Dining With Demons - Steve Lawson

I invite you to take God's Word and turn with me to the book of 1st Corinthians 1st Corinthians chapter 10 today we want to look at verses 14 to 22 the title of this message is dining with demons something you do not want to do dining with demons and yet this is a very real and present danger not only in Paul's day but in this day as well I want to begin by reading the passage beginning in verse 14 and I trust that the Lord will give us understanding today of what Paul is saying really what God is saying through his mouthpiece Paul and what the implications of this are for our own spiritual lives beginning in verse 14 Paul writes therefore my beloved flee from idolatry I say as two wise men you judge what I say is not the cup of blessing which we share a blessing in the blood of Christ is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ since there is one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread look at the nation Israel are not those who eat the sacrifices shares in the altar what do I mean then that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything no but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God and I do not want you to become shares and demons 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 or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy are we not are we not stronger than he are we it's past week I drove to Nashville for my annual physical exam and passing through Montgomery and heading up to Birmingham I saw on the right of the highway this funny sign that's been there ever since I've been here in Alabama I'm sure many of you have seen it too the sign has a picture of the devil with a pitchfork on it and the sign says go to church or the devil will get you now seeing that sign for many years and I'll tell you what I've often thought based upon some churches I've been in go to church and the devil will get you the fact is just because someone is in church does not mean they are exempt from Satan in fact I will go so far as to say that the most dangerous place to be is in a worship setting in which the truth is not being made known by God I think it is far more dangerous than even being in a house of ill-repute where only your body is being soiled but to be in a worship setting where the truth about God and salvation is withheld from the people that soil's not the body but the soul and the spirit and it affects not merely temporal outcome but eternal outcome but what is far worse according to this passage is that when one is in a setting in which there is worship in which there is Allegiance given to a God and one is participating in that service they are opening themselves up to the activities of Satan and they are flirting with demons that is what Paul is saying in this passage that it is a very dangerous thing to place yourself in a worship context in a religious context in which there is false worship through false teaching of false gods it is not an innocent thing it is not merely a neutral experience but that there is a fellowship and a partnership that one steps into with the demons that are behind that false teaching and the demons that are behind that false truth Paul says in 1st Timothy 4 verse 1 that there are doctrines of demons and there are seducing spirits and every false religion that has been conspired by demons and every false teaching and every false worship of the one true Living God behind all of it the architect is the father of all lies none other than Satan himself John 8 verse 44 and so what Paul is addressing here with the Corinthians is very simply this they have been saved at a paganism they have been saved out of raw idolatry and now that they are in Christ now that they are the people of God and now that they understand that they have Liberty in Christ to partake of certain activities the Corinthians are pushing the fences out to the very limit and beyond the very limit and they are presuming upon God and they are indulging themselves in their liberties and in their freedoms to do whatever they want to do as if there are no consequences for their own spiritual lives in the fact of the matter is there there were enormous spiritual consequences that were negative in the lives of the Corinthians as they pursued certain liberties and they were actually going back into pagan temples pagan worship houses in which there was idolatry and they were doing it for social reasons and to be a part of their old network of friends and to be connected with the people of the town and they presumed that it was a very innocent thing and they did not want to to break off all of their associations and all of their friendships with those with which they once had fellowship with and so they were coming back into these pagan worship houses and they were involved in these pagan services that actually there were there were sacrifices that were being offered to pagan gods and they were eating of this bread in their own hearts and in their own minds they are saying we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we are we are in Christ and so for them it was not a matter of a truly abandoning Christ or forsaking Christ and and going back to the world what they wanted was a synchronistic approach where they could have one foot in their Christian Fellowship and one foot back in their old pagan fellowship and and be at home in either setting in which they found themselves and as they were going back to their old pagan friends and as they were going back to their old pagan context in which there they were participating in these services Paul must addressed them very directly and he will speak matter of Frank in fact Paul will command them to get out of those places and to forsake these pagan temples