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1st Corinthians 10
Pass We All through Waves of Judgment
melody
Pass we all through waves of judgment,
For our sins, on holy ground
Where accusing cries are silenced
By the Ark's triumphant sound.
Now the words of Him once smitten
Armor us in rock and shield,
And their fount on pages written,
Cleanse, and satisfy as meal.
Let us heed their signs of warning;
Watching always lest we fall;
Gath'ring manna every morning;
Kneeling 'for the Lord of All.
May our minds arise from idols
From whence every sin begets.
Let no heart in secret sidle
Back to ways we must forget.
We, a risen holy nation,
Share as one the blood and bread
By which we have shed corruption,
Whole inside our risen Head.
Therefore with new eyes of judgment,
We shall watch. And clothed in light,
Give the severed flesh no moment,
But adjudge it crucified.
Hearts unsaved will seek embracement
Of earth's idols demons share.
They, from hidden halls of torment,
Offer joy but bring despair.
But now God gives new desires
Of our heart from His above;
Lifting longings ever higher
In His ways of peace and love.
Words: ©2015 by Stephen Popovich
Music: Austria 1797 by Franz Haydn
1st Corinthians 10
Idolatry and Other Ways of a Castaway
Summary:
Paul knew that being entangled in the world through the flesh is the way of idolatry. It can derail believers from being worthy vessels of God's truth and cause them to be castaways from the Lord's service. In this chapter Paul expands on the final verse of chapter nine; about who, why and how a believer comes to be a castaway---and how not to become one.
Signs of Our Unity in The Way, The Truth and The Life
One in the Way
(1) For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; (2)and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
The Red sea is a picture of God's curse on the breakers of God's law due to sin. The Jews escaped the bondage of Egypt by following Moses through the parted Red Sea on dry ground pointing to all believers who are one with Christ in both His death and resurrection (Rom.10:6-8). The cloud represents the word that comes forth from heaven; the gospel that leads us first to Calvary's cleansing flood and then through life's desert on the way to our heavenly promise (Rom.6.4).
Pass we all through waves of judgment,
For our sins, on holy ground
Where accusing cries are silenced
By the Ark's triumphant sound
One in Truth and Life
(3)and all ate the same spiritual food; (4)and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
Now the words of Him once smitten
Armor us in rock and shield,
And their fount on pages written
Cleanse, and satisfy as meal
Manna from heaven
Manna was physical food miraculously sent down from heaven by God to feed his people as they wandered in the desert (Ex.16:4, 14-15). But here it's called "spiritual food" because it foreshadows the spiritual sustenance of God's word. In John chapter six, Jesus compares himself to the manna of the
wilderness because He is true bread sent from heaven whose words must
be "eaten" in order for one to have eternal life (Jn.6:54-55,68).
Water
Like manna, water adumbrates the word of God whether as rain, clouds, wells, fountains, floods, rivers, streams or snow (Is.55:10-11). Our cleansing and refreshing in God's word starts with our acceptance of the gospel (Jn.6:29), but must continue daily if we are to be faithful fountains of eternal life in this world (Jn.4:13-14, 7:37-39, Rom.10:10)).
The rock of refuge
The rock "followed" the Israelites in the sense that one rock issued forth water at the beginning of their wanderings (Ex.17:6) and a second rock at the end (Num.20:7-8); the
first rock had be smitten before it's water could benefit God's people. Moses and his rod represents the administration of the law of God. The record of his striking the rock illustrates that Christ is now our refuge because he hung in our guilty place under God’s law at Calvary
where, like a rock formed in the earth, he underwent the fire and pressure of God’s judgment on our sins (Ps.95:1), emerging as our rock of ages (Matt.7:24-25) who will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb.13:5). Lo, He is with us always (Matt.28:20).
Warning Signs of God's Judgment on sin
Fearing man instead of God
(5)Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.
God had provided for the Israelites a way to a land flowing with milk and honey into which they refused to walk. Instead of trusting in the promises of God, they feared the people of the land. Except for Caleb and Joshua, the entire generation that refused to enter Canaan by faith were laid low across the wilderness in the ensuing 38 years of wandering.
They were cast away because they feared man instead of God. So it will be with every believer who fears man and seeks to please man rather than fearing God, he will be set aside from God's use.
Craving of the flesh
(6)Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.
The example(Num.11:4-6, 33-34)
The lesson
In the wilderness, the Jews began to crave flesh rather than the manna provided by God. This pictures the flesh
through which fallen man craves all matter of worldly enticements. It is the flesh that keeps us in bondage to the pleasures, riches and
pride of the world as represented by Egypt (1Jn.2:16-17).
Many Christians fail to walk in the newness of life---where we are to set our affections on things above rather than things of the earth (Col.3:1-3). We are prone to stumble along, not knowing or caring to walk in the victory Christ hath wrought by crucifying the flesh with its lust (Gal.5:24). We cannot serve two masters. And those who try will one day discover their time on earth was as a vessel set apart from the work of God.
Idolatry is a matter of the heart
(7)Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, "THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY."
May our minds arise from idols
The example (Ex.32:3-6, 25-27, Acts 7:39-41)
The lesson
If we think of idolatry as merely bowing to wooden or golden statues then we miss a very important truth. Paul does not mention the golden calf but that “the people
sat down to eat and drink and rose to play”. These are activities of the flesh. Add to that Stephen's words in the above Acts passage that the people’s hearts had turned back to Egypt---worshipping the works of their own hands. Idolatry in its many manifestations amounts to fleshy self worship.
Idols appeal to the heart through the flesh. That is why idolatry is listed as a sin of the flesh and has so many variations (Gal.5:19). Hearts that are not pitched toward God are bent by the flesh toward the world---the place of Egypt---with its man made systems of riches and pleasure.
From whence every sin begets
Begetting sins of the flesh
(8)Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
Let no heart in secret sidle
Back to ways we must forget
The example (Num.25:1-2,9)
The lesson
Like a hungry dog walking around a meat wagon, it’s inevitable that the
person of verse six whose affections are geared toward the flesh will commit sin.
First comes the craving then the committing. Sins are brought forth from mixing of the desires of one’s flesh with the world’s enticements.
This describes spiritual adultery whose offspring is sin (Jas.1:14-15).
The 'brother’ who was ‘committing whoredom’ with his father’s wife was an example of the sins of the flesh (1Cor.5:1). Such a person is an unwitting tool of Satan to infect and debilitate the Church and not a tool of Christ to build it up. This ‘brother’ and those like him must be put out of the church onto God’s pile of castaways (1Cor.5:5-6) so that they might repent and be brought to a place of usefulness.
Loathing God's word
(9)Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.
Gath'ring manna every morning
The example (Num.21:5-6)
The lesson
Those born of flesh feed on the same things that make up the
flesh---water, iron minerals and fat to name a few. Those who are born again from above
are born of the word (1Pet.1:23) and so must daily
feed on the word with the Holy Spirit as
our spiritual digestive system (1Pet.2:2).
Manna from heaven is a type of God's word which has come down from above. Those in the desert who were repelled by God's word represent people who would rather feed on the husks of Egypt than the nutrition of God (2Tim.2:15). If we are so disinclined towards God's word, we should consider hanging a sign around our neck that says ‘disqualified for God’s service'.
Rebelling against God's authority
(10)Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Kneeling 'for the Lord of All
The example (Num.16:3, 32-33)
The lesson:
God is a God of order. In the wilderness, that order was for Moses to be the leader and Aaron to be the High Priest. When Koran
led a rebellion against this authority, God opened the earth and swallowed the rebels down to the pit.
The lesson of this verse is a preview of chapter eleven where Paul instructs on the order of Church authority. God hates it when the unauthorized elbow their way into unauthorized places.They serve in vain who have ignored or rebelled against God’s order and usurped leadership from the eldership of Godly men.
Warning signs
(11)Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Let us heed the signs of warning
God has revealed in recorded scripture how he is pleased and blesses those who obey his word and is against those who disobey. The above Old Testament examples serve as God's warning signs lest we become castaways of his service.
The time between the two comings of Christ is referred to as the "end of the ages". God's dealing with his people in Old Testament times serve as warning signs to his people who come later.
Waves of Temptation
Falling
(12)Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
Christians "fall" when they
stumbling into sin and away from God's word (2Pet.3:17). "Falling" or "stumbling" is the opposite of rising from the ground and walking. In the spiritual world of hearts and minds, we are either rising from the cursed earth by the power of God and by that power walking according to His ways, or we are stumbling and falling along the ways of unrighteousness.
