I've got a little survey that I want to do. This
is a raising your hand survey. Are you ready?
I want to know where all of the first born are.
If you're a first born, raise your hand. Okay.
These people think they're in charge. Okay. All
right. Are there any babies in the, any, where's
the babies of the family? The last born. Okay.
Okay. Very good. What about the middle children?
We love you too. We're glad you're here. Yeah,
very good. There's a lot of, there's something,
and then Justin, you said you're an only kid.
Are there any only kids in here? Okay, there's
a couple of you. Oh, we love you. That's great.
Okay. There are, there's something to birth order.
I, some people make a big deal out of it. I didn't
really think much of it until. I became a dad,
and I've kind of seen some of the different things
that happen with birth order in our family. Growing
up, it was just me and my brother. I'm the oldest,
and he's the youngest. And Megan, my wife, is
the baby. So an older married the youngest, and
she's the youngest of four, and her other three
are brothers. So she is spoiled, is what she
is. And is she glaring at me? She's glaring at
me, isn't she? Okay, I'm a little scared. Anyway,
so I didn't think about it there very much, but
when I got kids, I started noticing things. One
day we were on the playground and Milana, my
oldest, did the monkey, you guys know monkey
bars? She did the monkey bars. and she did it
for the first time and I was so excited. I'm
like, good job, Melana, you did it. You didn't
think you could do it and you did it. And she's
two years older than Audrey and Audrey, this
is literally Melana's first time doing it. Well,
Audrey just climbs right up and then she does
it right after her, no struggle. And your kids
are different, aren't they? They're not all the
same. But I think I was so proud of Melana celebrating
her and then Audrey just does it and she's two
years younger and she saw the challenge of doing
that as doable. and got to see her sister celebrate
for it. So she went up and did it. And in short,
there are different advantages for different,
you know, ages, different birth order, you know,
kids that are first born get a lot of their parents'
attention and then never a middle child or a
younger child get, they get divided attention.
But the middle child, my daughter, the younger
child got the power of example. She got to see
Melana do something. She saw this challenge as
doable and got to see her sister celebrated for
it. And in short, the second born get the advantage
that comes from the power of example, right?
You get to see somebody do what you didn't, you
know, get that someone your age doing that. Sometimes
example is good. Sometimes example is bad. That
can be true. You can learn from both. Now, some
have said you can live and learn or you can listen
and learn, right? And living and learning without
listening and learning can really be painful.
Who agrees? You can go by the School of Hard
Knocks if you want. Anybody ever been to that
school? We have any graduates from the School
of Hard Knocks, right? The truth is we all learn
both ways. Sometimes some things we learn by
the example of others. We learn by someone going
through something and going, I'll never do that.
Like, thank you for enduring that pain so that
I don't have to. Sometimes we hear. From our
parents, we hear from people who are wiser than
us and they teach us stuff and then we can learn
that way. And we really are a mix of both of
those. Nobody's perfect. Some of us have learned
the hard way. Some of us have learned the easier
way, but we all learn, right? Some of you don't
learn. Some of us don't learn. Sometimes we don't
learn and that can be painful too. But we certainly
live in a time where we have a lot of advantages
from others. How many of you guys have ever learned
how to do something that you needed fixed maybe
who's learned something on YouTube anybody ever
do that you got to fix something and like you
search for it and you can be specific like how
do you check we have these door handles if you
ever see a Toyota Sienna from the early 2000s
late 90s almost all of them have the handles
different color than the rest of the car because
that particular I'm sorry Toyota if I'm messing
you up here but that the handles come they actually
break really easily and so I held the laptop
with the YouTube how to fix a Toyota Sienna door
handle. And I held it while my wife fixed it
for us. It was really nice. I'm glad I can be
a help to her, right? She's so handy to have
around. It's really cool. But my point is like
we can look and we can get the example and we
can learn and we have that all over the place,
don't we? Like we live in a time where books
aren't a new technology. You can go find out
how to run a business like this guy who's done
a great job on it and you can learn how to do
your finances from someone who's rich and knows
what they're doing. You can learn a lot of things
in a lot of ways and that can be an incredible
thing. So we have a lot of advantages that way.
We certainly live in a time where we can do that.
Now, this is stated, this idea of learning from
other people's examples is stated in the text
that we're gonna look at today. If you have your
Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 if you're
not already there. Our Bible reading each week
is that we do before the, as we, as part of our
worship, becomes what I end up teaching on most
of the time. And this is the 21st sermon. that
I've done as we've gone through the book of First
Corinthians. We're kind of coming back to it
now after the Easter season. By the way, we had
a great Easter, didn't we? It was amazing. It
was so cool. We had, I think, 570 people that
came and God really worked well. Not that numbers,
people, we count people because people count,
amen. So I'm not upset about that, but that's
just God bless. We had people get saved. God
did some amazing things. But we're coming now
back to this study in First Corinthians. And
just to remind you, or if you're here for the
first time, is we've done this to just kind of
see where we are. Paul's writing this letter
to a church called Corinth. It's one of three
that he wrote to them. We have two of them. One
of them is, we don't have. But he is, he's doing
a couple things. In the early part of it, he's
like kind of. correcting them. They were a church
that made a lot of mistakes. They did a lot of
sins. They weren't doing things all right way.
You see Brion Baptist Church and I've seen, you
know, all these different, you'll hardly ever
see a church named Corinthian Baptist Church,
right? Because the church was a messed up church.
They had a lot of problems. And then they also
had written him to ask him questions. He had
started their church. And he had won many of
them to Christ. They were Christians because
of his influence through the power of the gospel
and the Holy Spirit. But they had asked him some
questions. They had questions about marriage,
about divorce, and about singleness. They had
specific questions about eating meat that was
offered to idols. This brought up this subject
of the limits of our freedom in Christ. And Paul
had answered, saying that an idol was nothing,
that idols are just carved figurines that somebody
makes. Eating meat that's offered to idols if
you're not doing it to honor that idol if you
just got meat at the market that was Discounted
because that's this was something that would
happen there Meet in the market that was discounted
because it had been used in worship or whatever.
That's not a sin He says we have freedom to participate
in that Paul also said that we must be wise in
those areas because While it may not be a sin
to exercise your freedoms in Christ It can cause
people to sin and create problems when you do
that He told them that they should consider forgoing
their freedoms if it caused harm to another brother
with their own participation in actual sin or
violating their own consciences. He then used
himself as an example. That was chapter eight.
And then in the chapter nine, he says, I have
some freedoms. I have a freedom as a minister
to the gospel. to be supported by my gospel ministry.
But I've decided, he said, not to exercise that
freedom. I didn't take any money from any of
you. I've lived off of the work that I do that
isn't the gospel, because I don't want there
to be any, I don't want to be any hindrance to
the gospel going out. That's what he said in
chapter nine. So he's given the example of, hey,
I have freedoms, just like you have freedoms.
But if my freedoms cause somebody else to sin
or limit my ability to share Christ to other
people, I'm not gonna do those. What a good example
for us. That's kind of where he ended in chapter
nine. When we get to chapter 10, Paul continues
with this theme of freedom in Christ and idolatry.
He does this in large part by using an example.
This is why I brought up examples. He is using
an example of the wilderness generation, the
children of Israel that came out of Egypt, delivered
by God through Moses. and he's pointing to these
people in the Old Testament as a bad example.
Now one of the reasons, this is just one of the
many reasons that I believe that this Bible is
actually written not just by man but written
by God, is that if man alone wrote it, all of
the examples would be good examples, okay? They
wouldn't give, I wouldn't write, I'm gonna write
and I'm gonna tell you how bad I am, right? That
usually doesn't happen. these are kind of bad
examples that Paul is pointing to. And there's
clarity here about God's perspective on their
behavior. And Paul says, this ought to be a example
to you. I'm writing these things, these things
are written in the Old Testament as an example
to us. We don't have to live and learn. We can
listen and learn. Who thinks that's good? You
can listen, you can read. The word of God, God
wrote a book. And when he says don't, what he's
saying is don't hurt yourself. When you choose
to sin, you choose to suffer. I don't want you
to suffer for sin. If you're in our Sunday school
today, he says, if you're gonna suffer, don't
suffer for evil's sake. Maybe you need to suffer
for Christ. Don't suffer for being an idiot.
