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00:13 Once again, it's my joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God. And uh today we are at
00:21 uh 1 Corinthians uh chapter 10. We are now in the series on 1 Corinthians. And
00:27 uh today we are at verse uh 23-32. We started with one Corinthians 10 last
00:32 week. And the title of sermon is uh glorifying God. Now in the text uh this
00:39 title is reflected only at the end of verse 31 do it all for the glory of God.
00:46 The bulk of the passage appears to have little to do with glorifying God as it
00:52 revolves largely around this statement that we often hear that is everything is
00:58 permissible but not everything is beneficial. Now what does this mean? This is what we
01:04 are going to uh talk about today. Another way of putting this is that uh we have freedom in Christ but Christian
01:11 liberty does come with certain limits. Again we are going to discuss this a lot today. Now even though uh the title of
01:19 glorifying God may not be such a suitable one in view of the main content of the text. We will see later that uh
01:26 this exaltation to glorify God is really the main theme that cuts across uh the
01:33 text beneath the verses and it is really the foundation on which the text sits
01:39 and we will see in detail how this is so later in the sermon. The text itself is
01:45 uh is a bit uh hard to digest as Paul's delivery uh can be somewhat u uh complex
01:53 as he tends uh his points tends to go uh back and forth. Now we must bear in mind
01:58 that uh Paul was a highly trained lawyer and uh often his arguments can go very
02:04 deep and nevertheless we will try to uh unpack these verses as best as we can so
02:09 that we can uncover God's truth uh to help us in the conduct of our faith. Uh
02:14 shall we first commit this time to the Lord in prayer? Our father in heaven as the psalmist uh
02:21 wrote your word is a lamp for our feet and a light on our path. May your may
02:27 your spirit shine into our hearts and open the eyes of our faith so that the verses in the text will come alive to
02:34 impact the manner we live and to change the way we relate to you and to each
02:40 other for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
02:46 At the end of um July next month, I need to go on a 10-day trip to Kanazawa in uh
02:53 western Japan with the main purpose of uh attending a a two-day conference.
02:59 A few months ago, I casually asked my daughter uh she's now in England studying, but she'll be back uh uh in
03:06 the middle of next month for her summer break. I casually asked her, "Girl, would you like to go to Japan with the
03:11 daddy?" And to my surprise, Melody said yes. But she had one condition. Daddy,
03:19 please don't lecture me for 10 days. You bet I will.
03:25 Haha, you're stuck with me 10 days. And come to think of it, uh I shouldn't
03:31 be surprised at the decision because after all, I'm the one paying for everything.
03:36 Now, this is not the first time that we are going on a on a fatherdaughter trip. cuz 14 years ago when she was only 10
03:43 years old, I took her with her uh I took her with me uh on a on a twoe vacation
03:48 in Europe. And this is u
03:54 this photo was taken at a farm in the countryside of Austria and it was one of
03:60 the most memorable times of my life. Just me and my daughter.
04:06 As you can see, I had more black hair back in 2005. And the years have rolled by and I'm
04:12 much older now. Whatever black hair I had has now turned white.
04:17 The other day, my neighbor asked my wife whether I was her father.
04:23 Imagine that. In my heart, I was thinking a stupid neighbor.
04:31 But my wife felt very young that day. me her father. I'm the husband. Okay.
04:40 Anyway, I highly recommend this u father daughter trip if you have not tried it
04:46 before and especially before you get too old and before they get too busy. Or it
04:53 could be a father son trip or a mother son trip or a mother daughter trip. Of
04:58 course, it doesn't have to be Japan or Austria. It could well be Pinang or Ma.
05:04 This kind of this kind of getaway does wonders uh to parent child bonding.
05:11 But this is not my the main point of my sharing. You see I have a very close uh Jewish friend who lives in Tel Aviv. His
05:19 name is Boaz and he works for a high-tech uh startup company. And the
05:25 thing is Jo Boaz will be attending the same conference with me in Kanazawa.
05:31 And so we'll be meeting each other again uh in about six weeks time in Japan. The
05:37 last time I met Boaz was in late November 2017, a year and a half ago in
05:42 Israel. He drove all the way from uh Tel Aviv to my hotel in Jerusalem. He came
05:48 after work and so it was quite late at night uh when he arrived and we then walked together uh to the
05:56 old city and he took me on a midnight midnight tour of the uh of the Western
06:02 Wall. Literally midnight was very late and the hordes of tourists were all back
06:07 at a hotel and uh and I had a most amazing experience of Jerusalem that I
06:13 will never forget. Sorry for the digression but anyway two weeks ago I was on the phone with Boaz
06:19 via WhatsApp and we were discussing a problem that he had. Now I must tell you
06:24 that Boaz is a very religious Jew and he observes the Sabbath very strictly and
06:31 the problem is like this. You see the first day of the conference in Kanazawa is a Saturday, a Sabbath day. And Boaz
06:40 wouldn't even touch a pen or a pencil on a Sabbath because writing the act of
06:47 writing is is is a kind of work and work is prohibited on the Sabbath.
