According to a German legend that you're probably familiar with, in the year 1284, the town of Hamelin was suffering from a rat infestation. And the way that the city dealt with this rat infestation is that they hired a musician to come and to lure the rats away. They offered to pay him 1,000 guilders to take care of the problem. And after the problem was taken care of, the burgermeister, the mayor, pays him 50 guilders for his work. And as a result, on the 26th of June, while the adults were in worship, This musician returned and 130 children followed him out of the town and were never heard from again. The consequences of the actions of the people in not paying what they had claimed they would pay were consequences that the children had to bear. They were left aside and the responsibilities were left aside. Now this morning as we continue our study on 1 Corinthians, we look at chapter 10. We're gonna begin with verses one through five. This is what we're going to focus on this morning. And we'll see that as the apostle here continues this discussion of of idol meets and that connection of love and knowledge that we've spent so many weeks talking about, he begins to apply that using Old Testament examples. And what we see here is that as the people of God are indifferent, the people in Corinth are indifferent to the way in which they should take this responsibility upon themselves, The Apostle Paul says that this is something that may result in consequences. It may result in consequences that are not even seen. So he shows them this connection between the Old Testament scriptures that are referenced, and this idol meat controversy that they're in the midst of discussing. I'm gonna read for you again, 1 Corinthians 10, verses one through five, that says, moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all ate the same spiritual drink, or drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." So we're looking at this theme of continuity and cautions that we see here in the beginning of 1 Corinthians 10. And the lesson that Paul is giving to them is that as they are being lax, in their discussion of that connection between Christian liberty and meat sacrifice to idols, so too they must understand that the people of God in times past, as they were lax concerning these things, that there were consequences that came. So we're going to look at that. We're going to begin with verse 1. It says, moreover brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that our fathers. So we're going to call that portion a continuity of people. A continuity of people. Paul begins with saying, moreover brethren, So that word moreover it can be the word for can be translated as for or moreover in the Greek. and that helps to connect what has already been said to this chapter. So remember when we started this section that I called the section on meat sacrifice to idols, that was way back in chapter eight, verse one, and I said to you that Paul answers this question over the next several chapters, and some of you thought, well, probably not. It's probably not gonna last three or four chapters, but we see that he's connecting that He's saying four. And then he tells this story from the Old Testament. And he's answering that going all the way back to chapter eight. So all of these answers about liberty, Christian liberty, and all of these answers about motive and all of these answers about love and all of these answers about knowledge. What he's saying is that all of this comes into play and he's wanting to show the people in Corinth that they are now looking at the other side of this idolatry coin. Idols are nothing. That's what he's told us in chapters 8 and chapters 9, right? Idols are nothing. You have liberty. You're able to look at idols and say, these mean nothing. You're able to go into the meat market and you're able to say, I can eat this. It doesn't matter. Idols are nothing. But the flip side of that coin is what we see here. Idols also have the potential to shipwreck your faith. You must examine your heart. Something that is nothing also has that potential of leading you in to being lax in your Christian life and causing your faith to be shipwrecked. As we look at this continuity of people, we see that the apostle here wants you to know that this is a cautionary tale. We need to understand that there are consequences to actions. Just like that musician in Hamlin, it would have been easier to pay the 1,000 guilders than to have all of the small children removed from the community. But there's consequences to our actions, and we are called to examine our heart and to consider what those consequences may be. And the best way to do that is by looking at the Word of God and seeing how God deals with his people within the scriptures. And Paul goes to the Old Testament. Now, as we talk about continuity of people, this may be something that 100 years ago or 200 years ago may not have even been necessary to talk about. But we live in an age when we hear things like this. So, for example, here's some examples from the Old Testament. And this is what you hear. Well, that's the God of the Old Testament. Or you'll hear, that's how God worked before Jesus came into the world. Or, that's not from the New Testament, that's from the Old Testament. In the mind of so many Christians, the divide between Old and New Testament is so great that there's not much