As I have said so very many times, Quoting the words of my pastor, the scriptures
are full of promises, lest we despair, full of promises
to the believer, full of promises like free, effectual, pardon,
forgiveness of sins, all sins, past, present, and future. of
life eternal just for trusting Christ. Provisions, all the provisions
needed for this life and for godliness, as Peter said. A safekeeping
for all time, for all who believe and trust Christ. Promises like
those, lest we ever despair, we ever get down to a point of
feeling in despair of our The salvation of Scriptures are full
of blessed promises, such as those to all who trust Christ. Promises, full of them. We're
hedged about with promises lest we despair, yet on the other
side, the Scriptures are full of warnings lest we presume. Promises lest we despair. No
one need despair of salvation. And all promises are in Him,
or yea, not maybe, but if you know yea. But then on the other
side we're hedged with warnings, lest we presume. Presume upon
His mercy. Presume upon His grace. Presume
upon salvation, the gospel. Presume upon His word. And when
we say presume upon these things, what we mean is taking these
things for granted. esteeming them lightly, taking
His mercy for granted and think, well, I'll be there. I'll just
sin that grace might abound or I'll just live like I want to. He's going to save me anyway.
Presumption, idle presumption, taking lightly the Word of God,
you know, not caring a great deal for it, hearing of it, reading
of it or whatever. So it's full of warnings to that
end, lest we presume, don't ever presume, upon the mercy of God
in that way. And we have ears in Scripture
many times. Our Lord Himself, throughout
the Revelation, says, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. He that hath ears to hear. The sad situations of the church
at Laodicea, you know, it was lukewarm. It weren't hot or cold. He said, I wish you were one
or the other. I'll spew you out of my mouth. Remember that as
a church, as a living group of people just like this, a church. And then the church at Ephesus,
Christ warned them. He said, you've lost your first
love. You've left your first love. And he said, I counsel
you, buy a gold, try it in the fire, and so on. And so there's
warnings like that. And sadly so, it's always so. In the church, in any church,
the church, a church, this church, any church, no matter how small
the numbers may be, no matter the size, it's always so that
Generally, when one person comes to Christ, somebody will leave. And that's just, I just don't
like, I just, that's just too serious. And while we rejoice
at those who do come to Christ, it's a sad and woeful day when
someone leaves. 1 Corinthians 10, We have several
reasons why someone would leave Christ, leave the gospel. Or,
as verse 5 says, now this is the title of the message, though,
Terry, the title of the message is, Overthrown in the Wilderness. It says, well, many of them,
God was not well pleased, but they were overthrown in the wilderness,
overthrown in the wilderness. overthrown in the wilderness.
And there are several reasons here in 1 Corinthians 10 why
that happened to these people. And the list of reasons in the
Scripture are endless as to why someone would ever lose interest
or leave the gospel. Verse 1, let's begin. And this is not In verse 5, it
says that they are overthrown in the wilderness. That's the
title of the message. And this is the wilderness we live in.
We're going to look at the children of Israel who roamed about in
a place called the wilderness of sin. That's the name of that
place. And it wasn't like it was a desert
land. There wasn't any trees or just
nothing there. No, they went from city to city
and so forth. And they went among people and
things and temptations. And they were amongst the world
and manifold temptations. And that's just like where we
live now. And all right, verse 1. Moreover,
brethren, he says, I would not you should be ignorant. And I
say the same thing. This Paul says the same thing
to the church, not at Corinth, but at Rocky Mount. that I don't
want you to be ignorant of what happened to these people. How that all, look at verse 1,
all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through
the sea. Now, ignorance. Ignorance means
to be without understanding. Ignorance means to be unlearned. And most of that can be attributed
to your teacher. You can attribute most ignorance
to being a poor listener. Right? Every kid. They may have
a, some, Christy may have a better aptitude for learning than others.
