The difference there between
the world and the Lord's people. The Lord said, men's hearts will
fail them for fear and for looking after those things which are
coming on the earth. They look at those things, those
signs. How many times If you heard people
talk about those signs, and people have their hearts focused on
the signs, and looking at those signs, and their hearts fail. The Lord tells His people, when
these things begin to come to pass, then you look up and lift
up your heads, for your redemption draws nigh. You look at Christ.
Here's the difference. Alright, our text is 1 Corinthians
chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And we're going to read verse
13. Let's begin there. He says in verse
13, There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common
to man. But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. But
God will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape that
you may be able to bear it. A temptation includes several
things. It includes trial. A trial. It includes a test. God did tempt
Abraham. He tested Abraham. And it includes,
there is scripture does speak of temptation as an enticement
to sin. Coming from the lusts of our
flesh. If you look at James 1. We'll
see each of these used. James chapter 1. He says there
in verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into different temptations. Trials. different trials. Knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And then down
in verse 12, he says, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. For when he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them
that love him. That's the trial and the test that God gives.
Then you look down at verse 13. Now here is An enticement to
sin. Temptation used as an enticement
to sin. Verse 13. Let no man say when
he is tempted, that he is tempted to sin. I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth He any man. God does not tempt a man
to sin. See, temptation is a different
word there. Before, it means trial or test. God does give
trials. He does give tests. But God doesn't
tempt anybody to sin. He doesn't entice people to sin.
Where does it come from then? Verse 14. Every man is tempted
when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Now, J.C. Philpott made this statement.
He's talking about this temptation to sin. He said, that kind of
temptation is to the corruption of the heart what fire is to
stubble. That's what happens through these
temptations. You find out what you still are
in your flesh. The sin you are in your flesh.
The Lord taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but keep
us from the evil. He said to His disciples in the
Garden of Gethsemane, you watch and pray that you enter not into
temptation. In our text today, God shows
us how He uses temptations of trial, tests that He gives, to
teach His child God's faithfulness in keeping us in Christ. God
uses temptations to teach His child God's faithfulness in keeping
us in Christ. Alright, first of all, for every
believer, the temptations we face They're common to man. They're common to man. He says
there in verse 13, there's no temptation taken you, but such
as is common to man. That's comforting because first
and foremost, every temptation that believers face, our Redeemer
has conquered them. Hebrews 4.15 says, We've not
a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without
sin. Without sin. And then also temptations
are common to every man. They're common to every man.
He gives five examples using the children of Israel. I want
us to look at these five. We'll just touch on them briefly
now. We'll look at them more in depth later. But he says back
up there in verse 6, he talks about the temptation to lust
after evil things. He says, now these things were
our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things
as they also lusted. Look at Numbers chapter 11. They all came out of Egypt together. And they all saw the miracles
God did together. As we saw this morning, they
were all baptized in the sea together. They all partook of
the same spiritual meat, the same spiritual drink together.
But though they all came out of Egypt physically, they didn't
all come out of Egypt in their hearts. Watch this, Numbers 11
verse 4. And the mixed multitude that
was among them fell a lusting. And the children of Israel also
wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember
the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely. Did they eat anything
freely in Egypt? They were slaves in Egypt. They
were in bondage in Egypt. Pharaoh made their lives bitter
with hard bondage in Egypt. Oh, we remember the fish we did
eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks,
and the onions, and the garlic. But now, our soul is dried away,
and there's nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes. God proved them using that manner. Remember when He gave it? He
said, I'm going to give it and they go out and gather a certain
amount every day that I may prove them whether they'll walk in
my law or not. I'm going to prove them whether
they're going to hear my word and obey me or not. And the truth
of the matter is Christ, the true bread from heaven, He's
always the dividing point. He's the one who puts a difference
and makes that difference known between those that truly follow
Him and those who are just mere false professors. I'll show you
that. Turn to John chapter 6. There
was a large group of people following Christ, you remember? And He
told them, He said, I am the bread from heaven. I'm the true
bread that came down from heaven. the bread of life. And verse
41 says this, John 6, 41, it says, The Jews then murmured
at Him, because He said, I am the bread which came down from
heaven. Here they were following Him. They all were following
Him. They all looked like they were disciples. But He tells
them who He is. I'm the bread from heaven. I'm
the life. No man can come to Me except the Father draw him.
And any man that eats of My flesh has life in him. He'll never
hunger. He'll never thirst. And all of
a sudden there was a division. There was a division. What happened
to Him? It says over here in verse 66, From that time many
of His disciples went back. and walked no more with Him,
they went back to Egypt. They went back to bondage. They
went back to their works and their will, work and religion. They went back to Egypt. Well,
what about His people though? What about those that were His
true people? Well, look there. Verse 67, Then said Jesus unto
the twelve, Will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered
Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure Thou art that Christ, the
Son of the living God. Do you see the difference? Do
you see the difference? Christ is the divider. Some of
them murmured and got offended and they wanted to go back. The
others said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You're the Christ. You're
the life. It's always the case, brethren,
those that are not Christ's, those that are just mere professors
that just are following Him outwardly, that haven't really left the
bondage of Egypt. They haven't left free will works
religion. They say, there's nothing here
but this manna. All y'all ever do is preach Christ
and Him crucified. You don't even have anything
here. Our soul's drying away. I'm not being fed. I want to
go back where I can really be fed back there in Egypt. But
those who are really here say, Lord, to whom shall we go? They don't say He's nothing,
they say He's all. Do you realize how Christ is
all? We don't just believe the doctrine
of election. You know what's glorious about
the doctrine of election? That Christ was the first one
God chose. And He chose all His people in
Christ. That's glorious. That's what
gives the doctrine of election its light. You preach doctrine
of election without Christ being the light of it, you just got
a dry doctrine. What's glorious about particular
redemption? Christ came forth and for that
exact number of people, He redeemed all His people. Christ did that
by His blood. What's glorious about irresistible
grace? It's because God The Holy Spirit
regenerates His people and brings us into Christ. In faith, He
brings us into Christ. Christ gets the glory in all
the doctrine we preach. What's the glory of perseverance
of the saints? Christ is the one who's able.
He's the one who began the work. He's the one who's able to make
us stand. He's the one who said, He's going to present us to the
Father without spot, without blemish. Christ gets the glory. and everything. But He said,
I'm the living bread though and except you eat my flesh, you
don't have any life in you. Except you believe Him and rest
all in Him. You can have all the doctrine
and you got nothing. You got no life. You got no life. Alright, the second temptation
was to idolatry. It says back in 1 Corinthians
10, 7, Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. As it's
written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up
to play. What happened? God did not operate on their
timetable. That's what happened. Moses went
up in the mount to get the law. And the scripture says in Exodus
32, 1, When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out
of the mount, God took his time giving Moses
the law. And so Moses was there a while
and he delayed to come down and the people ran out of patience
waiting on him to come down. They ran out of patience waiting
on God. So what did they do? It says, the people gathered
themselves together unto Aaron, And they said unto him, Up, make
us gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, this
man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not
what has become of him. And Aaron said, Break off your
golden earrings. And he took them and made a molten
calf and fashioned it and all that. And he said, Now this is
your God that delivered you out of Egypt right here. And they
all bowed down and worshipped that golden calf sat down to
eat and rose up to play. They started playing religion.
And men have all their trinkets in religion and all these things
they've made and they'll tell you, oh, that's not my God, that's
just to help me see God. That's just something I can see
that helps me worship God. Ask them this, all right, let's
take it and let's burn it and throw it in the trash. You'll
find out if it's their God or not. Oh, let's don't do that. Let's don't do that. And there's
an idol even before that, even before it comes into a form.
The idol's in the mind, the imagination, that idol God. An idol is the
work of men's hands. That's what men worship. Men
will choose other means. Just like it's happened in our
day, brethren. Men get tired of waiting on Christ. Christ has gone up into the mount.
Men are tired of waiting on Christ. Only He can work this work. Only
He can send the gospel. Only He can give you a heart
to believe. Only He can show you what He's done and how He's
redeemed His people and make you bow to Him through the Spirit
of God. Only He can do that. Men get tired of waiting on Him.
So what do they do? Let's look to other means. Let's
make us something we can see. We'll make converts that way.
We can build a church that way. So they sit down to eat and rise
up to play and they play religion. And Peter said it would be that
way. He said in the last days there'll come scoffers walking
after their own lusts saying, where's the promise of His coming?
