And we're going to carry on with our series today in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We're working our way through this great book of 1 Corinthians and come today to chapter 10. And from verse, our selection section today stretches from verses 14 down to verse 22. So I'll read that to you, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And I'm going to read from verse 14. which starts with the word therefore. And Paul has just been teaching the Corinthians that there's no temptation that's overtaken them that's not common to man. And he's been teaching them that they need to discipline their bodies like he did and bring their bodies under control so that they don't get disqualified from receiving the prize from God. And he's given them some examples And then he's warned them that there's no temptation that they can experience that's not common to man. So now in verse 14 he picks up the argument with... This word, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. That was the problem that they had, and he's been addressing from chapter 8 verse 1, and he's dealing with all the way through to chapter 11 verse 1. Therefore, he says, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. 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? Because there's one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel, are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? 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. 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. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Well, the 6th of June is a remarkable date in history and it's the 7th today. It's not remarkable because Kai and Sarah got married on it, although it was a remarkable day yesterday. But the 6th of June is written in history because 71 years ago yesterday, the combined armies of America and Britain and Canada invaded northern France. Our armies invaded the beaches and successfully landed and conquered the beaches of Normandy and that became the beginning of the end of the war with Germany. 4,414 of our men died in one day to take those beaches. But the beaches were taken, and the liberation of France and the final defeat of Germany had begun. And it was a great moment of victory. It was a moment to be, you would say, celebrated. And it does live on today. 71 years later, we're still celebrating D-Day. But D-Day would not have been possible had it not been for another decision that took place on the beaches of northern France just four years, almost exactly four years before that. When the commander of the British armies, Winston Churchill, effectively the prime minister, decided not to fight but to retreat. And if he hadn't chosen to retreat, D-Day would not have been possible, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that our freedom today depended upon that retreat. Between the 27th of May and the 4th of June, 75 years ago, what Winston Churchill called the whole root and core and brain of the British army had been cut off by the rapidly advancing German army. They really stranded us, and we were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. I wasn't there. I'm using the kind of British we. Now, Winston Churchill was no coward. On the 4th of June... Am I cutting in and out? Is this going on and off? Can you hear me okay? On the 4th of June, 75 years ago, he would give the famous speech in which he promised that we would fight them, the Germans, on the beaches. Listen to this. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and the oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. Now that's not a speech of a coward, is it? But Churchill knew then something that we need to know today. That to retreat is not the same thing as a defeat. That there's a time to flee and there's a time to stand and fight. And sometimes in order to defeat something, you have to retreat to be able to fight it under better circumstances. That was the situation then. The British army was trapped, cornered, outgunned, outnumbered, outmaneuvered. And the only option for them was withdrawal. Retreat, and in fact retreat across the ocean, it was what Churchill called a miracle that took place and the British army was saved to fight another day. And I don't believe it is an exaggeration to say that the freedom we enjoy today, we have because Churchill knew when to retreat. Many a military leader doesn't know how to make that decision to withdraw from a situation. What about you, Christian? Do you know yourself when it's time to flee, time to move away? And I'm not talking about a military engagement, I'm not talking about our action as Christians bringing the gospel to the world or anything like that. But do you know as a Christian when you need to flee a particular sin? And when you should stand your ground and stay there and deal with it Actually this section of our study through 1 Corinthians was written by Paul to persuade the Corinthian Christians To flee a particular sin. That particular sin was idolatry. We read it in 1 Corinthians 10 from verse 14 down to verse 22. But it starts with the words, therefore my beloved, flee from idolatry. He wrote to persuade them to flee. It's a command. Flee, you Corinthians. Get out of there. Do not stand. He wasn't trying to persuade them to get up close and to fight this thing and to deal with it in kind of hand-to-hand Christian combat with their sin. He told them to withdraw, to retreat, to move away, to run away, you would say. But running away wouldn't be a defeat for them, it would be a means to victory. And there's a lot of helpful teaching here about idolatry. It's a very interesting insight into the reality of idolatry. There's insight here into the world of demons and demonology, if you want to give it its theological term. There's insight here into the reality that takes place at the Lord's table, and we're going to celebrate it