because they are endangering their own spiritual health and vitality to say nothing of the compromise of their witness and their testimony they're not in those temples to win people to Christ they're not in those temples to stand up and say this is all a sham this is all idolatry this is all a desecration of the one true Living God no they weren't going back into these temples and saying that they were just blending in with everybody else and and just going with the flow and going along with this and in so doing Paul says to them you are very naive in your spiritual life you do not understand what you are now exposing yourself to you do not understand the dangers for your soul and there was no danger for them to lose their salvation we are eternally secure in Christ there is no way that once they are truly saved that they could ever fall from grace but as those who are held in the palm of God's hand they nevertheless can place themselves in very slippery places and fall into influences that are satanic and demonic this may sound somewhat sensational to us this may sound somewhat over-the-top but Paul tells it like it is and perhaps it reveals something of our own naivety regarding exposure to that which comes from the kingdom of darkness now I do not think that this is saying that for example you could not that we cannot be with sinners let's just start with the most obvious point Jesus was the friend of sinners Jesus spent time tax collectors and sinners this is not saying that we are to with withdraw from the world and we all go buy land someplace and we live in a Christian commune and and just have our own little holy huddle that's not what this is teaching or saying we are to go into the world we are to penetrate the world we are to take the gospel to the world and that means we must rub shoulders with those who are unconverted and who are unsaved and neither is this saying that we cannot ever attend a wedding service for example that would be held in some place that where the gospel is not being preached and honored I do think it would be terribly wrong to regularly attend such a place that desecrates the true saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ but just to simply attend a service in which you are not a participant in which you are just an observer I don't think that in and of itself means that you have violated what Paul is warning about here but what he is saying is that if we allow ourselves to be in certain settings Abby they Church be they religious be they social be they cultural in which there is a religious context in which there is the recognition of God small G and we participate in that setting whether it be a place where there is a where it's a church where there is a false gospel that there is a denial of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that is a place that preaches another jesus and another gospel that is a damming gospel that says you have to be baptized in order to be saved that says you have to take the mass in order to be saved that says you have to worship Saints in order to be saved etc etc then according to this text you are exposed to the demons who are the architects of this false teaching and there will be serious consequences for your own soul that is what Paul is warning and and as he issues this warning there's not a middle ground on this it's an either/or as he will speak very directly and very frankly now let us understand this by way of introduction Satan longs to be worshipped that was his original sin in heaven he once was Lucifer son of the morning he was created as the highest of all of the Angels he was the the ark angel he had closest access to God in the hierarchy of angelic beings he was the highest of all of the Angels he was over the other angels and in his close proximity to God he demanded to be worshiped he wanted to elevate himself above the throne of God because as he looked around and as he saw the myriads and myriads of the angelic beings worshipped God he became drunk with his own pride in Envy and he wanted to be worshiped by the other angels rather than to simply be the orchestrator of worship from the Angels to God and so iniquity was found in his heart and he sought to elevate himself because he is a madman who wanted to be worshipped and God cast him down down to the earth and with him he cast a third of the angels Lucifer was so persuasive that even in the immediate presence of God he was able to convince a third of the angelic beings one out of every three to worship him rather than to worship God that's how shrewd how cunning and how diabolical the devil is and he convinced a third of the Angels to join in this rebellion against God and to put their worship in their adoration in him and now Satan has been cast down to the earth and a third of the angels and now as he is carrying out his schemes of darkness upon the earth perhaps his most dark and devilish desire as he still desires to be worshipped he still desires to be the object of adoration and affection from those who have been created in the image of God and there is a desire in his part to steal away worship from the one true Living God just as he did in heaven and to direct it all to himself and so he carries us out in so many different ways here upon the earth and he has conspired false religions and he is the one who stands behind every single one of these false religions he and his demons around the world and his false religions worship that God small G they are in reality offering their worship to these demons and to Satan himself and they are entering into a diabolical partnership with these demons they are naive of this and they are innocent of not innocent they are ignorant of this but that is the fact of the matter and they are dining with demons if you and Satan has also invaded the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ Church quote unquote and has corrupted the gospel and has diverted men away from the truth of God such that in many places as Jesus said in Revelation chapter 2 your church is nothing but a synagogue of Satan it is a synagogue of Satan because Satan is the one who is receiving the worship and the adoration in these houses of Lies and so all of that must be taken into account as we look at this passage that these naive shallow superficial believers in Corinth these carnal believers are going back into these pagan temples where Satan is reigning where demons are present and they are participating in these services and as such they are subjecting their very soul to the influences of Satan himself could anything be more dangerous could anything be more treacherous for one soul than to enter into direct contact with demons to enter into direct fellowship with and partnership with evil spirits I think we would be hard-pressed to come up with a greater danger so as we look at these verses I want to set before you an outline and I want to work our way through this I want you to note in verse 14 and 15 the command against idolatry and then in verses 16 through 20 the communion within idolatry there is a communion within idolatry and it's not with God it is with Satan and then I want you to note with me the contradiction of idolatry verse 21 and then finally the condemnation of idolatry in verse 22 now let's begin with the command against idolatry which begins in verse 14 and there's no small talk here by Paul Paul cuts to the chase I mean when someone's about to be run over by a train it's no time for a filibuster when someone is drowning it's no time for a lesson on how to how to swim or keep your nostrils above water it is time for dramatic intervention and that is what Paul does here we'll talk about it later he gives some explanation but he says in verse 14 therefore my beloved flee from idolatry stop flirting with it flee from it to flee from it means to to bolt to to run away from from this practice the word is used elsewhere in ancient literature of an army that's caught in an ambush and before it is massacred and slaughtered to run away to escape the danger that is the very word that is used here and Paul is saying flee for your life avoid this completely now when Paul says idolatry here he is referring to the worldly practice that the corinthians have become involved with namely attending idle feasts and eating idle food in these pagan temples in this religious context the corinthians it's unthinkable but they were actually going back into the pagan temples and a finding these these feasts these festive settings and eating the idol food and Paul says that this is not simply border on idolatry it is idolatry and he says you've got to to stop to flee I want you to notice an imperative command it's not a suggestion he's not trying to simply win them over he's actually commanding them by apostolic Authority if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you have absolutely no business whatsoever to be a part of these pagan feasts period paragraph under this the the context and the circumstances in which you find yourself and then he says I speak as two wise men he is saying that acknowledging that they are saved in verse 14 he calls them beloved here he speaks to them as wise men meaning they have the Holy Spirit they aren't welt' by the Spirit of God they have the spirit as their teacher they have received divine light and divine illumination and divine understanding that comes only from God so in that sense they are wise men the fact of it is they're acting like fools but they are actually wise men and that they have received the wisdom of God and then he challenges them he says you judge what I say as if to say well then you tell me if I'm right or wrong you judge what I say if you are truly wise you will judge and know that what I'm saying is true that you must stop your fraternizing with these idolaters in this idolatrous setting the cost you friendships fine because you business associates fine if it costs you prestige in the world then so be it but you must recognize that this is a sin against Almighty God it is a violation of the first and the second of the ten commandments no doubt Paul was grieved as he learned this report of their participation in pagan feasts that's where he once found them when he first came to Corinth when he preached the gospel they were lost they were separated from God they were aliens from the Commonwealth of God and under Paul's preaching they came out of these lice inches dens of iniquity and they were like brands plucked out of the fire and now Paul has left town and he receives word that they're back in these pagan temples as if they've never been saved to begin with beloved let us understand that there are some places we ought not to be he who would not fall down ought not to walk in Slippery places and there are some places that are off-limits to us as children of God it would be one thing if they were storming these temple temples with gospel preachers to take over the service and stand up in front of everyone and to tell the truth about God in the gospel but that's not why they're there they're there just to blend in they're there just to be a part they are there just to go with the flow they are there to be caught up in this thing and Paul says you're guilty of idolatry and you need to flee from it now I want you to note second the communion with in idolatry when I say the communion with in idolatry I think you'll note why I say that the word communion means fellowship partnership a close intimate relationship and as you look at these next verses I want you to