Sermon Text:

When I think back on how we grew up I am sometimes amazed that any of us survived to adulthood. It was a time before seatbelts, bike helmets, or cellphones and GPS tracking. We would pile into cars on top of each other and even go on long distance drives sitting in the back of pickup trucks. Just think about the toys and games we played with. We literally threw miniature skull piercing javelins at each other called lawn darts, we would get a running start to dive head-first toward the hard ground onto a slippery piece of plastic so we could slip and slide. The girls got to play with small ovens hot enough to produce molten lava-hot desert blobs. Not to mention real chemistry sets and back in the 1950’s even a game that included radiation produced by real uranium.

Although I think modern parents are often too overprotective, let’s face it, some of these things were just seriously bad ideas. We never thought much of it because we were doing what everyone else was doing. That is often the way things work spiritually as well. We are often not aware of the dangers because we just assume nothing bad is going to happen to us and that is a mistake.

We are continuing our series Growing in Grace as we work through 1 Corinthians. Today we pick up at chapter 10, verse 14. If you are using the blue Bible, we provide it is page 1194. If you do not own a Bible or have need of one, please take that one as our gift to you.

Earlier Paul had reminded them that God will judge those who do not believe, and that saving faith leads to a desire to be obedient. He then concludes that believers should urgently separate themselves from any kind of idolatry. In verse 14 he says, ¹⁴ Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

There is an urgency to this command. Paul doesn’t just tell us to avoid idolatry, he says run! Idolatry is the spiritual equivalent of a fire or a shooting incident. If a course of thought or action involves idolatry, get out of there as fast as you can!

That brings us to the main point of our message today. Believers must flee from idolatry. Let me just say that again, Believers must flee from idolatry.

The Bible tells us that idolatry isn’t just about worshipping images. It is a broad category that involves anything that robs God of the glory He alone deserves. The theologian A.W. Tozer is says,

“The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.”

The root of idolatry is a diluted understanding of who God is and its fruit is behavior that fails to honor God as the one true God who is alone worthy of our worship. It is found in everything that undervalues His worthiness, underestimates His holiness, dilutes His truth, discounts His love, and forgets His compassionate jealousy.

God hates idolatry because His love is perfect. He knows that greatest good and the greatest pleasure and the greatest love that human beings can experience is found only in Him.

Why does Paul give this warning at this point in the chapter? The reason is because some of the believers in Corinth were participating in meals at pagan temples where food was being sacrificed to idols. We must keep in mind that in ancient Corinth there were no grocery stores or refrigerators. People bought food in the market every day. Ancient Corinth was also a pagan society and most of the meat came from animals that had been offered in sacrifice to pagan gods. The temples where these sacrifices took place would serve the meat of the sacrificed animals in fraternal meals. This was an exclusive place to go for the freshest meat and it was a bit like going to eat at a pagan country club.

Back in chapter 8 Paul addressed the question of eating food offered to idols. There he said believers could eat the food offered to idols without sinning, but they shouldn’t do so if it would cause others to stumble. Here in chapter 10, he is addressing a slightly different question. Now he is talking about sharing in a meal in the temple where the sacrifices were actually taking place.

He will help them understand why this is not something they should do by examining the significance of the Lord’s Supper and then comparing that to the Jewish Passover and these pagan meals to show what their presence at those feasts implies. In verse 15 he says,

¹⁵ I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶ The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

He begins in verse 15 by telling them that if they think about it, the answer will be obvious to them. He then shares an important insight into the Lord’s Supper. He says that when believers come together with one another we are somehow participating in the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Some teach that these verses argue for a miraculous transformation of the bread and wine into the literal or spiritual body and blood of Jesus. We know this is not what Paul is saying because the entire argument here depends upon the similarity of our participation in Christ through the Lord’s Supper and what happens in both the Jewish Passover and in these pagan Corinthian temples.

The participation that Paul is talking about is a covenant participation, meaning that by participating in the Lord’s Supper the believer is reaffirming their fellowship with other believers and with Jesus Christ. We can see that he has fellowship and the identity of the community in mind because in the next verse he says,

¹⁷ Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

He is saying when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we are proclaiming a shared identity with the others who are participating. We are also proclaiming fellowship with Christ who we are acknowledging when we eat. He then explains that this is not unique to the Lord’s Supper but was also true of the Jewish Passover. He says,

¹⁸ Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

How were the Jews participants in the altar? They participated in the altar because by eating of the sacrifice they were identifying themselves with what the sacrifice represented. They were therefore also identifying with the God to whom the sacrifices were being made. The eating of the food in the context of the sacrifice identified them as taking part in the sacrifice which was offered on their behalf.

What he is saying is that wherever a god is invoked as the patron of the meal, the fellowship is not merely with the people at the table, but with the deity as well. All who participate are entering into fellowship with the spiritual being to whom the sacrifice was made.

Think of it this way, you don’t go to a birthday party just to eat pizza and cake. You being there connects you to the person’s whose birthday it is and just your presence at that meal is a form of giving honor to them.

