Your hard-backed hymnal, hymn
number 62, crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon the throne. Let's all stand. Number 62. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing. And hail him as thy matchless
king through all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky Can fully
bear that sight But downward bends his wandering eye At mysteries
so bright Crown Him the Lord of life, Who triumphed o'er the
grave, Who rose victorious to the strife, For those He came
to save. glories now we sing, who died
and rose on high, who died eternal life to bring, and lives that
death may die. crowned him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given
from yonder glorious throne, to thee be endless praise. Please be seated. Good morning. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me, we're going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians
chapter 10. While you do that, make an announcement. We are not going to Sarasota
tonight. Last-minute change of plans.
And so we're going to have a Super Bowl party at our house. And
everybody's welcome to come. So I hope that you all are able
to do that. If you can, please come. OK? Tonight about 6 o'clock. All right. Let's pray together. Our
Heavenly Father, we're so very thankful for the blessing that
You have put into our hearts, enabling us to join our voices
together in song of praise and worship to Thee. We thank you
for the ministry of your Holy Spirit that gives us some understanding
of your mercy and of your grace, of our need for a Savior, and
enabling us, Lord, to trust thy dear Son for all our righteousness
and all our justification before thee. We pray now that you would
send your spirit again in power, that you would enlighten the
eyes of our understanding, that you would increase our faith,
that you would cause us, Lord, to, as you have admonished us
in your word, flee idolatry and run to Christ. We ask it in his
name. Amen. We concluded last week with verse
13 in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, where the Lord is bringing the
previous verses to a close, telling us that there's no trial, there's
no temptation, there's no testing in life, but such as is common
to all men. We're all in this boat together,
but God is faithful. And that's the key to our hope,
isn't it? It's His faithfulness. It's not
our righteousness, His faithfulness. God is faithful, who will not
suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able, but will,
with every trial, every temptation, provide the way of escape that
we might be able to bear it. Now Christ Himself is that way
of escape. He's the only one that we can
flee to in the times of our trials and testings. And He's the only
one that's able to keep us from falling. And so the next verse,
He says, flee therefore idolatry. If we're to run to Christ, then
there's something that we're running away from. You run away
from a fight that you can't win. You know, a foolish young person
might stand up to an adversary thinking that he can defeat him
only to find himself beaten up. and but a wise man notice in
verse in verse 15 I speak as to wise men judge ye what I say
a wise man knows that his adversaries too great for him a wise man
knows by experience and by the revelation of God's Word that
he can't stand up to temptation he can't do it you hope temptation
comes I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna cave in I'm gonna fall
I cannot resist temptation is that your experience So the Lord
in these verses is speaking to wise men who understand their
inability to stand against the devil and to resist sin and to
fight the flesh. We can't do it. So the Lord is
telling us he's provided the way of escape, that's Christ.
And as we're running to Christ, we are fleeing, running away
from idolatry. Now, I want to repeat something
I said Wednesday night. Idolatry is a sin that every
believer in one sense is done with. When the Lord When the
Lord reveals Himself in us, and we come to understand that our
salvation is all of grace, it's not of works, it wasn't by our
will, it's not of Him that willeth, it's not of Him that runneth,
it's of God that showeth mercy, that Christ is all our righteousness,
that He's all of our justification before God, whatever religious
experiences we had before that, We understand them to be idolatry
and we're done with them. We're done with them. We cannot
go back to a works gospel. Not if the Lord's revealed himself. You cannot go listen to someone
who speaks lies against your Savior. You cannot do it. It's just a fact. Turn with me to prove that point. Let me show you in Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10. We'll read several verses here,
but in order to understand verse 26, we have to read from verse
25 all the way down to the end of the chapter. So bear with
me for just a minute. Verse 26 says, if we sin willfully
after that we've received the knowledge of the truth that remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins. Well, let me ask you a question.
What sin have you ever committed that you didn't commit willfully?
Every sin that we commit, we commit willfully. And we know
that our thoughts are fraught with sin, our motives, our attitudes,
our actions. We're sinners. Sinners can do
nothing but sin. And all we do is sin willfully. So what is the Lord talking about
here? If we sin willfully, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin. He's talking about forsaking
the gospel. He's talking about having heard the gospel, confessed
the gospel, fellowshiped with believers, and then walk away
from the gospel. Let me show you that. Look at
verse 25. Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more
as you see the day approaching. Now forsaking yourselves together,
not forsaking yourselves together is not missing church occasionally. It's forsaking the gospel. It's going back to idolatry. it's it's leaving the one that
you profess to believe in and going back to a free will works
gospel first twenty five if we if we did if we do that if we
do that then we have nothing but a fearful looking for of
judgment and firing nation which shall devour the adversaries
he that despises most moses law died without mercy under two
three witnesses how of how much soarer punishment suppose ye
shall be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of
God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he
was sanctified." You see, he said at one time that his whole
hope of sanctification, his whole hope of holiness before God was
through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said that.
