter 11:1? I don't know. Some monks somewhere decided where to divide the chapter. And I think the chapter and verse divisions are helpful. And we generally follow them, but here we are in 11:1. But it just seems to fit with what we just got done talking about. Paul had been presenting himself as an example on all this. Let's follow Paul's example. He is a man who presents himself again and again as an example. He said "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it in practice and the God of peace will be with you." Wow, what a statement. Don't we need that from godly men and women? Don't we need godly men, discipling men, and women, discipling women, to say, "Follow me as I follow Christ."

And Christ is the ultimate example of the word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst... He taught us how to eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners, and not sin. He showed us how we can win the lost in those kinds of settings. He is our role model.

Alright, what applications can we take from this? Well, first, more than anything, and I was thinking about this this very morning. Come to Christ, come to Christ. I pray that God would bring some lost people to hear this. Just ask yourself the three basic questions. Why am I here, why do I even exist, what is my purpose in life and where is all of this going? And if you have no answers to those questions, come to Christ, he'll give you those answers. But come, especially because up to this point, if you've not been a Christian, you've been living for your own appetites and your own desires. And the Lord wants to forgive you, Jesus died on the cross for all of those sins. Come and trust in him, and find forgiveness and find purpose and meaning, and just realize, the Bible tells you, you're going to a glorious place if you do, a place of glory.

Secondly, for you Christians, are you willing to give up some of your freedoms and preferences to benefit other people, especially lost people? How are you willing to be inconvenienced, so that lost people can be brought to faith in Christ? What foods are you willing to eat that you don't like? What practices and amoral things are you willing to do just to win lost people? What are you willing to do? What are you willing to give up? And the same is true within the church. How are you willing to be inconvenienced to edify and to build up the body of Christ? We are so selfish in our lifestyles.

Finally, how can we take every moment and see the glory of God in it? When I was writing the book, Infinite Journey, I was thinking about this image. You know how in 1 Corinthians 3, it talks about gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay and straw? And I was thinking, everyday experiences just seem like so much wood, hay, and straw. But they're not. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "Every moment of every day, I could store up treasure in Heaven." I was reminded of a creepy children's story that I read years ago of a miller who was boasting to a king about his daughter, and she had the power to spin straw into gold. She didn't, but he boasted, the king was interested, of course, put her in some dungeon room with bales of its straw, and a spinning wheel. And told her to get busy or she would face some dire consequence the next day. Well, she's weeping. She don't know what to do. And suddenly, this creepy dwarf shows up, and offers, through a series, this happens over multiple days. Ultimately, if she'll give her first-born child to him...I mean, these are children's stories. Who okayed this?

And what does he need with her first-born child? If he's got the ability to spin straw into gold, he should... Well, that's another issue, but I'm just finding problems with the story. This is the creepy story of Rumpelstiltskin. But here's the thing, if you really believe 1 Corinthians 10:31, you can spin straw into gold every day. You can take the moments of everyday life and by being God-centered, say, "Oh, God, I want to glorify you right now. All I want to do is to live for your glory. How can I eat for the glory of God? How can I drink? How can I do dishes? How can I study for a test? How can I go to work for the glory of God? How can I drive my commute for the glory of God? What can I do, that you would be put on display as a radiant, glorious God?"

So turn in your Bibles 1 Corinthians 10, we continue our study in this marvelous book, looking this morning at verses 14 through 22. In the year 2011, I was on a mission trip to Nepal, a fulfillment of a lot of dreams I had from early in my Christian life, I always had a heart for Nepal. Prayed for an unreached people group in Nepal for 10 years. And then the door opened, there was an opportunity for me to go on a mission trip. And we were there in the capital city of Kathmandu and we were at a restaurant, kind of open air restaurant waiting for lunch, and I heard the repetitive tap-tap-tap of hammer on metal. I thought we were near an auto body shop because I also saw the bluish glow of an acetylene torch.

And as I mentioned those sites and sounds, the missionary that we are with says it's not an auto body shop, that's an idol factory. It's a Buddhist kingdom there, that mountainous kingdom, and there are statues of Buddha everywhere. They are manufactured continually. There's a big trade in idols there in Kathmandu. And it was hard to believe and it was actually kind of hard to keep eating my meal as we continued to hear the sounds of these idols being fashioned. But as I look back on that experience, I think about another thing that I read once and it was written by John Calvin in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, 16th century reformer in Geneva, said this very famously, "The human heart is a perpetual idol factory." The human heart is a perpetual idol factory. Now, we don't eat our meals near idol factories, hearing the tap-tap-tap of hammer on metal or other sounds of that kind of physical construction of our idols. Our very hearts are fashioning, continually fashioning the idols that are bringing us spiritual torment. We're making them ourselves.

As we come this morning to 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, we're coming to as clear a command as you're gonna find in the New Testament on this matter. Flee idolatry, flee idolatry. I fear that many of us Americans think, "Well that's obsolete, we don't have to worry about that. At least in this culture, we don't make metal or stone or wood idols and bow down to them." That whole process seems as alien to us as Kathmandu itself, perhaps. So we think, perhaps that we're exempt from this command, but we're not. The idols of our hearts are tormenting us far more than we think they are.

My desire, my prayer, as you just heard a moment ago and been praying, is that God would open the eyes of our hearts to see the idols that are troubling us. This has always been an issue with the human race. Therefore, the first two of the 10 Commandments have to do with this issue. Exodus 20:2-5, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or in the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God." God knew very well that He made us to worship Him. He made us for worship, we were crafted in our minds and hearts to worship. And if we do not worship the true God in the true way, in the biblical way, we will most certainly be guilty of false worship. We will worship an idol. We're not going to worship nothing. We will worship a God substitute if we do not worship the true God.

Now, like I said, our idols are not generally made of wood, iron, bronze, marble, stone, gold or silver, shaped into some symbolic statue before which we bow. I saw that in Japan and their Shinto religion and I saw people going to shrines and clapping to get the deity's attention before they would pray. I've seen that in India, their idols, their statues, gods and goddesses by the thousands in Mumbai and Pune. And I've seen them with my own eyes in some of the most grotesque shapes you can imagine with all kinds of history behind it. I've seen all that. But we have idols and they torment us, they tempt us. Whatever dominates your mind, whatever engrosses the very core of your being, if it's not the triune God, if it's not the Father, Son, and the Spirit, it is a created thing. It is an idol. What you live for. What you cannot live without. That's what we're dealing with. In this sermon we're going to come face-to-face with the essential reason, frankly, why all of us engage in habitual sin. Behind all habitual sin is some idol somewhere.

Now, if you look in the Old Testament, again and again when the godly kings and rulers and prophets would expose idolatry, they went on some wrecking expedition like Josiah, he was a wrecking ball. And God has been in the business of just toppling idols, just destroying them. Think about Dagon, remember when the Ark of the Covenant went into the Philistine land and was put in the temple to show the triumph of Dagon over the God of the Israelites, and how that statue fell down, and they thought it had just been toppled and it just needed some better hardware. Just nail it down a little bit better. And then the next day, it was basically broken to pieces. But why was the ark even there? It's because the Israelites worshipped the ark, thinking that if the ark was there, they wouldn't lose the battle. And so, even some Orthodox expressions of faith can become an idol if we worship what we think is the true God in a false way. Idolatry.

So we need to come face-to-face with this and take this seriously. And look right away at the urgent command, verse 14, "Therefore dear friends, flee from idolatry." Flee from idolatry. So now we need to understand the context, 1 Corinthians 8-10 is dealing with one main topic: Meat sacrificed to idols. The Apostle Paul had come to Corinth, a dark place, a pagan place, a wicked place, preached the gospel. He preached Christ and Him crucified. Some people were rescued out of the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the beloved Son, and they forsook their idolatry, they forsook their pagan worship practices, became the Church of Jesus Christ there in Corinth.

The Context

Now, in 1 Corinthians 8, Paul addresses the talk of meat sacrificed to idols by addressing those that are stronger, more orthodox in their doctrine or further along in sanctification, who are flaunting their freedoms and just eating meat sacrificed to idols. And in so doing they were wounding the new consciences, the consciences of the relatively new converted people. And Paul is saying effectively in 1 Corinthians 8, don't do that. Love limits liberty. Yes, you have the freedom to eat but if your eating is causing a brother or sister to stumble, don't do it.

Then in Chapter 9, he gives himself as an example. He says effectively, like he was going to say, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." My example is I don't live for myself. Like take the issue of money. I could have gotten money for ministry, but I didn't do it, I didn't use that right, that privilege, so that I could preach the Gospel free of charge. And then just generally in my ministry, my ministry to the Greeks and to the Jews alike, I assess the situation and whatever is best for those people, Jew or Greek, I'm going to do, when it comes to amoral preferences. When it comes to food or clothing or mannerisms, I'm going to become a Jew to win the Jews. I'm going to become a Gentile to win the Gentiles. Again, not talking about immoral things but amoral preferences, I'm going to put my preferences behind me, I'm going to "become all things to all people so that by all possible means, I might save some." So I'll eat whatever they serve me, I will wear whatever clothes, I will take on mannerisms, I will become the missionary, I will do what I have to do to fit into their culture and win them.

But then at the end of Chapter 9, I think he turns a corner. So, if you just remove the chapter divisions and just see the whole thing as an unfolding, I think he turns a corner when he talks about himself and he talks about running a race, and he says only those people that go into strict discipline win the race. They're the only ones. And so concerning myself, "I beat my body and I make it my slave, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified from the prize, for I don't want you to be ignorant" about the history of the Jews, and he goes right on into how the Jewish nation as a whole were rescued out of bondage, they were rescued out of slavery and they followed the pillar of cloud and they followed and went into the Red Sea and they were baptized, Paul says, into the Red Sea and they followed and they drank from the spiritual rock, and the rock was Christ. And so they're experiencing all of the trappings of that early version of Christianity effectively, but most of them never made it in the promised land. Their bodies were scattered all over the desert.

So then if you go back to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul says, "I'm worried about myself, I'm worried about my heart, I'm worried about idolatry." But Paul, you're an Orthodox Jew. Have you not read the history of idolatry in the Jewish nation? How the same combination of meat and sex and false gods and goddesses was extremely effective in destroying generation after generation of my forebearers? It wasn't just that first generation that fell into idolatry, and they did. And Paul talks about that very, very plainly. Look at verse 6 through 11, Chapter 10, "Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did."

So that first generation of those that were rescued under Moses, they set their hearts on evil things, "Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry. We should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day, 23,000 of them died. We should not test the Lord as some of them did and they were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did, and they were killed by the destroying angel. Now, these things happened to them as examples, and they were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come."

So we read all those Old Testament stories about what idolatry did to the Jewish nation, all of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah and Elisha that just railed against idolatry. And we who live in the 21st century American context, we think we're exempt, we don't have to worry about idolatry. Paul was worried about it, but, Paul, look at you, you're a holy man, you're a preacher of the Gospel. I know, but I have to walk by that temple grounds, I have to smell that meat, I have to see those temple prostitutes, I have to walk by that and don't think that I don't know that the seeds of my own destruction are in my own heart. And Paul writes about it, doesn't he? Romans 7, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

So Paul's saying there's a battle going on inside me. The Spirit wars against the flesh, the flesh against the Spirit. Galatians 5, that's going on inside me, Paul's saying. And so I beat my body and I make it my slave, so I won't be disqualified. And you Corinthians, you need to do the same. You may be one of the stronger ones, you may be one of the more mature ones but you're still under temptation. Look what he said, verse 12-13: "If you think you are standing firm, you better take heed lest you fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." This is going on all over the world, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride of life, same menu, Satan is enticing you with these sins.

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man, but God is faithful, He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will also provide a way of escape so you can stand up under it." So that's the context.

The Command: Run!

So now let's look at the command, verse 14, "Therefore my dear friends, flee from my idolatry." Therefore, in light of all that I've been saying... Paul's epistles are very logical. He builds in arguments, he says in light of all of this, flee, flee from idolatry. And he says, "My dear friends," he uses a sweet tone with them, he loves them, they are his dear children. They have many guides and many teachers but they only had one spiritual father and in the gospel, he became their father by planting that church. He says he loves them and he calls them there his dear friends. They're beloved to him. Now, here's the simple verb, flee. Run for your lives. Run.

It fits what he just said about temptation. God will... He's faithful. He won't allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation will make what? A way of escape. What are you supposed to do with it? Take it. Run, get out the door, survive it, spiritually survive the temptation. Satan is going to spread a net for your feet. He's going to concoct a situation. It's a booby trap, it's on the path, get around it, get away from it, get out of it, go past it, so that you don't fall into what he has done, the trap he has set, flee.

Now, Jesus said in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation," so don't be a fool and intentionally tempt yourself. You've fallen in certain areas and sinned before, don't set that up and do it again. So God, deliver us from the evil one. That's a better translation. We're used to deliver us from evil but it's literally deliver us from the evil one. Satan is intelligent, he is crafting temptation, so Lord, lead us not into temptation. Now, some temptations will seize you. They'll come upon you like an armed bandit back in the days of highway robbery. They seize you, they come upon you, and Jesus said, temptations are inevitable, they're going to come. Now woe to the one through whom they come, but they're going to come. In that situation, you need to fight, you need to stand firm by running. It's a weird image, isn't it? Stand by running. So in other words, you're still filled with the Spirit, you're still holy, you got past the moment, you got past the temptation, still walking with Jesus. Flee. That's what he's calling you to do.

What is Idolatry?

Now, the idolatry he's talking about here is that organized system of pagan religion, been worked out for centuries, and so they had a shrine, a temple, and they had offerings that were being offered, animals sacrificed to the gods and goddesses, and they would cook the meat and the priests would eat some of it, just like the Levitical priests, they had extra meat that would be sold in the meat market, we'll get to that, God willing, next week. So they have all this meat going on, it's just a carnival, that's literally what a carnival is, it's where flesh is being cooked. And the Corinthian Christians had to walk by this place, they knew it well, there was no way to get around it, they just had to walk by it to get to their homes or get to where they worked or different things they had to do in the city. And there it was, and they could smell it, and then they could see the temple of the shrine prostitutes, male and female. Maybe they knew some of those people by name, they knew them by name, and so he said, Look, that whole thing, the practice of bowing down...

Like remember Daniel 3, when there was some kind of music, some weird kind of cacophonous music. Then everyone had to fall down and bow down to the golden statute. Daniel Chapter 3. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they wouldn't bow down. So there's this organized system of pagan religion. Flee that. Don't take part in that, but idolatry is much bigger than that. So what is idolatry? One writer gives this definition, worshipping anything other than the true God in the true way. I think it's a good definition.

For me, probably the most significant biblical definition comes in Romans 1:25. You could turn and look there if you want, it's a key verse, Romans 1:25, or you can just listen, Romans 1:25 says, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things more than the Creator, who is forever praised. Amen." So there it is. To worship and serve a created thing, a creature, more than the Creator who is forever praised, that's idolatry. Any created thing that seizes our souls.

Another clue comes in Colossians 3, where Paul calls greed idolatry. Says the same thing in Ephesians. A greedy person is an idolater. Now, the simplest way to think about greed is money. If you're just living for money, you're an idolater. So the Wall Street investor or the CEO of a startup company and all they think about all day long is their business and how to make money and market share and all that. That's idolatry. That's idolatry. It's seizing their mind and their heart. But so is someone that's addicted to Internet pornography, that person's an idolater. Or to hobbies, or other forms of pleasure, movies, Netflix, that kind of thing. What about smartphones? Someone asked me, "Do you think there's any chance that a smartphone could be an idol?" I was at an airport recently, and I looked around, took a kind of a simple poll of human beings sitting within eyesight of me. 90% of them were on smartphones. 90%. I'm like, "Wow. What has Steve Jobs wrought?" Now here we are, and we almost can't get through a day... And I've seen it, the infiltration into my own mind, to my own habits.

I was at a conference and I was sitting there, and I was listening and it was marginally interesting. And then it wasn't so interesting. And so I'm reaching for my phone, and I'm checking my emails and I'm doing some stuff. Well, here's the thing with the smartphone, it's two things. They both begin with T. It's tool and toy. And the thing are just woven together. And I go from tool to toy and back to tool again. And I think, "Oh, I'm working. I'm being productive." I am sometimes. But the fact is it is an idol. And I proved it because of my behavior. I started to be like an addict. I'm like, "I'm not going to. All right. I'm not going to touch it." And then my hand, it just start to move. And I'd, "Stop it. Don't look. You don't need it. No one cares where you are and no one is texting you or emailing you. Forget it. And besides which, you're here to listen. So learn and listen and do that." It was amazing what I had to do. I was ready to go across the room and hand it to a friend for like the next half hour just so I could focus.

Well, all humor aside, the fact of the matter is indications of an idol. When you can't live without something. We humans were made to worship and serve. Now, the key thing then is created thing, I get it. Anything that is not the Triune God in this universe, in the spiritual realm or the physical realm, is a creature. That's the two great categories of being or essence there is in the world. There's God and everything else. Everything else is creature. Anything in that category that you put above God... Now here's where you have to understand what does it mean to worship and serve? We'll get to that. But it has to do with what consumes your mind and your emotions, your affections, the direction of your life, your stewardship decisions. We'll get to all that. And Paul's command is to flee.

Then he gives some reasons. Reason number one, Christian worship is intimate sharing with Christ. Let's look at verse 15-17. "I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf." So he's talking here about Christian worship. Now he begins by reasoning with us. Paul is a very reasonable teacher of the Gospel. He reasons things out. There's a lot of logic in Paul's epistles.

Now, all true religion begins with the mind. It begins with how you think. Paul's got to win the battle of the mind, the transformation of the mind by the Spirit, through the Word of God. That's how our religion changes. As you think differently, you'll live differently. So he says, "I speak as to sensible people." I'm speaking to reasonable people. Idolatry makes us fools. There's an essential foolishness to idolatry. As Romans 1:22-23 says, "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images." There's an essential foolishness, I believe Satan is mocking the human race by getting us to bow down before these kinds of statues, made to look like mortal man and animals and birds and reptiles. Look what he can make us do. Don't think that the Indian people and the people of Kathmandu and the people of Japan are idiots. But when they are worshipping idols, Satan has made them fools. He's made them foolish. And so also with us, with our idolatry. There's an essential foolishness to us.

The Holy Spirit has come to rescue us from foolishness. Christ has become for us wisdom from God. He is our wisdom. He makes us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So Paul urges them to think in verse 15, to reason it out. "I'm speaking to sensible people. Judge this for yourself." Then he goes to the essence of worship. And you may not know this. You may have underestimated this. Worship is a spiritual union with a deity. There's a fellowship we share with an invisible spiritual being. An intimate sharing with the deity. There is a mystical union. That's true of either true worship of the Triune God by the Holy Spirit, or it's true of pagan worship. There is a mystical union that's going on in worship. That's what Paul is saying here. When we worship Christ, we are intimately spiritually connected with Him. When pagans worship idols, they're intimately spiritually connected with the idol. Don't underestimate that intimate spiritual connection that's going on.

The Spiritual Intimacy of the Lord’s Supper

Look at the example he gives, the spiritual intimacy of the Lord's Supper, verse 16-17. "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf." So Paul reaches for a central or main element of Christian worship, the Lord's Supper. Now he's going to talk in much more detail about it in Chapter 11. We'll get to that. You're very familiar with those verses. We'll get to that. But now, he just briefly reaches for the Lord's Supper. And he's talking about that. And he says, "Behind the actual elements of bread and wine, there's a spiritual reality." And I'm going to talk about this in Chapter 11, but this is the essence of my view of the Lord's Supper. The bread is just bread, and the juice is just juice. But there is a spiritual reality through the Holy Spirit behind it that I yearn to tap into every time we participate in the Lord's Supper. It's not a bare memorial. It's not some empty ritual. For me, I expect to eat and drink spiritually in Christ, through the Spirit. I think you should too.

But he's saying that is, I think, a proper view of the Lord's Supper. The spiritual union we have. Look at the word that he uses. A participation. The Greek word is Koinonia. It is a sharing, a sharing in the blood of Christ. It's a Koinonia, a sharing together in the body of Christ. It's the same thing that he said, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life…"

And so he says plainly, "If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection." There's a spiritual mystical union between us and Jesus. That's what he's saying. So that's the first example.

Then he gives the second example of Jewish sacrifice. Look at verse 18. "Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?" Now, the animal sacrificial system Paul knew was obsolete by then, but he's looking back at Jewish history. When the animal sacrifices were offered in a right way through the Spirit, there was a participation of the people together with the altar. Let me give a good example of this. And that's the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Remember that? And do you remember how that was essentially a sacrifice? Two altars, two animals sacrificed, and then they were crying out for Baal. And the one that answered with fire from heaven, "No, let Him be. He's the true God." And we know that Baal never answered. But then Elijah pours water on the thing, so like it's drenched in water. And then he prays a simple prayer, and then fire falls from heaven and consumes the sacrifice. Everything is just consumed.

What happened to the people at that moment? They all fell down and said, "The Lord, He is God." The Lord, He is God. It was really like a spiritual fire fell from heaven to their hearts and God was turning the idolatrous people of Israel back to worship Him and love Him. So that is a participation in the actual sacrifice. There was a physical fire on the altar, there was a spiritual fire that came in their hearts. That's what Paul means in verse 18. Then he goes to a second and deeper thing. And this is something perhaps you didn't know. But behind every false religious system, there is a demonic reality, a demonic presence.

Look what he says in verses 19 and 20. "Do I mean then that the sacrifice offered to an idol is anything or an idol is anything? No. But the sacrifice of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons." So there is actually a real spiritual presence in all false worship. There is a demonic reality behind it. Now, Paul has to address the earlier basic teaching that we got in Chapter 8, Verse 4. "We know that an idol is nothing and that meat offered is just meat." Yeah well that's not the complete truth. An idol, a physical idol is just physical stuff. There's nothing there. But behind it is a demon. So, Zeus, Aphrodite, Venus, Hermes, Apollo, they don't exist. But there are demons that impersonate gods and goddesses, so to deceive people and lead them into false worship. It's demonic.

Now, this is taught in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 32, The Song of Moses. Amazing, prophetic. It was a prediction before the Jews ever entered the Promised Land. Let me tell you what's going to happen to you in the future. I'm going to teach you a song. Songs are easy to remember. So he says ahead of time what's going to happen. This is Deuteronomy 32:15-18. "Israel made God jealous with their foreign gods and angered Him with their detestable idols." This is Deuteronomy 32 verse 17. "They sacrifice to demons, which are not God. Gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. You deserted the rock who fathered you, you forgot the God who gave you birth." And you worship demons.

Well, he said this ahead of time. This is exactly what they were going to go into the Promised Land and do. When they worshipped Baal, and Moloch, and Ashtoreth and all that. They weren't real, but the demons behind them were. I believe all false... This teaches effectively, all false religions in the world have a demonic origin. Think about Acts 19. Remember the Shrine or the Temple of Artemis of the Ephesians, remember that? Do you know the origin of that was something supernatural? It was an image of the goddess that fell from heaven. And you're like, "Well it's nothing. It was a meteorite." It's like the face of a goddess on a tortilla or something like that, and they see there it is, and it gets framed and put up. Or I don't know what it was, but there was something supernatural that fell. And they built a whole world-famous temple around it. I think this is an indication of the supernatural origin of false worship, false religion.

Islam, I believe, is the same way. In the year 610 AD, Muhammad went into a cave and had an overpowering encounter with the supernatural being who he later identified as the angel Gabriel. And this powerful being seized him physically and shook him and basically effectively beat him up. And in the end, after a number of encounters, commanded him to recite. That's where the word Koran came from, and that's where the Koran had its origin in that supernatural encounter with, he believes, an angel of light. But we know from 2 Corinthians that even Satan can masquerade as an angel of light.

Well what about Mormonism? Joseph Smith, the originator of that false religion, that false cult, had an encounter with an angel called Moroni. And he told him that there were these gold plates in a hill Cumorah in upstate New York and reciting from that gave us, gave the world the Book of Mormon. I think it's quite possible that there was a real supernatural encounter between a demon and Joseph Smith. And I think that this is true of all false cults and false world religion, religious system. All of them. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Shintoism. All of it. All of these false religious systems from this text, I would say, have demonic origin. There's a supernatural power behind them.

Reason number three, verse 21-22. Idolatry provokes the Lord to jealousy. Verse 21-22, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too. You cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than He?" God will not share His bride with another. He is jealous still. His name is jealousy still. There's an exclusive love He has for the hearts of His people and He will not share you with demons and He will not share you with idols. Deuteronomy 32:21 says, "They made me jealous by what is no God, they angered me with their worthless idols." And then he says very powerfully, "Are we stronger than He?" Like the black preacher said years ago, "Your arm is too short to box with God." You don't want to take God on. You don't want to make Him jealous. For jealousy burns like a fire in the heart of the lover. And He will be jealous over us. The Spirit that He put to live in us is jealous over us, Peter says or James says. And so He will not share us with idols.

Alright, so what about our 21st century applications? Well, it's easy to excuse ourselves in it. We're Western scientific materialists. We believe in the god of the gaps. And so, where there are gaps in scientific knowledge, we ascribe it to a deity. But once we study meteorology, we know where lightning comes from and thunder. And so, we don't worship the Thunder god anymore. You see, that's the way we think. Therefore we have a very materialistic, non-spiritual view of the world. And we think we actually don't think much about angels and demons. We don't think much as much as we should about Satan and the spiritual dimensions to what we do. So we're easy to say like, we're not the Aztecs or the Incas of the Mayans or whatever. We don't bow down like that. It's like, Yeah, well, we have our idols. Tim Keller calls them functional saviors.

And if we think we're exempt, look at the final verse of 1 John 5:21, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." It's like the last thing John wanted to say in that epistle. This is an issue for us New Testament people. So we should not say, "I thank you God that I have no idols." That's not the way to go here on this topic. Instead, we should say as we frequently do Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, Oh God, and know my heart. Show me if there's any offensive way in me." Behind the offensive way in us is an idol. Show me what the idol looks like in my life, in my heart. David Powlison put it this way. "The most basic question which God continually poses to each human heart: Has something or someone besides Jesus Christ taken the title to your heart's trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear, and delight?" Trust, what you trust in. Preoccupation, what's in your mind. Loyalty, what you're loyal to, what you're fighting for. Service, what you get out energetically and serve. Fear and delight. What you fear losing, what you delight in having. Has something other than Jesus taken the title to those things? Anything more fundamental than God to our happiness, our sense of wellbeing, our definition of success.

Tim Keller has done an excellent, excellent work on this. And I would commend his writings on idolatry. He says this. "Why do we ever fail to love or keep promises or live unselfishly? Of course, the general answer is because we're weak and sinful. But the specific answer is, there's always something besides Jesus Christ that we feel that we must have to be happy, and that is more important to our hearts than God, and that is enslaving the heart through inordinate desires." For example, we would not lie unless we first made something else, namely human approval, reputation, power over others, financial advantage, more important and valuable to us than Jesus. There's always an idol at the core of it. It could be money or possessions, it could be power, it could be physical pleasure. It could be food or alcohol, it could be some habit pattern or some hobby or interest. Could be a person, a specific person. We can make an idol of any created thing.

So what Tim Keller does is he says, "How can I find them?" He looks at four things. First, look at your imagination. Look at your imagination. "Your religion", he says, "is what you do with your solitude." So what do you do when you're alone? What do you think about? What do you imagine? Where does your mind go? A single daydream doesn't prove an idol. But if you're just again and again fantasizing and thinking about something, and it's not Christ, it's not God, that's indication of an idol.

Secondly, look at your money. What do you spend your money on? I would expand it to time and energy. Those three, time, energy, money. What do you spend yourself on? If it's not Christ, if it's not the advancement of the kingdom, relief for the poor, the ministry of the church, which the Lord tells us to give to cheerfully and sacrificially, if it's something else and you're just again and again and again spending yourself and your resources on that, there's likelihood an idol. Where your money is, there your heart will be also.

Thirdly, "what about unanswered prayers and disappointment," says Tim Keller, "How do you react when you don't get you what you want in life?" If you have a reaction that is unbiblical to disappointments and unanswered prayer, there's likelihood an idol behind that. And then fourth, what about your uncontrollable emotions? What makes you enraged? Carnally angry. What makes you over-the-top happy that's not connected to Jesus? Uncontrollable emotions. Look at your anger. Is there some root idol here, where I have to have this, I have to have my way in this thing or I'm going to get angry. Those four things. Imagination, money, disappointments, and strong emotions indicate idols. What to do about it?

Well, here's who I want to speak to: All of you, but especially those of you who came in here outside of Christ, you're not Christians. But the answer is the same for all of us. Jesus Christ is an idol destroyer. He will destroy your idols by putting Himself and all of His glory and beauty and power in its place. He will make a whip and clean your heart out through the Holy Spirit. Maybe this sermon is kind of like that whip, that Jesus wants to get in your heart and clean you out. And He wants to put Himself and all of His glory and His beauty and His majesty in its place. Remember, idols are what we follow when Jesus isn't enough. So that Jesus would be enough, Jesus came to die on the cross for all of your idolatry, all the ways you've sinned with idols. He came to take all that wrath on Himself and die. So give Him all of your burdens. Idols are burdens, they're heavy. I mean, think about precious metals. They're heavy. Alright? The idols of Babylon had to be put in an ox cart and the ox could barely drag them. They're heavy. So give your idols to Jesus. Give your sins to Him and let Him and His death on the cross be the substitute and the Savior for you and nothing else. Close with me in prayer.

Turn in your Bibles to the text you just heard read, 1 Corinthians Chapter 10. We're looking this morning at two verses in particular, and zeroing in on the topic of temptations. And I want to begin by talking about something I know almost nothing about. So that's a bad idea, already. So we're already somewhat at a deficit position but I'm talking about fishing. I know nothing about, almost nothing about fishing. And I know that there's a number of expert fishermen in our congregation that are probably going to be willing, after this sermon to set me straight on some things I'm about to say. But despite the fact that I grew up across the street from a very good fishing hole, in Framingham, Massachusetts, and there were numbers of people that fished there. I never did, honestly, I didn't appreciate either the process or the product of fishing.

So, just sitting there with a pole in my hand, and with my lack of knowledge, I was guaranteed to be unsuccessful. I'll talk about that more in a moment. But then, what did you get? You got a fish and I can't stand seafood, I can't stand fish of any sort, so why would I do that? So I'd worked all that through and I just didn't do that. But there are some expert fishermen here. My son was roommate to somebody who was on the NC State fishing team. I didn't know there was a fishing team at NC State, not only that, that they've won three national championships at Bass fishing. They go to local lakes here, and they just they go out in pairs and teams, and if anyone from that school wins the tournament, they're national champions. And they know a lot about Bass fishing. Some of you go like deep sea fishing. You go out to Wilmington and your charter a boat, and you're looking for a blue marlin or sailfish, some trophy fish and you're good at that.

