1 Cor No.18 Temptation

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and all that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink.

For they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered over the desert.

Now, these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were, as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.

We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.

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 stand up under it.

Amen. I'd be grateful if you'd have your Bibles open at 1 Corinthians in chapter 10. In as much as we looked at the latter part of this chapter in an earlier study, we shall have, in effect, have completed our series, at least up to the first 10 chapters of this rather interesting letter.

Some have suggested with the rather controversial matter that is yet to come, that if I stay in the Far East, they will appreciate that I have lost courage, and will use that as an excuse for not taking you into, perhaps, some of the most difficult chapters in the whole of the New Testament. However, this morning we're looking at these first 13 verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And I want to minister to you, bringing as the title of my address, to your attention the word temptation.

But if I were to put a subtitle, if I were to lift another expression that seems to me to gather up the thrust and the challenge of these verses, it would be a warning to the cocksure. A warning to the cocksure. You will see the legitimacy of that particular secondary title as we proceed through these verses.

Let's take up as our launching pad into this passage, Paul's last comment in the previous chapter. He's afraid. He's afraid, as an ambassador for God, that there might be a possibility, one would think it minimal, for Paul, but nonetheless he expresses it, afraid of the possibility of himself being deficient in the service which he offers Jesus Christ.

And so he tells us in that final verse of the preceding chapter, I beat my body, I make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Or as the A.V. puts it, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away. The final word there is rather a strong translation, perhaps not quite legitimate for the original Greek.

Paul is not worried that in any way he might lose his discipleship, or rather he might lose his salvation, but what he's concerned about is that he might squander his discipleship. And this, it seems to me, is the challenge of these verses as they confronted in the tenth chapter. The possibility of a squandered discipleship, the dread possibility of being tempted away from performing what is God's will, so that though you remain saved, you have nothing to offer God when you stand in his presence.

This fear, you remember, is not new to the apostle. As he has written this letter to the Corinthians, he told us in the third chapter of the possibility of some people being saved, but as just by fire. That's the fifteenth verse of 1 Corinthians 3. The idea, standing before God and having nothing to offer him, disqualified in the area of discipleship, a cast away, if you please, inasmuch as you never performed anything that was really worthwhile in the service of Jesus Christ.

Well then, this is Paul's fear. It's his fear not just for himself. It's his fear for the Corinthians.

It would be his fear if he was preaching today for Christian people here in the tabernacle, that having lived a life ostensibly in the service of Jesus Christ, having come in here on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening and gone through the rote of singing your hymns and listening to the prayers, have really done precious little, if anything at all, for the advance of the kingdom. Saved by fire. A salvation that's the cure, a discipleship that's squandered.

There's a dread possibility, and if I alarm you, I tell you your fear is no greater than my own, as God's word speaks to me under this particular admonition. Paul has an obvious illustration of what he is getting at, and he takes us into an excursion into the history of the Israelites in days gone by. You remember the story, don't you? It's hinted at in the opening verses of this 10th chapter.

The story of the exodus, the story of people being liberated from the bondage of Egypt, of moving for 40 odd years through the Sinai peninsula, and largely speaking, never arriving in the promised land. If there was ever an illustration in scripture of squandered discipleship, then it's those people, not just thousands of them, but an estimate of three million. Well, that's why Paul takes us into this historical excursion down the Bible to the opening books, and particularly from Exodus and the remainder of the Pentateuch.

Let me, having whetted your appetite, let me, having disturbed you, having aroused your curiosity, bring you then to these 13 verses, and I'll show you how they open up in front of me, at least when I was studying them, and share its teaching by giving you some headings. With reference to these people, in the first five verses, Paul refers to the blessings that they had. Remember, I'm talking about the Old Testament Hebrews as they move through Sinai.

The blessings that they had, verses 1 to 5. Verses 6 right through to 11, the lessons that we are to learn. And verses 12 and 13, the responses we are to make. Now, if you'll keep those headings in mind, I think the whole passage will crack open and be of challenge to you.

Let's come to the first few verses then. Referring to these ancient Israelites, Paul makes reference to the blessings that they had, and he tells us in the first verse, I don't want you to be ignorant of this fact, brothers. Oh, why does he make this particular comment? Well, remember, he's speaking from the Old Testament, and if there's one thing that Pastor Paul doesn't want in Corinth or Rome or anywhere else when he uses this expression, pleading against people being ignorant, he doesn't want them to be biblically illiterate.

He wants them to have a knowledge of the Old Testament. Here is his fear, being a castaway, being disqualified. Here is an illustration of thousands of people, tens of thousands, who exactly exemplify what Paul is arguing against.

And so he takes us into the Bible, into the Old Testament, those dusty books, alas, for many a person, and he says there is a truth that is to be discovered and applied to your own condition. Who were these people? Well, they were our forefathers. Remember, he's writing Paul to Gentiles as well as to Jews, but he links both Jew and Gentile together because they're members of the household of faith.

You learn from the mistakes of those who have lived generations ago. The Hebrew community, as it came out from from Egypt, they were just like the church, bonded together, receiving certain blessings that everybody has in common. Look how God dealt so magnificently with these people, says Paul, and he tells us how corporately they knew God's favor resting upon them.

Listen as I stress certain words. I don't want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink and so forth. Here is a vast number of people who leave Egypt and they are blessed, whether they're rich or poor, whether they're male or female, whether they're significant or almost irrelevant, they all know the same attendant blessings of God. It's those people, says Paul, that I'm referring to.

God dealt with them corporately. What's more, he dealt with them sacramentally. Look at those words in the third verse.

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. They were all blessed by God in as much as miraculously. Moffat's translation is supernaturally.

He gives them meat, he gives them drink, he makes provision. And what is more, they are all blessed protectively. Listen again to him.

As he says in the latter part of the fourth verse, making reference to the Lord Jesus, if you please, he, that spiritual rock, accompanied them. He was their protection. These are blessings that these folk have known corporately.

They have known God's hand upon them sacramentally. He's given them food and drink protectively. The accompaniment of the Lord Jesus is theirs as a guarantee of safe conduct.

Now hold those thoughts, will you? Because these are magnificent things that the Old Testament people were to enjoy. But it's not their enjoyment that really is at the back of my mind as I try to push forward this point. Why does Paul make reference to these threefold blessings? If I were to disclose what I recognize to be the most important things that God has done in terms of provision for you and for me as Christians, I would say this.

He has given us the sacraments and he has given us his presence. What do I mean by the sacraments? Well, they're displayed in front of you illustratively. The bread and the wine, the communion table.

And here is our open baptismal, a pond, where some people are going to be immersed later on today. Here are the two sacraments, baptism and the provision of spiritual food. Is it not significant that when the Israelites left Egypt they were baptized, as it were, into Moses? A very strange expression that Moses became somewhat inadequately, of course, for them what Jesus adequately has become for us.

As they were baptized into Moses, so the Christian is baptized into Jesus Christ. And that baptism is symbolically illustrated when he or she is immersed in water. But our Lord Jesus, when he died on the cross, he makes provision also for our spiritual needs.

The shedding of his blood, the breaking of his body, the bread and the wine, they denote this. And in a very remarkable fashion, God makes spiritual provision for these Israelites eons ago. And in the very sacraments of baptism and the provision of food, they anticipate what God will do even more wonderfully for the church that Christ shall establish.

Have you got the point? When they move through the wilderness, not only have they the sacraments, they have the presence of God. And the remarkable thing here, and I wish I had time to develop it because it's fascinating, Paul says that they knew the companionship of Jesus. And that puts to flight Roman, or rather puts to flight Jehovah's Witness theology.

The rock is a term that the Hebrews used to use when they spoke of God. You find it in Deuteronomy, you find it in Psalms and other references. I could give them to you if you're interested later.

A rock speaks of stability. But here Paul is arguing that there was a manifestation of the presence of the Lord Jesus before Bethlehem. And during the wilderness wanderings of the Hebrews, the rock Christ was with them.

His spiritual presence was to be their security. And for the believer today, these sacraments are not illustrative of a dead Christ. They are illustrative of a risen Savior who makes himself present as we break bread, as we drink wine, as people are obedient and pass through the waters.

Our baptisms, all these things you see were prefigured by the Israelites in days gone by. The blessings were blessings upon blessings, a multitude of them. These were the blessings they had.

But, verse five, with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Or as the NIV puts it, nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered over a desert.

There is the greatest understatement in the Bible. God was not pleased with many of them. There were only two of the original community of Hebrews who left Egypt, who entered into the promised land.

The rest died in the wilderness. Overturned is the term in the Greek language, the same word as is used to describe what Jesus did to the money changers table in the temple. God overturned them.

The wrath of God, the vengeance of God was upon these people. I'm not saying that spiritually they were not saved, but I am saying that physically they knew God's condemnation. Here is squandered discipleships.

Look at those mounds of earth that depict the graves of thousands of people. Is there a more tragic spot, biblically speaking, in the whole of the world than Sinai? When flying over the Sinai desert on several occasions, I thought to myself of the tragedy that that patch of land represents. The graveyard of Hebrew people who had the blessings of God, but they squandered their discipleship.

And that, you see my friend, is what is bugging the Apostle Paul. It's what's worrying him when he writes that 27th verse of the previous chapter. I'm afraid, lest having preached to others, I myself will be disqualified.

There may be inconsistencies in my life, which will mean that though I'm saved, I squandered my discipleship, the blessings that they had. But I must move on. The lessons that we are to learn.

Now here, if you like, is a passage that could be seen in forms of a sandwich, but a very unpleasant sandwich. Take the 6th verse and the 11th. Those form the externals of the sandwich, so to speak.

These things, said the Apostle, occurred as examples to set, or to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. And then verse 11. These things happened to them as examples, and were written down as warnings for us.

You see the point? What is going to be squeezed between these two verses, are the lessons that Paul is going to lift out from the experiences of the Israelites in Sinai. And he said, this is the reason for Bible study. Not simply to be informed about ancient history, but to recognize that in the foibles and the failings of others, you will discover lessons, that if you apply them to your own life, will make you spiritually much better people.

Now if you were to take the last two sins that are catalogued in these verses together, that's in the 9th and 10th, you will find that the sickness, so to speak, that is described from the 6th verse and onwards, has four particular aspects to it. Take the 6th verse. I haven't time historically to illustrate them all.

But take the 6th verse. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Or as the A.V. puts it, these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

What is the reference to? Well you'd have to read Numbers and chapter 11 to work it out fully. But the point is this, that they went wrong in their area of priorities. In their area of priorities.

God had made provision for them in Sinai, but the provision wasn't sufficient. They wanted other things. They wanted the garlic of Egypt.

They wanted the festivities of Egypt. They wanted the lifestyle of Egypt. And Paul says that they merited the anger of God because they got their priorities out of order.

And the possibility is that the Corinthians would do the same. There's a comment on that historical blunder in the book of Psalms where it says, of God he gave them their request but sent leanness to their soul. God sometimes does that when you lust after something.

It doesn't necessarily mean sexually in this connotation. When you put something at a higher premium than a spiritual pursuit, God will sometimes allow you to have that thing and leanness will come to your soul. The first lesson, they got their priorities jumbled.

The second lesson is in the seventh verse where reference is made to perverted practices, perverted practices. Do not be idolatrous as some of them were. You remember how when Moses went up to Sinai, Aaron at the request of the people collected all their jewelry, their gold and their silver.

And as a result of a smelting process, placing these precious stones, these precious metals in the fire, he brought out a golden cup and they started to worship the God of Egypt. You see, it's Egypt again coming into the Israelite camp. And as a result of that, these perverted religious practices, they merit the disfavor of God.

Go on to the eighth verse, and here it's permissiveness which is underlined. We should not commit sexual adultery. There's a disgusting passage in Numbers 25 which makes reference to what Paul here has in mind, how the Israelites engaged in practices which were completely contrary to the will of God.

And then the last crime was in the area of provocation. The ninth verse, we should not test the Lord as some of them did and were killed by snakes, and do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel. Again, and one could sustain the point, the problem for the Israelite community as it moved through Sinai and the reason why it knew the disfavor of God was that they wanted to take some of Egypt, some of the sinful pagan practices of the people back in the land of bondage, they wanted to take it with them, and as a result they squandered their discipleship.

And as it was in the days of Moses, so it was in the days of the Corinthians, and so it is in the 20th century, my friend. There are some of us who need to engage more in Bible study in the Old Testament and recognize how it is that our foibles and failings have been illustrated in the Old Testament, and we should learn and correct ourselves as a result. Well then, if those are the blessings that they had and the lessons that we are to learn, let me close down by taking you to the last two verses.

Here are the responses which we are to make, the responses which we are to make. Look at the twelfth verse. If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall.

No temptation, verse 13, hath seized you except that which is common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted.

Beyond that you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand under it. In these two verses is outlined vulnerability and sovereignty.

What do I mean by vulnerability? Weakness. You see, Paul says, look, you Corinthians, you've got a smirk on your faces. I've been giving you some lessons from the Old Testament.

Let me tell you that the very things that happened in those days are happening in Corinth. You think you're strong, but it's when you feel that you are strong that you're made weak. Let him who thinks he is strong remember that he is weak.

And let him not, let him not fall. Oh, if any text of Scripture ought to have been hung upon the wall in Samson's home, it was the twelfth verse of 1 Corinthians 10, had it been written in his day. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.

Apply it to me, Samson. I'm so strong. I'm so sure.

But it was the sure Samson who was shorn of his strength. Oh, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Lord, though all men deny you, I won't deny you, says Peter.

Cock sure. But it's the cock sure who tremble when the cock crows. And Peter runs into the night, the blackness in his heart being darker than the darkness of the evening.

Here was a man, here were men who were weak. And now, says the apostle, here is a church that is weak. I've given you an example from Old Testament history.

Now listen to it yourself so that you who think you're so strong, take heed because you're falling. I can see it happening. And your discipleship, it's in the balance.

It might be squandered. What about you and me? Where did the Corinthians go wrong? Well, sensuality, that was one of their problems, sexual permissiveness. All right, you say, we don't have that.

And maybe largely speaking in this congregation, that is true. Though I'm not too sure that it's that easy these days to control the thought life of our minds. But there was a sort of super spirituality that was rife in Corinth later on.

Paul will deal with it in the second letter that he writes. He talks about these super apostles, these who make everyone else feel utterly inadequate. And he says, take heed, you who think you're so strong, lest you fall.

And then he talks about these pharisaical people who got their own ideas as to what to eat and what to drink and so on and so forth. There again, a cut above others. And Paul says, you folks, you feel that you're so strong.

Be careful, because you might fall. And the higher you get, the bigger is the drop, and the more nasty is the fracture. Now work that out for yourself.

Are there areas in which you're pharisaical? Are there areas in which you claim to be super spiritual? If you are really spiritual, you don't need to make the claim. We'll know that. It will be self-evident to us.

Well, these are people to whom the apostle Paul is writing. Ah, but there may be some who are getting afraid right now. But Paul, we see those graves in the wilderness.

We've got the mental picture in our mind. And Paul, man, we're scared. We're scared that we as Christians might not be able to withstand when temptation comes.

Ah, says Paul, that's the response I want. Now let me minister to you. Let me send you away as a pastor with a sense of peace and not fear.

Even temptation is not outside the sovereignty of God. No temptation will seize you except what is common to man. And God is faithful.

You want to remain true to God? God will remain true to you. Here you are. And Paul uses a military metaphor.

Here you are like soldiers on a mountain. You've been encircled. There's no way out or so it would seem.

That's what your temptation appears to be. But don't you realize that there's a crevice in the mountain? And you can be led out safely and securely away from your enemy. There will be a way of escape.

That's what Paul is saying in that 13th verse. When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. I find that these verses are part of the most magnificent pieces of teaching that Paul ever releases.

They're not self-evident. They need a great deal of study. But when you've studied it out, you see it standing there quite clearly.

This man Paul, humble man he is. He's concerned he might be a castaway. He might be disqualified.

He sees those graves in the Old Testament. He recognizes the reasons why these people never fulfill the purposes of God. Why only two of them ever got to the promised land.

There was this failure in terms of priorities. There was this compromise with Egypt. There were so many things in the Hebrew camp that were wrong.

And Paul's concerned that those things are transferred to his heart and to the experiences of the people in Corinth. And so he warns them. He warns them very carefully.

He warns them deliberately. He puts the fear of God into them. And when he's done that, he calms them.

And he says, don't get over worried. If your reaction is an exaggerated one, thank God for it, says Paul. That's just what I want.

For you to quiver like a feather in the wind, trembling, lest you might disqualify yourself and squander your discipleship. Look, I'll tell you this. If you're afraid, then it's okay.

God would never allow you to be tempted more than you can bear, but will create a way of escape. Those who refuse to be caught sure don't have problems. It's the ones who think they are strong, who ought to be afraid.

And that's the teaching of Paul. In these 13 verses, may it have been a blessing to you. Amen.

Now, Father, with your word in our minds, prepare us to come around this table or send us on our way with your blessing, helping us always to realize that even the sacraments in our attendance on them, in and of themselves, do not necessarily guarantee a quality of discipleship that is acceptable to you. Help us to look into our hearts, to take out all that is wrong, to take all that smacks of sensuality and phariseesm and have done with it. We ask, oh God, that as a result we might be more usable in your service.

Deliver us from just being a mound of earth as it were. We pray that our lives may count for you, that we might win that prize, that we might in no way be disqualified or finish up the castaway, saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, but alas, with a squandered discipleship. God, deliver us from that, we pray, in the name of the Savior.

Amen.