today, and so there's helpful teaching for us there. But let's be clear, straight up, verses 14 to verse 22 is to persuade us as Christians to know when to run. when to retreat, when to withdraw, when to move away from a particular sin, when to get out of there. Verse 14, therefore my beloved flee idolatry. Verse 22 finishes with a warning about provoking the Lord to jealousy and a somewhat sarcastic question, are we stronger than he? Do you think that you can mess about with God? Because that's what messing about with idolatry would be doing. Now, it's really interesting if you look, as I did, as I studied this, it's always been in the back of my mind as I've read through the New Testament, this study that I've been wanting to do in the various things that we're told to flee. Have you noticed that in the New Testament? Occasionally, as you go through, there are these statements, flee this, or flee that, and I've always thought it'd be very interesting to add them up. Actually, there's Five, really, four others. We've read one, 1 Corinthians 10, 14, flee idolatry. There's also 1 Corinthians 6, 18, flee sexual immorality. 1 Timothy 6, 11, flee the love of money. Also 1 Timothy 6, 11, which says flee these things, refers back not only to the love of money, but an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words. And then 2 Timothy 2.22, flee youthful passions or youthful lusts. It's very interesting. If you study it through the New Testament and ask the question, what are we supposed to be pursuing? Which direction should we be running? Well, actually the Bible teaches you to run in one direction and to run away from something else in the other direction. We're supposed to be running away from these things. Flee youthful passions. Flee an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words. Flee the love of money. Flee sexual immorality. And this one, flee idolatry. Why? Why not just stand and fight? I mean, after all, nobody can force you to commit sexual immorality with them, can they? They don't have the power. I mean, you could say, I suppose, if you are physically weak, someone might rape you. That would not be your culpability. But in terms of forcing you to engage in sexual immorality with them, no one can actually make you do that, if you fear God. So why do you have to run away from it? Well, in short, these particular sins, and I've just listed those five that I've discovered doing a search of the New Testament based around this word flee, but these sins are all sins which are, you could say, most powerful when you're close up to them. There's a proximity factor. increases their power. It's something like a strong magnet. From a distance, no problem, two magnets. But you bring these things together, and the closer you get, the closer you get, the more the power of the magnet can be felt. And you maybe can see what I'm doing here, but it's really no problem at this point for me to pull away. I can feel the power of the magnet. But as I get closer and closer and closer, something happens. The power increases exponentially and suddenly they're together. And I can just about pull them apart. Femi couldn't do that earlier. I'm really happy about that. The power of some sins increases the closer you get. And the reality of this power of sin in proximity is that you can find yourself suddenly stuck and it can take an incredible amount of effort to pull yourself away. Now, I hope you'll never forget that. The reality is that some sins are a trap. And it's a honey trap. And it's absolute foolishness to get yourself up so close and start smelling the honey. and thinking how delicious it smells. It's the worst thing you can do. That's why temptation to sexual immorality, particularly, is so dangerous. That's why Solomon told his son, Proverbs 5, verse 8, he said about the forbidden woman, keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house. Why not? Why not go near the door of her house? No one can make you commit sexual immorality with her, son. You're a man, son. Be a man, stand up. Face out temptation. No, says Solomon. Don't go near the door of her house. Why not? Because when you're near the door, there may be something attractive, and you may find yourself being pulled in. And then you're stuck. That's the power of some sins. The closer you get, the more you look at it, the more it can work on your flesh, and the more powerful the attraction can become. You know, it was a long time before D-Day, or Dunkirk, but it was also in northern France on... on an occasion when the English were fighting a different enemy, the French this time But it was a battle that would change the course of history again The French armies were vastly superior in number and armour Their men-at-arms were better armed and better armoured than the British They were outnumbering the British men-at-arms 5 to 1. In close combat, there would have been no contest between the French, who would have wiped the floor, you would say, with the British armies. But on Friday, the 25th of October, 1415, it was, amongst other factors, the British longbow that defeated the French. able to wound at 400 yards, able to kill at 200 yards, and at 100 yards, the British longbow could pierce the armor of those heavily armored French. It was the British ability at that point, the English ability, sorry, 1415, Britain didn't exactly exist, but it was the English ability to keep the French at a distance that enabled them to defeat them. The French had crossbows, and crossbows were a very powerful weapon, but the crossbows were only any good at close range. And the point, Christian, is this. It's very simple. There are some sins that are so powerful when you get close to them that they are deadly, and you're only Right, sensible, natural, common sense, you would say. How rare is common sense? The obvious course of action with some sins is to withdraw. To get yourself