[0:00] Good morning. Welcome here this morning. I trust as we gather that we've been blessed already and we look forward to continuing this worship in his word.
[0:18] ! Thank you, Jason, for reading the scriptures for us this morning. I marvel at the times that we're in.
[0:40] We are seeing the world divided, perhaps like never before, in taking aside good and evil.
[0:59] Not only with the shooting of Charlie Kirk, which was a clear rebellion against good, against God.
[1:12] And he, the shooter, is in every way representative of anti-God in this world. For Charlie was well known for his stand with the young people, especially for his stand for God, reasoning with them.
[1:38] And the world does not tolerate men like him. God is at work.
[1:53] And like Brother Ben mentioned, many, many have listened to short other messages from Charlie or his debates and so on.
[2:05] We trust the Lord will use that. And just again, in the last couple weeks, seeing God leading Israel and doing things that are unspeakable with Hamas leadership in Qatar.
[2:26] And yet we are living in fascinating times. And as the family of God, we need to be alert.
[2:40] As Thessalonians says, we are not of darkness, we are of light. Though we don't know the day or the hour, we know the season.
[2:53] The times and the seasons. And they are upon us. And so let us, let us, not lose heart, but, but, but gain courage to, to embrace and to just hold on to God.
[3:14] Hold on to your faith. We are blessed to have a church with many young families.
[3:31] And I just want to, I just want to put in a little tweet here for, for Sunday school upstairs. Pastor Henry is leading a course on parenting.
[3:46] And if I ask parents, how many of you have mastered parenting? Please raise your hands. You need to quit your downstairs class, Ben, and come up.
[4:07] When, when we bring up children, we feel often inadequate. And, and, and the, and the course that he's putting on is, it's a video series, but also with a workbook by Gary Thomas.
[4:20] And, and he presents, it's called Sacred Parenting. It's Gary Thomas? Yeah. And, and, and he presents it from this aspect. What is God trying to teach me through my children?
[4:37] How does God want to mature my character? Because ultimately, I am teaching my children through my role model.
[4:49] Older parents, amen. Younger parents as well.
[5:01] We are role models. And so as God uses our children to mature us, we then are able to help our children better.
[5:14] And to teach them. And so, yeah, so I would encourage you, make, make use of a resource here to help you. And, and I'm not putting down Ben's class downstairs.
[5:29] He's, you're going through Book of Mark? Yeah. All right. So this morning, we're in, in Corinthians 10 again, and, or not in 10 again, but in Corinthians again, in chapter 10.
[5:43] And it's, again, continuing from where Pastor Henry left off last Sunday, with, with the Christian life as a race, that we run with endurance, that we are to discipline ourselves as we run, keeping our eyes on the goal.
[6:08] And, and, and so following through with that, chapter 10, he dives into the examples of our forefathers in regarding to running that race.
[6:24] And, and the, the aspect of temptation. Temptation. So when we think of temptation, and as we look back on our life, how successful are we in fleeing or conquering temptations?
[6:57] And where do we find the strength? To say no to temptation, and yes to God. And so this chapter, the first 13 verses brings that out.
[7:10] And, but it looks back on the children of Israel. It, it, it mentions the blessings that they've had, and then their response in unbelief. And yielding to temptation.
[7:22] And then the final teaching in 13 of how do we overcome. And so with that, let's dive in to, to our lesson this morning.
[7:34] So the first four verses, I'll reread them. He says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.
[8:01] For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. So this is a reference to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt as God led them out of captivity.
[8:20] And, and often the parallel is made that it represents us being freed from bondage to sin, to serving Satan.
[8:33] And so we look at these verses, and wow, what a privilege they had. As, as these aspects of God among them is, are mentioned, are listened, are listed here.
[8:52] And so let's look at individually a few of the things listed here. So he says, All our fathers were under the cloud. All passed through the sea.
[9:07] All were baptized into Moses. All ate the same spiritual food and all the same spiritual drink. Take note, in every incident mentioned here, the word all.
[9:24] Every one of them was there. No exceptions. They were all there. They all witnessed. They all saw.
[9:35] They all tasted. So what did they taste? They were all under the cloud. So what's that a reference to? Under the cloud.
[9:47] Under the cloud. Under the cloud. God shielded them by a cloud by day.
[10:03] And so when they escaped Egypt, God led them by a cloud. And later, when the Egyptians caught up, God brought the cloud behind them and shielded and protected them because it was darkness.
[10:24] so they saw God represented in a cloud leading them all were in the cloud, all saw the cloud leading them so all were under the cloud all passed through the sea we know the story of the children of Israel coming to the Red Sea having no place to turn and they cried out to Moses what now?
[11:05] have you brought us out of Egypt just to kill us? and God again demonstrated his almighty hand and he parted the Red Sea for them and so they were all all passed through the sea and every one of the Israelites or back then the Hebrews passed through the Red Sea safely and every one of the Egyptians drowned and God again showed his mighty hand and so he was a pillar of fire by night to give them light and a cloud by day God in their midst and I don't know if you can just think in your mind what that could have been like and so they were driven they were driven to dependency on God because they had nowhere to turn all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and the word baptism generally is used in the context of being identified with and so when we have a baptism service in church or wherever a water baptism it is a public identification with Christ
[12:49] I am a follower of Jesus Christ and and here they were identified with a leader called Moses whom God had prepared for this very task so all of them were baptized into Moses not that Moses was their savior but he was their leader he represented God to them and he was the guy they went to when they wanted to complain but he was also the guy that led them to rejoice and so Moses their leader all ate the same spiritual food what was that food called?
[13:47] the manna the manna what's unique about manna? what's unique about the way God provided it?
[14:00] it fell from heaven okay let's expound on that what was God teaching them through manna?
[14:16] to lean on him when we go shopping do you just shop for today? groceries I mean actually a lot of third world countries I think they do more so but but here here we're used to shopping for the week or however long depending where we live well you know what they were instructed to gather a specific volume of manna per person nothing more and if you gather more what's going to happen?
[14:56] it's going to breed worms and stink and of course do you think they tried it? absolutely they tried it and it stank so what was God teaching them?
[15:13] every day you're going to have to depend on me and go out and look for bread which I'm going to bring from heaven for 40 years every day they were reliant on God to eat directly directly and the lesson is that each one of us needs to learn reliance on Jesus Christ for our spiritual food and our physical and so that was the lesson they had all ate the same spiritual food back and all of this happened in Exodus where it's all recorded all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was
[16:13] Christ do we know the story of the water coming out of the rock? why don't we turn turn to scriptures for that one Exodus 17 Exodus 17 I would have loved to read all of the accounts but our morning would get kind of long Exodus 17 1-7 then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the wilderness of sin according to the commandment of the Lord and camped in Rephidim but there was no water for the people to drink and therefore the people contended with Moses what does contended mean?
[17:27] they they argued with Moses or they complained they contended with Moses and said give us water baptized into Moses identified he was their leader leader give us water you're to blame and said give us water so Moses said to them why do you contend with me?
[17:52] why do you tempt the Lord? and the people thirsted there for water and the people complained against Moses and said why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst and so Moses cried out to the Lord saying what shall I do with his people they are almost ready to stone me and the Lord said to Moses go on before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river and go behold I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it that the people may drink and Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel so he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the contention of the children of Israel because they tempted the Lord saying is the Lord among us or not and so
[19:01] Jesus Christ represented as the spiritual rock and when they murmured against Moses and ultimately against God God said I will give you water to drink and he commanded Moses to go to Horeb and to take the same staff stick that he had smote over the Red Sea and it divided take that same one and strike the rock once and water gushed out how much water rivers of water for we were 600 plus thousand men and women and children and a mixed multitude and their livestock all drank out of the water coming out of the rock
[20:09] Jesus Christ representing the rock did you know that this pictures the cross that Jesus was struck on the cross and this this illustration back in the wilderness already pictured that Jesus Christ would have to be struck crucified it was a picture of that but the children of Israel witnessed this and an abundant of water rushed out when Jesus died on the cross 1500 years later his voice was come unto me he who believes out of his heart will flow rivers of living water water
[21:15] I want to go on a little side trip here little side road later in the wilderness journey when again they complained because there was no water what did Moses do he went to God and God said I want you to go to the rock and I want you to speak to the rock and I will bring out water and what did Moses do he struck the rock not once but twice he struck the rock twice and it was a display of unbelief in our
[22:16] Lord Jesus Christ's ability and Moses was speaking out of his flesh when he said must I bring out water out of this rock for you rebels he was speaking out of frustration out of his flesh and he said must I and what was his consequence he would die in the wilderness as well he did not obey God and so that's a little side side note there but but still related to the rock and that spiritual rock followed them Jesus Christ okay so all of this the cloud by day the pillar of fire by night the red sea opening for them the manna for 40 years water in abundance
[23:25] God in every aspect and as we go on to back to our Corinthians passage on to verse 5 but with most of them God was not well pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness and how many did cross over into the promised land sorry yeah so of the adults two Joshua and Caleb yeah and then everybody 20 years and down and that was born after but of all the adults 20 and up that murmured against
[24:33] God only two not even Moses and Aaron got to go in now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 3 and we're going to see the core the root problem here Hebrews chapter 3 verse 17 Hebrews 3 now with whom was he angry forty years was it not with those who sinned whose corpses fell in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but those to those who did not obey so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief let's read on two more verses therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them back in the wilderness but the word which they heard did not profit them and why not because it was not mixed with faith they did not believe for we who have believed do enter that rest and so beware of unbelief in the living
[26:50] God is the lesson that we have this morning now do you expect to see Moses in heaven absolutely and his brother Aaron and likely many others and because God slew all of them in the wilderness does not mean that many of them did not learn to trust and turn to him in faith but the consequence of their disobedience was their bodies would fall in the wilderness so we cannot make a blanket statement say they're all in hell that's not the purpose or the intent for God alone knows their personal faith but they struggled as a whole with unbelief and many likely will not be there because they continued to murmur and complain so let's turn back to
[27:54] Corinthians and we have listed for us four four of their sins that's kind of representative to us today and by the way all of this is written for my benefit and for yours in that we are to learn to not follow suit to not do the same verse 7 is the first one and do not become idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play now this is a direct reference to Exodus 32 and it's the story of Moses coming down after 40 days from Mount
[29:02] Horeb with the Ten Commandments and what did he find he found a golden calf what was happening idol worship our leader Moses has been delayed he's been gone for two weeks we're in a panic what are we going to do let us make a god and give him credit for leading us out of Egypt and they turned to Aaron the brother of Moses and Aaron surrendered to their pressures and Aaron cast it into molded a golden calf and
[30:04] Moses comes down from the mountain and here they are dancing around and worshipping a gold calf and giving it credit for bringing them out of Egypt for parting the Red Sea for being the pillar of cloud and of fire does God have a reason to be angry it reveals the human heart idol worship we are prone to it it's it's who we are without Jesus Christ idol worship what else happened that day we know that Moses ground up the calf and put it into the water and made them drink it he was pretty mad what else happened they were executed and God sent a plague and how many died 3,000 men died that day the giving of the law 3,000 men died the law is unable to save and as often the comparison on the day of Pentecost the fulfillment of the law the giving of the Holy
[31:45] Spirit 3,000 souls were saved and were were added to the church they were baptized publicly the reversal law and grace and so we see that already in Exodus so they were idolaters now of course we don't have a little golden calf on our table or on our mantle do we I trust we don't we don't does that mean we do not have idols just ask one simple question what consumes my time and my energy where do
[32:52] I leave time and energy and and if something comes up you may be dealing with an idol I don't need to point out which one it is but ask that question is is there something in my life that's consuming me and if there is likely we have idol worship for Christ wants to consume us the second one verse eight nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day twenty three thousand fell and it's a reference back to numbers twenty one or sorry numbers twenty five and it's it's upon the advice of
[33:56] Balaam the children of Israel the men are committing adultery sexual immorality with the Moabite and the Midianite women forbidden by God given by the counsel of Balaam the prophet that wanted to cast a curse on Israel and God forbid them well he went in a sly way after and taught them encouraged them to commit adultery or sexual immorality with these women twenty three thousand died sexual immorality is another temptation that we are also struggling with in our societies we need to ward against it for it is a temptation that that is from
[34:59] Satan to distract us to to veer us off that race that we're running to discipline us against it and now with with our digital world sexual immorality has become so much more prevalent and available it's very real and we are to put it away for they struggled twenty three thousand died that day idol worship sexual immorality verse nine nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents and and the word tempted there has the aspect of being tested and so they were they tested
[36:06] God and with their murmuring and their complaining it's a reference back to numbers twenty one and their wording their wording directly was there's no water and our soul loathes hates this worthless bread they were mocking God's provision for them they were not afraid discontented they murmured against God they tested him his patience his mercy his grace Moses had to make a brown serpent put it on a pole and whoever would look upon it would then live because God because of their murmuring had sent fiery serpents in their midst and they got bit and they died and here too is a picture of God's provision for salvation
[37:18] Jesus being hung on a pole on a cross complaining murmuring grumbling let it not be named among us for when we complain it is saying God I'm not satisfied or content with how you're doing things whether it's we need rain or we need sunshine or we need snow or we need this or we need that we're saying God I'm not content I just picked on the weather there could be a lot of other issues that we learn to grumble about but ultimately we're saying God you're not doing a good job I could do it better many died through that plague and then fourthly verse 10 nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer and
[38:43] I think this is a direct connection to Korah and the sons of Korah as they led a rebellion against Moses and so Korah and his followers were Levites and they were serving in the temple they were serving God they were set apart for that but they were not descendants of Aaron so God had said the priests will come out of Aaron's line Aaron was also a Levite but of the sons of Levi only Aaron and his descendants would be the priests the rest of the Levites would serve in other areas in the temple as gatekeepers as musicians as whatever well Korah said I am not happy with God's plan it's not fair that only Aaron's descendants can be priests I'm going to be a priest as well and they contended with
