Unity In Covenantal Confidence Pastor Brandon F Smith

we pray amen you'll open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 while you're turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 I just want to make note I meant to say this before we started this morning in your order of worship um I will go back to Exodus 32 uh in in my message uh I don't know if we'll turn there or not but I'll say some things from there but that's a passage that ought to show us how the people of God went against God after his direct direct movement in their lives to pull them out of Egypt and then they just directly went against him well in response and answer to that was Christ is made the sure Foundation what should our response be not our foundation in ourselves to make our own images or Idols but Christ has made the sure Foundation Psalm 106 reminds us of how God ought to be praised in spite of everything that the people of Israel did in our sin and how we've done our response Rock of Ages Christ is the Rock of Ages so I meant to say that before just so sometimes you you're not aware of of my thinking or the elders as we talk about these things kind of where our minds are in uh in putting the the worship together um but we try to think through those things to get you to draw off of scripture and what's taking place even in our singing well 1 Corinthians chapter 10 U I'm going to begin reading from verse one for I do not want you to be unaware Brethren that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they were drinking from a spiritual Rock which followed them and The Rock was Christ nevertheless with most of them God was not well pleased for they were laid low in the wilderness now these things happened as examples for us so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved do not be idolators as some of them were as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play nor let us act immorally as some of them did and 23,000 fell in one day nor let us try the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed by the serpents nor Grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come many people are aware of the Spanish American philosopher George santti an's quote concerning the study of history those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it and yet there was another novelist Michael kryon reportedly reflected on the importance of history in this way if you don't know history then you don't know anything you are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree George Orwell expressed from the negative how important history is for people societies and communities the most effective way he said to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history any Pastor Theologian or Professor who seeks to divide and Destroy Christianity from its historic past expressly revealed and defined in the Bible will ultimately divorce himself and his listeners from the historic covenantal gospel in the Lord Jesus Christ we must not divorce ourselves from the old test Testament its covenantal Revelation and the history of mankind it provides nor should we divorce ourselves from its precepts properly understood in their covenantal context modern man has no business changing the testimonies and precepts of the almighty God people are forever responsible to submit to God God's word or face the scriptures historic truths in present denial Andor future condemnation the thought of that future condemnation is sobering yet God has been gracious to reveal the one and only hope the one and only salvation from condemning sinfulness in this present age that it has come through his one and only begotten son if we divorce ourselves from the whole of God's word and put it into portions and take more than half of God's word and put it away we will divorce ourselves from the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ so do not turn away or reject your only hope to be free from the bondage and consequences of sin furthermore for believers we must not chisel away at these truths either but we must continue to learn from historic biblical Christianity for the rest of our lives as we will see this morning here lies the issue of the Corinthian Church and it is still an issue today the church Desiring to divorce it itself from historic Christianity it's sad to me that we live in a day and an age where even inside supposed Christian churches many are doing away with great portions of the scripture and saying it's Jesus only when Jesus was the one who taught us how to understand the whole of the Bible and he even met with those after his Resurrection to teach them of himself in all of the scriptures and we want to somehow take great portions of the scripture and do away with them before we do that and before we become new Co Covenant or new testament Christians only we might want to read 1 Corinthians 10 the main theme this morning Corinth needed unity in covenantal confidence the idea of unity has been the main theme of multiple messages leading up to this point and we've come to chapter 10 and its main theme Corinth needed unity in covenantal confidence many times people have confidence in different ideas and objects of life Paul implores the Corinthians to place their confidence in the Eternal and historic Covenant in Christ instead of confidence in their personal spiritual gifts and newly learned knowledge of Christ as one old historic Baptist Theologian put it the Apostle cautions the Corinthians