Standing Firm

Standing Firm

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

Are you confident that you are standing firm in your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Standing on the foundation of God’s deliverance, sustenance and divine presence has led many Christians to conclude that they are unshakable in their faith. Surely those who stand on the practice of Lord’s Supper, prayer, reading the Bible and are experiencing God’s blessings in their lives will not be so entangled by sin that God will give them His wrath? In 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Paul gave a dire warning to the church of Corinth and to us today: if you think you are standing firm be careful that you don’t fall. In other words, if you think that being a pastor, deacon or prominent member of the church or an elderly person with vast spiritual experience is insurance against loosing favor with God then think again! The first part of this sermon will review the analogy Paul draws between Israel and Corinth to show that the moment those who stand on the mountains of God’s blessings forget who got and keeps them there will fall because closeness to God is a product of His power, not ours! The second part of this sermon focuses on Paul’s warning that He who did not spare His chosen nation His wrath for having disobeyed Him, will not spare wrath against those of this final age! The last part of this sermon will focus on Paul’s assurance that those who rely on the power of Christ are standing on unshakeable ground for He will not permit them to be tempted beyond what they can bear or endure!

The Blessed can Fall from Grace

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors 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 in the wilderness (verses 1-5, NIV)

By using the phrases “brothers and sisters” and “our ancestors,” Paul invited the Corinthians to see “themselves in light of a new identity formed through their adoption into the covenant people of God.” Christ destroyed the hostility and barrier between both Jew and Gentile and reconciled them both into one church through the cross (Ephesians 2:14). This means that both Jew and Gentile believers at Corinth shared the same spiritual descendants. Paul stated he did not want the Gentile believers to be ignorant of the fact that the promise made to Abraham that he “would be heir to the world” and a “father of many nations” was not fulfilled by following the law but through faith (Romans 4:16-17). Abraham is the father of both Jewish and Gentile Christians in virtue of their faith in God. Having established common ancestry Paul masterfully invited “ALL” Corinthians to see the Exodus events of God’s chosen people as “authoritative ethical instructions,” a warning that “even on top of a mountain of God’s blessings anyone can fall!

In verses 1b to verse five Paul draws an analogy between the blessings of the Israelite people in the Exodus and that of the church of Corinth and in doing so “invited” them to no longer be ignorant or “clueless” of the lessons they might learn from their “forefathers.” In these few verses Paul outlined five advantages enjoyed by Israel that are also enjoyed by the church of Corinth.

1-2. Guidance and Protection. For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea (verse 1). Paul’s reference to the “cloud” and “through the sea” refer to the story of God delivering Israel from Egypt in Exodus 13-14. For our liberated forefathers the pillar of cloud not only served as a theophanic guide (Exodus 13:21) as they travelled in the wilderness but also as supernatural protection for the people as they crossed the Red Sea and were delivered from extermination by the Egyptian army (Exodus 14:19-20)! Likewise, did not the Corinthians also experience God’s guidance (Luke 1:70), protection (1 Peter 1:5) and deliverance from being under the law that only brought death (Romans 7:10)? Those who were “held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15) were freed by Him who gave Himself for humanity’s sins so that they might no longer be slaves to the present evil age (Galatians 1:4). The Devil who roars and seeks to destroy us (1 Peter 5:8) we should not fear because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4)! And when it comes to God’s presence we truly have been blessed beyond measure. While there has never been a place where humanity could go where God is not (Psalms 139), having the Holy Spirit living inside of us is an honor because He offers to commune with our spirit whenever sought (Romans 8:16).