Well, it's our delight to be
with you. We thank you all for having us and for being so hospitable
to us. Thank you for the pastors who
have fed us so well already with the Gospel. And we thank you
ladies for what you've done in putting the food out, keeping
us refreshed throughout the day. Let's turn our Bibles now to
1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. about 37 minutes and 40 seconds
left in you. I'm going to preach a message
to you for the Lord to bless me. I'm going to try to keep
it to 37 minutes and 40 seconds. We'll see how we go, alright?
Our text is found in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you are able. But God will, with the temptation,
also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. Now when we read about temptation
in the Scriptures, it always is referred to in two different
ways. Temptation is trials. It is tests
that God gives. We read in the Scripture that
God tested Abraham. He proved Abraham. He sent him
a trial. And then in another way temptation
is used, it means the enticement to sin from the lusts of our
flesh. When James was speaking of it
in James chapter 1, he said the trial of temptation is from God,
but the temptation that is a lust to sin is all of us. He said,
let no man say when he is tempted, that he is tempted to sin. that
he's tempted of God. God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man with evil, but every man is tempted
when he's drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. Now that's
a temptation where it's all the lusts of our flesh. So you have
temptation which is a trial. And you have temptation which
is the lust of the flesh. The Lord taught us to pray, lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. I don't want to
be tried. I know enough about my own flesh
to know I don't want to be tried. I have no strength except the
Lord. And the Lord said, He taught
us to pray, Lord lead us not into temptation, deliver us from
the evil. He told the Apostles, or the
disciples in the garden, He said, watch and pray that you enter
not into temptation. Now, when God tests us with trials,
He always does it to teach us His faithfulness in keeping us
in Christ. Now, I want to look first of
all at this first phrase in verse 13. There hath no temptation
taken you but such as is common to man. Now, that's comforting
to us because the God-man came to where we are and conquered
every temptation. He was tempted in all points
like as we are, touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
and yet without sin. He conquered all temptation. He's the spotless Lamb of God
who conquered all the temptation, touched with all the feeling
of our infirmities, and yet He never sinned. and redeemed His
people from all iniquity. Now I want to go back up here
to verse 6. And I want to look at these examples He gives of
the children of Israel. And we'll see some ways they
failed in these trials. Verse 6 says, Now these things
were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil
things, as they also lusted. If you look at Numbers 11, Numbers
chapter 11, They all came out of Egypt together,
and they all saw the miracles together, and they all faced
the same trials together. But even though they all came
out physically, in body, they didn't all come out spiritually.
They all came out in body, but they didn't all come out spiritually.
Now look here in verse 4, the mixed multitude, Numbers 11,
4, the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. And
the children of Israel also wept again and said, ìWho shall give
us flesh to eat?î We remember the fish which we did eat in
Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons, the leeks and the
onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away
and thereís nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes. God proved the children of Israel
using the manna. Do you remember that? rained
the manna down in the wilderness. He said, I will prove them with
the manna. And God always proves His people
with the manna. Christ is the bread from heaven.
In John 6, He said, My Father gave you the true bread. And
the true bread is He that comes down from heaven and gives life
to His people. That's Christ the Lord. He's
the true bread. And we're always proven by that
bread. That's the bread that proves
those that are His and those that are not. There was a great
multitude who followed Christ on one occasion. You remember
in John 6 when He was telling them He was the bread. In John
6 it says they were all following Him and He told them, I'm the
true bread. I'm the true bread from heaven.
Except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood. He has no life
in it. And he's speaking of believing on Christ. Except a man believe
on Christ, he cannot be saved. There's no way to come to God,
holy God, except in Christ. He's the only one God will accept,
and He'll only accept His people in Him. We have to come in Him. And he told them this, and John
6, 41 says, and then the Jews murmured. They murmured at him
because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven.
And you know what they did? When they murmured at Him, it
says they went back and they followed Him no more. You know
what happened? They went back to Egypt. They went back to the
garlic and the leeks and the onions. They went back to their
earthy food, their touch not, taste not, handle not, their
works and what they could do. But they wouldn't follow Christ
and bow to Him. They wouldn't follow Christ and
rest in Him. He proved by telling them He's
the bread. He proved them that they were
not His. They went back. But you know
what His true disciples did? He turned around to them. And
He wasn't like preachers in our day. Preachers in our day see
folks leaving and they try to run after them and they try to
get them back and do anything they can and compromise the message.
Christ turned to His true disciples and He said, will you go away
also? And they said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. And we are sure you are that Christ, the Son of the living
God. Do you see how the bread proved?
Christ the bread proved who was His and who was not His. Those
who are His are kept by this Lord God and they are made to
follow Him and rest in Him. Everything is in Him. God chose
us in Him. God redeemed us in Him. He quickens
us and brings us to faith in Him. He keeps us and preserves
us in Him. He brings us to glory in Him.
Everything is in Christ. But Christ proves those that
are His and those that are not. Those that are His won't go back.
Those that are not His will go back to those works, that Egypt,
that bondage. Now secondly, The second temptation
was to idolatry, verse 7. He says, neither be ye idolaters
as were some of them. As it is written, the people
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now what happened
in this situation was, you remember Moses went up into the mount
to receive the law from God. And God didn't operate on their
timetable. God doesn't operate on our timetable. He operates on His timetable.
And God didn't, He didn't just give the law right away to Moses
and send Moses back down to them. It was a while. And Moses was
in the mount. And the scripture says, And when
the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount,
the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and they
said, Make us some gods to go before us. Ask for this Moses. We don't know what's become of
him. And so the children sat down to eat and rose up to play.
They began to play religion. He made them an idol. And they
began to look at that idol and say, this is the God that delivered
us out of Egypt. And they worshipped this idol.
And the same thing is happening in our day. Christ Jesus the
Lord has gone up into the mount. He's finished the work. He's
redeemed His people from all iniquity. And He's gone up into
the mount. And He stayed there for a while. It's been 2016 years. And the Scripture says, Peter
said, in the last days there'll come scoffers walking after their
own lusts, saying, where's the promise of His coming? He's not
just talking about the anti-religious world out there. He's talking
about the religious world who say, we don't know what's become
of Him. We're going to make something we can see. We're going to make
some religion we can see. We're going to make, if we make
some programs and if we make some idols and if we offer the
people something they can see, we can build a church. And so
they play religion. They sit down, they eat to their
God, their idol, and they play religion. Will that happen to
God's true people? God's brought His people out
of that. God's drawn His people out of that. And God won't allow
His people to return to it. He's going to keep His people
from that idolatry. He keeps you trusting Christ
the Lord. Now let's look at this next temptation. It's to fornication, verse 8.
Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and
fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Balaam was a false
prophet. Balaam was a false prophet. But
Balaam did not say anything that was untrue. Balaam, you could
go over there and read what Balaam said and you'd preach the gospel
from what Balaam said. How did Balaam manifest he was
a false prophet? In his works. What Balaam did
was, he said, I'm not going to change the message. I'm not going
to say what God has told me I can't say. I'm not going to curse the
people. But fellas, I'll tell you what, these pretty Moabite
girls right here will entice those Israelite fellas in here.
And that's how you get them to worship this idol. You see, all
of these temptations we're seeing is something that's turning you
from Christ to something of the world. That's what's pictured
in all these temptations. And so they went in and they
worshiped that idol. and committed fornication and
God struck them down. He struck them down. They committed
whoredoms with the idol. The fornication they committed
was spiritual fornication against the Lord God. Why is that spiritual
fornication? Because Christ is the husband
of His bride. And to turn from Christ to a
false God is to turn and commit spiritual fornication against
Him. God's left false teachers in our day, just like Balaam.
You know why He left them? You're not facing any temptation
that every generation hasn't faced. You know why He's left
false teachers in our day? To prove those that are His and
those that aren't. Those that are His, Christ said,
they hear my voice and they follow me. And a stranger they won't
follow. Because they hear the voice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If I stood up here right now
and I started telling you something. Now, you've heard all these messages
today about how Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
for His people. And I stood up here and started
preaching the law to you and telling you what you've got to
do now. But except you do this, you can't be saved. You would
hear that immediately and know that's not the gospel. That's
not the voice of my Redeemer. and His people hear. They know
that's the voice. I'm hearing Christ's voice. That's
the true voice. I'm following Him. I'm not following
a lie. These are temptations we face in our day. Look at this
next one. They tempted Christ, verse 9.
Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and
were destroyed of serpents. What they did in this temptation
is our Redeemer is the sovereign God of heaven and earth. He said,
the government's on my shoulder. He said, I'm ruling all things
in heaven and earth. Everything is in His hand. It
always has been. It always has been. When He came
into the world, they said, we've come to see Him that's born King. He's always been the King. There's
always been one mediator between God and man. That voice that
spoke to Adam in the garden, that was Christ. No man can see
God and live. Who did Manoah and his wife see?
They saw the angel of the Lord. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ,
the pre-incarnate Christ. He's always been the mediator
between God and man. And he's the one that was controlling
everything in that wilderness. He was the cloud leading them
and the pillar of fire in the cloud. He was the one leading
them. He was the rock in the wilderness. And the people spake against
God and against Moses because they weren't getting their belly
filled. And they said, wherefore have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in this wilderness? And they weren't saying that
to Moses. They were, but they were saying it to Christ. They
were tempting Christ. Why have you brought us up out
of this, into this wilderness to kill us with thirst? You know
the cure, brethren. Should we tempt Christ? Are we
going to fret against whatever situation Christ has put us in? Whatever the providence of God
has brought us into, are we going to murmur against what He's doing? That's what they did. They murmured
against what He did. And He sent serpents in their
midst and began to bite them. If we reject Christ, if we turn
from Him, rather than resting in Him, in all things, in what
He's done for us spiritually, in what He's done for us in redeeming
us, in what He's doing for us as He leads us through this wilderness,
there's no other salvation but Him. Then, look, they tempted
by their murmuring. Verse 10 says, Neither murmur
ye, as some of them also murmur, and were destroyed and destroyer.
They constantly murmur. They murmured about everything.
They murmured about everything in the wilderness. And one day
Korah got a bunch of folks together and he went to Moses and he said,
Moses, you take too much on yourself. We're all holy. But Moses was
the man God raised up to lead him. And see, when a man rejects
the man God's raised up to lead him, he's rejecting Christ who
sent the man. You know, people get upset sometimes
and they say, well, the Scripture says God's people are taught
of God. They don't have any need to be
taught of a man. You know how you know a man is
taught of God and has no need to be taught of a man? When he
has no problem with a man teaching him. That's a man that's been
taught of God and has, you know he's been taught of God. He doesn't
have a problem with God's man teaching him the Gospel. God's
people don't have a problem with that. Because Christ is the one. He who ascended, He's the one
that sends forth His messengers. He's the one. He said He fulfills
all prophecy. And He said in Jeremiah 3.15,
I will give you pastors according to my own heart. He's got to
fulfill that. Christ has. Because He's the
fulfiller of all prophecy. So we don't murmur against Him
at all. Now verse 11, He says there,
Now all these things happen unto them for examples, and they are
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are
come. Wherefore, let him that thinks he stands take heed lest
he fall. There is no temptation taken
of you, but such is common to man. All these temptations they
faced in the wilderness. He is showing us these are the
things we are facing. We are going through a wilderness. We
are going through a wilderness. We are just pilgrims going through
a wilderness on our way to that promised land God has promised
us. We are being led by Christ the
whole way, fed by Christ the whole way, provided for by Christ
the whole way, just like they were in that wilderness. Alright,
now here is the second thing, God's faithfulness. It says there
in verse 13, it says, But God is faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you are able. The difference
between those who perished and those who stood is the grace
of God. That's the difference. The grace
of God. God's faithfulness. Look back
at the first chapter, 1 Corinthians 1. Actually, let me show you something
here. I want you to look at Look at verse 5. He says, In everything you are
enriched by Him, by God in Christ Jesus. You are enriched by Him
in all utterance, in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you. Everything that came from Him,
so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the
end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. God is faithful by whom you are called into the fellowship
of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. There is only one way you
and I are not going to fall in a trial. There is only one way
we are going to be kept and continue through this pilgrimage and not
be lost, be presented blameless and faultless. There is one way.
Jude said, God is able to keep you from falling. God is able
to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. He is faithful. And He will not lose one. God
chose Him and entrusted Him to His Son. His Son came and laid
down His life and perfected forever them that are sanctified. The
Holy Spirit has quickened us to life and brought us to faith
in Christ. And this is what's at stake.
If God loses one for whom Christ died, God's very glory is tarnished. And God won't allow that to happen.
But besides that, God's able. God is able. Every temptation
that God... When He gave that trial to Abraham,
why did Abraham go and offer up Isaac? What was his faith? Where was he trusting when he
went and offered up Isaac? God told him, this is the boy
through whom the promised seed is coming. Now you go and you
sacrifice this boy to Me. What was the one reason Abraham
went and sacrificed that boy? And the Scripture says, in the
mind and purpose of Abraham, he sacrificed that boy. Counting
that God is able. God is able to raise him from
the dead. God is able. God is faithful to honor His
Son, Christ Jesus, and therefore God will not allow one for whom
He died to fall away. Christ never lives to make intercession
for us. And God surely won't allow one
to fall away with Christ making intercession. Fear thou not,
I'm with thee, be thou not dismayed, I'm thy God, I'll strengthen
thee, I'll help thee, I'll uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness. God is faithful. God is faithful. Now lastly, he says here that
with every temptation, with every trial, God's going to provide
a way of escape. Look there in verse 13, God will
with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may
be able to bear it. I've heard things preached on
this and I've heard some crazy things preached on this. You
know, there's going to be this temptation in front of you but
then there's going to be this way you can go or this way you
can go and it's like choose what's behind door number two, you know,
go this way. The way of escape, is Christ. He's the way. He's the way. Just look at it. They were lusting
after the evil of Egypt. They weren't satisfied with the
manna. They said, all we've got here is this manna. I can't tell
you how many people we've had come through the door, sit down,
listen, and start out and, oh, it's the best message I ever
heard. I've been looking for this. I can't believe I finally
found it. Sit a little while and start
having a problem. Well, what's the problem? Well,
don't you have something else? We wanted to hear this, but now
we want some garlic with this, too. We want some onions with
this, too. We don't want just bread. We don't want just Christ. And I've had men tell me this. I'm not leaving anything. I'm
not leaving anything. All you do is preach Christ.
A man told me that. All you do is preach Christ. That was the problem. That's
what's being shown here to us. What's the escape for that? What's the cure for not lusting
after all those works and that bondage of Egypt? Satisfaction
with the bread. That's the way of escape. To
be content with the bread. Christ the bread in whom is all
righteousness and all holiness and all wisdom and all redemption.
He's all. We don't say We don't say all
you have is this manner. We say we got this manner and
we got all. What's the way of escape from
idolatry? It says there they lusted, they
went to idolatry. What's the way of escape from idolatry?
Trusting the true and living God. Christ the true and living
God. That's the escape from idolatry.
What's the way of escape from that fornication, from leaving
the Go on and commit fornication with a harlot. False gospel. What's the cure for that? Being
content with Christ our Husband. He comes and finds His bride.
He found every one of us, the adulterous, just like Hosea went
and found Gomer. And He bought us off the slave
block. And He says to us that marriage
vow that He said to Gomer, I'll be for you and you'll be for
me. You won't be for another man. And He makes His bride content
with Christ our Husband. We don't go after that. That's
the escape from that lust. What's the way of escape from
that serpent's venom of sin? When they murmured and He sent
the serpents and that venom began to fill. What's the cure for
sin? Even as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness. There it was, that thing lifted
up, made to be the thing that was biting them. Christ Jesus
lifted up, made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. That's the cure. That's
the escape. What's the way of escape from
murmuring and not being content? Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as ye have, for He
has said, I will never leave you and I'll never forsake you.
It's having Christ and knowing He's doing everything well. All
judgment has been committed to Him, and the Judge of the whole
earth is going to do right for His people. That's the escape
from it. So let me turn you over to Hebrews
2. I want to show you three Scriptures, and I'll be done. Hebrews 2, we're talking about
the way of escape now. The way of escape. And I'm trying
to tell you Christ is the way. He's the way. Hebrews 2, 3. How
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? That salvation
is a capital S. Christ the Lord. Look at Hebrews
4. Hebrews chapter 4. Look at verse
4 and look at verse 15. It says there, We have not a
high priest which cannot be touched with the filling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin.
What does the next verse say? Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Christ is the escape. Look at
Hebrews 12. One more place. Hebrews 12. We've been talking here about
the chastening hand of God. And sometimes these trials are
for chastening. Sometimes they are to correct
His child. And we get to moping. We get to hanging our hands down.
And we've got these feeble knees and we just don't think we can
go on. And He says, but God chastens those He loves. He chastens you
as a son. And so He says this in verse
12, Wherefore, lift up that hands which hang down, and the feeble
knees, and make straight paths for your feet." Straight to where? Straight to where? Where is the
way of escape? Where am I going? Look down at verse 24. To Jesus, the mediator of the
new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better
things than that of Abel, see that you refuse not Him that
speaketh. I am telling you this, brethren. I know this for a fact.
Anytime you come into a trial, anytime you come into a trial,
if you're a child of God, just like Christ speaks to you through
this gospel, it's Christ speaking to you through that trial. See
that you refuse not Him that speaketh. Look now, for if they
escape not, they didn't escape who refused Him that spake on
earth. Much more shall not we escape if we turn from Him that
now speaks from heaven. That's who's speaking. That's
who's speaking. When we come to these trials,
we don't go back to Mount Sinai. That's where religion tells you
to go. He said, you haven't come to that mountain. You haven't
come to that mountain. You've come to Mount Zion. You've
come to the heavenly Jerusalem. You've come to Christ. Hear Him.
He's the escape. Scripture says in everything,
in all these things that would separate us, we're more than
conquerors through Christ that loved us. He's the way of escape. Well, 29 minutes and 7 seconds. I'm tired. Are y'all tired? It's
been a good day, hasn't it? You know, one of these days we're
going to be in glory. And we won't have these bodies
of flesh. We won't be getting tired. We'll be able to worship
with no sin and no flesh and nothing to be hindering us whatsoever. We'll all sing like songbirds.
And we'll be able to worship Him with no flesh involved. Won't that be good? All right. Thank you so much for everything.
I hope you're able to come back tomorrow.