Solemn and serious this portion
of scripture is, if you've read it with me. It's one continuous warning,
really. One continuous warning from start
to finish. I need this. You need this. We need this. But you know what a sad fact
is? This is a sad fact, but I know this is true. Those who need it the most usually don't hear it. That's a sad fact. God help us
all to hear this this morning. Now this is written to the church
at Corinth. Church at Corinth was a thoroughly
modern city. It was living in a modern day. It was living in a generation
that had everything at its disposal. Living in a very prosperous time, but perilous time. It was a wicked
generation, corrupt. Society, at this time, society
was taken up with eating, drinking, sex, sports, materialism. Sound familiar? The title of this message is
All Things Remain the Same. all things remain the same. Now, honestly, I do not prepare
messages with anyone personally in mind, ever. I can honestly
say that, that while preparing these messages, no one single
person's face or name comes to my mind. So, this is not for any one person
in particular. However, I hope every person
in here takes this very personally, starting with me. Paul, right
before chapter 10, he said, I keep my body under subjection lest
by any means I preach to others. I'm telling you, and I'll be
cast away. So really he starts with himself,
doesn't he? Lord help us. So things haven't changed. God
hasn't changed. Man hasn't changed. Man hasn't
changed. And God's word to man hasn't
changed. Paul uses these people. Now think
about this. This was 2,000 years ago, nearly. He's writing this. nearly 2,000
years ago. But, Dan, he's talking about
a people, another generation that lived 2,000 years before
that. So, things haven't changed, except men are always guilty
of the same thing. All right, now, verse 1. Let's
look at it. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1. Moreover, brethren,
I would not that you should be ignorant. Don't be ignorant.
how that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through
the sea. Don't be ignorant. Someone that's
ignorant is someone that's not aware of what's going on around
them. Someone who is just not very
observant and not listening usually. Someone that's ignorant will
go on doing the same things they've always done. Someone that doesn't
learn will just go right on. You know where the word ignorant
comes from? Ignore. Someone that's ignorant
is willingly ignorant. They hear, but they ignore. Ignore. So he says, don't be
ignorant. how that all our fathers were
under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. Now, what's
this cloud? Well, the story is of the children of Israel. The
children of Israel, for 40 years, wandered through the wilderness,
all right? And that's a picture of a modern man's lifespan, generally. He starts, he's 30 years old,
he begins, he's a man, and he lives another 40 years, wandering
through this world. Children of Israel wandered forty
years through the wilderness, and they were under a cloud of
mercy. They were under a cloud of mercy.
God spared them. They were rotten people. They
weren't worth sparing. They were ungrateful, unthankful,
disobedient children of wrath, even as others, the rest of the
world. under mercy. God would have been merciful
to them. I mean merciful to them on every hand. And they were under the sea.
That is, God made a way. They went through the Red Sea.
God made a way for them to cross over. God provided a way for
them to escape Egypt and to cross over on dry land to get to the
promised land. They had this way. Purpose, plan,
made clear before their eyes. Evidently set before. There it
is. Walk in. Forty years. Now, forty years
of relative blessings. Forty years of mostly just kindness,
goodness, provisions for which they were not worthy of any of
them. Blessing after blessing after blessing after blessing. A few relative minor bumps in
the road, a few relative troubles, mostly due to their own sin and
ingratitude and their own ignorance. They ignored and got into trouble. It says, now, they were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. In other words, God
had given these people the finest man on the planet earth to lead
them. The greatest man to walk the
planet. That's what God said of him.
He's the meekest man on earth. God's man, raised up by God, given to them
to lead them, and everything that man said was from God Almighty. But they got tired of him, and
his voice became commonplace. They didn't hear it. Moses spoke,
no matter how he spoke. Verse 3, And they did all eat
the same spiritual meat. They did all eat the same spiritual
meat. And verse 4, Did all drink the
same spiritual drink. What was it they were eating
and drinking? What was their food? They ate manna, they ate quail,
they drank water out of Christ. Man doesn't live by bread alone.
Man really lives by the Word of God. Our Lord would go many days without
eating, fasting, not letting others know it, but going without
physical food, and they asked him one time, said, Lord, eat.
You need to eat something. They noticed he hadn't eaten.
He said, I am. He said, I have meat to eat that
you don't know of. I am. But they ate. They did. They ate. They ate
good food. They ate bread. They drank water.
They drank from a rock. Verse 4, it says, they drank
of that spiritual rock, capital R. I noticed you, Brother Stan,
when we read that. Your eyes lit up. That rock that followed them,
that rock that led them, that rock who protected them, that
rock from whom they received all spiritual blessings and physical,
was Christ. Every one of them. just like everyone in this room, has heard message after message
after message after message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I can say this without a doubt,
and not just pertaining to me, but every preacher that stands
up here, if you ever walk in this building, you'll hear Christ
preach. Huh? You'll hear Christ breathe. And you come hungry, if you come
hungry, you'll go away filled. What's the problem if you're
not hungry? A couple of things. I know it's
so. You know it's so. One of two
things. You're either sick Or you've been snacking on something. Huh? You're filled up on something
else. And when you snack, what do you
eat? You don't eat ham and taters. You eat snack food. Junk food. And you get filled up. And you're
not hungry. And you go away empty. You understand? He that hath ears, let him hear
what the scripture says to the children. Well, they all ate. Some tasted, but they didn't swallow it. They all ate, they all drank.
Some weren't thirsty. They didn't drink it deeply. And, oh my, well, you see the
picture, don't you? And that rock that followed them,
that rock that was with them, there was a rock with them everywhere.
This is true. It was a cloudy pillar that led
them by day. A big cloud, whatever it was,
led them. Miracles. It's obvious that God
was with them. Very obvious. By night, a pillar
of fire lightened the way. The darkness to the world, but
light to them. They all could see clearly, God's in this place.
The angel that followed before them was in that rock. There
was a rock that rolled along with them. Isn't that amazing?
Honestly. That rock was a person. A person. God's in this place. got all bent out of shape, all
out of whack due to his own rottenness. And the Lord brought him back
to a place called Bethel, a place where the rock was his pillow,
a place where he saw the angels of God descending on the ladder,
a place where God spoke to him, made promises and all that. He
got all bent out of shape. and forgot his God and got all
in a mess, and his family, everything around him was absolutely a mess. Why? It was his own meanness
and rottenness that God brought him back to Bethel, back to put
his head on a rock. Back to Bethel. And that rock that followed them
was Christ. Surely God, and here's what Jacob said after he woke
up out of his, like David, I've been so foolish. How'd I get
like that? How'd I get in a mess like that?
And he woke up. Jacob woke up and said, surely
God was in this place all this time. And I didn't know it. How could I be so ignorant? Well, verse 5. Now, they all,
you see this, they all drank, they all ate, they all were under
the cloud. Every person in this room is
right now under the sound of life. Words of life. It's going to
be a savor of life. That's the reason Paul said,
oh, who is sufficient for these things? That's why Paul said that. Oh,
who is sufficient for these things? I'm going to utter life and somebody's
going to live and somebody's going to be damned because of
it. Oh, that's the reason. You know why Jonah didn't go
to Nineveh? He knew God would do what he'd
do. He didn't want it. Lord, don't
make me be the one to bear it. Well, he says, so they were all
under this cloud. This rock followed them all.
They all ate the same spirit. They all drank. That rock was
Christ. But, verse 5, with many, many. How many? Every adult. Twenty years old. Every single
one. except Joshua and Caleb. Didn't
go in. Many. God was not well-placed. They were overthrown in the wilderness.
Something overthrew them. They didn't overcome. They were
overcome by it. They didn't overcome the difficulties. the difficulties overthrew him. You see, when our Lord said to John, he
that overcometh, I will grant to be with me. Now, verse 6, these things were
our example. These things happen. Why? Our example. to the intent, to
this purpose. Read it with me. To this purpose.