I don't know if there's any fly-fishermen here. I've heard that that takes some of the highest level of intelligence, to be able to skillfully tie a fly, make it look like exactly the kind of flies that'd be flying over a specific stream in a specific time. And not only that, but the casting technique to be able to lay the line down gently, so that those very apparently very intelligent trout who apparently have very good eyesight can tell the difference between a poor technique and one that's just right. So the concept though with fishing seems to be a study of the habit patterns of the fish, where they pool and congregate at different times of day and what they like to eat. And so, a study also of the bait.

Number of years ago, I read a book by a Puritan, Thomas Brooks, entitled Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. And it talks about how we can be aware of and guard against the way the devil tempts us to sin. And the first precious remedy against Satan's, the first device he talked about was Satan's skill at lavishing on the bait and hiding the hook. He is really good at choosing, studying your habit patterns and knowing the right bait to use, but hiding the hook. What will happen to you if you swallow that bait in that hook in that line? And so my purpose today as I stand before you is to help you be aware of the baited hooks that are around you every day, and there are far more than you think there are. We are tempted continually towards sin, by a very shrewd expert angler or fisherman for our souls, and that is the devil. He's been at it a long time, he is skillful and he knows how to bait the hook and hide it from us. 

My job this morning is to take the bait off, so you can see the hook and the line and what it is Satan's trying to do. And how he is trying to destroy your soul, how he's trying to destroy my soul by sin. Look again at Verse 13, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man and God is faithful, He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear but with the temptation will make a way of escape so that you can bear up," or "stand up under it." So the word temptation is mentioned multiple times, "No temptation has seized you. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, with the temptation He'll provide the way of escape." So this is all about temptation. That's what we're studying here today.

Now we're in enemy territory, we need to know that, while we live between now and the time we depart this earth, we will be in enemy territory. We have an ancient triad of enemies just like every generation of Christians has had to face. We have to face the same triad, generally called the world, the flesh and the devil.

The Devil

Let's take it with the devil first. Satan is portrayed in 1 Peter 5, like a lion that prowls around, a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He's constantly on the loose, he's vicious, powerful and skillful. And you have to be self-controlled and alert, you have to be aware of what the devil does. Now, one of the most disconcerting concepts here in this topic is the devil in some mysterious way, seems to have access to our minds. He's able to plant thoughts in our minds. Some people question this, they think it's not true. But think this way, do you remember how an angel warned Joseph in a dream to depart and take Mary and the baby Jesus and flee to Egypt? And then after that, after Herod had died, an angel spoke again to Joseph in a dream and told him that those who were seeking the child's life were dead. So, that's actual information imparted by an angel into Joseph's mind directly by a dream.

Satan's a fallen angel. So in some mysterious way, he is able to plant thoughts in our minds. So the temptation is a matter of the battle for the mind, of taking every thought captive, as another verse says. And he has something that the Bible calls schemes. Schemes. For example, Ephesians 6:11 says, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." So that's the devil, that's what we're dealing with. He has demons who do his work. He has got a dark kingdom, he is very intelligent, he is skillful, and he has demons perhaps, that are assigned to you. Probably the opposite of a guardian angel would be a harassing demon or demons, that study you and are aware of your weaknesses and come after you with certain thoughts that lead you toward sin. So that's the devil.

The World

We also have the world. We studied some of that in the Bible for Life class I was teaching where there's that evil world system that's filled with alluring tempting things, tempting us toward a love of possessions of money, a love of pleasure, sexual pleasure, other types of pleasures, love of power and prestige. Those things that the world offers, that evil world system, Satan's masterpiece, is around us at all times constantly beckoning us and drawing us.

The Flesh

And then the enemy within: The flesh, sin nature, we have within us the seeds of our own destruction. And Paul talks about it very clearly in Romans 7, he says there "I do not understand what I do." There's a basic irrationality, a basic insanity to sin. "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." And then he says, "As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out." So I see this law at work in my mind and heart, which is to love God and to follow Him. But I see another law at work in my members making me a prisoner of a law of sin at work within my members, drawing me away from righteousness. "What a wretched man I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God."

Some day we'll be delivered. But right now, we're not yet delivered and so we have to fight the flesh, and the flesh is the enemy within which gets up in the middle of the night and opens the gate to the outside enemies and connects with them. And so, there is both the external pulling of temptation, Satan prompting us, but then James said, "Each one is tempted when by his own desire he is dragged away and enticed." So there's an evil partnership between Satan in the world on the outside, and then us on the inside and we partner to achieve sin. So that's what we're talking about, temptation.

Temptation: A Magnetic Pull

So what is it, what is temptation? Well, for me as an ex-mechanical engineer, I tend to think of it like a magnetic pull, like a magnet, it's this invisible force on me. I remember when I was an engineer, I worked in semiconductor manufacturer, and we had these things called permanent magnets. Samarium-cobalt magnet, rare earth magnets 250 to 500 times stronger than a refrigerator magnet. This thing was amazing, it was a fun toy. You could do things with this magnet, like you could put it on one side of a wall, and stick paper clips, paper clips would just stick to the wall because the magnetic force was going right through the drywall. If you held it in your hand, you just take a paper clip, and throw it within about a five to seven-foot radius and it'll go, thunk, right to that magnet. It was awesome. Until you put it near your wallet and all your credit cards interacted with the magnetic flux lines, and the next time you tried to use it, gone, what a mystery. I shouldn't tell this, but I wrote a note to my roommate Paul, his name was Paul, "Very important that you," whatever, and covered it up with this magnet. He couldn't move it. And we both had to push as hard as we could to slide it to the edge of the refrigerator to pry it off. Strong magnet.

So that's what we are in, we are in a magnetic pull that's outside of us, that corresponds to, I don't know, iron inside our souls in this analogy that connects and draws us off the path. So none of us is driving a straight path to heaven, but we're very swervey and crooked in the way we drive because we're constantly being pulled by temptations. So that's what it is. A magnetic pull, Satan has the power to get into our brains and pull us toward him. Let me give you some scenarios.

Imagine somebody who had struggled in the past with alcoholism, struggled with drunkenness, comes to faith in Christ, is forgiven of all of his sins, but knows he now has a battle on his hands, he's gotta stop drinking. And so he's very serious about that. He put some distance between himself and his last drink. But one day he is driving home and there's a club where he used to go and there are people in there. He saw somebody going in there, he recognized him and he, as he's driving feels a pull to pull into the parking lot and go in. There's a pull on his heart and he's got to think certain things. Now, that pull wouldn't be there for maybe 90% plus of you, not there for me, but for him it's a pull and he feels it and he's got a fight and he starts to sweat, his heart rate goes up, he feels something pulling on him because of his past habits. So, that's temptation.

We could think about a scenario that I myself sadly have gone through, get into a marital conflict. You're in a conflict, and as you're saying some things, you're getting heated up. And then suddenly something pops in your mind to say, and if you're not careful, you might say it. And that the weird thing is you don't even believe that it's true. It's not really you, but you didn't have the discernment at that moment because of your carnal anger, you're handed a weapon that isn't even from you and it says clearly in 2 Timothy 2, that the devil can take us captive to do his will, temporarily even. And so you can actually hurl something that is going to be very, very hard to unsay. And you're like, "Where did that come from? Where did those words come from?" It comes from an invisible spiritual force that's surrounding you and handing you concepts and if you're not careful, you'll have a lot of healing in that relationship to go through because you said something that was so hurtful. So it's just constantly a battle, we've got to fight these things. And so, this is of the essence of the Christian life.

Romans Chapter 8 depicts the life of the Spirit versus the life of the flesh. It goes in, in Romans 8, to talking about the mind of the flesh which is death and the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace, and it's just two different ways to live: The Christian life, the non-Christian life. And then he brings the Roman Christians to this clear statement, Romans 8:13 and 14, he says there, "If you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God." So that's vital. If you live that life of the flesh, the mind of the flesh, and the lifestyle of the flesh, you're going to die and go to hell. You're going to be living in death now, spiritual death now, and it's going to be confirmed on Judgment Day, by the dreadful words Jesus speaks "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels", what the Bible calls the second death. If you live that kind of life, you will die that death.

But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. There's just two different ways to live. So don't be deceived. That life of the Spirit is a life of warfare, it's a life of battle, you're never going to get away from it while you live in this world. And you have to, you have to, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body. And if you do, you will live. Because, you can almost put the word "only" in there, only those who are lead like this by the Spirit into battle are the children of God. If you are not battling sin by the Spirit, you're not a child of God, do not be deceived. And so this is the warfare that we're in.

On the Mortification of Sin

John Owen, in the 17th century, Puritan theologian, wrote On the Mortification of Sin, the putting to death of sin in believers. He had some powerful things to say, he said, "The vigor and power and comfort of our spiritual life depend on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh." You will be weak therefore, powerless and comfortless in your Christian life, if you do not vigorously mortify sin. He said, "You must mortify, you must make it your daily work, you must be constantly at it while you live. Cease not a day from this work. Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." That's very clear, isn't it? We have got to fight sin by the power of the Spirit.

And so from the text, verse 12, it gives us this idea of a constant vigilance needed. Maybe you've heard about this statement that we need to be aware of the sin all the time. Now, he says, "If you think you're standing firm, take heed, lest ye fall." Let's try to understand the context. Paul is addressing for three chapters 1 Corinthians 8, 9, and 10, he is addressing the problem of meat sacrificed to idols, the lifestyle of paganism that the Corinthians had been living before. Alright, so it was a pagan city with pagan temples that offered animals in sacrifice to false gods and goddesses. And they combined that animal sacrifice with sexual immorality, with temple prostitutes, male and female, and that combination of eating delicious foods and sexual immorality was very powerful.

It was alluring all over the world, it was very powerful there in Corinth. People worshipped these false gods and goddesses by having immoral relations with the temple prostitutes and by eating delicious meat. Then Paul came and preached the Gospel in that dark city and he resolved to know nothing while he was with them, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He preached that Jesus Christ has died on the cross for sins, for sinners like you and me, and God raised Him from the dead. And if you repent of your sins and trust in Christ, you'll be forgiven. And many Corinthians came out of that darkness and came to faith in Christ. And he organized them in this church, the church of the Corinthians. And as it turns out, there was an issue concerning, ongoing eating of meat at the temple or in the marketplace. What should we do? And some of the Corinthian Christians had understood the doctrine that there is only one God, and that gods and goddesses don't really exist and idols are nothing, they're just chunks of wood or metal or stone. And that meat is just meat and Jesus had declared all foods clean, so they were just living freely, and eating whatever they wanted. And in their freedom, they were dragging down some brothers and sisters who weren't quite there yet in their minds, who are weak in their consciences.

And Paul gave a basic principle. He doesn't say it literally like this, but this is what we've been saying. Love limits liberty. Your freedom is limited by your love for your brothers and sisters. So just because you have the freedom to do something, don't do it if it's going to hurt your brother or sister. Then Paul gave himself in chapter 9 as an example of someone who lives like that. He didn't take money for preaching the Gospel, though he had the right, he limited his liberty. And then in terms of evangelism, if he went to a Gentile home, he became like a Gentile, in amoral things, in whatever way he could, what he ate, how he dressed, how he acted in amoral things, he became like a gentile to win the Gentiles. If he went to a Jewish home, he became like a Jew to win the Jews, he became all things to all people. So by all possible means, he might save some. And so just in general, he didn't worry about what he liked, what foods he enjoyed eating. He kept himself under control. He beat his own body and made his body like a slave, so that he could be maximally fruitful for the Gospel, but also, so that he wouldn't be disqualified for the prize.

He had to watch himself. Like, "Paul you were never a pagan. You never got involved with idols and with temple prostitutes," he would stop and say just... Do you have any idea what a problem that was in Jewish history? What the Canaanite religion was about? What led Jewish men into wickedness? Don't you know our history? And so he goes right into the history of the Jews, he said, "It was because of idolatry and sexual immorality, that that generation of Jews that went through the Red Sea, never made it in the Promised Land. Don't you learn the lesson from that?" We've got to be vigilant over our own souls. And so, he's dealing with idolatry.

So look what he says, "Therefore, if anyone thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall." I'm speaking to you strong ones, you got the doctrine all figured out, you know, you better watch out. You may be just one step from relapsing back into paganism. You think you're standing firm, take heed lest you fall.

Now, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." There are common temptations here, but God is faithful, He's not going to let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, with the temptation He's going to make the way of escape, so you can bear up under it. But then look at verse 14. We didn't read it this morning but go ahead, "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry." You see the context here, what he's saying. They are still in danger, even the strong ones among them. So that's the context. So if you think you're standing firm, take heed, watch lest you fall. At the entrance to the National Archives Building in Washington DC, there's an inscription in marble, it says this, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." So above that inscription, is a statue of a scary-looking warrior holding a helmet and a sword, ready to fight. Outside the National Archives in Washington DC. Many people think that Thomas Jefferson said it, eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Actually, it was said by an Irish orator and politician John Philpot Curran, he said in Dublin 1790, "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance."

Now they're talking about political liberty in a world surrounded by military enemies and nations that want to come and take what you have. Well, you need to be on the walls, in your free world, on the walls all the time and be vigilant, because we have enemies and we got to watch. Well, if that's true, militarily and politically, how much more true is it for us as Christians? You want to be free in Christ, Christ has set you free, you're free from the condemnation of your sins, there is no condemnation for you, because you're in Christ Jesus. Great, Christ has set you free from condemnation, He set you free from sin itself. You are no longer a slave to sin, He's set you free from sin, so you're free. Well, if you think that you're free, you better be vigilant over sin, if you want to stay free and not go back into the chains of sin and wickedness. So if you think you're standing firm, you better take heed lest you fall.

So what does that mean, to take heed? Take heed, literally, the Greek word is just be watchful, you better watch, be vigilant, watch, watch yourself, watch your temptations, watch your life, watch your behavior, find out what's happening, what habits are growing in your life, how are you living, what's actually going on, watch. Like Jesus said to Peter and James and John in Gethsemane, watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. Spirit is willing, but the body is weak. So your enemy, the devil, is prowling around looking for someone to devour, you got to be alert every single day.

For the Corinthians, getting into their world, it'd be just walking by the temple, they're just walking by and they can smell that meat, and then they see a temple prostitute, maybe they've interacted with multiple times before. And maybe she sees him, he sees her and she might call out to him, siren call to his own destruction, he's just got to walk on by. She even probably knows he's claiming to be a Christian now, and she's got special focus on him at that particular moment.

But for us it's different, we don't struggle like that, we have our own struggles. Perhaps the allure of internet pornography, never been easier. Because of these smartphones that just deliver the world to your eyeballs instantly all the time, 24/7. We've got to look at that alluring call. Maybe it's the enticing call of a worldly prosperous life and material prosperity. And so you're being enticed toward materialism. Maybe it's an addiction to electronic games, maybe you just spend a lot of your time playing or entertaining yourself with movies and just living for that. Might be some other sin habit, overeating, oversleeping, maybe it's procrastination. Watch and pray, watch and pray, watch and pray.

Maybe it's gossip, phone rings, friend on the other end of the phone, and you begin talking to this friend, and you're having a good conversation, but someone else comes up and you know that your friend, you and this friend have had a habit in the past of gossiping, of laying people low, of making yourself feel better because you're not like that. And you've become aware of that pattern in your life, and now, it's time to put an end to it, and say, "You know... Tell you what, why don't we pray for that person?" Or something. You're just going to have some new habit, but you got to watch and pray that you'll not go down a path you've been down so many times before, big sins and little sins.

Perhaps it's complaining. What's your commute like these days? Mine's getting harder. I don't know if you've noticed that, and we've got the population of this area is just growing and growing and growing. And I used to have a way to get where I wanted to go that seemed like very few people knew about. Not anymore, they know. And so I've found myself more irritable while driving than I remember. It's starting to... There are some irritating moments that come. Everybody, it seems either they're too fast or too slow. I don't understand that. But there I am and I find myself complaining, or complaining about anything. Do you have that pattern of discontent in your life, where you just are complaining about something at least once a day? And it's like, the time has come to say no to that temptation. So if you think you're standing firm, you better watch lest you fall back into sin.

Now, this temptation is a worldwide experience, it's not something we face alone. Look again at Verse 13. "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man," temptations we face every day are common around the world, there's nothing unusual about you, or us. It's not some new menu that he's got, that Satan's got to concoct in every generation, same thing, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life, every generation, it works, he's not very creative. It's just effective, these lusts, they work. And so the temptations we face are common to man, it's common to everybody.

But God is faithful in filtering our temptations. Look what he says, "God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear." This is so marvelous, the faithfulness of God in all of this. It isn't just Satan and his demons that are studying you, God knows you better than you know yourself, and He knows you better than Satan knows you. And He will not allow you to be handed over to your enemy, to be tempted however the devil wants to tempt you, He's not going to permit it.

Like in the hymn, How Firm A Foundation, listen to these words, "The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to its foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake." That's the faithfulness of God. He is more committed to your final salvation than you are. We already heard 1 Thessalonians 5 earlier, I think it was Brian that cited it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24, says, "May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it." So God is faithful concerning your temptations, He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. He's faithful even concerning your sins, your failures. Satan baits a hook, drops it in the water, looks good and you bite. You know you're hooked, you know you've sinned, the Holy Spirit convicts you, you get on your knees, you ask forgiveness. "If we confess our sins," 1 John 1:9, "He is faithful,and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

So like I do, I was working the image. So we're fish, we've swallowed a hook, what do we do now? Does he cut the line, does he get the hook out? It's more complicated than that, where you've been hooked before you can be hooked again. Maybe the line's still there, but you can still... You still are swimming. And he is teaching you how to get the hook out of your throat. This is complex. I would suggest don't swallow the hook to begin with. Because once you start bad habits, it's so hard to break them, but God is faithful and He will forgive you, whenever you take that baited hook, but He's also faithful to filter your temptations, and that's so powerful.

When we first moved into our house in Bahama, we're on a well, still on a well system, and we had no water filter for our well. I had never heard of a whole house water filter, so for a period of time, we drank water from our well. Then I heard about whole house water filters, and so I put one in and I'll never forget the first time I changed the cartridge. Now, that was a bad moment for me. It was nasty. And all of this sludge was there caught by the filter. Now, the filter has a membrane, and it allows water to pass through, but not the impurities. So I want you to picture the filter that God has set around you, He will not allow certain temptations in. God knows our weaknesses, it says in Psalm 139:1, "Oh Lord, You have searched me and You know me," he says in Psalm 103:14, "He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust." He knows there are some temptations that would destroy you, and He won't let them come. You would fail and it would ruin your world, and He won't let it happen.

So what that means is the tempter Satan is on a leash of some sort, he's limited. And we see this in Job chapter 1 and 2, don't we? How Satan has to come and ask permission. And he's frustrated, satanic frustration. I can't get at him, because you put a hedge around him and everything he has, remember that? That's what we mean by He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. He puts a wall of protection around us. And then the Lord lifts some of that protection, and Satan can get at him, and he assaults Job's possessions, everything he has, and kills all of his children in one day, one dreadful day. So in Job's case, the temptations were massive, far greater than you will ever face in your life. That's the godliness of Job.

Case of others, He knows how weak we are, and He will not let Satan do what he would do in your life. He's on a leash. Pilgrim's Progress there's this image as he's walking along the path, Christian is walking, and he sees two lions on either side of the path, and he's terrified and he's frozen. Doesn't know what to do. But then a guide on the other side of the lions said, "Do not worry, the lions are leased, they're on a chain, you can't see it, if you stay on the path they cannot harm you. So that's the allegorical picture of Satan on a leash, he's limited. So what does that mean for you? Well, whatever temptations do come your way, what can you say about it? God allowed it to come, and He wants you to kill it. You can never say in a combination of temptations bringing you or your family through immense trial, say, "I can't handle this," it's just not true. God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear.

Also, if you should fall in one of those temptation to sin, it is your fault. You need to take responsibility and own up to it. But overall, isn't it comforting to know that God is faithful in this sense, and He won't allow you to be tempted, and you're going to make it through successful in this world. To me, that's the comfort of this verse.

So how then do we handle it, how do we stand firm? Look what it says, "God is faithful, and will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will also provide a way of escape, so that you may be able to bear it" or stand firm under it. We are called to stand firm, we're called to take our stand on Christ, and to still stand. And so in Ephesians 6:10-13, it's in there four times, stand, stand firm, stand firm then, stand firm therefore, it's just very clear, we are to stand. So like a warrior fighting a battle, don't fall into sin. That's the image. Well, how do we bear up under it? Well, when the temptation comes, you just say no, by the power of the Spirit, there's nothing else for it. And it says in Titus 2, that the grace of God has come, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled and upright lives in this present age.

We are to say no to that temptation. And look for God's way of escape. It's like, "Oh God, get me out of here. Get me out of here, find the door, find the escape, get out. Like Joseph with Potiphar's wife. He left his cloak and ran for his life. So there's a strange image here, standing by running, standing by escaping. So this is how I put it together. The way of escape is given, the net is laid for your feet. But you never fell in it. You escaped it, you were able to get around it, or to circumvent it, or the ditch that Satan dug for you, you didn't fall in. And now you're still standing in Jesus. You like Jesus entered the temptation filled with the Spirit went into the desert, and He left it filled with the Spirit, that's your goal. So every time temptation comes pulling on your heart, your goal is to say no, to resist and to flee.

Alright, so what applications can we take from this? Well, first, I need to say that to any of you that came here today outside of Christ, you're not yet a Christian, call in this text is not for you to fight temptation, the call here is come to Christ. You cannot defeat sin apart from Christ. And you've already fallen into temptation, you're already condemned, you're under the law. The only hope for you is to flee to Christ. Jesus died on the cross for sinners like you and me who have failed and who will sadly continue to fail. Flee to Christ, and His death on the cross is God's only provision for our guilt, and His resurrection from the dead on the third day is His only provision for the energy and power by which we lead a holy life. Come to Christ. All you have to do is trust in Him, turn away from your temptations, away from your sins, and call on the name of the Lord, and you will be saved. And if that happens to you, then you have to heed this advice.

So what do I say to you Christians? First, prepare for battle, do not expect an easy journey to heaven. Prepare to suffer, Jesus suffered when He was tempted, prepare to suffer when you are tempted. Think of what Jesus said to Peter, "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation." Let me give you some specific elements, 10 of them, and I'll finish this sermon with this. First of all, understand the eternal stakes of this battle. If you live according to the flesh, you'll die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live. Eternity is at stake. Now, we're not saved by our sanctification, we're not saved by how well we fight, but if you don't fight you were never justified.

Secondly, understand the mysterious partnership between you and the Spirit. You by the Spirit have to put to death the deeds of the body. You have to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you to will and to act according to His good purpose, it is by the Spirit alone you can fight temptation.

Thirdly, as I've said, take personal responsibility. You by the Spirit have to put to death to deeds of the flesh. If you fail, it's not the Spirit's fault. So you need to take responsibility for your sins and for your temptations. You must mortify, you must make it your daily work, you must be constantly at it while you live. "Cease not a day from this work, be killing sin or sin will be killing you," John Owen.

And so, therefore, fourthly, understand this is a relentless marathon, it's not a sprint, you're going to be in this fight from now until the day you die. Don't expect a day off, don't expect when you go on vacation that the world, the flesh and the devil will leave, you'll leave them behind. You might have to fight more, no, wait a minute, you probably will have to fight more on vacation then you do ordinarily, the flesh will be maybe more active. There's no day off from this, it's a marathon.

Fifth, understand the role of Scripture. Jesus fought all of His temptations the same way, "It is written, it is written, it is written." So saturate your mind in Scripture, memorize specific scriptures that will help you in your weak areas. Psalm 119:9-11 says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word… Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You." Give the Holy Spirit a flashing sword with which to fight your specific sins by memorizing.

Sixth, understand that specific sins, categorical sins, can never be killed. No alcoholic will ever be able to say I know I will never sin in the area of alcoholism again. No one who is addicted to internet pornography will ever reach a point in his life where they say, "I know I'll never sin or fall in that place again, that sin has been mercifully removed," you cannot say that. But you can and must kill specific temptations from those sins.

Seventh, kill temptation by being full of Christ, by the Spirit. So be filled with the power of Christ, be filled. It's not just negative, it's positive. Be filled with the Spirit, be filled with the joy of the Lord, be filled with the fact that you're going to heaven, be filled with all of the great gifts that God has given you. It's very hard to tempt full people. Jeremiah Burroughs, in his Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment said, "A contented Christian is as hard to tempt as an iron wall attacked by flaming arrows," so picture yourself as an iron wall and all of the flaming arrows of temptation just fall harmlessly, why? Because you're so filled with the Christian life, so filled with Christ.

Eighth, make sin personal with Christ. What that means is, understand Jesus is behind all of His laws, the call to sexual purity, the call to mental purity, Jesus is behind each of them. Do you remember when Peter fell into the temptation of denying Jesus three times, then the rooster crowed? In Luke's gospel, just at that moment Jesus was passing by and He looked Peter right in the eyes. I would guess Peter would say, at the end of his life, he who was crucified upside down, Peter, would say, "That was the most painful moment of my life. When Jesus looked me right in the eye, right after that rooster crowed." And Peter went outside and wept bitterly, and then after the resurrection He asked him three times, "Peter, do you love me?" And that was painful to him.

Some day, 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, you're going to have to give Jesus an account for everything you did in the body, whether good or bad. Realize that now. Make it very personal between you and Jesus, say, "Jesus I don't want to fail you, I want to please You today, so fill me with Your Spirit. Ninth, accountability in a healthy church. If you're not a member of a healthy church, I actually know a healthy church that I would commend to you for membership. But if not this one, be in a healthy church, where you can live out a commitment to watch over one another in brotherly love. Hebrews 3:13 says, "Encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Home fellowships are going to start next Sunday evening, not this... Not tonight, we got the picnic tonight, but a week from now, home fellowships are going to start. Make your home fellowship experience more spiritual than you've ever made it before. In your prayer times ask for prayer, ask for help with things you're actually struggling with, be honest with people, find accountability partners, men with men, women with women. You can pair off and pray for each other.

And then finally, saturate your minds with the fact that you're going to be in Heaven some day and you won't sin at all, you are going to win, you're going to win. Some day, all of the sins you struggle with will lie dead at your feet. So rejoice in that and trust in that for the glory of God. Close with me in prayer.

Turn in your Bibles to the text that was just read for us, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 1-13, and as you've heard these words, and as we look at the seriousness of what was said, we realize we're coming to a very serious warning passage in Scripture. And that the Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul, has given a timeless warning to Christians. Now, as I was contemplating this warning passage, I was thinking about the usefulness of all warning passages in Scripture, and how can we hear them properly, how can we hear this warning properly? There is no doctrine that is as sweet and encouraging to Christians, as the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer. Commonly, we speak of once saved, always saved. You can't lose your salvation. And there are so many scriptures that testify to the truth of that comforting doctrine. Jesus said of all that the Father has given Him, He will lose none but raise them up on the final day. He's not going to lose any of them. He'll raise them all up on the final day.

And that He has a grip of grace on them, that His sheep have come to him, and no one can snatch them out of His hand, and His Father who has given them to Him is greater than all. And no one can snatch the sheep out of the Father's hand. "I and the Father are one." The Apostle Paul himself wrote many comforting and assuring words to Christians, that we cannot lose our salvation, that He who began a good work in us will most certainly carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And that the sovereign God has a plan, that He's working out here in space and time. And He is orchestrating things for the benefit of His chosen ones. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. "

All of it spoken in the past tense, as though it's a done deal. And at the end of that marvelous chapter, Romans Chapter 8, he asserts very plainly that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. And yet, here we have this morning, a very serious warning given from the Apostle Paul to a Christian church. We need to find a way somehow to harmonize those, to have a sense of the absolute security of our position, if we're in Christ. But to know as I pray that we're constantly in danger, we're in enemy territory, that we're assaulted, our souls are assaulted every moment by the world of flesh and the devil, we are assaulted. And we're in danger and the only safety for us is a healthy fear of sin, a healthy fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. And as we have that healthy fear, we're able to understand the Apostle Paul calling on us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose. He's at work in us.

And part of that work He does in the genuinely converted is to give us warnings like this, we need to heed them. The healthiest thing we can do is say, "This warning was written for me, and it was written for my brothers and sisters here at First Baptist Church. I need to be constantly vigilant over my own soul. I need to be vigilant over the souls of my brothers and sisters. We're not in Heaven yet, we're not out of danger yet." And that's the way we should hear this warning.

Well, let's try to understand the context. The Corinthian church that Paul is writing to here, was the church that was richly blessed, but also deeply dysfunctional. Richly blessed, but deeply dysfunctional. So the Corinthian church have been lavishly blessed, with the greatest spiritual teachers the world had ever seen. The Apostle Paul planted that church, also Apollos, who was eloquent in doctrine, a solid brother. Even it seems the Apostle Peter in some way ministered to them, don't know if he was there but maybe they got hold of his writings or some of them are following his doctrines, but all of them were below the greatest teacher that has ever lived, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And so, they had received the teachings from Christ, mediated through these great human teachers. And so they were blessed, they were blessed doctrine. They're blessed with every spiritual gift. There was a super abundance of spiritual gifts in that Corinthian church. And many of them had attained a very high level of doctrinal proficiency. They understood doctrine, very well, they had a lot of knowledge. But for all of that, they were deeply dysfunctional. They were divided. There are factions and divisions, among the Corinthian church. Some of them were indulging in sexual immorality, even visiting temple prostitutes, and other forms of sexual immorality. And worst of all, they were very proud of themselves, they were a proud Church. And Paul knew that this gifted, talented, sinning church was actually in great danger. And he wanted to warn them lovingly, about their danger and to call them to constant vigilance over their own souls and the souls of their brothers and sisters.

And that's the purpose of this text. Paul's most recent assertion has to do with his own fear about himself and his own vigilance over his own life, and his body. Paul himself had been lavishly blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ, three times, Paul had seen the resurrected glorified Lord, three times. It's incredible. He had been spared death on the Damascus Road, and then he had been miraculously healed from blindness, by Ananias who laid hands on him. And he had been given this incredible ministry, what a privilege. He was called the Apostle to the Gentiles. He learned the Gospel directly from Almighty God Himself without any human mediation. God Himself, taught him the gospel. He was caught up to the third heaven, caught up to paradise, and heard inexpressible things. He was raised from being stoned perhaps even to death.

And then went on with his courageous bold energetic preaching ministry. He heard doctrine directly from God, through the Holy Spirit, and wrote down 13 epistles that make up the bulk of our New Testament. He wrote the Book of Romans. Paul was lavishly blessed by God. He had been empowered by the spirit to perform signs and wonders, healings even raising the dead. He had preached boldly, in city after city. Everywhere he went it seems he planted a church. Perhaps thousands of people owed their salvation to hearing the Gospel from the Apostle Paul. Certainly from those that Paul also trained, he was a leader of leaders, a disciple of church leaders. And he was clearly beloved, and dearly beloved by churches everywhere. But he lived in fear in a sense.

Look again at 9:27, what we just covered last week, he said, "I beat my body and make it my slave, lest after I've preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified from the prize. For I do not want you to be unaware brothers," goes right on into this warning. You see, it's tied together. As Paul was concerned and he's applying the warnings to himself first, but then to them, the Corinthian church. Paul was afraid that his own body, his own flesh, his sin nature, would drag him off the path of Christ, off the path of holiness, with the result of him being disqualified from the prize of first and foremost being a faithful servant a fruitful servant of Jesus Christ. He'd be disqualified for ministry.

Now, he knew his own weakness, how horrible that would be, how devastating it would be to the church as if he fell into sin, and was evicted from the ministry by a Holy God after he preached the Gospel in so many locations. So he beat his body, he said, he made it his slave. Now, this is the fear as I said last week that I have as well and should have, it's healthy for me to have it. All pastors should have it. Richard Baxter, in his classic, Reformed Pastor, said this to his brother pastors, he said, "Take heed to yourselves lest you live in those sins which you preach against in others." Will you preach Christ's laws and willfully break them? If God's threatenings be true, then why do you not fear them? And if they be false, then why are you needlessly troubling men with them and put them into such frights without a cause? "So take heed to yourselves brothers pastors." Richard Baxter, would say, the Apostle Paul would say in Acts 20. "Take heed to yourself."

The Great Danger: Privileges Can Lead to Complacency, Pride... and Sin

But it's the same warning given to all Christians, not just those in vocational ministry, it's given to all of us. We all need to take heed to ourselves, to our souls, the great danger here is that spiritual privileges, great spiritual privileges can lead to complacency and pride and sin. God gives to sinners lavish blessings of His grace. We sinners, we deserve to be condemned eternally to hell for our sins. But instead, God because He's rich in mercy covered our sins with the blood of His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And furthermore, once we have come to forgiveness of sins, He is incredibly patient with us day after day with all of our sins. He continues to forgive us our sins, whenever we confess them to Him. We sinners we deserve to be excluded from the presence of God, instead God has reconciled us to Himself, and this is incredible, He has actually adopted us as His sons and daughters, to be in his family forever. But we sinners deserve to waste our earthly lives in frivolous pursuits, to spend our whole lives storing up wood, hay and stubble that'll just get burned at the end. Instead, God has richly blessed us with spiritual gifts, and has actually gone ahead of us, to repair good works in advance that we should walk in them.

Now, beyond all of this, God has lavished so many other spiritual blessings on us, and I want to say specifically here in our American church context, incredible spiritual resources, seminaries that teach true doctrine, authors that write excellent books that help us in our Christian lives. Christian media making sermons and podcasts and other resources available to us constantly. Beyond that, there's just material blessings, ample food, clothing, shelter, for us, myriad luxuries, myriad pleasures, Common Grace blessings, beautiful scenery, stable government, good economy, peace, the blessings go on and on. And for us, specifically at this church, First Baptist in Durham, we have been so blessed by the spiritual gifts of other brothers and sisters. It's been going on for years. My family and I've been blessed for almost 21 years by a river of blessings that have come from the spiritual gifts of other brothers and sisters in this church.

There's a heritage here of faithful gospel ministry has been going on for a long time. We have a strategic location, we're surrounded by good places of employment. The areas attractive to people. People are pouring in here, we have open doors of ministry opportunities here, lots of people who need to hear the gospel. So we are lavishly blessed. So, the danger is clear. I've already set it up, you understand what it is. These blessings, this river of blessing that's come to us by grace can make us complacent, can make us lazy. And actually bold in sin, presuming on God's patience and grace. Jesus Himself said in like 12:48, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." And we've been given much brothers and sisters, we've been given much.

Now, Satan can use our blessings to lull us into carnal ease and arrogant over confidence, and we can relax our spiritual vigilance, and we can start playing with sins and with worldliness, and little by little become corrupt, and worldly ourselves. And by these devastating processes, Godlier and more gifted men than I have been disqualified from ministry. By this devastating process, Churches bigger and more lavishly blessed than ours have become corrupt and eventually Christ has removed the lamp stand.

Key Command: Verse 12

So the key command is in Verse 12. Look at it if you would, "Therefore, but anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall." That's the warning, that's the central warning in this text. If you think you're standing, you better watch out, you better take heed lest you fall. So the Scripture is a clear warning and it's a warning given to Christians, it's a warning given to spiritually blessed people, to Christians everywhere, in every generation for 2000 years, it's a warning to all of us, that we should live in a healthy fear of sin, that we would respond to the danger that every generation faces with the same kind of vigorous holiness and commitment to the Apostle Paul used to pursue his own race, "I beat my body and make it my slave, lest I will be disqualified."

Israel’s History of Privilege and Sin

And in order to make this point, and drive it home, Paul reaches to the history of Israel, the Jews, and Israel's history of spiritual privilege and their history of sin. So he's broadening this, now, the Corinthians were gentiles, so they might not have known Israel's history, as well as Paul did as a Jew. Paul then lists out Israel's lavish spiritual blessings in part, their spiritual blessing, but he does so remarkably using Christian imagery Christian language. Look at verse 1-4, "For I do not want you to be ignorant to the fact brothers that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea, they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, they ate the same spiritual food and they drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the Spiritual Rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ." So, just walking through it, He says, "I don't want you to be ignorant, I want to instruct you or remind you about some things from Jewish history."

Our forefathers, when Paul writes that he means our Jewish ancestors. So Paul was a Jew so they were definitely his ancestors, but they were also the Corinthians' spiritual ancestors. Because we find out in other places in the Scripture, we who are believers in Christ are actually honorary sons and daughters of Abraham. We're honorary Jews. We, who are wild in nature and grew up in some wild olive tree, were cut off and grafted into a cultivated olive tree, a Jewish olive tree. And we derive life-giving sap, nourishing sap from this Jewish foundation of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Jewish heritage. So we are honorary Jews and we're drinking in that heritage. So it's your heritage too if you're a Christian. And notice the word, all, he emphasizes the word all. He says, "They were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea and they all were baptized in the Moses in the cloud and the sea, and they all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink." In other words, this wasn't a special privilege class of the Christians all of them had, or the Jews, all of them had that experience, all of them did. Universalizing it.

Under the Cloud

And then he says, they were under the cloud. So what that means is talking about the pillar of cloud, remember that went ahead of the Jews and led them and guided them where they should go. Pillar of cloud. And he says, they passed through the sea, this is referring to the Red Sea, which God miraculously opened up for them. So they passed over on dry ground when Pharaoh's army, the most powerful on earth at the time, pursued them the water crashed in and they drowned and they were destroyed. But Israel passed by in safety. And they were Paul says, baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea. The word baptize means to be immersed. They were plunged in the Moses. They were immersed in Moses the leader, his leadership. They were immersed into his ministry, they were immersed into Moses's laws, they were immersed into the common experience of a super natural deliverance from Egypt and from bondage. They were immersed in that, they were baptized into it. And he says, they ate the same spiritual food. That is the mana, the bread from heaven that God provided for them every day in the desert. There was no food in the desert and God miraculously fed them with mana, the bread of heaven. And they all ate it.

Eating Spiritual Food

And he says, they drank the same spiritual drink, that was the water that flowed from the rock miraculously. There was no water for them to drink in the desert. And so, Moses struck the rock with his staff and the water just flowed and they drank from that rock. Now, Paul Christianizes these experiences using the word baptized into Moses and ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink, like the Lord's supper, so he's I think bringing it over into Christian language, for their purpose. And he emphasizes that all of these spiritual experiences, the Jews went through were foretaste of Christ. Actually, he says that rock was Christ. So the Jews in some sense, partook in Christ at that time, Christ was the Angel of the Lord, who led them by the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire. God sent His angel, the angel of Lord ahead of them to leave them where they should go, that angel was Christ. And the one delivering them truly was not Moses, it was Jesus Christ. And Christ is the accompanying rock and He never changes, He's the same yesterday, and today and forever. He is the unchanging rock. Christ was alive back then pre-incarnate, He was saving his people from slavery in Egypt, He was their salvation.

Now, these experiences were told, they're types and shadows, they're acted out prophecies. The living prophecies of the salvation that Christ would bring in the new covenant. So the Jewish nation that were brought out of slavery in Egypt experienced amazing things, they saw the 10 plagues, miraculous plagues on all of Egypt, they saw it with their own eyes. They saw the awesome Red Sea miracle, I think the most spectacular miracle God has ever done in history, just in terms of spectacle and the massive force needed to do it incredible. And they saw God descend in fire on Mount Sinai, and they heard the actual voice of God speaking the 10 commandments. Nevertheless, what a terrifying word that is? Nevertheless. Despite all of those blessings, nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, their bodies were scattered all over the desert. God killed them all, except Joshua and Caleb, that generation, He killed them all.

That whole generation of Jews ended up being scattered throughout the desert over 40 years. They did not die all at once, but God killed them off little by little, allowing their children to grow up in their place, and to them, He would give the promises of crossing the Jordan and inheriting the promised land. They themselves died in the desert because they refused to believe God and trust Him and cross over in the time of the 10 spies. And they did not trust God and so God judged them and their bodies were scattered in the desert, He was not pleased with them. This is terrifying. And so, the apostle Paul is taking this terrifying history of the Jews and pressing it on to the conscience of Christians.

Israel’s History of Sin Presented as a Direct Warning to All of Us

Look at Verse 6. "Now, these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did." It's why it happened, God orchestrated this history and wrote it down through Moses, so that we could read it and take it to heart. Look again in Verse 11, "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come." Look what Paul specifically said about them. In other words, we are reading Old Testament history to learn spiritual principles for us today as Christians, and part of that friends is warning. Part of what we get out of reading the Old Testament is warning.

Look what he says about them. They set their hearts on evil things. All sin begins with lust, an evil desire that leads us astray, James says in James 1:14-15 "Each one is tempted by his own evil desire, lust, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full-grown gives birth to death." Our hearts are prone to wander. And the same lust pull on our hearts is on theirs. These Jews lusted after sexual immorality, and they lusted after food and the pleasures of this world. So at this moment, you just have to stop and say, "Oh God, this is for me. This sermon is for me, this moment is for me, what is enticing my heart right now? What lusts are assaulting me? What is having an in-road into my life right now? What do I need to fight God? What areas of my bodily life do I need to beat down and enslave to Christ?" It's what we need to do, all of us.

Secondly he said they indulged in idolatry and sexual immorality. Verse 7, "Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry." So idolatry is not just bowing down to a golden calf as the Jews did, it's living for any created thing, any creature of God. So at that time when Moses went up on Mount Sinai and he was receiving the 10 commandments engraved with the finger of God and tablets of stone, they made a golden calf and they were feasting and getting drank and getting up from the feast to have an orgy. Exodus 32:6 literally says, they got up to play. And the word play there in the Hebrew is the same thing that Isaac was doing with his wife Rebecca, it's definitely sexual in nature, he's playing in that sense. And so they were just running wild in that play, sexual immorality.

And then Paul makes it very clear in Verse 8, "We should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day, twenty-three thousand of them died." The same desires assault our souls as well. They're a deadly danger now as much as they were then, God is no less holy now, the same God that killed 23000 of His own people then, He's just as holy now. He's just as against fornication now, sex outside of marriage, as He ever was then, He hasn't changed, He's the same God. And He killed people for those sins.

Thirdly, these people tested the Lord. Look at Verse 9, "We should not test the Lord as some of them did and they were killed by snakes." This means to test God's patience, to provoke Him to His face, to be arrogant and push hard against God's laws, and challenge His authority and presume upon His grace. God sent poisonous snakes and many of them died. And they tested him again and again. Now some of you, I don't know who, I don't know who, but some of you may be living bold lives in sin right now, you may be pushing hard against what you know God has forbidden. And you are trying His patience, you do not realize that God's patience is meant to lead you to repentance.

It says, concerning the symbolic woman, actual woman, but symbolically named Jezebel. And her followers, they were being led into sexual immorality in the Book of Revelation. The Lord says, "I have given her time to repent but she is unwilling." There is a time to repent, and you're putting God to the test. It's time to repent. Fourthly, the people grumbled against the Lord complaining about His provision for them. God supernaturally fed them with manna and they complained, they were sick of eating the manner, "We despise this loathsome food," they called it. This grumbling and complaining against the Lord's provision is a root issue, there's a roaming discontent that seizes our hearts and leads us into covetousness, and leads us into lust and into other things. We're not satisfied with the boundaries God has set for us and what He's given us, and so we roam and look for something else. So Paul cites this terrible history to prove that the spiritual privileges that we receive in Christ are no protection from the warfare we must fight. There are no protection from the holiness of God if His privileged people indulge in the same pattern of sin. Look again in Verse 6, "These things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did."  Again, look at Verse 11, "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come."

So let's consider our greater privileges than the Jews, and our greater responsibility and our greater danger than theirs. Paul speaks of those on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. He's referring to the fulfillment that Jesus, the mediator has brought to us in the new covenant. This is the fulfillment of all the types and shadows and images of Israel's history. Jesus is a superior mediator, superior to Moses and to the angels, the author to Hebrews tells us. And this superior mediator has brought us a superior covenant, the new covenant superior to the old, a better covenant. And by that new covenant our sins are actually forgiven. Because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. This is a better covenant. And it should result in a superior life, a life of faith as the author to Hebrews gives us. A life of obeying and following Christ by faith. So a superior mediator brings us a superior covenant resulting in a superior life. That's what it means to be those on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

Now, because our privileges are greater so is our responsibility from whom everyone has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. So we're going to be asked for a lot on Judgment Day. God expects us to live at a higher level than the Jews of the old covenant. We have the example of Jesus Christ, the only perfect man that's ever lived, we have the actual finished work of Christ on the cross, His blood has been shed, it's not prophesied now, it's reported as Biblical history, it's occurred. He actually has been bodily raised from the dead, it's testified to in the four Gospels and in the Epistles. He's been raised from the dead, we have better examples, we have better promises, a better covenant. And we have as part of the new covenant blessing, the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have the third person of the Trinity living within us if we are born again. God expects, God demands therefore, a higher pattern of life than what Paul says the Jews did. Therefore, because of that our danger, is greater. God will not overlook our spiritual arrogance, He will not overlook willful wandering into sin. That's Paul's whole point here, the Jews are a warning for us not to indulge in these sinful patterns, in sexual immorality and worldly lust and idolatry.

Now you may ask, "These temptations of the flesh are so powerful, so alluring. How can I possibly stand firm and not yield?" Now, next week's sermon God willing, I'm going to go into great detail on this, I'm going to go back and look at Verse 12 and 13 by itself. But let me give a brief overview of what he says in those sweet verses.

First of all, constant vigilance. Verse 12, look at it again. "So if you think you're standing firm, take heed lest you fall." That's where it starts, for us as Christians, it starts with vigilance. If you think you're standing firm, I think in that sense means if you are spiritually arrogant or overconfident, if you think, "I got this, that's not going to be a problem for me ever again. I have overcome that area and I'm done with that sin problem." If that's your attitude, you better take heed, lest you fall. You may think, "I'm a Christian, all my sins are forgiven, I'm guaranteed of going to heaven, there's no condemnation for me in Christ Jesus. So I am free from all danger, I can just live my life as I please. I don't need to heed any of these warnings, there's no condemnation for me in Christ Jesus." You better take heed, that is not the way to see these things. Paul knew all about eternal security better than you. He wrote, "There is therefore now no condemnation." For those who are in Christ Jesus, for those who are led by the Spirit. We're going to talk more about that next week. There's a qualification around those words.

And look at Paul, did Paul live like that, saying, "There's no condemnation for me, I'm fine." No, no, no, he said, "I take my role here very, very seriously. I take heed lest I fall." But he wasn't just looking at himself, he was looking at his brothers and sisters, he's looking horizontally. "I take heed over them too, I'm a shepherd of souls." And that's why he's writing these words, and so the elders of this church do well to shepherd others and be certain. Ask how you're doing, and we do that for each other, we should, we should watch over one another in brotherly love. Ask questions, have real fellowship at home fellowships. How was your prayer life? Is there anything you're struggling with we can pray for you? What kinds of temptations are lining up that are making it hard for you to walk with Christ? How can we really help you?" Have that kind of fellowship, be constantly vigilant. Paul feared temptations. And so he watched, he's constantly vigilant. If anyone thinks he's standing refers to any area of sin at all. You may have a past habit of drunkenness or drug addiction, and it's been a number of years since you fall into that area, you better take heed lest you fall. You may have a past history of internet pornography, you may have been on websites you shouldn't have been on, but it's been years now since you've done that, you say, "I'm never going to do that." You better take heed lest you fall.

I was reading some history of the Romans, and I love history, I love military history. And the Roman Army when they were in enemy territory after days' march, they would make a fortified camp, that always followed a certain established pattern. They would choose high ground in a region, highest ground in the region, and it had to be surrounded by clear line of sight, not in the middle of forest somewhere, but surrounded by clear line of good space, good sight lines. And they would make a square camp, and they would dig a three-foot trench around the camp and they would use dirt to build a rampart, and they would direct a stout log fence or barricade at the top of the rampart, and then they would pitch their tents within the fortress and they would post sentries every 10 meters or so with a clear schedule of relieving them through the watches of the night so they wouldn't become sleepy. And the officers would meet with the commander at sundown and write down the night's password on wooden tablets, and then tablets would be passed to their centurions, and then on to the sentries. And then the tablets were returned to the centurions and back to the commanders so that none of those tablets could go missing. Then and only then were the Roman Army safely bed down for the night.

Now, in the year 73 BC during a slaver volt led by a gladiator named Spartacus, the Roman commander Gaius Claudius Glaber, failed to follow these patterns to protect his army, he greatly underestimated the slaver volt, he did not dig the mode, he did not put up the palisade, they just went to bed. And Spartacus led a night raid and slaughtered the soldiers in their beds. Take heed, put the mode and the wall around, put sentries on the wall, watch. As Jesus said, "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak."

Now, he says... "If anyone thinks he stands…" Paul said this, "When I'm weak then I'm strong." That's like a partner verse of this. What it means is, if I know I can't survive unless Jesus helps me, if I know I can't make it through a day without sin unless Jesus feeds me, if I know that He's the vine and I'm the branch and I have to abide in Him, and walk with Him by the Spirit and by the Word, if that's how I think then I'm actually strong. But he turn it around, "If I think I don't need Jesus, and I don't need prayer, and I'm fine in this area, nothing like that could ever happen to me, then I'm actually weak." So how can we be vigilant? Well, friends, we're going to talk more about that next week. But don't expect a single day off, fight sin every day.

We're going to look next week at John Owen's mortification of sin, we're going to learn how to starve it to death and how to fight it. We're going to learn how to put on our spiritual armor every day, Ephesians 6, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. We're going to talk about how to learn from your own sins, how to learn from when you fail, don't just confess it and don't just mourn over it, do that but learn what did He do to get you? What temptations did He use to pick the locks of your resolve? You know one that I found consistently? Self-pity. When you feel like you've had a hard day, and things have been rough on you, and there's other circumstance are happening in your life maybe with your family, with your spouse or something like that, start feeling sorry for yourself, guess what? You probably have left open the door for some temptation to come and lay you low.

So we've got to be vigilant and fight. We're going to talk more about this next week, but praise God for Verse 13, "No temptation that sees you except what is common to man, but God is faithful and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation, He will provide a way of escape so that you can stand up under it." What a mystery? Stand up by running for your lives. We're going to talk about that next week.

And I want to say one final thing, we pray every week that God would bring people here who are not yet Christians, and I trust that He answered that prayer again. Now, maybe you are among those who walked in here this morning not yet converted, these things that I'm giving, this advice that I'm giving are for Christians. For you the danger, should cause you to flee for the first time to Christ and to Him crucified and realize you can't fight any sin patterns on your own. The Bible says that apart from Christ, every individual is a slave to sin, you can't help yourself. And so if you see the seeds of your own destruction, you know that you sin in these ways, then God's laws are for you too. What they should make you do is flee to Christ, so flee to Him, don't leave this room unconverted. All you have to do is call on the name of the Lord Jesus and you will be forgiven, you will be saved. And then you can begin battling your sin like the rest of us need to. So come to Christ and trust in Him and receive grace, mercy and forgiveness. Close with me in prayer.

So, turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians Chapter 9, we resume now series in 1 Corinthians. So we've been walking through this incredible book. Pretty much all my life I've been fascinated by the longest race that there is, the marathon. I know there's ultra marathons, but I don't even know what to think about people that run 50 miles or 100 miles, that's in a whole other category. But the marathon has always been fascinating to me. Perhaps that's because I lived in Framingham, and it was the 6 mile mark, basically the 10K mark of the Boston Marathon, one of the most famous marathons in the world. And for free, you could watch that race, you just go downtown, Framingham. I could ride on my bike down there and stand with the crowd and watch some of the best athletes in the world just run by and for free, you got to see them for about 1.5 seconds, as they went right by, and there they went. So there you can see some of the best marathoners in the world and then you could stand and see some of the not best marathoners in the world that would run by you and that was kind of exciting.

I remember at Wellesley College, where my sisters went to college, that was later in the race, and that was heading towards something called Heartbreak Hill. And I've never run a marathon, I ran cross-country growing up, the longest I ever competed was 25K, which is about a little short of 16 miles, that was long enough, but people... And they've been members of our church that I just hold in high esteem that have run the 26.2 miles, incredible. But I'm told that psychologically how it feels, the race is about half over at the 20 mile mark. That last six miles takes a level of dedication, a level, let's be honest, of suffering that is hard to even fully understand if you've never competed in that race. And it just so happens in the Boston Marathon, there's a series of three hills right at the 20 mile mark, from small to medium to the largest, it goes in that order. And people for some reason, line-up along Heartbreak Hill to watch them fall like flies. I really think a lot of the spectators there are to watch failure. I don't know what it is, but they're there to watch people drop out of the race.

Others will say, no, not at all. We're there to encourage and say, you can make it. It's all downhill from here. But that's Heartbreak Hill. And so, for me, I have an attraction, a fascination to the level of dedication, the level of suffering it takes to run that race, and I follow the best in the world. And the records now are incredible.

The best marathon in the world right now is a Kenyan named Eliud Kipchoge and he is training, he's in training right now to break the two-hour mark in the marathon. Some of you will just knowing that will be aghast that that is even possible. This man runs on average every mile faster than my best mile time. I ran one mile at a certain time, he runs every mile three seconds faster than that one race, so I couldn't keep up with him for one mile at my best, and that was when I was a lot younger. But this guy runs 4:38 a mile and just fast for every mile. And the training, the level of training that goes into that, it's been a lifetime of preparation, the culture in Kenya is a running culture different than we have here. They use it as transportation to get from place to place.

This man runs an average of 110 to 120 miles a week in training and he never takes a day off. And the level of training is almost staggering. Now, that's true of every Olympic athlete, everyone that competes at a high level in a sport has to put in that level of dedication, of self-denial, of sacrifice to succeed in his or her sport, whatever it is, figure skating, skeet shooting, running, anything requires that level of dedication.

Now, the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 uses that image, which was familiar to them back then, to urge all Christians to a similar pattern of self-denial for the glory of God, for the running of the race right to the end, to the upward calling of God, the heavenly prize in Christ Jesus. And in our day and age of constant alluring bodily temptations, of a lifestyle that tends toward comfort, and ease, we need to hear this call so that we can make progress in both the internal journey of holiness and the external journey of Gospel advanced through evangelism and missions. Both of those journeys kind of come together and meet in this text and this is a call on all of us to run.

As a matter of fact, simply there is one command in this text, one imperative, run. In Verse 24, expanding a bit, so run or run in such a way that you may obtain it, that you may obtain the prize that's a command. The rest of it is just Paul using himself as an example on how we have to run. So this is a command to exertion, to self-denial for all of us, for the heavenly prize. And there is no better coach to yell at us than the Apostle Paul. There is no better drill instructor to come alongside us and give us the exhortations that we need to run this race with endurance.

Now, here we have to just be cautioned a bit, because this is one of the most challenging passages in the Bible in terms of self-denial and discipline. And we need to understand salvation properly to understand this passage properly, we need to understand justification and sanctification and glorification, these stages of salvation properly. We need to understand that justification, the beginning of the Christian life, it starts with forgiveness of sin, the atonement of our sins, reconciliation with God, whereby we sinners are made right with a Holy God, and we are declared righteous, that is morally perfect in His sight, not by our own exertions, not by our own works but by simple faith in Christ.

By His exertions, by his works, culminating in His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead, by that we are saved, not by our own exertions, not by our own running. We just need to know that again and again, it's so hard for us sinners to believe that, that we are forgiven by grace through faith in Christ alone. But having been forgiven, having begun the Christian life, we are then called on to run a race with endurance, and we're called on to run it to the very end, and the race from justification till death, or the second coming of Christ is called sanctification, a progressive growth in Christ-likeness through putting sin to death, and through habits of holiness that we acquire and development of Christian character, a Christian mindset that's the rest of the Christian life, and that takes exertion. It takes us denying ourselves, it takes us running a race with endurance, that's what we're talking about here. A race run to the end. And then glorification happens at the end of our lives, either at our own death or at the second coming of Christ, whereby in an instant we are made perfect and fit for Heaven, body, soul, and spirit, we are in every way conformed to Christ, that's the end of our salvation.

And in that we will spend eternity radiantly glorious. Now if you don't understand salvation that way, this text could easily be misunderstood, you could be exhorted strongly and instead of being motivated you might be moved to despair, because you're comparing yourself to, other than Christ, I think probably the greatest spiritual runner there's ever been in the Apostle Paul. And it's easy to look at him and look at his level of dedication, his level of holiness, his level of sacrifice for the Gospel and say, I can't measure up to that and to give up and that's the very thing Paul's working against. He wants you to run, to run in such a way that you obtain the prize. And so, we need to understand that very plainly.

So, Paul is calling on us to give up rights and privileges for the sake of the Gospel. Let's look at the context. It's been months since we looked at 1 Corinthians. So I just want to remind you where we're at in this incredible book. Paul is writing, he planted the church in Corinth. It was a gifted church, brothers and sisters in Christ, he loved them dearly, but they were pretty severely dysfunctional in a lot of levels.

And so, he's got to address a bunch of topics, and we're in the middle of a bunch of topics that he's addressed. And in Chapters 8 through 10, in that three Chapter section he's addressing, big picture, the problem of their pagan religion, idolatry and the issues specifically of meat sacrificed to idols, and what Christians should do about that difficult topic. And so, it's really three chapters of a complex answer to that question. So what was happening in Chapter 8 is the more doctrinally mature Corinthian Christians understood from the preaching, understood from the Word of God, that idols are nothing, stone, wood, metal, they're nothing. There's no reality there, that the pagan religion is nothing, that there is only one God, and that meat is just meat, it can't catch a spiritual disease and that Christ is declared all foods clean, and therefore we can eat whatever we want. But the problem was, they were flaunting their freedoms in such a way that other more not so doctrinally mature Christians were being harmed, their consciences were being violated, they were being led astray by these more mature knowledgeable Christians.

And so, Paul gives them a very clear principle in Chapter 8 Love limits liberty. It's not all about your freedoms, what you get to do, what you want to do, but you need to look around at the consequences, and people are watching you and you need to care about your brothers and sisters, and just because you can eat and it doesn't damage you, what about people who are watching you? And so, he's addressing that, and so, if you love your brothers and sisters, you need to care what they're thinking, as they watch you. And then he uses himself as an example, of how love limited his own liberties. In Chapter 9 he talked about money being paid for ministry. And he said, I have the right to receive a salary for preaching the Gospel, the Lord has ordained that those who preach the Gospel should make their living from the Gospel. But I don't use that right. I don't take any money for my church planting, so I have that freedom to do that, but I don't use it.

And then he goes beyond that, and broadens it, and he says, Actually, I turn my back on all of my freedoms. When it comes to food and cultural things and personal preferences to the Jews. I became like a Jews to win the Jews, so I ate the foods they ate, I kind of fit into the Jewish culture to win the Jews to the pagans to the gentiles, the Greeks to those not having the law. I became like one not having a law. Not in immorality, not all, but in cultural issues that separated the Jews from Gentiles, I just became like a gentile to win the Gentiles. I become all things to all people. So by all possible means, I might save some and I do this so that I might share in the benefits of the Gospel, I want a fruitful harvest. And so that's the context here. And the basic principle is love limits liberty when it comes here, first and foremost, linking it backward linking it here, love limits liberty when it comes to evangelism and missions. If you want to be fruitful in winning lost people you're going to have to deny yourself at some level, you're going to have to say no to what you prefer.

If you live for your personal preferences in food and clothing, and culture and lifestyle you're not going to have a very fruitful life as an evangelist, or a missionary, you will not have much fruit. So if you ask Paul, Paul which do you prefer? Jewish food, or Gentile food? He would answer. I prefer whatever food would be maximally fruitful, for the Gospel at that moment. That's what I prefer. He would answer that way. Reminds me of something that George Mueller, the great leader in caretaking 1000 orphans in 19th century England, just a godly man, godly pastor, a man of faith, George Mueller, he said this though, this incredible statement, he made, "There was a day I died, utterly died to George Mueller, to his opinions, preferences, tastes and will, died to the world, its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and my friends. And since that day I have studied only to show myself approved unto God." Intensely vertical, but first and foremost, started with himself. I died to me. I died to George Mueller, I died to what I prefer day-by-day.

We all have preferences, we all have taste, we all have desires, stuff we like. Everybody does, that's God gave us those tastes and desires, those amoral pleasures, those are part of the richness of life that God's given us and He wants us to enjoy those amoral diverse pleasures and give glory to God. But if you make an idol of those things, if they become uppermost in your own affections then you will not have much fruit to show when it comes to winning others.

Patrick Lai, who wrote a book on tent making, which is using business for mission, spoke of the food issue for himself when it came to missions. This is what he wrote:

"In seminary, we learned the slogan, 'Where He leads I will follow, what He feeds I will swallow.' Food is a major issue, many argue that eating the local cuisine is not a big deal. But consider, if foreigners came to your country and if they rejected your national dishes how would you feel? As Americans, perhaps if we invite an international for a Thanksgiving dinner and they say, they hate turkey, and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, are we likely to invite them again the next year? To reject a person's food is to reject the person. Having grown up in a Midwestern American city, I never ate spicy food, but when we moved to Asia, I quickly realized that the people there loved hot chili peppers, on almost every dish. So what did I do? Stop eating? No. I simply trained myself to eat spicy food by going out and eating the hottest food I could find for several weeks. It was hard, I hated it, I felt sick to my stomach. However within a month, my taste buds adjusted, and my body adapted. Nowadays, I truly enjoy spicy food."

Honestly, all over the world. Missionaries face these kinds of challenges. For me as some of you know, going to Japan, the problem was seafood, and I'm not changing. God gave me a special dispensation of grace for two years, and I prayed for it and God gave me the ability to actually enjoy Sashimi.

