Well, once again, to get up through grace, I'm Pastor Jeff Arthur, Sr. of the Elizabeth Baptist Church in Bancroft, West Virginia. I'd like to ask you to open your Bibles tonight to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and we will continue our study through the book of 1 Corinthians. We're going to try to give a brief review tonight and then go ahead and get back to task and work our way through the book. We took a few weeks there. and taught a few tithe sermons on the manna in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and on the rock that gave forth the water. But now we're going to get back to task tonight and work our way through the book. Now, we're going to entitle the message this evening to Flee from Idolatry, and that's given in chapter 10 and the verse 14. It says, Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. Now, the section that we're in, we can go all the way back to chapter 7, and the Apostle Paul has been dealing with issues that they had wrote him about. And in chapter 7, it says in verse 1, ìNow concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto It is good for a man not to touch a woman. So, back in chapter 7, they had talked to him about the issue of marriage, and chapter 7 deals with marriage issues. Well, in chapter 8, he said, now as touching things offered unto idols. So, this was another subject that they had wrote unto the Apostle Paul about. Of course, in the city of Corinth, it was a city that was noted for idolatry. As a matter of fact, there was a temple there to the goddess Aphrodite, and it had a thousand temple prostitutes at it. That's the reason why Corinth was a very, very, very wicked place. And of course, the Lord put a church here. And, of course, you need a church where you need to take, and it needs to be used where people are. You need to go where the people are at. If you want to catch fish, you've got to go where they are. And there's a lot of unbelievers there. The city was given to all different types of immorality and all sorts of idolatry, but that's a good place to bring the cure, and that's the gospel message. So he's dealing with this issue. of idolatry. And he's dealing with, especially back into chapter 8, he begins to address this subject of meat offered to idols. Was it okay to eat this meat? Was it something that could cause other people to stumble and things? So that's what he's been covering. And in chapter 8, what he does is he establishes the fact that an idol is nothing. An idol is just something that man makes. There's only one true living God. In chapter 8, he establishes that fact. And if they sold meat that had been offered, sometimes whenever they go to the marketplace, there was meat that was sold there that was left over from a sacrifice. And they brought it down to the marketplace and sold it that way. Well, it was okay to eat that meat. There's in idols nothing. And if it's sold in the marketplace, it's just basically buying meat. But he said in chapter 8, not everybody had that knowledge. Not everybody had that knowledge. So, they needed to... I mean, some of the members of the Church of Corinth, before they were saved, had been a part of that idols temple. Some of them had been idolaters, and so they needed to take them in mind. They might see them eating of that meat and buying that meat, and they thought it was a horrible thing to do, and it would cause them to stumble. So the Apostle Paul writes in chapter 8 that if meat that meat would cause their brother to stumble, then they should need it, just because of their brother's sake. Chapter 8, verse 9 says, Take heed, but lest any means of liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. So we went on from there and talked about stumbling block issues, and that was back in Chapter 8. Well, in Chapter 9, he used himself as an illustration. And he established in chapter 9 that he had a right for financial support as a minister. And he went into great detail and showed in the Old Testament those that worked at the temple, the priests and Levites, were provided for by the tithes and the offerings of the people. He showed how other apostles had received financial support. and that he had the right to financial support. And he did receive some support from the churches of Macedonia, but for some reason the church of Corinth never supported him. And what he does is he said he had a right for support, but lest he be a stumbling block, lest it cause some people to become upset, he decided to waive it. And then he worked, of course he was a tent maker, he worked with his own hands. He established a head of rite for it, but then he showed he didn't use it. Now, let me read a text out of chapter 9. It says, Do you not know they which minister about holy things, live the things of the temple? That's an illustration we talked about earlier. Levites and the priests were takers with the altar. Even so, hath the Lord ordained they which preach the gospel should live the gospel. He said, but I've used none of these things. He had a right to it, but he waived it. Neither have I written these things that it should be done unto me, for it were better for me to die than that any man should make my glory in void, for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, but necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe unto me, if I preach not the gospel. He never received support from them. Other places supported him and he supported himself, but that was an