Title of the message is, What is Idolatry? Part 2. We began this study last time in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The verse that we looked at, basically we looked at two verses last time. Verses 14 and 15. In verse 14 Paul says, Therefore my beloved flee from idolatry. The context of this whole section, if you recall, is Christian liberty. Now, all of this, in the ancient sense for the Corinthians, speaks to the issue of the fact that they were allowing themselves, as born-again Christians now, to use their newfound liberty in Christ to drift back into hanging around with idol worshipers and sort of mingling in the practices that went along with idol worship, which was all sin. And so they're really using, they've slipped back into using their liberty as a cloak for their sin. That's ancient Corinth. For the modern-day Christian, the way this passage applies to us, it would be those of us that are born again, allowing ourselves to drift back from intimacy with Christ, to drift out of intimacy with Christ, once you really have it, into involvement again with godless people and godless practices. And the main thought that runs through here, you could misunderstand the whole passage and each verse, but you cannot misunderstand this. So if you misunderstand everything else, you'll still get the message if you know this. The main thought in the passage is the inconsistency of it all. to enjoy unbridled, warm, spirit-filled intimacy with Jesus Christ, and then go out and mix with the world, and do the things that unconverted people do, and mix that into your Christianity, the inconsistency of it all is the issue. It is an inconceivable inconsistency. Does that make sense? And that is what is on the heart of the Apostle Paul. I'd like you to hold your finger here in 1 Corinthians and turn to Matthew. 624, we'll get this all cemented in, and then the message will be easier for you. And that is my design, to make it as understandable as possible today. If you turn to Matthew 624, I think most of you know this verse, but it certainly applies right now. In Matthew 624, Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Now Many of you know that mammon here is a reference in the context. The word means money. If you were to look it up in a dictionary, the word means money. But the actual etymological root of the word has to do with anything that you put your trust in, your focus in, your interest supremely in, or your preoccupation fixed upon. So the basic idea is you can't serve God and the world at the same time. And that's not new to us, but perhaps it needs to be freshly heard by us again today. And I venture to say that if you're in this message or you're listening on the web, God wants you to hear this message today. And I'll tell you right up front, I'm preaching it to myself today, because I need to hear it. I'm just like you. There's one word we could use for it. Human. So back to 1 Corinthians 10. Let's plow into the text. I'd like to read through it so it's fresh in our minds. 1 Corinthians 10, 14, and 15 we looked at last time, but let's read it again as we get started. Therefore my beloved, flee from idolatry. reminds you of Joseph fleeing from Potiphar's wife. Turn around and run. In verse 15, I speak as to wise men. Judge for yourselves what I say. These people had been taught by the Apostle Paul everything that follows they understand, even though some of the terminology may be foreign to us, it's not to them. So I'll clarify some of those issues as we go. In verse 16, This is where we begin our study for today. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body. For we all partake of that one bread. observe Israel after the flesh, are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?" What am I saying? He's talking about identification and participation. That's what he's talking about. So he says, what am I saying? That an idol is anything? That little statue in front of you? Or what is offered to anything? The fruit, the meat, the whatever, the whatever, the whatever you bring to the idol? or the Christian life, which would be you, to the idol. But I say that the things the Gentiles sacrifice, here it comes, verse 20, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not, here's the shepherd's heart, I do not want you to have, what a shocking phrase, balanced and shocking at the same time. I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You say, is that even possible as a Christian? Is there such a thing as the full armor of God? Yes. Then that means you're going to have some pretty intimate clashing and involvement with Satan. What he's trying to spare them from is unnecessary involvement with Satan. There's going to be inevitable warfare. But there's no reason for you to waltz out, get yourself involved in worldly ways, and get yourself all entangled, because you're going to be mingling with demons at that point, and he wants to spare them from that. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Verse 21. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Or are we stronger than He? Always make it a policy that if you're going to have an enemy, have one weaker than yourself. And you are not stronger than God. Your arms are too short to box with God. So, we don't want to provoke the Lord to jealousy. We're not stronger than He. There is an outline for the passage. It's a fourfold outline. We're working our way through it. Last time we looked at the first point, which is the definition of idolatry. We looked at that in great detail. The second thing is the deviation, departing from Christ into idolatry. The third thing is the demons involved in it. And the fourth thing is the disgust of idolatry to God. So the definition, the deviation, the demons and the disgust. That's the outline. We've seen the definition. You could sum it up by saying an idol may be defined as a person or a thing that has usurped in the heart the place of preeminence that belongs to the Lord. So whether it be in a pagan country where there's statues and all of this involved, or whether it be right here in upper Midwest Wisconsin, USA, it's anything that usurps your heart and your passion for the Lord. We looked at a lot of different categories of idolatry and those things are available in the last message. I want to move on from the definition, we spent a lot of time on that, to the deviation of idolatry. It is a gross deviation from what would be true worship, true worship of the Lord. Paul goes to the Lord's table as an example of true worship. Something interesting about Paul, I'll tell you. If I could just digress for a moment. Paul is such a genius. He can hold so much truth in tension at once that he'll often throw out a little forecast of where he's going in the middle of teaching you on one current thought and subject. He'll toss out a forecast at the same time and meet the current issue as well as let you know where he's going. So as he goes to the Lord's table here and uses it to illustrate true worship, it's a forecast of the fact that halfway through chapter 11 he's going to talk in detail about the Lord's table. That's Paul the Apostle. That's why I love his writing because it's doubly rich most of the time. You don't have to look for something to minister to you. It gushes out of his writings. So he says in verse 16, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The cup of blessing which we bless. You see, blessing and bless, it's to be a time of praise. When we come to the Lord's table, it's a time of celebration. It is to be a time of praise, the cup of blessing. When he says this little phrase here, the cup of blessing, it takes us really right back in time and history to the night of the Passover supper that they had in the upper room. They were celebrating the Passover meal. And the Passover meal, if you recall, was to celebrate the fact that God had delivered them from Egypt and the death angel had passed over those that had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. So forever after, they would remember each year the fact they had been delivered by the hand of Almighty God. All of that pointing to the one who would ultimately deliver them, right? So the cup of blessing at the Passover meal was the third time the cup went around the table. They would pass the cup of wine around the table, and the third time they did it, that was officially called the cup of blessing. It is most likely that Jesus at their Passover meal with the disciples the night before his crucifixion took that cup, the cup of blessing. That was a time when they really expressed their gratitude to God for the deliverance. It is most likely he took that cup, the cup of blessing, and that is what he used to turn the Passover meal into what we now know as communion or the Lord's table, as he is the fulfillment of all that was forecast. So from there, there's no Passover feast for us. We take the Lord's table and communion with him instead. dead. So most likely he took the third cup. That's the cup of blessing. That cup then becomes the instrument that we look to as we hold the elements in our hands when we come to the Lord in communion. In Matthew 26-27 we read, then he took the cup and he gave thanks and he gave it to them saying, I like this, he said, drink from it all of you. Drink from it, all of you. Because, then he goes on to explain what it represents. You all need to be partakers in the fact that I'm going to shed my blood and what that's going to mean to you. Drink from it, all of you. Speaks of the blessing of his shed blood. So it's a time of praise. When we come to the Lord's table, it is to be a time of praise. It's a beautiful thing where we bless the Lord, we hold the cup in our hands, and we bless the Lord for the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But it's also to be a time of participation. Look at verse 16 again. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? See the word communion? In the Greek, the word is, does anyone know? Koinonia. Now that's a word you've heard, right? koinonia. It means to share, to have in common, to participate with, and to have partnership. So here he is saying it's not only a time of praise, but it's a time of participation. He says communion of the blood of Jesus. It is a sharing in the effects of his blood. so that as we hold the cup in our hands together, all of us, we are sharing as one people, the Lord's people, we are sharing in the accomplishment of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It's a very simple picture that is very profound in its meaning. Now follow this, the whole idea of sharing and participating together, follow this. This is what should happen when we are holding the cup in our hands. I'm going to give you the analogy of a picture. Many of you at home on your mantel over the fireplace, or a table over here, or