Things sacrificed to Idols & the weaker brother 1

Today, the topic is entitled, Things Sacrificed to Idols and Weaker Brothers. And I think in this particular chapter, which is begun today, but will be continued in weeks to come, we'll be dealing with, to whiz, forgive me, the balance between Christian liberty and brotherly love. So what kind of things are we talking about here? In fact, maybe what we ought to do, let's read the passage first and then we'll come back and drill down.

First one, now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge, and knowledge puffs up, but charity edifyeth. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knows 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 those that are called gods, whether in heaven or on 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 one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by him.

A lot of sound doctrine here, isn't there? Beyond simply the issue of horse and that's idols. So, first one now concerning things offered to idols. What kind of things were these? Sacrifices. Sacrifices. Animals. I'm sorry? Animals. Animals. Anything else? Food. The background would be something you'd explain further. So whatever these things were, you know, in First Corinthians 10, 19 and 20, what am I saying that an idol is anything? Or what is offered to idols is anything?

Rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. And you can look additionally in verse 10 of the chapter we're in, if you return down to verse 10. For if any man see thee which has knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is good be embodied, emboldened, I'm sorry, to eat those things which are offered to idols. So I think things here really probably related mostly to flesh and meat and things that were sacrificed to idols that were really meant to be a sacrifice to the Lord according to Jewish tradition. But it could be other things. But we don't really have more specifics here other than the context in which it keeps. But whatever, I think if we turn to the verses in 1 Corinthians 10, we're sacrificing unto demons.

Now, anyway, so the equation here is really relating the things sacrificed to idols as sacrificed to demons because they are representative of the demonic or earthly existence. There's only one God. And so anything that goes to anybody but God, the Father Almighty, and the Lord Jesus Christ is really demonic worship, separated from God. Whether it be earthly and or demonic, we can argue that. But it's not of God. All right.

At this time in Corinth, there was no way you could be separated from the pagan idolatry that surrounded them. Apparently, this is a well-to-do city with lots of kind gods, mythical gods, and lords, and idols that surrounded them. But I think in context, probably we're talking about meats or fleshly offerings in which the Jewish leadership ultimately took advantage of in terms of ultimately making them available for sale and provision to the world around them.

So a good example, as I've alluded to, was the meat offered to idols. So in reading about this in more detail, one third of this was in honor of the idol. It was given to the idol as kind of a sacrificial gift. And one third went to the priest, who then provided it to the public to be sold. So there's profits really coming from these sacrifices that have been given to idols, meat sacrifices, that ultimately were sold by the priest to make income. And a third was given to the offer, the person who was in fact providing the meat to the idol. And it was this second third, the ones that the priest took and then resold for profit that really was problematic. And that's where a lot of the arguments came from. Here the priest, these idols, these meats were sacrificed to idols and the priest would take them and sell them to benefit, if you will, the church of that age. Of course, this meats issue became a very controversial issue. And we're going to look more about this as we mature the study in this eighth chapter of 1 Corinthians. So any thoughts about this? I was reading J. Vernon McGee.

And he said the people there, and I don't know which people, whether the believers or whatever, but he said those people believed that the spirit of the idol ate the spirit of the animal. They believed that and I thought, that's interesting how the idol could eat something. Well, we're going to get into idols in more detail, but the idols are worthless mass, physical mass, that have no... How could they think they could eat it?

Well, this is the robotic age, right? It was yet the thing is very clean. The other is everything. And the two absolutely cannot be mixed. Good, Jack. I really like what you just said. That's right. Can you can you say that again? Come on. Could you repeat what he said? I did. Jack, repeat that a little louder.

Well, this whole thing, as far as the knowledge is concerned, that's all earthly and all the corruption that comes out of this earthly mind of ours concerning. God, and these others supposedly call themselves God, were just statues or something, or animals or something. But one of them is heavenly and one of them is earthly. And this is strictly earthly stuff.

All right. Did you hear that? Okay, so let's lead into the next question, which is really relevant to us today. Is this relevant to us today, this idol stuff? Sure. So what are our idols today? Possessions. What's the threshold of something being an idol versus not being idolatrous?

