Christian liberty is illustrated by the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, highlighting a five-fold blessing including divine guidance, deliverance, identification with Moses, spiritual sustenance, and spiritual drink from Christ. However, the sermon emphasizes that despite these blessings, many Israelites failed due to a "mixed multitude" who were not genuinely regenerated, leading to lust, idolatry, fornication, and murmuring. The core lesson is that outward religious experience or participation in blessings is insufficient; true salvation requires a regenerated heart and a genuine, ongoing relationship with God, as exemplified by Paul's self-discipline to avoid becoming "reprobate." The message concludes by urging listeners to examine themselves to ensure they are truly part of God's people, not just observers of religious activity, and to heed the warning that even those who think they stand must take heed lest they fall.
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We want to turn this morning in our Bibles to First Corinthians chapter ten, and we begin our reading at verse one. First Corinthians chapter ten, verse one. Nice to see some visitors in the audience, our brother Paul Siebert and his wife. Certainly nice to have them from that great Keystone state. that state where the water flows out of the rocks, out of whose hills you can dig iron and brass. Pretty much like the land of Canaan. Nice to have them with us this morning.
And nice to see our brother Jim Jones' daughter Rachel here. It's always good to see her and have her family as well. Now, First Corinthians This is a passage in the Word of God that needs to be considered and considered very seriously. Verse one, 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, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat 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, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters. as some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. I don't know of a verse in the Bible, beloved, that more describes our generation than that verse. The people sat down to eat and to drink and they rose up to play.
That is descriptive of our age. Then it says in verse eight, 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 also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples. and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.
There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is coming to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you or permit you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with a temptation also make a way to escape that he may be able to bear it. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his word. I'm going to ask our brother Paul Seber, if he will, to lead our hearts into the presence of the Lord. Brother Paul. When I see the blood When I see the blood When I see the blood When I see the blood When I see the blood I will rest, I will rest over you.
Thank you. Please proceed. Now, let us again look to the Lord in prayer. In the name of our word, Jesus, we ask thee, O God, that by the Spirit you would search our hearts and enable us this day to do what Peter wrote when he said, Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Grant that this may be our portion this morning as we wait upon thee for Jesus' sake.
Amen. We read thirteen verses this morning from First Corinthians chapter ten. We shall not be able to deal with all thirteen. I hope to get over the first five because this passage has a threefold way and there are three great movements in this passage and you have to grasp the whole of the passage to get a part of it. And you'll notice in the first five verses you have the liberty of the child of God, it is illustrated in the example of the Israelite nation in their redemption from Egypt.
You have a five-fold blessing. But then at the same time, you have a liberty abused in the next few verses, in verses six through ten, how they abused their liberty, and then you have a five-fold failure. There is five-fold blessing five-fold failure. Then in verses eleven through thirteen, Paul makes application to us today. He applies this word to us. Priority number one with every living soul on planet earth should be to make their calling and election sure, to be sure that they are born of God.
to be sure that we're in Christ. The first word of First Corinthians ten links us to the close of First Corinthians nine. The last verse in First Corinthians nine, Paul says, I keep under my body, and I bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a reprobate. And that's the way that word cast away is rendered in other parts of Scripture, the Greek word adakamas, used eight times in the New Testament. Now, the first word of chapter ten is, moreover, that could be translated for or because, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant.
In the closing verses of chapter nine, Paul sees this matter of eternal salvation as a life and death struggle. as something that just doesn't happen one time and then we can live any way we please and everything is going to come out all right in the end. No, Paul sees this as a life and a death struggle. There is an idea abroad today. Well, if I don't live the Christian life, at least I'm saved. I may miss out on a few rewards in eternity, but I'll get there. Well, First Corinthians chapter ten, the verses that we read together should dispel those notions from our hearts.
Anyone who has ideas like that does not have the regenerating spirit of God within. For regenerating grace results in the spirit of Christ living within us. A number of times I find myself dreaming and preaching while I'm dreaming. And it was so the other night. I was dreaming that I was preaching at a certain Bible camp. And when I got awake, the thing about it, I should not be able to write in my dreams many times because I dreamed some good sermons, but I can't remember them afterwards.
But you see, this night I remembered what I dreamed. And I told my friend David Morris about it the next morning. And he said, oh, that's one of the best illustrations I've ever heard. He said, are you ever going to use it? I said, yes, I'm going to use it. I believe that's why I dreamed it. And what I dreamed, I was dreaming about my parents. My mother was Reformed. My father was Lutheran. My mother brought up in Kimberling's Reformed Church. And just to the north of the... east of the city of Lebanon, it was a country church.
And when she was twelve years of age, as the normal custom is, she was taken into the pastor's catechismal class, and she was taught the Heidelberg Catechism of the Reformed Church. When she answered enough questions satisfactorily, she was then taken into the church. My father, on the other hand, was raised in Salem Lutheran Church, the old German Lutheran Church in the city of Lebanon. Their first pastor was Charles Frederick Muhlenberg, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. And Muhlenberg College is named after him.
When my father was twelve years of age, he went and he studied not the Heidelberg Catechism of the Reformed Church. studied the Augustinian Catechism of the Lutheran Church. And of course, I have my mother's Catechism at home. And when he answered enough questions satisfactorily, he was taken into the church. But neither one of them really were saved. They were catechized, but they weren't saved. So in my dream I said this. at this camp. I won't tell you which camp I was preaching at. I said, you see, we brethren don't do it that way.
What we do, we send our kids to camp when they're twelve years of age or thereabouts, and then they're decisions at a campfire. When I told this to my friend David Morris, he said, yeah, we Baptists are still different. He said, we Baptists In our families, when the children are about twelve years of age, we say it's about time that you go to the altar and you go forward and make your decisions. So you see, it doesn't matter whether you've come to the Reformed School of Theology, the Lutheran or the Baptists or the Brethren, it doesn't make any difference.
It is easy to become religious. It is something else to be regenerated. And that is a real message here in First Corinthians chapter ten. So the question must be, and by the way, I'm not against camp, by the way, going to camp. I'm not against going to camp. And I want to say I'm not against the catechism either. If I had to choose one of the four methods that I'd mentioned this morning, I'd choose the catechism. I believe you learn more.
I believe you're exposed to more. And I believe you get more of a system of, a more systematized method of instruction. However, that's a personal thing. But listen, what good is it if you're lost? My father was close to fifty years of age. He was a deacon in the church. He was close to fifty years of age when God said, in matchless grace revealed himself to him and showed him that he was lost and that he needed a Savior and that all his religion was useless and that the work of Christ was everything and he trusted Christ and came to know him as his own personal Lord and Savior you see Paul's argument in the end of chapter nine that illustrated vividly in chapter ten, it is an argument of himself.
I keep under my body, he says, and I bring it into subjection. And it becomes a reproof to the reckless and listless Corinthians as for they thought they could safely indulge themselves to the very verge of iniquity. And everything was all right. On the other hand, the Apostle saw this matter as a life and death struggle that never ended. So we want to look as we illustrate this now from chapter ten at the fivefold failure or the fivefold blessing of Israel. And then we want to ask a question. How could this happen?
How could this happen? You see, the emphasis in the opening word series on the word all, and that is to me the emphasis of the passage. It appears five times. And with every blessing that God gave to Israel, the word all is mentioned. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud. Blessing number one. All passed through the sea. Blessing number two. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Blessing number three.
They did all eat the same spiritual meat. Blessing number four. And did all drink the same spiritual drink. Blessing number five. So the word, the emphasis is on the word all. All our fathers left Egypt. is what he's saying. He's speaking of the redemption of the nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage. They all left Egypt. But you know it's a sad commentary that only two of the adults that left Egypt, who were over twenty years of age, entered the land of Canaan.
Joshua and Caleb. The others were overthrown in the wilderness. So we need to carefully examine this. We are living in a day of light attitudes toward the things of God. It is easier to make a joke of spiritual things than to know the reality and the power of them. And we need to look seriously at this. We are dealing with the souls of men. Your most important possession you have is your soul. Our Lord told this story in Luke twelve of the rich farmer.
The man who became so prosperous, he said, This is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and I'll build bigger barns. And when he had it all finished, he said, To his soul. You see, the problem is, He put the stamp on the wrong envelope. It's a foolish man who doesn't know the difference between his body and his soul. He said, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. He had nothing laid up for his soul. Everything was for his body. He didn't know the difference. May I ask you seriously this morning to you, do you know the difference between your body and your soul?
He said to himself, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Eat, drink, and be merry. Our Lord said to him, You fool. You are a fool. This night thy soul shall be required of these men who shall these things be. Do you know the difference? You might have much goods laid up for your body. But if you have nothing laid up for your soul, you are indeed a pauper. You see, all our father, all the fathers left Egypt, but only two entered the land of promise.
I'm sure that once the Israelites passed through the Red Sea and they stood on the other side of the Red Sea, they thought all our danger is over. And our entrance into the land of promise is secure. I'm sure they felt that way. But you see, there was a journey through the wilderness that would be set with dangers. And many perished because they thought there was no need of exertion. They perished in the wilderness. Now this is where the Corinthian church was at the time when Paul wrote. They thought, oh, I'm safe, I'm secure, nothing to worry about.
I can just leisurely flirt with the world. I can live like a world. And it doesn't make any difference. Sorry to say this is not only where the Corinthian church was when Paul wrote, this is where the church in the twentieth century is today. We can live like a world. It doesn't matter what God has said in His word. It doesn't matter what examples He's given unto us. We're going to do it our way. Well, now let's look at the five-fold blessing. You're going to miss this, the importance of this if you don't pay attention to the blessing. He says they were all under the cloud.
That means they were all divinely led. They were all divinely guided. The cloud that led the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage into the land of Canaan through the wilderness. It led them the whole way. In the hundred seventh psalm, in about the seventh verse we read, He led them forth by the right way. Now they thought it was the wrong way. But the scripture says, He led them forth by the right way. Why? That He might bring them. to a city of habitation. God's leading is the right way. So the first blessing they had was the blessing of the cloud, the presence of God.
It was the Shirkina glory cloud that continuously led the children of Israel. When the cloud moved, they moved as a camp, as an army. So they could all talk about why we are divinely guided. We are divinely led. They could all say that. everyone that came out of Egypt. The second thing we read, the second blessing, they all pass through the sea. In other words, this is divine deliverance. They could talk about deliverance through the sea. They were guided by the cloud in order that they might be delivered and emancipated from judgment.
They have been slaves in Egypt, but now they were delivered. Now they were emancipated. They were all under the cloud. They all passed through the sea. The third thing about them is they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. This is one of the greatest expressions in the New Testament for the understanding of what the New Testament church is. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. What does that mean? Well, if you take and get a lot of your ideas concerning mode of baptism out of your mind and you take all the passages that deal with baptism in the Bible and you come up with one word that fits them all.
It is a word identification. They were identified with Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They were all identified with him, you see. And when we consider that, they were unified under the leadership of Moses, and it constituted an assembly just like the Christian church today. There had been a group of slaves in Egypt, but now they are unified under the leadership of Moses. There is one head, and they are moving under his leadership.
Whether you know it or not, you cannot join the church. You cannot join the church. That's a strange statement to make to many people, but it's true. You can't join the church. The true church you can't join. I can't either. And neither can anyone else. It's impossible to join the true church. You are joined to the true church by baptism. Not water baptism either. We're not talking about water baptism.
I'm talking about that great verse over in First Corinthians twelve. In First Corinthians chapter twelve verse thirteen we read, For by one spirit were we all baptized. into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether we be bond or free. Entry into the Christian church is by baptism, not water baptism, but the baptism of the Spirit. Every person regenerated by the grace of God is made a member of the church of Jesus Christ. Now, beloved, all this took place long ago.
It took place on the day of Pentecost. It took place then, for it was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came, and He unified in the one body various believers under the headship of Jesus Christ. The head of the church is in heaven, and we are baptized by one Spirit. into one body. On the day of Pentecost, that one body was formed. And I was baptized into the church the same day that Peter was. Now that may sound strange to you, but I was.
The same day that Peter was baptized into the church I was. And if you're here this morning and you've been regenerated by the grace of God, you were too. It can't be any other way. Now let me illustrate it. In our passage here in First Corinthians ten, he says, ye were all baptized unto Moses, in the cloud and in the sea. Now, I want you to imagine an Israel-Ridish family Twenty years after the Red Sea experience. Twenty years are passed, and here's a mother.
