The Faithfulness Our God Requires

Introduction

The question that Christians often ask is what do we do with the Old Testament? What do we do with that section of the Bible that’s even bigger than the New Testament, but we understand that we’re not under that Old Testament. We don’t worship the way they worshiped under that old covenant. We don’t make an annual trip to Jerusalem to worship at the physical temple. We don’t burn incense. We don’t sacrifice animals. We don’t sing with mechanical instruments of music. And thanks be to God, we don’t seek to be justified the way they sought to be justified because we know that the blood of bulls and goats won’t take away our sins. But yet we have the Old Testament. And what do we do with it? Well, there’s a variety of things and a variety of benefits that we gain from those Old Testament scriptures.

Number one is the Old Testament scriptures highlight for us the problem of sin. We do not appreciate the solution until we appreciate the problem. Christ is the solution. Sin is the problem, and the Old Testament emphasizes that problem. The problem of sin and the inadequacy of that old system, a system of law to eradicate that problem. The Old Testament helps us to see the unfolding of the plan of God. That God chose a people to fulfill his plan and his prophecies, a people who would give birth to the seed that Abraham was promised. And we appreciate that story and the fulfillment of that prophecy and story because we have the Old Testament. But this morning I’d like for us to think about another reason we have the Old Testament and another benefit that we can gain from studying those Old Testament scriptures.

And that is we have a clear understanding of what God expects of his people.

God’s general demands have not changed. And so we see the behavior of God’s covenant people. And when that behavior was good, they were blessed, and we learn lessons from that. And when that behavior was bad, they were cursed, and we learn lessons from that.

And that is that God requires of his covenant people.

1. The Privileges of God’s People

We’ll be looking at some other passage of scripture, but we’re always going to be coming back to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 to learn the lesson of the Old Covenant people and apply it to us, New Testament, new covenant people, to recognize that God requires faithfulness of his people. We want to just outline this section, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1 through 13, in a three-point outline, and that’ll be our lesson this morning. First of all, we see in the first four verses, the privileges of God’s people. That whatever the covenant God had with people and whatever people he called his people, there came with it certain blessings, certain privileges and certain great blessings of being a part of God’s covenant people. Look with me at the first four verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

It 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, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For that they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Paul says, I want you to know about our Jewish forefathers, those children of Israel. And I want you to see their relationship to God in this covenant. And I want you to see what God did with them. He says, first of all, they were under the cloud and in the sea. That tells us two things. Number one is he’s saying, in a sense, they were baptized.

They were engulfed in the water, the cloud above them, the walls of the Red Sea that had parted beside them. And so they had experienced a similar experience to God’s new covenant people. But let’s think about what that meant. This baptism of sorts that they experienced was a blessing and a privilege. The cloud that was over them was the guidance of God. Remember your Old Testament history that they were directed by God by a cloud, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. That symbolized God’s protection, God’s presence and God’s direction to his people. And that cloud was over them. And it says that they passed through the sea. That of course brings to mind the parting of the Red Sea, that deliverance, that grand gesture of deliverance in the exodus of God’s people.

That though the situation was bleak and dark and seemed hopeless, God gave them deliverance. What a blessing they experienced. What a privilege that was to have God guiding them and having God not only directing them, but giving them a passage of life from their slavery in Egypt. God gave them food to eat, he says. And God gave them water to drink. The water from the rock, and that rock at least symbolized, if not was the very essence of Christ and that old covenant, giving them water and giving them food to drink. That in a wilderness, as they experienced, that was barren of food and water, God miraculously provided that food and water and sustenance for them. For what would have been two years if they had been faithful, but turned out to be 40 years.

God provided. And that was the blessing. And Paul is drawing a comparison here, obviously, to us as new covenant people. And let’s look at some of the comparisons there. God has delivered us. Hold your finger there in 1 Corinthians 10 and go to the book of Romans, chapter 6. In Romans chapter 6, we understand easily the parallel between Old Testament Israel, their being in bondage in Egypt, and being delivered from that bondage. We see the parallel easily, don’t we? The Apostle Paul helps us to see that parallel in places such as Romans chapter 6. Look at verses 17 and 18. He says, But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, notice that language, that intentional language, that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

And having been set having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. You were slaves of sin, but now that you are God’s people, you have been set free. We are the children of Israel today. We were in that bondage. We were in that state of hopelessness and helplessness, but we’ve been set free. That’s the privileges of being God’s covenant people. Look over in Colossians chapter 2. That just as that old covenant people were surrounded by a cloud and encompassed by the waters of that parted sea, he says of them, remember that they were baptized into Moses in the cloud in the sea, and that was a privilege. That was a blessing. And we have that blessing today. We have even a greater blessing than their baptism.

We have the baptism into Jesus Christ. And we many times look at that as just a commandment that we must fulfill. And it is that.

It says, in him you were also circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you’re also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead, and you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of the requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he’s taken it out of the way and nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he became a public spectacle. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

The apostle helps us to see the role of baptism that it’s not just some box to be checked off to become a Christian. It’s not just some command to be fulfilled. It is a blessing and a privilege that God has given us an avenue, that God has given us a cloud to cover us, that has given us water that would give us the deliverance from our sin, to give us the contact with Jesus Christ and his shed blood, so that we might be in a covenant relationship with him. It’s a blessing. Just as that parting of that sea and that guidance of that cloud was a blessing to God’s old covenant people, our baptism into Christ, the putting off of the sins of the flesh, is a blessing to us today.

