Sermons

Live the Difference
AN IDOL PARTICIPANT
I Corinthians 10:1-11:1 

Continuing our study of 1 Corinthians turn with me to chapter 10 and we’ll get there in a moment.

In our study we will be considering what and who should be acting as priorities in our lives.

As you may remember, in this portion of the letter to the Corinthians, Paul was answering a series of questions. Paul answered questions the Corinthians had about food offered to idols. Was it okay to eat such food? Or should it be avoided?

There were some that felt that the idols were nothing but pieces of wood, stone and marble. They had no power. So go ahead and eat.

There were others that felt that this was an abuse of the freedom we have in Christ. It was going too far. We should have nothing to do with anything that has to do with idols and idolatry.

Last week, we discovered that… We are to be uncompromising when it comes to our purpose.

When it comes to the Christian life and communicating the good news about Jesus, we are to run all out. We are not to put out some half-hearted effort. Instead, we are to run to win, with this in mind… Our purpose is to make committed followers of Jesus.

Paul wanted to win as many people to Jesus as he possibly could. So, what he wanted and how he wanted to live was secondary. The only thing that really mattered was his neighbor’s eternal destiny.
He wanted every person to know the joy of following Jesus, of being one of His true disciples.

The Lord Jesus had graciously appeared to him and changed him from a hateful, spiteful man to a man that God could use. So, Paul lives this principle… We are disciple-makers because we love God.

The first and foremost command of Scripture comes from Deuteronomy…(Deuteronomy 6:5) “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  

You see, when we love God for who He is, it is then that everything falls into place for us. We begin to gain the perspective that we have needed for so long. We see life as it really is and as it is meant to be.

These concepts are so crucial, The Lord must be our priority.

THE LORD COMES FIRST, PERIOD.

This being so, how do we apply the Lord coming first? We will find in our study of I Corinthians Chapter 10:1-11:1 three insights that will help us keep the Lord first in our lives.

The first insight is to BE SHARP (1-13).

(1) I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, (2) and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, (3) and all ate the same spiritual food, (4) and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that 
followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (5) Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. (6) Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. (7) Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." (8) We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. (9) We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, (10) nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. (11) Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (12) Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (13) No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

The first thing Paul appeals to is the past. We need to learn from history.

The people of Israel had it all when it came to their relationship with God. They had experienced God’s power at the crossing of the Red Sea. They had experienced God’s presence with the shekinah glory. God had led them with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. They had experienced God’s provision as they moved along in the wilderness. 

God provided quail, manna and water when they needed it. Best of all, they had experienced God’s person.

He was the rock that was with them every step of the way. He was continually pointing them to Himself, demonstrating His grace, mercy and love for them. These people were immersed in what God could do and be for them.

But ultimately, they rejected God. They were overthrown because they became overconfident.
They ended up loving the world more than the Lord. So instead of appreciating all that God was doing for them and gratefully serving Him, they kept demanding that the Lord serve them more.

As a result, they fell into temptation and sinned.

They tested the Lord, grumbled, committed sexual immorality and worst of all, became idolaters.

And because of this, God had to destroy the people that claimed to believe in Him. For 40 years they would wander in the wilderness because of their ungratefulness and arrogance.

Paul wants to make sure that we learn from their mistakes. Everything that happened to the people of Israel can also happen to us. We are not to think that we can act like we want and then think there will be no consequences. We are just as vulnerable as they were. You see, we are not to be ignorant of our weakness.

World-acclaimed illusionist Roy Horn went to work on Friday evening, October 3, 2003, amid a celebrative atmosphere. For one thing it was his 59th birthday, and more than a thousand friends had thrown him a party. 

Then for an audience of fifteen hundred people inside the Mirage Hotel for a show that Horn and his fellow illusionist were about to put on. 

Since the late sixties Siegfried Fischbach and Roy Horn’s high energy performances with wild animals had earned them such an international reputation they were known simply by their first names — Siegfried and Roy.

About halfway into the performance, Horn appeared in the spotlight with a six-year-old white male tiger. It was a routine he had done hundreds of times. But for some unexplained reason, Horn

slipped on stage. His loss of footing startled the 600-pound animal, who proceeded to lunge at Horn. 

In self-defense, the illusionist attempted to beat the animal off with his hand-held microphone. The audience gasped as the tiger grabbed Horn by the neck, and dragged him offstage like a limp rag doll. At that point, stage-crew members used fire extinguishers to distract the animal and free Roy. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery to save his life.

In thousands of performances over 35 years, Horn had successfully evaded the dangers of his trade. But in an unexpected loss of balance, a career (and nearly a life) was lost. A few nights after the tragic accident, Larry King interviewed Horn’s partner. As Siegfried Fischbach attempted to explain what went wrong, two little words stood out as the primary cause. "Roy slipped."

The apostle Paul warns those of us who think we can’t be taken down by the “tigers” in our lives, “If we think we are standing firm, be careful that we don’t fall.” 

We have entered this atmosphere of spiritual blessing this morning, but this does not protect us from our own arrogance or ignorance.

God delights in people of humble spirit. He delights in those that know they have within themselves all that is needed for failure.

But the great news is, we are never rendered incapable. It is a fact of life that we are going to be tempted. Temptation is common and no one is immune from the experience. How we respond 
is a test, we are either going to be faithful to God, or unfaithful.

Now, we need to realize that if we choose to be unfaithful, that it is a conscious decision we make as a believer. And in the process, we will be further tempted to rationalize and make excuses for our behavior. We will make the excuse that it is someone else’s fault. We will make the excuse that the situation was so overwhelming that no one could have said “no.”

But hear this, there is never any justification for sin. We must recognize it for what it is. It is a defiant heart. For in the midst of the temptations, there is always a way of escape. God promises to provide it. The question is, do we take it?

So how does one escape? We escape by being sharp! We pray. We read Scripture. We sing. We turn off the TV. We move away from the situation that is going to harm us.

The second insight is to BE SINGULAR (14-22).

(14) Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. (15) I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. (16) The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (17) Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (18) Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? (19) What do I imply 
then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? (20) No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. (21) 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. (22) Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

So how do we escape? We flee. We flee from idolatry. We flee from anything that is going to take the place of God in our lives. We get away from it, because it is the most serious and contaminating of sin.

Paul wants us to know that there is no room for idolatry of any kind in our lives, because, we are united together in Christ. We are a people that have matters in common – most specifically – the Lord’s Table, communion.

Sherri Yates’ curious 5-year-old, Seth, was with his family during a Communion service. He watched intently as Sherri received the elements and bowed her head to pray. A few seconds later, she stole a peek at her unusually quiet son to see what he was up to. He was by then intently watching his daddy at prayer after taking communion. Sherri was delighted that he was observing the seriousness of the occasion. "Good parental example," she thought. Her gratification was short-lived as Seth leaned toward her and whispered: "What’s in that stuff? You eat it and go right to sleep." 

We fellowship together around the person of Jesus when we come together at the Lord’s table, it is a spiritual participation. The fruit of the vine is symbolic of the blood of Jesus. It represents death, and it is through the death of Jesus we have the forgiveness of sin. The bread is symbolic of the body of Jesus. It represents life. God became man, taking on a body of flesh.

The fellowship we enjoy around the table brings out a good word. It produces praise and rejoicing on our part. Because it rekindles an awareness of our spirits, we celebrate the wonderful relationship we have with God the Father through Jesus Christ.

So, it is Jesus that unifies us. This being so, there is no room for the fusion of differing systems for the Christian (Matthew 6:24).

Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

The idea is the mixing of beliefs. We are not quite sure all that was happening in the church at Corinth, but it may be that some in the church were once again worshipping idols and false gods along with their belief in Jesus. But they were, in effect, mixing the old with the new.

Now Paul has already made the point there was nothing to the idols themselves. They were of man’s making. They were just wood, stone, and marble. But this is not the end of the story, for there was a demonic force behind them. 

Paul wants us to understand that when one participates in idolatry, we are actually having fellowship with the work of demons.

As it applies to today, it is an area that we are to demonstrate a complete lack of tolerance. We live in a time which worldviews that are fundamentally incompatible are mixed together. 

For many, they take just enough Bible to make it sound good and then add other things to it. Some will even call themselves Christians. But we cannot mix Christianity with other religions.
 

As Paul puts it, there is no dual fellowship. God will have no competition. It is Jesus, and Jesus only. It is here we must be nothing less than single-minded.

The third insight is to BE SUBMISSIVE (15-33, 1).

(23) "All things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up. (24) Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. (25) Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. (26) For "the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof." (27) If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. (28) But if someone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience — (29) I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? (30) If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? (31) So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (32) Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, (33) just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. (11:1) Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

As believers, we need to evaluate our actions, not only on the basis of whether we are free to do so, but whether it is profitable spiritually. We are to give full consideration about whether our action is beneficial, helpful, and advantageous. Our concern is to be beyond ourselves.

A wife said to a friend, “My husband and I have managed to be happy together for over 25 years. I guess that is because we are both in love with the same person.

As believers, our first concern is not looking out for number one. Instead, we are always watching out for others. It is the goal to build each other.

It is the responsibility then for a believer to put others before themselves and seek to do nothing that would hinder or hurt another.

So, Paul’s encouragement, as we read through this portion of the text, is to be submissive. We are to submit our wills to the fulfilling of our purpose, of making committed followers of Jesus. We are never to lose sight of this. And when we do this, we bring God glory.

In all that we do, even the mundane, it is for the glory of God.

Paul’s challenge is that even in our eating and drinking, it is to the praise of God. God’s glory is to be our life commitment. 

We know that we really cannot add to God’s glorious being, but we can recognize it. We can celebrate it. We can love Him with all that we are. 

And we can love His creation, walking in a way that is godly. We can make sure we do not do anything that would hurt our ability to win lost people to the Lord. In so doing, we are to live a life worth following.

Paul says to imitate him as he imitates Christ.
Can we say that? Can we say, “Imitate me”?
Is the example of our life to be copied or avoided?

Let us be sure of this. We will have No idols! I believe that idolatry is a big issue among believers. We easily allow the ways and the priorities of the

world to dominate our thinking, whether it be self, money or pleasure… sex, romance or amusements; education, success, health; sports, family or attention.

We just cannot let other things be first in our lives Monday through Saturday and then expect to have fellowship with God on Sunday. There is just no middle ground here. Anything that takes our first loyalty and allegiance is an idol.

So, we are to live differently. We are to live the difference that the Holy Spirit makes in us.

We are to live lives characterized by holiness, righteousness and goodness. And in so doing, we, Give God the glory that is due Him (Psalm 29:1-2).

Be sharp…learn from the mistakes of the past; do not allow ignorance or arrogance to get in the way of living righteously.

Be singular…remember that what brings us together today is the person and work of the Lord Jesus.

Be submissive…let’s remember this is not about us; what we do is for the glory of God; in every way, might He be the priority in our lives.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!