Firey Serpants (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrock. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.

Verse-by-Verse Preaching Through 1 Corinthians 10

Well, if you're a visitor, we're very glad to have you. We preach through the Bible, verse by verse, and so let's take our Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 this morning as we're going through this great book, 1 Corinthians.

There should be a blue Bible in the chair back seat just in front of you. You'll need a Bible this morning, hence Bethlehem Bible Church. What a great morning so far of worship. I'm glad I'm able to remember the triune God as we come and worship in song and baptism and prayer.

The Fear of Snakes and the Warning of Judgment

What does this word mean? There's lots of phobias. What does aphidiophobia mean? Aphidiophobia, sometimes it is written ophiophobia. A more generic term would be herpetophobia, the fear of snakes. From the Greek words, ophis, snakes, and phobia, which you all know as fear.

An irrational fear of snakes is not a good thing. But some snakes you should be very, very afraid of, especially if they're sent by God to punish you. What? The visitors are here and after the kissing and then the snake biting, I want to say early on we don't handle snakes at this church.

Paul is a Jewish man and as he's talking to this church at a city called Corinth right by the ocean, close to Athens, he's trying to teach them lessons. He's trying to instruct them a way that they can honor Christ Jesus their Lord.

And the way he does it is a way we would do it. And that is you can imagine taking a child and say, you know, let me tell you a story about grandpa. This is what grandpa did and you should do what grandpa does.

Or let me tell you a story about that old uncle that you have and here's what this uncle does, don't do as he did. Or it could be of grandma or from an aunt. So Paul does the same thing. Paul has a Bible and that Bible is only what we call the Old Testament.

From Genesis to 2 Chronicles are in our Bibles up to Malachi. And so Paul says, let me tell you how to respond to Christ. Since God has blessed you, since we've learned about today, God has called you, God has justified you, God has foreknown you, God has predestined you, God has, will soon glorify you.

In light of what God has done, how do we act? And the Corinthians are kind of getting too big for their britches. And so they're saying, you know, we have freedom in Christ. We can't be more forgiven.

We can't be less forgiven. We can't be loved more by God. We can't be loved less by God. So we'll push the envelope. And some of the things that we used to do before we were saved, if we do them now, we're not going to lose our salvation.

And so they're saying, you know, this restriction of can't live the way you used to live, we don't really like it. And they begin to grumble. They begin to complain. They begin to say, you know what, you can just imagine some little kids having some kind of tantrum.

You ever seen a kid having a tantrum? I always like to do something about it. And by the way, don't be a pastor and then go to some public area like McDonald's or an airport terminal, because then I feel like I'm the pastor to all those kids.

But most of those parents don't want my advice. Paul wants to tell them, listen, you're pushing your liberties too far and you're acting like a little kid. Well, we used to be able to go to the idol festivals.

We used to be able to eat all this meat in the pagan cultic temples. We know it's not offered really to idols because there's no such thing as an idol. We want to kind of do what we used to do. And for us, the same thing could happen.

You get saved. You run from your old life. The more you grow, the more you realize, you know what, my old life had a lot of do's and don'ts. My new life in Christ has a hangover in do's and don'ts. You're a good Christian if you don't smoke.

You're a good Christian if you don't drink. You're a good smoker if you don't tattoo yourself. There's all these rules we have. And when you first get saved, lots of it just go, you know what, I just want to run from all that.

But as time goes on, you kind of temper back and you think, you know what, how does this really fit in? What do I do? How do I go about it? What is really allowable for the Christian? And instead of answering this question and asking it, how far can I stay away from sin?

Then the question sometimes for people who are too big for their britches says, how close can I get to sin? I'm already forgiven anyway. So Paul says, somebody was just like that and that somebody was a nation.

And Israel pushed themselves to the very brink of liberty and instead of God honoring them, he killed them all. Sin is that deadly. Sin is that costly. Why? Because it's against God. If you kill me, that's one thing.

If you kill the President of the United States, we're both human beings. But because of his position, because of his title, you will fry if you kill him. If you kill me, you'll probably just, you know, go to jail for 30 years.

