1 Corinthians 10. This message I know is absolutely
vital, desperately needed. I can honestly say I have a burden
for nearly every one of these messages for you and for yours. I often think, hope, pray, this
will be the one. This will be the one that you
need, that they need, that the Lord will use. This is what He's
pleased to use. Earthen vessels, foolishness,
what the world calls foolishness. This message is absolutely vital. So much more so in these last
days, as we see the day approaching. And you do see clearly, don't
you? signs of the time, these last days. And if someone you
love is not here, I wish that you would get them
this message. The Lord is speaking through
Paul, the Apostle. God does that. He speaks through
men. He's speaking to the church at
Corinth like Rome. Corinth, Greece, Rome, Italy. It was the center of the civilized world.
It was educated in politics and arts and crafts and technology. They had it all, but it was a
wicked, vile, idolatrous, godless land. And there was a church
there, Corinth. And because of where they lived,
because they were in the midst of a sinful, wicked place, The
church was full of problems. That's where they lived. That's
what they were surrounded by. But anyway, it's like America
today, like the U.S. of A., where we live today, or
all the world now. But he warns them. In verse 12,
he warns the church, Let him that thinketh he standeth take
heed, lest he fall. verse we read was, My dearly
beloved. He said this in love. And we
need to preach the truth in love, in meekness. And Paul said this
to the Ephesians too. He said, I cease not to warn
you day and night with tears. And it's not like Paul was saying
something to them that he didn't need. Because in this same letter
he said, who's weak and I'm not weak? Who's tempted and I'm not
tempted? So he's saying, I know you need
this, this help for temptation, because I'm a man of like passion. I'm tempted. When I read this,
I didn't think immediately, you need this. I thought, I need
this. I need this. And he says the
last line, flee, run from idolatry. It's no coincidence that John,
in his epistle to John, the very last line was, dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry. So, and it's full of serious
warnings, desperately needed in 2015. Desperately needed by
us. No one else is here to hear this.
Maybe someone will hear it on sermon audio. But I pray to the
Lord I hear this. I pray that you hear this. Everyone
in here. I hope there will not be a sleepy
head or a deaf ear this morning down to our smallest children. Now, we began the year, Wednesday
night, with the Passover dinner. That's the way we should. That's
the way the children of Israel did. They were going out. God
said, I've come down to bring you out. And they had the blessed
Passover, didn't they? And they went out of there with
a high hand, rejoicing. So we began the year. Romans
8. Hope. With hope. Alright? But then we had to go back out
in the world. Now we have to go back on this
journey. And we've got to keep running this race. Chapter 9,
Paul talked about the race. Running the race. And he said,
this is no shadow boxing. This is a real battle here. He
said, this is not trying to get a little laurel on our head to
obtain eternal life. This is serious. And that's what he followed this
with, followed that with. So you had to go back out into
the world, didn't you? Simple place, Corinth. You had
to go back out into Corinth and Rome. with all its temptations. And these people lived in Corinth
with all its temptations. Anything that could tempt a human
being. No temptation that went over
there that they couldn't be tempted with. Lust of the eye. Lust of
the faith. Pride of life. And they were
bombarded with it. Bless the Lord for chapter 10. Warning us. Now there are three
things here. Alright? Three things. Stay with
me. There are things that we need
to remember. Never forget. Blessings we need to remember.
How the Lord has blessed us. Then we're going to hear warnings
to make us beware. Watch out, this is dangerous.
And then we're going to hear a promise. We're going to end
with a promise that we don't despair. A promise that no temptation
that you've ever faced or ever will face, that God won't make
a way for us. Watch. He knows how to deliver
the just. from temptation. Bless the Lord.
Maybe I ought to go there first. You know what I said about preachers.
They dwell too long here and then rush through the end of
it. He's going to end with a blessed promise. But we need the warning. How many times have I quoted
Brother Mahan on this? That the Scriptures are full
of warnings. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? Like a father
chastened. Like a father warned. Son, beware. Aren't you glad? People of the
world don't heed this warning. They don't hear this warning.
