SPEAKER_01: If you have your copy of God's Word with you, and I hope that you do, would you open it up to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 10?
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to follow along with the Pew Bible in front of you, you can find it on page 957.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: Wise men learn their lessons from their mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: But even wiser men learn the lessons from other people's mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that the Bible you have in front of you, your Bibles that you're holding in your hands right now, a little over 40% of them, almost half of your Bible, is written in the genre of historical narrative.
SPEAKER_01: Divinely inspired recountings of the real lives of God's people throughout history.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Why has God chosen to give you so much of his revelation as historical narrative?
SPEAKER_01: Well, certainly the primary reason that so much of your Bible or these real life stories is to display God's character and his faithfulness as he works out his purposes and fulfills his promises to his people.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: But a secondary reason why so much of your Bible is historical narrative is because these stories are given to us to serve as lessons.
SPEAKER_01: They're supposed to teach us, to instruct us with the examples of the men and women we find in its pages.
SPEAKER_01: Both their examples of faithfulness, which we do well to follow, and the lessons we learn from their examples of failure, which we do well to avoid.
SPEAKER_01: And that's precisely the opportunity the Apostle Paul gives us here this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1 through 13.
SPEAKER_01: The opportunity to listen to the story of Israel's failure in the wilderness, in order that we might not fall into the exact same temptations and sins in our lives today.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to read the passage together, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes, 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 the rock was Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
SPEAKER_01: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
SPEAKER_01: God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
SPEAKER_01: But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
SPEAKER_01: Thus reads the word of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if I was going to try and summarize that passage in one sentence, it might go something like this.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let spiritual complacency lead you into spiritual catastrophe.
SPEAKER_01: How many men tumble head first into disaster simply because they let their guards down?
SPEAKER_01: Apostasy has slain its thousands, but apathy its tens of thousands.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest danger you are probably going to face in your Christian life is not persecution.
SPEAKER_01: Although persecution is real and you may face it.
SPEAKER_01: But the greatest danger to your Christian life is probably pride and passivity.
SPEAKER_01: A dusty Bible is more dangerous to you than a dozen devils.
SPEAKER_01: And the Apostle Paul loves the Corinthian church.
SPEAKER_01: He cares about them deeply.
SPEAKER_01: Last week, Pastor Michael told us that he probably pulled all of his hair out with all the problems going on in the Corinthian church, and that's probably true.
SPEAKER_01: There's plenty of problems in the Corinthian church.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul loves these people.
SPEAKER_01: He's their spiritual father.
SPEAKER_01: They're his spiritual children, he says.
SPEAKER_01: He longs to see them succeed, and he's concerned that all of their confidence they have in themselves is setting them up for potential disaster.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe that's the meta-narrative of 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let the constancy of God's kindness towards you in his blessings lull you into a complacency that allows you to tumble into temptation and sin.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the Corinthian church is incredibly, immensely, overwhelmingly blessed.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he starts the letter in chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes, I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That in every way you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, so that you are not lacking in any gift.
SPEAKER_01: The Corinthians are overwhelmingly blessed by God.
SPEAKER_01: And he's worried that all of this blessing they're experiencing might cause them to take their eyes off the spiritual ball.
SPEAKER_01: That their experience of God's kindness would slide into a complacency that leads them into catastrophe.
SPEAKER_01: And to warn them against that potential danger, he gives them a history lesson.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to divide our time this morning into two parts.
SPEAKER_01: If you're the kind of person that likes to take notes, there's going to be two headings that you can keep your thoughts under.
SPEAKER_01: The first of which is simply learn from Israel's example.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how he begins in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: For I don't want you to be unaware brothers.
SPEAKER_01: This is Paul's way of saying, hey, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Don't fail to learn this lesson.
SPEAKER_01: Take this to heart.
SPEAKER_01: Learn it and learn it well, because if you do, these lessons will help safeguard your own soul from this same kind of ruin.
SPEAKER_01: And he's using gentle language, of course.
SPEAKER_01: He calls them brothers, he loves them dearly.