Did you just think that was people outside of religion? That's the
whole religious world scoffing at God, looking to other means
and their idols to try to worship God. Brethren, God works in His
time and we have to wait on Christ and we can't use anything but
the gospel of Christ And he adds to the church daily, such as
should be said. Anything else is idolatry. Anything else is
the worship of our hands and what we've made. And it's false. Be patient, James said. Establish your hearts, for the
coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Wait on Him. Wait on Him. Here's
the next temptation. It was fornication. 1 Corinthians
10. Neither let us commit fornication
as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty
thousand. This happened with Balaam. Balaam
was a false prophet. He was a false prophet. But you
know Balaam spoke the truth? Balaam spoke the truth. You can
preach the gospel from what Balaam said. He spoke the truth. Well
then how was he a false prophet? By his works. You know what he
did? He compromised with will works
religion. He compromised with false religion. What he did was, he turned to
another means to get men to come in, Israel to come in and join
in that will worship. He wouldn't change the message.
He wouldn't say something that God didn't tell him to say. He
wouldn't do that. But he said, if we use these
pretty Moabite women, We can get those Israelite fellows in
here and they'll come join with us. And so they went. People
began to commit whorems with the daughters of Moab. And they
called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. And the people
did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself
unto Belpeor. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel. They committed physical fornication.
But what they did in joining with those false gods and those
will workers was they committed spiritual fornication. Why is
it spiritual fornication when somebody turns from Christ to
the works of their hands and to join with will workers and
compromise? Why is that spiritual fornication? Because Christ is
the husband of His bride. He's the husband of His bride.
And He loves His bride like He loved Hosea, like Gomer loved
Hosea. Even though she committed adultery,
He came to where we are and He laid down His life for us. And
when He calls you and makes His covenant of grace in your heart,
He makes His marriage vow to you and He makes that marriage
vow effectual in your heart. He says to you, you'll not be
for another man. I'll be for you and you'll be
for me. And anybody that turns from Him
for another is committing spiritual fornication. Spiritual fornication. All of this is what Paul is working
towards and showing them. See, there was folks in Corinth.
God has left will workers in our day. Just like He did at
Corinth. But you can't compromise. If
you compromise the gospel, you're going to commit spiritual fornication.
And what they were doing at Corinth was they had this liberty. They
knew an idol was nothing, and so they thought, we can just
go into an idol temple, sit down and eat, everything will be fine,
no harm. And Paul's teaching them, you
can't drink the cup of devils and the cup of the Lord. Do we
provoke the Lord to jealousy? How would that provoke Him to
jealousy? Because He's our husband. And you don't go off to another
man when you're His bride. And that's what He's working
toward. It's lawful for us. We're not
breaking any kind of law, He said, to go in and sit down at
an idol's, eat the meat from an idol's temple. But he said
everything that is lawful for me is not necessarily good for
me. It can bring harm. And to others. Alright, now let's look at the
next temptation. They tempted Christ. Look here
in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 9. Neither let us tempt Christ as
some of them also tempted and were destroyed of the serpents. There was many times that the
scripture says they tempted the Lord. Moses said it when he smote
the rock. He asked them there, he said,
why are you tempting the Lord? They were murmuring against Moses
and what they were doing. And he said, you're tempting
the Lord. But what he's talking about right here is, he's talking
about when the serpents were in the wilderness. And the Scripture
says, Numbers 21.5 says, the people spake against God and
against Moses. And here's what they said. Wherefore
have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Can you imagine saying that to
God? Why did you deliver me out to kill me? That's what they
were saying. For there is no bread, neither
is there any water, and our soul loveth this light bread. They
got to hatin' that bread more and more. The more they had that
manner, the more they hated that manner. That'll happen to a man
who doesn't have the Spirit of God in him. The more he hears
Christ preached, the more he'll hate hearing Christ preached.
The carnal mind's already hatred against God. And all it needs
is to just hear that message, and hear that message, and hear
that message, and pretty soon a man just says, I can't take
it anymore. I hate that bread. I hate it. And he said that it
was tempting the Lord. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Now shall we tempt Christ? Shall we tempt Christ? Shall
we accuse Christ of anything that's not good? The Lord Jesus
Christ is the only salvation. He is the only way. There's no other name under heaven
whereby we must be saved than the Lord Jesus Christ. If we
reject Christ, we've rejected salvation. There is no other
salvation. And all of this Not being pleased
with where we are, not being pleased with what the Lord is
doing, and not being pleased with our circumstances, and not
being pleased with if it's raining today or if it's too much sun
today. That's murmuring against Him.
