All these things happened unto them for ensamples. They are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come; wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. What the bible is teaching here in this scripture is that the things that happened in the Old Testament, those stories that he alluded to a little bit earlier in the chapter, were examples unto us. The bible says that they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Now, a lot of people will foolishly disregard the Old Testament, not want to talk about the Old Testament, and they'll have this dispensationalists attitude of, "Well, that was written to them. That was written for them. We're in the New Testament. This is written for us." The bible's telling us here in First Corinthians 10 that those things were actually written for us even more so than they were written for them. Now think about it. Who do you think has read those stories more modern day believers in the New Testament or Old Testament saints? There have been more modern day believers than there were Old Testament saints by a long shot. Not only that but the printing press has only been around for many centuries now. It wasn't around back then. They were doing handwritten documents, so more people have been reading these stories in the last several hundred years than ever in the history of mankind.
The Apostle Paul is saying to that church at Corinth of New Testament believers he's saying, "You need to read those stories. You need to understand that those stories are examples for us. They were written for us." God had us in mind when he wrote those stories. The admonitions were for us so that we would not make the same mistakes that those people made back then. A lot of people will come at you with an attitude that says, "Well, things were totally different back then than they are now. You have to understand the culture back then. You have to understand the history because things are just so different today." I mean times have really changed", but yet the bible says that there is no new thing under the sun. The bible says right here in this passage in this exact context in verse 13, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man."
The things that you're going through, the things that I'm going through are the types of things that people have been going through since the beginning of mankind. The things that the children of Israel went through in the book of Numbers are similar to the things that you're going to go through in your life, and that's why we have this example to look back to and say, "Okay, here's what they did that was right. I'm going to follow that good example." "Here's what they did that was wrong. I'm going to avoid following that bad example." That's what the bible is telling us here that it's the same. By the way, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. "I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." God doesn't change. Jesus doesn't change, and let me tell you something human nature doesn't change. Man doesn't change.
The experiences that we go through in life don't change. These stories from the Old Testament are just as relevant today as they were when they were written. In fact, I believe they're more relevant because he's saying here it was written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. As we approach the end of the world, these things become more relevant not less relevant. This idea of throwing out the bible or parts of the bible as old-fashioned is ridiculous because man is man, God is God, and Jesus is Jesus. You say, "Well, but Jesus is a New Testament character."
No, Jesus was throughout the Old Testament. Remember the sermon last Sunday night we saw the Old Testament appearances of Christ? Not only that right here in this passage this is taught once again in Verse 9 when it says, "Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted." The bible says that in the Old Testament in the book of Numbers they were tempting Christ. The bible also says in the book of Hebrews they were tempting the Holy Ghost. It also says they were tempting the Lord. They tempted the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in the book of Numbers. Now let's look at this passage. Let's start in verse number 1. It says, "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And did all eat the same spiritual meat. And did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ."
Now right here in this passage we see that the things that we go through in the New Testament are not that different than what they went through in the Old Testament. Because they had a baptism of sorts, we have baptism. They ate spiritual meat and drank spiritual drink. We eat spiritual meat and drink spiritual drink. They had a church. We have a church. The bible calls this group the church in the wilderness. The pastor was Moses. The bible says that they were in the cloud and in the sea. What's that referring to? That's referring to the cloudy pillar that they followed, which what is a cloud made of? Water vapor, right?
Then they also had the crossing of the Red Sea where they had a wall of water on this side and a wall of water on this side. What the bible is teaching there is that when they crossed that Red Sea, they had water to the sides and above them, both. The bible calls that being baptized unto Moses. That was symbolic of the baptism that we do in the New Testament of dunking someone under water, where they have water on all sides and above and they are dunked under water. The bible says that we're all baptized by one spirit into the body of Christ. The body of Christ is the local church. Just as people today are baptized in the local church in the Old Testament they were baptized unto Moses and the church in the wilderness when they crossed the Red Sea and went out into the wilderness and became that church with the tabernacle of that congregation.
Let's keep reading. It says, "But," in verse 5, "with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness." Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. What was God's intent in writing down the stories about the children of Israel lusting in the wilderness? It was to the intent that we would not lust as they lusted. The bible says in verse number 7, "Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down [inaudible 00:07:27]." What is written there is referring back to the book of Exodus where when [inaudible 00:07:35] getting the Ten Commandments. [Inaudible 00:07:38]. That's when the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. That golden calf is the idolatry that God is rebuking, a molten image of an animal.
