First Corinthians 10:11-13 Taking heed of the faithfulness of God

So today we're going to wrap up this section, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 through 13. And this section I have labeled, Taking Heed and God's Faithfulness. So actually, here's McCauley's outline. You know, he goes through the first four verses, which talk about Israel's blessing as they came out of Egypt. And he took them through the Red Sea. And then he goes into the, in verse 5, we talk about what he calls Israel's fall. And then, actually, we have the examples of Israel's fall in 6 through 10.

We talked about those last week. And then today we have what Macaulay calls the application. So he has responsibility, danger, and promise that we're going to see here. And I think, you know, 10, 11 through 13 are just incredibly rich verses. And hopefully you'll agree when we finish today. But first we'd like to, as I do in the past, where we've been. So actually, let me just put all these bullets up. So basically, we see in verses 1 through 4, we see this marvelous deliverance, these marvelous words that Paul writes to the Corinthians.

Our fathers were all under the cloud. Our fathers all passed through the sea. You know that word all in the Greek is pas, it is not excluded, it's totally inclusive. So every man, woman, and child that came out of Israel experienced this. the direction of the cloud, the guidance of God, and his direction through the sea, the Red Sea. And then the wonderful statements about being baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. And we kind of talk about that in terms of their identification with Moses, and then we relate it to our identification with Christ.

And then the last two-part statements about they all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. Just wonderful pictures of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ as the bread of life and the water of life. And it's interesting that Paul would use spiritual food and spiritual drink. They obviously had miraculous food, even though they didn't quite like it, the manna, and they had miraculous drink coming out of a rock, a rock, a rock squirrel.

So pretty incredible stuff. So that was the first four verses. Then we get into the bad news. That was the good news. The bad news is their fall in the wilderness. So it says in verse 5, you know, God was not well pleased for they were laid low in the wilderness. And that laid low is kind of a descriptive term. It's not a very pretty term. They were scattered as corpses.

One renders it, some commentators render it. And it says, and then the following verse, been made by God for as examples for us. And that's the one I just kind of pondered, that how God, only God is able to do this. He's able to make events in His creation examples for a future time. And just kind of, you scratch your head and you say, Lord, it seems, but He does that. He has no problem with accomplishing that.

So both the blessings and the fall of Israel were made as examples for us now, for the Corinthians and for the believers. And with a purpose, then, that we would not crave or desire evil things as they, the Israelites, also craved. So God's interested in... He was displeased with the Israelites, but the message to the Corinthians and to us is that not to be craving evil things.

And he's going to go into some details using the events in the wilderness as examples. And so here are the wilderness Four that Paul points out, there are more I believe, but these are the four that the Holy Spirit through Paul wanted to highlight. I'm going to use my little pictures that I got off the internet.

So the first one was at Mount Sinai, and it literally stopped becoming idolaters. And then we have the one in Acacia, stopped committing sexual immorality, and that's right before they went into the Promised Land. Then Mount Hor, stop putting the Lord to the test. And then the fourth one is Taborah, and that's stop grumbling.

So those four, those are the four examples that Paul delineated. And I just briefly want to go through each of those again. I kind of shortened it down to one chart per place, and just kind of rethought what I said last time, hopefully make it a little bit clearer and relate it more to us. Okay, so here we go. So the first one, Mount Sinai.

And remember this picture, this is this crazy picture that, not crazy picture, it's a beautiful picture actually. But it's a well-known picture by a French artist. But unfortunately, I don't think he read, maybe he read the scriptures, but it's not a golden calf, it's actually maybe a golden bull. Anyway, but it depicts what seemed to be happening there.

So the first, at Mount Sinai it says, Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play. So, literally stop being idolaters, present imperative. So the action is already ongoing and it's imperative mood, so you can render it, so when he renders it, stop becoming idolaters. You know, this is going to, we're going to see more about idolatry and Mike's going to spend the next three weeks talking about idolatry.

And it's something that we need to understand for today's world. So we're going to present the Israeli case here, but there's more to be said by Paul later on. So here's the account in Exodus 32. We see that when Moses did not return, you know, he's up on the mountain with God for 40 days and 40 nights. Well, that was apparently too long.

So Aaron, in that time period, people came to him, he made a golden calf. And he proclaimed that this is your God, small g, oh Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. And he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, today shall be a feast to the Lord. And then on the next day, they offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And then we see our phrase that is repeated in Corinthians here. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. And as I mentioned, many commentators believe that the play is more than just jumping around there and dancing around the thing. It involves sexual morality. So, anyway.

And then Constable kind of observes that, you know, his audience for this letter is to the Corinthians, and the Corinthians had a problem with idolatry, too. They had all these temples, all these Many, many gods. I think Macaulay, if you listen to Macaulay, he went through and listed. There's about, there are so many different gods and so many different temples in Corinth. It's just amazing. So this is a very familiar kind of message for those Corinthians. Maybe a little bit not so much for us, but I think Mike's going to kind of cover that later on. So that's the first one at Mount Sinai. The next one, at this place called, and I have a hard time pronouncing it, so let's see if I can do it, Acacia, and it says, do not act immorally as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in one day.

So what we see here is sexual immorality was a problem, and as I mentioned before, it seems like it's always kind of connected with religious rights. Somehow in some religious right, that was something that was involved, and it happened in Corinth, and it happened here in the desert for the Israelites. That seemed to be the common problem with these things, and God was unhappy with that, severely unhappy. So in Numbers 25, it talks about this. It says, Israel was on the way to the Jordan River from Acacia, and then they, actually, yeah, right, and the people began to commit sexual immorality with the Moabites, And they invited them, the people of Israel, to sacrifice to their gods.

And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself to Baal Peor. Peor is a place there. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against them. So Moses said to the judges, remember the judges were his helpers in managing the people of Israel, pretty gruesome task.

Each of you slay his is men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor, and so that was, they did that, and then it says, and those who died by the plague, or the slaying, were 24,000, and it seems like the difference between 23 and 24, I didn't spend a lot of time, but, you know, 23 in one day possibly, and 24 total. So that's number two. Number three, this is the one that occurred out in the wilderness, close to Mount Hoar.

And it says, no, let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. So we're not to try the Lord. We see the account of this in Numbers 21. And actually, this is going to be a really cool one, because God's going to use, again, He's going to use history for our example and present a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ and His judgment of their sins.

So in Numbers 21, he says, and the people became impatient because of the journey from Mount Hor. The people spoke against Moses, against God and against Moses, for there is no food, no water, and we loathe this miserable food. Well, you know, God did provide food. He did provide water. They didn't like the food, so anyway. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit them, bit the people, So that many of the Israels died. So the people said, we have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and you. So the Lord says, so this is interesting.

He's going to propose here, he's going to propose a remedy to save them, to save them from death. And boy, you know, and I haven't really, this is an area that could be really fruitful, I think. So he's going to propose a method to save them from physical death. Well, this is going to picture, in a way, our salvation to eternal life.

So it starts out, then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent, a bronze, and set it on a standard. And it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, will live. So like I said, this is a picture that we recognize. And then actually what's wonderful is that we see it referred to in the New Testament, in John chapter 3, 14 and 15, it says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man, even so, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. So the picture there was, you know, saving them from death in the wilderness, the picture for us as believers, that when we look to God's remedy, God's remedy for sin, we are saved. In this case, we're saved eternally. So a wonderful picture, and in the back of my head, I think I've heard other people expound that there's a lot of other parallels you can draw, but this is the one that kind of occurred to me.

So let's move on to the fourth one. Do not grumble. So this is an ongoing action again, imperative mood, so you could render it. Stop grumbling is a rendering you could render it as. And grumbling is this word that The word in the Greek sounds like the word, it's onomatopoeia, I think that's what it's called. Anyway, like buzz, I think I mentioned that before. So anyway, it's to murmur, to mutter. There are at least 10, this is one of the 10 separate instances in Exodus and Numbers that we see of grumbling or murmuring. And we see the count of this in Numbers 11. Israel complains of the adversity in the hearing of the Lord.

His anger was kindled, and fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed them, and some of the outskirts of the camp. So some were consumed in the outskirts of the camp. But what's interesting is that, and Moses prayed, I'm getting ahead of myself here, getting anxious for this last little point, but Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out. Typical picture where they repent, and then Moses prays, and the problem is taken care of. But what's interesting is, this verse also tells us add some additional information.

It talks about, and they were destroyed by the destroyer. So what's interesting is this word for destroyer is the same word in the Greek translation of the Old Testament that's used for the angel of death that came when they left Egypt and killed the firstborn. So it says that God used this again in judging Israel here. He used this destroyer to destroy some of the Israelites.

Not a pretty picture, but this gives us a little more insight into how bad it was, how these four things were quite bad. Anyway, okay, so that takes care of the four. So with that in mind, let's move on to today's verses. So now we're going to look at the application of these. How do we apply this to our Christian life or the Corinthians life? So it says, verse 11, now these things have happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. And then verse 13, no temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. but what the temptation will provide the way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it. You know, especially verse 13 is just one, just one of a tremendous verse.

This has so many wonderful things to say. So hopefully I'll be able to, uh, to explain some of those anyway, just, but notice in here, I highlighted in blue, all the, the, the personal pronouns here are him. He, God is interested in the believer. He's interested in the Corinthians. And in these verses, he's gonna tell us about his promises in terms of their temptations. And we're gonna learn about their temptations as we go through here, and our temptations. Okay, so now let's start into it. Verse 11, now these things happen to them as examples. So it could be rendered now or but.

And the subject is these things, and I think in context, these things are the blessings and the warnings, both the good and the bad. The wonderful provision by God as it came out of Egypt, and the warnings, those four things we saw of their actions in the wilderness which he judged. It says, now but these things happened, it's interesting verb tense here, it's continuous action and pastime. And it can be rendered for happening together. So these things were happening together, the good and the bad, and why were they happening? To them as an example. And this is this word we talked about last week, it occurred earlier in verse six, typos, an example, a pattern, and it can be also used for a warning. So the things that happened, the good and the bad, were used, happened together for example.

And they were written Notice that we have I collided in blue and the verse of the top there to them as examples and for our instruction So we see kind of a contrast between them and our the Corinthians and us I'll explain that here shortly And they were written or or it was written. The word is grapple in the Greek It was written and and that statement you'll see it. I You'll see it a lot, actually, in Scripture, not a lot, well, a bunch of times, there we go. I didn't count them, but anyway, it's used as validation of something from Scripture, and it's used in a variety of ways.

Here's one case, talking about John the Baptist, and it's written, in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger, that's gonna be John the Baptist, before thy face, who shall prepare the way. So something stated in Scripture, And that reference to that is used as validation that this is the word of God. And a real familiar one I didn't put up here, but you guys all know real well, is when the Lord Jesus was tempted by Satan.

And what was his defense? What was his defense approach? He used this statement. He says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And he used that again. He used that multiple times for each each temptation that Satan came along with, he would use a statement, it is written.

So now kind of back to our verse here, so it's used here, they were written, they were written for our Paul and the Corinthians and us as instructions. And instruction is this cool word, a putting in mind or training by word, whether it's encouragement or by reproof. That's what Vine has to say about that. So the events by Paul in Corinthians chapter 10, 1 through 10, also recorded in Exodus, serve a dual purpose. And that's why I have the to them and the for us. For the Israelites, they're examples, they're patterns, and admonitions and a warning. But for us, they're a training.

They're putting in our minds what happened And that is to help us, to guide us in our Christian life. And I thought about this wonderful verse that we probably all memorize, thy word I've hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. So God desires that we are trained and that his word is so part of us that it guides us in our life.

And then this little phrase, upon whom the ends of the age have come, And I believe that's talking about the church. I borrowed this little statement, I didn't put it on my chart, but I borrowed this statement from Macaulay, which I'll read. He says, the ends of the ages have come refers to the present age, the church age, as the time of fulfillment about which the Old Testament prophets have spoken.

So basically, we have an advantage. We have such an advantage. And Macaulay kind of points that out. Israel had no past to look back upon, as we do. It didn't have a full revelation of Scripture, but we do, and we have so much more. In the age of grace, we have His very Spirit indwelling us. So we have a tremendous advantage, but even with that advantage, there are still problems with our desire for things that don't please God. And so Paul and the Holy Spirit think it's valuable that we look back at those and remember those, And that's why he's coming to the Corinthians. So let's go on. Let's go on to verse 12. Therefore, let him who thinks he stand take heed that he does not fall.

Another one of those verses, I don't know about you, but that's one that kind of is in my head many times. It's therefore or so then, let him who thinks he stand, and I actually liked just a straight inner linear, you know, word for word translation from the Greek. So it basically says in inner linear, the one assuming to have stood.

So the question is, let's go here, so it's a one assuming, so who is this one assuming? So, you know, looking at that, it has to be, Macaulay, he said, Macaulay said it was the strong believer, and I think he's right, I think that's But this is a person that believes he's walking with the Lord. He believes he's in right relationship to him. So that's who the warning is to.

It's to the one who is assuming he stands. And the word stands here, or assuming, is the idea to suppose or to think, to form an opinion, to hold an opinion, to have stood, to stand in contrast to fall. So the idea of standing is that you're that your conduct is pleasing to the Lord. And I like the part of the passage here, walk in the light as he himself is in the light. So this person that this warning is given to assumes he's walking with the Lord, he's walking in the light.

But there's still a warning to him, and that's the last part of the verse, take heed that he does not fall. So it's a one assuming, he tells him take heed, To look, to direct one's mind, consider. He does not fall. The idea here seems to be falling morally or spiritually. So the one who is in a right relationship with God needs to remember to take heed. So Macaulay has four points here that I borrowed from him. So Macaulay says the one address in this verse has not yet fallen from the context, right? But it's rather facing the potential of a fall versus a warning to the believers who is doing well. The potential for a fall is always present.

So I think that's the way the Lord would have us live our life before him. We live it trusting and resting in him, walking in the light, but we realize that we have a sin nature and we can fall just like the Israelites fell. We can fall too. So that's part of the whole picture here, as we went through all the different things that Israel went through. Their fall, the Lord doesn't want us to fall. All right, so let's move on. Now, this is a chord. I got five charts here, five sections of this verse. I don't know about you, this is one of these verses that I just have relished and pondered a lot. Okay, so let's start.

So it says, no temptation, has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. All right, so it's interesting, Andrew was talking about temptations and trials. Well, he presented in our class in Thessalonians, he presented the good one, where it's a test from God. Well, this test, this word here, no temptation, is prosmas.

And this is a one, it's a test with a view towards failure, a solicitation to sin. And if you think about it, this is exactly what was happening to the Israelites, right? They were tempted. They were tempted to forget God. They didn't have the Holy Spirit, but they still were tempted. It was a temptation to sin, and they did sin. And we have the same admonition to us.

But this is a promise God's going to make you right now. There's no temptation has overtaken you. So overtaken is the idea to seize, to come on, to fall upon. It's in the perfect tense, which I'm going to talk about in a second here. So no temptation has overtaken you, and as Corinthians in us, but such as is common to man. So let's think about that.

So the Amplified has it, except those to which mankind is continually subject. You know, mankind is continually subject to the same kinds of, it's the same sins. There's no new sins, really. There's not. The same sins that Israel was tempted by, we can be tempted by. They can be any variety of ones, and they're the same. It hasn't changed. So it's their common demand.

The action of being overtaken is a past completed action with abiding results to the present and into the future. So basically, the picture is that God is talking about the past and the present and the future, right? He says no temptation has overtaken you in the past or the present or in the future, but what is common demand.

So he validates the fact that there's nothing new. There's no new, we haven't got us, particularly bad sin virus. The sin virus is the same as it was when the Israelites were in the desert. We have the same, in the perfect tense here, it kind of brings it across. And God knows our makeup. He created us. He's not surprised by our sins. He's disappointed by our sins, but He's not surprised by our sins. He knows us. He understands us.

And this is why He's going to make several promises in this verse. And some of them are hard to take because they don't necessarily deserve our experience. And hopefully I can bring that across and give you some encouragement there. Okay. And that one bullet was from the Amplified. Okay. So, no temptation has overtaken us, but what is common to man. So that's the first part. That's a promise. The second part is, and this is wonderful.

So the rest of this is going to talk about God's faithfulness. The rest of this verse is going to talk about God's faithfulness. God is faithful. Faithful is an idea of belief or trust or confidence. And it's one of God's attributes. He's holy and righteous and just. God's faithfulness never takes a break. You never can say, well, God wasn't faithful to me.

He was on a break. He was asleep. No, he's available 24-7. His faithfulness is as new every morning. So he's faithful. God's faithfulness will now be declared, as I mentioned, in the rest of this verse. So we're going to see aspects of his faithfulness in the rest of this verse. So I kind of divided it into two parts of his faithfulness. So the first provision, and if you look at the text here, it says, and God is faithful, comma, who, and the who is God, the who is the subject here, who will not allow, to permit or allow, you to be tempted, beyond what you're able. So here comes the first one that everybody, and so the question is, what does this mean? What does this mean?

We have to, so, and we're going to, I'm going to attempt to give you some ideas here. So let me, let me just see here. Okay. So, so let's talk about that a little bit. So it's, it's Eucharistian. So I'm going to start with this little, this little part of the passage, start with the, you be tempted beyond what you're able, you will not allow. So, so Eucharistians and believers, to be tempted.

And once again, it's a solicitation to sin. So this is something that wants you to sin. It's your sin nature. It's a world of the flesh and the devil, right? And it's in the passive voice. God is performing the action. I'm not allowing it. And it's over or above what you're able, or that which is beyond what you can cope with. So this is God's assurance.

So the question comes out, comes down to, is this my experience or what is my experience with this? Well, you know, I've recorded this verse and many people use this verse personally. And you know what I find is that many times I don't, it seems to me from my perception, it seems that it's over and above what I'm able to handle. And people, other people have shared with me the same thing.

They said, you know, Roger, this difficulty I'm going through is just, it's beyond what I'm able, But God says, but God is declaring it's not. And I was thinking, you know, we're no different. And the apostle Paul is no different. The apostle Paul had the same experience that we had.

I was thinking back to his, um, his thorn in the flesh. And so he starts out with his discussion with God and it says Paul entreated and the word entreated. He begged, it says he begged the Lord three times to remove the thorn in the flesh. So he, It was over the top as far as he was concerned. He begged him to take it away. But over time, over time, he came around to God's view.

And I kind of believe that's what the Lord would have us. We may think our trial, our temptation is over the top, that we can't handle it. But God has declared it is. So it comes down to believing him, to trusting him. And then eventually Paul said, that God's grace was sufficient for you. He trusted that God, and God's grace is sufficient for us too.

Okay, so let's go on here. But with a temptation will provide, here's the other part that's interesting, everybody would like to talk about this part, but with a temptation will provide the way of escape also. Okay, so we have the who again. Implied here. This is a second provision.

So he said he's faithful not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able and Second point is the temptation He will provide the way of escape also, so God will provide to make to cause to bring about The way of escape in addition to the first one. He's not he doesn't drop off the first day. This is in addition So he's promising quite a few things here. He's putting himself on the line here the way of escape also.

So the way of escape, I'm not going to pronounce it Greek, but anyway, it's the idea, the key part here, there's a definite article there. And not everybody picks up on that, I'm just kind of amazed. It's a key part to this. So let's think about this as a way of escape with the temptation, with the prosmas. So the way of escape, my first point here is, and this is, I didn't see this until I started studying this, I told Mike on the phone, I said, man, this is just so neat So the temptation is there, the temptation to sin. but it's with, or along with, literally, along with the way of escape. So we have the temptation, and we have God's way, side by side, existing together at the same time. You know, I'd never seen that before, I'd never realized, I kept thinking, and maybe you thought too, that, you know, this way of escape, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get an express letter in the mail that says, here's a ticket out of here. You know, here's a ticket to Haiti. No COVID, no this, no that, no problems. Or if you think about Charlie the Chocolate Factory. No, I get a golden ticket. All my problems are gone. No, it says that the temptation is there, but the way of escape is there at the same time. Boy, that's huge.

So now we come down to dealing with a definite article. So it says that there is only, with a definite article, the way of escape, or the only way of escape. So what is the way of escape? I'll give an example. Should I think that maybe Wayne, Wayne has one way of escape, Mike Doyle has a different way of escape, and Roger has another way of escape. I have to think that each one of us has individually a unique way of escape, or is there a bigger picture here? And I think there is. And this is not my observation. We're so blessed at Holly Hills of having really wonderful teachers, and this observation is by Brother Hal from many years ago.

You know, the way of escape, I think, is expressed in this verse. John 14, 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The Lord Jesus Christ is a singular way. So what's really just incredible here is that we have the temptation, and right alongside of us, we have the way, our Savior, and he's with us. And they exist together.

So as we go through this temptation, and it's difficult and it's hard, and we might sin, and sin might not, you know, it might not be a biggie. It might just be not trusting the Lord, not trusting the Lord through your difficulty. That may be it right there, but he wants to be with us at the same time.

And I think the Greek here and the original just really help so much. Okay, so let's go on to the last part of the verse. So that, or with a purpose that, you will be able, the idea is to have the power, it's present tense, continuous action. So, you know, I highlighted the you again, once again, just his care for us, the you shows up so many times here. You will be able to endure it, to bear up under it, underneath of it, support, sustain us. So, we surrenders it to bear up under.

And I thought about this first. 2 Corinthians 9, 8, the A part, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything. So, just kind of thinking here, I wrote down a few little notes here that I wanted to kind of share right at the end here.

You know, the Lord Jesus is right alongside of us. He's the way of escape. He's the singular way of escape. I think, you know, people have other opinions, but I think the text And what we understand from the scriptures, and it makes, you know, it fits with the rest of scripture. He's given so many things where he is with us, and I will never leave you or forsake you. So the Lord Jesus is with us during these temptations to sin.

And it doesn't have to, the temptations of sin may just be simple unbelief. It doesn't have to be a biggie. It doesn't have to be something that's, you know, like the Israelites, They got involved in all kinds of sexual immorality. It doesn't have to be a biggie. It can simply be not trusting Him for your situation, just like they didn't trust Him for the manna and the water. So it can be that.

But He makes these promises in this verse. So let me just read the verse again here. It says, No temptation has overtaken you such as common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but what the temptation will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to endure it. It's a beautiful verse. And let me just close with a little comment by Kostvol here.

The apostle did not want his readers to overreact and become paranoid as they considered Israel's record, which is pretty bad, right? We saw all the awful things in the wilderness. Failure was not inevitable. The temptation the Corinthians faced were not unique. the Lord will give them the grace to handle any temptation they might face.

And he will give us the grace to handle any temptation we might face. So let's just close in prayer. We thank you, Father, for our time today, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior, Father. Thank you that we can just study your word and just be encouraged by it. We thank you for the wonderful promises that you've given us about being the way out and that you're with us in every trial that we may endure. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.