They don't hear them. They're not hearing them. They're not warned.
And they're facing eternal. The end is destruction. But not
us. He warns us. Blessings. Warning and then promising. Blessings
to remember. Verses 1 through 4. Oh, how blessed! the children of Israel were,
but we more. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant. Don't forget this. Don't let
these things slip. Don't neglect these things. Remember,
don't forget these mercies. How that all our fathers were
under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized unto
Moses in the cloud, in the sea, and they did all eat the same
spiritual meat. They all ate the same spirit,
drank the same spiritual drink. They drank that spiritual rock
that followed them, and that rock was Christ. What a blessed
people these were, huh? Were they better than the Egyptians?
No, by no means. We've before proved that there's
none righteous no more. We're no better than them. And what a blessed people they
were, and what a blessed people we are. We're more blessed than
they were. We don't have nearly the hardships
that they faced. We don't have nearly the enemies
that they faced. We have a Bible. They didn't
have a Bible. You ever think about that? We
have the last chapter. We ought to have perfect faith.
You know that? We've read the last chapter.
We know exactly how it's going to turn out. We ought to have
more faith, and we ought to, but we don't. So we need this. So we need to consider past and
present blessings, not food and raiment. You notice he said this
is spiritual. Notice that? God hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. Food and raiment, that's not
the great blessings. The heathen get that. We do bless
the Lord for that, but that's not the blessings of God. Riches in this world are not
blessings. Sometimes they're a curse, like
the waters that overflowed when many perished. But true blessings
are spiritual blessings in having things in Christ Jesus, and oh,
how We are, we've all been under the cloud and all in the sea. Do you know that story? Say 1
Corinthians and go back to Exodus 13. Exodus 13 is the story of
that cloud, that pillar of cloud and fire and the sea. And I'm
going through the sea. Exodus 13. Look at verse 21,
Exodus 13. The Lord went before them by
day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night
in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of
the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before
the people. The Lord went before them, and
He raised up this pillar of cloud and fire. and never took it away
as long as they journeyed through that wilderness. So they could
have light day or night. They could have light and not
walk in darkness even as others. What's light? You've got it in
your hands. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God. What is light? Christ is light. The gospel is light. The people
that walked in darkness, oh how blessed we are, the people that
were walking in darkness have seen a great light. The light
is shined upon them. The entrance of thy word giveth
light. In thy light we see light. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
a light unto my path." How blessed we are when most people walk
in darkness. They don't see the light. Why
do we? Why did the children of Israel?
Why did they see light? Why did they have light? Was
God raised up a pillar? What's the Scripture say the
church is? Pillar and ground of the truth. Look at chapter
14. Oh, how blessed we are. Chapter
14, verse 19. Chapter 14, verse 19. The angel of God. Now, who's
that? Always before them. The angel of the Lord was always
before them. That's Christ. That's the Holy Spirit. Holy
Spirit. And even in another sense, the
preacher that the Lord raises up, he's called an angel. The
angel of Ephesus. He went before the camp of Israel
and removed and went behind them. He was before them and behind
them. They were surrounded. They were hedged in to lead them
and to keep them from going back. They all would have turned and
run, Teresa. They all would have gone back if it wasn't for the
angel of the Lord. In fact, they had tried to, but
He wouldn't let them. And you'd have been gone a long
time ago. I'd have been gone a long time ago if it wasn't
for the angel of the Lord. Read on. He went before them
and removed and went behind them. And the pillar of the cloud went
before their face and stood behind them. The light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in a face. And came between, look at this,
verse 20, that pillar came between the camp of the Egyptians and
the camp of Israel. It was a cloud and darkness to
Egypt, but it gave light by night to these. Light, understanding,
faith, vision, they could see clearly, walk, the children of
Israel. And so that in a time of darkness,
So that the one came not near the other all night. They couldn't
dwell together because they're children of light and children
of darkness. Sons of God, sons of Baal, can't
dwell together. Can't. This is what separates
them. The truth separates. We believe the truth, they hate
the truth. Can't two walk together, except
they be agreed. No. No. All right? Now look at this. It says they
were all under the cloud. All of them. And everyone in here is right
now under the sound of God's Word. And has been for a long
time. Heaven. God's Word. Truth. The Word of the Lord.
Christ who is the Word. Oh, bless the Lord. All that
is within me. And bless the Lord with me. Would
you? For His blessed Word. How we bless the Lord for this
Word. Where would we be without this
Word? Where would you be? I'll tell you where you'd be.
In outer darkness. And remember, the pillar of truth,
as we said, the light is had, the gospel of Christ, the truth,
is in the place that God has chosen to put His name there.
It is. It's darkness to the world, but
light, and it came between them. Go back to 1 Corinthians 10. Go back there. It came between
the Egyptians, and what I was just quoting you is in this chapter.
1 Corinthians 10, verse 20. Read it, people of Corinth. I say the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice are sacrifice to devils. We can't have any part in the
religion of this world. It's devilish. The doctrine of
devils, isn't it? You can't have any part with
them. Read on. And not to God. 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
Lord's table and the table of devils. You can't do it. All
right? It says they all walked through,
they all were under the cloud, and they all passed through the
sea. There's a great gulf that was fixed was a great gulf fixed
between the children of Israel and the promised land. A great
gulf that they couldn't get through except by a miracle of God's
saving power. They would drown going through
this. If they tried to cross, they
couldn't pass over it. But God raised up a man named
Moses He stood before them and he said as he raised his hand
and raised up that rod, stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. And while the Egyptians were
pursuing them, and they were between a rock and a hard place,
weren't they? This place over here and a huge cliff over here.
They were hemmed in, hedged in, shut up, no place to go but forward. But how? Moses held up his rod,
held up his hand, and said, stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. What did God do? Parted that
Red Sea. Parted that gulf that was fixed. made a way for them to cross
over, and every one of them passed over dry shod, not any mud on
their feet, escaped their enemy, and went and landed body on the
other side. And while the Egyptians, who
were saved to pass through it, they tried, and then Moses said,
okay, destroy them all. And the same
waters that destroyed the Egyptians were a wall unto them and their
salvation. This world that we pass through
as a girl picks between us. The children of Israel pass through
what was called the wilderness of sin. We pass through this
world. Oh my, the wilderness of sin,
this flood of iniquity. All the sin and temptations in
it that drown men and women and young people in perdition. And
people, I was right in the middle of it. And some of you were too. Every one of you were to a degree. How can we cross? How can we
cross? Only by the cross. By the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. Like Moses was lifted up his
rod, Christ said, if I be lifted up, God hath made him to be sin
for us, laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the people of
God only pass over this Pass through this world and make it
to the other shore by Christ being crucified for them. By
the blood of Christ. And we come and we sit. And you
know where we first heard that? You know where we first heard
that? When God made us to come and sit and sing and hear the
salvation of the Lord. Stand still. Your strength is
to sit still. You can't make it on a horse.
Nothing and no one is going to make it through but by the blood
of Jesus Christ, by looking unto Him. So we're passing through,
passing over. We began with the Passover and
we're passing through. So we keep walking by faith.
And the children of Israel, you know, they may say, oh, Moses
said, don't look to the right, don't look to the left. Oh, don't
look back. Lot's wife, don't look back. You'll get discouraged. You'll
see them pursue it. Don't look back. Looking unto
Jesus, the author of the penitent thing. Moses was over there,
and Joshua on the other side. Come on. Holding that rod up. Come on. It's not going to come
to you. Look unto Me. As long as you see Me holding
up this rock, it's not going to overcome you. Who sees it overcoming? Who's
not going to be drowned by all these temptations and lusts in
this world? Only Him that looketh unto the
Lord Jesus Christ. They did all, it says, eat that
spiritual meat and drink. Do you know how they must have
acted when that manna started coming out of the sky? Think about it. They're walking
through the wilderness, and they're, we don't have anything to eat,
and they're hungry, and they're thirsty, and they have no means
to obtain food. And they're walking through the
wilderness, and Moses, and God said, I'm going to give them
bread. And we'll give them bread. How? We can't stop and plant
and wait on a crop? Watch. And they woke up in the
morning and they said, what is it? White, sweet to the taste, like
wafers dipped in honey. They said, manna. And they all
went out, every one of them, man, woman, and boy, and girl,
look what the Lord has provided. Sweet bread, white bread, life-giving
bread, and they gathered it and gathered and ate it. Oh, isn't
this good? Isn't this the best food you've
ever tasted? To a man, to a woman, they were
saying, thank the Lord for this manor. Thank you, Lord, for this
manor. We're such a sinful, unworthy people. Why would you give us
this manor? But thank you for doing it. And
he never quit giving it for 40 years. He should have cut them
off a long time ago, but he said, never, I will never. They even
got tired of it. They got tired of it. Said, we
want other things. But God said, this is what you
need. And He never cut it off. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me when you do it with me today. We're hearing of manna, Christ,
while the world is feeding on pests. feeding on dead things,
entertainment and all this crap. He prepared us a feast, a table,
that thing, wine on the leaves, every service, every service
whether we want it or not. Whether we come or not, the table
is spread. Thank the Lord. And you can just
about go anywhere now. Turn it on. Sermon audio or CD
or tape. Oh, we've got so much. But the children of Israel, as I
said, they began to loathe this light bread. We want something
else. That's all the warnings here. And he said, this is not
bread. This is Christ. This is not physical
food. This is Christ they began to
seek other things for. And that's why it's called idolatry. That rock followed them. And that rock was Christ. A rock
followed them. They got thirsty. They got thirsty. And they all wanted to go back
to Egypt. And the Lord said, smite the
rock. Oh, what a picture that is. Can I have 30 minutes on
that? Smite the rock. And what's going to come out
for these ungrateful, sinful, unworthy people? What's going
to come out? Life-giving water. At the expense of that rock.
The smitten rock. The cleft of the rock. Christ
crucified. Why would God do that for such
an unworthy people as us? Such a murmuring, complaining,
unbelieving, unworthy, sinful people as us? Because He did.
Because He's merciful. He smote His Son, Christ. And
water came out. And oh, they just drank it and
drank it. And it followed them all their day. Can you imagine?
What a miracle. This rock. And by following them,
again, it's keeping them from going back. You're not going
to get past that rock. The rock followed them. But with many of them, verse 5, the
Lord was not pleased, not well pleased. They were overthrown
in the wilderness. What overthrew them? What's he talking about
down through here? Is he talking about sickness?
Troubles, fleshly troubles. He's talking about enemies. Did
the enemies with the sword, is that how they were overcome?
He doesn't mention any of that. No physical afflictions. No sickness. None of that. Temptation. All of this is about temptation.
And we've always used verse 13 in reference to everything. It's
talking about temptations. Lust of the flesh. lust of the
eye, and the pride of life. This is the thing we deal with
every day. Every day in this world. And I've said this before. It's
just so. I went through the church roster
role. It's not a ball team. The church rolled and looked
at all the members, and less than 20% are 70 years or older. And thank the Lord if you are. Because like David, it says the
Lord gave David rest round about from all his enemies at 70 years
old. They were not the passions, not
the things. I know, I know, I know you're not without sin, but the
Lord is just old. And he doesn't have the youthful
things that he wants her to deal with, but the rest, 80%, are
out in this world facing all this, like the children of Israel,
mostly, in this world. So I have to, that's why we deal
with these things all the time. And he said in verse 6, he said,
Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust
after evil things. as they also lusted." Now, you
know and I know from Scripture that there's nothing evil of
itself, is it? There's not one thing. God giveth
us richly all things to enjoy. There's no sin in anything. What's
he talking about evil things? Well, things become evil when
we lust after them. Lust is an insatiable desire. Lust is an addiction to, I can't
live without this. I won't live without this. I've
got to have this. Day in and day out. I cannot
live without. That's a lust. That's an addiction.