He says in Verse 8, "Neither [inaudible 00:08:00] as some of them also tempted and were destroys of serpents." Now, turn back if you would to Numbers chapter number 21. Let's look at a few of these stories because these stories are written for us. They're our admonition. They're an example for the New Testament believer and the New Testament church to learn from and be admonished not to make these same mistakes. The bible says, "Let us not tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents." The bible says in Numbers 21 verse 4, "And they journeyed from Mount Horeb by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom, and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God and against Moses."
Now, first of all, do we sometimes get discouraged as we go through the way of our lives? Of course. The people spake against God and against Moses, "Wherefore have ye brought us out up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness for there's no bread neither is there any water, and our our soul loatheth this light bread." We can see the exact parallels today with this story. We're discouraged, and the wrong thing for us to do when we're discouraged is to start blaming God or blame the pastor or blame another authority in our life, blame your parents or blame your husband or blame the boss, whatever. The bible is talking about here that the people are complaining and murmuring. Now, it says that they're claiming that they have no bread. Halfway through verse 5 they said, "There is no bread." Then look what it says at the end, "Our soul loatheth this light bread." They're saying that they have no bread, but they really do have bread. It's just light bread. "Well, it's not the bread that I wanted to eat."
Now, look is this something that people are guilty of in today's world? Do you have kids? Right. "Oh, I'm not hungry. I'm not hungry." You put a nutritious good meal in front of them. They're not hungry. They don't want to eat it. Then all of a sudden, "Oh, [inaudible 00:10:17]." "I'm not hungry for that." That little phrase at the end "for that." "Well, I'm not just not hungry for that." Because you're like, "Well, I thought you're not hungry. Why would you want ice cream? You said you're full. You said you can't finish your dinner." "Yes, but I'm just not hungry for dinner. I'm hungry for ice cream."
Look even adults can be like this too though. Spoiled brats who are not happy with what God has given them, with what they're parents have given them, with what their husband provides them perhaps as wives or whatever the case may be and just complaining and whining when God is only obligated to give us our daily bread. He didn't say give us that is day our daily filet mignon . Now, that'd be great. Give us our daily you surf and turf. Give us our [inaudible 00:11:15].
Verse number 14, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness ..." That's a reference back to Numbers chapter 21. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life." Right there the bible tells us what that serpent on the pole symbolized when they just had to look. By the way, God said, "Look to me all ye nations and be saved", something along those lines in Isaiah, "Look to me and be saved."
It's not hard to be saved. I mean was it hard for these people to be saved? I mean did they have to do a lot of works to be saved? No. Obviously, it was a physical salvation from a physical snakebite. All they had to do was just look to that serpent on the pole, and just by looking at it they would be saved. The bible says that, "Jesus was lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life." If we would just believe on him, look to Jesus and be saved is what the bible's teaching.
Now you say why in the world would Jesus be represented by a serpent on a pole? You're thinking to yourself the serpent that's like the devil. Why would Jesus be represented by a serpent? Here's what you have to understand. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we should be made the righteousness of God in him. You see, Jesus Christ was the perfect, sinless, spotless lamb of God. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet, without sin. When he was lifted up, the bible says, "He became sin for us." The bible says, "Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree." Think about it. He became sin for us. When Jesus was on that cross, he became sin. Wouldn't a serpent be a good symbolism of sin? That's why that serpent was lifted up because he became sin for us that we might be made the righteous of God in him. Now this brazen image, this molten image of a serpent that was put up on a pole, represents sin because normally a molten image is sin.
Normally a serpent would represent that which is evil and satanic, but that's why that symbol was chosen. Now, this serpent on the pole was to be lifted up one time as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the children of Israel did that was wrong. They saved it. Some people even worshiped it. Now, that was wrong. God had no intent of them worshiping it as an idol. It's a bad symbol. A righteous king, I believe it was Jehoshaphat, came along and he destroyed the pole. He said [inaudible 00:14:13] because you guys have saved this thing. God didn't tell you to save it and worship it and everything. He called it Nehushtan. He destroyed it and got rid of it. God was praising him for doing that in the story that we read in II Chronicles. That's what this story is teaching us. There's a lot of symbolism of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation. Primarily it's to teach us not to lust as they were lusting.
