Alright, let's turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 10. Our lesson is going to be from
verses 13 through 24. And I've been all over the place
on what to title this. And I finally settled on the
words of one of the verses here, flee from idolatry. But what
he's talking about here, he's defining what idolatry is, and
what true gospel worship is, and that there's no in-between.
There's no in-between. If you leave this, you leave
the one way of worship, the one true and living God, the one
gospel, if you leave this and go to this, then there's no in between. There's no gray area.
You can't go back over here and participate in false worship
and be a true believer. You can't do that. And true believers
don't want to do that. And what he's trying to make
clear to them is that these teachers who are coming in here and stirring
this church up and turning this church upside down are trying
to teach that very thing. They're trying to teach some
kind of a compromise where you can go back and do this and do
that and visit and have some fellowship there, but you come
back over here and everything is going to be fine. And He is
telling us in no uncertain terms it ain't going to be fine. So
let's begin here in verse 13. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to men. But God is faithful who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you
may be able to bear it. The temptations he speaks of
here are common to all men. They're everyday things that
just plague mankind and cause him to practice sin. And the
word taken here, there's no temptation taking you. The word taken here
has the sense of an enemy who has taken you into his grasp. You're in a warfare and you're
out here at the battle and the two groups that are opposing,
the two opposing armies just clash. You've seen some of these
old movies where they're out there with swords and spears
and they just run into each other. It's what he's talking about
is that enemy grabs you. And he's going to hold you. He
has intentions to slay you. And that's how these temptations
come. They lay hold on you, these temptations. And it has a sense of an enemy
who's taking you into his grasp and lays hold of you and attempts
to bring you under his control. And we alone, We can't resist
these things. We can't resist these things.
You could not resist them. Left to our own reasoning and
logic, our own motives and will, the devil would take us captive
at his will. But God is faithful. God is faithful. Isn't that what it says here?
But God is faithful. Not us. Not we who are being
tempted. But God is faithful. He's faithful. He's faithful to those He loves.
He's faithful to them. He's faithful to His purpose
and decrees. He's faithful to His promises
and His Word. God is faithful. And He's faithful to His name
and character. And because God is faithful,
He will not suffer the believer to be tempted above that which
He's able. because he's faithful, not because
you are. If he allowed that temptation
to take you based on your own power and ability, based on your
own righteousness, it would just take you away. But it's not. It's based on his faithfulness. God knows what we are, and He
knows what we're able to do. Now, I want to be clear on something
here. God's not the author of these temptations. Be careful
when you start saying, God tempted me. No, God is not the author
of these temptations. In James 1, verse 13, listen
to this. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God. For God is not tempted with evil,
neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted when
he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And when lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death. It's the very nature of men to
sin. That's the most natural thing
in the world for a man to do, is sin, because that's what his
nature is. Lust and greed and envy and anger
and rebellion, it's common. It's common. That's why we're
not shocked by it. My soul, when a man understands
the truth of these things, he's shocked by them. We see things
on the news and we're shocked by them. A gruesome murder or
something, and we're shocked by what we see on there. We're
not shocked by our own sin. And the reason we're not shocked
is because it's common to us. We've never known anything else. But God is faithful, and God
has not left us alone. We are born of God. We are born
of God. I John 3 verse 9 says, Whosoever
is born of God, listen to this, does not commit sin. For his
seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born
of God. Preachers say this is in reference
to the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us, and I don't have
a bitter problem with that. I don't have a bitter problem
with that. But it doesn't really fit the context. If you look
at this verse and look what this apostle is saying, that definition
doesn't really fit the context. I think a better explanation
of what he is saying here is that man born of God does not
make sin the tenor of his life. Sin no longer rules in him. Grace now reigns. And it reigns
in righteousness unto eternal life. He is no longer controlled
by it, overcome by it, ruined by it. He has an inward hatred
for it, knowing the truth about it. He has a heartfelt repentance
toward sin, turning from it continuously. He is not deceived by it. He
walks in the light of Christ. He understands what this sin
is. And he confesses his sin, and God is faithful and just
to forgive him of his sins and to cleanse him from all unrighteousness. Believers don't say they don't
have sin. John makes that clear right up
in the very first chapter down toward the end of it there. He
said, believers don't say that we have not sinned, and believers
don't say that they have no sin. I John 5 verse 4 says, Whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world. That man that is born
of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. God is faithful. He will not abandon us or allow
us to be plucked from His hand. Isn't that what He says? No man
shall pluck them out of My hand. And no man is going to pluck
them out of My Father's hand. No power in heaven, earth, or
hell, He tells us in Romans 8, will separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We persevere because
God preserves us. And He works in us. as well as
for us. Now let's go back to verse 14.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, flee from idolatry. We used to
have a cat and I lived down on my daddy's farm. We had about
seven acres and he had about sixty. And we lived down on this
portion and we'd walk up there sometimes in the evening and
have a cup of coffee and just sit around and chat. And one
summer night we was sitting out on the porch and I looked down
there and this cat was playing with toads. And it would, it'd
get right up to that toad and cause it to jump and then it'd
bat it with its paw. And we was watching this thing.
He'd been doing this for quite a while, and all of a sudden
I looked down and I saw that cat, and Daddy said, he's going
to get that frog again. And I said, that ain't a frog.
I said, that's a copperhead. And here's this venomous snake,
coiled up, with its head ready to strike, mouth wide open, and
this cat puts its nose right down to the tongue of that snake. And when that snake struck at
that cat, it went backwards and that snake never touched that
cat. But that cat continued to play with that serpent, batting
it and walking around it. We don't play with idolatry the
way a cat plays with a serpent. Don't play with it. Idolatry
is dangerous business. False religion in the entirety
of it, practice idolatry. They practice idolatry. They
worship another Jesus and they preach another gospel. And Paul
tells us here to flee from that. Flee from idolatry. Covetousness,
which is idolatry. Flee from it. Stay away from
it. Keep your distance. And there's
no better witness to your lost loved ones than to refuse to
worship in what you know to be the synagogue of Satan. No, I'm
not going down there. No. I go over here. Well, why don't you go down there?
Tell them why. Tell them why. Verse 15. He said, I speak as to wise men,
and you judge what I tell you. 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 all are
partakers of that one bread. When we take the Lord's table,
we drink wine. Do we not symbolically declare
ourselves as having a common union with Christ whose blood
this is? And are partakers of what that
blood symbolizes? Isn't that what we do when we
take the Lord's table? Are we not confessing ourselves
to be partakers of it, beneficiaries of it? And the broken bread which
we eat, are we not symbolically declaring a common union with
Christ and being partakers of the benefits of that broken body?
Isn't that what we do when we take the Lord's bread and drink
that wine? One bread, he says. One body. Verse 18. Behold, Israel after
the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers
of the altar? Paul said, let's go back to the
Old Testament. Let's go back here and look at the foundation
that was established thousands of years ago. Did not those priests
who brought those sacrifices and laid them on the altar, did
they not have a right under the law to eat those sacrifices?
Were they not partakers of it? This is just another picture
of the church having a common union with the body and blood
of Christ. Verse 19, what say I then? That the idol is anything,
or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say
that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice, now
listen, to devils, to devils, and not to God. And I would not
that you should have fellowship with devils. And so far, Paul
used three arguments against associating themselves with the
idol worshipers and participating in these feasts and celebrations
that they have. First, he uses the Lord's table.
When we sit at the Lord's table and drink the wine and eat the
bread, it suggests that we have a blessed and holy union with
our Lord and, therefore, are beneficiaries of His body and
blood. And in a like manner, to do the
same thing in the idol's temple suggests the same thing to that
idol. His second argument has to do
with our union with Christ and one another. When we meet around
the table, aren't we not saying that we're one with Christ and
one with one another? One body, one bread, one hope.