2. The Unfaithfulness of God’s People

And Jesus Himself would remind us that He’s providing sustenance to us today. Not just our daily bread. But Jesus in the Gospel of John would say, I am the bread of life. And he would say to that Samaritan woman at the well, I am the living water. And we’re drinking from that same spiritual rock today. We’re being sustained by that same life-giving, loving covenant Father today. That’s the privileges of God’s people. But then back to our text in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, we see the lessons of God’s people. The lessons of God’s people, 1 Corinthians chapter, or excuse me, we see the unfaithfulness of God’s people, the unfaithfulness, though they had these blessings, though they had the deliverance from their bondage, though they had this baptism of sorts, though they had bread, though they had water, though they had God’s guidance, that did not isolate them from unfaithfulness.

1 Corinthians 10, begin reading with me in verse 5, it says, but with most of them God was not well pleased. For their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Now let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did. And in that in one day, twenty-three thousand fell. Now let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor murmur as some of them murmured, and were also destroyed by the destroyer. I want you to notice a contrast in those first four verses.

Go back and look at those first four verses of 1 Corinthians 10 again. And notice how many times he uses the word all. I want you to be, don’t want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud. All passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses, all ate the spiritual food, all drank the spiritual drink. Every one of them.

All of them, he says, but then notice the difference in verse 5. But with most of them, God was not well pleased.

But yet most of them did not remain faithful to God. There’s issued a warning for us, isn’t there? That although God has blessed us and privileged us over and over again with both physical and more importantly, spiritual blessings, that that does not guarantee our faithfulness. Now you would think it would on paper, wouldn’t you? If God did all of these things for you, wouldn’t you think you would want to be faithful to him and would be faithful to him? Again, there’s the blessing of the Old Testament. That’s not the way it works. It’s the way it ought to work. That’s the way it works on paper. Somebody does all these great things for you, and then you’ll want to be faithful and honest and honorable to them.

That’s the way it ought to be. But Israel’s history repeatedly teaches us this lesson. That’s not the way it often is. With most of them, he was not well pleased. And so we’ve got baptism. We’ve got a deliverance from our bondage and sin. We have the spiritual bread, the spiritual water in Christ Jesus. But we can still be unpleasing to God. The blessings, nor the covenant relationship that we sustain with God as New Testament Christians today. Neither of those things isolate us from the temptation to sin and to be unfaithful. Israel stands as that warning. We could go back and take, if we had the time this morning in those verses, verses 5 through 10, and find Old Testament connections to every sin that he lists there, couldn’t we?

The idolatry, we could go back to the golden calf scene among many others. We could see the lesson after lesson of the times in which God’s people, most of them, Paul says, were not pleasing to God. And the easy inclination for us is to point the finger of shame at that Old Testament Israel. And fail to recognize that those examples of unfaithfulness were not put there so that we could shake our head in derision at what they did. They were put there as a lesson and an example so that we might not do the same thing. Are that we would recognize when we are doing the same thing.

3. The Lessons of God’s People

He emphasizes this is the whole point. This is why this is told for us. Why are we looking at Old Testament Israel? Why don’t we just tear the Old Testament out? We’re not under that. We’re not subject to that law anymore. Why don’t we just throw that apart away and just have a New Testament? Paul tells us, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, beginning verse 11, now all these things, what things? The privileges and the unfaithfulness. The privileges of God, the blessings of God, and the unfaithfulness of his old covenant people, all these things happen to them as examples. And they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands. Take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as common to man.

But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you were able. But with the temptation will also make of a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Paul says, here’s the point of him talking about that old covenant people. Here’s the whole point, one of the points of why that whole history is recorded for us even today. It’s written for our admonition or our warning that we have a covenant. We have a baptism. We have a meal, the Lord’s Supper, and Jesus Himself as the living water and the living bread. We have a deliverance from our slavery. But we can be just like them. But there’s a warning and an encouragement in this text. The warning is that although you have all of those privileges, all of those blessings, you can still be unfaithful.

That’s the warning. The encouragement is you don’t have to be.

Hebrews chapter 11 is full of a whole chapter of people who were not perfectly faithful, but they were faithful to God so that God could use them as examples to us today. And there’s an encouragement here that he says that although most of them did not find the way of escape, there is a way of escape. No temptation has overtaken you except such as you were able to bear. God says you can endure it. Israel could have.

If we didn’t conclude a lesson on faithfulness without talking about God, who Paul in this very text says, in regard to the inducement for us to sin and to violate his covenant, Paul says, God is faithful. God is faithful. And he’ll make a way for us to be faithful to him. That faithfulness is possible. Not just because of the privileges and the blessings that he gives us, but it’s possible because our God is faithful. And he makes it possible for us to be faithful to him. Jeremiah said it this way in the Old Testament, the book of Lamentations, chapter 3, verses 22 and 23. He says, Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

Conclusion

Learn the lesson that temptation is real. The privileges of God do not eliminate those temptations, but also learn the lesson that God is faithful. And he makes a way for you to be faithful. Are you faithful to God? Are you in that covenant relationship with God? Have you passed through the sea and the cloud, not to be baptized into Moses, but to be baptized into Jesus Christ? Have you done that? Have you come to your faithful God seeking forgiveness and salvation? Reach out to us. Whether you’re watching us on Facebook or on YouTube, whether you’re watching this live or a repeat of this, reach out to us. Our website is Bumby.org. Our email is as SouthBumby at gmail.com. Reach out to us. We would love to study with you.

We would love to help you to come to this covenant relationship with a faithful God who will see to it that there is a way for you to be faithful. We appreciate you watching this lesson, this live stream today. We want to encourage you to not stop early. We have a video from our shepherds at the end of this live stream that’ll be sharing some information about what we’re doing going forward, and we look forward to watching that video with you. So please watch to the end of our live stream today. Thank you for joining us, and may God bless you.