...and that Rock was Christ.

Let us turn once again to God's Word in the chapter we read, 1 Corinthians 10, and I'll read again the opening four verses. 1 Corinthians 10 reading from verse 1 through 4. And you'll see how here in an authorized version it is punctuated as a single sentence.

Moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, now 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, 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. And the words I really want to take for a text are those that we have at the end in verse 4 concerning those who were with Moses as he brought them out of Egypt they're told and he'd all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ and although he's recounting something of the children of Israel he makes it clear that these things belong to us as he says at verse 11 all these things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come the ends of the world that's the last times that's the day of the gospel the first coming of the Lord Jesus is ushered in The Great Day of the Lords, that last epoch of the history of this world that God himself has created. And all that's happened to these in the Old Testament says the Apostle to the Church at Corinth, it belongs to them. And as you see in the scriptures of the New Testament it belongs also to us.

What a day it is that we're living in. The end of the world, the last time. I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation says Paul when he writes in his second letter to the Corinthians.

Now Corinth was of course principally a church made up of Gentile believers and yet as Paul is writing to them and speaking of the fathers in the Old Testament He identifies these Gentile believers with the Old Testament saints. He says, moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant and that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea.

Well, they were not Gentiles. They were the Hebrews who had been delivered out of the bondage that was Egypt. How interesting this is. Old Testament believers then are really the fathers of Christian believers in the churches of the New Testament. And there are fathers. There are fathers.

They are not all Israel of course that are of Israel. Let us remember that. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the hearts, it's in the Spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. Paul makes these things so plain there at the end of Romans chapter 2.

Then again it's interesting how he begins to conclude that epistle that he's writing to the Galatians and there were those in the churches of Galatia that wanted to make Gentiles Jews, they must submit to circumcision and they must become debtors to the whole law and how he deals with this matter so faithfully in that epistle to the Galatians when we come to the end there in Galatians 6.16 he says, as many as walk according to this rule the things he's been saying throughout that epistle as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God the Israel of God that's not the Zionist nation in the Middle East that's the people of God that's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ we are the true Israel of God and of course in the Old Testament scriptures Israel is very much a type of God's spiritual children so before we come to our text I just want to look at the context of these words that we have at verse 4 What does Paul do here?

He speaks of these as examples and he speaks of them really as types. The language in verse 6, these things were our examples the Mahajan gives our figures and then in verse 11 all these things happened unto them for examples the Mahajan gives types all these things happened unto them as figures and as types all this history then there's a spiritual lesson to be learnt in these our figures how interesting is that expression the experiences of these people are types of our ordinances that's what he is saying here and he speaks of the two ordinances really of the Christian church he speaks doesn't he of baptism and he speaks also of the Lord's Supper just two ordinances look at the language that we have there at the end of verse 1 all our fathers he says were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. You think of the account that we have back in Exodus chapter 14 as they're fleeing or coming out really of Egypt they've come out, they're not fleeing in a sense they've come out victorious. they make spoil of the Egyptians as they've come out they've given them of their riches really and they come out and then Pharaoh pursues them and now as they advance they have the Red Sea before them and the mountains on either side and the chariots of Pharaoh and the Egyptians pursuing them and God makes a way through the Red Sea What do we see when we witness them there in the midst of the Red Sea?

Well, the sea is a wall on their right hand, a wall on their left hand. And the clouds are above them. John Gill remarks here in his commentary as persons immersed in and covered with water. That was their baptism. They're not actually being dipped in the waters, but the waters are all around them and all over them. It's a figure.

It's a figure of believers' baptism. Think of the language that we have in Romans chapter 6. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6 makes it so plain that baptism is one thing and one thing only, it's immersion.

And that's the figure that we have here, these people, although they're not being immersed, in the sense of being docked under the water, yet the waters are all about them and all over them. Paul does in the verse, the second verse, literally use that word baptize.

They were all baptized unto Moses, he says. In the cloud, the cloud above them, and in the sea, the sea all around them. And so we have that that gives instruction to the people of God. We can identify with these people. They were the baptized people.

Nothing to do with the right of circumcision. The pedo-baptist might speak of the right of circumcision in association with baptism in the New Testament, but of course the spiritual fulfillment of circumcision is not that that's in the flesh, but as we've already quoted from the end of Romans 2, it's that of the spirit. It's a new nature. It's old things passing away, old things becoming new. It's regeneration.

But then there's not only the ordinance of baptism, there's also that of the Lord's Supper. It says they all did eat the same spiritual meat. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they did all eat the same spiritual meat. They did all drink that same spiritual drink. And this surely reminds us of that other ordinance. of course historically the reference would be to the to the manna that was the spiritual meat that God fed them with in Exodus chapter 16 we read of these things but what was this? this manna? it's spiritual meat isn't it?

Because when we come to the book of Psalms in Psalm 78 and verse 25 we are told concerning those people, man did eat angels food. That's the description that the Psalmist gives in Psalm 78. It's angels food, it's spiritual meat. The reference here is to the manna. And of course the Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment. The manna is a type. What is a type of it? It's a type of Him who is the bread of life, the Lord Jesus. You're familiar I'm sure with the words of the 6th chapter in John and what we have there at verse 49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead.

This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that the man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

And then at verse 53, Verily, verily, and mark, mark what the Lord is doing, not just underlining, but underscoring The double verily, verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him."

There's a union here. nothing at all to do with the blasphemies of the Romish mass and transubstantiation nothing at all to do with that but that true spiritual union with the Lord Jesus and that's expressed is it not when we come as we will in the Lord's goodness presently come to the table of the Lord and partake of those simple elements the broken bread and the cup the wine poured into the cup or that cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" says the apostle. It's a spiritual drink as well as being spiritual meat. What is a spiritual drink? Well, he speaks here in terms of the spiritual rock. They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. the rock was Christ and the rock.

The rock of course was smitten there in Exodus 17 and the waters flowed out of the rock. When we think of the Lord Jesus Christ how his side was pierced and forthwith came out blood and water. Oh Christ our Passover His sacrifice for us, we read previously in chapter 5. All these things concerning Moses and his leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, it all points to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the great Paschal Lamb. when we read of him observing his last Lord's supper with the disciples, with desire he said, with desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, his last Passover. What does he do? He changes that Passover into what we know, celebrating all the simplicity of it, the Holy Supper of the Lord. that's where he institutes that supper that we must observe.

All these things are written for us, you see. Speak of believers' baptism, speak of the Lord's Supper. But speak also of more than that. They speak of the experiences of the people of God, all that these people were passing through. And he goes into some detail, doesn't he? He's warning them. He says, doesn't he, these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

Neither be ye idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed. And fat in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ. as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for our examples, our types.

It's not just a matter of the ordinance of baptism or the Lord's Supper. It's more than that. It's the experiences of the people of God. the experiences. God's people are often in the midst of trials and troubles. And how do we fare when we're in the midst of those tribulations that Christ said will be our portion in this world? Peter says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. you see these experiences none of them could escape these experiences as he says in the opening words moreover brethren I would not that you should be ignorant out of all our fathers all our fathers were under the cloud all passed through the sea and they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea there's no there's no exception at all This is their experience, this is their lot. And it's a lot of God's people in every day and every generation.

All the Lord Jesus Christ himself, he had a baptism. He had a baptism. I have a baptism to be baptized in and he says how am I straightened until it be accomplished. We know he was baptized by John in the river Jordan at the commencement of his public ministry. But there in Luke 12 and verse 50 he's not speaking of what had happened previously, he's speaking of that that now lies before him. I have a baptism to be baptized with and he's straightened, he's shut into this until it's accomplished. What is that baptism? what is that baptism?

I like the language of dear Gadsby in the hymn 658 he says for us Jesus was baptized in tremendous agonies mighty vengeance like a flood overwhelmed the Lamb of God but there's a verse in the original the songs of the Nazarenes is the pen name that William Gadsby often used in relation to the poetry that would appear in the Gospel magazine previous to the launching of the Gospel Standard. He would often appear under that pen name, the Nazarene. And I think the Gospel Standard Trust still have in print volumes of the poems of the Nazarene or the hymns of the Nazarene. And as I say, 658 It's one of those songs of the Nazarene, but there's a verse omitted, strangely, in the book, and it's this, having spoken of what baptism really is, immersion, and Christ immersed in sufferings.

Mr. Gadsby says, this was baptism indeed. Well might mountains shake with dread, surely sprinkling there can show such a scene of matchless woe. Oh it's scriptural isn't it? It's the language of the psalmist in the Messianic Psalm. The words that we have there in Psalm 69 speaking of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. Psalm 69 is indisputably speaking of Christ and what he endured there upon the cross.

Look at verse 21 He says, they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. And that's what they did. It was fulfilled in Christ. But I'm thinking of the opening words. The Psalm of David. But David's greatest son is here now. This is Christ, save me O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing.

I am coming to deep waters. where the floods overflow me, I am weary and my crying, my throat is dry, my eyes fail while I wait for my God and he goes on, doesn't he, they hate me without a cause he was the sinless one the holy, harmless lamb of God wasn't what he deserved but he suffers He enters into those deep waters. Why? Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loves them to the end. Oh, he loves sinners. He loves sinners and he dies for sinners. That's what we see in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And remember, again in the Gospel, we are told, aren't we, of the mother of Zebedee's children. and she comes to the Lord with a request in Matthew chapter 20. Matthew 20 and verse 20. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, James and John, worshipping him and desiring a certain thing of him.

And he said unto her, What will that? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on the left in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father."

Now Christ, you see, in the state of his humiliation, is the servant of God, is submissive to all the Father's will. Oh, but that request, that request that they that the woman made for her two sons. And Christ says that they will be baptized with his baptism. And they will drink of his cup.

You see there's a cost. There's a cost to discipleship. We have to deny ourselves. We have to take up our cross. We have to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way of the cross. Do we really desire that, to know Him? Or Paul's great desire, that I may know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, to be made conformable unto His death, to die to self, and to live to God, to live to Christ. The life which I now live in the flesh, he says, I live by the faith of the Son of God. You loved me and gave Himself for me. It's not my life, it's his life. Do we desire these things? Do we desire these things?

We're not to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ, neither let us tempt Christ. As some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents, we read here in verse 9. We're not to try to avoid what the Lord has appointed for his people. We're not to seek troubles. But if we're the Lord, we'll know something of those trials and those difficulties. That will be our experience.

Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye enjoy chastening, God dealeth with you as sons, what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? All but there's profit, you see. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward. He yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby, or to be exercised in these things.

To know the Lord in these things you see the promise is isn't it when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers I shall not overflow thee the fellowship of his sufferings that real communion with the Lord all the experiences that we read of there in the Old Testament concerning those Old Testament believers that they are saints of God it's all written for our learning all in Hebrews 11 gives that great catalogue of those men, those women of faith and he goes on doesn't he in chapter 12 to say we're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses but we don't look to them, we look to Christ, looking on to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith let us come, let us come to what I said at the outset would be the text Christ the rock, the spiritual rock it says in verse 4.

And that spiritual rock was Christ. Just two points. First of all, in the spiritual rock we see the Lord's provision. The Lord's provision for his people. There's water from the rock. There's water from the rock. In In Exodus 17, that's the particular experience or that particular incident in the lives of the children of Israel as they're coming out of Egypt and as they're coming into the wilderness. Look at the language there.

All the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord and pitched in refugee and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? Attempting the Lord. But then the Lord does give instruction to Moses he says in verse 6 Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb Horeb that's the range of mountains which Sinai is the principal people I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb and thou shalt smite the rock and thou shalt come water out of it that the people may drink and Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel and he called the name of the place Massar and Meribah because of the chiding of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord saying is the Lord among us or not. Here is the Lord making provision for his people.

They have no water but they have spiritual drink, they have real water from the rock, and the rock is Christ. Again, look at the language of the Sami, Psalm 105 and verse 41, He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out, they ran in the dry places like a river. Psalm 105 and verse 41.

And we're told, aren't we, concerning all their days in the wilderness, concerning that spiritual rock, it says that followed them. They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. The Mahajan says went with them, and that rock was Christ. Now we're not to think that the rock follows them in a literal fashion. they had the fiery cloudy pillar and Christ is the one who is following them or leading them by the fiery cloudy pillar by night and by day that's how Christ leads them the end of Exodus 13 the Lord went before them And then Exodus 23, we see quite clearly in Exodus 23 that it is the Lord Jesus who is in the fiery cloudy pillar.

There in verse 20, Exodus 23, 20, Behold, I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. the angel of the Lord beware of him obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him that's the Lord Jesus Christ my name is in him and he is that one who is able to pardon transgressions and to forgive sins the Lord is with them then all through their wilderness wanderings, there's provision as and when it is necessary.

But this figure that we have, this type, this example of the rock isn't just indicative of the Lord making provision, waters from the rock. It also indicates something more profound than that. It sets before us the punishment of sin. The punishment of sin in type and in sign.

Moses is commanded, isn't he, there to smite the rock. And it's Horeb where the law is given. Is there not some significance in that fact? the very place where the fiery law comes, that law that in a sense burns up the sinner with his conviction. That's the ministry of the law, isn't it? Whatever things the law said, it said to them, are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, that all the world become guilty before God. What a ministration, the ministration of wrath, the ministration of death, and yet the very place where the law was given, Horeb, is where Moses smites the rock and the waters flow forth. It's the punishment of sin.

Now, of course, there's another incident later that we read of in Numbers. Another occasion, a different place now, this is at Kadesh Meribah. we turn to the book of Numbers and the 20th chapter and how the Lord commands Moses now with regards to this provision of waters Numbers 20 verse 7 The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes. And he shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock. So thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. This is how the Lord is going to make the provision. earlier in the chapter you see there was no water for the congregation and again they gather themselves together against Moses against Aaron they chode with Moses saying good God that we have died when our brethren died before the Lord why have you brought the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die and Moses is given that instruction he's to take the and is to go with Aaron and is to speak unto the rock and God will send the waters. But what do we read? Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him.

Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and he said unto them, Hear now you rebels! Must we fetch you water out of the rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smoked the rock twice The water came out upon them, and the congregation drank on their beasts. But the Lord had not commanded him to smite the rock. He was to speak to the rock.

And then verse 12, the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah, the water of strife, because the children of Israel strove in the Lord and he was sanctified in them. Moses, because of that incident, was not to take them into the possession of the land of promise. Moses died, and it was Joshua, Jesus in the Greek, who takes them into the promised land.

It's all significant, is it not? You see, the point that's being made there, what the Lord is doing. The rock has been smitten, and the rock only needs to be smitten once. Only needs to be smitten once. All that rock was Christ. And Christ's sacrifice is one sacrifice for sins forever. Hebrews 10 and verse 12, Christ offered one sacrifice No repetition. The smiting of the rock, it's the smiting of him who is the Lord's servant. It's the smiting of the shepherd in place of the sheep. What we have here then is remarkable, really. It's full of types and signs, isn't it? Figures, examples. But, what is the substance of these things? What is the substance of all of this?

Well, Colossians 2.17, the shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. The shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

That's the rock, or that's the rock of our salvation. What is our prayer? What is your prayer? What is my prayer? Should we not pray with the psalmist and say, lead me to the rock that is higher than I? The rock that is higher than I. That rock, cleft, that hiding place that sinners have in the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. or that we might be those who know what it is truly to drink of this water they did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ or that the Lord would grant that we might know what it is to feed upon as the church would come together just now around the table or to know what it is to eat his flesh to drink his blood in that spiritual fashion not some carnal partaking a sort of cannibalism not the nonsense and the blasphemy of the Romish mass and transubstantiation to know union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. That rock was Christ. Amen.

...and that Rock was Christ.

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...and that Rock was Christ.

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