example of what he's talking about. He had a right for it, but he waived that right for the good of his brothers and sisters. They had a right to eat that meat and buy that meat, but he waived that right also. Or they should waive that right also, so as not to hurt those that come out of that type of background. Now in chapter 10, what he's going to do is he's going to close this subject of stumbling block issues out. And he's going to open it up here and close it out by giving them a warning to flee from idolatry. He had mentioned, if you'll remember, he had mentioned in chapter 8 and verse 10, for if any man see thee which hath knowledge, set it not in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of them which is weak be aborted to eat those things which are offered to idols. It mentions them sitting at the idol's temple. And I think he's addressing that here in chapter 10. I think it would have been a dangerous thing. Now, they might have had a feast down there. They might have set some kind of table where everybody could come. I don't know exactly what this is referring to. It just mentions some of them sitting at the idol's temple. But they were going down there just to eat. And I think that's what he's covering in chapter 10. I think that's the dangerous thing. And it's why he's issuing a warning to them to flee from idolatry. They didn't need to be seen at the idol's temple. They didn't need to be going down there eating or anything. They needed to flee from idolatry. Idolatry was committed there. That was a place of the worship of these different false gods. And they didn't need to even get near it. They needed to stay completely away from it. So, he had also used as an example in the first part of chapter 10, he used the example of how the children of Israel come up out of Egypt, and they did well for a while, but every time they come into some type of hardship, they fell into sin. And he's given them a warning to take heed lest they fall. And then he tells them to flee from idolatry. So they needed to be careful not to get too close to the idol's temple. Especially those, of course that applies to all of them, but especially those that had been saved out of those type things. He says flee from idolatry. Don't get near it. Don't mess with it. Don't go down there and set in the heat. Just completely run away from it, lest you, of course, be pulled back into those things. Now, when we think about idolatry today, sometimes we think there's no idols in America, but you'd be really wrong there. We might not have big... Well, of course, in some places you have statues to false gods and things, but our land is filled with idolatry. It's just a different type of idolatry. In the book of Colossians chapter 3, it mentions one idol that we definitely have in our land. And I want to mention just a couple and then we'll move off this and wrap this section up. But in the book of Colossians, in the book of Colossians chapter 3, it speaks of covetousness. And what is covetousness? It's to be greedy. It's to be greedy of gain. And covetousness is a very subtle sin that can creep into a person's life and can take over your mind, take over your thinking, take over what you do, steal your time. It says in verse 5 of Colossians 3, mortify your members which are upon the earth. It gives us a list of sins, fornication, inordinate affection. And then it says covetousness which is idolatry. That's the one I was after. There's other ones mentioned there you can read about in Colossians 3, 5, but I was after covetousness. It says covetousness is idolatry. I mean, it's an idol. You can make a god out of money is basically what that's saying. You can make a god out of trying to make yourself rich. You can make a god out of trying to become what people call successful. And I'm going to again mention, I mention this all the time at church, you're not a success if at the end of your days you die and go to hell. You're not a success. You might have a lot of money in this life, you might have a high position on your job, and you might have a nice house that you live in, but the day that you die is what shows true riches. If you go to be with the Lord, If you have victory over sin, victory over death, and over hell, then you are rich. In Luke chapter 16, when it talks about the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man in that particular text was Lazarus. He never had money, his health wasn't good, didn't have a place to stay, but yet he was rich, and that was shown the day that he died. Covetousness is idolatry. What happens with it is that, as I've already said, it can take over your mind to where it's all you think about, and then it takes over your time. Your whole life pursuit becomes to get gain. In the book of Luke, chapter 12, we're told about a rich man. You see, he was a farmer, and his goal was to get such a harvest so that he would not have to work anymore. And he can sit back and kind of enjoy life. It sounds a whole lot like America, doesn't it? Isn't that our dream? To work all of our life and get enough laid back where we can sit back and just enjoy life. And then people spend their entire life pursuit and time to achieve that bundle of money or whatever, that house by the lake, so then they can enjoy their days. And what they end up doing is they end up wasting their life. A life that should have been spent in service to the Lord and in worshiping the Lord is just wasted for gain. Well, that rich man got what