But now he's forsaken that and he's trodden underfoot the blood
of Christ And he's considered it an unholy thing and have done
despite to the spirit of grace. So that's, that's idolatry. That's going back to your old
idol, your old religious idol. And, um, the Lord says, if you
do that now let let's read on for, we know. Him that hath said,
Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the
Lord. And again the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God. But call to
remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated,
you endured a great flight of affliction, partly while you
were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions,
and partly whilst you became companions of them that were
so used." So, why would a person forsake the gospel? Because the
persecution has become too great. This gospel is unique. It's going
to put you at odds with this world. It's going to put you
at odds with every religion of the world. And some will jump
on the bandwagon and profess faith when they hear the gospel.
And then when the persecution comes, it's just like the Lord
gave that parable of the sower of the seeds and some of the
seed fell into thorny soil and was choked out by the things
of this world. That's who he's talking about
here. Fruitless seed that showed evidence of life at first, but
in fact, there was no life to it. And so he's reminding them,
don't forget what it was like when you first believed. It's
not going to get any better. The hardships are going to continue
to come. Verse 34, for you had compassion of me and my bounds
and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourself
that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance. You took
the opposition joyfully. knowing that you had a city whose
builder and foundation was God, and you were glad to forsake,
as Moses did, the riches of Egypt for the hope of your salvation.
cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great
recompense of reward." So this forsaking the assembling of yourselves
together, this trampling underfoot the blood of Christ, which you
once profess you were sanctified by, is going back. It's giving up on your hope.
It's going back to a false gospel. Cast not away, therefore, your
confidence. You no longer have confidence
in Christ. You no longer have confidence
in the blood of Christ. Your confidence now is in that
old religious system and the old religious gods and your own
works and your own free will. For you have need of patience
that after you have done the will of God, you might receive
the promise. Are you capable of forsaking
the gospel? Lord, keep me. Keep me. I need patience. I need you to
sustain me for yet a little while and he that shall come will come
and will not tarry. Now this is what God says about
our lives here. Just a little while. Just a little
while. I was talking to a man yesterday,
and he was showing me the wealth of his possessions. And he's
my age. And I said, you know, not going
to be much longer, is it? He said, what are you talking
about? I said, well, you know, enjoy these things while you've
got them, but you know, it's just not, we're not going to
be here much longer. Well, well, you know, and of course he changed
subject, you know. How needful it is for us that
we've only got a few days. The Lord says, I'm not going
to tarry. And how does this book conclude? How does this book
conclude? Come, Lord Jesus, even now come. Isn't that what John said? Now the just shall live by faith,
but if any man draw back you see that he's talking about forsaking
the gospel some not going back to where you came from if any
man drawback my soul shall have no pleasure in him but we are
not of them that drawback under put onto perdition but of them
that believe to the saving of our souls there's our hope if
my faith is of god it'll last And it'll result in the saving
of my soul when the time on this earth is done. And if I draw
back, it's only proof that I never had saving faith. Never had saving
faith. So that idolatry, the idolatry
of going back to your old religion, to the confidence that you once
had in your good works and in your free will if the Lord has
given you saving faith if he's taught you the gospel if he's
revealed Christ in you and giving you the grace to put your hope
in Christ you're done with that or set flea idolatry I can't
get far enough away from don't want anything to do with it Now, in another sense, idolatry is the one sin that
believers never can get over. What was the first of the Ten
Commandments? The first of the Ten Commandments,
thou shalt not have any other gods before me. Don't even bring
them before my face. How many times in a day do you
find yourself having confidence in something other than Christ? How many times in a day do you
find yourself putting an idol before the Lord for your happiness,
for your contentment, for your satisfaction? You see, it's every
believer's experience. Now I understand. I understand
what my old religion was, idolatry. and I can't have anything to
do with that anymore the Lord has given me grace to flee from
that but at the same time I know now the real the real condition
of my deceitful heart and how prone it is to be drawn into
the things of this world and how idolatrous I am in my flesh
let me show you that turn the Colossians chapter 3 This idolatry of the heart can only be understood by a regenerated
child of God. One who's got a new nature. One
who's got the light of the gospel shining in their hearts in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only they are able to identify
that old man You didn't know you had an old man until you
got a new man, did you? You didn't. But now, oh, he rears his ugly
head all the time, doesn't he? And so here's our Lord's admonishment,
encouragement to us in verse 1 of Colossians chapter 3. If
you then be risen with Christ, if when Christ rose from the
dead you were in Him, And Paul said, I was crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live in the
flesh. David, you read that this morning
in the study. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and died for me. When Christ was raised, I was
raised. If I was in him in his death,
then I was in him in his resurrection. Paul said, Oh, that I might know
Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering.
