Turn with me, if you would, to
First Corinthians, Chapter 10. Verse 12. Wherefore, let him that thinketh,
he standeth, take heed, lest he fall." When Paul says this, He's really
not talking about a fall in the sense of falling into some particular
sin, although that's certainly included. But he's not talking
about, for instance, being overcome with temptation and falling. That's not what he's talking
about at all. He's talking about leaving the
gospel. professing to know Christ and
believing the true gospel of grace. And having some experience
in the things of God. And after all of that, leaving
Christ. And going back to the world. And that's a sobering thought,
isn't it? It's a solemn thought. The thought of having some experience
in the things of God, some acquaintance with truth, and turning your
back and going back to the world. Do you hear this Now I'm looking at some people,
I know some people have been believers a long time. Do you
fear this? In 1 Corinthians 10, he gives
five Old Testament events that are given to us as a warning
and an admonition as to what will happen when one begins to
fall away. And there is no coming back after
one actually falls away. There's no coming back. Turn
to Hebrews chapter 10 for a moment. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 26. For if we sin willfully, after we've received the knowledge
of the truth, There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but
a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation
which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer
punishment! Suppose you shall he be thought
worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of And it's kind of the
blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing
and done despite unto the spirit of grace. Now, that's a passage
of scripture that I used to tremble to read. It used to trouble me
so much, that thing of willful sinning, because how many times
in your experience have you known better than doing what you knew
you shouldn't do it? You felt convicted about it and
you did it anyway. How many times you've done that?
Can't be counted, can they? As a matter of fact, every time
you've sinned, it's been willful. You never sinned against your
will. Every time you've sinned, you've
done what you wanted to do. And I remember I used to read
that passage of scripture and it would make me tremble, scared. What does this passage of scripture
mean? Well, notice what he says in the context. He's talking
about the gospel. Hebrews 10, talking about the atonement of
the Lord Jesus Christ, where the remission of these is, there's
no more offering for sin. Now, if we sin willfully after
we've received the knowledge of the truth, the truth of how
God saves sinners by Christ, if we leave that after receiving
the knowledge of the truth, it's over for us. There remains no
more sacrifice for sin. That's talking about hearing
the gospel, receiving the gospel, believing the gospel and then
going back. He says there's no more sacrifice
for sin. Somebody says, but aren't God's
elect secure? Is it not impossible for one
of the elect to be lost? Yes, it is. It is impossible
for anybody that Christ died for to ever be lost. Aren't you
thankful for that? He said, I give unto my sheep
eternal life and they shall never perish. They are preserved by God's grace. And they are preserved through
persevering. Through continuing in the faith,
through continuing to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, they are
preserved through Persevering. Now, the first warning Paul gives
us regarding this thing of falling is found in verse five and six
of First Corinthians, Chapter 10. And he talked about the Israelites
who experienced so much, but he says, but with many of them,
God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now, these things were our examples
to the intent That we should not lust after evil things, that
we should not covet evil things as they also lusted or coveted. Now, what he's referring to is
something that took place in Numbers chapter 11. Would you
turn with me to a Numbers chapter 11? Look in verse 34. And he called the name of that
place. This is Moses, after this event
that took place in Numbers 11, he called the name of that place. Kibrothatehavah. What in the world does that mean?
Well, my marginal reference says that means the graves of lust. The graves of lust. Because that they buried the
people that lusted. Now, he's talking about lust. That is the subject, the graves
of lust. And I've entitled this message,
The Graves of Lust. And these people were judged
by God and died on account of their lust, their desire. Now, what is lust? It's strong
desire. And, you know, if you want to
know what a man really is, what does he lust after? That's what
he really is. What does he crave? What does
he desire? And this story begins in verse
one of Numbers chapter 11. I think generally when we think
of the word lust, most people think of that in a sexual connotation. And that's included, but that's
not even one millionth of the story of what this means to lust
or to covet or to desire. What's the last of the Ten Commandments?