SPEAKER_01: But he is using language that's supposed to get your attention and cause you to wake up and say, hey, I don't want you to be ignorant about the reality of your world.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to be uninformed about the very real dangers you are in every day with temptation to sin.
SPEAKER_01: Open your eyes and look at the stories God has given you from the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Because they were blind to the spiritual dangers they found themselves in, and it led to their ruin in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul transports us all the way back to the time of the Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: And he reminds us of all the very real spiritual blessings that Israel is enjoying.
SPEAKER_01: First, he says they were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
SPEAKER_01: And as Christians, we understand this is a reference to the time of the Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: This is the time of God's rescuing his people from their bondage and slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: In Exodus 13, Moses records for us that it was the Lord Himself, Yahweh, who came and went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.
SPEAKER_01: It is God Himself dwelling there in their midst, every day and every night, showing them exactly when and where they should go.
SPEAKER_01: And this cloud of God's guiding presence, Moses writes, did not depart from before the people.
SPEAKER_01: God was always with them.
SPEAKER_01: He did not abandon them, he did not forsake them.
SPEAKER_01: Every single day of their journey, God was right there with them.
SPEAKER_01: And it's God Himself, who is in their presence, who not only rescues them, but He's directing their steps, and He guides them not only to the Red Sea, but through the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: In Exodus 14, Moses records for us the Israelites were facing an insurmountable problem.
SPEAKER_01: They were between a rock and a hard place.
SPEAKER_01: There's an ocean in front of them.
SPEAKER_01: There's Pharaoh's army behind them.
SPEAKER_01: But God parts the sea so that the Israelites could cross on dry land, and then those very same walls of water that God had held up come crashing down on Pharaoh's chariots to rescue his people.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is epic stuff.
SPEAKER_01: This is Charlton Heston kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: This is real blessing, incredible blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Acts of God's kindness.
SPEAKER_01: He's rescuing them, he's guiding them, he's shielding them, he's with them.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul is using the language here of baptism to indicate that every single one of them was completely immersed in this kindness of God.
SPEAKER_01: That every single one of them, as they followed Moses, were receiving God's blessing mediated through his leadership.
SPEAKER_01: But in mercy upon mercy, the blessings don't stop when they get to the other bank.
SPEAKER_01: God continues his incredible kindnesses to them.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3, Paul writes, and all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink.
SPEAKER_01: For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I'll admit there's a lot going on there in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: The food there, we realize, is a reference to the manna which God caused to come every night.
SPEAKER_01: And the Israelites would wake every morning to find it there to feed them and sustain them.
SPEAKER_01: And God always provided sustenance to these nomadic Israelites journeying on their way through the desert.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says that they drank spiritual drink from the rock, and that's a reference to two different stories that Moses records to us of the Exodus wanderings.
SPEAKER_01: The first in Exodus 17, where God commands Moses to use his staff and to strike the rock, and water flows out of the rock at Mount Horeb to give his parched people refreshment and life.
SPEAKER_01: The second reference comes from Numbers chapter 20, where God there commands Moses merely to speak to the rock, but Moses, having a flair for the dramatic, chooses to hit the rock with his staff a second time, and in so doing brings forth not only water, but also condemnation for his impertinence and disobedience to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so the references are very clear, but what's the deal with Paul saying that the rock was following them and that the rock was Christ?
SPEAKER_01: What's going on there?
SPEAKER_01: And Paul is picking up here on a traditional Jewish folkloric tale because these two stories bracket the Exodus wilderness wandering story that the rock was with them.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a way of Paul using language to picture God's unceasing kindness to his people.
SPEAKER_01: At every step along the way, from the beginning to the end, not once did God abandon them, not once did God forsake them.
SPEAKER_01: Not once did God leave them without exactly what they needed to survive.
SPEAKER_01: And that's probably what Paul is trying to get at with his language here of spiritual food and spiritual drink and the rock being Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He's just pointing out that all of the blessings they received had one divine source, that it was the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ, who is with them and blessing them.
