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1 Corinthians 8:1,13 -Free To Love- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-06-02
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First Corinthians chapter eight. Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, charity edifies. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him. As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered and sacrificed unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth as there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one god, the father of whom are all things and we in him and the lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge for some of for some with their conscience of the idol unto this hour eat as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. But meat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. For if any man see thee which has knowledge, sit at me than the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols? And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? But when you sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. Father, thank you for your holy word, And Lord, as we're looking at at first Corinthians eight, we pray that you'd be our teacher, that you'd bring it right up to the present time in which we're living as we bring forth the application. Help us to interpret properly. Help us to observe what's going on. Help us to glean and understand the very heart of the message that you're wanting to bring forth in this chapter. And Lord, teach us. Be our teacher. Help us to be edified, to be built up, to be strengthened, to walk in the love that you desire us to be walking in. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? Things offered on the idols. So the church of Corinth has a question about food, about meat that's offered onto the idolatrous temples and all. They being Gentiles. We remember that in the book of Acts chapter 15, part of the difficulty the Jews had in fellowshipping with the Gentiles was that of fornication. They were heavily into fornication, which Paul's covered here. But now it has to do with eating. And so they said, well, as a means of fellowship, let's stay away from things that are offered, you know, that are strangled and they don't bleed it properly and things offered on to idols because that would stumble a Jew and all. And so things offered to idols. Paul now deals with the question of Christian liberty. So as as the church, both Jew and Gentile, what kind of liberty do they have to purchase meat and to eat meat that maybe has gone through a process of of being offered onto, you know, pagan idols. So the Corinthians were perplexed about things offered onto idols. Should a Christian eat meat that came from a pagan temple sacrifice? Should a Christian go over the casino and eat at the buffet? If you see me at the buffet, would that stumble you? Hey, pastor Rick's here. Hide. We don't want him to see us, you know. This is where we go instead of bible study, you know. And, but boy the but boy the food's cheap, man. You get a lot of it. Hey. Hey. I'm with you. I'm with you, you know. I've been there before. I've been there one time and it's so funny. People looking at me. I didn't know who they were. They knew who I was. And, but a Muslim guy invited me there because it was really inexpensive and what he knew I liked to eat. And so he took me there and I was interested in sharing, you know, the gospel with him. Kathy and I went. And so, many of you know that that point in time. But idle sacrifices had a twofold purpose. First, to cleanse the meat from contamination by demons as if the demons, you know, get into the meat. Secondly, to gain the favor of the gods, little g gods. And so idle sacrifice are divided into three different, parts. The first portion was, burned at the altar as a sacrifice. The second portion went to the priest as payment. So these priests would offer, this meat, offer this animal, and then they'd get a portion of it to take home, and there's too much to take home. So they're glutted with meat, and so they would sell it, you know, in the public, marketplace. And the third portion went to the offer for his own use. And so the priest would wind up, as I said, with a surplus, and they would take and they would sell this, and this meat was very pure because they wouldn't You know, when you offer to the Lord your old sofa that the dog peed on, you wouldn't get away with that offering that sofa to the governor. Right? If you're gonna bring it to the king, it better look clean. So in this regard, you don't get away with offering an animal that's blind, or that has some sort of bird flu disease or whatever. So you know that you've got the best animal this farmer has because the priest would say, it's sick. Can't offer it. So you know the quality of the meat here is some of the best meat, available. And so there's a little message in there, give God your best. Right? Always give God your best. Even the pagans know to give their little g gods their best, and so do we as Christians. Just just give the Lord your best. Do your best. Commit the rest. So the priest would wind up with a surplus, and they're selling the public market. Their advertising is already cleansed, and the Christians, they're asking themselves, should we or shouldn't we eat this meat that's sacrificed under the under idols? You know, if I'm If I go to a pagan festival at Burning Man, you know, and they're selling hot dogs, they're selling tacos or whatever, can I eat the meat there? It's offered under the idols and all that. It's a bad example, but how many of you have gone to Burning Man? Go over here. No. Didn't think so. But it's a pagan. It's as close to paganism as we can get presently. Right? And interestingly, that music festival that Israel was having during the time of the October 7, invasion, It was a burning man festival type festival. So a lot of the tech giants and people are involved in these kind of things in this return to paganism. And so the Corinthians were divided into two camps, the knowledgeable and the ignorant, the vegans and the carnivores, the legalist and the liberal. I went out with Clive, to eat at the oak table the other day, and I I posted a picture, man. I got all this protein, and he orders this huge salad, you know, and I thought, when's the last time I've ever eaten with anybody that orders a salad, you know? When we when Kathy and I were at one restaurant, the waiter saw me ordering so much protein that he says, you know what? I'm gonna give you a salad too. You need a salad. Alright. I'll eat a salad. But we break into two camps, the vegans and the the carnivores, the legalist, and the liberal. And so Paul wanted them to be the loving. And so we break into all these sects, these little different groups. Well, I'm a I'm a Paul. I'm a Apollos. I'm a Cephas, you know. I'm a carnivore. I eat meat. Well, I eat I eat veggies, and we break into the different groups and all. We're all part of Calorie Chapel. We all love to eat, don't we? We love to fellowship. And and so they're free to exercise their liberty, but in love. And so knowledge puffs up. Number one, we know that we all have knowledge, but love edifies. Verse one. Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. So knowledge being enlightened concerning idol sacrifices is not the issue. The issue is love, and that's where we wanna be. Knowledge puffeth up, which speaks of being proud, of being arrogant. So when I was in school, doctor David Hawking told us guys, gentlemen, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So today, I call them pseudo intellectuals or YouTube prophets. They, have a little bit of knowledge, and then they get on there and they run with it, and they're totally butchering the text. They're totally butchering everything, or or they're even accurate. They're telling you what that Greek word is, and it's parsed, and it means this. And, oh, wow. You know, they they know what a Greek word means, you know. And, they've got a little bit of knowledge. It's puffed them up, and, as soon as they say in the Greek, it says, it's like you don't even have the chance to to debate them, you know, in the context of what's taken place or looking at other Greek words to make sure they didn't take, you know, that one word out of context and all. But simply mentioning in the Hebrew or in the Greek or my dad said or my mom said as David would say, my dad said, if you knew David, he was always he was always name dropping his dad, and then you'd stop and say, oh, David's great. So the knowledge puffs up, the arrogance, the big headed inflated. Six times in first Corinthians, there's a pride problem. And what month is it? For some people, it's gay pride. It's gay pride month. And in this gay pride month, it's a rebellion against God, their knowledge, they they're puffed up, and they even admitted being gay pride, and this gay pride blinds them, blinds them to the truth. This gay pride grinds on them, binds them, they're in bondage to their illicit sexual activity and such and it's very sad to watch it, but what's at the root of it? Pride. The same thing that was at root of Lucifer's fault, pride. That of I will, I will, I will, I will. And so knowledge puffs up, love edifies, you get a little bit of knowledge, and you start running with it, and pretty soon, you know, you come to the place where you recognize God resists the proud, and he gives grace to the humble. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Whosoever exalts himself, Jesus said, shall be abased. Humble yourself in the sight of Lord, he'll lift you up. The way up is down with Jesus. So be careful with a little bit of knowledge that you have and pontificating over other people in that, hey, this is okay. And so maybe we we it's not meat that's bothering us, but maybe it's, your Christian liberty and drinking alcohol. And you, really, really believe that's fine. Jesus turned the water to wine and that, hey, I'm I have a liberty here and I'm gonna drink, what I wanna drink when I wanna drink it. But you're not taking into consideration who you're around in the Christian community, and you might stumble somebody that's having difficulty refraining from drinking way too much. And so you might cause them to stumble. I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but that's basically the the gist of it. That's what Paul's trying to get through is that for that weaker brother, the person that, may be stumbled by you having a glass of wine or a beer or a reefer, whatever it is you do, you could be doing that in such a way boasting of your Christian liberty, and, and then you cause, somebody to fall back into, a lifestyle of alcoholism. So we've got a friend on Facebook named Michael Rodriguez, and he tells me the story that his wife worked on him for over twenty or so years for him to get saved. And he was a good provider, a truck driver, and, but he also had problems with alcohol. And so he finally, agreed to, you know, invite Jesus into his heart and to go to church with her and all, and he was around the pastors, and the pastors were drinking. And he began to drink, and he went back into the drinking for many, many years, almost died from the pain of the codeine, the oxy codeine and such because he hurt his back and back surgeries and such. And, but he'll remind me, he'll let me know that it was the way he was stumbled was in the men's group. They were all in that whole era of that Rick Warren era. Actually, it's probably more John Piper and the guys, the reform guys, thinking they were Spurgeon smoking the stogies and Luther with his beer and Whitfield with his, barrel of rum. And they thought they could go into pubs and into bars and places and share the gospel with everybody, and how'd that work for you? And, one pastor in Seattle, he mocked what would Jesus do as what would Jesus brew, and they began to brew beer, And churches over here, brewing beer and, micro brewing and everybody getting excited about their brews and naming their brews and all. And what's it lead to? It leads to destruction. The guy that started the church with him over there, Mars Hill, got two DUIs. And the pastor boastfully said, I don't know that my drinking's ever stumbled anyone. And the person that he started the church with Mars Hill, Mark Driscoll is the one that was boasting that way. And just caused a lot of trouble and a lot of young people when we were sending fifteen, sixteen kids down to the bible college. Most of them came back drinking and smoking pipes because they thought they were so hip and cool at that time because Driscoll and the Pipers and all these reformed theologian dudes were thinking this is so hip and cool, we'll be like Europeans, and I know some of the kids still to this day have difficulty with alcohol. And so, I tried my best, tried what I could, tried tried and tried and tried, but, you know, what are you gonna do? All you, so many different influences out there of people. So on to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Romans one twenty two says, professing themselves to be wise, they become fools by rejecting God. In Psalm 100 or in Psalm 14 verse one, the fool has said in his heart for the gay pride people. The fool has said in his heart because that's what they're doing. They're rejecting God. Right? The fool, and let me say it again. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And the word fool means you're either lying to yourself because you know there's a God or you're insane. Have you reached that place of insanity to actually believe there is no God? The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. So either insane, you've lost your faculties or you're lying to everyone around you and to yourself because the knowledge of God is innate within us. Even the demons believe in God and tremble. Right? So believing in God, believing that there is a God isn't saving faith, but, to deny his existence in Romans one, gives you over to your gay pride lifestyle as God will judge you by giving you over to your base desires. So it's not a good place to be regardless of how tolerant, and we're talking about love here. We're talking about free to love. We're not talking about freedom to love illicitly or to, shake your fist at God and change the name of love or the definition of love when Obama, you know, got his same sex marriage thing passed, you know, their phrase was love wins. No. That's not love. That's a depravity. That's going against God. That's going against his word and, has nothing to do with with actual real love. Love doesn't seek its own, you know. So Paul writes a whole chapter in, chapter 13 here about love, just to make sure that people understand that love is selfless and, seeks the good of the other. Greater love is no man than this and a man lay down his lie for his friends. And so, professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. And so the educated elite today, what are they doing in their in their in their pride? They're destroying the planet. They're destroying the food. They're destroying the, millions of eggs chickens that produce eggs in the name of a lie supposed the next one coming, the bird flu. And, wiping out the planet, bringing the planet with their blocking out the sun and all their chemtrailing and all the different things they're doing to the planet with the harp and all the different radio frequencies and the the cell phone towers and electromagnetic pulses all over the planet. They're destroying the bumblebees. They're destroying insects. They're destroying things that we need to, grow food. They're creating a famine that we see. Revelation chapter six is gonna, you know, climax in the tribulation period, but the beginning of sorrows, we're watching it. And they're all doing it in such a way that they're playing God, and it's gonna come to the brink of destruction in their audacity, in their pride, in their elitism, and acting like they're gods. It's gonna take Jesus to return except those days be short and no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake, for the nation of Israel, the Lord Jesus would return. So we see, one fourth of the planet, you know, wiped out during the seals, then we see another third of the planet. So you've got 8,000,000 8,000,000,000 people on the planet today. When the seal judgments open up, you're gonna see, one fourth. So 2,000,000,000 people die in a very short period of time. Remember the the tribulation period is only a seven year period of time. So if we look at the Degel report, and the Degel report has America being reduced to 90,000,000 people by 2025, we don't have much time left as a nation. How are they gonna do that? Well, the tribulation period, 2,000,000,000 are gonna die, one fourth. And then as, the trumpets and the bowl judgments are unleashed, there's another one third. So you're down to 6,000,000,000, and now you remove a third, you've you've wiped out half the planet. The Georgia Guidestones were taken down. The elites, their number that they wanna try and achieve is half a billion people. 