Upon Whom The End Of The Ages Have Come

I wanted to play the sermon that we had the last great day in Daytona, again, here. We've been through some rough times as a church, been through some trials that maybe we didn't expect here. In this congregation, people who have come down ill, people who had to miss the feast, people who got sick during the feast, and things that have caused some problems, I hope we always remember that, to always look for the blessings in life.

Don't allow ourselves to get down on things, discouraged, or to think that there is no hope or that God has left us. God is always with us, and there are always blessings. Continue to look for those and continue to be thankful to Him. With that, I want you to turn over to the book of Numbers. I want to read three accounts in Numbers this afternoon as we begin, not accounts that we turn to very often at all.

They do remind us of who's in charge, God, and those remind us that when we... these do remind us when we disregard God or disobey Him or have attitudes that do not please Him, He isn't pleased. Read through these. I'll read through these accounts first, then we'll talk about them a little bit. Numbers 16. Number 16, we have the account where Cora and his group are standing up against Moses, and they want to pretty much take over Israel and Cora in typical fashion of someone who is of that mindset, you know, pretty much says Moses, who appointed you to be boss.

And so, you know, Moses does said, well, you know, let's put this out to God. Let God choose who it is. And God, you know, very, very aptly and clearly showed Moses was the one to choose them. Cora and his followers were swallowed up by the earth.

But later on in Numbers 16, the very next day, something a little surprising happens. In verse 41 of Numbers 16, it says, on the next day, I mean, the very next day after Cora is swallowed up, on the next day, all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, you killed the people of the Lord. Can you imagine that if you were there and that day you saw someone, you saw what happened to Cora, that you would go to Moses and say, we're blaming you, Moses.

We're blaming you, Aaron. I don't know what you did. I don't know how Cora and his 250 followers got swallowed up by the earth, but it was your fault. It takes a lot of audacity, doesn't it, to do that. You killed the people of the Lord. I can only imagine what Moses thought when they came to him with that comment. Now, you kind of know what he thought because the next verse tells us exactly what was in his mind.

Verse 42 says, it happened when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting, and suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. As soon as they heard that attitude, as soon as they thought that attitude, they quickly looked at the temple. Whoa! God will not be pleased with this attitude. Something is going to happen. And indeed it did. They watched as the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared, and Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting, and God spoke to Moses, saying, Get away from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment.

And they fell on their faces. Well, Moses loved Israel. Moses knew what was going to happen. He knew God was angry, and rightly so, because they weren't really challenging Moses. What the people were telling Moses that day is, We don't want you. We don't want who God chose. We want Cora. For some reason, Cora must have been a pretty magnetic character. He must have had quite a lot of interesting or appealing things to say to people to have them even the next day.

And not just a few hundred of them. It says here, all the congregation of Israel came against Moses and Aaron. What was the spin that was going on that night that caused them to come and confront them like that?

Well, God rightly was angry. And so Moses said to Aaron, Take a censer, verse 46, and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the eternal. The plague has begun. Moses said, We need to intercede here. God is angry. People are going to die. This attitude bears death. It bears that penalty.

And they knew exactly what God was going to do. And Moses knew exactly what to do. His first thought was not how we protect ourselves, not, I'm tickled off at these people, too, how do we interact here and intercede here on the behalf of the people and plead for God's mercy on them, even in the midst of a terrible mistake that they had made. So, in verse 47, they took this censer, as Moses commanded, or Aaron did, ran into the midst of the assembly, and already the plague had begun among the people.

So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people, and he stood between the dead and the living, so the plague was stopped. But 14,700 met an instantaneous death that day at the hand of God. 14,700. Aaron was willing to step in between the dead and the living, and know and ask and have faith in God, he would stop it when he would see the repentance of the people or someone standing in the gap, as we did that day, standing up for what it was that God was.

But 14,700 were killed that day. If we move over to verse 21, we see another similar event. As we come to the Numbers 21, Aaron has died. Children of Israel are on their way to the Promised Land. To go through the land of Edom would have been the shortcut. Moses approached the King of Edom and had said, you know, we'll pay you whatever. We'll stay on the road. We won't go to the left or the right of the road.

We'll pay you for whatever water we drink. We'll pay you. King of Edom said, no, we're not having any entry into the land. And so the people are going to have to go around the long way. We pick it up in chapter 21. It says, the King of Erid, verse 1, the King of Erid, the Canaanite who dwelt in the south, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Etherem, and he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners.

So Israel made a vow to the eternal and said, if you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And God listened to them, and he delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them in their cities. So the name of that place was called Horma. So they asked God, he delivered. They followed through with what he said. They should have seen God's hand in all of this, and realized again, God is there with us no matter what problem we face.

God is there with us. Verse 4, they continued on their journey from Mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. This is really hard to do. This is too far to go. We've been wandering and wandering. We don't know when we're going to get to that promised land. There's things that are encountering us that we didn't count on.

We're just tired. We're tired. We're discouraged. In a way, they would say they're sick of the whole journey. And they said that as much in verse 5. The people spoke against God and against Moses. And they said, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread. God, what you have given us, God, what you have sustained us these years in the desert, God, this miracle that appears every morning for us to eat, we're sick of it.

We hate it. Can you imagine? Can you imagine that the people would say that? I don't care how discouraged you are. I don't care how downtrodden you might feel. I don't care how many things. But can you ever imagine if you were in that group that you would say, We hate this manna. We're sick of it. We don't want any more of it. And yet, that's what they did.

So God rightly was pretty upset with that people. They didn't even look at that as a blessing. They weren't seeing anything except we're tired of this journey. We're tired of this. It doesn't taste the same every morning. Whatever it was that they weren't bothering looking at the blessings that God had given them at all, even the victory He had just given them along that way. So God punished them again because of their attitude. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people. And many of the people of Israel died. Therefore, the people came to Moses. They realized it and thought, Wow, we've done it again. We've done it. We've displeased God, and He's killing us. Sin begets death. Wrong attitudes begets death. They said, We've sinned. We've spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He will take the serpents away from us.

So Moses interceded. Moses prayed for the people. And God said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent. Set it on a pole. It shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses did as God said. He made the bronze serpent. Put it on a pole. And so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Israel should have learned their lesson.

Bronze serpent and the bronze pole or the pole of the bronze serpent should have taught them something too. They didn't understand what it was, but later, later in life, we understand what that represented. Let's go to Numbers 26. I'm sorry, Numbers 25. Numbers 25. Here the people are on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Most of the first generation, except for Caleb and Joshua, have died. They didn't trust God that he could actually deliver the Promised Land into their hands when they saw the giants over there. So God let them die in the wilderness. Now the second generation is there as they come toward the Promised Land. And as they come near it, there's a nation there. There's a nation there that they're going to interact with or come in contact with. And we'll see how they respond. They have been 40 years in the wilderness. 40 years they have been fed by God. 40 years they've had Moses telling them what the law of God is, that you need to draw close to him, that you need to obey him carefully, diligently, earnestly, completely. All those things. They've heard all those things. They've seen God's hand. They've seen these other two things. When they disregard God, have a bad attitude. God punishes the congregation. But here, as they come across people they're never used to seeing. It says in verse 1 of chapter 25, Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.

They invited Israel to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. How could you do that if you're Israel? After all that God has said, after all that Moses has said, after all the 40 years, even after the situation where they bowed down to the golden calf, back when Moses was gone for four, how could you do that? But they did. As soon as they had an opportunity, they just fell right in line with the nations around them. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor. Remember that phrase, joined to Baal of Peor, because when you join in with them, when you join in with their festivities and their festivals, you become part of what they're doing. Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Eternal out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. Kill them. They have led the people into idolatry. They lived the people into harlotry. They have completely, completely abused and refused the law of the Lord and sinned against him. So Moses said to the judges of Israel, every one of you, kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor. Exact the judgment on them.

Well, indeed, one of the children of Israel, go ahead of just, and will you read this verse? You see, he's kind of rubbing it in the face of Moses and Israel. Look what we're doing. Look at the fun we're having in this pagan city with this pagan, this pagan ritual and this pagan freedom, you know, or licentiousness, I should say, not freedom, this pagan licentiousness that they were carnally enjoying. Indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Can you imagine? Who knows what show they were going to put on for the people? But here, look at this, Moses. Look at what we're doing. Look at this, Israel. Look and see what we're doing. Kind of the type of thing that you know would absolutely infuriate God and infuriate the people. But Phineas, the grandson of Aaron, saw this and he saw what was happening to the people with all the killing going on and how they were just wildly in abandon, just wantonness that they were doing here as they came in contact with this this this pagan city, this foreign land that they were in. When Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the pre-saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and he thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her body. When he did that, the plague was stopped among the children of Israel and those who died in the plague were 24,000 people. Quite a number, quite a number of people. God had shown, when you disobey me and the congregation was involved in this, the congregation of Israel, something will happen. The people should have learned a lesson.

Well, there's three, three accounts. Interesting, interesting accounts. They do show that God is in charge. They do show that there are intercessors that are involved and in each one of those cases someone interceded in order to stop the plague of death, stand up for what God believed, and God was pleased with that intercession. Accounts that happened back there well before Jesus Christ, although even in that second, in that second account that we read when we read of the bronze serpent on the pole, Jesus Christ showed us that those accounts have some future significance because in John 3, turn there, John 3, 14 and 15, he references that incident that happened way back there in Israel. John 3 verse 14, Christ says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him shouldn't perish but have eternal life. So the people of Israel didn't realize when they were looking at that serpent and that pole that it was picturing Jesus Christ who would be giving his life that when we look to him and believe in him that the sins would be forgiven, he would be the one who would stand in the stead for our sins. Children of Israel, it says, when they looked on that, as God commanded them to do, you know, the poisonous serpent didn't have any effect on them and they were healed. Of course, true to form Israel, as they had that pole with that serpent on it, after a time they began to look at that as an idol and so it had to be destroyed. So when they looked at that, they began to worship the idol, you know, that symbol, much like so many of the Christian churches in the world, will bow down before the symbol of the crucifixion of Christ and bow down before that as an idol and not just look on it to glorify Christ but to worship it as some kind of idol. But as God put those stories in the Bible for us, and I'll use the word stories because they're interesting accounts, could they have any significance for us today?