Nevertheless, they're all getting the same lesson. And in this
day and age, they'll have a special teacher for the slow learners,
won't they? To make sure they, and to try
that they might understand. But you can attribute someone
not learning something. You can just about attribute
all ignorance on all subjects to it not being a very good listener. Right? Have ears to hear what
we just didn't hear. And it's like us here. We've been through every epistle
in the New Testament together now. Every verse. Every word. in every epistle in the New Testament
now. And if whatever befalls us, we've
dealt with it, haven't we? And it's not saying we can retain
everything we've heard and have the left. The Lord does instill
principles within. Well, the whole problem, I believe,
is the ear. And this is what our Lord said.
He said, having ears to hear. But what? Didn't he? Didn't he say that? That's repeated
several times. I have ears to hear, but they
hear not. They hear not. And we have ears
to hear, but don't always hear with them. Not always listening.
My wife accused me. You men, you get accused of that? Well, you're not wrongfully accused. You're guilty. I am hard of hearing,
but sometimes I'm just not listening. Right, Stan? Right, Sherry? That's
Stan. It's all of us. It's true with
all of us. I mean, he said, do you hear
me? I said, yeah. And she knows I wasn't listening
to her. She knows that. Well, I say the same thing when
I look out there into your faces. You know, we get We get conditioned
to this thing of preaching, and we can get put on our best preaching
faces. I know you. I've been around you too long.
Some of you read you like a book. Deborah, read you like a book. And I know when you're listening,
you're even nodding your head in the right places, but I know
the light's on, but nobody's at home. Nobody's there, you
know. And I say, that's bad. And you
nod your head like you need to have the slightest idea of what
I'm saying. Well, it's somewhat humorous, yet it's tragic, because
we're not just dealing with the idle mandates of a wife to a
husband. We are dealing with the Word
of God here. Whatever He says, everything
that's spoken, there's no idle word. Everything's written for
our understanding that we might learn. Well, it says here, they
were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. They
were all, all these children of Israel were under the cloud,
under God's mercy. We're under the cloud of God's
mercy, aren't we? We're all under that glorious
cloud, that blanket of mercy, aren't we? It's of the Lord's
mercies we're not concerned. That cloud comes up every morning. We're under the cloud of His
mercies. It's of His mercies. We're not concerned the minute
we wake up. The minute we breathe His first breath and don't give
Him thanks for it, it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not
consuming. Right? Those children of Israel
were living by mercy and grace, and so are we. That cloud, that
blessed cloud of grace, by the grace of God we are what we are,
we have what we have, we can do what we can do. It's all of
grace, isn't it? All of it. Every ounce of strength
and whatever we may have. It says they passed through the
sea, verse 1. They all passed through the sea.
And that is, they were all miraculously delivered. You remember the Red
Sea? You remember when they all passed through the Red Sea? God
miraculously opened up that sea so that they passed through it.
What about us? Our whole lives, if God could
open the heavens and show us how we've passed through the
sea. A sea of troubles we've passed
through on dry ground. If we could see that, if God
show us all the dangers on every hand, how He has parted the waters,
let us walk right through it. And you know of some times, some
evidently miraculous deliverances that He has brought you through,
huh? You can tell some of your own stories of some miraculous
deliverances. We've all passed through that sea of His deliverance
for us too. And we're all, these people were
all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They're
all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea. And this is
a, like he said, this is a tithe. Oh, this is a tithe for us. Most everyone in here has been
literally baptized in these very waters, right? Confessing the
Lord Jesus Christ in mercy and grace, confessing his has been
all in all. Most everyone in here has professed
Christ, has professed to have heard His gospel, believed that
gospel, loved Christ, and in a similar sense, been placed
under an under-shepherd like Moses, who faithfully just renders
the Word of God to you. Right? All right? Verse 3. Verse 3, it says, They all did
eat the same spiritual meat. Now turn over to Hebrews 6, and
you know what that spiritual meat is, don't you? Huh? Christ said, My body is meat.
