For a maiden fled for me, let me hide myself in need, let the water and the water from thy bosom is gone. He has been the double-puner, Take our love and make me pure. To my dear forevermore. To my dear, my dear, no thanks for the love I could love. She looked with her mother's home. Down the table, down the low. In my hand, do I cry my dream. Friendly, gently do I call my dream. Friendly, do I call my dream. Thank you, Mike. We're going to conclude, Lord Willie. Our message is on subject of the sin of ignorance. And we'll be referring to several texts. You may turn your Bible first to Corinthians, second Corinthians, chapter one. And we'll be saying, if you think about that, then then move on to the rest of them, because we'll only be able to touch on just a few in order to conclude tonight. One wonders whether people understand, would understand the expression of sin of ignorance. If a person is ignorant, how can they justly be punished? Well, that's a good question to ask. And I was thinking over the other night, one of my layaway periods, and just wondering if there could be an illustration to more or less illuminate that. Supposing a man came to this country, and he was a stranger, and he landed here in Albany, and he wasn't here long, or he said he'd like to go to California. And so he said, well, you know the way to California. Well, I know it's out west, and I think I can find my way, and so he had a pretty good car, and he starts out. Well, he doesn't go very far before he's hopelessly lost. And he doesn't know it, but he's coming back this way instead of going west. Now that man is guilty of ignoring light that is available. He could have stopped at any service station on the way and obtained a map that would have given him the best highways the highways that take on his road west. And there's no need him complaining that he lost his way. The way to go west is available just for the asking. And so the man is willingly ignorant. Just what you have in Peter. For this they are willingly ignorant, says God. And anyone who is lost in the United States And any part of the civilized world, if he's lost and goes to hell, he is guilty of refusing life that that is very fingertips. There's hardly a church in the country, even a modernist church, that wouldn't give a man a Bible if he wanted an asteroid. Or you can go to a five and ten cents store and get a New Testament for fifty cents. And almost anyone in the civilized world knows what a Bible is. They think of it as God's book. Or it tells us the way to heaven. So men today, if they're ignorant of the way of salvation, if they're ignorant of these things we've been referring to, they are willingly ignorant. And God will judge them on that basis. They could have had the life. They could have obtained the knowledge. It was available. It's free. And if man is lost, he has no one to blame but himself. Like a man trying to go west that I've already said, not doing the way, and yet any service station could have supplied the way. And so many women today are grossly ignorant of a lot that's in the Bible, and who's to blame. No one but themselves. No one but themselves. Not to mention the many broadcasters are going out over the air, some of them quite fundamental. The gospel is being preached. And thank God there are a lot of churches that are preaching the gospel. And if a man really wants to know the way to heaven and he's exercised before God and asked God for guidance, I'm sure God would lead him. to a place where he would hear the gospel preached in order to be saved. And so man's ignorance today is a sin because he doesn't have to be ignorant. The knowledge that he requires and desires and the life that he longs for is at his fingertips. It's there just for the ask as simply as going to a gas station and getting a map that shows you the road. And so we have man guilty of the sin of ignorance. And God demanded an offering be offered in the Old Testament for that sin. Now we've been taken up these texts, these subjects rather, on various things and verses that we find with that word ignorance in. And I'm just going to skim over them until we get down where we left off last Sunday night. We noticed the ignorance of the Scriptures in Acts chapter three, how... Although they read the Bible and they knew quite a bit about Bible prophecy as to the Lord Jesus and the coming of the Messiah, many prophetic scriptures, they were familiar with. The Caiaphas, the high priest, he knew what the Bible had to say, that one man should die for the nation, that the whole nation perish not, and he actually predicted. that Jesus Christ was that one. And yet, in spite of that knowledge, he sided with those who were opposed to the Christians, and he was angry and demanded the death of some of the early Christians. In other words, this man came in light that he couldn't follow. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. and Paul says you get it I know brethren who hate men and the Apostle Paul seemed to him seemed to express a measure of sympathy or leniency why did they not believe this they had them they were preached every Saturday day in the synagogue yet they would hear them passages relative to the Messiah and the Psalms were to the hymns of the Israelite. Time and time again reference would be made to the coming Messiah. They did not need to be hidden. And here he comes with all his power, his miracles, his provisional, that he's the Son of God, adding to that his resurrection and the miracles of Paul, and in spite of all of it. Spirit of God came down and entered into the church, and the disciples went forth, performing miracles, preaching in the power of the Spirit, people being saved. And the light of all this, they still rejected the light. He said, well, they were very blind and ignorant. You're more ignorant. If you're not saved, you'll be more responsible to God. Have it true. All that those Jews knew about the Old Testament scripture, all that they saw in that day of the person and work of Christ that his miracles and so on, all that they witnessed when the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, the miracles that were performed, the change in the lives of the people, the fullness of the early apostles, the joy when they were persecuted, added to all that, is the testimony of the church for nineteen hundred years. And the wonderful things the gospel has done down the century, we've got nineteen years to be added on to what those people in the first century knew about Jesus Christ. On the back of that very same message that accomplished such wonders in the first century are accomplishing the same results today. And yet in spite of all this, You can stop people on the street, and I guarantee not one out of ten would tell you the way to heaven. Tell me, if you were to stop. How do you get to heaven? Well, you're the best you can, it is. I wouldn't think, well, keep the ten, ten commandments. Someone else would say, well, you've got to throw in the church. You'd be baptized, and get your money to the church. And away they go. How many would say, through the blood of Christ, I know my sins forgiven, and that's my passport to the lands of heaven. I would love to meet a stranger and say, friend, in fact, I'll give you an instance one time. I went into a restaurant and I heard a man whistling at him, and I was in, I think in New York, and I'm going to tell you that's some place to be in. And I went in this restaurant one morning, a little depressed, and just as I entered the door, I heard someone whistling a hymn, and it was all up to him, and it wasn't long until I made acquaintance with him. In other words, born-again Christians, those who really know Christ are rare, and they call them a square. They don't like people to say, I know I'm saved, I'm going to heaven. I know I have everlasting life, I'll never perish. Well, if you don't know these things, you're really to be pitied. The Bible gives you all the light and information that you need on how to be saved. And there's no need for you to be ignorant on the subject of salvation, as these were. And Romans chapter three, not only were they ignorant really of the Scriptures, They were ignorant of God's salvation. And Paul tells us that in Romans, ten and verse three, ignorant of God's righteousness, says the Apostle. They've been ignorant of God's righteousness. They're going about to establish their own. The same people in the Acts, same ones. And then we were speaking on the ignorance. of man as to God's selecting grace, as to choosing the vessel, the instruments he's going to use. And when the Lord Jesus chose his cabinet, or when he chose the ones that are going to perpetuate the gospel, from generation to generation, whom can it choose, did he go to the colleges and universities of that day? No, he did he go to the Greeks who were known for their wisdom, and their culture. No, he didn't. He called a few fishers. And it definitely says in the Bible, chapter of the Bible, on earth, Jacob said, Why did God do this that no flesh should glory in God's presence? This is a work of grace. And God selected men that no business had today would have ever selected to be in high office in his company. But the Lord Jesus taught them for three and a half years, and I'll tell you, those men had the best education any man could have. But the world today is ignorant of that. The religious world thinks you've got to go through college and seminary and university and have empty hand date on your empty head, and you have the name Reverend or Dr. Divinity, and all you need is the gold. now and have a clock or congregation, and look after them. And they don't do a very good job of that either, unless all the people want is social life. Of course they can get plenty of that, or possibly they just want to have a place for entertainment, and to be told about the atmosphere, the ecology, and things of this kind, space, venture, civil rights, these are the subjects that a lot of them get. and they don't know any better. They think they're getting something out of the Bible. How ignorant can they be? Not only so, here you find ignorant worshipers, notice that last week. Whom ye in