Christ was the Rock

Our text this morning demands some page flipping so if you would open your bibles to 1 Corinthians 10:1, go ahead and mark your place now because we will be exploring the Bible this morning.

But before we evaluate the Word this morning, listen and worship with me as I read our text in 1 Corinthians 10.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 1 Co 10:1–5.

To understand and apply our text this morning we will consider the theme: Yesterday’s Failures are for Today’s Formation

To understand our theme, we will first explore 3 different historical accounts:

The Red Sea (v.1-2) (Referencing Exodus 13-14)

The Manna and the Rock (v.3-4) (Referencing Exodus 16-17)

The Intercessor in the Wilderness (v.5) (Referencing Numbers 14)

Pray with me

The First Account: The Red Sea (Referencing Exodus 13-14)

Our first account to consider is The Red Sea (v.1-2)

Read with me from Exodus 13

Exodus 13:17-22 17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 18 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” 20 And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Then we read in chapter 14:1-18 and hear God telling Moses to turn back and encamp by the sea.

God intended for Pharaoh to pursue Israel through the Red Sea. As God decreed, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army began their pursuit.

Israel grumbles, even in the midst of their deliverance.

And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

And so, God commanded Moses to raise his staff, and so God parted the Red Sea.

19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”

26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.”

Israel is buried in baptism through the Red Sea and by the Lord’s might and provisions they are delivered out of the water into life.

The Egyptians, however, were buried in baptism, but were found lifeless upon the shore

31 Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea

Why did Paul include this account?

Consider who were the recipients of Grace in the story

Who enjoyed the Lord’s protection in the form of fire and smoke?

Was it all of Israel or was it but a few?

What of those grumblers? Were they granted life at the hand of the Red Sea?

Consider the grace of God. Consider his mercies. Consider that He extended the benefits of His presence even to those who grumbled and did not believe in His great name.

And then Paul continues to build his case, let us consider:

The Second Account: The Manna and the Rock (Referencing Exodus 16-17)

The Manna and the Rock (v.3-4) (Referencing Exodus 16-176)

📷So, Israel begins their nomadic years, and along the way, and again the grumblers were clanging symbols creating concern.

Ex 16:2–8 . And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.”

The grumbler drives the story yet again.

They hunger and so they do not trust the Lord.

Yet the Lord in His graciousness supplied the people with Manna from Heaven.

Now consider Exodus 17 when the people thirst.

Ex 17:2–7 . Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

Mercies upon mercies, the people grumble against the Lord yet again.

What audacity to question “Is the LORD among us or not?”

And yet the Lord did not withhold water from the grumblers, nor did He withhold the manna.

3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink.

But before we consider Jesus as the Rock, consider those unfaithful that stood in the midst of the faithful benefitted from the Lord’s provision and grace.

But those graces and mercies did not last forever.

The Third Account: The Intercessor in the Wilderness (Referencing Numbers 14)

The Intercessor in the Wilderness (v.5) (Referencing Numbers 14)

Finally, the great mercies of the Lord are exhausted.

The time has come where those who benefit from the name of Israel without faithfully trusting and serving the God of Israel will be crushed.

Nu 14:1–4 . Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Nu 14:11–12 . 11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

It is here that Moses intercedes on behalf of God’s people, that they would not be destroyed, though they deserve it saying:

Nu 14:18–19. 18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

And the Lord responds with a chilling reply:

Nu 14:20–23 “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

And so according to His word, God goes on to crush the grumbling Israelites.

Nu 14:26–33. 26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness… 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness

And your children shall suffer for your faithlessness

5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness

For far longer than we should expect, God withheld His wrath upon the grumbling Israelites. These grumblers were fed, they were given water to drink, and they were under the protection of the cloud.

But Christian know with me today that the faithless grumbler will be cut off from the faithful in the last day. We may have some among us in our churches that benefit from the preached word, the ordinances and the communion of saints.

But the time will come when every faithless one will stand before God and be told “depart from me, I never knew you.

But what hope have we in these accounts? Does Paul mean to crush us with no hope of salvation?

For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ

The key to unlock our text this morning is the title of our sermon.

CHRIST IS THE ROCK

Christian the Rock is Jesus God demanded in the first occurrence that Moses strike the rock and from it will flow waters that give life to the people

But the people thirsted again, as we heard read this morning, God commanded Moses again to supply the people with water through the rock.

But rather than striking the rock again, God commands Moses to speak to the rock and water will spring forth.

Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock rather than speaking to it.

Christian, Moses, the greatest prophet, called the friend of God was not permitted to enter the promise land because of this mistake!

CHRISTIAN IT IS BECAUSE THE ROCK WAS CHRIST!

We do not strike the rock again, but we speak to the Rock! For the rock only needed to be struck once..

Praise God oh Christian because Christ has been struck once in His life, death, and resurrection and now flow streams of living water. We need not strike Christ again Christian but rather we call upon His name and we will be saved!

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Ro 10:13 .

But so Mother, do your children suffer for your faithlessness?

Mothers, Fathers, it is our duty to our children we have been charged with to raise them up in the admonition of the Lord and to walk before them in faithfulness. Or the same fate will befall them.

5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe Jude 5 .

But recall we have a better intercessor than Moses - Heb 3:1–6 .

He is a better bread - John 6:32-51

And Better Water – John 7:37-39

And our baptism is greater than theirs for their baptism delivered them from slavery to Egypt to freedom in the Wilderness.

But in Christ we are baptized into HIS death and are raised

with Him to walk in the newness of life! Ro 6:3–4 .

Our Baptism is Better than The Red Sea

The Bread of life and Living Water is better than the Manna and the Rock (v.3-4)

And our Intercessor before the Father is better than The Intercessor in the Wilderness (v.5)

Conclusion

As we close, I want to address the nagging question

That we have seen connect our historical accounts.

So, I ask again, Mother, do your children suffer for your faithlessness?

V.6 is actually what clues us into the theme of our text this morning and if you are taking notes you can consider it our 4th point. Yesterday’s Failures are for Today’s Formation

Yesterday’s Failures are for Today’s Formation (v.6)

As we read and teach the Bible, we must always keep in mind we serve an all-powerful, all present, all sovereign God.

Every Old Testament narrative, every census, every judge, every king, every jot and tittle was included for the unique purpose of pointing us in some way to the Messiah Jesus Christ.

But this is not just the preacher’s job to figure out, but yours as well.

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did

Consider this morning as we behold the Red Sea, the manna, the rock and Moses’ Intercession, that LIKEWISE every trial, every tribulation and every blatant failure we walk through takes place as an example to our church and to our families that they might not desire evil or that they might have faith.

But praise God we do so by decree of the Father because of the work of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit

Consider also 2 Co 1:3–7 .

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Just as Israel’s recorded blunders and victories were recorded for our sake and to point us to Jesus SO YOUR BLUNDERS AND VICTORIES are for the sake of your brothers and sisters to point them to Jesus!

And mothers, your blunders and victories can be proclaimed for the sake of your children also.

1 Ti 1:15–16 .

15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

Be encouraged Christian, that taking the time to see Jesus in the Old Testament is the very same exercise to Jesus in our daily lives.

Your every shortcoming, and your every trial is not in vain if you are in Christ.

But rather every shortcoming and tribulation is fuel for the fire as we stoke and kindle our children’s affections for the Lord.

Do not be as the foolish Israelites were, grumbling at the Lord and desiring to be back in chains.

But trust God, all the while knowing, that it is in your weakness that Christ is displayed most clearly

So I ask one final time, Mother, do your children suffer for your faithlessness?

And we can respond with full assurance that EVEN MY FAITHLESSNESS BEFORE MY CHILDREN CAN BE AND IS REDEEMED BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF JESUS CHRIST THE SON

And if there are mothers, or fathers, and children too, that when you consider your life you see that you are a grumbler, far more than the joyful redeemed of the Lord.

Then come and speak to me, or speak to another faithful brother or sister in the room.

Because friend, one of two things is wrong.

Either you are not in Christ and have not been indwelt by the Spirit to give you life and joy

Or you are in Christ and neglecting the truth of the gospel and the means of sanctification in your life.

My response in both cases will be to admonish you in the truth of the gospel, and point you to Jesus.

Let us be encouraged to lean heavy on the Lord’s guidance this week, and recall with fondness, our sweet assurance and hope.

2 Co 12:9–10 . My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Ro 8:26–30 . 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.