That's kind of in the Bible. Okay, so. We don't
have to live and learn. We can listen and look
and read and observe and learn so as to live
without the same consequences that they had.
So today's message, if you listen, could be an
exercise in pain avoidance. Who's for pain avoidance?
I'm for pain avoidance. Let's do that, okay?
Who is for avoiding pain, right? We will overcome
temptation and avoid that pain. When we heed
the example of the wilderness generation, that's
the sermon in a sentence. What was their example?
Well, let's look at what he says. Number one,
these people, this wilderness generation, they
experienced the work of God. They experienced
the work of God. Let's dive in, verse one, chapter
10. If you're there, say amen. Okay, here we
go. First Corinthians 10, one, here it is. Moreover,
brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant
how that all our fathers were under the cloud,
and all passed through the sea, and all were
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and
did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they
drank of that spiritual rock that followed them,
and that rock was Christ." Now, Many of you have
heard the story of Exodus in the Old Testament
of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Exodus
is the second book in the order that we put in
the Old Testament. If you're old enough, if you've
been to church as a kid, you think of Moses as
either Charlton Heston, a flannel graph figure
or a vegetable. It's one of those three, depending
on what your generation is, right? So this may
not be your first time hearing about... God delivering
his people out of Egypt. But if it is your first
time hearing about this, I'm glad you're here,
don't let that bother you. What gets summarized
in four verses here is what God's people, the
Jews, experienced and what he is describing in
the Old Testament book of Exodus. God in Genesis
had promised a nation through a man named Abraham.
He told him that, Abraham, that he would have
a great nation. He would have as many kids as
the sand of the sea and the stars in the sky.
He's gonna have all these kids. What was interesting
is when he gave him that promise, he had no kids,
right? And he was old. He was like really old
and had no kids. His wife was old. And so God
made him this incredible promise. God did what
he said. He promised him those people. He also
promised him a land. The Abrahamic covenant,
that promise was you're gonna have a bunch of
a nation, you're gonna have many nations that
come from you. Also, you're gonna have a land,
this promised land, right? And so Genesis tells
us about Abraham, then his son Isaac, then his
son Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel,
right? And Israel had 12 sons. And those 12 sons,
the last of those 12 sons was a guy named Joseph.
And Joseph was his favorite son. In fact, that
was kind of memorialized famously by this coat
of many. You guys have watched these too, okay.
And so he has this coat of many colors and his
brothers hate Joseph, the 12 sons of Israel,
the 12 sons of Jacob. These 11 of them, they
hate Joseph. And so they sell him into slavery.
Now I don't know if you've ever been mean to
your brother or sister, but you probably never.
and sold him into slavery. That's what happened.
He ends up going to Egypt. They think he's dead.
They tell their father he's gonna die. Long story
short, he goes from being a slave to being in
jail to becoming number two in the nation. The
Bible's super interesting. You should go back
and read. It's an incredible story. And God uses
Joseph to preserve his family. Eventually Israel
and all his kids. came to Egypt, they came to
the land of Goshen because God used Joseph to
execute a plan to save Egypt and through saving
Egypt, save his family. But they came out of
that promised land. And over time, the 70, the
dozens that showed up in Egypt became hundreds
and thousands and hundreds of thousands and even
millions. And there came a Pharaoh that didn't
remember all the good that the... Joseph and
his family had done, and they just saw him as
a threat. So what do they do? They put him into
slavery. They made him work. They endured forced
labor and all the abuses that come with it. They
endured Pharaoh wanting to kill their kids. And
then God raised up Moses to deliver them, and
boy, and this is my point, boy, did they see
God work. God sent through Moses plagues to Egypt.
All the plagues impacting false idols or false
gods that the pagan Egyptians worshiped. They
worshiped the Nile River, and God turned that
river into blood. They worshiped the sun, and
one of the plagues was darkness. You know what
God was saying is? They're not real, I'm real.
Don't worship pagan made -up gods. You wanna
see something cool, here I am, right? They were
involved in ancestor worship and the last of
the plagues was the worst, the death of every
firstborn son. Eventually Pharaoh said they could
go. He's like, just get out of here. Leave, right?