out of there. And to deal with it from a distance. And I believe that's what's happening here. These sins, like the love of money, you let yourself in too close. And people say, how close? It's too close. And how many stories have you heard? Well, you know, but from people who say, you know, well, I just want to do this and I'm going to use the money, of course, to serve the Lord, but I'm really excited about this. Amazing! And there you can see the love and the joy in the opportunity to earn lots and lots and lots of money as it gets hold of that person's heart. How close is too close? Jesus spoke about the deceitfulness of riches, didn't he? And how many have fallen to that deceitfulness? So what do you do with the love of money? Christian, flee it. Run away, get to a safe distance from the love of money. What about this unhealthy craving for controversy? Some young men. need to be told about this, this unhealthy craving for controversy and a love for quarreling about words. I, for one, would never send a man to seminary who demonstrated an unhealthy craving for controversy, who loved to debate and engaged as almost a pastime in arguing That's a sin you cannot mess with, Christian. You can't get close to it. The Bible says flee it, flee these things. Well, okay, these are basic lessons and really this is just an introduction. What's the problem with idolatry? Maybe you've never felt particularly attracted to idolatry and Paul's telling you to run away from it. And you're like, well, okay, thanks. Well, I'll skip this section because I really don't see the attraction. You know, I've been to Thailand and the golden temples and I didn't want to go and join in. Maybe that's a mystery to you. Maybe someone else in the room comes from exactly that background and it's no mystery at all. How do we deal with this? I want to really just walk us through very briefly this passage and try to explain what's going on here under three headings. First of all, I'll take time to to try to define what is idolatry itself, maybe that will help you, and then we'll look at reasons to flee idolatry that are given to us in this passage, why to flee it, and then thirdly some lessons for dealing with similar temptations that we may have today. So whether your problem is a temptation to idolatry or not. I hope to draw out some lessons which will be applicable to everyone. Let me just say as I get into this, friend, if you're not yet even Born Again, this is a lesson which Paul gave to Christians. And right at the outset, I should say, listen along, but this is going to give you an insight into something of the deadly danger of the sin of idolatry and what it means. And I hope that'll be a help to you. So what is idolatry? Well, actually, if you want to go back to the Old Testament, you can turn back to the book of Exodus chapter 20 and verse 3, and you'll find it there defined for the people of Israel in the first and second commandments of the Ten Commandments. You remember those Ten Commandments that were given by God through Moses. God spoke. Actually, these words, and he thundered these words from Mount Sinai. All the people heard them. God wrote these words with his finger onto two stone tablets. Tablets of the Law and the Ten Commandments were given to the people of Israel, part of the Mosaic Covenant. Here in Exodus chapter 20, verse 3, you find the first one, where God says, You shall have no other gods before me. Who is this God who speaks like that? He explains it in the verse before I am. Yahweh, the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. In the same collection of books, Yahweh is introduced as the creator God. The God who made the heavens and the earth. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. The God who created all things in the beginning. The God. The God who brought plagues on the land of Egypt and humiliated the false gods of Egypt. The God who revealed himself to the people of the world by bringing his people out of slavery in Egypt, by parting the Red Sea. by drowning the whole Egyptian army in the sea. This God says, I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other gods before me. The first commandment speaks about the primary place that God occupies and should occupy in the life of his people. And the second commandment really explains how they should not worship him, verse 4 says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image in the likeness of anything that's in heaven above, or that's in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. And so you really in the first two commandments, you have this definition of what idolatry is. Idolatry really is the worship of any other god, so-called, or you could say the worship of the true God via an image. You shall not make for yourself An idol, a carved image in the form of anything. And it's very specific that God himself, the true God, the creator God, was not to be worshipped by some kind of visible form that men can create and then bow down to and worship and say, that is God. Or even, that represents God for us. That's really the basic definition of idolatry, but what lies behind this problem of idolatry is a redefinition of God. It's saying, instead of saying, God, you are who you are, who made the world and everything in it, you are who you tell us that you are, it's saying about God, God is who we make him out to be. And when we create our own image and say, that's God, we've redefined God. And just in case the implications of that don't strike you, that's deadly. If God is the God of the universe, and he is the God who makes provision for salvation, if he's the God who is the way of redemption, if he is the true and living God who made everything, and we take it in our hands to kind of remake him in our own fashion, however we want him to be, We've just changed from the true and living God to something that doesn't actually exist. And