And you will sacrifice many things to have it. Sacrifice worship. Sacrifice
worship. the things, your time, your energy,
your health, your money and everything that belongs to God, that should
be for His service, you'll sacrifice that for things. That's idolatry. Their God, Paul said, is their
belly. He said that, I say that even
weeping, that God is their belly. And our Lord said this in His
Sermon on the Mount, don't be like the Gentiles. That's all
they think about. To be carnally minded is death.
It's death. Spiritually minded is peace,
life, more abundant. The life of a man consists, if
not in the things that he has, possesses. The kingdom of heaven
is not in meat and drink, but is in righteousness and peace
and joy. Flee youthful lust, Paul told
young Timothy. He told young Timothy, flee youthful
lust. Youthful lust are what? When
you're young, all you think about is pleasure, having a good time.
All you think about is money, if I can get me a pocket full
of money, if I can get me a big house and a car. Ask Solomon,
will that do it? Oh, if I can just... I like to
wander, prone to wander. Young people, oh, let's go, let's
go. Go where? See the world. Is the gospel out there? When you might die tomorrow,
is the gospel out there? That's youthful lust, isn't it?
He said, flee, run. They're chasing you. They're chasing you. Like Potiphar's
wife, Joseph. They mostly thought of eating
and drinking. Verse 7, the people sat down to eat and drink and
rose up to play. Now, what person in here doesn't
like to sit down and eat and drink and play? Fish or whatever. Anybody? Is there anybody in
here that doesn't like to sit and eat and drink? The older
you get, about the only thing you have to look forward to is
sitting at that table and eating there, going out to eat. If you
go out with John and Earlene, be prepared to take the long
road. If you're hungry, don't go with
them. Why did I say that? I just had
to. But because you're old, and that's what you do when you're
old, you sit and eat and drink. There's nothing wrong with eating
and drinking, is there? The Lord did it. But there were many times
they said, Lord, eat. He said, I am. And I have what you need. And
you don't understand. Because all you're thinking about
is filling your belly. And that's eating. I got that problem, don't you?
And play, rose up to play. In other words, God wasn't in
all their thoughts. Now, this is talking about people
that fell. And Paul was writing of those
whose God was their belly, but I trust that's not you. I trust
that's why you're here this morning. I trust that the Lord has given
you a hunger and a thirst for Christ, and that's why you're
here. And if someone is not here for
that reason, I trust, I hope, I pray that the Lord will make
them hungry and thirsty after Christ and His righteousness,
and give them a distaste for the things of the world, because
they're going to go out in a draft, and they don't do us any good,
and these youthful lusts will soon flee away. I turned 60 this
year. That boggles my mind. I mean, that just boggles my
mind. It really boggles my mother's mind. Unbelievable. I still feel like
I'm 18. I still have the lust of an 18-year-old
boy. I do. I need help. That's what this is. Help. Help, Lord. Speak, Lord, thy
servant heareth. Verse 8, Fornication, as some
of them committed, fell in one day at 23,000. You know exactly
what that's talking about. There's no nice way to say it,
that the whole society was taken up with sex. Some of our young girls lifted
up their head at that word. They hear it all the time. They
see it everywhere. Oh, man. It would break our hearts,
shouldn't it? Don't you hate that these young
kids have to see what they see? And there's no glossing over
this. 650,000 people in the United
States alone have died of AIDS. Not just homosexuals. 1.2 million people had it new
every year. And the Lord killed them. And
He said these things are example. Young people. Any kind of sex
outside of marriage is evil. The Lord said it. And there's
no promise you won't be destroyed by it. We need that now more than ever,
don't we? There's never been a day. And the example here is
when the children of Israel, they camped in these places and
went into these towns. This is where all this stuff
took place. And then Moses was gone for a
while. And the children, they started
dancing naked around the pole. Camp. And then one man went out
and got a harlot. and brought her into the camp
and several men with her in the sight of everybody. Everybody
saw it. And nobody flinched. Nobody blinked an eye. It's like,
oh well, that sort of thing goes on every day. It didn't shock
them. It didn't bother them. It didn't offend them. Scripture
says it's a shame to even speak of those things that are done
by them in secret. And this homosexuality, and premarital
sex and all this that goes on in our society that's called
normal, it's an abomination to God. And God kills people because of it.
