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275 Two 75.
Oh, God is life and the way.
The drug runs long.
Our Jesus.
Was captured.
Show.
Forever.
Child.
Oh we may we grow.
This is my last day.
Against our horses.
Dance Dance Turn 1 1St My heart first.
I process.
Made and sweet.
Through.
Vibrate.
Of lost.
Art and begin.
The.
Spring.
Well.
Stop lights more and breathing.
And our souls straight, slow.
When I cry for love free that him we sang made me think of First Corinthians chapter 10, brethren.
I don't know if that might be a suitable portion to read this morning.
Want to read the whole chapter?
Maybe down through verse 23 anyhow.
First Corinthians chapter 10, beginning of verse one.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that you would you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drank the same spiritual drink, For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
00:05:09
But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent. We should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication.
As some of them are committed and fell in one day, three and 20,000 neither let us tempt Christ, As some of them also tempt it, and were destroyed of serpents, neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happen unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that he may be able to bear it. Wherefore?
My dearly beloved a flee from idolatry, I.
I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
What shall I then? What say? What say I then? That the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything but. I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice. They sacrifice to devils, and not to God. I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the devil.
You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the law to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. We have in this chapter what relates to Israel's history.
In the Old Testament and verse.
11 Says clearly now all these things happened and to them.
Or in samples and they are written.
For our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. So these are lessons for us. Old Testament scriptures. We read them.
We are not under law as they were in Old Testament times.
But all scripture is profitable and we read them to.
Understand the lessons, the moral lessons, that do apply to us now and in this chapter we have the question of our fellowship as believers.
In verse 16 it says.
At the Lord's Table we show the fellowship, the communion of the blood of Christ.
And in verse.
The same verse is the communion or the fellowship of the body of Christ.
That is the fellowship of believers that God means us to show. Sometimes you may say, well, are they a real good group of people?
Well, if we look back at the first part of the chapter, we find that God's people had a lot of different problems.
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They were not without some very serious problems and so we can't look at ourselves and say we're any special people.
We've got problems too, but I think there's some real important lessons.
That we can profit from Indiana this chapter, brethren. They came out of Egypt in verse one. They were all baptized.
Unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They took that position outside of Egypt.
But then there was testing, and so we're going through a world where there is a lot of testing as well. It's what impresses me is I travel around.
Some places there's a lot of material comfort.
But there's no place that you won't find real severe testing.
8.
Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse one. All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your father's. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart.
Whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no and.
He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that He might make thee know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
The 1St Corinthians 10 where we read reminds us that the journey of life is really for the believer through a wilderness, just as the children of Israel.
Many of them spent their whole lives, or almost their whole lives in a wilderness before they entered the Promised Land. The Lord Jesus could have saved us and immediately taken us to heaven and provided for those that were not saved a message of the Gospel without us.
But it's not in the ways of God to do so. He sees a purpose for our good.
In giving us the experience of our lives, and as it says in First Corinthians 10 and as it says here in Deuteronomy 8.
Were tested.
We've all or most of us in this room where there were little kids or whether we're very old, have made a profession in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior with the expectation and the promise that the end of our journey is going to end in heaven. And yet we're still here. And as He said, why God allowed the children of Israel to go through the wilderness.
And experience those things that they did. He names three things.
In verse two, he says the first of them to humble thee and everyone of us when we get to the end of the journey are going to look back and recognize the need that we had of being humbled in our lives. Whether we're little, whether we're old, each one of us is going through experience in life that will have the end result of humbling us and we thank God for it. The second thing that he mentions is to prove thee.
You say you belong to the Lord Jesus.
He's going to test that the circumstance of your life is going to be such that you'll be put to the test as to the reality of what you say or what you profess. Is it real or is it not? And so the Lord allowed that the wilderness experience for the children of Israel to test them as to the reality of what they professed. And then he says to know what was in thine heart.
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We little realize, most of us, what's in our own hearts.
And God has to bring it out for us so that we might learn to know how great He is and if you will, how small we are, that we might learn not to trust in ourselves and what we are, but in His heart and what He is. And so the wilderness journey brings those things out. But also we see another thing as we have in First Corinthians 10, where we started and we have here as well, he says.