Take, eat. This is my body which is broken
for you. It's meat indeed. The person,
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is meat to the believer. We have
feasted on the Lord Jesus Christ time and again. How many meals
have we sat down together and partaken of? In this little old
place, in just a few years that I've been here, how many 5, 10,
9, 10 course meals have we enjoyed
together? 12, 13, 14 course meals. Just abundant tables
spread with all the goodness and fullness of Christ together.
Rich meals. I mean fat things. Not light
things. Not no fat, but fat things. We don't eat no fat gospel around
here. We eat fat things and wine on
the lease. Right? Don't give me no fat food. Don't give me except potato chips. There are a few potato chips
I like. But don't give me the rest of that stuff. Give me fat
things, says the Scripture, and wine on the leaf, filling things.
I want to be filled. But how many times have we feasted
together on person and work of Christ? How many times have we
gone away rejoicing? But yet people sadly say, I've
seen some faces not here who have gone away equally rejoicing
in the same thing. It's the people that are not
here any longer who have gone away rejoicing just as much as
anybody in here of this same people. Hebrews 6, let's look
at it. Now, just tasting of the gospel
is not enough. Tasting is just not enough. Hebrews 6, look at it here. Verses
4 through 9. It is impossible for those who
were once enlightened. Now, let me just briefly explain
this, and I'm just confident that this is the meaning of this
portion. This is certainly not talking about somebody truly
saved, but Christ said, I give unto them eternal life, and they
never perish. So this is not possible. But for those, there
are some who are enlightened, some who have their understanding
somewhat enlightened, and some who understand some things. Some who come to some understanding.
Some who come to some enlightenment concerning the sin, concerning
who God is, concerning what the gospel is, come to some persuasion
about this thing, right? And have tasted of the heavenly
gift. There's a key word there, tasted. Tasted of it. They've dabbled in it, they've
tasted it and said, that's good, I enjoy that, I'll come back
for a little more. and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.
So that means participants in that which the Holy Ghost does. So they were around when the
Holy Ghost was there. They were there when the Holy
Ghost was evidently present. When He poured out His Spirit
upon the people, when Christ was preached and everybody knew
it, and His presence was there, they felt it. That's what this
means. And have tasted, verse 5, the
good word of God. Tasted is the Katie people. Have
tasted the good word of God, and it is good if you ever just
taste it. It's sweet to the taste, isn't
it? It's good tasting. Anybody, you
know, even the world out there, Stan, even the world out there recognizes something of the sweetness
of this book, don't they? They have Babylon, and they taste
it. This is good. This is good stuff. Right? They don't swallow
it whole. What do you say? I'm sure they
don't swallow it whole. But they taste it. Just taste
it. Alright? They tasted the Word
of God and the powers of the world to come. As I said, there's
been some people in on the presence of God and the presence of Christ.
Seen the power of his word, and felt it even themselves." Verse
6, "...if they should fall away, or quit, or leave, it is impossible,"
read on, "...to renew them again unto repentance." Verse 4 said,
"...it is impossible, if they should fall away, to renew them
again unto repentance. See, they crucified themselves
the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." What they
say, like he said over in Hebrews 10, he says, How much sorer punishment, suppose
ye, shall he be thought worthy that trodden underfoot the Son
of God? That means gone after something else, on the way, trodden
over, you know. You know what I mean? Well, what
about the gospel? What about crying? What about
the brethren? God said it's impossible to come
back. Impossible. Impossible. All right, now back
to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. All right, you see that? All
these children of Israel did eat the same spiritual meat.
They did all drink the same spiritual drink. Verse 4. Same spiritual
drink. What's that? Who's that? How
many messages have we heard? I want you all to think, Lord
Jesus Christ, every time I pick this glass up, you know, I believe you do. You've heard
it so many times. Christ is the water of life. How many times have we drunk
of that water here together? And so many, we come in thirsty
and leave with a fresh drought or draft of Christ and leave
satisfied. Now, let me tell you this, though. This thirst, you fill this thirst
with Christ. You fill it up with Christ. Nothing
else will fill it, this thirst, but Christ. But I'm telling you,
you get filled, but you've got to keep coming back to get it
filled. If the thirst ever leaves you,
if you ever lose your thirst, you've got a problem. You have
a real problem. The thing about this thirst is,
yes, Christ meets that thirst, but it's one you keep coming,
you get thirsty again, in the sense that you keep coming back
to Christ for another drink. Right? This is a thirst that must be
filled daily. You know, when you're ill, what
is it that doctors and nutritionists and all recommend more than anything
else? I don't care what you got. I don't care what malady you
have, what sickness you may have, be it minor or be it major. What is it they say that you
need to do a lot of? Drink a lot of water. And no matter what our problems
are, we all have a deadly disease called sin, but yet No matter
what our problem, be it a minor at the time or a major, there's
one thing we need to drink a lot of, and that's Christ. That's Christ. If we lose our
thirst, though, it's an indication of real bad sickness or death. All right, it says that rock
was Christ, verse 4. That rock was Christ. If they
drank it, no doubt, that rock was Christ. Have we dealt with
a rock here? Rock, solid, truth. Every time Joe Parks is not here
tonight, every time I say rock, his eyes light up. He just likes
that word or something. It just sounds solid. It sounds
like something you can just stand on. And we here have partaken
of rock, solid, truth. Blood. Lots of blood has been
served up here. Lots of righteousness, imputed
righteousness, and I could just tear into it now. You could hear it, too. Oh, rock-solid
truths. If you sink meek, you can sink
your teeth in, sink your claws in, and lay hold on for help
in times of sovereign mercy. A lot of people talk of mercy
today. We like to hear the sound of
sovereign mercy. and grace, and particular effectual
redemption. Boy, these are rock-solid truths,
aren't they? Huh? We preach up God who's God, a
God you can trust, depending on a Christ who's Christ, one
that really saves. And these are truths, this is
truth that's rarely to be found in our day, people. This is pure
water of God's Word. It's unmixed with man's works.
And why would anybody, you know, once you've ever tasted it, I
got a little taste of well water now. We've got a well over the
place, and it's good water. It's good water. And the other
day, where was I? I was uptown somewhere, and I
got a drink of that chlorinate. I used to drink that stuff. I
used to think it was all right. Cisterns. That's what they're
drinking out of. Cisterns. Why would we go back
to the cistern when we... actually drunk of the well spring
that comes from the very fountain of God, the very river of God,
Christ Himself. Well, this is why. All right?
Here are the reasons. And I'll just take about ten
minutes. All right? Here are some of the
reasons why anyone would do this. This is why they did it. Two
people. Somebody reminded me of that.
Who was it? I don't know who it was before the service, remind
me, did you? Yeah. Two people, over 20 years old,
entered into the Promised Land. Of how many hundreds of thousands
of Jews were there? Some say millions, that wandered
through the wilderness of sin. That's unfathomable. I can't, Helen, I can't, I can't. Two people, over 20 years old,
went in. Did we get a hold of that? Two! Oh my! And it's down here in
verse 12. You know, that thought should
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Two,
John! Out of maybe two million. How many we got here tonight?
I don't know. But that doesn't even meet those
odds. We'd have to have about 400 more meetings to get up to
the percentage. It ought to make us sit up and
say, what was it? What was it? What was it about
these people? What was it? And make us say,
John, pray silently within ourselves. Lord, let me be one of the two. Don't let me be one of the 99.
All right? What was it? What was it? All
right, verse 5 and 6 says that many of them God was not well
pleased. And I tell you what, people, ain't no one of us God's
well pleased with. God's well pleased with
Christ's righteousness. He's the only one He's ever been
well pleased with, ever. I don't care, never. Only one He's ever been well
pleased with is Christ. We sure enough better be hanging on to
Him, ain't we? It says that they were overthrown
into wilderness. And now these things were our
example. So the intent we should not, here at number one, lust
after evil things. Lust after evil things. Now I
turn back to Numbers, chapter 11. Numbers, chapter 11. Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Fourth book. Numbers, chapter
11. Let's see what it was they lusted
after, okay? It says evil things, didn't it?