Now, notice what it said, you don't have to turn back there, turn if you would to Numbers 11. In First Corinthians 10 that even pointed us to Numbers in the first place said, "Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted", watch this, "and were destroyed of serpents." Now why were the people destroyed of serpents? The bible's teaching us that sin will destroy you, and that's what those serpents represented. They were destroyed of their sins. They were destroyed of their lust. They were destroyed of their covetousness. Then the next verse says, "Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer."
Now look at Numbers 11 verse 1, more about the murmuring, it says in verse 1, "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord." What's lesson for that today? That when we complain, it displeases the Lord. That's what the bible's teaching us. The Lord heard it. God still hears it today. His anger was kindled. God still is going to be kindled about it today. The bible says that, "The fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the utter most parts of the camp." Now, here's where people will get consumed, confused. Yes, they get consumed all right. This is where people get consumed. No, this is where people get confused because here's what you'll hear people say when you show them this story, when you show them other examples in the bibles, they'll say this, "Well, I don't see God doing that today." Isn't that what they'll say?
You'll show them all these things that are clearly examples, and they'll say, "Well, I don't see God sending fiery serpents today. I don't see God raining fire on these people today and burning those that are on the outside of the camp. I don't see these judgments today." What they're missing is the fact that God gave us these particular instances as an example. He doesn't do it every time somebody complains they get burned up, but what he did was burned up one person and said, "Look let me make an example here just so you can see how I feel about this sin and what the repercussions of sin are. Here you go. Here's an example." Now here's the thing people are being burned up everyday in a place called Hell.
It's not that God has changed. People will say, "Well, God changed. He burned people up back then." People are burning right now. It's not God has changed because here's the thing God didn't burn every person in the Old Testament who complained either. There're all kinds of people in the Old Testament who complained and didn't get burned up. All kinds of people in the Old Testament who committed fornication and didn't get killed. All kinds of people who tempted the Lord and did not get a fiery serpent biting them. These are examples. I think people misunderstand the concept of what it means to make an example. You do it one time perhaps and just say this is the show you the seriousness I'm going to make an example.
Now, all throughout the bible we'll see this concept. In the New Testament, for example, this word "example" is used a lot about Sodom and Gomorrah both in II Peter chapter 2 and in Jude. He uses the word "example" in both places. He says, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Now, when you hear the term "eternal fire", what does make you think of?
Audience: Hell.
Speaker 1: It makes you think of Hell. What God's saying is that he literally rained Hell fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah. They suffered the vengeance of eternal fire, which was symbolic or an example of Hell because of the fact that Hell is eternal fire. Not only that it was just to show how much he hated that sin and how wicked it was and his anger and wrath that was kindled toward Sodom and Gomorrah. It was also an example of how God knows how to deliver the just because remember he pulled Lot out of the city and how God will deliver us and so forth. There're all kinds of examples there.
God doesn't rain fire and brimstone on every city that is given over to sodomy. God does not kill every person who complains, but God has not changed in his attitude toward these sins. God's anger has not change because the bible says, "God is angry with the wicked every day." A lot of people miss the concept of what it means to be an example. Let's keep reading in Numbers 11 here. It says, "And the people cried onto Moses. When Moses prayed onto the Lord, the fire was quenched. He called the name of the place Taberah because the fire of the Lord burned among them. The mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. The children of Israel also wept again and said, 'Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. Now, our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes.'"
"The manna was as coriander seed. The color, thereof, is the color of bdellium. The people went about and gathered and ground it in mills or beat it into mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it. The taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. Then Moses heard the people weep through their families, every man in the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. Moses also was displeased." Why? They were complaining about having to eat the same food over and over again even though they should just be happy that God's providing them with their needs. That's what God's teaching us today in the New Testament from this story.
Notice the term that's used over and over about God's anger it's "kindled". The fire where God sent literal fire is a picture of his [inaudible 00:20:46] ... who commits fornication. Why does God not send fiery serpents among every person who lusts? Well, part of the reason for that is because God does not show himself supernaturally in this world on a daily basis because he wants people to believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. God wants us to believe in him by faith. If we were just constantly seeing all these proofs of his existence, if he were just constantly speaking from the Heavens, constantly sending fiery serpents, constantly slaying everyone who does these grievous sins, then there would be no need for faith.
What God does and says he just makes some examples, puts them in the bible, and shows us, "Look this is how I feel about these sins. This is what kindles my anger. This is what displeases me. If you do wrong, you'll be punished." Most of the time he uses Earthly circumstances to punish us. He'll send not supernatural but that which is natural to punish us. He did these dramatic supernatural judgments to make an example for us that would be more vivid and easy for us to see and understand. You see, Ananias and Sapphira were ones who lied to the Holy Ghost in Acts chapter 5.