Tempting Him. We can't murmur against Him.
Then look here, then they murmured against Everything. Verse 10,
neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed
of the destroyer. They constantly murmured. They
were constantly murmuring. They murmured against Moses.
They murmured against God. They murmured against where they
were. They murmured against everything. And one day, Korah got a bunch
of folks together and he got them to come up and they stood
up and they said, Moses, you just take too much on yourself.
We're all holy just like you are. Well, Moses was the man
God chose to lead them. And Moses was the man God was
going to have to lead them. You see, a sinner is taught of
God and has no need that any man teach him when he is content for God to
teach him through a man. That's how you know a man is
born of God and taught of God and has no need that any man
teach him when he is content for God to teach him through
a man. And a man who's not content with
that, there's a reason. He's saying to Christ, I won't
have this man reign over me. He's not content with the head. He's not content with the chief
shepherd. He's not content with the one who sends his preacher.
And that was their problem. They murmured. God said, I've
heard their murmuring against Me. Against Me. That's why Paul
says, Do all things without murmuring and without disputing. Now, verse
11 says, All these things happen unto them for examples. They
are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world
are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall. There has no temptation taken
you but such as is common to man. Now secondly, let's look
at God's faithfulness. Verse 13, But God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. Now, does this mean that God's
going to bring you into temptation and God's going to make it so
that you can make a choice and decide either to sin or that
you can decide, okay, I'm going to go this way. He's not going
to tempt you so much to where you'll never be able to say no.
You'll always have a choice to be able to say, I'm not going
to do that. Is that what that means? It does
not mean that. If you've been taught that, you've
been taught wrong. That's not what he's talking about. The
only one that made the difference between those who perished in
Israel and those who were saved in Israel, the one who made the
difference for those who were saved was the Lord, by His grace,
by His hand, by His grace. I want to show you something. Look over with me in 2 Peter
2 and verse 9. Remember Lot? Lot was down there
in Sodom. And he was tempted while he was
there. The whole time he was there,
he was tempted. And look what the Scripture says, verse 8,
2 Peter 2 verse 8. It says, That righteous man,
dwelling among them, and seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Well, how in
the world did he get out of that temptation? How was he delivered
from that temptation? Verse 9, The Lord knoweth how
to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust until
the day of judgment to be punished. You see, when he says, God is
faithful who will not suffer you to be tipped above your able,
God He's able to deliver His people out of the temptation.
That's what He's talking about. He said back in 1 Corinthians
1.8, He said, God shall also confirm you to the end that you
may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is
faithful. It's by Him that you were called
unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. It'll
be by Him that you'll be kept and delivered unto Him blameless. He's able to deliver. Scripture
says, God is able to keep you from falling and present you
faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. He's the only wise God our Savior. He's able. He's able. God's faithful
to honor His Son. He's faithful to honor His Son.
Therefore, God won't allow one of His chosen, redeemed children
to be tempted above that they're able. By His one offering, Christ
perfected His people forever. He's perfected us forever. And
so God's not going to allow one to be lost. Christ also lives
now. He's our advocate with the Father.
And you know what He prayed in that high priestly prayer? He
prayed, Lord, keep them from the evil. He told us, pray that
we enter not into temptation, but that you be kept from the
evil. But He doesn't depend on us alone
to pray that. He prays that. He intercedes
for us for that. And because God's pleased with
His Son, for the sake of His Son, God's not going to allow
any one of His people to be tempted and destroyed by the temptation.
He's just not going to do it. So He comes for Christ's sake
and He says, Fear thou not. This is what He says to His child.
Fear thou not, for I'm with thee. Be not dismayed. I'm thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. I will uphold thee with the right
hand of my righteousness. God does that. By God's faithful,
perfect discretion. By His faithful, perfect discretion. God will not suffer the trial
to go beyond the point for which He intends to work that which
is good for His child. See, the trial is not sent to
destroy us. The trial is sent for our profit.
And God's not going to allow it to destroy us. He knows we're
dust. You know, people read that and think, well, I'm strong enough
that I'm able to handle a certain amount of temptation. Come on. If God lets you alone for a minute,
you're not able to do anything, neither am I. Our strength is
Him. So He's teaching us that and
that's what He's showing us and He won't let the trial go one
minute more past the point of teaching you not to trust you
but to trust His faithfulness. That's the point of it, to show
us His faithfulness. Alright, look at this last thing,
the way of escape. Verse 13, let me see here. It says here, But, God will,
with the temptation, also make a way to escape that you may
be able to bear it. God will, with the temptation,
make a way of escape so that you will be able to bear it.
