Verse 15 of 1 Corinthians 10,
I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing
which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body
of Christ? For we being many are one bread,
and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Now having looked at verses 15
and 16, verse 17 is of course the continuation
of that thought. The spiritual bread that's referred
to in verse 17 is no ordinary bread. The physical bread that represents
the spiritual is ordinary bread. It's an ordinary unleavened bread. And that's why the spiritual
is taught and emphasized here because it may seem like when
we observe the ordinance of the Lord's table that We're just
eating a cracker and drinking a little bit of wine. And in
a sense, that's very true. But what it shows forth, what
it causes us to remember, that's where the blessing and the glory
of the table is. It shows forth the Lord's death
till he come. It shows forth that he is that
bread that came down from heaven, the wine. his precious blood,
and we're taught here in this verse 17 that the
reality, the reality that's pictured by the table is that all who
by faith partake of the body of Christ, as he spoke on that,
he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, that's to partake of
him by faith. All that believe on Him and what
He did, the body, the blood, His person, His work. All who
believe on Him, on Christ crucified as their atonement, as their
acceptance with God, as their righteousness before God, all
of those are one in Him. They're one in Him. One bread,
one body, because of being partakers, That one bread as we are one
with him verse 16 the communion the Union with Christ that we
experience and celebrate at the table So as we are one with him
we also are one in him with each other that's verse 17 Determined to do Ephesians 4
and let's look at a familiar passage of scripture, but but
in the light of our text this is How I believe the Lord Maybe most often reveals Opens
up his word to us by portions of scripture shedding light on
other portions Ephesians 4 1 I therefore Paul writes the prisoner of the
Lord is Beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're
called if you asked a So-called preacher from false religion
today to preach on being worthy of the calling wherewith you're
called He would probably speak on how exemplary you'd have to
be and how strong in faith No, Paul describes it this way Come
down That's how you walk worthy. You see yourself as nothing.
Loneliness and meekness with long suffering for bearing one
another in love. Of course, we should do what
we can do. Like the woman with the alabaster
box of ointment, she did what she could. And the Lord's gifted
us, every one of us in different ways. And of course we should
try to honor him with whatever gifts he's given us. But when
Paul describes walking worthy, he talks about coming down. I
shouldn't escape our notice. Lowliness, meekness, long-suffering,
You see, we tend to overlook that. Oh, he's a great guy. What
do you mean by that? I doubt if you mean that he forgives
people and doesn't hold grudges and tries to help people. That's probably not what you
mean. You're probably saying that because they stand out in
some way. The people that are described here often are
overlooked because they don't Present a spectacular Personality
or make themselves greatly known in different ways Endeavoring to keep the unity
of The spirit in the bond of peace That's what our text in
that unity. There's one body and One bread,
he said in our text, one body, one spirit. Even as you are called in one
hope of your calling. Think about one spirit for a
minute. The part of me that matters now is the spirit. Paul said,
the life that I live, it's not I but Christ. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's true of
you too. So what does that make us in
one spirit with one another? Mysterious, but wonderful to
think about. Even as you're called in one
hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God
and Father of all who is above all and through all, and in you
all, it makes everything that separates us and divides us and
distinguishes us from one another sort of insignificant. And the oneness of believers
is spiritual, not after the flesh, it transcends. Therefore, all
fleshly bonds. It's more than any fleshly relationship
or fellowship. That's why the Lord said that
his brothers and his mother were those who did the Father's will. As dear as earthly relationships
can be, and should be, and often are, being creatures of the flesh
But all of them shall dissolve If that's all they are They'll
dissolve every one of them The fashion of this world passeth
away even the parts of the fashion of this world that are dear to
us now And that may seem Sad in a way
there are those that that are very dear to us that we may not have any relationship
with beyond this world. It's the relationships that only
exist in Christ that are true and lasting. They don't exist really in any
other sense. Our bond is Him. In what manner of brother and
sister and friend ought we to be to one another if our Lord
left us with this express commandment that you love one another as
I've loved you? That you care for one another,
that you be there for one another, that you lift up one another. What we're talking about and
what this passage that we're gonna look at, Lord willing,
tonight talks about is adorning the doctrine. This is not practical teaching.