he's looking for in Luke chapter 12. He got his harvest that he was searching for and he said this, he said, I'll pull down my barns and I'll build a greater and there I'll bestow all my goods and eat, drink and be merry. Doesn't that sound like the American dream? That man was covetous. He was covetous. He had an idol. He probably didn't have no type of big statue anywhere on his farm. But what he did have is he was serving covetousness. It was an idol. Nonetheless, it stole his mind. It stole his time. And it stole his soul. It surely did. That's why we are told to beware of covetousness. Because in Luke chapter 12, because it can steal your time and it can steal your soul. It really indeed can. So, you know what Jesus called that man in Luke 12? He called him a fool. He said, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. That means that very night he died. That very night he died. And he went out into an eternity lost forever. Now, folks, that's not a success, is it? And that's why covetousness is such a dangerous, dangerous sin. If you're not careful, it can take root in your heart and it can steal your soul. So that's one idol that we have in our land. We're to flee idolatry. He's given them a warning here in 1 Corinthians that they shouldn't be getting too close to those idols, temples there. They should flee, stay away from it, lest they be pulled back into those type things. We need to make careful we don't become covetous either. That's an idol that we have, a great idol that we have. in our land, and you've got people that start serving the Lord real well, and they get active in church, but what happens is they become unfruitful. In the parable of the sower, it mentions a group of people that makes professions of faith in Jesus, and they start well, and they spring up. But it says that they get choked out, they get choked with, and I want you to listen to what they get choked with, cares, riches, and pleasures. That's Luke chapter 8 and verse 14. They make a profession, they start good, but then they get choked out. And one of the things that chokes them out, one of the things that chokes them out is riches. One of the warnings that the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy, and it's with regard to these things. Let me read it to you. 1 Timothy 6. Having food and raiment, let us be content. They that be rich fall into temptation and snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Love of money is the root of all evil. And the idea of that is all kinds of evil. which some have erred from the faith." Listen to that now. They've erred from the faith. And the reason they erred from the faith is they got so wrapped up with their riches and their success, what's so called, that it's caused them to, it stole their time. And it took their affection off the Lord and put it more on earthly things, such as riches and the things that come from that. This is what he tells the men of God in 1 Timothy 6 and 11. The old men of God, flee these things. Flee these things. See, that's the same wording we had back in our text tonight. He told them to flee idolatry, and one type of idolatry, one type of idol that we have on our land is covetousness. Now, we could talk a whole lot about idols, but let me go ahead and mention one more, if you don't mind. But one more idol that we have, I think, is a television. I read, for the average time, that we spend in front of a television is four hours a day, and that's a conservative number, four hours a day. And anymore what they, even the commercials are embarrassing anymore. That's four hours of time, time that could be spent visiting someone, time that could be spent in prayer, time that could be spent witnessing to somebody, time that could be spent in God's house. It's just wasted time. It's stealing your time. But Psalms 90, talking about our days, says that our average days here on earth are three score and ten, seventy years, and it is soon over. It is soon over, and we fly away. And it's a shame how much time is wasted in front of one of those things. It's also a shame at what they show on there and how it's corrupting people's speech and people's thoughts and what people do. It's giving the devil the ability to reach right inside our home and corrupt right inside our own houses. Let me ask you a question. Someone goes to build their own home anymore. You know, there are certain rooms that you have to have. And you know one of those rooms that people have to have when they build a house is they have to have what's become known as a TV room. It's so special that we had to build a room named after it. I don't know anybody that when they build their house say, hey, where are you going to put my Bible room at? Or where are you going to put my meditation room at? Where I go and think about the Lord. Or where are you going to put my prayer room at? You see, it's so special that we've even dedicated one room to it in our house. And in most places and most people, there's a TV in every room, nearly every room, both bedrooms and TV rooms and just almost every room has it. It's so special. Every room has to have one. We don't have a Bible in every room. I mean, of course, this hits us all, doesn't it, when you think about it? But it's just another idol. Like I said, we could talk about a lot of different types of idols, but really an idol is anything that still, that receives affection, that receives worship from you, your time, other than your God. And our God