Even so, when we're partakers in the idol's temple, we give
the idea that we're one with their idol. One with those idolaters
that worship that. One with that body of whom they
confess to be a member. And then his third argument is
the Jewish priesthood, when they ate of the sacrifices, they declared
themselves to believe in the God of the altar and the sacrifices
which they were partakers of. And how many times was Israel
warned not to mix heathen worship with the worship of God? And
how many times did they ignore Him and go off and do that very
thing? He tells us that they're idols
or nothing. They're just idols. There's nothing
sacred or divine or any power in them. But they are offered,
in effect, they're offered to devils. Now, the very nature
of idolatry is to turn from the one true and living God to ourselves
to will worship and to false gods. And this turning is instigated
and promoted by the rulers of the darkness of this world. That's
who instigates these things. That's who brings these things
to pass. That's who stirs things up. And any worship which is
not the worship of God, are you listening to me? Any worship.
I don't care what the name is on the door. I don't care where
it's located. I don't care how many thousands
attend that church. I don't care how many churches
belong to their association. I don't care how long they've
existed. Any worship which is not the worship of God is devil
worship. That's exactly what it is. It's
devil worship. And he tells us here in verse
21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.
You can't do that. It don't mix. You cannot be partakers
of the Lord's table and the table of devils. It's impossible to
sit at both tables. We either rejoice in the true
and living God, or we rejoice in some false God. We either
love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, or
we love something else. You can't do both. It don't mix. We either see and believe in
the sacrifice of Christ or we see value and trust in the sacrifices
of false religion. Now, I dare say that nobody here
this morning is in any way tempted or ever had been tempted to go
bow down to a statue of Buddha or to go into some mosque somewhere
and worship some unknown god. We're not tempted. We go on the
Indian reservation. They got totem poles. Nobody
here is tempted to go in there and kneel down before a totem
pole and pray to some Indian god. But we're not tempted because
these things are foreign to us. But the Gentiles were raised
worshiping these gods. And they were commonly accepted
throughout all that part of the world. And what was going on
here was an effort to go ahead and accept this Jesus whom Paul
preached, this Jesus of Nazareth, but retain a respect for these
other gods. And retain some kind of respect
for the religion of their fathers and mothers. My friend, the Jesus that men
promote and worship today is another Jesus. It's another Jesus. The gospel they preach is another
gospel. The God they worship is the God
of their imagination, and they're all, according to this book,
devil worshippers. Our Lord said to the Jews, He
said to the scribes and Pharisees, now listen to me, we've been
talking about gods like Diana, the Greek gods, and all their
different gods that they had, and their statues and things.
And I'm telling you, you wouldn't be tempted because you know nothing
about that. But they did. They did. And so they gave value to those
things. But our Lord said to the Jews,
to the scribes and Pharisees, men who weren't deceived by these
things, they weren't deceived by them either. They didn't run
down to the temple of Diane or give any acknowledgment to those
false gods and things. And religion today, if you go
in there and sit down and listen to them, I tell you, they'll
denounce false gods. They'll denounce them from the
pulpit. They'll denounce them one-on-one in their testimony.
Nobody in there is tempted. Neither were these Jews. These
Jews carried the Bible. They read the Bible. And they
weren't deceived by these heathen gods. And they read and studied
the Scriptures. And our Lord said to them in
John chapter 8, verse 44, Ye are of your father the devil,
and the lust of your father you will do. Why did He say that? Because they preached another
Jesus. And they worshipped in a way
that wasn't ordained of God. It wasn't a prescribed way of
worship. They worshiped some other way.
They did what they thought was right. And our Lord said, that's
from the devil. And you do exactly what your
Father dictates for you to do, and you do it. What am I saying? I'm saying
you don't have to have a statue to be an idolater. All you need
is an imagination. That's all you need. You don't
need a statue. You don't need a piece of iron
or wood. Eventually it'll go to that in time, but you don't
need that. All you need is an imagination.
You don't have to dance naked around a golden calf to practice
idolatry. Just live your life in deceit
and darkness. That's idolatry. You don't have
to handle snakes to practice devil worship. Just worship something
or some idea of something that's not the one true and living God.
