Run For Your Lives - [1 Corinthians 10:14-22]

You know, you're in trouble as a pastor when you get an email from one of your deacons the day before Sunday I Got it last night from Scott Walkton and the email was

Please bring your household idols to church tomorrow Makes you want to run

I've collected different small idols from across the world to use as a teaching tool to show children

You don't bow down to idols. You don't worship idols. You don't Snuggle idols, you don't fondle idols you run from idols

And so when the deacon calls and says please bring your idols It just seemed odd to me But I knew he was going to use them for a

Sunday school class to teach the children rum run from idols We are a society that worships

Everyone here is a worshiper We are born to worship we are made to worship atheists worship pagans worship

Hindus worship Buddhists worship Christians worship angels worship and You worship, too

We are worshipers God has made us that way. He has set eternity in our hearts.

And so the question is Who are you going to worship? What are you going to worship?

Songwriter in the 70s wrote these words, but you're gonna have to serve somebody. Yes, indeed

You're going to have to serve somebody Well, it may be the devil or it may be the

Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody who wrote those lyrics Bob Dylan People couldn't wait to say that out loud

Bob Dylan, I know I know pop culture better than you This is right

Charlie, I Think maybe I have something on here. I just won't touch it. It's Morse code arise.

Oh sleeper from the dead. I Just won't touch it Let's try now.

What I Think it's though actually touching it. That's the problem got to serve somebody

Bob Dylan late 70s He's right He might not have followed the

Lord after that. I need a little bit more volume Tracy, please He might not have followed the Lord after that, but he was right that a person will give allegiance

To a thing or to a person Someone else there's no DMZ for people everybody worships

So why don't we turn our Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 10 in this great passage that talks about running from idolatry?

We are to worship the one and true King King Jesus Christ Jesus the

Lord and we must run from any idol that would somehow impinge upon our

Great Lord and Savior We want to preach Christ crucified and Paul has already said in chapter 2 verse 2

I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ even him the crucified one.

It's all about Christ Jesus If you love Christ Jesus You'll love this church if you want to see

Christ Jesus extolled by the grace of God You'll see the Sunday school teachers and the elders and yes

Even the pastor talk about Jesus the only Savior the only advocate the only

Redeemer The only one who can be as sin bearer in your place Christ Jesus the risen

King And if you don't want to hear about Jesus and you just want how to moralistic pickup stories pick me up for the next week

This is a bad church for you to be in Because we want here to extol Jesus the

Lord of the church who purchased the church And after all if I tell you stories about me I'm going to let you down and I probably have let you down or I will let you down But we want to be focused with laser beam kind of eyes on the person and work of Christ So then when someone comes along Wanting worship our desiring worship are we feel tempted to worship?

One of the things that scripture does is it gets our minds rightly focused again on Christ Jesus Fixing our hope on Christ Jesus now this passage here chapter 10 verses 14 through 22 is an under preached passage

I wouldn't necessarily pick this passage to preach because it's got a lot of stuff in there that frankly and honestly is

Really related to the Corinthian context and to the context Corinth alone to the context back in those days where they had pagan feasts and pagan idols and We don't really have that around here, and so it's an under preached passage, and if you look at this text

It shouldn't be under preached because the key is found in verse 14 flee from idolatry

Therefore in light of all the stuff about Liberty. I want you to run from idolatry.

I want you to scamper away I want you to hurry Pell -mell run as fast as you can run for the hills run for your lives

And Paul is saying you know we have Liberty in Christ to do all kinds of things But when it comes to getting really close to idolatry don't touch it

We would say it back in Nebraska don't touch it with a 10 -foot pole. Just get away from it

You might have Liberty to do all kinds of things But Corinthians you think you can go into the pagan temple and eat some of the food without being affected you can be affected

There are things going on behind the scenes invisibly with spiritual warfare demons Satan principalities if you run

It's not cowardly if you flee from idolatry. It's not cowardly

Now some people say well, you know what I don't bow down to these little idols. I don't do that. I'm much more sophisticated Well, how about success?