And at the time of their leaving, this is amazing,
the Egyptians that were there took out their
earrings and their gold and their riches and
they gave it to their slaves as they left. Hey,
you gotta go and we're gonna finance your going.
Get out of here. No more plagues. Eventually
they came as they were leaving to the Red Sea.
Pharaoh changed his mind, as politicians tend
to do, and he gave chase to this people. Hey,
our workforce is leaving, what have I done? And
he chases after them. And God was leading them,
this is amazing, in the Exodus, God was leading
them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night. God physically then, as the
Egyptians were coming, put his cloud and his
fire between the Egyptians that were coming to
kill the Israelites, or take them back, and the
Israelites. And then God told Moses, I want you
to take your staff and put it over the Red Sea.
The Red Sea parted right down the middle, and
the children of Israel walked through on dry
ground. When the last of the Israelites got to
the other side, the water came back and killed
the entire. This is awesome. The entire, this
would make a good movie. Have you guys seen this?
The whole army is gone, right? And then God had
delivered them. Had he delivered them in a way
that was very dramatic? Yeah. What is it? Cecil
B. DeMille or whatever? Like, is it incredible?
And then he continued to deliver them through
the wilderness. He provided bread. What was the
name of the bread? Manna. He provided quail,
food to feed them. He provided water through
a rock to give them water and quench their thirst.
God had freed them. He had financed their journey.
He had delivered them from certain death with
a famine. Then. They became slaves, but then
he freed them. He financed their journey. He
provided plagues for their enemies. He provided
leadership through Moses. He provided protection
from Pharaoh. He provided provision for their
bellies and directions from his presence. Had
God shown up? God had shown up in amazing ways.
Had they experienced God? They had experienced
God in more like tangible ways than maybe we
might feel like we have, right? Have you ever
wanted like a cloud from God to take you to the
next step? Like, I don't know which job should
I take? And then like, there's a cloud going
this way, okay. Who thinks that would be cool,
right? Like that kind of direction from God.
Like they had experienced the visible, physical,
miraculous, incredible provision of God. They
had experienced it. And this is what Paul's referring
to in this verse. And he says five times, and
on the next slide, I think I highlight it. He
says, and this is what the point he's trying
to make. I don't want you to be ignorant how
that all our fathers run the crowd. That whole
generation, there's nobody that was like, I wonder
if God does miracles. Does this God exist? Does
he do anything tangible? They knew it. All of
them were under the cloud. All of them passed
through the sea. All were baptized unto Moses
in the cloud and the sea and did all eat the
same spiritual meat and did all drink the same
spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them and that rock was Christ.
They were baptized or immersed into Moses. They
followed Moses into the wilderness because of
the obvious providence of God through those plagues,
the deliverance through the sea and the direction
from the cloud. They were baptized in the moment
into Moses in the sense that he introduced God's
revelation of the Old Covenant, the law, the
Ten Commandments of God. Their identity was with
Moses as their God -given, God -ordained leader.
That was so cool to see those people baptized
today, wasn't it? And man, what an amazing thing.
When people get baptized, they're identifying
with Christ. He was alive, he was buried, he
rose again. If any man be in Christ, he's a new
creature. The old is gone, the new has come.
When you see that, you're identifying with who?
Jesus, right? So he says, they're identified,
these guys were identified with Moses. How? Moses
is the one speaking on behalf. He wants us to
go, so we're following. Moses, we're identified
with him. And Paul uses that language of going
through the sea. It's kind of like a picture
of this water, this baptism. Hey, we're with
Moses now. We're with God because God is with
Moses. We're with Moses. That's the idea. Do
you get it? It's not some weird baptism, some
other baptism. God had provided for them spiritually
and supernaturally. He provided the food, the
water from the rock. A rock that produced enough
water to bring life to all the people living
in the wilderness. He says here, it's a picture
of Christ. Christ is our source of life and sustenance.
That's the picture here. So he says, all, all,
all, all, all. They all experienced it. They
all knew it. But in verse number five, there's
a gigantic but. But with many of them, God was
not well pleased. You get it? For they were overthrown
in the wilderness. What does that mean? Not everybody
that saw God work ended up going with God. And
as a result, they were overthrown in the wilderness.