You're a devil worshiper. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2 says,
in times past we walked according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He works in subtlety, beguiling,
deceiving, twisting, and distorting the truth. After Paul's conversion,
having been a Pharisee, he said this. He said, we have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty. He owned up to it, Brother Winston. He owned up to it that he one
time practiced these things. But he said, now we renounce
these hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully. And this is how Satan works.
He works in men using the fallen masses to convince us that the
gospel cannot possibly be the truth of God. That's what he
does. And we look around, young men
and women, they look around. They hear what I say. They hear
what children at school tell them their preacher says. And
they begin to form ideas in their head and they begin to question
things. That's exactly how Satan works. And he works. He knows how fallen nature is. He knows how man's mind works.
He knows where his heart is. And he works in him subtly. Subtly. It's not as though all
of a sudden you get this strange look like these horror movies
on TV and all of a sudden everybody can look at you and say, oh,
he's demon possessed. Let me tell you something, you
see that man who's a zealot in religion and he's going here
and going there and going about to establish his own righteousness,
that man's demon-possessed. You see these preachers up there
preaching to the masses, preaching something other than the gospel,
trying to promote something other than the one true and living
God, that man's demon-possessed. And you don't know it. He can
possess you in such a way you'll never know it. You'll think you're
the most saved person, the most righteous person on earth. And
be demon-possessed. Possessed of the devil. He works
in all subtlety. And he beguiles and deceives
and distorts the truth. He uses those fallen masses to
convince them that the gospel can't be true. And we who know
how He works cannot have fellowship with these people. I can't have
fellowship with them. I'm to avoid them like the plague.
If I meet one going down the street, I'm not to tell him,
well, the Lord bless you, brother. I'm not even to say to him, Godspeed. We cannot be partakers of the
Lord's table and the table of devils. Verse 22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? Last time I was in an Armenian
church, I had this idea that I played music back then and
sang, and I had this idea. They always gave those who sang
the opportunity to testify. And I had this idea that my music
was opening doors for me to go in and testify. And I could get
a few minutes, and I'd kind of watch this pastor out of the
corner of my eye, and when I saw him fidgeting too much, I'd quit
and go on singing. But I thought I was doing some
good. My wife was with me that night, and I don't know who else,
but I think it was just me and her. But anyway, we were in this
Free Will Baptist Church, and the old Founding Father of the
church had come in the door, and God killed him less than
two feet away from me, killed him instantly while he was giving
his testimony to the church. And I knew I wasn't supposed
to be in that building, but I tell you, God has a way of putting
periods at the end of His sentences, and that put the period on that
sentence for me, and I haven't been back, and I'm not going
back by the grace of God. These are devil worshipers. They're
devil worshipers. Oh, my soul. Our God is a jealous
God. Suppose I woke up one morning,
and my wife fixed me this big breakfast. She fixed me fried
apples and all the things I like, biscuits and gravy and sausage,
and fixed this big breakfast, and just kept coming over and
hugging my neck and telling me how much she loved me and everything,
and got my lunch all ready and sent me off to work. But I forgot
something. And unexpectedly, I come back
home to get whatever it was I forgot. And I opened the door, and there's
my wife sitting on the couch with another man in his arms.
Would jealousy and rage, would that not fill my heart? Brethren,
the church is the bride of Christ. Do you hear what Paul's saying?
Are you going to provoke him to jealousy? Do you not know
who he is? And you going to be found in
the arms of false religion? You going to provoke him? You
stronger than him? Oh, my soul. Those who love Christ
not going to be found in the arms of false religion. I'm telling
you the truth. And all this worship out here,
people try to iron it over and smooth it out and make it look
good. They try to candy coat it. Well, it's okay. I'm just
going down there because my granddaughter goes there and I go down there
with her every now and then and maybe she'll come up here with
me. You better stay out of that place. They're devil worshipers. And you're not going to do them
any good. What's going to happen is you're going to get the harm,
not them. You're not going to help them
one bit. The best testimony that you can give to your children
and your relatives and those that you love is to not go into
that temple and come somewhere where the gospel is being preached
and you stand there. You stand there. That will be
your witness to them. That will be your witness to
them. Be careful where and how you worship. Be careful who you
identify yourselves with.