If it controls you. And what might that mean? That's your main focus instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what you put all your thought and time and effort into. Okay. Is it good that we don't have this list of things in terms of how much commitment to these various things we call an idol and I think that's one of the arguments that comes up with these meats. Under the atmosphere of grace there's an ability to eat meats offered to idols but some people are stumbled by this and some people are not back in New Testament times. Today, meets offered idols is not relevant to us at all. But what are allegiances?

We're talking about possessions. When does a desire for more possessions become monopolizing in terms of each one of our lives? We're all pretty comfortable where we're at, right? We have insurance, we have automobiles, we have food on the table, we have homes, some more expensive homes than others, whatever. But the point is, when does this reach a level of adultery and how do you know this? I'm not going to answer the question for you, I'm just posing the question. Sports to some, fame to others, possessions, riches. Jailor knows automobiles.

But we live in an earthly existence in which there are responsibilities to live in this earth, right? As parents, we provide for our children, right? You know, having an employment that brings in sufficient funds to put food on the table. And I mean, there's the practical life.

And these are not idols, although I guess could be. So I think we have to answer those questions. each one individually in terms of the things that we enjoy, but the things that can be so pre-occupied that they distract us. Look at the electronic age. I mean, there are people who spend so much time on electronics. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've been on public transportation and here comes a young mom with a couple of little kids, toddlers, And she's so engrossed in her phone and what's going on, she doesn't even notice what her little toddlers are doing.

She has no... I mean, nothing. I wonder if that's what happened to the mom with the little boy that fell into the grill cage. I don't know. No, really. And it's really true. People are so preoccupied with all the stuff that their focus They're totally focused on that and they don't focus on reality. I mean I think.

Unlike the church age, new church age that we're studying here where things like meats and wine and other flesh was offered to idols. What we offer to idols is time, isn't it? I mean, time is meats for us. How much time are we devoting to these things that we enjoy to a certain extent, but when they can be preoccupying.

I mean, work, by the way, work can be one of those things. As Margaret reminds me, when I look back there, going home to be with Lord, am I going to wish I had worked more or spent more time with the children? That doesn't really cause a guilt trip. It makes me realize, let's put things into perspective. Any other thoughts?

There's a balance with a lot of these things. I think it's different for different people. You know, the kids do sports on Sundays. They don't go to church, but they go to the kids' sports thing. And I think it's different. Some people think, well, that's really awful. And other people are like, well, this is really important to my child, and that's important to me. And maybe they go a different time, or maybe they get that a different way. So I think it's different for everybody, like he's talking about here.

It's a stumbling block for some people and not for others. But yeah, I think it's very individual in what your motives are and how it's affecting you. But it's our job to answer the Lord directly here, and what's lawful, what's unlawful in terms of idols, in terms of our own lives. We've got to answer that individually. I can't judge you, I can't judge Tom, I mean we can't judge one another.

But if we see examples, like within a body of Christ, we see examples where families are falling apart and then somebody, the parent, one of the two, really is preoccupied with something. You can kind of think that maybe they need some counseling in terms of where their priorities are. But that's really the church leadership that gets involved.

Although, being brothers and sisters in the Lord, we can bring that to the attention of one another too. But anyway, this is something we have to answer, each and every one of us. The Christ life is what we're all about. And by the way, the Christ life enters into every phase of our life, whether it be work, or home, or play, whether it be a ball game, or a symphony, or whatever we're doing, the Christ life is part of that life.

And so when we put that into perspective, and remind ourselves what our citizenship really is, idolatry becomes less relevant. I mean, the Lord didn't say we can't enjoy this earthly body we live in, but when it preoccupies us and we lose our citizenship in terms of what we're doing, then we're in a problem area. Yeah, just a couple of thoughts. One thing I really like Margaret's comment, and it makes me think of people always walking around with a stick and a camera and a selfie. It's amazing.

And the other thing I thought was addictions. Commercials, you know, I think addictions can really be gambling or pornography, whatever. That's true. And, you know, actually in the hospital setting for two weeks when I was the attending physician for people who were admitted that were pretty sick, I would say a third of them, narcotic addiction was part of their reason for being in the hospital. So that's narcotics. So, I mean, but addictive behavior, whether there are things like you mentioned, or even drugs could be idols that people get into. Anyway, enough on this. So it is relevant today, but it's a different kind of thing. And I think our idols really are where we put our time and where we preoccupy our physical, emotional, and intellectual selves.

