Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to
follow along in your Bibles, I'm going to begin preaching
today from 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And I'm gonna focus on one verse.
I'm gonna read the context and talk a little bit about that,
but I'm focusing on verse four. 1 Corinthians 10, four. And the title of the message
is, That Rock Was Christ. that rock was Christ. And of
course, the Apostle Paul, as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit
here to write these words, makes a reference to an Old Testament
historical event where the people of Israel in the wilderness,
after they'd been brought out of Egypt and brought to Mount
Sinai and they traveled a little bit, they came to a place where
there was no water. and they were thirsty. As you
know, as they went through the wilderness, they came to places
where there was no water and no food. But God provided for
them because as he promised 400 years before, 400 and some years
before to Abraham, that he would bring this people out and take
care of them. He would deliver them from the
bondage of Egypt and he would take care for them and bring
them to the promised land. And so God was always going to
make good on his promise and the people were to believe God. They were to bow to God's sovereign
power and goodness and believe God. Now all of these things
that happened to Israel had spiritual lessons. Many of them, especially
this issue of the rock, was a type. I love preaching from the Old
Testament what we call the types and the pictures of Christ and
his people. And this is one where you can't
deny this was a type, that rock. Now what happened there is they
came to the place where there was no water and they began to
complain. All of us by nature, see. sinful
people, even sinners saved by grace, when we get in trouble,
we complain, we doubt. And that's what the writer of
Hebrews in Hebrews 12 called the sin that so easily besets
us. And that's part of the warfare
between the spirit and the flesh that goes on within us. As one man said years ago that
I heard, he said, a believer, a sinner saved by grace, is not
in a state of unbelief. the state of spiritual death
and unbelief. But even as a born-again person,
a regenerate person, even as one who is a believer, he still
has the flesh. And in that flesh is unbelief. And we have to fight that. That's
a warfare. We run that race, he says in
Hebrews 12 too, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith. And that's what Moses, the leader
of Israel at this time, he kept telling the people, we need to
look unto God. We need to depend upon God. Whenever
we get in trouble, God has always delivered us out of that trouble.
He's always preserved us. He's always provided for us.
So here they were, and this is recorded over in Exodus chapter
17. We'll look at that in just a moment. But let's go to 1 Corinthians
10, what the apostle was doing here. The apostle Paul was, he's inspired
by the spirit. He is encouraging and correcting
and encouraging the professing believers in the church at Corinth
to be obedient, to unite together in the cause of the glory of
God and the gospel, and to be obedient, and not to just throw
caution to the wind when it comes to our character and our conduct.
You see, The obedience of faith, which is obedience to the word
of God for the people of God. Now, obedience of an unbeliever
is an abomination to God in a sense as far as salvation goes. But
the obedience of a believer is not the cause of salvation, it's
not the ground of salvation, It's not the power which preserves
us in salvation, but it's the fruit of salvation. It's the
product, the result of the grace of God. You see, the cause of
salvation is the sovereign will of God, the sovereign grace of
God. God stated that through Paul
in Romans chapter nine. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. It's not of him that runneth,
nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. You
see, the cause is God. It's his sovereign purpose and
will. And that's why the Bible is very
careful to show us that salvation is originated by God and not
by man. God, before the foundation of
the world, determined for his glory to save a people of his
choice, the elect they're called, that's what the Bible calls them.
I know people don't wanna hear that today, but that's what the
scripture says. And he gave them to Christ. He
put all of the responsibility of their salvation upon Christ.
So the cause of salvation is the sovereign mercy and grace
of God, the sovereign purpose of God. The ground of salvation
is the work of Christ in his obedience unto death as the surety,
the substitute, and the redeemer of his people. You see, it's
not our works. Salvation is by grace, by grace
are you saved. Now faith, which is the result,
it comes through faith, it comes by means of faith. In other words,
God's people whom he chose before the foundation of the world and
whom Christ died for, they're going to enter into a union with
Christ spiritually by God-given faith. But by grace are you saved
through faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. And he goes
on in Ephesians 2, 10 says, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, unto, not because of, but unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So Paul
is encouraging the Corinthians to be obedient, not in order
to attain salvation, and not even in order to maintain it,
but as the evidence and fruit and result of salvation. And the obedience of faith is
motivated not by mercenary promise of earned reward. I'm going to
obey because I want to earn greater rewards. No, that's a mercenary. Nor is it motivated by legal
threats of punishment. If I don't do this, God's going
to get me. No. The obedience of faith is
motivated by love. Love to God. Grace. God has given
me all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
and none of those blessings are things that I deserve or have
earned. And that motivates me in gratitude. That's the difference. And so look at 1 Corinthians
10, look at verse one. Paul writes, 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. Now he's
referring back to Israel being brought out of Egypt. The cloud
there is the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire
by night, which was, that's another picture of Christ who is the
protection of his people, the guardian and guide of his people.
And God sent that miracle to protect the people. And that
pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, it followed them all the
way through the wilderness and guided them through the wilderness.
And all passed through the sea, the Red Sea. You remember the
story of Moses, a God part in the Red Sea, and they passed
over on dry land. Verse two, they were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. what it means to be
baptized into Moses. The word baptized, understand
this, and I've dealt with this on this program quite a bit.
The word baptized does not always refer to the New Testament ordinance
of believer's baptism. Now, sometimes it does. Believers
are to confess Christ in believer's baptism. And it's not baptism
that saves them, not believer's baptism that saves them. It's
not believer's baptism that washes away their sins. It's the blood
of Christ that saves sinners and washes away our sins. Believer's
baptism is a confession. It's a public confession of that.
But when you read the word baptized or baptisms, it doesn't always
refer to the ordinance the New Testament ordinance, and here's
one of those times. How were they baptized unto Moses? That means they were united to
Moses. They were with Moses. That's
what it means. They believed what Moses said.
Sometimes the Bible talks about being baptized into his doctrine.
That means they united with him. The word baptized means placed
into or immersed into. And it means a union. For example,
in Romans chapter six, when the Bible talks about being baptized
into Christ, it doesn't mean believer's baptism there. It
means they were placed into Christ, united with Christ. And there's
an eternal union that God's people can see in the scripture. that
Christ was chosen to be our surety, substitute, redeemer before the
foundation of the world. Paul spoke of it in 2 Timothy
1 when he spoke of a salvation that was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. There's a legal union with Christ. That legal union means that He
stood as my surety. My sins were charged to His account. My sin-debt was laid to His charge,
reckoned to Him, imputed to Him. And as my surety, He had to come
into this world and unite with a sinless human nature, the Word
made flesh, God manifest in the flesh, you see. Emmanuel, God
with us. He had to come as my surety,
my sin debt being laid to His charge, imputed to Him. And He
had to substitute Himself in my place to pay my debt. That's substitution. And He paid
that debt. That's redemption. He paid the
debt and He will have all for whom He paid that debt for. And
in doing that, he brought forth a righteousness, a perfect righteousness. In the Bible, it's called the
righteousness of God, Romans 1, 16 and 17. It's not the righteousness
of men. Man has no righteousness. Romans
3, 10, there's none righteous, no, not one among us. We fell
in Adam. We were born into a state of
sin and death. We have no righteousness, no
perfection. by which to be saved and to be
made right with God. But Christ is the righteousness
of His people, and that's that legal union baptized into Christ
legally. His righteousness has been charged,
reckoned, accounted, imputed to all of His people. And because
of that righteousness imputed to Him, because of that legal
union, there must, in time, in God's appointed time, come a
spiritual union where they are given life from the dead. Born
spiritually dead, we must be born again. All whom God justified
in Christ, all whom God imputed righteousness to, all whom Christ
died for will be given life from the dead. They will be quickened.
They will be born again, and that includes the impartation
of spiritual life and knowledge. It includes God-given faith.
to receive Christ and believe on Him. It includes the gift
of repentance, and it includes the gift of perseverance, continuing
in the faith. And they're united to Christ.
Well, here in 1 Corinthians 10 too, he says, and all were baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All of those Israelites
who followed Moses by that cloud that was given them, that pillar
of cloud. Now, all who passed between the
waters of the Red Sea on dry land, they were united with Moses,
every one of them now, every one of that nation. And it says
in verse three of 1 Corinthians, all did eat the same spiritual
meat. Now the spiritual meat there
refers to the manna which God sent from heaven. So every one
of those Israelites partook of that. And he says in verse four,
all did drink and did all drink the same spiritual drink. It's
called spiritual. What he's talking about is the
water that Moses drew from the rock. It was real water, physical
water, but it was spiritual in the sense that it was a miracle.
All did, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they
drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, or went with
them, and that rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. Now I'll
tell you the story about that in just a moment. We'll get into
that. But look at what Paul says here.
But with many of them, those who were baptized into Moses,
Now notice here, when Paul talks about these Israelites, he doesn't
say back in verse two, and we're all baptized unto Christ. There were a few true believers
who had been spiritually baptized into Christ, even back then.
Moses was one of them. And Christ said that in John
chapter five. He said, Moses wrote of me. But all of these
Israelites, many of these Israelites, in fact the majority of them,
they didn't know the true and living God. They didn't know
the Messiah who was to come to establish righteousness. But
physically in that old covenant, they were baptized into Moses,
they followed Moses. And so he says in verse five,
but with many of them God was not well pleased for they were
overthrown in the wilderness. and is in the wilderness journey.
And how were they overthrown? Well, there were several ways.
There were ways that they were defeated, and there were ways
that they were barred from going into the promised land. I'm not
gonna get into all that today. But they were overthrown in the
wilderness. Hebrews 3 says they could not
enter into the promised land. that rest of the promised land,
this generation here, because of unbelief. They didn't believe
God. Well now, before we get puffed
up and proud about ourselves, you say, well good, I'm better
than them, I believe God. No, I do believe God. But the
only reason I believe God, and I'm not found in unbelief like
these Israelites, is the sovereign grace of God in Christ. You see? I've talked about that
quite a bit over in the book of John chapter 1 when he talks
about there's many who did not receive Christ, but there were
some who did receive Christ. What made the difference? Well,
it was not their physical heritage. It was not of blood. This is
John chapter 1 and verse 12 and 13. It was not of blood. It wasn't
because they were born into a certain family or into a certain nation. or had a certain color of skin.
No, no, no. Wasn't physical pedigree or heritage. And then it's not of the will
of the flesh, which means the works of the flesh. It wasn't
by their works that they were born again and received him.
And then he says it's not of the will of man. My friend, if
you're born again, it's not because you made the right decision.
If you're born again, it's not because you believed. If you
made the right decision and came to Christ and received Him and
bowed to Him, if you believed, it's because you were first born
again by the Spirit. And that's what John 1, 12 and
13 tells us. It says that they were not born
of blood, nor the works of the flesh, nor the will of man, but
born of God. you must be born again. So, I
think a lot of people when they read passages like this and they
look at this, here's these Israelites, verse five, many of them God
was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
I think many people either unconsciously, well, I won't say unconsciously,
but unstated, they may not say it like this. But they have the
idea that, well, I'm a little bit better. I wouldn't have done
what those Israelites have done. I may have told you this before,
but I'll never forget this. Years ago, I was watching a preacher
on television talking about the crucifixion of Christ. talking
about how cruel people were to him and to Christ, going to the
cross and all that. And the preacher was tugging
on people's emotional heartstrings and crying. And he made this
statement. He said, oh, if I'd have been
there, I would have tried to stop it. And I thought, are you
crazy? What was going on at the cross
was according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge, sovereign
will of God. Now that's so. And my friend,
what people need to understand, we're all sinners who have no
spiritual life, no desire. So Paul writes here in verse
six, he says, now these things were our examples. To the intent
we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. These
things were put in the Old Testament as examples to us that we would
not follow in the steps of the Israelites. But go back to verse
four now, that rock was Christ. Over in Exodus 17, here's the
people of Israel, and they were beginning to wander through the
wilderness, and they came to a place where they found no water,
and they began to murmur and complain. Rather than to get
on their knees and pray to God and be confident that God was
going to provide for them, they complained against Moses and
they expressed a desire to go back to Egypt. Back to their
bondage. Think about that. That's the
madness and folly of unbelief. Thinking that bondage is better
than freedom. People don't even know they're
in bondage. And it says, Moses, this is Exodus 17. Here's verse
four, it says, and Moses cried unto the Lord saying, what shall
I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone
me. They want to kill Moses. And the Lord said unto Moses,
go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel
and thy rod. wherewith thou smotest the river.
That is, when he was in Egypt, he smote the river and it turned
to blood, the Nile River. Take in thine hand and go. Take
that rod. And he says in verse six, listen
to this, Exodus 17, six. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of that rock, out of it, that
the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel. Moses struck the rock. Now that's
what Paul's referring to here in 1 Corinthians 10, 4. That
rock was Christ. I love to talk about Christ and
all the capacities that he has shown in illustration of him
being the rock of his people. He's the rock of his people,
the rock of his church, in that he's the foundation of his people,
the foundation rock. the rock upon which the church
is built. Over in Matthew 16, he told Peter
and the disciples, upon this rock, I will build my church. And many people look at that
passage and say, well, he's talking about Peter there. Peter's the
rock upon which, no, he wasn't talking about Peter at all. He
said, Peter, you're a little rock. But upon this rock, what
Peter confessed, that Christ was, that Jesus of Nazareth was
the Son of God, the Messiah. the anointed one who come to
save his people, upon that rock, upon Christ, he says, upon him
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. I've told you often my favorite
hymn is The Solid Rock. I'm not the solid rock. Peter
wasn't the solid rock. Paul wasn't the solid rock. Christ
is the solid rock. On Christ, the solid rock, I
stand. all other ground is sinking sand. Christ spoke of it in Matthew
chapter 7 when he talked about men building their house, their
lives, their spiritual lives, and their hopes and their dreams.
Some build it on sand, their own works, their religious experiences,
their feelings, their material things. and it'll fall in the
day the storm comes. But those who build their house
on the rock, that's Christ, the sovereign grace of God, salvation
based upon his righteousness imputed, not upon our work, it'll
stand, the rock Christ Jesus. He's called the cornerstone of
the church. That cornerstone in building
was the stone upon which everything was to be measured. And everything
in salvation is to be measured by Christ. He is the cornerstone
of the church. Well, back in Exodus 17, what
did God tell Moses to do? Take that rod and strike the
rock, and then water will come out. You know what that's a picture
of? And I'm gonna talk a little bit more about this next week.
That's a picture of Christ being struck on the cross by the justice
of God in the place of his people to die for their sins. Strike
that rock. Moses represents the law. That
rod that he had represents the justice of God. And Christ, as
the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of his people, went
under the law and justice of God on the cross to die for the
sins of his people. You see, he must die because
sin requires death. That's the penalty. The wages
of sin is death. Now Christ was not a sinner.
Our rock was not a sinner. He was not even made to be a
sinner. He was not made to be sinful or contaminated with sin,
but the sins of God's people was laid to His charge. He's our surety, the surety of
His people. And because He took responsibility
as the surety of His people to pay the debt with the price of
His blood unto death, He had to come and die on the cross.
And that's why Moses struck the rock. Now, I'm gonna talk about
this next week, but I want you to notice, Moses was told by
God to strike the rock one time. And why is that? Because Christ,
by his one sacrifice for sins, put away all the sins of his
people and secured the salvation of every sinner for whom he died. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.