Flee from Idolatry

0:55Now, if you are a student of history, you know that the causes of World War I were complicated and are disputed among historians. But one thing is certain about World War I, and that is there is no dispute as to the outcome, the results of that war. See, when dictating the terms to Germany, the Allies made the same mistake that countless other victorious armies had made in Europe. In the previous decades and centuries, the terms of the armistice were so punitive politically, financially, and militarily that they led directly to the rise of Hitler and World War II.

1:48The philosopher George Santayana is credited with saying, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Those are wise words that find their support in the pages of Scripture. World War II happened largely because we couldn't remember the past. Friends, this morning we're going to be in 1 Corinthians 10:1 through 22, and Paul is going to be pleading with the Corinthians to remember the past, to remember the past of their spiritual forefathers, the Israelites who left Egypt under Moses' leadership and forfeited the rewards of the promised land for the fleeting pleasure of sin.

2:41So today we're going to learn that to receive our heavenly reward, we must flee from idolatry in all of its forms. Let's take a look at the text here, verses 1 through 5. The outside of the chapter, Paul is continuing the flow of his thought from chapter 1. 9. He does not want to be disqualified from receiving his heavenly reward. That's the last thing he says in chapter 9. And he doesn't want the Corinthians to be disqualified from receiving theirs either. And so, what Paul does is he reminds them about these Israelites who followed Moses out of slavery in Egypt into the wilderness.

3:21And it's significant that he calls them our fathers. Because, of course, these were Paul's people. These were the people from his ethnicity. These were people who descended from Abraham. But he calls these people our fathers to the Gentiles, to these Corinthians, who were not ethnically related. And that's a great reminder to us that we are all one family of faith. That all of the Gentiles have been grafted into the family of God just as the Jews had been.

3:55And so during the Exodus from Egypt, God led the people in a couple of ways that Moses refers, or that Paul rather refers to in this section. First, by the pillar of cloud by day. He led them with this cloud that went before them. And then he led them through the Red Sea when they exited the land of Egypt. So they fled from Pharaoh and his army. And Paul declares that being under the cloud and passing through the Red Sea was akin to being baptized into Moses.

4:27Now, what does that mean? Well, what Paul is saying essentially here is that just as new covenant believers were baptized into Christ by immersion in water, so ancient Israel was baptized into Moses by immersion in this cloud that went before them and by immersion in the Red Sea, if you will, as they passed through that. They underwent a kind of baptism. And then he goes on to say that ancient Israel also participated in something that is akin to the Lord's Supper.

5:03He notes that they all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. And what he's referring to there is the manna that came from heaven, the water that came from the rock, which Paul notes was Christ who followed them during those 40 years in the wilderness. And he's referring to Christ's presence being there spiritually, of course. This is not like following him like the pod, baby Yoda, following them around. It wasn't like that with the rock. But Christ and his spiritual presence is with them these 40 years in the wilderness.

5:41And so what Paul is doing is he's drawing this unmistakable parallel between the ancient Israelites and the first century Corinthians. And what he is saying is, just like you, our spiritual forefathers underwent a type of baptism. Just like you, our spiritual forefathers, participated in an ongoing spiritual meal. Just like you, our spiritual forefathers, saw God do these amazing miracles. But nevertheless, look at what verse 5 says. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

6:30Now just let that sink in for a minute. With most of them, God was not pleased. Most scholars believe that roughly a million people left Egypt under Moses' leadership. And yet right here, Paul is saying that God was not pleased with most of those people. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them. God was not pleased with. Why? Because all of the adults, except for Joshua and Caleb, were too faithless to take possession of the promised land.

7:06And so God said that they were going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until that entire generation passed away. Most of the people who were baptized into Moses under the cloud and who were baptized by passing through the Red Sea, most of those people who saw God's miraculous works in the wilderness wouldn't ever see the promised land. They would not get to experience that amazing reward that had been promised to them over and over.

7:38And friends, here is Paul's point: you could be close to God and the things of God your entire life. You could witness God do amazing things. You could be baptized. You could participate in the Lord's Supper. You could do all of these things, and you could still miss out on heavenly rewards. Church, we have the exact same spiritual bent as our forefathers. We need to remember the past so that we aren't condemned to repeat it, so that we don't make these same mistakes, these same errors, participate in these same sins, which led to them missing out on this amazing reward in spite of all they had seen and in spite of all they experienced. And so, what Paul does in the next section is he catalogs these errors, these sins for us, so that we can learn. Look at verse 6.

8:49Now, these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. What Paul says here is that the incidents that he recounts over the next four verses should serve as examples for us why. So that we should not desire evil as our spiritual forefathers did. The key word there is desire. And what we learn in the New Testament from the Apostle James is that all of our sinful actions can ultimately be traced back to desire.

9:32Take a look on the screen at James 1. He says, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by what? His own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. So, according to James, when are we tempted?

10:12We are tempted when we are lured and enticed by our own desire. The hard truth, friends, is that we can only be tempted by things that we desire already. We can only be tempted by things that we desire already. So when we sin, it's not a result of our circumstances. It's not because we didn't get enough sleep. It's not because of the difficult people around us and the difficult things that they do in our lives. When we sin, what James says, it's because that's what we desired to do. At least in that moment, that was the thing that we most desired to do. We are lured and enticed by our own desire, which gives birth to sin, which leads to death.

11:10Now, we know from when we listen to the passage read earlier that Paul is driving to this central admonition in verse 14. Where he is going with this passage is found at the climax in verse 14. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. That's where he is going. That's where this passage is driving toward. So it is appropriate then to view all of the examples that he's about to give in verses 7 through 11 through the lens of idolatry, of worshiping someone or something other than God.

11:54And so what we want to do is we want to consider each one of these examples in turn and learn from the example of the Israelites and see how they fell into idolatry. Because, friends, we all know that idolatry is much more and much deeper than simply bowing down to statues of metal or wood. Idolatry is much more, much deeper than that. So, let's take a look at verse 7. Here's the first example: Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

12:36Paul is quoting from Moses here in Exodus 32 as he writes: And this is when Moses is up on the mountain receiving the commands of God. Take a look at the screen. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

13:10Now, the idolatry here seems obvious. Paul calls them idolaters because they literally made a golden calf and they bowed down and worshipped it. That, friends, is textbook idolatry. Seems fairly straightforward. But the root issue here is deeper. Why did the people want Aaron to make them a golden calf to bow down and worship? Well, I think it's simple. With an idol, you can determine when and how to worship it. With an idol, you can decide what sins it will and will not tolerate. With an idol, you can decide what kind of sacrifices that you need to offer in order to get what you want.

14:10So, what idol were they really serving? It was the idol of control. The idol of control. The people could not control God, and they could not control Moses, his servant, who was delayed up on the mountain for 40 days. But they could control this golden calf and everything about it. And they felt a lot better about that. Verse 8. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did. And 23,000 fell in a single day.

14:57Take a look at the screen at Numbers 25. While Israel lived in Shatim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Last year when we took a look at Nehemiah and Ezra, we had the opportunity to think through this idea of intermarriage and why it was prohibited in scripture. And one of the things that we talked a lot about last year was the fact that God did not prohibit intermarriage because there is anything wrong with marrying a person from another ethnicity, from another people group, or from another nation. Nothing wrong with that at all. The problem was that all of these other people around the nation of Israel were idolaters. They worshipped other gods, and God said, if you intermarry with these people, you're going to end up worshiping their gods. That's why there was no problem with Boaz marrying Ruth. Because Ruth, although she was from another nation, she was from a different ethnicity, she worshipped the God of Israel. That's why Tamar and Rahab and others were welcomed into the family of God. Because they worshipped the one true God of Israel. But God warned against this because... Many of these other people did not worship the God of Israel, and God did not want them pulled into idolatry. But that's what happens here.

16:39Paul doesn't call it idolatry in our text in 1 Corinthians 10, but what happens? Worshiping foreign gods is a direct result of their sexual immorality. But of course, before they bowed down and worshiped to Baal, they bowed down and worshiped to a different idol. What idol were they serving? The idol of pleasure. The idol of pleasure. That's what led them into sexual immorality, which led them to worship Baal, which led to God disciplining them by striking 23,000 of them down through a plague.

17:23Verse 9. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. Look on the screen at Numbers 21. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Now, it's interesting to note here that Paul calls their complaining putting. Christ to the test.

18:03And this is 1,500 years before Christ came. But as we saw, Christ was spiritually present with the people all these years of wandering in the wilderness. Now, neither Paul nor Moses refers to this particular sin as idolatry. But again, it seems implicit in the incident. The people had all they needed. God provided them with manna from heaven and water from the rock. They had all that they needed, but they wanted more. They wanted better-tasting food. What idol were they serving?

18:41The idol of comfort. The idol of comfort tells us that we have a right to be comfortable, even when our discomfort, especially in this incident in the Exodus, is a direct result of our own sin. The idol of comfort tells us that we have a right to be comfortable at all times. Finally, take a look at verse 10. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Numbers 14 on the screen. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.