the foolishness of that is pretty obvious. So why does anyone do it? And why don't people just take a step back and say, well, no, we're not going to do that. We're going to worship God for who He is, even though we don't actually know exactly everything about him and what he's like, we're just going to offer up worship to the creator of the universe, whoever he knows himself to be and reveals himself to be. Why don't people do that? Well, actually, there's some very painful reasons why people don't do that. There's something actually very, very attractive to the human heart about idolatry. If you go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 7, Paul told the people in Corinth again, do not be idolaters as some of them were. Who's he talking about, the them? Well, he's talking about the people of Israel in the wilderness that had a lot of experiences as they went through the wilderness on their way to the promised land. In verse 6 he says, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. And the very first example that he gives of them desiring evil is what? Idolatry. Do not be idolaters. Where's the desire for evil in idolatry? Well, he explains the scenario as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Actually, where that's written is the account in Exodus chapter 32 of the story of the golden calf. where the people turned around after Moses had gone up the mountain 40 days. So 40 days earlier, Moses had gone up the mountain and they had heard God speak these words, you shall not make for yourself an idol. And 40 days later, they were saying, as for this fellow Moses, we don't know what's happened to him. And they took Aaron and said, Aaron, make us a god to go before us. And Aaron said, okay, bring me your earrings. And they brought their earrings, and he melted them down in the fire, and then out came this blob, or at least that's the way he said it. Actually, he took it and fashioned it with a tool, and he made it to look like a calf, a golden calf. A baby cow. And he said, this is your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. This is Yahweh. And he said, tomorrow will be a festival to Yahweh. A festival to the Lord. And they came on the next day and they bowed down and worshipped the calf. You say, I really can't believe that's possible. How could the people of Israel go from walking through the Red Sea with the water as a wall on either side, like, did they see the fish? Did they hold their lanterns up to the water and look at the fish? I don't know. But they walked on dry ground. I know that says so. And they went through. And the pillar of cloud and the pillar by day and the pillar of fiery cloud by night stood between them and the Egyptians and then the sea closed and the Egyptians were drowned. But then the fiery cloudy pillar led them through the wilderness. led them to Mount Sinai. And then the voice of God thundered from Mount Sinai, you shall not make for yourself an idol. And they had all the proof that anyone could ever want that they were being led and provided for by the God of the universe. But they'd rather have a cow. I mean, talk about a bad option. Why? Why would they do that? How could people be so stupid, you say? Well, actually... Paul nails it, doesn't he? These things happen to them as examples that we might not desire evil as they did. What kind of evil are they desiring in idolatry? Actually, it kind of explains it. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to what? Play. Oh, that's actually a euphemism for sexual immorality. And had they seen idol worship in Egypt? Had they seen the kind of idol feasts? This is cutting out, isn't it? It is. Shall I just put this back up here? Had they seen the idol feasts in Egypt? Had they taken part in worship of gods that you can see and touch and are associated with this just indulgent immorality? Did they crave? Oh yes, they craved. They craved even cucumbers. I can't imagine craving cucumbers. But they craved cucumbers from Egypt. They look back at the time in Egypt and they said, we want some of what they had. Now, is it possible to look at a kind of a... Can you turn this down a little bit? A religion you can see and touch and smell and a religion that gives you what you really want out of it. A good old feast. and a party, and maybe some sexual immorality thrown in, because that's what kind of goes with a good old feast and a party, isn't it, in the pagan religious world? It's possible to want that, isn't it? Even if you've never experienced it, you've just seen it, or maybe even heard of it. You can desire evil as they did, and do you know that that desire could lead you down the path that would mean that you would be willing to make God the way you want him to be. That's kind of scary, isn't it? That's idolatry. That's redefining God. It gets even worse as you go through the history of the people of Israel. Ezekiel 14, this is after the exile and God is speaking to Ezekiel about the sins of the people of God. Ezekiel 14 and verse 3, God complains to Ezekiel, son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts. You know, it's possible to actually get so caught up in idolatry that you've almost taken an image of God into your heart. You've made it your bosom idea of who God is. And God says to Ezekiel, and should I be inquired of them? Should I let them inquire of me? No way, is the answer to that. These people have embraced, we would say, idolatry. There's an interesting book written by a man whose writings I do not agree with at every point, but he wrote an interesting book called The Screwtape Letters and his name is C.S. Lewis. I must say I think there are some dangerous ideas in some of his writings but some of what he writes is very helpful and this is one book that I read when I was a very young Christian and it helped me. The screw tape letters are an imaginary conversation between a senior demon and a