The Result of Liberty
Notes
Transcript
Handout
13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
15 I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.
16 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?
17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
A Command Given
A Command Given
1 Corinthians 10:14–15 (KJV 1900)
14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
15 I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.
Now what is idolatry?
Slandering God’s Character.
Slandering God’s Character.
That is, idolatry is assuming God to be something other than He is. It’s an erroneous or an unworthy thought about God. That’s idolatry. Anything that is less than true about God, anything that is more than true about God, anything that is false about God is idolatry. When you doubt God, that’s idolatry. When you disbelieve God, that’s idolatry. When you’re not sure God can come through and solve your problem, that’s idolatry because you have manufactured a God who can’t be trusted. And that is the not the true God because the true God can be trusted. Idolatry is to think anything less or more or other about God than what is true.
Secondly, idolatry is not only slandering God’s character but
Worshiping the True God in the Wrong Way.
Worshiping the True God in the Wrong Way.
And we saw this last time as well, how that Israel made a golden calf which was to be a representative of Jehovah God. They worshiped the true God in the wrong way. And we talked about the fact that it’s easy to worship the true God particularly in forms and rituals and routines and so forth and that’s the wrong way because Jesus said you are to worship God in spirit and in truth,
John 4:24 (KJV 1900)
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
.
Thirdly, idolatry is not only slandering God’s character, not only worshiping the true God in the wrong way but it is
Worshiping Other Things than God.
Worshiping Other Things than God.
… worshiping other things than God such as images, angels, devils or dead men.
Then again, idolatry is also having, according to Ezekiel 14,
Any Idol in the Heart.
Any Idol in the Heart.
Anything that you set up as the God you bow down to is idolatry … money, fame, prestige, whatever. And also idolatry is covetousness and idolatry is lust …
Worshiping the God of Materialism in the Case of Covetousness.
Worshiping the God of Materialism in the Case of Covetousness.
Worshiping the God of Desire in the Case of Lust.
Worshiping the God of Desire in the Case of Lust.
So, what is idolatry?
Slandering God’s character, worshiping the true God in the wrong way, worshiping images, angels, devils or dead men, having any idol in your heart, covetousness and lust. And there’s only one response to all of it and that’s to run. So Paul says here, “Flee from idolatry.” Now here’s why in verse 15,
15 I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.
“I’m speaking to intelligent people so you judge what I say.”
Now you listen to this argument and see if it isn’t conclusive. You’re intelligent, now you figure it out. Now Paul says I’m going to give you three reasons to run from idolatry. And you have them on that outline in your bulletin there along with all those other inserts. There are three reasons to run from idolatry.
A Communion Generated:
A Communion Generated:
1 Corinthians 10:16–18 (KJV 1900)
16 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?
17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
When a Christian goes to the Lord’s table, which incidentally he does regularly, that’s the assumption that Paul makes, because that is so vital in the life of the Christian.
It is continually focusing on the issue of the union of a believer with his Lord and a believer with every body else.
And Paul’s thought is this, when you take the cup and when you take the bread, you are communing with Christ in a very real way, in a very genuine way. That feast, that celebration involves you in a participation with Christ. And it involves you, according to verse 17, in a participation with everybody else who is with you in it.
And that’s his point. He is saying religious feasts, religious celebrations involve the worshiper with all other worshipers and the one being worshiped. And he’s saying that’s precisely why a Christian can’t go to an idol feast because an idol feast means he is involved with the worshipers and the one being worshiped whether he likes it or not. And how can a Christian involve himself at the Lord’s table, turn right around and involve himself at an idol feast when they constitute real communion?
Now that’s his point and now we’ll look at these verses in particular and show you how he gets to that place.
First of all, at 16, the cup of blessing.
What is a cup of blessing?
