Corinthians chapter ten, please. First Corinthians chapter ten. We'll begin at verse fourteen. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men, judge you what I say. The couple 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 are all partakers of that one bread. Behold, Israel after the flesh, Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles or the idolaters sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. Ye cannot be partaker of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things any sign of. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles or in the city market, that eat, asking no questions for conscience's sake. For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not, bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go, whatsoever is set before you, eat. asking no question for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols. Eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake for the earth is the Lord, and the fullness thereof. Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? But if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God. Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. The Apostle starts in chapter eight, in dealing with demons. I think you'll find that. You turn to chapter eight and one. Here's where he introduces the subject of idolatry. Now as touching things offered unto idols. Now he's still at this subject. of idolatry. And he gets right to the heart of it in this chapter. The Apostle Paul, he's speaking about the need for Christians to flee from idolatry, and he calls them, you'll notice, dearly beloved, wise men, flee from idolatry. He's pleading with them to flee from idolatry. Now this morning we were saying something about the need of fleeing. When there's something that's a true greater challenge for me, then there's no indication of cowardice on my part if I flee. The Bible does say on certain occasions to fight, stand and fight, and that our principles in the Bible that I have to stand and fight for and not deal in it, but that our certain powers that it's wisdom to flee. There's no sign of cowardice if there's a hurricane coming for people to flee for their lives because they can't compete with a hurricane. And if you were out in the wild and you saw a big man-eating tiger come into your ward, you wouldn't be looked upon as a coward if you ran and climbed the tree. You'd be looked upon as exceeding wise. Because you don't stand a chance. The opposition is too great. Therefore you see the need for men and women to flee from the wrath to come. You can't compete with the Almighty to try and stand against God as foolishness. And so it bids them when a man or a woman, realizing the overwhelming power that's against them, flee. And Paul is trying to impress upon these Corinthians the power of idolatry, the sinister power, the power of Satan, the power of the devil himself, those principalities, those powers, and we're no match for them. The devil and his hosts and hordes are just too smart. They're too strong. And there's absolutely no use, you or me, trying to stand and fight against the devil will not get anywhere. The odds are against us, and so says dearly beloved. Use your wisdom and flee from idolatry. Anything that savers of idolatry and the powers of darkness, flee. Flee to the only one who can deliver you, come these mighty powers. how wonderful he should bring in the Lord's table. In doing so, he speaks of the Lord's table. And he's arguing this way. Eating and drinking means having fellowship with whatever that meal is associated with. Now, this hardly fits into today's life. Back in those days, as we pointed out previously in these studies in Corinth, on the official of Corinth and the city of Corinth in particular, the place was full of idolatry. There were three classes of people in that city, and you find them in one of those verses, Jew, Gentiles, and the Church of God. There were a community of Jews, and there were also a group of Christians. There was also a group of Christians of church. outside or in between the Jewish community and the church, and some Jews were in the church, there was that great host of idolatry. The city was full of idolatry. And whenever you bought anything in the city market, you didn't have any idea what idol some of that meat was offered to you. And so it was quite a situation in those days, because of the way light walked. for a person to be invited into a home, or going to a restaurant, or a public eating place, and sit down, not knowing where that meat came from. Now some converted Jews would be very, very sensitive. Right away they would start asking questions. They'd ask the waitress if they had waitresses in those days. Where did this meat come from? Maybe she could go back to the chef and ask him, or maybe the owner of the place. They had a conscience back in those days as to where that meat came from. If it were offered to an idol, I'll not touch it. Sometimes Christians would be invited to be into a home. And it tells you right here, if he be an unsaved man in verse twenty-eight, or verse twenty-seven, if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go, whatsoever is sent before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake. Don't open your mouth. You're a Christian, and by grace you know you're saved, and your eternal life doesn't depend upon what you eat. So don't say anything. Don't bring up the subject. But maybe this man knows that you're a professing Christian, and he's going to test your faith. This unsaved man, maybe he's a nine dollar. Now he knows you profess to be a Christian. He's going to invite you into his home. He's going to put you to the test. And what are you to do? Don't open your mouth. Maybe you'll get started. And you're beginning to enjoy that piece of meat, that steak. And this man speaks up. He says, you know that meat your eating was offered to an idol. Well, why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have partaken of it. And so Paul says, now, if this man asked you, and what are you to do? He says, but if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols. Eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience's sake, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness of the earth. Don't eat it. For the sake of this man, he is not a Christian. He is an idolater. He has invited you into his home. And now he points out to you that that has been offered to an idol and immediately he says, I am not going to eat anymore. Not that I question my own salvation. Death belongs to the Lord and I can eat it. It doesn't defile me, but it will hurt you. That man's got a conscience. And so here the Apostle Paul is bringing about a situation that we know absolutely nothing of in this our day. I suppose it's about the first question some people would say when they sit down, how many calories are in this? Not a case was it offered to idols. Did they decelerate this? They're conscious about their weight. High for one. But in those days it was a different question. Idolatry came in, and idolatry is a subtle thing. It's a powerful thing, and Paul realizes that. That's why he says, flee from this thing. Don't be trapped by the devil. How foolish that Christian would be if when it was brought to his attention that this was meat off of the idols, and that unconverted that idolatry were to tell you that's off of the idols, how would I care? I want a good steak. You hurt his conscience. Well, if that's your kind of Christianity, I don't want it. You don't respect my conscience. And so far, said I, you say, no. No. For the sake of that unconverted person, you wouldn't proceed with your meal. So he says, concerning eating and drinking. Notice what he said, and he gets right into the subject here in verse sixteen. 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 are all partakers of that one bread. In other words, drinking the cup of blessing, We confess that we have part in and fellowship with the precious blood of Christ. Now, when that heathen partook of that meat, he saw that meat. It was associated with an idol, and behind that idol was a demon. Behind that idol was a devil, his God, as he thought, a mystical being. Therefore the partaking of that meat was associated with an idol and with a demon. But in our case, Paul says, when we take that blood or that wine, we are associating ourselves with the very person of Christ. That makes it serious, doesn't it? Very solemn and important. I'm in fellowship with... the very blood of Christ, the precious blood of Christ, I am redeemed. I am redeemed. And in my partaking of that bread, I am part of and in fellowship with the body of Christ. And he tells us that in verse seventeen what it means. And we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread, though that one loaf. So Paul is bringing it around to these Corinthians. And you notice how particular these heathens are, these idolaters about what they eat, because they believe that that meat is sanctified. It has a real significance to them, because it's associated with their idol, their God. Because Paul, now you, Corinthians, we've got something higher than blood or the cup which we drink. And when we partake of it, we are partaking of the redemption accomplished by the precious blood of Christ. We are redeemed. We belong to Him. This is the price of our salvation. And in partaking of that bread, we are associating ourselves with that one body that speaks of not only the body of Christ, but the body of believers of which Christ is the head. This is how he brings this up. For through, though we be many, we are one in Christ. Now, the same principle, you notice, is associated with Israel. Notice these three verses. They're very significant. In verses sixteen and seventeen, he's taking up Christianity. The cup of blessing, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break is about the communion of the body of Christ. For we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers. I like that word, partakers in communion with, and having fellowship with, that one bread and that blood. Now he goes to Israel. Behold, Israel, after the flesh, are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers with the altar. In other words, an Israelite. in those days, when he partook of the showbread, he was confessing that I am partaking of that altar and the offering that was on that altar. I am associating myself with what that altar speaks of and what that offering on that altar speaks of. God's satisfaction with atonement for sin. And then he goes into heathendom. You have Christianity in verses sixteen and seventeen. You have Judaism in verse eighteen. Now you come down to the very same principle in connection with paganism in verse nineteen. What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idol is anything? But I say that the things with the Gentiles are the idolaters sacrificed. They sacrificed a devil, and not to God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with the devil. Paul says, behind that idol is a demon. Behind that idol is a path under his. And he's pointing out that all these demons when they're offering their sacrifices to these idols, they're offering it to a demon. They're having fellowship with the demon. Today there's a lot of fellowship with the devil going on. They have their feast today, devil worshippers, saint worshippers, all over the country. They come together, and these mediums get them into fellowship with the spirit world. And this is the subtlety of what Paul is driving at. And he tells us plainly right there what that man is doing in verse twenty. But I say that the things which these Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed the devil. And not the God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. There is such a thing as fellowship with devils. A lot of that's going on today, as you know. And Paul is pointing out that it's absolutely impossible for a child of God to have fellowship with us, but anything like that. He turns to that in verse twenty-one. For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? You know, I should have gone back a verse here. In verse twenty-one. He cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devil. He cannot be partaker of the Lord's table and of the table of the devil. That's an absolute