This is described in Exodus 32. In Exodus 20
to 31, God gives Moses the 10 commandments in
the law. When Moses gave the law to the people,
he said, here's the law, they said, we receive
it, we're gonna obey it. That lasted for about
five minutes, okay? At the end of chapter 31,
verse 18, it says, and he gave unto Moses when
he had made an end of communing with him on Mount
Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone
written with the finger of God. Moses had left
in chapter 24, the children of Israel and gone
up to Mount Sinai and received from God his law.
After having given them the basics, the 10 commandments
in Exodus 20, by the end of 24, he goes up and
gets more. God gives it to him. And then 32,
one, here's what it says. And when the people
saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the
Mount, how long was his delay? 40 days. How long
have they been in Egypt under slavery? Hundreds
of years. Are you getting it? For hundreds of
years, they have been told God's gonna promise,
God made a promise to our people, I'll bless
them that bless thee and curse them that curse
thee. You're gonna have a nation like the sand
of the sea and the stars of the sky. You're gonna
have a promised land. It's a land that's flowing
with milk and honey. Sounds sticky. It's amazing,
right? You're gonna get that. And then Moses
says, I'll be back. He's gone for 40 days. And
hey, read the rest of the verse. The people gathered
themselves together unto Aaron and said unto
him, up. You know what? It's bad. You're a bad
leader if you can be controlled to do the wrong
thing by your followers. Good leaders do right,
because it's right. Up, make us gods. Is that
possible? Can you make a god? Up, make us gods,
which shall go before us. Which shall go before
us? Who's going before you? What do you think
that cloud is up on the mountain? Are you with
me? For as for this Moses the man that brought
us up out of the land of Egypt we want not was
what has become of him What oh? Yeah, that's
God's plan deliver you into the wilderness and
then take your leader and run away He thinks
that's a dumb plan like that's obviously not
God's plan Verse 2 and Aaron said unto them You
people are crazy. I'm not doing it Is that what
he said? No, he said break off the golden earrings
which are in the ears of your wives your sons
your daughters and Bring them unto me Let me
put that into context. Hey, you know how God
used the Egyptians to finance you getting out
of here Because usually slaves don't have gold
earrings and now you all got gold earrings We're
gonna use that that thing that God provided To
make something to worship other than God Who's
with me? Verse three, and all the people break
off with golden earrings which are in their ears
and brought them into Aaron and he received them
at their hand and fashioned it with a graving
tool. You shall not have before any graven image,
right? He had a graving tool after he made it
a molten calf and they said, these be thy gods,
O Israel. which brought thee out of the land
of Egypt. Sin makes you stupid. Verse five, and
when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it
and Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow
is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early
on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and
brought peace offerings. Now they're doing the
ceremonies that God had taught them. but they're
doing it to a God that they made up. And the
people sat down to eat and drink. That's the
idea of they partied. They're gorging themselves
and they rose up to play. The play here has this
idea. Some commentaries even say that this is
like sexual sin. It's the party, it's lasciviousness,
it's the party lifestyle and all that goes with
it. Here's the first lesson. Even though they
experienced God's providence, God's power, God's
provision, God's protection, God's freedom, they
were slaves and now they're free, they did something
to bite the hand that fed them. They fought against
the God that freed them. They used their freedom
to forsake God's ways. As a result, they were
all overthrown. First Corinthians tells us and
Exodus tells us in the wilderness. They did not
make it to the promised land. There's a whole
bunch of people that didn't make it. In Exodus
32, Moses intercedes on their behalf. He destroys
their idol, he executes many who lead the rebellion,
and then God sent plagues to them. It's not a
happy occasion. And here's the lesson for us.
We may think, if I saw God act like that, I would
never forsake Christ. If I saw Christ in a pillar,
in a cloud, in a fire, If he's literally communicating
to us and showing his hand, if God really did
that, I would never forsake him. We have seen
more than what they saw. We have access to the
whole of God's word and the evidence of God's
working in history. They saw God provide, they
saw the Red Sea parted, they saw the cloud and
the fire leading them and protecting them, yet
they did not all obey. Some disobeyed and the
results, that they fell in the desert. We who
know Christ sometimes fight against the will
of God. We disobey. We take Him for granted.
