According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): The city of Corinth was engaged in idolatry, big time. There were also several pagan temples in the city, and each one quite popular. You can see why the Apostle Paul felt it was so important to get the message of Christ to these people, that their hopes shouldn't be placed in things made by the hands of men, but rather in the hands of the one who made men. This is according to the scriptures. Open your Bibles, First Corinthians, chapter 10, and join us there, as we catch up with Pastor Damian Kyle. We're about to learn that Christian liberty does not include the freedom to sin.

Damian Kyle: Let's turn to First Corinthians, chapter 10 tonight. Sunday night, Through the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 14.

Paul writes by the Spirit of God, "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men, judge for yourself 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, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread."

"Observe Israel after the flesh, are not those who eat of the sacrifice partakers of the altar? What then, what am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons."

"You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify."

"Let no one seek his own, but let each seek the other's well-being. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience' sake, for the Earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. If any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner and you desire to go, eat whatever they set before you, asking no question for conscience' sake."

"But if anyone says to you, 'This was offered to idols,' do not eat for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience' sake, for the Earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. Conscience, I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience?"

"But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks? Therefore, whether you eat or whether you drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own prophet, but the prophet of many that they may be saved. Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ."

So we continue a thought of the Apostle Paul, though interrupted from it in a sense for three weeks. A thought of the Apostle Paul that began all the way back in chapter 9, toward the end of it, where the Apostle Paul spoke to us about how to run our race, our Christian life, a race of Christian service in such a way that we don't end up put on the shelf, or we don't end up disqualified in the course of running that race, and in the course of our Christian service.

And then in the first 13 verses of chapter 10, you might remember, he made a list of sins from the Old Testament that are included in the New Testament here by the Holy Spirit for our instructions, and that is a list of sins that continually in the history of the children of Israel in the Old Testament made castaways of them for significant blocks of time in their history and in their calling as God's people in the world.

And his exhortation to us to not follow these sins that will that made a castaway of the children of Israel in the Old Testament, because they will have the same result in our lives as Christians if we fail to avoid them. They will make a castaway of us and disqualify us in our Christian service and in our desire for influence for the kingdom of God in the world.

And then he continues on in the verses that we've read tonight with an exhortation building on this to flee from idolatry. So in the remainder of the chapter, the Apostle Paul concludes his instruction with important considerations that we're to make concerning the practice of liberties in our lives, making sure that liberties do not cross a line, and they so easily do, then into sin.

And the importance of avoiding sin for the sake of others and for the sake of God's calling upon our lives. And he begins with this exhortation, "Flee from idolatry." Now remember that the city of Corinth was the center of virtually the worship of almost all of the Greek and Roman gods in the ancient world.

It was absolutely the center in the ancient world of the worship, one of the top centers of the worship of Aphrodite, who was the goddess of beauty and love and procreation, and the worship of Aphrodite was essentially an attempt at the deification of sexual immorality in order to give legitimacy to sexual immorality and the expression of it in the human condition.

And so you might remember that the priests of that temple, built to Aphrodite or Venus, they owned more than 10,000 prostitutes and sodomites who were rented out by the day to the thousands of sailors that would make their way through the port of Corinth and make their way across the land there and all, and avail themselves of that as they brought commerce through the ancient world from the East to the West.

But also for people that simply inhabited the city. And it was a center for that. It was also the center, among other things, for the worship of Apollo. And the worship of Apollo included wine sacrifices and feasting on good food and athletic contests. And as he was celebrated as the god of the arts, the god of music, the god of poetry performances, and all of those things in the ancient world constituted a significant portion for them of what we would call entertainment today.

And so the areas surrounding the temples within Corinth to go to the temples and the area surrounding those temples in Corinth was to go where the action was in that city. It was the hot, happening place within the city of Corinth. It was where people went for fun, it's where they went to hang out. It's where you could find not only the cheapest food and drink, but find the very best food and drink as well. And the best music and the best entertainment in the city would all be found there in the perimeters of these temples.

And so Paul writes as a result that we're to flee from idolatry for the sake of our own holiness, and very significantly here, for the sake of our Christian witness before the world, and our identification, the health of our identification before the citizens of Corinth, or the citizens of Medesto, or wherever God has us in the world. So that we are not creating confusion in people's minds about who it is that's most important in our life and who we worship and who we follow in life.

