We're turning to First Corinthians chapter ten. While you're turning, let me just say a word about tonight. I'm planning to examine the subject of the display of grace under law, looking at the law of God and the display of His grace that is manifested even under law. I don't know how far I'll get, but I'm looking forward anxiously for that. May I say a word about Friday night, the banquet? I'm looking forward to that as well. And next Lord's Day morning with a meeting with our brother Clayton Davis. There's a mother and daughter going to sing on Friday night. I heard them sing when I had meetings at Apple's Chapel. Carolyn and Jessica Childress They're going to minister to us in song, and our young men have a few things that they are going to do as well. So it's going to be a good time of fellowship and blessing, and if you miss it, well, I hope you don't. First Corinthians chapter ten, and we begin our reading at verse five. First Corinthians ten, verse five. You must remember that were dealing with a subject in First Corinthians that began in chapter eight, that of Christian liberty. And in the opening verses of chapter ten, he mentions a fivefold blessing that all the Israelites redeemed from Egypt enjoyed. But now we begin this morning with their failure. Verse five, but with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up the play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand, Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them, for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is coming to man. But God is faithful who will not permit you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. It's amazing that when you look at the five-fold failure of Israel, as we're going to, In each instance there was a way of escape, but they didn't take it. May God apply this portion to us in order that we'll be conscious of who we are and the provision that God has made for us. Now let's pray together. Our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow before thee. We thank you for the Spirit of God who indwells everyone who is born of thee. We thank you that the Spirit is able to teach us the Word of God, is able to give us discernment in spiritual things, is able to lead us and to guide us just as the cloud of thy presence led and guided the children of Israel. For thy word declares that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. We thank you that you have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And you have given us a spirit of sonship so that from our hearts we cry, Abba, Father. And now we ask that through the ministry of the Word of God and through the singing of these great hymns that thy name will be glorified in our midst. Deliver us from anything that would detract from thy glory. May we acknowledge thee as the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, but who dwells with him that is contrite. to revive the spirits of those who are contrite. We wait upon thee. And as we wait in thy presence, we pray that thy divine providence will indeed minister to those who have gone forth and are laboring in distant lands, our missionary family. We pray for each one of them. Their needs are real. Their needs are such that thou art able to meet them, and we ask thee, O God, that thou wilt meet their need in a special way. They're varied. What one needs, the other one may not. But since thou art the God of all grace, and that thy grace is abundant, we pray for Mrs. Patterson that thou wilt in a special way give her that which she needs to accomplish thy will there in the island of St. Croix. We think of the Latins as they have ministered so faithfully, not only in Puerto Rico, where they are now, but in the Bahamas and formerly in Cuba. And they know what it is to be stripped of everything that they own by an imperialistic government and to be expelled because of their faith in Christ. Oh, bless them in an abundant way. We just praise thee, our God, that thou art able to meet needs. For the Stephens, for Sarah Murdoch, and for others who have gone forth like the Trojans, we just bring them to thee. And we pray that today they may be filled with the knowledge of thy will, that they may walk wordily of the Lord unto all pleasing, and that they'll be fruitful in every good work. We ask this not only for them, but for ourselves also, for we're missionaries just like they are, because everyone that we meet is either a missionary or a mission field. If they're saved by thy grace, they're a missionary. If they've never been saved, they're a mission field, and you've given us the joy and the privilege of ministering the precious Word of God to them. Help us not to fail. Enable us our God to have discernment that we may stand, not just think that we stand when we're falling, but truly stand for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ. Meet with us. Give us something from yourself this morning. For Jesus' sake, amen. Mr. Allen, good are you praise? Are only a sinner, save thy grace? Only a sinner, save thy grace. How dear a sinner, save thy grace. This is my glory to God is for me. I'm only a sinner. Take my grace. Thank you. Thank you. Now let's pray together. Father, We ask you now that you would graciously open our hearts to receive thy word. May it please thee to use thy word to expose our hearts to thyself in order that thy name will be glorified in our lives. We ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen. when we realize that we're dealing with a subject of Christian liberty, a subject that we began in First Corinthians chapter eight and now we're in First Corinthians ten. Last Lord's day we examined the fivefold blessing that it was true for every one who was redeemed from Egyptian bondage. Now the application of this passage is in verses eleven through thirteen. And it is so important because to the child of God, if we miss the application, and we're going to get to it by the grace of God today, but we're going to miss the purpose for which the Lord spoke here in the opening verses. He says in verse eleven, all these things happened unto them, unto the Israelites. who were redeemed from Egyptian bondage for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. And then the word of warning, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he fall. Now when you think of the fivefold blessing that Israel enjoyed that we examined last week, you got to keep in mind that nothing was a result of their own effort. everything depended upon the goings and the doings of God. He provided the cloud, He provided the deliverance, He provided the freedom, He provided the meat, and He provided the drink. Now the big question that arises is, how could a people so privileged and so blessed, how could they fail? Especially since God undertook to guide them, to deliver them, to form them into a nation, to supply their needs physically, spiritually, supernaturally. How could they fail? Verse five tells us that they did. It doesn't say all, but it says with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. And last Lord's day we examined a group of people that came out of Egypt. with the Israelites. They are called in Scripture a mixed multitude. Exodus chapter twelve, and I think about verse twenty-three, a mixed multitude. And again in Numbers chapter eleven and verse four, they are called a mixed multitude. And it's an amazing thing. When the mixed multitude murmured and complained, it brought the children of Israel down. Instead of those who truly knew the Lord, bringing them up, they brought the others down. Now, why and how did they fail? How did a people so blessed fail? And we need to look at this. For there's a five-fold failure. If I were to ask you, if I were just to call on Not any ladies this morning, but just men. And when we talk about they lusted, where would you turn in the Bible to find the special incident that he's talking about here? Or when he says they murmured, where would you turn in the Old Testament to find it? Or were they committed idolatry? That's the easy one. You see? or when they committed fornication where would you turn now I'm going to be kind I won't do that I won't call on anyone but it says here in the passage it tells us exactly how they fell and how they failed and it tells us why they failed and if we can understand a little bit of this we can understand how to apply this passage in our own lives in relation to Christian liberty. For that's the subject that we're dealing with. Let us look first of all at verse six. It says, Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Let us look at the book of Numbers chapter eleven. The book of Numbers chapter eleven. Because of time, we won't have time to read every one of the passages that are mentioned here in the five-fold failure of Israel. But Numbers chapter eleven is so important in relation to us today. It says, and we're dealing with a subject of lust. And let us read verses four through six and then some other verses. And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. And the children of Israel also leapt again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? And there is a word of unbelief. The lust led to unbelief. Now usually when we use the word lust, that word is used in relation to sexual sin. But that word lust simply means desire. That's the simplest meaning of it. And you can lust after a lot of things. The old word is the word covet. When a person covets. And the tenth commandment is thou shalt not covet. It could be translated thou shalt not lust. And we can lust after many things. And here they're lusting after flesh to eat. Verse five, we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. In other words, the bread which God provided for them was not sufficient. May I say a few things about the manna very quickly. Whenever you think of it, God provided it. Number one, it was a sustaining portion. It lasted all their wilderness journey. All the faithfulness of God. More than that, it was a sweet portion. When you read the next few verses in this chapter, it tells us it was like the taste of honey. It was sweet. More than that, it was a sufficient portion. The man who gathered little had nothing over, the man who gathered much. It was sufficient for everybody. It didn't matter whether you got a little or whether you gathered much. It was sufficient. Furthermore, it was a suitable portion. It was a food that you could feed babies and adults as well. More than that, it was a portion that made them men a war. The generation that was raised on the manna went in and conquered the land. but they weren't happy with the manna. They wanted something other than the manna. Verse eleven. And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight? That thou layest the burden of all this people upon me. Moses is now complaining in unbelief before God. That's a sad condition. Now the leader is getting in trouble. Verse eighteen. The middle of the verse, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and ye shall eat flesh. For ye have leapt in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days. but even a whole month until it comes out at your nostrils and it be loathsome unto you because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you and have wept before him saying why came we forth out of Egypt they lusted after evil things now what was the problem here They lusted and desired that which was not in the divine provision for them. Now you've got to keep in mind and ask yourself a question. Does the end justify the means? There are people who go after whatever they're going to get. They're called self-made people, you know. I'm going to get what I'm going for and they'll do Anything, they'll climb over anything or anybody to get to what they want. And in doing so, they feel that the end justifies the means. Now, just because Israel got what they wanted, they wanted flesh and they got flesh. Does that mean it was right? And sometimes we can be so carnal in our attitude and so out of fellowship with God that the things we want, God gives them to us. What is it for our good? It is possible, beloved, to desire something, and in the overruling of God, He gives it to us in order to show us the folly of our own desires. And He did that here. George MacDonald, that great preacher, of a century ago, he wrote the following. He said, Whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably or succeed more miserably. That's something to think about. Whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably or succeed more miserably. The greatest judgment that God could put on my life would be to let me have my own way and not enjoy it. I've seen people. I've counseled with people that are determined to have their own way. They're just determined to have their own way. And after they have it, they don't enjoy it. But they have it. and then they have to live with it. Neither lust as they also lusted. Father, what's your will for me? The hundred sixth psalm is a commentary on this passage. In the hundred sixth psalm and the fifteenth verse we read, He gave them their desire, but He sent leanness to their souls. Oh, what a condition. being led by God and not liking the way in which God led them and then to be given to your own desires and for God to give it to them and then to have a lean soul. May I ask you, in this affluent society in which we live, what do you prefer? Do you prefer your own way and a lean soul or do you want a soul that's overflowing? with a goodness of God and maybe be deprived of some of the things that this generation offers. He gave them their desire, but he sent leanness to their souls. Let us not lust as they also lusted. But then he speaks of idolatry. Neither be ye idolaters. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and to drink, and he rose up to play. Idolatry. Moses, you remember this is Exodus thirty-two. This has reference to Exodus thirty-two, and I'm not turning to it for a reason. Most of us know the story of the golden calf. But I'm going to say a few things about it, and I'm going to show what it led to. In the story of the golden calf, you remember Moses was in the mountain receiving from God the holy law of God. And Israel, not knowing why it took Moses so long, you know, they couldn't wait forty days. Moses was in the mountain forty days and the scripture says he didn't eat nor drink for forty days. He was in the presence of God receiving the law. And the children of Israel said, We don't know what happened to him. Make us gods that we may worship. Give us something to see. As for Moses, we don't know what happened to him. The people became restless. They made themselves a representation of God. And, beloved, when you find the people of God restless, they're going to make some wrong move. When the people of God are restless, they make wrong moves. And Aaron told the people break off the gold and the silver that's in your ears and that they had the jewelry which was given unto them by the Egyptians. And then when Aaron is questioned by Moses, it is one of the most interesting statements you find in the Bible. Aaron says, They gave me the gold and the silver. I put it into the furnace. And lo this calf came out. It just happened. God did it. God made a calf for us. And the scripture says he fashioned it with an engraving tool. He was a liar. He tried to make it look as though God gave it to them. As though it just happened that way. And you know I've seen this. Whole thing in my lifetime. It just happened this way. Everything fell into place. God must be in it. And God isn't in it at all. In other words, he tried to show that it was an accident. What was it? It was an attempt on the part of Aaron and the people to put up something to represent God. And when God gave the Ten Commandments to Israel in Exodus chapter twenty, I believe when He gave them, He sounded them orally to the people. They heard His voice. In the second commandment, He said, Thou shalt not make any graven image the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or the earth beneath, neither under the earth. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, of them that hate me. But keeping mercy for thousands of them who love me and who keep my commandments. And the children of Israel, you remember, said all that thou sayest we will do. Words come easy, you know. And when Moses is out of sight for a few days, make us gods that we may worship. They wanted a representative. Now, They only made a gesture at worship. There was nothing real about it. For the scripture says, the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to play. Those people could say, My, didn't we have a good time at the worship service today. We were entertained. We had a great time. But God wasn't in it. The people sat down to eat and to drink. and they rose up the play this is what the scripture says as he looks upon that but remember friends this was just the beginning of their trouble the time came that Israel became a nation and they had a king and David was a great king and then David's son Solomon who reigned in his splendor but Solomon died And when Solomon died, his son Rehoboam ascended the throne. And now there's unrest in the kingdom. There's unrest in the kingdom. And you remember Jeroboam and the ten tribes of Israel, ten of the twelve tribes, came to Rehoboam and they met with him. And they said, Are you going to make our burden lighter than your father did? Solomon lived in Opelon. Solomon taxed the people. You know, Rehoboam is a foolish man. And I'm not going into the folly of Rehoboam. But you remember Jeroboam and the ten of the tribes said, What inheritance have we in David? Arise. And they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat, king. Well, now, To a Heidel prophet, God had appeared to Jeroboam, and he told him he was going to be made king, and now it happened. And God had told Jeroboam, if you will walk in my ways, if you will obey my voice, then, then I'm going to establish your kingdom forever. I'm going to make a covenant with you like I did with David. But Jeroboam becomes king. And you can read this in the twelfth chapter of First Kings. When Jeroboam became king. And he saw that the place to worship was in Jerusalem. And the capital of the ten tribes now to the north is in Samaria. And he says, Oh, this is bad. If the people go down to Jerusalem to worship, they're going to leave me. I know what I'll do. I'll make an golden calf. But instead of making one, he made two. And he put one in Dan, the northernmost part of Israel, and then he put one in Bethel. And then the people of Israel, the ten tribes, he led them into idolatry. You see, you go to the one nearest you. You see, he made religion convenient. And you and I are living in a day when the people of God want a convenient religion. If it's convenient for me, fine. If it costs me something, forget it. And I'm thinking of cost when it comes to time and when it comes to effort and when it comes to putting out a little bit of your own effort. We want a religion of convenience. Jeroboam provided it for the children of Israel and every king that followed Jeroboam except one. It is written they followed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who led Israel to sin. Neither commit idolatry. You see, the problem isn't our generation. It's the next one. And the next one. In the second commandment that God gave, you must remember part of it says, Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. And, beloved, you and I are living in a generation where we have been enjoying the legacy of the past for men who have preceded us We're men of God. I fear, beloved, for the generations that are going to follow, the idolatrous generation that we're living in. I fear for the coming generations. Beloved, we're the only ones who can stem the tide. Are we true to God? Are we genuine? Remember, Paul, at the close of chapter nine, he uses that Greek word adakamas. He says, I keep under my body, and I bring it into subjection, lest at any time after I have preached to others, I myself should be adakamas. I myself should be reprobate. Do we have a right view of God? Are we genuine? Are we genuine? neither be our idolaters and then the third the sin that he mentions here the third place of failure was fornication he says in verse eight neither let us commit fornication as some of them also committed and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand when did that take place in israel's history that's numbers chapter twenty five in numbers chapters twenty one twenty two twenty three and twenty four We have that man, Balaam, who was the hiring prophet. He's the false prophet of the Old Testament who always told the truth. He was a false prophet. But everything he said was true. He was a hiring prophet. He was hired by Balaam, the king of Moab, to come and to curse Israel. And four times. Belak tried to get him to curse Israel and every time he could only bless them because God put his words in the mouth of Baelam, the false prophet. He could only say what God would permit him to say. So Baelam came up to Baelak with a little deal. It's a deal that we all know about. If you can't fight him, join him. That's what Belem taught, that's what Belem taught Belem, the king of Moab. Oh, I can make them fall. You can't curse them because God has blessed them. But you can cause them to decay from the inside. He said, you just get your pretty girls from Moab to walk by the camp of Israel. And they committed fornication. This is what we learn when we read in the second chapter of the Revelation concerning the church at Theratire, thou sufferest that woman Jezebel. And then he speaks of, they have the doctrine of Balaam there who caused Balaak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. Balaam. He taught Balaak, the king of Moab, how to cause Israel to fall. And they committed fornication. The sin of the whole thing. And you can read about it in Numbers chapter twenty five. The fourth sin is found in verse nine. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Here's the sin of unbelief. The children of Israel grumbled. This is Numbers chapter twenty one. Numbers twenty-one the children of Israel they grumbled about two things they grumbled about the way in which God led them the hundred seventh Psalm and about the sixth verse we read he led them forth by the right way they thought it was the wrong way he led them forth by the right way and then it tells us why that he might bring them to a city of habitation he led them forth by the right way but they grumbled because of the way in which they had to go for they had to encompass the land of Esau. For Esau or Edom wouldn't permit them to go through the land. So they had to circumvent the whole of the land of Edom and make one big circuitous route. They couldn't. Esau said you can't go through. And the children of Israel murmured, and complained. And then they also in Numbers chapter twenty one, they grumbled and they murmured about the food where with God fed them. They again complained about the manna. You'd think that they learned their lesson back in Numbers eleven when they were still at Mount Sinai. But now years later they grumbled again about the manna that they ate. They even said, our souls loathe this right bread. That you have in Numbers twenty-one. And you remember Numbers twenty-one becomes the great picture of the gospel. Fiery serpents came among the people. And when they bit the people, many of the people died. And when our Lord was speaking to Nicodemus in John chapter three, our Lord said, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. For the cure for the serpent bites was not in themselves. He didn't tell them to manufacture anointment and put it on the serpent bites. He put a grass serpent on a pole. And he said, Whosoever, when he's bitten, he looks to the serpent of grass, he'll be healed. Our Lord said, Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And you know, friends, All of us have been bitten by the fiery serpent of sin. It has bitten us. And those who have been bitten die for the wages of sin is death. But just as when Moses, God said, the Son of Man is going to be lifted up. And on the cross on Calvary's Hill, he was lifted up. And we sing in that great hymn, Lift it up. Was he to die? It is finished. Was his cry? He did the work there on the cross of Calvary's Hill. Now who looks to the serpent of brass? Who looks those who realize they were bitten and they were going to die? Who looks to Christ for salvation? Those who realize that they cannot save themselves. If they're going to be saved, someone else has to save me. You and I can't save ourselves. I'm totally lost. The scripture depicts the person who's out of Christ as dead in trespasses and sins. He's lost. He's dead. Alienated from the life of God. However, the Lord says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. When the person in the wilderness was bitten by the fiery serpents and they looked To that which was outside of them. Something happened on the inside of them. They were healed. The day that I learned that I was a sinner. And lost. And I looked away from myself. There's no help or hope for Philip in Philip. It's all outside of me. The day that I looked to the cross. And I realized that Christ died for my sins. And when I saw that he died for my sins and by receiving him I'm saved. That day something happened on the inside. By my looking to that which was on the outside. The person of Christ. That's the objective. The subjective was I was healed. I was saved from my sin. But then finally there's a sin of murmuring. He says, neither murmur ye as some of them also did. And that reminds you of Numbers eleven, verses one, two, three, and the whole of the twelfth chapter in Numbers. You'd think after Numbers eleven, the fire of the Lord of Tabor, when they murmured against God, in Numbers chapter twelve, Moses' sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron, murmur against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman that he married. They murmur about this, and God smites Miriam with leprosy, the sin of evil speaking. Murmuring is to complain against God's blessing and to suggest that your way is much better than his. If only God would have consulted me, that's what murmuring is. If only God would have consulted me, I know so much better than He does. Five-fold failure. Now let's apply it. Let's apply it. Beginning in verse eleven. Now all these things happen unto them, for example. And they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age are come. These things happen unto them, and they're for us. For you see, this age in which you and I live is a consummation of the ages. This is the age to which all the other ages are leading. And the people of privilege failed. And they were destroyed because of their failure in spite of their privileges. That's the message. And you and I, saved by God's grace, are a people of privilege. Let's not ruin it. Let us use it for his glory. You see, the central warning is in verse twelve. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Oh, we may get an idea. Oh, I'm all right. I'm set. Nothing's going to happen in my generation. It may happen in the next, but not in mine. The scripture comes back with force. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he fall. but in the midst of it all there is a glorious provision of grace in verse thirteen and I believe that every Christian should memorize first Corinthians ten thirteen it should be memorized it should be used by you day by day there hath no temptation taken you but such as is come into man but God is faithful who will not permit you to be tempted above that you are able but will with a temptation provide a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. What does that teach us? We all have trials and temptations. They're coming to man. It teaches us that we're all cut from the same piece of cloth. None of us can say, well, I'm cut out of a better section of cloth than you are. Well, you're not. We're all cut from the same piece of cloth. We're all related to Adam. And there are always things that seduce us from loyalty to destroy our liberty that we have in Christ. But God has provided a way of escape. Now that doesn't mean that God is not going to permit us to fail or to fall. But God will so arrange and He has arranged and provided that we don't need to fall. We don't need to fall. We'll hear these seductive voices and they'll call and we'll know that they're false, but we don't need to yield to them. And that's true for everyone. That's true for everyone. Now God always makes a way of escape. And that way of escape may be a pair of legs and the ability to run. For the Word of God says, flee youthful lust. It says, run away from temptation. Now, my friend, if you stay in the neighborhood,