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1 Corinthians 10:1-13 - Part B

Connect with Skip Heitzig / Skip Heitzig
The Truth Network Radio
August 24, 2022 6:00 am

1 Corinthians 10:1-13 - Part B

Connect with Skip Heitzig / Skip Heitzig

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August 24, 2022 6:00 am

Everything we see in the world can produce fear in us—but we have an alternative: we can trust God and His promises. In this message, Skip shares how you can focus even more on the Lord and His goodness.

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When you see a big God, you see little men. But if you have a little God, you see big men and big problems. So I've said on many occasions, difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. Well, this is difficult. Yeah, it looks pretty, pretty difficult for you or for me, but bring God into the situation.

Everything changes. Every day, we have the choice to trust in God or to become fearful with all that's wrong in the world. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares why it's vital to tune out the noise of the world and hone in on God's promises. But first, if you want to stay up to date on the latest from this ministry and from Skip, we invite you to follow Skip on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You'll find important announcements and great encouragement from Skip.

That's at Skip Heitzig. Here at Connect with Skip Heitzig, we get to hear incredible stories about how God is encouraging people around the world. And these stories are only possible because of you. When you give to this ministry, you help connect listeners all over the world to the good news of Jesus.

And you keep these messages you love on the air. Please consider giving a gift today to help more people connect with God and grow in their faith. To give, just visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or you can call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Now, we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. Manna must have had all that was necessary, that spiritual food that God gave them, to sustain life so their feet wouldn't swell, so they could maintain homeostasis, so they could be vital and live well during those 40 years. Manna was also interesting because it says they could grind it in their grinders. They could beat it in their mortars. They could bake it in their ovens.

So, it had interesting properties. So, I don't know if Mrs. Moses wrote a book, A Thousand and One Ways to Prepare Manna, with all sorts of recipes, but no doubt there was. Bemanna bread or manicotti would be one. There would be manna souffle.

All sorts of different varieties that you could do with it. And I told you before that one of the scriptures say that it tasted like wafers baked with honey. So, that's why I say when I eat a Krispy Kreme donut, I think, oh yeah, this is manna, man. Hot now, manna. Must have tasted like that. I do get caught up on the manna thing.

I do love it. Okay, so God provided that they ate the same spiritual food. They drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ.

It's an interesting scripture. We know in the Old Testament that water was a problem. When you're in the desert, sources of water for two million people would be an issue and they complained on one occasion we don't have enough water, on a few occasions. And we know that Moses was told to go up to the rock and hit it with his staff and out flowed water, enough water, must have had a lot of subterranean pressure, to bring water to the two million souls plus livestock and to nourish them.

And to nourish them. Later on, Moses was told to speak to that rock. He got mad, misrepresented the Lord and beat it, said must we bring water out of this rock.

You know the story. But according to Paul, he says now that rock was Christ. There's a lot of ways to look at that and most people look at that in a spiritual kind of a way. They spiritualized the text a little bit saying that spiritually speaking, Christ is the living water, the satisfier of the soul and all that. That's true and perhaps that is in Paul's mind, but let me suggest another possibility. There was a Jewish legend that persisted and Paul would have been aware of the legend. And the legend, the Jewish legend was, is that the rock in the wilderness that Moses struck that brought forth water actually appeared wherever the children of Israel would camp. So if they camped, pulled up camp, moved miles away, they'd be there. There was that same rock that would provide water for them.

And so it just sort of followed them. It was a Jewish legend that the rock followed them wherever they went. Now that's just a legend and I don't necessarily believe that to be true.

It could be true, but it's a Jewish legend. It could be that Paul was aware of the legend and he said, you know, you're right. Knowing about the legend, knowing what they believe, there was a rock that followed you.

But that rock wasn't a literal rock. That rock was the person of Christ who sustained you during the Wilderness March. And it could be here that the idea is that they at that time under Moses were anticipating the coming of the Messiah. We know that Moses predicted another would come that was like him.

And the New Testament identifies that other prophet as being the Messiah. So that was introduced by Moses to wait for the coming of Messiah. So under Moses, the children of Israel anticipated the coming of Messiah, the rock of their salvation. And it's interesting that Jesus at Caesarea Philippi did say to his disciples, standing before this huge rock in Caesarea Philippi, he said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And he used a Greek word, petra, and petra means a massive stone.

And the word that is used here in the Greek language for the rock that followed them was Christ is the same word, petra, that massive rock. And of course in Matthew 16 when Jesus brought this truth up, he was speaking about the massive confession of belief that he was the Son of God. Because Peter had said, I know who you are. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Peter, but my Father who is in heaven.

Well, my Father who is in heaven. And I say, you are Peter, petros, a tiny little pebble, but upon this petra, this massive stone of your confession of who I am, I'll build my church on that. I'll build my church on that.

I'll build my people on that. So they drank from the same spiritual drink. They drank from that spiritual rock that followed them.

That rock was Christ. But, now they have this incredible liberty. They have a newfound freedom. They're not slaves in Egypt.

What are they going to do with this liberty? But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. As I mentioned, only two of the two million or so survived, Joshua and Caleb. Why did they survive?

Faith. They applied the promises of God to their lives, and they mixed the promises with faith. And the test of that faith took place in Numbers 13, when Moses sent 12 emissaries to spy out the land. And they spied it out. They looked at it. They came back, and they brought a report, and the 12 spies told the children of Israel what they found in the new land that God had given to them.

And this is what they said. Now, they brought back, these two guys brought this huge pile of grapes that was so large, it took two men to carry them between their shoulders. That was the fruit of the land, as evidence of the blessing of God. And so they brought the fruit out, and the 10 spies said, well, as you can see, the land is indeed good and abundant that the Lord has given us.

But the cities are huge and fortified, and the people are pretty tall. The sons of Anak are there, and they're enormous, and we are grasshoppers in their sight. Joshua and Caleb came forward and said, nah, let us go in at once, and we'll be able to go in at once. Let us go in at once and take that land, for we are well able to take it.

And the 10 dissenters said, no, we can't take it. They're huge. They're giants. Joshua and Caleb said, they're bread for us. They're food for us. Easy pickings, big targets, easy to hit. Can't miss them.

Let's go for it. But the people of Israel listened not to the joyful, hopeful report, but the doom and gloom and fearful report. And so, because they chose to believe that, God said, really?

Okay, you're going to die in the wilderness, and they wandered around for 40 years, 40 years, and that entire generation perished except for those two, Joshua and Caleb. Not much has changed today. You put your ear to the ground. You read the news. You listen to the news.

You look at your Twitter feed. There's basically the voices that are hopeful, and things are getting better and great, and other people say, no, it's not. It's horrible, and doom and gloom.

It's just going to get worse. And you just have to decide, who are you going to listen to? And as a believer, you should listen to the promises of God. They're sure and filled with hope. But with most of them, God was not well pleased. Now, something about these giants that they saw, these cities with the fortified walls and towers and all that, all 12 of them saw the same things.

It's not like Joshua and Caleb were in a restaurant drinking a Diet Coke when the giants walked by, and only the 10 saw them. They all saw the same thing. They had the same experience. It was a shared experience. But their reports were so different.

Why? Because of the way they measured. They measured the circumstance, the situation, the 10 did, by the giants that they saw. The two, Joshua and Caleb, measured the situation by the giant God they couldn't see. Joshua and Caleb saw a big God. When you see a big God, you see little men. But if you have a little God, you see big men and big problems. So I've said on many occasions, difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. Oh, this is difficult.

Yeah, it looks pretty difficult for you or for me, but bring God into the situation. Everything changes. Game changer. They're bred for us.

No problem. Let's take them. But their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things, verse 6, boy, I'm poking along.

Sorry. Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. In the book of Numbers, it says they came to a place and they had intense cravings, intense cravings for leeks and garlics and onions and meat. The flesh pots, they're called in the Old Testament, or in the King James, called the meat, the flesh pots of Egypt. The pots that were served up with just enormous portions of meat.

They missed all that. Now God was giving them, I believe, all the protein, all the vitamins, all the minerals, all the nutrients in the manna. But it says they said, our soul loathes this bread from heaven. Now you and I would love to see manna, would we not? I'd love to go out and see manna, but I suppose if you're seeing manna every day for 40 years, it might get a little bit old, but that's your only choice.

You're pretty stoked to have a manna burger. But they lusted or they craved, and we shouldn't do that. Verse 7, and do not become idolaters as were some of them.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now he's introducing something that he's already introduced, and that is idolatry. Okay, so when the Corinthians asked, is it okay for us to eat meat that has been sacrificed to an idol? It's because Corinth was filled with worship systems and temples of gods and goddesses everywhere.

All of social life was involved in the religious affairs of the Greek gods. So if there was a political rally, if there was a business meeting, if there was any kind of social function, it always involved some sort of sacrifice of a pagan god or goddess. It was part and parcel of the life of Corinth, and some of the believers are struggling with, can I eat meat from those places?

Or what about people who see me eating that kind of stuff? So the idea of idolatry is being introduced from the children of Israel into this situation. But we shouldn't become idolaters as some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

So what did they do with their liberty? They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now when they rose up to play, it's not when it rose up to play a game of golf or chess or checkers, they rose up to play and party sensually, and that was when Moses was up on that mountain receiving the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments from the Lord, and he came down and he heard them partying and God said, get down quickly, these people have already turned aside. So Moses comes down with the Ten Commandments, you know how it goes, and there's Aaron, and when Moses was up there they said, you know Moses has been up there a long time, we don't know what's become of that guy. And they said to Aaron, we want some visible representation of God. So Aaron took an offering, got all their jewelry, their gold, and threw it into a fire and then he made a golden calf. But he told Moses, here's the excuse he said to Moses, he goes, yeah, Mo, it was really weird, I took their gold and I chucked it into the fire and out came this calf. Must have been a really powerful fire, it had an automatic idol maker inside of it, because out popped this false idol that they worshiped.

Just a lame excuse. It was Billy Sunday, the evangelist, who said, an excuse is just the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. And that's what happened with them in the wilderness and Aaron telling Moses it was the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.

The people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play. So they were eating food sacrificed to an idol. You get the connection, the idol of the golden calf in the wilderness.

Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23,000 fell. Now he's picking out different portions of the wilderness wanderings and showing that the children of Israel who had liberty squandered their liberty. So in Numbers chapter 25, 23, 24, 25, you know that area, that's when Balak, the son of Zippor, called for Balaam to come and curse the children of Israel. So Balaam comes from Mesopotamia, comes to a place called Baal Peor, looks over the encampments of Israel, the tents of Israel, and sees God's people and begins to bless them and basically say, these are God's people, God's blessed them, they're awesome, look at that, check it out. And Balak just gets torqued and he says, I called you here to curse the children of Israel and you're blessing them. He said, how can I curse what God has blessed?

And so this happened a few times. Balak said, well, go over on this ridge and curse them over there. And he goes over to that ridge, blesses them over there.

Well, that didn't work. Go over to that ridge and curse them over there, goes over there, blesses them again. So when Balak is at his limit and so upset with Balaam and saying, you know, go home, get out of here, you're not worth anything, Balaam said, well, I can't curse the ones God has blessed, but you could do something, Balak. You could have the Moabite women, your women, go into the camp of Israel where the Israelite men are, the soldiers, the front line of a possible battle, go into the men, get those women who are idol worshipers and introduce them to your worship system. Now, their worship system is they would come on to a guy and offer sexual favors. That's how the gods of the Canaanites and goddesses were worshiped.

They would often engage in a procreative act. They would bring out their little idol. They would say a prayer to it. And so what Balaam was saying is, look, if you tempt them sensually sexually and then bring in the idolatrous thing, you don't have to have me curse them. God Himself will curse them. You'll bring a curse.

They'll bring a curse on themselves if you introduce that kind of idolatry. So that was the idea behind what Balaam did to the children of Israel. So that is exactly what happened. And when that happened, on that day, they started dropping like flies. It says 23,000 fell in one day. Now, some of you who know your Bibles go, no, wait a minute, Skip. I've actually read Numbers 25. And it doesn't say that.

It says 24,000 fell. And so what you have is you have people who go, see, there's a discrepancy in the Bible. There's so many discrepancies in the Bible. There's always contradiction.

They love this stuff. But every time they do that, they're digging a hole for themselves when they try to do that. Because here's the argument.

First of all, Paul the Apostle, a Jewish rabbi, knew the text of Scripture. That's plain and simple. Do you think he was like an idiot? Oh, I forgot to add that. I hadn't read it recently, so I'm just rounding up the number. No, he said here, listen, 23,000 fell in one day.

You don't have to be brilliant to figure this out. 24,000 died in the entire plague on one day alone. 23,000 and a total of another 1,000. 24,000 died. But Paul's point is 23,000 died.

This judgment was swift, and it happened in one day. Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. Now, that is yet a different story.

That's Numbers chapter 21. The people were complaining, you know, oh, bring us water, bring us food. Our soul hates this horrible, junky manna. I'm tired of the manna bread and manna cottie. I'm tired of it.

I'm done. And so the Lord allowed serpents to crawl through the encampment of Israel by people, and they died from these serpents as a judgment upon their attitude. But you know the rest of the story. Moses cried out to God. God said, you know, Mo, you can cure this plague if you take a serpent, a brass serpent, make one out of brass, really quickly, just shape one, just get a piece of brass, shape it, a serpent, tack it up on this pole, lift up the pole, and tell people, look at the brass serpent. Anybody who looks at that serpent will be healed. Just look at the serpent, you'll be healed. So Moses did it, put it up, hey, you guys, look. All the people looked, and they were healed.

But I'm sure there were people on the other side of the encampment of Israel, I mean, it's a mile and a half away, the whole encampment of that many people, thought, I'm not going to walk, or a half a mile away, I'm not going to walk a half mile across the camp. Somebody said, look at a brass serpent, and I'm going to be healed. Somebody said, look at a brass serpent, and I'm going to be healed. That's the stupidest, non-scientific thing I've ever heard. The science says, only medicine will cure you. Moses said, look at a brass serpent.

He's denying the science. It was unscientific, it was illogical, but it worked. So whoever looked by faith was healed. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Expound First Corinthians.

Right now, we want to share about a resource that will help strengthen your trust in God, so you can live with greater confidence and peace. Life is hard, and then we die. That is a harsh but accurate philosophy.

Listen to this gentle encouragement. But God, that's right. In the most difficult circumstances, God can intervene, as he did for Joseph, Job, and through the resurrection of Jesus.

Here's Skip Heitzig. In fact, there may not be two more hopeful words than these two words, but God, because they point us to the great interrupter, the one who can powerfully and graciously interrupt our lives with his plans and change our lives forever. We want to help you understand some of the Bible's most profound but God moments, so you can have more hope for change in your own life. Pastor Skip's 10 message teaching series, But God, is our thanks when you give $35 or more today to help connect more people to the only one who can radically change a life.

Get your But God CD collection today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how you can counter complaining with gratitude, so you can experience God's richest blessings. You know, here's the miracles of the wilderness, and the covering of the cloud, and the water from the rock, and the parting of the Red Sea, and the manna from heaven. All of it's forgotten in a single trifling moment.

And so it talks about in Romans that they complained, neither were they thankful. So start counting the blessings God has given you. . Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-03-06 10:37:21 / 2023-03-06 10:46:47 / 9

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