Welcome to Good Hope Through Grace. I'm Pastor Jeff Arthur, Sr. of the Elizabeth Baptist Church in VanCroft, West Virginia. We're currently doing a study through the book of 1 Corinthians, and tonight we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Again, we've already looked at verses 1 through 12, and what we're going to do tonight, as I promised last week, is I was going to go back and deal with some of the statements made in verses 1 through 4, and we're going to cover the first statement tonight. In verse 2, it says, they were all baptized unto Moses, and we're going to deal with that particular statement tonight, explain it, and I think you'll enjoy it, and you give it a good listen this evening as we deal with it. Now, let me go ahead and read our text. Moreover, brethren, I would not have you be ignorant. how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. So, this takes us back to the book of Exodus, whenever the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt, they were under the direction, the guidance of Moses. He was leading them. Now, it mentions that all the fathers, it's going back to their forefathers, the generation that came up out of Egypt. It says they were all under the cloud. Now, we talked some about that, but the cloud, the children of Israel was led by a pillar of a cloud, and then at night that cloud became a pillar of fire. But not only did that cloud lead them, and it was a reminder of God's presence with them. God went in the clouds. Of course, God's everywhere, but He manifested His presence in that pillar so that they could look and it would be the constant reminder to them that God was with them. At night, they could look out and it would be a pillar of fire. They could see it, and it was a constant reminder that God was with them. Now, that's one of the great promises that we have today. We might not be able to see a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire, but God will never leave us nor forsake us. Isn't that a great promise? No matter what we face in this world, we'll never face it by ourself. And God said that He would never leave us. Hebrews 13 and verse 5, He would never leave us nor would He ever forsake us. And of course, that's what He promised His people in the Old Testament, too. One of the great texts of Scripture that I like to quote oftentimes, especially if someone's getting ready to have a surgery, Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10, fear thou not, I'm with thee. Be not dismayed, I am thy God, I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." So he tells Isaiah that he was with him and he's telling Israel that God is with them. So that's anytime God wanted to comfort somebody that was fearful, anytime he wanted to comfort one of his children, he reminded them that he was with them. So that cloud that led them Now let me also mention, I believe I mentioned this last week, that cloud also covered them. And not only, and it mentions that here, it says they were under the cloud in chapter 10 and verse 1 of 1 Corinthians. So not only did it lead them, but it also, they were under it. That means it covered them. And there's some texts in the Old Testament, and I'm going to go back and revisit those. I did last week. But it actually covered them. So when they went across the desert, it would have kept the heat rays of the sun off of them. So they were led by a pillar of cloud and they were covered by that cloud too. Now it says they were all baptized unto Moses. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now the idea of being through the sea, I should have explained that too, is the Red Sea. Of course you realize when they were led to the Red Sea And what ended up happening is Pharaoh's armies was behind him. And what happened is the Lord caused the Red Sea to part. And we talked about that also last week. And the children of Israel went through on dry ground. And then the Lord brought the sea back on Pharaoh's army and destroyed Pharaoh and his army. So we see what this text is talking about in verses 1 and 2. Now, here's what we're looking at this evening. We wanted to get verse 1 out of the way and show you what it's talking about. It's taking us back to Exodus. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they were led by a cloud. Also, they were under it. But they were also, the Lord also parted the Red Sea. Now, it says in verse 2 that they were all baptized unto Moses. Now, this is what we want to focus on in tonight's radio broadcast is being baptized unto Moses, and we'll let that be our title tonight. Baptized unto Moses in the cloud. and in the sea. So it shows you when they were baptized unto Moses. It says in the cloud and in the sea. So let's go ahead and talk a little bit about that tonight. Now when you're talking about baptism today, and of course when you're talking about baptism in the New Testament, the first one the Bible records that was sent by God to baptize was John the Baptist. He was given the authority to baptize by God. Now, I don't want to get too long on this particular point because I want to explain this statement, baptizing the Moses. But John the Baptist was sent to baptize He didn't decide to do that on his own, but he was actually sent to baptize by God. So that's the reason why I said he was the first sent by God to baptize. Matthew 21 and verse 25, they were questioning Jesus' authority, and Jesus answers them, and I want you to listen to it. And Jesus