He is the Lord and at times we believe that we
are in charge rather than Him. We have experienced
freedom much like they have experienced freedom.
We were enslaved in the world and needed freedom
that only could be found in Christ. And we did
find it, yet we mess up, we forget, and as a
result, we may fall. So here's the lesson. You
can experience all that they experienced and
still disobey God. Does that make sense? And
God, there's no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus, but there are consequences of
sin. So don't rebel. Don't be stupid. Don't let
sin make you stupid. Because of that, number
two, here's the second lesson. They ignored the
will of God. Verse six through 10. Here's what
Paul says. Now these things were our examples.
You know what he's saying? Listen and learn.
Don't live and learn, listen and learn. Who thinks
it's better to live and learn, to listen and
learn? I'm confusing you. Who's better to listen
and learn? He's saying pay attention so we don't
want to the intent that we don't lust after evil
things as they also lusted neither be ye idolaters
as those as were some of them as is written the
people sat down to eat and drink and rose up
to play neither let us commit fornication as
some of them committed and fell in one day three
and twenty thousand neither let us tempt Christ
as some of them also tempted and were destroyed
of the serpents neither murmur ye as them Some
of them also murmured and were destroyed of the
destroyer. The people that experienced verses
one and five, one through five, one through four,
all coming through the sea, all delivered by,
you know, all receiving the manna and the quail
and all that Christ had done, those same people
lusted after evil things in verses seven through
10. This was written, both here in 1 Corinthians
and in the Old Testament, to serve to us as examples
of evil to avoid. Neither is expressed four times.
You guys see that? He said, neither, verse seven,
be ye idolaters. Neither let us commit fornication.
Neither let us lust. Neither let us tempt Christ.
Neither murmur ye. He's saying, take their example
and don't do that. Don't do that. You have idolatry.
Next slide. They have a sin. There's a consequence.
I gave you a reference. He's saying these things
are written. They lived and learn. You can listen
and learn. Avoid number one, idolatry. 3 ,000
were killed. Another 20 ,000 apparently, if you
read at the end of chapter 32, fell by the plague.
They fell in the desert. They died. God hates
sin. There are consequences to sin. Even those
who are in Christ can suffer consequences to
sin. Paul says later in first Corinthians, some
of you, you're taking the Lord's supper and the
way you're taking it is you're not discerning
the body and blood of the Lord, you're just taking
it out. And for this cause some are weak and
sickly among you and some sleep. Sleep means
dead. There still can be consequences. There
are Christians who through death provide more
value on this earth than by their living. This
will bring a lot of more visitors in, won't it?
Great sermon, Pastor Ben. Yeah. He's saying,
don't do idolatry. Like Pastor Ben, I don't have
a little Buddha. I don't have, you know, I don't
have a bail. I don't have a moleck, you know,
in my house. Is there something that's getting
devotion that really should go to God, but you're
giving it to that? It may not look like some
weird little God. It may not be a golden calf
that's graven for some religious ceremony, but
notice, notice, you guys gotta get this right?
Did they really care about cows? Were they like
really in love with cows? What had God just told
them not to do? No God before me, no graven image.
Remember my day, don't mess with my name. Honor
your father and mother. Don't commit adultery,
don't steal, don't murder, don't bear false witness.
Are you with me? The God I make up doesn't give
me any rules. The God I worship over here, I
like this God better because what I do with this
God, this part of the religion, I get to sit
down and eat and drink and I get to rise up to
play. Do you get it? I like the false religion
better because it doesn't have any expectation
of me. That God didn't send his son to die for
you. And by the way, the thing that you're loving
and want to do will destroy you. God doesn't
give you the rule because he hates you. He's
giving you the rule because he loves you. Do
you get it? Don't do idolatry, don't do, next
one, fornication, sexual sin. Listen, it's destroying
our country. Sexual sin is destroying our country.
It's destroying families, it's destroying marriages,
it's corrupting our kids, it's dividing our nation.
Stop! Don't do fornication. Don't tempt Christ.
You know what tempts Christ? What do you mean?