500,000,000 people. Because they figure that's all they need for you and I, along with the robots, to serve them. They're gonna be at the top. And it's all in the name of quote unquote saving the planet. And, John Kerry recently, you know, was talking about how we got to get rid of all the cows and all the livestock and such, and people need to eat worms and bugs and and, you know, synthetic meats. And even Netanyahu said that he's gonna have his people in Israel eat the synthetic meats. He's a globalist. They're crazy. It's ludicrous. And, and so who's the enemy? People. People are the enemy. The devil hates people. The devil hates people that would hear the gospel and get saved and enter into God's kingdom. So God will intervene. He says, but charity but charity or love, first Corinthians thirteen four, charity vaunteth not itself. It's not puffed up. So knowledge puffs up, charity or love or agapeo, agape love, a spiritual love, God's love. The worldly person cannot experience agapeo. They they can't exercise the agape love. That's a spiritual love, a derivative of the fruit of the spirit, which is love. When you're born again, you finally have the capacity to love as God commands us to love. He commands us to love over and over and over again. He has to keep saying it because we have a very difficult time loving. But when we yield to the spirit, when we're being being filled with the holy spirit, we have the capacity to love. And the people closest to us in our marriages, in our homes, and families, and such, we have a very difficult time loving even them. How much we need God's help? So knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. Love, the word edify means builds up. So it isn't always what you know. It's the people don't care about. They don't care about what you know until they know how much you care. They wanna know, do you care? Do you care about me? And but charity, first Corinthians thirteen four, charity vaunted not itself. It means it doesn't puff itself up. Doesn't puff up. It isn't selfish. It's not boastful. It's not proud. Love edifies. The word edifies, I said, construction term means build up. First Corinthians fourteen twenty six, let all things be done under edifying. So we have a very difficult time when we move into a place of being overtly critical, condemning, censorious with people. So when people tell me, judge not pastor, don't judge, you're judging Donald Trump. Judge not lest you be judged. I need to take you to the context of Matthew seven. Matthew seven says, you can't condemn. You can't cry no. The Greek word is cry no. Condemn them to hell. That's not your job. But as you go through there, you find out that yes, all of us make judgments. Even pagans make judgments. They make judgments about whether they should go through the intersection on a yellow light. It's a judgment. It's a judgment call. Everybody's making judgment calls all the time of good or evil, right or wrong. So he says, judge not, let she be judged. Who's he talking to? First of all, he's talking to the pharisees in regard to the pharisees, so how they've been judging people. They condemn people. So Jesus said, you're hypocrites, pharisees. You got a great big beam in your eye. Huge beam in your eye. Now, if you really wanna help your brother, if you love your brother, get the beam out of your eye, the huge big sin that you're doing. So Jesus says to those in John chapter eight, this woman was caught in adultery. And Jesus said, he that is without sin cast the first stone. Let's get your hypocritical big beam out of your guy's eye before you're gonna judge what she's doing. And so from the eldest to the youngest, they walked out of there. Right? They were convicted because they were sinners too. Right? And so they weren't gonna condemn this woman neither do I condemn they go and sin no more. Right? And so we take the beam out of our eye, Jesus said, and then we can see clearly to take the speck out of our brother's eye. So we're there to help our brother see the speck in his eye so that he can see clearly so that we can walk in this Christian life. So we're not to run around saying, hey, love is not judging. Love is not judging. Hey, you know, I love you. I'm not gonna judge. I'm gonna be tolerant. I'm gonna be tolerant of evil. You do what you wanna do. I'll do what I wanna do. So this pressure upon pastor Rick did not make a judgment concerning good or evil. John the Baptist lost his head because he made the judgment concerning good and evil. He said, hey, you take you you take your brother Philip's wife, king Herod, and you and you take her, you're committed in adultery. And Herodias, who was the woman involved, the woman scorned, you know, had John, you know, arrested and put in prison, and then we know as a party favor, his head was given, you know, on the head of a platter, a casalame danced this provocative erotic dance, and Herod gave what what was asked up to half of his kingdom, you know. I want the head of John the Baptist on a charger, you know. And and she got it. But why was he persecuted? Because he stood for righteousness. They didn't run around saying, hey, don't judge John. Don't judge. Judge not, man. No. John's saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven's at hand. You've gotta be able to make a judgment. If you can't see the the illegality of president Trump being, you know, railroaded on that whole that whole thing, then you're then you're a nut job. You know? If you see the inconsistency, I'm I'm I'm totally in agreement. He got a raw deal. Anybody would see that. Anybody could see that. But on the other side, you've got laptops that nobody's producing. You got Hunter Biden, you got Biden, you got Hillary, you got all these people, all sorts of things, you know. You got hush money that Clinton had to pay to all the women that he was messing with. And on, you know, I mean, unbelievable. Unbelievable corruption. And yet in the church, we can't make a judgment concerning right or wrong? Excuse me? And then here's the other thing. It's not me judging. It's the word of God judging. I don't need to judge. Just use the word of God. Hold the word of God out there. It shows that that behavior is wrong. You know? And now I need to hold the word of God out there in love. If any man be overtaken in default, Galatians six one, you who are spiritual restore such one in spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted. So if my brother falls, if he fails, I go to him in private according to Matthew 18, and I show him his fault based upon the word of God. And if he won't listen to me, then I take another brother with me as a witness, and if he still doesn't witness, then I take it before the church. Why? Because we have immune system in the body of Christ. We cannot tolerate and look the other way concerning evil because a little leaven's gonna leaven the whole lump. We learned that first Corinthians five. It's not it's not cute to have a man take his father's wife and to publicly sexually, heterosexually flaunt it before everybody. Nor do we give in and condescend to and and cower is a better word, cower to militant prideful gays and lesbians imposing their will upon the rest of the planet? No. We're not gonna use your pronouns. No. We're not gonna give into that idiocy. He made them in the beginning male and female, period. And that's the way it goes. And so I feel secure in knowing the truth, and learning the truth, and continuing to know the truth. There's some things that are absolute as absolutes that are nonnegotiable. And one of them is this child's a boy. This child's a girl. You're not gonna hormone them. You're not gonna mutilate them to change their sex for your for your demonic lies. The church needs to resist. The church needs to stand against it. You can't give