Lest We Forget

Tonight, we turn in the scriptures to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We're continuing our study in this book, and we come tonight to the first 14 verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Let's give our attention tonight to God's Word. This is the Word of the Lord. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, most of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual morality as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. May the Lord bless the hearing. of his word wouldn't you agree that after the morning message this morning after you heard all that after you heard all the wonderful things that the lord says and all of his wonderful announcement of gospel and forgiveness don't you think it would be awful if someone got up from here and it mattered not a lick to them in their life and they went back and they said great i'm a part of the escondido united reform church i'm a part of the true church i get preaching and teaching that's right i'm okay you could boil down the single great problem that we've been dealing with in first corinthians it has really been the problem of spiritual pride hasn't it it's it's arrogance that translated into stepping right over people with their convictions and doing things that didn't demonstrate any kind of self-denial in their lives. I mean, that's really been the thrust of Corinthians. There's been no self-denial. That's taken the cake in our study so far as we come to this section. Really, we've seen after all these weeks of problem after problem after problem, you could sum it up that way. Spiritual pride, spiritual snobbery if you want to get there. Have you ever witnessed that? More importantly, have you ever considered the consequences of it? It was that single great sin, spiritual pride, that led to the fall, if you remember, of Adam and Eve. And the principle has again been held out to us in the scriptures that when a great fall is about to come, you're getting a lot of pride right before it. A lot of pride. Pride comes before a fall. In light of this, this has been the problem that has reared its ugly head in the church in Corinth and essentially you have a church ready to topple over. You say, what do you mean by that? What do you mean topple over? Exactly what Jesus warned about in the churches when we opened up Revelation in the first chapters there, chapters two and three, there were some severe warnings given to those churches. He threatened at one point to spew a church out of his mouth and then at another point he threatened to the church in ephesus which i think is the the most severe warning i if you don't repent i am pulling out your lamp stand i'm gonna yank out what supports you and you're gonna go on as a church and you're gonna have potlucks and you're gonna do all your stuff you'll be a good cultural club but i won't be a part of that what an amazing thing that the lord would remove his presence i believe you've come to a point where the pride had swelled so bad in corinth the pride had swelled so bad in corinth we have dealt with an emotional apostle we've dealt with an apostle who at times is frustrated we've dealt with an apostle who's threatening to come at them with a rod apostasy this is the church you go to to look at an apostasy developing in the life of the church and you've got to somehow put the brakes on that how do you put the brakes on a church that's slipping into apostasy well that's what you have tonight you have the apostle coming down on this church in this book now with i think one of the most severe warnings that we have in the scriptures to, notice the beginning, brethren, brothers. Severe warning because of spiritual pride and because their knowledge has puffed them up. And he's laying before them a warning that if they don't repent of their pride and they don't realize that the knowledge that they have been given has not edified in love but instead left a wake of destruction and division in the life of the kingdom. Well, he's going to point them back to Israel to warn them that certain things can happen to them if they continue this path. And that really does drive it, because at the end of this, he says, all of this was written for us that we would remember, he says, we as a church would remember that we would be a church separated out in humility. In humility for the advancement of the gospel. And that should be a warning. It should be the warning to anyone who wears the banner of we're the true church. It should be the warning that there better be a lot of humility accompanied when you say things like that. And that we as the Escondido United Reformed Church, I can't stress enough, would have a ministry here in humility that will be seen by fruits that edify in love and not division. I never understood why 1 Corinthians 10 sat here. it seemed to be like such a disconnected threat in the middle of this book. In other words, it seemed to be disconnected from the whole picture and portion of Scripture, and I didn't understand what the Apostle Paul was doing. I never understood why he put it here. Why in this particular point, in this particular place, what was the connection? It just doesn't seem to work. All of it became clear to me in my study last week. In light of his encouragement, at the end of this, you'll notice, In verse 12, therefore, let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. When anyone says they think something, has that meant something now as we've been working through 1 Corinthians? To you who think, you stand. Well, that was the issue that began this long section back in chapter 8 that's driving really this for a long time here. chapter 8, where Paul raised the issue of knowledge. Paul raised the issue of knowledge and understanding. And knowledge is one of the greatest blessings of the Lord. That's what we need to know Him. But He teaches us and He taught us all these things about salvation. He taught the Corinthians about the cross, about Christ. The message had been of the cross was the dominant thrust of Paul's ministry to the Corinthians. We dealt with that. But here's the problem. It wasn't having the right effect. I can't