see how many times that a word that is similar to communion is used verse 16 notice is not the cup of blessing which we share which we bless us sharing that word sharing comes from the Greek word Koinonia which means fellowship is the word that's used throughout the New Testament for the fellowship that we have with Christ and the fellowship that we have with one another in Christ he repeats it at the universe 16 is not the bread which we break a sharing there's that word communion partnership fellowship and then in verse 17 he says for we all partake of the one bread that word partake again comes from the same root word then verse 18 the word shares are not all those who eat the sacrifices shares in the in the altar and there that word is used again and so at the end of verse 20 I do not want you to become shares in demons it's the same word or the same from the same root word and it is the idea of fellowship to have intimate personal communion with another in a in a close personal relationship with another it speaks of being an alignment with at pulling in the same direction and to be exposed to the other person and to receive from that person who they are and what they are so that's why I use this word and as we begin to read verse 16 you you should probably have this thought what an odd place to begin a discussion of the Lord's Supper and Paul is not mentioning the Lord's Supper in verses 16 and 17 to give us a theology of communion verse 16 and 17 are here as examples and where this is headed is just as you have fellowship in a meal in a religious worship setting with the Lord who stands behind the bread and the and the cup and you have fellowship with one another where this is headed in like manner when you enter into false worship and participate in a false religious setting you too are opening yourself up to demons and to Satan so there's a parallelism that he is intending to set up here that's why he talks about this in verse 16 and 17 so he asked two questions in verse 16 that expect an affirmative answer is not the cup of blessing which we bless a blessing and the sharing in the blood of Christ he is saying when we come as a church to the lord's table there is a sharing that we enter into we enter into a fellowship with Christ Himself who stands behind the bread and the cup and we have communion with Christ who is the Living Christ it says though we've come into his house and he is the host and we are the guests and he is sitting down with us and he is presenting himself to us and he is disclosing himself to us and he is serving us and we are having an even more intimate close personal communion with Christ than we do in other times in other places during the week further we have a fellowship with one another there is a unity in the body of Christ and we draw near to one another as we draw near to the Lord it's the old triangle illustration that as I draw closer to the Lord and you draw closer to the Lord that's where we are closest together when I am away from the Lord I can't be close to you and when you're away from the Lord lukewarm then you can't be close to me experientially we both must be in pursuit of drawing near to the Lord Jesus Christ and it's only in Christ do we find our closest fellowship with one another and by the way that's why you should only marry a believer you should only bear it marry another Christian because you can never be close to someone in a marriage situation in which that person is not truly drawing close to the Lord if I have no relationship with the Lord there is no way that you can have a real close relationship with them at the deepest level it will always be a shallow superficial marriage relationship that you'll have that will be built on on other things and so he says in verse 16 is not the cup of blessing referring to the cup that are that the Lord blessed when he gave it to his disciples in the upper room and inaugurated the the Lord's Supper he says which we bless meaning we give thanks to God when we take the cup as well it is a sharing in the blood of Christ it is a fellowship with Christ it's not an empty ritual it's not a it's not external religion there is a true internal heart reality that you and I experience when we come to the Lord's table in the manner that the Lord prescribes he then says in verse 16 this is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ he double reinforces it again now talking about the breaking of the bread and the point is the same and there is this two-way fellowship that we enjoy one vertical the other horizontal vertical with the Lord horizontal with the others who are in this service with us and so Paul understands this general principle that when you come to the Lord's table and you come and take of the cup and take of the bread and you come in a worthy manner you are entering into a yet more intimate fellowship and closer relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ who is as it were the host and we are the guests in his home as he is drawing near to us as we draw near to him he then says in verse 17 as he continues to develop this this illustration that he is giving since there is one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread that speaks of the of the horizontal fellowship within the body of Christ there is a real sense of unity we were here last Sunday evening to take the Lord's Supper and all of our deacons were seated on the front row and seated on the second road as we begin that service I actually said how close I feel to the body of Christ here at Christ's fellowship how close in my heart I am to this body when we come to the Lord's table and especially as the servants of this church sit together in a in a statement of solidarity and closeness it affects my heart there is