And worship together in the House of the Lord. It doesn't seem to matter. Wherever we go, we run into warning signs, whether it's by the beach telling us not to go into the water or to be careful or you buy something in the store and there's there's warning labels, not what not to do with the product that you just bought. There's warning signs that seem to be everywhere, and they're in the Bible. There are warning signs in Scripture that we do well to heed.
Our title this morning is warnings from history, and the Bible has many warnings, right? Early on in Genesis, God warned Adam and Eve what not to do. And we find Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, They had all these, all these warnings in Scripture warnings kind of sound drab or negative. They don't have to be. Actually, we're glad when there's a warning about something we shouldn't be doing. But with the warning, there also comes responsibility to heed the warning. But what if he can't?
What if you're stuck? What if you're a person who can't heed warnings? And we'll go into that this morning a little bit. There's a verse in First Second Corinthians, chapter 3. The apostle Paul writes after, wrote First Corinthians. He wrote this letter and I don't have anything in between. But he says now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Only free people are able and
capable to heed warnings. Think of it this way, maybe you have gone to the doctor and the doctor said, OK, you better stop doing this or you're not going to get better. Well, I can't stop that. Or maybe maybe it's a health issue in the doctors, you better start doing this or this may be it for you. Well, I can't start that because we feel confined, restricted and bound in a certain lifestyle choice we may have made and we can't.
And those are physical, material things and there's nothing maybe salvation focused on that at all. Perhaps maybe what you eat, that's maybe what you do exercise wise. But there's things in the Bible that talk about that have eternal consequences if we don't heed those warnings. And that's what we want to focus on this morning. Jesus did say in the Gospels, if the sun sets you free, you'll be free indeed. Free for what? Free to do as we ought.
We do what we do. We need to become free, free to serve, free to give, free to love, free to deny ourselves. We've heard about that in the last number of sermons in the First Corinthians. Currently we are going to the First Corinthians and this was written in response to some of the problems that were going on. Lots of challenges in Corinth.
In today's passage, we will look at how Paul goes back in history to draw a lesson from the people of Israel and their experience when they were set free from slavery under Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and how that history connected with the church in Corinth in Paul's day. And I want to suggest to you this morning, it connects to LDMC and to each one of us.
Personally, I want to point out that both the story of the people of Israel, the Exodus, the desert experience, and the letter to Paul in Corinth that all combines, we're part of the same thread. There's an unbroken, continuous thread through it all. Often times, freedom is very much misunderstood. You see, Satan does not mind if he can get people to believe they're free. Maybe physical freedom or political freedom or financial freedom, or any one of those freedoms.
Oh, great. Satan does not mind those as long as he can hold the wheel, as long as he can be the guiding force, because then he just directs it into even more sinister, more darkness, more evil, whatever you want to call it. And we, as long as we keep missing the mark, he doesn't care for free, so to speak, as long as we're and spiritual bondage to him. The people of Israel are a very clear example of a very bad and very sinful use of their freedom.
They've been set free. That was correct. Pharaoh had let them go. They were out of the land of Egypt. But then what they choose to do with the freedom, well, that's another story. That's what we want to look at today. And we want to connect with our time today and reflect in our own lives. How is it connected? Sometimes to get a good definition of something, it's good to look at what it's not. Freedom is not the absence of
rules. Freedom is not the release from consequences for breaking the rules. Freedom, rather, is deciding to live and act responsibly. And freedom is putting God and others higher than self. You ever thought of it this way? Free to deny self, free to sacrifice, free to give, free to be generous, free to be honest, free to be transparent. Or are we bound? Well, I gotta hide this. Can't say that, can't do this.
What kind of life are we living? Some people have the idea that they want freedom, but they have no idea what they're seeking. A little word picture that that comes to my mind would be, for instance, a kite. And you know how kites work. You have a kite and you put a long string on there and you lease it into the air and then it goes up, up, up, up to hundreds of feet and this and the string holds it. Now imagine if the kite was alive.
Imagine if the kite had a mind of its own, was thinking, boy, finally could get rid of this string. I could go miles, I could fly very high. And you would think, how foolish is that? It's the string that holds the kite that gives it's freedom to fly. It's the boundaries that make it able to fly. This string is not hindering the kite. This string is enabling the kite. It's because there are boundaries that freedom exists. Kites with no strings don't fly.
And that's how boundaries in life work. And God said the people of Israel free from the land of Egypt, not for the purpose to do whatever you jolly well please, but so you can be free to obey me, to obey him. It's a process that takes time. It's challenging. Often in life it happens that once restrictions are removed, a person very quickly derails their life. And the reason for that is because they were maybe outwardly free, but not inwardly free.
Inwardly they were slaves. As ever, nothing in this temp, in this life that's temporary, that does for here and now, will bring true and lasting freedom. It's not money, it's not jobs, it's not stuff, no reputation, not even loosening of the restrictions. And sure, it's frustrating when life doesn't work out, but that's not what we're talking about. Yes, life throws us curve balls and we think, well, no, I'm not free has nothing to do with
that. You see, most often it's not what seems to us as as the problem. That's not, in fact, the real problem. The problem is not necessarily the problem. When we experience something, an event that doesn't work out, the biggest problems usually first and foremost react negatively. We react to the problem. We'll get to 1st Corinthians in a second here, but let me use a familiar story to illustrate this. And this is a Bible story, the story of Joseph. You know, he was hated by his
brothers. Dad loved him more than the rest of the guys. And so that was a problem. His brothers grabbed him one day, stripped off his coat of many colors, threw him into an empty cistern. That was a problem. The same day some Ishmaelites, a caravan of Ishmaelites come travelling by with their camels and hey, let's sell our sell our brother. They sold him to the merchants and he was gone.
That was a problem. They took him to Egypt where he sold as a slave to Potiphar's to for the captain of the guard and now he was a slave serving the serving the captain and that was a problem. He worked for Potiphar and he was a handsome looking man and his wife noticed and she had she lusted after him, wanted to seduce him. That was a problem. And Joseph says how can I do this great wickedness, sin against God?
He refused. She continues to pressure him and one day she grabs him and he runs away and she accuses him to her husband of doing the thing that she wanted him to do. That was a problem. He's put in prison and in prison he was put in charge of the prison, but eventually he was forgotten in prison for two whole years. And that was a problem. In the story, in this, you can find this, Genesis 37 and onward. All the problems Joseph faced, God was with him in each one of
them. But from God's standpoint, they were not problems. They were, we could call education, they were college or they were courses, they were, they were training. That's what they were. There were classes for him to become the man God had intended him to be. On the other hand, his brothers at home, who would have seen. Yeah, free. They just lied to the dad about Joseph, dipped the the robe in blood. Yeah. Look, this is your. Is this your son's clothes?
I guess it is. So he's torn to pieces. Jacob says. OK. And then no. Out of sight, out of mind. No, I won't go into the story of Joseph's brothers, but we do know they were stricken. They were guilty. They had no freedom, none whatsoever. And when Jacob, the old man died, Joseph's brothers come to him and says, you know we're your servants. They, they talk among themselves. Will he now take revenge on us? They never were free from the day they sold him. Joseph was free all the time.
Joseph never was a prisoner. He was prisoner physically, but not spiritually. All the problems Joseph faced, he used a stepping stone to shape and mold his life to become the man God wanted him to be. This morning in First Corinthians we come to a passage where Paul talks about the story of the Israelites coming out of Egypt and how that all panned out wasn't very good.
In today's passage we will see how Paul warned the Corinthians that just because God's people have been given physical freedom, that freedom is not an indicator of spiritual freedom. It would be revealed how they lived and did it ever. They were very much in bondage to them.
Let's read First Corinthians chapter 10 and beginning verse one to the end of 13. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud, in the sea, and all ate the same
spiritual food. All drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we may not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were, As it is written that people sat down to eat and drink and rose to play.
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23,000 felt in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and they were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happen to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he
fall. No temptation has overtaken you, but that is, that is not common to man. God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. In Paul's writing to the Church of Corinth, he frequently mentions the word immorality and idolatry and so on. And it's because that's what that city was rife with. That city was just saturated and marinated with that.
And in this environment, Paul had planted a church. And so it was stands to reason why that was a challenge. The people had been set free from the in the Book of Exodus that was set free, but they were still enslaved. And so Paul now draws the parallel. He draws the parallel from the people in Egypt that had come out of Egypt and we're in the desert. But that doesn't mean now they could throw all warning and all
restraint off. And what the people in in Egypt experience, Well, the Israelites in the desert experience, Paul draws the comparison and what's happening to them. The truth of the matter is, whatever it is that we do when we have freedom, that is the benchmark of our character.
When restraints are gone and you're not free to do with nobody looking over your shoulder, or you're not free to make decisions, decisions that you would make when there's no consequences or you think there's no consequences. That's the real me. That's the real you. But just imagine the feeling. Let's put ourselves back into Israel's shoes for just for a second.
Imagine the feeling. Years and years and years, decades and centuries go by. Every morning the slaves go out to work and get beaten and get pushed and oppressed. Oh, they had lots to eat. But then one morning they're free. No more kings and taskmasters to bully them and oppress them. They're free, finally free. You would think that this is so special, so precious, so sacred. Under no circumstances ever will we argue, complain or whine ever
again. Disrespect God. Anyway, God has seen us through. We're not going to be worshipping God forever, right? No, someone put it this way. Years ago. They had been taken out of Egypt, but Egypt had not been taken out of them. And that was true. If the people of Israel thought that getting out of Egypt was crossing the finish line, they would learn later on it was leaving the starting line.
They had no idea of how far they still had to go in order to understand God, to learn to fear God and obey His commandments. They were not truly free inside. Yet. As I said, when a person's free to make decisions for themselves, what they do is a true revelation of what's in the heart. And did it ever show? So the first point we want to look at this morning is a relationship with God is more than spiritual blessings of
outward freedom. The people of Israel had experienced God in a number of ways. God had freedom physically. God had then parted the Red Sea for them to get to walk through on dry ground. They got hungry. God provided water and food for them. God gave them his laws on the mountain. We may question why then did they rebel and complain and worship idols and give themselves to immorality? Simple. They lived out what was in the hearts. They'd been set free. But we're not free spiritually
in their hearts. They did not have a relationship with God. Spiritual freedom is relationship based. And of course there are rules as there are rules to every relationship. But the rules in a relationship are not for the sake of putting a person on a leash or restraint as as a direction guidance. Paul reminds his readers in Corinth that as far as the Israelites being set free from slavery in Egypt, that did not automatically put change them on the inside.
They had been set free outwardly, but inwardly they were still slaves to sin. They all experienced the same blessings, Paul writes, all the same experiences. No one would have detected that as they trudged out of Egypt towards the Red Sea. Nobody would have seen any difference. And so we have to admit material blessings in this life are not an indicator of being saved or being in God's favour or being in a relationship with God.
There are some very successful, immoral, idolatrous people in this world. There's some very devote and sincere Saints of God in this world who don't experience any physical blessing hardly, and may even be killed for their faith. God provides earthly blessings, material blessings according to His grace. He's materially generous to people according to his grace. It's not all based on are the believers or not. Otherwise our country would be poor by now.
Some poor countries might be rich by now. Jesus does say in Matthew chapter 545, he says for he makes his sunrise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the unjust and the and the just and the unjust. We can't use that as a standard. Oh boy, he must be a real good Christian because he's really rich or must be a very bad Christian. He's really poor has nothing to do with that. Now granted, people who make who have good jobs and are are frugal, they will earn they will
they will have a better income. That's true, but that's not the benchmark from which we measure people. When God set the people of Israel free, he set the whole nation free from bondage to Pharaoh and the word all is used in this passage five times. All were under the cloud, benefited from the from the guiding, the guiding light at night, and the guiding of the cloud. All benefited. All passed to the Red Sea, symbolizing identification with Moses.
All were baptized into Moses, so to speak, identified with his cause. All ate the same spiritual food. All went to the same church, we could say all received the same instructions, all the same teachings, all drink the same spiritual food, the spiritual rock that represents Christ.
From God's standpoint, they were supposed to trust God to be taken care of. They had physical needs, sure, but God promised them to bring them safely to the land of Canaan and they needed to completely trust Him. But instead, they repeatedly allowed circumstances and temptations to get the better of them. Now, we're exempt from that, right? We never do that, right? How often don't we? We're no better than they are. Let's look at a few incidents in Exodus, right after the crossing.
They had just finished crossing. Well, the first they complained before they got into the water and into the sea. Actually, they complained to Mose. Why have you done this? Now we're going to get killed by Pharaoh. And you, you shouldn't have done this. Moses prays and lifts his rod up to God. And they see parts and they walk through. And then they have a great song. They sing three days later. Only three days later they get thirsty. Of course, there's no water.
And finally they find water. OK, now we have water. And they come to Mara and they can't drink the water because it's bitter. And then they complain. It says in Exodus 15 verse 24, it says and the people grumbled against Moses saying what shall we do? This was less than a week or so after they went through the Red Sea like three days after the out. Maybe it's less than a week. It's I don't know how many days,
but it's very, very short time. They've forgotten already while then Moses, Christ to God, he prays to God, God chose him. A log he throws in the water. Water becomes sweet and they learned their lesson right. No, they start out from there and all the congregation if Israel comes to the wilderness of sin, it says in chapter 16 was Exodus and Exodus and this is now quite some time again. Well, not it's actually only a
number of weeks. It says on this on the 5th and Exodus 6 verse one to four, it says on the 15th day of the second month, month and a half. Here's here's what's happening. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumble against Moses and air in the wilderness. And the people said to them, would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat
pots and ate bread to the full. For you've brought us out in this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather at his portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. They had left Egypt, experienced miraculous deliverance, first from the king, then the Red Sea, then the waters at Meribah, and now they complain again.
How often do you have to repeat the same course to pass the course? Now? They would have learned, right? No, we and I won't go into all the details, but we know that they built an idol, actually literally built a golden calf and worshipped it. Unbelievable what those people did. Let's go look again at 1st Corinthians 10 where Paul says, I do not want you to be unaware. He says and he he gives that whole, that whole detail of what happened. Let let's be honest with ourselves.
What is it in our hearts that trips us up? It's not the circumstances that trip us up. It's a response to the circumstances that trip us up. And I will say it this way. Without repentance, there is no true freedom. And that's where they were lacking. The path to freedom from slavery to sin is always through repentance. There are no exceptions. And they learned that the hard way. And a journey that should have taken them only a matter of weeks from Egypt to Canaan
lasted 40 years. The testings they faced, the trials they they they met, they were not the problem. In a sense they were issues to deal with, yes, but there were opportunities to self examine, to reflect, to evaluate how they were doing in relation to God. That never crossed their minds. They only thought, hey you Moses, we've got a problem with you. It's your fault. We deny you do something about it. Blaming him, everything except themselves.
When sin came knocking, they sure very quickly fell, fell in defeat. So we must remember a relationship with God is more than spiritual blessing. Come out with freedom. But second, spiritual blessings do not protect us from consequences for willful indulging in sin. Some people have the idea that when things are good, God must be happy with him. When things are not good, now God must be angry.
That is not the case. Then he would have been very angry with Joseph and OK with the brothers because nothing happened to them for the longest time. But even though God may be gracious, our sins do not give us a free pass. We have to repent of them. Many people reap the consequences of their sins and they never repent. Others repent, but the fruits still follow. Actions still may come. Jesus died for a sins on the cross, so you and I will not be judged when we repent and come to him.
The sins are all paid for, but we may still reap the consequences. And there's a story that tells us what happened to Moses. And the one case, and I'll just briefly mention this, he got angry at the people because God told him, go talk to the rock and it'll produce water and they'll stop there complaining. Moses gets so mad, why must I put up with you rabbles? He hits the rock, the rock produces water, and God says to Moses, uh oh, you ain't going in
either. And Moses did not go in either. We know Moses isn't heaven with God. We have the stories. But Moses himself forfeited his opportunity to go into the land of Canaan simply because of the way he responded. God says you refused to honor me before the nation. These people had some deep, deep seated problems they need to deal with. Somebody wants to put it this way. The hard thing to do and the right thing to do are usually
the same thing. The easy thing to do and the wrong thing to do are also usually the same thing. Think about that for a second. We don't like that. We want the easy thing to do the right thing and the hard thing to do the wrong thing. That's how we would like it, but that's not what we want. One of my favorite authors is CS Lewis and he wrote a fictional book called The Screw Tape Letters. It's somewhat a satirical fictional story and how 2 demons have the conversation between
themselves. One's name is Screw Tape, he's the uncle and Wormwood's the nephew and it's the setting is the in the 1940s, World War 2 era. That's the setting of the story in the book. The war has started in Europe and it's World War 2 and Uncle Screw Tape is trying to get Wormwood to deal with the patient, the man they're trying to to destroy deal with him properly so that it works. I'll just read a few pieces from
that this morning. And so screw tape is not is very, very worried about uncle and nephew Wormwood. He's going to mess it all up. And let me just read this. Screw tape writes to Wormwood. He says, I know it seems strange that your chief aim at the moment should be the very same thing for which the man, the patients lover and his mother are praying for, namely his bodily safety. But so it is. You should be guarding him like the apple of your eye, Screw Tip's worm.
But don't let him die. Don't let harm come to him. He we don't have him yet. He's not ours yet, in other words. And Screw Tip continues his He says if he dies now, you lose him. If he survives the war, World War 2, there's always hope. The enemy mean the Holy Spirit has guarded him from you through the 1st great wave of temptation. But if only he can be kept alive, you have time for itself as your ally. He goes on.
He says the long, dull, monotonous years of middle age prosperity or middle age adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it's so hard for these
creatures, people to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair hardly felt, this pain of ever overcoming, the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives, the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it all. All this provides Admiral opportunities for wearing out of soul by attrition, erosion and slow destruction.
He continues on, he says. If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our positions even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he's finding his place in it, while really the world is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work build upon him a sense of being really at home and on earth, which is just what we want.
You will notice that the young generation is usually more willing to die than the old. So far of his reading. I've read that part many times, numerous times, and I can't help but always reflect on it. Isn't that the objective of many people, even those who go to church? That's the objective in life, An easy life, convenient, safe, secure. What's that different than the people of Israel were hoping for? What's that different? See, the pathway out of Egypt
was their exodus to freedom. And it was, but they botched it. You know the stories. The sad part isn't the world today in the church? Some people are part of the church and never become free. Just because we sit in a Pew on Sunday morning does not mean we're saved or walking in victory. I know it sounds scary, but people think they're free when in actuality, not really. The world has found its place in them.
Or they made a confession. They got baptized, are a good standing member, just window dressing people of Israel proved it. And in Corinth the same problem existed, it says in verse 5. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness as Paul writes. This story is not some disconnected faraway story from the past. It's history and relevant for the Corinthians, relevant for me
and you today. So we've seen that, number one, a relationship with God is more than spiritual blessings of outward freedom. Spiritual blessings do not protect us from the consequences for willful indulging of sin. And #3 without a relationship with God, we remain under God's judgement. We cannot have it both ways, no matter our standing, our position, all of that. We can be as lost as an unbeliever if we don't have a relationship with God, if we're rejecting Him.
Throughout the New Testament, we find that God wants relationships with His people through Jesus Christ. It's only as we get to know Jesus, repent of our sins, surrender to Him, allow Him to be Lord of our lives that we walk in freedom and get out from under the judgment of God. You see these people, the Israelites, they were low on faith and high on worry, low on thankfulness and high on complaining, low on worship towards God, but high on idol
worship. Idol worship is anything we put above God, anything that we put before God. Worship is, is when we surrender to God, when we get together as a body, when we devote our time to God. And remember, Paul wrote this letter to a church. It was planted in a very corrupt and immoral place. They were had a reputation for being immoral and corrupt when the people of Israel had been rescued out of Egypt. They still have the trappings of Egypt in their hearts.
They were they were not quote UN quote free in the in the spiritual sense. Paul saw the same thing in Corinth. That's why he used the illustration God judged the nation of Israel. Paul saying be careful, take warning from that. And he says anyone who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. To let our guards down to become complacent is very dangerous. These people could not resist temptation.
They could not get over it and so they fell one after another after another after another, till finally the whole nation, 21, age 21 or older, except two men all died in the desert. The costume Paul says in verse 13, no temptation is overtaking you. That's not common to man. If it's pride, it's common. If it's moral, it's common. If it's idol worship, it's common. If it's money or stuff, it's common. We must learn to trust Christ to trust in God and rely on him to
overcome. God did not create us to be victims of defeat. Paul writes a different place that in Christ for more than conquerors. God did not create us create us. His image bears in this world to fear and falter and walk in slavery. And yet the truth is so many people live in defeat and failure. In verse 13 Paul writes he says
God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you beyond your ability, but with the temptation also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. You see, we don't have to fear a Red Sea in front of us. We don't have to worry about the waters of Mera. We don't have to worry about the things that we lack. We don't have to fear when we face hard times. We're free to flee from
immorality. Just if Joseph did, that's sure it cost him, but we don't have to give in to idol worship. The children of Israel had their struggles. The people Corinth had their struggles. We at OEMC have our struggles. Who do we follow when we repent of our sins? We believe the gospel of Jesus, put our faith and trust, and we're born into His Kingdom. Then let's walk in freedom. This morning we again want to
celebrate communion. We want to celebrate what the Lord Jesus did to make this possible, what the Lord Jesus did on the cross when he died and shed his blood so we could be free. This freedom was bought at a huge cost, a huge price. We must value it, we must receive it, and we must live it. The stories of God's people in the past are for us to remember, for us to learn from, and for us to apply the principles of those stories to our lives. They truly are a warning from history.
When Jesus was ready to lay down his life as a sacrifice for the sins, he had one final supper with his disciples. He taught them this important lesson on the last even before he was arrested. And he distributed the elements, the bread and the juice or the wine for them. And he claimed it as the new covenant under which all of us now receive our freedom, our salvation, and our relationship. Let's pray before we go into communion.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this morning, for your scripture, for the words you have for us. Lord, I pray that as we move on from here, as we celebrate communion, that our hearts would be deeply touched with by your grace, and we would experience what it means to walk with you. Jesus, thank you again for this morning and joining me pray. Amen.