Acts seventeen. Whom ye ignorantly worship? Whom ye ignorantly worship? Whom ye ignorantly worship? Whom ye ignorantly unto you? Last Sunday night, it was something popped into my heart's head and popped out. It's about as quick, and I couldn't recall it. But I could recall it that night when I was home last Sunday night while I was lying awake. Well, this was through in my mind. You know, Church Truth was not discovered after the one thousand years of the Dark Ages. The first Pope came up about the fifth century, and there was a decline from the apostles to the church fathers into Rome. Then those thousand years of dark age, when Rome dominated, then came the Great Reformation. Around fifteen hundred, Martin Luther lit the torch of the just shall live by faith. Others took up the torch. Swindle of Switzerland, Savonarola of Italy, and others, they took out the pork that the Spirit of God laid hold of these men. And what was the burden of their message? The just to live by faith. And they preached that message. It was a message that brought about the Great Reformation, and it shook the Church of Rome to its foundation. But the strange thing is, they didn't preach church truth. They did not bring out all the teachings of the Nutrition. They broke up into sects and systems of men. Along came Whitfield and the Westlays and so on. And Luther, of course, has his following today. And, of course, the Westlays have theirs and the Methodists and so on. Yes, that's not what God intended. And if you read in the second chapter... of revelation you'll find the stars in first chapter the stars are in his hand and the seven stars are the messages of the seven churches and in the first century God did or Jesus Christ had his servants in his hand and they trained for us and preached church truth the whole counsel of God to what God wants his people to hear that when the mouth faded out, and the dark ages were no mention of it. In the Reformation there was no mention of it. There were two things that were lacking in the writers of the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth century. That was the second coming of Christ and church truth. They didn't preach. The emphasis upon the gospel, when did church truth really become known and discovered? About two hundred years ago, the Spirit of God poured out upon certain men, I want to tell you, these men were gifted men. You think, for instance, J.M. Dobby, William Kelly, Sir Robert Anderson, the one who could go on, I have old bookmen, about eight or ninety men, and these men were scholarly men. Many of them were men of wealth. A lot of them were pastors of churches like Dobby was. When I was in Ireland a number of years ago in the South Island, I was taken to see the home where God lived. I saw the church where he preached, and the church he gave up, and he had partly a saved audience. But he gave them up and took his Bible under his arm and went over the hills of South Saw Ireland, as his brother told him. He went to the farmhouse and farmhouse, and what was he teaching? He was teaching them the truth of the priests of the all believers. how Christians have gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and all. Many of these men gave up congregations when all faculty in that church were saved, but that's all. They were saved. And they saw the truth of the one body of these men. They preached the importance of remembering the Lord on the first day of the week, and they also discovered the wonderful truth of the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for two hundred years the teachings of the New Testament were rediscovered and being practiced to this day, thank God by those who meet in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and carry out his word. And in reading all about these men, and I have read a lot about them, I haven't read one who ever went back. These were not men, ignorant men, practically all these men whom God used, to re-establish New Testament assembly. They were educated men, Greek scholars, people scholars, men who paid a price to preach what they saw. They gave up their church salary, they gave up their services, and they went out, and they preached the simplicity of New Testament gathering. And I was in that very chapel in Dublin, Ireland, and seats three hundred and fifty people, or three thousand five hundred people. And J.N. Darby preached there. Sir Robert Anderson preached there. And all those men, Macintosh preached there. And I could go on and on and give you the names of these giants, many of them lords, men of nobility. They weren't men of the street. This is one who came when God picked up gifted, educated men with penetrating powers of perception that went down into the Word and dug up these nuggets. Today Christendom has the writings of these men at their fingertips if they want them to learn the truths of the church, such as we preach to them all believers, and that Christendom should meet together in the name of the Lord Jesus. And the Spirit of God is the one who is free to operate and to lead the men at the worship meeting to lead