Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20010211.htm

1 CORINTHIANS: MINISTERING TO BELIEVERS WITH DEEP PAGAN BACKGROUNDS
Part XVIII: The Christian's Separation From Demonic Fellowships
(1 Corinthians 10:14-22)
  1. Introduction
    1. Christian liberty in the Lord permits a believer to eat food offered to idols that is later sold in the meat market. However, a danger exists in exercising such liberty when liberty borders on demonic fellowship!
    2. Now, the average believer assumes that his Christian experience is about as far away from fellowshiping with demons as he can imagine, and may wonder why Scripture would address such a subject.
    3. Nevertheless, our society is increasingly flirting with the occult, and that to the detriment of fellowship with God, and Paul warns of this danger and clarifies it for us in 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 as follows:
  2. The Christian's Separation From Demonic Fellowships, 1 Corinthians 10:14-22.
    1. It is a wonderful truth that the believer's soul is untouchable by Satan, and that a believer cannot thus be indwelt by Satan or a demonic presence, cf. 1 John 5:18.
    2. Yet, the believer can be influenced by Satan according to 2 Timothy 2:24-26 (as follows):
      1. Paul informed Timothy that those in the body of Christ who opposed his ministry as a pastor (when he obviously was doing what was Biblical!) were actually held captive by Satan to do Satan's will!
      2. Thus, Timothy had to teach the truth carefully so God could deal with these people who opposed him under Satan's influence, and so that Timothy might keep himself above reproach.
    3. Hence, the believer is responsible to avoid fellowship with and influence by Satan's realm, 1 Cor. 10:14:
      1. The Corinthian believers were to flee participating in the idol services where the idol meat was being offered, 1 Cor. 10:14. They could eventually eat of it (ch. 8), but not in the pagan idol worship service!
      2. By way of application, we see the following injunctions in our day:
        1. Today's believers must avoid participating in Ouija Board games.
        2. Today's believers must avoid watching films or shows that can entice people into the demonic realm ("The Exorcist", "Friday the 13th" series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," etc.).
        3. Today's believers must avoid depending on newspaper astrological horoscopes and charts for insight into the future in accord with Deuteronomy 18:9-11 NIV.
        4. Today's believers must avoid necromancy, inquiring of the dead' by way of mediums, Dt. 18:11.
        5. Today's believers must avoid involvement with occult spells and magical arts, Dt. 18:9-11.
        6. Today's believers must avoid wizardry and witchcraft, Deuteronomy 18:10-11.
        7. Today's believers must avoid Satanic worship services and their human sacrifices, Deut. 18:9-10.
    4. God's reason for such separation from evil spirit realms is based on the limits of God's fellowship:
      1. The believer's observance of the Lord's table is totally incompatible with one's communing with demons, 1 Cor. 10:15-17. Hence, the believer should not tolerate communing with demons.
      2. Israel's Old Testament experience where a participant in eating the sacrifice gave consent to the intent of the offering shows that communion with demons in such idolatry gives full consent to the intent of the demons themselves, 1 Cor. 10:18. Hence, a Christian cannot rightly eat in a demonic service.
      3. Fellowship with demons is incompatible with fellowship with Christ, 1 Cor. 10:20-21. One thus cannot simultaneously eat with demons in a demonic service and say he fellowships with Christ.
      4. Fellowship with demons incurs the wrath of God (1 Corinthians 10:22b), so eating with demons in a demonic worship service becomes a dangerous practice for the believer, 1 Corinthians 10:22c.
Lesson: Christian liberty STOPS where that liberty breaks fellowship with Christ and opens one up to fellowship with demons. Hence, we must watch that our liberty fits the boundaries of God's fellowship!

Application: (1) A believer may rightly find entertainment in table games, or by watching decent movies or television shows per se. However, where such entertainment opens one up to demonic influence, there one must not tread. (2) Since even a believer in a church can be influenced by the Evil One (2 Tim. 2:24-26), a GODLY believer will find he has little practical fellowship in common with one so influenced, cf. 2 Tim. 3:5 et al. Hence, godly believers should not feel PRESSED to TRY commune with ALL men in Christendom: God's true fellowship is smaller than a Church's walls, Mtt. 13:36-43.