Tonight, we turn in the Scriptures to 1 Corinthians 9 as we continue our study through this book. And tonight, we come to the first 14 verses. That's what we're reading together tonight, the first 14 verses. If you're looking for a page number, that's page 1216. Let's give our attention tonight to the Word of the Lord. This is 1 Corinthians 9, beginning at verse 1. This is God's Word. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? if to others i am not an apostle at least i am to you for you are the seal of my apostleship in the lord this is my defense to those who would examine me do we not have the right to eat and drink do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the lord and cephas or is it only barnabas and i who have no right to refrain from working for a living who serves as a soldier at his own expense who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk do i say these things on human authority does not the law say the same for it is written in the law of moses you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain is it for the oxen that god is concerned does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake because the plow man should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we've sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do we not even more? Nevertheless, we've not made use of this right. But we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of christ do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings in the same way the lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel i'm going to read a few verses further but i've made no use of any of these rights nor am i writing these things to secure any such provision for i would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground of boasting for if i preach the gospel that gives me no ground for boasting for necessity is laid upon me woe to me if i do not preach the gospel for if i do this of my own will i have a reward but if not of my own will i am still entrusted with a stewardship i'm going to end the reading of god's word there May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. What the Apostle Paul is dealing with in chapters 8 and 9 of 1 Corinthians is the problem of Christians using their liberties to the hurt of other Christians. I don't know how discouraged you've been about division among Christians. Some of that is obviously necessary because things are said and things are taught that are against the gospel of Christ. But if we're honest, more often than not, division happens. The kinds of division that I have seen happen in the body of Christ is due to a problem that we have not taken seriously enough. it's division and separation that occurs when we push our rights upon christians to their hurt and i'm going to emphasize that tonight the word i want to really highlight is rights here what generally follows with those who do that is a kind of hard line contentious unwilling to yield spirit in the person and the sad reality is paul was looking at a bunch of people doing this in the life of the church of corinth who didn't even realize they were doing it they had no clue they didn't know their attitude stunk that's first corinthians 9 and in that text paul is using himself tonight in first corinthians 9 it's amazing how personal he gets here he's using himself with an extreme example to deal with this problem in Corinth and help them to understand what the mind of Christ looks like, what a servant looks like. The church was ripped apart in divisions. This has been all the way back from chapter one. And one of the most dangerous divisions came in the midst of their new freedoms in Christ in the gospel. But their behavior in that freedom this is this is the strange twist the gospel that had set them free their behavior now in being set free undermined the very gospel that had set them free tragic and they didn't see it they didn't see it and that's what paul is doing he's helping them and he wants them to look at something specific in his own life as an apostle and to see that there has to be a consistency of behavior in the treatment of your brothers with the gospel that you claim there has to be a consistency of behavior in how you act and what you do and how you treat others in light of the gospel you claim and that's big that's big because when that's not in place you undermine it you assault it you assault the gospel and that assaults your very purpose as a church for the reason that christ gave you a mission and mandate so tonight i want you to think about the church. I want you to think about your own particular behavior towards your brethren and what your behavior displays and whether your behavior is consistent with the gospel that you claim. It's really that simple. I want to reorient you to the problem here in Corinth just for a moment. You can't understand chapter 9 without chapter 8. It all runs together and it's really interesting it sets a context for us to show how great the problem was this is an extensive section of first corinthians of a problem that we probably just don't take very seriously the problem the particular problem that had developed in the corinthian church was over the issue of foods offered to idols you remember uh in this culture to do business to do business in this culture you had to head down to the local trade guild if you were a businessman and corinth was full of trading and there at these trade guilds there were restaurants there were these like restaurant scenarios and they would offer up the foods to the local deity of that particular guild and here these christians were and they were partaking of the foods offered to idols And Paul looks at this and Paul saw something terrible happening with this regard. Many of the brothers and sisters who had come out of paganism, who had been in those guilds and were really troubled about what went on in those guilds now that they were set free, were troubled and their consciences were wounded as they looked at these knowledgeable, mature Christians going in there and doing that. And Paul here, remember last time, addressed this problem by saying, by looking at their freedoms, by looking at their rights, and he says, you're correct. You're right, dear strong. There's only one God. There's only, notice what he said there, one God and one Lord. You're correct. But Paul was looking at a much deeper problem. And you'll remember in verse 1 of chapter 8, he said, Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he's known by God. Their