The power of His resurrection is that when Christ was raised,
everyone for whom He died was raised with Him and was brought
to life in Him. So the hope of our salvation
doesn't have anything to do with anything we've done. It was all
accomplished in Christ. He was offered up for our offenses,
the scripture says in Romans chapter 4, and raised again because
of our justification. So God was pleased with the offering
that He made of Himself on Calvary's cross. And we are justified. And so the resurrection of Christ
is the positive proof that God gives to His people that I'm
satisfied with what my son accomplished and all for whom he died are
made alive in him if you then be risen with Christ seek those
things which are above what things Christ where Christ see death
said if on the right hand of God look to Christ set your affections
on him set your affections on things above not on things of
the earth All the things of the earth are earthy. They're temporal. They're corrupted. So the Lord's
speaking to our new man and causing us to say, set your affections
on Christ. For you are dead. You are dead. You say, well,
sin seems awfully alive in me. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. How am I dead? How am I going to reckon myself
to be dead? Only by faith. It's not something
you can see. Not something you can see in your
life or in your behavior. People are always looking at
their outward behavior and their motives and their words and their
works in order to try to get some confidence. No. Faith is
the evidence of things hoped for. the substance of things
not seen only by looking to what Christ did can we can we believe
ourselves to be yes I am dead I am dead why because God said
so and I can't not believe God I just can't do it can you do
you find it impossible to not believe God Now I know there's
a lot of double negatives in that statement, but you understand
what I'm saying. You just can't do it, can you?
Not if God's giving you faith. If you can call God into question,
then you have to worry about Hebrews chapter 10. If you can call God into question,
then then the possibility of you falling away is very real. God's people just believe God.
So the Lord says, reckon yourselves to be dead when Christ who is
our life, verse 4, shall appear. I'm sorry, verse 3, for you are
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. There's your life. Christ is your life. as head
from the natural man it's head from your natural lives you can't
look at a believer and an unbeliever and tell which is which you can
do it you can listen to what they say about what who they
believe and come to some conclusions from that but our life is is
here from the natural line When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. There's my
hope. My hope is that the trump of
God will sound and the dead in Christ will be raised and those
of us which will remain will be caught up together with them
in the air. We shall see him as he is and be made like him. What a glorious day that'll be.
Could it be today? Oh. verse five you can only understand
these next couple of verses in light of the first four verses if you go about trying to mortify
your flesh as an unbeliever all you gonna do is dig yourself
deeper into the into the pit of works so are you gonna do
but if in here's here's what the lord tells us in that other
passage that we're comparing this verse two flea idolatry
We have fled the false gospel, and we can't go back to it. And
in so doing, we now see in our old man there is an idolatrous
spirit that's constantly tempting us to put things before God. And the Lord says, you know,
we have to flee those things. and that's what he's talking
about here first five mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth now and very important distinction here not
on my mortifying the flesh the flashes are is our old man there's
nothing you can do to mortify him he's already dead he's he's
uh... you you can improve on the old
man he's he's nothing but sin that's what Paul was talking
about when he said we know that the law is spiritual but I talking
about his old man am carnal sold understand I'm a slave to sin
my old man is nothing but sin all wretched man that I am who
shall deliver me from the body of this death and so it is he's
not talking about improving the old man you can't improve the
old man he's talking about looking to Christ fleeing temptation
and idolatry so that the members of your body are not given over
as slave to that old man That's what Paul was talking
about in Romans chapter 6. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under the law, but you're under grace. You see, it's only the grace
of God that restrains the old man from taking control of our
members. And so he says, mortified therefore
your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanliness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness. And here's
why I wanted you to see this verse. Which is idolatry. Do you see those things in your
heart? In your old man? Sure you do. Sure you do. Covetousness? Evil concupiscence, which is
evil motives, evil thoughts, fornication. God says, this is
idolatry. It's idolatry. And so the child
of God, Lord, I'm an incurable idolater. I need grace. I need Christ. I need you to
restrain the evil of my flesh lest the members of my body which
are upon the earth would follow after them. I don't want to live
that way. Alright, let's go back to our
text. By the way, the works of the flesh identified
in Galatians chapter 5 conclude with the same thing. All these
things are idolatry. They're all idolatry. verse 14 1st Corinthians chapter
10 where for my dearly beloved flea from idolatry run from it
as a coward as a coward I think I've shared with you
all that I grew up in the military so we moved every two or three
years and and I had I had to fit into the pecking order of
the boys in the new school, you know, and, and, and so I knew
the first week in a new school was going to, I was going to
have some fights, you know, is that's what you did, you know,
to try to figure out. And I was too dumb to run from
them. Um, and I lost some and won some, but, uh, you know,
to wise men, somebody picks a fight with you run. Run where? Run to Christ. He's the way of escape that you
might be able to bear it. I speak as unto wise men. Verse 16, the cup of blessing
which we bless. Is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ and the bread which we break? Is it not the
communion of the body of Christ? You're in union with Christ.