Well it was the name given to the third cup in the Passover feast. There were a series of cups that were consumed in the Passover feast and this is the third one. And it is very possible, we don’t know for sure, but it is possible that this may have been the cup with which our Lord instituted communion in the upper room that night before His death, when He turned the Passover into communion, it may have been at the point of the third cup which was the cup called the cup of blessing. But what it basically means is the cup which God has blessed, or the cup which Christ has blessed. And you remember that at that last supper, that night Jesus took the cup and He what? He blessed it … He blessed it.
In other words, it was just a cup. We don’t know what kind of cup, it was just a whatever kind of cup. But all of a sudden it became something very sacred, didn’t it? It stopped being something mundane and became something very sacred because Jesus Christ set it apart from mundane use to something very special, He blessed it. He set it apart.
The cup of blessing which Jesus bless, we also bless, don’t we? Before we take the cup or cups when we partake, we bless, we thank God, we set them apart to a sacred use. The cup was thus set apart to sacred use by Christ and so it is with us.
Communion with the Death of Christ:
Communion with the Death of Christ:
What is this cup? Verse 16 again, “Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” Now when you drink the cup at the Lord’s table, listen to this, you are communing with the blood of Christ. Now we have to understand something because this is very very misunderstood. What does this mean? What does it mean to commune? It’s more than a symbol. We say, “Well, this is a symbol of His blood.” Well, listen to this, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the symbol of the blood of Christ? Is that what it says? No. It’s more than the symbol, it is the communion, it is—if you will in the Greek—participation, or it is the sharing. It’s an actual involvement that’s taking place when we take that cup. There is a spiritual reality going on there, far more than just a symbol.
For example, if you see a picture of somebody you love who has died, it isn’t just a picture. As soon as you look at the picture, the whole of that person is actualized in your mind, right? All of a sudden everything about that person is alive to you. I look at pictures of people that have gone on and I have instant memories. My mind is flooded with reality. They are actualized. And communion is the same thing. To partake of the elements actualizes Christ’s death, it makes it vivid, it makes it real, it intensifies my sensitivities to the reality of Christ dying for me, see. It isn’t just a symbol. It is a symbol that is activated by the Spirit of God to make Christ’s death a living reality to me. That’s the idea of communion. You are communing with His death.
Now let me say something that might shake some of you up but I’ll try to qualify it. There is nothing in the actual blood that is efficacious for sin. Did you get that? The Bible does not teach that the blood of Christ itself has any efficacy for taking away sin … not at all. The actual blood of Christ isn’t the issue. The issue is that His poured out blood was symbolic of His violent death, the death was the thing that paid the price, right? The wages of sin is … what? Death. He died for us. It is His death that is the issue. The Hebrews spoke of it as His outpoured blood because that was something that expressed violent death. And they believed, for example, in the Old Testament it said the life of the flesh is in the blood. And so the pouring out of blood was the significance of death. And so when it says here we are communing with the blood of Christ, it does not mean the literal blood of Christ is efficacious, it does not mean the literal blood of Christ is involved, it means we enter into a genuine vital participation in His death. But it is not the blood. The blood is only the symbol of the poured out life.
So, taking the cup which Jesus blessed and in turn blessing it, setting it apart for sacred use and then participating in it is an act of communion with the death of Christ.
Communion with the Body of Christ:
Communion with the Body of Christ:
Now let’s go a step further. Verse 16, the bread, or literally the loaf to correspond more with cup, the loaf which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Now our Lord said of the bread that last night, “This is My body given for you.” Now body, now I want to say something, too, that may be new to you, body in Hebrew thought refers to the totality of earthy life, earthiness, humanness.
For example, the word for “earth” is adamah, the word for “man” is adam, it’s a form of adamah because man was taken from the dirt. He is earthy. And God took the dirt and formed a body, adam from adamah. And that is the point that connects man to the ground, to the earth, to earthiness. We are humans and that is the significance of the body. When a Hebrew thought of the body, he thought of earthiness, he thought of man’s connection to the ground, to his humanness.
