Now last week we preached a message,
I entitled it Be Careful, and I was able to get through what
we might call the main point, or in formal papers we had to
write, the thesis of the message. But I don't want to miss the
particulars, because quite often you can properly teach on a general
concept, but it doesn't, without the particulars behind it, people
don't see or are not able to see a problem coming up, because
they don't see the details building up. Now, we focused on verse
12, Paul's general exhortation, So if you think you are standing
firm, be careful that you don't fall. And we spent some time
covering again that ground that anyone who has been saved by
the grace of God, anyone who stands in and on Christ cannot
fall. We know that. Because God upholds
them. However, the only proof that
God is holding you up is that you don't fall. And while someone
who is truly standing can never fall, there are those who think
they stand, but then they fall. And I fear that there are many
in professed Christianity in that situation. And if they do not fall during
this life, certainly as they transition from this life to
the next, they will fall. It's becoming a popular thing
these days for those who were raised in some form of conservative
Christianity, evangelical Christianity, whatever they call it, fundamentalism.
Once they get out of their homes, and are confronted with what
the world has to say, they decide they don't believe that anymore,
and they do what is called, or the popular phrase for it now is deconstruction.
And I think that's a good word to
describe exactly what happened to them. They were built, and
they were built by the hands of men and what one man builds,
another can tear down. And in all reality, I think it's
good when that happens because no one will ever leave what they
perceive to be the truth until what they perceive to be the
truth is proven not to be the truth. The unfortunate thing
is most of these who are going through this so-called deconstruction
are not moving from a faulty form of Christianity to the truth. They're denouncing Christianity
altogether and it has an unfortunate effect on others in the world
because most of them do so with a significant amount of contempt
and mocking Christianity. But many who think they stand
will fall. And so Paul says to all those
of us who think we stand, and if you've professed faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, you think you stand. And you very well
may be right. But the warning is valid for
all of us who think we stand, Be careful. Watch out that you
don't fall. Now, what I wasn't able to get
to is the first part of this chapter. I want to look at some
things that do not prove that we truly stand. Things that many
people will look to in order to give some authority to their
claim that they stand, and yet they do not prove that we stand. Then I want to look at a few
things that are forewarnings of falling. And then I want to
look at comfort. Comfort. For those who think they stand,
and have a true desire, that like Paul said to Timothy, to
stand and having done all, to stand. He begins this chapter with this
word, for I want you, or do not want you to be ignorant of the
fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and
that they all passed through the sea. And he gives several
more examples of things that were true for everyone who left
Egypt. Now, leaving Egypt and heading
for the promised land, in particular that portion, you know, that
one event of crossing the Red Sea, Passover night and then
crossing the Red Sea, that is used as an illustration of redemption. Because redemption is when a
price is paid in order to set slave free. And they had been
slaves in Egypt, and by the blood of the Passover lamb and what
it symbolized, they had been set free from their bondage in
Egypt. And when brought into danger
once again by Pharaoh and his armies, Pharaoh and his armies are coming
from the rear. The Red Sea's right in front of them. They
can't cross it. I've heard people say, oh, the Red Sea was only
an inch or two deep. Whatever it was, they couldn't
get across it. And interestingly enough, neither
could Pharaoh and his army. I think it would take more than
two inches to stop either group. But this is redemption. Now it says here that all the forefathers, they were all under the cloud
and they all passed through the sea. And so here's what's being pictured
for us. Remember, our Lord appeared to the congregation of Israel
by day in a cloud. At night, a pillar of fire. That's
how he made known his presence among them. And it says that
all who left Egypt were under the cloud. And that they all passed through
the sea. Now, before we want to go Any
further, I want to make this principle clear. What is being demonstrated here,
or pictured for us, is religious experiences and religious professions. Now every one of those Jews that
went out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, They had put the
blood on the door. They had done what they were
told. They had it believed at least to the point that they
put the blood on the door and that they were ready to leave
when it was time to leave. Now, to be under the cloud, what
did that mean? Well, you know, the cloud wasn't
on the ground. It was up there. It just, that
was an indication they were under the protection. Or maybe we would
better put it this way, they were among the group, the visible
group, that was under the protection of God. Now, to me, this is a picture,
a great illustration of the visible church. That's the phrase some
people call it. We are Grace Community Church.
We are a visible church. There are people who if you ask
them, where do you go to church? Oh, I go to Grace Community Church.
I'm a member there. So this is a visible church. And so far as any outward form
of religion that we may express, and by that I mean anything that
can be detected by other people, It's the same for all of us,
isn't it? We could say this, everyone in
Grace Community Church is under the gospel, because they are. I mean, I believe I preach the
gospel, and we've never had anyone stand in this pulpit without
a good deal of confidence that that is what they're gonna preach.
And so far, that's pretty well proven true. So this church,
all of it, is under the gospel. This business of passing through
the Red Sea. God made a way for his people
to escape from it. But there were some who went
through that were his people only in the outward sense, only
in the sense that they were identified with a particular group and said
they were of them. Well, when it comes to Grace
Community Church, there are no members And I know
over the years we have not really been official about membership. I don't think there's a piece
of paper anywhere where the names of the members are written down. Informally, we count anybody
that regularly worships here. We figure they wouldn't worship
here on a regular basis if they didn't agree with what was being
said. If they agree with what's being said, then it must be their
believers. And if they're believers regularly worshiping here, we
figure they're a part of us. And we've just kind of followed
that policy. But just because a person comes
to this place on a regular basis, agrees with the things they hear, that doesn't really mean that
they are a part of the Lord's church. The book of Hebrews refers
to the Lord's church this way. You have come to Mount Zion.
It said you've come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn
whose names are written in heaven. That's the only list that matters.
And maybe that's one reason up to this point we haven't made
a big deal about keeping a list. Our insurance company tells us
that we should have a formal list of members, and by that
they mean voting members, because unfortunately, if you own property
or have an employee, you've got a relationship with the government
like it or not. Well, God's body has no relationship
with the government. But this organization does, and
for any legal challenges which may come before the church, they
said it's good to have you write down what it is you believe.
and hold sincerely in what every member must believe in order
to be a part of the church. And we may have to do that simply
to avoid lawsuits in the future, or at least help us out if we
ever have to defend ourselves in a government lawsuit. Nonetheless, just being a member of this church
and to every outward appearance, believing what this church sets
forth. Just because you have gone along
with the crowd in redemption doesn't mean that you are really
a part of the Lord's church whose names are written in heaven.
And see, that's the point that Paul's making here. Some estimate
that as much as two million people left Egypt. Do you know how many
of them made it into the promised land of the two million that
left? Nobody that was 20 or over when they left made it into the
promised land. It says they were all baptized
into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now, different churches
have different versions of baptism, both in who should receive it
and how it should be administered, and also in what significance
it has. Here's one thing Moses, not Moses,
Paul is demonstrating here. Baptism, no matter how it's practiced,
no matter on whom it is practiced, or no matter what people think
is accomplished by its practice, nothing is accomplished by its
practice. Why? millions who were baptized
into that congregation perished. Now, we believe that the scriptures
are fairly plain about the mode of baptism, the subjects of baptism,
and what it means. Peter says it. He talks about
baptism that doth now save you. And it saves you by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. He doesn't mean that baptism
or the act of baptizing saves someone. What baptism symbolizes
saves people. That's why he said it saves you
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And he
defines baptism this way. It's the answer of a good conscience
toward God. Now, what is a good conscience?
That's a conscience without guilt. What's an answer? Well, the word
was used in court when the accused would stand before the judge
and they'd say, you've been accused of this particular crime. How do you plead? Well, the answer
of a good conscience is not guilty. And so baptism is the answer to a question. Consequently, no one should be
baptized unless they understand the question and can give a particular
answer to it. You have been accused of these
sins, or you've just been accused of general rebellion against
God. How do you plead? And the one
being baptized is saying, I plead not guilty. And I plead not guilty,
not because I've not done these things, but because I was killed,
buried, and raised again in Christ Jesus. That's what baptism is. The person who is baptized is
confessing something, therefore we assume they must be knowledgeable
about what they're confessing. That's why we don't baptize infants. And then the reason we use immersion
is because that pictures the burial and resurrection in which
we share a part. So it's for believers. Now some
say, do you all practice adult baptism? Well, adults that believe,
But we've never rejected the confession of a child either.
If we had any reason to believe that they understood what it
was they were confessing. Well, these people, they had
done that. They had a desire to leave Egypt.
They didn't like the bondage. And they had heard this word
of redemption. And as the crowd is leaving,
they joined the crowd. And they got baptized. And they perished. They dropped dead in the wilderness. Now, I don't know if we have
any of them in our hymnal. I've not sung all the hymns in
our hymnal. I've sung a few that we'll never
sing again. I sung a few in my childhood that I wouldn't sing
now, because that's not the truth. But I have seen some other hymnals,
and they'll... When they want to talk about
their religious experience, that which convinces them that they're
a child of God, they'll list things like, I've been to the
river and I've been baptized. So what? Let's just say out of
2 million people that came out of Egypt and were baptized under
the cloud into Moses, baptized in a sense by going through the
sea, out of that 2 million, let's just say, estimate 1,500,000
of them perished in the wilderness. Now, I'll say this about baptism.
It's been the experience of some, especially early on, I noticed
it, when so many were wracked by doubt and fears and they'd
been brought up to think that they shouldn't ever have real
confidence that they had believed God and had been saved by His
grace. And therefore, participation
in either of the church's ordinances, baptism with the Lord's table,
they were hesitant to do it. And baptism for them, in their
mind, and I think this was right. I think we ought to view it this
way. Baptism is a public stepping across the line from one side
to the other. It's a break with what was before
and a laying hold of what we've learned. Now, I realize this
has already happened spiritually in the person who At least they confessed that
that's already happened, but baptism is when they make it
public. I was on this side, now I'm on that side. And I remember
Betty, you all remember her, and she's with the Lord now.
But it was a difficult thing for her because by nature she
was timid anyway. And she'd been browbeaten into
that, you know, no way I can be saved type of thing for a
long time. But she heard the gospel. And
she desperately wanted to believe it. But she just couldn't. She couldn't make it so official.
She was afraid that's too big a step. And I said, Betty, are you a
sinner? Now, where's this fact? I'm not recalling a specific
conversation. I just know I talked to her about
it. This is the kind of things I would have said. Are you a sinner?
Yeah. Can you do anything about that?
No. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is a sufficient savior
for sinners? Yes. Do you believe the promise
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved?
Yes. Have you called upon the name of the Lord? Yes. Then what
are you waiting for? Well, I just want to be sure
of it. I said, you're putting the cart before the horse. I said, Betty, if you've called
on his name, confess it. You're not saying anything about
you and baptism. You're saying something about
him. Go confess what you believe about him, his death, burial,
and resurrection, and your participation in it. And she did. And I'll be honest with you,
I think that kind of faith is the best kind of faith, because
it had nothing to go on but the bare Word of God. I'm reminded of Peter when the
Lord told him he'd fished all night, couldn't get any fish,
and the Lord said, well, let down your nets. And he said, Lord,
we've fished all night. And that's when you're supposed
to be able to catch fish. And he couldn't catch any. And
he said, nevertheless, at your word, I'll put down the net.
And that's kind of what I said to Peter. I said, it's his word.
Hang on to his word. And so the first Sunday in November,
which actually was November 1st, 1987, she, along with several
others, we went down to the Sioux Center pool, we had us a baptismal
service, and it set her free. It did, she became bold in the
Lord. She was still Betty, but I know this, She's one of
those people I wouldn't dare say anything against Christ around
her. I wouldn't dare try to bring works in around her. She would
stand up for that. So baptism, in as much as it
is a public confession, it has, for no other way to put it, a
psychological effect on the believer. He has now made it public, and
it is as though He has truly cast off the chains of the past,
and He is free. Now, it doesn't have that effect
on everyone, because not everyone approaches baptism with the same
attitude. But it is. It's, for lack of
a better word, it's kind of like a wedding ceremony. Now, you
can be married without a wedding ceremony. But anybody who's been married
with a wedding ceremony knows this, you leave that place feeling
different than when you went in. Even though for all intents
and purposes, your relationship with that person has not changed. But they've been through this.
So they all ate that spiritual food, talking about the manna,
and drank the same spiritual drink Remember they were thirsty
and Moses was told to strike the rock, water came out, they
drank from that spiritual rock that accompanied them and that
rock was Christ. Now here is something for us
to notice and notice with our eyes wide open and our ears wide
open and everything. He's already beginning to show
us what is the essential problem that those who thought they stood,
but thought what their essential problem was, and it was Christ.
But now, they did eat the food. And they were drinking that water,
he calls it from the spiritual rock, and by that it was not,
it was a real rock. What he means is that that rock
stood as a symbol of something. It had spiritual significance
because that rock represented Christ. And from him, flows the
water of life. And then later, the Lord himself
said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. And so they'd had, they'd eaten
that manna, they'd eaten or drank from the rock that pictured Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased
with most of them. Their bodies were scattered over
the desert. Here's what I'm saying, what
I believe Paul is saying, that's the important thing here. Anything that can be seen by
others can never be looked back on as proof that you're standing. There were some who thought they
stood and really did stand. And there were some who thought
they stood, but it was proven that they weren't standing because
they fell. And anybody looking at them as all of this was going
on would not have been able to tell the difference. I remember I made a profession
of faith at seven years old. And I'm not going to try to argue
about whether it was legitimate I believed according to the understanding
that I had at the time. I don't have any reason to think
it wasn't. But once again, a lot of these,
you know, the heart's deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. I could have been deceiving myself, I don't know. But I remember being at a church
one time and they had a And I don't know, I think it
was a guest book. And this would have been like in the mid-70s. And I was seven years old in
1962. So 13 years, say, had gone by. And I was visiting this church. And they had this register of
visitors, you know, kind of like when you go to one of the national
parks or something, they want you to sign in so they can see
how many people came. And I'm looking back. And I get
to a date, September, and I can't remember what the date was, of
1962. And I knew enough about when
it was I made a profession of faith that when I saw that, it
made me feel good. There, that's the date. There
you go. That's when, and this is the
phraseology that was used in the church I was raised in, that's
when I asked Jesus into my heart. And it made me feel more confident
of my salvation. And I went a few pages forward.
There's November 4th, 1962. I do remember that day. That's
when I was baptized. What silly things to rest your
confidence on. Did me being able to discover
just what day in September it was, during the last hymn of
the worship service, I asked Jesus into my heart and I started,
I actually began to cry and was kind of beside myself, but I
went forward, you know, and told him, I would say, Does no one know what date that
was? Does he even have the memory of that event? Does that prove
that I stand with being able to say November 4th, I was baptized? That's written down somewhere.
Does that confirm that I'm standing? No. It doesn't mean a thing. It's two dates on a calendar.
I like Paul put it this way, when it pleased God to reveal
his son in me. When was that? Sometime. But the issue wasn't
the date. It was that Christ had been revealed
to him and in him. That he knew. But nobody else
could see that. Even the people that were with
him on that day on the road to Damascus. They saw something,
but they didn't know what it was. Now these things, verse 6, occurred
as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as
they did. Do not be idolaters. As some of them were, as it is
written, the people sat down to eat and to drink and got up
to indulge in pagan revelry. Now, the New Testament and the
Old Testament, in talking about this story, I like the words
they use. The story here is of when Moses
went up to get the law from God, went up Mount Sinai. And on the way back, he could
hear a lot of noise in the camp. And it is written that it was
said, this is not the noise of war, the noise of victory, something
like this. This is the sound of singing. And it describes
what they'd done is they'd cast that golden calf and they were
worshiping Jehovah by means of the golden calf. Here, if you look specifically,
and I think I mentioned this last week, but the word translated
pagan revelry is actually just the word play. comes from the
Greek word for child, child's play, you know. In the Old Testament,
it uses the word laugh. That's the word that Isaac's
name came from, because if you'll recall when God announced that
Abraham and Sarah were going to have a child, he being 100
and she being 90, she laughed. So they named him Laughter. What they were playing wasn't
hopscotch or some such thing as that. It was common in those
days that idolatrous worship be accompanied by debauched revelry. And that's what was going on. And what was the real sin that
gets mentioned here? It does not say in this particular
incidence, do not be adulterers or fornicators, even though that
was going on. I don't want to make light of
either of those two sins, but one of the things I realized
after being an adult for a little while, even though I was raised
in a very straight-laced, conservative, fundamentalist church, Adultery
and fornication has been going on ever since there have been
enough people for that to go on. I had some people from another
church come visit me one time, kind of set an ambush for me. I thought they were coming because
they had a real interest in the church, and their first question was,
and it was the pastor and two women of the church, and he didn't
do any talking until towards the end. He let the women do
the talking for him. And one of these women said,
we want to know if you're concerned about all the adultery going
on in Rock Valley. And I was not expecting that
question. But I said, well, you know, it's sin. But I'm not surprised. That goes on everywhere all the
time. Notice that's not what is brought
up here. Though we count that to be a
very serious breach of morals. He says, don't be idolaters. Now here's the interesting thing.
They weren't worshipping the wrong God. Aaron made that calf
for them. And he said, now we'll have a
feast to Jehovah. They had the right God. But they had an image of Him
there, sort of. I read once that the calf itself
was not considered to be the God. Lots of pagan religions,
they'll make an image of their God and set it on a calf. Well,
Jehovah's the invisible God, so all you need to do is make
the calf. Because you can't see God anyway. But you know what
the Scriptures say concerning the Lord Jesus Christ? He is
the image of the invisible God, the exact representation of his
being. When these people built that
calf, and even though they did not put a specific image on it,
when they bowed down before that calf, what they were showing
is We are not satisfied with God's image. That's not enough
for us. We've got to have something to
look at. We've got to have something that these eyes can see. We've
got to have a form of worship that this body can feel. And
what I thought was interesting is in that little thing, this
is not the sound of warfare or the sound of victory, it's the
sound of singing. and how much of today's so-called
Christian religion is simply people gathering for a spectacle
of fleshly talent. Music. I don't have a thing against
music. I was listening to some of my
favorite hymns on YouTube last night. I mean, these are big
ones with choirs and orchestras and all that. That's fine, that's
fine. If we were a big enough church
and we had a choir, I mean, our church membership doesn't make
up a good choir if you took every one of us and made us into the
choir. But I've got no problem with that. Man, everything, you
know, it says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
And if you can get a bunch of them up here in an orchestra,
that would be great. But you know something? We would
be no more worshiping God that way than when we just open up
our hymnals and sing hymns we know. Some of us able to carry
a tune, some of us not. God's watching the heart anyway.
But one thing, one reason I would resist any regular eye-opening
kind of musical productions, invariably they become the focus. And people come to church not
because Christ is being preached, but because there's some great
entertainment. It's flesh. And then it mentions
this. Verse 8, we should not commit
sexual immorality as some of them did, and one day 23,000
of them died. Now, I'll say this, this time
it does mention sexual immorality explicitly, but if you go back
to the story, even in this it was involved in following those
who followed a false god. Once again, it was a defection
from Christ. It was a dissatisfaction with
Christ that lay at the root of it. Said we should not test the Lord
as some of them did and were killed by snakes. This one I think is the most
obvious of what he's getting at. They said to Moses, why did you
bring us out here into this desert? Better we should have stayed
in Egypt. And we hate this detestable bread. What bread were they talking
about? The manna. It wasn't enough for
them. Now, if they could have had the
manna, and like they mentioned in another place, leeks and onions,
which they had enjoyed back in Egypt. If they could have had
that bread with, you know, some peanut butter and jelly on it,
or... I worked with a guy, we'd stop for lunch, and he would
give himself a bologna sandwich. I'm not lying, the bologna would
be that thick. He used to tease me, I'd get ham about that thing.
He said, you're just aggravating the bread. He said, the only
reason for the bread is to keep your fingers off the meat. But they can tolerate the preacher
standing up for 10, 15, 20 minutes and saying something about Jesus
as long as there's a whole lot of stuff that appeals to the
flesh. And it says, and do not grumble
as some of them did. and were killed by the destroying
angel. Now there's two things this could be referring to, but
it seems as though he's putting these things in chronological
order. And this would mean when they
got right there to the border of the land of promise, spies
went in, 10 of them came back with an evil report, and they
started to talk among one another and grumble. And in unbelief, they fell. because they did not see in Christ grace sufficient to meet the
challenges which lay ahead. He said, be careful when you
think you stand, lest you fall. One question. Is Christ enough
for you? If we had to meet in secret and
we couldn't sing anything because we made too much noise, they'd
find out. Persecution got — could you get
together handful in one little place, and all that was involved
in worship was quiet prayer and quiet preaching of the gospel.
Would that be enough for you? Or would you say, I got to find a more accepted
version of religion? Okay. Now, that's the warning,
now the comfort. Verse 13, no temptation has seized
you except what is common to man. Let's face it, folks, nothing
that happens to us hasn't happened to other people. I realize there
are spiritual struggles you have that the rest of the world doesn't
have because they don't have spiritual struggles. I'm talking about
just the stuff that happens. bankruptcies, illnesses, disasters,
horrible loss. That happens all over the world,
all kinds of people from all different kinds of religion.
Nothing that comes into our lives hasn't happened to others, up
to and including being put to death for what you believe. Christians
aren't the only ones that have been killed. It's easy to make our world small. Oh, we Christians suffer so much,
even if we did. Christians in America should
never say they suffer. I'm sorry, that is in the normal
things that other people in other worlds or other countries suffer
from. We've got it so good here. And
I know that there's a whole lot going on we don't like. I understand
all of that. But I wasn't the least bit afraid
to come here this morning. If five cop cars had been parked
out in front there, it would never have crossed my mind that
they were coming here to deny us the right to freely worship
without fear. So far as the worship of God
concerned, we've got it really good here in the United States. God will not, excuse me, nothing's happening
to us that doesn't happen to others. and God is faithful. God is faithful. Do you know
one thing that will help you to stand and having done all
to stand? If you go away from this message
thinking, okay, I gotta stand, I gotta stand, I gotta make sure
I stand, you've missed the point. Because Paul didn't say that's
how you're supposed to do it. He said, you wanna be faithful?
Remember, God is faithful. That's what makes us faithful. Meditate on His faithfulness.
If you meditate on yours, you're going to be terribly disappointed.
If you meditate on His, you'll be just fine. God is faithful. You say, I fear what lies ahead.
Well, there are fearful things coming in the human sense or
how humans would look at it. But we as believers can know
this. Whatever is coming, God sent it. He sent it for our good.
He's faithful. He will not leave us. He will
not try us and tempt us more than we are able to endure for
His glory and our eternal salvation. Now He may send you more than
you can naturally endure, but He will provide whatever's
necessary for you to be able to endure. That doesn't mean
it'll be fun, doesn't mean you'll be happy during the process,
but you won't fall if you're His. God is faithful. He'll not let you be tempted
beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, He will
also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Now,
in putting it this way, I believe that in the word temptation,
he's primarily referring to the troubles of this life. But the
word itself can mean trials or temptation to sin. Both of them
would be covered by that word. We recognize that one way or
another, God will provide us a way of escape from the trials
of this life. And that way of escape, friends,
might be death. What? That doesn't sound like
an escape. Friends, for the child of God, death is always an escape.
Finally get to get out of here. I'm not saying that just because
I'm down on life, that's not true. I'm saying what awaits
us is so far greater than what we endure. Paul said the sufferings
of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glories
that will be revealed in us. And even though we've had no
other experience except the experience of living in this particular
existence, we know by faith whatever this is, Getting away from it's going
to feel like an escape once we find out what the life to come
is. You say, I'm sick. The doctor
said there's no way out of this. Yes, there is for the believer.
Brother Charlie Payne, the elder at 13th Street Baptist Church,
he had heart troubles for years and he went into a surgery which
turned out to be his last. They're going in, try to work
on his heart one more time, give him a little more time, and he
was only in his, I think, 57, 58 years old. Henry went in to
visit him. He said, Henry, the Lord's gonna
heal me or make me all the way better. And that was Charlie's escape
from his heart troubles. The Lord made him all the way
better. So death isn't an escape, but he didn't die, he moved. And then when it comes to sin,
brethren, there are, are we tempted to sin? Of course we are. Do we want to sin? In our flesh,
we do. Let's not deny it. In our spirit, we don't want
to. When temptation comes, And it just seems more than we're
going to be able to resist. You know what it says? Look for
the escape. There will be one. There will
be one. Look for it. But there's one more escape.
And this one certainly causes my heart to rejoice because you
know as well as I do. A lot of times we look, we're
tempted and we're not even interested in an escape. Much less do we take the effort
to look for it, and we succumb. There is still an escape. It's our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we find ourselves head
over heels in sin, what do we do to escape? We go
to Him. The temptation at that point
will be to try to do something good to make up for the wrong
we've done. The temptation will be to say, oh, I need to read
my Bible some more, because if I do that, I wouldn't fall to
this sin. I need to go to church more. I need to pray more, blah,
blah, blah. One escape, Christ. And fall at His feet. And confess
your sin before Him. And it may be that The Lord will
dispense with some discipline, some chasing. Kind of reminds
you, just like you did your children. So, you know, the next time we
give our children discipline, you know, spanking or whatever.
So the next time they think they want to do that, they'll remember
this doesn't ever work out. But one thing our Lord will never
do is refuse you. He'll never turn you away. He'll
never say you're not mine. Well, that's the last straw. I remember one time feeling horrible
about some particular sin. And I prayed, Lord, I've done
it again. And it's as though he said, you did what again? Why? Because when God forgives sins,
he forgets them. And there never is an again.
Because the first time never happened. Take heed when you think you
stand. Make sure you're standing on the rock of Christ and nowhere
else. Watch out if you find yourselves
being discontented with simply Christ. Remember, God is faithful. Look for the escape. And if you fall into sin or jump
into it, remember, there's still a way of escape. Still a way. It's Christ. Well, may the Lord
bless His message.