The sermon this evening is entitled,
Names of Christ in the Old Testament, The Rock. It's a prayer meeting
address, preached on Thursday evening, the 12th of September,
1991, as I say, by Mr. Matronola. The text is Deuteronomy
32 and verses one to four. Deuteronomy 32 and verses one
to four. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine
shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as
the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon
the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe
ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock. His work is perfect,
for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. The name of Christ in the Old
Testament, which I would like to consider, is the lovely name
of the Rock. When we think of great rocks,
we think of strength and duration. Our God is pleased to be known
in the revelation He has made of Himself as the Rock, the Rock
of Israel, the Rock of our salvation. This title for God is found in
several places, including this passage in the Song of Moses.
Moses wrote these words at the end of his long and eventful
life before he went to heaven to sing another song in the presence
of his Lord. In these verses you find the
name of the Lord, Jehovah, the name for God, Elohim, as well
as this name, the Rock, or as it is in the Hebrew, Tzer. so
that there is indeed a publishing of the name of the Lord ascribe
ye greatness unto our God he is the rock. Moses remembers
the God who rent the rocks of nature in the daytime also he
led them with a cloud and all the night with a light of fire
he claimed the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of
the great depths he brought streams also out of the rock and caused
waters to run down like rivers psalm 78 14 to 16 Here the psalmist is alluding
to the accounts in Exodus chapter 17 and in Numbers chapter 20
when God was pleased to bring water out of the rock to quench
the thirst of the Israelites at the beginning of their wanderings
and then again at a much later juncture. The rock provided life-giving
water for the people of God. However, if we read further in
this chapter, we find that despite the goodness of God, there was
unbelief and rebellion on the part of the Israelites. Jeshurun
waxed fat and kicked. Jeshurun was a name used on a
few occasions by Moses and once by Isaiah, which seems to have
at its root the sense of being righteous, or upright. It is used therefore of Israel
as an upright or righteous nation, as they should have been. Jeshurun
waxed fat and kicked, thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick,
thou art covered with fatness. Then he forsook God which made
him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. Of the rock that begat thee thou
art unmindful, that has forgotten God that formed thee. the people
prospered in the land as God blessed them materially. But
instead of ascribing thanks to God for his bountiful provision
and his faithfulness to his promise, they became self-sufficient and
rebellious. They broke the terms of the Mosaic
Covenant and they provoked him to jealousy with strange gods,
with abominations, provoked him to anger. They were unmindful
of the rock that begat them, and forgot the God that formed
them. What a solemn thing that was!
Israel had been favoured above any other nation, and yet, having
received so much, they made so little acknowledgement and so
little return. Yet, while Israel was guilty
of such ingratitude, we have to acknowledge that all men although
they are made in the image and likeness of God, are the same. Few in any generation render
thanks to God for all He gives them, although in Him we live and move and have
our being. There are the general providential
mercies of God to the nations, and yet how few give God any
acknowledgment. Israel, however, had been given
special revelation, and that made them all the more accountable. Unto whomsoever much is given,
of him shall be much required. is a principle not only in the
Old Testament but also in the New Testament. It is a gospel
principle. A person who has been greatly
favored over others will be more responsible and more accountable
for these favors. But while Israel was more favored
than the heathen nations, the heathen nations were not in ignorance
of God. Nor are they today. The Apostle
Paul gives a masterly exposition of this in Romans, when he shows
that all men are inexcusable before God, because that which
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed
it unto them. for the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse, because that when they knew God
they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, All men are
accountable. All men are without excuse because
they know God by the revelation of the natural world about them
and by the voice of conscience which is within them. Yet they
do not glorify God. It is a solemn thing that the
nations are not thankful to God. It is something that we must
wonder at in ourselves, that we are so lacking in thanksgiving. Natural men give no acknowledgement
of God. Israel tended to wax fat, to
be unmindful of the rock, and to forget the God who formed
them. What of us? What of us? We are more favoured
than Israel in Christ. we have been given so much and
yet there is oftentimes a dullness felt within us how frequently
we feel a chill upon our hearts how unthankful we are and how
often like Israel of old we provoke God by our rebellion and our
waywardness when we consider the provocations which are in
our own hearts we must be thankful that he is so, that he is so
long-suffering and patient in his dealings toward us. Men are
like Jashurin. They are like an animal which
has been provided for and given all that is necessary and more
besides, yet it waxes fat, it kicks over the traces and it
will not bear the yoke. Asaph said, I was as a beast
before thee. Psalm 73 verse 22. I was as a
beast before thee. So often men are like beasts. Not that they are all savage,
although increasingly today there seems to be such depravity that
it makes us feel that there is bestial savagery in many people. Men are also often like beasts
in their filthiness and gluttony, but rather We are thinking that
they are like beasts in that they give no acknowledgements
of God. As if, like beasts, they were
not made in the image of God. Animals are created by God but
they have no soul and no conscience. Men are often like that. They
live as if they had no soul, as if there was no day coming
when they must stand before their maker. And do we not sometimes live
like that, as though there was no God, when we of all people
should know that there is a God? And what a God of love and grace
He is towards us, who are so wayward and so unmindful of the
One who has formed us, so easily turned aside from the rock of
our salvation. How good therefore it is to find
those in the scriptures who are examples to us of acknowledgement
and thankfulness. Those who are so different from
Israel, who in Moses' estimate had turned away from the rock.