junior demon. What are they doing? Well, they're trying to deceive and distract and divert Christians. Screwtape, the uncle demon, if you can imagine such a thing, is writing a letter to Wormwood, the nephew, and telling him, instructing him on how to deal with a man who's become a Christian. And he writes this to his nephew, Demon, about how to deceive the Christian. He says, there will be images, you would say in the human mind, derived from pictures of God as he appeared during the discreditable episode known as the Incarnation. There will be vaguer, perhaps quite savage and puerile images associated with the other two persons. There will even be some of his own reverence and of bodily sensations accompanying it, objectified and attributed to the object revered. I have known cases where what the patient called his God, they refer to the new Christian as the patient, what the patient called his God was actually located up and to the left at the corner of the bedroom ceiling, or inside his own head, or in a crucifix on the wall. But whatever the nature of the composite object, you must keep him praying to it, to the thing that he has made, not to the person who has made him. Now, I don't know if you're able to track with me through that somewhat archaic language, but the point is this. Do you know you can create an image of God even in your own mind, which is not actually God? and then worship your own invention? That's kind of scary, isn't it? Actually, the Corinthians, maybe you don't have a problem with bowing down to idols and outward indulgent, immoral idol feast type worship. The Corinthians did. But whatever their problem was, all of us have an issue with idolatry. Because as someone has put it so well, the human heart is a factory of idols. So there's a definition of idolatry for you, and if the Corinthians had a huge problem with it, and Paul is writing them here to encourage them to flee from it, what lessons can we learn from what he writes to them? Okay, number two in our little list, after a definition of idolatry, number two is why to flee idolatry. Why does Paul tell the Corinthians to flee idolatry? Okay, whew, take a breath. We're going to walk through the text. That's what you've been waiting for, isn't it? That's what we do every week. And it took me a long time to get there, but here we are, verse 14. There is a danger here, and it comes out in verses 15 and 16. And the danger that Paul is trying to persuade the Corinthians of is the danger of communion, or participation, or involvement. We're about to celebrate communion we call it the Lord's Table, but it can be called communion actually from the word which is found here. But actually this teaching about the Lord's Table is part of a point that Paul makes to the Corinthians to warn them about the danger of communion with We'll get there, but let's follow through his argument. Comes out, verse 15, I speak as to sensible people, judge for yourselves what I say. And he's really appealing to them to consider the point that he's about to make. He's setting up what he's about to say and saying, okay guys, you can think this through, so think through what I'm saying, will you? Verse 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? And of course the answer to both those questions is, yes it is, and that's the point of the question. He's setting up the question to say, well, don't we, when we celebrate the Lord's table, the cup of blessing, the cup of blessing was the third cup in the celebration of the Passover, when Jesus inaugurated the Lord's table, that third cup became the cup that Christians used for the Lord's table. So the Passover celebration was transformed into the Lord's supper. And that's why we don't celebrate the Passover, we celebrate the Lord's supper. But this cup of blessing, which was the third cup in the ongoing celebration of the Passover, which we bless, he says, they would pray and ask the Lord to, as we bless our food, as Jesus blessed the food, and we give thanks for it, but we pray God's blessing on it, that's what we're doing when we bless the cup, we're praying that the Lord would bless the cup to our experience, that we would receive the blessing that comes from celebrating the Lord's table. The cup of blessing that we bless, Paul writes, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? And that's an interesting word, participation. In the Greek it's koinonia, in the root form, and sometimes it's translated communion, sometimes it's translated by other words. The idea is one of involvement, connection with sharing, with participation, is a good word, well translated here. If there's a, what Paul is saying is very simply, if there's a connection taking place, if there's a sharing, an involvement, when we drink the cup and we take part in the Lord's table, if we're somehow connecting with, what, the blood of Christ, does that happen? answer is yes. Very interesting insight into the Lord's Table. Are we just celebrating the Lord's Table? Is it just like a, only a reminder? Now we know from 1 Corinthians chapter 11 that the main point is a reminder. Do this in remembrance of me, said Jesus. But is there actually a connection taking place with the reality of, is Christ somehow present with us? Is there some sort of an experience of the special blessing of God associated with celebrating the Lord's table? you would say, well, there's something going on here. Now, I don't have time to get into all the controversy, but the Roman Catholics would try to teach you that the wine has actually been transformed into the actual blood of Christ by the power of the priest, and a whole lot of nonsense that is, too. And the Lutherans would teach that somehow because of their understanding of Aristotelian philosophy, then the blood of Christ is somehow with and under, so it's kind of has the appearance of being just ordinary grape juice or wine, but