Law and Grace - Learn from the Law - Part 1

Good morning. Just wanted to pass along on the signups for the electives. Getting those in place helps us do a few different things. And one of those being that we want to decide based on who signs up and how many, which room should each class be in. So that's one aspect of it. The other thing is in some of these, we have materials that we're preparing. And we'll want to know how many to have prepared. So anyway, those are some reasons that we need to have you sign up. So if you can do that, the sooner the better.

That's great. Okay, now into our passage here that Wayne read for us. What we're going to find out in today's passage and in next week's. Today, God desires to teach us who are not under the law. He desires to teach us from the law. How about that? We're not under the law, but we can learn from it. Which is why we can, with no problem, say that all of scripture is inspired by God, and all of it is useful for us, even the law that we're not under.

So all of 1 Corinthians chapter 10 consists, and this is the whole chapter, we're only looking at the first half of it, of Paul drawing lessons from the first five books of the Bible known as the Law. And some of the other names is the Torah, you may have heard that term, that's the Jewish or Hebrew term, the books of Moses, they're often called as well, and the Pentateuch. So those are alternate terms, basically meaning the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. So those books, he's going to be drawing from that in the entire chapter. We're going to look at the first half of that chapter today.

Though we're not under the law, it is inspired scripture. And it is profitable for us to study it. Even if we're not under it, it is still inspired and profitable. There are lessons to be drawn from it, which is exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing as he writes to a church that is not Israel and to a body that is not under the law. And that idea that we're not under law but under grace is underscored in Romans 6, 14, and 15. In one case, it makes the statement, we're not under law but under grace.

In the next one, it says that same thing but in a question form. Paul's basis for learning from the law, the Israelites were God's chosen people. Were they not God's chosen people? As we also now in the church are also God's chosen people. A different body but both chosen by God. Now some lessons from the Israelites and for the believers at Corinth and for us here at Holly Hills. By the way, this is real interesting. The Google Maps view of Holly Hills shows everybody's car. You can even identify whose car is there. I think ours is right about there. You can't see what I'm pointing to anyway.

We, like those believers at Corinth, can learn things from the Law of Moses even though that was then, and this is now, where both God's chosen people and also God does not change, and neither does the sin nature. So if something said about God's character in the Old Testament, when they were under the law, and we are not, something said about God's character still applies to us, who are not under the law. Even though we're a different body, and we live with the operating system of grace, if it says something about who God is, that still applies, even if it's right out of the law. Now, there's another reason. The reason we can learn from the Israelites, the Jews or Hebrews, these are almost equivalent terms with slight nuances, is that they gave us some really good, really bad examples.

You got that? Really good, really bad examples. And so we can learn from those really good, really bad examples. So that's one of the reasons that Paul draws from it. The other thing that's brought out in this verse, and in similar verses in the New Testament, these things happened as examples for us. You imagine, here they are, they're out there, they're going through 40 years out in the wilderness, and they're having a wild, terrible time, and why did it happen? So that we would have an example. A really good, bad example.

Now these things happen as examples for us so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. or 1 Corinthians 10.11. Now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction.

Very similarly in Romans 15.4, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. So these things are valid. Sometimes I'll hear a Christian say, oh, that's just Old Testament stuff. We don't need to mess with that. Oh, no. These are written for our instructions and these happened as examples for us. We're definitely intended to learn from them. They're not irrelevant.

They're not to be set aside. Paul issues a warning also in this passage about being guided by our feelings. Now, this is really important. How guided should you be by your feelings? Anyway, so I'm feeling very sleepy while I'm driving, right? So, in various ways and in various times, people have lived life by their feelings. And in fact, our culture has been telling us for decades to live by your feelings.

Our culture has been thrusting that idea at us. And in fact, much of the Christian church has absorbed that message. Much of the Christian church has absorbed that message. Here's one of them that has come across, and I've seen it as a problem again and again. The Old Testament talks about blessings for Israel, that they were blessed in the land, in physical ways, in the land, if they obeyed.

For us in the church, Ephesians 1.3, we are unconditionally, if we're a believer in the church, We are blessed unconditionally with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Absolutely, unconditionally, you are blessed. Now notice that those are different kinds of blessings. The blessings are different, but they are objective blessings. One of the things that's happened in recent decades in the church is the church has gone to measuring things by whether I feel blessed. If I feel blessed, then it must be a God thing.

And that's not biblical. Blessings are defined in scripture, and that doesn't mean feeling blessed. That's a subjective response. The blessings that are described are either objectively in the physical realm for the Jews, Deuteronomy 28, verse 14 verses, or they are in the spiritual realm for us in the church.

Ephesians 1.3. But either way, they're objective blessings, not do I feel blessed. Feelings are viewed as authoritative and meeting those felt needs of ourselves and others seem like it validates ministry. Oh, I felt so blessed is used to determine whether or not something was good or true. Should we sing that song? Oh, it's all based on whether I feel blessed. Is it true? Well, who knows, right?

I felt blessed, so it must be a God thing is kind of a foregone conclusion among many Christian groups. Feelings, even those deep emotions, have a God-given place. Feelings have a God-given place when evaluated, guided, and supported by God's Word. But feelings are not to be a substitute basis of authority.

Get the difference there? One of the things we present in the marriage seminar, for example, I'll publicly tell people I am crazy, just wildly in love with this lady sitting right here who I'm married to. My feelings are intense and extreme and they grow greater all the time about this lady. But it's all based on faith in God's word. That's why I can have feelings that are that intense. It's based on faith in God's Word. Every believer needs to go by this. Marriages and families need to understand this. Whatever you feel like is not to be hardwired to the steering wheel. Feelings are not a substitute basis of authority. A split decision, right? When you get to those forks in the road, feelings are not the basis on which we make these judgments.

So I feel like arguing. Is that God's will? We're not communicating. Is that God's will? How about a church split? Have you ever heard about that? Is that God's will? Because after all, people feel very strongly. I think not. How about the music that we pick? How do we pick the music?

I feel blessed. It makes me feel good. Matter of fact, in some churches, people think it's the church's job to make them feel really good when they go out to church. You're all pumped up. Matter of fact, you're supposed to give me enough good feeling that as it leaks out over the week, by next Sunday, I've still got a little bit left. That's the church's job. Get me all pumped up.

Now, that approach in the believer's life and marriage and families and in the church makes our feelings a tool of the sin nature. That's the problem. Okay? If we use the feelings as the guidance instead of God's word, if we use the feelings as the guidance instead of God's word, the sin nature is calling the shots. I guarantee it. Good or bad feelings can be used as the final measure of what is spiritually true and what is morally and ethically right. But that's not biblical. Now, when we believers embrace this view, the result is death.

That's what Romans 6.23 says. The wages that the sin nature pays, that's what that verse is saying, the wages that the sin nature pays is death. And that death, even for the believer, that death is separation of fellowship from God, not relationship. You're not losing your salvation. But at those moments, and in those times, when we're letting the sin nature call the shots, and if we're operating by feelings, that's exactly what's happening. will result in loss of fellowship with the Lord.

Biblical faith is founded in facts. Spiritual facts is revealed in God's Word. Our faith, belief, and trust is founded on the spiritual facts of God's Word. That's where I put my trust and confidence. I build feelings on top of that. That's why when I study what God's Word says about marriage, and I put my faith and trust in it, I can be crazy in love with this gal. Feelings founded on faith and the facts. The sin nature favors this approach, faith in feelings. Faith in your feelings. You know, the first Star Wars movie, Trust Your Feelings, Luke. That very same year, that very same year, Debbie Boone You light up my life, right? It can't be wrong if it feels so right. Wow. Twisted. Okay.

So, Israel had five, oh boy, spiritual advantages, right? Five spiritual advantages. One, the cloud that led the Israelites and their wanderings through the desert was powerful and visible evidence in his presence, his loving care and his guidance. They had that spiritual advantage. That's how God demonstrated and showed them his continuing presence. Do we have that? I hope not. If there was a cloud in here, it would be kind of hard to see you. But that's how the Lord dealt with Israel. It is also, as we'll see in this passage, one of the ways in which they were baptized into Moses. So they had the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.

Number two, they experienced God's miraculous deliverance through the sea when God parted the waters for them to pass through, but used it to stop the Egyptians. Notice what he did there both allowed the Israelites to miraculously pass through and be rescued and redeemed, and he used that same water and the division of the water to destroy the Egyptians. So, deliverance for Israel, destruction of the Egyptians. And that's what did the Egyptians in that came to attack.

Number three, they were led by Moses, God's appointed leader, for their redemption from Egypt. So here is Moses, in whom they were baptized, 1 Corinthians 10. Here is Moses taking them out of Egypt and into the Sinai desert, and miraculously again and again delivering them in various ways.

Baptism is an outward expression of the identification of a believer with their object of faith. So when they are baptized into Moses, they are identifying with Moses as their object of faith. All our fathers, it says in 1 Corinthians 10, 1 and 2, were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. That's one of the reasons why we can very clearly say Israel is Israel and the church is the church. Because Israel was baptized into Moses, you and the church are baptized into Christ. Huge distinction. Israel was baptized into one person, Moses. We in the church are baptized into one person, Christ. They're not the same. We're a different spiritual body.