He really does. He really does. But I need help. Like I said, I'm not immune from
this stuff, and you're not either. You're not immune from this stuff.
You're capable. Everyone in here, understand
me. Is it capable? What's our help? I'm going to
get to it. All right. It says they tempted
Christ, and I got to hurry. They tempted Christ. What they
did was they spoke against Moses. They spoke against Moses. And
that's when the serpents bit them. And God says they tempted
Christ. I told you recently about 25
people that stood up against Bruce Crabtree. I said, we're
leaving. We've got something to say. You're
not the only one. I know Bruce. He told me, like
Moses, he fell on his face. He fell on his face. Fiery serpents bit the people,
and most people who get mad at a preacher and leave, generally
leave the gospel in the end, and that means the serpent bit
them, and they're going to die. They're going to die. He's a
man, all right, but he's God's man. Neither let us murmur. Verse 10. Oh, my. Oh, my. Murmur ye, as some of them murmured.
They murmured in their tents. It's not that they didn't have
a tent. They had a tent. And their mouths were full of
manna. And they started murmuring. They
want something more. In their tents. And the Lord
heard it. Verse 11. Now these things were an example. They're written for our admonition. Admonish means to reprove and
rebuke. It means to correct. It means to show a fault. and tell, this is wrong. Now,
like the Lord said, put off the old man, put on the new. Flee. Run. When you flee from something,
you've got to have someplace to flee to, don't you? You've
got to have a refuge. If you're running from something,
what's our refuge? It's who? Flee to Christ. Yes, He's the
only one. The only one to help us. And it says, these things
are written for our examples, an admonition upon whom the ends
of the world are come, and let him or her that thinketh, he
standeth, no matter how long you've been walking through this
wilderness, forty years, male or female, let him or her that
thinketh, he standeth, take heed, take heed to these words, lest
he fall. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. No temptation. Every single person in this room
and in every church and throughout the world has the same exact
temptations that you do in this world. Lust of the flesh. Lust of the eyes and the pride
of life. Pleasure. Covetousness. Pride. Look at me. What I've done. Who
I've become. Where I am. None of them are
without this. And it says that God is faithful.
Here's our hope. Not our faithfulness, but His.
His. Like the Lord said, Peter, I
pray for you that your faith fail not. Not meaning that he'll
keep on keeping on, that he'll remain strong. Peter's faith
was in a person. Faith has an object. His faith
wasn't in himself. Like people always talk about,
he or she, they have great faith. We don't say that. We say we've
got a great God. We've got a great is-thy-faithful. God is faithful. And here's what
He has done for our provision. He will not suffer, not allow
you to be tempted above that you're able. Satan is a great
tempter, isn't he? The fiends of the world are in
his power to tempt us with, like he did our Lord. How did our
Lord escape that temptation? The same way He tells us. And
I'll tell you that in just a second. But they're all tempted, and
God will not allow us, not suffer us to be tempted above that we're
able to bear. But will with the temptation
make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. What
is that way to escape? And I quoted it to you a while
ago, 2 Peter 2. Let me just read it. And you
know, 2 Peter 2 scares me to death. It's about preachers. It's about false preachers. The
whole chapter. It scares me when I read it.
And that's a good thing. We need to tremble when we read
God's Word. We need to tremble when we hear it. But bless God,
it says this, that He delivered just Lot who was vexed with the
filthy conversation of the wicked. Now, number one, does sin vex
you? Does the sin in this world vex
you? Do you want no part of it? Does
the sin in you vex you? Oh, wretched man that I am, do
you want deliverance? Does it vex you? That righteous
man, dwelling among them, seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous
soul." He wouldn't be vexed if he wasn't righteous. You hear
that? There was a time when I saw these
things, you saw these things, and you were right in the middle
of it. It didn't vex you, it thrilled you. It's what you went
after. But what about now? It vexes
you. Bless God! That means you're
righteous. The new creature in you, created
in righteousness. And it vexed his soul from day
to day with their unlawful deeds, and he says, the Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly. You say, I'm not godly. Hold
on now. You're in Christ, and Christ is in you. He knows how to deliver them
out of temptation and reserve the unjust to the day of judgment,
to be punished. How? What way? What's the way?