the saints into the presence of God. And these are the two. Living by faith. A woman's faith in the church. The priesthood of all believers. And the doing of a way of clergy. And we're all one in Christ Jesus. clergy had such a hole for the dark ages and his sin has a hole and some have the idea today that the preacher should be above his people and the shepherd should be above his flock there's no such thing taught in the New Testament we're all one in Christ Jesus I'll tell you something else I thought and I'll tell you this really happened In one case, supposing some man, the pastor of a big church, or a couple of thousand, and he gets up Sunday morning, eleven o'clock, goes to his church, and he says, ladies and gentlemen, brethren and sisters, we're going to change our program this morning. This past week the Lord has been dealing with me. and showing me things. As I said, I have known the case of this guy. Teacher Hughes in Greensboro, North Carolina, Chief John Jarvis, who's the leader of his choir and the head of his deacons, came to meetings I had, and Chief Jarvis wanted to know if he could bring the choir and sing on two or three occasions. I said, sure, be glad to have you. Well, as preacher accompanied him one night, And so after the meeting, the preacher came up and said, I'd like you to come by and see me. I'd like to talk to you. I said, I'd like to come by. Well, Chief Jarvis had said that he had fed his soul the way he hadn't had his soul fed for a long time. And he came out to the tabernacle there. So I went by and received the picture of Hughes. He said, I want to know something about these principles that you're talking about. And I went over these simple principles, taught in the New Testament. And after I finished, he says, you know, Brother Wilson, I was five years in a TV sanitarium. I had TV. And he said, when I get in there, I decided I'm going to take my Bible and I'm going to put aside all the tradition that I was brought up in. I'm going to try and blot out my background and also what I was trained and taught at the center. I'm going to take the New Testament, I'm going to study it for life as to what the New Testament Christians did. And he said, would you know that I came up with the very same thing that you just told me? But he said, after I was about ready to leave the hospital, the sanitarium, having been cured of TB, I thought to myself, well now, supposing I start something like that, a New Testament church in all its simplicity, free from tradition. So when I start something like that, how long will that, won't be long, isn't it, back in rural Iraq, it will become another phenomenon? And he said, don't you think that? He said, how long do you think that work over there that you've got a statue going to last? Well, I said, I am not going to predict that, but I know that our assembly's standing today that's been standing for a hundred and fifty years. He said, do you think it will last fifty years? Well, I said, suppose it just does last fifty years. It would have the pleasure of pleasing God for fifty years anyway. You know what he said when they left? He said, Brother, no, yes. I said, well, listen, Brother Hughes, you don't have to fear my meetings. If you're preaching the Word of God, if you're teaching God's Word the way it should be taught, the way you said you learned it in the seminary, in the hospice, if you preach God's Word, you don't have to fear my meetings at all. But I said, if you're not preaching the word, then you have a right to fear them. And as we left, he said, well, brother, don't feed my people too well. Don't feed my people too well. In other words, if people know where they can go and learn more Bible than I can give them, if they can carry out the word of God clearer than I can see it, and try to instruct them. If they know where they can be happier and they learn more truth, they enjoy the presence of God more, and they can back up their stand with the word of God, let them go. Let them go. They can find out more Bible. I haven't explained any better than we explained it here at the chapel. I'll say, God bless you, brother. Jesus. going back to where I started this brother gets up Sunday morning he goes before his congregation he says now he has the program in his hand for the morning service now he says the Lord's been feeding him in this way we're not going to have our usual meeting we're not going to have any solos why We're not going to have the choir. We're not going to have our user way of lifting the offering or the offering. I just want to tell you what I discovered. I discovered in the New Testament that we should come together, and I am not your minister this morning. I'm just one. You all were born again. And I'm not going to use any denominational days. I'm just going to say that we're all the children of God, born again believers, and we're meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus Lord. And we're not going to follow our folder here. We're not going to follow what's made out here and mapped out for this service. We're going to depend on men, godly