into that. So knowledge puff up, but love edifies. So what's motivating you to intercede to tell the truth? It's love. True love will intercede. True love You don't you don't you don't go to the doctor, and the doctor says, well, you know, this chemotherapy is gonna be really hard, and you're gonna throw up, and, you know, your hair's gonna fall out and all that. And and I'm I'm just sorry. I love you too much to have you go through that, you know. We're gonna we're gonna just give you a binky and watch you die. That wouldn't be true love, would it? True love would say, hey, we're gonna do everything we can to alleviate this. We're gonna fight against this. And it may be uncomfortable for you and others around you, but, this is the way we go with it, you know. And, if if if there's an indifference, these people do draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. If you had an indifferent doctor that didn't care, an indifferent pastor, or an indifferent airline pilot that said, you know what? We're just we're just gonna spin the spin the, you know, the direction and, wherever it falls, that's where we're gonna go. We're just gonna put it on autopilot and, you know, there's where we wanna go, you know. And you'd be saying, hey, wait wait a minute. This is the wrong plane. I need somebody that's gonna get me to my destination and, that's serious about this, you know. Again, I have to say this. I have to say this. Don't come up to me and tell me that your pastor can't teach the book of Revelation because he's never studied it. That he can't teach prophecy because he never learned it. I I can't imagine anything. I I I flunk flight school, but I'm gonna I'm gonna fly this plane the best I can, you know? No. I wanna know you passed flight school, you know? Study to show yourself approved on the God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rather dividing the word of truth. If you're a pastor, you better study the bible. You better go from Genesis to Revelation and study it because you need to be equipped to equip others. So don't don't sit there and and wimp out and seek the sympathy of people that, you know, I just I I I you know, study. Do it. Just just jump in, man. Yeah. The stuff I have to hear from people. Just are you kidding me? You're kidding me. Right? No. I'm not kidding you. It's loving to let them off the hook. It's loving to just keep going for these therapeutic, you know, messages and all. One of the churches around here just got a new pastor. Guess what the first sermon was? Yes. Money. How to be generous. Imagine that. Three reasons you should be generous. Got my three points here. Glorifies God, you know. Gets me a new car. Unbelievable. But the you know, they do it as Peter Pan too. You know. Just But the people love it so. They just love it so. And somebody that wants to tell the truth and teach the truth, oh man. I can't take that. I can't take it. It's it's making me anxious. I need to take my gummies. Know, it's too much truth. It It's making me upset, you know. Get one of those Trump binkies and a hanky, you know. That might help. Catch it before it falls. So don't condemn. Build up. I use sarcasm, if in case you didn't know. Verse two, and if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to, as he ought to know. So knowledge is knowledge is proud that it has learned so much. So those of you that are, with degrees and PhDs and as as you as you move in that group of people, doctors, lawyers, and all that, the upper echelon of higher education and all, one of the things you'll see is a competitive spirit. So too with pastors with various degrees and schooling and and books or whatever, there's a competitive spirit of who can outdo the other, and, they think they know everything, and, and Paul says he really knows nothing. Wisdom is humble that it knows no more. And so, you gotta be teachable. You gotta continue to be a learner. Continue to be a disciple. You're never gonna be able to exhaust the bible. You're never gonna know it all. You're never gonna be in a position to know it in such a way that you can quit studying, that you can quit digging in. Proverbs twenty six twelve says, see as thou a man wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him. And so again, the emphasis upon being teachable. Verse three, but if any man love God, the same is known of him. The same is known of him. Jesus loves me. This I know for the bible tells me so. Knowledge puffs up. We know that we all have knowledge, but love edifies. We know that an idol is nothing, but love evaluates. Verse four, as concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered and sacrificed unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one. So we know that an idol is nothing. As a Christian, we know the it's it's just a a statue if you will. Jeremiah ten one says, for his molten image is falsehood and there is no breath in them. Psalm a hundred and thirty five fifteen through 18 says, the the, the idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of their own hands. They have mouse but they can't speak. Now think as you're as we're doing this, think of the image of the beast. Think of Elon Musk and artificial intelligence and their desire to have robotics and an image eventually that determines books, videos, everything determines truth, you know, rewrites the bible, the AI bible. So at this point, it's pretty archaic. They're just statues and they don't have chips in them and robotics and move their arms like at Disneyland and all that and talking all that. So he's saying, you know, the the idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouse, but they can't speak. They have eyes, but they can't see. So you're thinking of the creator, how amazing God is, how he makes you and I, and how the devil, the counterfeits trying to emulate that with the mark of the beast and the image of the beast and all. They, have ears they can't hear. Again, they have no breath in their mouth and, and they that make them are like them and they who trust in them are like them, meaning you're dead. You're dead. You you can't see spiritually. You can't hear spiritually. Jesus said, he that is an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit was saying to the churches. You're dead as you walk. You're dead men walking. You you're dead spiritually. You need to be born again, Nicodemus. And verse verse five, for though there be that are called gods, little g gods, whether in heaven or in earth as there be gods many and lords many. So the Romans and the Greeks, they were polytheistic, which means they had many gods, many little g gods. When Paul went to Athens in acts chapter 17, the city was wholly given over to idolatry, little gods. Everybody had a different god. Gods everywhere. Hard to find a man, but easy to find a god. And Paul used a statue that was dedicated to the unknown God to preach the true and living God, the God of creation there in Athens. And his heart stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given over to idolatry. It bothered him greatly. Now he's at Corinth and Corinth is a very licentious city, but also with the temples to Aphrodite and a lot of it is fertility goddesses or fertility idols, which would be when we were over there in Ephesus, years ago, they would have these statues that were Or you can look at pictures and stuff. Multi breasted, designed, with sexual, parts of organs, male and female, to try and stimulate, to inflame the lust of men and women, in these in these rituals is is what's at the root of it. And so what do we have today? Same sort of thing with pornography and all that. The images that come come into play. But to us, there is but one God in contrast to them, the father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him. And so we have we have a monotheistic belief system. One God in three persons, the father, the son, the holy spirit. Philip, have I been such a long time with you? He that has seen me has seen the father. Ananias and Sapphira, you didn't lie to men, you lied to God, you lied to the holy spirit. Father, son, Holy Spirit, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, along with you always, even to the end of the age. The triunity of the Godhead. One God in three persons. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge for some with conscience of the idol unto unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled. So this knowledge puffs up, but love evaluates. So you're with somebody and they're eating they're eating with you and their conscience is violated. Hey, where did this food come from? Was it sacrificed under an idol? Where'd you get it from? What what idol temple did you get it from? Well, it's called McDonald's. It was I I thought it was okay, but but it had the big arches and all. And no no, it was from and then you go through your whole list. So love evaluates where a person is at. Love love doesn't force people. Love is considerate. Love esteems others better than themselves. And so then we come to the conscience. The person's conscience is weak which speaks of the moral perception. They have a perception in their mind that this is wrong. So, if I were with you and I was, let's say, go on a mission trip and they say, well, when you're on a mission trip, you don't wanna offend the people that are there. So you need to eat and drink what they put before you. Not me. Not gonna happen. I'll offend them all the way to back home to California because or here, Washington. Because if I eat what they want me to eat, I might throw up and that'll offend them even more. So I gotta I gotta I gotta roll how I roll. So as a man thinketh it's a heart, I'm just gonna say I'm not hungry. No. You gotta eat it or it's it's an offense. So as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. It's part of his his belief system, his understanding. Romans fourteen one fourteen fourteen. I know and I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there's nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteems anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. So a matter of conscience. So for me, I'm the weak guy. I'm the guy that's weak. I'm not the strong guy. I'm the weak guy that says, your bugs, your worms overwhelm me and my conscience is violated. So don't try to force me or put some religious voodoo on me to eat your bugs. Okay, Bill? I'm not gonna eat your bugs. Not gonna happen. So where's your brother at? If you're gonna evaluate Rick, you know that I'm not gonna eat bugs. Rick's violated by that. You're probably not gonna try and get me to drink some alcohol because Rick's conscience is violated by that too. But if you want to smoke a cigarette or smoke the pipe or the reefer or have some beer or have wine, my conscience has no problem with you doing it in moderation. Right? You all smoke the reefer anyway. Right? Reefer madness. I know. I'm just I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But just don't let me know. Just don't let me know about it. Don't put it on Facebook. Don't parade it on Facebook. Don't let me know. So where's your brother at? What is his understanding? Love evaluates the conscience, the perception of others. So what am I saying here? Don't force cockroaches, crickets, mealworms upon me in the name of love or in the name of saving the planet. It's not gonna work with me. My conscience is violated. Love me in my weakness. Rick and his weakness. How can I love Rick? In my weakness, love me by giving me the biggest fattest rib eye you ever saw. Ain't that the way to love me? My conscience wouldn't be violated. That's what he's saying here. Love them. Love them where they're at. If they love fish, get them a fish, you know. Get them something to eat that they like. Find out who they are. I mean, if if they're violated by by, you know, the buffet at the casino, don't go to the casino. Don't try to talk them in to go in the casino because it's all you can eat. You know, rib eyes or prime rib after four on Sundays, you know. Don't do it. And don't invite them to the Super Bowl party if everybody's gonna be there, you know, with their stuff. And, don't try to get them to, you know, conform to where you're at, take knowledge of where they're at, and just don't invite them. Make sure make sure that that you vet you vet them because the last thing you wanna do is to bring somebody into a situation like that where they're gonna stumble. Now, here's the biggest idiot thing in the last, like I said, ten, fifteen years, is the idiotic Rick Warren churches began to try and embrace bringing the beer and the They call them, wine coolers to their quote unquote home bible studies. And so they'd they'd tell people bring this because it's a icebreaker, Breaks the ice. This is what we do at first, to break the ice. That's that's idiocy. It's complete idiocy because we always have people that are coming in and out of addictions and problems with alcohol or drugs or pharmaceuticals or whatever it may be or pornography or just getting out of out of jail or whatever it might be, and we don't want to stumble somebody. We don't wanna violate their conscience. We wanna love them to the point give them a chance of of experiencing the power of the holy spirit to refrain from drinking. So the way we would go is we'd say, all things are lawful for me. I'm the freest guy around, but all things are not expedient. Expedient means profitable. So although I could drink that beer, I could go to this movie, I could watch that movie, I've got the liberty, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. Now, I gotta evaluate, love evaluates, is this profitable? That's what expedient means. And the way you interpret, is it profitable as a Christian? You ask the question, is this gonna draw me closer to Jesus as a result of watching this movie? Or is it gonna drive me away from Jesus or even be neutral? Why would I wanna be neutral? I want to be growing. I wanna do things that build. Right? I don't wanna live a neutral Christian life just as much as I don't wanna live a life of backsliding. So I wanna grow. I wanna keep growing. I want things that edify in my home, things that build my family up. Knowledge, the knowledge that comes in, you know, through the eye gate, the ear gate, that which we hear has the potential, the ability to build up. So all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. And then he goes on to say, and I won't be brought under the power of any. So I have to evaluate as I've said to you, in our refrigerator at home, there was never any beer or wine coolers. Even though I respect your liberty, I didn't know where my daughters were or family members. And so with my family members or friends, on my watch, I never wanted anyone to be stumbled, get drunk, get a buzz, or any of that. So that's what we did. And if I go over to your house, and it's the holidays or a party, whatever, and you break out the alcohol, it doesn't matter to me. I have no desire to join you in the drinking of the alcohol. But if you try and impose it upon me and make me feel less because I don't, you've you haven't evaluated me. And you can make fun of me, and people did make fun of Kathy and I. They'd call us Mary and Joseph and things like that early on in our Christianity, but, it didn't matter. I didn't care. I don't care what people say or think. I'm gonna do it within my heart. The Lord shows me what I need to do. And I don't regret. We look at the word regret. I don't regret any beer I haven't drank. I've I've never I've never said, oh, gosh. I would have drank that beer. I should have drank that beer. It's never it's never occurred to me that I missed out on anything. Oh, I should have smoked more pot. Oh. No. I haven't missed a thing. Haven't missed a thing. God God has something so much better. The devil's sitting there with these moldy baloney sandwiches. Here, try this baloney sandwich. Try these bugs. Try these crickets. Oh, these things are cool. They've got cayenne pepper on them. It'll clean your nose out. You know? And they gotta market it. Right? They gotta make me think like I'm missing out. And I gotta evaluate and say, you know what? I like a good hamburger. Real burger. I like chicken breast. There's certain things I like that I know they're gonna build my body up that's gonna be profitable. And, and my fellowship, if I'm eating a meal, with quote unquote believers, and our topic of discussion is Jesus, now there's edification, now there's real fellowship. If our topic of discussion is gossip and slander and mean stuff, then I know there's that we didn't, enter into a sweet time of fellowship with the Lord. So knowledge puffs up. So we know that we all have knowledge, but love edifies. We know that an idol is nothing, but love evaluates. Third thing, we know that food is neutral, but love eliminates. Verse eight, but meat but meat commendeth us not to God for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we not are we the worse. So food is neutral. Food is not the issue nor is your body type. Doesn't matter how much overweight you are or how underweight you are. Doesn't matter how much muscle you have on your frame, how little muscle you have. Doesn't matter if your hair's in or falling out or none of the external stuff matters as a Christian. The churches, the religious groups will try and focus and obsess about the outward. They'll try to be the pinnacle of success, the Christian celebrity. They'll tell you about how much weight they lost. They'll even come up with diets. The Daniel diet, this diet, that diet, and pretty soon, you're holy if you reach the percentage of body fat that Jesus had when he was hanging on the cross. Does anybody know that percentage? Jesus said, no. It's not that which goes into a man that defiles a man. The food, food's neutral, but that which comes out. What's that mean? It means the heart. It's that which comes out the heart, the issues of life that come from your heart. And so God looked on David as a man after his own heart. From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. It's the heart that God wants to change. It's the heart that God wants to affect. Anybody can play the hypocrite with the outward, with the externals, but it's the character. It's the Christ like character. It's from the what emanates from the heart. Is there love emanating from your life? Jesus said, there's nothing from without a man in Mark seven fifteen that entering into him can defile him, but the things which come out of him, those are that that defile him. Romans fourteen seventeen, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And so food's neutral. And, maybe you're gonna develop an affinity and appetite for crickets. Maybe already you're checking the ingredients in your in your food and unbeknownst to you, I know I have, I know I must have, but nobody's brought it to my attention. But I know unbeknownst to me, I've already eaten crickets. Because if you're eating processed foods, they just they hide the names of these crickets in their cricket flour that's going into your processed foods. In many cases, we've already eaten, this is gonna gross you out. In many cases, Kathy reminds me of this stuff, we've already eaten like a beaver's, part of a beaver for flavor. We've already eaten parts of or used as as, when I put my makeup on. Some of my makeup has no. I'm just kidding. But, you know, it has, parts of of aborted babies. They're using all sorts of ingredients in this stuff. Before we finally got up to speed with the cricket thing and the and the and all that, they've been doing this for a long time in your Coca Cola and all this, all the processed stuff. So if you really wanna protect yourself, you only want one ingredient. Just one ingredient. This is an apple. Right? Wash it off with the appeal. Bill Gates has got the appeal spray all over your avocados. Know? Kathy said the watermelons, they're injecting it with red. The watermelons. You bite into fruit nowadays and it tastes like an insecticide. Oh, we got a bad batch. Throw them out. And and then we get phlegm and we get it violates us. And then we, oh, I got a good one. Trader Joe's has some good cherries in right now, you know. And, oh, some local grown stuff from Central Market, you know. But it's hit and miss anymore with food. So I already know, I hate to admit it, but I've already eaten some cricket flour. I'm sure I have. Something cookie, something I ate. They they just they just do it just so they can laugh at me. They they wanna laugh at us Christians. We gotcha. You know? Verse nine. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. I can picture them smoking reefer, smoking pot laughing. So so love eliminates. I better read that again because I interrupted the thought. But take heed lest by any means that this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. So love eliminates anything that might cause someone to stumble. And so you wanna build them up, you wanna edify them, and you're gonna evaluate, you're gonna eliminate because you don't want to stumble them. Stumbling somebody is like I talked about, a recovering alcoholic, recovering drug addict, whatever kind of past they may have where where they're getting victory now. If any man being Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things have become new, and they wanna enjoy the freedom that they have now. They don't wanna go back to apostasy. So stumbling block speaks of occasion to apostatize, to fall away, and you don't wanna put those out. The devil's moving about trying to figure out how he can circumvent or undermine your marriage. So you may have an area of your flesh, an area of your life prior to becoming a Christian that you're weak in, and and you've done a good job. You've drawn near to the Lord for ten years, and in the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth year, begin to dabble in things you shouldn't be dabbling in, and it can be alcohol. It can be all sorts of things, and maybe smoking pot. A lot of you guys have come up to me, and every time I said to you your excuse of, well, you know, it's just a it's just a it's just an herb, pastor. Just an herb. And then I begin to explain to you, no, it's pharmakia. No, it's a mind altering, influence in your life. And if you take the THC out of it, and you can use it as gummies or use it as whatever for pain management, that's one thing. But the door for demons, the door for the occult comes in through, an altered state of consciousness that the marijuana can bring. And so many of these groups, many of these occult groups, their entry level, even even the native Americans and such, is the smoking the reefer. And so people tell me, I've been doing it for forty years. I've been calming down with it for forty years. Well, are you a Christian? Yeah. I'm a Christian. Well, you need to stop that. You need to stop that. You need to be being filled with the holy spirit. You don't wanna come under the influence of demons. You're allowing demons to bring in deception into your life, and and the bible indicates that sorcery, which is again, pharmakia is gonna be used by the devil in the book of Revelation to deceive the nations. And so many different type of psychotropic drugs and such are used to bring people in an altered state of consciousness. Could be acid, LSD, all other different Timothy Leary type stuff, which many of you did, and you burned out. But the Lord gave you a new brain now, so that's good. So don't go back to it. Don't go back. Guys that I know, they used to go out to the desert, and they used to do acid, and then they used to sit out there and look at the stars, and they could see their tents breathing. You know, stuff like that, they tell me. I didn't do it. I never did acid, but, crazy crazy stuff that people do. And, as a Christian, you don't wanna reintroduce any of that kind of stuff. And, and so again, we're not gonna have the Calvary Chapel smoke fest. You know? We're not gonna do that. And so I encourage you to throw the stuff away. Get rid of it. Because you're gonna stumble your kids. You're stumbling your wife, your family, and, and you'll be much much better off to be under the influence, constant influence of the holy spirit. Jesus said, who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were cast upon his neck and to be cast into the sea than to stumble one of these little ones. So think of your public education. They have the formative years, and I don't know why we as Christians have bought into the lie of putting our children into a public education from five years old on up, we need to be the ones during their formative years, that train them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The number one most important thing that God's entrusted us with is the eternal destiny of these children. That we would be influencers in their lives. Doesn't mean they're gonna come to Christ, but it