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LOOK AT ME, MA!
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WE WILL NEVER FORGET
It might be one of the most quoted warnings in this earth's history. And
it actually SPEAKS about history, as U.S. philosopher and poet George
Santayana put in his book, Life of Reason: "Reason in Common Sense,"
back in the year 1905. Here it is:
"Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it."
Have you heard that one before? These 11 words were
given a chilling RE-application many decades later when bestselling author
William L. Shirer (SH R er) included the quote as a kind of epigraph for
his agony-filled masterpiece, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. So
many people HAD forgotten the past, forgotten the end result of tyranny
and would-be world dictators. And so one world war had to be followed
not only by a SECOND one, but also by the brown shirts of Gestapo Germany
and the mass grave of six million Jews.
Today's survivors of the Holocaust have one great unifying battle cry
here in 1999: "We will never forget!" And as we return to our
season-long journey through the fascinating book of First Corinthians,
and head now into the Apostle Paul's TENTH chapter, we discover a great
challenge for would-be 21st-century Christians that adopts this very theme.
Interestingly, in some versions of God's Word, including the respected
New International Version, chapter ten actually begins with this headline:
"Warnings From Israel's History." And Paul starts right in reminding
the new Christians in the city of Corinth about the experiences of the
people of God in ages gone by. Notice:
"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. They were all baptized into Moses
in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and
drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock
that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was
not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert."
Several interesting points jump off the page at us
almost immediately. Notice here that Jesus Christ is clearly described
as the source of spiritual strength for the Children of Israel in the
OLD Testament. Their spiritual food and drink out in the wilderness was
from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, AND THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST!
So it was certainly appropriate for new CHRISTIANS in the NEW Testament
to consider the happenings from previous centuries as they deal with Christ's
relationship with His people.
What else does this mean? Not only could the Corinthians look BACK into
the pages of history for instruction and reminders, but WE living today
— you and me — we can, in a sense, look back too. In fact, we look back
TWO layers . . . to the church at Corinth and then WITH the church at
Corinth all the way back to the Israelite experience.
Can we learn from their experiences? In verse six of this chapter, Paul
explicitly states that these Old Testament stories weren't just written
down to teach us, but they actually HAPPENED for the purpose of instructing
us. Here's what he says:
"Now these things occurred AS EXAMPLES to
keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did."
And then Paul gives the Corinthians AND US a list of
four great sins that COST the Israelites . . . and that can still cost
us today. Here's the list: Verse seven — idolatry. Verse eight — sexual
immorality. Nine — TESTING the Lord, doubting Him and challenging heaven's
authority. And in verse ten, grumbling against God and His providence
in our lives.
All four of these great cardinal sins were blockbuster problems for the
infant church in the city of Corinth, so Paul is making an impassioned
speech here. "Look in your Bibles," he exhorts his friends.
"These Children-of-Israel stories happened! But they didn't have
to happen back then . . . and they FOR SURE don't have to happen to us
all over again. Let's learn from the mistakes of our ancestors!"
In verse 11 he repeats himself:
"These things happened to them AS EXAMPLES
and were written down as warnings FOR US, on whom the fulfillment of the
ages has come."
It might make an interesting Bible debate, to discuss
whether some of these tragedies happened FOR THE PURPOSE OF teaching us
here in the year 1999. Certainly God would have preferred for these sins
and national times of apostasy to have NOT taken place; He'd rather teach
us through prosperity than pain. It brought the heart of a loving Father
no joy to reach down and SNUFF OUT the life of a man named Uzzah when
he carelessly put his hand up on the holy ark of Israel. But as a punishment
AND also to be an example to those watching that day and reading about
it here in our day, God has made SOME to be examples for the rest of us.
Which brings us to the most important point of our study today. Our radio
series title is this: LOOK AT ME, MA! "I'm doing great!" we
cry out. "I'm not sinning. I'm impervious to temptation; I can bind
Satan with my prayers and my knowledge of Bible promises." And in
the next couple of days here on the Voice of Prophecy we'll explore how
we can avoid the deadly kind of spiritual pride that infected both Israel
and Corinth.
But friend, please notice and praise God WITH me for the fact that we've
been GIVEN a thing called the Bible. A lesson can't be learned if you
never have the opportunity to read about it. And right here in First Corinthians
chapter ten, as well as in many other passages, we're told that Scripture
was WRITTEN, was recorded, was preserved as a HEAVEN-PROTECTED GIFT TO
US. The stories of Old Testament failures were preserved in those 39 books
so that we'd be able to open our Bibles, say a prayer, and then benefit
here on a Monday, May 17, 1999.
But how do we do that? Friend, it's not enough to read — although that's
a necessary first step. But then when we read these tragic sagas of failure,
of departure from God's will, and we take note of the resulting death
and destruction, WE HAVE TO ACT UPON WHAT WE'VE READ!
Think with me again about that list of four great chasms in the journey
of man. Idolatry. Okay, that's an old word, and we think of some desert
god made out of stone with a grimace on its ugly face, and we think, "Oh,
I'm immune to THAT one. Move along to Number Two, Brother Paul."
Friend, ARE we immune to idolatry? Is there ANYTHING in your life, in
MY life, that creeps into the top spot of our affections? Stop and think
about that question; in fact, stop and think about it every single day
of every week, of every year. Am I an idolater? Am I failing to learn
this lesson from Israel and Corinth?
How about sexual immorality? All through the Bible, Old AND New Testaments,
on so many pages, we find the record of what happens when we shrug off
the commands of God. People's hearts are broken, people's LIVES are broken,
and especially their spiritual core is ripped out. Adultery is a killer
and always has been, for six thousand years now. Are we willing to learn
THAT lesson from others . . . or are we destined to repeat the mistakes
of the Church at Corinth?
How about this next over-and-over temptation, what the Bible calls "(quote)
putting the Lord to the test"? Back in Exodus chapter 17, when the
Israelites were at Rephidim and ran out of Sparklett's, they came to Moses
in a rage and told him: "Give us water to drink." And he replied:
"Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?"
In other words, you can't TELL God what to do; you can't order Him around.
In fact, when water miraculously came out of the rock — you remember that
story — Moses named the place Massah, which means "testing."
And then the fourth sin . . . and what a killer this is here in 1999.
Complaining against heaven, failing to trust God. Which again involves
FORGETTING how much He's already done for us, FAILING to learn from the
past lessons. And for Israel, grumbling against God was often a FATAL
mistake, wasn't it?
Friend . . . it's such a waste when the stories in the Bible just sit
there, like a medical prescription that's still down at the drugstore
instead of being in your bloodstream.
Let me ask you a quiet question as we close today. Why did William Shirer
go through the AGONY of writing that book, The Rise and Fall of the Third
Reich? For the money? For the fame and notoriety? Thirty-nine years after
he wrote it, it's still a blockbuster, but I don't think that was the
reason. And I don't know how much money he made in royalties, but I doubt
very much that was the motivation either. No, this American journalist
and historian, who already had experienced quite some fame for his vivid
radio broadcasts coming out of Berlin at the start of World War II, had
seen firsthand the horrors of the Nazi experience. He knew what the agenda
of one Adolf Hitler was going to do to the world, and later he knew what
it HAD done. He'd been there. He'd seen it. And so with his heart still
in his throat, and with the horror of such a monstrous sin still impressed
upon his mind, he sat down and wrote those 1483 pages and chronicled The
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. And then added the warning of George
Santayana: "Those who cannot REMEMBER the past are condemned to repeat
it."
Friend, let's never again let that happen to us.
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