Now, Sashimi, let me tell you something, it's not sushi, that's little bits of fish surrounded by other things, so you can survive that fine, but Sashimi is like a T-bone steak, of uncooked fish flesh with nowhere to hide right there on the plate. And I'll never forget the first time I sat at a restaurant, a Japanese man wanted to honor me for some things we had done in his house, we had helped them out in the missionary, we'd done some things, and he wanted to thank us and he thanked me with a bunch of raw fish flesh and there it was, and I said, Where now is the God of Elijah? So I said Please don't leave me now. But then I came to find out that Sashimi is super fresh in Japan, I would not advocate truck stop Sashimi here in the US. Not a good idea. But in Japan super fresh and almost flavorless. Pretty close to flavorless. Never bothered me that it wasn't cooked. What I liked was the Wasabi and the sudachi that you could dip it in. And the flavor of that sauce was good and it was a good... So for two years I enjoyed that.

However, I never got so far as to enjoy what they call tako. It's not Mexican tacos, it's octopus. And the suction cups and the chewy demeanor, it's the gift that just keeps on giving. You can just enjoy tako for a long time. I never got used to it, and so I guess I wasn't there long enough. Patrick Lai would say, "That means you need to eat tako every day for a month and then you'll love it." The issue here, friends, is bigger than food. How much are you willing to be inconvenienced? To be put at a personal disadvantage for the sake of others? How are you willing to limit your liberties? You have the right to eat whatever you want, fine, but are you willing to give up that right for the sake of winning others? If we continue to stay safe in our bubbles of personal preference and comfort, choosing what we eat, what we watch, what music we like, what climate is best, what clothing looks best on us, if honestly, we live a life of me, we will not have much to show on judgment day, in terms of the Gospel.

And we Americans are used to one of the highest standards of living in the world. We're used to air conditioning and central heat, we're used to very comfortable beds with something called a Sleep Number. I've heard, I've never used it, but you can dial in your personal comfort number, I guess, and then we're used to that. We're used to electronic entertainment. We're used to being continually connected with the rest of the world through wifi. We're used to personal transportation in America, especially the automobile to get in and go wherever you want at any points of the compass. Whenever you want. We're used to that. We're used to top-notch medical care, We're used to 911 in case we're in trouble, medical emergency and people will come and help us, We're used to roads that are almost continually worked on, so that there are not the kinds of pot holes that I've experienced in other countries. The types of damaged under the road that the government doesn't have the resources to continually repair.

But we are used to a high level of treatment of the roads. We're used to credit card swipers, and chip readers and Walmart that has basically almost any physical thing you could want. And if it doesn't, Amazon Prime will bring it even faster than Walmart. And we're used to that lifestyle. Most of the world doesn't live that way. If we're going to be fruitful in global missions, we have to give up those kinds of preferences, and beyond that just within our own American culture as well. If we want to meet non-Christians, if we want to befriend them, get to know what's involved in their lives, you're going to have to make sacrifices. You're going to have to do things that you do not prefer to do. You have to open your home in hospitality. You have to do your hobbies, perhaps with other people, with non-Christians. You have to just change your lifestyle. If you just stayed within the Christian bubble you'll only know Christians and you won't be very impactful for eternity.

And so you have to make habits, you have to make life choices for the sake of the Gospel. And if you decide to use your time, your energy, your money, your life for the sake of eternity, to as Jesus said, win friends for the gospel. He talks about winning friends in Luke 16:9. If you do that, you'll take up an entirely different way of thinking about your life.

And Paul likens the sacrifices needed here, to running in a race. And he reaches for an image that the Corinthians would have been very familiar with. Look at verse 24, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." So what is the race? The cultural context there was something called the Isthmian Games. There were two ancient games of competition back then, we're very familiar with the Olympic Games that were centered in Athens, but the Isthmian Games were centered in Corinth the second most popular and well-known in Ancient Greece and they included many contests, like chariot races, running, boxing, feats of strength, and he chooses two of the images from the Isthmian Games, running and boxing, and he uses it here in this text as well, and the Central Command, he gives here is run. You should run, run this race run in such a way that you may win that you can obtain the prize.

He says, Everyone competes, but only one gets the prize. Run in such a way that you get the prize. That's what he's saying, he's appealing to their competitive nature, a desire for excellence and achievement. Now, if I want to stop and pause and just say for a moment, what's amazing is as I've meditated about heaven and rewards, I have come to realize we are going to celebrate other people's rewards as though they were our own, that we are going to be so one so that in 1 Corinthians 12:24, it says, If one part of the body is honored, the whole body is honored with it. So we're not in competition actually with each other. If we were, I wouldn't be preaching the sermon I'd keep my secrets to myself on how I'm planning on running the race, and you all are just on your own. But I believe that my reward is wrapped up in yours and that the more I help you be rich on Judgment Day, the better for me as well, I will celebrate your rewards, you'll celebrate mine, we will be so set free from me in heaven, we will just be celebrating each other's honors. And so there is a competitive aspect here but we're not actually competing against each other, we're competing against a common enemy, the world, the flesh, the devil, that's what we're all competing against, not against each other.

So we should help each other be as rich as possible, in rewards. Now, what is the race? Well, in this context as we follow his train of thought right up into 24-27, these verses the context here seems to be evangelistic or missions. Winning lost people, becoming all things to all people. So that by all possible means, we might save some. So saving lost people. That's what's in Paul's mind. And he says, uses this language in Acts 20-24. "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me, the task of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace." So Paul considers his Evangelistic mission to be a race that he's running, and he's challenging the Corinthians to run as well. However, the whole Christian life in other scriptures, is presented similarly as a race to be run. Paul says at the end of his own life, in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

And it's very similar. The fighting and running analogy is just like in our text here. He's talking about his own Christian life, he's reached the end of his Christian life. And then more openly, the author to Hebrews says, plainly in Hebrews 12, "Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with endurance the race marked out before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith." So there the whole Christian life is a race and we're called on to run to the end. So frankly, I think it's both, friends, it's the external journey, winning lost people, and it's the internal journey of holiness. How do I know that? Well, if you go on, if you remove the chapter division between Chapter 9 and 10 and just go right on, he's going to go on in the next chapter immediately linked by the words, "For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers…" he goes right into lessons from Israel's history and he says... Do you not realize that lots of Jews began the journey, but only some of them finished, and frankly most of them died in the desert, they didn't make it because of idolatry. So he's talking about holiness, he's talking about sin and temptations and all that.

So there's a perfect connection here between the external journey of winning the lost, and the internal journey of making certain you make it all the way to Heaven by fighting sin. And they both come together in this one text of running the race, so it's not either or, it's both. The two races really in the end are of the same, the internal race of holiness and the external race of evangelism. What do we think we're doing with evangelism missions? We're calling on dead people to begin to run a race, and to obey every commandment that Christ has given them, that they would be in running that race. The two journeys are really just one and they come together here.

And so what is the prize? He says, "Don't you know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way that you may get the prize." Verse 25. "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training, they do it to get a crown that will not last. We do it to get a crown that will last forever." What is the prize? What is the crown?

Well, in the Isthmian Games, the prize was a wreath that would be woven together from some living vine maybe, some olive branches that we've woven together or maybe some pine, a garland, that was then set on the head of the victor to the cries and adulations of the crowd, they're all... And it's put there on their heads. Paul calls it a corruptible wreath, it's corruptible, it begins to fade the moment it's cut from the branch. Probably won't look that great the next day. And the athletes knew that. They'd seen it, maybe they won last time three years ago and they're going to go again, they know what's going to happen, but what they want are the cries and cheers of adulation, honor that come from their fellow citizens. But frankly even that goes away, even that echoes and then disappears. The modern Olympic Games were restarted in 1896 in Athens. I looked this up. I didn't know... Do you know how many gold medals, Olympic gold medals, have been awarded since 1896? I know you don't know, but I didn't either. So here's the answer: 18,553, gold medals. Now, I was amazed that there were that many. They're actually not all that uncommon except that there's billions of people and very rare do people win gold medals.

But honestly, I don't know who won the gold medal in 1956 in skeet shooting, I don't know who won even the marathon that year. It disappears. They're running a race to get a crown that will not last, we're running to get a crown, he says that will last forever. And so here, this dovetails with Jesus' teaching. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." So that's the crown, it's praise from God it's, "Well done, good and faithful servant," it's the crown of achievement of having served God faithfully in this life. James 1:12, says this: "Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him." So just making it to the end of the Christian journey, there's a crown of life awarded.

But then Paul talks about his church planting efforts. And he frequently calls the churches he planted, and the people that he won to Christ, his crown, 1 Thessalonians 2, he says, "What is the hope, the joy and the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord when He comes. Is it not you? Indeed you are our glory and our joy." So Paul says the Thessalonian Christians that he won to faith in Christ, they are his crown. And so that's the crown.

So how should we run? Well, Paul gives the secret to winning the prize and that is self-control in everything. Stern self-denial of the body. Look at verse 25, "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things." So for a world class athlete, there is no area of life off limits for their trainer, for their coach. Everything is worth discussing. So that would include everything they eat, everything they drink when and how long they sleep, all, of course, all of their exercises, what they're doing. How much lifting, how much flexibility, how much all of these things. So when it comes to eating amounts, nutritional value, caloric intake, protein, fats, carbohydrates, everything. Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, actually eats something called avocado ice cream. And some of you are like, "What is the point? If you're going to eat avocado ice cream, better not to eat it," but apparently he finds something delicious in it. But for him that's what's been necessary to keep his body ready to compete.

I was reading a number of years ago, a basketball player name Hakeem Olajuwon was a very, very good player, but he just wasn't reaching his potential and he said for him it was really when he gave up ice cream that he reached another level because that became just a symbol of a whole life of self-denial of discipline that was required, and then he started playing at the highest level. So that's the way it is for athletes. Everything, sleep patterns, all of that, but for us Christians it expands. Body counts, what you do with your body, what you eat, how much you sleep, all of those things matter, your exercise patterns. But we're talking about body, soul, and spirit, everything, the mind, the heart. And so we have to discipline ourselves not only physically, but mentally, spiritually, so that we can grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ. And Paul actually it seems takes a violent approach here. Look at Verse 26-27, "I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave." That's one translation. Another translation says, "I discipline my body and bring it under strict control so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified."

So I looked up the Greek words. These are very severe in the one translation. Beat my body make it my slave, the Greek for beat my body is literally to strike beneath the eye or to give a black eye to. Metaphorically to brow-beat or to annoy greatly provoke or irritate. So Paul annoys his body, he irritates it, frustrates it. Now he talks against harsh treatment of the body in other places. He's not talking about a literal beating here like wearing a hair shirt or self-flagellation, like some people did in the Middle Ages. He's not talking about that, he's really talking about his flesh, his bodily drives that the flesh pushes to, where you have normal bodily drives, but they're pushed beyond boundaries that God's Word has set up, that's what the flesh does. And so, it's normal to want to eat dessert, that's a normal thing. The flesh pushes beyond to the second and third helping. So Paul says I irritate my flesh, I frustrate my flesh by pushing away from the table at that point.

It's normal to sleep a right amount of time, so your body's refreshed and renewed, but all of us have an inner sluggard that we want that extra time asleep, more than we need. Many Americans are sleep-deprived, I'm not talking about that, but I'm saying, we're talking about getting that extra hour. I frustrate my flesh. Paul says, I get up when it's time to get up. When it comes to the sexual drive, it's normal for a husband and wife to desire to be together in marital relations, but the flesh pushes beyond boundaries that God has set up, those boundaries into sexual immorality, And so the text is calling on you to frustrate your flesh, to irritate it and push away from temptation and sexual immorality, to deny it and put it to death. So that's the first phrase. The second is make it my slave, it's literally in the Greek lead into servitude. So I lead my body into serving what? Serving Christ, serving my mind as it's led by Scripture. This is friends, this is the language of war. That's what he's talking about here and he talks about this war very plainly in Romans 7:22 and 23, he says, "In my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will set me free?"

There is a war going on inside. We all know what we're talking about here, we know a battle against lusts. Galatians 5:17 says, "The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh. These are waging war against each other, they're in opposition to each other so that you do not do what you want." So Paul combines these images, he's actually boxing while running a marathon, But he's boxing himself. And he has a goal, his goal is to complete the race that God laid out in front of him. Let me quote this again, Acts 20:24, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me." Of internal holiness and external witnessing to lost people. That's what I want to do. So that's his goal. And he says "I'm not running like a man running aimlessly."

So we have a device in our home called a Roomba. Have you ever heard of these things? These robots that vacuum. I do not understand it. I don't understand what it does, this is what happens. It's got little bumpers and sensors that cause it to go as far as it can in one direction and then turn somewhere and go off in a straight line in another direction. What that means is, it could spend as much as 45 minutes in one corner of the room. If you give it enough time I guess, it'll get the whole room, so the idea is put it in a room, close the door and walk away And you come back some time later and the whole room is vacuumed. But if I'm in the kitchen there and it's bumping into me and comes around and then bumps on my other ankle, I don't understand its patterns, it's wandering aimlessly without any seeming strategy to approaching the room.

Now, having said that, the Roomba's kind of fun and you put it in there and the room does get vacuumed and you don't have to do it, so that's pretty cool. I've heard they have them for lawns. Now that scares me. Just put it on your lawn, walk away. I'm like... But there are people that seem to live life like that, aimless. It even seems some Christians can live like that, they don't seem to have a purpose. Well your purpose is to be holy and to present your life as a holy offering to God, day after day. Put in a holy Monday tomorrow. Put in a holy rest of today, today. Put sin to death, give it to God as an offering, that's your goal. And then realize you're surrounded every day by people who are on their way to destruction, they're on their way to hell, say something to them about Christ, invite them to church, speak up, be inconvenienced, be willing to suffer, that's the purpose.

As Jesus said, "The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life…" And "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." So Paul was running a clearly marked race here. He's also boxing the entire way, he's not shadow boxing, though. He knows exactly what he's about, he is fighting himself and he's fighting his lust and he's fighting the temptation to quit, all of it. So Paul's saying, "I'm not going to be enslaved to my body's demands for food, I'm not in slave to my body's demand for drink, I'm not enslaved to the demand for sleep, I'm not slave to the demand for public encouragement and adulation. All of those things make me feel good, but I'm not enslaved to any of them, I want to serve Christ."

So what's the danger? Verse 27, "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." Disqualified. Disqualified. In the context, looking backward, at the external journey, it means that through your failure to watch yourself closely, you may no longer be of any use to God, You may be put on the shelf. And I know in Pastoral ministry, many pastors have been disqualified through sin, through sexual immorality, through financial malfeasance, through what's gone on in their marriage, or their family, or through their love of power and dominating of others. They have not kept their flesh in control and they've been disqualified from ministry.

It's one of the greatest fears of my life, that some day I'll have to get up in front of you and confess sin and be disqualified. So you should pray for me, because if Paul has to do it, I have to do it, we all have to do it. As Richard Baxter, said in his classic, Reformed Pastor, "Be very careful, pastors, that you do not un-say with your life what you said with your lips." And so for us to keep careful watch over ourselves, but the deeper issue, I'm going to pick this up next week, is your own final salvation. We have to keep going in sanctification and frankly if you stop going in sanctification, there's a strong doubt that you ever were justified. So if you stop running the race of holiness, you have every good reason to wonder if you ever were born again to begin with. And so we have to keep running this race right to the end. Jesus said, "He who stands firm to the end will be saved."

So what application can we take from this? Well, isn't it wonderful that we're not saved from our sins by how well we run a race? We are saved from our sins by how well Jesus ran His race, and He got to the end of His race on the cross, and He said "It is finished" and He broke through that finishing line and then I was going to suggest, but I got to you too late that we sing today, Crown Him With Many Crowns, but brother, thank you. We already sang it. Jesus broke through the finish line, and we crown him Victor and Lord of all and in His victory we stand and we receive the gift of righteousness, He is our righteousness, we are not saved from our sins by how well we run a race, but how well Jesus ran the race. So let me just say to you who came in here on the outside of Christ, this is the gospel for you. You're not going to be saved by how well you live the rest of your life. Trust in Christ. He is the Savior, He never sinned, He died on the cross for sinners like you and me, all you need to do is call on Jesus' name. Say, "Be my Savior" and He will save you, He'll give you the gift of perfect righteousness, He'll give you the crown as a gift. But once that happens, now you're in here with the rest of us and we're called on to run race.

And I say two races, those two journeys, we're called on to run that internal race of holiness. So what is the Holy Spirit speaking to you about right now? What ways do you need to beat your body and make it your slave? What ways are you showing excess? Lack of self-control. I don't know what it is. Might have to do with your eating habits, might have to do with your entertainment habits, might have to do with sexual immorality and lust, internet issues, might have to do with what you're doing with your money, your possessions, might be a materialism issue. I don't know what it is. What is the Holy Spirit saying where your flesh has gone beyond boundaries and you need to pull it back in and put strong self-discipline in your life so that you can run this race with endurance? What's going on, I don't know, But whatever the Holy Spirit speaking to you do it today, don't put it off.

And then in the external journey for evangelism, how much are you willing to be inconvenienced for the salvation of lost people around you? What changes are you willing to make, how are you willing to step out of your comfortable bubble to meet people and win them to Christ? Close with me in prayer.

The word of God never changes and then we can build our lives on it.

Well, it is a fantastic joy for me to be able to resume preaching to you. I've longed for this, I've enjoyed all summer the benefit of listening to other brothers as they've unfolded the word, but I was looking forward to preaching this message and weeks ago, actually a couple of months ago, I thought, "What would be the best way to resume preaching?" And I knew at this time the school year would begin. We would have a lot of, God willing, college students who would be here. And I thought about the benefit of just flying our flag as a church, a local church, that it would be very, very clear what this church is committed to, and above all, and we've already heard it, we are committed to the perfection, the inerrancy, the inspiration authority of the Bible. My commitment, ordinarily, is to just go on what's known as sequential exposition. I just take books of the Bible and just work through those texts one after the other, and wherever that scripture leads that's where we go. And that's been a benefit for me for 20 plus years of preaching, and I'm going to continue to do that, just not today, alright? I'm in the middle of a study in 1 Corinthians, and God willing, we'll resume that next week.

But today I want to zero in on one topic and I want to go into this one issue of Christ's infinitely high view of scripture. The Fall of my senior year at MIT, I took a class on the Bible as literature. Now MIT is really good at teaching a lot of things, but the Bible is not one of them. You can quote me on that. And as I sat in that class as a relatively new Christian, I started hearing things about the scripture that I had never heard before. As a new Christian, I was just drinking in God's word. I was learning what it was saying. I accepted it as new converts do as the Word of God, and I was stunned by some of the strange things I was hearing from this professor and learning that a scientific approach to the Bible through German scholars in the 19th century and before that, had called into question some of the basic tenets of Christianity, and we have a higher kind of a scientific view of scripture, and these higher critics called into question things such as the virgin birth of Jesus, the actual incarnation of Jesus as fully God and fully man, His miracles, His atoning death on the cross, His bodily resurrection from the dead. These fundamentals of our faith, they were questioned as myths or things that people wrote out of their own minds and we have a more modern, a more scientific understanding of religion and the Bible.

Now, I didn't realize the heritage and the history of this questioning, what we would call theological liberalism, I didn't know that much about it. I didn't know anything about the German higher critics or any of the things that they were saying. I just felt that what was being taught was, and I called this course to my friends, not to the professor's face, "Blasphemy and Heresy 101." And there actually was the second semester of it I chose not to enroll "Blasphemy and Heresy 102." But I started to realize that the attacks on the bible were a lot more ancient than that, went way, way before German higher criticism in the 19th and 18th centuries, it went back to the Garden of Eden, it went back to the serpent and the serpent questioning the Word of God. Did God really say, just raising questions, and then openly contradicting, you will not surely die, etcetera. So just raising questions so that we question the Word of God and then raising contradiction, so that we don't believe it's warnings, we don't believe it's promises; that goes back to Satan's original attack.

Now, God led me in His providence to be pastor here in this church, First Baptist Church Durham, and led me to an academic center, similar to the one where I was trained in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So also we have a lot of excellent universities in this area. UNC Chapel Hill, and Duke, NC State and other universities in this area. And it wasn't long before I started having the opportunity to minister to students who are taking similar classes at those universities. And there were similar issues being raised in those classrooms about the inerrancy, the inspiration authority of the Bible. And I remember one student in particular came, and because of a class that he had taken at Duke, he was questioning, he was looking at genealogies that didn't line up and other meticulous aspects, and this was being proven. It was proof that the Bible's not the Word of God. And I know that students at UNC Chapel Hill have sat in classes with Bart Ehrman and others and he openly avows that he seeks to destroy the faith in his students in the Word of God.

And so I began to think about therapy for students like this, and how we could best approach people whose faith and confidence in the Word of God was being shaken by this kind of intellectual approach, academic approach. And so, this topic which I'm going to unfold seemed the best to me; Christ's view of scripture. Now, I'm going to explain why in just a moment. But I think, if anything, things are much harder now on college campuses than they were when I first came here 20 years ago. I think you who are students are going to face a higher level of challenge to the Word of God than I had to face at MIT that others had to face when I was first here for five years. The Word of God is being openly disparaged on some hot button topics, some of which we're going to address, God willing, in that Bible for Life class you just heard me talk about them, and if you don't sing from the piece of sheet music the world is handing you, and the college, the university setting is the number one recruiting for that world view, it's intense, if you don't stand firm on the Word of God, you're going to be swept away and they're going to pick holes, they're going to seek to attack your confidence in the Word of God. But it's not just for students. All of us, all of us need to have an ongoing confidence in the unshakable Word of God.

That the word of God never changes and then we can build our lives on it. And so I want to give a defense for just the approach that I'm going to take to pastoral ministry for the rest of my life. The remedy I think for not just college students, but for all of us as Christ's view of scripture and we're going to see as we walk through the nine points that I have for you today, we're going to see the infinitely high view that Jesus had of the written word of God and basic persuasive strategies. This is number one, if you are a Christian... I'm appealing to Christians. I'm not seeking to go after those professors. I'm not trying to do that. I'm going to those that are Christians, they're claiming to be Christians. If you are a Christian, you should have the same attitude about everything as your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Whatever Jesus thinks about everything, you should think the same thing. Secondly, Christ had, as I will show an infinitely high view of scripture. So thirdly, you should have an infinitely high view of scripture. That's my approach.

Now, I remember my systematic theology professor, Roger Nicole was talking about liberal attacks on the Bible even back then when I was at Gordon-Conwell and I was sitting at the feet of one of the great theologians of the day and he was teaching me inerrancy and I was learning all that, but he's talking about some of these critics and how intelligent they are and how daunting they are and how intimidating and how intellectual and you just feel like you're so small in their classroom. I remember Roger Nicole quoted the demon to the seven sons of Sceva. You remember this in the book of Acts, where these Jewish seven sons tried to drive out a demon by this Jesus whom Paul preaches and the demon answered "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul. But who are you?" So keep that in mind when you're sitting in the class or whatever. I'm going to have Jesus' view and Paul's view of scripture, who are you and I have no interest in being moved away from Jesus' commitment to the inspiration authority of the Word of God.

I'm going through many scriptures, but if you would take your scripture and open to Matthew 26 and we're going to look beginning at Verse 50 at the first one. I don't... If you're going to flip and follow with me, you can. I'm not probably going to wait for you. But this is a good one to look at, because honestly, if you get no other point this one will do it.

And here's the point. Christ would rather die than disobey scripture. Christ would rather die than disobey scripture. He's in the garden of Gethsemane, he is kneeling down and praying and getting himself ready to die for the sins of the world on the cross. There the father in some mysterious and deep way that I can hardly understand reveals the cup he is going to have to drink. The cup of God's wrath, the cup of His justice. And Jesus in his humanity, in a way we cannot fully comprehend, shrink back from the cup and said in Matthew 26:39, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup be removed. Yet not my will, but yours be done." I think the single greatest act of courage and valor there's ever been in human history. That he would be willing to drink that cup when he knew it contained the infinite wrath of God against us for our sins.

But having done that, he rose from prayer and went out to meet Judas and the soldiers that were there to arrest him. And picking up in Matthew 26:50, this is what the account says "Then the men stepped forward, sees Jesus and arrested him. With that one of Jesus' companions [we find out in another gospel that it speaks of Peter] reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest cutting off his ear. 'Put your sword back in its place,' Jesus said to him. 'for all who draw the sword, will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he would at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels. But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" Jesus gives to Peter who's drawing out his little fishermen sword to fight for Jesus' freedom, to fight that Jesus would not be arrested. He did not understand what he was doing or what Jesus was doing. Jesus gave a three-fold reason why Peter should put his sword back in his place. "Put your sword back in its place."

Number one, all who draw the sword will die by the sword. There's a lot of things we could say about that. I'm not going to get into all of them but one of the things as Peter look around you, you're going to lose.  Your death is imminent. If I don't rescue you supernaturally, you almost certainly die if you be swinging that sword. So put it away. Simple. Practical. But then secondly, he said, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he would at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" In other words, Peter, if I were trying to escape the cross, I wouldn't use your little fishermen sword. I would call on my Father and he would send the armies of heaven. Now listen, one angel killed 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night. 72,000 angels against 600 soldiers, it's over quickly. If I were trying to escape the cross, that's how I would do it. But now here's the real point. Here's the real reason. If I did that, how then would the Scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way? The scripture says I must die. I must have my hands and my feet pierced. I must have my blood spilled for the sins of the world. That's what the scripture says I must do and I will do it. So put your sword away.

Jesus would rather die than violate scripture. And there is not a man, woman or child in this room that has anywhere near that commitment to Scripture. We prove it every time we sin. Every time we disbelieve one of God's promises or disobey one of His commands, we prove that we don't have Jesus' view of scripture. Now, if you're redeemed, you probably have within you a heart yearning for it. You yearn that you would have Jesus' commitment to Scripture. You yearn to be as holy as Christ does. You hunger and thirst for righteousness, and if you're a child of God, someday you will have it; you will have it. But the more we have it now, the better. The more we would rather die than violate scripture, the better it is. Now, I don't need to give any of the eight other points. It really doesn't matter to me what Bart Ehrman says or any other expert, I want to have the same commitment to Scripture that Jesus did.

Secondly, Christ taught again and again and again that he fulfilled scripture; fulfilled it. What this means is that Jesus' life was predicted by the prophets. The details of his life were predicted. Jesus' death, as we just saw, was predicted. The scriptures said He must die in this way.

But it wasn't just His death. Christ's whole life was covered by Old Testament prophecy, from His miraculous birth by the virgin Mary, prophesied in Isaiah 7:14, to the location of his birth in Bethlehem prophesied in Micah 5:2, to his lineage as the Son of David, predicted in 2 Samuel 7:12-13, Isaiah 9:7, through His atoning death on the cross, prophesied by Psalm 22, verse 16 and also all of Isaiah 53, and his bodily resurrection from the dead prophesied by Psalm 16 and verse 10, and many of their details in between Christ fulfilled the prophets. As a matter of fact, there's such an intimate relationship between Christ and the Word of God that the Apostle John, writing the fourth Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saw fit to call him the Word. And I have made this assertion before and I'll make it again. You know nothing about Jesus apart from scripture, apart from the written Word of God. There's no other source of information. And so, everything we know about our Savior and the gospel comes from the scripture. All of it was predicted.

Many books of Christian apologetics list the predictive prophecies. I have in my library Josh McDonald's book Evidence that Demands a Verdict that list 61 prophecies about Jesus; 61 of them. And so, we have this promise, fulfillment theme going on in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, again and again this is what the prophet said, Jesus fulfilled the prophets. But most importantly for our purpose, is Jesus said he fulfilled them. He said that his life was in fulfillment of the written Word of God, for us the Old Testament, New Testament hadn't been written yet. And so, go to the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. You can look there if you want in Luke 4:16 and following. "He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue as was his custom, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, 'The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.' Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began by saying to them, 'Today, in your hearing, this Scripture is fulfilled.'" That's an astounding claim. It was Isaiah 61. It was written seven centuries before Jesus was born. But Jesus would make this incredible claim again and again and again in His ministry. Mathew 5:17, Jesus said to his enemies, "Do not think that I've come to abolish law of the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." People said he was like sweeping away the Scriptures. Not at all, he came to fulfill them. Even more dramatic, He said to the Jews in John, Chapter Five, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have eternal life."

A few verses later, it was even clearer. He said, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me for he wrote about me." It's incredible. Moses lived 15 centuries before Jesus. He wrote the first five books of the Old Testament. Jesus said, "He wrote about me." That account about Abraham sacrificing, almost sacrificing his son, Isaac, and Abraham saying to his son when the son asked, "Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" "God will provide the lamb." He was talking about me, and all of the animal sacrificial system set up in the Laws of Moses, I came to fulfill every one of them by my substitutionary death on the cross. It's a shock. And Jesus made this claim, again and again. Now, this culminated in Jesus' actual statements from the cross. Now, the statements he made from the cross, seven of them, three of them had to do directly with fulfilling scripture; three of the seven. The first is the clearest. Jesus is up on the cross, and he cries out in a loud voice, "Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani?" Which when translated is, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?"

Psalm 22 is the clearest prediction of the actual mechanism of his death. "They have pierced my hands and my feet, I can count all my bones… my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, a band of evil men has encircled me..." All of this clear picture of crucifixion that's why Jesus said the scripture said, it must happen in this way. Now, it's amazing in Franco Zeffirelli's film Jesus of Nazareth. It really highlights this very well, I think it's for the most part a good film, not perfect, but When Jesus cries out, "Eloi Eloi lama Sabachthani." his enemies are there, they around the cross listening and they said, He's calling for Elijah. But one of the more astutely, gets a quizzical look on his face and just strokes his beard and he says, "No, he's not. He's not calling Elijah, he's quoting the scripture." Even now hanging on the cross, even now quoting Scripture.

They believed that he was a fraud. They believed he was a charlatan, he was a faker, and apparently carrying it right to the bitter end. No, Jesus was fulfilling, Psalm 22. And I think he was urging the human race for 20 plus centuries that would follow, "Read Psalm 22. It's speaking about me and my substitutionary atonement."

Thirdly, Christ taught the unbreakable authority and permanence of Scripture. He made key statements about the nature of Scripture and it's permanence. For example, John 10:35, he said the Scripture cannot be broken. I love the statement made by one commentator, he said, "Scripture is an anvil that has destroyed many hammers." People have whaled away on Scripture in every generation, and it still stands. Scripture cannot be broken.

The text that you heard read as we all stood up to hear Matt read, Matthew 5:18-19. I'll read it again. "I'll tell you the truth, until Heaven and Earth disappear, not the smallest letter or least stroke of pen", that's that translation. Jot and tittle is a little more famous. "Not the smallest letter, the jot or tittle, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Jesus is claiming that Scripture down to the letter will never pass away, it is permanent. Then he extended it to his own teachings later. He said in Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and Earth will pass away but my words will never pass away."

So now we're embracing the new testament as well. The Word of God is likened to many things, we sang about it earlier. Likened to food, likened to water, likened to a sword, there's a lot of things. But one of the images is that it's a rock, it's an unshakable rock. It doesn't move, it doesn't go anywhere. It was there long before you were conceived in your mother's womb. It'll be there long after you're lowered into the grave, if Christ doesn't return in our lifetime. It's permanent, it's unshakable, and therefore extending that idea of the unshakable permanence of the Word of God to his own teachings, he says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rains came down and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains came down and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

So you just have to ask, What is your life founded on? What's the foundation of your life? Is it rock or sand? Because the rains are coming, the streams are coming, judgment day is coming, and only that which is built by the Spirit of God, on the Word of God, will last. Unshakable, so it extends to his own teachings. But the smallest letters will not disappear.