You see, here's the encouragement that the Lord's giving us. That
we're in union with Christ. For we being many are one bread
and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold, Israel after the flesh. Now Israel is a type of the church. But most of the Israelites were
not believers. And so he said, but look at Israel
after the flesh, not spiritual Israel, but physical Israel.
Are not they which eat of the sacrifice partakers of the altar? What say I then? That the idol
is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols
is anything? No. but i say that the things
which the gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils and
not to god and i would not that you should have fellowship with
devils you cannot drink the cup of the lord and the couple devils
you cannot be partakers of the lord's table and partakers the
table of devils now that's god speaking he's
talking about that false religion you came out of and God's calling
it demon worship God says that that's why you
can't go back to it can you you can do with us a worship of devils
I'm now in union with Christ and he's my only hope. He's my life. My life is hid
with Christ in God. And outside of him, I have no
life and have no hope of salvation outside of his righteousness
and his sacrificial death on Calvary's cross. So the Lord's
talking about that first form of idolatry and speaking to the
church at Corinth and saying, don't do it. Don't go there. Don't go back. You cannot drink
the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers
of the Lord's table, verse 21, and tables of the devil. Do we
provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me,
but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me,
but all things edify not. I want to be built up in Christ,
rooted and built up in Him. And I want you to be rooted and
built up in Christ. I want you to be strengthened
in your faith. I want Christ to become more and more to us
as the Lord reveals more and more of His glory. Let no man seek his own, but
every man another's wealth. This idea, well, what's the world
say? Particularly when it comes to
the things that have been accepted in society in more recent years. We're not hurting anybody. We
can do what we want to do and leave us alone. Well, that's
fine. But they are hurting folks. And you do too, and I do too.
Everything we do has an effect on other people. And that's what
Paul's talking about here. We're not islands unto ourselves. We're in this together and everything
we do has an effect on somebody else, whether good or bad. Whatsoever, verse 25, is sold
in the shambles that eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
Now, he's talking about the church at Corinth obviously
was asking Paul questions about how they should live as believers
in this pagan culture. and one of the things had to
do with idol worship and uh... the meat that had been sacrificed
to idols at the idol temple parts of that meat were sold in the
marketplace and so when you went to a market to buy meat you didn't
know if the meat that was hanging there was part of an animal that
had been offered to an idol or not and so the lord said the
idol is nothing it don't don't worry about just buy it and eat
it I am for the earth is the Lord verse
26 for the earth is Lord's and the fullness thereof if any of
them that believe not bid you to a feast and you are disposed
to go whatsoever said before you eat asking no question for
conscience sake don't don't ask is that you know when somebody
serves you something is this been offered to an idol But if
any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols,
eat not for his sake that showeth it, for conscience' sake. And
for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Conscience,
I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty
judged of another man's conscience?" So, all the Lord's saying is,
just, well, the conclusion is actually in the last verse. So
let's just read on down. For if I by grace be a partaker,
why am I evil spoken of for which I give thanks? Whether therefore
you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do it all to the glory
of God. And that's the believer's heart's
desire to glorify Christ. We glorify him by showing our
dependence upon him. We glorify him by by looking
to him, and in so doing, mortifying the members of our bodies, this
idolatrous spirit that's in our old man. We don't want him controlling
our bodies in this life. Give none offense to the Jew,
nor to the Gentile, nor to the church of God, even as I please
all men and all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit
of many, that they may be saved." That's my hope. My heart's desire
is that Israel would be saved. Isn't that what Paul said in
Romans chapter 10? All right. Let's take a break. Yeah, yeah, making an idol out
of knowledge.