continuity that is able to be seen in who God is, or how God deals with His people, or what God's expectations are for those that claim His name. And Paul here says, don't be unaware. If you think that your ethics and as you think through what may border on idolatry in the midst of your claims of Christian liberty, you need to consider what God says to his people in the Old Testament. How does God care for his people? Moreover, brethren, it's connected back to chapter eight. And then he says, don't be unaware. Don't be unaware. Three fourths of your Bible is the Old Testament, isn't it? And Paul says, look there. Look to see what God's dealings with men look like. What does that look like in the context of idolatry? You see, if I were to ask you to find a biblical ethic, against idolatry, only using the New Testament, we miss out on so much of what God has given us for our instruction. So much of the way God wants us to think about His Word and His dealings with His people. He says, our fathers, doesn't He? He says, moreover, brethren, I don't want you to be unaware that our fathers. Remember, Corinth is a Gentile church, isn't it? There's really not much connection, if any connection, to the Jewish people within Corinth. But the connection that the apostle makes is that there is a continuity of people. He says, our fathers. He's claiming these spiritual fathers from the Old Testament on behalf of the people of Corinth. It's a Gentile church, and yet he unfolds the story of the Exodus and then begins to draw lessons from it. He connects Corinth to the Old Testament people of God. And I want you to see that continuity. I want you to see the continuity between Moses and Corinth. And I want you to see the continuity between Moses and Orlando RPC. That continuity is there that we in part would learn from what the scriptures of the Old Testament teach us. The great theologian Hermann Bavink once said, the Old and New Testaments are in essence one covenant. They have one gospel and one mediator, namely Christ, who existed also in the days of the Old Testament and exercised his office of mediator and is the only mediator for all of humans and in all times. It is one faith as the way of salvation, the same promises and the same benefits of God's communion and eternal life. The road was the same on which Old Testament and New Testament believers walked. So there are differences that we could talk about, but here we see the continuity of God's people, and it's essential to understand what the whole of the Bible is teaching us about who God is and how God deals with his people. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul uses the illustration of an olive tree, doesn't he? When he talks about the continuity of the Old and New Testament people of God. You remember going back to Isaiah, there's the root. that grows from, or there's the stump of the root of Jesse, and that olive tree begins to grow. And as that olive tree grows, it is the people of God of the Old Testament, the Jewish people. And how Paul understands it in Romans is that the Gentile believers, all of our background, all of our heritage, for the most part, we are grafted in to that olive tree, aren't we? It's not a different tree. It's not that here's the tree of God's dealings with the Jewish people. And then here is the tree of God's dealings with the Gentile people. It's here's one tree of God's people. And from that root of of Jesse, who is Jesus Christ, the Jewish people grow. And as Gentiles are converted, they begin to be grafted into that tree. It's one tree that God is caring for as his people. But American evangelicalism has made a great error in dividing too widely. the people of God, saying that God's dealings with people are completely different, and they're dealt with in a very different way. The theology that's called dispensationalism, some of you may have heard of that, is a theology that was popularized by the Schofield Reference Bible. And that popular theology is one where the people of God are widely divided. And there's some great thinkers, names who are among them, D.L. Moody and Charles Ryrie and Chuck Swindoll and John MacArthur, that all of those that want to divide widely the people of God. But I want you to see a greater theologian, the Apostle Paul, and then a greater theologian, the Apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit, saying, here is Corinth, and here are our fathers in the faith, which are the Old Testament people of God. Connecting this as one people, one family of God's church. Paul does not buy into this division of people, but instead he shows Corinth and he shows you that there is continuity between the people of God. The Old Testament believers are your spiritual ancestors. Even if you were Germans historically, or if you were Dutch historically, or you were Scots-Irish historically. These are your spiritual ancestors if you are in Christ. And what that means for us is that when we think of the Orlando Reform Presbyterian Church, and we think about folks coming down from Oklahoma to establish this church over 100 years ago, they're not our only spiritual ancestors, are they? we're able to look beyond them, and we can look to our Covenanter heritage, or we can look to John Calvin as a Reformed heritage, but we need to go beyond them, and we need to think beyond Pentecost, and we need to think beyond the establishment of the