If you remember in the New Testament in Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira they sold piece of land. They claimed that they were going to give the whole price to God. They said, "We're going to sell our land and give it all to the church." Now, other people had done that. They were trying to keep up with the Joneses. People had sold land and given the money to the church. They said, "We're going to sell all this land, and we're going to give all the money to the church." Here's what they did. They kept back part of the price. Now, when Peter rebuked them, he made it clear that they didn't have to give any of the money. Nobody's telling you you have to sell your land and give it to the church. He said it was in your own power. You could've done whatever wanted with it.
It was the fact that they had lied to the Holy Ghost and lied to the church to try to get glory of men by saying, "We're giving everything", and they lied. They kept back part of the price. God struck Ananias dead for doing that. Then when Sapphira, his wife, comes in, he says to her, "Ye did you sell the land for so much?" "Yes, for so much." He said, "You're going to die to." She falls over dead. Why? An example. He doesn't kill everybody who lies like that. He doesn't kill every hypocrite and every phony. He killed Ananias and Sapphira to make an example. The bible says that everyone who heard that great fear fell upon them. People thought twice about selling land and coming in lying about it and trying to get the glory. The bible talks about that our giving should not be something that we do to be seen of men, to glory of men. That's what the pharisees and the hypocrites do when they sound a trumpet when they give. They want to get all the accolades and the glory. Those are an example.
Another interesting point is when you think about the story of Onan that I preached about a few weeks ago in Genesis 38. That story is another story where God personally killed someone. The bible says what Onan did displeased the Lord; wherefore, God slew him also. What's funny is when people try to explain away that story, it ceases to become an example onto us today that loses the intent for which God gave that story. I've shown somebody that story of Onan before and here's what they said, because they were participating in that which Onan did Genesis 38 ... They were doing exactly what Onan did. This is what they said, "Well, God hasn't killed me so far, so he must be okay with me doing that."
Now think about that logic. Well, God hasn't killed me yet, so it must be okay. This is the foolishness of not understanding that God gave us these things as an example onto us. People say this, "Experience is the best teacher." Have you heard that saying? Let me give you a better saying, "Someone else's experience is the best teacher." We shouldn't have to go through it all ourselves before we apply it to ourselves. We don't want to apply the story of the children of Israel to us. Because when we complain about our food and when we refuse to eat our breakfast, lunch, or dinner or when we whine and grumble that we're not eating oysters and clams and steaks and lobster, that's different. The proof is that there's no fiery serpent in my bed at night. That's the proof. Do you see how foolish that is?
In fact, if you really read the story about the children of Israel ... I think most people today if they read and understood the story about the children of Israel, they'd say, "What's the big deal? Why is God mad because I would do the exact same thing?" I mean if you had to eat Cornflakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 40 years, you'd be complaining too. You know what it'd still be wrong. Just like it was wrong for them, it'd be wrong for you. We are sitting there and justifying our own sins because of the fact that God hasn't clouded up and rained on us yet. By the time God clouds up and rains on you sometimes it's too late. When you're dead, it's to late. When God irreparably destroys your life, it's too late. It's better to learn from the example.
God said, "Look you don't have to be killed. You don't have to be eaten of fiery serpents. You don't have to be destroyed of the destroyer. All you have to do is just read the example I gave you and then just learn from someone else's error and don't do it." Don't make the same mistake that they made. A lot of times God's judgment is slow and coming, but it comes. This attitude of, "Well, I haven't been punish the yet", keep on going, is a very foolish attitude. If you have been committing sin and have not been punished for it to this point, remember whom the Lord loved he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Look the smart thing to do would be before the punishment comes go to God and get on your knees and say, "God, I've done wrong. I'm sorry. I'm going to get it right." That way God will be merciful.
Because think about it, what if my children were guilty of something and I knew about it? I'm going to come down on them, and they came to me first and confessed it to me first before I confronted them about it. They came and confessed it to me first and said, "Listen, dad, I'm sorry I've done this. It was completely my fault. I've done wrong." You're going to be way more merciful. By the way, when you get an apology from someone before you ask for it, it's worth more than after you asked for it. When you come to somebody, "Hey, you need to apologize to me", sorry that's not worth as much as when they come to you, do anybody agree with me, where they come to you and say, "You know what I'm sorry. That was wrong. I shouldn't have done that."
