Now, this letter was written
to the church in a town called Corinth. And by the church, all the way through, there were
various churches, a church at Galatia, a church at Thessalonica,
Philippi, on and on. And as in any church, this church
was made up of some genuine, some true believers, some children
of God, God's people. But there was also terrors among
the wheat. There were also unbelievers.
There were people in those congregations who did no crime, who miscried.
So when we say it was written to the church, it was written
to everybody that was there at the time hearing Paul preach. Everybody who heard the letter
read, heard it preached. They were in Corinth. They were
a town called Corinth, and it wasn't much different than Roanoke,
Virginia. Corinth was a very modern city,
had everything to offer, had everything you could think of
to entertain, wine, dine, and so forth. It was the most modern
city of the day. This is all very relevant, very
relevant, very relevant. Paul uses an example of some people that
lived 2,000 years before these Corinthians, the children of
Israel, as soon as we read it. That's who Paul is talking about,
people that lived 2,000 years before Corinth. Some of the Corinthians
probably thought, well, that's 2,000 years ago. Well, so was Corinth. It was
2,000 years ago. But this is to us now, this message
to us. We've got to begin here. I better
begin here. Chapter 9, verse 27. I better
begin each message with this, verse 27. I keep under my body
and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when
I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Whatever
I preach to you, I better try it on. I better be hearing it. I better, lest I be a castaway. I told one of the brethren, we
were talking about preaching. I said, we preachers need to
get the word you, and not say the word you so much.
There's a time for it, you. But we need to use the word we
more than you, because we all need this. It starts with me. I need this. All right? Lest
I be a castaway. And a lot of preachers fall.
And Castaway, you know what a castaway is? Some of you saw that movie,
didn't you? It's a fellow who's shipwrecked,
plane wrecked, shipwrecked. Scripture talks about being shipwrecked
for faith. An ark, a boat, shipwrecked,
overboard, on an island, by yourself, left out. Missing life. Shipwrecked. That's what that
means. Cast away. I don't want to be a castaway. I don't want to be a castaway.
All right, verse 1, he says, Now brethren, I would not that
you should be ignorant. Don't be ignorant of this. He's
going to give us an example. And Tammy, he uses this example
all through his letters. He continually uses the children
of Israel as an example to the people he preached to that day.
The first five books, the six books, and on and on, the first
six books about those people back years ago. Don't be ignorant. Don't be ignorant. To be ignorant
of something, you can be ignorant of something you don't know,
something you haven't heard, right? If you haven't heard something,
you're ignorant of it. But you can also be ignorant,
the word ignore. That's where ignorance is taken
from. It's the person hears it, but just ignores it. Don't be
ignorant, brethren. See what he's saying? I don't
want to be ignorant. Well, I surely ignore what I've got to greater
responsibility. My mouth is condemning me if
I am ignorant. Ignore this. Brethren, I don't
want you to be ignorant. How that all, verse 1, all our
fathers were under the cloud. All passed through the sea. All of them. Every one of these
children of his were under a cloud. We don't have to go back, I'll
tell you what happened. God sent this cloud to protect them, to
lead, to guide, protect them from the hot sun, as a refuge
from many things. This is a picture of God's mercy.
It was God's mercy that sent that cloud to these bunch of
no good rebels. None of them deserved this, but
God sent a cloud. He overshadowed them, a cloud
of mercy. We sang that in that song just
now. Clouds. Clouds which are like
fountains of goodness and love. They were all under it. Everybody
in this room is under a cloud. A cloud of God's mercy, a cloud
of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed. They were in the
sea. They all passed through the sea. But that is, there was a way
to cross over. There's a girl fixed between
them and the promised land. There's only one way to pass
over. And they all went through it. They all saw, this is, God
has provided this wonderful way for us to pass over. Everybody
in here is hearing the way. Everybody. All of us. All. are
hearing right now, the way to cross over, the way of escape. Verse 2, it says, they were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud, in the sea. Moses was the greatest,
wisest, but the meekest man on earth at that time. Weren't they? They were so blessed.
to have him. I think of my own pastor, you know,
no different than a Moses. To me, he really not. Now more
than ever, I esteem him. And I just could kick myself
for all the years I didn't listen to him. And all the grief I caused
him and myself and my family and everybody because I did not
listen. He preached time and time, and
I lived in his house. The familiarity breached contempt,
you know. But Moses was the meekest, wisest,
most reluctant, but the gentlest fellow directing, leading, what
a mercy it was of God to send them a Moses, was it not? Moses. Read on, verse 3 and 4, and they
did all eat the same spiritual meat. And they'd all drink the
same spiritual drink. Spiritual. Keep saying spiritual. Meat and drink. They ate more
than just bread and drank more than water. God, through Moses,
instructed them. Instructed them. Instructed them.