06:53 But he has to do some writing during the conference. So how can you guess the solution that we came
06:60 up with? The solution is for Melody to be beside
07:07 him throughout the conference and to write for him whatever he wants to be written down.
07:15 Now this may sound this may sound very silly but Boaz is dead serious about this and he is so grateful that my
07:22 daughter can be of help to him. Now the reason I share this with you is that when I read what was going on in
07:28 the in the Corinthian church, I could understand the struggles of of the members in that church who could not
07:34 bring themselves to eat food offered to idols. From our Christian perspective,
07:40 we may think of them as being too legalistic. We may think that Boaz is too legalistic
07:47 to say in the Malaysian style your writing also cannot.
07:52 But if you ask Boaz, he would he would ask you back, "Hey, keeping the Sabbath
07:58 is the fourth commandment. Why do you want to disobey that commandment?"
08:04 Well, I could try to expound to him these verses from 1 Corinthians 10 about how we we we we have freedom in Christ,
08:12 how we are no longer under the law. But Boaz is a Jew and Jews, they don't accept the New Testament. So, what was I
08:20 supposed to do? Now this is just an introduction to the sermon. It's a real life example that I've just encountered.
08:27 But it will help to explain why in our text Paul wrote about accommodating the
08:33 concerns of fellow believers when it comes to issues such as eating food offered to idols. And we will talk more
08:40 about this later when we come to verse 28. We're now ready to uh examine the 10
08:46 verses in our text today. It's important to note that these verses shouldn't be read in isolation. It's part of a flow
08:53 uh from earlier verses and chapters. In fact, it's an extension of Paul's teaching that uh be that began as far
09:01 back as chapter 7 when Paul started to address various difficulties faced by
09:06 the Corinthian church. The main issue here is uh is in our text
09:12 from verses uh these 10 verses from verses 23 to 32 is eating meat offered
09:17 to idols. I have circuit those key words. But Paul had already started to address
09:22 this from verse 19 before our text. In fact much earlier in chapter 8 he
09:27 devoted one whole chapter to talk about food offered to idols. And so we will need to make a reference to these
09:33 earlier passages. And to help us navigate these 10 verses in our text, I have divided them into
09:40 four parts. One, liberty with limits from verses 23 and 24. In other words,
09:47 not everything that is permissible is beneficial. Number two, overcoming
09:52 legalism from verses 25- 27 directed at people who are too legalistic such as
09:58 those who refuse to write on the Sabbath. Number three, virtuous latitude
10:04 from verses 28 to 29A. Meaning out of virtue, out of the goodness of our heart, we give latitude or concessions
10:12 to other people. And lastly, exalting the Lord or glorifying God from verses
10:17 29b to32, which is the anchor of the text. Now, the first letters of these
10:22 four points spelled the word L O V E, love on purpose for a good reason, which
10:31 I will explain at the end. And also each point comes with a key word that begins with the letter L. All these to make to
10:38 help you uh uh remember this sermon. And let's start with part one.
10:44 Liberty with limits. Verse 23, I have the right to do anything you say, but
10:49 not everything is beneficial. In some versions, it says not everything is profitable
10:55 or not any not everything is helpful. And further in verse 23, I have the right to do anything, but not everything
11:01 is constructive. In some versions, it says not everything builds up or
11:06 edifies. Now simply put although we are allowed to do anything but not everything is
11:12 good for us to do. As mentioned just now our text is part of a flow they started
11:18 earlier. And interestingly verse 23 here is a repeat of an earlier verse uh from
11:24 uh 1 Corinthians 6. I have the right to do anything you say but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do
11:30 anything but I will not be mastered by anything. So you see the first half of this is an exact repeat of what we have
11:36 in verse 23. But the second half is worded slightly differently. He says, "I
11:41 will not be mastered by anything." Now what happened is that in Corinth one Corinthians chapters 5 and 6, Paul was
11:48 addressing a multitude of sins plaguing the Corinthian church. Hence, I will not be mastered by anything or in other
11:55 versions, I will not be brought under the power of anything. And anything here in this verse refers to sin. And as such
12:02 when we say everything is permissible there is a caveat. Everything here doesn't include sin.