church, and we need to go to that garden where that first promise was made that one would come from the seed of the woman and crush the head of the serpent. That is our spiritual lineage. That is where our fathers and our mothers in the faith begin. There is continuity of people. And without that continuity, Three-fourths of your Bible is generally worthless. Three-fourths of your Bible becomes merely stories for children at bedtime. Or little moral lessons that you can throw out and say, be like David, kids. Be like Daniel, kids. Don't be like JL, kids. Be like others in the Old Testament. We want to see continuity. JL stabbed a guy in the head, remember, with a tent peg. We want to see continuity of God's character. And that's there. And we want to see continuity of the ethics. between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And we want to see continuity of how God deals with us as people. And we want to see continuity of God's love being poured out onto a people. So we learn that. in the opening of this chapter. We learn this continuity, and it's very important that we hold on to it, because what Paul does next, where he starts giving lessons from Moses and the Israelites in the desert, we don't want to separate and say, well, that's not our lesson. Our lesson is we have Christian liberty, and our lesson is we are free to eat meat sacrificed to idols. We do have Christian liberty. We do have the right to eat meat sacrificed to idols. But remember, Paul is taking this coin and he's saying, let's look at this carefully. Let's look at one side and we'll say, here's what we're thinking on this side. And we're going to ethically work through this. You have freedom. You have liberty. Idols are nothing. But at the same time, when we turn the coin and we realize that idols have the ability to shipwreck our faith as they do so many times in the Old Testament, Paul says we should have caution, shouldn't we? We should have caution. when we think about what it means to be the people of God. But before he gives us a caution, we see secondly in verses one, the second half of one, through verse four, we see covenant blessings. Covenant blessings. That says, all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all ate from the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. So he tells us that there are covenant blessings that we are also a part of as the people of God. And I want to remind you of a few things before we look at this. First is the context. We're talking about meals. We're talking about meat sacrificed to idols. We're talking about the heart of idolatry. We're talking about what it means to be under the discipleship and the discipline of God. Secondly, I want to remind you that Paul is using the story of Exodus to give us insight The story of Exodus has a lot of meals in it, doesn't it? There's several things that are eaten in the story of the Exodus, from the Passover to manna. These are things that are spoken of concerning food and the way the Old Testament people dealt with food during the time of Exodus. This is something that's not new to the people in Corinth. They don't have to, for the first time, think about food and its relationship to idols. In Exodus, we see the same debate, same conversation. It's something that is perennial. And thirdly, I want you to notice as we talk about covenant blessings, the word all. The word all is used several times, isn't it? It says all our fathers and all passed through and all were baptized and all ate and all drank So when we think about covenant blessings and we talk about covenant blessings, we need to talk about how those blessings are connected to the whole of the covenant community. As our Westminster says, all who profess the true religion and their children We talk about the connection to the people of God and how people can receive blessings by just being close to the people of God, like the author of Hebrews would also say. There are blessings that come upon the people of God just because we're connected as those that outwardly profess the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes even people who are not converted and do not believe, they are recipients of blessing because of the connection to the people of God. And these are important things. I want you to just put those in your pocket as we go on. Now, as this covenant blessing section begins, he reminds them of the exodus and all of the blessings of the exodus. And he begins with saying that all were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. So this great exodus has occurred. The plagues are over. They've begun to flee after the Passover. Pharaoh has given his blessing. Remember, you're free to go. And then he says, you're not free to go. And he assembles his army to go and to pursue the Israelites who are ahead of them. And as they get to the Red Sea and they look back and they realize that Pharaoh and his men are coming, Moses, under the command of God, lifts up and the Red Sea opens and the dry land is before them and they're able to pass through the sea. The great exodus. Thousands of souls that have fled Egypt. all brought out by the covenant blessings of God. And the image that Paul here gives them is that they're standing on the other side of the sea, and the waters have closed, and Pharaoh and his army have been drowned, and they're looking around and realizing there are no casualties among them. That all have come through. The elders have come through. The Elder Lee have come through. The children and infants have come through. Even those that may be grumbling and unbelieving among them. You know, those that are saying, we should have never left Egypt. There were onions and leeks in Egypt. They come through. All of those that are connected to the covenant people come through and the Egyptians are dead, drown in the sea. So they're safe, they're secure. All are baptized in Moses, children and adults identifying with Moses, being in union with Moses. And from the Red Sea, they move into the wilderness toward the promised land. And God in the wilderness provides them with spiritual food, manna from the hand of God. They drank from water that God had provided for them as they wandered from the rock and from the wells that were along the way. A very interesting read, by the way, if you want to look deeper into this section of the passage. Rabbis of old talked about this well that physically moved and followed them, that they had access to at all times. Is that true? I have no idea. It seems a little fancy to me. But we do know that God does provide water from the rock, and that's something that happens more than once as God provides for the people of God. all of these covenant blessings, all of this coming from the hand of God, because the people of God were dear to God, and they were under the favor of God, and they were under the guidance of God, and they were under the protection of God. And why does Paul do this? Why does he bring this up as an example? He's showing the people in Corinth that these great blessings, which belong to the people of God, as they were safe in Him, and as they were blessed within His covenant, and as they were secure within His favor, and as Moses was at the helm, all of these great spiritual blessings abide. All of these great spiritual blessings are there. And I want you to notice what Paul does in interpreting these blessings through this phrase. The rock was Christ. Notice how he does that. That might throw you off a little bit. He says the rock was Christ. The food pointed to Jesus. The drink pointed to Jesus. The pillars point to Jesus. The cloud, the protection, points to Jesus. Being in Moses points us to being in Christ, pointing us to being in Jesus. He's telling us that all of these blessings that the people of God of old were under that they took for granted, and they grumbled against God for providing. That's what they do for the next 40 years. The alarm clock goes off, and they grumble. And they get in bed, and they're still grumbling. That even in the midst of that grumbling, that in Christ, they were blessed. In Christ, covenant blessings are being poured out upon them. One commentator said not that Christ appeared under the form of a rock, nor that the rock was merely a type of Christ. The idea is not that they drank of a typical rock. It was not the type, but the anti-type that supplied their wants. The expression is figurative. Christ was the rock in the same sense that He is the vine. He was the source of all of the support which the Israelites enjoyed during their journey in the wilderness. You see all of these blessings, all of these covenant blessings, and you understand that you and I have great covenant blessings as well. The children here have these blessings. Someone that comes and is hearing the gospel for the first time, they have that blessing of hearing the Word of God preached as we read the Word of God and as we sing the Word of God and as we have fellowship with one another and as together we look to Jesus. We have all of these great blessings that you and I are partaking of. Hearing the word read, hearing the word preached, singing the Psalms, seeing and participating in the sacraments, having fellowship, having community. Even the things that are called common operations of the spirit Part of being in the church community, God restrains you from sin. In part because of that. Children, you're raised in a covenant home. You have family worship. The Bible is read in your home. Your parents seek to install the morality of God as the Ten Commandments are taught. And you know the doctrines of the Scriptures. You have your shorter catechism teaching you the doctrines of the Bible. And even the children among us own a Bible. I'm sure that every child in this room owns a copy of God's Word for him or herself. You are blessed in God because of your closeness to the things of God. Those covenantal blessings are in part yours, even if it's outwardly. They're in part yours. And you generally live a good life because of that closeness to the community of God. It's like in the Old Testament when the Ark of the Covenant was near. God blessed, didn't He? You can even think of the one time where the Ark was stored. It's just stored in some guy's garage. And God's blessing and blessing and blessing because it's sitting in his garage. That closeness to the things of God You, too, are under these blessings, these covenant blessings, and they are a part of your everyday life because of your association with the things of God and the people of God and the community of God. You think, well, Pastor Nathan, why are you telling us this? Why is this what the Apostle Paul is giving? He's chapter upon chapter upon chapter of idolatry and meat sacrifice to idols and be cautious and yes, you have liberty. Why is now Paul saying, let's meditate on all of these great covenantal blessings? Friends, it's because many within the covenant community, many within the Church of Jesus Christ, take advantage of this fact. Many see this outward and earthly blessing as evidence of God's favor and evidence of being secure in Jesus Christ and evidence of where your eternity will be, where you will spend eternity. We think of the benefits of the Piper of Hamelin, but we don't want to think about the responsibilities How many times do we cry out about our Christian liberty, and then when we're confronted by another on our responsibilities, we push back? This is what's going on in Corinth. We're fine. God loves us. All is well. These things are just for fun anyways. Everybody goes to the temple and eats this meat that is sacrificed. These things don't matter in the big picture. It's really just to be not concerned about God's blessings are on us. And friends, we take that attitude often as Christians. And I want you to notice what the apostle says in verse 5. He's just finished showing all of these blessings that are poured out. And I hope that, like me, I hope that when we were talking about them and expounding them, I hope you were just basking in them. It's so wonderful to be under the blessing of God, isn't it? And then Paul, in verse 5, he says, But with most of them, God is not well pleased, for their bodies are scattered in the wilderness. It's like he's saying, God has just poured out all of these blessings, and all of these blessings, and everybody loves the blessings, and you're holding your hands up in the air, and you're saying, yes, Lord, pour out the blessings upon us. And then Paul says, and those people, they're all dead. And you say, why? Why did he go there? It's thirdly, a cautionary warning. A cautionary warning. See, the people in Corinth, they're quite happy with the application that idols are nothing. And in one sense, they might want to say, Paul, don't go past that. Leave us there. Idols are nothing. We all know that. That's true. Idols are nothing. And you have Christian liberty. That's true. But in the examination of their own hearts, they're unwilling to go past those two truths. They're staying superficial. Idols are not real. Therefore, everything is fine. You see the word but in v. 5. The word can be nevertheless. Our translation says, but they died. It can be, nevertheless, they died. You see all the Old Testament saints with all of these blessings, the pillar and the fire and the cloud and the Red Sea that split and food from heaven and water from rocks and a spirit that that directs. Nevertheless, most of them died. You might say, well, Pastor Nathan, where is God's blessing in this? Where is the grace? What about covenantal blessings? Friends, it's not either or. It's yes and. We have these great blessings from God and we have great responsibility. Don't we? Israel had a responsibility to walk circumspectly in this life. They had a responsibility to acknowledge God with thanks, to not get tired of the manna. To be thankful for the light provided by a pillar at night. To be thankful for a cloud that probably covers the sun and drops the temperature maybe 20 degrees as they walk. Thankfulness that their shoes never wore out. Isn't that an interesting thing that Nehemiah mentions? You say, oh, they had to wear the same shoes for 40 years. Friends, these blessings they needed to acknowledge and give God glory for, and they didn't. They had a responsibility. And Paul says, Corinth, you have a responsibility. So many times people think that a sovereign God and a call to human responsibility are opposite things. We do that all the time, don't we? Calvinists believe in a sovereign God and Arminians believe in personal responsibility. That is not true. Calvinists believe in a sovereign God and personal responsibility. We are required to believe. God calls you to work through your applications of the Christian life and both be warned and to be responsible. Again, consider Psalm 78, which we've sung twice. My people, hear my teaching, listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable and I will utter hidden things from old, things that We've heard and known things our ancestors have told us, and we will not hide them from our descendants. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord and His power and the wonders He has done. And the whole psalm goes on to talk about God's power and wonders and the rebellion of the people of God. and then God disciplines them. A cautionary warning within the context of idolatry, both the idols that put a false god first, as well as the idols that worship the true God in a false way, things needing to be repented of. In Corinth, they learned that idols were false and they were one note with their application. Idols are false, therefore, I'll do what I want. God's character. is still that he is a consuming fire. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased. It was a warning, a warning for Israel, a warning for Corinth, and a warning, a cautionary warning for you and for me. Are you thinking through your faith? Are you taking your Christian profession seriously? And again, I'm not calling you to just quiver in fear. I'm calling you to acknowledge the blessings. There are those in Corinth that are eating without thinking and drinking without question and living a carnal life without Jesus at the center of all things. It is a cautionary warning. As we close, I want to give you four brief applications. The first application, I want you to know that the Old Testament is for Christians. Some of you may be in the pattern of only reading the New Testament. You may have a copy of the Gideon's New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs. And that may be what you read. You're constantly in the New Testament. It's great to be in the New Testament. but balance out your spiritual diet in the Old Testament as well. These are not just stories that are for your morality. These point us to Jesus Christ. They are expositions of Christ and expositions of the moral law and the unfolding of the covenant of grace. Know your Old Testament. Know it. It is a continuity of the people of God, something that you are also a part of. Secondly, we've mentioned many blessings today, blessings that the Old Testament people of God received and blessings that you receive. And I want you to know and to remember and to understand that the way the apostle interprets those blessings is that they are blessings that come to you through Christ and point you to Christ. All of these blessings are intended to make you know Jesus more and to love Jesus more. And we need to think about that. So next week, when we are down here and there's baptisms before us, I want you to think about that. That baptism is in your presence that you may know Jesus more and love Jesus more. And when you open the Psalter and you look up on this screen and you sing, and you sing words that are connected to God's dealings of old, sometimes Old Testament things being sung about, I want you to think, we are singing that, that we will know Jesus more and that we will love Jesus more. And when you have fellowship, when you sit at a meal in someone's home from the congregation or when you go out on, say, a Wednesday and you're having meal at someone's house or at a restaurant together and you're having fellowship and you're speaking of the things of God and you're speaking about what things are going on at church and you're speaking about what it means to be part of this community of the Orlando Reformed Presbyterian Church. I want you to think all of these things that you're talking about is so that you will know Jesus more and so that you will love Jesus more. and when we're praying, or when you're praying together apart from the public worship, or when you're giving to that box and Bob gives a quarterly report at the end of the quarter and you look at it. All of those things that you will know Jesus more and that you will love Jesus more. All of these blessings. Everything poured out upon you. Children, when your parents are reading the Bible to you, You say, oh, I just want to go play. I just want to I want to go in and be on the Xbox. But dad wants to drone on and on and family worship. It's so that you will know. I got a smile there. It's so that you will know Jesus more and that you will love Jesus more. All of these blessings. For this purpose. Friends, do you see Jesus in His glory. Do you see Him in the cool water that came from the rock? Do you see Him in your fellowship? Do you see Him in our worship? Jesus is to be lifted up in all of these blessings. Thirdly, The blessings that have been mentioned come to all who are a part of and associated with the covenant community, even outwardly, even outwardly. Not all baptized people are saved, and that's true in Baptist churches as well. Not all who partake of spiritual food are in Christ. Not all who hear the Word of God preached are in Jesus. Now, all are called to repent. All are called to believe. That offer, that free offer goes out that you would hear the Word of God and you would hear of life in Christ and that you would reach out and you would hold on to it by faith. But understand that just because you're receiving some sort of outward blessing from the hand of God because of your association with the church, it does not mean you're in Christ. You must believe the gospel. You must be found in Jesus. You must trust Him. Being close to Jesus in proximity does not get one to heaven. Being in union with Christ gets one to heaven. So if you do not know either what that means, or if you fear that you're not a Christian, or you wonder if you're in proximity or in union, I would encourage you to talk to me or talk to one of the elders or if there's someone in the congregation that you trust and you say, I know this person knows and loves Jesus, talk to them. If you can't talk to me, talk to them. And lastly, I want you to remember the context. The context is meat sacrificed to idols. There is care and there is caution required for all Christians when it comes to this cross-section of Christian liberty and idolatry. Those cross often. And we need to be cautious and think that through. Sometimes what people see as their liberty has sometimes crossed into idolatry. and idols of the heart. And that's what we have in this passage, an exposure of lax attitudes concerning idolatry. And we just, the application is that God would deliver us from that. May we walk as believers in this world. May we walk carefully as we seek to glorify Jesus in all things. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." Continuity of people, covenant, blessing, and cautionary May Jesus Christ be glorified. Amen.