Discovering the Spirit-Filled Life XVI, History, Learn From It or Repeat It

Lord, it is a good thing to fix our eyes upon you and to gaze into the majesty of your character, your revelation. Lord, we thank you today that you're not like us, Lord. We give you praise for this time and for the obvious sense, Lord, that you have purpose to grow us up and mature us. And Lord, we thank you for the vision in our hearts, Lord, that your word tells us that we are being changed from one degree of glory to another. Lord, that you are working it in us. And Father, we're not any better than anyone, Lord, but we thank you that we're better than we were just yesterday, Father, as we fix our eyes upon you. And we ask you, Lord, to continue to speak to each of our hearts this evening, Lord. Let us know what you're saying to us tonight, Lord, that we would be pleasing to you in all that we do, that we live worthy of the Holy God. I ask it in Jesus' name, Lord, and everyone say, Amen. I'm going to give us time to pray together just as soon as we're done with the teaching for this evening. But for the present time, let's go ahead and be seated and turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10. We need a couple of the larger men to jam if you'll help bring the podium over, please. I want to commend you all for coming out on a rather testy evening, and I know it was difficult in some places driving. I trust you'll have safety as you return home. Just before I turn, I want to share something with you that's very exciting and yet I can only still reveal just a part of what the Lord is doing. Put your hand in 1 Corinthians 10 and flip back over to Psalm 105. The Bible says, Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name, make known among the nations what He has done, sing to Him. Now, if you ever wonder why we spend 30 minutes, 40 minutes sometimes in singing, because the Bible says, sing to Him, sing praise to Him, tell of all His wonderful acts, glory in His holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Are you rejoicing tonight? It's easy to get weighed under. Some of you have come out, you've had three long days at work or at home. You come here tonight and you say, well, I'm doing my duty. God says, get in here and rejoice tonight. Why? Because He's demanding it of you? No, but because He knows what's going to happen if you do what He wants to do in your life to release blessing. Look to the Lord in His strength. Seek His face always. Remember the wonders He has done, have His miracles and the judgments He pronounced. Oh, descendants of Abraham, His servant. Oh, sons of Jacob, His chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He remembers His covenant forever. Remember that, folks. God has not forgotten what He told Abraham. I'm going to give you a land and a people. The word He commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham and the oath He swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit. I'll stop there, but I just want to say to you, I mentioned in a prayer meeting, was it last Friday morning, I said that, you know, people say, well, when you get in the New Testament, the new covenant, we shouldn't have to worry about things like buildings and property and land because now the Holy Spirit lives where? Right here. You got that is right. He lives in our hearts. And remember, in God's point of view, He not only lives in your heart individually, sir, but He lives in who? The corporate body. Who is the head of the corporate body? Jesus Christ. So the Holy Spirit does not dwell. If we left this building, the Holy Spirit wouldn't dwell in this building like He did at that tabernacle place of the Old Testament. However, I'm going to know the part of the new covenant is in the end, what is God going to give His people? He's going to give them a place. You see, He's going to give them a place. How many know heaven is not just, you know, cloudy, airy, kind of spookiness. You know, it's a place. In fact, the Bible says He's going to transform this earth for a thousand years. So God has a very tangible thing in mind, and the new covenant ends with God providing a place where we'll be able to like have a mansion, you know, and all those kinds of good things. But in the meantime, the Lord would seek to provide for us what we need to fulfill the destiny that's on our corporate bodies at church. I just want to say to you, and this is all I have liberty to say tonight, God is moving. God is moving in this. How many have been praying for the Lord just to give us direction as to what He wanted? I mean, let me see your hands. Put them up. All right. Praise the Lord. That is almost all of you. And how many of you are confident when you ask God for wisdom, He'll give it to you? He doesn't make you grubble for it. Even though you may have to wait sometimes, He promises He will. Well, I believe He's leading us with wisdom, and as soon as I can tell you the specific details, I'm going to do that. It won't be long. We're not talking about months here. We're talking about days away. I'll be able to share some things with you, and then we'll be able to really do what this verse says, seek His face and rejoice as He leads our steps. But I just want, if you've been praying and you wonder, is anything happening? Here's the word. Something is happening. Something very definitive. We don't know what the bottom line will be yet, but we're going to tell you just as soon as we can, and then you can continue to seek Him with us. And I have to say this too. You know, I don't know, every once in a while, you can believe and believe and believe and believe and believe, but every once in a while, it's good just to see it happen. I just didn't know it happens. And you just feel like, whoo, you know, it's going to be there. All right. Well, I'm sorry, I know. This is church. Can't be too excited. All right. Back to 1 Corinthians 10, and I want to welcome our visitors tonight. I do see some folks visiting with us. We're glad you're here. We'll have something for you at the end of the evening or near the end of the evening. And I know there's quite a few people, by the way, church, that come only on Wednesday night. You're a regular Wednesday nighter. Can't come Sundays yet, or maybe you never will, but we're glad if you're just a Wednesday nighter. There's a lot of reasons out there for you to come and get fed or cared for, and we're glad we can do that here, so praise God for that. Now, 1 Corinthians 10, we're going to do the first 12 verses, I think, and I want to allow time for you to minister to one another at the end of the evening. Paul has been talking over the last several chapters about the subject of freedom, liberty. How many of you know freedom and liberty are something we cherish in this country? I mean, when we have our 4th of July celebrations, we go overboard to make fools of ourselves with the stuff we do to celebrate all the liberty and all the freedom. And the reason why Paul, the apostle, went out of his way to talk about liberty over and over and over and over again was because he knew what it was like to be a slave. How many believe that only people who were once slaves really appreciate liberty? Do you think people in our country really appreciate the liberty we have? I don't think so. I don't think we do. It's kind of like a kid that grows up with everything. They don't appreciate it, unless they had nothing at one point in their life. Now, what was Paul so happy to be free from? Well, let me give you 5 things. If you're a note taker, you ought to be a note taker. Any notes? You wouldn't learn anything? At least, not as much as you could if you wrote it down. Number 1, this is sort of a review. Paul said, I'm free now and I'm happy about being free. Number 1, I've been set free from legalism. Now, legalism is when you are taught to keep a law and do a ritual or routine no matter what. How many people right now are reading through the book of Leviticus in the Victory Bioplant? Folks, you'll never hear me stand up here and say, hey, the Bible just gets kind of dull. But you might hear me say that Leviticus gets very weird. I might say that. If you're reading in there right now, there's pages of things that they had to do on certain times of the month in a certain way or else they couldn't even go out of their house. All these washings and all these ways to cut the sacrifice and lay it so that the feathers were like this. You read these chapters. Imagine living under that. Imagine living under legalism, keeping the law. Paul knew what it was to keep the law. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was the best of the law keepers of the Jews. And there is nothing but death in law and legalism and ritual. How many of you came out of something like that? Wow, that's a lot of people. For freedom Christ has set us free. I pray today that your faith in God is not a legalistic religion that you're trying to hold on to. Someone told you what prayer to read or when to kneel or when to stand or when to do this. But you know that your religion is a relationship with Almighty God. That's freedom. It's freedom that God has called us to enjoy in Christ Jesus. You say, well, does that mean there's no boundaries? There's lots of boundaries. And we'll talk about those tonight. But if you don't have the freedom to start out with, it's a drag. It's boring. I don't believe God wants us to live a boring dull life. Do you? Number two, Paul said, I'm free from other men's judgments, other human judgments. Whether you're Jew, Greek, rich, poor, doesn't matter to me, Paul says, 1 Corinthians 9. I see no man according to the flesh anymore. I see man according to the spirit. How many of you wish people didn't see you according to the flesh? We'd have a lot less trouble if we didn't judge one another according to the flesh, wouldn't we, church? Paul said, I'm also free from the power of sin. In other words, Romans 6, 18, I don't have to sin anymore. How many of you never sin since you've received Christ? I always say that one to see if anyone's just, you know, an automatic hand-raiser. It is a fact, folks. We do sin, but the Bible says that God has given us the power. If we were living in perfect relationship with God, perfect communion, sir, ma'am, you would not have to sin. Now, the person who does not know Christ, does not have the Holy Spirit in them, they have to sin. They can't help themselves. You have the power to not sin. Paul said, I've been free from the power of sin. Also, number four, I've been freed from the law of sin and death. In other words, it won't all end. I won't keep going down, but in fact, by the grace of God, I'm going up. I'm getting better as I go on