1 Corinthians
How to Water-Down Your Faith and Experience the Wrath of God
1 Corinthians 10
April 27, 2003
Intro:
A. [Withholding Life-Saving Truth, source: USA Today (8-28-01)]
In August of 2001, a Kansas City pharmacist was charged with diluting cancer treatment drugs, Gemzar and Taxol, in order to make a larger profit.
USA Today reported that there had been 20 felony counts against the pharmacist, Robert Courtney.
He admitted to diluting the drugs during a period of time spanning from November 2000 to March 2001.
This man held life-saving power in his hands and for the sake of personal gain diluted it to the point where it could not help people.
We can do the same with God’s life-saving truth.
B. Today, I want to tell you four different ways you can water-down your Christianity and experience the wrath of God; first…
I. Be ignorant of history
1 Corinthians 10:1-12 (NIV), For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry." 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did--and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did--and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel. 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
A. People who believed in God were destroyed.
1. It may sound hard to believe by our so-called enlightened minds of the 21st century, but it is true.
2. God destroyed people who claimed to believe in Him.
3. There are many in our day and age that have a difficult time believing that God would destroy people who don’t believe in Him.
4. There are those today that don’t understand that although God is a loving God, He is also a God of wrath.
5. And the reason that they don’t understand the wrath side of God is simple: they are ignorant of history.
6. People who are ignorant of history have a very difficult time understanding that God destroys some people—even people who claim to be believers when they are disobedient.
B. Their stories were documented in order to be examples to us.
1. God intended that we know and understand these stories.
2. God intended that we know and understand history.
3. God intended that we know and learn from history.
C. But if you want to water-down your Christianity and experience the wrath of God, then be ignorant of history.
1. Many historians say that those who don’t know history are bound to repeat the mistakes of history.
a. Sounds a little silly.
b. Most parents teach their children to learn from their mistakes, so they don’t make them again.
c. We teach our children to do such, but yet as adults we forget it.
2. America seems to be bound and determined to make some drastic mistakes.
a. America seems determined to make some huge mistakes that she has never made before, because we seem to want to ignore our own history.
b. The historians are re-writing the history books to take out the Christian beliefs of our pilgrim forefathers.
c. They seem to want to ignore the facts of why they came to America in the first place.
d. They want to ignore the facts about the pilgrims wanting religious freedoms.
e. They want to ignore the facts about the pilgrims being devout Christians.
f. Therefore our Supreme Court has come up with this separation of Church and State myth and people believe it.
g. Since no one seems to know the truth about what the pilgrims believed anymore, we can be lied to about the forefathers wanting a separation of Church and State and so we believe them.
h. Since we don’t know our own history we can very easily be lied to.
i. And since we have swallowed this myth about separation, God and the Bible have been removed from the public sector.
j. And since God and the Bible have been removed, homosexuality is rampant, divorce is predominate, teen-age pregnancies are skyrocketing, sexually transmitted disease are at epidemic stages, murders are at an all time high, violence is ever increasing.
k. And all of this is a direct result of being ignorant of history.
D. More evidence still is the fact that no one seems to remember the Roman Empire or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
1. No empire ever destroyed the Roman Empire; it was destroyed by its own immorality.
2. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their immorality.
3. And no one seems to care a bit.
4. We seem to want to be ignorant of history and are therefore doomed to repeat the same mistakes.
5. We are like children who refuse to learn and keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
6. Gary Bauer once wrote that, “No culture in the history of the world has ever cut the ties of sexual restraint and devalued marriage and family and survived.”
7. Will we learn from history or will we be ignorant of it?
8. America seems to want to water-down Christianity by being ignorant of history.
E. Paul warns Christians about being ignorant of history.
1. Paul tells us to not allow our Christianity to be watered-down by being ignorant of history.
a. “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us.”
b. Christians should be history scholars.
c. Christians should be scholars of history in order to live Godly lives.
d. You see we are to learn from history in order to strengthen our beliefs.
e. The reason many people never mature as Christians is because they are ignorant of history.
f. And Paul warns that when Christians are ignorant of the stories of history, we too will experience the wrath of God just as others before us have.
g. “For I do not want you to be ignorant…brothers.”
h. These things are written in the Bible for us to know and learn from.
2. Christians should know and learn from history.
3. Christians should learn from the examples that are documented for us—especially in God’s Word.
4. Christians should first and foremost know and learn from the history documented in the Bible.
F. So if you want to water-down your Christianity and experience the wrath of God is to be ignorant of history; another way to water-down your Christianity is to…
II. Rationalize your behavior
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV), No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
A. Today the norm is to make excuses for your behavior.
1. No one seems to be blame-able for anything.
2. If something is wrong, it must be someone else’s fault.
3. “I would never do anything wrong.”
4. “How dare you accuse me of anything, I’m a good person.”
5. “If I broke something, there is a very good reason for why I did.”
6. “If I broke something, it wasn’t wrong for me to do that because of something that happened to me in the past.”
7. “If I did something wrong, there is a perfectly good reason why I did it.”
8. That seems to be the attitude of our country.
9. We want to dilute ourselves into thinking that we are good people.
10. We seem to forget the fact that there was only one good person who ever lived.
11. Making excuses for our behavior seems to be the national past time.
12. Folks don’t seem to want to own up to their mistakes.
13. Folks don’t seem to want to learn from their mistakes, they just want to justify them.
B. But Paul offers a totally different viewpoint.
1. In only one verse, Paul makes it perfectly clear that there are no excuses for behavior.
2. There is no justification for sin.
C. Now we do need to understand a distinction here.
1. Temptation is not sin.
2. Sin is when you act upon the temptation.
3. The thought popping into your head is not a sin.
4. The thought popping into your head is a temptation that is put there by Satan.
5. The question is will you be able to withstand the temptation or will you act upon it?
6. The trend today is to act upon, it and then rationalize your behavior.
D. But Paul makes three revolutionary statements about sin.
1. The first is: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.”
a. There is nothing that you have ever been tempted by that someone else hasn’t been tempted by.
b. There are people that will say things like, “No one has ever had to go through what I have to go through.”
c. “And since no one has ever gone through what I had to go through, then you can see why I did what I did.”
d. “And it surely can’t be considered wrong considering all that I’ve been through.”
e. But Paul makes a revolutionary statement that clearly makes that line of thinking incorrect: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.”
f. There are no new sins.
g. All sins that are in existence today were in existence when Jesus was alive, in fact when King Solomon was alive.
h. Solomon said, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9)
i. Solomon was right when he said that there is nothing new under the sun.
j. Sin today is the same sin that was yesterday.
k. Sins then were jealousy, fits of rage, drunkenness, greed, adultery, drunkenness—and they’re still the same today—there are no new sins today.
m. Hebrews 4:15 speaks of Jesus being our high priest when it says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.”
n. Jesus has been tempted in every way—yet He was without sin.
o. And since Jesus has been tempted in every way, He certainly knows what you’re going through; He sympathizes with our weaknesses.
p. But He also knows the way of escape from temptation because he remained sinless, which relates to the third revolutionary statement that Paul made.
q. So when Satan whispers in your ear and tells you that no one else has ever faced this temptation, you know it is a lie designed to make you forget that Christ HAS been through it and WILL help you through it!
r. The first revolutionary statement is: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.”
2. The second revolutionary statement is: “God…will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.”
a. There are so many people who give into temptation and then try to rationalize it away by saying that the pressure was so overwhelming that no one could have said, ‘no.’”
b. “There was just so much pressure that was put upon me that it just got to the point to where I had to give in.”
c. “I think I said ‘no’ a lot longer than most people would have.”
d. But Paul steps in and says, “God…will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.”
e. Paul says that even though you may think there was tremendous pressure upon you, God knew that you could withstand it.
f. God did not allow more pressure to be placed upon you than you could withstand, which leads right up to Paul’s third revolutionary statement…
3. God “provide(s) a way out” when you are tempted.
a. Not only have many others before you been tempted like this, not only does God not allow more than you can handle, but God always provides a way out when you are tempted.
b. God always provides a way of escape.
c. When you are tempted, there is always a way to escape it.
d. “When you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
e. You recall that Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus has been tempted in every way known to man, but yet He remained sinless.
f. Jesus knows the way of escape from sin, because He has escaped them all.
g. So He is highly qualified to offer you a way of escape if you are willing to seek it.
h. It will never be easy.
i. Succumbing to the sin is the easy way.
j. It is always easier to submit to the temptation and then try to justify it later than it is to find a way of escape.
k. You’ll recall that when Potipher’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, she grabbed a hold of his coat, and he pulled himself out of his coat and FLED!!!
l. There is always a way of escape!!!
m. And when you do fail, go to God admit your failure, ask for forgiveness, and ask for help in avoiding the temptation in the future.
n. And don’t try to cover up or justify your sins to other people.
o. Christians don’t make excuses for their sin, because there are none.
p. There is no justification for sin, no matter how logical they sound.
q. Paul’s three revolutionary statements deny any justification for sin.
E. But if you want to water-down your Christianity, then ignore history, make excuses for your behavior instead of taking responsibility for yourself, and…
III. Mix Christianity with other religions
1 Corinthians 10:14-22 (NIV), Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. 18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
A. I want to tell you a few things about these so-called: New Age Religions.
1. I say “so-called” because they really aren’t new—they’re as old as the Druids.
2. Many of these so-called New Age religions were around when Jesus lived.
3. They take just enough of the Bible to make it sound good and then they add other things to it.
4. But the last chapter of the Bible says, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this boo. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18, 19)
5. If a religion has any other teachings than what’s in the Bible, stay away from them.
6. If a religion does not believe in the whole Bible then stay away from them.
7. The Bible says to stay away from mystics and psychics and astrologers and the like.
8. Even if they call it a “Friends’” network, stay away from it.
B. “You can not drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s Table and the table of demons.”
1. You cannot mix Christianity with other religions.
2. Mainly because Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (Jn. 14:6)
3. No one can get to heaven in any other way than Jesus—He is the only way.
5. Paul says in verse 20 that other religions are actually worshipping demons.
6. And the Bible says that séances don’t speak to the people they are trying to contact, they talk to demons.
7. Watering-down Christianity, by adding in other religions or clubs is deadly.
C. “Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”
1. Paul says there in verse 22 that we rouse His jealousy when we water-down Christianity with other religions.
2. Christianity must remain in its pure and whole state.
D. If you want to water-down your Christianity, then mix a little bit of other things in with it, ignore history, make excuse for your behavior, and…
IV. Look out for number one
1 Corinthians 10:23-33 (NIV), "Everything is permissible"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"--but not everything is constructive. 24 Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. 25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, "The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it." 27 If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake-- 29 the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? 31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God-- 33 even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
A. In America today very few people seem to care about anyone except himself.
1. Very few people care about anyone other than themselves.
2. When you drive around I-465, you can see people’s driving attitudes that tell you that you’d better get out of their way.
3. They don’t care a lick about you.
4. Many people today would just as soon run over you if they don’t get out of their way.
5. People just don’t seem to care about anyone else.
6. Most folks don’t even know who their next-door neighbors are.
7. People just don’t seem to care about anyone except themselves.
B. But Mr. Spock of the Starship Enterprise once said, “The needs of the many far out-weigh the needs of the few, or the one.”
1. Now that’s a pretty logical statement coming from a very logical alien.
2. It is exactly what most earthlings need to understand.
3. “The needs of the many far out-weigh the needs of the few, or the one.”
4. That means that the needs of the group are far more important than my individual needs.
5. The needs of the many are far greater than the needs of the few.
6. The needs of the many are far greater than my needs.
7. Even the needs of the few are greater than my needs.
8. “The needs of the many far out-weigh the needs of the few, or the one.”
9. Even here, the needs of others in the church are more important than my needs.
C. Paul said, “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.” And, “For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.”
1. Christians look out for the needs of others.
2. Christians look out for the needs of others so that they might be saved.
3. Even in the church, when people look out only for themselves people get offended and they leave the church.
4. And usually when people get offended in the church, they never go back and they are lost for eternity.
5. Christians consider the needs of the many or the few before they consider their own needs.
6. In what specific ways are you demonstrating that the needs of others are more important than yours?
D. If you want to water-down your Christianity then don’t worry about anyone except yourself.
Conclusion:
A. Verses 11 & 12, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
1. If we don’t learn the lessons, we will fall—into temptation.
2. Are you prepared to endure or are you diluting the life-saving truth of God?
B. Because, you see, the slightest amount of watering-down, the slightest amount of impurity can be disastrous.
[Illustration]
In St. Louis there is a railroad switchyard.
One particular switch begins with just the thinnest piece of steel to direct a train away from one main track to another.
If you were to follow those two tracks, however, you would find that one ends in San Francisco, the other in New York.
You see even a small deviation from God’s standards can place us far a field from our intended destination.
C. Are there things in your life that should not be there?
1. Do you need to recommit yourself to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ alone in your life?
2. Do understand that in Christ alone is EVERYTHING you need?!!