You also have on page two of your handout this chart which we included in our fifth lesson here in this Law and Grace series, which by the way we started two years ago. So this one here, I'm reintroducing here because it makes the comparison. The beginning of Israel's baptism into Moses is shown on this kind of timeline that's given there and shows the crossing of the Red Sea. This being the beginning of Israel's baptism into Moses and alluded to in 1 Corinthians 10. We in the body of Christ have also a very similar timeline. The correlation, even as to the time, is amazing. Even the 50 days, as you see underscored in the chart. But it was for us not the beginning of our baptism into Moses. We were not baptized into Moses. It was the beginning of the church's baptism into Christ, that is, those in the body of Christ all being baptized into Christ.

Romans 6, 1-10 spells that out. So I'll let you pursue that on your own time as you would like. Now, Israel had five spiritual advantages, and number four was they all ate the manna that God faithfully provided them. In 1 Corinthians 10.3 makes reference to that.

They all ate the same spiritual food. It was physical food which had a spiritual origin. God provided it. Physical food that had a spiritual origin. So they all ate the same spiritual food. So, this was the manna, and I have it here. Dad, what is this stuff? Because the manna actually means it's a wetness. So, God only knows what it is. Just eat it.

Number five. They all drank water that came from the rock, and the rock stands for God's provision through Christ. And I'm not making it up, because that's exactly what Paul said. They all drank water that came from the rock, and the rock stands for God's provision through Christ. That's what Paul tells them in this passage.

So those are the five spiritual advantages that Israel had. Now, do we have all those same advantages? No. No, we don't. They did. We, however, have advantages of our own as a different body, a different spiritual body. And they all drank the same spiritual drink, and they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 10.4. We, however, have parallel advantages. And you may be saying, what? Skeptical of it? Well, let's see.

First one, as believers in Christ, we have the guidance of God's Word, which we're studying now. and the Holy Spirit along with His presence and indwelling power. So you got that? We have God's Word, we have the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit's presence and indwelling power. And as we saw in Romans 8, we also have Christ indwelling us.

And number two, we also are all miraculously saved and delivered by Him. When you got saved, when you got saved and just all of a sudden a big body of water show up and then part for you, Is that what happened? Did a big cloud come up? No, it wasn't like that. But our salvation and deliverance was nonetheless something that was a miraculous occurrence. Unless God did miracles, you and I could not be saved.

All the soldiers that were carrying out the crucifixion, with I think an exception of the Centurion who saw differently all the soldiers just thought they were carrying out their crucifixion job and seeing a guy die like they always do That's what they thought but God was performing a miracle that day and in the day since We who believe are united with Christ having a baptism not into Moses, but into Christ, okay baptism into Christ Fourthly Christ is the bread the manna of life.

Christ is the bread of life, and that's what he claims in John chapter 6 and verses 35 and 48. Christ is the bread of life. Just think, after Jesus had miraculously fed the 5,000 along the Sea of Galilee, then he says, I'm the bread of life. Christ is not just some bread of life by some vague symbolism. He is miraculously to our benefit, the bread of life. Here is Christ just in the context of his crossing the Sea of Galilee.

I am the bread of life. I am the bread that came down out of heaven. And number five, Christ our rock is also the living water. He is the rock as they had there in the desert, and he is also the living water. When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well in Samaria, when he was talking to her, he offered living water, right? Living water.

In Revelation 21, 5 and 6, it says this, And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he said, Write, for these words are faithful and true. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

And I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. Without cost means what? It's free. That's grace, right? Absolutely free. You want to buy it? Sorry, you can't. But if you want it, it's all free. All free. There's no paying it back either. The next passage we have in Revelation 22, 17, the very next chapter in Revelation and the final chapter in Revelation. The spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come and let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. Free. Totally by grace. You want to buy it? Nah, can't do that. You want to pay it back? Can't do that either. But if you want it, it's absolutely free. All at God's expense through Christ.

Now, 1 Corinthians 10.5 says God was not pleased with them.

God had offered all these five spiritual advantages to Israel that we just covered earlier here. In brief summary, God was not pleased with most of them. God was not pleased with most of them. Though they did and did not do certain things so as to displease God, the biggest problem was they didn't believe what God had revealed. Got that? They didn't believe what God had revealed. That was the biggest problem. All the other problems flowed from that.

They didn't believe what God had revealed. Israel's failure to walk by faith in the facts, you know that little diagram that we had with spiritual facts. God's failure to walk by faith in what God revealed resulted in their physical death. People died by the thousands because they didn't believe God. Our unbelief pays spiritual death for us as Christians.

The sin nature, Romans 6.23, pays a wage, and that wage is spiritual death.

That doesn't mean you lose your salvation. It means there is a lack of fellowship. You are separated from God in your fellowship, not in your relationship. The relationship continues. The fellowship is moment by moment. Your relationship is your position. Your fellowship is your daily condition. See the difference there? All right. Now, this next slide here is not caving to the craving, and it's a biggie here. The deal is this.

Oh, something I got to tell you. Years ago, I used to eat a lot. And the answer to tell you, I don't eat like that anymore. But back in the day, I was always trying to gain weight for football, and I never got any heavier than you see me right now. But this is what I had for breakfast, because I was caving to the craving.

One dozen eggs, because we had chickens like crazy. We had more eggs than we knew what to do with. And some cheese, because we'd make our own cheese, and we'd just easily cut off a nice slice of that. A loaf of bread. A steak and a pound of bacon, a half gallon of milk at least, because we had gallons and gallons of milk, a half gallon of orange juice or apple juice, and sometimes a bowl of peaches and cream, since we had peaches there on the farm and the cream, right?

So that was breakfast. Anyway, I was caving to the craving. Yes, I admit it. Okay. Now, the craving can be for many things. It's amazing what the human heart can come to crave. People can crave all sorts of things. And you probably noticed that yourself. People can crave not only things to eat, they can crave excitement. You know, I just can't wait for that next adrenaline rush. I was telling on Facebook, what I used to do in my high school days, I would jump off a bridge into a shallow river, you know, and people are like, what? Yeah, but it was exciting, you know, so you can crave all sorts of things, excitement included.

It is not that we deny that we have various feelings. Now notice, it doesn't mean that Christians go around like a Spock. Feelings? What are those? It's not that we deny feelings. We just sit there and suppress everything. We're not to be ignorant there. Or that we just simply ignore and neglect them. That's not the point. We're not to be a Spock.

Everything is to be founded on and measured by what God has revealed. And we put our faith in the facts, we build our feelings on top of faith in the facts. Very important. This principle that we spelled out here, you know, faith in the facts and the feelings are built on top, is a very important one. It is not faith in the feelings, as many Christians have learned either directly or by being absorbed. It is trusting in heart and action what God has revealed, the truth that is biblical faith, faith in God's revealed facts. That is what God's Word spells out.

So, Paul goes through here and profiles four problematic practices. problematic practices. Okay, here they are. Just as Moses recorded the Israelites had their problems with four practices, so did the Corinthians have four similar areas of spiritual and moral hazard. That's the reason for bringing this out. The Israelites had this problem, and by the way, guess what? You guys do too! Let's talk about them, he says.

One of the main reasons that the believers in Corinth had these similar areas of spiritual and moral hazard was because of the activities in the pagan temples. The pagan temples that all of them had grown up with there in Corinth, and some of them, as you can see in the picture, are still there. Those pagan temples had activities that were leading to these problems.

So number one, when the people of Israel played in the presence of the golden calf, it is possible that this also involved sexual immorality, and very likely did. So you can see that in several different passages there. And number two, when the people of Israel joined the Moabites in their religious feasts at Baal Peor, they did join with the Moabites in sexual immorality. It's not just assumption, they certainly did, and it spells it out there. So, idolatry and sexual immorality coupled there. And that was also a problem when people, Christians, would go into these pagan temples. Number three, Israelites fell into almost chronic dissatisfaction.

Grumble, grumble, grumble. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Okay? That was like the sound of 40 years out in the desert. Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. They fell into chronic dissatisfaction with what God had so graciously provided for them. When they were hungry, did they get manna? Yes. When they were thirsty, did they get water? Yes. Did God provide for them all the way along so that they lived through this period of time by God's provision and miraculous provision at that? Yes. Did they like it? No. They did not.

They tested God's patience and counted their judgment of adequacy as quite superior to God's. I am a better judge of what I want and what I need than God is. That was their attitude. And I'll let God know how I think and how I feel. Dissatisfaction is the opposite of thankfulness and contentment in what God has given. How much money do you need? Always a little more. Contentment, what God has provided and given and has determined, is grace and blessing and adequate for each of us.

So here in Colossians 3.15, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. The opposite of discontent. The opposite of discontent.

If I just had that bigger television screen, oh, I really like the ones that, you know, you can plug this into it and plug that into it, and oh, they're so cool. And if I just get that newer one, that one I've got, it just doesn't cut it, you know, and all that. If I just had longer eyelashes, I'd be happy, you know. I won't sleep until I got ripped abs, you know. I just, I got to have it. Until I do, I just won't be happy. Grumbling. Number four.

Moses recorded ten separate instances of grumbling among the Israelites. From the time they left Egypt to the time that they came to the border of the Promised Land. Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, and by the way, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, and grumble. All those instances of grumbling. One instance recorded by Moses, this is Numbers 11, 1-3, says that God's judge judged Israel's grumblers with fire and their lives were taken in the process. That grumbling, that's going to cost you.

Sayonara. Bye-bye. Now, 10-12. But I feel. But I feel. Those who fell into these practices most likely felt justified in their feelings and practices. After all, the feeling was intense, as he did the believers in Corinth and their feelings and practices. The feelings are intense, therefore it must be the right thing to do. I feel so strongly.

No. Having our feelings call the shots in our lives, however intense, and even if we feel that our felt needs are met, is still idolatry, even without a visible idol. See that? Having the feelings called the shots is still idolatry, even without a visible idol. Something else is determining what I do and what I value and how I behave. That's idolatry. even if you don't have something made out of stone or glass or metal or wood or something of that sort. No doubt the Israelites and the Corinthian believers had feelings behind their sins. How can it be wrong if it feels so right?

1 Corinthians 10.13, and boy this is a biggie, no temptation is overtaken you but such now he's not talking about the Israelites here he's talking about them right the Corinthians and he's writing it to us too no temptation is overtaken you but such as is common to man that is these things happen all the time to everybody right and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted now here's something when you get tempted when you get tempted who's doing it A lot of people will just simply say, Satan is doing it. God has allowed this temptation.

See that? He'll not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape so that we'll always get out of trouble, right? No. That's not the way it works. Way of escape also so that you'll be able to endure it. Very important point.

A lot of times Christians will go, Lord, this is really uncomfortable, this hurts, this isn't what I wanted, where do I get out of this thing? And so we want to find out where's the exit. And we go and pray, God, get me out of this thing. I really don't like this situation I'm in. And we are disappointed if God doesn't get us out of that. God, that's what you're supposed to do! You're supposed to get me out of this pain and discomfort and, you know, I'm supposed to just come out like a knight in shining armor all the time, right? And... No. To endure it. To endure it. Not get away from it. Okay?

Observe this verse says about God's character Hebrews 13 5 and what God will not allow and what God will do Okay, when we're going through a temptation God is dealing with he's actually managing that temptation and He's doing things in the midst of that temptation God is active a lot of times people say well, but where's God I? He's right there dealing with all the little details of the temptation that you're going through.

God is faithful. His character. When the Israelites were out in the desert, was God faithful? Yes, He was. When we're going through a temptation, is God faithful? Yes, He is. He will not allow you to be tempted, He will provide. You will be able because of what God did, because He's faithful, because He won't allow things, and because He'll provide. God is able.

Hebrews 13.5, we'll take a look at that shortly here.

So to be able to endure it, not meaning that what God's responsibility is, is to get you out of every tight spot and pain and discomfort. That's not God's job. If that's God's job, He's doing a terrible job! Right? If it's God's job to get you out of every tight spot and make every pain go away, and to keep you from having any trouble at all, He's doing an awful job of it! But that's not His job. Here is the discontent of Hebrews 13, 5. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have.

For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. Both of these are said in the strongest way possible in the Greek language, twice in this verse. Never and nor. Both of them are from a pair of Greek two-letter words. In English we might translate it as, not the slightest chance, not even remotely possible, absolutely not.

It is not even remotely possible that I will desert you. When you're going through things, when you need things, when you lack things, when you want things, through it all God will never, not even remotely possible, desert you. And it is not remotely possible that He will ever forsake you.

Through everything that's going on. Absolutely everything. Everything that he's doing, he's faithful, he is managing that situation. God's not pacing the floor of heaven thinking, what am I going to do? He is there managing and controlling every situation. Contentment comes from knowing God's character and believing Him.

Do you believe that He is with there through everything? He's with you there? Do you believe that He is allowing and providing and faithful through each and everything? Do you believe that He absolutely will not forsake you? He absolutely will not desert you? That's what He wants us to trust Him for through everything.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you are indeed faithful. We thank you that as we encounter things, as we very likely will this week, maybe even today, as we encounter various things that are anywhere from uncomfortable to extremely painful, as we encounter things where our own sufficiencies are just not there, Lord, we know that you can be trusted in all these situations and that you are indeed able and you are faithful. We thank you for that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.