12:10 When we say I have the right to do anything it doesn't give us the right to engage in sin. And hence Christian
12:17 freedom or liberty is a constrained entity and has its limits and the limits
12:24 are defined by our conscience. Conscience is our inner sense of right
12:29 and wrong. our internal moral compass so to speak and when our conscience tells
12:35 us that it's wrong then we have reached the boundary of our liberty when our
12:40 conscience say this is wrong then we have reached the boundary of our liberty
12:47 however I must point out that this is not what Paul is talking about here in our text what I've just explained is in
12:53 the context of 1 Corinthians 6 in this in our text in chapter 10 the context is
12:59 Here the here the liberty the limits of our
13:04 liberties are not defined by our conscience but rather by other person's
13:10 conscience. Meaning that when our action affects a believer's a fellow believer's
13:16 conscience then we have also reached the limits of our
13:21 uh liberty. I said it again, when our action affects a fellow believer's
13:28 conscience, then we have also reached the boundary of our liberty.
13:33 Paul give gave a hint of this in verse 24. No one should seek uh the good of
13:39 should seek their own good but the good of others. So for example, if I think that even if I think it's okay to go to
13:45 a nightclub perhaps to celebrate a friend's birthday, but if a Christian brother thinks it is not okay, maybe he
13:52 thinks that a nightclub is a place of sin. And if my if my going to the nightclub affects him, then I would
13:60 rather not go. I would rather forgo my liberty of going is for the good of that
14:06 brother. Now this is just an example. Let it be known that I don't go to nightclubs.
14:13 Paul will later elaborate uh this from verse 28. And so I will just leave it at that and explain this further in part
14:20 three of our text. Now to wrap up part one, I mentioned that I mentioned at the
14:25 start that Paul has this way of writing in a very complex fashion and the discussion can go uh back and forth like
14:32 a ball in a ping- pong game because earlier in verse 19,
14:37 Paul was saying there's nothing inherently evil about food offered to idols. Verse 19, uh do I mean that food
14:46 sacrificed to an idol is anything or or that an idol is anything? In other words, he was pointing out that idol
14:53 food has no special qualities and an idol itself has no special powers. And
14:60 Paul already said this in 1 Corinthians 8:4, an idol is nothing at all. Meaning
15:06 it's okay to eat food sacrificed to idols. But then immediately after this in verse
15:13 20, Paul also pointed out that while idols themselves are nothing, they are just inanimate objects just uh uh pieces
15:21 of lifeless pieces of stone or wood. But those who brought the food to the idols were in in essence bring uh sacrificing
15:28 them to demons. So you might want to think twice about eating that food. So in verse 21 before our text, you cannot
15:36 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
15:42 demons. Meaning you can you're going to have it both ways. You cannot partake
15:47 the bread and the cup at the Lord's table. Uh referring to the holy communion while at the same time eating
15:52 food from the table of demons. And so to use a Chinese proverb trying to step on
15:58 two planks with one foot. It's one or the other but not not both at the same
16:04 time. So in other words, Paul is saying in verse 21, it's not okay to eat food
16:10 offered to uh idols. It just now it was okay, but now not
16:16 okay. Are you this is very confusing. It is confusing, but it's Paul's way of
16:22 teasing your mind to get you to think deeper about the matter. What he was trying to say is this. Eating food
16:29 sacrificed to idols in itself is nothing wrong because the food is nothing but
16:35 stuff. The idol is nothing but stone or wood. But then if you broaden your
16:41 perspective, if you consider other factors, if you think of others, you might want to refrain from eating it.
16:48 And hence the first verse in our text is really a summary of Paul's arguments in
16:53 the earlier verses. So, it's good to read Bible verses or passages in context. I have the right to
17:01 do anything, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but not everything is
17:06 constructive. Perhaps a a neater way of putting this across is just because you can doesn't
17:14 mean you should. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. This is a good
17:20 way of uh of rephrasing verseh 23 here. The idea here is constraint.
17:27 Constraint holding back for the greater good or for the good of others. And
17:33 hence Christian liberty does come with limits.
17:38 Moving on to part two, overcoming legalism. And here Paul is back to his ping-pong way of writing. And now he's
17:45 suggesting that you can eat, eat all you want. Don't worry too much about the
17:50 questions of conscience. In verse 23, eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience.
17:57 And the justification is in the next verse in verse 26. After all, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. And
18:03 this is a quote from Psalm 24 verse one, meaning that the earth and all it
18:08 contains belong to God, implying that ultimately it's God who made the food and he made it good for us to eat. And
18:16 further in verse 27, if and if a believer if an unbeliever invites you to a meal and and you want to go and you
18:24 want to go eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience
18:30 meaning don't ask your host, hey where do you buy this meat? Please show me the receipt. Are you sure you know is not
18:36 meat offered to idols? Which reminds me of an experience I had
18:42 about 10 years ago. I was managing a small uh company in Shalam and all my
18:48 staff were Muslims and in order to promote goodwill with my staff I once invited them to my house
18:56 for dinner but they gave me all kinds of excuses too busy too far and later I
19:03 found out the real reason behind their reluctance now they knew that I wouldn't serve pork out of respect for them but
19:10 they weren't so sure if I would use halal chicken and further because pork was consumed in my house and to them my
19:17 kitchen and all its utensils had been contaminated.