These things happen to this purpose. To the intent that we should
not lust after evil things as they also lust. Lust being desire. Turn with me very quickly to
Hebrews chapter 2. Okay? Hebrews chapter 2. Do you know how much space in
Scripture is reserved to talking about the children of Israel
wandering through the wilderness? Do you know how much? Most of
it. Most of it. The vast majority
of Scripture is dealing with the actual pilgrimage or the
talking about it, or the warning of those doing the same thing. Old and New Testament. Think
about it. I thought about that before I
made that statement. In the book of Hebrews, beginning
with chapter 2, and the rest of the chapter,
the rest of the book is full of just warning about the Hebrew
children. Hebrews chapter 2, verses 1 through
4, he says, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the
things which we have heard. You know, the older we get, the
closer we get to being with God Almighty. Shouldn't we be more serious
than ever? Huh? Shouldn't we be less taken up
with this world and more and more serious about More earnest heed to the things
that Christ is near. He's at the door for every one
of us, not just seventy-year-old people. He's at the door. We're in the last of the last
day. We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things we've
heard. Life, lest at any time we should let them slip. For
the word spoken by angel was steadfast. That is, it happened. Whatever the angel said, it happened.
It came to pass. And God said it, it happened.
And it's going to happen. It was steadfast. And every transgression
and disobedience received a just recompense of the war. Everything happened to all those
it said it would happen to. All those who did this and did
not do this. It happened. It happened. But you know, how shall we escape? Verse three, how shall we escape
if we neglect? Same word as ignorant, ignore. So great, so great. Look at chapter three, across
the page, chapter three of Hebrews. Like I said, all of these remaining
chapters practically Verse 6 says, Christ is a son over his own
house. Whose house are we? Christ, son of God. Whose house
are we? Sons of God. If. Are you interested if you're
a son of God? Are you? All right. We are sons of God. If. Now he's going to tell us. Now,
tell us what we mean if, if, read on, verse 6, if we hold
fast the confidence. When you hold fast to something,
something that's held fast is something that is stable, it's
solid, it's like a tent. Where does the word come from?
A stay in the service or in the Navy. A stay. Stays and so forth. You want to hold fast something.
You tie it down. Or a tent. You put stays in the
ground. You want it to hold fast so that
winds come along and don't blow it over. Hold fast. It means it's secure. It's stable.
It's not going anywhere. It's not tossed to and fro. It's
held fast. When you hold fast, it means
you hold tight to something, don't you? You don't want to
let go. You're holding it fast. You're
holding it fast. If we hold fast the beginning
of our confidence, what's that? That's the gospel of Christ.
That's this gospel of Christ. The closer we get to glory, the
tighter we ought to hold. The more we ought to just let
go. You can have everything else. Understand? Take everything else. You can't have this. The beginning
of our confidence. Read on. And the rejoicing of
the hope. Rejoicing of the hope. He said, don't harden your hearts. Verse 8. Harden not your hearts.
Provocation, or that is when the children of Israel provoked
me. In the day of temptation in the wilderness, their journey
through the wilderness, they tempted me and they provoked
me. Verse 9, they proved me and tested
me. Saw my works forty years. They
saw my works for forty years. And when it was over, I was sick
of them. That's what he's saying there.
I was sick of them. I had all I could take. Speaking
as a man, speaking in human language, I had enough. I said, all right,
that's it. He says to us, now these things
are our example. And let me say this with all
the compassion I can muster, considering myself. Take heed, verse 12. Take heed,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. and departing from the evil God,
exhort one another daily while it's called a day, lest any of
you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Are you with me? Lest anybody be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin. Now, things aren't sin. We read back there, and you can
go back to our text. Evil things. Things aren't sin.
Are there? No, there's no sin in things.
Paul said in Romans 14, there's no thing evil of itself. The kingdom of heaven is not
meat and drink. You don't go there because you
do or don't. You won't not go there because you do or don't.
It's not things. There's no evil in things. What's
the evil? in loving thanks, desiring with all your heart
thanks. Now, listen to what he said there
in Hebrews. He said this. He said, If we
hold fast the rejoicing of the hope unto the end, harden not
your heart through the deceitfulness of sin. Hardening of the heart.
Let me give this illustration. If a man or a woman or a young
person, for that matter, walks up one, two flights of stairs, and they are winded, they're tired, they've got heart
problems. Understand? They used to call
it years ago, hardening of the arteries, didn't they? That's an old term for arteriosclerosis
or whatever, to build up in the arteries. Right? The hardening
of the arteries. Walk up two flights of stairs
without huffing and puffing and tiring. I've got to lay down,
I've got to sit down. I've got heart trouble. If a person can go through two
messages, And their attention span is so
short. And they get quickly tired of
hearing. That hardening of the heart. Hardening of the heart. So he
says many, many perished. They perished. Why? You know,
there's a scripture that says this. Why will you die? Why will you die? Why will you die? Like a hungry
man dying from hunger when there's a whole table right in front
of him. Wouldn't that be just horrible? Can you imagine how foolish could
that fellow be? Don't look at anybody else right
now. Do not look at or think of anybody else. Like I said, I need this. Let's think of ourselves
only. Look down at verse 12. Let him
that thinketh he standeth. Verse 12. Let him that thinketh
he standeth. Take heed. There's no so-and-so
over there. He ain't going to look. Let him or her that thinketh
he standeth, think he. Lest it fall. Lest it fall. Well, many perished. And my,
my. Let's go on. Verse 6, it says,
Now these things were our example, to the intent that we should
not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Lust is not
just sexual lust. We can lust after anything. That
means to be filled with desire for anything. It can take on anything. It can
be a thing. It can be a person. It can be
a place. It can be a pursuit, anything. He said, Let us not
lust, that is, be filled with desire after evil, after these
evil things, that is, the things that will bring evil upon you
if you lust after them. You see? Here's a good illustration. A rose is a beautiful thing,
isn't it? It's a beautiful thing. God made
it for us to enjoy, to look at and enjoy. And it's good if you
just caress it and say, oh, it's beautiful. Look at it. But now if you grab ahold of
that rose, And somebody said, don't do that
and try to pull away and you hold that much tighter to it. Going to hurt you bad. Going
to hurt you bad. So things are evil when we absolutely
lay hold of and say, I won't let go of that. I've got to have this or I'm
not going to live. If you continue that. you'll die. It's a factor of fact. So, verse
7. Don't be idolatrous, as some
were. Don't be idolatrous, as it is
written. Now, here's their idolatry. What do you think of when you
think of idolatry? When you think of idolatry, you
think of some native in the jungle, dancing naked around of statute,
don't you? Bowing to, cutting themselves,
doing some crazy things before statute. That's not, that is
idolatry, but that's not what he's saying either. Children
of Israel. Paul later on said, here's idolatry. Remember what he said is idolatry?
covetousness. That is having, wanting so badly
what you don't have. Not being, and that's always
a result of not content with what things you do have. I want
that, and it consumes you until you desire it. You've got to
have it until you're just, oh, this, I'm tired of this. Gimme, gimme. It's idolatry. Let me, let me try to see if
I can illustrate my idolatry. And this was made clear to me. Our Lord said,
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Everything else. He said, Love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart. God's a big part of my
life. Then He's not your God. with all thy heart." God is my
Christ, our light, Colossians 3. He said, love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, all thy mind, all thy strength. Spiritual life. Spiritual life
is what? It's the life of God. This is
what God puts in a human being. We're born natural, with no thoughts
of God. We're born like an animal. We're
born like an animal. Dog, cat, horse, whatever it
is. The base instincts. That's all we want. Eat. Eat.
Eat. Eat. Sex. Eat. Play. Bones. Chase. Fun. We're born natural. Like, let's
do this. Let's do that. Let's have fun and all that.
No noble thoughts, no thoughts of God, all right? Spiritual
life, when God comes in, a new creature is created in a human
being. The Spirit of God, the life of God, the life of Christ,
the Son of God, who came down here and lived in the flesh,
but did he live in the flesh? No. He did, but he didn't. He was in this world and in my
other world. He partook of this world, but it did not lay hold
on him. He used this world, but he didn't
abuse this world. He had to think about his job, but it didn't
consume him. He had daily needs, but they
weren't lusts. The life of God that God puts
in a human being, this Christ-like spiritual life, is to where they
begin to think about God. The first time ever, a dog stands
on his hind legs with noble thoughts. reason, rationale. A human being begins to think
like a son of God. Things that are higher, things
that are nobler. God's in his thoughts, conscious of God, a
mind with thoughts of God, a life filled with thanksgiving to God,
a heart that goes out in gratitude to God, a heart that loves to
think about God, loves to praise and sing and study and be about
the thing that my father, if it's a son, I must be about my
father's business. It's not perfect in any of us,
but it's there, he said, it's there. That's spiritual life. Did you
get that? Did you understand that? It's a mind, it's a heart, it's
a life that is God-worthy. Set your affection, Colossians
1 said, on things above, not on things on this earth. Whatever
you set your affection on this earth, your affection is going
to be dashed to the ground. It's dust, and whatever you set
your affection on is going to be dust, and you're going to
be brought down into the dust because of it. But he that is rich toward God. Nothing and no one can bring
you down into the dust. Set your affection, your heart,
your mind on things above where Christ's sitting. Unsearchable
riches, eternal blessings, all blessings in heavenly places
in Christ's This dust is going to be dust, and this dust, this
mortality, shall put out immortality. And what difference does it make
how much dust we had? What difference does it make what
kind of dirt we loved or had or didn't have, or what job,
what difference did any of it make? Who or what consumes our thoughts? I say you and I. I watched a
preacher preach it not too long ago. Yes, the whole time. The whole time. And I thought,
God help him not do that. Don't let me do that. You, you,
you, you. Me or us. Forgive us our trespasses. Lord help us. We are guilty of
it. We are guilty of it. It says
they did all sit down to eat and drink. Didn't they? All of
them sat down to eat and drink and wrote, let's play. Let's
play. Anything wrong with eating? Why
no, our Lord did. Anything wrong with drinking?
Why no, our Lord did. Recreation? Well, no, the Lord
said, let's come apart to the desert place for a while. Let's
just relax. No. What was it? That's all they
thought about. That's all they thought about. Their God was there early. And so God said, they're idolatrous.
Do you understand now what idolatry is? They're God, they're hope-consuming
thoughts. and woke up in the morning and
went to bed at night thinking about me. Well, I'm just not happy. Verse 7 says, well, verse 8,
Don't let us commit fornication with some of them. And this is
just, this is what it is, sex. Is anything more applicable?
to a generation and a generation. Can you think of anything? Can
you think of a time when people were not more concerned with
this? I can be just real blunt. You can
see it on TV and everywhere. It's time somebody from God's
Word spoke up and called it like it is. Right? Not afraid to deal with it. Sex
sells, they say. Sex sells. So when they're selling
sex everywhere, all over everything, they're bombarding it with us.
Us with it. And you have to admit, you know,
it's what, the very word itself, it just sticks out. Whatever
you're reading, it just sticks out. Something about the word
itself. And people sell themselves for
sex. He said fornication, and that's
any being taken up with, sex. Some of them committed and fell
in one day, 23,000 people. 23,000 people. Did they learn
their lesson? I don't know how many people have died of AIDS,
millions. They die every day. People learning their lesson. Now, you think, well, we've earned
it. Oof. Please, Lord, help. Help. Please. Now, remember,
it's not the actual acts. It doesn't have to be the actual
act. They tempted Christ. Verse 9
says, They tempted Christ. Neither let us tempt Christ.
What do you mean, tempted Christ? What does that mean? I was going to have you turn
over, but I'm running out of time. I've got to hurry. That is, they made continual
demands of him. They made continual demands.
I do want you to turn quickly, okay? The number is 21. Please,
would you turn? And, you know, I thought about
this message. I'm leaving town. I may not make it back. I thought, is this the last message
you want to leave to these people? Yeah. Moses was about to be killed.
What was his last message? Anybody know? He said, you're going into the
promised land. Beware that you don't forget your God. When your
houses are big, your lands are plentiful, fruit in the vine,
grain in the... Beware that all these things
are going to come on you, just like God said. And number twenty-one, they tested,
they tempted him, they tempted Christ, it says, because whoever
God speaks through, we are actually testing him. You understand? Not the man, but Christ himself.
And that is, they made continual demands. Have you ever had a
child that tested you? Somebody listening, a mother,
understood that. That's how I knew someone was
listening. Ever had a child that, let me
ask you again, have you ever had a child that tested you?
