Transcription
[Music] The Lord be with you.
I know it's been a couple of weeks, but uh if you would turn with me, we are going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, continuing our series, and we're going to be looking at verses 1 to 22 this morning. 1 Corinthians chap 10:es 1-22.
And since chapter 8, if you remember, Paul has really been continuing a specific thought addressing a question that the Corinthian Christians have been asking him, writing to him about. And what they were asking initially was this question about how Christians are to um exercise their freedom and also how are they to relate to culture. So the the issue with this church is that they are allowing culture to infiltrate their body and it's causing a a whole list of problems. And so they want to know specifically about this question about meat sacrificed to idols. That is there are these pagan temples and many pagan citizens that they are neighbors with and they're wanting to know is it sin for them to partake of this meat if it has been sacrificed to a false god.
And so Paul has been taking time to explain that Christians truly are free and that we are free and have liberty to partake and eat of these things and that all food is clean to us. However, though we have certain freedoms, certain rights, there are times in which we as Christians must limit our liberty for the sake of love and that we should always make sure that we are considering our brothers and our sisters in the way that we exercise our freedom so that we never abuse our rights in Christ. And so Paul has been giving us ways and examples to see how we can do that. And and we actually see how Paul was saying that he has become all things to all men. That he will humbly take the place of a servant for the sake of the gospel's advancement. And so he wants to make sure that he is not using his rights to just boast in his freedom, but rather his freedom is meant to be used for the betterment of others. So he uses his freedom to become a slave.
And then last time a couple of weeks ago, if you remember, Paul then explains that as he's doing this, this is going to require discipline in our lives. As we walk and run the Christian race, we have to understand that it's not a sprint, but it's a marathon. And that there are going to be many obstacles, many challenges along the way. And we need to make sure that we keep our eyes focused on the crown, on the eternal prize, and don't get so caught up with the temporal things, the cultural things of the day, and that we make sure that we are thinking about eternity. And so, he's calling them to discipline so that they might persevere in their Christian life.
Well, now in chapter 10, what we're going to see is that Paul continues this thought about how we are to think about our freedoms and how we aren't to abuse them and how we we have these blessings in Christ. But we also need to make sure that we see that there truly are these these stumbling areas, these warning passages in scripture that if we do not hear his word saying stay disciplined, then we really could see dire consequences in our own personal lives. And so the thought this morning is that as we've been thinking through this letter about God's blessings, about the gospel, we are reminded that gospel or rather that God's blessings are real, but so are his warnings. We have to take both of these things with equal weight.
When we think about the goodness of God, when we think about his grace, his mercy, the blessings that he offers the church, these things are real. They are tangible. They are powerful. They will shape the way that you live your life. But we also must recognize that our God also gives us clear warnings that we must take heed of and that we must be careful to obey. And so the first thing that I want to draw from the text this morning is that I think Paul reminds us that proximity does not guarantee intimacy. Proximity does not guarantee intimacy. Or maybe another way to think of that is that you can have spiritual privilege, but that does not guarantee that you will persevere. So privilege does not guarantee perseverance or proximity. That is nearness to God in the things the workings that he is doing does not guarantee that you are drawing closer to him. That are you are knowing him and encountering him in a relational way. So being near the things of God isn't the same thing as loving God. And I think of Matthew 15:8 where Jesus says, "These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." So these are religious leaders that Jesus is specifically talking about here. How they know the theology, they know the word of God, they're saying these things and preaching these things, they're praying, but they are far from God.
And so, likewise, Paul is warning now these Corinthian Christians. And what he's going to do is he's going to start showing these warnings from the wilderness using Israel as an example to explain that though they're in the church, though they have all of these these blessings, these these privileges that they are they are in the proximity of God in his presence, that if they don't truly hear these warnings that they might not actually get to experience him and enter in to his presence.
And I think it's interesting. I was uh on vacation this past week, and I know many of you knew I was gone this past Sunday. And one thing I like to do with our group is typically on the Sunday of the vacation week that we're on, we like to still go to church. And so I typically like to try to look and see what are the local churches in the area. And then we'll go and and attend one of those services. And it's, you know, it's just so cool to worship with other brothers and sisters that are all around um the nation. And so this Sunday particular, me and Russ actually went to two different services. We went to an earlier service at one church and then we took the the the other the bigger group to a later service to a church that I had actually been to um the year previous. Um, and so we went to go to these churches and I just remember at one point I had talked to Russ and I was asking him, you know, what percentage do you think of people who are on vacation go to church while they're on vacation? And and Russ was pretty pessimistic. He didn't think the the percentage was looking too good. And I'm not sure if I disagree with him. Um, I'm sure there's many people that they think that, you know, they're they're on vacation and that means they're on vacation from maybe church attendance. I I don't know exactly what the philosophy is there. Now, of course, there are exceptions and there's not always a church nearby or something, but it was just a good question to think about.
