Our scripture reading this evening is found in 1 Corinthians 8 verses 1 to 13. Let us hear God's word. My concerning things are offered to idols. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing, yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this will is known by him. Therefore, concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol does nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there were our so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, As there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge, for some with consciousness of the idol until now it is a thing offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat or we Are we the better, nor if we do not eat, are we the worse? But we were lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died. But when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. This passage, of course, has all kinds of controversial statements by commentators and so forth over the years. There was a problem of course in Corinth because they had come out of a pagan culture, these believers. Paul begins here in chapter 8 through to chapter 10 dealing with this whole matter of food offered to idols and going and worshipping in idolatrous temples and so forth. Because the culture, you must remember, we live in a different type of culture. The culture then was quite different. Going to an offering to an idol was just like going to a birthday party and bringing a gift. Or just going to a wedding and bringing a gift. People did it. That was the normal thing in that culture. No wonder then that some of the young believers simply ignored Paul. because they would just continue to attend these temples. It was part of their lives. It was a big part of their lives to them. It was quite normal to eat in the temple and to buy meat in the marketplace. It's part of life. They wouldn't have given it a moment's thought. What were the believers to do in such a society? Well, if someone served food at the dinner you were invited to, that would have been an offer to an idol. Or what if you didn't know it had previously been offered to an idol? These are the questions that Paul is dealing with here. Of course, some might argue, and justifiably so, that an idol is nothing. Paul agreed with that, that an idol is nothing. There's no other god but one, Paul. That was Paul clear. As far as these idols were concerned, Paul says they have no power, and they had no power. Yet there was a problem. There are many of these dear folk brought up in this idolatrous society all their lives. They had known nothing, met nothing other than this. Their parents, their grandparents and their children perhaps brought up in these temples worshipping false gods and idols. And they found it difficult. They found it difficult to deal with the heritage of their parents, the heritage of their grandparents and so forth. Isn't it the same when someone comes to Christ? They don't immediately do everything that you do. They may hold on to things from their past life for quite a long time before they get rid of it. They struggle with these things. And these people were struggling as well. Many of them were. They were weak. Many of them. And some of them violated their own conscience, as Paul says here. This is why one theologian says about this, to know is simply not enough. I believe the most important verse here is verse nine. But become lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak. How often do we see this within the church, within the Reformed church? We see, especially, I don't want to insult anybody, but younger men in the faith, because we all go through it, can become offensive to others by what they say or what they do and they cause others to stumble and if people persist in using their liberty in Christ we have liberty in Christ but if we persist at using that at the expense of others it's a selfish attitude that could lead to another believer tripping up or falling You see, when a stronger believer goes ahead and eats the meat offered to idols, Paul is saying, and their weakest brother or sister witnesses this, it encourages them, to embolden them to partake and causes them to sin. And Paul asks a soul-searching question in verse 11, and because of your knowledge, the knowledge he spoke of earlier, Shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? Of course they will not die if they are truly in Christ. But Paul is saying that to emphasize how important it is not to use one's liberty for one's own selfish purposes, whatever that liberty may be, but to always remind ourselves as believers We belong to a body. We were hearing about that at Sunday school this morning. We're not isolated. We don't live on an island. We belong to a body. We're all parts of the body of Christ. And we should be lifting one up, encouraging one another. And when you sin against the brethren, you're sinning against Christ. It just underlines the seriousness of all sin. I remember this morning we had a call to talk about David and Bathsheba. adultery and conspiring to murder. And when it came to light, he said against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. You see, all sin is against the Lord, a violation of his law. And Paul is very personal in all this. Therefore, he says, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat. lest my brothers stumble. So the lesson for us this evening is not to be in any way a stumbling block to other believers, especially young ones in the faith. Sin is sin. And to cause anyone else to sin is doubly sin, so to speak, doubly so. So we need to watch how we live. Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. Remember, sin is an insult to God. When we sin as believers, we insult the Lord. We serve the idol. The idol that we serve today, in this case, it's not wooden idols, steel idols, like the idols you've seen in the temples in Greece. No! Self. That's the idol we worship today. Materialism and self. These are the two big idols that haunt us in the Western world. Which leads to a spiritual idolatry after a while. You see, every time you and I sin, we're saying to God, I love myself. I love my idol more than you, Lord. But thank God when we do sin, there is a remedy, a refuge for us in Christ. As John says, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. So the key is to keep close to the Lord, to walk close to Jesus Christ and fix our eyes upon Jesus so that we will not partake of the idols of this world, including ourselves. I'll ask Elder Meehan to come up and pray at this point. Let's pray. Almighty God, we praise You that You have given us one so worthy to be worshiped. You are the true and only living God. And how ridiculous it is that we would desire to worship something else or someone else, and yet we confess that's our tendency. default since birth to worship something else than you. And so break us of these idols. Enable us to smash them and put them to death and be sanctified in our devotion to you. Father, we pray for the Barnes family as they return home tomorrow morning. Most likely, grant them safety in their travels. We pray that they would find themselves refreshed and Andrew would be renewed and ready to take up his work again here. We thank you that even when he's on vacation, he's still got his mind with us and his thoughts with us. I can tell from the emails I get from him. So bless him and uphold him that he would not grow weary in his work among us. And we thank you for his desire to stay among us. We pray that you would bring that about. that our financial situation would not result in his leaving or even in his diminished circumstances. Spare him and his family from financial hardship, we pray, and provide for them as you always have. And we know Andrew is very confident you always will, and yet Father, we cry out to you because we have nowhere else to turn and plead with you that you would provide for him and his family and continue his ministry among us. And we pray again, as we have a number of times recently, that you would enable us to be released from our lease of this space, and enable us to find another place to meet that would be more affordable and yet would serve the purposes needed, and enable us, Father, willingly, even gladly, undergo some hardships in the coming months as we change locations. The new one may not be as spacious, it may not be as comfortable, it may not be as convenient, but enable us as a congregation, we pray, to look past all those things and to continue serving you together as a congregation. Father, there are a number of people missing this evening. We pray that you would intervene to help them in whatever is the obstacle to their coming to worship you tonight and grant them your grace to be true to Christ and near to Christ with nothing getting in the way of their communing with Christ and worshiping Him and fellowshipping with His people. Father, we missed the gardeners this morning. I haven't heard if they're out of town or ill, but care for them and provide for them. There's someone else I had in mind. I can't think of them, but Father, you know who was ill and not able to come together with us this morning. Heal your people and give us all that we need that we would be faithful to you in every way that you provide for us to be faithful. We confess that we have small faith and we worry and churn and fret. We pray that we would work hard in whatever directions you point us and yet rest in Christ for the outcome and not on our own strength or resolution, but only on what Christ has provided in the atonement continues to provide with new grace every morning for each of us. Father, enable us to take up his cross daily and follow him and put no stock or value in the things of this world, but only in those things eternal. Father, you know in our presbytery there are some serious matters to be decided that many of us are not privy to, but they deserve our prayers. Father, uphold those who are in the middle of these matters and grant Your wisdom and resolve to be true to Christ at every point in the judicial matters that are before the Presbytery. and bring about good outcomes, we pray, for the sanctification of all of the congregations and all of the elders in the Midwest Presbytery. Father, you know the congregations that are without pastors. We pray that you would provide pastors for Houston and San Antonio and Colorado Springs. Grant them wisdom in their search and provide exactly the right match between congregation and pastor and the pastor's family that all would be cared for tenderly by our Chief Shepherd. Father, we think of the Washington, Iowa congregation whose pastor has had serious issues that have prevented him from preaching and being the pastor. In effect, we pray that you would restore his health and restore him to his place of service Father, uphold that congregation and their being handicapped in that way. We pray that the elders there would be faithful in taking up the extra labor that's required to be under shepherds in those conditions. We thank you that you're providing pastors to fill in. We thank you that Terry Douds will be filling in there many times in the next two months. We pray that you would bless his ministry among them. And Father, heal this pastor and provide for his family that your servants would not suffer great loss, but build him in body and mind and soul. Build the faith of his family and his congregation And so bring glory to yourself in hearing the prayers of your people for him. And there's another pastor that Andrew often prays for. His name is Jason Rice, who fairly recently was the pastor in Colorado Springs, but he's had very serious health problems. It's a great affliction, Father. We pray that you would heal him and restore him to a place of service somewhere in the denomination and even in Midwest Presbytery, if that would be your plan. And Father, back to the matter of our continuing as a congregation, we cry out to you again that you would show us the path forward and give us the humility and discernment and wisdom to to follow you where you would lead us and make us active, hard workers to search out that path and do what you have called us to do as your people to try to chart the way forward. Bring yourself glory in all of these things and may man not be glorified. Only you, Father, and especially our Lord Jesus, May he receive all praise and glory as someday we hope to look back and reflect on your great provision for us. I'll recount a time before many of the people present were here in this congregation. We had a church building and we were running out of money and we had to sell that building and we were within a few thousand dollars of going broke and you brought along a buyer for that building at the very last moment and it all worked out and it financed the financial picture of the congregation for years and years until the present time. We thank you for that rescue and we pray for your compassionate care of us in the months ahead. We pray that you would keep our attention on Christ and His Word through the remainder of this service and bring yourself glory as you lead your people to green pastures and feed us on your Word. We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen.