Idolatry and Idols Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Today in America, we do not have a tradition or custom to really worship and--and uh--follow idols, images created into gods. But we do have our own idols. American Idol is called American Idol. Why? Because they’re trying to make someone into a musical idol where the teenagers especially will adore them, wear the clothes that they wear, wear the hairstyle that they wear, and embrace the message that they’re trying to get across. These three judges, Steve Tyler, claims to be a Catholic, but he lives with women, and he aborted a five-month-old son and all kinds of other debauchery, drugs, sex, and everything else.

▶ 0:55 You think he cares about the moral condition of these people coming to be the next American Idol? No, he doesn’t care about the moral condition. He can call himself a Catholic all he wants. The Bible says, “You know them by their fruits.” Jennifer Lopez. She was raised in a Catholic home. She was a Buddhist a few years ago and now she switched over to Scientology. She’s just, you know, smorgasbord. She has no problem playing nude scenes in movies and uh all kinds of other uh immoral things. Randy Jackson is from a Catholic family, but on the show he wears voodoo beads. He is from Louisiana and voodoo is big down there. Are you there? You think these judges care about whether these people wind up good or not?

▶ 1:51 Or what they told him about this [unclear] fella, this young teenage rapper. They said, “Boy, you you you you win and you’re going to get all the girls you want.” This is what the judges told this young teenager. See, the focus is on sex, pleasure, partying, drinking, just a loose life. See, it’s idolatry. And they got the show pegged right. American Idol. Now, that’s not the only reality show. There’s other ones. The Kardashians is one, and I’ve never seen it, but wouldn’t want to see it, but I read about in the newspapers all the time, and other things. You see, we don’t have idols. We have living people that are idols. We have entertainment that we idolize. You know what develops the minds of most young people in America today?

▶ 2:44 Music. You know what the second development of minds of most young people today? TV. The media. Absolutely. And that’s why kids dress like they dress, wear their hair like they do, and so forth. They imitate their idol. So idolatry in America is very prevalent, but we don’t have these images and stuff like Corinth had. Here is just a few of their idols, their gods. Okay. Now, all of these idols were served with sacrifices, whether plants or meat, incense, music, prayers. They were common to all.

▶ 3:37 And the participators got to eat the best part of the sacrifice. Both Rome and Greek religions had a view of the afterlife after you’re dead. The Rome you went, if you were good, you went to the Milky Way. Now, I don’t know what you’re going to do up the Milky Way, dance from star to star or whatever. And the Greek, you went to Hades. Yeah, not a very good place. But uh you see the gods up here, Aphrodite, uh the Roman counterpart was Venus, the love goddesses, beauty, love, sex, and they included temple prostitution in their worship. You could go there in the temple and have sex uh both men and women. They had men prostitutes in the temple, they had women prostitutes in the temple.

▶ 4:33 And you could get mar-- a sacred marriage there, you know, and there’s religions today that teach you you can have a sacred marriage. Uh, Poseidon is the next one, the God of the sea. Apollo, the sun God. Hermes, the messenger of the God. His counterpart was Mercury. Uh, Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck and chance. If you’re going to go down and gamble at the casinos, you go and [unclear] drop in at the uh goddess of luck and chance so that you win money. Okay. Isis, the Egyptian God of motherhood. Pantheon, uh up at the top there, that’s where you could go and any God you wanted to worship was there.

▶ 5:26 Okay? You didn’t have to go to a specific temple. You could go to the pantheon and all the gods were there and you could just go to that God and do your thing. Then you had uh you know the God of the waters and the healing God and so forth. And this is what Paul was facing at Corinth along with all the other debauchery going on. Here is a layout of the city of Corinth downtown. And uh in this area here is where the Pantheon was, the temple of uh Poseidon and Apollo and Hermes and a lot of temples. Right here over here was shops and in the middle of this shop was the God of wine. You know, uh Corinthians were big on wine. They drank wine from sun up to sun down.

▶ 6:21 A lot of alcoholics there. And then you have Apollo big temple over here and one over here and other temples. So downtown and this area right here was where you could go and you could you could talk to a a medium uh an oracle, a person that could tell you what God is saying directly. All right. So, it was a big thing back then. But see, in America, we don’t do that. We just make idols out of music, Hollywood, entertainers, athletes, we just make idols out of them. And so here in 1 Corinthians 8 verse 1, Paul starts out by saying, “Now as touching things offered to idols,” okay, his subject is the meat and the sacrifices, the prayers and all that involved in idolatry offered to idols he’s going to talk about.

▶ 7:24 But he’s going to talk about it as Paul does. Paul is a very very good speaker, great communicator. He’s going to approach it. He’s going to address those who through natural human knowledge deal with idolatry. Okay? There were people in the Corinthian church who had it all figured out through human knowledge just like today. And so Paul’s going to tackle that first. All right. He says, “We know that we all have knowledge.” Isn’t that true? Anybody in here brainless? See, we all have knowledge. We all have some understanding. He says, “We also know that knowledge puffs up. It makes us proud.” You see, and you can tell that when when somebody gets knowledge of something, they want to go pass it on.

▶ 8:22 Did you hear? Did you know? See why, man? And I got something that you know other people don’t have and I got to tell them. So knowledge brings p brings pride. He says but what love edifies. See love see when love communicates it’s there to build up. But when knowledge communicates it can just be me showing you what I know. Look how smart I am. Look what I know. And it may be something stupid, but to you it’s big deal. He says, “We know that.” And in Isaiah 5:21, it says, “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes.” In Isaiah 47:10, “Your knowledge says, I and no one else besides me.” I’ve got it.

▶ 9:16 If you don’t agree, you ain’t got it. Paul’s slick. He knows his Bible. He’s been to the third heaven and he’s filled with the Holy Ghost. He knows what he’s talking about. And he knows how people think and how people respond. And he’s going to neutralize this human thinking factor in trying to find solutions to spiritual problems. Romans 12:16, “Do not be wise in your own conceit, your own eyes, and your own opinions.” And so Paul is simply stating what the Bible already says. If any man thinks, verse two, that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.

▶ 10:08 You know, and that is a true statement. We think we know something and we haven’t searched out the full ramifications of the topic and we give slanted information and we believe a slanted part of that knowledge. Are you there? Oh, it’s true. It’s true. We don’t take time to search it all out. And so he’s really and he says we know this stuff. He says all of you know this stuff. And then in 1 Timothy 6:3 the Bible says if any man teach otherwise and consent not to the wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and consent not to the doctrine which is according to godliness.

▶ 11:00 And what is the definition of godliness? Pleasing God, not pleasing your friend, not pleasing your spouse, not pleasing some political party, but pleasing God. He says, “If anyone doesn’t consent to the words of Jesus and the doctrine according to godliness to live right and please God, he is what? Proud. And he what? Knows nothing. Just like he said, if somebody thinks they know something, they really don’t know anything if they haven’t searched out the total facts on the issue and come up with Jesus’s words. And living to please God is the final measuring stick of anything you believe.

▶ 11:58 Now, that was good. See, he’s got them. He’s got them. If any man love God, the same is known of him. What is he saying? Anybody can say, I believe in God. I know God. I know Jesus. But does God know you? And where is that in the book of Acts? See the sons of Sceva they wanted to cast out demons like Paul did. So they come and said in the name of Jesus that Paul preaches you know come out. And the demon said what Paul I know you know Jesus I know but who in the world are you? See they thought they knew God.

▶ 12:50 They thought they believed in God. They thought they were followers of God, but God didn’t know them. Isn’t that good? That’s a good place for an oh me. Not an amen, but oh me. See, the key is does God know you? You’re talking about human knowledge and you’re acting like you’re in contact with God and getting it from God. But go does God even know you. Isn’t that a good point? Yeah. Now verse four, 1 Corinthians 8, Paul says, “Now as eating things offered to idols.” All right, watch his skillfulness.