And then as I thought about it more, we were in a a highly touristy area where a lot of people like to come to the beach, right? And I also noticed that there were just a ton of churches around. Like almost everywhere we went, there was this really nice, beautiful building. And there was a lot of people going to these different churches that we just saw as we were driving around throughout the week. But there was a whole lot more people than there were churches. No matter how many churches, there was a ton there, but there were so many more people that were not going to these churches. Now, they were near the churches. They were right there. Many of them probably drove by these churches without even thinking about it while they were on vacation. But I think this is a helpful way to think about it is that you can be right there. God can be all around you. The church can be right there. You can literally pass it by. You can circle around. You might even use this parking lot. But the thing is, if you don't truly enter in, you're missing out on the whole point. See, proximity being near it isn't the same thing as actually entering in.
And so Paul then he actually uses Israel as this very example because they while they were in the wilderness as they have been saved from Egyptian bondage and now they are in the wilderness going toward the promised land we see that they experience God's power but they failed to enter his presence continuously. They were looking at the miracles. They were looking at the blessings, but they failed to truly pursue the one who was giving them these blessings. And so Paul, what he does in the first several verses is he he lists these blessings that Israel experiences. So if you just look in verse one, it says, "Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud." See, what this is describing is how God was blessing Israel by guiding them in the wilderness. This is referring to the the pillar of cloud, this cloud that would that would manifest and they would know that God's presence was right there. He was with them and he was going to guide them to the promised land. And they literally had that real tangible evidence of God's presence. And then as you move forward to the second part of it, it then also says that they pass through the sea. This is most likely referring to when Moses parts the Red Sea and they literally pass through the sea. They see another miracle. They not only do they see God's presence, they also saw a miracle where the waters were parted and they are walking on dry land as they are fleeing the enemy. And then it says in verse two that they were also baptized into Moses. And so we see a baptism here, an identification with Moses as their mediator, as this this covenant head for um this new people that is now freed from slavery. And then it says in verse three that they ate the same spiritual food, most likely referring to the mana, the bread that came down from heaven to feed them while they were in the wilderness. And then finally in verse four, they also were given um to drink of a spiritual drink. Now, what this is most likely referring to is this water that came from the rock that that Moses struck the rock and the water came out and so they were able to drink of water. And so, we see all of these different blessings that Israel was exposed to in the wilderness. They saw God guiding them. They um they they saw a miracle where they were delivered through water. They were baptized. They were given a leader that they could identify with and hear his voice. They were given food and drink to nourish them. All of these things were meant to draw them closer to God, that they would see that God loves them, that God is with them, that he wants to have intimacy with them.
But though they were close, they were near, they saw these things, the blessings were there. We also then see on the second half of these verses, we see their failures. How though they had the blessing, they had the privilege, they weren't persevering. They were not taking advantage of that relationship that they had with the Lord. And so if you look in verse 5, then it says, "But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." Do you hear how severe and kind of frightening that is? God literally is giving them all of this blessing. But then it says, "But God wasn't pleased with most of them. And God scattered their bodies in the wilderness because they didn't take advantage of the blessings. They didn't seek intimacy. They didn't pursue the Lord above all else. They were so fixated on the the the blessings, the privileges. They suffered unbelief. They struggled with truly trusting and pursuing. And because of that, it led to many people dying in the wilderness.
Likewise, in verse 7, you see the issue and failure of idolatry. And it says, "And do not uh become idoltors as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." Most likely an illusion to where they had the golden calf where we see Moses is up getting receiving the law and now Israel is like what are we going to do during this time? Let's eat, let's drink, and let's play. And so they start to embrace idolatry. Another issue with their failure. We see sexual immorality in verse 8. Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did. and in one day 23,000 fell. So now we see connected with their idolatry, we see sexual immorality, which by the way, a lot of times these two sins go right hand in hand together. You'll see one leading to the other. But what we see here is that it says that 23,000 Israelites who got to see all of these other things, these blessings, they were all slaughtered because of their sin. Because of their sexual immorality.
In verse 9, we see that they tested God. Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. So this is where they are they were demanding water. And what happens? They start getting serpents that start biting them and killing them, poisoning them. So we see testing God. And then finally in verse 10, another failure. Their grumbling nor complain as some of them were also comp some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. So these are them complaining about Moses and Aaron their leadership about God as their leader and it says that the destroyer comes and destroys them. What's even more disheartening, discouraging about that is that the same word for this character, the destroyer, is the one that delivered them from Egypt. Whenever you see the Passover and there's the destroyer that comes, he's the one that saves them and delivers them out of Egypt. And now it's the same destroyer, it seems in the text, that now comes and turns on them and destroys them because of their unbelief, because of their idolatry, because of their immorality, because of them testing, tempting God, and because of their grumbling and complaining.
See, these are severe failures. And I think we need to take these these failures and these this warning seriously. And I I think it's even more profound because not only do we see this happening to a lot of no-name Israelites, but even Moses was disqualified from entering the promised land. Don't forget that. Don't forget that the head of the covenant of the Old Testament, the one who mediated for the people of God, who led them out of Egypt, he does not enter the promised land because he disqualified himself. Once again, what does he do? He screams at the people and rather than speaking to the rock that God says, "Speak to the rock and water will come," he strikes the rock. And not only does he strike it once, but he strikes it twice out of anger. And then we see Moses is disqualified. So Moses can find himself disqualified in this race. He does not enter the promised land. And it says in Numbers 20:12, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron because you did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them." See, Moses, Aaron, they don't get to go into the promised land. The generation that was there going through the wilderness, they died in the wilderness. And I just think it's so serious that we see that these people who had these blessings, they they had all of this light, all of this revelation, but they still didn't enter in. They still missed out on the most important thing that he was leading them to.
And so what are we to do with Israel? Well, we are to use them as examples for us. Just notice and if you ever make notes or or or anything in your Bible, just look at verse 6 and verse 11 and just highlight the phrase examples there. It says, "Now these things become our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted." In verse 11, now all these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. See, he's saying that I have given you these things. God is showing us, reminding us these stories that there's this blessing and failure and punishment, judgment that comes and these are examples for us to avoid, not examples or excuses for us to repeat. That's so important that we see that because he's making this connection between Israel and the church. And what he's showing us here is that we as the church have experienced similar blessings that Israel has.
And so just thinking about that list again of what are the things that they were guided by the cloud. We're guided by the Holy Spirit. We have guidance. We have the spirit with us. We were delivered. They were delivered from Egyptian bondage through the sea. We've been delivered from sin and Satan and death. We have that deliverance. We have salvation that has been given to us. They were baptized into Moses. We have been baptized into Christ. He is our Lord. He is our savior. That is who we identify with when we go into the water. We are proclaiming Christ as our Lord. We have been fed spiritual food. It was read this morning how Jesus is the bread of life. He has given us himself. We likewise, we have been given a spiritual drink. Jesus says to the woman at the well that I will give you living water. And likewise, I think as we look down in this passage, he also is alluding to communion here. So we actually see baptism into Moses, baptism into Christ. You see, eating and drinking, we just parttook of the Lord's table where we feast on Christ. We partake of that spiritual food and spiritual drink. And so I think that we see that the church in Israel are a lot closer than maybe we initially thought. And so just like we have these blessings, we have these privileges, we have proximity, we are coming to the table, we are at church, we're hearing his word being preached, we also likewise need to see how Israel failed time and time again and how there are real issues, concerns that the church must look out for. We also must be weary of unbelief, of idolatry, of sexual immorality, of testing God and grumbling or complaining with what's going on in our life. Because there are no substitutes for faith and obedience. Partaking of communion, singing a song, giving a certain amount of money to your church or to a nonprofit, to a missionary, those things are good, but if it doesn't come alongside of faith, obedience, discipline, perseverance, then it's not going to be enough. We must pursue Christ, a relationship with God. That is where we please the Lord. We must please the Lord with our faith and obedience because the God who judged the Israelites is the same God we worship. This God offers us immense blessings. He sent his son to die for us so that we could be saved, have eternal life, experience peace, joy that the world cannot know or understand. These blessings are so real, but so are these warnings. And we need to hear these warnings.
And so what is Paul specifically, I think, warning us is that idolatry isn't just out there somewhere in the ether. It's in here. Idolatry is not just something that the pagans wrestle with. We see that it was an ongoing issue with God's people in the old covenant with Israel. And we also see with the Corinthians that it was another issue for the church. Idolatry is not just a world issue. It can be a a human issue. And in fact, that's what Paul is saying in Romans 1:25. He says, "Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever." Amen. What Paul is saying is that we as human beings, we have this propensity, we have this this proclivity to want to worship or serve or exalt the creation over the creator. And so that's really what idolatry is. Idolatry simply is just putting something that has been created to a place that it does not belong when it comes to our life, when it comes to our thoughts, when it comes to our devotion.
Because what we see is that the Corinthian church, they were flirting with idols. They were going to these pagan temples. And once again, earlier we saw Paul said, "It's not sin to partake of meat sacrificed to idols. You want to make sure that you limit your liberty at times so you don't offend or cause a brother to stumble. But he's saying ultimately the meat is not sinful. But then what he also goes on to say here, but you need to also recognize that you shouldn't just go to pagan temples and hang out there. That you shouldn't just go and eat the meat sacrificed to idols as it's being partaken as a part of worship to a false god. And that's what some of the Corinthians were doing. They're like, "Not only am I free to eat this, I'm also free to go and partake of this the the pagan ceremonies when they're worshiping this false god. I'm going to go and go and eat the meat and celebrate the festival with them because I'm free in this way." And he's saying, "No, you are not free to do that." That actually is partaking, embracing a form of idolatry. And so these warnings to flee from idolatry must be felt by the church with full weight.
Look at verse 12 and 14. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Likewise, therefore, in 14, my beloved, flee from idolatry. If you're thinking, oh, idolatry, that's not really an issue for us as the church or I don't really have to worry about that. You need to hear these verses because it says you need to heed them or you will fall. Take heed lest you fall. If you think it's just an issue for other people, um, people outside of the church, no, this is an issue that the church must be aware of. We must be looking at. And if you're thinking, "I don't have any idols. I don't see anything possibly trying to rival Christ in my life," then you probably have them, and they're a lot more subtle than you think. And maybe they're taking over a lot more than you think. I'm not saying everyone here is worshiping idols, but you need to be constantly aware, denying yourself daily. And sometimes the self is the idol worshiping yourself, your own proclivities. But what he's saying is you have to be aware. You have to be tenacious, disciplined, constantly putting to death things that might seek to rival Christ.
And the thing is with idolatry and also what we see with Israel. Sometimes we think of idolatry as this. I don't want Jesus. I want this over here. But that's not really what idolatry is. Idolatry is really a form of adultery. And what is adultery? It's not that you are leaving your spouse necessarily and wanting to go to someone else. A lot of times, what is it? You want to keep your spouse, but you also want something else. And you want to kind of just try to balance these two things out. Because Israel, most of the time, they weren't just saying, "We don't want Yahweh anymore. We're not going to worship or make sacrifices that." No, they continued most of the time these sacrifices, these these worship services, but they also want Baal, but they also want a golden calf. We can worship Yahweh, but also we can start to seek other things. We also want comfort. We also want control. We also want pleasure. We want approval. We need this relationship to satisfy us. Whatever the thing is, there are so many things that will try to rival Christ, try to consume us, and try to make us worship, be addicted to these things. And once again, these are things that are in ordinary life. It's not always going to be a golden a calf that's going to be the thing you worship. A lot of times, it can be something just as small as something that'll fit in your pocket. And right now, I know there are so many people, if you walk down the street today, you will walk people that are addicted to their phones. There are people in here that are probably addicted to their smart devices. Look, if you have a smartphone after the service, how many pickups have you done today, this week? It literally will count how many times you've picked up the phone that you needed to grab it and use it and look at it. Social media, people are addicted. Comfort, entertainment, dopamine, we are addicted as a culture. I'm not saying every Christian is suffering from the same level, but we need to be aware of this. And this is a form of idolatry. And so, I know for myself, I saw this in my own life. And I don't even have any social media apps on my phone anymore. I've deleted every single social media app from my phone and I've blocked it to where I can't even get access to like a Facebook. Now, I still have it on my computer so I can do things for work and I can post encouraging messages. But for my day-to-day life, I don't have access to those things. And it is freeing to not regularly just anytime you have downtime, you're slow, you're bored, you need dopamine, you just go immediately to your smart device. You always need something to stimulate you. This is us not seeking satisfaction in the Lord. And so, we see that idolatry is a clear um issue for the church.
And so that's why Paul then says in verse 16 and verses 21 to 22 how you can't cling to Christ and flirt with demons. He uses this illustration explaining how they are partaking of communion. And we're actually going to talk about that more in this letter about partaking of the Lord's supper and coming to the table and how he's describing how we are partaking of literally Christ. He is with us. We are in the presence of Christ. We come to his table when we worship together. We just did that this morning. We worshiped came to the table of Christ. But how many other tables of demons are we going to throughout the week? Whatever idol you have, though an idol is nothing, there are demons behind those idols. There are demons who want the worship, who want to take the place of God. And they want you to be chained. They want you to cling to them. They want you to come to their table. And the thing is, you can't go to both tables at the same time. You have to pick a table. So, we see proximity does not guarantee intimacy and idolatry isn't just out there. We also need to recognize that it can be in here.
But here's the good news in verse 13 is that every temptation whether it's unbelief, idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God, grumbling, anxiety, addictions of all types, whatever you are wrestling with, whatever you are struggling with, any temptation, there is always the way of escape. It says, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." What we are told here is that though Israel, the church, we will struggle with these sins, with these temptations, the good news is that God never leaves us without hope or help in temptation. You may have been struggling with something for a long time. Maybe it's been an ongoing battle for you. Whatever these things, maybe one of the things I've listed this morning. But the good news of the gospel is that God never leaves you. God offers you hope and help in times of temptation and he will give you the way of escape. There is always an exit door available offered to you.
And one thing that sometimes people misread in that passage in 13 is thinking, "Oh, that means I can always just do it myself and that God's never going to give me a temptation that I can't overcome by myself." That's not the reading of the text. It's that with him, by his grace, you can overcome temptation. But if you're trying to do this in your own willpower, with your own strength, you're not going to succeed. You're not going to have victory over temptation. We need to seek intimacy with the Lord. Pursue Christ. He is the one who will offer us the way of escape. That's the thing. Jesus is our escape. He's not simply someone pointing you to the exit. He is the exit. You have to cling to Christ.
And that's why I just think it's so important that you see this in verse one and in verse four is that you see Christ all over this passage though. We're talking about Israel and how it's connecting to the church. It says that Christ was with them in the wilderness. Christ is the rock that was struck. By the way, that's why I think Moses, it was so serious that he struck it twice. I think it's illusion to the cross. Not only was was was he striking Christ once, but it was striking him twice, which is an insult to the atoning work of Christ. It's you're recrucifying Christ, which we know Hebrews warns about trying to recrucify the Savior. But we see Christ is the rock. He is the one who gave them that water in the wilderness. And likewise, I believe he's the cloud. He's the one who was guiding them in the wilderness. And so what this shows us is the one who will take you to the promised land, the one who will get you to the place where the kingdom is, where there is eternal life, there's these crowns, there's these rewards. It's by partaking and following Christ. And he is with you in your wilderness moments. He is with you in the temptation. And he will guide you out of it. But you must seek him.
And if you're that person like me and we know we fail. We know there are many times that we have the we have the way of the escape. We have the exit door, but we fail to use it. His faithfulness is greater than our failure. Israel messed up a ton. Moses messed up a ton. But there's still grace. He is still right there. How many times did they complain? And he still provides for them. Even when Moses strikes the rock out of anger, he was blessing them with water. And he is actually punishing Moses for punishing the people. They deserve punishment. But God was still merciful giving them that spiritual water. His faithfulness covers our failures. And that's why Christ is to be praised. Christ came to cover every single one of our sins. We are not living disciplined lives. We are not seeking to overcome and flee idolatry so that God would love us. We're doing it because he already does. We're doing it because Christ has already finished the work. We just need to live in that reality. And the way that we do that is we abide in his faithfulness. We abide in his provision. We rejoice in the privilege, in the blessings that he has given us. And we let these things draw us closer to him rather than to become complacent and comfortable in the blessing and never seek the disciplined life. And so Paul is showing us some really powerful things in this passage where he is saying that we need to make sure that we don't take advantage or presume on God's grace that we see and seek God and his intimacy in that relationship that we that we flee idolatry that we recognize that it can be a temptation even for us as believers and that we also know that no matter what our temptations are, no matter what we wrestle with, Christ is our escape. Seek Christ right now. If that is you, if you need a way of escape, pursue Christ. The whole church, pursue Christ above all else. More than your smartphone, more than your spouse, more than your kids, more than TV, more than food or drink, anything else. Pursue Christ above it. He is your rescue. He is the reward. And he is our reason for.