Why Die in the Wilderness — Ian G. North

The Warning of 1 Corinthians 10

1st Corinthians chapter 10 the subject of this evening's message is why do Christians die in the wilderness? Now if you look at this particular passage, you'll find that chapter 10 Follows a passage where Paul in chapter 9 has been expressing a kind of fear that he has.

Well now you might say do you mean that there's a place for fear in the Christian life? Well, there is a holy kind of fear that I think a healthy kind of fear that Christians should have after all fear is one of the emotions that that God has placed within our Constitution and Properly used it is healthy and here Paul expresses that fear in the last verse of chapter 9 where he says I keep under my body and bring it into Disobjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a cast away a cast away That is set aside or disqualified from usefulness in God's work and That's a holy fear for any person and It's very real and it happens so much a Sunday school teacher Who goes on faithfully preparing the lesson and teaching the class and yet there never seems to be any real spiritual impact and none of the Sunday school class members are converted there's a lack of something there a Preacher perhaps who faithfully preaches Sunday after Sunday, but nothing happens and nobody is converted in that church.

Something missing a mother who knows of her obligation to teach her children to pray with them and does so and reads the Bible with them and yet Never sees any spiritual response in the children's life.

What's wrong something missing what has happened and I think that those of us who know the blessing of God and what it is to be used in some measure by God Should take to heart the message tonight. The text if you like is found in chapter 10 and verse 12.

Wherefore let him that think of he standeth take heed lest he fall. Now I'm going to read this chapter 10, which is the basis of the message tonight from the New International version. There are some difficult passages and phrases in this chapter in the King James Translation which I think are helped in our understanding by a modern accurate translation.

First Corinthians chapter 10. I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact brothers that our Forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

They all ate the same Spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them.

That's an understatement. If ever there was I think about two or three million of them came out of Egypt and only two of them Got into the promised land. God was not pleased with most of them. So their bodies were scattered over the desert.

Old Testament Examples Written as Warnings

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us From setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.

We should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23 ,000 of them died. We should not test the Lord as some of them did and were killed by snakes and. Do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel.

These things happened to them as Examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm be careful that you don't fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man and God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Therefore my dear friends Flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people judge for yourselves what I say is not the cup of Thanksgiving for which we give thanks a Participation in the blood of Christ and is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ.

Because there is one loaf we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one loaf. Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything?

No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, too. You cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons.

Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Everything is permissible. But not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

Now eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience for the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. If some Unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience.

But if anyone says to you This has been offered in sacrifice. Then do not eat it. Both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience sake the other man's conscience I mean not yours for why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience?

If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble whether Jews Greeks or the Church of God.

Even as I try to please everybody in every way for I am not Seeking my own good, but the good of many so that they may be saved. Why do most Christians? spend their whole life in a condition of Spiritual Unproductivity.

The Spiritual Wilderness and Unproductivity

I Think that's a fair estimate. Most Christians spend their lives stagnating in mediocrity and They literally die in the wilderness. They die in the wilderness. They never have entered into God's Canaan God's land of promise.

Why does it happen? Why do most Christians die in the wilderness? I Wonder if I am speaking to somebody who has been a Christian perhaps for many years and at some time in the past the promise of God burned clear and bright you entertained hopes of Growing up into the fullness of Christ and being used by God.

But so much time has passed in the wilderness that the early hopes and promises have grown dim. And it looks almost now as though things are irreversible and you're going to die in this wilderness. Why is it that so many do face that kind of experience?

Is this going to be your experience? You've been in the wilderness so long Sadly contented with a show of things. Are you going to go on in that condition? Are you going to die in that? Why does it happen?

I? Would say it need not happen and I Condition. Why does it happen? I? Would say it need not happen and I believe we shall see from this chapter that it need not happen. And if there's somebody here tonight in a spiritual wilderness.

Going round and round in circles not getting anywhere producing no fruit for God in your life or in others. I Trust that tonight God will show you the way out because God has never tested anybody Above what that person is able.

But God with that test will also make a way of escape and there's a way of escape for you tonight out of the wilderness. Into Canaan into the promised land and it can be yours. But I think first of all, it would be helpful to answer the question.

Why do Christians die in the wilderness. Turn with me then to 1st Corinthians chapter 10. Paul is very anxious to drive this lesson home to the hearts of the of the Readers and he does so by drawing upon an Old Testament illustration.

Now you see it says here and evidently Paul wants us to understand this very clearly in verse 6 that these things are our example and. Then you get it again in verse 11. All these things happened for examples and are written down for our admonition.

All of these things in the Old Testament. Paul's not talking about the New Testament. It was not written then parts of it were written. It was not collated as an entire Bible. He was referring to the Old Testament.

Which many Christians ignore and neglect to their great poverty. He's referring to the Old Testament and he says it was all written down for our instruction we who live at the culmination of the age ages and It's for us to learn from these experiences.

He draws the application and makes it even more personal to the Christians in the first few verses. Notice he says All our fathers were under the cloud verse 1 all passed through the sea all were baptized Unto Moses or into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat the same Spiritual meat or food did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that Spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ.

Very interesting use of words here by the Apostle Paul the word baptized for example obviously those people who read that word would immediately relate what he said to their own experience because they too had been baptized and What he is saying is that these Hebrew people who were delivered from slavery when they passed through the Red Sea.

It was typical of the baptism That we experience in Christ. Paul speaks of it in Romans chapter 6 where he says no He not that as many of you as were baptized into Christ. Baptized into Christ were baptized into his death.

That like as Christ was raised up From the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life. So baptism represents the Red Sea or the other way and is therefore the great divide between the old and the new between slavery and freedom between spiritual bondage and death and spiritual liberty and life and.

Wilderness Experience and the Call to Spiritual Maturity

So they were baptized unto Moses. They were separated from Pharaoh their old taskmasters and they now came under a new leadership Unto Moses and they went into the wilderness on their way through. It was never intended that the wilderness should be their permanent habitat and it is never intended that a Christian should live indefinitely in a wilderness experience.

Dear friends. You will have a wilderness. They had to go through it. There was no other way. They had to go through it and you will have to go through wilderness experiences. Many of the greatest saints of the church have gone through What they call the dark night of the soul and there is a sense very often of being utterly bereft and deserted by God.

Sometimes there is that sense of complete inner barrenness where you wonder is there a God at all and There's a wilderness but God never intends that his children should stay in the wilderness. It has a lesson for us, but it is not our permanent residence.

They had to go through it. But the tragedy was that They lived there. They wandered there 40 years and they died there and their bodies were strewn on the desert. They died in the wilderness. Why did it happen verse 5 says with many of them God was not well pleased.

Why what happened verse 6 these things were written for our example. Now it comes and I see here at least four things That kept these people in the wilderness. Why do Christians die in the wilderness?

Paul would answer many Christians die in the wilderness. For the very same reason that the Hebrew people died in the wilderness and he says these are the reasons why they died in the wilderness and. Then he gives us the examples.

Desiring Evil Things Beyond God's Provision

First of all, it says in verse 6 They lusted after evil things. The first thing that keeps many Christians in the wilderness is a desiring after evil things. The word is desire. It's exactly the same word that you get In Romans chapter 7 where Paul is speaking of his own discovery of sin in his heart when he read that Tenth commandment from Exodus chapter 20 and he says in Romans 7 verse 7 What shall we say is the law sin God forbid?

I had not known sin, but by the law for I had not known lust. I Had not known what lust is. I would not have recognized this in my own life. Unless the law had said thou shalt not Covet. The word covet is the same word as the word lust.

Lust is a strong word to us in modern English. In fact, the Greek word is a word that is used sometimes in a good context. Probably taking the New Testament as a whole the word is used as much in a good Sense as it is in a bad sense.

And in fact the Apostle Paul says the flesh Lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. You would not use the word lust in reference to the Holy Spirit. And so the word desire comes in there and it would perhaps be better translated the flesh has desires which are Contrary to the desires of the spirit and now it says that these people desired after evil things.

What was it that they desired after? Turning back to the book of Numbers we have the historical account to which this is a reference Numbers chapter 11 verse 4 and the mixed multitude that was among them fell to lusting and the children of Israel Also wept again and said who shall give us flesh to eat.

We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely. 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 beside this manner before our eyes.

Are they desired it says they desired evil things. Did you know that fish could keep you out of the promised land. Evil things fish. Flesh garlic. Evil things. Oh, of course. Somebody says well what's wrong with those things?

How can you speak of these things as being evil flesh? We all eat. We enjoyed beef for dinner perhaps today fish and. Yet here it is spoken of as evil things. They lusted after evil things. Now the Bible says that nothing is evil in itself and In fact to the pure.

The Bible says all things are pure and here Paul himself says in the latter part of 1st Corinthians chapter 10 That all things are permissible now if fish and cucumbers and garlic were intrinsically evil.

Then it would be very clearly stated in the Bible that Christians should not eat cucumbers. But it's not there. You see the evil Lay not in the intrinsic quality of the thing itself. The evil lay in the context within which it was desired and that's the whole point.

What were these people doing. They were desiring something that God Had not willed for them at that point on their journey. They willed and they desired. Beyond the provision of God for them at that point of time they desired.

I would not have known the power of desire. Unless the commandment said you shall not desire. As one writer has said commenting on Romans chapter 7 that particular verse. He said the human heart is a nest of desires.

Where does frustration come from. Frustration comes from our inability for one reason or another to satisfy personal desires. You never find Jesus frustrated. Never because his desires were utterly and totally in union with motivated by inspired by his father's desires and.

How wonderful to desire only what God desires delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee what? The desires of thine heart. But that's a safe statement because it is qualified by the person delighting himself in the Lord.

So his desires are God's desires. God's desiring through me. But that's not the case here. They desired evil things. Now a thing may be good in its proper context. But my friend if it is not God's will for you at that point in time and in that context.

That thing becomes evil and it becomes a cause of sin. They desired evil things. How long it takes us to learn the lesson of? Contentment and surrender in first Timothy chapter 6 verse 6. First Timothy 6 verse 6.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. They were anything but contented you see. And dear friends. We live in an age where we're grasping for things all the time, you know. And we're comparing our thing with our neighbor's thing.

Whatever it may be. Or look at this new thing that I've bought these are the qualities. I got it on sale and it's a thing. But the Bible says love not the world neither the things that are in the world.

The truth is that things have wrapped their tentacles around us and We have come to desire things more than God. Godliness with contentment is Great gain. And then he goes on to say for we brought nothing into this world.

It is certain we can carry nothing out and Having food and raiment. Let us be there with content. But they that will be rich now many people want to be rich. That's the simple meaning of this phrase. It says those who want to be rich.

Do you want to be rich. I Wonder how many of you want to be rich? Well people of course Want to be rich. We want to be able to buy whatever we lay our eyes on. We want to be rich but listen. There is great danger in Wanting to be rich.

Don't want to be rich my friend. Unless you're prepared to walk a very perilous path. Oh, do you mean it's not God's will for us to enjoy the good things of life. Of course. It's God's will for us to be blessed and the promise of Philippians 4 19 is that my God shall supply all you want according to his riches in Oh Is that what it says.

No. My God shall supply all you need According to his riches in glory and he's the only one who really knows what I need after all and He'll supply that. The blessing of God maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow therewith.

But the word rich may apply to spiritual riches. And material riches also now those who want to be rich. Watch out. What does the scripture say those who want to be rich fall into? Temptation and a snare a trap and into many foolish and hurtful desires.

Which drown men in Destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil. There are very few people that God can trust to remain spiritual and rich. So before you say I want to be rich think twice.

Godliness with contentment is great gain having food and clothing. Be content. I have learned said Paul in Philippians 4 Verse 10. I have learned in whatsoever state. I am there with to be Content. All the blessedness of true contentment of heart.

Idolatry and Modern Substitutes for God

They lusted after evil things. No wonder many Christians Live and die in a spiritual wilderness. Secondly in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 7 neither be ye idolaters as Were some of them as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Many Christians die in the wilderness because they have become Idolaters. This is a reference to the incident in Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32 is the historical incident to which the Apostle Paul is referring.

Moses is up in the mountain meeting with God and because he delayed to come down. The people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him up make us God's. Let's get on our way as for this Moses the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt.

We don't know what's become of him. We don't know what's happened to the man Who brought us out of Egypt? He's only a man. We don't know what's happened. He's gone. We need God's to lead us make God's verse 2 and Aaron said to them break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons your daughters bring them to me and all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron and He received them at their hand fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf and they said These be thy God so Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Now that's what the world is saying to you today. If you want to get out of Egypt if you want to get out of the boredom and the drudgery and the slavery of life. What you need are a few gods and those gods will bring you up out of that boredom and slavery.

And what are the gods of our modern society? I'm sure very quickly you could give me some answers to that the gods of our modern society. Some person says what I need is a little more social status if I could climb the ladder a little more so that I can look down on a few more people and Social status becomes a god.

They make that their aim that's their goal to get ahead and marry their children into a family a little higher up the ladder and Give us a little more social prestige. Social status becomes a god in the lives of many Christians.

They look down on people who do not have their economic level or their social level social status, I think of the God of sport. I love sport and We should be healthy in our body and the Bible says that bodily exercised prophets.

The Apostle Paul said that I'm sure he was a man of exercise. He walked halfway across Europe and he probably ran a lot too, and he swam occasionally because he said he was shipwrecked several times. He enjoyed physical exercise and he said bodily exercised prophets.

But then he said for a little. But godliness is profitable for all things. Having promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come there should be a balance here but the trouble is that for many people sport has become a total preoccupation and sport has become a god to such an extent that if it's a conflict between a spiritual meeting and Watching a championship ball game.

The decision is already made in favor of the ball game when that happens. Sport has become a god. It has dislodged and displaced. The priority need of my life which is spiritual. It's become a god. Sex is another god of our society.

You can't sell a spanner Without it being advertised against the background of a pretty girl. I don't know what a pretty girl has to do with the spanner. But that's it. Almost anything you want to sell is related in some way to the sex.

Symbol of our age. Sex plays a tremendous part in the thinking of our society. CS Lewis Humorously draws up how ridiculous our preoccupation with sex is. CS Lewis, of course is Now gone on his way, but a wonderful writer and the professor of English literature at Oxford University.

I hope if you can read any of his books buy them up. Sell whatever you have to buy any books by CS Lewis. CS Lewis Said what would you think of a man? Who walking down the main street looks through the window of a butcher shop and sees there a beautiful Piece of steak and there he stands in the window Watching it with eyes wide open and then before long saliva starts running down his chin and he's so glued at the window preoccupied totally with the thought of this beautiful piece of steak and what it can mean to satisfy the hunger and the appetite and the taste and the palate.

Why you'd say that man's demented. He's off-center. He's eccentric. He's out of balance. He's not right. He's giving an undue emphasis to one of the appetites of the body to one aspect of our physical life.

And yet we do this in the area of another appetite of the body also given to us by God. We have distorted and extended it and perverted it to such an extent that people drool over it. Instead of keeping it in its proper perspective as a civilization.

We are losing our creative energy. Because of our preoccupation with sex that has become a God. And a young man and a young woman who do not win the battle of sex will not win the battle of life they've lost it and Spiritually, they will be doomed to a wilderness.

Experience unless they win the battle in that area. Sex social status sport shows TV shows. May God search our hearts dear friends. All these things have their proper place but when I put something in the place of God, it becomes a God and Listen, I can tell you how you have become an idolatry.

Watch it. If God puts his finger on something and you regard that as an unwanted intrusion. That thing has become a God in your life and you are an idolatry. Could I say that again? If God puts his finger on something in your life that he wants to remove or Correct and you regard His touch at that point as an unwanted intrusion.

That thing has become a God in your life and you've become an idolatry. Now there are many Christians who are temporizing compromising at this very point. They want to drift into the kingdom of God. You can't drift we drift out of the kingdom.

How shall we escape if we neglect? So great salvation the word neglect actually is drift from you drift from. Salvation you don't drift into it. And if you are a drifter. Spiritually, you will never reproduce.

Spiritually, you will never grow spiritually. You're an idolatry. These are your gods which bring you up out of the land. Live this way the world says go to this show become preoccupied with this sport.

You're not with it if you're not there. You know the pressures that are on you all the time. This will deliver you from a life of boredom and grayness and dullness. Live it up, man. These are the gods that'll bring you up out of the land of Egypt, but it's all a lie.

Sexual Immorality and Spiritual Ruin

It's all a deception. And then thirdly in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 8. Neither let us commit fornication or sexual immorality as some of them committed and fell in one day three and 20 ,000.

This is a reference to the incident recorded in numbers chapter 25 numbers chapter 25 verse 1 and Israel abode in Shittim and the people began to commit wardom with the daughters of Moab and they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods and Israel joined himself to bow pure and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and Then of course followed God's judgment on that Sexual immorality and Paul says God was not pleased with it.

What's wrong? These Corinthians knew very well. They had had a visual demonstration of this right there in their own church right in the church in 1st Corinthians chapter 5. 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1.

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you. Paul had heard this report from the Corinthian Church. It is reported that among you there is sexual immorality and Such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles.

He describes it, but then he goes on to say in verse 4 in The name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together and my spirit With the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one Unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Now, what does this mean? It means this that one of the most destructive things that can enter into human life is sexual deviation. Sexual immorality of one kind or another and It destroys the Word of God says in Proverbs 6 52 whoever commits adultery Lacks understanding.

That's a nice way of putting it and it's true whoever commits adultery lacks Understanding he doesn't understand what he isn't doing to his own personality to the personality of the other party and also To the personality of any children that may be involved.

Whoever commits that sin lacks Understanding and then it says he that does it destroys His own soul. I Believe that when a person opens his life to this kind of thing. He's opening his life to terrible demonic powers that he cannot Foresee or control.

I remember in North India meeting a man who had become literally possessed of an evil spirit and When it was traced right back to its origin we discovered that this evil spirit Entered into that man and took possession of his personality when he became involved In immorality in the big city of Ludhiana in the Punjab in northwest India and that has happened many times.

He destroys his own soul. May God keep you for himself. First Corinthians chapter 6 verse 13 Meats for the belly and the belly for meats. Verse 13 of 1st Corinthians 6. But God shall destroy both it and them now the body is not for Fornication but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body.

Verse 15 know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ. Shall I take the members of Christ and Make them the members of a harlot. God forbid flee fornication. I Wonder if this sin is somewhere in the background in somebody's life here tonight, and you've never resolved it.

You've never settled it. It is slowly sapping away your energy mentally spiritually it will destroy your soul as long as you compromise with that sin and refuse to settle it and cleanse it you will live in and die in a Wilderness and then forth.

Testing God Through Rebellion

In 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 9 Paul says neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. They tempted Christ. Now, what does this mean they tempted or they tested the Lord?

The word test they tested the Lord, of course. The Bible says God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither does he tempt any man? God does not Tempt anybody to commit sin and nor can God be tempted to commit sin, but you can test God.

In fact, God says in some places in a certain context prove me now If I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing but in this particular case What does it mean? They tested God they put him to the test in numbers chapter 14.

There is an incident which illustrates what it means to test God numbers chapter 14. They were under the leadership of Moses. But they had a difficult time they complained they rebelled and notice what they said.

In the last part of numbers chapter 14 verse 2 they said to Moses and Aaron. Would God we had died in the land of Egypt or? Would God we had died in this wilderness and why has the Lord brought us? To this land to fall by the sword.

That our wives and children should be a prey. Were it not better for us to return to Egypt. What are they saying? They're saying anything would be better than this. Even death would God we had died here in this wilderness.

Anything would be better than this. And notice what they say in verse 4 then they said to one another let us make a captain let us return into Egypt. And Then Moses and Aaron fell in on their faces before the assembly of the congregation and the children of Israel.

They didn't say anything. All they did was to fall down there on their faces before the people. Moses and Aaron the people were saying we will have our own man. We will carve out our own destiny our own life we are going where we want to and we're going back to Egypt and Moses and Aaron are down on their faces.

It was Joshua and Caleb who saved the day. But here it is. These people were putting God to the test. Now. What does it mean? I think you can use the illustration of parents. Guiding and bringing up their children.

Grumbling, Discouragement, and Unbelief

Don't children often put their parents to the test. Children have their disciplines. Thank you an experienced father and we set our limits for the children and. And the children come and they push that little fence to see if it'll give see if it's weak and.

Sometimes children rebel they rebel against the authority of the father and you know children do this. It's very typical of children to test the limits of The authority placed around them to test the limits that have been put around them.

They test and they're all the time pushing and testing and this is where discipline comes in on the part of a parent. Dealing with a child now, the Bible says no chastening. No punishment for the present seems to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it brings forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness in them that are exercised thereby and When God disciplines us, it's for our good, but if we go on bucking that The time will come where having tested God like that.

Having rebelled against God's authority continuously God indignantly replies and God's indignation Burns over against that point. He cannot tolerate total continuous rebellion he cannot a Human being a parent a father or mother, of course, we need to listen to our children.