impossibility. You can't conceive of a child of God once and washed in the blood, has known since forgiving an everlasting life and turning around and worshiping the devil, having fellowship with demons. I grant you... The demons are trying to have fellowship with you. No doubt the demons are working hard each day with real born-again Christians to see if they can't stumble you and destroy your testimony and get you involved. Then these mystics are all these mysterious movements we see around us today that are associated with the spirit world. Ah, yes, these demons. And don't forget they're real. And they're trying their best to attack the Christian. I don't believe a demon can possess a Christian, but I believe a demon can depress a Christian. I'll get him all disturbed and upset, emotionally disturbed, because the demons are busy, they're active, and they know who's a Christian, they know who is not. Remember the sons of one Shiva, the high priest. And here they tried to cast a demon out of a man. And the demon in that man said, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? The demons know. They're intelligent. And they know if you're a Christian. And they know just as well as God knows that you can't be lost again. They know that. They're intelligent. They can't keep you from going to heaven, but they'll make it mighty miserable for you on the way if they can do it, or make you a disgrace to the name of Christ. And so real was this, and these Corinthians played fast and loose with the things of God, especially at the Lord's table. Paul says, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. You're downgrading and belittling the importance of the Lord's Supper. All behind this work going on in Corinth was the power of these demons, and the air must have been fixed with the power of these wicked spirits in Corinth. How serious and how solemn all this is. When we meet the mystical side, or look at it, the mystical side of Paul's teaching, In essence, it simply means this, that every act of worship is of the nature of a sacrament, in that it brings the worshiper to outward means and ceremony into contact and communion with the spirit world. And in Christendom today, a lot of this sacramental business in the name of Christianity is gilded with all kinds of mysticism. I never will forget reading through Miller's three volumes on church history. And he showed how so much of Babylon, the great religion of the Babylonians, permeated into the early church of the Catholic, of Catholicism. And he ends up with his analysis of the situation today. He says Catholicism, is a mixture of Judaism, paganism, and Christianity. And that's true. If you know anything about paganism, if you know anything about Judaism, you'll find a lot. There are lots of these big religious movements today. Even Catholicism is full of it. Of course they've got Christianity. The worship of the bird. is seen in the Old Testament, if not new. The Queen of Heaven is read about in connection with Babylon. And so they've brought over what they can salvage of Babylonianism and also Judaism in their priesthood, and now Christianity. And it's a mixture of all three. And so how necessary for us today to get back to the simplicity as it is in Christ's And through Paul behind all this, he says, behind all this so-called idolatry that you see, these material things are just representatives of unseen, invisible power. You know, it's quite refreshing when you think of how the Apostle Paul gets down to the facts of this thing, and how simple the Lord's stuff is. Before I mentioned you have Judaism, and you have paganism, Judaism and its sacrificial system and paganism and its idol worship, Christianity and the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is particularly associated with the church, Christianity. The Lord's Table, you can find the Lord's Table in the Old Testament. For instance, over in Malachi, you find something over there about the Lord's Table. In other words, the Lord's table, even the children of Israel, was something of the Lord's table. He made a table for them in the wilderness. What was their table? The manna and the water. Even David in Psalm twenty-three-five, he says, thou preparest a table for me in the presence of thine enemies. And when the Lord refers to Israel in the future, He speaks of a table in the coming kingdom. Now, if you want that, you'll find that over in Luke, twenty-two, twenty-eight, and thirty in future kingdom. And verse twenty-eight, ye are they which have continued with me in my temptation. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on throne, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Now that's in the coming kingdom. And he says, you're going to sit at my table. Now that's not the Lord's supper that we have here Sunday morning. The Lord's supper will terminate when the Lord Jesus comes and takes the bride up. For distinctly says, to eat this bread and drink this cup until I come. He's going back to the fellowship that he had once with Israel. For he did have fellowships, he prepared them a table in the wilderness. God provisioned for them in the wilderness. And David refers to that table which God prepared for him in the midst of his enemies. So that table was defiled and dishonored in Malachi. Israel and apostasy, and you'll read that in Malachi if you want to read it. Chapter one, verse seven. Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted it? In that ye say the table of the Lord is contemptible. Verse twelve, But ye have profaned it. In that ye say the table of the Lord is polluted. And the fruit of the rock, even his meat, is contemptible. In the Old Testament it meant that fellowship and communion that the people of Israel could have with God. Also the Passover, and whatever those feasts were of relative, and there are seven feasts of Jehovah in the Old Testament, when they could come together and have an extra time of feast and joy in those feasts of Jehovah. But every day, you can have fellowship with the Lord. They could in the Old Testament. God prepared a table for them. When you come to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus... He institutes the Lord's Supper. You don't find the Lord's Supper in the Old Testament. You don't find the Lord's Supper in the coming kingdom. The Lord's Supper is for the church today. In the upper room he institutes it, and then from glory, as we'll see next week, Lord Willingham, chapter eleven, how we come together. What do we do? We remember the Lord's death. It goes back to its death, not the yonder. The Lord's death, on to me comes. There you have, in grace, in just dispensation, Christianity, the Lord's Supper. And that's kept the first day of every week. But now, after we leave the Lord's Supper, where we gather as a corporate group to remember the Lord Jesus until he comes. What can you do? From the time you rise from the Lord's Supper till you sit down the next Sunday, you can eat at the Lord's table. Read his word, have fellowship with him, feast upon his precious word. You can sit all the time at the Lord's table. And the Christian night or day, well or sick, he can sit at the Lord's table. And like David, Thou prepareest a table before me in the very peasants of my enemies. And the more you sit at the Lord's table during the week, the more you're going to have to give at the Lord's supper. When you come together for one express purpose, and that is to remember him until he comes again. And here's the point. The Lord gives off two things at the Lord's supper, bread and wine. You notice that expression. Then he gives us in verse sixteen, the cup of blessing which we bless. Now we don't bless, as it were, the blood or the cup. There's such a thing as the blessing of the sacraments. The priest should do that. We don't bless the bread and the wine. We give thanks for it. That word blessed there means giving thanks. We don't come together to consecrate the bread and consecrate the wine, to make it holy. No, that loaf of bread is symbolic of a risen Christ. It's not symbolic of some mystical spirit. It's symbolic of a person who was here on earth. who shed his precious blood and is alive at God's right hand. And by looking at that bread we see symbolically the person of Jesus Christ. When we partake of that cup we see the price that he paid for our redemption. We don't bless the sacraments, we praise God for them, we give thanks for these things. They just are symbols of his coming, his body and his blood. The Apostle is trying to take these Corinthians away from all that guilt and earthly guilt of the idol worship that was practiced all the time in Corinth. No, he says, do away with all this formality. Let's come back to just meeting around bread and wine. I'm not making that bread sacred. You know that... There are those millions of people, as you sit here right in this world, there are millions of people who think when the priest blesses that piece of wafer, it has been turned actually into the body of Christ, and that that wine is turned into the blood of Christ. Well, I've plenty of millions of people who are believed that, and it's associated with Catholicism. The priest just consecrated it. Even Luther, even though he was a bright convert from Catholicism, he believed in transubstantiation. And when he argued with all the theologians of his day, all he would do was stand beside his pulpit and quote that text, This is my body. He took it literally, that the priest had the power to turn that way for that piece of bread into the literal body of Christ. and the wine into his blood. I don't know what priest it was that got his eyes open. I remember reading it in church history. In other words, he left the wafer on the table when he left the parish church. And he didn't think about it till the next morning because their custom was that that had to be removed. So he hurried back the next morning. And he went to look for the wafers who were left over, and then there were none. And he was quite alarmed. But it wasn't long until he found who got the wafers, the mice. And he thought, now, if that was the literal body of Christ, could the Lord Jesus Christ protect it against the mouth? And that opened his eyes. And he saw the farce of Catholicism. Paul's trying to get away from all this stuff. This gift and all the trepings that go on in accordance with our idol worship. And he gets down to this bread and this wine. We give thanks for them because they just point us to him. They remind us of him. We don't consecrate them. We give thanks to God for them on what they mean. You wonder sometimes why you find the blood referred to first here in verse sixteen. The couple 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? You know, for connection with the Lord's Supper. We always give thanks for the bread first, and that's the way the Lord put it. When he instituted the Lord's Supper, he gave thanks for the bread and for the wife. But here he's dealing with two doctrinal truths. The blood is put first because it speaks of crucifixion. There could be no body, there could be no church without the shedding of the blood. He's putting the blood first because the blood had to be shed before we could know anything of the fellowship of the cross. When it comes down to putting it as he wants us to practice it in this our day, we take the bread first. He broke the bread, and he gave it to them, and then the cup likewise. I think this is very plain. You have crucifixion in the first reference to the blood first, and then glorification in connection with the body. Historical the blood, then doctrinal the body. Now today we take the bread first, speaking of that body that God prepared him, and that body in which he tabernacles here among men, and in that body in which he suffers and lay down his life. And that's the order that God gives us, showing us the difference between what we practice and what they did in the Old Testament, because they always had, in the Passover they had three different cups that they took associated with the Passover. And the last one was the one you do read, and one of the apostles were the Gospels. He took the cup, and then he turned around and instituted the Lord's sufferers of bread and the wine. These things are clear in your Bible. If you want to read your Bible carefully, you can see them. And