actually somewhere associated with that is the actual blood of Christ. Again, kind of a strange hangover from the Roman Catholic teaching. None of that is taught here. If you want to interpret this passage in that way, you have to bring those ideas in. And to bring them into this passage, you've got to prove them from somewhere else and you can't. I mean, yes, Jesus did say, this is my body, but he also said, I am the door. And we don't teach that he was physically a door, and we don't teach that the bread was physically his body. And he said, this is my body, when he was actually physically there. So it made no sense. We'll leave aside all the controversies that have raged down through the ages in the theological world. And we'll just say that there is something going on here. There is a participation. That's an interesting insight for us, isn't it? Actually, if God inhabits the praises of his people, do you think it's unrealistic that he might especially be present to bless when we celebrate the Lord's table in remembrance of him, in obedience to his command, and when he's already promised he's going to be with us to the end of the age? I think it's reasonable to say, as we celebrate the Lord's table, the Lord may be especially present to bless in that. That's, if you want it historically, a sort of a middle ground position between the belief of, let's say, Luther and the belief of Zwingli. If that means anything to you, I'll leave that with you. The point I'm trying to make here is the point Paul's trying to make. There's a communion that happens. There's a connection that's going on. There's a participation that's happening when we celebrate the Lord's table. The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Actually, the word blood of Christ speaks of his violent death, in Jewish terminology that would refer to the violent death. And the body, interestingly, would speak more, we tend to think of his body broken on the cross. people have pointed out that his body was not broken, not a bone of his body was broken on the cross, and this bread that we're told to break the bread, but it doesn't say his body is broken for you, it says his body which is for you. Anyway, leaving those debates aside, The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? The body of Christ would speak more of his humanity, his incarnation for us. When we participate in this celebration of the Lord's Table, we're taking part in, we're participating. There's an involvement, there's a connection, there's a communion taking place. with the reality of Jesus' incarnation for us, his humanity. That's what's going on here. We celebrate it. We remember. We take it. We receive it. We say, I cannot earn righteousness that I need to make myself right with God, but Jesus came and lived the perfect life. I cannot die for my sins, but Jesus came and died the perfect death, the sacrificial death for sins he didn't do. I need his death applied to me. And all you can do is take, receive. That's what we're celebrating at the communion. But the problem that you've got is there is actual communion that happens there. Now, point of clarification, well he goes on to make the point again, the Israelites when they sacrificed at the altar in verse 18, consider the people of Israel, are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? Making the same point again, there's a genuine connection, there's a communion, there's a participation taking place. When you presented a free will offering in the Old Testament, Leviticus, you actually ate some of that offering. You ate it, you offered the rest of it, you were taking part in that whole thing. There was a connection, a communion, a participation going on. Okay, that's a problem for you. Why is it a problem for you? I thought that was a good thing you say. Yes, that's a good thing. Here's the problem. Point of clarification, verse 19, What do I imply then, that food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, that's not what he's saying. That's not what he's been saying all along. He's been saying all along that actually food offered to idols is just food and that idols are nothing. So what's the problem here? The problem here, brother or sister, is a problem of communion. It's a problem of connection that's going on. When there's an idolatrous feast going on and you take part in that feast, there's a connection which is being made. Follow this. The food is offered, the sacrifices are offered to demons. Look, verse 19, verse 20. No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to gods. The idol is nothing. Here's our insight into demonology. But behind the idol Oh, there are real spiritual forces of wickedness intent on providing real spiritual power to false idols that are nothing. It's not a god, but it's a very real demon deceiving people through that thing. And the pagan sacrifices that are offered, Paul explains, are offered to demons and not to God. Now you can take that and apply it to Roman Catholic idol worship, or you can apply it to any other kind of idol worship. The crucifix that you pray to is not God. Mary, I should... hasten to say, is not God. Neither is she the mother of God, although she was the mother of the human mother of the baby who was God the son. In that sense she became the mother of God, but she was in no way the mother of God in the sense that she gave generation to God. Eternal God, the Son, chose to be born in her womb, that's all. She needed Him to be her Saviour. She said it. Well, so getting involved in idolatry then. Okay. What's the problem? Well, the problem is you get involved in idolatry, demons are behind it, and getting involved in idolatry is not Getting involved with nothing. Now you've got to get this clear. It's involving yourself when you participate with idolatry, you're involving yourself with demonically powered false worship of false gods. And that is everything