But adjudge it crucified
Watching and withstanding
(13)No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
We shall watch. And clothed in light,
Temptations do not come down from heaven, but God allows them to come rolling up from the ways of the world. When they reach us we either remain standing in holiness or we get knocked over by sin (Jas.1:13-15). With every temptation God is bringing us to a fork in the road. These waves of temptation come upon us, lapping over our flesh with a power that will knock us to the ground unless our feet have retreated into the Lord's power and might.
Click on the soldier to see what God's word says about withstanding the waves of temptation.
Fleeing idolatry
(14)Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
Give the severed flesh no moment
The Idolatry that matters to God is not the formalized prostration before stone statues, but the position of man's heart relative to God's word. It's exemplified in verse seven by the Israelites in the wilderness who “sat down to eat and drank and rose up to play”. Or said another way, idolatry is the expression of a flesh-tuned, coveting heart groping after the dangling bait of worldly enticements (Col.3:5).
Paul summarizes this passage on warning signs as "flee idolatry!"; get the feet of your heart away from the world’s traffic so you can more easily say "no" to temptation!
This one verse is a key to avoid becoming a castaway. By snipping the one wire of idolatry we diffuse many bombs that could blow-up our service. Hearts don’t rebel against God’s authority or provisions of His ways unless they are coveting things apart from God's word. And they won’t swallow the baited hook that will drag them ripped and broken down a road of ruinous sin if their hearts are not grasping at the world. When we flee idolatry we move our feet to a place where waves of temptation are minimized (Col.3:1-3).
Judging
(15)I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say.
Therefore with new eyes of judgment
Paul's words should be settled truth the Corinthian mind without deferring to an outside judge as they had done in chapter seven. Some at Corinth were wise in their own eyes and the world's (1Cor.4:10), but those who are in a position to judge the words of Paul are those whose eyes have been illuminated in God's truth by the working of His Spirit.
Signs of Oneness in Christ
N.T. sign
(16)Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? (17)Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.
Share as one the blood and bread,
By which we have shed corruption
Whole inside our risen Head
One with the death and resurrection of Christ
When we partake in the Lord's Table we become players in portraying the greatest truths knowable by man---that believers are in union with the blood and body of Jesus Christ the Son of God (Col.1:26-27).
His blood washes away our sins that separate us from God. His physical body was broken at Calvary so that the words of His heart might be made alive in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Because we are now one with His heart and mind, we become his hands, feet and mouth on earth. The bread speaks of our oneness with the life of Jesus in resurrection as the cup shows our oneness with his death.
One with each other
Our oneness with the body and blood of Christ has an important corollary---our oneness with each other. Believers who judge with word colored glasses will see themselves
as the blood bought brothers and sisters in Christ; worthy of our care as we would care for a member of our own body (Rom.14:13-15).
O.T. sign
(18)Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?
We, a risen holy nation,
The truths displayed by the Lord's table had a forerunner in the Levitical system of the Old Testament. In this verse, we see how the oneness of the Church was prophetically shown in the sharing of the Old Testament sacrifice by the sons of Aaron (Lev.7:31).
The Old Testament sacrifice, whether of the herd or flock, points to Christ the Lamb of God. We are the New Testament kingdom of priests that have metaphorically eaten of the flesh of Christ---becoming one with him in death--- that moment we were saved (1Pet.2:9). As we assemble together to remember the anguish of that sacrifice 2,000 years ago, we offer up prayers of thanksgiving to the Father. These prayers that speak of the Son's glorification of the Father rise to the Father as a sweet aroma as did the smoke of the sacrifice on burning alter.
Behind the Curtain of Idolatry
Empty ways
(19)What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
Knowledge makes proud. So it was at Corinth where some were showing off their brand new knowledge that there was only one true God. But as we saw in chapter eight, what they were really showing was their lack of the utmost knowledge---the knowledge of love.
Paul is bringing this issue up again because the Greek practice of eating food sacrificed to idols in their temples is an instructive object lesson. With this picture Paul gives us some insights into what is really going on behind the scenes when man lifts his heart up to the idolatrous ways of the world.
Idolatry object lesson #1:
There is only one God; gods represented by idols are not real.
Partakers of demons
(20){No,} but {I say} that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God;
Hearts unsaved will seek embracement
Partaking in idolatry places man in close spiritual proximity with demons. The Corinthians werecorrect in their knowledge that gods represented by the idols were fake. But they were fake in the same way puppets in a puppet show aren’t real. There is always a puppeteer who is often unseen but in control.