And let me tell you what I mean by that. But this is vital to
our text to understand this. Our oneness, our bond is not
agreement in doctrinal logic. You might say, well, we're a
certain denomination, and that's why we gather together, because
we agree on certain points of doctrine. That's not what the
text says, and that's not what the scripture says. Agreeing
on the truth of Christ is a side effect of the relationship that
we have in Him. That's not the beginning of it.
That's not the foundation of it. Turn with me to Titus chapter
two, and we'll see that, I believe, in this text. Our oneness with one another
is not just that we intellectually agree on points
of doctrine. It may seem that way. And of
course, anybody that knows the Lord is gonna agree about the
Lord. And that's what the gospel is. It's Him. But look at Titus
2.6. Young men likewise exhort to
be sober-minded in all things, showing thyself a pattern of
good works. In doctrine, showing uncorruptness,
gravity, sincerity, Sound speech that cannot be condemned
You know how you do that. You know how I preach in such
a way that nobody can argue with me Nobody can argue with you I Say
what God said, that's how you do it sound speech that cannot
be condemned To call what does Present itself
as disagreement to the gospel a legitimate Condemnation or
a legitimate argument or legitimate in any way is a stretch We preach
in such a way That no sane person the Lord
Has presented the gospel in this books in such a way that no sane
person It's not some complicated thing that only smart people
can figure out. It's plain as the nose on your
face. It's typified in how the Lord
healed that lame man. And it says, nobody could say
anything against it because there he was. When the apostle said,
the Lord Jesus Christ hath shed forth this, they couldn't argue
with him about it. Because there was the power of
God on display. It's on display in the gospel
too. Look what he says. showing thyself a pattern of
good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,
sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary
part may be ashamed. You see what he's saying? That's
what I was trying to say in way more words and not as well. If you can argue with the plain,
simple truth of the gospel, you ought to be ashamed of yourself,
on the very face of it. Everybody knew that man was lame.
If anybody had said, oh, they're hucksters, this is some kind
of magic trick, they'd have been laughed at, and rightly so. Couldn't say a word against it.
That's the nature of the gospel Having no evil thing to say of
you They can't even come up with anything That's why typically
when there is a disagreement on doctrine with those who preach
the gospel. It's personal mark it down I've
been through a lot of it. I've watched a lot of it happen.
It's personal And before you know it, they're nitpicking each
other's doctrine and it becomes a doctrinal problem. No, it's
just something you ought to be ashamed of. Some personal nonsense that should be put away as is
exhorted all through scripture. I know that's easy to say. That's
easy for me to say. But the thing is, I'm not the
one saying it. Exhort servants to be obedient
unto their own masters and to please them well in all things
not answering again Not purloining but showing all good fidelity
that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things
all of these you see people have talked about and differentiated
between what they call doctrinal teaching and practical teaching
But that's a false distinction, and here's why. All doctrine
is practical. If you don't do it, you don't
know it. And both is by the grace of God.
You're not gonna know it without God's grace, and he's got to
work in you to willing to do it, to even wanna do it. We're
not gonna get any glory out of any of it, but they go together. You might make a distinction,
but you can't separate them. All doctrine is practical, it's
called adorning the doctrine of God, the teaching of God. You know what the teaching of
God is? Right there, that's it. You can't condense it, you can't
put it in a nutshell. But it's all Christ. It's all
Christ and him crucified from start to finish. For the grace
of God, look at this verse 11. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, didn't
I? Teaching us what? That we ought to argue with people
and beat them down. you know, prove that we know
more than them and don't let anybody get away with saying
anything wrong now. Let's be sure we brand them a
heretic and let everybody know they're a heretic, even if it's
somebody that's been dead for 300 years. No. Teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live a certain way. adorning the doctrine, doers
of the word and not hearers only, deceiving our own selves, that
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,
looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for us. There's your motivation. There's
your motive for living godly in this present world. Our righteousness is Him. We don't live a certain way so
God'll be happy with us. God's real happy with us in Christ. We live a certain way because
he gave himself for us. That he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works. You see that the connection,
that the inseparable connection between doctrine and doing. Knowledge. and action. But if you don't act on it, you
don't know it. It's called faith that works in the scripture.
