1 Corinthians chapter 10. Appreciate those of you who prayed for my wife, who knew about the situation, had back surgery. She's home recuperating. And I'm lost without her being here with me. I may just have to go home this afternoon. I don't know. But we'll see about that. Appreciate y'all's prayers though. She's doing real good. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 5. Familiar passage of Scripture. But with many of them, God talking about Israel in the wilderness, 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 to 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. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, Lest ye fall. Father, we thank you again for the privilege of being here. Thank you, Lord, for the good singing, good preaching we've heard this morning and last night. God, what a blessing it is as we heard about that well this morning and a place just to get a good, fresh drink of water. We thank you for it. Thank you for this church, Brother Charlie, all they do every year to put this on. We do appreciate it. Now, Lord, I pray you'd speak to us. This passage, Paul tells us twice, these things are written so we can learn something God help us to do that in Jesus' name, amen. Verse 11, these things happened unto them for examples. Verse 6, they were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Verse 5 says, with many of them God was not well pleased. We've heard salvation preached this morning. Let me say, if you're not saved, God's not pleased with you at all. The Bible talks about even the plowing of the wicked is sin. So even your manner of earning a living, if it's the most honorable profession, God is not pleased with you anyway if you're not saved. With many of them, He's talking about God's children here though. He's talking about the people of God. With many of them, God was not well pleased. These children of Israel knew a lot of things about God. For example, they knew God's power. They had seen it over and over. But that didn't stop them from messing up. They knew God's leadership every day. Here's this pillar of cloud and pillar of fire at night. But that didn't stop them from messing up with God's very presence with them. They knew God's provision. He gave them water in the desert. He gave them manna. He gave them the quails. He gave them all these things, whatever they needed along the way. The Bible says even in 40 years their clothes didn't wear out, their shoes didn't wear out, and all that. But that didn't stop them from messing up. Just like we heard about the king last night, all those good things behind him didn't stop him from messing up, and it won't stop us either sometimes. All the good things God has done in our lives, we forget about those things and we mess up. And he says these folks, their mess up is our examples, and they're in samples unto us. Let's just analyze the passage real quick here. First of all, number one, stop lusting. Verse 6, He says, Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. They lusted. Let me say that lust simply means to crave after something, particularly something God didn't want you to have. It doesn't necessarily mean something immoral like we think of the word lust a lot of times. It's anytime I want something God didn't want me to have, I'm lusting after something in the sight of God. And that's wrong, and it's going to get me in trouble. Numbers chapter 11 verses 4-6 says the mixed multitude, that was part of their problem right there. When they came out of Egypt, they brought the mixed multitude with them. They did not separate from the world. And so the mixed multitude that was among them fell lusting. It started with that mixed multitude. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? Question, is it a sin to eat flesh? No, it's not. We says we remember the fish nothing wrong with that which we did eat and eat freely the cucumbers the melons the leeks the onions the garlic Nothing wrong with any of that. That's not a sin in any of that But they said but now our soul our emotions our wills our desires We want something God didn't give us now. Our soul is dried away. That was not true There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. You know what they're saying. We don't want what God has That's for us. We want what we want. Oh, God's given us this manna. We're sick and tired of that and we want something else. We want what we had back there in that world. Lusting, lusting, lusting after other things. A lot of times we're not satisfied with what God has given. You know, He has only promised you two things in His life anyway. Food and raiment. And I know you got the raiment. I see it. We're going to have the food in a few minutes. But we go less than after other things God didn't feel pleased to give us. But you know what? God gave it to them. He gave them up, they were less than after, just like he'll do with a lot of us sometimes. Numbers 11, verse 33, and while the flesh, Moses, we want flesh to eat, we're tired of this man. God said, okay, here it is. While the flesh was yet between their teeth, air was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. You're not careful, he might give you what you want. Psalm 78, starting in verse 27, two or three verses here. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea. And he let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their habitations. So they did eat and were well filled, for he gave them their own desire. Do you realize it tells you in Numbers 32? When those people left Egypt, they brought their flocks with them, they brought their herds with them. They had plenty of flesh out there. They had all that livestock. It tells you that in chapter 32. They had all kind of stuff besides the manna and so forth. All this provision that they had. But it wasn't what they wanted. They were just like Mother Eve. She had that whole garden there. She could eat anywhere she wanted to. But here's one tree. Don't tell... Oh, what do you mean I can't... It's just like a bratty kid. Don't do that. He's going to do it in spite of what you believe. And that's the way we children of God are a lot of times. It goes on in Psalm 78. It says, He gave them their own desire. They were not estranged from their lust. Told us they'd been well-filled. They're still full of lust even after God gave them what they wanted and therefore judgment had to follow. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel. Still, even after the chastening, after the judgment of God, their attitude still did not change. It says in verse 32 of that chapter, For all this they sinned still. They asked God for something, He didn't want them to have it, but He gave it to them anyway, then chastened them for what He didn't want them to have, and they sinned still anyway after He had given it to them. This they sinned still and believed not for His wondrous works. Therefore, their days did He consume in vanity, and they're years and years in trouble. Ongoing problems for the rest of their lives because of their ongoing lust. The next 40 years, they'll drop dead in the desert there. Psalm 106 verses 14 and 15, again talking about Israel in the wilderness, says, They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert, and He gave them their requests, but sent leanness into their souls. I'd rather be lean physically than spiritually. You better be careful about what you're asking God for. You better stop wanting what God does not want you to have. So number one, stop lusting. Number two, stop idolatry. That's one of the five sins of the last days, according to the last couple of verses in Revelation chapter 9. Five major sins going on in the tribulation, and we're leading up to it. They're all prevalent today. Verse 7 here, it says, "...neither be you idolaters, as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." And of course, it's talking about that golden calf they had and when they worshiped it and so forth. They say, well, I don't have any idols and all that. Oh yeah, sometimes we got idols. Ezekiel talks about idols in the heart. It doesn't have to be a carved out stone. And I'll tell you, not a lot of Christians have, is that image of God they've conjured up in their mind that doesn't match the God of that book. We invent the God we want who will let us do what we want to do. That's what these people did, and that's what we do a lot of the time. Create a God in our own head and in our own hearts like they did that golden calf. You say, how do people do that? They'll say, well, I don't think God would do that. Get in the book. I believe God would allow me to do this. Get in the book. I think God will overlook this. He overlooks no sin. He says His eyes go to and fro on the whole earth, beholding the good and the evil. He lets no sin get by Him. None at all. Why? Every sin is a violation of His holiness. That's why. John chapter 4 verse 24, God is a spirit. They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Don't make up your own God. Worship the God of this book the real God says in Romans 12 verse 9 abhor that which is evil Cleave to that which is good and then God proceeds to define what is evil and define what is good Some things we think is sin. God does not think it's sin some things. We don't think it's in God says it is We need to go by what he says about it. Isaiah warned Israel. He said Isaiah 520 warned of them They're called evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for dark. We do that ourselves sometimes. Amen. Be careful about quenching the spirit, grieving the Spirit of God that you're warned not to do in Ephesians 4 verse 30. God wants us to be holy in all our conversation, every area of our life. 1 Peter 1 verse 16. Why? He says because He's holy. We're supposed to be a reflection of Him. He's the light. We're supposed to be lights shining in the world, Philippians says. We're supposed to be like Him. We get a lot of ideas about how we think about God. I had a lady tell me one time, she said, well, the God of the Old Testament is not the same one in the New Testament. I said, how's that? She said, well, back there He ordered the killing of people. He doesn't do that today. Did you not read about Ananias and Sapphira, that He dropped dead in their tracks in the New Testament? Did you not read about the guy that Paul said delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh? Amen. It's the same God, yesterday, today, and forever. But we make up our ideas of how we think God is and so forth, and the whole idea is self-justification. That's all that thing is. Have you preachers ever noticed this? Nine times out of ten, somebody comes to you for counseling. They don't want counseling. They want somebody to agree with what they want to do. Exodus 20 verse 16, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Don't be conjuring up a God in your mind that's not the God of this book. That would be a lie going on in your heart to justify what you want. One of the most prevalent sins in churches that I see is that thing right there, that idolatry that's in our hearts sometimes, making up a God to sanction what we want to do, or sanction what we want to say, and overlook it, and let us get away with it, and stuff like that. That God we've made up in our minds, He doesn't overlook anything! My kids were growing up, my son told my daughter one time, he was three years younger than her, still is I guess, but he told her one time. He said something to the effect, Dad knows everything we do. My dad does. He knows everything I do, man. He knows everything I'm thinking before I even think it. You know, get away with it. So don't make up a God that you think is going to let you get away with something. Number three, number three, stop the fornication. Verse eight, neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day. Three and twenty-five. Boy, that'd wipe out a church in a hurry, wouldn't it? That book Brother Charlie mentioned last night, Pornography, it's based on this subject right here, fornication, which has taken our churches by storm. It's everywhere. One preacher told me last night, he said the first time he had to deal with that in his church, he was an 11-year-old boy. Pornography knows no age. Amen. So my kids are raised in church. Yeah, but that's no guarantee. You understand the world we live in? They're bombarded every day. I don't care what kind of greenhouse you got them in. Every time you drive down the road, they're seeing something they ought not to see. Amen. And as Brother Charlie said last night, I told my church, every parent needs to read the book. Amen. Amen. And then deal with your kids about it. My kids are never getting anything. Where were you born? What planet are you from? Don't you remember your own childhood? I'll get into it. In the last 7 or 8 years I dealt with that subject of pornography in my church 9 times. And only one of them was an adult. The other 8 were teenagers. and the youngest was a 13-year-old boy, and two of the teenagers were girls. Your kids are not exempt from what's going on in this world. You better do everything you can to guard them. Can I chase another rabbit? Only a fool will allow their kid to have an internet-connected computer or cable TV in their bedroom. Because while you're snoring at 2 o'clock in the morning, man, they're up to something. Hey, don't be a fool all your life. Wake up and see what's going on in this world. We heard about this upcoming generation last night. Let's do what we can to help them grow up for God and don't give them stuff that's going to lead them away. Somebody told me last night about somebody gave a kid a cell phone and guaranteed that it wouldn't connect with the Internet. What they didn't know is every time he got in a store that had Wi-Fi, he could connect. I think parents are idiots anyway, giving teenagers telephones. I know half the kids in here probably got phones. I mean, if they got to go somewhere, you got to keep in touch, let them take your phone, that kind of stuff. But for them to have their own? You know what? They're texting to their buddies. Well, let's get back to the message. That's also one of the five sins of the last days. That's one of the most prevalent. 2 Peter 2.14, God says, "...having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, addicted to it. A beguiling unstable souls, in heart they have exercised with covetous practices." God's talking about His own kids. How do you know? Next two words. Cursed children. It's in His own church. among his own people. I remember a few years ago, I don't know if they still do it, probably do, probably even worse now, Berkeley University out there in California, they had a course, they had a course in their curriculum on pornography, and one of the course requirements were field trips to strip joints. That's the world. It's getting in the church. It's getting in the church. Amen. I mean, it ain't just Jimmy Swaggart, the Church of God anymore is getting in mess, it's Baptists. Amen. Stop the fornication. There's a mental fornication, there's a physical fornication. Matthew 5.28, you know the verse, whosoever looketh to lust in his heart, hath, past tense, committed adultery already in his heart. lustful looking is adultery in the heart. So it doesn't have to be an outward act for God to see it as adultery. You realize that verse, Matthew 5, 28, whoso looketh to lust hath commit, it judges our heart. But doesn't the whole book do that? Hebrews 4, verse 12, it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. When you open that book to read it, it's reading you. We just heard about that a while ago. This book is reading you. And if you read it with your mind open, you're going to run dead into yourself somewhere in there, and God's going to require you to do something about yourself. As he thinketh, Proverbs 20, so is he, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. You might be physically what you eat, but spiritually you're what you think. So is he. And you're going to give account for guess what? Every thought. The Lord said every odd thought. Man, how many thousands of them do we have every day? Give account for all that. Proverbs 24, verse 9, The thought of foolishness is the sin. Genesis 6, 5, And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Proverbs 15, 26, The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. Is your mind clean? You have a clean mind? You know what he said over there in Galatians 6, 7 and 8? He talks about, how does that start? Somebody help me, I'm having a senior moment. I don't have many of them, I just have one that continues. Be not deceived, God is not marked for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. Amen, it'll get you. As he thinketh in his heart. Philippians 4.8 tells you how to think. It lists eight categories in there, and he tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, he says, 2 Corinthians, he said, bring every thought into captivity of Jesus Christ, and if I think something, and I put it to the test of Philippians 4.8, and it doesn't fit in one of those categories, I need to cast it out. That's your test there. Philippians 4, 8, whatsoever things are just and pure and lovely and so on and so forth. Think on these things. Don't be thinking on anything else. God has not called us to be actors one way in church and another way somewhere else. Do you realize the word hypocrite comes from acting? That's how the word started. It meant a person that's one way on the stage and a different way off the stage. And God doesn't want... He wants you just like Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't want us changing at all. Bring all these thoughts into captivity of Jesus Christ and be holy in all manner of conversation. Everything about us. Boy, it's amazing how many times the Lord talks about hypocrites. The hottest sermon in that Bible is Matthew 23. Seven times he refers to hypocrites right in front of his face. You hypocrites, he says. Pharisees and hypocrites. Boy, preachers of the day preach that from the pulpit. The church runs them off. You know who runs them off? The hypocrites they were preaching to. That's it. Stop fornication. Not only is there a physical element to that, there's a spiritual fornication. and that's the one they were involved in part of it. Revelation 19 verse 2, For true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. You know what he's talking about? He's talking about religious fornication. He's talking about following a false religion or a false doctrine or some kind of heresy. And what I was saying a while ago, conjuring up God in your mind and worshiping what you've created in your mind instead of what's in that book and so forth. It's a spiritual fornication. God accused Israel of that because God was their husband. God the Father was the husband of Israel. Israel was his wife. She's called that. So when she goes running after other gods, that's fornication. And that's what we do as Christians, we go running after other things besides God. Spiritual fornication. Let me say number four. By the way, interesting thing about the language that God uses there. The word means to be Let me see if I can remember what it means to be. That senior moment's still continuing, okay? I'll get you there in time for lunch. Don't lose faith here, okay? We'll get you in lunch in time to eat. Fornication, it means highly fed and therefore wanton. We just read a while ago they were highly fed, well filled. What was the next step, fornication? Next step is fornication. Amen. Number four, stop tempting Christ. We've heard that preached already, how that the devil tempted him and he rebuked Satan for that. But look at verse 9, neither let us tempt Christ. Wait a minute. This is 1450 B.C. What are we talking about Jesus for? I think I read that he was the rock that followed them. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents." In other words, quit trying to cut deals with God. You come to this altar, you say, God, if you will, then I will. You're trying to make a deal with God. He does not make deals. It's cut and dried. He says, you do it my way or you're wrong. I mean, how many times does a Christian do that? Lord, if you'll just get me out of this mess, I'll live for you the rest of my life. Well, they live for another two weeks and it's over with. Quit tempting Christ. Stop trying to make deals with God. He says, you just obey me and I'm not cutting any deals with you at all. For example, he says, tithe. So somebody tithes this month and they don't next month. He says be faithful in church, so they hit and miss. He gives all these rules and commands and so forth, and we fudge on Him because we think we can on Him because we fudge on other people and so forth. Say, what do you mean fudging on people? Fudge means to avoid commitment. To act dishonestly, to fail to live up to something, to devise as a substitute, to fail to come to grips with, to hedge. Hedge means a calculatedly noncommittal statement to protect oneself from losing by a counterbalancing transaction to evade the risk of commitment, especially by leaving open a way of retreat. So what does all that mean? It means you try to cut a deal so you get the best end of it. That's what it means. It means getting God to bless you without you yielding to Romans 12, 1 and 2. That's what that means. And Christians are guilty of that all the time. I mean, all of us try to do that sometimes. When we pray sometimes, don't we try to tell God how to do it? How to work the thing out. Yeah. Well, that song says, just as I am without one plea. None. None. No deals. Just like those three Hebrews. You know what? When they got faced with the furnace, they could have said, God, Lord, God, don't let him throw us in there. Lord, if you won't let him throw us in there, we'll live for you the rest of our lives. No, they didn't say that. They said, God's able to get us out if he wants to. We're hoping he will, but if he doesn't, we're still going to serve him. We're still going to live for him. Don't try to cut deals with God. Just live for the Lord. Amen. Stop tempting Christ. Isaiah 55 verse 8, God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. Boy, I'm glad of that. I'm sure God doesn't have scrambled brains like I do sometimes. Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. So He's not cutting any deals. He loves all His kids the same. He deals with them all the same and expects you to yield to Him and obey Him. Number five, we're almost done here. Stop murmuring. Verse 10, verse 10, neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Of course, that's talking about the devil delivering the Satan from the destruction of the flesh and so forth. So he says, don't be murmuring. Some of them murmured and God had to deal with them. In fact, God told Moses, he said, hey, they have murmured against me these 10 times and that's it. Their carcasses are going to fall in this wilderness. God listened to their murmuring until He was sick and tired of it, and He said, I'm going to judge them. That's the end of the matter. No point praying about it. There's a sin unto death. I do not say that you shall pray about it. Just forget it. God says, I'm going to judge them. How many times is He going to let us get away with murmuring? He gave them ten shots at it. How many is He going to give us? You realize every time we murmur, every time we complain, that's a sin. That's sin of God, just like those Jews in the wilderness. Lord, I'm not getting the leeks and garlics I want. You're not treating me right. We've gotten comfortable with sin in our lives, and murmuring is a sin. And have you noticed nobody likes to murmur alone? Romans 1 verse 32 tells you nobody likes to sin alone. If they're going to get into sin, they're going to drag somebody else in there with them. So murmurings can spread like wildfire through a church. Nobody likes to be alone in it. We're supposed to be Christ-like. Is that correct? Did you ever hear him murmuring? Complaining? In fact, the Bible says when he was reviled, he reviled not again. There was no guile found in his mouth. But boy, some little thing get us rubbed the wrong way and we start murmuring. we start complaining. And God said that's one reason I destroyed them in the wilderness. Murmuring parents produce murmuring kids. Murmuring church members produce more murmuring church members. Amen. Need to be careful about that kind of stuff. We're commanded not to murmur and not complain. John 6 verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. Does that sound like a command? Doesn't mean. Philippians 2.14, do all things without murmurings and disputings. Jude 15.16 says God's coming to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are murmurers, complainers walking after their own lusts. May I just say, not all is fair in this life. It's not going to all be fair. Kids, it's not fair. No point in you saying it. We already know it. There's a lot of stuff that's not fair in this life. But you go murmuring and complaining about it, God's not going to be pleased with you. He's going to be upset. I mean, after all, if we belong to the Lord and we're in His will, then whatever's going on, He's allowed it, right? Then what do I have to complain about? What do I have to murmur about? Nothing. Just like those Israelites in the wilderness. Nothing to complain about. Is God pleased with you today? With many of them, God was not well pleased. Let's bow our heads.