So, let's look back. Now concerning things offered to us, we know that we all have knowledge. What kind of knowledge are we talking about here? Well, this is the Greek term gnosis, the general knowledge of Christian religion, especially of things lawful and unlawful for Christians. We just mentioned lawful versus unlawful. I mean, the law of Christ gives us plenty of room, doesn't it?

And when people refer to the commandments that the Lord has given, like love your neighbor as yourself, that's his love through us. I mean, how are you doing in the flesh loving your neighbor? But Gnosis is experiential. And as a believer, this is a life. So this is the kind of knowledge that Paul's speaking about here that was not the kind of knowledge that ultimately was in the new nature.

So according to the Council of Jerusalem, meat offered to idols was forbidden. And we could turn back to the Acts passage, but that's simply what it says. I don't think we need to go back there. So the Council of Jerusalem, remember those who were with us in the study of Acts, was a time where they were trying to put all of these kinds of historic knowledge of Judaism and now into Christianity and those things that really related to the day-to-day life. It was fairly legal, the Council of Jerusalem.

And one of these things was meats offered to idols. And as we get into more detail in this chapter, we're ultimately going to see that that could be a stumbling block to some, but to others, it's a freedom we have in the Lord to eat meats that were off of the isle. So obviously, that's for what it says there.

And the next question is, how might you describe lawful and unlawful? So what's lawful for a believer? In this atmosphere of grace in which we live, what's lawful is really what's Spirit-led and consistent with New Testament doctrine. And New Testament doctrine says we're being transformed and conformed with the image of the Lord Jesus Christ each and every day in each and every circumstance. That's what's lawful, to be obedient to the faith that we're being transformed and conformed to the image of the Son. Kind of like tithing, let's use that as an example. Is that lawful or unlawful? The New Testament says one thing about giving, be a cheerful giver. That's the only requirement for giving in the New Testament, being a cheerful giver.

Doesn't that take the burden off? I mean I tithed for years and I was doing it under the law and then I kind of realized that that's not what we're all about. Am I giving less? No. But the point is what I'm saying is that it's the atmosphere surrounding what we do that's really what's lawful.

And that's the Christ life in each and every one of us. There's no list of things that are lawful or unlawful. Yeah, I mean, Paul repeatedly talks about, you know, adultery and fornication and theft and murder and all these, he lists all these things, but that's all manifestations of the old man, is it not? It's unlawful because it's not consistent with who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, don't you think if you chide cheerfully, if that is, I mean, I've grown up with being taught kindly too. Sure, most churches would teach that. I never wanted to do it, but you could, You can certainly not want to at times. It could not be cheerfully, but if you feel like it, at one point it was put into law as a reasonable thing.

Because I think where there is tithing, there usually are many benefits in the way of hospitals and schools. I'm not saying that tithing is wrong. I'm just saying if it's cheerful, that's wonderful. That's what I'm saying. If you're cheerful about it, if that's what you want to do. Oh, by the way, you can give a lot more than 10%. Yeah, I mean, there's just 10% deal is just kind of traditional in terms of Jewish tradition. Whatever it is you give, it's because you want to give it, whether it's 5% or 30%.

But to make a law where I went to churches and they passed the offering plates, why we don't pass the offering plates? We don't want people to feel obligated. to give to the church. If anyone wants to give, because it's from their heart, we have a place in the back.

I grew up with this, my mother and I. Most of us did. Tithing was, and not only that, they had sermons, they preached on it. If you're not tithing, You don't love the Lord. I mean, I'm not kidding you. I'm from the South and you are too. She's still from the South. Let me tell you. Each and every day, she's still from the South. The way she's dressed. And I'm very fortunate. Yes?

As man purposes his heart, that's kind of a tie on giving. But you know, I think none of us should be burdened about being under a principle of tithing. I mean, if you're doing always stressed gifts and keep in mind, I mean, Holly Hill sustains itself by I present cheerful giving because there's no offering plate, there's no demand, there's no preaching of sermons. I think once in a while we ought to know of needs around the church that maybe we could give to. But I wouldn't object to Vern occasionally saying, look we've got this big task to do and we could use a little extra money.