They had what nobody, brother Dan, nobody on planet earth had
it but them. They're the only ones, Dan, that
had this. The only ones. spiritual meat and drink. Verse
4, And they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them everywhere
they went. John, everywhere they went, this
rock was there. This big rock. Water came out
of it. That was their only source of
water, this big rock. Isn't that amazing? Everywhere
they went, for forty years, this rock followed them. Bread fell out of the sky, and
this rock just was right there. And everything needed water.
Well, Paul just, he can't wait to tell us what, he goes on and
tells us, that rock was Christ. And Christ said, where two or
three are gathered in my name, I am there. I am there. Always. And, Lord, I am with
you always." This little group. That rock
has followed us for how many years? Huh? Been right there. Are you thirsty? There he is. How much water you want, you
can just drink it. You'll never drink it dry. The
gospel of Christ. Always there for the thirsty,
though. They all did. It followed them
all. All of them. A big rock. Verse 5, Now with
many of them, though, God was not well pleased. and they were overthrown in the
wilderness. They did not make it to the promised land. They
didn't make it. Why? Why? Whose fault is that? They all had the benefits. They
all had the blessings. It wasn't God's fault. It wasn't
Moses' fault. Now, verse 6. Why was this written? What's this all about? Verse
6. These things were for our example. Remember, I told you
Paul was preaching about something that happened 2,000 years before
this. I said, no, you need to listen. This is what happened to them.
It'll happen to you if thus. He said, it'll happen to me.
I'll be cast away if I don't heed what I'm preaching. That's
what Paul said to his generation, and I'm saying it now, to us,
right now. It's going to happen to us. It's going to happen to us. These
things are for our examples. This is written. This is all
for our example, to the intent, verse 6, to the intent that we
should not lust after evil things, as they also
lusted. Down in verse 11, these things
happened to them for examples. They're written for our admonition. Verse 12, Therefore, let him
that thinketh he standeth take thee, lest he fall. Who thinks
he standeth? Well, here I am. I'm the most
obvious example, Here I stand, I'm the only one standing. That's significant. I'm the only
one standing. I better take real heat right
now. I think I'm a believer. We, the last two messages, last
Sunday morning, last Sunday morning, Well, I
just thought it was wonderful. We just, all we did was go through
Philippians 1, the first chapter, just a wonderful message of God's
mercy and love and grace and peace, the gospel of Christ to
his church, his people. Boy, Wednesday night was the
same message, exact same message to the Thessalonians. First chapter,
1 Thessalonians, just good news, great news for God's people.
Promise after promise after promise, lest we despair. Promise. Now
comes a warning. Got to have both. Got to have
both. Warnings, lest we presume. Let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed, lest he fall, lest he fall. And it says these things
were our example. Turn to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews
chapter 2. I told you that the Apostle Paul,
that the Holy Spirit used Paul to, told Paul to use these examples. Hebrews chapter 2. Those were examples for them.
Well, these are, the church at Corinth is no more. It is no
more. There's not a church there. It's not there. And these things are for our
admission, admonition, admonition. The word admonition now, and
I want to preach this way, I don't want to, the word admonition means a mild
rebuke, a mild rebuke, a warning to call attention, to call attention,
attention. So I want this to be a mild rebuke
to me, to us, all right? Hebrews chapter 1, the whole
first chapter of Hebrews, oh my, is a declaration of the glory
of the Son of God. The whole first chapter of Hebrews
is just about, it may be the most glorious chapter in the
Bible. It may be, arguably. All about
Christ is just who he is and where he is now. The Hebrews
want, just want the message of the glory of the Son of God. Hebrews chapter one. He gets
to chapter 2 now, and he says, verse 1, Now therefore we ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard.
