Christian Liberty In The Church

Raul Ries: God always has a door open for you to escape. You don't have to do stupid things. You don't have to think that God is not listening. God is listening. And God is allowing this in your life to what? To purify your life. You see, to purify your life. He's making you stronger so you can be a vessel of honor and He can use your life to bring glory and honor to Himself.
Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. We are continuing our series in 1 Corinthians, and today Raul will challenge us to balance our freedom in Christ with an awareness of our role as ambassadors of the gospel. If you give in to temptation or take a lax view of sin, you may cause those watching your life to stumble on their spiritual walk. Stay with us for encouragement to glorify God in everything that you say and do. Now with today's teaching, here is Raul Ries.
Raul Ries: If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The title of my message is Christian Liberty in the Church. In chapter nine of 1 Corinthians, where Paul the apostle is concluding that chapter, he talks starting at verse 24. He says, "Don't you know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it." He says, "And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. Therefore, I, Paul, run thus, not as with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." Now, in chapter 10, verse one, the reason he says this is now to give you the illustration how easy and how simple it is for someone to get disqualified from the ministry and from being a Christian. I'm not talking about your salvation. We're talking about how God uses our lives. And if you don't know how to bring your body and your life into subjection, then God has ways of putting you on the shelf. You see, putting you on the shelf and not using you to your full capacity is like a book that you have on the shelf that is never read. What happens to it? It's all dusty. It sits on the shelf when it's a real good book to read, but nobody discovers it, it's on the shelf. And there's a lot of Christians like that on the shelf that don't know how to bring their body into subjection concerning their flesh and walking by the Holy Spirit. So Paul now, he's going to bring the Old Testament into the New Testament so that we can understand the lesson. Beginning in verse one, he starts. He says, "Moreover, brethren," remember he's coming from chapter nine and he's talking about disqualification. So now he's going to give us the warning concerning the idolatry of the Old Testament. He says, "I do not want you to be unaware or ignorant." Notice that, that's Paul's favorite word that he uses. "That all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the Red Sea." You see there, he's telling you. Under the cloud, the Shekinah Glory of God, the Shekinah Glory followed them in the day to become a shade to them, at night a pillar of light so they could have light. God was with them the whole time, and they still could not see Him and still could not believe. Think of what God has done in our own personal lives, and we don't believe what God has done. And He continues to speak to us. Then he says this in verse two, "All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, which was manna." Remember when the manna was given to them, they ate so much manna. And because of their murmuring and complaining, that's a problem. Murmuring and complaining, God says, "I'm going to give you manna until it's coming out of your nose too." Remember that? And they ate manna and that was the end. Verse four, "And they all drank the same spiritual rock." Who's that? Jesus Christ, a type. "For they drank of the spiritual Rock," notice capital R, "spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." Notice that. He tells you right there. If you don't read the Old Testament, you're not going to get the New Testament. What is he doing? He's pulling from the Old Testament and bringing it into the new. The typologies to make clear who the Rock was in the Old Testament: Jesus. "I am the Rock of your salvation," Jesus said. Imagine that, here He is again speaking again of who He is. Verse five, "But with most of them," notice, most of the people, "God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." Imagine for 40 years, every one of those that murmured and complained, they never got to see the Promised Land. They all died in the wilderness. Only their children and their children's children got to go into the Promised Land, nobody else. Joshua took the people of God in. Moses died, and God is the only one that buried Moses. Nobody ever has been buried by God, only Moses was the only one that God buried him, fully and completely. So imagine as we have the illustration here from the Old Testament: What am I doing in my life that makes me misrepresent the Lord? That makes me misrepresent God where I'm turning people away from Christ instead of drawing them to Christ? Is it things in my computer that shouldn't be there? Is it things that I do when I'm not really aware that people are watching me? You see, every one of us has to take that examination because there are things that anyone of us can make people stumble. So it's always good to check out yourself before the Lord and say, "Lord, if there's anything in my life that is making people stumble, please show me so that I can take care of that problem. I surely don't want to make anybody stumble." That's why I don't go to movies anymore, for years. Because even though I went to G or PG movies, I would