1 John 4, 19, we love him because
he first loved us. If a man say, I love God and
hateth his brother, for example, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen
in This commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love
also his brother If a man say if a man say People
say a lot of things because of their intellectual persuasion
on doctrine, but to actually be one of to be one bread, to
be one body in Christ is something that affects everything we think,
everything we say, and everything we do. The action is not the root. The
action is the fruit. Not the cause, but the necessary
effect. In verse 18 in our text, behold
Israel after the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifices
partakers of the altar. So this is a picture that goes
back to the beginning when the priests lived off of the meat
that was offered to the Lord and other things used in the
sacrifices. Not only did that not defile
them in any way to do that, it wasn't blasphemy. to do that. It didn't dishonor God in any
way for them to be partaker. It was part of the law. It was
in the law itself. And that basic example right
there sets the precedent for what Paul just said and for what
he's about to say. So keep that in mind. It's not
some weird, mysterious, religious thing that, oh, I can't eat that,
you know, that was offered to an idol. Well, even from the
very beginning, that kind of thinking would have been foolish. It's also notable here that Paul
mentions that he's referring to Israel after the flesh when
he says this. Behold Israel after the flesh.
are not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the
altar. Israel after the flesh, because
in the rest of this passage, he's talking about spiritual
Israel. He's talking about the church, those who are one, one
bread, one body, one Lord, one faithful. That's not Israel after
the flesh. But Israel after the flesh, he
uses them as an example as a picture. Just like the sacrifices of animals
were just pictures of Christ, God's only lamb. Israel after
the flesh is only a picture of the true spiritual Israel of
God. The spiritual Israel of God is
who he speaks of as being worn in Christ That's why he makes
that distinction Israel after the flesh. They're a picture There's basis here in the law
of God, but you have to distinguish between the two and Paul does
that in several places in Scripture in the New Testament verse 19
and What say I then that the idol is anything or that which
is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything Differentiating the physical
from the spiritual when it comes to the elements themselves The ones that even that God ordained
God ordained sacrifice to picture the Precious blood of Christ
shed for the sins of his elect But differentiating between the
physical pictures and types ceremonies and the spiritual truth That
is exalted that the the gospel that is set forth in those things
is is vital. It's vital to Paul's teaching
here, and that's what he's doing here. To worry about whether
something was offered to an idol before you eat it is to admit
that there's some significance to that idol. It was just meat
before they offered it to the idol, but oh, now, oh, I don't
have anything to do with it. So he's saying, I'm not saying
the idol is anything. Don't think that. It's not. Don't
act in that way. Don't act as though it were.
significant in any way whatsoever. It has no significance or power.
