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Cedar Lake SDA Church

Admonitions for the Last Days

Mark Howard

1. Admonitions for the Last Days

2. New Theology & Half-Hearted Christians

3. That Quaint Little Restaurant in Cairo

4. Look and Live

5. Itching Ears

6. A Little Leaven

Father in heaven, I thank you for your holy Sabbath.

Lord, I thank you for your word and the testimony of apostles and prophets.

Lord, I pray you would give us ears to hear today and hearts to respond to what it is you want to teach us.

May we be drawn closer to you through this experience, that we may more clearly reflect the image of Jesus to those around us, that nothing may be between our heart and you.

We ask and pray these things in the name of Jesus and for his sake.

First Corinthians chapter 10, we were there last week as well.

Just want to revisit and get the framework for this last message in this particular series.

First Corinthians 10 and verse 1, the Apostle Paul tells us here, passed through the sea.

All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them.

And that rock was Christ, but with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." Now I'm going to pause there.

This is really the force of this passage, and I have to even admit for myself, I don't know that this passage hits me with the impact that it should.

You understand what he's telling us here?

He's telling us that, he's not talking about heathen nations, he's talking about a whole mass of people who claim to believe in the God of heaven.

The Bible numbers those who came out of Egypt at 600, 000 men.

The Bible didn't number the women and the children.

I've always figured a woman for every man and a child for every man and woman.

And you've got nearly 2 million, but some commentators say you're pushing near 4 or 5 million.

And what the apostle, the inspired apostle, just told you and me is that out of all of those who came out of Egypt, with most of them, The Lord was not well pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

And if you read through the record, there are 2 that made it in.

Now that doesn't mean that there were 2 who were faithful.

There were people who died on the way and what have you.

So the point that the apostle starts out with is he's sharing this with us and he's saying, I don't want us to follow the same example.

If the devil was trying so hard to keep them out of the earthly Canaan, how much harder is he working to keep us out of the heavenly Canaan?

And that should really grab our attention right from the beginning to say, what was it that led to that?

What were the things that ensnared them so I don't follow the same example?

And that's what he goes on to tell us here.

He says in verse 6, commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in 1 day 23, 000 fell.

Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents, nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer." Now notice especially verse 11 and onward here.

Now all these things happened to them as what?

Examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands, what?

Don't think just because you're in church today that that guarantees that the devil can't get 1 in on you.

And so he tells us now, I think in a broad sense, that the history of God's people has lessons for us.

And the challenge for us today is that we are 3500 years removed from these lessons.

And so what we've been trying to do in this series is look at some of these stories.

And I don't think he's limiting our instruction to those 5 examples.

We're looking at the fifth of them today.

Upon whom the ends of the earth have come to look at those stories.

Get an understanding of what's happening and then apply it to our day.

Because I said there's 3500 years in between.

What I think is really interesting is how we're not very different from the Israelites, even given 3500 years.

Sin is still sin, the sinful nature is still the sinful nature.

And what's even more amazing is the devil still uses the same tricks and has been pretty successful.

So, what we're looking at today, the story, the only story we haven't looked at is, and Paul doesn't put them in order here, we haven't gone through these stories in this order, but he talks in verse 8 about not committing sexual immorality as some of them did, and in 1 day 23, 000 fell.

The story is the apostasy of the Israelites at Belpior.

Now Belpior was right at the border of Canaan and so they have they have come to the point where they have almost finished their 40 years of wandering.

And in fact, in the scripture, it refers to it in some passages as Acacia Grove.

The Acacia tree is similar to the palm tree.

It was a very tropical setting, a very beautiful setting.

Those kind of settings where everything is nice, kind of gives way to ease and relaxation can also lead to trouble.

And that's what we find in the story here.

It's right before they crossed over into the promised land.

And don't think that the devil was saying, well, you know what?

And he doesn't say that to us today either, where we're standing on the borders of the heavenly Canaan.

So I want you to turn with me to Numbers 25.

Now incidentally, for the scripture reading, I like to pick a passage, a New Testament passage, that I think exemplifies the principle.

And in our scripture reading, it talked about where Paul warns about a little leaven.

He says a little leaven leavens a whole lump.

I used to bake some good bread back in the day.

It's been a long time, actually, since I've done the bread baking and the kneading and all of that.

But 1 thing I learned from that process is it only takes a little bit of yeast to make the bread rise.

And that little bit of yeast works its way all through.

He's talking about something that makes its way in and can spread through the whole mass.

And we're gonna see the application of that in our story today.

You know, the Bible uses leaven to refer to both sin and righteousness.

It talks about the leaven of godliness and it also talks about the leaven of sin and corruption.

And that's, of course, what Paul warns against in Galatians there.

Now we're going to Numbers 25 starting in verse 1.

Last week we had a long passage that encompassed what we were looking at, but today is a passage of about 9 verses that we're going to look at in the story itself.

Numbers 25, and we're starting there in verse 1.

Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, And the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.

Some of your translations will say sexual immorality.

They, the women of Moab, invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel." I'm going to pause there.

And so the gods of the different various nations often had Baal this or Baal that.

For example, I don't know if it was here, I spoke recently somewhere, we talked about Baal Zeebub, the Bible speaks of, who's the Lord of the flies, literally.

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Series

Admonitions for the Last Days

6. A Little Leaven

Transcript

Parent Series

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