Address—C. Hendricks
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Know ye not that they which run in a race run off?
What 1 receiveth the prize?
So well that you may have came.
Every man that striveth for the mastery.
Is tempered in all things now they do it with change incorruptible trial.
We an interrupt.
I therefore so run not as uncertain.
So flight I that is one that seated the air, but I keep under my body.
And bring it into subjection less. That's my interview is what I have preached to others. I myself should be a pastoral.
All the brethren, I would not that he should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and we're all baptized with the roses in the cloud and in the sea.
And we all eat the same spiritual meat, and they all drink the same spiritual drink.
While they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased.
Where 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 the idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Either. Let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three or 20,000.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer.
Now all these things happen over them. For examples.
And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are coming.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taking you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but with will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that he should be able to bear it.
Wherefore, my dearly beloved plea from idolatry, I speak as to wise men, judging what I say.
Couple 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 them, one bread.
Behold, Israel after the flesh are not they which either the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
Say I then that the idol is anything or that which is offered and sacrificed to idols is anything but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the devils, and not to God.
I would not that he should have fellowship together.
He cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the tables table of devils.
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than he?
This is a very solid portion of the Word of God addressed to these Saints in Corinth.
And I think some of the key verses are verse 11 of chapter 10. Now all these things happen unto them for samples.
One has.
And they are written for our admonition. Upon whom the ends of the world and the ends of the age.
Ages are come.
So we need this, we need portions like this to search our hearts and our consciences.
Because we these very things that happened to Israel in the wilderness.
We're we're prone to her in the very same way. If it were not so, he wouldn't have brought these things before us. We have in verse 6 of chapter 10. They lusted after evil things.
In verse 7, they were idolaters.
In verse 8 they committed fornication.
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In verse 9, they tempted Christ.
Verse 10, they murmured.
And complained with each one of those was met with.
God dealing with them.
For their departure from themselves.
And these things are written for our admonition.
It might read those five things that are mentioned there. I think that.
They don't in any way apply to us.
But they're written for our learning. They're written as warnings to us Christians, because they happen to the people of God of old, and we are apartment to fall into the same snares.
So it's not due to avoid passages of scripture like this. These scriptures are given to us, that we have them before us and that they search us.
And that we realize.
What we're capable of, what we're capable of doing.
Well, I read those last verses of Chapter 9 because they really belong to the to the theme that he continues on with in chapter 10.
What he says in the last verses of Chapter 9, starting in verse 24, he talks about a race and he says everyone is running in the race, they all run. He said no, you're not that they wish running a race, run all all those who are in the race are running. They're all runners in the race.
But only one receives a prize. We know that very well.
There's a prize for the winner.
So run that you may obtain the surprise at the end of the race. Christian Life The Christian pathway is here viewed as a race.
And we're running that race now. We know there's things that a runner has to do. He has to get into condition, he has to.
He has to discipline himself. He he can't indulge in in things that would make him fat and flabby and overweight and unable and short of breath and unable to run this race. And I might say that the Christian race is not a Sprint.
It's a long distance race. It's one that requires perseverance and it requires endurance. We get that word over and over again in the New Testament. Endurance, patience, endurance.
So the the race that we're running is not something that will be over with quickly.
There are those that can do admirably well in a Sprint, but in a mile run or a five mile run or 25 mile run they they never finish. They fall by the wayside.
So the Christian race is a long distance race, but there's a prize and he says so run that you may obtain. We ought to each one, each one of us who is running in this race and every Christians in the race.
He's running that race. We should run it as though there's only one.
Of us that's going to get the prize and that's going to be the winner of the race. So run that you may obtain 1 receives the prize, Paul says in connection with earthly races, in connection with what we know down here, but it's not that way in connection with eternal things. But we ought to run as though it's that way. So run as though there's only one that's going to get the prize. And I want that prize.
Now, if we, each one of us, were committed.
To the Lord, to winning the race, to getting the prize at the end of the race. And what is the prize? The prize is the prize.
The prize is Christ at the end of the race, and we ought to run it as though only the winner, only the one that comes in first, will get that prize, and we ought to run it in that way with total commitment.
To to follow all the rules necessary in order to win the race.
And then he alludes to another athletic event in verse 25. Everyone that striveth for the mastery is tempered in all things. That's just a general principle. Whatever you're engaged in, tempered in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown.
But we an incorruptible we're running not for a corruptible crown. It's amazing how how strenuously men can train to just get a little metal.
Or a ribbon.
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That would be the reward that they might get and they might train for months.
In order that they might come in first in this marathon race and they're only going to get a corruptible crown, nothing that's lasting and abiding. But how many have expended themselves to a great extent just to get that ribbon or that reward which is corruptible?
And he says in verse 26, I therefore so wrap not as uncertainly. You see, when in the earthly races that we run, there's an uncertainty only one's going to get the prize, the winner, the one that comes in first. So there's an element of uncertainty, uncertainty with all of the other runners, with all of the runners in fact, because no one knows who's going to come in first.
But he says I run. That is uncertainly. I know I'm going to get the prize.
And he says so fight I not as one that beateth the air. He wasn't fighting as a shadow boxer with an imaginary opponent. That's the way some of us Christians fight. We fight as a shadow boxer.
The one that beats the air, there's really no opponent there to strike us back. One that we have to defend ourselves against and dodge their blows and land ours and so on.
So he doesn't fight as one that beats the air. He realizes he's in a real conflict.
Do you realize this? Do we realize this young Christian, especially I address you, you realize you are in a conflict, you are in a race and it requires self denial in order to win this race.
Verse 27 but I keep under my body.
And bring it into subjection. Bless that by any means. When I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Now. In other words, I'm I'm not, I don't finish the race. I'm a castaway. I'm rejected.
And that word castaway means the force of it means to be lost.
And what Paul is saying here he had no doubt in his mind whatsoever. I know this is generally interpreted when it says castaway here is you lose the prize, you lose the reward. But it goes farther than that. He supposes that, and he puts himself in the case in order to bring it out in in more force.
That one could preach to others, one could be a preacher and go through all that and still end up lost, end up being a castaway, a reprobate.
Rejected by the Lord, he had no doubt about his salvation, but he puts His name in there that they might learn in Him.
The truth that he is seeking to set before them. So what he is saying here in these verses?
That is that you might you might be identified with the runners, you might be part of the fight, you might be part of the race, but because you you have not kept.
Your body under you haven't exercised the needed discipline. Not only might you lose the race, but you might, might be.
Now to show that that's the true interpretation of the passage, he continues.
He continues. Moreover, brethren, this is a continuation in thought in the next chapter.
I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud.
That Shekinah cloud of glory. And you remember when they left Egypt, the cloud moved before them, marked out the way. And when the Egyptians pursued after them, the cloud came and stood between them, the Israelites and the Egyptians, and it was light to them, but darkness to the enemy. It was their protection. They were all under the cloud, all those that left Egypt. They were all.
Outwardly connected with the testimony.
They were all outwardly saved out of Egypt and they all passed through the sea.
And if they all partook of this new position, they all entered into it. One might. You might be baptized here this afternoon and outwardly identified with the Lord Jesus. You might have taken your place with other Christians, and you might even be at the Lords Table and remembering him in his death.
If we get to that portion, I don't know how much, how fast we'll get through this, we'll see that no one ought to be at the Lords Table who isn't real, who isn't saved, who isn't a member of the body of Christ, and who isn't cleansed by the precious blood of Christ.
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And I might just say right now if there's one here that isn't truly saved.
And yet you have made a profession and have even been received to the table.
You don't belong there if you're not saved, if you're not a member of the body of Christ.
If you don't know what the communion of the body of Christ means. If you don't know what the communion of the blood of Christ means.
If you're not under the cleansing virtue of that precious blood, you don't have a place there.
There are those that are at the table that shouldn't be. There are those that should be who aren't. And we might, I trust, I hope we'll get to that.
It says in verse 2 They were all baptized unto Moses. In the cloud and in the sea you might be baptized.
You might be identified with the Christian company as the Israelites were baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
You might partake of all the outward benefits of Christianity. They all did eat the same spiritual meat. They all ate the manna that came from heaven.
They all hated it, Those who were real and those who weren't. They all drank the same spiritual drink. That is, they partook of these outward benefits.
It is a solemn thing to partake of these things, to be identified with the Christian company and not be real. It's terribly solid. That increases your guilt 10 thousandfold to be identified with the Christian company.
And not be real.
Better. Better for you if you're not real, if it's not real in your life.
Better for you that you never made a profession.
Never made a profession that to make a profession that isn't real.
That's what he's bringing out here. Better that you never entered the race than to enter the race and not make it to the end.
Fall in the wilderness, as so many here did.
They did all drink the same spiritual drink, that water that flowed out of the smitten rock.
For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. That rock was Christ.
But with many of them, God was not well pleased.
Where they were overthrown in the wilderness. I believe that's a picture of a mere professor.
Who is overthrown in the wilderness? He never makes it to Canaan. He never makes it to the heavenly shore.
He falls in the wilderness, and in Hebrews 3 and four we have that same class spoken of.
They.
Didn't make it into Canaan because of unbelief. Their unbelief.
Here it says, with many of them God was not well pleased.
Is there reality in your heart?
In my heart is there reality? Do we know that?
All of these outward benefits that we are partaking of justice to be raised in a Christian family, tremendous privilege. You hear the word of God read, prayer is made.
You are taken to hear the word, such as this afternoon. You are taken to be with other Christians.
You mingle with those who have faith.
And yet to do all that, like Judas Iscariot, he was one of the 12 and the other 11 didn't know there was any difference between him and them, but there was a tremendous difference. He was a fake.
He went to his own place, and of him the Lord says good word for that man, if he had never been born.
If you make a profession of faith in Christ and die in unbelief.
It was better for you.
That you'd never been born.
But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things were our examples.
Examples that we might benefit from. These things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lust.
Turn back with me to numbers 11, which is this is referring to.
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The Numbers 11, verse 4.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers 4th book in the Old Testament turn way back to the beginning of the Bible.
Find Numbers, Chapter 11.
I'm reading from verse four and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting.
And the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to be?
We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There's nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes.
And the matter was this coriander seed, and the color thereof is the color of dellium. And the people went about and gathered it and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.
They they went, it says. They lusted after evil things.
What were they looking after? They were lusting after the things of Egypt, the place that God had delivered them from, the House of ******* type of the world in its self-sufficiency and independency of God. Egypt was a land that was watered by the river Nile. They could predict with unerring accuracy to the day when that that river would flood and all the land around the Nile would be irrigated.
They knew it precisely. It repeated itself to the day it was.
Like clockwork.
Not like it is here and where I come from and the Midwestern states where they're praying and crying for rain and they have to look up. Not like the land of Canaan where they it was watered from the from the rain from heaven. But Egypt had a source of supply running right down through the land. And the fish swam in that river. We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely. There was always fish there, always the river was.
Flowing, they never ran dry and they could always catch and eat the fish, the wheat and then the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic. All all that's grow that grows in the ground, all right at ground level. Nothing that you get out of a tree like you have here in California. The the wonderful fruit that grows in the trees. This is all right at earth level.
Picture of the world in all that it has to offer. And these Israelites now, they had been eating the manna.
They they had been in the wilderness for some time. They had been eating the man up and their soul was dry, they said.
There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. You know that's a terribly solemn thing.
The manna speaks of Christ. Christ come down, Christ humbled in this world, Christ in his humiliation. He was that manna, that living bread that came down from heaven. God has given us that food to eat, to fill and to nourish our souls, and to go out after the leaks and the onions and the melons and the cucumbers and the garlic of Egypt and the fish.
Is to.
Is to desire that out of which God has delivered us, in order to give us that which is infinitely better. We sing. 174 Jesus, thou art enough the mind and heart to fill.
Thy patient life to calm the soul. I love its fear. To spell Jesus, thou art enough.
While these Israelites were saying you're not enough, you're not enough, Food you've given us Lord is not enough, it's not sufficient. Our soul is dried away.
It's a strange thing to say. All they had was the manna. All they had was Christ.
To humble down here to feed.
Nourish the soul.
That's all they had was Christ.
That's all we need.
And yet the judgment of God fell upon them. They didn't like the taste of it, and so they changed it in verse 8. They gathered it. They ground it in mills or beat it in a martyr, baked it in pans and made cakes of it. And they changed the taste of it as the taste of fresh oil.
They add their manufacturing process to the mana. This is exactly what's happened in Christendom. Christians have not been satisfied with the heavenly food that God has given us. Christ humbled down here to nourish and to feed the soul.
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And they changed manna, they changed the taste of it. They made it more palatable to their natural tastes.
To the natural man, Christ is not attractive, not at all. And if we're living in that sphere, if we're living in that range of things, things of nature, we won't find Christ all sufficient. We won't find him all sufficient. We might even be guilty of saying our soul is dried.
Our soul is.
All I ever hear about is Christ.
I want to hear something else now. It's something new.
And in the last days, they heaped to themselves teachers having itching ears. They want to hear something new. What we've been hearing that I've been hearing that ever since I was a little boy, a little girl.
And we get dissatisfied. He doesn't seem dissatisfied, the hearty. Why is that? Because we've been occupied with other things. Our taste for the heavenly manna has been spoiled. Because we've been feeding upon the dross of food of this world.
Well, I want to pass on that was they lusted after other things, evil things. That's it. Evil things to desire anything other than Christ, what the world has to offer you.
And we're living in a day. I believe we're living in a day when to go on in a spiritual state with the Lord is is the most difficult. We're living in the most difficult day ever for Christians to really go on consistently for the Lord and to really say in one soul and to make it be true, Jesus, thou art enough the mind and heart to feel, but he is he absolutely.
Why is it that our joy goes up and our joy goes down, and our state fluctuates from high to low? Because our circumstances change, and our joy depends on our circumstances. But happiness is a state of soul which flows to us out of communion with the Lord Jesus and has nothing to do with circumstances. 1 can be happy in a prison.
Behind bars or in the most untoward circumstances.
As well as when 1 is out at liberty. The Apostle Paul proved that.
Now in 1St Corinthians 10 verse 7, the next thing after lusting, after being dissatisfied with the heavenly manner, is neither be idolaters, as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now there's five things mentioned. I've mentioned them in these 5 verses 6789 and 10, lusting, idolatry, fornication, tempting and murmuring.
And four of the five come from the Book of Numbers, but this one comes from the book of Exodus, and we turn to Exodus 32.
I hate to do this to you, David.
We do have to look at the 2 passages Exodus 32 verse one. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mouth, the people gathered themselves together under Aaron and said unto him up make us gods which will go before us. Whereas for this Moses the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt and whatnot would has become of him.
Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them onto Aaron.
Golden earrings in their ears. These were little titles.
That they've gotten from.
He's in roundabout.
And they're now going to make these. There was something to adorn the flesh.
And they were going to make these into an idle. All the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them onto Aaron, and he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf.
And they said, These be thy gods of Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And Moses is still up on the mount receiving the 10 commandments. And the first 3 commandments here they had already broken before them before the law on the 2 tables of stone were carried into their midst. The first 3 commandments they had broken. The first commandment is, Thou shall have no other gods before me. The second is, Thou shalt not make a graven image.
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Or bow down to it of anything in heaven or earth. And the third is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, or idly utter the name of the Lord in in vain.
They had replaced the true God with a false God. They had made an image and bowed down to it golden calf, which they had gotten from the land of Egypt.
And they had attached the name of the true God to this idolatrous feast.
These be thy gods of Israel. Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah. That's what they said. It's exactly what Christendom has done. It's taken Pagan idol feasts and Christianized them. Church of Rome is famous for this and Christianized them, put a veneer of Christianity over them and given them Christian names.
You may be able to think of one right off.
They had come right home to us. Idolatry.
Once Christ isn't enough for the heart and we lust after the things of the world. Egypt.
The fish, the leeks, the onions, the melon, the garlic, all things that and by the way, you eat those things and.
You smell of those things, you take on the very smell of the world, and you don't have to be in ones company too long to tell what they've been feeding on. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. We betray ourselves in our speech.
What are we occupied with? The heart.
Overflows and it comes out what we're occupied with.
Verse 6 they rose up early on tomorrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to play. Now that's what's quoted in 1St Corinthians 10. They sat down to eat and to drink.
And rose up to play. And then Moses was sent down. Thy people have corrupted themselves.
And they've made a God and worshipped it.
And.
Moses, when he saw what they were doing, he took those two tables of stone. Had he brought the law, that holy law, into the camp, that they would have all been condemned.
They would have perished. So he broke the law at the foot of the mountain. He broke the law. He didn't bring it into the camp, which would have meant their condemnation.
That he goes back and intercedes for the people with God.
He's unsparingly hard with the people. He grinds that calf into powder and he makes them drink it.
And he?
Speaks with unsparing words to them, but in the presence of God he pleads for them.
Faithfully pleads for them who had gone into idolatry.
While idolatry is immediately followed by immorality, people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. You'll always find those two things associated. The doctrine of balaam is to to teach them to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication. They go right together.
Immorality. Give up the knowledge of the true God, and you've abandoned all stability for moral conduct. You've given it up.
You don't have the true God anymore. Then you can do as you please and as the saying in the world goes, if it feels good, do it. That's the very root principle of sin. It's abandonment of all self restraint.
Because the knowledge of the true God has been given up. That all stems from not being satisfied with the food that God has given to us.
Young people are especially in danger.
Today the world is offering and promising all kinds of things to our young people, all kinds of things that it can never give, but it promises nonetheless. Doesn't stop it from promising. It promises you what it cannot give you, cannot give you happiness, cannot give you joy. Cannot.
Can give you misery if you follow its ways.
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It will lead you into a path of sorrow and shame and dishonor.
Path where you've given up the true God in principle because you're not listening to him.
Not plowing to his authority.
There's a word in Colossians. We won't turn to it. I'll just quote it, Paul says. Consciousness is idolatry. That is the lust for other things. That's idolatry.
God has been displaced. He's been deposed. He no longer has absolute authority over my life and your life.
And that results in the next thing, moral abandonment, going back to First Corinthians 10.
After the idolatry of verse 7.
He warns the Corinthians neither the idolaters, as were some of them. Remember the Epistle of John that brings before us Christ. Is that eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us.
And it says in one John 520 it says.
The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life, presenting Christ before us as the true God and eternal life. The expression of the Father, the perfect, the perfect revelation of the Father, and then the last sentence.
1 John 5 His children keep yourselves from idols. Anything that is not Christ is an idol.
Children keep themselves from idols, so we need that warning.
In these days, verse 7 need to be idolaters as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play verse 8. Neither. Let us commit fornication.
As some of them committed and fell in one day.
3 and 20,000 turn back to numbers 25, numbers 25.
Do you remember?
In numbers 2223 and 24, the three preceding chapters to the one we're going to look at.
They look the king of Moab hired Balaam.
This false prophet. This hiring prophet to curse Israel.
And God met Balaam. His way was perverse before the Lord. He was a wicked prophet.
And God said you are going to tell them just exactly the words that I tell you.
Nothing more, nothing less. And Balaam couldn't receive the rewards of divination, which the king of Balak had offered to him and wanted to give him. He couldn't receive them because he wasn't allowed of God to curse the people. He said many true things, many wonderful things of Israel.
And he failed to curse them, but here in the 25th numbers.
We read in Revelation chapter 2 in the Church to Pergamus about the doctrine of Balaam, who taught they lack to cast stumbling block before the children of Israel. Do we think sacrifice to idols and to commit fornication? That was the doctrine of bail and that was his teaching.
His way was perverse before the Lord. His error was to curse a people whom God had blessed and pronounce evil upon them. God didn't allow that, but his doctrine.
After he couldn't curse them, he said to Balak, I'll tell you how you can bring the judgment of God down upon them, 'cause them to intermarry, cause them to break down in their path of separation and.
And that's the doctrine of Thailand.
Israel abode and shittim, and the people began to commit harden with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people under the sacrifices of their gods and the people to eat and bow down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Bao PR Balaam had pronounced, The people shall dwell alone, shall not be reckoned among the nations. That was God's pronouncement. But here Israel joined himself under this abomination.
This idol worship.
And with the daughters of Moab, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
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There was judgment that fell upon them, severe judgment.
The breakdown of separation.
In the church is the downfall of the testimony.
Breakdown of the separation between the Christian and the world. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what concord in Christ with Belial? And what part of he that believeth was an unbeliever, And what agreement? The temple of God with idols. For ye are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord.
And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, sayeth the Lord Almighty. Wherefore, dearly beloved, let us, having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Remember that Second Corinthians 6 in the first verse of Chapter 7. And a brother said to me years ago when I was a young man.
I'll never forget it. Came home with power to my soul, he said. Second Corinthians 6 is just as much the word of God as John 316.
Separation.
Something we know little about, hardly ever hear the word.
Anymore.
That's our strength.
And our weakness is when we.
Become unfaithful and join hands with the world. Here Israel join hands with the daughters of Moab and it resulted in.
Idolatry. Fornication.
1St Corinthians 10 again. The next one.
Verse 9.
Neither. Let us tempt Christ.
Some of them also tempted.
And were destroyed of serpents.
That's in numbers 21.
We quickly looked at that in Sunday school this morning.
You remember the account.
Verse 5 Numbers 21 This people it says the end of verse 4 the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way the way it was difficult and they started to murmur temp Christ.
And the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us? Up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, where there is no bread, neither is there any water. And our soul loatheth this light bread. Now this is the second mention in these five of the manna.
Here they say our soul loteth this light breath in the first mention in Numbers 11.
Their soul was dried up, they say. All we see before our eyes is this manna.
Don't you have something else to give us? Something other than Christ?
Is he satisfying to us? Is he enough?
Or do we want something else? Do we need entertainment? Do we need music? Do we need the nice ornate buildings and stained glass windows and choirs, investments and and great campaigns to reach the masses by the millions? And so on.
Is this your testimony that we're identified with?
You see, the world doesn't like the manna. The world can't, does, has no taste for the manna. Every one of us has a nature which delights in the manna. We also have a nature which.
Loaths it and depending upon which nature is being fed, and and.
Strengthened.
That will determine our spiritual state.
And here the people of God, they loathed that light bread.
The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died. And then we have the brazen serpent that was raised up on the pole type of Christ on the cross. They had sinned for us, paying the penalty for not just our sins, but the the sin question, the nature, the very nature of sin, very principle of sin being dealt with.
By God in Christ as the brazen serpent.
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Judgment follows such departure.
The next one.
I can't speak long on any of these because time is running out.
The next one, First Corinthians 10.
And it's the last one.
Verse 10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now this is a very interesting one.
We saw the first one had to do with the manna and the one we just looked at had to do with the manna. The second one was idolatry, the golden calf.
Then there was the.
First there was the lusting after evil things. That's the general departure, not being satisfied with the food that Christ has given us and hankering after the food of Egypt.
There's the reference to the manner there, then the idolatry.
Which follows.
Other things have come in. God has been displaced in the soul.
And then neither let us commit fornication.
That was connected with the doctrine of Balaam.
Where the children of Israel were.
Enticed, seduced, deceived by the intrigues of the Moabite women for them to abandon their separation and to enter into fellowship with with the world.
That's been the most successful tactic of Satan because the downfall of the church. You can trace it in the seven churches.
And then we saw the last one. Neither let us tempt Christ as they have. Some tempted were destroyed of serpents, they said to the Lord. They said, Well, you brought us into the wilderness to kill us.
And all we've got here is this manna, and we loathe it.
Loathe it?
Is it possible for a Christian to get into that state? If it weren't, I don't think we'd have these instructions, these warnings.
And the last one is neither murmur ye, as some of them also murdered, and that's taken from numbers 14.
And that's a very interesting one. When did they murmur? Well, very quickly.
In the 13th chapter.
12 were sent into the land to spy out the land and we know the story. Two of them, Caleb and Joshua, brought back a good report of the land.
Yes, there are giants there, but we're well over. We're well able to overcome them. But the 10 brought back an evil report and they discourage the people.
Verse 32 of chapter 13.
Verse 31 But the men that went up with them with him said, you see Caleb still the people in verse 30, he says let us go up at once and possess it. But in verse 31 The men that went up with him said we be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
Then they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched under the children of Israel, saying the land.
Through which we have gone to search. It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
And there we saw the giants, sons of Enoch, which came to the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said unto them with God that we have died in the land of Egypt. With God we have died.
In this wilderness.
Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey, were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said, one to another, Let us make us a captain.
And let us return into Egypt.
This was in connection with Christ now.
You see they brought back it says in verse 23 of chapter 13 they took a branch.
From a cluster of grapes and they bear it between two upon a staff. And they brought it brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. The place was called the brook Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel come down from the fence. And they returned from searching the land after 40 days, so they brought back.
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A little sample of the land that was in the land, that good land, that land that God had promised for Israel.
Their first complaint was you've brought us out to kill us in the wilderness. And now again they say it, it was better and we'd been, we'd gone back to Egypt or.
He even died in the wilderness than here.
And the two references to the manna refer to Christ down. He come down in humiliation, and here we have Christ.
As the food of the land.
The heavenly Christ. The glorified Christ.
One who's raised from the dead and exalted higher than the heavens. One who has conquered the enemy. And all they could see was the enemy. All they could see was the how puny they were in the sight of of these great giants, sons of Enak that were in the land. Their eyes were totally off the Lord.
Now that's our strength to go on that will keep us. What feeds our souls is feeding upon a humble Christ as He was down here, the man. But what animates the soul to run after him, and what gives us power to face all the opposition of the enemy?
Without flinching and without turning our backs on the enemy and running the other way.
Is occupation with Christ in glory?
Occupation with the one who is there, the one who's gone through death and conquered death and is there on high, and he's going to bring us there. And that's our portion, Christ in glory. And if you're not occupied with a glorified Christ as well as feeding upon a humbled Christ.
You're going to find your state of soul to be wanting.
And it won't be able to meet all that the enemy throws against us to discourage us, to turn us back.
They wanted to get another captain and go back to Egypt.
Give up when they were right at the edge of the land.
And I find so many today.
They've been maybe in the meeting for years and here we are right at the edge of the land. The Lord is about to come and take us in and they give up and they go back, go back into the world.
What a tragedy. What an awful tragedy.
Right at the land, right at the very moment when the Lord is about to come to take us home. It could be before I sit down this afternoon, we'll all be home.
What a time to turn back when they had gone through those 40 years in the wilderness and they were right at the edge of the land. And here they had a sample of the good fruit of the land and all the good things of the land brought to them the earnest of the Spirit. Spirit of God in our hearts to take of the things of Christ and show them to us to make what is ahead for us, living an opportunity in our souls right now.
Turned back at such a time.
Is truly deplorable and lamentable.
May God encourage each one of us in the room here to.
Judge everything in our lives that would that would tend to.
To take this attitude, would God we have died in the land of Egypt, or would God we have died in the wilderness?
Have you ever thought as you come to the Assembly and listen to the ministry that's given and so on, and justice say are so loatheth this light bread, give us something else. Give us a different line. Give us something that is more up to date, more current, more writing with the things of the world. That's what's being done, you know.
Is Christ enough?
That's all God has for his own.
Christ humbled to feed us, to strengthen us. Christ glorified to animate us to run after Him.
An object in the glory. That's what separates us from the world. That's the separating power of the Christian life.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are for a time, but the things which are not seen are eternal. But we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's the way of transformation, that's the way of Christian growth, is by occupation with a glorified Christ.
Feeding on him in his loneliness, so that his character, his loneliness, his meekness, his gentleness, his grace.
His compassion all comes out in us, but the object before us that gives us to to run after him, to complete that race.
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We don't have that object before us.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising with shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Looking off and away unto him from everything here, to have that object to Him in the glory.
Well, we didn't get very far in 1St Corinthians 10, but we did cover those 5 verses that are I believe.
Very important warnings.
For everyone of us, these sins were written. For our admonition. On whom the ends of the end of the ages are come. Let's sing in closing 180.
We are but strangers here.
Heaven is our home.
Earth is a desert, Greer. Heaven is our home. Dangers and sorrows stand round us on every hand. Heaven is our Fatherland. Heaven is our home.