Of the rock that begat thee thou art unmindful. The first one
of these I will draw to your attention is Hannah. Hannah came
prayerfully. she prayed out of deep vexation
of spirit for a son and God heard her God gave her what she sought
from him we read that she rejoiced there is none holy as the Lord
for there is none beside thee neither is there any rock like
our God on Samuel 2 verse 2 and David also who said For who is
God save the Lord? And who is a rock save our God? David knew in his eventful life
what it was to cry to the rock. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord
my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me
I become like them that go down into the pit. Psalm 28. But he continues, blessed be
the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. David is not as a beast before
his God. He is not one who has forgotten
the mercies of God. He is not one who called and
was heard, but who then consigned to oblivion the mercies which
he received. He found God to be his refuge.
in Psalm 94 which breathes such a Davidic spirit that I cannot
but think that it is a psalm of David, although we do not
have the name of David at the beginning of the psalm. He says,
but the Lord is my defence and my God is the rock of my refuge. David so often needed a refuge.
when the enemy was against him, and when there were those of
his friends who turned against him, he found that refuge, he
encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Then we must say, with all respect
to Asaph, that dear man who laid bare his heart, and have we not
all felt something of what he described, something of envy
at the prosperity of the wicked, He acknowledges that in the way
he has been thinking, his feet have well nigh slipped. He has
been as one that did not know there was a God. He says, I was
as a beast before thee. The conclusion of the psalm,
however, is completely different. If it began in the minor key,
it certainly ends in the major, for he says, My flesh and my
heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion
forever. Psalm 73 verse 26 in the margin
the Hebrew word strength is rock God is the rock of my heart and
my portion forever it's similar in Isaiah Isaiah
26 verse 4 trust ye in the Lord forever for in the Lord Jehovah
is everlasting strength What verse this is? The triune
Jehovah is in this verse. Trust ye in Jehovah, for in Jehovah
Jehovah is everlasting strength. The translation of everlasting
strength is literally rock of ages. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is the rock of ages. In another scripture,
Isaiah speaks for the encouragement of God's people, that when their
enemies come against them, they have the rock. He says, to the
remnant, to those who look to God to help them and who fly
to Him for a refuge, ye shall have a song, as in the night,
when a holy solemnity is kept, and gladness of heart, as when
one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord,
to the Mighty One, literally, the rock. of Israel. Isaiah 30 verse 29. Habakkuk is another example of
the godly who acknowledged God as their rock, who owned their
dependence upon him, and who looked to him in every circumstance
and in every trial. Art thou not from everlasting,
O LORD my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, thou
hast ordained them for judgment, and O mighty God, thou hast established
them for correction. Habakkuk 1 verse 12. Again, the
reading in the margin for O mighty God is the rock. The God who
is the rock has established them for correction. This is another
great verse which shows the names of God. O LORD my God, Jehovah
my Elohim, mine Holy One, we shall not die. O Jehovah, O God
the Rock, thou hast established them for correction, but God
is ever mindful of his people. These examples, however, demonstrate
more than just the experience of God's people who have proved
God to be the Rock of their salvation. You see in them their prayerfulness
and trust in God as a rock. You see also the way in which
God has heard them and has been as a rock to them. He has been
a refuge in times of need. He has been the God of provision.
He has broken the rock, as it were, in the wilderness of their
experience and caused blessings to flow out to meet their need. But there is also the doctrine
of God in these verses, which is what we are looking at principally.