SPEAKER_01: And that every blessing they received, and every blessing you will receive in your entire life, whether it's physical blessings or temporal blessings or spiritual blessings, every blessing comes from one place, from God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, mediated by the power of his Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Every blessing is a divine blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of those things is a kindness of the Lord to his people.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, you got to be going, wow, how blessed are these Israelites?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God has rescued them out of bondage.
SPEAKER_01: He is dwelling with them every day, he is guiding them every step of the way, he's providing for their every need.
SPEAKER_01: This is blessing central.
SPEAKER_01: This is like main street blessing.
SPEAKER_01: You can't get away from it.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul is making it very clear in this passage that every single one of the Israelites who was with Moses on his way out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the wilderness, every single one of them were very real recipients of God's very real blessings to them.
SPEAKER_01: And you know this because he uses the word all five times in these first five verses.
SPEAKER_01: Did you see it?
SPEAKER_01: Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.
SPEAKER_01: All of them were baptized into Moses.
SPEAKER_01: All of them ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink.
SPEAKER_01: And then to make sure the Corinthians don't miss the analogy he's trying to draw there, he's using loaded language like baptism and spiritual food and spiritual drink.
SPEAKER_01: The Corinthians and us today are supposed to go, wow, they're not really all that different from us.
SPEAKER_01: We too have been baptized into God's immeasurable blessings through our baptism into the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit at our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We too are the recipients of spiritual food and spiritual drink that sustains us every day of the Christian journey.
SPEAKER_01: They're not all that different from us.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants the Corinthians and us today to realize that it is entirely possible to be a part of God's people, to have God Himself dwelling in your midst, to receive his very real spiritual blessings on your life, and nonetheless come to spiritual ruin.
SPEAKER_01: What does he say in verse 5?
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: How most, you ask?
SPEAKER_01: That's a good question.
SPEAKER_01: You study your Old Testament, you do a little back of the napkin math, you end up with a number of around two million people that came out with Moses in the Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: Give or take.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus 12 says there were 600,000 adult men who crossed out of Egypt with him.
SPEAKER_01: You add women, you add children, you add the elderly.
SPEAKER_01: It's not hard to get into the millions.
SPEAKER_01: Two million people come out of Egypt and cross through the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember how many of them made it to the Promised Land?
SPEAKER_01: Two.
SPEAKER_01: Just Joshua and Caleb, that's it.
SPEAKER_01: Not even Moses got there because of his disobedience to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's a one in a million shot to make it through Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: All the rest of them were overthrown, verse 5 says.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word there is katastronomy.
SPEAKER_01: You can even hear our English word catastrophe coming from it.
SPEAKER_01: So how did that happen?
SPEAKER_01: How does Israel go from God's kindness to catastrophe?
SPEAKER_01: How do they go from rescue to ruin?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Paul describes their downfall with four headings, four categories of sin that all marked the Israelites on their wilderness journey.
SPEAKER_01: But all four of those categories fall under one big idea.
SPEAKER_01: The big idea of verse six.
SPEAKER_01: They desired evil, it says.
SPEAKER_01: Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.
SPEAKER_01: That were desired.
SPEAKER_01: They indulged in it.
SPEAKER_01: They gave themselves over to the lusts of their heart, their cravings, despite being quite literally surrounded by God's blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how did they do that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the first heading he gives us is idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: They became idolaters in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be idolaters as some of them were.
SPEAKER_01: As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
SPEAKER_01: Idolatry just means that you're worshiping something instead of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the Corinthians that Paul was writing to were very well acquainted with the idea of idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: They had pagan temples all around them, they had giant statues, there were sacrifices, there were pagan priests going in and out, constantly demanding that they would give their worship to something other than the one true living God.
SPEAKER_01: And most of the Corinthians had been rescued out of this kind of idolatrous lifestyle.
SPEAKER_01: They knew what idolatry was.
SPEAKER_01: It was something that they had been a part of for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: It would have been very easy for them to just slide back into the old patterns, to just pick up where they left off.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites certainly did.
SPEAKER_01: They fall into idolatry almost immediately after the Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: In Exodus chapter 32, which by the way, Paul is quoting directly in verse 7, you remember the story there of how the Israelites convince Aaron, Moses' brother, to craft them a golden calf that they could worship it.
SPEAKER_01: And I've always been so fascinated by that story.
SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you get there that fast?
SPEAKER_01: You know, like you're still wringing out the washcloth that you dropped in the Red Sea, and already there's a golden calf.
SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you get there?
SPEAKER_01: But John Calvin actually helps me answer that question in two different ways.
SPEAKER_01: First, in his commentary, he observes from Paul's quotation of Exodus 32 that what they had done was they sat down to eat and to drink and arose up to play.
SPEAKER_01: You know what they were doing?
SPEAKER_01: The same thing they had seen the Israelites do for the last 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: The same thing they saw all of the nations around them doing.
SPEAKER_01: This is how you do it.
SPEAKER_01: This is just normal life.
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to have a little statue, and you're supposed to have a little feast, and you're supposed to engage in, let's call it, frivolities that are inappropriate.
SPEAKER_01: That's just normal life.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't, it wasn't the golden calf that was weird at Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: It was Moses going up the mountain to receive the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: That was weird.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites, they're just doing what everyone else was doing.
SPEAKER_01: They're just doing what they were familiar with.
SPEAKER_01: So that's an easy way to fall into that.
SPEAKER_01: But a second way, Calvin helps me understand how quickly you can get into idolatry is that he reminds us that the human heart is a factory of idols.
SPEAKER_01: Our natural inclination is to redirect our worship away from God and onto something else, anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the transcendent is hard.
SPEAKER_01: For the tangible, that's so easy.
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy for that thing that fills your schedule to be that thing that fills your heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy to for that thing that you can grasp a hold of to grasp a hold of you.
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, idolatry doesn't always look like golden calves or statues of Zeus.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, most of the time it doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think any of you probably drove past a pagan temple to Zeus or a golden calf on your way to church this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Probably not.
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean you didn't drive by idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Oz Guinness offers a helpful reminder here.
SPEAKER_01: Idolatry may not involve explicit denials of God's existence or his character.
SPEAKER_01: It may well come in the form of an over-attachment to something that is in itself perfectly good.
SPEAKER_01: An idol can be a physical object, a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hope, an idea, a pleasure, a hero, anything that can substitute for God can become an idol.
SPEAKER_01: Tim Keller, I think, gives us an even simpler diagnostic question.
SPEAKER_01: What's an idol?
SPEAKER_01: An idol is anything that you love, serve, or trust in more than God.
SPEAKER_01: That's an idol.
SPEAKER_01: We're surrounded by things that are begging for our worship.
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy to fall into idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Israel did.
SPEAKER_01: And their idolatry led quite naturally into immorality.
SPEAKER_01: That's what verse eight says.
SPEAKER_01: We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty three thousand fell in a single day.
SPEAKER_01: Sexual sin is a siren song that is seeking to shipwreck every single one.
SPEAKER_01: Of us here.
SPEAKER_01: And if Satan cannot lure your heart away with idolatry, he is more than happy to aim his darts a couple of feet lower.
SPEAKER_01: Israel fell victim that way.
SPEAKER_01: The story that Paul is recounting here comes from Numbers chapter 25, where, and I quote, Israel began to whore with the daughters of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: They were surrounded by these nations, by the Moabite people who are leaning into this licentiousness, this debauchery that is scandalously surrounding them, and their eyes and their hearts are enticed and lured by these things, and their unchecked libidos led them into these illicit relationships, and those illicit relationships drag them into apostasy.
SPEAKER_01: One thing that Numbers 25 should teach you is that sexual sin is never going to be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: It always pulls you farther than you expected to go.
SPEAKER_01: And it's never going to remain secret for very long.
SPEAKER_01: And it is always going to bring devastation in its wake.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember how the story ends in Numbers chapter 25?
SPEAKER_01: It ends with Phineas, Aaron's grandson, driving a spear between a man, through a man and a woman together.
SPEAKER_01: And then a plague where 23,000 people die because of their sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: Sexual sin always destroys more than it delivers.
SPEAKER_01: So Israel have become idolaters, they've become sexually immoral, and they're also impertinent, Paul says in verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Here they put Christ to the test and were destroyed by serpents.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember that one?
SPEAKER_01: It's an oldie but a goody.
SPEAKER_01: Numbers 21.
SPEAKER_01: Moses has been leading the people through the wilderness, but they grow impatient with his progress.
SPEAKER_01: They start to question God's wisdom, God's motive, God's means in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Numbers 21, 5 records, and the people spoke against God and against Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_01: For there is no food and no water.
SPEAKER_01: And we loathe this worthless food.
SPEAKER_01: And I absolutely love that their complaint is self-defeating.
SPEAKER_01: Like it's not even logically consistent.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: This is the worst.
SPEAKER_01: We're all gonna starve to death.
SPEAKER_01: There's no food except for all this food, but we don't like that food.
SPEAKER_01: That's worthless food.
SPEAKER_01: Like, even their like, understand the problem is not that they're starving to death.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, what's going on is they become dissatisfied with Moses' leadership and they would like to speak with Moses' manager.
SPEAKER_01: And so they are putting Christ to the test.
SPEAKER_01: Essentially, putting Christ to the test seems to mean something like demanding that God meet your standards of faithfulness, that God lives up to your expectations.
SPEAKER_01: Like, really, manna, this was the best you could do.
SPEAKER_01: Quail, I don't even like quail, I'm a red meat kind of guy.
SPEAKER_01: Rock water, rock water?
SPEAKER_01: People aren't gonna pay$4 for rock water for another couple thousand years.
SPEAKER_01: A sand dune, again, just like yesterday, just like the day before.
SPEAKER_01: How is this a good deal, God?
SPEAKER_01: How are you better than Egypt?
SPEAKER_01: I know in Egypt we were slaves and we were making bricks, but man, at least in Egypt we had onions and leeks and presumably some vegetables that I would rank higher on my list than onions and leeks.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to appreciate that what that sinful thought is actually doing is subverting the sovereignty of God and placing him on trial in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: If you were really God, you wouldn't be treating me this way.
SPEAKER_01: If you were really God, you would give me something better.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I owe you anything if you give me so little?
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear in that complaint the echoes of the serpent's words to Eve in the garden?
SPEAKER_01: You know, if God really loved you, if he really cared about you, he wouldn't withhold good things from you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's doing, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: And that tree, that tree right there, that's a good tree.
SPEAKER_01: You deserve that tree.
SPEAKER_01: You should just take it.
SPEAKER_01: In a little bit of disobedience, you'll get everything you want.
SPEAKER_01: What Numbers 21 is teaching you is if you're gonna start to think like the serpent did, don't be all that shocked when God sends fiery serpents to punish you.
SPEAKER_01: Idolatry, immorality, impertinence, and finally ingratitude, a closely related sin in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Some grumbled, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
SPEAKER_01: This here is a reference to the events of Korah's rebellion in Numbers chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: Korah is an Israelite, he's a member of the tribe of Levi, and he starts to get dissatisfied with his station in life.
SPEAKER_01: He thinks he deserves more.
SPEAKER_01: After all, aren't we a kingdom of priests and a royal priesthood, all of us?
SPEAKER_01: Aren't I of the tribe of Levi?
SPEAKER_01: How come Moses and Aaron get to be in charge?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I would do a better job.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I deserve to be in charge around here.
SPEAKER_01: And so he organizes a grassroots occupy Sinai movement to fight the injustice.
SPEAKER_01: And do you remember what happens?
SPEAKER_01: God answers his ingratitude by sending an earthquake to consume Korah and the ringleaders.
SPEAKER_01: And the other people think that's so unfair, they continue complaining, and a plague comes, and 15,000 people died.
SPEAKER_01: At least one thing that Numbers 16 should teach you is that God takes grumbling seriously.
SPEAKER_01: Ingratitude is a serious sin.