so he's pointing out very clearly the dangers of being led astray from this simplicity, taken up with idolatry. And how subtle would it take that there are some of those right in court but carried away with this thing? Mysticism, instead of abiding by the simplicity there is in Christ. Not these huge cathedrals where their wonderful choir, their stained glass windows, on all this priestly activity going from this cross to this cross and this water, a pint of water, and this glass of wine, and this piece of bread, and there they go through all their rituals. And finally they get back to offering the Mass. Paul says there's nothing to all that. He said we come together and we bless. We give thanks for the bread. We give thanks for the cup. And just were two or three, not bested priests. But two or three just believers meet together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They do this in remembrance of me. I wonder that we entered into the importance of all this. And just like the priest in the Old Testament is referring to here, they partake of the altar. The first thing that man did when he partook of the altar and the offering on the altar was to confess that he was a priest. Because no one could do that but a priest. And the first thing you do when you come together Sunday morning to partake of the bread and wine is to confess I'm a priest. I've been saved by the grace of God. I belong to a kingdom of priests. And all God's people are priests. Whether it matter of whom, all are priests. We all have that right to worship. And so we come together to worship. The Lord Jesus Christ, because we're priests, we're partakers with the altar, we're partakers of the offering that was upon the altar. We enter into the value of the altar and what it means. The altar is a place where God and man meet. The altar, that's what the altar is. We have an altar we read over in Hebrew. Christ is the altar, he's the sacrifice, and he's the priest. He's all three. All that we need is in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God's provision for you and for me. Is it any wonder the Apostle is speaking in Corinth about demon activity, the intrusion of these idolaters upon the Christian, who thus met, And that's behind Paul's epistem, and he's taking up of idolatry. We haven't got time to win tonight. We'll take it up more next Sunday. This business is the fellowship of demon. And Paul is making it very plain. You can have no stop to that stuff. It makes it very plain. That verse I already drew your attention to. Twenty-one. You cannot. And that just is emphatic. and forcefulness, accept the man be born again. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And a born again Christian cannot enter into the fellowship of demons. It's impossible. But the demons will try to prevent your fellowship with God. He'll try to do that. When you come in here Sunday morning, I'll tell you, he'll do his best. These demons They hate to see God honored and Jesus Christ worshiped. The devil, and it has the religious overtone because Satan in the beginning, he wandered there as God, assuring that these demons can be extremely religious. Doctrines of demon, and they hate to see the Lord Jesus worshiped and glorified. That's why the devil said to the Lord Jesus all this will I give thee if you bow down and worship me Satan is jealous when he sees people worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ because he wants that worship Paul makes it plain here if you entangle with it and allow any of this demoness to interfere with your worship God doesn't like it a little bit he makes that very plain in verse twenty two do we provoke the Lord to jealous you know what jealousy means a man is jealous of his wife for the third part he's trying to intervene God says I'm jealous of you my people when I see demonism coming in and interrupting our fellowship Paul is warning these credentials of demon activity as it relates to worship at the Lord's Supper. And just these things will search your heart as a search mind. We haven't time to go into some of the other things in this chapter. Lord willing, we'll do that next week. If anyone here is unsaved, all we can say is, you do realize the power of the devil that has you sitting here tonight in your sin. The devil hate to see you come in the doors of this chapel. He didn't want you to be exposed to the gospel. But now you're in here. The devil will try and occupy with things outside, what you're going to do tomorrow, things you have to do, just to keep you from concentrating on the gospel and getting saved. But only God knows the power of darkness that often has surrounded this chapel when the gospel has been preached and the word of God has been proclaimed to prevent it from taking effect. Demonist is great. How that little church survived in Corinth with all that demon activity and power is only something you can glorify God for this mighty power that permitted that little group, saved out of here, to function as they did in that cesspool of iniquity and that fortress of demonism. The only way a church can develop today in gold by God's protection, and the only way you as a Christian can keep from being stumped. And I'm amazed every day when I reflect over my life how in the world did God protect me from certain things that could have ruined me. But he did. And don't forget, every Christian is under attack. And the closer you go to this book, the more you're under attack. but don't let the devil get the victory. We can be more than conquerors through him. So I'd love it. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come into thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy words. How we thank thee for it. Father, we trust will profit from it. We thank thee for what we read about Corinth and that testimony there. how bright it was, but how it became dull, and even flickered, when all must went out. But we thank thee, Father, that testimony survives. And so today we thank thee, thou will protect thy beloved people. You have a desire to please thee and to glorify thee on the earth. So bless thy words of each of our hearts. We ask in our Savior's precious name. Amen.