is to be the main thing in our life. He used to be the main thing. If you're not careful, all these other things will steal our affection. Our first love, according to the scriptures, after you're saved, our first love is the Lord. And anything that we love more than the Lord, that we care about more than Him, you know, you talk about what you care most about. If the Lord's not in your thoughts, if the Lord's not in your talk, That's a sign that you've drifted away from Him. And you need to get back in a close fellowship with the Lord, because many times you'll look at your life and you'll see that in your priority list, He's drifted. Anything above God on your priority list is an idol. So, when He tells us in this text to flee from idolatry, the reason why He's doing that is because them, for instance, they were an idol's temple there. And some of them come out of it, and they had to be careful that they didn't get too close to that. He's been covering meat off for the idols all the way since chapter 8. And we dealt with the stomach block issues, as we've always mentioned. Now he's addressing someone going down there to the temple and maybe eating there. As he mentioned in chapter 8, that's a dangerous thing to do. They need to flee from idolatry and stay completely, completely away from it. In verse 23, it says, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 23, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. It says in verse 25, Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience' sake. So back to the subject of meat offered to idols. He said if it's sold in the marketplace, eat it. But if it's sold at the idol's temple, or if you go down to the idol's temple to eat it, you need to flee away from that place. You don't need to be getting too close to that situation. Now, one of the things he mentioned about what they were doing there at the idol's temple, I thought this is really interesting also. It says, the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with demons. So here, when you looked at the idol's temple and Some people will look at that, well, they're worshiping God in their way, and they're worshiping a supreme being and all these kinds of things. Folks, this says they're worshiping demons. This was an incorrect form of worship. In the Ten Commandments, we are to worship Him. He is the one that is the object of our affection and our attention and our worship. He says in the Ten Commandments, listen to the verse when he says, I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or that is in earth beneath. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them or serve them. So he warns them about idols. So they needed to be careful not to get too close to these things. And on top of that, he says those that worship at the idol's temple, they're worshiping demons. Behind that false religion is the devil. You know, if it's not true religion, then it's false religion. We live in an all-inclusive time today, and it's been like that throughout history at certain times. And like I've already said, many just assume, well, just so you're worshiping something. Jesus said in John 4 that we must worship him in spirit and in truth. If it doesn't have the truth, then it's not true worship. An idol is false. It's not true. There's only one God. There's only one true and living God. And we worship Him. We worship the Lord Jesus. And other forms of worship, whether it's idol worship or any other type of false worship, It's worshiping demons. It's like devil worship, if it's not true. I tell you what, that's pretty strict, isn't it? That's how Paul conveys it in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 10. When you look at the Scriptures, the way that leads to eternal life is said to be a narrow way. It's a narrow way. There's not a thousand different roads that leads to heaven. There's only one. And that's through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus died on Calvary for our sins. He rose again victorious over sin, death, and hell the third day. And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4, and says that's the gospel that Jesus gave him. And he says in Romans 1 that that's the power of God, the salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew and to the Gentile. There's only one message of salvation. But the devil, the deceiver, he has all of these different forms of false religion. And it's not pursuing God their way. You have to pursue God the right way. It has to be according to the truth of his word. So, he talked about the temples there at Corinth. They were worshipping demons because they weren't worshipping the true God. Jesus said, John 14, 6, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no man goes to the Father but by me. You've got to trust Him. Trust Him and Him alone. You say, well, Jeff, that's pretty narrow-minded. It's a narrow way. It's a narrow way. And it's all Christ. What's the message entitled tonight? Flee Idolatry. And this will close our section out that deals with the meat offered to idols. Pray that the Lord has blessed you with the message this evening. And I pray that if you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, the Bible says that whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He can save you right there where you're at if you'll call. If you realize you're a sinner, realize Jesus is a Savior, and you trust Him as your Savior, He'll save your soul. May God add His blessings to His Word.