Idolatry object lesson #2:
Behind the curtain of the empty ways of idolatry are demon
puppeteers pulling the strings to do their part in setting the course of this world (Eph.2:2). When man offers his heart to the ways of this world he is unwittingly worshipping the ways of demons. Paul warns that it is unwise for believers to partake in the sign of our union with Christ while mingling in the hangouts of demons (Rev.2:20).
Consuming fare of demons
(21)and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Of earth's idols demons share.
They, from hidden halls of torment,
There are two basic banquet tables of words set before us on earth. On the broad way of destruction is a table filled with all manner of lies that comprise the wisdom from below that leads down a road of sin and godlessness (Jas. 3:13-16). On the less traveled narrow way of life there is a rich banquet table of God's words of eternal life---manna from heaven--- that offer blessings of peace and joy in the midst of the shadow of death of this world (Psalm 23:5-6).
Idolatry object lesson #3:
Idolatry consists of words from demons that pass through the idol systems and call out to the world. These demonic lies can be received by the heart and mind of man just as food is received by the stomach.
Fire of God's jealousy
(22)Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?
Having paid such a great price at Calvary for our union, why would we ever consider joining ourselves with the words of darkness and risk the chastisement of His jealousy (Ps.78:52-54). When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he kept himself cloaked in the word of God, and so overcame the power of Satan. If the Lord was careful to address the words of Satan with the words of God, we should do likewise, or do we think we are stronger than Jesus?
Idolatry object lesson #4:
Food from the demon's table are words designed to appeal to the heart of man through the lusts of the flesh. Even a believer can be hooked on these lies that then lead to an immoral life. In the Old Testament, God showed his jealousy
by moving against his adulteress people with fire-like fury (Deut.4:23-24). Our freedom in Christ where the flesh has been crucified giving us freedom to walk by faith according to God’s word where we bask in His grace and truth (Ps.89:15).
Selfish ways
(23)All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. (24)Let no one seek his own {good,} but that of his neighbor.
Offer joy but bring despair
Those engaging in idolatry are really engaging with the doctrine of demons. In the Corinthians we see: "all things are lawful" and "food for the belly and the belly for food", are words of demons taylor-made for the flesh.
Idolatry object lesson #5:
Those who fall into idolatry regurgitate the words of the demons; a good example were the Pharisees in John chapter eight who were unwitting spokesmen for their father, Satan. With the Pharisees the appeal of Satan's lies wasn't to the lusts of the flesh, per se, but to pride (Jn.8:43-45). Lies of demons The Lord's best tools in his toolbox are those whose hearts, minds and mouths are a fountain of wisdom from above (Jas.3:17).
Summary
Summary for living among conscience
(25)Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience' sake; (26)FOR THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS. (27)If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience'
sake. (28)But if anyone says to you, "This is meat sacrificed to idols," do not eat {it,} for the sake of the one who informed {you,} (29)and for conscience' sake; I mean not your own conscience, but the other {man's;} for why is my freedom judged by another's conscience? (30)If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?
Don't ask don't tell
Paul brought up the ritual of eating food sacrificed to idols as an illustration to show an idolater's oneness with demons. But as a practical matter, it was fine to eat food offered to idols if it was done away from the idol temples. However if it was made known that the meat came from temple idols and there was another Christian around, then the believer should not eat it because it might go against the conscience
of a weaker brother causing him to stumble into sin.
Summary for Godly living
(31)Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (32)Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; (33)just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the {profit} of the many, so that they may be saved.
But now God gives new desires
Of our heart from His above.
Lifting longings ever higher
In His ways of peace and love
Eliminate the negative
Heed the warning signs by fleeing idolatry.
Do not cause a fellow believer to stumble over their conscience by our action. "Pleasing all men in all things" is the same strategy disclosed by Paul in chapter nine where he "became all things to all men". Here he repeats it because "giving no offense" is the flip side of that coin. For example, Paul pleased the unbelieving Jews by circumcising Timothy and he gave them no offense by not eating what offended them (Acts 16:1-3).
Accentuate the positive
Give God the glory in all things by being thankful in every circumstance and reflecting His living word as lights on a hill, . Paul's goal was to profit others and his mission statement was simple: "so that they might be saved"
© 2015 by Steve Popovich