19:23 They all felt so uneasy because they didn't know how to turn me down. And so I told them, "Okay,
19:30 look, I'm going to buy the food from a Malay restaurant near my house.
19:36 I'm even going to borrow all the plates and bowls and forks and spoons from the Malay owner of the restaurant."
19:43 Then only they agreed as remarked earlier uh Paul was right
19:48 was write directing this part of the text to those in the church who were too uh legalistic. In this regard I need to
19:55 point out that uh the Corinthian church consisted of a mixed congregation of
19:60 Jews and Gentiles. And this is implied at the end of our text where Paul mentioned both Jews and Greeks. The
20:07 third the term Greek here is generic and it can refer to Gentiles in general or non-Jews. And of course there were there
20:14 were many Greeks in the congregation because after all Corinth is was located in Greece. But it is to the Jewish group
20:22 in the congregation that Paul was addressing in this second part. They were the so-called conservative wing.
20:28 And conservatives are those uh who who who want to conserve. Hence they're called conservatives. They want to
20:34 conserve or preserve things from the past especially traditions or the old way of doing things. And this and this
20:41 but these Jews had not had not become Christians but they still held on tight to their past practices. And the two
20:48 main issues with them were firstly the laws pertaining to the Sabbath even
20:54 until today as you as in the case of Boaz and secondly all the various food
20:59 laws in the Old Testament um which is also the case today.
21:04 And when I talk about uh my good friend Boaz in the intro introduction to the sermon, I wanted to give you an idea of
21:10 what it might have been like uh in the Corinthian church at that time. But here Paul was saying to them instead
21:17 of insisting don't do this, don't do that or in this case don't eat this or don't don't eat that. He told them to
21:22 eat anything sold in the market. Eat whatever is put before you. Why? Because
21:28 you are no longer under the law but under the grace of God. No one is saved by observing the law but we have been
21:35 saved solely by the grace of God. And this is well explained by Paul separately in Galatians 5. It is for
21:42 freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
21:50 Here Paul was teaching about uh uh freedom from slavery to the law. This is what I mean when I use the term
21:57 Christian liberty. Now we started part one with Paul's uh statement that everything is permissible
22:04 but not everything is beneficial. So part two of our text here can be seen as an expansion of the first half of of
22:12 this statement that everything is permissible. In other words, don't hesitate. Go ahead and eat.
22:19 Now earlier we looked at verse 19 uh just before our text where Paul said eat because idols are nothing. And then in
22:26 verse 21 he said don't eat because it's from the table of demons. And now in
22:32 part two Paul is saying eat. Now you can guess what he's going to say
22:37 in part three. You're right. He's going to say don't eat. By now I hope you have gotten used to
22:44 Paul's style of style of writing. Eat, don't eat, eat, don't eat. But he was actually setting the stage for the
22:50 conclusion in part four where he will reveal the operating truth behind these verses.
22:56 Coming to part three, as you have guessed, Paul is saying here, you might not want to touch the meat, although you
23:03 have every right to. It will be better not to eat it. Verse 28, if someone says
23:08 to you, this has been offered in sacrifice than don't eat it. Why? For
23:14 the sake of his or the person's uh conscience from verse 29a. Now I've
23:20 already touched a bit about on this earlier is because we must give due consideration to other people's
23:26 conscience. We must give latitude or concessions to others who might be
23:31 weaker weaker spiritually or who might be less knowledgeable Bible wise. And we
23:37 do this as as an act of virtue and hence a virtuous attitude as and I and I as I
23:44 explained just now when our action affects the conscience of another person we have reached the boundary of our
23:51 liberty and at that point we have to give up that liberty.
23:58 Now a small example of this happened early last month when a group of us traveled to Wuhan, China for a week of
24:05 holiday. Where is Wuhan? Wuhan is a big city along the Yangzi River. And why
24:12 Wuhan of all places? Is because the Air Asia tickets to Wuhan was were very
24:17 cheap. That's why. Anyway, we had a group of eight.
24:25 And on Saturday, I I told the group, "Okay, tomorrow is Sunday. No shopping in the morning because we are going to
24:32 church for Sunday service." And some of them look very disappointed. But they had no choice cuz I found a
24:39 church 10 minutes walk from the from the hotel. And this is our group of eight from the
24:45 SS9 life group. More ladies than guys.
24:51 How come I'm not in the picture? I was the cameraman. Okay.
24:57 We were at the Glory Christian Church. You can see the name on top of the
25:03 entrance to the building. Well, and what a name for a church, Glory
25:09 Church, given the fact that the title of today's sermon is glorifying God.
25:15 I got to skip this. And this is what uh it looked like inside the auditorium, which was bigger than this hall. And it
25:23 was packed with worshippers and they run four services every Sunday. Of course,
25:29 everything was conducted in Mandarin. Dr. Mano was uh sitting in front of me
25:35 and you can barely see his head uh to the at the at the right uh bottom uh
25:42 corner of the photo. He was focusing on the preacher
25:47 listening intently to the sermon even though he couldn't understand a word of it.
25:54 I was wondering what he was thinking, you know, but he was like listening, you know. But what I wanted to to share with
26:02 you uh happened before we entered the auditorium. One of the lady ushers is
26:09 spotted my wife who was uh wearing a pair of sandals. She said, "Oh, slippers
26:14 and sandals are not allowed. You you you cannot go in with those."
26:20 Oh, sandals also cannot. So, how should I question the usher? Hey, you
26:27 tell me. Where in the Bible does it say you cannot wear sandals to church? Tell me which verse.
26:35 Hey, don't you know that Jesus wore sandals? Oh, I could actually quote to her 1
26:43 Corinthians 10:23. Everything is permissible. Just quote the first part. Don't quote
26:50 the second part. Of course, I did none of these things.
26:57 In the spirit of what Paul is saying here in in part three of our text, if you say no sandals, okay, Lord, no
27:03 sandals. I was prepared to walk back to the hotel with my wife so that she could
27:08 get hold of a proper pair of shoes. This is the accommodation that Paul is
27:14 talking about here. And when I say accommodation, not referring to hotels, okay? I mean accommodating accommodating other
27:21 people. But thankfully, we didn't have to rush back to the hotel because when she heard
27:27 our past six men and then she saw Dr. Mano,
27:32 she realized that we were from overseas and she decided it was okay for my wife
27:38 uh to wear sandals to attend their service. The lesson is this. It's good to have an
27:45 Indian in your group when you travel to China.
27:54 It stands out Dr. Mano in the group. But seriously, the real lesson is this.
27:60 I might have thought that I had every right to wear sandals to church. I might have thought that there was nothing
28:06 wrong with it, but not everything was constructive. And so I had to give her
28:11 the concession that wearing sandals to church is not okay. And Paul already
28:19 addressed this in 1 Corinthians 8. Be careful that the exercise of your right,
28:24 you exercise your right that it doesn't become a stumbling block to the weak.
28:31 Now in a way the lady usher was also giving a concession to my wife because
28:36 normally they don't allow sandals and slippers in inside the auditorium but because my wife was a visiting uh uh a
28:43 foreign uh visitor she granted her the latitude of going in without a proper
28:48 pair of shoes. So she was also giving a concession to us. Perhaps he was
28:54 thinking yeah these Christians from overseas they don't know anything about reverence to God you know
29:02 and it is for the same reason that I was sympathetic when boys told me about his his predicament you know on the first
29:08 day of the conference in Kazawa and that's why I offered him the solution that my daughter would write for him
29:16 actually I've not told Melody about this plan
29:21 but I'm sure she she'll be more than willing to help. I'll surprise her when she comes back. You are the scribe, you
29:28 know. Now, let's examine the last part.
29:34 Exalting the Lord or glorifying God. And Paul began by asking two rhetorical
29:39 questions from verse 29b. He wrote, "Why is my freedom being judged by another another's conscience?
29:46 If I take part in a meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because something because of something I thank
29:51 God for?" Now this is a bit hard to digest, a bit hard to understand, to paraphrase this. Why must I be guided
29:58 and limited by what someone else thinks? If I eat with gratitude to God for
30:04 what's on the table, why should I care about why should I worry about what someone will say?
30:11 Now the the answers to these hypo these hypothetical or rhetorical questions appear to be in a negative. In other
30:18 words, he's he's trying to say, "I shouldn't care about what others think or say." And once again, Paul seems to
30:26 be uh swinging to the other end, suggesting that it's okay to eat. But
30:31 here, he finally offered uh the punch line in verse 31. Verse 31 is the anchor
30:37 verse of the text. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. And this is where the
30:43 sermon title is uh derived from. But it can sound a bit abrupt because after
30:49 shuttling between eat don't eat and suddenly Paul wrote to okay everything that you do do it for the sake of God's
30:56 glory. The question is the huge question is what has God's glory got to do with
31:01 the issue of eating food offered to idols. What is the connection between the two? And to answer this we must
31:07 first understand what is really meant by glorifying God or in verse 31 for the
31:13 glory of God. Another phrase uh that we we often use and we sung it just now is
31:19 to God be the glory which is sometimes accompanied by a beautiful picture of the sky. Why?
31:26 Possibly because of the expression the heavens declare the glory of God from Psalm 19. But what does all this mean?