That's how we need to be with God, but not only that notice in all three of the stories that we looked at there you notice that they apologized to God and they apologized to the person that they did wrong. They apologized to both. They went to God and to Moses, whoever they had wronged that's who they were grumbling to and complaining. For you that could be your parents or that could be your spouse or that could be someone at work or that could be a friend or whoever the case may be that is the Moses that you've grumbled at or complained at or murmured at or whatever the case may be. We need to be smart enough to learn from the experiences of other people that God has given us.
God did us a great favor by writing these thing. He knows that you're going to say my situations different. That's why right after giving you a bunch of examples from the book of Numbers, from chapter 11, chapter 21, chapter 25, he gave you some stuff from Exodus, and then he says, "Look there's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man." You're not doing anything new in your life. Is there anything whereof it may be said this is new? Behold it hath been already of them which were before us. It's been done. There's nothing new under the sun. Don't sit there, "Well, my situations unique", bologna. There's a biblical example. There's a biblical teaching to guide you and to govern you in your life today in 2015 just as much as it was back then. It's even more relevant upon us, upon whom the ends of the world are come the bible says.
Look let me just make this real simple. God was thinking about us and the day we live in when he wrote the bible. Think about that. It says, "These things were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come." God's saying, "You know what I'm going to write this for the admonition of those upon whom the ends to the world are come", and that would include us. He said I'm going to write this for the members of Faithful Word Baptist Church, so that they'll know how to live their lives. They'll know without me having to just the same day sin sending the judgment. They're already going to know that it kindles my anger. They're already going to know that I don't like it. They're already going to know what they should and shouldn't be doing. I'm going to write the book of Numbers for them to read.
That's why we need to read the book of Numbers in 2015. You say it's too boring. Read it in 2015, the book of Numbers cover to cover the whole thing, that's what God wants you to do. Well, there's too many numbers in there. I'm not into math. You don't have to do any calculations. Just read it God does all the calculations for you. He lists all the component numbers, and then he says the total number is this. He gives you the answer just read it. Don't skip anything. Well, I'm going to skip it. It's a list of names. Sometimes in that list of names there will be a nugget of truth or admonition in that list just mixed in. God puts that hidden manna there for those who will seek after the truth, and they will find it.
God wrote these things for our admonition. When you Look for example, at that story about Onan where basically he did not want to give seed onto his brother's wife, so he spilled it on the ground. If that's written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come ... Because God took a substantial portion of scripture there, he took quite a chunk of a chapter there, and tells us that story about killing one guy. Again, it's not often that God is killing one guy. We need to find a way that could admonish us today. You know what I don't think that God wrote that story and put that much emphasis on it and gave us many verses on it and a nice chunk there just so that we could know that we're supposed to raise up seed to our brother's wife when our brother dies because that is such a rare situation that it's not even ...
I mean Onan's exact situation is so rare it wouldn't be much of an example. I mean it's just an extremely rare situation that a guy is going to marry a woman, and then he's going to die. Then his brother's going to marry her. Then he's going to spill it on the ground. Then he's going to die. Then the next brother is supposed to be given to her, and he's given to somebody else. No, actually God's giving us a real clear admonition there that when you marry a woman, you don't spill it on the ground. You actually should have kids. That would make more sense to look at it that way and say God's giving us an example here that says God wants us to be joined onto our wife. He wants us to be fruitful and multiply like he told us twenty different times to do.
He doesn't want us to just go in and just commit that act with our wife and then use birth control. I believe that the example of Genesis 38 is telling us don't use birth control that would make more sense because it's the only example in the whole bible where somebody used birth control, the only example. Show me another one. It's the only time. God killed the guy. That's an example for us today to say, "Hey, wait a minute. God doesn't like people refusing to procreate." A lot of people will twist what I'm saying right now and claim that I'm teaching all these things that I'm not teaching. I'm just teaching that God wants us when we're married to procreate. That we should not be using birth control. We should trust in the Lord and do it the normal way and have kids.
People will say, "You're teaching that it's only for procreation." That's not what I said. If that physical act within marriage were only for procreation, my wife and I wouldn't be doing it very often because it's like, "She's pregnant again. No more for the next nine months. She's infertile while she's on the lactation amenorrhea." I guess my wife and I have only done it eight times. No, my wife and I have done it thousands of times, and only eight of those produced a child that's here today. The bottom line is that I'm not teaching any of that. The bible teaches that we're supposed to be fruitful and multiply about twenty times. The bible teaches that a guy who went in onto his wife and purposely said, "I don't want to have a child with this women", and did something to stop doing it was killed that is an example that we can connect with in 2015 because it's something that people do every day all the time. It's what the world will teach you to do. They'll teach you to be an Onan. Then the story makes more sense.
