I'd like us to turn together
in God's holy word to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians and reading chapter
10. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under
the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all did eat the same
spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for
they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that
rock was Christ. But with many of them God was
not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust
after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters,
as some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and
drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication,
as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty
thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were
destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened
unto them for examples, that 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 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 ye are able, but will
with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may
be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men, judge
ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? the bread
which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all
partakers of that one bread. Behold, Israel after the flesh,
are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then? that the idol
is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols
is anything. But I say that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to
God. And I would not that you should
have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the
table of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. Do we
provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? All
things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let
no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. Whatsoever
is sold in the shambles or in the meat market, that eat, asking
no question, for conscious sake. For the earth is the Lord's and
the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not
bid you to a feast and you be disposed to go, whatsoever is
set before you, eat, asking no question, for conscious sake.
But if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice
unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it, and for their
conscience' sake. For the earth is the Lord's,
and the fullness thereof. Conscience, I say, not thine
own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged
of another man's conscience? For if I by grace be a partaker,
Why am I evil spoken of for that which I give thanks? Whether therefore ye eat or drink,
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence
neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of
God. But even as I please all men
in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of
many, that they may be saved. May the Lord add his blessing
to the reading of his word. I look together this evening
at verse 13 in the chapter that we have just read. There hath no temptation taken
you but such as is common to men, to man. But God is faithful. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. The Apostle writing to the Corinthians
looks back, as so many do, to that time of the people of Israel
coming from Egypt through the Red Sea, through the wilderness,
and then to the Promised Land. And he takes some of the events
that took place in that journey and he applies them as warnings
to the people of Corinth and to the people even today. He tells them, that they lusted
after idols, they were tempted in the wilderness and they committed
fornication. He says neither let us tempt
Christ as they also tempted God and neither murmur as some of
them murmured and were destroyed. And he says that these things
that happened to them that these things that took place beforehand
were examples and they are written for our admonition that we may
learn from those things. And so he says there is no temptation
that has taken you but is such that is common to man. Now that God himself is not the
author of sin. He's not the author of temptation. You know that sin we are drawn
aside by our own lusts and enticed and there are times in life that
God may allow or permit things to cross our pathway and it is
us who are drawn aside by our own lusts and enticed. The children of Israel were brought
through the wilderness and as they passed through that area
there were those who lived in that region and they were idol
worshippers. and they were tempted by those
idols and they were drawn aside by those idols. God did not place
them there but he permitted the unbelievers to to live out their
sin and as the people of God walked by, instead of being focused
wholly on God, they are drawn aside by the temptations, by
the idol worship. They maybe see it as a visual. They're worshipping an invisible
God and they are drawn aside by a visual God that they can
see and They end up marrying into their tribes and they end
up giving their sons or daughters to be married to the other nations
and so they are drawn aside and tempted and the Lord punishes
them for that. But the scripture says it is
a common temptation. It's not an extremer event that
took place. It is a temptation that is common
to man, to all flesh. And the temptation that comes
in our way, it is how we respond to that temptation. We will either
stand or we will fall. Think of King David, a prime
example. The temptation is there before
him and he could have easily turned away, he could have easily
looked the other way, but he chose to feast upon what he was
looking at. that multiplied the thoughts
in his mind caused him to take actions and then commit actual
sin. You can't say that it's God's
fault. It is David's fault. The temptation
was there in front of him and he could have just walked away
but instead he indulged himself in that sin and it is just as
the scripture says there's no abnormal temptation it's just
a temptation that is common to man and it seems these Corinthians
also were being tempted, tested by what was going on round about
them. Corinth was known for its idol
worship and so the Apostle Paul says remember the children of
Israel They were also tempted by idols. But look at the effect
that it had upon them and look at the judgment that God brought
upon them because they failed to resist that temptation. Instead they indulged themselves. And so he says, yes it's a normal
temptation. A temptation that is common to
man. But they fell under that temptation. And he warns them
not to walk down the same path, not to fall into the same trap. They were idolatrous when the
children of Israel made the calf. And Moses was up in the mountain
collecting the Ten Commandments and they made the golden calf
and they danced around and Moses thought it was the sound of a
war. But it was the sound of worship.
worshipping of the of the golden calf and they were punished because
of that. And so the Corinthians they've
come from this culture of idol worship and now they are worshipping
the true and living God they've heard the gospel they've turned
from their sin And they're being persecuted because they may be
resisting the opportunity to go and worship idols again and
maybe their life has become harder and harder and so now they are
murmuring. Because of the stand they're taking they are murmuring
against God. They murmur as some of them murmured. As they came out of Egypt they
murmured about the hardness of the way. They remembered the
food that they ate. They grumbled and they complained
to God and said that he's brought us into the wilderness so that
we may die in the wilderness because there were no graves
in Egypt. And they grumbled against the
pathway that God had caused them to walk because they had lost
sight of where God was leading them. lost sight of what God
was doing with them and had done with them and they just were
absorbed with their present condition. Maybe they were proud. Because he says, wherefore let
him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. That's one of the reasons why
temptations come into our pathway and trials come into our pathway. To prove what is really in our
hearts. The scripture says to humble
you and to prove you to know what is in your heart whether
you love the Lord your God or not. I was thinking of these
things that are being pointed to, these different sins, idolatry
and fornication and testing or tempting Christ and murmuring.
The Catholics have something called the seven deadly sins. And if we look at them, pride,
greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth or laziness, The testings that we pass through
they're almost to boil out these deadly sins that are within. The testing targets the sin that
is still within the flesh. When we do a test for school
They are finding out what we know. What is within our minds. Whether we can remember all that
we've been taught or how and then they grade us. And so God
tests. And he finds out what is really
in our heart. He tests our faith. He finds
or even he shows us what is really in our hearts. And we can be
so taken up with pride. We can think that we are self-sufficient,
able to walk and stand on our own. We are not going to succumb
to sin or temptation. And then we find that the Lord
permits something to pass across our pathway and we fall into
that sin. We're not as strong as we thought
we were. We're not as Christian as we
thought we were. We're not as faithful and loving
to God as we thought we were. We fall at the first hurdle. Just a common temptation that
is common to man. And so he brings these things
to show us who we really are and how strong we are, how faithful
we think we are. He says God is faithful. God is faithful. to his people,
he is trustworthy. He will not hold us, as it were,
in the fire too long, the fire of trial, the fire of temptation. He will not add the final straw
that breaks the camel's back. He knows just how much weight
to lay upon the Christian, how much they can bear and he will make a way of escape. But often we miss the way of
escape. Often we don't get the hint that
God has placed a way of escape. And instead of turning to him
we buckle under the weight. We can't find the escape hatch
and we begin to struggle and panic under the common temptation
that has been placed in our way. We forget that God is faithful. trustworthy that he won't allow
us to be tempted above what we are able to bear but he will
give us a way of escape. And so instead of exiting through the escape hatch
we go on into sin. Dr David God knew what he could
bear and there would have been an opportunity, many opportunities
for him to turn away and not to commit sin. A common temptation,
lust. Lust is if you look at the graphs
or the the surveys that they do. For
men the greatest sin, number one is lust. For women it's pride
actually. And so this opportunity for David
to sin was placed in front of him. He didn't take the escape
hatch to walk away. He didn't trust God but he trusted
his flesh. Instead of escaping he continued
down the pathway into actual sin. Think of Peter when he denied
the Lord Jesus Christ. There was an opportunity for
him those three times. He could have escaped. He could
have not denied the Lord Jesus Christ. There was an opportunity. A doorway would have been opened
for him not to fail. Not to be tempted above what
he is able to be tempted but he pressed on. He didn't use the escape hatch. How often we don't use the escape
hatch? We end up grumbling and complaining
that the way is too difficult. Why is God loading me and loading
me and loading me? We grumble and complain about
the way. We tempt Christ. We worship idols drawn aside
from the true and living God to material things. What then is the escape? He says,
there is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to
man. But God is faithful. He will
not suffer or permit you to be tempted above that which you
are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that
you may be able to bear it. Verse 14, he says, flee from
idolatry. to use the means that have been
provided for the Christian. Sometimes it's literally fleeing.
David should have ran with his legs away. Resist the devil and
he will flee from you. We looked at, didn't we, the
armour of God. We're to put on the whole armour
of God, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, praying
always. And so there are these temptations,
literal temptations, physical temptations that are placed in
the way. Some have to be literally run
from. Some have to be turned away from. Sometimes you have to hold your
tongue. Sometimes you have to close your
eyes, close your ears. The means that God has provided.
He will provide a way of escape but sometimes we don't want to
use those ways of escape. We say it won't matter. Don't
need to run away from this one. I'm strong enough to deal with
this one in my own strength. Just a little look and I'll be
all right. I won't indulge myself as much
as I used to. I'm strong enough now. I can
do it. We don't take the means of escape. Walking down the street, maybe
you see a nice dress in the shop. And you look at it and you think,
well, that's a nice one. We see the price tag's quite
expensive and you just walk on. No, I'm not going to do it. But
it plays on your mind. Or go back and have another look. And you go in and you buy it. those opportunities,
those stages that you could have said no resist that temptation,
I'm not going to buy it, I'm going to go home. God gives a door, a way of escape. To use those means that have
been given, those examples in scripture to run, to flee, to
resist those temptations, not in our own strength, but in the
strength of God, the strength of the Spirit. The greatest escape
is prayer. The greatest escape hatch is
prayer and the Word of God. When you feel that you are being
allured or tempted and thoughts are coming into your mind, instead
of feasting upon them, get down and pray. If the pathway is becoming
too difficult and you feel like the Lord has put on that last
straw that's going to break the camel's back, get down and pray. and you're overwhelmed with sorrow
and grief and you can't continue and you're wondering well the
Lord has said he won't give me so much and what can you do? Get down and pray. Prayer is
the greatest escape hatch that we've been given. Temptation
can be blown away as the Christian gets onto his knees. Sorrow,
sadness, despair can be upheld. Sickness, suffering, persecution. We realise we've got idols in
our life that can be dealt with by prayer. When we've murmured about the
way, it can be dealt with by prayer and confess. Confess your sin. He's able and
faithful to forgive us all of our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. And we do grumble and complain.
Sometimes we look up to God and we think, why Lord, why, why,
why? We forget. He is good all of
the time. We don't understand the end of
God's plans and we have to walk through this pathway of life
by faith, but he has given us all that we need and he is all
that we need to be able to walk worthy of our calling, to walk
in faith, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ and to use the means
that he has given to us, to be able to use those escape hatches
to flee from temptation and to be lifted up in trial. So maybe being able to use those
things that he has provided a way of escape that we may be able
to bear it. Amen.