19:59That is a great plan. I can see no problems with that plan. I alluded to this earlier. This is the incident where Joshua and Caleb and the ten other spies return to the people of Israel after looking at the promised land. And the ten spies tell the people, there is no way that we can conquer the promised land. These people are too big. They're too numerous. We can never do this. And Joshua and Caleb stand alone, and they say, No, we must have faith in God. He has called us to do this. He will strengthen us. He will allow us to do it. They call the people to faith, but the people are overcome. They're overcome by the fear of man, saying that their wives and their children would become prey. They would be killed by the people who occupy the land.

20:52What idol are they serving? The idol of security. The idol of security tells us that safety is our highest priority. That God cannot be trusted. So, friends, all of these things are recounted, and all of them, I believe, are cast in the light through the lens of idolatry so that they can serve as examples for us to be able to look at our own lives. Because I highly doubt there is a single person in this room who is bowing down to statues of metal or wood. But idolatry is a prevalent problem for all of the people in Scripture because the statues of metal and wood aren't really the problem. It's the issues of our heart that lead us to worship things like control and pleasure and comfort and security more than God and instead of God.

22:04So, after recalling these events, Paul reiterates in verse 11 that these things happened to the Israelites as an example and were written down for our instruction. And that leads directly into the admonition of verse 12. Take a look there. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. The Israelites had. Seen such miracles, such provision from the mighty hand of God. Who would have thought that these people would worship a golden calf, would engage in sexual immorality, would serve the idols of comfort and security with complaining and grumbling against the God who led them out of Egypt?

22:58But friends, that's exactly the point. Paul is saying that if this can happen to the Israelites, who saw and experienced far more than you or I are probably ever going to see and experience in our lives, then it can certainly happen to us. We had better not think that we are above bowing down to the false gods of control and pleasure and comfort and security when these people weren't. Because you see, when we think, I will never fall into that kind of sin, Satan has us right where he wants us.

23:38He wants you to think there's no way that you would ever cheat. Cheat in your class or cheat on your spouse. He wants you to think there's no way that you would ever start using drugs or using pornography. He wants you to think that there's no way that you would ever bow down to these idols that the Israelites bowed down to. We get there when we come to that place where we think there are certain sins that will simply never touch me.

24:07Satan has us right where he wants us. But Paul doesn't want us to despair. He doesn't want us to read these examples and say, well, we're no better than these people. Why could we expect different results? Why even battle against sin and temptation? And so look what he writes in verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

24:56Church, our temptations are not unique to us. You and I, or you and someone else, may not be tempted in the exact same ways over the exact same things, but plenty of people are. All of our temptations are, as Paul says here, common to man. All of our temptations are ordinary. And that should provide some comfort that you are not the only one. You're not the only one in your church. Not the only one in your life group who is dealing with those temptations and those sins.

25:38But the greatest comfort isn't the fact that you are a fellow struggler. The greatest comfort is these three words in the verse: God is faithful. God is faithful. He says that he will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability, but when we are tempted, he will provide a way out so that we can endure it. Now, you might be sitting there thinking to yourself, now, Alan, there have been plenty of times that I have been tempted and I wasn't able to endure it. It was beyond my ability.

26:17So, what does that mean when Paul teaches here that we will not be tempted beyond our ability? Friends, this is where it comes back to what we talked about earlier in James 1. It all comes back to desire, that we sin when we are lured and enticed by our own desire. And so, if you desire to obey God, He is always going to provide a way out from every temptation. But if you desire the fleeting pleasure of sin more than you desire the lasting pleasure of obedience, Then you can't pin your failure on God and say, why didn't he provide a way out? He did. He promises to. The sad truth is that our sinful hearts deceive us. And at times, we desire sin more than we desire the pleasure of obedience.

27:24God is faithful, but we must take his way of escape from temptation. So that brings us to the climax of this passage, and Paul's central exhortation in verse 14, which is flee from idolatry. And then he invites them to judge for themselves what he's saying here. He says in these verses following verse 14, listen, you're sensible people. Think about this. Idolatry is such a snare, such a temptation, that the only approach that even makes sense is to run away from it.

28:04But you see, here's the problem. Some of the Corinthians weren't running away from idolatry. They weren't running away at all. In the first century, religion and social life were highly interconnected, just like they are today. And so what seems to have been happening in Corinth is that some of the believers, unbelieving friends, were inviting them to fellowship meals. Took place at pagan temples. And so they would eat together, and then they would worship in the pagan temple.

28:40And if you recall the greater context of these chapters, chapters 8 through 10, there is this group of people in the Corinthians who view themselves as very mature. They have knowledge. And they're like, listen, idols are nothing. They're just statues made of wood or metal or whatever else. So what does it matter if we go? They're not even real. We know that. But Paul completely disagrees. He argues in these verses that when we take the Lord's Supper as Christians, what does it signify? What does that fellowship meal signify that we take? That we have communion with God and we have communion with one another.

29:27And so he says, when you go to these pagan temples and you eat, what is that symbolizing? That you are sharing in fellowship with those false gods and that you are sharing in fellowship with people who worship those false gods. He's saying that when we take the Lord's Supper, we are participating in worship. And when you go to these pagan temples, you are participating in worship. Idols aren't real. You're exactly right about that. Demons are. And when you go to these pagan temples, you are offering worship to real demons.

30:09Friends, no believer should be worshiping demons. We cannot worship and commune with demons one minute and then worship and commune with Jesus the next or his body, the church. Because to do so is to provoke God to jealousy. And this is what Paul asks at the end of the section here. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Certainly not. The Corinthians were justifying this practice on the grounds that they had Christian freedom to do so and on the grounds that idols were really nothing. But Paul is helping them to understand that these practices are not neutral. They dishonor God.

30:59They lead younger believers astray. And they can even result in professing believers falling away from the faith. Church, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. That is why we have so many exhortations in Scripture to remember, to remember the examples of those who came before us. Loved the Corinthians. He wanted all of them to be saved. He wanted them to enjoy the heavenly rewards that are promised to all believers when their lives came to an end.

31:45But he was very concerned for them because they seemed convinced that they were standing firm. In their pride, they were acting as though they would never fall into the same sin, the same error, as their spiritual forefathers in the wilderness. And I believe that many of us have fallen into or could fall into the same exact temptation: the temptation to believe that we are standing firm, that we haven't been or we won't be led astray into idolatry and its various forms.

32:20So, look at this exhortation that Paul gives at the end of the next letter, 2 Corinthians. He says, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves? That Jesus Christ is in you, unless you indeed fail to meet the test. Paul's letters to the Corinthians are filled with these kinds of warnings. Warnings like we talked about today, and warnings like you just saw on the screen.

32:58And I want you to understand how to interpret. These warnings. Look at what Tom Schreiner says. The warning is not designed to instill terror or to paralyze the Corinthians, nor is it a call to introspection. Paul does not cast doubt upon their spiritual status as believers. Such warnings are not a threat to assurance, for those who heed the warnings grow in their assurance. What he's saying is that these warnings are here because when you actually heed these kinds of warnings, it is further proof that you are actually a follower of Jesus Christ, that you are his disciple, because you don't want to dishonor him through idolatry, you don't want to accept the fleeting pleasures of sin instead of the lasting pleasure of obedience and the eternal rewards that come at the end of that.

34:00And so, friends, this morning, I want to urge you to examine yourself, to test yourself. Not because I want you to live in doubt, but because, like Dr. Schreiner was saying, I want you to examine yourself so that you can grow in your assurance. The worst place to be is to be sitting here today and not know whether you really are a follower of Jesus Christ. The worst place to be today is to not know whether... Your soul will be saved on the day of judgment. Far better to be sitting in the seat today and to say, I do not believe a word you said today, than to be in the place where you say, I don't know.

34:44And so I, like Paul, am urging you to examine yourself and test yourself. And you can know that if you have confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That is God's promise because that is what Jesus secured for us in his perfect life and death and resurrection. And I want you to walk forward in that kind of confidence.

35:11And if you cannot sit here and say, I have confessed Jesus is Lord, I do believe that he has been raised from the dead. I do trust in him and him alone for forgiveness and reconciliation with God, then I invite you to do that today. Don't put it off another day, but come to Christ and be saved. And when we are saved, our lives are going to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Our lives are not going to be marked by idolatry where we bow down to the false gods of control and pleasure and comfort and security or anything else. Instead, they'll be marked by faith in God and a consistent obedience to the perfect law of Christ as we flee from all forms of idolatry.

36:00And friends, when that's the case, we can know for sure that we will receive the imperishable heavenly reward that God promises to all believers. Let's pray. Father, I pray that we would hear these warnings and that we would take them to heart. That we would be careful if we think that we are standing firm, particularly if there is little to no evidence in our lives that we are actually following Jesus. Not that we made a profession at some point in our lives, but that we are actually following him.

36:59God, I pray for clarity today. That anyone who is not trusting in Christ alone for salvation would see that in vivid color, perfect clarity. And I pray that you would draw them to repentance and faith today. And God, for all of us who are following Christ, would you assure us that even when we see sin and disobedience in our life, the very fact that we see it. And we are eager to confess it and to turn away from it is evidence that you have saved and are sanctifying us.

37:42Give us the assurance that we need to walk before you and before others with confidence so that we can go about the mission that you've given to us of making disciples of all nations with confidence. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.