a real sense in which I draw nearer to them and I trust that they are nearer to me than when we're out in the parking lot just talking about a football game there is a deep sense of fellowship there's unity there is solidarity when we come to the Lord's table and I want to say to those of you who do not come to the Lord's table in this church on the Sunday evening of the month you're out of fellowship unless your providentially hindered like you can't walk to the car and can't turn on the key and get your car going and to come and be with the body of Christ when they gather around the Lord's table and it amazes me people come from Mississippi they come from Florida they come from a long distance away here in Alabama and yet there are some of you who can't even get in a car and drive yourself here to have fellowship with the Living Christ and to have fellowship with me and the others quite frankly it's a very selfish thing on your part to withhold yourself from us and not give yourself to us and allow us to have the joy of a fellowshipping with you in partnering with you and Paul is acknowledging this sharing within the body of Christ when we come to the Lord's table now having scolded some of you rightly so I do want to say this past Sunday evening we had a wonderful turnout and when I left here my heart was filled overflowing and I thought Lord where else in the world would I want to be then with the people of God at Christ fellowship as we come to the Lord's table and as we sing to the Lord and as we sit under the preaching of the word of God and we enter into a very unique intimate fellowship with Christ and someone may say well I just had never have gone to church on Sunday night get over it the body of Christ is meeting here on the first Sunday night of the month 60 minutes here is far better than watching 60 minutes there so let me continue I hope you can hear the grass growing outside verse 18 Paul uses another example of when you sit down and have a meal with someone there is this intimate fellowship and it's true at the Lord's table of course it's not true in your life if you don't come to the Lord's table but it uses another illustration in verse 18 he says look at the nation Israel you can almost see him point if he were preaching look at the nation Israel and when he says that it's as though to say you will learn the very same truth if you will behold Israel and as he points to Israel he's pointing to Israel in their wilderness experience at the time when they were in rebellion against God at the time when they built or when they molded a golden calf and when they built an altar and they had a meal it was an it was a sex orgy as what it was so in verse 18 look at the nation Israel are not those who eat the sacrifice shares in the altar and word shares again is the word for fellowship comes from Koinonia and this question anticipates a positive yes yes those who eat food sacrificed on an altar are aligned with the deity represented in the altar and they share in fellowship with that altar I mean when you come to that altar something happens to you something invisible something supernatural something spiritual happens no one just shows up now here he's talking about Israel in the wilderness an enact in Exodus 32 beginning in verse 1 we how the people saw that Moses was delayed to come down from the mountain he had been up on the mountaintop Mount Sinai for 40 days they began became impatient and so they said to Aaron come make us a god small G the word for God here Elohim could be translated gods plural and probably should be make us some gods who will go before us and so Aaron caved in to this kind of congregational meeting he caved in to the the insanity of their carnality and he said tear off the gold offerings he said over then let's take him an offering and let's do it and so the people began to put their gold rings into the pot and Aaron took it and fashioned it with a graven tool and made it into a molten calf this molten calf is a young bull and it's a throwback to their previous life in Egypt when they worship when there were there was the worship in Egypt of a god named APUs APUs was the Egyptian fertility God you can imagine all of the sexual depravity that was involved in worshipping APIs and the temple prostitutes and all that was involved and so that's what Aaron made and he said this is your God o Israel who brought you up from the land of Egypt verse 5 now when Aaron saw this he built an altar before it and in verse 6 we read that the people sat down to eat and to drink and to play and the word for play here is a euphemistic expression sex play the play it refers to sex play what this had become was a drunken sexual orgy as they were worshipping this young bull who was the god of fertility in Egypt and the parallel point that Paul is making is you just can't come and sit down in front of this altar and be unaffected you can't participate and enter in without it having a very significant effect upon your life you're not that good to just sit there and be bulletproof there is an influence there is an effect that is coming upon you and it is an influence and an effect that is supernatural that your eyes cannot see and there are demons behind this altar that are having an effect upon your mind more than you realize and effect upon your heart more than you realize in effect upon your will more than you realize and in Deuteronomy 32 verse 17 Moses when he gives the law of the second time he actually says it that when they came to the base of Mount Sinai and when they built this calf they actually were having fellowship with demons demons these these who gathered there so these are the two examples one you come to the Lord's table you have fellowship with the Lord and others who worship