come out and there's rated R. They think I'm coming out of rated R movie. And that would make somebody stumble even though I wasn't in there. They have a picture in their mind and I don't want to do that in my life. I want to make sure that what I'm doing is before the Lord and that I don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and I want God to continue to use my life the way He wants to use my life. So every one of us has to examine our freedom in Christ. So here now Paul is bringing the old into the new to show us exactly what happens. Look at verse five again. "But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." Notice that. They were brought out of Egypt, a great multitude, and now notice because of unbelief they were what? They were scattered in the wilderness, they died. "Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted." Notice, the example is the Old Testament to bring it into the New Testament so that we don't commit the same sins. We don't make the same mistakes, Paul says. Be careful that you learn your lessons from the Old Testament so that you can become a New Testament saint. So Paul is really bringing out some real deep insights here. Look what he says, verse seven. "And do not become idolaters as some of them were." You can find that in Exodus chapter 32, verse six, when they built the golden calf. Remember? Moses on top of Mount Sinai getting the Ten Commandments, and all of a sudden God says, "Hey, Moses, I hear the sound of music, something's going on." So Moses is coming back down, and he left Aaron, his brother, in charge. And when he comes down, he sees, carrying the Ten Commandments, he comes to the camp and he sees a golden calf and they're worshipping it. And there's all kinds of sexual sins going on in the camp. And when Moses sees that, he throws down the Ten Commandments and he breaks them. Then he goes to his brother Aaron and says, "Aaron, what did you do?" He says, "Oh, what happened is the people asked me to do this, and I took the gold and I threw it into the fire and poof, this calf came out." That's what he said. Look what he says, verse seven again. "And do not become idolaters as were some of them, as it is written" in Exodus 32:6. He says, "The people sat down to eat and to drink and they rose up to play." Okay, what that means is they were having orgies. They were having all kinds of sexual things going on and they were drinking, getting drunk, and they was going crazy in the camp. Imagine, these are the people of God. Think of the church today. These were not the Egyptians, this was the church. These are God's people. So here he says, "It is written," verse eight. He says, "Nor let us," now he points it in, "nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did." Think of how many people in the church are in sexual immorality. Think about it. Young people, married people in adultery. And yet they can sit in a church and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ or watch television ministries and never, ever, ever be convicted. And yet, how can God really move in a church like that when there's so much carnality and so much sin? You need to be fearful of God, because God will punish. God will chasten. God will get His way, not your way. And then he says this: "Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day twenty-four thousand died." Imagine that, for being in sexual sin. God killed them, the earth opened up and swallowed them. It says 23, but it's 24,000. It's a copyist error in Numbers 25:9, you can see the other one and you can hear the whole story here. So he says what? "In one day twenty-four thousand fell." Verse nine, "Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents." So notice again, he brings in the old with the new: Christ. What is he talking about? When they raised up, remember Moses made a serpent of brass and he raised it up. Why did he raise it up? Because the people of God in the world were getting bitten by snakes. And Moses said to them, "All you have to do is when you get bitten, look up to the brass serpent and you'll be healed." But instead of looking up, they were complaining, murmuring, and they died. Because the brass serpent that he lifted up, it was a picture and a type of Jesus Christ on the cross. He goes on to say this: "Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and were destroyed by serpents." Notice that. And then he says, "Nor complain, as some of them also became complainers," notice that, "and were destroyed by the destroyer." Numbers 14. For murmuring and complaining, they were killed. God eliminated them for grumbling. The sin of grumbling, rejecting the truth of Jesus Christ, not standing up for divine leadership, but actually coming against the leadership of the church. God destroyed them, God rid of them. Then he says in verse 11, "Now all these things," check this out, "happened to them as an example." Notice what he says there. "I did this to them so that you, the church, can learn not to do the same things, or the judgment of God will come upon you like it did them." The earth might not open up, but God will judge. God will judge. So here he's giving us a warning, man. It's an admonition and an encouragement. Look, "And now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written," notice, "they were written for our examples." Notice that. "They were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." Notice what he says there. "I did this to show you and to prove to you, the church, what God will do when you sin against God."
Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You radio with Raul Ries. Visit somebodylovesyou.com for Bible-rich resources to spur you on in a God-honoring life. You can also email Raul anytime with your prayer requests and Bible questions. His email address is [email protected]. Now let's continue with more of our study, Christian Liberty in the Church.
Raul Ries: Verse 12: "Therefore," because of all this I just told you, "let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." Notice that, the conclusion of this thing. If you really think you're strong, you're going to fall. Because apart from Christ, I can't do nothing. You can't stand on your own. You have to stand on the Rock, Jesus Christ. And there's going to be times in your life where you're going to be tested, you're going to be tempted by money, by power, by sex, and all these things. And then the question is: What are you going to do now? Are you going to give into it or are you going to resist the devil and are you going to stand in the holiness of God? That's the question that everyone can have in their own lives. Then he said again, verse 12: "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." He says this: "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also make the way of escape, that you may be also to bear it." Now listen carefully here, because people always use this: "I couldn't help it, God tempted me." God doesn't tempt with evil. Because God's already warned us. Look what he says, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond..." How many times you say, "Oh Lord, I can't take this anymore!" God says what? "I'm not going to take you to the breaking point. I will deliver you." You can't blame God. God will deliver us. God sees what you're going through. Think of the people that get to the point of blowing their heads off and committing suicide. When here he says, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with every temptation he will make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." Wow. I mean, how much clearer do we want it? God always has a door open for you to escape. You don't have to do stupid things. You don't have to think that God is not listening. God is listening. And God is allowing this in your life to what? To purify your life. You see, to purify your life. He's making you stronger so you can be a vessel of honor and He can use your life to bring glory and honor to Himself. Then he says this in verse 14: "Therefore," again because of this, "my beloved, flee from idolatry." Notice that, a way of escape is there. That's an exhortation to the body of Christ. He says, "I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say." And then he's now going to speak to us about the communion table. He says, "The cup of blessing which we bless, it is not the communion of the blood of Jesus Christ? The bread which we break, it is not the communion of the body of Christ?" What he's saying is we're not becoming cannibals by eating the bread and say we're literally eating the flesh of Jesus Christ and drinking His blood. The Catholic church believes that literally. We don't believe that. It's a type, it's a symbol when we take the juice and the bread. You see, we're signifying this is the blood and the bread of Jesus Christ, so we eat it and we drink it. Look what he says again: "For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread. Observe Israel after the flesh: are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?" Notice what he says from Leviticus chapter two, verses 1-16, he's actually speaking here. He says, "What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, the things which Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God." You see, he brings in now the idolatry that was going on in the Old Testament when they were worshipping demons. And at the same time in the New Testament, he's talking about these sacrifices that we give to God. Like the burnt offering sacrifice, what does Paul say in Romans 12:1? "I therefore beseech your brethren by the mercy of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God." In the Old Testament, it was a dead sacrifice, not a living sacrifice. So here Paul wants us to understand that what we're doing is we're doing it as unto the Lord. Partaking of the bread is fellowship with God as we come into the presence of God. We're united with Jesus Christ fully and completely. Then he says again, verse 20: "Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons," notice that, "and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons." Notice that, with demons. "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons." Notice the warning here. "You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons." Notice what he's saying here. I mean, to partake of communion, it has to be a consecrated thing and it's a sacred thing that God wants us to perform. It's not for everybody, because God wants us to be clean vessels when we partake of communion. And then he says this, verse 22: "Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Or are we stronger than the Lord?" Of course not. When you're doing that, you're tempting the Lord and you're actually allowing God to judge you because you're not listening. You're proving the Lord. Verse 23: "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things build up." You have to know your