Thanks. First Corinthians 10, Moreover
brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that
all our fathers, now this was a group of 600,000 footmen, whatever
that means, 600,000 men, not including women and children. So there
were at least 2 million people in this camp, maybe more, but
I want you to think of the vastness of this camp. When is the last
time you've even thought about 2 million people being gathered
together in a camp? And all of these people were
under this cloud. And all of these people passed
through this cloud. It was a cloud by day. It was
a pill of fire by night. How big was it? I don't know.
Maybe it was as big as the Empire State Building. Maybe it was
larger. But it would always rest on the
tabernacle in the center of the camp. And when it would move,
the children of Israel would move. They were always aware
of that presence of the cloud and the pillar. It was never
gone. Even in their unbelief, even in their murmuring and their
complaining and all the terrible things that took place with them,
we still always had the cloud by day and the pillar of fire
by night. Turn with me for a moment to
Exodus chapter 13. This is when we're introduced to this cloud. This is after they had left Egypt and
before the crossing of the Red Sea. That's the time period. They've left Egypt and it's before
they've crossed the Red Sea. Verse 20 of Exodus chapter 13.
And they took their journey from Succoth and encamped in Ethium
in the edge of the wilderness, the desert. And the Lord went
before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way,
and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day
and night. And here's the promise. He took
not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire
by night from before the people." Now what was this cloud? Notice
the wording in verse 21, And the Lord went before them by
day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way, and by night in
a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night. This pillar of cloud and pillar
of fire was not a natural phenomenon. This was the Lord himself. This
was a pre-incarnate theophany. As a matter of fact,
when I looked this word cloud up in the dictionary, I was kind
of surprised by how it was defined. This was the Lord himself, the
Shekinah glory of manifestation of himself in this cloud, and
it's called a theophonic cloud, a theophany. a visible manifestation
of the Lord Himself. And they were always aware of
this cloud in their presence. Now I think quite often they
must have quit thinking about it, all the things they would
say and all the unbelief and all the murmuring, but throughout
all of this, there was never a time when that cloud was not
in their sight. Knowing it represented the Lord
and the Lord promised In verse 22, he took not away the pillar
of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from
before the people for 40 years. They were under this cloud. How
big was it? Who knows? It would move. They would move and follow it.
It would settle on the tabernacle. They would settle down and the
camp would be there. But this was there the whole
40 years. Now, I think of this promise. Oftentimes they acted so evil
and unbelieving that you could see where the Lord would have
taken it away. But He didn't. It was always there. The visible manifestation of
God. That's what Shekinah glory means. A visible manifestation of God
in the cloud. Now, in our text we're going
to get to this Lord willing next week. But it talks about the
rock that followed them. Now, I can't explain that. I
know the rock was Christ. That's what Paul says. He doesn't
say it's as if it were Christ. He said that rock was Christ.
That was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. And that rock followed
them. And some people have said from
that, since the rock was Christ, this cloud must be Christ. And I would not disagree with
that if somebody said that, but I think that this is God the
Holy Spirit. He leads them in the way. He guides them. He shall guide
you in all truth. He is the one who keeps us in
the way of Christ. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, He led them. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. And I love the simplicity
of this statement, and the Lord went before them by day in a
pillar of cloud to lead them the way. The way. Christ said, I am the way. And when the Holy Spirit lead
you, here's where you're going to be. Christ, the way, the only
way to the Father. There is no other way. That's the way He led them. This is the work of the Spirit
of God. Christ the way. Now, Christ is called the way
of righteousness. There's one way me and you are
going to be righteous. Christ the way of righteousness. His
righteousness being my righteousness before God. My personal righteousness. His righteousness. He's called
the way of peace. The only way I have peace is if Christ is
my righteousness and He made my peace with God. Christ is
the way of peace. He's the way of grace. Why do
you have grace? For Christ's sake. Yes, because
God's gracious. Yes, because God's merciful.
But you have grace for Christ's sake, not because you ask for
it. not because of anything meritorious in you. The reason you have grace
is for Christ's sake, because he is the way to the Father. He's called the narrow way. I love that. The narrow way. You know, we sometimes become
too concerned that we're too narrow. We're not as narrow as
he is. He's the wide open way. I love that. the chief of sinners
can come through him. I don't care who you are, what
your background is, he's plenty wide enough for you. But if you
have anything to bring along with you, if you have any work
or experience that you're holding on to that you think will bring
you into God's presence, he's too narrow, you can't get through.
You can only come through the narrow way with nothing but him. You add anything else, you can't
get through the gate, you can't walk along the way. I love the
way Paul called him the way that they call heresy. There's all kinds of folks who'll
call us heretics for what we believe, after the way they call
heresy. So worship I, the God of my fathers,
believe in all things which are written in the law and in the
prophets, the way of life. The way of life, he is the life. This is so glorious. His life, that 33 year period
or whatever it was that he walked upon this earth, keeping God's
law perfectly. That life is my life before God. That's why I can come boldly
into God's presence. His life is my life before God. I got no skeletons in the closet.
Nothing that's gonna come back and bite me. I have perfect righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a way. And God the Holy
Spirit leads us in the way. Now, you'll notice at night, he was
a pillar of fire to give light. God the Holy Spirit gives light. Now, I understand. through the
light of the Lord Jesus Christ, how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. And this isn't old stuff to me.
This becomes more glorious, more new, more powerful and refreshing
that God has made a way to be absolutely just and justify me
and make it to where I've never sinned, that I stand with perfect
obedience before God. I've always done what's right,
I've never done what's wrong. That's how I'm gonna stand before
God in judgment. Now, Christ is the light as to
how that could be. He's the light as to how he could
say to that woman who's caught in the very act, woman, where
are those Inacusers? Hath no man condemned thee? No
man, Lord, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Christ
is the light as to how that can be. But if you have that light,
it's because God the Holy Spirit gave you that light. You see that? God the Holy Spirit
gave you that light. Do you rejoice in that? God the
Holy Spirit gave you that light. That cloud was said to be their
guide. He will guide you into all truth. Psalm 78 says he was their guide
in the wilderness. And I think this is interesting.
The word guide means both to lead and to drive. I like this. Christ leads me. And you know
how He leads me? By driving me. I look to Him,
and it's because He's behind me by His Spirit, driving me
to look to Him only. Paul tells us they were under
the cloudy pillar by day and the fiery pillar by night. Same
thing, but He was always in their sight. And Paul said they were
baptized into that cloud. You're thinking, what in the
world does that mean? They were baptized into that cloud, immersed into
that crowd. Cloud, it's talking about the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is regeneration, which is being
born again, which you were reading about in John chapter three,
being born again. That is the baptism in the Holy
Spirit. That's being immersed in the
Holy Spirit. Now look in Exodus chapter 14.
This is after they're trapped. The Egyptian army is marching
toward them. They're scared to death. They
have mountains on either side and the Red Sea in the background,
and they're trapped. They have nowhere to go, and
the Egyptians are marching on them. Now look in verse 19, and
the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed. Now you can see the pillar move. and went behind them, and the
pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind
them." This giant pillar that was before them, it moves behind
them, and look what takes place. The pillar of the cloud went
from before them, their face, and stood behind them, and it
came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel.
What was the difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians? The pillar. The pillar. He was the difference. What is
the difference between you and an unbeliever? The pillar. That's the only reason. God made
the difference. How that you may know that the
Lord doth put a difference between the children of Israel. Look
what else it says about this pillar at this time. And it was
a cloud and darkness to them, the Egyptians, but it gave light
by night to those so that the one came not near the other all
the night. Now, I love thinking about this. This fiery pillar
that was so light was nothing but darkness to the Egyptians. They couldn't see. That's that
darkness that might be felt. They were completely in the dark. The natural man is totally in
the dark with regard to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
doesn't understand it, doesn't love it, doesn't want to understand
it. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they're foolishness unto him, neither indeed can
he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. A natural
man hears the gospel, it's foolishness to him, it's dark. They were
in utter darkness, the natural man cannot understand the gospel. It can only be known by the light
of God the Holy Spirit. But that same pillar of cloud
that was darkness to the Egyptians was light to the children of
Israel. Same cloud, darkness to one,
light to Christ our light. God who commanded the light to
shine out of the darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Look in verse 23 of this chapter.
Now, the waters have opened up and the children of Israel are
marching through the on dry land as the waters of the Red Sea
have parted. I love to think of this. Millions of people marching
through the sea. I guarantee there wasn't any
mud on the ground. It was smooth, I won't call it sailing, smooth
marching. I mean, they marched on dry ground going through the
Red Sea. Can you imagine how they must
have felt doing that, looking at the water? I don't know how
high it was. There have been people who have tried to say
they went through a low spot in the sea, only eight inches.
Well, I don't see how Pharaoh and his armies drowned in eight
inches, do you? I don't think that's the case.
Of course, that's not the case. Scripture says it's in the midst
of the Red Sea. And there they are looking at
the walls. Now, verse 23, the Egyptians followed behind. And the Egyptians pursued and
went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's
horses, his chariots, his horsemen. And it came to pass that in the
morning watch, the Lord looked under the host of the Egyptians
through the pillar of fire and the cloud and troubled the host
of the Egyptians. I tell you, there's something
glorious and somewhat frightening about thinking about the Lord
looking at through that cloud, through that pillar. And here's
what he did. He took off their chariot wheels
that they drave him heavily. All of a sudden their chariots
won't go. The wheels fall off. The horses are trying to push
him through the sand. We're in trouble. They knew that. We're in trouble. and took off the chariot wheels
that they draved them heavily so that the Egyptians said, let
us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighted for them
against the Egyptians. I guess they started running.
Let's get back before something happens. And I think of Pharaoh
when Moses first came to him. He said, who is the Lord that
I should obey him? I know not the Lord. He was right
about that. And then he said, neither will
I let the children of Israel go. He was wrong about that,
wasn't he? He was right on the one hand, he was wrong on the
other. And I can't help but thinking, when that water came crashing
down, he must have been thinking, this is the Lord, that I'm finding
out why I should obey him. He found out who he was, not
in a saving way, but in a way of judgment, and it was the Lord
looking through the plow. Now, the cloudy pillar also appeared
on Mount Sinai, and the scripture speaks of that time when they
got to Mount Sinai, the giving of the law, and I think this
is interesting. There was the voice of words, there were trumpets,
there were shrill sounds, people were scared to death, and that
cloud came onto the law, and there was darkness. You see,
the law was given by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. We know enough with regard to
the law that we know we don't keep it. And we find no salvation
in it. But the only comfort we have
with regard to God's law, the only light we have with regard
to God's law is Christ kept it for us. And all it does is condemn
us. The darkness was there. And if
all, if the only light I have is the law, it's darkness, darkness. voice of words, trumpets sounding. They were all afraid. Now, during this time on Mount
Sinai, Moses went up into the cloud and received the law and
the instructions concerning the tabernacle, that great temple
of Christ. Now, this is very important. Remember where the
cloud settled, the tabernacle. And I wish I could preach upon
this the way I ought to preach upon it, but the tabernacle is
Jesus Christ. In order to get into that tabernacle,
you had to go through the sacrifice. First piece of furniture was
the brazen altar. And it was in the tabernacle, not outside
of it. That lets me know that it's only those in Christ that
God saves. It wasn't outside, it was inside.
And then there was a labor to wash yourself. And I think it's
awful the way people say, well, you get justified by the blood
of Christ, by the sacrifice. but you wash yourself and you're
sanctified in that labor of water. The labor of water tells us that
the continual cleansing comes from the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the purpose of that labor.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. You can't separate that water
and the blood. What came out of the Lord's side? water and blood. And that is what the tabernacle
teaches us. They both come from the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in that tabernacle, you
had the water, the brazen altar, the sacrifice of Christ, the
water, the continual cleansing of the Lord Jesus Christ that
those priests would have to wash themselves before they came in.
And then you had five pieces of furniture. You had two rooms,
the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. In the Holy Place, you
had the table of showbread. Christ our sustenance. And that's
what we're realizing when we take the Lord's table tonight.
There's no saving efficacy in eating the bread and drinking
the wine, but we are saying the only thing that we find saving
sustenance in is in the shed blood and broken body of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When we're taking the Lord's
table, we're saying, Who He is and what He did is all of our
salvation, nothing else. Christ our sustenance in the
table of showbread. And then you had the lampstand,
Christ our light. And you had the altar of incense,
Christ our intercessor, representing me before the Father even now.
And then you had a thick veil that separated The holy place
and the holy of holies. Now in that place, the high priest
went alone once a year. Nobody else was allowed in. Just
the high priest. And he came with the blood. And
in that holy of holies, there was an ark. The ark of the covenant. In that ark, there was the law. Christ our righteousness. There
was Aaron's rod that budded Christ our life. And there was a pot of manna,
Christ our food. Christ is all of those things. The perpetuatory lid, the mercy
seat, and he'd come in and sprinkle the blood. Now that is the Lord
Jesus Christ. What about the coverings? There
were five coverings over the building. having something to do with some
aspect of the person or work of Christ. And I love the way
the outer covering was badger skin. Badger skin. I love to think of maybe the
Jebusites and the Hittites up on a hill looking down. I don't
get it. What do they see in that? There's
nothing spectacular about that. But they didn't know that the
very glory of God dwelt on the inside. Now where did that cloud
reside? The tabernacle. It wasn't off
to the right or to the left. It dwelled right over that tabernacle. Now when it would move, they'd
pack up the tabernacle and move with it. Maybe a week, maybe
two weeks. All of a sudden the cloud would
stop, they'd put the tabernacle back up, and the cloud would
stay right there on the tabernacle. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of Christ. The Lord said, He shall glorify
me. The faith we have in Christ,
the love we have to Christ, the reverence we have toward Christ,
the awe we have toward Christ, is the work of God the Holy Spirit
in us. And he resides over the tabernacle. He didn't leave there. We don't go past it, do we? He
stays right there over the tabernacle. Turn to Exodus chapter 40. Verse 33, and he reared up the court round
about the tabernacle and the altar and set up the hangings
of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then
a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of
the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter
into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the
cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children
of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud
were not taken up, then they journeyed not to the day that
was taken up. And the cloud of the Lord was
upon the tabernacle by day, and the fire was on it by night,
and the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their
journeys. There was not a time when you
could not see this cloud. Now, I love the way the cloud
filled the tabernacle with glory. Moses and Aaron couldn't even
enter in. Now, the chief work of God the
Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. That's his chief work. And you know what? If you love
Christ, you're glad it's that way. You want him to have the
glory. You say with David, not unto us, not unto us, but in
thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy true sake. You love
him having all the glory. The father loves him having all
the glory. The Holy Spirit loves him having
all the glory. And the tabernacle was filled
with his glory. And that's the purpose of the
gospel to glorify Jesus Christ. And you think of the gospel we
believe. Jesus Christ is God. He's not like God. He is God. Election, as far as our experience
goes, not our personal experience, but as far as our salvation goes,
it begins in Christ, doesn't it? Election, we're chosen in
Him. The Lord has never looked at
any of His people independently of Jesus Christ. He gets the
glory. He gets the glory in justification. It's His righteousness, I'm justified
by. He gets the glory in redemption. I'm redeemed by His blood. That's
the reason I'm forgiven, because of what He did for me. He gets
the glory in regeneration. I know God the Holy Spirit is
the one who regenerates us, but why does He do it? For Christ's
sake. because of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is salvation and he
gets all the glory. I love the scripture in Romans
chapter eight, verse 32. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not? What can possibly
prevent him from freely giving us all things because he already
gave his son? Don't worry. There's no room for it. He's
given His Son. We're preserved by Christ Jesus.
He's both the object and the subject of our faith, the author
and finisher of our faith. Repentance. What's repentance?
It's a change of mind regarding Him. That's what repentance is. Your mind has been changed with
regard to Him. That's what repentance is and
it's most foundational. It's a change of mind regarding
the excellency and the glory of Jesus Christ. Heaven itself
will be Beholding His glory, the cloud rested on the tabernacle
and filled it with His glory. And several times in Solomon's
temple, we read of the glory of God filling it and the priest
not being able to go in. You see, God's glory dwells in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you love that scripture?
Who being the brightness of His glory. That's so awesome. The express image of His person. Now they were called upon to
follow that cloud. They were in the wilderness for
40 years. You can see maps of their, probably in the back of
your Bible, of their journeys through the wilderness for those
40 years. They were called upon to follow that cloud. When the
cloud moved, they moved. When they followed the cloud,
what did they do? Same thing you do when you follow
Christ, you look to him. That's what this is. How do you
follow the cloud? By looking at it. What direction
it goes, you go. How do you follow Christ? By
keeping your eyes on Him, not by looking down at your feet
to see how you're doing. Not by looking to somebody else to
see how they're doing. Not by looking behind you to
look for some kind of evidence that I must be saved because
this took place or that took place yesterday. It's to look
straight to Christ only at all times. That's what it is to follow
him. Christ said, follow me and the
only way that can be done is by looking to him only. And that cloud would stop and
rest on the tabernacle. And at that time, the children
of Israel were to stop. You see, we go nowhere beyond
Christ. There's nowhere to go. You stop. He's all. So the scripture
says, you stop. Don't try going beyond Christ.
You stop right there where that cloud stops. Now in Psalm 99
7, he spoke through the cloudy pillar. God speaks. Do you know if you're a believer
he has spoken to you? You've never heard his voice audibly. But he's spoken
to you in a much more powerful way than that. The hour is coming
and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God and they that hear shall live. Psalm 107 verse 9 says
it was a covering to protect them. Now, think of how hot it
was out in the desert. But the cloud was their comfort
and their protection. Now, don't you love the comforts
of the gospel? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Say unto Israel, her warfare
is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned. She's
received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. And Isaiah
44, 22 tells us that cloud was a defense, divine protection,
just like it was to keep the Egyptians away from them. If
God be for us, Who can be against us? And this cloud never left. You have that promise. He will
never leave you. Now, if you look at the conduct
of the children of Israel throughout this time, I can see why I would
have. They were so unbelieving. They
were so ungrateful. I mean, it's the most wicked
bunch of people to ever live. Me and you are right there with
them. But the cloud never leaves. We're going to observe the Lord's
Table, and I hope we have some understanding when we do this.
The Lord said, this do in remembrance of me. Because sometimes when
you think of taking the Lord's Table, you think, well, I ought
to feel this. I love feelings. But if you're putting an emphasis
on, I need to feel this way, you're going to feel dead as
amber. That's just the way things are. So think of what we're saying
in taking the Lord's table. The Lord's given us two ordinances.
Baptism. Is baptism important? Of course
it is. The Lord commands His people.
Doesn't have any saving efficacy, but of course it's important.
Is the Lord's table important? Of course it is. He said, this
do in remembrance of me. And every time we take the Lord's
table, we're showing forth the Lord's death until he come. Now, turn to 1 Corinthians 11.
Let me read this passage of scripture. I like the way the Lord says
this, do as often as you do it in remembrance of me. We ought
to do it often. We do it the first Sunday night. of every
month. We could do it every week. It
doesn't say how many times to do it, but it does say this,
do as often as you do it in remembrance of me. We do it at night because
it says the same night that the Lord was betrayed. He took bread. I want to do everything just
the way they did it in the Bible. That's why we do it at night.
Someone says, why don't you do it Sunday morning? Well, they
didn't do it Sunday morning then. They did it at night. The only
safe thing, I think, is to do what they did in the Bible. You
say, well, there's all kinds of things you do that are not
in the Bible. Well, maybe, but if we have an example of them
doing something a certain way, do it that way. But the emphasis
of the Lord's table, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, for I have received of the Lord
that which also I delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus, the
same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given
thanks, you know, before we eat the bread, what do we do? We
give thanks. We pray, giving thanks. He break it and said, take, eat. He did not say, see if you're
worthy. He did not say, see if there's sin in your life.
And if there is, you better not take it because that would be
to eat it unworthily. He didn't say anything like that.
He didn't say you need to be a member of a church to take
it. He didn't even say you need to be baptized to take it. He
didn't say that. He said, take, eat. Every believer is called upon
to do this. Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken
for you. Child of God, that's you. That's you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also, he
took the cup. When he sucked, saying, this
cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do as oft as you
drink it in remembrance of me. Now, when we take the bread and
we take the wine, we are saying, The only way that I can be saved
is the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
flesh, His righteousness, His blood, His sin payment. I'm saying
that is everything in my salvation. I'm saying that there is nothing
else. Do you believe that? This is all my salvation. This
is what I'm saying. This is who I have confidence
in. This is it. And that's why this
is brought to our remembrance. I'm remembering once again this. Verse 26, for as often as you
eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till he come. Now here's a sermon. Everybody
that takes the Lord's table is preaching. We're showing that
His death is our life. There is no salvation apart from
His death. That's what we're saying. I love,
this morning in Bible study, the Lord talking about eating
His flesh and drinking His blood. It's not talking about cannibalism.
It's talking about this. Same thing. Verse 27, Wherefore, whosoever
shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Now, I can
remember not wanting to take the Lord's table because I was
afraid I was doing it unworthily. Now, let me tell you when you're
doing it unworthily, when you think you're worthy. That's when
you're doing it unworthily. That's when you're not having
the proper reverence and respect. If you think somehow, well, my
life's all right. You know, I think I can take
the Lord's table now. You're a fool. I mean, that is, you're
drinking damnation to yourself in thinking such things. But let a man examine himself. You think that person ought to
be taking the Lord's table? It's none of your business. Let a
man examine himself. Well, should they be taking the
Lord's table? Examine yourself. Nobody else. Let a man examine
himself. And so let him eat. You examine yourself and you
see that the only way you can be saved is through the broken
body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Eat. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor fitness fondly dream. The only fitness he requires
is to have a need of Him. I've got that. Let's pray. Lord, give us the grace to do
this in remembrance of thy dear son. Lord, turn our hearts away
from ourselves. Deliver us from thinking of others. Let us judge ourself, condemn
ourself, and know that the shed blood and broken body of the
Lord Jesus Christ, His perfect righteousness, His perfect sin
payment is our salvation. We give thanks for this time.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen.