for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things where our ensembles are types to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. 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. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed. fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of servants. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensemble, and they are written for our admonition, Upon whom the ends of the world are come. In other words, these things happen to Israel for the benefit of God's people unto the end. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common demand. And this is my text for this morning. There hath no temptation taken you, but such is as common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with thee temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it. I think it's about eight weeks or nine weeks ago, before we left to go to Canada. We spoke on this chapter, and that was in the evening. And so I want to just review some of those things and conclude with that text of verse thirteen. And don't forget the message tonight. At seven thirty, fellowship with God or fellowship with devil. There are only two real fellowships in the world. One God-related and the other Satan-related. We trust you'll be here for that message. Now here we have the children of Israel in the wilderness, and you read a remarkable verse over in Acts seven thirty-eight, where you read about the church in the wilderness. Now the church, as we know it today, did not begin until Pentecost. But God is referring to the nation of Israel as the church in the wilderness. Now the word church in the New Testament sense means called out. Ecclesia, a group who were called out from the world and the many present nations upon the earth. But in the Old Testament you have a nation that has been called out of slavery and bondage from Pharaoh and Egypt. So the same force of the word is used. Here's a nation that has been brought out, called out from slavery, into the promised land. That's why it refers to the church or this nation in the wilderness. That's used typically of the church today. The church, as we've already said, did not begin until the day of Pentecost. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter seventeen, speaking in future tense, He said upon this rock, Himself, His deity, I will build my church. And he said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. And so the churches we know it today did not commence until the day of Pentecost when the Spirit of God came down and united a hundred and twenty souls into a unit. And so we find the Lord Jesus Christ making it plain that when he was here the church It was still future. You have to have a foundation before you can build on it. And Christ said that he was that foundation. And the church was built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Not the Old Testament patriarch, but the New Testament prophets. And so we're clear on that. I prospered before there could be a superstructure that had to be a foundation, and Jesus Christ laid that foundation. Before you could have a body known as the church, and the church is spoken of as a body, the church which is his body, you've got to have a head in heaven. Otherwise the body is headless. But when Christ went to heaven, the head of the church was already in heaven, and the head is the main part. Your body will never drown as long as your head is above water. That's why the church can never perish. He said, And at one birth the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And friend, as long as the Lord Jesus Christ, the living head of the church is in heaven, the body... the church itself cannot perish. It may pass through the waters, but it will never perish. How wonderful to know that. So we find the church is future. God intends that it is when Jesus was on earth that it was future. How wonderful the Old Testament scriptures are. There are those today who tell us Not to worry about the Old Testament scriptures. Begin at Matthew, and then read on through, and begin at Matthew again. The Old Testament scriptures are not that important. Well, the Bible doesn't say that. In verse six and verse eleven of our chapter, references made to the Old Testament people, and what happened to them as in samples or types? For us today, and in Romans fifteen, four, you read, for whatsoever things were written of foretime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. And in Second Timothy three, sixteen, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. You're not going to be thoroughly furnished or talked in the Scriptures unless you know something of the Old Testament. The New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. And Christ in Luke twenty-fourth, he opened unto them in all the Scriptures. And it says definitely he began at Moses and the prophets. And when he speaks of Moses, he goes back to Genesis, the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch written by Moses, and beginning at both. And the prophets. He opened unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. So Christ is to be seen in the Old Testament Scripture. How wonderful all this is. These things that happened unto Israel were for our benefit. There are some things relative to Israel that are well for us to hear. You can enumerate them with five words beginning with peace. First of all, they were purchased by blood. You read the story in Exodus twelve, when the Lamb was slain, and all who applied the blood on the two side both in the upper lintel, they were safe from judgment. They were purchased by God. They were God's possession. Then you find that Israel had privileges. Purchased and then privileges, and all those privileges were seen in the opening three verses of our chapter. But then they got into perversion. that the next passage in our scripture, from five on to seven. They were pervading themselves, or from seven to ten. But then what would you expect to follow? After being purchased, and after being privileged as they were, then they became perverted in their lives and thinking, then they were punished. And God always punishes his own. If you tell me you're a Christian, you get by with anything, you're not a Christian at all. For whom the Lord loveth he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives. When a person is born again, take care. A father is not deserving of the father, name of a father, if he doesn't know how to correct his children. That's why we're in the mess we are, a breakdown in the whole life. God intends that a father discipline his child when discipline is necessary, but don't do it when you're mad. Crew off and use your sins. In other words, God wants us to discipline our children because he disciplines his. And if a man said, No, not how to take care of his own house, how can he have an office in the church? There's a lovely comparison there. Then when God punished them, there's this wonderful thing. He provided for them. Here's the grace of God. Even though they did all the things we mentioned here in their Bible, God sent the manna every morning. And the water flowed from the rock every day. Here is an evidence. Now, in the Old Testament, you couldn't say there is no grace for this planet. And here is grace. Here is an undeserving people after God had blessed them so much with so many benefits. And they sinned against them. God is faithful. And you read that in verse thirteen where we read. God is faithful. God kept the matter coming and he kept the water flowing, showing the goodness of God in spite of his disobedient people. Now these five minutes, and I'm just going to run over them in a hurry in verses one and two, they all were under the cloud. They were divinely led and they were divinely guided. All were under the cloud. all passed through the sea, divinely led and guided, and then they all passed through the sea. They were divinely delivered. Because the waters of the Red Sea now, after they passed through, God caused the waters to return, and the Egyptians were drowned, and Israel as a nation was delivered. So they were divinely delivered, and they were divinely unified. For it says they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They were not just a mob of stragglers. They became a nation united. By the way, recently, I heard one say that this is an example of what you've got here that... household baptism, that even the children are saved by baptism because it says they all passed through the sea and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud of the sea. Babies are not included here. Verse five makes that claim, but with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. He's not saying that about babies. He's saying that about intelligent men and women. And so you can't get the idea of infant baptism from this passage at all. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Here you have divine unification. They were a community, a real community. There was a fellowship among them. And they were baptized into the colony that Moses himself represented. And Moses represented that Jewish economy that was given him on Mount Sinai. Here they have a new leader. No longer Pharaoh. No longer are they slaves. But they've got a new leader, Moses. A new authority, Moses. Well, you know, we take that a step further. They were unto Moses. Today, we're baptized into Christ. That's different. Moses was a servant. Christ was a son, and you read that over in Hebrews chapter three. Moses was a servant. Christ is a son over his own house. And so one today who was born again is baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. We are partakers of Christ. Now there's something lovely about this. You find them united as a nation. as a community, as a fellowship unto their new leader, Moses. And when people today and ever since Pentecostal now are born again, they're baptized unto Christ or into Christ by the Holy Spirit. You read that over in Second Corinthians, I think it's eleven-twelve. All baptized by the Spirit into one body. And I want you to get this. There are two baptisms. The baptism of the Spirit, the baptism of water. The baptism of the Spirit, you lose your identity as an individual. You are baptized into a body. You lose your personal identity. We're now one. A hundred and twenty individuals went up into the upper room. and they were baptized into one, and one person came down. They were all one in Christ. But when you submit to water baptism, the individual is identified. In spirit baptism, the one spiritual baptism the Bible emphasizes, or all who are born again are baptized into one body. Everybody who is an American, a true American, He's in one nation. He has been united. But then he's still an individual. And when you accept Christ, you become one in Christ. You lose your individual identity. When a person comes up and says, I'm saved and I want to obey the Lord in baptism, here he's identifying himself as an individual, a personal believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. you lose your identity in the one, you manifest your identity in the other. That's wonderful to know that you are in Christ Jesus. After your place and your security, you're in Christ. You're one of that great body and that one wonderful fellow. But when you want a witness for Christ, that's you, a person with a responsibility, a personal responsibility. to witness for Christ, and you can do that when you obey the Lord in baptism. Now, Moses, here he is, this new leader, his new authority, and he led the people through the wilderness, but he didn't get into the promised land because he failed. But our leader, the Lord Jesus Christ, he could never fail. It's impossible for him to fail. and so we're safe till we reach yonder shore. Christ says not one of them is lost, and many save Judas, and he was the son of perdition. I give unto my sea-keeper, and the life and day shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father... of one. How secure, how safe a child of God is. Now getting back to this remarkable passage, they're divinely led, divinely delivered, divinely unified, and divinely supplied and sustained. He sent the manna, and you have that for you want to read it in verse three, and it all eats 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. What a supply. For them it was manna that came down from heaven and water from the smitten rock. Today Christ says, I am the true bread which came down from heaven. Not the bread that their fathers had eaten in the wilderness, now they're dead. But the true bread, he said, I'm the true bread which came down from them, to give my life unto the world. And the water from the rock is the Spirit of God. And how wonderfully, as God supplied, met the need of that nation for forty years in the wilderness, with angels' food, bread from heaven, and water from the rock, And we are supplied, and ever since Pentecost, God's beloved people have been feeding upon that true bread which came down from heaven the Lord Jesus Christ, and the water from the smitten rock, the Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer. And as we mentioned one time before, if any of the children of Israel wandered and they wanted to get back to the rock, the source of all their strength, all they had to do was follow the water back. and they'd find it short and fend if you're out of fellowship with God, you're out of communion with God, then you're a backslider. The Spirit of God is your defendant. He will lead you back to the rock. He'll lead you back to Christ. And you'll know something of sweet fellowship and sweet communion with him. We have the chill of Israel and the perversities. We haven't time to go into it all in detail. But after being so blessed of God... What did they do? He's beginning to tell us in these verses, verse six. Now these things, verse five, but with many of them God was not well pleased. Now I want you to get this. He didn't say not any. He says with many God was not well pleased. There were only two that pleased them and delighted them. And that was Joshua and Caleb. This is almost the understatement in the Bible, the most understated word. With many of them, he wasn't well pleased. He was only pleased with two. Joshua and Caleb. The others were not damned, but God was not pleased with them. They were in unbelief. And today Christians can live a life of unbelief. And God doesn't damn them, but he says, I'm not pleased with them. I'm not pleased with them. And that's true. With many of God's people today, God is not well pleased because of the lives they live. Just when Caleb was the two that pleased God, I wonder if you can analyze your heart this morning and ask yourself the question. Am I among the many whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, I lost my life? Say, all right, forgiven by the grace of God for throwing my life away. Is God well pleased with me, or is he displeased? That's something for you to ask yourself. What did they get into? They lusted for flesh. They said, Give us flesh to it. God says, I've given you something better than flesh. I've given you angels. Something that's pure. It's white. It came down from heaven. It's sweet as honey. We don't want that. Give us flesh. Give us flesh. Give us flesh. That's what a lot of Christians are saying today. They've tasted of the heavenly manner. But they say, Give us some flesh. Give us something of the world. I have an appetite for worldly things. What did God say? And what did God do? All right. I'll let you have what you want. And you'll read this over in the Psalms. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for lust, just to satisfy the lust of the flesh. And what did God do? He sent a strong east wind. For two days and one night he sent quail so thick they were three feet deep on the ground, and a day's journey about six miles around the camp. And God says, now gorge yourself for thirty days. And it was coming out their nostrils and ears and everything else. God gave them their desire, but he sent leanness into their hearts. Take care, Christian, if you're hungering after that which is inconsistent for a Christian, that that belongs in the category of the flesh, for they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And if you crave a thing long enough, God says, have it. And I think I told this story years ago about a young woman was traveling on her train with the nurse and a little boy. And boy, that little fellow was howling up a storm, and the mother was trying to read the book she had. And the nurse kept saying, No, you can't, you can't. Well, the mother didn't know what the boy wanted. But after a while, she got irritated. And she said to the nurse, Well, let it have it. She didn't even look at what she was wanting. She was so indulging reading the book. And all of a sudden, she heard a howl that everybody heard. It was a bumblebee. Let him have it. He got it. And saying, you may be hounding for something, but God doesn't want you to have it. The whole thing is this. Quail was not on God's menu. For some reason, God didn't include that. It was just something God didn't want them to have. He wanted them to be satisfied with manner and fresh water. A lot of things that are not on your menu and mine are Christian, but you say, I want. I want. One time of my life, when I was quite young, I wanted a young lady for my wife. I thank God he didn't say, have it. He says, you can't. I'd have got stung and stung there. Yes. We want things, we want things, we want things, we want things. Sometimes God says, well, take it. You get it. God wants us to stay in his mind. We might have his will concerning our life. And so we wanted flesh. Then the next thing was idolatry, the golden calf. Find that in verse seven here. And what a horrible situation that was, that people sat down and eat and drink. They were having a feast, supposed to be a feast unto the Lord. And they rose up to play. You know what that was? In fact, if you read the incident, you'll find the very word in there is dance. People sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to dance. It was an idle festival, and it was a lude affair. That shows you where idolatry will lead you to. Yes, let us make us go out to return to Egypt. Answer this, Moses. We know what happened to him. They were idolatrous. The next thing you'll find there were fornicators in verse eight, and twenty-three thousand people died in one day. Then they tempted God. As you notice in verse nine, You have that in Numbers twenty-one when they sent these serpents among them, and many people died. And they murmured, as you have in verse ten, you have that in connection with the spies. And these people, the ones that were sent to be spies, they came back, and Joshua and Caleb, they said, let's go in. God's with us. The others said, no, we don't want to go in. Those men, they're too big for us. They've got too good equipment. And the cities are walled high, and we're just like grasshoppers in the sight of those people in that land. Joshua and Caleb said, no, our God, greater than us, let us go in. God says, Moses, I've had enough of this people. All these years, I've just put up them. All right. Moses, in fact, Moses even wanted to die on two occasions, not so fed up with this people. God says, I've had it. Joshua and Caleb are going to be the only two who are going into the promised land. Even you, Moses, are not going to go. I'll bury you on Mount Evo. You can't go over into the promised land. Isn't that so? God finally comes down and it's hard when he does. He's been patient for forty years. Finally, to a spare Joshua, Caleb, and Joshua was the one that went in and divided up that inheritance for his well-entitled well-more on these things. But you have God's kindness to this people, and then their unkindness for God. God proved them, and they failed, and they proved God, and he failed not. God is faithful. They're the words you have in that text. What grace? God doing all this, but that awful buck there in verse five, buck with many of them, God was not well pleased. Over in Hebrews, you have that line of faith. Even through that nation's history, there were those who stood out as men and women of faith, and it says that had this testimony, they had this testimony that they pleased God. The majority displeased God. They dishonored God. But there were those few who stood out, and it says they had this testimony that they pleased God. They had faith in God. That's what God wants. You can't please God unless you exercise faith. For the Bible says in the very chapter in Levant of Hebrews, without faith it's impossible to please God. You can have money, you can have character, you can have reputation, you can have all these kind of things. But if you don't have saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you just cannot please God. That's the only way God is pleased is when someone puts his trust in the living God. Nobody can compliment you more than with this statement. I'll trust you with all I've got. I'd even trust you with my bank account. You're the most honest person I've ever met. I can submit all my belongings to you and go away and not worry a minute. That's the best compliment anyone could ever pay you. And the best compliment you can ever make to God is, I believe God. I'll trust him with my soul for time. I'll trust him with my soul for eternity. And I'll trust him with what I've got down here. That pleases God. How many, as we notice, God is not well pleased. They lack faith and trust. You have the warning in verse twelve. You'll notice what it says there. Wherefore let him that think of these standards take heed left before. Don't go over these experiences of Israel and say, well, I wouldn't do that. Self-security is insecurity. Don't brag. And say, I wouldn't do that. I would, the first thing you know, you will, unless you know something of absolute trust in the living God and staying close to him. Temptation is not sin. Now you have that verse eleven or thirteen. There has no temptation taken you, but such as is common in that. Christians are going to be tempted, just like everybody else. God's not going to isolate his children from plagues if it comes through or from war if it comes or famines or floods. Christians also go through these experiences, just like the unseen, things that are common with man. How wonderful God is Satan. And you're going to be tempted. But remember, temptation is not sin. To yield is. There's a big difference. Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan in Matthew four. Three times Satan tempted the Lord Jesus, and three times he said, Satan, it's written. It's written. I can't go beyond the Word of God. Satan met that, Christ met that temptation head on. His reliance and a way of escape was the Bible. And you'll be tempted. I'll be tempted. And sometimes in areas where we feel we're pretty strong. But watch out. You can survive that temptation. You can get the victory over it. God has and will make a way of escape. If you're willing to look to him and trust him, he'll make a way of escape. For it says he is faithful. The Lord Jesus himself when he was here on earth. It says he was tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin. Christ didn't have a fallen sinful nature in him that could respond to certain types of sin. We do. We have a fallen nature that responds to certain things. Christ didn't have that fallen nature. He was fallen. So he didn't have that in him, that one, this and that, and the other thing, responding to temptation. But we have a fallen nature, and it's subtle, and the devil reduced. And if we're not careful, we will fall or submit to that temptation, and then it happens. It happens. But God is faithful. I don't know any sweeter words. God is faithful. He knows the limitations that we have. He knows our frame. He remembers that we're but dust. He can limit the intensity of the trial. He can say to those proud ways that oftentimes try to swamp our lives. Thus far shall thou come and know further, and here shall lie proud ways we stayed. Yes, then he can sustain us in the trial. He sustained the three Hebrew children in the furnace. He walked with them. He sustained Daniel in the lion's den by shutting the lion's mouth. Yes, he can make a way of escape. Sometimes God's way of escape, or rather even the temptations, comes to us, and I've never thought of this for years. When I was a boy... Oftentimes the mailman came with a black-edged envelope. Do you remember that? What did it mean? A sad message, death. Black-edged envelope. I remember up in Canada. Sometimes some of God's tests and trials come in a black-edged envelope. It's sad tidings, heavy tidings. Before you open it, there's a lump in your throat and a tremor in your heart. But God is faithful. With that black-edged envelope, there is the living God. God is faithful. He cannot deny himself, it says here. He will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able. He knows our faith. God is faithful, oh, that you would remember that Christian, and that no one's near you at a time when a black-edged envelope comes. If there's no one at your hand to tell you, God is faithful, tell yourself, God is faithful. He knows what you can say. He knows how much you can say, and He will, with that trial and temptation, make a way of a slave. Well, twice in this book we read about the plea. In verse chapter six and eighteen, plea for the king. In chapter fourteen, or verse ten, the first fourteen of chapter ten, the chapter we're reading in, he says, plea idolatry. Twice he uses the word plea. Plee fornication, flee idolatry. The twin evils of God's people down the ages. Idolatry leads to fornication. And God wants us to flee when temptation comes. The best escape is a good pair of feet on the king's highway. Flee. Like Jones. When he was tempted by Potomor's wife, he fled, and he left his robe in her hand. Like Lot, he fled because the judgment of God was coming down on Sodom and Gomorrah. Yes, he fled. Hesitantly, yes, but he fled. And then, twice in the New Testament you read these words by the Lord Jesus, flee from the wrath that comes. you better flee. Judgment's coming on this world. And the way of escape is to flee these things by coming to Christ for salvation. There's a little test tucked away in Proverbs thirty. The cronies are but a little folk, a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rock. If you read up on the little crony, it's a very little thing. animal, very feeble, it doesn't have anything of great defense, but it generally makes its house near a rock where there's a split in the rock, and just enough room where he can get in. And that little Coney has an enemy called the Fox, and the Fox is always on the lookout for a little Coney who wanders far enough away from his home. But the Coney... is on the lookout, standing off trying on his hind feet and peering around. If he sees something brown, he makes for the walk. The Komi are wise, God says, and they're feeble, but they make their house from the rock. And he gets in that rock, and the rock can be only six or eight inches away, snarling and showing his teeth, a little old Komi can shake. Boy, you can't bite the rock. The Coney saved. He made his house in the law. And friend, you can face the very teeth of the enemy. And all his force and power. If you're in Christ, you're saved. And he can't get you there. I wonder if you know what is the plea. There are a lot of things in the Bible about plea. The city of refuge is something we speak of. But Christ is the real estate. David said in Psalm one forty three nine, I flee unto thee to hide me. That's the best place to flee to. Maybe you don't have Christ to flee to. You may be unsaved this morning, and the greatest temptation and trial can come, and there's no escape for you unless you flee to Christ. In a certain university in this country and with its reclose, They had what they call a father's day, special father's day, where the fathers of the students met the professors. And so this father was finally introduced to the professor in algebra. He said, you know, my son, I'm glad to meet you. My son took algebra from you last year. The professor says, well, maybe he said I could correct that a little bit. Your son was exposed to algebra last year in my classroom, but he didn't take it. You are exposed to the gospel this morning. Are you going to take it? That's it. We're exposed to the politicians. But the time comes when either you're indifferent to both or you make your choice. You are exposed to this morning to the refuge that God has for a state and sinner alike. It's Christ, glorified. And friend, he has made a way of escape. You'll never be able to say God didn't make a provision. He has. And God says, flee to him. And don't hesitate. Time is short. It's running up. You're exposed this morning to God's salvation, and God's provision for you as a Christian, a way of escape from your trials and troubles. You're exposed to it. Are you going to change it? God help you right this minute, the closing seconds of this earth. Yes, I'll take Christ. I'll flee unto him to hide me, the wreckage of my soul. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven in the name of the Lord Jesus, we commend to thy presence. We ask thy blessing on thy words. May it please thee to use what has been said. May thy beloved people who are passing through deep waters of thumping or escaping, because thou hast provided an escape. We thank thee thou art open-armed and open-hearted, ready to welcome all who will flee to thee from hiding. Remember the unsafe. Oh, how to think. How can we think of people going out of these meetings unconverted, facing the storm that is to come and break soon upon this