Now note, when we commune with the bread, it is the body of Christ. This is not primarily a reference to the cross. Stick with me on it. It is not primarily a reference to the cross. By the bread we remember and commune with our Lord’s incarnation, His human life, His humanness. We remember that which makes Him a sympathetic high priest as well as a bleeding, dying Savior.
The communion then relates us to the living Christ who came and suffered and thought it not something to hold onto to be equal with God but found Himself in the fashion of a man, humbled Himself and so forth and He did it in order that He might become a sympathetic high priest in all points tempted like as … what? We are. The bread reminds us of His life. The bread reminds us of His body, reminds us of His humanness.
God gave Himself to us as a human being in order that He might suffer what we suffer, in order that He might hurt where we hurt, in order that He might be tempted where we’re tempted, in order that He might succor us in order that He might be our faithful sympathetic and great high priest. And so the breaking of the loaf does not refer to the cross primarily, although that was part of His human suffering and certainly is included, the breaking of the loaf simply a symbol of His humanness.
And the breaking of it has no symbolic connection to the cross. People say, “The Lord’s body was broken on the cross.” It was not broken. The Bible makes a specific point of that. In
36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
it says, “And not a bone of Him was broken that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” The only reason that Jesus took the loaf and broke it was to give everybody a piece of the same loaf. Do you see? We are all partakers of one bread who is Christ and it has to be broken to be passed out to us. The symbolism is only that in distribution, not in death. His body was never broken.
So, what do we have then? Let me summarize this thought. Hang on. The breaking refers only to the distribution of the one loaf. It relates to the fact that all believers share in that one life. We not only commune, beloved, we not only commune with Christ’s death, we commune with His life. Paul said in
Philippians 3:10 (KJV 1900)
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
, “I want to know Him, the power of His resurrection,” that’s related to His death, “and the fellowship of His … what?… suffering,” that’s related to His life. Being made conformable to His death. Paul says I want to be able to suffer for Him. I want to be able to have the humanity of Jesus, as it were, relived in me. I want to bear the marks of Jesus in this body. I want to fill up in my body the sufferings that are meant for Jesus Christ. I want to commune with His humanness. I want to commune with His suffering. I want to be persecuted for righteousness sake as He was persecuted for righteousness sake. I want to be able to go to Him and find in Him a sympathetic high priest who knows everything that I suffer because He suffered it Himself.
So, when you come to the table of the Lord, beloved, the bread represents the humanity of Jesus. It represents His humiliation. It represents His humanness, His human suffering as a man for us … something we definitely commune in, something we definitely relate to as He is our sympathetic high priest and we carry our cares to Him knowing He’s been there and He knows.
And the cup represents His violent death for the forgiveness of sin. Something we also commune with. We also are actualized into being identified in His death for sin.
When we take those things, they’re not just symbols. There is an actual communion that occurs.
Let me show you what I mean. There is confusion about that and there are different views of how that works.
The word koinonia, their communion in verse 16 is the word to participate. The verb means to share or to partake of or to participate or to be a partner in.
The noun koinonia means participation, partnership, fellowship, communion. As a Christian, we literally participate in Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:9 (KJV 1900)
9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
says we participate with the Son.
2 Corinthians 13:14 (KJV 1900)
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
, we participate with the Spirit.
Philippians 2:1 (KJV 1900)
1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
, we participate in the ministry.
2 Corinthians 8:4 (KJV 1900)
4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
, we participate in the gospel.
Philippians 3:10 (KJV 1900)
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
, we participate in suffering.
We are fellowshipping all the time with Christ, sharing Him, His Spirit, His ministry, His gospel, His sufferings. And when we come to the table we participate in His death, we are sharing the benefits of His death, that’s what it means. We are sharing in the meaning of His death, the purpose of it, the point of it.