but neutral. It's not neutral, because yes, an idol is nothing, and food sacrificed to an idol is just food, but the whole business of idolatry and idol worship is not nothing. There's demons behind it all. And so these strong people, you remember the strong in Corinth? These strong people who knew that an idol is nothing and food sacrifice to an idol is just food. And so we can do this thing. The strong can go wrong here. Actually, they're right. An idol is nothing and food sacrifice to an idol is nothing. But they can go badly wrong. when they get near to idolatry, because getting near and mixed up in it can get you connected. You can be having communion, but it's not holy communion. And it's one thing to say an idol is nothing, so meat is nothing, so meat sacrifice to an idol is just meat. That's true. 1 Corinthians 10.25, eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising question of conscience, says Paul. Verse 27, if an unbeliever invites you to go to dinner and you're disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any objection on the ground of conscience. The meat is nothing. You cannot eat demons. You're not going to have them enter your body and somehow defile you because you eat meat that's been offered to demons. It's not going to affect you. But you go and take part in that idolatrous feast, that's a whole different business. You draw near to that sin of idolatry. You're drawing near, you're getting... Are you potentially having communion there of a different kind? No wonder Paul just says it. Flee idolatry. And then the exhortation comes at the end in verses 21 and 22. 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. No, you can. But the point he's making is, that is so incongruous, that's so obviously wrong. Brother, sister, you can't do that. You mustn't do that. To do that would be to do what? To get involved in idolatrous worship, and then to try to draw near to God, would be what? Well, actually it's what it says here. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? That's what happened with the Israelites when they committed idolatry, wasn't it? He said, I'm a jealous God punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation, and he did. Showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments, and he does. But you can't mess with God. And when you mess with idolatry, you're messing with God. Are we stronger than he? That's a rhetorical question. The answer is no, in case you didn't know. simple reasons to flee idolatry, right? Do you want to get near to that? You want to see if you can get yourself all cuddled up nice and close and then fight the temptation when you're there? Could it be a temptation to you? Well, Maybe, like the Corinthians, you've got a background in idolatry and that's very real for you. But maybe this would never even enter your mind. But here are some lessons, just in closing, for dealing with similar temptations. Because I listed five sins, when we started, that have this instruction. Flee them! And there are very real situations where you want to know to flee. And here are some very simple lessons I suppose you could say, really it boils down to just one. The lesson we've already learned at the beginning, there are times when you need to keep your distance. There are some sins that can suck you in and you, you have to flee. Why? Because you go near and you get involved. And when you get involved, it's not neutral. And you can provoke your God to jealousy. You can be in the position where you are kind of testing God to see whether God is really serious about disciplining his children. I gave you a little illustration with a magnet, but I think I tapped it, that's why it went weak. But you know, it can be really painful to pull yourself away. And it can be, sometimes when you get stuck together, it can have contaminating and destructive and permanent effects. There are some sins like sexual immorality and the reproach will never be taken away. There are some sins which can stick and impact you and you may go and plead with your wife for forgiveness and she may even forgive you and take you back but it's going to be a long time before she can trust you again. There are some things which you can do in a moment and the impact can be felt for the rest of your life. And so there are some sins that you just have to say, I have got to stay away from this. Flee those things. Withdraw. Retreat is not defeat with those sins. Retreating is actually the means to victory at that point. And that's why Paul can say no temptation has overtaking you, except that which is common to man. But God is faithful, and with the temptation he will provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, flee idolatry. Right? So that I can endure it, and now he's telling me to flee? Yes. Sometimes the way to deal, the way to stay standing is to flee. The way to win is to flee, sometimes. And it's down to you, Christian, because if you go too close, well, you could find yourself ensnared. Lord, we pray that you'd help us to learn these lessons from holds instruction to the Corinthians and to us to flee idolatry and the reasons he gives them connected with the danger of communion, even communion with demons and demonic worship and the connection and the involvement that that would give us. Oh Lord have mercy on us, forgive us our sins we pray. As we come to celebrate your table now, we pray that you would enable us afresh to fix our eyes upon Jesus and upon his amazing sacrifice for our sins. Thank you that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. Thank you that there's no sin too vile for you to wash it all away through the actual death of our Savior on that cross. And we pray that you'd help us all as repenting and believing sinners to draw near to you now as we celebrate and remember you. And we praise you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.