That Rock Was Christ

Q: What does the Bible say about spiritual water?

The Bible emphasizes that Christ is the source of spiritual water, as illustrated by the rock in Exodus 17, which represents Jesus. In the Bible, spiritual water symbolizes life and sustenance for the soul. Exodus 17 tells the story of the Israelites who faced a dire situation with no water in the wilderness. When Moses struck the rock, water flowed abundantly, representing the grace and provision of God. This act foreshadows Christ, as expressed in 1 Corinthians 10:4, which states that the rock was Christ. Just as the Israelites relied on the rock for physical water, Christians look to Jesus as the ultimate source of their spiritual nourishment and life.

Q: How do we know that Christ is the rock in the Old Testament?

1 Corinthians 10:4 explicitly identifies the rock that provided water to the Israelites as Christ. The affirmation that Christ is the rock in the Old Testament is clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 10:4, where it says that the Israelites drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, which was Christ. This passage connects the physical provision of water from the rock in Exodus 17 to the spiritual sustenance that believers receive from Jesus. The rock was not an ordinary rock; it symbolizes Christ, who, through His suffering, provides living water to quench the spiritual thirst of His people. This typology highlights the continuity of God's redemptive plan throughout Scripture.

Q: Why is understanding the Old Testament important for Christians?

Understanding the Old Testament enriches our knowledge of Christ and His work, as it contains types and prophecies that point to Him. The Old Testament is crucial for Christians as it lays the foundation for understanding the person and work of Jesus Christ. Throughout the Old Testament, there are numerous types, patterns, and prophecies that foreshadow Christ's coming and His redemptive work. As Jesus explained to His disciples in Luke 24:44, all things written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets concerning Him must be fulfilled. By studying the Old Testament, believers can grasp the depth of the gospel and see how God's redemptive plan unfolds over time, thereby deepening their appreciation for Christ's sacrifice and the grace provided through Him.

The Scripture says, I don't know
whether I can quote it, so I'll turn and read it. The Scripture
says that David, after he had served his own generation
by the will of God, fell asleep and was laid under his father's
and saw corruption. What did David do? He served
his generation. He served it faithfully. He was
a faithful witness of Christ. I think about McShane and how
a man serves his generation and what purpose, the purpose of
God, what the purpose of God may be for him and is fulfilled
in his faithful life is not left to the judgment of me as
to the effect of it or the success of it. There are a lot of men who lived
in the time of David Brainerd and lived 70, 80, 90 years and
preached. David Brainerd died at 29. And
David Brainerd served his generation and is remembered down through
the years. Robert Murray McShane, if he had only left us that one
hymn, how much I owe. He'd served his generation with
just that one hymn. I'm afraid that there's a temptation for a preacher
or preachers to try to do too much. Say too much, write too
much, go too much. And a lot of this is wheel spinning. A lot of it is in the strength
and energy of our own flesh. The man who preached the morning
Spurgeon was converted. Nobody here knows his name. Not
one living soul knows that man's name. But he served his generation. He was a lay preacher who was
supplying because the pastor couldn't come that Sunday. And
God opened the eyes of the greatest preacher of the last two centuries
under that man's ministry. So, how do we serve our generation? Then we must become students
of this book, students of the Word. And we're going to have
to become students of the Scripture, rightly dividing the Word of
truth. We are going to have to find
out what the Lord is saying that we might tell our generation
and that would be truthful to our generation. And I believe
one of the places to begin is in the Old Testament. The Old
Testament types and patterns and prophecies and pictures and
promises. That is what our Lord told His
disciples. Turn for the moment to Luke 24.
Luke chapter 24. It says here in Luke 24, verse
44. Well, let's look at verse 25, Luke
24, 25 first. He said to his disciples, O fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
His glory, and beginning at Moses, that is, beginning at Genesis
1-1, and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning Himself. We just must become
acquainted with these things in the Old Testament concerning
Christ. Now look at verse 44. And then he got the rest of them
together, the rest of the apostles, and he said to them, these are
the words which I have spoken to you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled that are written in the Law of
Moses, in the Prophets, in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened
he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. And that's so vital. Preaching is not entertainment. or necessarily inspirational. It's nice if it can be inspirational. But preaching ought to be instructive. It ought to be instructive. Instruction
in the Word. Instruction so that people, in
such a way that people will listen and that they will be inspired
and encouraged and enlightened. Paul was afraid of covering the
cross with words, wasn't he? He was afraid of theatrics and
words and extra things thrown in that the
Word is not received and understood. And we must watch that in our
music and in our preaching and whatever we do. We must be careful
that it's the cross and Christ that we're presenting. Christ,
that song Jonathan just sang, that glorified Christ. There
wasn't a colossal band behind Him with a triumphant crescendo,
just the voice telling about Christ. And that's what we preachers
must do in the Scriptures, is take the Scriptures and open
their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.
That's the reason we wrote these Old Testament types and pictures
of Christ that we've been studying in the Sunday School classes.
And now they put it in a book. We have 80 some odd of them,
but 48 of these Old Testament studies, Genesis to Job is what
this book is, of our Sunday School lessons, pictures of Christ.
And I got this book when I came back from Mexico. This is a sample
copy. We'll get more. But I sat down
and read it Friday. And I said, hey, that's pretty
good. It is. It's nothing in the world
but taking the pictures of Christ in the Old Testament and presenting
Christ. And while reading it, I found
one that I wanted to do tonight. Exodus 17. So here's the book. I'll put it on the front table.
This is the only one we've got. We've got more coming. But you
can look and see what they've done. It's an attractive book.
Exodus 17. Now this is what I'm talking
about. This is what I'm talking about. Let's look at it here.
Exodus 17, verse 1. And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sinai.
After their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord,
and they pitched in a place called Rephidim. And there was no water
for the people to drink. Here these children of Israel
had journeyed far, desert country, dry country. And they pitched
their tents in this place called Rephidim, and here was a crisis.
There was no water there. All right, verse 2, Wherefore
the people began to murmur. They did chide, argue with Moses,
and complain. And they said, Give us water
that we may drink. Moses said to them, Why chide
ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
You know, this is amazing. These people began to murmur
and complain. They had only been there a short
time. They were journeying. They had come to this place.
They had pitched their tents. They looked around. There was
no water. What did they do? They said, well, the Lord will
provide water. We were down in Egypt in captivity, and He provided
a leader. He provided deliverance. He provided
redemption. We came to the Red Sea. We stood
there, and the armies of Pharaoh were behind us, and the sea in
front of us. We were helpless, and He opened
the sea. And we remember we were out on
the desert, and the Lord sent quail. We had good meat to eat,
and He sent manna from heaven. We had plenty of bread to eat.
And we've walked all these months, and our clothes still haven't
worn out. He's been so good to us. Did they sit down and say,
well, now, He'll meet the need? No. They began to murmur and
complain. You know, they'd seen the goodness
and mercy of God on every hand. They'd seen deliverance on every
hand. But instead of waiting on God to meet this particular
need, oh, they became so upset. And verse 3 said, and they thirsted
for water. People thirsted there for water,
and the people murmured against Moses. And they said, Wherefore
is this, that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us? And our children, our cattle,
with thirst? Boy, we could park right there
for a while, couldn't we? I'm so much like these people.
Are you? The smallest cloud. Here I've
lived sixty-seven years almost. Sixty-seven years of God's mercies,
from the beginning of my life to this day, has been nothing
but mercy. I've never known what it means
to hunger or thirst or go without clothes. He's met every need
all these years, miraculously, wonderfully, and yet the smallest
cloud that rises in my day is sufficient to hide the face of
my God. Isn't that awful? That's just
the smallest crowd. I come into a place and camp
there. Well, we got no water. Now what
are we going to do? And that's what they did. Is that us? We quote Romans 8, 28. Good theology. We know that all things work
together for good to them who love God. to them who are called
according to His purpose. And we quote that when our friends
get in trouble, but when we get in trouble, somehow, it's just
not the same. Oh, I need to learn those words,
that sermon I preached not long ago, I need to learn those words
and the wisdom of them all over again. Psalm 37, fret not, trust
in the Lord, rest in the Lord, Commit thy way to the Lord. Lean
not to thine own understanding. Wait on the Lord. But like Israel here, we talk
first and think later, don't we? I'll tell you the way we
are. Just like Israel here, the least
little crowd is sufficient to hide his face. And you know that light is bigger
than my hand, but my hand can cover all three of them. You know why my hand is so close
to me and that light is so far away? I can cover the, how big
is the sun? I can cover the sun with my thumb. Right. The closer I get it to
me, the more I can cover. And that's one of our problems.
Our problems are so close to us that we can cover the very
face of God Almighty with a problem. Let's don't get too upset with
these folks because we are a whole lot like them, aren't we? A whole
lot like them. The age-old questions begin to
arise. What are we going to eat? If you read chapter 16 later,
what are we going to drink? What are we going to wear? Well,
faith has a brief and comprehensive answer to every question that
you can raise. I don't care what the How am
I going to get out of this mess? What are we going to eat? Honey,
I've lost my job. What are we going to do? I'm hurt and I can't go to
work. What are we going to do? This
child is in trouble. What are we going to do? There
are all these different things. What are we going to do? Faith
has a brief and comprehensive answer to every question you
can raise. God. That's it, Ronnie. Whatever question
you can raise, what will I eat? What will I drink? What will
I wear? What are we going to do? How are we going to meet
this crisis? What are we going to say? God. Your Father knows you have need
of these things. Seek ye first His kingdom, His
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
But my God shall supply all your needs. according to His riches
and glory through Christ Jesus. I'm not preaching to you. I'm
preaching to me. You try it on with me. I'm not
preaching to you. I'm preaching to me. Consider
the lilies. They toil not neither do they
spend, and yet Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed like
one of these. If God so feed and clothe, God
so clothe the grass of the field, how much more shall He clothe
ye? Oh, ye of little faith! Consider the birds, the sparrows,
they fly through the air and they neither have barns or storehouses,
yet your Father feeds every one of them. Shall He not much more feed you? Well, oh, the grace of God toward
us. Verse 4, And Moses cried unto
the Lord, saying, Lord, what shall I do to these people? They'd
be almost ready to stone me." Oh, the grace of God! He said
to Moses, verse 5, "...Go on before the people, and take with
you the elders of Israel. Take your rod, wherewith thou
smotest the river, take it in your hand, and go." Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Oreb, and thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink."
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Moses
smoked the rock, and water came out. Plenty of water. How much water?
Millions of gallons of water. I'm told that out there in the
desert, there were 2 to 4 million people. They've estimated over
2 million, under 4 million came out of Egypt. You see, they went
down into Egypt, 70 of them. They stayed there 400 years.
And there were 4 million of them. And when Moses smote that rock,
water came out of that rock to satisfy and supply millions,
millions of people, millions of gallons of water. There's
always an abundant supply with our God. Now what makes this
so special? You say, well, I've read that
before. What makes that so special? What is it so special about this
rock? What is in there? That's all
the way back in Exodus, preacher. That's 4,000 years ago. What's
that got to do with me? Well, I'll show you. There's
four little words found in 1 Corinthians 10 that make this critical, vital,
most important. 1 Corinthians 10, there's four
little words that make this applicable, vital, so highly important to
me and to you right now. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4, here
it is. It says, talking about Israel,
and did all drink of the same spiritual drink, for they drank
of that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. You mean
that rock? Yeah, that rock. That rock was
Christ. Christ Jesus. That rock was Christ
Jesus. That's what it says, doesn't
it? All right, let me show you how that our God preaches the
gospel to us and to Israel by this incident. He was preaching
the gospel to Israel. There are just four or five things.
I'll give them to you briefly. Number one, the people here thought
they were going to perish. And indeed, they would have.
They would have perished. if God had not provided, because
definitely there was no water there. There was no water there. It
says they came to Rephidim and there was no water. And no water means no life. It's
just that plain. No matter where the people turned,
there was no water, no solution. And that's the state we're in
right now on this earth. That's the state and condition
of mankind by birth, by nature, by practice. There's no water.
There's no spiritual water. David said, we live in a dry
and thirsty land where no water is. The human will. That well's dry, isn't it? I can't do anything about it.
Impossible. The religious will. It's dry
too. No use going there. The philosophers,
their well is dry. There's no water. There's no
spiritual water. The disciple said to the Lord,
well, who can be saved? He said, with men it's impossible.
So these people faced an impossible, impossible situation. No water. Nothing they could do about it.
All right? But there was a rock. God said, Moses, there's a rock. The songwriters wrote this, there
is a rock in that weary land. Its shadows fall on that burning
sand. There's a rock. I suppose that
the Israelites looked for water, don't you? Don't you imagine
when they got there and somebody says, hey, no water, no water,
no water. It spread all through the camp. No water, there's no
water. So they started looking. And I expect they looked everywhere
but one place. That rock. Bob, you've done a
lot of camping and some of you other fellows have. They tell
me you can dig in the sand. Some places you can find moisture
enough to wet your lips. Or you can go to a tree and cut
into the bark and see if a little of that milk will ooze out. Or
you can go to a cactus and get some moisture. Or you can go
to a lot of places, but not to a rock. Now that's just one thing
for sure. You're not going to find water
in a rock. And that's this thing about spiritual
life, spiritual water, living water. People look everywhere,
but no use looking to man, is there? Yeah, by man came death. By man came life. But it's not
any man, it's the man. And you know something, this
rock that God pointed out to Moses, it was just an ordinary
rock. That was all just a rock. An
ordinary rock. It looked that way. But what
made the difference? The difference was that God said,
I'm on that rock. Moses, behold the rock. I'll stand on the rock. They
said of Christ, is not this the carpenter? Yeah, but he's more
than a carpenter. God's in Christ. But we know
his mother Mary and his sisters and brothers. Yes, he's a man,
but he's the God man. That's the difference. God was
in Christ. Great is the mystery of Godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. The source of their water is
a rock. But it's made effectual by the
presence of God. It's no ordinary rock. God said,
I'll stand on the rock. The woman at the well, Christ
said, give me a drink. She said, you're a Jew and I'm
a Samaritan. Jews don't talk to Samaritans.
Oh, he said, if you knew the gift of God and who's talking
to you, you'd ask of me and I'd give you living water. There's one source of water for
the soul, and that's a rock. Behold, I lay in Zion a rock,
a stone, a tried stone. Christ is in that rock. Okay,
but wait a minute now. There's no water coming out of
that rock. There's no water coming out of that rock. Even with God
on it, there's no water coming out of it. What's got to happen? Moses,
the Lord said, verse 6, I'll stand before you on the rock.
Still no water. Thou shalt smite the rock. Take
your rock with which you divided the sea and go up to that rock Must not the Son of Man, ought
not Christ to have suffered these things? This preacher who talked
about stopping the crucifixion, he doesn't know anything about
smitten rocks. The rocks got to be smitten. Christ has got
to be smitten of God and afflicted. Christ has got to die. The Son
of Man He must be lifted up. He must go to Calvary. He must
go to Jerusalem and suffer these things. He must! That is the
way God showed the Gospel right here. It is the smiting of the
rock. He was smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
He suffered the chastisement of our peace. He went to the
cross and God smote him. And out of his side, flowed blood to purify and water to cleanse. Rock of ages cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy ribbon side which flows be obscene." The what? Double cure. Saved from wrath
and make me pure. I need a two-fold cleansing. I need to be saved from wrath.
The soul that sinned shall die. He died. I've got to have a perfect
righteousness. I've got to have the water to
cleanse. Justified and sanctified. From
thy riven side which flowed, blood and water, be of sin that
double cure. Save me from wrath and make me
pure. And so when Moses smoked that rock, The water came out. Floods of it. Sufficiency. When Christ was smitten, the
blood flowed to justify and the water flowed to sanctify. That's right. And that rock was
smitten for sinners, real sinners. Don't try to dress up Israel.
They were a sorry lot and so were we. They were a sinful,
undeserving people. When I said a while ago about
us, the least little thing, the most insignificant trial can
hide the face of our God. You say, well, I guess I'm just
lost. No, thank God for the rock. That's what they were, and yet
He kept delivering them, kept saving them. Yeah, they were
thirsty as we are. They could do nothing as we can't.
But God had mercy on them. And then, 1 Corinthians 10, look
at that, now quit. 1 Corinthians 10, 4, I want to
look at that one more time. 1 Corinthians 10, 4, and it says, verse 4, And did all drink of
the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual
rock, that what? Followed them. That rock followed them the rest
of their journey through that wilderness. That desert never
dried up that rock. A full supply, grace sufficient. But now that rock didn't quench
the thirst of the Amalekites or the Hittites or the Amorites
or anybody. It was Israel's rock. Smitten
for Israel, sufficient for Israel. Over there, if you'll read later,
and I'll just give it to you, challenge you to study it, Numbers
20. When God told Moses again, they
went to another place, and they were without water, and He told
Moses, He said, Moses, now speak to the rock, and it will give
water. The first time He said, smite
it. The second time He said, speak to it. Why the difference? You see, these pictures of Christ
are so important. Christ is smitten only once.
By one offering, He's perfected us forever. If a person here
wants to be saved, he doesn't have to go to Jerusalem. Christ
doesn't have to die again. He doesn't have to have blood
shed. All He does is call on the name of the Lord. He said,
speak to the rock. That rock is Christ. Speak to
Christ. Call on His name. Call on His
name. He'll say. He follows you all
the days of your life. All right, let's sing a closing
hymn, brother. Mike, come and announce one if
you would.

That Rock Was Christ

What does the Bible say about spiritual water?

How do we know that Christ is the rock in the Old Testament?

Why is understanding the Old Testament important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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That Rock Was Christ

What does the Bible say about spiritual water?

How do we know that Christ is the rock in the Old Testament?

Why is understanding the Old Testament important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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