WWUTT 1537 An Idol is Nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4-6)

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An idol is nothing but an empty thing, or as my dad once taught me, an idol is just an empty suit.

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But there are people that continue to worship idols because God has not yet opened their eyes when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Made it through the first three verses yesterday, but I'm going to go ahead and read the whole chapter again just to keep things in context.

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This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.

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Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone thinks that he has known anything, he is not yet known as he ought to know.

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But if anyone loves God, he has been known by Him. Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no

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God but One. For even if there are so -called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one

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God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him, and one

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Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we exist through Him.

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However, not all men have this knowledge, but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrifice to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled.

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But food will not commend us to God. We neither lack if we do not eat, nor abound if we do eat.

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But see to it that this authority of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be built up to eat things sacrificed to idols?

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For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake

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Christ died. And in that way, by sinning against the brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

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Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, ever, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

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So to briefly summarize these opening verses again, the Corinthians have stated to Paul, we all have knowledge, and Paul kind of breaks them down in that by saying, well, this knowledge of yours that you claim you have puffs up, but love builds up.

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So it cannot be about you. You must think about how we are to serve one another.

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And that's very important according to these instructions that Paul gives to the church regarding food that has been sacrificed to idols.

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So he says further regarding this knowledge that you claim you have, if anyone thinks that he has known anything, he is not yet known as he ought to know.

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And that comes up again, we get to first Corinthians 13, where Paul says that now we see as through a glass dimly, but soon we shall see face to face.

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And then we will know just as we are fully known. So who are we fully known by?

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We are known by God. Therefore, as Paul goes on here in chapter eight to say, if anyone loves

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God, he has been known by him. How do you know that you are known by God?

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Well, do you love God? Do you desire to keep his commandments? That's what Jesus said to his disciples in John 14, 15.

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You will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. So if you love

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God and you keep his commandments, then you demonstrate that you have been known by God. And it is more important that you are known by God than what you can know by your own knowledge.

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Okay. So Paul kind of brings them, humbles them down with that here in these opening verses in chapter eight, then in verse four, he says, therefore, in light of this concerning the eating of things, sacrifice to idols, because that's really the question that the

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Corinthians have asked that Paul is getting to here concerning things, sacrifice to idols. He says in verse one, he makes sure the

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Corinthians are going to be humble and how they're going to consider these things and looking after one another in love before he then gives the instruction regarding things, sacrifice to idols.

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Therefore, concerning the eating of things that have been sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no

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God but one. Okay. Let's break down each one of those phrases one by one. We really have three phrases here concerning the eating of things, sacrifice to idols.

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We know that an idol is nothing in the world and there is no God but one. There's your three phrases.

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So first of all, the things sacrifice to idols, you've probably heard this explained before, but there in the city of Corinth, the meat market was also the places where idols were worshipped because the meat would be taken into the pagan temples and it would first be offered to idols, to the false gods that the pagans, the

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Greek pagans worshipped. And then after that meat was offered to the gods, whatever was left would be sold in the butcher shops or in the meat markets there in the city of Corinth in particular, of course, since that's the context we're talking about.

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So a portion of it would be sacrificed or offered to a false God. The rest of it would be sold at market.

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And there were some who coming out of their paganism would not want to eat any of the meat that was offered there in Corinth because you didn't know if it had been offered to an idol or not.

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And they thought that if they ate the meat, their conscience would be defiled and it would be the same as if they were in their former paganism.

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Well, now I'm just, I'm worshipping a false God again because I'm eating the meat that had been sacrificed to a false

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God. So the question that's coming from the Corinthians is, can we not just eat the meat that has been sacrificed in the market?

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I mean, what's the problem with that? We all have knowledge, right? We all know that that an idol is not really a thing.

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It's not really a God. It's not really being offered to this false God. So therefore, it's good for us to eat meat.

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We can eat the meat. We're not really defiling our consciences. All of that is just fine because we worship the true and only

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God. Right. And so Paul says to them, There's some other things that you need to consider here, not just whether you can eat the meat.

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This is being mindful of one another, not whether I can do this and it's OK for me, but we also need to be thinking about one another and keeping one another's conscience.

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The difficult thing to do, but nevertheless, is something sacrificial that we must be mindful of one another, even in this body, the body of Christ in which we are, of which we are a part.

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OK, so we'll go through that some more as we continue on in this chapter and also chapters nine and ten, because that really kind of continues the train of thought regarding food that has been offered to idols.

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It's it covers three chapters here. So Paul says, therefore, concerning the thing sacrificed to idols, this is going to be that meat that has been offered to false gods that is being sold in the meat markets there in Corinth.