men. who can be led by the Spirit of God to exalt Christ and speak of the sufferings of Christ and tell God how much they appreciate his giving his Son. And they'll be able to give out gims in the hymn book that have to do with worship. All about Christ and the glory of Christ. And so I want the brethren this morning You know they're saved in your lives, it's commendable. I want you to be exercised about taking part this morning, for I discovered in the Scriptures that one had to him another Psalm and so on, that is not to be left up to me. I'm not your preacher this morning. I'm just one of all the rest. And another thing, we're going to have the bread and wine, as you see, I've had it arranged up here. And this is going to be the main attraction. For I find in my Bible and Acts chapter seven they came together on the first day of the week to break that. And so we're going to remember the Lord this morning. And after time has been devoted to singing the pulpit hymns, hymns on worship, and after several brethren have participated in worship and expressing their heart before God and lifting the sick. Hidworth's presence. Or some brother may have a passage of scripture he'd like to read. Think of the twenty second Psalm or Isaiah fifty three or one of the gospel passages that have to do with the suffering of Christ. He's free to do that this morning. The Spirit of God is going to supervise this meeting. It's not going to be planned and arranged as you see here in the bulletin. And also we're not going to make any appeal for money. The faith will be passed and we only want those who are born again to contribute. And so we'll just sit back now and proceed as I align it out. This is going to be a little different meeting. We're going to have a worship meeting. We're going to remember the Lord Jesus every Sunday morning in this simple fashion. And he's got a congregation of a thousand people. And I can see a lot of this loss. What great is he got to change that bulletin? What kind of ideas is he trying to introduce? I think we should go according to the poison. I think so and so should preach her solo, or deliver her solo, or sing it. I think we should have the choir member through the numbers. Someone said, well, you know, that's what we all make off the chart? No horrors. Is that what we do with them? Yes, that's what they do. They just come together on Sunday morning to remember the Lord Jesus Christ, and I defy any man to show me that that's not true. This was church truth discovered about two hundred years ago, and in practice every sin. And I'll tell you, those men, when they came out, they stayed out. They didn't go back. And we can speak of some contemporary George Landis, who was here a couple of years ago. Now with the Lord, that man paid a price. Pastor of a church in Pennsylvania. And a big church. And an influential, wealthy church. And he learned the truth. of gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, people on the three-fifth of the morning, you know, and that track he wrote on my principle that all would bring the tears arise when he speaks of how in speaking as last, and he spoke of those saints in that congregation that he loved. But he said, He couldn't continue as he was, with a clear conscience before God. He had to carry out the scriptures as he saw it. He continued with the day of his death. I want to go on. I could mention right now a number of men that have been right to this chapel. He saw the light, and they came out. Bill Morgan was here. I saw his big church down on the Tome of East, a great big influential church about seven years ago, till should I have taken the war. And he came out and left a big salary and distrusted the Lord to carry out the principles of the New Testament. And I say this, that God never leads a man out of these others back in. God doesn't... ten people two ways when he leads them out he means them to stand and like Jeremiah God says Jeremiah return not thou unto them let them return unto thee you take your stand on scriptural ground and let them share that scriptural inheritance with you that's what I believe of all my heart that's what we've got to stand for today This is real worship. Ablely worshiped by it. Who ye ably worshiped, declare I unto you. And if I said, if I understood, if a man did that, got up that morning, and made the little talk that I made, and said, this is the way we're going to do it, from now on, because I see it scripted, And it's wrong for anybody in this congregation who is not sure he's a Christian. And he's doing things in his life he shouldn't do. Inconsistent with the Christian. It's wrong for you to take the bed and wine. Pass it, brother. Pass it. Oh, God will get it. Well, I'll tell you, he'd lose his pastor right away. The deacons have a talk with him after the meeting. And he'd be through. And I believe exactly what the Bible teaches, and I believe this great movement of the Spirit two hundred years ago that broke out all over England and Ireland and Scotland simultaneously. God the Spirit made hold of these men, and that which have been