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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 15, and Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, he's not even talking to these people now. He goes straight to the Lord. Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed one of them.
I'm not misusing my office. I'm not in it for the money. I'm not trying to be rich and famous. I didn't make myself this. You made me this. This position. Moses, the meek man, the kind man, the man who falls on his face often, leaves vindication to God, said to Korah, verse 16.
Be present you and all your company before the Lord. You and they and Aaron tomorrow, and let every one of you take his censer and put incense on it. You really want to go and be priests? Okay. And every one of you bring before the Lord his censer, 250 censers, you also, and Aaron, each a censer.
So every man took a censer and put fire in them and laid incense on them and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. And Moses assembled all the congregation, excuse me, Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation.
Note to self, don't be an evil ring leader. Note to self, don't mess with God's people. When you touch the church, God is displeased. It's not the issue. By the way, I didn't save any of you. I didn't give you any spiritual gifts.
I'm a nobody. But the body of Christ is everything to Christ Jesus, everything. Mark it down in your minds. I will never, ever cause division or dissension in the church. There's nothing worse. There's absolutely nothing more heinous for a person to do.
And it's not against a person, it's not against the elder board, it's not against the pastors, it's not against the pastor, it's against God Almighty. By the way, when you hear people in the church complain, and of course we are fallen people, then you need to make sure you don't accept that.
When someone calls you and says, you know, I got a problem with Mike, do you? No, I have a problem with you, and I'm calling Mike right now. I don't think they'll call you again with a problem. You say, yeah, but this is so self-serving.
No, because this isn't my church. This church either rises or falls based on the good pleasure of her King, Christ Jesus. And this is obviously what the text says, and the Lord hates division. Six things the Lord hates, yes, even seven, and what's the most heinous thing the Lord hates in Proverbs 6 is what?
Those who cause strife and stir up division. What happens? Verse 20, and the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, separate yourself from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment.
They fell on their faces and said, oh, God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, mark that down. When's God ever called that? Why has God called that? Oh, God, the God of spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and you will be angry with all the congregation?
God says to Moses, get away. This is light fuse, lay on ground, and run. How far do you get away is what I would be thinking. If I was standing there and I was a young lad standing next to my dad, I'd be saying, dad, is this far enough?
We need to get farther away. Get away, distance yourself. The literal Hebrew is go up from around. Now why is God called this here? Oh, God, the God of spirits, or the God of the breath of all flesh. Here's the emphasis.
The emphasis is God has the right to kill people. God has the sovereign right to kill anybody he wants. God has the right to create, and God has the right to kill. This is a language that is trying to emphasize God's sovereign over everything.
And so you better get away, and when God does something, you ought to say that's perfectly within God's rights to do. It's God's role of creator, sovereign over everything. It's his right to decide life and death issues.
You can feel the suspense is building here. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, say to the congregation, get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathom, and Abiram. It's going to happen. It's going to be public.
It's going to be dramatic. Get away, run. These mutinous rebels are going to be swept away with the avalanche of God's wrath. Then Moses rose and went to Dathom and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him.
And he spoke to the congregation saying, depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men. Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins, with this wrath of God like a tsunami.
So they got away from the building of Korah, Dathom, and Abiram. And Dathom and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, surely with pride, together with their wives, their sons, and their little ones.
Moses said, hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works. You'll know why I'm now God's ordained leader, and it has not been of my own accord. I didn't make myself a leader. If these men die, as all men die, they just get old or having some accident, or if they're visited by a fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me.
But if the Lord creates something new and the ground opens up its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and the little ones too, they will go down alive in the shield, then you will know that these men have despised the Lord, gulp, earth swallowing up, flood, no, earth swallowing people up.
As soon as he had finished speaking, that's pretty lucky. By the way, you should read what some of the liberals say. There's a special kind of ground and rivers used to travel over it, and it's kind of not very stable, and once in a while you'd have a tent there and it would fall down into the deal and kind of open up a little bit, and there'd be a crack or a crevice, or it's kind of like the San Andreas Fault in California, don't live too close to Fresno, you're gonna fall in, all this kind of stuff.
