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3-4 occasion spotless 1.
Our hearts and meekness trained to bear thy yoke, and learn of these, that we may rest obtain Jesus. Thou art enough the mind an art to fill, 174.
It's been on my heart for the last couple of days.
1St Corinthians 10.
It's rather a serious chapter.
But we're living in serious days.
And there is much in it.
That is a warning to us.
But also there is much in it for real encouragement.
We know of course that, and I won't go on about this, but the latter part of the chapter brings before us the Lord's Table, and if there's time, it might be.
If, if as we go along, if time permits, it would be nice to talk a little bit about that would be nice if we had time to go into the 11Th Chapter 2. But I dealt with three reading meetings. We'll get that far. But at least it could be referenced in connection with the subject.
What do my brethren feel about that?
Corinthians, chapter 10.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
And it all eat the same spiritual meat, and it all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
But with many of them, God was not well pleased.
For they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after everything's evil things as they also lusted neither be idolaters as were some of them 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 fell in one day. Three and 20,000 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 in samples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.
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There has no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.
Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
What say I then? That the idol is anything, or that that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything?
But I say, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice.
They sacrificed the devils and not to God. I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. He cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. He cannot be partakers of the Lord's table.
End of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than he?
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, then ye be disposed to go whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols.
Eat naughty for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Conscience I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?
For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of? For that for which I give thanks.
Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God, give none offence, neither to the Jew, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God, even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
Introduction If we could say it, we know, of course, that in the assembly in Corinth there was on the one hand a lot of blessing in that city. When Paul went there. The Lord could say, I have much people in this city.
It was a wealthy place, it was an intellectual place, but God had much people there.
And as the Lord chose to work in that area, there was evidently a relatively large assembly with a lot of gift.
But sad to say, they were mixing it, as we well know, with worldly wisdom and with the character and practices that they had been associated with before they were saved. And as a result, there was a lot of disorder, a lot of confusion, a lot of things in that assembly that needed straightening out.
And here the Apostle Paul.
Shows them, I believe, primarily in the first part of the chapter.
By reference to Israel.
He shows them the seriousness of taking an outward position without inward reality and without a walk that corresponded to it. And so there's a serious warning to them here for what they were doing, and I suggest that it's a warning that we need today.
Of course, in the case of those in the wilderness, no doubt there were many unbelievers there. There were many that, as we would say in modern language, simply got on the bandwagon when Israel left India or left Egypt and.
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Kind of were part of the blessing there. They saw the miracles, they saw things that happened which were evidences of God's power, and they went along with it.
But I believe we have a case here where God shows what happened, perhaps largely to unbelievers.
As a warning to those of us who are true believers, because we are in the position, as it says at the end of verse 11, those upon whom the ends of the world are come. So we have much greater blessing, many more privileges than they have. God says you have a responsibility too. Now, of course, it's not all warning, it's not all negative. There's much that is very positive here too.
And we can dwell on that, but it is a chapter, I believe, that has real relevance for us, especially in, shall we say, Western countries today.
I appreciate it, if I may mention it, that Brother Bill Shane read that verse from first Peter, chapter 4, that we are to be sober and that we are to remember the day in which we live. Very, very necessary. And it seemed to tie in with what we have in this chapter. Again, not all as a matter of warning, but also there is much that is real encouragement for us here.
Who does it not? The importance of going back to the Old Testament for these examples and illustrations that are given to us. Paul begins this chapter by saying, I don't want you to be ignorant what happened back there in the wilderness. He ends the little section on this little summary of what did happen to them in the wilderness by saying, as has already been mentioned, all these things were happened unto them, for example, and are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age have come.
And it shows the importance, as we say, of going back to those Old Testament illustrations.
And pictures, and especially in connection with what we're taking up, the history of the children of Israel in the wilderness, it's a very important part of the Old Testament. And those stories that are recorded in connection with their deliverance from Egypt, God's care for them through the wilderness, and eventually bringing them in to the promised land through the river Jordan, those are more than just interesting stories and historical facts.
It's true, they are interesting stories, fascinated me when I was a boy to hear them from my parents and my Sunday school teacher and at the meetings. But they're more than that. They're recorded carefully by inspiration for our learning. And we need to go back to them again and again because I think, as our brother Dawn alluded to in the address, there are two things that are brought out in the wilderness. One is our hearts and the heart of God.
Brother Gordon Hayhoe used to sum it up this way. He used to tell us when we were young people, there are two great lessons of the wilderness.
God is faithful and the flesh profiteth nothing, and that's what we really have summed up in these opening verses of the chapter, don't we?
We have on the one hand, the heart of man brought out the heart of the children of Israel, but on the other hand we have the faithfulness of God. He did feed them, He did give them water. He did lead them. He did bring them through.
Because of anything good in them, because of response on their part? No, because of his grace and His faithfulness. And so again, and I just echo what Bill said because I think it's very, very helpful to see on the one hand the warnings.
The admonition to see a reflection of what is in all of our hearts, but then to move from that and to see God's faithfulness.
And brethren, that's what's going to encourage us to go on in these serious and difficult times.
If we only look around, we look back, we look at the circumstances, we only look at if I can put it this way, the wilderness, we're going to get discouraged. But if we see his faithfulness and His desire to bring us through, that's what's gonna encourage us to press on.
These ones the apostle refers to chapter.
A warning to the Christian Saints.
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And I was wondering, as we use the term unbelievers or unbelief in there, that it's not a question here of putting in doubt the salvation of those who know the Lord Jesus. But there is the government of God, is there not?
And I don't believe, I couldn't say that that all those, that parrots in the wilderness that they were lost forever. I, I couldn't say that the Lord could see in their hearts some that had faith and followed the wrong person or the wrong leaders. And so in the Corinthian Saints and the 11 Chapters, some were sick and some had been put to sleep, you might say, And that was because of their misbehavior as, as believers. So I just wondered if this, this comment would be acceptable that it refers more to those that were responsible of, of professing to be part of the people of God.
And whether they were believers or not, and they're lack of being consequential in their walk brought judgment upon them.
Believe that's right. And I wasn't implying that they were all unbelievers that were overthrown in the wilderness. Doubtless many of them were. But it was quite possible that some, as you say, in following the wrong leader and being turned aside from the path, were overthrown even though there was real faith in their hearts.
The point here is I believe that they were all in a position of privilege and blessing when it says they were baptized unto Moses here.
I believe the thought is that prior to that point, they had been under Pharaoh's domination in Egypt, hadn't they? They had been slaves, they had been under Pharaoh's jurisdiction, and they had to do what he said.
But God in marvelous grace delivered them from all of that. And once they get on the opposite Bank of the Red Sea and see all their enemies overthrow them in the water, then for the first time in the Word of God we find singing. And in that sense they were delivered from a power that was oppressing them. And now they were looking to Moses no longer to Pharaoh. And so for you and me, when we were lost, we were under, as it were, Satan's domination.
But now, having been brought to Christ, baptism brings us on to new ground, into a new position, brings us under a new leader, if you like. But it shows very clearly, I believe, that baptism in itself does not confer new life. And so one could very easily be baptized and yet not have new life. And so it was with many here in that were connected with Israel. There was even a mixed multitude there.
Many took an outward position who weren't really aware of the solemnity of what was going on and the seriousness of having to do with God.
God always throughout Scripture that God is a giver and he gives blessing.
But all the blessing that he gives brings with it responsibility, and all the blessing that God gives it, the responsibility connected with it is always going to be tested as to how those in that responsibility carry it out. And so it is in Israel. So it is in the church and has been in every period of time and every soul of God, all of us in this room.
Have been blessed of God and carrying with it is the responsibility to live out in our daily lives those things that are connected with the blessing that's given to us and we will be tested. God does that with everyone. He tests the reality, whether it's real believer or whether it's an unbeliever. But if it's a believer, there's responsibility connected with it as well.
And sad but true in the end it shows that the flesh profiteth nothing. But at the at the same time, when God does bless, He always provides the resources necessary that we can be faithful. We had a little before in the grace of God. The grace of God is available to every one of us to sustain us in a walk that is in keeping with himself. But to me the tremendous solemnity.
Of this chapter and the example used is.
Of we don't know the exact number, but of the million or more souls that left Egypt among the men 20 years old and older, the most responsible ones in that whole company were only told of two.
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Two.
That entered the land of Canaan. Not even Moses, not even Aaron entered the land.
And went through the whole journey, if you will, from Egypt to Canaan, and they too died in the wilderness. There's absolutely no question that many of them were believers. But still it shows us the tremendous solemnity of the responsibility of walking with God by his power in the blessing that's entrusted.
But I'd also like in connection with that, to go back to Deuteronomy. 8I referred to it earlier this afternoon, but there's a verse there that I want to comment on in connection with this reading meeting.
Mm-hmm. And I think it's connected with this chapter.
It says in Deuteronomy chapter 8.
Verse 2 Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee these 40 years.
To humble thee and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. The consequence of that 40 years. This is written for them just after the end of the 40 years, when the new generations of them who were going to enter the land, the young men that had been under 20 when the journey started, and women and children and so on, who were going to enter the land. He says, remember.
And verse three, he humbled thee, He suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, and so on. And he shows them that he did care for them, and took them all the way. But then his message to them is.
When they enter the land now, he says, uh, verse 11 beware.
That thou forget not the Lord thy God.
Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and a built goodly houses, and dwell therein, when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, this is after they enter the land.
He's saying beware and so the new generation, if you will, that it was re entering into the results of the past 40 years. And then verse 14, beware that thine heart be lifted up.
And thou forget the Lord thy God.
That's a danger of every generation that we the world has the saying man doesn't profit from his own history. The thing we learn about history is we don't learn from history is a common saying among men and men just constantly says we have to keep going through the same things that our previous, our forefathers went through because we didn't learn their lessons and brethren, it's true of every generation. So it's a solemn chapter because.
We don't escape the same experiences of testing that they escaped in the fulfillment of whatever position and privilege and blessing and that has been brought into our souls by the Word of God and the Word of Truth.
Gone a moment ago, the grace of God was available to them.
There was no excuse for failure, was there? And so it ties in that sense, the experience of Israel together with our experience, because even though he wasn't known to them in that way.
It says, and I know it's going ahead of a verse or two, but it says they verse 3 did all eat the same spiritual meat and it all drink the spiritual that the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. And so God was there with them. He's there with you and with me today and everything that is necessary in order for us to be overcomers.
Has been and is being and will be provided for us.
And that's a wonderful assurance that we have. We know, of course, that things are getting, as Dawn mentioned in the address, things are getting more difficult both in the world at large and in the Christian testimony and for those that are growing up now and.
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Taking their places, you might say, and responsibility before the Lord. It's going to be harder rather than easier. But God's grace is going to be there all the way to the end, just as it was.
For Israel, and the sad part was that when they were almost at the end of the journey was when perhaps some of the greatest failure came in. When they started, for example, to get discouraged and said, as it were, our soul loatheth this light bread. Referring to the manna and things like that and complaining about the lack of water. All that happened not only all through the wilderness journey, but right at the end when they had seen.
The power of God on their behalf all the way through. Well, so it can be with us if we're not careful. But how wonderful to remember that the grace of God is there for us. The supplies are all there.
And how much more we have than what they had.
So I said to the people, in retrospect, he said, There hath not failed one word of all His good promise, wherewith He hath promised by the hand of His servant Moses. They had failed the wilderness, and even after they entered the land, every page is stained with murmuring and complaining, and fault finding and failure of every kind, and as a result often the governmental hand of God upon them, because, as we learn from the wilderness and from this chapter, the government of God is a very real thing.
In our lives, but he hadn't failed. They had failed, but he hadn't failed. And that's why Paul said to Timothy, he said he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself if we don't abide faithful. He abides faithful and I believe it's good for us brethren, when failure comes in to yes, judge it to own it, but to move on to his faithfulness, go back to the promises. That's what Joshua at the end of the journey.
And after they were in the land was trying to encourage them. Don't dwell on the failure, own it. We need to have there needs to be repentance, but then to move on and to rest on his promises, to rest on his faithfulness, because that will never fail or change. And I'd like to just say in passing, in connection with the cloud that's mentioned here, we certainly don't have time to develop it. But just a little exercise that was good for my own soul. And I'll challenge you to do it too.
Go through the Old Testament, through the wilderness journey and some references in the Psalms and other places and follow out the description.
And the context of different times that the cloud is mentioned, I believe the cloud brings before us various aspects of the faithfulness of God and his dealings with his people. And it's very, very instructive. The cloud was not only to guide them, but it also has to do with His glory when he they saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud in the 16th of Exodus.
It has to do with protection. I don't believe it was just a straight up and down pillar.
Like we think of it because if you trace out the various references, I believe you'll find that it went out over the camp to screen them.
And any of us who've spent anytime on the Sinai Peninsula realize how necessary that is. There's hardly ever a cloud in the sky. I've been out on the peninsula when it was actually 130° last summer. When I was there, I thought I was going delirious. I thought, you know, even if a jet flew over, it would be a momentary shadow. But it also gave them light at night and no doubt heat. Sometimes there's a fluctuation of about 40°F between day and and night.
And so it gave heat and their protection. Various other things, but trace it out and see the faithfulness and provision of God.
And his dealings with his people in connection with the cloud, it's very instructive. And what it shows in the end is.
Again, just what we've been saying, His faithfulness in spite of our failure.
Right here in this chapter.
That very thing because when we think of the cloud and going back to the verse that Dawn read in Deuteronomy 8, it said they would look back all the way that the Lord had LED them, the cloud LED them, the cloud moved, they moved, the cloud stayed, they they stayed. But then it says here in verse 4.
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The spiritual rock.
That let them know that followed them.
I'd like to hear the thoughts of others on that, but I have enjoyed it this way.
The Lord has a path in which He leads us or seeks to lead us, a pathway that is of His choosing.
But do we also or?
Rephrase that. Do we always follow that path? No, we don't.
If we think, for example, of the two on the way to Emmaus, did the Lord lead them to Emmaus?
Oh no.
We could say, in a sense he followed them there, didn't He? He joined up with them, went with them. But if we could say it, the Lord didn't initiate that walk to Emmaus. And to me, it seems, I suggest the thought.
The one that says that rock followed them, it brings out, as Jim was saying, the faithfulness of God. Of course it brings Christ in because although they didn't know it at the time, in the sense that we know it, Christ was there and the faithfulness of God went with them.
Even when they failed, even when they went astray, it didn't mean that God approved of it. The government of God dealt with them because of it. But if God dealt with him, them in government, if he deals with us in government.
His love never changes and we need to remember that.
Is that is that the thought?
Expand even on that.
If you think about it, he completely surrounds us.
Go underneath, underneath of the everlasting arms. And so we, we have the cloud over us and, and protection and behind us and I will go before and lead and so on. And so God is at where it says you're mine and I'm going to be all the way around you. And if you fail, then I'm still there. Uh, and so on. So it's good brethren, to enjoy the positive side of the provisions of God above and in front of and behind and underneath and in every way.
For his love for us and His care for us. I'd like to make a comment on the the, uh, spiritual meet in verse 3 referring to the manna in this way.
The manna was perfect food, really. It wasn't spoiled in any way. It came from heaven.
The cursed earth was there below, but there was a mist that went so that the manna would fall upon the mist to separate it even from the pollution of a cursed earth.
That comes from what comes from the ground and so on. It was the perfect food.
It had all the nutrition that was needed for every single one among them.
But they lost it.
It says they loathe this light bread. They didn't like it, they didn't want it. Why?
Those same people got their appetites developed in the land of Egypt.
And when their bodies were delivered unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they were separated physically from the land, we still see that their hearts remained in some measure at least some of them, in the land, and they wanted its food.
In our journey, we are unlike them. We don't pass serially, if you will, from Egypt to the wilderness to Canaan, but in our lives we are in all three simultaneously. We remain in one sense in Egypt as we're in the world. We're on a wilderness journey toward a destination at the same time, and we can enter Canaan now and enjoy it. And yet.
We face the same testing and danger that if.
We feed in part on the food of the world. It will spoil our appetite for the manna, and that's the danger for every one of us. We think we need to know this and that about what the world has to entertain us, to occupy us, and so on. Some of it may be necessary, but we justify it, I think, sometimes far beyond its necessariness, and feed too much.
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On the things of the world and the consequence in our lives is it has the tendency. In fact, more than the tendency, it will spoil our appetite for the Lord Jesus as manna. And so if we want to have unspoiled appetites for a perfect food, we need to put aside the food of Egypt.
I'd like to say a word about that too, because we find when Steven sums up their history in the wilderness in the 7th chapter of Acts.
He says in their hearts they returned into Egypt. Positionally they never got back there, and thank God they never did. And it's the cross of Christ that separates us from this world. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world, and I'll never belong to this world again. In that sense, positionally the cross of Christ has delivered me. But we can, brethren, return in our hearts into Egypt.
We can go back and we can crave those things in our hearts, and that's the great, the great danger.
But I believe in connection with what Dawn said, we need to cultivate an appetite for the things of God and the things of Christ. If we feed on junk food, I'm speaking naturally now, we're going to develop an appetite for that. And when good, wholesome food is served, we're not going to have a desire for it. But if we have cultivated a an appetite for good wholesome food, actually when junk food is passed, we're not going to have the same appetite for it.
Because we've cultivated that that appetite, and the children of Israel on occasion they took the manna, and they tried to do other things with it.
You know, in the way that God gave it, in the simplicity with which God gave it.
It tasted like wafers and honey, but when they tried to dress it up and beat it in a mortar and bake it, what happened? It tasted like fresh oil. Now I'd rather eat wafers than honey than fresh oil. It was palatable and sweet.
And as you say, path full of nutrition, all that they needed as long as they took it in the way God had given it to them. And of course, the man, as we have often, as has often been brought out, speaks to us of Christ as the man in the circumstances of life down here. It's what we have perhaps more particularly brought before us in the Gospels, the Lord Jesus in the wilderness circumstances of life.
And we need that, don't we? We need to feed on the manna and that's what's going to give us an appetite.
For the things of God. And so we might ask our hearts the question this afternoon, what are we feeding on?
What kind of appetite are we really developing? Are we developing an appetite for the sweetness of Christ? Are we tasting of the Lord that the Lord is good? Or are we developing and cultivating an appetite for the things that simply feed our lusts and feed the flesh?
Well, there were those things that grew on the ground. First of all, the onions and the leeks and the garlics and the cucumbers and the melons.
And from a natural standpoint, I can see why they wanted to go back and get some. The melons of Egypt are absolutely wonderful. I have never tasted melons like I have tasted in Egypt. The spices that they use to spice their food are wonderful. But they were those things that grew on the ground speaks of that which comes up out of the earth. And they were a lot of them were those things that perhaps I, I don't want to be crude, but.
They leave a bad taste in your mouth. They might not make you so popular with the person that's sitting in front of you or across from you. Now we use scope and all those kinds of things, but onions and leeks and garlic. They don't make you very popular with your neighbors, but they were the food of this world. I really believe is the point and the fish that which came from below and but God had given them the manna and I since you asked her, I just make another comment about the manner. There's an interesting comment.
Made about the manna in numbers that you don't get in Exodus 16 where you have it mostly described and that is that it says in numbers. I believe it's the 11Th chapter. It fell on the dew. Those little seeds, those they were, it was like coriander seeds. Those little seeds actually fell on the dew. They never touched the earth and it speaks to us of the Lord Jesus in his pathway as a man holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners.
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And the Spirit of God is very careful to guard that. And you know, yourself too. I just make this other connection with what? John, you take a handful of vitamins to get your nutrition. They don't taste very good, do they? You need some water or juice or something to wash it down. But these little seeds of manna, which was all they needed and was packed full of nutrition and vitamin, God made sure it tasted good. It was like wafers and honey. And in again, in the simplicity in which God gave it.
For 40 years, it was all they needed to sustain life.
I was wondering about Second Corinthians chapter 8.
Where the Spirit of God uses a reference connected with a manner.
For temporal things also, which all come from God for the believer.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 8.
There's 14, but by inequality that now at this time their abundance, I believe in temporal things, maybe a supply for their want that their abundance also maybe a supply for your want that there may be equality. As it is written. He that had gathered much had nothing over and he that had gathered little had no lack. This refers to the the men, I believe, and they were not to gather manna for.
Except on the eve of the Sabbath. And if they did, there were rooms that developed in it and it stank. And we read in genes that they're, umm, riches are rusted and there are worms in there and they're corrupted. So I just wondered if the thought of God's provision, not only in the spiritual food and the person of the Lord Jesus, that for the believer, all the temporal things that he allows us to enjoy.
Also come from him and that this this verse in 2nd Corinthians 8 brings this before us.
This is beyond the chapter, but it's connected and it's wonderful, really. It's a positive part.
We're going to eat forever.
God has given us.
A new life.
And that new life will feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ forever.
And will sustain that life forever. And will have no appetite problems and we'll have no junk food. And when that time comes, brethren, we will partake of the tree of life and its fullness without any hindrance. And we will enjoy the person of the Lord Jesus and all his glory and beauty. And it will be food of the new life. And we it will sustain that eternal life that we have eternally.
Not a physical food of course here, but that we're referring to about a spiritual food that our lives need so we have something to look forward to as well.
I'd like to say a word about.
To go back to it for a moment, and that is we find that the rock was with them during the whole wilderness journey, but the water didn't always flow. Interesting, isn't it? You remember that it begins. The history of the rock begins in the 17th chapter of Exodus where they came to refer them. The people murmured, Moses cried to the Lord, and there was instruction to go and strike the rock and the water flowed out.
And the rock there being struck speaks of the Lord Jesus going under the rod of God's judgment.
If the water was going to flow out, the rock had to be struck. And so it says prophetically of the Lord Jesus in the book of Lamentations.
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. We sometimes sing, Jehovah lifted up his rod, Oh Christ, it fell on thee. And so we see the picture very quickly. But it is interesting later on that the rock still being with them, the water had ceased to flow. Sin had come in and it had caused the the rock, the water to stop up. The water, I believe is a picture of the Spirit of God.
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Running water, a river, a brook, a stream is usually a picture in scripture of the Spirit of God.
Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, and this he spake concerning the Spirit.
And what was Moses to do when the water was stopped because of sin that had come in amongst the people of God? He wasn't to go and strike the rock again. That spoiled the picture because the Lord Jesus will never come under the rod of God's judgment again. But He was to go and speak to the rock. And to speak to the rock brings before us the fact that when sin comes into our lives, we need to speak to the Lord Jesus. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And so if the we can quench the quench or grieve the Spirit of God by sin in our lives individually and even collectively amongst the people of God.
Someone has said to grieve the Spirit of God is to hinder the work of God in US.
And to quench the Spirit of God is to hinder the work of God through us, and it's when sin is allowed.
But we need to go and speak to the rock, and so I just say that the rock was always with them.
But the blessing didn't always flow the way that God intended it. But when there was real repentance. But isn't it interesting with Moses, Even though Moses failed and there were consequences in the life of Moses, the waters gushed out, It says in the Psalms. It didn't depend on Moses. It depended again on God's faithfulness. They were his people. And even though he struck the rock and called the people of God, rebels God in his faithfulness.
Pulled. Pulled through.
And gave them water, because where sin abounds, grace is much more abound. But I just say again, wonderful. The rock never left them.
Christ will never leave us, but sometimes we need to go and speak to the rock so that the Spirit of God can work in US and through us.
It it was got prerogative to.
Choose an age limit when he chose 20 years of age for those under responsibilities when they rebelled against.
Going and taking over the land now God knows better than any anybody.
He made man and he knew that at the age of 20.
There was enough intelligence developed in a person to make.
A decision.
So those who made a decision against God, they were fully responsible. They were fully responsible because they had seen what God had done.
It was only a few years that they were out of the land of Egypt and they should have been able to make a decision for or against what to do.
And that is the same with our young people. At the age of 20, they should be able to make a decision for the Lord Jesus Christ. We have instead of Moses, we have something greater than Moses, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They all knew, those young men all knew who their leader was. Their leader was Moses that had that had been fully established.
All the way through and we see it later on when the rod of Korra rebelled. What happened that Moses had the power and he had the word from God to say what was going to happen. And today is the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives where we have to make a decision at.
A age in which God has said we are responsible to be for Him, ought to be against him. And for the young people who get married now, usually around the age of 20 or a little later, they are to know whether they stay in the meeting or they go away. We see so many today going away here and there and we have an excuse. Oh, they've half seasoned that.
It's now an excuse. There is no excuse. We make the decision with God, with the Lord Jesus because we have His Spirit. And if we pray to him and ask him what to do, he will answer us and he will tell us what to do. And that is the big decision that our young people have to make today. Either I'm going to listen to Christ, the Lord Jesus.
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Our Savior, I am going to go towards the world.
And and let the world uh, uh.
Tell me where to go and what to do. It is still me and the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will make the decision for us and with us.
In the case of the Old Testament and Moses and so on.
That even though Moses failed in leadership, the Lord still made provision in the in his own heart for the people. And so it will always be, even though.
There's failure, you might say, in every level, uh, there the Lord will always make his own provision for the needs of his people and in fact, Moses.
A wonderful man that he was with the God, We were all more like him perhaps, but umm, he got tired of 40 years of struggle with those people and, and he eventually got angry with him. He was a man of patience, but he eventually gets angry with them and he fails in that and comes short. But one of the serious parts about it, the Lord said to Moses, as it were Moses.
You didn't represent my heart.
And we all need that, brethren. We may fail in many things, but there is one thing that we fail in two. But may the Lord help each one of us to not misrepresent the heart of God toward His people. It's such an important thing that we always point souls to the heart of God and to the heart of the Lord Jesus. And no matter how much failure there is, that heart remains the same and will make provision for.
In God's faithfulness to the end of the journey and.
We need to count on that and count on, I should say, count on God in that, even though we may see failure and responsibility and so on, not to make an excuse out of it, but look higher than that and see the heart of God in it and the heart of the Lord for His people.
When we say that the mana was the type of Christ and the rock was Christ, that's not left up to discernment by comparing Scripture with Scripture and so on. And I just passed this along. That was helpful for me to get a hold of in my study of the Word of God. And that is that there are a number of Old Testament illustrations and types that are left for discernment and comparing Scripture with Scripture and.
Sometimes there may even be more than one application, depending on the context in which it's taken up. But there are some Old Testament types that are so vital for us not to miss and so important for us to get a hold of, that the New Testament confirms what the type really spoke of. If we were to go to the 6th of John, we would find the Lord Jesus very clearly spelled out.
What the manner was a type of It was a type of himself as the bread that came down from heaven.
As we said, the heavenly man in earthly circumstances, here we find that he doesn't leave us in any doubt as to what the rock was. That rock was Christ. That is not an application. Even the crossing of the Red Sea, when we say it's a figure of baptism, that's not just an application that we pull out of the air. That's exactly what Scripture tells us. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
And so I think it's helpful as we go over Old Testament types to go to the New Testament and see so many of them.
Are confirmed to us as to what they actually typify because it's vital for us to get a hold of them. And those Old Testament figures and types are the illustrations that help us to understand the doctrines of the New Testament and what we have been brought into in Christianity. It's like the instructions. When you go to put something together, there's usually a diagram and there's written instructions.
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And the diagram helps us to grasp what the written instructions are seeking to tell us. And both are very helpful. And so God has given us both. He's given us the doctrines in the New Testament, but He's given us these types and illustrations, these pictures in the Old Testament.
Do you eat? But with many of them, God was not well pleased.
There was many of them which God was not well pleased.
But there were a few, and if it's Even so, very few.
They are the ones with whom God was The others were overthrown.
And we can say truly that God's heart is with those who stay on his side, not to let themselves to be overthrown because of their unbelief. And later it says it was a lust.
They were examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted it is.
The evil sings in the world that 10 young people.
To go after them.
And to stay with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that is also a decision of the heart. We cannot just say where God's heart will do this or that. And being so thoughtful, he's also, he has judged all those here. They were all over strong.
So we have to also think of him as not going along with evil decisions, with bad decisions, unscriptural decisions.
In connection with what we have here, that yes, there are some evil things that are laid out here very clearly, things like idolatry. That was no doubt a reference to the making of the golden calf, a most serious thing committing fornication, very, very serious, tempting Christ. That was right at the end of the wilderness journey when they.
Tempted the Lord and God, allowed fiery serpents to come among them, and so on.
But when it says they lusted after evil things?
There was a time, for example, when they said we want flesh to eat, we have to have flesh to eat. We're harking back to those flesh pots of Egypt and we haven't got any meat. Now we need some. Well, is there anything wrong with eating meat? Not per SE, but God hadn't provided it for them. It wasn't something that God had given. And so I suggest that the expression lusting after evil things.
Is not always lusting after something which in itself is positive and evil, but it is rather wanting that which God has not chosen to give me. And I believe we see that a little. When God did sometimes for the moment test them, what happened? In many cases they murmured. Now we know, of course, and we won't go into it in detail. There was a time at the beginning when God met their murmurings in grace.
But then, once they put themselves under law, God was obliged to deal with them according to the place in which they had put themselves. But leaving that for the moment, I just suggest that.
Evil things for you and for me in our lives are not always that which is possibly wrong.
Not that which perhaps many people even in the world would recognize as evil, but simply what God has not given us in our particular pathway, that is according to His will. And if we go after them.
Then we are guilty of lusting after evil things.
Make a general comment, it's easy to misapply I think the verses of this chapter.
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That is this.
When the children of Israel on the night of the Passover.
They were sheltered by the blood of atonement.
They were safe from the judgment of God.
And when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are absolutely safe for eternity from the judgment of God.
They were in a normal sense, you might say, when they crossed the Red Sea in a certain way, God could look at it and say you're just ready to cross the Jordan at the same time and in the same crossing and enter the land. There's a certain sense in which the moment we leave Egypt, putting our trust in the Lord Jesus, sheltered by the blood, crossed the Red Sea, you in a certain way where it's ready.
Positionally, as we ever will be, to enter heaven.
But the wilderness is a way of the ways of God with us for our good, and so we have to pass through in our lives or most of us do. Thief on the cross didn't have to, but most of us pass through the wilderness experience and it has to do with the ways of God in government for our good. And so these verses have to do not.
To try to distinguish between believers and unbelievers and so on, but they have to do with God's governmental dealings with us and each one of us have to experience the testings of them. Do we lust as Bill has described it or don't we? When it says in verse five, many of them, God was well, not well pleased. That isn't to distinguish between believers and unbelievers.
But it is does my life? Is it a life being lived to the pleasure of God?
Not whether I'm going to heaven someday or not, but is my present life a life being left to God's pleasure? Is he finding his pleasure now in a divine sense of it? The love of God doesn't change. It is divine, and it is toward me, eternally toward me. And whether I'm a grateful for it or not, whether I live to his pleasure or not, doesn't change his love toward me.
But it does affect his ways with me and the Lord Jesus when heaven was opened and God declared of him, This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He finally, after 4000 years of the history of man, found a man living on earth that was living fully and perfectly to his pleasure and his joy. And so he wanted he he has to open heaven to tell us.
And brethren, it ought to exercise us the sense in our own hearts. Is my life, a life in which God, practically speaking, can look at and find pleasure in it.
Is it a life lived independence and obedience to his will. Those are the two primary ingredients of it to be a dependent, obedient person. And I will be in the measure in which I feed on the manna walk in the enjoyment of the grace of God toward me and delivered from self occupation in a multitude of things that can hinder fellowship and communion with God.
But the Lord Jesus woke up every morning and he said that morning, I believe the Psalms say, I delight to do thy will, Oh my God. And he went through the day delighting to do the will of God. And God found pleasure in it, but in the children, the most of the children in the wilderness, as God looked upon him over the passage of time, he had to say, I can't find pleasure in this.
And they had to be, as it were, removed from that walk, because there was no pleasure for God in it.
These chapters here, these verses here are written for our warning.
And I think if someone is standing, you need to warn them because he might fall.
But there are those that have fallen and there are verses to have them lifted up and restore it also. We need to remember that. So when we read the Old Testament stories, we had events and you know the the actors in those events, they all, they all fell in the desert. They never, they never got up again. But in the believers life, there might be failures, but the Lord in grace is able to restore and teach and make us more like the Lord Jesus.
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You recognize here these things, as we said a moment ago, that are rather serious and the warnings are very necessary for us too.
The idolatry.
Of the Old Testament, which perhaps in many cases we would say, how could they do that? How could they bow down before some kind of image that they had created? But the idolatry of the Old Testament is the worldliness of the new. The idolatry that characterized Israel is the worldliness of the believer. And so the apostle John, for example, can say, little children, keep yourselves from idols. And there is a danger, a real danger of that today.
Immorality is mentioned in verse 8.
A terrible problem today in the world, especially in the Western world, because.
In lands like Western Europe and North America where we have had the light of the word of God, we are far worse off when we give it up than he, the nations that never embrace that kind of light and never had it. And it's a terrible shame when he, the nations around the world, point the finger at us, for example, in Europe and North America and say, well, if that's Christianity, then we don't want it.
But then it goes on the things that perhaps we might not think of as so serious. Verse 9 neither let us tempt Christ.
It's a very serious thing to tempt the Lord. It's a very serious thing to complain, as they did about the light bread that God had given them, something that he had given. Could anything that God gave ever be less than perfect?
And yet they said, as Don has mentioned, and we mentioned it earlier, our soul loathe this light bread.
Murmuring. It's a serious thing to murmur, to complain about the circumstances in which God may have placed me. It's one thing to feel the burden of them. It's one thing to take them to the Lord. We should do that.
It's not wrong to groan under the difficulties of the way, but to murmur as if somehow life is unfair and God has not treated me right, that is a serious thing in the eye of God. And so all of these things happened unto them, as it says here.
In order that you and I who are in a position of privilege as it says at the end of verse.
11 upon whom the ends of the world are the end of the age are come, That is, you and I are at the end of all of God's ways with man. When this dispensation closes, it will close with judgment.
But God has brought you and me into the most marvelous blessing. But he says I've given you warnings in order that you don't have to fall into the kind of things that many of these people fell into hundreds and thousands of years ago.
200 and 76276.