Fourth, Christ lived sinlessly, moment by moment, by every word that came from the mouth of God, that's how he lived sinlessly. It wasn't just in Gethsemane that he would rather die than violate scripture, it was every day of his life. He never sinned. He was our sinless substitute, and he never sinned by obeying the Word of God. So we know about the temptation of Jesus and how he was qualified, the Book of Hebrews would use that language, qualified to be our savior by suffering temptation. And he went through that temptation and never sinned. So he was out in the desert fasting for 40 days and the tempter came to him. And the tempter tempts him with three temptations, he answers all three of them with Scripture, and with the same verbal formula, "It stands written," would be a good translation of the Greek. "It stands written."

I love the first, the tempter said, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." In other words, use your supernatural wonder working power to deliver your own life and bring pleasure and satisfaction to yourself. Satan is very shrewd, but Jesus is wiser. And he said, "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" He's quoting Deuteronomy 8, verse 3. And what he's saying is, we human beings, We live not merely by chewing and swallowing food, we live by the will of God to live. You don't keep living another moment if God doesn't will it. In him, you live and move and have your being. And then God opens his hand and gives you what you need to stay alive. Physically, bread, but for your souls it's the word of God. And so he combines all this in a rather complex thought. He's saying, effectively God was saying to Israel in the desert, "I gave you manna, I fed you to humble you and to teach you a lesson. You don't live by bread you live by my word. When I say live, you live. When I say eat manna, here is the manna I provide. But what really matters is my mouth. So learn to watch my mouth."

I remember my mother used to teach me that way. She would... This was a serious moment. She would look at me seriously with her mother eyes and she'd say, "Watch my mouth." And I would look at her mouth. It would be to pronounce a word a certain way or it would be to obey something she was telling me to do. Watch my mouth. God's saying in Deuteronomy 8 to the human race, "Watch my mouth. You live by my word." And we have a record, a perfect record of God's words, and we live by it. That's how you will resist temptation, and you're going to be tempted. You're being tempted now. And the only way you're going to fight is the way Jesus fought by saying, "It stands written, no, to that sin." That's how you'll fight.

Number five. Christ staked his life even on obscure details of scripture. Now, there are big things and little things in God's word. One of the things liberals do is say, "Well, the big themes are important, but the details, that's where the problems... " Look, big things and details are all inspired. The forest and the trees are all inspired, all of it. Jesus knew that. He knew that big things are made up of little things, atoms. History, big history is made up of tiny moments. He knew that better than we do. So he says, "Everything is perfect." That's why he talked about jots and tittles. Tiny little pen strokes will not go anywhere.

And so he established even the details. Now, it's interesting in John chapter 10, Jesus made an extraordinary claim to deity. He made many such claims. But here he said, "I and the Father are one." Now the depths of that is beyond any of us to comprehend. The oneness of the trinity, we will never fully understand. Three Gods would be easy to understand, but that's not the teaching of the Bible. The Bible teaches that there is one God and only one God. The Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. But Jesus is saying, "I and the Father are" plural word, "are one" claiming to be a deity. The Jews immediately picked up stones to stone him. Jesus' life was being threatened, he was under immense pressure.

What did he reach for? Words first, not weapons, not Peter's sword, that would never come into play. But words. What words? Well, of course, Psalm 82 verse 6. Oh yes, Psalm 82. If I asked any of you to quote it, you would say, "Well, I can quote. I said you are gods." That would be the only verse you know. It's not one of the famous psalms. Psalm 23, it's probably the most famous. And there are other famous psalms as well, not Psalm 82. But to Jesus, every scripture is God-breathed, useful. And he reaches for this argument, "Is it not written in your law, I have said you are Gods? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken," he's talking about Psalm 82 verse 6, "What then about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said I am God's son?" Now I could take right now 15 minutes to try to explain Jesus' reasoning from Psalm 82:6, I'm not going to do it. It's hard to follow his logic. I'm just saying he quoted Psalm 82:6 when they threatened his life. So even the tiniest details of scripture, the most obscure scriptures, were God-breathed and useful for Christ.

Sixth. Christ proved His deity by a single word of scripture. This is in Mathew 22 verse 41 and following. The Pharisees were gathered together to cause him trouble, to attack him and accuse him. And they asked him a bunch of questions, difficult questions, and he answered them. Then he turned the tables and said, "I now have a question for you. You've been asking me questions, I'm going to ask you a question." "What do you think about the Christ, who's son is he?" And I think in a knee-jerk sort of way they answered what all Jews would have said, "The son of David." Jesus then said, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord? For he says 'the Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.'' If then David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" I love the reaction. No one could say a word in reply and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

That ended that. But frankly, unbelieving Jewish people have had no answer to that question for 20 centuries. We're looking at Psalm 110, that's what he's quoting, Psalm 110. And there are four key ingredients to Christ's argument. First, David wrote Psalm 1:10 or the argument's null and void. Davidic authorship of the psalm is essential to his argument. Secondly, David, when he was writing the psalm, was speaking by the spirit. That's the doctrine of verbal inspiration. The Holy Spirit came over David, and as he was writing the psalm, protected him from error. That's how we have an inerrant scripture, not because people are so awesome, but because the Holy Spirit has determined to guard the scripture writers from error while they were writing. So, David was speaking by the Spirit as he wrote, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand.'"

Thirdly, in Hebrew thinking, a son is never greater than the father. The commandment is that the son should honor the father, and especially in kingly lineage the son doesn't become king until the death of the father. Until then, he's just a prince. And so, how would David be speaking about his own son as above him? And the fourth is that David was speaking about the Messiah, it was a messianic psalm. Those four are essential ingredients to Jesus' argument. Now, look what he says, that, David, speaking by the spirit, called his own son, the Messiah, Lord. For he said, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.'" David is in the position of a worshipper, he's in the position of a sinner saved by grace, and he calls Jesus, he doesn't call Him Jesus but he calls him my lord. And he's calling him that now in heaven as he looks up at the glorified Jesus, at the right hand of Almighty God and he is worshipping him along with the other redeemed departed. So how can he be his son? Well, we know he is his son. He is the son of David, he's also the son of God, he's both. He's fully God and fully human. We Christians have done the best we can, by the Spirit, to resolve and understand those. Fully God, fully human, that's how he can call him Lord.

Seventh, Christ proved the resurrection by a single verb tense in scripture. The Sadducees were there trying to disprove resurrection. "Resurrection is ridiculous." It brings you into all kinds of ridiculous ethical problems like seven brothers being married to one woman, and all of this. And, "Well, how are they... Who's she's going to be married to? There can't be a resurrection." That's the Sadducees. So Jesus addresses resurrection from a text of Scripture. "But about the resurrection of the dead, Have you not read what God said to you?" That's powerful, isn't it? In the account about the burning bush, he's speaking to you. Not just speaking to Moses, he's speaking to you in the account. He was speaking to Moses in the actual event, he's speaking to you in the written account. And the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, and what does he say? "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You're greatly mistaken.

So how does that prove resurrection? It's not easy to figure out, but just look at the verb tense, the I am. I am Abraham's God right now. What does that tell you about Abraham? He exists. Now we find out from fuller Scripture understanding, he is waiting for the resurrection of the body like all the other redeemed that have departed. None of them have resurrection bodies yet, Jesus alone, he's the first fruit, then when he comes, the resurrection. But he will get a resurrection body, but he's waiting and he's still there so I'm still Abraham's God, I'm not... I was Abraham's God, I am Abraham's God, and I'm also Isaac's God right now, and I'm Jacob's God right now. He is not the God of the dead but of the living. It's all down to one verb tense.

Number eight, Christ instilled passion about Scripture in the hearts of his disciples. Oh, that he would do that in our hearts now, this morning. He wants us to have the same passion and conviction about Scripture that he did. So after he was raised from the dead, he's walking along the road with two disciples from the road to Emmaus. You remember this? And they're so depressed, and they're so dejected, and they're so confused. And some of the women from their group have confused them with a story about some empty tomb and they don't know what to make of it. And they're walking with this stranger who doesn't seem to know anything that's going on. He's not like into current events, I guess. Are you the only stranger who doesn't know what's happened here? How is it even possible? About Jesus of Nazareth? We had hoped that he was going to be the one. Now, our women have confused us with this story and we don't know what to make of it.  And there Jesus is, and this is his answer. He said, "How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer many things and then enter into his glory?" Then just as an average guy appearing to them, just another person. That's all He looked... He didn't look glorious, just looked like a stranger.

"Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself." The same thing he'd been doing in his ministry. "This is what's written in the scriptures." "As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, 'Stay with us for it's nearly evening, the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them, and when he was at table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. Then they asked each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?'" Jesus doesn't want to keep this conviction to himself, he wants all of us to share it, this burning heart to know Scripture, to drink it in, to read it, to study it and to live it. He does the same thing later in Luke 24 when he appears to all of them in the upper room and he gives them many convincing proofs that he was alive. He showed them his hands and his side, he ate some broiled fish in front of them. And then he began to prepare them for the future, what was coming.

Luke 24: 44-48, "This is what I told you while I was still with you, everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms. Then He opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures." I love that verse. Oh, that God would do that in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, that he would open our minds to understand the Scriptures. Then he told them, "This is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." So are we in our generation. We are witnesses and it's going on, it's making good progress, it's right on schedule, and it's going to be consummated before the end of the world.

Ninth. Christ was condemned to his death by one quotation of Scripture. He was on trial for his life as he stood before his enemies, the Jewish high priest and the Jewish ruling council. They were trying to get him on charges of blasphemy but they couldn't get any of the witnesses to agree. The false witnesses were doing a really bad job that night. And so they decided to break laws of jurisprudence and asked the accused, the prisoner himself, concerning his own crimes. It's not supposed to be done, on the testimony of two or three witnesses if someone's put to death. But they go right to Jesus. The high priest asked him, "'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?' 'I am,' Jesus said." Just stop right there. He's quoting Scripture right there, isn't he? He is the I am. "I am."

But then he quoted Scripture. "'You will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven.' The priest tore his clothes. 'Why do we need any more witnesses?' he asked, 'You have heard the blasphemy, now what do you think?' They all condemned him as worthy of death." Now, Jesus at that moment is quoting Daniel chapter 7, the son of man vision. The son of man vision in Daniel 7:13 and 14 has the ancient of days, almighty God, seated on a throne and a river of fire is flowing from his throne, and that river of fire rules over all of the nasty, terrifying beasts that come up out of the sea representing world empires. God rules over all of it. And so there is almighty God on his throne of fire, and into his presence comes one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven. He's not the ancient of days seated on the throne, he's another coming into the presence of almighty God.

This is what it says, "In my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All peoples, nations, and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." He is called son of man because he's human, but he's given divine glory and people worship him. So he's given divine prerogatives. Who is this son of man? Who is this human being who's also divine who rules over the world and will receive from every tribe and language and people and nation worship and glory?

Well, we know who it is. That's why Jesus' favorite title for himself was the son of man. Read Daniel 7, read Daniel 7, read Daniel 7, son of man, son of man, read Daniel 7. At the key moment though he knew exactly what effect that scripture would have, it would condemn him to death. They couldn't hear it. "He came to his own and his own did not receive him. But as many as did receive him, to those who believe in his name... " That is, believe that he is the son of God, not just merely a son of man, he will give eternal life.

So in this study we've seen nine different themes of Jesus' view of Scripture. We've seen that Christ would rather die than disobeys Scripture. Christ taught consistently that he fulfilled scripture. He taught the unbreakable authority and permanence of scripture. He lived sinlessly moment by moment by all Scripture. He staked his life on even obscure details in Scripture. He proved his deity by a single word of scripture. He proved the resurrection by a single verb tense in Scripture. He instilled passion in his disciples, hearts burning over scripture, and he opened their minds so they could understand Scripture. And he was condemned because of a key quotation of Scripture.

So let me ask you, What difference does it make what some professor thinks about scripture? What difference does it make what our generation thinks about scripture? It matters for them, and we should have compassion on them. We should yearn that they would cross over from darkness into light. But for you personally as a disciple of Christ, it should be settled. You're going to have the same attitude towards scripture as Jesus. Above all, you're going to find in the words of the Gospels, in the words of the New Testament you're going to find the Gospel of your salvation, of forgiveness of your sins. We've already said it, that God sent his son into the world to die a bloody death on the cross so that if you repent and believe you'll have eternal life. So find in the words of Scripture Christ, and finding Christ, your own salvation.

Secondly, imitate Christ in passionate obedience to Scripture. Just say, "Lord would you work in me the same commitment that I would rather die than to violate scripture? I don't want to sin, and I don't want to fail to believe your promises. I want to believe them all and I want to obey your commands by the power of the spirit."

Thirdly, let's be committed to winning others to Christ. Jesus said, "You are witnesses of these things." We have taken that mantle, we've taken the baton, it's our turn now. So I want to say especially to you college students, be courageous on the campus. You're surrounded by people who are effectively like wet cement and they're settling quickly in their worldview, but they may still be open. God may get them ready and he's going to orchestrate them meeting you, and it could be in your dorm, it could be in a classroom, it could be in a hallway, it could be in the cafeteria or wherever you eat, it could be in a coffee shop. And you're the one, and God has orchestrated that you speak a word for Christ to them boldly.

And finally, expect your pastor to preach the Word of God, expect him consistently, year after year, to unfold scripture. Pray for me that I'll do it. Pray for the future, when you're removed from this place and go to another place that you'll find somewhere that will be committed to the word of God and unfold it for the salvation, the ongoing salvation of your soul.  Close with me in prayer.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Matthew 15:21-28 and the effective results of a faith-filled prayer life.

All my Christian life I have delighted in stories about men and women of faith. People whose faith enabled them to, as William Carey put it, expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. Perhaps one of the greatest heroes of faith that I've ever studied is George Müller, a man who in the 19th century cared throughout his lifetime ministry for over 10,000 orphans, 10,000 orphans in England. He trusted God again and again for their material needs, for their food, clothing and shelter, for their educational needs and for their spiritual needs. Now, toward the end of his life, Müller, whose work with orphans had become famous worldwide, was traveling to North America in 1877 on a steamship, The Sardinian.

And as they traveled across the North Atlantic there was a heavy fog. And the ship's captain wisely felt it good to throttle the ship back and slow down to a crawl to avoid icebergs, especially at that time of year, the very thing that would sink the Titanic 35 years later. Well, George Müller went to see the captain, his name was Joseph E. Dutton. He explained very clearly to the captain. You have to understand about George Müller, he was Prussian-born and this is a man who gets what he wants, very precise. And he explained to the captain that he had to be in Quebec by the following afternoon. He never missed an appointment, he was not going to miss that one.

The captain explained that it was impossible because of the fog. And Müller answered, "My eye is not on the fog, but on the God who holds every circumstance of my life in His hands. Let us go down to the chart room and pray." Well, the captain went down reluctantly and Müller prayed a simple prayer. Then the captain dutifully began to pray in like manner. Müller stopped him, and he put his hand on his shoulder and stopped him. He said, "First of all, you don't believe that God will. Second of all, I believe God already has, so there's absolutely no need for you to pray."

"You may go up and look, the fog has lifted." And it had. Now, that's quite a moment, isn't it? Now, the question that's in my mind, and it's a perennial question about prayer, the efficacy of prayer. Did Müller's faith-filled prayer move the fog, or did God's power move the fog? Now, the answer of course must be both. Biblically it must be both, and that's the mystery of prayer. In James 5 and verse 16 it says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," in the King James version. It is powerful and effective. Prayer is effective, it produces an effect. Jesus said in Matthew 21:21, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt… you can say to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself in the sea' and it will be done."

Now in the end, as we'll see this morning, faith-filled prayer is totally humble and gives all glory to God. If it were not for the power of God to move fogs then the prayer would be meaningless. And if a person prays for a mountain to be thrown into the sea and it does, a person knows full well they didn't move the mountain, God moved the mountain. So, in today's account we're going to see both astonishing faith and even more astonishing power. Amazing faith and even more amazing power, the power of Christ.

Now, as we come to this account in Matthew 15, we come to a bit of a mystery. And it all just has to do with how Jesus treats this woman. I mean, when you read this text don't you find yourself a little bit perplexed? Like you want to pull Jesus aside and just give him some lessons on how to win friends and influence people.

This is not how we treat people. Imagine you giving Jesus instructions on how to treat people. But there it is, it's strange. Robert Stein in his book Difficult Passages in The Gospels says, "This is a difficult passage. The problem is obvious, Jesus' words appear harsh, austere and insensitive. The Jesus of the Gospels, however, is loving and kind. Jesus who has special compassion for the outcasts of society, and this woman is an outcast in the Jewish mind."

So that's what makes it difficult, his demeanor. Now, let's set the context. Jesus is in retreat mode with his apostles. He's pulled back from the increasing heat of his ministry in Israel, the Greek word there, if you look at verse 21, it says, "Leaving that place Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon," and the Greek word there means more than just went away, he... This is a strategic, intentional retreat that he's taking.

And he's doing it to escape the building pressure, to kind of tone things down, because it's not time for him to be arrested yet. His time had not yet come, so he wants things to cool off. There is pressure from the huge multitudes that are coming all the time for healing. Pressure that he would be arrested imminently by Herod Antipas, the same one who had arrested John the Baptist. Pressure, most of all, from the Jewish religious leaders led by Caiaphas and Annas, who had no desire for Jesus to continue his ministry and who were already plotting his death, and Jesus knew that, so he retreats. And he's going there to be hidden with his disciples for a little while, but this woman found him anyway. If you look at the Mark account, just listen, in Mark 7:24 and 25, it says, "Jesus entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, yet he could not keep his presence secret.In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. So Jesus is in retreat mode but this woman has found him and forces this interaction.

Now Tyre and Sidon is notorious in Jewish history, it was well known as a prosperous pagan place, a pagan society founded on shipping and trade and merchants that went throughout the Mediterranean and made tons of money. Now the relationship in Scripture, started positively. Hiram King of Tyre, sent David logs for him to build his palace and then when David's son, Solomon went to build the temple it was Hiram also who sent craftsmen and logs and all of that, and they had a very cordial relationship, Solomon with the King of Tyre. But the flip side was darker, Tyre and Sidon represent worldly luxury, through abundant sea trade and that abundant sea trade is likened by Isaiah the prophet to the plying the trade of a prostitute. Worse Amos 1 and Joel 3 reveal that Tyre and Sidon was actually involved in the slave trade. Also in Ezekiel 26, they mocked and celebrated the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.

Ezekiel 28 implies that the real ruler of Tyre and Sidon was Satan himself, the guardian cherub in the Garden of Eden, the King of Tyre the king of Sidon, it seems was the devil himself, and therefore several prophets predicted total devastation of Tyre and Sidon. Ezekiel Joel, Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah all of them prophesy against Tyre and Sidon. Yet, for all of this, Jesus knew their hearts and he knew some of them better. And he said, in one of most remarkable statements that he ever made concerning his ministry there, in Jewish cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida in Matthew 11, he says, "Woe to you Chorazin, a Jewish city, woe to you Bethsaida, a Jewish city. If the miracles that were performed and you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I would tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you." So that's the context. That's Tyre and Sidon, Jesus has gone up there to that pagan area, that gentile area for a retreat with His disciples.

So who was this woman? Well, she's a Canaanite, we have in our text, the very people that God had commanded Joshua to destroy completely when they entered the promised land. The Canaanite woman in particular, Canaanite women in particular, in general, people of God were warned, the sons of Israel were warned against intermarriage with Canaanite women, because there was a deep concern that they would lead the hearts of their sons astray from following the Lord.

Now Mark 7:26 tell us, "The woman was a Greek-born in Syrian Phoenicia." Ao sometimes she's called the Sira-Phoenician woman, a Canaanite woman. So she would have been a complete outcast as far as the law of Moses was concerned. A Canaanite woman. But yet, as we see in this text, she has tremendous faith in Christ and is for all time, memorialized in the scripture as an example of conquering faith.

But what was her plight? Her plight was that her little daughter was demon-possessed. Look at verse 22, "She was crying out, 'Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession." Mark's Gospel heightens the fact that the little girl is young, she's her little daughter, she's a young girl. Now demons are fallen angels. They are immensely powerful, more powerful than we can imagine. We're surrounded by both angels and demons every moment of everyday though we do not see them.

Faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we see invisible spiritual realities, past, present, and future, and one of the present spiritual realities is that there are demons. We westerners are so materialistic, scientific, we think, "Well we just call God anything we don't understand from science, once we understand things in science then the invisible spiritual realms disappear." Well that's just not true. Demons were very powerful and active in Jesus' day and they haven't gone anywhere friends, they just use different tricks here in the West. But they're immensely powerful and this demonization or demon possession is one of the things that we see in the Gospels.

Demon possession is a very serious spiritual affliction, a demon takes possession of the mind and the heart, the will, and the body of a human being. The demons do actual bodily harm to these individuals, or cause them to do bodily harm to themselves, cutting themselves with rocks, howling at the moon, breaking chains, falling into fire or water, it's horrible. And more than one demon can inhabit a human being. As a matter of fact one demoniac of the Gadarenes has legion of demons, thousands of demons led by one central main demon. And nothing could cure this little girl.

And imagine what life was like in that household, what it was like to be the mother of that little girl, and the horror and the terror and the agony, middle-of-the-night screams and outcries. A father of a demon-possessed boy said, "The demon often throws my son in the fire or the water. So you got to be on 24/7 vigilant outlook to just keep him surviving." Life is unbearable for this woman because of her daughter. And this seems to have been an especially bad case, an extra Greek word is used to heighten that sense. So this is a terrible case.

So she comes to interact with Jesus and now we get to look at Jesus' strange actions. First of all, in verse 23 He doesn't answer her at all, like she's not even there. Then the disciples come and they're weary of listening to this woman's pleas for help. So look at verse 23-24, "His disciples came to him and urged him, 'Send her away for she keeps crying out after us,' and he answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

Third, in dealing with her directly, once she forces that interaction, she falls on the ground before him, and will not be denied, He seems to insult her, calling her a dog. Now, I know it's hard for you dog lovers, but I've looked it up, dogs never do well in the Bible. I've not found any positive dog verses in the Bible. Maybe some of you can, but they're usually... What am I? A dog, a dead dog, something like that, it's that kind of thing. So this is... It feels like an insult. The woman came in and knelt before him in verse 25-26, "'Lord, help me,' she said. He replied, 'It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs.'" So this is strange, this is difficult.

Now, there's some mitigating factors. We need to understand some things. First of all, we don't have a record of facial expressions, tone of voice, those things mean so much. You can't tell just from the words how Jesus is being, is He inviting more conversation? Is He being dismissive? We don't know. The Greek implied that Jesus was having actually an ongoing conversation with her. It says Jesus was saying to her, it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs. So there's an ongoing thing. The Scripture frequently omits a lot of the back and forth and streamlines the account, so there's not everything said that was said, we've got that.

And also the word dogs here, there are certain Greek word for dogs where they're just wild animals, like junkyard dogs out in the street, that's not the word used here. Then there's more of a pet, like a household pet kind of aspect, it's more that word, but still for all of that this doesn't seem like what we would expect from Jesus.

Alright, so we have to understand Christ's wise motives here. Christ is always wise in everything He does, perfect in all of His ways, so let's try to understand. And let's do that negatively, let's come at it from just ruling out some options concerning why Jesus acted the way He did.

First of all, it was not because He didn't care about Gentiles or want them saved, not at all.

When the original call to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation came, called him out of the Ur of the Chaldees, it says in Genesis 12:3, God said to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So God's call of Abraham, the father of the Jews makes it plain that God always had a plan to save people from every tribe, language, people and nation, that was always God's plan, it wasn't plan B. That was exactly what God was going to do through the Jews, through Abraham.

Also Jesus Himself, His mission was clearly described for us in the Book of Isaiah, in Isaiah 49, we get an amazing inter-trinitarian conversation where the Father says to the Son, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." It's too small a thing Jesus for you to just save the Jews. That was written centuries before Jesus was born, and Jesus knew the Book of Isaiah very well.

So He knew that He was the light for the Gentiles. Like Simeon, when baby Jesus was being circumcised, he took Him in his arms and called Him the Light for the Gentiles, they knew that, He knew that. And after His resurrection, He would send His disciples to the ends of the earth. "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations." And so Chris and Debbie  are there in Bangladesh, in obedience to that commission. It's not plan B, that's what God always intended. And we have missionaries, friends, brothers and sisters serving all over the world, that's the great commission, it's been going on from Jerusalem through Judea to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. It's not plan B, it's always what God wanted.

And one of the places, one of the first places the disciples would go was this very region of Tyre and Sidon. Paul on his journey back to Jerusalem after his missionary trip, he landed at Phoenicia and went and visited the disciples in Tyre. And there were many there who deeply loved Paul because they deeply loved Jesus. It would not surprise me at all if this woman and her daughter were among that church, how marvelous would that be? We'll find out in heaven. But Jesus clearly had a saving intention for the entire world including Tyre and Sidon.

Secondly, it's not because He lacked the power to do miracles in a Gentile land. Okay, the end of the account proves that that's not true. Jesus' power worked very well in the mountains and in the valleys. It worked very well in the cities and out in the country, He does very well everywhere. He is omnipotent, there's nothing He cannot do. And He was no more or less powerful in Tyre and Sidon than anywhere else.

Thirdly, it's not because He lacked mercy or compassion for her plight or that of her daughter, Jesus is the most perfect man that ever lived, the only perfect man that ever lived, perfect in compassion. As a matter of fact, again and again, we are told Jesus moved with compassion healed somebody.

As a matter of fact, compassion is the number one emotion ascribed to Jesus more than any other emotion. He was perfectly compassionate all the time. Anyone who came to Him empty, like a spiritual beggar with a need got what they needed from Him.

It was not because He was weary and annoyed at the end of a long day, or needed a break or a vacation as so many of us do. Jesus never had a bad day and never got weak and weary in that sense. Think of Him on the cross, hands and feet nailed, dying under the wrath of God and showing compassion for His mother, setting her up with John, showing compassion on those who nailed Him to the cross saying, "Father forgive them they do not know what they are doing." Showing compassion on the thief saying, "Today you'll be with me in paradise." Perfectly loving while dying on the cross. So it's not because He was too tired to help this woman.

And it's not because He was taking a break from ministry and didn't want to care for her needs at that point.

And it's not because there's only so much bread to give to the children and it's going to run out. Let me ask you a question, do you think it would have been harder for Jesus to feed 6000 than 5000? Do you think He'd need a few more loaves and fishes to pull it off? Friends, there's no limit to the power of Jesus Christ. No miracle is particularly difficult for Him or particularly easy. Jesus can do anything, that's what omnipotence is all about. And so there's no limit to the bread supply.

And it's not because she didn't ask properly or with enough faith. Jesus commends her faith in the end, he wasn't forcing her to give more or he wouldn't respond. Actually, I think he wants to put the greatness of her faith on display. And so we'll get to that in just a moment, but these are not the reasons why.

Why then? Well, let's look at some possible reasons. First of all, there's just an order to God's redemptive plan. He has a very clear and wise purpose and order to the Jew first, then to the Gentile. Peter spoke about this after Jesus' resurrection and ascension to heaven, he's preaching there in the Jewish temple. And he says in Acts 3:26, "For you, first God raised up his servant, and sent him to bless each of you by turning you from your wicked ways." God sent him to you Jews first. Peter said that, Acts 3:26.

Over and over the Apostle Paul, the same thing, lived out what he wrote in the book of Romans, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." And he acted it out in his ministry, Paul I mean. Every city he went to, the first place he would go if there was one, was to a Jewish synagogue, that's where he always started and he would preach to the Jews and they would inevitably be divided, there'd be a small number of them that believed and was interested and the rest would turn because there was a veil over their hearts, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3 and they would become hostile.

And so in Acts 13: 46 when Paul and Barnabas were in Pisidia in Antioch, they had preached a couple of Sabbaths at the synagogue, the Jews turned and became hostile, and this is what it says, "Paul and Barnabas answered the Jews boldly, we had to speak the word of God to you first," just ponder that there's just a clear order here, "since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us, 'I have made you, [Jesus] a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." And so they went out and preached and did very well among the Gentiles there. This is God's strategy. It was part of God's redemptive plan for Christ to be sent first to His own people, to have them reject Him, and then turn to the rest. As it says in John 1:11, "He came to his own and his own people did not receive Him, but as many as did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."

So Jesus is here declaring the focus of his ministry. It's the Jews. Look at Verse 24, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." Not ultimately only but in this mission, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Also Christ hadn't died yet, so the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, so-called, set up in the Laws of Moses, were still in effect. Circumcision was still in effect, the dietary regulations were still in effect although Jesus in His life declared all foods clean, but all of that would be fulfilled when he died, and the moment he died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the Levitical animal sacrifice system was fulfilled and obsolete, and welcome was offered to both Jews and Gentiles through faith in Christ to draw near to the Holy of Holies, and find salvation.

So that happened when Jesus died and rose again, the end of the old covenant, the beginning of the New Covenant, hadn't happened yet, and so we still have that barrier the dividing wall of hostility, established separating Jews and Gentiles. Also Jesus has a strategic order in dealing with his own apostles, the 12, the inner circle. He came to this region to focus on them. One way to understand his statement is that the disciples are the children and the children's bread is time spent with Jesus. Jesus had limitations in the days of His incarnation. He could only be in one place at one time, he could only effectively deal with one situation at one time, though he is omni-competent and can do all these things when he ascends to Heaven through the Holy Spirit, at that point he's limited, and he's focused on the apostles. He's retreated to be with them, and he therefore couldn't give himself to a general healing ministry, there in Tyre and Sidon, would have taken all their time, remember there was such a crush of people that they couldn't eat or do anything in some of the days of Jesus' ministry. So he said, "Look I'm going to focus on them."

But let's get to the real point I think, and that is to test her faith, perhaps, but more I would say to draw her faith out and put it on display. And that's why the Holy Spirit wanted Matthew and Mark to write about it, so that we could learn from her and learn what faith is really like so to put her faith onto... To test it and to put her faith on display. So let's talk about her testing of her faith. Jesus already knew the level of her faith. We also know that God sometimes tests our faith to strengthen it. Much like a physical therapist who's working with somebody after surgery or after an illness, will oppose the very motion that they want, they'll push on the foot or the arm and cause pain. I've seen it, and not myself, praise God, but I've seen some loved ones that have gone through some painful experiences at the hand of PT people. Now some of you may be PT, I know you mean well, alright, but there is a high level of pain. And what is your good intention, to strengthen the damaged area, to build that area up, and so it is in our lives, our faith is too weak and it needs to be strengthened and it has to be strengthened as so often by opposition by not getting instantly what we want. So our faith has to be strengthened, so I think that's what's going on.