closer. That's also in Romans chapter 8, verse 2. I've been free. There's now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Somebody look at someone and smile, okay? It's alright. I'm not condemned anymore. I'm free. And number five, we said last week, Paul wrote, said, I'm also free to not have to take my rights. I'm free to give up my rights, to receive what I am due as an apostle, to have a wife. Remember, we talked at length last week about that. Now, these are important things. These are freedoms that Paul shared with us, and we ought to enjoy these as believers. And we've been looking at them and saying, God, I want to be free. I want to be free. I want to walk in liberty. I don't want to be pursued by the houndings of sin and death in my life. And Paul writes to the Corinthians and says, watch out for this liberty. And what we're going to talk about tonight for just a little while is the danger of liberty. Or, if you want another title you can talk about, the danger of liberty. If you don't learn from history, you're going to repeat it. You see, liberty is a great thing, but how many of you know you can terribly abuse it? Man, think back when you first got the car keys from Dad. Remember that? I mean, not the first time he drove the car, the first time he gave you the keys and said, see you later. I mean, I know what it does for ladies, but I know for me, it was new life. If I hadn't been born again, it would have been the greatest thing to ever happen to me. New life, freedom to go where I wanted, as fast as I wanted. And of course, it was a difficult experience in learning control in those days. That liberty had great, great opportunity. Wonderful things could happen. But I remember my dad saying, remember, this is a deadly weapon. I remember he said, this is a deadly weapon. I said, this doesn't look like a deadly weapon. This looks like a 59 Chevy to me. He said, it's a deadly weapon. And that liberty that I was given had with it the possibility of serious injury or even death. We're going to see tonight, Paul warns him, look back in 1 Corinthians 9, he said, with all this liberty I have, I have to work at disciplining myself. I have to work at it. In church, you know, when we come here tonight, I so much want to just give you back rubs and I want to make you happy. You know, I want to lift up your spirits. I want to send you out here smiling, but I have to talk to you about discipline. And you don't like that. You know, I have said none of us want to talk about discipline because it's painful. It costs us something. And Paul said, look in verse 27, he says, I don't do all these things. I'm not running like a man aimlessly. I don't fight like a shadow boxer. Verse 27, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I've preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. How many of you, how many Bible say, I buffet my body? Someone said, oh, he'd like to go to the Ponderosa and buffet his body. That's not what that means. It means beat, not buffet. Okay. He disciplined himself. He got down and said, wait a minute. I have to say to you, everything we know about Paul the Apostle was he was not an imposing specimen physically. In fact, he was rather weak and apparently given to some kinds of displays of physical problems. He had an eye problem that made the Galatians stumble and so on. And yet he said here, I'm a man of discipline. I'm a man of discipline. And I want to say I have never found any Christian that's really accomplished much for God who wasn't disciplined in their walk in God. I have to say that to you. I mean, it's nice to be spirit led, but it takes a discipline, a discipline. Why? Because that liberty will just pull you along because you will never, listen, if you never have another quiet time between now and heaven, you're going to go to heaven if you trust Jesus. Amen. But will you be what God wants you to be? Will you be able to employ that liberty for the benefit of others? That's what we want to talk about tonight. Learn from history, Paul says. Now let's look at verse 1 of chapter 10. He said, I don't want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were just like us. That's what he's about to tell you. Our forefathers were just like us. What does he mean by that? Well, let's take a quick look at a comparison chart here that we have on an overhead. All right. Number one, it says there that they were, pull down. Okay. The Israelites, keep going, were called out, called out. They were called out of where? Okay. Hello? Egypt. Okay. You remember that from Sunday school 48 years ago, right? They were called out of Egypt because when, what were they in Egypt? Were they free men? They were slaves. They were in bondage. The Bible says, look, they were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. They had the experience of being called out from slavery. Paul says, now Corinthians, we too, we are separated. We're called out from the world. And here at North Way, we too have been called citizens. We're called out. How many of you know, even though you work in the marketplace and you have a job and you share an apartment maybe with someone, all those things, how many of you know that just the same? You're called out of the world. We're no longer of the world. We might be in it, but we're not of it. And that's an important thing. It reminds me