Where does success fit in in your life? How about money? Relationships acceptance family career

We in fact at the core might dabble with things as idolatrous as the

Canaanites When our allegiance for Christ Jesus is usurped by something else that's called

Idolatry when you value something besides Christ Jesus when you value something above Christ Jesus the

Lord the Advocate It's called idolatry one author said when you look to some created thing to give you what only

God can give you that is idolatry an Idol is anything in your life that is so central to your life that you can't have a meaningful life if you lose it all

What if you lost it all? What if you lost all your family all your money your house or houses your cars?

Everything you lost it all Then what would the focus of your life be?

Idolatry is bad And if you focus on your family and idolize them, they'll eventually let you down If you focus on your job so much that you idolize it

You'll become a workaholic consumed by self and money and nothing will satisfy you

If you idolize pleasure, you'll become an addict to that pleasure and then enslaved to that very pleasure if Religion is your idol.

You will look down upon a look down on other people who don't live up to your moral standards and Expectations Christ has made us to revel in him to have enjoyment in him

What is the chief end of man? He who with the most he who dies of the most toys wins

Maybe that was the message updated catechism question Paul is telling the church at Corinth and then the

Spirit of God through the words here in the text Idolatry is wicked. Our hearts are idol factories even as Christians.

So run away from the idols and run to Christ so let me read these verses verses 14 through 22 and What we'll do this morning is

I'll teach you through the passage and we'll have some application points because really the text is Corinthian specific

Eastern specific But you'll see some truths in here and look at chapter 10 verses 14 and following Everything surrounding those three words flee from idolatry

If you get those words down you understand what Paul is saying. All the rest are reasons clarifications furthermore's

Modifications the passages run from idolatry Verse 14 therefore my beloved very pastoral flee from idolatry

I speak as to sensible people judge for yourselves what I say the cup of blessing that we bless

Is it not a participation in the blood of Christ the bread that we break?

Is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread

Consider the people of Israel Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

What do I imply then that food offered to idols is anything are that an idol is anything?

No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God I do not want you to become participants with 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 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy are we stronger than he?

Paul says pushing your liberties to the end can cause a disaster

Could lead you into idolatry. So run from Idolatry let's take a look at the passage

We'll just work through it so you understand it in context and if again I'll say it for emphasis if you say the key to these nine verses by the way

We're gonna go through nine verses a day. This is an all -time modern record. I think we're gonna do more next week.

I think even If you understand that you should run sprint

Away from false idols in your life and that it could be a very Possible thing for you a

Christian to deal with these things and you want to run from them and run to Christ Jesus You've got the passage down.

I Remember in the 70s, we would say if we were in a situation. We needed to get out of that situation We would say it's time to Split who just said that Okay, Peggy Did you say

Bob Dylan to you might say cut and run?

Don't tamper with don't dabble with don't play games with Take to one's heel and bolt now see what was happening here back in the time of Corinth if you were to worship other idols and Just add a few more idols to the repertoire.

You already had it was no big deal Because back then this monotheism thing didn't fly for most of people because they were pragmatic enough

And they would say we need a God for protection. We need a God for fertility. We need a God for education

We need a God for this that and the other and the more the merrier Hey, if you're gonna have a God you might as well have a lot of gods

You might as well pick the ones you want When I was outside of Puna walking around one day and I met this

Indian man who was helping me. He was young He was 22 I asked him which gods he worshipped and he worshipped the sex

God the money God and the power God and I thought I could have guessed that a 22 year old unregenerate male

And I said the Sun up there see the Sun up there I said I worship the one and true only God who made that Sun with a word and then gave his son to us people worship and pagans if one is good a lot is better and so They're coming from this point standpoint where there's paganism with all these polytheistic

Parties going on and just to have one more God is not that big a deal unless you're a monotheist unless you have allegiance to God alone, then it's a big deal

Safety in numbers doesn't work when there's only one God in his name is Jesus Christ And he demands loyalty.

Oh, I did want to say this. This is fascinating expositors commentary Said a

Christian today regarding our passage must discern how the illustration applies to their own lives

So here's the pagan feast. Here's all this stuff And by the way, we have no idea how this applies today. So you the reader can just figure out for yourself how this applies

Is there any application well before we get to that What is the passage all about and go back to chapter 8 verse 1 this whole section?

With Liberty has to do with idols as well This is a long argument that Paul has argued in chapter 8 chapter 9 and we're almost done with 10

And he says in chapter 8 verse 1 now concerning food offered to idols and then he goes on to talk about it

Paul is going to say in this section that if you go to a feast for false idols

You're participating in the worship of those idols So you go there and they're they're offering

Food just some kind of weird moon God and you go there and eat some of that food You're participating you're with your fellowshipping with you're in communion with these people even though there's no such thing as an idol even though idols aren't anything because there's only one

God and so you're saying you're gonna try to come over here to the edge and See how close you can get to sin and Paul says you've got to run get away

And so he says in verse 14 therefore my beloved free from Idolatry he said in chapter 6 run from fornication now.

It's run from idolatry like Joseph run By the way flee there is present imperative keep on running if you're weak run if you're strong run

And the word is where we get the word fugitive Ever watch the fugitive in the 60s or 70s growing up You think you know what that guy's always on the run, he's just running running running

It's the same thing you just run from them pack it up and run for the hills Your your mental calculations

Bethlehem Bible Church regarding idolatry should be I want to get away from nuclear Contamination with the same verb as I want to get away from idolatry.

I Just want to get away from it run from it And with the same pastoral tone you can hear the echo of Paul's words in John 1st

John 5 little children keep yourselves from idols Don't go to the temple banquet saying

I'm free in Christ get out of there run Flea idolatry does not mean go to temple banquets

Flea drunkenness does not mean go to the bar for a burger Flea immorality does not mean go see your old girlfriend at a rave party.

It means run Be a fugitive it's a big deal Now I'll preface this so we don't have a catastrophe here

But if I were to yell the words fire really loudly in this building Because there was a real fire you would all run like mad

Hopefully the men would escort the ladies and children first But if there's eminent danger

For the weak for the strong run And this word run it even has to do it with the military a flea.

It has to do with the military Situation and that there's an army here

There's a mountain in a mountain in a mountain pass and the only way they can get away from the overpowering

Enemy that's going to overtake them is to run as fast as they can through a narrow challenge a channel

Similar to Exodus here comes Pharaoh's army and the only way you're gonna get away is to run through the narrow channel of the

Red Sea run Give it a wide berth The opposite would be

I can handle temptation I can go to places where they're worshiping other gods. It's no big deal

I'm a Christian I can handle it and Paul gives some reasons He could just say stop it with this sharp command, but now he's persuasive and he tells us why this is in verses 15 and following And he's gonna tell us why we should run from Idolatry instead of snuggle up to it.

I Speak to you as sensible people my dad would say son use your noggin Just think about a little bit.

This word means make good sense. It's just good sense common sense I speak to you as sensible people

Judge for yourselves what I say I think you're gonna come right to where I come in terms of my thinking

Paul says The cup of the blessing that we bless now, he's gonna use communion not because it's it's a one -to -one correspondence

But there's some similarities when we have communion think about that word communion.

We're communing with others We're communing with God if you go to their feast and drink their cups and eat their food.

You're communing with them You're communing with the gods Is it not a participation in the blood of Christ the bread that we break?

Is it not a participation or fellowship or koinonia or a common bond in the body of Christ? And what you do does affect

Everyone because there's one bread we who are many who are one body for we all partake of the one

Bread, so Paul says just think about it. This is informed common sense And He does this with all kinds of questions you ever want to teach somebody something ask them questions

Because their minds thinks and by the way when I preach I try to ask a lot of questions Why because I can not talk faster than you can think you can think 400 words a minute.

I Can talk 180 words a minute But if I ask you a question

Then you're thinking about what I'm talking about and so Paul is trying to get them To answer their own question in a sense by all these questions

He says you're misusing your liberty if you're going to pagan worship places Now when he says in verse 16 the cup of blessing that we bless

By the way, that was the third cup used in Passover was called the cup of blessing and the Jews would pray over the cup

Before they would distribute it distribute it in Passover ever wonder why?

Sometimes the pastors or the elders who lead communion now before we eat the bread or before we pass the bread out

Let's pray over it. Let's pray for the elements let's pray for the cup because it's from a

Jewish tradition where you have the third Passover cup and you have a blessing before you drink it and then the head of the household would say we praise thee

God we thank thee and Would pray so that's just why it's called the cup of blessing the cup of eulogy where we get the word

Eucharist It's where we would get the word for that He says isn't it a participation in the blood of Christ?

Not because the blood is really the the wine is really the blood of Jesus.

It's not because of transubstantiation That's not the point but Charles Hodge said

Attendance of the Lord's Supper is an act of communion with Christ the object of Christian worship and with all those who unite with us in the service from its very nature it brings all who partake of the bread and wine into fellowship with Christ and with one another and so everybody's drinking out of the common cup and recalling

Christ Jesus's sacrificial covenantal Sacrifice and so we have communion with one another we have communion with God we share

Same word used 1st Corinthians 1 called into fellowship with his son Philippians 2 into fellowship of the

Spirit Philippians 3 fellowship of his suffering. This isn't mystical. This isn't kind of some kind of weird spiritual thing

Paul is saying this super simple when you take the cup for communion. You're having communion.

That's why we call it communion fellowship Participation with others and with God So now you go to the pagan feast and you drink some cup of stuff and the deities being praised you're having communion

Don't do that, even though you know that that that idols fake and false MacArthur said when we properly share in communion, we spiritually participate in fellowship with Jesus Christ It's more than a symbol.

It's a celebration of common spiritual experiences The picture of someone we love is not the same as the person.

It only represents the person But the feelings of love care desire to be with them and of remembering experiences we have had with them are totally real

We have an experience of real fellowship with that person whenever we see their picture.

Our minds are flooded with reality So when you take the cup of Christ for communion, you're communing with Christ The point is not mystical weird consubstantiation transubstantiation

The point is this is a religious service where we're remembering what Jesus did for us on our behalf

Paul said run I Could flip the question around and ask it this way

There's a reason why unbelievers are not allowed to participate in the Lord's table. They're not allowed fellowship.

They're not allowed to participate Conversely believers ought not to go to a pagan celebration and participate

Now think for a second We just think of meals as meals and we eat meals on wheels and we drive through and if you can't get your food served

To you in a drive -thru in about 30 seconds or less. We're going Not not catatonic but apoplectic we want food fast and we have microwaves and Just eat around the

TV and nobody talks and there's a thousand things that happen with our meals But a meal back in those days in this culture it meant something you sat around and you're having the meal together

You bring somebody into the house. Someone else is gonna try to attack them you you Protect them more than your own family and you have this meal of fellowship and participation

This was a major deal back in those days creating bonds and signifying alliances So we have a meal with somebody was really to open up your doors in your heart and say this is communion this is close

Sometimes even the way they would lay on each other's shoulders just adding to the fact of community and communion

So now you're gonna go to the pagan feast and say, you know what? That's just cheap food. It's no big deal I remember when

I was in college my roommate said You know what? There's some free food down the street and you want to go tonight?

I Thought free food. This is pretty good. I'm 23 years old living in Los Angeles free food this will work and He said the

Krishna's are giving out free food I Wasn't born again, but I knew Something was not up with that because nobody gives free food for a reason

There's a catch to it and I didn't need to be Going to get free food from the Christians one day and then the next month

Ball with a little ponytail down here hanging out at LAX all week. I knew that was a bad thing to do

Paul is saying Christian services and pagan services are diametrically opposed

Pagan services you sacrifice to get God's pleasure Christian service.

There's nothing we could do except believe in what God did and God gave the sacrifice for us

They're completely different religions every religion in the world God. We will try to earn your favor

We'll abort our kids and put them on the altar of Molech. We'll try to be good. We'll do good.

We'll do more good We'll do extra good. We won't do bad. We're glad other people are worse than us Maybe you'll choose us and we will offer to you

Something so you might like us every religion except Christianity that says Adam fell and we and Adam fell and we're wicked and our hands are tainted and Without faith in Christ Jesus, it's impossible to please him

So left to ourselves were undone yet God and his great eternal love gave his son for us

He sacrificed for us Paul said just run from these things

If communion is a covenant ratifying meal That we have with our

Lord the Lord's Supper the new covenant Do this often as you drink it then what kind of meal is it when you go to the pagan temple?

It is a covenant ratifying meal Plus you're bringing everybody else in verse 17 because there's because there's one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of one bread and 16 why did he say blood first?

The cup of wine blood first then bread don't we do the bread first? Yes, but he put the bread second because he wants to make this point.

You have a union with one another don't bring that union To pagan groups to have union with don't unite with pagan systems

You could put it this way Here's how I think through issues if there was that Hare Krishna service with some worship to Krishna Krishna Hare Hare or however, we're gonna do it and I would say, you know, it's free food.

I know I'm gonna call John MacArthur and RC Sproul. See if they'll go with me. They like free food

I'm gonna take those guys with and what do you think they would say? Yum, and I don't think they would say that I think they would say

There's got to be a better way and now he gives some theological reasons

That they should not do this found in 18 and following Look at chapter 10 verse 18 and Paul's trying to be persuasive.

He's using his mind. He's he's taught the Corinthians He's been there for 18 years 18 months, excuse me seemed like 18 years

So long as 18 years of his life, and so he says in verse 18 and by the way ESV slaughters this

NAS slaughters this I have no I have no logical explanation why either

ESV or NAS Didn't put in the words according to the flesh Although you'll see him in your small print at the bottom if you have footnotes

Chapter 1018 should read consider the people of Israel according to the flesh

Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? Now without according to the flesh in there

Don't the Israelites when they give something to be sacrificed by the priests the priest sacrificed

The the people identify with the priests doing their sacrifice Everybody's involved when it comes to real righteous mosaic sacrifices

Everybody's involved one and all but that's not what he's talking about here, even though that's true

This is Israel according to the flesh Like Exodus 32 Moses at the mountain and the people down there are making the golden calf

Rising up to eat and drink and to play Are they not in fact those

Israelites who are disobeying God while Moses is up at the mountain? Running around in some kind of orgiastic frenzy around the idol.

Are they not participating in idol worship? That's what Paul is saying. Look at the nation of sinful

Israel at Sinai Are they not are not those who eat the sacrifice to share in the altar?

Yes They are affirmative answer to a rhetorical question

Don't do that Yeah, but you know what if I think that way then that means

I really think idols are real and idols aren't really real So Paul says in the next two verses, even though idols aren't real demons are

Look at verse 19 and 20. There's more involved than what you see Why do I what do I imply then that food offered to idols is anything are that an idol is anything?

Idols aren't anything No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer

To demons and not to God I Do not want you to participate with demons

It's just a stick just a stone Sticks and stones, they're not gonna hurt me

They might not but the demons behind them will You know,

I if I go to this pagan temple and have some fellowship. I'm only having fellowship with a piece of cedar

No Satan and his minions are behind the cedar Demons do exist and pagan worship services are demonic where idolatry is you'll be certain to find demons

So don't risk it I could put it this way You know,

I'm in Christ I go have a casual sexual relationship

It's just casual it's no big deal it's casual it means nothing to me

So Paul says it's the same kind of thinking go to the house of a pagan worship service

Thinking it's just casual and you are thinking wrongly You will be expressing solidarity with demons

There's nothing neutral here Food isn't the issue drink isn't the issue pieces of wood aren't the issue

But demons use people's readiness of worship through sticks and stones and then what does he say in verse 21 and 22?

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons By the way, you ever try to drink two cups at the same time

You can't do it The point isn't even here. You're gonna spill But this is more of a spiritual antithesis you cannot drink the cup of the

Lord and the cup of demons This doesn't make any sense. And I guess in post -modernism it does it's good for you.

It's good for you even that You cannot partake of the table the Lord in the table of demons and then some two wild questions

Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Godly holy jealousy.

Are we stronger than he? Idolatry is inconsistent. It's illogical.

It's demonic. It's satanic. And do you want to God to chase in you? No Choose this day who you're gonna serve if we go to the

Lord's table. Who's the host? Christ Jesus if we go to pagans tape table, who's the host?

Paul says God is jealous He gets provoked he gets stirred up and when you look at the

Pentateuch Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy the thing that stirs up God Jealousy is always associated with idolatry want to make

God mad then give less Devotion to the Son that he deserves and give any amount of devotion to money success sex fame

Fill in the blank don't provoke the Lord of jealousy now,

I have a question for you in application If you were gonna try to teach this and what would be a situation today that would be analogous to some degree application oriented pagan services

Are there pagan services around I guess you could go find some Hindu temples and other places

That would be fair. You ought not to go to those things But let's talk about something that is a little more

Indirect, but still with the same principles What do we do when it comes to pagan

Institutions that call themselves Christian But who are not worshiping

Christ alone. What do we do? So I get asked regularly and I get asked often

Should I go attend a Roman Catholic service? Should I partake of communion and the bread and the wine at a

Roman Catholic service? Now if I were to say to you, let's just sit down and talk through all that and work through the issues

That would be one approach Another approach would be how about if I just teach you this passage and then say

I Urge you to be sensible. I urge you to be wise Now, maybe you're not convinced that it's pagan

But if I could convince you that I think that in light of first Corinthians chapter 10 the direct application for us today living in a place with 80 %

Roman Catholics is You ought not to go to a Roman Catholic Mass because it's pagan and you will have communion with those pagan gods

That's the application Well, I will go to your service at the

Catholic Church if you'll come to our service at Bethlehem Bible Church I think you ought to reconsider that as well.

The Roman Catholic Mass is not Christian It is pagan it worships the wrong

Jesus and it worships Mary and frankly

I Want to stand up for the fame of Christ Jesus and if anybody comes along and says, you know what?

Jesus isn't the only intercessor. Jesus isn't the only God Jesus isn't the only atoning sacrifice

Then I will stand and fight And I will stand and fight even if people say, you know what you just bash people

That's not true It is in love where we tell people this is the truth

Like it or not the Reformation happened for a reason and the text says over and over and over flee idolatry and I think it's incumbent upon the person that wants to go back to a

Roman system and be involved not incumbent upon me Tell me why you would want to go do that Especially if you're a new

Christian easily swayed not mature Benedict the 16th

Teaches to pray to Mary that is pagan to the core. It is idolatrous We implore you

Mary to have pity today on the nations that have gone astray on all Europe on the whole world That they might repent and return to your heart

Friends that is blasphemy Christ is the only righteous one

Mankind does need to return and repent to follow Christ Jesus alone

Jesus said to Satan get thee behind me Satan for it is written thou shalt worship the

Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou serve Benedict the 16th said if you

Mary will not help us because we are ungrateful and unworthy children of your protection We will not know to whom to turn.

I know who to turn to Christ Jesus the Savior and he turns to all those Who repent and believe in him?

Otts said in fundamentals of Catholic dogma page 214 Mary's cooperation in the objective redemption is an indirect

Promote cooperation it promotes cooperation and it derives from This that she voluntarily devoted her whole life to the service of the

Redeemer and under the cross Suffered and sack sacrificed with him.

Are you stronger than God? Do you want to provoke God to jealousy? Take away from Christ Sufficient and Complete work.

So when people said, you know, shall I go to a Catholic Mass and then have the communion? I don't I shouldn't even have to answer that question run from idolatry say well, would you ever go to a

Funeral or a wedding When I do I sit in the back, I don't try to make a fuss, but I don't sit down.

I don't stand up I don't sing. I don't take communion and I don't pray it is a different God Say well, yeah, but what about those people who are in the

Catholic Church? I ask you in light of 1st Corinthians chapter 10 What would you tell them to do?

Stay, what would you tell them flee idolatry? Say well, they don't really worship

Mary they venerate her Friends that is a word game. That is a Roman Catholic word game

You can bow to her you can pray to her she gives atonement, but you don't call it worship. You call it veneration

That's a word game Pope Leo said that through Mary you have divine access to God Catholic Catechism 966 that Mary delivers your soul from death

Catholic Catechism 969 Her intercession brings us salvation

Roman Catholic Encyclopedia from the beginning of Christianity special veneration was paid to the mother of God She deserves from us the

Catholic Encyclopedia says higher recognition and deeper veneration than any of the other

Saints Catechism paragraph 2675 churches that develop their prayer to the

Holy Mother of God Paragraph 966 You Mary conceived the

Living God and by your prayers will deliver our souls from death When Mary is the subject of preaching

Vatican Council says and worship. She prompts the faithful to come to her son.

