Scripture referenced 12 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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1 Corinthians 10:31 quoted as the premise for the song: whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God
31 Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
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Keep this verse
Colossians 3:3
came to mind during the hymn: for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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1 Corinthians 10:1-22
the main passage preached through, covering the Old Testament examples, temptation, and fleeing idolatry
1 Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2 and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3 and all ate the same spiritual food;
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
5 However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
7 Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
8 Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.
9 Let us not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.
10 Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.
11 Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.
13 No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
15 I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say.
16 The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ?
17 Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread.
18 Consider Israel according to the flesh. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?
19 What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
20 But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons.
21 You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.
22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
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Exodus 32:6
quoted directly as the source of the people sitting down to eat and drink and rising up to play
6 They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
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Numbers 25:1-9
identified as the passage about sexual immorality and the 23,000 who died in one day
1 Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab;
2 for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods.
3 Israel joined himself to Baal Peor. Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel.
4 Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.”
5 Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.”
6 Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
7 When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the middle of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand.
8 He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
9 Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
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Numbers 21:6
identified as the passage about testing Christ and being killed by snakes
6 Yahweh sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died.
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Numbers 14:2
listed as one of several passages about grumbling and the destroying angel
2 All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness!
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Exodus 12:23
listed as one of several passages about grumbling and the destroying angel
23 For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.
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Numbers 14:37
listed as one of several passages about grumbling and the destroying angel
37 even those men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh.
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Numbers 16:30
listed as one of several passages about grumbling and the destroying angel
30 But if Yahweh makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up, with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol; then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.”
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Romans 15:14
read aloud near the close of the service as a benediction-style passage about being full of goodness and knowledge
14 I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others.
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Romans 15:5-6
spoken as the closing benediction: may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like minded toward one another
5 Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus,
6 that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message worked through 1 Corinthians 10:1-22, with Pastor Ray using a string of Old Testament examples to show why God warns His people against ignorance, sexual immorality, and idolatry. The thread running underneath all of it was that God's warnings come from love, not restriction. He also stopped at verse 13 to correct a common misreading that has taken root in church culture.
What was said
Pastor Ray opened by noting that everything Paul has written since chapter five has been building toward something. The Corinthians were new Christians coming out of a pagan city, and they were getting tangled in questions about what their freedom in Christ actually permitted. Paul's answer in chapter 10 is to take them back to the Exodus generation, a people who had every provision God could give, and show them what happened when that provision was taken for granted.
The "all" passages in the opening verses are deliberate, Pastor Ray pointed out. All of them were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all ate the same food, all drank from the same rock. God's grace covered every single one of them. And yet most of them did not please God, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. The lesson is not that God's provision ran out. The lesson is that people who are fully covered by grace can still turn away from it.
To make the Old Testament examples feel less distant, Pastor Ray compared them to a safety meeting he used to call the "don't do anything stupid meeting," drawn from years of teaching sawmill workers across the Southeast. The point was the same as Paul's: you learn from examples so you do not have to repeat them. The golden calf story from Exodus 32 got particular attention. Aaron broke the first two commandments nearly in order, used engraving tools to make a molded idol out of recycled earrings, built an altar to it, declared a feast to the Lord on the same day, and the people rose up to play, which Pastor Ray noted is a well-documented euphemism in the text for pagan sexual worship.
Verse 13 is where Pastor Ray slowed down and pushed back against something he said he hears constantly. The phrase "God won't put more on you than you can bear" is not what that verse says. The verse is specifically about temptation and sin, sitting inside a passage that is entirely about sin before it and sin after it. To make the verse about trials and suffering, you have to stretch the word beyond what the context allows. What it actually promises is that no temptation that comes at us is unique to us, and that God will always make a way to resist it. The alternate reading, Pastor Ray said, produces a verse that is almost self-centered: God knows your limit and stays just under it. The real comfort is different. God will not put more on you than He can bear, and He is always available to bear it with you.
From verse 14 onward, Pastor Ray connected the Lord's Supper back to the earlier argument about meat offered to idols. Participation matters. When believers share the cup and the bread, they are joining themselves to Christ. When the Corinthians kept eating in pagan temples, they were joining themselves to something else. Pastor Ray was clear that Paul was not saying idols are real gods. He was saying that anything set up in opposition to God has a spiritual character that is demonic, and you cannot sit at both tables.
Pastor Ray closed the passage by pointing back to the word translated "stronger" in the question, "Are we stronger than He?" He drew from the lexical range of that word to make a positive point: the same power that is greater than anything we could place against God is immediately and always available to believers through faith. Jesus, fully human, was tempted at every point we are and never sinned. He proved it could be done. That same strength is on offer to anyone who calls on it.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray used the safety meeting illustration to explain why Paul gives Old Testament examples of failure. What is one of those examples that landed with you, and what does it tell you about what God was trying to protect his people from?
- Pastor Ray said the tagline from the previous week's passage was 'who you love is more important than what you know.' How does that idea carry forward into what Paul is saying in this passage about participation with idols?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 15,893 words
0:00
It's good to see you guys. I I look forward to every Sunday that we have together, and I'm glad that you're here. And I really do pray that you'd feel welcome and that, you would make an effort to reach out to one another. Because when we get to church, sometimes we can tend to think that it's just about us, and it's not. It's about God and others.
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And so let's focus on that this morning, shall we? And we have the privilege of singing. How cool is that? So can we stand up? We'll sing together.
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Let's sing in the gentle healing hands.
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Sing his gentle healing hands, how they found the Lord's man. Sing his gentle healing hands, sings the living God. We sing the mercy that he gives, though we stand before guilt. And the mercy that he gives, sings in the
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living God.
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And how he loves let's sing it. And how he Sing for the morning. Sing for the morning when he comes in the clouds glorious
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Amen. Can we pray? God, thank you. Thank you again for this great opportunity to come together as a church family and worship you. Amen.
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I've got the one announcement up there that I know about right now. Welcome to First Bee. That's the one of them that I know. If you have one that's weird or different right now, if you have one, yourself that you're leading or involved in that's weird or different, would you stand up and share it with us? Would you stand up and greet one another warmly, and we'll bring you back together with a song.
3:30
Can I can I share a verse with you guys? I think it's such a great verse, and it's really the premise for this song and it's from first Corinthians ten thirty one. If you heard this, have you heard this verse before? It is, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the
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glory of God. Have you heard that? Amen.
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We exist for the glory of God. Shall we sing it?
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Before the world before the world was made. Before the spoken to me. You were the king of kings. Yeah. You were.
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Yeah. You were. And now you're reigning still enthroned above all things. Angels and saints cry out. We join them as we sing.
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Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever. And we sing glory to God. Glory to God.
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Glory to God forever. Creator God, you gave me for us when I could praise your great and matchless man. All my days, all my days. So let my whole life be ablazing offering. A life that shouts and sings the greatness of our king.
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Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever. And we sing glory to God. Glory to God.
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Glory to God forever. Let's sing
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take my life. So take my life and let
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it be all for you. And we say glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever. And we say glory to God.
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Glory to God. Glory to God forever.
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Alone.
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Nothing in it and nothing in my
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hand I bring. Send
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I that
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the foreground. And vow not to have found to die. Wash me, Lord, I die. And while I draw this fleeting brand, when my myself in thee.
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When I listen to that song, the verse that comes to mind is Colossians three three, for you died into this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. That's that's our life in Christ. It is hidden with Christ in God because of Jesus' righteous then that becomes our righteousness. It is imputed. It is brought on to us.
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And are we deserving? No. But God is gracious. God, how wonderful promise that is that when we call on you, we're saved by grace through faith, and we're forever yours. Nothing can take us out of your hand.
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I just thank you once again for grace, for mercy, for forgiveness, for loving us in spite of us, and then giving us new life in you. It is such a gift and, oh, we'd be foolish to forfeit it. We really would. God, thank you for the gifts that you've given. Thank you for material gifts and as we enter here in worship of of giving, pray that it'd be more than just throwing some money in a plate that we'd really be saying to you, here's my heart.
