Last time we concluded I Corinthians 9 with these thoughts

 

Running to Win!

 

(1 Cor 9:24) Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. {25} And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. {26} Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. {27} But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

 

Running to Win!

He uses the Israelites as examples of those who did not run in such a way as to win.

 

(1 Cor 10:1 NKJV)  Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, {2} all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

 

 

(1 Cor 10:3) all ate the same spiritual food, {4} and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

 

They continued to be blessed by God, but what is this:  and that Rock was Christ.

 

I take this to be a symbolic expression,

 just as when Christ spoke of the bread,

 and the fruit of the vine.

 

(Mat 26:26 NKJV)  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said,

"Take, eat; this is My body."

 

We know what He meant:

  “This represents my body.”

The Rock was a representation of Christ.

Christ, in turn,

spoke of giving living water.

 

(John 4:10 NKJV)  Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

 

They began well enough:

They didn’t end well!

 

(1 Cor 10:5) But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

 

This happened just as God promised.

 

(Num 14:28-29 NKJV)  "Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: {29} 'The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. . . . {31} 'But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.

 

Now the lesson for us:

 

(1 Cor 10:6) Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

“Now these things became our examples,”

 

Of the Old Testament, Paul also said:

 

(Gal 3:24 KJV)  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

 

We are no longer under the Old Testament as Galatians 3:25 makes clear:

 

(Gal 3:25 KJV)  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

 

 

(1 Cor 10:7) And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."

 

(Col 3:5 NKJV)  Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

(1 Cor 10:8) Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell;

 

(1 Cor 10:8 KJV)  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

 

Again, we see the importance of studying the Old Testament:  You see immediately how God feels about things.  Today, fornication is acceptable to the vast majority of people, and far too many Christian young people get caught up in it.

 

(I Cor 10:9) nor let us tempt Christ [more accurately, the Lord], as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;

 

How did they tempt the Lord?

 What did they do?

 

(Num 21:5-6 NKJV)  And the people spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread."

Are we sure this was the sin for which God killed them?

 

(Num 21:6) So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

 

It is interesting how closely associated the next sin in the list is to the one just named:

 

(1 Cor 10:10) nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

 

 

(Num 14:1-3 NKJV)  So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. {2} And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! {3} "Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"

 

 

(Num 14:36-39 NKJV)  Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, {37} those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the LORD. {38} But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land. {39} Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.” – but it was too late!

 

 

(1 Cor 10:11) Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

 

(1 Cor 10:12) Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

 

 

(Rom 12:3 NKJV)  For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

 

 

more highly  makes us overconfident as Peter.

 

but to think soberly use the talents God has given. 

 

(Rom 12:6-8 NKJV)  Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; {7} or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; {8} he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

 

(1 Cor 10:13) No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

 

 

(1 Cor 10:14) Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

 

(2 Tim 2:22 NKJV)  Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

 

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