And so first he calls on us as Christians in verse 14 to flee from idolatry. And that word flee is a very strong word that Paul uses. It means literally to flee. It means to run or move hastily from danger because of fear. He says, "Run from it as if your very life depends upon it."

Now I don't know how many of you in your adult life, or let's say from your youth up, have ever had to run for your life. Just a show of hands. Anybody in here where you, okay, where you had to second. Do I hear three? Three, three. Do I hear three? All right, there we got a three. Takes a little bit here, but it's again, it's a tough crowd.

But you know the emotion. Paul puts it in and uses a word to stir the emotion within us. They know the emotion that Paul's talking about when you are fleeing for your very life from something that you recognize as a danger and a threat to you. I suppose that most of us, maybe not most, but a good portion of us, more than the number that we spoke about here a moment before, where we have run for our lives, but mostly it kind of had the circumstances of us being young children, and something happens in the dark while we're walking home, or something like that, and then we make a sprint with all of our strength toward home.

So if you've ever experienced something like that, you have a sense of what it is that Paul is saying here. He uses a very strong word in terms of fleeing from idolatry. All along, Paul's been telling us as his readers that we have perfect liberty to buy meat that's sold in the marketplace, as he told them in Corinth, from an animal that had been sacrificed to an idol. That was a liberty that we possess.

Now what Paul does here is he takes up the question of whether Christians should participate in the feasts or the religious activities or the worship services of the idol temples themselves. And apparently, members of the church in Corinth were doing so. And so they kind of figured, well, I'm saved, greater is he that is God who is in me, than he who is in the world, that is the devil. I'm in no danger in hanging around these areas of these temples, and partaking in all of the activities of ever being converted by these gods to follow them. And into some kind of a false religion.

And besides, the feasts at these idol temples are the happening events in town. That's where all of the excitement is, and there's great food, there's great music, lots of action. It's where I can make business connections within the city and lots of my friends and my family members still worship these gods. And so, I want them to see how free and how open and liberal I am as a Christian, and concerning how meaningless these things are to me by comparison as a Christian.

And God's, and Paul steps in and he forbids it. And he tells us why. And he declares in verse 15 that any sensible person will see that he is right. And he illustrates it in a magnificent way. First he illustrates it from the Lord's Supper in verses 16 and 17. And his point is that the partaking of the Lord's Supper, when we partake of the Lord's Supper as Christians, that it identifies us as Christians. And not only in our own hearts, but in the eyes and the understanding of everyone who watches us partake of the Lord's Supper.

So in verse 16, when he talks about this, "the cup of blessing," it refers to the cup of wine which is used at the Lord's Supper, and Paul calls it the cup of blessing because it speaks of the tremendous blessing that Jesus' death upon the cross, his blood shed upon that cross, the incredible blessing that has been brought into our lives by virtue of that.

And so, the phrase, "which we bless" means for which we give thanks. When we partake of the cup, it represents Jesus' blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins, and so much more, and we're remembering all of those blessings that have become a part of our lives as a result.

And most importantly, when we think about those blessings, is the blessing of realizing that what he did upon the cross has brought us into a personal relationship with God, which is the greatest thing that anybody can possess in life, the greatest reality that a person can have in their lives, and that it was Jesus' sacrifice that made that possible for us.

In verse 16 as well, concerning the partaking of the bread, taking it as a symbol of Jesus' body given for us. And so herein is the reminder that this was the price that was paid for us, not only to have a personal relationship with God as Christians, but also to have communion with one another as Christians in the body of Christ, as members of the body of Christ.

So in that culture, they didn't eat things the way that we eat things. So they would put the food in the middle of a table that would be a triclinium. You would lie down on your side, it was a low table, the food, the bread would be put there, the sauces would be put around, everybody would go in and take a piece of bread off of the chunk of the bread, dip it in the sauces and eat.

And because everyone partook of the same bread and put it into their bodies, as a result of that, there was a, the Jews viewed the partaking of a meal like that, certainly the partaking of the Lord's Supper, it represented a mystical union that occurred within people's lives. Because the same bread that I have eaten, and now has become a part of me, you have eaten it and it has become a part of you.

And that's what's happened in the body of Christ when we became Christians. We all partook of that bread of Jesus, of his sacrifice in our lives. And in the partaking of that, we have become one and unified as a result. It's one of the reasons that the Jews would never eat with a Gentile. No serious Jew in the ancient world would eat with a Gentile, because they never wanted to be one with a Gentile.