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There's really not any kind of meat you could buy anywhere that you would be sure had not previously been offered to a false god.

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That's how prevalent this system, that's how systematic it was there in the city of Corinth.

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So Paul goes on to say, we know that an idol is nothing in the world.

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In other words, idols are empty things, they're not really false gods. I remember my dad illustrating this in a sermon one time.

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This has always stuck with me and I never forgot it. I don't even remember what the rest of the sermon was about.

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I just remember this particular illustration. So he he had a microphone stand up on stage and he took his jacket off.

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He was wearing a suit. So he took the jacket off and he hung it on the microphone stand. And he was doing this as he was actually talking about something else.

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So he's doing this fluid thing. You don't really understand why he's taking the jacket off. He just does while he's explaining something else.

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And he hangs the jacket on the microphone stand and then he gestures over to the jacket on the microphone stand.

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And he said, there's your idol right there. It's just an empty suit. It's nothing.

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There's nothing in it at all. Nothing about this thing that has been fashioned has any divine property to it.

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It's an empty suit. And so I remember that illustration. An idol is just an empty suit.

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It's a suit with nothing in it, a suit that no person, no body inhabits.

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And Paul is basically saying the same thing here. An idol is nothing in the world. And he's getting that from Isaiah.

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He's likely quoting from Isaiah 44 with just a brilliant satire there about one who makes an idol and worships it.

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Isaiah 44. Let me start reading in verse nine. This is out of the English standard version because I don't have a legacy standard version of the

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Old Testament yet. So anyway, Isaiah 44 verse nine, all who fashion idols are nothing.

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So not only is the idol nothing in this case, but even the one who makes the idol is nothing and the things they delight in, do not profit their witnesses, neither see nor know that they may be put to shame who fashions a

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God or cast an idol that is profitable for nothing. Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame and the craftsmen are only human.

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Let them all assemble. Let them stand forth. They shall be terrified. They shall be put to shame together.

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The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm.

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He becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint.

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Now, notice here, that's that's just verse 12. But the ironsmith even has to make the tools that he uses to make the idol.

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So, first of all, you have the guy who's making the tools and this guy is nothing. If he doesn't eat well, then his strength fails.

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If he doesn't drink anything, he becomes faint. So there's no power in the ironsmith either.

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All right. We continue on verse 13. The carpenter stretches a line. He marks it out with a pencil.

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He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man with the beauty of a man to dwell in a house.

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So far, you have the ironsmith. You have the carpenter. Verse 14. He cuts down cedars or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest.

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He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man.

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He takes a part of it and warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also, he makes a god and worships it.

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He makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it, he burns in the fire.

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Over the half, he eats meat. He roasts it and is satisfied. Also, he warms himself and says, aha,

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I am warm. I have seen the fire and the rest of it. He makes into a god, his idol and falls down to it and worships it.

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He prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my god.

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Do you understand the absurdity of all of this? I mean, this is very satirical.

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What Isaiah is writing here about the idol maker. There's a guy who makes tools to make the idol.

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There's a guy who cuts down a tree and fashions an idol. Half of the tree he burns in a fire to warm himself.

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So part of this thing that has been formed into a god has been destroyed. And then the other half he makes.

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He fashions it into an idol and he falls down and worships it and says to it, something as absurd as deliver me for you are my god.

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This thing that he made, he thinks will deliver him. And we we see this going on in the world today, even though you may think that as a

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Western culture, we've ascended beyond worshiping fashioned things, right?

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That whole idol worship thing. Yeah, that's something that primitive people do. Or something an ancient people did.

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We don't do that today, do we? You know, I was in the store five below recently and I saw two idol displays there.

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One of them was an LGBTQ display. Like all of the products in this display were devoted to LGBTQ ism, had the logo and the rainbow flag and all this stuff.

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And you can get headphones and bracelets and backpacks and pads and all this kind of stuff all decked out with LGBTQ ism, which is sexual immorality.

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I mean, there's this is not an identity. It's a people who are devoted to sexual depravity.

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And that was a monument unto that. So that in itself was idolatry. But then there was something else that I noticed.

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There was an actual display with Ganesh statues and Buddha statues, idols, actual idols that we think, oh, a primitive pagan people would worship.

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Nope. You can buy them at five below. You can take one of these little idols home and you think it's a good luck charm or whoever would invest or whoever would buy something like that.

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That's probably what they think of it. You know, I have it in my home. It's a good luck charm. Maybe I kiss it. Maybe I touch it every day before I go out the door.

