1 Corinthians chapter 8, please give your attention to God's word. 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 is known by God. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, that there is no God but one. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol. Their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, no better off if we do. But take care that this rite of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge, eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? So by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, unless I make my brother stumble. 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 a 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 in 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 oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. We have 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 have not made use of this right. 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. But I have 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 for 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 not of my own will. I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching, I may present the gospel free of charge. So as to not make full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly, do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control. As after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9 is the Apostle Paul doubling down on what he wrote to the church in Corinth in chapter 8. He's doubling down. He's not changing his mind. He is making it clear that I'm sticking with what I said to you in chapter 8, and he's doing that for two reasons. One, he continues this argument because it seems as if he believes that there is a certain counter-argument that the Corinthian Christians might have, and he wants to nip that in the bud. 1 Corinthians 9, I believe, is Paul expecting a certain response from the Corinthian Christians and him responding to it before they can even give it to him. The second reason is, in chapter 9, Paul, is modeling what he is calling the Corinthian Christians to do in chapter eight. So we have chapter eight, we have chapter nine. He lays down these principles, he makes these demands in chapter eight, and in nine, he is making a argument to what he believes the Corinthian church might raise against him, and he is also modeling what he preached and wrote to them in chapter eight. But again, let's briefly recap chapter eight. Remember, chapter eight is you have Corinthian Christians who say, listen, Jesus said, it's not what goes into your belly that defiles you, it's what comes out of your heart. And yeah, they're sacrificing and giving devotions to idols, but idols aren't real. There's only one God. Food doesn't commend us to God, and so it shouldn't be a problem if I eat this idol meat. And Paul says, you're missing the point. No, it wouldn't be a sin if you ate meat. But it would be a sin if by your rights, your freedoms, you wounded your brothers and sisters. I remember in this congregation, there would have been some who were just recently delivered out of paganism and idolatry. And so to witness one of the stronger Corinthian Christians eating meat freely in the temple, might leave that brother or sister to think, I can return to some of these ways or I can blend these things together. A little bit of what Paul is writing to me and a little bit what I know and have been raised to believe as a Corinthian Christian or as a Corinthian. And so Paul says, you should not lay hold of your rights in such a way that it creates a stumbling block for your brother or sister. Of course, he caps that off with, Verse 13, Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. Now, what is, then, the Corinthian response that they could raise against Paul? It sounds a little bit like this, Yeah, that's easy for you to say, Paul. Meat is a luxury item. To have meat accessible, you either need to know important people or have money for meat. Again, I said this last Lord's Day, your basic regular diet is vegetables and grain. And so yeah, Paul, it's easy for you to say, give up meat. You're a tent-making preacher trying to convert the Gentile world. You're not making money. You don't have connections to meat. That's very easy for you to say. So then where, Paul, do we look in your life and your ministry and see that you are freely limiting yourself, giving up freedoms and rights that you have to bring glory to God and build up the church? I think this is what Paul is expecting them to respond, and he has the perfect answer for it. Paul's response to this is you. The Corinthian church is proof that I have laid down rights and freedoms so as to bring glory to God and to serve others. The formation of the Corinthian church is the result of my self-denials and service. He writes concerning his ministry, I planted the Corinthian church. Other churches might try and say, I'm not an apostle. They're not going to do that. But you can't. I am the one, verse 11, who has sown spiritual things among you. Of course, we can know that those spiritual things is Christ crucified. Remember in the beginning in chapter two, it says, when I was around you, when I was with you, I was determined to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. And Paul says in verse 19, that while he was there, he made himself the servant of all. And you can't make yourself the servant of all without freely laying down or surrendering some of your rights and freedoms. Paul says that he did this so as to win others to the gospel. We can basically say that because Paul has, or did while he was there, faithfully surrender rights and freedoms for the good of the church, this is why the Corinthian church is so diverse. They do have some rich. They do have some poor. They do have some influential. They do have some weak. They have a wide variety present there because Paul was limiting himself to be all things to all people for the sake of the gospel. Paul's gospel is that the Son of God freely took on limits to bring glory to the Father and to do good for His brothers and sisters. The limitation of the flesh, of surrendering His rights to be murdered by His own creation. It is Jesus who has surrendered what is His right, what belongs to Him, to save. And it's not just that Paul proclaims this gospel. He is embodying it to the Corinthian Christians. Remember, the two things is Paul's writing this to nip a rebuttal in a response in the bud. You might try and say, where do we see you doing this, Paul? And he holds up the Corinthian church as the example. The formation of the church is proof that I am laying down my rights, but he is also then trying to embody and demonstrate to the Corinthian Christians what it looks like to surrender your rights and freedoms, to love your brothers and sisters, to build them up. Chapter nine is peppered with these rhetorical questions to make a point, right? We get all of these rhetorical questions making a simple point. Here is a right and a freedom that I have. You know that I have this right and freedom, but I did not take it up. I did not make use of it for the good of you, my brother, of you, my sister. The main right that Paul focuses on is financial and material support. He uses the world of professions and then uses the world of scripture. Verse seven, of chapter 9, who serves as a soldier at his own expense. When the soldier shows up, he is not expecting to have to create and forge his own weapons. He is expecting to be supplied. Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? And then he says, here are these examples that just anybody could say, but does not the scripture also confirm what I'm saying? We could look into day-to-day life and other examples and see that when someone invests in labors in something, they have a right to reap, but it is also the scriptures. And he goes to the law of Moses. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out grain. And he says, now this is true, it has an immediate sense for the animal, but we know that God cares that those who would labor in the gospel should be able to reap. Or it's verse 14, that even the Lord Jesus commanded that those who preach the gospel should get their living by the gospel. Then we get that kind of a surprising twist. Normally, when somebody is giving you point after point, argument after argument as to why they should get paid, the conclusion is normally, and this is why you should give me a raise, Sarah. This is why you should give me more money. This is why I need you to increase your giving. But Paul makes it crystal clear why the Corinthian church should be paying him only to conclude what? but I don't want any of it. I have refused this right. I didn't take a cent from you." Verse 12, nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Or verse 15, But I have 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 for boasting." What is this particular boast that Paul has? Is that though I have a right to be paid and to be financially supported by the Corinthian church, I have not been a burden to them in order that I could preach the gospel free of charge for God's glory and the good of my brothers and sisters there. Paul's ministry principle, if I can put it that way, is that there must be no obstacle in the way of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His principle is not, I don't want churches to pay me, because we can see throughout his letters that other churches give support. But what Paul's main driving principle is, there can't be any obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. And if receiving payment from one church appears to be an obstacle, as it is in the case of the Corinthian church, Paul says, keep your money, I don't want it. To illustrate this, I want to give an example of the Philippian church and the Corinthian church. Paul does receive support from the Philippian church because their giving, in his estimation, does not present any challenge or obstacle to the gospel. But what does, in Paul's understanding, present an obstacle to the gospel of Christ at the church in Philippi? Two ladies arguing. And so he doesn't write to them, keep your money, I don't want it. What does he write? Judea, Syntyche, these fellow workers, these fellow laborers with me in the gospel, stop fighting. It is creating an obstacle to the advancement of the gospel. And so these two women whose names are written in the book of life, my fellow workers, they need to stop. They need to reconcile. They need to work it out. But with the Corinthian church, when they would be giving Paul money or support, they would have different expectations, or they would be seeing a little bit different than those in Philippi. They don't want to support Paul, they want Paul on the payroll. Now, without maybe going into a very long explanation of patron-client relationships in Roman customs, we know that sometimes, when somebody tries to give you money, it has some strings attached to it. I'm giving you money because I support you and want you to do well. I also want you to vote this way. I also want you to do this for me. I also want you to always agree with me. And so Paul, if we're using our money, not only to buy idle meat, but to pay for your ministry, when the question of idle meat comes around, you should say, yeah, no, it's not a problem at all. After all, like you said, food doesn't commend you to God. You're no worse off if you eat, no worse off if you don't. And so Paul, for this reason, he says, you would view this payment that you would be giving me as placing me in your debt. I am now your resident philosopher, which is what a lot of people would want in Corinth, who's there to teach you, your instructor, instead of acknowledging I am an apostle. Paul doesn't want Corinthian support. He wants the Corinthian church to imitate him as he imitates Christ. Again, he will start or end chapter 10 that way. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. And the first baby step is giving up the right, the freedom to idol meet. Do you kind of feel the comparative weight of chapter eight and chapter nine? So here, Paul is saying to the Corinthian church, our goal is to see the church built up. to see it strengthened, to see others come to know the Lord Jesus. This is our goal. And in chapter eight, he's saying, what you need to do is value that goal more than eating meat. That's what he's asking them to do. Freely, for the glory of God and the good of your brother, stop eating meat. But what is Paul giving up in chapter nine? Every sermon, every lesson, every teaching, every letter, every visitation free of charge. Because he loves the Corinthian church, he doesn't just proclaim this gospel of enduring all things, surrendering all things for the glory of God and the good of the church. He lives it. This is why Paul is so persuasive. He's not just telling the Corinthian church what to do, but he embodies it. It's a good reminder to any of us. If we have someone who we are trying to be persuasive with, sharing the gospel with, whether it be a family member, a coworker, even parents, as we are trying to raise our children for the Lord, we have to embody and demonstrate and show them what we are telling them to do and to believe. We lose a certain level of effective witness when we have to say, you should believe this, you should act this way, but, but don't look at me. Turn away from me. Don't watch my life, but listened to my words. Paul is willing to not be paid to make his tents so that he could preach the gospel free of charge. And so he, is saying to the Corinthian church, do you have so little love for your brother or sister that if it's make the decision for idle meat or their good, you choose meat? And so Paul, with his great love and care for the Corinthian church, is trying to show them that this is a wrong way to think about freedoms and rights. Your concern should be to love your brother. Again, it's not even just that Paul is demonstrating the love and concern for the weaker brother in chapter eight, but he's also showing the right way to use knowledge. Remember in the beginning of chapter eight, he says that knowledge is not something that should puff you up. When I preached it at the evening service, I talked about, you know, someone taking bellows and putting them in their mouth and just inflating themselves. Paul says this is Corinthian knowledge and it's useless. But rather, knowledge should serve love and love would be building up your brothers and sisters. And here is Paul with his great knowledge, not simply just writing a great refutation of the Corinthian argument and showing and demonstrating his great knowledge. but rather he is using his writing, his knowledge of the scriptures, the spirits work in his life to call them to love, to turn away from your mistake, turn away from the wrong use of your freedom and join me as I imitate Christ. He shows deep love and concern for the Corinthian church and he is willing to endure their attitude, He is willing to endure their reluctancy to hear the apostle because he loves them. And where would Paul get that motivation to love a prickly church, if I can put it that way? Where will you get the motivation to endure and love others when they are prickly? In the gospel of Jesus Christ. But Paul knows what Jesus has endured for him. Was Jesus rejected? Was Jesus mocked and gossiped about? Was Jesus one who had to embrace poverty? I have nowhere to lay my head. Jesus endured all to bestow his love on the Apostle Paul. To save Saul, the great persecutor of the church, and bring him life. Paul is giving to the Corinthian church what he knows he has received from the Lord Jesus. And I want to tell you, friends, brothers and sisters, that is what you are called to do. It's interesting, many times when we are called to endure for others, to love others, to limit ourselves for others, we say, why do I have to do this? You might even get really self-righteous and be like, it's always me. I'm always the one who has to do this. Well, what did you forget? That in that moment, the Lord Jesus is simply saying to you, can you give that person what I give you every day? Can you treat them the way I've always treated you? And in the case of the Apostle Paul, he imitates Christ. As the Lord Jesus has limited himself, didn't reach for his freedoms and rights so that he could love me and build me up, I will do for the Corinthian church. How do you know if you love your church? According to 1 Corinthians 9, you demonstrate your love for the church when it's time to endure. When someone thinks a certain way or says something or does something, that you disagree with, or maybe you even feel like infringes on your rights and freedoms. Do you write that person off and say, I'm going to a different church? Or do you say this is the time to endure? This is the time to endure, to limit myself so as to love that brother or sister. According to Paul, in those moments, When you are enduring for the sake of the gospel, enduring for the unity and your church being built up, when you are limiting your freedoms for the glory of God and the good of the church, you should feel alive. It shouldn't be drudgery. You should feel alive when you're imitating Christ because he says, is there anything better? Is there any life, any better life than one in which you are imitating the Lord Jesus Christ? In those moments, it should feel like you're giving your best in a race. We're getting the best of an opponent in wrestling. Look with me at verses 25 through 27. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control. Less after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. There's a lot here in this passage, and it's a favorite of many, but sometimes verses can kind of take on a life of their own. They'll say, you know, I'm after that upward call. I want God to be glorified in my life. I want to be a faithful disciple. And so I'm running, I am boxing, I am competing, I am disciplining my body. But what is the immediate context of this? What action would the parallel or the analogy be? Limiting yourself for the good of others. I mean, here is this buildup in which Paul is talking about denying your rights and freedoms to better and build up your brothers and sisters, saying that this is imitating Christ. This is picturing the gospel. And when you do it, it's like running after the prize of the glory of God. It's like wrestling and boxing and competing for that grand prize of living a life well. living a life that builds up the church, that blesses your brothers and sisters, that moves your weak brothers and sisters to strength in the Lord Jesus. I was really shocked by this description because, you know, in those moments where we are called to surrender, to endure, to limit for the good of our brothers and sisters, I think we agree that it's the right thing. But I'm not really sure if we think it's the best thing. Right? And Paul is using an analogy that this is the best. You've beat everybody in the race. You have defeated your opponent. You get that wreath. You are having your moment of glory. But when it's time to change the way I talk for the good of my brother or sister, change the way I dress, change the way I act for the good of the church, I know it's the right thing. But does it feel like a prize? I get to be like Christ in this moment. I get to picture the gospel to my brother or sister in this moment. I get to be used by the Lord to build up the church. Brothers and sisters, it is a great and marvelous thing to have this aim. To know that what we need to run for in this life is not perishable crowns, but the glory of God and the good of your brother and sister. But you must not, when it's time to run, when it's time to box and wrestle, say, you know, I'd rather eat idle meat. This is exactly what the Corinthian Christians are doing. Here it is. It is time to deny yourself for the good of the church. It's time to have a knowledge that moves you to love and build up. But you aren't there to show up. You're not there to run, to compete, to box. You're going to eat idle meat. You're going to use your rights and freedoms. Elkins Park, run. Run to obtain that grand prize of the exaltation of Christ and to see a church strengthened by your love, by your service. And if a right or a freedom is preventing you from running, toss it. Let it go. And in doing so, you are live in the best life imaginable. You are living like Christ. You would have heard the Apostle Paul's call, imitate me as I imitate Christ, and by the Spirit, you would be participating in that grand life. Do you want this? Do you want to be conformed to the image of Christ? Run for it. Run for it knowing that you will be given the grace to obtain it. That the Spirit has been sealed in your life and sealed in your heart for this end to be like Jesus. What a great thing to have a goal that you know the Lord Jesus is pleased with. We desire so many things. But when our controlling desire and aim is to love the Lord and to love our brother and sister, that is the one in which the Lord says, amen. Let that be precious for you and run for it, beloved. Let's pray for the strength to run well. Lord Jesus, we thank you for all that you have given up and endured for us. Your love is incredible. And we do not have the voice, the skill, the ability to fully describe how marvelous it is. But Lord, we ask that that love would compel us to imitate the Lord Jesus. that we would have zeal and pursue that grand prize of bringing you glory and building up the church. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.