Some of the Corinthians figured that since there is only one true God that the idols were not really gods and so they could eat freely in these meals, and it didn’t matter. After all, what difference did it make to participate in a meal to an imaginary deity that had no real power? They did not intend to offer worship from their heart, they were just looking for a meal.

Paul addresses this point wants to be sure they do not misunderstand him. Look what he says in verse 19,

¹⁹ What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰ No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. ²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

Paul agrees there is only one God. Idols themselves have no power and the power behind the idols is nothing compared to the Almighty Creator and judge of the universe. Paul says, however, that there is a spiritual reality at work here. The pagan deities are not gods, but they are demons.

Even many Christians in our country tend not to have a supernatural view of the world. They just tack a belief in God onto a world they can otherwise perceive with their senses, but the Bible says we live in a world that is filled with supernatural beings. Scripture is full of references to all sorts of heavenly beings. Demons are one of these kinds of beings that are usually associated with certain places and objects and they can cause all sorts of damage. They have some power but are not gods and the book of James tells us that they tremble with the knowledge of the One True God.

The issue is not that these other so-called gods are a threat to Christ. Isaiah 44:6–7 says,

“6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. 7 Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me,             since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.”

The issue is that these are spiritual beings that deceive people and steal worship from the Lord. They are enemies of God and enemies of our souls. They are dedicated to the destruction of faith and the corruption of worship.

Jesus came to deliver us from enslavement to these evil spirits. Look at Galatians 4:8-9,

⁸ Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Jesus rescues us from slavery to these demonic spirits and delivers us to the Father, so it doesn’t make sense for any believer to participate in a fellowship associated with them. Can you imagine a man who was released from prison wanting to go back and have lunch at the jail cafeteria?

Paul’s words in verse 20 that the sacrifices were offered to demons, not to God are another reference to the wilderness wandering of Israel. It is an allusion to Deuteronomy 32:17-18 which says of Israel,

¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. ¹⁸ You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

The verse comes from the Song of Moses, which recounts Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord despite his goodness to them and connects back to Paul’s Rock imagery we looked at a couple weeks ago at the beginning of the chapter. Most of those in the wilderness were judged because they lacked faith. Although Christ, the Rock, was with them, they sought out false Gods. Paul is warning us to learn from their example not to provoke God.

Paul then finishes with a very plain summary that is easy to understand. Verse 21,

²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²² Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

Eating the meat wasn’t an issue but honoring the demons to whom it was offered was a form of unfaithfulness. Earlier I said that all idolatry stems from a false conception of who God is. Let’s think carefully about the lie behind these temple meals.

The first lie is that these false Gods were not the creator who provided bountiful harvest or meat for food. The second lie is more subtle and is one that is relevant even to those of us who know there is one true God. The purpose of bringing sacrifices in ancient Corinth and throughout the Greek and Roman world was to obtain favor with the god to whom the sacrifice was offered.

People would bring sacrifices to obtain a blessing from the god. By expressing worship, they hoped the god would be pleased and their offering would be rewarded. For example, a person might bring an offering in the hope of having a healthy pregnancy, a good crop, or for protection on a journey.

When disaster or difficulty came, ancient people often interpreted that to mean that they had made the gods angry and so people would also bring sacrifices to turn away the wrath of the god. These were called sacrifices of propitiation, meaning that they were supposed to satisfy the anger of the god. These sacrifices would make peace between the offended god and the people.

All of this is built upon a gross misconception of who God is. The assumption is that we can earn the favor of God through some work that we do, or that sinners can satisfy the anger of God by doing something for Him or offering Him a gift. It is an underestimation of the holiness of God and the seriousness of sin. It is making God into far less than He is and elevating people far higher than we are. It places humans at the center of atonement because how God responds depends upon us. It is ultimately the lie of saying we are made acceptable to God and receive His blessings because of our works.

But the glory of the Gospel is that our forgiveness and acceptance, and God’s favor upon us is not based on a sacrifice that we make to please God but on the sacrifice God provides through Christ’s body and blood. We do not have fellowship with God because of our obedience and our works, but because of the perfect obedience and perfect work of Jesus Christ, who offered Himself for all who would trust in Him to provide propitiation.

Friends, every one of us has offended God. We have offended the creator who provides all the blessings we rely upon for our life and happiness and He is right to be offended. We have offended Him by rejecting His love and rejecting His lordship over us. We were created to exist in a relationship of perfect love with Him, with each other, and with the world but our hearts are sinful and selfish. Every one of us has broken His law because we love ourselves more than we love Him.

We have lied, coveted, hated, disrespected, and envied. We have all put ourselves and our fleshly desires above Him and added to the corruption of the good world He created. He is right to be angry about sin and there will come a day where every one of us will stand before Him and face judgment.

We are guilty and there is no sacrifice of our own that is valuable enough to satisfy His righteous judgment. There is nothing that can come from us that will erase the sins we have committed. He is not like those false gods in Corinth. He is holy and righteous.