Alright? Let's just think about that for
a minute. There out there in that wilderness, you got the
majority there who perished in the wilderness. And then you
got Joshua and Caleb who believed God. How did they escape when
the others didn't escape? How was that? The way of escape
from lusting after that evil of Egypt? The way of escape from
lusting after that evil of Egypt was the bread from heaven. If
you were content with the bread from heaven, you wouldn't be
lusting to go back to Egypt for that, would you? The way of escape
from that is the manner And Christ, the bread, He said, if you believe
on Me, you'll never hunger and you'll never thirst. You'll never
want to go back to Egypt if you trust Christ. He's the way of
escape from that lust. And then the way of escape from
idolatry. What was the way of escape from
idolatry? If you believe on the true and living God, you behold
Christ in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells, and you're
complete in Him, He will cause you to escape from idolatry.
If He's the one you're focused on and He's the one you worship,
you'll escape idolatry. You won't be able to stomach
idolatry anymore. The way of escape from fornication
is Christ our faithful husband. Just like He did Gomer, He came
to where Gomer was. And Hosea said to her, I bought
you. And He showed her and He took
her home. That's the way of escape from fornication of every kind. The way of escape from the serpent's
venom of sin? That serpent that was biting
them, that's a picture of sin. You know what was lifted up on
that pole? A serpent. Something made like
that that was biting them. Christ was made sin for His people
on the cross. And he said this, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have eternal life. That's the cure from the serpent's
sin. The way of escape from murmuring. What's the way of escape from
murmuring? It's knowing that all power and all judgment is
in Christ's hand and that the judge of all the earth shall
do right. If you know that, if you know
whatever he's doing right now in your life is right, that'll
be the cure for murmuring. That'll be the way you'll escape
murmuring. Listen to this. He said, let your conduct be
without covetousness. Be content with such things as
you have. For he had said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. That's the way of escape from
murmuring against God about whatever is taking place in our life.
Christ. See, in all of this, Christ is
the way of escape. Look over with me at Hebrews
2. Hebrews chapter 2. I'll show
you three passages of Scripture. Hebrews 2. Look here at verse 3. How shall
we escape? if we neglect so great salvation. That salvation is Christ. How
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Look at Hebrews
4.15. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. So what
does the next verse say? Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Christ is the way of escape.
Now look over with me one more place. Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. Look at verse 12. It's talking
here about being chastened. Chastening. Trials often are
for chastening. These temptations are for chastening.
And he says here, he says it's for our good. And so verse 12,
he says, Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and the
feeble knees. You're moping around. You're
discouraged. He said, Now lift up the hands
that hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths
for your feet. Straight to where? Look down
at verse 24. to Jesus, the mediator of the
new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better
things than that of Abel. That's not where religion tells
you to make a straight path to. They tell you to make a straight
path to Mount Sinai. He says right there, but you've
not come to Mount Sinai. That's not the mountain you,
verse 18, Do you not come to the mount
that might be touched, that burned with blackness and darkness and
tempest? You've not come to Mount Sinai.
You've come to Mount Zion, he said, to heavenly Jerusalem.
You make a straight path to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.
Now look down with me at verse 25. See that you refuse not him
that speaketh. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh, for if they escaped not who refused him that spake
on the earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away
from him that speaketh from heaven. I don't care what the trial is
that you and I come into. If we're a child of God, you
know who's speaking to us? Christ is. Christ is speaking
to us. And the reason He's speaking
to us is to show us we don't have any faithfulness in us.
We don't have any strength in us, in our flesh. The faithfulness
is in our God. And He's teaching us now the
way of escape is God who is faithful. So you make a straight path for
your feet to Christ and hear Him and follow Him and you shall
escape. But how shall we escape if we
neglect so great a salvation? There's no way. See, in everything,
we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. But that can't
be said if we refuse Him. But if we're trusting Him and
looking to Him, and these trials are used and sanctified to us
to bring us to His feet and keep us ever looking to Him and away
from ourselves, we can say this, I love this verse from Micah
7, 8. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I
shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be light unto me. And you can say that if you trust
in Christ every time. I pray He'll make you trust Him.
That's why the trial comes. That's why the trial comes. Amen.