What is God telling us in the story of Ananias and Sapphira? Again, what am I trying to show you here? You can't just think I'm going to go with the exact situation of Onan. Next time I'm in a situation where my brother's wife dies and I marry my brother's wife after he's dead, I'm going to be sure not to spill it on the ground. I mean that's just stupid. That'd be the same logic of saying, "Okay. Well, next time I'm wondering in the wilderness for forty-years and God's raining manna from Heaven, I'm not going to complain about it." I mean wouldn't that be dumb if you just try to make it the exact situation. If God ever feeds me with manna, I'm going to like it that's not what he's teaching. Well, you know what if I'm ever told to hit a rock once, I'm never going to hit it twice. I mean is that what God's teaching. No.
If I ever sell a giant piece of land and decide I'm going to give the whole thing to God, I'm going to give the whole to God, or I'm going to admit that I only gave part of it to God. I mean is that the only application you're drawing from these stories? No, makes a lot more sense to get the overarching principle. What's the overarching principle on the Onan story? Don't be selfish. Don't use birth control. Those are things that are just universal principles. What's the overarching story or the overarching principle in the stories that have to do with the children of Israel and Egypt? Don't complain. Don't complain especially about your food. That sometimes in life you have to eat the same food over and over again.
Look I didn't complain when I had to eat Chipotle every day for years and years when I was on the road all the time traveling. That's cause Chipotle's awesome. Sometimes I got a little burned out. I'd go to Chipotle and I was just like I don't know if I can do another burrito, and then I was like the crunchy tacos it's totally different. It's a totally different meal. Then that got me through. We need to apply this to our life in a way that's real to us. You say, "Well, that's not what it was intended." That's exactly what was intended. These stories were intended to be applied to today and to be applied onto our situation not to just be kept, "Well, that was just for Corinth. That's just for the children of Israel. That was just for them." No, they were written for us, upon whom the ends of the world are come, that's who it was written for.
We need to stop and understand God doesn't ... I hope every child is listening because children are the ones who complain about their food the most, aren't they? You listen up children, young kids listen to me, God's angry was kindled when people complain about their food and when they complained about having to eat the same thing repeatedly. I don't know what the menu is like in your house, but whatever it is you need to stop complaining about it. Your parents work hard. They love you. They're putting nutritious food in front of you. I know you wish that you could have sugary cereals and hot dogs and cheese burgers at every meal. You need to broaden your palate a little bit and eat what they give you.
The bible says, "Even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether it be right." Even God is looking down upon children and expects children to obey the Lord and expects children to do right. He says, "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the Earth." God is saying your life will be cut short. You'll be punished. It will not go well for you if you do not obey your parents and honor your parents. You say, "Well, I'm eighteen now." If you're still living at home, you obey your parents, period. When you get married and establish a family of your own is when you can start being the boss. When you're living at home with your parents, you obey your parents. Well, I'm thirteen. I'm fifteen. I'm eighteen. I'm twenty-one. That means nothing. You're under authority. If you're living in their home, they're the boss.
We need to apply these teachings to ourselves today. Turn if you would in your bible to James chapter 5, James chapter number 5, James chapter 5. We can see how people are rejecting huge portions of the Old Testament and neglecting huge portions of the Old Testament by making a few mistakes. These are the mistakes that they're making. First Corinthian's 10 corrects all of it. Here are the mistakes they're making saying, "Well, God was different back then." No, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. They'll say, "Well, Jesus is different than God." No, that's a lie. Jesus is God. The bible says that Christ was with them in the wilderness. The rock that followed them, the rock that they drank from, that rock was Christ. Who believes that rock was Christ?
Well, then look Jesus was right there with them. You think Jesus was saying, "No, Father. Don't send the fiery serpents"? He sent the fiery serpents. Okay. What we see is that these mistakes people are making [inaudible 00:40:19] biblical interpretation. That specific [inaudible 00:40:22]. I'm going to kill this guy one time, Onan. I'm going to kill the children of Israel one time. I'm going to kill Ananias and Sapphira one time as an example to save you from being killed, and to save you from having to go through the same thing, you can learn from someone else's mistake.
Look at James's chapter 5 verse 10 it says, "Take my brethren the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example." [Inaudible 00:41:00]. "Well, that's out neat story. That's an interesting story. Wow, God really tore that guy up", turn the page. No, you should think about it as, "Wow, what can I do so that I don't get all tore up look this guy got all tore up?" We shouldn't just sit there and just look at it as a theoretical long, long ago, in a far, far away place, in a totally different dispensation and just have this disjointed ... No, it's today. That's how we need to read Genesis. That's how we need to read Exodus. That's how we need ... Look every page has an application for us today, every single page all of it. You say how can I apply ...
What about when I'm reading all these sacrifices how do I apply that? Because all those sacrifices picture Christ. When it talks about the sacrifices, he'll talk about, for example, sinning through ignorance or sinning presumptuously. You can apply that to your life and say there's a difference when I'm sinning ignorantly, and when I know it's wrong and I go out and do it anyway, God's even more angry. Every page has important teachings. Leviticus 1, Leviticus 2, Leviticus 3, Leviticus 4 it's all there for us to help us, to teach us. What do I learn from the story about Adam and Eve? Lot's of things to learn from the story of Adam. I mean it's all so relevant.
I want you to let this sermon this morning sink into your ears, so that when you read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, you're asking yourself all the time, "What is God telling us upon whom the ends to the world are come? What does God want me to take from this story in 2015?" You say, "Well, I disagree with your interpretation." Fine, get your own interpretation, but you know what you better apply it to today. Don't give me this dispensational garbage. You know what they're doing just rejecting the word of God for their tradition. Their little tradition of dispensational theology that's their tradition. Then they make void the word of God by saying different dispensation, different dispensation, bock, different dispensation, bock, bock, different dispensation, bock just repeating that over and over again. When in reality it all for us.
Look if the book of Numbers is for us, everything's for us. I mean if you're going to say one thing doesn't apply, you'd say the first 5 books the law, not under the law, twisting and misinterpreting that. Paul said, "No book of Numbers was written for you. Exodus was written for you." What about all these laws about if I don't keep my ox in it's crib and it goes out and gores a man to death, I don't have an ox. You have a crib. You don't have an ox. It's like how does that apply to me? You know what there are applications to that today because some people have a vicious dog. It could be applicable there. Somebody could have something else whereby they might hurt somebody, a car, whatever, vehicle manslaughter. There are just a lot of ways that you could apply it because the principles always ring true and that's what God's trying to tell us.
God said in James 5, "Take the positive example of men of God of the Old Testament be like them." He didn't say don't be like those guys. Those guys were some bad dudes. In the New Testament that's not going to work. Is that what he said? No. Learn from these guys. Follow their example. He says in Hebrews 13:7, "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken onto you the word of God, whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines." What's he saying here? Don't be carried along with the trendy new doctrine because Jesus is always the same.
He says, "People that have spoken to you the word of God", is similar to what he said in James 5, "The prophets who've spoken in the name of the Lord." Notice what he says at the end of the verse in Hebrews 13 he says at the end of verse 7, "Considering the end of their conversation", what's he mean there? He's saying look at the prophets of the Old Testament and notice how they end up. How do they end? What's the end? He's even saying look at the preachers of your day who've preached onto you and look at how they end. Look at the end of their conversation. What is the end? What does that mean? God's saying if you see people who faithfully serve me and they ended up in a good place ... He's saying if you faithfully serve me, you're going to end up in a good place.
If they were blessed, you're going to be blessed. Why? Because God's not a respecter of persons. If these people complained and God was angry, that means if you complain God's going to be angry. If these people patiently endured and God blessed their later end, that means if you patiently endure your later end shall be blessed because Jesus Christ is the same. It really will bring the bible alive to you when you realize this stuff is all relevant. One of the big buzz words of churches today when they're advertising their churches is relevant. Have you noticed this? If we were to flip open a Yellow Pages right now and just look at all the ads for churches, we would see over and over again relevant, relevant, relevant. It's the buzz word relevant preaching, relevant bible teaching. We're keeping it relevant.
You know what they mean by that, what they're implying, that something in this book's not relevant. Because why don't they just say bible preaching? Because they're not going to preach the whole bible. They're only going to preach that which is relevant according to them in their mind. They don't think that a lot of this stuff's relevant. I'm going to preach what's relevant to you, bro. I'm going to teach you what effects your daily life right now, man. We're not going to get bogged down in all this theology all this Old Testament and the wrath of God, fire and brimstone preaching. Man, I'm going to bring it where you live. I'm going to make it relevant to you. That's what they're doing today picking and choosing the parts of the bible that they think are relevant when the bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine.