untracted for nearly seventeen hundred years, sixteen of these, was now reestablished, and it's been going on ever since. And I went to England about eighteen, nineteen years ago, met some of these godly old men and had the privilege of preaching in that big Dublin chapel that seats thirty-five hundred. Wonderful meeting. Hear these godly old men seventy, eighty, ninety years of age giving up. And it was almost like hearing a sermon. The way those men could exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and Pope Scripture, and actually expounded. in the presence of God. I sat there feeling, Lord, I'm not taking part in this deal. These men are giants. These men are giants. Those are the pillars. They are the deacons, the elders, the overseers of this assembly. And I'll tell you, there's a grogginness and there's a modesty. There's a piety about those men. that you love. Is there something about that ship? Take them from the Word of God and have it changed in thousands of places. In the time those men led by the Spirit of God established those assembly, many of the preachers came out of them and led by faith and established assembly. We are going on to this day. God is blessing. I know some of them are going cold. I agree with that. We're in the latter days. But that's not God's fault. Here are the principles, and they stand, and they will stand. And there's no need of anybody being ignorant of these things that I have mentioned. Your Bible gives you all the light and understanding that you hear. And so you have ignorance of spiritual worship. Then... the state of sleeping saints. We mentioned that last week. The Apostle didn't want them ignorant concerning the slave saint that had fallen asleep. Then you have the spiritual gifts. We mentioned that in I Corinthians twelve one. It says concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not add you to be ignorant and elucidates the chapter and explains what spiritual gifts are and how they should be used. And the power with which they must be used. Then we come tonight, and this is the one that we want to begin with, and just briefly mention, and that is Suffering Saints. Suffering Saints. Saint Suffering. And that's the text, Second Corinthians one, and verse eight. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant, unenlightened, uninformed, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, in so much that we despaired even of life, that we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises us death. Here you have the suffering of the saints, the pressing burdens. The apostles of brethren, I don't want you to be ignorant. the fact that you're going to suffer. There are going to be pressing burdens. There will be stress. There will be strain. I don't want to be ignorant of the price you're going to pay. We're obeying the Word of God. And it is on to tell them how his being in those circumstances, he was in a position to comfort others. I want to comfort others who are with the same comfort that I have been comforted myself. God has comforted me, and I want to comfort you. This is true of Christians today. In other words, if I pass through a time of stress and strain and trial and suffering for the Lord, and God raises me up or sees me through, what does he intend me to do now? Let others benefit. from your suffering. As you were comforted by God in that time of trial and stress, as he gave you promises from his word, and he gave you his peace and presence, now you comfort others. With the same comfort wherewith you have been comforted of God, and so you have suffering saints and the consolation that is theirs in the time of suffering, and how they are to seek to help others who are in the same predicament. Then the next thing that many were ignorant of then, that is the signs of the saints, sins of the saints. We're running a lot on this this morning. And you have that in Corinthians chapter ten and verse ten. And I'm going to read this. 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. You notice five walls there. All passed through the sea, and were all baptized on the moose in the cloud in the sea, and it all ate the same spiritual meat, and it all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with many of them, God was not well pleased. They were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were all ensembles. Those who say the Old Testament is not for us today. How are they going to get around this scripture? Here is the Spirit of God through the Apostle relating the experiences of the children of Israel, the nation of Israel. Now he says they happen unto them as an example. Go on. Now these things were all in sample, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things. That's the first one. Neither be our idolaters, as were some of them, as there is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted him, also tempted, and were destroyed of servants. Neither murmur ye. And some of them also, Mermadam, were destroyed of the destroyer. Who is those? Neither. Neither. Neither. Here the Apostle is warning these Christians, who had