And it said, unless that's the evil thing. Well, you know, and
listen while you turn it. Paul said in Romans 14, verse
14, he said, I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen.
He said, I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 14,
14, that there's nothing unclean of itself. Nothing. Wait a minute, preacher, what
about heroin? No. No. Well, what about whiskey? Oh,
whiskey. It sounds evil. Whiskey. Huh? Doesn't it? No. Nothing evil about that.
Is it? I'm not making light. I'm not
saying everybody must go do it. I'm not, not in any way, you
know that. There's no evil in free. Is it? Christ said it when He preached.
He said, listen to me now. He said, listen to me now. Let
these words sink down in your ears, He said. He said, there's
nothing that goes into the mouth that can defile a man. Nothing. Didn't He say that? And the Pharisees,
who had never touched any of those things, they got all offended.
They got to be some evil and frisky. No. The evil is in the man that abuses
it. As I've told you so many times,
I'm not advocating whiskey. I don't like it. Well, I ain't
about drinkin' anyways. At any rate, back in the Civil
War, buddy, when you about to have your leg cut off in the
Northwest of South, you sure was glad you had things left.
Huh? That's it? That word sounded
mighty sweet to me. There's nothing unclean of itself. All right? Remember that. All
right? Here's number 11. It says they lust after evil
things. Why did he say that? Why did
he say that? Evil things. And there's nothing
evil in and of itself. Well, things become evil. Listen
to me. Things become evil to us when
we abuse them. All right? Things become evil
to us when we abuse them. And things become evil when The
things you have are not good enough. Now, this is what they
did. This is what the children of
Israel did. The things that they had, they said, that's not good
enough. We want more. Discontent, complaining with
what they had. Look at it. Numbers 11, verses
4 through 6. It says that, verse 1, when the
people complained, It displeased the Lord, and the Lord heard,
and his anger was kindled." See that? He couldn't just complain.
"...his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among
them, and consumed them that were out of most parts of the
camp." Verse 4, "...a mixed multitude was among them, and fell a lusting."
The children of Israel wept again. What did they weep over? Their
sins? Their unbelief? No. Because they didn't have
any good porterhouse steak to eat or whatever. Who shall give
us flesh to eat? Look at verse 5, we remember
the fish we ate in Egypt, free, and the cucumbers, melons, leeks,
onions, garlic, our souls dried away. Their souls dried away? Man, they're rock!
Christ! John is with them. Their souls
were dried up in Egypt, not in the wilderness, was it? There's
nothing, look at this, there's nothing, we don't have anything
at all but this. Do you see that? Oh, isn't it
sad? They lusted—lust means insatiable
craving. We've all had it. We all have
it. Insatiable cravings after—and what these people had were insatiable
cravings after everything but manna. They had totally lost
interest in manna. They don't want that anymore.
And this is a picture. Now listen, this is a spiritual
picture. It's not that you're getting tired of grits and you
need some gravy or, you know, or want honey, would you pick
some sausage protein? That's not it at all. It's nothing
to do with food, per se. It's a picture. It's a picture
of Christ in the gospel, which is the manna, right? And how
one can want everything but him. How one can get sidetracked and
taken with and lust after and sensually desires everything
but him. And he loses his... the appeal
to them. But that's what happens. Sherry,
that's what happens to ladies and men. They get a taste of
Egypt. And Christ... Moses... Moses,
it says, got a taste of Christ. He'd been in Egypt. And he had
a taste of Christ, and he said, no, that's better. And he esteemed
the reproaches of Christ better than all the riches of Egypt,
didn't he? Didn't he? Oh, my. And this is
a picture of somebody who goes after everything but Christ.