Paul is going to teach us through the Israelites' bad example that we ought never to say, you know what? I kind of got an unfair deal when God saved me. God, this wife that you gave me, this husband you gave me, you know, these kids, that job, that church, those neighbors, God, I think you could have done better.

And after all these things that the Lord has done to Israel and for Israel, can you imagine? God, your divine guidance isn't great. I'm tired of the manna, I'm tired of the quail, I'm tired of all that.

And instead of being grateful, they were testing God and trying him, and God judged Israel. People are the same all around the world in every generation, and so if we're not careful, the same thing could happen to us.

The Wilderness Warning in 1 Corinthians 10:1-9

So let me read 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1 through 9, to set the context. And the context generally is, everybody in Israel got the blessings, but only some made it to the promised land. In other words, there were 2 million people in the wilderness, but only those 20 and under made it in.

Joshua and Caleb were the only two, because of their sins, and their sins that if we're not careful, we could commit as well. 1 Corinthians 10, 1, 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 in Moses in the cloud and sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.

Every one of those Israelites experienced every one of those blessings. They all drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, and here is a figure of speech, with most of them, yes, all but two, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things that happened to Israel took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. And then he gives four things that Israel did that we ought not to do, and we saw several weeks ago.

Number one, do not be idolaters, as some of them were, as it is written, that people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Number two, we saw last week, we must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23 ,000 fell in a single day, dead.

And now for our passage today, verse nine, there's another common reoccurring thing, that those blood-bought Christians at Corinth were pushing the envelope on, and it is testing God. Verse nine, we must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.

Testing God in the Wilderness of Numbers 21

So for you today, Christian, if you've ever been in a tough strait, and you've said, could God really be good? I mean, just how good is God by giving me this child with a certain sickness, with taking away my mother, taking away my grandfather, having this disaster happen, accident, God, you're strong enough, you're sovereign enough, you're mighty enough, you could have stopped it.

If you've ever thought, how can God be good, and let all these things go on in the world like He does, this is a good passage for you. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse nine, that's as far as we're gonna get, because it does refer to the Old Testament.

We're going to look at the horrible sin of complaining against God by testing Him, and by questioning Him, and by saying, you know what, God, you could have done better. True or false? The Israelites tested God a lot, a lot.

You just look at numbers, it looks, it's like the numbers of testing. At least 10 such occasions, the Israelites put the Lord to the test. And so Corinth is saying, we used to be able to eat idol meat at the idol festivals, with the idol celebration, and you know what, meat's meat, demons aren't real in the meat, idols are false, so you know what, why don't we just start going back to the pagan temples, and we'll sit in there, we'll eat the meat, but we won't really worship.

And Paul says, no, and then they say, yeah, but you're holding something out. It's like, it's like Satan, talking to Eve, saying, you know what, God really isn't very good, is He? He's holding out on you.

So Paul says, we must not, Paul puts himself in the category, do you see it in verse nine? Not you guys, but we must. Paul wouldn't want to do that either, must never put Christ to the test. Christ who is in the wilderness with the Israelites, they tested Christ, the eternal Son of God.

Oh, but we long for our days before we were saved. We long for those days where we could go do what we used to do. By the way, sin is fun, a lot of it is. Unbelieving lifestyles are fun, short term at least.

Remember, I was taught years ago, there's the divine layaway program. Remember, we used to have layaway at stores? They still have it at Marshall's, by the way, not that I personally know by experience.

Layaway, kids say, just charge it. Sin now, pay later is the divine layaway program. But if you've been a Christian for a while, I hope you say to yourself, there are things that I used to do as an unbeliever that I better not do now.

And if you're not thinking properly, you'll say, but they were kind of fun, kind of exciting. We had a lot of fun in those days. And you can hear the siren song beckoning, come back to the old life. After all, you're free in Christ, you're justified.

You cannot undo God's forgiveness, just go back to where you used to live a little bit. That's exactly what was happening at Corinth. What chapter of the Bible is Paul referencing when he says, some of them did this and were destroyed by serpents?

Where's that? Let's go there. Numbers 21. We're only going to get through one verse in 1 Corinthians, but we're going to do most of the chapter in Numbers 21. This is one of those passages that are like last week, Phinehas and the javelin.

Here it happens to be snakes. I hate snakes, you're probably saying. Just about two months ago, I was walking up through the orchard and I turned a corner and I heard this sound. And it was a cat. No, just kidding.

It was a snake hissing. And there's almost something built in, maybe it was because of Satan. Who knows why, but snakes and slithering and kind of, I don't know that many people who just love snakes. And here in this passage, God sends snakes to judge Israel because testing God, saying to God, I love my old pre-salvation days, I want to live those.

God, I think you could have gave me a better spouse and you gave me this spouse, you gave me this job, I live in this state, I go to this church. God, you could have done so much better. Now we're more sophisticated than to say it like that, aren't we?

We would never broach it that way. But the crumbling, the complaining, the grumbling, this kind of attitude, you're going to see how bad it is. And by the way, as I said last week, does God still kill Christians for doing these sins?

1 Corinthians chapter 11 reveals the answer. Now the book of Numbers is all about numbers, but it's more about the wilderness. That's really, that's the Jewish name for the book of Numbers, or close to it in the wilderness.

38, 39 years wandering around, anticipating the entrance into the promised land, God testing Israel and wanting from them, because of the covenant He had made with them, wholehearted obedience. God does for us, and our response is worship, adoration, homage, submission, gratitude.

Same thing with Israel, here's what God has done for Israel, temporally and spiritually, and God just wants wholehearted obedience, and they're going to wander in circles until they figure that out. Numbers chapter 21, it says, let me just read the first few verses to catch us up to what's happening.

When the Canaanite, the king of Arad who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. And Israel vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, if indeed, or if you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.

Common language for back in those days, something is committed to the ban or to the vow, and you just destroy it all, you just wipe it out, it's a cancer, and here's this Canaanite religion, and so if you give us victory God, we'll wipe them out, we'll kill them all.

And then I will devote their cities to destruction. Verse 3, and the Lord, Yahweh, this covenant-keeping personal name of God for Israel, heeded the voice of Israel, gave over the Canaanites, and so they devoted them and their cities to destruction, and Israel had gotten whipped at this place in battle in chapter 14, and now they win, and so the place was called Hormah.

Complete victory. And you know, this is gonna be good, we're getting close to getting into the promised land, we've just come off the heels of victory, and what happens to sports teams, and what happens to us, when we have a super high spiritually, take heed lest you, what, fall.

Because if you're not careful after a super spiritual high, you kinda coast a little bit, and then there's trouble, and that's exactly what's gonna happen here. A great victory, thorough success. So victory ahead must be certain.

Sadly, spiritual catastrophes often follow spiritual victories, and that's what happened here. Learn from Israel. Verse 4, from Mount Hor, they sent out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient on the way.

Sometime look in the 67th book of the Bible, called the book of maps. Look up that book, and see where they went. The other day I was driving back from Taunton, and there was a detour, and I had to go around, my GPS wasn't working, and I'm telling you, with a small detour in Taunton, I was getting kind of flustered.

I've got a car, I'm driving around, and I've got a GPS, and so I know what it's like to seem to wander around and have detours, and now God is telling them, no, don't go forward, circumvent yourself around this way, circuitously backtrack, and they're going to complain.

They're going to test God. So close to eating real food in the promised land. Getting tired. By the way, side note here, tiredness is no excuse for sin. You can't say, oh, I was too tired, I have a headache, I don't feel good, it's never an excuse for sin.

It's a reason why we do things, but it's never an excuse. They're so disappointed, the detour to the wilderness of Taunton, and the people spoke against God and against Moses. By the way, eight other times they spoke against Moses, they spoke against Moses, they spoke against Moses, they spoke against Moses, they spoke against Moses, they spoke against Moses, they spoke against Moses, they spoke against Moses.

And for the first time, it's revealed what's really in the heart. When you're complaining against leadership, you're really complaining against the God who gave you the leader. I don't like President Obama, someone says.

Well, at the end of the day, God voted, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, and He gave us a president. Here, we have God setting this all up, and instead of saying like every other time, Moses, it's your fault, the real colors come out.

It's Moses and God. You see it? The people spoke against God and Moses. Of course, the wilderness was no walk in the park. Of course, there was sand and horrible things going on there. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?

I've said some pretty stupid things to my mom growing up, and you can just, they come out of your mouth and you just go, that was the most stupid thing I've ever said. My six foot four, 250 pound father will soon meet me.

And here's what happens. When other people do something really stupid, we go, that was really stupid. When other people sin, we go, that's so sinful. When other people complain against God and test Him, that was so bad.

And so what Paul is trying to do is see what they did, Corinth, see what the Israelites do, and then you just turn the mirror and say, that's what we do. God, you could have prevented all these things.

You could have stopped it. You could have worked my life differently. Spoke against God and Moses. This is serious rebellion. This is high-handed rebellion, which all our testing of God is. Spurning the grace of God, slamming God.

And look what they say about God's food. Can you imagine God's food? For there is no food and no water. Really? And here it gets worse. And we loathe this worthless food. God, you gave us worthless food.

By the way, was it worthless food? It's only worthless if you saved up some of the food for the Sabbath and you didn't get twice as much as you needed the day before the Sabbath. But it was nutritious, vitamins and minerals and all the things that you were needing to sustain yourself, and now what do they call it?

This is worthless food. It's miserable. It's like Wonder Bread. It's like some fake bread that they just put in the smell of bread. You know what? Honestly, when I took college, when I went to college with all the drugs and alcohol and all that stuff, I don't really remember anything in college in terms of from the lecturer.

But I do remember at current economic issues with Bert Evans that he said, there's a conspiracy behind Wonder Bread. That's the only thing I remember. And I knew I could use it right here. And mark it in your life.

What does discouragement do? And what does complaining do? It begins to exaggerate, doesn't it? It begins to pick and to look for and to try to put a big magnifying glass in there. Yeah, this is so bad.

And it's like you try to one-up other people. You think you got it bad. You think your husband's bad. Look at my husband. And I just wrote down a few of these things and I thought, you know, compared to what we deserve, compared to how good God is, may we never be people who say, that worthless husband God you gave me, that miserable wife you gave me, that unbelieving spouse you gave me, those miserable children you gave me, this miserable house you gave me or didn't give me.

Do you know what, God? Life was better before I got saved. At least I could complain and nobody would get after me. What does sin do? Or how bad is sin that can take a gift received from God and then say, how could you?

Only one time in my life when I received socks from my grandmother in 1971 for Christmas and didn't look happy. Oh, I only did that one time before again that oath of a six-foot-four father. This worthless food you've given me.

Or maybe in your life it's this. If I only could have this, then I'd be happy. That's just the same, but it's the opposite. It's not this worthless woman you gave me. It's, you know what, but if I had this in my life, I'd be happy.

If I had this amount of money or I had this kind of job or I had this particular thing, then I would be happy. And God is sovereign over everything. And when we talk that way, we're indicting God. Israel sounds just like Corinth.

And if we're not careful, it could sound just like us. So what does God do? You know what God does sometimes? He says, well, you know what, Moses, I'm going to do something bad unless you intervene. Moses, you better do something about it.

Grab Aaron, grab the other leaders, you better get something done. And often God does that when you read the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. But you know what, this time God doesn't do that at all.

God said to the snakes, kill them. I often say to myself, why would God kill Uzzah for touching the ark? How could God kill Nadab and Abihu for worshiping with strange fire? How could God kill these people?

When the real question is not how could God kill those people, is how could God not start killing all of us? There's punctuated deaths in the Bible to show you how bad sin is, but it's the mercy of God that there's not more.

Fiery Serpents and the Mercy of God

Verse 6, then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. We don't know if he energized snakes that were already there or just made new ones. And they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.

Supernaturally sent by God, divinely sent by God. And you know what, really at the end of the day, think about how good God is. Think about how good God is because what if he just let it go? Complaining and testing just keeps going and going and feeds on itself.

It's just like pouring kerosene on the fire of the heart that will not be satisfied with the sovereign grace of God.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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