So, it’s more than just remembering. It’s sharing, fellowshipping, participating, partaking, communing. It’s like that picture I mentioned. You come to that and you look at the cup and you look at the bread and they aren’t just a cup and bread, they aren’t even just symbols. All of a sudden Christ is alive. All of a sudden you are sensitized. And the reality of Christ is actualized in your mind and you see His cross and you see your union with Him and you see His body and you see it given on your behalf. And you see the fact that He lived and He suffered and He’s a sympathetic high priest. All of that is actualized.
Christ is not in the elements, He is in the believer. But the believer is awakened to His reality in the symbols. And it’s just like, reading the Scripture, coming to worship, praying, any of those things, this is communion with Him. This is what Paul is saying.
Now watch. All of that I’m telling you to give you an understanding of this whole passage and the rest is just going to run right down.
He’s saying, “Look, people, when you come to the Lord’s table, you are communing with Christ. You are actively involved in a partaking of all that He is and all that He has done. You are fellowshipping, participating in His reality. That’s what that service means. And when you go over to an idol festival and you eat that idol offering of drink and meat, and you fellowship with those idol worshipers, you are in a sense identifying with that idol, whether you like it or not. So at one point you are communing with Christ and at the next turn you’re communing with idols and that is hopelessly inconsistent.”
What he is saying is drawing this, he is saying a religious service, a religious feast constitutes communion with the one being worshiped. If it’s Christ, that’s communing with Him. If it’s an idol, it’s communion with him. You can’t do both … inconsistent.
Verse 17, he goes further.
1 Corinthians 10:17 (KJV 1900)
17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
There’s only one bread and its Christ. And so everybody who partakes of that one bread is one with everybody else. And this is the second great point of communion.
Communion with Each Other:
Communion with Each Other:
We are all one body. We all partake of one loaf. We are all joined to Christ. So we are inseparably joined to each other.
Now watch. Everybody who comes to the Lord’s table, now watch this, not only enters into communion with Christ but he enters into communion with everybody else who is also at the Lord’s table. You see what he’s saying? We all come to that one bread. We all partake of that one bread. So we all constitute one body. Communion then means we are actually communing with Christ and actually communing with everybody else who is there.
In a religious festival, in a religious feast, the worship, the worshiper, the worshipers and the one being worshiped are all one. Now when you go to an idol feast, you may say I’m not going to get involved. If you take place, you are a worshiper involved with worshipers, involved with the one being worshiped whatever your intention might be. That’s his point.
And he uses illustration … an illustration from Israel, verse 18.
18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
“Behold Israel after the flesh are not they who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?” Look at the history of Israel. The altar there refers to God.
When they came to their sacrifices, didn’t they all partake? Didn’t they give some of the food to the priests? Partake of some of it? Some of it was burned up by God … to God so part of the sacrifice went to God, part of it went to the priests and the other worshipers were involved as well and part of it was kept. There was an involvement. Israel was involved in sacrificing. They were involved with each other and they were involved with God.
So what is he saying then? Participation in religious rites has deep spiritual meaning. It implies a real union between the worshipers and the one being worshiped. That’s what he’s saying. So you can’t do this with idols without having that reality take place. Israel brought sacrifices, a portion of which were consumed by the priests, a portion of which were burned on the altar, the rest were divided between the priests and the worshiping Jew. And there was a communion between the Jew, the priest and God as they partook of the altar. Now that’s Paul’s point.
Worship is identification … communion with whoever is being worshiped. So if you’re going to be like Israel in verse 18, communion with the altar for the Jews meant fellowship with God and everybody else at the altar.
Communion with Christ at the Lord’s supper for the Christian means fellowship with Christ and everybody else at His table.
Communion with the feast of an idol means fellowship with that idol and everybody else who is there, too.
Now listen, Christian, this comes right down to our living.
We can’t participate in idol feasts, any of the idolatrous godless Christless activities of our world without becoming identified with them, without becoming one with all the rest of the people that are doing it.