Basically some of us could respond to that. But the idea of a law, we're not under law, we're under grace. And grace gives us all the room. to live a life that's ultimately being transformed and conformed into the image of his son. So even though the Council of Jerusalem said it's unlawful to eat meats that were given to idols, Paul then furthers that story and said it's unlawful if in fact it's a stumbling block for a fellow believer, but not unlawful for a believer to eat meats offered to idols.

Anyway, we'll get into that more. It's not in this particular segment. So why is knowledge here compared to love? Well, let's go back and look at the first verse again. The first verse said, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. So what kind of knowledge is this that is being compared to love? This is the kind of knowledge that creates an atmosphere of arrogance or pride. And the knowledge that puffs up is not Christian knowledge. But Christian knowledge can puff up, but Christian love is sourced from above. So even as believers, we can get puffed up about how much we know, and trying to, if you will, out-duel our brother and sister in the Lord. That's of the flesh.

One of the better artificial illustrations of that was Bullwinkle commenting on whatever Rocky had to say, and it ended up being the same stupid thing. Do you have an example this time? We need specific examples. These generalizations about Bullwinkle and Rocky aren't making it very good. Do you have a specific for us?

I can't think of one right off, but I can probably just hush and let the lesson continue. Well, I'm going to be expecting this near the terminus of the lesson here this morning. OK, so so I got it. I got it. Today's lesson is mighty important. Not that lesson. Boy, it was a dope lesson and it turned out to be a stupid commercial. I'll have to think about that one for a while. All right.

So the knowledge we're talking about is that is the knowledge of of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think, you know, Tom said it well, this knowledge is really the identification knowledge, the fellowship with Him, and ultimately that's what transforms our lives.

Alright, 1 Corinthians 4.6, Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. So this idea of gathering this kind of overconfident, kind of prideful knowledge is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about really true knowledge that is glorifying to God.

1 John 4.16. And we have known and believed that the love that God has for us, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. So that's a whole different kind of ballgame than knowledge that puffs up because of our intellectual assent here, comparing what we know with what somebody else knows. All right, transitioning to verse 2.

And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing. Yet as he ought to know, this theme continues about knowledge that puffs up versus knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. An interesting Greek use of the term for know here. This is if anyone thinks that he knows anything, this is eido or factual knowledge.

So this is kind of like we know one another in here. We know that it's Sunday, June the 5th, 2016. We know facts. This is the kind of a head knowledge that ultimately is the use of the term here, whereas we've seen gnosis used before, which is this experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and his position and condition within us.

Romans 11.25, for I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. Again, factual knowledge which puffs up.

If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. So this theme kind of continues. In 1 Corinthians 7, I'm not sure who taught this, I wasn't here for that, but it's the idea of what makes you think that you've accomplished really anything. I'm paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 7 like 4 to 6 or something in that region. To God be the glory, right?

And when we start getting preoccupied with ourselves and how well we've done, that's just not the kind of knowledge that we're talking about here. Fleshly knowledge. He knows nothing, yet as he ought to know, gnostic. So head knowledge, factual knowledge, really could be biblical factual knowledge. I mean, think of many great theologians who are really well learned in the Word of God, who know it from back to front and can quote verse after verse after verse, but yet don't know the Lord Jesus Christ personally in a way that we're called to in New Testament theology. Gnoska here, that's what we ought to know. We ought to know experientially the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.

How's this for the premise that incorrectly applied knowledge can puff up? Welcome to flesh and pride. Now again, we who have jobs or whatever you're doing in the home or whatever you're doing in your bridge clubs or whatever, I mean the point is that we still have, we're responsible for having a knowledge about what we do in this earthly existence. But that knowledge does not have to create cockiness. or arrogance.

We're talking about a factual knowledge. I can't work in my job without having a certain amount of knowledge and that knowledge has to continue to grow to make my job effective. But that's true for all of us in our workplace or in our home environment. So, I mean, Mohammed Ali died yesterday. So, I mean, it's facts. That's factual knowledge. How does that relate to each one of us? Well, we put that into perspective and kind of what our thoughts are about him. Anyway, factual knowledge is not heavenly knowledge. And I think that's what's being applied here.