We have seen all the names of Jehovah as the Rock. Jehovah
is the Rock. God is the Rock. The Holy One
is the Rock. If the Rock, therefore, can be
identified with Christ, we will have another great and unmistakable
proof of the deity of Christ from the Old Testament scripture. And these Old Testament saints
were not as ignorant of Christ as we sometimes imagine them
to be. They knew much of Christ, although we know so much more
of Christ in the light of the fuller revelation of the New
Testament. If we can prove, therefore, that Christ is in all these titles,
and that the One who is the Lord God, the Holy One, and the Rock,
is Christ, Christ is shown in the scriptures of the Old Testament
as God intended, as God indeed. Let us go back for a moment to
Deuteronomy. Who is described there as the
Rock? the name of the lord ascribe
ye greatness unto our god he is the rock where he the lord our god is
the rock later in the same chapter speaking of the dealings of god
with israel in the wilderness so the lord alone did lead them
that did lead him and there was no strange god with him verse
12 It was the Lord who was with his people in the wilderness
as under Moses they were brought out from Egypt and as they wandered
in the wilderness until God's time came to bring them into
the promised land. It was the Lord alone that did
lead him. The hymn there is Jacob. The
Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
But Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, stands for the people,
the loved nation. So the Lord alone did lead Israel
through the wilderness. There was no strange God with
him. It was the Lord himself who was
the leader of his people. He who is God, the Rock. In the New Testament, we have
the unmistakable proof of sacred inspiration, that Jesus, the
Christ, is the Rock. Therefore, the Rock who was with
Israel is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah God,
We have it in 1 Corinthians where Paul speaks of how all our fathers
were under the cloud and all passed through the Red Sea and
were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and
did all eat the same spiritual meat, the manna, and did all
drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them. The margin has all who went with
them and that rock was Christ. And that rock was Christ. The
rock that was with them, the rock that followed them in the
wilderness, was Christ. Therefore, if the rock of the
Old Testament is Jehovah, and Elohim, and the Holy One, then
Christ is all of these titles. Christ is Jehovah. Christ is
God indeed. Christ is the rock. That rock
was Christ. We have it again in Peter's confession
in Caesarea Philippi. When Jesus came into the coasts
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? After they had given various
answers, he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And
Simon Peter answered, And said, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Matthew 16, verses 13 to 18.
This rock is Christ. It is Christ who is set forth
here as the rock upon which the church is built. It's not Peter.
Although Roman Catholic teaching from a very early date states
that because Jesus said, Thou art Peter, the church was built
upon Peter, which leads to their view of the primacy of Peter. The fact that Peter's name means
a rock is only incidental. It is the confession of Peter
which is the important thing, although the church is not built
upon the confession itself, but upon the thing which Peter confesses. Peter confesses it because it
is revealed to him. He would never have known it.
He would never have made this confession had it not been revealed
by the Father in heaven. It is the Father who is pleased
to reveal Christ. It is Christ who has wrought
all that is needful for the establishment of the Church. Therefore it is
upon Christ that the Church is built. Christ is the rock. There
is more than just a passing reference to a rock here, for it has signification
with the Old Testament view of God as the rock. It is upon that
rock, Christ, It is the divinity of Christ which is the main theme
in Peter's confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. It is the living God. If the
living God is the rock, then Christ, the Son of the living
God, the Son of God from all eternity, is also the rock. This is the rock upon which the
church is built. In the familiar words of Paul,
other foundation, can no man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. Christ as the Son of God is the
foundation. the rock Christ the one who comes
by the will of the father and with the consent of the spirit
to seal the covenant is the rock on which the church is built
there can be no church without Christ it is wrong therefore to countenance
even for a moment the possibility the church is built on Peter
Peter was but a minister as were Paul and Apollos and others.
You see this proved by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians where he
is speaking of the divisions in the Corinthian church which
have been reported to him. There were those who were saying
I am of or follow Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas which
is the Aramaic for Peter and some were even saying I of Christ
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or
were you baptized in the name of Paul? The Apostle continues
his argument in much the same vein. While one saith, I am of
Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is
Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers,
by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I
have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. then he brings Cephas, or Peter,
in. Whether it is Paul, or Apollos,
or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present,
or things to come, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ
is God's. It cannot be taken, therefore,
from the word of God, or from the argument of the apostle,
in any other way, but that Peter, and Apollos, and Paul are ministers,
were those who laid the foundation but the foundation itself is
Christ it is the same point which is made in Matthew chapter 16
of the keys and the entrance into the church thou art Peter
and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it Matthew 16 18 there is a high
responsibility given to those who are the apostles and to those
who stand in the apostolic succession as ministers of Christ. They
have a responsibility in the way in which they handle the
gospel and in the way in which they rule according to the mind
of Christ in the Word and in the Church. They open and no
man shuts and they shut and no man opens. But they have no power
in and of themselves to regenerate or to prevent the regeneration
of any whom God is minded to save. They are but instruments,
ministers, although as ministers they have an authority in the
ministry. But Christ is the Head of the Church, and the alone
Head of the Church. We would hold to this doctrine
as something exceedingly precious. In the history of the Christian
Church, many have given their lives because they believed in
the headship of Christ over His Church. This was the issue for
the Covenancers in Scotland and for the Marian Martyrs in England,
who held fast to the view that the Church was established not
on Peter, but on Christ. Christ is the head, Christ is
the foundation, Christ rules by the word. If the ministers
are true to the word, they are to be heeded. But if they are
false to the word, then they are to be resisted. That is our
position, is it not? This issue of the headship of
Christ needs to be upheld even in our day. The same issues are
with us today as much as they were in a past day and will be
in every generation. Christ is, however, not only
the rock upon which his church is built, but also in the sense
that he is God the rock. He is Jehovah. He is God. He is the Holy One. He is the
rock of our salvation. He is the rock of Israel. not
only of the old Israel, which he led through the wilderness
and blessed in those days prior to his incarnation, but of the
new Israel, which he has also blessed. On another occasion,
the rocks were asundered, not this time that water may come
forth, but because of the awful thing which took place when he
died, the just for the unjust, that he might obtain an everlasting
salvation for us. The rock of ages was cleft, not
just that the water might gush forth, but there came forth water,
the water and the blood from his riven side. This is the ground
of our hope, the testimony that God has loved us and his son
has made a propitiation for us. All the attributes of deity,
all that we associate with God, and all that particularly comes
to mind when we think of God as the rock belong to Christ. He is the one who is from everlasting. He is the one who has power to
destroy all enemies. He is the one who is as a refuge
to his people. This can be beautifully instructive
to us. Our refuge and our defense is
Christ. We are to fly to him. The name
of the Lord is the rock. is a strong tower the righteous
run it into it and is safe we are to run into that rock which
is open for us we are to be in Christ in Christ it is an eternal
refuge this is the refuge in the blessing of Moses the eternal
God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms and
he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say
destroy them He is an everlasting salvation. As Christ the rock
followed the Israelites through their wanderings in the wilderness,
providing for them, causing waters to come forth from the very rocks
to assuage their thirst, so we have a provision from Christ. We have that God who is the rock
from which comes living water. Streams of living water flow
down to us from the rock of our salvation, which is Christ. There
is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of our
God. Christ is our support. He is
the provider of His church. He is the keeper of His saints
and always will be. He is our eternal refuge. He is our defence. He is El Shaddai,
the all-sufficient God. He is our God forever and forever. Are we on this rock? How many there are in Christendom
which are not on the rock? They are resting instead on Peter. on empty form, on ceremonies,
on the traditions of men. But the only thing which matters
is are we on the Rock, Christ Jesus, or are we not? Have we known the operation of
grace which has enabled us to say with Peter, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God, and to look to Him to be
the Saviour that we need. What is it to be saved? It is
to rest on Christ. It is to take Him at His word.
It is to accept what He has come to do. It is to understand why
He has come and why He has done it. Because by so doing, He has
secured everlasting redemption for His people. As we see our need of this Christ,
as we rest on His finished work, so it is that we have been brought
there by faith. Those who find the matter of
assurance such a problem, they must see that they are to look
to what He has done. Look to what He has done. We're
not looking to frames and fancies, to impressions. or to those things
which may have been made significant to us in some previous period
in our experience. We are looking to Christ. As
the hymn writer says, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other
ground is sinking sand. Are you on that rock? We can
never assume in any company that all are on that ground. wherefore
give diligence to make your calling and your election sure. Are we on Christ? Has the heart
of rock, which is ours by nature, been broken and been made a heart
of flesh by the operations of God's Holy Spirit? If so, then
God is our sufficiency. He is the rock of our salvation. He is our shelter. He is our
refuge for time and for eternity. When we have moments of doubt
and depression, we are to rest on the fact that I change, He
changes not. There can be no alteration with
the rock of ages. That is the believer's hope.
That is the only place where he, in his times of doubt and
difficulty, will ever find assurance. Christ is the Rock who changes
not. He who loves his people and is
able to keep and to provide for their every need. Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. God bless these few thoughts
on this lovely title of God in the Old Testament. May we see
how it belongs to Christ. He is the Rock. I will publish
the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. He is the Rock. The He is in
his verses in italics. It's not in the original. It
is literally because I will publish the name of Jehovah. Ascribe
ye greatness unto our God, the Rock. His work is perfect, for
all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. Doctrine of that sort is as rain
which drops down, as Moses says, my speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, as the showers upon
the grass. People can say today that they
want this and that new thing, an innovation in religion. But
for the true people of God, there will never be any substitute
for the doctrine which drops down as the dew, as the rain
refreshes the soul. This is the doctrine of our God,
Jehovah God, the Rock, the rock of our salvation, the rock of
Israel. Amen.