What things, Paul? Oh, I just told you about excellent things. The excellent
one. The unsearchable riches of Christ.
The excellent one. Him. Christ. We ought to give earnest heed.
What does earnest heed mean? Have your dad ever sat you down
and said something in such a way that, you'd better be giving
earnest heed? Have you ever, did you ever feel
the need to give earnest heed to what your dad was saying?
Now you know I'm earnest. Heed me. In other words, son,
if you don't listen to what I'm saying and do what I'm telling
you, you're in big trouble. Ernest heed. Everybody knows
what earnest heed means. Ernest heed. Serious. Pay attention. What if you weren't paying attention
to your dad? What if you chewing gum? Eventually you would have given,
Ernest, he has swallowed your gum. Which, by the way, I wish they'd
outlaw. I wish I could outlaw it here. Ernest Heed. They do in the schools. Ernest Heed, serious, diligent
attention. Brethren, we ought to give the
more earnest heed. The older we get, the closer
we get to this thing becoming an absolute reality, the more
we ought to give earnest heed. The more diligent, the more faithful,
the more absolutely in this thing. Absolutely in this thing. Till
death do that we part. Earnest heed. Listen like this
is it. earnest teeth. We ought to give
them more earnest teeth, lest at any time we let them slip.
Let them slip. You let some things slip, your
dad told you. I'm just using you. You're right
there. You kind of stick out. You're sitting where he's there. You let them slip, didn't you?
I did, too. You did, too, didn't you, Sam? We let them slip with
our death. We suffered the consequences.
We suffered greatly. Should have listened. Should
have listened. Thank God, you know, it wasn't fatal. We finally
get older and wiser and more mature, and then we become like
him. And then we start telling our
children, son, listen up. Well, it takes a long time. Listen up. Slip. You've let things
slide, haven't you? You've let things slip. Don't
let this slip. Don't let it slide. Don't set
this aside for another day. We might not have one. Okay? How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? Oh, my, I'd love to preach this
like it ought to be preached. Brother Johnson, so great salvation. I've heard men preach on this,
and I've tried it myself, but I hadn't seen or hadn't heard,
neither have entered in the heart of man the things that God, what
this is all about. And I haven't been there yet.
Someday I'll be there and see what they're seeing. Be experienced
with it, and I'll know, oh, this is great. This is great. What
a great salvation. That gospel I used to hear, and
I didn't give much. This is what it's all about. So great salvation. I wish I
could paint the picture. No picture has ever depicted
the real thing, has it? No, no, no, no. No picture. No recording, no tape recorders,
anything like a live voice. So great salvation. So great. The cloud. You know, all of this
is written for our example. All our lives have been under
a cloud of God's mercy, God's protection. We've all passed
through the sea, as I said. We've all been under the sound
of the gospel, the gospel of Christ's blood and righteousness.
which is our safety, which is our way, the way over, which
is going to be the damnation and condemnation of unbelief,
of Egypt. Egypt is going to die in that sea, be consumed by it.
The way that we escape is their death. You understand? The gospel that we're hearing,
this is our way of escape. That's what he's talking about
down there in 1 Corinthians 10. That's exactly what he's talking
about. Christ is the way, right? He's not talking about simply
getting out of a mess you're in at the time. He's talking
about the gospel. That's the way of escape. We
all hear it. We're hearing it right now. God's
going to overthrow this world, Egypt's going to fall, and we're
passing through it right now. We're the way, the way of escape.
We're hearing it. That which is able to make us
wise unto salvation is going to consume this world because
they don't believe it. They don't hear it. They reject
it. We all pass through the sea.
We all do eat the same spiritual meat and drink. You know, we're
eating spiritual food. While the world out there, you
know, is eating just bread, just bread and eating just water. And man doesn't live by that.
Man doesn't live by that. Man can't have eternal life by
that. It'll feed this body and it'll die. But there's a soul
that goes on to be with God. How does it live? But it's spiritual
meat and drink. It's the gospel. It's the gospel
of Christ. That meat, that drink is Christ. The meat he's talking about is
the manna that came down. Children of Israel, God Almighty,
every day for forty years, bread rained down. And all they had
to do, whoever was hungry, just walk outside and pick it up. Now, what's hard about that?