Well, indeed, they do, as you might expect. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 10.

Everything that God puts in the Bible, there is a lesson for us who are alive in the 21st century, things that we can learn from everything and we have to look into those things. And could we? I mean, can we ever imagine ourselves doing what the Israelites did at any one of those three occasions? I would hope not. I would hope we would look at it and say, there's no way.

Probably all the Israelites would have said the same thing if they had been asked a month before in that situation, but they did it when the occasion arises without thinking. Of course, they didn't have God's Holy Spirit, and we do, but let's read down through 1 Corinthians 10 a little bit, beginning in verse 1. Because Paul, as he's writing to the Corinthian church, a church, a city that was steeped in paganism, steeped in all the pagan rituals that the children at Acacia, or the Israel at Acacia Grove would have encountered, he says this. He says, Moreover, brethren, I don't want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. When we read about these people in Israel, understand there's lessons for us today. I don't want you to be unaware of them. Don't forget them. Don't just think that happened thousands of years ago. Nice story. Don't know how Israel could do that. I don't want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses, in the cloud, and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food. All ate the all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. They all had equal opportunities. They heard what God's law was. They were all there. They all passed through the Red Sea. They saw God's miracle. Every morning they went out, and they saw the miracle of God as they picked up that manna and ate it. But most of them, most of them, with most of them, it says in verse 5, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. They never saw the promised land. They died in the wilderness. Now, these things, he says, became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Well, times change. Centuries change. Lifestyles change. Human nature remains the same. So, as they lusted after things, back then in the time that they were wandering through the wilderness, the same type of things we could find ourselves involved with, Paul is trying to tell us. And so he tells us in verse 7, don't become idolaters.

As were some of them. And here he's referring to the time where Moses was up on Mount Sinai for 40 days. The people thought he wasn't coming back. And so what did they do? They didn't beseech God. They didn't seek God. They didn't wait for him. They didn't do any of those things. What they did was turn back, build a golden calf, and begin worshipping it. Another silly, another, and I'll use that word silly because it's just a silly thing to do. You know, but they did it. They did it. Showed what was in their heart. So Paul says, don't become idolaters, as were some of them. And he references that very situation. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And then in verse 8, he begins talking about these three incidents, these three accounts that we just read about. Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did. And in one day, 23,000 died. Well, that's a direct reference. He's telling the Corinthians Church in the first century, look back at that example. Let's not be like them. We know the words of the Bible for us today, so God is looking at us today saying, look at that. Don't become, don't do what they do. Let us not commit, let us, nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did. And in one day, 23,000 died. Verse 9, nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and were destroyed by serpents.

And let's not complain, as some of them complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer, saying, look, remember those three accounts. Remember those three things that happened.

They're as important to you, and therefore you, as much as they were for the people in the first century, and right on as long as people are on earth. Verse 11, all these things happen to them as examples. And they were written, remember in the Bible study last week, last Wednesday, we talked about Moses wrote these things. God saw that he wrote these things down, so we would have them. These things, they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Well, that's you and me. That's you and me. I don't think anyone in this room would say that we don't live in the time where the end of the ages are. So God is saying, these three accounts that we just read, they're admonitions for you, for me, something we need to glean out of them, so that we don't fall and do the same thing that ancient Israel did, because if we're not aware, we might fall into the very same traps they did. They didn't have God's Holy Spirit. We do, but the Bible clearly shows that even with God's Holy Spirit, we could fall away at the end time. Matthew 24 makes it clear that it'll be a time of deception, and if people weren't prepared and aware, many, many could fall away, many would have their love waxed cold.

So let's go back, and let's look at these accounts again. We're not going to go back to numbers and read them. You remember the accounts, but let's look at them and see how do they apply to us today in the 21st century? What would God want us to learn from these three accounts, and how might they affect us? In chapter, we'll take it in exactly the same order that Paul lists here in 1 Corinthians 10. So let's look at verse 8 again. He says, let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 died. Well, as we discussed, Wednesday night, the pagan world, you know this was just absolutely a wanton place to be. If you were a pagan, you had license to do whatever your carnal mind could devise or think of. It was perfectly fine. They had thrown it into their religion. There were temple prostitutes of every way, shape, and form that you could deal with there. Whatever they wanted to do, they did, and they thought it was okay. They thought it was okay with their gods, which with their god, who is Satan, would certainly be okay with that because it's the antithesis of what God commands. So they, as Israel came there, they knew better, and they just sort of walked right into it, and then they just did it. God enacted swift retribution on them. What about us today? There's no temple prostitutes today. There's no temples of Baal around. There's no none of these places. I suppose if you want to find them, you can, but they're not commonplace, and they're not legal, and they're not wide open for everyone to go to. So we don't live in a land exactly like they lived in back then in Acacia Grove when they were there, but we do live in quite an immoral land if we just look at it from the physical sexual immorality standpoint. Any one of us, any one of us at any time of day, can go and turn our computer on, and we could be in a world of sexual depravity that would defy our imaginations.

Pornography is one of the greatest money makers in technology today, has been for years. For many people, it's just commonplace. It's just one of the things you do. You can turn on the computer, you can do pornography, and so many psychologists will say, it's okay. It doesn't harm anyone.

Absolutely wrong. It does harm people. But any one of us could do that. It is sexual immorality. It is absolutely wrong. If we go back just a couple of chapters to 1 Corinthians 6, Paul here, he's talking about the kingdom of God. Just read a few verses here in 1 Corinthians 6, and verse 9. He says, Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will enter the kingdom of God or inherit the kingdom of God. Well, he lists several things right there. All those things are wrong. I don't care what society says. I don't care what TV shows is a norm for some people to do at night or when they get home from work or if they're living alone. It's absolutely dead wrong. It's no different than what the people did at Acacia Grove.

And no one in the church should be doing that. It is absolutely a violation of the seventh commandment. Don't even try to make it anything but that. It is absolutely wrong, and it's a sin. If we drop down a little bit, Paul talks about this further.

In verse 15, 1 Corinthians 6, Don't you know, he says, that your bodies are members of Christ. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or don't you know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Verse 18, flee. Run away from it. Run fast away from it. Turn it off. Go the other way.

Ask God for the strength to get out of there. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Even if you're sitting alone at night in front of your computer, no one else around, you're sinning, you're sinning, and you're sinning against your own body. It has detrimental effects that will absolutely affect you forever. Don't do it, is what Paul is saying. We live in a world that's not too dissimilar from Acacia Grove that's there if we allow ourselves to do it. It can be very tempting to some people. Don't let it happen. Don't let that happen to you. Let's go to Revelation 2.

Revelation 2 and verse 14. Here in the last book of the Bible, Christ, when he's writing to one of the churches, the seven churches of Revelation, he goes right back to that same event that we've been talking about. That's how important it is, and how much less, how big of a lesson he wants to learn from it, that it doesn't happen to us, that we don't make the same mistake that the Israelites did then. Revelation 2, verse 14, writing to Pergamos, he says, But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel. Well, indeed, Balak wanted Balaam to curse Israel. And every time, if you remember, that Balaam opened his mouth, a blessing came instead. But finally, this stumbling block, and Balaam knew, ah, if we can just entice these young men with these women in this wanton atmosphere. They've been wandering the desert for 40 years. If they go into Acacia Grove, they see everything that's happening. Are they going to be able to resist? No matter what they've been through, are they going to be able to resist all this? He was right. Israel fell for it, hook, line, and sinker, and paid a steep price for it. But he says, you know, they taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things, sacrifice to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Well, you remember, when we were reading that account, I said, remember being joined to Baal a peor. And what God is showing there is that Israel was joined to him. And so there is a spiritual aspect of sexual immorality. You know, well, that in the Bible, God will talk about the spiritual harlotry that goes on. And he will even talk about Israel in ancient times. And he would say, I was married to you, Israel, but you played the harlot with all these other gods. You joined yourself to them. No different than a woman who is married to a man, if he joins herself to another man, whether it's purely physical or in another way, because Christ shows that there's more than just the physical act that constitutes adultery, that it's a sin to God. So they were joined to Baal a peor. They went in there. Maybe not every single one of them committed adultery. Maybe every single one of them went in and committed, you know, had sex with all the prostitutes that were there. Some were weeping at the tabernacle of meeting, but others joined in the festivities. Others ate the food that was there. Others ate the meals. They were just there. It was a good old time. They were having a wonderful time. All the festivities honoring those gods that they were celebrating with. So the question for us would be, could it be possible, or would we commit spiritual harlotry on God? Could we join ourselves to Baal of Peor? Could we join ourselves to a pagan god or a pagan festival or something pagan and think that it's okay? I think all of us who are married would say, well, no. If my wife did that, I wouldn't be happy, even if she didn't this or that or whatever. God is looking for us to be 100% committed and loyal to him, not joined to anyone else. No other gods before him. No other gods besides him. And here's what Israel did. They went in and they aligned themselves and they joined with Baal of Peor. Could God's people today do the same thing? We absolutely could. Any time that we enter into a pagan festivity, and some of those are coming up in this time of year, what are we doing? What are we thinking? Sometimes we justify it in ourselves, maybe the way some of the Israelites did. Well, it's just good food. It's just a good time. I'll dance there and whatever. God said, look what they were doing. They were joining themselves to someone else.

Could we anger God by some of the justifications that we make in our lives and say, it's okay. It's okay. I know better than that. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to put on the Halloween costume. I'm not going to do the gift exchange. I'm not going to do any of those things. I'm just going to go there and join in the festivities and whatever. Well, maybe we want to think about that a little bit. In Revelation 18.4, it does say, come out of the world. In 2 Corinthians 6, it says, don't even touch the things that are unclean. That's something that God would say. So it might be that the church of God or sizable portions of the church of God could displease God. Or individually, we could displease God by the attitudes that we take.

And that we could be guilty of the same thing that the children of Israel were.

