This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
This is day one of our look at this chapter. And as we begin our look at 1
Corinthians 10, we're going to be looking a little bit back into the Old
Testament.

Paul is going to draw on some illustrations from the Old Testament. And as he
does that, we're reminded of a very important truth about the New Testament and
the Old Testament. In many ways, the New Testament is a book of instruction.

It tells us how to live our lives. It's like God's sitting down with us and
saying, "Here's what to do in this situation, and here's what to do in this
situation. " We've just seen it in 1 Corinthians.

Here's what to do about marriage, and here's what to do when you have an
argument with another believer. The New Testament is a book of instruction. The
Old Testament, in many ways, is a book of illustration.

The Old Testament illustrates every principle, every instruction that you find
in the New Testament. The picture that you see in the New Testament has a
picture even in the Old Testament, the pictures of Jesus and who he is. And
there's some very powerful pictures in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1 to 3.

Listen to what the Scripture has to say. Paul writes, "For I do not want you to
be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the
cloud, and they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses,
in the cloud and in the sea.

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For
they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was
Christ. " Paul writes of the Israelites, and this is the period of time when
they had just come out of Egypt.

They were coming out of slavery, and they were being led by Moses towards the
promised land. And he said, "These Israelites were connected to God. They were
connected in the cloud and in the sea and the spiritual food and the spiritual
drink.

" Now, what is Paul talking about here? What are the pictures that he's giving?
They're very clear when you understand what the Corinthians were saying and
asking.

The Corinthians were saying, "We've been baptized into Jesus. We take the Lord's
Supper together. " And so that means, because we've done these things, that God
must be okay with us, and we're okay with God, so anything we do must be okay
with God.

So what's wrong with that? What's wrong with anything that we do? We're covered,
they were sort of saying.

And Paul writes and says, "Now, let's look back in the Old Testament, because
God has some pictures there for us. And in the Old Testament, in the people of
Israel, you have some pictures of what you're facing right now. You have what's
called a type or a picture, a preceding picture of baptism and even of the
Lord's Supper in what happened in the people of Israel.

" Paul writes and says, "In a sense, they were baptized into Moses. " Now, he's
not saying that, like, we're baptized into Jesus, they were baptized in the name
of Moses. He's giving them a picture, and he's saying, "They went through the
cloud.

They went through the sea. They had water involved, and Moses was leading them.
" So if you want to say it, in one way, they were baptized into Moses.

The word "baptized" means "immersed" in the Greek language. They were immersed
in Moses. And Paul says, "By the way, just like you say, we take the Lord's
Supper, they had spiritual food to eat.

It was called manna. They had spiritual drink to drink. It was the water that
flowed out of the rock, which that was a picture of Christ, that rock.

So if you're covered, they were covered. But Paul says we've got to learn from
them. God was not pleased with them when they felt like we're covered and they
just did anything that they wanted.

And they faced judgment because of that. They faced harm in their lives and
their family's lives. Here's what Paul says in verses 5 and 6, "Nevertheless,
God was not pleased with most of them.

Their bodies were scattered over the desert. " Now these things occurred as
examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Very
clearly Paul says they knew God, they were involved in the things of God, but
they messed up because they thought they could do anything they wanted to.

And so they lived for evil, they followed idols, they went the wrong direction.
So based on their example, Paul outlines some very simple things for us not to
do as believers. In verses 7 to 11, here's what he says, "Do not be idolaters,
as some of them were.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in
pagan revelry. We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and
in one day 23,000 of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them
did, and were killed by snakes.

And do not grumble, as some of them did, and were killed by a destroying angel.
These things happen to them as examples, and were written down as warnings for
us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. " Paul writes a word of warning
to those who are thinking we can get away with doing whatever we want, and says
to them, "Here's some things not to do.

Don't be an idolater. Don't follow other gods, little gods, gods of your own
making, gods like materialism or selfishness or fame or pride. Don't be an
idolater.

" He says, "Don't get caught up in sexual immorality. It's all around you," he
says, "I know in the world. Don't get caught up in that.

It's not for you as a believer. Don't test the Lord," he says. If you go right
to the edge of what God says not to do or to do, and you push it and you test
it, you're just going to face suffering in your life, in your family's life
because of it.

And Paul says, "Don't grumble. " You can read in the Old Testament the people of
Israel, as Moses was leading them toward the promised land, were constantly
grumbling, saying, "Oh, we used to have it better in the past. Why are we having
to go through this?

We're always finding a reason to be negative against the thing that God was
doing in their lives. We're never going to face a situation of perfection in
this world. There's always a reason to grumble, but because we know Christ,
grumbling is always without reason.

There's always in our lives a reason to not give thanks, but because we know
Christ, there are always more reasons to give thanks. " And so Paul says, "If
you think that you can live any way that you want, and it's not going to affect
your life, not going to affect your family's life because you're now a
Christian, you're just lying to yourself. Now, you think I'd never do that, but
we do it all the time.

We do it in little ways. We make little deals with ourselves. We don't say, "I'm
just going to live any way I want in every situation of our life.

" We say, "No, it's just this one little area of sexual immorality. It's just
this one little area of materialism. It's just this one little area of pride.

And I'll just allow myself that one. God will understand. God will forgive it.

" And Paul writes and says, "God didn't write these things down because He hates
us, because He wants to do evil in our lives. He wrote these things. He warned
us of these things because these things are evil.

Pride is evil. Sexual immorality is evil. Sex is meant for connection in a
marriage, not just for pure pleasure.

There is pleasure in it, but it's not meant just for selfish pleasure. " Paul
writes and says, "If you do evil, obviously you're going to suffer for it. "
Now, if you go back in these verses to verse 4 and what Paul talked about,
there's some very powerful pictures that can help you and I in choosing to do
good, to follow God.

In verse 4, Paul says, "They all drank the same spiritual food," in verse 3. And
then verse 4, "They drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from a spiritual
rock, and that rock was Christ.

" That picture of that rock in the wilderness, that rock out of which the water
flowed and the people of Israel, all of them, the tens and hundreds of thousands
of them drank from the water that came out of that rock. What a miracle. That
rock was a picture of Jesus Christ, that living water would pour out of Him so
that millions of us, billions of us could come to salvation through Him.

And when you realize that that rock in the wilderness was Christ, there are many
life lessons out of that, but I'd like to bring out two of them, two powerful
life lessons in this verse. The first is, never forget the importance of God's
commands. Moses, you might remember, was not allowed to go into the promised
land because he didn't follow God's command about the rock.

Remember? Moses was to bring water out of the rock, and God said the first time
to bring water out, "Moses, I want you to strike the rock," and Moses did and
water came out. The next time God said, "Moses, I want you to speak to the
rock," but Moses was mad, he was angry at the people, and so instead of speaking
to the rock, he struck it again.

And God said, "Because you disobeyed me, because you struck that rock a second
time, I'm not letting you go into the promised land. " And you read this in the
book of Exodus, and you think, "Why would he do this? Why in the world would he
not allow him to go into the promised land?

" But when you get to Corinthians, you realize why. That rock is a picture of
Jesus, and Jesus was struck once on the cross, and then we speak to him. He's
not struck twice.

He didn't have to go to the cross twice, and because this rock was a picture of
what was going to happen in Jesus, God's directions to Moses were very specific.
Now, Moses didn't understand totally why they were so specific. He just knew it
was what God told him to do.

And the same is true in my life, in your life. Sometimes the commands of God,
you don't totally understand why they're so specific, so detailed. Why couldn't
I get away with that, God?

So-and-so seemed to get away with that, but God knows, God understands. This is
a picture of the importance of God's commands, but it's also even a greater
picture, this rock out of which the water flowed, of the fact that Jesus Christ
is the one who satisfies your inner thirst. It's not idolatry.

Paul said, "Stay away from that. " It's not sexual immorality. It's not
grumbling when you're not satisfied.

That's not what gives satisfaction to that inner thirst. It is Jesus Christ. And
the problem with grumbling, the problem with idolatry, the problem with sexual
immorality is not just that they are sins, as great as that problem is, it's
that they're the sin of turning away from the one who can truly satisfy you,
Jesus Christ.

Are you thirsty deep down within? Maybe that thirst feels like boredom. Maybe
that thirst feels like a dissatisfaction in your life.

Maybe that thirst feels like a deep sense of inadequacy about yourself. Maybe
it's just a fear in your life. Are you thirsty?

You believe in Jesus, and the result is this living water, not just water
flowing out, but also water flowing into your life, the living water that Jesus
promised, the living water that only he can bring, the satisfaction that he can
bring when no one else can bring satisfaction. Let's turn to him for it right
now. Jesus, forgive me, forgive us, when we turn to other things besides you to
satisfy the deepest needs in our lives.

It's not some idol of fame or materialism that we build. It's not some way of
pleasing ourselves that's going to bring satisfaction. We're tempted to think it
is, but it's not.

It's you, Jesus. And so right now, however we feel, whatever the struggles,
whatever the successes right now, we turn to you. Bring us a deep sense of the
living water you've put into us.

Today I want to trust in you, Jesus. In your name, amen.