against Security on account of their gifts that's coming up in later chapters all their spiritual gifts look at what we got look at what we can do watch us with our gifts here we go woo woo woo woo Paul's already warning them don't take your new knowledge and your special gifts and put them in a higher Place why this old Baptist writer goes on and says since men of Great Character and in those men enjoyed High privileges they fell into sin and they were severely punished Paul particularly cautions them if it happened to them can it not happen to us Paul's caution comes from a historic covenantal position that's important to see here the idea I'm a new testament Christian I'm a Jesus Christian whatever that means that can mean a whole lot of stuff Paul here says no no no this is about standing your Covenant in me and that Covenant has been worked out through all of time space and history and in time it was worked out over decades and centuries and Millennia and to walk away from that means that you will soon forget what you were saved from and you'll soon forget that you even had a problem to begin with and that's the problem in Corinth and it's it's often the problem in the church today Paul knows that the Israelites of old lived and walked under the promises and special privileges of the Covenant in their day and yet many of them fell to idolatry and died in the wilderness before they could inherit the promised land therefore he uses the historic covenantal church of Israel as his best illust rtion to the present Church in Corinth isn't that interesting Paul didn't come up with some new fangled Roman thing to do here when he's trying to instruct the church properly this is not like he's walking into Athens and he's trying to to reach the masses no he's writing a letter to a local church and he's wanting the local church Jew and Gentile alike to understand its historic background in Covenant in all of Christ and who he is so he chooses the best illustration to present the church's problem he pursues the thought according to one historic pastor and improves it to the use of the Corinthians that they on account of their high attainments should not shrink themselves secure of all danger and for this this purpose sets before them the instances and examples of the Jewish fathers he goes on to say this is for the purpose of showing them if you're not careful the way you're headed is the way they headed in that day and it was problematic well under our main theme Corinth needed unity in covenantal confidence letter A remember the Disobedience of Israel before Jesus Remember the Disobedience of Israel before Jesus now I'm speaking of Jesus's coming in time I'm not speaking of his being here I want to make that clear and not only to you but for La La Land out there I am speaking of Jesus coming in time here remember the Disobedience of Israel before Jesus because now Paul is dealing with the Disobedience that's going on in Corinth after Jesus had come in time so to try to solve that problem he's drawing them back to a time to remember the their covenantal history in all of Israel and he's saying you're tied to that covenantal history you may be a gentile but you have a tie to that and that tie is in Christ number number one under letter A Paul warns them not to be unaware of their background Paul warns them not to be unaware of their background he says you know what you need to remember God ordered a a specific people from the line of Abraham he's bringing up Israel here talking about the fathers well the people that Moses was leading was the people that came from line of Abraham he's pointing them back and giving them this Grand View of History to say there's a connection here God had a specific people Israel has its problem but where did Israel come from the line of Abraham but being of the line of Abraham and over time being moved to Egypt they had been forgotten even the fathers had been forgotten even Joseph was no longer remembered among the people of Egypt and all of the good that God had used him to do even for the people of Egypt themselves so to bring that remembrance back not only for the people of God but even to the condemnation of Egypt God ordered them under the leadership of Moses he ordered a specific line from Abraham and God ordered them under the leadership of Moses and here is where we find Paul specifically going to to say they were all in Moses they were all under his leadership the idea of them being baptized into Moses is being under his leadership it was Moses who gave them leadership to the right spiritual food it was Moses who taught them to lean on God's provision physically and spiritually God was Moses person and purpose in the context of the covenantal people even under Moses God gave them a law God ordered them to be guided and guarded under his moral ceremonial and civil laws God ordered them to be guided and guarded under his moral ceremonial and civil laws the moral law it was binding for all people in all time Israel was to love that law day and night in gratitude to The God Who set them apart as his people they were to be the ones to show the rest of the Nations this is what it means to live under God that we would love his law and in the first table of that law we would love him with everything we have and we would not fashion Idols it makes you understand why Exodus 32 become such a serious problem they were a people set up apart by Covenant God promised to keep them God promised to