Taking God Seriously [sermon on 1st Cor 10]

 

Taking God Seriously [1st Corinthians 10]

As we open up to 1 Corinthians 10 today, I want you to notice that there are three verses in this chapter that are fantastic memory verses, they are great for putting on one of those wooden plaques in your house or for posting with a nice background on Facebook… and people will say, “oh that’s so nice.”  But what is so much better is diving into the context, into the nuance of meaning of where they come from and what they are really saying about your life and about God and about eternity.  So, that’s our goal for today, to take God seriously, to take His word seriously… and to get hopefully a deeper conversation about these verses.

Memory Verses: 

13No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

23All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

31Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

So I want to take being a Christian seriously… and get right into what God is saying to us through Paul. 

We will be going through references in Exodus as well as 1st Corinthians 10 today so if you have those ribbons in your bible, this is the perfect time to use them, one ribbon in Exodus and one in 1st Corinthians 10… and we’ll also be getting back into the concept of not eating food that is offered to idols and what that means to us now.  But, above all, let’s pray that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes to see and open our ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us as the people of God.

Pray:

Lord, we need you here with us today.  As we study your word seriously and strive to become like You.  Give us mercy from what we deserve and through your Grace, open our minds and hearts to what you are saying in each of our individual lives.  You have brought us to this moment through all sorts of trials and I know you have something special to say to each of us today.  I want to say what I hear you saying and I want to do what I see you doing.  I really don’t care if it’s my words that bring that into hearts this morning.  I want it to be your words and your Word that is the only thing that can truly bring Life.  Amen.

1 CORINTHIANS 10[NASB]

1For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 

Paul is referencing Exodus 13 and 14 when Pharoah let the Israelites go from Egypt, they were led by the Lord in a pillar of cloud and of fire: 13: 21 By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

14:19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed[b] the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Paul says here, I do not want you to be unaware.  This is not just a story.  This is who God is.  He was and is and ever will be our rescuer, our deliverer, the direction we should go, our Savior from this world that wishes to destroy us, He is our justice and He will see us through to the other side.  This is such an important prophetic picture of what it means to be a believer in Christ.  Understand and meditate on the leading of the pillar of cloud, really consider the significance of God leading you away from that which has always enslaved you.  He will protect you from your past and see you through what seems impossible into His Future… and what we do as believers is follow.

3and all ate the same spiritual food; 4and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 

Here Paul is referencing Exodus 16: 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

And 

Exodus 17: They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah[a] and Meribah[b] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Consider your Christian life here as well… He has rescued you from yourself, from your sin, from your past, and brought you through an impossible gap between you and him, a baptism, which is what going through the Red Sea represents… and you want food and drink, which represents the things of this world.   So, He gives  you blessings in this world because He loves you… do you complain about what you have?  Do you look back to your old life and reminisce about sin and depravity?  Will you test the Lord or is that the Lord that will be testing you?

5Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.[Numbers 14:29-30]

6Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.[Numbers 11:4] 

7Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.”[Exodus 32;6] 8Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.[Numbers 25] 

9Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.[Numbers 21:5-6]

 10Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.[Numbers 16:41-49] 

It’s easy to read about these things in the Exodus and Numbers like we’re watching a movie or just listening to a story about people a long time ago.  But, I think that what Paul is saying here is that this is the Jewish family tree.  This is what you have been grafted into and now it is your family tree.  This is their heritage and now it is your heritage.  You have been bought with a price bringing you into the family and now the Exodus story is your story.  You have been taken out of your bondage to sin and rescued and led through the wilderness and protected from the enemy and brought through the baptism of the water to the other side where you are free indeed from your past and you can begin to really follow the Lord.  You are able to have his spiritual food and spiritual drink, which are the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. AND YOU WILL BE TESTED!!!  It hasn’t been easy for the Jewish people and it won’t be easy for you.  You will be blessed! Be thankful for it! But, you will be tested, you will have trials, you will have persecutions, you will have struggles. Don’t be idolaters, don’t act immorally, don’t grumble…

11Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 

I saw a sermon online this week that really resonated with me.  The preacher was really revved up about fake Christianity, about coming to church but not really surrendering your life to Christ, about outward godliness but inward selfishness… and the congregation that he was speaking to got wrapped up  in the emotion of his words and was cheering and yelling amen and clapping… and he said, “I don’t know why your clapping and cheering right now… I’m talking about you.”  

You now have the same story as God’s chosen people.  Notice, many of them didn’t make it to the promised land, many of them complained and grumbled about the food and the water.  They went against Moses and Aaron, they made idols of Gold, and they constantly were turning away and turning back. These things happened as an example for you and for me.  They were written for our instruction.  Take some time to really meditate on where you are with the Lord.  There are things that are trying to make you fall.  What are you doing to fight them? Who are you really trusting in?  Is it true that as the Psalms say, “Some may trust in horses and some may trust in chariots but we will trust in the name of the Lord?

13No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

14Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. 

Can you really take this word seriously? Let’s read that again… because it might not mean what you used to think it means.  You maybe thought it was a mild encouragement that you are tempted by that sin but you won’t be tempted beyond what you are able… but God is seriously saying here you are now just like the Jewish people, what you are going through has a long heritage of my people going through it.  I rescued them and they let themselves indulge in their temptations.  God says, I’ve seen this before, and I always provide a way out, but you have to be able to endure it, you have to flee from idolatry, that is flee from putting things between you and the Lord.  If there is anything between you and the Lord right now, Seriously don’t clap and chear… Repent, turn from your wicked ways and follow Him.  Notice that even as we say this Christian phrase of follow Him we are referencing the following of the cloud that the people of Israel did as Jesus referenced it saying, come follow me… because He always saw the connection when He was calling His disciples.

Now, Paul is going to get back into the argument about eating food that has been offered to idols and if you missed the sermon I shared on 1st Corinthians 8 about 6 weeks ago, it’s on our website and on YouTube and goes, I think, pretty in depth on the issue, but to quickly recap, we saw in that chapter that this can be applied to all sorts of topics in our current day like anything that you would ask as “Is it ok for a Christian to ________?” These are called the non-essentials, which does not mean that they are non-important.  They can be very important but they aren’t essential to being a Christian.  Here Paul gives an example to us of arguing for an answer on an important non-essential so we should take cues from this if we are going to discuss with anyone these non-essential issues of importance ending with our second popular memory verse… but starting out writing about Communion:

16Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 18Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? 19What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?

23All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. 24Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. 

So, you mean to tell me that you are going to partake in the heritage of the people of God, you are going to take Communion, eating at the Lord’s table as He gave His body and blood on the cross for you and you are going to do this in remembrance of Him with the rest of the believers then you are going to turn around and just do things because they are “ok to do?” because you know the demons are nothing so you are going to indulge in demonic things in moderation?  What? Are you stronger than our Lord?  Re-read 23-24

On the other hand:

25Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience’ sake; 26for the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains. 27If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake. 28But if anyone says to you, “This is meat sacrificed to idols,” do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’ sake; 29I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? 30If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?

See, it’s ok to do, until it’s not.  Anything that you feel  is ok to do, the moment your conscience says, wait a minute, this is iffy.  Can you stop and not do that thing?  Being able to stop means that the thing is not in control of you, the Lord is in control of you.  You don’t want a brother or sister to stumble, you don’t want a non-believer to get the wrong idea, you would much rather show them self-control that doesn’t come from you but from the Lord.  So, if you research one of these non-essentials and find that it is “ok to do.” be ready to not do it at the drop of a hat our of love for others.

Which brings us to an understanding of our last memory verse:

31Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; 33just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.

Let’s Pray:

Father we need you to freshen the Holy Spirit in us right now to help us remember the context of these verses and to apply them to our lives and our situations.  As we go about this week, bring up in our minds how we are like the Jewish people, protect us, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  We know that you will always provide a way out, give the eyes to see it and to take it, and to endure.  Renew our love for people, that we would put down our own good for the good of others and not seek our own profit, but the profit of many, so that they may be saved.