every once in a while when I don't understand all the stuff that's around me, I'm not really a citizen here. I really wish I knew that more intimately on April 15th, but I have to give to Caesar his due as well. So it says, all right, now we're talking about what happened because the Israelites had a penchant for abusing liberty. God, I hope you listen to this because some of us here tonight are in danger. You're in real danger of just falling off the ledge of your liberty. You know, when I was a student, we had a camp where we used to go and part of that camp was a beautiful, high, rocky ledge that hung out over this big lake and there was rocks underneath it. And one of the things we used to do is see how far we could inch out toward the lip of that cliff and look over. You ever done that? Maybe you've done it down over on the overlook on Mount Washington. You know, there's just something about getting as close as you can, you know, just looking out like this. But you see, your liberty is like that ledge and you can get as far out there as you want to get. But keep in mind, the farther out you get, the more likely you are to get blown off. You see, the Israelites were given liberty, given freedom, and they went on out just like the Corinthians. They went on out just like Northwood. They went on out. Number two, they were identified with Moses, i.e. his leadership. It says there that they were baptized into him in the cloud. Well, folks, Paul says in Corinth, you have leadership. You have Paul and Apollos in Corinth. They're your leaders. And here at North Way, we have leadership. And we're all given that same leadership. We have the benefit of elders and pastors and people all around. Just lift that off that line, please. Okay, there we go. And you see, church, we're just like them. We think we're so much different. We're not. We're just like them. He then goes on and says, verse 3, that they were all sustained. They ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. You see, Paul says, well, Corinth, you too were sustained and provided for. And how many believe we've been provided for by the Lord here at North Way? God has provided for us, miraculously, many times. By the way, those of you who are Bible students, do you notice here that what he said was that the rock that accompanied Moses was Christ? Do you see that? If you're a Bible student, you'll want to know that this is one illustration of how Christ was moving in the Old Testament long before he was ever born a baby in the manger. People need to sometimes see that as a specific statement of his deity prior to his incarnation. Nevertheless, even though the Israelites were sustained and identified with leadership and called out, they perished in the wilderness. How many of them died between Egypt and the Promised Land? Someone said all of them. And how many was all of them? Two million people died. Two million people died. That's the estimate of how many came out? Two million died over the span of forty years. Why did they die? Because of what I'm going to tell you in the next couple of minutes. Now church, listen please. What is happening in much of America is that Christians who have been called out, given spiritual leadership, and being sustained by God, have gotten into the mindset that everything's fine, it doesn't really matter. Let's just go on. The reason why many of you have left what were becoming dead churches, or because some people somewhere along the line felt, well hey, you know, I guess we have it all and we're just kind of cruising on. I mean, I believe God, I'm a Christian, I'm born in America, right? All those kinds of things. And I'm here to say tonight that many people are perishing in the wilderness. Their faith is drying up. They are dying because no one has taught them. No one has taught them that they must believe God all the way through. And what we're going to look at tonight, in these next final few minutes, are what will happen if we abuse our liberties. You see, you might make it, but there won't be fruit, there won't be joy, there won't be a blessing in your life if you're not instructed by your forefathers. You see, we're all alike. We want to take this liberty, the liberty that the Israelites have, and we want to push it right to the max. Let me ask you a question again about cars here. People that drive a lot, when you get out on the turnpike or interstate 79, how fast do you go? Don't tell me, but how fast do you go? Well, I don't know, gee, about 55. I mean, that's like ancient history. And I understand that, you know, the state police, I mean, they'll give you at least 61, 2. So what do you drive? What do you set your cruise control at? Some of you are telling your neighbor. Go ahead, you can confess that, it's all right. Most people set it as far above the limit as they think they can go without being stopped. I mean, whatever that is to you, you know, you think you might not get stopped at 85. You think you might not get caught at 115, whatever. Most people are just like that, you see. They want to take that liberty and just push it to the max. Let's talk about budgets. How many of you just set a rigid budget and you never, ever push that budget? How many times do you take that budget and you say, oh, honey, we really need that chair. It sure would look great in our family room. I know we're all ready, but you know, we'll just stretch the budget out a bit here. You see, we'll live, how many of you live right to the very limit of your budget without going bankrupt, amen? Young people, there might be a few young people in here tonight. You're given a curfew. I remember some colleges around here in the area, Grove City and the like, there were a curfew. You had to be in at 12 or 1 or whatever it was. Let's say it was 1 a.m. on the weekend. What time did you come in? Oh, come in early, come in at 12. No, when did you come in? You know, 103, 105, as long as you could without the counselor, the person there to put the yank on you. Well, that's the way we are with God. And I'm here to say, you know, it agrees my heart. Now, listen, church, would you? It agrees my heart that I know myself that more often I'm saying to God not, Lord, how can I please you? What can I do to make my life pleasing to you? But more often than not, I'm saying, how much can I get away with and still be accepted by you? Are you like that? How much liberty can I exercise and still be accepted? How much can I enjoy the world and still be a Christian? Unfortunately, there are many people that I know over the years who have walked up to that ledge and tested it and tested it and tested it, and a big strong wind came up and blew them off. And now they're not walking with God anymore. Did God knock them off the ledge? No. They got so close to the edge of their liberty that they lost. And you see, I have to say that, you know, when you're not a legalistic church and, you know, you'll never see out of North Way in our foyer a list of the 15 rules of North Way. You know, thou shalt not drink. The Bible doesn't say that. Thou shalt not watch movies or television or R-rated movies and television. Can't find that in there, you know. Thou shalt not smoke marijuana. See, you'll never see a list of rules out there. Because once you put a list of rules up there, then you've got to be the one enforcing them, and I'm not going to do that. However, let's not make any mistake about it. You can get out there and start dangling to the pure. All things are pure, brother. And you can get out there on the ledge, and every one of us knows what that ledge is. And we can test God. We can go as far as we can. You say, well, you're just kind of making this up. Well, let's look at the next verses. Let's look at verse 6. Let's start at verse 5. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered over the desert. Isn't that a graphic description? That's a horrible statement, isn't it? You know, we sang tonight, and as Susan said, the word terrible. We need to remember that word. Our God is a terrible God. He's not just a chum, you know. Sometimes I think we overdo the friend and, you know, Jesus is my buddy. Out of the Jesus movement came the... And I love the fact that we can be natural. Aren't you glad about that? We're not fakey and, you know, and affected with God. But, dear ones, God is holy. I'm glad we sang that song tonight. Yahweh is holy. Look what he says. Now, these things occurred as examples to you, sir, ma'am, to keep you from setting your hearts on evil things as they did. 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. Now, just jot this down. Time's running away, so I won't really expound it, but Exodus 32, 1 through 6, you can read about exactly what he's saying here. This is when Moses went up the mountain to get the Ten Commandments. Remember that? If you've known the Lord for a while, you know this story. If you don't, just listen. Moses climbed up this big mountain to get the commandments, and the people were waiting for him. They thought he'd be gone a couple of days. How long was he gone? Forty days. Well, these people are just like people today. It says in Exodus 32, hey, the people said, Moses is gone. We don't have any more leaders. Let's make a golden calf. Hey, let's party. And Aaron said, hey, great, you know, just love those associates, right? Great, let's party. It's a temptation. I've had a lot of studies done on Aaron, and he was Moses' dearest brother and confidant, and I think he was just a victim of the people. The people pushed him. Because it says there, we'll build a calf, and then tomorrow is festival day to the Lord. Isn't that interesting? Tomorrow is festival day. So, we'll build a calf and have a festival to God. Suddenly, if you're a perceptive student of the Scriptures, you're seeing something that has become, I believe, a plague in 1989. Because what happened was, the calf and all that it represented of a false god. We don't build golden calves these days. What do we build? You know, what are our little things that are our little gods, folks? You tell me. I don't know. Whatever they are. It might be just a certain kind of car, or it might be a certain select group of people that you're hanging out with, and those are your friends, and God can be everywhere but there. It may be just enough stuff that you feel really good about yourself. Or it may be achievement or power. I don't know what it is. But dear ones, here's what happened. They said, well, we'll build this calf, and we'll do this thing, and we'll also worship the Lord. I want to say tonight, church, you the core, those who come Wednesday night, I consider you to be the core of the core of the church. Let's pray that we not get into the sin of mixture. Mixing the golden calf with the praise of God. The profane with the holy. You see, Paul's writing here, and he says, these things happen as examples to you. Let's not be idolaters on the one hand and praisers on the other. Oh, I think the nostrils of God just begin to recoil at the stench of that. And unfortunately, unfortunately, when there's liberty, you see, when there's no liberty, then, you know, then there's this rigid oppressive stuff. But when we have liberty and we don't have rules, it's easy to start mixing. Look at the next thing Paul said. He said, we should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did. And twenty-three thousand of them died in one day. That was a bad day for the people. I looked up that passage and did a little study in that one, too. You see, we think that, you know, hey, I've had enough sex talks here that I can talk about this part now, too, and not have you think I'm always against sex. We've already cleared that up. And what happened in this passage was, an Israelite was having sex and taking on with this woman who was not an Israelite. So he was really, you know, committing a couple of sins. And it was a stench in God's nostril. And Phineas came, and that's the story where he stuck his sword through both of them. Eeeh. I guess he didn't like that, you know. Right through both of them. And God was, and this was typical. I mean, it says that this was happening all over the place, and this one couple exemplified the whole thing. You see, again, I have to say, if you're struggling with sexual immorality right now, and I, you know, when I was preparing this, the Lord stopped me at this point and said, there'll be people here tonight that are struggling with this. God is merciful, He's kind, He understands how difficult it is to control those drives. Yahweh is holy. Don't pretend with God. And please don't sanctify your immorality. And more than one fellowship that I've even been part of, I've known of people who were able to justify sexual relationships because they were close brothers and sisters in Christ. And to the pure, all things are pure. And I pray tonight that if this is a struggle with you, you'd hear the word of the Lord tonight just saying to you, come out of that. Leave it behind. Don't mix your godliness with this indulgence, even though you may love the person, or whatever it might be. Yahweh is holy. Look at the next verse. We should not, verse 9, test the Lord as some of them did. And we're killed by snakes. How many know it's getting worse here? What was that about? I hate to tell you this one. You know what they were doing? This is Korah and Abiram. And this is when they complained against the leadership. And these people rose up and said, we don't like you Moses and Aaron and your little group up there. We don't like you. We can do as good a job as you're doing. That's a tremendous passion. The Bible says that they backed up and got down on their face. And it was like, oh God, oh God, I don't want to see what's going to happen. What did the Lord do? Remember that story? You've got to read this. This is in Numbers. This is boring old Numbers. What happened there? Anyone remember? They separated and the ground opened up and swallowed those guys. Now, if you're the Israelites and you're watching these 250 people get swallowed up, they go down to this big, I mean, literally the ground opened up. It was an earthquake, you know, a fissure in the ground. And they, whew, down they went. For their complaining and murmuring against the leadership. What do you think you'd do? You'd take pretty seriously that God probably doesn't care for that too much, right? Okay, well, I guess. But guess what they did? They complained that Moses and Aaron were getting the people in trouble. And God said, that's it. And God sent snakes and they started biting them. And I forget how many died. Anyone remember how many died? Yeah, I mean, like thousands died. And then Moses and I did a whole sermon on this a while back about stopping the plagues. Moses said, Aaron, take the censer out and lift it up between the people. And when he lifted up his praise, his censer, what happened? The plague stopped. Well, church, these are all just illustrations. Verse 10, don't grumble as some of them did and they were killed by the destroying angel. I could go into that one. These things are all out there. These are all potential ways that we could get off the track and out on the ledge of our liberty to the point where we literally can get knocked out of God's will for our life. And possibly, if not lose our relationship, not turn our back on God, at least lose the possibility of being fruitful and a blessing. You say, well, does that stuff happen? Listen, in Corinth, they were having communion in homes. Get this. Hey, let's have a communion time. We'll read about this in the next week or so. They had communion together and some of them came and got drunk while they had communion. That's how bad that got. You say, well, we don't have stuff like that around here. And amen, we don't have those kinds of obvious things. But how many of you believe that inside of us, the temptation to push our liberty to the max is always there? Amen. I mean, it's a rare person who so loves purity and holiness and just so loves to please God that they're not pulled to fall into these