WWUTT 1553 These Things Happened as Examples (1 Corinthians 10:6-8)

The stories that we read about in the Old Testament serve as examples for us, that we would not go in their wicked ways, but we would follow instead in the righteousness of Christ, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in 1 Corinthians 10, reading the same section we've been looking at this week.

I'll read through the first 14 verses out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was

Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.

Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.

Nor let us act in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty -three thousand fell in one day.

Nor let us put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.

Nor grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but 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 provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. So we've looked at mostly these first five verses so far this week.

I'm going to come back to verse five. We're going to go through each one of these examples from the Old Testament that Paul provides, and then we're also going to do some modern application with this as well.

So in verse five, Paul says, nevertheless, with most of them,

God was not well pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness. Most of who? Well, the

Israelites, as Paul mentioned, our fathers, who were under the cloud, all passed through the sea.

The Israelites that were released from slavery in Egypt, they passed through the Red Sea. They ate the same spiritual food.

They drank the same spiritual drink. And as Paul is making reference to spiritual things here, this is not in reference to manna, which was physical food.

It's not in reference to water that came from the rock. That was literal water, or it was actual water.

So why call these things spiritual? Well, that's in reference to the word of God. We feed on God's word.

We are cleansed by that word. And though the Israelites received that spiritual food and drank that spiritual drink from the spiritual rock that followed them, who is

Christ Jesus, nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased.

They heard the word, but they were not changed by it. Some of them who came out of slavery in Egypt, their hearts were still in Egypt, and they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now, if you're reading this out of the Legacy Standard Bible, which I read to you from, or you're reading it from the

NASB, that statement, that last sentence there in verse 5 is capitalized, for they were struck down in the wilderness, meaning that it is an

Old Testament reference. The ESV doesn't list that as being quoted from the Old Testament.

Not sure if the NIV or the Christian Standard Bible do, but from the LSB, we know that that comes from the

Old Testament. Now, it could come from a couple of places. Psalm 106 is one of those psalms that recounts a number of those things that had happened to the

Israelites. It's a historical psalm. And so there's a reference in Psalm 106.

They despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise. They murmured in their tents and did not obey the voice of the

Lord. Here's verse 26. Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness.

They're struck down in the wilderness. So there's one reference there out of Psalm 106.

We also have this in Numbers 14, verse 29. Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

And of all your number listed in the census from 20 years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

I referenced that earlier in the week, that of the Israelites that came out of slavery in Egypt, only those who were 19 and younger got to receive the promised land.

The rest died in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb, who were up there in years. But of the rest of the

Israelites, no one entered the promised land over the age of 60, if you think about it.

So there were some that came into the promised land that remembered slavery in Egypt, about a half generation of people.

They remembered slavery. They remembered the plagues. They remembered the Red Sea parting. They remembered the things that God did for and even to the

Israelites, you know, when he had to curse them, when he had to afflict them because of their grumbling, while they were in the wilderness.

They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. That was one year for each day that the spies were spying out the land of Canaan, if you remember that story.

So they come back from Canaan, they give a report to the Israelites. Only Joshua and Caleb said, hey,

God has given them into our hands. The other 10 spies says, no, the people of this land, we could never defeat them. And the people listened to the 10 spies rather than Joshua and Caleb.

So because they grumbled against God, the Lord made them perish in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb and those who were of the age of 19 and younger.

And so then after 40 years of that, they grow up. The oldest of them is 59 and and they got to enter the promised land.

And then there was also a generation of Israelites that did not remember slavery. They remembered wandering in the desert, but they weren't enslaved in Egypt, nor did they remember passing through the

Red Sea or God speaking to them at Mount Sinai when he gave the Ten Commandments. So anyway, we have a few places in the

Old Testament where this reference could come from in verse five. They were struck down in the wilderness.

And then Paul gives specific examples, occasions where Israel rebelled against God and what the consequences were for their disobedience.

When we read these stories in the Old Testament, they serve as examples to us that there are consequences for sin.

Verse six, these things happened as examples for us so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.

Also consider the incredible manner in which some of those rebellious sinners would perish at Korah's rebellion.

The ground opens up beneath them and swallows them up at the Valley of Achan, Achan, who disobeyed

God and took the devoted things from Jericho. So this story is in Jericho chapter seven.

This is right after Jericho chapter seven. It's in Joshua chapter seven. This is right after Israel defeated

Jericho, which was an incredibly fortified city. But you know how this went. They marched around the city seven times.

The trumpet, the trumpet sounded, the people shouted, the walls came tumbling down.

They lit Jericho on fire and God told them not to take any of the plunder.

They were to devote everything to destruction except for Rahab and her household. Remember the whole thing of them hanging a scarlet cord from the window.