He wants to put her faith on display for all time, but also strengthen it, so let's look at the nature of true saving faith. Let's see how it's put on display.

First of all true faith must have a basis, there has to be content, there has to be truth, that faith zeroes in on and believes. So we don't have faith in faith itself.

Alright, we're not believers in believing, we're not generally vaguely people of faith. Have you heard of that... In our secular, "Let's get all the people of faith." And I say, "I'm not a person of faith, not like that, I'm a person of faith in Jesus." And specifically because of who he is revealed to be in the pages of Scripture, the content I get out of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and indeed, the whole Bible, tell me who Jesus is, I believe that, I believe what has been revealed about Jesus. Faith is not merely an optimistic outlook, like this, "I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows. I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows." I'm not going to sing it friends...I don't remember the tune.

John McArthur said: “That sort of faith is essentially faith in faith, which is to say no faith at all. To jump out of an airplane with a parachute is an act of faith. To jump without a parachute while exclaiming, ‘I believe’ is an act of stupidity. To say no more than ‘I believe in love,’ or ‘I believe in believing,’ or ‘I believe it will all work out’ is contentless faith and therefore pointless and powerless.”

 So this Canaanite woman had heard of Jesus, she knew some of who he was, she didn't know everything, none of them knew everything, but she knew enough to believe in him. Look what she says, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me." What is that? He is the fulfillment of the Davidic promises, he is Lord of heaven and earth, that's who he is. And that's what she calls him, "Lord, Son of David." Faith comes from hearing, she'd heard the reports about Jesus, his miracles, all that he had done, she didn't have the New Testament, it wasn't written yet. But she had heard reports, and she believed them, she believed that Jesus could heal her daughter. Faith initially springs in the human heart through hearing of the word, it comes from hearing the Scripture. Not only that, but faith is fed and strengthened the same way. And so my task, as a preacher, is to feed your faith so you have a more vivid, a stronger sense of Jesus when you walk out of here than when you walked in, a stronger sense of reliance on Christ. So we see the basis of faith.

Secondly, we see the reverence of faith. She calls him, "Lord," she falls on the ground before him, before his feet, she worships him, she is submissive, she is reverent. She doesn't presume on him, she doesn't demand from him, she knows that he is exalted. Like John the Baptist said about Jesus, "I don't deserve to tie his shoes, his sandals. I don't deserve to touch his feet." John the Baptist said that. She had the same sense of the exalted nature of Jesus, reverence of faith. We see the confidence of faith; there's zero doubt in her mind Jesus can do this, he is capable of doing this. The essence of great faith is confidence that God has the power to perform the very thing that's desired. Like Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or think according to His power that is at work within us…" He can do infinitely more than you think he can. It's amazing.

We see also the repentance of faith, she says, "Have mercy on me. Have mercy, show me grace. I don't deserve anything from you. I'm a sinner." Like the Pharisee and the tax collector, I'm the... Like the tax collector, beating my breast, and I won't look up, and I just say, "Have mercy on me, O God, the sinner." Just like the songs we sang this morning, "Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. I can't ask anything of you, but will you please have mercy?" These are the very people that Christ saves. Blessed are the spiritual beggars for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. She knows who she is, she is a sinner, and she's calling out for mercy, she's not making demands.

We see also the persistence of faith. Jesus just puts up one roadblock after another. This is the very thing I'm talking about, the strengthening through the physical therapy, Jesus is strengthening it by putting up obstacles, putting up roadblocks. So it is in your life, there are things you want, they come from Scripture, you have desires, they're good things, but they just aren't happening. And you're praying and praying, and it just doesn't happen, and you should see it in this light, God is the one that's making you wait, God is the one putting roadblocks up; but faith perseveres, it's persistent.

And note that her persistence springs from her love for her daughter, it springs from that horizontal connection. One could argue that it's the strongest love there is in the world, you could make that case, of a mother for her child, sick child, hurting child. The Lord said, "Can a mother forget the child at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will never forget you." God himself chose that as the paradigm example of love. And so, here's this woman, and she has linked her heart to her daughter. And look what she says, verse 22, "Have mercy on me... Lord, help me," she says in verse 24, she says, "My daughter…" It's like it's happening to me. I think that God tests us in prayer to strengthen our horizontal love for other people, because we don't love very much, we don't have Jesus' compassion, it's not because he wasn't compassionate, it's because we're not compassionate, and we need to learn how to really love other people and care, and that happens in prayer. When you pray again and again and again for some dire situation, you grow in love for that person, you actually care whether it happens.

Faith overcomes all the obstacles and keeps persevering, like Jacob wrestling with the angel, and he's wrestling, and the angel of the Lord is saying, "Let me go," and Jacob says, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." Romans 8:37 says, "Know in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." We see also the humility of faith. "It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs.' 'Yes, Lord.' She says, 'But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.'" It's incredible. She finds hope even in the seeming put off. It's like well, there's still hope for me though. Isn't there? There's still a chance. If I could just be a dog under the table, there might be something for me. So the images of a laden table, rich household kids sitting around the table dogs under... We don't have dogs. I've been told it's best not to feed them off the table. They get certain bad habits. But you can picture this, the dog is there and maybe something accidentally falls off the table.

Now, what's amazing to me is that she doesn't bristle, she doesn't bridle up, at this seeming insult. He calls her a dog of sorts. "True Lord," She says in one translation, "Yes, I'm a dog." Faith takes it's rightful place under Jesus. Remember the centurion who sends a messenger saying, "My servant is at home paralyzed in terrible suffering." To the Centurion Jesus said, "I'll go and heal him." Centurion says, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just give the word and my servant will be healed." Naturally in our sin, we are all dogs and worse than dogs. You have to have that work on you through the law. The gospel doesn't come puffing up your self-esteem. It comes and tells you the truth and no passage does it better than Romans 3, verse 9 and following.

"What should we say then? We any better? No. We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin as it is written, 'There is no one righteous, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. So you're saying that I'm a worthless sinner. Because of my sin, I have lost worth and value, and I don't do anything good at all. Actually I have more to say. Throats are open graves, tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips, ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace, they do not know, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Oh, that's the rest, that's what the law does, that's what the work... It says, "I am a sinner, I'm broken, I need a savior." God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And this woman was humble. Now, imagine if she had said to Jesus, "You know, I'm not a dog and I don't appreciate you saying that to me. I came for help and look what you did, you just insulted me," and she walked away, what would she have gotten from Jesus? Nothing. Go home to a demon possessed daughter. God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble, and she was a humble woman. And so faith humbles us. It doesn't make us arrogant it humbles us.

We'll look at the reward verse 28, Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very moment. So faith perseveres to get the reward. It perseveres until it obtains. Jesus made her wait some, He makes other people wait more. Some of you may be waiting on blessings and you wonder why God doesn't give it, He may be going to give it to you next year or next month. Five years from now. Waiting and waiting, perhaps conversion of a relative, something, He makes you wait. He made her wait, but then she got what she wanted. The ultimate reward of faith, how about this? Eternity in heaven in a resurrection body. Every blessing in the heavenly realm's given to you in Christ Jesus, all of them fulfilled in Heaven. He'll make you wait for it though. Live the rest of your life, but He'll give it to you. So true faith perseveres through all the obstacles and obtains.

Now Christ's power is put on display. I said before, her faith is great, his power is greater. Can I tell you something? In heaven we're not going to be celebrating the greatness of faith. We'll be celebrating the greatness of Jesus. And His power it's infinitely greater than she can possibly imagine, and this particular display is amazing. I hadn't realized an aspect of this until about a year ago.

Power in the mechanical engineering world has to do with the ability to move things quickly if you can think, to get work done. So it's not that huge a deal for a 1000 or a million people with little shovels to move a mountain over a thousand years. But if a mountain moves and throws itself in the sea in an instant, now that's incredibly powerful. So listen to this, Mark7:28-30, "'Yes Lord.' She replied. 'But even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.' Then He told her, 'for such a reply, you may go, the demon has left your daughter.'" Keep in mind, we're talking about demon possession. Demons are very powerful spiritual beings. The issue for me here is timing. I'm going to get really geeky on you. Really engineering here, alright? When she began her statement, the demon was in the daughter. When Jesus finished His statement, the demon was gone. Now I'm not advocating sympathy for the devil, at all here, but what's it like to be that demon?

You're in the girl, and now you're not. You're out on the street, you're out. You've been served your eviction notice, actually, no notice you're out. Sometimes demons would throw people down and make them foam at the mouth and there'll be a bit of an argument, a bit of a back and forth. There was none of that... This time, that demon was out. Power, infinite power. And what did Jesus say? Did he pray? Did he drop to his knees? Did He look to His Father? Did He do... Nothing. Just demon's gone. When did that happen, how did that, what, what just happened? Sometimes He uses instruments, He will make mud and put it on someone's eyes and watch... Somebody He touched somebody, this time what did He do? Think it. He just thought it and the demon was gone.

Can I tell you something? Jesus' power is infinitely greater than any of your problems, all of your problems. He could solve them instantly. Just know that. You may be asking, "Then why doesn't he?" And that's an important question in the doctrine of Providence, I understand. I'm just saying, His power... There was no difficulty here for this healing. This is also a picture of our forgiveness. Another woman came to Jesus and washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Jesus read her heart, saw her faith and her repentance from sin, and he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Instantaneously. All of them, yeah, all of them, past, present, future, they're all forgiven. That's the power of Jesus. And that'll be the power of Jesus on your body, your resurrection body. In an instant, you'll be transformed from a lowly corrupting body of sin and death to a radiant, powerful, glorious resurrection body, in an instant, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. He will do that.

Alright, so what applications? First of all, learn to pray like this. Pray like this. Pray... Go over the lessons of faith, the basis of faith, and all of that. Get your faith strong, based on the Word of God, and then pray God's word back to Him. Pray His promises back to Him. Pray like this. Let me say an aside to some desperate parents. I don't know who you are, I know some of you. Take this text and bring your problem to Jesus. Pray and pray and pray like this woman, don't give up. Don't give up on your rebellious teen or your grown person maybe in their 20s or 30s, married, with kids, not walking with the Lord, in a pattern of sin breaking your heart. Take it to the Lord in prayer, take it to God in prayer. It could be your little ones. They're not sinning in any unusual ways, they're just kids, they're growing up. Take them to God in prayer.

Secondly, on God's silence. Don't let God's silence and His slowness put you off. God knows exactly what He's doing. He knows that you're praying, he knows what you want before you ask Him, He makes you wait because He's not a vending machine and He's wise and He knows His timing, and He doesn't always give you what you ask for. But be willing to persevere even when God is silent. Go back over the lessons of faith. Feed your faith in God's word. Be humble. Know that you're a sinner, saved by grace. Know that God can do immeasurably more than you ask or think. Be repentant in your faith, confess your sins often. Be humble. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And wait on God until you finally have your reward. And then stand in awe of Jesus, just stand in awe of this incredible Savior, Who can think a thought and a demon has to obey. Stand in awe of the power of God in Jesus, He's infinitely more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

Now, in my prayer I prayed for any that were here that are outsiders, came in here not believers. I pray that you have heard the gospel today, that God sent his Son into the world to save sinners like you and me. He died on the cross, in our place, as a substitute for sins. In an instant, he can forgive your sins, in an instant. All you have to do is come to Him in faith. Call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Say, "I am a sinner, just like this Canaanite woman. I need You to forgive me of my sins." And He will. Close with me in prayer.

What we do in our ordinary lives has value if done for the glory of God. It matters to Jesus what ordinary and obscure people do with faith in Jesus.

Well, you're never quite sure what Providence is going to hand you. So, just finishing up my Bible for Life class and Andy Winn had an announcement saying that some of our power grid had gone out, and we had some electricity and not, and so, we were going to have a streamlined service. So I was like, "Alright, like how streamlined?" Alright, we affecting the sermon? And so I was waiting for, like, the red line, red X's and all that, and that hasn't come yet. So, I've still got my original outline. And so we're gonna soldier ahead. It's warm. I remember, back in the day, seeing photos, black and white historical photos of people with fans that they would hold in their hand. They were usually given, I think, by funeral homes, which I find interesting. But there is an advertisement for the fan on the funeral home, or on the fan for the funeral home, and you're fanning. The windows would be up and all that. This is a different age. But we'll take what the Lord gives, and teach us to number our days, make the most of our time.

So, if you would turn in your bibles to Luke 21. We're looking this morning at a very brief account of a gift given by an obscure widow, a woman we know nothing else about and the lessons we can learn from it. Anyone who knows me knows that one of my favorite movies is, It's a Wonderful Life. Daphne reminded me this morning that we don't watch it every Christmas, but we alternate; we do Scrooge one year and then It's a Wonderful Life, back and forth. It's a Wonderful Life was shot in 1946 it was directed by a man named Frank Capra. And Frank Capra was an immigrant, a man who had come from humble background and who, in his movies, consistently celebrated the triumphs of Mr. Everyman, Mr. Ordinary Citizen. He had another famous movie called Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and another movie with a similar title, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and these would just celebrate the value of an average, ordinary life. But I think that theme came to its pinnacle in Capra's work in the movie, It's a Wonderful Life.

Now you know the story, but I'm going to go ahead just from my own joy and recount some of what it's about. So it's about a man named George Bailey who lives in ordinary town, Bedford Falls, and he lives a very ordinary life, and as his life is unfolding he has a strong growing desire inside himself to get out of Bedford Falls and go do something great somewhere else. And so he has an increasing distaste for the ordinary life that people live in places like Bedford Falls. He wants to go somewhere else and build long bridges and build tall skyscrapers. His father owned a building and loan, Bailey Building and Loan that gave small loans to ordinary people so that they could live in houses. And so, George Bailey has no desire to follow in his father's footsteps in the Bailey Building and Loan. But his father suddenly dies and the board comes together, and the villain in the movie, Mr. Potter, the richest man in town, very evil, angry man wants to just get rid of the Bailey Building and Loan (it's competing with him) and just shut it down. Now, George Bailey's got one foot out the door, he's ready to go to college, he's ready to get out of Bedford Falls, but he gives an impassioned speech about the value of the Bailey Building and Loan. And this is what he said, "Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay, and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so, people are human beings to him."

Well, George Bailey ends up, as far as he's concerned, trapped by the Bailey Building and Loan. Duty calls and he stays there, he doesn't go to college, he gives his college money to his younger brother, and he stays there working and he never can quite get out of Bedford Falls. And as events unfold, financial crisis comes into his life, a personal crisis, and he gets to the point where he's ready to commit suicide, throw himself off a bridge. Then God sends the angel, Clarence. Now, please don't think that I'm espousing a theology here. I don't know of any named angels in the Bible named Clarence. There are two named angels in the Bible and neither of them are named Clarence. But Clarence comes and is given, it seems, supernatural power to show George Bailey what life would have been like if he had never lived, an alternate reality universe. And in so doing, he's able to see really what his ordinary everyday, commonplace life really achieved, and his mind has changed and he realized he actually has had a wonderful life.  Well, anyway, that was the theme, that's what Frank Capra wanted to get across; the value of ordinary life, the value of ordinary people like you and me living in ordinary places like Bedford Falls doing ordinary things, there's value to it.

Now, Frank Capra had that vision, he put it in his movies and clearly movies are a powerful medium, but I say to you: Scripture's more powerful, and these themes are more powerfully articulated by our Savior, Jesus Christ in this text that we're studying today than in any movie you'll ever see. In this text, in these four brief verses, Jesus elevates ordinary, commonplace people doing seemingly insignificant things, elevates it and celebrates it, and I think gives us a glimpse into what judgment day will look like for obscure people that make great sacrifices for Jesus, and in so doing gives hope to all of us, that the things we do in our ordinary lives actually have value if done for the glory of God, if done according to the pattern of Scripture, if done by faith in Christ and if done sacrificially, they're going to be celebrated by the only one that really matters, and that is by Jesus Christ. So here we get that foretaste of judgment day and here we get the theme that your daily life matters eternally. Your small gifts matter eternally. Your work matters eternally.

Now this summer, we've been in a series called “Encounters with Jesus” and the desire has been as we put the summer of preaching together that week after week, that we would have an encounter with the greatest person that ever lived, the only Savior there is for the world. That you would have an encounter with Jesus. Now, we can't see Jesus with our eyes, he's invisible to us but we can encounter him through the Scripture. It is by the Scripture alone that we know anything at all about Jesus. There's nothing we know about Jesus apart from Scripture. And especially in the four biographies of Jesus at the beginning of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they give us stories of people just like you and me, sinners like us that have encounters with Jesus. And our desire, as we have been doing all of this, is that people who come to this church on Sunday mornings, would have an encounter with Jesus Christ, a saving encounter, that you would see your need for Christ the Savior, the one who lived a sinless life, the one who died an atoning death, whose blood was shed on the cross for sinners like you and me. That the Holy Spirit would move on your heart and transform you from the inside and make you see that you can't live without Christ, you can't face judgment day and hell without Christ, that you need a Savior, and Jesus is the only Savior, and that he did die in the place of sinners like you and me, and that he was raised from the dead, physically on the third day, and that he is God in the flesh, and that by faith in him, all your sins can be forgiven. That's the encounter with Jesus that we want you to have.

Now, it's interesting that this would even be part of the series, “Encounters with Jesus”, because this is a little bit different. He doesn't actually encounter the widow as far as we can tell; he doesn't have a conversation with her. As far as we can tell, the widow who put in those two little copper coins didn't know Jesus was watching, never knew it, as far as we can tell. They didn't have a later subsequent conversation, not recorded in the Gospels anyway. The encounter is really more about the widow that Jesus has with his disciples, and through the Holy Spirit's moving in Mark and in Luke, we have these two accounts, the account's also in the Gospel of Mark, so that we can read and we can have an encounter over this widow and learn the lessons that Jesus wants us to learn. That's the encounter. 

So let's walk through it, and we begin with a vision here of Jesus as the judge of all giving, the judge of all the living is Jesus. And the account gives us a strong sense of that. Look at verses 1-4 in Luke 21, "As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury, he also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 'I tell you the truth,' he said, 'This window, this poor widow, has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.'" So, the image of Jesus sitting and watching all of the giving is a powerful one. I want that to be a lasting, powerful image in your mind, Jesus sitting and watching the giving. Let me make it personal, Jesus sitting and watching your giving, what you're giving, that he is sitting, watching that, observing it, making comments about it, evaluating it, that's powerful.

Jesus in the Scripture is portrayed as the judge of all humanity. He is the one that we are going to have to stand before on judgment day. It says in John 5:22, "The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." That is as God. And so Jesus has the unique honor, because he is the Son of Man, of being the judge. And the Scripture reveals that someday, every single one of us will stand before Jesus and give an account for every aspect of our lives. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad." So we are going to talk to Jesus about the good and the bad, everything, and give him an account.

Now, this definitely will include our money, our giving patterns financially, definitely will include that, but it will include also our other stewardship issues such as time and our energy, our strength. What did we spend our time on? How did we invest our strength, our energy, mentally and physically? What did we invest in? So we're going to give him an account. And in this text, there's a sense we're going to talk to him about the issue of sacrifice. What sacrifices did we make? What did it cost us to be Christians? What did it cost us to serve Jesus and his kingdom? So we're going to talk to Jesus, so that powerful image of Jesus sitting opposite the giving area in the temple watching, and that's powerful. Have that in your mind by faith; establish that in your mind by faith.

Then Jesus summoned his disciples so he could talk to them, so he could instruct them. We don't get it here in Luke's Gospel, that's implied. But we have it openly stated in Mark's Gospel. In Mark 12:43, it says, "Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.'" So, he summons them and says, "Hey, have something to say. I want to teach you about this widow." And so, he summons all of us who are disciples of Christ in the same way, timeless by it being here in the Bible now we're summoned, "Come and stand around me. I have something to tell you, I want to use this widow and her gift as an object lesson."

So, let's understand the physical setting, Jesus is sitting there, it says, opposite where the giving was happening. This is... we're told by people who wrote about the archaeology and the structure of Jewish life at the time, he was in what was called the Court of Women. So he was there, where any Jew male or female could be, no Gentiles were allowed to be there, and he's sitting there and apparently, there were 13 chests that were trumpet-shaped, made of metal into which people would pour their offerings, and the coins that they poured in, there wasn't paper money, just the coins that they poured in were metal and they would clatter as they went down into these chests. That's what you can picture. Now, this brief account in Luke, just four verses, is sandwiched by two very interesting accounts that weigh in on this brief account.

And so right at the end of Luke 20, you can look there if you'd like, verses 46-47. He, Jesus, and I love this image in Revelation 1 of Jesus with eyes of blazing fire. Jesus has eyes of blazing fire in Revelation 1. So he is seeing everything, and he sees the religious leaders of the day, who are corrupt and wicked, and how they're plundering the poor and needy and using the offerings for their own benefit, and how corrupt they are. And so he talks about them in Luke 20:46-47, he says, "Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets." Look at verse 47, "They devour widows' houses." In other words, they just take advantage of poor widows and plunder them. “They devour widows' houses and for a show they make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” So that's the context, the judgment he speaks on them, then goes out and sits down and sees this widow give.

And then the next thing that happens in Luke is the disciples talking about the grandiose stones of the temple, which have been embellished by some of those gifts that have been given. So look at it in Luke 21:5-6, it says, "Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 'As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another, every one of them will be thrown down.'" So, the leaders who are collecting the offering are corrupt and they're using it for themselves. The building that's being embellished by the gifts is going to be destroyed, and in the middle you have this account of the widow giving.

So Jesus is speaking clear words of judgment about the leaders who are taking advantage of poor people just like this widow and he's speaking words of judgment on the temple building grounds themselves, but in the middle of it there's this widow giving. Some commentators have therefore said she shouldn't be giving, but I don't get that at all from this account. I think Jesus is celebrating and honoring her for her gift, no matter what happens to it. And so she is being taken advantage of, she is being plundered, but as far as she's concerned she's giving to God, she's giving to God. And so that's the way I see it, he's commending her for that. And Jesus, as he's sitting there, notes the giving of the rich as well as of the poor widow, he doesn't just see her. The rich are pouring in large quantities of coins. And those coins would rattle loudly as they went down the metal trumpets, down into the boxes.

Remember that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount condemned people who announced their giving with trumpets so everyone could see how much they gave. Now I'm not saying everyone that was giving that day was doing that. I'm not saying that, but there were some people that would do that. "Hey everyone, I want you to know what I've given and what it cost me." that kind of thing. So he condemns that. He would rather that our right hand not know what our left hand is doing, so our giving may be in secret. But along, in the middle of all of this rattling coins and all that comes this poor widow. She takes out these tiny copper coins and drops it in.

Now the text highlights her poverty. It says three different times, in three different ways that she's a poor woman, very poor. She has no one to lean on, no one to rely on. She has nothing and she gives, but what of her gift? The text says that the widow put in two copper coins, two lepta. The smallest coin they had in their currency, it would amount to about 1/16th of a denarius, less than an hour's work for a paid laborer in a field. So a very, very small amount of money, just barely enough maybe to get a little meal. That's what she put in. And as those two little copper coins went down, I can't imagine they could have even been heard. They were so tiny; their size was so little it wouldn't have been able to be heard with all the commotion of the rich giving many, many larger, heavier coins. And so Jesus compares the gifts. He uses her as an object lesson. He did this all the time.

You remember when the disciples were bickering about which of them was greatest? Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? And he calls a little child and has the little child stand. "Do you see this child?" "Yes Lord, we see the child." "Unless you change and become like this little child you will not enter the kingdom of God." So he uses her. Or remember the woman that's weeping and washing Jesus' feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, and Jesus says the same thing, "Do you see this woman?" And so he's using this widow as an object lesson. Do you see her? The widow, she put in more than anyone. Look at verse 3-4, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. Wherefore all these people gave their gifts out of their wealth but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on."

Now as the judge, he's sitting there and he's rendering a verdict. He evaluates her gift compared to all theirs. She put in more than all of them. Not only that he brings in supernatural knowledge about her situation that an ordinary person wouldn't have. She has no money waiting at home, she has no resources waiting at home, she has nothing; this is all she had to live on. So it's similar to the Samaritan woman where Jesus knew her marital history. And Jesus just has supernatural knowledge of the circumstances, and she knows they're rich, or he knows they're rich. He knows that they're putting in out of their surplus, out of their abundance, but she out of all that she had to live on. Now Jesus' verdict as judge is she put in more than anyone else that day. Now this would have been a shocker to anybody that heard it. Please don't think that Jesus didn't know math. Jesus, was it right-brained? I never remember which side. He wasn't a math science guy. Oh, Jesus is perfect in math and science, and perfect in art. Isn't that amazing? Perfect in creative writing and in all aspects. So he knew math very well and he didn't need to know the tables of weights and measures that we all have at the back. So what's a talent? What's a mina? What's a denarius? He knew it. He knew very well that these two little copper coins were the smallest currency they had. In an absolute sense of weights and measures he knew that gold's worth more than silver, and the silver's worth more than copper, and big is worth more than little. He knew all that, he knew all that. But in his spiritual economy she put in more than anyone else. 

That's the account. Now let's talk about some timeless living, lessons on giving. First, Jesus sees everything and watches all of our giving. I told you have this strongly in your mind. I feel fundamentally every week that I get up to preach, my primary task is to elevate Christ the invisible Savior before your eyes so you see him by faith. So see this: Jesus is the judge of all of your giving, he sees everything. Numbers of times I've been to Christian homes and I've seen this plaque in many homes, and it says this, "Christ is the head of this home, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation." It's good to kind of, you don't have to put that plaque up on the wall, but just in your mind, "Christ is the head of my life, he is the unseen guest at every moment, he is the observer, and hearer of every conversation and he is the judge of all my giving. He sees what I do, what I give." And so some day, Hebrews 4:13 says we're going to give him an account. "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account." That's Jesus. We need to see him the invisible judge of everything that we do, this is the true encounter with Christ in the text.

Secondly, Jesus understands our true circumstances. He knows what's going on in our lives financially, knows very well. He knew that the rich gave out of their surplus, he knew that they were rich and they had abundance and the amount they gave was surplus giving. He knew that about them. He also knew that the widow, he knew her circumstances and that she had put in all that she had to live on. So, he knows every dollar that you make, every dollar that comes in by gift into your accounts, every windfall, he knows all of your bills, your financial obligations, he knows everything. Even if you don't have a budget, he kind of has one for you; he knows exactly what your income and outlay is. All these things, the Heavenly accounting, is there. There's nothing hidden.

Remember Ananias and Sapphira, when they sold a piece of property and gave a portion, a part, not 100% of the gift, and that was fine. But then they lied about it and they said they put in the whole amount, remember? And each of them, in turn was judged by Peter saying, “The Holy Spirit knows what you've given. You've not lied to men, but to God,” the Holy Spirit saw and Ananias died and then Sapphira died. Now again, not because they didn't give the full amount, but because they lied about it and behind that is the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. We can't lie to God. He knows exactly our circumstances. And all of our giving is evaluated clearly based on what we have, not what we do not have, and 2 Corinthians 8:12, the apostle Paul said “if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.” Okay. He knows your circumstance.

Third, Christ evaluates giving based on the level of sacrifice that it entails. Sacrifice has to pinch; it has to hurt in some way, that's what sacrifice is all about. Remember when King David was about to offer a sacrifice to stop a plague and one of his subjects wanted to give him the threshing floor give him the wood for fire and the altar and give him the animals and he said, "Absolutely not." "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God a sacrifice burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So, sacrifice, has to cost us something. It has to pinch in some way.

Fourthly, a life of bold sacrificial giving requires faith in God to meet your future needs. There may come a time that God will cause you to give away some money that rightly could be reserved for something reasonable in your life. And that your sacrificial giving will put you in a difficult position, that God then will have to make it up. It's what happened to the widow. It's easily imaginable that some of you would get in that situation. But you need to have faith that God will meet your needs. But fundamentally, behind this, some of the commentators I read seemed to critique or even criticize the widow. It's not wise to give all you have to live on? Might be better, give one of the copper coins, hold another one back or just say, "The Lord knows that I want to give. If I had more, I would give, but the Lord knows." And so there's a bit of a critique of the widow. And also as though some that take the opposite position of saying, "Unless you give everything you have to live on, you're not really giving." That's not true. Jesus isn't saying that. “Unless you give everything you have to live on, you actually haven't given at all.” He's not saying that. He's not criticizing the rich. He's just honoring the poor widow for what she did, that's all.

So, you have to step out in faith. Remember another widow when Elijah during famine was told to leave the desert where God had been feeding him by ravens and go to a widow at Zarephath. And he said, "I have commanded her to provide for your needs." So he goes and finds this widow in Zarephath and she's collecting some sticks. And he asked for her something to drink, and she gives it. And then he says, "Please make me some bread." And she's like, "Do you know what's going on here? Do you know that we're in a famine? Maybe you don't know what I'm doing here, I'm collecting some sticks so I can build a fire and go take the handful of flour that I have at home and make one last small biscuit for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die." That's what she literally says, "That we may eat it and die." And then the Lord spoke through Elijah to her a word of promise, and this is what he said, "Do not be afraid, go home and do as you have said, but first make me a small cake of bread from what you have and bring it to me. Then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord the God of Israel says, 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the Lord gives rain on the land.'" She didn't do anything wrong. I'm talking about this widow for Elijah, by taking the last bit she had, and baking that biscuit for Elijah. And God fulfilled his promise that he had spoken to meet her future needs.

We get the same thing in a story that I read recently about the great missionary Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a man that God used, a visionary missionary in the 19th century, to take the gospel to the inland regions of China. And he was also a pioneer of what became known as the faith-based mission movement, where missionaries stepped out in faith and raised their funds in faith like George Muller, using his faith to care for orphans. And so before he ever got there, he was in training as a medical orderly because he was going to do some medical missions work in China. And he was doing work among some poor people in a part of London called Hall, a part of England, sorry, called Hall. And the doctor that he was working for forgot to pay him; he was a forgetful man. This happened again and again, but Hudson Taylor resolved, he wouldn't tell the doctor that he hadn't gotten his monthly pay. So he was down to one coin, half a crown, a half crown piece. I don't know that much about British currency but anyway, that's a certain amount not the smallest not the middle, it's like middle-level coin. One coin he had left.