She has two children in Israel. And in the camp of Israel, she takes these two children. I'm not going to give them names, but she takes these two children and she goes to Moses. And she says, Moses? I want you to take my two children, I want you to take them back to Egypt. I want my two children to have a Red Sea experience. That's what people are really saying today. I want a Pentecostal experience. I don't want to go back to the first century. I'm living in the twentieth century. Moses didn't take those children back and bring them to the Red Sea again.
Why not? Why, because when they were born into the Israelite nation, they became a partaker of all the past history of the Israelite nation. Now, let me illustrate that in another way. First John chapter five, verse twelve says, He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And the life that is speaking of there is eternal life. What is eternal life? It is a question that you have to face sooner or later.
What is it? It is life that has no beginning and it has no end. and you may say to me did you always have eternal life and I have to say no I did not have always have eternal life for there's a day that I was born into the family of God by the regenerating work of the Spirit of God well how can you say then that eternal life is life that had no beginning and it had no end this way when I was in Bermuda A number of years ago, I watched my friend David Oliveira. He has a beautiful citrus garden.
There are the grapefruit trees and the orange trees and those lemon trees and some other kinds. But I saw him take a skion from an orange tree. And then I saw him go to the... grapefruit tree and make a slit into the grapefruit tree put the skin of the orange tree into that grapefruit tree and then he took some tape and taped it so that it would remain firm until it took a hold and now that grapefruit tree is not only bearing grapefruit it is also bearing oranges now my idea is this was there a time when that orange tree was united to the grapefruit tree?
Yes. And when it was, it became a partaker of all the past history of the grapefruit tree. Was there a time when I was united to Jesus Christ by regenerating grace? Yes. It is called the new birth in the Bible. And when I came into Christ, I became a possessor of eternal life, and I am a partaker of all the past history, of the eternity of God, because I'm in Christ Jesus, His Son. I don't need to go back and have a Pentecostal experience.
I came into the good of it. the day that God regenerated me by the Spirit of God. What a passage you see. Israel became a nation and a community at the Red Sea when they were unified under Moses. And you and I, when we're joined to Jesus Christ, we become members of a holy nation. First Peter two nine, ye are a chosen generation. A holy nation. A royal priesthood. Did I say two-nine? I think it's two-file. First Peter chapter two, verse five.
But then blessing number four. It says here they all ate the same spiritual meat. And we're talking here about the manna. The manna that God gave Israel every morning. I don't know if you've ever taken time out to imagine what it was like. He gave them bread to eat. Every morning, Bishop Pike, the Anglican bishop, who was searching for the real Jesus, you know, who denied his virgin birth, who denied the supernatural works of the Word of God. He was over in the area of Sinai searching, and he couldn't live three days.
And God kept a multitude of millions alive there for forty years. He fed them. Did you ever have about twenty people coming for dinner? You ladies, did you get nervous about it? God had a couple millions to feed every day. He fed them with manna. Now the miracle is not that God provided the manna. But you see, every sixth day he had twice as much there. And there wasn't any on the seventh day. And he did it consistently for forty years. And when they entered the land of Canaan and they partook of the old corn of the land according to the book of Joshua, the menna stopped that very day.
The menna stopped that very day. They all ate the same spiritual meat. Why is it called spiritual meat? It was spiritual because they could not provide it. Israel couldn't provide it. Israel couldn't not determine its source, only that it came from God. In other words, they were fed materially by that which God gave them. It was called spiritual, for the food was derived from the Spirit. And it is God, the Spirit who renews us and regenerates us. and also sanctifies us.
Now, it says, blessing number five, they all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. The smiting of the rock and the giving of water to Israel is recorded in Exodus chapter seventeen. It's one of the most beautiful messages of the gospel that you'll find anywhere in Scripture. Israel needed water to drink. Our Lord said in his earthly life, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. God said to Moses, I want you to take the rod in your hand that you used to smite the waters of Egypt.
The waters became blood. It was a rod of judgment. And he says, I'm going to stand before you there on a rock in horror. Exodus seventeen, all spend time with this passage. I'm going to stand before you on the rock in Horeb and I read in second Corinthians five that God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them speaking of Calvary's cross and there God stood on the rock in Horeb Moses smote the rock just as men smited with a rod of judgment And out of that rock that was smitten flowed the waters that Israel needed.
It quenched their thirst. And, beloved, what a picture of the gospel. At the cross on Calvary's hill. It was there that God took sin and laid it on his son. He became sin for us. We read in two Corinthians five, verse twenty one. God hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. It was God at Calvary's Cross who did a work that no one else could do. We sing occasionally at the Lord's Supper. All my sins were laid upon him. Jesus bore them on the tree. God who knew them laid them on him and believing I am free.
Our Lord cries, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. They all drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Oh, my friend, have you ever come to Christ for a drink? Have you ever come to Him as a thirsty, guilty sinner? Boonar wrote those precious words. I heard the voice of Jesus say, Behold, I freely give. The living water, thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live. I came to Jesus and I drank.
Of that life-giving stream, my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him. After all those blessings, Five of them. None of them were the result of their own effort. God did it all. The feeling we get is this, when you read this passage, How can a people so privileged fail? Verse five tells us, Notice, with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. When you look at a five-fold failure, which we don't have, let me just mention it.
First of all, there was lust, there was idolatry, there was fornication, there was unbelief, and there was murmuring. A five-fold failure. How could this happen? How could this happen? Could it happen today? Could this be true with us as well as with them? Yes. This is why we're called upon the self-examination. And the passage where we find that word Adakamas in Second Corinthians thirteen, three times it appears there. It is in the context of examine yourselves to be sure that you're in the faith. How did this happen to Israel?
I'd like you to turn now to two passages in the Old Testament. Exodus chapter twelve, we just want to read one passage. in Exodus chapter twelve and then one verse from Numbers chapter eleven in Exodus chapter twelve now I've done a lot of quoting this morning but I want you to read this for yourself Exodus chapter twelve verse thirty eight we read this and there are two words that I would have you underlined and a mixed multitude I would underline that word mixed multitude went up also with them and flocks and herds even very much cattle.
A mixed multitude. Now I go over to the book of Numbers, just two books on Numbers chapter eleven, verse four, where we read this. And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We're tired of bread. We want some meat. We want flesh. But notice the mixed multitude. Who were they? Who was the mixed multitude? Now notice they enjoyed the blessing. The mixed multitude could boast about being led of God.
The mixed multitude could say, My, I remember going through the Red Sea. What an experience it was. They could talk about it. And there are multitudes of people today who can talk about religious things. But when it really gets down to it, their lives have never been regenerated by the grace of God. So that from the heart you serve him, the mixed multitude that was among them fellow-lusting. They enjoyed all the blessings. They could talk about the miracles that they had observed. But the problem with the mixed multitude, they weren't genuine. They never knew the regenerating grace of God.
Oh, friends, why is this here? It says down at verse twelve, it says, Let him that thinketh he sendeth. Do you have an idea today that you're okay in the sight of God? May I say this, I hope you are. But listen, in case you're not, in case you're not, what then? What then? Do you have that inner desire to please God from the heart? That which drives you spiritually, that would enable you to say, I keep under my body and I bring it into subjection.
I'm not just playing with this thing called religion or playing church. I mean business with God. Do you have that? The mixed multitude had everything. But regenerating grace. I ask you, my dear friend, is this a reality with you? There was a five-fold blessing. They could all talk about it. But oh, the failure. The mixed multitude. They weren't genuine. You see, the test came in the wilderness. And when the test comes, where is it? I find to my sad displeasure, many today who are willing to adopt all the ways of the world.
But when God's word asks for something very simple, we throw up our hands, it doesn't mean that. And we make every excuse to disobey God. The believing multitudes beloved here is a passage that is written for us it happened unto them and it's an example to us in order that we may know that for the child of God the genuine believer there is always a way of escape that we'll be able to stand every test every trial that comes along the way and we'll know that joy are walking with the Lord day by day.
In closing, a real question, are you genuinely among the people of God? You can't join the church. Nobody can. You can join the visible church. That doesn't mean a thing. But to be joined to Jesus Christ, that's everything. And beloved, it's the only thing that really counts. Let's sing together one stanza of a hymn. Three hundred fifty-seven. Three hundred fifty-six it is.
Excuse me. I think. Three hundred fifty-six. We're going to stand and sing just one stanza of three hundred fifty-six, but let's pray first. Our Father, now in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we sing this hymn together, enable us, O God, to search our souls. Do we really have room for Christ? Seems we have room for everything else. Is he really Lord in our lives? Search us, O God, for Jesus' sake.
Amen. Let's sing one stanza, three hundred fifty-six. Let's stand together and sing.