Friend, let's turn in our Bibles
to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Both of our messages today will
come out of this chapter. After teaching believers to run
the race of faith to win it, and after telling us that we're
to fight a real opponent, fight our old nature, Paul continues
with the same subject, and he uses the children of Israel in
the wilderness as the example. Let's read our text together. Verse 1. Moreover, brethren,
I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers
were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were
all baptized under Moses in the cloud and in the sea. and did
all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual
drink. For they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with
many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown
in the wilderness. Now drop down to verse 12. Wherefore,
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Now none of God's elect shall
ever be lost. Not one shall be finally lost
by God. God the Father chose each one
by His grace. God the Son has redeemed each
one by His blood. And each one shall be made alive
and they shall be brought to Christ by the Holy Spirit. And
God will preserve each one and keep each one and deliver every
single child of God into His presence in final glory. God
will not lose one of His people. The Lord Jesus said, I give unto
them eternal life. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my hand. And he said, my father which
gave them to me is greater than all and nobody is able to pluck
them out of my father's hand. His people will never fall away. They'll never be lost. Not one
of his children. But there are many who profess
faith in Christ who have a false confidence. They have a false
confidence. Therefore, they're presumptuous
thinking they are saved and thinking that they will stand, that they're
able to stand. A sinner can have an outward
form and do all the things that true believers do, and yet his
confidence is in his form. His confidence is in that form
of religion, his acts of religion. rather than Christ. Christ spoke
of those who have been falsely converted, who have made a false
profession. He described them as two-fold
more the child of hell. And the reason that's so is because
now not only are they lost, but they think they're saved. They
think they have true light. But the light they have is nothing
but darkness. It's not the truth. They have
a confidence in a false refuge. There are many that way and religion
without Christ is deadly. Religion without Christ is deadly.
Now what we see here in this text is believers should always
remember that it's not our religious acts that have saved us. or make us stand, but Christ
alone. It's not any religious act that
we do that saves us. It's Christ alone. Wherefore,
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. Now, in the first three verses,
or first, I believe it's first five verses, We see the worst
false confidence there is. There's many different kinds
of false confidence. I had a long list of them and
I thought that list could go on and on forever. But this right
here is the very worst of all false confidence. In the wilderness,
all the children of Israel presumed they were saved. All of them
presumed they were saved. They presumed they were true
followers of God. Presumed they really did believe
on the Lord. The problem was they had the
confidence in something they had done. Paul now is working
his way down to a point. He's going to work down to a
point he's going to make about the Lord's table. He's working
down to a point where he's going to show you can't partake of
the Lord's table and the table of devils. And so what he does
here is he uses the crossing of the Red Sea as an illustration
of baptism. That's an ordinance we have,
baptism. And he's showing the crossing
of the Red Sea as baptism. And he uses the manna in the
wilderness and the water that came from the smitten rock as
illustrations of the unleavened bread and the wine of the Lord's
table. And he's setting up a point to
where when he gets to that point about the table, we will see
learning from this example of Israel. So I just want to look
at these few things today and see it. We're going to look more
at these things in detail when we come to them in the popular
stories series. But for now, we're just going
to kind of touch on these. But first of all, they were all
baptized. They were all baptized. Now look
here in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I will not
that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were
under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now when they
entered the Red Sea, the Lord divided the sea, and when they
entered the Red Sea on dry ground, they entered the Red Sea, the
children of Israel were covered to the right and to the left
by the sea. It stood upright. They were covered
to the right and to the left by the sea. And they were covered
over the top by the cloud. Now the cloud didn't rain on
them. I've heard people take that cloud and use that as an
illustration to try to support sprinkling and said that cloud
baptized them by raining on them. That cloud didn't rain on them.
That cloud covered them. They were completely covered. They were immersed. That's what
baptism means. Immersion. They were immersed.
The sea of glass and the cloud immersed them in light. It was
a baptism. That's what it was. Baptism pictures
how all God's elect died in justice, how that we were buried in the
tomb, and how that we rose again to newness of life in Christ. How we did all this in Christ.