▶ 13:44 We know that an idol is nothing. And that’s what these people were saying. An idol is nothing. So if I eat something, sacrifice to an idol, doesn’t matter. It’s what they were saying. Psalms 115:4, idols are the works of men’s hands. They have mouths but speak not, eyes and hear not see not, ears and hear not, nose and smell not, hands and they can’t handle anything, feet and they can’t walk. Neither can they speak through their throat. They that make them are like them. So is everyone that trust is in them. See, they that are idol worshippers can’t see, they can’t hear, they can’t talk, they can’t walk. And even when you are worshiping American idol, you become like them.

▶ 14:37 You’re blind. You’re deaf. See, you can’t walk in the moral standards of God. And so, he’s just quoting what the Old Testament said about idols. Idols are what? Nothing. We know that there’s only one God. There is no other gods. Oprah’s wrong. There isn’t any other way to God but God’s way. But there is not in all men this knowledge that an idol is nothing. Are you following it? See, he’s approaching those who decided with human wisdom what they could do with idolatry and that they could go and eat meat and be partakers in those temples because the idol is nothing.

▶ 15:32 Okay? Through human knowledge. But everybody doesn’t have this knowledge that an idol is nothing. He says we know food does not commend us to God. If we eat it, are we the better? Nor if we do not eat it, are we the worst? Food has nothing to do with it. You can have all your diet stuff and all your healthy stuff. It has nothing to do with spirituality. So get over it. If you really want long life, honor your parents and keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies, the Bible says will give you long life. The Bible says if you obey my word, it will be health unto you.

▶ 16:24 So if you want to be healthy, focus in on the Bible because God can go beyond your diet. Are you there? And so he points this out. You know, food’s nothing. Whether that food has been offered to sacrifice, it doesn’t matter. It’s nothing. It It has nothing to do with spirituality. See, now he’s setting them up. I don’t know if you know this or not, but he’s setting these intellectual people up. Romans 14:1 says, “He that is weak in the faith, re receive, but do not but don’t receive them to questioning and judgments and all that. For one believes that he may eat all things, another who is weak eats herbs.” He’s vegetarian. Do not him let him that eats despise him that eats not, and let not him which eats not judge him that eats.

▶ 17:18 See, it’s backed up in the Bible. Food has nothing to do with spirituality. Okay? But he says, “Not everyone has this knowledge.” And we know the idol is nothing and food is nothing. Has nothing to do with anything. But take heed that this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. See, now he’s appealing to not their mental understanding of the not at the idol is nothing. Not the mental understanding that the food sacrifice to idols is nothing. But now he’s appealing to their conscience that what you do can hurt other people.

▶ 18:10 All right? Be a stumbling block. Calls them to fall and he calls these people weak. Now he’s saying these people that don’t understand an idol is nothing and the meat is nothing. He’s calling them weak. Now why do you think he’s calling them weak? To make these mentally intelligent people that’s figured all this out feel more important. We love it. We like to be the one that’s better. But wait till he gets done with it. Are you with me? Is this clear so far? For if any man see you sit at meat in the idol’s temple. These guys were not only going to homes and going to the meat market and buying meat that have been sacrificed to idols. They were going to the temple.

▶ 19:02 In the temple, they had rooms you could rent and all this where you could do your sacrifice and eat. You’d bring your friends or your family in and you just have a nice big party there. And so these guys, because they knew an idol was nothing and meat sacrificed to idol was nothing, they were going into the temple of the idol and eating the meat there, not just at home and in an idolater’s home. Are you there? Shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened or be built up to eat those things which are offered to idols? You see, your action is going to cause someone that knows better to follow you and then they have sinned.

▶ 19:56 Now, right quick, you ought to know who is the real weak one here. See, if you really read this chapter right, you’d quickly know, hm, who’s weak? Who’s really the weak one? And through your knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died. You are the source for him going to hell because he violated a consciousness that Paul has not brought up yet. Are you there? Paul hasn’t brought this up yet. He’s just brought up their human thinking. And this is what most Christians do. They read passages in the Bible and they come up with human thinking instead of the mind of the spirit. Doesn’t the Bible says to have the mind of the spirit?