But in an act of unbelievable love and mercy, He sent His own Son Jesus to live a perfect life and then offer Himself as the only acceptable sacrifice for sins. He was tortured and crucified, being nailed to a cross. He died as a substitute for all who will put their faith in Him and then three days later, He rose from the dead proving that the sacrifice was accepted. God’s righteous anger against all who repent and believe was satisfied by His blood. God was propitiated, and all those who participate in that sacrifice by faith now have peace with God.

It is a peace that cannot be bought with the blood of bulls and goats. It is a peace that cannot be bought by our good works or religious observances. It is a peace that can only be obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. God Himself has done what we cannot do. If you are here this morning and you are struggling under the burden and guilt of sin, stop pursuing a righteousness of your own and put your trust completely in what Jesus has done for you on the cross.

The demons tell us we must try harder to appease God, but the Word of God tells us that we will never be made acceptable by our works or our sacrifices. The only answer is to give up our selfish pride, humble ourselves by admitting that we are not good enough to earn His favor and instead accept by faith the gift of righteousness offered in Jesus Christ.

It is only by grace that any sinner will ever find salvation but through the shed blood of Jesus sinners are invited to the throne of grace. Do your sins discourage you? Then remember Christ came to die for sinners. Are you broken and bruised? Then remember He is the great physician, and it is by His wounds we are healed. Are you weak and afraid? Then know that He came in the weakness of flesh like one of us and is not ashamed to call Himself our brother.

If you have any doubt whether God loves you or will accept you, listen to Romans 5:8–11 says,

^“8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

As believers, we are called to rejoice in God but by participating in these sacrificial meals these Corinthians were using their freedom to fellowship with spiritual enemies that spread lies about God that keep people from recognizing His grace, and mercy, and power. They were celebrating lies that kept people in their sins, slandered God, and robbed Him of glory.

You may be sitting here this morning listening to all this talk about temples and sacrifices and thinking, “ok, I get it, no temple meals, not a problem” but those same lies that were behind the worship of demons in Corinth are still enslaving people today. Those same false understandings of who God is might look differently in our community, but make no mistake, they are here.

Friends, we must avoid anything that puts us in a position to honor a false notion of who God is. Idolatry is a big topic, but since Paul is talking about types of idolatrous fellowship, that is what I want to focus on in our application as well. If we love Christ, we cannot participate in anything that honors or seek the blessing of false gods.

For example, it is not uncommon for me to be asked by believers if it is ok for them to participate in non-Christian wedding ceremonies. Often these ceremonies have involved Hindu, Muslim, or native American prayers and rituals. Based upon Paul’s teaching in this passage, I would say no. That may require difficult conversations with friends and family, but Paul says we must not participate in false worship, we are to flee from idolatry.

When traveling to various places around the world it is common for people to enter shrines and temples and light incense or whatever. These are not simply tourist attractions; these are places where demons are given honor. If you visit a place such as this, do not participate in the ceremonies, instead pray for the light of the gospel to come to that place. Any form of divine fellowship that has a false claim about God at its foundation is inappropriate for a believer. Light can have no fellowship with darkness!

This includes any association with the occult. Many people, even some Christians, think little of playing around with horoscopes, palm reading, Ouija boards, or tarot cards. Their logic is like that of the Corinthians. It isn’t real, so it is just entertainment. But these are not just games or entertainment though; they are lies spread by demons to draw people away from God. There is no place for a child of God to participate in such things.

This teaching on idolatry should also impact how we think about false teaching in the church. We are swimming in false idolatrous teaching in the world today. We are called to be gracious and not every teacher who disagrees with us, or even who is flat out wrong about something is a false teacher. But any teacher whose ministry is built upon teaching that denies the gospel is spreading the doctrine of demons and is leading people into idolatry.

Please think carefully about the content you consume online, in podcasts, or on TV. So-called ministries like Bethel Church use their music and media to raise enormous amounts of money they use to spread false teaching. Word of faith preachers say a lot of things that may be practically helpful, but the core of their teaching is a denial of the true gospel. We share a lot of beliefs in common with Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, but the Mass and the sacraments distort and deny the gospel of the New Testament.

Immerser yourself in the Word and in truth so you can see clearly where a distorted view of God is being promoted. The gospel of grace, which is the one true gospel, is far more glorious, far more beautiful, and far more glorifying to God than any substitute. Do all you can to be so familiar with it that you can easily spot a fake.

May our hearts be so moved by the majesty, glory, and love in the real gospel that our own devotion and affection for God drives us to want to avoid anything that robs Him of the glory that He alone deserves. May we be so transformed by the grace and truth of what God has done to save us and bring us to Himself that we follow this command to flee from idolatry not because we think by our obedience, we earn anything, but because our love for Him makes us want to do so.

We owe to God not only our inward worship and affection, but also outward worship and affection. When we participate with any false form of worship, even if our hearts remain faithful, we give the appearance of honor and adoration to powers who are enemies of Christ. We cause confusion among the weak in faith and we sin by giving glory that belongs to God alone to another. God is jealous of our affection for Him because in Him alone is salvation found. That is why Believers must flee from idolatry.