And, oh, boy. And on the practical side, it's
positively sinful and displeasing to Christ to be concerned with
bigger and better if what we have is fine enough. And yet
we're not content with it. There's the key. If we're not
content with it and not satisfied and won't be satisfied, do we
have a finer that's positively displeasing and evil inside of
the Lord? Verse 7. So that was one thing. That was one thing. They lusted
after other things when they had man. Now, anyone who has
Christ in the gospel, Paul said, oh boy, Christ is all. I'm in prison here, I'm content.
Verse 7, neither be ye idolaters, as some of them were. That is,
as it is written, and this is found over in Exodus 32. It says
the people sat down, and significantly is when Moses left. It wasn't
on Sunday during the week. Moses wasn't around. It says
that the people sat down to eat. Look at what they were taken
with. Look at what they did. This is their vocation. They
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Rose up to play. And it's called here idolatry
in them. Idolatry. Idolatry. They did a strong cab, but here
he calls this idolatry. When one is taken up with, listen,
the idolatry, the idol. An idol, alright? If you've ever
seen National Geographic, or one of these shows on TV, how
these natives, these jungle people and all that, they had this God
that they set up. And oh, they're sacrificing to
Him, and they're doing everything to Him. Their lives are centered
around this idol. They pursue everything they do
that has something to do with this idol. Pleasing the God,
you know. Appeasing the God. everything, afraid to do this,
afraid to do that, for fear of the gods, you know, and so forth.
An idol is someone you're taken up with, someone you pursue,
something, whatever you find satisfaction in, whatever you
love. Scripture says to some people
that God is their belly. And that's what this is talking
about. Said they ate, drank, and rose up to play. Their God
became their belly. That which they sacrificed to. That which they gave everything
to. That which their lives centered
around. Appeasing this angry belly. Their God was their belly. Appetized
for. inordinate appetites for food
and drink. Our society, my society, you
know, when I went with about six days without eating anything,
not by choice, but, you know, everything, you turn the TV on,
what do you see? Hamburgers and chicken and turkey. You open a magazine, you got
this big filet, you know, gumbo casserole on every page. Food
everywhere. Our society is burnin' everything. That's all people live for. And
if it ain't that, it's drinkin'. Drink this, drink that. If you
try this, try this. Try that, you drunk, drink this.
Eatin' drinkin', if it ain't that, what is it? If it ain't
that, drinkin' what is it? Play. Alright, you've eatin',
you've drunk, now it's time to what? Play! And granted, you work long hours,
John, you have a right to play every now and then. And what's
her name? Have a right to go somewhere
and play. Recreate, right? It's not withheld
from us, but not when we're consumed with it. Right? And isn't that
our generation? If you don't turn on the TV and
see, tell them the way you see, Debra. Sports. Right? It's all laughable, isn't it?
But this is it. This is the wheelers of sin. And Barbara's no different. You
see, it's like reading the newspaper. Eat, drink, let's play. What
about God? Don't have time, so let's play.
Let's play. And God was angry. Oh, recreation. Verse 8. Verse 8. And listen,
granted, some of us here need a lot more of it. Our midlines
show, very plainly, that we should do a little recreation. Exercise or something. By exercise
doesn't profit a whole lot, but some of us need to do a little
bit of it. Turn. All right. Verse 8. It says that, look at
this, neither let us commit fornication. What's the next thing that our
society is concerned with? There's sex, craze, society
we live in. Every movie, every book, every...
you name it. That's unbelievable, isn't it? Unbelievable. You know, back
then, and this, they said they fell 23,000 of venereal disease.
That's what happened to these people, a venereal disease. They
committed whoredom with the women of Moab who were filthy people,
and they died of venereal disease, a plague, 23,000 people. We don't have many single people
here, but I'm telling you, based on the Word of God, if we physically
join ourselves to this world, we're liable to contact what
this world's getting, or marry people. Don't think we're immune
from these things. We have the warnings there, all
right? Verse 9, it says that they tempted Christ. And He let
us tempt Christ, as some of them were tempted and were destroyed
as serpents. Serpent. Oh, and then that blessed
story about the serpent on the pole. You know, right in the
midst of this black scene. You have that glorious story,
don't you? But what happened when they tempted?