Paul says, these are ammunitions for us upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

We've all faced tests in our lives to date. We've all faced trials. We've all faced temptations. We've all done what we do.

As time goes on, those will become harder and harder and harder tests to stay against. To come out of the world and get ourselves unentangled in the affairs of life. Doesn't mean we don't go to work. Doesn't mean we don't go to school. Doesn't mean we don't participate in the days of life. We absolutely have to. But as we go on, those lures and those attractions and those stumbling blocks, that stumbling block that Balaam put before Israel, what would the stumbling block be for us? That we would say, it's so enticing. I cannot do it. Would it be sex? Would it be pornography? Would it be, I don't know, politics? I don't know. Would it be making money and the attraction to that? Would it be whatever we run to? That is so tempting. I have to do it. And I've got to go for it. And I want to align myself with that. And hey, God will understand if I align myself with this little God over here for a while. No, he doesn't understand that. Remember, the goal is no other gods, no other gods besides him. Something we work at through the rest of our lives. But as time goes on, those stumbling blocks could become harder and harder to resist if we're not preparing now to stand against them. Forty years in the wilderness, didn't do it for Israel.

Forty years in the wilderness with us, with God's Holy Spirit, it could happen that we could fall, too. Absolutely know that Satan knows what our weakness is. Satan absolutely knows where he can possibly have us fall, disappear, be joined to Baal of Peor, and he will use it. He will use it. And if we don't prepare now to stand against it and say, absolutely not, we will not fall that, we won't go that route, whatever that is, then we could end up being just like Israel, then doing something we would never think possible for us to do. So if we look at the second one, let's go back to 1 Corinthians, refresh our minds on that. The first one was preparing ourselves to not fall for any of the lost of the flesh. That comes from the decisions and choices that we make as we say, no, not going to do that, using God's Holy Spirit, asking Him to wipe our minds clean, purge us with hyssop. As David says in Psalm 51, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 9, the second one of those accounts that we read says, Don't let nor let us tempt Christ as some of them tempted, and were destroyed by serpents. Well, the Israelites, as they walked through the wilderness, yes, they were frustrated, yes, they were tired, yes, we all get those same ways, and sometimes when we're frustrated and tired, words can come out of our mouth that we certainly regret later. We've all done it, probably do it, probably did it this week, maybe even today. Something we have to work on, something we have to hold our tongues on and control our anger and our frustration, but they did it, and they said some pretty stern words against God. You know, we don't want this manna. You know, going back to the sermonette, they didn't even see the blessings in that. I mean, where they were, they should have been thanking God every day for what they had for what they had to eat, but hey, it wasn't what they wanted. They were tired of the same old taste. They wanted something exciting, enticing, new, flavorful, got to have something new, because if we just keep eating the same thing all the time, how is that going to be? Now, not too long ago, we talked about what tempting Christ is when Jesus Christ faced the great temptation, and Satan was trying to tempt him. Jesus Christ referred back to Deuteronomy, and you remember the waters of Massa, M-A-S-S-A-H, that we referenced when we went back to what Christ quoted, and then we turned back to Exodus 17 to show what happened at the waters of Massa. So let's do that again to refresh our minds on what, when we tempt God, what are we saying to him? How do we tempt God? So Exodus 17, verse 7 tells us as we go back to this account, again, a 21st century account, what they did back then, we can do today, same human nature that was in people back then and in us today. Exodus 17, verse 7. So this is where Israel was complaining. We have no water. You know, humanly speaking, they looked at it and thought there's no water around. They forget that God can do anything. Water comes from the rock. And verse 7, Moses says, called the name of the place, Massa and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, is he among us or not? Is he here or not? Is God really with us?

Some of the modern translations have it correctly when they said, is God enough? Could God do this?

How can God do this? We're in the middle of the wilderness, no water in sight. What are we going to drink? We're a million plus people out here. How is this possible? We will all die of thirst.

Is God with us? Is he enough? Can he really do this?

And so, when the people of Israel were marching through on their way to the Promised Land, and they tempted God by saying, we don't want what you had to offer. We're tired of manna.

Actually, we hate manna. They said, we're sick of the whole thing. We don't want to do it anymore.

What were they telling God? You're not enough. We are sick of your way. We don't like what you're doing. It's not enough for us. God's retribution was swift. Firey serpents came out. Firey serpents came out, and they were bitten. And 23,000, 24,000 died because they had that attitude toward God. Now, could we ever have that attitude toward God? Manna, when you read in the Bible, God, at one place, calls it angels' food. Angel food. Remember that? And you'd hear the people of Israel saying, we don't want this stuff. Sick of it. It's a miracle. Sitting out there in the wilderness with nothing around them. A million, two million people sitting there. And every morning they go out, and there's manna that's there. All the nutrients they need. They were perfectly healthy through the entire time that they were wandering in the wilderness. We're sick of this stuff. We don't want it. We don't have the variety that we want. We don't want it anymore. We want our own thing. We want to taste our own things. Can we imagine doing that? Manna was from God. You know, Jesus Christ in John 6, when he was talking about bread from heaven, he talked about the manna. It was physical bread back for physical Israel, but it clearly, and they knew it, came from God. There was no other source. It was God's bread. It would sustain them. It would keep them alive. It would provide everything that they need for life. And yet they said, sick of it. Don't want it. Could we do that?

Well, we know that God doesn't give us manna today, but Jesus Christ gave us the more important bread, right? He gave us the bread of life. He said, whoever eats of this bread will live forever.

This bread will provide every nutrient you need, and you need to eat all of it every day.

You need to live by every word of God that's in this bread of life. That's what he said. Whoever eats of this bread will have eternal life. And you and I, when we came to God and we repented and we were baptized, we said, we will eat of this bread of life all the rest of the days of our lives.

Some of us have been in the church for 20, 30, 40 years.

Sometimes we might read through the Bible and say, don't need to read that anymore, been through it enough, tired of reading it. How many times you got to read the same thing? Other times we might read something and say, well, you know what? I kind of like all the nutrients in the bread of life, but this one, I don't really like that ingredient. I'm setting that one aside. I don't want that to apply to me. I don't like that one.

I don't want to do what God said there. I don't want to think what God said there.

Or we may water it down and say, I just don't like the taste of that. So I've got to water it down a little bit because the taste is a little strong. Sometimes the words are a little strong. Sometimes God is very clear when He tells us what He wants. And I don't really like the tenor of what He says. I don't like the way He says it. I want it watered down a little bit. I want it smoother. Can you speak a little smoother? Because I would like that a little bit more. Is that any different than telling God, I don't really like your manna.

I don't really like your bread. I don't want to eat it anymore.

Maybe sometimes we just think, you know, it's got to have a little more flavor, right? I've read this so many times. And you know, if I go outside into the world, they've got some juicy things that we can pick up and we can look at. And they kind of titillate my senses. And it's a little bit of different taste. And you know, I'll just do that. It's just not enough, right? It's just not enough, this book. It's not just enough. The bread of life is what we can say. I need more. I can't just come to church and hear sermons. I can't just listen to the Word of God. I can't just read the Word. I need more. I need more than that because I have to have that.

And so we go outside and we might tune on other churches Sunday morning broadcast, look at other sermons, and say, oh man, that is really tasty! That is really tasty! I want that taste more. And pretty soon that taste sours the taste of the bread of life that God has given us.

Danger! Danger in that! You know, Christ says, know my voice, know my words.

Second Timothy 4. Paul talks to Timothy about a time that's coming when people will say very much the same thing that the people of Israel said back then, we don't like this manna. We don't like what it says. We want something different. We don't want all the ingredients. What God gave Israel, that manna, every single ingredient they needed so that they were perfectly healthy all the time they were in the wilderness. They needed every single nutrient in that bread. You and I need every single nutrient in the bread of life that we're supposed to be reading and digesting every day. In Second Timothy 4, verse 3, Paul writes, he says, the time will come when they won't endure some doctrine.

Heard that. Don't like the taste of it. Don't want to hear that. We want something a little more spicy. We want something a little more flavorful, a little more sweet, a little more appealing to what we want. The time would come when they will not endure some doctrine. But according to their own desires, we want to bake the bread. We don't want God baking the bread. We don't want to do everything He says earnestly, carefully, completely, diligently. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they'll heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

Could anything turn you away from the bread of life?

Well, we might tell God that we might be telling God, not enough. Are you really with us? You know, we can take that same sentiment and take it into the rest of our lives too. And when we make choices in our lives and what we do, we might find ourselves saying, is God enough? You know, maybe sometime in the last few months, even, people, is God enough? Is God enough? Can He really handle this? What's going on in the world today? What's happening with some of His people? Can God really handle this? Or does He need a little help from me? I don't want to tempt God. We know.

I hope everyone would say, God is enough. God is enough. There's things that we have to do on our own, things that we need to do to be sure that we are whatever it is that we might be asking God that in accordance with His Word. But as time goes on, Satan might just well send something our way that so we think, huh, maybe God isn't enough. I need to make my own decisions over here because I'm not sure I can trust God on that one. Maybe I need to ally myself over here on that.

Maybe some of the thoughts we have, maybe some of the things we do, we could be tempting God.

And maybe as time goes on, when those things that could come our way are far, far more difficult than everything we are facing today come our way, we might, if we are not strong, if we're not paying attention, if we're not using the time we have to solidify our trust in God and our reliance on Him and our dependence on Him and feeding on every word and making sure that we are diligently, carefully, earnestly, completely obeying Him. None of us do that today, but we need to be paying attention to it and looking and seeing and not closing our eyes and saying, God, that ingredient we don't want. When we stop our ears and say, not listening to that, that's what we're telling God.

Gotta be open. Gotta be open to what He is saying. We don't want to despise ever God's Word or His way or Him. Never discount Him. Never do anything or say anything that would discount Him or minimize Him. He is enough, and He can provide whatever we need, when we need, in ways that we can't even imagine, just like He did for the Israelites, just like He did in other examples in the Old Testament, just like He can in the times ahead of us, if we believe.

Okay, back to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 10. Third account that we had there. 1 Corinthians 10.

Don't complain, verse 10, as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Moses, we don't want you. Moses, we don't like the way you talk. We don't like the way you say things. We don't really care for Aaron either. We really want Korah. We really want Korah. Such a nice guy. What did Korah do? What did Korah do when he was there in ancient Israel? How did he get the people to turn against Moses that way? Was it politics? Did he kind of just go around telling him, you know, when if I was Moses, or if I was the head of Israel, I wouldn't say that that way. I'd say it a different way. You know, if I was Moses, what he does things are just all wrong. We can't count on Moses for this. This is a better way to do this. And he would tell them how right they are. And, you know, they had their little complaints and their little things that they wanted to talk about. You're right. You're right. Israel, I don't know if he did that, but I'm saying he must have played the political game because how on, you know, how do you even possibly turn people against Moses that is so clear that God is working with us? He led them out of Egypt through the Red Sea, through the wilderness. How did they do that? How did he turn them against them?

Well, you know, Satan was able to turn a third of the angels against God.

Oh, if I was God, I could do this better. If I was God, I wouldn't be handling it this way. If it was me in charge, all of you would be this or that or whatever. And we see that same spirit that's there when something is stirred up against someone that God has put in place. We see in 1 Samuel 15. You can read that later. The first six verses, Absalom did the same thing to David. Clearly, that David was the king that God wanted in place there, but Absalom, after he was given a reprieve by David, what did he come in and do? Well, you know, hey, Israel, yeah, I see it your way. You know, if I was judging today, this is what would be. Yeah, what you've done isn't that bad. Don't worry about it. And verse 6 of 2 Samuel 15 says Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Absalom wanted the power. He wanted to be king. A very unholy and a very unattractive thing to God. And Korah must have had some of the same thing in him. In Jude, way back in the Bible, right before the book of Revelation, Jude talks about this in verse 11. Going right back to the example that we have, he says, Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, they have run greedily in the error of Balaam for prophet, and they have perished in the rebellion of Korah. He's not talking about the people way back, way back at Korah's time. He's talking about the attitude that was there. Not only the attitude that Korah had, but the people who were with him, who listened to him, who paid attention to him, and that aligned with him and had the audacity to go back to Moses the next day and say, You did it, Moses! You did it, Aaron!

Well, the book of Jude, if you read through it, it talks about false prophets that are going to come.

False prophets that will come on the outside, but also some on the inside of the church, who will lure people away by their words. Oh, if it was this way. Oh, if we could do that. Oh, you know what? God's okay. Come on. You don't have to take that exactly the way the Bible says it. Let's just reason together and do what we think is best. Jude talks about these false prophets. 2 Peter, basically the whole book is about false prophets that will be coming at the end time.

Verse 16 of Jude says, These are grumblers, they complainers, they walk according to their own lusts, they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own godly lusts. These are sensual persons who caused a vision, not having the Spirit.

But you, you build yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Build yourself up. Don't let yourself ever get to the point where you would be lured away by a false prophet, no matter how clever his words, no matter how cunning his words, no matter how alluring his words, no matter how much he's accompanied by signs and wonders, as it says in Matthew 24, that even the very elect could be deceived. That takes time now to prepare for that, that that wouldn't happen. And we are told what to do. We've talked about it a few times here in the last few months in 2 Thessalonians 2. What does God tell us to do? Love the truth.

Love this bread of life. Eat it. Digest it. Every single word of it. Make it part of you. Love the truth. And what happens if you don't love the truth? In the last time, strong. Strong delusion will come. Not just delusion. When God uses adjectives and adverbs, pay attention to them.

What's going on now is absolutely mild. Between now and the return of Jesus Christ, strong delusion will be there. That if we're not grounded in the truth, if we're not grounded and led by God's Holy Spirit, if we don't love His truth, if we don't love the bread of life, if we don't understand it, digest it, and are living by it, strong delusion will happen.

Or it will come. What will happen when it comes? Who needs this bread? I like that bread better. That must be the bread that I need to attach myself to. Forget God. Forget that. That must be where He is. Whatever happens between now and the return of Jesus Christ, the temptations, the lures, the great swelling words, the mockers that come. 2 Peter talks about that. We go back a few books here to 2 Peter 3. Jude refers to them. Again, you can read 2 Peter 2 about the false prophets that will come, that Jesus Christ mentions in Matthew 24 as well, that will work all these great things. These people are all motivated by pride, covetousness, looking for a following after themselves. They cause division. Remember what I said? Wherever the Holy Spirit is, when the Holy Spirit is in both all the people, it will lead to unity. When the Holy Spirit is in, it will lead to division. If it's dividing, it's not of God. If it's unifying, it's of the Holy Spirit.

God's Spirit unifies. When we take Passover, we eat of that bread, we talk about it's the bread of unity. But when there's division that results, we know that one or both parties were not being led by the Spirit of God. So where was I? 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. Let's just read the first four verses here. Just again, these are end-time verses of what's going to happen. Beloved, I now write to you the second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder. We got already reminded these things, so we're ready that you be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the Holy Prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first. Scawfers will come in the last days, and they will make very good arguments. It'll sound true.

It'll sound true. And if we're not grounded in the bread of life, if we're not grounded and completely committed to God, if we don't know, we could do the same thing ancient Israel did.

Scawfers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, where's the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Who knows what will come between now and then? Scawfers will come. And we might find ourselves doubting God. We might find ourselves saying, you know what? Is God all we need? Is God really going to do this? Is that really what He means?

Lots of food for thought in those three accounts. Lots of food for thought in what we talked about today. And I hope we go back, you know, and don't forget all this, but think about it, meditate on it, contemplate it, and do something with it. But what can we conclude with?

We've got three scriptures. Three scriptures that I want to conclude with here today. Last week, we talked about putting on all the armor of God, that we're at war. Certainly we need to do that.

We need to make sure, as we talked about, that all those things that we are ready and good soldiers, good soldiers are ready for the battle. Good soldiers have their weapons maintained, you remember. But back in Proverbs 16, Proverbs 16, three verses to conclude to wrap this up. Verse 3, commit. There's a word. I can almost stop with commit and just talk about it. But commit your works to the Eternal, and your thoughts will be established. Commitment is a huge thing. You know, when we were baptized, we committed to God that for eternity, we would follow Him. We would yield to Him. We would do His will. We would submit to Him, knowing that many of those things that we would be submitting to Him might be against our nature. But we did it. Same thing when we make a vow to the person we marry. I promise to do this. I vow before God, this is what I'm going to do. We simply have to do it. Whether we like it or not, it's what we do. And when we do it, God blesses. And we ask His help in that. Commit your works to the Eternal. You know, it wouldn't be bad if we prayed and in our prayers, maybe more often than just once a month, maybe every day, we commit ourselves to God. We simply tell Him, we are committed to You. Whatever we need to do, we will do. Whatever we need to change, we will change. Whatever You show me that I need to do, I will do. I am committed to Your way of life. I want nothing of this life and this world around me. I am ready to trust You. I know I have things out there that need to be changed. I commit to You. Cleanse me, purify me, strengthen me, let Your Holy Spirit become, take over and purify my mind, and let Your will become my will. May I walk in that way? Mark down James 1. I never turn to James 1, 12 to 14 in there. It talks about temptations and whatever and how the Holy Spirit can take those temptations away from us. Commit your works to God, just like we could commit ourselves to each other. Sometimes in marriages, you know, you have to remind yourself after things get a little testy sometimes, I'm committed to this person. I have to remember the vows I made to them. I'm committed to them. I will do what takes to make them happy. We will work together to make this work. I committed to God. I would do it, and I committed to You, and I'll do it, and we're going to do it. Commit to God. And stating that commitment, maybe even writing down that commitment, says a lot about us. Are we willing to submit? Are we willing to say it out loud to God, to each other? Are we willing to say it to God and commit to Him knowing that there will be changes in our life? Because when we do, it says, He'll establish our thoughts. That's one verse. Let's go back to Joshua 21.

Joshua 21. You know, we read the book of Deuteronomy through the Feast of Tabernacles.

If you did that, and we heard the word of Moses, the words that God gave him, the words that He recorded, that God maintains for us today. After Moses died, Joshua was a very capable leader too. He was dedicated to God. He was committed to God. He was bold, courageous. He led Israel into the Promised Land. And he had some words that we can look at as well when we look at our lives. In chapter 21, in verse 45, knowing that God has made us many promises, knowing that He says all these things, you know, we could sit here for the next hour, two, three, four, and list everything that God said He'll do. Again, as do we trust Him. But in verse 45 of Joshua 21, it says, Not a word failed of any good thing which the Eternal had spoken to the house of Israel.

All came to pass. Whatever God says He will do, He will do. Take it to the bank. Stake your life on it. It absolutely will happen. It happened in ancient Israel. The record shows everything God said He would do with ancient Israel, He did. Everything that God says He will do for us, He will do. It's as sure as you and I are sitting here. Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind and know that even though things might look hazy or whatever, absolutely He will do it. And we have to train ourselves to be loyal to Him and absolutely believe it and not head off in another direction and say, well, maybe God needs a little help in that area along it. No, we can learn to completely trust in Him. He can do what He says He will do. And finally in Joshua 24, you know, I think an inspiring verse here goes back to commitment again. It makes us make a choice. And it puts fathers, it puts mothers, it puts single people, it puts heads of household, it puts children all at stake here when we commit to God. It puts us all here in this congregation, even as people are watching us on the web, what we do and what we commit to God. Joshua 24 in verse 15, beautiful words that Joshua said here as he was about to vacate the office that he had and his life would be over. Joshua 24 verse 15, it says, if it seems evil, Joshua is giving Israel, making them see what it is that God has given them. If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, if you don't like it, the bread of life says, you know what? I don't want it. I don't want it. I just don't care for it. God's not enough for me. I need more. If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. You know, you're either serving him or you're serving the other God of this world, Satan. It seems evil to do serve the Lord, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. God gave you that right to do it, whether you'll serve the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. What he said, what I hope every single one in this room would say and everyone listening say and what I will say, fathers speak for your homes and do what God said to do in those homes. Wives, help your husbands with it. When you say it, work with him to make it happen in your homes. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.