SPEAKER_01: And it deserves every bit of the punishment it gets.
SPEAKER_01: So you add all this together.
SPEAKER_01: Idolatry, immorality, impertinence, ingratitude.
SPEAKER_01: Israel falls into every one of these sins on their wilderness wandering, and they suffer catastrophe.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says all of that happened to them as examples for us.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, 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.
SPEAKER_01: Instruction, it's the Greek word, neuthacia.
SPEAKER_01: It was written down to confront us, to warn us, so that we wouldn't do the same things.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you see how easy it is to fall into sin?
SPEAKER_01: Idolatry is all around you, asking, begging you to worship something other than God.
SPEAKER_01: There's a temptation to sexual immorality that's all around you, hoping to snag you by the sheets and drag you down with it.
SPEAKER_01: There is discontentment and disappointment that are trying to kick open the door of your heart to just distrust God and engage in a little bit of disobedience, because maybe you could run this whole thing better.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul's saying, I beg you, my brothers, learn from Israel's example.
SPEAKER_01: Be aware of the danger of temptation and sin because it's all around you.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't just stop there.
SPEAKER_01: There's more to Paul's message than just learn from Israel's example because he goes on to say that you should also look to the Lord's rescue when you face temptation.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12 gives us our one and only imperative in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: If you're the kind of person that's looking for a command, if you want God to tell you what to do, he tells you what to do right here in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Take heed.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12, therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
SPEAKER_01: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let God's kindness to you think that you're not susceptible to falling into temptation.
SPEAKER_01: Temptation's common to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: It's common to man.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone's going to be tempted.
SPEAKER_01: If you are a human being, you are going to be tempted.
SPEAKER_01: Every single human being has been and will be.
SPEAKER_01: Israel's temptations in the wilderness are not unique.
SPEAKER_01: That's common to mankind.
SPEAKER_01: We suffer with the same kinds of problems.
SPEAKER_01: We face the same temptations.
SPEAKER_01: There are going to be things in your life that are going to try and get you to worship them, to try and steal your devotion and your trust and your confidence and your hope.
SPEAKER_01: There are going to be idols around you.
SPEAKER_01: Sexual immorality is going to hover around you, just one click away, one call away, one text message away, promising that you'll get away this time.
SPEAKER_01: Difficulties and disappointments are going to arise in your life, hoping to get you to distrust God and act disobediently.
SPEAKER_01: Every single one of us is going to walk out of this room today and face a temptation to sin.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to get to the parking lot, and your three beautiful children are not going to want to listen and get in their car seats like they're supposed to.
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, you will be faced with the temptation.
SPEAKER_01: Are you going to grumble?
SPEAKER_01: That's real sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's real temptation.
SPEAKER_01: It's common to all of us, and it's a normal part of humanity in a fallen word.
SPEAKER_01: You should expect to face temptation.
SPEAKER_01: But the other thing he's getting across here is that this kind of temptation, no temptation's overtaking you that's not common to man.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting the same temptations that everyone else is getting.
SPEAKER_01: One commentator writes, there's no superhuman temptations.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that you're going to face that's beyond capacity.
SPEAKER_01: There's only ever been one human being that faced the absolute full, unadulterated brunt of pure temptation, and he didn't sin when he faced it.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know why none of the rest of us are gonna see that?
SPEAKER_01: Because we fall too quickly.
SPEAKER_01: But praise God that he did not.
SPEAKER_01: It's a normal part of life.
SPEAKER_01: It's common to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: There's a thousand different circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: And your life is not looking exactly the same as my life, but we're all facing the exact same struggles, the exact same lure to engage in the same kinds of temptations and the same kinds of sins that Israel has.
SPEAKER_01: But verse 13 is here to let you know that God is faithful and he will not let you face any temptation beyond the degree of human capacity to withstand it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying here.
SPEAKER_01: And so, no matter what anybody claims, it's not true.
SPEAKER_01: The devil did not, in fact, make you do it.
SPEAKER_01: You did it.
SPEAKER_01: You fell into that sin, just as we all have.
SPEAKER_01: And part of the reason God gives us this historical narrative, part of the reason 43% of your Bible is a story of God's people is so that when you study that, you realize that all of it it's profit for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to read the story of David and Goliath and see in that faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And you're supposed to read in that story of David and Bathsheba and see sin and learn from both of them.
SPEAKER_01: How are you going to keep your way pure, young man, by keeping it according to Scripture?
SPEAKER_01: But if you listen to this sermon and your takeaway so far is, okay, I need to do a better job.
SPEAKER_01: I need to really buckle down.
SPEAKER_01: Alex is telling me I need to get my head in the game and quit sinning so much.
SPEAKER_01: And if I try harder, I can do that.
SPEAKER_01: You have missed the point.
SPEAKER_01: You're missing the thing that Paul is teaching you.
SPEAKER_01: Look closer at the subjects and verbs of verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he actually says.
SPEAKER_01: No temptation has overtaken you that's not common to man.
SPEAKER_01: God is faithful, not you.
SPEAKER_01: God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
SPEAKER_01: But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able passive voice to endure it.
SPEAKER_01: The whole point of the admonition here is not to trust in yourself.
SPEAKER_01: If you think you're strong enough to resist temptation, you're in the same boat the Corinthians are.
SPEAKER_01: You're in the same boat the Israelites were.
SPEAKER_01: The whole point is that when you face temptation, you should trust in God's strength.
SPEAKER_01: Because when temptation comes, and you're going to face temptation, when it comes, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have repented of your sins and put your faith in him for salvation, then the Bible tells us that you have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, that he has sealed you on that moment.
SPEAKER_01: And that it is the Spirit of God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the remarkable thing.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you really can resist temptation.
SPEAKER_01: We just sang the words, and as he stands in victories, since curse has lost its grip on me.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that?
SPEAKER_01: Not because of you, but because of him.
SPEAKER_01: For I am his and he is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so this passage is intended very specifically to be both a warning and an encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: Do not fool yourself into thinking that you are somehow impervious to temptation.
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, don't be discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're a Christian, you really can walk in obedience.
SPEAKER_01: That sin really does not have power over you.
SPEAKER_01: That by God's grace and his mercy, as his spirit is at work in you, when you trust in him, you really are able to resist temptation.
SPEAKER_01: That you really can say no to that website or that that text message.
SPEAKER_01: If you are a believer, God is actually at work in you and you can walk in obedience.
SPEAKER_01: So in that moment, ask God for his help and trust in his faithfulness and lean on his strength, never taking your eyes off of Jesus Christ, the rock of your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: But if we're going to be honest with each other for a second, the reality is we don't always do a good job at that.
SPEAKER_01: Even though there is always a way of escape and temptation, you and I don't take that path all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we stumble into sin more than we can count.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we jump headfirst into it.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: All of us fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a person here who is without sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so every one of us here needs more than an example and more than an exhortation.
SPEAKER_01: You need a savior.
SPEAKER_01: Who not only shows us how to avoid temptation in his perfect life, but by his perfect life pulls us out of sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is the miracle that we get to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: We upon whom the end of the ages hath come, that our spiritual food and drink is actually better than Israel's.
SPEAKER_01: That their spiritual food, the manna, and their spiritual drink, the water, sustained their life.
SPEAKER_01: But the spiritual food and drink that we have been given through Jesus Christ is actually the means by which we remember the true bread and the true cup that give eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: If we say we don't sin, then we lie and the truth is not in us.
SPEAKER_01: But if we sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy One.
SPEAKER_01: And it's in his name that we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Would you join me now, Father?
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your love and your mercy to us.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the gift of your word that is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce and divide soul and spirit, to reveal the thoughts and intentions of our heart.
SPEAKER_01: God, I ask that you would show us where we have been complacent in our Christian lives.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that you would give us the gift of repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_01: God, we know that it's not our obedience that merits salvation, but it's the obedience of your son.
SPEAKER_01: If there's anyone here who has not come to put their faith in him, I pray that they would do so today.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Christ's name that we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.