God, I love that you died for me. That's where
your Lordship ends. I wanna do what I want. I
want you to save me, but I don't really want
you to tell me what I should do with my life.
Our God's a jealous God. And there's a devotion
that should go to him that doesn't go to anything
else. And then murmuring. You know what murmuring
is? It's complaining. Man, they brought us here.
I'm so tired of the manna. I'm so tired of the
quail. Remember in Egypt, they had onions. It
was so good. When did they become from like California?
Yeah. It was awesome, bro, you know? And what
they should be saying is like, we got beaten
stuff and we were forced to hard labor, but they
had onions. Wasn't this dumb quail, right? Moses,
you just brought us out here to kill us. And
now they're mocking the God that provided salvation
for them and wants to bring them to the promised
land. And guess what? If they would have obeyed,
they could have gotten there in like a couple
of weeks, not 40 years wandering in the wilderness.
Why was this written? For our example. We should
avoid idolatry, worshiping, prioritizing the
creature over the creator, fornication, a specific
kind of idolatry that prioritizes the flesh over
the spirit at the expense of the spirit. Peter
says in 2 Peter 2 11, dearly beloved, I beseech
you as. strangers and pilgrims abstained from
fleshly lust, which war against the soul. It
wars against your soul. Three, attempting Christ,
questioning the goodness and faithfulness of
God in Christ. Murmuring, expressing doubt about
the provision of God that exhibits a rebellious
attitude to him. Verbally questioning in an accusing
way that purposefully ignores the evidence of
God's goodness and authority. All of these behaviors
came with a consequence. And that leads us to
the third lesson they teach, and we'll be done.
Number three, they warn us of the discipline
of God. The discipline of God. Verse 11, here
it is. Now all these things happen unto them
for in samples. And they are written for our
admonition. You know what admonition, you know
what it means to admonish? Admonish means stop,
don't do that. Don't live this way. our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore,
he says, let him that thinketh he standeth, take
heed lest he fall. You know what he's saying?
He's saying, if you think that because you're
saved, you can live any way you want and do anything
you want, and God's just gonna be forgiving and
loving and merciful, and there's no consequences,
if you think you can stand on your own two feet,
being rebellious against God in that way, even
if you're saved, you need to take heed, lest
you fall. Not fall to temptation, although that's
part of it, but fall the way they fell. How did
they fell? They died. There's a consequence to
sin. It's not just falling in, oh man, I messed
up again. It's falling in, there's consequences
to my actions. Do you get it? So he says, verse
12, take heed, look, be careful, make a plan.
Think about your life. Choices. Think about the
thing that could destroy your marriage. Think
about the thing that could destroy your kids.
Think about the things that could destroy your
family. Sin, when it's finished, brings forth
death. Jesus says it's from the penalty of sin,
but we're not yet saved from the presence of
sin. It can still destroy your life, even if
you're saved. Do you get it? And if you think
you can do whatever you wanna do, you need to
take heed, lest ye fall. And then he says this
incredibly encouraging thing. If you think I've
been really negative today, here's the encouraging
part. Who's for encouragement? Okay, verse 13.
There is no temptation taking you, but such as
is common to man. You know what he's saying?
The devil has like two or three plays. Lust of
the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. That's
it. He's running the same play over and over
and over and over and over and over again. Are
you with me? Everything that people get tempted
with, it's all the same thing. You can live and
learn in this generation. I'm sorry, you can
listen and learn because there's so many ways
to learn from people who have learned the hard
way. There's no temptation taking you, but such
is as common a man. Everybody deals with the
same stuff. The same kinds of things. Maybe not
the same exact thing, but the same kind of things.
God is faithful who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you're able. You know what
God wants? God wants you to obey. And God's willing
to help you to obey. Who's glad for that? The
God who divides the sea and brings the plagues.
who provided his son so that you could be saved
is wanting to help you not sin. Are you excited?
Come on, this is great. This is good news. He
wants suffering to be tempted above that you're
able, but will with the temptation also make
a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it.
