March 23-25, 2019 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 “BREAK THE CYCLE!”

LENT 3

March 23-25, 2019

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

“BREAK THE CYCLE!”

1.     Be aware of past unfaithfulness.

2.     Rely on God’s faithfulness.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (NIV 1984)  “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. ⁶Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. ⁷ Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” ⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. ¹¹These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. ¹²So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! ¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”



          It is a sad observed and documented pattern of human behavior. Cycles of bad behaviors that can dominate a family. It is sad but true that kids who get bullied are more likely to be bullies to others. Children that are abused by their parents are more likely to abuse their own children. And so it goes for other kinds of sins like alcohol abuse and drug abuse. There are these repeated cycles of bad, sinful behavior. As bad as those are there is one worse than them all, unfaithfulness to God, knowing  His love and goodness and care and leaving Him, deserting Him. It’s a cycle that has too often been repeated by those privileged to be called the children of God. In our Sunday morning Bible Class we are going through the book of  Exodus. In that book you see a pattern of how God works with his people. It goes like this. Deliverance. Covenant. Worship. First God delivered the people of Israel from their slavery where they were helpless to help themselves. Then God made a covenant with them that had the promise of great blessing. Finally God gave them instructions on how to thank Him with worship.

          In the word of God before us the Apostle Paul uses that pattern to teach us about our own relationship with God. “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” With these words Paul reminds us of how our spiritual forefathers, the Israelites were delivered by God from slavery in Egypt passing through Red Sea that destroyed the pursuing Egyptian army. How God brought them into a covenant relationship where if they would keep Him as their God and not serve others He would provide for them and bless them. And then they were to worship God. But what happened?

          “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. ⁶Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. ⁷ Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” ⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.” What happened was unfaithfulness. Different sins are mentioned. Idolatry. Pagan revelry—think drunkenness and gluttony. Sexual immorality. Testing God—pushing His patience with their ungrateful behavior. Grumbling—probably not on most of our top 10 list of detestable sins but certainly on God’s. God gets to the heart of it by saying all of these are examples of setting hearts on evil. And when God’s people want what they want instead of Him that is evil. Sadly they have had a history of doing so. You can see the cycle repeated.

          But the cycle can be broken. By comparing what Israel went through to a baptism and spiritual food and drink and having the rock Christ, he was helping New Testament Christians see God’s faithfulness has not changed. We too have been delivered by God, from the power of sin, death and the devil. God has made a covenant with us as well. It’s the covenant sealed by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ. It’s a one sided covenant from God to us where He promises, He promises us His everlasting love and ongoing forgiveness. He lets us know that it pleases Him when we live lives that show thankfulness, that demonstrate dependence on Him and that the most meaningful way for us to show our love for Him is willing obedience to His commands. How will we respond? Will we continue the cycle of unfaithfulness or…? There is a maxim, a truism, that works for many areas of life from evaluating a car, to mutual funds, to people behavior. “The best predictor of future performance is the past.” In other words if you want to guess how a player or a fund or a used vehicle is going to perform in the future look at its past. There is a caveat to that statement. The best predictor of future performance is the past unless something big has changed.

          Our big is God and His faithfulness to help us. “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. ¹²So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! ¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” The reason Paul was writing to the Corinthians, the reason he was making them aware of past unfaithfulness was so that they would break the cycle, not repeat the bad behaviors of the past. It’s the same reason we have this word of God today. Just because God’s people in the past fell into unfaithfulness doesn’t mean we have to. We have been given examples as warnings. Not everyone who grumbles or commits sexual immorality got killed or gets killed. God made examples of them. This is serious. And then for our encouragement Paul points us to the faithfulness of God. Every temptation that God allows to come our way He has already given us what we need to handle it. He’s given us Jesus who has beaten every temptation for us. The covenant God made with us is one sided. It’s based on forgiveness. Now so we can worship Him daily by fighting sin and doing right He’s given us His word. It’s the double edged sword of the Spirit. It’s what Jesus used when He perfectly defeated every temptation in our place. It’s what will make sure we break the cycle of unfaithfulness. If we use it.

          That brings us to another cycle by God’s grace we will break. The cycle of taking the Word for granted. Consider these words written by Pastor Martin Luther some 500 years ago: “I consider that Germany has never before heard so much of God’s Word as now. There is no trace of it in history. But if we let it pass by without thanks and honor, I am afraid that we shall have to suffer plague and grimmer darkness. My dear Germans, buy while the mart is at our door; gather in while the sun is shining and the weather good, make use of God’s Word of Grace while it is there. For know this, that the Word of God’s grace is like a sweeping downpour, which never returns to where it has already been. It has visited the Jews; but it has gone. Now they have nothing. Paul brought it to Greece; from there it has also gone. Now they have the Turks. Rome and the Latin lands have had their visitation; but it has gone. Now they have the Pope. And you Germans must not think that you will have it forever, for it will not stay where there is ingratitude and contempt. Therefore, let all take hold and keep hold who can.”   Let’s break the cycle. Amen.