You say, “Well, you know, I don’t do what the world does. I’ve been attending some of the wild social deals around, but I just kind of stay back.” You are one with what’s going on. You have identified in that kind of communion with the system. That’s his point. You have liberty but if your liberty takes you out to the places where the world is communing with its own system which is run by Satan, then you’re a part of that whole fellowship. And that is hopelessly inconsistent. Can’t do it. It’s just inconsistent. It doesn’t make sense.
A Consecration Gleaned:
A Consecration Gleaned:
19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
Idolatry is not only inconsistent, it’s demonic.
Look at verse 19. And this really is easy to see.
19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
And the answer is no. Am I saying that that idol is a true God? That there really is a God there or that some sacrifice offered to him is anything? No, I’m not saying that.
In Chapter 8, he said the opposite. In 8:4 he says an idol is nothing. In 8:8 he says and the food offered to an idol is nothing. I’m not saying that. I’m not saying that when you go to commune with that idol, you’re really communing with another God. No you’re not. I’m not saying that you’re really involved in the worship of another God. I’ve got to cover my tracks here, Paul is saying, I don’t want you to be confused. I don’t believe in other gods, and that’s not what I’m saying. But I still say a real communion exists.
You say, “Paul, how could a real communion exist if there isn’t a real God there? If it’s just a rock and there’s nobody there, how could it be a real communion?” Verse 20,
20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
It’s not a god, it’s a no god, but a demon will be there and I don’t want you to have fellowship with demons.
Now here’s what happens. People worship an idol. And we’ve showed you this before. And there is no god there. But if a person wants to believe there’s a god there, you know what Satan will do? He’ll send one of his demons to impersonate the god that the people think is there and that demon will do enough supernatural works to keep the people worshiping that idol.
Why do you think somebody in some other society will bow down to a rock all his life? Because a demon will impersonate the god he thinks is in the rock and do enough stuff to keep the guy believing the rock is real.
Why do you think people follow astrology? Because demons make enough of that stuff come true to hook those people.
Why do you think people stay in false systems of religion year after year after year and can’t ever see the light? Because they have seen supernatural revelations in those systems. Not because there is a god there, there is a no god there but a demon will impersonate him. That’s what he’s saying.
So what constitutes actually a demonic communion is really taking place. And when you go out and you worship in a false system of religion or you sit around and be a part of it, you are actually in a communion situation being identified with the worshipers and the worshiped one who is a demon.
When you go out and do what the rest of the world does, when you participate in the rest of the world’s activities, you are communing with demons. That’s Paul’s whole point here. It’s demonic. Because Satan is the prince of this world and because he rules in this world by the use of his demons, his demons move around and impersonate all the religious systems of the world, his demons fill and maintain all of the evil systems of this world. No matter what you get into, you’re communing with them and you can’t avoid it. It’s a serious thing.
In
Psalm 96:5 (KJV 1900)
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: But the Lord made the heavens.
, the Greek translation of that verse is this, “All the gods of the heathen are demons,” that’s the Septuagint, the Greek. “All the gods of the nations, or all the gods of the heathen are demons.” If they worship a false god, a demon will impersonate it. Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:37 say the same thing. They’ve sacrificed to demons. So they’re fellowshipping with demons.
So here you have a Christian, he’s over here and he’s communing with the Lord and he’s got the cup and the bread. Then he turns around and goes to an idol feast. And as soon as he enters that idol feast and participates, he becomes a communer with demons … a communer with demons. Paul says I don’t want you, verse 20, have fellowship in communion with demons. That’s ridiculous. That is unbelievable.
Verse 21,
1 Corinthians 10:21 (KJV 1900)
21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
“You cannot,” and that is not the cannot of impossibility, that is the cannot of inconsistency,
“You cannot be consistent and drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”
Why should a Christian avoid the things of the world?
Why should a Christian come out from among them and be separate and never touch the unclean thing?