He's given you His Holy Spirit. He's given you
His Word. He's given you His people. He wants
you to be able and you have a choice. You have
a choice. You can choose. I can choose. And I
have a Holy Spirit, a governor that can help
me with my choice. Yeah. I think it's amazing,
right? He will with meditation also make a way
to escape that we may be able, that ye may be
able to bear it. The Corinthians lived in a dangerous,
debauched, deteriorating culture spiritually.
They were not out in the wilderness like the
children of Israel. They were surrounded by even
greater temptation. And how are they to deal
with a temptation in such a culture? Paul tells
them that they're not unique in this sense. Every
temptation they fought has been dealt with by
people since the fall in Genesis 3. He tells
them that whatever they're facing, God expects
them to be able to handle. He's protecting them
from temptation that they cannot handle. He's
providing from temptation for them. There's a
path for victory over temptation or a path of
deliverance from temptation. Is this thing on?
There's a path for victory over temptation or
there's a path of deliverance from temptation.
Sometimes you keep failing on temptation because
you keep walking by it. Run. Get away from it
flee fornicate if you can't handle the internet
you don't have to have it Really yeah If you
can handle There's a there's a path of deliverance
from it We have a will we're able to make choices
and we're responsible for our church choices
What an incredible peace and comfort it is to
know that God knows what we're dealing with and
protects us from temptation that we can't handle
or a way out of the influence of that temptation.
We can be assured then that in the spirit, temptation
can be defeated or avoided. I can't be perfect,
but I am being perfected. Does that make sense?
I can't be perfect, but I can be perfected. And
he loves me and he cares about me. And he provides
a Holy Spirit and discipline and people to help
me to begin to make the right choices. And so
you can wrap up the application of this whole
sermon like this. Let him that thinks he stands,
take heed lest he fall. That make sense? Now.
Here's how you can apply it. Pick a sin that
you've committed recently. Pick a sin. Why did
you give into that? Was there a way to escape
that temptation? How could you have defeated
that temptation? How could God have defeated
it on your behalf? What scripture could you have
had at the ready to fight that temptation? And
how does God view that thought behavior? The
answer is repentance. Repentance is I am changing
my mind. God is changing my mind. And I begin
to see differently. I begin to see as God sees.
I view the sin the way that God views the sin.
Does that make sense? It's a change of mind.
If God has disgusted that by that, then I'm disgusted
by it. Does that make sense? There's that change
of mind. How does that happen by the Holy Spirit
living inside of me? Now here's the good news.
If you don't know Christ as your savior, then
in some ways you don't really have a shot. See,
the Bible says that we're all sinners, even believers
are, and our sin separates us from God. But God
loved us so much that he became flesh and he
dwelt among us. and he never did anything wrong.
He always did the right thing. But then he died
the death that you and I deserve to die on the
cross. He shed his blood on the cross to pay
for your sin and mine. And the Bible says that
if we call in the name of the Lord to save us,
he says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Okay, I can be saved from the penalty of sin.
I can not go to hell, I can go to heaven, not
because I'm doing it, because God saved me, right?
It's not something I do, it's something that
I'm trusting in him to do for me. But what's
cool is that's not the end, that's the beginning.
Then his Holy Spirit could come live inside of
me and he can help me to walk and to grow and
not to be perfect, but to be growing in perfection,
to be perfected, to be matured in Christ as I
face that temptation. And that is an ongoing
process. Salvation is not a process. It's a crisis.
It happens in one moment. It's a decision. I
believe that my sin was paid for by Jesus and
I'm trusting in him to get me to heaven. That's
what happens at salvation. After that, now I
need Jesus to help me to grow in my walk with
him, to grow in freedom from sin, taking heed
lest I fall. Does that make sense? We don't do
that so that we can be saved. We're already saved.
Now we do it because we are saved. Does that
make sense? That's why. If you're not saved,
you need to ask Christ to save you. If you're
not saved, you don't know for sure you're going
to heaven. The Bible says you can know that your
sins are forgiven and heaven is your home. He
says in John, these things have I written unto
you that you may know that you have eternal life.
That's an amazing thing. And if you're in here
today and you're struggling, even after you've
been saved or with sin in your life, there is
no temptation that's taking you that's not common
to man. God's faithful. He will with you, he
will deliver you from it or he will make a way
of escape that you may be able to bear it. How
do you need to respond today? Would you bow your
heads?