You know what they need to get rid of relevant and replace it with profitable. Instead of relevant bible preaching, profitable bible preaching. What does that mean, Pastor Anderson? That they'll preach every word of the bible. What is irrelevant to this? I don't get it. I remember I told a fellow pastor, when I first started the church we were chatting, and this guy was a successful pastor that had a church, an independent fundamental Baptist church with hundreds of people in it. He's a good guy. He was a successful pastor. He was asking me what I've been preaching. I said here's what I'm preaching on Sundays. Then I said on Wednesdays I'm going through a different book of the bible and just go one chapter a week on Wednesdays, just one chapter a week just preaching through the whole bible, one chapter per week.
He told me he said, "Yes, I don't think that's a good idea." I'm like, "Why not?" He said, "Well, you're going to end up spending a lot of time on stuff that's not important." Now, if I'm preaching one chapter per week, so in twenty-three and a half years on Wednesday nights I'll have preached one sermon on each chapter of the bible 1189 chapters, he said I'm going to spend a bunch of time on stuff that's not important. It makes you think that maybe God wrote a bunch of stuff that wasn't important. If I'm spending one week per chapter in the book that God wrote, it's like he's almost saying you're going to end up spending a lot of time on stuff that's not important.
You know why I like Wednesday nights? Because it gets me the preach things that I never would've preached. If I were just picking the sermon ... Because on Sundays I just pick the sermon. On Sundays I just decide what do I want to preach on. I just pick the sermon. There's no rhyme or reason to it. I just pick what I want to preach. I hope that God's leading me and that the Holy Spirit's guiding me as I pick. In all thy ways acknowledge him. He shall direct thy paths. I just pick sermons. You know what on Wednesday nights I don't really get to pick because on Wednesday nights I come to a chapter and that's the topic. There have been many times that I preached a sermon on Wednesday night and thought to myself I never would've chosen this sermon. I never would've preached this. I never would've done ...
You know what that's good because it's getting me to preach the whole counsel of God whether I want to or not. A lot of people preachers they get stuck on their certain pet issues. I have to be careful of this. I really try to preach a balance and not just every sermons about the same thing, same thing, same thing try to get variety. The Wednesday night forces you to get into stuff that never would've thought of. You never would've preached on. A pastor said you're going to end of focusing on stuff that's not important. Maybe you are wrong about what's important you know what I mean. Who decides what's important? Look everything in the bible's important. There's not a chapter in this book that's unimportant.
I believe that it's a little bit blasphemous to say that but there is. Like you're setting yourself over the judge, "Hang on, hang on, let me decide what's important real quick. I'm going to decide what's important about this book." No, shut up and take the book that God gave you and preach the whole thing. Who do you think you are deciding what's important? I mean there are pastors today who decide which parts are appropriate and which ones aren't, "I think this parts a little bit graphic. This is a little too violent. That's a bad word." Okay. Thanks, Tipper Gore. I don't need your help deciding. What are you going to put a parental advisory on the bible: Warning graphic language. Warning strong language. Parental discretion is advised.
Look I go to the bible and say let's figure out what's appropriate. God's saying that. That must be appropriate to say. God's not saying that. I'd better not say it either. God's not going into detail about this. Well, maybe I shouldn't either. God's using a euphemism. Well, so will I. God's using strong language, so will I. That's what it should be. God chooses to leave that part out. I'll leave that part out too. Instead of going to the bible and trying to make the bible conform to us, we need to conform to the bible. Please let this sink into your ears as you read your scriptures this year from cover to cover, and you need to decide to do that, that you will take every verse and every chapter and every page and read the bible thinking about your own life not just applying it to someone else in a far away place. Apply it to you and find an example that you can take from it.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you for the positive examples, Lord. Great men and women, Lord, there're a lot of examples for ladies in the bible of really strong female characters in the bible the Sarah's, the Rebecca's, the Ruth's, the Ester's, a lot great examples for women, the Deborah and Miriam, different ladies that they can learn from, Lord. Help us to learn from the men in the bible. Help us to learn from children in the bible. Also, Lord, help us to watch out for those bad examples, and there're plenty of them. Help us not to wait till you chastise us, but help us to preemptively go to you and say that we're sorry when we've done wrong before the punishment comes. In Jesus name we pray amen.