means during those formative years where they're like sponges, that the seed of God's word get down deep within their hearts and lives and watered, nourished. The ABCs, the algebra, all that other stuff that supposedly used to be taught in schools and all is secondary to that of the spiritual raising, nurture, and admonition of of these children that God's entrusted to us as Christian parents. So to put them in a war zone and then to lie to yourself and say it's a mission field, when do you ever send a missionary at five years old in a hostile environment where they're trying to confuse them about whether they're a boy or a girl? Are you out of your minds? But fortunately, homeschooling is growing exponentially because more and more Christians and people are recognizing that the we abdicated the responsibility that we had on the school boards and such, we gave it over to, you know, the the whack a doodles. And, they've gained control, they've made a huge business out of it. And they like the communist they are, they know they have to get hold of these little minds while they're the Hitler youth before they get older and become Christ youth. Right? So it's a matter of indoctrination. It's not a matter of education. So I think of these kids. You put them in there, and Jesus said, if you stumble them, it'd be better for you to put a millstone around your neck and cast yourself in the sea, you teachers, administrators, and you you you that are developing this curriculum that's designed to negate God. I've given them God's saying, I've given them a desire within their heart to know me. And you guys are destroying that desire within their heart. You're saying those stars just happened by accident as they look up at the stars, as the baby's born, as a puppy comes out, or a kitten, or whatever it is. You're saying it's just an accident. A Darwinian evolutionary lie. You're destroying their belief system, their belief in me. And so the Lord's saying, it's better for you to put a millstone around your neck. And so, again, bringing them to church once a month, four times a month. I don't know what the ratio is of people coming to church nowadays. Four times a month's a lot. But think about that. Five days a week for eight hours in the public school system, who's got the greater opportunity to influence? Public schools and the kids, the world, the buses, all the stuff that's going on. So don't tell me. It's we homeschool both our girls, and one of you know, our older daughter has has difficulty in her life, but one thing that stood stood strong is her faith in Jesus. She's got an unrelenting faith and trust in Jesus, although she makes a lot of decisions that bring a lot of harm, you know, into her life. But I believe her name's written in the lamb's book of life and that the Lord, the work that he started in here, that he's going to complete it. So it Alright. Verse 10. For if any man see thee which has knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscious of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols? So if pastor Rick went to the casino and you saw me drinking, gambling, pulling the one armed bandits and all, and getting crazy with you guys, would that stumble somebody If you brought somebody in there or somebody working there or somebody saw me go in or out of there, would it have the potential to stumble them? Or what if I went to a Mother's Day or a Father's Day brunch after church at 02:30, 02:00 over at Maynard's, and they're wanting to bring the champagne over to my table, and I start to indulge in the champagne. Do you think that has the potential to stumble somebody that's in the restaurant that knows who I am? Hey, pastor Rick's drinking it. I can drink it. And then that one drink triggers something in that person to where they go through six, seven years of binge drinking. I don't want that on my on my watch. I don't wanna stumble somebody. So I wanna I wanna grab a a coffee cup, and I want them to put in some of that new mushroom coffee that tastes horrible and doesn't keep me awake, and to act like I'm real holy, you know. That's that's what I'm gonna do. So I can't even have the the full bore caffeine anymore, man. Christian crack. So Romans fourteen nineteen, let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things where with one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of of God. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother may stumble, or is offended, or is made weak. So the emphasis here is on love. We've got to take knowledge of people. We've to evaluate where they're at in their walk in relationship with the Lord. If their conscience is violated, we refrain from drinking. We refrain from eating certain things that would that would violate their conscience. So what do you do? You go home and eat at home. You do your drinking at home. You you want a glass of wine with dinner? Have it have it, you know, at home. When you're out in public, be aware of who's there, the waitresses, everybody, and, and never ever ever ever grieve the holy spirit by getting drunk around anybody, your children, grandchildren. Don't overdo it. If you think you have the liberty to do it, the drinking may be a liberty, but drunk is not. And so, and that's the question. How much can you drink before you come under the influence? Drink the near beer. Oh, I I drink I love the taste. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Nobody loves a taste when they're first starting out. So in love, restrain your liberty. Hold back. And, if you're around me, I'm I'm not a crazy person about people that smoke. You wanna smoke? Smoke. It doesn't offend me. It doesn't doesn't bother me. Just if I'm eating, just don't blow it in my face. Okay? Just I can't hang with that anymore. I grew up in a house where the the whole ceiling, everything was smoke. Okay? Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, everybody smoked and they smoked like this, you know. The car was filled with smoke like Cheech and Chong, man. Up in smoke. And I couldn't breathe. I just couldn't breathe when I'd go to my mom's house. When when I married Kathy, we'd go there for Christmas and stay the night. And she'd have the heat up to 90, and then her and her husbands are smoking. And I can't even And then I feel this, like if you went to a bar, that yellow stuff dripping, know, the sweat. It's all yellow dripping, the nicotine. And I open up the window and I just, you know, it's like Christmas time and I was just trying to breathe, but I didn't go out there and say, I'm leaving if you guys don't, you know, if you don't stop smoking. I take into consideration, they're unbelievers, they're addicted to it. I don't expect them to act like a Christian or live like a Christian. I'm not worried about secondhand smoke for me or my kids because, hey, we all survive somehow, you know. If you're worried, hey, that's great. But, we we rode in the back of pickup trucks and no helmets and fell and all that, second hand smoke, every kind of smoke there was. And, if you came into the house bleeding, they'd say, get outside, don't bleed on my carpet, you know. And if you came home crying like Donnie, you know Donnie's crying, you know, they they just laugh at you. My mom would laugh at me. She'd just like mock me if I, oh, what happened you poor little baby, you know. So you had to toughen up. You can't get in there and get any sympathy, you know. Especially if you're 70 years old. Come on. You know. God. So it's mind boggling to me, man. But, so anyway, there's there's a liberty there at the other side of it. I really wanna eat a rib eye, but if you're worried about how much it costs, and you start to manifest and magnify, oh my god, I can't believe how much that cost. You just blew it for me. I'm gonna have to pick the cheapest thing on the menu. Serious. That's what I'm gonna do because I'm not gonna stumble you. I'll just never eat with you again. I'll go grab one and eat it at home. You're not gonna stop me, but in love in love, I don't want you to stumble. And that's why I keep my Porsche hidden so you don't see that. And I've got a big mansion over here, and you know, I don't I don't want you guys to stumble how I really roll. I I I play the I I'm deceiving all of you, you know. So through my thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ died. So you puffed up with knowledge. Being right is more important than people. I like to debate the truth and I won't back down when it comes to the truth. For the sake of love, I'm not gonna back down. You're gonna have to back down if you're wrong. You're gonna have to back down if you can't back it up with the word of God. I'm not gonna go along with the mamby pamby, sappy, sloppy agape, hey, wear the mask because it's loving your neighbor. I'm not gonna do it. If you wanna wear the mask, I love you and you can wear the mask. And you can With the Bill Gates bird flu coming, you know, I'm gonna have to reevaluate this whole next thing coming because I don't know if it's gonna be like COVID. I don't know what the lethal rate's gonna be. It looks like they want ninety percent kill rate, but, if a mask were to help, I'd wear it, but it doesn't. It says right on the box. This past week in court, they they made it clear that the PCR test doesn't work. It doesn't work. Okay? So all these people that are told that they have had COVID, you didn't have COVID or you did. They don't know if you did. You had a cold. You got the flu shot. And with the flu shot, you're a carrier, and then you got all of us sick. And we've done it our whole life. We get sick in the fall. Okay? It's not the end of the world. So don't impose upon me. This man be pam be fake love, so the church can shut down and get p p money. I I read where one doctor, she said that she could make $1,500,000 a year simply administering vaccines to children, adults, everyone that comes through her practice. There's a lot of doctors that said no to the money. Lot of pastors said yes to the money, and then they disguise their actions by calling it love. So you're gonna be in a huge battle with me if you try that one with me. It's not gonna happen. So we're gonna we're the burning platform, I posted an article. It has the statistics, facts from the CDC, the insurance companies, and others of the actual death rate of the COVID years into it now, along with the turbo cancers and all the other things that are happening. So there's facts there. Facts. But Donnie got mistreated. So nobody can see it. Nobody can see the facts. It's mind boggling. So I'm on there, I'm I'm trying to debate with people, and then pretty soon I'm thinking, you know, I might stumble this person if I go too hard, but this is a public arena and she's the one that initiated. So, don't initiate. Just just don't initiate. That's all I can say. And, if I'm wrong, I'll apologize. But but when it comes to the truth and lives at stake and especially somebody's salvation, I'm not I'm not gonna back down. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about neutral things like food. Salvation is not a neutral thing. It's an essential. So when you sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. So Jesus takes it personally. These are his brethren. And you remember Matthew 25 of the sheep and the goat judgment at the end of the tribulation period. He's gonna judge the nations of how they treated the nation of Israel. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. God's keeping track of how the nations are treating Israel. Bless those that bless Israel. Curse those that curse Israel. The tribulation period is a time of Jacob's trouble. It's a time where God purifies a one third remnant that comes through the tribulation period. They're gonna see the Lord's face when they say blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. But during that time, the Gentiles that are surviving the tribulation period without the mark of the beast, They're gonna Before they're allowed to go into the millennium, the thousand year rule and reign of Jesus, they're gonna be judged by the Lord Jesus because all the Jews are gonna be saved that make it through, the one third remnant. But the Gentile nations, they're gonna stand before the Lord, Matthew 25, and they're gonna give an account. He's gonna separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep are the believers. The goats aren't believers. Now notice, it's not sins of commission, but sins of omission. I was naked and you didn't clothe me. I was in the hospital in prison, you didn't visit me. I was thirsty, you didn't give me drink. We were getting hammered by the nations around us and you didn't give us any patriot missiles. You didn't bring food in. You didn't help us. You abandoned us at a time when we needed you most. When saw we the naked, thirsty, hungry, in jail, in the hospital. In as much as you did it not unto the least of these my brethren, you didn't do it unto me. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting as you have Saul of Tarsus are persecuting his church. Jesus identifies with you, with me. He's the son of man. He identifies with his bride. He identifies with the church and not a hair of our head can be touched without the Lord holding somebody accountable. One day, vengeance is mine. I'll repay, saith the Lord. He says verse 13, wherefore if meat make thy brother to offend, I'll eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. So love eliminates anything that might offend. So for me, if I'm posting, I'm eating at the oak table three times in one week, I'm taking Clive out or I'm eating somewhere, or if I'm eating whatever, and it offends you, I'm not gonna post on Facebook anymore. I'm gonna be real quiet about what I do if ever I ever hear anybody, and I've been hearing a little bit, and that's the way I love you. I don't wanna I don't wanna stumble you. I don't want you to be stumbled because pastor Rick's eating out again. What a what a glutton and a wine bibber he is, you know? So the stronger to bear the infirmities of the weak. Greater love has no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies, love builds up. Love evaluates where a brother's at. Love eliminates anything offensive. Love never fails. We're free to love. In John thirteen thirty five, Jesus said, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples that you have love one to another. Without love, we're nothing. Jesus set us free not to be the biggest carnivore out there, the biggest vegan, biggest heathen pagan, but to be the biggest lover, to love, to take knowledge of where your brother or sister at, and don't put any occasion in front of them to stumble them. If in their mind, they're not ready to eat food that's sacrificed on idols, then don't eat it around them. You know, have a salad. Choke it down. But I have I have to warn you, I'm weak on the other side. I'm weak from the standpoint of crickets, mealworms, bugs. Don't make me Don't think you're gonna impose that upon me that somehow that's real spiritual, and I'm saving the planet and it's love for me to eat that stuff. You're going to the wrong church. You're you're you're in the wrong place, man. I I don't identify with that. Okay? Alright. Father, we thank you. As we study through chapter eight, Lord, some of it is historical, what the church of Corinth was going through, cultural. But Lord, it's right here in this room right now with many of the things we're dealing with. With, the various liberties that we have, should we watch that movie? Should we not watch it? That show, this show? Should we even have a television? Should we let our kids read Harry Potter? Should we watch any of these Disney movies and such? We have a lot of issues here, Lord, that knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And Lord, we wanna evaluate. We wanna have a biblical value system that evaluates everything that we take every thought and every imagination high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ and bring into captivity, Lord, to to your standards of what your word says. Help us to not walk in legalism, but in love, Lord. In love, nurturing, building up, and encouraging. And at times, Lord, it may mean that we deny ourselves. We deny ourselves the liberties that we so freely enjoy, but Lord, we don't want to exercise those liberties in such a way that it stumbles our brother who's not, up to speed yet, who's brand new, who, has strong convictions against it, Lord. Help us not to force or violate or mock or ridicule or coerce that they might stumble. Help us, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
