FBC Morning Light – March 31, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Thursday morning to you, and last day of the month of March, and we're also finishing up the first quarter of 2022.

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It's amazing how quickly these days go by, isn't it? I sound like an old man, don't I? Anyway, it is the last day of March, and looking forward to April and the showers that April brings because that brings the

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May flowers right behind it. Well, anyway, looking forward to this weekend, we start back on the spring and summertime schedule for the church, which means that instead of an afternoon service, we move to a six o 'clock evening service, and we do that from April through the month of November, and look forward to that service.

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It's a good way to round out the Lord's Day. We gather at six o 'clock, we sing some songs, we share some testimonies, and message from God's Word, and I'll be getting back to routinely being in the

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Gospel of Mark in that Sunday evening service. So, I hope you can join in on the services on the

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Lord's Day this week. Well, we're in 1 Corinthians chapters 9 and 10 today, and in chapter 9,

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Paul ends with a personal testimony of just sharing how diligently and importantly he feels that he needs to discipline his body and his life, so that later on, life doesn't become a castaway.

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So, he puts it at the end of verse 27, he says, I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection, lest when

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I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. That serves as a challenge and a warning to every preacher of the

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Word, and it's a sobering thing. I've seen too many cases, even in my years of ministry, where men get into middle age and older, and then they end up becoming disqualified, and it's a sobering thing.

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It is important for God's servants to be diligent about this matter of self -discipline.

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But having said that, it's not just for God's preachers and pastors.

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It's for all of God's people, and Paul makes that clear when he goes on into chapter 10, and he says,

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Moreover, brethren, I don't want you to be unaware that our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, they were all baptized into Moses.

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He's talking about Old Testament Israel. They all had this same experience of being led through the wilderness by Moses.

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They all ate the same spiritual food, manna, and they all drank the same spiritual drink, that water that flowed from the rock, which was symbolic of Christ, he says in verse 5.

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But, in verse 4, in verse 5 he says, But with most of them

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God was not well -pleased, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Why? Why wasn't he well -pleased?

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Because they didn't hear God's Word and apply it to themselves on a diligent daily basis.

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He goes on to talk about them, and the fact that they became examples to the intent that the way they behaved serves as an example to us, so that we don't lust after things as they did, after evil things as they also lusted, as he says in verse 6, and we don't become idolaters as some of them were, and we don't commit sexual immorality as some of them did, nor do we put

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Christ to the test as some of those put Christ to the test, and were destroyed by servants, nor do we complain as some of them complained and were destroyed.

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He goes on to say, All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

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So, when Paul says at the end of chapter 9, I keep my body under,

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I bring it under control, lest I become disqualified, he then applies it to everybody else.

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He says, Look, I'm not the only one that needs to be concerned about being an idolater.

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I'm not the only one that needs to be concerned about desiring lustfully after things that I have no right to desire and lust after.

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He's not the only one that needs to be concerned about maintaining sexual purity, and not putting

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Christ to the test as if Christ can't meet his needs, and not complaining about what

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God does give or doesn't give. He says, I'm not the only one that needs to be concerned about these things. The experience of the

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Old Testament Israelites in the wilderness, they serve as an example to all of us, to all of us, so that we don't fall into the same way of life and pattern of behavior that they fell into.

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Then he says in verse 12, Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.

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I've seen too many Christians, professing Christians, who think that they are above certain sins.

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I could never do that. I would never do that. They're very indignant about the sins that they would never commit, and yet they fall victim to other kinds of sins, spiritual pride being not the least of them, but also complaining and having a critical bitter spirit, and so on and so forth.

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But they've never committed sexual immorality, or they wouldn't bow down to some idol.

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No, when you think you're above sin, you better be careful, because you're going to fall right into it.

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But that leads him to verse 13, and he says, There's no temptation that has overtaken you, except such as is common to man.

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All those temptations to the things that even he wrote about, that the Israelites succumb to in the wilderness, those are common things to everybody.

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We're all tempted to some kind of idolatry. We're all tempted to complain.

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We're all tempted to put Christ to the test. We're all men, women, young and old, that face various kinds of sexual temptations, and so forth.

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These are just common things to human beings, to being a human being. But, he says,

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God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with a temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

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Therefore, he says in verse 14, flee from idolatry, flee from these things.

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That takes us back to his own personal commitment to keep his body under, bring his body into subjection, and not be subjected to the desires and the impulses of the body.

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These Old Testament Israelites, they serve as an example to us, they serve as a warning and a challenge to us to be alert to these various kinds of temptations that are still very real in 21st century

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New Testament Christians. Be alert to these temptations, and also be alert to the fact that with each one that comes up,

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God's made a way of escape. Look for it, take it, flee from the temptation.

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This is Paul's challenge. Our Father and our God, I pray today that you would deliver us from the pride that thinks we're above falling, because none of us is.

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Even Paul knew that he wasn't above it. Father, I pray, help us to be sensitive to our own weaknesses and our own propensity to sin.

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When we do sense that temptation, may we look for the way of escape that you provide.

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Father, help us to be diligent in following that way of escape. We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.

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Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your Thursday, and I hope the month of March goes out like a lamb for you.