Remember, this is like some of the plagues. They happen to the Egyptians, but not the Israelites who are right there. Here, get away, and it's going to be a divine, supernatural miracle of destruction, and it's only going to happen to the bad people.
And as soon as they had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. I don't know if you've ever heard an earthquake, but it's loud. Who's heard an earthquake? You're feeling it, you're hearing it, it's loud, super loud.
And the earth opened up its mouth, you just see the earth personified. This is like some huge alligator. Right? The alligator of God comes and just crunches, split apart, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households and all the people who belong to Korah and all their goods, and not the Israelites.
That's why I fear for the ringleaders of church splits and divisive people. They might live in luxury for a long time, but there'll be payday one day. So they and all that belong to them went down alive into Sheol.
Not down into hell, but down into death. Down they go to the journey of the center of the earth, and you want to know how the miracle kept going? I would think that if it was an earthquake, it would all open up, they'd all fall in.
Now it opens up, it scarfs them down, and then now what? It closes its mouth, as it were. And the earth closed over them and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And now it's just nothing but dust, quiet, and people probably thinking, what's happened?
One of the side benefits to this kind of death is there's going to be no grave marker for such ringleaders. Where are we going to put the grave markers? And many times the Hebrew says, this is going to be a place called such and such because something happened there.
This place isn't called anything, it's the no-name site because it's just the earthquake mouth of the earth opening up site. All Israel who were around them fled at their cry. They were crying as they went down, lest the earth swallow us up.
And for an exclamation point, for divine punctuation with emphasis, there are people not standing by Korah and the tent with the little ones. And the fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, to take up the censers out of the blaze. And so they did all that. And then it says in verse 41, and now we come to the passage.
How does 1 Corinthians 10 fit in? Here's how it fits in. This is the passage, you want to underline verse 41. But on the next day, all the congregation of the people of Israel, what? I mean, after that, can you imagine?
You've just seen the earthquake of all earthquakes. What's the biggest Richter scale number we have in earthquakes? I should have typed it into Google. What's the biggest Richter scale? 10, is that it?
I don't believe it. Whatever the number is. I believe Charlie, but I want the number to be bigger is what I'm trying to tell you. On the next day, I mean, think about how the language of the Hebrew is.
And immediately this happens, as soon as Moses got done talking, this happens. And then now it says, but on the next day, all the congregation of Israel, what? Here we have Korah and then the Reubenites, they get together, they grumble, they grumble, they grumble.
And what do you think happens? Well, what happens is a new thing. God opens up the maw of the earth and kills them all. What happens the next day? You know what I would want to do, at least in my mind?
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. I'd be singing something. I didn't be singing bad praise songs, anything. And they grumbled. And the same thing's happening against Moses and against Aaron, which is really against God.
And what do they say? Who can make this up? You have killed the people of the Lord. Oh, Moses, you did that. That's the old open up the maw of the earth trick. You did it. Moses, just before falling on his face, interceding, doing things that I don't think I would ever do.
Unless the spirit of God was working in me against Yahweh. And when the congregation had assembled against Moses, I would be saying to myself as I was going there, I'm next. The maw of God is next for me.
That's what I would be thinking. But complaining is so bad. It's infectious. They turned toward the tent of meeting and behold, the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. How bad is the gravity of rebellion against God's ordained leaders?
And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, get away from the midst of his congregation that I may consume them in a minute. It's coming again. This is the sequel.
And they fell on their faces. And now we have another key. Key is verse 46. And Moses said, Aaron, take your censer, put a fire on it from the altar, lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them for the wrath of wrath has gone out from the Lord.
The plague has begun. So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran in the midst of the assembly. Behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people.
He stood between the dead and the living and the plague stopped. Now those who died in the plague were 14 ,700, by the way, killed by the destroyer of God, besides those who died in the affair of Korah, the 250 and the family and the little ones.
And Aaron returned to Moses at the end of the tent of meeting and the plague was stopped. Wow. What's the moral of the story? Pretty easy. Be a sacrificial giver. No, that isn't the moral. What's the moral?
The general moral is any complaint against God is a complaint against his divine sovereignty. I don't like the weather. Well, God made the weather. Don't complain about the weather because that's the weather from God.
I don't like the people who you saved and brought to this local fellowship. I don't like the people who you saved and brought to this fellowship to make us make them over shepherds, under shepherds. And I can say with all honesty, no one knows me before I was saved here except Kim.
But this was the last thing I was looking for in my life. I don't mean West Boylston, Massachusetts, New England. I just mean leadership. I didn't want to lead anyone. I want behind it. You can all say, yeah, sure.
This is what you just say. It's true. I want behind the scenes. I don't want to talk. I don't want to speak. I'm the guy who said to myself, there are 101 credit hours at seminary. I will take 97 of them and quit when it comes to preaching because I don't want to preach.
I want to learn the Bible for myself and that's it. God made me a Christian. God made me a teacher and God made me your pastor. I want you to pray for me. This is not look who I am. When you spend time with me, you'll realize, you know what?
He's a sinner saved by grace just like everyone else. But if we're supposed to submit to President Obama, and I don't think he shows any fruit of being a Christian, and we're supposed to submit, how? Because God's sovereign and God can overrule and underwrite and do all kinds of other things and so we submit and we go.
If Peter can say, God, Nero's the king, I submit, then how much more can we submit to leaders who are Christians and who, by the grace of God, faithfully proclaim the truth? I'm not the Messiah, I'm not your savior, but I've been told by the savior through his word to preach the word of God to you.
I don't know what else to do. If Jesus isn't enough for you, I don't know what to tell you at this church. I have nothing else to offer you. Times come and times go. Some people like to complain, some people don't.
I just know in my own heart, I don't want to complain and I don't want to complain by saying, God, this church that you gave me, because it could happen the other way around. Why aren't there more leaders?
Why aren't there more elders? Why aren't there more, better givers? Why aren't there this, that, or the other? So far I want to run from that. God builds his church and I'm not going to be in competition with him.
And so if we're all focused on who God is and his kingdom, then we can rally around one another and say, do you know what? I'm a sinner saved by grace. So are you. My focus has always been, let's highlight people's strengths, not weaknesses, because we all have them.
We're all here together. I have weaknesses. My wife has strengths. I compliment those. She has a lot of strengths. I have a lot of weaknesses. She covers those. That's just the way a marriage works and that's the way the body works.
And so I think this is good for us as a church. Two services. What about this? What about that? What about that? I have the most opportunity to complain of anybody in the church, because I know more scoop.
But I've just determined, not that it's scoop, that sounds wrong. But I know more things to complain about, but I refuse, at least in my mind when I'm thinking rightly, to do that very thing. Why? Because the glory of Christ should magnify and eclipse and take over everything.
This is not the house that I'm building. If this was the house that I was building, you would see a completely different deal. Turn with me if you would. We've got a few minutes to go. Turn to James 5, and I want to show you one other passage about complaining.
And then we need to celebrate together that we have a God who has forgiven our complaining, who has forgiven our grumbling because of his son's great life. I'm going to talk about that in just a minute, but I want to show you James 5.
If you've got a problem with leadership, go to leadership. If you've got a problem with leadership, pray for leadership. James chapter 5 is really a neat passage that doesn't talk about leadership, but it just talks about general things.
I'm going to read from the NAS here. James chapter 5 just talks about a good mindset that will help you not to complain. And that is Jesus is coming back. How would you like to be in the middle of a sentence complaining against someone when Jesus returns?
Look at what James says. Farmers have to be patient. We want to be patient. We're doing what we can, clearing the land and sowing the seeds, but we know God's going to come back soon. Put some iron into your hearts.
Be stout-hearted. As Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, same word, was to be stout-hearted. And then it comes to chapter 5, verse 9. I'll read the ESV. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.
Behold, the judge is standing at the door. That's kind of eerily similar to the language in 1 Corinthians and the thought of Numbers chapter 16. We live in a complaining culture, and here the complaint is what?
Not against leaders, although that could be included, but against one another. This is the kind of groan in Greek that has no words to it. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, that was a groan of, I can't believe they did that.
I'm just mind-boggled by that. I can't believe the leadership made that decision. This word is against other people. No words. It's just this groan. You can feel the air come out of your lungs. It's a sigh.
Oh, I'm so dissatisfied in what that person has done. Oh, it's horrible. You irritate me. By the way, this is why I never wanted to be a pastor, because I would have to do things like I'm doing right now.
Oh, man, you get on my nerves. It's a present imperative. Don't ever, if you're going to do it, stop. Don't ever complain. Stop it. By the way, we really know how to do this in a proper way, and we kind of do it through a prayer channel.
Please pray for me, that I might be patient with my wife. Translation, my wife's off the deep end. Please pray that I might be patient with her. I guess I owe her a dollar. We live in difficult times, trying times, but God is the king.
God is still sovereign. You say, well, I believe in the sovereignty of God. Really? Then if you do, well, not only will you be humble and trusting God, but you won't be complaining. You'll be giving him thanks.
Thank you, God. If God can grow this church and raise up this church, I mean in maturity, with us as leaders, he can do anything he wants, can't he? That's what we're thinking. This is horrible for unity.
It feeds on itself. The focus is against other people, not who God is. God, you know, here's what we're saying. God, you're not sanctifying that person fast enough. Can you imagine? God could sanctify my wife faster than he's sanctifying her.
Kim could be more godly than she is. I don't know anybody more godly than my wife. The last person I knew who was more godly than my wife was Kim's grandmother who just died. And I think, you know what, but there are times I think I wish Kim would be a little more godly when I want my way, especially.
I'm saying, you know what? I shouldn't be complaining because it's a complaint against God, just like a complaint against Moses is a complaint against God. God, you're just not progressively sanctifying them yet.
Yeah, but God, I've got an unbelieving spouse. What's going on? Well, you know what that is, God? I don't like your timing and you haven't saved my spouse yet, and I don't like that. We should just go back to thinking what we deserve and what God has given us, that gulf should cause us to be joyful.
And look at this passage in James 5, behold, the judge is standing right at the door. The heavenly judge is standing at the door. Lord Jesus standing right there. I remember when the kids were little and we lived in Sterling, I would just stand at the door of their room and they would be playing.
And then they would do something wrong. And then they, when they did something wrong, they're like, I'm going to just check to see if dad's here. And there I was. You ever do something wrong and your conscience gets you and you turn and you just go, wow, the judge is standing at the door.
Here comes the judge. I wish my pastor wouldn't give pop culture references. Don't complain. It's comforting that the judge is right by the door in one sense is close, but it's the judge who's at the door standing right at the door.
We're not do that. So then my beloved, just as you have always also obeyed, not in my presence also, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who has a work within you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing. I leave you with these words. Listen to the words written by Peter about Jesus who never complained, who never grumbled, who never sinned with his lips. He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins on his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds.
You have been healed for your strain like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. No wonder the verse before that says for to this, you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps, following Christ's example by not sinning with our mouths, by not complaining.
Can you imagine Jesus would have complained one time? He could not have been the son of God. He could not have atoned for our sins, but since Jesus never did complain, every sin that we've ever committed, like complaining, placed on Christ, he bore it on his body on the tree by sovereign decree.
He did that for us. And then Christ, lack of reviling, lack of complaining, lack of thankfulness, lack of submission, all placed on, I've got to get my imputation right, Christ's lack of rebellion. Where am I?
I don't even know what I'm talking about. Christ never rebelled. We are in Christ. We are seen like we've never been rebellious. Christ never sinned with his mouth. We are seen like we've never sinned with our mouth because of what Christ has done.
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.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.