Anyway, at the end of an evangelistic service on a Sunday night, a very poor man, came and said, "Would you please come to my home and pray for my wife? I fear that she and our new born child is about to die." So he came with this man and as he was walking and talking with the man. Hudson Taylor found out this man was completely destitute. Had nothing. He had nothing at home, he had no money; he had nothing. Hudson Taylor, for his part, had just two servings of porridge left, one for his dinner and one for his breakfast and then that half crown piece. Well, he goes up the stairs of this dilapidated apartment and as he gets in there, he can't believe the scene there. There are four or five children with sunken cheeks, clearly starving. A very weak looking woman on a pallet in the corner, and a baby, a newborn baby next to her, and the baby is not crying, the baby is just moaning. And Hudson Taylor prays for them and gives them some words of encouragement but he feels like a hypocrite. "You've got a coin in your pocket. You could help them." And the man seeing, I don't know, seeing him waiver, looks at Hudson Taylor says, "If you can help us for God's sake, do so." And Hudson Taylor is lamenting that he didn't have the same amount broken into three coins. "I would gladly give you two, and hold one of them back for my own provision." But, he wrestles and finally, he gives the man the coin and he says, "It may seem like a small thing to you, but I have nothing but two servings of porridge back in my home. But I want you to know that God is a loving Heavenly Father, he'll care for you.” Well that night he went home, he ate half of his amount of porridge left, Hudson Taylor did. And then he prayed in light of this Scripture: Proverbs 19:17. It says there that those who give to the poor lend to God. "So God I am quoting Proverbs 19:17. Would you please let this loan be a very short one." very short. Alright. And he went to bed with a heart filled of peace and joy wakes up, eats the last porridge he has, and then there's the knock-on the door. This always happens to these great men of God. And there's the postman at the door and inside there's actually folded up a blank piece of paper and some gloves, some kid gloves in it interestingly and then a sovereign, I guess, worth four times, a coin worth four times what he'd given the night before. Anonymously given. Out of nowhere. So he's thinking about the interest rate. That's a 400% interest for like a 12-hour loan, that's not bad.

So here's the thing, whenever you step out in faith and God calls on you to sacrifice, you need to trust him that he'll make up the difference in your budget or a difference in your lifestyle when you step out. I think very rarely would we be called to make the level of sacrifice the widow did, giving everything we have to live on. And so Paul says, speaking of the gifts that the Philippians gave, “Your gifts are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing the God and my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches." So as we give, we need to step out in faith and trust that God will meet our needs.

Fifthly. There will be massive surprises on judgment day and in heaven. This obscure widow, we don't know her name, we don't anything about her. Jesus said she gave more than anyone else. This, I believe is a principle of the great reversal on judgment day. In which obscure people are elevated and honored for things they did and no one else ever knew what they did. Their giving was in secret. Their praying was in secret, their serving was in secret; nobody knew their names. They did all of these good works, and Jesus saw all of it. And he is honoring this widow and this woman and this man and these servants, that very, very few people even knew what they did, and then once they're dead within a couple of generations, no one even knew they ever lived. But Jesus knows, God elevates and knows and honors obscure people who no one else knows. I just finished in my annual Bible reading one of the hardest parts of scripture for me to read. 1 Chronicles. I actually made a pledge to the men's Bible study that I would never memorize 1 Chronicles, and I'm probably going to keep that pledge. It's 10 chapters of genealogies of obscure Jewish people that no one knows the sons of Naphtali. Can you name any of the sons of Naphtali? How about the sons of Dan? And they're all listed there. Oh Lord why? Of all the other things, like other aspects of Jesus' life, a few extra miracle stories we got these 10 chapters of genealogies and I thought, "Alright, I'm probably never going to preach an exposition sermon through 1 Chronicles 1-10 either, because my lesson would be simple. God cares about people you don't know anything about. He knows their names and how they lived and what they did. And so Paul in speaking to the Corinthians, he says, in 1 Corinthians, "Consider yourselves when you were called, not many were wise, not many influential, not many of noble birth, but God chose obscure people to honor and to glorify his own sovereign grace."

So in heaven, I imagine there's going to be a woman who lived during the Black Plague in the 14th century. And when everybody's out, so all the big strong courageous people ran out of the town, she stayed and nursed some people to health and caught the disease herself and died from it. And we're going to meet her, and we're going to honor her sacrifice even though you don't know anything about her. And how many such stories will there be in heaven?

Alright, so some applications on spiritual sacrificial giving. First, if I can just say to you who have come here this morning, who are not yet Christians or walked in here not yet Christians. What I want to say is God's not calling on you to give sacrificially to him; he wants to give sacrificially to you. And as a matter of fact, we can say to all of us, none of us will ever out-give God, ever. God did not spare his Son, his only Son, whom he loved but gave him up for us all. And we're not going to out-give, sacrificially out-give Jesus because Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this that he laid down his life for his friends." He laid down his life under the wrath of God for you and me. And so what I'm saying to you who came here this morning on the outside looking in, let Jesus serve you, let him sacrifice for you, let him give to you, his life for your sins. Trust in him, all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord and he will forgive you. And God will lavish grace upon grace, and make you rich. He wants to give to you; he doesn't need you to give to him. So we'll start there.

But if you have already trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, then let's learn some lessons on sacrificial giving. Ask God to search you and know your heart and know your sacrificial giving patterns. Ask him to show you how you're spending your time and your energy and your money. What are you spending it on? And is there sacrifice? Are you giving? Are you first giving of yourself to God? And then, in conjunction with what he's done for you, then what he's calling on you to give. And trust God to meet your needs sacrificially. That God will meet all of your needs, no matter what you do, how you give.

And then finally, let's not look down on people who are obscure. Let's not look down on the aged. Let's not look down on the poor. Let's not look down on people with special needs, who are born infirm, mentally or physically. Let's not look down on anybody because it could very well be that Christ is going to elevate people from all of those categories in ways you can't even imagine and say, “This one and this one and this one gave more than you ever did because of their level of sacrifice.” Let's honor the giving that each other gives and let's give in the pattern that God's called on us to give. Close with me in prayer.

Lord, we thank you for the time that we've had to study. Thank you for your word, thank you for its clarity. Thank you for the fact that in this text, you elevate obscure ordinary people. And we thank you for the joy that there is in that. Father, I pray that you'd help us to give, I pray that church members here would be faithful to give to the budget, just give to the FBC budget, and that we would think about Lottie Moon, the Christmas offering year-round, not just in Christmas, but set aside money for unreached people group missions. Lord, I pray for More Than a Building, which is less than 50% pledged at this point that we would give generously. Lord, I pray for our Great Commission Fund and for money for short-term missions. I pray for ministries that have nothing to do with FBC, they're just evangelical ministries that you call on people to give, help us to give of our money generously, and then Lord, help us to give sacrificially of our time and our energy too to make sacrifices for the lost and for the poor and for the advancement of the kingdom, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Please take your Bibles and open to 1 Corinthians Chapter 9. We'll be looking this morning at verses 15-23. We will deal with verse 24 through 27 more next time.

This morning, we're going to, in looking at these verses, sit at the feet of the greatest evangelist in church history, and we're going to learn from him. What is a great evangelist? What makes someone a great evangelist? I have loved studying church history. It's a joy and a pleasure of mine to read of the great men and women of God who have gone before us and have fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith, and who were active in sharing the Gospel so that the Gospel could make progress from that Upper Room in Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And what a glorious, what an amazing journey that's been as evangelist missionaries have taken the Gospel and at great personal cost, have suffered so that others might hear and believe.

I love studying about great evangelists. One of the greatest evangelists, one of my favorite, I've a picture of him up on the wall of my office, is George Whitfield. In that picture, he's up on a barrel and he's preaching the Gospel in a crowded market square, and there's all kinds of chaos and mayhem going on around him, someone blowing a trumpet in his ear, other people yelling at him, others falling down clearly yielding to the message of the Gospel. And this man did this for decades, preaching the Gospel thousands of times to 10 million people in the colonial era before the American Revolution, crossed the Atlantic Ocean 13 times in a sailing vessel and preached to huge crowds. But he also made a commitment to personal evangelism, not just preaching in crowds, but personal evangelism. He said, "God forbid that I should travel one quarter of an hour with another person without talking to him about Christ." I think about that every time I get on an airplane. God forbid that I should travel with this individual and not say something about Christ.

Or D. L. Moody, who lived later, at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century, one of the greatest evangelists, set up revival meetings all over, spoke to even more people, because the population of the world was greater. And his expanse, his travels were greater than George Whitfield's, but D. L. Moody, a great evangelist. And he made a personal commitment to never go to bed everyday without sharing Christ with someone, talking to somebody about Christ. Many times he had forgotten. He was just about to go to sleep, and the Holy Spirit would wake him up and get him up out of bed, and he'd go out into the street and try to find somebody to share it with.

Another evangelist I knew very little about was a Chinese evangelist, named John Sung, who lived in the beginning of the 20th century, who was a brilliant man, who got multiple degrees in a short amount of time, but he was being schooled theologically at Union Theological Seminary, which at the time was theologically liberal and he had no clear proclamation of the Gospel. But at that point he was converted, an evangelist reached him, and he was converted to his sound faith in Christ and became ardent for the Gospel. So ardent that the people at Union Seminary locked him up, because they thought he had gone insane. And so, he was in prison or in somewhat of a lock-up, he did not have the freedom to leave, and he made the most of that time. He read in that brief period of time, read through the entire Bible over 40 times. God was preparing him for an incredibly fruitful ministry as an evangelist in China, and from 1927 until he died of tuberculosis in 1944, he preached the Gospel in China and led over 200,000 Chinese people to faith in Christ.

Again, in our lifetime, Billy Graham, who died last year, probably spoke to more people in history face-to-face of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's hard to even measure how many people heard Billy Graham preach the Gospel and saw him preach face-to-face, not to mention those that saw him on television, or heard him on radio. It's hard to even measure the impact. How many people he brought to Christ, that then brought other people to Christ? Would be, to some degree, a Billy Graham spiritual grandchildren, through that legacy. It's impossible to measure.

All of these are great, great evangelists, but there are also some unsung heroes in the history of evangelism. John Bunyan is not one of those unsung heroes. He wrote Pilgrim's Progress and many know about him. But we've been talking recently, Philip and I, he's been reading about John Bunyan's life, and how he was brought to faith in Christ and he was a tinker who went from house to house, to repair pots and pans and sharpen knives, and he was not a believer. But at that point he called himself a brisk talker in religion, and he was there in a kitchen and he overheard some women, three women who did not know he was listening, or anything about his spiritual condition, but they were, as some have said before, gossiping the Gospel. They spoke, Bunyan said, in Grace Abounding, his own personal testimony, "They spoke," it said, "as if joy did make their heart speak, and they spoke of lofty things," he said, "that I knew nothing about. Of the glory of God and the redemption of sinners, through faith in Jesus Christ." These women didn't even know they were evangelizing.

You never know who's listening to you. Why spend the time complaining about the high price of eggs in the market, when you could be speaking about the glory of God and saving a sinner like you or like me. Because you just don't know. And those women, who... Well, we don't know their names even, but they could have no way of knowing what John Bunyan, who was overhearing them at the time, would go on to do, and how many people for centuries would be influenced by his ministry, through Pilgrim's Progress.

All of those are great evangelists but I think all of them would say if asked, if they had the chance to ask, "How do you compare to the Apostle Paul?" They would have to say, "Honestly, I can't even carry his shoes." That the Apostle Paul really is the greatest evangelist that the church history has ever known. And so, we're going to sit at his feet. But before we do, I winna just go through varieties of scriptures in the New Testament, and pull out some principles of what made the Apostle Paul a great evangelist, so that we can learn from him. Because I'll tell you this, the elders of our church, the leaders of our church, spiritual leaders of our church, we yearn to see FBC come into a whole new level of faithfulness and evangelism.

As a matter of fact, I would have to say, I don't want to be too bold or go beyond the elders, but I think they would agree that if there could be one radical transformation improvement in the life of the church, it would be in this. That we would see more and more people baptized here in the Triangle region as a result of the ministry of people in the church. And that's our desire.

Let's learn some principles, and then, we'll look at the text that we're looking at today.

Heavenly Message

First of all, the Apostle Paul is a great evangelist because he had a message from heaven. He believed the Gospel came from heaven and he heard it directly from heaven. It was not ministered to him or mediated to him by any man, so he was uniquely set apart to hear the Gospel directly from God. Now, that Gospel message, he is super clear about. He writes about it later in the book we're studying. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, he said, "For what I received, I also passed on to you, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." That's the Gospel. It came from the Scripture, from the Old Testament prophecies, and I received it and I passed it on to you." Or, as he said earlier in this book, 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and him crucified." He was very clear about this message. This message is the power of God for the salvation of sinners all over the world, and he received it not as a word of man, but as it actually is, the word of God come from Heaven.

Compelling Motive

Secondly, he had compelling motives to evangelize. No chapter lays these motives out more plainly than 2 Corinthians 5, and I'm not going to walk through it, but in 2 Corinthians 5, he was very clear why he should be evangelizing. There are a lot of motives there, but there's some clear motive that he had in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, it says, "So we make it our goal to please Him, whether at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may receive what is due Him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad." Putting that together, Paul's motive for everything was to please Christ. "Everything I do, I want to please Him, and I know that some day I'm going to have to give an account for my life, for everything I've done in my body whether good or bad, I'm going to have to talk to Jesus about it."

Divine Calling (On the Road to Damascus)

Thirdly, he had a divine calling to evangelism and the missions. He was called by Almighty God to this. On the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus appeared to him in radiant glory while he was breathing out murderous threats and he was struck to the ground by the glory of the resurrected Christ, and he heard the voice from Heaven saying, "'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' 'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. 'Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.'"

Now that... Keep that in mind because that's going to be relevant to the way he phrases some things in the text we're looking at today. I'll just tell you what it is. He said, "I have no choice but to preach the Gospel."

And he got that calling directly from God, through Christ, a heavenly calling. And so, Ananias who was sent to lay hands on him and heal his blindness and also who baptized him in water did not want to go. Ananias did not want to go. But God persuaded him and he said, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." Divine calling.

Great Boldness

Fourthly, great boldness. Paul was an effective evangelist because he was supernaturally bold. He just lived out that statement in the Psalms, "What can man do to me?" He just seemed to be completely supernaturally bold. He said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel." He prayed, he asked for prayer from the Ephesians that he would have boldness. He didn't just lean on his own boldness tendencies or credentials or patterns, he asked that they would pray that he would be bold, but he was bold.

The consummation that was the very end of his life, as he was on trial for his life before the megalomaniac tyrant of the world, Caesar Nero, and he shared the Gospel with Nero. Wouldn't you have loved to have been there to see that? "Nero, unless you repent, you will be condemned, but God sent His Son to deliver you from hell. All you need to do is trust in Him and you will be saved from your sins." He says very plainly in 2 Timothy 4. Paul said that the Gospel was fully proclaimed in front of Caesar. And he was on trial for his life. That meant nothing to him. What matters is, this is the chance to preach the Gospel to Caesar, probably the only one I'm going to get. And he did it alone.

Power of the Holy Spirit

Fifth, the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul was an effective evangelist because he relied every moment on the power of the Holy Spirit. He says in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, polished rhetoric but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom but on God's power." Paul put the Holy Spirit on display every time he preached. And it wasn't because he didn't apparently seem afraid or... No, he was with them in weakness and fear and trembling, but the Holy Spirit used him and people were converted. That's the power of the Holy Spirit.

Clear Strategy

Sixth, he had a clear strategy, he knew exactly how to go about his work. And what he would do, he had a slogan, but it was more than just a slogan, "To the Jew first. And also to the gentile." What he would do is, in every community, by this time, the dispersion of the Jews all over the Greco-Roman world had happened. And for the most part, in every place where he would go, he would go first to the Jewish synagogue, and he would reason with the Jews based on the Old Testament Scriptures. And some of them would be persuaded and would join him as fellow laborers, and then he would go into the marketplace and reason day by day with the Greeks that happened to be there. He had a clear strategy, knew exactly what he was doing.

Love for People

Seventh, he had an overwhelming love for people, he loved people. 2 Corinthians 5:14, "For the love of Christ compels us." He was constrained. He was hemmed in by the love of Christ. And there are different ways of looking at the phrase, "love of Christ," but I think we are safe in saying that the love that Christ has for lost sinners constrained Paul. And you see that very, very plainly in Paul's attitude toward the Jews, who had yet to believe, the unbelieving Jews. In Romans 9, he said, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers." Basically, "I'd be willing if I could, to trade my salvation for theirs." That's love for people.

If I can just... Could it be that we don't evangelize as much as we should because we don't love people as much as we should, that we don't have a compelling love for people? And here's the thing, if you don't, just be honest about it to God and give it up to Him in prayer, and say, "I just don't love lost people the way I should. Would you please change me? I pray that three years from now, five years from now, I would love lost people, evidently love them more than I do today." That's a spiritual beggar. But Paul had a love for lost people.

Single-Minded Zeal

Eighth, he had a single-minded zeal, almost immeasurable zeal. It's quite remarkable. He said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace." He knew what he was about, and his fire, his zeal, was like a fire burning inside of him. That's just the way he was. And the Lord kept that fire burning. He had a zeal for this and you see it when he was stoned and left for dead outside of the city in Antioch, in the Book of Acts. And all the disciples gathered around him and he came up out of the stones. I don't know if God raised him from the dead or he just got up. But he and Barnabas went that day to Derby and he preached in Derby the next day. I'd want a break, and I'm thinking everyone around me would think, "You need a break. Why don't you go for a break, alright?" Paul just got up and kept preaching. There was an incredible zeal in his heart.

Willingness to Sacrifice Everything to Win the Lost

And the ninth, and this transitions into the text we're going to look at today, he was willing to sacrifice personal preferences, the things he wanted to do with his life, the things he liked or didn't like. He was willing to sacrifice all of that to win lost people. And so, that brings us to what we're talking about today. He was willing to become all things to all people, so that by all possible means, he might save some.

Now, let's set this again in context. I always want to see the context here. Paul is addressing in 1 Corinthians 8-10, the problem that the Corinthians were having there in their pagan setting with meat sacrifice to idols. Chapter 8, verse 1, he says, "Now, about meat sacrifice to idols…" And you're going to go on for three chapters about this. This is in a big setting, three chapters on the topic of meat sacrifice to idols. And Paul had preached the truth that there is only one God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, all the other gods of the nations are not Gods at all, the idols are nothing, they don't represent any spiritual reality, they are nothing. And that meat is just meat. You can eat anything. Jesus had declared all foods clean. That's the truth that he laid out. And some of the Corinthians had imbibed that truth, they understood it. Set free, they were able to do whatever they wanted with meat sacrifice to the idols there in the Pagan temples, and they were flaunting their freedoms in ways that were hurting weaker people who hadn't reached that point of maturity yet.

And so, Paul is writing to them within the church, giving them the basic prints you are going to see again and again, and we're going to use it again today. Love limits liberty. There's a limit to our personal freedoms and our personal rights and what we get to do. We're going to limit our liberties for the sake of other people. We're going to think horizontally about how this will affect other people. And so, that's where he's at. And so, he uses himself as a personal example. And we saw the first person example last week, remember? He talks about how it is right for those who preach the Gospel to make their living from the Gospel. And he gives five reasons why churches should support their pastors, financially support them, and he lays all that out. I'm not going to walk through that again, but he has been very, very clear, multiple reasons why the churches that Paul had planted should step up and take responsibility to pay for those who preach the Gospel, pay financially.

Paul’s Personal Example #1: The Right to Be Financially Supported through the Church

But Paul is just setting that up, he actually isn't really doing that for that main reason, to lay out reasons. And so, he says that in verse 15, look at it. He said, "But I have not used any of these rights." "I didn't use my freedom. I didn't use my right to earn money in preaching the gospel, and I am not writing this now in the hope that you will do such things for me. That's not why I'm writing these words. I'm giving you an illustration of the principle that I'm limiting my freedoms and my rights for your sake." And so, he had voluntarily given this up.

Now, he established that the other apostles didn't do this. And the other apostles were supported financially. Peter was. This was the common practice. This was the ordinary practice, but he did this voluntarily. He was under no compulsion here, it was just something he chose to do. He gave up the right to get money for preaching the Gospel. For him, it was a point of honor. You could look at it this way. He uses boasting language. Paul does this a lot, but he says, "This is my boast." This is actually, if you could think of it this way, "This is the gift that I'm specially giving to Jesus in my ministry. I get to look at the people I'm preaching to, I get to look them in the eye and show very plainly, I am no religious huckster. I'm not in it for the money. There's no fraud going on here. I don't get any money for preaching the Gospel. I work hard with my own hands, late at night making tents to supply my needs and the needs of my companions, and none of you supported me. And this is what I've chosen to do. My preaching of the gospel is in a different category. I have no choice but to do that." Look at his language, verse 16 and 17, "When I preach the Gospel, I cannot boast for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel. If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward, but if not voluntarily, then I'm simply discharging the trust entrusted to me."

Here's how I understand those words. You could well imagine that Paul effectively heard from Jesus on the road to Damascus, "You are a dead man, but I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to use the rest of your life as I see fit. Do you understand?" "Yes, Lord." "Now get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do. You understand the words 'must do'?" "Yes, Lord." That lines up with his attitude here, he says, "Woe to me if I stop preaching." Woe will happen to me. That's a prophetic word of judgment. I will be prophetically judged by God if I stop preaching the Gospel.

There's some precedent here. Remember Jonah? Remember how God gave him a calling to be a prophet? How did he feel about that? Not thrilled. "I want you to go to your bitter national enemies, the Assyrians, and I want you to preach to them. Otherwise, I might destroy them." He's like, "I'm all in, Lord. Destroy them." Don't think for a minute Jonah was afraid to preach, he had stage fright or hated public speaking. It had nothing to do with that. And he wasn't even afraid of what the Assyrians would do, I think he would have preferred they slaughtered him, rather than God save the Ninevites. What did he do? He ran. He did not preach.

You don't run from God. "Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" If I go to the far side of the earth, you're there. Well, Jonah tried to do it and God was there, and he actually didn't even reach that far into the Mediterranean, but God sent a storm. God controlled a lot, he controlled the sailors, he controlled the big fish, he controls everything. And next thing there, Jonah is in downtown Nineveh preaching the message.

To all of the future would be prophets that God calls, do what he tells you to do. You have no choice. Or again, take Jeremiah. Jeremiah had a similar experience, Jeremiah was called into the hardest ministry there was in the Old Testament. I've thought about this, I think Jeremiah had the hardest ministry. "Jeremiah, I'm going to send you to a people, your own people, who will not listen to you. And when you're done preaching, the Babylonians will come and destroy almost everyone." Wow, what a message. And it was very unpopular, as God knew it would be. And so, in Jeremiah 20:7-9, Jeremiah says this, "O Lord, you deceived me and I was deceived." Now, stop right there. You don't say that to God. "Lord, you tricked me. You deceived me, getting me into this ministry. You overpowered me and prevailed. You're stronger than I, what could I do? I am ridiculed all day long. Everyone mocks me and the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long." You would imagine then, it's like, "I'm not preaching anymore. I'm not doing this." And he tried, but listen to this, "But if I say 'I will not mention him or speak anymore in his name,' his word in my heart is like a fire, like a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in. Indeed, I cannot."

I think that's somewhat like what Paul is saying, "I can't stop preaching the gospel." Paul is saying, effectively, "My boast in my service, O Lord, is not that. The Lord is powerful on me and I can't stop, but this is something I have voluntarily, a free will offering I have offered to God, that I preach without charge. It's just something I give." Look at verse 18, "What then is my reward? Just this, that in preaching the Gospel, I may offer it free of charge and so, not make use of my rights in preaching it."

The basic principle is love limits liberty. He was willing to limit his rights and privileges and freedoms for the sake of first: The church. Horizontally, the other believers. Now, we're going to turn, and he said, "I also am doing it for the lost. I'll limit my liberties and I'll limit my freedoms for the sake of those who are not yet converted, for the lost." And that's what he's talking about here. Paul enslaved himself to someone to win some to Christ.

In 1520, Martin Luther, based on this very text we're looking at today, wrote one of his most famous treatises, and that is on the freedom of a Christian. And he had two basic premises. Listen to them, and I can unfold them from Luther, but there they're just as powerful, and they come from this text. First of all, thesis number one: A Christian is a perfectly free, Lord of all, subject to none. Number two: A Christian is a perfectly dutiful slave subject to everyone. It's really a fascinating argument, and he talks about the freedom of the gospel. And then, yet, to everyone else around, we are enslaved, voluntarily enslaved for their good. And that's how Luther argues.

And that's what Paul argues here, too. Look at verse 19, "Though I am free and belong to no one, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible." Paul is free, he's saying, "I don't owe anyone anything." Even if he were imprisoned as he was again and again, his heart was free in Christ. The Son had set him free. He was truly free, free indeed. He was a free man. He was free from sin, he was free from death, he was free from human tribunals. He actually says in another place, "I care very little what any human tribunal says about me. Doesn't matter to me what judgments you make. My conscience is captive to Christ." He's free, free, free. He's a free man. He's under no obligation to do anything, when it came to eating or drinking or clothing, what he did with his time, whether or not to get married, where to live, what things he enjoyed, that he was just a free man. But he voluntarily restricted those kinds of freedoms to win as many souls as possible to Christ, to gain them.

Now, he uses a business term here, like an accounting term. This is effectively the profit, talk about profits and losses. This is the profit to my business. Souls one, eternally one, for Christ. This is what I'm trying to gain in our business. Paul's business was not tent making and he was trying to turn a profit. Paul's business was the spreading of the Gospel and the gain, the profit he's looking for, was lost people coming to faith in Christ, being rescued from the dominion of darkness. And so, this is yet another example of the principle we've been learning: Love limits liberty.

He begins talking about the Jews. Look at verse 20, "To the Jews, I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law, though I am not myself under the law." He says this plainly in Romans 7 that we are not under law, but under grace. We're set free from the ceremonial Law of Moses. We're not under law. So as to win those under the law, Paul was raised, as we know, in the strictest sect of Judaism. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He knew the minutia of the Law of Moses very, very clearly. But he also understood that in Christ, the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility that the ceremonial law had set up, such as circumcision, the dietary regulations, kosher foods, the things that the Jewish men did with their beards and their hair, and their clothing, that they would not wear certain types of clothing with different fibers woven together. And all of those laws that the Lord said made the Jews a peculiar or special people, those things had been fulfilled in Jesus. The time for that was done, the Messiah had come. He'd been identified as a Jewish man, salvation had come from the Jews. We knew what that meant by these laws, but now they've been abolished, they've been fulfilled, they're obsolete.

And so, Paul says, "Look, I'm not under that law anymore. I'm done with that. I can do whatever I want with my beard and my hair, whatever style hits me, alright? I can do it. I'm free, okay. I can wear any clothing I want within reason. Anyway, I can wear anything I want, anything that I would like to wear, I can wear it. I'm free. When it comes to food, I can eat what I choose to eat, anything. But if I'm trying to win some Jews, unbelieving Jews, to faith in the Messiah, I will put all of those freedoms aside to win them. When I go to their home, and they're serving kosher, I will eat their food. If I'm having them over, I will serve kosher to them. Even though we're set free from it, I'm going to fit into their world. If it's a Sabbath, I'm going to follow the rituals of the Sabbath, even though the law, the ceremonial law has been fulfilled. We don't have to do all those Jewish rituals anymore. I will fit into that Sabbath pattern, like I did when I was growing up. When I visit the synagogue, I'm going to follow the rules of the synagogue in there. I'm going to do the things they do."

And this is the approach he consistently followed when seeking to reach the Jews. Just like in Acts 15 where the Jerusalem council decided that the converts, the gentile convert, did not need to become Jews to be saved, they didn't have to be circumcised and required to obey the Law of Moses, but there were some regulations given to the gentile converts, so they would not offend the Jews, like, don't eat meats with blood still in it and don't need strangled animals, and other things like that. Well, you can eat anything, all foods are clean, but that's especially offensive to Jews, so don't do that.

And that's why he also took Timothy and circumcised him. It's a very interesting thing that he did, because he argues vigorously that you don't have to be circumcised to be saved, and he wasn't contradicting that. But Timothy had a Jewish mother and grandmother, but a gentile father who had never been circumcised. And so, he wanted Timothy to have a wide range of freedom of ministry and had him do that, so as not to offend the Jews, but not for salvation.

He also took a Nazarite vow, Paul did. And he followed all the Jewish regulations and paid for others to have the Nazirite vows fulfilled as well. That's what he means. Now, this did not mean compromising any moral law. He not saying that. "Well, now, I can commit adultery as much as I want or I can murder as much." No, those are timeless regulations the Holy Spirit fulfils in us. He's talking about the ceremonial laws and personal preferences in terms of food, clothing, and lifestyle. That's what he was talking about. And so, he became like a Jew to win the Jews.

Becoming Like a Gentile to Win the Gentiles

Then, he turns it around. He says in verse 21 and 22, "To those not having the law, [that's gentiles] I became like one not having the law, though I myself am not free from God's law, but I'm under Christ's law." So as to win those not having the law. When he's in the home of a gentile family, if they serve pork, he ate it. What if he hated it? What if he was like, "I hate pork." Paul would say, "I don't care." Of himself, he said, "I don't care whether I hate it or not, I'm going to eat it. I'm not bringing my own kosher lunch, alright. I'm going to eat whatever they serve without raising any questions about it. I'm just going to eat it."

Remember how the apostle Peter was the forerunner in this? The apostle to the Jews, and God was getting him ready to go preach the Gospel to Cornelius, the gentile, the Roman. And so, he gave him a vision. Remember, he's hungry and lunch was being prepared? God chooses his timing perfectly. He said, "Here's a hungry man." Alright, lunch is being made ready. But then there's this vision of a sheet being let down from heaven, and it contained all kinds of four-footed animals and reptiles and birds, and there are all these unclean things. "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." He said, "Never, Lord. I've never eaten anything impure or unclean." And then God spoke from heaven a second time, "Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean."

The thing is, if they serve you snake... Never mind, but if they serve you [laughter] bat, eat whatever they serve you. A number of years ago, Elisabeth Elliot came to First Baptist Church and she spoke to the women at a women's conference. And my wife and I and our kids, we had the privilege of sitting at a table with one of the greatest women of the 20th century, and we're talking about missionary life among the Huaorani Indians in the Amazonian jungle and the things they ate. And you've heard this saying before, "Where he leads, I will follow. What he feeds, I will swallow." It's like...

I had my own battle with this before we went to Japan. Those of you who know me know some things about me, and concerning my tendencies. You are all put on notice that I don't like seafood. If you have us over and you serve seafood to me, you are giving me a clear message. I don't know what it is, I'll have to ask you, but there's definitely a message here. If my wife serves me seafood, that's a whole different level of communication in our marriage. Absolutely. She knows I'm not going to eat it. I'm going to set it aside and say, "Okay, what did I do? It must have been huge. But we're going to Japan. And they eat all manner of seafood over there. And we were at the International Learning Center, we were there and we were having a time of prayer before we all went to the four corners of the earth, some to Mongolia, some to sub-Saharan Africa. We were going to Japan.

And we were sharing prayer requests, some people were laying hands, some people were praying, and they were all different kinds of things being shared. Somebody's father had a weak heart and that couple might never see that man again and they were crying. And there were some lighter things, more insignificant issues, all of it. For me, it was like, "I hate sea food. What am I going to do in Japan?" And people laid hands on me for that, and prayed that God would give me a special measure of grace. And sure enough, the first month we were there, the missionary I was working with and I went to help a Japanese man put a ceiling fan in and he brought us to a fine Japanese restaurant, and they brought out a fish on a cutting board,  and they looked at it, and it was like, nodded, went off. And the next thing I know, some of that was on my plate, uncooked, and I thought, just like Elisha, after Elijah had gone up to Heaven in a chariot of fire, I said, "Where now is the God of Israel?" And just, "Help me." But the thing that's cool about a sashimi is it has almost no flavor. And I actually liked the sauces we dipped in, so I was good for a couple of years on that one. But I don't eat truck stops sashimi or sushi.

The point is, I didn't have the freedom to just say, "I'm just not going to eat what they serve," despite the fact that I am actually remarkably picky about certain things about eating but that's just... You can't do that. I became like a gentile to when the gentiles, Paul was saying. Verse 22, "To the weak, I became like a weak, to win the weak." "I commended myself to them in whatever way I could. Again, we're not talking about the moral law here, but I am talking about just preferences. I just tailored my preferences to them, and to what they wanted. I've become all things to all people so that by all possible means, I might save some. By all possible means, I might save some from condemnation. By all possible means, I might save some from eternity in conscious torment away from God, through the Gospel. Whatever it takes, that I might fit in."

The Overall Principle

Hudson Taylor in the 19th century was the first missionary there in China, to just completely go native, to wear a Chinese man's garb and to have the long pony tail and all of the mannerisms and all of that. He was the first to do it. Most of the missionaries before the China Inland Mission were right on the coast, and they stayed Western and they stayed with that, but he plunged in and became all things to all people, so that he might save some. And that was what he found necessary.

A person who is selfish and cares only for his or her preferences in this world will not lead many people to Christ. There is a basic level of self-denial that we must reach if we're going to be effective in evangelism. You just have to say no to yourself. You have to be willing consistently to say no to you.

Now, next time that we look at 1 Corinthians, verses 24 through 27, we'll talk about the level of self-denial Paul uses, beating his body and making it his slave, the zeal that he had to keep himself under so that others could be saved.

Applications: How does this text and the things we've talked about today challenge you? If you're a believer in Christ, how does it challenge you toward evangelism? What does it have you do? How are you convicted? I've been convicted by this. What am I protecting? What am I keeping safe about my lifestyle so that I'm not as effective as an evangelist? It could be just how I think about my life, my time, my energy, my money, what I do with my days. I just... Am I thinking like I could lead some lost people to Christ with my time today or am I thinking selfishly about my time in this world? How are we... We're surrounded every day by lost people here in the Raleigh-Durham area. It's going to take sacrifice for us to reach them. We're going to have to learn more and more, and I know it's hard. Ben Edith, that's one of the best prayers I heard, you took away a bunch of my application points, but thank you, brother, because we're almost out of time.

The workplace, what could we do with the workplace? Like Ben was saying, what could we do to connect with people? To have conversations, to use hospitality to bring people over? What could we do in our neighborhoods? What could we do to connect with people? What could we do to either have people or go to their events. Sometimes, like recently, we had an event in our neighborhood that we didn't host, but we just went. And building relationships. What are things we could do with existing ministries here in the life of the church, like International Connections, that's having a phenomenal outreach to internationals?

What are some things we could do through the Caring Center, which has a phenomenal ministry here in this urban setting? What are some things we're not doing now that we haven't even thought of, some doors that God's going to set before us to get us involved in the lives of lost people? What are some ways that we can, like Adoniram Judson did in one locality, I mentioned it before, spread 500 leaflets, and see one person come to Christ. Broadcast seed selling is one of the great challenges, to be willing to fail and fail and fail and fail, and you've not failed, because some of those people may come to Christ without you around. The Lord humbles us that way. But just to be willing to share with many people, so that some can be saved.

This is the gospel. Now, I'm conscious of the fact that not everyone listening to me right now is born again. You've heard the Gospel, all of you. And I pray that maybe you walked in here today, unconverted, but you won't walk out unconverted. Judgment Day is coming, you don't know when you're going to die. And you've heard that God sent His Son into the world. You heard it from the three that were baptized. You've heard it from me already when Paul talked about what the gospel is. You know enough. You don't need to do anything, you just need to believe and trust in Jesus and you will be forgiven. Close with me in prayer.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 9. This morning we're going to be looking at verses 1-15. And as you do that, I'm very well aware that one of the common accusations about preachers from people who perhaps don't usually go to church is that all they ever talk about is money. Well, I understand that. The stories of famous preachers and their abuse of ministry funds is well known. I was watching a documentary on the Word of Faith movement and the health and wealth, what commonly called the prosperity Gospel, and there was one individual that was focused on, and this individual has an estate outside Fort Worth Texas, water-front estate worth $6 million. And he has a private jet, listen carefully, a Cessna Citation. It's a really good jet, so keep that in mind. I'm just kidding, I don't want a jet, I have no interest in an airplane.  I'm just telling you what this individual has, again, through ministry money. Price tag over $20 million with an operating cost every year of $1.1 million to keep it in the air. So I may, and you all may together with me be feeling a little awkward this morning as I get up to do precisely that, which is to talk about money, and to make a case that local churches should pay their pastors, and say that it's a biblical case, but however much awkwardness we may feel, this is the Word of God.

This is the next text in 1 Corinthians, and I continue to put my trust in the Word of God. And ironically, while Paul does in fact give very carefully and clearly five reasons why churches should pay their pastors, at the end of that Paul says concerning himself, he is not taking advantage of any of that. He's actually citing the opposite example for himself, how he chose to give up what was rightfully his for the sake of the Gospel. So honestly, this in the end becomes in an overarching sense, a continued and lasting call for all of us to search our hearts and minds and say, "What are we willing to sacrifice of our own freedoms for the sake of the Gospel?" Because that's really the point ultimately Paul is making. However, along the way, it's reasonable for us to learn the lessons. And so for me as an expositor, I think my primary goal every week is to take the central lesson of the text and present it to the church. The main lesson of the text is the main lesson of the sermon, that's what expositional preaching is. But I think it's wider and broader than that. 

Secondary lessons are important too. And so the secondary lesson here is that churches should pay their pastors. The primary lesson is we all need to make sacrifices for the sake of the Gospel and follow Paul's example in that.

So let's look at that primary lesson, laying down our rights for the love of others. Christianity is a religion of self-sacrifice. Jesus Christ, as the time was drawing near for Him to die, and He was very well aware that His hour was coming, in John 12:24, He gave this timeless principle for the Kingdom of God, for Christianity, and for His own life as well: "Truly, truly I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit." He was first and foremost talking about Himself, His own sacrifice on the cross. But He also was giving a lasting principle, by which the blood of the cross would then be sacrificially applied to people all over the world by messengers, by Christians, by Evangelists and missionaries and servants of the Word, who themselves would have to die, who themselves like that kernel of wheat would have to fall into the ground and die if they wanted to see great fruit coming from their lives.

So this is a lasting principle not just for Jesus, but for all of us who follow Christ. And to this we are clearly called. Jesus said in Mark 8:34-35, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself daily and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for me and for the Gospel will save it." So in other words, Christ was not seeking to please Himself when He became incarnate, when He took on human flesh. He was not seeking to please Himself and to do what was in His own best interest. But it was because He denied Himself and because He died and shed His blood that we sinners have our sins atoned for. And it is by the same way that the Kingdom of God spreads to the ends of the earth.

Now, this is amazingly difficult for us sinners. It is very much the issue of sanctification. All of you who have been walking with the Lord for a long time, you know exactly what I'm talking about. We come face-to-face with our flesh every day, and how hard it is for us to turn our backs on what we want to do. It's hard even for a newborn infant. Recently, I was reading Augustine's Confessions, and there he speaks directly to God in the second-person singular. He addresses his confession directly to God. And he talks to God about what God did to save him, and it's really remarkable, you ought to read it. But there's a section here that I'd never seen before. When years ago I read it, it didn't hit me. But Augustine said he was sinning from infancy, from the first day that he was alive on Earth. This is what he wrote, "Who reminds me of the sins of my infancy? Does not each little infant teach me what my own sins were when I was an infant? What then was my sin? Was it that I cried and howled to be nursed? For if I would behave like that now for the food that's reasonable to my age, I would deserve to be scorned and rebuked by everyone around me. That proves that those selfish, angry ways were really sinful. I have seen and known even a baby jealous. That little baby could not speak, yet it turned pale and looked bitterly on its foster brother when he was being nursed. So infants seethe with sinful jealousy, though they are too weak to do anything about it."

So this is what we face from infancy, from the moment we are born, we are fanatically committed to self-interest. That's what the flesh is all about. And Christianity calls on us to turn away from fanatic commitment to self-interest for the glory of God, to deny ourselves for the glory of God and for others, but our flesh fights it. We want to eat what we want to eat when we want to eat it. We want to spend our time and our energy and our money the way we choose. We don't want anyone from the outside forcing us or compelling us. We want to live as comfortable and pleasure filled lives as we possibly can. But such a mentality cannot build the Kingdom of God. It is essentially selfish and Jesus calls us away from it. The Apostle Paul in this text calls us away from it.

The Context in 1 Corinthians: Chapters 8-10 address Meat Sacrificed to Idols

Now, the context here in 1 Corinthians 9 is three chapters of dealing with the problem that was facing the Corinthian church of meat sacrificed to idols. He is dealing with various issues the Corinthian church brought up to him probably in a letter they had written him. And in 1 Corinthians 8:1 he brings up this topic, "Now about food sacrificed to idols... " and then he goes on, three chapters. For three chapters he talks about this. Now, Paul had come to Corinth and had preached very plainly the doctrine that there is one God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, there is one God and only one God, and all the gods of the nations are but idols, they're empty. And the actual idols have no spiritual significance, and that meat is just meat, that Jesus has declared all foods clean.

He taught all of these doctrines, and the more knowledgeable Christians there among the Corinthians had gotten it. They had absorbed these lessons and were moving on in a life of freedom. And they were using their freedoms as they saw fit. And they felt they had the right to do whatever they wanted, they were eating meat as much as they wanted. But Paul was saying they were not acting in love toward those in the congregation that were weaker, that were not so developed in the faith, that had heard these doctrines but they had not been able to internalize them yet. And so these older, more mature, more knowledgeable Christians were hurting the consciences and the hearts of their more immature brothers and sisters by their freedom, by their flaunting of their freedoms. And so the younger, the more immature, less knowledgeable Christians were following the example of the older, more mature Christians and eating meat whenever they wanted, visiting the temple grounds as though it just didn't apply to them moving through. But the younger ones were struggling and their consciences were smiting them, and they felt guilty for what they were doing but they were following the example of those who were further along in the faith.

And so Paul is saying to the older ones, the knowledgeable ones, he said, "You're not acting in love." And so that principle, love limits liberty, Paul's solution here is to teach right doctrine about all these things, about there being one God and only one God, about how idols are nothing at all in the world, and how meat is just meat. He's going to teach all those principles to hope to mature the younger more immature ones so they get to a level of stability and strength in their monotheistic, their Christian faith, he's going to teach them. But meanwhile in his lifestyle, in his pattern, he's going to curtail his own freedoms. He's going to pull back his liberties, and he's going to urge the others to do the same; love limits liberty.

And so at the end of chapter 8, inverse 13 he said, "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." Now, Paul's still discussing this topic at the end of chapter 10. In verse 24, 1 Corinthians 10:24 he says, "Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others." What a lasting timeless statement that is; nobody should seek his own good. Don't be after your own good, but seek the good of others. And then at the end of that chapter, he sums it all up saying, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews or Greeks or the Church of God, even as I try to please everybody in every way, for I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so they may be saved."

So I just want you to see chapter 9 in the overall flow, in context. Three chapters on meat sacrificed to idols, and chapter 9 is part of that case. Now chapter 9, 1 Corinthians 9 for the most part is just Paul's example. Paul's citing his own lifestyle as an example. Paul does this frequently, "Follow my example as you follow the example of Christ, or as I follow Christ." Or he says in Philippians, "Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it in practice, and the God of peace will be with you." So he's presenting himself as a role model here, as an example. And in the overall flow he's going to talk about how he voluntarily gives up his own rights. In the first part of the chapter, the part we're looking at today, how he does it for the sake of the church, for the benefit of the new Christians or the growing Christians there in Corinth. Then he's going to talk about how he does it for lost people, too. To the lost Jews he became like a Jew to win the Jews. To the lost Gentiles, he became like a Gentile to win the Gentiles. He's become all things to all people, so by all possible means he may save some. God willing, we'll get to that next week. So this is what he's doing for the sake of the Gospel.

Now, the topic in this passage that we're studying today must be seen in that light as well. It's an illustration of the principle. Paul is saying, he's asserting he had the right to financial support from the local church. He had the right to do it. And he establishes it clearly by five reasons which we are going to walk through this morning, five clear reasons why local churches should support their pastors financially. But then he says concerning himself, he chose voluntarily to give up those rights. So that's the context in the flow of the argument. However, we should not miss the fact that these verses really do contain the clearest and most careful exposition of why local churches should pay for ministry, or pay for those that are preaching the Gospel. And so we want to learn that lesson as well. So let's walk through that now, the right of ministers to financial support.

Reason #1: Apostles Have Rights Too (vs. 1-6)

The first reason he gives is, we can put it this way in verses 1-6, apostles have rights too. Apostles have rights, too. Look what he says in verse 1, "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?" So Paul's basic argument here is, "Look, if ordinary Christians have freedom and rights, why wouldn't we apostles?" So in other words, "I have freedoms too, don't I? Don't I have the right to come and go and do what I want?" So I'm an apostle, and so it's a how much more kind of argument. So Paul gives his apostolic credentials.

First, he had seen Jesus our Lord. If you look in Acts 1, as they're trying to replace Judas the traitor, they gave us one of the requirements that he had to be an eye witness of the resurrected Jesus, he had to testify to the resurrection of Jesus by having been an eye witness. And he said, "I have seen Jesus, the resurrected Lord, with my own eyes." Now, it wasn't like the other 11 that were still apostles. They had walked with Jesus through years, three years of ministry, and they had been there in the upper room, etcetera. Paul came, he says, as one untimely born, later on. But we know the story, the very famous story, how the apostle Paul, when he was still an unbeliever, Saul of Tarsus, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, was confronted by the resurrected glorified Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he saw Him. Paul saw the resurrected Lord, and that was not the only time. There were numbers of times throughout Paul's ministry, as recorded in the book of Acts, that Jesus showed Himself or appeared to Paul and encouraged him in ministry. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul even was caught up to the third heaven to paradise and saw heaven with his own eyes.

So he says, "These are my apostolic credentials. Not only that," Paul's saying to the Corinthian Church, "I planted your church. You are the direct result of my labors in the Lord." As he said back in 1 Corinthians 4, " Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel." And you see, he said, "You know my apostolic credentials." They had a clear memory of Paul preaching Christ and Him crucified by the power of the Spirit. They had seen him do a river of miracles. He said the signs, the works that mark an apostle, signs and wonders, healings, were done among you with great perseverance. So Paul had done a number of healings.

So he's saying, "I'm an apostle, clearly, and as an apostle, I have the right of financial support from you," he's saying. "I have the right to be cared for physically while I am ministering to you spiritually." Look what he says in verse 3-5, "This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me; don't we have the right to food and drink? Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?" So Paul says, "We have the right for basic life support just like the other apostles do."

Notice that he mentions specifically the right that he had to take along a believing wife. It's interesting in the Greek, literally says, "To lead about a sister, a wife." It's just an interesting expression, to lead her about. And so there is that sense of a godly leadership and she being, in the pattern of Genesis 2, a helper suitable for the ministry, but I have that right.

Now, we knew from 1 Corinthians 7, Paul was single, probably a bachelor. But he said, "Look, I have the right. And not only that, in the context here for you to support us, for you to support our family financially. My wife and I have that right." And the other apostle Cephas, that's Peter, he did. So, so much for the celibacy of the first bishop of Rome, so to speak. But he had a believing wife who he took with him in ministry, and also the Lord's brothers. And it's not mentioned here, but you could extend it to the children as well, to the family, that these families had the right for financial support, Paul says that.

Then he gets, as he does characteristically with the Corinthians, a little bit sarcastic. Paul can do this with the Corinthians. I think he would say, "Look, you drove me to it. I didn't want to get sarcastic, I didn't want to get snarky, but it's your fault." He does that a number of times. But look what he says here, "Or is it only I and Barnabas that must do manual labor?" I guess we're the only ones, we're the special case." So he's saying, "Look, apostles have rights. Do you think that I and Barnabas are the only ones of the leaders of the church who have to work with our own hands to support ourselves?"

Now, usually back in Greece, even before the Gospel got there, there was a pattern of traveling scholars, of traveling philosophers who would settle down in a certain place and bring their wisdom, their philosophy, they would gather teachers around them, and they would be paid. They would be paid for their intellectual capital. This is a well-established pattern. He's saying, "Look, if other people had received that kind of support for you before we even got here, shouldn't we all the more now that we're bringing you the Gospel?" So that's the kind of logic he's using. So as an apostle of Christ, he had every right to expect his basic physical needs to be met while he did the work of an apostle.

Reason #2: Workers Get Paid in All Other Professions (vs. 7)

Reason number two: Workers get paid in all other professions. Workers get paid in all other professions. Look at verse 7, "Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk?" So just think of the usual pattern for all other professions and look at his rhetorical questions, all of them expecting a negative answer. Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? No one. Soldiers' needs, their food, clothing and shelter and all of their equipment needs are supplied by the government, they're supplied by the army or whatever branch or service they're in, and they get a paycheck. It's not a big one, but they do get a paycheck. Now, back in those days, if the Romans had not been paid, they would have revolted. So everyone knows the soldier's not working... Moonlighting, like working during the day for his commanding officer and then he's got to go out and work at a convenience store. Well, they didn't have those anyway, but working at another job back then. They didn't moonlight. All of their needs were met.

Second example, he says, who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Again, no one. We would expect a hard working farmer, when harvest time came, to be able to bring for his family what he needed into his granaries, into his store house. He had labored on that. And if anybody saw him eating some grapes along the way, be like, "What are you doing?" No, that's his crop, he'd labored on it, he had the right to share in the harvest, that's the logic he's using here. And again, who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? Again, no one. This is a universally accepted practice or principle. Why would church work be any different? And does it not stand to reason the same principle will be here, look at verse 11, "If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?" He's using a how much more argument. Look, we are farmers of a different sort. We are sowing spiritual seed, the seed of the word, like Jesus gave in that parable, the seed and the soils. We are doing spiritual farming work, and it's a how much more argument, if we're sowing this eternally consequential, this eternally rich seed, spiritual seed, it's a little thing we should expect to receive some physical return for it.

He uses the exact same argument with the Gentile churches in Romans 15 where he's raising financial support from them for the Jewish believers, the poor among the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea. And he says in Romans 15, "Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it," listen to this, "And indeed they owe it to them." They owe it to them, the Gentile churches owe it to the Jews to support them. Here's why, "for if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings." The how much more argument. You Gentile believers have gotten salvation from the Jews. The least you can do is support them financially. That's the logic Paul uses in Romans 15. So ordinary workers expect to be paid; how much more then those who work in the eternally rich harvest of the word of God?

Reason #3: God’s Law Teaches It (vs. 8-10)

Reason number three: God's law teaches it. This is verse 8-10, " Do I say this merely from a human point of view. Doesn't the law say the same thing for it is written in the law of Moses, 'Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.' Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us because when the ploughman ploughs and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest." So Paul reaches for the law of Moses here, Deuteronomy 25:4, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain." So in the ancient Near East, farmers, when they had harvested all the grain, the wheat, they'd bring it to a threshing floor and lay it out flat and then the oxen would trample on it, frequently carrying a sled, dragging a sled weighed down with boulders. And this trampling would crush the wheat and separate it from the chaff and they could then throw it up in the air and the wind would blow away the chaff and the wheat would be there. That was the process. But Paul's saying make sure you don't muzzle the ox. Give the ox a chance to just bow its head down and eat a little wheat along the way. It would be cruel to have the very thing the ox desires right there but to have it be restrained by a muzzle. So that's the image that the law of Moses gives.

Honestly, to me, it's fascinating that Paul reaches for the ox here. Just one chapter before that, if you read Deuteronomy 24:15, he talks about laborers in a harvest field and he says, "Pay him his wages each day before sunset." So I don't want to give Paul advice on writing scripture, but I'm like there's a clear verse in Deuteronomy, but he goes for the ox, do not muzzle the ox. Now don't misunderstand what Paul's saying here, like God doesn't care about oxen. Cares very much about oxen.

One of my favorite Psalms in the Old Testament's Psalm 104. And it talked about all the beauties of nature, the interconnected spheres of nature and how you have all of these fish of the sea and whales and all that and birds that soar through the heavens. And you have the Coney, the rock badger, that God assigned its place up on the cliffs. And the stork and all of these, and the lions, the animals of prey that come out at night and seek their prey and all of this, and it says about all of these animals and birds and fish that when God opens His hand, He satisfies the desire of every living thing. So God feeds all of the animals. What Paul's saying here is this line was written in the law so that preachers of the Gospel later would be paid. That's what Paul saying. He says he's saying it for us, for our benefit. The oxen doesn't know anything about the word of God and God's going to provide. But the idea is there's a principle here, do not muzzle the ox while it's treading out the grain.

The Consistent Religious Pattern (vs. 11-13)

Reason number four: Consistent religious pattern. Verses 11-13, "If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn't we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than to hinder the Gospel of Christ." Verse 13, "Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?" So it is well known in the religious world, in the ancient Near East, that priests lived off of the offerings that the people brought. It was true in the Jewish religion, it was true in the pagan religions. I already mentioned that, that whenever the animals were brought even in paganism the priest would get... Some of it you burned up, the priest would get a portion, and then the family could take some home.

But also, it's true in the Old Testament. In the law of Moses a whole system of tithes and offerings was set up to benefit and support the Levites. The Levites were supported on the sacrificial system. As a matter of fact, it says in Deuteronomy 18:1, "The priests, who are Levites, indeed the whole tribe of Levi are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel." In other words, when they crossed the Jordan and the land was conquered, and then it was divvied up among the tribes and there were boundary lines in the book of Joshua, Levi got nothing, got none of that. Their offering... Or their inheritance was Almighty God Himself, and for their support was the sacrificial system, the offerings, the tithes and offerings that people would make as they were giving it to God. It says in Deuteronomy 18:1, "They shall live on the offerings made to the Lord by fire, for that is their inheritance." So Paul takes that principle and moves it over to the New Testament. He's arguing that those who minister the Gospel and teach it and shepherd Christ's flock are worthy of financial support from the church.

The Lord Jesus Commands It (vs. 14)

And then reason number five: The Lord Jesus commands it. The Lord Jesus commands it. Look at verse 14, "In the same way the Lord has commanded that those who preach the Gospel should receive their living from the Gospel." In other words, Paul says we have an actual teaching from Jesus on this. When Jesus sent out the apostles two by two to begin their training as evangelists, as missionaries, he said this to them in Matthew 10:9-11, "Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts. Take no bag for the journey or extra tunic or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave." In other words, just go out and serve and let the harvest, the people out in the harvest support your physical needs. The worker is worth his keep. This was established at the beginning of the spread of the Gospel in the New Testament age, at the end of Matthew 10 so beautifully.

Paul talks about rewards given to the support system people. He says, " Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." I think he's talking about his apostles, as they're sent out on their way if you even get a cup of cold water from somebody who wants to help you on your mission, that person will never lose their reward. Isn't that incredible? So what that means is those that provide material support; a house, a room for the traveling missionaries, etcetera, financial support, encouragement, even a cup of cold water receive the same reward as those who go out. That's a beautiful picture of the body of Christ, isn't it? We have different roles to play but those that are supporters receive the same reward.

Now listen, other verses in the New Testament teach the same thing. Paul says in Galatians 6:6, "Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor." So the idea is you're receiving the word, then you need to share material things also, Galatians 6:6. And then Paul... This will be very familiar, 1 Timothy 5:17-18, it says, "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching, for the scripture says, 'Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,' and, 'The worker deserves his wages.'" so this is the exact same scriptural support that Paul uses there for supporting the elders, paying the elders.

Alright, so Paul's clearly established with these five reasons that we've walked through that local churches should support those who are ministering the word of God to them, support them financially. But the point he's making in verse 15 is Paul voluntarily gave up his rights. Look at verse 15, he says, "But I have not used any of these rights and I'm not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me." In other words, I'm not using reverse psychology here where I talk like this for a while and you say, "Alright Paul, here's an offering." No, no, no, no, no, I don't want... No, really, really we want you to have it. No, no I really... No, we want you to... Alright fine. He's saying, "Look, that's not what's going on here." I'm trying to establish a principle that the ministry of the Gospel calls sacrifice from the people who would take part in its fruit. If you want to have the fruit of the Gospel in your life, you have to be willing to give up some of your freedoms. You have to limit your liberties if you want to share in the harvest of the Gospel. That's the point he's making. Now, we've noted along the way, there is this lasting principle for financial support that Paul makes as well. We'll talk about this, the sacrifices we make for the lost more next week.

Let's do some application work now. First of all, I just want to say on behalf of the paid elders that I think this church has been faithful for as long as I've been here and increasingly so to be obedient to this passage. Our pastors and directors as well, those that receive money for ministry are well cared for. But as with all exhortations in the New Testament, especially where things are up and running and there's obedience, what you say is, yet we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, keep on doing this. Keep on being vigilant, especially let's say the non-paid elders, those that have a responsibility to look in this matter, to be faithful, to look after each one and for the church as well. And one of the number one ways church members can do this is by supporting the budget, the annual budget. So we have a number of things going on, more than a building, that's a special offering and we're going to keep taking in money to upgrade our building, but the ongoing weekly offering goes to the support of the ministry, including the pastors. So just be faithful.

Other churches, not so much. Other churches have been historically, not just now but over centuries, on the stingy side. As a matter of fact, there's a mentality that I think the local churches wanted to guard the holiness of their pastors by not tempting them with money, and so they would just try to protect their tender souls by not tempting them with high salaries, I guess. I don't know. I don't know what defense you can make for it but... And it may come from some of the heritage from the Catholic background where you've got monastic orders that would take vows of celibacy but also vows of poverty. And so they were the holy ones, they were on the inner-track for heavenly glory, but they were poor in this world.

Well, the Southern Baptist Convention a number of years ago saw some... Really a scandal that was happening with retired pastors who would serve faithfully in smaller congregations, rural congregation etcetera, reach the end of their time where they could serve, and they would retire with nothing having been saved up, there was never a possibility. And so the Southern Baptist Convention in 1925 began something called the cooperative program, in which Southern Baptists would pool their resources together to do things that were too big for any one local church to do. Among those would be funding seminaries, funding missions, both domestically and abroad but also an annuity program for pastors, and so that's been a big benefit. But also, other churches have seen the wisdom of contributing to the annuity for pastors. So that's, I think that's encouraging in our denomination.

Another issue related to this financial side is, I think it's important to mention, there is sometimes in some churches a mentality that he who pays the piper calls the tune. In other words, that if you pay the money, you get to control the message. And friends, nothing could be further from the truth. If the pastor is a true man of God, he's going to be serving God directly. He's going to be going and standing in the presence of God to get a message from God. The people like Bereans need to listen and test by the Scripture to see whether it is in fact the word of God. That's a responsibility all hearers have.

But the idea that if you pay the salary you get to control the man or the message, that couldn't be further from the truth. If he's a man of God, he's somewhat like a table waiter in a fine Parisian restaurant with a five-star chef who's one of the best in the world. And the chef has set up the plate just how he wants it to be and hands it to the table waiter. That's what we are, the table waiters. So the Holy Spirit has set the message up. Imagine in that fine restaurant, if the table waiter is found to be re-arranging plates on the way to the table. Doing something with the drizzle a little bit, or the asparagus, moving the potatoes over just a little bit, just improving it a bit. Imagine if it got back to the chef who runs the restaurant. I think that man is not long for that for that restaurant, he's going to get fired. And so in the end, I and any faithful minister of the word, I'm going to stand before God and give an account for faithfulness in reference to the scripture, not to the church, though it is the church's responsibility to be certain I'm preaching according to the word. So I think that's important to say.

One final word I want to say about the money before I turn one last time to the Gospel, I'm worried about the spread of something called the prosperity gospel. And what's sad is in some churches, it seems to be much to the church's desire to set their pastors up in luxury so they are driving around the finest cars in the congregation, and they're wearing the finest clothes and they're in mansions, as I talked about at the beginning, and the reason is there's a theology, a trickle-down, almost like a pyramid scheme theology that if you contribute to that, the same blessings will come in your life. Again, this is unbiblical. For me, I think it is not... We are not talking here about luxuries or mansions or Cessna jets. What we're talking about is food, clothing and shelter, the basic needs appropriate to that level of society, appropriate to that culture, all over the world.

When it comes to church-planting, I worry somewhat, and I've heard more and more about this, advocating, consistently advocating tent-making. And what they say is they're thinking about rapidity, they want to spread the Gospel as rapidly as possible and they find that fundraising tends to slow things down. It takes a while to get enough money to pay for the pastors and all that, and so they just openly advocate that church planters be tent makers. What they need to understand is Paul is saying his own situation is an aberration, very unusual. I think it's important for churches to learn early on that if let's say 10 households tithed and gave that money to the pastor, just keeping it simple and not talking about any other overhead costs, that individual, the pastor could live at the median financial level of those 10 families. So early on, I think churches need to learn the principles of 1 Corinthians 9 and support their pastors.

Now, what Jesus said is that those who preach the Gospel should make their living from the Gospel. The best, the most important thing I do every week is preach the Gospel. Nothing is more important than that. Now, the verses we've looked through here are inspired, they are the word of God, they are helpful for local churches, but nothing is more important for you to hear right now than that Jesus gave himself for sinners. He was not selfish with his own freedoms. He was not required to leave heaven and come to earth. He was not compelled to do it, the Father was not compelled to give His only begotten son. He chose to do it out of love. As the Scripture says in 1 John, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." And Jesus laid down his life for the brothers, so we ought to lay down our lives for others.

And so as I was praying this morning about this message, I was thinking about any that God might have brought here today who are lost. You might be a teenager in a Christian home. You might be a guest. You might have been playing a religious game over these years. You might have just walked by and come in here this morning or gone online. The most important thing I want you to hear has nothing to do with money. Jesus doesn't want anything from you, he wants to give something to you. He said in John 6 that he is going to give his flesh for the life of the world, which he did on the cross. He said in John 7, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."

And so you get the feeling through the Holy Spirit that Jesus is pleading with you who are thirsty to come and drink from Jesus this morning. To not leave here today spiritually thirsty. All you need to do, you don't need to come forward. We don't have that kind of an invitation here. But I am inviting you to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. I'm inviting you to turn to Christ and say, "I'm thirsty. My life is not satisfying to me. My sins are ensnaring me. I've seen no way out. I don't want to go to the hell that Court talked about earlier," made it very clear, if you don't repent and believe, by the time you die, you will depart and be condemned to eternity in hell. But if you do believe, Jesus wants to give you life forever more, life in heaven. So the final word I want to say to you this morning has nothing to do with money, has nothing to do with what we want to get from you. It's what I yearn to give to you in the name of Jesus, and that is eternal life. Close with me in prayer.