▶ 20:48 Didn’t Paul said, “I have the mind of the spirit.” Yeah. And see, we need to think from the Holy Ghost, from the word of God, not our human intellect to come up with spiritual answers. Can I hear an amen on that? But when you sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. And we learned last week that we’re all part of the body of Christ. So when you sin and hurt someone that is a follower of Christ, you’re sinning against Christ. Very good argument. Wherefore. Wherefore. When you see wherefore, you see, you figure out what it’s there for. For this reason, if meat makes my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world stands.

▶ 21:44 Least I make my brother to offend. And he’s talking about meat sacrificed to idols. He’s not talking about all food. Are you there? And he says, “You human thinking people don’t do that.” What he’s saying is you guys don’t do that. You just do your thing. You don’t care who it hurts. Don’t we have that in the church world today? People through human understanding come up with crazy ideas that gives them liberty to do a lot of things that are against the Bible. And uh causes people to be offended. Causes people, especially young Christians that haven’t learned the Bible yet. Now, this is what the weak person understood. It’s right in the Ten Commandments. Duh.

▶ 22:36 The Ten Commandments was the big deal in the Bible for millenniums. You shall have no other gods before me. This is what the weak person understood. Are you there? See, that’s why they were offended when they saw the other guy doing something that violated the first two commandments. You shall not make any graven image of anything that is heaven above, earth beneath, or in the water under under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor what? Nor what? Serve them. You see, the weak believer knew this. And that’s why his conscience was offended when he saw this human thinking guy going into the temple and eating meat sacrificed to idols.

▶ 23:36 So who’s really weak? The human thinker. And the only thing that made the other guy weak was he hadn’t grown enough in God to know the scriptures enough to just stand for scripture no matter what these other yo-yos do. Is that clear? Isn’t he good? Isn’t he good at explaining it? Now, how many preachers do you know that explain it this way? No. In fact, we used it. I back in the old days, I wore white buck shoes and people were offended at that. And I grew my hair into an afro once cuz I told some people my hair I could grow into an afro.

▶ 24:29 Afro were popular. And I said to the hippies, you know, I can grow an afro. It’s all in how I dry my hair when I get out of the shower. They go, “Oh, get her an afro. We want to see you. Get an afro.” They push me. So, I do an afro. It offended a lot of people that I had an afro. Then I got a motorcycle because it was cheap and also it was cheap entertainment. Me and Mr. Barnes, I had a on street off-road motorcycle and we could go off-roading and then I could drive back and forth to the church cheaply cuz they weren’t paying me much anyway. 600 bucks a month even back then wasn’t much. That offended a lot of people. And uh I grew some sideburns down to here that offended a lot of people. Finally, I go, you know, no matter what I do, I’m going to offend.

▶ 25:22 And they go to this chapter. That offends me. That offends me. He’s talking about idols, folks. And he’s talking about how to rationalize things in the spirit mind rather than the human mind. Can I hear an amen? And I finally had to come to the conclusion, I’m just going to do what I know is right. And if they get offended, that’s their problem. And that was a big freedom. Hallelujah. But that’s what we do with our human mind. Exodus 23:24, “Do not bow down to their gods. Do not serve their gods, nor do according to their works that they do with their gods, which is prayers and music and and uh sacrifices and so sexual immorality right there in the temple.

▶ 26:15 Don’t do any of those things. In fact, he says, “Break down their sacred pillars. Overthrow them through the gospel and through your life. Destroy that mentality of idolatry.” Amen. Exodus 34:15, “Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land.” And see, this is what the church is doing in America. Whatever Hollywood says is okay, we’re just embracing. Whatever Oprah says is okay, millions of women are just embracing. She is the Messiah of this generation of women worldwide. I mean, she’s big time. She’s way bigger than American Idol. She’s way bigger than the Kardashians and and all these other reality shows. She is worldwide. And when she’s got money, she’s got billions of dollars. She could start orphanages and and a place for battered women and and you know, when you do good to people, they think good of you.