31:35 To God be a glory glorifying God for the glory of God. And this is the key that will unlock our text for today. To
31:43 unlock the text, we must first start with the word glory itself. We must ask
31:48 the basic question, what does glory mean? And this is a very deep subject
31:53 and we can only scratch the surface with the time we have. To begin with, glory
31:58 is not a word that is commonly used outside the church. But it does come up occasionally in our conversations. For
32:05 example, when we say the movie glorifies uh violence,
32:10 meaning uh that it promotes violence or it elevates violence to a high level.
32:16 When we say, "Wow, this cake is glorious, meaning its taste is of a very
32:22 high degree of excellence." So, does glory mean something of a high degree or
32:27 high level? Now, you will be surprised that the biblical concept of glory goes much deeper. And let's see what uh what
32:35 uh glory means in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, glory carries a slightly different uh uh nuance which we
32:43 may be more familiar with. But for for our purpose, we will just look at the uh the Old Testament and what it says uh
32:50 about uh the word glory. And this is something that we are less familiar with.
32:55 The most common Old Testament or the Hebrew word for glory in the Bible is the word cavot.
33:03 which means weight referring to something or someone heavy
33:11 or weighty not necessary in a physical sense. Now to illustrate this idea of cav
33:20 suppose Jackmar the uh the the boss of Alibaba he walks into this auditorium
33:26 you all know who Jackmar is don't you suppose he steps into our midst all eyes
33:34 will be on him okay he will immediately draw everyone's attention his mere
33:40 presence will overwhelm the place because he carries a lot of weight
33:48 actually he's only 5t 3 in tall only shorter than most of us most of us you see but he's a towering figure in the
33:55 world of business so in a manner of speaking Jackar possesses a lot of cover
34:01 a lot of weight okay this may not be a very apt illustration but you get the idea so when we talk about God's glory
34:09 we are pointing to his overwhelming awesome being we are referring to the
34:15 the weight of his splendor and majesty to his uh holiness and perfection to his
34:22 power and strength and all his weighty attributes that will prompt a response
34:29 of awe and reverence from those who truly know him. So when we say to God be
34:35 the glory we are ascribing to him utter greatness and importance and this is the
34:41 meaning of glory or covort in the bible and hence god's glory is often
34:46 associated with honor and praise and worship but it goes much deeper honor
34:52 and praise and worship are merely the responses from our hearts when we
34:57 acknowledge and appreciate God's covet to acknowledge his cover first before
35:04 the praise and worship can come out. Cuz if you don't have a proper grasp of God's cover, then your praise and
35:11 worship will be rather shallow. Someone wrote that the glory of God refers first and foremost to the sheer
35:18 weight of his of the reality of his presence. And I picked this up from Google on God's glory, weighty
35:26 importance and shining majesty that accompany God's presence. The meaning of the Hebrew word cover is heavy in
35:33 weight. And that is why God is often referred to as our rock. God is our
35:38 rock. It is a visual pun if you don't realize go because a rock is heavy. God
35:44 is heavy in a sense that he carries a lot of weight in our lives if we allow him.
35:51 But the trouble with us is that we fill our lives with so many other caves.
35:57 We pursue so many more important things in life. So much so that God is pushed
36:03 to the side. So instead of a heavy weight, he became he becomes a lightweight in our lives. We glorify
36:10 meaning that we give a lot of weight to our careers and businesses. We glorify or we give a lot of weight to
36:18 money and other material things. We even glorify our children.
36:24 Yes, we even glorify our children. Our children are very important to us. So if
36:29 we are honest, we our children are often weightier to us than God is. As an
36:36 example, if your son or daughter uh is in some kind of trouble in in in in
36:41 Sydney or in London, you'll be out of chaos on the first flight to be with him or her.
36:49 That's what you do. I understand that's what I would do as well. So for me and my wife, our two kids are
36:55 also very precious to us. That's why we wait so eagerly for their return next
37:00 month uh for their summer break. And that's why I look forward so much I look forward so much to spending time alone
37:06 with my daughter in Japan soon. But do I wait as eagerly for Christ's
37:12 return? Do I look forward as much to spending time alone with God? And coming
37:19 back to our text to part four, Paul wrote, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory
37:25 of God." Whatever you do, do in such a way that you reflect God's weight in your life.
37:33 Now there may be many important people or things in your life. There may be many glories in our lives, but they
37:40 should not be ranked higher than God. They should pale in comparison to God.
37:46 In fact, there is no comparison because nothing compares to God. Now, one small point to address here.