Shepherd them God promised that he would not lose them God was the one that cut the pieces of the animals and walked in between them and that people was to love the moral law of God and especially the first table that would inform the second table because they were to be the display to the whole of the world this is what it's to look like if you say you love God here's what it looks like you worship this one God and this one God only you make no other images of any other gods but you have this one God that you Worship in spirit and his truth that moral law being being binding to all people they were to be a display of that law and they were to be a display of living it out before the Nations that they would love the Lord their God with all their heart their soul their mind and their strength and love their neighbor as themselves and being that peculiar people not only had God giving them given them a guiding and guarding moral law which was for all people he gave them a very specific ceremonial law in its peculiar ceremonies and legalities it was binding for a particular time frame to reveal the mercy of God to tell his people what pleases him in worship and daily living it's one of the biggest questions we often ask isn't it what do I do to please God how do I know that I have pleased god well this is what God did and the ceremonial law for the people of Israel he said you know what I know this is going to be your issue I know this is going to be one of your problems so I'm going to give you a very particular and peculiar ceremonial law to be outlined for you so you can do what is pleasing now that was not binding to all people at all times in the same way it was to the people of Israel but it was binding to them because they were the Covenant people but the ceremony of law in and of itself was never meant to be a law that stayed the test of time because of who Christ is and was and what he would do and what he is doing yet what's interesting is is is that sometimes we've written off the ceremonial law as though it has no connection to us today but these peculiar ceremonies and daily laws reveal underlying precepts and principles that must not be abrogated think about it we may not be commanded to worship God by an animal sacrifice but we are commanded to worship God according ording to his New Covenant Commandments in Christ we are commanded to be under the preaching of the word in order to worship God we are commanded to have public prayer in the worship of God we are commanded to sing Psalms hymns and spiritual songs in the public worship of God we are commanded to give and that is to be a part of our public worship of God we are commanded to the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper we don't we no longer sacrifice an animal but we do have Commandments that are given to us to worship God God did not say you know what I gave Israel those peculiar things to do and now that Christ has fulfilled all that now I don't give you any more Commandments just go worship me however you want that's not what he did so even though the peculiar of that ceremonial law may be uh you know fulfilled it's not done away that there's not Commandments even in worship there replaces in ceremonial law or even civil law especially civil law that we look at things and we say well that's odd they were commanded to Stone a child to death for Disobedience and disrespect to their parents Leviticus 29 and Deuteronomy 211 18- 21 we may not Stone our children for disob direct Disobedience and disrespect today but you know what the scripture doesn't take away the importance of disciplining children the scripture teaches that a failure to discipline children in the ways of the Lord will become Folly for the child and for the parents Deuteronomy 11:2 Proverbs 1 and 8 Proverbs 311 12 4 and 1 12 and 1 13 and 1 8 24 19 18 and 20 proverbs 226 Proverbs 22:15 23 12-4 29517 Ephesians 6 Colossians 2 even Revelation 3:19 and Hebrews 128 give us a context to understand that a child that is not disciplined is not loved we may not Stone our children today but there was a precept there for the people of God that discipline was a good thing for children and not to discipline them was unhelpful to the child and disregarding of teaching them how God was to be in their life so you see even though those ceremonial laws and those civil laws they have peculiarity to them that we may not uh work them out the same way now in under the New Covenant those things inform the New Covenant that we don't walk away from these principles and these precepts those principles and precepts are underlining and they are giring underneath what we understand as Christian Living today if a young couple is about to have a child and they ask me what do we need to do you need to raise your child in the admonition of the Lord you need to be willing to discipline your child or you're not being helpful to your child you're actually disregarding the Commandment of God if you will not Discipline Your Child in a Godly way and raise them in the admonition of the Lord you see these things aren't just odd things and peculiar things they stoned their children to death now we have no record that that actually ever happened probably because that law was read in the synagogue I bet you there were some children that went it probably was a big deterrent kind of like the death penalty would be if we used it rightly sorry there's a reason that's there see sounds archaic put somebody to death for murdering somebody when they just shot him and killed him and chopped them into pieces gee why would we put them to death that sounds so archaic no you do it for the discipline of the culture and the society and the community to teach people you know what you murder God's creation his human Creation in that way the one who was created in His image so you shall be put to death and the culture goes wow I don't think I'm going to move to that as regularly as I normally would Paul's using these things things in the background in the positive sense of the law to remind them you were under Moses this was your spiritual food this was what you ate from this is what you drank from and what happened Christ came and fulfilled it all because the people of Israel didn't live it rightly and when he fulfilled it all it didn't abgate it what it did is it made it more Central in the context of the changed heart the regenerate person Desiring and loving and meditating on the law of God enjoying it being thankful for Holiness being thankful for the ability to go to our high priest and repent of our sin Corinth is becoming so works-based and even worse Works based in their own liberty well I've got my Liberty to do this so I'll just do it when I want and I'll just do it in your face and you'll just have to suck it up and live with it cuz I'm in Christ and then the person that comes along and on the other side whs against Liberty you can't do that that's sin you got these two clashes happening and Paul is saying you guys are forgetting the covenantal background here Christ fulfilled the whole of the law use your Liberty but use it thoughtfully and kindly those of you who are prone to legalism where everything's black and white in your mind learn to be gracious just as your brother who has Liberty needs to learn to be gracious Paul reminds them of the Folly of their background but secondly Paul reminds them of the Folly in their Covenant background now first of all I want us to see that the fly of Israel was not without purpose if you read all of the struggles of the nation Israel and you leave them to themselves you go God what a bunch of idiots I mean look at these people they're so dumb and so stupid God did all of these good things for them and they just continued to Rebel time and time and time again they grumbled here they fought against this over and over and over again and we just read it and really quite frankly we read it self-righteously I'm a New Covenant Christian I would never do such things that self-righteousness Paul's telling them to read the Old Testament and realize I got the same problems I have the same heart issue no I didn't make a golden calf but I've got lots of idols this is why in verse six he says now these things happened as examples for us don't ever read the Old Testament look back at it and go well that's archaic that's old that doesn't help anybody those people are a bunch of idiots they're stupid I don't even know what they were thinking I'm so much better than they are no Paul says you can't read it that way and if you do then you're blind Paul says now these things happened as example examples for us so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved remember this morning we were ending Bible study we got to the point we just briefly talked about the importance of discerning between good and evil things and that's what maturity in Christ did it gives you the the ability to discern between good and evil this is why Paul is going to say to the church at Corinth you got a maturity problem Hebrew listener you got a maturity problem Church in Corinth you got a maturity problem because in your maturation you've not come to a place to be able to discern between good and evil he says don't read this past stuff and not see that it was here for a purpose the Folly of Israel was not without purpose these occurrences revealed the depth of remaining flesh there there are some people in the room you you've been professing Believers in Christ for a really really really long time I'm not asking you to raise your hand but I just want you to think how many of you are already perfect how many of you are anywhere close these things are to be a lesson to us that remaining sin can be deep and it can cause great trial and struggle in our own lives we live in a day and age where even our personalities now are being subjected to the idea of well it's just my personality I don't have to really deal with that no our personalities have sinful proclivities to them and you need to start Discerning and I need to start Discerning what sinful proclivities my personality may have in it some things aren't just a medical condition it's possible there's medical issues there it's possible there may be needs for certain medicines that's possible but the root problem is a sin problem because you wouldn't have any of those problems in your personality if sin wasn't first and foremost the root a flesh itself and even in The Believer remaining flesh if you've gotten to a place in your Christian Life where you've begun to take certain portions of your life and reconcile them by saying well that's just who I am and you're no longer dealing with the sinful part of that that's not walking in Christ you see that's really one of the core issues for the church at Corinth he's saying you guys have some serious remaining flesh issues and you're not dealing with those and therefore when you're not dealing with those you on all these different sides now you're just taking whatever Liberty you have or whatever Liberty you don't think someone else has and you're clashing with one another over those things instead of recognizing asking myself or asking yourself where where is my sin in this so the Folly of isra the Folly of Israel is not without purpose the Folly of Israel was idolatry of the heart now we look at uh at Exodus CH 32 and we say they worshiped a a human-made golden calf that's a physical problem well it is a physical problem they made a golden calf and we don't have time to turn there and read the whole chapter um but you'll note after the section that was read to you this morning in the first section not only did God want to deal with them for fashioning the golden calf but it's it's interesting that how all of that came about is Aaron said after the people came to him we don't know where Moses is Aaron says okay well just start giving me your gold stuff and Aaron fashioned that's the word in the scripture he fashioned it it's a similar word to God making man from the dust Aaron fashioned the golden calf and then later when questioned about it he says well I just threw this gold in the fire and boom this calf came out Aaron's problem was that he didn't want to deal with his own sin and it wasn't that he just made the golden calf it was a heart problem instead of looking to the people when they were saying we don't know where Moses is Aaron as the priest in its in his context should have been saying to the people wait be patient have we not already seen what God has done be patient instead Aaron says well I'll solve this problem real quick I'll get everybody settled down because it sounds like y'all about to be upset and I hate for people to be upset so you know what I'll just solve it real quick just give me all your go real quick with fashion little thing here we'll get it done and y'all can all dance around and sing and play and it says and they played what what does that mean he said 'I wanted to give you back to entertainment because I know entertainment will help you cope this is what the modern culture does to you education systems falling apart we keep throwing money at it Camp seem to figure all of it out but you know what we can pay a guy to throw a football a hundred million in a year $50 million $60 million the culture doesn't get the problem why cuz they're entertaining themselves to death the church is doing something similar and Paul says you know what you guys are forgetting this is a heart problem they formed the calf because they had a heart problem they reveal they reveled in Pagan fertility rituals I'm going down through this list here from verse 7 uh down to to 10 or so and this is what he's bringing back up before them this is a historic problem they reveled in Pagan fertility rituals numbers 25 they tested God by unthankfulness for his Provisions numbers 21 4-9 they grumbled against God's leadership in the wilderness numbers 16 14 28-30 now there's a couple things that you need to note from that first of all note in each one of those the people of Israel were doing something directly against God's command you know what we do most of the time we read sections like that and especially what happens in the modern Church they read sections of scripture like this proposed right here and you know what they do God was so mean he killed those people they grumbled against him and he sent serpents to bite them and many of them died they went off in sexual immorality and Pagan rituals that they were told specifically not to get involved in because all those Pagan rituals would contribute to multiple physical and emotional problems God was protecting them from physical and emot things but he was also protecting them in Holiness but they did it anyway most people are more upset that God killed somebody than they are at what the people actually did the reason sexual IM immorality is such a problem is first of all it goes against God's direct context of what he is meant for marriage marriage between one man and one woman is to solve a greater problem a in covenantal relationship and B for the whole of society many many sexual sins lead to sexual diseases for a while psychiatrist and so sociologists were finding out what a problem sexual sin was for the culture when they would interview women who had been through multiple sexual issues with people of the opposite sex or the same sex it was not just the issue of diseases but emotionally these women were scarred for decades upon decades because of the multiple partners they had had men were scarred to the point that they no longer thought of committing to another woman because they got their thrill God doesn't just have some ndo well issue he's trying to solve he's saving people from themselves when he commands things such as stay away from sexual immorality interesting that he brought that up as an Old Testament issue right he's reminding them of what happened to the people in the Old Testament why because they've had the same thing going on inside the church modern culture has now decided sexual issues are not to be dealt with just let people be free and they'll be fine if you ask the porn star or the sex worker how fine they are if they are honest with you they are not fine they may be in denial but they'll come a day where they're broken ask the woman who's had an abortion if she's fine she's never fine can she be forgiven amen yes she can in Christ Jesus forgiven forever eternally if that happened to you in your past and you took part in that you seek the Forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ and he will love you forever that sin will be forgiven in him young men and young women God is trying to guard you Paul is doing this for the good of the church he's reminding them this is not the first time this stuff has come up there's a Heritage there's a background in the Covenant don't think you can solve all these problems that you can just let sexual immorality go and it not being an issue no God's already shown it's an issue and ultimately he comes to a place to say to them they grumbled against God's leadership in the wilderness are you Corinth now grumbling against God's leadership through his son the Lord Jesus leads us to let her see the Folly of Israel is our Folly in the present Church the Folly of Israel is our Folly in the present church under this heading I just have four questions my goal is not to answer those questions this morning my goal is to to leave you with these four questions to move to our observations have we not worshiped or fashioned our own Idols have we not worshiped or fashioned our own Idols in the modern church today have we not reveled in physical and mental sexual sin even in the present Church chur today have we not been unthankful for God's Provisions have we not grumbled against God it's happened in the modern church and it's happened in our lives how many times has something gone a particular way and it wasn't the way I wanted it to go and I grumbled against it thinking I was just grumbling against a thing but what am I actually grumbling against God's Providence God's sovereignty I didn't want it to happen that way I didn't want it to go that way that's not the way I wanted it to go me me I I and God says well just like the nation of Israel the Providence for them had a purpose even their Folly and sin had a purpose so it is for you your Providence has a purpose your Folly in sin has a purpose the question is who will it cause us to focus on society and culture says focus on yourself we've figured out many different ways to come about that but now it it it's all over the internet I mean you can just watch it all the time I've learned to focus on myself I've learned to give myself a chance to love myself I've learned to take this opportunity for myself to be more about myself am I kidding am I lying it's there ain't it you see I know that's bad English sorry that's bad isn't it you it's bad it's there I'll leave you with these three observations and the heading for each of these three is stop focusing on loving yourself and return to Christ number one Remember The Obedience of Jesus Remember The Obedience of Jesus you cannot solve your own sin problem even in the nation of Israel Moses was simply a type of Christ he was to be a type but at the end of Moses's life who did Moses need did Moses need himself or did he need Christ because even Moses in his last days sinned against God in his anger and he didn't get to see the physical Promised Land but who kept him for all eternity the Messiah the Messiah was Aaron not one of God's children and yet he sinned against God in multiple ways was there forgiveness for Aaron in Leading the People astray and worship who was it in the Messiah Remember The Obedience of Jesus because your obedience does nothing you cannot save yourself remember the call to follow Jesus it's a simple call that Paul is trying to call upon the Church of Corinth return to Christ stop thinking about yourselves you've made your Liberty your God you've made your legalism your God you've made this your God you've made that your God return to Christ fine if if you're okay with eating meat that had been service for Idols do that but if you got a brother who you love in Christ and and for some reason they're really struggling and they're weak in it can you not be thoughtful about your brother H how would your lord and savior treat your brother probably wouldn't eat that meat in front of him and then over time he would graciously try to teach that brother here's what the word says lastly remember the call to glorify God in Jesus you want to know how to glorify God glorify him in the Rock which is Christ and what Christ gives to us we follow but what Christ has done for us is he has brought all of this together in his fulfillment so that we will not forget it don't be like Corinth and throw away our heritage don't be like Corinth and divorce yourself from the covenantal heritage of the people of Israel listen to Paul take it in its context and remember it it has its purpose even though George santiana was an atheist he had a good observation those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it let's not do as the nation Israel did and walk away to ourselves let's turn to Christ let's pray our heavenly father be merciful to us in this time at your table that we would think about our sin coming before you through your son the Lord Jesus us Lord please help us to confess our self-righteousness to confess our ignorance to confess our outright Rebellion against your word your commands and to do so coming only recognizing the broken body and the shed blood of your son it's in his name we pray amen Stand [Music] Together strien SM [Music] see him on Thee the Christ and rejected yes my soul theed Propet David son David's by his son God has spoken the true and faithful word tell me hear [Music] him insting his distress hands raed to [Music]