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People might think of it as possessing a rabbit's foot, but it's, it's still idolatry. You actually think it is doing something for you, but it's an empty thing.

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It's nothing. It's a little piece of glass or metal or whatever that was fashioned into this thing does not actually give you anything.

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Why would anyone buy something like that? Because claiming to be wise, they became fools.

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Romans 1 22 and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

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And so this is the, the satire that we read here in Isaiah 44, how absurd it is for any man to believe that they can worship things that will deliver them.

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There are plenty of people out there that think this is the government, a government that has been made by man, but they put their faith and hope and trust in this government to be my savior.

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Deliver me for you are my God. People put faith and trust in drugs, in sex, in material possessions, in fame, or climbing the corporate ladder, accomplishment, opportunity, whatever it might happen to be.

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There are plenty of manmade things. Lots of people put their faith and trust in thinking that it will deliver them, but it all will come to destruction in the end.

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None of it lasts. Anything, anything that is corrupt and is decaying and is wasting away, subjected to futility, as it says in Romans eight, all of this stuff that is perishing cannot possibly save you.

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This demonstrates the absurdity of the sinful human mind to put their faith and trust in things.

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But folks, sin makes us do really stupid things. Sin makes us stupid. And those who rebel against God would take something and fashion it into an idol and bow down to it and say, deliver me for you are my

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God. A person does such a thing because they hate the true God. Even here in Isaiah 44 verse 18, it goes on to say, they know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot understand.

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No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say half of it.

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I burn in the fire. I also bake bread on its coals. I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall

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I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?

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He feeds on ashes. A deluded heart has led him astray and he cannot deliver himself or say, is there not a lie in my right hand when we have come to the knowledge of God though, which is, which is a work that God does in us.

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When we come to the knowledge of him, then we know, then we can say this idol is empty and nothing, but I worship the one true and living

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God. Remember what we read back in first Corinthians chapter one, verse 30, by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the

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Lord. It is God who has given us the knowledge that we have to know an idol is an empty thing.

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And I worship Christ. This is a gift of knowledge that comes only from God so that when we boast, we don't boast in ourselves.

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We boast in the Lord as Paul is directing the Corinthians to do as he has been doing from chapter one and does so even here in chapter eight concerning the eating of things, sacrifice to idols.

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We know that an idol is nothing in the world. We know that because God has opened our eyes to it.

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The people who continue worshiping idols are blinded to the truth because they have rebelled against God and God has darkened their hearts.

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An idol is nothing in the world. We know this and we know that there is no God but one because our, our

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God has opened our eyes to that truth to know that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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And so Paul goes on to say in verse six, yet for us, there is one

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God, the father from whom are all things and we exist for him and one

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Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we exist through him.

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We have come to this knowledge and we have come to understand this by the blessing of God.

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Now, all of us have come into existence by God, even unbelievers exist because God has made them.

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But we come to the knowledge of one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we exist through him.

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We exist through him because we have been born again by him and we are born into the family of God and only then do we know

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God as father. So as we read in Ephesians four, four, there is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

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One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

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But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

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Therefore, it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

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All of this is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is by God, by a blessing of God that our eyes have been opened to see him and know him and worship him through his son.

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We exist through him. We have come into the family of God through Jesus Christ.

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Paul goes on to say in verse seven, however, not all men have this knowledge. Knowing God, you cannot know

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God except that God has drawn you to himself. And we know this when we love

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God. Once again, going back to verse three. But if anyone loves God, he has been known by him.

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If you love the Lord, you are known by the Lord. If you are known by the Lord, then you know him and you love him.

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Because he first loved us, as we considered yesterday from 1st John, we love

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God because he first loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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Let's stop there. We'll try to finish up the rest of chapter eight tomorrow. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the goodness that you show to us every day through Jesus Christ.

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If not for your mercy and grace, then we would continue on as idol worshipers in this world.

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It would seem like a good idea to us to bow down before an idol or to put our trust in man or the things made by man to deliver us.

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But we know that these things made by man are empty. We know that the promises of man are of nothing.

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But those things that have been given to us by God are everything. And Jesus Christ is everything.

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It is through Christ that we have been delivered from this domain of darkness and have become people, citizens of his kingdom of light.

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So help us to walk in the light as he is in the light and we shine the light of God to the world so that they may see this light in the midst of the darkness, shining in the midst of this dark and depraved world, and they would turn from their sin to Jesus Christ and so be saved.

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Give us the boldness to preach the gospel in these days of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish under the judgment of God, but we will have everlasting life.

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It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt