Ignorance Is Not Bliss (part 2) - [1 Corinthians 10:1-5]

We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, working through the passage verse by verse. I prepared about three sermons this week because I was going to do a kick -off

New Year's Day special, things to live for, hills to die on. I just kept working on different sermons throughout the week, and I thought, now let's just go back to 1

Corinthians chapter 10 as we march through this fascinating and very convicting section of Scripture.

Who said this? I don't know much about history, and I wouldn't give a nickel for all the history in the world.

History is more or less bunk. It is a tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth anything is the history we make today.

Henry Ford, Mark Twain said, It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man's character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.

Hegel said, History is indeed little more than the register of crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

But what experience and history teach us is this, that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history.

Paul is going to want you to learn from the history of Israel in the wilderness.

What happened to Israel in the wilderness, Paul applies to the church of Corinth, and then now the

Spirit of God applies to us. You want a good history lesson? What happened to Israel in the wilderness?

Sadly, it's a bad lesson. Chapter 9, Paul says, Watch me

Corinth. Remember chapter 11 verse 1? Imitate me. I'm running well by the grace of God.

I'm striving. I'm straining. This is an athletic event. God has graced me by the substitutionary atonement of Christ Jesus, my

Lord and Savior. He's my prophet, priest, and king, and I'm going to run with endurance till the end so I don't get

DQ'd, so I'm not kicked out. And then he said,

You know what? I'm a good example, and Israel is a horrible example. Don't do what they have done.

And the interesting thing to me is, when you study the history of Israel, modern Israel, it's a pretty impressive thing.

You like the politics. You don't like the politics of modern Israel. But it is an impressive thing that they're even a nation.

And all the wars and issues and this small little slab of land.

I'm impressed. But when you see Israel come through the Red Sea and wander in the wilderness for 40 years,

Paul says, Take a good look because it's not impressive at all. Don't do what they did.

Chapter 8, Paul says, You're free in Christ Jesus. You can't be more justified. As long as you love other people, enjoy your liberties.

Chapter 9, Paul says, But it's good to say no to your liberties for the sake of other people.

Paul said, I do that in my own ministry. And then chapter 10, Paul comes along and says, Let me show you how your liberty affects your own life.

People are always saying, I have liberty. I have liberty to drink and to smoke.

And I have liberty to go to these kind of movies. I have liberties to do this. And I have liberties to do that.

Whatever you say you have liberties to do and you really push the envelope, Paul is now saying, To those who really love to flaunt their liberties, to say they're so free in Christ to do whatever, watch out because Israel was blessed and they fell off the ledge.

I remember when I was a kid, we went from Omaha driving due west on I -80 and we got to Colorado to Pikes Peak.

How many people here have been up to the top of Pikes Peak? A lot and you live to tell about it. Back in the 60s, it was pretty scary and they didn't have all the regulations and bridges and embankments and embargoes and all kinds of other things.

And they were pretty scary to look over those cliffs.

And so you know what my dad did? My dad said, I'm going to see how far I can go over to the edge without falling off.

I think we have shows like this now, The Dangerous Roads or something. I don't know. I don't watch it.

No, my dad didn't do that. He said, I'm going to try to drive as safely as I can.

I'm not going to try to flaunt this. This is kind of like, you know, teenagers when they'll say in dating or courting, how far can

I go before it's sin? That's always the wrong question. The right question is, or the right determination is, it's just a statement.

I'd like to stay away from the edge of the cliff and honor God. So here Paul says, using

Israel as an example, they were blessed by God more than any other nation. But they wanted to go to the very edge and just because you're blessed, it doesn't mean

God won't chase in you. Every person that's here today who is a Christian can never go to hell.

As it were, hell was condensed into three hours and poured out on the sinless, innocent

Christ Jesus in our place. No double jeopardy. Jesus paid for our sins.

We don't have to pay for our sins. We can't go to hell. If we can as Christians, Jesus is a liar.

God is not just. But that doesn't mean just because we're going to heaven, signed, sealed, and delivered, that we don't have to run the race.

So Paul's saying, I want you to run the race, and Israel got disqualified. Israel stumbled.

One of the surest ways to be treading on temptation's door is to be overconfident in who you are in Christ.

Let me read the passage, chapter 10, verses 1 to 6. I want you to find the five alls.

All, all, all, all, all, all. And then you'll see the understatement most.

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 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 drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most, one understatement that is, two adults,

Caleb and Joshua, with most, most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.

Here's the scoop. In evangelical Bible interpretation, how do we look at the

Old Testament? One group will say, well, the

Old Testament speaks to Christ. The Old Testament, we can see

Jesus everywhere, and I'll talk about that in a minute, and I think to some degree, to a great degree, that is absolutely true.

And they'll say, you know what, the Old Testament is about Christ, and so let's not have any kind of moralistic examples.

Flee like Joseph, be determined like Daniel. Well, I don't want any moralistic preaching, that's for sure.

But if we're too focused on who Christ is in the Old Testament, and never say to ourselves, there are examples to follow, or not follow in the

Old Testament, we're wrong. There are examples not to follow. Jesus is the center of the

Old Testament. Jesus did open the eyes up of the people on the Damascus Road.

Emmaus Road, easy for me to say. On the Emmaus Road. What do you call that when you say Damascus and Emmaus?

Is that conflating them? Eric Johanson, what's that called?

On the Emmaus Road, these things in Moses and the prophets and the Psalms and the writings spoke of Christ.

That is true. And yet we can still look at the Old Testament and say, look what

Israel did, and don't do what they did. So I think both are true. How does this fit to BBC?

How does this apply to BBC? We've been blessed. Just think about it. Rehearse the blessings you have in Christ Jesus.

I'm adopted. I'm a child of the King. I'm justified. I'm not condemned.

I'm reconciled to God. I've been redeemed by God. The list could go on and on and on.

The blessings that you have in Christ Jesus. He's blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

I have it all. God's chosen me. His Son's died for me. The Spirit of God has sealed me. We have all these benefits.

So why don't we just coast? Why don't we just ease up this year?

Paul said, no, I want you to run. I want you to sweat. I want you to discipline your body to run the race well.

Gracious blessings from God should motivate you to honor your King. What does he say in chapter 10, verse 1, just a little review?

He wants these people to know this. I do not want you to be unaware. Brothers, you've got a new identity in Christ.

You weren't brothers before. Now you're brothers. Cowardly soldier appeared before Alexander the

Great. Sometimes Alexander the Great would call men out for either honor or for dishonor.

And this man was guilty of a lot of offenses. The King said, what was the charge against him?

At 18 or 19 years old, this man ran in the face of the enemy.

Alexander became livid with rage. He got off his chair, walked over to the young man and said, what is your name?

Alexander, sir. Alexander the Great got even madder. Either change your name or change your actions.

And so here Paul says, brothers, you're a brother in Christ Jesus. You're part of the family of God.

You're a Christian. So run well for Christ. Having liberty is not enough.

Having liberty and running well is what Paul is after. I can't wait to meet people in the next 20 years of my life who tell me how much liberty they have in Christ Jesus.

Then I'm going to say, then you must be exhausted by running the race for Christ Jesus. You must be exhausted because the more liberty you have, the more you ought to run for the grace of God.

So our outline today is five. Now, you know what? Let's do four. What did

I say last time? I think I said several, so let me give you four today.

Four total spiritual warnings learned at Israel's expense so that we're not overconfident with our liberty.

There are five alls, but we'll condense the last two. We'll conflate the last two for Eric's sake. Alarm number one.

Like Israel, God has given you supernatural guidance, so finish well. Like Israel, God has given you supernatural guidance, so finish well.

Take a look at verse one, that our fathers were all under the cloud. Can you imagine? The fathers,

Israel, they were under the cloud, and that personal Shekinah glory would stop

Israel, start Israel, protect Israel. Can you imagine the tender and loving hands -on approach that this glory cloud was to Israel?

They all followed, not one exception. They were all following, all blessed.

Of course, we learned last time that we have the Spirit of God and the Word of God to guide us, so we want to run well in light of that.

Number two in review as well. Alarm two. Like Israel, God has supernaturally delivered you, so run to win.

See it in verse one? And all passed through the sea. How many Israelites were left on the shore and didn't make it over?

Zero. They all made it. But Paul says just because they all made it, they didn't all survive the wilderness.

Matter of fact, they all died in there except two, those under 20. So Paul says,

I want you to run well, even though you say you've been delivered. Colossians 1 for the

Christian, run well. Now we pick up some new information. Alarm three found in verse two.

Now is when it starts getting fun. These next two verses are wild. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Number three, the third spiritual warning. Like Israel, God has given you divine leadership, so honor the

Lord with your entire life. God has given you leadership, so honor the Lord, run well.

Verse two. This is so classic today with the water baptism in the back. I'm going to read this and everybody is going to think of water.

Don't think of water. It's like when you tell a kid, don't think of green. Whatever you do, don't think of green right now.

So whatever you do, don't think of water baptism when I read this. You're going to think of water baptism, I know, but don't think of water baptism.

And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. What does he mean, all baptized into Moses?

Do you know in the Bible there are waterless baptisms? There are dry baptisms?

I know what's happening. The Baptists are sitting here thinking immersion. They went into the sea, dunking a lot of water.

I know the Presbyterians are thinking sprinkling. There was a lot of wind there in the Red Sea. And some of the particles came down and sprinkled them.

Fell on the babies too. Some baptisms have nothing to do with water.

Romans 6, baptized into Christ. Galatians chapter 3, baptized into Christ.

And this one has nothing to do with water. Charles Hodge, the Presbyterian said, this is the only point of analogy between the cases.

One class of commentators says that they were immersed in the sea and therefore it was baptism. That is immersion.

They went in, the waters were around them. What a perfect picture of going down into the water and coming up out of the water.

Another says the cloud rained upon them. And on that account they were said to be baptized. It was like sprinkling.

Now listen to Hodge. Both suggestions are forced for the people were baptized as much in the cloud as in the sea.

But they were not immersed in the cloud nor sprinkled by the sea. There is no allusion to the mode of baptism here.

Read the text again. What does the text say? And all were baptized into Moses.

Baptized into Moses. Immersed into Moses. Baptized into his leadership.

That is the idea. This has to do with identity. Dan was baptized today. I have a new identity.

Of course, positionally it happened years ago when God first saved him, regenerated him, redeemed him.

Publicly now he is making the proclamation that I am being identified with Christ.

Group identification. Moses is the leader. Baptized into Moses just means that you are baptized, quote by John Calvin, into his leadership.

One commentator says, Israel's deliverance through the sea marked the beginning of their separation from Egypt and their new identity as God's covenant community.

And the term baptism fittingly represents that experience. Separated from Egypt, immersed in the divine leadership given to them, and his name was

Moses. Baptism means to be identified with someone under the leadership of Moses.

All were baptized into Moses, but not all made it because of their sin.

I can say the same thing for us. As Israel was baptized into Moses, we are baptized into Christ Jesus.

Galatians chapter 3. Romans chapter 6. We are identified with Christ Jesus.

His death, burial, and resurrection pictured in water. We are under his leadership.

We want to follow and run. Just because we are under his leadership, some could be slacking. Some could be coasting.

Paul says don't do that. Number four, fourth alarm. Like Israel, God has given you everything you'll ever need, so run until the end.

Run until the end! Paul is using these exhortations to make sure that saints persevere until the end.

Verse 3. Let's do the food first, then the drink. By the way, this has nothing to do with a wafer and with a cup.

This is going to be a little piece of bread for communion and then a little piece of wine or juice.

It's going to have nothing to do with that, although you might think so. And all ate the same spiritual food.

All Israel ate the same spiritual food. What were they doing? They were out in the middle of the wilderness, and what kind of food were they eating?

Spiritual food? Food that doesn't exist? Food with no calories? Food with no nutrition? It's just spiritual food?

From the divine source, God, God gives them something to eat. What was it called in the middle of the wilderness that came down and you didn't know what it was?

What is this? Manna. An easy way to remember it is, when you are from New England and you go down to the manor, and they serve you really funny food and you don't really know what it is, and you say, what is this at the manor?

And then you pronounce things like a New Englander. It's the manna. What is this at the manna? That's why

I don't go that often, but when I do, I like to say, what is this? This is the manna. So anyway, that's a good way to remember it, isn't it?

This has nothing to do with the substance of the food. Spiritual. This has everything to do with who gave it.

The Father, Son, and the Spirit gave this food. They are divine, therefore it's a spiritual gift that came supernaturally from heaven every day except on the

Sabbath for 40 years. And they all ate it. Who didn't eat? They all ate it.

And Paul is saying, even though they all ate it, not all of them ran into the promised land.

The origin of the manna was God. Psalm 78 calls it angel's food.

Why don't you turn your Bibles to Exodus 16 for a second. Let's take a look at this. Your homework assignment, by the way, this week is to read

Exodus. Now, when Paul says, food that they ate, spiritual food, everybody knew

Exodus. Well, we don't know it that well, so this week, next week, and the following week, we're going to be in Exodus and Numbers a lot.

And it's not because I don't think you're stupid. That's not why we're doing it, but I want you to think like these people did and understand the

Old Testament. Exodus 16. Let's just take a look at the passage where Paul, the passage to which

Paul alludes. Exodus 16. By the way, if you're a father and you want to start doing

Bible studies this year for your family worship time, Exodus is a great chapter to read. Chapter 16, verse 1,

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.

It's a different Sinai, by the way, on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses.

I wonder how loud that must have been. And Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said,

Would we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full?

For you brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. What were they doing in chapter 15?

Singing. They were singing about being delivered through the

Red Sea. We left

Egypt, and you know what? Egypt was an all -you -could -eat buffet. You ever go to some of those buffets?

It's all -you -could -eat. You feel bad if you don't overeat. Didn't get your money's worth. That's what

Egypt was like, Moses. We're going to die out here. You brought us out here. Here comes the test.

Verse 4, Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in My law or not.

On the sixth day when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, At evening you shall know that it was the

Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord because He has heard your grumbling against the

Lord. Notice how when you grumble against the leader, Moses, you're grumbling against the Lord, sovereignly instituting those leaders.

For what are we that you grumble against us? And Moses said,

When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against Him, what are we?

Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord. Skip down to verse 14,

And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake -like thing, fine as frost on the ground.

When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, Manna, what is it?

For they did not know what it was. And Moses said, It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. Now I love what the liberals do, not because I like what they say, but because they're so kooky.

The second you say there's no supernatural God, He doesn't do supernatural things, you know what you end up doing?

How do you explain this? Bodenheimer says, This was honeydew excretion from two types of insects that are like aphids, and that they live in the tamarisk trees in the region.

A sweet, sugary substance, he said. Bad news for Bodenheimer.

How do you account for this food stinking if you got too much of it?

Another weasel approach, did I just say that?

Sorry. Another liberal approach is that these are lichens, lichen fruits that grow on the rocks about the size of a pea, and they're light enough to be blown around by the wind coming from heaven.

That fed the Israelites, up to two million of them for forty years. Bodenheimer forgot that only three to six weeks in July do these things yield their fruit.

Verse 16, This is what the Lord has commanded. Gather of it, each of you, as much as he can eat.

She'll take an omer each, according to the number of persons that you have in your tent, or his tent.

And the people did so. They gathered some more, some less. What size of a supermarket does it take to feed two million people in the desert?

This is miraculously provided. That's why it's called spiritual. And what's more, there's water.

Verse 4, And all the people drank the same spiritual drink. I'm reading to you what's in 1

Corinthians 4. Let's go back. In 1 Corinthians 10, let's go back there. And all drank the same spiritual drink.

What do you do with these people out in the wilderness for forty years? What do they eat? They ate manna. It came from God.

It was spiritual food. Real food with calories and nutrients, but from God, divine source, therefore called spiritual.

What are they going to drink? They've got to drink water. How do you get all these people to drink water? That's a lot of water in the wilderness.

They all drank the water. Before we look at that passage in the

Old Testament, maybe we will, maybe we won't. One of the wildest verses in the New Testament is 1

Corinthians 10, 4. I don't know what color highlighter you use for wild verses, but you want to get that out right now.

This is the wild verse. This is the crazy verse. This is the verse where you go, wait a second.

What's happening here? They all drank the same spiritual drink. Here's the wild part. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was

Christ. Forty years sojourned in the desert, and the tradition was this, according to the

Jewish rabbis. This big rock followed them, rolling around.

Rolling around, following. Some think it was a well, and wherever they went, you know, the cloud, it took them around, and wherever they went, there was another kind of cloud thing, and it wasn't really a cloud.

It was a well. The rock followed them, and the rock was

Christ. Well, one thing we know about the water, there's a divine origin.

One thing we know about the manna, divine origin, but Paul gives a little more explanation. Now, hang on to this.

You'll get it. Manna comes out of the sky. Huh. God's giving us manna, because things that come out of the sky are from God.

But when you get water in the middle of the wilderness, how do you know that water's from God? Maybe we just walked up, there's a big stream.

Maybe there's just some water in the vein over there, and Moses stumbled over there and accidentally hit this area, and out it comes.

It's just kind of natural. From heaven, you go supernaturally, God is giving us food. But how do you know it's coming from God spiritually, with a divine origin, when it's water?

And so now Paul adds this, and he says, you know who gave you water for 40 years in the wilderness? Jesus did.

Hmm. The Messiah did. Manna doesn't need an explanation of why it's a divine source, but water does.

And what does Paul say here? The rock followed them. Who's the rock?

All right. Bible study 101. Context. Bible study 101.

Authorial intent. Bible study 101, number 3. Ready? Think like a

Jew. Back in those days. If I say to you, rock, what would you say?

I guarantee you would not say, enroll. You would not say that. Rock, you would say what?

If I said to you, I run over and get a bunch of kids back in the wilderness, in the wandering area, all these

Israelites, and I would go up and I would say, rock. You know what they would say? God is the

Redeemer and Savior. When they heard the word rock, they thought

God is a Redeemer and a Savior. Of course, they thought, you know what, faithful.

What else do rocks have as an attribute? Steadfast, immovable, unless it's the face of the guy up in New Hampshire.

Typically, rocks are very stable. What was that all about? Rock. When you read the

Psalms, you quickly find out that of course rock means stable and other things, but primarily at the top of the list,

Savior, Redeemer. Who followed them around to give them water? Who was there the whole time?

Who was preexistent? When Abraham saw his day and was glad,

Jesus just was born. Jesus had no beginning. He had a beginning when He cloaked

Himself with humanity, but He was in eternity past, and He was the one who took care of Israel by feeding them and by giving them water.

Listen as I read these Psalms and spot the words save, Savior, salvation, our

Redeemer. Everyone has Jesus the rock. Excuse me. Just has

God as a rock. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock.

I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation. The Lord lives.

Blessed be the rock. And exalted be the God of my salvation. O Lord, my rock and my

Redeemer, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight.

Incline Your ear to me. Rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.

He alone is my rock and my salvation. On God rests my salvation and my glory, my mighty rock.

My refuge is God. Be a rock of refuge to which

I may continually come. You have given the command to save me for You are my rock and my fortress.

They remember that God was their rock, the Most High God, their Redeemer. You shall cry to me,

You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. O come, let us sing to the

Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. When you think of rock, if you're a

Jew, you think of Savior, Redeemer. Who provided for the temporal salvation of Israel in the wilderness?

Jesus Christ, the Anointed One. Jesus is Yahweh. The source of the water was

Jesus. How many times in the Pentateuch, in the first five books of the

Bible, are there occasions where there was a rock that gave water in the wilderness? Two times.

Once at the beginning and once at the end. What did they do, though, all the way in between? We have one account at the beginning in Exodus, one account at the end in Numbers.

Who gave them water walking around the wilderness? Who's been to Israel here before? Several have.

When you go to the wilderness and you walk around, you need water. Who gave them water? And Paul is trying to say

Jesus gave them water. It's pretty fascinating to think about.

It wasn't that Sudanese camel cores tracked down water and hit the cliff and a stream gushed out.

It wasn't a special vein of water that Moses just found. I'll tell you what, it wasn't that Moses had a divining rod either.

The miraculous provision of water in the desert comes from Jesus. The rock

God saves, delivers. So Paul says this,

Israel was fed by God, Israel was given drink by God, and they were all taken care of with all their needs, but only two made it in the promised land.

Corinth, don't push your liberties and fall off the edge.

Just because you've benefited from Christ doesn't mean you'll finish well. Have you benefited from Christ?

Has He blessed you? Well, you say, God has really blessed me and my family.

Okay, great. Praise the Lord. Finish well. You say, yeah, but that doesn't sound very

Reformed. That kind of sounds Arminian. That's kind of pietism. No, it's not.

Pietism is lay back and let God. By the way, implying that until you lay back,

God can't do anything. Laying back now, I can let God. But Paul is saying this,

God has blessed you. Run! I think this actually ends up being a great

New Year's Day message. This is a great message for the saints of Bethlehem Bible Church.

Who knows what will happen this year? If you say, you know what, I've ran for long enough and now

I'm just kind of done. Well, you know what, if you're 75, 85, or 95 and you can't put as much effort into it,

I get it. And the good news is the older saints that we have here can be on their ill bed and be on their comforter thinking, when

I did have strength, I ran well. Thank you, Lord. And now I just have a different ministry to pray for people and other things and encourage them.

But if you're younger, this is it. If you think this year is about money and success and power and promotion and a better job and a better career and all those things,

I hope God blesses you. Don't we want to be blessed by God? Absolutely. But if the top of the list is,

I want to run. For the longest time, we only had a small little

TV. We don't get TV. We have the rabbit ears. And we had this small little TV about that big.

It was kind of a monitor that we just put DVDs in and stuff. Somebody gave us a little bit bigger

TV. And I remember watching basketball because we get one channel.

Well, we get lots of channels, but it's not English. So the only channel I could watch, and there's nothing wrong with that, praise the

Lord, Tower of Babel. Luke sometimes and I would watch some basketball game.

And we'd want to watch. And it doesn't get in very well, the reception, and it's kind of blurry and fuzzy and all kinds of white stuff floating down.

Mana, what is this? Looking around. We got the bigger TV and the better rabbit ears.

And Luke said, almost every NBA player has tattoos.

Hard to see when your TV is that big. Where's the ball? You can't even tell. You know what would be cool is if I could put a big screen up here just for a moment.

That's not my style in terms of preaching. But just imagine the big screens that you see, like an

IMAX screen of somebody running, full blast. A hundred meter dash.

And you know, when you see the close -ups, what do you see? You see veins bulging. You see calves just totally pumped, full of blood, and just bulging out.

You see sometimes drool coming out of the guy's mouth. Sometimes ladies, if they run, they run.

Mrs. Felix, we want her to win. She was one of, he was her dad. It's a long story.

Forget it. I'm wondering if I could just take your year this year and compress it and show you up close to say, you know what, it's kind of saunter.

I'm saved. Once saved, always saved. I'm going to make it. I can't have the Spirit of God unseal me.

I'm a Christian. I'm Calvinist. I'm Reformed. I'm this. Once saved, always saved. Eternal security. I got it.

I got it all done. Well, since God has done all that, you run to win. Yeah, but you see

God, I got these other plans. And then once the kids are out of the house, then every fiber goes for the

Gospel. Paul is saying, like I said two weeks ago, and it's weird to tell this to a congregation, run well.

Because that's what gives glory to God. And if you're not running well, God might cut you down.

He cut down all the Israelites, including Moses. And you say, well then you better preach to yourself.

God might cut you down. He might. And I've often prayed, Lord, if I'm going to give you dishonor and take away from your fame and your glory,

I'd just as soon die. Take me to heaven now. And you know the interesting thing is

I thought the other day, at the end of chapter 11, God cut down some

Christians for taking communion wrongly. He cut them down. You're like, well, my systematic theology, you can't lose your salvation.

Of course you can't lose your salvation. And since you can't, since God has sealed you, then run well.

What's the worst that's going to happen as you burn out for God? Oh, I don't want to burn out for God. I've got to save it. For what?

The Mayan calendar is this year. No, I'm sorry. I'm just kidding.

We believe in the eminent return of Christ. This is the real deal.

I met a young man this week. He was probably 24 years old. Big guy.

He was at a gym working. Nobody else was around. I told him

I was a pastor. He said, what kind? I said, Protestant. He said, I'm a Roman Catholic. And then he looked at me and he said, what's the difference between Catholics and Protestants?

I just went like this. I just thought, this is a slow ball. Wah, wah, wah.

This is perfect. So I gently explained the differences. He said, is premarital sex a sin?

So I was thinking to myself, he either is doing that or he wants to. And now he wants to know from me.

So I opened up 1 Corinthians 6 and said, fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God.

You can be forgiven, such were some of you, but fornicators don't inherit the kingdom of God. And if you practice fornification on a regular basis, it shows that you're unrighteous and that you're not born again.

And it's a sin against God. I said, the Christian sex ethic is not no. It's yes, all you want in marriage.

And if you're not married, yes, it is a sin. I could tell.

He didn't really like that answer, but he was glad to know the answer. And I said,

I think you need to be forgiven. He said, I do. How could I be forgiven?

I felt like I was in a movie or something. These words are coming out of my mouth and I go, this isn't just words.

Sometimes when you say, I've got to go to church and I've got to go to work, for me it's the same difference. And you just kind of get caught up in this.

And I thought, these are the words of eternal life. They're not my words, but God has equipped me and I can give Him these words.

And I said, you know, the best that you can do is unrighteousness.

The best that you do is like a filthy rag. And I told him what filthy rag actually meant in the

Hebrew because he cleaned both men and women's facilities there. I said, that's your best.

What are you going to do? I looked at him and I said these words. You're a dead man walking.

He said, I know. I'm a dead man walking. Then I preached the gospel hymn of grace.

There was a black piece of paper and a white piece of paper. I put the white piece of paper over the black piece of paper and talked about our sins.

Christ crediting us with His righteousness. Put the black piece of paper over the white piece of paper. Our sins

Jesus bears even though He's not a sinner. God credits them to His person.

God raised Him from the dead. We went through the whole thing. I said, you can be forgiven. What's the tie -in?

The tie -in is you too are a dead man walking. I know for sure, this isn't a scare tactic, but I'm going to bury some of you this year.

I'm going to bury you. And you know what? Not for my sake, even though it would help me.

I love to bury people who ran well for the Lord. But you know, in all my years of burying people,

I haven't buried that many who ran well. So forget for me, because you won't think of me when you're dead.

But for the Lord, doesn't He deserve your very best? Everything you have,

He's given to you. And He is not afraid to cut people down who just coast.

So run well for the glory of God. Run well for the glory of God because you can.

Because it is the Spirit of God working in you. Because of all these benefits. Because we're not running to get our salvation.

That would be an enemy to grace. But we're running because of our salvation. That is an evidence of grace.

So this is your year. I honestly can say it. I don't care about the building. I don't care about the land.

I care about you running the race well. And if you don't want to run the race well, I might as well just tell you this right now.

Coming up in this chapter, coming up in the next several chapters, it gets worse. This is not a good church for you if you want to coast.

I want you to feel the pressure. It's divine pressure. Corinth, run well or else.

Now here's the good news. We're not Corinth. Sometimes we act like the

Corinthians, but generally, we're not Corinth. But what's certain is

Paul says, as I imitate Christ, you imitate me. And Paul ran to the very end.

And Paul was not cut down. Let's pray. Father, You've given us so much.

By Your divine power, You've granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.

Father, for 2012, may Bethlehem Bible Church be a sweet fragrance to You, a sweet aroma of men and women sold out for the

Gospel because You've brought such a work in our lives that we cannot respond with anything less than devotion, service, ministry, one another's evangelism.

Father, even as I think about that man, Chris, I pray that You would grant him salvation. And Father, for those that are here today who are

Christians, and they've run the race well, and they're older now, and their bodies are older,

I pray that You just refresh them and grant them joy, grant them other ministries.

Father, for the young people here, and especially the dads, the husbands, I pray that You'd help them reassess the year and the year's priorities.

Father, use our church in such a way that at the end of the year we'll say, it's only God. God alone can do these things.

Thank You for loving us, sealing us, and thank You for giving us such an exhortation through Your servant,