Her house was in the wall of Jericho. So the rest of Jericho came tumbling down except for Rahab and her household because she hid the spies when they came in to spy out the land.

She feared God and God showed favor to her and to her household. Well, after that victory at Jericho, they were going to fight against Ai, a much smaller city and army.

And so they didn't send as many troops and yet Israel was defeated there. And so Joshua falls down before the

Ark of God. He cries out before God. God tells him that there's somebody who disobeyed one person, one person disobeyed out of over a million people in Israel.

And because of this one man's disobedience, Israel would not be able to advance against their enemies until this matter was taken care of and the people of Israel would be holy before the

Lord. So they cast lots and eventually it settles on Achan and they go to Achan and they ask him, what is this thing that you've done?

And he admits, I took a little silver, I took a little gold, I took one of the cloaks and he and his family and all that he owned, animals, livestock, etc.,

they were brought out and stoned or destroyed by fire. I mean, it's an incredible consequence that we would look at and we would go, boy, that seems a little extreme.

I mean, even his family gets put to death because Achan had touched the devoted things.

But this is the consequence for sin. And it doesn't just affect you. It affects other people as well.

Achan represents the head of his household. And so the sin that he's committed has come upon his household as well.

When fathers neglect to guide their children in the ways of the Lord, the entire home suffers.

That's still the case now, applied in a very spiritual sense, though we're not dragging out families to the church parking lot and stoning them, of course.

But again, to see what the consequences are for sin, I mean, you go back to the

Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ate a fruit that God told them not to eat from or a tree.

They ate fruit from a tree that God told them not to eat from. And because of that, all of the world is in the state that it's in today.

Evil, chaos, rebellion, futility. Everything's falling apart, subject to corruption, decay, etc.

We get sick and die. We suffer. We grieve. We're tempted. There are evil people that come against us.

All of these things happening in the world because of one man's sin. And because of that sin,

God cursed creation and sent everything into upheaval. Sin against God results in the chaos of the universe.

The entire universe sent into chaos when those who were made in the image of God, who are made to praise and honor and glorify

God, when we do the opposite of that instead and we go our own way instead of worshiping the

Lord. When we see the extreme consequences for sin, it should remind us how serious sin is.

The reason why we sit here and we read those stories and we go, well, that's a little extreme. I think God went a little overboard with that one.

Wiping the whole world out in a flood except for eight people. Come on, God. That seems a little out there, right?

When we look at stories like that and that's our response, well, we're not thinking with the mind of God.

We're thinking with the mind of man. We're not considering this from the understanding that God is holy and we are not.

We're thinking too highly of ourselves and too little of God, trying to bring God down to man's reasoning when

Romans chapter 11 says that who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid.

Sin is so serious that it requires the son of God to die on our behalf, to atone for our sins.

The blood of bulls and goats were never enough to atone for sins as it says in the book of Hebrews. It took the

God man, Jesus Christ, putting on human flesh and dwelling among us, living a perfect life that he might become the perfect sacrifice and dying the death that we were supposed to die, being buried in a tomb, rising again from the grave and conquering death to show that God received the sacrifice that he laid down on our behalf.

Our sin is so serious, it takes the son of God in order to atone for it.

These things should cause us pause. We recognize how serious our sin is and that we're completely incapable of atoning for that ourselves.

Like you could not even shed your own blood to atone for that sin. Hell is a very serious place where people burn for eternity because they rebelled against God and loved unrighteousness instead of doing righteousness.

We see these things, these consequences for sin, even the examples that are given to us in the

Old Testament that we would not go their way so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved and thus go to destruction.

Fear the Lord, brothers and sisters. Don't mess around with sin and don't think that you are so great that you can even get close to it and not be burned by it.

You're playing with fire and may very well be risking your own eternity with some of the things that you would be tempted by, that you're trying to have in your flesh.

I can have a little bit of this, right? It's okay if I just do a little bit of this. As long as the rest of me is devoted to God, you're essentially saying to God that you're not enough.

I have to have this other thing in order to be satisfied. Same sin Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. They had literal paradise handed to them and were tempted by the serpent deciding this isn't enough.

I have to have this fruit that God told me not to eat. It wasn't enough that they had God to walk with in the cool of the day.

They needed this other thing too in order to be satisfied. That's how stupid we are. Sin just makes you stupid to think that God is not enough and so I have to have this other thing.

Don't believe yourself to be so above that that you cannot be tempted and fall because Paul gives these examples here of those who drank the spiritual drink.

They ate the spiritual food. They had Christ with them in the wilderness and yet God was not pleased with them and they were struck down while they were there not having the opportunity to receive the promised land.

There are so many people who have heard the gospel who've received the good things of God through his word even in the present day how readily available

Bibles are to us. You're listening to a podcast that's teaching you the Bible just as the Israelites heard the word of God in the wilderness and yet they fell.

There are many who hear the word of God today and they will fall. They don't heed the warnings.

They don't turn from their sin and walk in the righteousness of Christ. They think they're going to be okay but they will stand before God on that day to hear

Jesus say depart from me you worker of iniquity. I never knew you. We need to heed these warnings that we would walk not in unrighteousness but in righteousness given to us by faith in Jesus Christ.

Now I've eaten up a lot more time than I was planning on. I'm obviously not going to get as far as I was hoping to today but let's look at some of these examples verse 7 do not be idolaters

Paul says as some of them were as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.

What's the first story that comes to your mind when you think about the

Israelites worshipping idols in the wilderness first story that comes to your mind is the golden calf at Mount Sinai, right?

Yeah, that's that's the that's the story God speaking to the people of Israel from Sinai the people of Israel can't stand it.

Whoa, this is terrifying. We can't do this Moses. Let's go back to the arrangement where you go talk to God and then you come tell us what he said.

So that's what Moses does. He goes up on the mountain for 40 days the people get tired of waiting for him and they ask

Aaron to do something for them. He asked for their gold. He makes them a golden calf and they worship that instead while they're out there in the wilderness.

This was the gold that they took from Egypt. They plundered the Egyptians and they received this gold from them and it's that gold that they use out in the wilderness that God had given to them by his

Providence. They use that gold instead to make a calf and it's announced to them behold your gods who led you out of slavery in Egypt.

This is in Exodus 32 and then in verse 6, it says they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings to this golden calf and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

There's the reference there Exodus 32 6 now coming up at the end of first Corinthians 10

Paul is going to say whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God verse 31.

So it's interesting that the first of these examples that he cites here are of the Israelites eating and drinking unto false gods.

The golden calf at the end of first Corinthians 10 Paul is going to say whether you eat or drink whatever you do don't do it unto false gods do it to the glory of God even regular daily tasks that we would do like eating and drinking even do these things unto the glory of God Paul also gave this illustration of eating spiritual food and drinking spiritual drink when you when you do these things even spiritually do it unto the glory of God.

Those are the bookends there of first Corinthians 10. We start with eating and drinking we finish with eating and drinking.

We do all of this unto the Lord not to ourselves not unto our flesh but unto

God. Let's do one more example here. I think I've got enough time just for that verse 8 nor let us act in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23 ,000 fell in one day while 23 ,000 gives us a clue as to exactly what story we're talking about here and that's in Numbers chapter 25.

And here we have idolatry happening as well. Numbers 25 beginning in verse 1 while Israel lived in Shittim the people begin to whore with the daughters of Moab.

These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

This is even before they enter the promised land and we see some of those stories in the book of Judges where they started worshiping the false gods.

Israel was doing that even while they were in the wilderness worshiping even Baal though they had not yet received the promised land.

The Lord said to Moses take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the

Lord in the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel and Moses said to the judges of Israel each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor their sexual immorality that's mentioned here right at the start of Numbers 25 whoring themselves with the daughters of Moab.

They're whoring themselves out with their false gods. Then we have this story also verses 6 through 8 and behold one of the people of Israel came and brought a

Midianite woman to his family in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting.

So the people are mourning over the sin that has already happened and those who had led astray were killed in their presence.

They're mourning over this and here comes this guy already sleeping with a pagan woman when

Phineas the son of Eliezer son of Aaron the priest saw it he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them the man of Israel and the woman through her belly thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped and how many died nevertheless those who died by the plague were about 23 ,000 exactly what we have here in verse 8 nor let us act in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23 ,000 fell in one day now remember the

Corinthians had a man who was sexually immoral in their midst right that's back in chapter 5 the

Corinthians were not doing anything about that they were tolerating his sin and not exercising discipline and putting the evil person out from their midst and because they were not doing this it was affecting the entire church body just as this man's sin in Israel was affecting all of Israel with a plague so it is also gangrenous when one person is allowed to sin in the body of Christ and that sin is not dealt with that we don't call that brother or sister to repentance and to walk in righteousness but if we left if we let that person continue in sin we are not loving them and we're not loving the body of Christ God demands holiness that holiness can only be attained by faith in Jesus Christ but if we have faith in Christ we should therefore demonstrate we have his righteousness by living in that righteousness and even holding one another to that righteousness out of love for God and for his church that we may all be presented before him spotless sanctified on that day that's as far as we're gonna get for today and we'll come back to this lesson in first Corinthians 10 next week thank you

Heavenly Father for these words and I pray that we would receive these just as Paul gave them to the

Corinthians as examples that we would not crave evil things as they also craved may our craving be for Christ and his holiness in Jesus name we pray amen you can find a complete list of videos books devotionals and other resources online at www .tt