The thing offered to it is not special in any way because it
was offered to that idol. It's just meat. And this is also true of that
which is offered to God. It's just a lamb. It's just a
bull. There has never been anything
used in the service of God that was in and of itself special
or significant Now God commanded that things be done in a certain
way. He specifically instructed the
way that it was to be built, how it was to be built, the materials
it was to be made out of, everything about it, how it was to be used
in the service of God in order to picture his son. So adding
to that list, like making crosses out of gold or silver or whatever
you make them out of, I wouldn't recommend that because God was
real jealous over what he prescribed in his worship then and what
he prescribes in his worship now. He's always been very particular
about it. And when people have deviated
from what he specifically instructed, God's killed them. And there's more than one way
to die. So just because you hadn't been struck down, I don't recommend
it. I don't recommend making addendums
to God's list of things that he ordained and instructed to
be utilized in his worship. But the things themselves that
were ordained of God and instructed to be made a certain way out
of certain things and used a certain way, There's nothing about them
in and of themselves that's special. What made it special was that
God sanctified it, that God set it apart for his worship. That
was what was special about it. And that is exquisitely pointed
out in scripture. The serpent of brass, what a
wonderful thing that was. God said, look and live. People
were cured of deadly poison by looking at that serpent. Oh wow,
a magic serpent. No, a piece of brass. That's what God's man called
it, a piece of brass. And he had to declare it so because
people were worshiping the brazen serpent. It had to be destroyed. before people could worship,
so that people couldn't worship it. You know, if they actually
found, and it's comically tragic, I guess, that
the Catholic Church over the centuries have sold so many pieces
of the actual cross of Christ that you could make a million
crosses out of them. But if they actually found the
Ark of the Covenant, did you see Raiders of the Lost Ark?
That wasn't it. But the real, the actual Ark
of the Covenant, if people found that, wow, look, it's gold, it's
beautiful, it's gorgeous. You know what the scriptural
thing to do would be? Destroy it. Immediately destroy
it before anybody can worship it. Oh, but the spiritual significance
that God placed on that ark was glorious, that mercy seat. Now, though, we look to the one
pictured by that ark, by that mercy seat. Why in the world would we need
for the wine of the Lord's table to actually turn into the blood
of God's Son? Why is that something that's
desirable to anybody? If you literally cut him open
while he walked this earth and drank some of his blood like
a vampire, it wouldn't put away one of your sins, not one, not
the whitest one. So why would we wanna do that
now? Why would we wanna say that now? It was Christ's offering
on Calvary. It's what is pictured by the
table, the simple, beautiful elements of the table. It's just
bread. It's just wine. It's Christ's
sacrifice on Calvary for his people. That's glorious and effective. Obtained eternal redemption for
us That precious blood is pictured
by the wine just ordinary wine And we remember him because he
himself is our salvation In verse 20 in our text, but
I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice
to devils and and not to God. So there is sin in what they're
doing. Doesn't change the meat that
they offer to a false God. Doesn't make it anything else
but what it is. But there is evil involved in
them doing that. Don't get involved in that. That's
the message of this part. I would not that you should have
fellowship with devils. buying that meat at the market
and going home and fixing a nice steak for your family, that's
not fellowship with them that worship the devil. You see the
difference? But there were clearly markets,
we call them restaurants now, but open markets where you could
go in and maybe even, and this is a little bit of speculation
and I want you to know that, but I believe that they actually,
went through these ritual sacrifices to false gods and things and
then served that meat as part of that ceremony, that seems
to be indicated. We don't know that for sure.
But it doesn't matter whether that's how it happened or not.
The clear teaching here is just as clear without knowing that
for sure. Because look, he's defining the difference here
by giving examples of both. And here's the example of what's
going on when they actually offer the sacrifice to the devil. You don't want in on that. Verse
21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.
You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of
devils. that meat having been offered to a devil doesn't make
it devil meat. But you getting involved in any
way in the ceremony of that, in the fellowship of that, not
good. So that's pretty clear, I think. If you sit at the table with
devils, You're partaker of the spirit
of Antichrist according to this Pretty clear instruction here
in the same way that to bid Godspeed to someone Who is preaching Antichrist
or propagating Antichrist false gospel And the scripture says
you're partaker of their evil deeds We don't want that We don't
want that It doesn't mean that you're worshiping
the devil in your heart, and you may justify it that way.
