He is Faithful
1 Corinthians: The Gospel for the Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 44:09
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I’m sure you’ve heard the expression: “History repeats itself.” I tend to go along with the quote from Mark Twain (or whoever actually said it): “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.”
I think that’s probably a little more accurate. History can’t ever repeat itself exactly, but sometimes the events of the day sound like just something that happened in the past. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.”
Whether or not history repeats itself, there are warnings to heed from times past, be it the recent- or distant-past. You run that stop sign and get a ticket yesterday, you’re probably going to make sure you come to a full stop there today. Put your hand on a hot stove-top as a kid, you probably won’t do it when you’re an adult.
Paul shares with the Corinthians some warnings from the history of Israel. And boy howdy, does Israel have a history! There are myriad stories and events from the life of this people that serve as really good examples of what not to do. If there was an award ceremony category for “Best Cautionary Tale” it might just go to the Israelites.
The Israelites are our proverbial older sibling. You watch your older brother or sister get in trouble over and over and make mistake after mistake and hopefully, when you’re their age, you won’t do the same (you’ll make plenty of mistakes and get into plenty of trouble, but hopefully not doing the same stuff).
My sister got me out of a lot of jams just by virtue of her being a little foolish. I learned from her, for instance, you don’t write a check for an 89-cent burrito when you don’t have 89 cents in your checking account, because that 89-cent burrito quickly becomes a $25.89 burrito. Oh, man, was Dad hot over that! And I remember thinking: “Note to self: better not write a check for a burrito. In fact, I think I’ll carry around a couple bucks for my Mexican junk food cravings.”
Israel is like a good older sibling, they really are. They didn’t bounce a check for a burrito; they did far, far worse and the stuff they did serves as examples and warnings for us.
Israel had heard the words of the Lord and had seen the works of Lord and yet behaved as if they hadn’t.
We have done this very thing, I fear, time and again, haven’t we? I know I’m familiar with what the Lord has said and I’ve seen Him work in ways big and small, and yet, here I am, often times disobedient, often times unfaithful to Him.
Paul uses the example of the Israelites to illustrate what can happen to people who hear God’s words and see God’s works but don’t come to true faith. He wants us to see the faithfulness of God and consider what our right response to such should be.
>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 10. We’re going to take our text for this morning in two chunks, so keep your seat and keep your Bible open in front of you. Follow along with me in your Bible or on the screen:
1 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.
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 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 Christ, 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 culmination of the ages has come.
Examples and warnings for us. Paul tells the Corinthians (who are largely Gentile and not Jewish; that is, they are somewhat unfamiliar with Israel’s history, possibly) Paul tells the Corinthians the story of the Exodus from Egypt, or at least part of it.
Paul writes in such a way that he communicates a point without actually coming out and saying it (he’s an excellent writer and he’s inspired by the Holy Spirit, so there’s that).
Paul phrases things carefully as if to say, “And you, of course, are in more or less the same position now as they were then. Will you learn the lesson? You—Christians—you all are the true Passover-people, the true Exodus people. Do you get it?
God was faithful, only ever faithful to the Israelites. He rescued them from the hand of the Egyptians, led them from Egypt by pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (v. 1) and through the Red Sea (v. 1). They were (baptized), shown to be God’s people by His protection and guidance. God fed them (manna, quail). He quenched their thirst (water from a rock. Paul says this rock is Christ, accompanying the Israelites through the desert. Figure that one out!).
Somehow, in some way we don’t have eyes to see, Jesus was present there with the Israelites in their desert-wandering. The Rock that gave them water to drink was Jesus, present and providing.
I could spend a month worth of sermons (don’t tempt me) working out all the implications of this, but let’s just turn our attention to verse 5:
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
The people had been rescued by God, identified as God’s people, protected and guided by God, fed and watered by God, accompanied by God the Father and God the Son—bottom line:
God had been faithful to this people, but the people were not faithful to God.
God’s Faithfulness was Met with Unfaithfulness (10:1-11)
God’s Faithfulness was Met with Unfaithfulness (10:1-11)
God’s faithfulness to these stinking Israelites was met, not with much thanksgiving or continued, long obedience, but with unfaithfulness.
As it often is.
Paul lists several examples of the peoples’ unfaithfulness—examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did (v. 6).
The Israelites were idolaters (v. 7). They worshipped an idol they made only a few months after being rescued by the One True God. This reference Paul makes to the Israelites worshipping a golden calf, aided in their idolatry by Aaron, the brother of Moses, while Moses was on the mountain receiving the Law from God. The Israelites had this big worship-revival-festival, praising this man-made calf for bringing them out of Egypt, sacrificing burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to it, followed by eating and drinking and indulgent play.
Idolatry is how the Israelites repay their faithful God. They don’t worship Him; they give worship to another.
Idolatry is an especially grievous and stupid sin. We can sit back and think “how dumb!” for them to worship a golden calf, but then again, if they could read a book about us, they’d say:
“Look how dumb! They worship a bunch of 20-year-olds who play a game! Look at them worshipping their children, their family! See how they promise their allegiance to that piece of red-, white-, and blue-colored cloth! What in the world are they thinking?!?!?!”
God’s faithfulness was met (is met) with unfaithful idolatry—preferring, worshipping, giving one’s life to someone or something other than the One deserving.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” We’re not bowing before a gold-plated cow statue, but we might as well be…our idolatry is tantamount to the same old, grievous, stupid sin.
The Israelites were sexually immoral (v. 8). In the book of Numbers, we read about the sexual immorality of the Israelite men. They found the Moabite woman enticing and began to hang around with them and worship their false gods. They bowed down before them and yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.
Somehow, as much things do, all of this led to sexual immorality. Whether or not this would have happened aside from the idol worship, I don’t know. Many pagan religions intertwine worship and sex, worship and prostitution.
For this, the punishment was sudden death, death, death…
One Israelite man apparently didn’t get the message (or didn’t care) and brought one of these women in amongst the assembly of Israel, right before the eyes of Moses. Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, followed the man and woman outside the camp into their tent, took a spear, and drove the spear right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach (Numbers 25:6-8). Talk about yoked. Yikes.
God’s faithfulness was met with immorality. Immorality (aka unfaithfulness) is how the Israelites repay their faithful God. This is something common to the Corinthians. Paul has already hit them pretty hard with the incongruity of sexual immorality and faith in Christ (chapters 5-6). The two don’t go together.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” We’re not sleeping around with Moabite women, but we routinely engage in sexual immorality; we encourage or excuse all manner of behavior unbecoming a Christian for the temporary pleasure of a tryst.
The Israelites tested Christ (v.9) and grumbled (v. 10). Like impatient little children, the people grow tired and ask “Are we there yet?” about a million times and eventually turn on Moses and God.
To squelch their impatience and misplaced anger and frustration, what does the Lord do? He sends venomous snakes among them; [the snakes] bit the people and many Israelites died.
The people, once bitten, can only live if they look to the One who saved them and brought them this far—an important lesson.
For their incessant and repeated grumbling, the Lord, in one instance strikes down everyone of them, twenty years old or older who complained, and that left Joshua and Caleb alive.
God’s faithfulness was met (is met) with unfaithful testing and grumbling. To give to the Lord grumbling and complaint, to throw tantrums before the Lord of Life is a really brazen slap in the face.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” We’re not bitten by snakes or kept from the Promised Land, but we, with our grumbles and complaints against God are guilty of the same.
He is faithful; His people are not.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
Examples…warnings for us.
Let us not do as some of them did. Let’s heed the example of those who have gone before us—that we would avoid the same mistakes.
Paul wants the Corinthians to watch their footing; receiving benefits as the Israelites did in verses 1-4 did not keep those idolatrous Israelites from receiving God’s righteous judgment.
Their idolatry, their immorality, their grumbling and testing Christ shows that they were among the many who hear God’s words and see God’s work and yet never come to true faith.
Paul continues:
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.
14 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 share 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 food sacrificed 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?
The Corinthians were very sure of themselves. But then, so had the Israelites been. Paul tells them to pay attention to the example and the warnings of the Israelites, and also to focus their attention, not on their temptations, but on the God who is faithful.
No great temptation or testing (the word can mean either) had happened to the Corinthians. They had experienced only what is common to us all, common to man.
It’s tempting to worship what we can manipulate, what we can hold in our hands. It’s tempting to gratify our desires with instant pleasure. It’s easy (and tempting) to grumble and complain. Many of the Israelites and Corinthians and Christians today fail in these and other ways, but the beautiful truth is we who belong to Him are never alone, in this or anything else.
All temptation is common—as if that’s something to ease our minds. All temptation is common to us all. AND GOD IS FAITHFUL.
13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.
If you’re someone who underlines or highlights in your Bible (if you’re not, you should be), go ahead and underline, highlight, circle those four incredible words.
AND GOD IS FAITHFUL. He is faithful to us. Notice the pronouns to follow in verse 13. AND HE IS FAITHFUL; HE will not let you be tempted…HE will also provide a way of escape.
The faithful God is faithful to us in time of temptation. Far, far away from telling us that “God will never give us more than we can handle” (which isn’t even a tiny bit biblical), this verse tells us that God will routinely give us more than we can handle, but never more than He can handle.
He will…He will...
This is not pull-yourselves-up-by-the-bootstraps theology. This is “I-will-never-leave-you-nor-forsake-you” theology. This is what we need when we’re tempted; not a pep talk (“Hey, you can do it. Just keep at it.”); we don’t need a pep talk, we need the all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing, incarnated, and faithful God.
God is faithful to us.
We can, in times of grief and temptation, lean on Him. We don’t have to suss-out a way to make it all alone; we have a faithful God who will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear and He will—HE WILL—provide us a way of escape.
We might just be tempted in the same ways the Israelites were, temptation common to us all… AND GOD IS FAITHFUL.
God is Faithful and Worthy of Our Faithfulness (10:12-22)
God is Faithful and Worthy of Our Faithfulness (10:12-22)
Paul knows that the Israelites, by in large, could not be described by faithfulness. They were an unfaithful, idolatrous, immoral, grumbly sort of folk.
He doesn’t want the Corinthians (or us!) to fall into a similar trap. If God is faithful—over and over, always and only faithful—His people (with His help) are called to faithfulness.
This is the call we receive:
14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
This command is both general and specific.
It’s just good, common sense to tell a bunch of people whose hearts are idol factories to flee from idolatry. Run in the other direction! Realize how prone you are to worship other people and things and then flee!
This also has a specific application for the Corinthians in regard to eating food offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8:1ff). Paul wants them to abstain from eating such food because of its association with idolatry.
To drink the cup of Christ and the bread of Christ while also drinking the cup of demons and bread of demons is an exercise in incompatibility. How could one possibly do such things?!
Those who sit at the Messiah’s table and share in His life—the life that is the human embodiment of the One True God, cannot and must not flirt with the possibility of sharing the life of other “powers” or “dark forces”.
To use your “freedom” or your “rights” to worship the Messiah a little and then to worship the gods of this age is “sheer madness”. It’s syncretism. It’s whackadoodle. It’s the height of unfaithfulness.
We who participate (fellowship. lit: koinonia) in the bread and the cup are, when we do so, expressing, in the strongest and most meaningful possible terms, that our worship, our allegiance is to Christ; that we are faithful to Him alone.
He is worthy of our faithfulness. He is jealous for it; He will not share His glory or His peoples’ worship with anyone else. He is the only God, and the only who deserves our faithfulness.
Whatever else, whoever else lobbies for our devotion or worship or allegiance or priority of place in our lives must be cast aside, put in proper perspective and proper place, and submitted as subservient to the Faithful God.
>The Good News—the really incredible, unbelievable, mind-blowing, earth-shattering, unique, and glorious Good News—is that He is Faithful.
13 if we are faithless,
he remains faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
Amid all we do, the many ways we have failed, fail, and have yet to fail Him, He will never, ever fail us.
He will never be anything less than faithful.
Knowing how often we would fail to be faithful, the perfect, spotless Son of God gave His life in our stead, as our substitute, to complete the task set before Him. Jesus took our place, faithfully. He bore our sins, faithfully. He died, faithfully, faithfully paying the complete price for our disobedience and unfaithfulness and sinfulness.
We could never be, would never be faithful enough. And so, the faithful God gave of Himself.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
AND HE IS FAITHFUL.
Friends, the call is faithfulness to our God, for He is faithful. But please don’t leave this room thinking that you have the power, on your own, to be as faithful as you need. You have no such power.
You can’t do it. You’ll never get there. But God is faithful, and He will do it. He will guide you along paths of righteousness for His name sake.
Friend, without Christ, it is impossible for you to be right with God. There is no chance you will ever exercise an ounce of God-pleasing faithfulness apart from a relationship with God’s Son, Jesus.
Give your life to Him; He is faithful—He is faithful, He is faithful, He is faithful—and just to forgive you all your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness.
“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.
Great is Thy Faithfulness! Great is Thy Faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided--
Great is Thy Faithfulness, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me!”