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1 Corinthians 10:23-30
Smoking a Good Cigar to the Glory of God
 
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful.
“All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.
Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbour.
Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”
If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—I do not mean your conscience, but his.
For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?
If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?[1]
Some will no doubt be shocked at the title of the message, if not by the subject.
Children of the Living God are called to live in liberty, skilfully steering their barque between Scylla and Charybdis, yielding neither to license or to legalism.
Few of us do this well, and many fail to walk in Christian liberty.
I came to faith in a church which, upon reflection, was prone to legalism.
I am grateful for the grounding in the Faith which I received among those dear saints, but I have struggled for many decades to free myself from the shackles which bound me from my earliest days in the Faith.
It was not so much that the positions advanced did not address very real dangers to the soul, but it is that those issuing the warnings failed to allow for liberty and imposed their views without thought to the consequences.
The title of the message comes from an incident in the life of the great Baptist divine, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Mr.
Spurgeon, as is true of a surprising number of noted preachers, smoked.
By all accounts, Mr. Spurgeon`s smoking was occasional, and never much more than a cigar a day.
There are no doubt health risks associated with cigars, but this is also true of obesity or thinness, of drinking coffee or drinking pop, of dressing for stylistic reasons instead of dressing to suit the weather.
Spurgeon`s smoking was a historical fact, and the cause of truth is not served by either denying this truth or inventing myths to suggest that he at last repented of his one vice.
In a British church magazine, *Christian World*, dated September 25, 1874, occurs the following report.
LAST Sunday evening, Mr. Spurgeon, before beginning his sermon, announced that he should not preach long that night, because he wished his friend Mr. Pentecost, who was on the platform, to say a few words to the congregation.
Mr. Spurgeon then gave a very earnest address on the words, “I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord; I will keep Thy statutes.
I cried unto Thee; save me, and I shall keep Thy testimonies.”(Ps,
cxix 145-6)
He spoke strongly and plainly upon the necessity of giving up sin, in order to success in prayer for “quickening,” and as an evidence of sincerity.
Mr.
Spurgeon, in concluding his discourse, said, “`Now, then, perhaps Brother Pentecost will give you the application of that sermon.”
“Brother Pentecost” is an “open communion” Baptist minister, of the American city of Boston.
He responded at once to Mr. Spurgeon’s call, and, stepping to the front of the platform, gave some excellent remarks on the latter portion of the text, with much simplicity and force of manner.
Referring to one part of Mr. Spurgeon’s sermon, he gave us an interesting bit of personal experience.
He said that some years ago, he had had the cry awakened in his heart, “Quicken Thou me.”
He desired to be more completely delivered from sin, and he prayed that God would show him anything which prevented his more complete devotion to Him.
He was willing, he thought to give up anything or everything if only he might realise the desire of his heart.
“Well,” said he, amidst the profound silence and attention of the immense congregation, “what do you think it was that the Lord required of me?
He did not touch me in my church, my family, my property, or my passions.
But one thing I liked exceedingly—the best cigar which could be bought.”
He then told us that the thought came into his mind, could he relinquish this indulgence, if its relinquishment would advance his piety?
He tried to dismiss the idea as a mere fancy or scruple, but it came again and again to him, and he was satisfied that it was the still small voice which was speaking.
He remembered having given up smoking by the wish of his ministerial brethren, when he was twenty-one years of age, for four years.
But then, he had resumed the habit, for he declared during that four years he never saw or smelt a cigar which he did not want to smoke.
Now, however, he felt it to be his duty to give it up again, and so unequal did he feel to the self-denial, that he “took his cigar-box before the Lord,” and cried to Him for help.
This help he intimated had been given, and the habit renounced.
Mr. Spurgeon, whose smoking propensities are pretty well known, instantly rose at the conclusion of Mr. Pentecost’s address, and with a somewhat playful smile, said,
 
“Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be sin.
And notwithstanding what brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed tonight.
“If anybody can show me in the bible the command, ‘Thou shalt not smoke,’ I am ready to keep it; but I haven’t found it yet.
I find ten commandments, and it’s as much as I can do to keep them; and I’ve no desire to make them into eleven or twelve.
“The fact is, I have been speaking to you about real sins, not about listening to mere quibbles and scruples.
At the same time, I know that what a man believes to be sin becomes a sin to him, and he must give it up.
‘Whatsoever is not of faith is sin’ (Romans 14:23), and that is the real point of what my brother Pentecost has been saying.
“Why, a man may think it a sin to have his boots blacked.
Well, then, let him give it up, and have them whitewashed.
I wish to say that I’m not ashamed of anything whatever that I do, and I don’t feel that smoking makes me ashamed, and therefore I mean to smoke to the glory of God.”[2]
My concern in this message is together with you to seek the path which leads to liberty.
Neither licence nor legalism must be permitted to ensnare the soul of the child of God.
I neither advocate smoking nor abstaining from smoking in this message, but rather press upon you the necessity of considering the consequences of your choices.
Each choice we make as a Christian must either build us or condemn us and must either encourage others or cause them to stumble.
Focus on the words of the Apostle as he instructed a contentious church in the liberty of conscience which marks us as a free people.
Join me in seeking that walk which will glorify our Lord Christ and build each other up in the Faith.
Bear in mind that our first responsibility as children of the Living God and as members of His Body is to seek that which builds, encourages and consoles our fellow saints.
As the message unfolds, I encourage each listener to seek that balance which honours Christ our Lord and embraces the liberty which is ours through Him.
The Fatal Error of Licence — The Corinthians were guilty of vacillating between licence and legalism.
They seem to have been a congregation marked by extremes.
Among the extremes practised was a form of licence.
Antinomianism is the formal designation for the concept that one can live without rules.
Technically, it is the false teaching that since faith alone is necessary for salvation, the individual is free of the moral obligations of the law.[3]
Licence still infects the thinking of too many Christians.
Those who have believed the Good News of Christ are freed from the dominion of sin.
As the great text proclaims, it is by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works [*Ephesians 2:8, 9*].
However, we must recognise that since we are freed from the dominion of sin through faith, we are also freed to practise the righteousness demanded by God.
In other words, we are saved to serve.
We are set free in order to fulfil the will of God.
That same text cited moments ago make this truth plain as it continues by affirming that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them [*Ephesians 2:10*].
The Corinthians were claiming the truth that all things are lawful as justification for their licence.
Indeed, all things are lawful, the Apostle affirmed.
However, he was compelled to remind these saints that though all things were lawful, not all things are helpful, [neither do] all things build up [*1 Corinthians 10:23*].
These words are in anticipation of the instruction they shall shortly receive concerning spiritual gifts.
The effectiveness of one’s gift can be gauged by asking what impact the exercise of that gift has on the Body of Christ.
God gifts His people, expecting that they will seek to build one another in the Faith, to encourage one another or to console each other in their mutual struggles [*see 1 Corinthians 14:3b*].
The effectiveness of your gifts is measured by how well their exercise builds, encourages and consoles.
Similarly, the effectiveness of the exercise of your Christian liberty is gauged by its impact on others.
When you act in liberty, are others made stronger?
Does your liberty encourage others in a positive sense?
When you walk in liberty, are others consoled?
These are the types of questions which each of us should ask of ourselves.
What impact does my liberty have on others?
You have liberty in Christ, but know that there are consequences in the exercise of your liberty.
Your actions and you attitudes will be either a means of upbuilding and encouragement and consolation, or they will serve as a force for destruction and discouragement and crushing of the spirit.
The determinate for the impact of your life will be the focus of your life.
If you are focused inward, you can count on destruction, discouragement and weakness in the wake of your life.
If you are focused on Christ, you will be concerned for others and in the wake of your passing, people will have been built up, encouraged and will have found consolation through having known you.
It is this necessity demanding that we focus outward which serves as the basis for Paul’s plea that no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbour [*1 Corinthians 10:25*].
Were this one great ideal implemented among the people of God, the Faith would be transformed.
Once again we would witness a Faith which was vibrant and unconquerable, instead of an insipid and uninspiring routine which serves only to entertain for an hour or so each week and is then conveniently forgotten.
The Apostle instructed believers to think about the impact of their actions on others.
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