Now, more of you heard that. That means they put you to the
test. They keep testing you. Have you ever said this? You're
testing me. You ever had that? You're testing
me. That's what that means. They
tested him, testing his long-suffering, testing his patience. One more
time, verse 10, and they murmured, it says in verse 10. Numbers
21, verse 4, here it is. Numbers 21, verse 4, and they
murmured and were destroyed. Verse 4 of Numbers 21 says, They
journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass
the land of Edom. Now, I'm not going to turn around
that map. You remember, it was a long journey down there through
that wilderness. It was a long journey, but everybody
had to go through it, didn't they, John? Everybody went through
it. Did they have to stop and hunt and plant and, no. Did they have to stop and get
a temporary job and work several days of hard overtime to earn
their money so they could keep on going? No. It's all provided
for them, everything. It's freely given. Now the road,
now understand, understand, they walked. That was a difficulty for them,
walking, walking, walking. And it says there in Numbers
21, I lost my place. It says, look at this. It says
in verse 4, the soul of the people was much discouraged because
of the way. They were much discouraged. In
other words, they were all saying, I'm so tired of this. When are
we going to get there? I'm tired of this. We've got
it so hard. And it's hard. I can't take any
more of this. Why am I going through this?" They were discouraged because
of the way. Rightfully? Huh? Did they have a right? Oh, I'm going through so much
trouble. Oh, it's so hard for me, so hard. Where did they come from? Where were they? in a pit, making
bricks with their feet, seven days a week, with a little dry
bread, and no hope whatsoever, without
God, without hope. Boy, when they started out, whoopee! When they first heard the sound,
we're going to the promised land. The happiest day of their life.
You've got to walk. I don't care. I'll just skip. First few days, I'm so happy. Really. First few days. Getting this wonderful, it's
been a long walk. It won't be anything. God said
we're free. After a while. Why do we have to go through
this? He said in verse 5, look at verse
5, the people spake against God and Moses. They couldn't get
to God, but they could Moses. He said, why have you done this? You brought us out here. You brought us out here to die
in the wilderness. They said, and we don't have any real bread.
and in real water. We want some real bread. We want
to make some real bread, man. I'm not content with such things
as we have. We want to make some real bread,
man. We want some real water, man. We want something real.
I'll be satisfied when I have something I really want out of
Egypt. It's Egypt I want. That's what I want. I miss Egypt.
Did you have anything in Egypt? Hell, we hate this like bread. I'm getting tired of this. Go back to our text now, all
right? Go back to our text. I got it so hard. Why am I going through this?
Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur. Complain. Now look at what he says in compassion.
In our text in 1 Corinthians 10, he says, don't murmur. Verse
11, all these things are an example. They're written for our admonition.
It's about all over, you see. It's about over, the end of the
world. Verse 12, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed
lest he fall. Is there a murmuring spirit in
us? Verse 13, he says, there's no
temptation. No temptation, no trial, no difficulty,
no problem. No thing you've ever been through,
not one single person has ever been through one single problem
or trial or trouble or difficulty with a husband, with a wife,
with a child, with a job, with anything that all of God's people
have gone through for all eternity. Every one of them. Some, most,
more than we go through. Yeah, but you just don't know
my problem. You just don't know what the trouble of a single
man. Paul was never married. He sat in that jail. He was in
his fifties. Now alone with no children, no
grandchildren, no nothing, nobody. And he said, I'm happy. I've thought a good thought.
I'm ready to depart. Life's been good. The Lord's
been good. Yeah, but you don't know my woman
troubles. That's the whole trouble. Ask
Peter. Peter was married. He said it'd
be eventually work. I've had a mother-in-law. I've had a family to feed. Went
three and a half years without a job. Went three and a half years without
a job. Had a wife and kids at home to feed. Think I was worried? Yeah, but you don't know what
it's like to live where I live. Live and work that job I live.
I live inside them. Ask Lot! Well, he don't live inside them. Lot
lived inside them. Ask him. Ooh, vex my soul every
day. Vex, vex, vex, vex. Well, if I could just have this
or have that, you just don't know. I don't have enough. If
I could just have that. Ask Solomon. He said, I had it. And it's really better not to
have it. It will take away your heart.
Ask David. He said, keep my soul from riches
that make me forget God every time. They'll run into a lot
of money. Now, if you're like me, a lot
of money to you is about a thousand dollars. Honestly. Somebody may be saying a hundred dollars. A thousand
dollars or whatever. Let me ask you honestly. When
you obtained that, what was on your mind? I don't want to spend that stuff.
Where can I spend that? Go to bed thinking about it and
wake up thinking about it. Huh? Get any kind of new anything. That's what's on your mind, what's
on your heart. Ah boy, we're all so, so guilty aren't we?
And it doesn't satisfy them. Now it's not a thousand, is it,
Brother John? It's got to be five. Well, if I could just have
five, then my troubles are over. Well, no temptation has taken
you. You've been through none. But
such as is common to man. But God is so faithful. He's so faithful. He kept telling
the children of Israel, just keep walking. Quit your murmuring. I don't want to hear any more
murmuring, but we're hungry. Okay, here's bread. Thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you, thank you. Oh, we're tired of this bread.
Sick of this bread. Oh, we'll get bread. Stop that
murmuring. Okay, here's meat, quail. Oh, quail. Now we're happy. Quail. Oh, quail. I love quail. Sick
of this quail. I could just have chicken. God said, that's it. Honestly, that's what happens.
You say, well, we're in Christ. Yeah, that's a big if. What's
proof of it? Not be ignorant. Not let these
things slip. We repent toward God. You know,
our Lord came preaching, John came preaching, repentance toward
God, didn't he? What's that? Lord, against thee, here's David,
his repentance toward God, against thee and thee only are thy sin.
I am wretched, thou what I have done, what I am, all I've ever
done and am is against you. I'm not sorry for being caught.
I'm not sorry for the consequences. I'm not sorry because I don't
have it. I'm sorry because I'm sorry. I'm sorry because you've
been so good to me, so merciful to me, so kind to me, so gracious
to me, so—provided everything. You've led me all these years,
and look at what I've given in return. Lord, against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil, and I sinned. You're
going to be clear when you judge me, and right when you speak
against me. Everything you say about me is right, and I'm all
wrong, and I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Create in
me a clean heart. Renew within me a right spirit.
Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy spirit from me. Let me be like a child of Israel. Let me quit my complaining. Bring
forth fruit, meat for repentance. David wouldn't have repented
if he hadn't have brought forth fruit, meat, Quit your murmuring! Okay. Go right back to it. They didn't
repent. They didn't repent. And so he says, my dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry. Flee. Flee from the wrath to
come. Flee from idolatry. Why does
he say flee? Well, when you flee from something. It's something pursuing you,
isn't it? After you. After you. That's what you flee
from. And this world is not after God.
Our hearts, natural hearts, aren't after God, don't have an inclination
toward God. Our flesh is not after God. Our
flesh is after flesh. That's the reason he says, starve
the flesh. Feed the new man. Starve the
old. Evil communications. These fellas
we run with, these people around the world, they're not after
God. Not after you being after God. Flee! You remember Pilgrim and Pilgrim's
Progress where he was going toward the holy city and all of his
neighbors and his family and everybody was pleading with him.
You don't have to go. You know, you can be religious
and stay at home. Don't stay with us. Don't be. He put his
fingers in his ears. What did he do? Ran. I'm not
going to listen to you. And he was crying. Crying out
loud to God. Out loud. Life. Life. Eternal life. Ran toward the gate, just as
fast as he could. Not looking back, even. Like,
like a large swine. Don't look back. Yeah, but I
gave up something. Don't look back. It's all crumbling, it's all
failing. There's your everlasting city. There's your everlasting
happiness. There's your everlasting joy. Great exceeding great reward. Look right on. Look right on. Don't look at the troubles run
with race, with patience, the race as I said before. Looking
under who? Who's our supreme example of
it? The Lord Jesus Christ. No home, no family, no house, no wife. He said, I've got joy. Well,
that's my party message for you, okay? Who do you have the ears
to hear? See? Why are you sanitation? It's hope. Let's lay hold of
the hope, the beginning of our confidence. Let's set the force. While there's life, there's hope,
John. While there's ears, there's hearing, John. While there's
a heart, there's one to receive it. While the gospel's being
preached, the joyful sound, somebody's hearing it. While there's mercy,
somebody's receiving it. While there's grace, there's
grace to help. We have not because we ask not.
But we ask amiss to consume it on our own. Lord grant us, grant us the grace
to ask for a right. That's for me. All right? Nobody
else heard that. Lord, let me hear it. Let me
hear it. Let's sing, I've got, what is
it? I Am Resolved. What number is that? 389. 389. By God's grace, that is, we resolve
no longer to linger charmed by this world's delights. Things
that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured
my soul. I will hasten, flee to Him, glad
and free, glad and free. Oh, Lord, give us freedom and
gladness. Let's stand as we sing this. you