Why should a Christian avoid the fashion of the world and the festivals of the world and the evil systems of the world whether they’re moral or religious? Because a Christian cannot commune with demons, turn around and commune with Christ and maintain any kind of consistency. That’s clear.
All idolatry in every form, whether it’s libel against God’s character, whether it’s the worship of an image or whether it’s covetousness, lust or idols in the heart, all of it is demonic.
People say, “Do you think demons bother Christians?” Yeah, I sure do when Christians put themselves in a place to get it. Stay away. There’s only two times in the New Testament that I can see where a Christian really got messed up by demons. One was when Ananias and Sapphira willfully sinned against the Holy Spirit and did it without confessing or turning from it. They just opened themselves up and Satan came in. And the other is right here where Christians hang around the things of the world, the systems of the world so that they wind up communing with demons. That’s problems. You can’t do it, he says in verse 21. It is the can’t of spiritual inconsistency. Oh, you can do it. It’s not impossible. It’s just inconsistent and it’s going to bring about a terrible, terrible result.
This may help you to understand why John says,
2 John 10–11 (KJV 1900)
10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11 for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
“If anybody comes to your house,” 2 John, “and teaches any other doctrine than this, don’t bid him good speed and don’t let him in your house or you will become a … what?… partaker.” There’s the word again, communer with his evil deed. As soon as you let that guy in your house with that false truth, you have communed with him again. There is a spiritual connection made, put him out.
You see, there is that tremendous truth that we must maintain separateness in order that our communion might be holy and purely identifying with Jesus Christ and not with demons.
You say, “Well, I don’t see that that’s that big of an issue. I can commune with Christ over here and a few of those things I can enjoy … it isn’t going to make that much difference.” Oh? Verse 22 gives us the third reason not to hang around idols and that is it is offensive to the Lord. Are you ready for this?
22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
“Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”
You know what I’ve learned in my life? Only make enemies of people weaker than you. Did you ever learn that? Don’t make enemies out of people who can handle you. The only way that I would ever want to make God jealous and get Him upset at me would be if I was tougher than He is. So you know what? I don’t ever do anything to get Him irritated at me. That’s what he’s saying.
Do you want to make the Lord jealous? And in
Deuteronomy 32:21 (KJV 1900)
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; They have provoked me to anger with their vanities (idols): And I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
He said, “They have stirred Me to jealousy with what is a no god. They have provoked Me with their idols.” You want to stir God to jealousy, then you better be stronger than He is or you won’t be able to handle Him. Because He deals very strongly with idolatry. All you’ve got to do is read the Bible about that. You just read Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 16, Deuteronomy 17, Jeremiah 25, Jeremiah 44, just read Revelation 14, chapter 21, chapter 22, there are inferences in all of those places about the vengeance of God against idols and idol worshipers. The only way you’ll ever want to provoke God to jealousy is if you’re stronger than He is. It’s offensive to the Lord.
He judges idol worshipers. And you won’t escape. No one ever has. It’s a dangerous place to be. Remember the Scripture, beloved. If you’re a Christian, don’t worship idols. Some of the Corinthians apparently because they had been doing this, the idols of the world hanging around, communing with those demons wound up sick and dead, chapter 11 and verse 30 and we’ll see that later. They actually were … the Lord just actually chastised them, in some cases He took their lives.
And what about an unbeliever? He says again and again in the Bible, those who are idolatrous will have no part in His Kingdom.
We’re FREE in Christ!
How will my freedom effect others?
How will my freedom effect me?
We’re free in Christ, beloved, that’s true. You are, I am. But we have to keep two things in mind.
How will my freedom effect others? I don’t want to do anything that will offend them.
How will my freedom effect me? I don’t want to do anything in my liberty that’s going to expose me to idolatry and Satan’s system and catch me in sin. And then the chastisement of God. And so I would say to you what John the beloved said, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Let’s pray.