That's what baptism is picturing. That's what we're saying by baptism. Now you think about this. Christ
was immersed. He was immersed in the judgment
of God on the cross. That fierce wrath of God's judgment
was an immersion on that cross. He was engulfed in the justice
of God. That's why Christ said, I have
a baptism to be baptized with and how I'm straightened till
it be accomplished. He said, I have an immersion
to be immersed in and I'm straightened till it be accomplished. He was
immersed in that. And in baptism, what we're professing
is, we're saying that we, ourselves personally, along with all God's
elect, died to justice. Died under the hand of God's
justice. Satisfied justice towards us
when we died in the Lord Jesus Christ. We had to die to justice. You know, when after they passed
through that Red Sea, That same sea drowned Pharaoh and his army. Well, as far as the type goes,
Israel died too. But see, they were showing that
they were under the cloud just like God's people are under the
blood and therefore we died in a substitute. We didn't die in
the justice of God, we died in a substitute because He willingly
went and was immersed in that judgment for us. And then the
second thing is this, Christ's lifeless body then was taken
down and was immersed in a tomb, buried. He was buried in a tomb. And what we're confessing when
we go into that water, into that grave, that watery grave, we're
confessing that our body of sin In Christ, our body of sin was
buried out of God's sight forever. So that God won't remember our
sin anymore whenever Christ went into that tomb. Our body of sin
was buried forever. And then Christ arose out of
that grave. He arose out of that grave. You
see the importance of Him being buried and covered on all sides
by that tomb was showing how that then He came out of that
tomb. He came out of it. He was raised from the dead and
He ascended to the right hand of the Father. And when He ascended,
He's not alive to sin anymore. He's dead to sin. He's alive
to God. And He's committed to God and
He's He's the servant of God. He's arisen to God's right hand.
Now, when it says here that they were baptized in the sea, it
says they were baptized unto Moses. When they went in that
sea, all those children of Israel went in that sea, they were professing
that they were committed to following Moses. They were committed to
Moses. They were going to follow Moses.
And whenever we're baptized, we're professing that we've been
raised to newness of life and we're committed to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're following the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we're confessing.
Now, here was the problem. At your leisure, you can read
about that in Romans chapter 6. Everything I just said is
in about the first 14 or 15 verses. How we died with Christ, we buried
with Christ, we rose again. The newness of life. That's what
we picture in baptism. Well, the problem was, is by
their act of baptism. By passing through that sea. Most of them in Israel assumed,
they presumed by that, that they were children of God. And that
they could stand. Because they passed through that
sea. I mean, you think about it. If God had done something
like that for you, and you were brought across on dry ground
and watched Pharaoh's army die, you would probably look at that
and think, well, I'm a child of God. But see, there's a problem
with that. We don't look at our baptism.
We don't look at anything we've done and presume by that that
I'm a child of God, that I'm saved because of something I
did. I did. Those that are truly baptized,
truly baptized, are baptized discerning the Lord's body. We're
baptized seeing Christ in that order. We're baptized giving
Him the glory for what He's done for us, not something we're doing
for Him. Baptism is not the believer doing
something for the Lord. Baptism is picturing what the
Lord did for us. And we discern the Lord's body
in that. You know, nobody makes us to
differ but Christ. We don't make ourselves to differ.
You remember over there, right before they went into that sea,
that cloud, the scripture says, the angel of God was in that
cloud. Christ was in that cloud. That's
who that cloud represented was Christ. Christ was in that cloud.
The angel of God was in that cloud. And when they went into
that sea, before they went into that sea, the angel of God in
the cloud went from before them, from leading them, and went behind
them and got between them and the Egyptians. Put a difference
between them and the Egyptians. Christ did that. And He gave
them light. He gave the children of Israel
light. But He made the Egyptians to be in darkness. That's what
Christ does. He's the one who makes the difference.
He's the one who makes the difference. He puts a difference between
His people and the rest of this world. between His people and
this Egypt of darkness that we live in. He makes all the difference
in Him alone. But they didn't discern the Lord's
body in that baptism. They didn't all discern it. Not
all believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who were saved,
they did believe on Him. They believed Him. They believed
on Christ. Every sinner that's ever been
saved has been saved the same way. There's no coming to God
except in Christ. He's the one mediator between
God and men and always has been. They believed on Christ, but
those who did not discern Him, did not have life, did not have
faith, they didn't discern Him in that ordinance. You see, those
who are truly saved, we put all our confidence in Christ and
we don't put any confidence in our flesh whatsoever. or any
act of religion we've ever done. We just don't. But those who
are merely have a form of religion, they put confidence in their
religious acts, in their baptism, in their other acts that they've
done, and they don't have confidence in Christ. You can't have confidence
in both. To have confidence in both is
to have no confidence in Christ. If it's of works, it's no more
of grace. They're mutually exclusive. If it's of grace, it's not of
works. You can't have confidence in Christ and in you, only in
Christ or only in you. Alright? So that's the first
thing. Now, let me say this before I
move on. When folks come to me and they
say, I believe with all my heart that Christ is all my salvation. I have no other confidence, no
other hope whatsoever but Christ. I'm nothing, He's all. He's got
to save me or I won't be saved. A person comes to me telling
me that their heart is set on Christ and they want to profess
Him in baptism, I'll gladly baptize them. I can't see a man's heart. All I can do is take what a man
says, that's it. And I'm not going to doubt somebody.
I trust what they've said, what they've confessed. And I'll tell
you, Lord willing, we're going to baptize Abbey July the 3rd. If there's anybody that can say,
I'm trusting Christ alone, he's it. And you want to be baptized,
tell me. We'll baptize you on that first
Sunday in July. But let me give you this warning.
And I want us all to hear this warning. those who have already
been baptized. Make certain, make certain that
you put no confidence whatsoever in the fact that you're being
baptized, in the act of being baptized. Put no confidence in
that. Baptism has never saved anybody. Christ alone saves. That's important. The last thing in the world I
want to do is to give somebody a false hope. I don't want you
to be baptized thinking now I'm saved because I was baptized.
Christ is the only one that can save you. Look to Him alone. Alright, now secondly. They all ate the same spiritual
meat and the same spiritual drink. You see what I'm showing you,
and I firmly believe this is what Paul is showing here. These
two wilderness ordinances, if you will, stand for all kinds
of religious acts, every kind of religious act that men look
to. That's what he's representing here by this. Now look, it says
in verse 3, they did all eat the same spiritual meat, and
did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
And when he speaks here of the spiritual meat, he's talking
about the manna that came down from heaven. That manna that
came down from heaven was a picture of God's Son. who is the true
bread from heaven. Remember, Christ told them. He
told them one day in John 6. He said, I am the bread from
heaven. He said, my father gave you the
true bread. Moses didn't give you the bread
from heaven. My father gives you the true
bread. And he said, I'm the bread from
heaven. I'm the true bread. I'm the bread
of life. That's what he told them. And
that's who the manna represented. And then that spiritual drink,
Oh, what a picture was in that spiritual drink. We're going
to look at this more in depth sometime later when we get to
it, Lord willing, in that other series we're doing. I just want
to touch on them now. But that spiritual drink came
from the smitten rock. And Paul says here that rock
was Christ. They journeyed from the wilderness
of sin and they came to Rephidim. And that means rest. That's where
they came to rest. When they got there, there was
no water. And so they began to murmur against Moses because
there was no water. And so in Exodus 17, verse 6,
the Lord said, He told Moses to go ahead before the people,
in front of the people. And He said, Behold, I will stand
before thee there upon a rock. And He said, And thou shalt smite
the rock. He was to take that rod and smite
the rock with it. And he said, and there shall
come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did
so in the sight of the elders of Israel. That rock was Christ. You see, before the foundation
of the world, God stood on Christ the rock. He entrusted His glory,
the manifestation of His righteousness, He trusted Christ to satisfy
divine justice and justify His people. God stood on Christ the
Rock. He stood His own glory on Christ
and what Christ would accomplish. And when He came into this world
and He went to that cross and He was made sin for His people,
The justice of God, the law of God, smoked Christ. That's what's
represented there when Moses, picture the law, smites the rock. The law of God smoked Christ
in the place of all his people. You know we have a thing in this
country called double jeopardy. If you're tried and found not
guilty, you can't be tried for the same case again. Well, God
poured out justice on Christ and settled it so that everybody
Christ represented, justice is satisfied for them because he
bore that. He was smitten of God and afflicted
and he bore that justice and satisfied it. God will not pour
out justice a second time on anybody for whom Christ represented.
That's why we say then in the picture there, you see then from
Christ, from Him came the water of life. He's going to send forth
the Spirit of God and He's going to give life to everybody He
died for because God's holy justice, God's holy character, God's glorious
attributes, His mercy, His righteousness, everything God is demands that
they be given life. because they came out of that
tomb with Christ. They arose with Him. That water
of life will flow to them. They will have that water of
life. And you see that bread and that water is an illustration
of our bread, unleavened bread, and wine that we have in the
Lord's table, that we drink and eat in the Lord's table. That
rock followed them everywhere they went. Christ will never
leave us nor forsake us. He will not let one perish. He
is going to bring us to God. He is going to feed us. He said,
he that believes on me will never hunger and he will never thirst.
He is going to keep, we are going to have life by Him forever,
eternal life. So that's a picture of the unleavened
bread and of the wine. Now, Paul tells us later how
it is that you partake of the Lord's table unworthily. Look
at 1 Corinthians 11. Look at verse 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily
eateth and drinketh damnation or judgment to himself. Here's
how you drink unworthily. Not discerning the Lord's body. And that was the problem. Though
they all drank the same spiritual drink and ate the same spiritual
meat, most of them did not discern the Lord's body. Most of them
didn't discern Christ in that. They didn't have spiritual discernment
to discern Christ in that. See, we drink unworthily and
eat unworthily if we have our focus on the table rather than
on the Lord of the table. We drink unworthily if we got
our focus on that literal unleavened bread and that little thimble
full of wine rather than on Christ's broken body and His shed blood. We drink unworthily if we remember
our works. We're thinking about our act
of being baptized and our act of partaking of the ordinance
rather than remembering Christ and His works that He's accomplished. We take unworthily if we drink
it and we're doing it for a vain show. We're just doing it so
others can... we can show others what we're
doing. You drink that cup and eat that bread showing Christ's
death until He comes. That's the only thing that we're
showing is Christ's death until He comes. We drink unworthily
if we drink that cup and we think that by drinking that cup we're
saved and eating that bread we're saved and we can stand now. Some
people think that there's That those are sacraments, meaning
that there's going to be grace conveyed to you because you've
eaten the bread and drank the wine. That's works, brethren,
to say, I'm going to have grace because I ate something and drank
something. Christ is the one through whom... His broken body
and shed blood is the one in whom we're blessed. Not by drinking
that bread or eating that bread and drinking that wine. That's
to drink and eat unworthily. See, until the Spirit of God
has given us spiritual discernment, you can't drink worthily because
you don't discern the Lord's body. You can't remember Christ
if you haven't ever met Him. We can't think of what He's accomplished
if we don't rejoice in what He's accomplished. If we're still
fighting against God, you can't come to that table and be welcome
and rejoice in Him and glorify Him and partake of it worthily.
It's impossible. It's impossible. That was the
problem Paul's pointing out with those in the wilderness. Yeah, they ate it, but they didn't
do it giving glory to God. They didn't do it giving glory
to God. So, look back at 1 Corinthians 10.5. Therefore God was not pleased
with them. Verse 5, But with many of them
God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Look at Matthew. See there where
he says that God was not well pleased with them. Look at Matthew
12. Matthew 12. Do you know that... I don't know what the exact number
was of how many came out of Egypt, But there was, some think it
was in the millions, probably was in the millions. When it
speaks about 800,000 or I believe it said, that's talking about
just the men. And they're talking about, you
know, there's a lot more than that that came out. But of all those
that came out, do you know how many went into the promised land? Caleb and Joshua. Moses and Aaron. That's it. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right.
Moses died. I forgot that. He's a law. He can't go. He can't
deliver him in there. Joshua has to deliver him in
there. The picture of Christ. The law can't deliver him in
there. But Joshua and Caleb. Isn't that something? Why? Why was God not well pleased
with them? They were baptized and they ate
the meat and drank the drink. Why weren't they accepted? Look
here, Matthew 12, 18. Because they didn't believe on
this one right here. God said, Matthew 12, 18, Behold
My servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom My soul is
well pleased. That's the only way God can be
well pleased with a sinner like me and you, is if we come in
His Son, in whom He's well pleased. Why is He well pleased with him?
That's from Isaiah 42. And then down the chapter in
Isaiah 42, 21, it says, The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness
sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. God's pleased with His Son because
His Son obeyed Him even until the death of the cross and highly
exalted God, declared Him righteous, just, and holy. You want to come
to God, you got to come through faith in Christ. You can't come through the law.
The law was given to declare you guilty. Christ came and fulfilled
the law. You want to fulfill the law?
There's only one way to establish the law. That's believing on
the Lord Jesus. God's well pleased for His righteousness
sake. He magnified the law and made
it honorable. So here's the warning, brethren. Wherefore let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Here's the first
thing. Never presume that by any religious
act, baptism, the Lord's table, church attendance, anything whatsoever,
never imagine by any religious act that you're saved, that you're
a child of God, that you're able to stand. Never, never. Never has a sinner been saved
by His works. Make sure, take heed to make
sure Christ is all your salvation. All your salvation. All your
righteousness. All your strength to stand is
Christ. Christ alone. I pray He'll bless
that. Make us hear Him. Alright, let's
stand together. Father, we thank You for the
Word. We thank You for using the children of Israel
to give us clear illustrations of how You save, giving us examples
of what it is to trust in a lie. And Lord, make us see these things.
Make us to realize The only one that you're satisfied with is
Christ and those who come to you in Him. Lord, make us believe
you. Make us trust you. Make us, if
there are some here that have never been baptized, make them
desire to be baptized to profess the glory of your Son. And Lord,
when we partake of this table, make us do it seeing Christ,
discerning His broken body and His shed blood. Keep our focus
away from anything else. And Lord, make it so in all our
worship and all our singing and all our preaching and our praying
and anything we do in Your name, make it, Lord, that we behold
the glory of Christ in it and rejoice in Him. Forgive us our
sins, Father, we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.