It says they tempted Christ. What does that mean? Tempt Christ? How do you tempt Christ? Tempt
Him to be angry. Arouse His anger and judgment.
That's what that means. How? How? How do we tempt Christ? He's in heaven. We're on the
earth. I can't touch Him. Can't do anything to Him. Job, isn't it saying, Job, we
do righteously. We don't disrespect God. We do evil, but that doesn't
either. Right? Where is that? Do you remember
the verse of Scripture that says, if we sin, that can't touch God.
If we do righteousness, that can't touch Him either. Can't
change a thing. I'll find that for you sometime.
Well, Christ said then, you know who it was, don't you, that they
did all their moaning and complaining to? Moses was the representative
of Christ's name. That's what it was. And Christ
said to his disciples, and those that would follow, he said, they
reject you, they reject me. And they receive you, they receive
me. Not, you know, not a man's own personal words, mind you.
But if he's being true to the words of Christ, what he says
is as Christ saying it, right? He said, if they hear you, they'll
hear me. That's who they hear. They hear me. And, you know,
Moses didn't ask for the job, did he? That's the reason I say
no true preacher of the gospel has ever applied for the job.
You don't want one like that. Moses didn't. He didn't apply
for the job. But once he had it, he said,
OK, I'm going to fulfill it just like you tell me to. If any man
speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. All right? So that's
what they did. They murmured against Moses.
They said, You take too much on yourself. Who do you think
you are? Moses said, I never have thought
of anything. I never have said that. Moses
said, I didn't want this. Didn't he? Thank God, you people. Boy. I thank God you received
the word as it is in truth, the word of God. And that's the words
of a man. And he became a follower. I do
thank God for that. Verse 10, neither murmur ye.
This is the last one. Neither murmur ye, as some of
them also murmured and were destroyed to destroy. This is Satan's chief
tool. And it's one that everybody in
here is prone to. and given to and what every one
of these children were guilty of. And in the end, two went
in. They were all flat out rejected
for this principal reason. Murmuring. Complaining. Fault-finding. That was it. The root of bitterness sprung
up. discord. And they scattered it
among themselves. Discord. One fellow didn't like
what he was eating. He spread it. Spreads like wildfire, too. Now,
verse 11 says, All these things were happening unto them for
examples. Examples to us. Oh, my. Our admonition. Oh, the longsuffering
of the Lord. Isn't He so longsuffering? It's
salvation. John, we're guilty of everything.
Everything these people have done, we've done it to the same
extent. Hadn't we? This story wasn't
just over a period of a few days, it was over several years. It
was over a lifetime, Ellen. This was these people living
their lives, walking through various places, being tempted
and tried, and this and that and the other. And failing miserably,
and murmuring, complaining, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. on every
hand. Nobody was, oh, thank you, Lord,
for deliverance from Egypt. Oh, the promised land. Oh, we've
got so much to look forward to. Don't we rejoice in seeing him
who, you know, he, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying,
ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying,
ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying,
ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying,
ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, y I hate that
in my daughter worse than anything. I get angry. You ask her. I get
positively angry when I hear her moaning and groaning and
crying as she drops her head. I say, cut that out. There are
people in much worse circumstances than you. As a matter of fact,
you get everything your heart could desire. And for you to
ever murmur or complain, I ought to take it all away. Right? And this is it. This is at the
heart of it. We ever catch ourselves murmuring,
I don't care what your lot is, somebody's worse. Are you sick? I know a lady right now with
90 pounds and losing weight rapidly. And can't hold a morsel in her
belly. You sick? I kept thinking about
that one old time I was sick. that bite my tongue. Don't ever
complain. Don't complain. With no real possibility of getting
better. I knew I was going to get better.
I knew it. We lonely? Paul says, you lonely? Paul says, you lonely? He said, everybody in Asia left
me. And I was sitting in a jail cell,
wondering where they all are. I just, and I'm not here for
any fault of my own. Boy, you're talking about a lonely
place. Huh? We got problems? Don't complain. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Isn't that good
advice? It's not advice, it's a commandment.
It's a commandment. Read on. He said there in verse
13, for our comfort, he says, there's no
temptation. Whatever you've gone through, it's common. It's common
if somebody's just like you. There's hundreds of them just
like you. There's hundreds, even thousands
of people and millions of people just like you, going through
the same thing. You haven't got a particular
problem. It's something that people all over have gone through
and have gone through and will go through. And God is faithful, though,
he says, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
you're able. And I said so many times, we
go through some tough times, but we go through it. And that's
proof of the certainty of this promise, isn't it? You got through
it. I think about Violet there, that
severe surgery on her head, you know. At her age? Man, when she was going through
it, I know she thought, this is the worst thing that could happen
to a human being. Didn't she? An older woman, shave
her head and all this. She got through it. Huh? Didn't
she? Brother Todd and I, on and on
and on the list go. He went with, and whatever you're
going through, oh my job, oh my family, oh my, family problems? You got some problems with your
children? You got problems with your son? My daddy did too. He did too. He got through me. He made it through me. He will make a way. And what
is the way? There's only one way. I preached
on it. Christ is the way. Christ's Word is one and the
same. He's one. The Word is the way to escape,
that you may be able to bear it. There's only one way to bear
any of whatever you go through. And that's right here. There's
only one answer. There's only one place to turn
to. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, he concludes by saying, flee
from idolatry. He kind of sums it all up by
saying, set your affections, set your desires on Christ, things
above. And Brother Nyberg says, you
know, all your confidence and happiness and joys to be found
in Christ, you really can't be all that much disappointed otherwise,
can you? Isn't that right? And Barbara, you, Charles, we've
talked about this. The older you get, the more you
see, or ought to see, the vanity of this life. It doesn't satisfy,
does it? A new car, a new cow, whatever. It just doesn't satisfy. It's nice for a little while,
you enjoy it for a little while, but it just doesn't. There's
no real estate satisfaction in it, is there? No. What satisfies? That's right. The only place to find real,
lasting satisfaction. And Christ said, I give you joy,
I'll give you life, life more abundantly. And someday, someday
we will experience that life to its fullest. In the meantime,
murmur not. Don't complain. This is the will
of God. and Christ Jesus concerning you,
and it's the best. And it's good, and it's right,
and what the judge is doing concerning you is right. And it's good. Father knows best. All right.
Stand with me. Our Heavenly Father, we meet as little children, as
young, ignorant, So slow to learn, children. You
said to your disciples one day, you said, oh, you of little faith.
You said, oh, little children, little children, how long must
I bear with you, suffer you? That's us, Lord. That's us. We need, we need these things. We need them. Right along with the sweet, we
need the bitter. Right along with the promise, we need the
warning. Right along with the comfort, we need the correction.
So let us take heed to these things. Let us hear with the
inner ear, the inner man. But it's going to take your Holy
Spirit, His power, to instill these things in us, to put a
watch over our lips, to hold our tongue, to lift up our hearts,
cause us to rejoice whatever may come, give us a contentment
of spirit. Holy Spirit, something totally
without ourselves, is going to take him, him alone, without
whom we can do nothing, nothing. But you promised to give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him, and we're asking now that
we would be like those two, Joshua and Caleb, who entered into the
promised land, faithful, faithful over a few things. Oh, dear Lord,
we have much to be thankful for, very little, nothing to complain
about. We ask that you make us more
thankful, more thankful. And let us look upon the needs
of others, and let us look upon the things of others, and our
things will grow dim, our problems will diminish. Let us consider
him who endures such contradictions centered against himself, lest
we be weary and faint in our own mind. In Christ's name we
have met together and pray. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.