answered and said, I also will ask you a thing. Which, if you tell me, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? Now, when Jesus asked this question, he's asking them, basically, where did John get the authority to baptize? So, he says, the baptism of John, whence was it? We all know that John the Baptist came baptizing, and he baptized those that repented. and believed on the coming Messiah. This is made crystal clear in the book of Acts chapter 19. It makes it clear that what John the Baptist preached was repentance, but he also preached a faith. Acts 19 and verse 4 shows us that. It says in verse 4, then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance. Now, the baptism of repentance means that he only baptized people that repented of their sin. Where repentance means to have a change of mind, to have a change of heart. And that's what the Holy Spirit does in the new birth. He gives you a change of mind. He gives you a change of heart. That's the reason why his baptism was called the baptism of repentance. But he also taught, of course, when you repent, you believe. And when you believe, you repent. their inseparable graces, where you have one, you have the other. But let me show you that he also taught that they needed to believe on Jesus. Now listen to this now, Acts 19 verse 4, John barely baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. So he not only taught that they needed to repent of their sins and have a change of mind, But with that, he taught that they needed to believe on the coming Messiah. So, who taught him to do that? Well, he was sent to do that by the Lord. He was the first sent by the Lord to baptize. And then, of course, after him, Jesus baptized. John chapter 4, verse 2 says that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. You'll notice, you became a disciple, then you were baptized. John 4, 2 again says Jesus made and baptized. They were made a disciple then they were baptized and that's the order. You become a disciple of the Lord Jesus by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus and then you are baptized. So that's always the order. So Jesus then had the authority after John and then in the commission Jesus give the authority to his church. Now, in Matthew chapter 28, the commission is to go and make disciples. And you make disciples by spreading the gospel. And after a disciple is made, we are to baptize him. Baptize him in the name of the Father, it's what it says, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. And then after that, it says to teach him. And the commission is recognized by most as being the duty of the church. A church is to provide. Now, when I'm talking about a church, I'm talking about the local church, the church that preaches the right gospel message. When I'm talking about a church, that's what I'm speaking of. And the church is to spread the gospel, administer the ordinances, but also teach God's Word. In the book of Timothy, he says that the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth, and that a pastor is to be a pastor, in the book of Ephesians 4, a pastor-teacher, one that instructs the congregation in the Word of God. You need to study the Word of God for yourself. You need to be a good Berean. You need to search the Scriptures daily. You need private worship, but you also need public worship. You need both of those. And the Lord established the church for that purpose. And in that book of Acts chapter 2, the first church became known as the church at Jerusalem. The church at Jerusalem. So let's get back to our text here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We've looked at this text so far, and we went all the way back to Exodus, and we talked about the pillar of cloud, and we talked about the Red Sea, and how the children of Israel were under the cloud, and the cloud was also leading them, and how they went down into the Red Sea and come out on the other side. Now, 1 Corinthians 10 said that they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now, what does that mean? What does that mean? We talked a little bit about the history of baptism and went to John the Baptist and showed, now we're talking about water baptism there, but water baptism, they never, when he's talking about this in verse 1, they were baptizing to Moses, they weren't literally water baptized back in when they come up out of the land of Egypt and went through the Red Sea. So, it's using an illustration. So, what's it speaking of? Well, whenever a person is baptized, they are identified with the Lord Jesus. It's a public identification with Jesus, with Him. You're identifying yourself with the message that saved your soul. When a baptism is done correctly, And by that, I mean by immersion. And the reason why it's by immersion is it pictures the gospel. And the gospel message, according to 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4, is that Christ died for our sins. He was buried and He rose again the third day. Now, that's the gospel. That's the message that you receive that saves your soul. But baptism is a picture of it. And after someone receives Jesus and then they're baptized, they're showing forth in that picture the message that saved their soul. And along with that, they are identifying themselves with the Lord Jesus. And that's the idea of this here. Those that came up out of Egypt, that generation that came up out of Egypt, were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. In other words, when they were coming up and that pillar of cloud was leading them, they were identified with as being not only followers of God, but also followers of the leader that God provided them, who was Moses. They were identified with Moses. Before, they had been in Egypt under the bondage of Pharaoh. Now they're under a new leader. So everybody that was in under that cloud was baptized unto Moses in the sense that they were identified with Moses. Same thing with regard to the Red Sea. When they came to the Red Sea and it parted and Moses and the people went through the Red Sea, who were they identified with? They were identified with their leader, Moses. Now, when you look at the Red Sea, it is a good picture of baptism, really, if you think about it just a little bit. The children of Israel have been in bondage. And what happened is God plagued the Egyptians. You can read about that, of course, in the latter stages of the book of Exodus. You can read all about how He plagued them And the last plague was the Passover. God brought a destroyer through the land of Egypt, and what happened is every firstborn of man and beast died throughout the whole land of Egypt, except wherever the children of Israel dwelt at. God provided a means of saving their firstborn, and He provided a lamb. They would take a lamb, and they shed its blood, and put it over the top of their door and down both sides. And it was said, when the destroyer seen the blood, he passed over. So they observed the Passover in Exodus chapter 12. And then the next day, they left Egypt. They left bondage. Now, isn't that a beautiful picture? When you receive the Passover, the Lord did Christ, 1 Corinthians 5, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Jesus was a picture of that Lamb. Jesus is called the Lamb of God. He substituted himself for us on Calvary. We deserve to die because of our sin. We deserve the eternity in hell because of our sin. But instead of us dying, God provided a perfect substitute, his son, the Lord Jesus. He is our perfect substitute, and the Passover pictured that. Well, once they received the Passover, what did they do the next day? They left bondage. They left the bondage of Egypt, and they were now under a new leader. They were identified now no longer with Pharaoh. Now they were identified with Moses. Then they go to the Red Sea. and they go down into the water, and then they come out on the other side. Now just picture that. See, that's a picture of baptism. You go down into the water, you go down, and then you come up out of the water. So it's just another picture of baptism in this particular text. And what, as I've already said, baptism identifies you as being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It doesn't make you a disciple. It doesn't make you a disciple. You can't become a disciple until you trust Christ as your Savior. Repentance and faith is how you become a disciple, and then after that happens, then you are to be baptized. Again, John chapter 4 says that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. Well, the Lord wants that done. The Lord wants that done. And used to be. Baptism meant a whole lot more than it does today to folk. People view it as more optional. And it's your first act of obedience. After that, you're saved. Jesus, your King, walked 60 miles. to be baptized by John the Baptist. Him doing so is reason enough for you to do so. And in the commission, after that you've trusted Jesus and become a disciple, He commands it. And one of the things baptism does, as the children of Israel who came out of Egypt were identified with Moses by the cloud and by going down into the Red Sea, Today, baptism publicly identifies you that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, that you are a follower of him. And historically, that's been the way people made it known, is through their baptism. It has great meaning. You're picturing that you were an old sinner and you died to your old life. You're walking now in a new life. When you watch a baptism, you see a lot of great spiritual lessons there. Before they was a sinner, they'd been washed by Jesus' blood, and now they're walking in what kind of life? They're walking in a new life. In baptism, you're saying you're going to walk in a new life. For someone in Romans 6 to continue to walk in a lifestyle of sin is to contradict what they said they was going to do in their baptism. So baptism is a beautiful picture. It identifies us. It identifies us as disciples of Jesus Christ. Now let me read another text for you. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. It says in verse 26 that we are all children, for we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. That's how you become a child of the King, is through faith in Jesus. By seeing yourself a sinner, and seeing that Jesus died on Calvary for your sins, and then you trust Him as your Savior. To put faith in Jesus is to believe on Him. The Gospel of John uses the term believe, if I remember right, over a hundred times. At one time I went through there and counted how many times it uses the term believe. But I don't want you to misunderstand this act of believing on Jesus. It's more than believing in a God. I mean, if you go and you look at the unbelieving Jews in the New Testament, the Pharisees for instance, They believed in God. They believed in Bible creation. They had the Old Testament Scriptures. But yet Jesus told them in Matthew 23, He said, you can pass land and sea to make one convert into your religion, one proselyte. And when he is made, He said, you make him twofold more a child of hell than yourself. Jesus told them they was lost. Did they believe in God? Well, sure they did. But they rejected Jesus. Jesus said that I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man goes to the Father but by me. There's not a hundred different ways to heaven. There's only one. And people sometimes will say, well, Jeff, you're very narrow-minded. Well, it's a narrow way. It's a narrow way. Look, Matthew says broad is the way that leads to destruction. But narrow is the way that leads to life. Look, Matthew said that there will be a great host of people that are on a broad road. It says, Many will say to me, Matthew 7, in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? In your name we casted out demons, and in your name we done many wonderful works. You see, the basis of their salvation was their deeds. They never trusted in Jesus. You see, you've got to completely put your confidence in Him. that He died for you, and that He rose again the third day for you, and you receive that as a means of saving your soul. See? So the word believe means more than just believe in a God. It means you have to, the word believe means to put your faith in Him, to put your trust in Him, to put your hope in Him. I never did finish that verse I was quoting. I realized, Matthew chapter 7, It says, many will say to me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, in your name casted out demons, in your name done many wonderful works. And the Bible says that Jesus will profess unto them, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. So they never trusted him. So a person in order to be baptized has to to first be saved. They have to first trust the Lord Jesus. They have to first recognize their sinner and have trusted in Him as Savior. That's why we call it Believer's Baptism. Now, Acts chapter 2, you have 3,000 people that are saved in Acts chapter 2. And notice what it says here. It says in verse 41, they that gladly receive the word were baptized. They receive the Word, and then they are baptized. And that's how it works. You hear the Word of the Gospel. The Gospel is defined in 1 Corinthians 15 as Christ dying for our sins and rising again the third day. And it says, by which you're saved. When you trust that message, that's how you're saved. Now that you do that, Then you need to go to a good, sound, Bible-believing local church. And then you need to be baptized. You need to be immersed publicly and publicly identify yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, baptism, as I said, is a picture of the gospel. That's why it needs to be done the right way. Death, burial, and resurrection. That's what you see in an immersion. That's why it's done that way. And that identifies you with Christ. Galatians chapter 3 says, we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Then it goes on to say, as many of us has been baptized have put on Christ. Now what does that mean, put him on? I used the illustration before the broadcast. It used to be when someone went in the military, a young man might join, for instance, they would go to Beckley and they had to swear in. They'd go to Beckley and they would swear in. You know, folks, once they swore in, you know, they were in. They might not have had the uniform on yet, but they were in. They might not have went to basic training yet, But they were in, because they swore in. I've seen boys do that, didn't want to go back and change it. But once they swore in, they were in. And that's kind of how this is in Galatians chapter 3. The day you trust in Jesus as your Savior, you're in. Well, the day you get baptized, that's like putting on the uniform. Now let me finish my illustration again. Those boys that swear in at Beckley, And then after maybe a few months, then they would go to basic training. And when they go to basic training, they'd put them through all of that. Then after several months, all of a sudden they'd come home one day and they would have on their uniform. And you could look and say, hey, he's in the Army or he's in the Marine Corps or he's in the Air Force. Of course, you've seen he put on his uniform. But he was in the day he swore in when he went to Beckley. but the uniform identified him publicly as being in the military. Well, that's how it is with baptism. The day you swear in and you trust Christ as your Savior, you're in the kingdom. The Lord wants you to mind him in baptism and be publicly identified with him in baptism. And that's the same way you go back to the Old Testament and use the term baptized unto Moses. It's not talking about the same kind of baptism in the New Testament, but it's showing that they were identified with Moses by being under the cloud, led by the cloud, and going down into the sea, in the Red Sea. And today, we're baptized unto Christ. We don't get baptized to join Christ. But we trust Christ as our Savior, and then we identify, publicly make it known through water baptism. So, I hope this has been a blessing to you. If you've been saved, you need to mind the Lord in baptism, not to get saved, but because you are, and identify yourself publicly with Him, and be part of a good, strong Bible teaching local church. Thank you so much for listening this evening. This has been Go-To Grace, Pastor Jeff Arthur, Sr. Thanks again for listening.