That is Idolatry and you ought to run from that You ought to flee you ought to love the people in the system obviously but when

St. Colb who was canonized by Pope John John Paul II said the third person of the

Blessed Trinity never took flesh Still our human word spouse is too weak to express the reality of the relationship between the

Immaculate and the Holy Spirit We can affirm that Mary is in a certain sense the incarnation of the

Holy Spirit Friends I could go on and on and on Why do

Muslims think that Roman Catholics believe in the Trinity the Father Son and Mary? Why is that?

It's an erroneous belief, but there's so much focus on Mary so much veneration So much hyperdulia that of course, it's easy for them to think that So who's the basher who's the hater

Paul Jesus I've said many many times on the radio

I'm still waiting for one Roman Catholic That would love me enough to write me or call me and say for the sake of your soul

Going to purgatory forever and then hell we want to reconsider by telling you the truth

It's far easier to just say oh Mike you just hate Catholics, I don't talk about this I haven't talked about this for a long time

But that is exactly the closest thing that I could think of when it comes to idolatry Run well we go back once in a while run

Well, we like to go there and take the communion because that's what we like to do when we might stand out if we don't Do it run

St. Bonaventure took the Psalms and made them songs to Mary Blessed is the man

Psalm 1 o Virgin Mary who loves thy name thy grace. Mary will comfort his soul He will be refreshed as fountains of water

Blessed art thou among women by the faith of thy holy heart. We praise thee.

Oh mother of God We confess thee Mary ever virgin thou art the spouse of the Eternal Father the whole earth venerates thee

The all angels and archangels thrones and principalities serve thee all powers and all virtues of heaven and all

Denominations obey before thee all the angelic choirs sing the cherubim and serebem exaltingly stand

Holy, holy, holy Mary mother of God and Virgin do o intercede for us o

Virgin Mary with him who we believe will come to judge us. Oh Lady please make it that we be partakers of thy inheritance of thy son rule us and keep us forever

Oh loving one, we salute thee. Oh, sweet Mary now and forever to keep us without sin have mercy on us

Oh loving one have mercy on us. Let thy great mercy be upon us because we trust in thee there's a bigger danger than having a

Group of people say do you know what? We don't want contraceptive forced upon our employees

So we will stand in spiritual Camaraderie and fellowship with other pagans to stand against that That's not what we do.

The problem is in Obama President Obama's health care deal It's what unwitting Protestants would do to try to get that overturned say well

We can needed to kind of an upper today and you gave us this

My heart breaks for people who worship false gods named Mary who are demons

Mary was a neat lady Mary was a blessed lady Mary's was a sinner forgiven by Christ Jesus her son

And I'd like to meet Mary because she's got so much bad rap in the Protestant air circles that somehow maybe we've relegated her over Here that God would pick

Mary and she would stay a virgin and she would obey I commend Mary But I'll tell you what over my dead body

I worship her or commend those who do you tell me you're in a Roman Catholic system? My default is this you need to be born again

And I was a slave to Lutheranism and my own sin and I'm no better than anybody else

But how would you like rest for your soul? How would you like to have rest? Show me a

Roman Catholic that knows anything about Catholic doctrine and they know you can't have assurance of sins So why don't you talk about the substitutionary death of Christ Jesus?

So all those sins that you've ever committed past present and future placed on Christ by imputation

You get Christ's righteousness by imputation and God sees you Guaranteeing heaven because of what

Christ has done free assurance. Don't you want rest for your soul Roman Catholic? If you're a Catholic today, don't you want rest?

Stand up sit down. I saw people on Wednesday with ashes on their forehead thinking I Personally I told my kids

I said God created this world for our good and I don't give up something for Lent because Jesus paid

It all I give up Lent for Lent That's what I give up just to let you kind of get some kind of chuckle

So we get back to the serious thing. This is crazy. This is asceticism No, it says asceticism isn't the main issue

It's idolatry if Christ Jesus isn't Lord of all who had by a sufficient payment made

Substitution for all those who had believed and was raised from the dead Then it's the wrong religion and you ought not to come to me.