knowledge of freedom, their knowledge of gospel freedom was not being used to edify the brethren, their weaker brethren. and by their disregard of their weaker brethren's consciences, they were demonstrating that they were full of pride. They were puffed up. I don't know about you, but I felt the most powerful point he made was when knowledge is used that way, when the fruit is not the edifying of the body, when the fruit is not the edifying of the body in love, but actually the fruit is a kind of division that occurs from this, Paul looks at them and says, in all of your knowing, you know nothing. I mean, that's a remarkable thing to say. In all of your knowing, you don't know anything because true knowledge leads to love that edifies. That was his point. You could have all the knowledge in the world, but if there's no love, since the design of knowledge is to glorify God and edify the church in love, if that's absent, it's not knowledge. It's pride. You know nothing, he says. So you may think you have a good understanding, said Paul, of the law, freedom. But not everyone else does. And you don't seem to care about them that don't. And actually, your actions are putting a stumbling block in front of them. And I couldn't let this point go. When some people are equally ultimate on all the wrong things, without an ability to yield, or unwilling to set aside the lesser matters for the sake of their brethren, what I believe Paul said was, remember the weak. Paul was saying, you're not loving them. And you're really not knowing. And you forget that wherever you are today, you weren't there yesterday. And God was pretty forbearing with you. He accommodated to you. You're not accommodating to your brethren. The way God accommodated to you. A really powerful point Paul made there. So that is where we left off. Separation and division was the farthest thing from the Spirit who comes alongside us in our weaknesses and carries them and helps us and forbears and teaches us. You can't ram that down sensitive consciences, throats. You can't do that. So Paul said something at the very end last time in verse 13 that launches us into tonight. He said, listen, if eating meat stumbles my brother, I'll never do it again. I am willing to sacrifice and never have any meat again for their consciences. And he's not done. Which I find so fascinating that you'd think that the point would have been made. but people don't hear this they don't hear this they don't think carefully enough about what it looks like in their own lives and paul now has devotes what we have in the scriptures before us another chapter to this whole issue chapter nine is all about this and what he does at this point is provide himself as a powerful example to convict these corinthians of how radically off their behavior really is in the first few verses of chapter 9 he begins with a series of questions you'll notice all the questions that he posed there and notice all the eyes am i not free am i not an apostle have i not seen jesus our lord are you not my workmanship in the lord if to others i am not an apostle at least i am to you for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense. This is my defense to those who would examine me. Now the basic approach that's taken to this is that Paul was responding to people who were challenging his apostolic authority. That did go on. That was a problem in Corinth. But I don't believe that's essentially what he's doing here. He's doing something interesting here, fascinating here. What he's doing is really raising out of the roof his position. It might seem boastful at first. But he's essentially saying, I want you to think about what I am. I am an apostle. He's bolstering his position in front of them. You kind of see what he's doing if you put, these come in the negative. Am I not? Am I not? Am I not? Put it in the positive for a minute and just listen to it. I am free. I saw the Lord. I am an apostle. You are my workmanship. You see what he just did? Look at who I am. Why is he doing that? Why is he bolstering his position right now? Well, I suspect he knew what people were running around saying when he just said, If it stumbles my weaker brethren, I'll never eat meat again. Can you hear what the strong were saying? Can you hear it? My guess is you had these Judaizers who were judging and holding people in bondage over days and foods. We know that went on. But here was the apostle in some of the stronger Christians, Gentiles, who understood their freedoms, looking at Paul, catering to the weak Christians who were really struggling with this, saying, Are you kidding, Paul? I mean, you put this in our day, he'd get postered. What do I mean? He'd get labeled. I'll never eat meat again. This guy's a fundamentalist. This guy's a pietist. Whatever name you want to give him. You're letting your conscience be raided by these weak Christians. How dare you? Don't give in to them. It's compromise. You hear, Paul? I know I'm free. I know what I am. Do you know what I am? Now keep in mind, this section is talking about those who have all this knowledge. And they know their freedom. They know the law. And Paul appeals to what they know about him. You know I'm free. You know I'm an apostle. The emphasis here is, here's what you know about me. You know Christ appeared to me on that Damascus road. You know I begot you in the gospel. I was a father to you in this. You know it began with me for you. You know my authority. Let me tell you, if you want to examine me, let's go ahead and talk about my rights for a minute. I'll tell you about my rights for a minute. You want to talk about rights? Let's talk about rights. Verse 4, do I not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not? Apostles, again. Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife? As the other apostles and the brothers of our Lord, brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to restrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? He's hitting hard with freedoms and rights, isn't he? It's really fascinating how he's dealing with this. Let me tell you about my rights, says Paul. I understand, I have knowledge that there's a freedom given to me in Christ. I could eat and drink whatever I want. And I also have a right, just like the other apostles, to take along a believing wife. You say, what do you mean? Well, by the way, you see here, the brothers of the Lord had wives. It kind of doesn't fit that they couldn't be married. Doesn't fit the Roman argument. What happened? They would take their wives with them. Peter had a wife. Peter took his wife with them on the missionary journeys. And Paul says, I understand that I have this freedom. What the issue is here tonight is this. He raises the issue of payment for gospel labor. And what he's saying here is, I have the right to receive material and financial remuneration for our labors just like all the other apostles are getting and their wives. If I want to take a believing wife with me on the journey, I could do it just like they're doing it. They have the right to be supported too. And Paul keeps bolstering the point. Who goes to war at his own expense? Do you guys send off soldiers and don't pay them? No, you don't do that. You feed them and you care for them. You give them the best. When you plant a vineyard, is it only to be refused for your enjoyment? You can't have any of the fruit? Of course not. If you have cows, listen, I've been to a lot of dairymen's houses. One of the blessings of a dairyman is they bring in the fresh milk off the table, but you can't drink it. You'll get sick. But they get the fresh milk out of the cow. They get that right, don't they? Did you know I have six chickens at the parsonage? Yeah, I've never done that before. I didn't do it in the country and living. I moved to the city and I get six chickens. And I'm loving getting eggs all the time. They're my eggs and I have the right to those eggs, don't I? You can't come take my eggs. I have a right to these things, says Paul. And he presses harder. You'll see what he's doing in a minute. Verses 8 through 11. He makes the case that actually the law of God commands this. The law of God commands that servants who tend to the gospel ministry be paid. And be paid well. Be taken care of. So he says, look at verse 8. Do I say these things on human authority? No. Does the law not say the same? For it's written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is it for the oxen God said that? No, I didn't say that for the oxen. Sure, He fed the oxen when it worked hard. But He speaks for us. It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher should thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. Here it is. If we've sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, if Peter gets paid, do we not deserve that even more? The entire Old Testament taught you this. Look at how the Levites were cared for. God commanded this. You pay your servants to minister to you as the ox treads out the grain and you feed it, you care for your ministers. The Lord taught us that principle throughout the Old Testament, says Paul. Paul says, if we've sown spiritual things for you, don't we get to reap material benefit? Do you enjoy material benefits? Sure you do. Does not the pastor get to enjoy material benefits? Sure he does. We can enjoy the blessing of the Lord for our labors. We're entitled to that. Actually, God commanded that. I can enjoy that, says Paul. Material blessing. All the other apostles get it. Don't we get to? Well, the church would say, of course, Paul, of course. It's clear that those who do this and those who are called to be ministers, Paul says, are to be paid for, cared for. But then in verse 6, you start to feel the shock of what he's doing. Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? He just said something shocking. He had every right in the world to be paid for his labors and enjoy material benefits. All the apostles did. But Paul and Barnabas decided not to. That's remarkable. He said, instead, Barnabas and I have decided to work with our hands and not receive anything from you guys. To which you say, anyone in their right mind, what are you doing? God commanded that. It was a command of God. The punch of this has to do with the fact the law commanded it. He references it as a command from God. We have every freedom in this. It's a command of God, you do this. we forfeited it. And in verse 8, he says that. In verse 13, you'll notice as he goes on there, actually 12, in the middle of 12, nevertheless, we have not made use of this right. What an amazing statement. And then right after that, he goes in and says, but do you not know that those who were employed in the temple service got their food from the temple? And those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial alterings. In the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the Gospel should get their living by the Gospel. That's the standard. We forfeited. And all of you are saying, why, Paul? Why would you do that? Before I answer that, I want you to think of the scenario again. These knowledgeable, strong Christians, these all-knowing Christians are eating meats with total disregard to their weaker brethren. And the strong are holding it out as a whipping on the weak. And all of their fruit of their convictions and knowledge produced what? Separation in the body of Christ. That was the fruit of their doing this. And there was one word that Paul said at the beginning of chapter 8 to solidify and to make the major point of what he's after here. He said, that's all wrong, dear Corinthians, because there is no love. And I can't get away from Matthew 23 again when Jesus was dealing with the Pharisees and he gets really agitated with the Pharisees that they're keeping the law to a T, but they're neglecting the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and truth. So in other words, by their keeping the law, they nullified the law of love. their convictions we can do this we can't do this had the sad fruit of no love and paul says you know nothing and now we understand paul he takes this extreme example in his own life to make a point the law itself commanded that he be provided and he said no why he didn't he didn't have to take it because in this particular circumstance as an apostle he says it would have caused a stumbling block to some how so i had to think about that how would that cause a stumbling block to some my guess is is that in the new testament he warned about those who were doing ministry for financial gain you don't go into this for financial gain but as a missionary to the gentiles he was going to the poor and as he ministered he was concerned that in his apostolic witness potential converts who would hear the message for the first time would think that christianity came with strings attached and it meant that now the burden on these poor Christians was that they would have to keep Him going when they could barely keep themselves going. I mean, you kind of know this. If I went down to Mexico and I was doing church work down there, I really wouldn't want to live too much off those people. They're poor. I'd work with my hands. I'd try to do it. I wouldn't want to be a burden to the Gospel ministry there. Well, that's not the norm. God wants his ministers freed up to be able to devote all their time to this. I know Paul took money from the Philippians. So that's one possibility. The other one is that he took money from the Philippians, but he wouldn't take it from the Corinthians. And the Corinthians were a filthy rich church. It was a status symbol in that culture. Would Paul feel owned at that point? Think about that. Would Paul feel owned? And would their hold on him hurt his message? I think you guys need to understand that struggle. Not this particular church. Just in general, Christians do about pastors. We don't do this for gain. But there has been a hold on pastors over this issue. We treat pastors as if they've taken a vow of poverty. I never signed a vow of poverty. I'm not, I didn't sign a vow of poverty. But the stress of living in a fishbowl is not easy. When I left Escondido, you know, the only suits that I bought going up to north were from Amvets. $15. And I remember when I was up there, I bought my first suit. and we're walking out. Dear man, I loved him. But I'm walking out. I'm standing shaking hands, and he walks up. He grabs my suit in front of everyone. Oh, pastor, we must be paying our pastor too much. I was devastated. So the car I drove was, for a long time, a 72 Chevrolet pickup beat up. It had stunk. And I parked it in front of the church and then somebody came up to me and says, Pastor, we pay you better than to drive that. The house I bought was small. I had this fear of being judged. My poor wife, you know, it was raining all the time up there with little kids running in that house. It helped when we got the call to Escondido. This shouldn't be re-aired. It's a fishbowl. It's a fishbowl. And in Paul's circumstance, whatever it was, I don't think we really know, but whatever it was, he had the right to enjoy material blessings from the Lord. Pastors have that right. Nobody says they have to be poor. But he decided in concern for certain people that it would be better in that particular scenario to work with his hands so that it would free him up from holds on him. and judging. All the stuff I just described, he wouldn't have to deal with. And here's the point tonight. Paul says to them, I have a right to this. I have a right to enjoy these things. I have a right to enjoy blessings from the Lord's hand through you. God commanded it. But I was sacrificially willing to let it go so that I wouldn't be a stumbling block. Do you feel that? Here are the strong. You're causing your brother's confusion by your attitude, your pride, your convictions. You're beating everyone over the head with them. That's not edifying love. That's not the law of love. You may lose business relationships for this. You may lose political allies. You may lose neighbors. You may lose contracts if you don't go into those trade guilds and eat. But you know, that's a small price to bear and to carry for your brothers. But when you lower yourselves like this for the sake of your brethren, that displays the mind of Christ and your love for your brethren, your concern for them, and your witness to those who don't have the Gospel. And this is why Paul says, I do all this for the sake of the gospel. I preach it freely. There's a priority to that. And that's such an important word. There's a necessity to that. There's a priority in all this. And I'm willing to sacrifice my own rights and do something that the Lord even commanded. Now get that in our heads. That He commanded. For the sake of my brethren. For the advancement of the gospel. That's the spirit he wants. Have you met people who are equally ultimate on every issue? It's not really that they are. It's that they found one issue that they can justify themselves over to the condemnation of the rest. And it becomes a way of separating and separating over things that shouldn't separate. Neglecting the weightier matters of the law, our love should edify. And all this is setting us up for what he's about to say in 1 Corinthians 13. If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I'm nothing. If I give away all that I have, and if i deliver up my body to be burned but have not love i gain nothing love is patient and kind love does not envy or boast it's not arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it's not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never ends the great contrast of this passage. When you know something, when you have understanding in something, if you've learned anything, ask yourself this question. Does that knowledge that I have puff me up, producing the sad fruits of division and fighting and confusion, or does it promote the fruits of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace. patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such things there is no law beautiful stuff some of the ugliest things that i have seen are from sectarians who are always separating out in their own little communions as the last one standing on the truth and it's always over some fine point of the law and you know what i never see in them a gospel spirit a gospel spirit the apostle put on display before us an example of the kind of spirit tonight the kind of willingness to yield i mean look what he did that the lord desires in his church it's the mind of christ may then the gospel we say we know and believe and confess and talk about justification and how we're right with god produce behavior that's consistent with that. With love that edifies one another since it's by the love of Christ that we've been saved. Gracious Heavenly Father, we're thankful that you instruct us this way. And if you move our hearts to do things like this for the sake of our brethren, give us the strength to do it, the conviction to do it, the wisdom to do it and to know that this kind of sacrificial love is what pleases you and may in all of our lives while you give us so much to enjoy and so many freedoms to enjoy material things which was a blessing we all get tonight from pastor to people may those never become stumbling blocks and as we enjoy those things and as you give us to enjoy those things may it always be that we demonstrate love and how we treat one another whether it's in our eating or drinking may all things be done for your glory and the edifying of one another in love in jesus name