get over that. It wasn't having the right effect. How could you have the cross explained to you? How could you have the marvelous love of Jesus explained to you over and over, the riches of the gospel, and that has the sad effect of puffing you up as a church? I don't get it. Think of this morning. God's desire to assure his sheep of forgiveness and grace and new life. And there's the real possibility that in some, it did nothing. It did nothing. There was no interest. There was no change. Ultimately, there was no faith. It had absolutely no effect on the heart and the mind. That spirit was prevailing in Corinth and the members. Because they had been brought the gospel, because Paul delivered it, they thought, we're secure. We've got a good thing going here. They had the building. They were popular in the community. Everyone loved the church in Corinth, by the way. The young people, I'm sure, were all there. There was no discipline. There was no self-denial. Among the members, you saw little change. In the last section, he explained this problem using the language of a runner. You guys even know when you watch a runner run a race, you know that he's running to obtain the prize. he's not he's running for something important this is why he's giving his all in this boxers don't beat the air in other words they're precise they know what their goals are they know where they're going they're working hard at that but your christianity doesn't look anything like christianity you're not disciplining your bodies where's the discipline in life Charles Hodge wrote, you've only entered on the way. It's not enough to be recipients of extraordinary favors. It's not enough to begin well. Self-denial and vigilance must follow. So the real issue then becomes God had given this church a lot in Corinth. God had flooded this church with a lot of things. The Apostle Paul founded this church. God took great care for them. This was the church. Listen, these were the people most steeped in the greatest amounts of paganism when God came and God pulled them out. You remember Corinth was one of the worst of cities and it was a remarkable thing. This church, God had pulled out of that. And the church had been filled with real blessings from the Lord. But here's the problem. All of this knowledge, all of this understanding had for the sad, tragic reason filled them with pride. And as we come to chapter 10, we get the last ditch warning of the apostle before church was apostatizing before judgment would happen and you'll see had already started in some respects because they had come to a point where they thought they were standing in their own knowledge and in their own wisdom with the gospel and they were doing all sorts of things that weren't compatible with that and what it exposed was that there was a certain attitude that they didn't realize was against people and ultimately was against their god they were assaulting so what we have is really simple tonight i i find it not difficult in terms of what he's doing i find it heavy in terms of what he's saying what he's doing tonight is using the nation of israel as an example to provide a solemn warning that corinth would repent of certain things that corinth would not do certain things less the path of judgment that some of the Israelites experience fall on these people in Corinth, inviting the same kind of judgment. That's the intention of this, to warn against that. So he begins with a solemn reminder in verse 1. I want you to notice in verse 1, he's taking us back to one of the most significant events in Old Testament history, which we are about to study. He wants us to look carefully at Israel. That God had used national Israel to be an example for the whole world. Remember Paul said that in Romans, that God put Israel under the law, that God did this, that every mouth would be stopped, that we would learn something about national Israel under the law, that we would not try to achieve our own righteousness our way as they tried to achieve righteousness their way, and that we would submit to the righteousness that is from God. That was Romans. But there are certain things that exposed unbelief in that. There were certain sins that were so severe in the life of Israel that developed in the community and that were so out of control in the community that Paul here is capturing that for us to demonstrate what it looks like when a church is being filled with unbelief. In verse 1, he has everyone consider what Israel experienced in their deliverance from Egypt. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers. Notice he's speaking to brothers there. That our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized in the Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. There were some amazing things that happened. I mean, not to mention that Paul doesn't hear all the wonders that God did when he plundered Egypt, all the plagues. But then you remember as they're coming to the sea and Moses stretches out the rod and it says something fascinating in Exodus that the wind blew all night long and the waters heaped up like two giant walls and the seabed became totally dry. They say that the Gulf of Aqabas is 5,000 feet deep. Can you imagine this? He raises his hands and his rod. Straight up. The sea split in two. A column of fire then is described that led them and it rose up to heaven. All you would see is a fire column come down. And ultimately, if you study this correctly, it shielded them like a canopy as they walked through and passed through the sea. they get out in the wilderness god does some wonderful things for them wow god does miraculous things paul even says it's it's remarkable notice what he does here he does something very specific he says you know they all were baptized when they walked through that sea they all were baptized into moses and the cloud and in the sea and they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink that rock was christ He's drawing a direct connection to your sacraments. He's saying they had baptism. They had spiritual food in the wilderness. They all went through and then they watched heaven break open and manna dropped down from the sky. It landed on their doorsteps. And when the rock, Moses was commanded there, and the rock opened up, water gushed out to two million people and gave them drink in a hot, dry, desolate wilderness. They all drank that. They were refreshed by living streams of water. Paul says that was Christ's. Notice the emphasis. All, all, all, all. Why is Paul raising that? He wants you to make the connection. Does that story sound familiar? It's your story. He brought us through death. He's announced to us the cross. Guess what He's done for all of you? He's put water on you. And next week you're going to come and you're going to have spiritual food in the wilderness. He's going to feed your souls. What an amazing God. What an amazing blessing. Here's the punch. When we come down to verse 5, nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased. For they were overthrown in the wilderness. And you say, well, how many? All of them except two. You know, that generation all perished in the wilderness. over a certain age. And of that age that had come out of Egypt, only who? Joshua and Caleb entered in. Paul says, do you know what happened? That should evoke a serious moment of reflection, shouldn't it? I struggled with this text. I thought, that is heavy. And then he goes on to describe four things. Four examples of Israel's behavior that invited judgment in the wilderness. That the Corinthians would be warned to start thinking a little bit more like Christians. That they would look like Christians and behave like Christians. That they would think carefully of what it is to be a people set apart to the Lord. He summarizes it there by saying, and you'll notice, that in verse 5, in verse 6, now these things took place as examples that we might not desire evil. There's the summarizing statement of what happened to Israel. And so what happened? He then highlights four great sins that happened to Israel in the wilderness that spoke terribly about their condition. I want you to listen to this. And notice here that he then summarizes this in verse 7. do not be first thing idolaters as some of them were as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play now now we're starting to be able to put this together a little bit as to what was going on in corinth so we understand this you remember the problem you had a bunch of christians heading into these these idolatrous feasts, and they were joining directly into the idolatry. They were doing things that was idolatrous, and they, hey, we're free. We can eat whatever we want, you know. We're totally free with the gospel, and the problem was their new freedom they were using to justify going back into what God had called them out of. They were using their gospel freedom to go back into idolatry that's what they were doing he they were using gospel freedom to say well we can go back to our pagan past it's all right we're free and paul's saying but that's not christian you can't call yourself a christian and live a certain way if you want to see this uh in this chapter notice what he says later in this very chapter with regard to the lord's supper look down at verse 21. You can't drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of what? Demons. They were fellowshipping with demonic things. You can't partake of the table of the Lord and demons or shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? And now we understand why Paul says here, listen, you guys can't be idolaters. Don't you know the history of Israel on this matter and then he he ripped something out of the old testament so that we would think a little bit about that the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play you know where that's taken from don't you that's the golden calf remember what they said up make us gods who shall go before as Aaron then says well give me the gold give me the gold in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters and bring them to me so he fastened this calf I mean this was this was a calf and Aaron then builds an altar for the calf and and what did they do the tragedy of the whole event I still get my mind around this the tragedy of the whole event is that they looked back to egypt and then they held up the calf and they said this is your god who brought you out this is your your god who brought you out of the land of egypt and and so aaron builds this altar for it and he says well then tomorrow we're going to have a feast we're going to have a feast for the for the calf and the people sat down but notice aaron didn't say for the calf tomorrow we're having a feast for the lord and then it says and the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play. Paul grabs that. Paul grabs that right there. They take all of these gracious provisions in plundering Egypt after they had witnessed all of that and they hand it to Aaron because they're tired of where God had them waiting at the foot of the mountain and in exchange Aaron hammers out this state-of-the-art, they say, bull that really was the bull, one of the most powerful gods of egypt isis the bowl of fertility and aaron presents it to the people and they had a rocking worship service oh the feast was fantastic the meat was good aaron really didn't want to exclude the lord i mean come on you can't do that so he combined all this he combined all this he fit the worship of egypt with the worship of the lord and they into their egyptian past and their egyptian idolatry and essentially what happened was the worship of the lord had become all corrupted with pagan practice there was no more separation here's the point god brought them out of all that and that's where the essence of idolatry showed itself you say well well we don't do that that just seems so extreme here's corinth here's the connection many of these Christians had so much looked like the world all distinction between what was holy and what was profane was lost do you understand that all distinction had been torn down that's Corinth what does it look like well John tells you it's when you love the world it's when you're following the system of the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life idolatry is joining your Christianity with the world so these two very different if you will for sake of a better systems become one and you go back to the past and because of this there's sort of a chain here What began to happen in Corinth was, lo and behold, sexual morality was filling the members. Sexual morality was a dominant problem filling the members of the church. They were joining their bodies in these temple guilds to prostitutes. And you looked at this. We looked at this in chapter 6. You can't take your body and join it to another woman outside of God's design. You're in union with Christ. You can't bring that into that union because you're forming another union when you're involved in sexual morality and fornication and adultery. That's what you're doing. Paul says Israel fell into that in the wilderness. They committed that with the women of Moab, remember? And it's so a displeased God that they ended up, notice the tie, they ended up with the sexual morality worshiping Baal. And God knocked down 23,000 because they wouldn't listen. Then Paul says they kept putting Christ to the test out there. They were constantly asking, how far can we go? How far can we go? They kept pushing the limits, Corinth did. God doesn't mind this. Don't be so legalistic. You get this all the time that it's endless. Don't be so strict with your Christianity. God doesn't mind. When you have to continually ask what you can and can't do, you're putting Christ to the limit. You're testing Him. And we're always asking, well, can't we do this? Can't we do this? Can't we do this? Can't we do this? You know it's a problem because this is what our children push on. It's a challenge and parents have to leave. I see a progression here. The last thing he mentions is grumbling and complaining. Paul says don't grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Listen to this. Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation said to them, Would that we have died in the land of Egypt or that we have died in this wilderness. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land? to fall by the sword. Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? Are you kidding? If you were ever to read through Numbers 11 through 16, you have a long section there of grumbling by Israel. The Korah Rebellion stands out. Remember the Korah Rebellion? They spoke against Moses and Aaron. and they had started a rebellion out in the wilderness, and people were aligning against Moses and Aaron, and God opens up the ground and swallows up Korah and his children and all the rebels. Don't you think that would have an effect on you? If I saw that, I might start taking things a little bit more serious. Listen to this. You know what happened after the ground opened up? On the next day, it says that, all the congregation of the children of Israel complained. The Lord says, get away, Moses and Aaron. I'm consuming them. Plague breaks out. And Aaron's rod would blossom. It gives us imagery of the tree of life, God's answer. Listen, we've been studying in Corinth mass dissatisfaction with the ministry. We've been studying in Corinth grumbling and complaining. And what this is, is it's a rot. It's a rot that makes you disillusioned with life. When this spirit fills you, nobody's ever good enough for you. Your wife, your church, your life, everything ultimately is dissatisfaction, which is ultimately aimed at God himself. You know what is the greatest challenge in church life and in leadership? What do you think the single great sin that leadership deals with? Grumbling. Complaining. Four sins. Idolatry. Sexual morality. Tempting Christ. murmuring and complaining all the time. Now, I told you this would be a heavy one. If it's possible that this happened in Israel, could it be possible that there are some here tonight with whom God is not well pleased? Sure, that's possible. Some can have a dinner table and they've been so used to complaining their whole life, They can't even talk without complaining. So why is Paul doing this tonight? Why such a severe warning? He has to. Hearing and receiving all this doesn't mean you get to live any way you want. And when that happens, what is the real issue? Why do you need to understand this? Because you have a church running away from the Lord in front of you tonight. Running away from the Lord. What do you do with a church that's running away from the Lord? It's listening to the Gospel, but it's not hearing the Gospel. In other words, you have a church that is filled with unbelief. That's the sad fruit that I just described from a bad, rotted tree. And that's why I emphasized this morning, see the radical difference of the blessings and the curses here? To the believing, to those who've come with contrite hearts, this is what the Lord's been showing us all over the Scriptures. Notice how He responds. This is what you get, you get this morning. But to the unbelieving in the church, you've got to make that distinction. To the unbelieving, we've got to be willing to talk about the curses so that people feel the weight of what they're doing. There were many in Corinth who were living and doing these things and practicing these things. idolatry, sexual morality, pushing the limits, grumbling, and a miserable spirit. And all of that is demonstrative of unbelief. Why didn't Israel enter? You say, well, did all those people who died in the wilderness, did every single one drop, not make into heaven? No, that's not necessarily the case. Of course not. God always had a remnant according to the election of grace. God always had a people. But he used that event to teach us something about sin. And Hebrews tells us they did not enter those with whom God was really not well pleased because of unbelief. That's why. So they were not able, says Hebrews, to enter because of unbelief. There is curse on unbelief. And when these sins dominate in the life of a church, that's a bad sign. And that's what essentially was happening. You know, you had hardened, unrepentant sinners coming to the table. And what do you think Paul is about ready to address in the Lord's Supper? Well, he's about ready to say, because of idolatry in the Supper, many of them were getting what? Sick. Many