You look back when it's over and you will see that I perfectly, completely provided everything that you needed to walk with me on that journey. And so it will be for each one of us, whether we live a little short life or we live a long one, every one of us when we get home and the end of the journey, we're going to look back and say he provided absolutely everything that was necessary for me to walk in obedience.
And submission to his will for my life in this world. And so he says in chapter 10, he says don't be ignorant brethren. But all of our fathers, that is the Israelites, they had the provision and they walked together collectively to a certain extent. And so are we here together collectively this morning. But also we have to recognize the tests come individually particularly.
And so not all Israel finished the journey together. And so it may be we won't all finish that journey together either if there's unbelief and not reality with us.
In Buddha on May 8th, which you referred to in verse three, in the middle of the verse, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. How important that we realize that every step we take, every word that we speak, it should be according to His word.
Not according to the opinions of men and whether one thinks this or that, but according to his word. Everything we do and say and think should be formed by the word of God. That's a that's a lesson that takes a lifetime to learn.
In the book of Deuteronomy, I'd like to go back a little bit, perhaps as an encouragement for us to we can go back to the first chapter, the very first verse. I believe there's a lesson in there for us because it speaks of a condition that is very similar to what we have today.
Actually I like to read the 1St 2 verses together. Deuteronomy one, verse one and verse two. These be the words which Moses speak unto all Israel on this side. Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain, over against the Red Sea, between Paran and Toefl and Leben and Hazuraz and Desiab. There are 11 days journey from Hora.
Mount Seir and Turkey Dash Barnier we found often in the beginning of most books, the first few verses tells us a lot about the book itself. Here I'd like to set the stage of this book. Here we see Moses. Moses was speaking to them, reminding them that at the end of the journey. We notice here that it says, oh I'm sorry, I should have read verse three as well.
And it came to pass in the 40th year, in the 11 months, on the first day of the month that Moses spake under the children of Israel, according.
Unto all that the Lord hath given him in commandment unto him. Can you picture this? This standing at the at on this side of Jordan? They're looking back 39 years and 11 months.
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With just one month left to go into this promised land, that long journey almost over. They can see and they can taste that promised land before them. And then they were reminded that that that journey could have been an 11 days journey if they were faithful. But they took them almost 40 years to go here. They have that land before him.
They have as if we have that blessed hope before us, knowing that the Lord has taken us through all this path, all this way to prove us, to humble us as we're reminded to know what's in our heart, whether we would obey His commandments or no. Well, for some of us, the journey is a little bit longer than 11 days. For some of us, the journey perhaps is a little bit longer than the 40 years.
But there is the Lord has that before him so that we can know and see. In fact, let's let's go back to the 8th chapter a little bit too. Not only are we to learn that man shall not live by bread alone, but he tells us to look forward to the heavenly things. Let's go to the 8th chapter, down to the 8th, the 7th and 8th verse. And the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land.
A land of brooks, of water, of fountains and depths and spring out of the valleys and hills. A land of wheat and barley, of and vines and fig trees and pomegranates. A land of oil, olive, and honey. We find that even though they have still, they have not yet entered into the land, but they are so close and that they're reminded of this 7/7.
Heavenly foods as if it were that they do not get in the land of Egypt.
In the book of Numbers, I believe in the 11Th chapter they loathe for those six foods that they mentioned in Egypt, even though the journey is almost over, they were still often wanting to turn back. But here we need to look forward. Do we nod that we have been risen with Christ? That we have to seek those things which are above where Christ is?
Verse 13 is an excellent combination of responsibility and grace. Therefore no temptation has taken you, but such is in common with man, but God is faithful. Will not something be exempted above that you're able here we have responsibility. There's no excuse for sin. You know, we look at each other and say, Oh well, we all have this little problem or that little problem. No, before God in grace, there's no excuse for one of us to sin.
But of course, that needs to be understood within the context also of first John. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us and the grace air. But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just forgive us. Yes, as a people, do we sin? And there's grace given and confession.
But that doesn't relieve our responsibility. We're to walk as a holy people, a people pure, a people holy because there's one holy person. That's where we're coming to next. There's one man that walked on earth without sin, and that man lives in each one of us who have believed Christ in you, the hope of glory, and he's made us a way of escape. Here's where the grace comes in. It may in some sense include circumstances.
But the primary idea here is not outward circumstances, but a person. Our way to escape temptation is in faith in a person, a living relationship with a person who's seated in heavenly places. Our relationship with Him gives us the freedom to walk as we should.
To walk before God as Christ walked on earth, as he is, so are we in this world, Christ in us, the hope of glory. So in responsibility there's no excuse for sin. In grace there's forgiveness of sin if we confess. And in grace, the man of glory lives in each of us to walk in freedom from sin.
There's 3 words that stand out in that verse. 13 Brother Mark.
God is faithful. Isn't that wonderful? Brethren, in spite of all that we are, in spite of all our failure, there is a God that is completely faithful, and He will prove Himself to be faithful to His own precious word. Going back to the first part of the chapter, baptism is mentioned here, and it was the way that the people of God were brought out of Egypt.
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On their way to Canaan, the Red Sea is the body of water that they pass through, and it says they were all baptized. This is not Christian baptism, but it was baptism unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And so that is the way they were disassociated from Egypt and were associated.
As those who recognize the authority of Moses person who says they're a believer but are not baptized.
Have not yet disassociated themselves from this world in which we live. It is through baptism that we publicly identify ourselves as those who recognize the authority of the Lord Jesus.
Before they went across the Red Sea, they were identified as slaves of Egypt. They were still on territory where Pharaoh had authority, but as soon as they were passed through the Red Sea, they looked back and saw the hosts of Pharaoh, Pharaoh and his hosts all dead on the seashore.
They were now identified with Moses, as we are in baptism, in Christian baptism.
Identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an outward thing, Baptism.
But it is the way we disassociate from this world in an outward way and associate ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful to realize we are no longer looked at as part of this world system.
We belong to heaven, the Lord Jesus said of his disciples in the 17th of John. They are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. He didn't take them immediately out of this world. They were still there, but they did not form part of the world system. Neither do we, brethren. We are called for heaven, and even though, like Don said, he could take us straight home.
He doesn't do that. He leaves us down here in the wilderness because there are lessons to learn down here that we could never learn up in heaven. That's the wilderness. And in the wilderness there are two major lessons to be learned. 1, the faithfulness of God. And two, the total unreliability of man in the flesh, what we are in the flesh.
You cannot trust in ourselves, not for a moment.
Notice the alls.
Begin the chapter verse one.
All our fathers were under the cloud, Verse one. All pass through the sea, verse 2. All baptized unto Moses, verse 3. All ate the same spiritual meat, verse 4.
All drank the same spiritual drink. But notice the contrast with verse five. But with many, God was not well pleased. We'll see in what follows verse five why God was not well pleased with many. But first to notice the alls God has brought all of us in this room who have professed the Lord Jesus who have been baptized.
Into a common identity of profession, and he has with all of us made common provision.
Just to emphasize a little bit of it, it says all ate the same spiritual meat, all drank the same spiritual drink. And so it is everybody who's in this room this morning is being fed.
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By God with spiritual meat and spiritual drink, there are no exceptions. It's here. The food is being, if you will, from God Himself being presented to every one of us, and we thank God for it.
The emphasis of that food that's brought out here is we need the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the food of our new life.
And if you're sitting here this morning and you're not hungry, it says something about your appetite. Or if you have no interest in the food at all, and, as it were, you push it aside in your soul, it may indicate that you don't have life at all.
The everyone of us was offered, I suppose this morning, or almost all of us had breakfast. We had physical food for our bodies, which is necessary for the physical life that we all presently have.
But man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so all of us this morning need, as it says, spiritual food, spiritual drink. We are more than flesh and blood. We have souls, we have spirits, and we need food from God.
Or we spiritually starve. And so God has made for all of us that provision, and we're either taking it in and digesting it in our souls and living by it, or we're not. And there are things that come out here very shortly in the chapter why they didn't all benefit.
From the food that was being provided for them. And so it's important whether we're young or old, there's no distinction really. We all need food. We need it every day to be very practical about it.
I hope every single one that was an old enough to read sat down with the word of God this morning and read it. It's your food, it's your breakfast if you will spiritually.
You need it.
You really can't properly live without it, and you won't get through the desert unless you eat.
And yet God has made complete and perfect provision for that. So we're encouraged to.
Take, eat, taste and see the Lord is good.
For our physical bodies, we eat physical food. Our bodies are made from the dust of the earth, so we eat that which comes from the earth to sustain life in our bodies. But our soul and our spirit needs food as well. And if you're not satisfied, if you're not feeding on what God gives, this world has plenty of things.
Supposedly to satisfy, but what impresses me is.
How they do not really satisfy?
Are we reading the scriptures on a daily basis?
You know, you say, well, that's just a religious habit.
It's not just a religious habit, it's a need of the soul. You don't miss your meals generally daily.
You shouldn't miss your meals spiritually as well either. We need it, brethren. We need it daily. The manna was that which fell in the desert, it was called.
Angels food in the book of the Psalms. Beautiful to think about it. It was a small round thing and it fell on the dew that was in the desert, completely pure. It didn't fall directly on the sand, fell on the dew because it's completely pure and it's Christ in his humiliation. That is the manner that will feed our souls.
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In the desert, we get it, especially in the Gospels, brethren, Christ and humiliation, God's beloved Son who came down here solo to right where we were. We can read about it, we can feed on it, and it will strengthen our souls in the wilderness. Oh, it's so important. Young people, are you reading?
The scriptures on a daily basis.
I've mentioned sometimes of a brother, a young brother that I really appreciate in South America.
And I asked him if he was reading the scriptures sometimes, he says.
What do you mean? Sometimes I'm so busy I can't really. I don't really have that much time. It doesn't really take that much time.
And I say, are you free right now? He said yes. I said, come on in, I want to read a chapter with you. And we sat down, read a normal sized chapter. I think it was about 30 verses long. I says I'm going to calculate how much time it takes us to read it. And.
We didn't read fast either. We read through the chapter. It took 6 minutes.
Come on, you spend a lot more time feeding your body every day. Don't you have time to feed your soul as well? That's why we don't prosper spiritually. But I notice those who really give time to serious reading of the scriptures.
Their spiritual growth and prosperity, it's something that has to be done daily.
It's an exercise. They had to get up off their beds and go out into the desert and gather it. They could not eat tomorrow what they had gathered today because it bred worms and stained for the next day. And that's what it has to be on a daily basis, the exercise of getting into the Scriptures and reading them. Brethren, it will be a blessing.
This book is living. It will impart life to you.
If you read it, the more you read it and you say, well it's not that much, 5 minutes.
But it says he that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered a little had no lack. So even if you just don't have very much time, read a few scriptures before you go out, and God can make that a blessing for your soul during the day.
Think it is so important to form those habits early in our Christian lives?
A couple of more comments on food.
The food of Egypt.
All of it.
Had two things that characterized it, one or the other. It came from the ground.
And it had an odor.
And it was a ground that had been cursed.
And the food of the world.
Bears the curse.
In it, I'm speaking spiritually.
And it has an odor. The second thing is the manna did not touch the ground, and the food of the soul that comes from God, the Lord Jesus Christ is pure.
There is no taint in it. There's no indigestion that can result from it.
And the spiritual drink.
Christ is pure.
Delight to the soul of the new man, but in contrast, and I want to give you a contrast.
The world's drink is like salt water, the more you drink it.
The less it satisfies and the more it's craved. A man gets out in the ocean and he has nothing to drink and he takes, he says, water. Water everywhere.
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And so he drinks it and it's the beginning of the end for that man. It has the effect of making him more thirsty and not satisfying. And that is the food that you're going to get. If you go after the food that this world has to provide, it will make you.
Just like that salt water. And the sad thing is it makes you want it more the more you take it and the more disastrous is the result. And so the children of Israel were taught to flee from certain things. And we'll see in this chapter 2 specific things that.
So corrupt us if we go after them, that God will not be well pleased.
Let's say in verse 4 is really something.
Did all drink the same spiritual drink before they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ Speaking of the living water. And of course in this this whole section just striking the pictures of Christ. Of course, when you begin in Egypt, you just have the Passover lamb and we know the Passover lamb is a picture of Christ dying on the cross for our sins just as small little lamb then you have.
In the wilderness you have the man, which of course is another picture of Christ. Christ said He's the real bride who came down out of heaven. And of course here you have the rock. And so in that light then you understand in Deuteronomy 8 those wonderful verses says, the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land. A land of brooks and water, of fountains and depths of spring that spring out of the valleys and hills. A land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey.
And you realize this.
Is also a picture of Christ and all these different aspects, of course, Speaking of our food, right? The wheat, the water.
The the stones for the fighting, all these things represent Christ in our experience. And when you put it in that context, and I think the whole picture becomes clear, a lot of Christians don't understand the real, the meaning of the Christian life. I'm saved, right? My sins are forgiven. Praise the Lord. That happens in Egypt, right? You don't have a lot of.
You don't go through a lot to get saved. You're not running the Christian race to get saved. But the real purpose of the Christian race is to bring us into a fuller experience of Christ. It's one thing to have the experience of Christ as a lamb in Egypt. It's a whole nother thing to enter into the experience of Christ is your good land where you just sense. I'm a person who's in Christ day by day and everything that I'm enjoying is everything that I'm enjoying and experiencing is Christ supplying my spiritual needs. And so this is what Paul is getting at in First Corinthians 10 when he says.
They were strewn along in the wilderness. It's not that you lose your salvation, but in terms of entering into that deeper experience of Christ, many Christians in many different ways are frustrated. They they fall along the way and they never really enter into Christ as their good land.
But Paul, of course, is a picture of one who did run the race, and it's striking to note.
In Philippians, he also speaks of the race, right? He says. I stretch forward to the things that are before. He's still running the raids. He's running in First Corinthians, He's running in Philippians. It's not until he gets to Timothy, Second Timothy.
Right at the very end of his ministry, he finally says, I fought the good fight. I finished my course, I've kept the faith. It might not have the right order, but his whole, he regarded his whole life as a race. You see this in the book of Hebrews as well, pressing forward into the holy of holies. Again, it has to do with our experience of Christ, our real entering into all that God desires us to have in Christ. And that's I think what Paul is bringing out here in First Corinthians to show us using a picture of the Israelites. Our Christian life has a goal and that goal is to bring us really into the experience of Christ in a daily way.
So we become people like Paul who can say, for to me to live is Christ.
We sang in that hymn the manna and the springing well suffice for every knee. We have the man in verse three of our chapter. We have the springing well in verse four. And to speak a little bit of that spiritual drink, actually we have the manna in Exodus chapter 16 and the springing well that it speaks of from the rock in chapter 17 of Exodus.
So as soon as they got out into the desert, God made full provision for them. You can imagine how much water a group of perhaps between 2 and 3 million people would need on a daily basis.
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God sufficient for that? Maybe you have problems, young people. Is God sufficient for your set of problems? You say, Well, nobody has ever passed through exactly what I've gone through. That's probably true.
That is God sufficient for it? Really He is. But you're the one that's going to have to prove that. Nobody else can prove it for you. God is testing each one of us on an individual basis. But it is true there is full provision for the believer as he passes through the wilderness journey. So in verse four of our chapter, we have that spiritual drink.
That came from the rock, that spiritual rock which was Christ, and that rock followed them through the wilderness.
In chapter 17 of Exodus, we don't have time to go there to read it, but it is so beautiful to see that. So that there could be water for the people, Moses was instructed to hit that rock with his rod. His rod was a rod of judgment.
It was the judge, it was the rod that brought the judgments on the land of Egypt, and Christ on the cross was smitten for us.
That our souls would be satisfied. Oh, brethren, young people, there's no satisfaction in the wells of water that this world offered. See, young people going after sports. And I don't have any problem with playing some sports, but if you're going after that as that which will satisfy you, you will not be satisfied. It's like the salt water that Don was talking about.
You just want more and more and more, and it increasingly it does not satisfy you. But there is something that God has provided for you that will satisfy, and it is that which the believer receives when he comes to faith in Christ. It is the living well that dwells within each one of us, the Holy Spirit of God.
Is that living water that flows from the rock?
And so it flowed to satisfy the thirst of those people, the Lord Jesus said to that Samaritan woman.
Those that drink of this water will thirst again, but he that drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst forever, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. In other words, there's a fountain that's springing water. It's flowing water. It's the Spirit of God that God puts into the believer in the Lord Jesus.
To occupy him with Christ in glory.
Oh brethren, it is enough to satisfy these souls of ours.
But you'll find in the wilderness that the people murmured, they complained. And I suppose we have to all confess that we're guilty of that. Brethren, anybody here that's never complained about anything, I don't think anybody of us could, any of us could raise our hands. We'd complained. And that kind of attitude is what quenches the Spirit of God. It tells us definitely in the Scriptures.
Quench not the Holy Spirit of God, so we are.
To not quench it. But when we complain, you're going to find in the Book of Numbers that the people complained and then they got thirsty again. What happened to the rock? Wasn't the rock there? Yes, it was still there. What was Moses instructed to do to get the water flowing again?
He was instructed to take the rod. You notice it carefully.
In Numbers chapter 20 was not to take his rod, but he was to take the high priestly rod, the rod that butted, and to go and speak to the rock. Moses made a mistake. He wasn't obedient. He took his rod and he struck the rock twice.
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God is gracious and he gave water.
But brethren, what do we have to do if because of complaining in our lives, we have quenched the Spirit of God to get the water flowing again?
Oh, brethren, we have a great high priest, and we are to go to the rock, and we are to speak to the rock. If there's sin in our lives, confess it, and the water will flow again.
In your life. Oh how important these principles are. God has given what is sufficient in the wilderness, the manna, the food for our the springing well, the Holy Spirit of God that occupies us with the Lord Jesus.
In our hearts.
Notice there are five reasons.
Why God was not well pleased with the people.
Verse 6.
Reason one.
They lusted after evil things. Verse 7.
Reason two. They became idolaters.
Eight verse Item three. They committed fornication.
Dying.
Verse item four. They tempted Christ.
And verse 10 #5 they murmured.
Those are five reasons why God is not pleased.
With those who profess and who are in relationship to himself, at least outwardly, think for a moment of reason #1.
They lasted after evil things.
Suppose one were to prepare a have a table.
And on the table.
Your father, your mother prepared a very wholesome, delicious, satisfying meal and drink. And suppose at the same table there was salt water to drink, and there was sitting there food.
Which was spoiled.
Garbage relief and the parent puts the child down and says now E and they see two meals and they choose the garbage and the saltwater. Is the parent going to be pleased with them? Is that satisfying after they have made that provision for them to see them make that choice?
God has prepared for you and I His Son as the food of our souls.
And he presents them to us in all the Excellency and flavor and satisfaction, knowing that when we partake of that food, it perfectly meets the need of the soul and satisfies it.
But He also recognizes, and you recognize and I do too, that we have flesh in US, and the flesh lusts after evil things. And consequently, when there is a choice made in my life to satisfy the lusts of my flesh and partake of the food, if you want to call it that, that ministers to that flesh, do you expect God to be pleased with you?
Or God to be pleased with me, if that's the choice I make after God has made at an extreme cost to prepare it for us, His Son and all his virtue.
Both as a man on earth and as glorified in heaven. And then I say no thanks.
I'd rather satisfy my flesh. Is God to be pleased with that? We know the answer absolutely not. And so it is with each of the four that follow it. The same thing can be said. God has made, as he says in the first few verses, I have made complete provision for you, and now I've got to meet every single circumstance you'll see in the journey.
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In the wilderness and if I turn from it, then I can only expect a God who righteously says I am not pleased.
Tell us, Don, what were the evil things they lusted after?
I don't know so much for them, Bob, but I know lots for me in this life.
In other words, I, it's maybe you want to elaborate on the children of Israel, but I don't think it's hard to apply it to our present circumstances in the world in which we live and say there are lots of things that are truly in God's sight evil that the world doesn't even allow us to call evil or objects, if we even call it evil. And yet it is that God says it's that.
And we have flesh in us which goes after us.
US.
And it is. And the word lust is a very significant. It's that I go back to the salt water analogy. It's that which the soul craves.
We have ruined flesh because we have sin in it and it craves evil and it'll never change. And so God has to deliver us from it, given us a new life and a new object.
And new desires and food for it. And he says, now please, if I can use that expression for God, please take it and you'll be satisfied. But if I don't take it and I go back to the old, it is only to my loss and to God's displeasure.
In numbers it tells us that they lusted after flesh.
And like you say, you might say, well, what's wrong with them eating flesh?
I don't think it was the fact that it was flesh, but it was that they despised the manna.
Oh brethren, when we think of what the manna speaks to us of.
How is it that we despise the manna? We think, oh, I don't really have an appetite for that. If you were saying Don if on the table.
Before the meal, there's a bowl of chocolates there and the kids are freely helping themselves to the chocolate. When the meal comes, they're not going to be much appetite for the meal and they need those foods, those vegetables. I know some young people don't like vegetables very much, but you really need them.
To have a healthy diet and you say, well, what's wrong with?
A chocolate or two, nothing wrong with that in itself, but when you eat of that kind of diet and leave the other off to one side, you're going to get sick in the long run. You're going to have problems with your health. And in that sense, it's evil. So God puts before us what is good for us. Young people appreciate the scriptures.
That speak to us of Christ in his humiliation. I find brother in such a beautiful thing. Just to go back and meditate on what the manna speaks to us of a little baby born into Bethlehem.
Their mother and the husband come, she's expecting a baby, and there they're born out.
Where the cattle are, no room for them in the end. The Lord of glory coming into this world, no room for Him. There he is. Angels come down the first time they see their Creator.
And they must have wondered, these people that have the scriptures in their hands.
Don't they understand what's taking place here? Don't they understand the marvel that God has come into his own creation? For the first time they observe their Creator. Where's men in the picture? Totally asleep. The angels go off into the countryside to tell the news to some shepherds. Those lowly shepherds were the first ones to come and witness.
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What had taken place? Those people, those religious people that had the Bible in their hands?
They knew to tell where he was to be born. Daniel told of more or less the time frame he was to come into this world totally asleep. I had no clue that the God of creation had come into this world. Oh what a marvel. That little baby laying in the Manger was God manifest in the flesh, the one that had the whole universe.
At his command.
What a marvel. What a thing to feed the soul. Meditate on it, young people. It will feed your soul. As we pass through the wilderness. We need it. It will really satisfy.
I add a little bit more to that, Bob, I totally agree with you when we despise what God has given, but in the book of Numbers 11, we find that they also look back to the food in Egypt. They have that satisfying. They found that satisfying to the heart. You know, we sometimes sing that him art thou weed from Egypt's pleasure. We find that as young people or as younger one, often we know what we need to do.
But it's so easy to fall back into the things of this world, you know? You may say, well, what's wrong with going back?
Is bad because you think about the Red Sea, it was cut off as if it were spiritually they couldn't go back. But they loathe for the things that's why they like. They wanted to taste the fish that they used to eat freely and all those food that as our brother mentioned that was smelly, the onions and garlic and so on. They wanted that they wouldn't give it up. Now I know it's not the thought in this chapter. I also think sometimes some of us from the practical standpoint, we know we can't go back to the world.
We've been raised, we know from scriptures that it is wrong to go back into the world, but sometimes there's a danger too. We'll find there's a land in scripture that mention often is the land of Moab. Some of us know better than that. We won't go into Egypt, but we may go to Moab. And we find often in the book of Ruth, we find they went into the land of Moab. Moab. We will have time to turn to it. You'll find, I believe in the 48th chapter of Jeremiah, it says that Moab.
Has not has been at ease from his youth. Sometimes we'll go to a land like that that was at ease where no one would judge you where there's no rule that laying of the fatherless so we could go to one extreme into the world or we can go to another place where we're at ease and that he was he and that we can do anything without someone judging how sad it is, but what we need is we're reminded is look upon our blessed Savior. We find this verse called repeated often in the word of God, or I should say this principle.
He said my people have committed to evil and I believe that is still true today. What were those two evils that they have committed that they have forsaken me? Isn't that the case that we often find ourselves into? We get so we get so taken up with the cares of this world.
That we're not satisfied with what we have. My people have forsaken me. But then worse than that is that and it says they heal our systems. What do they find in those cisterns? They want to satisfy doing things our way, but they found nothing but broken cistern that holds no water. We've forgotten that fountain of living waters that we were reminded. Brethren, do we how much more so we need to encourage one another to look to our blessed Savior.
The one who can show us, the one who can help us, the one who can direct our pathway with a little time that is left in this world 174.
Strange.
The way I know.
Read a couple verses in Proverbs.
Proverbs 27.
And verse 5.
Open review is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
The full soul loatheth and honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.