[39:44] Moses and said enough everybody has the right to be what they want to be does that ring a bell everybody has the right that's what they were thinking and you know what happened to Korah and his family and his followers I'm going to wait for the answer what happened to them they got swallowed up the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up and closed back in and they were buried gone wiped out and not only that God sent a plague and another 14,000 died who had been in support of
[40:48] Korah and so God did away with rebellion there complaining just a little bit application on that point further did you know that the transgender movement is slapping God in the face and saying God we know better did you know that the women's liberation movement that has swept our country in the last 50 years is saying God we know better we're going to reverse what you installed how you created this one is even more sensitive we're seeing a sweeping I'm going to say this we're seeing a sweeping of women pastors and pulpits
[41:56] And it's becoming accepted and now we're saying it's right and yet scripture says no we're reversing God's plan we're saying we know better God will deal with it so let's keep going now all these things in verse 11 happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come they were written for our benefit for our learning so this happened in real life back then but God had a purpose with it to teach us because it reveals man's tendencies when we're not in the faith therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall for pride will cause us to fall flat on our face he was talking about temptation and so the four kind of categories of sin that we just talked about we are still faced with every one of them the temptation to go there even as
[43:45] God's children and hence verse 13 no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able but will with the temptation make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it so now directly addressing temptation and it's going to close our sermon this morning as we deal with temptation God brings about three points here he says no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man what's our tendency when we struggle with temptation you're alone okay what was your answer
[44:57] Abe sorry capitulate Satan wants you to think that you alone are struggling with us no one else and if it's only you how dare you bring it out and go for help that's Satan's line of thinking see he is the God of this world a God of darkness and he wants it kept hidden so if he can convince us only I am struggling no one else I'm not going to share it with anyone I'm not going to turn even to God for help but God says no temptation has taken you except as is common to man in fact men and women everywhere are facing this and it's a lie of the devil to make you think you are alone because victory comes when we bring it to light okay so that's the first point here the second one but
[46:19] God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able he will not allow temptation to come upon you which you are unable to handle he's talking to his children here in other words God is saying I test or sift through every temptation that comes your way because Satan would like to overpower you with temptation that you would not survive and God says no not so he will not allow it now often it feels like it does it not this is too big I can't handle this but that too is a lie but we need to believe that
[47:25] God is in charge and allowing what's coming our way we all know the story of Job how God put a boundary on Satan only thus far you can go with my servant and so that's the second point and the third one is one that that we maybe even struggle with the most he says he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able but will make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it so every time we face temptation God says I have made a way out I have made a way out that we need not fail do we believe that there is always a way out but the choice is ours whether we will take it!
[48:38] so then the conclusion is that when we yield to temptation we have chosen to I have decided to and you know what when I've thought about my own life and some of the temptations that I've faced I've had to acknowledge that my flesh actually enjoyed it and I didn't want a way out but it's only as I get to know God more that the realization this is wrong I don't want to be here anymore and then the joy in the flesh goes away and I start to look for a way out and
[49:41] I'll find it because God says it's there so first I have to agree with God that this is sin and it's bad for me if we don't do that we will not see the way out these things are written to us as an admonition as a teaching that we can be successful in conquering sin because the power is there in the Holy Spirit there's two camps represented here this morning the first camp is that they saw God's works and they rebelled in unbelief and just because we're church goers does not mean that we're in the faith because these guys were church goers and
[50:58] God was not well pleased but he is well pleased when we give our heart to him and acknowledge him you are my savior and it's only then that we can fight these temptations and look for that way out and that's why scripture says let none of these even be named among you because it's not right it doesn't belong for we bear the name of Christ so it's a powerful testimony this morning of of actual scriptural happenings in the Old Testament and how we can come free and therefore as Hebrew says do not harden your heart for today is the day of salvation do not harden your heart and unbelief but believe let's close father you are so so gracious with us yet father you are just and right thank you providing salvation and thank you providing a way out of temptation and lord as we get to know you more and more our heart desires to do right and we look for that strength that you've given us father may you direct and have your way and have your way with each one here that there would be victory and that your name would not be blasphemed to your glory we pray in Jesus name amen