Paul ended chapter 9, last week
we ended chapter 9 and he ended it by saying in verse 27, but 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. Isn't that something? You think about that. What if
I preached to others? Open this word and preached to
others. Years after years after years
and then come to the end, find out I didn't know who God was.
Not at all. A man made the statement one
time and I believe in my short time I've already seen it to
be true. He said, God uses a lot of scaffolding to build his church,
and when he is done with the scaffolding, he tears it down. That's something, isn't it? Isn't
that something? Isn't that sobering? So sobering. It's a fearful thought. Paul
said, I'm writing this to you because I don't want to be a
castaway, and I don't want you to be a castaway. Come the end
of this life, The world is so blindly just frolicking through
this little life, loving life, three score and ten and all the,
we've got so many gadgets now and life is getting so much easier
in that regard and money's flowing. We don't live on dirt floors.
And then we're going to get to the end and then it's time to
face reality. And he said, I don't want to
be a castaway and I don't want you to be a castaway. Man, I
don't want you to be a castaway. I don't want this ministry to
go for decades and decades and decades and then we have a split
right down the middle. People who loved each other for
years and years and years all of a sudden at odds, enemies. And it's going to come down to
this word right here. That's what's going to draw the
line in the sand. When a person is lost in religion, And this is how you know if a
person is lost in religion. When a person is lost in religion,
they are concerned and consumed with do's and don'ts. That's
how you know. They're just taken. They can't
get their mind away from do's and don'ts. Mainly don'ts. Don't smoke cigarettes. Don't drink beer. Don't eat at
restaurants where people smoke cigarettes and drink beer. Do,
don't. You should, you shouldn't. And
they're in total error. They are in complete and total
error. And here's the reason why. It's
because they are clinging to the do's and the don'ts for salvation
and they've missed Christ. That's the whole reason they're
in error, they've missed Christ. A man is salvation. A man is salvation. The will and the work and the
blood of a man is salvation and Jesus Christ is his name. But
when the Lord opens the blind eyes of these who are lost in
religion and he sets them free, he sets them free from all the
bondage of the do's and the don'ts. And he does that by showing them
that Christ said it's done. He hung on that cross and he
said it is finished. When they see that, They run
from their dead works. They're horrified by them. They
hate their dead works. They hate the fact that that's
what I was holding on to for salvation. I cannot believe that's
what I was holding on to for salvation. And they don't want
to have anything to do with works anymore. They don't want to have
anything to do with God's law anymore. Don't tell me about
it. Don't preach it to me, I'm done
with it. And once again, they're back
in error. Isn't that what you see people
do? One extreme to the other. And then finally in time, the
Lord starts to teach a believer, a follower of God's word, that
David said, I love thy law. I mean, I love it. I really do. I love that law. It's not my
salvation. It's not my salvation. Christ
is my salvation. But the law is His law. You know that the law is His.
You know, we're going to be like Him. What's He like? Read the law. It's his character. He said, this is who I am. If
you want to be with me, you have to be just like me. Perfect.
This is who I am and this is my character. It's what I expect.
And his people have a heart to obey him. When he puts his heart
in them, takes out that stony heart and puts a new heart in
them, he gives them a heart to obey him. That's what he does.
And the reason is because they love him. That's the whole reason. Before it was, I have to do this
or else I'm going to go to hell. No, the only thing keeping me
out of hell is the blood of Jesus Christ. It's because He loved
me, He chose me, He grabbed me, He saved me. That's the only
thing. Now, because of that, I love Him. I love Him and I
want to be just like Him. So, Paul said in chapter 10,
verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I would not
that you should be ignorant. Paul said, I have some things
to say to the believers that we all must understand. And we
truly do need to understand this. It is important that we are taught
these things. He said, I don't want you to
be ignorant about this. And I'll go ahead and tell you
what the summary of what he's about to say is. When God moves
on the heart of a sinner, he gives that sinner a heart to
obey Christ. That's what he's about to say.
He gives that sinner a heart of obedience. They bow to the
word of Christ. Look at Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Verse 31 says,
Do we then make void the law through faith? Just because we're
saved by faith in Christ, just because we're saved through believing
He did it all, not by the deeds of the law. Do we then make void
the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. Somebody says, but the law is
not salvation. I know. We know. But it's still God's
law. It is still God's law. And we don't throw it out the
window. It would be just like saying, my love is not bound
to this ring. My love is not dependent on this
ring. I don't have to be wearing this
ring to love my wife. I know. But I'm not going to
throw it out the window. Look at Romans 6, verse 1 says,
what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Well, you know, I'm not going
to stop living in open sin to prove that I'm saved by grace,
to prove that it's not by my works. I'm just going to stay
in that open sin I'm living in, and I'm just going to prove this
thing's by grace. Verse 2 says, God forbid. How
shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now,
you know we live in it every day, don't you? You know we're
swimming in it. In the flesh, you can't get out
of it. But just open blasphemy to him, just that open rebellious
blasphemy to him. Verse 15 right here in Romans
6 says, what then, shall we sin because we are not under the
law but under grace? He said God forbid, God forbid. Romans 7 verse 7 says, what shall
we say then, is the law sin? Somebody says, huh, that's just
law. That's just the law. You're just
preaching the law now. But wait a minute, is the law
sin? Is God's holy law sin? Somebody gets pulled over and
the police officer says, don't you know that you were speeding?
Huh, well that's just law. And I'm a free man. Well, you're
not going to be if you keep doing that. Are you saying that if I don't
keep God's law, I might lose my salvation? No. No, this is
really important. Here's what I'm saying. If we
don't have a heart to keep God's law, it's not a good evidence
that God has put his law abiding spirit within us. That's what
I'm saying. It's just not a good evidence
that God has put his law. We are law believers of the most
law abiding people on this earth. I believe that. I believe that. He's put his law abiding spirit
within us. And Paul said, brethren, I don't
want us to be ignorant of this. I can't keep God's law. I want
to make this clear. I can't keep God. I have never
kept God's law one day in my life. Not one day. Because everything he demands,
not only is it in deed, it's in thought, and it's in motive.
I can't preach a message without sinning to the highest degree. I've never one day kept God's
law. But here's what I don't want
to see in myself, and here's what I don't want to see in any
of us. Open rejection to it. Just absolute open rejection
to it. Lord, we cannot keep it, but
we love it. And we do desire to keep whatever
you'll enable us to keep. Whatever you will cause us to
keep. All right, now go with me back
to 1 Corinthians 10. Verse 1 says, Moreover, brethren,
I would not that you 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 did
all 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 here's what he just said. Moses led the children of Israel
out of Egypt. All right? That's that deliverance
from bondage. And I've heard different estimates
on how many people came out. I've heard 600,000. I've heard
a million. I've heard 2 million. I've heard
3 million. I don't know. But adults, those people who came out, they
believed Moses. The reason we know that is because
they followed him. Moses said, I'm going. And they followed
him. And then God, through Moses,
parted the Red Sea, this amazing miracle. Can you imagine? I forget,
you know, one time we said how deep the Red Sea is. And can
you imagine those walls? And they all went into God's
miracle. They all partook of God's great
miracle in parting that sea. They entered into what God provided
for them. Then they were all hungry, every
one of them. So God dropped bread out of heaven. Boom, right there for them. A
miracle, an absolute miracle. And that bread spiritually represented
Christ, our salvation, our nourishment, our strength. And then all of
those 2 million or those 3 million people, they physically drank
from the rock. that God told Moses to strike
with the staff. And that rock spiritually represented
Christ. They entered into it. They were
partakers of it. They witnessed the miracle of
the fact that it followed them everywhere they went. That's
the same rock. Isn't that a different rock?
No. That's the same rock. And that rock was clearly a picture
of Christ. Paul said salvation was not in
any of those miracles and salvation was not in being a part of that
group. It wasn't just in being counted
with the group. Out of a million, two million,
three million adults, do you know how many God allowed to
actually enter into the promised land? You ever thought about that? You know they wandered in the
wilderness for 40 years? Out of all the adults that God
brought out of Egypt, He allowed two to enter into the promised
land. They all wandered out in the
wilderness in unbelief and total disregard for God's words. Verse
5 says, but with many of them God was not well pleased for
they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now go with me to Hebrews chapter
3. Hebrews chapter 3, look at verse
6. It says, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house
are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm unto the end, wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, today
if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation
in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Don't harden your
hearts like they did when they were out in the wilderness 40
years. Verse nine, when your fathers tempted me, proved me,
and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with
that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart,
and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they
shall not enter into my rest." God killed all the adults but
two out in the wilderness. So he said in verse 12, Take
heed, brethren. lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort
one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we're made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end." Now back in our text, Paul gives us five things that
he does not want us to be ignorant of. Go back with me. And let
me show you something very quickly. I'm going to skip ahead here
because I'm running out of time and I want to make this clear
from the get-go. Look at verse 13. There hath
no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. Here's
what we've been saying all to this point. We fail in every
sense, don't we? We fail in every sense. If it
is left up to us to please God, We're goners. All right, now
verse 13 says, there has no temptation taken you, but such as is common
to man, but God is faithful. All right, Paul's gonna prove
we're sinners, we're sinners, we're sinners, we're sinners,
and if that's where it ended, oh man, we should have never
showed up. We should eat, drink, and be
merry, for tomorrow we die. But here's the thing, God is
faithful. He's faithful who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to
bear. You know that's why we come here.
It's to hear about that way of escape. We've been in temptation
all week. all week long, and we come here
not to just be saddened by our weakness and our sin, we come
here to hear about a way of escape. All right, now, I had to say
that. I don't want to run out of time. Now let's go back up
to verse 5, all right? Verse 6, he said, Now these things
were our examples. Everything Paul's talking about,
these things were our examples. To the intent, we should not
lust after evil things as they also lusted." What he's saying
is, let's learn from their mistake. They lusted and he said, they're our examples.
To the intent, we should not lust after evil things as they
lusted. The word lust means covet. That's what it translates as,
covet. What is covetousness? It's wanting something else.
That's what it is, wanting something else. What I have is not enough,
I want something else. Let me ask us all this question.
Is Christ enough? Spiritually and physically. Is Christ enough? I don't have
this, and I don't have this, and I don't have this, and I
don't have this, and I don't have this, and I don't have this,
and I don't have this, but I have Christ. Is Christ enough? Is He enough? Is Jesus Christ made to be all
I need? Come the end of this life. Is
He made to be all I need? If He is, we won't look for salvation
and we won't look for spiritual satisfaction anywhere else but
in Him. What's my hope? What's my salvation? What's my happiness? What's my
joy? What's everything? One answer,
Jesus Christ. That's it. If He truly is all
I need, I will also be content with the things He has given
me, because I'll believe you're giving them to me. He's given
me exactly what He wants me to have. You know that. He's given
me exactly what He wants me to have, and it's enough. It is
enough. As we go down through this, the
physical application is evidence of the spiritual application.
Really and truly, Paul is telling us Don't covet. Don't lust after
other things. Don't covet what your neighbor
has. Why? Because of the spiritual matter
involved. So he said, let's not be ignorant of the dangers of
covetousness. Verse 7, neither be ye idolaters
as were some of them. As it is written, the people
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. They made a
golden calf. You remember that? That's what
they did is they made a golden calf and they danced around it
and they bowed to it and they worshiped it. And physically
speaking, let's be warned of the dangers of idol worship. And that, you know, specifically
goes to something very specific. Let's sum it up like this. False
worship. The dangers of false worship. Let's protect our children from
it. Let's guard our children from
it. Don't let them go to a house
of lies. They are masters at enticing
the flesh. They're masters at enticing the
flesh. I'd rather go there. I'm sure to be fine. Paul said,
Brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant about this.
We all know it's wrong to bow down to statues, don't we? We
know that. We don't bow down to statues and make our hand
gestures and do all those kinds of things. But idol worship can
be so subtle. It can be so subtle. I'll tell
you the most dangerous idol I know. Here's the most dangerous idol
I know. My flesh. I'm walking around in it. Don't
let it entice us away from the true and living God. Don't bow
down to yourself. Don't give in to yourself. Don't
give all your love and all your support and all your care to
this flesh. Don't let this flesh lift us
up as an idol above anything else. Well, I know I ought to be worshiping
God, but my flesh would rather go over here and do this. Don't
give in to it. Don't give in to it. Don't worship
idols. Worship God. Let's all worship
God. This is what Paul's saying. Brethren, I don't want you to
be ignorant of this. Worship God. Verse 8 says, neither let
us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in
one day three and twenty thousand. Fornication in the scripture
represents leaving your first love of Jesus Christ. and everything he's done for
us. We're his bride. He's espoused
us to him. He shed his blood for us. He's
our husband. The whole reason he made the
covenant of marriage was to show what he did for us. That's the
whole reason. He's the husband. We're the bride. He left his father. He clung
to his bride. They became one flesh. She is
now joint heir with him. Everything he has, he's given
to her. And physical fornication represents our spiritual leaving
of that first true love and going after another. And God said,
don't do it. Don't do it. Paul is writing to Corinth. It's a congregation of believers
where fornication was rampant. It was just rampant through the
congregation. And everybody was doing it. Everybody's conscience
was seared to it. It didn't really bother them.
Everybody else was doing it. And they had no regard for God's
commandment on it. They knew what his commandment
was. They said, we're going to do it anyway. They took this attitude. What
are you going to do? What are you going to do? Everybody's
doing it. Men will be men, women will be women. What's one sin
above another? Paul said, I'll tell you what,
if you're going to continue in this, you might want to go read
Numbers 25. Now, we're not going to turn to Numbers 25, but I'm
going to tell you what it says. You can read it for yourself.
I'll try to bring it back to my memory here if I can. The
children of Israel fell in with the daughters of Moab. God said,
don't do it. And they did anyway, and they
were committing fornication. It was a mass sin. And in the process, the daughters
got them to start worshiping their gods and their idols. So
now it's idolatry, too, mixed into it. And that was over there,
but then they started bringing the women back to the camp of
the children of Israel. They started bringing it into
God's congregation. And this one young man, he brought
a Moabitess woman, and everybody knew whoever goes over to Moab,
everybody knows what's going on. And he brought this woman
in, and he very arrogantly paraded her right in front of Moses and
in front of the whole congregation of Israel to say, I'm doing this. And he brought her straight into
his tent, and everybody knew what they were doing. And God
said, you start killing them all. He told Moses, you tell
your men that are under them, all the people, whoever has attached
to Moab, you hang them up, string them up in the sun. And one of
the grandson of Aaron, as soon as he saw that man go into his
tent with that woman, he picked up a javelin and he ran into
his tent and he stabbed that man and he stabbed that woman
right through the belly, it says. And as soon as he did that, God
was appeased. And he told Moses, you can stop
killing the people. But before he could get in there and stab
them, 24,000 people died. And God said, he has appeased
me. Because of his zeal for his God,
he'll have a priesthood forever. Now, let me tell you something.
That's Jesus Christ. That's Jesus Christ, who made
atonement for the sin of his people. We were all sinning against
God, and Jesus Christ came and committed something that would
appease God Almighty. A sacrifice. He was the sacrificer. He was the sacrifice. And God
said, I'm satisfied. But seeing the blasphemy, just
getting a hold of the blasphemy that physical fornication is
against the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Why
would we want to do that? That's just the, why would we
want to spit in his face like that? Let's just not do that.
Paul said, brethren, maybe it's time we just stopped being so
ignorant about his command on this. All right. Verse nine says,
Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and
were destroyed of serpents." How do we tempt Christ? We're tempting Him in everything
we've already said. Everything we've already said. you know, talking about lust,
talking about working, worshipping the flesh, talking about fornication.
There was a man who came to his pastor years ago and he said, he told him that he wanted to
divorce his wife, he'd fallen in love with another woman. And
you know, I can't help it, the heart wants what the heart wants,
you know. And his pastor said, don't do it. He said, you're
going to bring a reproach on yourself. You're going to bring
a reproach on your wife. You're going to bring a reproach
on this congregation. You're going to bring a reproach
on the gospel. You're going to bring a reproach on God. And the man
said, well, I just can't help it. I have to do it. So he left
that pastor's study and he got in his car and started driving
down the road and a rock fell off a cliff and killed him. And I'm not even going to try
to be silly and say, wasn't he unlucky? Somebody could say, you know,
do you think he was an unbeliever? No, not necessarily. I don't
know if he was or wasn't. I don't know. Well, do you think
a believer would do something like that? But for the grace
of God. This flesh right here is capable
of anything. I mean it. You think a believer
would do something like that outside of the grace of God? Well, I mean, do you think that
God would do that to a believer? Paul is talking to brethren.
Brethren. He said, I don't want us to be
ignorant about these things. I don't want us to turn a blind
eye to them. I don't want us to sweep them under the rug.
when God has been so clear about these things. Now, you know,
we could start back over at the beginning and say, are we talking
do and don't in order to be saved? No, it's because we love Christ.
We love his word. He's put a heart in us to obey
his word. Verse 10, he said, neither murmur ye as some of
them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. One of the
commentators wrote this, he said, Murmuring is being dissatisfied
and impatient with God. Wow. He's right. Murmuring, complaining is being
dissatisfied and impatient with God. When I see that, when I
see it like that. Paul said, brethren, let's not
complain. Let's just not be complainers. Verse 11, now all these things
happened unto them for examples and they are written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. All these
things happened to them at the beginning and God dealt with
them and God wrote it all down to be an example to us at the
end. So he's saying let's learn from it. Verse 12, wherefore
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. I have
never met a person I have never in my life met one person who
does not believe he or she is saved. All right? So he said, wherefore
let him that thinketh he standeth. I don't know anybody who doesn't
think they're standing. Not one person. Everybody thinks
they're saved. But he says, wherefore let him
that thinketh he standeth Take heed lest he fall. The only time a sinner is truly
standing is when he is standing on Christ the solid rock. Now, I have sinned against God
concerning lust, whether you want to call it lust or covetousness. I failed that one. I have sinned
against God on idol worship. Worshipping anything other than
the true and living God. Going after it. I have sinned
against God on it. I have sinned against God against
fornication. Because our God said, to think
it is to do it. There is not one person who has
not thought it. So I fail. I sin. And what that
means is so far, God ought to kill me. God ought to kill me.
God ought to kill me. You think I tempt Christ? Oh
man, God ought to kill me. You think I ever murmur and complain? God ought to kill me. That's
what I deserve. But look at verse 13 again. There
hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man,
but God is faithful. That's the gospel. I don't have
an ounce of good news until we get to that right there. Not
one ounce. The gospel means good news. I
don't have one ounce of good news. God is faithful. God is faithful. Who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear. What
is the way? It's Christ himself. Our only escape from all these
temptations is to run to Christ. That's it. That's it. A man said,
and I love this, he said, you may be tempted above your strength,
but not above his. Not above his. So verse 14 says,
wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. He's going
to make a way to escape and that way is Christ. So what he's saying
is run to him. Run to Jesus Christ. Take that way. All right. You're
dismissed.