Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 10. I want to look at a few verses
here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. In verse one, the Apostle Paul
writes, moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant,
how that all our fathers were under the cloud and passed through
the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in
the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did
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.
Here in these few verses, we see that all those delivered
out of Egypt, they followed the same pillar of cloud and pillar
of fire. All those delivered from the
slavery of Pharaoh passed through the Red Sea. All of them did
eat the same spiritual meat, we're told, Christ the manna
that fell from heaven, the bread from heaven. And we're told that
they all did drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that
spiritual rock, capital R. Have you noticed that? That followed
them, and that rock was Christ. We learn early on in the book
of God, even here in Exodus, that all of Israel are not all
Israel. That's what Paul said in Romans
9, chapter 6. Just because someone is a Jew
does not mean that they're of spiritual Israel, spiritually
a Jew. We see that very early on here
in the book of Exodus. In order for God's people now
to survive this journey, this journey, we've talked about this
for weeks. Israel's journey in the wilderness
is a picture of you and I in this wilderness of a world in
which we live. This is not our home. We're just
passing through. We're on a journey. But in order
to survive this journey in this wilderness of sin, we're gonna
have to eat Christ, the man from heaven. We're gonna have to partake
of him. And we're told here that the people of Israel must drink
from Christ, the smitten rock. If we're gonna live, if we're
gonna survive this journey, that's what we're gonna have to do.
Now, that's what I want us to take a look at tonight for a
few minutes, the Lord willing. Turn with me to Exodus 17. I
want to read a few verses beginning in verse 1. Exodus 17 verse 1. And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin. I want to pause there for a minute.
Arthur Pink made a very good observation on the way this chapter
begins. It begins, as you notice here,
with the word and. That immediately connects chapter
17 with the previous chapter of 16. And then, if you look
at the beginning of chapter 16, you'll see that it begins with
the same word and, which also connects it back to chapter 15.
Now, what is the significance of these? Why is that even worth
mentioning? Well, all the things that are
going on in these three chapters are related. They have something
in common with one another. Back in chapter 15, verse 23,
we're told that when Israel came to Marah, they could not drink
of the waters there because the waters were bitter and they immediately
began to murmur. We've looked at these verses,
we're familiar with the story. And in verse 24 it says, they
asked, what shall we drink? Isn't it amazing that the Lord
at once came in mercy to their relief? They've done nothing
but grumble and complain since they left Egypt. But here the
Lord comes in mercy to their relief and showed Moses a tree. that when that tree was thrown
into the bitter waters of Myra, it made the water sweet. Then
in chapter 16 verse 1, as I said, it opens again with the word
and. Therefore it connects itself with the previous chapter. And
I believe this is no doubt to show us something of the continual
rebellion of man. And also the continual long-suffering
grace and mercy of God toward man. Man's rebellion and God's
mercy is the one thing that is common throughout these three
chapters. Then in chapter 16, we have Israel
entering into the wilderness of sin, and surely they would,
after all they had seen, and after all they had experienced,
surely they would now turn to their Lord for help. Now having
eaten all the food, all the provisions that they had brought with them,
they're probably two months into their journey at this point.
Surely now they would turn to their Deliverer and their Redeemer
and trust Him to provide their daily bread. But instead of doing
so, we read here in chapter 16 verse 2, And the whole congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the
wilderness. And the children of Israel said
unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and when
we did eat bread to the full, for you have brought us forth
into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. You brought us out here to starve
us to death. And what does God do? Well, let
me first ask you, what would you and I have done to such ungrateful
people? I think if we were all honest,
we would probably all say the same thing. I would have sent
them a little bit of fire and brimstone. I guess there's enough
of me like the sons of thunder. Pray lightening them, ungrateful
people that they are. But again, God freely and graciously
and mercifully provides their need by raining down manna, bread
from heaven. And it's then that we see the
connection of chapters 15, 16, and 17, because chapter 17 also
begins with the word and, and then the following verses present
to us a very familiar scene. Again, when Israel's dependency
upon God is tested. That's what's going on here.
God is testing their dependence upon Him. And Israel fails miserably. This time it's not a lack of
food, it's a lack of water. Let me ask you this very seriously. I want you to think about this.
Have we learned yet that the path of faith is a path of trial? Those that are led by God must
expect, and we should, we must expect God to send things which
are displeasing to the flesh. We must expect it. How else would
God wean us from this world? We can have no reliance upon
the things of this world. We must constantly, constantly
cast ourselves upon God and trust in Him alone to take care. I
love that verse in 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 7. Cast all your
care upon Him. Cast all your care upon the Lord.
Why? For He careth for you. He doesn't
just care about you, He cares for you. He's your provider. He gives you all that you need
and all that God requires. May God enable us to cast ourselves
on Him. Again, chapter 17, verse 1, And
all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the
wilderness of sin after their journey, according to the commandment
of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water for the
people to drink. Now there are some real nuggets
here, nuggets of truth that I don't want us to overlook. The congregation
of the children of Israel journeyed. You notice that word. We've talked
about this many times. That's what life is for the believer. It's a journey. It's a march
forward. That's what the word means. It's
a test of faith. But notice that after their journeys,
according to the commandment of the Lord, they pitched, they
camped in a place where there was no water to drink. Now notice
that their journeys and their camping were according to the
commandment of the Lord. Did the Lord know that there
was no water here where He brought them? Well, of course He did. The Lord knows everything. You
better believe He knew. Yet, that's exactly where He
led them. You ever think as to why? Why
would the Lord lead them to where there was no water? they're gonna
be made to trust Him. The child of God will be made
and enabled to trust all things to Christ their Lord in the saving
and the keeping of them in this world's wilderness of sin. So what did Israel do when they
got thirsty? Did they cry out to God to give
them to drink? Did they say, Lord, you've never
failed us, we know that you won't now? That's what we should pray,
isn't it? How many times has He delivered
us and moved on our behalf and shown us great mercy and grace
in His problems? Did they pray, Lord, as You always
do, provide again for us our need? No, they didn't do that.
What did they do? Look at verse 2. Wherefore the
people did chide with moans. and said, give us water that
we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why
chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? I was thinking today as I was
reading these verses again, how wonderful it is to have faith
in Christ. I mean real faith in Christ,
true faith in Christ. To know that regardless the need
that we have, the situation that we're in, the trial that we're
facing. The believer can simply rest
knowing that the Lord will take care of it for him. Isn't that
what He said? He said, I'll never leave you,
I'll never forsake you. He'll supply all your need according
to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. As I said a moment ago,
can cast all our care upon Him because He careth for us. It takes a divine intervention
in order for a sinner to trust like that. By nature, we want
to chide, as Israel did. That word chide means to wrestle. It's a wrestling term. It means
to grapple. It means to toss. That's what
wrestlers do. That word chide also means to
scold. They begin to scold Moses. They begin to complain. They
begin to contend with Moses because of their lack of drinking water.
And Moses asked them here a very simple question. He said, why
chide ye with me? It wasn't that Moses was feeling
sorry for himself. And it wasn't that Moses felt
like he was being picked on. What Moses is asking here is
why chide with me as if it was me that brought you here. It's
the Lord that goes before you in a pillar of a cloud and fire.
The Lord brought you here. It's the Lord that brought you
here, not me. It's the Lord that must provide us water, not me. You see, Moses was as dependent
on the Lord for water as Israel was. We also learn here that
for them to chide with Moses was to tempt the Lord. That's
what it says right there. Any and all grumbling. Now listen
to me. Am I listening? I need to listen.
any and all grumbling and complaining over divine providence is to
do so. It's to tempt the Lord. Verse
three, and the people thirsted there for water, and the people
murmured against Moses and said, wherefore is this that thou hast
brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and
our cattle with thirst? And these accusations this time
are much like all the ones before. You, Moses, you brought us up
out of Egypt. But that wasn't true. Moses didn't
bring them out of Egypt. The Lord brought them out. And
notice that their chiding with Moses was nothing less than tempting
the Lord. God help us to remember that.
The word tempt in this verse means to try or to test. They tried and they tested the
Lord's patience by once more chiding with God's servant. And
by doing so, they called into question God's goodness. They
called into question God's faithfulness. And Moses, who was their appointed
leader, Moses, who was God's representative to the people,
to murmur against him was to murmur against the Lord himself. And look at verse four. And Moses
cried unto the Lord, saying, what shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stomp.
Moses himself makes no reply to the cruel accusations that
were made against him. Like Christ, when he was reviled,
he reviled not again, and when he suffered, he threatened not.
But here he commits himself to him that judgeth righteously.
That's what we should do in situations like that. And that's exactly
what Moses is doing here. Instead of angrily returning
words of defense, Moses simply sought the Lord. Oh, to God that
we could do that. To seek the Lord. Matter of fact,
we're told here that Moses cried unto the Lord. When was the last
time you cried unto the Lord about something? I think that's
often our problem. We don't cry unto Him. What shall
I do? Moses expressed here, and it
was consciousness of his own inability. What shall I do? I
don't know what to do, Lord. Will you show me what to do?
Will you teach me what to do? And this also shows his confidence
that the Lord would come to his relief. It's a question that
the believer, that the child of God often asks. Lord, what
should I do? When the child of God is made
to surrender the will and the purpose and the safe keeping
to God, when He's willing to surrender, say, Lord, whatever
you do, if you slay me, yet will I trust you. When we get to that
point, I'm telling you, made to trust Him, that's when the
Lord assures His elect of a way of escape. Paul said it this
way, he said, there hath no temptation taken you but that which is common
to man. All of us have pretty much gone
through a lot of the same things. He said, but God is faithful
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able,
but with the temptation also make a way to escape that you
may be able to bear it. What a God. Now look at verse
five here, Exodus 17. And the Lord said unto Moses,
go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel
and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thy hand and
go. Verse six, these words are just
amazing. And he said, behold, this is
God speaking, behold, I will stand before thee there upon
the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall
come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did
so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Now here is one of
the most beautiful Old Testament pictures and types of the Lord
Jesus Christ, The Rock. The Rock is one of the titles
of Jehovah found throughout the scriptures. The Lord is my rock
and my fortress and my deliverer, 2 Samuel 22. The psalm is sung,
make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Isaiah tells
us that Christ is a great rock in a weary land Christ was no
doubt pointing to himself that day when he said upon this rock
I'll build my church He wasn't referring to Peter's confession.
The only man that God can and will build His church upon is
the God-man, Christ Jesus. He's the one mediator between
God and man. And Christ is the rock on which
the believer builds his house. He's a sure foundation that cannot
be shaken when the rain descends and the floods come and the winds
blow and beat upon us. He's the Ark of Noah in whom
we hide. I was thinking about the characteristics
of a rock. A rock characterizes strength
and stability. A rock characterizes power and
durability. Rocks outlast the storms of time. Water doesn't wash them away.
Wind doesn't blow them away. Many ships have been sunk by
a rock, but never a rock sunk because of a wayward ship. A
rock represents elevation. The psalmist said, from the end
of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. No doubt Jesus Christ,
our Rock, is the elevated One, exalted to the throne of heaven,
seated at the right hand of majesty on high. That's the God with
whom we have to do, dear friends. Are you putting all your trust
and reliance upon Him? He's seated at the right hand
of majesty on high. Now, I want to spend just a little
time here looking and considering verse 6. I'm interested in this
rock, aren't you? That rock is Christ. Behold,
I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, before
the foundation of the world, there in eternity, if man can
even speak of such. God stood on Christ the rock. God did. God the Father purposed
to create a people for Himself to reveal His glory to. to save
by His mercy and grace and reveal His glory. And He chose His Son
to be the one who would glorify Him. God the Son entered into
a covenant with the Father and agreed to redeem those whom the
Father gave Him. And God the Father and the Son
purposed a way for God to be both just and justifier of those
that Christ died for. If you're ever going to be saved,
you're going to be saved justly. You're going to be saved according
to holy justice. God's justice cannot be compromised. The wages of your sin must be
paid. And paid in full. And sin's wages
are what? Death. Even the sins of God's
elect are not just simply ignored. Do people really think that?
Oh, well, God chose me so He's just going to kind of cover His
head when I stand before Him in eternity. No, sir. Your sin's
got to be dealt with just as every man and woman's sin has
to be dealt with or suffer the consequence. God the Father,
Son, and Spirit willed and purposed and made a way where God could
remain just and still justify ungodly sinners like me and you.
It can only be accomplished by God. It can only be accomplished
in the person of His Son coming to earth as a man. He had to
become a man. It took a man to redeem men and
women. And living a perfect and holy
and righteous life. Dying in the stead of His people.
Fulfilling His own law for them. Satisfying His own strict justice
that was against them. Making them, now listen, perfect,
holy, and without blame before Him in love. And He did so justly. So God the Father stood on His
Son. Isn't that a beautiful thought?
Trusting Him to glorify His own holy man. His own holy character
by saving His people from their sin. It all rested on Christ's
shoulders. That's what makes the verse in
Isaiah so beautiful. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful. Is he wonderful
to you? Counselor. Oh, he's my counselor. He's the mighty God. He's the
everlasting Father. He's the Prince of Peace. And
God is standing on the perfect work and righteousness of Christ
to bring glory to His own great name through the saving of His
people in love, mercy, and grace. And God's elect people are standing
on Him to be their only acceptance of God. That's the only plea
that I have. Not in what I've done, Lord.
My righteousness is filthy rags. But I stand in the perfect righteousness,
the work of righteousness that Christ, my substitute, did for
me. And God says, perfect, perfect,
whole, without blame, unreproved, unblameable in my sight. Look
at the next phrase in verse six. And thou shalt smite the rock. And the type of Christ our rock,
this rock was to be smitten. And this of course speaks of
the death of the Lord Jesus. This speaks of the wrath and
the judgment and the justice of God that fell on Christ that
should have fell on me. Should have fell on us. This
was the death that you and I should have experienced. Christ must
descend from heaven as the manna did. He must become the bread
of life for his people. Yet, he must be smitten by divine
judgment if he's to be made the water of life to them that he
died for. First, did you notice that the
rock was to be smitten by the rod of Moses? Moses and his rod
represents the law and the justice of God. All those God chose to
save, sin and Adam. Every one of his elect, sin and
Adam. We've all come short of the glory
of God. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. They all became guilty before the law of God.
Every single one of them. God is so holy that he will by
no means clear the guilty. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's the way it's got to be
for God to remain God. The law of God and His justice
must be carried out to the fullest extent. And this religious world
today just scoffs at it. God loves everybody too much
to forever condemn them to eternal judgment. But it's just the opposite. God is too holy not to do so. So that sins it shall die. The
gospel is that Christ was smitten in the elect of God's place.
Jesus Christ was born to die, you could say. Christ had lived
on this earth and never died under the rod of God's holy justice. He could have never saved anyone. What did he say? He said, for
this cause came I into this hour. That's why. That's why the rock
must be smitten. And that's what this picture
is. For what the law could not do
and that it was weak through the flesh, That's our flesh. God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Your sin. My sin. Condemned sin in the
flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us. Isn't that the best news you've
ever heard? The righteousness of God's holy
law has been fulfilled in us. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Christ is the rock smitten to
fulfill God's purpose. Again, verse six, and thou shalt
smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the
people may drink. God purposed who the rock was
being smitten for. Thou shalt smite the rock that
the people, that the children of Israel may drink. The rock
was smitten for a certain particular people. before the foundation
of the world. Christ knew who He was to be
smitten for. For God's elect Israel. For the
Israel of God. True Israel. Spiritual Israel. The sheep. Those that God chose
in Christ and blessed with all spiritual blessings and healing.
God didn't give any water from this rock to the Amalekites or
the Amorites or the Moabites. This rock was smitten for the
Israelites. And God gave the water to them
and them only. Water came out of the rock that
the people may drink. I read those verses a minute
ago. God did not allow the children of Israel to see the rock being
smitten. Only the elders. You see, by
their murmuring, they proved to be a people who had yet not
believed in God. Without eyes of faith, you cannot
see Christ of Smitten Rock. But since God uses the preaching
of the gospel to make his people alive and give them faith, God
made Moses to take the elders of Israel to be witnesses of
him smiting the rock and water running out. And these elders
were the 12 chiefs of the 12 tribes. These were men who would
tell the truth about what they saw. They represent those whom
God gives faith in Christ. Just as our Lord in the beginning
of His public ministry chose 12 apostles to be His witnesses,
what we have a picture of here, the purpose of a witness is to
do just that, give witness to the truth. That's what we do
in preaching, isn't it? Now I need to finish up, but
allow me to fast forward about 40 years to another time that
the children of Israel murmured against Moses. But this time,
Moses lost his temper. and he smote the rock twice.
But Christ, the rock, cannot be smitten twice. And because
of that, Moses was not allowed to lead Israel into the land
of promise. God's justice was satisfied by
the one offering of Christ who put sin away by the sacrifice
of Himself. One time. One time. God cannot demand payment for
sin twice. He cannot demand it at Christ's
hand and then again at yours or mine. Can't smite the rock
twice. I think that gives fresh meaning
to our Lord's last words, it is finished, doesn't it? Let
me say this, as fickle and as faithless as we are most of the
time, I am so thankful that my salvation is not secured by my
faith in Christ, but by the actual faith of Christ. I wish I had
time to talk more about that, but Paul asked in Romans chapter
3 verse 3, he said, For what if some did not believe? Shall
their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? He sung
about the faith of God, not about our faith in God, not about our
faith in Christ. In verse 22 of that same chapter,
Romans 3, Paul said, Even the righteousness of God which is
by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe.
Knowing that a man, Paul said this in Galatians, knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of law, but for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. You see, it's not our faith in
Christ that saves us, but the actual faith of Christ that does. And in Christ we have boldness
and access with confidence by the faith of Him, the Scripture
says. Look at verse 7 and close. And He, the Lord, called the
name of the place Massah. That means temptation. And Meribah,
that means strife and contention. Why did He call them that? Because
of the chiding of the children of Israel and because They tempted
the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? God named this
place Temptation and Strife because of the wrestling and the grumbling
and the complaining that Israel did. And in doing so, we're told
that they tempted the Lord. So do we. What made this such
a horrible act of unbelief? Their actions bred and communicated
nothing but doubt concerning God. They asked, is the Lord among
us or not? That has to be the most unbelieving
statement or question ever asked. delivered out of 430 years of
Egyptian bondage, unscathed in ten plagues upon Egypt, covered
with the blood of the Passover lamb, spared the death of their
firstborn, led by a pillar of a cloud in the day and kept by
a pillar of fire at night. They passed through the Red Sea
on dry ground. They saw Pharaoh's army drowned
as they pursued them. The wilderness's bitter waters
was made sweet for them. They were fed with bread from
heaven. And their question is, is the
Lord among us or not? The rite of Hebrews says this,
so we see that they could not enter in, and that's speaking
of rest. They couldn't enter into this
rest because of unbelief. Let us therefore labor to enter
into that rest. That's my encouragement to you
and I. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, lest any man, woman fall after the same example
of unbelief. Lord, give us the heart to believe
you, trust you, depend on you to provide for us all that you
require of us. Truly our Lord Jesus is the one
who fits that bill. Jesus, thou art the rock of ages
cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee.