BY HAROLD LEE
The weather—I don’t know if you heard the thunder that was going on outside. It’s something that I have not heard before, but they say that today it could be “thunder snow,” which I guess is snow during a pretty violent thunderstorm. The other thing he mentioned is we’re supposed to have five or six inches of snow, but not ten. We’re going to dodge the bullet. I’m thinking, “Wow!” If five or six inches of snow is dodging the bullet, maybe I haven’t lived here long enough to know what snow is. I don’t know.
Anyway, as he mentioned McKenna, I just thought I would just kind of bring you up to date. I’ll tell you this past week has just been an emotional roller coaster, because McKenna went to the doctor. They put her in the hospital. Said they thought she had a staph infection. And then they looked at it. The doctors say, “No, it was a severe case of cradle cap” is what it is. But it sort of run amuck. It spread over her body, but it was treatable with no effects. So they gave them some ointments and then sent them home. And then they got the results of some of the cultures and said, “No, she did.”
So it’s sort of been up and down, but we were over there last night. And last week it would just break your heart. She was smiling, but you would pick her up and she would cry because she was so sensitive with the dermatitis. And last night she was just back to her old self. And the redness and the swelling and all of that is I would say it’s probably half gone. But she was back to her old self and it was so enjoyable to see her the way she was.
I know those of you that have had children or grandchildren and they’re sick and they’re that young there’s nothing you can do about it. And I think that makes it especially difficult. And I wonder sometime if maybe that’s not the way God looks at us when He sees us young and all of the compassion and yet knowing that, of course different reasons, but that there’s not anything that He could do about it. I mean He has to stand back and allow us to come of our own.
Anyway, but Eric and Keva both, as well as us and everyone really appreciate everyone’s prayers. And I will tell you I know it works. I know God does hear our prayers. As a matter of fact, on the First Day of Unleavened Bread I have a sermon. And Freda and I have been talking about some aspects related to that about prayers and how God does intervene and how it does make a difference.
What I’d like to do today is ask you to turn over to Psalm 139 to start.
And while you’re turning I’m going to go ahead and give you the title which might not make a lot of sense, but as we progress through the sermon. And the title of the sermon is Our Forefathers: A Template For Our Self-Examination. And I’ll just repeat that, Our Forefathers: A Template For Our Self-Examination.
I think all of you are aware that just a week from this
coming Tuesday as the sun sets around the world the baptized members of God’s
Church are going to be observing and participating in the most solemn event of
God’s commanded assemblies. Over the
past years here in
Consider none of us would be invited to an occasion where we would not spend time getting dressed, spending time in taking a shower, a bath, making sure we were presentable, perhaps standing in front of a mirror. I know standing in front of a mirror, grooming ourselves. And for this very special event, Brethren, we do the same. This event requires preparation of the inward man. It requires an introspection.
In verse 23 of Psalm 139, it says—and David wrote this,
Psalm 139:23. Search me, O
God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties;
And The King James says, “my thoughts.” The word there means disquieting thoughts.
Verse 23, I’m going to read this out of The Bible In Basic English. I think it makes much clearer. It says,
Psalm 139:23. O God, let the
secrets of my heart be uncovered; and let my wandering thoughts be tested.
We’re going to read that or refer to that at least twice during the sermon because I think as we progress this concept of “my wandering thoughts being tested” I think will become more clear as we move on.
In this Psalm that God inspired David to pen, there is a desire for God who David proclaimed in verse 1 that had searched him and knew him to reveal to him so that he could see it and he could deal with it.
Verse 24 out of The New King’s, it just says,
Psalm 139:24. [To] see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead
me in the way [of] everlasting.
The outcome of this searching, of this rooting this out is eternal life. It is to be led in the way everlasting. Our desire in this period should be the same. We have to understand that it takes time and it takes effort. And it has to be done in conjunction with asking God to guide us through the process, to allow us to see ourselves as He sees us in His mercy, in His time. But it’s not something that we do totally on our own. God has to be involved. God has to be the one that will show us in His time, in His way.
What I’d like to do today to spend some time looking at this
process. And, as an aid to help us
organize our approach, let’s examine the Israelites on their journey to leave
Coming out of sin is—and I’ve said this before and we all know this. This is not new information. But we know it’s a process. It’s not an event. It’s a process. And, Brethren, it’s a difficult process. But we must not forget it’s a process.
Look over in Matthew chapter 7, Matthew 7.
A fellow minister once said that the road to God’s Kingdom is straight, but the path that we take is crooked. We tend to go from one ditch. We cross the road and we’re in the other ditch. And that’s so true. But there’s more to it than that.
Matthew 7 and we’ll start in verse 13. It says,
Matthew 7:13. “Enter by the
narrow gate; for wide is the gate and
broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and there are many who go in by it [by the broad gate]. 14) “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is
the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
I want to just read that out of The King James Version. He says in verse 13,
Matthew 7:13. Enter [you] in
at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that [leads] to destruction,
and many t here be which go in thereat:
14) Because strait is
the gate, and narrow is the way,
which [leads] unto life, and few there be that find it.
This verse has become euphemized over a period. We refer to it as “walking the straight and narrow.” We tend to think about this, I think, at least I do in the dimensional aspect of a road being straight versus crooked. But notice the word in The King James is not “straight” dimensionally. It’s “strait,” s-t-r-a-i-t.
The Greek word that’s translated “strait” or “narrow” is Strong’s
4728, stenos. And it means narrow from obstacles standing
close about. We, today, talk about the
Straits of Gibraltar if you were going into the
Those of you that are Indiana Jones fans, you might remember
when his dad, Sean Connery, were heading in
We talk about someone being in “dire straits,” between a rock and a hard place so to speak.
This verse is telling us not only is the path to God’s Kingdom very narrow, but the entrance to that path is very narrow.
John chapter 10, John 10 and verse 7, it says,
John 10:7. Then Jesus said
to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8) “All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
hear them. 9) “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and
will go in and out and find pasture.
Brethren, while this world has been deceived into believing there’s many paths to eternal life—and I believe this; I haven’t done extensive research into it, but I believe every religious doctrinal group—Moslems and Hindus, whatever it is—I believe every one has as a doctrine an afterlife, an eternal life, something beyond this physical life. And they believe there’s many paths. You can go this way or if you’re a Moslem, you can do it this way. If you’re a Hindu—I mean there’s many paths. Even in the “Christian world,” they believe that there’s many paths. And the Bible tells us very dogmatically this is not true. There is one way. There is one path, a very narrow path and a very narrow entryway into it.
For us there’s a very important lesson in this. And that lesson is: We, as individuals, do not dictate the terms and conditions of our journey. It’s not left up to us to decide. When we accepted the invitation, one of the things that we did with that acceptance is we surrendered the right to decide how. Our quest, Brethren, is to understand what God requires of us and to follow that.
If you go back to the beginning of the Bible, the very original event that caused the separation of man and God was over this very thing. The two are mutually exclusive. There were the two trees: the Tree of Life which was God’s way and God’s desire was that we eat of that tree, or the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which was for man to decide what was right in his own eyes. They were going to decide the path. They were going to dictate the terms and conditions. And every one of us, every single one of us, has written that same lesson. No one excluded!
The main purpose of our examination is to allow us to focus on what God requires of us in keeping His laws both physically and spiritually and to use those requirements as an overlay on our lives and our actions to see where we fall short and where we need to change.
Turn over to 1 Corinthians 10.
My opinion—and I think Steve mentioned this in his sermon a couple of weeks ago regarding this but—in my opinion, one of the richest sources of material for this self-examination process is the example of the children of Israel, and their physical salvation from the death angel when he passed over those that had the blood on their doorposts, and then their subsequent exit from Egypt and their journeys to the Promised Land.
In fact, in Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians told them that God intended that it be an example to them. And that they would—and I’m going to use my words—that they would “read and heed.” Those that had ears to hear, let them hear. But the purpose was that they would not make the same mistakes.
1 Corinthians 10 and we’ll start in verse 1. He says,
1 Corinthians 10:1. Moreover,
brethren, I do not want you to be unaware
Or The King James says “ignorant.”
1 Corinthians 10:1b. that all
And I want to underline all and you’ll see why. It says,
1 Corinthians 10:1b. all
our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2) All were baptized into Moses in the
cloud and in the sea, 3) All ate
the same spiritual food, 4) And all
drank the same spiritual drink. For they
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Notice Paul used the term “all” five times in four verses. And I don’t think that was an accident. Again, I don’t think Paul was trying to fill up the epistle that he was sending to the Romans to make it last longer. There is a purpose to that.
I believe in addition to making the point in this introduction that they were connected to their forefathers and, therefore, experienced the same trials and weaknesses. He was also making a point that it was all of them by using those words “all.” Just like today the Churches of Corinth were split into factions. And there were those that were proclaiming that they were better, that their group was better.
Skip down to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and notice this. 1 Corinthians 11:18, it says,
1 Corinthians 11:18. First
of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions
among you, and in part I believe it.
I want to read what Halley’s Handbook and I found
this extremely interesting. Let me just
read what Halley’s Handbook says about the
In
Well, Paul was attempting to connect the Corinthians to their forefathers so he could use the lessons they had experienced. But he was also attempting to connect them together. When he said “all,” he was writing to those factions and he was trying to say “all of your forefathers did this,” and “all of your forefathers did this.” He wanted them to realize they had a connection to one another even though they weren’t sitting in the same room, even though they weren’t perhaps listening to the same person, they were connected to one another.
Brethren, I hope today that we can see the same thing. We’re connected to our forefathers. We’re connected to one another, the early
Church, including the Corinthians congregations, the Israelites as they left
We’re always going to be scattered geographically. And frankly, I think if you look at the New Testament Church from its inception to today throughout the two thousand years, we’ve been more scattered geographically even in administration than we’ve been centralized. But, Brethren, that does not give us an excuse as individuals to start to lash out at one another.
Hold your finger there in 1 Corinthians. In fact, set a mark because we’re going to come back to that. So if you have a mark, because you’re going to get two or three fingers deep here pretty quickly. So set a mark in 1 Corinthians. Go over to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 14. It says,
Galatians 5:14. For all the
law is fulfilled in one word, even in
this: “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.” 15) But if you bite and
devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
How are we doing in this? And are we part of the solution? Or are we part of the problem? Brethren, this issue like many others starts inside us. It starts in our hearts and only God and ourselves have access to that area. That’s an area that we share not even with our closest—with our wives even—with our closest friends. It’s an area that only God and ourselves can access.
The problem is, as I’ve said before, every one of us are liars in the sense that we lie to ourselves from time to time. We try to put pretty words around it like, “Well, we’re in denial.” But the bottom line is: We have in the past and we will continue to lie to ourselves, to deceive ourselves.
Look over in 1 John chapter 1. Keep your mark in 1 Corinthians 10. 1 John 1 verse 5, it says,
1 John 1:5. This is the
message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and
in Him is no darkness at all. 6)
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth.
I want you to ask yourself: Can we have fellowship with God and with Jesus Christ and despise one another? Can we do that?
And then let’s answer that. Verse 7,
1 John 1:7. But if we walk
in the light as He is in the light, [Notice this!] we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
You see how we do the first can affect how we are forgiven, how we are cleansed from our sins.
1 John 1:8. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
We lie to ourselves! We’re in denial.
1 John 1:8b. and the truth
is not in us.
You see knowing, Brethren, that we lie to ourselves—because we’re all blind to our true condition as God sees us—not one person sees an accurate picture of themselves as God sees us. The only way we can hope to see it is as David in his prayer to God. And that was to search him and show him the secrets that were buried deep inside him. Again I want to just quote it, Psalm 139:23.
Psalm 139:23. Oh God, let
the secrets of my heart be uncovered; and let my wandering thoughts be tested.
Continuing on in 1 John,
1 John 1:9. If we confess
And The New Jerusalem Bible says “acknowledge our
sins.”
1 John 1:9b. He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Brethren, what sin can we commit that we cannot take before God, ask Him for forgiveness, and Him not forgive us of that? The sin that will not be forgiven is the one that we will not repent of. But there’s not one too great. “All unrighteousness!”
God will show us, Brethren, our inward sins. But when He does, we need to repent of them and acknowledge them and receive that forgiveness. If we remain in denial, if we continue to lie to ourselves, our trust is in ourselves, we’re deceived. We’re blind! And if we are, then we are wrongly accusing God of being unrighteous.
Notice verse 10,
1 John 1:10. If we say that
we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
I’m not going to go into it, but I want you to let that last sentence sort of, as has been said here, let that roll around in your mind for a bit in light of the material we focused on since December and the fact that Christ is the Word and His Word is not in us. If we’re in this condition, remember we know that God and Jesus Christ said They would come to us and make Their home with us.
1 John 1:10. If we say that
we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
If we fall into this category, we have in effect evicted God and Jesus Christ from our lives. They’re on the outside waiting, as it says in Revelation 3, to be invited in. We should realize our vulnerability to this. Brethren, we should realize we’re no match for the powers of darkness. We’re no match for ourselves in being able to properly discern our sins, our weaknesses. If we were, we would not need to involve God in the process. We could do it on our own. We could just sit down and kind of start going through it. And it just doesn’t work that way.
Okay, back to 1 Corinthians 10. I just want to reread chapter 1. It says,
1 Corinthians 10:1. Moreover,
brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant that all our fathers [all
our fathers] were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2) All were baptized into Moses in the
cloud and in the sea, 3) All ate
the same spiritual food, 4) And all
drank the same spiritual drink. For they
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
When we take the analogy of that, this is including every person that has God’s Spirit today. Whether they’re sitting here, whether they’re listening to us, every person that has God’s Spirit that’s part of that body, this is referring to.
Physically speaking, remember they all received the invitation. They all started to journey. They all went out with a high hand.
Verse 5,
1 Corinthians 10:5. But with
most of them
This word “most” is Strong’s 4119, pleion. I think I’m pronouncing it right. It means the majority, the major portion, the greater part.
That’s the same word that Christ used when He was talking to
Peter when He asked Peter if, “You love me more than these?” It’s the same word.
1 Corinthians 10:5. But with
most of them [the greater part] God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
I’m going to cover in more detail. It won’t be a Part II. But on the First
Day of Unleavened Bread, I have the sermon.
And let me just say here that the majority of those that left
Just quickly—hold your place—go over to Numbers 14. I just when I was studying it, it just jumped out at me because while this is physically talking about a group, we know that it’s the fact that it has included us. There’s some information here. Numbers 14 and verse 30, it says
Numbers
Notice this!
Numbers
Who went into the Promised Land? The little ones!
Numbers
All of the big hairy-chested strong warriors that came out with a high hand ended up being buried somewhere in the desert. And the ones that went in were “the little ones.” I think all of you know a sermon could be made out of that concept, “the little ones.”
Okay, back to 1 Corinthians 10 and continue on in verse 6.
1 Corinthians 10:6. Now
these things became our
And remember the all in the first verses of this
chapter?
1 Corinthians 10:6. Now
these things became our [No one is excluded!] examples,
Now why?
1 Corinthians 10:6b. to the
intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
Now keep in mind that what we’re reading here and as we
continue happened to the Israelites after placing the blood on the
doorposts, after leaving
1 Corinthians 10:6. Now
these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after
evil things as they also lusted.
Look over in Psalm chapter 78. I’m just going to break into it just for the sake of time. Start with verse 18, Psalm 78. This is an account looking back at the Exodus. It says,
Psalm 78:18. And they tested
God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy.
The King James says,
Psalm 78:18. And they tempted
God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
They wanted what they thought best for themselves. They did not want the Being that had miraculously delivered them to give them what He knew was best for them. They wanted God to be their genie. They wanted Him to be at their beck and call. They wanted Him to be a short-order cook. “I don’t want that garbage you keep feeding me. I want a hamburger, fries.” In fact, what do they do? Double-size it? Or super-size it? Yeah! “I want a Big Mac. Bring me this.” Brethren, God isn’t that way. We don’t dictate it. They wanted God to give them what they wanted.
Verse 19,
Psalm 78:19. Yes, and they
spoke against God: [and] they said, “Can
God prepare a table in the wilderness?
“Can God really give us what we need? Can He really give us food and drink in this desert?”
Verse 20,
Psalm 78:20. Behold, He
struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out, and the streams
overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide meat for His people?”
Now, Brethren, do we really give up what we want? Do we really curb our desires and lust? And I’m not talking about our carnal desires although it’s certainly included, but what about our spiritual desires? Look over in Malachi chapter 1. And Malachi is a prophecy of the end time. In Malachi 1 and the indictment God issued against His people. Malachi 1 verse 7, it says
Malachi 1:7. “You offer
defiled food on My altar, but say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying,
And here’s the answer.
Malachi 1:7b. By saying,
‘The table of the Lord is
contemptible.’
Brethren, has what we’ve learned, what we’ve been taught over the past ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years become so bland and so predictable and so humdrum that we want more? There’s got to be something else. There’s got to be something to titillate my mental taste buds. Do we despise the nutrient rich food that’s been given? Or do we want what we want? Do our ears itch for something new, something titillating?
It’s almost like what we see in this country today. We have so much to eat and yet most of the nutrients have been processed out of the food. And I’m not trying to get this into a health food kick. I’m just—we can easily get the volume of the food that we need. And many people are starving to death for nourishment, for lack of nourishment. We’re sick but we’re not sick for a lack of volume, but for quality.
Now I want to make very clear I’m not against something new. I don’t want to make that an epithet that you just spit out. I feel God’s Church has continued from the New Testament on to deepen our understanding of God and our relationship and all aspects of God’s plan. Something new builds to what we know. It adds to what we’ve been given. It doesn’t require that we dump it and start over. The litmus test in my mind is: Does this understanding enhance and deepen my relationship or does it require me to discard and replace? Now I’m not talking about discarding and replacing sins. I’m talking about discarding and replacing part of the foundation.
Remember there was a time that we were told, “Discard the
Ten Commandments and replace them with tradition. You don’t need to keep the Sabbath. You need to keep a Sabbath. Sunday’s as good a day as any. You don’t need to keep the Feast of
Tabernacles. Christmas is fine. After all it honors the advent of our Savior
on this earth. You don’t need to refrain
from unclean meats. That’s just an old
Jewish tradition. You know today hogs
are fed good food. And to make it even
better, they’re inspected by federal agents.
The FDA is all behind it. And
after all, it is the other white meat.”
And, Brethren, it’s not over! That was one that we came to. It was a huge explosion. It blew up the Church. It scattered us. Almost—nah, I don’t want to use the analogy of turning a light on at night and seeing. But it scattered us. We all scurried for cover. Thankfully it’s over! Whew! It’s not over, Brethren. After surviving those very blatant ones, we continue to be exposed and, sadly, we continue to be influenced by a more subtle version. You know the biggest ones: the calendar issues, the sacred names, Is Christ a created being? Those things that require you to say, “Okay, I’m not coming. I’m going to quit doing this that I’ve always done and I’m going to go over there.” In other words, it’s going to replace something. It’s not going to add to. It’s not going to deepen my understanding. I’ve got to quit doing something and I’ve got to move somewhere else.
Don’t ever forget the truth of God—I don’t care if we sit here for ten, twenty, thirty, fifty years—is a very precious, very valuable commodity. Remember it is the best that God can provide. He didn’t hold back.
Go back to Psalm 78. Or are we there? I don’t know. And verse 24, we’ll just skip down a few verses. Notice this! Psalm 78:24.
Psalm 78:24. Had rained down
manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven. 25) Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food
to the full.
So while they were saying “God’s table is contemptible. All we have is the same ol’-same ol,’” this was the best that God could give them.
I’ll read that out of The Jewish Publication Society. It said,
Psalm 78:25. Man did eat the
bread of the mighty. He [talking about
God] sent them provisions to the full.
He gave them everything they needed to be spiritually nourished.
The Tanakh in verse 25,
Psalm 78:25. Each man ate a
hero’s meal; He sent them provision in plenty.
Have you ever been to someone’s house, they took out their finest china and their finest silver, and their cloth napkins, and they served a porter house, and after the meal they went over to the cupboard and they took out that special bottle of brandy that they’d been saving or that twenty-year-old single malt scotch? Brethren, that’s what God is providing for us and we don’t appreciate it. We want something else. We have contempt for it and yet it’s a hero’s meal.
Have you ever told your child as they were pitching a fit, “Eat this! It’s going to make you strong”? That’s exactly what God is telling us as His children. “Eat this! You’re going to grow up strong!” A meal that will make us strong and in time we will grow up strong spiritually. A meal, Brethren, that God will allow us to grow to our fullest potential.
Even Jesus Christ, if you consider this, was faced—look over
in Mark chapter 14. He considered it,
what God gave, the good and the bad, the easy and the difficult as a meal. And we’re going to read this several times
between now and Passover. You in your
own studies even. Mark
Mark
“You can do anything You want!”
Mark 14:36b. Take this cup
away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will but what You will.”
“I know this has to be. I know You’re giving this to Me and it is for the betterment of”—and this was not for Christ. It was for what He was doing.
If we could only have the vision of what God is doing, that faith and that appreciation for what our “Dad” is doing for us, He’s giving us a hero’s meal. Let’s consider that when we examine ourselves.
Go back to 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 7.
1 Corinthians 10:7. And do
not become idolaters as were some of
them. As it is written, “The people sat
down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
The word translated “play” is Strong’s 3815, paizo. I think I’m pronouncing it. This is actually the only place in the New Testament that this word is used. It’s the only place it is. And it means to play like a child, to play, to sport, to jest, to give way to hilarity especially by joking, singing or dancing. And we’ll see that this word is a little more limited than the original Hebrew word.
Let’s go over because it says that “It is written.” It’s quoted from the Old Testament. Let’s go over there and see if we can gain a better understanding of what this means. And I think it’s important because this action is termed “idolatry.” Look over in Exodus chapter 32 and verse 1. It says,
Exodus 32:1. Now when the
people saw that Moses
And I just want to interject: Remember Moses was the mediator of the old covenant and Christ is the mediator of the new.
Exodus 32:1. Now when the
people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
And the reason I want that is because have any of us felt that Christ has delayed His coming? There’s a danger there.
Exodus 32:1b. the people
gathered together to Aaron, and said to him,
So it went beyond just the concern, just the wondering to “We got to take matters into our own hands! We’ve got to do something on our own.”
Exodus 32:1 cont. “Come,
make us gods that shall go before us; for as
for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the
Was this just a historical event or is there something for us to do?
Just hold your finger there. And maybe you don’t even need to. Matthew 24 verse 48, I just referred to it.
Matthew 24:48. “But if that
evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming.’ 49) “And begins to beat his fellow servants,
Again, I think it’s probably natural for us to think, “Well, God didn’t do it the way we thought He would do it. We thought it’d be all over.” I don’t think God faults us for that. We’re humans. We move from goal to goal and we set those goals. And I think in our minds to come up with a scenario and then it’s not that scenario, I don’t think there’s a problem. Here’s where the problem comes,
Matthew 24:49. “And begins
to beat his fellow servants,
So those concerns that were inside all of a sudden become actions. They all of a sudden become something that they are doing.
Matthew 24:49b. to beat his fellow servants, [Notice!] and to
eat and drink with the drunkards,
We all know the symbolism there and, of course, that’s talking about going off into idolatry. This was talking about, remember Matthew 24, we know was talking about the end times, what’s going to happen. The times that you’re living in and I’m living in today.
Back to Exodus 32. Remember this was not an isolated historical event. It’s one that would continue to the ages all the way down to now. We, Brethren, need to take note of it. Continuing on in verse 2 of Exodus 32.
Exodus 32:2. And Aaron said
to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and
bring them to me.” 3) So all the people broke off the golden
earrings which were in their ears,
and brought them to Aaron. 4) And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving
tool, and made a molded calf. Then they
said, “This is your god, O Israel,
that brought you out of the
Clearly idolatry! Clearly! You look at the commandments and this was clearly absolutely forbidden.
Exodus 32:5. So when Aaron
saw it, he built an altar before
it. And Aaron made a proclamation and
said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”
It wasn’t to this golden calf. It was to Yahweh. It was to the Lord.
Exodus 32:6. Then they rose
early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings;
and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
That Hebrew word is Strong’s 6711, tsacha-(tsdaw-oke). Sorry, I’m not… But it means to laugh outright in merriment or scorn, to play or to make sport. Of course, this word “make sport,” let’s go over and look at Genesis chapter 26, Genesis 26 and verse 8. This will give us an idea of what “making sport” is. Genesis 26 verse 8,
Genesis 26:8. And it came to
pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the
Philistines looked out a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting
And this from The King James.
Genesis 26:8b. was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
And that word means showing endearment. The New King James, I think, is “showing endearment. The Bible In Basic English says, “playing with.” And The New Jerusalem Bible says “fondling.”
That’s as much detail as we’re given, but there was
enough. Abimelech saw enough to
correctly deduce that they were married.
When they in
Is it possible that we can become enamored with other things, other ideas, other philosophies and start to follow those?
Remember what they were doing was almost what they thought
they should be doing. After all, Aaron
said, “It was a feast to the Lord.” It was complete with burnt offerings, with
peace offerings. And they sat down to
eat those peace offerings. It was a time
of joy and of closeness, a time of singing and laughter. It was so close. It was almost right on. A time of happiness and dancing. It almost—you could think of the Feast of
Tabernacles—right—when we were there. “Oh
look, isn’t that one of the leaders that are over there sporting with …?” You get the point.
Can we be seventy-five percent on track and be okay? How about eighty? How about ninety? How about ninety-nine percent? There’s still one percent idolatry and ninety-nine percent. And the problem, Brethren, is where it leads us.
Go back to 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 8. It says,
1 Corinthians 10:8. Nor let
us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three
thousand fell;
Where did it lead? There was not only idolatry, but that led to the “playing” and even though that was stopped at the time and three thousand lost their lives, the Israelites later—and I’m going to again talk about this on the First Day, I believe—they later began to physically intermingle and commit adultery with those around them.
Look over in Numbers 25. Numbers 25 says,
Numbers 25:1. Now
Talking about the women of
Numbers 25:2b. invited the
people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to
their gods. 3) So
It became so blatant during the time that this is going on this guy walks in with his girlfriend!
Numbers 25:6b. who were weeping at the door of the
tabernacle of meeting. 7) Now when
Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation
and took a javelin in his hand; 8) And
he went after the man of Israel in the tent and thrust both of them through,
the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children
of
Just a brief comment on—of course, Corinthians says “twenty-three thousand.” Here it says “twenty-four.” There’s two schools of thought on this. One is is that in the New Testament some of the later manuscripts, the Armenian and the Hebrew of the New Testament, record twenty-four thousand in 1 Corinthians. The other school of thought is that the record in Exodus includes the leaders that were hanged and assumes that that was a thousand. And the ones that literally died in the plague were twenty-three thousand and the combined was twenty-four.
But the point I want to make about this is the idolatry led to adultery just as any sin will start as one sin and migrate to another. Leaven as sin is a very good analogy because of the way it spreads. But, Brethren, sin additionally is like a virus. It grows and spreads, but as it does it morphs into and changes and becomes more toxic and more insidious. Remember David’s sin that started out as coveting led to adultery, led to lying, and then led to murder?
Look over in James chapter 1. James 1 verse 14, it says,
James 1:14. But each one is
tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
See where it starts! It starts inside. It’s down in here. It’s something that peeks you. It’s something that entices you. “Oh! Hey! That looks okay.”
Verse 15,
James 1:15. Then, when
desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown,
brings forth death.
No sin, no matter how small we see it, is something that we can tolerate because it will grow and it will change and it will eventually lead to death. I’ve heard there’s ministers that think of sin as “minor sins” and “major sins.” I know some of the churches in the world talk about—I don’t remember the terms but—like “white lies.” And there’s kind of ones that are not too bad. But here’s why I believe God doesn’t make any—sin is sin that will bring the death penalty—is because whatever it is will eventually lead to all the rest. It will all lead to death! The Bible gives us many examples of sin growing and morphing into more and more sin and eventually death. And I believe when God gave us the Ten Commandments, these were the actions or the thoughts that could not be harbored in any way because all of those will ultimately grow into death. That’s what the fence is is coveting or “Nobody’s going to get hurt in that.” But where does it lead?
In science we hear about something called the “tipping point.” It’s one of the buzz words of the 2,000’s. And what it is is it means that at some point a system will be unrecoverably broken. It will—at that point, there’s no going back and it will continue to worsen and worsen. They refer to the “tipping point” in pollution, food production, global warming, on and on.
The smallest scent—if one can use that term, again I’m—perhaps it’s even hidden such as coveting, will grow and it will morph into death. God has and we have to develop a “zero tolerance” policy for this. Does that mean we’re going to be perfect? Does this mean we’re not going to sin? Brethren, to have “zero tolerance” doesn’t mean we will not do it. It means we’re going to do our best to root it out and to identify it and to work on it. All the while slipping and repenting and asking God for forgiveness and trying again.
Romans 7, Romans 7 verse 18, it says,
Romans 7:18. For I know that
in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with
me, but how to perform what is good I
do not find. 19) For the good that I
will to do, I do not do; but the evil
I will not to do, that I practice.
Do you know it’s kind of like allowing something? I’ll use the analogy of a cancer. If a person knows they have a small cancer, there’s two things you can do. One is you can ignore it and it will just continue to grow, continue to spread. Or you can attack it. You can do what you can to stop it. And sometimes it’s too far gone, but when you’re fighting it, you’re at least retarding. You’re at least trying to let’s say isolate or control.
And that’s what Paul is saying. “Look, I’m not going to win this battle, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try, because if I quit trying, it’s just going to overwhelm me. And I’m done. So am I going to do it perfectly? No. Will I ever do it perfectly? No. Will I ever quit fighting it and trying to overcome it? No.”
Verse 20,
Romans 7:20. Now if I do
what I will not to do, it is no longer
I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21) I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills
to do good. 22) For I delight in the law
of God according to the inward man. 23)
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24) O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25) I thank God—through Jesus Christ our
Lord! So then, with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Again, Brethren, a cancer starts. It’s one cell that goes rogue. And at the time that that one cell for whatever reason starts to multiply, it’s undetectable to us. Sin can start like that too. It can start as something too small to detect in the beginning. And we have to realize that in our examination and ask God to examine us and to expose to our consciousness those things so we can with His help, with His Spirit, His forgiveness to work on excising it from us.
As we examine ourselves, let’s be sure we intensely examine the source of all sin. And what is that? It’s our hearts and it’s our thoughts. All sin starts from there and grows. And, Brethren, we must be asking God to help us in this introspective search for sin that makes us incompatible with God, that makes us incompatible with His values.
I just want to reread Psalm 139 verse 23 out of The Bible In Basic English.
Psalm 139:23. Oh, God, let
the secrets of my heart be uncovered; and let my wandering thoughts be tested.
Okay, back to 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians 10:9, it says,
1 Corinthians 10:9. Nor let
us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted,
And a side comment: We always correctly use verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 10 to prove that Christ was, but here is another direct reference that who they were tempting was Christ! Very plain, very unambiguous Scripture that backs it up.
1 Corinthians 10:9. Nor let
us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;
Turn over to Numbers 21, Numbers 21 and verse 5. Again, I’m going to go into this in more detail later, but I think just to touch on those is very important for our pre-Passover preparation. Numbers 21 verse 5.
Numbers 21:5. And the people
spoke against God and against Moses:
“Why have you brought us up out of
And we already read in Malachi 1:7 that they were saying that the table was contemptible. Again, do we get tired of what God provides us? Does it become hum-drum?
In the end time—and I really think it’s interesting—the end time information now is conveyed by very flashy, very quick moving, very short attention span, even marketing. We can become numb to something that’s routine. I think about the ad for the Cadillac SUV. There’s this loud music that assaults your ears as this car drives through a tunnel and the lights are flashing off of this emblem of Cadillac. Frankly, it gives me a headache! But let me just tell you, this type of marketing embeds information directly into a person’s mind. This is not an accident that this has morphed to this.
When Congress passes a bill, remember all of the pork that kind of gets tacked on underneath? So when the bill gets passed, all of these special projects and all of this stuff that are tacked on just sort of get drug along with this bill which probably started as a good thing.
The way we process information is we read. We, hopefully, we can still meditate and think. And all the information goes through that process I’ve talked about it as like chewing the cud, like ruminating on it. And that process and we ruminate on it. We store and we process it against something. But once we process that information and it’s stored, if something—and I’m sure seen this to where you will smell a smell and it will take you back to a thought when you were in childhood or you will hear a sound or you’ll see something and it will take you somewhere else.
Music is the same way. They use the music because when you hear music, you don’t process that anymore. You’ve already processed it. And if I can tack something on to that, it goes right into your mind, right into your subconscious, and you don’t have a chance to think about it. It’s just like that bill that goes through Congress. And that’s why they use the contemporary music or the contemporary sounds or sights or things like that because it goes right into your mind without allowing your consciousness to put a filter on it.
And that can happen to us too! Especially we’re so subject to that. And I think it’s diminished the ability or even the desire to have to read and have to consider and decide. It can just be stuffed in there before we can think about it. Our generation, I believe, I thoroughly believe we’re very susceptible to falling into this trap.
Sitting down and reading God’s Word and contemplating what it says is a very difficult thing to do. It takes time and it takes energy. Even our brains, Brethren, are conditioned to want information faster than we can now take it in that way. Is there a Cliff Notes Version to this? Let me just read the short version! Let me try to do that. Maybe there’s a music video out on it. That would be better. In reality, I think because of this we should be slowing down and we should be taking smaller and smaller bites and chewing it longer and breaking it up finer and finer and smaller and smaller because of what’s happening to us.
Verse 6 of Numbers 21,
Numbers 21:6. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the
people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of
For the sake of time I’m not going to go into it, but in
your own study look into this. There’s a
very real, very current—write these Scriptures down: Matthew 6:13, remember our prayer to God
daily should be “Deliver us from the evil one”?
Revelation 20 verse 2, the dragon, the serpent of old, Satan is the
fiery serpent for us. 1 Corinthians 5:5
where he said to deliver such one to Satan for the destruction of the
flesh. 1 Timothy
Okay, back to 1 Corinthians 10. And I’ve got to go quickly. I see I’m running out of time. Just about done. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 10, it says,
1 Corinthians 10:10. Nor
complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
And that’s referring to murmuring. And again, we will talk about that.
Verse 11,
1 Corinthians 10:11. Now all
these things happened to them as examples,
This whole area is bracketed by these words. At the beginning it said they were for our examples and
1 Corinthians 10:11. Now [it
says] these things happened to them as examples, and were written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Brethren, we can read in there the end time Church.
We’ve gone through this list of specifics which our forefathers did on their journey. And I think it’s a very good template for our examination before these upcoming Holy Days. There are different actions that are mentioned, but I want you to take note and as you review every action, notice every single action resulted in death! None of these didn’t end in death.
If you’ve ever watched or read about a bomb squad that’s trying to locate and remove a bomb, they’re pretty thorough about it. They use every tool that’s available. They use bomb-sniffing dogs, remote robots, sensitive acoustic microphones, explosive chemical detectors. They use everything at their disposal.
Brethren, the thing we’re looking for in our life is a much larger threat! It threatens our eternal life. And as we examine ourselves, let’s consider what we’re trying to expose and remove. What’s in there will kill us if we choose to ignore it!
Verse 12,
1 Corinthians 10:12. Therefore
let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
The detonator is ticking down. The time-bomb is set. The good news is if we do our part and we take it serious, God’s guaranteed that He will be with us and the positive outcome is sure. But, Brethren, we have to do our part.
Skip down to just chapter 11, just chapter 11 verse 28. It says,
1 Corinthians 11:28. But let
a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of [that] cup.
Brethren, God’s table contains the essential spiritual nutrients and elements that will give us eternal life. As we approach the Passover, let’s ask God to help us to deeply appreciate the table that’s been prepared for us.
Transcribed by kb