▶ 27:12 But her message is eternal damnation to them. Don’t play the harlot with their gods. You see, idolatry is also called adultery, sexual immorality. It’s spiritual adultery in the Bible. Why? Because you’re attaching yourself to another God. See, it’s like a man or a woman married to someone and then they have relationships outside. It’s called adultery. You see, and God says idolatry is adultery. When you come up with your own religion, you’re committing spiritual adultery. And it goes on, he says, do not make sacrifices to their gods.

▶ 28:03 And if they invite you, do to eat of his sacrifices, do not do it. Do not what? Eat of the sacrifices. Don’t have anything to do with idolatry. It is sexual ad. I mean it is spiritual adultery. Now see, the weak-minded ones knew this and they couldn’t understand how these other ones thinking through their human brain that the idol is nothing and food sacrificed is nothing had the freedom to go into these temples and go to the meat market and buy food sacrificed to to to the idols and go to neighbors houses where they were throwing a a a party, a a a festival in the name of their God and eating that food. You see, the weak ones knew this.

▶ 29:01 The conclusion of this approach to idols is not to partake of idols nor food sacrificed to idols. That’s his conclusion, isn’t it? And he approached it from the human intellectual standpoint. Now, as Paul’s style is, he’s going to give another approach to the idol question. The next chapter deals with ministry. He’s establishing himself as ministry. The next chapter deals with Israel in the wilderness proving that just because you have the presence of God and you read the Bible does not mean you are pleasing to God.

▶ 29:56 And in chapter 10 he switches abruptly back to idolatry. Chapter 10 verse 14. Wherefore, when you see wherefore, you got to take note what it’s there for. For this reason, flee from idolatry. What’s he saying? What’s he saying directly now? Flee from idolatry. Okay. For what reason? He’s going to give it to us. First, he’s going to butter us up and tell us, I speak to wise men. Judge you what I say. You guys are a bunch of intelligent people. You can judge this. Here he is telling us to judge what he’s saying. And what’s America big on? Judge not, let you be not judged.

▶ 30:49 No, don’t make any judgments. God forbid that you make any good decisions in this world. That you pass any judgments on evil. Here he’s telling us again to what? Make a judgment. Okay. Now the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. How many of you fear the Lord Jesus. You invited him into your life. Raise your hand. Okay. Then you have some what? Wisdom. You You don’t have total wisdom, but you got some. You got the beginning of it. All right. Now, so you can make a judgment. Now, here he goes. Here he gives with his phenomenal way of explaining things. The cup and bread are the communion of the blood and body of Christ.

▶ 31:41 We’re going to be taking communion this morning. Okay. When we take the cup of the Lord and we eat of the bread, we are fellowshipping with the blood and with the body of Jesus Christ. We are in partnership. We are partakers. They can’t argue that, can they? That that’s not true. Isn’t that true? Okay. We’re partakers. He says, “We being many are one bread. We’re the body of Christ and one body. All partakers of that one bread.” Can’t argue with that. Jesus is that bread that we partake of. And we are partners with each other in partaking of his bread, his body.

▶ 32:34 Then he switches to another spiritual illustration. Israel after the flesh means their sacrifices, their shadow laws, all that stuff that pointed to the real thing. He says, “Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? When they went to the temple to offer the burnt offering, the atoning offering, did they partake of that sacrifice and the results of that sacrifice? Atonement for sin.” And the people had to say, “What?” Yes, they were partakers. He’s got them in the communion table now. He’s got him in the Israel of old.

▶ 33:26 What am I saying then? That the idol is anything? No, we know the idol is nothing. Or the food sacrificed to idols or their music or whatever is anything? No. No. We’ve got knowledge that that’s nothing. But we also have knowledge that when we partake of the communion table, we’re partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. When Israel of old partook of the sacrifices and the and the shadow laws that God had them to partake of to illustrate spiritual things to come, they were partakers. Now he’s going to hit them when the iron is hot. [Unclear]. But I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, not to God. And I would not that you should have what? Fellowship participators with devils. He’s got them and he’s got you.