According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): Every so often you read of an athlete who is disqualified from a race. Sometimes because of a performance-enhancing drug, other times for receiving aid during a race. Today on According to the Scriptures, Pastor Damian Kyle will take a look at some of the sins that can disqualify us and lead us to becoming a castaway.

The children of Israel in Old Testament times made these mistakes and we would do well to learn from them so it's not repeated in our own lives. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 starting at verse four.

Damian Kyle: The fifth privilege that Paul reminds us of here in verse four is that they all drank of the same spiritual drink. This speaks of the rock that Moses struck under God's instruction there in the wilderness and then to supernaturally supply for the physical thirst that the children of Israel were experiencing in Exodus chapter 17. The Lord said to Moses, "Go on before the people, take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock and the water will come out that the people may drink." And so God did in the sight of the elders of Israel.

And all through their journeys, 40 years of wandering in that wilderness. In any trip to Israel, we spend a short period of time in what is the Judean wilderness and it's pretty barren. It's what most people think all of Israel is. Israel is like California. You've got forests in the north. You've got a central valley that runs right along it with the Jordan Valley that runs on the east side of it and very, very productive flat land and crops in the center part of it. It's got an entire West Coast, sea coast, beautiful.

But you get out there even in the Judean wilderness, which isn't very far from Jerusalem and from greenery and this kind of thing, and you realize two to three million people out in the middle of here? But then if you go down into the Negev—I've never been down in the Negev. One time Karen and I took a flight. We flew from Tel Aviv into Eilat down in the south and so we were able to look out the window. It was a very, very small plane and Karen, she got the window seat. I tried everything I could to guilt her out of that window seat and she was unbudging. Who remembers? I hardly remember it. It's hardly a root of bitterness at all in my life.

But I was glad for her to do that, but I kept looking around her to see it. You look and you say, if you're out there, two to three million people, one person out there without a supernatural supply you are a goner. And yet God provided them with the water that they needed. Here for us, the superior blessing in this regard that we have under the new covenant is every Christian and even the Christians there at Corinth had an even greater source of spiritual water found in Jesus.

My spiritual thirst, not only my spiritual hunger but my spiritual thirst is fully satisfied when I put my faith in Christ. Just supernaturally realize I am home. This is the meaning and the purpose of life. This is what life is intended to be. You remember when Jesus spoke to the woman at the well in John chapter four? He said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water," talking about the water in the well, the physical water, "they're going to thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst."

She can only think in physical related to it. Jesus said, "But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." In other words, He so satisfies our lives spiritually and our spiritual thirst and He so fills us in, not only He satisfies that thirst within us, but that living water that He brings into our life overflows our life. We become a human drinking fountain in a spiritually thirsty world that we live in. An overflow that people say, "You know, when I run into that person, I'm refreshed. I can't put my finger on it why, but I kind of like being around them." They're getting this overflow of this satisfaction in our lives and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and we've found it to be true.

Now you look at that history that he lays out in these five verses here that the children of Israel had with God and you think to yourself, now that is quite a history to have with God. And then to get us to stop and think, this is quite a history that we have with God. God has done in each one of those five areas, He has done an even greater miracle in our lives. A lot of privileges for each and every one of them as the children of Israel that they experienced with God at that time.

Redeemed from Egypt, experiencing the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, being led by Moses himself, being fed by manna, being supernaturally supplied with water for decades. And yet he says to us in verse five that with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. In fact, all but two over the age of 20 years old of that generation would become castaways.

They would become disqualified in one way or another out of a group of God's people numbering between two to three million. Only Joshua and Caleb entered the promised land from that generation. You say, "What in the world could cause that to happen? What in the world could cause an entire generation—not pagans—an entire generation of God's people who experience these kind of privileges to end up disqualified or as castaways?" It's a one-word answer: sin. Sin is what accomplished it.

So that's why he goes on then in verses six through eleven and he lists the sins that in the course of their pilgrimage took them by the hand and then led them into a life of disqualification. In doing so, he's warning us that these same sins are active today, endeavoring to take us by the hand and to lead us into disqualification in God's call upon our life and His purposes in our own Christian life and race. He lists the first one that endeavors to do so in verse six and it is lust.

Their lives warn us of the danger of lust. It's all-encompassing here, the danger of strong desire for what is outside of God's will for my life as is defined in the scriptures. What is prohibited by God to be a part of our lives. The story related to this is told in Numbers chapter 11. You remember they wanted meat rather than manna. "Manna, all we get is manna, manna, manna, manna. I'm so sick of this manna. What I'd like to have is just some cucumbers and some melons and leeks and onions and garlic."

Here they are, they begin to complain and to cry out against God's provision for them and they elevated in this case the lust of their flesh for food above God's plan and purposes for their lives. But it speaks of any lust in our lives that's prohibited and we would elevate above God's plan and purposes for our lives. Like many other Christians there in the church of Corinth, their God was their belly. It was their physical appetite, kind of like Esau in the Old Testament. One of the worst bargains—if you think the Native Americans gave away Manhattan too cheaply however many years ago, for just these trinkets and these little things and baubles and all.

Esau, destined to become—though God knew he wouldn't and he would disqualify himself—but destined to become one of the patriarchs, one of the great names in the history of Israel and he threw away his birthright for a bowl of chili, a bowl of stew. Nothing wrong with chili, don't get upset about that, but just for a bowl of red. Like Esau, somebody has made the observation about Esau and it's a very good one: he was all kitchen and no chapel. He loved food more than God.

He loved whatever his body wanted. "This is what I want!" Living their life in a way that whatever my body tells me that I want, then that is more important to me than God's will for my life. You stop and you think about the power of lust, the power of the lust of the flesh and the danger that it is to us. These are people who walked out of Egypt free after four hundred years, after a series of ten miracles by means of which God delivered them from the bondage of Egypt. They crossed on dry ground of the Red Sea, they did experience all of these miracles that were a part of their history and then they come to a place having that kind of history with God and then they began to say, "I want garlic! I want garlic! And I want some leeks and I want some onions and some cucumbers."

Talk about a selective memory concerning Egypt. They were dying to get out of Egypt, crying to get out of Egypt. Memories are not that trustworthy sometimes. Here they take and the lust of their flesh became more important to them than God's plan for them as a people to bring the Savior of the world into human history and more important than living in God's will for their lives. What an affront.

You think about the history that each of us has as we've walked with the Lord. How faithful He's been, what we've seen, what we've been through and the investment that He's made in our lives. When any lust comes up and says, "Listen, I want to take you by the hand and I've got a different plan for your life than God has and I want to wander you off over here," then if we have the slightest willingness to do that, we can just hear ourselves inside of our own noggin saying, "I want garlic! I want onions and leeks!"

How unthankful a group of people could it be and yet that's the power of lust. No saint who's interested in running to win is going to run to win by catering to the flesh. They live by a different motto: God's will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. God, what He did for them is He sent them quail and we're told there in Numbers chapter 11 that while the meat was still between their teeth, He struck them with a very great plague and the place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, the graves of lust. Everybody ran, two to three million people ran, but these became a castaway and disqualified.

Then he talks about idolatry as a sin that we have to keep a watch on in verse seven. Idolatry in terms of their history and what he references here refers to the worship of the golden calf fashioned by Aaron. Moses is up on the mount and he's receiving the Ten Commandments from the Lord and more for 40 days in Exodus chapter 32. Aaron, he's going to become the high priest and Aaron down below, the people say, "We don't know what happened to Moses."

Think about how God used Moses in their life and then 40 days, out of sight, out of mind. "Moses, we don't care about Moses. We want to worship the gods of Egypt." Here is Aaron—it's awful—and he says, "Alright, give me all your gold," and then he fashions a golden calf for them to worship in front of and the people began to worship there, eating and drinking and dancing in front of it.

One of the most pathetic excuses in all of the Bible is when God sends Moses back down from the mountain. He says, "These people are misbehaving down below." You better get down there and Moses says, "No, they can't be up to too much mischief." God says, "Go down there." He goes down there and he confronts them with worshiping in front of this golden calf and then Aaron says, "I don't know what happened, the people wanted and then I just took this gold and I put it in the furnace and out came this calf." That's as bad as a four-year-old saying to their mom with chocolate from ear to ear and being the only child or other human being in the house saying, "No, I'm not the one who ate the cookies." It's awful and this is the capacity we have for this kind of thing.

God judged them by the hand of the sons of Levi and 3,000 men who refused to repent of this idolatry, they were slain in order to remove this leaven from among God's people. Idolatry is simply the worship of any created thing. There are two great categories in all of the world and all of the universe: there is the category of creator and that category is made up of one person and that is God. Everything else is the creation. One creator, everything else is the creation.

To engage in idolatry is to engage in the worship of something that is created and that means, in other words, it is to worship anything other than God in life. The world does that because until they're born again, they don't understand that there's something wrong with that. But as Christians, we know there's something wrong with that. We're to love God with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, and all of our strength. Nothing wrong with having material things, but this is not what we get up out of bed every morning to do is to earn more money to buy more things.

It's to get up out of bed, "God You've got a plan, please use me today. I get to walk with You, I can't wait to see what You're going to teach me today," and that's the driving passion in our lives. Idolatry now is the worship of material things and of course it's one of the great sins of our culture. You just stop and think about how many Christians cease to run to win. God's plan for their life, His purposes for their life end up being completely buried, they end up disqualified as to the full potential of their Christian life and ministry because of the acquisition of material things. It becomes the master passion of their life.

Idolatry is a grave insult to God. I don't know what the distance is between the two categories because nobody can know the distance. The distance between those two categories, the creator and the creation, is infinite. To leave the worship of God Almighty to then worship something that is infinitely inferior, what an affront that is to God. Sometimes it's good to look at our Christian life from the vantage point of God, from the vantage point of heaven and not from the vantage point of earth.

Of course it would be an affront to Him. Here's the God who's created everything with a word. He's omniscient, He is omnipotent, He is omnipresent, He's worthy of all of our honor, all of the glory, all of our worship and obedience. And then somebody ignores all of that in order to worship something of His creation. Somebody says, "No, I want a new toaster, I want a new car, I want a new home, I want this or I want this or I want that," and then God's plan and purposes for their life gets put off on the wayside.

Stop and think about what might be the percentage of God's call and purposes on the lives of His people might be disqualified on the basis of that alone, where it is, "I love these things, including comfort, more than God and His plan." That's what they did and they became a castaway, they became disqualified.

Guest (Male): How sad to be disqualified or cast away. And that's the path that many are on today. It all boils down to whether you'll live life on your terms or on God's. We pray you're among the few who will run to win and please God. You've been listening to a study in 1 Corinthians 10 from Damian Kyle here on According to the Scriptures. Damian will be right back.

For resource requests, like today's message on CD, reach out to us by phone. The number is 209-545-5530. That's 209-545-5530. Pastor Damian Kyle's studies can also be heard online at accordingtothescriptures.com, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we also have a church app where you can listen to Damian as well. Search for Calvary Chapel Modesto in the App Store or Google Play. If you would like to partner with us financially with a financial gift, you can do that through our website at accordingtothescriptures.com. And thank you very much.

Let me also give you our mailing address: According to the Scriptures, 4300 American Avenue, Modesto, California, the zip code is 95356. We left off in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 at verse eight. Let's reintroduce Pastor Damian with the danger of sexual immorality.

Damian Kyle: Then he tells us in verse eight, there's the danger of sexual immorality. We could just skip over this, nobody's—it's not an issue for any of us. In verse nine—I'm just kidding. This speaks of a time in Israel's history when the men of Israel, they committed harlotry with the women of Moab. It resulted in the death of 23,000 among God's people. 23,000 became disqualified and castaways from God's purpose for their life under the influence of that sin. Stop and think about how many callings, how many giftings, how many purposes and plans of God have been buried under sexual immorality and the temptation to it.

Then in verse nine, there was the sin of tempting God, tempting Christ. This refers to Numbers chapter 21, the incident involves the bronze serpent as is recorded there. The people began to speak against God and all of the hardship of their life. "The Christian life is so hard and God puts us through so much and boy, I don't even know if I like this being a Christian thing or a child of God if He can't take care of people better than this."

The whole idea is that God saves us to deliver us into absolute comfort in our Christian life rather than saving us into now working in our life to prepare our character for heaven and to prepare us for that well done. They began to complain against God, all of the hardships. The problem with all of that is that they were wandering in the wilderness not because God had failed them, but because of their own sin, their own lack of faith to enter in by faith to the promised land when God called them to do that.

God sent fiery serpents, you might remember, into the camp of the children of Israel. They bit people and many of them died in their refusal then to look to the bronze serpent for as God's provided salvation related to that. Their pride and their arrogance, the pride and the arrogance that we have to be careful of in our own lives, and that is that I'm smarter than God and if He doesn't do things my way, I'm going to take my ball and I'm going to go home. I'm going to leave if You don't start doing things my way. So now I want the Christian life to occur on my terms and not His. And it's an excellent way to become a castaway.

Guest (Male): We'll save the rest of this message for next time. According to the Scriptures with Pastor Damian Kyle is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Modesto.