the Lord you come to some some setting like this and you sit down and you participate you're also going to have fellowship you're going to have fellowship with demons and with Satan and with other foul rank carnal defiled people so look at verse 19 what do I mean them Paul anticipates our question so Paul what are you trying to say so Paul what well what do you what are you what is your point that you're trying to get across as you talk about fellowship in the Lord's Supper and fellowship in the golden calf so Paul answers so that none of us miss the point he says that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything and note the question mark both of these questions anticipate a negative answer because Paul has already given us this negative answer in chapter 8 verse 4 in which he says there is no such thing as an idol in the world and so Paul can anticipate the Corinthians what they're thinking Paul why are you so worked up about idolatry you just told us I doll an idol is nothing it's just a block of wood it's just a piece of stone there are no other gods there is only one true Living God why are you belaboring this point to flee idolatry if idols are nothing and so in verse 20 he answers the question he says no but this is the answer to verse 19 no he answers this question no meaning an idol is nothing but and when he says but the idea is the idol is nothing but they represent a reality from the Satanic world and standing behind these nothing's are something standing behind these nothing idols are demons spirits who are hungry for worship who are lusting after adoration who long to take the place of God and who are showing up at these pagan temples like going through a buffet line just eating up the worship that is being offered to these idols and in fact are the instigators of this whole foul system so that they will receive this worship so he says that in verse 20 no but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice I met these pagan Gentiles in pagan temples as they celebrate their pagan feasts with pagan sacrifices no but I say that the things with the Gentiles sacrifice now watch the end of verse 20 this is not me this is Paul this is not Paul this is God they sacrifice to demons and as they sacrifice to demons there is a connection with demons there is a connecting point with demons there is a touching of demons and a flirting with demons and a playing with demons they sacrifice to demons and the implication is and so are you Corinthians it's not just them it's you when you go into these pagan temples and when you participate in their foul false worship you are sacrificing the demons and you are baiting them and you are enticing them and you are opening yourself up to them and he says these sacrifices no matter how sincere you are are not to God capital G they are to demons he says at the universe 20 and I do not want you to become shares in demons I do not believe that a true believer can be demon-possessed as such but a believer can be a share in demons he can come under the influence of demons he can commune with demons he can be a partner with demons and that is exactly what Paul is saying here and the greatest danger to their soul is not that they are having fellowship with these other pagans the greatest danger is that they are having fellowship with the kingdom of darkness and with the demons who are standing behind these pagan worship services these are not mere casual social occasions these are not just getting together with other people in a in a religious somewhat quasi religious setting that has a lot of social and a lot of cultural Thrun in these are direct encounters with Satan they are opening themselves up to demonic attacks against Satan as long to be worshipped you remember when Jesus was in the wilderness forty days and forty nights remember the second of the last temptations that were thrown at him the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory and he said to them to him all these things I will give you if you fall down and worship me let me tell you if he took on the son of man he's going to take on you he's going to take on me it's an argument from the greater to the lesser what Satan is after we as Christians are not immune to the influence of demons and I wonder sometimes in our counseling and in our parenting and in our relationships one another at times we are not aware that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places that the conflict goes way beyond the natural to the supernatural jesus said to Peter get behind me Satan as Peter had become a mouthpiece for the devil himself Peter later would say to Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and on and on we could go there power is great in opposing us demons can cause us to be active and to bring influence to resist God's will to lie against God to to suffer persecution to be stunted in our spiritual growth to be tempted in immorality and to prevent us from moving forward in our ministry and in our service for God Paul himself said to the Thessalonica to the Thessalonians I've tried to come to your town I've tried to come to your church into your city but Satan has prevented me Satan has has thwarted me it is a very real danger Paul's point is why are you then putting your toe into that part of the of the lake you need to flee you need to get away note third the contradiction of idolatry in verse 21 it Paul puts it in this way it's an either/or it's not a both in you're going to make up your mind which world you're going to live in he says in verse 21 you cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons the two are mutually exclusive the two realms are diametrically opposed to one another they are two kingdoms in conflict this is a total impossibility they are totally incompatible with each other you cannot take of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons you can't have it both ways and this is not to say that they would lose their salvation but that they would lose those things that are precious to their salvation they would be disqualified from ministry Corinthians 1st Corinthians 9 verse 27 they would be bitched booted and disqualified in the Christian life they continue this nonsense of trying to be in these places where they must not be and he says you cannot partake of the Lord or partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons jesus said no one can serve two masters he will either hate the one and love the other but you can't love both and you're sure not acting like you hate this one as you're going there later Paul would say in 2nd Corinthians 6:14 what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what Fellowship has light with darkness or what harmony has Christ with Belial or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever or what agreement has the temple of God with idols the answer to every one of those questions is nothing absolutely nothing as it relates to the redemptive kingdom of God so finally the condemnation of idolatry verse 22 and we conclude or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy the answer to that is yes you do provoke the Lord to jealousy he claims exclusive love loyalty and allegiance from every one of us and when we want to flirt with the world and play with this with this other stuff it provokes the fire of his love which cannot be twin squished by many waters jealousy is connected to God's holiness God is not a stoic God feels very deeply towards us and he will have no competitive lovers in our lives that's why it says do not love the world nor the things that are in the world for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from God and it's passing away so we do provoke the Lord to jealousy and it brings his chastening in fact this heading could be the chastening of idolatry it invites his chastening then he says are we nuts are we not stronger than he are we we are not stronger than he are we the answer to that is no God is much stronger than we are God willing God will not allow this idolatry to go unpunished let me just tell you in the next chapter we'll study it when the Corinthians were coming to the Lord's table God was taking them out God was killing them they were dying they were committing sins into death and they were dying from a human perspective a premature death and Paul will say as they come to the Lord's table you're trying to go into those pagan temples and sit down before those pagan gods and have those meals and then you come back over to church and you sit down for the Lord's table and you act so sanctimonious as if everything is all right with your life after you've heard Paul say flee from immorality and flee from idolatry do you think God is not provoked with jealousy do you think you're stronger than God that you can resist his chastening hand and Paul will tell them in next chapter that is why many of you are sick and in bed and why others of you sleep meaning they have died the death of a believer because you come to the Lord's table trying to court the devil himself so he says you need to flee this you need to get up and run you need to run as far away from those places as you possibly can unless you are trying to evangelistically take everyone for Christ and a clear open presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ as I bring this to close there's so much more swirling in my head that I want to say let me just put it this way there's only two sides in this this is not complicated it's very simple there's God's side there's the devil's side choose you this day whom you will serve as for me in my house we will serve the Lord what about your house what about you and if God be God that serve God if bail be God then serve bail but if you're going to serve the Lord and name the Lord as your God then for God's sake get out of these other places and come stand with the Lord and have fellowship with Christ when the church comes and gathers for the Lord's table and get out of these other idolatrous pagan hell holes and come back and be singular in your allegiance and singular in your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ declare sides then live it that's what Paul is saying in these verses believe me this is probably the last these are the last verses I would have picked to choose this morning except we're going verse by verse through Corinthians but I believe that all Scripture is profitable and there is much that God has delivered to the front doorstep of your heart and your life today much and much for us to respond to if you've never believed in Jesus Christ if you've never committed your life to him then this moment this hour this second flee to Christ flee from your sin flee from the world this world is going to hell you know that JumpShip flee to Christ believe in him and trust your soul to him and he will save you and you will never perish let us pray father in heaven blow a trumpet in our ears arouse us call us to arms call us to action may we not be asleep in Zion may we stand up and may we serve the one true Living God

Channel: Descyple91

Views: 59,846

Rating: 4.8415842 out of 5

Keywords: Dining With Demons, Steve Lawson, 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, Idols, Flee Idolatry, Meals, Lord's Supper, Cup of the Lord, Cup of Demons, Breaking Bread, Lord's Table, Table of Demons, Bible, Scripture, Religion, Christian Preaching, Christian Sermon, Expository Preaching

Id: 9AQLfdVRYrg

Length: 62min 8sec (3728 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 27 2012