37:53 The phrase whatever you do, whatever you do, it doesn't cover the minutest detail
37:58 of your life. Okay? Please don't take this literally. When you drink a cup of coffee, oh, glory to God. When you take
38:05 a shower, oh, glory to God. The phrase whatever you do means the way
38:11 you live your life. Paul was uh referring to your your your being your entire being your your whole existence
38:18 as you live don't take God lightly and to coin a new phrase take God heavily no
38:24 such word but let me say in a new way take God heavily not lightly or take God
38:30 seriously as mentioned uh verse 31 here is the anchor of the text it is the punch line
38:36 that will clarify the meaning behind the text and the punch line is this in the end is not so much about whether we can
38:43 eat food offered to idols or we should not. Now, if you recall how Paul was
38:48 going back and forth between eating and not eating, what Paul was trying to say is like this. If I tell you it's okay to
38:54 eat, I can give you reasons for that. If I tell you it's not okay to eat, I can also give you reasons for that. No, it's
39:02 not it's not about that's not what it's all about. You can imagine Paul saying,
39:07 "Don't you see? In the end, it's more about one thing. is about is it's about glorifying God. It's more about God's
39:14 cover. It's more a question of how much weight you give to him. It boils down to
39:20 how important God is to you. Now, what do I mean by this? How is this more
39:25 about glorifying God about his cover? So, let me elaborate as we come to the application part of the sermon. And this
39:32 will take a bit of a searching the scripture that we're going to go beyond the text in order to uncover the truth.
39:38 And in doing so, I will answer the unanswered question just now that is what has God's glory got to do uh with
39:45 the issue of eating uh food offered to idols. Now to begin with, we're going to
39:51 go a bit deeper now. To begin with, I refer you to this interesting passage in the gospel. Jesus said in Matthew 5, "Do
39:60 not think that I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come I have not come to abolish them, but to
40:05 fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter will by any means
40:11 disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. So whoever practices and teaches these commands will be
40:18 called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now I've shortened the verses for the sake of time. Jesus appears to be saying
40:25 that the law is here to stay. And not only that, he seems to be commending
40:31 those who keep the law. Okay, put it one side. Now let's compare this with Galatians 5:2.
40:38 Mark my words, I Paul tell you that if you let yourself be circumcised, Christ
40:44 will be of no value to you at all. Now in this verse, Paul was referring to the law of circumcision.
40:51 In the in the passage where where this verse sits, he was speaking against speaking against okay the keeping the
40:57 law as a means to salvation. But Jesus was commanding those who keep
41:02 the law. So, how do we reconcile Matthew 5 and Galatians 5? What Paul wrote
41:09 appears to contradict what Jesus said? Actually, there's no contradiction whatsoever.
41:16 What Jesus taught in Matthew in Matthew 5 just now. It's part of his sermon on the mount, which actually stretches
41:22 until uh Matthew 7. And this is what how Jesus further clarified in or explained
41:28 in Matthew 7. So in everything do to others what you would have them do to
41:33 you or you know this well and he says for this sums up the law and
41:40 the prophets. Wow. The entire law of God can be
41:45 summarized in just one line. Do to others what you have them do to you. It
41:51 sums up the whole law. And this is commonly known as the the golden rule.
41:59 Now this is a test of English. Can you think of one word to describe this principle or this rule? The whole set of
42:06 God's laws can be packed into one sentence. Now can you further condense this to just one word?
42:14 What would one word be to describe this this golden rule?
42:22 Yes. Thank you. is the word lov
42:29 meaning the whole point of the law is love. The very foundation of the law is
42:37 love. And this is collaborated by an encounter Jesus had in Matthew 22 which you all
42:43 know well because an expert to the an expert of the law uh asked Jesus which
42:48 is the greatest commandment in the law and Jesus replied love the Lord your God with all your hearts and with all your
42:54 soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like it like it love your neighbor as yourself.
43:01 All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. All the law you
43:07 can think all they they finally can be summarized as either love to your God or
43:13 love your neighbor. And so again the basis of the law is love. The purpose of the law is love.
43:21 Now to have you understand this let me give you an example back to the ten commandments.
43:28 The eighth commandment says thou shalt not steal. Now I'm sure there is uh
43:33 there's no one here who has a habit of stealing. But let me ask you, why do you not
43:39 steal? Why do you refrain from stealing? Well, the law prohibits stealing, you
43:45 might say. But that's just dwelling on the surface. If you go deeper, it's because you're supposed to love your
43:51 neighbor. You don't want to steal because you don't want to profit at the other person's expense. In fact, if you love
43:58 him, you want him to profit often at your expense. Okay. Now what about Paul? What Paul
44:06 wrote is that we are no longer under the law. That we are free from the law. When he spoke against following the law of
44:13 circumcision in Galatians 5 just now, what he meant is that we're no longer justified or reconciled uh to God
44:19 because of our adherence to the law because no one is saved by observing the law. Because sooner or later you were
44:25 bound to break one of them rather we are saved by grace through faith. You know this well we are saved by grace through
44:31 faith. And what did Paul further says in uh in Galatians 5:6?
44:37 For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that count is
44:44 faith expressing itself through love.
44:50 Faith expressing itself through love. So, how do I know if a if a fellow believer has faith? Because we're saved
44:56 by by grace through faith. How do I know if a a fellow believer has faith? It will be demonstrated through the way he
45:02 loves God and how he loves his neighbor. So it is therefore no accident that
45:09 three chapters from our text Paul explained what love is in the famous uh chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13.
45:17 Love is the fundamental theme that cuts across not only our text chapter 10 but
45:22 also beyond. Earlier I mentioned that uh Paul first
45:27 talked about food offered to idols in 1 Corinthians 8 two chapters before our text. This is what he wrote uh in 1
45:34 Corinthians 8:1. Now about food sacrificed to idols. We know that we all
45:40 possess knowledge but knowledge puffs up while loves builds up. So he connects
45:46 eating uh uh food offered to idols to love. So, is there a contradiction between
45:51 what Jesus said in Matthew 5 and what Paul wrote in Galatians 5? No. None whatsoever. Both Jesus and M and Paul
45:59 were on the same page, which is to love your neighbor. That's what the law is all about. And the last verse in one
46:05 Corinthians 13 goes, "And now these three remain, faith, hope, and love. For
46:11 the greatest of these is love." And coming back to our text for the last time,
46:19 it's not so much about whether we can or cannot eat food offered to idols. It's
46:24 more about glorifying God. How so? How is glorifying God connected to the issue
46:30 of uh of of of food offered to idols? You see, if you give God the glory,
46:39 meaning that you acknowledge and embrace his weight, his cover, you will naturally want to pay heed to who he is,
46:48 his nature, what he says, and what he commands you to do. If you take God
46:54 heavily, so to speak, and not lightly, then you would start to love your neighbor. And this is what it's all
46:60 about. And so love is really the underlying motivation in in all that we do with
47:06 regards to others in relation to others. And so it is the invisible glue that
47:11 holds uh the verses together in our text. If you think that one Corinthians 10 is about the merits or demerits of
47:18 eating food offered to idols, then you have completely missed the point. If you're looking for a yes or no answer to
47:24 the question of food offered to idols, then you have misread the text. The lesson that Paul was trying to put
47:30 across is that when you're deciding whether to eat the meat offered to idols, you must be guided by love. Your
47:37 actions and your decisions are to be conditioned by love for your concern for
47:43 others. And hence, when it becomes necessary, you will give up that liberty
47:48 and grant concessions or accommodations to your fellow believers because you
47:53 love them. just like you're ever willing to sacrifice for your children because
47:59 you love them. And that's why Paul ended uh this chapter with an exhaltation in
48:05 verse 32. Do not cause anyone to stumble whether Jews or Greek or the church of God. Because if simply because if you
48:12 love someone, you wouldn't want him or her to stumble or fall.
48:18 Your actions and decisions are to be driven by love. And so in conclusion, love is the operating truth behind all
48:25 that we do in relation to others. And that's why I've embedded the acronym LOV
48:31 when I when I title the four parts of the text. In closing, I would like to broaden uh the application a little bit
48:38 so that you can take home with you something uh that you can reflect upon. Now we have to realize that that the
48:45 situation in the Corinthian church uh uh is is hugely different from what we have
48:50 here in FBC. Our cultures today is very different compared to what the
48:55 Corinthians had in those days. You see archaeologists when they excavated the
49:00 ruins of the city of Corinth in Greece, they uncovered they dug up about 10 pagan temples and
49:08 three markets. And so you can imagine the amount of meat flowing from the temples to the markets in in Corinth at
49:15 that time. And so the problem of eating food offered to idols uh was very real to the Corinthian Christians at that
49:22 time. But today we don't have such a situation. The various types of meat that we consume, we buy from Tesco or
49:29 Giant and they are almost 100% commercially produced in huge factories
49:34 and hence we don't have uh really an issue of eating food offered to idols unless of course uh you have uh in your
49:41 family members who are Buddhists and you may be serve food offered to idols at home but apart from that is not really
49:48 an issue that we have to deal with in this church. And in that respect when we
49:53 read the text let us go beyond the issue of eating or not eating food offered to
49:59 idols. Instead let us ask ourself these questions. Number one does my life
50:05 reflect God's weight or God's cover? Do I live for the glory of God? That's
50:12 number one. Number two, are my actions and decisions driven by love in relation
50:18 to others? remembering that love is the foundation of God's laws. And number
50:24 three, do I readily give concession or accommodation or latitude to my fellow
50:31 believers in order not to stumble them? Or do I always insist I'm right? Do I
50:40 always insist I have the right? Shall we close in prayer?
50:46 Our father in heaven, at the last supper, Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another as he had loved them.
50:54 Cause each of us to glorify you by doing likewise, to love one another. Teach us
50:60 to consider others more than we consider ourselves. Help us not to stumble each other so
51:06 that this church of yours as a community of your people will reflect your glory
51:11 and your love more and more. For we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