Thou shalt not covet. And really, covetousness is a
summary of breaking all Ten Commandments. Look in verse 1 of Numbers chapter
11. And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. And the
Lord heard, and His anger was kindled, and the fire of the
Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost
part of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses, and when Moses
prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. And he called the
name of the place Taborah, because the fire of the Lord burnt. among
them. Now, this story begins shortly
after they had departed from Egypt. As a matter of fact, the
40 years wandering did not take place, if you'll remember, until
Numbers chapter 14. That's when the spies brought
the evil report and they believed the spies. And that's when the
Lord said, you're going to stay here in the wilderness for 40
years. So this happened just shortly after they were delivered
from Egypt. They had not been out of Egypt
very long, and the bondage was not a distant memory. What a
miserable life they had experienced, and the Lord has brought them
out. And now they begin to complain. What that complaint was, we are
not informed, but any complaint was wrong, wasn't it? After all
the Lord had done for them, and it angered the Lord. And the
scripture says fire came out and burnt those on the uttermost
part of the camp. Verse 4, And the mixed multitude
that was among them fell a lusting. And this is what Paul is referring
to in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The mixed multitude that was
among them fell a lusting. They lusted a lust, a strong
desire. And the children of Israel also
wept again and said, who will give us flesh to eat? Now, who's this mixed multitude?
They're mentioned in Exodus chapter 12, verse 38, as leaving with
the children of Israel in the Exodus after the Passover. They
were not Israelites. They were Egyptians. They were
the offspring of mixed marriages between the Israelites and the
Egyptians, and they're called the mixed multitude, and they
represent something. They represent mixed principles. They represent the mixture of
law and grace. They represent the mixture of
truth and error. They represent the mixture of
the world with the gospel, a hybrid, something derived from different
sources, a mongrel, something compound, not something that's
pure, but something that's mixed, different sources. Now, What
this is, this mixed multitude, this is the introduction of the
word and, and the taking away of the word
alone. That's what this mixed multitude
represents. The introduction of the word
and, and the taking away of the Word
alone. We believe Scriptures alone. Do we? We surely do. Not our confessions, not our
creeds, not our... Scriptures alone. Here's where there's trouble.
Scriptures and. Oh, we believe the Bible is the
Word of God and any introduction of the word and is a wrong introduction,
isn't it? We believe Christ alone as my
only ground of acceptance before God, only who He is and what
He did. That's what makes me acceptable
before God. Christ alone. What happens when you get Christ
and? Got a mixed multitude, don't you? Christ and something I do
to make what He did work for me. We believe grace alone. Grace alone. Grace and is a denial
of grace in the first place. Grace alone. Where we really
get in trouble is grace and. We believe in faith alone. Faith
in Christ alone. We get in trouble when it's faith
and something else. God's glory alone is the only
acceptable motive. All other motives are wrong motives.
Where we get in trouble is when it's the glory of God and we'll
say the good of men and love their souls and so on. But what
we end up doing is we end up prostituting the gospel when
we say things like that. It's the glory of God alone. Now, the mixed multitude is the
tares among the wheat. It's the influence of unbelievers
on believers. The mixed multitude fell a lusting,
a strong desire, and the children of Israel were affected by it.
And don't think that you will not be affected by unbelievers. If you make unbelievers your
friend, they will always bring you down. every time, they will
always bring you away from Christ. The mixed multitude fell a-lusting,
and look what happened to the children of Israel as a result.
Verse 4, the mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting,
and children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give
us flesh to eat? We're tired of manna. We want flesh. We want meat. We want steak. We want chicken. We want fish. We're tired of
manna. The children of Israel were affected
by the mixed multitude. Now that manna you know is Christ. He said, I am the bread that
came down from heaven. The manna is the gospel. And
through the influence of the mixed multitude, the children
of Israel grew tired of the gospel. There was nothing but manna before
their eyes. They said, all we have is this
manna. Is that a bad thing? If all you had to eat was manna,
is that a bad thing? If all you have is Christ, is
that a bad thing? But their souls had been corrupted.
from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus through the influence
of the mixed multitude. Let's go on reading in verse
5. They say, We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt
freely, and the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and
the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There's nothing at all besides
this manna before our eyes. Now, their memory. of Egypt. Where did they come up with this?
They're saying in Egypt we had it made. We had leaves and onions. Everything was great. Everything
was wonderful. Now wait a minute. They were
in bitter, hard bondage, mistreated. There wasn't anything good about
their life. And yet when they talk about this, they said we
had it made. Really? Their memory was not
real. They had miserable lives. They
said our souls are dried up by this man. Hold your finger there
in numbers and turn to Psalm 106. There's two references to
this in the Psalms. Verse 14. They lusted exceedingly in the
wilderness and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them
their request. He gave them what they wanted,
but He sent leanness unto their soul. When we become lean, the
gospel no longer rings our bell. It becomes dull. and uninteresting,
the same old, same old, same stuff over and over and over
again. It's not stimulating, and instead
of rejoicing, it seems to be dry. Oh, the preacher's dried
up. He's dried up. He's not giving
us anything to interest us. It becomes old and stale. And look what they say. They
say in verse six, our soul is dried away. There's nothing at
all beside this manna before our eyes. Now, this way of thinking
is based upon a lie when they say, for there's nothing but
manna before our eyes. For one thing, manna ought to
be enough. Isn't that so? Manna ought to be enough. But
look back with me to Exodus chapter 16. beginning in verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel, speaking
to them, saying, And even you shall eat flesh, and in the morning
you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am
the Lord your God. And it came to pass that even the quails
came up and covered the camp. And in the morning the dew lay
round about the host. They got the manna in the morning
and they got flesh at night. Now, were they getting off on
saying, oh, we have manna? That's not true. Their objection
Their lust was based upon something that was absolutely not true.
Now you think, how could they make a mistake like that? I mean,
if the flesh came there every night, the quails dropped on
the ground, how in the world could they say there's no quail,
there's no flesh? How did they make a mistake like
that? Well, it's the same way you and I would. Same way you
and I would. Here's what I thought about.
Would you turn with me to Mark, the book of Mark, chapter 6. Mark chapter 6, verse 42. This is after the miraculous
feeding of the five thousand, and they did all eat and were
filled. And they, the twelve disciples,
took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fishes.
And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand
men. Now, can you imagine What the disciples were thinking after
seeing this miraculous food being created, 5,000 people being fed. You reckon they'd remember that?
Now, let me take you to an event just a few days later. And these are the disciples we're
talking about. We're talking about the 12. Look at Mark, Chapter
8. And in those days, verse one,
the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus
called his disciples unto him and saith unto them, I have compassion
on the multitude because they've now been with me for three days
and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away fasting
to their own houses, they'll faint by the way, for divers
of them came from afar. And his disciples answered him,
from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in
the wilderness? What happened? The same thing
that happens to you and I every time we don't believe the gospel,
every time we are plagued with unbelief. In there, just a couple
of days later, from whence can a man come up with this? Well,
back to our text, Numbers 11. And the manna, verse 7. And the
manna was as a corander seed, and the color thereof as the
color of Bdellium. And the people went about, and
they gathered it, and they ground it in mills, or they beat it
in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it. They
did everything they could to try to get a little variety.
You know, variety is the spice of life. I don't want to eat the
same thing all the time. They did everything they could
to make it taste different, taste better, or taste different. It
wasn't enough, but look what the scripture says about this
manna. It still had the taste of fresh oil. It tasted good. And it didn't really need all
these things that they were trying to do. Verse nine, and when the
dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.
Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every
man in the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled greatly. And Moses also was displeased. And Moses said
unto the Lord, Now Moses is affected by this. There's nothing commendable
about what Moses is saying here. He says, Wherefore hast thou
afflicted thy servant? And wherefore have I not found
favor in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this
people upon me? He complains to the Lord. Now,
if the Lord gives you a burden, and he does, If the Lord gives
you a burden, he always gives you the grace to bear up under
that burden. Did Moses have any right to say what he was saying
at all? Moses was wrong. He was affected by the complaining
and the murmuring and the mixed multitude. Look what he says
in verse 12. Have I conceived all these people?
Have I begotten them that thou should say unto me, carry them
in thy bosom as a nursing father, bear the sucking child into the
land which thou swearest unto their fathers? Wherefore should
I have flesh to give all this people? For they weep unto me,
saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. I am not able to bear
all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if
thou deal'st thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand,
if I found favour in thy sight, lest I see, so I won't see my
wretchedness." Now, where is Moses coming up with this? What
made him think that the Lord was expecting him to provide
for these people? He saw the man falling down and
the quail falling every night, just like everybody else did.
Why would Moses think the burden of these people was upon him?
Once again, this was self-righteousness. He said, just kill me. Don't
let me see my wretchedness. You ever been there? Sure you
have. Sure you have. Verse 16. And the Lord said unto Moses,
gather unto me 70 men. of the elders of Israel, whom
thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over
them, and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation,
that they may stand there with thee. And I'll come down, and
I'll talk with thee there, and I will take of the Spirit which
is upon thee." Now, was the Spirit upon Moses that was on Moses
enough to give him the grace to bear whatever the Lord gave
him to do? Of course it was. But what does
the Lord do when Moses complains like this? He loses an honor
he would have had. He takes away the spirit that
he had and just gives it to these other people. That's where this
ended up. Look, take of the spirit which
is upon thee, and I'll put it upon them, and they shall bear
the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself
alone. You know, the Lord will give
you what you ask for. That's a scary thought sometimes, isn't
it? You know, with regard to what you ask for, ask the Lord
to give you what you need. I'm afraid to ask him to give
me what I want, because that might be the worst thing for
me. Ask him to give you what you need. And say, verse 18, saying to
the people, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow and you shall
eat flesh. They ask for flesh. OK, you're
going to get it. For you have wept in the ears
of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it
was well with us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give
you flesh, and you shall eat. You shall not eat one day, nor
two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, but
even a whole month, until it come out of your nostrils, and
it be loathsome unto you, because you despise the Lord which is
among you. And if you wept before Him, saying,
Why came we forth out of Egypt? And the Lord tells him what he
was going to do. Lusting. We want less. Now, wait a minute. May God give me grace to say
what needs to be said at this time to myself and to you. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. And be content with such things
as you have." Hebrews 13, 5. For He has said, I'll never leave
thee, nor forsake thee. I want to ask you a question.
In Colossians chapter 3, verse 11, we read, Christ is all. Now here's a question I want
to ask you. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is all to God? Yeah, I love that hymn, that
special that was sung this morning, All to God He Surrendered. He surrendered all. I looked
at that hymn and I thought, what? We'll never sing. I surrender.
What have you given? He is all. Do you believe that? Do you believe He's all to God?
Do you believe that He's all you need to make you perfect
before God? Do you believe that? Do you believe He's all you need
to satisfy you? Do you really believe that? What is there to covet? If you've got all, there's nothing
left to covet, is there? If you really believe that, if
you believe you're complete in Him and you have all in Him,
there is nothing to covet. Right now, I really believe that. I've got all things. There's
nothing else I need. I'm perfect in Christ Jesus.
I'm so satisfied with that. There's got to be more. No, there's not any more. This
is everything. This is everything. I believe
this. I'm perfectly satisfied to be saved by Christ. Christ
Jesus is all. He's all of God. He's all of
the scriptures. He's all of me. What is there to covet? What
is there to be dissatisfied with? What this lusting is about is
lusting for something other than Christ. Desiring something other
than Christ. If you really believe He's all,
if you really believe that, you'll be satisfied with Him. Let's go on reading. Verse 21. And Moses said, The
people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen, and
thou has said, I'll give them flesh that they may eat a whole
month. Shall the flocks of the herd be slain for them to suffice
them, or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together
for them to suffice them and satisfy them? And the Lord said
unto Moses. Is the Lord's hand whack short? What a question. Is the Lord's hand wiped short?
Is anything too hard for the Lord? With God, the Scripture
says, nothing shall be impossible. Listen to this. Is it too hard for God to make
you completely satisfied with Christ? No, not at all. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Thou shalt see now whether my
word shall come to pass unto thee or not. And Moses, verse
24, went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered
the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round
about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud,
and spake unto them, and took of the Spirit that was upon him,
and gave it unto the seventy elders." You see, nothing was
gained, it was just distributed in a different way. And it came
to pass that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied
and did not cease. But there remained two of the
men in the camp that came, the one Eldad, the other Medad, and
the Spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were
written, but went not out into the tabernacle, and they prophesied
in the camp. And there ran a young man and told Moses and said,
Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua, the son
of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of the young men answered
and said, My Lord, Moses forbid them. And Moses said unto them,
Envious thou? for my sake. Would to God that
all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his
Spirit upon them. And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the
elders of Israel. And they went forth, and there went forth a
wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, And let them fall by the camp,
as it were, a day's journey on this side, and as it were, a
day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as
it were, two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the
people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the
next day, and they gathered the quails, and he that gathered
least gathered ten omers, and they spread them abroad for themselves
round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between
their teeth, oh, it tasted so good we finally got us meat,
ere it was chewed. The wrath of the Lord was kindled
against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very
great plague, and he called the name of that place, Kibroth-Hat-Teh-Avoth,
because there they buried the people that lusted. And the people
journeyed from Kibroth-Heh-Teh-Avoth unto Hezeroth, and abode at Hezeroth."
Graves of Lust. Now, Paul said, Any man that thinks he stands, take heed. Be aware. Take heed lest you
fall. And the first example he gives
is the children of Israel lusting. Lusting for meat. Now, remember
the desires you have that cause you to be anything other than
completely satisfied with Christ. They're all based on a lie. That
meat was there. Those desires you have. And you
have them. Listen, I have them. I mean,
we're always tempted to look somewhere other than Christ.
Those desires you have are all based on a lie. Secondly, in Christ, you have
all. What is there to desire? If you have all, There's nothing
to desire. David put it this way. He said,
One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his
temple. Now, if David said, I just want
to hang out in the temple all day long, and I want to just
stay there and not get out and get exposed to the world, that's
not what he's saying. Who's the house of the Lord?
Christ Jesus Himself is the house of the Lord. And I want to simply
abide in Him. And in Him, I find such satisfaction,
such rest, such joy. There's nothing else to lust
after. Now, I don't want to fall away
from Christ. Do you? I do not want to fall away. Lord, give
me grace to see the world for what it is. And when I see the
world for what it is, it will only be by seeing Christ for
who He is. When I see that He is all, I
see the world for what it is. One last scripture, would you
turn with me to Galatians chapter 6? Paul says in verse 12, as many
as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. And isn't that
what man's religion's all about? A fair show in the flesh. He said, they constrain you to
be circumcised. They tell you, you need to do
this. Yes, you're saved by grace, but you need to do this also.
He's talking about the law. But the only reason they do that
is lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law. But
they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.
Look what an influence I've had over them. I've influenced them
for good. Oh, I feel good about myself. Look what Paul says. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. the complete
salvation that I have in Him, by whom the world is crucified
unto me. In light of the gospel, I see
this world in all of its pomp and circumstance, I see it as
nothing more than vanity. You see that? I do. I'm not impressed with this world.
I'm impressed with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm impressed with
the gospel. And you know, I'm impressed with
people who believe on Him. You want me to tell you what
kind of person I'm really impressed with? Is it somebody with a lot
of money? Is it somebody highfalutin? Not at all. I'm impressed with
somebody who actually trusts the Lord Jesus Christ as all
in their salvation. That's who I'm impressed with.
I'm impressed with somebody who loves Jesus Christ. I'm impressed
with somebody who delights in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm impressed with somebody who really believes salvation by
grace. I'm impressed with somebody who believes the Bible is the
Word of God. I'm impressed. And I know that it's only the
grace of God that caused them to be that way. But that's the
person I'm impressed with. The world I'm not impressed. It's the world that hates the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul said in light of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I glory only in the cross of
Christ. By which the world is a crucified
thing to me, and I'm also a crucified thing in the world. You want
me to tell you who the world will not be impressed with? A
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody who actually loves Christ
and believes on Him. Well, may God give us grace to truly
find our satisfaction, our self-image, our everything
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I take the miracle of God's grace
to do that, but that's what I desire for myself and that's what I
desire for you. Let's pray together.