No Demons Allowed - SDG

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, we'll make it all the way from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. I'm so glad to be with you this morning. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into the Lord's Word. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to come to you, to hear from your word. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would instruct us today in Jesus's name. Amen.
All right, here we go. We are going to be at first Corinthians chapter 10 verses 14 through the end of the chapter. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 14 through the end of the chapter. Let's go there together now. Therefore, my beloved, by the way, whenever it says, therefore, this is the conclusion of something, right? So what's the conclusion? All this divisiveness about whether you're able to eat meat, sacrifice to idols or not, and whether you have liberty of conscience. And so he's wrapping up this topic. So therefore, my beloved flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men. Judge for yourselves what I say.
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, though 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 then? That an idol is anything? Or what is offered to idols is anything?
Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 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? Are we stronger than He?
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one to his other's well-being. Eat whatever is sold in the marketplace, asking no questions for conscience' sake, for the earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness. If any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner, and you desire to go, Eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for conscience's sake. But if anyone says to you, this was offered to idols, do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you, and for the conscience's sake, for the earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness.
Conscience, I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks? Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Imitate me, just as I also imitate. Christ.
Well, we have a wonderful conclusion to this whole passage we've been looking at. We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? Right. So the question at hand is, are you able to eat meat that's sacrificed to idols? Right. There are people in the congregation saying, I know that an idol is nothing. So I could do whatever I want. And you're not going to judge me for that, right? If I want to eat, I can eat. And to an extent, Paul says, yeah, that's true. You have liberty. You have liberty in Christ to do whatever you want.
But not everything you want to do is a good thing to do. And you're knowingly partaking of their sacrifices You're doing something wrong here. What's going wrong? They have taken that cup and poured out libations, and devoted this meal to a demon. And so if you are actively participating in that, you're joining your heart to a demon. He says, don't do that. Right? You can't do that. Hold on. right he says in verses 20 and 21 rather that the things which the gentile sacrifice a sacrifice to demons and not to god and i do not want you to have fellowship with demons you cannot drink of the cup of the lord and the cup of demons you cannot partake in of the lord's table and of the table of demons you cannot partake of the sacrifices that are happening at the temple, and then come to the Lord's Supper and beg, hey, I'm wholeheartedly for the Lord. He says, no, you're not. Or you think you're stronger than the Lord? You think you're better than the Lord? You think the Lord's gonna put up with these things? No, he is a jealous God. You have to be one with Christ, wholly committed to him.
And so then the follow-up question might be, well, what happens when I'm just in town and somebody invites me over for dinner? Right? Do I just not eat any meat? And he says, no, go, go do whatever you want. Right? You don't need to be an investigator. You don't need to be a PI, you know, going and trying to figure out, figure out, oh, who bought this meat and who bought that meat and what's going on?
He says, just go thank God for the food and eat it. But if you find out that this was meat sacrifice to an idol, then don't eat it. So you have freedom in your conscience to go and eat whatever is set before you. But if you find out while you're at your unbelieving neighbor's house that you're over there for their barbecue and they've grilled up the meats and you find out, hey, you know, I got this at a great deal because I went to the temple of Artemis and I got it after the sacrifice, you say. You know, I can't eat this because I'm a Christian. And you know, if I had eaten it without knowing that, that would have been one thing, but I can't join myself to food that's been devoted to a pagan demon. I'm sorry, I can't do it.
And this is what he points out. In verse 31, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of Christ. Right. He's saying do it in such a way where you're bringing God glory. If you eat, eat with thankfulness. If you drink, drink unto the Lord. Whatever you do, do it with an eye towards God's glory, not towards your own liberties, not towards what you want to do, but with an eye towards some being saved. So I'm going to just say the best verses that I think summarize these sections as he has wrapped up this part on food sacrifice to idols and Christian liberty would be verses 21 and 22 as well as verses 31 and 32.
What would you underline? Maybe you disagree with that. Maybe there's something else that you think better highlights this. Let me know down in the comments. What would you underline as the best verse to summarize this section? Well, lastly, calling. What are you called to do? Well, I'll give you a real practical example of this.
Right. There are I have convictions that the Lord's Day is the Christian Sabbath. Right. The Westminster Confession or the Shorter Catechism talks about how the Christian Sabbath from the resurrection of Christ until the end of the world is the first day of the week. It is the Christian Sabbath. And so on it, I don't like to do any work.
And so, here comes the rub, right? What happens when you go to a church meal or you go to a friend's or family's house and do you start asking every single person who has come, hey, did you buy this on the Lord's Day? This wasn't bought on God's Day, was it? Was this bought on the Sabbath? Do you go and do you try to become an offense to people?
I'm so pure about my religion, I'm not going to eat anything that was bought on the Lord's Day. I'm just going to eat it with a thankful heart. I'm not going to ask questions about it. Now, if I find out about it, I might not eat it, right? I might say, Oh, you know, I remember going to a church where I found out that food was regularly bought on the Lord's day. There was a certain person who always bought food and it was bought and brought on the Lord's day. Uh, and I knew about it.
And so I just, you know, I don't want to, I just won't eat that. There was plenty of other good food there. There's always good food at a Presbyterian. We don't like people like I call them potlucks because we don't believe in luck. Right. But pot Providence, whatever you want to call it, the meal we always have afterwards. But in other cultures, you know, this is a real deal. Right. There's there's a reality that when I was just I got off the phone just a little while ago with a friend who's in India and he ministers around Hindus all the time.
If he goes to his neighbor's house, does he ask whether their food came from a market that had idolatry in it? Or does he just eat the food with thankfulness because he serves in a poor community and the people are giving him food? How do you bring God glory in whether you eat or drink or whatever you do? Are you being divisive about things? Or are you showing love? Are you imitating Paul as he's imitated Christ?
Now, let me lean into a principle here for calling. Okay, we'll end on this. There's an absolute distinction that Paul makes here that the Holy Spirit brings to us, okay? You cannot be joined to both demons and to Christ. I don't know who needs to hear this, but our hearts must be fully devoted to Christ. We must have one love, one Savior, one Lord, one baptism.
You cannot play around. with the continued idolatry that would come up in your heart, or physical idols that you would see with your eyes? You cannot go and serve the gods of this world, go serve the gods of the Western culture, bow down to the things of our present age, and then go and join yourself to the Lord at His supper. When you come to the Lord's Supper, when you partake of the sacraments, you must be one who says, I am wholeheartedly devoted to God.
I have put away the idols on the other side of the river. I have turned away from the idols of my fathers and of my mother. I am devoted to God. And every time I see idolatry creep up in my heart, I try to root it out that I might be fixed in Christ. God doesn't play around with adultery.
Go read through the prophets and God wants all his people's heart. So love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Bring God glory whether you eat or drink or whatever you do in all things. Glorify God. Glorify Him with a pure conscience. Glorify Him with a heart of unity and love for your neighbors.
May we be those who love Him, who live with people in an understanding way. Let's pray. Father, we thank You so much for this day. And we pray that we would have hearts and minds that would desire to follow after You, to live at peace with everyone, so long as it depends upon us. Lord, we pray that you would keep our consciences pure, that we would follow you in Jesus's name. Amen. May God bless you today. May you enjoy the peace that comes from meditating on God's word and keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website. Share on rpc.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. Every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.