Who didn't? Well, if you weren't hungry that
day, you wouldn't pick it up. But it was there. It was there. And water. I told you that rock
for forty years. Why about us? The gospel's been preached in
this building, in this building right here. Manna has rained
down, and water the drink of the fullest, for I've been here
longer than any pastor before me. Do you know that? I have. But at least, the gospel's
been here at least twenty-eight or nine years. At least. That's a long time, isn't it? A long time. Spiritual meat and drink, God's
Word. God's Word. And that rock is
Christ. That rock. Christ is the, well,
that's what we've been feeding on for a long time now. That
rock was Christ. And we, if you're thirsty, every
time we open this book, every time these doors are open, you
can drink to your fill. We did all, all of us, drink
that spiritual drink. But look at chapter 3 of Hebrews. Chapter 3, verse 1, "...Wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
apostle and high priest of our profession Christ Jesus." Consider
him, that's what we do every time we meet. Verse two, he was
faithful to him that appointed him. Christ, the faithful high
priest. That's what we preach, isn't
it? Will you bear witness of that, that that's who I preach
here? Now, Pastor David, Christ, do
we not hold forth his faithfulness? That's it. Him. Pointing men
to Christ. Sure do. He's the object of our
faith. He's the one that I want to point
you to every time we gather here. Christ. Point to Christ. We'll
read on. It says, well, he was counted
worthy of more glory than Moses, as much as he, verse 2, I'm sorry. Christ was
faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful
in his house. Moses was faithful. God gave
me a faithful pastor. Oh, and he's still faithful. He's still faithful. I wish to
a degree. I was sitting right there this
morning hearing that man 76 years pregnant. I need it now more
than ever. Faithful man. Christ said when
he ascended on high, he gave gifts unto man. Gifts. Faithful
pastor and teacher. Faithful man to point to Christ.
A meek man, a wise man. Like Moses. Moses, as I said,
oh, they were so blessed. Moses was faithful, and God has
given faithful preachers. I'll leave it up to you to decide
that about this one. But verse 5 says, Now Moses was
faithful in all his house as a servant. He was a servant.
He didn't live for them to serve him, but he served them, a testimony
of those things to be spoken afterward. And it says down in
verse 6, Christ does excel over his own house, whose house are
we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope. under the end. Wherefore, as
the Holy Ghost saith, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your heart to that." Today is the day of salvation. I began
this message in earnest. And I told my dad this. We talked
about it. I said, you know, I prepare every
message like this is the one. This is it. This is going to
be the one that so-and-so is going to hear and the Lord is
going to use it to save their soul. This is it. And I don't want
you to miss the one. I'm serious. Really, I'm serious. I prepare every message like,
oh man, they need to hear this. If so-and-so will just hear this,
this is it. This is the one. This is the
one God's going to use to save so-and-so's child or husband
or wife or mother or father or them. This is it. Oh, Lord, I
pray, Lord, use this word. Take it. Use it powerfully. Every
message. I really do. Today is a day of salvation. It is, this gospel. Today is
the day of salvation. And he said, read on, he said
in verse 7, today if you'll hear his voice. Whose voice? We're
not going to hear his voice, are we? He's not going to speak
out loud. God's not going to speak out
loud, is he? You've never heard his voice,
have you? Out loud. I haven't either. What do you
mean, today if you'll hear his voice? You're reading it. We're reading
it. It is his voice. We're hearing it. What does it
say? They're saying, Harden not your hearts, as in the propagation,
in the day of temptation, like the children of Israel. When
your father is tempting me, prove me forty years. He saw my work
forty years. Prove me. I prove myself to them.
In other words, they saw me being faithful to them for forty years.
Proof. But they How does a heart harden? Let me just give you a simple
illustration. How does a heart harden? How
is your heart, how are your arteries going to become clogged? That's
what's going to happen to your heart. A hard heart, if you eat
too much fast food and you don't exercise. Right? You have a nurse. You have three or more nurses
in here. don't we? What will contribute
more than anything to the hardening of these arteries, the buildup? fast food and no exercise. My son, give me your heart. I want more than your head and
your ears this morning. That heart. Experts say you've
got to get the blood pumping. You've got to get the circulation
going. That heart stuff. I get come mad at people who
say he stepped on my toes. I missed the heart, didn't I?
I missed it. There's only one that can. Nobody
can make us exercise, can they? Nobody can make you exercise.
Mindy buys every apparatus known to man for exercise. She says, you ought to get on
this. Yeah, okay. All right, looks good. Stay in
there, Sammy. I'll get on it. I've got better things to do.
She can't make me. Nobody can. When will I? If that doctor tells me, you've got severe blockage, the
first thing we'll have to do is bypass, and then from here
on, you'd better exercise that heart or you're going to die. Now, what else is out there we
could buy? Let's buy it all. I'll use it. You get the picture. I can't
exercise your heart. I can't make this message do
anything to your heart. When we started this saying that,
we were singing that song, I said, will you pray with all your heart
right now? If you don't get anything out
of this, You might as well not have been here. You're better
off not being here, really. You're better off. You're better
off. Well, hard heart. Hard heart. Quick, occasional
worship. Very little hard work. That's
what happens. Quick, occasional worship. and
very little hard work. And this is not a sermon. I said, what I do, you know, is I think,
I believe, is the most important thing on earth, is messages,
as I said. I enjoy this world, doing things
with you, things and all that, but what I'm doing right now
is very serious. I take it very seriously. It
is very serious. And don't ever make light of what
I do. I don't make light of your occupation. Don't ever talk about the sermon
or don't preach to me. Are you going to preach on this?
I don't do that. I don't do that. This is life
and death. This is all about Christ. Don't ever—a person who
talks about the sermon in a light manner and preaching in a light
manner, I believe they've missed the seriousness of it. And maybe
it's my fault. Maybe it's my fault. Moses—I
thought about Moses. You know, Moses didn't live off
by himself in a tent and never dealt with the people. But he
was out there amongst them, eating and drinking with them, just
a man like they were. Moses needed the same thing he
was telling them that they needed, wasn't he? He was no better than
they were. A sinner. He was right there amongst
them. And they got familiar with him. And he'd bring the word of God
to them, and they didn't listen to him. It's just old Moses. You see what I'm saying? This is very serious. It really
is. Don't take it light. It's not
just Paul preaching to you. I'm preaching from God's Word.
And he said there in our text, it was some God was not well
pleased. They were overthrown in the wilderness,
some. It says they all passed through,
all drank, all, all, all. They all were involved in it,
all of them. And he says, but some of them,
some of them Not all of them. That gives me hope. Some find
grace in God's eyes. Some find grace. Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb. And a bunch
of others, all under twenty. That means they were babes. They
received what Moses said as children. His peers didn't. Those who'd
been around the longest didn't. But the babes did. And they went
in, I promise you that. With some, he was not well pleased
at all. Thank God for the word some.
Maybe I'll be in that number. Maybe you'll be in that number.
But there's a way. There's not a temptation that
we are going through right now that everybody hasn't gone through.
Not a trial, not a difficulty. Flesh is weak. We all go through
it. Every believer, every child of
God has gone through it. Those that have passed before
us have gone through it. But God, we are with the temptation. Make a way. What is it? Right
here. This is it. This is the only
way. That's why it's so serious. That's why I take it seriously.
I play hard, and I worship hard. Does it look like I'm enthused
about this message? Why am I? Because I'm in this thing. And
it's no different for you. No different for you. I speak as a fool when I say
it like that, but I'm serious about this thing. It's serious
for my daughter, my wife, my friends. It's serious. Play hard. Worship hard. Exercise hard. Be here. Seven or eight families
missing since Wednesday night. This is serious. We'll die. We'll get hardening of the heart
without it. I said before, it's the last
time I'm going to say anything about attendance, trying to get
people. And I can't, I cannot do it,
but I would be unfaithful if I didn't warn and say, you need
to be here. Give it up. Let the rest of it
slide. Don't let this slide for anybody
or anything. Let him think that he's standard.
Take heed, lest he or he fall. Now, I'm afraid. I'm afraid. Okay. Okay.