a wall here, or a hall gallery there, you have pictures of loved ones. When you pick up the picture of a loved one, it's not really that person. They're not really in the room, right? And so you're standing there, let's just say you're alone and you're looking at the picture of a loved one. That picture can churn up within you so many wonderful feelings. I love this person so much. It can churn up, activate all the good times you had together. It can activate how much you miss them and long to be with them, right? So that's the beauty of a picture. The downside of a picture is that that person, as you're missing them and loving them and some tears drop on the glass and you have to wipe it off with a tissue, which you're using for your eyes as well, that person, while you're weeping and looking at their picture, feeling all these great things about them, they're not thinking about you at all. Now watch this. When we hold in our hands the cup of the Lord and we start to think about how much we love Him, how much we long to be with Him, how much we appreciate all that He has done for us in our salvation, the kind of life we have, All these beautiful thoughts that if you're really walking with the Lord, your mind could go in a thousand different directions of gratitude, right? Well, the beautiful thing about this is as you're holding this picture in your hands, He is deeply aware that you're holding this picture in your hands. And He's deeply aware of what you're feeling in your heart. and the Holy Spirit who lives within you in your heart, always there interceding and moving and acting, He then quickens to your heart this experience between you and the Lord. And so God is deeply aware, and thus there's a communion that takes place that's very real. and we come together as one, we participate as one, and we share then in the effects of the blood in that way, participating in that way, and we thank God that we're able to come to Him and trust Him that He alone can save us, and that the blood is such a picture then to all of us that He reached out to us. We did not have to Try to climb a stairway to heaven. And we didn't have to go find him. We didn't have to try to get ourselves up to him. He came and reached out and came down to us. So when he shed his blood, if anything says to us he was reaching out to us, it's the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The truth is, many religions in the world, around the world, follow the religion of human achievement. rather than divine accomplishment. Let me give you an example, which is pretty common around the world of man trying to reach God. There is in China, for example, a place where devout pilgrims can make an ascent up a sacred mountain called Mount Tashan. They have to climb these devout pilgrims 7,000 steps to get to the top of the mount. As they climb the steps, they go through different sections and they finally come to the temple on the very top, which is called the Temple of the Azure Cloud. Now there's more than one temple of the azure cloud. We're talking about the one at the top of the 7,000 steps. And once they get there, can you imagine climbing 7,000 steps and you're carrying your sacrifice with you. Once you get there, you bring your sacrifice, whatever that might be, it's probably food, you know, because that's typical of Buddhists. So you bring your sacrifices, and you then lay them out before whichever statue you feel really led to. And you then put your sacrifice there, and all of that is to gain religious favor of the gods. The problem with it is not only the 7,000 steps you have to go back down, but the problem is that the futility of it all. Because having gone all the way up and all the way down and being as sincere as you could be, you're totally deceived and you're no closer to God than when you took the very first step to get to the top of that mountain. That's the tragedy of it. Whereas, listen to this, for us as Christians, and this is the way God has worked it out for the human race, if they will receive it, in Ephesians 2.13 we read, But now in Christ Jesus you who were once afar off, Those of you that were once far off have been made near, how? By the blood of Jesus Christ. God has come down to us and brought us up to Him. What a beautiful thing. That's the communion we have together with the blood of Jesus Christ that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 10, 16. Then, not only the communion of the blood, but the communion of the body. Very rich verse. He says, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Now this is speaking first and foremost of the actual body of Christ. his human body. In Luke 22, 19, he took the bread, he gave thanks, and he broke it, and then he passed it around and gave it to them saying, this is to symbolize my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me, so the cup with the wine is going to be a picture of my blood shed for you, and the bread I'm giving you now is to be a picture of my body given for you." So, speaks of the actual body of Jesus Christ. Now, he's got these guys with Hebrew background and culture sitting around him. To the Hebrew mind, The body represented the life of the individual. The human body represented the life of the human individual. Just like Adam was formed from the ground, the word Adamus is the word that means earth and where he get his name. from that word, Adam. It's not rocket science. So they