1 Corinthians chapter 10 and Paul says in verse 1 moreover brethren I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all ate the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. So you'll remember chapter eight through 10 deal with what topic? Liberty issues. And the liberty issues come under the, let me think how to word it, the paradigm or the, I like to call it a dress pattern. Now, hardly any young person knows what a dress pattern is, but what is a dress pattern? Okay. So it's a pattern of what a dress looks like. And you can put it on any, you know, red cloth or purple cloth or, right? And then you cut it out. So in other words, that's the paradigm. That's the template. The reason I'm hesitating with the word paradigm is because not too many people nowadays know what the word paradigm means. But basically, dress pattern. What would be a modernized dress pattern? That's right. So what would be a modern example of a dress pattern that a 20-year-old young man would know what in the world I'm talking about? Possibly, what I'm trying to get at is the test case, the dress pattern, the paradigm is what in this situation? Well, let's look at what he said. Go back to Chapter 8, and who would read Verse 1? Close? 8-1. Who would read 1 Corinthians 8-1? Okay. So the test case is things offered to idols. Or to put it in short term, idol meat. So meat offered to idols. I don't know why it says things offered to idols, but idol meat is the issue. So Paul uses that as the test case. Keep in mind, there's a very important principle. Look at chapter 10 and verse six. And who would read verse six for me? And then read verse 11. So here's the reason I'm harping on this. Idle meat is not the beginning and ending of the subject. The idle meat, meat offered to idles, is written for our admonition. So when you, and we're gonna see some other things from the Old Testament. When you read your Old Testament and you read about Samson, the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and he had super power to slay a lion. Eh, what's that got to do with me? I'm not gonna be killing any lions. Is that what you do with your Bible? No, what you do is you look and say, okay, what's the principle behind that example? You know, if I were to say, now remember Samson and the strength he had to kill that lion. What am I saying to you? That would be part of it. What else? All right. And where did the strength come from? Long hair? So when you read the story of Samson, what you will find 100% of the time is the Spirit of the Lord came rushing upon him and he was able to kill the Philistines. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he was able to tear a lion apart. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him. What's the point? The power comes from the Spirit of the Lord. So whatever obstacle, lion you have to tear apart, you need the power of the Spirit of the Lord. And you're not going to have that if you cut your hair. Peter. What was the cutting of the hair? What's the principle of the cutting of the hair? Oh, right. Because God said there was a vow that his parents made for him, and it was called a Nazarite vow. And there are three parts to it. Does anybody know what those three parts were? Couldn't cut your hair. No grapes, no raisins, no alcohol, no grape juice, no welches. What was the third? Can't touch anything dead. So, if Samson cut his hair, he would be in disobedience. And the Spirit of the Lord is not going to empower a man who's disobedient. You see the point? So that's what you have to do. When you're reading these stories, you have to stop and say, what's the underlying principle? That's how we learn. We learn by analogy and example and illustration of what other people go through. So if you get in that habit of reading the Bible that way, like, okay, it's the story of Israel comes up to a place of no water and they start complaining. And God gets angry at them. And God tells Moses, go and strike the rock and water will come out. What does that story tell you today? How is that a written for your admonition story? Don't have weak faith. All right, bring your body into subjection. But are we gonna go up through life and find times when the water runs out? and he will let that water run out long enough to where you're desperate. It doesn't run out for like 30 minutes. It runs out and it's like, boy, honey, there, you know. Now, am I talking about water? Water is an example of something, maybe you don't have a job, you don't have a relationship, you don't have whatever it may be. See what I'm trying to get at? Get in the habit of reading the scripture for your admonition that God's trying to teach you something from that story. Yes. Yes. So you can take John 6 where Jesus promises to help us overcome our struggles and tie it to Israel in their wilderness wanderings when they came with no food. Oh no, there's no food. What do we do? Complain, that's what we do. So we might as well just go without food. Or, what are you supposed to do? Trust God, pray, rest in Him. Wait in faith. Wait in prayer and faith. See? So there's... That's right. From those who love Him. That's a good thing. It's a little bit off the subject right now. So hold on, let me go back to 1 Corinthians. Otherwise I'll be off into predestination and the will of God. But you know, it's like you can always get to that subject. It reminds me, you know, some preachers, it doesn't matter what text they have, they'll go for their favorite subject. Right? And it reminds me of the one preacher. Every single subject, every single passage he preached, it was about water baptism. And so his deacons were kind of frustrated with it. And they're like, every single Sunday for the last five years, we've had a sermon on water baptism. And so they went up to him and they said, we'd like to pick the passage for you this week. And he goes, well, that's a little unusual, but all right. So they picked a passage that says, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. So the pastor gets up and he reads it and he says, the ax is laid to the root. You know why that ax was laid to the root of the trees? To clear a path to the river so they could start baptizing. It's like, oh my goodness, you know, not every passage is on election, not every passage is on evangelism. So we are in Chapter 10. So the point being is there is a paradigm of idle meat. And the question was, is it okay to eat meat offered to idols? And we saw three scenarios. What was the first scenario? All right. In what scenario is it okay to eat meat offered to idols? Very good. At home. Home alone. Yes. You can eat meat offered to idols. What's the second location? Friend's house. So let's say that it's an unsafe friend or it's a safe friend, doesn't really matter. Is it okay to eat meat at a friend's house? Maybe, that's right. And it depends on what? If you've got a weaker brother. who is going to be, his conscience would be wounded. So, very important, the weaker brother whose conscience could be wounded. If that weaker brother says, hey, that meat was offered to idols, then don't eat it, okay? What was the third scenario? Well, he needs to be educated for sure, but what's the third location to eat? Eating at home, eating at a friend's house, or eating at the idol temple? And is it okay to go to the idol temple, sit down at the idol temple table, where they're all praising their demon idol god? No. So, is that helpful? Well, it doesn't really help because I don't have any meat offered to idols and I'm not about to go to an idol temple. So, I guess that doesn't have anything to do with me. Is that what we do? No. What would be an example of a liberty issue that you have the liberty to practice at home alone? Buying a lottery ticket. I have to think about that one for a few weeks. Here's a liberty issue that was brought up. Dancing. How about watching a movie? You realize there are some Christians that it's like absolutely taboo to watch a movie. I mean, it's just, if you go to a movie, you're the devil. You have back slid, there's something horribly wrong with you. In fact, I remember, One of the guys that was in leadership at our church, not here, came across a man, led him to the Lord, and the man was gloriously saved. It was an exciting, wonderful thing, but he was far, he was like, you know, far, far away. So he said, well, let me see if I can find a church for you. So he found a church, and the guy started going to the church. And the man that led him to the Lord ended up meeting again. He invited him over for dinner, and they watched a movie afterwards. No problem. Well, that guy went back to the church that this guy recommended him to go to, and oh, you know, where were you? Oh, I had a great time. Guy led me to the Lord, went over to his house, had dinner, and we watched a movie. You what? And boy, he called me on the phone, chewed me out, that pastor from the other church. What kind of a church do you have? Your church isn't even a real church if you're letting your folks go to movies. So he's the weaker brother. The problem comes when the weaker brother gets in a position of leadership. When the weaker brother is in leadership, that church will become legalistic. Just count on it. Because then they will come up with all kinds of unbiblical rules, right? If it's biblical, it's settled. But what they do is they take their rule and they try to make it biblical. They'll twist it to make it biblical. Well, I know there's a verse, and I told you about the guy who didn't like women pulling their hair up on top of their head. You know, they had a bun up on top of their head. And he was looking and looking for scripture to support why to get the women to stop putting their hair up on top of their head. And there was a verse in somewhere in the gospels where Jesus says, let him who is on the rooftop not come down, right? Well, he took the verse and it said, top knot, come down. So the whole sermon that day was on top knot, come down. Right. He's got to mature. He's got to be educated. You educate. Don't get them to break their conscience. but they have to be educated. Now, here's the problem. If they are a professional weaker brother, they are not educatable. They will say, you're not using an old King James Bible, right? How many churches are King James only? And they'll put it on the sign out front, King James only. Did Jesus use a King James Bible? No, that's a quick, Right. He was the new King James, I want you to know. And it was a MacArthur study Bible on top of that. But you see the problem, you get these guys who are, they're faithful, you know, holy living guys, sincere. And because of that, we put them in a position of leadership, but they've not been discipled to the point where they understand what a mature brother is or what a weaker brother is. Well, then they're in charge, and well, what about, you know, should we let someone speak who's not wearing a suit and a tie? Oh, my goodness, no. Jesus wore a suit and a tie. It's obvious whoever speaks from the platform has to wear a suit and a tie. If they don't, they're in sin. You see how crazy that becomes? Whereas if the Bible says, there are rules, should we require that whoever speaks from the pulpit uses a Bible? Yeah, preach the word, that's pretty clear. So you see, the things that are clear in scripture are in scripture. Your personal preferences are not in scripture. That's what makes them personal preferences. And it makes them liberty issues, that you have the freedom. Now you have to be wise about certain things. That doesn't mean just because you have the liberty, you should do it. What trumps liberty? Say it again. Love. Love trumps liberty. So if I've got a weaker brother, I don't say to him, well, I don't care if this hurts your conscience, we're gonna do it anyway. What I should say is, oh, I didn't realize that that was your personal preference issue. Now, we won't do that particular thing, but let me start educating you, okay? Oh, you don't believe we should eat meat at this guy's house. No, I remember worshiping the idol at that temple, and we went through all these gyrations and prostitution and all kinds of things, and so any meat that's been offered to idols, I have to keep completely far away. Okay, that's your personal preference. It's not what the Bible says, so let me help educate you. And you start showing that guy what the Bible says about liberty issues. And you bring him up to snuff. That make sense? So, very important. The thing that will bring disunity into a church is when a weaker brother pushes his liberty issues, his preferences against liberty. In other words, where he's like, you don't have the liberty to do that. If you don't have an old King James Bible and a suit, I mean, I know we had one lady came, visited one Sunday, and she sat, you know, in the second row there and just looked at me puzzled, just real puzzled the whole time. And she walked up to me at the end of the service. She goes, well, you didn't say the Byzantine blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, well, I don't think I've ever heard of that. She goes, well, you have to say that every Sunday. It was some like ritual magic chant thing that you're supposed to say. And why don't you have vestments? And why aren't there any stained glass windows in here? I mean, she was visibly shocked and horrified that we didn't have a crucifix. I mean, umpteen different things, right? But she wasn't shocked and horrified that the church that she goes to does not open the Bible and preach the Bible. Right? She was just puzzled that, you know, well, you opened the Bible and you preached out of the Bible. And I said, well, doesn't your pastor do that? So you have to bring them along, educate them. So dancing, movies, what other? Christian music. Clothing. Drinking. umpteen liberty issues. You have to use wisdom, and you have to think through what does the Bible clearly say, what does it not clearly say. For example, drinking. Does the Bible say it's okay to get drunk? No. And so you're getting the idea. All right. So we then move to chapter nine. And so he's talked about how Paul himself, he says, here's how I limited my liberties. How did Paul limit his liberties? Not getting paid. Now, did he have the right to get paid? Because remember, liberties and rights, it's the same thing. Paul had the right to be paid. But he voluntarily gave up that right. Why? That's right. In fact, he tells you in verse 19, though I'm free from all men, I've made myself a servant that I might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews. To those under the law, that I might win those under the law. Verse 21, that I might win those who are without the law. Verse 22, that I might win the weak. See the point there? So he did limit his liberties for the sake of evangelism. That's a very loving thing to do. And I gave the example is, let's say that you have, personally come to the conclusion that you have the liberty to have a beer. I personally am a teetotaler, but I've got good reasons why I believe that. But let's say you think, no, no, no, I come from Europe or I come from wherever, up north, I think it's more up north than it is down here, Wisconsin. And in Wisconsin, we have a beer. And I say, okay. And we gather here, let's say, on a Saturday morning. And we say, okay, we can go out evangelizing. And you say, man, is it hot. So you get a big 32 ounce, 64 ounce, I don't know, whatever size they are. You got a 64 ounce old mill water. And you walk up to the guy's house. He opens the door, glug, glug, glug. I'd like to tell you about Jesus. Is that gonna be helpful in the Florida, in the South? Right? It's not going to be usually. I mean, I'm sure there's some people that's not. But it's one of those things that you would probably limit that liberty, if you believe you have that liberty, out of love for the soul. Because there are many, like if you, I mean, I came from an alcoholic home. So if I was not already saved and you knocked on my door with a beer in your hand and wanted to tell me about Jesus, I'd think you were a hypocrite. slam the door shut, right? So that's what I'm saying is be wise, limit your liberties out of love. Now, Paul did that with his right to be paid. And then he moves into verse 24 through 27, where there's a strict warning. And that strict warning is not about a separate topic. It's in the same, right? So in other words, chapter nine, 24 through 27 is in the chapter 8 through 10 topic. Is that making sense to everybody? So that means 24 through 27 relates to the subject of limiting your liberties. All right? And the bigger topic of eating meat offered to idols. So he says, and we covered this, but I'm just keeping, at the end, verse 27. I discipline my body, I bring it into subjection, lest when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified. This is a very severe warning. The word disqualified is a term meaning lost, tested and found to be unconverted. The Greek word is adokimos. And it's what they did to a coin. They tested the coin to see if it was a real gold, real silver coin. If it was tested and was not real, it would be adokimos. So what he's saying here is if you're a Christian, there are gonna be things in life that test your metal to see if you're real. And if you are found not to be real, then you are disqualified. You're not a true believer. So how does that relate? What he's saying here is you had better be careful about eating meat offered to idols. Because if you go to an idol temple and you eat meat offered to idols, you are involved in idolatry. And if you're involved in idolatry, you're going to be proven to be disqualified. Remember, every time they practiced idolatry in the pagan nations, and when Israel was drawn into those idolatrous situations, there was two things. There was idols and immorality. They just went hand in hand. So there's a severe warning. He's like, you had better wise up and think clearly on where you are going. If you think you have the liberty, for example, say you think you have the liberty to drink, the danger is getting drunk. If you get tipsy and you take your liberty too far, Be careful because if you're a drunk, you're not a Christian. You can't be a Christian drunk, right? You can't be a Christian serial killer. You can't be a Christian, if you're a Christian, you're not gonna be a drunk. That's what God saves us from our sin. So that brings us then into chapter 10. Now chapter 10 is still in the subject of Meat Offered to Idols. And specifically in chapter 10, he's dealing with meat that's offered to idols. And now, see, if you're not thinking context, context, context, you're gonna read chapter 10, verse one and following, and think, what does this have to do with liberty issues? For example, verse one, moreover brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. What does that have to do with eating meat offered to idols? What does that have to do with liberty issues and rights? We'll see, bear with me a second. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink. They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, that rock was Christ. Okay, so I thought we were talking about eating meat offered to idols. I thought we were talking about liberty issues and not going to idle temples. What's the deal here? Close, very, very close. What Paul is communicating, and you notice the word all. You see all in verse one shows up twice, then all in verse two, then all in verse three, then all in verse four. What Paul is sharing is this. The word all is emphasizing that we are a covenant community, right? The new covenant community is the ecclesia, the church. So we are a New Covenant community. In the Old Testament, they were an Old Testament covenant community. In that covenant community, they had a parallel leader, Moses, we have Christ, They had a parallel baptism. They went through the water. We go through the water. They had a parallel Lord's Supper. They ate of the food and they drank of the drink. We eat the food and drink the drink. Right, seeing the parallel so far? So, they did it as a covenant community. So, the symbol of baptism, the symbol of the Lord's Supper. Our community, covenant community practices. If a covenant community opens the door to other people, right, if you allow an unsaved person to join the church, That unsaved person is externally, because there's lots of unsaved people that join churches. There's lots of unsaved people that join this church, right? That's the reality. We don't want them to be. We're trying to get them to say, we try and ask about their conversion, we try and go through that. But within a few months or a few years, you find out pretty soon whether they're genuinely converted. So they are participating in our table, right? It's the Lord's table. Just like Israel had a quote unquote table, we have a table, right? When you participate in that table, you are sharing in the fellowship, you're sharing in the worship, right? When we take the Lord's Supper, we're saying, Lord Jesus, I worship you, I praise you for what you've done, I glorify your name. Worship, praise, glorify, we're worshiping, okay? Now, verse five. But with most of them, God was not well-pleased. Most of the ones in Israel, God was not well-pleased. Remember, we're carrying on the warning, and the warning is don't, he's gonna make this very clear in chapter 10, don't eat meat at the idol temple. Don't participate in their idolatrous feasts. because just as a person who comes into the church and participates, they are externally worshiping our God. If you go to the idol temple, you are externally involved in worshiping that demon idol. Is that making sense? So, he says, God was furious with them in the Old Testament, and he says, the warning is if you fall away from Christ into idolatry. Let's say you go to a Mormon temple, or you go to a Hindu temple, or you go to a Catholic church. You are entering an idolatrous Scenario, is that making sense? I mean goodness other than the Hindus, I guess the Catholics are the most idolatrous They've got statues for everything and the Bible specifically forbids having statues, right? so if you sit down at a Hindu temple you are participating in their worship Then he says, verse five, with most of them God was not well pleased and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. He's referring specifically if you go to Numbers chapter 14 with me, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Numbers chapter 14. And look at verse, 26. He's using an example, very important that you catch this. He's gonna give us some examples from Israel. He's saying, look at Israel. The danger is worshiping idols. Look what happened to Israel when they participated in idolatrous feasts, all right? Look at Numbers 14 and look at verse 26. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. saying, How long will I bear with this evil congregation who complained against me? I have heard the complaints which this children of Israel make against me. Say to them, As I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you and the carcasses of you who have complained against me. So the theme is complaining against the Lord. shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered according to your entire number from 20 years old and above." Boy, talk about with most of them he was not pleased. Every single Israelite from 20 years old and above was now forbidden to enter the promised land and consigned to die in the wilderness. He says, Verse 32, but as for you, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness. Your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you have spied out the land, 40 days for each day you shall bear your guilt one year. Remember they had sent spies and the spies came back and said, no, no, no, we can't go. And God had said, I want you to go. Well, no, we can't obey God. So they disobeyed God and God was furious with them. And all of them from 20 years old and up died. and the young ones, 20 years old and down, were in the wilderness for 40 years. I the Lord have spoken this, verse 20 to 35, I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me, there it is again, gathered against the Lord. In this wilderness they shall be consumed and there they shall die. Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land who returned and made the congregation complain against him, there it is again, by bringing a bad report of the land. Those very men who brought the evil report about the land died in the plague. So Paul is saying, listen, this is serious stuff. If you complain against the Lord and you disobey the Lord, look at what happened to Israel, dying in the wilderness. Why would he say that? Does that have any application to us? Why is it that church after church, thousands of churches are dying? Because they have spent their time complaining against the Lord and disobeying Him. Why are thousands and tens of thousands of pastors leaving the ministry? Because they've spent their ministry complaining against the Lord and disobeying Him. There you go. So, the passage in 1 Corinthians, go back to 1 Corinthians, and let this be a severe stern warning to this congregation, amen? Obey the Lord, have faith in him, don't complain to him. Don't complain about him, don't complain against him. When things don't go the way you want them to be, say the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. I serve almighty God who is infinitely wiser than I am, infinitely wiser than I am. And when he allows something, hallelujah, praise his name. have that heart. If you, well, I can't, I just can't do that. I just can't forgive the Lord for letting blah, blah, blah happen to me. Right, then off you go in the wilderness and die. That's your choice. Ain't that what scripture's warning us about? I mean, these scriptures are here, why? Verse six. Now, these things, what things? The carcasses in the wilderness are, became our what? Examples. To warn us that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. Right? The lusting after evil things relates to what are the two things that are always part of idolatry? Immorality. And idolatry. So you go to an idol feast, you're gonna have immorality and idolatry. Specifically, he's saying here, beware that you not lust, which relates to what? Immorality, after evil things as they lusted. And now let's make it real clear. So I'm gonna read verse seven. Now, before you go any further, don't become, and let me clarify this because. Immorality and idolatry. Aye, aye, aye. He's warning. Verse six, don't lust after evil things. Verse seven, don't become involved in idolatry. You see, the warning of verse one through five is to warn them not to take their liberty that they think they have to the point of sitting in an idle temple. Because in the idle temple, when you're sitting around the table, you are participating in the worship of a demon idol. And there invariably will be immorality. Invariably, you can't have one without the other. So, proof of that. As it is written, right, Paul will do this, look at verse seven, the middle of verse seven. As it is written, quote, the people sat down to eat and drink, where? At an idle temple, at an idle table, and they rose up to play. Shuffleboard? Ah, I'm sorry, that's an old, I should say pickleball. That's what they're playing. No, it's not talking about pickleball or shuffleboard, it's talking about immorality. And the proof of that is go to Exodus chapter 32. This is a quote from that specific text. Genesis, Exodus, second book of your Bible, chapter 32. Exodus. Chapter 32. Yeah, it'll be right in there. Exodus 32. And let's start at verse one. Now, when the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down, so he's up on the mountain talking to God, getting the law. God's giving him the tablets. And he's taking longer. Isn't that when we always get in trouble? God, you're just taking too long. I can't find the job that I've been praying for, so I'm gonna get the job where I work on Sunday. I can't find the job that I've been praying for, so I'm gonna get the job where I have to serve drinks. I can't get the job I've been praying for, so I'm gonna take this job killing babies. All right? So here you have somebody who is impatient with God. When God's not moving as fast as you want him to, he's just testing you. Just rest. Just say, okay, Lord, you're not moving as fast as I want you to. My bad, I'm the one to blame. You're not the one to blame, I'm the one to blame. So he says in verse 32, chapter 32, they delayed, Moses delayed. So the people gathered together to Aaron, and they said to him, we wanna worship the true God. Is that what he said? Nope. Help us commit idolatry. make gods that can go before us, because Moses, he's gone. I don't know what happened to him. And Aaron, the stupid dum-dum that he is, says, okay, break off your earrings. And so the people broke off their golden earrings, which were in their ears. They brought them to Aaron. He received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool into a molded calf. I mean, wow. Moses is like, all right, Aaron, make sure this bunch of rebels don't get into idolatry. I'm going to go talk to the Lord. And the very thing he tells him not to do, he enables him to do. And it says he fashioned it into a molded calf. And they said, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, a cow. Just amazing how blind idolaters are. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar. He goes the next step and builds an altar in front of it. And then Aaron made a, watch this, makes a proclamation and says, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. That's Joel Osteen if I ever heard of it. He's gonna take the molded calf and the Lord and blend them together. That's called syncretism. is we're gonna bring worldly idolatry and the things of God into the same room and call an idolatrous feast a feast to Jehovah. Then they arose early on the next day. Oh yeah, boy, let's get up early. They can't get up early to go to church. They can't get up early to go soul winning. They can't get up early to have their daily devotions. But man, if there's gonna be a party, oh, I'm getting up early for that. And they brought their peace offerings. Wow. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, hurry up, get down. I love how God's always saying, your people who you brought out of Egypt, Moses, wait a minute. He says, they've corrupted themselves. They've turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molded calf and worshiped it and sacrificed to it. And said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I've seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let me alone. My wrath may burn hot against them, and I will consume them. And I'll come back and start all over again with you. You think that might have been a good idea. You know, instead of Moses saying, oh, no, Lord, don't do that. I mean, because pleading with him. It just ended up becoming a whole mess afterwards. But he says, verse 11, then Moses pleaded with the Lord, his God, and said, Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people? Right, he turned around. These are your people. You brought them out of the land of Egypt. The Lord says, no, they're your people. You brought them out of the land of Egypt. No, they're not. They're your people. You brought them. No, they're yours. I don't want them. And then he says something interesting. Why should the Egyptians speak and say he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Because Lord, you know what's gonna happen. News, someone's gonna tweet Egypt, and they're gonna find out, old Pharaoh, he's gonna be like, ah, I knew it, that God that came in, he took them out there just to kill them. So you're gonna look bad, God. And that would have been true. So remember Abraham, Isaac. So it goes down a little bit further. And he says this. Verse 17, well, 16. Now the tablets were the work of God and the writing of God engraved on tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, I mean, they're having such a party, they're shouting their lungs out. They can't shout amen in a church, can they? But they can shout to Satan. They can shout at their parties. They can shout at a football game. They can shout at a basketball game. So they're shouting their lungs out. And Joshua, verse 17, heard the noise of the people as they shouted. And he said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. But he said, this is not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat. It's the sound of singing that I hear. You know, the old keg songs, yo-ho, yo-ho, dead men in the rum, you know, or whatever they're singing. These drunks, they come up with really stupid songs, right? So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger became hot. So now, Moses is furious. Father, God was furious and now Moses is furious. He takes the calf that they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it into powder, and scattered it on the water and shoved it down their throat. And Moses said to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron says, I don't know what happened. I just came out one day. And it's like, you know, let me read his words. Verse 23. They said to me, make us gods that shall go before us. Because as for Moses, this man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him. So I said to them, well, whoever has gold, let him break it off. And they gave it to me. And I just threw it into the fire. And his calf came walking out. I don't know, how come it's got tool markings on it from your tool, your tool belt? And Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, for Aaron had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies. And Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, whoever's on the Lord's side, come to me. And the sons of Levi, boy, that's a dangerous place. I've seen churches where the pastors had to say, all right, church, whoever's on the Lord's side, come to me. And man, the judgment of God falls upon those people who don't come and side with God's representative. Then it says, verse 27, He said to them, to the sons of Levi, thus says the Lord God of Israel, let every man put his sword on his side, go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the whole camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man kill his companion, and every man kill his neighbor. This is serious stuff. No, the ones that were dancing and partying and worshiping idols. So, verse 28, the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about 3,000 people died that day. There's a lot more about this. So what I want you to see is that's exactly what this is referring to back in 1 Corinthians. in 1 Corinthians 10, verse seven, do not become idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play, nor let us commit sexual immorality. See, there it is again. Idolatry and sexual immorality. What Paul is saying is stay away from pagan temples, stay away from places where pagans gather to have their parties. Stay away from pagan, how else can I word that? What would be a place where pagans gather together, dance around, drink too much, commit sexual immorality, and sing beer songs to their gods? Vegas? New Orleans? Uh-huh. Yeah, they got a bonfire where they all go out in the woods and, you know, they do their redneck thing out in the woods and they're all drinking and guzzling and fornicating and. Right, someone said New Orleans, that's right. You're making the connection? Clubs, nightclubs. Amen, that's exactly right. Yeah. Don't get into worldly situations and follow them because you will fall into that same trap. Now watch what he says in verse 8. Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 of them were killed. That's from Numbers 25. Jump back to Numbers 25. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Yeah. Bunch of rebels. And so, by the way, do you see the parallel with how important it is when God's called preacher, Moses or your pastor, calls you to obedience, don't fight against God, just do what God says. Right? Just obey. If you've seen it, and I preached it, and you're like, yeah, that is what the Bible says. You need to verify that's what the Bible says. And if you're like, that is what the Bible says, then just obey. Don't be a rebel. Because it never works out good for rebels. First of all, you give your pastors all kinds of trouble. They have heart problems, and I remember, I think it was, who was it? Griffith Thomas or one of these guys, old pastor, they said that he would, on Sunday afternoon, lay on his couch and hold his heart. Because of the... Right. So the stress that, in other words, you don't want to do that. You don't want to do that to Moses. You don't want to do it to your pastor. Just obey. Just do what God says. Make sure it's what God says, not what I say. But once you know it's what God says, just do it. And do it joyfully. Do it quickly, obediently, with zeal, with joy in your heart. So in Numbers 25, notice what happens. Now Israel, verse one, remained in the Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. So there's the sexual immorality, right? And he's warning us in 1 Corinthians, don't fall into that. But is there any idolatry going on? Someone read verse two. Pretty clear, huh? Lots of idolatry. Whenever you get involved with the world, you've got idolatry and immorality. When you get going to the places where the world goes, you get the worldly women, worldly guys. You know, one of the things that would be a simple bit of advice to follow, but our young people don't follow it. Find a sold out, holy living, fervent, loving man who you don't have to drag around spiritually like a dog on a chain. Come on, come on, how many times do I have to yank this chain before you'll go to church with me? How many times do I have to yank this chain before you start reading your Bible? Did you read your Bible today? Are you gonna go to evangelism this week? Good night. That's not a husband. That's a ball and chain. And vice versa, how many guys, the number one thing they care about is, oh, she's so good looking. That's it. Where's she at spiritually? Oh, she's so good looking. Wait a minute, where's she at spiritually? Is she a holy, living, godly woman? Is she sold out for Christ? Is she obedient to her parents and got a joyful spirit to her parents? No, she's just really good looking and I can't wait. Right, am I making this up guys? Right, so it says in verse three, so Israel was joined to Baal Peor, that's the demon idol God, and the anger of Jehovah was roused against them. And the Lord said to Moses, take all the leaders of the people, hang the offenders before the Lord out in the sun. Let their corpses dangle on the end of a rope out in the sun. Wow. What about gentle Jesus, meek and mild? You've been studying the wrong Jesus. This is the Bible. And he says that the fierce hang of the Lord may turn away from Israel. So Moses said to the judges of Israel, every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor. And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren. Now in the midst of all of this, in the midst of the judges putting their sword on their thigh, going in, killing the men, one brazen Guy, verse six, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman. Oh man, you should try this one. Right in the sight of Moses, in the sight of all the congregation of the children. Isn't that the brazen attitude a lot of worldly guys have? I'm gonna do whatever I wanna do and you're not gonna tell me how to live. So they just shove it up your nose, and it says, while the children of Israel was weeping, he can't even get in sync with the emotions of holiness, right? I've had it where I'm preaching my heart out, weeping over the souls of the people in the congregation, and someone's complaining, someone's staring daggers at me. I just think, wow, how hard-hearted can that be? God sees all that. So the children of Israel are weeping. This arrogant guy comes in with his harlot, remember there are harlots in verse one, this harlot Midianite woman in the side of Moses, in the side of the congregation while the children of Israel are weeping over their sin and weeping over all the death and the people dangling on ropes out in the sun. Now when Phineas, the son of Eleazar, man, Phineas is like, we should be on our faces repenting before God. That's what we should be doing. We should be living holy lives. We should be serious about God. Phineas sees this guy saunter into the camp with a girl on his arm. He gets up, he grabs a javelin, and he runs over. Verse eight, when he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and he rams it through both of them, woo, through the man of Israel and the woman through her body. And what did that do? It stopped the plague. We need some Phineases, don't we? Men who will take the javelin of God's word and say, this is what we're going to do, and we're not going to do it any other way. We're going to do it the way God says it is to be done. And so over in 1 Corinthians, that's the specific example. And of course, it talks about the thousands that die a little bit later, down in verse 9. Verse nine, nor let us tempt Christ, put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, and don't complain. You see, what they were doing was they were complaining against Paul, just like they complained against Moses. This is what people in godless churches do. In churches where God is honored, we praise God. Amen. We are not complainers. We're like, hallelujah, I love the word. I love my brothers and sisters. I love to see you guys. I love it when we're studying the word together. You know, that's what a good, healthy church does. And I would rather have, I've said it before, 12 Navy SEALs than 12,000 Gomer piles. Right? I'm not looking for massive numbers of bodies in a building. I want people who are sold out for Jesus Christ. And that's what we've got to be to attract them. Because what God will do, I mean, think about it. If you've got a brand new little baby, ladies, you just delivered a beautiful little baby, and you have to entrust that baby into the hands of a family to feed it properly, guide it, teach it, you're going to be careful as to what family. You're not going to have some drug dealing family. You're not going to have some apathetic, lazy family that's living off the government. You're going to be like, no, I want my little baby to be in the arms of people who are going to be teaching that right. God does that with the little new converts that he has. He wants them in healthy churches where the Bible is opened, where people live holy lives, they love each other, they care for each other, they're discipling each other, they're out evangelizing. No, they're just doing what the Bible says. So, back in chapter 10, he says, nor let us commit sexual immorality, in verse eight, nor let us tempt Christ, because they were destroyed by serpents when they did that, nor let us complain, don't be a complaining batch of Israelites, Now, verse 11, those are just nice Old Testament stories that have nothing to do with us. Is that what it says? No. He said, now all these things happened to them as examples for us. They were written back then for our admonition today, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So Paul is reaching back into the Old Testament as a good preacher does. You know, this Andy Stanley guy on TV, Charles Stanley's son, says you should unhitch from the Old Testament. Paul's not unhitching from any Old Testament. He's hitching up good and strong to the Old Testament. He's like weaving it in constantly into his sermons, and he's like, oh, just like the Old Testament said, just like the Old Testament said, just like happened with this guy, just like happened with Israel, just like what happened with Phinehas, just, I mean, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. He's weaving it in, and you'll see this next Sunday in Romans. So he says, therefore, let him who thinks he stands, because think of the people that are listening to what Paul's writing. In their arrogance, he's saying to them, do not go, do not go to the idol temple. If you want to eat meat at home alone or with someone else who is in agreement, fine, but don't go eat at the idol temple because at the idol temple, you're participating in the table feast of worshiping idols. And invariably, you're gonna get involved in immorality. So you say, what's the big deal? Meat for the body, body for the meats. It's just a bodily function. I'm just going through the motions. I eat meat, it goes through my stomach, doesn't hurt me. I'm sexually active, doesn't hurt me. Yes, it does, Paul says. Paul says you had better, you better take warning from these Old Testament examples, and you think you can stand, you think you're strong enough, you think, I can handle this, take heed lest you fall. No temptation has overtaken you, excuse me, except such as is common to man, but God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. So if you put yourself in the idolatrous temple, he's not putting that temptation in front of you. He's saying, flee it, run from it. You don't have the strength to handle that. God has given you a way out. And verse 14 says, therefore, based on all of these warnings, do what? Flee. All right, so far? Let's pray. Father, we do come before you in humility, acknowledging our weakness, and Lord, you have told us, flee idolatry, because in idolatry, we're participating in the worship of demons, and we are subjecting ourselves to immorality. Lord, we wanna be a holy church, we wanna be used by you, we want to be blessed by you, we want to see people saved, and we wanna see lives changed. Lord, protect us, from ever becoming one of these dead churches, either just an empty shell of a church or a hulking mess of hundreds of fornicators and drunks and people who have no interest in following you. Lord, that is not what the church is about. The church is to be made up of godly people who are committed to living for you. And then Lord, bring to us those little babies that are coming to salvation, that are trusting you. They might be in their 40s, 50s, or 70s, but they're coming to salvation. Lord, bring them here, we'll teach them the word, we'll feed them good, healthy food, we'll love them, and we'll disciple them for your glory. In your name we pray, amen. All the time. I don't know how the guy, but it's an amazing thing that these false teachers do in their mind, how they are able to just completely disobey scripture, go against the example of Paul, and somehow rationalize it that it's right. I think they're just unsaved guys who are misled by Satan. Beginning to end. I mean, wow. And like this morning, I mean, Paul was like, well, tonight. I mean, he's quoting back the Old Testament. These things are examples for us. He didn't say, ah, ignore those, because what Andy Stanley's argument is, is, well, if we quote the Old Testament, people know what else is in the Old Testament.