learned considerably, at Corinth, because the Bible says there were a gift of truth, he says they came behind in no gift. They had evangelists. They had pastors. They had teachers. They had godly elders. He says, you come behind in no good. But he says, you know, there's a danger of the highly privileged getting into sin. And he called their attention to the Israelites. Look at this people. How God blessed them. He brought them out of Egypt. After the shelter of the blood and its application on their two side poles and up a little to their home. He brought them through the Red Sea. He opened up a mighty grave and led them through and caused the waters to return upon their enemies. He caused manna to be rained down from heaven, to sustain them. That was their food for the wilderness. He caused water to come out of the rock. And he had wondered among them. Yet, says the Apostle, even though they saw all this, They experienced all this, but many of them God was not well paid. And you see what happened? And if you want to know what happened, all you have to do is look up the reference here in reference to the first one. The first you have there in verse six, they lusted after evil things. You should turn over the numbers, eleven, four, six. I'm not going to turn to you. You may do it, please. and see what happened. Here you have an inordinate desire after carnal beings. Carnal beings. They lusted after carnal beings. Paul said, don't you lust after carnal beings? In fact, this is what they had. They're distaste for the Bible. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all but this manna before our lives. Read that over in Numbers chapter eleven. Here is God in his miraculous grace and loving-kindness. He reigned manna down to the temple. And the time came when they said, Ah, we don't want any more of this manna. But first all, it was fresh, it was sweet, it was angels' good. They said, Now, ah, we don't like the taste of it all. All he got to see is this manna. Could you imagine a people doing that? Can you imagine a man today who was born again acting thus toward the Word of God when he was first saved or he loved him? This is all I want to read. But take heed, Tristan. You can lose the taste for it. God warns you. you used to read it every day do you do it now you couldn't wait for a meeting time to come to learn something in the book do you act that way now have you lost your taste your palate for the word of god paul says you take heed that's exactly what happened to you and the next thing in verse seven Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. They're substituting Christ for the world. That's what they were doing back in those days. Because in the first event rock was Christ and all these poor channeled the Lord Jesus, substituting Christ for the world. We don't know what happened then. They asked the people of Aaron to give me all your hearing. Asked this God that brought us our bodies. Again, we're going back. But we're going to have a God of our own. Give me all your gold. And he threw the gold and he says into the fire there came on his hand. Father, the Savior said, They made it. But he made it look as though they just cast the gold in and it came out of camp. And he says, now you can worship this craft. These be thy gods of Israel that have brought thee up out of the land of thee. They substituted a golden path for the living God. Can God's people go that far? Yes. There are a lot of things today, Christians, that are substituting for the living God. And anything that comes between you and God is an idol, make no mistake at all. God says, you, KT, if you are substituting anything else for me and my Son, it's going to cost you. And it will. And I'll tell you who. rose to the occasion that day, the Levites. Moses said when he came down from the mountain, he was infuriated when he saw what happened. He said now, who's on the Lord's side? Let him take his sword and go in and out among the campanodes, slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that were saved about three thousand men. Yes. Three thousand men of the people of God were slain because they were substituted. A golden calf replaced the living God in their lives. And they got it. And these Levites, what a high office they had afterwards, They took their sword and they didn't spare members of their own family. As the Bible says, and you can read it for yourself over next is chapter thirty-two. And the next thing we've got to conclude in the minute or two. The next thing is spiritual adultery as you have in verse eight. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed until in one day three and twenty-thousand. Here is spiritual adultery. world, the world rivaling, Christ for the affection of our hearts. And they went to Baal. And they actually brought some of the little idols of Baal into Israel. And they invited the children of Israel. They invited the Baalites. Those who are worshippers of Baal, they invited the Baalites to come and worship of them. And the union between the Baalites and the Israelites was so close this led the actual adult