never forgot that God breathed life into what was formed from the ground, and so the human body that came to life represents the life of that individual. So through that body, he is going to make the sacrifice. That body. In other words, he's saying, as you take this bread, be mindful of the fact, I am going to give my life for you. I'm going to give my life for you, and then in return, each one of you must respond to the life that I give to you after. First I'm going to give my life for you, then I'm going to give my life to you. What happened on the day of Pentecost? the Spirit of God, the life of God hovered above them, and then all of a sudden, like balls of glowing fire, that was the Shekinah glory of God, the presence of God hovered above them with the sound of a mighty rushing wind, even though the curtains weren't even moving. It was just the power of God, and then all of a sudden... The life of God came into their souls in a way that was brand new, and that's the new covenant. The church was born at that moment, and ever since then, when you're born again, God comes to live within you. I'm going to give my life for you, then I'm going to give my life to you. That's what he was saying. And then in that prepared body that he was referring to, in that prepared body that he assumed when he came to this earth, he went to the cross. See, here's the situation God had to deal with. God so loved the world, right? You know that verse? God so loved the world, but somebody had to die in order for man to be forgiven. Here's the problem God's facing. Deity or God cannot, what? Die. God cannot die. Somebody has to die for man to be forgiven, but God cannot die. So a body was prepared, and the Son of God comes down into the body, and He's telling these men, this body that I came into, I'm going to give on your behalf. for your salvation. That's the body he's talking about. And so, God so loved the world that he figured out a way to become a man, and I say that reverently, figured out a way, reverently, figured out a way to become a man and go to the cross as a sinless man. Then he died for our sin. I like what John Boyce said, in the creation the Lord made man like himself. He made man in His own image. In the creation, the Lord made man like Himself. But in the redemption, He made Himself like man. Great words. So the body speaks of the actual body, but it also speaks of the life that he lived. See, he became a human being and then he lived a life here. Philippians 2.7 says he emptied himself, taking on the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. The word likeness is used because he never sinned. But He became a man, so it doesn't just speak of the fact that He gave His body on the cross, it also speaks of the life that He lived as a human being. In Hebrews 2.14 it says, "...inasmuch as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same." And as much as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself, God, likewise shared in the same." So the simple element of the bread, as we hold it before us, should activate in our hearts, and the Holy Spirit actually activates in our hearts, the fellowship of His body as it speaks of all that He did as a man. Read the Gospels. Think of all He did for us. as a man. And then read the rest of the New Testament and understand all He did for us and how He was tempted in all ways as you and I are. And thus, when you're tempted and you're struggling, having become a man, having ascended back into the heavens as a man, as William Knowles says, there sits on the right hand of God a glorified man. Having become a man for you, He ever lives to make intercession for you. so that you have communion with him in the life that he lived because he now, because of that life he lived, understands you completely. He was tempted in every way you have ever been tempted, but he never gave in, so he knows the way out. Fellowship of His body. It's communion of the blood, the communion of the body, and then there's the communion of the brethren. You know, in verse 17 of 1 Corinthians, we read, "...for we being many are one bread and one body, and we all partake of that one bread." As I said earlier, in our oneness in Him, What I like about this is that when we come to the Lord's table, there's only one Jesus Christ, the living bread. There's only one body of Christ, and here we are part of it, and we're together. And as we come to celebrate the blood and the body given at the cross, we are all Gathered together as forgiven sinners, we're sinners one and all on a level playing field. And that doesn't happen all that often where we're all humble at once. So what it's meant to bring about through the work of the Holy Spirit is as we contemplate the cross and what he did, the body and the blood, as we contemplate that, we are humbled and we're worshipping and we're celebrating. We should be able then to turn to one another after partaking of communion with a fresh love and a fresh humility that maybe has dissipated. over the last weeks or months. This is why Communion is not just another day. And this is why the message heads all the way to the partaking of the elements every time we take communion. It is not just another day in the life of the Christian. This is also why some Christians who are out there mingling with the world and trying to walk with Jesus at the same time, come to the Lord's table and experience nothing. And then they