They never wanted to have a mutual participation in any way with a Gentile, not even eating from the same loaf of bread, or from the same pita loaf, or whatever it might be. So there's this significance that he's talking about here. It brings us into relationship with God, but it also brings us into relationship with one another.

And it reminds us as Christians that we've all been saved and we've all been brought into relationship with one another by Jesus' sacrifice, and entirely at his expense. Now, I don't know how valuable, I would guess you esteem it very valuable in your life, how valuable you, we know how valuable we view having a relationship with God is in our life and how we view it.

But how highly we view the privilege of knowing one another as Christians, the privilege of being a part of the same body all around the world, indwelt by the same God, with the same promises, with the same goals and purposes within life. Imagine trying to live this Christian life all alone, without fellowship, without the encouragement of one another, without relationship with one another, without God using one another in our and each other's lives.

And so he's talking about the tremendous privileges and blessings that have been brought into our lives, not only in a relationship with God, but the body that we've been born again into. And what a blessing it is, how rich, I know we all consider ourselves to know one another, to share in this Christian life together.

And the point that he's making here is that those who partake of the Lord's Supper are rightly identified as worshipers of Jesus. And then he moves on in verse 18 to speak of the Old Testament worship. Under the Old Testament sacrificial system, when a worshiper would come to the Tabernacle or come to the temple, he would bring a peace offering, or a peace sacrifice to God.

And when that peace offering was given to the priest to be offered to God, a section of that animal would then be given to God, it would be burned on the brazen altar, and then a portion of the sacrifice would then be given to the priest. And a third portion of the sacrifice would be given to the worshiper to eat himself. And to eat there within the confines of the Tabernacle and of the temple.

And so the sacrifice was given to God, who then in a sense of all of the imagery of it, then asked both the priest and the worshiper to sit down at his altar, at his kitchen table, and enjoy the meal together with him. To spend some time together with him over this meal. And the meal represented fellowship with God.

And so this offering was brought by people who were thankful for their relationship with God, and for the fact that God had provided a way for them to have peace with God in their lives, despite their sin. And anyone watching all of this under that Old Covenant would have concluded that this wasn't just some kind of a mindless religious activity that this person was doing there at the temple and engaged in, but would rightly identify that person as a Jew who loved and worshiped God, the God of the Bible.

And so those who partook of the Old Testament sacrifices were rightly identified as worshipers of Jehovah. And then concerning his application to idolatry in verses 19 and 20. In the same way, Paul is communicating that if you partake in the idolatrous activities at a pagan temple, you will be identified by others as an idolater.

You will, there's a line that gets crossed from liberty to now idolatry. And so he says, if you partake in the idolatrous activities at that pagan temple, you will be identified by others as an idolater, as a worshiper of the false god of that pagan temple. And it isn't that the idols, he says, or the demons represented by the idols can do us any harm at all. Any physical harm, any spiritual harm at all in our lives. But what can be greatly damaged if we cross that line into idolatry, and witnesses are becoming confused about our commitment to Christ.

Then what is damaged is our reputation as a Christian in the eyes of the world. The unsaved world. And what is damaged is our identity as a Christian in the eyes of everyone who is also there.

Guest (Male): Today, on According to the Scriptures, we've been in First Corinthians, chapter 10, and encouraged to serve and live for the one true and living God. Pastor Damian Kyle will continue this message tomorrow. If you'd like to get the CD that contains today's message from First Corinthians, give us a call. 209-545-5530. That's 209-545-5530. I should also mention, Pastor Damian's messages are found at accordingtothescriptures.com, as well as oneplace.com, and on most of the major podcast apps. So if you missed one or two messages on the radio, there are many ways to catch up. It'd be our honor to pray for you, so keep those prayer requests coming. Leave a comment or prayer request at accordingtothescriptures.com, or you can email us at atcs@ccmodesto.com. Again, that's atcs@ccmodesto.com. Your financial support is greatly appreciated, and it helps us bring Pastor Damian's messages to the radio on stations like this all across the nation. If you'd like to make a donation to the ministry, please visit accordingtothescriptures.com. Then join us next time for According to the Scriptures with Damian Kyle, when we'll return to our series in First Corinthians. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Modesto and made possible through the support of you, our listeners.