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Here here here's my my priorities, and I'm putting them in your hands. I trust you with what you've given, and I thank you. Amen. You be seated. Words are on the screen.
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I always invite you to sing. I love I love when we can sing together. That's the best part of our worship together is when we can sing together.
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Thank you, Lord Feeler.
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He is my
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This morning, we're gonna just keep on rolling forward in first Corinthians, and y'all know we went through the first four chapters about divisions in the church and factions. It was sort of nonspecific at that point, what those divisions and factions were over, but it seemed that there were some powerful leaders that had raised up and people were kinda rallying around them rather than rallying around the eternal word and things of God. They were kinda trying some of them pushing the envelope towards, let's say, liberty or license, and then others were really trying to hold the ground and pushing towards legalism. And so the factions were mainly on that. We know from the history of Corinth and looking at it what the what the issues were and it comes up a lot in this book.
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Sexual immorality seemed to have come up just about every week for a long time from chapter five all the way up through chapter six, seven, and then in eight, we had this kind of a dialogue about eating meat offering to idols and we thought we had a little relief but turned out that was the heaviest one for me and for y'all too because it was the things that we can do in our Christian liberty that are not a moral thing for us but it could be a moral thing for our brother. And so last week, so that that that the tagline for that one was, who you love is more important than what you know. And then last week, we went on forward from there and went through chapter nine. Paul is building and building and building. He goes, I told y'all a few weeks ago, he rants like Tanya.
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Sometimes, he goes he goes forward, and he just he just rolls on. And it's a good thing. I asked her to marry me during a rant, if y'all didn't hear that a few weeks ago, because he's dead on. He's dead on. And Tanya was at the time.
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She was talking about hypocrisy when I asked her to marry. She wasn't directing it at me at the time. Be be insensitive to conscience. And so last week, we saw Paul in chapter nine, and he was kinda defending. He really was more explaining himself.
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He calls it a defense, but he was explaining why he had been there and not ever taken from them. He wanted them to know that it was not about the money. It was not about the fame. It was not about being a powerful leader. It was about the gospel, the message of the cross.
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That's what it was. And so, this week, we start off chapter 10 with moreover or indeed, it's an elongation. He's going on further in his argument. And then he's saying, basically, God really does love you. And because he really does love you, he wants to give you help in your life.
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He wants to draw you close to him, and he's trying his best to help you. He really, really does love you. Now, Paul goes, what does Paul know? Now, he was a Pharisee. Right?
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And he had studied at the feet of Gamaliel. He had been studying this for a long time, and when the scales were dropped from Paul's eyes, we see in Acts, all of that, all of that Old Testament learning that he had done for so long now made sense in the light of Christ. And so in this place, he's saying, I'm gonna use a few Old Testament examples, and we're we're gonna combat with this as ignorance, immorality, and idolatry. Now, I'm going through every week I go through, I have the scripture on the screen. I don't have tons of illustrations today, but I thought of one just a second ago.
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For five years, before I ever moved to the mission field, I taught all over the Southeast. I taught safety lessons in sawmills and factories all over. And mostly sawmills, but a lot of other kinds of factories too. And a guy who's missing a digit has a powerful testimony about not sticking your hand in a saw. You you you know what I'm saying?
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Somebody who has filled a fire extinguisher full of diesel and grease because he thought that would be a perfect delivery device for diesel and grease along the chains, the green chain up under a sawmill. Needs lubrication. This would do it, you know, 20 gallons at a time. So he filled up a fire extinguisher with diesel and grease mixed together. And he sat it right next to the gang saw, and he was fine as long he was the maintenance man.
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He's the only one there at night, you know. So he greases everything after everybody goes home. Well, that's great for him. But what do you think when you see fire extinguisher? Well, if there's ever a fire, I know right where to go.
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And that gang saw caught on fire one morning early, and they grabbed, you know, 20 gallons of diesel and grease and put it on there. Like, they like to never got that mill out because they he was pouring fuel to the fire. So Paul is saying, these things have happened as an example. So OSHA says you have to teach about eight subjects every year for most of those places. So I do those eight subjects.
21:42
And then specific to the industry, I do two or three others. But there was always seemed like there was one extra meeting. And what I did in that meeting, and I called it the don't do anything stupid meeting. And I would use all the examples of the stupid things that people had done since the last time. I tried to change the names to protect the guilty.
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But it was that. We had guys that put paint thinner, explosive, into a bucket to clean the paint gun parts. They put all the paint gun parts down in there and then put that in the paint shaker. Not smart. Not a not a brilliant thing to do, but nobody will ever do it again.
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I guarantee that. Paul is using the old testament examples to combat ignorance, immorality, and idolatry. He's doing it from the perspective that God really does love you. He really does want your best. So here we go.
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For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, that they all passed through the sea. Now, these are the chosen people of God. He's talking about the Exodus. When Moses was leading the people out of Egypt, he says they all were under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. God's grace was covering all of them.
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He got them all out. Okay? They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now, they had by daytime a cloud that traveled in a pillar in front of them so they could follow this manifestation of God. At night, it was a shaft of fire that they were able to follow.
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They could literally see God leaving them. He led them through the sea. The Red Sea got them all through it. They all ate the same spiritual food. Actually, all ate the same physical food, manna from heaven, quail that he provided, water in the desert flowing from a rock.
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And he says, and they drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and that rock was Christ, Messiah. It was the anointed one. God had his hand of protection all over them and provision and it was for all of them. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. They sent the spies into the promised land, and this is where God had promised them that they would be.
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10 of them came back and said, can't do this. We're like grasshoppers in their sight. There's no way. We cannot do this. We cannot do this.
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We cannot do this. We do this. We cannot do this. Word spreads throughout the camp. We cannot do this.
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Joshua and Caleb said, oh, yes, we can. With God on our side, we can do this. We can take em. This is our promised land. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
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Oh, that's a hard one. Now, these things occurred as examples, tupoi in Greek, to keep us, types or examples, to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. That's the why. To keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Very, very strong, very strong imperative right here.
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Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. Now, all of them were protected by the grace of God. Right? All of them had been provided for. All of them had food.
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All of them had water. All of them had what they needed, but some of them were idolaters. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and they got up to indulge in revelry. This is the New International Version. I've mentioned this almost every week I use the New King James, that's what I normally use.
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But this one's New International because the New King James says this, the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play. Now, that's actually a better translation of the actual word but it's a euphemism. Play is play. They got up to indulge in one of the versions of NIV. It's to indulge in pagan revelry which would be even stronger for the Corinthians because they were coming out of paganism.
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Pagan worship involved prostitution in the temple. So this is a play. So where does it come from? Where was it written? If you look back to Exodus thirty two six, it's exactly the same thing in the k NKJV translation is exactly word for word.
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The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. This is the whole story. Just listen to this real quick. I'm gonna read it. Y'all can y'all I know you can't see, but I can't.
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Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain and the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, come, make us gods, small g, that shall go before us. For as for this Moses, this man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him. And Aaron said to them, okay, break off the golden earrings which are in your ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and he fashioned with it an engraving tool.
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What are the commandments again? He's breaking them one at a time and almost in order. He received the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf. Then they said, this is your God, o Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Now, that thing didn't exist until right then.
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Right? And he made it out of earrings. And this is the God that brought you out of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an offer altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord and it was. That next day was a feast to the Lord.
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God, Christ, Messiah, the one who'd really brought him out. But on that day, they had made an altar to another god, and they rose up early on that next day. They offered burnt offerings before this little piece of gold, recycled earrings, and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play, indulgent pagal revelry. Oh, he goes right on. He just says that, and then he goes right on.
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We should not commit sexual immorality. So so far, we've got him combating ignorance. I do not want for you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning this. Do not be idolaters. And then this, we should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did.
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And in one day, twenty three thousand of them died. That chapter Numbers chapter twenty five one through nine is the story, if you wanna read that. Numbers chapter twenty five one through nine says that. And that was Baal Peor, which was one of the pagan gods of the area that they had gone into and they were attracted to that because of the way that they worship. One of the ways that they worship was by prostitution of virgin daughters.
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Number nine, we should not test Christ as some of them did and were killed by snakes. That one is numbers twenty one six. If you remember that story, there were snakes all around. God told Moses what he could do to remedy the situation, put up this image, raise it up just like Jesus was raised on the cross. Jesus used it later as an example.
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Raise this up, and all they have to do is look upon it in faith, and they will be saved. And the ones who did were, but the ones who didn't were killed by snakes. And then so that's twenty one six of numbers. And then 10 is, and do not grumble, as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel. That could be lots of different places.
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Numbers fourteen two, Exodus twelve twenty three, Numbers fourteen thirty seven, Numbers sixteen thirty, not to mention in Egypt. When the Passover was to happen and you're supposed to spread the blood of the lamb over the post and lentils of your house, all of the Egyptians died. Right? The firstborn son of the house died because the destroying angel was passing over those who had believed and had done what God told them to do. Now, if an Israelite, a Jew, one of the Hebrew race, if they had not spread that blood over it, not believing that God would do what he said he would do, what would happen to that firstborn son in that family?
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They would die. He gave them a warning. He gave them the example. He gave them a heads up. So we get back to 11, and Paul says again, now these things happen to them as examples, and they were written down as warnings for us.
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On whom the culmination of the ages has come. Paul saw himself very much in being in the time period where redemption was fully available in Christ and it had happened. And he saw how all the prophecies had been fulfilled in Christ. He saw this opening of an age of grace that was opening up, and he was looking forward to the second coming of Christ. We still are.
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But he saw this opening and he said, upon us who the upon us on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So if you think that you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. That's ten twelve. This one this one ought to be a bumper sticker. This one ought to be on our mirror that we see because we can and do take pride in our accomplishments.
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We get really comfortable when we do well for a little while, and then Moses wanders up the mountain. Something happens and we start questioning what's going on or we don't and it just blindsides us. If you think that you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. He's saying, never never let down. Be vigilant.
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Be concerned. God loves you. He's told you what is expected of you. Let's let's walk with that. Let's share that with others, you know.
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And then, verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. But or and God is faithful and 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 endure it or stand firm under it. Now, I say that and I emphasize temptation, tempted, and tempted.
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The range of meaning on that word can be trials, adversity, calamity, but it's most certainly, in this case, it's temptation. What has he been talking about? Sin. Sin. Sin.
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Sin. Sin. What's whole Bible about? No, it's not really about sin. It's about love.
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But he's been talking about sin in context. So, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, and then he gets to the place of temptation and he says that and when he gets off of this verse, he's gonna go straight back into temptation, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. He's gonna do that for this chapter. So, there's no doubt that this is temptation. No temptation has overtaken you except for what is common to mankind.
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Common to mankind right there is one word, and it means it's bound up in the heart of a man or woman. It's bound up in our hearts to be proud and sinful. That is the way that we are wired, that is the way that we're made. It's not that it's commonplace. I'll get to this in a minute.
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But he's saying that everything that you're undergoing, other people undergo. When he says, forbear one another, forgive one another, carry each other's burdens, he's talking about this kind of thing. Having accountability, real accountability, he's talking about that. So no temptation has overtaken you except for what is common to mankind. If you're struggling with it, other people have struggled with it.
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But God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. Paul is encouraging them. He won't you won't get in a place where you can't make the righteous choice. But when you're tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand under that temptation, so that you can bear it. And then immediately after that, let's go through this.
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Why not? I've heard so many sermons this on this and I've heard so many people say this and when people come to a pastor and they're crying, God won't put more on you than you can bear. That is not true. It's not true. God routinely allows and puts things on us that we cannot bear alone.
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He will never put anything on you that he can't bear, and that's for sure. That's true. This is an alternate and less trustworthy rendering of that verse, and this is because of that range of meaning. No testing or trial or adversity or calamity has seized you except such that is common to mankind. What's happening to you has happened to everybody else?
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That's the that's what's what they're saying. It's not so bad. Other people have had worse. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able. It's very you centered.
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But with the test or trial or adversity or calamity, he will also make for you a way of escape. It's like a magic bullet almost that God's gonna make for you a way of escape to escape out of whatever it is that's on top of it. That you may be able to bear it. Some people would even say that you might be able to get away from it. That testing part of this, this is as close as the Bible ever gets to saying, God will not put more on you than you can bear, but that's not what it's saying.
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It's talking about temptation. It is talking about temptation for sure. So God won't put more on you than you can bear. It's just not a biblical concept. In fact, he says, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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I'll take it all. I'll lighten your load. He says, carry one another's burdens, and we can really do that if we'll share them with one another. So, x curse is over. No temptation has overtaken you except for it's common to mankind.
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It's bound up in the heart of man, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. And you know how I know that? Because Jesus was fully man and he fully did it. He lived a life without sin.
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Proved it could be done, if you wanna look at that way. Gave us our example that whenever faced with difficulty, he handled it the right way. Sometimes that is like a sheep before his shears of silent being silent. And sometimes, it's okay to take that whip of cords and flip over those tables. He never sinned.
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But when you're tempted, he'll also provide a way out so you can endure it. Now, looking at our Old Testament and seeing how easy it was for that to happen to some of them, and I emphasize the some of them. If we, as wise people, look at this and go, okay, Paul's talking about rebellious attitudes, idolatry, being lured away by sexuality, and what we know of Corinth so far and through what he's told us about Corinth. We know what their problems were, and they match up a whole lot with our you know? Matches up with our society too.
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If we know all that, the very next verse says, therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. An idol an idol is anything that we set up in front of God. Anything that we set up that we adore and worship and cling to more than God. It can be anything. Flee from it.
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Flee idolatry. I'm speaking to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. A word to the wise is sufficient, Paul says. I've been beating this horse for 10 chapters.
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I'm speaking to sensible people. Judge for yourselves as to whether I'm right or not. Okay? Isn't it 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?
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Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share that one loaf. Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar. Now, this chapter ten fourteen through 22, I told you a few weeks ago when we were on chapter eight, and it was talking about meat offered to idols that I was gonna I'm tempted to go to this, but I wanna do it in order. He's using this as a further explanation of what he's just said about all those Old Testament examples.
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And he says, consider the people of Israel, Old Testament examples. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? He's talking about participation with. Now, what was he warning them against or talking to him about in chapter eight? Eating that meat offered to idols.
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And yes, I know that idols are nothing. I got that. Yes, you're right. It's just something that they set up, something they made with their hands. And yes, the meat that's offered to it is not tainted in any real way.
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I understand that. I got that. But for people who've come out of that, it's not loving if you eat that meat. And it's out of concern, and it's motivated for Paul out of the very gospel. I mentioned that last week.
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The gospel itself is what saved Paul, but it's also what motivated him to use his spiritual gifts that God gave him. And it was all that learning that he had and the love for the people mixed together. He saw the grace of God and how that could be conveyed. And he felt that it would be, woe be unto him if I do not proclaim this gospel, this good news. So participation, participation, consider this the participation and then he says, do I mean then that food sacrifice to an idol is anything?
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Because it sounds like he's controverting himself. He's going back on what he said earlier because he says, check this out. To an that food sacrifice to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything. Also, I wanna give you the
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new King James on this because I
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think it's funny because Paul's been going on and on and on in this rant and then all of sudden, he says, what am I saying then? What am I saying then? I'll back up. Sum up for you. That an idol is anything or what offered to idols is anything?
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No. But that the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons and not to God. He's saying, yeah, they're not gods. But anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, anything that sets itself up against God does have a spiritual component that is drawing people away, and that is demonic. He's opening up the question of spiritual beings that actually are pulling people away and where people are against God have set something up in front of him.
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That's domain of demons. But the sacrifices of pagans are offered demons and 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?
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Are we stronger than he? Are y'all with me? Do you see what I'm saying? This 14 through 22 is further teaching on the other subject. He was saying to begin with, yes, I understand.
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Your theology is dead on. Wonderful. Great. But then when he comes back to it, he says, listen, participation in the body of Christ precludes participation in the table of demons. You you just can't have it both ways.
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And all of the earlier Old Testament examples he gave were where people were lured away when when God said, don't mix with them. Don't take their daughters for wives. Don't mix the religion. Solomon, my goodness. Solomon married a bunch of wives that were not of his people, and he was drawn away.
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That's what Paul is saying. Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy for one? I'm the Lord your God. I am one, and I am number one. First commandment.
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There shall be no other gods before him. Are we trying to arouse God's jealousy? And are we stronger than he? I thought of this verse. Do not be loving the world.
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I I threw my arm out last time I was teaching on this verse, actually. Do not be loving the things of the world. I think I got it fixed. Do not be loving the things of the world. If anyone might be loving the world, you can't do both at the same time.
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If you're loving the things of God, you cannot also be loving the things of the world. The love of the father is not abiding in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, have we heard about that? He's combating immorality, sexual immorality in particular named. The lust of the eyes, looking on something and seeing and wanting to worship that, looking after that, the lust of the eyes being drawn away in your thought life first.
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And the pride of life is not of the father, but it's of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. Now, the will of God, it sound may sound like it's for the glory of God like Carl said. The will of God is that none should perish. But come to acknowledge, understand and acknowledge that Jesus was sent as a sacrifice for sin and to save.
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He is mighty to save. Actually, the stronger the world is passing away. I'm gonna go to this. If y'all can read this,
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I don't
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know. Are we stronger than he? The word there is Iskaras and it's strong, mighty, powerful, strong, originally and generally a physical strength, mighty, powerful, vehement, sure. And if you go down here to the bottom, it says, for the believer, Iscaraz itself is to bring about his preferred will through faith. This engaging strength is always and immediately available from the Lord who accomplishes his assignments.
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I I know y'all can't see that very well. The strength is always and immediately available from the Lord, which accomplishes his assignments. That part about not being tempted beyond what you're able, the power of the Lord is actually available to you when you call out to him, to be able to say no. Sounds like a real Wesleyan concept. Sounds like a real Methodist concept to say, ever before us are two choices.
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They are towards God or away from God, and you have the power through the blood of Christ. You have the power to lean towards God, to pull into him, and he will give you the power. It's available, ever available to accomplish his assignment. Now, if I could back up. Blake, if you can back it up to right there.
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This is the what am I saying then. What am I saying then? These are the three. God does not want us to be ignorant. For one thing, I hardly ever preach one where I say, read your Bibles.
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I hope that it's engaging enough that y'all wanna read your Bibles. It's good stuff. The stories are wonderful. They were given as examples, sufficient examples for us to see what it is that pleases and what it is that displeases God. Now, we are not trying to earn his favor, but it's nice to know what pleases him.
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Because he's given so much for us and to us, you'd like to know what pleases him. Right? He wants us to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things just as they did. That's straight from the text. He wants us to keep from setting our hearts on evil things just as they did.
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God also knows that sexuality is very, very powerful. In its proper context, sex bonds husband and wife. That's chemically true. I don't know how many of y'all have been reading up on that lately, but oxytocin release, all of that sort of stuff, it binds mother and child, and it binds husband and wife. But outside of that context, it tends to pull us away from God by linking ourselves to people that we have nothing in common with, no commitment with.
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So God knows that sexuality is very powerful. And therefore, he says, flee from sexual immorality. He's not saying it because it's so fun and I don't want you to do it. He's saying, because I designed it for a purpose, and I want for it to accomplish its purpose and not be taken over by the devil. God does not want us to be enticed away by idols.
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Ultimately, think about this. What do demons have to offer? Almighty God. This is not a yin yang where there's the white over here and the black right here where it's exactly equal, where God and the devil are fighting it out to the end. There's not a dualism.
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It's not even close. The devil loses. Okay? God wins. You read the end of the book?
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There's no doubt. It's it's for sure. It's not even close. Demons have nothing to offer. Paul says we can't truly participate with both.
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He's urging them to put down the table of demons, to get out of there. Love the people. Draw them out by all means, but put them down. Sin is an empty and unfulfilling distraction from the goodness of our gracious God. Now, in this particular sermon, in this particular passage, it comes down pretty heavy, heavy, heavy on sin, sin, sin, sin, sin.
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He doesn't give all the rationale of love that he's been doing since the beginning. Now, in chapter 13, he'll go on and on about love just as long, and he's building up to that. But sin is an empty and unfulfilling distraction from the goodness of our gracious God. Delight yourself in the Lord and he'll grant you the desires of your heart. I think that that's it because I already used my last slide.
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So would you all stand with us and we're gonna sing, I will follow. All of those Old Testament examples that he gave, some of them were about rebellion, some of them were about just kinda growing weary of waiting on the Lord. That's what they were doing when they're waiting on Moses. They grew weary of waiting on him and when they did that, they started to be distracted and going astray. Sometimes that happens when we've been through a lot, like Elijah.
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I'm using lots of Old Testament examples. Elijah faces up with the prophets of Baal and has seized fire fall from heaven, and immediately thereafter, he goes into a deep depression, goes off by himself, and wishes that he could die. I don't know where you are this morning, don't have any idea, but I know that we always have that choice in front of us. Either can lean into God, turn towards Him, or we can lean away from Him and lean into sin. So I will follow.
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Where you know I'm go, where you stay I'll stay. When you move our moon, I'll follow. All your ways are good. Let's sing it. Your ways are good.
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All your ways are short. And I will trust in you alone, higher than my sight, high above my life. I will trust in you
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alone. In you alone, knowing I will find. All I need is you alone. And if you know
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where you go, I
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I'll read from Romans 14 I mean, Romans 15 verse 14. Now, I myself am confident concerning you, my brothers and sisters, that you also are full of goodness, that you're filled with knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brothers, I've written more boldly to you on some points and reminding you because of the grace that's been given to me by God. That I might minister to Jesus Christ to the nations, ministering the gospel of God that the offering of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus and in the things which pertain to God.
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Amen. Transgression. Now, Judy and I were flipping through the book, seeing what to play. We had two minutes left. So, the longer I serve him, the sweeter he grows.
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Since I started for the kingdom, since my life, he controls. Since I gave my heart to Jesus, the longer that I serve him, the sweeter he grows. Amen. Would you stand with me? We're, I'm glad you're here but would you stand with me and let's praise God together.
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We'll start out by singing standing on the promises. Standing on the promises. Hymn number four ten, if you want to sing your part.
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Standing on the promises of Christ my king through eternal ages let his praises ring glory in the highest we will shout and sing standing on the promises of God standing standing on the promises of God my savior standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God standing on the promises cannot fail when the howling storms of doubt and fear are sail. By the living word of God, I shall prevail. Standing on the promises of God. Standing standing on the promises of God my savior standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God standing on the promises I now can see perfect present cleansing in the blood for me standing in the liberty where Christ makes free standing on the promises of God standing standing standing on the promises of God my savior standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God two more Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord bound to him eternally by love's strong cord overcoming daily with the spirit sword standing on the promises of God standing standing on the promises of God my savior standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God. Amen.
1:01:12
We're gonna
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sing another one, the solid rock. Is there another one? Y'all have an extra verse standing on the promises.
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Standing Standing Standing the You start. Promises I cannot fall, listening every moments to the spirit's call as my all in all standing on the promises of God standing standing on the promises of God my savior standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God
1:01:57
Sounds good. Are y'all enjoying this? Yes. Yes. Let's do five twenty six.
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Solid rock, the solid rock. Hymn number five twenty six, if you want your part. There's a there's a Bible and hymnal. I saw Bob reach for one and Bob is so much help. I'm going to get Bob one.
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My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.
1:03:11
On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand his oath is covenant his blood support me in the whelming flood when all around my soul gives way even is all my hope and state on Christ the solid rock I stand all of the ground is sinking sand, all of the ground is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found dressed in his righteousness alone, fall less to stand before the throne. On Christ a solid rock I stand, all of the ground is sinking sand all of the ground is sinking sand amen and you can be seated.
1:04:33
I have one announcement slide today. That's it. Welcome to First B. We're glad that you're here. I didn't have a whole lot of others.
1:04:41
They are in your bulletin and you're welcome to know about em but we've just about hit our stride on the weekly programs. They're up and going. There's one more. There's one weird announcement. I was going to call out for it.
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One weird or different announcement and it looks like I have a taker. I'm gonna be more interesting.
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I wanted to introduce myself. I am Pam Valdez.
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With two m's. Pam with two m's.
1:05:10
Yes. I'm odd. But I wanted to just kind of introduce myself and let you all know that we do have a nursery downstairs, but I am looking for volunteers. It's a volunteer nursery and right now we don't have anybody for this service and I know there is a need. So if any of you would like to get in contact with me so that you can volunteer, that would be great.
1:05:32
And the more I have the less you have to do it. So my phone number and my email you can get a hold of Diane. Sometimes it's in the bulletin. I'll make sure that it is next week, but I would appreciate anybody who would love to come down and work with our kids.
1:05:49
Thank you. So this morning, I said, were there any weird and different announcements? And Doug Walkup stood and said that that they will be taking pictures for the next few weeks. We're we put up a bulletin board down in the fellowship hall and we'll be taking pictures and putting them up there so that we can remember everybody's names. I get to meet a lot of y'all and I we love you all but a lot of times you feel like, oh, I've met that person too many times did not know their name.
1:06:16
You can run down there and sneak a look at the fellowship hall, bulletin board, and figure it out. And there are lots of new faces and that's a nice thing to have to to do. So does anybody else have one? It looked like Nancy was standing up. You were just never mind.
1:06:32
You're stretching. I'll mention the Christmas pageant. How about that? We'll mention the Christmas pageant just in general. I won't give you any specifics right now, but we will they will be forthcoming in the next bulletin.
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Okay? Anybody else? Weird or different? Peculiar people you are. Okay.
1:06:48
No. Alright. Well, we're gonna just stand and greet one another and Judy and I'll bring you back together with some. Thank you for being here this morning and just praising God together as a body.
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Oh Lord, my God, when I am awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou heart how great thou heart then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou heart how great thou and when I think that God his son not sparing sent him to die I scarce can take it in that on the cross my burden gladly bearing he bled and died to take away my sin then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou heart how great thou art then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou on the last verse when Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim my God how great thou art Then sings my soul, my savior, to thee.
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How great thou art. How great art. Then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art how great Amen.
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To sing that song here to me is just every single time. It's just amazing. God is always amazing but I notice it here. We've come into his house. Hymn number two twenty four.
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We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship him we have come into his house and wondered in his name to worship him we have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship Christ the Lord worship him let's forget about ourselves and glorify his name and worship him let's forget about ourselves and magnify his name and worship him let's forget about ourselves and magnify his name and worship Christ the Lord worship him Christ the
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Amen. Y'all can be seated. Now, I'm going to invite the frontline team. Y'all can be seated. Forward, please and I thought I heard a voice say, Ray, just then.
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Did anybody call me? No. Here I am, lord. Sorry. Here we go.
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God, thank you for all that you've given to us. Lord, thank you for the weather. My goodness. We appreciate what you have done, lord. We look around us and we see your splendor.
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We see your grandeur, lord, and it's common grace that you're given and you're holding it out to all lord. Those who walk with you and those who walk and stand against you and God I I've been moved by that this week. How common general revelation is. It's all around us all the time and and when I think that God has son not sparing, send him to die, scarce can take it in. So, God as as those of us who have received your special specific revelation that you've given in your word, lord, we just give you thanks for explaining yourself.
1:15:09
You did not owe us that. Lord, for those of us who have been given financial gifts, we thank you for that. We have much more than we deserve, Lord. We want to give not out of a sense of duty or trying to please you or win your favor, God. We give back so that we may see others see you for who you are.
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In Jesus' name, would you carry your gospel forward through these offerings? Amen. Amen. Thank you, Judy. So, we're carrying on in our study of first Corinthians.
1:18:28
Just moving straight on forward and we are up to first Corinthians 10 and I was considering the whole chapter again this week but there's just too much there. In fact, after the first service, I think there might be too much here but listen fast, okay? Ten one through 22. What I usually like to do is if we're going through a particularly hard passage that's about sin or it's heavy or it's hard and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of light. I keep going till I get to some light.
1:18:55
Consider this, before we start, there's light all over this passage. God loves you. God loves us. What Paul is saying to the Corinthians and to us is that God really does love you and the things that he either prohibits or or commands are for our own good. Paul's using some Old Testament examples to combat ignorance first of all, immorality, and idolatry.
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If you'll consider where Corinth was in that time period, they did not have a good grip on the Bible. Most of the society didn't have it at all but those Christians were new Christians and they were just getting into it. It's a whole lot easier to camp out in the New Testament which I do. Y'all know that. We've been in the New Testament pretty much since I've been here but there's a lot in that Old Testament that is meant for our good and Paul tells us why it's there.
1:19:46
So he wants to combat ignorance first of all because biblical ignorance has you wandering around looking for the right way and not finding it. He has some words about immorality because it will draw you away from God. And he knows that that's not good for us. So he gives us a warning upfront so that we're not drawn away. And then idolatry.
1:20:06
All of it gets mixed up in idolatry. I think as we go through the passage, you'll see it. Those are the three things explicitly from the text that he's using these Old Testament examples to combat. There's one verse right in the middle. I I usually do all of my linguistic study and I I go back sometimes and I'll look up and see if anybody has preached on this and I'll listen to some guys preach and you know, people don't preach their way through Corinthians like they do other books because it's there's a lot of heavy and hard stuff here.
1:20:34
So, most people concentrate on one verse and when we get to that one verse, I'll call it out and we'll go through it, okay? So, that's what you can expect. Dispelling ignorance, immorality, and idolatry from Paul, but there's one verse right in the middle that I think people take the wrong way, and I don't think there's any argument about whether it should be that way or not. So I'm starting off right here. Let me give you one example.
1:20:56
He's using Old Testament examples. I used to do before I went to Mexico and lived seven years there, I used to do sawmill safety meetings in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina. All over the Southeast, I I would leave from my little home in Shiloh, Georgia and go all over, drive three, four, five hours a day. And I taught safety meetings to keep employees from cutting off fingers and having accidents, back injuries, and that sort of thing and Osha says, you have about eight or nine things that you have to teach every year no matter what the industry. So, at least those eight have to be covered.
1:21:29
Compliance training. I did that for 42 companies while I was working for this company, safety consultant and I'd go in and I'd teach them a safety lesson, you know, how not to cut your hands off or to wear your personal protective whatever, locking machinery out, all that sort of stuff. Fire extinguisher safety. So as I went in, I had about eight or nine of them that I had to do, and I usually could find two or two or three more that were industry specific that I would teach. And then there was usually one left at the end of the year that I had not gotten, you know, a specific one and I did the don't do anything stupid meeting.
1:22:03
Okay? And usually, that meeting consisted of all the stupid things I had heard that had happened in all of those mills from the previous year. And I would go to him and say, alright. I've told you fire extinguisher safety. I've told you personal protective equipment, locking stuff out.
1:22:16
I've told you all this. Two months ago, a guy and I would tell him whatever the example was. Like this one. So, I had a a maintenance man at night in a sawmill. The green chain coming out of a debarker moving things on down the line needed to be lubricated every day, every night, and that what they used to do that was like axle grease but they thinned it down with diesel.
1:22:39
So, axle grease and diesel and he was the delivery device was a five gallon bucket and he had painted on there and it was just taking him forever to do it. So, he decided what he would do is he would fill up an old fire extinguisher with grease and diesel mixed together he'd mix that together. He had about 20 gallons of diesel and he carried this thing around and he had it. It was a it was a it was kind of like you do a weed sprayer almost but he was using an old fire extinguisher and so he would grease the chains at night and so the next morning, that sounds fine for him and he'd sit it right there next to the debarker till the next night when he needed it. Until something catches on fire, that sounded like a good idea.
1:23:20
So, they grabbed that fire extinguisher full of diesel and grease and sprayed it on a fire and it spread throughout the whole mill burned burned a lot of the place down, you know? And so, I'm going on to people and they're like, yeah, that's not smart. That's that's so don't do this. Had another guy that thought he's a rookie guy. He's in there.
1:23:38
They paint a lot of heavy equipment, thick paint, hard to clean the parts for the guns and so this kid decided he put all the parts of the paint gun into a paint can, fill it up with a little bit of paint thinner, you know, methyl ethic ketones, something like that, something explosive, put it into a one gallon but paint can, put the top on it, beat it down with a hammer, and then put it in the paint shaker to clean the parts. That was not a good idea. They call that guy boom boom from then on. I'm not joking. He was missing his eyebrows right here, and there was a hole in the roof.
1:24:09
And I'm I'm serious. So using examples, it was a lot easier to say, just take the time and clean the gummy paint off instead of, you know, doing this. There were lots of those. I've got a million of em because people do dumb things. Paul's doing the same thing right here.
1:24:25
He's looking back. Now, you know, Paul was a Pharisee. He knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards. He knew it was able to recite big, long passages of it, I'm sure. So, he had all this information in his head and when it comes to the Corinthians, he's saying, you need to know your Bible because it has in there some things that will help you.
1:24:42
If you follow the example of the people who did things well and if you don't follow the example of people who did not do things well, you will go far. It will help you in your spiritual life if you'll pay attention to it. So, this actually helped me a lot this week because I'm wrestling with. I know where we're going in the New Testament. I've got my schema.
1:24:59
How we're doing this? It's chronological. Y'all know that but what I'm working on to down the line is what we're going do in the Old Testament. This week, this really helped me. It made the Old Testament seem like I I sometimes think of it as a disjointed bunch of morality tales.
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And that's not exactly what it is but some of it is that and it's okay because it will help us if we pay attention. Now, as far as the history of the Old Testament goes, right now, at this hour, for the people who came to the 09:00 service, Chris and Nick Starran have started up a Bible study over at their house which is just a couple blocks away from here that is putting together the puzzle of the Old Testament and if you would like to swap to do that, that'd be great. It's mostly people who come to that nine are going over. It's like Bible school or Sunday school but it's off-site and they are going through exactly the the putting together the puzzle is kind of getting the framework for the Old Testament and here we go. First Corinthians ten one through 22.
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Paul uses these Old Testament examples to combat this. He starts off right off with ignorance. He says, I do not want for I do not want for you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. Now, this is the New International version this week. I usually use New King James.
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Just so you know, this is New International. Most of your pew bibles are New International. I do not want for you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters. Now, he's calling them brothers and sisters and including them in. Paul's heritage was Jewish and he knew these stories from his birth.
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Most of the Corinthians were from Gentile and pagan backgrounds. They probably didn't know the stories nearly as well as Paul did, but he's saying it would be worth it to dispel the ignorance. You need to know these things, and he had been teaching from it. I'm sure they've been preaching from it. I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud.
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They all passed through the sea. Do you remember that God led the children of Israel out of Egypt with a cloud by day, a pillar of cloud by day? They physically saw that was God leading them and then at night, it was a pillar of fire that they were able to follow after and actually see it. They put their eyes on the glory of God, let's say, and followed after that and knew that that's what they were following. Now, Moses was leading them and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
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So, they all followed that cloud behind Moses. They all went through that parted Red Sea where God drowned their enemies. They saw God's providence and all of them did. They all ate the same spiritual food. Actually, they all ate the same physical food too.
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They had manna from heaven. They had quail that God provided. They all drank from the same spiritual rock that accompanied them and that rock was Christ. He says it that God is our provider. Christ is where we live and move and have our being.
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He is the creator, redeemer, lord, provider. They drank from that same spiritual rock that accompanied them. They did not lack for anything and that was by God's direct providence and they saw it. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Now, all, all, all, all, all points to the general revelation and the general protection, the general providence that God provided for his people.
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Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. I'm I don't always preach a dispensational line so much but you all hear it sometimes it it is so right on. And this is one of those times where it's so right on. This is an age of law, not an age of grace. And this is the age where God was not pleased with most of them.
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He had provided all of this, yet they turned their back. And their bodies were scattered in the wilderness and when he goes on, we'll see. Now, these things occurred as examples, two poi in Greek, two poi. Examples or types. So, it happened as an example or an archetype to keep us from setting or why did it happen?
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To keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. So, he's talking about ignorance and saying that in these old testament stories, we see why they're there. They really do have a meaning. So, for the first four chapters of Corinthians, he talks about divisions and factions among you. He doesn't get specific about what they are.
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In five, he says it's about sexual immorality and church discipline and impurity in the church and people who are being turned away. In six and seven, he goes further and further into that immorality. In eight, chapter eight, he goes, eating meat before idols. Yes, you strong theological Christians that know your your good theology. You know that there's no such thing as another God, that there is one, Almighty God.
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And you know that meat offered to idols, that idols nothing but something made by men. So there's nothing there. For you, it is not a moral thing to eat that meat or not eat it. But for some people, it is. And so out of love for them, you need to abstain from eating that meat out of love for them.
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I I say all that because it's all a continuation and he's showing them and he's going to link how pagan worship in the Old Testament always pulled people away from God. Always, always, always and it was the ever present thing. So, when he says, I'm giving you these examples or God has given us these examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as those did. Don't be idolaters as some of them were. Idolaters.
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People who put anything before God is an idolater. Anybody who puts anything in the position that only God deserves and is an idolater. Does that happen today? Is it just when we worship little things? No, my goodness.
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Yeah, it happens today. All the time, people put lots and lots of things ahead of God. Do not be idolaters. This is a direct command. It's a direct imperative.
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It's very very strong And then, for all the alls that we saw, all of them received, all of them did this, all of them passed through the fire, all of them are through the water, all of them had fire to lead them, all of them had a cloud, all of them did this, that, and the other. He says, don't be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and they got up to indulge in revelry. This is a direct quote that Paul makes from the story of Exodus. It's Exodus thirty two six if you wanted to look it up.
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But I want to show you in the the New King James. It says, do not become idolaters as were some of them as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play. And the play is a euphemism obviously. Play is a better translation of the Greek word for sure. Play and it's like kids play.
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But in my study, what I do during the week is go back and find words like this and say, why would he say play like kids? Is that is that a misuse of the word? Is Paul? What's going on? So, I went back and looked in the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
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That's what the Corinthian believers would have had. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. That's what Corinth would have had on their shelves. That's what they would have had on their scrolls. That's what all of them would have been familiar with.
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And so, it says, play but every place where it says play, it is obvious that it is what this says, to indulge in revelry. The first edition of the NIV said to indulge in pagan revelry. There's a couple older translations that say, to indulge in orgiastic revelry. So it's not play like kickball. Okay?
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It's it's a euphemism. Where does it come from? Where was it written? Exodus thirty two six. Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.
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That sounds good so far. People sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play. If you read that, you might just run right past it and go, big deal. They ran, they rose up to play but look at the story. I'll read it.
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Y'all, I know you can't read it from there. It's for me. I'm looking at that screen to get keep on track. Now, when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, come, make us gods that shall go before us. Small g, gods, that shall go before us.
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For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him, become of him. And Aaron said to them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron, and he received the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf. What? God almighty had saved them from slavery, was providing them with their meals and their water, leading them literally by a cloud of in the daytime and a pillar of fire at night, giving them all that they needed.
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Their shoes were not wearing out. They had everything that they needed provided directly by God. And yet, when Moses went up on the mountain and delayed, tarried, they started to get fidgety, and they wanted to go into what have they been around in Egypt? Polytheism all over the place. Make for us, small g, gods that shall go before us.
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And Aaron agreed. Remember when God called Moses and he said, I've been I came to get Aaron to do it. He said, Aaron is not my man. You're my man. Aaron capitulated to what the people wanted.
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They wanted a god. He made him a god. This looks like he's breaking the commandments one at a time in order. Have you noticed that? One, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
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Two, get rid of the idols. So, he makes it. Thou shalt not make any graven image. What do you use? Engraving tools.
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Oh my goodness. So, when Aaron's already built an altar before it, So, he built an altar before this thing that he just made. Is that ridiculous to y'all? It's ridiculous. And Aaron made the proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord and it was.
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The next day was a feast to the Lord and they called what was that feast to the Lord. They put that calf idol that they just made out of broken earrings tomorrow is a feast to the Lord and then they rose early on that next day. They offered their burnt offerings. They brought their peace offerings. They ate and drank and they rose up to play.
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That's tough and that's how people are. Right after this, Moses goes, these people you gave me, they are a stiff necked people. We are still stiff necked people. Do you all get that? So immediately after, we can go forwards to this, they the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play.
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Immediately, he goes into, we should not commit sexual adultery. So you see that in the next, you know that play is a euphemism at that point. We should not. Because of this, we saw what happened to them. This is your example that you've been given by almighty God.
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Because of this, this is the inference you can take from it. We should not commit sexual adultery as some of them did. And in one day, 23,000. 23,000 died. That is from numbers 25 verses one through nine if you want look it up.
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We can talk about it later. Numbers twenty five one through nine tells that story. Verse nine says, we should not test Christ, the anointed one of God, Messiah. We should not test him as the author and finisher of our faith. He was the rock that was providing for them.
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Christ is ever present throughout the old and new testament. We should not test Christ as some of them did, and they were killed by snakes. That's numbers twenty one six, if you want look it up. There's a time when snakes were in the camp and they had bitten the people and God told Moses, do this, have the people look up at this. He lifted up.
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It was actually a bronze snake. He lifted up this bronze snake and said, anyone who looks up to this will be saved. When Christ knew he was going to be lifted up, he used that as an example and said, this is God's way. He's declared it to be so. The people who looked up at that snake were saved.
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The people who did not were killed by snakes. It's heavy. That's heavy. But God has made a way. The message of the cross over and over and over for those who believe are the ones who God is saving.
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So the tenth verse. So that's numbers twenty one six. The tenth verse, and do not grumble, which is funny because they grumbled all the time, and we grumble often, all the time. Do not grumble as some of them did, and they were killed by the destroying angel. Now, when I was looking for this one, oh my goodness, it happens so often.
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I can give you four off the top of my head. Numbers fourteen two, Exodus twelve twenty three, numbers fourteen thirty seven, numbers sixteen thirty. I have these written down. If you want them afterwards, just ask me for Not to mention that when they were in Egypt. Now Moses leading them out of Egypt.
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What was the last plague? The firstborn son. And God said, he made a decree, this is the way that it will happen. I will send my destroying angel. For those who will wipe the blood of the lamb above the door and on the post, I will pass over.
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That's where Passover comes from. It was God's decreed way. This is the way that it's going to be And for all of the Egyptians that did not believe in God almighty, they did not do that and their firstborn sons were all killed. He gave them the warning ahead of time and then followed through on what he promised that he would do. If there were any Hebrews that were just, let's say, cultural Hebrews, and they didn't believe and they didn't put the blood over the posts and lentils of their house, what happened to them?
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Their firstborn son died. Do not grumble as some of them did, and they were killed by a destroying angel. Praise God right now that you live in the age of grace and not law. Because you get what you you get what you deserve in the age of law. But what we find out from these folks is what it is that pleases God and what displeases Him.
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What pleases Him is when we take the plan that He has provided and implement it. So these things happened to them, again, he says, as tupoi, examples, types, archetypes, and they were written down as warnings for us. For us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. Paul saw himself very much as being in a unique stage of redemptive history. Christ had just died and completed completed the payment, redemption.
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All those before him were looking forward in faith to his sacrifice. And all of those after that includes us today are looking back, but it's the same thing. Faith in his sacrifice. That's what Messiah is about, the anointed one. The only one that lived a sinless life is the only one that that could have been.
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Paul recognized that the culmination of the ages had come. So, if you think that you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. 11 verses to get to that. Of all the perils that people knew that they had God's providence, they knew that he had his protection, they weren't worried so much about where the next meal was coming from. And they fell away and they turned.
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Their bent of their heart turned them away. So he says, if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. Don't fall into tradition, don't put your trust in legalism, look to God. Look to God. The next verse makes it even more clear.
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No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind 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 endure or stand under it. So, the tempted, I I put those in green temptation, tempted, and tempted because it's within the translation, the range of translation to get to this and this is, have you ever heard this before? God won't put anymore on you than you can bear. Oh my goodness.
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How many times have you heard it this week?
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That
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is not biblical. That's as close. This verse is as close as you can get to making it biblical but it's gotta stretch the range of meaning. Actually, if you to get that to be true, you have to translate the verse this way. No testing or trial or adversity or calamity has seized you except such as is common to mankind.
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You ever have those same people say, oh, it could have been so much worse. My cousin did so and so and it was, God won't put any more on you than you can bear. I've heard some horrific stuff. I've been through some horrific stuff. We all have.
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No testing or trial or adversity or calamity has seized you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you're able. He knows you so well that he won't put it he might put it just about to that point that it couldn't crush you. But with with the test or trial or adversity or calamity, he will also make for you a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. He's they're saying that God knows how much we can handle, and he puts just under that amount on us. That's not what God does.
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God puts way more on us than we can handle. People put more on us than we can handle. We put more on ourselves than we can handle. To get that to be right, you could say, God won't put more on you than he can bear. God won't put more on you than he can bear.
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When Jesus says, share your burdens. Cast your cares upon the Lord. When Paul says, carry one another's burdens. Who are we supposed to love? We're supposed to love God and everyone else.
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God and others. Who is it that we can go to with our burden? God and others. The body of Christ. God will put more on you than you can bear alone.
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But he won't put more on you than he can bear with you. Does that make sense? Leaning on him. So, it is temptation. I'm going to get back up and say, it's not about trials.
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It's not about testing, that is a paraphrase that really does not work, it's not warranted. You can't get it from the text unless you remove all the text all around it. Because he's been talking about what? Sin and rebellion, sin and rebellion, ignorance and immorality and idolatry, and then he gets to temptation. They're living in a pagan society.
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They're living where they're considering the question of should I keep on eating in these places or not? And they had written to him and he's furthering his teaching on it from this point forward. In 14, he starts doing that through the end of the chapter. So, it's sin before, sin after. It's definitely temptation.
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Does everybody get that? Yes. I think it's connected with me this week. No. Now, looking at our Old Testament and seeing how easy it was for that to happen to some of them.
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Now, most of y'all, I would guess, a lot of you, grew up in church. You've had the experience that God has been your provider, your mom and daddy prayed at meals and taught you the way and you understand that God has been with you all along. If you think you stand because of that, be careful lest you fall. How easy it is for that to happen to some of them, and that's why he's given us these examples. Therefore, my dear friends, he goes immediately out of this temptation.
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Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry which is a temptation. I speak to sensible people, judge for yourselves what I say. I love when he says that. I'm speaking to reasonable people. A word to the wise is sufficient.
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It's funny that he's been speaking to these people for 10 chapters and he says, I'm speaking to sensible people. Judge for yourselves the truth of what I say and then he gets into, is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks, a participation in the blood of Christ. That is the Lord's supper. He's getting into some really deep teaching in a couple couple weeks. We'll get to that but it's not the cup of Thanksgiving, the blessing cup for which we give thanks, a participation in the blood of Christ, the Lord's supper, communion, the Eucharist, and is not the bread that we break, a participation in the body of Christ because there is one loaf and shared, we who are many are one body for we all share that one loaf.
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Consider then the people of Israel. He's saying, look at your old testament examples. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar. He's talking about participation. You got it?
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You're joining up with the team. You're participating if you're doing these things. When you take the bread and the cup here once a month is the way the way we do it but he's saying, even go back to the Old Testament and see those who eat the sacrifices. Were they not participating in the altar? Yes, they were.
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Do I mean then that food sacrifice to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything? It seems like he's going against his word in chapter eight is what he's saying. He said, I told you that it really didn't matter there that it was what without a moral stance for you and I understand that and theologically, you're correct. I was asking you voluntarily if you would step back from it for the good of others. And now, it sounds like he's saying, wait a second, this participation idea, participation in the body of Christ, and he's going to turn now to participating in those pagan temples and what that really is.
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I like this though. The NIV says, do I mean then that the food suckers type fights to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? The NIV does a dynamic translation where they take a sentence and then kind of try to work it out in modern parlance. This is a more literal translation than New King James says. What am I saying, man?
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I love that. Paul has been teaching for this long. He's going, okay. Let me sum up. What am I saying about this?
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That an idol is anything or what is offered to idols is anything? No. But the sacrifices of pagans, that's not you, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons and not to God. So, he opens up a whole spiritual component that before he had said, yes, there's no such thing as another god but anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God is demonic. It's of the evil one.
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It's of the adversary and he opens up right now and says, that when you they're participating, when they are offering, they are offering to something that's not God, that is breaking first and second commandments for sure and it's putting their allegiance with something that has nothing to do with God. That's demonic. The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons and not to God and I don't want for you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink of 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.
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Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy Or are we stronger than he? So, God gave us the warnings. He gave us the examples. He gave us the safety meeting, the don't do anything stupid meeting. And if we go against that, are we smarter than he is?
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Are we stronger than he is? Or are we actually trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we trying to get, you know, I had a buddy that used to say, if you keep on putting nickels in a butt kicking machine, eventually, you're gonna get your butt kicked. Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? I thought of this too.
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Last time I preached on this verse, I threw my shoulder out but I've had it fixed since then. Do not be loving the things of the world. If anyone might be loving the things of the world, the love of the father is not abiding in him. You can't be simultaneously loving the things of the world and loving the things of God. They are going opposite directions.
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What's interesting is Paul knows that we always have a choice before us. We always have a choice before us to either lean into God and look full in his wonderful face and accept the grace that he is freely offering or we can say, I don't trust you God and go the other way. That's where that's what it comes down to. Either I believe you and I'm going to live out of my belief. The just will walk by faith or I really don't believe you and I'm gonna do what I wanna do.
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Sometimes, it's done in ignorance. Sometimes, you're pulled away because of immorality and sometimes, it's just outright idolatry where something gets in front of you and this is what John saying, the lust of the flesh has a very strong pull because we're made of flesh. The lust of the eyes because what I saw was appealing to me and the pride of life. It's not of the father but it's of this world And this world is passing away in the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. The world is passing away.
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Which team are you going to sign on with? God's saying, Paul says, you can't be the table of Christ and the table of demons. And you know, Joshua and Caleb, when it said, most of them, they sent 10 spies into the promised land, right? Or 12 spies in the promised land. 10 of them came back and said, no, no, no, we can't do this.
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They're like we're like grasshoppers in their sight. There's no way I can go forward with this. Uh-uh. I I'm scared to death. No.
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But Joshua and Caleb came out and said, we can take em with God on our side. It's a bigger task than we can do alone but with God with us, this is not more than we can bear. Let's go get em. So, what am I saying then? This is Ray.
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What am I saying then? This is the wrap up slide. There are three main things that I think the passage teaches. It's not explicit in every case but God does not want us to be ignorant. Paul says it four different times in his letters that I do not want for you to be ignorant brethren concerning blah, whatever it is.
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He's given us sufficient examples that that dispels the ignorance. Well, what happens if I do this? Let's look for it. Oh, yeah. I don't want to do that.
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The rebellion of Korah in the Old Testament, rebelling against God, his his appointed leaders, and then saying, mow that the ground would swallow us up and it did. He wants to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things just as they did. That's directly from the text. That's why he says he does not want us to be ignorant. So because he doesn't want us to set our hearts on evil things as they did, and this fits together with the last point too.
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God knows that sexuality is very powerful. In its proper context, sex bonds, husband and wife together, and outside of that context, it tends to pull us away from God. It gets our focus off of God. God does not want us to be enticed away by idols and think about this. Ultimately, what the demons have to offer?
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You know, sometimes the dualistic mindset, Jackson's a place where Buddhism is great, Taoism is great, whatever is great. You know, everybody kind of, that's cool, man. You know, sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down. Karma this, karma that. There's a dualism, the yin yang has half black and half white in there in an ever no.
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No. Have you all read the end of this book? It's not even close. What the demons have to offer? Eternal separation from the only God and what does God have to offer?
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It's bliss. The only way it can be described is bliss, incorruptible hope, cannot be changed, glorified bodies, everything, all that. It's not close. It's not like it's this maybe, so, maybe not. No.
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Ultimately, what do demons have to offer? Paul says that we can't truly participate with both. Like Joshua said, choose this day who you will serve. Pick a table. The table of demons or the table of Christ.
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Sin is an empty and unfulfilling distraction from the goodness of our gracious God. It's turn away from that which he's provided. To have an empty and unfulfilling distraction and that's why I said it goes back up. It keeps our hearts, it keeps us from setting our hearts on evil things just as they did And I want to mention this too. The last line there is, are we stronger than he?
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That's talking about God. Are we stronger than God? Stronger, generally, and originally was thought of as physical strength. You can see it better on this one if you want to. Still not the best, but it was for me.
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Iskuras, strong, mighty, or powerful. Originally and generally of physical strength, mighty, powerful, vehement, sure. Are we stronger than God? He's given us an example and told us what to do, what not to do for our own good because he loves us. Do we think that we can still do that and still have a decent relationship with him?
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Do you think that we can still do that and not have it harm us? If he loves us and he wants our best and he's given us the warning, should we not follow it? I put it up there because of this down here though. It this is from Strong's concordance and it's and from Thayer's lexicon. Iscaras, an adjective, it's derived, meaning engaging combative strength, mighty strong.
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For the believer, it's God's power that is standing by, always standing by, ready to unleash itself to bring about his preferred will through faith, pistis, through faith. This engaging strength is always and immediately available from the Lord, which accomplishes his assignments. So when we had that God will make a way of escape, That's it. You have, by the power of the cross, salvation available for those who put their faith in Christ atoning death. You have salvation available but you have the power of God available too that you can withstand under any temptation.
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Jesus proved it. He was tempted in always just as we were. What but was without sin. What was he always using when the devil tempted him? Probably worse than any of us have ever been tempted in that long fast.
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What did Jesus always go back to? The word. Satan uses a little bit of distorted teaching to get us off track, and then Jesus completes the statement and says, no. You shall not tempt the Lord your God. And he did have the power.
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Satan's offering all power on earth, and he says, no. No. He knew what he had to do, and he did that to accomplish salvation full and free to extend the grace of God to people who constantly rebel against him. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If you want to talk to me this week about that, please do, Judy.
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You can come on back up. We are going to sing something that might not seem like it goes with this so much but it does. Jesus, we just want to thank you. For one thing, Jesus proved it could be done. A 100% man, fully God, fully man.
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He emptied himself, and he went to death, death on a cross for our sakes. Jesus, we just wanna thank you. Would you stand with me as we sing? Hymn number seven ninety one.
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Jesus, we just want to thank you. Jesus we just want to thank you Jesus we just want to thank you thank you for being so good Jesus we just want to praise you Jesus we just want to praise you Jesus we just want to praise you praise you for being so good savior we just want to serve you savior we just want to serve you savior we just want to serve you serve you for being so good. Let's sing the last one too. Jesus, we you are coming. Jesus we know you are coming we know you are coming Take us to live in your home.
1:59:03
God almighty, we thank you and praise you lord for this day. We thank you for what you have before us. I thank you that you have given us a warning. God, would you give us the strength to endure? The strength to turn away, lord.
1:59:15
We know that taste and see that you're good and you've given us all these good things and there's great and unspeakable joy found when we accept that amazing grace lord and allow ourselves to be used by you as channels of blessing. Amen. I've got one more quick benediction. Now, may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus and that you may with one mind and one mouth, glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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