Well, I've just, you know, I got caught up in it, and some of
these guys are my friends, and in my heart, you know, I didn't
worship the devil. Still doesn't make it good. Still doesn't make
it a good thing. It's not expedient. It's not
helpful. It's not profitable. It's not gonna unsave you if
you belong to the Lord. Doesn't make you a devil, but
the exhortation is don't have fellowship with devils I Suspect that we have dealings
with devils unawares in this world just like we have dealings
with angels unawares in this world But that doesn't change this Doesn't doesn't make it unclear So we've got some instruction
in great detail about this. As I said, expedient means helpful
or profitable. It's not profitable to do that,
to eat things offered to idols in such a way that it offends
a weaker brother. Not helpful, not profitable. And to fellowship with devils,
not a good idea. Don't sit at the table with them.
don't have anything to do with their idolatry. But if they've got rib eyes on
sale, I'm in. Benefit from what they do, but not in such a way that it
dishonors the Savior. So look at verse 22. Here's the
rhetorical question. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
That, that's the standard. That's the question to ask that
governs the heart in such matters as this. Am I provoking the Lord
to jealousy? And we could get into that analogy But I'll leave that to your thoughts
about as far as jealousy over somebody that you love. There
are a lot of ways to provoke jealousy, not just one. So this is the question, and
it's not a hard one for believers to answer. You know if you're
doing that or not. Buying some meat and cooking
it for your family without giving a hoot whether it was offered
to an idol at one time is not provoking the Lord to jealousy. That's just evident. But if you join in their feasts, even if you justify it now, In fact, if you ever find yourself
in a place where you revel and rejoice in the fellowship of
those who are openly ungodly, and hate your God, if you prefer
the fellowship of the world to the fellowship of the saints,
that's what's at issue here, provoking the Lord to jealousy. The meat is just meat, but where's
your heart? Is the reason that you eat that
which is offered to devils the fact that you enjoy hanging out
with devils? That's a problem. They might have just been there
for a good meal, but then things start happening, you know. Does
that ring any bells? I've been in those situations
many times in my life. My very good friend once was
a Freemason. And he tried to get me to be
one, too. Apparently, you're not supposed
to do that. You're not supposed to solicit others to be Freemasons. But he was all over me about
it. And I looked into it quite a
bit. And his plea was that they do
a lot of good for people. That's what attracted me to it,
he'd say. They just do a lot of good for
people. We do a lot of good things. We help people. And I asked him
this, do you pray? He said, yeah, we always pray before
every meeting we pray together. I said, do you pray in Christ's
name? Who are you praying to? If you can't mention the name
of Christ in that place, get out of there as fast as you can.
I've done a lot of research on it. Well, I found out he was
one and I learned what I learned wasn't good and I told him about
it. And he took the ring off and never put it on again as
long as I knew him. And I'm thankful for that, but that's just an
example of you get into something you might say, well, boy, this
is so good, you know. You know, my kids will get a
good education this way. You know, they won't have all
the problems that exist in public schools and all that. Yeah. What
are they telling them? when they're not doing math. What's the example that's being
set in that place? Is there idolatry taking place
right before their eyes, their young eyes? I believe this principle has
broad application. And being stronger than God here,
It refers to you being superior to God in the sense that the
way you're doing it, you've justified it. You figured out a way, you've
outsmarted God. You found a loophole. I'm not
doing it for that reason. What matters is what's in your
heart. Yeah, that may be true in some sense. But they do a lot of good, yeah.
Yeah, you could look at it that way. But when you come to the
place that justifying your behavior puts you in direct opposition
to the word of God, you're in a bad place. And there's a downside to giving
an example like Freemasonry and things like that, The downside
is that we tend to focus only on that maybe and think sort
of that that's what's being referred to here. It's not, it's everything
like that. Just enjoying life sometimes
can put us in places we ought not be. But always ask yourself, do we
provoke, do I provoke the Lord, my God, to jealousy? The Lord our God's a jealous
God. And he uses that illustration for a reason. I don't know about
you, but it didn't take a whole lot to make me jealous. That's a good question to ask. And may the Lord forbid it that
we provoke him in that way. Let's pray.