You can of course Say well, yeah, but I've got this friend and you don't understand go to that friend

Offer them rest for their souls in Christ. Jesus the burdened and and heavy laden. There's rest for their souls

How many people here X Roman Catholics? Welcome to the rest of your souls Say well if I went to a

Mass or I went to a funeral or I went to a wedding and sat in the back. It's gonna cause a big problem

Well, then why don't you evangelize those people? Maybe God will save them and then you can go to a regular service instead of bowing down to baptismal regeneration

And Mary who's robbing Christ Jesus from his honor and dominion and authority

Colossians 1 Jesus is the image of the invisible God Jesus is the firstborn of all creation and by Jesus all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or Dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through Jesus and for Jesus and Jesus is before all things and in him all things

Hold together and Jesus is the head of the body the church Jesus is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything

Jesus might be preeminent for in Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Jesus to reconcile to himself

Jesus himself all things whether on earth are in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross and As the songwriter said give me

Jesus We're not to be haughty we're not to be high we're not to be

Highly exalted we are sinners Receiving the grace of God because of Christ Jesus But you ought to have a heart for your

Catholic friends And if I lived in Utah and didn't ever tell you about the paganism of Mormonism, you would think

I was a lunatic I remember going to my grandmother was a Roman Catholic in tears loving her trying to tell her what the gospel is

Princeton Seminary was going south about a hundred years ago and Jay Gresham Maiton had to leave

And here's the last Two paragraphs he gave to his students before he left that seminary that was on its way out

There are many hopes that I cherish for you men with whom I am united by such ties of affection

I hope that you may be gifted preachers. I hope that you may have happy lives I hope that you may have adequate support for yourselves and for your families

I hope that you may have good churches, but I have something for you far more than all that I hope that above all wherever you are and however

You're preaching may be received that you may be true witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ I hope that there may never be any doubt where you stand

But that always you may stand squarely for Christ Jesus Not as he has offered to us in the experiences of men, but in the blessed written

Word of God God grant that you may give comfort to your people as you go forth from this seminary

God grant that you may rejoice their hearts by giving them your hand in your voice To do so you will need courage

Far easier is it to curry favor with the world by abusing those whom the world abuses by speaking against controversy

By taking a balcony view of the struggle in which God's servants are engaged But God save you from such a neutrality as that It is a certain worldly appearance of urbanity and charity

But how cruel it is to burden souls how heartless it is to those little ones who are looking to the church for some clear message from God God save you from being so heartless and so unloving and so cold

God grant instead that in all humility, but also in all boldness in reliance upon God you may fight the good fight

Peace is indeed yours the peace of God which passes all understanding But that peace is given you not that you may be onlookers are neutrals in love's battles

But that you may be good soldiers of Jesus Christ Is our desire here at the church to be witnesses for Christ Jesus alone and that we may stand squarely for Christ Jesus and no one else

What about you let's pray Father in heaven it is because Christ Jesus Has conquered

Temptation trials sin death Satan and all the hordes of the evil one

That we have been able to flee from idolatry. We confess that there are vestiges of idolatry in our own hearts and father

Maybe for some of that it's the idolatry of wanting to be in good standing with our family members Who are caught up in a satanic lie?

Father help us to be humble kind gentle Help us to tell the truth though.

Help us to speak the truth in love But father help us first to remember that we have a great

Savior and we've experienced a great salvation. We didn't deserve it We're bigger sinners than any other person

We're the foremost of sinners and yet because you decided to give us grace to magnify your son's graciousness

We'll be eternally thankful Thank you that we have assurance of eternal life

That we can know because of what the word says Thank you that Christ's death was sufficient once for all and that every week we're not trying to again slay

Christ Jesus here on some altar Thank you for work for rescuing us from that and I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church today as they go

That they might go soberly yet. Thankfully and that you would give them evangelistic hearts

Hearts for anyone caught in any pagan system Hearts for the atheists those believing in evolution those entangled in a

Roman Catholic Church are those who say they're Christians, but aren't Father we need your help

Father keep us from being prideful and arrogant But father keep us from not loving people because we kept this truth hidden We're too afraid

Help us to engage in what? Machen called the holy war of love help us to be loving in Jesus name.