limits, you have to know your boundaries in everything that you do as a Christian. You don't want to make somebody stumble, you don't want to do that. You want to make sure you know who you are and what you can do and what you cannot do. We want to build up the body of Christ, we don't want to tear people down by the things that we do. So here's Paul, verse 24. "Let no one seek his own," notice, don't be self-centered, "but each one the other's well-being." Notice the weak brother, the one that we love. That's why we're not going to offend him in any way. Remember we talked about in the past the Corinthian church, they were going to the butcher and they were getting meat from the temple that was sacrificed to other gods. And he says a Christian can buy that meat, eat it. But if you have a weak Christian and he sees you do that, then don't buy it, don't cook it, and don't eat it because you'll make him stumble. You see, so it's pretty cool how here Paul is bringing this whole thing in. Verse 25, he says, "Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience' sake." So here he's telling you what to do. Then verse 26, "For the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness." Notice, all its fullness is His. "If any of those who do not believe," an unbeliever, "invites you to dinner and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions" for what? "For conscience' sake." You go to somebody's house, he's an unbeliever, he said, "Was that meat offered to idols or demons?" and they go, "Yeah." "I can't eat it." He says don't ask it, just it's cooked, it's so good, tastes good, just eat it. You see? You don't make anybody stumble. "But if anyone says to you, 'This was offered to idols,' do not eat it." Why? "For the sake of the one who told you." See? He tells you how to do it. "And for the conscience' sake; for the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness." He's quoting from Psalm 24, verse one. Verse 29: "Conscience, I say, not your own, but that of the other." It's not about you, it's about the weaker Christian, the one you're going to make stumble for conscience' sake. "For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? But if I partake with thanksgiving, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks" by praying? And then here's Paul's answer: "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do," guess what he says here, mark it down, "do all to the glory of God." I love that. Whatever you do, make sure it's to the glory of God. And if it's not to the glory of God, don't do it. You'll get yourself in big, big trouble. Paul is so clear what he says here. Verse 32: "Give no offense," there it is again, "give no offense either to the Jew or to the Greek or to the church of God," to the Christians. "Just as also I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit." Paul says, "You know what you guys? I'm careful in what I do so that I don't make people stumble. But the profit of many, that they may be saved." The reason I do it is because I want to see them in the kingdom of God, I want them to get saved. I don't want to make them stumble. I want them to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to see them repent and come to the knowledge of the truth in Jesus Christ. And the whole thing is, Paul says, I do it because of the law of love.
Guest (Male): Today's message provides an important reminder that our lives as Christians are always on display. So we need to faithfully, accurately represent the Lord to a watching world. You're listening to Somebody Loves You radio with Raul Ries. Today's study was titled Christian Liberty in the Church. We've made an unedited copy available to you for a donation of $5 or more. If you'd like to get one, just call us at 800-634-9165. And to equip you with even more biblical direction, we'd like to offer you Raul's 11-part series, Unity, Holiness, and Love. It's available on CD and flash drive. As you think about a variety of practical ways to live out your faith, you'll discover what the Bible teaches about handling conflict, managing finances, maximizing your spiritual gifts, and much more. Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order Raul's 11-lesson series. We'll send you Unity, Holiness, and Love on CD for $23, or if you prefer on thumb drive for just $14. The phone number once again is 800-634-9165, or write to Somebody Loves You radio, P.O. Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Download our Somebody Loves You app for instant access to digital Bible studies and live-streamed teaching, and browse iTunes and Spotify for podcasts of all of these programs. You'll also find these podcasts on the Somebody Loves You Worldwide YouTube channel, which is home of Raul's Straight Talk program streaming every Tuesday at 10 a.m. West Coast time. Somebody Loves You radio with Raul Ries is fully listener-supported, and every gift is tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us carry out our mission to share the good news of the Lord Jesus. And join us next time as we return to 1 Corinthians for an illuminated look at the purpose of communion. We'll see that when we drink juice and eat bread in Jesus' name, it's more than a religious tradition. It's a reminder to honor Him with a holy, fully surrendered life. This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You radio in Diamond Bar, California.