of them were weak. Because of this. For this reason, many of you are weak and sick and sleep. Now, please don't hear me saying that if you get sick, that means God's judgment's on you. That's not what I'm all saying. Please don't hear that. What I am saying is in this particular case, in this particular situation in Corinth, because these things dominated and they weren't repenting, God had to intervene and put a stop. And at this point, Paul then turns to encourage them. And this is what I'll close with. And it is a real encouragement. He says, to those who think they stand, he says, take heed lest you fall. If you think you're standing yourselves and that kind of pride is dominating your life, I've got bad news for you. A sure and certain fall is coming. You can't stand on your own. Ultimately, those sins are so strong in our lives. Idolatry, sexual morality, tempting Christ and complaining, they're so strong. You can't stand on your own. That's the problem. They're not looking to Him. They're not coming to Him. And Paul says here that it's that kind of pride that's dangerous to us. You heard from Pastor Donovan preaching in James. God gives grace to who? The humble. He lifts up the humble. It's antithetical to pride. And He makes a promise to encourage the tender of heart and the sensitive in these things lest you fall into despair. What does he say? No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God's faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, He will provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Look, God's going to do something for you. You who turn to Him, you who look to Him. What's He going to do? He'll keep you. And He's not going, don't worry, It's not that the armies of the devil are singularly going to line up against you and tempt you with something that is uncommon to man so that you fall. You can't blame it on that. That's also a suggestion here. You can't blame it on that. He will shield you so that you will face nothing that is beyond what is humanly bearable. And he'll give you the way out. He'll make a way of escape. And that's why he taught you to pray something every day you get up. What did he teach you to pray? Lead me not into temptation. Well, if you're not praying it, that's something part and partial to the struggle. You've got to pray. And your responsibility to sanctification, verse 14, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. You read the Reformers on these warning passages which are strong. and you understand why God had to do it. You understand why they're here. He has to warn. There's lethargy. There's people sleeping. How many times do you read in the New Testament, wake up, wake up, wake up. I hope no one's sleeping right now. Wake up. The night is far spent. Your salvation's here. I don't want you going in the way of Israel so that no one, everyone hears me right tonight. What he's telling you this, why is he telling you this? So that he wants to drop bodies in the wilderness? No, he's stirring up the hard hearts among us. And that leads all of us to bow and to ask the Lord for mercy and help and grace and aid in time of need. But that we would take seriously the struggle. I needed that. I needed that this week. The passage troubled me in many respects. I needed that. I needed to be confronted. I needed to take seriously certain things that I'm not taking very seriously as a Christian. And I need to remember that in my struggle, I need to daily go to my sympathetic high priest who has offered himself to me and told me that he was tempted in every way that I was yet without sin so that he is able to give aid to the children of Abraham. He loves to help. But to stiffen our necks in pride and unbelief, Well, we've got to hear there's severe consequences to that. God has told us that over and over, humble yourselves and he'll lift you up. It is and always will be in his strength that any believing saint has access by faith into the grace in which we stand. And I remind you to encourage you tonight that every last one of his sheep, those that the Father gave to the Son, what did Jesus say? in revelation they're all around the throne not one of them is lost every single one is there no one can pluck my sheep out of my hand i'll keep them but i think we should feel this tonight we should feel the seriousness of what we've confessed and believed and we should turn to the lord in true faith believing him and not be as israel who didn't enter because of unbelief which manifested itself in these kind of dominant sins. May the Escondido United Reformed Church then be a place of what? Contra-idolatry. Worshipping the Lord. Contra-sexual immorality. Enjoying Christ. Contra-tempting Him. What can I do? Asking what glorifies Him. contra-grumbling and complaining what you're about to do this week. Thanksgiving. That's the path He has for us. That's what He saved us unto. Let's be thankful to our Lord tonight. Heavenly Father, we realize how insufficient we are and when we consider the weight of this, we also realize these warnings are needed because many don't take this seriously. and many stiffen their necks and we're all guilty of that along the way but we're greatly moved and thankful that when you gave us the gift of faith sealing our hearts for the day of redemption it's not that faith can be taken or lost ultimately why many in Israel did not enter and why you were displeased was because of unbelief and so with believing hearts may we not fall into these sins and guard our hearts from them and strive for self-control, disciplining our bodies, keeping it under control so that we don't become disqualified as Paul described here in the previous section. But that we would be those like athletes who know the goal and the prize that's set before us and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. and thank you that you've said to us tonight you'll always provide a way out and you'll always give grace and more grace to all who look to you in humble faith and we do that tonight asking this week as we go out into another week we pray with all seriousness and integrity of heart oh lord lead us not into temptation in jesus name we pray amen