So true knowledge will make us humble, modest, and kind to others. So love edifies, and that's the kind of knowledge that really is being spoken of here. Alright, 1 Corinthians 8.3. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. Well, I looked at this verse for a while and said, duh. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him, meaning God.

Seems pretty straight forward. Why would God know anyone who loves him? He knows everything. It seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? Is this kind of love from our old man flesh? Of course not. No. Why would God know anyone who loves him? Our love for him really is based on entirely the life of the Lord Jesus Christ within us. I mean, again, back to love your neighbor as yourself.

How are you doing? How is the flesh doing at all that? Our love for God is not really based on our fleshly ability to love him, although many people would claim that. We're talking about life that's lived out. No, this is a special intimacy and there is an expected response.

Let's turn to 2 Timothy 2.19 and look at that verse here. So whoever pulls that up, please read it for us.

Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, that the Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So the Lord knows those that are His, right? So our love for God relates to the fact that He first loved us before we loved Him. And He knows us. He knows us as part of the body of Christ. And our love for Him relates to that positional truth. He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

Beautiful verse. So the identification that exists there is God's love for us, which we respond to in love because of his love for us. Alright, on to verse 4. Therefore, concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.

Meet We've talked about this probably as what's being referred to here mostly, but other things are possible too. So we could speculate on what some of those things might be. I tried to drill down and find what other things this might be, but almost every commentary took me to meats. So I think we can just think and speculate what these other things might be.

Perhaps but unlikely is that there are other things, and the fact that flesh wine or fruit really were eaten at the feast and or later sold in the marketplace for profit was worthless and forbidden at least according to the council of Jerusalem and reflects demonic direction. I mean this is a comment about what kinds of things these were and again back to meats. The meats really are food of some sort was what was really offered to idols. and then potentially sold for profit by the Jewish leadership, or likely within the church at this point, because there was a lot of historic Judaism still present in the early church. What does we know, or the idol, that an idol is nothing in the world indicate? So this is factual knowledge. We know that an idol in the world is not worth anything. What does that tell us?

Doesn't it tell us that they've already been taught the right thing? I mean, they already know this. They already, the church, because he's talking to the church. So the church, the young church at Corinth has already been taught this. But they are bringing that back into the church. This is kind of, what's the matter with you guys? Wake up. We've been through this before.

So clearly the idol has mass, meaning it has physical presence. This could be a statue, it could be a sculpture, this could be ultimately anything you might envision. It could be a temple actually. It has mass, meaning it has physical presence, but it's without value and deserves no worship. So this is vain, it's empty, it has no value at all.

And that's what's being pointed out to the church here. Again, remember, in Corinth there's lots of this kind of stuff going on. This is a place that is traditionally steeped with idols. And why is this followed by, and that there is no God but one? Lots of questions here. Most of them have pretty obvious answers.

Many many gods were being worshipped and we're going to turn to that here in a second in terms of what kinds of gods these were. But the idol represented some other figure that was looked upon as a god because people were offering sacrifices to them. mistaken identity for sure. And God has value, he's eternal, and he's the only one worthy of worship. So, by the way, you can do all this with idols, but God's clear, perfectly clear on who he is from Genesis 1-1 throughout the rest of scripture. There's just no reason to be distracted here. Obvious stuff to us today, and at that time maybe not so clear to many people in the new church.

Ephesians 4.6, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. There's the identification truth.

All right then, verse 5, for even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, by the way, and by the way there are many gods and many lords. So let's take a look now in more detail here. Truly conditional, even if. or so-called, meaning if there were other gods. I mean, it doesn't mean there are, just so-called gods. So if these are really gods or being called gods.

And I think there's a distinction here between heaven and earth. And I think heaven and earth, I think, are very practically applied in terms of these many gods and many lords. Perceived in imaginary esteemed beings with power and rule. These are the idols. Imaginary esteemed beings with power and rule.

Heaven is Uranus in the Greek and Thayer says it's the vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it. Now keep in mind here, the distinction between heaven and earth is not spiritually defined. So heaven implies, because many of the gods were external to the earthly existence that people worshipped. And here are some examples, Jupiter, Juno, Mercury, these Mercury god of the sun, I mean all these gods were gods that were worshipped and they were in heavenly places, not our heavenly place, but upstairs someplace, right? In the universe, these gods existed elsewhere. And earth is Ghi in the Greek and this is the earth as a whole as opposed to the heavens. This is what we put our feet on here. What gravity maintains our existence here on the earth existence.

And examples here with Ceres which is a god of the earth. Neptune a god of the sea. Pluto, you'd think that would be a heavenly god, but Pluto was actually a god of the interior earth. So there are many other examples of these earthly gods. So these gods and lords that people were really giving credence to and worshipping really were gods of both the heavens or the earth. Not the heavenly place that we have our position in. Just somewhere out in space someplace.

Jeremiah 2.28, where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, and if they can save you in the time of trouble, da-da-da-da-da-da. So, you know, that's Old Testament scripture. And of course, you know, in Jewish history there's tremendous idolatry and worshipping of other gods and lords. So this is just one of many areas in the Old Testament where this is brought forth. In Galatians 4, 8, but then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. So that would, I think, translate to the unsaved, wouldn't it? What gods do the unsaved worship? What are the unbelievers of this age, what are they worshiping? That age or this age? This age. I'm talking about today. Today. Knowledge. Alright, some of the things we mentioned a little earlier.

But then you have, you know, you have Hindus. They worship, you know, they think the cow is some kind of a god or an example of their god. So they worship the cow. We saw it when we were in India, didn't we? Cows all over the streets. They don't eat meat.

There's all the religions of the world, we'll come back to that here in a second. But there's also other things that separate man from God, and those are things like vanity and pride. By the way, the agnostic or the atheist believes there's no God. But they worship other things. They worship power. Greed, any of that, but they don't consider that a God.

Well remember to the Jew, Christ is a stumbling block, and to the Gentile, Christ is foolishness. And I would suggest to you that most of the Gentile unsaved world would say Christ is just foolish, it's ridiculous. How can you believe the story, the biblical story of the crucifixion, death and resurrection? to think that you've never seen Christ, this is just historical documents that are probably flawed. The intellectual mindset of the unsaved Gentiles want to be critical of what we believe in. So their God is their own intellect. Humanitarianism, what's humanitarianism? It's believing in doing everything for mankind for wrong reasons. This is the god of the unsaved world in terms of loving everyone beyond themselves. So we'll leave it at that. All right, verse six.

Yet for us there's one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, through whom we live. Notice the identification here, through whom we live. Now, yet for us, there is one God. Isn't that also true of Judaism and Islam? It is. It is true of Judaism. Let's look at Judaism for a second. We'll turn back to Islam in a second. Now, Hindu and Buddhism really have lots of gods. But Confucianism, But yet Judaism and Islam have one God. But do these bodies of faith, quote unquote, look at him, their God, as the father of whom are all things, and we for him?

Well, the Jew is founded in this concept. And I was a little bit surprised to find a few verses here. Jeremiah 31, 9, they shall come with weeping and with supplication. I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn."

Now, God's fatherhood, who's it to? Is it to the individual believer? It's a nation. God proclaims himself to be the father of a nation. but not to the individual. Remember the Jews of the Old Testament who lived by faith are saved people. And the irony of it all is that God told Abraham when he was Abraham that I will make you the father of many nations. And that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, did it not?

Yes, because that would be the only way that others besides Jews could be in Exodus. So if we go to Hebrews 11 we see all those Old Testament figures that lived by faith. Those are saved people. They lived by faith. And what's faith? Believing what God has revealed.

And in Exodus, God had revealed only so much. And in Daniel, God had revealed only so much. And today he's finally done revealing. We're going to wait for all these things to play out. But do we believe what God has revealed? And that's really what we have to ask ourselves each and every day as we live on this earthly planet.

Malachi 2.10 also reflects on this a little bit.

Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers? I would again suggest that applies to the nation of Israel, not to the individual. So in a sense God does identify himself as a father. But that parenthood is over a nation. And by the way, his promises to Israel are clearly yet to be fulfilled, but will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom. So now what about Islam? Did I miss that? They think that Abraham is their father too. They say that.

Well, right, but the personalization of that fatherhood. Abraham is the father of the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims. But Allah's love is predicated upon the Muslims' performance and obedience, not on their relationship. And I would claim the individual Jew of the Old Testament or the unsaved Orthodox Jew of today has no personal relationship to God as a father.

People okay with that? As believers, we go Abba Father, we have a perfect communication with him. Again, if you talk to people like that, that's ridiculous. To know him is to love him. We're called to fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our mission. And when we do that, we increasingly see how our position can impact our condition. That doesn't make life easy sometimes. But that's really what we're called to.

So this is really a neat verse because it makes us think about father. And the verse says, the father of whom are all things and we for him. So his fatherhood, again, is uniquely for the believer. He is a father of the nation of Israel. But the Muslim faith really is one of works, isn't it? Entirely. There's no parental relationship there.

All right, one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things. John 16, 15, a lot of verses coming up here at the end. All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. So that's kind of some of Christ's last words before he in fact went to be crucified.

Colossians 1.16 which we frequently remind ourselves about and need to, it says, By him were all things created that are in heaven and are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. Of course that's the Lord Jesus Christ we're speaking about there. That's what the verse relates to. So do you think this passage, by identifying both God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ, in any way distracts from the triune God? No. No, I don't think so.

I mean, the Holy Spirit really is the power within us to really live the Christian life, isn't it? But these verses don't mention the Holy Spirit, but the triune God is mentioned throughout the epistles. Of course, Acts received the whole institution of the church by the events at Pentecost. Also, when the Lord said all things that the Father has are mine, the Holy Spirit had not been, at that point, given. But he promised that the Holy Spirit would come. But some people might be critical of the scripture to say, well, where's the Holy Spirit?

So as we think of the triune Godhead, we've got to think of this. But as the Father is called Lord, so is the Son, therefore, God. Therefore, this word one does not regard the persons, but the natures. And that's kind of a profound statement. So the triune God represents three in one.

But the nature and the role of each of the priune positions of the godhead really is different. God's the father whose son was involved in all the creation and whose earthly sacrifice brings us to a relationship. The spirit is one that ultimately educates us and really relates to the ongoing life that's within us. So different natures, they perform different functions, but they're still all three wrapped up in one. So don't look at this in the absence of the spirit as indicating that the triune God is not really something that's very, very biblical and supportive. Hebrews 1, 1, and 2.

God, who at various times and in various ways spake in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he's appointed heir of all things, And through him also, he made the worlds. So the idea that God positionally talked to, as a father of the nation of Israel, spoke to them through, ultimately, the commandments, and through his prophets of the Old Testament, and his ongoing revelation of his presence. But now today, he's spoken to us through his son. So there's how different natures, different roles, really reflect. the security we have in the triune Godhead.

And 1 Timothy 2.5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. So again, both the heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ having different natures and different roles, but are all wrapped up into the same Godhead. So we've been introduced to things sacrificed to idols.

And by the way, weaker brothers is part of the title here. And the themes that are going to follow this really relate to how weaker brothers can be stumbled by things like these. And ultimately, it's our job, I think, to perceive one another correctly in terms of things that might be, in fact, stumbling blocks for them. Any thoughts or questions at all? Yes, Jack.

All of this stuff about God's habits, people get into what they're trying to do is prove that they don't know much about God, but there must be other gods around to exist. And what that brings that about is when we try to make ourselves religious and that's it. Having that job, you running all of this and joining different religious companies, you think, yeah, we've got this all figured out, which they don't, but it all ends up. There is a certain dependency on our intellectual capabilities of learning about God. Our experience is related to our active faith in being co-crucified, buried and risen with Him in the newness of life. The whole reason to keep us here is ultimately to transform and conform us to that image.

That's not an intellectual ascent. I don't know how many times you've had temptations in your life. We're told temptations are there, so step back and pray and get out of there. But intellectual pursuits aren't the way we solve that. We solve it by faith. And as we grow in faith, those experiences become less challenging in terms of being able to lead us astray. All right.

Tom, close us in prayer, would you please? Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this wonderful lesson showing how grace works in the middle of temptation and in the middle of deception. Particularly in this one case, things that are offered to idols, things that are of the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for showing us the difference between the two and how in this age of grace we can continue to grow in grace. through the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts. Amen.