say, you know, I quit coming to communion. Yeah, I noticed. See, I know. I know who sits where, I know who's here today and who's not here today, and I know who sits where because you all sit in the same place. There's only a few of you random geniuses that move about and have the capability to sit anywhere you like. So there are those that have stopped coming to communion because they don't feel anything. So often I come, I don't feel anything. I want a little zap. I want some tingles, man. And I don't feel anything, so I don't come. Guess what? The reason you don't experience anything when there's people sitting at communion weeping, and you're feeling nothing, It's because of the way you've been living out there. You get out there, you mix with the worldly ways, you mix with the ungodly people, you do the ungodly things, and you waltz in and think you can sit down at the communion table and have this great communion with God and the brethren. You're fooling yourself. And that is exactly what Paul is trying to teach them in here. And he takes us deep because he tells us what really happens out there in the world when we're mingling with the world and how serious it really is. Just to underscore the whole idea of identification, participation, as we come to the Lord's table, we're worshiping the Lord. It's very much like when Israel, in verse 18, Israel after the flesh, they would bring the sacrifices. the priest, the people, and God. There they are participating together, the offerings on the altar, the priests eat part of the sacrifice, the people eat part of the sacrifice, they're all in it together. It's identification and participation. And that's his point. When you go out there and you hang around ungodly people, or let's just say you live in Haiti, like Laveau, who we support as a missionary in Haiti, well, he's surrounded by real idolatry. You know, voodoo and all of this. If he was to go out and mingle his Christianity with the voodoo, and then come up here and we say, oh, we have Laveau here today, and he's gonna share a little bit with us about what's happening in Haiti. He gets up and he says, you know, the Lord is doing a great thing. I discovered if I mix a little bit of voodoo with Jesus, Powerful things happen. Well, that would be pretty twisted, wouldn't it? And it also would grieve all of us and quench the spirit. We don't see that because we live in such a civilized place. No place cleaner and safer and more religious than Appleton. So we don't see idolatry all over the place as you would imagine it typically classically in your brain and wilds of wherever in the world. But believe me, we see it in all kinds of other forms. And we talked about that in our last message, that's why I took the time with it. So all of this comes together to say that religious ceremonies, whether Christian or pagan, involve participation of the worshiper with the object of the worship and with each other. So for God's people to be involved in idolatry of any kind is a complete deviation from all that God has intended true worship to be. The definition, the deviation, now you understand the deviation. Let's go to the demons. Verse 19 through 21, not only is idolatry a deviation, it's demonic. We have here three things. He gives us a reminder that an idol is nothing. The statue itself, you want to talk about that part of idolatry. The idol is nothing. It's not that. It's a big issue. Yet that's the reminder. But now he gives a revelation which we all need to hear. In verse 20, and that is of the demons behind the idolatry. In verse 20, but I say to you that the things which Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want any of you who are Christians to have fellowship with demons. You ever wonder what the pole is for idolatry? Let's just take classic idolatry. You know, you go to the temple of a thousand Buddhas in Tokyo and you go up and down and look at the Buddha that looks most like you. You know, this one seems to have my build and can relate to me and I'm going to worship this one and give my offering here. You know, have you ever wondered what is the pole? To even have a temple of a thousand Buddhas, go ahead and Google it. There's more than one. And what's the pull? What's the pull to bring your oranges and all of this and set it before and do your incantations? What's the pull? The statue? No. That's ultimately anybody with any kind of brain would assume, what am I doing? It's ridiculous. But because they don't, you have to realize there's something else going on here. Or to make it really in modern terms, what is the pull of all these people in our world doing this certain thing together in a godless way? What's the pull? You'd think anybody with half a brain would walk away from that. The pull? Demons. And that is what keeps people in it. Let's just say you're a Christian and you get involved in a relationship with another person. And you start living together, or sleeping together, or having an affair. Affair, I hate using that word. It's like an affair. Like it's something beautiful instead of wretched. But let's just say you get involved in something like that and you, in the beginning it just starts out, seems all like you can walk away anytime, but after a while you're so entrapped you can't get out of it. Why? What's the draw? There's a demonic power behind that, holding you there. And that is what Paul says, I don't want you getting entrapped in that. See, demons also, let's go back to the statue, idolatry. All of the idolatry in the history of the world has always had behind it the power of demons so that they can make supernatural things happen. The devil has supernatural power. Many of the people on my mother's side of my family are Mormons, and they're devout Mormons. Now, when you convert to Mormonism, and you really have a real Mormon conversion, there's something that happens inside of you that they call, does anyone know? The burning in the bosom. It's a real experience. It's a real experience. And guess what? Guess who it comes from? The one who's going to burn forever. So he brings a burning in the bosom. It's an experience. It's supernatural. The devil and his demons can do supernatural... You could worship a river. And he can do supernatural things to keep you coming back to worship the river because supernatural things happen. How about this? There's a painting of the Blessed Mother. And you just love and do some beads and incantations with the picture of the Blessed Mother. And one day the picture has a tear that comes out of the eye. And so now it's the picture of the Blessed Mother with the tear. And now the tear begins to stream down. And now there's a picture that's weeping. And people start coming from miles around to see the weeping, come to the shrine of the picture of the weeping mother. And let's just say that someone comes in and they need healing of something and they slip a little thimble under the picture and catch a drop of one of those tears coming from the picture of the weeping mother. And they drink that little tear and they actually get healed. Now you have the shrine of the picture of the Blessed Mother weeping whose tears bring healing. And guess who's behind that? And so people now come from everywhere to try to catch a tear to get healed, right? Guess what? Jesus spoke to a woman and the people around in the Gospels and said, this woman, think of it, 12 years has had this affliction from Satan. So all Satan has to do with the shrine of the picture of the weeping mother with the dropping tear that can heal, all he has to do is take away the affliction that he brought. Now you got a miracle. That's what keeps these people coming back. I'm just giving you one analogy and that's the draw. It's that demonic activity. And Paul is wanting to spare us from getting anywhere near there. You know in the Old Testament in Psalm 106.37, children of Israel who knew the one true living God, think of it, so privileged. They got involved, they mingled with the godless people around them, and before they were done, they were sacrificing their own babies to the god Moloch. They would heat up this little statue about two and a half feet high. The statue had these little arms, they'd put it in the fire till it was red hot. and then they'd put it up there, and they would take the baby and put it in the arms of Moloch, and the baby would be fried to death to appease the god Moloch. And behind it all, what would cause you to do that? Psalm 106 says they sacrifice their sons and their daughters to demons. That's what would cause you to do that. Do we have interaction with demons? Absolutely. Is Paul trying to spare us from demon interaction? Absolutely. Should you be concerned about this? Absolutely. Otherwise, tear out this portion of the Bible. You don't need it. So the reminder, the idol's nothing, the revelation, it's the demon behind it, the rebuke, those of you that are involved with it, stop it. In verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. Not only is it wrong, it's not possible. The cannot of the whole thing is not the impossibility of being able to do it. You can do it. You can come back and forth and do it, but it's impossible and inconceivable to think that you can do that and have real fellowship with God. It's the inconsistency of it all. It's the cannot of inconsistency. That's why our Lord said, you cannot serve two masters. Don't think you can serve the world, the flesh, and the devil, and come in and get all blessed. That's the idea. And if we understand these things, brethren, it's going to cleanse us. Believe me, this is so important for our church. for where we are right now. If we're in a passage as a church, just because we bumped into it, going verse by verse through 1 Corinthians, guess what? A passage that deals with idolatry, a passage that deals with staying away from demonic activity, we're talking about a passage that deals with staying holy because it's important to stay holy. Otherwise, you're going to get yourself entrapped and demonic activities, and getting out of that demonic activity isn't going to be as easy as you thought it was. So what is God really saying to our church? Be holy, worship in spirit and truth, and stay away from the things of the world, and gather into Christ, and worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. This is an important time for our church. We are studying this because God is speaking to all of us that He wants a holy church. The issue it raises is the entrapment or the bondage of the evil forces of Satan. And that is to say, you, mark it, can become ensnared by the devil. Turn in your Bible to 2 Timothy 2, 24. Did you ever think you could become ensnared by the devil? 2 Timothy 2.24, well I know the devil bugs me and I know he tempts me, but did you ever think you could be entrapped by him? Now a Christian cannot be demon possessed. And I get into that in detail in that series I recommended earlier. But you can be entrapped. 2 Timothy 2.24, Paul is writing to Timothy, his last letter, and he says, The servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition if perhaps God will grant them repentance so they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the what? Devil having been taken captive by him to do what? His will. So The context may in fact be speaking to the process of evangelism and freeing people from the total captivity of the devil to come to Christ and be free, but it certainly applies to those of us that already know the Lord. You have to come to your senses and have the Holy Spirit get you out of being captive by the devil do as well. I can tell you as a pastor over the years, the devil goes up and down among the ranks of the people looking for the weakest chain, the weakest link in the chain. to use to cause trouble and division in the church and to drive people away from hearing the Word of God. And when they leave, they don't go to another Bible teaching church, they go to a church that doesn't teach the Bible. And that's the proof that it was the devil to begin with. And so you get entrapped by the devil and where you may end up is not so much up to you as who? Him. Paul at his shepherd's heart says, I do not want this happening to you. Be careful. Flee idolatry. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? Their idol was the greed for money. So Peter says to Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart? Now you and I rarely encounter Satan. He's busier with bigger fish than us. You know what I'm saying? He's got more important, more spiritual people to deal with and hassle than you and I. We're not giants in the kingdom, in other words. So he assigns his other demons to us. But here, Ananias and Sapphira dealt with Satan himself. The only other one I know of by name was Judas. So that's to tell you the gravity of it. Why has Satan filled your heart to the light of the Holy Spirit? So were Ananias and Sapphira ensnared by the devil? Yeah, the devil himself. Was there any cost to the process or was it just like, whatever? You know, we'll go out, we'll do our thing, we'll come to church. Nobody knows. It's nobody's business. God doesn't care. Did they have a cost? Was there a price they paid? Yeah. God killed both of them. He said, I love this church. Come here and hear about God killing people. Listen, we serve a thrice holy God. He is holy, holy, holy. And we live in a world that has watered down the gospel, stopped preaching a true gospel, gotten the Bible out of pulpits so they can purpose drive themselves to a big Elks Club in the name of Jesus and bandy the name of Jesus about and that's about it With one or two verses taken out of context. That's the kind of churches that are growing around us and That's the time when which we live which people Want their ears tickled when they go to church you want to know something in the Bible God has killed people deal with it. I and make sure you're not one of them. I'm just prepping you because halfway through chapter 11 he's going to tell us that. That some people who have come to the Lord's table and been living out there with the demons are either sick or they're gone. They're dead. So, some people vanish, where'd they go? God knows. So, thank God for the full armor of God. It's for a reason and suddenly today it makes even more sense as to why we need to have on the full armor of God and understand what it is. Let's wrap this up. The disgust of idolatry is obvious. We've seen the definition, the deviation, the demons, the disgust. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Or are we stronger than He, the disgust of God? Charles Hodge said, Idolatry is everywhere, represented in the Scripture as the greatest insult the creature can offer to the Creator. God hates idolatry. He deals with it severely. If you are His child, you may get away with it for a while, but He will chastise you. And finally, you'll come out of it. I want to close with the words of Charles Spurgeon. just melted and broke my heart." He really understood this passage. He said, if I had a favorite knife and with it a murderer had killed my wife, do you think I would use it at my table or carry it around with me? Away with the cursed thing! How I should loathe the very sight of it! And yet, our sin has murdered Christ. Our idols have put him to death. Stand at the foot of the cross and see his murdered, mangled body, bleeding with its five great wounds, and you will say, what have I to do anymore with idols? Let's pray, shall we? Father, these are serious things. These are deep things, but these are the truths that make us free. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom and freedom, and we thank you for the truth here today. We pray that it would go deep into our hearts. We pray for those that have been backslidden. You'd give them the power, Holy Spirit, to come back to you today into full, true worship in spirit and in truth. And we thank you, Lord, for your forgiveness. We can be a million miles away from you, and we're only a prayer away. Forgive us, God, for our sins. Forgive us for any idols. Give us the grace to throw them down and come back to the feet of Jesus in full fellowship with you. and we will give you all the praise and glory. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.