Tell me the way, preacher. I've been telling you since 9.30
this morning. There's only one way. There's
only one way. You can't do it yourself. There's nothing you can do to
escape temptation. There's nothing you can do. You
can get your teeth. You can try all you will. You
can put everything away. You can go live in a cave, but
that doesn't mean it's not going to come into your heart. That
doesn't mean Satan tempted Christ and He was in the wilderness,
away from things. Adam and Eve, they had everything
you could want, but still tempted and still failed. What's our
hope? The way to escape is this. An
ever-present help in time of temptation is this. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Help, Lord, the godly man seetheth. And the faithful fail from the
children. Help, Lord, he's striking me. Help, Lord, I'm tempted.
Help, Lord, if you don't do something, I'm going to fall. Save me, Lord,
or I perish. Peter said, I'm going down in
this lust of the flesh. Save me or I perish. He reached out to him. One way. One way. Call. Don't quit. Because you're not going to quit
sinning till the day you die. Don't quit calling. Cease not
this call. Morning, noon, or night. Seventy
years old, keep calling. Come. Come. Come unto me, Christ said. But
where is it? Where two of fear gather. Do
you not renew your strength? Do you not? Do you not renew
your strength? Do you not get help here more
than any other time? Do you not? You wouldn't have
heard this if you hadn't come today. What would you be doing
if you hadn't come here today? Same old stuff. Right in the
middle of that world. Temptations lose their power. Temptations lose their power.
When thou art mine, Christ said, two or three, I'm there. I'm
there. And they're all huddled up, and
they're all hearing the Word, and they feel safe. They feel
like they're in a fold. They feel like they're hedged
in. They are. Hear. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing. When Paul said, keep
yourselves in the love of God, he didn't mean make God keep
loving you. He meant stay under the gospel
and you'll feel loved. You will be loved. If you do,
you'll know you're loved. If you stay under the gospel,
you'll know God loves you. You're a sinner through and through.
Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. But if he brings you back,
No matter how many times you wander, He brings you back and
sits you down and tells you about the love of God in Christ. Your
love. God loves you. Keep yourselves
there. Outside of that, you're going
to feel like a castaway. Lost. Undone. No good. Left out. No hope for me. No hope for me. Come back with
the rest of us prodigals. Come back with the rest of us
black sheep. Meet with us and keep yourselves
in the love of God and fellowship with the brethren. Forsake not
the assembly of ourselves together. That's where the Word is, where
the Lord is, where you exhort one another, encourage one another
so much more as we see the day approaching. The presence of
Christ, the coming of Christ is nearer when we get together.
We're not thinking so much on that except when we get together,
which is not. Fellowship one with another. If you go out and fellowship,
you can't have fellowship with the world. That's the wrong term. You can't fellowship with unbelievers.
The fellowship is truly our fellowship with the Father and with His
Son. You can't have fellowship with unbelievers. You can eat
and drink and have fun, but it's mostly foolishness. You can't
have fellowship except around the mystery, around the gospel.
And I know from experience At the time when we get together,
and when the Lord allows us to have fellowship, that is the
Gospels being talked about, the words being talked about, then
we're all built up, we're all edified. Otherwise, it's a bunch
of foolishness. No profit at all. And the world
won't give you that. They've only got what your old
man wants. You don't have what they want. You don't get clean. You don't
clean hogs watering with them. You get dirty. Right? Only one way sinners are
brought into the kingdom. Only one way people are brought
into the kingdom, not spaghetti dinners, the gospel of Christ. One way. They sit and listen,
and if God's pleased, they reveal Christ to them. Did you need
that? I did. Bad. We need it. I'll preach it Wednesday
night. Because the time is short. The
time is short. Lord, save us from this untoward
generation with my prayer. John, you come lead us in singing
number 497. 497. I'll say it.